As I walked out one morn in May
The birds did sing and the lambs did play,
The birds did sing and the lambs did play;
I met an old man,
I met an old man by the way.
His head was bald, his beard was grey,
His coat was of a myrtle shade,
I asked him what strange countryman,
Or what strange place,
Or what strange place he did belong.
“My name is Death, cannot you see?
Lords, dukes and ladies bow down to me.
And you are one of those branches three,
And you fair maid,
And you fair maid must come with me.”
“I'll give you gold and jewels rare,
I'll give you costly robes to wear,
I'll give you all my wealth in store,
If you'll let me live,
If you'll let me live a few years more.”
“Fair lady, lay your robes aside,
No longer glory in your pride.
And now, sweet maid, make no delay,
Your time is come,
Your time is come and you must away.”
And not long after this fair maid died;
“Write on my tomb,” the lady cried,
“Here lies a poor distressed maid,
Just in her bloom she was snatched away,
Her clothing made of the cold earthen clay.”
--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--
Charlotte: Charlotte had once again revived her old hobby and joy. She had used to enjoy performing on stage, lip synching with the tracks she'd picked and dressing up like the people she was miming along with. However, her confidence had failed her when she'd been booed from the stage, followed as she left the club and then attacked and raped. She'd not been on a stage again since, not until recently anyways. After her final operation, and after she'd healed properly, she'd once more reached out into that world and got herself a few gigs in a little dive of a club in Redwood. It was all going well, and she'd even managed to treat herself to a few bits and pieces from a shop called Simply Hush that she'd found just round the corner from the club. They were just simple things that flattered her new figure and showed it off to its fullest, but they were things he'd never been able to buy before. She was loving it all, she was loving life and everything was fabulous. Her hips swayed as she walked down the street, her black heels clipped smartly with every step. Tonight, she had a curled blonde wig on and was dressed as Doris Day. She did love the style from then, the glamour and excess, the sound and feel of it all. Her evening dress that hugged her figure. The pearls that were tight around her neck, with their matching stud earrings peeking through her hair as she delicately adjusted a curl. The wrap that hung off her shoulders, cream like the pearls against the black of her dress that had a very daring neck that dipped to her cleavage and showed off her shoulders. Black gloves and the little pillbox hat that finished it off, with the demure makeup yet bright red lips being the cherry on top. Tonight, she was going as Doris and she only wished that she could learn to sing like her, or anyone. She hated the lip synching, but it was hard enough to talk in a feminine voice, singing was a whole other ball game that she'd just not quite mastered yet. So, for now, she had to satisfy herself with dressing up and miming along to tracks and records. In her mind, she softly hummed and sung along to the simple piano melody of Dream a Little Dream of Me, a large smile on her face of complete contentment.
Keara: He was out of town and she hated him being gone. As a couple they were pretty close and rarely spent more than a few hour apart; that was unless a raid was going in the city, but even then that didn’t stop them talking as she was always in his mind. As much as she loved culling creatures, she hated being away from Enver but that was her choice, this was his. And to make matters worse, she couldn’t get in his mind when he was there. At least she didn’t think she could and wasn’t going to risk hurting either of them by trying. Instead she had to make do with Skyping with him as and when he had time, if he had time. She’d been shut up in their cell for part of the night. She tended to lose her lust for fighting when he wasn’t about, something she hadn’t actually worked out herself yet. She was annoyed that he went without her and could have easily punched him in the face if he walked in at that moment and yet, at the same time, she missed him like crazy and wanted him home so that she could throw her arms around him and squeeze him tight. Whatever she was feeling, she had to get out of their room. It was depressing her and more to the point she’d run out of paper. Looking about the room, every previously blank page was filled with images of him. She didn’t realise how many pictures of him she’d drawn or just how long she’d been drawing. Standing up, she ignored the mess about her, ran her hands over her dreads, making sure they were still neatly tied back and headed out onto the streets. She didn’t know where she was heading, she was just walking but soon she found herself in the Redwood distract, right by Simply Hush where Enver had taken her the night they crossed paths with the crazy brunette. She sighed softly as she looked in the window. She could buy an outfit for later perhaps…for when he returned? She was contemplating this when she saw a blonde that looked suspiciously like Hannah exiting the building. A soft growl escaped her lips. She hated that woman and with Enver out of time, it was the perfect time to make sure she never crossed paths with her husband again. She followed the vapid blonde down the street, waiting until the lighting was just right before summoning her blade into her hand and creeping up on the woman. She grabbed her by the hair, pulled her backward and stabbed the blade up through her abdomen under the ribcage. She could have gone for the heart but she was feeling pretty sadistic and wanted to watch the woman bleed to death, only…as she pulled on the hair and drove the dagger into her, the hair came loose in her hands. “Huh?” was all she said as supported the woman on her chest, so that she wouldn’t fall to the ground, one hand holding the wig, the other still holding the dagger in place.
