Shattered By The Future [Felicia]

[Nireva Hale]

This chapel of ritual smells of dead human sacrifices from the altar.
Bedouins and nomads, carried through the times.
Through pestilences and famines, these ancient scrolls of rhymes.
"Our fallen angel, vexed, was banished from the sky."
"Recite now from the text; pray for all to die."
______________________________Ghost - Ritual

"Niri. What's my dad's name?"

"What about me and my sister? Not the names we're using now."

With the locked door at her back, Nireva sat haphazardly in the bathroom, staring at the hands which had typed out the responses to those questions on autopilot. The man who had introduced himself as Eric Bell - a man whose power allegedly worked in tandem with that of his sister - had in fact been Léonard Bellerose, a two-hundred and eighty-year-old immortal who had been born into French nobility. Those facts, however, paled quite rapidly into insignificance as soon as Nireva realised the most important fact about the newcomer her grandmother had summoned into the rather exclusive online chatroom.

Eric was her son. Having caught a glimpse at the Rahal family tree the last time she was at the Cazenovia estate, Nireva had learned that, of the nearly two dozen children to whom she'd given birth over the course of nearly four and a half centuries, seven had inherited her immortality. However, whether due to a need to prevent confusion or to maintain anonymity, the family tree had only listed the birth names of her and her relatives. Léonard and his elder sister Mathilde were there, both marked with a symbol which denoted their inheritance of the Rahal's immortality gene. She had left them - just as Felicia had done with her - when Eric was eighteen and, like the rest of her previous families, had never run into them again.

Not only had Khalidah tracked down her second eldest immortal son, she had also taken the initiative and indirectly put him in touch with his mother under the pretenses of exposing him to others like him who possessed an ability. Almost as soon as Eric had logged himself out of the chatroom - no doubt to call his sister and tell her what had just happened - Nireva had wandered out of the apartment's living room in a daze. Not only was she utterly stunned by what - or who - she'd just encountered, she also found herself incensed. Her grandmother had drove them togeher as though she had been playing matchmaker. In the process, she'd lied to Eric as to the reason why and simply not bothered to tell her a damn thing!

It took a lot of emotional weight to drive Nireva to tears but, not long after the en-suite bathroom door was slammed in her face, Jenna heard a quiet, frustrated sobbing from inside. Try as she might, Nireva couldn't get Jenna to leave her be. The door might not have budged an inch, but her girlfriend - to her credit - refused to go to bed. Not many words were exchanged between them that night and, by the time she finally tired herself out and drifted off to sleep, Nireva could only assume that her girlfriend had stayed put.

Her dreams that night had been, predictably, of eighteenth century France. Back then, she hadn't been a university student studying to be a doctor. She hadn't been a former exotic dancer or anything quite so wild. Back then, she had been Countess Emelie Bellerose; a noblewoman now consigned to the obscure recesses of history as someone who miraculously survived a gunshot wound to the head at her own wedding and was forced to wear a porcelain mask for the rest of her life, until she died at the age of eighty-six. Of course, two centuries of copying, rewriting and second-hand accounts had introduced a few inaccuracies to the tale. And only three people alive today knew the complete truth of the matter.

The shooting had occurred when the countess had tried to stop a pair of brash noblemen from starting a duel at her wedding reception. As far as everyone present at the time were concerned, she'd died then and there. It wasn't until the bullet had been extracted and she'd been creatively prettied up for her own funeral that her ability was able to actually kick in. By the time her body had managed to repair the damage - it was, after all, the first time she'd been shot in the head - she had already been interred in the Bellerose mausoleum, awaiting both visiting mourners and her inevitable burial.

Initially, Nireva had tried to obey her mother's advice. Realising that there was no real way to explain her situation if anyone found her, she had tried to sneak her way out of the crypt, steal some of her belongings and be gone before anyone awoke the following morning. What she hadn't counted on, however, was her husband - Cesaire Bellerose - to be entering the mausoleum to grieve just as she was trying to leave. As soon as she'd seen the elated look in his eyes, Nireva had immediately changed her mind. She was weak. And madly in love. After letting him and their servants in on the secret of her ability and how they planned to erect a charade to explain how she was still among the living, a messenger was sent to the finest carnival mask-makers in Venice, asking for their immediate assistance with a complex project. From there, the project which eventually became a minor folktale was born.

All in all, she'd worn that mask for over fifty years. When she finally left her children behind, she couldn't help but feel she'd left a piece of herself along with them. But, as she learned centuries later, they had obeyed her. They'd spread news of her death - at quite a considerable age for the eighteenth century - before making the trip north to Paris to donate her belongings to a museum, where they'd remained ever since. That lifetime had been one of the better ones. But, unlike her mother and grandmother, Nireva still didn't feel as though she was ready to entertain the notion of tracking down her immortal children. The fact Khalidah had done so for her without telling her was what pissed her off the most. She felt betrayed. And, when that betrayal came at the hands of her flesh and blood, it made it all the worse.

"Niri..?" She didn't know what time it was when she heard Jenna's voice again, accompanied by a knock on the bathroom door. It felt early; far from the usual time either of them awoke. "I'm, uh... gonna head out to the airport to meet your mom, okay?" Jenna had mentioned something about Felicia declaring her intent to storm across the country to be at her daughter's side after the bullshit Khalidah had pulled. Khalidah had placed an Intellitouch jet at her disposal but, from what Jenna remembered seeing on the chatroom, the Rahal elder didn't seem the least bit apologetic for what she'd done. "We'll be about an hour. Maybe a little longer. You just... take your time, okay?"

"W-.. What time is it?" Her throat still felt sore and her voice was missing its usual brightness. Understandable, really. "It's a little past five-thirty in the morning. Felicia's been on a plane from New York since about midnight." Jenna really couldn't imagine what her girlfriend was going through right now. "Take all the time you need, okay? I'll be taking my cell with me. You wanna talk, just... call me." A couple of repetitions of the sound of a closing door later, Jenna was gone, leaving her alone with her thoughts. Now that one of her sons had encountered her in the twenty-first century, what the hell was she going to do?

[Felicia Soler]

Now that we see all the horror and pain
We must walk through the darkness and rain
The sun we will see if we stand through the flood
Because we are bounded by blood
______________________________Gaia Epicus – Bounded By Blood

Los Angeles, California

Her mother was a real fucking piece of work sometimes.

After unceremoniously reuniting Nireva with one of her children--over a freaking impersonal ass chatroom--Khalidah made herself scarce. Par for the course for her mother. Felicia would have been surprised if her mother stuck around to endure the emotional fallout. She figured that her mother had been alive for so long, that her sense of humanity had all but left her ages ago.

She texted Helena to let her know what was going on as she arrived at the private airstrip a few miles from their estate. While she was at home and the entire situation was evolving, she retrieved a small piece of luggage from a closet and threw a handful of clothes and toiletries into it, not sure how long she’d be spending at Niri and Jen’s place. Rather than wait for a chauffeur to pick her up, she jumped on her motorcycle and blazed down the road, reaching the small airport in a matter of minutes.

Once she’d stowed the bike safely away in the plane’s hangar, she made her way onto the tarmac and walked up the stairs onto the moderately sized Lear jet, then took her seat. As the plane taxied, she called Niri and left a message, letting her know that she would be there soon. Well, relatively soon. It was, after all, a five hour flight. She texted Jen to tell her where to pick her up.

Felicia spent the rest of the flight asleep, only waking up once the plane touched down at an airstrip just outside L.A. city limits. She could have instructed the pilot to fly her into LAX, but because the jet had her mother’s company name emblazoned on both of its sides and she didn’t feel like dealing with publicity, she opted for a more private option.

She walked to Jen’s car and let herself in, tossing her small travel bag into the backseat. “How’s Niri doing?” It was a stupid question; she knew full well how Niri was doing. God, why did her mother always pull this shit? For someone so old, she had no common sense. Or decency. She would have been surprised, but then again this was the same woman who’d taken her to a strip club and reunited her with Niri--an exotic dancer--for the first time in several hundred years. She’d wanted to kill her mother there, but whatever.

Now that Khalidah had pulled this shit with her daughter, Felicia didn’t intend on being in communication with her for a long while. “Fuck, man! I can’t believe she fucking did that! What the hell was she fucking thinking?”

The drive from the airport to Niri and Jen’s apartment continued in relative silence. Felicia was still somewhat groggy from the flight. As much as she wanted to comfort her daughter, she also wanted to curl up in bed and fall asleep. It had been both an emotional and very late night for all of them.

When they reached the apartment, Jen escorted her inside. Niri was still locked in the bathroom. Felicia knocked lightly on the door and took a few steps back. “Sono qui, Lucia. Apri la porta.”

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ф Word count: 707
ф Outfit: outfit
ф Other: Short post is short but w/e

[Nireva Hale]

United we are 'til the day we fall!
A chain, unbreakable! Every link is allied to our mighty vow!
We're bloodbound! We aim for the sun!
The luminous moon will take us high overground!
______________________________Hammerfall - Bloodbound

It wasn't often that Jenna drove anywhere in the early hours of the morning. Unless any extenuating circumstances warranted her to rise earlier than the norm, she would have been curled up in bed with Nireva right now. However, the night had been anything but ordinary. Neither of them had got more than an hour or two of sleep after Khalidah's antics in the Intellitouch-moderated chatroom, leaving her granddaughter with an unforeseen reunion with one of her immortal children before making herself scarce. Despite such an event being a presumably joyful affair, nobody had really approved of how the surprise had just been dumped on the two of them without warning.

Jenna had a good mind to slap Khalidah the next time she saw her. Nireva had cooped herself up in the bathroom and all but cried herself to sleep as she fought to make sense of her tumultuous emotional state. There were so many feelings buzzing around inside her at that one moment that she had no idea how she should feel. Happy that she'd spoken to one of her offspring? Enraged that Khalidah had taken the choice in the matter away from her? Annoyed that her reaction might have suggested something different to her son and scared him off, leading them to drift apart for a few more decades? The whole situation frustrated her and she was pretty much helpless to do anything to fix it.

