Overseer

Person: @ephraimbriggs Location: Lupercalia, Campground "Did you ever do this?" Blanket spread out beside the tent, Atticus looks up at a sky that looks so clear, clearer than he's ever seen in Rome. The forest, all of Lupercal makes him nervous to an extent, he didn't really know any wolves. But he's got Ephraim and he figures between the two of them, they're safe. "My parents never took me camping, but the track team would go once every year. Never seen the stars quite like this though."

"No... At least it wasn't like this." Ephraim thought about wilderness training, life on the road, life on the hunt, and his time in the military. It wasn't camping under the stars; there wasn't a cozy fire or a guy he was calling his boyfriend lying next to him. "When I was with The Eye we spent a lot of time in the wilderness, investigating, hunting, tracking, collecting field samples, that kind of thing." He had a few stories but they were more or less like all of his stories, tainted. "What'd you guys do?"

who?: @ephraimbriggs where?: polizia

"Appreciated," Ephraim said as he looked at the individual that had been transported in. Informed humans were far too few, so their services were appreciated. "Humans can go through some kind of registration; witches used spells to keep them away from certain events entirely; that Vigil to the Alstroemeria Coven is a good example." Making something like that mandatory wasn't the worst idea, "Humans can attend on an invite-only basis, under some kind of protection to whatever supernatural registered them." There had to be some charm that the covens could make to let people they'd deemed undesirable bypass the wards. "Given how violent Lupercalia is bound to be, that's probably a good idea." The last thing anyone in this city needed was more people getting turned.

There's this kind of twist in his chest and it's not a bad one, there's this little hope and it's more than a little embarrassing when he thinks about it. Everything sort of clicks into place because if the once Overseer isn't into what he kind of maybe thought...."Ephraim Briggs." Atticus looks up, chin on the blonde's chest and he really does kind of have to just lean against him to reach properly. But he takes the human's unfairly gorgeous face in his hands and he lets out a breath. "Date me. Like actually." Like they're real people and not just two guys for The Eye to puppet anymore. He glances to the party, the people and there's nothing more he wants than to actually be sitting at home, watching a rerun of Drag Race while Ephraim goes over files. "That is, if you want to, I mean."

Atticus' question had the former Overseer taking a step back to talk with the vampire, look at the other in the eyes, and ascertain if the man was serious. A smile crept up at the corner of his lips as he raised a brow at Atticus. Maybe it was the drugs talking, but he was pretty sure he had just heard Atticus ask him if Ephraim would date him for real. "Are you asking me to go steady with you, 'Tic?" Now Ephraim was going to have to plan a date for them; a part of the man wanted to jokingly tell Atticus to find his own place. Obviously, it'd be inappropriate for them to be living together already.

"We achieve at least one orgasm without me puncturin' flesh for start." It's sarcastic and still kind of muffled because Atticus is still talking directly into Ephraim's chest. Only for a second though because he's looking up at him, chin against his sternum, close to his heart. It's not something that is ever lost on him, the slow thrum that seemed to kind of go along with the bassline of the party's loud music. "I think that's a good step, actually." And then he's trying to think harder about that, logistics, when he decides 'fuck it'. He has to lean up on his toes, against hard muscle, to press his lips to where neck meets shoulder. Because that all too familiar artery is close but he's satiated. "Hand stuff. We can even do it the proper Southern way an' jerk off in a dive bar bathroom." In cowboy boots, that was just how it used to be done in college.

Atticus mumbled a bit more, but Ephraim caught the gist of it; they'd finally get off together in some capacity. That sounded nice because lord knows it had been a long time for him, but Ephraim wasn't interested in some fast, dirty grunting out of a collegiate fantasy. The entirety of his sexual existence to date was based around circumstances like what Atticus described, and he wanted more than that, a lot more. "I don't want to jerk off together in some bathroom." The thought was there, but maybe they were too drunk to have this conversation. "I'm going to call a cab. We can talk about this more tomorrow."

"I think we should find ways to ease into it. Talk about it beforehand, try some stuff out, I just...." He thinks he's kind of losing the crowd here, Ephraim is giving him that kind of concerned look he gets. Drink still in one hand, Atticus steps closer and his free hand clutches at the front of the blonde's shirt and he's frowning. Then he does the thing he's grown very accustomed to doing, he practically plants his face between Ephraim's protruding pectorals. "I want us to get a shot at normal." It's quieter, he wonders if the mortal can even hear him over the music. "And I want it with you."

