Awakening to Shadows(open)

[Dest (DELETED 6331)]

The small woman's thoughts flowed over his mind like water. The shock of feeling another mind touching his own, even if only briefly was enough to awaken him from his Blood Trance. He shook himself briefly as the cat jumped down and moved, silently as a shadow, to her mistress.

"Pleased to meet you." He said, finally taking the other male's hand and shaking it. Turning back to the woman, and returning her curtsey with a somewhat crudely executed bow, he smiled at her. "My apologies to both you and little Ginny for any offense my trying to eat her caused. I have only been a Dweller of the Night for a little less than a month. The smell of fresh blood still pulls me into a bit of a trance."

Lowering himself a bit, he tried to do a thing he had seen on a show some time ago. Blinking slowly at a cat was supposed to help it feel more at ease around you. He blinked once, then twice, both times slowly. "I'm not sure if this works, but I do hope she is a bit more relaxed now." Straightening back up, he took up a thoughtful look.

"You mentioned she was your Familiar. Is that a Vampire thing, or a Mystic/Medium/Eyes of Time thing?" He had never seen or heard of a Vampire with a familiar. Perhaps it was just something his Sire intended to tell him about when he was ready. He turned back to Myk, and asked. "Do you have a Familiar as well?"

[Myk]

The hug from Zodiac was quite welcome. He hadn’t figured her for the type to hug others, but maybe he was wrong about that or maybe she had made an exception for him because of Temperance. Myk tried not to poke his nose in where it didn’t belong. The emphasis of that statement being that he tried not to. Actions and consequences might suggest otherwise, but his intentions were mostly pure and curiosity just happened to get the better of him more often than not. Myk didn’t know what was between his sire, Temperance, and the woman who affectionately hugged him, but he had to assume the best. If there was bad blood, Myk automatically expected he would be treated poorly as a result. It might have been an unfair assumption, given that he knew little about the woman Zodiac and yet was totally amicable toward her, but the mind was quick to make its own decisions on things. The mind was lazy, or rather, it had so many things to juggle at one time that it had to make shortcuts or else be buried under the weight of all that it failed to keep in the air. The clown knew a lot about juggling; Myk himself could only juggle five things at one time and that was with a lot of practice. He didn’t feel too strongly about blaming himself for the way brains behaved and dropped the thoughts completely to focus on the present.

Zodiac had made her introductions to Dest and now her focus set on the man’s unhealthy fascination for the cat nearby. Myk stood back to watch the scene unfold, confident in Zodiac’s ability to protect the feline if she had any kind of attachment to it. And it quickly turned out that she had. Following a low whistle, the cat came down from the top of the dustbin like a heavy black mist and Zodiac crouched down to allow this mist to ascend and perch on her shoulder. A warm smile came over the Telepath as Dest made his apologies and attempted to appease the cat with welcome blinks. Myk would leave Zodiac to answer the man’s questions on Familiars because he was sure that any answer he could give wouldn’t satisfy. His concentration remained on Ginny, studying her thick fur and gemstone eyes with fascination. He had always loved cats, which was why he had adopted his aunt’s after the… incident. The small thought transported him back in time to when he was new to this world and how the hunger was difficult to satisfy. Of course he had a lot of sympathy for the Shadow before him then and Myk turned to study Dest with the same fascinated gaze, curious as to what future lay ahead for this one. He was so engrossed in his imaginings that he had to blink twice himself when the man posed a question to him directly.

“Me? Well… Sort of…” Myk murmured, though he wasn’t sure that Rutherford rightly counted as a Familiar.

From what he remembered of the term, Familiar, it was almost true. Rutherford was no animal, from what Myk understood, he was a Wraith. Wraiths were basically the ghosts of long-dead Vampires, ones who couldn’t escape the Dark Place – known as the Shadow Realm to everyone else – and so were consumed by it. Myk had never been to the Dark Place before, but he was utterly captivated by its legends. It was Temperance herself that had triggered the fascination when she had revealed its existence and her irrational fear toward it. She had described it as a place of utter darkness and torment, the place a Vampire’s spirit goes to when they are killed. Imagine a Vampire Hell and you would be close. Ripper had gone on further to explain that when a Vampire had died, it could never escape the Dark Place, but due to the Rift created in Harper Rock, Vampires could now escape and return to life – most of the time. Myk had also learned that one could manipulate the Dark Place to suit their will and pull the shadows of these long-dead Vampires back into the world of the living as ghosts, or Wraiths. Myk had performed one such ritual to summon the Wraith known as Rutherford, hoping to learn more about death and the Dark Place. At first the Wraith had not been all too pleased by the summoning, but over time, had become grateful. In return for allowing the dead Vampire to remember what it was like to be alive, Rutherford had promised its loyalty to the Telepath. As it turned out, however, Rutherford understood the meaning of loyalty a little differently to most.

[Zodiac]

She nodded at Dest's confession. "Childhood, for lack of better terms, is never easy. Alive or otherwise. As long as you don't keep repeating the same mistakes, you'll be fine." she offered gently. Far from her to be telling another what was and what was not-especially someone else's childe, but encouragement never hurt anyone or their pride.

The question of the familiar amused her and her possibility of liking this Dest person went up a couple notches as she watched him try to reassure Ginny she was in no danger. "In the lady's case here, no. She is not my familiar due to anything or any vampire ability at all. When I was alive I was a witch, and not to sound immodest I was a damn good one. I still am. One day during my walkabout of the North American continent years ago when I was still among the living she found me and adopted me. Some say familiars are demons in animal form sent to aid people of more esoteric natures, and perhaps she is. She backs down from nothing." she laughed softly as the cat turned its head and rubbed against her ear.

"But I have learned to follow her lead in things. Her instincts are far sharper than mine. I have been in places where I think 'There is nothing that could go wrong here' and I look and she is sitting there acting like she was when you was looking at her like a hamburger. I just move on. She did the same when I was alive and probably kept me out of all kinds of bad situations and also lead me into many good ones too."

She glanced at Myk when he spoke. She had never seen him with any kind of animal before, so now she was curious. "Tell me about yours, Myk dear. What is it? Dog? Cat? Something else?"

[Dest (DELETED 6331)]

Dest listened to the two more experienced Vampires as they spoke. He found this new life of his had more and more depth than he had originally thought. As Zodiac unfolded her story, Dest did his best to listen. The way she spoke, mind to mind, it was very new to him. He kept wondering why he could still hear beck ground noises over her voice, only to remind himself that she wasn't speaking, just communicating.

"I met one other witch when I was alive. At least she called herself a witch. She seemed to be more of an Herbalist to me, if I'm allowed to be honest. None of the wands, brooms, or Crystal balls that you see in the movies. She said she was a....what was it again?" He nibbled on his lower lip lightly with one fang as he tried to think of the exact term that the College student had used for her self. It had been such an odd phrase, that he was sure he should be able to remember it better than this. "Something about a fireplace? Mantle maybe? What was that word?" He continued to puzzle to himself as the lady turned to Myk, and seemed to ask a question. Dest would, upon looking back at this moment later on, never be able to decide if the question had been asked only to Myk, or if he had just been so caught up in his own memories that he couldn't hear it being asked.

[Myk]

The Telepath was happy to allow Zodiac the spotlight in this instance. She was older than him after all, perhaps wiser as a result and he definitely knew she would be able to answer Dest’s questions about witches and magic far better than he ever could. Myk did, however, feel a little uncomfortable when Zodiac’s attention turned on him. As wild and flamboyant as he was – and he really was a dramatic little creature – he didn’t like the lime light shining on his personal life. When people asked him questions about himself, he rarely answered and often chose to deflect and change the subject. Pewter eyes searched left and then right for some kind of distraction, but he quickly found one in the young Shadow before him. Dest was still trying to jog his memory on the alternative word for witch and while Myk couldn’t think of anything right away, he did have the world of the internet at his disposal. He hummed to himself as if he was thinking up an answer to Zodiac, but really, he was stalling for time again. Performing a slow blink to steel his focus, Myk began to search the internet via his psychic abilities for witch synonyms. His first search didn’t produce anything remotely close to what Dest was talking about… something about mantels… A wall of text burned itself into the back of Myk’s eyelids and he had to shake his head to displace it.

Myk knew that this particular use of Technokinesis was a blunder. He knew that if he didn’t close his eyes while using the power, he often got disorientated and had to shake off the dizzy spells. What he didn’t know, however, was that he’d began to drift to the left under his disorientation; he only found this out when he was about to fall into the wall beside him. Myk stopped himself just in time of course, blushing a soft shade of pink and quickly taking action to squeeze his eyes shut and rub his nose because apparently that would help the situation.

“Ooooh,” he cooed. “Went a bit dizzy there!” He had to laugh about it. It wasn’t so serious that they should become worried or break into hysteria. He did hope that it would lead Zodiac to forget her question about Familiars though.

[Zodiac]

She considered what Dest was getting at while giving Myk an eye of disappointment. Sometimes the very reasons she liked the man worked against the entire idea as well.

"Well, there are Hedge, Hearth, and Kitchen witches, basically all the same thing by nature. An individual who works with magick to keep their home and family safe and healthy, so hearth-mantle-fireplace? That might be what you are thinking of." she offered. "And yes, Hollywood has tended to make a mockery of things, but I do have and use a broom, crystal ball, and tarot cards at my disposal and they do work."

She supposed the next question would be 'what kind of witch are you?' and she never really had a solid answer to that one. A solitary one the majority of the time, though she was never above working with others of like minds. Potion maker, spell and hex caster and breaker, fortune teller, mystic, sorceress, necromancer, healer, the list of possible titles could go on. She never put much stock in such titles. Titles were for important people (real or self deluded) and truth be told if she aspired to any title at all it would simply be Madam. Some called her that now and she bristled within for it. Her grandmother was Madam and matriarch of her coven. As far as Zodiac was concerned she had not earned that title in this life yet so she contented herself with the name her Nana had given her, Mistress Zodiac, until the day she felt she had risen to the level of the things that woman had achieved while alive.

