[ARPC] The Bag Lady

[Phoenix]

'Uh, no thank you,' was the first thing that came to mind, but the sentiment was left unsaid. Instead, the redhead pushed herself to her feet, wandering the room, inspecting each little detail as if they were the most important things in the world. As she passed by the door, her eyes narrowed; something was in the room with them. Maybe it was the way the air moved around an unseen object, or perhaps there was a slight metallic tinge of blood permeating the room. Whatever it was, it was just enough to set her teeth on edge.

And who had been following them for the past... however long it had been? Ripper. A quick check for his presence confirmed it. She nearly snarled the name, but contained herself. Letting him know she knew would serve no purpose. Instead, she pretended she was oblivious, closing the distance between herself and the bed with all the determination and directness of a fruit fly. Innocuous approach was the name of the game.

"Phoenix is most certainly a name," she huffed, affronted, "Nix for shortsies, though. Option three is what that shooter was raving about. Vampires. Oooh, ahhh... be scared and impressed." She paused, giving a 'magical' wiggle of her fingers. "With the going invisible and the shifting into cool animals and the mind speaking - which is exactly what it sounds like; don't freak out if you hear a voice inside your head. You're not going nuts."

"Like right now," she spoke directly into the human's mind. "There's someone else in the room. Nobody you want around your person - trust me on that. I'm going to come over and take your hand, and get us the **** out of here. The alternative is having an all out vampire duel in a hospital, and that really isn't what I want to do tonight. Also, I'm reaching for a knife - it's not for you, it's for the dickwad in the corner. Blink a fuckton if you understand, I'm just going to keep rambling."

Aloud, she resumed her speech. "The whole becoming a vampire process is pretty simple. You drink my blood after I drink yours, and then you die, then you come back. I have a 100% success rate with the whole not permanently killing people thing..."

As she meandered closer to the bed, Phoenix's hand went casually to the knife in her bag, finger curling around the blade's soft grip. Of course she couldn't pinpoint his exact location, but she'd be ready the second he revealed himself.

[Simone Leclaire]

She just smiled, in movies, the insane people always seemed to be smiling. Smiling or killing people, and she'd never been a violent person, so smiling and nodding it was as she looked at the woman her brain called Shriek.

"What? Shifting into animals and mind....."

She hadn't seen Nix turning into an owl, so that reference was completely lost on her - but the voice in her head cut her off from asking that question. It was the weirdest thing, having a voice in your head, and she guessed that this was how schizophrenics felt and despite Shriek telling her not to think she was going mad, voices in her head just seemed to confirm it all the more. She watched the woman come to a stop beside her, and then the words registered in her mind. There was someone else in here, someone Shriek didn't like and who was apparently a danger to her own person. She was so confused now, because this woman had killed the man in the park, this woman seemed to be stalking her - and so theoretically, this is who should be the greatest danger to her. Yet apparently, there was someone worse!

An all out vampiric battle sounded like it would be good to see, if she was honest. She did love a good action movie, and she'd seen a few vampiric ones and the special effects were ace! She had to wonder, how good was her imagination and newly developed psychosis at recreating what she'd seen on screen. Would it be more old style kung fu with knives, or would it be more Star Wars with light sabres and fire balls and stuff. If you were going to lose your mind and see things, might as well make it good! So, she blinked at the woman, grinned, and then stared into the corner she guessed he was in, the wrong one, over by the window to try and make this promised fight happen.

"So, if you turn me - I get spooky powers and end up looking like a walking skeleton too?"

She asked, passing the time as she waited for the fight to start.

[Phoenix]

Phoenix's lips twisted into a wry smile at the whole mention of spooky powers and... Then she frowned. Walking skeleton!? A sweep of her eyes down her figure was enough for her to see why the human would think as much - not that she didn't know off the top of her head - but it hurt nonetheless. An old wounds that still smarted something fierce when poked or prodded. The hurt must have showed on her face, even though she didn't intend it to. This really wasn't the time, not the place for this.

"No. You won't... look like this," she frowned, annoyed at the simultaneous sense of urgency she felt, but also the need to explain. "I've always looked like this, so if we can not be judgmental about appearances, that would be great." Not that Simone seemed to feel the same sense of urgency. Instead, she seemed to be searching for this unknown presence. Stupid humans...

