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Post by 𝕊’𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕖 on Apr 25, 2021 3:42:24 GMT -5
Hi this is just a weird vampire 1x1, carry along
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Post by 𝕊’𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕖 on Apr 25, 2021 3:42:35 GMT -5
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Post by CreamCrow on Apr 25, 2021 3:44:21 GMT -5
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Post by 𝕊’𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕖 on May 5, 2021 4:19:40 GMT -5
  Rafael La Fayette champion of mammon
- -> Europe
Padstow, England
”Tell me again, what you heard?”
”A town, sir, in the English countryside, Padstow, it’s a human dominated town with a small population, but supposedly something happened to it, I’m not sure on the details, I just know it’s...it’s empty, the entire town, as if everyone in it just...disappeared.”
Padstow...Rafael had never heard of a place called Padstow before, however he paid very little attention to the human towns that had popped up since the reveal.
Rafael frowned, leaning back in his chair. ”Why come to me about this?” He asked, stark yellow eyes trailing across the vampire before him.
The vampire in question maintained eye contact. ”Because if entire human towns are being wiped out, the champions need to know about it, hunting is scarce enough as it is nowadays, more and more vampires are going cold, we can’t afford to lose more hunting grounds,” he replied steadily, though even then, Rafael could tell there were some words left unsaid.
Blame seemed to be the most obvious one. He could hear it in the bite.
”I’ll check it out,” Rafael decided, rubbing a thumb along a small squirrel skull he held in the palm of his hand. ”If this turns out to be nothing though, I’m coming back for your head, I’ve got better stuff to do than take a trip to England,” he said, pushing himself up to his feet.
Rafael wasn’t entire sure if he believed him, entire towns going missing seemed unlikely, however it was...intriguing, to say the least, worth a look of anything else.
— — —
Silence.
Dusk had fallen in the town of Padstow, the only time of the day where one might find vampires and humans alike.
However this time, there was nothing.
Rafael kept his head bowed low, allowing the tips of his hat to shield himself from any remaining light in the sky as he strutted down the street in Padstow. Everything was quiet, and not the usual hush that fell over human settlements as night seeped through their glass windows.
No...
This silence was different.
No quiet whispers or doors locking, no dogs barking or bats flapping, no scurrying about inside the houses as the lights turned on and the curtains closed.
Instead there was just...silence.
A breeze blew past him and despite how soft it had been, Rafael heard the slight sound of a whistle as the wind fled past his ears.
He made a face, kneeling down as he pressed a hand on the dirt road.
No footprints, not even a scent of recent steps.
”...Okay,” Rafael started slowly. ”This is weird.” Now he was glad he has decided to check it out.
Dusting his pants off, Rafael got back to his feet and tilted his head to the side, catching sight of a house in the distance. Houses were always spread out nowadays, it was rare to find them pressed up against each other like the cities of old.
Striding across, Rafael walked alongside the house, his hand pressed up against the glass walls as he trailed his fingers across the surface while he walked, peering inside.
There were no lights on, nor did he spot any cowering humans.
Odd.
After all, it wasn’t as if these houses offered somewhere to hide.
Finally, Rafael stopped once he had reached the door, and, thinking about it, he placed his feet firmly down on the mat.
There was no saying on it, no greeting of welcome.
Those mats had been the first to go after the reveal.
Rafael tilted his head to the side, eyes hovering over the door handle and after a small pause, he reached out for it and twisted the door open.
The dark wooden door creaked as Rafael pressed it against the wall, and after a moment’s hesitance, he gingerly stuck his head inside, eyes narrowing as his body actually entered the house.
A house yes, but no longer a home.
Nodding curtly for himself, Rafael walked inside and began to look around. An eerie sort of sensation that he hadn’t felt in over three hundred years pricked down his spine.
For the first time in centuries, Rafael didn’t quite feel safe.
Being a vampire had its perks, and one of those perks included a rather large sense of confidence wherever he went. He knew to avoid the sun and he was plenty capable of fighting off anyone - vampire, human, or other - if they tried to attack, he couldn’t die like humans did and he had never once gone without food for more than a week.
It left him rather self assured in his ability to take care of himself, no matter where he was.
Yet, something heavy lingered in the silence here, and that something was enough to make Rafael uneasy.
Rafael stepped back for a moment and gave his body a quick shake. ”There, problem solved,” he reassured himself, shaking off the last of his nerves. ”If the silence is so bad, I’ll just talk to myself, after all, I’m great company to have-awh, thank you me,” he spoke, feeling the unease wash down his shoulders.
