multiversallogs | ( what a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness )

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( what a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness )

Who: Ilde Decima and Isobel Saltzman. SPECIAL GUEST STAR: Cinderella.
What: Walk of shame, breakfast, HEY YOU WITH THE FACE. Texting Cindy.
Where: Queequeg's.
When: Sukkardi morning.
Notes: Two separate threads!
Warnings: Stay tuned, I'll edit if necessary.

A vampire's kitchen is not exactly ... well, it's useless, to put not too fine a point on it. Ilde drinks a glass of water while she finds all of her clothes, debating cafés - she can stop somewhere before she catches a train back to Raven's Gate, probably - then jumps in the shower, changes her bandage, and is already on her way out the door and thinking about texting Cindy when she gets Isobel's message, which slightly alters her plans. Queequeg's means a light breakfast, but it was already going to be light and they do have orange juice, in amongst the obscene number of coffee variants.

(Most of which are a little too much for her system, unfairly.)

She walks most of the way, catches the El briefly and texts Cindy while she's at it (Is it a walk of shame if I'm pleased with myself?), and she's up on the deck with orange juice and a sandwich by mid-morning.

This conversation is going to be interesting, she thinks; she's just not sure what kind, yet.

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Isobel is pleasantly surprised to hear back so promptly from Ilde, and with a favorable response, too. She's not in any hurry at all to make her way over - part of that is because she's still learning her way around the city - so by the time Isobel has her coffee and makes her way to the deck, Ilde is already there.

It's easy enough to spot her doppelganger and Isobel makes her way over, dressed very well for someone who is still getting used to the city. She has a confident walk, using the stride of someone who clearly knows what she's doing at all times. The vampire places her bag in an empty chair and sits down across from Ilde before finally looking at the girl and offering a very slight smile. In some ways, this is like meeting Elena for the first time all over again.

"You must be Ilde."

Her nose catches the scent of blood and her eyes drift for the briefest moment down to Ilde's neck, but soon enough Isobel is looking "pleasantly" back into her companion's eyes.

Under the fairly convincing illusion (mostly- she looks oversaturated in person, too real, an oil painting of a beautiful woman) of her human guise, there are only bruises on her throat; the wound is lower, making her regret close-fitted trousers. If there's a next time, she resolves, she's wearing a damn skirt.

"And you're Isobel," she agrees, almost lightly; she's a little too watchful, a little too still, and it's very evidently not threatening. Ilde reads like a trauma victim, because simply put that's what she is - there's not really time for getting better, in her lifestyle, just getting on with it. She does, but it's there in everything, so steady. She doesn't try to control the world around her, not really, but she'll do almost anything to stay in control of herself. "Did Katya catch up with you?"

Vampire, she decides, now they're properly meeting; she can feel it. That's good. That's something to know.

There's something about this girl that keeps poking at Isobel's interest, something different about the way she carries herself, about what she is. Isobel offers a half-shrug. Her body-language is far from threatening right now, as well, but she's cautious. If Ilde can sense such things, Isobel's muscles are all tight underneath her calm exterior; she's ready to flee if she has to. Self-preservation is at the top of her list right now.

"She did. We've spoken."

Which is as much as Isobel wants to offer this stranger, friend of Katherine's or not. She's wondering, somewhere in the back of her mind, if whatever type of fae/fairy Ilde is can be compelled. Soon enough, she'll try. Not right now.

"Have you been in the city long?"

It's time for Isobel to see what information she can get from Ilde. Anything is useful. Anything.

"A few months, now." It's interesting, how careful Isobel is - but even with their mutual friend, Ilde herself isn't much less wary, not yet. She doesn't mind answering the questions; she doesn't miss how sparse Isobel's own answers are. Not every monster is one she can make friends with...

...but this one is interesting.

"We tried to leave through the fog, early on." She sips her juice, pressing her thumb at her collarbone for a moment. "It was interesting." It was fucking horrible is what that experience was, but they'd learned from it, and they still had places to be. "You just missed the latest round of bullshit."

