fangednconfused (fangednconfused) wrote in birthrightrpg, @ 2020-10-17 00:01:00 |
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Entry tags: | derek mitchell, shimmer |
Pinkie Swear
Who: Shimmer/Derek
What: In Their Feelings
Where: Las Vegas, Penny and Derek's Apartment
When: Present
Ratings/Warnings: Low-ish, some language and reference to violence
Derek had set everything up in the apartment just so. The television was on, a ‘Back to the Future’ marathon queued up. On the coffee table in front of the couch sat an array of foods that Shimmer had mentioned liking; breaded mozzarella sticks, a cheese tray, a large pitcher of ice water.
He had been mentally working on the pitch. What would entice Shimmer to help retrieve the dagger handle from the police precinct’s evidence room? And then it hit him. If she believed she were starring in some dazzling, exciting heist.
And if she said no, then Radek could fall back on the help of his FBI friend. But that was boring and Derek had already gotten himself hyped up for an adventure.
Adventures were what Shimmer specialised in providing. Whether or not she intended to do so, they had a way of ensuing, nonetheless. Simply accompanying her on a casual delivery had got him involved in a shoot-out with organised crime and, before that, there had been the matter of just trying to find shelter, which had led to all manner of monster-themed chaos.
So, actively trying to involve her in something of this nature might just be guaranteed to lead to the Hoover Dam cracking open - if the vampire was lucky.
“Hello, perfectly average living human! I suspect you possess warm body temperature and other normal bodily functions! How do you do?”
There was a sudden intake of air and Shimmer, standing there, in the doorway, prepared to sing a little song before making a series of blinks, remembering, “Oh, you’re not a… Client. Anyway, hi!”
Derek ushered Shimmer inside before the neighbors could hear her. Then he remembered they had a corner unit and there were no longer next door neighbors… Due to Penny. And Ronnie hadn’t decided if he was going to move in there or not. “Yeah, 98.6 degrees, alright. Nothing to see here.”
“Is that how much it is?” Answered the flummoxed Shimmer. “Sounds hot… Isn’t that boiling?”
He gestured to the spread on the table and then to the wall-mounted television. “I’ve provided food and entertainment. You’ll find that this couch is suitable for sitting.” Why was he talking like that? Caught up in the mood, maybe. “Anyway, this is where I live. I mean, this isn’t all of it, there are other rooms, too.”
“Yes, it is,” she replied, interpreting literally. Eyes darted between him and the furniture a couple of times, then Shimmer made an, “Oh!” Hurriedly, she made to to seat her physical self down and discovered that it was, indeed, seat-worthy. Hands splayed over it and she tested it for residual bounciness.
“Other rooms? Are you sure?” The courier squinted and looked around, catching sight and observing to that effect with an, “Ahh, yeah…!” Smiling like she had just understood a shared secret and pointing in the direction of one. “My place is a little more… Bare,” she expressed, shrugging, then made an excited noise and reached out for an edible dairy-based stick. “You remembered!”
Derek took the seat next to her, grinning at her Shimmer-ness. “Yeah, I’m a big fan of fried food stuffs. Well, I was when I was alive. Now I can just appreciate the taste.” He grabbed the remote, ready to start the movie.
“Hey…” The vampire spoke as if an idea had just occurred to him. “Have you ever thought about starring in your own movie?”
Shimmer halted jaw mid-snap and suddenly glanced around the room. Were a bunch of old friends going to suddenly jump out and congratulate her on something? But, no, that couldn’t be it. He didn’t have access to those and…
Then she looked askance at him and narrowed eyes with suspicion.
“Is this a mermaid porn thing? Because I got asked to one of those and… I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s all gills and splashing, then nobody can figure out what happened with the dolphin. Some things just aren’t meant to be committed to camera, Derek. It’s wrong.”
“No, no porn!” Derek exclaimed quickly. The vampire was truly glad that Penny wasn’t home to overhear the phrase ‘mermaid porn’. He grabbed a mozzarella stick and brought it to his mouth, chewing thoughtfully as he tried to come up with a better pitch.
“Okay, so it’s not so much a movie, as it is real life. It’s a heist. Like, uh, have you seen ’Ocean’s Eleven?” Maybe he should have put that movie on instead of ’Back to the Future.’