Charlotte: Her shopping bag was swinging from her finger tips, the little twisted card handles tucked into the crook of her gloved fingers as the paper of the bag itself brushed her calf. She was going through her set in her head and keeping her eyes and mind to herself. Too many times had she made eye contact with someone and it had ended up in some form of confrontation. So having learnt from her mistake, she now kept her eyes to the ground and didn't look around at anyone. So when her head was suddenly jerked backwards and the curby grips that secured the wig in place slid free of her brunette hair, she was shocked to say the least. The blade going in registered with shock on her face. Those perfectly painted lips that she took so long over were opened wide in shock, horror and pain as she realised what was going on. She could feel a body behind her, and her head slid back to look into the woman's face as tears pricked and then lined her eyes. "Why?" She whispered, hands dropping her bag to come up and try to hold the blade in place and hold her skin taught so that she didn't lose as much blood. She wanted to live, she had just got this life - this body - and now it was to be taken from her by some strangely beautiful woman she'd never seen before, for a reason she couldn't fathom. Despite her best efforts, her blood was seeping through her black dress and staining her cream cloak as it oozed and seeped with every breath she took. Those breaths that were becoming harder and harder to take as it seemed that the blade had found her lung and punctured it. The tears were now no longer simply lining her eyes, but were instead running down her cheeks and smudging that perfect makeup she was so proud of.
Keara: “Oh Nox. Done wrong I have,” she whispered as she dropped the wig on the floor to better cradle the frail creature in her arms. She wasn’t good with people invading her personal space but she’d initiated this sequence of events, and so she didn’t freak out or try to harm the girl further. “Sorry. Sorry I am. Thought I did that you…Matters not. Mistake made I have.” She wasn’t thinking, hadn’t been thinking, she wanted to call out to Enver for help but he wasn’t there. Instead she found herself kicking the bags the woman had been carrying towards the nearby wall, before falling to her knees. She kept the woman with her, one hand still on the blade, the other around her waist as if trying to comfort her or something. “Mean for this I did not. Left alone I should not be. Crazy I become. Thought I did…” she growled as she thought about Hannah, because that woman was going to pay for her mistake. “Die not. Please.” Her tone was soft and full of regret. As much as Keara had no qualms when it came to killing frail creatures to protect her secret, she tried never to harm any that were of no threat to her. Apart from the fact that there was simply no sport in it, she found it distasteful when people of any kind picked on those weaker than themselves.
Charlotte: She couldn't stop the whimper that escaped her lips as she was lowered to the ground, the woman seeming to cradle her as she did. She felt the knife moving within her as she bent slightly and was then lying there on the ground. The blood was flowing faster now because the movement had opened the wound wider than the blade itself was. There was no longer a stopper in the hole and her life was flowing out of her faster then her hands could try and stop it. She whimpered again as her fingers slid over the wound, coughing and bringing up blood that trickled down her chin to drip onto her chest. This was the end, but her one happy thought was that she'd at least felt and found happiness and the true her before the end had come for her. It was something she'd never thought she'd feel, so at least there was that. Her eyes fluttered closed and she took her last breath, her arm falling limply to the street palm up to the sky and the woman's apologies in her ears.
Keara: “No. No, no, no. I said die not,” she began to panic as the blood flowed more quickly, both her hands moving to cup the wound, in an effort to help staunch the bleeding. When the woman went limp in her arms she had only moments to decide what to do next as letting her die wasn’t something she was sure she wanted to live with, not when she’d wrongly taken her life. Her fangs soon found their home in her wrist and she tore at the flesh and placed the wound to the woman’s lips. “Drink frail thing. Drink. Please?” she urged. Shadow blood had a tendency to evaporate when it met the air, at least that’s what she thought it did, and so she pressed her skin to the woman’s lips a little harder, hoping that some of it would go down her throat. “Sorry I am,” she repeated as pulled the dagger from the girls chest.
