02 - Sink into your Embrace

[spitefulvitae]

[Action A - 2240 Stevens Road - Friday, April 6th, morning]

[What was this in the mail? Packages? Three of them? One big, one small, and one envelope, all addressed to her? But she knew better than to open any of them in the open. Not with the sun shining. So she had taken them inside, and because she was impatient, brought them down to the light-sheltered basement so she could open them now.

To make a long story short, she now had a bloody nose, an assortment of bee stings, and a makeshift paper sign on the now-locked basement reading "DO NOT ENTER - CONTAINS BEES". Also, that remaining envelope. Sitting on the living room couch, she held it between her thumb and forefinger and fought with herself to hold off on the opening. There was nowhere dark enough. Nowhere secure enough. Not in this house. And the daytime made her sluggish, anyway.

The sun really needed to hurry and set.]

[Action B - general vicinity of 2240 Stevens Road, early evening]

[When the sun had finally dipped far enough under the horizon, Natalie ripped open the envelope from the town. In it was a slip of paper with a single dot of blood upon it. She was confused for only a moment, for suddenly she remembered the knives and the bleeding and the wounds and that single drop of Father's vitae passing her lips. She was experiencing it all over again. Dying again. Rising again.

There's a hideous scream from inside the house. And then not long after that, out staggers Natalie, bloodied from the wrists down, eyes rapidly sinking and darkening and full of hunger. Pedestrians at this time of night, beware.]

[Action C - 1490 Kramden, evening]

[There's an insistent banging on the front door. Ilsa had made promises, and Natalie fully intended to collect on them.]

Comments

[answerer_sword]

[Bazett is heading home when she sees the woman covered in blood. She rushes over.]

What happened? Are you alright?

[spitefulvitae]

[Oh, it's the pranking neighbor lady. How nice. Natalie turns about suddenly and sharply, eyes locking onto Bazett.]

...I opened my mail.

[She advances a step, wobbles, steadies herself... and grins widely, showing off fangs.]

[answerer_sword]

You're bleeding.

[Bazett ignores the fangs to focus on Natalie's wrists.]

[spitefulvitae]

Oh?

[She follows Bazett's gaze, and seems to suddenly notice that yes! Her wrists are quite bloodied. She lifts her right hand, assesses it, and then licks some of the blood away.]

Oh no, no no, I was bleeding. I'm done bleeding. It's over, over, over...

[answerer_sword]

Are you sure?

[She reaches for Natalie's wrist.]

Let me see.

C

[ooeeooahah]

[ The door opens soon, with Ilsa bandaged up from her own bee encounter. ]

What-

[ She stops as soon as she reads Natalie. ]

Inside, come on!

[spitefulvitae]

[Natalie would hardly need to be read, to tell that something is different and bad and wrong. She's ashen and dead looking, with sunken eyes and a scent of dampness and neglect lingering about her. But she still has the same sort of terrible semi-hysterical smiles as she did when she was still human.]

Thank you.

[In she lurches, following Ilsa but consciously keeping a healthy several-foot distance between them.]

I've, I've already learned some things. Already. Do you want to hear?

[ooeeooahah]

[ Ilsa respects the distance Natalie is keeping, but is more worried for Natalie than about her. ]

Sit down before you fall, but go on - you got a letter today.

[spitefulvitae]

[Sitting sounds like a wonderful idea. So she sits. And rocks very subtly back and forth, still in a state of unsettled near-hysteria.]

Yes! I was embraced all over again. But you don't want to hear about that, that's personal... the drones! I can eat them. I, I might as well be knocking back rats for how vital their blood is, but I can feed from them!

[ooeeooahah]

So... they can sustain you, but not well.

[ Her next question is calm, as if she dealt with this sort of thing every day... but Mayfield has done weird things to Ilsa's ability to be shocked. ]

Do you need more tonight?

B

[chalicejoker]

[The screaming has drawn the attention of your next door neighbor, who had been taking out the trash. At least the blood doesn't seem to make him squeamish in the least...although the look in her eyes is giving him pause. He's on guard.]

What's going on here?

[spitefulvitae]

[More attention! What a conscientious neighborhood she lived in. Natalie didn't seem to acknowledge the question at first. But after a few moments of fighting with her balance and whatever horrible things were swirling in her head, she lurched about and looked at him.]

Just the mail! That's it, that's all, just the mail...

[chalicejoker]

[And the feeling that there is something very wrong here only intensifies. The mention of mail didn't help, given that he knows that lately it's been delivering things other than weird census forms and gag gifts.]

Yes, the mail was quite interesting this morning. Mine punched me in the face.

[Hajime's keeping his voice as calm and even as possible, even if her behavior's setting off all sorts of alarm bells in his head. He's resisting the urge to call out his transformation belt, just in case.]

[spitefulvitae]

[Okay, this wasn't going to do her any good in the long run, scaring the dickens out of the neighbors. Scare them too much, and they'd come to stake her during the day. She lets out a long hiss, and straightens herself up, forcing herself to stop swaying and jittering. It mostly works.]

