( i am at one with a sea of sensations, glitter, silk, skin, eyes, mouths, desire )

[rhinemaid]

Who: Ilde Decima, Jules Grumley, Hasi Ozcelik
What: Girls Night Out
Where: Hasi's apartment, then Gutters.
When: The same evening as this and this.
Notes: part of an episodic story arc! Also, OUTFIT REFERENCE, because you all care as much as we do.
Warnings: Incidental violence, frank discussion of sexual situations. Ding me if I've missed something.

Ilde leaves Ivan's flat shortly after texting Jules, leaving a note behind (out for the evening, call you later) and heading back to the villa to change into something that doesn't say 'I sat around my boyfriend's apartment painting my toenails all evening'. (Is it really necessary to leave her perfume on everything he owns? Likely not.) It's a while before she's expecting Jules, which leaves her time for all the parts of evening preparation that she isn't going to handle with illusion (cuts her make up budget by about two thirds, that); large parts of this involve pushing Orion off the end of her bed before he can sit on the dress she just took off and trying not to speculate about exactly what's going on with Hasi and Mitchell.

She's aware (has long been aware) that she's not exactly ideal to be anyone else's sounding board or anything like emotional support, but at least she can provide alcohol, diversions and in at least the figurative sense a sympathetic ear. Maybe if it's like gifts, the thought that counts, it'll be something just that she tries. The sentiment feels too Disney to solidify and she discards it along with something feather-trimmed and probably too much for clubbing; they'll have a few drinks and do something stupid (there are tunnels deeper into Gutters that she hasn't seen the inside of and would like to) and it'll be fine.

Jules, who she gives a quick opportunity to pick through her shoe collection before they leave for Hasi's, is probably right to be slightly concerned. All things considered.

Comments

[neverbreaks.livejournal.com]

Moving quickly - perhaps just a shade too quickly, she can lose focus a bit when she's had a drink or two - she takes the trays and sets them down. "That's... interesting." Extremely strange and disturbing, also. "As long as they don't try to snort you, or something of the like, I'm sure we'll be fine." She will, however, be keeping a close eye out. She isn't sure of the nature of a vampire's strength, not Ilde or Hasi's for that matter, but she's quite capable of wreaking a bloody havoc, if the situation calls for it. Ah, but... "Can they smell it? The differences between different types of blood?"

Something like that could make her life rather difficult. Mitchell certainly hadn't made any indication that he could tell she wasn't human, but then again, Mitchell hadn't been sniffing at her, and she honestly isn't sure how that works. As a hybrid, you're left to deduce monsters, hybrids and humans by your wits or sheer luck, be it good or bad. Devils and sulfur slaves just made her skin crawl. "I'll just keep an eye on both of you, I suppose."

[norea]

"Oh," Hasi says, sinking down to the sofa to sit with legs crossed, "you don't have to worry about me, I promise. I'll slink off by myself for a bit, but it's the usual stuff where I'm concerned."

She smiles, shrugging.

"My blood seems normal, as far as I know." That's the point of the so-called 'Sisterhood of the Oleander' and their premise--lure them in, snap down like some kind of venus flytrap. ...witchcraft is especially charming in Hasibe's world. She carefully portions sushi onto a plate. "Most of them don't look very hard, though. They may be so-called members of the damned, but in a nightclub, everybody's superficial."

[rhinemaid]

"Some of them can smell it, though," Ilde adds, draining the last of her shot-glass as she shifts off the sofa to sit on the floor, investigating the offerings of sushi and picking out what she wants to eat. "Not all; there are so many different breeds. Some of them aren't even magic."

She sounds mildly disapproving of this; she's got in the habit of expecting to be able to feel vampires, and when she can't it's a disconcerting moment of dead space where she doesn't think there should be any. That and she disapproves of science-based vampirism on principle.

[neverbreaks.livejournal.com]

"Again, I hardly know whether to be comforted by the common ground, or mildly disturbed." It's not a surprise, no, but hearing it like that is different.

Since she has never used chopsticks in her life, Jules is going to try to, as gracefully and apologetically as she can, eat sushi with her hands. Actually taking the sushi is an interesting exercise, making her turn it around to inspect it, intrigued by the seaweed wrapping, the rice, the different fillings. The entire thing is a nice distraction, as if she can make herself less of an open book. "If something isn't human but isn't magic, is that bad?"

She's not certain about the Devils and their contracts, how you'd qualify that, but the monsters are probably closest to some breed of alien. And, well, that would make her particular breed of something rather less than magical-- though that concern is bumped away by her investigation of wasabi.

[norea]

Hasibe is a bit demonstrative with her own chopsticks, in case Jules wants to give it a go. She considers Jules' inquiry, though, a bit of rice in between said chopsticks as she pauses. "I don't find it bad at all, no. It's just a bit outside my experience...everything for me is all mythology and ancient tradition and blah blah prophecies."

She takes a bite of her rice, and after that, says, thoughtfully, "I think I appreciate the diversity."