Rather than touch down at LAX and garner the attention of anyone who might have been coming from or going to an early-morning flight, Felicia had instead instructed the pilot to divert to a smaller airfield on the outskirts of town and informed Jenna accordingly. It was a little more inconvenient for her to get there by car but, loathe as she was to leave Nireva home alone for any longer than was necessary, she settled in for the slightly longer car journey.

Before long, the roads were losing lanes as her trusty yet objectively crappy Pontiac G3 transitioned from the highways to side streets until the only available route open to her was a small service road leading into a completely empty parking area. From there, she could see both the the runways and the hangars and other buildings which serviced them. Like the roads behind her for the past couple of miles, they sat completely empty, presumably only manned by the night shift skeleton crew necessary to have the airstrip remain operational. For the time being, Jenna stayed put. She knew that Felicia would be arriving any moment, just as Nireva's mother knew that she would be there waiting for her.

It was only when she heard the sound of jet engines overhead that she unfastened her seat belt and actually bothered to disembark her car. The Intellitouch-branded Lear jet, even in the dusky light of the hours preceding the dawn, was a hard object to miss and, as the landing gear squealed to signal the wheels' sudden introduction to friction, she slammed the door to the car behind her. Before long, Felicia was striding across to meet her, overnight bag in tow. This morning, words didn't need to be shared between them, leaving the air around them quiet save for the dull impact of a bag on the back seat and, eventually, the one-point-something litre engine of the vehicle tasked with ferrying them both back across town to the apartment.

"How's Niri doing..?"

A silly question. They'd both been there to witness Nireva's reaction to Khalidah's dubious surprise; Jenna seeing it in person while Felicia learned of it second-hand. Neither of them had thought the gesture magnanimous at the time. It was forced, unannounced and without Nireva's knowledge; three hallmarks they despised about what Khalidah had done. "She's holding it together for the most part, I guess," Jenna sighed. Even as her girlfriend, there was no way that she would ever understand how Nireva was feeling. She was almost four-hundred and fifty years old and her son - now going by the name Eric Bell - hadn't seen hide nor hair of her for over two centuries. "She cried herself to sleep in the bathroom; refused to come to bed or even open the door. I just... stayed by her side. Did the b-..."

The sound of Felicia's hand angrily slapping the dashboard cut Jenna off mid-sentence. "Fuck, man!" Like mother, like daughter. Whatever anger at the situation she assumed Nireva to be withholding, Jenna was exposed to it from her mother as she... didn't bother to withhold it. "I can't believe she fucking did that!! What the hell was she fucking thinking?!" Beyond the angry outbursts, the two of them had nothing much to talk about. No other topics were dwelling in their minds for the whole journey. Felicia had made a cross-country flight for one reason alone.

"She's, uh... she's in the bathroom. It's an en-suite; you know where our bedroom is, right?" The apartment wasn't a big place. Even without prior knowledge of the layout, it didn't take long for Felicia to find the bathroom door, the visible light in the small gap between it and the frame showing that Nireva hadn't budged since Jenna had left. "Sono qui, Lucia." The sound of Felicia's voice was enough to rouse her daughter somewhat. She hadn't been kidding when she'd announced in the chat that she was going to march over to her home. "Apri la porta."

Groggily, Nireva slid to her feet and kicked the rolled-up towel she'd been using as a pillow to one side. Still wearing her clothes from the day before, there was no need for her to feel embarrassed and, with little further delay, she finally unlocked and opened the bathroom door. Her whole countenance looked sullen and tired, her eyes reddened from the crying she'd done earlier. "Y-.. You didn't have to come," she sighed, quickly closing the distance and coiling her arms around her mother's torso in a tight embrace. "But this is way better than a phonecall."

"I'm, uh... gonna go make something to eat." Jenna seized the opportunity to tactfully excuse herself and backed away towards the door leading out into the hallway. "I'll be in the kitchen if either of you want anything, okay?"

"She's fucking done this to us twice...", Nireva whined quietly. Immortal she might have been, but just what could she really do against Khalidah and her whims? She was, by all accounts, a force of nature. Even for them. All they could really do most of the time was cling on for the ride and watch as she deigned not to care whenever they voiced their inevitable protest. Mothers knew best, after all. Thirty-odd thousand year old immortal ones, even more so. "Khalidah could do this to me five more goddamn times!!" With Eric's elder sister Charlotte no doubt accompanying him to whatever reunion they eventually organised as a package deal, Nireva's branch of the family tree stated that a further five of her twenty-three children to date possessed some form of the Rahal immortality gene.

This debacle had proved that it wasn't a question of if the Rahal matriarch would spring any more surprises on them, but when. Breaking away from the hug, Nireva slumped herself down on the edge of the bed. "I don't know what to do. I'm not ready for this! I was gonna track 'em down in my own time; in a far better way than how she did it. Th-.. That..." It almost physically hurt to refer to her antecedents in such a way but, after the shit Khalidah had just pulled, she felt it was warranted. "That bitch doesn't care about how we feel! W-.. We're just children to her; still only centuries old and liable to piss ourselves without her guiding hand. I.. I'm not standing for this. I'm not."

[Felicia Soler]

Chasing myself through time,
always falling further behind.
What seems to last forever can fall apart in the blink of an eye.
Always afraid of immortality
Too proud to turn my back.
I'd give anything to return to the now
But there's nothing left to give.
Carefully crafting a path to the end to rid myself of this plague within,
and lay my soul to rest.
Transcend, transcend.
The time has come for you to forgive.
______________________________Outrun the Sunlight – Apeirophobia

"Y-.. You didn't have to come." Nireva pulled her into a hug which Felicia immediately reciprocated. She held onto her daughter for what was probably a few seconds too long, but it wasn’t every day that she got to hug her. That and it was really awkward to know that she was Nireva’s mother and they both appeared to be the same age to complete strangers. "But this is way better than a phonecall."

“I figured that a phone call wouldn’t have been sufficient. My next scheduled surgery isn’t for the next three days, so I’ve got some time to kill.” She was rarely on call as a surgeon; most of her heart surgeries were scheduled months beforehand, which rendered her unable to be on call. She glanced over at Jenna as the young woman excused herself to the kitchen. Yeah, this was probably a conversation that was a little too personal for her to be privy to, but Felicia wouldn’t have minded if she stuck around.

"She's fucking done this to us twice..."

“I know. I’m not defending her, but given how old she is, I think she’s completely lost touch with reality or common sense or humanity or something.” She really shouldn’t have been surprised when her mother chose the chatroom as the place where she would reunite Niri with her son. But reuniting with him wasn’t Khalidah’s choice; it was either Niri’s choice or the choice of her children to come looking for her.

When she’d first been made aware that Niri had survived into the 21st century, she was elated. She was not elated in the choice of venue for the reunion; a gentlemen’s club where Niri had been dancing to, well, pay for rent and food. Like seriously? Her mother--quite literally one of the most powerful and enigmatic women in the world--couldn’t have maybe set up their reunion in a restaurant? Niri’s apartment? A hotel? Anywhere other than where Niri was prancing around half-naked with men tucking money into a g-string? Yeah, she’d seen Niri naked many times as she was raising her, but seeing her like that was so goddamned awkward that if she’d been human, she would have died from secondhand embarrassment.

"Khalidah could do this to me five more goddamn times!!" Niri groaned.

“Well, yeah, she could, but she won’t.” She had no idea how she was going to make good on that statement. Her mother did whatever the fuck she wanted to without regard for anyone. Even if Felicia threatened her with something like never speaking to her again, it would have had no effect. There was literally nothing she could threaten her mother with, and that really fucking sucked. “Of course I can tell her, ‘Ma, please don’t do this ever again’ until I’m blue in the face, and she’ll go ahead and do it anyway, so I don’t know what to do.”

Nireva sat down on the bed in a huff and sighed, exasperated. "I don't know what to do. I'm not ready for this!” She punctuated her words with somewhat melodramatic hand gestures. Felicia couldn’t blame her for not knowing how to react. Her mother had set off an emotional bomb without warning, and they were now being hit with the shrapnel while Khalidah had seen to it to make herself scarce just like she always did after completely upturning someone’s life. “I was gonna track 'em down in my own time; in a far better way than how she did it. Th-.. That..."

“‘Cunt’?” Felicia suggested. It was how her mother was acting, so the word was entirely justified.

“That bitch doesn't care about how we feel!” Felicia nodded in agreement. “W-.. We're just children to her; still only centuries old and liable to piss ourselves without her guiding hand. I.. I'm not standing for this. I'm not."

“I’m right there with you. But arguing with her is completely fucking useless because she’ll just shut us down anyway with some guilt trippy bullshit, so we’re probably better off just dealing with the situation.” Ugh, honestly, what the fuck was wrong with her mother? She hoped that if she ever reached her mother’s age that she was able to at least retain her common sense. There were plenty of people in the world who already thought she’d lost all semblance of her humanity because she was such a little firestarter, but she still had a long way to go before she even touched the borders of her mother’s complete disregard for the emotions of others.

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ф Word count: 1032
ф Outfit: outfit
ф Other: Short post is short but w/e

[Nireva Hale]

Hello, I walk into empty hallways tell me not to hurry.
Caution sends the signal not to look around the bend and single.
Out the shadows whisper through the twisted corners, waiting...
Silently for hours, watching every move and shiver with eyes that glitter.
______________________________Bright September - Sleepless Lullaby

"I'm right there with you." Why was it that she and Felicia were only the closest they'd been for four centuries due to the insensitivity of their mutual progenitor? Only two events prior to this had prompted Felicia to rush across the country to be at her daughter's side - the discovery of Nireva in the twenty-first century and her possible demise spurred by the temporary loss of her powers - and, while they only knew of her involvement in one event, Khalidah had been directly responsible for both. Somehow, the Rahal matriarch had managed to negate the abilities of every empowered individual on the planet for twelve weeks and the only reason she felt to even think as to why was to give specials a dose of humility.

Just as Felicia said, it was as if Khalidah had taken leave of her humanity. Living as long as she had, it wasn't entirely unbelievable. "But arguing with her is completely fucking useless because she'll just shut us down anyway with some guilt-trippy bullshit." Listening to her own mother express the futility of calling out the one responsible for her current emotional turmoil only served to make Nireva feel worse. If arguing wasn't going to be of any use, the only alternative was to eventually play into what Khalidah had set into motion. Now that Nireva, Eric and, presumably, Charlotte too knew of each other's present-day identities, they were going to be inexorably drawn together.