It will take time for them to adjust to each other. Isobel is still getting over having been compelled herself, so the idea that this whole thing is part of Klaus' plan and that his witches are behind something hasn't escaped her mind. Katherine seemed fairly certain of her safety, which Isobel knew she wouldn't have been had Klaus actually existed in the city.

Short answers for short answers. Isobel can work with that.

This subject, however, interests her greatly. She wants as much information as she can get, so she attempts to meet Ilde's eyes to compel her to talk. "What happened? Katherine said it was chaos."

Isobel has her answer when their eyes meet; this fairy may be many things, but 'easily compelled' is not among them. There's a long, thin pause that draws out as Ilde visibly takes the time to decide how to respond to this, almost placid in her silence.

At length, setting her glass down, she leans forward slightly and speaks in a measured, quiet voice. "Please don't ever try to do that to me again. You can just ask."

...there is a threat, in that, but also an offering; this is her one free pass, which she gets because she's Katherine's friend and, honestly, because she's a woman. If she can't be polite after this, all bets are off, and Ilde isn't the one she'll have to worry about.

(Something in her is so wounded, and it's closest to the surface when she's the most still, like this, waiting for the other shoe to drop.)

The fact that nothing actually happens after the failed attempt at compulsion is answer enough to either where this woman's loyalty lies or how unlikely she is to fight. Her words bring a touch of an actual sincere - and quite interested - smile to Isobel's lips. This is definitely a unique situation.

There's no other shoe that will drop here, not from Isobel. She holds her hands up just a little bit in an obvious display of surrender. The vampire won't try anything else, mostly because Ilde is Katherine's friend.

"Consider it never happened," she answers easily, picking up her coffee and taking a pleasant sip. "If you're still willing, I'd like to know what happened." She pauses for just a moment. Using her compulsion and failing at it has already outed her as supernatural. May as well go all the way. "I research supernatural beings and circumstances as a hobby."

Ilde takes a breath to steady herself, careful; she doesn't precisely relax, but she does seem willing to let it begin to ease away after that more than awkward moment. There are perks to being a sidekick - Sonja will mount her head like a trophy if she tries anything again - and she's frankly curious enough to dig her nails into her palm against the impulse to walk away now. They can let it go at that.

"I've been looking for someone who knows a bit about some of that," she says, picking her sandwich apart, absently. After a beat, she adds, "I can tell what you are- I can feel it." Just so Isobel is aware.

She thinks her way through it for a few more moments before she says, "There's a cult, or something, the Candlelighters. Human supremacists," her lip curls, there, and there's a wealth of ugly history in her disdain for the term she uses, "they released some kind of plague. Built hives. I went into one of the hives, before the plague. I've read some of their...literature."

Then Remy blew it the fuck up! That had been very, very satisfying, even if they'd had to run as someone called the Militia after the explosion.

"Some people got sick. Others went mad, tried to run into the fog - don't do that. I've been, twice. It's not something you do for fun unless you're a fogtrader." And those people are nuts! No offense. "The second trip was this past week. One of the local powers enlisted groups to bring her items, to deal with the plague, or-"

Ilde makes a vague gesture.

"I was with the group that collected a fog sample. Reality gets thin, out there, and everything wants to kill you." A contemplative pause. "I brought back a hat, though. You can find odd things in the fog. That's why there's a guild for the people that go out into it. It's profitable."

None of this is anything particularly secret, but she certainly has her own slant on it.

More job, less hobby, really. But it all equates out to the same thing: Isobel knows a lot and she takes in a lot... and she's good at researching things she doesn't know.

"Then it's a good thing we're here," she answers, raising her eyebrows a little bit and sitting back in her chair without a trace of worry or fear. Ilde is very lucky - or Isobel is, though she wouldn't know it now - that Isobel isn't in the mood to deal with a confrontation.

