alright

santino evangelista 36. druid. acolyte. bartender at il cane nero. sometimes i need to be alone bitch don't kill my vibe

[virgilmoretti]

Over a decade ago maybe Virgil would've been sitting there in front of Sonny hoping that the druid was going to say something else. He was a witch, putting some stock in fate and some stock in ambition was the only way to go. Virgil believed that a person made their own destiny; thoughts became words and words became actions, that was what made a person's character. Virgil had been handed the world on a silver platter so it came down to what he was going to do with the legacy that he'd inherited. The choices he made, the deals he struck, and the people that he let into his life. In some ways, Sonny was part of that, and in some ways, the other man just wasn't; the two of them had a history but in times like this, that's all it was. Ancient history that the friends just didn't talk about.

"Alright, well, hey-" Admittedly Virgil didn't do much hanging out, it wasn't that people didn't like him, he was just busy, and he liked his space. For Sonny, he could make an exception. "Can I get you something else?" he pointed at him and smirked, "A shirt?"

[sonnyevangelista]

That wasn't why he had come here at all. Of course there'd been no real reason to come here in the first place, but it really hadn't been to just say some lame ass hello. When the hell had Virgil ever just been some guy he said hello to? No, the witch was his closest friend, the person he'd known the longest and...he'd have to somehow accept the fact that there was so much more than friendship he ever wanted. He didn't really have a problem with the concept, but he just pictured all the times where he'd thought he just wasn't supposed to be that way. Even the way he thought about it just sounded strange. Wasn't he supposed to just think about his happiness? That was what his mother had wanted from him, wasn't it? Now he was over here flipping thoughts in his head like they were flapjacks. A sigh left his mouth as he looked at Virgil again.

"No. No, that wasn't what I came here for. I don't know why I came here." A hand ran down his mouth as he looked around. "You know, I had this thought in my head that I was supposed to be something that I'm not." He tilted his head back to look at the ceiling, hands settled at his waist as he spoke. "I don't fear a lot, but I do fear that. Things like..." He paused as his brows furrowed, eyes still fixed on the ceiling for a moment. "Do you know how hard it is to think of you as just a friend?" He finally looked back at Virgil. "And no, I don't need a shirt."

[virgilmoretti]

The doorman had been letting Sonny in as often as he wanted since the other had been back in town, so when the private elevator hummed to life Virgil knew it was either Octavian, Eoin, Tripp, Sonny, or Aurea, and that first option wasn't allowed in the city which only left the other three. The sovereign carried the weight of the world on his shoulders, everything he did had to be thoughtful, meticulous, and well-planned. Especially now. Eoin, Tripp, and Aurea were more involved than ever and Octavian had sworn himself to the Ivy's side; his whole life this had been bigger than him, and his whole life he'd felt that pressure bearing down on him. It didn't leave much room for a personal life because the family and the business were more important than how he happened to be feeling when he woke up day by day.

"Yeah sure-" Virgil was a bit distracted because Sonny was glistening, "did you jog over? You're sweating?" He wanted to offer Sonny a towel or something but instead, he went with some water as he offered the other a glass. "What are you doing here?" It wasn't that Sonny wasn't welcome, Vrgil just hadn't been expecting him.

[sonnyevangelista]

Sonny looked down at himself and then back at Virgil. Right, he had been jogging before this impromptu visit. He usually let the witch know if he was coming over, but he'd been all in his thoughts and very deep in his feelings and now here he was with no idea how to even respond to what the other was saying. Well, he could probably start with the fact that he had very much been jogging. Hence the sweat. But he always did that when he needed to clear his mind. This time, it definitely hadn't helped at all. Yeah, he could probably start with the fact that he'd been jogging, but that wasn't the only reason he was here. He thought, at least. In actuality, there were so many reasons why he was here that he didn't really have a way to explain. Instead of saying anything immediately, he just grabbed the glass of water from Virgil and downed it immediately. Fuck, that didn't help.