Khalidah had forced the issue and, much to the chagrin of everyone but her, the only thing they could really do was not resist. Doing otherwise would have been a waste of time, while going through with it would have cemented the fact in the immortal's mind that what she did was right. No matter what Nireva did from here, Khalidah would win. Her own grandmother had played her. And what pissed her off the most was that it was working. "She's done something that can't be undone!" Her hands slammed against the mattress, a dull thump signalling her angry outburst. "Whether now or later, I have to go along with this; I have to go and meet Eric and Charlotte. And she fucking knows it!"

What made things all the worse was that it was only the early morning. The day hadn't really begun and, already, Nireva wanted it to be over. "Do you think they'll understand if I... hold off on talking to them for a while?" In her mind, there was a colossal difference between knowing she had seven immortal children and some of her immortal children knowing who she was. The veil of anonymity brought about by the passage of time was one of the few things that allowed her to cope. It shielded her from the enormity of the lasting effect certain facets of her immortal life had the possibility to inflict on the world at large.

There was always going to be the possibility that she would create a lasting legacy. Most of her lovers and offspring would succumb to old age; Jenna included. However, when the DNA of the children to whom she gave birth aligned just right, they would be granted the same double-edged gift she had. Leaving them behind was hard enough. Realising that they were still around, decades or even centuries later? That hurt. "They must need time to process this too, right?" A shaking hand slowly rose up to her face to wipe at her moistening eyes. Elation, annoyance, anger, shock. The surprise had left her finding it difficult to figure out which emotion she should be feeling first. "I've... n-... not had to be a mother in so long."

Her seventh and most recent immortal child - given the name Zoe Durante - had been born in January 1959. That was the last time she'd been pregnant. By the time 1978 rolled around, Nireva was forced elsewhere by events beyond her control. While not meaning to, her daughter had been indirectly responsible and, for the almost four decades which followed, motherly thoughts had been far from her mind. She hadn't fallen pregnant in a generation and her personality had shifted to embrace the freedom from childcare. Right now, she wasn't the motherly type. Of course, in the future, she eventually would be. It was inevitable. "Part of me doesn't want to be. I... I still wanna be me. Niri, not Emelie Bellerose. Even if only slightly, I... I still have to be her to them, whether it's how they still see me or how I have to act around them 'cause it's what they remember."

Languidly, Nireva rose to her feet; enough to see herself in the mirror fixed to the front of the nearby wardrobe. Jenna's wardrobe. Her hair was untidy and her clothes were a crumpled mess sitting over her frame. "Mother, can we go somewhere?" If she was going to get things straight in her head and make an attempt to figure out what to do next, then she needed to eliminate the distractions. Her house, her laptop, Khalidah and the chatroom she oversaw. Everything she didn't need. "I need to take a day; spend it somewhere other than here. Somewhere quiet." Then again, indulging in a fun activity would have done just as well. "Or distracting. Distracting'll work too. Whether it's to take my mind off things or to make sense of them. Just you, me and Jen."

"I heard my name!" At that moment, Jenna was strolling down the hallway - sandwich in hand - towards the bedroom. While the doors remained slightly open the whole way, her original purpose had simply been to gauge whether it was safe for her to interact with the rest of the house again. With the conversation having taken on a rather personal turn when she left, the utterance of a name which hadn't been a member of the Rahal family served as a cue. Her methods of helping to cheer up her girlfriend were different, but she hoped they'd be effective all the same. "You feelin' okay? Y'know your mom and I are here for you, no matter what, right?"

"Y-Yeah. I know." Nireva nodded slowly. If they agreed to her sudden plan, then she'd need to look a bit more presentable. "I'm gonna get changed. Maybe take a shower." Turning back towards the bathroom, she had to consciously work to resist the compulsive instinct to pull her top off. "I was thinking we could go out for the day. All three of us. Get away from this bullshit." Stopping off at her wardrobe, she opened it for just long enough to grab a new set of clothes before making her way out of sight. "I'm open to suggestions! I'll go along with anything at this point!" Her voice raised as she shut the door behind her, leaving Felicia and Jenna in the bedroom together.

[Felicia Soler]

Kept inside for all those years
the strangled dreams she dreamt
the unflown tears
suppressing fears
bringing death to mortal life
the soul to please
to reach release
______________________________Profondo Rosso – Aardvarks

[font color=CC0033Los Angeles, California

[/font][/div]

She really had to hand it to her mother. She knew how to push her own agenda and get away with it. Khalidah had put Niri in a position where there was only one possible reaction; Niri would have to go along with the plan Khalidah had set in motion, or risk alienating herself from her family. It was a ploy that she’d used in the past to try and control Felicia, and most of the time it worked. Why was it that her mother had this absolute need to do things that couldn’t--

"She's done something that can't be undone!" Nireva yelled, exasperated, and punched the mattress with her hands. "Whether now or later, I have to go along with this; I have to go and meet Eric and Charlotte. And she fucking knows it!"

Felicia nodded and sighed, sharing in her daughter’s annoyance. Well, not just annoyance. It was also betrayal. Her mother had no right to force an issue into existence that Niri had been unprepared to handle. Just . . . why couldn’t she just leave well enough alone instead of tempting the Fates? They had forever; Niri would have looked for her kids eventually, but here she was essentially being bullied into it by her grandmother. “She can really be a daft cunt.”

For a few moments, Nireva said nothing. Then, "Do you think they'll understand if I... hold off on talking to them for a while?"

“Honestly, I don’t think either of them are ready to meet you again either. Ma just decided to put the three of you in the hot seat because she’s bored right now or some shit. She’s always gotta go stir the pot when things get boring.” She seriously doubted that Eric and Charlotte were in an immediate rush to reunite with their mother with whom they’d had no contact for roughly two and a half centuries. Things like this took a long time to process emotionally. “It’s not like you have to meet them immediately. You can just correspond with them through the chatroom or over the phone until all of you feel comfortable meeting up again. At least Ma doesn’t really have any control over that.”

But if things weren’t moving quickly enough for Ma, she’d probably just trick Eric and Charlotte to get on a plane and fly them out to California on her own dime. The two of them didn’t know the elder Rahal very well and would most likely fall prey to her antics.

Felicia sat down on the bed next to Nireva and put her arm around her daughter’s shoulders consolinging. "I've... n-... not had to be a mother in so long."

“I felt the same way when Ma threw us back together.” It was still weird to her that the two of them appeared to be close to the same physical age. At least it was obvious that the twins were her kids. “It’d been like literally a lifetime since I’d been around any of my own kids. And now I have three of them in my life. It’s weird. That and I don’t think I was ever really meant to be mommy material, but oh well.” Way back when, that was just what women did. Got married, had children, that was it. There were exceptions to the rule, which was the role that she’d played since the mid 1800s, but in her newest lifetime, she wanted to experience raising her children again. This was really going to suck if Illy and Daro ended up on the short end of the stick and didn’t inherit whatever the hell gene it was that granted the Rahals their immortality. One of the pains she’d never gotten used to was watching her children die--even if they lived well into their 90s.

She didn’t want to think about that right now. Thinking about that brought tears to her eyes and she didn’t want to draw attention away from how Niri was feeling. Right now, Felicia’s feelings didn’t matter.

She pulled Niri closer to her and kissed the top of her head. "Part of me doesn't want to be. I... I still wanna be me. Niri, not Emelie Bellerose. Even if only slightly, I... I still have to be her to them, whether it's how they still see me or how I have to act around them 'cause it's what they remember."

“You don’t have to do that.” Even though there were still times when she called Niri by her birth name, she didn’t act like she was still the homemaker that she was in Firenze. “They’ve probably changed a lot over the years too, and aren’t the same people that they were back when you were raising them. I mean, back when I was raising you, you were an intelligent little girl who was more interested in getting educated than following in every other woman’s footsteps. Then when we were reunited, you were an exotic dancer. So . . . yeah. I really don’t think you have to pretend to be anyone other than yourself when the time comes.”

Her arm fell away from Niri’s back as Niri stood up and looked at herself in the nearby mirror. "Mother, can we go somewhere?"

“Of course. We can go wherever you want.” Getting out and doing something stupid to take their mind off things was a good idea.

Nireva continued. "I need to take a day; spend it somewhere other than here. Somewhere quiet." She paused, reconsidering. "Or distracting. Distracting'll work too. Whether it's to take my mind off things or to make sense of them. Just you, me and Jen."

"I heard my name!" Jenna called from the hallway, carrying a sandwich in her hand. "You feelin' okay? Y'know your mom and I are here for you, no matter what, right?"

It was nice to see that Niri had found someone who loved her in spite of the rollercoaster ride that was the Rahal family. She’d had many a relationship that had been ruined by her mother’s antics, and was honestly surprised that Niri and Jen’s relationship had weathered the repeated storms so well.

"Y-Yeah. I know." She took a few steps towards the bathroom. "I'm gonna get changed. Maybe take a shower." Felicia nodded. Hot showers had solved plenty of the world’s problems in the past. "I was thinking we could go out for the day. All three of us. Get away from this bullshit." She opened her armoire and took out a clean set of clothing before entering the bathroom and closing the door behind her. "I'm open to suggestions! I'll go along with anything at this point!"

It had been so long since she’d lived in Los Angeles, she had no idea what it was that they could do. Doing something fun and entertaining would have been better than, say, walking around a quiet art museum. Go to the zoo? Visit the La Brea Tar Pits? She’d leave that one up to Jenna.

“I think you have a better idea of what there is to do out here that Niri would enjoy. Maybe go to Hollywood or Beverly Hills and annoy the shit out of celebrities? Go to the Boardwalk and chase seagulls? I know there’s a lot of shit to do around here, but at this point in my life, I think you know Niri’s interests better than I do.”

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ф Word count: 1504
ф Outfit: outfit
ф Other: I used to go to the La Brea Tar Pits with my parents all the time when I was a kid and lived out there. They’re pretty freaking cool.

