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Tweak says, "i'd like to butter your muffin"

Armand (vagabond_child) wrote in mirage_rpg,
@ 2008-09-09 07:42:00

Entry tags:

armand, arrival, complete, day 14, toph bei fong

Day Fourteen
Who: Armand and Toph
Where: Along the beach, to start.
When: After dark
What: Armand arrives
Rating? This could be a PG-13 for descriptions of burning alive.
Status? Complete

The small televangelist who had somehow gotten a hold of the icon held it up, and Armand saw the very face of Jesus blasted into the fibers. Dora, her name was, but he didn't really care about that. She could have been anyone. The veil was the important thing. Just a simple piece of white fabric, but the face of the savior...

Gabrielle had gone down into hell itself, maybe as some sort of reaction to losing her son. She had been reckless, impulsive, since Lestat had pulled his disappearing act. And she'd brought the Veil from the very grasp of Satan. Armand couldn't stop staring at it. His mind slipped back more than five hundred years to when he'd been the one creating religious imagary. He could smell the paint. And then, to see that his best work was thrown in the mud when he was kidnapped, and he had failed. He hadn't protected the icon.

This one, though, was a million times more precious. A real relic. Not made by human hands. The sun was going to rise soon. Any sane Vampire would be safely inside by now. But though Armand felt the drowsiness of the coming day, he didn't seek a resting place. Instead, he stood where he was, on the steps of a church, and waited.

It had been so long since he'd felt like this, that there was anything in the world worth sacrificing himself for. So long since he was last filled with this religious feeling, this faith, this hope. It was overwhelming. But it left no doubt to him what must happen. He was evil, the Veil was good. Therefore, to sacrifice himself to the power of the icon, that would be a good thing.

His eyes started to hurt. The sun was starting to lighten the sky, though it hadn't made its appearance yet. It wouldn't be long. He looked to the East, waiting. Others pulled at him, told him to stop, but he pushed them away. Soon enough, they had to go into their resting places themselves, and left him alone. Only mortals would see him die. But, since it was to them that the world belonged, maybe that was fitting.

As the sun crested the hills and sent it's first rays shooting to the steps of the church where the vampire stood, he saw his first sunrise in over 500 years. How nice, that he would die in beauty. His skin started to smoke, and the pain shooting through him was unendurable. But he did endure it, and even somehow remained on his feet.

Something was wrong, though. Flames should have been shooting out of his skin by now. He'd been so sure his death would be quick. But the minutes passed, and he just smoked, blackened, but didn't burst into flames. His wild mind, crazed by the warm, early-morning sun, remembered the story of Those Who Must Be Kept. Put into the sun for a whole day, and they survived. He wasn't going to die. He was too old.

He fell onto his knees, screaming in denial. He'd come here to die! His sacrifice had been rejected. But not by everyone, it seemed. Maybe the sun didn't want him, but someone did. A burst of golden light shot out of the sky, illuminating the vampire, and when it lifted, he was gone. To a mortal watching, it would have just seemed another miracle. They had been quite common since the Veil had been brought to earth.

Armand, however, nearly passed out. An unusual thing for a vampire to do, but he wasn't fully himself from the sun. The light, he was sure, was God's wrath shining down to kill him after all. So when he found himself deposited onto the sand, his skin still smoldering and blackened, he was shocked. Was this hell? It really didn't look like hell. And it couldn't be heaven, not when he was in so much pain.

He'd landed on his knees, just as he'd been when he'd been back on earth, and slowly, he rose. He winced with every step. Already, his body was trying to heal, but the damage was extensive. He was still formed exactly as usual, of course, but his skin was black. It was nighttime here, and as he looked around, a few things became apparent. He was by the sea, and he was nowhere in North America. Even in Florida, it wasn't as gorgeous as it was here. And it just didn't feel right, somehow.

Where was he? Where had his sacrifice taken him? Who had rescued him? He didn't know, and, standing in one place, he looked around.

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vagabond_child
2008-09-09 06:07 pm UTC (link)

"..........Mirage?" He listened to her explanation, which sort of explained things. Or, at least, more than he'd known before. It still wasn't very clear to him, but he had a base to start from. That was good, he could work with this. "Why is this place called Mirage? A mirage is an optical illusion. Are you saying none of this is real?"