There was still the intrusive thought that it shouldn't be this hard, that Atticus would be better off with another vampire, or maybe with someone who's jugular he didn't want to tear out. They'd gone from prisoner and warden, to vampire and thrall, to whatever people would classify this as: did Atticus genuinely want to do this, or did he just not know anything else? Ephraim knew very well that he was at least in part to blame for that, every time he gave Atticus some leash he'd end up tugging it back in a fit of jealousy. Either way, he was high, and drunk, and Ephraim was pretty sure they were both high and drunk so where this conversation landed tomorrow could've very well been anywhere. "I want that too." Atticus sunk his face into Ephraim's chest, mumbling a bit against the former Overseer's skin as he did, but he could still pick up on what he was saying. "What did you have in mind?"

Ephraim sat down and he felt like a kid again. His first memory was the both of them being so small to the point where his brother could barely hold him. They'd both been kids then, but Rawlins was always pretty scrawny. The way they had grown up didn't much help that either. It really hadn't been until the Eye where they had felt some semblance of comfort or peace in their lives. They had stopped waiting for a mother that would never come by that point. Or Rawlins had at least. He hadn't known her well enough to even become attached anyway. But still, the Eye had given him some hope that everything would be okay. Until they didn't. They had pulled him apart and tried to put him back together again. Just like these gods had done. It seemed he would always be exploited for just being what he was. Maybe it was best for him to just get used to that. "Okay." He turned his head to look at Ephraim. "I can't stop you from trying." He paused. "I wouldn't try to either. I just...I really just need my brother right now. I just...I don't..." He tried to take a breath. "I can't do this anymore. I don't want to be...this."

Atticus had shown him that try as he might, Ephraim couldn't protect everyone. Bad things were still going to happen to the people he cared about and Rawlins was the person that the former Overseer cared about more than anything. Ephraim still didn't really know what he was going to do with his life, what he was if he wasn't the jackbooted hunter of the supernatural. That life was the only life he'd known, it was the only thing he'd ever truly been passionate about, and now with all the freedom of the open world in front of him he just felt paralyzed. Frozen in the face of all the horror that his brother had been made to endure, and tormented by the fact that of all the things Rawlins had been made to face, Ephraim had been one of them.

"This is different." And it might not be for Ephraim and that's just fine. It hadn't really been something Atticus had thought about while he'd been in the facility, there hadn't been anything to compare it to. Back then he'd bitten the Overseer because he'd been hungry and angry, and while the hunger thing was never going to go away, it was different. He had maybe wanted to maim someone, something, back then. It's not like the blonde is made out of glass by any means, but there's still this voice at the back of his head terrified of taking things too far. That thought goes out the window at the sound of something else Ephraim had said and he was actively cocking his head to the side and looking to the brick wall of a man incredulously. Just friends? Just friends?! He almost gasped out loud and he would have, had he not been on a mission. "Have you seen yourself lately? Of course I want to, I just don't want to worrying I'm going to you know, rip out your jugular or somethin' during the act."

"It's not," the vampire was just afraid. Skittish maybe but otherwise just afraid but the last thing Ephraim wanted to do was push the other into something that he didn't want to do. Apparently that wasn't really the problem but neither was the Overseer especially keen on being used for sex, still, Atticus said he had an idea so hearing the vampire out felt like the very least that Ephraim could do. Besides, it's not like he didn't want to he was still more or less just caught in a limbo of not knowing what they were to each other. "Alright, well, let's hear it then. What's this idea?"

Atticus took the alcohol offered to him immediately, takes a sip without thinking about it too much on account of he can't lose momentum here. "I think we should figure out how to have sex." There is no tact to the statement whatsoever, it's fact and it's something he affirms with a nod of his head, as if it is simply fact. Because it is, they've been skirting around it and while it's not like it hasn't been nice getting used to a shared space and just taking things slow, it's time for him to be direct about it. If alcohol was what got him to do that, then he didn't see a problem. "Because I'm going to bite you and there's no gettin' around that part." Well there could be, he'd thought of several possibilities and they ranged from 'absolutely not' to 'I hope I'm not into that one'. His shoulder bumps the blonde's side gently before he's sipping at the liquor in his glass again to give what he'd said a second to sink in before continuing. "I have a plan."