[Nireva Hale]

I'll be ready. Give me the morphine and I'll go to sleep.
As I dream, maybe I will just slide away.
Let me go! I'll be fine, frozen here in time.
Sick of being alive; eaten up inside!
______________________________Korn - Eaten Up Inside

"I think you have a better idea of what there is to do out here that Niri would enjoy." Jenna quietly munched on her sandwich while she listened to Felicia speak. She might have only been Nireva's girlfriend as opposed to her mother, but there was no disputing the point. The last time Felicia had possessed current knowledge of her daughter's interests and hobbies had been over four hundred years ago, when she had been a maid still living in Florence. Back then, Nireva had been quite easily placated with storybooks and novels; things she could read in order to escape between both her work and her education.

"There's a few places she likes." Now, however, books were gradually falling out of favour with the young. Or those who pretended to be young. The sheer variety of attractions in the greater Los Angeles area made for ample choice for occasions such as this. All the three women had to do was arrive at a unanimous decision. "Maybe go to Hollywood or Beverly Hills and annoy the shit out of celebrities?" Behind the door, the sound of rushing water signalled the start of Nireva's intended shower. The noise wasn't enough to render her deaf to the discussion, but the rattled and somewhat despondent younger immortal - for the moment - had more important things on her mind.

"And I'm meant to keep both of you under control while you're doing that?" While they were both many times older than she would ever be, Jenna knew Nireva and her mother more than well enough to know that they were very much young-at-heart. A smirk spread across her face as she swallowed another chunk of her sandwich. She'd seen them at the Rahals' parties and, for a good portion of many of them, they'd been stone-cold sober. "I don't think Niri would appreciate being on the news if someone in Beverly Hills decided to press charges."

Felicia continued to sporadically ramble on with more suggestions, but they were quickly exhausted. "Go to the Boardwalk and chase seagulls..? I know there's a lot of shit to do around here but, at this point in my life, I think you know Niri's interests better than I do." As far as she and Jenna were concerned, the discussion about what to do had ended rather quickly. "Yeah, I guess I do." Moments after she began to speak, the last of her sandwich disappeared into Jenna's mouth. "Though, a lot of the time, Niri and I just stick to a certain couple places, depending on what we need. We wanna eat, we go to the restaurant a few blocks from here; they do a lot of healthy stuff with chicken. We wanna get drunk? We either head to a bar or we buy booze in. If we wanna have fun, we might head to a club like Plan B."

"Jen, we're not going to Plan B!" Nireva's raised voice carried over the sound of the shower and through the door. She hadn't heard enough to realise that the mention of the club had only been as an example, but she was putting her foot down regardless. "It's gonna be closed right now anyway. The sun's only just come up." Being so early, their choices at present were rather limited. The nightclubs and bars had likely just closed up, while the more mundane businesses hadn't opened. If anyone was up and about, they were likely commuting to wherever it was they worked. Or preparing to.

It was a few miles away, but she'd always remembered her suggestion - especially the exterior - being relatively quiet compared to the perpetual buzz of the city. "What about the observatory? We could find a quiet spot to just... lounge around? Maybe take a few drinks with us, I dunno." The hissing of the water began to gradually subside in increments as Nireva operated the controls. Before long, there was nothing but the sound of her voice and the smell of steam and whatever scented shampoo she'd been using. "We can always head someplace else later if it gets rammed with tourists looking to see that shitty sign."

"Sounds good to me, I guess." Jenna had no objections but, normally, the Griffith Observatory really didn't interest her all that much. The night sky would be gone by the time they got there, anyway. She didn't need a giant telescope to gaze up at the view. Today, all that was important was spending time with her girlfriend in her hour of indecisive need. "What about you, Felicia? We can stop off for drinks on the way there; booze or whatever. Just gotta keep 'em out of sight 'cause... y'know? Laws?"

By the time Nireva finally emerged from the bathroom, her outfit had completely changed from the one she'd worn the night before. A sleeveless black top and a zebra-like skirt held to her waist by a studded belt made from white leather. Having washed out her hair, her dreadlocks were gone, exchanged for a still slightly damp cascade of black hair which fell halfway down her back. She couldn't be bothered to do them all over again and nor did she have the time. The confusion and unease were still fixed deep within her eyes, but at least she looked less like a tearful wreck.

"Thanks, you two." She forced a faint smile as she strode between them in search of some footwear. Settling on some pale purple-and-black boots, she sat back down on the edge of the bed and set about ramming them onto her feet. "Es-... especially you, Mother. I'm gonna have to owe you, I think. You did just overnight yourself across the country for me." She didn't intend to make it sound as though Felicia had mailed herself cross-country, but the sentiment was there. Felicia had rushed across the country for something which... really didn't matter.

This would pass, eventually. Just like everything else did. "I'll go bring the car around." Jenna still had the keys to her Pontiac G3 in her pocket - a car she hadn't yet got around to replacing and likely never would, given the means required - and, excusing herself once again, she set out on her latest objective. "You two come out when you're ready, okay?"

[Felicia Soler]

[font color=CC0033Los Angeles, California

[/font][/div]

"There's a few places she likes." Felicia listened intently to whatever Jenna was saying. After having been separated from her daughter for a few centuries, she’d lost touch with Niri’s interests. That and she doubted interests in the 17th Century were even relevant now. All there really was to do then was maybe walk through ornately decorated cathedrals or small museums which showcased the latest oil paintings put out by some of the young European masters.

"Maybe go to Hollywood or Beverly Hills and annoy the shit out of celebrities?" Niri suggested. Felicia stifled a laugh. That actually sounded like a lot of fun.

“Sure. Why not?” That was one thing that she’d never actually done in her long lifetime; harassing famous people. It just never really interested her. She found tabloid articles incredibly boring and figured that Hollywood stars really just wanted to be left the fuck alone.

"And I'm meant to keep both of you under control while you're doing that?" Jenna grinned and took another bite out of her sandwich. "I don't think Niri would appreciate being on the news if someone in Beverly Hills decided to press charges."

“Why would anyone press charges? It’s not like we’d be hunting them down to club them over the head and drag them back to a dungeon.” Actually, that sounded exactly like something she’d do. Okay, maybe stalking celebrities on Rodeo Drive wasn’t that good of an idea. The last thing she needed was to end up being booked into an L.A. jail. The tabloids would have had a field day with that: IntelliTouch Founder’s Daughter Caught Kidnapping Celebrity. Yeah. That would not have gone over well.

Whatever smile had been on her face vanished. IntelliTouch’s headquarters were downtown. Fucking wonderful. With their luck, they would probably run into her suddenly MIA mother. Her mother probably already knew where she was--not like it was a huge secret, as she’d mentioned her intentions on the chatroom before she’d chartered a flight out to the west coast city.

Jenna mentioned going for drinks over at Plan B, which Niri immediately protested from behind the closed bathroom door.

"Though, a lot of the time, Niri and I just stick to a certain couple places, depending on what we need. We wanna eat, we go to the restaurant a few blocks from here; they do a lot of healthy stuff with chicken. We wanna get drunk? We either head to a bar or we buy booze in. If we wanna have fun, we might head to a club like Plan B."

Niri immediately protested the idea of going to the club for drinks and a show. Felicia couldn’t blame her. She’d never been much of a day drinker, and going to an exotic dancing club with her daughter and her daughter’s girlfriend just sounded . . . strange, even to her. "It's gonna be closed right now anyway. The sun's only just come up."

“She does have a point.” Most nightclubs and gentlemen’s clubs rarely opened prior to sundown. They’d need to pick a different venue. An observatory, Niri had suggested. "We can always head someplace else later if it gets rammed with tourists looking to see that shitty sign."

"Sounds good to me, I guess."

“Or we could go to the art museum. Not the modern art museum. Modern art is fucking ugly and doesn’t make any goddamn sense.” Kind of like Marie Chouinard’s modern dance exhibitions. She hated that kind of cerebral shit.

When Niri emerged from the bathroom, Felicia remembered that she too needed to change clothes. She doubted flannel pyjamas was the proper dress code for walking around anywhere in Los Angeles--or maybe not. Still, she’d spent five hours in the air sweating in these clothes and they were getting a bit ripe, but she didn’t feel like taking a shower. She had deodorant. “I should change.”

Having no sense of modesty, she picked up her travel bag and dropped it on the edge of their bed, unzipped it, and began to get undressed.

"Thanks, you two."

“I may not have done it for the past few centuries, but I’d move heaven and earth for you, you know that.” Felicia kicked off her pyjama pants and exchanged them for a pair of torn blue jeans. Peeling off her shirt, she tossed it onto the bed and changed into fringed white midriff shirt striped with blue. Luckily she’d remembered to pack a suede jacket with her in case the weather was a bit nippy. For shoes, because she figured she’d be doing a fair bit of walking, she packed an old, well-worn pair of trainers that she refused to get rid of. The soles were currently being held to the rest of the shoe by means of duct tape and some hasty sewing.

Felicia laced up her shoes and nodded at Jenna as she left to bring the car around. “We’ll meet you outside.”

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ф Word count:
ф Outfit: outfit
ф Other: I’ll fix the formatting if it’s fucked up and will add flavour text later because I’m on my way to work right now..

[Nireva Hale]

Another mother's breaking heart is taking over.
When the violence causes silence, we must be mistaken.
It's the same old theme since 1916!
In your head, in your head, they're still fighting...
______________________________The Cranberries - Zombie

"We'll meet you outside."

Following Felicia's reiteration that she would move heaven and earth for her, Nireva's facial expression had softened considerably. While the wounds opened up by Khalidah's recent antics were very much still raw, her mother's presence was doing quite a lot to cheer her up for the moment. "We'll head to the art museum after we're done at the observatory. I'll tell Jen once we're all in the car." Although the two of them were fully-dressed, neither of them had made a move as of yet to follow Jenna out of the apartment. Nireva knew that her girlfriend, as always, would understand any lateness on their part.

"I can't thank you enough for this, y'know?" Felicia could quite easily have remained home with the twins; sequestered away in her palatial mansion on the other side of the country. She could have easily just done nothing but bitch at Khalidah for hours and leave her daughter to suffer (almost) alone in relative silence. Nireva was aware that her mother hadn't made a gesture of this magnitude in centuries and, for a fleeting moment as their eyes met, those centuries washed away. Her mind reminisced back to when they were Lucia Cammeresi and Magda Panzavecchia; an otherwise normal mother and daughter living in Renaissance Italy.

