Topic: I've Got Friends in Low Places

Brohkun

Date: 2016-11-24 08:23 EST
(( rped with Kate (shifting sands). Thank for the rp!))

Text to Robert: its Tuesday

Text to Kate: the door's unlocked on Tuesdays.

Text to Robert: good, need you to come out of the door and get in car

Text to Robert: meet me at this address: 151 Woodrow Lane

Text to Robert: bring robe

This was against the rules, wasn't it? Right day, wrong place. It wasn?t a surprise to him, though. Robert drew in a breath, looking out one of the exhibit windows. Looking down at the latest message, though, the corner of his lips twisted in an inevitable smile. Damn it.

Robe in tow, he was in his hatchback, a cigarette furiously worked to the end of its life on the drive to the said location. A cemetery? This seemed like a mockery or, perhaps, a kink. With the robe draped over an arm, he stepped out of the hatchback and towards the vertical grey stones bordered by blackish-looking grass at night.

It was overcast, drizzling on and off, with the temperatures dropping to match the cold and blustery weather. Kate's hands were in her pockets, huddled against a mausoleum while watching a funeral take place a couple of hundred feet away. It was a big'n, at least fifty people gathered like crows on a body, pulling together as if that would beat out the cold brought on the chill wind that traveled up coats and skirts alike, skated its icy fingers down the backs of collars to make one shiver no matter how much you were bundled up. Not even Kate was immune to it, steaming breath barely visible. A fifth of vodka was keeping her warm and company, serving double duty while she waited for Robbie to show. If he showed.

After checking her phone for the twelfth time, she glanced around, wishing he'd hurry up.

It was the peak of neon pink in her clothes that 'gave her away' when he arrived, but he came with a wind on uncertainty, "What are you doing here?" Said it like a displeased father finding out his daughter was sneaking out at night. Clearly, Robert had been quite the solitary creature for a long time. What he did, and how he did it, didn?t come with the ease of someone who was used to company.

Would she have known, as a stranger, that a static snapping preceded him? Robert's hazel eyes moved uncontrollably over his shoulder to the gathering and then back to her.

The same sort of electric popping that happened when they had sex the first time? Careful, Robert, your ardor is showing. She spotted him as he made his way over to her, smiling and waving him closer, even though he was already on his way. Go Captain Obvious. Once he was close enough, she stage-whispered a, "Hey," and then pointed to the crowd some distance off. "Eh? You like? I thought that would be a good-sized meal for you. Well, I hoped, anyway. At best, a filling snack. Are there creamy insides? Please tell me you taste creamy insides." His sour mood was ignored completely.

"Hey," grabbing a fistful of jacket to get his attention back to her. "If you keep looking over there all worried, someone is going to notice that faster than anything else. Now, what's the burr up your butt?"

"What?" Stage whispering back, the crowd and what was happening impossible to ignore. Along with the not-sex, it was practically a reflex that he pinned her up against the white-faced mausoleum. It was more than a filling snack, it was an eletric charge of what he needed being injected into his veins. Into his breathing, unexpectedly. Robert never seemed so pained, or miserable. Such was his status quo. How very British.

"I've not done this with anyone," a correction, a racist one, but one none the less, "like you before." He meant that maybe on some other nights he and some demons messed around on tears or howling loses of humans. In his defense, that was decades ago. It was a bit disconcerting to have one of mankind's own (sort of) corral his body, and indeed, his hard-on, close to her while loved ones wept.

Was he feeding already? It was hard to tell, he still looked vaguely panicked but then he was sandwiching her between cold stone and a hard body. Well that was unexpected. She pushed at his shoulders, trying to back him up a minute. "Robbie, you ain't ever met anyone like me, I can guaran-damn-tee it. But slow the fuck down for a minute. Did you...do your thing?" waving a hand at the grieving throng. "What is it like? Are you full or something? Got an extra spring in your step?"

"Is this an experiment?" A breath sucked in, a breath's body distance from her. He reached into his jacket pocket, the flint and flame sparking between his thumb and forefinger with a new cigarette between his lips. Smoke inhaled. Felt just like home.

"I'm not full." He blinked at her, forgetting at times that this wasn't obvious to her, "I don't... get to be full. I feed on sorrow." That was explanation enough before his hand waved over the graves, over those gathered in grief. He was leaned in close, engaging in that stage-whisper she had employed, "As much as you have ever ached, did ever feel that there was more?"

"Not really," her tone slightly defensive. Not really an experiment, it helped him, right? Feeding a demon couldn't be a bad thing in Kate's book, since it was something he said he'd die without. That would be a bad thing. See? She was helping!! Don't be so negative. "I just wanted to watch," shrugging her shoulders, shrugging off his question. "You said it was just breathing." But maybe he glowed or something? She squinted at him, just in case she missed it in the ambient glare from the clouds.

She, too, leaned close while eyeing the widow and her kids. Maybe kids. Could be gaggle of underage lovers, who knew these days? "More what? More ache to be found? More of whatever made me ache? Use your words."

