Comment on this post and I will choose seven interests from your profile. You will then explain what they mean and why you are interested in them. Post this along with your answers in your own journal so that others can play along.

( Answers to Perzephone )

I'm alive. Barely.

I'll be posting again as soon as I'm sure that will last.

Ouch.

That is all I have to say.

Ouch.

We plan to have Jenna and Gary over dinner tomorrow night, since we cannot exactly discuss Chresh business of such a delicate nature in public... especially not knowing how he will take it.

Though they know they will be coming in the next few days, I've yet to inform them of it being an eating affair. I plan on doing so today and checking for any food allergies I am unaware of.

My current menu stands at-

Irish Lamb Stew
Baked Bread (stuffed with ricotta cheese and spinach)
and a French Loaf

I have to serve two separate breads because of Jenna's lactose intolerance, although she did have a ricotta, mozzarella, and spinach calzone when we were out the other day.

She can have a little bit of dairy, but I worry...

Is it rude to place something on the dinner table she may not feel up to enjoying that night? I'm providing a substitute, but it hardly seems fair to present something that may seem appealing to her, that she has to watch everyone else eat, that she might not want to partake in that night due to her digest difficulties with the product it contains.

I would simply leave it out, but Irish Lamb Stew seems awfully bare for the table all by it's lonesome... perhaps, instead, I could hollow out bread bowls to serve it in?

The boys favor those in restaurants, but I've yet to hear her preference on them.

Or perhaps I could have some sort of cheese free appetizer set out, then desert afterwards, so that the fairly simple main course will not seem so alone?

Advice? Help???

And yes, I chose the stew for a reason- it's somewhat inexpensive to prepare but takes skill, time, and care to create. I was taught that putting effort into a meal was a sign of welcome and regard. Also- you can talk while eating it and it makes a house smell very homey.

Not to mention it's Kam's favorite meal.

Also... Wine with dinner or just wine in the recipe?

sighs

This is suddenly seeming very complicated. Worth it, but complicated.

In thinking about what I need to be able to do my job, I managed to make a list.

Have any of you ever *wanted* to spew all the poison in your soul out on paper, just to get it out?

I always make myself meditate. Force myself to take back everything I want to say... go over it again and again and again, until I know I can trust myself not to feel it anymore.

I try not to indulge... not to ever let any of it out where it can get a life of its own, or accidentally wound someone I love. Sometimes I write a little of it here, so that I can be a person and not just a machine... but even then...

I wish I didn't have to edit myself all the time, but that is so gods-be-damned selfish. I cannot go down that path. In fact, now I have to go kill the part of me that wanted to. Yay.

I guess want the stress to go away, just a little, in a more natural way... without an hour sitting in lotus, breathing deep and not letting myself feel any of it. I want the luxury of a "diary", like other's have.

But I don't have that right. I have to be better than that... so as much as I want to sit here and tell everyone what the list is, I can't.

Because it involves where it's gone wrong in the past and that isn't fair to two of the people in my life. I also know the pain of thinking an entry is about you, even if you later found out that it isn't. I also know the damage that words can do to both a reader's soul... and your own.

On the bright side... it is fair to everyone else, since they are so awesome, and because they rock.

They rock hardcore.

I think it's best that I don't let myself use this as I wanted to, in my moments of weakness. I think it's good that I try and strive to be stronger than that.

I know what "honesty" can do to those you love. Especially when the honesty is fleeting and comes from a moment of pain... what you feel one day can change the next.

It's like speaking in anger. It's never very wise.

It can feel really, really good momentarily. But it hurts so badly in the end.

It just isn't worth it.

Not ever, really.

This is a sort out of the situation with Zoria, just so you know. It takes a long time to reach its conclusion, because I needed to be sure of what I was going to do. Souls are far too precious to be risked with anything less than...

Than my full effort in trying to salvage the whole situation. And as much surety as I can ever manage that I'm doing the right thing.

I did find my path, in the end. I pray I made the correct choice, but I won't know until it's all over.

