#i decided this is at the beginning of barnabas summer and wanted to play with roger's vampire motif and it may have

[widowshill]

Hadestown starters, if I may?: “ lover, you were gone so long ”? please and thank you!

HADESTOWN.

She was different than he'd left her: there was pink gloss at her lips, silk on her skin, and dangled there around her neck diamonds sufficient to weigh her down — to drag her into the sea. Pearls were the Collins jewel of choice for their brides: drug up out of the water with the rest of their profits and purgatories. Not so for Devlin. That expensive throat may as well have been personally adorned by his hand, a foot and a pocketbook in distant mines afield. Roger swept her hair aside and kissed her — delicate, there on the vein beneath the corner of her jaw. 

Lilacs. If he doubted then the scent of petal-skin reminded him, filling the cab of the Pontiac as if she herself had bloomed in the first breath of summer. The herald of warmer days, lilacs; and now Victoria, too, on the first train whistle of the season. The flowers waited for her, the sunshine and the sea breeze, right beside him on that platform. She was here, for a little while; his for a little while. And he buried himself in her, in the skin of her throat perfectly preserved in memory, and made only now and again the idle noise of contentment, or petulant hum at the string of diamonds in his way. 

“Roger, let’s go in.”

He pretended, delightedly, that he hadn’t heard, and reached back to unclasp the necklace, letting it fall to expose the hollow of her throat. Vicki caught it without complaint but gave her half-hearted protests as he kissed her there again, again, as if he hadn’t eaten since she’d gone. Empty stomachs, empty hands: he took her in his arms to lay her back against against the seat and she laughed, beautiful, musical at his ear.

“Not in the car!” 

Odysseus was wrong, he thought, not to listen to it. Rocks be damned. 

He pulled back just enough to look at her — at that smile he had put there, at the flush on her cheeks from the heat of the sun, from the heat of the air. The way she looked at him, the same way she looked at the stars when she first came home. Roger brushed a thumb across her cheek. 

“I missed you,” he confessed, hushed. There was too much packed in the empty syllables, and his words strained. 

“I missed you,” came her echo, equally sparse. 

He leaned down to allow himself just one more, but paused at the first touch to long-awaited mouth. She didn't taste at all like he remembered. She didn’t taste like Vicki. She tasted like Burke. Phantom Lucky Strikes under her tongue, in the back of her throat, on her teeth. Roger’s brow furrowed with the jar of memory misaligned, but he said nothing, giving only a doting kiss to the tip of pert nose before he withdrew. So she’d started smoking. It was cold, even on the asphalt isle, in the winter time — they all of them had their vices to keep the body warm. 

Despite her earlier protests, Mrs. Devlin lingered on the passenger side for a few minutes longer, busying herself with fixing her clasp, with straightening his tie, as though there were anyone to see them on the short walk up the drive, as if perhaps the newness of the house demanded she be equally pristine — fine bright stonework that set off ice blue tailoring, all done in the meticulous sculptor’s hand of the American dollar. She’d grown up since last summer, even: glittering like the jewels at her throat, having been formed in six months of marriage, of Fifth Avenue, of the company of her charming oil tycoon. It wasn’t all that long ago she’d been Miss Eyre in green wool, in his house, not Burke’s; but in the measure of things there was a greater distance between then and now than weeks and days and something so transgressible as time.  

Roger watched her fingers as she smoothed the ends of her hair. Twenty-three. She’d have just turned twenty-three: yes, that’s right – her birthday was in March. He hadn’t sent her anything, he supposed that was cold of him, but he had no doubt that she wanted for very little. She just wanted … 

His fingers curled, then flexed. “I’ll get your luggage,” he announced, and she swallowed down whatever it was she was thinking to say, drowned in the click of heels to fresh pavement, and the slam of the trunk. Roger was as good as his word – better – a cherry Tourister in each hand as far as the threshold, where they waited while she fussed with her keys. He remained still as she pushed the door open; still, even as he felt the brush of her hand.  

“Will you stay for a while?” she asked, all innocence, lip gloss, summertime, Lucky Strikes. Vicki met his eyes again, so directly he'd long forgotten to breathe. “I’ll make you a drink.” 

[painpro]

tfk episode summaries 28-30!

WOW OMG...30...I CANNOT BELIEVE IT what a fuckin milestone.

