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Daniel Hawthorne: Daniel was waiting somewhat patiently in the display area of the studio for Alex's arrival, dressed neatly as was his wont. One project that he had been working on with the other Haunt seemed to be bearing fruit, and he couldn't deny that he was excited to show her.
Alex Shaw: Alex was happy to come by to talk with Daniel tonight, and she arrives at the door under Obfuscate that she lets drop as she's reaching for the handle to come inside. She's wearing her hair loose tonight, a mass of curls that extends further than her shoulders, and she has on her tortoiseshell glasses. Her outfit tonight is a long linen dress and a pair of boots, and she's wearing her laptop bag slung over her shoulders like usual. When she steps inside she smiles at Daniel and approaches as her arms come up to offer him a hug. "Good evening!" she greets happily.
Daniel Hawthorne: Daniel smiled warmly as Alex entered, welcoming the hug and returning it in kind. "Evening." He whispered back. "Things going well, I hope?"
Alex Shaw: "They are!" Alex says with a wider smile. "A friend of mine was having a bit of trouble, and I was able to do a lot to get him back out of it. I've felt like I've been able to actually do something to help people recently in general, not just with that situation. It's a nice change. I haven't really been able to do much that made me feel that way in years, you know? How are you?"
Daniel Hawthorne: "I do, and I'm glad for you and your friend. Hope they're able to get everything straightened out soon." He nodded with a smile. "Pretty well, actually. Had a good talk with Phaedra and Cian recently, and keeping busy on the work front. That, and I think I've got the mirror trick figured out." His smile widened at that, tilting his head towards the fitting room. "Care to see?"
Alex Shaw: "I think that situation's sorted, and hopefully staying that way," Alex says with a nod. "Someone tried to frame him for a crime, and I got the evidence that was needed to prove he didn't do it." She lifts one brow and asks, "what were you talking to them about? I don't think I've met Cian, but I did meet Phaedra once." She gestures toward the fitting room, "I'd love to see, though. Show me!"
Daniel Hawthorne: "Ah...was that the thing on the news with the break-in footage being doctored? Good job catching it."
"A few different things, including how she thought I was older than I am and her want to learn everything she can since she was denied a lot of that knowledge in life. Cian's going to be working with her on the history front and I offered to help where I can as well." He motioned for her to follow before heading to the fitting room, opening the door and following her in. The decor was much the same as the main area, high-end but comfortable nonetheless, with a pair of chairs off to one side with the traditional three-fold mirror in a wooden frame on the wall. He looked at the mirror for a long moment, mentally wrangling the Beast into place before letting out a slow breath and stepping up to be within the mirror's view.
Alex Shaw: "It was," Alex admits with a nod. "Fortunately for us both the people who did the frame-up job weren't too competent at the tech portion of it, so it wasn't that big a challenge, once I got on the right track."
She joins Daniel in going to check out the fitting rooms and then steps inside, where she avoids looking at herself in the mirrors because it's always disconcerting, unless she's making the effort to keep her reflection undistorted, which is wasteful when she doesn't need to. She does watch Daniel in the mirror as he steps into view of it, and when he does it without the Beast screwing things up she claps in delight and says, "you figured it out! Daniel!" She moves in for another hug. "Congratulations."
Daniel Hawthorne: Daniel couldn't help but grin as he saw the reflection come through clearly, the last bits of lingering nervousness fading. He opened his arms to return the hug, giving her a proper squeeze. "Thanks, and thank you for helping me figure it out."
Alex Shaw: "Of course! I was glad to!" Alex responds. "What are you planning to do with it? Have you got plans? Start a YouTube fashion channel? TikTok star?" She grins, because she's teasing but not, at the same time.
Daniel Hawthorne: He actually laughed in response, a rough and ragged thing but the mirth was clear nonetheless. He shook his head with a smirk, clearing his throat loudly before he answered. "Being able to be on camera during shows and whatnot, mainly...don't really have the voice for YouTube anymore."