No one has to read this. The grammar and spelling are probably terrible- I wasn't concerned with them as I was working.

"The most horrible truth is that everything trundles merrily towards hell, and the second most horrible truth is that you're probably pushing them that way by how you lean. But the most hopeful truth is that despite every physical law pulling the universe towards entropy, it still gets there so incredibly slowly, and the second most hopeful truth is that it takes such tiny counter-pressures to save the parts you love." --Glenn McDonald

S: Did I seduce you?
A: (looks up at him, startled, from her book) What?
S: (frowns at her from his own over-stuffed armchair, set at an angle to her own before the fire, propping his chin on one long fingered hand and scowling somewhat darkly) Did I seduce you?
A: Um... (tilts her head, trying to sort out what *exactly* he's asking her) I'd say "of course you did" and compliment your skills at it, but I have a feeling that isn't the answer you're looking for.
S: (the lines on his face deepen in shadow when he turns from her to stare intently at the intricate mantle above the crackling flames) You could just be honest. Maybe I don't want to hear what I need to hear. Maybe I want to hear the truth.
A: (chuckles softly, setting her book  neatly aside after carefully marking her place) People always say that, but they rarely mean it. However, fine, I'll humor you. Just please- first, elaborate as to the question you really want to know the answer to.
S: (slow nod, trailing his fingertips down his own cheek to the bandage gracing the smooth line of his jaw) (presses hard to it, ignoring her sympathetic flinch as blood blossoms rich and red beneath the sterile white color of the gauze) You read novels where... men entice lovers to their bed, generally children.
A: Ah, my more twisted books. The ones with no happy endings- Batman taking Robin gone really, really wrong.
S: (jerks his head in agreement, a strangely brittle gesture) Yes. I... suppose. Lolita-esque, with a predatory male debauching a child and generally blaming the child themselves for their own desires.
A: (nods) I don't really like why I buy them, but they help me understand myself. And my feelings towards my grandfather.
S: Yes, yes, those.
A: What about them? Why do you think it has anything to do with us? Or you and your other lovers? (she's watching him carefully, knowledge beginning to show in her eyes... she's starting to see where this is heading)
S: (his brows come together sharply as he searches for words) They damage these lovers. Their relationships, no matter what appearance they may take on of being loving... always end badly, with the child.... They develop a particular personality. (waves his hand elegantly, as if motioning past this point in the conversation, unsure of the murky territory of generalities)
A: I know the type. I've had to resist it in myself.
S: Yes, again. They aren't....
A: Happy.
S: Yes.
A: Okay... where are you going with this, Se'Corian?
S: I... (swallows hard) I know what I am, Akiima. Vampire, DarkLord, NightPrince, all of that...
A: (smiles slightly) SexFeeder.
S: Mmm hmm... (trails off, looking unhappy and very, very confused) I am proud of that. Recently I spent two days your time just making sure people still saw it in me. I felt like I was....
A: Drowning.
S: Yes... drowning, strangling in what everyone else thought of me. And now....
A: Now you're wondering, because of the novel I'm currently making my way through and my thoughts on visiting my grandfather...
S: If I am like them. Did I do that to you?
A: Or is your seduction, your beguilement, good for your lovers?
S: I know it isn't always. I know I kill, I know I hurt, I know I take what I need. And most of them take what they need of me as well.
A: I've seen you come back from hunting with holes in your soul, Sumpter. I know what you mean.
S: (nods, again, hair whispering across the heavy black wool sweater) I... I don't mean those "relationships", if you can even call them that. (he sounds... poisonous, venomous, angry at himself and those who use him even as he uses them)
A: (makes a motion of agreement, encouraging him to continue)
S: I... I am worried... that I am like that, with you. With Torick. With Kam.... not so much with Kam.
A: With those some part of you sees as innocent.
S: Hn. I know...
A: I'm nowhere near innocent, you know this, yes?
S: Yes you are... just... not...
A: I get what you mean. No, Sumpter, you didn't... I knew the cost of loving you.
S: Ouch.
A: And so does anyone else, *including* Torick, who is *really* involved with you. Not on a superficial level, not for your body, but for *you*.
S: So... just as we knew the cost of loving you?
A: (flinches a little) Why do you think I know so clearly what you meant?
S: Other than that you are psychic and incredibly perceptive besides?
A: Ah, other than that... Sumpter... (looks down, then forces herself to meet his eyes again, her own luminous but somehow shaded in the dim light, heavy with memories) I know that telling yourself that you loving them and them loving you and them knowing what they were getting into... makes it okay... doesn't actually make it okay.
S: You've been there.
A: Ah, yes, I have... it... it doesn't help. And sometimes, it makes it worse, makes you feel like you're making excuses for yourself and telling yourself your behavior and the wounds you place upon them is... are okay.
S: Dirty. It makes you feel... dirty. Like those men; like you need a shower but it will not help.
A: Yes.... but Sumpter... could you, could they, be where you and they are without that love?
S: (blinks) No... no, not really... Torick would... he would...
A: Fall apart. And so would you.... Things don't have to be healthy, to work. You just have to.... keep on eye on them. And watch yourself. Don't become... don't become selfish, greedy. Give them everything you can; ask for nothing.
S: (nods) Nothing but that they love you?
A: No, Sumpter. We don't; we can't ask them for that.
S: Why not?
A: Would you want it given because you asked?
S: (shakes his head) No, no I want it given because it simply *is*.
A: (nods) Exactly. Just... give what you can and wait.
S: (slow nod) I asked for you.
A: (laughs softly) But you waited. You waited and waited and waited until I said yes, you never forced me, you gave me time and you let me know I still had you as a friend... albeit a bitter somewhat horny one (they share a wry smile) if, indeed, I never gave into you.
S: But I seduced you.
A: But you allowed *me* to say yes, or no. You let Torick break your jaw on how many occasions, *DarkLord*
S: Point taken... thank you, by the way.
A: For this?
S: No, Akiima... (smiles at her a little) For saying yes.
A: (flushes)

