Path of the Vampire forum

-- The following is a live roleplay transcript --

* Jeff used one hand to cradle Malign in against the side of his chest while the other pushed the unlocked door open to the apartment -- Hamlet's apartment. "Jesus Christ, Mary Ann, what happened to you?" he'd immediately asked, pushing the hair back away from the side of her singed face. It wasn't as though she needed that greaser boy, the one he dressed up to be with those plain t-shirts and high-water jeans. She didn't need a hero, but she didn't need intrusive looks, either. "Go on inside," he ushered, pulling in behind her to close and lock the door. Hamlet had said 'no.' No, he couldn't use the apartment. To Jeff, the Cree may as well have been handing over the keys and the welcome mat.

* Malign covered her face with her hands and let her hair hang down low, not bothering to push it away and out of her face like she usually did. Even with her hands over her face, the evidence of serious burns were still very easy to see, crossing over the backs of her knuckles and down the entire length of her forearms. Every had said the only thing to do was wait it out and maybe take a cool bath. "A computer in the library exploded," she muttered, not bothering to look back. Oh God it was terrible and it was painful and she couldn't be out in public. Thankfully, Eilidh's apartment--where she had been hiding out--wasn't far from this one, only a few floors difference.

* Candra sat crossed legged in the middle of the room, her long pink curls tied back in a silk ribbon she had ‘found’. Sitting as still as a statue and with a chess board in front of her she almost looked like a china doll ready to be played with. For two hours she had been sat in the same place, in the exact same position just staring at the game in front of her, not once she did she turn and look for her sire and not once did she answer her only friends questions…no all she did was sit and stare at the piece of wood that was all set for a match of wits. Not even the sound of the door opening nor of the two people talking could get her to look up from her game…but the small nudge that Oreo gave her was enough to have her sqwak at him to let her think.

‹Jeff› She hadn't moved. The girl hadn't moved, at all, since he told her to park a spot somewhere in the apartment. "Same rules apply as last time," he said. "Don't break anything or misplace anything. This isn't ours, remember?" Afterward, he'd given a nod to the living room, for her to get settled, and that was what she did. Jeff didn't think she'd take it so literally. With Malign's face covered, he quickly moved in front of her and crowded the space out, pushed so that he was the sole thing in front of her and, in a quiet voice, he tried to move her arms. "Hey. Mary Ann, look at me? Don't freak out," he muttered. Maybe it was the wrong choice of words, but the man was still too human to not feel sympathy. "Hey," he tried again, shushing away her hands. "There's someone you have to meet. Finally. It's okay." Jeff nodded, ducking his head so that -- maybe -- she'd be able to see it. "It's alright. So, don't freak out, okay?"

* Malign could think of several reasons of why NOW wasn't a good time to meet the progeny Jeff had mentioned on previous occasions--of course, she hadn't planned for the computer in the library to be trapped and explode on her, leaving her with those ugly burns. Oh God, she hoped they weren't forever. She prayed. Slowly, she lowered her hands from her face, peaking out from behind her splayed fingers. When she didn't see anything initially, she glanced back at Jeff in a quick, 'I don't see anyone.' but she didn't hold his gaze, instead, stretching up to the tips of her toes to look over his shoulder. There, sitting in the center of the room was the girl, pink hair and all--not too mention the creepy bird that stared in their direction. She swallowed hard and dropped her hands down to her sides, trying to muster all the confidence she had--though her fingers trembled. "Hello," she called out. "I've heard so much about you."

* Candra did not even blink an eye as she continued to stare at her board game. For weeks now she had been bombarded with the emotions of those around her and she needed a break from it; she needed peace. While Candra continued to stare at the wooden game Oreo kept staring at the ‘adults’ watching them through black eyes to make sure they didn’t hurt his human, Candra was his everything and he would not have her hurt. The pair of them looked like something out of a horror movie and when the woman spoke the only reply she got was a squawk from Candra who after having been silent for weeks was unwilling to speak to humans.

* Jeff , despite Mary Ann's attempt to peek around him, stood still where he was. His eyes lowered to the height of her shoulder and the bend of her arm. While he stared at the marred surface of her skin before the shirt covered the wounds up, all he could picture was the girl behind him in her quiet little place with that god awful bird that loitered with her, no matter where she went. Jeff scratched at the back of his neck and finally looked up and, as though by defeat, finally moved out of Malign's way. "Don't take it personally," he said, looking across at Candra. He tried to smile -- for one person or the other -- but it fell flat. "I get the same treatment. Do you, uh...want the grand tour? Let me show you around." Even though the apartment was small and spoke for itself, he insisted. En route to the bedroom as he led the way, cutting through the kitchen, he looked out at his progeny. "Candra, do you need anything?"

