"I can't believe you're biting Patton tonight," Roman said as they walked towards the theatre hall for the club. "We've only been here a few weeks and you already have 2 fancy vampire slaves," Virgil tried to glower at him, but it must have been ineffective behind the large sunglasses and mask he was hiding from the sun under. "If you're trying to communicate something, it's lost on my, Tempy,"
"You know that's not my last name. Why are you still calling me that?" Virgil asked bitterly.
"I call you Tempy when you're being temperamental, Just like I call you stormcloud when you're being a sadsack," Roman said with a smirk.
"Oh, so I have a naming scheme, now," Virgil groaned.
"Deceit called you stormcloud, too, I'm not the only one who thinks it," Roman said in a sing-song voice.
"I know it's affectionate when he insults me. We've been dating on and off for hundreds of years," Virgil said bitterly. "Not like when someone I like is saying I rain on their parade," Roman stopped walking and Virgil turned around in confusion to face him. Roman gave him a hug and pulled back to show his smile.
"It's affectionate from me, too, get it through your stupid thick vampire skull," Roman said and knocked on his head through the hoodie. "I like you too, remember?" Virgil blushed under his mask.
"I notice you've been attacking me more," Virgil said, changing the subject, feeling awkward. Roman rolled his eyes and kept walking forward.
"Well, now I know you can take it and I won't shatter your frail nerdy bones," Roman said humorously. "I always roughhoused with Remus. It's not like it'll hurt you,"
"That's fair," Virgil said. "I don't mind the contact," Virgil admitted quietly.
"Yeah, Deceit may have told me to cuddle you for him," Roman said. "I'd rather cuddle you for me, though," Roman added with a chuckle. "What was your 'last life' that left you feeling all clingy in this one?"
"I was a businessman named Samuel," Virgil said coolly.
"Oh, that's why you jumped down my throat about my major," Roman said, his voice mixed with humor and interest. "Was it really that bad?" He asked curiously.
"I was days away from slaughtering nearly everyone in the building," Virgil said darkly. Roman grimaced. "And I would have been doing the entire planet a favor. I left quickly. Samuel is a 'missing person' now, but I left a suicide note, so they won't be looking,"
"I wonder how many missing person's cases are linked with vampires," Roman asked thoughtfully, tilting his head as he considered it.
"I don't know, probably a decent amount," Virgil mused bitterly and sighed. "If not vampires themselves, but also victims,"
"I can't imagine very timid you snapping and killing a whole building of people," Roman stated quietly after a moment.
"I don't know if you figured this out from me and Remy's conversation or not, but Vampires get more unhinged the older they get. I'm scared of lots of things for a reason. Deceit thinks it's how I've made it so long without an inquisition," Virgil chuckled nervously and weakly sighed. "I have done some incredibly horrible things in my past and I'm trying to keep them there," Virgil explained barely above a whisper.
"Now's not the time, stormcloud," Roman said and pulled him into another hug. "You've been doing great for a long time, right? You've made it this far and you're doing your best. That's something to be proud of," Virgil wished he could pull his hands out of his pockets to hug him back. "Come on, you have to see how fun theatre is. And give a chance for this star to shine. And I will shine, goddamnit," Roman said passionately and planted a kiss on his masked cheek. Roman let him go, and they started walking towards the building again.
Virgil nodded and tried to breathe and let it go. He didn't want to ruin this for Roman. And he was right. Now is not the time. He was doing better. Roman was an accident, but he promises he loves it, and Virgil can feel that. Another person trusts him enough to go through it, too. That means something.
"Thanks for the rainbow," Roman smiled with a relieved sigh, feeling Virgil's mood lift. "Let's go in there and crush it!" Roman cheered, hooking into Virgil's arm as they entered the building.
Roman and Virgil walked into the theatre. The kind of old smell was weirdly calming for Virgil. He took off his sunglasses and mask now that they were in the dark again, slipping them into his hoodie pocket. Something in the back row caught Virgil's arm as they walked down the aisle and yanked him to a stop. Both he and Roman turned around in confusion. It was Thomas, who smiled and waved politely to Roman but didn't let Virgil go.
"Um, go on ahead, Ro," Virgil said. "I'll catch up," Roman looked concerned, but walked on down the aisle with a small shrug.