He felt a little better now, even if his subconscious was too painstakingly aware of the silence, even as he spoke it was as if his voice was merely feeding the void.
Continuing further into the house, Rafael took to humming instead, his hands tracing along the cabinets of the kitchen as he rifled through their stuff, picking a box of poptarts from the counter and opening them up.
He may not need to eat like humans did, but that didn’t mean poptarts weren’t delicious.
Poptart hanging out of his mouth, Rafael turned to head upstairs when his feet bumped into something solid on the floor.
Instantly Rafael looked down and saw what he assumed to be a human, except it was messed up in ways he had never before seen.
Skin wrinkled up, eyes caved in, mouth hung open as the teeth gripped loosely onto rotting gums, shriveled up and frail yet without a single sign of injury.
...Honestly, it sort of looked like the human version of a raisin.
Brow raised, Rafael took one last bite of the poptart before placing it back onto the counter, kneeling down to get a closer look.
He made a face, the closer look doing nothing to help it’s shriveled up appearance.
”You look terrible,” he told the dead body, poking it a couple times. ”Hmm...squishy, you haven’t lost any blood...” the realization caused the sensation from earlier to come back full force as Rafael’s face went blank. ”...You weren’t killed by a vampire,” he muttered out, mostly to himself.
Something else had killed this person, and that thought alone left no comfort to Rafael.
He had lived a long time by now and he had never once heard of a creature that killed like this.
Whatever it was...it was either before his time, or it was something completely new, and quite frankly, Rafael wasn’t sure which was worse.
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Post by CreamCrow on May 12, 2021 0:23:47 GMT -5
Temperance Simone de Bombelles
champion of beelzebub
 
The wind whispered in Temperance's ears as she rode an overgrown path. Overhanging the road were tall, leafy trees, covering specks of light from the sun that would have tried shining through mere hours ago. Convenient for her, but not so much for humans who had long since abandoned this route in favor for something brighter.
What made this trip less energy-inducing was the horse she had stolen a few nights ago. Oh, the village she took the beautiful creature from hadn't appreciated it very well. It was the cost of believing that a vampire wouldn't use a horse for travel and leaving it out in the night. Whilst they glared and yelled from their glass houses, none had the gall to step foot outside to stop her from untethering the horse and taking off with him.
It was disappointing, as Temperance was hoping to have a light meal before she set off. She had to settle for a town over and a day later instead, where she managed to catch a poor man who hadn't realized night had overtaken the day.
Replenished and sated for another couple of weeks, she had continued from there down south. There had been rumors muttered when she arrived in Brighton those few nights ago. The vampire who lay claim to the town hadn't put up much a fight when Temperance arrived to her lair and requested more information about the gossip.
They broke fairly easily and started to spill what they knew.
If only they actually knew anything aside from the name Padstow and the ever most vague, "Something happened there and nobody knows what," whilst proceeding to tell Temperance over-exaggerated various stories they had heard in town.
Temperance didn't very well care for those since they were confirmed to be nothing but stories and theories, so she left. Took a stop by the nearby settlement of humans and stole a horse.
She certainly reasoned with herself as she was doing it that she could walk and run faster than the horse could without stopping, but Temperance decided against it as she didn't want to hunt multiple times on a simple trip like this because she was exhausting more energy than saving. And also because the horse was an absolute beauty and temptation is difficult to avoid.
So, while days it took, she was finally nearing the town. She was grateful that dusk had come and night was setting in when she escaped the underbrush of nature and into the sky, though she didn't bother to shake off her head yet. She'd rather wait to see stars first.
It wasn't much distance from there to reach the settlement off the main city.
She wasn't expecting the quiet that settled into the air. As the horse- Truffe, as she had come to affectionately call him- trotted to a stop near the entrance of this particular area, the wind seems to silence itself as well. As though it was aware something had happened and it no longer wished to draw attention.
Truffe looked towards the sky before attempting to step back, away from the village they had just reached. He snorted into the air and Temperance took that as a sign to dismount and tie the horse to one of fences that acted as a marker for the town.
She stroked his muzzle and whispered reassurances, that she wouldn't take long and they could be on their way to some other part of England soon enough. Once he seemed sated and content on the side of the fence that wasn't in the town, she turned with a flair of her cloak and stalked into the town.
It was quiet. At least in the sense that life was not moving as accurately as it had been an hour ago on the road. It was unnatural to be in such a place, ironic given she was a creature of death. A creature of death just never expected to be surrounded by a lack of life.
