Owner	Pose
Gabby Kinney	Gabby Kinney had ensconced herself in the sitting room with a bag of food that she'd set out on the coffee table. As for herself she'd sunk down to sit on the floor using it more as a dining table than a coffee table. There's a tablet on it which she reads through between bites of a lovely smelling Chinese dish she's eating straight out of the box with chopsticks. Even the Japanese doll that was still here had a small plate set up after she'd read up on offerings to the dead. The doll seems rather pleased with it even if it's something she can't outright eat. She's humming a tune which seems fairly happy. The doll that is. Not Gabby.
Lydia Dietrich	The sun has been set for a little while, and Lydia has ensconced herself in the Library for the past hour. Deciding it's time for a break she comes out with a small stack of books floating behind her being carried aloft by her ectoplasm.     "Hey, Gabby," she says. Her presence here wasn't much of a surprise to the vampire. If it wasn't Gabby's scent or heartbeat that clued her in, the smell of Chinese definitely would. "Konnichi wa, Hinako-chan," she says to the haunted doll. Her pronunciation is /atrocious/ but at least she's trying.     She slides into a seat next to Gabby and sets the books down on the coffee table as well. "How're you two doing?"
Gabby Kinney	Gabby Kinney glances up toward the familiar entrance of Lydia offering her a grin. "Hey," she greets lifting her chopsticks to wiggle at her. Likely an offense given Hinako's little cry of 'Nono' followed by a waggle of her tiny toy hand at Gabby. When Lydia greets her though she manages somehow to smile and brighten at being recognized. At the very least, the quality of her haunted life had improved since she was brought here. She had people who talked to her and gave her treats and she was very warm. Better than the care she had before being tucked away in a box in the closet. Gabby just ducks her head and apologizes for her lack of manners with a simple, "Sumimasen." She knew SOME basics at the very least. Setting her takeout container down she tips her head up toward Lydia. "So everyone's out hunting down Phoebe's trail. I've been trying to keep tabs on things but I couldn't do much. Besides it's better people who know her more are going after her."
Lydia Dietrich	Lydia nods as she sinks into the chair. "I had heard she had gone missing," she says. "I'll keep an ear out for her, lend a hand when I can. Meanwhile I'm reading up as much as I can on lycanthropy to see if we can find a cure for Cael," she says patting the stack of books in front of her.     "If it's a curse... an /actual/ curse I have an idea on how to do it, but..." she shakes her head. "I just don't know what /kind/ of lycanthropy she has. She's a werejackal and, unsurprisingly, that's not really covered in the manuals."
Gabby Kinney	Gabby Kinney pauses at that looking more than a little concerned. It even keeps her from reaching for another egg roll as she contemplates it with eyebrows drawn together sharply. "Jackal? That's kind of specific. Also I didn't know she was a were anything." There's a pause while she considers it. "That would explain the mood swings though. Even Jon called her on that." Her lips purse together tightly a moment as she regards the books with thought. "Maybe you're going around it the wrong way? Instead of looking up specifically the curse, maybe find what cultures focus on Jackals and see if they have any lore about the situation?"
Lydia Dietrich	"Oh it's an Egyptian thing," Lydia answers immediately. "We know who was behind it, we're just not sure how he did what he did. Egyptians didn't really have much in the way of were lore." She inhales to let out a little sigh. "We've been able to give her control over the shifts so she's not a danger to anyone, at least. And the guy behind it has been taken care of."
Gabby Kinney	Gabby Kinney squints a little bit at that only to shake her head with annoyance. "Which means our best bet to know more is currently AWOL. Phoebe's more the Egyptian specialist, isn't she?" The egg roll that had escaped eating until now as she snags it to take a nibble. "You're right though, I don't think werewolves or the like were in their lexicon. Maybe shape shifters. I dunno. At least we know what's going on and can try to help her out then."
Lydia Dietrich	"Guy had it coming to him," Lydia says dismissively. "I think Cael will take being a werejackal for the rest of her life in trade for that guy being taken down." She shakes her head. "He was evil with a capital E."     "Jon's a pretty solid Egyptologist too," she says. "We've been banging our heads together to figure this out." She lets out another little sigh and looks up at Gabby. "How about you? Anything interesting going on in your life?"
