emeraldlady
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "emeraldlady" journal:
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05:16 pm
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Montage
"Your assistance in the powers of the mind are required."
"Ethan, join me. Your subtlety in these areas is greater than mine."
"Of course madame."
The room quiet except for the fervent chanting and prayers of the lancea. The intent staring of three kindred dissassembling Dumond's mind.
What the fuck? The blood sympathy between herself and her grandchilde courses back and forth. Do not falter Ethan. Never. Good. Some things can be expected and Derzhava tenacity is one of them.
The inquisitor's ears explode.
The surroundings mist.
A giant serpant rises from the presence that Evelyn has cast from the inquisitor's mind.
Well... this is new...
_____________________
She felt something change before she saw it. The Cardinal's words into the phone. The momentary silence of the rooms. The tensing of the bartender that tended the kindred area.
Felipe felt it before he saw it, the quiet sense of Oh fuck as his sire stood swiftly and smoothly and bowed toward the back door.
"Alder Suren-gal," she said quietly "What a pleasure to meet you..."
_____________________
She stared at the letter from Julian that related Audra's words and nothing altered in her face other than the lowering of both brows, the slight lift and snarl of her lip. The growl that sounded through the room made Matrishka startle. She had heard that growl before and she took her leave quickly.
"Some children do not learn," She hissed softly.
______________________
Every few decades, Andreiana Evengii knew that she would encounter a series of situations which were entirely new to her experience or at least remarkable enough to be noted in the copious log of her memories.
It seemed to be one of those weeks.
oc: and more later when I'm out of two separate proxy scenes. Whee!
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07:59 pm
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OOC post
Well d-boston keeps looking over it's funds and it becomes abundantly and continually clear that like all big-city domains we have problems with funds trying to keep our site going at a reasonable cost.
With this and mind - and because y'all keep asking...
I am offering (via e-bay auction) one custom created character doll of your favorite PC to the highest winning bidder. This is a Cammie only auction and may be of any of your PC's (or you can buy it for someone else, your call).
Please be certain to read all the details on the auction before bidding.
Bids start at $50.00 (which is approximately what my most basic material costs are)
ALL funds from this will be channeled into the Boston domain funds for our game site and future charity work as always (because we tend to pull from both for donations)
Auction at: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=9510909063
Please feel free to repost wherever you want.
--
Lana Quenneville
Tagged Northern Minx US2002022632
DC and Webmistress MA-D001
AVST Legacy, Changeling, Boston
AOP #Cam-Changeling
AARST Changeling Go-fer/Go-minx
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11:35 am
[Link] | She sagged into the chair in her suite with an ineffable sense of weariness that the silk and soft cushions did nothing to alleviate.
For all that he thought her cold and heartless, he would never realize how much the wounded look in his eyes had hurt her, and never realize
how much it killed what was left of her heart that he could no longer read the emotions in her eyes. He insisted she was not the woman he
loved, and yet she knew she was.
There first meetings had been artiface, seduction, flirtation. After his embrace she had still been affectionate, loving, indulgent even,
but the artiface was gone. There was no need to keep masks with family and for a very long time, displays such as that were artiface. She
assumed them with the young more. The carresses, the smiles, the nods, the lean of a head on a shoulder. She had thought that Felipe
understood that the absence of these things was not an absence of love.
It was clear that she had been wrong in that regard, wrong in many regards.
He blamed her pride. She contemplated this quietly and shook her head. It was not pride that spoke, but a certainty that things should have
gone differently before hand and she would not abandon the belief. He wanted her to say she was wrong, but she knew she was not. He wanted
her to weep. But she wept for no one.
Not where they could see. Even as a mortal, tears had not been common to her. Aleksandyr had drawn them from her only three times in nearly
five centuries. He did not need to. He understood the feeling still within her, even though it lay beneath the exterior.
Anger...anger was easier. "All you show me is condescension..." she whispered and then shook her head. No love, no. You ask for it, you
inspire it, the flippant behavior, the lazy smiles, the insolence. You desire my anger because it is the emotion you can see that I will
display and I only ever give you what you inspire within me. Why do you not know that after so long? You ask for love, but you expect me
to bend for it without bending yourself. Even tonight you could not see past Simon and Jarvis, past politics.
She rose and crawled back into the soft covers of the bed, having no more desire to move tonight despite the several hours of dark left.
She had not been wrong. Wrong in her choice of tactics, perhaps, but she knew that once even the fire that was Jarvis would not have been
enough to drive this wedge into her relationship with her child. Now... now he would let her deal with whatever troubles befell. Unless
of course her life were threatened in which case he would charge in with guns blazing as if she were a naive little thing.
Bella pressed her fingers to her eyes and sighed softly.
He didn't understand.
He wanted what he already had but had lost the sight to see in her love. He wanted what she could never and had never given in his desire to
see her bend. He wanted admittance of a mistake, or some feeling.
And it had trod on what little was left of her heart to hear the venom he spit at her. But then Bella was never one to capitulate and bend so easily and nor was she kind enough to spoonfeed him what he was unwilling to look for in ways that he did not understand.
