Darling

    “No, no – you said nothing wrong. This is just information that… belongs to Jamie, sort of. I don’t want to give it out just like that.” It was already too late for that now he supposed, but Toby hadn’t given her any details. He had only mentioned that it existed. A crooked smile appeared on his lips at Emma’s words, because she had a point. And because he knew he was incredibly good at pretending. More than at most other things. “Pretending is something I’m good at, that’s true,” he agreed, mentioning the words out loud before he exhaled a deep sigh. “I hope we have time. In this world, in this town, you never know. I hope nothing bad will happen to them.”

-

“Curiouser and curiouser,” Emma said lightly, “but alright, I’ll save it for him.” Was it an icebreaker? Maybe not, either way she and Tobias’ sire had a lot to catch up on, Emma would have to add this talk of a cure nonsense to the things she wished to ask him.  “I have to admit there’s...” There had been a feeling of uncertainty within her since she’d arrived in Corinth, it was ominous. For a vampire her physical state was consistent, there were emotional responses, occasional physical ones related to hunger but this was... Different. “There’s something off about this city. Like there’s someone here, or something. Someone I should know, something I should be afraid of.” She’d brought it up to Harlow before but the two were more focused on finding something cute to wear. “Do you feel it too?”

-

Part of Casper knew that he couldn’t have looked that different from all those years ago when he was sneaking around New Orleans, too young for any of the fiascos that he had managed to find himself in yet survived them nonetheless. Many of the Hahn’s had been known for similar behavior throughout their history and wondered now if Emma was privy to any of those secrets. Maybe one day he would find himself asking, but other topics were more important at the moment and was truly more interested in the path that led her here. “Nothing quite like ABBA and that salty Mediterranean breeze,” he agreed and realized the weather probably agreed with most vampire’s given the climate, “And I wish I could say the same, but alas— I finally landed enough funding for a little film project I’ve been working on.” But honestly, there was nothing little about it and the filming had already been proceeding for months. Though work had just been a wonderful excuse to get out here and was finding the city to be booming with curiosities, along with the place seeming to be a magnet to everyone he knew, “Been here for, uh? Bout five months now?”

-

Playing the Rosie to Harlow’s Donna was a role that Emma was comfortable with, she was fine with the notion that only the very lucky got to experience any great love. And she’d already had that, it was more than most could say. She’d watched the world grow and changed, revolutionize itself time and time again, Emma was content with her place in all of it. Casper was another who was time’s last gift, she knew his family well and likely would have recognized him even if they had not already met. Visually the Hahn’s were distinct, tall with sharp but handsome features partnered with a signature NOLA drawl. “A film project? I think that means congratulations are in order,” Emma offered, she doubted that Casper wanted to hear about her issues with her father. That was perhaps a heavier topic than they needed to get into. “Please, tell me all about it.”

He thinks he’s a spring person, always has been. There’s something about it, the flowers sprouting back up even after months of cold. It’s optimistic, it’s a time of growth. Fall is it’s counterpart, everything seems to die and wither away. But it’s perhaps a bit of a calm before the storm that is rebirth. A moment to just shed things and wait. Each tree losing leaves is taking a pause, telling everyone to be patient. And it’s on the tail end of that thought that Emma sits down beside him on the park bench. Leighton could have bolted when he heard her footsteps along the path, when he’d first glimpsed her, but he’d been adamant to just remain calm. This was good if she was approaching him that meant maybe she wanted to talk more. That didn’t make him feel any less anxious though, surely she still has more to say to him. But it appears she’s trying, and therefore he will try too. “There’s a lot to see here. I imagine the orioles will be out more before they head off for the winter.” He casts a glance to her, feels something warm bloom in his chest at the sight of the knitting project. There’d been evenings on the porch like this with her mother, Marie cursing her needlework as he poured over a book.

