#{ ivy lawler / hastalik ahnci }

[lxwlers]

Ivy had lived in Destarin closing on a hundred years now, but still she never found herself bored. There was always something to do, someone to do, lots of people to interact with. It was a big city. And, Ivy wasn't someone who was very sociable, by her own admission. She was picky with where she spent her time, preferring the solitude of her own home where she could lose herself in books, or play music, or just about anything to her heart's content.

But when the mood struck and she ventured outside her house, she took advantage of it. Sometimes the desire to be around others was only good for one day a week.

The city was always beautiful at night, and that's when Ivy decided to take her walks around. Because she liked spending so much time by herself, and because the city was so big, she never felt like she would run out of things to do, or people to see. Besides, the desire to go out and be social was one that rarely occurred, so she had to take advantage when it did or else she'd keep herself inside for the rest of the week. Even then, she always seemed to limit her time out and about.

Seeing a familiar face, one she enjoyed teasing every time she saw him, knowing the consequences it could potentially bring, she sauntered over and leaned against the lamppost, where he was lurking just under. "Hello, Hastalik," she greeted, as if they were almost old friends. "Running errands for Daddy, so late at night?"

@hastalikanhci

[lxwlers]

Ivy nodded diligently at that, feigning that she understood and agreed with all his sentiments. Though the Scourge house had extended family of hers and they often passed in and out of each other’s lives at a moment’s notice, a temple and whole coven felt different than what the Guild was. She could only imagine what went on behind closed doors in a place like that. Every time she passed Hastalik by, he looked stressed out - to a point where she had accepted that was just his default state of being. The Guild never made her feel like that.

She was confident that everything she was stood against everything he believed in. If she were kinder, she would have backed off a bit, offered sympathy to someone who couldn’t control the upbringing he was raised in. But, she wasn’t all that nice. Hastalik was good looking too, and she particular found it shameful that he was off limits if he wanted to stay in the good graces of his family.

But she’d get over it - besides, was there really that much harm in teasing?

“I like bothering you, though, you make it so easy,” she smirked. Her arms crossed, and her weight shifted to one hip as she sized him up. “You get all flustered, your nose flares out– like that, see?”

"He is my biological uncle," Hastalik countered her argument firmly - irritation not remotely subtle - that the man was some sort of figure of relation to him. Ivy, to his knowledge, was the epitome of everything his coven said women could be. She was a monster, to begin with, an evil creature made from another creature of evil, and though he'd never said so to her face other's in his coven likely had and surely she knew he had thought it or at least thought to think it... "Covens have leaders, that's not abnormal."

Hastalik wasn't half concerned with the man smoking a pipe, it wasn't like he was the one who had implied fresh, he'd just said air, and so her desire to mock him for it because of the smoker mostly felt illogical to the young man. "It's still air."

Shifting in his robes there was an obvious furrow to his brows not even the fabric could hide. "You could always bother someone else, Ivy," he commented, after all she had approached him, why should his words not be a little biting if hers were? "Presumably you do this to your family constantly."

[lxwlers]

Ivy tilted her head and hummed. "Uncle, Daddy - don't all cults have some fatherly type figure they attached themselves to?" she asked, before clearing her throat. "Sorry. Coven. My mistake." As if that was the first time that slip of the tongue ever occurred.

She probably didn't have much room to talk - surely people spoke of the Scourge guild in unfavorable ways. But she wouldn't be caught dead covering her face the way he did. She knew enough about his coven to not be fans of them - their treatment of women, for starters, but the way they shrouded themselves, doing everything in the shadow of the night because they knew the common person disagreed with just about everything they stood for. At least, that was all she gathered. Truthfully, she only knew enough to be able to tease and bother Hastalik this way. Ivy didn't particularly want to get him in trouble, but didn't seem to care if he did or not.

"Ah, air..." Ivy trailed off, her eyes glancing over to a man smoking a pipe not three feet from them, stepped out of the pub to take his time. The slightest breeze carried the puff of smoke in their direction. "Fresh."

The witch frowned as the young woman approached him, in truth it was all she could see of him, the rest draped in soft black linen, mask covering his lips. It would have potentially actually hid his identity if it was not how everyone in his coven dressed, the attire meant more for hiding, rather than going about town, and yet they were not meant to leave without it. What likely made it obvious he was one the coven members she could tease without having vitriol spat back in her face was that her slender form a few inches taller than his own short height.

"He's my Uncle, not my father," he responded, as though the difference mattered all that much. Surely having been in town as long as she had Ivy had seen a myriad of his family members - she may have even seen his mother - but Hastalik, despite his annoyance at her talking to him, never responded as the others had or would. The vulgar woulds his family and coven used to speak on women were not terms Hastalik enjoyed repeating, even if he was often forced to. His Uncle the worst of all, which tended to disappoint women who on first approach simply saw a handsome and tall man leading a group of witches that fought evil and ended up being spat on. Those that did not suffer such a response got all they desired, until the coven had the information it needed and they were cast aside, killed so far as Hastalik had ever understood.

Shifting his posture so he was slightly further from Ivy Hastalik's furrowed brows became slightly less tense. "And no." He resisted the urge to share that he was allowed out more often now, because he had a mission. "I am just getting some air."