The End

I haven't heard from Zoria, but her posts online worry me. I'm trying to give her space- when she and Sumpter spoke, he gave her much to think on. She was to talk to us, I thought, when she was ready.

Maybe I misunderstood. I don't know if I have the strength to reach out to her; I do not know if I have anything to spare. When, before she goes, can I see her?

How many of my people will die if I rearrange my schedule to be there for her? How can I think like that... weigh the balance of one I love against time lost in a war... I've been fighting for so long I've forgotten what it is like to be at peace.

That is not true. I remember. I hold it before me as the hope that keeps me going. It's just been... so long.

I want... I want to be able to see her and help her and all of that... I simply don't know how. We do not understand each other now; sometimes I feel that when we talk we only end up wounding each other in our souls. She and I picked opposite paths... we are bitter reminders to each other and I do not know what I can give her at all. But I need... But I have to try, because she is my friend.

Sometimes I despise how different our worlds must be... that all of who and what I am goes into fighting, striving, protecting. That I have so little left... I remember being with her, for things as simple as meals and movies. I miss it.

I remember other things as well. Bubble baths and cold sodas, resting in the sunshine of the balcony with a book, the satisfaction of having cleaned, the smell of something I made baking in the oven, the bubbling of a spell I made... because I could, because I wanted to... not to save the world.

But this is what I am. I am proud of it and I do not regret the choices I have made. I only miss those who those choices have cost me.

We leave Saturday for Mount Charleston, where we will do a valley wide spell to end the Dark Eater, the "Void Thingie". I've spend the last few days extending the posts for the Boundary so that we can safely step foot up there.

It was exhausting. It feels as though I've ruptured something low in my belly, about two inches above the apex of my hipbones. There was quite a bit of blood and my wrists ache fervently- the veins look like so much blue smudged powder beneath the thinness of my skin.