-

Year after year the trees shed their leaves and after a long winter’s break they came back, just as the passing of seasons hardened the sturdiest of trees, so too had Emma grown alongside them. It was for this reason that she was partial to the fall, it was the prelude of growth, visual change that marked the preparation for the struggled that was to follow. The small talk is suffocating in the way that small talk always is, Emma can feel bitterness coiling like a snake between them, it’s a different kind of distance and she can’t say she enjoys it. She meant what she had said, she didn’t want anything from him. She didn’t need anything from him either. “I always admired their freedom, they could go anywhere, and yet-” Emma hesitated at the words, “they choose to stick together.” She stilled for a moment, looked from the birds overhead to the scarf in her lap before the soft clatter of her needles continued. “So, do you still practice?” He’d been a doctor when she knew him, after all. 

location: ambrosia starter for: @emmaxdarling​

The whole scene that surrounded Ambrosia was a new concept to Farrah, but was quick to find enjoyment in it. Lightning was attractive and managed to highlight her best features, along with performances that each showed their own bit of flare. A burgundy wine sat in front of the rift, still mostly full on account of her practically nursing it all evening, as she attempted at a smile towards the vampire that sat next to her. She had already grown a bit fond of her during the performance, an enchanting voice that could soothe even the most restless of souls. “How did you discover your passion?” she asked, full of intrigue, though hardly ignoring the fact that Persephone clutched her soul.

-

Working at Ambrosia had naturally been Harlow’s bad influence, but Emma enjoyed it. The other performers were all lovely, and Evie herself was a force to be reckoned with. She got along well enough with the staff, and the clients too appreciated the artform for what it was. “My passion?” Emma clarified, she had to think on this for a moment, her own glass arrived on the table though hers was laced with a few splashes of crimson to sate her appetite. “I suppose it was my mother, her and I would sing when we set about the house doing chores.” The memory was of her second-mother, the one that had taken her in after Leighton’s abandonment. She was a good woman, and yet another that Emma had done poorly in the end. “She’s gone now, singing just... Makes me feel close to her.” The reminiscing drew a soft smile to the edge of her lips before Emma turned her focus towards the woman that had posed the question. “And you?” Emma queried, “Have you always been a fan of burlesque?”

+

“This is not a life that is suited for all.” Better that her mother understood that before the transition, than being stuck in an eternity afterwards. But that might be a hard thing for Emma to accept, to look at it objectively rather than abandonment by another parent. While Cal would never willingly choose to look back, there are those who do not agree, and he cannot fault them for it. “I do not remember them,” he answers honestly. They had been wealthy, powerful, that much remains. But their names have long gone to time, no faces left to his memory, no tender moments of childhood like those of this age might cling to. “When I came of age, they gave me to Sparta, where I began my training to become a soldier. It is with those men I found my true family.”

-

At least Emma had some fond memories of her parents, that was something that had carried through many a lonely nights. But Cal had never been so fortunate, she knew that he was old, that he was also Greek, but how old was a mystery. The tradition he spoke of was over two-thousand years old, Emma knew at least that much. “What a terrible thing to do to a child.” Emma said quietly, her thoughts drawn to her own children and subsequent grandchildren. She couldn’t imagine passing them off, throwing them to the metaphorical wolves to be brutalized into a weapon - pending their survival. “You’re much older than I thought,” Emma pointed out, a wry smirk on the corner of her lips, “ancient, even.” 