Shimmer had smiled, breathing a sigh of relief. She worried about him, sometimes. Worried he might be consorting with the wrong type of influences.
Oh, if only she knew…
“A heist? Just… Like a movie, but not a movie?”
It definitely caught Shimmer’s attention. Her posture had straightened up, head was tilting and she was doing a very good unintentional meerkat impression. Mouth quickly twisted in one direction and then the other.
“Is it the one where George Clooney’s Batman? Or when Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman? Because I can try the costumes, but no promises… Are you sure this isn’t porn?”
Derek paused, mouth open as if to speak, then closed it quickly, having to regroup. “I promise you, Shimmer, it’s not porn. But it will involve doing that...ball of light thing.” He delivered this last bit gingerly, in case she was sensitive about it. One never knew, especially with her.
“We have to go to the police station and you have to turn into a glowing ball, sneak into the evidence locker, and retrieve the handle of a dagger. While you’re in there, feel free to take a police hat or something as a souvenir,” the vampire offered, as if that was enticement enough to severely break the law. Human law, anyway.
Eyes drifted to the floor and Shimmer, soundlessly, raised to feet. "You want me to steal evidence," she carefully concluded. Quiet, solemn. Hands steepled in front of mouth and Shimmer began to slowly pace, back and forth.
"You think I'm good for breaking mortal laws. That I-I-I wouldn't even, like, think to object. That I'm some sort of... What? Interdimensional thrill-seeker?"
She came to a halt. Looked at him. Ready to end this.
"This is going to be so cool!"
Derek had been perched on the edge of the couch, prepared to apologize profusely and smooth the whole thing over, offering to completely can the request until he processed the last sentence Shimmer uttered. “So...so you’re in?” The vampire stood up, too, trying not to let his excitement run away with him.
And failing. “We can wear black outfits. I have beanies. Although I guess it doesn’t really matter what you wear, it'll still help set the mood.”
"A-and jet packs? Wrist rockets?! And, like, shoes where, if you kick the heels, they shoot out laser beams? And truth serum gas...! I could make people tell me the truth about what colour underwear they have on!"
Shimmer had her hands clawed like vulture talons in front of her, getting off on the fantasy power-trip of being a fully kitted out secret agent. One look at Derek was, inevitably, enough to confirm she was going a little too far with it.
"O-or I could just turn up in black... I could do that," she covered with a casual shrug. "I mean, technically I'm - well, that's not important, right now," the future cat burglar excused and swung herself back onto the couch, again. Catching cheese and feeling a whole lot more comfortable about having been invited over to a vampire's lair. "Why'd you need a dagger handle for, anyway?"
’Jet packs would be cool…’ Derek shook the thought out of his head, trying to focus. It was easy to get swept up into fantasy when Shimmer was around. Or maybe it was just easy for him. “So, I was sort of stabbed by this dagger,” he began, biting into his forgotten mozzarella stick.
“It was a magical dagger, and I had to go to this doctor, and the doctor is really interested in the weapon. And he believes if he got a hold of the handle, he could find out more about it.” At least, that was the vampire’s understanding. He could have been over-simplifying, but he was no researcher or historian.
Chewing on some Edam, Shimmer frowned upon hearing of a magical dagger. It would have puzzled her why a normal one was of any issue for a vampire, but it sounded like whoever or whatever was responsible for it had known what they were doing.
“I’m a little concerned you didn’t tell me about this,” Derek’s would-be dagger thief piped up, expressing a small pout. “I’m going to assume this was less of an unlife-threatening situation and more of an it-tickled-me-and-I-was-cursed-with-snee
An idea flashed to mind and, wide-eyed, Shimmer introduced cheese into the water, wondering if they would somehow mix into a… Nope. “Ew, don’t try that,” she admonished, although whether it was for his benefit or her own, was anyone’s guess.
“Um, well…” Derek hated lying, but he also didn’t want to hurt Shimmer’s feelings. That pout already made him feel guilty enough. “I kind of forget that when something big happens to me, I should tell all my friends about it. I’m not really used to having so many, I mean, I only had one for the longest time.”