"You know, you said you weren't here to snack on the members," Thomas said and pulled Virgil farther into the row to talk. Virgil looked at the exit in worry but let Thomas pull him in for privacy. Virgil gripped the chair handles and sat down. "Do you mind telling me what that's about so I maybe don't have to worry about it happening again?"
"I, uh, wasn't sure I should or could tell you over the phone," Virgil said with a sigh and tried to focus on not getting too panicked for Roman. "Listen, Ro's still getting a hang of disambiguation and he's been suffering my bad mood all morning, can we please lighten up a bit?"
"Is it appropriate to lighten the mood?" Thomas asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, I promise," Virgil said and held up his left hand.
"Okay, sure," Thomas smiled. "It's not like I can attack you and live to tell the tale or anything," Thomas added with a dark laugh. "I have no idea why you'd be so nervous with me. I thought all Alphas would be like Remy and give zero fucks,"
"I'm not sure there's anybody quite like Remy," Virgil laughed weakly. "He delivered some units and within the 15 minutes he was there he demanded Roman and I double date with him and Emile to a rave. What vampire in their right mind wants to be at a Rave?" Virgil groaned. Thomas chuckled lightly.
"So, speaking of Roman…" Thomas said, returning them to the subject at hand.
"Yeah, so... I wasn't in my right mind and went to a club. I was less in my right mind when I got home. And my sweaty roommate with a loudly pounding heart took off his shirt, and I found out he was AB-negative. I was even less in my right mind when I bit him," Thomas whistled.
"AB-Negative. Really. Holy crap," Thomas muttered with a little impressed whistle.
"I explained it to him and for some unholy reason, he loves it? He even convinced one of my other friends to join him tonight. Well. After my other friend found me out when they saw my fangs and wanted to do it themselves. Much to my objections, anyway…" Virgil trailed off, still pretty dissatisfied with the outcome.
"Aw, you were so good about covering your mouth last Friday," Thomas said in disappointment.
"I was carrying them at the time," Virgil sighed. "Probably a dumb mistake. Patton already believed in us, though. It might not have been long till they found me out either way. They didn't want to dismiss anything,"
"That's the other friend, I take it?" Thomas asked and Virgil nodded. "Now that you have two Brood, I'll take all that spare blood off your hands. Remy said you bought a ton of rares," Thomas said, rubbing his hands together.
"No, I'm not feeding on them. Pat wants the empathy and telepathy and Roman wants the physical boost would kill for a gift," Virgil explained, holding his hands up. "I'm not feeding on either of them unless they want me to without clear influence from the compulsion,"
"Geez, you are restraint city around an AB-Negative," Thomas hissed, sounding a mixture of impressed and disappointed.
"I had A-positive after I took a sip, and honest to Hecate, it tasted like grave dirt," Virgil groaned. "I'm old, I have to be careful,"
"So it was a happy little accident?" Thomas asked and motioned like he was using a paintbrush.
"Yeah," Virgil mumbled. "I knew there was a risk coming back to university, but I couldn't have anticipated this outcome," Virgil groaned.
"Hey, it's really not bad. I accidentally thralled someone in the showers who had an open cut. I leaped over the top of the stall, stark-naked," Thomas said with a groan. "I tried to send him to bed, but I wasn't clear enough and he went to sleep on a bench in the showers," He told his story sound a little ashamed. Virgil broke out laughing from the ridiculousness of it all and so did Roman across the room.
"Oh my god, Thomas, I'm sorry, but that's one of the funniest thralling stories I've ever heard," Virgil said, still chuckling a little, holding on to Thomas's shoulder.
"Wow, you weren't kidding about disambiguation troubles," Thomas said. "You should get couples Therapy from Emile or something, he's a psychiatrist. He can probably sort it out,"
"Oh, you've met Emile?" Virgil asked.
"Yeah, Remy likes to catch up after delivering. Sometimes Emile comes with him. As much as Remy claims to hate him, they're really attached at the hip sometimes,"
"I wonder if Emile likes him because Remy's clearly a basket case even though he's still young," Virgil chuckled.
"Remy's young?" Thomas asked, confused.
"Yeah, for an alpha he is, it's not even 500 yet," Virgil replied.
"Holy crap, how the hell old are you? I'm only 156!" Thomas quietly exclaimed.
