Night's Omen

So, Marcus was definitely the catalyst, but that still didn't explain anything to him.  At this point, he was okay with just going with the flow and waiting for this craziness to end.  For whatever reason, it hadn't yet, though he really didn't believe it was happening.  He could be patient.

"No, I don't imagine it would help much to worry about it all now," he agreed, though her eyes completely threw him off.  They looked so...dull in comparison to what he was used to seeing from Danielle, and it was kind of...frightening.  What had happened to her eyes?  Why were they no longer expressive and ever-changing, like he was used to?  Was there a damn thing that was going to be the same as he remembered, or was this just supposed to confuse the hell out of him?

Danielle locked eyes with him for a moment, but it was very brief as she felt her heart beat rapidly down again, for approaching footsteps alerted her of an oncoming visitor. Riese.

"Hey sweetheart, we were standing up there like idiots thinking you'd already gone inside," he laughed, running his fingers through his spiked brown hair. He reached out to take Pascale from her, and the girl wiggled her hands at him menacingly until he did so. He smiled to Ash, but the two had never been close, so he wasn't really going out of his way to hug the man or anything. Ash had been closer to the Vidas than the Smokes.

Danielle smiled again, a demure thing, and shook her head. "Ash surprised me, so we stopped to talk. You go ahead with Pascale, we'll catch up." She pushed him off lightly and held her arm out to Ash.

"Shall we?"

She was in good health by appearance, and had even a light tan. Blonde hair was still the colour of spun sugar and vanilla, though it was lightly curled as though she'd done it for the evening. She looked so much like Danielle, and yet, so amazingly different at the same time.

Ash met Riese's smile with a nod of his own, deigning not to say anything while the man was there.  Really, what could he say?  It made him angry just to think about the fact that Dani was with him, that he was that child's father.  He didn't want to deal with it.

He took her arm with all the grace of the feline he now was, but with the confidence of a man who was well aquainted with the French court of long ago.  France may have been nothing special now, but it had once been a marvelous place.  His problem was that he really didn't know what to say to her.  He still didn't know what was going on, or how to go about dealing with it.  

As she strode with Ash in silence, she took a short breath, and watched the form of Riese as he made his way back to the rest of the people. "So, what gives?" she pressed. "We used to talk all the time. You know because I have a family now doesn't mean I'm invalid and can't come out of the house," she said flatly. Leave it to Danielle.

She glanced over at the triste, aware that something was wrong, but couldn't put her finger on what. This Danielle had not spent so much time with him, or in the field, and so she wasn't as seasoned as she could have been, to detect underlying things that betrayed the truth of the matter. Instead, she just sensed some sort of hesitation - but even still in this world there were dozens of reasons why.

Nobody had really 'agreed' to her marriage - the two mothers had finally come to terms with it after they announced the expectancy of their first child. They eventually warmed up to the couple, but each seemed to have their own designs about how to raise Pascale - and the child had designs on how she was to be raised, herself. Danielle had already stated that she was going to be quite powerful, but it wasn't really the half of it. She had already begun to demonstrate potential from both lines. Danielle couldn't have found a better mate, had it been some sort of genetic test.

Well, she could have. But some people just couldn't reproduce. Hence the second best option. And the furthest thing from this Danielle's mind, apparently.

Weeeeeeell, he didn't exactly know what to say to her when she asked him that, considering as far as he remembered, they'd stayed in rather close contact.  The fact that they hadn't in this strange situation didn't exactly make sense to him, so he honestly couldn't explain it properly.  The best he could come up with was the issue of Midnight, and he wasn't going to bring that up to her, especially on her...anniversary.  

Her anniversay.  

