【Ｔｈｅ　ｅｏｎｓ　ｍａｙ　ｐａｓｓ】- Small Group RP (Closed)

George got off the motorcycle, pointedly making a show of being able to do it by himself. He may have been short, but he wasn’t incompetent. He didn’t see anyone else near them, but that didn’t mean that some of the others weren’t inside. He didn’t see Joe’s terrible van, which was a good sign, but he wouldn’t tell John that. He had only chosen to ride with John because the sun was low enough in the sky that he could brave the outdoors. He didn’t want to be stuck in the subway with a ton of strangers he didn’t know, and he didn’t really want to ride with Jocelyn or Joe. Part of it was that he wasn’t certain if Jocelyn was wearing those stupid cross earrings of his, and George wasn’t really in the mood to weather the discomfort of being too near those.
This apartment, for better or for worse, was where he was going to be living for the foreseeable future. Sure, they had the other house, but there were too many curious neighbors who were wondering why the twelve year olds who lived there didn’t attend the neighborhood school. It was a lot easier to hide in plain sight nearer to the big city. Looking at where they had ended up now though… George couldn’t help but wonder if it would even be big enough for all of them. He was no longer used to the extravagant palaces of his youth, but he didn’t think he’d ever lived for extended periods of time anywhere this small. Despite how small it had seemed, even his first lodgings with Shengying had been much bigger.
“Looks like the right place. If you even think about barring me from entering I will toss salt all over the floor and every time you get close to finishing counting, I will throw more.” he told John, looking up at him. He… tolerated… John. He didn’t really understand him, but at least he wasn’t purposefully antagonistic. And George could respect that he wasn’t exactly forthright about who he was and when he came from. The only difference was that it was a lot easier to verify when George was from than it was to verify when John was. Maybe it was just that John was so much harder to read than any of the others. George had known Shengying for centuries, Jocelyn was self-centered and therefore not terribly difficult to read, Rosaleen and he had a lot in common, Joe was… sort of a counterpoint to Jocelyn, but always seemed to be with him and therefore just as easy to read. Cvetko was a bit more of a mystery to George, but they were kind and open about a lot of things, and George had a bit of an easy rhythm with them. John… was just hard to read. George had no idea how to act around him, and it was frustrating. Perhaps that was the real reason he had agreed to the motorcycle ride. It really hadn’t been very unpleasant at all. He liked to think that if motorcycles had been invented when he was growing up, his parents would have afforded him one.
“What duck?” He asked, confused. Then he shook his head. No matter who or when John was from… he was definitely the most versed in modern media, and that just left George feeling lost more often than he liked. He always wanted to be the most informed in any situation and modern media was one area where he was definitely lacking. “And about the dead rats… maybe they still have some blood left in them.” It was a cheerful thought, one that wouldn’t have pleased most of the others, but any chance to get away with not killing anyone or anything was a chance George was willing to take. He was starting to feel a bit puckish anyway. “Also… it’s not like we can’t dust once we’re inside.” The thought was certainly unpalatable to George but he’d grown enough since his spoiled childhood to understand that some things were worse than being forced to do household chores.

Rosaleen Gallagher | Outside the new apartment | RPed by Raintalon |

It was sometimes massively inconvenient, appearing to be a twelve year old child, decided Rosaleen, as she stuck her leg through the shattered window of juvenile detention holding cell she had been stuck in for the past four hours.  The others were viewing some new apartment today, and she was definitely going to be late. And all because apparently twelve year old girls looked very out of place on subway platforms at two in the morning. It wasn't like she didn't know that...but she hadn't seen the person lurking in the corner of the station, quietly placing a call to the police. If she had, she would've bolted, but there are very few places you can escape to on a subway train without making a massive scene. And if there was one thing she did not want, it was her name in the paper.