"Uh..." He paused for a moment as he put the glass down. "I just came to say hey."

[sonnyevangelista]

closed starter for @virgilmoretti location: ivy hotel note: kiss kiss fall in love

A lot had been on his mind lately and, honestly, he had no idea what to make of any of it. Sonny always thought of himself as strong, as someone that could not be broken by simple things. He'd been through a tough enough life. He thought he deserved some sort of normalcy. Instead, what he had was this. What he had was becoming a druid. What he had was a witch as his closest friend. If that could even really be what it was called. Describing their relationship was another thing that was on his mind. Then there was Octavian. Someone he would have laid down his life for and defended to the death and he didn't know how to act around him now. There must have been something wrong with him. He was sure of it. Or maybe there was nothing wrong with him at all. Maybe he just needed to get out of his own head and act on the shit that he kept pushing away. Maybe that was why he somehow ended up at the Ivy Hotel. Seeing one of two people that had his mind spinning. He stopped in front of Virgil and cleared his throat. "Can we talk?"

[luckythings]

[sonnyevangelista]

I can't even blame you, ya solid

@virgilmoretti & @octavianrising

[sonderpoison]

SINQUA WALLS via Instagram

[thirst-for-boys]

Sinqua Walls via his IG (x).

[masongooning]

SINQUA WALLS Resort to Love (2021) - Trailer

[afroskey]

Sinqua Walls

[masongooning]

SINQUA WALLS Resort to Love (2021)

[samrathx]

@sonnyevangelista location: parco savello notes: post hakanalia thank u

Reapers said you never forgot your first and in Samrath's case that had turned out to be true. He'd stood there unseen in the corner of the hospital room and watched the life fade from a new mother while her infant son was cradled in her arms.

I'm not ready. She'd said as she stood outside of her body, looking at the Reaper as if he had the power to unwind the clock. Back then Samrath hadn't had any clarity on what happened to a person when they went to the other side, in time he could guess; it wasn't hard to understand where a mother who'd left her son with every disadvantage might have ended up. Samrath had manifested then, lifted the child into his arms and placed him into the incubator, that was the least he could do before he shepherded the soul of Sonny's mother to the other side.

On a park bench on an unseasonably cold day, Samrath sat some ways away and waited for fate to take its course. Death wasn't so bad, he wished he could tell people that before they got to the Void, everyone was so afraid and a great many supernaturals did terrible things to avoid it. Life was hard, life was where people suffered; he liked this new administration, seemed kinder than the Inferno. Kinder than paradise even, just a quiet end regardless of the story.

"Cold weather as fuck, isn't it?" Samrath said as he pulled out a smoke and started to pat down his pockets, "Do you have a light?"

[sonnyevangelista]

That party had him waking up with one hell of a hangover, but he'd still ended up getting out of bed long enough to go for a run. Santino needed to go work out or else he started getting antsy and then he wouldn't know what to do until he saw Octavian or Atlas again so that they could train. He was a necromera now and that came with an entire slew of things that he wasn't familiar with. He'd become used to turning into a wild dog, but now he could turn into something else entirely. But he always stayed focused and that meant it would come as naturally to him as anything else he attempted when it came to this druid thing. Perhaps he had always been meant to become one.

Nevertheless, he'd stopped to sit on a bench at some point, flipping through his phone to do nothing in particular. He probably should've played a game or something to look like he was busy though. The last thing he wanted right now was to be spoken to by someone he didn't really know. Normally, he was okay with that, but his allegiance to Octavian wasn't exactly the best thing. And, although he wasn't speaking it aloud, he wasn't sure who was always listening. Still, he looked at the guy and grabbed the lighter from his pocket. "Sure, here you go." He held it out towards the other man and waited for it to be grabbed. Sonny didn't really smoke, but he always carried a lighter just in case it was needed. Not everyone needed to smoke to have a lighter after all.

