5. FEAST

[hismasterpiece]

[Voice]

Hallo, pretty New Feathers! I am hosting a feast. A feast by the lake to the West.

[Not the southern lake -- she needs to keep certain peoples' attention away from the lonely house she inhabits there.]

You are all invited! I have prepared something for you. It tastes of mint and chicory and iron! Yarrow and tansy! It will make you stronger.


Come.

[/Voice]

[Action]

Drusilla will be stalking about the woods as usual, eager to assist anyone who HASN'T heeded her invitation.

There is a cage waiting there, hidden under the trees. It is large enough to house a full-grown adult human.

It tastes of mint and iron.

[/Action]

Comments

[Voice]

[quicktoanger]

Oh, hell.

"Not to be rude, but what the hell do you think you're doing?"

[Voice]

[bloodwaif]

"My dear magician. Come to me." She switches into a singsong voice: "I'm not wearing any clothiiiiiiiiing."

[Action]

[windandrain]

[Saori has, in fact, not heeded the invitation and is wandering through the forest as usual, pretty heedless of any and all possible danger. She missed Drusilla's announcement, and nobody really informed her of the resident Vampire...]

[Action]

[bloodwaif]

[What's this? What's this what's this? Enormous power, here. Power and something sweet and something delicious like truffles, truffles with those expensive diamonds sprinkled over them.

Dru moves closer through the trees, still keeping behind a rather large oak, and speaks:]


That frock is fetching. Where did you get it?

[herotypical]

Buffy Summers was not so much protective of the lake as she was of its environs. The now-overgrown clearing where the house used to be. The familiar paths. The memory-drenched shore. And upon hearing such an open, unhinged invitation? She couldn't exactly ignore it -- no matter what she and Spike had quietly decided between the two of them.

Besides? There was no sin in a reconnaissance. There was no sin in patrolling and perhaps coming across the same space that was earmarked for something else. There was no sin in taking care of her town. Nor any in eyeing up her enemies.

And so -- with sunset long behind her and with a rustling revenge in her blood for what Drusilla had done to Jack while the Kin'corans were in town -- Buffy Summers took to the woods around the western lake. Seemingly unarmed.

[bloodwaif]

Oh, a slayer a slayer. Drusilla had known when she made the invitation that a slayer might come.

She sucked some pigs' blood from her fingertips and followed the feeling, the felt feeling of slayerly presence.

She liked walking naked in the woods. Her frock was dirty; she was going to wash it in the lake. She liked to walk to the lake to wash.

As she walked she projected a thought toward the slayer: Spike. Spike and Drusilla in bed. Walls cracking; sheets twisting. The absence of sweat and the presence of ecstasy.

We're back. We're going to do this place like we've done the others. It will be ours.

[voice]

[bloodybishie]

[That voice. Oh gods. That takes him back, straight to things he does not under any circumstances want to remember. It takes him a moment to pull out of this horrific reverie, and when he finally does speak, he's clearly angry.]

You. What do you think you're doing?

[voice]

[bloodwaif]

An invitation, my brother. An invitation to all -- to you, too, if you would like to clasp it close.

[Come back to her, Prince. Come back.]

[Action]

[complicatedliar]

[Loki can smell creepy a mile away. Creepy is his bread and butter, because it's such a useful way to get people to do things.

But this creepy? Oh, it seems the very serious sort, the kind that comes with a giant bright red warning label that reads Hello, I am utterly crazy.

And, well, he's also well-acquainted with crazy.

Curious, he goes to take a look. First he hides himself with invisibility. Once satisfied, he takes another slow tour, quite visible.]


(ooc: Though if Dru could have found him while he was invisible, poke me and I'll roll this back slightly. <3)

[Action]

[bloodwaif]

[OOC: It's cool she might have sensed something but he is pretty powerful, being a god and all.]

Hallo? Are you lost? Would you like to see my clary sage?

[He's handsome. Broody. She likes them broody. And by "clary sage" she means "scary cage," actually.]

[voice]

[folklorist]

Wh-why not just...wait for the new feather party coming up.

[ Because then people wouldn't be out in the woods with a crazy vampire who hurts and attacks people. But Helios knows that is not going to be the case here. Still it's...worth a shot, right? Helios is just...more than a little unnerved by this, yes. ]

[voice]

[bloodwaif]

This IS a party. This is a New Feather party! And I shall stuff pillowsfull!

[voice]

[abidinglaw]

Norrington is having a good day today. An up day. Colours just seem brighter somehow, and the birds, who were annoying him yesterday with their cwakarkwarking, have chosen to sing this afternoon.

"Might one expect sandwiches?"

;;

[namesthestars]

Drusilla has been having a delicious day, skipping through the mud. She spotted a worm, and fed it to a bird, and broke the bird's neck. Then she plucked the bird's feathers one by one, blue and blue and blue they swirled to the ground.

Everything falls one day. Everything. It gives her comfort to think thusly.