Alex Shaw: "I think you could manage there if you embraced it, but I can understand not wanting to, either," Alex answers. She glances at the mirror and then makes a shooing motion toward the door. "Let's get out of here. It makes me a little uncomfortable to be in front of the mirror when I don't have to be. I've got something I wanted to talk to you about, though, and the voice thing relates to it."
Daniel Hawthorne: "I meant more literally...unless I have someone else do the voiceovers." He gave her a wry smirk, taking a moment to check the scarf around his neck to make sure it was in place. Doing so made him pause, however, looking back towards the mirror. "Sure...mind if I do something first, though?"
Alex Shaw: Alex tilts her head in curiosity and asks, "does it give you trouble if you talk for long, or something? I'm sorry if the question is personal, but I'm not sure how it impacts you, really. And sure, if you have something you want to do. Should I be worried?"
Daniel Hawthorne: "I can't talk much louder than this without forcing it, and it does get rough after a while regardless." He shook his head at the question, motioning briefly to his neck. "It's not dangerous, I just haven't seen...this since it happened."
Alex Shaw: "Oh," Alex says when Daniel clarifies what he means to do. Then, "oh. Yeah. Of course." She grows more solemn. "I'd ask if you're sure you want to, but I can't imagine that I would hesitate in your situation. I'd want to know. What do you want me to do?"
Daniel Hawthorne: "Just being here is good, if you don't want to be in front of the mirror yourself." He smiled a touch then moved closer to the center mirror, reaching up to grasp the end of the scarf. "This may be a little gruesome...apologies in advance."
With that he looked towards his reflection, bracing himself before slowly winding the scarf off. Soon enough the wound below was revealed, the deep, jagged slice clear across his neck only partially healed by the act of his Embrace. He let out a slow breath as he looked it over, remaining quiet for the moment.
Alex Shaw: "Oh honey," Alex waves her hand. "I'll stay right here with you. I've seen plenty of gruesome in my day, unfortunately. I'm from the internet." Not that she hasn't seen it in real life, either. She moves to stand by Daniel's side as he's unraveling the scarf, to make sure he knows she's there with him, standing by him. "Does it hurt?" she asks.
Daniel Hawthorne: "Off and on, more often when I have the Blush going." Which, Alex had likely noticed, was usually the case whenever she had encountered the other Haunt. "It's not bad at the moment, though."
Alex Shaw: "I'm glad that my pain from the embrace isn't physical. Or maybe I wish it was. No, I'm glad it's not," Alex goes back and forth. "Psychological I think I can heal with time, you know? I guess our physical things don't heal the same way any more. That's actually along the lines of what I wanted to talk about, in fact."
Daniel Hawthorne: "It should have, since I've healed other injuries since and the Embrace usually covers that besides. This, however, has stuck. A 'gift' from my sire's blood, one could say." He sighed quietly, taking a moment to get the scarf back in place before looking towards Alex. "Oh?"
Alex Shaw: Alex glances at the mirror again, sheepishly smiles at Daniel, and asks, "can we get out of here? But yes. Fortunately I didn't get stuck with my Sire's version of the curse, since I'm rather fond of my green eyes and he didn't have any, but my curse does have a physical component. It makes people uncomfortable all the same."
Daniel Hawthorne: "Of course." He nodded, moving to the fitting room door and opening it for her. The mention of her sire's version of the curse led to a curious look, head tilting. "Really...mine didn't have them either. He got by on other senses, though, and the ones he had left were heightened besides."
"I deal with that as well. Even with things covered there's still that sense of something being...off that most people can't shake."
Alex Shaw: "My sire did that too," Alex agrees, finding the similarity curious, and also looking more comfortable once they're not in the fitting room. She glances back at it and says, "sorry. I'm not a big fan of mirrors and I get claustrophobic. Thank you for trusting me to be there for you at that moment, but I'm glad to be back out here." She gives Daniel an embarrassed smile, but shrugs it off. "Which also all comes around to what I wanted to bring up. I'm thinking of trying to start a support group for those of us who are struggling with aspects of what we are. Especially younger vampires. Those who didn't get to choose the situation. Nosferatu struggling with the curse. That kind of thing."