Fall had come to Corinth Bay, and a chill lingered in the Grecian air as a result. It was unseasonably cold, especially given the location. While it was not physically necessary, Emma enjoyed the aesthetic of the oversized sweater that she’d pulled on that morning. The leaves were changing and the birds were flying South, Emma was presently on the hunt for the perfect perch with which she could watch them migrate from. Only coming upon her father, Leighton before it was too late to turn around. She followed the man’s line of sight, going from eyes that mirrored her own to the birds overhead. “You too?” The vampire asked before leaning into the awkwardness and taking a seat on the same bench from him, not exactly close, but not as far away as she might have sat. Was this a mistake? The thought ran through her mind before she ever voiced her question to him, but some time had passed since their last conversation and her -very embarrassing- little outburst. He had nothing that she wanted, and he had nothing that she needed. But still, the man, however a stranger, was Emma’s father. She owed Leighton more than what she’d given him. “I’ve always loved bird watching,” Emma offered as she set her bag down and rifled through it before she produced a barely started scarf she’d been working on. A deep shade of emerald green and orange twined together in intricate and complicated patterns. “well, not always. I picked it up in the seventies.” 

     “Maybe you should ask Jamie that.” It was probably a coward move to try and dodge her question after dropping such an ominous comment. But as someone who hadn’t been changed, and hadn’t seen it done yet, maybe he wasn’t allowed to spread this kind of information. Especially not with one of Jamie’s exes. “All I’m saying is there could be a way to become human, as far as I know.” And he had been considering it maybe more than he should. Exhaling a deep breath, Toby shook his head. “No one I cared about.” He hadn’t known his mother, hated and killed his father. And then Jamie had been the only one who mattered until he ran into Micah and Emory. “I’m not eager to find out, to be honest with you. You look put together but… I don’t know if I could handle it.”

-

“Oh-” The response took her by surprise, and idly Emma wondered if maybe she’d said something that had offended Tobias. “sorry, was it something I said?” The vampire asked instead, he’d brought it up. The cure was... It was a fairytale, and to her it sounded like maybe Jamie had been filling Tobias’ head with stories of salvation. Emma was older than both of them, she knew better than to believe rumors or fiction. A good book provided comfort, escapism, but that didn’t make it real. It was just nice to hear, to pretend. “You want to know a secret?” Emma asked rhetorically, “I’ve never met anyone who really has it all put together. Most of us just get good at pretending.” The joke was light to help soften the somber mood that had fallen over them. Her grief was her own, but someday it would inevitably be Toby’s as well. “Fortunately you’re young, I imagine they are as well. You have time, a lot of it.” There were no promises, even as vampires they weren’t unbreakable. They could be hunted, and killed. No one could outrun heartache forever. 

+

“Now you know.” Whether it was what she wanted to hear or not, if it gave her any sort of peace about the matter, now she has the truth of what happened. It may be little consolation, but to Cal, the choice of information is always one he would take. “Do you intend to speak to him again?” If he offers her no value, then Cal would not fault her for choosing to cut off the relationship entirely. Even if they share a city together, a stubborn enough soul could make a stranger of near anyone, and he does not doubt Emma’s capability in that. “As he should be.” It is not arrogance, but simple fact, in the matter that they had saved Felix’s life and took him in under their wing. “But the sentiment is returned.”

-

“I don’t know,” Emma said with a sigh, despite not needing to breathe it felt necessary in this instance. “I don’t want to, and I don’t need to. He told me that my mother chose to die, that he offered to turn her and she refused.” In the end both parents had opted to leave her, Emma hadn’t expected the news to sting as much as it did. She didn’t think that anything Leighton could say would get under her skin, but this itched like a fresh wound that couldn’t heal so long as she kept reaching for it. “Your parents,” Emma asked instead, Cal was made of stories, perhaps he could share one. “what were they like?”

“It’s Greece, no one wears clothes here are ye kidding?” It’s a light jab, it’s the easiest thing he can give her at the moment. The subject of Tobias brings up a lot of guilt, almost panic. He wants to hide him away at this point. And then there’s her mention of her father and he doesn’t quite know how to deal with such a subject. A deadbeat dad is something they have in common, but he’s not sure how to console her on the matter. He’d chosen to just simply leave his parents behind, he’d never gone back for them, he’d never gone back for anyone in that house. Perhaps she was stronger than him for  seeking her father out. “Not a damn clue, havenae really thought on it. What does one do on their three hundreth birthday?” He thinks she’s stalling though and Jamie would humor her, he imagines she needs out of her head. “Normally I go off some rich bastart for old time’s sake. Ye could come wae if ye’d like. I imagine yer feeling a decent amount of rage aboot now.”

