CHRISTIAN CALLAWAY
Hunter
Posts: 94
Played by:
Julia
“There's nothing to fear but fear itself.”
Last seen Nov 23, 2024 17:06:24 GMT
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Post by CHRISTIAN CALLAWAY on Nov 8, 2021 18:15:15 GMT
 ━ let death fear you ━
Something had changed between them since the attack. He never thought it could harm their marriage, but he’d begun to notice subtle differences. In the beginning, with his focus shifting to hunting and protecting his family, Christian hadn’t caught the way she, too, broke away from routine. He’d excused it as the loss of their baby, and she’d let him give her leniency. But even now, she was different. Whether it had become routine, he didn’t know, although tonight wasn’t the time to linger on it. They were going to enjoy themselves, come hell or high water.
One thing was for sure, though there was hardship between them, Christian loved the way she smiled when she picked out their costumes and whisked off his immediate teasing━“Isn’t Catwoman a supervillain?” had earned him a playful smack on the arm. They were dressed up in it now, Christian as the Dark Knight himself, cowl and all, and his wife next to him, looking like the perfect Selina Kyle.
Though he hadn’t voiced this to her, Christian was almost glad for the full headpiece━it meant any students he encountered were less likely to recognize him. The Ruby Slipper was a club, of course, but he had a feeling they’d opened their doors for a wider breadth on account of Halloween. The age stamps at the door confirmed it.
Sofia left him on the edge of the dance floor while she disappeared into the crowd, melting in easily with the black catsuit, claiming that she was off to get them drinks. He stood awkwardly, like a stick in the mud, surveying the crowd as if he really was a watchful eye over the town. Wasn’t he? That was all he and Alix were trying to do, wasn’t it? But then, if Mystic Falls really was riddled by these creatures, how many of them were here tonight? And was Sofia safe now━trudging into the lion’s den all alone?
He worried, having no idea his wife was at the edges of this floor, trying to see if she could get her drink spiked with a different sort of life source.
Someone dressed as the Joker passed, and Christian wasn’t so inept that he didn’t understand who they were. Thanks to Dylan, he’d seen each of the Batman movies and gave a big smile and a wave back to them, momentarily broken out of his worries by it.
Within moments, she was back. He saw her coming towards him, a picture in her outfit, all curves and vinyl and God, Christian could barely remember the last time he felt this way when he saw Sofia. Perhaps their last Halloween in Ohio, when they hadn’t made it out the door before they were out of their costumes again. The light was darker on the fringes but, in Christian’s opinion, it only further accented her curves.
Maybe tonight was the night they’d try again.
While his mind swam with all the thoughts of her, of what he’d do to get his hands on her, he momentarily forgot the original reason for her departure, and the fact that she seemingly hadn’t completed the task. Christian closed the distance, bending to wrap her up in his arms, one hand on her backside with the other in the middle of her back. Guiding her in, he kissed her like his life depended on it, like a man starved of his wife.
And… he still was. Technically.
It took him a few moments to notice━too long, really, but he ignored that fact. Christian’s head jerked back an inch, still holding her against him while one gloved hand traced up to her cheek. The light was still awful, but the black gloves were almost too dark against her skin━though it was the eyes that caught him. Green. Not brown, like Sofia’s, but green.
“I’m━” His mother’s vocabulary lessons warred with the feeling in his gut. He wanted to let out a string of something, but kept it under a tight lid. Still, he wasn’t moving. “I am so sorry, I was mistaken, I thought you were━”
Alix. Christ, it was Alix. He knew that, didn’t he? But he’d never seen her in something so… that, but he should’ve known. He felt like an idiot. They’d been growing closer, that was inevitable, but it was never supposed to come to this. Christian had never thought there was any reason to feel guilty about sneaking around with her until this very moment, and he was, for lack of a better word, screwed.
ALIX QUINN | *batman voice* wheRE'S RACHEL |
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ALIX QUINN
Werecoyote
Dread Doctors' Experiment
Posts: 379
Age:
29
Occupation:
Photographer/hunter
Status:
It's Complicated
Partner:
Christian Callaway
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Nov 23, 2024 19:29:56 GMT
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Post by ALIX QUINN on Nov 18, 2021 23:42:46 GMT
Green eyes fixed on the mirror in the bathroom as she tugged the mask back into place. Skin pale under the unrelenting back, eyes free of the shadows that would’ve arced under them from the nights she’d spent tossing and turning of late, pacing the warehouse like a caged animal for hours at a time, only thanks to the super healing the Dread Doctors had blessed her with. You wanted to go a week without sleep? Sure. You had some vital part of you severed and chances were you’d not have a single mark on you a day later. Alix lifted her chin, started as other partiers burst in through the door to the women’s bathroom.
