[IC] Things that go bump (Caits and Crawkid)

[MarshiestMallow]

In the current time, things of mystery and fantasy are just that-fantasy. At least to most people. For some, it was completely real, most had the magic of science, the thing that brought so many inventions, the car, the mobile phone, the wacky world wide web that gave just about everyone access to information that would otherwise have had to hunt up in a library, or some other way of finding it out. In a modern day world were medicine could cure or prevent a majority of illnesses and disease, things like mages, or vampires were stories, tales told to kids for amusement.

For 22 year old Connor, the things that go bump in the night were very real for him. He had been chasing things like ghouls, ghosts, demons, Djhins, werewolves vampires and more, since he was 18, and had first stumbled upon the world unseen, the world most normal people would never come across. He had been seduced and nearly killed and turned by a vampire when he foolishly got drunk with a fake ID. Only luck had saved him, he had lingered too long at the club, and this particular vampire hadn't had any protection from the sun, and had burned to death when the sun rose and it had stepped outside. From that moment on, Connors eyes were open to the other world.

He had heard rumors in the dark of a vampire that seemed intent on helping those less fortunate. He had pondered that, wondering if it was some sort of prey for it. So he decided to form a plan. He put on a disguise-a particular habit of his, to wear a costume-of a homeless person, and started to hang out in the shelters, watching and listening for any sign of a vampire.

Recently, he had began to grow worried. There were more and more attacks from the supernatural occurring, incidents rising, and he feared a incredible force of the dark rising. Taking jobs enabled him to figure out what was going on, while making the world a little bit safer.

[Crawkid]

Due to the rise of supernatural activity, Elizabeth found it necessary to increase her own activity. She was aware of her reputation getting spread around the world of night, a vampire who brazenly walks in the light and helps those who would be considered dirt. it had brought a smirk to her face every time she had heard it. Who would think that it would be possible? Certainly not most vampires, who cared only for themselves and their kind. to them, the homeless were like cheap cattle. The only thing they were good for was feeding on, and even then it wasn't all that good.

It was 4 in the evening now, supper would soon be served in the nearest homeless shelter. Fully lathering in sunscreen, and having taken her meds, her lovely vampire lady made her way into the building. they were already starting to come and get hungry. Poor creatures. They get the love of God, and still get no where in life. Smiling to the few who greeted her, she made her way into the kitchen, where the food and drinks were being set up.

It wasn't much longer after that, dinner was announced and people started lining up.

[MarshiestMallow]

Connor knew he couldn't spend much more time on this job, so tonight was his last chance to find the vampire. He mingled in with the crowd of homeless, muttering polite welcomes and mostly trying to fit in. His clothes were perhaps a little better then most here, but he felt that he still fit in well enough. This was the last shether he could try.

"Lucky last" he muttered to himself. Somehow, he felt that had meaning tonight. He often had these sort of senses, and felt that tonight this was right. He glanced about, moving to a table when the doors were open, and waited for tne food to be served. He rarely ate the food served, instead giving it to someone else. It didn't feel right eating from a homeless shelther when he could afford food.

As it was served, he lined up, looking about. It had to be one of thr servers, he thought, or one of the cooks. So he studied each and everyone, hoping his sense would help him. He spied someone, a woman, who was very oily. Just like tnat, or was it sunscreen for protection against the sun? He already knew. Aye, he was in the right place.

he dropped his empty tray, having not taken any food yet

[Crawkid]

She had been the one at the end of the line, the one who offered the drinks to go with the food. it was her usual spot around here, because the people knew she wasn't comfortable being in the middle of two others. People who worked for the homeless shelters always were kind. As she served each person as they came up, she wondered about getting the regular volunteers presents. Does she still need an occasion for something like that, she wondered. Or is it ok now days to give gifts for no reason?