The suggestion of a trip to an art gallery brought back memories of the innocent hours before her ability had manifested itself. Even now, she remembered strolling past the still partially-built Uffizi Palace, scoring an apple with a little pleading sent her mother's way. Nowadays, the Uffizi was still serving its original purpose as an art gallery; an exclusive place where the queues of visitors were only allowed in to view the exhibits in small guided groups. A far cry from the Louvre in Paris, that found itself stacked to the rafters with tourists on an almost daily basis. "As well as... largely not being able to, a big reason why I never tried finding my family after you left was..."

Nireva sighed quietly. Ruining her mood was one of the many things she definitely didn't want to do today. Until she was able to bear the strain of what her grandmother had done, discussing it would have to be done sporadically and in short bursts. The weight just wasn't going to get off her chest all at once. "...well, because I wanted some control in my life. I wanted to be the only factor behind the course my life took. 'Course, I'd never really met Khalidah - not unless you count the couple of times I don't even remember - but, after you left, I didn't really know if there was anyone else on your - or, rather, our - side of the family. And I doubt I would've been able to find them if I did know."

With the words out in the open, Nireva couldn't help but think that there were still five more of her children who she knew had been granted immortality. Five golden opportunities for Khalidah to stick her unfathomably long-lived and uncaring nose into her personal life. For centuries - or decades - some of her offspring had clung to the notion that she had long since died of old age. Other than Mathilde and Léonard - now Charlotte and Eric - Nireva could only think of one child who she'd told of her immortality. A daughter who she'd originally named Fleur and would have been just over three hundred years of age by now.

If Khalidah ever tracked her down..? The metaphorical can of worms she'd end up opening would have been immense. Fleur would likely still be resentful towards her just as she had once been towards Felicia after the shit she'd pulled. "W-What I'm trying to say is... I like my life when no-one's pushy. Except maybe a horny Jen, but that's neither here nor there. Anyway..." She paused for a moment, gauging the reaction on Felicia's face. At least she hadn't walked in on Jenna and her having sex like Helena had a few years back. "I may be young - in our family's terms, anyway - but I'm more than capable of living my life. P.. Part of me wants to track down all the kids I have left, just so Khalidah doesn't have anything to hold over me. But... I really wouldn't be able to cope with that. Not all at once."

Now, however, was a time for some relaxing fun. Precisely the thing Felicia had crossed the country to help her do. "Let's get out to the car before Jen thinks we've snuck off without her." They'd talked for long enough. In an ideal world, this would be the last time they'd discuss Khalidah Rahal for the rest of the day. It was unlikely, but she could hope. By the time they emerged from the apartment building's front entrance, Jenna and her crappy car were waiting for them.

"Did you get lost?", she asked with a grin as she watched Nireva and Felicia clamber laboriously into the car. It was in decent working order and a pretty good size for the smaller of Los Angeles' streets, but a part of her just despised the whole thing. It was slow, it was infuriating to haul both the shopping and her girlfriend at the same time... but, despite the numerous drawbacks, it was still her car. She owned it and she was able to afford to keep it running. That was what mattered. And, with access to a car, they weren't anywhere near as bound to their apartment as they would have been without it.

"Nope. Just talking about stuff. Such as the fact we're going to the LACMA gallery after we're done at the observatory." A plan was a plan and, rather than argue or bemoan the inherent boredom of such a place, Jenna just shrugged her shoulders, a bright okay! accompanying the firing up of the car's admittedly weedy engine. On a day like today, she wasn't going to object to anything which would have helped to distract her girlfriend from the pressing issues. If a gallery - like the observatory - was going to help her with that, then so be it.

[Felicia Soler]

And the softest sound
Of a love that lives alone within her heart
Shall sing forever more
In the still of night
See our breath as spirits dancing through the cold
To hold the moment's grace
______________________________Bella Morte – Hope Again

Los Angeles, California

"We'll head to the art museum after we're done at the observatory. I'll tell Jen once we're all in the car."

“Sounds like a plan.”

"I can't thank you enough for this, y'know?"

“You don’t have to feel obligated to thank me for anything.” She wanted to say more, but didn’t want to bring up her own emotional regrets. When she’d finally left Nireva, she never really saw it as ‘abandoning’ her daughter. She saw it more in the way that a ‘normal’ parent would have seen dropping their child off at university. They would eventually be reunited once the child had grown up, and stayed in regular contact, even if that contact was only reserved for summer and winter breaks--or, as was the case with the immortals in her family, every few centuries.

She moved closer to Nireva and put her arm around Niri’s shoulders. "As well as... largely not being able to, a big reason why I never tried finding my family after you left was..."

Felicia was pretty sure that she knew where Nireva was going. Her daughter wanted some control over her own life. That was something she understood all too well. Ever since she’d left Nireva to “fend for herself” as it were, Felicia had done her best to maintain a low profile. The last thing she wanted to do was draw her mother’s attention. Contrary to what her own family members may have believed, she tried to distance herself from her mother in every way possible. She’d moved clear across the country. She’d done her damnedest to keep her mother out of her business, including limiting her contact with her grandchildren and refusing her phone calls. Even Lilka and Caleb--her aunt and her brother, both several centuries older than she was--had sought refuge with her and Helena off and on for the past few years. Caleb’s visits were less frequent, as he was content to continue his nomadic lifestyle as a Touareg in the deserts of northern Africa.

Niri mentioned how she didn't really know if there was anyone else on their side of the family with whom she could have connected with through the centuries to maintain at least some sort of familial contact. “I doubt I would've been able to find them if I did know."

“It’s probably best that you didn’t.” Attempting to look up their long and storied family history would no doubt have led Nireva back to her grandmother, which may have had potentially disastrous effects. In spite of her ability to bring life where there was none, her mother had always been more of a force of destruction. “Your grandmother is the one who has all of the families records so to speak, and access to those records always seems to come with strings attached.” She rubbed her hand between Niri’s shoulder-blades, pulled her in for a brief hug, and sighed. “Sometimes I think it’s time to disappear again, but with you and Jenna and Helena and the twins.”

In the digital age, it was nearly impossible to completely disappear. The only people who were best equipped to do that were the shapeshifters in the family; Lilka and Caleb, and now Ildiko as well. Somehow--and if she knew how her mother did it, she would have put an end to it--Khalidah was always able to track them down. Maybe it had something to do with their abilities or their genetic markers. Her mother’s ability was energy based, and seeing as how everything in the universe was essentially energy-based, tracking them based on their energy signatures (which she imagined were like fingerprints and were unique to every individual) would have been easy enough.

"W-What I'm trying to say is... I like my life when no-one's pushy. Except maybe a horny Jen, but that's neither here nor there. Anyway..." Felicia smiled at her. At least in that respect, Niri had inherited part of her personality. The more Helena (or anyone else, for that matter) told her to do something, the deeper she dug in her heels, and the louder she told them to fuck off. "I may be young - in our family's terms, anyway - but I'm more than capable of living my life. P.. Part of me wants to track down all the kids I have left, just so Khalidah doesn't have anything to hold over me. But... I really wouldn't be able to cope with that. Not all at once."

“Well, when you do decide to do that, you won’t have to do it alone--and I have no idea how I’m going to do it, but I’ll make sure she doesn’t spring that shit on you again.” When she reached her mother’s age--if she reached her mother’s age--she sincerely hoped that she wouldn’t lose her entire sense of humanity.

Niri pulled away from her and headed toward the door. Felicia took the hint and followed. "Let's get out to the car before Jen thinks we've snuck off without her."

Jen pulled up in her white Chevy hatchback and Felicia rolled her eyes when she saw that it was a coupe. “Fuck I hate these two door cars. Who the fuck thought these were a good idea? You have to pull the entire seat forward, the person who draws the short straw and has to sit in the back has to be a contortionist to get back there while trying not to strangle themselves on the seatbelt . . . ” Which of course meant that she’d have to suck hind tit and get in the back. She grumbled and moaned as Nireva bent down to pull the lever that tilted the seat forward, ducked under the seatbelt, and made herself as comfortable as she could in the rear of the car. “This is why I drive a hearse. Four doors. Lots of storage space in the back. Helena fucking hates my car. So does everyone who comes to the hospital. All the patients freak out when they see it parked out front. It’s amusing as hell.”

"Did you get lost?" Jen asked, glancing in the rearview mirror to watch as Felicia settled herself in the backseat.

Niri followed suit and sat in the front, then shut the door. "Nope. Just talking about stuff. Such as the fact we're going to the LACMA gallery after we're done at the observatory."

“Wonder how many paintings of us are in there.” Oil paintings and watercolours were the 14th to early 20th century versions of selfies and Instagram. They were bound to show up in at least a few of them, especially in such a large museum. “There are a few of me in the Met in New York. I try to avoid that fucking place like the plague.” Felicia pulled her phone out of her purse and checked her messages. Good. Her mother hadn’t started blowing up her phone yet. “I’m assuming that you know where you’re going, so I’m not going to bother turning on my GPS.”

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ф Word count: 1435
ф Outfit: outfit
ф Other: THERE IS SOME KIND OF FLYING MOTH BEETLE BUG THING THAT KEPT FLYING INTO MY FACE WHILE I WAS TYPING THIS. FUCK. I HATE BUGS.

[Nireva Hale]

We were pulled from the path of least resistance.
And the songs we sang; what became of us?
We're here, waiting for you!
We are yours! We're waiting for you!
______________________________Gary Numan - I Am Dust

"Wonder how many paintings of us are in there..?" With many art galleries boasting numerous examples of painted artwork from the past few centuries, there was every chance that members of the Rahal family would have featured - knowingly or otherwise - in some of them. It wasn't really something which had crossed Nireva's mind. Beyond the lifetime which had brought her her latest dose of emotional strain, she couldn't think of any instances where she would have featured in a painting. "Unless they have something of Countess Bellerose, they're probably not gonna have many of me. I don't really recall being in many painted pictures."

