Moroi Throne Room [OPENING POST]

[AzuraGallu]

Azura rolled his eyes. "Well why the Hell didn't you say anything before? This is exactly the kind of thing we need to lay pressure on the Blackravens."
He relaxed his stance, eying the vine out of the corner of his eye. It was hard to go from defensive to amiable in the blink of an eye, and part of him wasn't pleased that one of his escape routes had been effectively cut off. While he could easily burn the material, it would take time, unless he wanted to drain himself with super heated fire.
Passing his gaze to Anshel, he looked him up and down for a moment before speaking once more to the Moroi Lord.
"The Gallu will help. It's crowded enough at home as it is. I can have some of the people I've appointed to investigate this matter here in a few hours, if you wouldn't mind fronting the burden of room and sustenance."

[Doctor]

The expanse of the boy's back. The marred, angry flesh. Anshel was pushed a half-step back as if he'd punched in the stomach. Against his very nature, he felt guilt. Christopher had been broken and rebuilt in his absence. And he knew very little of what made him the man he was today. Instead of coaxing out dandelions from the soil, he now commanded the earth to provide fortifications. And there was so much anger and hate inside him now. Perhaps there was no going back for Christopher. Maybe this was the man he was going to be. All Anshel could do was be there for him and hope his presence led the boy and his clan to a more contented place.

The building continued to groan pitifully from the new stress points in its structure. It made him nervous, so he pushed himself to finally speak.

"You have my support. I'll have a team come talk with you. Brief them and we can begin investigating." The judge was compelled to remind him, however, "You're the only one with any insight into this, Christopher. We don't know your clan. How you go about it, who's going to be trusted in this... that's all up to you. That's something we can't help you with." It was a fact, but also an apology.

[Christopher Saunders]

“As of this time, you two are a couple of my most trusted counterparts, and within the Moroi… Serena and Irial will be helping to sort out what can be done. I can only hope this doesn’t happen again.” Chris tilted his face up, and his eyes turned emerald for another moment as tiny snapping sounds and something similar to a snake crawling through grass echoed around the room: the barricades for privacy were gone.

“I appreciate it,” He spoke soft, voice just a bit above a whisper as he began to retreat into his thoughts: much like a turtle back into its shell. The one place you had complete and utter solitude, where the sky is the limit, and all control is yours. He have a nod to Anshel, respect clear in the action itself, and to Azura, and incline of his head.


“Its ironic that a fire user can get burnt.” Serena sighed, coming back in. One heel of the pair of stilettos was busted, her blouse tattered with charcoal residue. Her hands were blackened with ash, but also rebealed several burns. Immediately she silenced at the sight of Azura, but proceeded up to the Lord.

Chris swallowed, calmly looking over the wounds. “How many were killed?” He said somberly. Right up between the floor boards came a few herb stems that he bent to pick up.

“Twenty three servant causalities, one Official casualty, and three injuries.” She answered back, hanging her head.

Christopher winced, seeming genuinely saddened by this. He turned to Azura and ANshel once more as his hands move in a practiced motion, oozing the liquids within the herbs over the burns. “I believe you had plans to return to… Chile, was it? I wish you luck, for it would appear your times here are drawing to a close.”

[AzuraGallu]

Azura actually wanted to stay. Overseeing this would be a perfect opportunity to search for clues to the arsonists' identity and see if he was any closer to proving that the Blackraven's were behind it. He had one fact and he was running with it dammit. If he didn't, it could mean everyone's safety.
Upon hearing the eerie slither, he sidestepped, perching himself atop a mound of broken stone that had cracked loose from the ceiling with the force of the explosion. It wasn't that he was afraid of snakes per se...
To distract him from his dislike at even the sound of a serpent, the red head walked in once more and looked at him with that odd mix of complete disdain and mild fear in her eyes. just what was it that he'd done to upset her so badly?
"Um...excuse me, lady, but could you answer a question for me? Just what the fuck is your problem with me?"
He passed a sheepish look to both Anshel and Christopher, clearly stating that he didn't want to cause waves, but he just had to know. She'd been eying him like that all day and he hadn't the faintest idea of why. Did he smell? Was there something on his face?
Quickly, he pivoted on his feet to ask Anshel, but thought better of voicing the concerns in favor of being sensible. Of course not. He was hot shit, damnit.

[Christopher Saunders]

“Serena.” She clarified, almost as though afraid to speak to him. But somehow the underlying tones of explaining something to a child managed to cling to the word, despite her effort to stop it.

