undergrounds | Open to all!

Entry tags:

Open to all!

1.

It was the longest day of the year. Which, naturally, meant it was the shortest night of the year. Which meant that any hunting Thomas wanted to get in, he'd need to work fairly quickly. While there still were plenty of hours in the night, naturally, he had to keep human behavior in mind as well. If he waited too late, then there wouldn't be too many people hanging around. Adding in the fact that he liked to flirt and charm people into going somewhere private with him to feed…well, those things took time, and seeming too determined to be alone with someone could make them suspect something was up.

And so he had to work fast to make sure he didn't seem like he was in a hurry. In the last few hours before sunset, he'd showered, shaved, and made sure all clothes and wig were neatly groomed and in place. Just a bit of wig glue around the outer edges to make sure nothing too embarrassing could happen, and he was up and ready to head out the door.

As he was heading to the nearest bar to start his rounds, however, Thomas caught the sight of someone cutting through an alley. Curious, he decided to check things out. If he was lucky, he'd find he was able to cut his hunt short tonight. If that wasn't the case…well, he could always move on. With his vampire strength and healing, he wasn't exactly concerned with muggers and other potential threats that lurked in the shadows, after all.

2.

He'd never been here before, but with a name like that, how could he not check it out at least once? While Thomas generally preferred women to men, it was less of a rule, and more a general guideline for when all other things were equal. Like how he preferred sleeping with humans to other vampires, or urban fantasy in his TV shows to historical fiction. If it was good, he didn't really care which he was getting. Jean-Claude, for example, had been one such individual whose good looks and charm would be enough to make Thomas ignore two of his typical guidelines. The dancers that were hired here? Each one was also easily attractive enough to fall into that category as well. Clearly, whoever did the hiring had a very good eye.

Ordering a beer, Thomas decided to settle down and enjoy the show, drinking in the sights. Though the beat of the music drowned out the sound of the dancers' heartbeats, sometimes the steady rhythm almost reminded Thomas of the sound of a pulse, and he pictured the blood pumping through their veins as they poured their energy into the dance, and that made them all the more enticing.

3. Wildcard. Have another suggestion? Let me know at serpentcyborg

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I'm beginning to see that."

He'd had a good thirteen years before he'd had to pay any real attention to the politics around him, he supposed, so there was that. It was the second part of what she said that really surprised him, though.

"What do you mean?" he asked, thought there was really only one thing she could mean. "Because if you mean what it sounds like, that would be more like a shark giving up fish than AA. I like people just as much as anyone, but there's no reason they can't be friends and food."

"I notice sharks and fish aren't friends much." Natasha comments, but without any bite. Mostly, she sounds tired. "I can't think of a better analogy though. Some people drink and they can stop at one or two, they don't do things they regret. Other people don't have that skill."

"What about the little fish that clean a shark's scales?" Okay, he was getting off topic, here. "I can see why that would be a problem. It just seems like more than alcoholism. It might be hard, but you can give up alcohol. This is more like food addiction. Sooner or later, everyone has to eat."

Which in Thomas's opinion made it a much more challenging problem. Giving up something was one thing, but someone being addicted to something they needed? Was quite another. After all, it wasn't something she could just avoid forever.

Natasha supposes she can't argue with the comment about remora, but hat's not really the point. The point Thomas does make is dangerously close to some of he thoughts she's had herself.

She's never really expected this to last forever, though.

"You're right. Sooner or later, you have to eat. Hopefully by then I've figured out how to be friends."

"Here's to hoping," he said, taking a small drink.

Thomas could certainly understand the sentiment. Sure, he'd had his struggles with accidentally draining people when he fed, and while not feeding while he sorted things out was never even considered, the hunger was just too strong. Still, he never liked the fact that he was killing his meals. Eventually he got it under control through trial and error. He doubted he could keep it under control even now if he was starving, though, so it didn't seem like the best solution.

"Maybe someone older and more experienced could help you out with that?"

"I'm not sure most older vampires would see it as a problem." A little catch of bitterness snakes into her voice as she speaks. Hadn't that been part of the problem. No one in Red Room had cared who she killed. It was expected, at least from time to time. It was what they did.

She shakes her head and takes a much larger drink. One of the many ways she tried to control her thirst.

"I think the theory I'm working with at the moment is that maybe I can work on seeing people as friends first. Then..." Then it wouldn't be so easy to see them as food.

"Probably not most. But some."

Thomas knew quite a few vampires who wouldn't care. His own sire had let him kill quite a few times without trying to intervene. However, there were exceptions. Evie, for example, had seemed quite concerned over the well being of humans.

Of course, he supposed it made sense if she didn't already see people as her friends that it might be harder to control herself at times.

"I suppose it helps that I've never had issues with that part. Not that that's always kept me in control."

But it did give him the motivation to try and control it, at least.

"I had a precocious youth," Natasha responds to that wryly, preferring not to get into more details. She's spoken with it some, with some of the older vampires around here. Their reactions range from Evie being respectful if confused, to Cesare's downright derision.

She could imagine Evie being helpful, but it's hard to know how it would go actually asking.

"Control is difficult. Especially early on. Even if you have reasons to try."

"Believe me, I know a lot about that."

Control still wasn't easy, though it seemed to become more manageable the longer controlling himself was his normal. Still, he wasn't sure if denying herself would help. After all, the times when he most felt control would slip away was when he'd missed a meal.

"I'd totally lose control if I tried what you're trying."

"I'd be lying if I said that wasn't a risk." Because it is. It is absolutely is. Natasha has had moments that tested her control almost to the breaking point, but she hasn't given in yet.

"I wouldn't have been able to when I was younger, I think. But I'm not the first person to try it."

It sounded like a futile endeavor from Thomas's standpoint. One he could understand, but one he couldn't imagine someone succeeding at.

"I can see why you'd want to try it, but the real question is, how many of them succeeded."

There were a lot of things that Thomas could list off that someone had tried to do, after all. Many of those things never had a chance of success.

"It all depends what you consider succeeding." She smiles slightly as she says it, giving half a head shake. She's put a lot of thought into this, and she doesn't mind if it shows. Victory is always a matter of having realistic expectations. "I don't have to last forever. Just long enough to figure some things out."

"Well, then, I wish you the best of luck."

He knew he certainly wouldn't last long enough to learn anything, but who knew? She might be able to manage it, if she'd lasted this long...however long this long was.

"How long have you not been drinking for, anyway?"

"Five months." If her tone sounds just a little too tight as she says that, there's a reason. It hasn't been an easy five months. There's been more than one time she didn't think animal blood would actually be enough to get her through, and more than one time when it almost wasn't.

"You've managed it longer than I could."

Two nights were longer than he could do it, though, so it really wasn't saying much.

"Maybe you'll have a shot, then, if you've manage that long. My hunger would be way to strong for that."

"You're young," she says, as though to most vampires she weren't almost as bad. Still, both of them were young enough that a few decades made a difference. "It gets easier with practice."

"Well, I look forward to that, then."

It would be nice for his hunger to not be so desperate, so clawing so much of the time. Though he suspected he had quite a while to wait before it would be easy, certainly a while where he could go five months without feeding to sort things out.

"You seem to b doing pretty good so far, considering." She knows it's only so encouraging, but she means it. She's already seen him showing restraint. His attitude here is... encouraging. She might envy it a little.

"Thanks, I try." The whole 'not wanting to be a complete monster' thing was something that was very important to him, after all. "But then, I've always wanted to be more of a lover than a killer."

Sure, he'd been the latter before due to the fact that the predatory nature of a vampire made that a difficult thing to avoid, particularly since his sire didn't care if he killed, or if he was upset by what he'd done. Still, control had always been a thing he wanted, so he worked hard to maintain it.

"Is that so?" The look she gives him is amused; her words, wry. "Sounds a lot more fun, I'll give you that. Too bad incubus wasn't an option."

"Not that I was exactly given any options regardless, but considering what I'm usually doing when I feed there doesn't seem to be much of a difference," he pointed out, grinning when he reached the second part of that sentence. After all, what was an incubus but a creature that sucked the life out of people while having sex with them?

Natasha laughs at that, willing to be in on the joke. "The two things do seem to go together an awful lot."

"Of course," he said was a mischievous smirk, "Why wouldn't they? After all, there's nothing more intimate than penetrating someone while they're inside you." Or technically, their blood is inside you. Same thing. "Might as well throw sex into the mix and go all out."

"So it's just going for broke," she says, laughing a little at his logic. Blood and sex went together often, though. Even for those of them that weren't usually sleeping with the humans themselves.

His smirk widened. "Essentially, yes. Also, sex is fun, and it's physically possible to have sex and drink at the same time, so there's that."

Although he had to admit, there was something particularly appealing to combining blood and sex that went beyond multitasking.

Edited 2016-07-28 02:33 (UTC)

(no subject)

outstandingbalance - 2016-07-28 03:47 (UTC) - Expand

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only