A low heat and an electric crackle were the quiet, subtle cues his feeding amounted to. She hadn't touched his skin enough to realize he was warm, but she felt it other signs of it. The tension of a static discharge with breaths dragging in longer, pulling the air in through his cigarette so it could settle inside his lungs. As much as he was chastising her, his hazel gaze betrayed his? enjoyment, his approval. It was the sort he didn't want to show. He kept shoving it under a show of indignation. Why was he doing that?

In short, he didn't know.

He leaned in close as a warning, to send her scampering. It would take more than that to make her shake in her boots. She just leaned back, asking questions. The scent of her skin irreparably close to his own.

"More like... food... or sustenance?" She was not his ideal crowd, being that the loss of others was a mere by product of what she did and not the purpose. His weight turned to roll away from her, from the scene of hunched shoulders framing the sounds of tears with a eulogy the priest had used so often the ghosts would complain. Robert was trying to roll away, to hide behind the corner of the mausoleum.

Electric crackles were still pretty cool! Did her hair fan out due to the static? She worked so hard to be frizz-free. And why the hell was he so damn grumpy about this? Robert was leaning toward her one second, scurrying away the next. He really needed to stop hanging around cemeteries. "Hey, what's wrong?" Catching up to him, she caught his arm to stop him in place, trying to get in front of him. "Why do you seem unhappy about this? You're all charged up and can zap some socks together. No one over there even knows and so what? It's like eating fruit - it's gonna grow on the damn tree anyway whether we eat it or not. Those people were gonna be sad, anyway. So, you got a little jolt off it? So what?"

"Kate," He gripped her by the elbows, pinning her up to the solemn face of the mausoleum again, "Usually I sit and read a book and quietly mind my own business, going unnoticed. Everyone is happy," there's cinnamon and copper indignation coupled with the undeniable sense he was battling something off. Did she know? Since stepping onto the grounds, he'd been seeking her out. The robe was somewhere on the ground, lost in the motions of their back and forth.

A glance to the lingering procession before he looked at her, "I'm keyed up to fuck and you're giving me a jolt."

"Robert," mimicking his somber tone even as she was pushed up against the cold stone exterior of the building. Again. "You don't seem very happy," she murmured, more an observation than a judgment. Maybe that was a demon thing? Or came from feeding off so much sadness but he had a gloomy air about him, rather like Eeyore.

The scent of cinnamon was high in the air, Kate tasted it on every breath and it really made her want some coffee. Or maybe clove cigarettes, she hadn't smoked those in a minute. "I think you mean the funeral-goers are giving you a jolt, Pony Boy," winnowing her hand between them to stroke him through his pants. "My my, ready to go, are you? Is that what feeding does for you every time?"

If Robert wasn't a demon, it was hard to say that he would have been sunshine and rainbows. He had a gift at being dry and bitter. It was hard to imagine him being anything but slightly put off all the time as he ashed a cigarette. Demons were definitely not always this way. A succubus or a greed demon tended to be the 'life of the party' far more than one born in the black plague, feeding on the airs of sorrow. He absolutely was the demon version of Eeyore.

As an illusionary demon, his powers were considered so-so. That was because all he did was change the perception of what was going on, sans touch, as opposed to changing the thing itself. In upper management, a dog could be turned into a frog. Those atoms of the cosmos, of God, would be rearranged. For Robert, though? He just made the perception of it change, which was infinitely easier but not quite as impressive. People underestimated that, though. He could convince someone that there was a step where there wasn't, or a road where there wasn't. They could smell and hear things.

Like now? The funeral watchers had seen an odd scuffle of two people nearby. Now they saw and heard nothing. It cut away some of his focus from Kate which was a... good and bad thing to do. Part of him had to maintain that illusion, now. It was good because he didn't think that the funeral?s attention had come to them-- people were focused back on the service. It was bad because he wasn't able to defend so much against her teasing. He breathed in the sorrow, an electric tingle tainted with the promise of sex. Her hand scratched at a hard on that could fuck a brick wall. Her question make him uncomfortable-- Robert was too dull and proper for these sort of moments, "No, it's just you're here." Robert's smell is a Halloween on cloves but he doesn't mind blaming Kate for his situation. He didn't mean to be kissing her neck like he was, except that it was there and looked as if it needed bruising.

Were Kate a demon, she probably would have fed on greed. However, had she been born a demon, who knows how she would have turned out differently, rather than forced to a life on the road, never settling even if she longed for it. She could have been a lot of things but this was where she was now - teasing an aroused Eeyore demon in a cemetery while people tried to mourn a loved one. Did that surprise anyone? Not at all.

A bark of laughter escaped her, trailing into a gravelly purr as he bent and plied his mouth and teeth to her neck. "Just like a man, always blaming a woman for what's going on with his junk." But she didn't take her hand away, didn't stop squeezing or stroking, scratching her nails against the fabric just under the head. "I don't know if I should be flattered or insulted. But why don't we take this party elsewhere? A little more private. Unless you feel like showing off your pale ass to those gathered for the dearly departed?" Kate had picked the lock on the mausoleum when she first got here - at least it had a roof if it started to rain again.

