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The house in the woods is small and run-down, the roof shows signs of storm damage, the path leading up to the front door is overgrown. It doesn't look like much, but the lights are on; Phaedra is home.
Rena ran here from the bus stop. Even without Celerity she's fast enough that she probably shouldn't be running full tilt in public. So running through the woods is a great feeling, especially when you don't sweat or have to manage your breathing. She's able to turn her sprinting techniques to long term running and that feels wonderful.
So, because of that, she's extremely amped when it comes time to knock on the door. "Yo! Phaedra! I'm here!" Her knock is loud and boisterous, but restrained enough to not damage the door.
Phaedra answers the door, and like. Something about her is different. She's gone a little creepy, a little eerie, in a way that's sort of scary, like she's detached herself from this reality, like she sees too much below the surface when she looks at Rena. But there's a smile that comes to her face at the sight of Rena, so maybe everything's okay, maybe? It's weird.
"Come on in?"
Rena winces at that. She tries to hide it but her face reacts before her brain sometimes. She's dressed like normal in her ASL fuck you shirt and knit beanie, but notably she has no duffle. This is definitely the first time Phaedra has seen her sans duffle.
"I, uh, you okay?" Rena says, examining the room. "You know, when you said you lived in the woods, I was imaginin' a tent or somethin'. Not a fuckin' house."
The cottage itself is a bit of a mess, books in stacks on a table here, a few small velvet bags on a shelf there. Notebook open with a pen laid across the pages on the couch. There's a couch in the living room, see, and a small wooden coffee table. The cottage's windows are not covered by blackout curtains, and in fact, the space that Rena can see doesn't look safe to sleep in at all. And the kitchen seems to be as much of a work area as any, the pantry door removed so the shelves can be stacked with MOAR BOOKS; there's no fridge in that space, though there is a sink and a stove.
"Really? You didn't expect me to have a home?" She seems uncertain how to take that comment, holding the door for Rena. "Here, shoes off, if you don't mind."
"I mean, you said it like you were sympathizin' with me and I ain't got a home. Or least I didn't. I do now, I guess," Rena shrugs as she bends down to undo the many laces on her beaten up boots. "'s fuckin' weird. Havin' a house and a job. I'm almost respectable. You like readin'?"
"Yeah. I'm trying to catch up on everything my family never let me read." She grins. "And you were respectable before. I respected you, at least."
"You have internet out here? 'f you do, we could start watchin' some of the movies you haven't seen. I ain't much of a reader myself." Rena looks away at the complement. "I meant more like societally respectable but, uh, thanks."
"I get internet on my phone. Don't really have a computer or anything. I've never needed one, really." She shrugs, and then gives Rena a bit of a look. "And don't lie about not being a reader. Not to me. You read comics at least."
"Most people don't count that as readin'. It's easier to read than literature-" Rena pauses for a second debating whether to throw a definition in there. She settles on, "proper books, I mean by a long shot. You like the Phoenix Saga?"
"I liked it a lot. Went on from there to some other comics. Runaways, Sandman, The Wicked and the Divine." She grins. "Those are my favorites, so far. And...I'm not sure I agree with the idea that it's easier, honestly. I mean, sure, the pictures help if you don't know all the words, but like. It's a different way to get a story across altogether, you know? With its own...there's things you can do in comics that you can't in a book-book. Space holds meaning, for example, in a way you don't normally see outside of poetry. The way text is written can get an idea across, like how the speech bubbles in Sandman are different for different characters?"
She's clearly been thinking a lot about this, but hasn't really had an excuse to spill the ideas she's been chewing on. No one's asked her to write that essay.
Admitting her real reason for it being easier (she needs glasses that she doesn't have and big colorful panels are easier to read than small text) would be admitting weakness so like hell is she doing that. Fortunately for her, listening to your crush talk about their passions is the best thing in the world. "Hell yeah, I loved Runaways. And yeah, all the tricks letterers use to get shit across in subtle ways are cool as hell."
