Fourty-Two [log]
We're both alive. Really.
Who: Taki (sanctumhuntress) and Slayer (dandy_step)
When: ...I dunno, but it's pretty heavily backdated. At some point! In the past!
Where: Taki's appartment.
Summary: Slayer and Taki discuss life, the universe, and everything, where everything includes but is not limited to: why they're stuck in a godforsaken bubble, if life sucks as much outside of said godforsaken bubble, and why Taki hasn't had a date in two years. It's like bonding with that uncle you logically shouldn't be able to stand but can't help but to love anyway.
Notes: THERE IS NO FORSHADOWING HERE MOVE ALONG.
Taki’s kitchen was empty at the moment, and nothing of note was happening. This was about to change very, very quickly. A long shadow grew out of a nearby window, before standing up and solidifying into the unmistakable form of Slayer. Smiling to himself, he automatically put a kettle on and made to see if anybody was home.
Striding into the living room as if he owned the place, he frowned to see that she wasn’t home. Oh well, he could steal the tea and get out, he supposed. Moving to the couch, he slid into a cushion and flipped on a little table radio, not giving it time to receive the station it was set on before tuning it to something more to his tastes. When a classic concerto slowly filled the air he smirked and made himself comfortable. Water did take time to boil, didn’t it?
Taki had, at the time, decided to make a quick run to a nearby store. However, as she made her way back to her apartment, her sixth sense began to scream its ‘there is something here’ warning, and it grew louder the closer she got. By the time she was outside her door, she had accepted that she had been invaded yet again. Withdrawing her obligatory concealed weapon-this time, a small knife from her boot-she slunk into her apartment as silently as possible. She had a good idea of who it was, but it was better to be safe.
Upon seeing that it was Slayer as she suspected, she slid her weapon away and rolled her eyes as if this was an everyday annoyance, before turning and heading for her kitchen. She did have groceries to put away, and one couldn’t expect her life to stop just because a vampire had appeared in her apartment with no warning. “What do you want now?”
He easily heard the door unlock and Taki slink in, and smiled like a cat does to its master, the kind that says ‘I left something on the doorstep and if you don’t find it it’s going to stink up the place right proper.’ As he heard her put her knife away he rolled his eyes, before turning to answer her question.
“Oh, I’m just here to tell you that your government intends to perform a purging of the forces, and you’re on a death-list.” He paused for a second, expression completely serious, just to watch her reaction. A moment or two later, he smirked and said “I jest. I got bored and thought I could use some tea.” At that moment the kettle slowly started to screech, summoning him to the kitchen after her. Reaching up into the cabinet and withdrawing the packs, he added “If that’s not a problem.” Not like he cared if it was, but it was always polite to ask. Humans liked those little formalities.
For what might have been the first time in the history of anything Taki actually yelled her reply, which consisted of a simple, “WHAT?!” She even went so far as to drop her groceries onto the floor in surprise as she whiled around to face him. The moment he revealed he was joking, however, her expression shifted to a look of something akin to incredulousness with an added dash of anger. “…You’re a bastard,” was all she said after a moment. Crouching and gathering the spilled items back into the bag, she didn’t bother answering his question. He would make his tea regardless of what she replied, so why should she bother?
Slayer filed her reaction under ‘Priceless.’ He’d never expected that much, it was beautiful! “I know, but it’s fun.” He’d pulled a cup down and assembled his drink, giving it a test sip, to his disappointment. Stirring it a little more he turned to her with his smug grin, before asking “Want any?” He then paused, taking a sip of the tea, nodding to himself with satisfaction. “Amazing stuff, really. A pleasure every time.”
“No, I’m fine, thank you.” From her voice, she did not sound the slightest bit pleased. In fact, her tone bordered more on something like a growl. Beginning to pile things into her refridgerator, she grumbled mostly to herself, “I swear I’m going to kill you one of these days. You’ll have no one to blame but yourself.” As she spoke she withdrew a paperback novel from the bag and absent-mindedly tossed it onto the counter, before continuing with the perishable foods.
“Come now, there’s no need for hostility. And you already tried that and it didn’t work. Unless you have ideas, you can’t kill me.” He took a long draught of the tea, before noting the book suddenly discarded upon the counter. He blinked for a moment, before plucking and examining it. He raised an eyebrow, looked over at Taki curiously, then placed the book back, a smirk on his face. “Interesting taste in literature. I never saw you as the type for trashy romances.” He paused for a second, before noting the author’s name. “…I think Sharon has a few by the same author.”
“I’d figure something out… Eventually. I’d just need to decide if it was worth the time to actually do so.” Nearly dropping the remaining items in her hands onto the floor for a second time as he noted the book she had left on the counter, she quickly shoved them into place so she had her hands free to grab the novel from view. She stuttered for a few moments in reply to his observation, before realizing something very important: “…I don’t need to justify my taste in books to you.” There was a moment of silence before she added, “And who’s Sharon?”
“It’s not. I did help you by giving you that file you know.” He said this as if it justified her letting him live. Smirking as she snatched the novel from his hands, he answered “Who said you did? Certainly wasn’t me.” Certainly a curious reply, but he’d explore that later. “Sharon? My wife. Amazing woman, but you don’t need to be troubled with the details.” Really, it wasn't much of Taki's business, but he did bring her up.
“That doesn’t mean you’re wearing out your welcome any slower.” Responding to his smirk with a glare, her reply came as a weak, “No, I suppose you didn’t.” And since he hadn’t asked her to, she wasn’t going to explain her reaction. Instead, she moved on to the topic his wife sharing her taste in books. For a moment she debated whether or not to mention anything-he’d probably take her telling him not to do something as a invitation-before saying, “I hope that doesn’t mean you’ll start stealing my books as well.”
“Well then why did you think you did?” If it’d get him some insight, he’d pursue it relentlessly and as annoyingly as possible. Smiling a ‘Maybe I will, maybe I won’t’ smile, he answered “Oh, that depends entirely on whether or not Sharon wants them or hasn’t read them.” As if he didn’t have any say in the matter. “I keep telling her to try some of the classics, but she’s very insistent. If she wants them, I simply have to give them to her.”
Her voice flat, she offered a solution to his wife’s insistence that didn’t require him stealing from her: “You can buy them for her.” Expression then growing thoughtful for a moment, and she amended, “Unless you want to leave me some other book in its place. I think I can live with that.” Of course, she would still rather her books didn’t get up and walk away on her, but if she couldn’t avoid it completely… As for his curiousity about her reation, she simply replied with, “I don’t need to justify that to you, either.”
He smiled at her and cooed “Where’s the fun in that?” As she suggested the trade-off, he rolled his eyes and said “Alright, if it comes to it.” If she had to be so boring about it. He raised an eyebrow at her insistent refusal. “Oh? What could possibly possess you to think you need to justify your actions to me? You seemed to believe it quite automatically. Perhaps you’re unsure of yourself?” He gave her an appraising look before adding “Or maybe it’s something about me. If you won’t give me an answer I could keep hypothesizing all night.”
She frowned as she replied, though she looked as though she was fighting the urge to be slightly amused by the conversation at the same time. “Don’t roll your eyes at me. I’m not the one who breaks into other’s apartments at odd hours of the night because I feel like having tea.” As he began his hypothesizing, she couldn’t help but to let herself smile. “Keep guessing, then. It’s a lot simpler than you think.” It would be interesting to see what he would come up with before giving up-if he gave up at all.
“Breaking in implies I force the entry. I simply walk in. There’s a large difference. And I’ll have you know it’s very good tea and I’m completely justified in coming to have some.” He finished with a ‘Hmph’ of indignation before continuing on his theorizing. “Well, you can’t be embarrassed by it because you didn’t consciously make an effort to hide it from company. Perhaps you feel you need to prove something to me? If so, why could you possibly think to do that?”
“You can buy your own if you like it so much, though I suppose you’d find that boring as well. Plus, you’re still entering without my consent, so whether or not you use force…” As he continued to meditate on why she could possibly be flustered by his comments on her literary tastes, she nearly burst out laughing as he dismissed the correct reason-or at least almost chuckled. One of the two. “I don’t know, Slayer. Why don’t you tell me?”
“Oh, I couldn’t do that. It tastes better when I invade your home to get it. And if I do it without your consent, why do you not report it or demand me out of your home? Besides the fact you know I won’t leave even if you do ask.” Smiling a bit, he moved on. “However, you were stuttering when I commented, were you not? Well then…maybe I was wrong. Perhaps you are embarrassed. I don’t see why. I could be wrong though. It’s not likely, but believe it or not I do make mistakes, though not very often. Perhaps once every couple of decades.” And If he made any before then, well, he didn't acknowledge them as mistakes.
“Well, when you take away the explanation of ‘I know it won’t do any good,’ my actions don’t seem very logical.” Smiling slightly, she finally let the pent up chuckle go. “You, wrong? Never. I can’t believe it,” came her response, playfully sarcastic. “And yes, it was just that I was embarrassed. Amazing how the simple answers are usually right, isn’t it?” She fell silent for a second, before deciding to elaborate. “I know they’re terrible, yet I can’t stop reading them. I get defensive when someone draws attention to that, I suppose.”