Being a very simple, literal sort of person, both when he was alive as well as when he was turned, he didn't like this idea at all. Many of the other vampires he'd known would be fascinated by this idea, of being someplace not real, but not Armand. But he was pulled away from these musings by her questions. Damn it, she was perceptive.

"I breathe to speak, and my heartbeat is soft right now. And, yes, as you so crudely put it, I can read minds." This was odd territory to him. He was so used to hiding who he was from mortals. It was one of the oldest rules in the book. But accepting death as he had changed things somewhat. "I'm not really alive, not exactly. I'm a vampire."

As he was waiting for her reaction, a wind came up. He'd been idly wondering if she was more likely to scream and try to kill him, or just laugh. But he didn't have time to find out, because the wind had particles of sand in it. It embedded itself into his still-healing flesh, and he gasped with pain and swayed, nearly falling. Still not even close to being healed.

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rocksolid
2008-09-09 06:27 pm UTC (link)

"No, it's real. That's just what the place is called." She shrugged. Seemed like a stupid question to her. Obviously it was real. Toph refrained from saying so though and focused instead on his answers. Which she accepted easily enough. No running or attempted murder to be had. It's not like it was the weirdest thing she'd ever heard. There were walking stone people, they were kidnapped by a planet, why not have vampires? It was actually kind of cool, or at least she thought so.

Toph didn't have the chance to say anything about it as he gasped and swayed, apparently in pain for some reason, but the only thing she'd felt was bits of sand flying around. "Sand hurts?" She asked curiously, extending a hand to draw the small bits of dirt off of him. Not very strong, these vampire things, were they? Maybe not really being alive did that? "Come on. We'll go inside. I can show you the rules, give you your key, and all that." The earth bender offered, making a point to keep the dirt from hitting him again since obviously that was a problem.

"You can -- lean on me if you have to, I guess." He had been walking funny. Thinking about it, she figured he must've been hurt or something, that would explain the sand thing too, getting dirt in the wound. "I have a friend who is good at healing. I can get her for you, if you need it."

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vagabond_child
2008-09-09 07:57 pm UTC (link)

Though she was not rude enough to go into it, he read it from her mind. And maybe it should have annoyed him, but he found himself smirking a little bit. This girl seemed to have the same love of simple answers, the same sort of basic practicality, that he himself had. He quite enjoyed it. Or would have, if he hadn't been in quite so much pain.

"Yes. Sand hurts. Funny, in a way, that I could bend steel bars but a little bit of sand in a burn is enough to bring me to this."

He was basically musing out loud, when he saw her raise her hand and pull the sand away from him. He frowned, and then laughed, delighted. He'd sensed something about powers in her mind, but hadn't gone too deep in. The pain he felt made it challenging to focus, and he needed that if he was going to sense much beyond surface level stuff.

"Inside? Key? There's rules?" He shook his head slightly. "Arrogant being, isn't it, this Planet? To kidnap us and then give us rules we have to live by? What happens if we don't?"

Her offer had him laugh, but not cruelly. More like in delight. This mortal, who should be scared of him, was instead offering to help him walk. This was a strange world indeed, to have people like this here. And he read nothing in her mind of any desire to hurt him. Remarkable.

"I'd better not lean on you... I'm very badly burned and if I do, it will hurt. I don't know that I need your friend. I'll heal on my own, given time."

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rocksolid
2008-09-09 08:26 pm UTC (link)

"It's not like kidnappers are known for being particularly nice. The rules are no leaving and no killing. Other then that the planet gives you almost anything you want or need." Generally speaking, the planet was pretty nice for a kidnapper. At least they weren't bound in dank prison cells with crap food or something. It could be loads worse. "I'm not sure what happens if we don't. I don't have any way of leaving, or any reason to want to kill."

She shrugged as he refused her offer, both to help him walk and to get Katara, and just continued towards the resort. She paused for a minute once they reached the building, pointing to the large tablet with the planet's greeting and rules. While he read that, she moved inside, retrieving his key from a golem. The one behind the desk placed in her hand when she'd asked, and she returned to him with it.