Gabby Kinney	Gabby Kinney hesitates at the question pointed her direction. The bite of eggroll is chewed, and washed down with a quick sip of a soda she had set beside her as well. "Nothing much," she states simply, quietly. "I had a little run-in the other day with some... I don't know. They called themselves vigilantes, but they murdered the people they were after. ... I." She pauses taking a few quick breaths while staring holes into the table in front of her. Quickly reaching up she scrubs a hand over her face. "Sorry. Sorry. For whatever reason it was making me remember something that happened to me in the past. I managed to get through it at the time but I was just fresh out of the labs so maybe I was still kind of messed up at the time."
Lydia Dietrich	She shakes her head. "I hate those types of vigilantes, the ones that appoint themselves as judge, jury, and executioner. That's not justice. That's just murder."     Her expression softens when it's clear that Gabby is close to a panic attack. "It's okay," she says. "I'm here if you want to talk about it, if that'll help."
Gabby Kinney	Gabby Kinney purses her lips together tightly and leans her head down to rest ontop of the table. "I'm fine. I'll be fine. It wasn't anything I wasn't used to at the time. Just I felt so helpless that I couldn't stop it and I was going through it *again* and..." Another deep breath. "... Could you scratch my back? Between my shoulders. Just. Just a little." The request is made quietly, softly, as she feels a bit silly making it. Still it would give her something to focus on in a spot not often touched. It was hard to get that spot after all. "Bunch of us were kidnapped and tortured in an attempt to get our secondary mutations to activate. For 'science'," she bites out. "It was years ago. Just. One of them ripped a guy's heart out and fed it to another guy. It was so cruel it reminded me of it."
Lydia Dietrich	"Sure," Lydia says, getting up and moving around behind where Gabby is sitting at. Blunt nails do their best to do the scratching where indicated. She winces when Gabby recounts her experience. "People are so cruel to us. I've seen first hand what people are willing to do to mutants, and it's horrifying.
Gabby Kinney	Gabby Kinney seems to relax just a bit at the scratching touch only to give a nod of agreement. "It was another mutant though doing that. Mr. Sinister." The name alone gives her pause to snort, and she lifts her head up looking back toward Lydia with a wry grin. "The name alone is pretty telling. But yeah... He was insane." Letting out a little sigh she clears her throat again. "Sorry. How have you been doing otherwise? Sounds like you're busy with a lot of things."
Lydia Dietrich	Once it's clear that the itch has been scratched, Lydia rests her hands on Gabby's shoulders with a friendly squeeze. "You know..." Lydia says with a hint of amusement in her voice, "Ever since I became a vampire I don't think I've ever had an itch."     "Mr. Sinister?" Lydia asks with incredulity with a raised eyebrow. "Who would seriously call themselves 'Mr. Sinister?" Her tone turns mocking, "'Hi, I'm Evil McBadguy. I'm here to ruin your evening.'"     Returning to her chair she sinks into it with a huff. "Busy, yeah. Between this, the wedding, and the new book, I've haven't had much time for myself."
Gabby Kinney	The scent of delicious Chinese takeout fills the sitting room, the source of which is Gabby. There's a few boxes she'd already dug into, some eggrolls that were half eaten, and a soda she'd been working on set on the coffee table. She's sitting cross-legged on the floor with her back to the couch, and the little Japanese doll had a small plate of noodles with a stick of incense in it as an offering for the dead. It's made the doll very happy as she sits on her pampered pillow. Gabby's looking a little worse for wear after having recounted the issue she'd recently visited Robbie and Rien over. Though thankfully the moment had passed and she was recovering. "Yeah, his name is almost laughable. HE isn't. Anyway. It was just one of those things." Grinning she asks, "Thanks. So how's the book going? I keep meaning to look up some of your work."
Lydia Dietrich	"Slow," Lydia says, leaning back in the plush chair she was sitting in. On her side of the coffee table there's a small stack of books, which really isn't all that unusual to see with the author. "I have several thousand pages of notes that I'm trying to collate into /some/ kind of order to piece together a narrative of Michael's invasion. This will keep me busy for a while."     She chuckles when Gabby talks about reading her books. "I have some spare copies if you want me to get you one. I warn you, they're pretty smutty."
Robbie Reyes	Speaking of worse for wear, look what the cat dragged in: one haggard looking Roberto Reyes, who marks a path directly for the bar. He's eschewed the leather jacket today for a battered looking black hoodie with the sleeves pulled up and (some of) his tattoos on full display. Tight black jeans and combat boots that look to have seen actual combat complete his ensemble. He slants Gabby and Lydia a sidelong glance, gives an upnod in lieu of a greeting, and promptly hops right up onto the bar so he can leeeeeean over and snag himself a bottle of Sol. "What's this about smutty books?" he enquires, popping the cap on the beer with his thumb.