I forced myself to eat popcorn, thinking the energy would help. It tasted like ash and scraped my raw throat on the way down. The headache pounding in my forehead hasn't lessened, either... but I think in the end this will be worth it.

Even if I kill myself to perform this miracle... it may save us all. I think, sometimes, about what the Universe told me it wanted, needed, in order to end this war.

We have such a chance at it. To prove we are functioning as Chresh; to show we have a future.

To show that we will be there, to protect it from those who are like us but without our honor.

We must be dedicated and strong. I am simply... tired. That will not prevent me from doing what needs must be done. We are so close I can taste it. I despair of arrogance leading me down a path we are not ready for; I work to know my motivations. To do this for the people and not for the win.

I pray only... that it doesn't cost the others more than they can pay. Fus has been so ill and unhappy of late- the lines of stress around his eyes are deepening, his skin is gray, and he says that he is lonely. I want to help; if only he would let me. Let us.

There is so much I wish to accomplish.

I study the hours of my day and there are never enough. For those I love, for those I serve, for doing my research, for doing my job.

I am so often told that it is not all on my shoulders... but it is.

Kamaricke, Kedaeris, Fus... they came to this realization the other day. I was crying in the bathtub because I was so... overwhelmed.

I could not make time for everything and it seemed so much of it was slipping away.

They said... they said that all this time they've been trying to get me to see I wasn't bearing... too much, alone. And then they saw that I was.

They asked to help. They're trying to help.

I give them credit for that, but I still feel so....

I feel like I am drowning.

And there isn't the time to save myself or anyone I care anymore. I'm too busy saving the world.

It doesn't seem right, when they are the ones I am saving it for.

S: (studies her from across the maps, the tiny figures that represent their army looking so insignificant against the masses of the enemies against them) I have something to say.
A: (looks up at him, cup of tea half-way to her mouth, the nearly permanent frown line between her dark brows deepening for one long moment before it soothes and she nods) Hmm?
S: I... don't know what it is yet.
A: (blinks)
T: (blinks)
A: Ooookaaay... do you have any idea what it pertains to?
S: Something about odds. And that quote you like from Narnia... and how we're so screwed but that I _might_ have an idea.
A: "Numbers do not win a battle."
S: That's the quote?
A: (nods)
T: Half of it anyway.
S: Right.
A: "No, but I bet they help."
S: (blinks at them tiredly) That's the rest?
A: (nods again, one hand to her temple as if to soothe an ache) And they would, too.
T: One Elite can take out fifty to a hundred of them, easy. Then the magic users? We should be fine.
A: (shakes her head) They're bending the rules. Normally we'd wipe the floor with them, but with them using the Universe against us... I just don't see how I can send my soldiers to the slaughter like that.
T: Elites know what they are, Akiima. We die for the Queen; it's what we do.
A: Dying for a _purpose_, yes, I can understand that.
S: With them still twisting the rules, this would simply be a massacre.
A: If you can think of what you wanted to say that could help, now would be the time.
T: And you can't simply... bend the rules back?
A: Not without irreparable damage to the fabric, no. Not yet... it's a slow process, and I need someone to buy me time.
S: (snaps) Ah ha, that's just it. (smirks and knocks over the figure of one of the opposing army's commanders) Checkmate, easy as pie, and we buy you time.
A: (quirks a brow before her brain catches up to her and she starts reading his idea off the air, understanding it even as he explains it (if you know her, you know what I mean)) I break them in small ways, just for you... Make you stronger...
S: Make them weaker.
A: You take out their heads and as many as you can, whilst I fix the underlying problem. (scowls suddenly) Can you wait for me though? On the field, do you need a portion of me?
T: It would be nice, but we can handle it.
S: Heh, Caesar quote.
T: "These powers you give to me, I will lay down..."
A: (snorts) That's Palpatine. And it's not really that reassuring. (pokes Sumpter in the chest) You better, buster.
S: Oh, I will. I don't need you coming after me, magical steroids or no.
T: Magical... steroids? (gives a perplexed frown)
S: Come on, lover boy, I'll explain it on the way.

