psychoshenanigans | Accord // Canon

Entry tags:

krista,
tabiana

Accord // Canon

So it turns out that going into town was kind of a bad idea. It was really cool and plenty beautiful, nothing like the boring reality that Seattle offered. But the more time she spent out there, the more she started to feel kind of tired and sick. She would have tried to shake it off if it wasn't for the headache several hours in and the feeling that something was horribly wrong.

It's actually the prior that got her to finally turn around, but the latter helped.

She she's been lazing around the tower ever since then, waiting for the feeling to go away. It's gotten better, but she still feels kind of drained and hurt. It reminds her of that banality stuff that Alysia would talk about. She doesn't have much experience with it, but she's starting to think that maybe the city will be an infrequent destination for her.

And then she starts thinking over all the places in the tower she could go (since she isn't about to sleep, it's only 2am) and comes to the conclusion that the only place she hasn't visited are those baths that Tabby talked about. Wary as she is, they can't be weirder than the girls' shower room at the dorms, right?

...and who would be there at 2am, anyway?

Which is exactly how she ends up there, hanging out by the edge of the baths with her clothes nearby (because high school pranks and teasing have made her paranoid about that kind of thing). She'll go back and forth, switching every couple of minutes between zoning out and resting or half-swimming aimlessly around her little radius of self-claimed space.

Not that there's anyone else here to invade that space. Of course.

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Yeah, the only things that are awake now are monsters, really. And one of them stirs and opens their eyes when ripples come teasing through the water.

She hasn't been sleeping of course, but she has been soaking for a while... and that's just damn relaxing, no matter who you are. Living or dead, there's really nothing quite like spending a couple hours in a nice warm bath. Sure, she's been spending those hours lying at the bottom of the bath with most of her clothes on--how else is she going to get really clean?--but the effect is pretty much the same.

And hey, from what she can see, her new friend looks small and human. That's a big plus. So, she lurks in place for a while, waiting for them to relax and settle down a little, before she finally pushes off and quietly gliiiiides along the bottom...

Alas, Tabby's movements are invisible to her. There are no ripples that make it up to the surface of the water. She's resting again, listening to the emptiness of the huge room around her, but there's no splashing to make it up to an echo. She's too drained to even bother being conscious with kenning, and her eyes are closed.

So really, she's only got a weird nagging feeling to go on. It feels like she's being watched. That isn't exactly weird to her anymore, but it still gets her to crack her eyes open, glance around, and push herself up a little.

Even underwater, she can sense that little change. It's a predator thing--getting so tapped into your prey that the little bell ringing in the back of their mind is almost audible.

It's exciting.

The girl goes to push herself up a little bit and-- oh, hey, an arm. That'll work. She doesn't waste time once she gets close. She'll be a dark shape in shallow water, so she's gotta move quick. Pushing herself forward, reaching, grabbing fast through the water for that wrist so she can pull herself up and the girl down at the same time.

The fingers suddenly wrapped around her wrist probably would have made her shriek if had the physical capacity to do so. But she doesn't--so she can only be dragged down in a very ungraceful, flailing, splashing sort of way.

She doesn't even get the chance to correctly determined what that horrible dark shape is or what it feels like, because she's too busy trying to kick away and find air again.

It's a shark attack! A shark with hands, grabbing for the girl's other wrist so she can wrestle her under control. Want to get her to stop slipping and splashing, up against that edge of the bath. Don't want her to drown, of course. That really wouldn't do anybody any good.

And, as she's grappling for control, there is moment with a clear enough view of her target's face... and she can't help but break out into a grin.

After gurgling leftover water out of her throat-- "Hi again."

There's a bit of a sputter when she's up against the wall and suddenly realizes just who is in front of her, water spewing out of that terrible, pointed mouth of hers.

"You..." And then, in as much of a hiss as her voice can manage, "Let me go! What the fuck is your problem--?"

Oh, well. Her problem is that she's hungry. The girl really should have guessed that part. She knew what kind of monster she was, after all.

Guess it's time for her to find out what vampires are supposed to be like. Really, she's teaching her a valuable lesson here.

So, before anyone can come in and interrupt this lesson, she moves in. Pushing the girl's face aside with her own, she bites for her neck with generally more care than she usually bothers with. Hooking teeth under the corner of her jaw, fishing for right where she wants them to be before digging in.

She doesn't want to make more of a mess than she has to. The baths are nice.

The vampire looming over her is a lot stronger than she looks--and Krista isn't exactly the pinnacle of physical ability either--so her last attempts at struggle are completely futile. She tries to find the focus to make her magic work, but it's overshadowed with the realization of her own certain doom. She may have been spoiled with the last vampire she met, but she's not stupid. Feeling teeth at her neck is scary, but pretty much exactly what she'd expected.