It eerily reminded her of the first incident she had with this walk of life.
She continued to walk, taking notice of the buildings, see-through and beautiful. Temperance still believed they went rather extreme in choosing to suffer a lack of privacy rather than entrust that a door could keep them out. Perhaps it had something to do with one fact being learned before the other, but once the latter had been discovered, Temperance had hoped humans would begin to go back to the types of homes they lived in.
It was easier to get an offer inside than it was to avoid the sun during a hunt. Nowadays, one couldn't do either without being aware of the other. It was tedious.
She didn't bother with any of them yet. She scanned the open grounds, attempting to find anything of interest. A decent size piece of green fabric had gotten caught between some logs, previously chopped for a fire she assumed. She moved over to it, kneeling down to get a closer look for a moment.
"A blanket?" she mused to herself. It was not only careless to leave such a thing out, much less near critter filled logs. Though... on a closer look, "... No bugs."
Temperance, thoroughly unsettled, straightened into a standing position, glaring ever so lightly at the blanket, logs, and lack of bugs before backing away and glancing at the rest of the village.
She froze.
There was sound in the village. Either the town was not as dead as she had assumed, merely well hidden, or there was somebody else in this place with her. Like a cat could narrow their eyes, Temperance naturally gravitated to expelling more of that glow that her amber eyes provided in preparation for a confrontation.
For a moment, she wished whatever had caused this place to go vacant had left more of a mess behind. Temperance wouldn't be against a temporary glass weapon, as she began to approach the sounds of the town.
It was footsteps, tracing back to one of the houses in the village. Her eyes narrowed at the sight of an open front door. Someone had entered that house recently.
So, she did was seemed deemed sensible. At a slow pace, she circled around the house, attempting to look into the home for what was either an intruder or a fool. She almost started to ponder if she had been hearing things and if the open door had merely been indicating the abandonment of this settlement until her eyes caught movement at last.
Moving more towards that image, she was rather stunned- though really, she shouldn't be- to see a familiar face standing indoors and over what seemed to be a dead body. Words escaping before thoughts could process, she let out an inquisitive, "Rafael?"
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Post by 𝕊’𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕖 on Jun 5, 2021 15:20:27 GMT -5
Rafael La Fayette champion of mammon
- -> Europe
Padstow
The gears in Rafael’s mind turned as he went over the possible explanations. If a vampire didn’t do this, all that meant was that something else had, perhaps even, a sadistic human that took pleasure in stealing the lives of their own, however...humans couldn’t kill this cleanly and as far as Rafael knew, there were no poisons that did...this.
Quietly, he shifted his footing and grabbed the wrist of the dried out human. Yellow eyes seared into the wrinkled like appearance of the skin as he examined it, feeling the weight of the arm in his hand and the scaly, almost rusted like texture of the skin. He made a mental note to look into potential poisons later.
Rafael let out a low hum and brought the wrist up to his nose, inhaling the scent of the dead human’s blood, only to immediately recoil in disgust, his nose scrunched up as he dropped the wrist back to the floor.
The scent had been rancid, like a corpse that had been rotting in the open for too long, however there were no major signs of decomposition, the eye sockets hadn’t fallen through, the skin had not yet begun to peel away from the bones, the gums had yet to sag and the hair had yet to thin.
Evidence pointed to this human being of the recently dead.
Inhaling sharply, Rafael knew he had to get a closer look, he needed to see what remained inside the lifeless husk of a human.
So, he grabbed the wrist again, lowering his mouth down to bite into it when he paused, nose crinkling in disgust as he got another wave of the stench.
He hesitated for a moment before stopping, dropping the wrist again as he stood and began to rummage through the kitchen, opening drawers and clanging dishes until finally, he found a small cutting knife perched by a sandwich that had been left out to rot.
Quickly, Rafael grabbed the knife and fastened it tightly in his hands.
Lowering himself back down to the body, Rafael lifted the man’s wrist up and delicately sliced down the center, and as the knife cascaded down the arm, the skin began to peel away from itself, opening a large cavity right down the wrist and up to the the elbow.
At first there was nothing.
Rafael let out a quiet, inquisitive hum and dropped the knife, kneeling down to get a better look.
It was dark, and then, something began to ooze out of it.
A dark, black, gooey substance poured from the arm cavity, inching itself further down the wrinkled, dried out skin until a small dollop of it fell to the floor with a “gloop.”
Rafael dropped the wrist and shuffled back slightly, blinking rapidly as he watched what he assumed had once been blood, ooze from the human’s decaying arm like a type of toxic sludge.
Instantly, he checked poison off the list.
Whatever this was, it was of the supernatural.
Rafael watched for a moment or so longer, his stark, striking yellow eyes fixated on the ooze, blood like substance before finally, he mustered up his wits and got back to his feet.
His eyes once again flickered across the kitchen until he had found what he was looking for: a ziplock bag and a spoon.
Maneuvering so he could hover above the dead body, Rafael did his best to avoid the ooze as he leaned forward and scooped up some of the rancid smelling substance with the spoon, dropping it into the bag to study later.
Sealing the bag up tight, Rafael tilted his head curiously to the left as he looked at it. Inside the bag, the blood pulsated and oozed, as if crawling from one corner of the bag to the other in an angry fit.
Rafael made a face and tentatively poked the bag with the tip of his finger. ”What are you?” He asked out loud, brows furrowing as the gears in his brain turned and twisted in a desperate attempt to make sense of what he was looking at.
Then, he heard a noise and for a split second the hair on the back of his neck stood on end.
”Rafael?”
Almost instantly, the tension released from his shoulders and the hair once again fell flat. Rafael knew that voice, and although he should’ve been surprised, he couldn’t say that he was. It was about time for another run in with his favorite champion.
Turning on the heels of his feet, Rafael swerved to look at Temperance, a smirk dancing across his face as he folded his arms - careful of the bag of...whatever that was - and grinned. ”Temp, I’d say I’m surprised to see you here, however it seems the fates have arranged this once again,” he greeted, carefully stepping over the dead body to stand in front of Beelzebub’s champion.
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Post by CreamCrow on Jun 25, 2021 16:15:39 GMT -5
Temperance Simone de Bombelles
champion of beelzebub
The small muse in the back of her mind reminded her, just as it did every time she came across another, that the truth of immortal youth stayed constant whether it had been a hundred years or a mere five.
At his easy grin, a smile graced her own face in return. She let out a scoff of laughter at his choice of words, shaking her head as she approached closer, "You say fate, yet I have reason to believe it was by mere chance."
Her eyes flicked to look behind Rafael, to examine the thing he had been looking at previously from the distance. Shooting her glance back to him, she tilted her head as she asked, "The rumors brought you here as well?" Perhaps the gossip of Padstow had reached more than just the city of Brighton, if Rafael's appearance was anything to say about that.
Truly, Temperance had been lucky to arrive in England when she had, else Rafael may have already passed by the town. Walking through a silent, dead town was better done with company than by oneself. Going alone, like she had assumed she would be doing, left the risk of haunted thoughts coming to mind.
Given the state of the town, it seemed ever so likely. The lack of even smallest life in the place had unnerved her, reminded her too often of visits from Beelzebub who enjoyed to wreak havoc amongst the local insect wildlife. He enjoyed reminding her of their first meeting all too often.
But this didn't have his stench on it, and unless he planned to finally replace her, there was no reason for him to visit this spot in the world on a whim.
It took her a minute to realize Rafael was holding something in his arms. Amber eyes shot back towards the body and she made way past the fellow champion. Curiosity had caught her as she was rather certain the vampire didn't typically carry Ziploc bags on a whim.
And she regretted getting so near.
She flinched back, nose scrunching at the harsher smell now that she was close to the body. It smelled how it looked. As though death itself had entered into the world and taken the form of an easy-moving liquid. She hissed out, back towards Raf again, back to where she had been before, "What did this?"
It couldn't have been Raf and it eliminated any idea that vampires had ravaged the entire place. They didn't replace blood with that inky ooze. She didn't know what could.
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Post by 𝕊’𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕖 on Aug 29, 2021 16:40:33 GMT -5
Rafael La Fayette champion of mammon
- -> Europe
Padstow, England
Rafael snickered, giving his head a gentle shake at Temperance’s retort. The battle between chance and fate had sprung once again into action. ”One day, Mademoiselle de Bombelles, I will convince you of fate,” he declared as he smiled to himself. While it was a relief to see any other vampire here, as if meant he wasn’t alone with whatever had killed the humans, it was an extra relief in particular that it was Temperance of all vampires.
At the inquire of rumors though, Rafael nodded.
Pausing, he glanced back towards the body, and winced. ”...Yes, I was visited recently by a vampire, he told me about this town and suggested I should investigate,” he explained, slowly moving back towards the body. ”It seems as if it was a good thing too.”
Apparently, Rafael wasn’t the only champion told about this place, or the odd deaths that had happened here.
Padstow, England, seemed to have more secrets than one.