"They can't see us. It's one of the few things I do well-- illusions." His voice against her throat as he continued, "I could bend you over the coffin in front of all of them and they wouldn't see or hear a thing," it was more like a plea for things not to stop until she offered the alternative. Robert rather hated that she knew he wanted her. That she could be amused, playfully coy, and still have the utmost certainty he wouldn't want to tell her no. It wasn't unlike her little addicts coming to her for a score, each one in her pocket with little puckered up pleas for more.

There's a little groan in his throat at the play of her trained hand. He hadn't pieced together that she meant inside the mausoleum, "You brought me all the way out here to tease and then go somewhere else?" Was he about to start suffering from the Terrible Tuesdays? His head pulled back enough so that he could catch the expression on her face.

That fun fact was tucked away for a different rainy day. There was, no doubt, lots of fun things they could get into if Robbie was willing to play along. How to bait an Eeyore demon?

"You like bending people over, don't you?" musing as her hand moved lower to palm and cup his sac. It wasn't that she was purposely toying with him to dominate or control; Kate loved the anticipation, stringing herself and her partner-du-jour along until they were both frantic and blind to anything else. Call it a gift or call it a failing but Robbie let her get away with it. Fact was, he didn't tell her no - who was to blame for that?

"Can you blame a girl for wanting some privacy with all this?" A smile played upon her lips, manicured brows rising as she posed the question. However, hands were busy unfastening his pants, lowering the zipper until she had enough room to slide a hand down there and make contact skin to skin. "I like to tease," she whispered against his neck, flicking the tip of her tongue against it for a taste. "But I always deliver."

Robert relished the delay. He was known for it, rather, of being aroused by tantric build ups. Timing between them had been bad, the contract had him on edge and impatient to copulate. The contract preferred that he put his efforts into Lizzie and not this 'distraction' instead. In normal circumstances, he would have appreciated her so much more, smiled along a bit even as if to ask 'is that all you have?'

As it was, he was a tightly wound clock. Already frenzied, he needed just a nudge to feel like he'd fall over the edge. More like a hungry teenager than an adult with intention. Kate was in a situation where she was playing with her food.

She felt around as he replied, "I like a lot of things. " There was something to be said, though, about the idea of bending someone over a coffin or a tombstone. That a whole gathering would be unaware that grandma's coffin was getting varnished with sex. While she unfastened his pants his hands moved behind her, working to find the clasp of her bra. "I like to tease, to watch," he felt the snake flicker of her tongue against his neck, "and if you're good, I'll deliver." Kate was, as it turned out, very... very good. Coaxing him inside the mausoleum would require only a series of well-placed steps.

Joke was on him - Kate never wore a bra. Found them to be restrictive and uncomfortable for not a lot of payout. And while public places, the hint of exhibitionism, usually turned her on a great deal, all of her attentions were focused on Robert. She had little care for the mourners or their dead.

While she originally intended to get him inside the mausoleum, Kate found that this situation they were in right now appealed to her more - hand down the pants, him so thirsty for it that he was moving his hips against her, curled around her to keep her warm, breathless against her. Yeah, she liked that, too, and didn't feel like moving.

"Just feed, Robbie, concentrate on that," crooning to him softly. "Until you can't take anymore. I'll handle the rest."

Brohkun

Date: 2016-11-24 08:46 EST
Kate played with her food while Robert consumed his. The moment progressed until she?d spent him and he was left with a sense of agitation. That he was akin to picking up a lost set of keys on the ground for her. Still? At least the nagging voice of inspiration was briefly appeased. No one was whispering like a broken record for him to make a feast out of Lizzie when he was in her hands.

Wow, get a guy to blow his load and he is annoyed for it. No wonder the ladies flocked to Robbie. Demons, eh? Sucking on her lower lip, Kate watched as he broke. It made her wet to see it, to know that even if he was being compelled to this, she was the one that got to see it.

Free hand had settled at his waist, his shirt bunched around her wrist while her thumb stroked his skin back and forth. "Take the edge off?" murmuring softly through the ghost of a smile, lids heavy with satisfaction. "Anyone ever tell you you taste like cookies?" Really craving coffee and a clove cigarette, now.

A sudden shiver brought cooling sweat to her attention at the back of her neck, where his hand was anchored while fingers kneaded the muscle; beaded along her cleavage under the violently pink jacket; the small of her back where it pressed against fabric and brick. She sweltered in his embrace but it was pleasant, in its own way, keeping the worst of the winds from cutting through her clothing.

"Yes," he admitted, when she asked if the edge had been taken off. He could approach her in his more measured, dour way. Agitated with her, but still in close with her. Her named was a curse but that didn't mean she wasn't kept in close. He gripped the waist of his pants with both hands to tighten them back into place. Even if he couldn't be seen, he still glanced to be certain as he tucked himself back into his pants and closed them up.