"Love," she whispered. The cardinal thing never granted to any courtesan and she had broken that rule, had bent. All it had brought
was pain that she would not reveal to those so blind to think it absent.
I was a fool to love you. To love all of you. And now I pay the price every night I walk until the end of this Requiem. Damn you
Felipe. Damn you to hell and may your ghosts take you when you get there.
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09:21 pm
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Waiting
Felipe lays on the bed in front of me, the spire of a stake rising from his chest. I dare not remove it yet, not before I check the state of his mind, see what the Treasure has done. Rose is on her way. There is a chance that fishing through his thoughts will trigger something in one or either of us. I will need a witness to be aware of safety.
In truth I hesitate to enter his thoughts because I am uncertain what I will find.
He is my childe and lately I have hated him.
He is my son and I have hated.
He is my love and I have hated.
And these past nights I do not know whether I hated or feared or despaired more. My beast has been close to the surface as I sought him. I avoided gatherings. I avoided the Derzhava because anything could set me off and I knew that.
"Soon felipe, soon I will free you." I murmur into the silence. I wait for Rose.
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12:25 pm
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A visitor (backdated from several weeks ago)
(oc: conversations paraphrased as I don't happen to have the log present.)
Coxcomb...no
Carnation? No certainly not.
Rose..no. All of the colors were wrong. She did not love Signore Walker in any way conceivable to the imagination.
Ah. Sweet Briar Rose. Poetry and the desire to wound in order to heal. Perfect. She made a note to have Matrishka find some when they were back in Boston-
A knock on the door interrupted her next plot leveled at the former Bangor harpy.
"Entres"
She was not entirely surprised to see Audra, and yet at the same time was in fact shocked the girl had taken initiative so early. Ah if only Tatiana had your spirit dear. You are far more like me than she is - or at least that she shows. Bella pushed the bitter thought away with a moment of irritation. Audra fidgeted a moment.
"I wanted to talk to you."
"Regarding?"
"The family..."
"They are bothering you?" Bella was not blind to the games of wit her family played in the rooms below and for the most part they were harmless, chances for them to hone wit and word on an audiance that was both harmless to them and completely unforgiving of any fault. It was a tenuous balance and despite having been released, Bella knew that not all of the Derzhava children flourished in the garden prepared for them. Some faltered with all of those vicious comments honed against their still thickening skins. She spared a thought for Jonathan with both distaste and regret that she has wasted the time embracing him before having to kill him.
Ah well.
She listened, draped on the bed, as Audra explained Julian's ire. "He's angry with me and I don't know how to fix it. And I was a mistake, a speed embrace, If he leaves me I have nothing. I've lost the gallery... and Rose said..."
"Rose said?" Bella sat up with interest. Ah so her sister was playing tag team with Julian with the child as a chew toy. That wouldn't suit. Not at all.
"I was behaving childish and that I made errors."
Bella snorted. Of all the individuals to chastize a young kindred, Rose was not one to fault on etiquette. Glass houses, thrown boulders, those without sin - pick your metaphor. Bella well remembered the hours upon hours that had turned Rose from Alek's little warrior princess into a lady fit for the Derzhava name. Not that Bella had anything but unabiding love for her sister - but she recalled all too well where each of her family had come from and she brooked no such comments to those still finding their footing. Still, the testing was good for Audra.
Audra, who was far more like a daughter than she guessed.
The girl took a box out of her pocket and turned it, opening it to reveal a stunning silver comb, delicately wrought.
"I would like you to teach me, with this as payment."
Sweet God and Crone, does this child have no sense of what I am? The statement was so similar to a courtesan asking for patronage that Bella choked on the idle sip of her wine, hammered over the head with memories as strong as reality. It took her a minute to control her laughter. She had not been asked that specific question in many, many years. "You know everything. They all stop and listen to you, pay attention to you," Audra whispered, her expression fearful and tortured.
"You do not need to pay me, Cara. I will teach you for you are family but that is a matter for another moment. You must phrase such things very carefully with one of my persuasion. That request in particular."
"But I do, or it wouldn't be right. What... what do you mean?"
Bella waves a hand.
"What do you want, darling?"
"I ...want him to notice me. To pay attention to me. He's all I have - I want to ..reach what he lied about."
"Lied about?"
"He said it would let me be a great artist and... I'm not"
"Your work is beautiful."
She shook her head with misery. Audra focused on landscapes, this she knew, but the girl had a desire to photograph things other than objects. Bella smiled contendedly. To photograph a person properly you had to know people. To capture an essence you had to know where to look for it.
Bella nodded once. Good enough. Courtesan's had been built on less stable desires and Audra had drive. Am I seriously entertaining this thought? Yes... yes well she needs a teacher and Julian is clearly not capable of imparting to her the wiles she requires to defend herself. He is, after all, a man and their desires are so simple they never consider any but their own. She will need to learn to read people as she reads her photographs and her books
"I am a courtesan, cara mia. Once, in Venice, I was paid some truely exhorbitant amounts of money in order to provide companionship to my clients. That, often times, meant physical pleasure. But it also meant educated conversation, wit, poetry, charm, and the abiliy to listen."