"Here you go. Your room number should be on it." She stated, holding out the key.

"What is your name, by the way?" Toph asked. He wasn't bad, she actually kind of liked the guy -- vampire or not.

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vagabond_child
2008-09-09 08:45 pm UTC (link)

Armand nodded, unable to argue with that assessment of the situation. Twice in his life he'd been kidnapped, once as a mortal by slavers, and once as a vampire by the cult of Satanists. He'd hadn't been treated very well by either group. How could this be any worse than this?

He followed her, and as they went, the dead, black skin began peeling away. Underneath, the skin was raw, reddened, but he was healing. It was using up all the blood in his body to do it, though, and he'd certainly need to feed soon. But he suspected he would recover. It was happening already, though it would likely take a long time before he was exactly as he was before.

She led him into a large room with a plaque on a pillar, and he read it. He hadn't really taken her seriously, or maybe he hadn't just absorbed it, when she said that he couldn't kill. The idea of a vampire who didn't kill had him laughing once more.

"Oh, but this is going to be interesting! I must feed without killing. I have done this before, rarely."

Nothing else really bothered him. At heart, he was the sort of person who enjoyed being told what to do. Or, rather, appreciated it. He might fight against whoever would claim to master him, but he never really wanted to be free. Only to assert that he was involved too. It was complicated.

He accepted the key and looked at it. Again, he laughed, even while his skin itched and healed. When he'd arrived on the Planet, he'd been burned almost beyond recognition. In a short time, he'd lost any trace of blackness, and his skin was starting to heal the rips and tears. It was probably best she couldn't see this, it wasn't a very pretty process to watch.

"I am Armand. And I don't usually like talking to mortals, but I do like talking to you. Why is that?"

Like she would somehow have the answer to that. But he was really more thinking out loud than really asking a serious question.

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rocksolid
2008-09-09 09:29 pm UTC (link)

"Feed?" She repeated, getting the distinct impression that feeding for him didn't mean the same thing it did for her. Nothing about this guy was normal, why should his diet be any different? But it couldn't be that bad, right?

She couldn't help but smile as he laughed again. It was kind of funny how easily he was amused by things. That and being referred to as a mortal was weird. "How would I know? You're the mind reader." She liked talking to him too, not that she'd say so, but then again -- she didn't really have to.

"Anyways, if I can help with the burns at all, just say so. Otherwise I can show you around a bit or to your room." Toph offered, the teen did sort of want to stick around and talk to him a bit more. She was curious about what else being a vampire entailed, and what it was like where he'd come from. Certainly not like her's and Katara's home as there weren't vampires there, but he hadn't seemed too surprised by her bending either.

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vagabond_child
2008-09-09 10:01 pm UTC (link)

He looked at her with just he slightest smirk on his face. Which, of course, she couldn't see. But she could probably hear the amusement in his voice. He'd never heard of anyone who didn't know what he meant when he spoke of feeding. Of course, all of the people who knew what he was back home were just like him. He was bad at dealing with mortals.

"I'm a vampire. I drink blood to survive."

He'd told her part of it, right? What was the harm in telling the rest? Strange that he'd told her even that, though. Shaken from the sun, definately. But it didn't seem to have done any harm, at least not yet. And if they wern't allowed to kill, well, that meant she wasn't going to kill him, either.

"Thank you, but they're healing already. And, if you don't mind, I'd like to talk to you more before I go off and find my room. It's been a long time since I spoke with a mortal, and even longer since one interested me." He could read her own interest in him, and how she was enjoying herself, in her mind. It made him smile. "I think we both have questions for each other. I've never heard of this... earth bending."

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rocksolid
2008-09-09 10:42 pm UTC (link)

Her smile faltered slightly at that, but she still wasn't going to run away screaming or anything. Killing wasn't allowed, and it sounded like he would go with that. And while blood didn't sound all that appetizing, she figured that technically there was blood in the meat she ate, and if she cut her finger the first place it went was her mouth. He just went a little further with that is all.