[virgilmoretti]

It was a relief to hear Sonny say as much, that the other wasn't like everyone else in this city. "Much as I want to, Octavian's a loose canon." Virgil had been working to see how he could subtly manipulate the phoenix, but the man was unpredictable, the only thing that the witch could count on was the former emperor's ego. "Anything I do to support him has to be... discreet," discretion wasn't something the phoenix was generally known for, but neither did Virgil want Octavian to believe that the Ivy had turned his back on him. "If you're in contact then you can tell him I'm still on his side, and I'd be willing to talk if he wants to meet."

[sonnyevangelista]

Discreet. Well, now Santino was very skeptical about this whole thing. He couldn't really know what Virgil's family was ever up to, but he did know that the witch had always been his closest friend. Regardless of the things he had gone through, it was clear that would always be the case. They'd been a part of different social classes, still were, but it meant a lot to Sonny that they still found each other. Even if they had to both deal with this Octavian situation now. "I see." He nodded his head and eyed Virgil before getting up. "I'll let him know. I'm sure you'll figure out the discreet part from there. Just...don't get yourself into anything you don't need to get into. He's doing some things and...well, he can tell you all about it if you end up talking."

[virgilmoretti]

"I can't help it, this one's my song." Virgil said with a sigh, he had a lot of songs and this one just happened to be one of them; maybe, it was like the DJ had taken a beloved classic and run it through a wood chipper but the soul of it was still intact, somehow. "Why does everything need to be a competition?" Virgil said, the only people that the witch always needed to make sure he was beating were Eoin and Aurea at Monopoly, and he hadn't made the two of them go bankrupt in at least a decade now. Virgil followed the other out onto the dance floor, it was a party, and it was Christmas; Virgil wasn't someone who didn't know how to have fun, quite the opposite actually. It had been a hard year for a lot of people and since the holidays were the time when you were supposed to spend time with the ones that mattered most, Virgil was glad him and Sonny had found their way back into one another's orbit. Helped that Sonny had no shirt on too.

[sonnyevangelista]

"Well, do you hate it or do you love it? You keep flip flopping." Next thing he knew, Virgil was going to start saying this song was his favorite song he'd ever heard in his life. Santino would just have to nod his head and laugh though. It was pretty funny the more Virgil's shoulders moved to the beat. "It doesn't need to be a competition." His shoulders lifted in a shrug. "It's just that...if it was, I'd win." A bright smile, all teeth appeared on his mouth as he moved further onto the dance floor. If there was one thing that would always be true, it was that he was going to absolutely kill it on the dance floor. If they were playing the Electric Slide, nobody else on the floor would've had a chance. Again, not that it was a competition. "I would say you know nothing about this, but that would be disrespecting your mother and I could never do that." He immediately went into doing the Tootsie Roll followed by the Charleston.

[luckythings]

[virgilmoretti]

@sonnyevangelista locations: Hakanalia notes: Old Virgil is Madea from that one scene when she hates that music because it brings the hoe out.

Been a long time since Virgil had been to a party, he knew how these Roman functions could get so he'd taken something that would make sure he was safe from whatever fey concoction was bound to make itself around. Last thing he needed was ending up slipping up and letting the old Virgil out. "Man, I hate this music." Virgil said as he swayed in place, his chest popped a bit here and there as he nodded his head. "This jacket's hot." There wasn't a lot to it but it sure was heavy, Virgil slipped it off as he continued to move back and forth. "So, you wanna dance?"