"oh! That explains so much..."
Yes dear, they pay attention to me because I know how to make them do so. I am not, as they go, the most beautiful but there were none in that room save perhaps Amrit that I would trust to outdo me should I set to capture something I desire.
Bella took the comb and closed the box, putting it into her jewelry cabinet.
"I will consider that collateral on your lessons."
"You will? Does that mean... oh thank you!" Laughing, the younger kindred flung herself upon Bella, kissing and hugging and unaware of the marble flesh that made up her aunt's long-dead body. Bella carefully smoothed the child's hair with a smile.
"First lesson and last lesson darling, for it is the hardest to learn. Think upon who you are until we next meet and begin. To wear masks you must first know your own center or you will yourself to those masks - and there are a great many to assume."
"I don't know..."
"Think on it. I do not expect an answer this evening. But you must have an idea of it before we may begin. Your task as a courtesan - even if you choose not to be schooled in the physical aspects - is to give people exactly what they want. That is not always what they expect, but rather is something they desire hmm? You can appear submissive - but never in here are you to actually _be_ submissive." Bella laid her hand over her breast and unbeating heart.
Audra nodded, joy and uncertaintly mixing.
Bella smiled casually.
"Oh yes..and if Julian is not paying you enough attention - that is not your fault. If he is too dim witted to realize the treasure he has in you, than do not let it appear to trouble you, hmm? If you want him - make _him_ work for it. A lady never chases after any man. Let them come to you cara, and they will come."
Audra laughed, delight on her face this time and Bella smiled, genuinely for once.
You wanted a challenging sparring partner Rose? I'll give you one. You want a jewel Julian? I shall show you what has been before you all this time. And by the time I am done with you, Audra Jetter, you'll have them begging at your feet for more.
Current Mood: predatory
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12:34 am
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OC: Mage Tie ins
Working on my mage. She can be found at ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) agypsyshome
Tie-in's welcome.
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10:28 am
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Reflections on chaos
The key to not losing control of one's plans, she decided as she watched the unfoldings of Dirae's court, was to never assume you had it to begin with. Bella was a prideful creature - but she was not foolish. If nothing else, the Derzhava were masters of shifting to a new scenario, a new situation, and reacting at a given moment with the family's best interest - even if those interests had been different only a few minutes before.
Nona had seemed to miss the lesson and had foolishly proceded on what was a poor course of action to begin with. It seemed that she had somehow misinterpreted Jarvis' orders. Or perhaps Jarvis had simply been as quietly ambiguous as the rest of them and the end result was two dead kindred. She did not blame the Reverend for that; it was a kindred's nature to be ambiguous and an idiot's perogative to ignore it at their own leisure. She smiled to herself. The Reverend had finished his questions in due course and with all patience; Felipe had turned it into a performance and the audience, despite itself, had hung on his words. Perfection.
She spoke for Derzhava, taking more of a role than she liked but then most of them did not know the extent of the family's connections and so revealing an already transparant hand was no loss. Everyone knew her for Alek's daughter. The rest was somewhat complex. She was pleased with the answers they all gave, if only because it exonerated her child and brother in Nona's foolishness and Gideon's own over-weaning pride.
I keep you around to keep me humble
"Oh Nona, you should have had better advisors dear," Bella's voice murmured softly in the back seat of the car. Matrishka did not respond. "But then you were foolish enough to trust that all of them wanted you as their leader. Invictus. Most of them always assuming that power has to be held right out there for everyone to see. Tsk. tsk. tsk."
She coiled into the leather of the seat, eyes half-closed, musing. There would be no family war. There would be no covenant war - yet - and if Jarvis thought to use the incident of three crones attacking an invictus over a praxis matter as basis for one, he'd find the foothold uneven if it seemed an amusing endeavor to pursue with the Trust. That thought made her lip curl faintly in amusement. All in all it was settled with minimum fuss, much dancing of words, and a great deal less tension than she had dared hope. Despite the sheer thrill of the political dance in the past several nights, she knew the battles between houses would leave them all decimated and the Derzhava would have been hard put in the long run. And Bella never took her eyes off that long run.
She hit the button on her phone. Alek would want to know what happened. She felt like delivering this in person.
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12:19 pm
[Link] | The truth is, they're not worth my time lately.
Some of them are, surely still, my Derzhava, my family.
But I have to wonder if my New York darlings have been drinking tainted blood of late they're so impatient. Have they forgotten the steps we all knew so well? Or are we in a new childish phase where every conversation will be pithy commentary and impatience for action and control? We were always very good at commentary, but there comes a point when you have to learn to staple your lips together in order to procede through a conversation. My desire to do it for them is growing too swiftly.
Matrishka is surprised that we are leaving only an hour after we arrived, but she is intelligent enough to have learned not to ask. Pity that a ghoul half their age has managed to learn what they could not. Not so much a pity really.