Well. In any case. Best to get out of here before she ended up more stuck than she already was, she figured, marching resolutely through the grass outside the holding facility. Late afternoon already...she'd been cooped up in that little room for hours, just waiting for the coast to be clear. What a pain. Least security wasn't high, since they all just thought she was some runaway.

--

"Wow, this place is a dump," she observed, stepping up onto the curb and joining the others - Shengying, George, and John. "Cool."

She took a moment to shoot a dirty look at Shengying in particular - still wearing period clothes in broad daylight. It was like they were asking for attention from the general public. "Where's everybody else?"

Jocelyn,, outside apartment 


Ever since they’d first gotten the van, Jocelyn had possessed the undeviating ability to keep his side notably dirtier than his company’s. While he would protest that it wasn’t intentional, he always seemed to find a way to leave a remnant of his time there. Whether it be candy wrappers, or crumbs, or an article of clothing he had decided he could do without; there always seemed to be something. Even now - after a stubborn amount of time away from the vehicle - he sat with his feet on the dashboard, the toes of his shoes sliding against the interior windshield and leaving small smudges in their wake. It was questionable if he was acting out of spite, or if he’d forgotten that the mess would be something Joe would have to clean later, but either were likely at this point.

He was sat with his arms crossed, reclined back as far as the ancient vehicle would allow, with a pitiful expression on his face. All of this seemed to be an attempt to display his attitude about the whole ordeal, as if such hadn’t been effectively exhibited beforehand, when they had had first discussed taking the van. He had tried to express that, while it was true that he would always treasure the experiences that the van had permitted, it didn’t change the fact that the damn thing was tragically outdated, and that he didn’t want to ride in it. Clearly that argument hadn’t gotten him very far, as here he was, and here he would pout.

He raised his eyebrows as the vehicle slowed to a stop, sitting upright and looking around. His feet reluctantly left the dashboard as he heard Joe sigh, and he looked to his friend in surprise. He knew Joe was always...particular about people, so he flashed him a reassuring smile. “Let’s get a good room before those bastards try and claim the big ones,” he prompted the larger vampire, seeming to have forgotten his foul mood. He glanced out his window while Joe got out, scanning the streets for anyone of note before quickly exiting the van before anyone could see he’d been in it.

He turned to examine the neighboring buildings, following behind Joe lazily. As his friend greeted the others Jocelyn faced the apartment, eyeing it skeptically. “Maybe we should take the subway next time,” he said to Joe lightly, no trace of the bitterness in his tone. “Me and Joe claim the good room,” he announced with casual abruptness, twirling a strand of hair that had come loose from his bun.

Kyle | Arriving at the apartment

Kyle screeched down the road, flipping people off and cursing as he wove through the traffic. He hated city traffic. Normally he wouldn't be too fussy about being late. He'd been a realtor for decades now and had built up a strong reputation. Being late to one showing couldn't hurt that. These... people. However. Something about them put him on edge. They were a strange lot. Always insisting on doing showings only at night, the weird staring, the fact that absolutely none of them looked even a little related despite the fact that there were kids. The way they acted around each other implied they weren't adopted.

Oh yeah and there was the whole thing where he had to invite them personally, one by one, into the place being shown.

They were [oops]ing weird and the less time he had to be around them, the better. He just had to hope they wouldn't return to haunt him after he pushed this sale through. Which he was going to do with this apartment. Because he never wanted to see them again.

Pulling up at the apartment, he parked as far from the creepy van one of them drove as possible. Hustling out, he slammed the car door shut and trotted across the street. "Evening folks! Sorry for the delay, traffic was a nightmare," he said cheerfully, letting out a laugh.

Jocelyn,, outside apartment

Either Jocelyn did not notice the general disinterest to his presence - or he chose to ignore it. It all honesty, it was almost certainly the former. The vampire was rather infamous for calling attention to things when he caught onto them, making it particularly noticeable when the atmosphere of a room went over his head. In the case of his new company; no one had yet voiced their feelings to his face, and therefore he was contently unaware that he’d left an impression that anyone could find dislikable.