Gabby Kinney	"Smutty?" Gabby just gives Lydia a LOOK. "I'm a single teenager who has few outlets for such things, hell yes, I'm okay with it being smutty." And then Robbie walks in causing her eyes to trail along after him with a thoughtful 'huh' at the apparent state he was in. Helpfully she fishes up a container of Chinese that hadn't been opened yet. "Chow Mein? And we were talking about Lydia's books that she writes. Not the other books," she adds tipping her head toward the stack of research objects there.
Lydia Dietrich	Lydia laughs as everybody's interest in her books get piqued. "Yes, Robbie," she says. "I write smutty lesbian paranormal romance books for a living. It's not much, but I get favorable reviews and it pays the bills. The new book, however, is going to be a retelling of the events leading up to and including the invasion of the angels in Manhattan."     "These," she says, patting the books that she's brought from the Velvet Room's library, "Are to see what we can do about Cael's affliction. I'd /like/ to be able to cure her of lycanthropy but..." she shakes her head, "I don't know. This strain isn't really talked about."
Robbie Reyes	Robbie takes a healthy drink of his beer, swipes his knuckles across his mouth, then hops back down off the bartop and swags on over to the pair slowly. "Shit," he murmurs, dimpling a grin at Lydia, "where do I sign up?" As if *he* needs an outlet for pent up sexual frustration, with a girlfriend like Rien. He flops onto the couch nearby then, and tips his head back against the cushions, waving off Gabby and her offer of chow mein. "Ain't hungry. Just.. didn't sleep too well last night." Yep, the dark circles under his eyes sure tell that story well.
Gabby Kinney	Gabby Kinney gives a shrug in response when the chow mein is declined. Instead she snags the remaining half of her eggroll to nibble on when he joins them. Once he flops down she shifts where she sits on the floor to lean against his leg, reaching up to pat his knee consolingly. "Why couldn't you sleep?" Lydia's remark on what exactly her books are about cause her to pause considering, only to shrug. "Eh, I'd still read them. I think most of my friends have girlfriends anyway." Maybe it would be interesting. Either way her attention shifts back to the pile of books considering with a nod. "Yeah I'm not sure what to think there. Does the silver thing work to begin with? Maybe there's a way to ... I don't know... Keep her safe while she's in that way? Like let her romp around the woods or something."
Lydia Dietrich	Lydia laughs again, grinning at Robbie. "I'll bring a copy for you, too." She looks between her two companions, "I can sign them even, if you want. It'll be worth millions."     "We got a tattoo on her," she tells Gabby. "It keeps her in control when she shifts. We had a chance to test it out when we took out the asshole that's been harassing Jon's family for years now." Lydia's not one to cuss, so this guy must have been a /real/ asshole.
Robbie Reyes	Robbie's at least half-expecting the touch to his leg, so there's no rapid recoil when Gabby leans against him. Her question makes him roll his head to one side, cheek against the cushion, so he can regard her under his lashes. "Long fuckin' story." A beat. "Hey, I changed my mind. Gimme a bite." He opens his mouth, apparently waiting for her to feed him like a baby bird. Which makes him unable to do anything but look at Lydia quizzically when she mentions the 'asshole'.
Gabby Kinney	At the request for food, by expecting to be fed, Gabby rolls her eyes. Rather than attempt to feed him chow mein she snags another of the egg rolls reaching up to pop it into his open mouth. She reclaims her leaning position though as a means to get back at him for that she wriggles her fingers into the torn knee of his jeans to tickle at his leg. For all the good that may do. The more serious part has her turning her attention to Lydia seriously listening to it all. "Oh! A tattoo would work yeah, and you can't lose it. That's good then if she can control herself. Still... I'd think there'd be some kind of librarian here like everything else in this castle." A beat is paused before she admits, "Unless that's Jon's role."
Lydia Dietrich	"This is the third tattoo that I've had to do," Lydia says with a shake of the head. "I think I have something of a talent for it. If you ever need to do a magical tattoo I've got the equipment for it."
Robbie Reyes	The egg roll is grabbed with his teeth, and wolfed down in maybe three bites. Hey, he's a hungry boy. Goodness knows where he puts it all, though, lean as he is. "So, uh. What can you do with these.. magical tattoos?" he wonders, once he's finished chewing and swallowing. There's a startled sputter-laugh when Gabby sneaks her fingers in for a tickle, and he swats her hand away. "You keep that up, you're gonna get a beer bath," he warns her, waggling his bottle.