Christopher chuckled, almost darkly. “Shall you tell him, or me?” He asked, and the pair’s eyes flicked up to meet. Amber and green clashed before green won, and Serena turned her face away to take interest in a nice, crumbly pile of rubble all the way across the room.

Chris turned to Azura. “The big, bad Gallu is in the house." Selena glared at him, and he seemed to regret that phrasing. "She’s…” He searched for the proper way to speak. “Superstitious of Gallu for several reasons.” She curled her upped lip at Chris, the most primordial way of saying: shut up. Chris sighed, shaking his head as he cast a glance in Azura’s direction, something conveying: not with her in the room.

[Doctor]

Anshel observed the glances and silent evasion and decided he really didn't want to be in the middle of this. Azura seemed to be taking everything in stride, so he doubted any serious maiming would take place in his absence. Even if he couldn't be sure, there were things that needed to done and he was willing to take that chance.

"Serena," he beckoned her over with his hand, "I need to make a very important phone call. Could you take me someplace private with reception?" That's right, he thought, Let's leave so they can talk about you. It would take time to get his people to the citadel; the least he could do was facilitate Christopher's attempt at avoiding a fight with his girlfriend.

[AzuraGallu]

Azura passed a thankful look to Anshel with a slight incline of his head as the two passed and left the room. "So, continue," he beckoned with a wave of his hand, interested, but not gushing about the subject like two gossiping teens. He was merely interested in her bouts of barely concealed anger with him, and wanting to avoid it. It didn't ease his temper to have someone looking at him in such a way.

[Christopher Saunders]

She nodded, stepping back from the Lord and flicking the goo from her hands onto a pile of cracked ceiling. It was actually pretty soothing, as were most the medical and healing things that Chris somehow had figured out to grow to a point when they were precisely ready for use. “Right this way Mr. Lochem.” She said in the formal voice. Anshel seemed like somebody who’d be much easier to get along with rather then Azura.

Upon them leaving Chris turned to Azura. “Her parents divorced when she was seven, odd for vampires, and we’d been friends since… As long as I can remember. When she was nineteen and I was twenty, something happen with a group of drunkards while Tullio was trying to file me off someplace. We never found out who they were, but she does remember enough to know they were Gallu. I’m sure you can assume what happened.”

[AzuraGallu]

"No, I actually can't. Gallu are not normally so violent. Granted, we're intimidating and we play the part of a jackass well, but most of us are good people. So I cannot say I know what you mean, but I do understand that those type of people exist."
He nearly growled, feeling bothered once again by the light that was shed on his clan. But, to everyone else's credit, the Gallu were rather scary until you got to know them.
"Now," he said, clearing his throat, "we should follow those two out to a safer part of the citadel. Anshel and I need to prepare to leave. Melora needs to get set straight once and for all."

[Doctor]

"I'm sorry, the caller you are trying to reach -"

Well that was just fucking great, now wasn't it? Anshel snapped his phone shut and glared at it accusingly, as if it was some flat-chested, spritely bitch that constantly disobeyed him. She was either ignoring her phone or in some stupidly dangerous situation without back-up unable to reach it. He wasn't sure which was more likely, or which pissed him off more.

Anshel stuffed the cell phone back into his pocket and leaned against the back of a couch, not sure if Christopher was finished dishing the dirt on his girlfriend. He looked Serena up and down again. He wasn't much for redheads. In his experience they were passionate but incredibly high maintenance and jealous in a way that stopped being hot after a few bar fights. This one seemed like a fighter. She seemed uncomfortable under his scrutiny, so Anshel stopped and took his phone back out to write out a text.

"Done? She's not picking up. We should go." He looked up from the small screen to steal a glance at his companion again before resuming his typing. "Ginger women make me nervous. Hurry."

[AzuraGallu]

A small buzz cut the silence in the room, bothersome to Azura's ears whilst he was thinking rather hard about nice things. Any random bunch of nice things, in fact. It was an exercise he'd tried out to keep himself from getting pissed at the redhead for judging his clan. Of course, he should have been used to it and blown it off, but he was impossibly defensive and catty when it came to such things so naturally he was going to be a little bitchy.
The screen of the small mobile lit up, words actually earning a smile from Azura's stony expression. "You're a demon. She can't kill you, but you're right. She does look like a regular Judas."
With that he replaced the cell in his pocket and passed a nod to Christopher. "I'm sorry...but our friend really does need us now. We'll be back as soon as we possibly can. I promise." His eyes lingered on Chris's for half a moment before he turned and stepped off a small slate of rubble, opening the door into the room Anshel and Serena has disappeared into. Shooting the redhead the most toothy of smiles, he strode over to where Anshel sat, picked him up by the arm and kissed him promptly on the lips before dragging him out an opposite door on the other side of the space.
"I had to let her know I'm not into chicks...at least as far as she knows." Azura commented quietly to the Judge at his side.