I'm having a damned hard time caring what any of them thinks any longer, save for Aleksandyr and Amrit. Julian can accuse me of bending over backwards to fuck Jarvis if he likes - he wouldn't know how to even begin and if he truely believes that he is more the fool for it. When I wonder did they forget about acting? It is also not as though I am truely so close to the Reverend as all that. Alek deals with him better and I am embroiled in the step by step dance as harpy, organizing the rumors and information they will all want.
Alek and Amrit have their notes, know where to find me. But I have no patience for the rest of my beloved family who seems to have lost patience for the careful plans and words that we were always so good at in the past. Apparantly stupidity is a perilously slow progressive degeneration.
They say keep your enemies close.
Lately mine are as close as blood.
Current Mood: predatory
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11:48 am
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OOC public service announcement
My apologies to people who see this multiple times. Again...
In particular for cammies who rumor monger: (no one named specifically but boy did I hear interesting things this weekend)
My love life is none of your business.
The love life of my friends is none of your business.
My personal live and the personal lives of my friends is none of your business either.
If any of us choose to divulge the details of our personal lives to you, we will do so and then it is perhaps your business in the sense that you may listen.
You are not granted permission to conjecture as to whom I sleep with. You are not granted permission to ask others whom I sleep with. You are certainly not granted permission to tell others that I am sleeping with anyone whatsoever. Nor are you allowed to publically speculate upon the nature or health of my relationships.
This should be made crystal clear immediately. Further, if I hear of anyone doing so I will be contacting your coordinator and filing a complaint in the future as my love life is, I repeat, none of your damned business and further I detest unfounded and totally false conjecture.
Additionally I will also take it poorly if you choose to conjecture on something else such as metagaming, my MC class, or the stats upon my sheet. It is, like the rest, none of your damned business (unless you are my ST or in my ST chain and if you have a complaint you may direct it immediately to them.)
Additionally for the record despite that it is not any of your damned business...
I am not sleeping with Jay. I have never slept with Jay. I will never sleep with Jay. or JD. He is, in case you noticed, not quite into women, despite the fact that he hugs very well and is nice to curl up on a couch with. A hug does not mean you are sleeping with someone.
The fact that I am NOT sleeping with either of them is NOT negated by the fact that my PC's have and likely will again sleep with THEIR PC's. It is in-character. It remains there. Newsflash: my characters do many things that I will never do. They are pieces of paper.
I do not have 'hard role play' and have IC sex with people, even when they are my boyfriend, and particularly when they are NOT my boyfriend. This includes aforementioned individuals.
I do not have cyber scenes with any of the aforementioned individuals, despite my IC relationships with them. They are IC. Not. OOC.
I am not sleeping with anyone other than said boyfriend, that being Jake Tessler.
He's not sleeping with anyone else either.
We don't have an open relationship. We are doing fine, we are wonderful, and no I will not send you a wedding invite someday because it's none of your damned business.
That said...get your nose the fuck out of my life before I remove it with a sharp object.
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01:27 pm
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ooc: Friends list update
Just to let you know I have oocly cleaned the friends list. I have left only IC journals and IC-writing spaces (even if dedicated to multiple PCs) on the friends lists for my IC-writing spaces (Feyfire for Shayndel and emeraldlady for Bella)
Mike's OOC LJ is the exception as I don't believe he HAS an IC LJ. Everyone else's ooc ones got pulled off so I could read my friends list without fourteen billion meme's posted. Keep in mind I don't mind people being friended, it's just an organizational thing. Make sure you're logged in with an IC LJ before checking mine as well in case I lock them. :)
~Management
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04:24 pm
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Yes, she lives..
(oc momentary trip into Bella headspace...)
It is amazing that even a body long departed of life can feel so much. Still a courtesan after all these years and I make no secret of that when it suits me. The water is hot against my skin, steam clinging to my face and my hair. One of the rose petals in the water tickles my fingers.
So important to keep track of these little details, insignificant things in and of themselves but minutaie have a way of becoming important.
The region has ticked slowly along without my presence though I've still kept an ear open. Did you think I wasn't listening? Tsk. Tsk.
Bored...so bored lately. Trying to get the map everyone wanted and has forgotten about? Pointless. Examination has led nowhere, phone calls dead-ended... the entire process a waste of hours and days and weeks. No I'm not shocked, not at all. I suspected it would be when I started. I suspect in the meantime Nona and the rest of the Reverend's worker bees have been quite busy. I don't particularly care. I've no desire for a flashy position or a bestowal of power from the darling murder prophet.
Oh yes, an Invictus who doesn't want power.
Now I didn't say that did I?
You're not liiiistening...
Soon the last pieces will fall into play for this particular dance set. I've been seneschal here long enough. Face is established, name secured... time to switch things around a bit. Marcus knows. Oh yes he knows that look. Ah Cardinal Dirae how you indulge me.