One hand stayed in her bag while the other snaked out to grip Simone's. She didn't bother to unhook the wires and pads and whatever else the nurses had equipped; they'd fall away once she vanished. "Close your eyes," she instructed a second before energy coursed through her veins. The world melted away and reformed into something entirely surreal.

The cavernous interior of the Citadel rose up before them, stalactites dripping from the ceiling while daughter stalagmites rose to meet them. As a cave, the place was impressive, but the design work set it apart. Between those stalactites hung light fixtures that illuminated the ultramodern furniture dotting the massive chamber. Despite the curtains placed about to muffle sound, the rooms still echoed with voices and, from somewhere far off, the trickle of a stream.

Nix released the woman's hand, giving her a moment to adjust. Though... she was curious about one thing. "You still haven't told me your name."

[Simone Leclaire]

She felt the woman take her hand and thought nothing of it, she'd been expecting it after the voice in her head had told her to. However, she didn't close her eyes when told, and regretted it seconds later. She regretted even more the fact that she'd opened her mouth to ask why, and had almost been suffocated as they'd..... what in the hell had they done?! Having been lying in the bed, a couple of feet off the floor - when they arrived in the..... cave she found herself in a comedy moment of hovering before her bare arse fell and connected with the cold stone floor, gasping for breath. The cold stone on her arse made her very aware of how naked and vulnerable she was, dressed in the 'gaping at the back' hospital gown. When she'd dropped, her hand had been wrenched from the woman's, which now allowed her to crawl a couple of steps away and try to cover her bum.

However, the.... teleportation? It was the only way she knew how to describe it - had done something to her lungs. It was as if it had sucked all of the air from inside of her, and collapsed her lungs. Again and again she tried to catch her breath, to get some air in, but instead she was failing miserably and making the most horrendous of noises as she tried. Her fingers scratched at her throat as the room began to spin and darken around the edges. She fell onto her side and looked at Shriek pleadingly, wondering what had been done to her as her face purpled with effort, tinged with blue around the edges. But it was to no avail. Her lungs were having none of it!

[Phoenix]

Apparently this adjustment period wasn't exactly going as planned. Nix took a few steps back to watch the thrashing woman, though her confusion was evident. Was this psychotic creature trying to... **** with her? As the seconds ticked by, it became more and more evident that this wasn't some kind of ploy. The woman was actually, for whatever reason, suffocating. Interesting. She tried to think back to the last time she'd teleported a human, but couldn't remember having ever done so. Or at least not to someone whose safety and well being she'd given a flying **** about.

Hm... What to do..? The redhead had planned on turning her anyway, but she'd hoped to make the experience more pleasant for the little human. As pleasant as dying could be, anyway. Instead, she was sitting there, turning blue before Nix's eyes, and there wasn't thing she could do about it. May as well let her know this wasn't supposed to happen.

"So... this has never happened before, but like... I guess the whole dying thing was going to happen anyway. Just... don't freak out, you'll be fine." The words were likely as reassuring as a punch in the face to someone choking to death, but really, what else could she say? Nix closed the distance between them and knelt beside Simone, letting her fangs slide into place as she stroked the woman's hair, carefully pulling her into her lap. She'd gotten so colorful so quickly that Nix wondered if she'd so remain in death. Not that it mattered; Nix would take care of her purple, blue, green or white. Which was a good thing, since she did have all those tattoos...

Humming, Nix bit into her own wrist, letting the dark, shadowy blood flow free before placing the wound to Simone's mouth. Hopefully, she hadn't seen what she was about to drink. Shadow blood wasn't exactly the most appealing kind of blood.

Without waiting for a response to her wrist, Nix's head went down and her fangs sank into the woman's neck. Even that had turned a sort of purplish hue...

[Simone Leclaire]

She saw the fangs coming out, growing from nowhere, and it was all she could take. The shock of the evening, the descent into madness, the craziness of what she was learning and seeing, the lack of oxygen - it was too much for her body and she passed out. The blood from the woman's wrist slipped into her mouth, mixed with her saliva and trickled down her throat while she was fed upon. However she was completely unaware of it all as little by little, she slipped into death's embrace and was welcomed to the land of the undead. But she wouldn't know that one, for a number of hours yet....

