undergrounds | Tell me that I'll figure it out...

Jean-Claude tilts his head at the other vampire, raising his eyebrow at him as he does. "With respect, a lawful measure because you helped pass the vote to make it so, monsieur." He plays his fingers idly along the edge of his boot where he has it crossed in front of him as he talks.

"I seek to understand your reasoning," he continues. "I want to understand why it is that you would help hand power over to the witches. Not only power, but power at the expense of the freedom of another race." His dark blue eyes are steady as he regards Cooper in turn.

"I would have died." He isn't looking at Cooper anymore. He is usually far more sardonic and selfish than this, but Cooper is another vampire, and a physically young one at that; they have a lot more in common than not. "Someone would have figured out what I was, handed me off to a hunter, and I would have ended up dead. Or I would have taken off my daylight ring and walked outside on a sunny day. Maybe that's even what the witch was counting on; I don't know. I do know that without your...woman and Cesare Borgia I would have died. I rather enjoy continuing to exist."

Edited 2017-04-27 01:09 (UTC)

He could've guessed, but that's not the same as knowing, and he's never seen any indication that Cooper had a hate for them that ran so deep.

It's funny though, Cooper's opinion of him seems to be so different to how Eames sees himself that it might as well be a totally different person. He'd probably laugh if he'd said it out loud.

By the time Cooper returns, Eames is helping himself to a second glass of scotch and he frowns a little at the question. "Like I said, I wanted to understand your position," he answers simply. Cooper's a new face on the Council, a relative unknown quality. Eames had foolishly thought the man was smarter than this; he won't make that mistake again.

Well, no wonder Rorschach doesn't like being a ghost. He's an ultra-lame one. He probably doesn't even use his intangible and invisible nature for shenanigans, gosh. What a waste of potential. "What do you mean not so much? Why not?"

Cooper can hear the pause in Joss' words when he mentions Nancy. He can think of several substitutes that he was probably thinking, none of them flattering. Still, he's not going to solve anything by picking a fight. They'd already tried that in the entryway. "Well, you got the luck of somebody on your side." This could have turned out with Cooper reading Joscelin's obituary in the London Lambast Daily.

"So are you gonna retaliate against that witch?" He can't very well stop him, but they both know how JC's been wanting the Nest to play nice with everyone else.

"Ghosts need anchors. Never had one." That spoke a lot about how sad Rorschach's life had been. There was no one to turn to when he died, not family or friends that would have been some remnant of life to cling to. It also showed how socially awkward the ghost was. Thirty years after he died and he still hadn't managed to get close enough to anyone to gain tethers to the mortal world.

Cooper doesn't bother to sit back down. They're pretty much done here. They've got the measure of each other. He doesn't bother with any parting jabs. Eames would just turn them against him anyway. "Well, now you do." Cooper snatches up the bottle of scotch to take home. Nope, Eames does not get to keep it.

Cooper leans back in his chair, one hand running through his hair. He doesn't tear his gaze away from Jean-Claude, holding his gaze as well. JC hadn't been around for when the worst of his interactions with the fae had occurred.

"You want the truth, JC? I've got good reason to hate the fae. They've screwed me over in more ways than one. I had no reason to take their side on this position. There would valid points t'consider, so I was persuaded this was the best course of action."

"What the hell?" Ghoul's face screws up in disbelief. "Then go get one." He says it like it's the simplest thing in the world... and for him, maybe it would be. He obviously has no issues when it comes to interacting with others- now, those interactions being positive is another story...

Rorschach ain't got any excuse for this nonsense. "How d'you make the anchor thing stick? You gotta do somethin' special?"

Rorschach's mask turns into jagged parallel lines that go straight down his face. The patterns, one can eventually notice, aren't entirely random. They do form similar patterns during the same emotional state over and over again. Right now, he's bristling with anger like a grouchy alley cat. He abruptly disappears. Don't worry, Ghoul, he hasn't gone far. He reappears right behind the werewolf, growling out three words in his ear. "Don't. Like. People."

