Monsterhearts:Company for Dinner

Wednesday August 13th, 5:40 PM
Wildomar, Chris's House
**Chris is laying back on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He's wearing more formal clothing, a black long-sleeve shirt and black jeans with grey socks. The swelling has gone down in his lip, and there's a small white bandage on it. He groans and sits up, his stomach still very sore, he gets out of bed and looks around the loft in his room. To be troublesome for his mother, he had a renovation crew come in and completely overhaul his room to be modernized, making it all black, grey, and white with squared furniture. He grabs his jacket off the foot of the bed and descends a metal spiral staircase to a larger area, still part of his room. There's a pair of couches placed perpendicular to one another, and a large screened TV set that's diagonal to them. Nothing is hooked up yet due to him having just moved here, but there's a few video game consoles, a VCR, and numerous other electronics. The fact of the matter is that he spends money just to spend it, not because he wants things, but because he hopes that his mother might one day scold him for it like a normal parent would, but she never does, in fact, he doesn't even get into trouble like a normal kid might. She just gives him that obscenely cold glare of disappointment and he crumbles under her gaze. Just once, he would like to see her lose her temper, or so any kind of emotion other than her contradictory smoldering coldness.**

**Interrupting his idle thoughts is the heavy knock of Agatha at his door.**

**Agatha**: **Her voices comes through his bedroom door muffled.** Master Chris, dinner will be served in ten minutes. You're expected to be present.

**Chris**: I'll be right down. **He puts his jacket on. It's dark grey with blue stripes. As he walks passed the mirror he pauses, lifting up his shirt to look at his stomach again, it's still red and pink and it's starting to bruise a dull blue in some places. He quietly hopes to himself that Blake is suffering the most painful headache of his life. After looking at his side he drops his shirt and straightens it out before turning and walking out of his room. he descends the numerous stairs of his new home and makes his way to the first floor. He walks into the dining room, expecting guests to already be present.**

**As Chris descends the stairs and moves towards the dining room, he can hear light talking. When he enters the dining room he can see his mother sitting at the end of the dining room table. It appears that she had the larger dining room moved out and had a smaller one moved in, as there's only two people over for dinner. The two guests are sitting to the left and right of her.**

**Natalya**: **Her strange tone of voice lingers through the air as she speaks in her signature fashion.** ...I had actually thought that the residence would be located closer to the ocean. Though I do find the dryness of the desert comfortable. **Her hair is pulled back with a silver tiara-like binding, she's wearing the same black dress with the silver accents that shimmer bright green.**

**Karen**: **A darkly attractive young woman, likely only a few years older than Chris, she's dressed in short black dress with a strapless top, her raven black hair is pulled up in an extravagant bun and she's wearing a pair of violet-diamond earrings that seem to shine like stars. She's elegantly modern, but has a classical style that sets her a part from the stuffiness of the general upper-class, giving her a mysterious charm. She looks more like a girl that might be seen in a luxurious nightclub or some old film-noir detective story from the 50's.** One might think you would have looked at the location before moving here...

**Natalya**: **She sees her son and stands up.** Chris. I am glad you finally joined us. **Her dark tone actually sounds pleased.** Let me introduce you to Adam and Karen Totenkopf. **She looks at Karen, then back to Chris.** Siblings, they live in the house next over.

**Chris**: **He nods to each of them.** Nice to meet the both of you. **He walks over and takes a seat across from his mother.**

**Adam**: Always interesting to encounter someone new. **His voice is strangely deep for his appearance, and he speaks with an enunciation on bizarre parts of each word, almost like he's foreign, but it's no accent Chris has ever heard before. His appearance is equally bizarre, his skin is pale and youthful, and almost mannequin-like, as if he were wearing make up. He's also very tall, enough so that Chris can tell even though the man is sitting, and he looks incredibly thin, unhealthily so, and has white hair that almost seems to be glowing it's so shining. Strangest of all are his eyes, which appear to have completely black irises that don't reflect the light at all.**

**Karen**: He's charmed I'm sure. **She rolls her eyes and runs her finger at the edge of the table, she looks quite bored. As she looks to Chris he seems to catch her interest.** What happened to your lip? **She leans towards Chris, looking him over.**

**Natalya**: **She stares across the small table at Chris.** He was part of an altercation at school.

**Chris**: **He looks at his mother for a moment and then back to Karen, unsure of what to say.**

**Karen**: Wasn't today the first day of school? **She smirks again.**

**Chris**: ...Uhh... Yeah. **He looks down and away, feeling awkward.**

**Karen**: A fight on the first day at a completely new school. **She grabs her wine glass and takes a drink.** That must be some kind of record.

**Adam**: Katharina, remember your manners... **He glares at his sister.**

**Natalya**: **Chris has never known her to care about manners, in fact, she seems to care little for typical social cues and interaction and just seems to use her beautiful appearance, hypnotizing glares, and off-putting speech patterns to intimidate or charm her way through a conversation. Sometimes both.**

**Chris**: Just one of those days... **He keeps his eyes on the empty table.**

**Agatha**: **She walks into the dining room from the kitchen, pushing a metal tray with four plates of food. She sets the plates in front of each of them, on each plate is shepherds pie along with a small salad and two eggs. The servings are rather large, but whenever Agatha cooks, they always are.**

**Karen**: Shepherd's pie. **She looks it over and then to the side, the portion being far to large for a single person.** ...Lots of it.