Episode 28: Interception

The KC make their way to the ritual sight. They find a large storm suddenly brewing on the horizon, and follow a concerned farmer's directions towards it. Sure enough, the Kraken Cult is well into their summoning ritual, and the KC begins their attack, knowing if the Kraken is summoned it would be extremely bad. Cik launches a fireball that instantly kills about half the cult, and the rest of the KC moves through the grunts fairly quickly, trying to cut their way through to the cult leader, who has now managed to summon two tentacles from the deep. Cik casts animate dead on a cultist for the first time, much to Bell's dismay and Orna's delight. They finally make it to the real ritual platform, and begin their true attack on the kraken priest. Seraphina gets the final blow, shooting an arrow right through his eye. Afterwards, they loot his body for a staff and some prayer beads, and then Orna casts animate dead on him. The KC mostly asks him silly questions just to mess with him. There are shenanigans with reanimating and changing the size of the cultist corpses, which Orna smiles at for the first time. Bell has none of it and banishes them. They return to the Silorian Council and are thanked and told to go to the temple of Bahamut to receive their reward. There they meet Drovah-el, the head cleric of Bahamut, who gives them the sprigs of kateomisah that they need. Afterwards, the rest of the KC goes to the marketplace and makes various purchases while Cik heads to the beach to bury Ezita's deck of cards like she asked. He holds a private, impromptu funeral for her, and has Clair flame the sand around the cards to make a glass tomb. Bell and Selxi try and join in a gambling game at the Three Claws tavern and lose horribly. Cik gives the love potion to a random waiter he meets, gets wasted, and stumbles back drunk and disorderly to the tavern. After a sad night for the KC, they wake the next morning and head back to Nugoii, where Voyage's ship is. He is still there, like he promised, and they all head back to Solan. During the trip, Voyage gives Bell a dagger, Bell and Voyage have sex for the first time, Cik buys drugs (namely another dose of Glorin), and Cik allows Voyage to play around with Clair. Near the end of the trip, Bell asks Cik to talk. They finally make up about their fight, and Cik opens up to Bell and tells him about his previous life and why he doesn't want to go back to Kestrel. Cik also makes Bell say that the whole deal with Symon wasn't his fault, and the two hug and restore their friendship back to a good place. We end with the KC returning to Solan, ready to start the next leg of their journey for the herbs...

Episode 29: The Summer Queen

The KC lands back on Solan, and decides their first course  of action before they continue their quest for the herbs will be to make a stop back at the Grove. It's a 15 day journey over, during which they are attacked one night by an enemy they have fought before: ice devils. Keen and Selxi miss them on their watch, and the devils begin their attack. A difficult battle ensues, but Keen Bell and Orna all get final hits on the three devils. Seraphina and Bell quickly realize that the only way the devils could have known where they were was by a scrying spell, which puts the group on edge. The KC scraps their original plan to stop in Arcomb and head straight to the Grove instead. On the way, Bell finds out more about the worsening situation in King's Watch (which involves several of their friends including Barnabas being jailed). After this is brought to light, the KC then decides to contact the assassin group the Whisperers that they met months ago in Kilead to try and hire them to attempt a jailbreak. The details are worked out, and the Whisperers agree, saying they will make their way over to King's Watch hopefully in a week. After their long journey, the KC arrives at the Grove, where they meet up with an exhausted looking Yunah and Havernon. They see the two have been working tirelessly on druidcrafting them a ship to sail to Kestrel with when the time comes, and that its nearly complete. The KC makes the choice to head to the other herb thats located in the Feywild instead, to give the druids more time. Yunah treestrides the KC into the Whispering Adder Forest to get them close enough to Zalfari, which is the only way to enter the Feywild. Before they enter, Orna casts seeming on the KC to make them all appear to be elves, since she knows how her home city feels about non-elves. Orna speaks to an uptight elven man named Cirdine, who seems to instantly dislike her. However, she convinces him to lower the barrier to the city to let them enter. The group walks in to the stunning crystalline city of Zalfari, which is packed full of high elves- and only high elves. They begin to get an understanding on why Orna is... the way that she is. Orna knows the only way to enter the Feywild is through the feypools in the Lyceum here- and that requires seeing the resident Arcanists that Orna seems to have some negative history with. They all gave the KC quite a hard time- Orna especially, as they kept implying she had some past experience with her research here that ended up disgracing her. However, they end up letting the KC pass through their feypool...and the KC is transported to the Feywild. There, they see red fields and a land of eternal twilight- and they meet Orna's warlock pact patron, Titania the Summer Queen. They find her in a meeting between the Seelie and Unseelie fey- where they two sides appear to be watching a fight to the death between their sprites. Orna asks Titania where they can find the Blood Cheruil- the herb that they need. Titania informs her it can be only found in the Unseelie realm- and that if the Seelie fey win the next game, she can wager to the Unseelie that they should let the KC in their realm. The KC agrees hesitantly and a little fearfully, but they win the light-catching game fair and square. Titania, delighted, sends the KC into the Unseelie realm- before they leave, however, Orna catches a glimpse of a familiar face in the crowd. They tumble through the trees into the other realm- a dark, twisted counterpart to the Seelie realm. They cautiously move forward, and Bell suddenly begins to sense they're being watched...