"Oh my Hecate, you're a baby!" Virgil said and wrapped his arms around Thomas and squeezed. "Let me spoil you, child, what do you want? Oh, goodness, Deceit might buy you a car or something when he finds out," Thomas pushed Virgil off of him.
"I don't need spoiling," Thomas said in a huff.
"Did you know that Deceit's a multi-millionaire… liquid? On-hand funds? Vampires pay good money to get off the hook and get new lives," Virgil tempted him coyly. "How do you think I could afford all those rares?" Virgil smirked.
"Holy crap. Okay, maybe I want spoiling," Thomas breathed. Virgil heard the meeting get called to session upfront.
"Is your phone secure? You've had it sent off to a hacker?" Virgil asked quickly and Thomas nodded, wide-eyed. "Here, let me get you his private cell. I've told him about you already, he's going to have a fit. You got to tell him," Virgil took Thomas's phone and typed as fast as the phone would let him and entered him as D so he could head upfront for the meeting.
The meeting was about discussing the play that was chosen and talk about what they were looking for in each person they were to cast as a character. The play picked by a poll was Arcadia by Tom Stoppard. Current day-ish and the early 1800s, which is a time frame Virgil was familiar with. They were also aging up Thomasina a year. Another thing Virgil appreciated. Virgil nearly burned the book when he first read it.
Anybody who was interested in tech alone was allowed to leave while they discussed the important roles and what they were looking for during auditions. Virgil was the only one that left. There were 15 roles and 23 people still seated and interested in being cast, so a few more people would probably join them. That meant, for now, there were 4 people in tech and Virgil was the only uninitiated one, so Kai took Virgil around while Elliot and Mitchell tried to narrow down the things they would need to make based on what was leftover from the previous year's productions.
Kai diligently showed everything without making a fuss about the specifics, which Virgil was grateful for. He had a pretty good idea about how these things worked. He just needed to learn the meanings of the weird labels, which Kai rattled off with each passing item.
Kai entered a door on the far right side of the stage behind the curtains to the storage room, where Elliot and Mitchell were digging through things and seemingly arguing off and on. He and Kai went up a spiral staircase near the doorway, Elliot and Mitchell not even acknowledging them entering while they bickered. It led into a room with a long hallway to the back of the theatre seating and to the catwalk. Virgil stared at it longingly.
"You like heights, huh?" Kai asked. "It is pretty cool up there, but it's kind of rickety. If we have to change the lights or effects up there, we can see if it'll take your weight and you can help with that," Virgil laughed inwardly about that, his weight wouldn't be an issue. Kai lead him down the long hall to the control room.
"This is the box," Kai said as they entered. "I can't do much heavy lifting or running around, so it's usually me in here during showtime. We can train you on it if you want. If there's time after we handle sets, anyway, they'll want you backstage for the show,"
"That's cool. I know how some of this stuff works. I'm kind of familiar with the sound mixer and spotlights, but I wouldn't mind seeing how the rest works later." Virgil eyed all the buttons and switches curiously.
"I thought you said you were never in theatre tech," Kai looked suspiciously at Virgil.
"I wasn't. I have helped set up rock shows before," Virgil shrugged.
"Ah, teenage rebellion. Stick it to the man," Kai said, crossing his arms and nodding sagely, then throwing up the horns. "This is an older sound mixer board so you might have the gist of it if you helped with that before. Audio engineering is kind of iffy in an old theatre like this, so sometimes we trade it off. Eventually, your ears just stop hearing the problem and it's better to tag out," Kai explained. "You haven't taken off those expensive cans since ever, so I think it's safe to assume you're kind of an audiophile?" Virgil shrugged.
"It's not far off," Virgil dismissively. It was really more that he just had unreasonably sensitive ears and loved music. He wasn't obsessed with high-fidelity music reproduction. He'd probably have been an audio engineering major by now if that was the case.
"That could be helpful. Well, you've seen it all other than the other hall that goes to a ladder on the left half of the stage and has the elevator, so let's go take the elevator, I've had my fill of stairs today," Virgil held up his hands and shook his head. Kai raised his eyebrow.
"I'll take the ladder. Are we joining them in the storage room?" Virgil asked quickly.
