Despite everything, it probably took Chéri some guts to come up here, second day in a row, to let himself be painted by Darius. And, as well paid as he was, whitin a few days of arriving in town he had learnt that was the former house fo a serial killer, not exactly a promising situation. But he still, as always, needed the money, hence he went. Sure, he also liked Darius, but when had that ever been a reason good enough to put himself through trouble? No. Chéri was motivated more by money than feelings, because it saw it as more likely to keep him alive.

Arriving in front of Carrington Manor, he rang at the door, wondering what kind of servant he was going to bump into. While turning to the  street behind him, he rose his eyes to the sea and let his mind wonder, silently. He was wearing a pastel blue three piece suit with a lavender vest and a slightly darker blue cravat. He wasn’t going to fade into the background any time soon, not in Whitby, but taking residence at the Diamond Pony had at least granted him the chance to change into his other suit, bathe and reflect upon what had happened so far. He had also had the chance to sleep well, which made him glow under the shy summer sun. He looked like he had stolen the prettiest of the water reflections and worn them on his skin.

A maid had opened the door and looked surprised to see Chéri there. Realization came over her face. "You're here to see Darius Carrington? This way.."

She gave a slight polite nod of her head and turned heading the familiar path towards his room.

Inside Darius was working on the painting. Hearing the door, he looked over and smiled. "Calliope!" The man hurried over to greet him and waved away the maid who simply nodded before rushing out of the room.

Chéri was preparing a short request, put together with the help of Madam, but luckily the maid guess fast enough and Chéri didn’t have to explain himself.

He followed without hesitation to Darius’s room. Calliope bowed to the artist, in a fun paradox and started to take off his hat and coat “Is the light good enough today?” First the important things.

Darius perked up seeing him arrive and quickly ushered him into the room. "Yes, the clouds haven't cursed our process today." He also held up a small envelope. "It's strange, Sonia has invited me over! Did you say anything?" He looked at him curiously but not suspiciously as he guided him in and went to get the robe for him to change into. " It doesn't count if you set it up", he said cheerfully. He didn't know what she wanted with him, but he'd find out when he visited her.

"I will have food brought up in a little in case you are hungry. Is there anything you do not like?"

Darius was, once again, quick to put a door between Chéri and the rest of the house. In a different circumstance, Chéri would have commented on that, but this was Carrington Manor and Chéri wasn’t that anxious, for a reason or another, to meet the other inhabitants of the house.
At what followed, Chéri shook his head. “Haven’t spoken to her about you,” at least as far as he knew. He nodded and confirmed “No, it doesn’t,” with a self-assured smile. It was hard to doubt him was he smiled like that.

The eyes of Chéri shone at the mention of food. “I love food,” was the whole, enthusiastic response.

With a nod, Darius held up the robe for him to change into and turned away to prepare his paints. He looked from the painting to the seat to make sure everything looked lined up correctly. "Alright. It just seemed like a funny coincidence. But perhaps it's fate. " It was silly to think anything pleasant was going to come. She hadn't sent him a letter or anything since they departed, he had every reason to believe her presence was a temporary one. So having this resurrection was confusing.

"Ah wonderful. Then I shall bring you a little of everything " He smiled cheerfully as he waited.

Chéri started to get into his modelling clothes while Darius prepared the art supplies. Chéri shrugged “We had a chat about what we want, but very in general, he told me nothing of herself and either did I. But perhaps that made her think about you.” Calliope made an educated guess. “But that was before I even met you, you know?” He pointed out, preventing potential objections.

Chéri clapped multiple times, excited.

Darius listened and gave an affirmative hum. "I do believe you. I do not know the screening process that goes into hiring at the Pony but I've known a man or two who would frequent that place. Not meaning my brother or course. But they seemed to think it only took the best people so I supposed you would meet with the one who ran it."

He paused in thought, was she running it now? It made sense if his wretched brother had and died. He scowled a bit in thought of Magnus and his relationship with Sonia. He had no idea how that had come to pass but perhaps she liked that sort of thing, or she was forced into it. The later was more likely. He rubbed at his brow and accidentally left a streak of vermillion. "Let me know when you are ready. Or I can get food first if you'd rather not on an empty stomach."

Chéri took to stretching. He knew how to take care of his muscles and since he was going to be sitting down for a long time, he wanted to make sure his muscles wouldn’t be damaged by it even partially “I think it was partially a coincidence. But even if that wasn’t, as far as I know, hiring a boy in a house with girls is a little unusual, so there would need to be discussion at the top.” He relaxed his muscles “But even if that wasn’t the case, as you said, I’m very beautiful. How many times does someone like me just walk into town and ask for a job?” As me mentioned, Calliope never pretended to be unaware of what he looked like. And judging by how he moved, he must have worked very hard for at least some of it.

“I’ll eat something little and the rest during breaks.” Calliope said, always very practical.

Darius nodded as he listened and smiled, working on rearranging some cloth and a few things in the background. "You are right. I am certain usually people as lovely as you are scooped up rather quickly and marry someone with the means or become a lovely accessory to someone very rich." He paused as he thought of Sonia once more and shook his head quickly wanting to change the topic. "Ah but, as long as you are happy and they take good care of you, right?"

He looked towards Calliope and nodded. "Ah, let me get something before we begin then." He walked to the door and open it. He didn't get far before it was audible he was speaking to someone but it was in English so was probably hard for the young man to decipher. After a few moments he returned with a pleased smile. "You should have something soon. " And indeed within five minutes a small platter with a variety of finger foods appeared.