As his eyes trailed across the body, Raf knelt back down beside him, a silence falling over the kitchen as Temperance’s question lingered in the air. ”Im not sure,” Rafael admitted. ”Whatever it was, it wasn’t a vampire-“ Rafael grabbed the ziplock bag he had used earlier, standing back up on his feet as he offered it out to Temperance. ”This is its blood,” he explained, glancing down to the oozing black liquid as his nose crinkled in disgust.
What kind of creature could do that to someone’s blood?
”Im not sure how long you’ve been here, but I noticed a few things immediately off when I got here,” he continued. ”Its dead silent,” Rafael stated, looking out the window as the dark settled in on the quiet town of Padstow. ”No people sure, but there’s nothing else either, no animals, birds, bugs, nothing, there’s just...silence.”
Rafael had never experienced something quite like this before, which was an achievement in itself considering how old he was. Not much surprised you when you were over three hundred years old, and quite frankly, usually when something shocking happened, it was because of him.
...
He still hadn’t lived down the incident of 1902.
Letting out a low hum, Rafael stepped over the body and moved towards the window in the kitchen. ”It definitely wasn’t a werewolf or another human either, unless humans have developed a new way to weaponize their own blood,” he mused, gently caressing his chin with his hand. ”Do you think it could be humans? Do you think this is some kind of new tactic to fight against us? Maybe they’re testing out how to make their blood toxic for us, and these poor idiots at Padstow were the first test subjects,” he continued, mostly talking to himself at this point.
He wouldn’t be surprised.
Humans had never had a problem killing each other for their own benefit.
Rafael would know.
He wouldn’t be surprised if they were sacrificing small towns like Padstow to further their own investigations on weaponizing human blood.
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Post by CreamCrow on Oct 19, 2021 2:59:56 GMT -5
Temperance Simone de Bombelles
champion of beelzebub
Three was a natural number and it was the number that Temperance would be willing to put her chances on. Any more felt over excessive and merely changed the idea to being a commonality in the world. Any lower and things just happened by accident, not much "fate" to it.
Yet, she still found it sweet that Rafael thought he could convince her otherwise. An everlasting joke it would be.
Learning that Rafael had been explicitly approached by another was a startling realization, seeing as she had to approach others for the gossip. She still agreed with him that coming here and checking the damage was smart, but, "It's even better that whatever seems to have caused this mess had left before you had a chance to arrive."
There was nothing to confirm that the being behind this mess could hurt creatures like them, but simply seeing what it did to the town of humans was concerning in itself. Temperance wasn't one to talk down their status as champions, but even a champion could die as proven by any of their predecessors. And an unknown source wiping out towns was cause for concern.
Not to mention why they picked Raf to come to for this, when Rowena was five hours away in Wales. He may have been closer to the location, but they wouldn't explain how the vampire who told Rafael knew how to find him.
She could save that line of concern for later. She was here and as both of them could recognize, whatever killed these people wasn't here.
The confirmation that Rafael didn't know what was behind this wasn't appeasing. The added fact that of just what that putrid, black liquid was made her want to choke. Blood. Temperance didn't have much of an appetite in her own time, but simply knowing that the best food source at their disposal was turn into something so horrendous only made it worse in the moment.
There was nothing like taking the single most appealing food that someone enjoyed and altering it in such a way that drinking it made them want to vomit.
On the topic of their surroundings, she was reminded of the strange environment. "It was one of the first things I noticed." True silence was a difficult feeling to shake once you've known it once. "At least the humans have bodies accompanying them. I haven't seen hide nor hair of any animals out here."
She didn't know whether to take that as the wild creatures having sensed danger before humans and left while they still had a chance or whether they were more thoroughly put into the ground than the humans. And she said as much out loud to Rafael.
That was ever so more disturbing to her. The absence of all in such a way that nothing was left except glaringly obvious evidence that seemed to mock them.
She nodded her head in agreement as Rafael stated what couldn't have caused this- werewolves, humans- well. Until he put out the thought it was humans. She frowned, tilted her head, following him as he spoke. "I suppose it's possible. Doesn't seem like i's working very well so far, but if anyone would try to prevent us from feeding on humans, I suppose it would be them..."
"Doesn't explain so much what they've put into these peoples systems to cause this though. Those," Temperance said, casting her eyes back at the shriveled corpse, "look more supernaturally influenced if the state of their bodies and blood have anything to say."
