— CONQUER.

Martin studied the wooden figurine in his hand. He’d stayed up late the night before carving it, adding all the finer details - the swoop of the mane, the precision of the hooves, the twist of the horn… He’d wanted to make sure it was perfect. And yet - “Four year old girls like unicorns, right?” 

          "As far as I know, unicorns are very loved by four year old girls.”  William told the guy, thinking about the few times he’d met someones daughter or Ophelia’s niece,  “My neighbors niece is obsessed, I’ve been told. Always bring around a rather huge stuffed unicorn.”

          What a surprise, she was greeted by yet another asshole who thought that ‘no’ meant ‘yes’, and she was just playing hard to get for the sake of holding his attention. Really, what was with ex-frat boy ego’s? She was sure she was just going to have to pretend to be shacked up, or into girls at this stage, and just like that, another soul approached her general vicinity giving her the best opportunity for an out. “Sorry — this hot piece of ass to my left here is actually my other half.” Quickly, her eyes widened to the other involved, wrapping her arm into theirs, linking them and dragging them into the now three-way conversation. “Oh, hunnybun, you’re never good at keeping track of the time, are you?” A sickeningly sweet tone and smile crossed her features, playing into the game she set up for herself.

          Buying a bar under his new name would be an excellent idea, his sisters agreed on. Well, now he had the bar, now he had to take care of it. He had no idea how to run any kind of establishment, let alone a bar. William had learned how to hold a conversation with important people, how to be formal in every possible way. Running a bar? An entirely different and complex thing. He was just walking out of his newly acquired office, meeting with the bar’s management (which he decided to keep, of course), when his arm was grabbed and a familiar voice spoke. He was surprised to see Mila of all people here, but it was a pleasant one,  “Hello, my love.”  Will spoke, placing a soft kiss to the top of Mila’s head. She was in a very unpleasant situation, so it was his duty to help her out,  “I’m sorry, the meeting took a little longer than anticipated. Who’s your new friend?”

          Now that she knew Will was there, Effie was decidedly less amused that she’d spent so much time entertaining— whoever the hell that was. By no real intention of her own she’d already forgotten the guy’s name. God willing, she’d be spared his company for the rest of the night, anyway, and her little oversight wouldn’t even matter. “Don’t be rude, Wills,” she paused just long enough to touch upon his shoulders and kiss both cheeks, “Tell the truth and admit it’s awful. You know we’re both thinking it.” Actually, she rarely knew what he was thinking; that was part of the draw. Like a puzzle delivered straight to her lap (or to the townhouse next door, as it was) she was constantly trying to figure him out. So far she hadn’t experienced much luck, but Ophelia Queen was nothing if not determined. For now, however, she was just glad to have someone she actually enjoyed in the vicinity. “I’m happier to see you than you realize, though. I thought I’d have to stab a cake fork in my eye just to liven this place up.” Grotesque as it was, Effie only grinned. “I was actually trying to map an escape route before I noticed you across the room. Have you been here long?”

          "It was awful. It is awful.” William agreed, looking around the room with a light grin on his lips. Social gatherings would always fascinate him, as well as the need to boost one-selves ego up as immensely as these people here did. “Oh please, don’t hurt yourself. I think you could just start dancing on a table to shake up the crowd. No blood loss needed.” He had to admit, the idea of anyone dancing on the table would be enough to give at least five people in this room a stroke or heart attack. God, how he truly hated these things,  “Long enough.”  Will chuckled, adding a shrug, “I recently bought a place Downtown and my sister thought it would be a good idea to mingle with other business owners.. hence why I am here. You own a business, right? We can exchange wisdom somewhere else if you want?”

» at A PARTY OR BAR SOMEWHERE.

          “Oh, yeah. That sounds really… wow.” Effie’s eyes glazed over despite the fact that she still wore a smile. She didn’t mean to be rude, but my god. There were only so many times she could hear something about an ‘acquisition’ or ‘merger’ before fleeing the country for a guaranteed escape. With a sigh threatening to breach her lips she took a desperate glance around. There, standing at the other side of the room— they were her ticket out. With barely a parting word to her former company, Effie scampered off. “Ohmygod, hi! I’m so glad to see you!”

          Attending parties were never something William had liked. The people were rather boring, the topics were too important to be discussed at a party and everyone always seemed to want to flatter him. Now, however, he found them amusing, if anything. He didn’t really have a clue about how big companies worked or how they were structured and yet, he found himself pretending to be interested in the gibberish the people around him were talking about. What he had was a decent understanding of how to manage people, which really was all he needed for these events. Still there were many other things William would have liked better than to be in the middle of this, but he figured he had to play the part his sisters so fabulously came up with. He was a guy with a lot of money, always looking to invest in companies. He’d just managed to stop a yawn when none other than Ophelia, his lovely neighbor came sprinting over to him. Muttering a quick ‘excuse me’ to the guys, who were trying to get him interested in, - what was it again? 3D printed jewelry? - William met Ophelia in the middle,  “Lovely to run into you at such a.. nice gathering.”

Sofia: To be honest, I feel the same lmao

Sofia: But uh, yeah, unfortunately it is

William: Now I'm just confused.

Sofia: I'm actually kind of scared about the prospect of us living together. We're just going to eat pizza and drink wine before retiring to our rooms with vibrators.

Sofia: I found this on my timehop from a few years ago and...oops?

William: I was following until the vibrator was mentioned.