Backdated somewhat: day in the life

[feels_no_love]

Who: Dracula and OPEN
Where: All common areas and the pub at at least one point
When: Monday  to Tuesday night (see below for separate threads)
Warnings: flirtation, booze, excessive partying, consensual nippiness, funny/creepy stories and weird heart to hearts

Vlad was deeply restless. His thoughts kept turning back to Aleera, suffering under her

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Monday Late: Greenhouse

[feels_no_love]

Still inebriated, he found himself on a long wander across the deck, humming. Eventually he reached the greenhouse, which was a million times more fascinating to his enhanced senses when he was in his cups enough to truly appreciate all the different sights and smells on offer.

[persephonepearl]

Persephone often spent the majority of her time in the Greenhouse, and especially now when that idiot had used it as a place of horror. She knelt among the flowers, humming softly as they crawled over her arms, moving slowly.

[feels_no_love]

Vlad remembered coming here, how full up of anger and glee he had been, and yet somehow still determined to save his new acquaintance. The leap. The feeling of falling. The bite of the glass.

He had intended to check on the place all day, to make certain that the mess was cleaned up and that it wasn't just left to Armand and his associate alone. What he discovered, of course, was the glass properly restored. But more, there was someone within.

So he stood in one corner of the greenhouse, very careful of where he put his feet and limbs, and simply breathed in the smell of living things, both plant and...

...what an intriguing scent. He laughed softly.

[persephonepearl]

The Goddess knew that she was not alone in the Greenhouse. For a moment she simply sat quietly, but several of the flowers turned their heads towards him for a moment before they moved back to her in a manner that was almost shy.

After a moment, she spoke softly, and her tone was amused. "Do you find what you seek, vampire?"

[feels_no_love]

He was a shadow in the dark for a moment, completely still; then he tilted his head and smiled almost boyishly at the dance of the flowers.

"Yes, my Lady, I have," he murmured, accent thickened from his drink. "The greenhouse is sound again."

[persephonepearl]

Persephone moved one finger over one of the large blooming roses, and then she looked back to him again. "It is, and I am glad of it. I would not have been happy if the effects had been lasting." There is a darkness in her eyes for a moment, because Eddie Brock is not one of her favorite people at the moment.

[feels_no_love]

"Well, for what it is worth...I came here in case there was still work to do. I know nothing of healing plants, but a friend of mine assists in the tending of this place, and I would not see hard work undone by some slobbering oaf." He leaned over to smell a strand of jasmine hanging from a trellis. "Also I heal very quickly, so would be handy in the removing of glass."

He sighed. "It is good to come here instead and find a relative peace."

[persephonepearl]

"You must mean Armand." Persephone said quickly, and she unwound her hand slowly from the tangle of flowers that it had been wrapped in. "He is my friend as well. I tend this place with him." She nodded a bit before she rose to her feet, the dirt from the ground not touching the white of the robes that she was wearing. It was almost as if it had worn off of it's own accord.

"Plants are good for finding peace," she said quickly. "They bring quiet and acceptance where they go, and the are very good for the senses." Persephone slowly removed a strand of jasmine and stepped closer to him to tuck it into his collar.

[feels_no_love]

"Yes, Armand. Too decent a young mortal for this place, in my opinion. But I am biased. He was one of the first to approach me." He looked a little surprised, and then smiled and inclined his head.

"I see. You are then the Goddess Persephone." Fallen perhaps, but paying his respects in some small way helped keep his mind off how beautiful she was, and how...absent...his Brides had been. "Whom I do not presume to know, as legends are half lie at best. I am Dracula. Vlad." Expecting formality from a goddess seemed very silly to him.

He looked down at her, holding very still as she tucked the flowering vine into his collar, glad the drink relaxed him even further. "In my homeland below the village of my youth, amid the mighty forests, lay a valley filled with flowers. I could see it every spring from my chambers. That was a long time ago, and the last time I stopped to admire plants properly.

"I think I have been Voivode too long, so busy with my plans that I did not...give myself the time.

"You do magnificent work."

[persephonepearl]

"I do not understand why he stays after his inmate left. It seems to me to be a folly." She watched him when he spoke of how she was the Goddess Persephone, and then she smiled. Too often mortals found themselves believing the myth of Hades and Persephone and how the goddess in time came to feel anything for her husband but hate and loathing for how he trapped her in the underworld away from the sunlight.

She missed real sunlight, the time on the beach had reminded her of that. "I am pleased to met you, Vlad." Persephone smiled at him, and then she stoked her fingers over his chest once the vine was tucked. The goddess had a habit of touching people, even when she shouldn't.

"If you describe your flowers to me, Vlad Dracula, I will make them bloom for you."

[feels_no_love]

"I think he believes that he can do more good. But I sometimes find myself wondering if he is equipped for all the risks that we are apparently to be subjected to. He is a gentle fellow, and given to melancholy. Every once in a while I wonder if he doesn't need an old attack dog like me about to help protect his interests."

His chest heaved just a little under her hand, and he gazed at her through his lashes, lids heavy. He schooled himself to stay still, but his fingers curled.

"I..." he swallowed and looked down, struggling to remember down through four hundred desolate years. "There is a certain little low-growing alpine flower, which grows in whole fields, turning the hillsides a dark pink. The petals unfold like a handful of cards, in a spiral, each one edged in darker pink and white."

[persephonepearl]

"He seems too soft for it and I worry for him as well." Persephone confided softly, watching him. She did worry over her French friend, despite how she had pulled away from him a bit. She worried about him following the way she had turned on most everyone whom she had known. Now, she kept away from most whom she had spoken with before.

Persephone smiled again when he curled his fingers, and then she took a step back away from him.

Flowers from Earth were easy. In order to create the ones from Gallifrey, Persephone had needed to ask Kay for the seeds, but these seeds she could do herself. Picturing the flowers in her minds eye, Persephone held out her hand and a small, white seed appeared. For a moment it just sat there and then it bloomed with a burst of green. Coils of roots wove over her hand and then the bloom burst open, and another and another.

[feels_no_love]

"Perhaps in my stabler moments I should look after him. Someone has to; there is too much insanity about." He busied himself caressing the little vine in his collar with two fingers, but between drink and the mysterious absence of his brides he was missing skin contact. He gave her another heavy-lidded look before forcing himself to calm.

He was distracted by the flower growing in her hand, however, and stared at it. "It is truly lovely," he murmured, faint wistfulness in his tone.

[persephonepearl]

"Perhaps you should. I will attempt to help you, Vlad Dracula." Persephone watched him as he looked at her like that and she leaned over and stroked his cheek quickly. It was a little movement, her index finger simply sliding down one cheek and then stroking the other with the back of her hand. The behavior wasn't even unusual for her.

"It is yours, of course, Vlad Dracula." She tucked it onto the other side of his lapel with a smirk. "I will make you pots of it, if you like."

[feels_no_love]

"You have my gratitude, my Lady," he said, aware that his voice had become a purr. Elric's potion, no doubt, softening his voice and manner as well as his senses. And self-restraint.

He licked his lips. He was meant to warn her off, be responsible about the fact that he both didn't know where he stood with his Brides and also tended to bite. But what came out was:

"You are welcome to keep doing that all you like."

...damn.

A brief cough. "Thank you, My Lady, one plant in a pot would do. I must start small in my tending of living things, I think."

[persephonepearl]

Oh, that was all Persephone needed to hear. She smirked quickly when there was the lower tone in his voice, and then again when there was the comment about touching him. She took him at his word, stroking his face again and leaning close to him.

"I have never had a vampire before," her voice was soft and low; very interested. "We should go to my room."