4. Loss

[hismasterpiece]

[Action -- After Nightfall on the 11th]

[A pale young woman wanders into the village, twisting her hair round her fingers compulsively. She's hungry.


She's STARVING.

A whimper escapes her lips as she collapses by the fountain, and she calls out weakly:]

Spikey? Love sundae? The jaws can't bite; the claws can't catch.

[/Action]


[Drusilla has returned from death. Her DP is that she has lost the ability to go gameface and, therefore, to feed on victims using her fangs.]

Comments

[hismasterpiece]

"Lost lost lost lost we're ALL lost!" she snapped in reply, tossing her hair. Maybe it was time to crawl away and drink at the blood of a recently dead animal.


Ugh. Gutter leavings.

[quicktoanger]

"... Maybe if we got you something recently butchered?"

Something nonhuman, mind.

Hell, maybe the grocery store would have blood.

[hismasterpiece]

"Who are you going to kill?" she asked, curious. Perhaps she'd misjudged him.

[quicktoanger]

"Not who, what. An animal of some kind, and if we're lucky, there might be blood in the shop already."

Somehow, I didn't think she'd like that answer. Somehow I didn't think I'd care.

[hismasterpiece]

"Ugh. Animals!" She needs blood to survive at this point, but her lip still curls. "As though I were a beggar in the street!"

[quicktoanger]

"Well, not to put too fine a point on it, lady, but you are in the street. Begging."

[hismasterpiece]

"........I need blood." It was possibly the least-mad thing she'd said since arriving in Luceti.

[quicktoanger]

"Well, I have no intention of giving you the human variety. Call it a refusal on religious grounds if you like. So, really, it's pretty straightforward. Stick to animals., or try and take on another human... and see if you can win round two with the Slayer when you're too weak to walk properly."

It was possible I'd developed a slightly sadistic smile.

Vampires. It's a thing.

[hismasterpiece]

"Very well, wizard. Feed to me the blood of animals. I do not...want.


I do not want to die again."

[quicktoanger]

"Who does?"

The smile faded. I really had no clear idea of what I would do with this, but somehow the idea of just letting her starve seemed needlessly cruel. Hell, maybe I could get her used to animals and then she wouldn't need to kill anybody at all.

"Alright, can you walk, or do you need help?"

[hismasterpiece]

"I need help. I need strong arms. I need...I need my Spikey-boo."

[quicktoanger]

"I'm not sure what a Spikey-boo is supposed to be, lady, but here."

I leaned down and offered her a hand. I figured even if she was faking, she'd have a tough time reaching my neck before I lit her up.

[hismasterpiece]

Very hesitantly, she took that offered hand, leaning heavily on his arm. She probably feels very light to lift, considering how starved she is and how slight to begin with.

"He was here, once; here, but now gone. And I'm pining. He'd be ever so cross with me."

[quicktoanger]

Hell's bells, she felt lighter than a little kid right then. Supporting her weight, I began slowly walking her toward the grocery store.

"This Spikey guy, is he a vampire too?"

Hey, figured if she told me about him, I wouldn't get suckered in again.

Not that I wasn't getting suckered in right now, but that was different, I was fully prepared for the eventuality of her trying to kill me.

[hismasterpiece]

"He is beautiful, like a diamond. Smooth as glass. Not a nick in him, save just above his eye, and it fits right along the lines of my tongue."

"A vampire. A vampire, too."

[quicktoanger]

"... Noted. Pretty vampire guy with a scar over his eye. If I see him, I'll send him your way."

... Well, depending on what wound up happening to her, that might very well be true. With any luck, this one might be marginally more sane if he did show up anyway.

Not that I've ever had any luck.

I fumbled to hold the door of the store open without letting go of the weakened vampire and walked her through.

[hismasterpiece]

"Your grip, sir, is not fit for supporting a lady. Your grip prisons me. Your grip vises me. It smells of metal chains."

She gracefully found her way into the shop and found her mouth watering at the scent of raw meat. Perhaps -- perhaps there would be pigs' blood. Ugh. Horrid stuff, not fit for a noble vampire like herself. How low she had fallen.