Augustine Lycaon

"I like to switch things up from time to time," he answered snootily as the smoke was exhaled past his lips. Would smoking do his body harm now that he was depowered?

for: anyone and everyone~ @vievecorcitystarters location: the sidewalk outside liber (klin)

While there were no official Vibe Fest parties in Klin, it did not stop various bars and clubs from throwing many of their own to take advantage of the revelry. Matthew hated Vibe Fest just as he hated most forms of merriment, but the hate was especially strong that evening.

He had stupidly chosen this weekend to come by Liber again after being a recluse at home for so long and he was starting to think that it was a terrible idea. It did not help that he was still depowered and opening himself a portal to go home was not an option.

Liber was very lively, which was always a good thing, but Matthew still felt the need to step out for a moment. He exited his wine bar and walked a bit of the ways down before pulling out his sleek silver cigarette case to fish one out to place between his lips. He would normally have lit it magically with a flick of his fingers, but alas... The fallen deity growled in annoyance and flagged down a passing person to ask (rather menacingly)...

"Do you have a light?"

Open starter for @vievecorcitystarters

Location: Absynthia

Rahui was thrilled to hear that she would arrive to Vievecor just in time for the festival, she loved live music, and was a big fan of various of the bands playing at the Absynthia.

She put on an all black outfit consisting of a cropped tank, jacket, cargo pants and boots. She arrived early in the day to drink, dance to Røz, and cause problems. The mischievous spirit switched between dancing, and walking around stealing lighters and cigarettes, only to put them back at random people’s pockets, for no good reason other than wanting to fuck with people’s heads in a harmless way. Eventually, she grew tired of that, and tried to switch her activity to lurking at the bar for a while, and snatching drinks out of the table whenever a bartender set one down. However, her activity was cut short when she stole her second drink, as a hand settled firmly on her shoulder before she could bolt. The spirit turned around, grinning at the stranger and taking a step closer to them, with their stolen drink still in hand. “Thank you for buying me this, you know I really appreciate it.” Her speech wasn’t entirely fluent, and her accent was strong, indicating she wasn’t too used to speaking in this language.

"Tch, you directors and your privileges..." They said to get the comment in as they clinked their glasses together and tossed them back, the alcohol burning a familiar path down their throat.

-----------

"Damn right us directors and our privileges," Augustine agreed with a laugh. "This job's like herding cats. Get new grey hairs with each production anymore. Ah- and don't start on me causing you stress. We both had access to the script last I checked.. It was an adapted from broadway piece too-- so you had most of what you needed day one. Not my fault the song writers were late with the additional numbers added."

-----------

"Grey hairs, huh? Yeah I can see the new ones," Ayumu grinned and ran their fingers through the hair at Augustine's temple. "Right here!" they said and playfully tugged at a strand.

"The day when we're not blindsided by writers and their whims will be the day we'd have to worry. Don't worry, Gus Lynn. Despite your efforts, you've not fallen over to my bad side yet." Nor would he anytime soon, Ayumu reckoned. "You're actually one of the few directors I've worked with who generally keeps things together despite all the usual dramas on these sets. Your one-man vacation is well-deserved."

“Didn’t wanna waste my time?” she repeated, turning her head a fraction. “How charming. Would you care to elaborate?” There was no heat in it, the edge of amusement had slipped back into her voice, lighter but no less deliberate. Her fingers drummed once against the table before her palm flattened against it in a quiet, decisive tap. “Tell you what. I’ll get you that beer,” she said, already shifting out of the booth. “In the meantime, you can try to come up with a compelling alibi—or another apology. Dealer’s choice.” Jo paused just briefly at his side, lips pulling into a smirk. “Don't start any bar fights without me."

She didn’t wait for a reply. By the time she turned toward the bar, she was already finishing off what remained of her drink, the last swallow quick and easy. She wasn't technically on duty, and if she was going to buy a stranger a beer, she wasn’t about to sit there empty-handed. Still, her attention never drifted far. She caught his reflection in the back bar mirror as she rested her forearms against the counter and ordered two more. While the bartender turned away, her gaze angled just enough to keep Faust in view without making it obvious. He didn’t strike her as the bolting type, but sometimes people surprised you. When the beers came, she slid a few crumpled bills across the bar, closed her hand around the necks, and turned back without hesitation.

—

“Why, because I’m too pretty to remember where the milk goes?” He replied with a sarcastic smile, but he made it soften into something more teasing. “Not sure whether I should be insulted or not that you’re sending me to wash up right now.” He chuckled, a small part of him wishing Lian had somehow imbued him with x-ray vision to know where the bathroom was located, but that thought did remind him of the ring around his finger— the one that told him when someone was being dishonest. “I’m good for now. Besides, watching you get domestic might be too good of an opportunity to miss.” He smiled, situating himself on one of the kitchen barstools. “So… did you do much over the holidays? You must be feeling a little better for not being recognised at the Ice Festival.”

