Vampire Boy Meets Girl (Ru/Kitty)

[tsukikoko]

For what would have been the span of a few heartbeats, had either of them been alive, Kitty stared at the male as he sought to put distance between them, then explained that he had indeed been approached by humans. What was worse, however, was that he had actually gone with them, stayed in a 'rental coffin'! One of her eyes twitched, her expression one of incredulity and exasperated anger. Though she made no move to get closer to him, Kitty chopped aggressively at the air with both hands while she snarled at him.
"You dense motherfucker."

For a while, that was all she could say. She reeled internally, unable to fathom what she was hearing. Rental coffins? Vampires perfectly okay with groups of humans, who weren't even ghouls, knowing about them? Meals, presumably blood meals being simply handed out? What kind of ass-backwards place was this? The humans should not know, that was the whole point, what the hell kind of game was being played here? While Kitty had never wanted to take any part in the socio-political world of her old coven, she at least understood the need for secrecy, especially in an age of mobile phones and the Internet; the humans could not be allowed to widely find out about vampires, else the risk of final death to many a vampire became a very, very really possibility. Humans did not like creatures of the darkness, things that could hurt them in their little bubbles of security. The reaction would be swift and violent, an outcome Kitty did not wish to entertain. She rather liked her unlife, and intended to keep it. Intended to keep her lover's soul safe as well.

Eyes ablaze with an intense, rampaging fury, the redhead rounded upon the male in her vicinity once again. Her motions were jerky, erratic, as though it were a struggle not to launch herself at him that very moment. Instead, she paced, hands gesticulating.
"Why the bloody hell did ya go with them ya bellend?! Did it not strike you as fucking suspicious that a human picked you out as a vampire, by sight, and then offered to take you to some god damn vampire hotel or some shit? That it might have been a trap? You could have woken up to a nice ray of sunshine, you still could! What- what is WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?! Humans should not know, haven't you considered their oh-so-lovely offers might be a veneer, to get you somewhere they can study you, or burn all of you to the ground once you're in a nice little fucking hole? Or, better yet, they hook you up to a machine that slowly drains your blood, your essence, so they can drink it themselves because my FUCKING GOD do they ever get a high off vampire blood. You'll be starving, never given quite enough to satisfy you but just enough not to turn to bloody dust, forever, going slowly INSANE because you were batshit bloody barmy enough to go along with them in the first place jesus fucking christ man!"
Kitty, in her anger, suddenly kicked a loose rock, about the size of a tennis ball and sent it rocketing off into the darkness. A few seconds later a dull thump and a crack signified it's collision with a faraway tree.

Why did she care? Why did she even care if these idiots wanted to get themselves killed? She could just leave. Now she thought about it, if the humans had wanted to out vampires to the world they could have done it a while ago, at least by the sounds of this, ugh, rental coffin fiasco. So there had to be something else at play here. She could just go elsewhere, leave them to die. She didn't care. Not about this man, not about the other members of whatever covens were running around here. She told herself, She. Didn't. Care.

....

But she did care. Something cared. Pride? An unwillingness to be somehow 'beaten' by the humans, as though this were a failing that reflected upon herself somehow? Or a flicker of her younger self, of a person who underneath it all wanted those who were being manipulated, stepped on by those who pulled the strings, to be freed. To be aware of what was happening. To be given the ability to defend themselves.

Kitty didn't know. But whatever the case may have been, she stayed there, hands balled into fists, shaking with the potency of her fury.
"Do you want to die?" She asked the other vampire, her voice quieter now, but filled with no less fire.

[jarahamee]

Ru was glad he no longer had an adrenaline response, because he was sure that he would have been all sorts of out of sorts if he still had the instinct to kick in. He instead just stood there, frozen as he was violently gestured at. She had at least decided not to smack him, which he was glad of, or cut off a head or limb, which he was also glad of.

The vampire stood with his feet close together, staring back, looking rather sheepish. He was not quite sure what she was expecting. Maybe she was an outlaw vigilante type. He considered her words. His old coven had indeed been covert, but mostly to avoid the attention of the human world in terms of their predatory activities more than anything else. Hunting was covert, and if blood had to be shed, that was covert as well and reserved for the powerful heads of the ‘families.’

He had never considered that they could have been taken advantage of, but he supposed, the situations really depended on what he entered. And he had never had a situation where he thought he should mistrust…authority outside of vampire kind. Why would he? They seemed nice, and though maybe it was foolish in retrospect, he saw no reason to mistrust Agent Telmore, the man seemed as genuine as he could have hoped for, and truly seemed to be trying to help.

Whatever defense he had died in his throat. He was not sure what he could say for himself. Instead he simply looked downwards at his feet, then back at Kitty. He wondered if she was going to hit him, then remembered, he could at least regenerate if she did.

