stormbelow | 一期一会 » MEETING ONCE IN A LIFETIME

"No. What do you think makes me happy? Who is he bringing, that is not a Hunter and that you think is so trustworthy?"

"A vampire. Comes up to about here - " He waves a hand an inch over his head. "So you could take him in a fight. Not that there's gonna be a fight, right? So don't worry."

He pauses, the sarcasm dying down. "Who is this for, Arashi? If it's for you, I ain't going."

Arashi almost points out that very often size matters exactly not at all when it comes to vampires, but it's really too late to change anyone's mind and he just wants to get this over with. Harvestman's question makes him frown; it checks his temper, but something about the way it's said, he doesn't like.

"This is all you. That's the only reason I'm going."

Harvestman holds his gaze for a moment. "Okay," he says quietly. "Because this is hard for me, and meeting Gabriel and Martín is the biggest step I can take right now. I know you want this to go faster, but I can't. It hurts too much."

"That's not--" He stops, and pauses for a second or two before trying again.

"I want you to be safe. I'm not going to be satisfied about that until this meeting is over and you're all right. I don't get any calmer than this when I'm worried. But I'm on your side here, understand?"

He sighs. "I do. I know, I do. It's just... Gabe is sticking his neck out, doing this for me. He's doing it entirely behind Brisbane's back, he's skirting the treaty laws - he wouldn't do that for no reason. I know he's just a Hunter and I get it, but believe me, he does to. He ain't human either."

Arashi doesn't know how to explain to Harvestman why this doesn't make him feel better, without upsetting the other vampire more, and at this point he figures the argument should probably be dropped in any case. He seems to have gotten as much as he can expect by way of circumstances, without losing the meeting altogether.

"Fine. I will keep my mouth shut and the glaring to an acceptable minimum. All right?"

"Thank you." Harvestman reaches up to brush a hand against Arashi's cheek, pressing his other hand against Arashi's heart. It was a gesture he'd taken up since Arashi had come back, to feel for his heart beat. To check, maybe, that his eyes didn't fool him, and the hole was truly gone. "Are you alright with going now?"

"As much as I'll ever be," Arashi mutters, although he deliberately dials back on the aggressive edge to his voice. He's simply resigned to this, now, because he wasn't exaggerating; he won't be satisfied until they're both out of there, safe and sound.

Impulsively, he reaches up and slides a hand through Harvestman's hair, coming down the side of his face to rest against his throat. "You can do this, you know. I don't trust your friends, but I have faith in you."

"That's fair," he says amiably. "I don't trust your friends either."

With a grin to show that he was joking (or was he), he kisses Arashi quickly, slides his hand into the vampire's own, and gently leads them toward the door.

T Gabriel wasn't dressed as casually as before; he wears sturdy boots and dark clothes that had seem some where. There is a definitely curve to his jacket where he keeps a concealed gun. He wears what seems to be his default expression, one of cautious openness. The teenager standing next to him look all of fourteen or fifteen - Latino and with a thin, leanness that echoed Harvestman's own build. The sleeveless Lakers jersey he wears reveals bare arms covered with tattoos, curving loops on his forearms and elaborately designed crucifixes on his upper arms. There is a chain hanging around his neck that looked identical to the one Charlie had.

"Hey, man, you live!" Martín greets Harvestman with a grin and a hearty handshake. His accent somehow manages to be less thick the the older vampire's Southern twang. "We had doubts."

Gabriel smiles thinly, nodding at Arashi.

Edited 2012-08-05 06:06 (UTC)

Arashi's attention flashes briefly but efficiently over the one he doesn't recognize; he doesn't return Gabriel's nod or his smile, because a promise not to glare so much included absolutely nothing about remaining stoneface and cold throughout the entire proceedings.

The alcoholic blood is keeping him sluggishly warm, at the very least; not quite enough to turn him into the mess he usually gets when he's drunk, but enough to stay more or less quiet, as Harvestman does what he needs to do.

The new vampire never leaves his attention, however -- peripheral or otherwise.

If Harvestman notices this, he duly ignores it to sling an arm around the young vampire's shoulders. "Your sister let you walk around with your tattoos out like that? "

"Dude, she's my sister, not my mom. Besides, I'm not, like, going out in public or anything, that'd be crazy." Martín leans over Harvestman's shoulder to look at Arashi, then very obviously mouths 'Super Goth' to Harvestman. For that, he gets the lightest tap on the arm by the other vampire. "She says she misses you, by the way."

"Fucking liar."

"Okay, what she really said was that she misses having a punching bag that whines. Same thing for her."

