» never kill a boy on the first date, private

[Sophronia Van Helsing]

outfit

Sophronia's usual fashion sense was loose dresses, with short sleeves and gloves that allowed her to move mostly freely. Today, though, was different. She was slowed down quite a bit by the back of the dress, and was not in the best of positions to hunt down vampires. Ideally the next time she met with Mister Fenwick - she dreaded it, but it was a perhaps - she would be able to wear something more comfortable. Ideally one of her 'work' dresses, not tight and reinforced with magic.

She hated Sadie van Helsing. The woman had been lurking around her all day, seeming very pleased with herself because Roni's reaction had failed to phase her father when she had discovered the betrothal. (Roni's reaction had been screaming swears and blowing up part of the back yard with magic. She had an occasional temper.) But she was betrothed, and she did not want to be, but she was anyways. At least he wasn't much older than her. And he worked with Claude - that had to be worth something.

She had just managed to convince herself that everything would be okay when the house seemingly exploded. The baby started crying, Sadie resumed Sadie-ing in full force, and she couldn't go down to the basement to exercise in her pretty dress. So Sophronia grabbed a book on muggle vampire lore and dragged a small wooden chair onto the front porch, where she read.

That was, she read until she spotted Christian Fenwick on her steps. "Good afternoon, Mister Fenwick," she said, voice taking on the soft tone she used when being proper. (Despite the fact that the van Helsing girls very rarely had chaperones.) "The house is a bit hectic right now. It might be best if we headed to the garden, or elsewhere. Your thoughts?" She shut her book and slipped it under her chair. She could do this. Maybe.

[Christian Fenwick]

Christian Fenwick had obviously not wanted to go visit this young woman that he had been betrothed to. Chris was more of a flirt anyway. The twenty-four year old Unspeakable was cocky and dedicated to his job. By marrying this Sophronia character, his entire future existence would be thrust into turmoil. It was not his expertise. But, Christian was progressive. By age twenty-five he wanted to be married. He was rapidly approaching that target, but he wanted to find love on his own and marry someone that he loved. This Sophronia seemed too wild and unpredictable to make a good wife. Sighing as he approached his destination, Chris tried to distract himself.

The twenty-four year old had decided to wear a top hat for the visit. Perhaps he was overdressed and this was the only situation that the playboy could not talk himself out of. He approached the Van Helsing residence with a debonair smile on his face and he tipped his hat to the woman talking to him. “Hello, Miss Van Helsing. How are you on this lovely day?” he inquired politely. His tone was moderately forced, sure, but, he was not ready to make this commitment, at least, not at this level. Oh boy was this situation ever growing complicated. He did not want to do this. Not now. But, Christian was going to be polite. That was all he could do.

OOC: It's crap.

[Sophronia Van Helsing]

Sophronia studied Christian, a small attempt at deciphering him further than Claudius' information had let her. She supposed she could have asked around for more information, but she had been busy sulking, and putting her to-do list in order. She still had things to do, the expedition had really put her behind on that. Meeting her betrothed had gained a surprising weight in her priorities. She wasn't totally sure how she felt about that.

"I'm well, thank you," she said, half-smiling. If this wasn't so key to her life she almost would have found it interesting. "How are you?" A simple follow up question - Roni's hands folded together in front of her. Pulling at pieces of her plan to help out Claude had been put on hold in favor of paying attention to this interaction. She had no interest in getting married - not yet, at least - but she had no choice but to explore her options here. It was rather unfair, but also not unfair, because two of her younger sisters were already betrothed. Sophronia was struck with the sudden thought that things would have been much easier on her if Sadie had done them all a favor and died of some illness. Or maybe not - her father's wives were declining with quality over time.

At least Mister Fenwick was only three years older than her.

[Christian Fenwick]

Christian looked at the blonde and tried to flash a smile as he could feel her force manners. He followed her look as he stood on the steps waiting to be allowed to either sit on the porch or enter the parlor to converse and drink tea or do some other thing that people their age did when betrothed or engaged to be married. Chris took off his hat as he knew he was now standing under the awning safe out of the sun. “I am quite well, Miss Van Helsing,” he replied, flashing a newly refreshed debonair smile to hopefully even out the tense mood that the pair must have obviously felt. “Miss Van Helsing,” he started. “I assure you that I shall not hinder your job if you do not hinder mine if we do marry.”

It was most certainly the truth, but a truth that Christian Fenwick hardly wanted to admit to. He wanted to achieve his goal of being married by the time he was twenty-five and he would be damned if he did not achieve it. First thing was first; however, he had to win the heart of Sophronia. Now, Christian was just behind on being charming and winning over Roni, as he had been told that she preferred to be called in friendly company. “So, I heard your family has a little,” he stressed the next word, “obsession with vampires. It seems to be something that drives a passion to extreme lengths. I do say that my own obsessions are quite familiar with the unnatural. I have a passing interest with werewolves, but that is a different story. May I sit on the porch with you? Shall I get your mother? Or do you have a proper governess about?”

Chris hated being forced to do this, but at least Sophronia was pretty.