[sonnyevangelista]

In actuality, Sonny should've been focusing on getting better at this necromera thing. He should've been training, getting stronger, all that good stuff. Yet he was here at this party standing in front of Virgil. Virgil who was shirtless. Virgil who at least had a jacket on before to cover everything. Virgil who had just taken that damn jacket off and was now even more shirtless than before. Virgil who was...always on his damn mind. He hated it, but he really didn't bother to get those thoughts out of his head. There was certainly nothing wrong with it though so he really didn't know why he was so annoyed by it. Maybe it was because he'd literally done nothing about it. He didn't think he would today either. He wasn't even sure if he was supposed to make the move first or Virgil. Perhaps he was overthinking it. With a clearing of his throat, he simply let out a laugh at Virgil's obvious enjoyment of the music. "Uh huh, you really seem like you hate it." He started slowly walking backwards to the dance floor. "Now you know you can't out-dance me. You can try, but I do this shit."

[octavianrising]

❂🐦❂

Loyal, direct, and hungry. Everything he'd come to expect from the wild dog he'd chosen to join his ranks. Of course, there were others that Octavian led down his darkened path ahead of Santino and even then he could never keep his attention from wandering back. The fruit of Sonny's labor was evident in the resolute gleam his eyes held. Sonny had sacrificed enough already to be here, it was due time he began to reap some rewards. "And I could never hurt you. Not again," he promised, taking Sonny's chin in a gentle hold for the briefest of moments with a gentle smirk on his lips. "Whether or not I can make you stronger is entirely up to you. But I think it's possible. You're a predator now, aren't you? You would never reel from the sight of prey blood." The kind of power Sonny sought could only be found through brutality. "No need to waste your time learning new traits when you can show you how to steal them."

[sonnyevangelista]

When Octavian spoke, it was hard for Santino not to hang onto every word like it was gospel. He'd heard the stories, he'd seen what had been made of his Archdruid now. Exiled because he had done what he thought was necessary. Perhaps that was why he was so easy to forgive. Because, at the end of the day, he'd known deep down that Octavian wouldn't have done what he did under normal circumstances. It had just...happened. But there was no real reason to dwell on a past that didn't exist. No, instead of that, Santino would do exactly what he asked of the Archdruid. He wanted to be stronger because he wanted that power that he'd been gifted. If Octavian had seen something in him before, he wasn't going to let himself get caught slacking now. "I know you wouldn't." The words were said with absolute confidence in the man standing before him. "I told you about me before and I'll make it clear again. I'll do anything to make sure I don't end up where everyone in my childhood told me I belong. I deserve better than that." Considering their closeness and the other's grip on his chin, he let his finger point at the Archdruid's chest to express just how serious his words were. "You wanted me to be your wild dog. Time to take me off the leash."

[virgilmoretti]

"No, I mean what they're doing to him is crazy. Exiled?" Virgil shook his head as he made a noise at the decision that had come down. "Meanwhile every witch, druid, and fucking fey that tried to nuke this city is sitting pretty with three square meals a day." It took a lot for the witch to get heated, but he was on his feet now half pacing as he thought about The Eye, and how eager everyone was to just forgive and forget. Witches were the Ivy's responsibility, that was the deal, that was how it had always been. "Those hunters used a whole coven as a testing ground for a bomb and now they're sitting on the senate acting like they have any business judging that man. Octavian's a lot of things, but he's done more for this city than any of those senators combined." The archdruid deserved sympathy, compassion, a lot more than what he was getting that was for damn sure.

[sonnyevangelista]

Well, that certainly hadn't been what he expected Virgil to say, but he also wasn't surprised. When the words had left the witch's mouth, it made it all the more obvious to him just how unfair this whole situation had been to his Archdruid. Octavian had done some wrongs, sure, but hadn't most people? The entirety of the Asphodel was probably sitting pretty now and here Octavian was exiled due to what? Sonny had been reluctant to forgive the man because of what had happened, but he knew who he had given his loyalty to. He'd known the exact person he was. Would he ever say the man wasn't absolutely out of his mind? No, not at all because that was true. However, he was just as crazy, just as wild. He considered his allegiance to Octavian to be one of the luckiest things to happen to him. "You sound like you want to get him out of this situation." He raised a brow. "I'll help you. All of his acolytes will if he asked."