A grin pulled at her features again though, more then happy to tell him about earth-bending if he'd tell her more about himself. She took a few steps back into the grass, lifting both hands, a pillar of sand rose with her left and some of the rock of the courtyard did the same to her right. "Basically I can manipulate anything made of earth. Sand, mud, rock, and I invented metal bending." Toph said, obviously proud of that last one. As far as she knew she was the only one who could do that. Armand had mentioned bending steel, but it wasn't the same.

"I can use my bending to feel the vibrations everything makes too. It's how I see." The sand and stone shifted into different shapes, two foot tall golems or little houses, then falling back into place again as she lowered her hands.

"What about you? What other tricks have you got?" Mind reading, almost non-existent breathing and heartbeat, drinking blood, and obviously he was stronger then your average person if he could bend steal. That, and the fact that he kept calling her a mortal implied he wasn't one. That was a little harder to accept though. Did he really just not die, or was it like with the avatar, and he was constantly being reborn with memories of his past lives?

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vagabond_child
2008-09-09 11:08 pm UTC (link)

He'd been watching her sharply to see her reaction to his further confession, but while her smile faltered, she didn't freak. And, in her mind, there was alittle bit of revulsion, but nothing as major as he might have expected. She thought about it and then accepted it, he could tell from her thoughts. An interesting human, indeed.

His eyebrows rose, which hurt the tender skin on his face, but he was further impressed with her as she moved the earth around. It was like nothing he'd ever seen before. Maybe, in his own world, the most powerful witches might be able to accomplish this. But he wasn't even completely sure about that.

"You are, beyond a doubt, the most interesting non-vampire I've spoken to in... well... since before I was made into a vampire myself. How is it that you accomplish these things?"

He listened as she explained, and nodded thoughtfully. He'd wondered how she was so able to move while she was blind. These vibrations must be quite a powerful tool, to make her walk around just like someone with their vision. She wasn't handicapped at all, was she? Not even remotely.

There was something irresistable in telling her all this, and for the first time, he understood why Louis and Lestat would want to do this, want to reveal things to mortals. It made him feel somehow... powerful. Breaking the rules, even if they were rules that didn't make sense anymore, was a strange and nearly intoxicating experience. So he stepped back a few paces and stood as straight as his healing skin would allow him to.

"How about I show you? Don't be alarmed, I won't hurt you."

With that, he stopped talking. At least, out loud. His voice seemed to echo in her head, though. And he used his compelling gift, honed over centuries, to lure her close to him. Deep in the recesses of her mind, he spoke to her, urging her with his power to come to him. He'd gotten so good at this trick that he'd been able to stand outside mortal dwellings and have his victims come to him.

Come to me, my gorgous one, my love... come to me, and I will give you such pleasure...

The voice in her head was compelling, utterly sincere. Most, he had learned over the course of his long life, could not resist. It would be interesting to see if she could, or if she would fall into a trance like others.

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rocksolid
2008-09-10 11:24 am UTC (link)

"Thanks." Toph replied with an amused sort of chuckle. It was a strange compliment, but she'd take it. "It's not as uncommon in my world, there are people who can bend earth, water, fire, and a friend of mind who can bend everything including air. But I'm still the best earthbender around there too though." More pride, but it wasn't unfounded, the teenager was easily a master of earth bending without a doubt back home, and as far as she knew the only one here.

Despite the assurance that he wouldn't hurt her, and the fact that for the most part she believed him, Toph's heels still dug into the ground as she fell into a defensive stance. It was more instinct then anything at the suggestion that he could hurt her, even if he wouldn't.

For an instant the voice in the back of her mind set her on edge. The feeling was totally unexpected and unfamiliar, and she certainly wasn't pleased with the fact that she'd moved forward a step or two without even realizing it at first. Peeking into her thoughts to pull out names or tid-bits of information hadn't bothered her, but this was entirely different.

However, it quickly became hard to focus on anything else, and she almost found herself willing and eager to do as he said. The only indication of hesitation, or an attempt to fight against the desire to go to him was the way the earth rose beneath her feet with every step as if she'd tried to root herself to the stop and not quite succeeded.

Once she'd reached Armand, the longer she stood waiting for more instruction and kind words, the less she tried to resist until there was little to no interest in anything but him.