-- The following is a live roleplay transcript. --

* Malign walked when Jeff did and paused at the entrance to the bedroom also when Jeff did, hardly glancing back over her shoulder to look at the statuesque pink-haired girl and her raven--or crow, whatever it was. At least she didn't feel weird or like a sideshow anymore.

* Candra ignored the pair in favour of finally making a move, after two hours she was sure that this first move would win the game for her. Short slender fingers curled about the pawn and she moved it forward one space. "It is your turn Oreo." She squawked before turning her head and looking at her sire. "No." It was a short, clipped response before she tilted her head to watch as Oreo eyed the board.

* Jeff responded with a click of his tongue to the back of his teeth, a little sound that was universal for 'whatever you say' or 'right, then' or 'gotcha.' At least, in Jeff's native Canadian tongue it was. When he moved into the bedroom, he made sure to step around the edge of the bed, to crowd up the space like he owned it even though he'd never slept a wink in that room. "The bedroom," he offered, because that somehow sounded better than the alternative.

* Malign glanced around the bedroom--just about the same size as one of Eilidh's--and took note of the pieces of furniture, all had their place, though she honestly wasn't sure the last time anything was used. It was all so quiet. "Just one," she asked, still unsure if this was Jeff's place or not--or if Jeff and Candra lived here together or what the living situation was at all. "Do you both live here regularly?"

* Candra frowned slightly as her bird made a move she wasn't expecting and then she was having a squawking argument with the creature. No longer still she had shot up to her feet and loomed over the black bird. "Duckie doesn't like me, I won't be in his way." The only words that the other two would be able to understand were Duckie and way. Turning her head slightly she caught Jeff's eye and pointed to the bathroom.

‹Jeff› "Here?" he asked, both eyebrows raising. He looked from the bed to Malign and back again. "Uh...No. Actually. We don't. See, this is the bed that my ex-wife and her maker used to nestle like spoons in, once upon a time. Not that they don't, anymore, I mean. It just happens elsewhere, now. And that wall, right there?" he asked, pointing behind her. "That's the wall he threw me into, when I was still human. The whole reason I was turned. The uh...blood, guts, and gore story I never got to tell you, before. I soaked this floor. Well, he did, technically, using my blood. Did a pretty good job at getting it cleaned, too." The thought to lie, or to hold onto those thoughts, had come and gone so quickly, he didn't even get to tell it 'goodbye.' "Yeah," he kept talking, looking around as though it was the most natural thing in the world. Jeff even nodded a few times. "Pretty cozy, isn't it? These dressers aren't ours. Some other chicks clothes are in the drawers, there. Probably one of the others he's *******. Guy lives four different lives, or something. Oh!" When he walked by, to go back into the living room, he gently clapped Malgin's side for her to follow -- avoiding those pesky burns she must've been feeling. "That's the computer room, where I was locked up a good week."

‹Jeff› "This...****," he called it, kicking a chair's legs so that it scooted out from under the unused dining table, "doesn't belong to me. And, thus, that's how my ever so talkative company, over there, came about. Yes! Candra. What is it? Ah, in English, please, if you don't mind. I never took CROW in college." When Jeff finally came to a stand-still, a definitive point in which he stopped moving entirely to stare at her -- to stare the girl in the middle of the living room down -- he didn't even breathe. He just stared at her, expression set as though expecting an answer -- because, God, he wasn't going to move until she spit it out.

* Malign 's lips fell open and she thought to say something, though there was no way in hell she'd ever be able to know the right words to say in response to everything. It was dreadful, it was a nightmare he was forced to live--still!--and even she couldn't smile that away. She followed him with her eyes at first and then her feet, stopping when there was still ample space between his back and her front. Unusual to her personality, her arms snaked around her middle, elbows bending and fingers clutching against the edge of her cheek. She was more than awkward, way past uncomfortable and at an extreme loss of what to say, so, like Jeff, she waited in silence.

* Candra shifted her marble like eyes down to the floor, not wanting to upset the male she adored she simply gave him what he wanted. "I will be in the bathroom." Her voice was dead and her movements were shaky. She gave the other woman in the room a nod and headed into the bathroom where she believed she would be out of the way. All her life she had been told to hide herself, not let the company see her...and now Duckie was mad and it was all her fault because she hadn't followed the rule and hidden straight away. "Oreo wants to stay here." She muttered just before closing the bathroom door.