Gabby Kinney	"I want a magic tattoo!" Gabby declares pumping her free arm up into the air as if she were in class raising her hand to be noticed. "I mean I don't know of what, but I might need a magic one just to keep it ON because of my healing factor," she admits thoughtfully while her arm drifts back down to rub at her chin. Robbie's swat earns a grin as well as a helpless shrug. "Sure, sure, but then you'll have to explain to everyone why you got me all wet." Pausing a beat, her face scrunches. "Wait. No. That sounds wrong."
Lydia Dietrich	"A bunch of stuff," Lydia replies. "The one I gave to Phoebe gave her wings to fly, the one for Cael, control when she jackals out."     To Gabby she says, "Oh you wouldn't heal the tattoo out of existence. The ink stays permanently in the skin. You'd just speed along the healing process from several weeks to mere minutes. A normal tattoo would fade over time, but usually it takes /decades/ before that happens. So, for a normal tattoo, you might need to refresh it every couple of years. However, if you put magic /in/ the tattoo I doubt it'd ever fade."
Robbie Reyes	Lydia's answer just makes Robbie frown more in contemplation. He takes another swig of his beer, and flicks his eyes back to Gabby. And nearly spits it out when she makes that little quip at the end. As it is, he's blushing like a beet under his heavy sprinkling of freckles. "You're fuckin' impossible," he grumbles, nudging her with his knee.
Gabby Kinney	Gabby Kinney tilts her head thoughtfully. "I guess I don't know much about tattoos... but if regular ones work I guess that's fine, too. Maybe I could hire myself out as someone they can practice on." Her eyes narrow thoughtfully while contemplating this. "Though if they take years to fade away then that won't work like I thought when I first thought of that side job. Eh. Still cool either way." Because it was. The reaction from Robbie earns a quick laugh from her in turn, and she claps a hand against his leg lightly. "You're too easy. You do know I used to hang out with a succubus and tomcat, right? Or maybe not. Anyway I think I turned out pretty darn tame considering."
Lydia Dietrich	"I've been thinking about getting a tattoo myself." Lydia shakes her head, "I'm not /supposed/ to given that I'm Jewish, but honestly, it's one of those rules that only the Orthodox Jews really stick to." She holds out her left arm, wrist up. "I'd put a sefirot right here."     Robbie and Gabby's antics elicits a laugh from her. "You two are incorrigible."
Robbie Reyes	Robbie leans over slightly to see what Lydia's trying to refer to with her arm. "What's a sefirot?" he ventures, glancing up at her and flopping back against the couch cushions. And between the heavy ink and the piercings and the general tough guy vibe, the blushing is definitely.. out of place on him. He mock-scowls at Gabby. "You callin' me easy?" Well... yes, she did. "Though I got a hard time picturing you bein' friends with a sex demon. Run into a few of those, myself." He makes a weird face.
Gabby Kinney	"Eh, up to you on that one on how you want to practice, right?" Gabby reasons about the whole orthodox versus tattoo issue. Of course if Lydia were already considering it she probably already had such thoughts. An amused grin is tipped Robbie's way. "I was actually friends with the guy she ended up moving in with. Had a room at their safe house and I'd house sit when he was out of the country or needed me to." She pauses a moment only to tear her gaze away with a shake of her head. "Kind of feels like a lifetime ago. But it never bothered me. I had nine sisters and we had a shared living area, we didn't really have much in the way of privacy. Walking in on a naked succubus wasn't really a shocker." "That's also how Terry and I met. Though the succubus wasn't involved in that one."
Lydia Dietrich	"The sefirot is kind of the cornerstone of Kabbalistic mysticism," explains Lydia. "It's the kind of magic that I started out with." She opens up the palm of her hand and her ectoplasm coalesces in it until a diagram of the sefirot appears. "This is what it looks like," she says. "It's also called the Tree of Life, amongst other things. Each circle represents how the light of creation ... well ... /creates/ things. People, insects, /thoughts,/ ideas, magic... all things can be represented by this."     "You remember the ritual that I performed to seal the Host from the material plane?" she asks. "The big one in Central Park. That was made by using a giant sefirot to create it, and channeling that primordial power into it to get the desired effect."
Robbie Reyes	Beer temporarily forgotten about, Robbie watches, brows slightly furrowed, as Lydia manifests a scaled down model of the Tree of Life. Which, by his look of recognition, he *has* seen before. His perplexed look fades to a contemplative one. "Yaxche," he murmurs, soft, flicking his eyes away. "That's what the Mayans called it. My ma used to tell me stories about the four Yaxche planted in each corner of the world. And the fifth one in the middle, so its roots could reach Xibalba -- that's the underworld -- and its branches touched the heavens." He blows a breath out his nose. "You actually believe in that stuff?" Says the kid possessed by a demon who's been to both Heaven and Hell.