He glanced down as John greeted Rosaleen, of whom he was still oblivious had been gone all day. Cvetko and Shegying were the same as always, though one he greeted with a friendly smile and the other was met with nothing but a breif glance over. John, who had ignored him, was ignored back, and by association George was generally ignored as well. He then turned as a new vehicle turned into the vicinity, raising his eyebrows as a familiar man stepped out. He glanced towards Joe when John took the incentive to address the realtor, still unfamiliar with the concept of having someone speak for them outside of their partnership. He supposed it be alright, as John’s request was agreeable enough, but it was still odd.

At least with John’s initiative they could get onto moving inside - as he was undeniably eager to look around. He was hoping to be met with something worth while; as he was planning on following through with his promised ‘attempt’ to stay clean for an extended period of time. Clean, as they had defined it in the past, meant keeping a low profile - not necessarily meaning he’d go unfed. He just needed to find the right people to keep him occupied for a good while...geez. He knew it was better not to think of the long term, as long term things frequently caused him stress, which caused him hunger, which usually brought an untimely end to ‘long term’ things. And no one wanted that. At least, he was sure he’d be alright for a while, especially since he’d fed so recently in preparation for their move.

He glanced toward Kyle as he considered this, then back to the apartment. Everyone had seemed pretty adamant that they’d be able to cram into this place, which meant he’d need someone to give him a good insight on the area for when he left to hunt for his first victim. He’d get on that when they got inside...

Cvetko smiled at John as he greeted them, though they couldn’t help but notice the slight wariness in his expression. What was that about? They didn’t think they’d done anything too shady around him, they hadn’t even met him until long after their...never mind. They shook the thought off like an irritating insect and focused their attention on the other vampires, all of which seemed eager to get inside.

Then the realtor arrived and they turned, giving him a quick scan, then a friendly smile. He was late, but so were they so it wasn’t like it was a big deal, and traffic had been a menace - they hadn’t even needed to drive to know that much. He could have taken the subway, but they understood why he hadn’t and didn’t hold it against him. Who actually would want to be on a subway?

The others, as usual, spoke up before Cvetko did. Rosaleen in particular was her usual rude self and they shot her a disapproving frown, then turned to Kyle, smoothing their face into a neutral mask. “Experience doesn’t make the amount of traffic disappear.” They pointed out lightly. “I’ve been driving for years and I still get caught in...er...rushed hours traffic.” That was a straight up lie. They didn’t even know how to drive, and they were pretty sure they’d botched the term, but the point was they’d (probably) diffused the situation.

George glanced at Shengying, then pulled the keys out of his pocket and tossed them to the older vampire. It didn't much matter who had the keys now that the realtor was here, but Shengying had asked, and he might as well prove that he was the only responsible one here. Which was becoming more and more evident as the others started arriving. It had been a bit surprising to him that he had John had arrived first, but it was clear that New York traffic wasn't quite as easy to navigate when you couldn't just speed through the lanes of traffic by passing everyone in sight. For the first time, George considered he might actually be grateful for John's little motorcycle.
He sidestepped slightly closer to him and murmured, just loud enough for John to hear, "Thanks for the ride." In spite of George's protective threats, it seemed like John wasn't super likely to actually do anything to him, and he didn't want to come across as a complete jerk.
The realtor was... well, a character. George pitied anyone who had to deal with the whole crew of them, but this was New York City, where weirdness seemed to fly completely under the radar. The only thing that was actually weird was being perfectly normal. Still, they were weirder than average, and the banter already happening among the group was doing nothing to lessen that image.
What would they do without Cvetko? George himself was good at diplomacy - he had to be - but he also had a bit of a temper at times and didn't like being condescended to. Unfortunately, unless it was another vampire, people tended to take someone who looked twelve years old a little bit less than seriously. He had no doubt that this realtor would be the same, however he was still going to insist that the lease be signed in his name. Well... his fake name. He'd have to change it eventually, but he was really the only one responsible enough to make sure they kept paying rent on time, and to deal with any maintenance issues. It was an old building, he was sure there would be some.
"Late or not, doesn't matter. If possible, I'm sure we'd all like to see the apartment. However, it is technically your property, as of right now, and it would be quite rude of us to enter without invitation." He gave his most winning 'I'm an angelic child and you'd be out of your mind not to humor me' smile. He didn't know how many of them actually had to be invited in, but he was one of them. And he had a feeling a kid who cared about manners might get them a little bit closer to winning Kyle over. He hoped.

