capeandcowllogs | rainbows are visions, but only illusions

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rainbows are visions, but only illusions

WHO: Kanaya Maryam and YOU!!
WHERE: Around The City
WHEN: March 13th, afternoon
WARNINGS: Creeping, stalking, awkwardness, potentially a little blood?
SUMMARY: Kanaya's been thirsty lately, and it's led to her stalking shadows a little more often, creeping around, thinking about how people might taste. Bright feelings and bad ideas.
FORMAT: Whatever you like! If you have any special instructions, drop a note here!

[ terezi had crashed shortly after they returned from school. she still wasn't used to the daylight hours, and despite every assurance kanaya could possibly give, still wasn't comfortable under the sun. she only stayed up to keep an eye on kanaya, but it was clear that it was wearing on her. kanaya had tucked her in with her scalemates before sneaking out herself.

she finds herself stepping along the edges of the rooftops, leaping across the walls, dancing across the city as though it was her own personal studio. it helps to clear her head, but also recalls the last time she did this, reminds her of her need. it isn't as easy this time, though, she knows better.

but a resolution not to take doesn't erase the strength of her want. she slides down a fire escape, kicks against the wall, and softly lands in the alley below. she's not sure how she'll manage the thirst for now, but the romance of the hunt is certainly tempting as she sees the passersby on the sidewalk. she can't stay here long, she'll have to keep moving if she wants her thoughts to keep from settling on the subject too strongly. ]

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She stopped immediately in her tracks, wheeling about frantically and trying to find the source. Had someone called her name? Was it her conscience getting to her? Her glow increased with the resulting guilt, and it's then that she finally saw him.

She shrunk under his gaze, no matter what lack of judgement it held. She could judge herself enough for the both of them. But, having been caught, she approached him slowly, with embarrassment. "I-I didn't...I had no intention of ultimately accomplishing any act I may have entertained."

Her guilt was practically palpable, though for what reason, Blue couldn't tell. It clearly bothered her, however. Blue's brow creased with a sense of concern, unsure as to whether he'd interrupted something not quite so harmless.

"I'm not sure I understand," he said once she'd drawn closer. "What was happening? That you were so fixated..."

"Nothing! Nothing whatsoever," she insisted, though she'd never been a liar with any kind of gift. "It was, um, mere curiosity! Yes, a desire to understand humans in their daily routine."

Hardly anything to feel so guilty about. No, there was something about it she wasn't particularly proud of. Or, if not that, something she wasn't interested in sharing at the least. Blue frowned.

"If I've interrupted something important, I apologize," he said slowly, pacifying. There was little doubt he knew her assurances to be less-than honest. "I can leave you to it. I merely wondered if something was wrong."

"No! No, it's alright. You don't...have to leave." It would be better if he didn't. She'd already left her main source of supervision asleep, having someone around to make sure she doesn't do anything she'd regret would be preferable, and she trusted Soldier, to some degree.

"I... It's a complicated matter."

Complicated.

Blue considered that in a brief, quiet silence. Her business was her own, of course, but...but she seemed very troubled to be spotted. He was worried for her.

"You don't have to explain if it troubles you," he said, though he did hope she would. "But...are you alright, Kanaya?"

"I, um, I thought I could manage it. Push through beyond the need, if I could maintain this form between sessions. But it's become too great, I fear it's leaking through."

But then, she'd never explained that aspect to him, had she? He wouldn't yet be familiar with what any of this even meant.

Hardly familiar on his own, Blue wound up having to frame it in ways he'd leaned from others. Brief thoughts on old friends, no longer in the City, came to mind...though aside from Remus' old plight, little registered as extremely dire. Hiei, perhaps...but he'd always had a great deal of self-control. Maybe that was what Kanaya was lacking?

"Is there something I can do to help?" he asked, growing concerned again.

There is really no context in which 'How does you species bleed?' is a question one might politely ask, so she didn't. But she felt she might owe him some kind of disclosure, nonetheless.

"Well, it's...a very specific hunger. While I lack a source, I'm incapable of quieting it, but simply taking what I need is the very method by which misunderstanding and persecution is initiated against Rainbow Drinkers in much of the literature I've read on the topic."

It wasn't the easiest thing to follow, even with some of the faint flickers of context he got from her train of thought. It was more than strange to him – why the notion of blood at all? It didn't connect right away.

His brow furrowed as he thought on all of it, spoken and thought.

"Will you be in danger if you avoid this source?

"I doubt abstinence will be an option. It is a necessity, and unsatisfied, the thirst will only exacerbate until there is no other option but to surrender to the passions it inspires." More than that, she doesn't exactly want to abstain. The very idea had been her deepest fantasy since she was smaller, she only wished it didn't have to be so terribly inconvenient now that she'd been granted it.

"While there is a possibility that I will go to waste without my meal, I worry the greater likelihood is that I will myself present a danger, rather than suffer it."