She was in the throws of her evenly paced rhythm when she was startled out of it by the sound of a tray hitting the floor. With a quiet apology, she re-poured the person's drink. once that was over, she leaned to get a better look at the one who dropped his tray, naturally a bit worried. "Are you ok, sir? You can get another tray, if you need to"

Of course she didn't know it was a hunter. She had no reason to believe any of these guys were out to get her. And although she had entertained the idea that her building reputation would bring someone out of the woodworks to kill her, she was at work. She had no time to think about it.

[MarshiestMallow]

The vampire seemed genuinely concerned about the welfare of the homeless here. Her voice seemed naturally worried as she asked if he was okay. He shook his head, "N-no" he said, "I'm alright" he was sure now, that the woman was a vampire. "sorry" he said, moving to sit down at a table.

He would wait here until the shelter closed, or she finished up. It puzzled him why a vampire would work here. He couldn't actually imagine that the blood from these humans would be nice. He wrinkled his nose up at that thought, and ran a hand through his hair He shivered, and glanced at the vampire again.

Something just didn't seem right here. He needed to figure out what. He frowned, and sipped at a class of water, pondering this. He touched the stake in his jacket, and the felt the cool knife along the skin of his leg where it was strapped there. He was ready, but...it just seemed to strange.

Eventually he rose, and returned to the line, if only to get a closer look at the vampire. He grabbed another tray, and went to get some food.

[Crawkid]

His odd behavior hadn't really phased her much after he went and sat down. This was a homeless shelter, people acted odd all the time. So she continued her work, serving up drinks to go with the meal, though she would occasionally steal glances towards him. after about the fourth time looking over, she decided that she would get him a plate if he did not come back up on his own.

But he did. And for his wait, the line was shorter. he got offers of food - rice, chicken gravy, stuffing, noodles, meatballs, and sandwiches.
Once he was done with that part of the line, he would come to her - the drink lady. She smiled a bit when she saw him come to her, "Hello again. Would you like lemonade, water or gatorade?"

[MarshiestMallow]

Connor tried to appear non-threatening as he took a bit of food, going with noodles and meatballs, He moved through the line, letting himself just try and examine the vampire without appearing like he was leering at her.

When he moved up to the drinks, he glanced up. He found himself returning the smile she gave him, and replied, "Lemonade, thank you" Just because she was a vampire didn't mean that he couldn't be polite. Then he wondered if most homeless people were polite.

He shifted, trying to appear as if he were simply weird, instead of completely sane. He nearly burst out laughing then. Completely sane? he thought to himself and shook his head.

"Sorry about before" He said again.

[Crawkid]

She kept her smile as she scopped up a ladle of lemonade and carefully poured him a cup of the drink. She found it kind of charming and cute how he was so polite and apologetic. "It's ok. You have nothing to worry about here." she told him, handing him the cup so that he may carry it back to his spot. Once he was away from her, another came up, requesting gatorade.

There were lots of people tonight, so anywhere he sat would be a person who would be quite happy to take any offered food off of his hands.

A hour later, the shelter's kitchen was handing out extra sandwiches just before shutting down. Elizabeth had set the left over drink in the fridge and said goodnight to her fellow workers. On her way out, she checked her sunscreen. it still wasn't completely dark out so she had to be careful. Luckily not much of it seemed to have been rubbed off, so she figured that she was still ok.

Once she was actually outside, she took a deep breath of the cooling evening air and smiled a bit to herself. "Another good start..."

[MarshiestMallow]

Connor had, as soon as he sat down, passed his tray of food off to someone else. He got a bit of an odd look there, but he shrugged, and gave the guy a smile, saying, "I'm not hungry" another odd look there. he leaned back in his chair and drank his lemonade.

Every so often, he looked back at the vampire, as much to keep her in his sights as for anything else. As the place started to close down, he watched her check her sunscreen. When she was outside, he rose, hesitated, and dug into his pocket, taking out a fifty, and giving it to the first homeless he reached. Seeing how they lived, just the small experience he had, made he wish he could do more for them.

He headed outside, and saw her. He glanced up and down the street, taking a slow breathing in the cool air. He preferred being outside than in. He approached her. "hello" He said, then wondered if that made him a creep, following her.