“Well there you go. So you accept me because there is no other alternative. Interesting choice.” Grinning as he spotted a sense of humor in the girl, he laughed with her before adding “Of course you can’t! It’s simply inconceivable.” He sent her a side-long glance before saying “Well, perhaps. Simple answers tend to be the most outrageous.” Taking another sip of his tea, he chuckled. “Why would you get defensive over staring at a train-wreck? It’s not like you can pry your eyes away. Sharon told me the same thing when I asked her about it.”
“Isn’t it? I know it seems odd when I had so many options, but.” As he continued questioning her, she shrugged lightly. “Oh, I don’t know. Not many people seem to get the trainwreck thing.” Of course, not many people knew her personal tastes well enough to know she read them, but her explanation stood nonetheless. “Plus, the way you drew attention to it wasn’t exactly free of…” She mentally floundered around for a word for a few moments, before settling on one. “Teasing.” The moment the word was out of her mouth, however, her expression shifted into something of a puzzled frown, as though she wasn’t quite sure where it had come from.
“Well, of course. But it’s perfectly reasonable.” Finishing his tea, he set the cup on the counter before continuing. He literally burst out with a chuckle, before reaching out and patting her on the shoulder. “When haven’t I talked to you like I’m teasing?” He brought up a point. He always talked to her with something of a teasing, patronizing tone. "It's not like I care what you read."
Automatically edgeing away from him when he made contact, her frown deepened. “I’ll accept the teasing, but I think I’m going to have to draw the line at touching.” For some reason or another, she was never quite comfortable with physical contact of any sort. “There’s a difference between teasing and being a smug, patronizing bastard,” she replied, giving him smile that just dared him to argue with her.
Nodding he moved just slightly from her to give her space. “I apologize. I forget personal space issues every now and then.” At her point he laughed a little harder, before saying “Well, I can’t quite say I disagree. I’m afraid it comes with the blood. My kind are just naturally…cocky, if you will.” Immortality would do that to you.
With a little bark of laughter that she probably could have passed off as a cough if she had the desire to, she responded, “Sure, don’t take responsibility for your attitude. Does that come with the blood, too?” Shaking her head and giving him a half-smile to let him know that she wasn’t being entirely serious, she explained, “Sorry, but after your comments on my books I’ve got to take a few jabs at something.”
“Why yes, actually. I should think I have some standard of conduct to uphold based on my species.” He said it with an air of sarcasm and playfulness that would tell her the he was about as serious as she was, if at all. “It’s no trouble. It’s better than trying to put a stake through my heart or chop off my head.” Or any of the other numerous things people thought vampires would succumb too.
“I didn’t know such things were in place. If they are, I’m sure I’ve done a horrible job representing the human race.” As Slayer continued, however, her amused expression turned to a frown. “You would die if you were decapitated, wouldn’t you?” Because, as far as she was concerned, it simply didn’t make sense for anything to be able to live through that. It seemed like the bigger problem with that method execution should have been cutting off his head in the first place rather than whether or not it would be effective.
“No, not really. I’ve been watching your kind for some time, and even I can’t figure out what a typical human acts like. You’re all so damned confusing.” As she mentioned taking his head off, he scoffed and replied “Of course. Everything dies if you take the head off. Eventually at least. Why I’d think of letting anyone try it is beyond me. No sense at all in it.” It’d almost be as bad as letting a snake bite you to see if it was poisonous.
She chuckled slightly at his assessment of typical human behavior. “Well, there you go. There’s your constant.” Understanding of the basic principles of the universe restored, she ruminated half to herself, “It’s not a very useful method of execution unless you have a guillotine or something similar, either. I can’t imagine why anyone would bother to try to use it in the first place.”
“Well it’s not a constant if you can’t follow it. If you can’t count on a constant to be a constant, than it’s not a constant at all.” As she questioned the credibility of decapitation, he added “Well these days it’s worthless. Back when the best weapon you had was sharp, long and made of steel, it was an ideal way of killing somebody. It’s almost impossible to make good armor for a neck, and chain mail can’t protect you from a well sharpened axe.” He paused before adding "I knew a few crusaders who learned that the hard way."
There was a long moment where Taki merely stared at him, the silence abruptly broken by her declaration of, “Neither of us are using that word for the rest of the night.” An actual answer to his point was deemed unnecessary in the face of ‘constant’ used some many times in such a small window. Besides, anything she said would probably lead to a looping argument about the validity of erratic behavior as a constant, and that was a peril she’d rather avoid. Conceding his next point with a nod, she replied, “I almost keep forgetting how old you are. Almost.”
For a moment Slayer stayed silent with her, before answering “Agreed.” Any word used six or more times in the course of thirty seconds had outlived its usefulness. Nodding, he actually agreed with her. “Even I forget how old I am. I stopped bothering with numbers. I keep track with people, events, deaths. Points on a line, if you will.” Beccause if he ever needed to know what year it was, he could just look at a dead man's watch, and if he ever wanted to talk about the past, he could just say 'Well it was around the time when...' and people would know exactly when he meant.
“I don’t think a lot of people would bother with numbers in your position. I’m not even 30 and I’m already tired of keeping track of dates. I know I wouldn’t be doing it if I was 300.” Of course, part of the whole ‘trying to forget her birthday’ bit might have been her natural human instinct to avoid contemplating aging, so she was probably comparing two completely different things. Apples and oranges, if one would. “Although I have to admit, deaths are a morbid thing to keep track of time with.”
“Well, consider what I am. Morbidity is almost my nature.” He chuckled a little bit, before waving it off. “I meant deaths of famous people, key figureheads. Dates that make history. Assassinations of Presidents, ends of wars. In one mans words, ‘Days that will live in infamy.’” He grew quiet for a moment, looking quietly thoughtful, before asking “That was FDR, wasn’t it? I’m pretty sure. 1941?” And was it November or December? World War Two always gave him problems. So hard to keep track of all these things!
She just shrugged in reply to his musings. After all, he seemed less like he was actually asking her and more like he was thinking out loud, not to mention she wasn’t sure of the answer anyway. World War II? That was ancient history. “I suppose those make good markers. They’re something you could easily check, at least.” Provided you had the patience to dig through a history book, of course.
“Doesn’t matter, I suppose. WWII’s long, forgotten history. Terrible.” He sighed, before taking a quick puff on his pipe. “They do. And remembering them has allowed me to see…patterns. History repeats. Not exactly, but in subtle ways.” He smirked lightly, before adding “It’s quite interesting, if you look it all over. Humans could use to learn form the lessons of their ancestors." His smirk vanished abruptly, and he finished with "If you did, maybe we all wouldn't be living in what is, essentially, a God forsaken bubble."
She meditated on what he had just said for a long moment, before finally formulating a reply. “Maybe, but not all of what happened was humanity’s fault. Unless,” she fixed him with a curious look, seeming genuinely interested in what he would reply, “you’re one of those people that thinks it was an act of God.” Expression softening back into its regular degree of seriousness, she added, “Besides, I’m not sure it’s fair for an outsider to make judgments like that. Neither of us can say for sure.”
“You can pin natural disasters on nothing, and invoking God is a ridiculous exercise. It could’ve been a side-effect of global warming, pollution, whatever. The chemical warfare, however, was entirely the fault of humans. Humans should’ve united and helped their fellow man, but instead some chose to destroy them.” He blew another puff out of his pipe, sighed, and added “I have walked among your kind long enough that I do believe myself qualified, and justified in making my judgments. While neither of us, as of now, can say for sure, I intend to, one day, be able to say for sure what happened, and why.” A grin spread across his face, and he said “Call it my hobby."
She tilted her head as he spoke, a look of slight incredulous puzzlement crossing her features. Eventually, it shifted to a very slight smile. “Interesting hobby. How are you going to go about investigating this?” Looking away, she let her mouth quirk up at the ends a bit more, and added a slightly amused, “When you figure it out, I’d love for you to inform me of the results of your analysis… Please.”
“Isn’t it? It helps pass the time, keep me occupied. Asides from the political involvement.” He raised an eyebrow at her, and flicked his hand nonchalantly. “Oh, you know. Digging up thesis papers out of universities, finding researchers on the street. You’d be amazed how much a scientist’ll talk to someone who listens.” Taking a drag and a half, he added “I also fund a few researchers on the side. They’re picking up on the Human Genome Project. Mutants, and whatnot.” When she mentioned telling her the results, he laughed and said “You’ll probably be dead. If you’re not, however, I’ll gladly let you know.”
Listening to him with rapt attention in spite of herself, her only visible reply to the explanation of his methods was the slight clenching of her jaw as mutants were mentioned. At his laugh, however, she let herself present him with a sudden and surprisingly wide-by her standards, at the least-rueful grin and admitted, “Figured as much, but on the off-chance that I’m not I thought you should know I’m interested.” Then, as quickly as it had appeared, the smile faded back into her typical expression.