[rhinemaid]

"No," Ilde agrees, thoughtfully, making a gesture with her chopsticks that isn't demonstrative so much as 'she talks with her hands even when not signing', "I don't think it's bad, it's just especially odd with vampires. And mutants threw me for a little while."

Especially since they're not at all what she's used to associating with the term. At all.

[neverbreaks.livejournal.com]

Ah ha! Grateful for the lesson, Jules does... try. Slowly. Awkwardly, and she's trying not to hold the things too hard in case they snap. If you recall the scene in Beauty & the Beast when he's trying to eat porridge? It's not entirely dissimilar to that. Alas, poor Jules. Eventually, she just spears a piece of sushi with one of the chopsticks, and seems amused enough by her method to carry on.

Mention of prophecies makes her tense - visibly, before she can catch herself. The followers of prophets stripped her life down and branded her. A false prophet, she's sure, the mad Sebastien, but it makes no difference. Fanatics are fanatics, and their word is law. "Prophets!" It's meant to sound bright, and sort just barely passes for it. "How fortunate."

But she's not eager to talk about it, more viciously harpooning her next piece of sushi. "'Mutant' isn't really the most flattering term, is it? It conjours all kinds of rather unpleasant images." A bit more thought, and she glances between the two, not sure if this is a good question or a bad one. "Is there anyone you two have to be wary of?"

[norea]

Hasibe watches the sushi piece die a second death at the end of Jules' chopstick, and then refocuses on her own meal. She considers the question, using eating as an excuse for a temporary lull on her end. She also exchanges a glance with Ilde. When she does speak, it's casual--she doesn't really know if she's properly afraid of most things, which is residual from her ancestry in ways she doesn't fully understand, but she does know who the threats are.

"There are certain organizations here in Baedal," she says, South Carolina island drawl thickening there, "of whom I do not approve."

[rhinemaid]

"Vigorously," Ilde says, with a very faint smile that probably doesn't do much to provide any contrary impression to the one of her that's so unsettled Jules periodically. "I disapprove of them vigorously."

[neverbreaks.livejournal.com]

Interesting.

Before she has a chance to think that maybe it's poor manners, she draws her cigarettes from her pocket and drags one out with her teeth-- ah. But then she glances at Hasi. "Do you mind?" And, rather unnecessarily: "Smoking. Inside?"

It can wait, at any rate. "The one that mucked about with the-- what did you call them? Cruro... cru... flesh and blood eaters?"

[norea]

"Oh, God, no," Hasi says, brightening up, "if you don't mind, I will, too, actually."

But she's got her own cigarettes, and they are Black Devils in rose (or sometimes chocolate), because she's so particular about her vices when she has the room to be. She reaches for them deftly, watching Huan leave the room out of the corner of her eye.

"Crurovores. That'd be the Candlelighters." She takes a drag once she's lit up. "But make no mistake, anyone who's not human is a target one way or another."

[rhinemaid]

"That's not a bad idea, actually--" cigarettes, Ilde means, and she has...Ivan's, actually, she lifted them out of his jacket before she left his flat. (She's the best girlfriend; he's getting used to it.) Settling with hers and swallowing sushi, she says, "Cruorvores are like the gateway drug. They're an easy target; it's hard to argue that flesh-eaters aren't bad. It's a smart place to start. But it's easy to connect to the rest, if you've been paying attention."

...which she has. For some time, now.

[neverbreaks.livejournal.com]

"The more the merrier." Jules' cigarettes are not near so classy, but they'll do. There's a certain practiced ease to how quickly the match sparks and the warm glow finds its way to her cigarette, brightening as she inhales. (And a rushed nervousness to how quickly she puts the match out, too, if any are feeling especially observent. )

"Thank you, crurovores." A long moment, and she idly exhales her smoke in little rings, steals away another piece of sushi before continuing. "Going after people who choose their own survival over that of another makes sense," she starts, but it's a line of thought she's been picking at for years, courtesy of her father. "But it's inherently hypocritical."

[norea]

"Everybody feeds off somebody?" Hasi guesses. "The ones they targeted, they were the vampires feeding off bagged, who were trying to behave themselves. That's pretty sadistic."

She remembers Mitchell's reaction when she told him about that, and briefly is caught up in wondering what that reaction entirely meant again. The lapse back into thoughts she didn't want to have frustrates her--she's meant to be going out to avoid thinking of him, why let it creep back up on her? So she reaches to finish off her own sushi plate.

"And not," she adds, "in the way that I conventionally enjoy."

Madam.

[rhinemaid]

"Not all monsters are created equal," Ilde drawls, half-bitter and not bothering to make it especially clear in which of the many possible directions she means that. "And-- Baedal is a closed system, so the usual rules don't work for anyone." Everyone makes compromises; Gutters, in its way, is a compromise. "That's useful if you're trying to create chaos. It makes it easier, and immediately more destructive."