"Cookies? ... No." Something about it was funny enough that even the demon of Eeyores smiled at the comment. There was the arch of his brow, a shake of his head no before he closed his body in on her, still feeling that he hadn't tasted her enough to be satisfied. He?d keep her captured against that wall as long as she would let him. Both his hands were now at her hips, his mouth chasing hers for a series of kisses that ended with him breaking their lips, his left hand moving up to the side of her face. His thumb smoothed over her cheek, stopping at the hard crest of it, "I want you." That, he suspected, she already knew. She made him feel drugged and baited, willingly coaxed along for the slaughter.

There were worse ways to die, he supposed.

"You should know," grabbing one of her legs, hiking it up so it wrapped around him just above the hip, "Lizzie isn't doing well. Something's happened and I think she's been taken and... Salome is helping. So is Shae."

Surly beast, he was, but Kate ignored that, too. Some guys didn't like being such a slave to their dicks but that wasn't Kate's fault and she refused to take responsibility for it. While he fixed himself, Kate used the hem of his shirt to wipe off her hand, offering nothing but a sweet smile in return. That smile became genuine, beaming at him when she coaxed a smile out of him, too. Always a little proud of those because let's face it, Robert was a tough audience.

Thinking he'd want to get the hell out of Dodge after and retire to the Bat Cave, the demon surprised her by leaning in, herding her back to the spot against the mausoleum that felt like it must have taken on the shape of her ass at this point. Arms wound around his neck, the clean hand threaded into his hair while enjoying those kisses, the feel and taste of him in her mouth like that. "Yeah?" was all she could muster. Her leg was lifted to hook around his hip and then he started talking, throwing out names that were familiar and not.

"Hnh?" she asked with a slight frown, pulling back as she mentally caught up. "Who's Lizzie?"

"Roach." He corrected for her. Perhaps he liked that she was unapologetic, that she called him up and got what she wanted like he was a delivery boy. For her he might as well be.

There was a withhold there, then, from him, seeing her interest pique. Maybe Robert was in a place where he couldn't withhold himself from her, but he could withhold his tongue. At least enough to get a little more out of her. He liked the way it felt when her hand was through his hair, how she paid no mind and wiped her hand off on him. Robert didn't mind, mostly. Days after sex, the sheets haunted him with the smell of it. Maybe that's why he said Tuesdays. Maybe he liked the six day lead up. Or maybe he didn?t want need to be confused with affection.

The demon always wanted to go to the Bat Cave, but she had taken him to a sweets shop. What cause was there to leave when sex and food were all in the same place?

More of the lusty fog dissipated from around her brain when he said a word that rang through her. "Roach? Wait, hold up," wedging her arms between them so she could look up at him clearly. "You think she was taken? By who? Why? Why aren't you certain?" Goddammit, way to get into her head.

Also, please don't let Kate know he didn't wash his sheets between romps. Gross. Didn't want to be rolling around in crusty old stains.

"Back it up and start from the beginning."

They'd be changed before next Tuesday unless it was unavoidable. She was looking strict and serious which caused him to roll his weight to his heels, gripping her by the hips and reminding her, "It's Tuesday."

"A little less clothes and I'll do a lot more talking." A glance away, then back to her. Were his eyes pointing at the far-off hatchback or to some thought about events which lingered somewhere in his mind? Fucking Tuesdays.

Fucking Tuesdays. Was that a curse or a label? Beyond setting up a schedule, he hadn't laid down any other rules like leaving the rest of the world behind. Maybe that was an underlying intent of his but it didn't read in the fine print. He got a flat look before she rolled her eyes. "Fine, but let's go back to the museum. I think all the depression is distracting you. You can fill me in on the way to the car."

"Yeah," he said it coolly while his thoughts stayed insatiable. One hand scratched the side of his face before he bent his head down, kissing her insolent lips another time before they broke for the car. Fucking Tuesdays. The sodden robe gathered off the ground and tossed over his shoulder. The cigarette lit before burning like incense on the ground.

Robbie shouldn't have opened his mouth if he didn't want to spill. This was clearly his fault. She allowed the kiss before she slid out from between him and the family resting place. "Hang on," gesturing for him to wait while she ducked into the mausoleum and grabbed the bag she'd left in there. That was slung on her shoulder and she was back outside in less than a blink to walk at his side to the gremlin of a car.

Once at his hatchback, he stood at the passenger door, holding it open with one hand while there was a new cigarette in the other, "So Roach and I... we're connected. More than we want to be." He was waiting for her to be seated, for her legs to be tucked into his car before he shut the door and crossed over to the driver's side. This was not something meant to be gentlemanly. It just was. Robert had grown up in an era where things were done out of expectation and any romantic connotation with it was lost. Once in the driver's seat, he pitched the bathrobe into the back of his car and started it up, "I'm under the very strong impression that she's in trouble in New Orleans and that I need to help her." A pause before he added, "But Salome... a warlock... sort of creature... and Shae, a witch, believe it is all about me. About luring me to where she is. If I'm killed then," a faint shoulder shrug, "I suppose Menace would assume my role in the contract, which is what he wants."