It's as simple as that as to why Rorschach doesn't have an anchor. He's seen the worst of humanity and has no desire to interact with that scummy underbelly. In response to Ghoul's question, he shrugs. "Dunno. Got to get along with someone. See them a lot. Be friends?" This last is asked as a question because he really doesn't know what makes for a good anchor.

Him and his weird mask. Ghoul wonders if he'll need to make some kind of visual cheat sheet one day.

He looks puzzled once Rorschach vanishes, and he glances around- not behind himself though, of course, which means he jumps at the unexpected voice in his ear. With a huff, he spins around to face him, crossing his arms. "Dude, I know you're dead and all, but shit. Don't be a downer." Ghoul's not even an aggressively optimistic guy, but Rorschach is just something else. There's got to be some type of person that he likes well enough to anchor to. Somewhere.

"What kinda people can you tolerate bein' around?"

Rorschach is definitely one of a kind, living or dead. He's been dead almost as long as he was alive, so he had some perspective on why he was still around. He's been anti-social for so long and it hadn't helped him move on or find closure at all. Maybe this half-baked kid has a point.

That actually gets Rorschach thinking. Who does he like to be around? He's only ever had one real friend in his life. Well, he'd always had the Watchmen around, even when they didn't want him around. It makes the first part of the answer obvious. "Hunters. People who can see me. And children." Sorry, Ghoul, it's a very short list. Be glad he managed to come up with three on his own.

Ghoul looks unsure, but that's... better than nothing? Probably?

It's a start, he supposes. "Okay, look," he begins, squaring himself up because he has an idea. "Here's what we're gonna do. You're gonna find like three new people to talk to in the next few weeks." He reaches out, poking his index finger at Rorschach's chest as if that'll spur him in to obeying. Of course, his finger goes though his chest every time, but that's not the point. "I wanna have badass ghost contacts for entirely selfish reasons, and I can't do that if all I know is a wimpy one who can't even go solid or move stuff."

Pep talk of the year! He smirks in a way that suggests he's maybe joking just a little, and pulls his arm away before adding, "It'll be fun. You gotta be bored as shit by yourself all the time." Fuck's sake, one of his likes is people who can see him. That's pretty desperate.

Rorschach swats ineffectively at Ghoul's finger as he listens to the kid blather on. Seriously, that is getting annoying. "One person." He's not completely discounting the idea, but let's not get too ambitious here. It took him about twenty-five years to even manifest. He's not about to become a social butterfly in a few short weeks.

Oh, it's annoying for sure. And he loves that. Ghoul thinks of it as a type of motivation- he'll continue to annoy the life out of him (haha) until he can anchor enough to do something about it. Because that's how progress works, right?

For now, though, he's stopped poking at him. Instead, he narrows his eyes a bit, scrutinizing Rorschach briefly. Negotiations, huh. He can handle those. "Fine, one person. Anybody you want, but you gotta say more than ten words. That fair?"

"Fair enough." One person. Right. He can do this. Maybe. Hillingdon House always has people going in and out of it. There's always someone new wandering through. He's sure he can find someone that he can start a conversation with.

That seems to be the end of that. But there's one thing Rorschach still wants to know. "What's your name?" He wants to know so that he can find the werewolf again later on. He doesn't have that many people who can see him on a regular basis. He wants to be able to keep track of them.

Surely he can do this. Any person he wants, any topic. There's no way he can fail. Probably...

Suddenly, Ghoul grins at him. This is one of his favorite parts about meeting new people. "It's Ghoul." And that's why. Most people suspect the name's complete bullshit and react in entertaining ways, so introductions are rarely boring. "You gonna look me up later and lemme know how it goes?" Good luck with that one.

Although he is interested in hearing about it...

Jean-Claude regards him steadily. Supposing that the reasoning is sound, but there are also holes in the logic. Cooper is not a young vampire, but Jean-Claude in this moment still feels his age beside him. Or perhaps it is simply the weight of his responsibilities and the decisions he has made to get himself where he is so far.

"You should be careful with such thoughts, mon ami," he replies, levelly. "If the rest of the city were allowed such reasoning, it's a wonder we vampires would be allowed anything at all."