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vagabond_child
2008-09-10 01:30 pm UTC (link)

It must have looked odd, if anyone had been watching. They looked to be the same age. If anything, the angellic-looking boy looked slightly younger than her. And they were close to the same height. As she made her reluctant way over to him, the earth seeming to pull at her feet, he stood completely still, made no move. When she was in front of him, he looked deep into her eyes.

Slowly, very carefully, he raised a burned hand and let his sensitive fingers run along her neck. He had her. She was under his control. It would be so easy to just lean down and... but no. He was injured, and would surely drain her if he took her. Then, she'd die, and he'd have broken the rules already. It was a little soon for that, his first night. And he didn't want to kill her, for a very simple reason. He liked talking to her.

Gently, he withdrew from her mind, leaving behind a sense of happiness and contentment. It was a gift of his to leave these images, these emotions. It had been a long time since he'd bothered for someone who wasn't about to die. He stepped back and looked at her, waiting for the spell to break as he no longer maintained it. The knowledge of what he'd done, he left in her mind. She'd wanted to know, after all.

"I can also fly, and I'm immortal. I thought I could be killed but..." There was a pause, and then a slightly bitter laugh. "I cannot, I do not believe. Even the full light of the sun didn't end my life. You noticed I have no heartbeat. When I'm full of blood, I have a heartbeat that you would be hard-pressed to tell from a human's."

He tilted his head to the side and looked at her thoughtfully. She was an incredible person. He could have left, for he sensed she didn't have much more to tell him about Mirage, the welcoming part, but he stayed. And he hoped, strongly, that she didn't get scared and leave.

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rocksolid
2008-09-10 02:54 pm UTC (link)

It was good on his part that he'd left those emotions, as it was likely she would've been furious with him otherwise. Even with the feeling of contentment though she knew full well what he'd done and that she didn't like it. She also resented the fact that she hadn't been able to fight it either, and wondered idly for a minute if there was a way she could fix that. It was sort of like bending one's spirit, like what Aang had done to the fire lord, and if that was the case then there had to be a way to make herself strong enough to resist that kind of manipulation.

The idea of being able to fly didn't particularly appeal to her either. The ability wasn't as impressive as it might have been to others, as it wasn't new to her, and she was pretty adverse to flying anyways as it made it impossible for her to see. Being immortal was cool though, or might be anyways. Armand didn't sound all that pleased with it.

"As impressive as that trick was -- don't do it to me again." Toph said. She liked him, and didn't really have a problem with him being in her head a bit, but that would change very quickly if he used that power on her again. Toph might be just mortal, but she was a mortal that could have the earth encase and bury him hundreds of feet below the surface, and leave him to dig his way back out. She trusted that it wouldn't come to that though, she hoped not anyways.

"So what does an immortal vampire do for fun?" She asked, interested in him as well, not just the powers he had. Toph also wanted to change the subject and show that she wasn't afraid or intimidated by what he could do (even if she actually was a little bit.)

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vagabond_child
2008-09-10 03:20 pm UTC (link)

He smiled just a little as he read her emotions. She was spurting them off so strongly, he would have had to be less powerful than the newest of fledglings not to notice. He'd read her well, knowing that it would be a good idea to leave her with the feelings of contentment. He sensed her thoughts even as she thought them.

"Yes, beautiful girl, you likely could bury me, if you struck quickly enough and I didn't read the intention in your mind. And I could get out, and it would not go well for you once I had. But, come, enough of this. I don't want to argue with you. So I will agree to this. I will not use this gift on you."

He read her apprehension in her mind, but he didn't mock her for it, as some of his kindred might have done. He let her change the subject. After all, as someone who was so conscious of his own dignity, he knew what a careless word could do to that. And, again, he liked talking to her. If he annoyed her, she might leave.

"Fun? Oh, we do many of the things mortals do , I expect. We read, write, explore the world, love, hate... Lately, I have been enthralled with the world of the cinema. When I was made, we didn't have such things."

He had to think, actually, about what it was he did. Had anyone ever asked him about himself like that? Carefully, trying it on for size, he turned the question back around on her.

"And you, what do you do, as you say, for 'fun'?"

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