One of the women had either decided to come as Heath Ledger’s Joker or the slutty nurse look had rapidly gone downhill tonight. She stared, mouth hanging open, chin tucked like it was all the easier to focus that way when you were near the bottom of the bottle.
Alix winged a brow, forced a smile as she started towards them. Razor sharp on the dull edges she’d taken on in the last couple of months. ”Miaow,” she purred in a half decent Michelle Pfeiffer impression. The women stumbled deeper in, clutching at each other and laughing. Drinks had been flowing thick as the music all night and some were obviously falling deep under the sway of it.
Her expression went hard again as she stepped out. Painted lips in a thin line as she wove through the crowd. Green eyes glittering, sweeping the crowds. This place was prime for the predators tonight and not just the sort that used and seduced on a normal night. They were wolves in sheep’s clothing – or pirate costumes.
She’d located the staff in the crowd - the bruiser with the quick smile and quicker hands behind the bar, the pirate captain, all dark and rakish, the kid who’d stuck his head up from down there, where the things that had gone bump in the night for centuries lurked, wearing a construction worker’s costume. Really a kid playing dress up, if the sluggish blip of a heartbeat hadn’t given him away as likely being the 500 year old teenager. Alix looked for them again. The kid was gone but the bruiser was there, playing the crowd, probably offering some sort of an afterparty to any pretty face in the crowd.
For a piece of her soul, or maybe the resurgence of some damaged part of it, Alix imagined she could get a piece of that party. Blocking all this out, the watching, the waiting, the fighting to do the right thing, for a few hours. It wouldn’t have been the first time.
And it wouldn’t have been what she’d tried working her way towards.
Road blocks in the way. The kitsune’s blood on her skin as she’d thrown herself back into her truck. That perfect house with a husband who was doing everything to give his wife peace, the one she’d invaded, shaking and torn in two. Ralphy lurking out there somewhere still. Maybe in the sewer with the things that had put the invisible scars on her skin and left her clawing her way back like Selina Kyle. Tossed from a metaphorical window to be reborn as something, someone new.
Lips curling faintly as spotted another dark mask on one of those figures standing on the fringes of the floor, like they were trying to find their way into that writhing mass of costumed forms. Batman. Not the only one in the crowd, there’d been a handful of others, each as amused and excitable as the last. Alix tilted her head, looking to see him off with a quick, slanted smile but he was working his way in. Like the playboy himself. No hesitation.
Between one flash of the strobes and the next he was a yard closer, arms wrapping around her with a creak of leather. A gloved hand sliding down, squeezing as his mouth descended. The heat in her throat was instant, a warm slide that rolled down like bourbon, smoky, silky, pooling in the pit of her stomach. Need bit and Alix knew she had to pull away. The apology on her lips stuck, her hands finding those strong forearms to nudge – to hold herself steady as those hazel eyes found hers.
He hadn’t meant it. Neither one of them would’ve done. Christian Callaway was a married man. A friend. A confident. Each of them a crutch to the other in a murky world that had tried to break them more than once lately. He wasn’t hers.
’I’m-‘
He was stepping over the line, the shock of it impossible to ignore in the jerk of his head. One gloved hand had settled on her cheek, just about the only part of her left bare in this costume. Alix felt her face go stiff under that touch, a mask beneath a mask. ”You’re a real playboy, Bruce,” she managed tightly. Alix drew in a breath that left her chest shuddering, mentally throwing cold water on the heat he’d stoked meaning to pour coal on someone else’s fire instead.
’It’s OK, you didn’t mean to’. The words stuck tight in her throat as the heat rushed up it along with the bitter burn of bile. ”You thought I was her. I guess I should be flattered, I saw the photos in your home.” When Sofia had been away and the need she’d had for another woman’s husband had left her in shattered pieces, Christian’s hands the things that stopped them from scattering for good. No blood drawn then, or at least not enough that either had noticed.
Now it seemed to be thick in the air, suddenly molasses sweet and cloying. Alix dragged her hands down his forearms, squeezing as though she would peel his from her. ”Her choice or yours?” Her lips pressed together, eyes dropping to his costume and back up again. Two women slinking through his life on different paths to crossover tonight. Well, it was a night for nightmares after all and maybe Christian’s had just raised its ugly head again.
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CHRISTIAN CALLAWAY
Hunter
Posts: 94
Played by:
Julia
“There's nothing to fear but fear itself.”
Last seen Nov 23, 2024 17:06:24 GMT
|
Post by CHRISTIAN CALLAWAY on Dec 13, 2021 17:31:11 GMT
━ let death fear you ━
‘You thought I was her…’
It seemed Alix wasn’t going to bite his head off, and she didn’t wriggle out of his arms━they’d held each other on multiple occasions but never like this. He struggled for a smile, but it came quickly, just as tight as his stomach, and then dropped. He couldn’t stop the comparisons in his head━Sofia was shaped like a gymnast; strong thighs, small chest and all muscle up top. In the catsuit, the leather was constrictive; she never would’ve… not like Alix━he had to stop before this went too far.