He still hated the sound of that.  But then, he could hardly expect, even in the situation he was familiar with, that Dani would ever be able to make herself happy with him.  He could see it right here, her happiness at having that baby girl, and that was something he could never give her.  Certainly, she was different from the Dani he knew, but he couldn't quite tell himself that the witch he'd stood by since her brother's death would absolutely never want a child.  She was young, and most young women aren't sure they want a family from the start.  If she decided that in even just a year, there would be nothing he could do about it, besides remind her of the numerous fish she'd killed over time.  This wasn't for lack of wanting, of course, since Ash would have loved to have a little girl of his own, but it was simply impossible.  If he could have given up the power he had in order to give that to Dani, he would have, but it was still an impossible feat.  Maybe the whole point of this was to show him just how much better off she'd be with someone else.  Someone who was actually alive, and not in the limbo sort of state he had.  Someone who could give her a sweet little daughter.

"I would never think of you as being an invalid, Dani, don't be ridiculous," he told her, shaking his head, though his tone was light and amused.  "Things have been rather...hectic on my end, and I doubt your husband would have appreciated me dragging you into those situations.  Especially if you're intending to give Pascale a sibling."

Danielle was picking up a strange mixed emotion from him even so, again, and simply said nothing as he spoke, choosing to listen instead. Danielle had always been rational, and tried to think her decisions and words through before she threw them at people, knowing that her carefree days of youth were gone and she had more responsibilities than she did years ago.

"Well, this one wasn't as planned, but we're happy nonetheless." Their genetic expiraments, she and Riese called them, albeit endearingly. She worried slightly at his words, no matter how much of a humourous twist he tried to put on them.

"Ash, you can come to me for anything if you need me. I am not a delicate flower - I will not break. I've been trying to beat this into Riese's head for the last few years, but I fear he'll never get it. For a Smoke, he is still a man." She smiled lightly at him, turning her head just slightly, allowing her hair to curl around her face in a sly sort of way.

She couldn't help feeling that there was something hanging in the air she did not know. She stopped suddenly, staring at him, trying to sort him out. Danielle may not have been as powerful as Ash remembered her, but she was still a mother, and had a natural set of instincts now that were on par with what she was missing.

He smiled, keeping up the amused facade, though he found any humor in this situation to be merely ironic.  The Dani he'd been so fond of really WAS a person he could go to with issues, even if she had a habit of EXPLODING over them.  This woman?  It was Dani, but...not.  He knew he would never tell her what had happened in Midnight, so it was good that he was fairly certain this was all in his head.  It was a mindfuck, it had to be.  

"I know you're anything but delicate, you're a Vida," he reminded her.  Just her name stated that she was no pushover.  But this still wasn't HIS Dani, not really.  "I'll keep your offer in mind."

He leaned in to give her a chaste kiss on the cheek, as simple as that.  "Happy Anniversary."

Danielle had chosen that moment to turn her head, hearing someone call her name. Her lips brushed against his, and she took a visable step back, eyes wide with surprise. And Danielle didn't surprise easily - she blinked a few times, and then started laughing, almost nervously.

"You'd better watch out, triste," she said, shaking a finger at him. "Trying to get fresh with a married girl," she chided. She played it off like a joke, but the truth was, there was something strange going on her.

As they reached the restaurant on the harbor, she left Ash's side to go to Riese, taking Pascale's hand as the group walked into the establishment.

Marcus hung behind, waiting for Ash to catch up. "Hey, man, long time," he said, holding out his hand with less reluctance than Riese behaved. Marcus had, well, grown up around Ash. As firstborn and male, Ash was sort of a rolemodel to him since their father wasn't around.

She wasn't the only one startled by their lips brushing like that, and he too played it off like a joke, but his nervousness didn't come from the 'kiss' being a forbidden thing.  His problem was that he should have been allowed to, and that was something he was still getting used to when all this was thrown at him.  "I will try to behave myself, then," he told her, smiling slightly before they reached earshot of Riese and Marcus.  Here came another hard part.

Marcus.

Ash had always been close to both children, but he hadn't taken a truly active role in Dani's life until she'd fallen apart over Marcus' death.  And here was Marcus, alive.  Ash took his hand in a firm shake, rather serious about this.  Mindfuck or not, it was good to see Marcus.  But it's not real...

"Far too long," he agreed.