[Crawkid]

She had been looking towards downtown of the city, where the colorful signs lit up the brighteest...where she knew there would be a man or two willing to take advantage of a girl in a bar. There was a vampire den she knew of too that she could hit, and for a moment, she wondered how much longer she would be able to get in.

Since she hadn't really moved much more than a few feet away from the door, him approaching her made him odd, but not a creep. Not many people did approach her after her work, having gone by now. After having her moment to cool down from being in a building full of beating hearts and warm blood..and looked forward to the rest of her night, fulfilling her own need to feed...she kind of didn't want any of her homeless people approaching her at this moment. However, she refused to show it...though she wasn't quite as open and friendly as she had been inside, she wouldn't be rude and unfriendly either.

"Hello again. How was dinner?'

[MarshiestMallow]

Connor could see her conflicting need to continue on with her night, probably feed, and her need to at least not be rude. He sighed. This just made it worse.

He stood there, staring at her probably like an idiot, as he debated what to do. He eventually sighed, and shrugged. "I didn't eat dinner. I gave it to someone else, along with a fifty. The lemonade was good though" He decided to just be truthful. Well, mostly truthful.

He shrugged out of the tattered old jacket he was wearing, revealing his better clothes underneath, a black t-shirt that looked brand new because it was. "I don't belong here in the shelters any more then you do. I...I've heard rumors of something odd happening, and as it so happens, odd is my job"

He shrugged again, "Can I ask, apart from the great need to help others, why choose to work in a homeless shelter? and have you noticed anything weird? maybe someone who seems a bit off-jeez, besides me, I know I'm odd-or weird or something like that?" He decided to try and get her to let her guard down around him, but knew it wouldn't work, most likely.

[Crawkid]

Revealing himself had not gotten her to lower her guard, it only made her raise it. The entire time he was talking, she took in every word her said and went through the meaning of it. The first bit of information had her thinking he was a detective, and if it was just this, she could have dealt with it in a simple,direct, yet nice way.

But when he asked her why she worked in the homeless shelter, she pegged his profession - and she did not like it.

She stood there in silence a moment, debating to attack, try to erase his memory of the night, or run. Considering he was probably a hunter, and he was this close and prepared for anything, she prepared her mind to run. Where would she go to? The vampire den, she'd get mocked because of her reputation, but it would still be safe. still, she went along with the questions he asked her. Her voice lost it's americanism and sounded pretty heavily brittish, and she lost quite a bit of her friendliness, but still worded herself politely.

"I'm aware only that my reputation has been building...and that there's more activity in this town...despite your work. I don't know why, and I don't care to bury my nose in it. " She kept her eyes on him, 'as for the homeless shelter...think of it as...feeding straycats. Stray talking cats....You look at a stray cat and see that it is cute, and that it could be loved. The only thing they are missing is the opportunity. Homeless people are the same way. Their souls have the protection of his love...but they have no opportunities to make it in life." she was really tense, feeling ever more like she needed to escape - he could ignore her words at anytime and decide that she was lying. yet, she stayed.

"Any other questions, hunter?"

[MarshiestMallow]

Connor ran a hand through his hair, shifting his weight to his back foot as he watched her like she watched him, listening as she spoke. He could see her trying to decide what to do, run or get rid of him in someway. That should scare him but it didn't.

Despite what she said, it still seemed like an odd profession for a vampire to have, helping the homeless. He watched her suspiciously. Most vampires had a motive for anything they did.. He frowned, and shook his head "I get why others did it, humans, but why would a vampire what to help the stray cats of the human world? It just doesn't go with how you people work" he said.

He shrugged at her question about whether he had any more questions "not really. The darks rising everywhere, vampire. So tell me why I shouldn't kill you, despite the work you do with the homeless" he asked almost casually, actually curious about her answer

[Crawkid]

She knew it. How could any human hope to understand her motives? He continued to speak, and any one else might have felt more threatened, but she began to relax a little. You looked him over as a whole, and memories of when she was human began to play in her mind. She too was afraid, though she had only known legends and did not actively hunt them. She was just another vampire now...and this was just another human, just another person who was afraid of her.

