angels and moths

[deservesadaisy]

Who: Ilde Decima and Ivan

What: something stupid

Where: a flat in Mafaton

When: a couple nights after the missions in (let's say Veerdi?)

Notes: they make the best decisions

Warnings: Mention of past abuse. Will almost certainly include sex and blood-drinking, though likely not explicit. Also, Ivan may be drunk later.


Ivan found, after dying twice, that one's sense of caution was somewhat eroded. Not completely, of course - years of habit and innate temperament saw to that - but really, what was the worst that could happen? He was strong enough in nearly all cases to make it a matter of letting him walk away or killing him. If the latter... well, he wasn't suicidal, but he was curious. Maybe the afterlife would be city on city, like nesting dolls. Maybe it would be better, or worse. Maybe it would eventually be oblivion.

But in the meanwhile, he may as well take a few risks and enjoy himself.

He sat on the balcony, smoking, and waiting for Ilde to arrive.

Comments

[rhinemaid]

Ilde had taken the train, for once, to get to Mafaton; it was easier more often than it wasn't to find her way by the river, but this was a ways out of the usual. (In a few different ways, in point of fact, but nevermind that.) She'd mentally reviewed what she was doing, what she wanted, and what she should probably be careful about while on her way (could you get an STD from a vampire? unlikely), but altogether she wasn't really so concerned.

A lot of things, she reflected, didn't really concern her the way they probably should have.

She knocked.

[deservesadaisy]

Ivan got up to let her in. He tended to rent by the month (sometimes by the week), and the room didn't have a terribly personal feel to it as a result. Beyond his clothing, a used ashtray and a bottle of wine with glasses, there wasn't much in the way of personal effects.

"Hello," he said, regarding her curiously. "Welcome back from your expedition."

[rhinemaid]

"Christ, you're tall," she sighed, in lieu of a greeting, as though she were reminded of it and a bit startled every time she saw him. Her voice rasped, more clearly in person than it had been over the network, but whatever had happened - for now, she looked as she always did, small and neat and contained and not even approaching his height in heels that were downright obnoxiously high. "I see you stayed out of trouble."

[deservesadaisy]

"I'm well-practiced at that." Unlike Ilde, evidently. "Come, in, then, and make yourself comfortable."

[rhinemaid]

"You're something." Something interesting that she liked to poke and prod and twist to see what would happen next, but it made more sense if she asked fewer questions of herself. This was true of most things, although in most cases she tried to ask the questions anyway; she could always find some kind of answer. Almost always. Usually, at least.

She slipped past him into the flat, hands resting on the back of her trousers' waistband, her bag hanging from her elbow, and made a beeline for the wine bottle. The 'oh, a balcony' moment was almost visible on her usually inexpressive face, drifting in that direction.

[deservesadaisy]

He drifted toward the balcony as well. "Rent isn't bad in this neighborhood above ground," he commented, "and I like having a little bit of a view."

[rhinemaid]

"What do you do for money?" Ilde couldn't quite imagine him with a job, so the answer was probably going to be something she wouldn't approve of. Or something generally disapproved of, anyway; she was a little ambivalent on any number of subjects, these days.

[deservesadaisy]

"Are you worried I'm an immoral person?" he asked, genuinely amused at that.

[rhinemaid]

"Ivan." She was already looking up at him, for the purposes of conversation, but now she examined him with something more like amusement. "I'm not stupid."

The fact he was an immoral person was fairly obvious, in other words.

She nudged him with her hip. "So. What do you do for money?"

[deservesadaisy]

"It depends on what's at hand," he said, with a little shrug, as he pulled out a cigarette. "Sometimes I take what others have discarded. I've gambled now and then, here. At home I had quite the investment portfolio."

[rhinemaid]

"I can see you gambling." Or stealing. She had a harder time imagining him investing, for some strange reason. Presumably because he always seemed pretentious in other directions. She took a breath, though she wasn't going to smoke herself with her throat still burning, and she sat down to pour the wine. "Have a glass with me."

[deservesadaisy]

"Alright." He let her pour both, if she was so inclined. "I hope the damage to your throat won't be permanent?"

[rhinemaid]

"Bruises heal," she shrugged, passing him the second glass and unfastening her sandals, putting her bare feet up on the stone rail around the balcony, curling her toes. "A friend of mine, another vampire, said some of her blood would heal me faster. But we don't know what else it would do, since I'm not human. And, if I died with it in my system..."

She gestured, with the glass. "I said it's okay. I have a sore throat. That's fine."

The nightmares were less fine.

[deservesadaisy]

He considered this, settling into his own chair. "You do realize, with what you suggested... it wouldn't be bloodless." He knew himself, and he knew how attractive he found Ilde, and he would bite her somewhere if he let his guard down - maybe not the throat, but she wouldn't be able to have him and remain unbitten.

[rhinemaid]

"The thought occurred to me." She tipped her head, thoughtfully; she made the movement a little gingerly, from the ache. "Don't kill me, and don't touch my throat. Think you can handle that?"

[deservesadaisy]

"I think so," he said, easily, "I'm just intrigued that you seem willing to take my word for it."

[rhinemaid]

With a laugh (rocks in water, not quite right), "Did you want to submit references? That sounds charming."

Well, no, that's probably not quite what was going on.

[deservesadaisy]

"I suppose you can take comfort in the fact that your Sonja would kill me if I broke your rules," he mused. Or try, but he wouldn't underestimate someone he hadn't met yet.

[rhinemaid]

"Exactly." She liked Ivan, but if she had to bet on either of them- well, Sonja. Every time. Vampires didn't frighten her, conceptually, in the way that they might other people who knew them for a reality; they were, generally, the least of her worries. Vampires in New York were protesting that they were monsters and not food, too, it just wasn't the same...

"If you'd rather I leave, though."

[deservesadaisy]

He shrugged, languid. "If I hadn't wanted you to come, I wouldn't have told you where I was." Not that this would have necessarily stopped her, but it might have slowed her down.

"I just feel we jumped rather quickly from acquaintances to this, so I wanted to be sure the groundrules were clear, mutually."

[rhinemaid]

"If it makes you feel better, I wasn't planning on respecting you in the morning." To be fair, she generally didn't give the impression of respecting him in the evening, either. It was a game, though; she was bossy with him because he let her be, not because of any illusion on either of their parts that she was authoritative or he was obedient.

Playing pretend. Pretend you're fine. Pretend you don't wait for the water to turn on you. Pretend you don't get claustrophobic in bathrooms with clean white walls and mirrors. Pretend you don't half-hate every human walking around like they're better than you, pretend you could ever be normal, pretend-

Pretend that you're authoritative and he's obedient. It was more fun.

[deservesadaisy]

"You never respect me," he observed, amused. "Though I suppose I should make some arrangements for breakfast, if you're staying until morning. This is why I generally prefer hotels, you know." Because life should have room service at all times.

[rhinemaid]

"Well," as she took a sip of the wine, "I should probably wait to go home. You never know what kind of immoral people might be catching the el at night."

...more or less immoral than Ivan? Hard to say.

[deservesadaisy]

"We'd hate for you to run afoul of anyone dangerous," he said, with a straight face.

[rhinemaid]

"You're an ass." That was fine, though; it didn't even sound slightly like a genuine censure. Besides, she'd started it. "I blew off whiskey and honey for this, you know. Cynthia made me tell her your name, job and marital status."