"Your sister is a psycho."

"I hate to be abrupt." Gabriel gestures to get Harvestman's attention, but his eyes remain on Arashi. "But I really am on a tight schedule today, and I know you'd rather talk in private. We should probably go." To Arashi, he says pointedly, "I'm sorry about Dallas. That was unexpected."

"Ah, man, Dallas did something? Is that why we're here? She's intense, man, my sister loves her." The sudden excitement on Martín's face dulls at the sight of the instant clouds on Harvestman's face. "She didn't shoot nobody, right?"

Arashi's only real reaction to the new vampire is a potentially record-breaking eyeroll, as the chatter drills fresh holes through the migraine already forming inside his skull. Other than that, he only just manages to avoid throwing Gabriel a poisonous glare, because he promised he wouldn't. If he was here for his own sake, he'd be interested in going a few rounds on the topic of "Dallas" with Gabriel, even just to blow off some steam.

"Let's get this over with," he says, and casts an icy look in the direction of the younger vampires before he finally turns and heads to the nearest door, withdrawing his keys. "Don't make noise, don't draw attention to yourselves. There's no reason for anyone to give a shit that you were ever here."

The key twists in the lock, and Arashi pushes the door open, leading the way into the most innocuous rest house in northern California, making it well outside the attention of the hipster baby vamps in both Los Angeles and the Bay Area. His blood checks them in, and instead of going upstairs, he takes them underground, ignoring so many closed, silent doors to choose one that has a long, almost violently gothic dining room on the other side of it.

At least here, they'll have the room to talk without being surrounded by red and black beds.

Martín immediately shuts up, proving his perky chatter was more the act Arashi probably expected it to be. He does jab Harvestman rather hard once they reach the room, something the other vampire only grunts at. Martín detaches himself to claim a chair, straddling it backwards with his chin on his forearms. His eyes are bright, and miss nothing.

This was Harvestman's show now, and his discomfort with that was only heightened by the fact that everyone was looking at him. "You know what happened," he says to Gabriel, stalling.

The Hunter nods, choosing a chair more carefully and resting his elbows on his knees. "I suppose you would call it a nexus breach, if we're being technical. We don't really have ways to combat that. The door Dallas went through appears to be ordinary now, but we're treating it with care. It's a new access point; maybe it only works with her. But that's not why you asked us here, is it?"

Arashi doesn't take a chair at all -- he leans against the wall by the door, as if he's playing gatekeeper for the main event.

"The last thing that anyone needs is the two of them surprising each other somewhere in the nexus."

Gabriel sighs. "You need to talk to her, John. We can arrange it," he says gently. Martín's shoulders stiffen - names were a one of those complex taboos and this was obviously the first time he's heard Harvestman's, but he stays quiet.

"I don't... want her knowing." He stumbles over every word. Part of him wants to go to Arashi, tell him this is too hard.

Gabriel nods "I won't tell her, that's yours, but it won't be hard to arrange. We'll have to work to find a neutral space for her to feel comfortable in, but it's doable."

Silence follows. Harvestman has made his concessions, any more feels too raw. They could end it right here, go home. He could lie on the cool ground and try not to regret this.

Martín raises his hand slowly. "Uh. Why am I here?"

Arashi waves a hand in Martin's direction with an annoyed look, obviously wondering the same thing.

Harvestman stares at nothing for a moment. Then he pulls out a chair, sits down heavily, and stares at the wall. "I need to talk to you about M - Brisbane."

Gabriel starts. "You didn't talk to him, did you?" He glances at Arashi as if seeking confirmation, then sighs. "Harvestman..."

"That's not it."

"Uh..." Martín's eyes darts between the figures in the room. "If this is about the way he treats you, uh, we know, man. I mean - Monty told us he saw him hurt you, you know? He told me, he told Meireya, we all kinda know. I thought that's why..."

Gabriel shoots the young vampire a warning look, cutting him off. "You shouldn't be around him, Harvestman. You know that."

"No." Harvestman buries his face in his hands. "He does this - this thing. He controls people. I didn't tell you 'cause he told me not to say anything and I was... I was scared. But he - he does this thing and people do what he wants, and it's fucked."

Gabriel's eyes narrow, and he glances at Arashi again - for clarification, maybe, since Harvestman wasn't making sense.

Sighing with muted frustration, Arashi folds his arms, frowning at Gabriel.

"Apparently, Brisbane isn't just manipulative -- he can psychically control people into doing what he wants. Including harming themselves or others, usually to the point where they don't even realize he's doing it." He nods in Harvestman's direction. "Harvestman has seen it happen."