Most times Ephraim couldn't really tell if that's what Atticus wanted or not, it was kind of an awkward conversation to broach given the dynamic between them. "I've never had an issue with you biting me before." Considering that had mostly been the foundation of what their recurring encounters were centered around, Ephraim had never really seen what the big deal was. Atticus was just skittish though so the former Overseer did what he could to try and be respectful about that. The other had stopped feeding from him pretty soon after he'd moved in, he had blood bags, and agency to do what he wanted. "Do you want to have sex? I was kind of getting the impression we were just, I don't know, friends with kind of a confusing history. You don't owe me anything 'Tic, least of all sex."

Moving his fingers from the once Overseer's wrist to his hand to tentatively tangle their fingers together, Atticus's brow furrows as he tries to find the right words. "You can always talk to me." Each word feels carefully weighted, comes out slow. "I like knowing what you're thinking. Sometimes I swear I can hear it." His lips curve into a small, thoughtful smile as he looks to the blonde's face. There's such uncertainty there now, he can't imagine any of this is easy for him. Ephraim had once told him all he had was his job, now he had a different one, had a chance to be a person. They both did. "We don't have to be who anybody else wanted us to be, that's what I'm figurin' out. Just one day at a time, alright?"

"I'm not great at that part." Ephraim pointed out as he finished the pie and moved to rinse off his plate before loading the dishwasher. There was a juxtaposition between feeling like he probably should say something, not wanting to, and really not even knowing how. Sometimes there was word vomit but at his core Ephraim could feel himself resisting it entirely. He could respect and understand the desire to be something other than what they'd been made out to be, but Ephraim inherently hated change and he wasn't sure if he was ready to; not that he'd been given any choice in the matter. "But I'll get there."

Person: @ephraimbriggs Location: Hakan's Totally Awesome Bash "So I've been thinkin'..." Actually he'd been drinking, quite a bit because he actually loved eggnog and it was everywhere along with all of these other wonderful cocktails. Also there were cobwebs and tons of spooky stuff and Atticus didn't really know all that much about the Pluto vampires aside from the fact that they were kind of the kooky ones, the spooky ones. This Hakan guy had been Zeke's sire and so he'd show the utmost respect for his home by drinking literally whatever was handed to him. But mostly he practically clings to Ephraim because this is something else for the two of them, a chance to sort of get out by themselves. He leans against the blonde now, drink in hand and his brows raised just a bit. "You know I quite like you, right?"

Pushing thirty now, a rave should have made Ephraim feel out of place. Jumping, dancing, drinking, doing whatever had been in that capsule some demon at the bathroom had sold him. Ephraim's youth had been displaced, now it felt like he was making up for lost time. While the former Overseer had shown up with a shirt, it had been casually discarded at some point as euphoria overwhelmed an otherwise straightlaced jackboot that had never broken a single rule in his life. So many years his life had been just one thing, tonight he felt like he was teeming with possibilities, like anything could happen or he could be anyone.

He didn't have breath to hold and so he squeezes Ephraim's wrist again and he tries not to think about being back in a cell. He knows firsthand what all that is like, what being in captivity with The Eye means, how it still made him uneasy. There were days now that he didn't think about the facility at all, but there would be little things here and there. Certain noises made him uneasy, he felt like he was constantly aware of everyone's moods, who might be approaching. Enhanced senses or not, paranoia crept in from time to time. "Just being there is somethin'." Atticus points out gently because that's the truth of the matter. His brow furrows and he hesitates because he doesn't know if this is a line being crossed or not, if this is Ephraim asking for advice or a solution. "Do you want me to talk to him? Regardless, I'd like to. Not because of the relation but because you know...." They were trauma bonded kind of, all three of them connected by what The Eye had done to them.

"What - ?" That felt like a strange idea, "No, definitely not. I just-" Ephraim shook his head, "I don't want to make things worse. You know how I am, when I saw him again..." he shrugged, he hadn't been a good brother. He'd yet to be a good brother actually, Ephraim was still figuring out if that was even possible at this point. "I only wanted to tell you because I don't think I really have anyone else to talk to." Ephraim tried to think of his friends and the former Overseer couldn't bring any to mind. There were the hunters who used to work under him, men that were mostly all unemployed now. They probably didn't count, outside of work and Atticus he didn't have much of a life. Truthfully Ephraim wasn't really sure what a life looked like.