‹Jeff› "Oreo, make yourself at home," he told the bird and, though he wanted to exaggerate the movements of his hand, of practically bowing to the crow, he didn't. His fingers pushed at his cheek until it was hoisted up to his eye, until he could press his fingertip against the corner and feel his eyelashes. It was the silence. As quickly as it come -- whatever it was -- it was gone by the silence ushering it out. Jeff closed his eyes, squeezed them shut even, and then exhaled, "I'm sorry. Mary Ann. I'm sorry. I don't know...where that came from." He only gave her a single glance -- a quick look from the side before he moved on to the table just to give him something to do besides stand there under her scrutiny and the absent place of where Candra had been. He took a seat in the chair that sat skewed from the table. "I didn't mean for it to go this way."

-- The following is a live roleplay transcript. --


‹Malign› "No, no, no," Malign said in a rushed, gentle voice. "It's a wonder you don't explode over that on a daily basis, honestly. That's a pretty big deal," she said. "I'm just glad my Maker has been as great to me as she has. Apparently, it goes south really quick," she said. "You--you just sit here. I'm going to go over--" she said, nodding her head at the bathroom door. "Is that okay," she asked, already taking a few steps towards the door Candra disappeared behind. It's like she was normal Mary Ann again, no burns, no pain, no problems.

* Candra took a seat inside the bath tub. Arms wrapped around her knees and head lowered. "Bad girl, naughty girl." She muttered to herself over and over again. She only wanted him to like her, adore her like she adored him...but that was never going to happen because she was a naughty girl who was wrong. While Candra was having a mini-episode in the bathroom Oreo had flown over to sit on the TV set, cold eyes locked on Jeff.

* Jeff didn't know what to say. He sat with his arms in his lap, limp against the top of his thighs -- none of that 'pity me' forward seating, none of that head holding, none of that 'sprawl out' tantrum posturing -- and watched her as she inched. If anything, he looked confused. "...Yeah, go ahead," he finally said, glancing from the side of her face to her feet and finally the door as though he expected her to suddenly bolt in the other direction, leave the front door hanging on its hinges.

* Malign smiled and glanced up past Jeff. That's when she noticed it; there in the top corner of the room, near the very entrance, was a camera, red light blinking at her as if say 'I'm watching you.' Her smiled dropped--which made her pain ease off a little. She took a quick turn on her heel and headed for the bathroom door, practically flattening herself up against it. "Candra," she called through the wood. She added a short knock and then said "Candra?" again.

* Candra stiffened a little. They weren't meant to follow her, they weren't meant to talk to her...she had to warn the woman before she made Jeff mad! "The person you are trying to reach is unavailable, please leave a message after the beep - Beeep." There maybe if she let the woman say whatever it was she wanted to say then she would go back to Jeff and Candra could go back to her break-down in peace and quiet.

* Malign cleared her throat and licked her lips. "Uhh.. Candra? This is Malign. You don't really know me at all, but I hope that changes! I'm a friend of Jeff's--your Maker! He's the amazing person that brought me here to meet you, though I might not be at my best," she said, taking a pause. Her ears were trained to the sounds behind her, any that Jeff made or the bird, maybe even a sound from that video camera. "He told me about you," she said after awhile. She paused again and then added. "Please give me a call back as soon as possible!"

‹Jeff› I know, Jeff wanted to say. He wanted to say it loud enough for everyone to hear, loud enough for the neighbors, loud enough for the camera, loud enough for Candra who holed herself up in the bathroom like a two year old; like she was afraid of him. I KNOW. But, nothing. He stared at Malign's back and watched the door in front of her do nothing but separate one room from another. If it hadn't been for Mary Ann -- God, did she break the mold -- he might've called for her to open the door and make conversation -- like people do. Hell, even the ******* crow was present for it. He glanced at it, at Oreo, and back at Malign. The faintest hints of a smile started.

* Candra listened to the woman talking. Duckie wouldn't talk about her, it was clearly a lie...Duckie didn't like her at all. Curling in on herself a little more she nodded as if the woman could see and then went back to her mantra. "Bad girl, naughty girl." During this time Oreo had just been staring at Jeff as if he could someone get the man to understand that Candra wasn't all there, but what could he do? He was just a bird who followed around a mental girl.

* Jeff waited. He watched Malign, and he waited, and when the patience was gone for a 'return call', he stopped waiting. He got up from the chair and moved to the bathroom door, moved off by Malign's side so that he could knock at the door with the back of his hand, his back to the wall. "Candra," he said, staring at the door. One more knock, and he dropped his hand. "Come on. We're not waiting all night for you, now. I..." His expression went stoic. He didn't even want to say it. "I'm sorry I got angry, alright? It wasn't at you. It wasn't at you, and it wasn't at Malign, here. Okay? Don't be rude and come meet her," he said as he walked away from the door.