Slayer spotted the slight tension in her jaw, and quickly said “Oh, nothing serious. Just figuring out how they work, comparing DNA sequences, that kind of junk. Just trying to figure out how they work.” Shrugging, he moved on. “Considering my age, I just believe it…I suppose a responsibility of mine to make sure that somewhere history is recorded accurately. It does wonders for the boredom, too, as I said...." Trailing off, he looked towards the window, then back at Taki, with a devilsh glint in his eye. "It's a beautiful night, isn't it?"
Despite his reassurance, she couldn’t help but to be slightly unsettled and let her mind drift off into its own thoughts. As he spoke, Taki simply nodded along absently… Before part of her mind registered his last comment and she snapped to attention again. Her sense of paranoia and suspicion, which had been taking a rather pleasant nap for once, decided that now would be the perfect time to wake up and make its opinions on a vampire standing in her kitchen known, especially when he was giving her weird looks. “I suppose so…. What about it?”
“Clear skies, a pleasant temperature. I love these kinds of nights.” He took note of her rather quick snap to attention, and chuckled. “Oh, don’t worry, I’m not going to suddenly bite your neck or anything. I grew out of that a long time ago.” He took a drag, and added “I doubt your blood would taste very good, anyway. It was bitter when I told you to watch for a cold.” He paused a moment to realize what he said, threw in a “Don’t ask,” and followed with “Anyway, have you ever seen the city from…say, eighty stories up?”
Before she could stop herself, she asked, “Why shouldn’t I ask? Why is it bitter?” Realizing and accepting the fact that his reply would be horrifically traumatizing, she sighed and moved on to the more important point in this conversation. Lips pursed into a thin line, she replied to his question with a flat, “…No. No, I can’t say I have.” It was evident in her voice that she still didn’t entirely trust him, but was resigned to the fact that she couldn’t make him leave if he didn’t want to.
“Well, firstly, you’re not a virgin. That’s the first reason it’s bitter. The other is age. You’re…almost thirty?” Pausing, he looked at the ceiling for a moment, and added “And there was a tang to it that suggests you haven’t experienced any romantic activities in quite a while. You’re almost thirty, and single. Any reason why?” At her confirmation of his suspicion, he asked “Would you like to? After we talk a little more, of course.”
He quicly returned and backed up his previous question, glancing around her appartment. "You're a good looking woman with a well paying job and a nice home. What could possibly keep you from getting any man you wanted?"
At this point, Taki’s jaw clenched in an odd way that suggested that she was not just mildly uncomfortable as she had been before, but was contemplating the merits of retrieving a large butcher’s knife and stabbing Slayer for stress relief. She was stonily silent for a disconcertingly long period of time, and when she finally spoke again any logical, well thought out reply to his simple question had been replaced by a single sentence: “I earnestly hate you.”
Grinning with more smugness than he had any right to, he chirped “I figured you’d say that.” He tilted his head curiously, and continued to casually examine her home. “Hmm. Judging from the taste of the blood, your last serious relationship was about…two years ago? That’s a long time for a mortal to go single.” He looked contemplative for a short bit, before saying “Does it have something to do with your rather aggressive personality and short temper? I imagine the last man must’ve run out of here with you trying to kill him or something…” He knew perfectly well she’d try to kill him for saying that, so he picked up and apple and looked it over, as if he was going to take a bite out of it. It'd make a good projectile if need be.
For a brief moment, Taki considered explaining to him that her work made it difficult for her to keep a relationship going, or that she had problems trusting others enough to uphold a remotely functional one, or that it simply didn’t matter that much to her in the grand scheme of things. This idea was quickly dismissed. “Aggressive? I have no idea what you mean by that.” Taki then promptly grabbed a knife off the counter and attempted to stab him somewhere in the general area of his solar plexus.
Slayer rolled his eyes as he rammed his hand apple first onto the knife’s blade from below, ripping it clean out of Taki’s grip. He relaxed a moment, and raised the apple to his mouth, almost taking a bite when he noticed there was a knife-blade poking out in the middle of its half-cut core. “…Hm. I saw it was dull, but I didn’t think it was that dull.” Yanking it out and tossing it into the sink, he chuckled, before sinking his fangs into the apple. “...Good apples. Where do you get them?”
Rather than replying to either one of his statements, Taki finally snapped and asked, “Why are you still here?” in a less-than-serene tone of voice. In case he hadn’t noticed it before, it should have been amply obvious to Slayer now that he was starting to outstay his welcome. Of course, being entirely unable to force him out of her home, she would just have to rely on the kindness of his heart for him to take the hint and get the hell out.
She really, really doubted she was about to get what she wanted from him.
Kindness? Pshaw! A heart to put it in? Perish the thought. Slayer simply replied to her with “Boredom, mostly.” Smiling to himself, he turned his head towards her, and noted her extremely, blatantly obvious irritation. “Tell you what. I’ll leave…if you take a flight with me. See the town from a birds-eye view. Then I’ll bring you back, and leave you alone for…however long. Do we have a deal?” He took another bite of the apple, and although it would’ve been appropriate, forgot to hold his hand out to seal the pact.
“Figures,” came the morose reply to his rather brief explanation. As he described his conditions, Taki was forced to do something of a mental double take. “You… want me to go flying with you.” It was exactly a question, per se, but more of an expression of disbelief. “Why? You’re not going to drop me or something, I hope.” By this point, most of her irritation disappeared, replaced by pure, simple confusion.
He laughed, finding amusement in her blatant paranoia. “Of course not. I just want to share the view. It’s very nice this time of night. It’d be selfish to keep it to myself, you know. Being the only person who can see it that I know of.” He paused a moment, trying to find some way to convince her. “Tell you what. I’ll let you bring a knife to stab me in the leg with on the way down if I do drop you. Sound good?”
She seemed to consider the proposal for a moment, before sighing and letting her face tic in a way that might have been the beginning of a smile. “I don’t think the knife will do me any good if you do decide to drop me, so I might as well not even bother.” The barest tint of teasing in her voice, she continued, “Besides, I think I’m willing to take the risk if it’ll get you out of here for a night or two.”
“Excellent!” He polished off the apple and dropped the core in the trash, before clapping his hands together and taking a drag on his pipe. “I knew you’d take the chance to get me out of your hair. Now, do you have a decent sized window? I don’t need it, but you do.” He could simply ignore walls and other various obstacles, but she couldn’t. Unless she turned into a vampire in the next five minutes, which wasn’t likely.
“I’m still finding it hard to believe you’re doing this just because you’re such a nice guy,” she grumbled in one last passive-aggressive swing at him, mostly to herself. Still, even as she spoke, she gestured in the direction of the window in her kitchen. It was just large enough for her to slip out of, should she have the desire to-not something that happened often, considering that it was several stories up.
“You’d be right. I’m bored, as usual.” He accented it with a grin, before nodding at the window. “Alright, open it up. I’ll be outside in a moment.” Without so much as a warning, he bent and shifted, before simply vanishing, seemingly to nothing. About two minutes later, he waved his hand up under the window sill, and asked “Coming?”
Doing as she was told, Taki opened the window before simply lounging on its sill, trying to look vaguely nonchalant about the fact that she was apparently going to hop out of her window to go flying. She liked to think she was justifiably uncomfortable with that fact, but damned if she was going to openly show it. As Slayer prompted her, she directed a little glare in his direction, before gripping the top of the window and swinging her legs up and out. She didn’t let go just yet, though-“Am I supposed to just push myself out for you to catch?”
Slayer floated up to stay at eye-level with her, his shoulder cloak now in the shape of two small bat-like wings protruding from his back. “Why not? You know I’m fast enough to catch you even if you had a three floor head-start.” It wasn’t like he’d let her fall, anyway. That would be horribly rude! He intended to show her the view, and he was damned if he wasn’t going to. "If you want you could piggy-back. That way you wouldn't drop unless your arms gave out. Or I could just pick you up. It's your choice."
“I suppose it doesn’t matter either way, does it?” Really, it wouldn’t-not matter what, she had a feeling this would either be thoroughly enjoyable or making her wish she’d accepted his offer to bring a knife. “Just… catch me,” she replied with a resigned sigh, trying to ignore her self-preservation instincts screaming obscenities at her as she shoved herself roughly from her perch.
“No, not really. Either way gets us going, so it accomplishes the same thing.” He smirked, knowing he didn’t need to go in detail, but he was always that snotty. As she flung herself from the window, he effortlessly caught her, giving himself two seconds to adjust his grip before soaring straight up towards the building’s roof. It was rather tall, but there was taller, yet, he knew. Without even giving Taki a moment’s notice, he shot off towards a taller building, giving her a nice aerial view of the town along the way. “Feel free to look down."
As it had been, Taki had been staring straight up and trying to avoid doing exactly that, but she responded to his order obediently and finally turned her attention downward. Despite the initial sense of terrifying vertigo, the view was actually… quite nice, in the same way watching a star supernova would be-amazing, once one gets over the fact that they could die any second now. “Impressive,” she finally admitted after a long pause, trying not to sound like she was enjoying it too much.