She tries to make a sound of protest, she really does, but it doesn't work now that she's different and actually having to feel all those sharp teeth digging into her neck is so ephemerally horrifying and disgusting--but that's just the thing. Suddenly, shockingly, it's not anymore.

So it's probably a good thing she can't make much noise, otherwise this would be really embarrassing.

There we go. She's got her well enough that the fight falls out of her, and that's at least a good start. But she feels too exposed here at the edge of the bath, so... as soon the struggles stop, one hand lets go of a wrist, the other shifts its grip to the girl's arm, and she pushes herself back.

Keeping what focus she can spare listening and watching for intruders--however much of her brain isn't currently wrapped up in a predatory haze--she moves away from the edge of the bath, out into the water. Just moving her prey a little bit, somewhere safe, somewhere she can really pay attention to what she's doing.

She moves easily enough, also embarrassing (but less immediately so). Being shuffled along gets something out of her, a little murmuring of protest, a tiny move to try getting Tabby away from her, but she gives up almost immediately. She's lost--and her own survival isn't even occurring to her anymore.

Though Tabby will probably be surprised to find that he blood's not going to taste particularly human for very long. It tastes of pride, whatever that's like, and defiance. It tastes young and sharp, almost bitter.

It would be great if it registered in her head as not tasting human. But no... to her, it hits her as being almost too human. Some part of her brain assumes it's because the girl is young, maybe. New and full of life and frustration and boldness and she can taste it. It's wonderful.

There is always that indescribable absorption of whatever life is made out of when she feeds--warmth and wholeness that doesn't happen any other way and fades so fast afterward... and this is even more. Not in the way that Robin's is 'more,' simply crawling with a life of it's own, this is bringing her things that she's forgotten.

She's starting not to care how delicate the girl looked. Getting a little overzealous, she twists her jaw. Like maybe if she taps in deeper, she'll hit something even better.

She makes a noise, nerves and muscle twisted (shredded) in those disgusting teeth and she's starting to grab at things, like Tabby's soaked clothes, trying to latch on and shove her away at the same time (effectively doing neither, which is of no help).

But then her breathing starts to get kind of erratic and her motions become less... well, less there. She's getting dizzy and tired, welling up underneath the otherwise too-pleasant sensation. She doesn't have the mind to try for words, though, so it's up to Tabby to notice that her prey is starting to fade out.

She does notice that the girl is starting to lose consciousness. ...But she also notices that the water is changing color, black bleeding out of her prey like millions of little spiders, spilling and spreading through the water and crawling up over the edge of the bath.

She tries to hang on longer, because her fangs are sunk deep into youth and ego, but... after a minute of winning the battle, she starts thinking. She thinks about the fact that someone is going to find her, find them like this and Tabby's days without real consequence here are going to come to an abrupt end. She can't keep this up forever, her luck has been much too good here, so that must mean that something bad is coming to balance the scales. It would be coming very soon, and here she is making a gory mess in the middle of the public baths...

In a bubble of sudden panic, she lets go of the girl, pulling out her teeth with a little toss of her head.

...She doesn't manage much more than that, though... because she's sinking. Oops.

And then Krista is suddenly free and the effect drains out of her and leaves her with a fuzzy realization that the crazy shark vampire just drained a lot of blood and she's bleeding all over the pool. The being naked part kind of hits secondary consideration.

So in a bizarre, almost sluggish panic, she ignores Tabby completely and fishes her way back towards the edge of the pool. She has just enough strength (probably adrenaline) to pull herself up over the ledge, but does little more than collapse onto her side the moment she's up there.

This could have gone better.

Oh shit, the girl's disappearing, and leaving all her blood behind. This situation is not getting any better. She's not going to get very far like that, and Tabby sure as hell can't get away. Not with... whatever that is tangled around her ankles at the bottom of the bath. They're still going to find her, find out what she did, stake her outside where she can greet the sun.

So, with great effort, she drags herself through the water after the girl, follows the lure of blood--it is getting kind of everywhere--but she can't... really... get out of the bath. Legs are still tangled up.

There isn't really much left to do but... reach for the girl's arm so she can drag her back to where she can reach her, patch her up before it won't matter anymore.

Oh no she fucking didn't.

Krista should be scared, but she's not. She's mostly just irritated, damning herself for being so stupid and hoping that she's not about to do something dramatic like die. This would be a really shitty way to go.

So despite her lack of strength, she reaches out with her less-bloodied hand and smacks at the monster reaching for her.

"You're done. Stop it."

Ha, that would be cute if she wasn't actually freaking out over the fact that this girl might die. So she just... smacks at her in return. But harder. And then really grabs for her arm and drags, while hauling herself halfway out of the water.