The very vague warning that Ilde knows what Isobel is is met with even more interest. So nymph-types can tell that sort of thing. "Impressive." Which is as close to an actual admission of interest - and possible jealousy - that Isobel will ever get. "Few can actually tell." There's just a slight warning in her tone not to go blabbing her secret. Isobel will leave Ilde alone if Ilde leaves Isobel alone.

Every single piece of information is taken in and filed away for future reference.

"If everything wants to kill you out there..." She pauses long enough to offer a sort of half-mischievous and half-dangerous sort of smile for a brief moment. "...it might help to already be dead."

Well, if Ilde already knows, it'll be no surprise to her.

A loosely elegant shrug is all the answer Ilde gives to the oblique warning of secrecy; she understands well enough, and she tends to respect the secrets of those around her. Ivan, Katherine and Réjean are all aware that she knows other vampires, but she doesn't explicitly mention one even to another. It seems sensible.

(Sonja, of course, is the exception to every rule.)

At the last, she can't help but grin back, ever so briefly. "It'd help," she admits, "but the fog attacks your mind, as well." She didn't get nightmares, when they went out over the water, but she's been plagued by them since she returned, and she knows she's not the only one. It's a lingering effect that she doesn't like, not when she knows intimately just how hideous it can get out there when it doesn't follow them back into the city.

They were all offered work, with the fogtraders' guild, but Ilde prefers her more sedate alternatives when she isn't actively pursuing Sonja's all out assault on New York or an escape route back to the same.

"We had someone with us of a similar nature." She wasn't unaffected. (...she's also blended with faerie, and it's sort of fascinating to Ilde.)

Sensible and appreciated. Isobel is starting to like this girl. Whoever and whatever Ilde is, Isobel is appreciating her. Too bad she can't be compelled. She would make a wonderful replacement for Frank and Cherie. For now, though, Isobel will file this meeting under the heading of acquaintances. Informative acquaintances.

She sips her coffee, letting a slight frown crease her face as she listens. The fog attacks the mind as well? That's... interesting and quite unwelcome.

"What happened to that one?"

Sure, she was asking a lot of questions, more than she would normally tolerate herself, but she's the new one here. Questioning things, figuring out everything, is what she does. The more information she has, the better.

"The same as the rest." Ilde shrugs, taking a moment to eat the other half of her sandwich. "But she'll heal faster." She'd seen her do a bit of healing mid-battle, but it had seemed...taxing. Anna's all right since, at least; Ilde expects to catch up with her again, sooner or later. The other fae and fae-touched in the city make her curious, even if it's disappointing to find few of them are much like her.

"The fog is a barrier that keeps people in the city," she says, as she sips her orange juice. "It's effective." Irritatingly so; she makes no secret of the fact she and Sonja aren't planning to stay, whether the city happens to like that or not.

The same as the rest. So, physical and emotional scarring, it seemed. All the more reason for Isobel to stay away from the fog. She had enough to deal with on her own.

"I wouldn't think most of the residents-" She uses that term lightly. Prisoners would be a more accurate way to say it. "-would willingly remain here. Somebody would be working on a way out."

There's always a resistance effort around. Always. Vaguely, she wonders if there's a Council or a group of people opposing vampires, but she nudges that thought to the side for later.

"Sonja and I are; there are others. The first trip into the fog was- testing." Testing the boundaries, learning what worked and what didn't; they have elsewheres to be, and even if Ilde has slightly mixed feelings about this city (about what she could get here, that she might not have another chance at-), her first loyalty is, always, to Sonja and their cause.

New York won't assault itself.

"Our cohort is newer. The whole city was made like this- but there are generations, now, of people whose ancestors arrived like we did." She grimaces, briefly. The older cohorts are less likely to be as actively seeking a way out, though Ilde doesn't discard the notion that there might be some among them worth cultivating for the purpose.

Edited 2011-08-08 17:37 (UTC)

So there's a resistance here, too, and Isobel is more than certain Katherine won't be a part of it. Katherine has no reason to want to go back to Mystic Falls and as far as Isobel's concerned, neither of them should. Too much is at stake over there. Way too much for their safety.