[Christopher Saunders]

Chris nodded to Azura. “You’re welcome back any time, I hope the courtesy extends both ways.” A soft smile came to his face as he left, but Chris wasn’t to terribly far behind. He watched Azura kiss his friend, but kept his face emotionless. Men and men… Different. At one point, he'd inwardly wondered if he was bi-sexual, but considered it more of bi-curious. Nowadays, he knew his choice, and it was females. Just the thought of another pair of firm, male lips to mold against his own instead of soft, pliable femine lips nearly made him shudder. No, not something for him.

Serena absentmindedly snapped her fingers, creating a small spark, before repeating the action to light a candle-sized plume of flame. The tiny orb wavered, hovering an inch or so above her palm, but extinguished as soon as the Gallian returned. That smile sent shivers through her, and she had to bite her tongue to keep from making a face when the pair kissed.

Even as the pair left though, another secretary was making her way toward the room they’d been in, looking grim. She looked like a ghost, with hair that appeared silvery white, though physically her face and body were maybe twenty five. She murmured unintelligibly to herself, side-stepping against the wall to make room for Anshel to pass.

[Doctor]

Anshel's eyes widened in surprise at the firm pressure on his lips. What? No tongue? But his lips were free again a second later as he was ushered out the other side of the room by Azura and his odd claims.

"So, I'm your beard now?" He laughed under his breath as they exited. A curious, ghostly woman allowed them to pass. He thanked her as they made their way past. They were hurrying along, but it didn't stop him from turning to look behind him and giving Christopher a short wave goodbye.

The car was running and ready to depart.

"So what was his girlfriend's deal?" Anshel asked, holding the door open for Azura the Gallian King and smooch-thief. "And how did attacking me with your mouth solve things?"

[AzuraGallu]

Azura laughed despite the grievous situation behind them, lips pulling back into an amused grin, clearly showing his fangs.
"She was sexually assaulted by Gallu when she was younger, and now projects that experience onto all of us," he said, opening the car door and waiting for Anshel to climb inside. "While it kind of pisses me off, I can't really blame her."
He had to bend halfway at the waist to make it inside the car which only served to remind him why he liked SUV's so much more. Carefully and mindful of his suit, damn thing, he sat across from Anshel once more, looking out the window at the smoking ruin. "I didn't attack you with my mouth," he said quietly, turning back to the Judge with a roll of his eyes. "There was no tongue, no biting, and no inappropriate groping. No, definitely not attacking, though that could be arranged if you- Oh yeah!" he said, interrupting himself. He leaned over, pressing a button that lowered the tinted divider between driver and passengers. He spoke quickly in Turkish for a moment, speaking a couple affirmatives before replacing the window as it should have been. "Sorry, we wouldn't have gotten far without me telling him which airport to go to. Our tickets have been ordered for pickup at the gate. We should be in Brazil within the day."
The car started forward and soon they were back on the road they'd be on only about an hour previous, and Azura silently prayed that there wouldn't be any more explosions or sonic booms. It was the last damn thing they needed while trying to track down a crazy she-Hunter.

[Doctor]

Anshel's face dropped at Azura's explanation. He tried to pick it up again but only succeeded in keeping his lips in a flat line and that was only possible because he looked away and focused on the scenery beyond the windows. When he was sad, Anshel didn't feel the urge to speak or interact, unless it was a trivial matter, and then he would whine and demand someone hug him or find a way to make him feel better. However, it would seem odd for him to just let the revelation pass without any comment.

"Strong girl," was all he could manage. She was a fighter, he remembered, and idly wondered how long ago Serena's trauma was that she was able to function and just slide by with mild, ambiguous defensiveness. It had taken him a good while to stop being suspicious of and angry at everyone.

Anshel kept quiet the rest of the way to the airport, but he was content in listening to Azura speak and fidget. The vampire was the kind of person whose effortless intensity could make you forget your own name, more so your troubles.

With his substantial luggage checked in and the too tan stewardess offering them drinks, Anshel promptly took advantage of the two-drink allowance. With his tiny plastic cup full of scotch, he raised it in toast, his lips finally quirking up. "To smooth, nude Brazilians," he lowered his voice, "and the very unlikely but still possible chance things might not turn into a gigantic shit-storm."