The vampire gestured to the array of dairy-based snacks. “That’s why I did this. Not just because I needed your help, I also consider you my friend.”
Shimmer exhaled downright viciously and her arms sort of flopped suddenly out to either side. “Dude! How can you ev-... Is this a vampire thing? Is that how you’re all like? For realsies? We wouldn’t be friends if we didn’t care! I’m pretty sure that’s the dictionary definition and, if it isn’t? Well, then it should be,” the hyperactive ball of light in a people-suit decreed, grabbing for a cheese-coated stick and coming this close to trying to gauge where to hit him with it, before deciding it would just break. Then started huffily munching on it, instead.
She tried to continue, but realised it was no good with a mouthful of dairy product, so, reached over to where she had poured out her glassful of water and hastily sloshed it around and swallowed, like liquid toothpaste.
“Do I have to open a portal to the worlds of beyond and beyond? Do I have to do that?” Her voice was raising in pitch and she took ahold of Derek’s head by each side. “Huh? To get you to realise there’s compassion and love and caring, out there? And how it’s a real thing? Because, so help me, Mister, I will! I’ll do it!”
And the sudden emotional spiking caused a sudden metaphysical glitching effect of light.
Derek was overwhelmed with Shimmer’s words and gestures. He could only stand there helplessly as she grabbed a hold of him like he was a petulant child. “I -- wha-- “ the vampire managed to sputter out before his irate friend went spontaneously Tinkerbell.
“I didn’t mean to make you do that!” Derek exclaimed. “I’ll be better, I promise.” And then, because he was really impulsively curious, and couldn’t quite stop himself in time, he reached out and tried to touch Shimmer’s glowiness.
It was momentary. Brief, but it was there. Sometimes, there was a phasing. Sometimes, it was instantaneous. Sometimes, it was like interference on a television or unstable Internet connection. Sometimes, like now, she was too caught up in the moment to even register it had happened.
“What? Oh… Crap.”
Shimmer had to pat herself down, just to make sure all of her had… Recomposed. Even down to her rear end, which she was somewhat self-conscious about; not wanting to walk down a street and have cosmic light shining out of her ass, like a ship cruising through a fogbound sea.
“Sorry,” she finally said, arms rotating at the elbows from one side to the other in an aimless direction. It was an externalisation of how rudderless it felt at times like these. “I just… I don’t want you to apologise? I just want you to know it’s OK for you to reach out and let people know. Even if it’s not physical pain and it’s just, like… Heartache-pain or whatever. There’s too much of - here…”
With that, she drew some items together on the nearest flat surface. It was mostly cheese. Her glass of drink was in the middle.
“This? This is Earth. This is you. This is all of you. And there are souls streaming in and out, but… Anyway! That’s not important! The water? That’s love! That’s compassion! And it gets drunk up a-a-and then refilled, OK?” To demonstrate this, she took a sip, then used the pitcher, filling it back up. “And good deeds help refill it! People don’t know, ‘cause they usually incarnate with a… Blah-blah-blah, think Shimmer! Derek needs help to understand! OK!” With a flap of hands, she rose to her feet, standing up.
“Hah-hah-hah! I am mighty… I don’t know… Tetracles! I laugh at these puny human souls! Look at how pathetic they are! Forever shying away from the water! Yet it is there to help them! So blind!”
“Yes-yeees! Do not drink from the water, pretties! I will give you shiny apples to spend! Or at least, show you how to grow them! Yum-yum-yum! You don’t need the water!”
“Yes, I, mighty Tetracles, came from such humble beginnings! But I mock them now, for I am self-important! And if I blind myself from them, I shall progress no further! And become mostly bitchy as a result! A great, cosmic bitch!”
Back and forth Shimmer went, acting out in theatrics how humanity’s wilful blindness to accepting love and compassion, as well as refusal to refill the ‘water’, did its part to provide the wrong lesson to other beings, for whom humanity was meant to set an example for. Along with acting out, Disney-style, a variety of lower-level beings, who depended on luring humanity away from this hoped-for path.
“And, ooh!” She suddenly said, adopting an elegantly graceful pose, with a voice to match. “I am Shimmer! A humble nymph-like being, long before I became friends with a vampire! I, too, look upon the Earth, but I find it appealing. Look, high-level entity! Look! Will thee not understand as I do?”