"You would like Runaways." There's a bright warm laugh as Phaedra moves over to the couch, gesturing for Rena to join her.
"Ouch. Goin' right for the jugular there, huh?" Rena says, flopping onto the couch and sitting poorly like the homosexual she is. "Forgive me if I sympathize with havin' evil fuckin' parents. Wanna feed them to the g- Wait, where are you? I don't wanna spoil shit for you."
"I'm up to where Gert died and kinda stopped there for the moment, because Gert's one of the cooler characters." She shakes her head.
"Want spoilers on that front?" Rena asks, stretching out her back. Soft couch feel good. "'Nd do you like it for the writin' or for sympathy reasons?"
"I don't mind spoilers--c'mon, I'm a Mekhet, knowing what's coming is always better. And...I like it for both, but I definitely feel a lot of sympathy with the characters. For a lot of reasons." Phaedra's eyes linger on Rena during that stretch.
Rena is tall. Just putting that out there for entirely chaste reasons. "Mean, I'm a mekhet and I don't like spoilers that much." The stretching continues, Rena moving her arms and cracking one of her elbows and letting out a soft grunt. "Well, they made a sequel series to it recently and they bring back Gert. Give Klara a story she deserves too. Wait, you met Klara yet?"
Staaaaaare. And then she catches herself, glancing off to one side, very glad she's not Blushed right now, because that means she's not blushing. "Klara? No, I don't think so, not yet. But thank fuck they brought Gert back. Is she with Chase again?"
The stretching comes to a merciful end, Rena letting out a contented sigh as she flops back into the couch. Cozy. "It's a whole thing 'cause it's been years for the livin' people and they're all adults now but they bring back Gert from the time she woulda died, so Chase is like... an adult while she's still a teen. It's good drama." Oddly relatable for a vampire, too.
"Oooooh, that would be complicated and heavy and interesting to deal with." She nods. "I'll have to look it up next time I go for comics."
"You have money? 'r are you just robbin' Barnes and Nobles like I am?" Rena asks, looking at Phaedra. She's pretty. Rena is very gay.
"I have some money. I work doing tarot readings at a Victorian burlesque lounge, and it's not like I'm paying for food or rent or anything. So I buy books. Comic books. New tarot decks." A gesture toward the shelf of velvet bags. "Though right now I'm saving for a motorcycle."
"Burlesque?" Rena says, her internal monologue leaking out of her mouth. She blinks twice and shakes her head. "Wait, motorcycle? No offense, but you don't seem like the Harley Davidson type."
"Yeah, well. Guy offered to teach me to ride. He...hm. You talk to him lately?" There's some warm flicker of amusement on her face, at how burlesque was the first thing that Rena seized on.
"A bit. He went with me to double kill a bunch of evil ghosts and he texted me the other night and asked me to come talk to him in person sometime." She shrugs again, "no clue how recent that was. Losing track of time these days"
"Losing track of time? Is that just...because there's nothing to break up your routine, or...?" She seems immediately concerned, sitting up to face Rena.
"Eh, don't worry about it. Happens sometimes," Rena lies. "'Nough about old fucks like Guy. how've you been holdin' up?"
"I'm doing okay, I think. Been hanging out with Finley and Calamity a lot in my time off work. There might be some Crone ritual stuff coming up, I'm looking forward to it. Talking to spirits. Getting to be a channel between the worlds." She smiles.
"Bug's so great." Rena agrees, her voice drenched with sisterly love. "Is Fin doin' better? They were rough on... whenever we last talked."
"Can you see 'em too? Cause I can see 'em but not talk to 'em. It's a pain in the ass, specially since ghosts don't even have the courtesy of knowin' ASL.."
"Fin's doing a little better, yeah. I spent the day sleeping with zhem after things went down, and then zhe brought a friend and visited me at work."