"Nowadays, it's mostly cosplay photos for you, right?" Being the only mortal in the car, Jenna didn't have all that much to bring to the conversation. The odd interjection here and there while she drove the car was really all she felt the need to add. "You should show some of 'em off to Felicia while she's here." San Diego Comic-Con was no stranger to having the odd professional photographer - or dedicated hobbyist making a living - present to document the thousands of colourful costumes parading around the colossal building. On both occasions, Nireva had been the target of at least one photographer who stopped her in her tracks. Even Jenna, who had tagged along dressed up as Yoko, had found herself in the proverbial limelight.

"There are a few of me in the Met in New York." That wasn't much of a surprise. The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art was one of the largest galleries on the planet, filled with dozens of exhibitions spanning almost the whole of recent history. If there was anywhere in the continental US where a picture including a member of their family was to be found, it would have been there. "I try to avoid that fucking place like the plague."

"What, you don't wanna be reminded of your fashion disasters?" Humour helped, right? The flicker of a grin on her girlfriend's face in the rear-view mirror was all the justification Jenna needed. They may have been in a crappy three-door car but, if she could help it, it would at least be a happy one. "I'm assuming that you know where you're going, so I'm not gonna bother turning on my GPS." Her gaze didn't shift even slightly from the road. Whether heading to work or going on an errand with Nireva, Jenna drove around the streets of Los Angeles on an almost-daily basis. It didn't take long anymore for her to find something familiar with which she could find her way. "Nah, I'm fine. Niri's got me being her chauffeur so often, she's thinking of gettin' me the outfit."

"I am not." A roll of Nireva's eyes preceded the shifting of her gaze towards the passenger-side window. "In your dreams or for Hallowe'en, maybe." It was probably best to avoid discussing such things at any real length. The last thing she wanted was to give her girlfriend ideas. "Knowing you, you'd probably wear it at work." As the car turned to make its short-lived stint along Wilshire Boulevard, Jenna's eyes were flickering around, making mental notes of the landmarks. Less than two miles behind her was the LACMA gallery, the same one Nireva had suggested earlier. Right now, the decision was to head to Griffith Observatory first as originally planned before paying the gallery a visit on their way back home.

With the exception of the American Film Institute building on their left and a brief detour to pick up drinks just as Jenna had mentioned, the journey up to the observatory was relatively uneventful. Being so early in the morning, none of them were really in the mood for anything frantic or strenuous, leaving peaceful visits to some local tourist spots as the ideal course of action. Parking wasn't an issue. With the exception of what she presumed to be night-shift employees who had been manning the telescopes the previous evening, the car park was almost completely empty. Every so often, she would slam the accelerator to the floor for a split-second, giving the car a sudden burst of speed as she made her way towards the space she'd picked out; one which just so happened to be at the complete opposite end to where she'd driven in.

Extricating themselves from the vehicle was something of a chore, especially for Felicia. "There're times when I really hate this car," Jenna sighed, watching her passengers work in tandem to emerge from the passenger-side door in single-file. "But, living on the salary of a couple of dancers, it's a wonder we have a car to begin with." She might not have been to the club for a while, but Nireva was still technically employed at the Plan B club, even if it was mostly their boss keeping her spot warm for any breaks in her university studies. "It doesn't even have a trunk release. I feel like I'm in the nineties." It felt so archaic to walk around the vehicle and physically pull the catch as she hauled the back of the car open. She could have set the drinks on the back seat with Felicia, but it didn't feel right to do that to a house guest.

"You weren't as good-looking back then."

"Just for that..." With a mock frown on her face, Jenna whirled around, cooler box in her grasp. The box itself was always in the back of her car, waiting to be used; mostly during the summer. Today, it had finally been filled up with the drinks and snack foods they'd bought on the way out to the observatory. A muffled jostling of bottles and packets punctuated the thrusting of the box into Nireva's arms. "...you're carrying the coolbox."

"Fiiiiine." Within moments, the car was locked up and, finally freed from the mobile prison, the three women were finally able to go about the morning they'd planned. "Lead on, Jen. Go find us a good spot. There's a whole park around this place if we don't wanna be too close to the cars."

[Felicia Soler]

Doves cried when she tried to fly
When her wings spread she heard their song
Flies to your flame
But so hard to see at night
Alone in your dreams

Beautiful world, it's a beautiful world, to me
It's a beautiful world, it's a beautiful world to you
______________________________Beth Orton – Beautiful World

Los Angeles, California

"Unless they have something of Countess Bellerose, they're probably not gonna have many of me. I don't really recall being in many painted pictures."

“I dunno. You’d be surprised how many painters used complete strangers as their subjects. Plenty of people in works of art were probably people the artists passed on the street, and thought that they looked interesting.” Certainly not everyone who had ever been painted had been painted with their consent or knowledge. She’d had a few portraits commissioned--okay, more than a few; she was quite vain, after all. But most of them had been family affairs. There were a few works of art which featured her visage solo, but that was all.

Jenna chimed in from the front seat as she drove them towards their destination. Honestly, Felicia hadn’t been paying attention to where they were going. As much as she loved Nireva, she hated being in Los Angeles. It was too close to her mother for comfort. "Nowadays, it's mostly cosplay photos for you, right?"

Had she done any cosplay lately? She had to think about it. Felicia wasn’t really one for attending conventions of any sort, though she was trying to broaden her horizons. “I think if I were to do a con, I’d go as Azula from Avatar. I think I could pull her off pretty well. I’ve already got the look and the personality down. Cons aren’t really my ‘thing.’” Normally she was quite content to be the centre of attention. Lately, however, that had gotten rather wearing. As stupid as it sounded, since she’d given birth to the twins, she’d done a lot of growing up. She’d needed to grow up when it became apparent that Helena was drawing away from her and their children at the time due to her wife’s own personal issues.

She sat in the backseat in relative silence for the rest of the short journey, her eyes flicking from Jenna to Niri as they spoke about con costumes and whether Niri was going to buy her girlfriend a chauffeur uniform. When the car pulled into a space and came to a stop, she waited for Niri to exit the car before she kicked the passenger’s seat forward and squeezed her way out of the backseat.

As if Jenna were reading her thoughts, she said, "There're times when I really hate this car."

“Eh. Maybe I can buy you each your own car. Not like the Zondas that RyDele have--sorry, I mean Ryan and Adele--but something that shows your personalities. Like those new Camaros or the Dodge Chargers that the cops like to drag race on the freeways.”

She took a few bags out of the car that were filled with snacks, while Nireva was “punished” by having to carry the cooler full of ice and drinks.

"Lead on, Jen. Go find us a good spot. There's a whole park around this place if we don't wanna be too close to the cars."

Felicia followed behind the two women and casually observed her surroundings. It was still ungodly early in the morning, at least for her. Even though she was used to working odd shifts and being on call for emergencies, she still detested getting up early--which for her meant any time before 2 PM. “Didn’t someone commit suicide by jumping off one of the letters on the Hollywood sign? I could swear I remember something like that happening.” She wracked her brain for the name of the woman, but couldn’t think of it. “Or maybe I’m thinking of that young lady who went up to the roof of the Cecil Hotel and drowned herself in the water tower.”

The outer part of the observatory was dominated by a park area with various telescopes dotted around the perimeter. They found a nice spot to sit across from the iconic Hollywood sign and took a seat. She lay down on the grass and stared up at the sky, reminded of a scene from The Lion King. “Timon, ever wonder what those sparkly dots are up there?”

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ф Word count: 903
ф Outfit: outfit
ф Other: None.

[Nireva Hale]

When I begged forgiveness, they knew.
When I begged for mercy, they knew.
When I begged for nothing, they knew.
I would always find my way to you.
______________________________Gary Numan - My Name Is Ruin

The further Jenna led the others into the park surrounding the Griffith Observatory, the quieter everything became. While noise would have made for a good distraction for Nireva, the order of the morning was apparently for her to be surrounded by the company of friends and very little else beyond the Hollywood sign which sat a relatively short distance away. "Timon..? Ever wonder what those sparkly dots are up there?" Jenna chuckled quietly as she listened to the rather fitting reference. While the stars themselves were rapidly being blotted out by the daylight, the fact that they were all lying face-up on the grass made the line somewhat accurate.

Nireva had set the coolbox down at the hub of the three-spoked wheel formation they'd made, allowing them all to retrieve a portion of the contents by reaching up and fishing around. "Felicia, would you seriously buy us a new car?" Even after having known Felicia and all of her personality quirks for a few years, Jenna could scarcely believe just how nonchalantly she'd made her response. Despite her surprise, she had stuck to referencing a singular car as opposed to a pair. As convenient as it would have been to own a car each, Nireva's trepidation behind the wheel was all but legendary. And Nireva would have hated to run her shiny new gift worth tens of thousands of dollars into a traffic sign. "I mean... we'd appreciate it - our bodies definitely would, seeing as we wouldn't have to be contortionists anymore - but a new car's so expensive!"

Jenna's car - the Pontiac G3 - had been phased out of production by General Motors almost a decade ago, which meant that finding a new model of the vehicle was impossible. However, with downtown Los Angeles having no shortage of car dealerships, she and Nireva were kept abreast of the pricing trends for similar models on a daily basis. Just to get a current-year model of a car like the one she already had would've cost her the better part of fifteen thousand dollars. It simply wasn't feasible for the two of them to get a new car, even if they pooled their resources and saved up for the next year, missing most of the holidays and birthdays in the process. It was tricky enough to pay the bills already.

"We can... think about cars later." Nireva chimed in, her voice shifting as she craned her arm back to pluck a bottle out from the coolbox. Some kind of mixed berry-flavoured cider they'd picked up on the way out here. "Right now, I think Mother's right." About what was a mystery for a few seconds until she clarified herself. "I think she'd make a pretty good Azula. 'Course, you'd have to make the choice of which of her outfits you'd wear. Personally, I think you'd look awesome in her Firelord outfit; y'know, the big red Chinese Emperor-looking thing? Or you could play it safe and wear her beach volleyball outfit."

