RP: Planting Seeds Who: Padre Gabriel & Simone What: The girl who escaped a cult meets the demon masquerading as a priest. When: Thursday, May 9, 2000 Where: St. Charles at Columbia University Warnings: Mentions of sex Completion Status: Complete
Playing around in Rome had only been fun for the past fifty years, but he was ready to move on. Things were being ruined by rude tourists, and he thought it might be fun to see his son again. How long had it been?
After bouncing around to a few different congregations, he found himself taking on a position of guest priest, filling in for different chapels when their own priest had to be gone. It was quickly becoming his favorite position, he didn’t have to worry about aging, and he always got to corrupt the flock, just before skipping town to bring more innocent sheep under his dark wing.
Today was no different, day two at St. Charles, on the campus grounds. The college children were always so delicious, the campus pulsing with potential. He was just busying himself near the pulpit, picking up the book the previous priest left him.
Padre Gabriel had dressed down, in hopes of appealing to the youth. A pair of black slacks, with the black buttoned up shirt, and white collar. His dark hair was combed back, eyes darkening as he looked over the book in his hand, hip pressed against the podium. “Ridiculous,” he muttered to himself, an eyebrow quirking as he felt a disturbance. Someone new had entered the church, he wondered just what this little church mouse was looking for. The chapel was a sort of refuge in Simone's world, a place she could go when she was feeling overwhelmed or if she was struggling with social situations that could still feel foreign to her despite having left home nearly four years before. There was comfort in the familiarity, in the beautiful architecture and the stained glass windows.
Thankfully, today there were no scheduled events that she would be interrupting, she thought as she looked at the bulletin board in the lobby of the building. She walked into the sanctuary, a large room, noting the priest at the podium, but he seemed preoccupied, and she wasn't really there to bother him anyway. She walked halfway down the aisle and slipped into a row, sitting in a pew there, and she just looked at the stained glass windows, focused on her breathing, and let her mind drift, not forcing it to focus on any one issue. She didn’t approach him, which allowed his mind to reach out and take just a tiny peek metaphysically at the gorgeous college student seated in the pew. As ridiculous as it was, the fact that he could tell she was innocent was intriguing. He raised both brows as he shut the notebook, sliding it back into its cubby hole. He had to talk to her, just to play with her a little. She was unique.
One hand came up to brush back his hair, and he made his way over to the pew that she sat in. Her attention was on the windows, and he glanced up to see which one she was so focused on. A beautiful piece full of color, one he could appreciate.
As he stopped at the end of her pew, he flashed that charming smile that had done him well for so many millennia. “Good afternoon. Beautiful piece, isn’t it?” he asked, gesturing towards the stained glass they were both now looking at. “Some of the best I’ve seen in my travels recently, I’m Padre Gabriel. Visiting,” he clarified, Italian accent thick, though his English was likely a little too good. Simone noticed when the priest started heading her way, though she kept her focus on the stained glass. Although she was mentally preparing for him to gently ask her to leave–perhaps they were preparing for an event that had been mistakenly left off the calendar?–she hadn't expected the casual greeting or the warmth in his smile.
It probably wasn't appropriate to recognize that a priest was attractive, was it? And not just because she was technically engaged. Still, she found herself looking at him with a warm smile of her own, nodding at his words. "It really is," she agreed, fascinated by his accent. She'd been so sheltered for so much of her life that the diversity of accents had been as much a culture shock as anything else. "I'm sure we're quite happy to have you here, then. Are you visiting from the Vatican?" she asked curiously. Was it possible this little campus chapel had managed to draw a visiting priest from the actual Vatican? Not that her family would approve of Catholicism, but she wasn't here to convert, anyway. Eyes flashed dark for just a moment, when she asked if he was visiting from the Vatican. He had so enjoyed his time there, finding more than enough little lambs to bring over to the dark side. He gave a soft chuckle at his own thoughts, shaking his head to the woman that was seated in front of him. “Unfortunately, no. I’m here from Iowa,” he admitted. “I did grow up just outside of Rome though.” It was his way of explaining just how he had an accent and potentially giving her a reason for why his English was so good. He had been in the states a while, back a century ago.