"Shut up! Fuck."

The smack takes a lot of the fight out of her. The dragging does the rest. She thinks, vaguely, that now she's probably going to get eaten or torn apart by a horrible shark-faced monster, and that Anton would be very disappointed if he knew.

She'll try and reach for some glamour, though. Maybe she'll be able to make Tabby's head explode. ...Probably not, but she's not exactly thinking very straight.

Once she's got her close enough to reach across, bracing her arm on the other side of the girl's shoulders, she leans in. Clumsy about it, Krista probably gets a faceful of drippy tendrils of vampire hair in the process, Tabby heads right back to where she'd left off on her neck.

Annnd then suddenly stops short, because wow.

"Holy shit, it's red!"

This is a huge thing, really. She has to stop and just marvel for a second, eyes wide and awestruck like she's watching the northern lights.

...And then, yes, finally remembering what she's doing here in the first place. Sorry, Krista, the weirdness isn't ending yet--there is now a drugged-out vampire trying to lick your neck.

"Yeah, that's... the color of blood."

She doesn't get it--especially not when she starts to feel what she's pretty sure is Tabby licking at the wound, which is a horrible, disgusting sort of experience that sends all the worst kinds of shivers down her neck and spine.

She tries curling up on herself and wriggling away at the same time, none of which really works any better than her weak protest.

"What... the fuck, would you just... Just get off of me."

"Shutup I'm helping--" all kind of mumbled together, as she struggles to make sure that the wound is actually closed up now, around the pangs of paranoia and color and... everything else insane that is vying for her fractured attention.

But, the good news is that Krista very abruptly gets her wish.

Tabby tries to push herself all the way up out of the water, but is still quite convinced that there are plants growing around her legs. So, braced up awkwardly up on the edge of the bath, kicking and fumbling her legs, trying to get the invisible things off of her... she eventually slips.

The heel of her hand suddenly slides on the slick of blood and water, and... she splashes spectacularly back into the water.

"This isn't helping," she groans, "This is the opposite of help--"

And then a frankly impressive amount of water is splashed in her face as the vampire flails ceremoniously back in the water. She stares, her hair dripping lank and her neck all slimy from at least two-too-many things.

This is ridiculous. First the licking, now her assailant--who was previously comparable to a shark--floundering like a cat in a pool. And not one of those smart cats that like to swim, either.

She should be dead (or so she is inclined to think), but she isn't, and for some reason, Tabby's not having a very easy time of it. Maybe something about Changeling blood isn't working out so well?

When Krista reaches for her neck, she's shocked to feel that the dents, the harsh holes in her skin, aren't actually there anymore. She's healed somehow. Was that what Tabby was trying to do?

Well shit, she's not going to question it. She forces herself up, scoots over as far as she can before she feels about ready to throw up or pass out, and starts to draw on the clean tiles with her blood.

They're illegible squiggles. Supposed to be a design, but she doesn't think it's really all that picky right now.

Meanwhile, Tabby really isn't having an easy time with anything at all. Scrabbling to try and get at least onto the edge of the bath, splashing far more than necessary, it's definitely like she's fighting with something that isn't actually there.

"Get off of me-- fuck!"

Oh, and she has claws now. And whatever invisible thing is trying to keep her in the pool, it's getting viciously slashed at.

She burns some of that glamour, feels a little weaker for it. She won't complain, though. After a moment, she suddenly feels better. Not great, but the failing vision goes away. Her nausea subsides. She thinks that it worked.

She looks back up at Tabby for a moment, watches her flailing around in the water and clawing at things that aren't there, and slowly comes to the conclusion... that she looks like she's tripping balls.

Which Krista thinks she deserves, really.

So she pays Tabby very little mind as she wobbles over, starts picking up her clothes, and works on getting her underwear back on, thank you very much.

She manages to notice that the girl gets closer, and is suddenly a little more able to ignore the hallucinations. When she throws herself onto the edge of the bath right by Krista this time, she does so successfully. With another splash, her upper body is out with elbows braced on the edge, catching the girl's gaze with her (slightly crazed) own.

"Hey-- don't you fuckin' die, okay?"

Krista just manages to pull a shirt over her damp torso (which is uncomfortable when you are not suffering from blood loss) when Tabby half-beaches herself at her feet.

"I'm not gonna die," she assures her, even if it's flat and almost condescending. She looks at Tabby, tries to gauge that crazy look in her eyes, and then frowns even more.

"But if you're so worried about me dying," She reaches forward to push on Tabby's forehead with her palm. Maybe she can shove her back into the pool. "Maybe you shouldn't have drained half of my blood, you crazy bitch."

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Accord // Canon

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