ℓєσи ωαgиєя (tteeth) wrote in worldsapart_ic, @ 2019-02-13 16:03:00 |
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Entry tags: | xx_leon wagner, xx_noell pascal |
WHO: Leon Wagner & Noell Pascal
WHEN: About a week ago, evening
WHERE: their home
WHAT: catching up
RATING: PGish (Complete)
Patience was not Noell’s strong point. In fact, if anything, the years had slowly but surely corroded away at any patience she might’ve had in the first place. But time moved so damn slow, especially when one was immortal and the passage of time meant so little. The world moved around her and nothing truly changed; faces and buildings, technology came booming into the world and it would gradually destroy those who made it and leave them withering in a radioactive wasteland.
And she was still standing around, dealing with her headache of a brother. Sort of.
Leon was, for all his flaws, not the worst person to be connected to for eternity. Or however long they happened to live. She supposed, if nothing else, their sire at least had that going for him -good taste. Even if Leon lounged around far too much, and moped like one of those damn emo kids from a decade ago that made Noell want to shove a cocktail stick through someone’s eye.
No, Leon was lazy and sullen and got on her nerves from time to time -much like her sister once had, but he was by far not the worst person to be bound to by their shared blood.
“Have you moved at all since I went out?” At least when he wasn’t really committed to this sullen teenager thing. She had almost half a century on Leon, but she was still hell of a young herself, and she knew as much, throw in their shitty sire who taught them at his own pace and with his own agenda, and Noell didn’t think she had all her ducks in the proverbial row.
But if this was what motherhood would’ve been like, she’s damn glad she managed to miss it. “You’re gonna meld with the furniture one of these days.” Even if the furniture was, at that moment in time, tragically gothic and stereotypical.
---
Lowering the novel in his hands, the lounging vampire eyed his “sister” across the spine and lazily rolled his eyes. It felt like a fragile tome, and the pages were weathered, the cover and back worn, and the whole thing ready to fall apart into proverbial dust if one weren’t careful. Leon didn’t manage to take great care with many things, but when it came to the few books that had survived his travels with his sire and Noell, and then just with Noell, he tended to show appreciation for their value. For their longevity.
Even as they were crumbling.
“I got up to eat,” he admitted with a sigh as he shut the book and laid it down on his chest. “Admittedly it didn’t take very long, and then I was right back here on the chaise lounge,” he emphasized the French somewhat comically with a piss-poor accent to tickle her nerves, “So I don’t know if you’d count that.”
He eyed her somewhat daringly, as though he was anticipating the news (or perhaps his awful French) to spark some kind of volatile, if not funny, reaction. Leon wasn’t certain when he’d deliberately started acting like an infuriating little brother (he never had any siblings when he’d been alive), but at this point it felt natural.
Necessary, even.
---
God, he just tried so damn hard. Her teeth practically clenched at the terrible French accent he barely even attempted and she longed so much for when people didn’t say French words so badly -it used to be a respected language, used to be decadent. “Seriously, I don’t butcher German, don’t make me cut out your tongue.” An idle threat, maybe, it depended on how ridiculously annoying he decided to be this week.
And that was the thing, she knew he did it on purpose sometimes.
Leon had come along when Noell was just hitting the curve, just about ready to say fuck it and leave, to sever her own ties to her sire through choice. And maybe she stayed because of Leon, or maybe because she couldn’t get up the guts to actually leave (what if she fucked up, what if he was right and she did need him more than she thought? What if she left and got killed the same week, wouldn’t it be better to stay?) and she started to just use the excuse of Leon to remain there with him -and then it stopped being an excuse.
It wasn’t that Leon had potential. The little idiot tried everything to not have potential in any way, but she’d been a sister before, and he felt like a brother in so many ways. “Did you leave the house to eat? Or were you cramming useless junk food into your body again?” She had no idea why she bought this crap, it did nothing for them, and yet she bought it anyway.
---
“You don’t butcher German? Noell. I respectfully disagree,” he countered as he sat up straighter, his incredibly long arms draping lazily across his thighs. “When I taught you what backpfeifengesicht meant, you began using it with gusto. And terrible pronunciation, I might add.”
The threat of having his tongue ripped out didn’t even make the vampire bat an eye. Noell had threatened much, much worse. So far, she had yet to follow through on any of them.
He was probably safe. For now.
A rather casual, non-committal shrug was given in response to her next question. “Define ‘junk food’, would you?” He finally sprang to his feet, his height impressive as ever -- his entire body a pretty decent example of someone who was long. “I haven’t bothered to feed yet, if that’s what you mean. I’ll get around to it eventually. Besides, what have you been spending your day doing?”
---
Scoffing, loudly, Noell shrugged her jacket off, draping it over the back of a ridiculously high chair that was purely there because it looked like a throne and nothing else -it wasn’t even comfortable. “German butchers itself, it’s a hard and angry language. French is eloquent, it’s beautiful. And you have the eloquence and beauty of an elephant ballet dancing.” She didn’t try that hard with German, it was true, primarily because Leon spoke better French than she did German -even if his accents were fucking horrendous.
Noell had been too stubborn with their sire to even attempt to learn more than some basic languages.
“I suppose you would need a definition, wouldn’t you. Even your feedings are probably junk.” She shouldn’t really be surprised that he could spend hours on end at home, doing little to nothing, occasionally not even moving from when she left to when she came back. “I was out working, you know, that thing I do to make sure we don’t burn through all the money we’re sitting on.”
Because the shit they’d managed to steal only went so far.
