midnight visit (axel)

[Paige]

<Axel Rosen>As calm and collected as he can be for having been torn from his bed and transported across the city to the chair where he was turned, the male pushes himself off of the chair to stand. Clothed, from head to toe in leather and denim, he even sleeps with his disguise on because he knows that he’ll end up here at the beginning of every night anyway. The rundown old tattoo shop is only getting more and more disheveled and he’s starting to wonder if anyone will buy it out and make a business here. That would be interesting to explain if he magically, quite literally, appeared in the shop’s new business in the middle of whoever was on night shift. A small smirk comes over his face, making sure that he’s not missing anything on his person.

It’s been a little while since he’s seen Paige, since the night Strix, her, and himself had all spent some time together. She has mentioned something to him, merely in messages and the like, about seeing someone. He’d like to talk to her about this person, make sure that everything is okay and that she’s not being treated wrongly. Not to mention that he just likes to catch up with her when he can. Instead of using his powers to find her and sneak up on her, he assumes that it’s better, if she’s in a relationship, to respect her privacy and use a phone.

His fingers swipe over the flat, touch-screen buttons. The message is swift and simple, “Wanna meet somewhere?” It’s far more informal that he is with his own sire, but that must be because of the deep feelings that he has for his sire. Again, not quite romantic love, but love none-the-less. He continues to walk along the street, waiting for his phone to buzz. He’d give her a half an hour or so before he decides to do something else. He doesn’t want to bug her if she’s busy, just wants a bit of her time if she’s not.

<Paige> The young vampire shook sweat from her messy black mane and approached the gangster lt. “Hey girl, if you wanna buy something talk to one of the kids in the back,” he told her, then noticed that she was carrying a broadsword like some kind of movie character. “What the **** is this,” he cursed and pulled out a cellphone. A couple of enforcers immediately entered the building and came between the lieutenant and Paige. She drew her gun and shot one in the face, then wore the other ragged until he was tripping over his own feet before dispatching him.

The other man tried to run. She started to pursue, but was interrupted by a call on her work phone. She unlocked the screen and peered down at it, ignoring the shouting outside. Let them come for her. She wasn’t afraid. Her orange eyes took in the polite inquiry from her sire. He had been treating her with dignity lately. Not only was she making him proud as his childe, he also seemed to have come to an acceptance of the sister issue, or perhaps she had come to the acceptance. Either way, even though they still disagreed about her human sister, Paige seemed to have moved on just a bit.

“Of course. I will see you at the apartment,” she texted Axel. “Is Strix there as well? Do you want me to pick up anything on the way.” It was odd having a normal conversation with him, but Paige had been having such a good time since she joined Andras that she was willing to put her anxieties aside and just accept that Axel truly wanted to make amends. And she would have to keep an open mind about that, if they were going to spend an eternity with one another as sire and childe. It would be better to work as a team.

<Axel Rosen>After a few minutes, shorter period than he had expected, he looks down at the phone and grins. The two messages come in rapid fire, like someone pulling the trigger of an M4-A1 two times in a row. He reads the first, and then starts to walk in the direction of Veil Towers. It’s the only apartment, that he can think of, that the two of them have in common. The next message says something about Strix. He shakes his head a little bit. “She hasn’t been there since she picked a fight with Nix. I can only assume she’s dead”, the fact of this kind of irritates him. Axel had told Strix to leave Nix alone and just sort of let the thing mellow out; however, this is what has happened and there is no real way to fix it save wait for her to come back, if she does at all. Or if he even wants to wait.

“So, it’ll just be me and you.” He sends another message, before finally making it to the base of the building. It stands several stories over him as he walks inside, to the elevator then to the floor that he ‘lives’ on. Upon getting there, he opens the door, and peers around. He tries to see if he can sense Strix anywhere, and it seems that she’s not here and hasn’t been in here in days. His shoulders heave up and then let down, letting go the idea that she could be back. He kicks up his feet as he takes a seat in the living room, pretty happy to get to talk to Paige. He knows he’s been busy the past couple weeks, but not that he’s done healing from a foot soldier ambush, he just wants to relax and spend time with her, and catch up with Ursa and Renee sometime this week too. He makes a note of it. His eyes move to the door any time he hears a sound.

<Paige> After dispatching a few grunts, Paige used shadows to conceal herself. She snuck out of the slums and headed for veil tower. It used to cut such an imposing figure on the skyline, a looming reminder of her suffering. She had entertained the idea of burning it down once, but there was no need to make a bunch of vampires angry with her if she was caught. Paige entered the building and made her way to the communal childer apartment. The orange eyed woman used a key to let herself in. To her surprise, Axel was sitting there just staring at the door.

“You seem starved for company, has Strix really been gone that long?” she rumbled hoarsely as she made her way to sit on the floor by his feet. She rested the side of her face against his knee. Sitting there out of habit. It felt strange to stand in his presence. The odd thing was, Paige was not the one who had the devotion to blood curse. Still, even when she had been hostile to him in the past, she had always felt safer kneeling down.