Or how I indulge you. Which is it? We both believe the other exists at our sufferance perhaps. But then our tasks would be so much more difficult without the other. It would be a royal pain in the ass to have to break in a new prince and I've enough knots to weave without that. For now, it suits. But you and I both know if it ever comes to it, we'll both put eachother on the chopping block if it ever suits.
Yes Julian, Felipe you did in fact recognize that smile of mine didn't you.
Soon I will not be second to the cardinal any longer. I won't be first either, at least not to the traditional sense. I'm patient. I can wait, particularly when it lands me exactly where I want to land.
But then I've always landed exactly where I wanted to land and the only man who ever surprised me also gave me eternal life.
Yes Alek, I think you will be pleased indeed.
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11:02 am
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Children - April 26
I have so little tolerance for stupidity - feigned, superficial, unintentioned or otherwise.
So why is it really so shocking that a group of men over the age of three hundred are still so fucking stupid?
Bah, it's not surprising really, I just like to pretend in my hypocrticical bitch of a soul that it is. I at least admit what I am while the rest of them pretend loyalty that their actions have yet to show of late. "I am loyal out of love"
Bullshit.
Men always think the words love or loyalty or honor solves everything. They've never realized that they are not words to be thrown lightly or without full backing.
I am loyal to the family because I love them... but moreover I love what they are capable of doing with and for me. Sounds rather harsh when you admit that you're using everyone? You're delusional if you think anyone does anything otherwise. We all use eachother. It's easier to just admit it and stop with the pretensions of altruism. There is not a person in this family that does anything that does not benefit themselves.
And we'd have it no other way.
Even so... they're disgusting lately. Temporal power that is so easily passed and handled in conference rather than in power seizures. Sniping at eachother. No Amrit, they're not like that... fuck I hate being made a liar of. No issues with lieing myself, mind you, but at least it is my choice to do so.
Typical Felippe to think that just because I am his lover, I am not his sire. He always was a hot head. I adore it of him but sometimes that temper gets him in trouble and if he presses much further I'll have to deal with it. Already he has caused me trouble lately and I did too much covering of his foolish tongue in New York. He's smarter than that, I do hope he recalls it soon.
And Rinaldo? Typical of him to take a comment directed at Felippe to himself. My brother the other family hot head. If he thinks I'll go quietly or brook threats he's sadly mistaken. My hell hound isn't the only beast in my house. I'm just "the sister" though. Typical of all of them to see the "lady of the house" as less of a threat as to threaten back. Pity them their idiocy.
Alek is Alek. One would think after five hundred years or so they'd realize he is always going to call upon tradition and age in these matters. It's part of his being. I usually just ignore it to be truthful. I know his power has nothing to do with either but that he simply likes to say it.
Amrit is either amused or irritated. Possibly both. I don't blame her.
In truth I am just dissapointed and disgusted in it right now. We have forgotten how to bring our problems to one another, how to support one another. Perhaps I should hold to some standard of it myself, some sense of forgivness, some sense of leniancy, or familial love.
In truth I really don't care any longer since most of them can't seem to pull their heads out of their covnenant based asses long enough to think straight. Felippe is about "his crones" all the time now, Raven and Rinaldo mired in Dragon business and Raven at least following Cynric around like a vulture waiting for scraps, Alek up to his eyes in Invictus politicking. Funny how "family" falls to "covenant" lately and we don't bother talking to eachother about the problems between. We look for other sources instead.
Bella my dear, you've become such a cynic.
And I don't really care about that either.
Current Mood: Disgusted
Current Music: T.R.O.U.B.L.E
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09:54 pm
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Into the fold - 1948, New York
I watched as she slid the ring onto her finger and wondered what they were both thinking. I can't help but feel I perhaps nudged them overly into this, forced Alek's hand, but I refuse to believe that was wrong and truely Amrit could have simply turned away free from the burden of it.
So why ask?
Because the woman on setee is as close as a twin to my soul as I am able to find outside of Alek. Because the flash of her eyes and her words are as important to me as challenge, and her acceptance more important than freedom, her approval worth as much as Alek's in ways so different I cannot and will not explain it to him. He knows this, my Russian lion, that I see in her the balance to myself and yet the reflection of it as well.
Alek is wise enough not to voice this thing he does not understand. He knows the importance I place on this woman, enough that I would fight with him for her to have the chance to join us in deepest confidence, so that I no longer must dissapear into the night without a word to her. Every time I lost her cut deeper than the last.
No more.
They say soul mates exist and if that is so then the shards of my soul not my own sit here in this room this night. It is not a kind thing, to have a mate to your soul. They know everything about you, every pain and pride, every fault and correction, they twist in places that you yourself are too uncomfortable to venture. There words can be bitter, cruel, truth, or lie and they can just as easily crush you as they can raise you. No, these two have the ability to destroy me as much as they love me and maybe someday they will. I would not be surprised, though the hurt would be unbearable. They know this as well.
She has accepted and I pray - which is odd as I do not pray - that she has done so out of her own will and not out of expectation. I do not think she would. She is Amrit. She rarely bends. For Alek? I think she would only bend so much. For me?
I will not test that theory.
