Jared Moore (_semperfidelis) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2010-10-31 04:11:00 |
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Entry tags: | #solo, 2009-08-01 |
Ain't no angel gonna greet me
Who: Jared + NPC
Where: Apartment block in Detroit
When: A few hours after sundown
There was something fundamentally wrong about the way in which vampires traditionally fed. The actual feeding part -- pierced jugular, blood spurting until the pressure dropped -- was a non-issue, merely a satisfying end to a specific course of action that happened to make him... not uncomfortable, exactly. But he wasn’t feeling all warm and fuzzy about it either. It was the finding, following and separation from any crowds that touched upon nerves he hadn’t realised still existed. Not until he wandered away from his Sire -- with permission -- to solve the problem of his hunger on his own. Without killing or otherwise breaking the intended target. If they would just stop struggling, it would make his life easier, so to speak, and theirs far less traumatic. At the same time... he had to admit he was getting a kick out of it. It had provided an explanation as to why every villain in every slasher movie ever created didn’t bother running after their targets. The conservation of energy was a valuable thing, but not something that he had to worry about personally. When it came to the chase, he was fast discovering he was a little like the Duracell bunny. Watching them stumble was sort of funny, though.
“You’re making this so much harder than it needs to be.” A matter-of-fact statement. Jared wasn’t in the business of lying, really. Nor was he inclined to sugar the pill. If he seemed in any way callous, well then that was just unfortunate. He was just a little too hungry to try and empathise with something that resembled his dinner. See, everyone else had the presence of mind to remember their house-keys, putting up an invisible and really very irritating barrier that he could not cross. This guy had not. But he was very insistent that he run. He had taken the elevator up instead of down -- a detail that had both amused and bewildered Jared. For one, the only exit he could really use was in the opposite direction. For two, the elevator stopped before it reached the other fire escape -- the roof -- leaving... one, maybe two flights of stairs to catch him. But damn, the son of a bitch could run.
Tripping up the stairs, the human reached for the fire exit door. “You--You aren’t supposed to--to be able to get in,” he shouted down the stairs. As though it was going to make a difference. Because as far as Jared could see, there was a definitely a vampire in the building, and yelling at him wasn’t going to make him go anywhere. “How did you get in?” Using the lever on the door to pull himself up was a bad idea. It just swung open, leaving him to topple out and onto his face. That was the sound of his glasses breaking. Jared briefly wondered if that fall had hurt and whether he should feel bad for singling out Four-Eyes. The only answer he found was a resounding mental shrug.
“The front door.” He paused a couple of steps down, watching the painfully stereotypical search for the broken glasses. They’re right under your nose. Hands patted the floor, reaching too far to find what they were looking for. Jared could wait until he found them and discovered they weren’t wearable. “Why, how do you get in?” Just out of curiosity. He wasn’t certain he needed an invitation to enter an apartment block -- it was a series of separate apartments, not just one place of residence -- but even if he did, he had already been issued one. A pretty young thing on her way out. She had even held the door open for him. “Your nose is gonna need resetting, by the way.” He really had just hit the floor with his whole body weight. Ow.
“L--leave me alone!” Now that Jared laughed at. “You can f--find someone else. Go and--go and leave me alone!” He pulled himself to his feet, abandoning the search for his glasses and giving the Gabriel leave to follow again. Not that he needed it. He could have found someone else easily, but he really didn’t want to. It was too much hassle. Too much time already invested in this particular bite. God only knew how patient he could be when he truly set his mind to it, but patience was not a virtue he had seen fit to employ tonight. Luckily for this gentleman, he was not as hungry as he could have been, else the chances of accidental death would be much higher.
“Y’know some cultures think it’s lucky when a bird shits on them?” He stepped out onto the roof, glancing around before fixing his gaze to his dinner again. “Of all the spots along its flight, the bird chooses to send your suit to the dry-cleaners. Makes you special or something.” He stepped closer, rolling his eyes inwardly as his target backed up, stumbled and landed on his ass. Why did they do that? His legs were perfectly functional. He had taken the elevator up here, so fatigue was no excuse. “See, I think the same should apply here.” And then there was that squirming. On their backs, like a beetle turned over. As though having a vampire in the vicinity screwed with their centre of gravity in a monumental fashion. He got that the point was to move backwards, away from the threat, but this guy wasn’t going anywhere. “Of all the godforsaken vampires you could have been found by, you run into the one who doesn’t want to kill you.” Okay, that was a little lie. Jared would have loved to have killed him just for trying to escape in an elevator going the wrong direction, but the House rules said no. And he was scrambling. It was like something from a movie. They always scrambled and they always headed the wrong direction. “The roof ends there, amigo.”
“S-stay away from me!” He watched the clumsy, broken-nosed creature push himself to his feet again -- Jared could never remember being that clumsy as a human -- and raised his eyebrows. “Stay away, or I’ll jump!”
For a moment, Jared just stared. Exactly what was that going to achieve besides a really messy sidewalk, traumatised pedestrians and an annoyed vampire having to go in search of someone else to eat. The first two items on that list didn’t bother him so much, but the last was just inconvenient. “But you have so much to live for.” That was what you said when someone tried to kill themselves, right? And really, he was welcome try again at a later date. Just not right now. Stuffing his hands in his pockets, he wandered over to the edge of the roof himself, looking over the short wall to the long drop below. “How much d’you wanna bet,” he started, side-stepping closer as the idiot climbed onto the wall, “that I’d catch you?” He wasn’t about to go all archangel and fly down after the stupid son of a bitch, but the fact of the matter was that Jared would still have caught him before gravity had the chance to take hold properly. As he was forced to prove when the idiot slipped.
With only a vampire’s grip between himself and the sidewalk below, Jared’s chosen human began whimpering apologies. To Jared, to his family, to everyone he’d ever known. It was really very annoying. “If you’re done, give me your hand. ‘Cause otherwise I’m just gonna haul you up and your face will be hitting the wall.” He wasn’t spreading his wings just to save some human’s face. One hand reached feebly, waving around until it found contact and he heaved the guy out of mid-air without ceremony. He just crumpled on the floor. A nervous, incoherent ball of panic. Which was fine. Jared could work with that. “Hey now,” he grabbed the man by the shoulders, dragged his up and span him around so they were at least facing each other, “It really isn’t as bad as you’re thinking.” He paused, patting the guy’s cheeks as if they were long lost brothers. “Okay, so actually I have no idea what you’re thinking.”
But he knew what was coming next, and that was what counted.