Even when he threatened to kill her, she did not tense up. And when she was sure that he was done, she smiled- though slightly sad- and looked out again to the downtown area. "Yeah...my kind. Let me tell you about my kind, hunter.." she looked back at him, "We were all once just like your kind. Living, loved, and in the majority. Most of us feared vampires. We WERE humans. All of us lost our humanity, most of us had no choice but a few handfuls of fools romanticized it and asked to join...but we are all just as diverse as we used to be, we've just got a new lifestyle and set of instincts to help us survive, we are part of foodchain of the night, and so we have become hated by the living who thrive in daylight. We live in secret, because if we don't...our most viable source of food will turn and kill us. It's no wonder we come to treat you like foolish cattle. and by we, I mean my kind of course."

She paused. What was she even doing? What was she saying? Was she painting the race of egocentric assholes she's come to know as persecuted victims...wasn't she long ago? A new vampire, a strong bloodthirst, but still fully humanly moral...She looked at him in front of her again, she had envied the freedom that her human friend still had back then...maybe she still did.

Taking a deep breath, letting the air calm her, she continued.

"...but no matter what happens...no matter what I say...You should never trust a vampire, for you ARE a food source. Now. I am tired of these questions. Either kill me...or be gone."

This was it, it's been 300 years of hiding, moving, feeding on the unsuspecting, and trying to maintain some form of humanity. Once again, she found her long existence to be tiring...but this time there was someone who was willing to help her end it.

[MarshiestMallow]

Connor Listened to her ramble on. In some ways, he could feel sorry for her. In others, he was repulsed, because they drank blood and killed to maintain their existence. He could easily have been, either dead or what she was. and that's want made him curious. What would life have been like, if four years ago, he had been turned? Perhaps he could have decided his entire existence to keeping others safe from the things that went bump in the night. Instead, he would defend humans as a human, until he invitably died or retired.

"You don't have to remind me you were all once human, Vampire. Considering I was nearly killed and/or turned by one of your kind. The sun managed to help me that time. So forgive me if I have a sort of Biased opinion of the fact that you drink human blood to survive" He said in a neutral tone. He let out a sigh, "you seem to act like a new born, and yet you have the resistance of an older vampire, to work with humans that no one will miss, that no one will think twice about" He said, "And you seem to want to help them. Now, what am I to make of that?"

he leaned back against the wall, seeming to ponder this, then shook his head. "You can go, but you should be wary...Alpha's don't seem to like it when one of them strays" He said, turning around, and starting down the street, before pausing. "I hear one sound that you are using these homeless shelters as a source of food, and I will kill you"

[Crawkid]

She didn't look directly at him when he started talking about how he was attacked before. She certainly could imagine how an experience like that would lead one onto a path of vengeance and extermination. She only glanced up when he mentioned how he couldn't understand the way she acted. She knew she was confusing, she was even confusing herself nowdays. What the hell was she accomplishing doing this? Nothing but an odd reputation that sent a hunter after her ass...

Her eyes widened in surprise, she was almost certain her would have killed her. Part of her...had wanted him to kill her. She had even been prepared to be staked and turned to dust...now, as he left...she felt almost lost.

Silently, she listened to his last words, a decisively solid threat. She could not hear any hesitance in him at all, though it wasn't like she expected any. Her body shifted slightly, her anxiety over lack of food and the unnatural thirst was starting to get to her. Her eyes shifted to the bright lights of a promised meal. "hunter" she addressed him, not wanting him to get to far, "If there is anything you've learned tonight.... it should be that death is only a temptation...for me."

And so she ran off, unable to stand talking about how much she should die while trying to hold back her instinctual needs. That night, she drank from five men, not killing a single one but making sure they didn't remember the encounter at all.