I love her too much.
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02:16 pm
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New York, New Year, Same Old Same Old.
Well that was interesting...at least mostly. I can't pretend that the kindred are not as they have always been - petty, manipulative and power hungry. At least they are consistant.
It's been some time since I've visited New York and my dear child and brother. Time enough for some torment, socializing and politics all at once. Expediancy cannot be over-valued. The little Lancea Prince (what is the trend with the religious fanatics holding praxis anyway?) threw herself a birthday party. Leave it to the religious to throw their own celebrations for their own birthdays. Oh, and the young. Lovely girl, really. Romulus is older than she is, but lovely girl, if a bit on the insanely fanatic side. Oh who am I kidding? She's a religious zealot with a hair across her not-so-royal behind and has been since the day she wormed her way onto the throne.
I may be a courtesan but at least I'm honest about it, no hiding behind sanctimonious speeches and sermons. Not so surprising that she performed a blessing at her own party. Not terribly surprising that she had Uri killed either, though far more guache. Yes, lets start a party with an execution. Where do they _find_ these people?
Uri was invictus. The covenant is of course decidedly unhappy that he was destroyed for his apparant involvement in destroying the influence bases of the city. We're a bit unhappier that he wasn't working alone, that no one seems to know who he was working with, and his involvement is all neatly - or not so neatly - tied to the rise of the little Lancea snit's rise to power. It seems Uri and his now dead sire are in part responsible for the overthrow of the old prince. There's also the skeletons in Felippe's basement; how quaint we have our own propane burning chamber, who'd have thought. Seems the little lancea sent some her ghouls after the old prince and they didn't rather make it. None of this is overtly surprising - prince's die all the time, usually by their predecessor's hands. It is odd to wipe out your support base however, or to have them turn against you so vehemently. Tsk tsk, always choose your allies carefully. It's a bitch when they turn.
Little girl, whatever did you do to make them all so very very angry?
1919 seems to be a popular year, a popular date. They whisper it's all tied to something in 1919. We were rather new here then. Four years since we'd carved out a new family manor in the city. Try as I might I can't recall anything overly significant about the dates of 1919. A careful scan through the vagueries of my journal reveals...
... well fuck a torn page.
I rarely remove anything from these books.
I wonder what made me do so, since the security of the havens is nearly impenetrable.
More on that later I suppose. The party itself was a hit as parties go, but it had little to do with the prince and more to do with the company. Oh the glittering throng of marvels and idiots. Mostly idiots, a few marvels. I have to admit I enjoy working a room with Raven, tormenting the boys - when they don't run off - and playing the good little invictus runner.
I wonder how long it will take before I get utterly fed up with that little bitch of an invictus toadying to the Reverand. Probably not long. She was double checking my work with the harpy - intolerable since the harpy barely knew what end of up the sky was up. If I cannot manage such a simple seduction and question and answer session I should be drug into the sunlight and staked.
No takers? Ah, good then.
Regardless, little to chew on there for a time. Let her reveal all her cards and allies with crone and Dracul. I'll hold onto my secrets for now. They'll be of far more use to family and covenant later anyway than taking care of some little prince's incompetency that the entire court is already babbling about. Subtlety was not the air of the night for most.
For the Derzhava? Well Raven and I did accompany that wonderful Marcel to his casino for a bit of a romp. Intriguing man that, charming. Not my Alexi, but charming. And genial. And quite useful.
I do love my work.
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02:38 pm
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Aleksandyr Evengii - 1500's Venice
I hated him.
I truely and utterly loathed the man who stood before me, well groomed and arrogant and supremely confidant that he had not only arranged an appointment with one of Venice's pre-eminent courtesans, but also managed to bribe her servants into securing her entire week. Marilena had of course told me of this.
I still hated him, arrogant rich noble bastard who thought I was so easily bought as that. Aleksandyr Evengii was his name, and his obvious charm, his easy manner, the handsome face, just made me want to throttle him more for not knowing how lucky he was that I even condescended to leave my room to see him.
He tested me for information as we moved through the salon, asking about this noble, and that, of this trade route in that. I gave him little, nothing that he didn't already know it seemed and I think it possibly irritated him that I was witholding what I knew. Good. He deserved it for his arrogance.
"And that one?" His hand gestured vaguely to Enzo as his eyes watched me carefully. So that was it then. Aleksandyr was here for Enzo or because of him. What was the bastard planning on doing? trading me to his compatriots for another night of blood and burns? Had to be careful here, for all his charm and that he was a foreigner it was all too possible that Aleksandyr, whom I had been steadily dancing around for hours, was in league with Enzo and I would not let that man near me again.
He waited for an answer that I was not giving. "He's an impediment to some family business." It was the first spark of honesty in him all night and a weakness at that from one such as him. Neither of us could afford it in that dance and despite my irriation I had to admit one thing.
Aleksandyr Evengii, from the first moment I saw him, was very very good at the danse macabre.
I thought the information I gave him would be the end of it but it was myself he sent after Enzo in the salon halls, my words that formed the lies while I bridled at the risk and raged at it and wondered why I had bothered to do as he asked.