Charlotte: The blood was forced into her mouth and it didn't poof because it was kept moist be the latent moisture of her mouth. Instead, it found its way through the natural path of her system to roll down her tongue, her throat, into her stomach and then on into her system to do its job. At first, it was just a drip that then became a trickle, invading her system and changing her a cell at a time. It took a few minutes of nothing, and then it was as if her entire body was being electrocuted and she was jerking and fitting all over the place. Her lungs gasped and heaved, a low moan escaping that grew in volume with every moment that passed. It sounded like an animal in pain, crying out for help as it wheezed and heaved and died.
Keara: Keara pulled back her wrist when the female finally began to respond to her blood. She heaved a sigh of relief, as being turned was a hell of a lot better than dying, at least it was in her eyes. She didn’t have anything to clean her wounds with and so she just wiped it on her skirt. It wouldn’t as it would evaporate soon enough, she just wanted it cleaned of so that it could start to heal. Every turning was different and everyone’s death seemed to last a different amount of time. One thing was certain though in all of this…she couldn’t stay here much longer. The moans and noises the female had made could have drawn attention to them. She reached over to the bags, she’d displaced earlier and pulled them to her. This one would have to go home with her and the quicker the better but she had no idea how to invite her in without a name. That issue could be worked around though if Keara opened the building to all for a time and so this was what she did. She teleported the female to the doors of the Asylum, or near enough, tomed home (bags in hand) and went to fetch her inside. She picked up the limp body and placed her in the spare room on the ground floor. Then, once the female was ‘safe’ she went to the bathroom to clean up the human blood that had in fact stained her hands and clothes and had until now kind of gone unnoticed.
Charlotte: She guessed she must have passed out, because everything had gone black for a while there. She was aware of movement, of being put down, of being picked up again and then of being put down again. Everything hurt, and her eyes refused to open as she writhed and moaned on whatever she was now lying on. It felt like her body was on fire, but trying to melt at the same time and her head pounded with a ferocity she'd never felt before. She couldn't help but liken the feeling of burning yet melting to the Wicked Witch from the Wizard of Oz, and let out a witch like cackle before screaming out... "I'm MELTING! I'm MELTING! CURSE YOU! And your little dog TOO!" And then cackled again and passed out.
Keara: She heard the words from the next room over and listened before hearing it all go still again. She had no frame of reference as to what had been said and so put it down to the mad ramblings of a dying creature. Vampires were weird and complicated creatures in their own rights and so she wasn’t about to let a few odd word choices worry her any. Once she had washed her hands and sponged the spots on her outfit, she returned to the spare room, found her place on the wall near the bed and slid down onto the floor to settle in. She wasn’t sure how long the woman would be out but she had to be there for when she woke so that she could explain what had happened and apologise…again.
Charlotte: She was out for hours, the transformation taking hold and taking place as she lay there unconscious. Every now and again she twitched or moaned as her body and mind were changed from human to vampiric. After however many hours it was, her body twitched again in a massive way, turning her over from her back to her front with a large groan. Her eyes rolled and fluttered, the light hurting her head and making her curl into a foetal position while lifting her hands to hold her head and cover her face. "Ow...."
Keara: She was beginning to wonder where Enver was and what he was up to when she realised he was out of town. All this waiting was doing her head in and giving her way too much time to obsess about who he was with and how close to him they might be. She’d banged her head against the wall a fair few times to try and dislodge the thoughts and when that didn’t work, had taken her dagger out and began carving intricate designs into her inner thigh. When the female appeared to come round however, she stopped this, set the dagger to one side and went to stand by the bed. “Sorry I am. Again. Are you…Do you know who you are?” she asked.
Charlotte: She could hear voices, and there was information in her brain that had no place being there. It was if there were streams coming by her and when she concentrated on one it became solid and tangible. Voices having conversations filtered in and out of her hearing, beeps and whizz's and zings of information flew by and made her curl up tighter. However then there was a voice that was much closer, much more clear, and it made her jump in a panic and sit up, her head turning to see where it had come from. Her eyes were wide, make-up smudged all over her face and wig cap and curby grips skew-whiff, and she stared at the woman blankly. She could still hear voices all around her, but there was no-one else in the room with her other than this woman. And she wasn't moving her lips now as she stared. So all she did was blink and stare some more.