—

Augustine snorted at the comment but noted the other’s reluctance to leave the room. “Adverse to washing your hands before you eat now? I’m definitely not letting you help if that’s your reaction to good hygiene,” he retorted. “And no. Quiet holiday,” he added in a softer voice. Being dead meant no family gatherings, so Augustine hadn’t done much. It was nice that his sister knew finally, and he knew he would need to slowly tell a few others, but had been in no major rush. The more who knew the more likely his role would be immediately outed and he would no longer be able to help track Artemis members. It also meant he himself would be at risk again of being attacked. “What about you?”

—

“You have a sink, don’t you?” Eiji tried to keep his own bluntness out of his voice and instead replaced it with the lighter, more playful tone he used for Jacob.

He noticed how the other man didn’t comment on his mention of the Ice Festival. “Ate too much, drank too much, watched too many Christmas films. The usual.” He shrugged casually. In actuality, it had been a depressing affair spent alone in his own misery, but he could at least pretend to have a cosy little family life.

After a moment he moved to wash his hands in the sink, “So, what are you cooking?”

—

It felt like a game of chess, only it had Augustine gritting his teeth behind false politeness. “Now? *Burgers*,” he retorted, pulling out a cast iron griddle and grill press out of a lower cabinet. It hadn’t been his original game plan, but the impromptu company had him improvising, and they were quick enough to throw together. He pulled out a package of ground beef from the fridge in addition to cheese slices and several vegetables before turning and asking, “…That’s not going to be a *problem* is it?” With his fucking luck, the guy would be a vegetarian and he would have just given himself away if Jacob hadn’t been lying. The other still making a point to avoid the bathroom only made him change his approach though, determined to get a read for how familiar the male was with Faust’s home. “Want a drink?”

—

Eiji knew something was wrong, if this was truly Faust, then he would have immediately called him out at the Ice Festival. He wouldn’t have let him into his apartment and continued entertaining the idea, when he was pretty sure he’d only met the man twice in passing. Perhaps he’d changed allegiance, or had been forced into doing so, there were numerous options available when it came to the supernatural. He needed to find out more, but with the way the other man was responding, it seemed perhaps he knew something was amiss with him already.

Still, Eiji had to approach this how Jacob would. A seemingly innocent human with who was just put-out by having been ghosted. “No?” He replied, his tone confused, “Sounds good to me.” It was certainly a pathetic state of affairs that this was the first meal Eiji was having with someone in a very, very long time. And he didn’t even *know* him.

He was returning back from the sink when the man spoke again, “Sure, thanks.”

—

Augustine paused, not yet beginning to prep the burgers and instead turning to grab two beers from the fridge. He opened the bottles and casually moved towards Jacob, closing the space between them with a confident familiarity *despite* such a thing being reality. His years working at Vicium had left him able to do so with ease, setting one beer down on the counter beside Jacob as he pressed the other against his chest, encouraging the other to pause his step and the witch to effectively trap him with his body as he leaned in. His other arm moved to brace against the edge of the counter near where he had set his own drink, and he leaned in to speak softly in Jacob’s ear. “You’re doing an awfully good job of saying nothing at all. Being in Artemis doesn’t mean you’ll leave my apartment in one piece if you keep on with this bullshit,” he threatened in a rather serious tone, only to pull back with a polite grin as he grabbed his drink and took a long sip before setting it down and tiring his attention back to prepping the ingredients. He knew it was risky making such a threat, but he would play it off if he had to. “So- what do you like on your burger? Lettuce? Tomato? Cheese, perhaps?” His tone had shifted immediately, light and casual- a striking contrast to the threat moments earlier.

—

Eiji wasn’t expecting the sudden movement of having the other man in his space, the way he leant in to trap him against the counter caught him off guard and he was glad for the brief moment of reprieve he had to try and control his facial expression as *Faust* was speaking into his ear. Eiji could feel his heart thudding nervously, a loud sound in his ears that irritated him as much as the sense of fear did. As much as he was begrudge to admit it, he wasn’t a mastermind or a hardened criminal who knew what he was doing. He was getting by with the use of a spell, being able to lie relatively well— or so he thought— and perhaps a little bit of arrogance. He didn’t *know* how to play things and yet he’d put himself in the situation on purpose anyway.

Eiji was trying to quickly assess his options. Continue playing completely innocent? Call him out on what he knew? A bit of both? His fraction of a second was over and Eiji tried not to let his face betray him. “Why are you making it sound like you’re *not* a part of Artemis?” He asked, ignoring his question and charm. Suddenly Eiji wished the beer in his hand was a heavier spirit and he put it down. “You said you had to disappear after the attack, I get that. But you haven’t been in contact with anyone, you talk to me like you hate my guts for no apparent reason, you won’t answer anything vaguely relating to Artemis and you just— seem, *different.*” Eiji supposed he was going with the little bit of both option. “I just wanted to see if you were okay. I had one of those weird dreams the city seems to enjoy at every given holiday and I just thought maybe you—“ It was a risk bringing up the dream, probably a big one. He just had to hope this guy didn’t remember it in full detail. “I thought maybe you might want to see me too, but, guess I’ve been way off course.”