In Baedal, ultimately, there is no where to run. Not really. It's one of her least favourite things about this city, and it must be acknowledged that there are more than a few things she's coming to be attached to. If it weren't for Sonja - if it weren't for the enclave and for commitments she's made elsewhere - then maybe she wouldn't be so committed to finding a way out. After all, she's never going home. That's not what returning is about.

"In the way we don't like," she adds, helpfully, riffing off Hasi's last note.

[neverbreaks.livejournal.com]

"I think that goes a bit part sadistic," Jules replies rather darkly, and that pang of Hunger in her gut is already making this conversation weave a new tapestry, story unfolding into a bloodier scene with each stitch. The Candlelighters might merit some investigation. "I think there's a monster inside everyone. It's just a matter or not of whether they indulge it." She shakes her shoulders a bit, an effort to loosen the muscles and banish the tension that keeps creeping over her. "Being human doesn't necessarily mean you have a monopoly of, or a headstart, in the matter of virtues."

That said, she does chuckle. "When you repeat each other like that, it makes me feel like I'm being inducted to something." Another piece of sushi gone, and she pushed the plate away with the happy sigh. "The sushi was an amazing decision, Hasi. I think it's all I ever want to eat from now on."

[norea]

"We're dragging you into the cult of clubbing, and yes, excellent seafood," Hasi says, rising with her cigarette in hand, "but you're right that humans don't necessarily have an advantage. I'm always telling people I don't even think 'good' exists."

It's all just shades of grey, in her mind. She straightens her robe, which has begun to slip over one shoulder.

"But now, you know, I'm going to go into my closet and get a few options for you. Are you ready?"

[rhinemaid]

"The idea of humanity as aspirational or inherently better is offensive if you've spent much time around humans," Ilde observes critically, quieter, but it's no secret that she has some strong feelings on the subject and she doesn't dwell much more than that. Instead--

"You're completely ready," to Jules. "You loved my shoes."

[neverbreaks.livejournal.com]

She can only bite her tongue in response to Ilde's comment. Going into her feelings and justifications about why humans are better - and she still feels that, despite everything. Even her own earlier comments aren't quite the accurate reflection of how she feels, but going into it and trying to be vague is far too complicated.

As for good not existing, she couldn't say if that was comforting or terrifying, as a concept.

"A group I'm happy to be part of." With an amused look at Ilde, she nods. "I suppose I am. Shoes are a fantastic method of assessment." A long, and slightly dramatic, drag of her cigarette: "lead the way."

[norea]

Hasibe's bedroom is more organized than one might perhaps expect, with a little vanity in one corner, a bookshelf, and a bed with a headboard made out of curving, carved metal. She has a large walk-in closet, although she says, ruefully, over her shoulder: "This is not nearly big enough. It's overflowing."

Already.

She starts picking out dresses one and two at a time, dropping them on the bed. "I think black, yes? Black is good. And it has to be a club dress, nothing too Audrey Hepburn."

[rhinemaid]

"That was the best part of moving into the villa," Ilde reflects, sitting on the edge of Hasi's bed and taking care not to ash on anything (of course she brought the tray with her). "Much more space."

[neverbreaks.livejournal.com]

Oh my.

With all those clothes in sight, Jules is considering putting out her cigarette then and there, as a terrifying mental montage storms through her mind with the force of a thousand inspiring eighties hits. She settles for just apologising quietly and resting it in the ashtray Ilde so considerately bought along, and then starts to nose around the clothes.

"Black sounds good, and I don't know what Audrey Hepburn looks like, exactly, so I imagine we're safe on that front." The sad disadvantage of living constantly on the move in a post-apocalyptic world; you learnt about some things, and thoroughly failed to discover others. "What about this one?"

There's so many clothes that it's almost overwhelming, but she fishes it out and holds it up. "Yes, no?"

[norea]

Hasibe keep her cigarette in hand, the other on the corresponding hip, as she considers the dress critically. "Depends. I think you should show more leg, personally, but I almost always err on the side of 'more skin.'"

She has an entire system worked out for how to show skin, in fact--when it's appropriate, when it's not, where to show, how much to show. It's not dissimilar to her overly complicated practice of cheerfully torturing her lovers with her apparel, which involves a heavy reliance on layers of lingerie (slips and more) worn partly for fashion and partly just to be a huge tease.

[rhinemaid]

Ilde critically examines Jules' legs in order to better give an opinion, but ultimately tips her hand-- "No, I think more leg, too." Her own outfit is almost modest given where they're going, but 'almost' is probably the important part of that sentence.

[neverbreaks.livejournal.com]

"More leg it is." Hmm. Hmm. Another quick browse, carefully holding the current dress to others so that she definitely does grab one with more leg potential, humming quietly-- and it gives way to a quiet sound of victory as she grabs another two. "More leg, yes? Do we we want 'more leg'" once again, the dress is held up, "or 'more leg'?"

And you best believe she waggled her eyebrows with the second one. Oh, Julia.