trans_9 | It's Hard to Get People to Like You When You're a Vampire

Current Mood: contemplative

Entry tags:

It's Hard to Get People to Like You When You're a Vampire

Nanashi had found an open Sensorium, and had quickly summoned up the war room from her castle. The walls were lined with books. Nanashi had read so many of these so many times you could open them and be able to read what they said.

But Nanashi was not concerned with the books, she was standing over a table with tiny sculptures of warriors with blades like hers- along with some of the people she knew on the ship or remember from the battle. Opposite them were sculptures of the various Ohm, clashed in mid battle. Nanashi was trying to recreate the battle on the board.

She had meant to be going over how she should gain some trust among the humans for her campaign without taking advantage of her relationship with several of the children on the ship, but the final parts of the battle just were not sitting right with her.

Something was off... Aside from the fact that the Ohm clearly decided to leave.

Even as she concentrated on the table, she had decided to leave the door open, with a "Vote for Nanashi, Vote for Experience" sign on the door. She thought it sounded catchy. She did not like 'catchy', but others seemed to. Below was a scroll that read, "Have any questions? My door is always open!"

Well, figuratively it was at least. And only for the purposes of her campaign. Normally she liked closed doors. Locked doors. They helped keep out the assassins.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He did as she requested, but he was utterly confused. "Nanashi, what's going on here? Who is this?" When he came back toward the table, one of his hands began to distend and change, becoming a much more powerful claw. Sure, it wasn't much. And he didn't have near as much physical power to make it effective. But it was all he had.

Kano eyed the transformation with amusement, and in a flash he had his hand around Sam's throat, holding him in the air just tight enough to be uncomfortable. He was smiling wide, though it had more a sense of a beast bearing its teeth, the way his fangs glinted just inches from Sam's face.

"Me? I'm Kano. Nanashi never told you about me? Of course not. She's too afraid of hearing my voice to even willingly mention me."

Dropping Sam, Kano turned on Nanashi, "No hello? No 'welcome home my darling'? Still, I see you have been missing me. Or else you wouldn't be trying to replace me, would you? Didn't you learn the first time? Love just means betrayal. It's not like you to need a lesson twice."

Nanashi's fingers cracked through the wood, breaking the edge of the table. She kept her eyes down, not looking up at Kano. "Sam. This is Kano. He was my second in command... And what is my culture's equivalent of a husband."

Sam wasn't a fighter, so all he could do was to try and scratch his way free. When he was finally dropped, he got back to his feet as quickly as he could. "Kano...." he repeated. "I see he's a charming individual." A little bit of sarcasm, but it was difficult to be insulted by it when the delivery was so covered by intimidation. He stayed near Nanashi, to at least try and protect her, should the need arise.

Kano looked to Sam, guilt all over his face, "oh, I am so sorry. It isn't like me to loose my temper." He bowed, a soft charming smile coming across his face.

He reached his hand out to shake, a seemingly sincere smile on his face. Nanashi was not the only one who could so carefully cover her true feelings- Kano may have even been better at it. "Please, let us start over. If my Lady cares for you, then so do I."

He moved forward as if he was going to take Sam's hand to kiss it, but instead brought his hand from that low level right across Sam's cheek.

Nanashi caught a hold of Sam as she shouted his name. She helped him steady and stepped in front of him.

Her eyes turned to Kano. Even now she was trying to keep years of pent up emotions from surfacing. "Kano, why do you do this to me? Why did you do all of this to me? Get out of my head, I do not want to hear your poison whispers in my ear any more."

Kano just grinned with his chin up and head tilted to the side, fangs clearly showing. As if to show off his mastery, he changed his expression immediately, whining, "I only do it because I love you my love, my Queen."

Even after all of the years she spent hating him that tone of voice made her freeze, made her feel guilty for accusing him, even if for only a second, giving him enough time to step up to her and put his lips on hers.

She pushed him off of her. She had always been the stronger of the two by far.

They really ought to just leave, reset the sensorium to get rid of him, have her focus on something else but a part of her wanted to deal with this. "Perhaps if I confront him, he will leave me alone for ever. What do you think, Sam?"

Sure it wasn't the most heroic move to crash into the woman he was trying to protect, but that was a hard slap. If he were human, it probably would have cracked his jaw. But he was clearly just an observer in this.

"I think you can do it, Nanashi," he replied. Another solution was that he could take it over, change it to something more pleasant. Insert those who would welcome this lonely, old Queen. But this was good for her. He'd help in any way he could. "Just let me know if there's anything I can do to help."

Nanashi stepped back, taking Sam's hand. He could probably feel her shaking.

"Get rid of me? That desire for action, that is me. You would do nothing without my voice urging you on! The only action I have ever seen you take was when you killed me."

Kano's eyes turned to Sam, a wild sparkle in them, "Yes, she ruthlessly murdered me. It is not a story she would want you to hear, but it is true."

Nanashi squeezed Sam's hand, looking down. For all the people she killed there was only one she even felt a stab of regret over. It was probably because it was the only person she had any feelings for. "You were the only person I let in."

Of course she was referring to her heart.

Sam took her hand and squeezed it tightly. He would be as steady as he could for her, never mind that he was trying to stare down and individual much older, more powerful, and more experienced than himself. He really wished he weren't alone right now. Or, barring that, stronger himself.

Kano wandered over to Sam and caressed his chin. "What sort of fool are you, to fall for this temptress' charm? She is a murderess, and not just of me. She has killed hundreds of thousands of people."

Turning to Nanashi with his fake charm he asked her, "Would you like me to tell him our story my love? Or will you tell him?"

The only way Nanashi could react was by looking down, shamed and gritting her teeth as she growled, "do not call me 'my love'."

Since this particular conflict remained in words, Sam had begun to recover himself. He glared at Kano, looking him in the eye. "My Lord earned his position through war and bloodshed. Whoever was not fortunate enough to be killed outright had to endure being eviscerated, drained dry, and torn apart. Only the quite fortunate got it in that order. His very skin is stained with blood. Even though times are calmer for us, even now he has to battle with the demon he'd created within himself. We had to make arrangements with several human prisons to give him a method of releasing himself before he became a danger to everyone.

"Do not condescend to anyone of the Ruthwen clan about the nature of the kind of monsters vampires can become. They have likely seen it first-hand. Along with the kind of torment being that monster can create." When he finished, his shoulders were still square, and there was even a flash of red in his eyes, overwhelming his own green. He was angry, both for the pride placed in him by his heritage, and also for Nanashi's sake.

Nanashi squeezed his hand, knowing that in truth she had done the same to people, and worse, and even began slowly killing people of her own nation because of their looks, but she did not want to admit that cruelty. Surely if Sam heard that he would tell the ship, he would reveal her nature to the ship.

Kano on the other hand merely laughed, grabbing Sam's jaw roughly. "Did this Lord of yours do this to his family? All of it? Did he take his sangamor, rip her to shreads in front of the court and then set fire to her? Just to sit down behind her on his throne and watch as she screamed and burned? Forced the entirety of the court to watch as well."

Kano turned Sam's head from side to side, "I am not lecturing you as it is. I am informing you. You have no idea the sort of tor-"

"NO!" Nanashi stepped forward, letting go of Sam and knocking down Kano's hand. "Do you know how hard I have worked to keep that hidden? You shall not ruin that for me."

A loud crack echoed in the chamber as Kano back-handed Nanashi. She was stunned but held her ground. She looked back at him, a sort of terrifying fury in her eyes- the sort of monster that Sam had been talking about. "You know I have always been far stronger than you, yet you raise your hand to me? Do you not remember the pain I caused you?"

He cracked his hand across her other cheek. "Do you not remember the pain I caused you? The pain I still cause you?" His lips curled into a wicked smile, as he turned to Sam, "See how in one statement she denies her violent tendencies, and in the next she embraces them? She is no less hypocritical than all those 'adults' she despises. If you are so keen on getting rid of me my Queen, why don't you rip me to pieces and set me on fire as you did last time?"

Sam again took the manhandling. If there was one thing he knew, was how much abuse he could take. And this was on the far low end of the spectrum of the things he'd survived. He got in front of Nanashi. "I defy you to find a vampire of any meaningful age that does not have an ocean of blood on their hands." As that, sadly, was the truth of his world. "That is what we were, this is what we are. To blame a vampire of that age for the murder of a human is tantamount to blaming the jaguar for hunting a monkey that's come into its territory.

"I also find it hard to find pity for you when you're not making any attempt to even fabricate a reason for your execution." He had to harden himself for now, and live with himself later.

"There is a difference, little one," Kano said, mocking Nanashi's voice rather well and causing her to clench her fists, "between senseless murder and murder for food." He brushed Sam aside roughly and took Nanashi into his arms, brushing a bit of her hair out of her face. He stood tall enough that he could look down at her from this position. "My little murderess liked to kill people because they did not fit her standards of a beau-"

Nanashi pushed him off and shouted, "Get off me! You have lost your right to touch me! Why do you not tell him of what you did to me?"

Laughing, Kano pulled her to him again, grabbing her ass and chest, only to be pushed off again. "About how I took your throne from you after selling you off to a bunch of human nobles so they might have their way with you? I thought you wanted no one to know that the Great and Powerful Nanashi, Queen of Kuninoryu, could have been taken advantage of!"

He was sick of this. He was not going to get tossed aside so easily. He lunged at Kano, pushed Nanashi away from him, and lashed out with his claw against him. He aimed for the most convenient target, his face and neck area. "Considering how you chose to treat her, I'd say you got off easy," he growled. His eyes were no longer the gentle green, now an angry, firey red with black surrounding instead of white. The good little doctor was ready to cut open some wounds.