She'd seen countless ways a human could kill another human, but nothing like this. Shredded skin, acid burns, actual burns, decapitation- lots of decapitation. But something to cause the body to do that to itself was something she hadn't seen before. Not to this level of efficiency, as well as driving everything else out.
And then the thought hit her. "Oh damn. We're going to have to drag the others into this."
Which wasn't a bad thing, per se. But her energy decreased at the thought of needing to explain to the other five just how them two specifically managed to be the first ones to discover this whole thing. It was always herself and Rafael that had to bring the bad news about something they discovered or did.
They were going to be self-righteous (ha) about it. Looking at the two of them all judgmentally and asking what they did this time. There was absolutely going to be a snide comment about 1902. There always was since the whole incident occurred, which was warranted but got annoying after a few decades.
She sighed and turned her eyes back to Raf, or rather, scanned past him back to the windows outside. "Think we can prolong that by a few minutes by searching through this town or is there no hope and you've already done a thorough search while here?"
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Post by 𝕊’𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕖 on Oct 31, 2021 14:21:11 GMT -5
Rafael La Fayette champion of mammon
- -> Europe
Padstow, England
Out of all the other champions that could have shown up, Rafael was glad it was Temperance, as quite frankly, she was one of the few friends he had when it came to his fellow champions. Kiora acted superior simply because she was the oldest, Rowena made it perfectly clear how she felt about him, he didn’t entirely trust Alina, he hardly spoke to Eneko, and Russell seemed to hate simply being here.
Temperance, however, was a friend, a partner in crime, and a welcoming presence. And now that they were here together, Rafael’s muscles eased up, and the hair on his neck fell flat. Nothing seemed quite as unnerving now that he wasn’t alone.
Still studying the blood, Rafael briefly glanced Temperance’s way when she debunked the human theory. ”True, I doubt humans are capable of something this extreme,” he agreed, and much to his own distaste, he pocketed the blood. It was best to keep some on hand until they could get it back somewhere for testing.
Still though, as he cast his gaze back down to the withered body, he couldn’t help but internally shiver. No supernatural being had ever done something like this before, and that in itself was entirely concerning.
...
...However, perhaps the scariest thing of all, was even Temperance said they would have to talk to the others.
Instantly he groaned and rubbed his temples. Part of him wanted to object, however no matter his opinion of the other champions, he knew she was right. This was too big to leave them in the dark. ”I know you’re right, but I can’t say I’m thrilled about it,” he commented, breathing sharply from his nose.
Luckily, Temperance offered the opportunity to stall.
Rafael slowly looked up, meeting Temp’s gaze from behind his fingers. ”...Better safe than sorry, right? We’d be foolish to call a meeting without thoroughly checking the rest of the town,” he agreed slyly, a small smirk pulling at the corner of his lips as he strode from the kitchen and towards the front door, opening it with a dramatic bow for Temperance. ”After you, Mademoiselle,” he told her.
Once outside, Rafael scanned his eyes across the rest of the town. It wasn’t large, and his already enhanced eyesight allowed for him to see a much longer distance than a human would. Though he still couldn’t see anything of major importance right off the bat.
Tapping his foot lightly across the ground for a moment, he shrugged and started walking backwards, gaze lingering on Temperance. ”I suppose we simply begin looking around,” he stated, and turned around, focusing on the nearby houses first.
The search shouldn’t take too long, however despite that, Rafael specifically found himself slowing down, procrastinating just how long it would actually take to search the area.
By the time he was reaching the end of the town, with only a few houses remaining, dawn was closing in. The sky had turned from an inky black to a mellowing blue, and although the sun wasn’t up yet, he knew their time to be out was coming to an end.
So, he sped up the process.
However, that’s when something...unusual happened.
Nearing the very end of Padstow, where a small cottage with a massive amounts of fruits and vegetables rested just passed the creek, there was movement.
Rafael almost missed it, as he wasn’t entirely expecting any movement at all.
Sharply, he turned his head towards the faint rustle of leaves, eyes narrowing in until he saw it.
A small woman with light blonde hair, was very quietly moving away from a large blackberry bush and towards the cottage.
Rafael didn’t waste a second.
Speeding across the bridge, he stopped her in her tracks. ”Why, hello human-“ just as he started to talk, the girl screamed...squeaked? It was a sort of scream squeak and instantly fell back into the bush.
”Please don’t kill me,” she begged, looking up at him with by far, the biggest doe eyes he had ever seen.
Rafael hesitated for a moment, looking her over before glancing back to where he knew Temperance was.
After another pause, he whistled to get her attention. ”Hey, Temp...” He looked back to the girl cowering in the bush. ”You might wanna get a look at this.”