"Right, connected with the whole contract thing, I kinda know about it." Honestly, she'd never paid too much attention because it didn't concern her and they seemed to have it handled between them. Then again, why would she ever think Roach had anything handled? The girl attracted chaos like she was a progeny of The Traveler. Kate managed to save her questions and comments until they were both in the car and rolling. "Yeah, I know who Salome and Shae are," shooting him some side eye for that comment. "So if they think this is a trap, are either of them willing to be your back up? I mean, that seems like the best thing to do if you're wanting some light recon. Or send someone else in for you to scope out and report back. How long have you been getting this impression?"

"Since yesterday." This sharing business would have to stop. He was sobering up while also feeling like the evening wasn't finished right. Cracking his windows, then using the automatic lever to crack hers, he passed the cigarette he started over to her before lighting another.

"They think it's a trick to get me to go to New Orleans to... where I sort of... somehow know she is. And there, Menace will kill me. So, we're waiting it out here, hoping that when he comes to us, we kill him instead. I guess." It was relative and difficult, but all he could really say was, "Roach isn't answering my calls or texts. She's not answering anyone's so... I know I'm not crazy." A tap of the uneven ash of his cigarette that came with the first light. He drew on it with his lips, sinking in his driver's seat as the lights of business went past. Some hadn't come on, yet. The sun hadn?t finished its whole setting routine.

"Anyway, we're staying in Rhy'Din, waiting for word." Shae was talking some sense into him, though Robert had the impulse to just go to Nola and take care of it. At least there was enough quiet in the back of his mind that he could think.

The evening wasn't finished, period. Don't go full Eeyore about it just yet but details came first. Well, second. The cigarette was accepted but she barely smoked it, mainly ashing it out the window once she rolled it down a bit more. Mostly, she fiddled with it, bobbing it up and down between her fingers, flicking her thumb against the filter while thoughts spun outward.

"So this Menace dude wants to kill you, you definitely know that. And you know that Roach isn't answering her texts or phone at all. Odds of a trap seem pretty high, but what about Roach? You just gonna leave her high and dry while you batten down the hatches? I'll go, see what the fuck is up and come back with info. Or go with you and watch your back," shrugging as the offer was thrown out casually. She also made a note to talk to Shae and Salome about this, together or separately.

"Oh, hey, pull over up here, will you? I need to hop into that store," pointing to the right at a dingy convenience store with only one gas pump outside. Bars on the filthy windows seemed to discourage customers before they went inside but that didn't stop Kate from sliding out of the car and swinging the door open like she owned the place.

Brohkun

Date: 2016-11-24 09:02 EST
Full Eeyore is about the only way he knows how to be. It was really his 'default' persona, anyway, so it was rather futile to battle all of that thinking the tiny smiles here and there would change his disposition.

"I don't even know where to tell people to go, just that I know she's in New Orleans," he said that part with conviction. The sort of conviction you pointed the tip of your cigarette at as you spoke. "I don't plan to abandon Roach, as much of a pain as she's been."

When she directed him to pull over, he did. Insert long exhale. The black hatchback pattered into the convenience store as his cheeks hollowed out when he took a drag of his cigarette. Robert didn't have much to tell anyone. All he could say was that he had an idea of where she was, that it was bad, and that he wanted to do something about it. Salome and Shae had convinced him to stay put in Rhy'Din.

It was just a few minutes before Kate came back out with plastic grocery bags stuffed to the gills, two hanging from each hand. With minimal awkwardness, she climbed back in, cheery expression shining upon him. "Alright, I got us enough provisions to last a few days. When do you wanna leave?"

"I would understand if the big, bad demon wanted to sit this one out and crawl back down his hidey hole." Her tone was mild but the sarcasm was implied as she arranged the plastic bags around her feet. "But I'm not going to let some douchebag hurt her while you play it safe. I'll go by myself because he won't be expecting me. The girl breeds chaos, she won't be hard to find." There was, perhaps, a little more bravado than Kate actually felt in that speech but she didn't like sitting on the sidelines, waiting. Ever since she was ten years old, the last time she saw her father, Kate vowed never to let anyone else make decisions for her.

"I'll call you when I come back."

Robert caught her by the side of her head, reeling her gaze to him, "Perhaps. But the same questions wait for you. Where will you go? What will do you do? How?" Robert posed them the way Shae had, a bit more brutal and direct, but still. The drive continued until the Other World came into view. He parked outside the museum, grabbing her by the hips and pulling her over, "You don't have to call me, not when I'm here right now."

Kate shook off the hold to her head, only because she didn't like it - had negative associations from another time, another life. Robert couldn't have known that and that was why she didn't make a big deal out of it, just gently pushed his hand away. "Those are easy questions to answer. I'll go to this New Orleans place and I'll poke around, see what's what. Locate Roach and make sure she's not dead. How? That's for me to know. You only get to find out if you come with." A smirk for that, until they were parked at Robert's place and he pulled her across the console.

Another roll of her eyes, unable to fight the threatening smile. "Seriously? Your dick comes before the magical bond you have with her? The fact that she could be lying somewhere, bleeding out? Hey, what happens to you if she dies while you're all super glued together at the soul?"