Kyle | Outside | Everyone

Kyle laughed at Rosaleen. "What a charming young lady," he lied through a smile. "Just wait 'til she gets old enough drive, then we'll see if she says the same thing." He stepped toward the door, rifling through his keys. Ignoring literally all of them, he unlocked the door. "You're all welcome to enter," he said, glancing back at them with another false smile as he stepped into the apartment.

The place was nothing to scream about. It was old and half falling apart. But it was the only other place he could find that was big enough for them and was anywhere close to fitting their... extremely tight budget. He knew half the money they had offered him was not American dollars, but he could care less. The sooner they were out of his hair, the better.

"So here we have the entryway," he said. "Very charming and rustic. If you take the entryway to the right you'll find the kitchen, connected to the living space, and then the bedrooms and bathroom are further down this hall." He pointed straight down the entryway. "Happy as always to answer any questions you folks have," he said cheerily.

Shengying offered a hopeful smile to the others and stepped inside the apartment, stepping carefully and precisely through the doorframe. They filtered into the apartment building with the rest of the group, taking in the sight of the old place. The space was old, but then again, so was the group. They could deal, and make it their own. It wasn't like they all needed to be living in the lap of luxury. They tilted their head up at the windows of the living room; with the buildings across from them it wasn't a fantastic view, but the steep walls of the other apartments would help prevent too much direct sunlight from streaming in.

Shengying ran their finger along a an old wallpapered section of the wall, wincing at the dust as they rubbed their fingers together, shaking it away. Someone needed to dust, and it wasn't going to be them, obviously, so they'd need to find someone they could convince to do it for them.

They turned back from their inspection to listen as George questioned the realtor, though they weren't particularly concerned with the answer. To them, it was more about keeping a low profile than making sure everything was up to fire code, whatever that entailed. At this point, they were ready to close the deal no matter what skeletons in the closet the apartment possessed.

Rosaleen trailed behind, wrinkling her nose at the shabby interior. "So, it's a..." she began condescendingly, and then trailed off, scowling and muttering under her breath in Shelta as she realized she didn't know the turn of phrase she was looking for in English. Frustrated, she gave up on properly insulting the realtor for the time being, and then, turned her attention fully to the other vampires, and to that human, who was more irritating than most people, vampire or not.

Shengying was clearly put off, not by the general disrepair of the place, but by the thick layer of dust covering everything. Gedward was asking useless questions about renovation instead of doing anything helpful. And Jocelyn was............well, she wasn't close enough to tell what the hell he or Joe were doing, but it couldn't be good. This was going to be an unmitigated disaster, no matter how she looked at it.

Deciding that she was completely satisfied with the current state of affairs, she wandered off from the main group again, sitting herself down on the floor and contenting herself with making uncomfortable, unbreaking eye contact with Kyle.

John | Following all the idiots

George had headed for the kitchen and so did John. He didn't really need the invite in (thank god), but he was still one of the last ones to enter. The place was not what he would have called ideal. It reminded him again of why he chose to stay with these people - none of them were rich. He knew if he pulled his portion of the money though, they'd probably be very under budget. His was a majority of the American dollars that they actually had.
The kitchen was ... passable.
He at least didn't see any frayed wires. The fridge would possibly even work, though John made a mental note that if they really were going to buy the place the whole interior of the house would need to be scrubbed with Lysol.
He had to turn when he heard one of the idiots in his party talk to Kyle. He wanted to shake Jocelyn. That wasn't how you talked to someone. It made everyone in the group sound weird, not just Jocelyn.
He had to resist the urge to cut in. Let Jocelyn burn his own bridges. He didn't need John's help.
John could leave at any time. It was fine.
He didn't ask any questions. Instead, he broke away from the main group. If he didn't look at the rooms first, he could just see someone taking all the good ones and leaving the newbie the scraps.
Joe and Jocelyn were clearly going to get the largest room though.
Clearly.