“We’ll be on the highest roof in the area in a minute or two. Enjoy the view on the way, if you wish.” He wasn’t lying about the minute part. Shortly he hovered over the roof-top, where he gently set her down on her feet before lounging on his cloak mid-air like a throne. He struck his pipe again, took a smoke, and said “For a God forsaken bubble, it is rather beautiful…” He paused a moment, taking the time to remember the hive of scum and villainy that lurked on street-level. "At least from up here it is."
Taki had been standing precariously close to the edge of the roof and leaning forward to look down, experiencing the pleasant rush that came with taunting the face of danger in a particularly stupid manner. This was something she usually considered herself too intelligent to do, but what the hell. She’d just been flown to the top of tallest tower in the area, she could push a couple of other limits while she was there. It wasn’t until she made a noise that sounded disturbingly like a giggle in reply to his assessment that she realized she was being silly and unlike herself. Stepping back and collecting her composure as she scanned the horizon, she added, “You can’t see all the faults from up here. Makes it much more picturesque.”
Slayer watched her tempt fate to send a strong gust at her, and smiled to himself. She seemed…almost younger, just standing on that edge. For a moment, he wondered if she wore pigtails as a little girl, randomly. When she actually giggled he raised in eyebrow in surprise. “Enjoying yourself?” At her comment, he nodded. “Quite, such as the murder, the corruption, the faction war, the fear…and the greed. Greed permeates the whole town…but other than that it's a rather nice looking place." He held a light grin on his face as he took another drag and let loose a flock of smoke-bats on a whim.
As Slayer concluded his little speech, Taki seemed to drift into her own world of thought for a moment or two. “Slayer?” The fact that she had no understanding of what the rest of the world was like hit her rather suddenly, and it was making her feel quite small and naïve. “Are places outside New Sanctum the same way?” She had always taken for granted that the problems within the city were just the way things were, having never seen anything beyond it. She was beginning to understand that she was distressingly ignorant on that front.
He paused for a moment to consider her question. “To be honest, I haven’t been outside it in a while. But, before the disaster…no. Not exactly the same. Cities were similar, but at their core there was still a heart, a soul. Of course there was a crime element. There’s always a crime element. I should know, I’ve run quite a few.” He sighed and took a nostalgic drag on his pipe before continuing. “Yet there were your small towns, where everybody knew everybody else, and they were so…friendly.” He shook his head a bit, coming back to the present. “As for other places…I would believe they’re…similar. This is a desperate world. People must do desperate things to survive.”
She thought his reply over for a moment of two, before sighing and replying, “I suppose I just have particularly bad luck, being born into all this.” Then, with a slight hint of a smile she added, “But I guess I’ll have to make do with what I’ve been given, isn’t that right?” No point in getting upset about circumstances she couldn’t control, after all. Besides, all things considered, she could have been much worse off. There was just the location, and the dead parents, and the fact that the government was going to turn on her sooner or later. Nothing she couldn’t deal with.
“Exactly. Play the cards you’re dealt. Even if they’re bad.” He gazed off into the distance, not really doing anything, before saying “You’re prepared for the storm your life is going to enter, right?” He knew she had a feeling her life was going to turn inside out soon, so he might as well make sure she wouldn’t need baby-sitting. There was also news that he was certain would interest her…
She gave him a curt nod. “Of course. I’ll be fine.” Admittedly, she couldn’t say she was 100 percent confident in that assessment, but if the worst-case scenario happened... “I don’t have much choice in that either, now do I? I’ll have to be.” Even if she did require baby-sitting, she had far too much pride to admit such unless she was absolutely desperate.
Her reply made him laugh. “Such confidence. Admirable.” He paused a moment, and sighed as the sound of sirens drifted to his ears. He stood up, his cloak moving back to his shoulder, and said “We should probably get you back to your home now.” It was getting far darker, and he didn't want her losing too much sleep.
She smiled slightly and shook her head at his reply, before questioning, “Why do you ask? You’re not concerned, are you?” In all honesty, she doubted he was. The more likely explanation seemed to be that he was just curious. At his suggestion, however, she nodded and took a step toward him. “It would probably be best if you did.” There was a rather strained pause as she seemed to debate saying something. Finally, she grudgingly added, “Thank you.”
“Concerned? Not exactly. You’ve proven capable of taking care of yourself. You could say I was asking…whether or not you had stage fright.” He grinned a little, knowing she probably wouldn’t get the analogy. The actor couldn’t chicken out before opening night, could they? His grin widened when she thanked him. “You’re welcome anytime, I assure you.” With that, he trotted off the edge of the roof, turned towards her floating a stupid height above the ground and asked “Shall we?”
Taki pursed her lips together, considering whether or not to ask him to elaborate on what, exactly, he meant, but ultimately she just shook her head and decided to let it go. She doubted he would ever make sense to her, but ideally she wouldn’t have to deal with him enough that it would really matter… Ideally, of course, and when had things ever worked out ideally for her? He could have been much less tolerable, anyway.
Having realized that she had just thought that, she shook her head again and decided that the stress was obviously starting to get to her. The idea that she was going insane made jumping off a roof with the assumption that Slayer would catch her easier, though, so she did.
He again plucked her out of the air, and immediately began flying back to her apartment building. He moved a little faster than before, taking him only just a minute or two to stop outside of her window. He floated there for a moment, before saying “This may feel very, very strange.” Before he could explain, the world around them shifted and pinched, and they simply…moved through the wall, into Taki’s kitchen, where he set her down. “If you feel like vomiting, the sink’s right there. I never know how humans’ll react to that.”
As he set her down, she leaned heavily against her kitchen table for support. Vomiting? She didn’t feel like vomiting… “No, I’m fine.” With that, she pushed herself fully onto her own two feet and promptly proceeded to fall over. “Absolutely fine,” she repeated, not even bothering to attempt to move again. She placed her hands over her face in apparent anguish, trying to hide the fact that her cheeks had turned slightly red from embarrassment.
Despite his movement to catch her, he missed, and Slayer’s only reaction was to chuckle a little bit. “That doesn’t look ‘fine’ to me. Can you get up?” He kneeled down and pulled her up a little bit. “Well, lesson learned. May cause vertigo.” He propped her so she was sitting up. “Need something? Water, ride to bed, whatnot?” The sooner she got moving again, the better.
“I’ll be fine,” she insisted, despite evidence to the contrary. She didn’t insist very strongly, though, nor did she resist him helping her sit up. “I just need a few minutes to recover.” Not that she actually knew, but that was beside the point. “Thanks for the offer, though.” To accentuate the ‘I’m perfectly fine, dammit’ point, she reached up to yank herself to her feet with the edge of the table, letting go only to have her legs seem to give out from under her once again.
He nodded, letting her move herself around, before dashing to grab her again as soon as she started to fall. “You may be fine later, but right now you’re not.” Holding her up so that her feet stayed on the ground, he slowly moved towards the couch, intent on depositing her on it. “Can you move your legs, at least?” So troublesome, but it'd be rude to not help her somewhere comfy.
For a moment, Taki lapsed into a silence that could only be described as sulky. Part of her definitely wished Slayer would just leave her on the kitchen floor until she could move on her own, if only for the sake of her dignity. However, she eventually nodded and gave a little demonstrative kick. “I just can’t seem to hold my weight up.”
“Well, that’s good. You’ll be fine in an hour, I’d wager. C’mon then.” He held all her weight with one arm, and proceeded to walk them both over to the couch, keeping her feet just off the ground. Upon arriving, he set her down, then sat down a little way down next to her. “Want some tea before I go? Coffee, pillow? Perhaps a mint?” He said most of it rather sarcastically, but it had a hint of sincerity mixed in, like he wouldn’t mind, but enjoyed teasing her about it.
“I had better be.” Though, truth to be told, she had this strange feeling that she wake up with what would feel like the worst hangover ever. Taki was sorely tempted to force him to actually make her tea simply out of spite, but shook her head and curled up on her end of the couch. “Why aren’t you gone yet?” she asked, her voice wearing just enough of a joking tone that she didn’t sound completely ungrateful.
He chuckled a little bit and looked at her, and replied “Because, I’m not going to abandon somebody in your situation. Especially when you’re an assassin. It’s against the code.” He yawned slightly, and added “It’d also be rude.” Smiling, he stood up, and said “If you want me out, I’ll be going. I’ll keep in touch.” With that, he made his move towards the door, as if he was actually intent on using it.
“Code?” She smiled slightly and shook her head. “I suppose I owe you, then. For… everything.” Watching him turn to go, she made no attempt to stop him… though she was actually mildly suspicious of him leaving when he was told. He was obviously up to something. As he informed-more like threatened-that he’d keep in touch, she responded with a flat, “I’m sure you will.”
“Think nothing of it. As I said, it’s the code.” Smiling as he for once opened a door, he turned and waved, before pausing as she replied flatly. “Rule one. Watch your own, and never leave a fellow behind.” He winked, and added “I’d say ‘welcome to the Brotherhood,’ or something equally appropriate, but any such organization is long dead. Ciao.” With that, he slipped out and shut the door, and vanished into the night without a sound.