A brother. Atticus's brows raise before they're furrowing in concern. It doesn't matter how normal he feels now, like a real boy for once. Hearing 'The Eye' has his lips drawing into a thin line and he can't imagine life has been easy for this Rawlins Briggs. "What's he said to you?" Fork also abandoned, he doesn't hesitate to reach across the counter and wrap a hand around the blonde's wrist and offer a gentle squeeze. Hell, life hadn't been easy for Ephraim either, there was still so much he didn't know about him. But he knew nobody well adjusted had that kind of sadness to their eyes, something glassy every so often, far away. He recognized it because he saw it in himself all the time. "Was it like...." He chews at the inside of his cheek as he tries to think about how to phrase it. "Was it like like me?" Held in captivity for being supernatural, poked and prodded at by needles and people who thought of them as monsters. He's never met Rawlins but he can't say he doesn't feel a bit protective of him on principle.

"They experimented on him." Ruined him was some of the verbiage that Ephraim had come to associate with all of this. "At The End he was taken prisoner, used for years-" Ephraim thought about the broken man sat on the couch, eyes far away as Rawlins admitted that he'd never be already, probably ever. There was no going back for him, no rememdy that anyone could snap into existence. "he's my brother and I let him down." All this time the former Overseer had been trained to hunt under the guise of defence and protection. He gobbled up The Eye's dogma, let it all sink in and change him fundamentally to his core... But those bastards had taken everything from him and it was only in their dissolution that Ephraim could start to see things clearly. His youth, his innocence, his brother and everything that Rawlins could have been was now ground underfoot. "I just want to help him but I think all I can ever do is make things worse."

A long time ago was putting it lightly. Rawlins had been much more social when he was a child. He really had no choice back then. That had all gone to shit really fucking quickly though. Twelve years old and he was forced to be put under several needles, poked and prodded over and over again until the Eye had gotten enough of what they wanted for the day. It was what he had gotten used to. Maybe he should have been so used to it that those fifteen years of torture should've felt like home. It should've felt that way. He'd spent nearly as much time being tortured as he had been alive. When he put it like that, he wasn't sure there was much Ephraim could do at all to help. "I wish they didn't keep breaking me. Twenty-three years, Ephraim. Putting me back together again now is impossible and I think you know that."

There wasn't really anything for Ephraim to say, what could he? Rawlins hadn't exactly had the ideal well... Anything. Experimented on, tortured, and then who the fuck knew what else. Rawlins was a basketcase and Ephraim didn't have any of the tools that could help, not that there really was much that could be done. He'd heard the senate was doing what they could that they had... Witches or healers or something, but he wasn't going to suggest that in Rawlins' condition. So he just sat there instead and rubbed at the back of his neck before his hand settled on his leg. Content to not go anywhere, he was fine right here if his brother would have him. "Yeah." The legacy of how terrible he was at this just continued, Ephraim's hand moved to the back of his head as he smoothed already smoothed down hair. "But I still want to try."

"You like that I wear them, I know it." He's not about to hear any slander, it's the one part of Southern culture that would have to be pried from his colder and undeader hands. "But maybe. I'll look into it." Atticus had gone his whole life thinking he was going to get into school on track and go into something scientific like his parents. It's not like he particularly hated it and he was actually pretty good at it, but he'd really asked himself what he wanted to do with his life. There wasn't anything expected of him anymore, there was no family legacy to live up to anymore. Before all this, he'd been on track to be something, now he just had to figure out what that something is. "An' True Blood is good!" He playfully brandishes his fork in the blonde's direction. "Books were better. Trashy, but fun. Now I can see that they aren't all that accurate." No media seemed to get vampires one hundred percent right, he wondered if that was on purpose.

"Course I do." Ephraim had a couple pairs of his own, didn't he? Atticus immediately got defensive over True Blood and somehow that felt like a victory. One that had the former overseer smirking as he poked at the pie a bit more with his fork. "I have a brother," it was more or less just blurted out, "Rawlins, he works at the auto shop, he uh-" Ephraim didn't really know how to explain it, what Rawlins had been through, and what he was still going through. "He's a cambion, when we were growing up in The Eye they-" Fork abandoned entirely, Ephraim just pressed through as he said the words he'd yet to utter out loud. "they took him one night, they'd told me he died, that there was something wrong with him but..." Ephraim shrugged, Atticus could probably guess what had happened from there. "I don't know what to say to him, where to start, where to... I just want to do right by him." Really Ephraim was looking for advice because while the End had put Rawlins through further hell, Atticus and Ephraim's brother had parts in their stories that were parallel.