Episode 30: Ill Met By Moonlight

The KC continues their journey into the Feywild, where they now find themselves in the Unseelie realm on their quest for the Blood Cheruil, the third out of four herbs they need to complete Banisher. The happen upon a cluster of ruins where they are finally attacked by the creatures that have been stalking them since they entered- Displacer Beasts. A battle ensues- and during the battle, Selxi notices that a strange, lanky fey creature has come and stolen the only remaining bunch of Blood Cheruil and ran away with it. After the battle is over, Selxi yells and runs after the creature, and the KC follows. The trail leads them to an odd-looking dilapidated mansion- and inside, they find the fey creature. He introduces himself as Orion, and forcefully suggests they have dinner with him. The door out shuts and disappears behind them. The KC reluctantly agrees to sit with him. Keen has bad table manners which enrages Orion, and they get glimpses of his form flickering into something else- something thats not the beautiful fey elf he presents himself to be. Seraphina suddenly casts plant growth on Orion, attempting to tie him to his chair so the KC can make a break for it. They make a messy escape, but Orion poofs away, leaving them with no clue as to where he is.Unable to leave with the Blood Cheruil and knowing its somewhere inside the mansion, the KC splits up to look for it. They find a number of dead bodies which they presume are Orion's previous "guests", several strange magical items, and in the basement Keen and Cezall find...an elven woman who was being kept hostage. They bring her up and learn her name is Solveig- and that she and Orna clearly have history. The KC makes their way up to the final floor of the house, and before they grab the Blood Cheruil that they find Solveig tries to warn Orna that she should run. Cik grabs the herb and they hear an enraged scream as the house begins to shake, vines begin shooting out of the wall, and an angry Orion reveals his true form- a spindly, bark-skinned Unseelie fey that wants to kill them. After dodging flying silverware, dinner plates, and candlesticks (except for Orna, who gets knocked unconscious briefly), they find that the wall is an illusion and that the door was always there. Selxi leaps out first, with the rest of the KC to follow- but Solveig gets stuck by black vines wrapping around her, trying to keep her inside the house. Bell casts Spiritual Guardian to stall Orion as he and Orna try to get Solveig free- it works, and Bo Boggle appears to lead them all out of the forest. Right as they are about to leave the Unseelie Realm, Solveig stops- she informs Orna she cannot go any further. She cannot enter the Seelie realm- she says she has disappointed the Summer Queen, Titania, and is not allowed back in. Orna refuses to accept this, and promises that she will be back to help free Solveig. Solveig gives her a sad smile and says goodbye for now. A teary Orna and the rest of the KC make it back to the Seelie Realm. Once they do, Orna is bestowed with a cape from Titania herself as a reward. Titania promises Orna that one day she will return to the Feywild, and teleports the KC back to Havernon's Grove. While there, Bell and Yunah make dinner and bond, Seraphina and Havernon discuss their lifespans and the loss of Druid society, and Keen and Orna have a heart to heart about Orna's past that ends in a rare hug. Later that night, Orna and Bell talk about how despite their differences, they don't actually (and never have) hated each other. The group settles down to rest for the night, knowing soon they will be on their way to collect the last herb, Lunar Milfoil, located in the arctic island of Kestrel...