Who: Taki (sanctumhuntress) and Slayer (dandy_step)
When: ...I dunno, but it's pretty heavily backdated. At some point! In the past!
Where: Taki's appartment.
Summary: Slayer and Taki discuss life, the universe, and everything, where everything includes but is not limited to: why they're stuck in a godforsaken bubble, if life sucks as much outside of said godforsaken bubble, and why Taki hasn't had a date in two years. It's like bonding with that uncle you logically shouldn't be able to stand but can't help but to love anyway.
Notes: THERE IS NO FORSHADOWING HERE MOVE ALONG.
Taki’s kitchen was empty at the moment, and nothing of note was happening. This was about to change very, very quickly. A long shadow grew out of a nearby window, before standing up and solidifying into the unmistakable form of Slayer. Smiling to himself, he automatically put a kettle on and made to see if anybody was home.
Striding into the living room as if he owned the place, he frowned to see that she wasn’t home. Oh well, he could steal the tea and get out, he supposed. Moving to the couch, he slid into a cushion and flipped on a little table radio, not giving it time to receive the station it was set on before tuning it to something more to his tastes. When a classic concerto slowly filled the air he smirked and made himself comfortable. Water did take time to boil, didn’t it?
Taki had, at the time, decided to make a quick run to a nearby store. However, as she made her way back to her apartment, her sixth sense began to scream its ‘there is something here’ warning, and it grew louder the closer she got. By the time she was outside her door, she had accepted that she had been invaded yet again. Withdrawing her obligatory concealed weapon-this time, a small knife from her boot-she slunk into her apartment as silently as possible. She had a good idea of who it was, but it was better to be safe.
Upon seeing that it was Slayer as she suspected, she slid her weapon away and rolled her eyes as if this was an everyday annoyance, before turning and heading for her kitchen. She did have groceries to put away, and one couldn’t expect her life to stop just because a vampire had appeared in her apartment with no warning. “What do you want now?”
He easily heard the door unlock and Taki slink in, and smiled like a cat does to its master, the kind that says ‘I left something on the doorstep and if you don’t find it it’s going to stink up the place right proper.’ As he heard her put her knife away he rolled his eyes, before turning to answer her question.
“Oh, I’m just here to tell you that your government intends to perform a purging of the forces, and you’re on a death-list.” He paused for a second, expression completely serious, just to watch her reaction. A moment or two later, he smirked and said “I jest. I got bored and thought I could use some tea.” At that moment the kettle slowly started to screech, summoning him to the kitchen after her. Reaching up into the cabinet and withdrawing the packs, he added “If that’s not a problem.” Not like he cared if it was, but it was always polite to ask. Humans liked those little formalities.
For what might have been the first time in the history of anything Taki actually yelled her reply, which consisted of a simple, “WHAT?!” She even went so far as to drop her groceries onto the floor in surprise as she whiled around to face him. The moment he revealed he was joking, however, her expression shifted to a look of something akin to incredulousness with an added dash of anger. “…You’re a bastard,” was all she said after a moment. Crouching and gathering the spilled items back into the bag, she didn’t bother answering his question. He would make his tea regardless of what she replied, so why should she bother?
Slayer filed her reaction under ‘Priceless.’ He’d never expected that much, it was beautiful! “I know, but it’s fun.” He’d pulled a cup down and assembled his drink, giving it a test sip, to his disappointment. Stirring it a little more he turned to her with his smug grin, before asking “Want any?” He then paused, taking a sip of the tea, nodding to himself with satisfaction. “Amazing stuff, really. A pleasure every time.”
“No, I’m fine, thank you.” From her voice, she did not sound the slightest bit pleased. In fact, her tone bordered more on something like a growl. Beginning to pile things into her refridgerator, she grumbled mostly to herself, “I swear I’m going to kill you one of these days. You’ll have no one to blame but yourself.” As she spoke she withdrew a paperback novel from the bag and absent-mindedly tossed it onto the counter, before continuing with the perishable foods.
“Come now, there’s no need for hostility. And you already tried that and it didn’t work. Unless you have ideas, you can’t kill me.” He took a long draught of the tea, before noting the book suddenly discarded upon the counter. He blinked for a moment, before plucking and examining it. He raised an eyebrow, looked over at Taki curiously, then placed the book back, a smirk on his face. “Interesting taste in literature. I never saw you as the type for trashy romances.” He paused for a second, before noting the author’s name. “…I think Sharon has a few by the same author.”
“I’d figure something out… Eventually. I’d just need to decide if it was worth the time to actually do so.” Nearly dropping the remaining items in her hands onto the floor for a second time as he noted the book she had left on the counter, she quickly shoved them into place so she had her hands free to grab the novel from view. She stuttered for a few moments in reply to his observation, before realizing something very important: “…I don’t need to justify my taste in books to you.” There was a moment of silence before she added, “And who’s Sharon?”
“It’s not. I did help you by giving you that file you know.” He said this as if it justified her letting him live. Smirking as she snatched the novel from his hands, he answered “Who said you did? Certainly wasn’t me.” Certainly a curious reply, but he’d explore that later. “Sharon? My wife. Amazing woman, but you don’t need to be troubled with the details.” Really, it wasn't much of Taki's business, but he did bring her up.
“That doesn’t mean you’re wearing out your welcome any slower.” Responding to his smirk with a glare, her reply came as a weak, “No, I suppose you didn’t.” And since he hadn’t asked her to, she wasn’t going to explain her reaction. Instead, she moved on to the topic his wife sharing her taste in books. For a moment she debated whether or not to mention anything-he’d probably take her telling him not to do something as a invitation-before saying, “I hope that doesn’t mean you’ll start stealing my books as well.”
“Well then why did you think you did?” If it’d get him some insight, he’d pursue it relentlessly and as annoyingly as possible. Smiling a ‘Maybe I will, maybe I won’t’ smile, he answered “Oh, that depends entirely on whether or not Sharon wants them or hasn’t read them.” As if he didn’t have any say in the matter. “I keep telling her to try some of the classics, but she’s very insistent. If she wants them, I simply have to give them to her.”
Her voice flat, she offered a solution to his wife’s insistence that didn’t require him stealing from her: “You can buy them for her.” Expression then growing thoughtful for a moment, and she amended, “Unless you want to leave me some other book in its place. I think I can live with that.” Of course, she would still rather her books didn’t get up and walk away on her, but if she couldn’t avoid it completely… As for his curiousity about her reation, she simply replied with, “I don’t need to justify that to you, either.”
He smiled at her and cooed “Where’s the fun in that?” As she suggested the trade-off, he rolled his eyes and said “Alright, if it comes to it.” If she had to be so boring about it. He raised an eyebrow at her insistent refusal. “Oh? What could possibly possess you to think you need to justify your actions to me? You seemed to believe it quite automatically. Perhaps you’re unsure of yourself?” He gave her an appraising look before adding “Or maybe it’s something about me. If you won’t give me an answer I could keep hypothesizing all night.”
She frowned as she replied, though she looked as though she was fighting the urge to be slightly amused by the conversation at the same time. “Don’t roll your eyes at me. I’m not the one who breaks into other’s apartments at odd hours of the night because I feel like having tea.” As he began his hypothesizing, she couldn’t help but to let herself smile. “Keep guessing, then. It’s a lot simpler than you think.” It would be interesting to see what he would come up with before giving up-if he gave up at all.
“Breaking in implies I force the entry. I simply walk in. There’s a large difference. And I’ll have you know it’s very good tea and I’m completely justified in coming to have some.” He finished with a ‘Hmph’ of indignation before continuing on his theorizing. “Well, you can’t be embarrassed by it because you didn’t consciously make an effort to hide it from company. Perhaps you feel you need to prove something to me? If so, why could you possibly think to do that?”
“You can buy your own if you like it so much, though I suppose you’d find that boring as well. Plus, you’re still entering without my consent, so whether or not you use force…” As he continued to meditate on why she could possibly be flustered by his comments on her literary tastes, she nearly burst out laughing as he dismissed the correct reason-or at least almost chuckled. One of the two. “I don’t know, Slayer. Why don’t you tell me?”
“Oh, I couldn’t do that. It tastes better when I invade your home to get it. And if I do it without your consent, why do you not report it or demand me out of your home? Besides the fact you know I won’t leave even if you do ask.” Smiling a bit, he moved on. “However, you were stuttering when I commented, were you not? Well then…maybe I was wrong. Perhaps you are embarrassed. I don’t see why. I could be wrong though. It’s not likely, but believe it or not I do make mistakes, though not very often. Perhaps once every couple of decades.” And If he made any before then, well, he didn't acknowledge them as mistakes.
“Well, when you take away the explanation of ‘I know it won’t do any good,’ my actions don’t seem very logical.” Smiling slightly, she finally let the pent up chuckle go. “You, wrong? Never. I can’t believe it,” came her response, playfully sarcastic. “And yes, it was just that I was embarrassed. Amazing how the simple answers are usually right, isn’t it?” She fell silent for a second, before deciding to elaborate. “I know they’re terrible, yet I can’t stop reading them. I get defensive when someone draws attention to that, I suppose.”