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Post by CreamCrow on Feb 6, 2022 3:28:32 GMT -5
Temperance Simone de Bombelles
champion of beelzebub
She was absolutely going to mention to Rowena, or even Kiora, that they weren't keeping well enough track of this area for the two French creatures to have discovered this mess first. Or, she would, if she needed some fact to toss back at them if she or Raf were accused of causing the trouble.
Temperance was rather certain they weren't the cause of this.
She merely supposed that their venture into exploring this town could easily provide an opportunity or hint as towards what did cause it. Certainly she would never suggest something to just avoid calling a meeting of the champions, oh absolutely not. This didn't just happen to be a bonus on top of the suggestion.
She was rather glad Raf agreed with the idea nonetheless, not that she had much faith in the idea that he wouldn't agree. They were at least similar in regards to their relationship with the others.
She followed him with a lightness to her step, putting the body out of her mind as she exited the house with a simple, yet effective, curtsy at the other's polite respect and chivalry, with a sweet "Thank you, monsieur," in return.
She was in relative cheer until the reminder of the strange environment hit her once more. It was marginally better now that she could hear Raf's footsteps about the place, some sign of life, no matter how undead that life truly was, was rather reliving in a sense.
At his statement, she nodded, supposing she would linger near and around houses, stepping in and doing a quick scan of the place. Quick being a relative term for going around their houses, pondering the lives they lived, observing just what they were doing for the thing that killed them. She couldn't quite tell if fear had reached their consciousness before death or if they had been in the unknown as their blood rotted from the inside out.
She still made her attempt to keep relatively the same pace as Rafael, unwilling to quite separate to the point the two couldn't keep track of one another anymore. She'd claim it on mere inconvenience if one of them met the same fate as these humans, if it were possible, if not for the fact she'd genuinely miss his company and would rather not deal with this mess on her own.
It's why his strange increase in speed and murmur of words from a distance caught her attention, solidifying an interest when he specifically called for her name. With a spin, she turned towards his direction and tread her way over to what new thing he had found.
He certainly had the better luck at finding interesting things than she did this ever so fine day.
She blinked for a moment when she was met with the sight: Raf standing and glancing between herself and a human.
A living, breathing human.
Oh dear.
She didn't bother wasting a second, moving faster to stand near Raf, to block any other direction that the girl might think she could escape from, even if it would be pointless either way. Even taking out their enhanced abilities, the human had rather screwed herself over by falling down. All the easier, Temperance supposed.
She tilted her head, looking down with a narrowed brow at the girl, as though trying to decipher if what she was seeing was really there. "'Might want to' is an understatement, dear." Her eyes darted upwards, catching onto the sight of the cottage, before glancing back down at the girl.
"How do we want to go about this," Temperance murmured with a stiff tone, a frown creasing at the corners of her lips. "There's so many questions and we have," her eyes glanced towards the sky and she blinked a heavy sigh away, "So little time."
She glanced back to the cottage. She considered once, twice over now, scanning back and forth and top to bottom. It certainly had inconvenient glass walls all over the place, but Temperance wasn't blind to the fact that small corners and sections of the place that were... a tad bit more suitable for a vampire to be comfortable without the threat on their life through the day.
Of course, if she had to bet, unlike the other see-through homes of this little town, the human's little cottage wasn't going to be easy to walk into. Without permission that is.
Which meant, it would be more convenient to walk backwards and used one of the empty homes as a home base for the night. If only, this girl's apparent home wasn't the closest nearby, nor the fact that Temperance even wanted to deal with the idea that if she somehow ran and got back into her place, there wasn't much the two of them could do to drag her back out.
Temperance groaned aloud, letting her displeasure of her own growing idea to be known, before turning a sharp gaze on the girl. She was afraid, which was all the better for what Temperance was about to pull, since she had a feeling that neither she nor Raf wanted to spend the day trying to avoid the shimmer of the sun whilst keeping watch of a human and preventing her from trying to pull something.
So, she gave the girl a smile. It wasn't meant to be pleasant, more of a threat really, as she offered a hand to the girl. "You don't want to die, right? Well, I will promise on the behalf of myself and my friend here that we shall not harm a hair on your head if you invite us into your little home for a chat. If you refuse, well, you can take a guess what might occur. We won't need to get permission to rest inside your house."
Temperance may have been overexaggerating a little, particularly on the latter part. She couldn't imagine killing the only living human in this town, assuming there weren't more hiding in her hut, for the simple fact of the moment that they needed answers.