“Yes, Shimmer, yes… I understand… But I also do not understand, for I feel no desire to be among them for extended periods of time. Perhaps you would mind undertaking a task for me?”
“Why, yes-yes! I will do this! Even if it means running into trouble along the way and, wow, if I maybe get hit in the face with a big VOLCANIC EXPLOSION of magic... Oh, I won’t mind! I won’t mind, at all! Because who cares, right?! Who cares?! Like those Earth creatures, huh?! Who cares about them?! They don’t even know we’re here! A-a-a-a-and maybe I like that! Maybe I like their music! And you don’t even know! You don’t even know, see, about Christmas-themed rock and roll! AND I DON’T EVEN CARE ABOUT FEELING ABANDONED BECAUSE I CAN’T DO MY DUTIES ANYMORE! HUH?! HOW’D YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT?! BECAUSE I DON’T! BECAUSE WHY WOULD I?!”
With wide-eyed realisation, Shimmer looked sideways, braving a little smile of attempted courage and trying to recover from the… Unintentional… Ahem... Outburst.
“A-and, so, that’s… That’s how it works and, um…” There was a hesitant swallow and she jumped back on the couch, hastily eating a stick with her gaze firmly rooted on the TV. “We should totally watch that film now.”
Derek brought a hand up to his head, which hurt slightly from all the words and the acting, and it was a lot. One thing did come through, though, and that was the part about feeling abandoned, which he could entirely relate to. “Shimmer, I should apologize,” the vampire told her, rejoining her on the couch.
“I didn’t realize how much you felt, and that was dumb of me. I guess I thought...I don’t know. But I wasn’t a good friend to you, not really.” Derek suddenly gave the previously glowing being a hug. “I’ll make sure our water glass never empties,” he murmured.
Shimmer hadn’t really confronted her feelings over what had happened. Maybe that was part of why she could be so unpredictably volatile. The celestial courier really didn’t know how much it was still affecting her, even now. It had just sort of been something she had accepted.
But now she was feeling something and it was shame.
“No, I… I’m the one who shouldn’t have said that,” the brunette sheepishly recovered. The hug wasn’t at all refused. On the contrary, it was tightened a little. Then there was a small sigh when it was released. “I wasn’t… Kicked out, not really. They just didn’t know what to do with me and…”
Shimmer softly blinked, wiping nose on her sleeve. It wasn’t because she was crying, though she did feel a little more emotional than before. It was mainly because she had seen humans adopting the behaviour.
Probably.
Because now she was starting to wonder if… Was she making excuses for them? No. Maybe? Shimmer really didn’t like to think the worst of others. And they weren’t even capable of it.
Right?
“I chose this. Coming here. I-I just wanted to try and get you to understand how… Out there,” she illustrated, waving above them, “how some things view Earth. And I know you’re a predator and I’ve seen you take the heads off of things to protect me - thank you, by the way,” Summer added with a little smile of understanding. “But so’s a big fluffy dog, y’know? And you can be better than your worst impulse. Everyone can! Because they should. And I want… I want you to know you can reach out any time. And drink the water. Because I’m a big ole’ watering jug and I’m pretty sure your other friends must be, too. And if they aren’t, well… That’s maybe someone you should stay away from. ‘Til they’ve learned how.”
With that, she embraced for another hug and, because of the nose-wiping, one of her sleeves had elongated. It gave her reason to laugh.
“So, no more apologising! Just… Say if you need help. That’s all I want you to do. Promise?”
She held up a hand, extending and crooking little finger. She’d seen people do this.
That’s maybe someone you should stay away from…’til they’ve learned how. Derek swallowed, unable to keep his gaze from drifting toward the direction of the bedroom. He held out his pinkie and quirked it around Shimmer’s. “Thank you,” he said, sincerely. “You’re really special. And smart, and wise. And able to put away an impressive amount of cheese. I’m proud to call you my friend. I promise, I will reach out to you next time.”
"I don't know about wise... But I'll hold you to that promise," his friend replied. At first, bashfully, then nodding. "And you can count on me to steal some shit for your friend."