Élise de Cossé de Brissac (elisedecosse) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2010-10-12 19:56:00 |
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Entry tags: | 2009-07-29, elise |
Seasons don't fear the Reaper
Who: Élise & Raphael, NPC blood dealer
Where: Around by Town Hall... ish
When: After nightfall, very post-debate
Warnings: A Horseman and a Harbinger of Bedlam... what do you think this warning should say? ;)
Words in italics represent words spoken in French.
“Mm...” Élise nudged the body in front of her with her toe, swaying slightly on heels she had never learned to walk in because they weren’t hers. Rolling him onto his back, she leaned over and stared him in the face. He wasn’t broken and he wasn’t dead. If he got up again in the next few minutes that might change, but right now he was just as likely to survive as anyone else suffering from what she did not realise was mild oxygen deprivation. Perhaps she shouldn’t have picked him up like that. His neck was bruised. “Fff.” What she originally stopped him for dragged her away from prodding at him any further. She had been trying to avoid the humans -- they made her uncomfortable -- when she found one who had precisely what she wanted. And he had a lot of it. Cross-legged on the sidewalk, she rummaged through the big rucksack and marvelled at how all of this seemed to come in bottles and flasks of varying sizes rather than people of varying sizes. Somewhere among these things was that scent. And she wanted it.
Working her way through the supply of blood -- that, for all she knew, was worth a ridiculous amount of money -- she opened each and every one. Those that didn’t suit her were thrown, the contents painting the floor. Those that were more to her tastes were poured down her throat, the excess dripping from the corners of her mouth. It wasn’t until after she had consumed four flasks that she finally pulled a face at the temperature -- then gently threw the lid at the dealer’s head. “C’est froid,” she informed the unconscious man before smearing the blood across her face with the back of her arm. Her legs stretched out in front of her, colouring her calves with a mixture of rejected Water Elemental and AB- Fae while she opened the final flask. “Mm, à votre santé.”
He’d enjoyed the debate - such humour was priceless and so, so rare. He had ignored the glares, the bitter looks from vampires who wished him dead. Tut, tut, simply for the colour of his eyes. There was no respect for elders when they were Horsemen, alas. It had been entertainment at its best, at least, and now he required something a little more hands-on to enjoy. The consequences of killing so close to the Town Hall - on its steps even - held far too much temptation, but Raphael was “behaving”.
As much as one can when one was put on earth to bring about its end. He leant against the nearest lamp-post, a developing past time, he feared, and scanned the street. There were still a few people around, but most of the people who had attended the debate seemed to have scattered. People were so cowardly when it came to the dark.
“Tout le monde est sage, dans le voisinage...” Blood finished and the rest spread across the floor, Élise wiped bloodied hands on her thighs before standing. There was a song stuck in her head -- she could hear it in another woman’s voice, but it was not the voice that rang out across the street. “Il est l’heure d’aller dormir,” her voice was breaking slightly through lack of use, volume and her preoccupation with how much of a mess she had made. That and her efforts to stand up straight. The height of the heels on her feet did not help matters. There was a memory, somewhere, of her walking in shoes of a similar height, but somehow she had forgotten how to keep her balance. “Le sommeil va bientôt venir...” The result was something of a coltish step, one that tried to keep up with the upper half of her body and found it impossible to manoeuvre the twists and bends so commonly found in Élise’s route. Nevertheless, the moment she had moved far enough from the discarded blood the scent of another vampire wormed its way into her attention. Older than her. Significantly so. Usually, that would have been enough to usher her back the way she came. Instead she just stopped, balanced on one heel with her other leg twisted at an odd angle, head trying to tilt a full ninety degrees as she noticed the glowing eyes ahead of her. With a curious frown, she approached slowly, dragging the twisted leg despite there being nothing wrong with it.
Raphael set his eyes on the blond as soon as she was done with her meal. There was nothing wrong with her leg, he noted, but there was a significant possibility there was something undone in her mind. He followed her with glowing eyes, watching her approach. She was vampire and not of his House, therefore he lacked automatic interest in her, though he supposed the issue with her leg was some cause for curiosity. He remained where he was, let her come to him.
The twin pin-pricks of light only grew closer as Élise did. Her fingers twitched. Something bright blue, wings, voices in her head that she couldn’t -- mustn’t, not allowed -- touch but had desperately wanted to. She had no true recollection of what that item of fascination had been, but somehow there were rules pinned to it. Stopping, she stared down at the foot she was grating across the road. Rules like that didn’t apply to other things. There was nothing else in her mind with any footnotes remaining in her memory. Blinking, she turned her gaze back to the other vampire, chin tilting until she was watching him from the corner of her eye. “Tout le monde est sage, dans le voisinage...” she began again, taking a few almost tentative steps forwards before breaking stride and throwing herself bodily at him with a grip that refused to break of its own accord. “Qu'est ce que c'est?” Again, her fingers twitched. “Hm? Qu'est ce que c'est?” Each syllable was marked with a tap against his cheekbone. “Si lumineuse...”
