2019.01.24 - Girls, Boys, & Toblerone

*What starts as a wolf flirting with a corgi ends up in a discussion between two wolves and a vampire about girls, boys, and Toblerone.*

January 2, Year Unknown. Evening.

The Rear Grounds of Rowanwood House

Ryan has been doing his best to research in the way that he does, and one might find it hard to believe that lying in bed for hours at a time can be quite so exhausting! But being out of his body for so long is draining and disorienting for the fellow, and he's quite happy to reacclimate to his physical form by walking along the Rowanwood House's perimeter outside, finally leading him toward the Rear Grounds.

Ethan has been snooping around the house, sniffing at the air and following a trail of scent. Why? Mind your own business, that's why! Whatever the reason, he emerges from the courtyard and begins walking along the house's perimeter until he comes upon Ryan. Wearing only jeans, a t-shirt, and running shoes, he seems unaffected by the cold. "Well, hey there," he says with a cocky grin. "Ryan, isn't it?"

Tachi is up on the roof of the house, which gives him a vantage point of the whole grounds. He's been keeping a careful eye on both Ethan and Ryan to make sure they're safe, but he's hidden, so he can't be seen, and likely not sensed from the grounds either, but he's there, for now, in his red hunting jacket and black leather pants and boots, crossbow in his hands, ready to take out anything that may be a threat.

Ryan blinks and turns to face Ethan, a small, lopsided smile on his face. "Oh, hey. Yes, that's right. What brings you out this time of evening?" he ponders, though the lilt of curiosity in his voice would lead one to assume he doesn't mind Ethan's presence. "It is oddly nice out, all things considered." All things most likely being the apocalypse and whatnot. "Are you exercising?"

Ethan licks his lips, eyes bright as he looks Ryan up and down. "Exercising? Yeah, I guess take a run or something. Is that why you're out here?" He glances up at the sky. It's not a bad night, as apocalypses go. "I'm Ethan, by the way. Ethan Steiner, from Beacon Hills. Where are you from?"

Tachi can hear the conversation, oh yes, he can hear it clearly, if a bit quietly. But he's listening and smiling, he has a feeling he knows what Ethan's going for, and he wishes him luck. After all, he probably couldn't have picked better.

Ryan stretches his legs behind him (one at a time, of course!) and rests his hands on the side of the house as he stretches his neck and shoulders. "I was just trying to get syncronized with my body again after being away." The fellow's eyes are closed as he stretches his arms above his head, wrists crossed, his shirt and jacket pulling up -just- slightly to bare his smooth, flat midriff, at least for a moment. "I was born in San Diego," Ryan explains, smiling softly then to Ethan. "It's nice to meet you, Ethan Steiner."

Ethan's lips curl in a grin, his gaze sliding down to Ryan's bare tummy, drawing in a breath through flared nostrils. "It's nice to meet you too, Ryan," he says, running his tongue along his upper teeth. All this stretching may be preparing Ryan for a run, but it's also getting Ethan's blood pumping. "So what do you mean, being away from your body? You mean something like astral projection or an out-of-body experience sorta situation?"

A folded piece of paper comes fluttering down from...somewhere, aiming for Ethan. It's a note, but the writing is unidentifiable to any specific person. At the top it says 'Ethan', a heart symbol, 'Ryan', with a winking face below that, and below that a rather realistic drawing of a large wolf humping a tiny corgi, parts included.

Ryan doesn't seem to notice the way Ethan's looking at him like a cartoon dog eyeing a plump turkey with those little fancy white hats on the ends of the drumsticks to hide the bone ends. "Yes," he answers Ethan simply, though after a few moments, he elaborates. "I've been trying to seek answers in the spirit realms, and the astral plane, and the dreamscape. It's...a bit tiring, really, but I am still somewhat new to all of this. I wasn't able to find anything of use, yet, but I can be quite persistant." The fellow might be persistant, but he's equally aloof, having yet to actually look back toward Ethan from his stretches. "It feels strange to be away for so long, and then be back."

When the little note flutters down and lands on his shoulder, Ethan quickly snatches it up and unfolds it. His eyes widen at the sketch, and his eyes dart upward, searching for who could have dropped the note. He crumbles the note and stuffs it into his jeans' pocket. "Persistence is good," he mutters, clearly distracted by the disturbingly detailed image. "I can be pretty persistent myself, when I set my mind to something." He brings his gaze back to Ryan, grinning wolfishly "Or someone."

Tachi's work is...nearly done. But of course he's completely hidden from Ethan's gaze, and he remains silent and stealthy, watching the fireworks.