Her words rolled around in his head for a long time. What did he want, besides to be human again?

“…Not at all, I want to live. That’s why I’m here.”

[tsukikoko]

Kitty's lip curled at his response, her head raised as though to give herself some small measure of extra height.
"Ya want to live huh? Well then let me give ya some advice." The female vampire widened her stance a little, arms once again folded. "Learn. Fast."

One hand gestured at him then, a snapping motion with her fingers curled into claw-like shapes. Not quite a point.
"Stop makin' fucking excuses. Say you ain't good at hunting? Try. Learn. Find your fucking niche. Seduce, overpower, sneak in while they're sleeping, hunt sodding animals if ya bloody well have have to." Another lip curl, a flash of fangs. "Or if ya will insist on having bloodbags or whatever the hell they're givin' ya, at least find out where they're bloody well sourced."
She spread her arms wide then, turned on the spot until she face him again. Her voice dripped with sarcasm,
"Got aaaallll the fucking time in the world." A darkening of her expression, a dangerous glint in her eyes. "Unless ya go and blindly accept everything thrown your sodding way, let yourself get stepped on... Become some pansy arse bitch scapegoat for some bastard having a boring afternoon. Suddenly you're made an example of, left half buried in concrete to meet the sun. So grow a fucking spine."

Kitty regarded the male vampire for a few moments, teetering on some unseen precipice. Then, as quickly as it had appeared, the storm of her anger faded. She shrugged, the movement nonchalent and dismissive. There was no point dragging this on further.
"Well, whatever."
With that, Kitty turned and began to stride her way into the darkness of the park. Whether the male took on any of her words or not was up to him, but she had other places to be and had said she would leave him alone. Scared of his own shadow that one, but at least she had ascertained he wasn't a direct threat. The redhead lifted a hand in mock salute,
"See ya mate."
A few steps later and she had disappeared from sight in the inky blackness.

[jarahamee]

Ru watched her go. He had no snappy rapports prepared in his defense, and instead he thought about her words. He was not sure why she had approached so aggressively to begin with, but perhaps, it was vampire pride at what a pathetic vampire he happened to be. It would not be the first time someone thought so little of him. The vampires had their pride that seemed to far outweigh most other measures of practicality as far as their lives went.

He listened to the words she had to say, wondering where she sat. She rejected authority, and it seems mistrusted it. Had she been burned before? He was not sure he wanted to pursue her to ask, and yet, the question lingered on his lips. This was a woman who trusted no one, and perhaps, rightfully so, who had he trusted in this world?

"...Wait...before you go..Were you a victim?"

He was not clear about what he asked about, and her disappearance was sudden. Perhaps, she had never heard him at all and she would not have been the first. What kind of victim was he talking about? Perhaps, a victim of police violence, but more than anything, a victim of the predatory system in this world.

He stood there, perched like a falcon, leaning forward. His hair whisked with the sudden cold wind, but he seemed unperturbed by the cold.

[tsukikoko]

For a while, Ru's question was met with only silence, save the rustle of the wind through the leaves. Even Kitty's fiery red hair, the flash of white that was her tank top, had melded into the blackness of the night. It seemed she had either not heard, or would not return to answer the male's question.

Until, that is, a pair of red, floating orbs appeared in the distance. Eyes, glowing in the dark. They hovered in the air. Watched. Waited. Grew larger, drew steadily closer. Kitty's face, illuminated by the glow, appeared first, followed by the shadowy outline of her figure. The female vampire didn't draw anywhere near as close as she had been, but had placed herself within earshot given the emptiness of the nighttime park. Her silhouette spread its arms, the husky, British voice floated across to him,
"Do I look like a victim to you?" A small, humourless laugh followed Kitty folding her arms across her chest. "But if what you're askin' is if I got fucked over by elder vampires, then yes. Bastards used me, let me know they were usin' me, got me tangled in some backstabbing powerstruggle wank against the guy who was 'in charge'. My sire got involved, must have been either balls deep in their pussy or blackmailed up to his fuckin' eyes with the lot who wanted that leader gone because suddenly he's all up in my face about screwing the guy over." She shrugged, "If I refused, he took a limb, or tore my face open, returning whenever I'd pulled myself back together to do it all over again. I wasn't old or strong enough to fight back then."
She fell silent again, mulled over how much else to say. Ultimately, the redhead decided not to reveal anything more about her past - she wasn't really sure why she had done so in the first place, to give him the context that the past doesn't have to loom over a person forever, perhaps? Whatever the case may have been, when Kitty spoke again, her voice was much harsher, an almost bark.
"But I don't mope around in my own sodding self-pity. I got stronger, decided not to let any piece of shit use me ever again."

