━━━━━ "Blood; race; family; life; vigor"
Or...
━━━━━ In which two members of the Denali coven find themselves living with the Olympic coven for the next six months.
━ Jasper Hale
━ Twilight Saga
━ Ⓒ 2022, CrashingOiks
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━━━━━━━━━━━━
There was a time in Cassius' decades of life that he could not finish a single painting. Nothing came to him. Not a picture, not an image, not even motivation, and for those decades of time, unfinished paintings had filled a spare room once he declared he'd start anew and let the process repeat in an unending cycle.
He found no cure to his ailment. He simply finished a painting on a morning just like any other and that was that. He was new again and his canvases in the spare room were simply a reminder of a dry spell he could never figure out.
As he holds a brush with drying paint across its bristles to a canvas with a single stroke across its white base, he's reminded of those crude decades he was forced to endure. He has nothing to create, not a picture, not an image, and he has no motivation to bring his hand forward and make something, anything.
He is barely able to restrain himself from trashing the entire thing when a rap of the door breaks through his silent struggles. He turns his head from where it had been stiff and staring at the canvas, blinking for the first time in what must be hours. His posture is rigid, and it stays that way as he puts down what he's holding in turn for the door.
"Amelia," He says with a sigh. He's not angry at her for the interruption, only frustrated with himself. He grabs the handle, but realizes he's wrong about his visitant when he hears a familiar clinking of jewelry that belongs to rings on the index and middle finger when they're brought together in a fist.
"Not Amelia," Eleazar says as he steps inside the room. He looks the same as when Cassius and Amelia left him and the others, wearing a simple knitted sweater over a white button up and slacks. "I hope the invitation from Thursday still stands despite your foul mood."
Cassius ignores the jab in favor of a question. "Is it just you? Or are the others here as well?"
Eleazar walks around, eyes gazing at Cassius' paintings, including the one that's been left unfinished. "The others are here as well."
"Laurent?" Cassius asks, trying not to hiss as he says the name.
"Absent, fortunately." Eleazar says calmly. "I suggested he stay behind though Irina despised the idea."
"For my sanity?" Cassius questions, watching Eleazar round to his last completed painting. The green forest and the grazing deer.
"And Amelia's," Eleazar answers, picking the painting up and admiring it. "She's said nothing, but I know she is stewing in her own pot of anger."