Edited 2010-07-16 02:19 (UTC)

Nanashi was forced back a little. She was even a little scared by the change that had come over Sam's eyes, having never seen anything like it. That did not keep Nanashi from pouncing on Sam and trying to pull him back. "Sam, no, do not give him what he desires!"

She wanted to rip him to pieces again, and the only thing that had stopped her was the fact that she knew, she could hear in his voice that he wanted that.

Kano allowed himself to get cut open in favour of being able to throw a punch right at Sam's face. The smile on his face seemed to confirm what Nanashi had been saying. "If I got easy, then punish me now, come on! But don't forget! Look at how easily she distracted you from what I was saying about why she killed so many of those people!"

"I'm not a fool," he said, not even letting that blow get him to the floor. "As such, I know exactly how to solve this problem."

He closed his eyes, and put himself where there was no doubt he'd be safe. The room changed. Kano disappeared. The place he'd created was the front entry hall to the Ruthwen mansion. It was large, and in Victorian style. Marble floors and pillars, false stained glass backed with lights, a grand staircase leading to an upper mezzanine. Entirely lightlocked, showing all of the grandeur of a quite old clan.

Sam opened his eyes again when it was finished, and turned to Nanashi. His eyes were normal again, and his hands were slowly transitioning. "That's much better."

Nanashi watched the change- it was rather disorienting. She backed away slowly, relying more on her ears than eyes. She sat down on the staircase and buried her face in her hands, "I'll kill him," she muttered.

The change at least restored her self-control. No longer could anyone but her hear, "You were taking too long to make your move. You knew I had to help you a long. Tell him about how you feel, let him break your heart again so you can return to being that cold monster I so loved."

"He did not love me," she reminded herself, beating down happy memories she had with him. The only memories she had where she felt pure joy while not with one of her 'children' or covered in blood- if you could even call that pure.

When his claws returned to normal hands, he licked the blood off of them. "One hell of an ex-husband you've got there," he said casually. He sat next to her. "You alright?"

She looked up with a forced smile that was shattered when she noticed him licking the blood. She could excuse it, knowing that it was not real, but still, "P-please, do not do that. In my world... it is not something you do with another vampire that you do not deeply care for."

Still shaking, she tore her eyes from Sam, not wanting to even see his blood, "I think I shall be fine. He... he still has not left, however."

He didn't see the connection, but he did stop at her request. He rested his forearms on his knees and let his hands hang in front of him. "So he lives inside of you?"

She sighed, "Thank you. Our souls are in our blood, so drinking the blood of a vampire is welcoming them inside your body. I think that may be why he is still with me, why I can still hear him. I would be far more upset if I did not know that that is not really his blood."

"That's right, make excuses for your madness. Perhaps you will not loose this pawn yet."

She sighed again and covered her ears, "I hear his voice as if he was speaking in my ear, but even if I cover them, I still hear him. Whenever he sees a moment of hesitation, whenever I am not being active enough, I hear him, egging me on."

He nodded. "That makes sense, in a way. There's not really that connection for us. In a battle sense, it's just a part of clean-up."

He wrapped his arm around her. "But there is one thing I want to say about the things he'd said." His tone was still friendly, not like he was angry about it.

"Just wait, he will ask you about your murders. Tell him why you slaughtered thousands."

Nanashi tried to show no change as she asked, "What is it?"

"I don't really care." He wasn't flippant, just matter-of-fact. "While it never should have happened, I learned a long time ago that immortals don't deserve to have a grudge against them for things done hundreds, or thousands of years ago. That only makes for a very lonely eternity. And I know I wouldn't want that for myself. Call me naive, but that's my thoughts." Because nothing terrified him more than being left all alone until the earth came to its end.

He thought this was in the past. Long ago.

Would he be surprised that she had kept up the practices Kano had been speaking of until she was abducted by Stacy. In fact, only luck had it that she had not met anyone ugly enough to be killable- though she would not let some of the people on board breed.

This was all supposing that she knew she could get away with it. There was no use killing only a few in attempts to create perfection if you would be dying soon yourself. No, she wanted to live for a long, long time.

And she would not be telling Sam any of this, ignoring Kano as he insisted she should. Instead she swallowed hard and smiled at him, "Y-yeah..." She looked down and let herself settle into the arm he had placed around her. She put her hand on his knee and squeezed gently, smiling triumphantly. Her secret was still safe. She could still be with him. Because she really did like him, and liking him would have made him that much harder to silence. "Thank you." Indeed, thank you for being so naive.

He smiled at her. "You're welcome. But you shouldn't use the Sensoriums anymore. If you want to recreate your war room, we can find somewhere in the City. Doctor's orders." He smoothed her hair over her ear.

Re: [^_^' Aha, uh, no threadjacking from here please. Thread in general is obviously still open thou

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject