The Flow (Open)

[Andre Broussard]

André feels himself sinking into the darkness that surrounds him, nothing has been as he expected, once again he feels controlled by a superior force, he has only two possibilities, to rebel and fight or let himself be carried away, flow in the tumultuous river without offering resistance.
His mind tormented by overwhelming thoughts and the effort to overcome them is beyond his abilities, it is a severe test of his willpower.
What Mortll said confirms a curse has fallen on him, now he wonders how to fight the supernatural, how to face that dark world, full of mysteries, a world with its own logic and rules beyond André's understanding.
The curse of his own origin, fallen at the very moment of his birth as a creature of the night.
André is lost in his tribulations, when a voice whispers in his ear:
"Blessed are you, you will enjoy the ancient delicacies of the night, your name is written in the book of eternal shadows, welcome to the most beautiful world of all worlds, the infinite night that inhabits you".
André shakes his head as if wanting to get rid of the words prolonged as a resonant echo.
"Holy **** I'm going crazy, now I hear voices, cursed and crazy such a nice combo.
Now the question is : do I want to stop being this pathetic undead crawling in search of a gesture of love or stand on my feet and start walking down an unmarked path"
André raises his face to the night sky as if looking for the answer.
" The answer seems so simple, even a fool would be right, but what if the medicine was worse than the disease, the curse is now part of my essence makes up me and gives me being, it was what Fate reserved for me, it was this and nothing else,each of the steps taken, each path traveled brought me closer to this end and beginning, to the death of my humanity and to this birth as this new, powerful and eternal being" André talking to the silent stars as if wanting them to witness his deep chagrin.
"Not many people have the chance to change, and I had it, much less received the gift of eternity, I cannot complain, I must accept, thank it and keep moving forward".
He begins to walk aimlessly, disappearing into the shadows of the dark alleys, accepting his Fate but hoping to find someone to help him to break the curse.

[Millicent]

Milly grunted as she pushed the slab back in place over the stash of weapons. Someone would come later, pick them up, and leave the money. That was the agreement. So far, neither of them had messed that up. They could talk in person of course, that was how they came to the agreements in the first place. But this way if someone did catch on, it wouldn't be as easy to catch both of them without one turning on the other.

She had her own problems, the government once again was encroaching on everyone else's business. Like it always did. It was a surprise to her anyone really tolerated this, but it wasn't like she was doing anything about it right now except ignoring them. She was definitely an anarchist, but that didn't mean she went around causing chaos for the sake of it. She believed in peoples choice with what they did and where they went. She was fine with people choosing someone to follow. But that's not what the government was. Just being born was enough for them to act as if they owned you. It angered her, but she acknowledged a government was inherently powerful. Which meant taking down a government without another one was...not exactly a reasonable feat, at least in her mind. And that would defeat the whole point.

She heard a noise and her heart jumped. Someone was coming down the ally. She cursed quietly. Instinctively looking at the knife in her boot and the gun behind her back in a holster. She wasn't out for fighting but she really wanted to be prepared if it came to it. She was always more a knife and sword person the firearms, she had to wander if that was her parents fault.

Regardless she stepped away from the slab, hoping that the person would't notice anything. Not that they should. The ground wasn't exactly in one piece in the first place. She Took in a breath, yup. Too late to hide now, she was in the middle of the alleyway, looking sideways at him. Dark alleyways. Not a great place to be in Harper Rock.

[Andre Broussard]

André walked immersed in his own thoughts, without notion of what was happening around him, sheltered in the shadows of the dark alleys, avoiding the cops and the soldiers, they always found a reason to shoot him, when a noise, amplified by the echo of the narrow alley, put him on alert.
Instinctively reaching his hand towards the shoulder holster where he loads his pistol, his sharp sight of a nocturnal predator, he tries to distinguish the target where to empty the magazine of his handgun, shoot first ask later is his motto, so far it has gone well.
André is alert to the slightest movement, when he distinguishes a silhouette, very small for a soldier or a cop, perhaps a woman or a petty thief, without losing his concentration, and taking aim with his gun, he takes a few steps, ready to shoot at the slightest sign of danger.
"Come out with your hands up and don't try a move or I'll shoot you"
André roars in a threatening voice,spitting ashes while his eyes glow like embers, as his finger presses the trigger of his gun, ready to open fire.

[Millicent]

It was not easy to see in the dark. Though to be fair, it wasn't even always easy to see. A legally blind eye, didn't do a whole lot to making that easy. At least she had one good eye. This is what caused her head to be turned just slightly so that it was doing most of the work, and so that the person down the alley was centered in her good vision. Course that also meant that it did more work, and tired out faster.

Millicent saw his hand move to his holster, she cursed again as she heard his words. And she didn't remotely doubt them. The people in this city were almost all on edge, human or vampire. Did...she see embers coming from his mouth? She thought she saw a glow when he spoke. Made all the more apparent by the darkness. She held up her hands, "Please don't!"

Definitely would have said more, but for the life of her, she couldn't think of anything else to say. She'd also have loved to just run for it, but wasn't quite sure that would actually save her.