-

“I did pass the bathhouse, I’ve seen all the latest trends.” Naturally she had not gone inside, it was enough to see the relaxed faces of the men who left the building to know it wasn’t quite the spa that Emma had in mind. Her and Harlow had opted to go elsewhere, well, Emma had dragged the other elsewhere. While going on a rage bender for old time’s sake had some appeal, violence wasn’t gratifying to her anymore, it was... symbolic of her past life. Someone she didn’t know anymore. “I think I’ll pass, I hope you’ll settle for a nice bottle of wine instead. Something imported, for some reason the local wines here are absolutely terrible.” She made a face at the recent memory of sharing a glass that Giovanni had offered her. “Jamie, there’s something I meant to ask you. Something that Tobias mentioned, you haven’t been... You didn’t tell him there was a cure, did you?”

Stepping away from the closet, Harlow stands there looking from the dress to Emma with her arms across her chest, her chin in her palm. They’re different, the two of them, nuanced in their own way. She thinks it’d been a very Betty and Veronica situation when they’d met, it amuses her to no end that they wound up close friends. What was one man who would last a few weeks when she could find a friend who would last centuries? Her lips twitch up into a fond smile and she looks from Emma and steps towards the closet to glance at her large selection of shoes. “It sounds like you need girl time. I can go sparklier.” Her eyes fall on a pair of black heels with rhinestone ankle straps. “Are you going to see him again?” Honestly, Harlow didn’t even know how she’d feel about such a thing happening, confronting her father. But she figured heartache was part of it, the aftermath, he’d been someone she loved and he’d let her down, she could relate to that part.

-

“Do you think I should?” Emma asked, genuinely interested in what the other woman thought about the situation. The things he’d said, what he’d told her about her mother. She didn’t need anything from him, not now. She didn’t want anything from him either. Whatever Emma did want from him in coming here... She hadn’t gotten it, she didn’t even think he could have given it to her. Emma was too old now to hold grudges, least of all against a man who she’d only known for a short blink of her life. The little girl who lit candles for a father who never came back for her had died so long ago, Emma slipped on Harlow’s dress and studied her reflection in the mirror. If she saw that girl now she wasn’t sure she’d even recognize her. “I don’t know if I really gave him much of a chance to start with but... I don’t know if there’s anything left to be said. He knows I’m here, he’ll do what he wants with that information.”

“Did you see him?” Sitting up attentively, Harlow takes a quick sip from her glass and then she is up away from the balcony and striding towards her luxurious closet. It’s something she gets to an extent, seeking out a loved one, trying to find someone who hurt you. Her painted lips pout at the idea of Emma in any kind of emotional pain. It doesn’t matter what they were, how many years they walked the earth, she knew heartbreak of any kind demanded to be felt. Her fingers skim said dress, it’s something she’s repaired, slashed the hemline and fixed up the sequins. “You know I don’t see a point in all of these things if I can’t play dress up with someone else.” Honeyed hair falls over her shoulder as she looks over it at her fellow blonde with a gentle smile.

-

“I did-” The sigh came out as forced as Emma fidgeted with a brush between her hands. “it’s true what they say: don’t meet your heroes.” Leighton was... Fine, but he was far from what Emma had romanticized as a young girl. She’d always saw their reunion going so differently, and then as years passed she just assumed he was gone but there was a part of her that never really stopped looking for him. Emma didn’t think her meeting with her father had any bearing on how she felt now, but the vampire supposed that the two things could very well be connected. She moved towards the dress in question, setting the brush aside to hold it up against her frame, “I’ll admit I never cared as much about clothes as I should have, but this one is nice.” Emma said, she had always been something of a simple girl but everything Harlow owned, sparkled. Somehow she never saw herself that way.