Isobel doesn't like the idea of generations being pulled here. Her eyebrows arch up only a little bit, barely belying her unease.

"All the more information to pull from them should we need it."

Generations mean more people to coerce information from, more people to satisfy Isobel's burning desire for information. It's like a researcher's paradise.

"What I'd like to know is how." How do they come here and why. What's the purpose of dealing with them?

On a different hand, Isobel's wondering how much more Ilde will be willing to tell her, how much more there is to tell at all. And in some respects, Isobel herself is starting to feel antsy sitting there.

"You've been most helpful, Ilde." And she has. The other woman has given Isobel many answers she wasn't sure she would get. If there's something Ilde wants in return, now's the time to ask. Isobel won't offer.

It's so easy to get this from Ilde because she so wants to be that - helpful, needful, good. Wanted, needed, useful. Just underneath that careful stillness, she's a mess and just a little too easy to manipulate. It'd be worse if she didn't have Sonja to traipse around behind, and it colours a great deal of the choices she makes. Helping Isobel makes sense because Isobel is important to Katherine, but she's done enough to satisfy that impulse; she doesn't feel obliged to warn her about what might happen if she makes too many mistakes in this city.

(It isn't all conscious, but it certainly makes life interesting.)

She smiles, though; the conversation has unwound her, to a degree, from where she'd tightened up earlier. She does just plain like to be able to answer questions, to have information and reasoned out opinions. Things that make sense appeal, it's why she's so fond of lists. Her mind may not be orderly, but she's fond of order, and she knows herself to be a clever little thing.

"It pays to know people around the city," she says, with a shrug. "Networking. Flow of information. I think it would be very useful to know someone in research." Tapping her fingertips against the side of her empty glass, she adds, thoughtfully, "You should talk to Réjean."

Katherine doesn't venture out to Queequeg's every day, but she enjoys stopping by from time to time. It's a pleasant enough cafe, and now that things are back to as normal as they ever get, she feels that the view from the deck will be calming. So she finds herself in the cafe some time after they've started their conversation, and as she's placing her order, she hears their voices outside. Which is...unexpected, but not entirely surprising, given the givens. She knows she was curious to see Elena after learning of her existence, and not just because she knew how valuable she was.

Once her drink and pastry are ready, she takes them with her onto the deck and makes her way to their table, offering each of the women a smile.

"Hello there."

Isobel can understand the use in knowing more than one person around. Information flow is key to someone like her and she nods once, offering a smile. "Let me know if I can be of use to you," she replies. Whether or not she'll offer up later on remains to be seen. Ilde's ease of information and willingness to aid her spoke of the woman's usefulness. Isobel won't throw away this meeting lightly.

She's pondering asking who this Réjean is when she hears someone else approaching. The footsteps are familiar and when she looks up to see that familiar face with that smile she knows well, Isobel offers a friendly smile in return, sitting back in her chair. There's a subtle shift in her body language, one only someone who can sense auras would even pick up. The sight of Katherine means a lot for Isobel.

"Katherine. It's good to see you again."

For now, she'll let Katherine decide if they're going to hug like old friends or fight like enemies.

Whatever the decision between the other two women will be, Ilde rises to greet Katherine with a quick hug - the scent of blood probably won't surprise her, given the conversation they had yesterday - with easy familiarity. There's a sense of restraint; she's naturally far more tactile than she generally permits herself to be with most people in Baedal.

"I didn't see you, Katya," she says, unmistakably pleased that she's there.

Ilde receives a hug first, simply because she's the first to stand and greet her, and Isobel gets one next. Both women are greeted warmly, as Katherine has no idea what's happened at home and is happy to see them both in person (Ilde, to see how she's faring after her time in the fog; though they've already discussed it; and Isobel because she hasn't seen her in quite a while).