[MarshiestMallow]

Connor whistled as he walked down the street, seemingly at ease. He was far from it. Weird things were happening, not just the seemingly soulful vampire, but weird things in the supernatural world, that were leaking into the natural world. He was starting to fear that, somehow, the demons of the seven deadly sins were reaching out into the world, their touch light at the moment, but noticeable to someone like him.

If that was the case, something serious was going on. Which meant he needed to be more on guard. And which made him wonder why he had let the vampire go. He had promised himself he would never let an evil supernatural go. Maybe that was the problem. She wasn't strictly evil, just trying to work with the hand she was dealt. Like he would have.

Confused and puzzled by this, he frowned, and looked about, sure he had sensed something. Just as seven vampires fell on him. He didn't cry out, instead he flipped over, and away from the little coven, watching them all. He lunged at the first one, stake in hand, and stabbed it through the heart, twisting until it poofed into dust, twirling just in time to stab his knife threw another's neck, causing it to fall, ducking as one lunged at him, and stabbing it with his stake, getting it right in the heart. Two down, one injured, four to go, he thought, spinning about to look for the the other four, but not seeing them. He cursed, and started running down the street, fleeing. He threw himself into his car, and started the engine, pulling onto the road fast, and merging into traffic.

He was panting, cursing himself for not paying attention.

There was no doubting it. Something was up. And something wanted to stop him.

[Crawkid]

Somewhere along the street he was on was a place where it turned off into a catholic church.

It just so happened that a certain vampire was there, talking to one of the sisters in charge of watching the children on the playground. Elizabeth always made sure to maintain strong ties to this church, though the fact that they didn't know she was a vampire helped considerably. They were talking about the usual topics- how her volunteer work was going, what events the church was planning, when the next church meal was, if she'd given thought to joining the rank of the church, if she's found anyone of interest yet because she'd make a good mom, the weather, how the sister's life was, et cetera...

(short post XP)

[MarshiestMallow]

Connor drove down the street, satsified for now that he had thrown off the vampires left from the small coven. He looked down the street, frowning when he saw the vampire from the homeless shelter. In front of a church. He stared, wide eyed, utterly and completely shocked.

I think this shows it well

He stopped the car, and waited for the nun to go back inside, for the vampire to be finished. He got out, shrugging on a black jacket since he was covered in vampire blood and dust, walking over. "Talk about a small world" he said, his slight Australian accent showing through as he talked. "Going to do a little praying are we?" He asked, keeping his tone neutral and trying not to reveal that he was completely shocked.

He shifted, stopping in front of her, raising an eyebrow. "Can you even step into a church? Wouldnt you burn? Perhaps I should be taking notes, making a book for future hunters" he said and gave a laugh

[Crawkid]

When they had finished, Elizabeth had intended to just stand there for a moment more, allowing herself to be over-come with her fond memories of being human. Her reminiscing was cut short as she heard footsteps approach however. When she saw that it was the hunter from the other night, she watched him closely as he began to talk to her. her first thought was that maybe he didn't appreciate her kind getting so close to the church and so was going to tell her to stay away...but...what she heard were just questions.

Realizing that he was just curious, she relaxed and even laughed a bit at his joke. "I assure you, your sources are correct," she informed him and casually turned back towards the church with a small smile, "There is no way that God would allow evil to reside in his house." She had re-adopted her more American voice, after all, her dropping it was only to reveal to him how old she was.

"Surely I would burn, and be returned unto ash and dust should I step foot past the doors."

And she gave this a moment of silence and an almost mournful sigh.

But she was not here to mourn the loss of her humanity -this time- she was just here for a chat and happened to be approached by someone who started to talk to her on his own. She looked him up and down, noting to herself that he appeared to be a fit young man, surely if all went well in his life, he would have at least ten more years of fighting her kind. "You know...activity is rising...so you and I are going to be out on the streets more often. I think it's fair, then, that we know each other by something other than just 'vampire' and 'hunter' "

She held out her hand to him, "My name is Elizabeth."