So, I got everything for Eric and Celeste all typed up.

Ready for them and in excruciating detail. And then I fell asleep on the couch, because it's been a long time since I've done more than napped for a few hours.

When I woke up, five days of work was gone. Disappeared off of the laptop as if it was never there. My head wasn't on the keys; the computer was sitting to my side on a stool next to the couch.

I felt such a wave of... helplessness. This is the fourth time this has happened this week; the second with these particular documents.

The Chresh say I should take it as a sign... they pointed out how we've never gone more than three days without telling a maybe-initiate what we are and what we do...

They say that it is too late and that I should take it as a forewarning that it is not meant to be.

I don't feel right simply... discarding it as such. What if this is one of those things, one of those times when everything seems to be against you but you just have to push harder?

I wish I wasn't so tired... that my meditations would tell me whether I should look at this as fate or look at is as a challenge.

I do not know what to do.

I saved that work.

And it is simply gone.... after over a week of nearly _forcing_ myself to even approach it.

Should I look at that as well? How _difficult_ it was to prepare the information? To get ready to hand it over to them so simply?

Why do I not know how I feel about this?

How much longer must I wait before my soul answers my questions?

This reminds me so much of many of the conversations I've listened to over the com-channels.

I'm serious- I can completely picture two Elites saying these exact lines.

I do not know what is wrong with me.

I simply cannot seem to finish the post of what the Chresh are, what we believe. I think, by now, that it may be too late.

If it is, I am sorry. To Eric and to Celeste.

It is nearly four o'clock in the morning. I have been working since ten o'clock in the evening yesterday night and I feel as though I have barely made a dent.

Things that are learned gradually, with proof to hold in your hands and a group to offer you comfort as they destroy the bedrock of the world you grew up in... how do you explain these through e-mail or journal posts, mere words to be read?

No illustrations... not unless I'm willing to put up my artwork.

I could do that, I suppose. I hate the thought of it, but for an initiate's ease of mind? Perhaps.

There is a secrecy in the silence of my room this night.

Like the air is holding secrets, merely waiting for the time to whisper them into my ear. I keep finding myself amidst a... pausing, as it were... a moment stretched with baited breath, chilled spine, and pebbled skin.

Listening.

To nothing... and to everything. I see shapes float beneath the surface of my eyes... but not deep enough to truly touch my mind and I wonder... what message they may hold.

Wisdoms spoken when no one can hear but me... things I will not be able to explain so that anyone else could ever understand.

I feel lonely... and yet with them spilling dragons of shade and smoke upon the air, I do not feel alone.

Just... hopelessly misunderstood.

