hai mươi tám ❀| but the darkness has a hunger; it offers you blood for wild blood

[lotuslife]

[The day wears on, and long streaks of golden light are starting to settle across Mayfield as the sun begins to set. Downtown, there's someone casting a long shadow as they walk slowly down the street. It's a young woman; she's dragging something large and unwieldy. Whatever it is, it's leaving a long, dark smear on the road as it's pulled along- a

Comments

Permission for injury/blood drinking!

[peonymarket]

[China is walking out in the cold streets, preoccupied, his eyes glassy as his mind continuously replays the painful vision of his family, safe and strong but sickeningly changed, Westernized, gloating over his absence. Insulting him. Betraying him. How could they? He loved them.... sometimes he hated them and sometimes he hurt them but China loved them, all of them. And so even the prosperous, confident nation at the peak of his power finds himself hurt in a deep, strange, aching way.

Needless to say, he's not looking where he's going.]

[lotuslife]

[Almost as if out of nowhere- or maybe it's just because he isn't looking- Vietnam is suddenly in front of her brother. She perceives his strange mood, but her mind is on something else...]

Anh?

[peonymarket]

[Her jerks into awareness and looks at Vietnam, but the glance quickly turns into a cold glare. She's a stranger to him now, her more so than the rest of his family.]

What do you want.

[lotuslife]

I'm really... [She shakes her head softly, and her long hair falls into her eyes. She brushes it back. Oh, be patient, be patient, she can feed again soon...]

...We'll need to go somewhere quiet.

[peonymarket]

...whatever it is, find someone else. Why not a westerner, as that is what you always wanted?

[He moves to turn his back on her, and it hurts.]

[lotuslife]

[For a moment, she's disappointed. It's unlike her brother to turn his back to her, to expose himself to her and be vulnerable for even a moment.]

Face me. [She sounds annoyed. Her voice is a command:] Turn around.

[peonymarket]

Qù nǐde.

["Fuck off."]

[lotuslife]

[Suddenly her voice is pained, furious:] You think you can talk to me like that?!

[in a movement so fast that it's an almost-invisible blur of motion, Vietnam's arm has suddenly warped into something hideous, monstrous-looking; the nightmarish limb flies out to slice long claws straight down China's back, shredding right through his clothes.]

[peonymarket]

Nngh-!

[The pain is searing, sharp, white hot lines of fire raking down his spine. China stumbles, falls, almost crumpling on the ground- he barely manages to throw out his hands and catch himself. And the humiliation hurts as well, but the actual, inescapable fact that Vietnam did this is the deepest agony of all, crystallizing into truth the vision Mayfield cursed him with. He snarls and does not try to turn around, string his words together with difficulty.]

You....lowly pig spawn...should never have expected...any better....miserable pile of filth!

[lotuslife]

[in a flash she's crouching above him, her clawed hand curling around his neck. though he can't see her arm, he should be able to tell that something is very, very wrong because cold, hard talons are pressing into his throat.]

That hurts, you know. [the talons nudge a bit tighter.] Especially when I am the sister you once valued so much. [once. not any more. she was stupid to ever think it could be any different. he's just like Russia, in a way; she's nothing more than a puppet to him.

drinking his blood won't be enough, but for now, she thinks, it'll manage to barely sate her.]

[peonymarket]

[A choked, growling laugh; yes, he realizes that something is wrong, but his surprise is dull and swallowed up by a hundred other things. In his current state, there's nothing that China wouldn't put past Vietnam.] Yes, yes, once valued! And I was f-fool to care so much!

[lotuslife]

[that hurts even more, and she gives a choked, enraged sound. it would have been better to hear him claim that he had never cared for her at all than to hear that. the part of her mind that is not consumed with hunger and bloodlust wants to grind his face into the ground until he swallows back those words.]

How can you say that? [she presses his head to the ground until his cheek is flattened against it.] Even if it's true- [a pause as she runs her tongue over her fangs.] How cruel of you, Yao... [her own hypocrisy does not once even occur to her.]

[peonymarket]

[muffled, wrathful, but audible:] Can say it b...because it's true! Which is more than you...ever did! [he struggles but it's a pathetic waste of motion, he's too distracted and when did she get so strong? it's for the best that, right now, he can't see what his sister's become as words leak out of him.] Liar...lies...and I trusted you the most, Sen, so how could...how could you...

[lotuslife]

[no, stop, stop saying those things-

she leans down close until her mouth brushes against his ear and her other hand- the one that isn't transformed- snakes around to his face to seal over his lips, gripping his chin tightly. if he won't shut up, then she just won't allow him to speak. instead she fills the air with words, hissing at him:] Don't decide for me if I do or don't love you. [her grip tightens, and her voice softens.] You already took enough.

[peonymarket]

[Sharp, angry heat pricks the corners of his eyes, but China will not cry. Took enough? He gave her everything to begin with, he tried to make her like him- tried to pay her the highest compliment he could give, and then she- and all the rest -dared to mock- to gloat-

He tries to bite her hand, a low snarl in his throat.]

[lotuslife]

[he does that and he might even draw blood, but as soon as the wound appears it's gone again, the flesh sealing up and closing. she sits up a little and draws her hand back sharply, grabbing him to flip him over onto his back. she does not allow the transformed arm to revert to its normal state, and instead lifts it up, where the light of the setting sun gleams off of the claws. her lips are slightly parted, and her sharp canines glint in the light. but before he'd have time to take in these horrifying details, she leans down and presses her mouth to his.

but there's nothing romantic about the kiss. her eyes remain open, half-lidded and unfocused, and he'll feel a sharp pain as her fangs sink into his tongue and the taste of copper soon after floods his mouth.]