<Axel Rosen>Her statement is accompanied by her moving to a spot by his feet, it’s not odd by any means, actually kind of a comfort at this point. His fingers move through her hair, just once, giving her a token of affection for her habit. It may be a habit, but it’s one that he appreciates. Some people smoke as a habit, do drugs, etc, none of which even have remotely the same effect on him that her kneeling with her face against his knee does. It causes him to smile, as if he can’t control it creeping along his face and, finally, he answers. “It’s been some time, but I’m not starved, necessarily”, he’s seen Jesse a time or two since then. His hand moves to her shoulder, opposite of his knee.

“Just sort of in limbo at the moment. I just want to check in on you. See how you’re doing.” He pauses for a second, knowing that he’s speaking a lot to someone that just came into the room, so he’ll give her a moment to catch up and retain the information. “You mentioned something about a partner?” He of course is talking about a romantic partner, but doesn’t want to say it, because that would be implying something that may not be true. His thumb rolls along her shoulder, as if massaging and kneading out any stress that may be there.

<Paige> Paige shuddered just thinking about the woman. “Nishaa. She is… she thinks I am… special.” But Paige hadn’t gone out with her just because she was desperate for someone, anyone, to convince her that she was beautiful, she had done it because she thought Nishaa was interesting. The way she playfully traded blows with Paige. The way she seemed calm and collected. Her eyes, her voice, her wrists. And, above all else, her lack of insecurity about anything and everything. Paige doubted that she could make Nishaa jealous or scared if she even tried.

Paige hadn’t realized that she was smiling slightly and staring silently into the distance. For a long time, she could only think about the other woman, before she realized her disrespect and snapped out of it. “You’ve met her. She will be at the fight night again tomorrow.”

[Axel Rosen]

--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--

<Axel Rosen>She starts, and he nods. Axel thinks she’s special too, he shows it in a different way, really. The turning her into a vampire, he’s sure, is the thing that speaks most about just what she means. He hates paladins, yet still turned her instead of laughing in her face and killing her when she was finally broken. No, there were reasons to keep her alive. It was the will to live, fight, eagerness to learn once becoming a vampire, all of these things and more make her special. So he’s glad that someone else agrees with him on the way that Paige is someone worth having around.

“Oh who is.. fight night tomorrow?” He looks at his phone, thinking of pulling up his calendar, because he doesn’t recall there being a fight night posted or told to him. He looks at her and continues to think. Who would he fight if he’s able to make it. If Jesse is there, well of course, that’s who he’d go hand to hand with, but who else. Every is always a second favorite. They get along, very well, though he didn’t think the two of them would at first. “Maybe you can take me after I go a couple rounds with Every and Jesse.”

<Paige> “I have gotten stronger since the last time we fought,” she warns him with a slight smirk. Perhaps things were good between them now, but that didn’t stop her from wanting to tear him limb from limb and strangle him with his own entrails. It was probably actually an endearment to Paige’s twisted mind. To be that passionate about anyone was impressive, violence or not.

“I am going to write Nishaa a poem,” she told him. She was also going to pummel that woman as well. She couldn’t wait. Paige was fitting in with Andras nicely, it was probably the best thing that happened to her as a vampire next to getting a job and moving out of this apartment.

<Axel Rosen>She may have gotten stronger, but even Axel can only tie with is sire when they’re both at full strenght. It’s something about the sire-childe relationship as a whole. He looks at her for a moment and then breathes out and then rolls his shoulders. “You may be stronger, but I promise you that I haven’t slacked in my own training.” He grins a little bit, eager to fight her now to see what she’s got in her. There’s something about hand to hand that is intimate in and of it’s own. The skin to skin connection through violence.

“What kind of poem.” He, being a writer, is used to writing all manner of poetry, though his favorite is the Shakespearean sonnet. He would like to help her, short of actually putting the words there for her. That should be a private thing, the words should be from one person to another. He just wants to make sure that he can be there for her if she needs him.

<Paige> “A sonnet I think,” the Russian mused softly. Then she sighed. “I should stop thinking about her. It distracts me.” She thought about mutilating him instead. The desire to best him has kept her thriving and growing strong. Even so, she had no skills outside of combat. It was beginning to bother her because of team raids that needed hackers or thieves or ritualists.

<Axel Rosen>“I’m actually fairly well versed in sonnets, if there’s anything you need to know about structure, syllables, etc, let me know.” He grins as she says something about thinking about the woman she’s talking about distracting her. He doesn't bring it up again and wont until she doe. He looks at her, he and her share a similar problem. The fact that they’re both primarily combat. Sure he loves that he’s mainly a monster with a blade, but at times he wishes that he could hack with the best of them just to be useful for another reason. Though he’ll grow and get more skills when the time comes, for now though he’ll just be what he is.