Ryan turns around and looks up at Ethan, directly into his eyes, his own gently azure orbs nearly pulsing with a strange glow, as if, when one looked deep enugh into them, they could see patterns of energy ebbing and throbbing with life. "I know what you mean, exactly," he murmurs quietly, the look in his eyes quite serious.

A moment passes, still and slow. "It is Michael, isn't it? I, too, and determined to learn all I can about him so that we might reclaim our worlds." That is...not the someone Ethan had in mind, perhaps. Ryan, however, gently rests his hand up on Ethan's shoulder and nods up at him. "We will do our best, and everything will be alright, I am certain."

Ethan takes the touch to his shoulder as an invitation, and he steps a bit closer to Ryan, closing the space between them. "This isn't the first apocalypse we've come through. The pack I belong to, we're pretty tenacious when it comes to fighting for what's right, for restoring order out of chaos. Our alphas, Scott and Derek, they get it, ya know? It's not about ego, not about flexing muscles just to get attention. It's about fighting for those who can't fight for themselves." He leans in closer still, looking deep into Ryan's eyes. "Being part of this pack has been the best thing that ever happened to me and my brother. No matter what, you're never alone."

Ryan stares up at Ethan, then smiles softly to the fellow. "It must be nice to have so many people to be close to. That is...sort of how I feel with the spirits. It's never quiet, and I never feel alone, even when I am. It's...a contradition, I guess." Ryan ponders this, his cheeks reddening slightly as he squirms where he stands. "A walk would be nice, if you wanted to accompany me."

Ethan is silent for a long moment, the little wheels in his head turning and turning. Finally, he smiles and offers Ryan a hand. "A walk sounds good. It's a nice night and all." His smile brightens. "Romantic, don't you think?" Yep, subtle as a chainsaw. He looks up toward the roof again, eyes glowing bright blue for a few seconds, but if he finds what he's looking for, he doesn't show it.

Tachi notices Ethan looking toward the roof, but is safely hidden from his gaze. The glowing eyes only serve to make him smirk, but he stays where he is, he'll be able to follow them the whole walk from where he is, and hopefully things will only improve from here.

Ryan subconsciously takes Ethan's hand, as if out of habit, and finds himself looking down at it. "Walk...a nice walk..." The fellow seems in a daze, his eyes nearly glazed over, but whatever is going on, it passes quickly enough and Ryan squeezes Ethan's hand lightly before retreiving his own. "I...feel tired. I should have rested more after my excursions." Ryan looks up at Ethan, smiling apologetically. "Maybe you could...go running with me in the morning?" The exhausted junior shaman makes his way back inside and toward his room so that he might rest and contemplate the strange familiarity of Ethan Steiner.

Ethan lets out a sigh when Ryan returns to the house, but hey, the seeds are planted. The kid did take Ethan's hand, and he invited Ethan to run with him the next morning. So things are moving slowly in the direction Ethan wants, but they are moving. He looks up toward the roof again, squinting his eyes. "Okay, Joker. You can come out now." He digs out the note again, waving it above his head. "C'mon, be a man. Own up to this."

So, Tachi finally enters, in his usual dramatic grand entrance way, which of course means a figure flying off the roof over Ethan's head while doing some insane, not even humanly possible acrobatic tricks before landing lightly on his feet. His crossbow is no longer in his hands, but strapped to his back, his sword safely at his side, and the smirk still firmly on his face.

Ethan scowls, arms crossed over his chest. "You. You drew this...this...thing?" His scowl deepens, and he shakes his head. "Really. crude porn? That's the best you can come up with?" The acrobatics don't really seem to impress him much -- he knows this guy is a vampire, capable of all sorts of unnatural acts. "So is this how you get off, spying on people who're making eyes at each other?"

Tachi laughs. "Admit you liked it," he says, but his smirk does soften into a genuine smile. "Well, I was on night watch, I've been keeping an eye out for both of you just in case, well, the nasties come back. When I saw you 2 together, and the way you looked at each other, well more you toward him at least at first, well. I just couldn't resist!"

Ethan shakes his head again, stuffing the note into his pocket. "Well, first of all, I don't transform into a wolf, so that's not an accuarate depiction." His words are strangely formal, all of a sudden. "And second, even if I could do that, I would never engage in those sorts of relations in that form, giving the huge differences between our body sizes. Plus, who could ever look at an adorable corgi and think, 'Man, I wanna hit that'? Just...ick." He looks Tachi up and down again, finally uncrossing his arms. "You're a perv, ya know that? That's not a bad thing, per se. But you're definitely a perv."