—

Augustine paused again, the false cheerfulness disappeared slightly as he calmly asked, “What? …You’ve never had another member of Artemis call out your own bullshit? Just because I don’t like how shit gets done in the supe community doesn’t mean I’m a good guy,” Augustine retorted in a rather matter of fact tone as he sliced up a tomato and ignored the faint warmers to his own cheeks at the mention of a dream. He shrugged his shoulders with a self-amused smirk as he added, “Just because I don’t keep contact with you doesn’t mean I don’t with everyone. Saw Eun-ji just the other day.” He had been scared shitless crossing her path, but he had none the less. “Funny you mention a dream though.” Now with Jacob in front of him, bits of it were coming back to Augustine… including some rather odd bits. *Namely* Jacob’s relations to others in it. He had had half a mind to go hunt Elijah’s son Rei down to see what he knew about the male before him, seeing now that Jacob was not going to be a problem that simply *went away.* “You aren’t the only one who wants answers.”

—

“And what bullshit is that supposed to be exactly?” Eiji breathed a faint laugh of disbelief. Did he really want to be asking that question? Probably not. If he gave him a blunt answer back and called him out on not really knowing Faust as intimately as he claimed, Eiji was going to have to own up to it and have landed himself in a whole ton of shit. Still, he’d committed to being the baffled lover now and he was going to have to stick with it.

Eiji felt his jaw tighten, annoyed by the smirk on the other man’s face. “Okay well, thanks for making it pretty evident that when you ghosted me you were actually doing me a favour.” Eiji was ready to try and leave when Faust spoke again. He knew he’d fucked up brining up the dream and it was backfiring almost immediately. First that preacher, then Zaman, now this guy was going to be poking around who he was, all because he was bored and had decided to play a stupid game.

“Answers to what exactly?” Eiji tried to keep Jacob’s incredulous, confused tone. He made a mental note to ask Eun-ji. She was his friend from school, but to Jacob it was likely they might not have even met in person. “I’m not exactly sure what you think I’m supposed to have done here.” He paused, “Except for whatever it is that keeps you blushing every time I bring up the dream, of course.” One last shot in the dark. “Did you not enjoy the reminder? You were quite easy to get hot under the collar, Gus.”

—

Augustine sliced a tomato up as Jacob spoke, quickly moving then to slice an onion as well. He kept his hands busy moving to the lettuce next as he answered, “I was. And *you* had relatives. Namely Elijah Remington’s son, Rei, as your *twin.* Now I’m not about to assume you’re the same damn thing in real life- Rei doesn’t have a twin… But if I pay him a visit I bet between the two of us we could figure out the real connection there, couldn’t we? Because I find it quite odd a human named Jacob somehow has a connection to such a high profile witch in the city… Especially considering Rei is *not* part of Artemis.” Auggie wasn’t quite sure where to even find Rei, but presumed either Elijah would know or else someone in the pack could hunt him down if begged Faye for a favor.

—

“Do what you like.” Eiji responded dismissively. “I just know I don’t have to stand here and listen to you jab at me when you’re not even willing to have a proper conversation about what’s got you this way to begin with.” This was spiralling out of control and Eiji didn’t know what to do. He’d fucked up massively in underestimating him and now wasn’t sure what was going to happen if he kept on digging. Rei was barely talking to him, so he wasn’t even sure he could go to him, about this guy or the others that had managed to find him. He had been so wrapped up in it all, he was only just noticing the cold sensation through the finger wearing the ring, trying to tell him he was being deceived. “Enjoy your burgers.” He muttered, before turning to make a move towards the front door.

—

“You know where the door is… Can’t say you know where anything else is in here,” Augustine muttered under his breath, maintaining a calm air as he noticed the other’s feathers get ruffled. He barely had caught Jacob’s latter comment before the human disappeared, leaving the witch with even more questions than he’d had before he appeared. Had that gone… well? Why had Jacob come by? He knew where Faust lived, which was a point towards the argument he hadn’t lied to him about knowing Faust prior…. but Augustine had pissed off more than one loved over his lifespan, and something still didn’t sit right with the whole thing. He couldn’t even find a number in Faust’s phone for someone named Jacob, or even a pet name. The other’s skittish nature instead made him believe he was onto something mentioning Rei… And so it seemed he had a few calls to make.

—

Eiji held in a huff of irritation and decided that for once he should just keep his big mouth shut. His hand made contact with the handle and the door quickly swung open and shut behind him. He released a heavy breath once he was outside, but the weight that pressed down on him hadn’t left. “Fuck!” He cursed out loud to himself when he was further away from the apartment, rubbing his hands over his face for a brief second. He didn’t know what he was going to do now, all he knew was that he needed to try and find out whatever was being hidden before ‘Faust’ did, unless he wanted to end up in prison and *dead*, faster than expected.

“Trying?” she echoed, tipping the beer back for another swallow before setting it down with a soft clink, “Ouch. Guess I'm not.” She leaned back slightly in the booth, one arm slung along the cracked vinyl, giving him a longer look now. “Could’ve just said no,” she added quieter, gaze dropping to the rings of condensation on the table as she let the awkwardness hang there for a second longer. Just enough to see what he’d do with it.