It was simply better that she didn't think she had much of an option here.
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Post by 𝕊’𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕖 on Sept 29, 2023 1:27:50 GMT -5
Rafael La Fayette Champion of Mammon | With Temperance & Glori
Rafael smirked at Temperance’s words as he folded his arms, staring down at the human, a glint in his eyes. He knew this as all intimidation, they needed her alive right now, she may be the only way of figuring out what happened to the rest of the town. However, that said, it never hurt to really sell the point. So, Rafael let out a chuckle and rested an elbow over Temperance’s shoulder as he leaned forward to stare at the human. “I’d hurry up if I were you, human,” he warned. “After all…” Rafael trailed off as he licked his tongue over his fangs. “I’m starting to get hungry.”The human’s eyes widened as she stared at them, her limbs trembling. However, somehow, she managed to find her voice. “You—you can come in,” she decided and took a shaky step away from the, quickly looking behind her to make sure they were following. “My house is…my house is this way, it’s the cottage across the way,” the human explained and pointed toward a small, humble cottage that sat across a little stream and bridge at the very edge of the town, not far from where they were. Rafael rolled his eyes. “Really? You’re telling me that the cottage you were just trying to enter, is yours?” Rafael snorted, sending her a look. “Wow, I would never have guessed,” he added sarcastically and sucked in a breath, already starting toward the cottage. “Come on, let’s take this inside.”
Not long after, Rafael found himself sitting at a table within the human’s cottage, while a kettle whistled angrily on the stove. He grunted in annoyance and cupped his ears, bumping his knee agaisnt the roof of the table. “Turn that damn thing off! Are you trying to kill our ears?”Standing in the kitchen, the human wrinkled her nose and sent him a look. “I’m trying to be a good host,” she argued and took the kettle from the stove. “Mum always told me to offer tea to any guests, no matter how strange they might be, and though I never had…” The human trailed off, side-eyeing Rafael and Temperance. “People of your standing—““You mean vampires?” Rafael guessed. The human huffed through her nostrils. “I was going to say French,” she corrected. “But yes, that too,” the human added quickly and turned toward the kettle. “I’ve never had guests like you two here, but you promised not to kill me, and I’m choosing to believe you.”A stupid decision really, but Rafael wasn’t going to tell her that. After a moment, the woman turned back to face them and ran her hands down her shirt to iron out the wrinkles as she tried to look somewhat dignified. “Now, would either of you two like any tea?” |
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Post by CreamCrow on Jun 25, 2024 1:51:46 GMT -5
Temperance Simone de Bombelles
champion of beelzebub
Like her companion, she was sat at a table inside this little home. Her arms were crossed over one another as they rested on the table. She was leaned forward, creases bunching up at the waist of her shirt, barely hidden by the cloak against her back. Her red head was tilted as she cooed out words, watching the girl move around the kitchen, undaunted by the threat of daylight that would be approaching them.
It was only in her nature to remind the girl that Temperance and Rafael weren't the only ones with a threat hovering nearby, even if Temperance had been the one to offer such a truce.
"In my experience, though I no doubt expect that Rafael here is familiar as well, hosts for people of our standing tend to be of like mind, or better yet, people of yours that tend to scream and cry and beg just a little more. Your kind never fail to provide a dinner and a show." Temperance let those words linger in the air for a minute before laughing, her hand raising to cover her mouth in imitation of polite society. When she lowered her hand, gently waving it up and down along the way, it was to shoot the girl a fanged smile. "I jest, I jest."
True those words were, but not from Temperance's mouth. She'd heard much of it from other vampires, though Temperance hadn't expected to ever repeat them.
At the question of tea, Temperance seemed to brighten in expression. "Ah, but listen to me, saying all this when you are being rather polite. Shame on me as well for not introducing myself sooner. My name is Temperance, and tea would be delightful. Rafael?"
When Temperance had been given a mug, she merely clasped her hands around it. She hadn't yet decided if she could stomach the liquid, however harmless it would be compared to many other options, but it was warm. Her hands were cold beneath the black gloves she wore. The tea would do little in the end to combat that, but it was soothing nonetheless.
She could have taken off her gloves ever so briefly for a more burning effect, but Temperance doubted she could resisted the urge to tap her nails against the ceramic, listening for the clear click against good tea.
Alas, there were greater issues to tackle while day was young. Temperance tilted her head once more at the girl, ready now to ask questions about the circumstances they'd found her and her village in.
"Now, I do hope you may provide us with some insight as to the events leading to such desolation here."
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