"Yeah, you can help them move things around while I help them argue," Kai said humorously. Virgil gave him a thumbs up and they separated at the elevator while Virgil headed to the ladder to the stage. The upper part of the ladder on the walk went into a tight, dark tube that he wasn't sure where it went, but it was open on the walk and he climbed down and crossed the stage again.
"It's too expensive!" He heard Mitchell say as he walked across the stage to the door.
"I'm not saying we have to do it, just that it would look better," Elliot said emphatically.
"Our budget is garbage, we shouldn't even be entertaining that the idea," Mitchell said, louder than what was civil as Virgil entered the room.
"Gentlefolk, please, I'm not a fan of raised voices," Virgil said, holding up his hands as he walked up to them from the doorway. "I don't think anyone else is, either. Kai will be back in a second. What's going on?"
"If you don't want to deal with yelling, then you're welcome to leave again," Mitchell said and pointed to the door.
"Dude, settle the fuck down," Virgil offered and rolled his eyes. "What do you think looks better, Elliot?"
"The backdrop with the window frames. The painted windows just Don't look as good. I didn't say we had to do it or anything," Elliot mumbled.
"If we can make them, then why don't we?" Virgil asked, shifting his weight and putting his hand on his hip.
"Are you deaf? We don't have the budget!" Mitchell kept up the raised angry voice, much to Virgil's ire. Virgil had to stop himself from entertaining some fun ideas on getting him to shut up.
"I'll buy it. I don't care," Virgil huffed and crossed his arms. He was getting pretty sick of this dude already and just wanted to shut him up.
"How the fuck are you going to afford it, fish?" Mitchell demanded.
"I know you people are idiots, but Virgil here has been wearing three hundred dollar headphones since we met him," Kai said, strolling in. "I could hear you through the door, Mitchell, settle the fuck down," He said and sat on an antique chair.
"Holy shit, dude, how have you not been mugged already?" Elliot asked, wide-eyed.
"Because of kind, decent people. And people like you guys who have no idea what good headphones are," Virgil shrugged. "I can also break most of your sets by hand, so I'm not worried about it," Virgil said, looking around at all the plywood.
"Oh, I want to see that," Mitchell said, suddenly much less shouty. Finally. Virgil shook his head in disdain.
"People worked on these sets, dude, have a fucking heart. If we can do it and have the time, somebody can give me a list of what's missing to do it and we'll have windows that aren't dumb," Virgil resisted the urge to flip off a literal stranger he was stuck working with.
"Perfect. Great. Mitchell, quit being a fucking yelling piss-baby and let's talk about the sets and maybe teach Virgil what we're looking for, like what the club is actually for?"
"Yeah, okay, sounds good. Virgil, will you help me search for any plants we already have lying around so we can account for those? Then we need to look for 18th century English townhouse decor. The chair Kai's sitting in might work,"
"That thing's styled early 1900s, not 1800s," Virgil said looking at it.
"Not everyone is a fucking furniture savant, they won't notice," Mitchell said started pouring over the inventory pages with Kai. Virgil shrugged.
"That is absolutely the weirdest skill I've ever seen," Elliot remarked, sounding impressed.
"We're going to have to find some gowns," Kai groaned. "If the inventory is right, we'll still need to make one more,"
"We can possibly borrow that from the other theatre if they're not using them for their production," Mitchell said thoughtfully. It was nice to hear him calmed back down. Dude had anger issues. It seemed like Kai knew how to shut him up, at least.
"Do you have any other weird talents that might be helpful, V?" Elliot asked from behind a big fake pillar.
"Maybe? I haven't seen this play, and it's been a really long time since I read the book," Virgil said, lifting another 1900s wooden chair to bring over to the other one next to Kai while he was thinking about it. Mitchell sat down in it without comment when Virgil put it down.
"V, we've got a wood table somewhere around here that goes with these chairs, keep an eye out for it," Kai said without looking up from the inventory. "It's probably behind something big, but we can use it to hold all the smaller set pieces we need for now," That made sense. Virgil started looking behind large things for the table. He idly wondered if somebody would let him come in after-hours to organize this nightmare of a storage room. It was kind of setting him off. If he wasn't careful, he might end up breaking in and doing it either way.
Virgil moved a large plywood backdrop and finally found the table and also a pair of potted fake plants. Virgil re-angled the backdrop and slid the other two legs of the table in Kai and Mitchell's Direction. Picking it up was too much, and it had felt furniture movers on the feet already.