A pause. "I don't get to see spirits, but I know a ritual that lets me hear and talk to them. Together between the two of us, we could totally communicate properly with one. If you wanted to try that sometime? I'd be down."
"You slept with them?" Rena shouts, sitting up shock straight. "Are you two a couple or is this like a one time thing?"
When Rena shouts, Phaedra flinches slightly. "I...we're close. I don't know if we're a couple, we're not really...we haven't been on a date or anything. And even if we were dating, neither of us is interested in sex or anything? It's...I mean...zhe's about the best friend I've ever had, Rena. I want zhem to get to be safe and happy."
"Why'd you sleep with zhem if neither of you like sex?" Rena says, her voice still too loud. Some day she'll have a handle on volume but it isn't today. "I want them to be safe and happy too but I ain't fuckin' 'em!"
"I'm not fucking zhem either. I mean literal sleeping. Curled up together and spent the day at zher haven. I don't fuck. I got my share before I was Embraced, thank you."
"Oh." Rena flops backwards, pulling her long legs up to her chest. "Sorry, I just. You said sleepin' with zhem." And then two and two are further put together, "Shit, you okay?"
"What's it to you?" Still a little hurt by the assumption, she grumbles the words, looking off to one side.
"Fuck, you gonna be pissed at me for misinterpreting shit? You going to assume now that I don't care about you instead of me just bein' a goddamn moron?" Rena asks, tensing up. She looks like she's ready to fight or flight at any second. "Cause I do fuckin' care about you. You deserve to be happy. Jesus fuck."
"Yeah? Would you listen to someone who said those same words to you? Even if they meant it? Especially if they meant it?" This is said quieter, as she turns her pale gaze upon Rena.
"'f they meant it. Most people who say they care about you don't. They just want you to be what they want. 'Nd I don't give a shit about what people think I deserve. I'm takin' what I want." Rena shrugs. "I do mean all the shit I said though. I like you as you are."
"Yeah?" She tilts her head to one side. "What's it that you want, Rena?"
"I want a fuckin' life. I want people who don't piss me off to listen to and friends to do dumb shit with and Bug to be livin' their best life and me to be able to do anything I want with no restrictions. I want to keep my house and work for Guy and watch horror movies on a tv while sittin' on a couch I can use whenevr. I want more women writin' comics and less gross white dudes. I want them to make Ms. Marvel bi. I want Sam Raimi to make more horror-comedies. I wanna eat hash browns without pukin'. I wanna kiss and be kissed by a pretty girl. I want my parents to suffer for all the shit they did to me. Your and Bug's too. I want people to look at me and see me as strong and badass. I want dogs to stop existing. I want to have money without having to work for it. I want a socialist revolution." Rena lets out a deep breath. "Think that's 'bout all of it."
"Huh. That's a lot, and most of that I can't help with, not directly. Though it's my uncle who deserves to suffer, more than my parents. Especially more than my mom." She looks thoughtful for a moment, then scoots a little closer on the couch.
"I got a big appetite." Rena says, shrugging. "You can give my suffer wish to whoever you think oughta have it." Rena doesn't move as Phaedra does or even acknowledge it. If she looks it might make Phaedra change her mind.
"...am I pretty enough that kissing you would...you know?" Her eyes rake up and down Rena, taking in every inch of that tall glass of water like someone who's been out in the hot summer sun all day.
"You absolutely are," Rena says, trying her best to go for smug over confidence but instead landing on hoarse throated nervousness. "Your eyes are so fuckin' pretty."
Phaedra's smile is playful, and she scoots in closer again. "Which do you think would be better? Kissing a pretty girl, or being kissed by one?"
Rena puts on the closest approximation of a smirk she can muster with this attack on her queer brain and responds, "I dunno, lets try both and find out."
And Phaedra leans in to give Rena a soft, slow, uncertain kiss. It's clear she's not exactly experienced in this field, but it's also clear that this is not just being done to humor Rena.
