undergrounds | bday + catch-all for january!

JAN 08/OPEN

Arthur isn't the kind of person who makes a point of celebrating their own birthday. At 31 it's difficult to get too excited unless you're looking for an excuse to party, which Arthur most definitely is not. He treats himself to one of those expensive breakfast sandwiches and a gourmet coffee before he goes about business as usual for the rest of the day, though he has to hit pause on his work at Hillingdon a few times throughout the day as he accepts the routine phone calls from close friends and family congratulating him on making it another year, despite the fact that most of them don't even know what a high-risk life he leads.

In the evening he treats himself a little more, stopping into a few bars on the way home to buy himself a drink and check in with some friends and contacts alike, though he avoids any business-related discussion as he gets progressively intoxicated.

JANUARY/OPEN

The rest of the month finds Arthur doing a fair amount of recon on the state of Islington. He spends a fair amount of time in bars populated primarily by vampires, or by the kind of people who know what's happening in the Nest. He'd like to know how the election is going to go before it happens, but mostly he wants to know how each of the candidates could change the landscape in London. He's much more open to doing small jobs in exchange for information but he plays his cards close to the chest as always. If it's relevant he'll share with his fellow Hillingdon clanmates but for the time being he sees no need for action on their part.

Otherwise it's business as usual. His day job is slow this time of year, but it'll pick up soon, so he's using this time to stay on top of the goings-on in the Underground.

[This post also serves as an open post for Arthur for the month of January! If you have anything you want to do with him just hit me up and I can write up a starter! Otherwise you can use anything above to get something going!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Arthur nods in understanding; at least if he really does love her and won't hurt her that's an extra layer of protection on top of how capable she already is. He always felt more secure living with his companions while he was traveling. He's more paranoid now that he's alone.

"A little, yeah," he says, obviously not going to go into detail. "I'm just glad it's over, now. Islington seems more stable than I thought it'd be too."

Nancy's living situation had been tumultuous since she'd first gotten together with her ex-boyfriend, bouncing from living with Fagin and the boys, to living with him, to living on her own in their apartment. From there, it was Enfield, and now with Cooper, with Eames' flat let out to her for work. It was nice to finally feel like she could hang her hat somewhere.

But part of her still wonders how long that will be for.

"That's because they've got some good people in charge, now." Nancy wasn't Jean-Claude's number one fan. He was good to look at, and they had lived similar lives. But he was still Kenzi's sire, and the reality of what had happened to her best friend still stung.

Because she was the reason it had happened in the first place.

"Y'know, Cooper actually used to help run a nest in America," she explains knowingly. "He's got a good head on his shoulders." Just a nasty temper.

Arthur had more than enough experiences with nests in the States to know that they weren't all run very well, so he hums and nods like he's agreeing, but it doesn't say much to him.

"I suspect he's happy Harris is gone just like the rest of us," he say, clearly more on his mind. He doesn't think Cooper was happy under Harris, especially if he is what Nancy says he is, but he is wary of the power structure in Islington and how it has changed very rapidly. Maybe Cooper has more than he's ready for, or maybe he wanted more and didn't get it. Regardless, as stable as things are, there are still aspects that are in flux and Arthur's worried about it all.

"He is," she says without hesitation. Harris had never been a favorite of Cooper, though he'd played nice in favor of being in a good position once the backlash started. And here he was.

"He likes Jean-Claude well enough." Nancy makes a face. Her issues with him were personal, though he'd worked hard to try to establish something between the two of them akin to friendship. If anything, she wasn't rude to him, and understood him just a bit better.

"And I gather you don't?" Arthur says, tone entirely innocent and curious. He hasn't heard a negative word about Jean-Claude yet, except that he's perhaps a bit forward.

"D'you remember Kenzi?" She asks him. "He's her sire." Her issues with Jean-Claude were completely personal.

Arthur's jaw tightens at that, but he distracts himself with his drink. After a moment he raises an eyebrow at Nancy as he asks, "what happened?"

"She tried to find out who cursed me last year, and they didn't like it. She was attacked, and Jean-Claude found her in time and turned her. He brought her to my apartment." She'd ruined her couch that night.

"Apparently she wanted me to be with her." Or, and she never asked, if it was because Kenzi assumed Nancy would be a willing victim, to complete the turn. She scratches absentmindedly at her neck.

"As far as I'm concerned, he killed my best friend."

Arthur falls into silence for a moment, considering his drink. "I'm sorry," he finally says. It's hard to tell from Nancy's story whether that's what her friend wanted or not, and to some degree he can't fault vampires for failing to see what a curse their own existence is. They think it's better than death, and Arthur knows that's not universally true.

While Nancy has no problems with vampires, she'd long ago decided she didn't want to be turned, necessarily. Not at this point in her life.

"Thank you," she says with a nod. It had bothered her endlessly, still did, to have been the one Kenzi fed off of. She would have let her, but she would have liked the choice. "He's been nothing but kind to me since, however." He tried really hard. And she could appreciate that.

"Well, it remains to be seen, but he seems to be a step in the right direction for the Nest," Arthur says lightly, taking another sip of his drink. It's a bit of an obvious statement, given what came before him.

"I hope so," she says. Under Raymond, things had been significantly harder on her. It was hard to sell blood when vampires could get it for free, now. Were encouraged to, actually.

"So I got you a gift. It's probably something you already have, but..." she holds out the small box.

"Oh, you didn't have to," he says, glancing from the box to Nancy with a moment's hesitation before he takes it from her hand. He's charmed but so bad at accepting gifts, and he holds the box in front of him, trying to turn his frown into a smile before he starts opening it.

"No," Nancy agrees easily, "but I wanted to. Besides, what's a birthday without a gift? It was that, or make you dance with me." She still recalled trying to get him to dance last year.

He laughs, because that's definitely not going to happen. So he acquiesces and finishes opening the gift, mindful not to make a mess.

The gift is a tie clip- nothing special, gold with pearl inlay. When the gift is opened, she smiles sheepishly. "If you don't like it, you don't have to lie."

He smiles in spite of himself when he looks at it, turning it over gently in his hand like he's inspecting it.

"No, no, it's really nice," he says, genuine and reassuring.

Nancy lets out a sigh of relief.

"Good. I was worried you'd hate it. I just thought it'd look lovely, on some of your ties? You always dress well." She gives him a warm, almost shy smile.

"Well, it pays to look put together," he says, almost bashful at the compliment. He likes putting in the effort to make himself look clean and professional - he feels like it gives him a bit of an edge.

"Really, thank you," he says again, gesturing with the box, "if I was wearing a tie right now I'd put it on."

Nancy beams. "It does." She knew how important how you looked could be for work.

"You're welcome. I'm really glad you like it."

bday + catch-all for january!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject