virgilmoretti - Tumblr blog

[virgilmoretti]

If that draegloth hurt his sister, it'd be over for him, but Nash would have to manage it first. It was dangerous, but everything they did was difficult; Virgil had spent too long thinking he needed to protect Eoin and Aurea, but here they were, proving him wrong left and right. This wasn't going to be the end because Aurea was too fucking stubborn to die, too fucking determined for a lot of things but death was definitely top of the list. Virgil shoved her at her shoulder. "Why do fish do so damn bad in school?" He smiled, "Because they swim below C level." Virgil's snicker was light but still beaming. "Your mom would be proud of you, Aurea. I'm proud of you."

Huffing and running a hand through pink hair only to tighten up her ponytail, Aurea nodded. It takes her a second for everything to kind of sink in and she finds herself grinning at Virgil. "Yeah, yeah I am." Max hadn't been easy, he'd put up a good effort and she appreciated that. "And I'm gonna try to kick his ass." Before, when she'd mentioned throwing a hand in the ring for Alpha, she hadn't thought about the concept of winning. She had something to prove to herself and maybe everyone else, too. But after that, she can't say she's not thinking further ahead now.

[virgilmoretti]

@aureamoretti location: Lupercal notes: proud dad stance, post-Max laid out

People forgot that Aurea was a fighter, that she'd had it hard, and that every bit of recognition she had was hard-won and earned the difficult way. "I see you, Alpha-Wolf." Aurea had told him she was planning to fight, fight for the Moretti name, for the Ivy, and most importantly, for herself. Proud as hell was what he was, the gauntlet, that first round - but she was up against the draegloth next, a fucking psychopath who'd proven very clearly what he was going to do to the wolves he knocked down. "You really plan on going against that thing?"

[virgilmoretti]

Sonny wasn't making a lot of sense; the druid was more or less speaking in half sentences and incomplete thoughts as he paced and looked anywhere but Virgil. The witch knew who he was, sovereign, brother, son, leader, and so much more. What they had - what they'd been, Virgil didn't know what they were but friends didn't seem to quite cover it. The sovereign didn't have many of those to start with, but at least Sonny laughed at his jokes, and when push came to shove, he'd have the other's back. That wasn't just about Octavian.

They were too old now for games, too busy, and Virgil wouldn't spend his time reading into subtext. "We go a long ways back," He'd waited a beat to talk, the corner of his lip quirked, he thought about nights in the desert with the lights of the city behind them, and he wondered how long it had been since he'd felt like he had that night. "But we're not those kids anymore; things changed. We're on the other side of the world from where we started, you and me could never be just friends, but I don't know what you want."

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]

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?"

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."

[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.

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?"

[virgilmoretti]

"I was..." Virgil rubbed his temple for a moment as he recounted it in his mind, "nine the first time Mom took me out to see what it meant to be a Moretti." Virgil remembered them all, every witch that ever crossed the line, and every family that the Ivy had stripped of their power. Magic precipitated abuse, it was their job to make sure it didn't happen. "When you're born with magic, there's something that dies in a person's eyes when it's taken from them. Even if they deserve it. There's a difference between being worried and being afraid, between being angry and being vengeful. I get any of them wrong and thousands of years of legacy goes up in smoke. Worried doesn't begin to cover it." Humor had left Virgil's eyes as he leaned in, arm folded across the counter where he sat. "The Eye wiped out a whole coven, they locked the oldest member of our Coven in prison for five centuries and then lied about it. The senate slaps necromancers on the wrist and assigns them a therapist as if that's supposed to make up for the mass graves that litter this country." Virgil shook his head, "I'm not here to worry, or be afraid, or be anyone's avenging angel. I'm not okay with any of this; I came to Rome to set the record straight because that's what it means to be a Moretti."

I worry about you so much now. The fork has to go into her mouth to keep her from blurting the sentiment because she can't help the amounting anxiety she feels. It was all over, they'd won, the Ivy was always a coven that was strong, a pillar. Now she worried that the higher up they were, the longer the way down was going to be. "Are you okay with all of this?" Is what Aurea asks instead, shifting in her seat and squaring her shoulders because this was an adult conversation now. "Are you not worried?" That feels rhetorical because she knows he worries an ample amount, mostly about her and Eoin but there's so much more now. More eyes on them, perhaps more targets because of it.

[virgilmoretti]

I can't even blame you, ya solid

@virgilmoretti & @octavianrising

[virgilmoretti]

Virgil smiled because Virgil almost always smiled; this time, it didn't quite reach his eyes, and when he looked up from his bowl and to the girl he'd practically raised, Virgil just looked tired. Maybe Aurea wasn't a child anymore, but even back then, Aurea had always been a smart kid. "No... No you're not, but you can't blame me for wanting to pretend." She'd already proven herself in more ways than Virgil would list, but what else was he supposed to say? "What do you wanna know?" If she wanted to ask a specific question, he could give her a specific answer; Virgil led a big life - they both did. That made things complicated, and it was often better to not know something if it meant you could retain some plausible deniability in the end.

