do you bare your fangs at us, sir? MOONLIT RIVALS LOG 2, SCENE 2

[libraryassistants]

Who: Readers and Actors
What: The werewolves who are not sneaking into the party cause a bit of mischief... and did anybody actually agree to keep the peace tonight?
When: The night of the ball itself. [ooc timeline: Feb 6th - 19th]
Where: The city of Montica.
Content warnings: Please include any warnings in headers.


Waxing Gibbous Moon

In Town

Above the city, the Umbra Mansion stands tall. Its grand doors and windows have been opened, spilling light like a beacon. Music lilts in the air, drifting so far as to be faintly heard even in the neutral centre of the city.

The streets have emptied, particularly in the vampiric half of town. Most of the vampire loyalists have joined the masquerade, leaving their homes and shops unattended. Tonight is a special night - a once in a century event, and they wouldn’t miss it for the world.

Even some werewolves and neutral citizens have been enticed to attend. Jadis the Mystic has created a lotion that will disguise the scent of a werewolf; an effect that is broken by shifting, breaking the skin, or the gradual passage of time. It is not widely distributed, but rumours travel fast. The lotion is only given to any Guildulf-aligned werewolves, but… well, there’s nothing wrong with a little trade here or there. Right?

For all of the wolves in town - with the moon so close to being full, it’s natural for them to feel a bit more excitable. Energetic. Ready to take on the world. And seeing as Montica is so empty, it’s like a playground has just been opened up. The young wolves in particular are eager to take advantage of the empty streets, the sound of not-quite-mature howls breaking through the air in their excitement. There are hardly any people around to be scared if they play too rough or run too fast, and they are taking advantage of this with great enthusiasm.

In the highly-debated 'neutral' zone, some small packs of adolescent werewolves are gathering. There's banter and roughhousing, the not-quite-adults playfully shoving each-other over the invisible line where the vampire territory begins.

Some of the bravest amongst them take the challenge to dart over and brush their fingers over silver doorhandles - their yelps spurring courage and adrenaline in the others. What starts harmlessly enough quickly escalates as they urge each-other on, teenage excitement and the thrill of the moon encouraging all sorts of bad choices. The longer they go without reprimand, the more bold they become; and somewhere along the way, bulbs of garlic start winding up in places they wouldn't normally be found. (There is at least one group who is excitedly challenging each-other to leave the garlic in more and more absurd places. If they happen to sting themselves on some silver ornamentation on the way, all the better.)

Not all homes are unoccupied, though - sooner or later someone’s going to disturb someone else’s peace, and tensions are already so high. Hopefully there are some Responsible Adults around to curtail the worst of the mischief before someone’s temper is sparked.

Comments

[not_scrap]

Yeah if he was too slow she might start thinking he cared and that would just make it weird for both of them. "I mean, I've seen enough, but like...on the outside." 0/10 she would not recommend this experience at all.

"I don't thin---Wait." Wait just a dog-petting minute here. "So. Hey. Trivia question. What happens around here if a vampire bites you?" JUST CURIOUS.

[curzed]

"Damned if I know," Curze says brightly. "I've never let someone walk away after I've bitten them."

[not_scrap]

"Sometimes I wish you weren't such a badass." Like now, when it could be USEFUL TO KNOW.

"Listen. It's taking too long. I shouldn't still be alive. Unless I'm. You know."

[curzed]

That's an expression that doesn't quite translate into the grimdark future, but he's pretty sure he understands what she means. It tickles what passes for his sense of humor. "Unless you're already dead?"

He waves a negligent grimy hand, as if this is obviously not what's going on here. "If that were true you wouldn't have a heartbeat." Which.. well. "The only things still moving after death in this city are creatures like myself, and we do have certain markers for what we currently are. The teeth are a good marker." How are hers holding up?

[not_scrap]

"....yeah." Unless she's already dead. "I should have paid more attention to that part of the stupid movie." But, well, no use crying over spilled...blood? What was that dumb expression?

"Yeah I can't feel one." She's been trying to feel for it for like...five minutes now. "Am I dead? I mean, this sure isn't the goddam afterlife I was told about." Could you imagine dying and your little spirit guide or whatever meets you is....this guy?

[curzed]

Curze is more the sort to send people to meet their spirit guide than doing any guiding. "There is no afterlife."

Religion is bullshit, and he has a lot of opinions on its trappings too. "You're still moving and thinking and speaking, so I do not think the proper term is 'dead'." However she has no heartbeat and now thirsts for the blood of the living, so that probably doesn't qualify as alive exactly. "If it distresses you sufficiently I have been told if we truly die in the Story it will be temporary. I could kill you. In theory you will reappear in the Library."

