The Outlaw Persephone Finnegan
The hall Persephone sat in had to be the most interesting court hall she had found herself in. The hall itself was an addition to the Justiciar Ebba's already palatial estate, from the outside the hall she sat within dwarfed much of the outside structure but blended into the rest of the building's Georgian aesthetic. Within however the hall had been made to resemble a modern interpretation of a viking's long hall.
The hall was long with a large Dias, sat at the back holding three thrones, a grander one for the Justiciar, Ebba, and two less ornate ones for her left and right hand's, Jehan Garreau and Dina El Khoury respectively. In front of the dias sat the seating area, for the court's vampires, long benches lined the walls on the bottom floor with wooden tables in front, holding glasses of blood and an array of weapons brought by the occupants.
One table even having a human whole laid across being held in trance and fed from by multiple vampires intermittently. The wooden walls were lined with old tapestries and circular shields. While the shields came in many different colour combinations the tapestries however where all muted colours, preserved in time depicting battles from Ebba's day, the battle of Holme and Assandun taking up much of the space, two great victories for the great heathen army, however a more sombre one was the battle of Edington, not just the monumental defeat of the Danish forces, but the battle where Ebba had lost her human life and started her new immortal one.
Going above the hall, a seating section wrapped around the second floor, overlooking the main hall and the dias. This floor amongst the roofs arches was for any supernatural other than a vampire who needed to petition the court, usually local witches or someone from the werefox pack mostly looking to provide or gain information. It also had a section in the middle for thralls and fledglings who had been brought by their vampiric masters. This floor sat mostly empty today, three thralls sat talking amongst themselves, the section directly above Persepone didn't sound like anyone was sitting amongst it, but her view was obscured.
Persephone found even the smell of the court was pleasant, while most seemed stained with the smell of rust and copper, the hall seemed to hold a smoky note, the fire pit that sat in front of the dias, currently not lit had perfumed the hall with a soothing burnt oak smell, with a slight hint of lavender incense.
Ebba had founded the court during the years of the Danelaw, and as a norse vampiress herself. The Justiciar of the court was a statuesque woman with blonde hair kept mostly up in a hill surrounded by two thick braids. She stood north of six foot with broad muscled shoulders developed over years of continuous fighting in her mortal life which only flowed down into subtle but appealing curves hidden behind the tanned leather armour she wore, a ceremonial piece inlaid with bone and runes representing her mortal life and accomplishments in her vampiric one. The most notable and Persephone found appealing feature of hers was the numerous runic tattoos and scars that littered her bare arms.
She had fought to ensure the boundaries of her land matched the Danelaw she grew up in and had dealt with numerous attacks from the London court to the south. This reflection of the old country did not stop at its borders or its hall but most of the courts traditions had basis in the Danelaw, meaning that while most courts held open days, or réunions, Ebba's court held "things", and while most courts expected vampires to be more quiet and reserved when witnessing such events, Ebba encouraged loud brash behaviour, indulgences in her own nostalgia, which meant all of the vampires in court had to make their opinions known on sentences and requests put to the court. While Persephone had found this entertaining at first, it did little to hide the monotony of the event and ultimately seemed a performance put on for an overly nostalgic ruler.
Currently the court was seeking a new appointment for the area, a new diplomat for the Enlise council and one for dealing with the Fae. Persephone sat with her bloodline, her partner Isabella to her left, and Alexander her Sire, and Palladius her bloodling to her right. The family had relocated into the area two months prior following the renovation of Alexanders, Musil hall outside of York. Alexander had flown into the country before the rest to put in their request to relocate into the area, and his prior relationship with Ebba made it a relatively painless affair. Persephone reached over grabbing her glass to take a long drink of the carmine liquid, her own dark leather pants letting out a sigh with the movement.
Turning as she continued to drink the liquid she reclined back into the bench and let her eyes wander over the crowd. The court was made up of multiple old bloodlines like her own with many families seeming to have congregated in the area, this meant relative to a lot of the courts in Europe, the Danelaw had quite a lot of ancient vampires, and they stood out. While most in attendance had made an attempt to adapt to human fashions to better blend in, Isabella's cream flared pants and white halter top being a testament to this. Most of the ancient vampires had taken to wearing clothes more reminiscent of their times, a lot of plain tunics and trousers, some old gowns, she had spotted one robe similar to one Alexander owned himself.
This all served to make it more amusing to herself the outfit her Sire was sitting in. Alexander was sat next to her in a tight pair of blue jeans, cutting close to his figure, a denim shirt sat over a white t shirt, the sleeves rolled up exposing the corded muscle in his arms, and his usually long caramel coloured hair cut closer to his head, sitting slightly shaggy, just enough to cover the pointed tips of his ears. She may have said she enjoyed the fashion of the era, being much less restrictive and more expressive than that of her own, but Palladius had taken a liking to God awful shell suits, it was enough to turn the blood in her stomach and wish a swift end to the Fashion of this era.
Her own outfit stood out more amongst her bloodline and being the youngest by far this was a feat, however her outfit of the day was more for utility, black leather pants and heavy black boots covered her lower half. On top she had worn a loose black leather jacket currently resting on the back of the bench and her top was a simple white tank top. The outfit was designed to not look out of place on her ride here a black and white Kawasaki motorbike, while a fall from it would ultimately do little to her, a young woman riding country roads on a bike in a crop top and flared pants was bound to attract some unneeded attention.
The crowd around her let out a shout, with plenty of drumming on the table following the successful appointment of a large bald vampire, the man looked like he had been more beast than man in life, which may be to his advantage dealing with the fae. Soon the room was silenced by a gesture from Dinah and rising from a bench on the other side of the hall a vampire marched to the Dias pulling along another. The man looked to be in his forties when he was turned, the short black hair having greyed at the temples and his outfit looking to be similarly aged, a wrinkled check shirt sat tucked into black trousers with a few holes in the bottom hem. The girl he dragged behind him stood out though, she looked to be in her early twenties, and was so young in vampire years she was still visibly breathing.
Her outfit was simple, a flared pair of blue jeans and a white blouse that had been saturated in dirt and blood, the rest of the girls figured being similarly soiled. She was a newborn. Under the dirt the girl seemed pretty enough, short black hair sat matted to her head, and while most of her own vampiric features where on fullview, the bright purple tone her eyes had taken complimented the girls face well, what disturbed Perspehone the most was the fear etched onto her face. Her own presentation had been eventful, but she was fully prepared for it having been given a month after regaining her senses from the rebirth before she was required in court. This time had been spent learning how to control herself somewhat in company and the etiquette required of the Louisiana court. This girl hadn't even been washed since she was turned, seemingly left to wallow in filth for however long she was feral and then brought before the court immediately after recovering.
They both approached the dias, the man giving a formal bow and soon after being acknowledged to begin by Ebba who had not masked the disgust clear on her face.
"Justiciar, Dinah, Jehan. Thank you for allowing me to approach the court and for the honour of.." The man's thick italian accent was interrupted by Ebba giving a heavy tap of the signet ring on her finger to the wood of the throne, a sign to hurry up. Clearing his throat unnecessarily the man continued.