"What about me, huh?" When Jenna had cosplayed, she'd always turned to Nireva for advice and suggestions as to which character she should dress as. No matter how many times her girlfriend explained to her that she could cosplay whoever she wanted - regardless of size, skintone or even gender - Jenna knew that, at the end of the day, Nireva always had an idea as to which characters fit her. "Which Avatar character could I be?"

Meanwhile, Nireva had found her way into the bottle of cider and was quietly drinking it when the conversation crossed back to her. "It isn't the same show, buuuut..." It would have been pretty fun to give it a try, especially with the aesthetics calling for them to look almost completely alike. "What about Desna and Eska? They're creepy waterbending twins." A glance to one side reminded her of a difference between them that most people could see, but only she knew the true extent of. "Though you'd have to be Eska. Flattening your chest would be a nightmare. On the bright side, if we found a Bolin, you could have them win you prizes."

"We could make Devon be Bolin?"

The laughter from Nireva almost spilled the bottle of cider all over her chest. Even though he had technically done it before the previous Hallowe'en, roping Devon into a day out cosplaying would have been nothing short of priceless. "You might need Amalia's help to rope him into it, though." Each new thought brought things steadily closer to an imagined scene in her head. A group of Rahals cosplaying Avatar characters together. The more she included, the more possible combinations became possible. Tivodar and Ildiko could either be Meelo and Ikki or, were she willing to use her ability, Ildiko could shapeshift into an elongated red panda and "cosplay" Pabu. Devon and Amalia might have made a decent Varrick and Zhu Li while she and Jenna could have the fan-favourite Korra and Asami pairing to fall back on. They already had a full Korra outfit at home, meaning half the work left to do.

"It would be pretty fun for a big group of us to go to a convention together, though," Nireva mused. As much as she might have enjoyed attending them, Khalidah likely wasn't going to be invited to such a gathering for quite a long time. But to have a unique Rahal gathering instead of the usual "booze-and-food" parties around the holidays was still an appealing prospect. "We pick a single... thing - like Avatar - and we all pick a character. It'd certainly make for some unique photos."

"Earth to Niri!" With one hand, Jenna reached over to gently pat her girlfriend on the shoulder. "You're obsessing over cosplay again. I'm getting flashbacks of the floor carpeted in fabric scraps, foam and pictures."

"Sorry." This lifetime, it seemed, was destined to turn her into a big cosplay freak. "Either of you got any more suggestions about where to go? I doubt we're gonna use up the whole day with just this place and the gallery, anyway. I wanna..." Punch Khalidah in her smug face. It wouldn't have done any lasting damage, but it would have definitely made her feel better. "I.. I just wanna do stuff. Something that isn't sitting around at home."

[Felicia Soler]

She says let's go to brighton beach
And tap our foot to disco
Just eat the food and tap the foot
Vsjo budet korosho'
That would be great fun of ironic kind
For your self-collapsing ironic mind
But hey girl we got a cure for you
Provided of course you will ever make it through
______________________________Gogol Bordello – Let’s Get Radical

Los Angeles, California

"Felicia, would you seriously buy us a new car?"

Felicia turned her head and looked at Jenna in disbelief. ]“Um. Yeah. I’d at least get you a sedan version of your current car, but only because I hate coupes. Whoever invented those really needs to be brought back to life and shot.” Where had coupes even evolved from? Probably from horse carriages like other cars. They were just so pointless unless the car was just a two-seater. Responding to Jenna’s second concern, she said, “Not really. I got my hearse from a police auction. Cost me around two grand. But it needed a lot of work. This is why it pays to be friends with three types of people.” She counted them off on her fingers. “A doctor, a lawyer, an automechanic, and a handyman--handyperson, whatever. Fuckin’ PC culture,” she grumbled. “Never shit on people for being automechanics or janitors or construction workers. Work unions are awesome, and you can get shit done for you under the table for a few hundred dollars. We ended up going to a few junkyards and piecing together a new engine and chassis and everything for another two grand--might have been less, don’t remember. Cars are expensive if you don’t know where to look. Thankfully, we have the internet now.”

If she’d really wanted to, she could have pulled up any number of online used car sites, even for specialty cars like hearses.

"We can... think about cars later." Nireva took a bottle of red cider out of the cooler and shut the lid. "Right now, I think Mother's right." Felicia raised an eyebrow and was about to ask What am I right about? when Nireva provided her with an answer. "I think she'd make a pretty good Azula. 'Course, you'd have to make the choice of which of her outfits you'd wear. Personally, I think you'd look awesome in her Firelord outfit; y'know, the big red Chinese Emperor-looking thing? Or you could play it safe and wear her beach volleyball outfit."

Felicia shook her head. “Ember Island outfits or gee tee eff oh.” The Firelord outfit was too cumbersome. She didn’t feel like wearing a flack jacket at a con; she would have been sweating her ass off in five minutes flat if she did. “Or if not that, I could just wear her default outfit from Book 3 or--oh! The uniform she wore when she ‘joined’ the Dai Li. I really liked that one.” Big surprise there. Azula was her favourite character in both series of Avatar. She was such a tragic character, driven mad by power and a lack of compassion.

Jenna entered the conversation again, asking which Avatar character she could be. Nireva looked thoughtful for a moment and offered a suggestion. "What about Desna and Eska? They're creepy waterbending twins."

“That would be perfect. I dunno, though. The only person I can think of who could pull off a good Eska would probably be Doctor Couteau.” Something about her relationship with Ryan just screamed Eska. Perhaps it was her underlying viciousness and deep obsession? Her somewhat domineering personality? Something like that. “If only we could find someone who could--”

“--found a Bolin, you could have them win you prizes."

"We could make Devon be Bolin?"

“No. No. Nope. Nope nope. Fuckin’ nope. He’s too thin and gangly. Bolin needs to be bigger and more in shape-ish.” Did they know anyone who could pull off Bolin? Maybe Lilka could do her shapeshifting thing and pull it off? “Devon would probably be able to pull off being a good Earth King, but I don’t know. He’s not much into cons anyway, so I wouldn’t put much expectation on him going.” Even though he was dating her granddaughter, he was still relatively . . . weird in large crowds. He’d probably have a meltdown if he was put into a con setting.

"It would be pretty fun for a big group of us to go to a convention together, though."

Felicia nodded in agreement. They hadn’t all been to a con together in a while--not the entire family, including the newest additions.

"We pick a single... thing - like Avatar - and we all pick a character. It'd certainly make for some unique photos."

"You're obsessing over cosplay again. I'm getting flashbacks of the floor carpeted in fabric scraps, foam and pictures."

“Don’t worry about that. I’m sure Conall would be more than happy to take our measurements and create whatever we want. But he’ll probably want to be compensated for it. I mean, he made Adele’s wedding dress, so you know he’s capable of putting together some amazing shit.” She wouldn’t have trusted anyone else to make their costumes, and doing the whole ‘homespun’ thing--fuck, she’d done that for centuries, sewing and knitting and embroidering her own shit. She still did it today, though on a much smaller scale. In her spare time, she was teaching the twins basic sewing and knitting techniques because they were good life skills to have.

Niri shifted around on the lawn. "Either of you got any more suggestions about where to go? I doubt we're gonna use up the whole day with just this place and the gallery, anyway. I wanna.. I just wanna do stuff. Something that isn't sitting around at home."

“We could always go to the beach and kick sand in people’s eyes. I hate all the pretentious rich fucks who go there. Maybe stomp on a few sand castles.” If she was going to end up being Azula, she kind of needed to become the character, right? “No, wait! I know what we can do. We can go to the Boardwalk and hang out there. Maybe even run into some vampires.”

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ф Word count: 1280
ф Outfit: outfit
ф Other: None.

[Nireva Hale]

I bring the darkness, I am the thunder!
I come from hell and I'll pull you under!
I'll make you feel the wrath of my ways.
I'll make it real. I'll be your End Of Days!
______________________________Tommy Vext - I Bring The Darkness (End Of Days)

Nireva couldn't help but smile as her mother mentioned Conall's tailoring expertise. Half a decade ago, she had attended her first convention in San Diego, dressed in a costume the tall, tattooed Irishman had made for her. From her measurements and a few reference pictures, he had made a near-perfect replica of Korra's water tribe clothing and, after she'd styled her hair to match, she'd ended up making quite a good Avatar. While Khalidah had been quite an integral part of how memorable she'd been on that first day - having temporarily mutated Ragnarok to look like Naga, a polar bear dog standing taller than she did - the costume was still very much in one piece even now, carefully stored in her wardrobe back home.

The only concern with the project lay in the workload involved. Regardless of how much he might have been compensated at the end of it, Conall was presumably a self-employed and solo tailor. An expert he might have been, but to do a whole group's cosplay outfits on a deadline would have been a torturous way to earn the money. To her girlfriend's slight dismay, she probably would have made her own outfit if only to help lessen the burden.

"We could always go to the beach and kick sand in people's eyes? I hate all the pretentious rich fucks who go there." Trust Felicia to be the one who wanted to cause trouble. "Maybe stomp on a few sandcastles?" Nevertheless, Nireva struggled to think of any further objections beyond a desire to avoid causing a scene. They might not have brought any swimwear along with them, but the nearest beach wasn't that far away by car. Whether they'd be okay to drive when the time came to make the trip was another story entirely. "No, wait! I know what we can do. We can go to the Boardwalk and hang out there! Maybe even run into some vampires!"

"That's a reference to somethin', isn't it..?" While Felicia and Nireva would have easily been able to remember The Lost Boys upon its release, the comment was utterly lost on Jenna. She wasn't even three years old when a vampiric Kiefer Sutherland had hit the cinemas and hadn't gone back and watched it after getting older. "Boardwalk sounds good, though. I don't really fancy the beach this late in the year. Or this early in the morning." It was the early morning in August. At this time of the year, even Jenna was thinking twice about donning a bikini and hitting the beach.

With no immediate need for them to leave the confines of the observatory's grounds, Nireva soon found herself talking about the sudden offer of a new car. "Do they even make your car anymore, Jen?" There was no denying that, in addition to being a cramped and slow vehicle, Jenna's daily driver was an old model. Like many old models released by car companies, the Pontiac G3 had long since been phased out in favour of newer, less obsolete offerings. "I don't think so. Pretty sure Chevy still does stuff like it, though. Why, do you want a bigger car too?"