"Damn, V, you're fucking jacked. There's still a few more of these chairs to find," Kai grumbled as Virgil dragged the table in a large enough empty spot near them.
"At your service," Virgil said with a dramatic bow and headed back into the crevice to look for more in the depths. Going on a scavenger hunt in a packed storage room was much more fun than Virgil would have expected. Roman was probably right that he was well-suited for this. Virgil had never considered theatre before. It wasn't a good idea to be near the public eye, so it never crossed his mind. But if Virgil stayed out of group photos, it probably wouldn't be an issue. Virgil hissed victoriously when he found another matching chair behind a fake painting. It's criminal they weren't stored together, but it was fun trying to find them.
"So, was everything okay with Thomas?" Roman asked as they exited the building and headed back to the dorms.
"Oh, yeah. It was fine. I wasn't sure if I should tell him you got brooded over the phone or not, so instead of asking him, I just didn't tell him like an idiot. His phone is fine. I got a great thrall story for my embarrassment, at least. Oh, I found out how young he is, he's an absolute baby," Virgil smiled under his mask, shaking his head affectionately.
"How young is he?" Roman asked curiously, pulling ahead of Virgil as they walked back.
"156! So cute!" Virgil cooed and raised his shoulders, trying to fight the urge to take his hands out of his safe pockets.
"Jesus, Virge, what am I if he's a baby?" Roman jeered.
"A gleam in your father's eye," Virgil offered, catching back up to Roman.
"That's disgusting," Roman stuck out his tongue and made a face, elbowing Virgil in the arm.
"You asked," Virgil shrugged indifferently.
"Human children don't like being forced to remember the harsh reality that their parents ever had sex. Please remember that for my sake," Roman shuddered as if the very thought was harrowing.
"You make it sound like I'm an alien," Virgil huffed.
"Well, you kind of are," Roman rolled his eyes. Virgil made a mock offended noise. "Did you like crew?" Roman prodded him with his elbow and smiled knowingly.
"I wouldn't mind doing it again. It's better than listening to you harass me about it every waking moment," Virgil grinned behind his mask. Roman made some offended noises that were probably much more real.
"I would have dropped it eventually," Roman objected to Virgil's implications indignantly.
"Keyword being eventually. If you started mentally pestering me about it, I might have had to test your new durability level," Virgil playfully threatened.
"Rude," Roman pouted, crossing his arm. Virgil pushed him with his shoulder affectionately.
"I'm kidding, I wouldn't do anything that would risk me smelling your blood again," Virgil offered.
"Oh, so my safety isn't relevant?" Roman asked, sounding very offended.
"If I smelled your blood again, your safety would be the problem," Virgil laughed darkly. "I'm sick of eating junk food," He added sourly.
"So you're saying I could have bribed you to stick it out with dinner if you changed your mind about staying?" Roman asked curiously, sounding amused.
"Shit, probably. Fresh AB-negative? I think I'd give in embarrassingly fast," Virgil admitted with a humorous tone. "I still don't get why it's a big deal if I joined this stupid club with you, but I don't hate it," Virgil rolled his eyes.
"You don't hate it? That's high praises for you," Roman raised his eyebrow and smirked.
"Looking for stuff in storage was fun. I guess I have a calling working in museums I didn't know about," Virgil shrugged.
"You probably belong in a museum," Roman shoved him playfully, smirking.
"I don't pay enough attention to major human events, probably. But if you want to know if it's romantic or baroque, I would know. Considering anybody could do that in one semester of art history, it's not that helpful of a skill," Virgil mused.
"I was calling you ancient, you dork," Roman laughed and punched Virgil in the arm.
"Oh," Virgil blushed and hunched his shoulders.
"You're so fucking cute," Roman looped his arm into Virgil's. Virgil looked around nervously, but it probably wasn't too much.
"Maybe we should get delivery for dinner," Virgil changed the subject quickly, thankful for his mask.
"You are like non-human Teflon, honest to god. Sure, I'll text Pat," Roman huffed and pulled his phone out of his jeans pocket.
"Isn't all Teflon non-human?" Virgil rolled his eyes. Roman threw up his arms in frustration.
"I will get you to accept a compliment one of these days, mark my words," Roman declared resolutely, shaking his fist in the air dramatically.