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1. KUNSTKAMMER (closed : for lan)
He'd originally planned on waiting until after the moon had passed before bothering with Lan's vial, but it's been sitting in the hiding place he'd found for it, silently taunting him. February is a plenty busy month so he should have more than enough to keep his mind occupied, yet he still finds himself distracted, his thoughts often drawn back towards the possibilities that Lan's project holds. The curiosity is slowly killing him.

A couple days after the Imbolc festival, he finally breaks. He's got himself a quiet evening and a golden opportunity to find out what happens when he drinks that weird shit, and so he does just that.

He makes it a few more days before slinking in to Lan's shop again, looking pretty ragged when he drags himself through the door. As far as he knows, it's not because of what she'd given him. It's the day before the full moon, is all- he probably shouldn't even be here when he's like this, but the feeling of restlessness has become unbearable. If he's going to suffer all day, he might as well suffer and accomplish something.

Ghoul slowly shuffles his way around shelves, sounding almost as rough as he looks when he quietly asks, "Lan...?"

2. I DARE YOU TO PET HIM (wolf shenanigans/OPEN)
There's a full moon out, and that can only mean one thing: wolves.

Strangely enough, there's one running about alone in one of the larger parks rather than East End's usual territory. Maybe it's a rogue. Maybe it escaped from wherever it locked itself up. Whatever the case, it doesn't seem to be up to too much trouble at the moment. Sprinting through trees, digging holes, chewing on things. The usual kinds of energetic canine business. But, wolves can be pretty unpredictable. Who knows how it'll react when faced with company.

[ don't be afraid to hmu at

blastcorps for #2! i won't let him hurt anyone without permission, but if you're open to that possibility (or if you'd rather hurt him?) let me know! ]

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"Maybe like fifteen percent." There's no sense in lying to Ghoul about that.

He finds one boot under a pile of bags and lifts it up. "Ha!" Of course the other one is nowhere near it, so he gets this one on and then has to hobble around all unbalanced looking for the other one, which is totally under his dirty T-shirt pile. Take that, laundry!

"I figured." Ghoul watches with a grin as Party finds the first boot, and laughs as he watches him hobble around in search of the other one. This is pitiful. "How the fuck are you an adult?" Not that he has much room to talk, especially with the way he sets his mug down on the floor, stands, and just leaves it there.

Party isn't allowed to judge him or his choices. Fuck him. Think of it as Ghoul leaving a little token of himself among the mess. "Okay, let's go. Already called a cab, it'll be here pretty soon if it ain't down there already."

"Where're we goin', Mister Mystery?" He shoves a few things in his pockets, including his phone and wallet, and grabs a pair of sunglasses. "Huh? Huh?"

He doesn't pay the mug any mind as he follows after Ghoul, because Ghoul did kind of nail it when he asked how Party's an adult. The answer is obviously that it's a technicality.

Ghoul merrily makes his way downstairs and outside, answering each repetitive question regarding where they're going with I dunno or nope.

It's not even any place exciting, honestly. He just enjoys stringing Party along. It's sort of like telling a dog to sit and then watching it wiggle impatiently while it waits for a treat. It's entertaining, okay.

The mystery is solved soon enough. Turns out to be some breakfast diner-type place that Ghoul can vouch for. He hadn't bothered asking Party's opinion on it, because the guy strikes him as the type to eat literally anything. He herds Party inside, to a table as isolated as possible, and gets them all settled with drink and food orders taken. And then he starts to fidget- swinging his leg beneath the table, lightly kicking some part of Party's chair in idle movement. "Figured you might pay attention better if you were bein' fed."

That, and he'd bet on coffee being the main thing he's consumed in days.

Party, of course, asks repetitive questions the whole way there as to the nature of where they're going and the conversation they're going to have or whatever else he can think of, but he still goes with Ghoul with limited protest.

He's starving and dives headfirst into the menu as soon as they're sitting, silently reading the menu until he figure out what he wants.

"Prob'ly a good call. Are you payin'?"

"Y...es...?" Ghoul squints across the table at Party, sounding unsure about his answer. "Don't go fucking crazy, I ain't afraid to leave you here with the bill."

Despite being very serious about that threat, he sort of ruins his own credibility a second later. His elbows are on the table in no time, propping his chin in his hands. Hard to look intimidating like that, probably, but fuck it. It's early, he can't be expected to hold himself upright without assistance. "So there's like a new boss witch, you know that right?"

Party is totally getting triple bacon. Just the smell of breakfast in the air has him ravenous and all he can think about is all the pancakes he can eat and bacon and eggs and more coffee...

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Heard 'bout it, but the witches are all... I dunno." He makes the vaguest hand gesture humanly possible.

