strangetrip | [GP] Shoot that poison arrow

None of the guests noticed when the spiky-haired man-child in jeans and purple t-shirt, wrists wrapped in cheap leather and metal bracelets, arrived at the Madonna Inn a few hours before midnight on February 13. That, in itself, wasn't all that surprising. Eros, otherwise known as Danny Valentine, had millennia of experience doing his job without being spotted.

What was surprising was that the dude at the front desk did see him. Tall and Nondescript waved him over and then gave him a room number 'in case you wanted to rest'. But Danny didn't.

Want to, or rest. He spent the time before the clock struck midnight polishing his love gun. Not like that. He'd find a girl to spend his nameday with. He always did. No, this little beauty was made by Hephaestus himself. It shot love darts that disappeared on contact.

At midnight, kitted out with more love darts than there were people in this pink and gold monstrosity, Danny left his room and shot the first person he saw--and didn't wait to see what would happen.

No point getting a slow start. He had a lot of work to do.

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Distantly, Henry swore he heard himself groan. The hand on her waist slid further around, pulling her closer like she was on the cover of some dime store pulp novel. He didn't think to be embarrassed about his obvious...interest. The fog was starting to clear. Slowly, but surely. Did Stephanie know she had an amazing rear? It felt perfect cupped in his hand. He didn't squeeze. He could appreciate something wonderful without needing to- Alright, one wouldn't hurt, but it was definitely all in the name of appreciation. Yes, exactly that. Not pushing. Positive reinforcement? Yes. Good. Think about making her feel good and not how young she was or even if she wasn't how much literal time likely separated them all the same.

Somehow Steph wouldn't have bet on sweet Henry getting all handsy without dinner and a movie first. But that was probably far enough for him. If his reactions were any indication, things were getting out of hand. So carefully, without hurting him, she pushed him back away from her and then framed his face in her hands. She studied his eyes carefully, looking for signs of drugs.

"Henry, how do you feel?"

Strangely enough, the light squeeze and the push that followed was enough to clear the driving need from his head. He let her inspect him. If she put a finger in front of his eyes to test his visual acuity or whathaveyou, he would've followed that too.

"I couldn't-" He cut himself off and cleared his throat. Lack of control or not, he shouldn't be making excuses. "I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. It was unacceptable."

She tested his cheek again. Cool. "I think you've taken all this Valentine's decorations too seriously." She grinned, clearly unbothered by the suddent and recent mauling.

He kept his hands resolutely at his sides. "Perhaps don't drink the coffee." She might've been casual and over it. He wouldn't be. For all the monstrous things he'd studied, the thing that always frightened him the most were people. Demons and wendigos and vampires and werewolves and shifters and everything else made sense. They had biological or magical reasons for being the way they were and there were means to prevent them. They weren't entirely monstrous, simply different. People could always be crueler to each other than anything that ate them or their souls could ever be.

"Thank you." The gratitude too was genuine. Even if he would've preferred her to have acted on whatever instincts she had and left him out cold on the floor.

"Henry, it's okay, honestly." Steph smiled at him, sure that he was going to be beating himself up for this. He reminded her of Tim a little bit. She still had an extremely clear memory of explaining to her dear ex that no, a few makeout sessions did not a baby make.

Henry nodded in understanding and vowed not to bring it up again in conversation. The tips of his ears were still very pink. He glanced back down at his open notebook and cleared his throat. "So, I've been working on cataloguing the plant life on the grounds. I'm not nearly finished yet, there's a great many I haven't seen before, but it looks like we have quite a few decorative plants that also happen to be very useful. I've been collecting some here and there every so often to let them dry but is there... Do you know if some sort of modern gadget exists that might speed up the process?"

Better to just move onto something else and not concern himself with the discomfort of the moment. She'd been here longer than he had, hadn't she? Surely seemed the type to have explored a great many of the buildings or be familiar with much more in the kitchen than he was.

Stephanie frowned. "Do you mean speed up finding what they are or speed up drying them or what? I don't really know anything about drying flowers. You could ask the groundskeeper? Not that the staff are ever really helpful. Or...Oh, ask the neurotic blond girl. She's been cataloging people's skills like a serial killer in training or something. She'll probably know if someone's good with plants."

"The drying process," Henry clarified. Was...was Stephanie not the neurotic blond girl in question? Oh... Perhaps he hadn't been paying as close attention as he should've been to the people around him. "I'll take that under consideration, thank you," he said, smiling, half wondering what else he'd been missing that was obvious to everyone else.

"Do you happen to know where I might find her? Not today. Definitely not today." He didn't want to risk whatever compulsion had overcome him happening again. He was going to get as far from people as he could and just focus on his work. Yes, that was a good idea.

Steph looked around, actually surprised to find that the girl she was thinking of wasn't in the cafe. That wasn't normal. But then, today was apparently going to be one of those days. "She's usually hanging around here, I think. Her name is...Caroline? I think it's Caroline."

"Caroline," he said, making an obvious mental note. "Thank you, Stephanie. I appreciate that."

[GP] Shoot that poison arrow

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