"Yeah?" Robert said at her going to New Orleans. That surprised him, for some reason. His eyebrow ticked upward and then he bit his lower lip, "I know she's not dead." He knew it like someone knew that their fingers were still attached. Kate flaunted her seedy contacts, of which he had no doubt, and implied they may be of help. Maybe.

She was trying not to smile, he knew, when he looked up at her. There was the upward lift of his chin in her direction, "This magical bond makes me wanton." Robert would not be so bold or arguably as crude with her if not for that. Still, the secondary points of what she had to say were there, "Salome wants me to stay put, she thinks the whole point is for me to go running to her, into an ambush so... I'm trying to stay put." Both of his hands rested on her hips, his eyebrows knitting as he thought it over, "The city will find a new Persephone to tie me to." The criteria for the woman was still unknown.

She didn't stop to think whether her statements or desires made sense, she just went with her gut, shot from the hip. Best way to think on her feet, in her opinion, it's when she got all her best ideas. Well, one of the times. "There's a whole lot of room between not-dead and perfect health. I need to know for sure where on the spectrum she is, right now." Don't question her. She had her reasons.

Snort. "Magical bond? Guys always wanna blame their dick on a woman. Typical," muttering and glaring at him for a moment before it softened into a frown. "The city will find you a new one? So, she's totally expendable to you? And I thought this involved her soul, how can that just be replaced by any ole person?"

"?Not well. Enough that I think I need to be there." It was the best that he knew. Maybe that was the purpose. Roach was being waterboarded, forced to feel that she was drowning even though she wasn't.

"She's expendable to the city. It wants its king and queen, its Hades and Persephone. If not her, someone else." His thumbs tracked over the knobs of her hips as he spoke, the furrow in his brow deep like cracks in dried up earth, "There was a strange point where the Hades of New Orleans died, Jimmie, and there was only the woman groomed to be his Persephone. That was Roach, for better or for worse. When I purchased her soul at the market the city just... selected me." A roll of his shoulders followed by a sideways tilt of his head, "Roach and I don't want to be with each other? so our roles have not been consummated so I have not become their Hades and her their Persephone. I think for the believers in the city... this is about removing her so a more desirable candidate can take place for me."

Right elbow leaned on the narrow ledge of the car window, left hand spread over his chest as she got comfortable. A fingertip traced the furrow between his eyebrows and slid down the line of his nose until it dropped away. "What does that mean, Hades and Persephone? What will that do to you and... whoever? What does the city want with you?" It was a little hard to swallow but she'd seen and experienced weirder things in all her years. "Is there a way to get rid of it, other than dying?"

"It wants me to lead it. With a... wife, a Persephone. It thinks Roach is the one." Despite the fact that Roach was in love with Grey. Despite the fact that Robert wasn't human. It was an exceptional sort of "election" that was going on for the roles. Certainly, Nola had to have a longer string of better suited leaders, right?

"So far?" Robert leaned in, kissing her neck if she paused long enough to let him, "fatality seems to be the only way to pass on the role." He leaned back in his seat, his exhale a long draw, "I care about Liz-- Roach. Quite a bit." There was a small shrug of his shoulders, "Perhaps we would have been lovers if things hadn't gone wrong. But we aren't, and it wasn't... it isn't. I've tried to keep away from her."

"You'd be king of the city, huh?" she asked thoughtfully while tilting her chin to the side, giving him better access to her neck. His lips were warm, warmer than her arm where it rested against the window. Her jacket was thin and the cold was pervasive. The hand resting against his chest slid upward, over his shoulder to curl around the back of his neck where fingers toyed with the ends of his hair. "But since you're not really leadership material, I'm guessing you don't want the role. Can't you just sell her soul and get rid of it that way? It happened when you bought it, right? What if you sell it back to her?"

Brohkun

Date: 2016-11-24 09:24 EST
"Selling her soul just means a new Persephone. I'm afraid I'd need to die which... is... probably why they're threatening her, to lure me to New Orleans." Robert was, more or less, kissing her neck, working his lips against her throat, as he spoke of his probable assassination. She offered up more skin to him and rolled her hand up to the back of his neck. He wanted her more than he wanted to let on, but she likely already knew that well by now. "The soul sale only tipped the scales. They were two different events. Selling her soul back isn?t something demons have much information on how to do," if he could find a demon or way to do that. It was uncharted territory, "but the city has already selected me. Her soul has nothing to do with it, now. There's nothing for me to do but to make Roach my Persephone or... not..." His teeth caught her earlobe at the end of the statement.

Kate tilted to the side, resting her head against the window while his lips moved over the pale column of her throat, sending shivers dancing down her spine with every warm breath. "What kind of lame crying demon can't even ruthlessly kill his enemies?" But her voice was a husky murmur, slightly distracted. Turnabout was fair play and she wiggled in his lap, hips rocking back and forth while fingers tightened in his hair, nails curling into the back of his neck. "Good thing I'm here to help you."