Honestly, the calm nature of Jean-Claude puts Cooper more uneasy than anything else. He would have preferred it if the head of the Nest had been angry with him. This was more like quiet disappointment than anything else.

"If they want to end up on the top instead of the bottom, they can learn to play nice like we did." Cooper hadn't worked his tail off during the representative election, promoting that the vampires had changed for the better, for nothing. They had lost almost everything when Harris was in charge. It had been a miracle to gain most of it back.

Rorschach doesn't so much as raise an eyebrow when Ghoul introduces himself, not that the werewolf would be able to tell with his mask on anyway. He used to hang around with people who called themselves Nite Owl and The Comedian, after all. And while he does suspect the name is complete bullshit, he's not going to call the kid on it.

"Rorschach," he introduces himself as, and the name will make sense if Ghoul has ever heard even a little bit about psychology. He holds out a gloved hand like he's going to shake Ghoul's. Just humor him on this, it's one of the few human habits he's still got ingrained into him.

"Sure." He's interested enough in the kid now to make it a point to seek him out. It's not like he's got anything better to do with his time.

Ghoul makes a face that says it all- what the hell kind of name is that? He'd been a very selective learner back in school and, sadly, psychology was not one of the subjects he'd put his attention or effort towards. So the name is nothing more but some weird wordmash to him. It's a real shame, he'd find it hilarious if he knew how fitting it is.

Well, that's fine. Rorschach's old fashioned habit is funny enough on its own. Ghoul's first reaction to his outstretched hand is a quick laugh, and then he reaches out. They obviously can't actually shake, so he ends up giving his palm an awkward little pat. Sort of. He can't even do that very well, with Rorschach being incorporeal and all. "You got a place you usually haunt?" He grins shamelessly. Ghost jokes.

"I can pop by every now'n then. Probably be easier that way, I dunno. This is a big place and I kinda go all over." He assumes he'd be hard to track down, but he also has no idea how a ghost finds people in the first place.

Rorschach was used to that face. Trust him, he was lucky if most people could pronounce his name, let alone do something spell it. The police had called him 'Raw-shark' on a number of occasions before he became more well-known.

Ghoul's hand of course passes through his own, but for a moment there, something...odd happens. It almost feels like he feels something brush up against his palm, but that can't be right. Rorschach hasn't felt anything touch him for thirty years and he's very nearly forgotten what the sensation feels like. He dismisses what he thinks as just some sort of phantom (ha ha) feeling.

"Hillingdon House." So that might put a crimp in Ghoul's style, for he'll have to be surrounded by hunters if he wants to see his new ghost pal.

That probably wouldn't be too hard to find, and of course he'll find it because he's never quite learned to fear ordinary hunters like he maybe should. There was always something bigger and badder back home- hunters of a sort, sure, but not the type he'd compare to Hillingdon at all. He doesn't realize that he's met a good number of Hillingdon members already, too, so that'll be a fun discovery.

"Been spendin' a lot of time over that way lately, so that ain't much of a stretch." Maybe he's Redbright, based off that information. What a mystery. "You the only ghost there?"

It is easy to be angry. To yell at someone and cause a scene. A fight. But a fight serves no purpose. A learning experience does not stem from an argument. Jean-Claude is getting his point across in the best way that he knows how.

He takes in a long breath and lets it out slowly, regarding the other vampire carefully. "I would ask that you consider the ramifications of such a vote more closely, should such a one come about," he continues. "Not only have you given one group the permission to hold power directly over another, but you have given permissions to Circle Daybreak. The witches are powerful enough as it is, without enslaving fae cronies to do their bidding. I will remind you that vampires are still not permitted to use their own powers over others in turn. Mind control, for example, will still be illegal while these witches get their familiars."

He shifts in his seat, his expression softening. "I only ask because you are our representation on the Council, mon ami. It is a power even I do not have over them."

Rorschach was certainly going to be in for a surprise the day he realized that Ghoul was a werewolf instead of any other supernatural type. Oh, the fireworks that would occur.

"No. Couple of others." He doesn't really interact with them too much. They stay in their own space and he stays in his. Like Rorschach has said, he doesn't much care for people. That includes the dead as well as the living.

Tell me that I'll figure it out...

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