Daniel Hawthorne: "Huh...intertesting." He nodded, looking back towards the fitting room as he found a spot on the counter to lean against. "Understandable, and no worries. Having you there for that did help, though."
"Ah...I see." He gave another small nod as he looked her over. "I'd be up for that."
Alex Shaw: Alex moves to lean against the counter and is about to say something when her phone makes a Star Trek red alert sound and she scrambles to pull it out. She looks at it, blinks a couple of times like she's trying to figure out what to do with what she's reading, and then she starts cursing. "Oh fuck. Shit." She glances around, stops on Daniel, and says, "an emergency just came up. One sec." Then she starts typing furiously.
Daniel Hawthorne: Daniel's eyebrow arched up at the alert, clearly recognizing the sound. "No worries...anything I can do to help?"
Alex Shaw: "One sec," Alex says, fingers flying furiously. Under her breath she says, "fuck, fuck. OH! Okay." Her panic subsides once she figures out what her plan of action is. Without the Blush of Life she'd probably be breathing hard, adrenaline pumping, but she's still and confident looking instead. "The person who was fucking with my friend is trying to fuck with more people, I think. I'm trying to put a stop to it. Do you have a computer here? Do you know Twitch?"
Daniel Hawthorne: "Lovely..." He nodded, motioning for her to follow as he headed towards the staff area. "In my office, and I do, yes."
Alex Shaw: "Are you secretly a geek? Alex asks as she follows, but her eyes stay glued to her phone. "Can you make sure the stream for Dreamcatcher99 is actually down?"
Daniel Hawthorne: "Bit of one." He replied with a small smirk, making his way into the office and waking up the desktop computer there with a wiggle of the mouse so he could pull up a browser window. "On it."
Alex Shaw: "Why didn't I know this about you? You've been holding out on me, Daniel Hawthorne," Alex teases distractedly. "I think it should be offline now."
Daniel Hawthorne: "It's never really come up." He chuckled quietly, pulling up the site and checking the username Alex had mentioned. "Looks like it's offline."
Alex Shaw: Alex lets out a sigh of relief. "Can we keep that up? Thank you." She leans against the wall and looks like someone who would be breaking into a sweat right now if she was sweatable. "Can I trust you to keep this a secret if I tell you what's going on?"
Daniel Hawthorne: "Welcome." He sat back in his seat, looking towards Alex at the question and giving a small nod. "Of course."
Alex Shaw: "The person who was causing problems for my friend? She's an enemy of the Changelings," Alex explains, even if it's a little vague. "I think she was about to try to cause them another major problem, now that her last one fell through. I happen to have hacked her phone so I can keep tabs on what she's doing."
Daniel Hawthorne: "Ah hah." He nodded quietly, sparing the screen a glance. "I've only met one, to my knowledge. He got caught up in Cordrey's dick-waving at Atalo's shop when I was visiting, but he handled himself well."
Alex Shaw: Alex blinks her eyes at that. "Do you remember which one? Could you describe him?" She hesitates. "I used to be part of that community. I wasn't a Changeling, but I was affiliated."
Daniel Hawthorne: "Janus Mearcstapa. I think you were there, actually...it was the night she tried to talk with you about doing some work for her, and she only backed down when she thought he was 'yours'."
Alex Shaw: "Oh!" Alex says with a laugh. "I mean, that was the friend I was helping, too," she points out. "I've known him since before he lived in Philly, before I was a vampire and all of that. He made life miserable for this particular enemy, and she decided to take it personally, I guess."
Daniel Hawthorne: "Ah...nice thing to have, that. Still have a few folks I'm close with online these days, but I cut ties with most of the folks in Boston I knew after everything happened." He nodded quietly. "So it seems. I'm...hazarding a guess that they're working on a more permanent solution to the issue at the moment?"