"So far I've been an army of one." Robert admitted, though it wasn't entirely true. Helena was his friend and he knew with a gentle word she would have done more than help. There was also Saila, though she was often involved in her own situations. Shae had likewise visited him with concern, realizing he had returned but their relationship to one another was debatable. Robert knew them all to be friendly with him, but what he was asking required more than a friendly correspondence. One simply didn't ask new friendships to die for their cause. At best, it was just rude.

Kate, though? She had her own investment in Roach, her own phone calls and ties to the situation. Whether he had told her or not, she would be involved.

Teeth on her earlobe elicited an involuntary gasp from Kate. Red furrows blossomed in the wake of her nails down the side of his neck before pushing him back, enough to meet his gaze. Her cheeks flushed, skin tightened; teeth scraped over her lower lip and she smiled slowly. "Let's go inside." It was Tuesday, after all. Kate could leave after. Without waiting for a response, she pushed herself back over into the passenger seat and shoved the door open. It was starting to rain again and she hustled for the building, bag held over her head in lieu of an umbrella.

His breath tightened, a small grunt escaping him when she climbed over his lap and outside. He squinted at the thin curtain of rain like he was trying to see something hidden in it. Getting to his feet, he shut the hatchback's door behind him, one hand saluting his brow to keep the light downfall out of his gaze before they reached the covered front porch of the museum. Droplets hung off the curly, dark wires of his hair like beads of glass. The metal of his keys sounded like muffled, metal music as he spread them over his palm, waiting to find the one that opened the front door and vaguely recalling Osvaldo's plastic, told-you-so grin when his employer had pressed the key back into his palm.

Kate was already involved, acting as Fuck Proxy or whatever in lieu of Roach so the two didn't accidentally take over New Orleans while bumping uglies and become soul-married for life. Also, she had her own reasons for wanting Roach alive though they wouldn't be divulged to anyone any time soon. She had as many (if not more) trust issues than the demon and that wasn't likely to change in the foreseeable future.

Once under the overhang near the door, her bag was lowered, hung off her shoulder while she watched Robert move at a slower pace. Droplets clung to his eyebrows and hair, each drop a world unto itself that refracted and reflected everything around it. A man covered in worlds - it was fanciful and made her smile to herself, letting her imagination run wild with it in the background. Everything he did was with deliberation, including the stare he gave to the keys spread in his palm, as if having to exert effort to remember which one would open the door. Two of Kate's fingers walked up his wrist to point at the key to the door. "It's that one." Maybe a nudge would help him get them in the door faster.

"Right," he didn't sound sheepish that she was having to point it out for him. Lost in his own thoughts for a time. The curator job really had suited him, it presented him as an intellectual rather than distant and eerie as he had been when working in the hospitals.

As far as Kate was concerned, she was a drug peddler that wanted a good time without the threat of it trying to take her over, to become more or demand more. True enough, Robert didn't make those demands of her. He wasn't trying to worm his way into her heart or get soulful admissions from her. All she had to be was herself, or at least the version of her that found him endearing and compelling instead of shut off and frustrating. The door opened and he caught the light switch with the back of his knuckles. The short glance over her figure might have been missed.

"Coffee or... something to eat?" Still part butler whenever she first stepped inside the house.

Kate thought of him as observant, just extremely antisocial. For some strange reason, he tolerated her presence so she took advantage in her usual style for as long as it was allowed. What really struck her, though, was that he didn't think it strange she knew which key was the match to his home, since this was only her second time within his abode and she hadn't even seen his keys last time. Her smile widened as he opened the door for her, wondering what it was that so thoroughly occupied his mind.

Perhaps it was this compulsion to stick his dick in the nearest hole 24/7. Now, Kate was laughing to herself, even while shaking her head. "Only if you were going to make it for yourself, anyway." If it was in front of her, she wouldn't turn it down, but she didn't feel like going out of her way for it, either. Instead, she headed to the nearest seat and flopped down, cold fingers buried under the opposite arm. Mental note to rotate more hoodies back into her wardrobe. "So, you'll stay here and I'll go see what Little Bug is up to and we'll reconvene in a few days. Sound good? Although... why can't Shae or Salome do something to find her and communicate with her? I mean, they're supposed to be powerful, right?"

"I don't think this sort of thing is within their normal realm of power. Roach is in New Orleans and that could be too far away." There wasn't a couch, just high back chairs that lined the waiting room they entered to the museum. Any resemblance of living quarters was upstairs and in his room. It was a rather perfect existence for someone who didn't own much or entertain much. It was questionable just how social he'd remain if and when he could resolve things with Roach.

"I was. It's nice in the evenings. Especially now that it's cooler." A motion of his hand to point down the hall he intended. To the kitchen where he shrugged out of his tweed coat and hung it on the long line of coat rack hooks at the furthest wall. All the little knobs seemed a bit like overkill until one considered that school groups and the like came through the museum. His hands brushed over his face, smearing the glass-like water from him until it gave him damp, coolish skin. There was a whine at the back door that caused him to catch the knob and turn it. Troy wiggled in quickly, his tail wagging so fiercely that his bottom tick-tocked with the motion. He was an upbeat counterpart to him, as if determined to make Robert smile. He did, occasionally, provoking a small catch in the corner of Robert's lips before he looked over his shoulder at her, "Leaving now to check on her or staying for a few before you go?"