Keara: “Know I do that you speak can. Spoke before you did. Have you issue for me to understand?” Keara couldn’t understand why the female wasn’t talking though there was a list of possibilities if she were to actually take a moment and think about it. There was a chance the female was in shock, or perhaps she was awake but still asleep, she could even just be so annoyed with the woman before her for having stabbed her that she was simply refusing to converse with her. She reached out with both hands and gently cupped the woman’s face, making sure she had her attention before she spoke again. “My name Keara Aithne is. Understand you me? Your name I would know. Know you your name?” she asked again in the hopes that this time the female might respond.
Charlotte: Her eyes blinked at the woman's strange speech. It made sense, mostly, but it was just all jumbled up in its order. She still just stared though, not sure what in the hell was going on or why there were all these things in her head. Then the memories started in and she remembered being stabbed, stabbed by her - she thought, wasn't it? The woman's hands found her face and they were cold, so cold and she flinched away from her, whimpering slightly and nodding before she whispered softly. "I do. I'm.... I'm.... Charlotte. What, happened to me? I.... you.... stabbed me!" Her fingers went down to her ribs and felt the wound there, though it had healed over and stopped bleeding. She frowned at that, totally confused and feeling nauseous. So nauseous in fact that she suddenly retched and threw up in the direction of the strange woman before her.
Keara: Finally there were signs of intelligent life, even if the female, now known to her as Charlotte, was still seemingly trying to piece stuff together. Keara watched as she inspected herself and then as the creature, that was now her daughter, threw up down the front of her outfit. Blood and guts didn’t faze her, so vomit wasn’t really an issue, especially since her hands were out of the way and remained clean. She cast her eyes down at the now speckled clothing and then looked back to Charlotte. “If wish to criticise what wear I do, words better would have been.” She still wasn’t completely comfortable saying things like this around other, it was usually Enver that saw any signs of humour in her but then she was changing and this relationship was a fresh start. Nox knew she needed one, as the start with Peter was shaky to say the least. “Stabbed you I did…yes,” she said very matter-of-factly. “Though realise too late I did that you not the person were that wished I did to kill. Though that perhaps little comfort to you will bring.” Her eyes darted around the room and then she moved to retrieve something from the cupboard. She moved back to the bedside with a couple of handtowels and threw one towards Charlotte before she began cleaning the icky substance from her corset and skirt with the other.
Charlotte: She stared in abject horror as her vomit hit the woman dead centre and covered her. She was in shock, to say the least, and simply stared at her until the towel was thrown in her direction which seemed to knock her out of it. But wait, the woman had stabbed her - but then how was she still here? She'd passed out, and she'd felt the life leaving her body, but here she was still alive and seemingly healed. However, for now, she couldn't get over the whole - throwing up on the woman who openly admitted that she'd been trying to stab someone to kill them. Over and over she said sorry for vomiting on her, both in her mind and with her voice until when her breath ran out, her mind continued and projected the apologies directly into Keara's mind without realising she was doing it.
Keara: “Hush now,” Keara began in the hopes of silencing the childe. It was all too obvious the path she had been cast upon, not that Keara put much stock in one path over another but it seemed the majority of her brood fell into one of two; Shadow or Telepath. If the woman didn’t stop babbling in her mind she’d have to silence her with a power of her own but she hoped it wouldn’t come to that. “Hard to think it is with your thought in mine. But apologise you need not. I the apology must make. Mean I did not for you to darkness to pull…only…your choice this or death was.” This was her way of explaining she’d turned her, not that it was that much of an explanation or all that informative as she hadn’t told her what she’d actually become, only that she’d taken her by accident.
Charlotte: "Sorry." She apologised again, and then caught up with the conversation. Her thought in the woman's? What? Her hand lifted up and scratched at her head which was still buzzing with all manner of things that were seeping in and invading her mind. She couldn't concentrate and was losing track of a number of things. "No thanks. I won't be staying for tea." Someone was having a conversation on the phone and she was picking it up, thinking it was the woman aking her a question. "But, Darkness? This or death? What's....." Her voice dropped into a frightened whisper as her eyes went wide and she stared. "What's 'this'?"
Keara: “Tea? Invite you for tea I would not. That ludicrous would be and…Hmm…did I that not say? Remiss I have been in that not to verbalise. Though many guess do what done to them has been. You a vampire now are. My childe. My daughter.” She announced what Charlotte was quite dryly, as she was after all just stating the facts; that was what Charlotte was to her, though obviously if she were one of Enver’s she’d be his ‘creation’ and not his childe. Her boy had issues and thoughts of him silenced her long enough to let what she’d said sink in for the fledgling.