     Toby didn’t want that for himself. He didn’t want to keep living and simply try not to have any regrets because he had survived the men he loved. That just didn’t seem like something he would be capable of taking. No, now that he was in love, he wanted the full experience. And he didn’t want to be mistaken as Micah’s and Emory’s grandson in a couple of decades. “I mean, we kind of do,” he mumbled, figuring this development was new enough that she hadn’t heard about it. Then again he supposed not many vampires knew about it, he just had the benefit of his sire being at the source of that piece of information. And he had seen it done – or heard it done, sort of. For both Jamie and now Maven. “I just don’t really want to picture what it’s like to survive them, you know?”

-

“What do you mean?” Emma asked, curious. Most everyone had heard rumors, but that’s all they were: stories. Genies that granted wishes and spirits who held power over life and death. Such things didn’t exist in the real world, vampires were cursed and the only way to break that curse was to die, permanently. “Have you ever lost someone you cared about before?” Emma asked, “It’s like that. It never gets easier, but eventually it hurts less and the pain becomes more tolerable.” 

.

“Still,” Felix said, putting the carafe back into the fridge when the glasses were full. “It’s a choice, isn’t it? To save a life, or let it end?” He was grateful of Cal and Eli and the loyalty was evident in his voice, the way that he piped up in Cal’s defense, despite how he was sure that the other vampire didn’t require it. He took a more hearty mouthful of the drink than Emma did, swallowing down half the glass thirstily. “Eli made the lemonade, I made the tea. Joint effort, maybe? If you don’t like it though, then it was all Eli but if it’s the best thing you’ve ever had in your life—“ His grin was bright, with a tip of his head he regarded her. “Then it was all me.” Felix gestured towards Emma. “I suppose that makes us family too, though, doesn’t it?”

-

“You’re not wrong.” Emma offered, Felix had a point and it wasn’t that she was in any way ungrateful, only that helping her had meant killing a fury. An act that wasn’t likely to have consequences down the line, and still, he had chosen to help her just the same, Emma would always be grateful for that. “It’s very good, I’ll give you full credit.” The vampire offered, he was sweet, and charming and maybe too good for the longevity that came with this lifestyle. There was a part of her that felt bad for him, or maybe that was only because she saw some of herself in him. She’d been young once, too. Too young to die, anyways. “I think you could call us cousins.” Emma said with a smile, “I’d be happy with that, anyways.”

+

“Is that a good thing?” He questions lightly, looking over at Emma. He knows a bit of the story, things that she had told him before about her history. It’s no doubt a spot of contention for the woman, the way things were left between them, the desire for answers that it left behind. “To wish to know the truth is not an act of foolishness.” Cal shakes his head. Emma has as much right to know what effected her life as anybody, and no one is immune to the want of answers. “Did he offer anything of satisfactory to you?” That is perhaps the real question, wither or not she came away from the conversation with any insight that means anything to her. For Emma’s sake, Cal hopes that she found something to give her peace. “He is nice. He’s a good kid. Young, still learning, but good. You two would likely get on well.”

-

“I don’t think it changes anything.” Emma answered simply, Leighton was a stranger to him, he didn’t know her nor she him. He didn’t owe her anything and she didn’t want anything from him, certainly not a relationship. “In hindsight I’m not sure there was anything he could have said that would have been satisfactory,” she admitted after being able to reflect on as much. “But we had words and now he knows I exist. And I’m not going anywhere.” Emma had used a few choice words of her own but she opted not to repeat them now. “He’s very fond of you, he’s fortunate to have you and Eli.”