"You really need a couch," she groused from the not-so-comfortable high-backed chair. She wanted something she could sink into but apparently that wasn't going to be found down here. Rising to her feet, Kate trailed after him into the kitchen, which at least seemed warmer. "Coffee is always wonderful, it's a hug in a mug." Not to mention it would warm her, inside and out. Hopping up onto the counter, booted feet swung idly while Troy wiggle-danced his way in. After Robbie was greeted, the dog came over to snuffle at her shoes. She chuckled and rubbed the side of his neck with the toe of one but it wasn't enough attention for the dog and he was off to greener pastures at the demon's side.

Grey eyes traveled up Robbie's side to his hands, lingering there a moment before meandering slowly up. "Mmm, I'll stay for a few. But only if you come over here for a minute."

Two cups, then. Hers was a Styrofoam to-go cup with a lid, sweetened enough to keep a hummingbird afloat. He set it on the counter at the outside of her thigh before looking to her. There were small moments that indicated he did more than just tolerate her. Like with Troy, there were little smiles that were beyond contracts and toleration. Short, genuine forms of affection. Obviously, Robert didn't hate or dislike her even if he wasn't the sort to give large smiles and ample hugs.

"A few is good." One hand reached out to her knee, touching it so that the gentle swing of it, the second-counting knock of her heel to the cabinet face, would stop. Don?t count out the time.

If there was subtext in the Styrofoam, trying to hurry her out the door, it was misread or ignored. She just beamed for all the sugar - it was a bonus when others made things for her, just the way she liked it - and glanced down at the hand on her knee. The pendulous boot slowed its swing before coming to a stop but the movement only transmuted itself into something else. Her hand caught his wrist and then reeled him in until he was standing between her knees. With a handful of his shirt, Robert was pulled closer still so that cold fingers could winnow their way beneath his shirt and press to the warmth of his back. At the same time, her face pressed against his neck so that the chilled tip of her nose could steal his heat. "Gotta warm up first," her muffled mumble spoken against his throat.

The motion didn't surprise him except that she didn't kiss him. He expected to be brought in close, for their arrangement of need to be renewed. Warmth wasn't exactly part of that arrangement. Robert didn't think she meant to be sweet or kind when she burrowed into him, the chilled spread of her hands spreading wide and resting on his back like thin, melting snowflakes. The heat of his body was always a little warmer than a man's, but especially now that he'd been fed and sated. Soaked cinnamon under his shirt made the smell subdued but heavy. He could feel the details of her face, the coolish ridge of her nose, pressing against his skin along with the twin petals of her mouth.

"Of course." One arm wrapped around her, tucking her in by drawing her hips up to the precipice of the counter so she could wind herself more completely around him. The arm around her moved up, pressing between the shoulder blade wings of her back. He wanted to tell her that he was glad she was there, that he enjoyed not feeling as though he were always just the one being used. That he?d been wanting something that felt even. That might have been too keen a thing to say if not an outright broach in his commitment to being a complete and utter Eeyore.

Though she didn't shy away from touch, Kate wasn't a cuddly or affectionate person unless she was in really tight with someone. But sometimes, needs must and she didn't want to start shivering. It would take away from her street cred. If there was a kindness in there, it was the thoughtless sort that only seemed so after the fact. However, she enjoyed his warmth and his scent, the potent spiciness of him tickling her nose until it wrinkled and she pulled away with a deep breath. "Do all demons smell like cookies, or just you? Do tears make you sweeter?" grinning for the ridiculous question.

Restless fingers roamed, wedging beneath the waistband of his pants while her legs curled around him. The Tigger to his Eeyore, she wiggled in his hold but not to get him to let go, just because she had to keep moving. A shark through the currents of life. "Do you have any real cinnamon or can I wring you out into my coffee?"

"Do all people smell the same?" An answer that bordered on being cheeky, if only because there was the barest remnant of a smile still on his lips. He leaned in and drew in a deep breath of her, wrinkling his nose afterwards as if she smelled odd, "So fleshy. Like skin and hair and everything else." Robert wasn't sure how to describe that smell she and others sort of had to him, other than it was living and organic. It was alive, it was something else. Humans and partials or human-like kind in her case were that way to him, usually. Their own brand of life, of flavor, each one tweaked to its own scent. At the end, it was no different than smelling scented candles and knowing, beneath each smell, that there was still wax.

"You should have done more investigation with your mouth," had that been taken out of context, it would have seemed a serious answer to a serious question instead of a flirtation. Her need to wriggle, her need to be evasive at all pointed where there could have been emotional vulnerability were it not unsettling for him. Her fingers wedged and he kissed her. Troy whined once before he walked out of the kitchen, double checking on the other rooms of the museum to be sure it was just as he'd left them.

Tuesdays.