undergrounds | bday + catch-all for january!

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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!]

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"You're probably right," Arthur says, giving in with a sigh. "I am cautiously optimistic, but that's emphasis on the caution."

"You can't put too much emphasis on caution, I suppose." Not entirely true. It's possible to miss opportunities being too cautious. But in this case, she'll err toward caution on every side.

It's a bias.

"It's hard to call myself optimistic, but I do know what I want to see happen."

Arthur's surprised to hear her so forthcoming about having an opinion at all, given how strongly she feels about caution. Maybe it's benign enough that she feels comfortable sharing it freely, but Arthur may as well use it as an opportunity to move things in... a more interesting direction.

"Really? I'd love to hear what you think, if you wanna get out of here. Doesn't seem like this place welcomes political banter."

He does actually want to hear her opinion on the whole thing but moving this to a more private setting can't hurt in other areas.

"Did you have somewhere else in mind?" Natasha leans a little closer as she asks, knowing her body language is enough to signal that she's open to leaving with him. To share information, or otherwise.

Arthur tilts his head and looks down at his drink like he's just coming up with this idea. "There's better booze at my place," he says.

Smooth.

Very smooth. But the evening is still young, and that's a place Natasha's been interested in ending up. So why not.

"That sounds like an invitation," she observes. Considering what she is, it's rather pointed. "I'd like that."

"Good," he says with a smile. "It's only a few stops away, but you can finish your drink."

"That's very kind of you." She returns his smile, chin raised slightly, before she tosses back the rest of her drink in two swallows. He's right; it's not all that good.

Nice. Arthur smiles into his drink as he drains it, and then he stands up from the bar decisively, digging into his pocket for his phone. "I'll call a cab," he tells her, throwing his jacket over his arm as he dials.

True to his word, it doesn't take long to get to his apartment. It's a nice place for a single guy with a decent income, and as he opens the door he says, "come on in," just to make sure that's covered.

"I should warn you, there's a lot of silver in here," he says, both as a genuine warning and a little bit of vampire hunter humour. He's not going to mention the stakes and the guns and the silver-tipped knives unless he has to.

Natasha comes in without any hesitation, as though it's normal, as though she wasn't waiting for the invitation. Just a normal woman coming home with a normal man. She could almost laugh. "I'll make sure not to poke through your things."

She'd expect the same from him, really. And she's good to her words, glancing around the room before inclining her head toward his sofa. "So we were saying, before we left the bar? Politics? Or was this all a ploy to get me back to your place?"

He holds his hand out, wordlessly inviting her to sit down before he pops into the kitchen to grab a couple glasses.

"It was probably a little bit of both," he says, grabbing a bottle of liquor from a cabinet in his living room - a decent bottle of whiskey - and pours some in each glass.

Her brows rise faintly in approval. "I can respect that," she says, smoothing her skirt over her knees as she sits. "No reason to limit ourselves to just the one thing, and politics can't fill the whole night."

They absolutely could, if they wanted them to. But they wouldn't be the most exciting option.

He smirks and leans back against the couch, still all too aware that she's a little dangerous but feeling the twinge of alcohol in his brain dulling any guard he has up.

"You said you knew what you wanted to happen," he says.

"I did say that, didn't I?" She gives a thoughtful look, theatrical enough to be playful. "It's really not that complicated—or exciting. I want the new leadership in the nest to play nice, self-police, compromise. Unlike the past two people in charge here, I think there's a chance of that actually happening now."

She figures why she'd want that would be obvious. A vampire outside the nest, she'll benefit the most from vampires not painting targets on their own back. She also benefits if they're not closing ranks among themselves and giving her the choice between toeing the faction line and joining up, or becoming an enemy herself.

"Maybe that's asking for too much, though."

"Maybe," he agrees, looking away thoughtfully. He takes a deep breath before he goes on, obviously taking this topic seriously. He's interested in what she has to say; she has a unique perspective on it, but so does he.

"I just think it's hard to self-police without a little outside help. In my experience, at least... when immortals spend too much time with other immortals, they can forget the value of mortal life. I think they need a little outside influence just to keep them honest."

"I don't disagree on that point." How could she? She's seen exactly that. She avoided joining another nest in part just for that reason; easier to see people as people when you weren't surrounded by other vampires who looked at them as cattle. Easier to stay honest if she wasn't drinking blood, and easier to do that if she wasn't affiliated with a nest. "But all the more reason to hope they'll settle back into the larger community instead of trying to play by their own rules."

Arthur nods thoughtfully for a moment before he speaks again. "I hope for that too," he says. Even if business is better when the vampires are out of control, he prefers the streets to be safe rather than the extra bounty money he might bring in.

"It all depends on how well they get along with the witches," Arthur goes on, a wry tone in his voice, "that's who actually runs things in this city."

"That part is harder to predict." And Natasha has a lot less space to spy on witches. She can keep her ears open around Redbright, and that she does, but that's not real access. Less so now that Daybreak is getting new leadership.

"I guess we'll have to wait and see on that score."

Arthur turns a little, stretching his arm out along the back of the couch behind Natasha.

"What, no inside track?" he says wryly, his mouth twisting into a smile. He doesn't really expect her to tell him anything, but a little bit of light needling never really hurt anyone.

"You really think they trust me?" Natasha tilts her head as she asks it, her tone turning the truth into a wry joke. The fact she's managed to garner as much trust and good will as she has is nothing short of a miracle.

She leans her head back then, watching his face as she rests it on his arm. The memory of when they got close before, when he hadn't known what she was and she'd tried to run off to avoid anyone getting hurt, comes to mind, but she pushes it away.

It comes to his mind as well, and his instinct is to tread carefully so she doesn't feel the need to run away again. He understands why she might, but he suspects that she's better at controlling herself than she thinks. That doesn't mean he's not going to be alert and cautious in his own way, but something about the potential for danger just makes this whole thing more enticing.

"I think you could be in the right place at the right time if you really wanted to be," Arthur says softly, tilting his head toward her. "But I also wouldn't expect you to tell me about anything you hear."

Something in his tone is genuine; he has these kinds of arrangements with all sorts. He knows how to maintain a friendship or... any other kind of relationship without the expectation that faction secrets are going to be passed around. He's good at compartmentalizing like that.

A little smile flits over her mouth. She wasn't planning to start trading secrets; she appreciates that means they can still be... friends? More like friends than anything else.

"Thank you," she says. "For making that clear."

Arthur shrugs a shoulder casually. "I like to keep business and pleasure separate," he says. "It makes my life a lot easier."

"Does that mean you're keeping me firmly in pleasure?" Natasha asks, but she doesn't really expect an answer. She doesn't really need one.

She shifts toward him, moving without any particular sense of urgency, her posture relaxed, but deliberate as she lifts herself from the couch and slips her leg across his lap to straddle him. Her arms twine over his shoulders, her face still close to his, noses almost touching.

"I can handle that."

Arthur's hands rest easily at her hips, moving with her so he's sitting straight back against the couch. He smiles as if responding in the affirmative to her question, giving her a casual once-over before he raises his eyebrows at her. She looks particularly good from this angle, and Arthur has a few compliments floating around in his head.

"I was hoping you'd say that," he murmurs, dragging his hands down her thighs and then back up to her waist. He sighs, and the temptation to close the gap between them is strong, but he holds back for another moment.

"I gather this means you've changed your mind about sleeping with a human?" he asks, smooth as always, teasing just a little bit.

bday + catch-all for january!

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