Her eyes narrow in suspicion over her pasta and yet Virgil is Virgil and he is going to do whatever he can not to worry anybody. With decent reason, he can handle himself, it's why he's in charge. Not only that, but it's all done with style, grace, and often compassion. She doesn't know how she went without him for so long, being home again with him feels safe. Aurea thinks she needs that now more than ever, wakes up in her trailer below the hotel practically screaming at nightmares. It's all whatever the hell that thing had been telling her that Eoin was already dead. It's seeing Paloma die again and again, the people she couldn't help. That haunts her more than anything, the people she should have been able to save. They're all there now, only the Six remained gone and in a way, she'd chosen this, she'd chosen not to forget. It was a constant reminder that she needed to be better, to do better. "I do know you, which is why I know you're gonna keep the conversation focused on me so you don't have to tell me about anything." It's pointed but it's still playful. "I'm not a kid anymore, Virg."

[virgilmoretti]

"So they got what they were after then." Virgil wanted to put his fist through something but he resisted the urge. All that work, all that care, and the gates of hell still hadn't opened. "I've felt the rise of demons outside this realm. What are they waiting for?" Virgil hoped that Trivia had some insight and could shed some light on the situation because, for the moment, it felt like they were more or less in the dark about everything that was going on out there. He could also ask Octavian, but everything from the phoenix needed to be taken with a grain of salt.

"The coven's currently situated in Rome are powerful and have survived a great deal, it is only apt to reward them for their tenacity." Her words are calm and deliberate, expression placidly calm as she explains part of her reasoning. There is no full disclosure coming from her, not when there is no need to tell Moretti that she has decided to take a more hands on approach with witches from this point on to ensure they respect her enough to ensure none of the Asphodel bullshit is tried again. Thanatos has made it so it won't work, but she wants to make sure she puts the fear of her into them if she cannot instill awe or respect. "Hell is empty and all the devils are here, Vigil. More accurately, the Inferno is no more, and the Archfiends have been released. Unfortunately, this means is that things are not about to get easier."

[virgilmoretti]

That wedding was just another example of how this city had failed; as Virgil understood it, new information surfaced that The Eye had poisoned the city's water supply and framed the elves. Witches were dead, many witches, and more and more, it just ground on Virgil's nerves. Octavian had a point. This city may need a fresh start. Still, the sovereign kept his demeanor as jolly as ever as his smile brightened that much further. "That's one hell of a way to turn; you're lucky, kid." Not really, but at least she wasn't permanently dead. "What were you before, human, or-?"

She is pleasantly surprised when the witch does actually go through with his offer and calls for a bartender, a bright grin on her lips as she offers him a quick thanks and gives the bartender her order. “It really was,” she agrees with a grimace as she pulls her drink closer from across the bar and takes a sip to hide the face she pulled. “It’s sort of silly, but I didn’t realize wars could be so messy until then, but even then I am glad I helped.” What she doesn’t say it’s that the biggest trial had actually been to make sure she didn’t end up slurping someone by accident, but she is sure that is not hard to guess. “Yup. I died during the Red Wedding, but was lucky enough to have some of Jamie’s blood on me so I came back. Weirdest way to become the vampire equivalent of an oops baby, though.”

[virgilmoretti]

It wasn't like Aurea had to work, and it wasn't like there wasn't a position in the company for her if she wanted it. Nepotism at its finest and all that. Virgil didn't see the appeal in spending all day in a greasy auto shop with greasier coworkers, but Aurea seemed content. "Whatever makes you happy." Virgil sighed goodnaturedly, his smile a bit light as he spoke. At her question, he just shrugged, "Same old, same old, you know me." The answer was naturally evasive but for now he wasn't going to get too far into it, besides it wasn't like he was going to talk to the lycan about coven business that she didn't have to worry about - and he definitely wasn't going to talk to the kid about his sex life or lack thereof.

The eye roll she offers him is playful as she keeps shoveling food into her mouth. Her metabolism burns through things quickly on top of the fact she'd had what, a Danish for breakfast and that'd been it? She does offer a shake of her head though before reaching for her own glass of diet Coke and taking a sizable sip. "It's good. The owner seems nice enough and the exasperated blonde is kind of adorable." Rawlins was definitely something, Kayce was a bit of a mystery in the sense that she desperately tries not to go all 'I'm a wolf, you're a wolf, let's be friends' on him. "How are things with you? You always try to sus out if I'm in trouble but what of you?" Her eyes narrow in playful suspicion, her legs crossing at the ankles.