"I don't think anyone wants you to do either," Blue said, eyebrows raised behind his bangs. "Pose a threat or suffer."

As fixated as he was, he didn't forget their location, public as it was. As he paused, he drew a breath and swept the area with a glance before returning focus back to Kanaya, keeping his voice mild and quiet, the matter not needing eavesdroppers.

"What do you need to do?"

"Well, uh," she paused, her glow waxing slightly, "I would need to feed."

She leaned in closer, her voice barely above a whisper. "...On blood."

...Well, then.

For all the time he'd spent, for as many different and unusual traits he'd encountered, it was the first time he'd heard of something like that. Outside of fiction, that is; a great deal of young people had a fixation for made-up blood-drinkers...

His mouth pressed into a thin line as he processed this, arms folding. Aside from running into a few Twilight fans by luck, it wasn't something she could readily request, as she'd said. If he'd known there were vampires in the police force, of all places, he'd have felt like a greater help.

"There must be something that can be done safely," he mused. "If not established already, then with some help...the ImPorts who make a profession of doing so, for one..."

With the right Twilight fan, she could get her fix and have a good discussion on the finer points of shipping. She had a lot of feelings on that topic, though losing her entire collection of the canon just last night wasn't something she'd been looking fondly on.

Maybe there would be support groups with desperate fangirls. If only she had the confidence to approach them, if only Edward wouldn't be more likely to be swarmed with them instead.

"Tank Girl would previously provide the supply I required, given her ability to easily regenerate it. In her absence, my stocks have run quite literally dry."

And that wasn't very good at all. Blue was really getting troubled by this. What if she couldn't find a safe means? Given the rising discontent he was feeling throughout the City, it wouldn't be good. Wasn't good already, but even so...

This was hardly his realm of expertise, yet he wasn't the sort to balk from a problem, especially when it was for the sake of someone he knew and was concerned for.

"What could I do to help you?" he asked. She seemed to have a clear understanding of it, unlike him; if all he had to do was be responsive, then perhaps something could be done.

"Unless you'd be comfortable in offering a donation, I'm uncertain what other assistance you may be able to provide." She blurted it out and immediately felt guilty for doing so. Her approach to her thirst could be a little cavalier at times when it was strong, but always embarrassing once she had a chance to look at it from any kind of distance.

The added wave of guilt seemed unnecessary in Blue's mind; he expected her to say something like that in the end. Rather than suggest it himself, it seemed...better that way? Somehow. He was reluctant to speak so forwardly on it; it wasn't in his realm of understanding. Not utterly, not as...new as it was.

Reluctant still at the image it invoked. Yet he was hardly the sort to balk at something hurtful to himself when it benefited the people who mattered to him. Compared to what he'd done – what he would do in his distant future – it was hardly a trouble.

Humans here...share their blood in a crisis, too, don't they? Given the disasters he'd witnessed here, that much was true.

"Then I'll help as you say," he said, rather convinced of it, and nodding a little.

It was always weird to her, whenever someone volunteered. On the one hand, it was a ready source, freely given and fully available. But there was still a nagging feeling at the back of her head that this wasn't how it should go, that she should be taking instead of being given to.

She glanced at the ground again, glowing nervously. "It, um, can't be done here, of course." Feeding in public was not only impolite, but a good way to get people to not like you. Her literature talked all about this.

There was still the lingering unspoken question from before, of course, and it only became more relevant now that the discussion had come to this point. She was a little hesitant in finally voicing it, though. "...Do Mu bleed in the expected fashion?" IT could result in an entirely different flavor, she mused idly.

"As humans do," he replied, all things in stride. He was not worried for himself, but, now resolved, sought to put Kanaya at ease best he could. There was little else on the matter he could do. "You need only tell me where to go, and I'll be there when you need."

This is all progressing a little quicker than she expected. "It would need to be somewhere secure from outside view, I think. Private." She started studying the threads around them. "I could find such a collection, I think."

"I understand," Blue said, though it was only true enough for what she'd just mentioned. An audience would've made it...rather difficult to come to terms with, even if it was to help a friend. No. He'd have to give her command of the situation, not just the choices.

She thoughtfully wound a finger around the thread that would take her home, but let it loose after a moment. She'd left Terezi sleeping, and risking discovery of what she'd done here would be...awkward.

No, the Burrow was right out, which was a shame, because she knew where everything she might need to handle the aftermath was already.

Finally, she turned back to Blue and asked, "Would your residence be acceptable?"

Blue simply nodded, giving no notion he'd felt any of that inward debate.

"It's not far from here," he said, sending a glance down the road before looking back. "Unless you have something pressing to see to, we can make our way there."

"Well, I...had nothing else in particular planned." And a limited amount of time. She'd want to be home again before Terezi woke up. "I could expedite the journey, if you would inform me of our destination."

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