She looked at Myk again and let a soft smile creep up on her lips. "I am still waiting for an answer, dear one. Don't make me tell Tempy on you, now." she teased as she opened her thoughts to include both Myk and Dest. She imagined she was putting the normally shy shadow on the spot with her questions, but it was all in simple fun. The mystic leaned closer and waved one of Ginny's paws at him. "Or shall I have the furry goddess of claws ask the questions? Hmm?" she busted out in giggles at that one and looked at Dest again. "I do adore this one, so I tease him whenever I can. Myk is almost as flamboyant as me and he doesn't have to answer me if he chooses. I just want him to know his attempt at distraction didn't work is all."

[Dest (DELETED 6331)]

Although he wasn't watching per se, Dest almost felt the movement as his new acquaintance started to drift to one side. He put a hand out to steady the older vampire as Zodiac listed some of the various kinds of witches. "Hearth! That was the word. She said she was a Hearth witch, and it matched the description you gave. She mostly just focused on purifying the air and energies of everyone around her." As he continued to, for lack of a better word, listen, to the lady in front of him, he felt a growing chuckle in his throat.

"I have to ask two things. One, is it true that Tarot cards only work if they are a gift you did nothing to purchase or earn." He had heard that when he was a child, flipping through various channels on the Television. He'd come across one of those television mediums who seemed to enjoy talking about how much power was in his deck of cards.

"And secondly, is the Furry goddess of claws friendly enough to let me try and pet her?" Dest tried as best he could to look gentle and non-threatening when he asked that. He loved animals for the most part(he'd never been overly fond of rats) and didn't want the rather beautiful cat to hold a grudge against him.

[Myk]

Obviously any kind of distraction or deflection was not effective on the older Vampire. Myk’s eyes narrowed at the mental prodding and he stepped back into himself. Dest and Zodiac might be involved in conversation for a while to come and he really had no place in it when it involved magic, witches and cats. Of course Myk didn’t mind having his plans derailed by unexpected happenings, but it did seem utterly pointless to stand there like a third wheel when he had things to do. There were no hurt feelings on his part, it wasn’t like he felt left out as such, just that he couldn’t provide anything of use in this instance. After all, what Myk hated most of all was to feel worthless. Pewter orbs moved to the tanzanite eyes of Zodiac and he gave her a bow of his head as the little Shadow continued to talk and ask questions – now focusing his attention on the cat.

“Maybe we’ll talk about it some other time…” he spoke to her mind directly – and only her mind. “I will get going and leave you to it.”

Myk stepped a little closer to Dest then, following the man’s line of sight to the cat. “Mind she doesn’t eat you,” Myk said aloud as he tittered to himself. He was sure he was about to get a lecture from Zodiac; Oh, Ginny would never! He didn’t care, however. “Be on your best behaviour and you should be safe though,” Myk said to Dest again, giving him a wink. “Well… I guess I’d better be off,” he said and stepped to the side, slowly building distance between them. He wanted to make it clear that he wasn’t running away just because of the uncomfortable question and mild threat. “Enjoy your night, my friends…” At that, Myk gave them a salute and turned to walk down the street away from them. He would find a building a little further along that would provide him with the parts he needed.

[Zodiac]

She had heard this one before. "I have heard that before as well. Some say it is so, others say that it is not. Personally, the decks I use were passed down to me by my grandmother, but perhaps I should buy a deck off the shelf and experiment a bit?"

"Wait. What?" She was about to answer Dest's second question when Myk suddenly began to wander off. "What did I do?" she called out after him. A look of genuine sadness on her face now. She pouted for a moment, then slowly turned her attention back to Dest.

"I am quite sure Miss Ginny has no lasting issues with you, but please-feel free." she lifted the large cat from her shoulder and sat her on the ground between them. "She is a survivor. Considering the things that wander about in places in this town, and she just walks about like she owns the place? Have you ever seen a fadebeast, Mr Dest?" she asked as she watched the pair of them. "Not recommended for the faint of heart. I assure you. One time I found Miss thing here standing her ground yowling and ready to attack one of them. Refusing to move an inch. On one side we have this oversized gorilla of a monster that could have squashed her with just its thumb just standing there confused as all over a cat double dog daring it to try something. Pure comedy, yes? However, was it dumb luck or something more?"

She stood there and considered all the unusual moments she had observed her furry protector in. Fadebeast, zombies, ferals, nothing seemed to rattle the cat. Truth be told, the cat seemed better suited for this lifestyle than she was. She smiled as the male and the cat attempted reconciliation.

"Well, you still have your fingers, so I'd say so far, so good." she laughed softly.