Shengying couldn't help the subtle quirk of a smile as Rosaleen made her comment and trailed off- luckily for their relationship with the realtor- into her own language. It was a relatable moment, anyways. Some concepts just weren't translatable.

Shengying figured they'd better hurry up and start scouting out the rooms now if they wanted a chance to have one large enough to fit a writing desk in. Joe looked like he was striding towards the sleeping quarters with a purpose. Jocelyn had already clearly stated said purpose, though, so there was no hope of being sneaky.

They peeked into one of the rooms at random, assessing the small quarters. Eh. Boring. They turned, pushing open the door and peering into the one across the hall. While it had originally been the same floor plan from the looks of it and thus the same size, a large closet cut into the floorplan of the room a bit. It was a little smaller, but it made a perfect little niche for a writing desk so that the desk wouldn't have to just jut out into the area. Perfect. And honestly, they would not complain about extra closet space. They had plenty of scarves they could fill it up with.

Closing the door to the room again, they looked over at the others checking out the rooms. Joe looked like he'd found one suitable for himself and his husb- no, they weren't married, were they? his boyfri- eh never mind, for himself and Jib. And he clearly didn't intend on leaving it soon.

They kept a bit of their attention directed down the hall to the group talking to the realtor so that they could hear any important information despite leaving most of the formalities and signing to the others who'd stepped up to do so.

Jocelyn | Apartment | Kyle

Jocelyn sat back on his heels, listening with wide and attentive dark eyes. He blinked several times as his company seemed to struggle recalling which body of water her was referring to, then trailed after him as he randomly changed direction. His eyebrow quirked slightly as he mentioned schools, though he didn’t bother glancing for Rosaleen and George’s reaction. Instead, he leaned back and smiled. “Eagle River, alright, I appreciate that.” He chuckled, adjusting his glasses slightly. “Do you happen to know if there’s a police department or, y’know, hospital nearby? The little redhead,” he held up his thumb and index finger to illustrate the size he seemed to associate Rosaleen with, “she has some minor health concerns, and we just want to make sure we can get somewhere quick if need be. If not, it’s not...she’ll be fine.” At this point, he tossed a look back at her, a satisfied look playing on his lips. He didn’t quite explain how that could involve a police station, but he hoped the man wouldn’t leave that out of his response.

"You have health concerns," grumbled Rosaleen, making a twirling motion with her fingers around her head to illustrate her point. She was starting to feel very irritable - she'd had her fun unnerving Kyle, but his personality was turning out to be so incredibly reminiscent of a cardboard box that she was having trouble making any real games out of it, and the whole ordeal was getting boring. On top of that, it had been a long night before this, and now she was hungry and tired and just wanted to be left alone.

Sighing grouchily, she stood up and began to wander away, leaving Kyle to Jocelyn. If he wanted to eat him, fine. Maybe he would be more interesting on the inside. In the meantime, though, she just wanted to find a nice quiet corner and...

And...

Slowly, she glanced over at the nearest wall, narrowing her eyes a little as she realized, suddenly, that there was some.....shape, behind it, where Shengying's chosen closet should be. It was a shape with a specific kind of vampire energy....but then, it wasn't moving...oh, it was dead. There was a dead vampire in Shengying's closet.

Paying that small detail no further mind, she wandered further down the hall, enjoying the relative quiet as Kyle and Jocelyn's voices faded to a low mumble.