     It was very hard to picture this woman in a relationship with Jamie, but Toby had reached a point where nothing surprised him anymore. He moved back into the apartment to take a seat opposite her, taking her in more closely now. He knew being in love with mortals was in itself a stupid idea for a vampire, but as both of them stated, he couldn‘t really control that. „I‘m sorry to hear that,“ he offered quietly, his voice sincere. It only ripped open the half-closed wound of the possibility to become human though, and for a moment he wondered whether it was smart to bring it up to her. But he couldn‘t help his curiosity. „And if at the time there had been a chance for you to become human, would you have taken it to grow old with him? To die with him?”

-

“I spend very little wondering what I might have done differently.” Emma offered, she was too old and would likely drive herself mad if she lingered on regret. There were a few moments in her life that stood out. Sterling was one of them, that was a regret, but fantasies and what ifs did her very little good. “There’s no such thing as a cure,” she said with a shrug, “we don’t get to suddenly choose to be alive again.” Though the idea of growing old with the man she’d loved was appealing, holding her grandchildren as their grandmother as opposed to a young woman who remained adjacent to their family - that sounded like a gift too pure to pass up. 

Of course she’d come because the veil had fallen, of course she’d finally tracked down her father. Emma was brilliant, one of the cleverest people he knew without even trying. One of the things that Jamie would never tire of was the idea that some of them looked so young but had been around for so long. She was tiny and blonde and she had been around for decades, she’d been far wiser beyond her years at only a century old. Parents are a sore spot though, absent father’s specifically, and against his better judgement, against all of his urges to lay as low as possible, he gives a nod and rises from his chair and offers her his arm. “Whatever ye need, lass.” The smile that graces his lips is soft, it’s genuine, it’s something she’s always deserved from him.

-

“It’s true what they say:” Emma started, her arm in Jamie’s as the pair met the street together. Greece was a cacophony of color, white houses and bright doorways, unique and vibrant textiles and patterns - it contrasted every other place she’d ever been and felt fitting that she should find it now. “don’t meet your heroes. Estranged father’s included.”  The vampire added simply as she and Jamie hit an easy stride alongside one another. “I met Tobias, very charming. You two share a sense of uh, style.” If leaving your shirt mostly exposed could be considered a true sense of style, the younger vampire reminded her a great deal of Jamie in his youth. Parts of him, anyways. She was stalling and maybe it was for the better that she simply rip the bandaid off, “Your birthday is coming up, do you have any plans?”

     The reminder that Toby’s boyfriends were mortal did not sit lightly in his chest. It was something he’d been thinking about way too much lately, ever since Jamie first brought up the possibility that there was a way to become human. Even more so after seeing it happen to Maven. Toby had never considered going back to being a human before, but now he had two beautiful mortal boyfriends, and he did not want to survive them. He wanted to grow old with them. Right now was not the right moment to legitimately think about that, but maybe once things had settled… he pursed his lips, looking at the blonde woman as he wondered if she knew anything about loving a mortal. “No, I suppose not. I didn’t love before them, but I was not given a choice in the matter.” Shaking his head a little, he couldn’t help but smile a little at her next words. “I hope it’s going to be enough.” What more did he have to offer after all? “Do you have any experience with that then? Love? Or loving a mortal?”

-

For this story Emma thought it was best that maybe they sit down, and so she slipped past Toby and took a seat in one of the chairs. The loft certainly screamed Jamie Price, with other influences as well, though it was clearly not the decor of the man that she had known. He was newly turned then, a ripper, a man who fed her darkest impulses. “I’ve had a few relationships, your sire one of them but we were never in love. There was a mortal, a very special one. We met during the second world war, I was volunteering as an army nurse, he was a soldier and I used my blood to heal him. We had a life together, a really, really beautiful life. I offered to turn him but he didn’t want this life, so I had to let him go.” Emma loved the story for what it was, but it was a sad one just the same. Were she still young and foolish she’d have turned him and then assumed he would forgive her, but that had been her mistake with Sterling. “Like I said, loving a mortal isn’t easy, but we rarely get a choice in the matter.”