Tachi chuckles. "I know," he says. The words do cause him to grin briefly. "I wouldn't do that either. But I'm sure another adorable little corgi would do something like that." He can't help but smirk again. "Honestly I just thought it was funny."

Ethan snorts, eyes rolling. "Yeah, well...Go spy on somebody else. You've got this huge mansion, filled with all these different people from different places, drawn together by the apocalypse. More than a few teens and young adults, hormones fueled by fear and anxiety over the end of the world. There's gotta be more than enough horniness going on for you to get off on watching. Leave me alone, leave Ryan along, and leave the both of us together alone." He takes half a step closer, poking his finger in Tachi's direction. "I don't like vampires, so just...go away, okay?"

This actually causes Tachi to do a double take. "Wh...what? I..." He actually frowns. "You...but...what's wrong with vampires?"

"You're unnatural," Ethan says without spite or malice. "You're dead, but you don't have the sense to just stay down. You get up and walk around among the living. And then there's the whole parasitic thing, sucking the blood of decent. living people." His upper lip curls in disgust. "That's just unnatural, man. Now I know it's not your fault, per se. Somebody made you what you are. It's just not my thing, okay?"

"Few things," Tachi says. "First of all, I'm not dead, or undead. I live and breathe like you do. Second, yeah...I know I live on blood. But how is partially transforming into a wolf, or merging with your twin to become a super wolf anymore natural? Sure I can't help what I am, but do you think what I am defines who I am as a person? As a human?"

Aiden comes walking up, then, regarding Tachi with a smirk... but also, around his eyes, a look of interest. His right arm is in a sling, presumably to ease the healing of his shoulder, which hasn't healed as fast as usual thanks to the trace amounts of whatever that poisonous stuff in it was. "Vampire, huh?" he asks. "I dunno. You could say drinking blood's way weirder than shapeshifting, but as long as you don't try to nibble on us our our friends or anything, I guess I won't judge too much."

Ethan gives his eyes another roll. "Me and Aiden, we're supernatural. But you're unnatural. We don't defy death, the way you do. How can you be a vampire, but not be undead? That's an oxymoron. Or a palindrome. I dunno, didn't pay much attention in English class. The point is, death is part of the natural order of things, and you're...not." Then Aiden approaches, and Ethan's body language changes, as he quickly moves to his twin's side. "What're you doing out of bed? You're supposed to be resting and recovering, not wandering around alone."

Tachi chuckles. "He's probably feeling well enough to get up," he says, offering Aiden a smile. "Don't get me wrong, a lot of vampires are undead. But I'm a bit different, my type isn't. You can even hear my heartbeat. Listen." He goes quiet, allowing the twins to hear his heartbeat, should their hearing be goo enough to pick up on it. He turns to Aiden. "You're...Aiden, right?" he says, offering a smile.

"Nothing's wrong with my legs," Aiden snorts. "Relax, bro. A little air and exercise will probably help me get better faster." He tilts his head a little, then shrugs. "And, yeah, I can hear his heart, so... there's that." He also adds, "Besides, we're in a magic house full of fairies and stuff who are like hundreds of years old. Who says what's natural and what's not anymore?" He shrugs slightly with his good arm. "Anyway, like I said, as long as he doesn't go biting on anyone, whatever."

Ethan eyes Aiden for a few moments, then shrugs, turning back to Tachi. "Yeah, what my bro said. Just know, if I find out you're trying to bite on anyone even remotely connected to our pack, God help you." He crosses his arms again. "And no more spying on me with Ryan," he adds, doing his best to scowl. "This ain't no peep show."

"Would you rather I abandon night watch and go inside?" Tachi says, with a shrug. "Hey, I don't drink the blood of humans nymore, not in at least 350 years. So you and all your friends are safe, I promise."

"Hey, as long as that includes werewolves and stuff, cool," Aiden says. "But creeping on Ethan and his little boyfriend, dude? Not cool. You gotta give the man room to work, especially if he's going to be close to Ryan. Y'knw, romance, atmosphere, not being stalked." But he's grinning a little. "Anyway, what else is up besides everyone being all grumpy or whatever? I've been stuck in bed for like a day and then some."

And now Ethan is rolling his eyes at Aiden, elbowing his twin in the side. "He's not my 'little boyfriend', man. He's just...." He leaves the rest unsaid, shaking his head. He switches gears then, jumping on his brother's question. "You missed the big war council, but I already filled you in on that. The Big Bad is named Michael, he's from Elsewhere or something. All the creepy-crawlers are from Elsewhere, too. Worlds colliding and all that. Ya know, a typical day in the life of our pack." He looks at Tachi again, but doesn't comment further.