---
“You been watching Fantasia again?” He asked with a bored and heavy sigh. Rubbing his pale temples, Leon leaned against the sofa and ran a hand lazily through his unkempt hair. “German is to the point. It’s blunt. French is flowery and overly dramatic.” He gave her a pointed look as though to say just like you, although “flowery” wasn’t really a word he’d ever use to describe Noell.
She did have an appreciation for specific aesthetics, though. He’d give her that much.
He shrugged when she made her rather pointed remark about making money so that they could continue living in the world as close to normal humans as they possibly could. Working was probably a useful way to spend one’s time, but Leon didn’t have much use for it, especially with Noell carrying him.
“Probably,” he admitted; Leon didn’t exactly have a refined palette when it came to his feedings, nor was he especially picky. It was part of the whole impulse control thing that he still struggled with on a daily basis. As long as it was easy, he was happier.
“If you’re feeling pressured about the money situation,” Leon continued, suddenly admiring his hands. “I can always get back to what I’m good at.” Picking pockets, of course. Stealing a little here and there.
Even if he ran into trouble along the way.
---
She hadn’t actually watched that acid trip of a movie in a long time, mostly because she felt like she should be on an acid trip to watch that, and those were harder to settle into now. But instead of getting into blunt versus eloquent, Noell just opted to go for the ‘dramatic’ aspect and flipped Leon off. He could shove his to the point language up his ass.
“One day you’re going to eat a veritable trash can of a human and then you’ll be sick and I’m going to laugh.” She was waiting for the day he made himself ill on whatever unfortunate he ate that week. Noell at least had the sense to find a relatively healthy meal, even if she happened to play with her food a little beforehand.
“You mean other than getting in trouble?” Noell didn’t care too much for human laws; they were a thing, they had to follow them mostly or at least not get caught. Leon, and his impulse control issues, did not give Noell the sense that he would be able to do that last part. That wasn’t to say they were struggling. No, but they were both a little prone to the better things -or in Leon’s case an abundance of stuff to laze with. They had insanely good internet, after all, he wasn’t exactly hard to please. “Do what you like. I don’t know how you’re not bored out of your mind yet.”
---
“One day,” he repeated, scoffing with the indignance of a young man (despite being an old man, by human standards) who perceived himself as invincible, or at least cared nothing of potential consequences, “Is not today. And you have my blessing to laugh away. You’ll do what you want regardless.”
Which was, admittedly, something one could possibly envy about her, if Leon were the jealous type. Noell truly did whatever she want, whatever pleased her, and often with total disregard for what others thought of her. Leon too -- but with less of the frivolity and pleasure she seemed to find out of her free-spirited mayhem.
He raked his fingers back through his hair and smirked knowingly at the older vampire. Getting into trouble, indeed.
“I enjoy the simple pleasures of what life has to offer,” he shrugged. “And keep my expectations low. Keeps one from getting too bored. But if you’re not averse to my methods of collecting some five-finger discounts…,” he stood up straighter, sweeping passed Noell with that maddening, crooked grin on his face, “Then I suppose I do have plans for the evening.”
---
Noell had always been told she had an expressive face; it had never really been an insult, a passing comment sometimes, occasionally a warning. Her thoughts, usually, were clear to read for those who took the time to look at her, to see her, and process the expressions -the roll of her eyes, the smirk, the glare. In Leon’s case, she constantly worried she’d roll her eyes right out of her skull.
“Simple pleasures for a simple mind I guess.” Although at least he was going to go out, even if it was to pick-pocket or whatever other trouble he could find. Until she managed to find a witch capable enough to charm something for him, he literally couldn’t go out during the day without getting sick. Evening excursions were the best and if he actually went out she’d worry less about having a psychotic little conspiracy nut on her hands.
She’d hate to have to smother him, it was all she was saying there.
“See if you can pick up a better personality while you’re out. Just a thought.”
---
Simple pleasures for a simple mind I guess. He actually chuckled outright at that one -- couldn’t fault a decent dig, especially when he set it up so well for her. “Never claimed to be a complicated man, Noell,” he reminded her as he began rifling for a coat. “If I was, I sincerely doubt we’d get along as well as we do. Whatever that’s worth.”
Shrugging, Leon glanced over his shoulder at the brunette and smirked. “If they were that easy to get, I would have thought you’d gotten one yourself by now. Unless,” he spread his arms open, “Drama queen is as high as we’re setting the bar these days?”
Upon sliding his arms into his black trench, Leon stuck his hands into his pockets and felt around for a box of cigarettes. When he came out empty handed, with the exception of a lonely lighter, he rolled his eyes.
“Guess I’ll have to get some of those when I get out. Don’t wait up, Noell; I know how much you worry.”
Not that she didn’t have cause to.
There was a limit to how long he could be out of the house, after all.
---
“Because I’d strangle you with your intestines? You’re right, it’s better you’re not a ponce.” Not that she didn’t deal with a fair few of those. But no, Leon was probably right. They had a sire in common, and that bonded them by blood if nothing else, but she didn’t need to take him with her, she didn’t need to take care of him (somewhat) in the aftermath of their sire’s death. But she did, and it wasn’t out of the goodness of her heart -according to some people that was not something she had.
Goodness, not a heart, she had that, it was just a little blacker than most.
Although if all he could call her was a drama queen then he was really distracted by whatever paranoid conspiracy he’d recently gotten binged on. “Drama queen? I’ve been called so much worse. Usually by you. Clearly you need to eat before your brain shrivels and we can’t have a decent verbal sparring match.” She waved her fingers at him, her own little sign of dismissal.
She had no intention to wait up for him. She’d potentially go out herself, or god forbid, find something not trashy on the television to watch before deciding if she was up for a random maiming in another city for the night. Oh, the decisions she had to make.