Gabby Kinney	Gabby Kinney listens to what she's told about the tree with a slow nod. "Tree of life, I've heard of that before. Ties in to a lot of cultures if I recall?" Of course she hadn't REALLY done a lot of research into it, but when you spend time around someone named Tarot you pick up a thing or two. "I think that'd be a cool tattoo."
Lydia Dietrich	Lydia closes her hand, letting the diagram of the sefirot dissipate into the air. "I've never heard of Yaxche," Lydia says, leaning forward in fascination. "South American folklore was never my thing. I was more into Jewish folklore since that's my roots. I'll have to read more about it!"     "But... yeah. There's some truth behind it," she says. "A surprisingly large amount of cultures have something akin to the Tree of Life, and they all largely represent the same thing." She leans back in her chair and crosses her legs, "The thing about the sefirot is that it not only represents /things/ it's also a /process/."     "I... believe in a lot of things that would seem ridiculous," she says. "For one... I'm a vampire. I've met demons who were kind, and angels who were not. I've been to the Silver City, and I've been to the Duat. I'm the lost daughter of Hatshepsut, and she is my maker. I'm an acolyte of the goddess Isis, whom I've met, and she is my patron." She shakes her head with a chuckle, "I think it'd be easier to ask me what it is that I /don't/ believe in at this point in time."
Robbie Reyes	"Mesoamerican," Robbie corrects flatly, meeting Lydia's gaze a moment before taking another swig of his beer. "It's, uh. North and Central America." At the rest of what she says, though, his expression turns wryly amused. "And I ain't yet met an angel I liked." Something Gabby said, though, makes him glance down at her, and nudge her with his knee. "You miss it? The safehouse, the guy, the sex demon?"
Gabby Kinney	Gabby Kinney blinks in surprise at that question as well as the nudge to her. She tips her head back up toward Robbie with a little shrug. "In a way. I miss my friend. I miss being trusted to cover someone's back when needed. I'm older now so people trust me more, but at the time no one took me seriously for my skills. He did. He respected what I could do and I appreciated that. But," she adds with a chuckle as she starts to get to her feet. "I don't miss it in *that* way if that's what you mean. We were only friends. As for Satana... She made a decent cake. Even if she usually wore not much when baking." It's shrugged off as she reaches down to snag her remaining bit of chow mein in the box, and the tablet she'd been working on. "I should get going for a bit. I need to grab some sleep before sunrise. Healing factor or not I still get tired." Flashing a grin at the pair she steps away. "Thanks for earlier, Lydia. For calming me down. I'll see you around."
Lydia Dietrich	If Lydia were still alive she'd be blushing at Robbie's correction. Instead she just ducks her head apologetically, "Sorry," she says contritely. "I guess I'm letting my white American ignorance show. I should know better."     "Satana?" she asks, with a raise of an eyebrow. "That's almost as bad as Mr. Sinister. Fitting for a sex demon, though. It's been good chatting with you, Gabby. Go get some rest. Don't worry about the food. I'll put it away."
Robbie Reyes	Gabby gets a little upnod as she makes to depart, though the young man looks thoughtful as he considers her words. Maybe he's just distracted, picturing a skimpily dressed succubus cooking food. "See you later," he offers with a small smile. "Hey, it's fine," he tells Lydia with a one-shouldered shrug. Might not be the first time he was the brown guy in the room correcting someone on a piece of his culture. "I should get out of here, too. You serious about the book, though?"
Lydia Dietrich	"It's /not/ fine its'..." Lydia lets out a small, weary sigh. "I know what it's like to come from a culture that people don't understand. Look up the history of blood libel, if you want an example."     She shakes her head, clearing it of that morbid thought. "But, yes. I'm serious. My publisher sends me boxes of copies so I can give them out to my friends and family." She gives Robbie a wry grin, "My friends I don't mind reading my smutty books. But my mom? My /grandmother?/ ... actually, scratch that. My grandmother would probably be into it."
Robbie Reyes	The beer's finished off, and Robbie pushes to his feet. "Might do that," he tells her, gesturing with the empty bottle. "I'll catch you later, then. Lookin' forward to the book." He winks at her solemnly, then meanders off after *plinking* one of Nameless's keys.