What was the correct way to escape from this? Every angle seemed like a trap; either he complimented Alix and went too far over the line again, or he insulted Alix to his wife’s benefit and caused more turmoil all around. He sought his mother’s lessons in etiquette, but if he had followed her rules, he wouldn’t be in this situation to begin with. Still, Christian tried his best.
“No, you’re━” His lips squeezed hard before he tried again. “I’m sorry. I’m not sure what to say; what could make up for this.” Letting her go would be a start, he figured, and only clued in when she gave his arms a squeeze. For some reason, though, he couldn’t. His arm stayed in its place around her, fit perfectly into the dip of Alix’s waist━almost as if it was made for him.
“It was hers.” Were the women in his life made of the same material, the same brain, or had they perhaps conspired against Christian to reel him into a trap? He hadn’t done anything before this moment, though… other than spending all night with his head in her lap. “She’s also dressed as Catwoman.” But he hoped Alix knew that already.
Dylan would’ve perhaps made a joke about this, and if Christian was a different man, he might’ve as well. Something about the work-to-life balance, women, anything to get himself out of the sticky situations he was oh-so prone to. He figured that exposure made someone better at controlling this, and that was why Christian was so awful at it. “I would offer to buy you a drink as an apology, but that seems in poor taste.” The half-smile came, weak and desperate. “However, the offer still stands.” Finally, Christian released her, taking a small step back to feel that gush of cool air marking the no-mans-land between their bodies. That was how it needed to stay, he decided, and motioned to the bar.
ALIX QUINN |  end here or w yours? |
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ALIX QUINN
Werecoyote
Dread Doctors' Experiment
Posts: 379
Age:
29
Occupation:
Photographer/hunter
Status:
It's Complicated
Partner:
Christian Callaway
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Nov 23, 2024 19:29:56 GMT
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Post by ALIX QUINN on Jan 6, 2022 18:03:22 GMT
Keep putting on masks and it’ll bite you in the end. She’d thought it had with Derek, the sudden, shocking exposure of the truth withering what they’d had in that bitter light of experience. Now it felt like just a nibble. This was a marriage she’d ended up in the middle of. Happy – on the surface at least – settled. Practically a white picket fence that should’ve stayed that way. The light had already been shone on what else was out there when his wife had been attacked, Alix didn’t want to see it shone in that perfect house, sure as hell didn’t want her hand on the switch. It wasn’t her place, even if she’d brushed up alongside that marriage in her position as Christian’s trainer of sorts.
It almost had her laughing, bitterness filling the back of her throat as she smiled at him. She was letting the shadows lie, pasting the cool cover of amusement over what could’ve been so much more serious to untie the knots for him. Alix’s hands remained curled over the thick leather, squeezing lightly as she gave Christian the out. Nothing but a mistake in a crowd likely filled with them, costumes hiding all sorts of things.
Maybe it didn’t work, the smile was quick but she didn’t know how deep it went into that decent man. Alix tilted her head, shaking off the apology that was trying to come from him. She slid her hands down towards his wrists, as though she would ease them apart to a distance that shouldn’t put fear in any wife’s heart. Would and didn’t. ”I’m not her,” Alix said, another layer of reassurance in the warm rasp of a voice. ”You made a genuine mistake. There’s nothing to make up for, Bruce.” That name dropped again as though it was as much an excuse as anything else.
Even through the layers of leather his hand at her waist was warm. It left her swallowing hard, the part of her who should’ve known to try and keep all of this professional from the start melting beneath the rest. Alix made a low sound in her throat, nodding as she tipped her head back to look up at him again. ”I guess the women in your life think alike.” A good sign? Probably not. She’d probably seen his wife slinking through the crowd earlier. One catwoman brushing up against another without any idea about the Batman who was strung between them, snared tight.
Slinking away now would have cut the embarrassment but it wouldn’t erase what had been done. She could still Christian’s touch, his lips, wherever they’d brushed against her, as she had the morning she’d let him out of her apartment. Alix didn’t want to pick through that, shouldn’t have done at all. Apologies had been made, the mistake made clear. It was done. As he stepped back, she let out a chuckle, a grin tugging at her lips a moment. ”Seems … like the right way to put this behind us. Lead the way Padawan. I’ll take a … whatever that purple thing was they were slinging earlier. A B-Movie Bombshell? Enough of those and it’ll be like New Year’s Eve in here for everybody. Come on.” Not touching now, both of them steadfastly avoiding it she started to weave her way through the crowd towards the bar. The drink would do nothing to burn the memory from her brain but maybe it would be enough that she couldn’t taste him on her lips anymore. Pressing them together, her tongue tracing the seam, she shoved her way through the pack at the bar to order.
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