[Phoenix]

Once the woman went limp in her arms, Nix's fangs retracted. Her tongue flicked over her lips, clearing away the last of the blood before she stood, Simone in her arms. It would have been a strange sight to see the wraith of a woman transport so much dead weight with such ease. The body was carefully placed on one of the plush leather sofas in the living room. Just as she was about to turn away, her eyes fell on an exposed expanse of flesh.

Brow furrowed, Nix gave a slow shake of her head; a hospital gown just wouldn't do for her new childe. She slipped off and returned a few minutes later with a warm woolen blanket. The blanket was wrapped around the unconscious woman - or dead, as it were. Next to her on the coffee table, Nix set a pile of clothing - various sizes, shapes... jeans, dress pants, anything she could find that looked like it might fit the woman.

Satisfied, she dropped onto the opposite couch and picked her book from a pile on the end table. 'Happy birthday to you...' She even smiled.

[Simone Leclaire]

It took hours before she awoke, during which time there were convulsions, fits, gasps, moans, groans, cries and all sorts going on as her body shifted and changed, going through the process of dying and changing her into a vampire. Her eyes fluttered open, and she really wished they hadn't. Her whole body felt like it was on fire and places ached that she didn't even know 'could' ache. Another groan issued through her lips before she flexed her fingers and then her toes, finding them covered in a wool blanket - but without being warm. Or in fact, cold. A shudder ran through her body while her fingers ran over her torso to check that everything was still in place and whole - and then the memory returned.

She remembered the choking, the suffocating, and she sat bolt upright and gasped in some air, suddenly realising she'd not been breathing. Her fingers lifted to her throat and clutched, continuing to gasp as her eyes looked around and tried to work out where she was and what she was doing here - not to mention, how the **** she'd got here! Her eyes finally landed on Shriek, sitting on the sofa opposite her and she frowned at her, trying to order her thoughts into some sort of question..... and failing dismally. So instead of some, profound and well thought out question, all that came out was....

"Hi!"

[Phoenix]

After the first hour had passed and the woman had shown no signs of life other than the occasional whimper or groan, Nix had wandered off. She had people to meet - or rather people want to meet up with her. She'd left a note, just in case the woman had awoken while she was gone, but when she returned hours later, the note hadn't moved. Neither had her new childe.

How much longer would it take? Amelia had been nearly instantaneous. Dusted had taken days to return - so long that she'd dumped his body in the river and moved on, only to have him crawl out in a rage. This one still showed signs of life, as it were, as she plucked the bookmark from between wrinkled pages and dropped down to resume her book.

Finally, after what seemed to be hours more, the woman stirred and sputtered to life once more.

"Hi?" Nix echoed, baffled. "You bother me with your moaning and groaning and whining for hours, and all you've got to say is... hi?" Those honey brown eyes blinked at the woman owlishly. "How're you feeling... Skunk? I'm just going to call you that until you tell me your name." Of course she was referring to the woman's hair.

[Simone Leclaire]

"I... wondered why my throat hurt."

She said a little sheepishly, moving her legs to the floor and out from under the blanket, frowning as she saw they were bare and wondering why.

"Sorry"

She muttered, still frowning at her legs and waiting for her mind to catch up again.

"Oh, and my name is Simone. Umm.... where am I though? What happened? My memory... it's a bit sketchy at the moment and things are coming in, in dribs and drabs."

She frowned deeper as she saw the clothes that were piled up there, and then she looked under the blanket and saw the gown. And that's where her memories came back in a rush.

"Oh! You.... well, I was suffocating. You're my hallucination. Right? A part of my madness."

She smiled and stood up, almost falling backwards again as her legs wobbled under her. She went through the clothes, picking out a pair of black jeans and a purple skinny T with some sort of funky looking design on the front of it. Then untying her gown, she let it drop before sliding into the items of clothing she'd picked out. After all, the woman was a hallucination - so what did she care about getting naked in front of her?