T: (lays back against Akiima's chest, head pillowed so that he can hear her heartbeat through the swell of her breast, fingers tangled with her own and long legs stretched out before them both from where they sit on the floor, her back to Sumpter's chest and Sumpter's back to the front of the desk) Hmmm. (takes a slow, deep breath, tension fading from his shoulders ever-so-slowly, as he soaks in her presence and relaxes a little more with every taste of her scent)
A: (strains forward a little to brush her lips over his forehead, then leans back again with a happy little sigh) You've been so busy, I haven't seen you in nigh on a month.
T: (slow nod, his hair a slick whispering sigh of black silk as it slides over her gauzy dress) I have missed you both so much.
S: (reaches his arm around her waist, stroking his fingers through the dark mahogany spread... in a very "Sumpterish" gesture, managing to sweep them along the sensitive under-curve of her Akiima's naughtier bits at the same time, causing her to shiver slightly...) And we have missed you... you should not stay away so long. It makes you ill.
T: (nods again, an unhappy line appearing between his arching, elegant brows) I need to figure out a better way of approaching my schedule. I haven't had time to kill anyone in _months_ and that's... well that's...
S: What we do.
T: (tilts his head in firm affirmation, blushing as his cheek slides against the boning of Akiima's corset) Exactly. See, _you_ understand that-
S: (interrupts with a wicked grin) Vampire.
T: Yes, just that, but... I mean.. you understand _me_. I hate these long days with Council members. They all look at me as if I'm insane or dangerous or... tainted by human contact.
A: Well, we are all three.
T: Yes, but still, they actually look at me as if I _am_. I mean, they _dare_ that. Completely dismissing that if they're right, which they are, you know... I'm dangerous, insane, and tainted by human contact, and they shouldn't _risk_ staring at me that way. I might you know... snap, or something.
S: Wouldn't that be fun.
A: (giggles- (she would say "chuckled in a girl-y manner")- eyes crinkling with mirth) Oh, I can just see it now. There go the space controls!
S: (snickers) Oooh, watch out for the flying jewelry.
T: Gods, I can just see it. I'd be in the midst of a gory slaughter, and they'd be complaining about me upsetting their hair-do.
S: Oh no, you ripped my dress! This is real Aruvian silk, you know!
A: Oh, by the gods, you _brute_, it took me absolute _hours_ to get this pinned in place!
T: (sighs) They take all the fun out of murder.
S: Blas_pheeeem_er! There is no "taking the fun out of murder"! Murder is always fun!
A: Not when the person you're killing squishes because of how many cream puffs they eat.
S: Cake-eaters.
T: (frowns a little) This is a very _wrong_ conversation.
A: (shrugs) We're tired, we have an excuse.
S: Too bad that doesn't work as an alibi. Gee, I'm sorry Your Honor, I was sleepy and forgot my blade was pointed that way.
A: (laughs abruptly) Oh, wow, the images.
T: Ah yes. Really, Sir Regent, I blinked and the next thing you know he was walking forward onto my sword. I really was snoring away, I didn't think he'd just _impale_ himself like that.
A and S: That sounded so dirty. (blink at each other; laugh)
T: ...I'm glad to be home.
A and S: (smile)

"I love deadlines. I like to laugh at them as they whiz me by."

With added sound-effects, too.

Nyyyyyyyeeeoooowwwhhhhmmmm.

I am almost done with the first part of the post.

I didn't have a single moment to work on it this weekend; things were just... incredibly crazy here. And I've spend the whole time worrying about Zoe, since I never heard back from her after the last time we talked, even though she said she'd stay in touch.

So, yes...

Anyway- I should have it up soon, but you never know.... Come hell or however, I suppose.

All I can even notice right now is how the world is sort of trembling around the edges... a sure sign that I should stop drinking black tea and actually go to sleep sometime tonight.

But I have way too much to do, too little of an amount of time in which to do it, and my deadlines? Don't wait, generally have fangs or other ways of making their "point" (snicker), and are not really friendly. Or particularly patient.

I'd ask you to wish me luck, but I think I've learned my lesson on that scale.

BTW- the air still smells like Demon blood... is it sad or strange that I regret they're are dying to help us? With centuries of war and violence between us, I can still think of them as "people"... independent entities capable of acting contrary to their nature, environment, and nurturing.

As we all say, demon babies are babies too.

I'm sorry that it is taking me so long for me to get around to posting the information for the new maybe-initiates... and anyone else who may be reading.

It's been... hectic. But I will try my best to not let that be an excuse any longer.

My goal is to have it up by tomorrow.

Whether or not I will achieve that, I have no idea.