And when she hears the voice of a countryman -- sees a soldierly handsome man, oh, oh, what a flutter! Dark brown eyes! -- Dru smiles. Smiles, she smiles.

"One never knows what one might expect! I like surprises, my lord."

[Action]

[mountain_sage]

[An invitation like that just can't go ignored as far as Saleh is concerned. He heeds the invitation, wondering just who the "feast" is supposed to be for. He approaches the area as quietly as he could, looking around carefully. Where could the vampire be...?]

[Action]

[namesthestars]

[She is hiding from you, Saleh -- at least for now. Not forever, but for now, yes.


She giggles from behind a tree, hoping to be heard by him. Hoping for a sip.]

voice:

[shenevermisses]

[The western lake... Where her and Cato's camp is.

A feast...

No. No. No, no, no. Not here. Not again.]

There's nothing interesting at the western lake. [Keep away.]

Nothing.

[But she knows. She knows what a feast is in this game. A bloodbath. And she has to go to her camp. If she doesn't, they'll find a way to make her.

So Clove, even as she speaks, is adjusting her vests of knives, preparing to go.]

voice:

[stillplaying]

[She had seen the invitation. Seen the invitation and practically blanched at the idea of a feast. Like Clove, Katniss cannot think of a single good memory associated with the idea of a feast. In the Games, feasts were bloodbaths. A chance to gather all tributes together to watch them die. And the consequences for not going... they were just as bad.

Fifteen years of Game watching makes her wary. The weeks spent on the tour and the forced attendance to those feasts make her even more uncomfortable. She won't go, won't talk to the strange woman again. No more feasts. Not for her.

But she still remembers Rick's warnings. Warnings she doubts Clove has.

It would be easy to ignore Clove's query. The treaty doesn't indicate that she should warn her. But...]

The treehouse is safe.

[video]

[idealism]

[His wings perk up. Food sounds excellent right about now.]

A feast?

[video]

[namesthestars]

A feast! Are you new? Are you new like a new lamb, or new milk? A new moon?

[voice]

[keepsmehonest]

[There's a smile in his voice when he replies, nothing more than an unknowing New Feather trying to be friendly.]

What kind of food are you planning on serving?

[voice]

[namesthestars]

[Oh, he's delectable. He'd look lovely with his eyes in her mouth.]

Finger food, mostly. That is proper, is it not?

voice;

[zumo]

[A great deal of the night he arrived is a blur in Hijikata's mind--there were a lot of emotions going on at the time. Fear, anger. Guilt.

As Drusilla speaks, though, her image comes back to him. The small, writhing, pathetic thing on the fountain. Who he'd unceremoniously directed to Good Spirits.

Her spirits seem pretty good now, at least.]

Feeling up to hosting a party now, are you? [Last time he saw you, you didn't look so hot.]

voice;

[hismasterpiece]

I am, my kind savior. Are you interested in attending?

[Now she feels all kinds of hot, really.]

Action

[toujoursfluer]

[She is by no means a new feather but she will come. By that I mean she will come close enough to see what is going on. Mysterious words intrigue her and she wants to know what or who this woman is. So she will creep up through the trees and you might see an eye or two grow on trees nearby, watching and observing]

Action

[hismasterpiece]

[For her part, Drusilla LOVES the new eye-trees. They are just the right mixture of fay and macabre and eyeballs.

Oh how she loves eyeballs.]

I shall name you all, eye-trees! Cottontail! Flopsy! Cottontail!


Cottontail!


Cottontail!

Action

[origami_ninja]

[Konan hasn't heeded the invitation, mostly because she's well aware of what crazy sounds like. Instead, she's simply passing through the area.]

Action

[hismasterpiece]

[If she can tell when she's being stalked, then she will probably be able to figure it out right about now.

If not, well -- Dru likes to play. She will walk quietly at first, but then let a few sticks crackle -- a branch break -- pebbles tossed easily at her prey to clatter on the path not far ahead or behind. Fun. Playing is fun.]

{Voice]

[most_unwanted]

[Ok, there's something in the sound of that which he doesn't trust. And therefore merits immediate investigation.]

Why do I have the feeling this will lead to a "don't take candy from strangers" moral?

{Voice]

[hismasterpiece]

I love candy! I want to give my candy to everyone.

[Come on, Mulder. You know you want it.]

[action]

[hisdarkmark]

[And who's brilliant enough to wander around the woods at night alone? This guy. But for good reason...even now, Draco's taken to always checking the forest of Luceti once just to make sure Caroline Forbes isn't to be found. He hasn't heard any of what Drusilla had to say, and he isn't really paying attention, though his guard's up. It's most likely he stumbles across the cage before he stumbles across her though.]

...the hell is this?

[action]

[hismasterpiece]

Oh, a young man! He's handsome!

[Drusilla calls down from above. Now? Now it's time to get him into the cage, if she can.]