Oh? Did it? Mine too! Also... also... bees. Did you get bees?

[chalicejoker]

[Hajime can tell she's still not quite right, but hey, standing up straighter is an improvement...and getting bees in the mail would probably make anyone crazed.

Still on guard in case it's a ruse, because he's paranoid that way.]

Bees? Fortunately, I didn't get that one. I'll keep an eye out for any buzzing packages.

B

[ex_seventh238]

[She was actually on her way to the Church when she hears the scream a few streets down. The smell of blood reaches her when she gets on Stevens Road, and there, hunched on a rooftop and hidden from view, she watches the woman stagger her way around.

...

Ah, she's definitely not human. With her sixth sense actually she's pretty sure she knows what this woman is; not a Dead Apostle, but something close enough.

Ciel won't come down just yet, choosing to observe for the time being. If Natalie has heightened senses however? She might just get the feeling of being watched.]

OMG yay

[spitefulvitae]

[Ciel may or may not have missed the tail end of matters with Bazett. But Natalie's course afterwards took her not far down Stevens Road. She halted abruptly when she spotted a drone man taking the garbage out.]

Well hello there, Mrs. Waters! Isn't it a nice evening?

[She looks startled to be addressed, but then she smiles, and starts to approach him.]

It is! Such nice weather we're having for this time of year, isn't it? We're just so lucky [Closer now] to be living in this wonderful town [Right up in his personal space] aren't we?

[Then she suddenly grabs him, exposes his neck, and sinks her fangs in deeply. The drone, for his part, exhibits only a moment of droneish surprise, before sort of... glazing over. And then she drinks, oh how she drinks.]

ffffff WHAT FOR

[ex_seventh238]

[...

Huh.

Well okay, how thoughtful of that vampire. She doesn't so much as flinch as she watches the blond woman drain the drone. Because hey, it's a drone. She'll want to see it through until the end though, to take note of how the body may be disposed - provided she kills him by completely emptying him. Accidentally doing a sloppy job and creating a ghoul inadvertently after a meal isn't unheard of, so there's the clean-up job to consider. She's going to debate sending a formal warning too, but for now, she'll continue to impassively observe.]

For YOU :D

[spitefulvitae]

[She drinks deeply, but a frustrated expression is on her face after the first few mouthfuls. After a short feed she withdraws her fangs, licks the wound on his neck closed, and recoils with a sour expression.]

...Mrs. Waters! I... I hope my wife didn't catch us doing that!

[The drone man is pale and unsteady looking, but seems more scandalized than horrified. And he's not keeling over and becoming a ghoul or anything strange. He's retreating back into the house, looking disapprovingly at "Mrs. Waters".]

...weak. Too weak.

[But when she leaves the yard and continues down the street, she looks much more stable.]

no save your cheers for a more noteworthy cause...!

[ex_seventh238]

[She had to not roll her eyes at the reaction, honestly. Did drones really act that way... Admittedly she was more used to vampires who kill the drones they feed off on, given that it'll just be back tomorrow anyway.

Her stabilizing may be a good thing, given that considerate or not, any famished vampire that operates purely on instinct and hunger would be nondiscriminatory in their targeting and be more troublesome to handle. Picking a drone might have been a coincidence, but if this woman was capable of rationalizing and avoiding actual people who are not consenting, then it narrows down the odds of antagonistic confrontation. Being a heretic hunter is a hassle after all, in a place where nothing dies when killed.

She'll continue stalking tailing, easily jumping from one roof to another but still keeping a good distance. This doesn't look bad so far, but WHO KNOWS what may happen next...]

A why am I so late on this? OTL

[tsunkinesis]

[Lili was about to head to school when the packages arrived. She raises an eyebrow at the sign on the basement door.]

Bees? I knew there were one too many packages for regained items.

I'm kinda late, myself D:

[spitefulvitae]

Yes.

There were bees in one of the boxes. [She tears her gaze away from the remaining envelope, and looks to Lili instead.]

...did you receive anything?

[tsunkinesis]

Actual bees...I'm starting to wish I did have my pyrokinesis back now. Well, at least they're not psychic. Trust me any wildlife with psychic powers is not fun to deal with.

Not yet. I wonder what's the hold up. What about you?

[spitefulvitae]

Actual live bees. I'm not sure how they managed it... but here we are. With a basement full of bees.

[And a not-mom with bee stings that are slowly reducing in size...

She snaps her wrist, the paper of the envelope making a "fwip" sound.]

I have this. I'll open it tonight. I can't be sure of what it is, but if it's what I want, then.. yes. I'm opening it tonight.

[tsunkinesis]

Remind me to find a way how to calm bees down. They'll be good for the flowers outside but not indoors.

Might be a power if yours came in an envelope. My past two regains were like that. Do you want me to stick around when you open it just in case?