[for_harmony][/for_harmony]

[Andre Broussard]

André relaxes when he hears the female voice, but not enough to stop aiming, he has not decided if the small silhouette is a threat.
"Come closer so I can see you, I don't like you stay in the shadows"
He has already been deceived by whoever seems like a defenseless victim, and finally saves his life as a miracle and he is not willing to take that risk again, this city has become increasingly dangerous and to can survive the dangers that inhabit it, he must always be alert, it's crazy, a state of total paranoia, but that's the way it is, take it or leave.
André hopes it is a false alarm, tonight he does not want to have to kill anyone, he is a thief, a swindler, not a murderer and if he must kill someone, will be out of necessity, not for pleasure.
"What are you waiting for, come out I want to see you"
André orders with authority, tastes ashes in his mouth, a bad sign, he just hopes can keep his Dragomir blood under control.

[Millicent]

Her breathing was somewhat shaky, blood thief or not, getting shot was very low on her list of things to do. She'd been threatened before yeah but very few times still. And usually there were friends or allies nearby. But right now, she was alone, and at risk.

He asked her to come out, so she did, slowly, not wanting to move fast enough to potentially agitate him, whether he be more afraid or more likely to anger. She didn't really want things to go badly. Oh yeah...she could definitely see smoke or something when he spoke again.

She furrowed her brow as she got close enough to believe he could see her sufficiently. She wasn't exactly an intimidating individual, not that it was necessary to look intimidating to be deadly in a place like this. "Are...are you a vampire?" she asked. Those words weren't fearful in themselves, not that he couldn't hear fear. But her fear was of the gun, not of the vampirism.

[for_harmony][/for_harmony]

[Andre Broussard]

She comes out of the shadows and now André can see her clearly, she is a young woman, small, nothing intimidating by the way, but in these alleys you should never get carried away by appearances. If she was hiding, surely she was doing nothing good. She sure fears the gun, she denotes it in her voice when she asks if he is a vampire.

"What or who I am is not important now, who you are and what you are doing here is what matters"

Is André's answer while still aiming ready to shoot, a situation like this was not in his plans, if she is a thief she may have some loot to take advantage of, he must solve this quickly, at any moment a cop or a soldier can show up and they shoot without asking and everything would get even more complicated.

"So tell me what you hide there"

[Millicent]

She furrowed her brow at his response. He didn't want to answer her, but he did want to know what she was doing. Her mind rushed in thought before settling on what was definitely a lie. He tried to ask what she 'hid there.' given he couldn't see her properly moments ago, she knew he couldn't know where or what she'd hidden. After-all she was already in darkness when hiding it.

So she stuck with the lie she'd thought up, "I just wanted somewhere quiet. People don't usually...walk into random dark alleys." she said, well, that wasn't quite a lie. She did need somewhere quiet, and usually she didn't have the problem of people coming into dark alleys. However, she wanted to move onto a different subject, "If you are a vampire though...I'd uh...be willing to pay you...for blood. I mean, you're blood. Or like...a trade? Blood for blood? I've never been one for the whole...thieving process. I mean, it's less expensive, but it's...not quite good."

In spite of things, she wasn't handling it badly. That didn't mean she wasn't afraid, just that she was handling her fear fairly well.

[Andre Broussard]

André without aiming ,listens to the young woman arguing, she is a blood thieves that is clear,but she seems a beginner, he knows he has an advantage and is not willing to give in, perhaps with a little more pressure he can make a profit,
It is also clear that she is afraid of him although she tries to hide it, but the enhanced senses of a vampire perceive the smell of her adrenaline rush, an unequivocal sign of fear.
She may be lying, or perhaps telling the truth, he is not willing to sell his blood, he is not a poor needy to do it,
nor go away empty-handed, but this is taking too long and at any moment a cop can see them.
André decides to play a bluff

"You can share your loot and stay alive, or I can kill you and keep it all, you choose"

The last thing André wants to do tonight is kill a miserable blood thieves, he's not in the mood, Nor leave with nothing after so much hassle.

[Millicent]

She was afraid, couldn't hide that, especially from a vampire. He avoided answering her question on blood. She honestly couldn't tell if that was confirmation or rejection, or just ignoring. He was clearly aware he was in control of the situation at the moment. She was really wishing she'd just drawn her gun earlier.

He might be bluffing, but she couldn't know that for sure. What she did know, was that some people would just as willingly kill you once they got what they wanted. And she couldn't be sure he was't one of them. So she kept to the story, "...Stash?" she raised an eyebrow, "Even if I had one, if you killed me, it'd take you way too long to find it before being caught. And that'd look really bad."

She wasn't going to risk it, she wanted to really push the belief that at any moment he could get caught, "And while I'm not into the stealing blood. I am still a blood thief, and human or not, it's still a little harder to kill me right away. How confident are you that you can kill me in time." While she still clearly showed fear, she also wasn't backing down. She didn't want to fight him, but with the distance they were at, she could go for her dagger in her boot, and melee was by far her preference when it did come for fighting.