“Well there you go. So you accept me because there is no other alternative. Interesting choice.” Grinning as he spotted a sense of humor in the girl, he laughed with her before adding “Of course you can’t! It’s simply inconceivable.” He sent her a side-long glance before saying “Well, perhaps. Simple answers tend to be the most outrageous.” Taking another sip of his tea, he chuckled. “Why would you get defensive over staring at a train-wreck? It’s not like you can pry your eyes away. Sharon told me the same thing when I asked her about it.”
“Isn’t it? I know it seems odd when I had so many options, but.” As he continued questioning her, she shrugged lightly. “Oh, I don’t know. Not many people seem to get the trainwreck thing.” Of course, not many people knew her personal tastes well enough to know she read them, but her explanation stood nonetheless. “Plus, the way you drew attention to it wasn’t exactly free of…” She mentally floundered around for a word for a few moments, before settling on one. “Teasing.” The moment the word was out of her mouth, however, her expression shifted into something of a puzzled frown, as though she wasn’t quite sure where it had come from.
“Well, of course. But it’s perfectly reasonable.” Finishing his tea, he set the cup on the counter before continuing. He literally burst out with a chuckle, before reaching out and patting her on the shoulder. “When haven’t I talked to you like I’m teasing?” He brought up a point. He always talked to her with something of a teasing, patronizing tone. "It's not like I care what you read."
Automatically edgeing away from him when he made contact, her frown deepened. “I’ll accept the teasing, but I think I’m going to have to draw the line at touching.” For some reason or another, she was never quite comfortable with physical contact of any sort. “There’s a difference between teasing and being a smug, patronizing bastard,” she replied, giving him smile that just dared him to argue with her.
Nodding he moved just slightly from her to give her space. “I apologize. I forget personal space issues every now and then.” At her point he laughed a little harder, before saying “Well, I can’t quite say I disagree. I’m afraid it comes with the blood. My kind are just naturally…cocky, if you will.” Immortality would do that to you.
With a little bark of laughter that she probably could have passed off as a cough if she had the desire to, she responded, “Sure, don’t take responsibility for your attitude. Does that come with the blood, too?” Shaking her head and giving him a half-smile to let him know that she wasn’t being entirely serious, she explained, “Sorry, but after your comments on my books I’ve got to take a few jabs at something.”
“Why yes, actually. I should think I have some standard of conduct to uphold based on my species.” He said it with an air of sarcasm and playfulness that would tell her the he was about as serious as she was, if at all. “It’s no trouble. It’s better than trying to put a stake through my heart or chop off my head.” Or any of the other numerous things people thought vampires would succumb too.
“I didn’t know such things were in place. If they are, I’m sure I’ve done a horrible job representing the human race.” As Slayer continued, however, her amused expression turned to a frown. “You would die if you were decapitated, wouldn’t you?” Because, as far as she was concerned, it simply didn’t make sense for anything to be able to live through that. It seemed like the bigger problem with that method execution should have been cutting off his head in the first place rather than whether or not it would be effective.
“No, not really. I’ve been watching your kind for some time, and even I can’t figure out what a typical human acts like. You’re all so damned confusing.” As she mentioned taking his head off, he scoffed and replied “Of course. Everything dies if you take the head off. Eventually at least. Why I’d think of letting anyone try it is beyond me. No sense at all in it.” It’d almost be as bad as letting a snake bite you to see if it was poisonous.
She chuckled slightly at his assessment of typical human behavior. “Well, there you go. There’s your constant.” Understanding of the basic principles of the universe restored, she ruminated half to herself, “It’s not a very useful method of execution unless you have a guillotine or something similar, either. I can’t imagine why anyone would bother to try to use it in the first place.”
“Well it’s not a constant if you can’t follow it. If you can’t count on a constant to be a constant, than it’s not a constant at all.” As she questioned the credibility of decapitation, he added “Well these days it’s worthless. Back when the best weapon you had was sharp, long and made of steel, it was an ideal way of killing somebody. It’s almost impossible to make good armor for a neck, and chain mail can’t protect you from a well sharpened axe.” He paused before adding "I knew a few crusaders who learned that the hard way."
There was a long moment where Taki merely stared at him, the silence abruptly broken by her declaration of, “Neither of us are using that word for the rest of the night.” An actual answer to his point was deemed unnecessary in the face of ‘constant’ used some many times in such a small window. Besides, anything she said would probably lead to a looping argument about the validity of erratic behavior as a constant, and that was a peril she’d rather avoid. Conceding his next point with a nod, she replied, “I almost keep forgetting how old you are. Almost.”
For a moment Slayer stayed silent with her, before answering “Agreed.” Any word used six or more times in the course of thirty seconds had outlived its usefulness. Nodding, he actually agreed with her. “Even I forget how old I am. I stopped bothering with numbers. I keep track with people, events, deaths. Points on a line, if you will.” Beccause if he ever needed to know what year it was, he could just look at a dead man's watch, and if he ever wanted to talk about the past, he could just say 'Well it was around the time when...' and people would know exactly when he meant.
“I don’t think a lot of people would bother with numbers in your position. I’m not even 30 and I’m already tired of keeping track of dates. I know I wouldn’t be doing it if I was 300.” Of course, part of the whole ‘trying to forget her birthday’ bit might have been her natural human instinct to avoid contemplating aging, so she was probably comparing two completely different things. Apples and oranges, if one would. “Although I have to admit, deaths are a morbid thing to keep track of time with.”
“Well, consider what I am. Morbidity is almost my nature.” He chuckled a little bit, before waving it off. “I meant deaths of famous people, key figureheads. Dates that make history. Assassinations of Presidents, ends of wars. In one mans words, ‘Days that will live in infamy.’” He grew quiet for a moment, looking quietly thoughtful, before asking “That was FDR, wasn’t it? I’m pretty sure. 1941?” And was it November or December? World War Two always gave him problems. So hard to keep track of all these things!
She just shrugged in reply to his musings. After all, he seemed less like he was actually asking her and more like he was thinking out loud, not to mention she wasn’t sure of the answer anyway. World War II? That was ancient history. “I suppose those make good markers. They’re something you could easily check, at least.” Provided you had the patience to dig through a history book, of course.
“Doesn’t matter, I suppose. WWII’s long, forgotten history. Terrible.” He sighed, before taking a quick puff on his pipe. “They do. And remembering them has allowed me to see…patterns. History repeats. Not exactly, but in subtle ways.” He smirked lightly, before adding “It’s quite interesting, if you look it all over. Humans could use to learn form the lessons of their ancestors." His smirk vanished abruptly, and he finished with "If you did, maybe we all wouldn't be living in what is, essentially, a God forsaken bubble."
She meditated on what he had just said for a long moment, before finally formulating a reply. “Maybe, but not all of what happened was humanity’s fault. Unless,” she fixed him with a curious look, seeming genuinely interested in what he would reply, “you’re one of those people that thinks it was an act of God.” Expression softening back into its regular degree of seriousness, she added, “Besides, I’m not sure it’s fair for an outsider to make judgments like that. Neither of us can say for sure.”
“You can pin natural disasters on nothing, and invoking God is a ridiculous exercise. It could’ve been a side-effect of global warming, pollution, whatever. The chemical warfare, however, was entirely the fault of humans. Humans should’ve united and helped their fellow man, but instead some chose to destroy them.” He blew another puff out of his pipe, sighed, and added “I have walked among your kind long enough that I do believe myself qualified, and justified in making my judgments. While neither of us, as of now, can say for sure, I intend to, one day, be able to say for sure what happened, and why.” A grin spread across his face, and he said “Call it my hobby."
She tilted her head as he spoke, a look of slight incredulous puzzlement crossing her features. Eventually, it shifted to a very slight smile. “Interesting hobby. How are you going to go about investigating this?” Looking away, she let her mouth quirk up at the ends a bit more, and added a slightly amused, “When you figure it out, I’d love for you to inform me of the results of your analysis… Please.”
“Isn’t it? It helps pass the time, keep me occupied. Asides from the political involvement.” He raised an eyebrow at her, and flicked his hand nonchalantly. “Oh, you know. Digging up thesis papers out of universities, finding researchers on the street. You’d be amazed how much a scientist’ll talk to someone who listens.” Taking a drag and a half, he added “I also fund a few researchers on the side. They’re picking up on the Human Genome Project. Mutants, and whatnot.” When she mentioned telling her the results, he laughed and said “You’ll probably be dead. If you’re not, however, I’ll gladly let you know.”
Listening to him with rapt attention in spite of herself, her only visible reply to the explanation of his methods was the slight clenching of her jaw as mutants were mentioned. At his laugh, however, she let herself present him with a sudden and surprisingly wide-by her standards, at the least-rueful grin and admitted, “Figured as much, but on the off-chance that I’m not I thought you should know I’m interested.” Then, as quickly as it had appeared, the smile faded back into her typical expression.