Five foot four or five, blond, French and a few centuries younger than him. Somewhat fragmented thought process, as far as he could tell. What had Raphael found himself? “But of course they glow, Miss, it comes with my House.” He did not shy away from the girl, for that was all she was, though his interest in her did raise a little. She was not aware of the significance of his glowing eyes, or did not care for it - either supported the idea she was not entirely sound of mind. He tilted his head at her. “Can I help you with something?”
House. “House?” she repeated in English, leaning back to stare at the buildings that lined the road. Not all of them were places of residence because she could walk right in -- and had done -- but they were close enough in her mind. Eyes like that did not come from stone structures. Élise knew nothing of vampiric bloodlines, least of all her own, and the expression that she turned on him was one of sheer confusion before her attention shifted back to that glow. Mouth opening in vague wonderment, she moved the palm of her hand over one eye, head tilting to see if it lit up her skin. “Alors...” Her face lit up with a delighted smile when she realised it did, and-- “Help? ... Mm ... Pouvez-vous m’aider? Why?” She didn’t want help, she wanted... Fingers drumming on his cheekbone, the wonder faded into a determined focus. She wanted the one on the right. Leaning forward to stare right into it, she clicked her fangs against her teeth and pulled back. Fingertips crept towards the eye socket. It did not register that he was not reacting the way the humans and other breakables did. Stood still, like a dead thing. Which he was. Part of her knew she was too, but she had no idea how that had come to pass. She cooed, hovering one finger directly over his line of sight... then snarled and thrust two in alongside it for retrieval. Mine.
Any normal person would have been uncomfortable as soon as the girl had latched herself onto their face. Raphael did not consider himself entirely normal, and doubted that any other member of society would either. Nor did he have this social obsession of ‘personal space’ or believe in anyone else’s, therefore the close proximity in which the blond stood was no issue. There seemed to be some desire lingering in her gaze, he noticed, as he followed her fingers, her hands, noting every movement. It was not wholly unexpected when she went to gouge, but nevertheless a certain disgruntled noise escaped the Rider of Death. He flinched a little too, though the pain was more fascinating than concerning. He wondered what losing an eye might feel like, and let the girl have her fun.
Completely forgetting that she was assaulting a humanoid pseudo-living creature, the Harbinger had fallen silent. She was quite content with her enterprise, fangs cutting into her lower lip as she bit it in concentration the scent of her own blood was lost over that of his as the desired item came away in her hand. The blood was of no interest to her. She had eaten. “Mm...” Teetering backwards on her stolen heels, she stared down into her bloodied palm at her takings. Élise had seen removed eyes before. She knew there were other things attached, hence the funny fleshy part she took so much delight in poking at. But those eyes did not glow. This one did. Its current red glaze dulled it, though. Dropping it into her other hand, she licked at her palm, looking around for something to clean the glowing orb. A moment passed, and she simply popped it in her mouth like it was candy, thinking nothing of the creature she had stolen it from.
Raphael raised an eyebrow, the one above his empty eye socket. Eyelids with no ball to keep them in place lose their shape. He ran over the loose cases with a finger. Somewhat discomforted by one-eyed vision, Raphael frowned as he noticed the severe presence of blood covering his hand, rather than being in his head. The fascination had passed and he did not appreciate not knowing what to think - it irritated him - which meant he did not want his eye being toyed with by some child’s tongue. The brow above his empty socket still raised, Raphael reached out his bloody hand to underneath the girl’s mouth. “Give it back.”
Élise turned her head to look at the stranger, only just aware that he had been there the entire time. Even with her mouth full she still stared, wide-eyed, at the vampire with one eyeball. One hand raised to reach into the empty socket... then she remembered she had already done that. Somehow smiling around the eye, keeping it balanced rather precariously on her tongue between fangs that threatened to pierce, she left out a childish giggle. The first time she opened her mouth, it was just to show him what she had done, having apparently forgotten the eye was his. The second time, and with the knowledge that he was far older than her, she pulled it out via exposed nerve endings and blood vessels and dangled it in front of his remaining eye. “It’s clean now.” Which made dropping it into his open palm counterproductive, but she did not care. There was blood all over her legs and she had no idea where it had come from.
Raphael excepted the eye. There was a fleeting concern somewhere far back in his mind that he had never lost an eye before, and therefore was not certain that it would just heal. He was not a man to let concern linger, however, and the feeling had gone before he recognised it was there. Left eye delicately balanced between his index finger and thumb, the Italian pulled his eyelids as far apart as they would go and pushed the glowing orb into his original home. It took some navigating to make sure the optic nerves were in their right places (at one point he had to halfway remove his eye again to adjust them) but after a few minutes of concentration, the eye was back where it should be.
When vision in his left eye did not appear to be returning in any capacity, Raphael clenched his jaw. His hand went to the girl’s throat and he yanked her close with a low growl. “Don’t expect to have such an opportunity again, child.” Then, turning away, he pushed her neck sideways to the floor, where she could remain for all he cared. Gouging the blind eye out again, he studied it with mild annoyance and curiosity and began his leave. A blood witch somewhere was going to help him, whether they wanted to or not.