He pushes away from the wall, then, approaches Harvestman's chair and leans one hand on the back of it, eyes still narrowed. "He said it doesn't work on dead things. But Dallas, among others, obviously isn't that."

Gabriel's well-maintained mask shatters. Incredulously, he looks at Harvestman. “You've got to be fucking with me.”

Harvestman just shakes his head.

“That's crazy. That's flat-out evil. I know you two have your problems, but you know what you're accusing them of. Jesus Christ.” Gabriel stands up, shaking his head. “I'll think about the Dallas thing, but this? This is fucked up, Harvestman. You can't go around pulling this shit. C'mon, Marty.”

Martín doesn't move.

That's a little more than he's prepared to handle in sullen silence, and Arashi is in front of Gabriel in an instant, eyes flashing, and he only keeps his fangs hidden because he knows they're significantly less threatening given who else is currently in the room with him. It's not as though he needs them to be furious.

"Sit the fuck back down. Do you really think he would lie to you about something like this? To you. Are you his friend or not?"

Gabriel had been... well, himself moments before. Confronted by Arashi, he becomes all Hunter, hands where he can reach his weapon, stance ready for a fight. "Don't you threaten me. This is bullshit, we're leaving."

Harvestman twists halfway out of his seat, torn between putting himself between the two or deciding if that was just going to make it worse. Martín solves the problem for him, slamming his fist on the table hard enough to dent it.

"Ay dios mio, Everybody sit down and shut up! Harvestman wouldn't bring us here just to bullshit us, eh? Calm down, Gabe. Just 'cause you don't notice don't mean we didn't."

Gabriel steps back, forcibly relaxing his stance. His focus shifts from the stricken face of Harvestman to the angry one of Martín. "What?"

"You think a guy who beats his boyfriend won't hurt other people? You're smarter than that. We're all smarter than that. Meireya and me, when Monty told us he saw the boss hurt him, hurt him, you know - " Obviously reluctant to describe it, Martín curls his fingers into claws and pressed them against his neck. "He didn't do that 'cause he had to, he did that to intimidate the last guy Harvestman was with. That ain't right, you know? So we pay attention."

"Monty didn't tell me - "

"Monty told you last. You're his second, he didn't know. And we learn things, alright? People do things for Brisbane, things they don't do for anybody else. He gets people to listen. It's unnatural, alright? I used to be a magic user, Meireya still is, we can tell."

Gabriel rubs his forehead, looking pained.

Arashi withdraws to Harvestman's side again, but anger is still burning in his eyes; he isn't looking for a reason to get in Gabriel's face, despite all of his annoyance about what happened earlier, but he's not about to let Gabriel call Harvestman a liar and walk out on him.

At least, whatever mysterious reason there is for this Martín person to be here, he's turning out to be very helpful. So Arashi goes silent and once again curls his fingers into the back of Harvestman's chair, just in case he needs to crush something that doesn't belong to someone else in the room.

Silence reigns while Harvestman stares at his hands, Martín glaring at Gabriel while the Hunter seems to be trying to figure out what to do.

"I saw him kill a guy," Harvestman says finally, his voice steady. "His old partner, London." Gabriel starts - the name is obviously familiar. "Told him to kill himself, and the guy did. Just like that. Didn't know he was doing it. Brisbane said he - said he's always been able to do it. He's hidden it, nobody knows. He's losing control, Gabriel, he's getting - he's getting angrier. People are gonna get hurt."

Gabriel sighs, shoulders sagging. "You brought Martín because he has no powers over the dead?"

Harvestman nods.

"Who told you he had no power over the dead?"

"I..." The room, somehow, seems smaller. "He did," Harvestman whispers. "He told me."

Martín mutters something in Spanish. The anger returns to Gabriel's face, but after a moment of searching, it fades. He sighs again. "And you believed him. Christ, you're right. This is fucked."

The sound of ancient wood splintering is just enough to distract Arashi from sudden shock to make him release his grip on the kindling that was once the back of Harvestman's chair. His eyes are wide with a sort of angry disbelief, but it's not just at Harvestman -- it's at himself too, for not thinking to ask that exact same question.

Of course Brisbane told him that. Of course. Arashi had simply taken for granted that Harvestman knew these things for proven fact.

He doesn't say anything. Martín and Gabriel have handled that well enough; Arashi just purses his lips shut and tightens his jaw, and delicately picks a few stray pieces of wood out of his hand.

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I have had this open for days and forgot to hit Post :| :| :|

fuuuuuuuck everything

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