Slayer spotted the slight tension in her jaw, and quickly said “Oh, nothing serious. Just figuring out how they work, comparing DNA sequences, that kind of junk. Just trying to figure out how they work.” Shrugging, he moved on. “Considering my age, I just believe it…I suppose a responsibility of mine to make sure that somewhere history is recorded accurately. It does wonders for the boredom, too, as I said...." Trailing off, he looked towards the window, then back at Taki, with a devilsh glint in his eye. "It's a beautiful night, isn't it?"
Despite his reassurance, she couldn’t help but to be slightly unsettled and let her mind drift off into its own thoughts. As he spoke, Taki simply nodded along absently… Before part of her mind registered his last comment and she snapped to attention again. Her sense of paranoia and suspicion, which had been taking a rather pleasant nap for once, decided that now would be the perfect time to wake up and make its opinions on a vampire standing in her kitchen known, especially when he was giving her weird looks. “I suppose so…. What about it?”
“Clear skies, a pleasant temperature. I love these kinds of nights.” He took note of her rather quick snap to attention, and chuckled. “Oh, don’t worry, I’m not going to suddenly bite your neck or anything. I grew out of that a long time ago.” He took a drag, and added “I doubt your blood would taste very good, anyway. It was bitter when I told you to watch for a cold.” He paused a moment to realize what he said, threw in a “Don’t ask,” and followed with “Anyway, have you ever seen the city from…say, eighty stories up?”
Before she could stop herself, she asked, “Why shouldn’t I ask? Why is it bitter?” Realizing and accepting the fact that his reply would be horrifically traumatizing, she sighed and moved on to the more important point in this conversation. Lips pursed into a thin line, she replied to his question with a flat, “…No. No, I can’t say I have.” It was evident in her voice that she still didn’t entirely trust him, but was resigned to the fact that she couldn’t make him leave if he didn’t want to.
“Well, firstly, you’re not a virgin. That’s the first reason it’s bitter. The other is age. You’re…almost thirty?” Pausing, he looked at the ceiling for a moment, and added “And there was a tang to it that suggests you haven’t experienced any romantic activities in quite a while. You’re almost thirty, and single. Any reason why?” At her confirmation of his suspicion, he asked “Would you like to? After we talk a little more, of course.”
He quicly returned and backed up his previous question, glancing around her appartment. "You're a good looking woman with a well paying job and a nice home. What could possibly keep you from getting any man you wanted?"
At this point, Taki’s jaw clenched in an odd way that suggested that she was not just mildly uncomfortable as she had been before, but was contemplating the merits of retrieving a large butcher’s knife and stabbing Slayer for stress relief. She was stonily silent for a disconcertingly long period of time, and when she finally spoke again any logical, well thought out reply to his simple question had been replaced by a single sentence: “I earnestly hate you.”
Grinning with more smugness than he had any right to, he chirped “I figured you’d say that.” He tilted his head curiously, and continued to casually examine her home. “Hmm. Judging from the taste of the blood, your last serious relationship was about…two years ago? That’s a long time for a mortal to go single.” He looked contemplative for a short bit, before saying “Does it have something to do with your rather aggressive personality and short temper? I imagine the last man must’ve run out of here with you trying to kill him or something…” He knew perfectly well she’d try to kill him for saying that, so he picked up and apple and looked it over, as if he was going to take a bite out of it. It'd make a good projectile if need be.
For a brief moment, Taki considered explaining to him that her work made it difficult for her to keep a relationship going, or that she had problems trusting others enough to uphold a remotely functional one, or that it simply didn’t matter that much to her in the grand scheme of things. This idea was quickly dismissed. “Aggressive? I have no idea what you mean by that.” Taki then promptly grabbed a knife off the counter and attempted to stab him somewhere in the general area of his solar plexus.
Slayer rolled his eyes as he rammed his hand apple first onto the knife’s blade from below, ripping it clean out of Taki’s grip. He relaxed a moment, and raised the apple to his mouth, almost taking a bite when he noticed there was a knife-blade poking out in the middle of its half-cut core. “…Hm. I saw it was dull, but I didn’t think it was that dull.” Yanking it out and tossing it into the sink, he chuckled, before sinking his fangs into the apple. “...Good apples. Where do you get them?”
Rather than replying to either one of his statements, Taki finally snapped and asked, “Why are you still here?” in a less-than-serene tone of voice. In case he hadn’t noticed it before, it should have been amply obvious to Slayer now that he was starting to outstay his welcome. Of course, being entirely unable to force him out of her home, she would just have to rely on the kindness of his heart for him to take the hint and get the hell out.
She really, really doubted she was about to get what she wanted from him.
Kindness? Pshaw! A heart to put it in? Perish the thought. Slayer simply replied to her with “Boredom, mostly.” Smiling to himself, he turned his head towards her, and noted her extremely, blatantly obvious irritation. “Tell you what. I’ll leave…if you take a flight with me. See the town from a birds-eye view. Then I’ll bring you back, and leave you alone for…however long. Do we have a deal?” He took another bite of the apple, and although it would’ve been appropriate, forgot to hold his hand out to seal the pact.
“Figures,” came the morose reply to his rather brief explanation. As he described his conditions, Taki was forced to do something of a mental double take. “You… want me to go flying with you.” It was exactly a question, per se, but more of an expression of disbelief. “Why? You’re not going to drop me or something, I hope.” By this point, most of her irritation disappeared, replaced by pure, simple confusion.
He laughed, finding amusement in her blatant paranoia. “Of course not. I just want to share the view. It’s very nice this time of night. It’d be selfish to keep it to myself, you know. Being the only person who can see it that I know of.” He paused a moment, trying to find some way to convince her. “Tell you what. I’ll let you bring a knife to stab me in the leg with on the way down if I do drop you. Sound good?”
She seemed to consider the proposal for a moment, before sighing and letting her face tic in a way that might have been the beginning of a smile. “I don’t think the knife will do me any good if you do decide to drop me, so I might as well not even bother.” The barest tint of teasing in her voice, she continued, “Besides, I think I’m willing to take the risk if it’ll get you out of here for a night or two.”
“Excellent!” He polished off the apple and dropped the core in the trash, before clapping his hands together and taking a drag on his pipe. “I knew you’d take the chance to get me out of your hair. Now, do you have a decent sized window? I don’t need it, but you do.” He could simply ignore walls and other various obstacles, but she couldn’t. Unless she turned into a vampire in the next five minutes, which wasn’t likely.
“I’m still finding it hard to believe you’re doing this just because you’re such a nice guy,” she grumbled in one last passive-aggressive swing at him, mostly to herself. Still, even as she spoke, she gestured in the direction of the window in her kitchen. It was just large enough for her to slip out of, should she have the desire to-not something that happened often, considering that it was several stories up.
“You’d be right. I’m bored, as usual.” He accented it with a grin, before nodding at the window. “Alright, open it up. I’ll be outside in a moment.” Without so much as a warning, he bent and shifted, before simply vanishing, seemingly to nothing. About two minutes later, he waved his hand up under the window sill, and asked “Coming?”
Doing as she was told, Taki opened the window before simply lounging on its sill, trying to look vaguely nonchalant about the fact that she was apparently going to hop out of her window to go flying. She liked to think she was justifiably uncomfortable with that fact, but damned if she was going to openly show it. As Slayer prompted her, she directed a little glare in his direction, before gripping the top of the window and swinging her legs up and out. She didn’t let go just yet, though-“Am I supposed to just push myself out for you to catch?”
Slayer floated up to stay at eye-level with her, his shoulder cloak now in the shape of two small bat-like wings protruding from his back. “Why not? You know I’m fast enough to catch you even if you had a three floor head-start.” It wasn’t like he’d let her fall, anyway. That would be horribly rude! He intended to show her the view, and he was damned if he wasn’t going to. "If you want you could piggy-back. That way you wouldn't drop unless your arms gave out. Or I could just pick you up. It's your choice."
“I suppose it doesn’t matter either way, does it?” Really, it wouldn’t-not matter what, she had a feeling this would either be thoroughly enjoyable or making her wish she’d accepted his offer to bring a knife. “Just… catch me,” she replied with a resigned sigh, trying to ignore her self-preservation instincts screaming obscenities at her as she shoved herself roughly from her perch.
“No, not really. Either way gets us going, so it accomplishes the same thing.” He smirked, knowing he didn’t need to go in detail, but he was always that snotty. As she flung herself from the window, he effortlessly caught her, giving himself two seconds to adjust his grip before soaring straight up towards the building’s roof. It was rather tall, but there was taller, yet, he knew. Without even giving Taki a moment’s notice, he shot off towards a taller building, giving her a nice aerial view of the town along the way. “Feel free to look down."
As it had been, Taki had been staring straight up and trying to avoid doing exactly that, but she responded to his order obediently and finally turned her attention downward. Despite the initial sense of terrifying vertigo, the view was actually… quite nice, in the same way watching a star supernova would be-amazing, once one gets over the fact that they could die any second now. “Impressive,” she finally admitted after a long pause, trying not to sound like she was enjoying it too much.