Alex Shaw: "I'm guessing so," Alex says with a nervous laugh. She glances over at the screen to make sure the stream is still offline. "They didn't actually tell me what the plan was after I gave them some information I gathered. The red alert was just the things I put in place to monitor her telling me something was up."
Daniel Hawthorne: "Makes sense. Culpable deniability and whatnot."
Alex Shaw: "I'm not sure if it's that, or they didn't think to." Alex shrugs. "It doesn't matter, I guess. Sorry about the sudden change of topic. Where were we? Oh, the support group, right? You would be interested in that? Who else do you think might be?"
Daniel Hawthorne: "No worries. Business needed to be handled." He waved off the apology, thinking a moment on the question asked. "I would, and I could think of a few. Phaedra is rather new, as are Rena and Finley. Rena may be something of a hard sell, though, if only because she seems to be of the mind that anyone giving her help is expecting something in return and she doesn't want to owe anyone."
Alex Shaw: "Rena... may be a hard sell for other reasons, too," Alex says with a frowny look. She pauses for a second to send off a quick text message then looks up at Daniel again. "I think she might be blood bound to her sire. She got really angry when I brought the idea up to her and suggested she might be anything less than delighted by what her sire did. For a second I thought she was going to hit me, in Elysium. I'm happy to invite any of them, but that's something we should keep in mind with Rena."
Daniel Hawthorne: He frowned at that, nodding quietly. "Got the impression that she has a...need for Vitae in one of our recent conversations." The pause there was telling, although he moved on from it quickly enough. "Worth keeping in mind, for sure."
Alex Shaw: "The two would probably go together, right?" Alex nods like that stands to reason. "We should make this happen, it sounds like. I don't know anything about running a support group, but I can do some research. Feel free to let anyone know who you think could be interested?"
Daniel Hawthorne: "Will do, and happy to help where I can as far as research goes as well."
Alex Shaw: "On another note," Alex says with a sudden smile. "I'm joining the Ordo Dracul. It's going to be all official soon!"
Daniel Hawthorne: "Really..." He smiled warmly at that. "Good to hear it. Do you know who you'll be working with as far as your initial studies go?"
Alex Shaw: "I don't know yet." Alex shakes her head. "I know that there are Coils, and that they let you... us? They allow changes to us as vampires, but I don't know the details about what they all are, and what they mean for me, and who might be able to teach me the things I'll want to learn. I understand that those are things nobody can tell me until I actually join. But the scientific approach to our existence suits me."
Daniel Hawthorne: "It appealed to me as well, along with the thought of being able to change certain things about our nature through the work. It's been interesting so far, but definitely worth it for the growth it's allowed on a personal level."
Alex Shaw: "The chance to study my new nature, and benefit from the study of those who came before me, seems like it would be valuable even if I don't learn to change myself," Alex says. She checks her phone again and then slides it into a pocket. "I'm kind of excited by the prospect of improving things about that new nature, though. I definitely don't design myself this way if I had a choice."
Daniel Hawthorne: "You and me both." He replied with a wry smirk, giving a nod. "Look forward to working with you on that front, though. It's...enlightening, to say the least."
Alex Shaw: Alex smiles and moves to offer Daniel another hug. "I'm really glad we did this. Thank you for trusting me with what you did, and it means a lot to me that you trusted me to be the person who was here with you. I should get going, though."
Daniel Hawthorne: "I am too, and quite welcome." He opened his arms to return the hug, giving her a proper squeeze. "It was good seeing you."
Alex Shaw: "Let's not be strangers," she says as she steps back again. "I'll let you know if I talk to anyone about the group, so you don't hit up the same people about the same thing. We don't want to be pestering, right?" She waves. "One of these visits I need to talk to you about getting some new clothes, too."
Daniel Hawthorne: "Indeed, and sounds good. Always up for doing more design work, especially for a friend." He smiled at that, giving her a nod. "Have a good night."
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