I could have left.
The other thing I had to admit about Aleksandyr Evengii was that he was intriguing.
It made me hate him more.
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10:44 am
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OOC: The soundtrack
Well okay so I've only got like two songs in mind at the moment but that's because I haven't opened the CD cases yet to dig through ;)
Other Characters:
The trinity-
Carmina burana (O Fortuna) - Trans Siberian Orchestra arrangement
The Riddle - Scarlet Pimpernel
Alex and Bella- Duet - Bond
If we kiss - no earthly idea who sings this any longer
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04:26 pm
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The OOC Skinny - Please read
Okay this is the ooc bitch post/preparing for the lockdown of the LJ
So far I've had a standard policy of Friending the folks who friended this LJ. I've listed below who that currently is but I NEED to know who you are if I don't have it figured out. I will quite simply remove you otherwise. These entries can get intense, private, and offer major insight into my PC. I do not leave people friended if I do not trust them with that information, and if I do know know who they are I can't trust them to keep ooc ooc and ic ic. Some of them I directed here I know but I've forgotten who some of them are. It will take me a bit to learn new names and I apologize for having to be reminded :(
YOU MUST REPLY IF YOU ARE ON THE LIST AS AN UNKNOWN TO REMAIN ON MY FRIENDS LIST!
Secondly... anyone (and I mean anyone including any st's or players) that takes it into their head to use my entries here to berate me, tell me I'm playing incorrectly, that I don't get the venue, or that I am witholding information which they do not as a player or an ST have a requirement to know (i.e. I'm sorry but you don't need a breakdown of my pc's connections and friends and lovers in totalus.) will also be removed. I don't care. I really don't. I went through all that bullshit last chronicle. My downtime reports will contain neccesary info for ST's involved and questions may be asked off those. If you're a player I don't give a flying frig if you like my play style or not, or if you like what my character does. My LJ. Respect it or you don't get to read it anymore.
Abrasive? Yup. But the last year of play almost made me quit four times because of the ooc bullshit factors and I utterly refuse to put up with it again.
Anyway, without further ado the list of "i don't know who you are's"
_nefarious_ Raphael Vittorio Molinari - Jeff
astrumater Marilena Galitsin - Aine
blood_rite blood_rite - Jay
bloodofages Aleksandyr Nicholaivich Evengii - Jake
cerdd_til_asura Amrit, Nia, and Anne-Marit - Kat
charliegir1 charliegir1 - Dani
chyldprodg ChyldProdG - Justin
corstis Corstis - Mike
hunts_in_shadow Rose Bloodmire - Becky
intimatesorrow Amira Azizah Safiyyah bint Al-Feisal - okay who is this one?
jamesbondsgirl Gretchen's Camarilla Characters - Gretchen
jaselyn_kane jaselyn_kane - Amy
lady_355 Rebecca Allen (aka...) - Tara
mad01requiemvst US2002021104 - I assume this is Jason S?
marcel_vasser marcel_vasser - Paul
mila_michaela mila_michaela - Danielle
pater_familias pater_familias - likewise clueless, was this Mark?
pcharacter Kaatje - Wendy
pen_dragon Ramirez Pendragon - Jakes' ooc
ravagingbeast Nicholas Glencross - Nick
russianraven Flight of a Raven - Linda
serrated_rose Louis Masters - Pearce
shadechronicles shadechronicles - Alex
simon_cassio simon_cassio - Dain
tessmc Selena McDevitt - Selena's ooc
thedarkmother The Dark Mother - Selena
tokentales Token's Tales - Chris
vvmiavv vvmiavv - Dustie (I think)
xiaolei Shen - Julie :)
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10:57 pm
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ooc: stuff to do
Okay need to do this myself.
List of scenes to run:
Felipe/Amrit/Bella: Three vampires walk into a bar 1
Alek/Amrit/Bella: Three vampires walk into a bar 2
JD's character/Bella: General siblet stuff
Torri's character/Bella: Siblet stuff
Chris - Set up bkacground tie
NH folks - set up ties with them
Finalize final NPC child bits with ghoul etc
Set up tie with S&S
Set up tie with Kirk
List of bits to flesh out:
New Orleans 1700's
Boston visits: 1900's/current
NPC childe/ghoul given to Rev
Getting there... sorta. (isn't this list supposed to get shorter?)
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02:28 pm
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1500's Venice - On becoming a courtesan
(oc: allright Lady, you want out I know I know. Go ahead and lets see what ya got)
The man in my mother's suite wears nothing more than a pair of breeches and a tunic and that is unlaced at the throat. His knee bounces as I sit on it and he watches me with a measure of amused pride. I already know it is amused pride, even though this is the earliest thing I remember. My fingers are sticky from marzipan that he has brought me. My mother is displeased that I am here, in her private suite, but he asked for me.