"If we're heading to an-..."

"Ah-ah!" Jenna cut her girlfriend off with a bright grin, taking a moment to drink from the bottle in her hand. Her free hand pointed at her in a challenging gesture. "Justify it without mentioning cosplay!"

"It's, uhh... gonna be convenient for whenever we're out shopping? More space in the trunk. And we'll actually have back seats!" Nireva smirked as she worked to be more evasive in her wording. But, alas, Jenna was having none of it. They simply knew each other too well. "Shopping for cosplay stuff? More space in the trunk for bigger cosplays?" The two of them fell silent, grinning at each other. They may have been good reasons to support trading in Jenna's old car for a new one, but there were reasons for those reasons. "Shush, you!"

"Anyway..." Nireva returned her attention to Felicia. "I guess that'll be another thing to thank you for." The three of them spent the better part of an hour sitting lazily on the grounds of the Griffith Observatory, not once being intent on visiting the building itself. As the driver, Jenna was the first to stop drinking. She might have been only a couple of steps shy from being the granddaughter-in-law of a multibillionnaire - how crazy would it have been if she and Nireva actually got married, anyway? - but she didn't want to take her chances and wind up scoring herself a DUI charge.

By the time one of the women expressed their boredom, it was a little after eight-thirty in the morning. "Hey, you two. You wanna ditch this place?" The conversation had petered out, the only other people around were employees and, being an observatory, the building itself was next to useless for at least another twelve hours. "I was thinkin' we could head over to that gallery Niri mentioned before; maybe grab some breakfast on the way?"

Nireva couldn't help but think that Jenna had something of a point as she straightened out her posture, anticipating the unanimous agreement. Galleries often opened their doors - like many other places - at nine AM and pretty much the only thing she'd eaten in the past ten hours was incensed annoyance at her grandmother. "Yes, please." Hopping to her feet, she gently tossed the empty bottle back into the cooler box. Lugging everything they'd brought It was a lot more convenient than finding a bin nearby. "I know we've got snacks in the cooler, but... fuck, I'm starving."

"That settles it," Jenna chimed in, getting to her feet. "We're getting breakfast and heading over to the LAXA Gallery-..."

"LACMA Gallery."

"Whatever. Let's go!" The more they remained in one place, the higher the risk of having Nireva start dwelling on something negative. It was up to Felicia and Jenna to help keep their mutual companion's spirits up and, come hell or high water, it was a mission they were going to achieve.

[Felicia Soler]

Is this the truth of your forgiveness?
Are you the strangers dead at my door?
Are you the end of this come calling?
Are you the answer I had wished for?

Everything's so cold
The air is so stale
And there is nothing here but me
If I belong here
And this is mercy
Then there is no place I'd rather be
______________________________Gary Numan – The End of Things

Los Angeles, California

"That's a reference to somethin', isn't it..?"

Felicia looked incredulously at Jenna and snorted. “Have you seriously never seen The Lost Boys? Oh my God. Okay. Never-fucking-mind going to the Boardwalk or the museum. We’ve spending the rest of the day back at your apartment binge watching 80s movies on Netflix and we’re renting The Lost Boys. You have no idea what you’re missing out on.” Hell, what kid born in the 1980s hadn’t seen The Lost Boys? That was like a requirement if you were born in the 1980s, regardless of what year you were born in. Shit.

Jenna was right about one thing, though; it was far too early in the morning to do anything major. Even after years spent at various hospitals working any number of odd shifts, mornings were still her least favourite time of day. "Boardwalk sounds good, though. I don't really fancy the beach this late in the year. Or this early in the morning."

“Eh, the weather is still nice enough that we could go spend the day at the beach, but I’d much rather sit around and watch your reactions to The Breakfast Club and The Lost Boys.” She reached over and patted Jenna between the shoulders. “You poor child. You have no idea what you’re missing.”

She listened to the two of them bicker over the size of a car’s trunk in relation to how many items of a cosplay nature that could fit in it. Hopefully she could talk them into getting a hatchback. Those were the best kinds of cars anyway. Or maybe an SUV? There had always been a special place in her heart for Subarus for some reason.

"Anyway..." Nireva met her mother’s eyes again. "I guess that'll be another thing to thank you for."

“Oh, no. No thanking me necessary. I mean, I’ll accept the thankfulness, but yeah. You need a new car. Hell, I probably need to get one too, but I have too much fun driving to the hospital in a hearse and parking it in front of the emergency department. Makes for great conversation.” Maybe she’d just sand it down to the primer and get it painted a new colour. Maybe one of those nice iridescent metallic colours that shifted in the sun. That looked pretty awesome.

There was a seven minute lull in the conversation and Felicia sighed heavily, listening to the sounds of passing traffic in the background. That was a constant ambient sound in Los Angeles, and not one that she was used to living out in what was essentially the middle of nowhere. "Hey, you two. You wanna ditch this place?"

“I would be perfectly okay with that.” As for heading to the gallery, though . . . “We’re not going to a gallery now. We’re seeing if The Lost Boys is on Netflix--I don’t think it is, so we’ll have to rent it or something.” She brought herself to a seated position and furrowed her brow. “Um . . . are video rental stores still a thing? Are they considered ‘hipster’ now if you have a VHS player?” Honestly, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen an actual movie rental store. They just kind of . . . vanished overnight. Redbox probably wouldn’t have what they were looking for anyway. Maybe they could just buy it on YouTube? “We’ll figure it out. Should probably stop somewhere and pick up some popcorn and some sweets, though. Can’t watch a movie without that shit. The Lost Boys is a lot more fun than walking around a museum reminiscing about the good ol’ days,” she feigned swooning, dramatically placing the back of her hand to her forehead, “when people died at the ripe old age of childbirth or death from cholera or the plague.”

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ф Word count: 884
ф Outfit: outfit
ф Other: None.

[Nireva Hale]

From the flames of the fire, I feel you crawl into my bed.
Throwin' shapes at the sky, I watch you crawl into me.
With your knees open on display, you taunt the beast again.
'Cause when you move and shake, that thing inside you comes awake.
______________________________Crosses - Bitches Brew

"Have you seriously never seen The Lost Boys?"

While many people her age had, upon reaching adulthood, looked back at the movies from the years surrounding their birth, Jenna hadn't really made an effort to do so. The Lost Boys - the classic vampire-ish movie set in 1980s California - was one of many which had slipped her by. From Felicia's reaction, it seemed that not having seen it was, in her eyes, some form of sacrelige; more than sufficient to derail their established plans for the day. Now, instead of swinging by a modern art gallery as has been suggested, Felicia had all but decreed that they were going to find a store from which they could acquire the movie in question in addition to a mountain of snacks.

"Are video rental stores still a thing?"

"I don't think so." A smirk flickered across Jenna's face. The likes of Blockbuster had pretty much become extinct following the advent of broadband internet and, latterly, digital distribution platforms. There was simply no point in allowing consumers to rent out movies when they could quite easily get a much higher-quality version of them for a very affordable price without getting out of bed. "I haven't seen a rental store for... years now. How 'bout you, Niri?" A dismissive noise rose into the air in response as Nireva's head rolled over to regard her girlfriend. "Nah. They've probably all been replaced by some kinda hipster coffee shops by now."

Without objection from the younger women on the hillside, Nireva and Jenna soon followed Felicia's lead and rose to their feet, the drinks bottles - empty or otherwise - returning to the cooler. Thankfully, they'd made sure to buy drinks with screw-top caps that could easily be refastened, avoiding both waste and spillage. "You're still on cooler duty, Niri." As if calling shotgun, Jenna was quick to issue the same order for returning to the car as she had when they'd first arrived. While its shape was a little unwieldy - just wide enough to make her arms slightly uncomfortable - the consumption of alcohol and whatever else Jenna had thought to bring along had left the box substantially lighter than earlier.

"Obviously." Mercifully, the three of them hadn't walked that far from the observatory's parking area. "No way in hell you'd carry this thing, Jen." By the time the trio returned to the car, the sun was no longer obscured by the horizon or the city skyline and hung unhindered in the air, bathing everything around them in a sea of light. By now, Nireva's eyes were prickling at the edges; a symptom of her relative lack of sleep but, with her mother and girlfriend by her side, she'd find a way to soldier on. She'd lived for nearly four hundred and fifty years by being stronger than this. Her weakness right now was just another bump in a very long, if not endless, road.

And, once the cooler was once more miraculously sequestered in the back of Jenna's Pontiac, there was nothing keeping them at the Griffith Observatory, leaving them to take up their former positions; Jenna behind the wheel, Felicia in the passenger seat and Nireva lounging in the back. "So, uh... Mother?" With no gallery visits to occupy their day, it wasn't long before Nireva was angling for something else to talk about. So back to the earlier offer she went. "You... seriously wanna get us a car?" She couldn't help but sound incredulous. Brand new cars were expensive at the best of times and, out of the blue, her mother had offered to buy one for her and Jenna to use as a new daily driver; one more functional and less cramped than the hatchback they were in now. "I mean... there's no denyin' we need one, but... that's gonna be twenty grand at least! I... I'd just feel bad if-..."

"Niri..." Jenna sighed quietly. Her girlfriend's emotions were all over the place to begin with. Having her mother make a random magnanimous gesture was likely not doing her many favours. "I'm sure it's okay. Besides, I'll gladly be the first in line to admit this car's a piece of shit. It's barely big enough to fit the pair of us, the engine's been tortured for years and there's probably a decent chance that this thing's gonna fail its next I/M test and safety inspection. Either that or it just hates me. Where do you two wannt stop first? We could probably pick up some 80s movies from... some regular movie store around here. And popcorn and all that shit's easy to find."

"The Lost Boys is a lot more fun than walking around a museum, reminiscing about the good ol' days when people died at the ripe old age of childbirth or death from cholera or the plague." The matter-of-fact way Felicia and Nireva discussed history almost had Jenna forgetting that the two of them were centuries-old immortals. Having spotted her exaggerated swooning in the rear-view mirror, Nireva couldn't help but smile. "I'll definitely hold you to that," she remarked sternly. "What kinda popcorn are we gonna get? See, there's a debate for the ages..."