[virgilmoretti]

Truthfully Virgil could have chosen a more discreet location to meet with the phoenix. Octavian was a wanted man; Virgil could have trekked through the forest into Lupercal or even chosen another area outside of Rome. Here, in his home, the setting was far more intimate. Octavian was a legend among the Ivy, the patron of their past who'd been cut down; the reality was that he'd been wrongfully imprisoned instead. Virgil had always held a sort of reverence for the man, but seeing him in person was another feat entirely.

This spark between them was tangible, more apparent than the azure hue of the flames that Octavian could conjure, which he used to incinerate his clothes. "Is that a threat, Octavian?" Virgil's tone was playfully challenging as he snapped off his belt. Or a promise?" From all that he'd heard and all that he'd experienced over the last couple of months, Virgil had never known Octavian to be idle in anything. He stepped out of his pants, his fingers hooked over the waistband of his boxers as he shucked them down his muscular thighs. For a moment, Virgil basked in the other's praise, how Octavian's gaze fixed itself upon him, wandered, settled, and then moved on to appreciate somewhere new.

Octavian's fingers moved in a smooth, but languid motion along his abdomen. Virgil could feel the heat of the phoenix's gaze on his eyes, even as the witch's dark hues remained transfixed on the motion and the budding arousal below. Virgil felt his mouth go dry; he swallowed a hard lump that had formed in his throat before Octavian landed on the place where he'd chosen to be marked. "There won't be any removing it." That was more promise than a threat; Octavian's name was once synonymous with his coven, and that day would come again. Virgil's words resonated from the bones of Etruria; the Etruscan tongue curved together the proto-language as he leaned in towards Octavian.

Virgil leaned in towards the phoenix, his dominant hand braced itself on Octavian's shoulder while the other curved around the warmth that hung beneath the other's waist. Saddled across the man's thigh, Virgil pushed lightly again and pressed Octavian back into the bed so his palm and incantation could land over the phoenix's heart. Virgil's witch's mark, the mark of the Ivy, and the tying thread of the coven wove its way down his forearm as it began to sprawl across his palm. He pressed harder, squeezed tighter, and breathed into the warm air that fettered the space between them. The mark pressed against Octavian's skin as it stitched its way across the other's flesh like any other tattoo, warm with the pricks of a thousand tiny needles; Virgil kept his gaze ono the phoenix entirely, the man's cock laid across his palm as he stroked him and extended his mark to him all at once.

❂🐦❂

Octavian was a dominating force of nature, yet the kiss he gave Virgil was different than any other he'd delivered. Backed still by strength and power, there was a give never afforded to the lips he took with his own, a necessary push he allowed himself to receive. Virigl was a force of nature in his own right, one brimming with a unique fortitude Octavian craved. He wanted the man, every last bit of him. Fire consumed all it touched and Octavian could feel explosive heat building inside of him.

Though he was thrown back before he let his worse nature take over, smoke sizzling off his flesh where blue sparks lsinged cooly. "You've not lived until you've seen the world ablaze. The fires of passion searing your insides while the outside melts around you is truly transcendent. Even the air would burn, and you'd have no choice but to keep your lips on mine." With a controlled burn, Octavian's clothes get eaten away by heat until he his bare before Virgil. He heeds the warning, though a challenge burns in his eyes. He may be on his back but Octavian angles his chin up proudly, smirking confidently at the witch.

"Come here," he demands, accenting his statment with a gentle wave of his fingers. Bird-like eyes zero in on every contour of Virgil's body, Octavian's appreciation in the visual feast evident by his expression and his chub. "I want you to place it right..." He presses his index fingers at the base of his abdomen and drags it along his body with intentionally sloth. Not once does Octavian allow his gaze to drop from the other, his attempt to seduce even in this incredibly serious moment. He was unable to help himself, wanting to explore this newfound attraction fully. "...right here."

His finger stopped right in the middle of his chest. "Close to my heart, as a reminder to myself and to you. Going back? The thought hadn't crossed my mind. This is what's best for me and for those I truly care about. Every time you disrobe me, I want you to see the mark and remember that I chose the Ivy."

[virgilmoretti]

Octavian was on him, and for a moment, the room was simultaneously too quiet and too loud all at once. Virgil was a sovereign, attuned to the world around him, but for a brief second, there was no coven, boardroom, or senate, just a man offering him the only thing the Moretti fortune had never afforded him. Over the years, there have been more faceless or nameless people that Virgil didn't care to count. One stuck out, but he was wrapped up in Vegas, and the other had been doomed from the start. Octavian the Phoenix, indomitable and strong, had been burned by this city more times than Virgil would take the time to count. At least for now, a day would come when Rome paid back everything that Octavian and the Ivy were owed.