Rena is similarly inexperienced but tries her damnedest to make it happen and make it nice. It's awkward, it's inelegant, but it feels nice and warm and loving so Rena lets it happen as long as Phaedra will allow,
They're vampires. They don't have to breathe.
This may take a while.
Rena doesn't back down. Not from a fight and not from a long vampire kiss.
It is literally several minutes later than Phaedra disengages, and grins. "Well, well...that was very nice."
"Yeah, holy fuck," Rena says, stunned and quiet. "That was somethin else."
"...your turn to kiss me, now." She moves so she's pretty much literally sitting on Rena's lap. Surprise, this is what you get for being so tol: the smol will perch on you.
Well, that sure is close. Really really close. Slowly and deliberately, so Phaedra has plenty of time to see it coming and prepare, Rena reaches her gangly noodle arms behind Phaedra's back and pulls her in for the kiss, holding her firm and tight.
There's no sign she plans to pull away from those spindly arms. Naw, she leans into the embrace, receptive to the kiss. Which is probably just as long as the last one.
When the two finally disentangle (or, more aptly, when Phaedra pulls away), Rena flashes a toothy smile. "What'd you think?" She asks, winking. Her arms aren't leaving from their wants-to-be-a-hug-but-doesn't-want-to-be-seen-hugging pose.
It becomes a hug when the other person wraps her arms around you and rests her head on your shoulder, right? Right. It's totally a hug now.
"I liked that a lot."
If she's being hugged already, then she might as well. She gives a big ol' vigor bear hug, grinning from ear to ear. "It was fuckin' good." She pauses, her brain catching up to her. "Is Finley going to be cool with this?"
Surprise, she's not the only Vigor Mekhet in this hug. "Yeah, Finley is. Zhe knew I have a crush on you. That I've wanted to hold your hand and maybe more for a while. Are you okay with me and Finley? I've, uh. Kissed zhem too."
"It's a bit weird with you kissing my sibling's partner, but I think there's enough separation 'tween the two of us for it to not be the worst," Rena says, mulling the idea over in her brain, "yeah, yeah. It oughta work."
"Yeah? Good. Maybe we can go out and do something sometime." This has a hopeful tone.
"Fuck yes. Let's go sneak into a movie theatre. You like horror movies? There's a really cool looking one in theatres now called Antlers. I'm so pumped to see it." Rena says, bouncing with excitement. That movie is definitely out in theatres that are definitely open and the world is livable.
"...or I could pay for the ticket. Take you out properly."
"Psh, don't waste your money on me." Rena says, squeezing tighter and not making eye contact. If she does, then Phaedra will one hundred percent do a read on her and there's nothing suspicious about looking at the ground instead of the person you just kissed for like five minutes, right?
She leans in to whisper, lips brushing against Rena's ear. "You're not a waste."
"I know that," Rena says, "obviously, I'm cool as shit." There's a twinge of hollowness in her bravado as she shrugs once more. "Have you ever seen a horror movie?"
"You're changing the subject, avoiding the stuff that's hard, that makes your heart hurt a little when you hear it."
"Or I'm askin' to make sure we know if you'll fucking frenzy when you see a good practical effect," Rena says, trying harder to do the things she was just accused of.
Phaedra brushes her lips against Rena's lightly. "Stop."
"Don't tell me what to do," Rena bristles, "but fine."
"I want to do nice things for you. And have you enjoy them, instead of thinking about how you don't deserve them." She sits back a little to look Rena in the eyes.
"Why?" Rena asks, now quite nervous. This kind of talk usually doesn't do great.
"Because I like you. Does it need to be more complicated than that?"
"I guess not?" Rena says trying to wrap her brain around an extremely simple concept that she basically cannot apply to herself. "Yeah, yeah. I guess it could be that simple."
Phaedra tilts her head to one side slightly. "Whatcha thinking?"
"Thinking about good movies to show you to get you some pop culture knowledge," Rena says, deflecting hard as she can. "Have you seen any movies to know what you do and don't like?"
