Dareios could not have anticipated the reaction his bid would have on the young dark hunter. But he was both intrigued and pleasantly surprised. As the young man choked back his glass of foul-smelling brown liquor, Dareios merely studied him with a sharply raised dark brow and an amused grin upon his face. The vampire mayor then too, took a sip from his own glass. His of course was a nice blood red Pinot Noir. "You alright there?" He offered, clapping a hand softly on the man's shoulder, if only for a moment. As the dark hunter recovered, Dareios was poised to step away. He'd done what had been asked of him. He'd browsed, he bid. In just a few minutes, Amber would sweep him away ahead of his speech, anyway. But then the dark hunter had something else to say. Dareios ran one hand through his well-manicured dark locks as he looked at the piece again. "No, no." He dismissed quickly. "I think it is." The vampire offered the stranger one last lopsided smirk before - like clockwork - Amber appeared and began to shuffle him away. Dareios managed to lift his glass quickly in a half-hearted 'cheers' to the young bloke before he strode off and quickly moved out of sight. It wasn't long before staff dimmed the lights in the grand ballroom, signaling it was time for patrons to gather near the stage. Minutes later, Dareios strode out under the lights, his ghostly undead frame nearly translucent, despite all of Amber's specific lightning requests. Luckily, the vampire mayor was used to these uncomfortable situations by now. He chalked it up to being the 'vampire guinea pig for progress'. He'd suffer now so that society may find other means down the road to perhaps be more accommodating to all types and needs. But I digress. Dareios flashed the faceless crowd a bright smile as he strode out to the podium. The lights made it hard for him to discern any specific facial features, but thanks to the young artist's supernatural qualities, it was easy to pick him out by feel alone. While Dareios was somewhat of an expert at public speaking by now, he still relied on some basic tricks to get him through. Focusing on one or two faces in the audience was a given. Tonight, it was the young handsome dark hunter. The speech came and went. The vampire mayor was able to elicit some harmless laughs and some moments of earnest passion. He bowed out to a round of applause as the crowd began to mingle again. Amber gave him a stiff nod of approval before disappearing into the throngs of people - her job was done for the night. And while Dareios planned to stick around for a short while longer, he tugged a little at the stiff bowtie around his neck and began to relax. His next stop: the bar. Dareios Auerbach | Vampire | Vinyl |