“We’ll be on the highest roof in the area in a minute or two. Enjoy the view on the way, if you wish.” He wasn’t lying about the minute part. Shortly he hovered over the roof-top, where he gently set her down on her feet before lounging on his cloak mid-air like a throne. He struck his pipe again, took a smoke, and said “For a God forsaken bubble, it is rather beautiful…” He paused a moment, taking the time to remember the hive of scum and villainy that lurked on street-level. "At least from up here it is."
Taki had been standing precariously close to the edge of the roof and leaning forward to look down, experiencing the pleasant rush that came with taunting the face of danger in a particularly stupid manner. This was something she usually considered herself too intelligent to do, but what the hell. She’d just been flown to the top of tallest tower in the area, she could push a couple of other limits while she was there. It wasn’t until she made a noise that sounded disturbingly like a giggle in reply to his assessment that she realized she was being silly and unlike herself. Stepping back and collecting her composure as she scanned the horizon, she added, “You can’t see all the faults from up here. Makes it much more picturesque.”
Slayer watched her tempt fate to send a strong gust at her, and smiled to himself. She seemed…almost younger, just standing on that edge. For a moment, he wondered if she wore pigtails as a little girl, randomly. When she actually giggled he raised in eyebrow in surprise. “Enjoying yourself?” At her comment, he nodded. “Quite, such as the murder, the corruption, the faction war, the fear…and the greed. Greed permeates the whole town…but other than that it's a rather nice looking place." He held a light grin on his face as he took another drag and let loose a flock of smoke-bats on a whim.
As Slayer concluded his little speech, Taki seemed to drift into her own world of thought for a moment or two. “Slayer?” The fact that she had no understanding of what the rest of the world was like hit her rather suddenly, and it was making her feel quite small and naïve. “Are places outside New Sanctum the same way?” She had always taken for granted that the problems within the city were just the way things were, having never seen anything beyond it. She was beginning to understand that she was distressingly ignorant on that front.
He paused for a moment to consider her question. “To be honest, I haven’t been outside it in a while. But, before the disaster…no. Not exactly the same. Cities were similar, but at their core there was still a heart, a soul. Of course there was a crime element. There’s always a crime element. I should know, I’ve run quite a few.” He sighed and took a nostalgic drag on his pipe before continuing. “Yet there were your small towns, where everybody knew everybody else, and they were so…friendly.” He shook his head a bit, coming back to the present. “As for other places…I would believe they’re…similar. This is a desperate world. People must do desperate things to survive.”
She thought his reply over for a moment of two, before sighing and replying, “I suppose I just have particularly bad luck, being born into all this.” Then, with a slight hint of a smile she added, “But I guess I’ll have to make do with what I’ve been given, isn’t that right?” No point in getting upset about circumstances she couldn’t control, after all. Besides, all things considered, she could have been much worse off. There was just the location, and the dead parents, and the fact that the government was going to turn on her sooner or later. Nothing she couldn’t deal with.
“Exactly. Play the cards you’re dealt. Even if they’re bad.” He gazed off into the distance, not really doing anything, before saying “You’re prepared for the storm your life is going to enter, right?” He knew she had a feeling her life was going to turn inside out soon, so he might as well make sure she wouldn’t need baby-sitting. There was also news that he was certain would interest her…
She gave him a curt nod. “Of course. I’ll be fine.” Admittedly, she couldn’t say she was 100 percent confident in that assessment, but if the worst-case scenario happened... “I don’t have much choice in that either, now do I? I’ll have to be.” Even if she did require baby-sitting, she had far too much pride to admit such unless she was absolutely desperate.
Her reply made him laugh. “Such confidence. Admirable.” He paused a moment, and sighed as the sound of sirens drifted to his ears. He stood up, his cloak moving back to his shoulder, and said “We should probably get you back to your home now.” It was getting far darker, and he didn't want her losing too much sleep.
She smiled slightly and shook her head at his reply, before questioning, “Why do you ask? You’re not concerned, are you?” In all honesty, she doubted he was. The more likely explanation seemed to be that he was just curious. At his suggestion, however, she nodded and took a step toward him. “It would probably be best if you did.” There was a rather strained pause as she seemed to debate saying something. Finally, she grudgingly added, “Thank you.”
“Concerned? Not exactly. You’ve proven capable of taking care of yourself. You could say I was asking…whether or not you had stage fright.” He grinned a little, knowing she probably wouldn’t get the analogy. The actor couldn’t chicken out before opening night, could they? His grin widened when she thanked him. “You’re welcome anytime, I assure you.” With that, he trotted off the edge of the roof, turned towards her floating a stupid height above the ground and asked “Shall we?”
Taki pursed her lips together, considering whether or not to ask him to elaborate on what, exactly, he meant, but ultimately she just shook her head and decided to let it go. She doubted he would ever make sense to her, but ideally she wouldn’t have to deal with him enough that it would really matter… Ideally, of course, and when had things ever worked out ideally for her? He could have been much less tolerable, anyway.
Having realized that she had just thought that, she shook her head again and decided that the stress was obviously starting to get to her. The idea that she was going insane made jumping off a roof with the assumption that Slayer would catch her easier, though, so she did.
He again plucked her out of the air, and immediately began flying back to her apartment building. He moved a little faster than before, taking him only just a minute or two to stop outside of her window. He floated there for a moment, before saying “This may feel very, very strange.” Before he could explain, the world around them shifted and pinched, and they simply…moved through the wall, into Taki’s kitchen, where he set her down. “If you feel like vomiting, the sink’s right there. I never know how humans’ll react to that.”
As he set her down, she leaned heavily against her kitchen table for support. Vomiting? She didn’t feel like vomiting… “No, I’m fine.” With that, she pushed herself fully onto her own two feet and promptly proceeded to fall over. “Absolutely fine,” she repeated, not even bothering to attempt to move again. She placed her hands over her face in apparent anguish, trying to hide the fact that her cheeks had turned slightly red from embarrassment.
Despite his movement to catch her, he missed, and Slayer’s only reaction was to chuckle a little bit. “That doesn’t look ‘fine’ to me. Can you get up?” He kneeled down and pulled her up a little bit. “Well, lesson learned. May cause vertigo.” He propped her so she was sitting up. “Need something? Water, ride to bed, whatnot?” The sooner she got moving again, the better.
“I’ll be fine,” she insisted, despite evidence to the contrary. She didn’t insist very strongly, though, nor did she resist him helping her sit up. “I just need a few minutes to recover.” Not that she actually knew, but that was beside the point. “Thanks for the offer, though.” To accentuate the ‘I’m perfectly fine, dammit’ point, she reached up to yank herself to her feet with the edge of the table, letting go only to have her legs seem to give out from under her once again.
He nodded, letting her move herself around, before dashing to grab her again as soon as she started to fall. “You may be fine later, but right now you’re not.” Holding her up so that her feet stayed on the ground, he slowly moved towards the couch, intent on depositing her on it. “Can you move your legs, at least?” So troublesome, but it'd be rude to not help her somewhere comfy.
For a moment, Taki lapsed into a silence that could only be described as sulky. Part of her definitely wished Slayer would just leave her on the kitchen floor until she could move on her own, if only for the sake of her dignity. However, she eventually nodded and gave a little demonstrative kick. “I just can’t seem to hold my weight up.”
“Well, that’s good. You’ll be fine in an hour, I’d wager. C’mon then.” He held all her weight with one arm, and proceeded to walk them both over to the couch, keeping her feet just off the ground. Upon arriving, he set her down, then sat down a little way down next to her. “Want some tea before I go? Coffee, pillow? Perhaps a mint?” He said most of it rather sarcastically, but it had a hint of sincerity mixed in, like he wouldn’t mind, but enjoyed teasing her about it.
“I had better be.” Though, truth to be told, she had this strange feeling that she wake up with what would feel like the worst hangover ever. Taki was sorely tempted to force him to actually make her tea simply out of spite, but shook her head and curled up on her end of the couch. “Why aren’t you gone yet?” she asked, her voice wearing just enough of a joking tone that she didn’t sound completely ungrateful.
He chuckled a little bit and looked at her, and replied “Because, I’m not going to abandon somebody in your situation. Especially when you’re an assassin. It’s against the code.” He yawned slightly, and added “It’d also be rude.” Smiling, he stood up, and said “If you want me out, I’ll be going. I’ll keep in touch.” With that, he made his move towards the door, as if he was actually intent on using it.
“Code?” She smiled slightly and shook her head. “I suppose I owe you, then. For… everything.” Watching him turn to go, she made no attempt to stop him… though she was actually mildly suspicious of him leaving when he was told. He was obviously up to something. As he informed-more like threatened-that he’d keep in touch, she responded with a flat, “I’m sure you will.”
“Think nothing of it. As I said, it’s the code.” Smiling as he for once opened a door, he turned and waved, before pausing as she replied flatly. “Rule one. Watch your own, and never leave a fellow behind.” He winked, and added “I’d say ‘welcome to the Brotherhood,’ or something equally appropriate, but any such organization is long dead. Ciao.” With that, he slipped out and shut the door, and vanished into the night without a sound.