[Sophronia Van Helsing]

She had not been expecting that. No, Roni had been expecting him to resist her occupation. Everyone else certainly did. "I won't interfere," she said, waving a hand. "and I am glad to hear that." To put it bluntly - she didn't care what he did for work. Some women, she supposed, would have been very interested in what an Unspeakable did, but Sophronia was content to know that it was just as dangerous as her own job. And it came with the bonus of not being allowed to talk about it. That was all she needed to find out.

In a considerably more amiable mood, Roni listened almost good-naturedly to what he had to say next. Sadie was an undesirable, batshit insane force she wanted to keep as far away as possible from her at all times. Of course, she couldn't say that, but she could find someone else. "The porch is the most preferable location, and," she turned and smiled at the window, "my chaperon has an interesting habit of lurking in the kitchen when she's not actively needed." Sophronia's preferred chaperon happened to be a long-standing staff member, who had dealt with a crossbow mishap without quitting several years ago. She was also Roni's favorite.

Her hand knocked around the glass, once, and she heard the woman go "oh!" Roni smiled. "She'll be out in a minute. And yes, the word 'obsession' is fairly good for describing my family's.... careers. What would you like to know?" She was confident that he wasn't a vamp - he was, after all, here.

[Christian Fenwick]

Christian took the remaining steps up to the porch and stood near the railing, looking at his betrothed. He nodded to what she said. Sure, the Van Helsings were quite a popular vampire hunting family for everyone, or so it seemed, had heard of them and their escapades which usually brought back at least one menacing vampire deceased with a stake or arrow, or whatever the hell it was. Sophronia was being nice, and Chris had begun to think of a myriad of things that he could try to do to impress her. He could tell that there would be no sense in trying to contain a reckless spirit and that was exactly what Roni was: a reckless spirit.

Then, she surprised him. “I do not want to know anything. Your occupation is yours just as my occupation is mine. You hunt vampires and I do things that cannot be mentioned,” Christian shrugged into his words. He had no care for what he did; not really, he just knew that he was good at it. Other than seeing fellow workers he KNEW were Unspeakables, they did not even talk to the others in their own department, but that was a different story.

But was there anything he wished to know of her? Christian thought about it and he decided that he didn’t want to know much else. She was a girl whom he had been betrothed to against his own personal agenda, but time was ticking. He wanted to be married before he was twenty-five and those days were slowly ticking away. “I, Miss Van Helsing, cannot tell you about my job, no matter how much I wish to tell you,” he smiled in debonair fashion. This was going just beautifully… not.

[Sophronia Van Helsing]

Sophronia smirked. "I know unspeakables," she admitted with a small shrug. Specifically, she knew Claudius Lestrange, but she was not sure how Mister Fenwick would feel about her having male friends, so he remained unnamed. "Your rules seem rather strict, but I suppose that's necessary when you handle as sensitive objects as I presume you unspeakables do." Department of Mysteries. Roni's natural curiosity almost made her want to harass him about it, but as she had never gotten anything out of Claude, she doubted that her betrothed was going to be any easier.

Hmn, a different subject - this one seemed touchy. "As my family has been a bit of a focus by the Prophet lately, I do suppose you know some things about us - but for the record, I have six sisters." As well as ten cousins, one nephew, and one step-woman. She did not mention them yet, as she was otherwise unsure of how much he was aware of - and she supposed it would be smart to anchor him to her more before introducing him to the full extent of the madness. She wasn't attached, but this arrangement was much, much easier than what she had been expecting from Sadie.

"Do you have any siblings, Mister Fenwick?" she inquired. Her chaperon had arrived and was looking mildly amused by the whole situation - Sophronia was not. But at least Mister Fenwick was handsome.

[Christian Fenwick]

She was very curious, but that didn't change Christian's view of the girl sitting before him. "Hm," he hummed, "strict indeed." Chris raised his eyebrows at the mention of six sisters. "And I trust you are the loveliest of the bunch," the Unspeakable complimented. "But yes," he started to reply. "I am the eldest of four. I have two sisters and a brother. My immediate sibling, the eldest girl, is named Georgina, with my brother Lehman who goes by Alexander and my sister Evelyn who goes by Catherine," Christian shrugged. "I guess Georgina and I like our names."

That was when he noticed that Sophronia's chaperone had a particularly atriculate timed arrival. He gave a polite nod and a smile that he had smiled at his betrothed as he turned back to face Roni completely. "Anything else you wish to inquire about Miss van Helsing?"

ooc: crap post is crap.

[Sophronia Van Helsing]

Roni did not respond verbally to the compliment, but a tiny smile appeared on her face. She mentally decided that she couldn't possibly be the loveliest - there was Corinne, for one, and Artemis had managed to snare herself a man. (A man Sophronia considered to be stupid, but a man nonetheless.)

Three siblings - a brother and two sister. Sophronia had never had a brother, although she did have a few male cousins from Marit. She toyed, briefly, with the idea of telling him her middle name but decided against it. Perhaps they would get to that later - perhaps not. Sophronia was still not sold on the whole ordeal, although Christian seemed to be the lesser of all evils as far as betrotheds went.

"No, Mister Fenwick," she admitted with a slight smirk. "Yourself?" He seemed much less nosy than she was, although Roni did suppose that applied to most people. Hmph.