It was Virgil's mark that Octavian had asked for, a sigil of the Ivy that would tether the Phoenix to this coven forever. This was how it should have been since the days of Etruria, but they had more knowledge and resources now. Thousands of years had given the Coven the secrets and the knowledge they needed to cement this bond into eternity. Octavian's lips covered his own and Virgil felt his pulse quicken, the phoenix's warmth washed over him but the heat was comfortable. Like a fireplace in the dead of winter. "There won't be any going back." That was a promise, not now, and not for him. Not from this pact, and not what had sparked between them.

Virgil had been walking alone for so long that he forgot what it was to stand in the presence of someone strong enough to hold him. Someone that he could look at as an equal, not a competitor, and not someone who wanted things they could never have; power, influence, and position. Naturally, the sovereign would take the other in and welcome the phoenix in deep, but that would be on his terms. Virgil's hands pushed with enough force to shove the other back onto the bed, he shed his shirt and stood over the phoenix.

The witch's dark eyes watched azure flames as they danced behind Octavian's hues, "You set this place on fire, and I'll throw you out." It was a warning, but there was a smile on his lips as the words spilled forth. Virgil's mark grew as the ivy tattoo grew down his arm, the intricate pattern wove over his chest, fettered its way down his forearm and inched over his hand. "Tell me where you want it."

❂🐦❂

There he was, feeling something foreign in Virgil's touch and finding himself excited by the unfamiliarity. Even before Oztalun had selected him to be an Archdruid, Octavian stood apart from the people he led. He was without equal. Even the great Augustus Ceaser sank to his knees before Octavian's superiority, paving the way for him to ascend as Emperor as an act of service. He acknowledged Virgil as an equal, the one person who could possibly understand Octavian's bird's eye view of the world.

This wasn't a man to command or instruct, this was someone who was at his apex. Powerful and strong, the fact that Virgil didn't need him would have normally put Octavian off as such a quality was far from his usual type. Yet he was drawn in, desiring not to conquer but uplift the man in front of him. The grand fantasy plays out in Octavian's mind about how one stroke of fate prevented this union of power being cemented lifetimes ago. Octavian and the Ivy's Soverign should have always ruled as one, but there was no sense in lamenting what could've been. His empire was dead, so he would have to build something new and return the spirit of his first home to this land.

"We'll reclaim everything that was lost, settle every debt, and when the ashes of conquest settle we'll be at the summit as it should've been. Together." Octavian's hand folded over the one pressed to his chest. Between his loyal acolytes and the backing of history's most powerful coven, he had everything he needed. Appreciation, intrigue, and a lust he finally accepted drove him forward, and after looking deep into Virgil's eyes, blue fire filled his own. He was the phoenix, and now he'd finally be at his prime at it was because of this. The pull was unbeatable, and Octavian's hunger drove him to take the man's lips with his own. "Your days of carrying your burdens alone are over," he promises through his heavy breathing, pressing his forehead tightly to the others in his brief respite before diving back in to feast. "My strength is yours, as yours is mine."

[virgilmoretti]

"No, that was hilarious. You must've left your sense of humor in your trailer park." Virgil tutted; Aurea could be as aloof as she wanted, though, when he sat down at the island next to her, a glass of diet coke in front of him, he was just glad for the company. Eoin had been all about that blonde twink lately who looked more like Denise the Menace than an actual person, but whatever made these fools happy. Aurea and Eoin had each proven themselves, they proved that Virgil didn't need to baby them anymore, and he wouldn't. For now, though, they could still enjoy a meal together before more doom and gloom started falling on them. "How's working going? Anybody giving you a hard time?"

"That was terrible." She points out but her fork finds a piece of pasta anyways before she's even seated because she does genuinely miss a home cooked meal. Something sits there in her chest at the idea of it even, that she's back at home. It's something she doesn't really want to get into with any of them, that she sits in that trailer down in the garage and thinks about the fact she is home with her family and she's not a little kid anymore. It had been something that'd been jarring upon returning to Roman soil, something to grapple with. Aurea Lucia Moretti was a grown ass woman with grown ass problems and she could handle them, she'd been through a war, she could handle anything. At least that's what she told herself as she sat down and proceeded to practically shovel Virgil's cooking into her mouth. "And maybe. Maybe not. Who is to say?" She says and it comes off as more suspicious than aloof between bites.

[virgilmoretti]

Tyler Lepley

[virgilmoretti]

@aureamoretti location: Mojo Dojo Casa Virgil's House notes: back at it with the dad puns

"So we had Christmas, New Years: did you kiss that girl or what?" They said the arms of the person you spent New years with were the arms of the person you'd spend the rest of the year with. Virgil had spent his completely alone with a bowl of ramen noodles for several years at this point. He had high hopes for his siblings though, Eoin had been with that short, pasty twink, and Aurea had mentioned there being someone special while decorating. As the witch leaned in to dish out some of the homemade pasta he'd made for them for dinner, he had to let Aurea know, "You know what they say right? Life is full of pasta-bilities."

[virgilmoretti]

Tyler Lepley