She has not bothered to clothe herself. I see her naked enough. I know she is a whore- she is good but not so good as to be among the ranks of the courtesans - those ladies who were paid for companionship as well as sex. She resents them and resents me. I am an unfair burden and a mistake. The man strokes me hair and sets me on the floor to look at me.
"She'll make a fine courtesan one day herself."
"She will be trained." I did not understand it then. Later, after he was dead I found this senator of Venice was my father, not that i received neither dowrey or acknowledgement from that. I did not understand they were defining my future already. I was perhaps six, but my mother's exotic looks and father's eyes were already getting attention. I was a beautiful child I would one day be a beautiful woman. And a woman in venice was either courtesan, a whore, a maid, or a wife. No wife would take such a servant to their house it only invited trouble. Whores were not so expensive but not so well received as their courtesan counterparts. No man would take me without a dowery and my mother was not that succesful.
Wouldn't she be jealous to see me now I think.
I would be a courtesan. She didn't even deny this. I was the path to her own future - even if I was an unwanted sniveling brat in her eyes. I can never really accuse her of giving anymore than she ever received from the world. I do not blame her.
That's a lie. I do, but she's dead and I am not.
They had absolutely no idea what path they were starting and if they were not long wasted to ash I would have to laugh at them.
My father - I do not even remember his name now though I can safely say he was at least never one of patrons - was not the first to tell me I was beautiful. The parade of men in and out of my mother's suites lavished attention on me. I was dressed in the finest silks and velvets they had to offer, a second offering of payment beyond that which they brought to my mother. She never whored me out but I think she often considered it. Even as a child they liked me more than her. I learned how to bat my eyes and smile at them, the picture of innocence even if anyone could tell from the cries what they were doing with maman behind closed doors.
Jewels and money for maman. Sweets, kind words, and fripperies for me.
It is possible to be jealous of just a child, you know. Of the affection she receives, of the kind words and the infatuation that a grown woman - a slave turned well-paid whore - receives. She never let me forget that. She was master of the household and I was there by accident. I rather enjoyed reminding her of the irony of all of it later on but time will come for that tale too.
They lavished attention on me those men and from the time I was old enough to understand all this I knew what they would make me into. The training started when I was twelve. Literature, history, tactics. I had a quick mind my tutors said. Voracious actually. The more I learned the more I wanted to learn because I knew it was an edge. I watched carefully you see. The men who came to my mother came for sex. The men who went to the courtesans went for more than just that. I had seen them walking the narrow canal streets and talking from my window. Simply talking. I had seen their beautiful eyes and their carefully done makeup, the jewels, all pale in comparison to those sharp, bladed tongues. There were cripples and women with no mark of beauty to their name that could not beat their paramours off with a stick they were so sought after.
My mother thought it was all artiface and primping. How wrong she was.
At twelve I knew that seduction was in the mind. I knew the politics of Venice. I knew the most popular literature and poets and music. I could play the dulcimer marginally well. I could dance, sing, write, and I have always had a good turn of phrase.
Not that I minded a pretty face as an edge.
I was sixteen by the time my mother taught me the arts of bedding a man. It was the age of a lady then. My body had caught up with my mind. Callers stopped for me without any introductions. venetians loved their gossip and I had been told often enough I was striking. Pretty words really, meant to win me.
I was sixteen when my mother set her mouth in that grim line and curled my hair and applied the makeup and took me to the salon herself.
They forgot her in five minutes, even as she tried to be my pimp, arrange the appointments, take the best callers.
I already knew who the best callers were. I would not let my mother's ineptitude spoil my career - this I had known since I was a child. I hired Maria with the promise that my first month of payments would be hers for her teachings. It was she who taught me the richest and most connected members of Venetian nobility. She, in all her haridan faced glory, who taught me that a well placed word would entice them more than bared flesh.
Maman soon gave up and went back to her suites. She took that out on my hide later but I suppose I thought it was funny really. Jealousy is such a petty trait and worthless. Why want what others have when you can better spend the time making sure you have everything yourself. Being the best does not leave time for comparing yourself to the competition. You must obliterate it.
Sixteen seems young these days.
It wasn't so young then. Nor was I ever naive. My weeks were booked solid from my first step into the salon and no one, not maman, nor any man would take that success from me. It was simply not allowable.
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03:14 pm
[Link] | So far...
Name: Arabella (have not come up with last name, but I suspect that is the one she is currently going by as well as it being her original name. I have to poke through some russian names to see if I find something else)
Clan: ventrue
Bloodline: working on that
Covenant: I like Circle of Crone, the natural simplicity of it appeals to her as does the somewhat irreverant nature. However, she is manipulative and likes being in control so I am still not certain. This DOES fit in with being a courtesan and flying in the face of tradition.
Invictus: Traditional ventrue covenant which DOES work with her manipulative side very very well. This would fit in with a more formal court presentation aspect.
I like the sound of Ordo Dracul but I think it's probably overly religious and mystical for her so I'm waffling between the other two.
More later (I left my world of darkness book at home which explains virtues and vices so I can't keep going at the moment.) I am further hesittant to look at merits, flaws, and the rest without a LARP guide.
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