"I liked the Lord of the Rings movies, and the Hobbit Trilogy. And The Princess Bride. And what was that one with David Bowie?" This time she lets it drop.
"Labyrinth?" Rena asks, wracking her brain for similar stuff. Her tastes tend towards far more graphic things than fantasy stuff like that. "Wait, have you ever seen any disney movies? If not, we should watch Aladdin or Mulan."
"I've seen some Disney movies, but aren't those more for kids? Would you have fun watching those with me?"
"I mean, so is Labyrinth. And I wouldn't mind too much, long as I get to watch it with you," Rena says, doing her best to play it cool. "There aren't a ton of fantasy movies out there worth a damn and even fewer that aren't animated."
"We'd need to figure out where to watch them. I mostly only watch things on my phone." Indeed, there doesn't seem to be a TV or anything in the living room.
"Hm. I use my phone too. If you have obfuscate we could steal a tv?" Rena says, no longer pretending not to know the word obfuscate. "Or we could crash at Finley's place and watch it there if they're cool with it."
"I don't know Obfuscate. And my bloodline can't learn it--so it's too late for me to, unless someone teaches me. But watching it as a group at Fin's could be really cool."
"If we do watch a cartoon, you can't let Bug know I suggested it. I gotta look cool to them." Rena repositions herself to get more comfortable. "It was your suggestion and I tried to push for Suspiria."
"You are cool. But I don't mind losing face for wanting a cartoon."
"Well, yeah, I know I'm cool. Bug just wouldn't shut up if he thought I liked cartoons. Gotta keep up the aesthetic, you know?" Rena explains, nuzzling a little closer. Cool guys nuzzle, right?
"Gotta keep up appearances. Because you're scared that if anyone knew what you're really like..." She trails off, shifting positions so she's pretty much straddling both of Rena's legs, facing her.
"Can I say a single fucking thing without it being some whole metaphor about me? Is my love of horror films secretly about my drug addiction? Do I box instead of grapple because I had shit parents?" Rena tries her hardest to not be loud and angry right in poor Phaedra's face. Her hardest isn't perfect.
Phaedra looks Rena right in the eyes quietly. "You're the one who keeps saying these things. But I think you box instead of grapple because you like how it feels better. When something gives way under your fist."
"Fuckin' hell. Okay, you're a good person. And you're hot as hell. But Jesus H Christ, I cannot do this. I wanted you to be my girlfriend, not some social worker trying to make me someone I'm not." Rena says, trying to wriggle out of Phaedra's grasp. "Fuckin' hell."
"I'm not a good person, thanks." She lets Rena up. "And I'm not trying to change you, either. I'm not telling you to stop being you. I just want to know who you're being."
"If you just want to know, then why do you keep digging deeper out loud? Why do you keep saying everything wrong with me? It was impressive the first time but now? Now it just feels like the most boring roast of all time." Rena lets out a low breath. "If you're going to keep picking at every scab I got, at least tell some jokes during it."
She opens her mouth, and then closes it again, moving over to the other side of the couch and curling up small.
"Fuckin' hell." Rena stands and twists to crack her back. "Thanks for the kiss. It was nice. I like you a lot. I can't fucking deal with getting told everything I say isn't what I mean." She walks over to go put her boots on and lace them back up, a long enough time for Phaedra to say something if she wanted to.
"Then try saying what you're actually thinking sometime, instead of bullshitting to put up barriers between yourself and those who might hurt you." Probably not a useful thing to say at all.
"When you go to the store and you ask the cashier how they're doing and they say good, they're probably lying. That doesn't mean you say, 'haha caught you, your day sucks'. You let them lie because it'll make both of you happier," Rena stands up, her boots done. "That metaphor probably blows, but its all I got right now. I'll come by and help you with history if you still want some time. But fucking hell. I can't do this again." And with that she opens the door and walks away. The second she's sure she's out of eyeshot, she sprints, full tilt, to the bus stop.
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