“What brings you in today?” he asked, taking his own invitation to sit down next to her on the empty pew. “Anything weighing on your mind?” The explanation was appreciated though she certainly wouldn't have called him out on his accent. She could never be rude like that! She glanced sideways at him when he sat next to her and gave a small shake of her head, her thick curls bouncing from the poof of a ponytail at the crown of her head. "Nothing in particular, really. I think I'm just… adjusting to life, still," she admitted. It was completely natural to trust him automatically, to just be honest with her thoughts. Simone didn't have a duplicitous bone in her body.
"I had a friend talk to me about dancing recently, and she framed it totally different from the perspective with which I was raised, so… Yeah, adjusting." It felt silly to admit even that little bit, but he was a priest, so of course he was safe. She shouldn't feel silly! And the conversation with Emilia hadn't been that recent, but having brought it up with Jack recently had it rather swimming in her thoughts again. Dancing, he hummed to himself as he watched her. He wondered just what sort of dancing, and then his thoughts slid to an image of her swaying her hips to a beat, his own arms wrapping around that slender waist of hers. It was as he thought about how good it would feel to pull her body against his and dance with her, that he coughed to clear his thoughts.
“Would you care to talk about it? I, myself, am an excellent Ballroom dancer,” he said with that dashing smile, eyes alight with mischief. He wouldn’t mind Ballroom, but he rather enjoyed how close people seemed to get while dancing now. There was grinding, touching, and in his experience it almost always led to sex. A dance floor was one of his favorite places when he needed to recharge, enjoying feeding off all the sexual energy that blanketed the club. Maybe he’d open up one in town, he mused to himself. Under a shell corporation of course, he didn’t want to blow the priest gig. At least, not yet. Did she want to talk about it? Simone wasn't sure. Jack had said he didn't tend to dance, and with the hangups from her own upbringing, she wasn't sure it would be something she was comfortable picking up as a hobby. But then, Jack had also mentioned dancing at weddings, which had made her think about their possible wedding, and that was a whole tangled web of thoughts she wasn't sure she could detangle in one conversation with a priest.
"I've never danced," she admitted. "It's always seemed… too intimate, and I've never wanted to give anyone the wrong impression of me." The words felt awkward, as if she were bragging in some way, like she was searching for his approval, though she wasn't. She was simply trying to be honest. "But what if it wasn't about all of that? I… Don't mind me," she said, shaking her head at herself. "I've been far too retrospective lately," she sighed. That was intriguing, and it was then that he let himself lower his shields. Testing to see if she felt any sort of other worldly, see what he might pick up from her. He shook his own head, lifting a hand up to shake off her words when she told him not to mind her. She was interesting; he wanted to play with this little lamb.
Without any sort of permission, he reached his hands out to gently rest on top of her own for just a moment, in a comforting gesture. “It’s not a bad thing to be retrospective, but just remember you have to keep moving forward. You can’t change the past, but you can adjust your future. Did you know that the church is having a hoedown June 20th, we’ll have Line Dancing. Hardley an intimate dance,” he assured her. “It could be good to see for yourself, we’ll even have a cake walk, hay rides, and an old Western we’ll be playing in the rec room. God’s Gun, one of my personal favorites.” Simone was rather an open book, free with her expressions and with no mental walls up to hide her thoughts and feelings. As a human, she wouldn't even know how to protect herself from magical invasions of her inner self. As such, the curiosity surrounding dancing and Jack and their potential wedding and the possibility of sex someday that continued to circle through her mind would be readily available for the disguised demon to poke around.
"Oh, I wouldn't change a thing about my past," she admitted softly, startled a bit by the feel of his hands resting on her for that brief moment. "It's all the possibilities for the future," she added a moment later, looking up into his eyes, struck again by how attractive he was. It seemed a bit strange for a man of God to be so attractive, and she wondered briefly what his story was.