Tachi chuckles. "Hey, I was ust on night watch, it's not my fault they happened to be walking the grounds in plain sight. But seriously, I wish the 2 of you luck. I thought if I had to suffer alone, at least I could try and help someone else be happy, right?" He's smiling, but somewhere behind his eyes there's sadness, lurking in the shadows of his expression.

"What?" Aiden says, shrugging, "he's little! He's not even five and a half feet tall, and he's one of the tiniest little twinks I've ever seen!" He grins at Ethan. "Or are you just mad 'cause I called him your boyfriend?" He aims a light, completely playful punch at Ethan's shoulder with his off hand. "Like you're not gonna tap that." He glances to Tachi again and says, "Eh, if you're a vampire, then you've got a long, long time to figure out who you want to be with, right?"

Ethan doesn't flinch at the punch, but he can't help but grin. "Hell yeah, I'm gonna tap that. But you know I don't do boyfriends." He looks Tachi over again. "Three hundred fifty years? Man, I'd never wanna be that old. Who wants to live forever?"

"That's just how long it's been since I made my promise to myself and to the world that I'd potect those who can't protect themselves. I've been living...almost twice as long. I'm up to...633 years now. Ya know, it really kinda sucks in a way, but I have to admit, honestly, there is an advantage, well a couple, and one is that I can keep living and keep defending, the other is that I get to see all kinds of cool things. Everything in this house brings me back to my younger days, ya know? It's pretty awesome." He considers Aiden for a moment, before shrugging. "I mean, I suppose you're right, it's a long time to decide who I wanna be with, but that also means it's a long list of people who reject me for WHAT I am when they find out. I've fallen in love with many, and I don't think any have truely loved me back."

Snorting, Aiden says, "I'm pretty sure I can deal with being young and hot forever. What's not to love?" He regards Tachi right back, then half-shrugs. "Well, I dunno, I guess we all get rejection, but at least you've got time to keep looking, right?" He gives Ethan a sidelong glance, nods, then shrugs his left arm again.

Ethan snorts as well, giving his head a shake. "Love, highly overrated. Chemically, it's no different from eating a bunch of chocolate. And in the long run, eating chocolate's a lot less messy." He nods then, satisfied that he has the world figured out.

Tachi outright laughs, running a hand through his hair. "Well," he says, thoughtfully. "It actually is a little different. I mean, I'd imagine it would be. Because chocolate only makes you happy while you're ating it, but love makes you happy as long as you're in love, which can last longer. The end of a relationship and the end of the chocolate bar, at least for girls, is the same though."

Aiden raises his eyebrows. "Wait, just for girls? What's that mean?" He glances at Ethan as if seeking his brother's gay opinion on the topic, but either way he seems pretty unsure what to make of the comment.

Ethan frowns a bit, glancing at Aiden with a somewhat confused expression, then looking back to Tachi. "Hey, the end of a good chocolate bar can be pretty sad for anyone, boy or girl. The better the chocolate, the sadder the end. You ever have a Toblerone bar? Lemme tell you, you don't want that to ever be over." He nods again, eyes a little distant as he remembers those yummy confections. "Man, I wish I had a Toblerone bar right now."

Tachi frowns slightly. "I wish I could say I have," Tachi says, "but, alas, nothing that isn't blood tastes good to me, food wise anyway. Don't get me wrong, I still very much enjoy my peppermint tea. I don't like when the tea ends, so, heh."

"Dude," Aiden says, "you can't just skip over that! What're you talking about with the girl thing?" He seems amused, but also pointedly curious and a little confused, still. "Ethan, tell Count Tobleronula that he's gotta answer the question, or it's all bullshit!"

But Ethan is busy weighing love against chocolate, holding out his hands like balancing scales. He first jiggles his left hand, saying, "Love, jealousy, dating, having to sit through chick flicks just to get a little tail...." Then he jiggles his right: "Toblerone." Then he tips his right hand down, left hand up, and grins. "Seems pretty obvious to me." Then he blinks, as though just now hearing his brother's words. "Oh yeah, man," he says, turning to Tachi once more. "What's up with the girl thing?"

"Well, I mean...aren't girls like super obsessed with chocolate and such? And super emotional?" He shrugs. "Eh. I guess I can't say I'm much different about my tea, so, ya know."