Maybe. He'd like to find out how that works exactly. "Alternatively, we set fire to a deserving dwelling and see if anything edible tries to escape."

[not_scrap]

"You sound pretty sure about that." Which is weird. Most humans, you know, are at the very least agnostic. Besides arguing theology is better than this...other thing she's got going on.

"No way. I couldn't ask that of you." It would weigh on his conscience, surely. She doesn't want him sad or guilty on her account!

"Though maybe I am kind of hangry." Why does that second option sound downright appetizing? "You realize 'we' here is going to mostly be 'you' right?" She's walking fine but if you're expecting any sort of dramatic physicality from her, that's a no, boss.

[curzed]

"I am certain of it." He doesn't know the actual path to where they're headed; he can trace the scent of his own victims, but it does mean occasionally pausing and scrutinizing where he's going. "You may believe what you wish, but facts do not require belief."

People were too tied up in religion to ever think it might be wrong, after all. "..Oh? Why not?"

That's more important for the moment than the idea of 'hangry', which he could guess the meaning to. It's true he didn't kill innocents, but by request .. knowing it was temporary at best changed things.

No victim, no crime. "There's no such thing as a free lunch," he adds, almost as an afterthought. "I am willing to kill you, but I will not kill for you. A target which has earned it is the best I will provide."

[not_scrap]

"But, you can't have facts about something you've never seen." Stop trying to make her think. She's like...bleeding out over here!

Except of course not.

"Because, I don't know. Killing sucks and you're not supposed to kill things that haven't done anything wrong or aren't trying to kill you or whatever." Mostly whatever.

She wonders about his priorities sometimes. Well, most of the time. It's like a constant 'what is inside that giant melon and is it distemper?' type of thing. "I'm just saying, right now I don't think I'm strong enough to kill a mood, much less a whole ass human being."

[curzed]

"Have you seen gravity?" His rebuke is nearly gentle. "Have you seen the wind? Have you seen oxygen? Have you seen even a fraction of the worlds out there? Of course not, not seeing them doesn't make them suddenly not exist."

Surer now of his path, Curze continues on his way, still mindful at least somewhat of her much smaller stride. "But they can be perceived in other ways. The scientific advancements of my era are likely beyond the knowledge of your era. Give it time, yours will catch up." And then the obvious will be apparent! "Hopefully your strength will improve, yes?"

[not_scrap]

Oh my GOD. Could he NOT sound so much like Rauth with his mystical koan shit? The last thing she needs right now is to be bludgeoned by nostalgia. "All I'm saying is life has to have meaning or else everyone's just gonna run around doing whatever they want. All the time."

Is the trap of late stage capitalistic space exploration the solution? No, but you built your nest in that, not from it. Or some shit.

"Well, my strength can't get any worse." Technically it could, and she could faceplant on the cobblestones into a puddle of jelly, but it's a figure of speech. Things can only go up from here. Right?

[curzed]

There's nothing mystical at all about science that's why it's science! "If the promise of divine reward or punishment after your death is the only thing keeping you from doing 'whatever you want', with an implication that 'whatever you want' is harmful to yourself or others, then you are a vile creature far beyond what I am."

Though it does align pretty flawlessly with his certainty that humanity, at their base, are revolting creatures barely able to remember they're not beasts. "The only meaning in life is what you make of it. Are you really so terrible at your truest nature that unshackled from belief in fairy tales, you will become the worst humanity has to offer?" Even Curze has a belief system, but it's built in a different axis than one around religion.

He says nothing further about her current strength, but he's keeping tabs. He still won't hunt for her.. but she's small, she looks human, she could make use of those blood food stores the Umbras keep. if worse came to worse..

[not_scrap]

"Hey I didn't say me. I try to be a good person because I've seen how shitty most people can be and I don't want to be part of that." Is it a stupid moral compass? Probably. "It's why I got my own ship and half my crew are...were...strays or fugitives." Her little band of weird misfits where she, also a weird misfit, fit in.

"I guess it'd just be nice to think that the assholes get what's coming to them, if not here, then after they die." It changes nothing, but it helps. Because where she's from, the mining company owners and even the overseers get to die in their beds at healthy old ages surrounded by wealth and quality medical care, while...yeah.

[curzed]

Fugitives were generally lawbreakers, he wondered what they did to earn that. But it's not a question to ask, as yet.

Not when there's prey to catch. All these homes look roughly the same to him, some with high walls, others not. But the scents were different, and marked the same wolves that had attacked the Guildulfs lived very nearby. "Mm. As there are no rewards after death, so too are there no punishments. Which is why we make them memorable in life. So those who survive remember."

It's why he's out here at all, in fact. "I spoke to Jonathan Harker about a similar subject, the blessing it is that the universe is uncaring and karma is nonsense."