"A hoedown?" she echoed even as she listened to him explain a bit about what it would entail. There'd been a couple dorm parties with that sort of theme over the years, but she hadn't spent much time at those sorts of events. She still shuddered when she remembered the first one Sophia had dragged her to that first year. "That could be interesting. I'll have to see if anyone would want to go." She certainly couldn't imagine going to something like that alone! What Gabriel found was rather interesting. She was thinking about sex, though he could tell she had no experience with such things. The way she connected dancing and sex was interesting, and he wondered if he were to get her on the dance floor if he could open her up. Maybe press a bit at her boundaries. It had been at least a hundred years since he had last seduced a virgin. They always tasted sweeter.
He was brought back to their conversation as the thought of how attractive he was floated through her thoughts, and he couldn’t help the sinister smile that curled his lips. He had to find a reason to get her dancing with him, he wanted to know what her lips tasted like. His eyes even flicked down to glance at them a moment, before meeting her gaze again. “Are you excited about the possibilities?” he asked, while letting his powers brush against the attraction she felt for him. He wanted her to come back, he wanted to play with her.
The hoedown was being held on the summer solstice, he knew in the moment that he wanted her there. Wouldn’t that be the perfect time to find out just how those full lips tasted? “I’ll see you there,” he said with such confidence. There was something about the way he was looking at her that had a shiver running down her spine, but she couldn't tell what sort of feeling it was. Was it an extension of the surface attraction she so inappropriately felt toward the priest? Or was it a cautionary sort of thing? She wasn't sure, but the thoughts made her quite uncomfortable. "Excited, yes, but also nervous," she found herself admitting.
There was a brief flash of something in his expression, an edge to his smile that seemed wrong on a priest, but she couldn't quite place why that was. "Oh, umm, yeah. Sure," she agreed awkwardly. She would have to find someone to come with her now, wouldn't she? She'd always hated letting anyone down, and even if something about this priest was making her nervous, he was still a man of God, and it seemed wrong to lie about something as silly as going to a hoedown. The shiver didn’t go unnoticed, but since he was still listening to her, he reeled it back. He didn’t want to scare her off, he needed her to trust him. If he didn’t push too far, he had a feeling he had an in. It was going to be agonizing to wait until the hoedown to see if she’d come back, but he already had stolen the information from her thoughts about where she lived. He’d find a way to check up on her, do some research on her. Next time they met, he was going to try to hug her farewell. It was a small enough gesture, but since he was masquerading as a priest, he couldn’t just go for the kiss.
“Do you want to talk about what is causing you to be nervous?” he asked, while wondering if it was too far to ask her to retire to his office to speak about the prospect of sex with this man "Jack". What a stupid name, he thought.
They had just met, he thought a moment later, so it was a good idea to start small. What would she mention as they sat here? “I apologize if I’m pushing,” he said, while doing his best to give her an innocent priestly look, the sort that people expected from the harmless priest. Just doing his job. How would she even begin to explain what was making her nervous about all the future things? Simone blew out a breath, shaking her head slightly. "I feel like it would take so long to get the context out," she admitted. She didn't really feel like he was pushing in that moment; more, that he was simply making himself available to her if she needed a sounding board. Perhaps that was simply her choosing to see the best in people, though.
After a moment of pause, she added, "I'm kind of engaged to someone? It was just a silly promise he made to me years ago, and I'm not really sure if he meant it. But he wanted me to get through college first, and now I've just got one year left of school." At least this leg of it. There were many more to come if she was able to get into law school like she was aiming for. "So, excited for the possibilities, but nervous that maybe it's not really a thing?" She was so close to speaking about the direct issue, he had to suppress the triumphant grin. He was making a dent, he was certain he’d get to see her again. She would be at the hoedown, he was sure of it.
They had been dating for years and she was still a virgin? That was surprising, but then he knew there was more to it. How to turn it though, was what he was most curious about. “You two have been together for years, that’s wonderful! The nerves about what it will be like to be a wife are completely normal, but you truly love each other,” he laid it on thick, he knew, but she hadn’t mentioned that they weren’t dating. He knew from his dive into her mind, but he wanted to push her to think about dating. He wanted to direct the conversation towards more scandalous topics, and so he gave her another gentle nudge with his power. He wanted her thinking about being with this Jack character, even if he was hoping to be the first to taste her sweet fruit. Her expression went a bit flustered, butterflies erupting in her belly at his words. What would it be like to be Jack's wife? It was such a big question in her mind, one she hadn't let herself dwell on much in the last four years but that had become more insistent in recent weeks. But she couldn't talk about that part of things with a priest, could she? "I do love him, very much," she admitted. She'd never told him that, not directly, but she almost had so many times.
"But we haven't really been dating all this time." Her lips turned down slightly at the corners at the admission. "I just…" She cringed faintly, never loving bringing up her upbringing, but thinking the context might help Father Gabriel understand a bit better. "I grew up with the Children of Dawn, and he helped me get out. I was nervous about it, and so he said I could marry him someday, and that way I would know I wasn't doing it alone. I agreed, and that was that. We just… never really talked about it again? He helped me get set up at a community college, and here we are, four years later. Our lives have been fairly separate, though we've kept in contact and visited some. But recently, we've started making plans to spend more quality time together, and it feels different. Like I'm different? I don't feel like that scared twenty-year-old girl who just wanted to break free and learn. I feel more like an equal now. So, exciting, but also nerve-wracking." It took a lot of self-restraint to keep himself from making a face when she said that she did love Jack. It took even more to not say the thought that was on the tip of his tongue, was she in love with him? He’d bet good money on no, that it was more of a Fatherly sort of love. He almost snickered at the thought.
This conversation wasn’t exactly going in the direction he wanted, but he saw the perfect place to insert himself. He gave a glance to his Van Cleef watch. “I only have a moment, but let me drop some wisdom on you,” he told her with a gentle smile. “It sounds to me that you may want to date before you commit to marrying this man. There are plenty of fish in the sea, and a date to a movie is innocent. It doesn’t hurt to find out who you are, and what you want. You’re still very young, my love,” he said. “Marriage isn’t something to take lightly,” he cautioned. “Take your time to think about it, if you would benefit from getting to know yourself more.” It was on the tip of her tongue to apologize for keeping him from whatever it was he needed to get to, but he was continuing on before she had a chance, and she was thoroughly distracted by what he was saying. Did he mean that she should date other people? Or that she and Jack should properly date before committing to each other in the way they'd promised four years ago? She supposed that, when it came down to it, it didn't really matter what he meant.
"Oh, I'm not taking it lightly! That's the whole point, isn't it?" she posed rhetorically. "I want to take the time to truly get to know him and for him to know who I am now. And I have gone on a few date-like things, but it never felt right, because it wasn't going to go anywhere." She sighed and shook her head. "I'm sorry, you have things to get to, and I'm just rambling in circles here!" A warm laugh left him, he wondered if he might be able to propose a date with him. That would be a future conversation, he would find a way to phrase it perfectly that it seemed innocent enough. He could picture her now, in a tight little sundress. A happy little noise left him as he stood up.
“Don’t worry about it,” he promised her, waving a hand to wave away her apology. “You are not rambling in circles, we’re just speaking the same language. I cannot wait to see you again, Simone,” he said with a bump of his lust powers, hoping she might have a dirty dream about him tonight if he planted the right seeds. He knew she hadn’t told him her name, but he didn’t make it weird by hanging around. He waved to some random older woman that had just walked in, and made his way over to her. Flashing a goodbye smile to Simone, before he was heading farther away. The laugh that slipped from his lips was so musical that it sent a wave of warmth through her, surprising her. But she was distracted enough by his assurances that she wasn't being a bother. In many ways, this strange conversation had left her with more questions than answers, but considering her upbringing, she rather expected that from conversations with religious leaders. She watched him walk away, smiling back at him when he paused to flash one toward her, struck again by how attractive he was. It felt so wrong to find a priest attractive, and she shook her head at herself.
Sliding out of the pew, she mentally reminded herself to put the hoedown in her calendar. Maybe Emilia would find such a thing entertaining?