Charlotte: She stared, which seemed to be becoming a habit right now. She was a what now? Oh my god, she was a vampire. She was one of those things that she had been reporting on to those men. Whenever she saw one, she called a number and they confirmed or denied it - and for a confirmation she got paid and they got shot. Holy hell. But wait, that meant.... that meant that the woman in front of her was a vampire too. Tears sprung to her eyes again and began to fall as she physically shook in fear of what was in front of her. No longer a murderous woman - but a monster!
Keara: Charlotte seemed less than impressed with what she’d been told, in fact she looked downright terrified. Keara didn’t consider herself to be intimidating in any way, if anything she played down her strengths, unless of course her husband was the one on the receiving end. “Understand I do not why quiver thusly you do. Harmed you I have not…since stabbed you I did. Care of you I have taken. Into our home you have been brought. Nothing have you from me to fear.” She didn’t want her childe to be afraid of her, apart from stabbing her she’d done right by her, or so she assumed.
Charlotte: She looked for the words, and she just couldn't find them. She pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, flinching at the pain from her ribs but only hugging tighter. Her chin rested in that little v in her knees and she began to rock back and forth, pressing herself into a corner for some sort of safety and protection - no matter how imagined it was. There was too much in her head to take in, too much going on, too much had happened, too much invading her mind and it hurt. Her eyes stared blankly at Keara, not seeing her but knowing she was there - that thing of terror and nightmares that should have just been in a book and yet was here, larger than life...... and telling her that she was one too now.
Keara: There was no response from the childe yet again and so she placed the towel she’d been using to clean herself up over the vomit that had hit the bed and moved to sit next to Charlotte. She adopted a similar pose, only as she brought her knees to her chest she didn’t bend over them, she crossed her feet at the ankles (having removed her boots while Charlotte was unconscious), looped her hands under her thighs and leaned her head back on the headboard. “Get used to it you will. That or decide you shall into the sun to walk. Speak metaphorically I do, as the sun harms us only, kills us it does not.” There was much for Charlotte to learn and it would take time but Keara couldn’t very well leave her alone while she was still processing what she’d become. “Ask me questions you may…Bite you I will not.” There was a slightly playful note in what she said as she was trying to tease her daughter, another trait she was learning from her wayward husband.
Charlotte: She tried to shrink away from the woman as she came closer and sat beside her. It was as if she was physically repelled by her and her proximity, such was her fear right now. She couldn't help but snort however as the woman said she wouldn't bite her. Wasn't that how vampires were made? It certainly was in the movies, and that was really, her only point of reference. Her voice was still a whisper, and it trembled as she spoke. "You already did, and stabbed me and killed me. Whatever more is there you could do? You.... You KILLED me!" She screamed the last word, emotions welling up inside of her and exploding in volume that was directed right into Keara's ear.
Keara: Keara winced as the female began to shriek at her. She was a natural hunter and her senses were kind of acute. She brought a hand to the ear that she’d been yelling in and began to rub at it but asides from that, there was very little by way of reaction from her. She’d considered the fact that Charlotte might be angry with her, shocked and confused and so had, in a sense, prepared herself for the worst. “Need you do not for to scream at me. Know very well I do what done has been,” her tone was calm and even, her eyes focused on the far side of the room when they weren’t closed in contemplation. “Bite you I did not. Dagger the blood from you did drain. Bit myself I did for my blood with you to share. Offer you more perhaps I would if that an abomination now of you would not make.” Again her words probably made little sense to the newly turned vampire but that mattered not to Keara, as she knew that little of what she said would sink in until the female was ready to hear it.
Charlotte: "Really? That would work? You could..... Fix me? Make me human again?" Her eyes glistened with the tears she'd been crying, which were now sparkling with hope. Hope that she might actually be able to go back to what she was and live out her life, that had finally righted itself and become good.
Keara: “Said that I did not. Fixed already you have been. Perhaps preferred you would for to have died?” she rolled her head in Charlotte’s direction and looked her over albeit briefly before returning to her previous position and closing her eyes. She had little enthusiasm for anything with Enver gone; even the idea of going to her usual hunting grounds seemed a chore. She closed her eyes and sighed softly, the resemblance between Sara and Charlotte kicking in; another childe that wanted nothing more than to cling to her humanity. “Two options have you now Charlotte. For to embrace what you become have or to embrace a death the likes of which wish I would not upon my solemn enemy. Though hope I do that try you do for to live as you are before a choice in this you make.”