**Adam**: **He looks at his sister with a disapproving glare, then turns to look back to Chris's mother, before he picks up his fork and begins to eat.**

**Chris**: **He starts to slowly eat his shepherd's pie, it's actually one of his favorite meals.**

***About a half hour later...***

**Chris is sitting poolside in the front courtyard, the warm mist from the heated pool rising into the night air. He rubs his stomach again, wincing slightly as he quietly thinks over his day.**

**Karen**: **She's suddenly standing over him, she's apparently very quiet when she wants to be.** If I were to take a guess, I'd say that you took one right in the gut. **She puts a cigarette in one of those long elegant holders and then lights it. She takes a drag and then breaths out a cloud of smoke.**

**Chris**: **He looks from the pool up at her, surprised by her presence.** I -Uhh... Yeah. Punched me right in the stomach.

**Karen**: So who won, you or him?

**Chris**: ...Well... I guess we went even... **He looks back out at the pool.**

**Karen**: Well at least he didn't ruin that handsome face. **She takes another drag from her cigarette, the smoking glowing silvery-blue in the moonlight.** So how bad did he get it?

**Chris**: I punched him in the stomach, and then banged his head against the hood of his own car... **He remembers the rush of the fight fondly.**

**Karen**: It's fun to take your frustrations out on someone that deserves it, isn't it?

**Chris**: Huh? **He looks up at her again.**

**Karen**: **She smirks and shakes her head, moving her dress and sitting down next to him.** My parents were totally bizarre and passive aggressive. Kind of like my brothers. **She tilts her head in realization.** Brother. **She looks over at Chris.** I got in a lot of fights, ditched a lot of school, and went to a lot of clubs, just to get them to do something. **She looks back out at the pool, putting her cigarette holder to her lips for a moment.** Didn't work though. Well, it sort of worked. **As she speaks wisps of smoke tumble from her lips.** They paid just enough attention to me to send me off to an all-female boarding school...

**Chris**: My mother doesn't even do that. She lets me do whatever I want, then when I get home she scolds me with a signature glare. **He throws a small rock into the pool.**

**Karen**: Yes, I noticed her withering gaze at the dinner table. I don't think my brother can even withstand it.

**Chris**: So what's up with your brother? You two don't seem alike... At all.

**Karen**: **She lets out a soft chuckle.** He was just raised differently... Very differently. My parents favored their male children, *greatly*. Like I said, I ended up in boarding school.

**Chris**: My mother favors me just fine. I really shouldn't even be complaining. I'm rich, living in a house larger than the local supermarkets, and sitting at the edge of a brand new pool with a beautiful girl I apparently have something in common with. **He turns and looks at her with a smirk.**

**(Chris and Karen got to know one another's backstories, they each take a string on the other.**

**Karen**: Very smooth line... Especially for a teenager. **She looks at him and shakes her head.** You must've been a hit with all the girls back home with a delivery like that.

**Chris**: Sorta. Every girl I ever brought home seemed to be withered away by my mother's disapproval. Relationships didn't last long... **He shakes his head.** Why am I telling all of this to you?

**Karen**: I don't know, I thought that sharing a dislike of your family and then leading into that complement might just be your way to get in a girl's pants... Well, dress, in this case. **She laughs lightly and takes another drag from her cigarette.**

**Chris**: **He looks at her for a moment and then back to the pool.** You're attractive, but I think you're a bit too classy for me. I've only been with... Teenagers... Not... You know, an actual... Woman.

**Karen**: Well all you have to do is wait. You'll get there eventually. **She takes another drag from her cigarette and then looks up at the night sky.** Not from me, but, you know. Maybe another woman. **She stands up and dusts her dress off a bit.** I'm not that kinda girl. **She pauses and smirks.** ...Not anymore at least.

**Chris**: Well, that wasn't my intention... Anyway. Believe it or not. Not that, you're not, you know, worthy of an... Intention like... That.

**Karen**: Ahh... **She motions the end of her cigarette at him.** There's that teenage awkwardness. **She smiles.**

**Chris**: **He's suddenly embarrassed and he looks back down at the pool.**

**Karen**: Keep an eye out alright? If you happen to see anything weird, and you'll know the kind of weird I'm talking about... Well you know where I live.

**Taylor**: **(Rolling to** ***Manipulate Karen*** **5 + 3 + 1** **Hot** **is 9.** **Marking experience.)**

**Chris**: With how weird our families are, you'll have to be much more specific. **He quickly shakes off the feeling of embarrassment, and it's replaced with confusion.** Or I might be on your door step every day.

**Karen**: You know, witches, demons... Twins. The typical run-of-the-mill Riverside night scene. **She sounds serious, but at the same time, she could be joking.**

**Chris**: ...What? **He looks up at her.**

**Karen**: **She laughs.** You know, on that note I'd better walk home. **She puts her cigarette holder in her mouth and turns to walk away.** See you around neighbor.

**Chris**: ...Yeah, seeya. **He murmurs to himself.** I guess... **He watches her leave, a look of slight confusion on his face. He's unsure if she was messing with him or if she's genuinely insane. In his experience an attractive woman is the latter.**