“Met a girl at a bookstore the other evening, she was poking about some magic stuff. She looked familiar to me. I doubt that it will be the last time I see her, really. It’s a rather small city, and given that she’ll likely find that the books she’s reading are wrong about magic, and I was right, she’ll seek me out.” He breathes out a little bit. “I never gave my name, or anything, so good new is that the only way she’ll be able to find me is by going back to the same bookstore and waiting patiently for me to come back.” He chuckles a little bit, glad that he has take precautions to make sure that his family and his childer are safe from possible hunters by not giving too much away.

<Paige> “How romantic,” Paige remarked flatly. Then she pursued the sonnet idea, “I know about sonnets. But, I am not skilled at putting them together in English. And, if in Russian, she would just laugh at me, I know it.” The girl frowned and clasped her hands together, then cracked her neck just like Axel sometimes did.

“Are you going to kill her?”

Though he hated paladins, Axel didn’t seem to have the same level of hatred for humans, so she wouldn’t be surprised if he said no. But, if not, then why had he told her about it? “You should not date humans.”

<Axel Rosen>Her first statement seems like she’s mocking him, and he pauses for a moment to look at her. He hopes that not what it is and just that she’s not very good at portraying many emotions, kind of like himself. The similarities between himself and her are almost eerie at times, though he often fails to see it until it’s in his face. He hears her talk about how reading a poem to her partner in her native tongue would be bad, and get her laughed at, Axel shakes his head. “I don’t know the girl, honestly, but she might find some beauty in the fact that you cannot find words to profess your feelings in a borrowed language..” He pauses a moment, trying to be a voice of comfort. “As long as you convey your feelings through tone, and the way you speak, then the words ought not to matter” He nods his head.

Going to kill her? It’s a very simple question, he hadn’t thought about it, because he doesn’t kill every human he meets, just the ones that have something going for them. Snuffing them out before they’re able to achieve their goals is the best part of his life. He looks at her for a moment and shrugs. “Not sure yet. I was going to give a bit, see if she starts poking her nose places that it shouldn’t belong before I decide to kill her or not”, he gives her a playful stern look, as if telling her that it doesn’t means he should jump the gun and rid the world of the human anyway.

Her next statement kind of shocks him and his eyes shut as his head shakes a few times. “What?” He can’t imagine why she would think he would date a human. Sure he may kidnap her, hold her captive, use her for blood, and other things, but he doesn’t see himself dating her. Dating, by itself, isn’t really something he does. Paige should know this, he’s not really fond of ‘going out’ and doing things with, really anyone, unless it’s bloodsport. He breathes out and looks down at her. “It’s not dating, it’s case working. She may have potential…”

<Paige> She hadn’t meant to tease or mock him for talking about the human girl, Paige was only distracted with her lovesickness. It truly was a sickness. She was beginning to get annoyed with herself. It wasn’t as if it was going to last with Nishaa anyway. Paige was convinced that, once Nishaa got to know her, she would see her for the disgusting monster she really was, and leave her. At first Paige had expected and wanted that to happen just so she wouldn’t get attached too soon to someone, but the more she got to know Nishaa and the more time they spent together, the less she felt that way, until she had trouble convincing herself that Nishaa would find out in the first place. The only ones who knew were Axel, Roderic and Jesse. Oh, and the doctor Axel had taken her to when she was a human.

She didn’t notice his consideration of her first blunt statement, far too focussed on the sonnet idea. “Maybe,” she agreed, but it seemed like she was only agreeing to agree and not to argue with him. When he mentioned that the human might have potential, that got her attention, and her orange eyes met his blue ones. “I hope so. Please do be careful.”

<Axel Rosen> She urges him to be careful, as if he isn’t, though it makes him wonder just what it is that she means by it. He doesn’t ask her because it appears that she’s rather enthralled in her own thoughts. Her face even reflects the pensive nature of the things going on within her own mind. Tilting his head to the side, his fingers run through her hair again as he stands up. He should go into the sewers and do some paladin culling before he tomes back to home. He looks her over for a moment. He smiles and looks down at her. “Try and just don’t put too much thought into it.” He grins at her, trying to give her the best advice that he can for conveying emotions. The more thought you put into it, the more jumbled and planned it sounds. He breathes out a little bit and brushes himself off.

“I’m gonna head out, you’re free to come if you want, or you can stay here. There are several notepads in here. Some of them have writing in them, just rip them out and toss them.” He grins at her then starts to walk over to his sword, Hera. And the gun that Nix had given him a month or so before. He looks it over and thinks that he should probably just replace the thing and get a new one instead of continuing to use something that reminds him of her every time that he picks it up. It’s not a fond memory when he lifts it either. It’s more or less an anger that swells in his gut and makes him want to do more than just kill paladins. At times it makes him hunt in a funny manner, doing so with no mercy, even for gangsters in his path.