At the shake, Marcus reeled Ash in for an unexpected hug. "It's good to see you again," he said, a rare moment when he wasn't being a usual precious shit and joking with everyone. He released him for a moment, and gestured to his sister, olive eyes wide as his brows raised.

"So yeah... Danielle married Riese, and I got screwed out of a best friend and a sister - literally." He laughed, giving him a shove on the shoulder. "Did you see Pascale yet? That little girl, man.. she's got me spooked. Danielle seems firm she can train her magic to run both ways. The little brat already gives me a hard time when we play hide and seek.. she's learned to 'hide' herself."

Ash had to agree with Marcus on that one, though he couldn't really tell the man why.  All he could do was merely agree with him and move on.  "It's definitely good to see you as well, Marcus.  You're right about Pascale, though.  Danielle may actually be able to train her in both magics, at the rate she seems to be advancing."

Or she would...  If all of this was real, which he was doubting.  "But then, being able to hide herself from you isn't all that difficult," he teased, smiling ever so slightly.  

"Hey, hey. I've mellowed out a lot since then. That little scare back in the day made my mom realize that she wasn't going about teaching us stuff quite the right way. Spending that year with Aunt Dominique was good for... something." He chuckled.

Ah, so more of the pieces were put together. Evidently things had still happened in a severe way, but not with quite the.. grave outcomes. Celeste must have finally given in to Dominique's 'parenting from the side' and handed the teenagers to her for a year of -real- training. Celeste wasn't a bad mother, but she had never been able to balance out her blood when it came to arranging her children's magical teachings.

"Anyways, enough about that. How's the triste thing been going for you?" he asked, fussing with his shirt as they walked. Marcus had never been a 'proper dresser', as in, he preferred ratty jeans and flip flops to whatever the HELL Danielle had talked him into tonight. Button down.. ugh.

Ahh, that made sense, then.  Hearing that they'd spent time with Dominique explained things rather well, considering Marcus hadn't died, and Dani was still somewhat dangerous, just not like she should be.  "Really, tell me how that went," he said, honestly preferring to keep the subject of conversation away from him.  He didn't want to get into what his life had been like, and he didn't want to end up mentioning something that had happened in this 'timeline'.

"I've been keeping busy, really.  The Hollow is time-consuming, and I was hired to lace a vampire's home with firestone," he said, leaving out the details.  No need to tell Marcus any of that.

Marcus shrugged. "Well, isn't my favourite memory, I guess, but you were gone a lot during that year so I guess I can offer a recap. You know how mom used to always... kind of put me and Danielle against eachother? But it was obvious she always favoured me? I think it had something to do with dad... Anyways. Dominique? She didn't play favourites. As soon as Danielle figured out how to kick my ass, she did it, and she did it over and over again. Don't let her fool you, she learned the mommy act from Dominique." He fell silent and shrugged.

"She's a good girl. She's just... a Vida woman," he said suddenly with a lopsided grin. There was absolutely no other way to explain that particular breed of female - something like a Spartan woman, one could guess. Proud, strong, defiant. Yeah.. that's Danielle.

"Anyways, it's all ancient history. After I learned that it wasn't the end of the world if someone didn't tell me how precious I was, I got a lot better, too. Riese and I stopped fucking around and all of us.. well, here we are. And man.. he's amazing, too. I don't know how he and Danielle can co-exist like they do, but he's got some power, too. Tamara wasn't ever quite that notable, but maybe.. I dunno. Maybe it skips a generation, like with Monica or something. No idea."

He shrugged again. "Whatever it is, if I didn't know any better I'd say it was planned."

Riese called to them from the entrance of the restaurant then, waving them inwards to sit down.

Planned, right.  By some vampire who felt like fucking with Ash's head.  That's who planned it.  

Ash had remained relatively silent while Marcus talked, making the appropriate noises at the right times to show that he either agreed or understood.  That was all that was really necessary, since the boy hadn't asked for Ash's opinion, and then Riese was calling them inside, so it didn't really matter.

Ash took the seat he was apparently supposed to take, wondering what the hell all of this was getting at and why he was there.