"It's good to see both of you," she replies, and to Ilde, she holds up her cup of coffee. "And I just arrived. I heard the two of you out here and thought I'd say hello. Mind if I join you, or would three be a crowd?"

Once Katherine makes her move plain, Isobel rises to hug her as well, breathing an inward sigh of relief. It seems to be going well, better than Isobel could have hoped for back in Mystic Falls.

Isobel answers Katherine's question with a smile and a shake of her head, body language undeniably also happy to see Katherine. "It's never a crowd with you, Katherine." It's mostly true from Isobel's perspective, but it's also simply her laying on the flattery. She knows how to play this game. "It's been a while since we've seen each other. You know I wouldn't turn down your company."

"As well one shouldn't." Ilde waves her lightly into a third seat, sinking back down into her own as they greet each other. Katherine's presence sets her at ease in a way that's telling of her particular defense mechanisms; she'd seemed serene more than stiff, placid and patient, but the difference is palpable when she settles enough to emote. "Isobel caught me on my way home. Light breakfast."

"Mm, and how did that go?" Katherine asks once she's seated, smirking playfully at Ilde from behind her coffee cup. The flattery is appreciated, and she turns to Isobel with a slightly warmer smile once she sets her cup on the surface of the table. "It's really been too long - not that there was much that could be done about it."

She sits back a bit, glancing back and forth between the two identical women. "So how have you two been getting on?"

Ilde may have relaxed enough in Katherine's company, but Isobel's body language remains the same. The black-haired vampire has never been much of one to show emotions she's feeling at any given time unless doing so will net her something in return. She has tight control over what she expresses and that doesn't change, no matter who she's with. Not even Katherine.

Isobel patiently waits her turn to speak, glancing at Ilde and tilting her head a little before she returns her attention to Katherine. "Quite well," she answers, with a smile. "Ilde has been telling me about the city. It's quite the interesting place."

And she's got a vampire-specific question for Katherine later on that she's not particularly keen on asking in front of Ilde. Make that two, actually.

Katherine's query about the night before gets a quick, sharp smile; suffice to say, evidently, it went well. The last time Katherine smelled blood on her, she'd been considerably less pleased about how it happened.

"We had a little misunderstanding," she adds, of how she and Isobel have been getting along, "but I think we've cleared it up." For now.

Katherine chuckles, though she's curious about what Ilde means by 'misunderstanding'. Knowing Isobel, it's possible that she tried something, but she won't question it for now. She can ask either about what happened later.

"That would be the understatement of the century," she says before nibbling on her chocolate croissant. She follows the bite with a swallow of coffee, then brushes her fingers off as she glances between them again. "I'm glad to hear it. I'd been hoping for the best."

Isobel has no intention of telling Katherine what went on between her and Ilde - at least not right now. If Katherine asks later, she'll answer, perhaps honestly, but for now, she prefers to leave that topic completely alone.

"We seem to be adjusting to the situation." Meaning the whole doppelganger thing. Which... is also something Isobel needs to find out. "And I hope the day has been treating you well, Katherine."

Ilde will tell Sonja, later at home, and Katherine if she asks, but it's not casual breakfast conversation and she's just as content to leave it at 'misunderstanding' for the time being. These things happen, and all that...

"Usually I'm just supposed to look a bit like my grandmother*," she remarks, of their uncanny similarity.

* Pictured.

Edited 2011-08-17 07:14 (UTC)

A little bit.

I'm fine with being selfish and spoiled usually.

He took direction well. A little pent up frustration maybe. (On his part.) No one had ever actually given me oral before, so that was nice. (That was actually better than nice.) (I was sixteen the last time I got laid, Cynthia.)

Twenty-one. It's a long story.

He offered to buy me dinner first, but I really didn't feel like it.

There's only so much conversation I was really in the mood for. Maybe next time, though. I wouldn't object to a next time.

Cynthia you're enlightening

That's true. Oh- Mabel. The Hellsing rep who was on my mission. I invited her for drinks. Come too? I don't know when.

So grudging.

That's true.

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( what a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness )

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