Posted by Elis and Torick
A: You know... (wiggles the lock experimentally) If I'm asked about this, I'm going to have to say I have no idea what they're talking about.
S: (helps her lift the window as silently as possible) (slants her a look) That would be lying.
A: No, seriously. I have no knowledge of you, your actions or your doings or your _notions_, and I have no freaking clue what you were doing _creeping into the house of a COUNCIL member at three in the bloody morning_!
S: That was a particularly loud whisper. (slips in) You know, you are _helping_ me. I could have come alone.
A: Oh, and tripped every alarm he has against the dead? You need me shielding you, you asshole, and I need you not to be rotting in jail blaming the whole thing on me!
S: HE stole from ME.
A: So you're going to steal it back!?
S: To GIVE it to you! See? See there, how noble my efforts are?
A: (sighs softly, walking through the parlor/office area they had entered, creeping through the shadows like smoke... and relying rather heavily on the sight, sound, and presence barriers she has up to protect them from being noticed) We're so lucky he's all old and deaf and stuff.
S: (snorts) And dumb. AND dishonest.
A: Says the man BREAKING AND ENTERING.
S: (glares) Says the woman who is WITH ME, doing so.
A: I'm here under duress. And I'll swear that under oath, too.
S: How am I _duressing_ you?
A: That isn't a word. And you're.... duressing... me by guilt tripping me about how much you went through to GET that damned thing.
S: Well, I _DID_ go through a lot. And you'll like it, when you get it.
A: It would help if I knew what the oh-so-illusive _it_ was. All I saw was the box.
S: (snorts)
A: What?
S: The box is worth it, believe me. And here it is. (holds it up triumphantly)
A: Great, wonderful, can we _go_ now?
S: (shakes head) Not until we do one last thing.
A: Oh gods, what now. I can't _let_ you poison anything. He took the damn thing through legal channels-
S: STOLE it through legal channels.
A: And he's actually a good Council Member, dammit!
S: The lights are so going to come on any second now. Like, in all the movies you watch-
A: We're going. (shoves him towards the window, not very gently)
S: But I wanted to prank _something_!
A: No, leaving. Then you are going to open the stupid box and show me why all of this was worth this, when we could have just asked Torick to get it or you know... _beamed_ it back into our hands.
S: (frowns, hesitating on the cusp of the windowsill, straddling both sides with his long, lean legs) (looks honestly befuddled, puzzlement written across his features) What would be the fun in that?
A: Oh for gods' sakes! (pushes him, hard enough to bruise his genitals against the sill)
S: (winces)(hisses) Ow!
A: Move. We're going home. I don't even care what's in the box anymore.
S: Fine, fine. And you so still do.

------
(later, much later, over glasses of mulled wine and a few snacks, ie- a nicked vein for Sumpter and light, fluffy pastries stuffed with cheese for Akiima...)

A: (picks crumbs off her lap, smiling to herself a little) You bought me a ring.
S: No, I (takes a long slow sip) _found_ you a ring, fought for the ring, bled for the ring, nearly _died_ for the ring, then I stole you the ring. IN the box. It was never, actually, payed for in anything resembling cash.
A: (smiles a little, looking at peace and a little drugged) Okay, so you got me a ring through a very thorough adventure involving dashing and daring-do and swashbuckling and the like-
S: More like space piracy, but still...
A: (nods sort of drunkenly at him- not from the wine, but from being relaxed and tired) You got me a ring.
S: (smiles) Yes.
A: Are we getting married? (snickers)
S: (shakes his head, joining in her laughter) No, no, sugar, we most certainly are not. You just... deserved something pretty and special. And that ring is... most certainly special.
A: (lifts it to the light, examining the eye (seriously, the ring is fucking huge, spanning three and a half of her fingers, with a real eyeball in it) within, that meets her own and sort of... looks her over, in a creepily distinct manner) It's blue. And it's pretty. But I think it might make a better bracelet.
S: (laughs softly) Yes, well. I just love you because you actually think it's pretty, instead of just sitting there making cracks that only a Vampire would find it so.
A: I can still make those jokes. I thought them... but it is, pretty. And it does... suit me.
S: (nods) Just... be happy. You got out of the DarkTower, you went on a journey, you pissed of and pulled one over on a Council member simultaneously, we spent time together, you got a gift...
A: And now I own something of yours I didn't have to steal.
S: (snuggles up to her, tucking her under his chin against her chest, as if she could hear his heartbeat) I still want that sweater back.
A: (strokes the ring idly) Over my dead body. Or... well, not yours, because I wouldn't bury you in it and you're already dead.
S: Hmm... I love you, 'Kiimas.
A: I love you too.


Goodnight