"I had to go to that damn thing." He gives Party's chair a particularly hard, spiteful kick. He may even decide to steal a piece of his bacon later so Party can suffer just as much as he had at the festival. "Witches are all what, though?"

"They play by different rules than the rest of us. The Fae, too. Vamps live longer, but they're livin' in the same reality we are. Can't always say the same for witches." Party shrugs, like he's not sure how else to describe what comes down to a feeling in his gut.

"Yeah? You better watch her, then. Her fuckin' plans've got plans." Samantha sure is... something. Very bold and very memorable. It's a little unsettling. And her pet is a god damn terror.

Mogget is worth a stolen piece of bacon all on his own. That's two so far. "Y'know she's got a talking cat too?"

Party slaps Ghoul's hand hard and leans across the table. "Yeah? You know these plans? Wanna share with the class?"

Ghoul mirrors Party. First by bristling and slapping back, then by leaning in as well. He shrugs. "I don't know all of 'em, what the fuck do I look like? She talked a lot about empowering witches and experiments and stuff though. Been talkin' to Katherine a lot too. Either she wants somethin' from us or she hates us."

"I'd guess a little of both. I ain't particularly happy 'bout the idea of lettin' 'em get too much leverage, but at least the vamps've cooled off lately on trying to edge us back."

He leans back, slouching down and eyeing Ghoul a bit. "Pretty clear what everyone 'round here thinks of us. They all think we're a joke, right? Which means they think we're an easy target and we should remember that."

"I don't think the quiet's gonna last long." The smartest thing to do would be to keep pushing and crush the pack entirely. Would've made the most sense to have done it before the whole Lupercalia deal, but since it's too late for that, the next best thing would be to make a move before the new wolves are trained up.

"We're pretty fucked if we gotta worry about them and witches. What're you gonna do if things start goin' real bad? Stick around? Run?" He lifts his mug to take a slow drink for the sole purpose of hiding his own expression, watching Party's face carefully.

It's a fair question. Party only has a few real roots to keep him here. "Nah, I'm done with runnin'. They'll have to take me down kickin' and screamin'."

No, he won't start his career over again somewhere else. This is becoming his home. If it becomes unsafe, he's going to be the biggest menace possible on his way into the grave. Fuck it.

"Figure a hopeless man can do a lotta damage. It's in their best interest not to make me get all hopeless."

Ghoul's face remains pretty impassive, but his head tilts in a way that tips off the fact that he's actually interested in this line of conversation. Sounds like Party's got some personal shit going on.

Better ask about it. "Why can't you go back home if shit gets bad here? What're you runnin' from?"

"Don't got a home to go back to. This is it." It's only sort of a lie, really. He can't go back and he can't think of it as home anymore. If he went back, he'd only put his family in danger. It's better if they just don't know where he is at all.

"Had a special sorta hunters on my ass for a minute there. They ain't here."

He slouches forward. "That's shitty." That should be the end of the conversation, but he's got a troubled look on his face and a whole lot more questions. This is only the beginning. "What'd you do to get hunters after you?"

Party runs his fingers through his still-wet bright hair. He's not a liar by nature, really, but he doesn't like giving away too much of himself that isn't in his art, either.

"Killed one of 'em." Because it's not as if Ghoul hasn't killed, too. They've all taken at least one life by their nature. "They were already comin' after my friends. Wasn't gonna lay low and let 'em get hurt."

Oh.

That doesn't exactly explain why he was neck-deep in hunters enough to kill one in the first place, but Ghoul's got a new thread to pull. His voice is softer when he asks his next question, because yapping about killing people out in the open is tricky business. "That why your curse thing kicked in?"

Consider it a polite way of asking if that was the first person he'd ever killed.

"Does it matter?" Party's attention moves to his nails and he starts picked dirt out from under one of them with some extreme focus. "I was always gonna be like this and he had it coming. Ain't never hurt anyone who didn't have it coming."

Ghoul's expression is almost as unamused as his tone suddenly is. "You tried to bite the fuck outta me just today."

He arguably had it coming.

"My point stands." Party laughs and kicks Ghoul under the table because he can and because maybe he can distract Ghoul onto a new topic. "Are you gonna stick around if things get shitty?"

"You're a dick." The kick makes him flinch, but he ends up grinning regardless. Since Party started it this time, he doesn't feel bad about kicking back. He sighs soon afterwards at the question. "Yeah, I gotta. Until I do what I need to here anyway, then I have to go back." Lots of no-choice phrasing going on there.

"What're you doin'? Where's home?" He punctuates each question with another light kick. He's really not one to give up questioning.