There was a beat of quiet, a heavy presence in the air between them as those red eyes continued to stare. Then, far more quietly, a sound strangly soft for the foul-mouthed super.
"What about you?"

[jarahamee]

The strange, definitely vampiric presence of a the female vampire appeared like a grim shadow, her reddish eyes ablaze. Ru heard her speak, and thought the words over. It sounded like, she had a similar experience, but handled it in a completely different way. A captive, punished whenever she failed. Worse than his fate, certainly though she had been made of tougher stuff. She was not strong enough to fight back, just like him.

But she was proactive. She made something of herself. He balled his hands into fists and looked over at Kitty's eyes somberly. He was considering all of his options and what he should have done. There were so many ways he could have bettered himself, but he decided not to in favor of being passive and being cared for.

"I um..."

He tried to think of a way that he would not sound completely pathetic, but decided instead to be honest. She seemed to like the honesty approach and put his hands in his pocket.

"My master chose a few of us to be his..servants. He made us for his use, and if we did anything he did not want, he would punish us. One of us was... destroyed for disobedience. The young vampires, we... have no power and no strength. The other supers, the other vampires, attacked us on sight and we were no match. His older...spawn, were all without compassion. He chose them for their beauty I think. All of them. None of us got revenge either. Another guy, like you, managed to destroy him."

Ru was in loath to expand upon the mistreatment he had received. More than violent acts, it was mostly humiliation. The kind of humiliation he never imagined he would be on the receiving end of a year before. His eyes were soft and sad. There was no hatred there.

[tsukikoko]

Kitty’s lip curled. She looked about to spit, but instead made a ‘tsk’ sound and scratched at the underside of her chin - in a fashion not far removed from a dog.
“Ugh, what a tosser.” Then, with a lowered voice mostly to herself, “Different names, different places, same shit.”
Red eyes flickered back to rest on the male; the sneer was gone and though her harsh tone remained, it was no longer aggressive, mocking or sarcastic. Quite simply, she had a naturally rough manner of speaking.
“People are assholes. Vampires have the ability to be bigger assholes. Whether your… ugh, master or whatever the hell ya call him, picked the others for their beauty or not, they fucked ya over because they could.”
Kitty paused for a moment then, her gaze drifting up and down the man stood across from her as though reappraising him.

“Whoever dusted that twat gains some kudos points from me, but unless ya want to be stepped on and used all over again, ya need to give ‘em a reason not to go for ya.” A small shrug, “I appreciate not everyone’s as balls to the wall about fighting as I am, but there must be somethin’ you’re good at.”
As she spoke, memories of her time back in England needled Kitty; reminders of how often she had been manipulated, or coerced, or beaten to within an inch of her unlife by the other members of her vampiric coven. Yet, despite how used she had felt then, all that paled in comparison to the emotions she had been forced to feel for one those vampires. Emotions that scorched with more intensity than any wound or altercation. The way he had used her. How she had loved it, loved him, hated him, herself, the lack of control, but had been unable to exist without him, her mind, body and soul had been his. Completely. She could still almost feel his hands over her skin, his fangs at her throat. The sensation nearly made her shiver. He was with her now, forever. He was her world, still she despised him.

It was maddening.

“I was forced to love someone.”

Kitty blinked, realised abruptly what she had just said. Why had she said that? Revealed that to this person she had just met? There were a couple of seconds where the redhead said nothing, only stood and stared incredulously at the other vampire - as though he had somehow been responsible for her sudden admission - before she waved her hand at him in a short, sharp, dismissive motion.
“Yeah. Anyway. Whatever, you get what I mean. Watch ya back, be useful or be dominant and strong, before someone decides they want you as a personal bitch.”

[jarahamee]

Ru watched Kitty for a long time. Forced to love someone. That was not so uncommon with those who could control minds. If they were powerful enough, they could compell others to do whatever they wished. It was an unfair and predatory dynamic. A cycle of abuse.

But this woman had broken free. She was hardly... living a lifestyle that he envied or respected, but she was certainly leading a lifestyle that he understood. After living that way, who would not want to be free? He gazed at her thoughtfully and then looked down.

Perhaps she was not as evil as he thought she was. If anything else, she was adrift on the sea of ambiguous morality as any of his teachers, as the one who had freed him, or even some of his friends...

"Farewell."

He said to the darkness softly.

[tsukikoko]

In what was a smart move on his part, the male made no attempt to query Kitty's admission. Instead, he bid her a simple, soft 'farewell'. She watched him from the dark, posture alert and gaze fixed in the ensuing silence.

Then, she turned, raised her hand in a dismissive wave.
"Yeah, see ya around mate." A few steps forward and then, "If you and I survive that long."
With that, the leather clad woman took off into the darkness at an effortless sprint, until not even the flash of her wild red eyes was visible in the blackness.