|
Guy leads Rena into a quiet side room of the Academy, it even has some comfy little chairs for them to sit in, which he does. “How’d everything go with the fight?” he asks after the door closes.
Rena runs a fist under her nose. "Got my ass kicked. Ended up passed out on the floor after she played with me. Bitch can go invisible real well."
He nods. “Too bad you lost, but did you learn anything?” He asks with a little smile.
She grumbles. "Learned you were right. Need to get better at fighting people who aren't just normal people. More ways to cheat. Don't suppose you know how to fight invisible people. Or hell, how to not get knocked flat on your ass by head punches?" She gives him a sheepish look. Admitting weakness was not her style.
“I lash them with my Beast and then goad them into attacking me. Or let my Beast do it, it’s pretty smart about fighting. Then I interrupt them so they can’t use fancy footwork and shit to avoid me.”
"That hard to do? Never really played around with my beast. Kinda worried to honestly. Don't like losing control, you know?" Well if she was going to admit one weakness, she might as well admit twelve.
“Depends on how powerful they are. I cheat a little, my Beast is better at it than I am. But I’m a little odd that way. Between the Coil of the Wyrm and Protean, I’m much more in tune with my Beast than most.”
"Hey, never apologize for cheating. I'm all about that life. Wouldn't have survived to my embrace if I didn't cheat my way to the top. The top of shit mountain, but the top nonetheless. It's why Coriander pissed me off so much. She's better at cheating than me," Rena says, grumpily crossing her arms. "Is the beast stuff something you could teach me or no?"
“I could, yes. Protean will be harder, since you aren’t Gangrel, but I will show you. And I can guide you through the start of the Coil of the Wyrm, though you’ll have to discover your own way to reach further.”
Rena nods and quirks her eyebrow. "Is this all you wanted to talk to me about? The fight and my training? No offense but I figured it'd be something deep based on when you asked."
“You don’t think this is deep? I certainly do. But there are a few other things we can talk about if you like.”
"Nah, nah, I'd be more than happy to talk about anything but my feelings. Just wanted to know what your game was today." Rena gives him a trademark grin. "So, what's the first step of doing the Wyrm?"
He raises an eyebrow. “Don’t you want to wait until the new Crucible is complete? Or do you want to simply hear what it entails first?”
"Just wanna know what I'd be doing before I commit. Don't want to sign up and learn that the first part is sacrificing a baby or something. I draw the line at toddlers," Rena says, gauchely smirking at her own joke.
“There any many way to attain Chrysalis, to bring oneself to a state where one can alter their state. The way I was taught for the climbing the Wyrm doesn’t require human sacrifice, necessarily, but it does require a lot of blood. Animal will work just fine, though.”
"I hope you know I was joking about the human sacrifice part. I don't know if I could ever kill anybody." She pauses, giving Guy a nervous look. "You ever murder someone?" she asks softly.
He raises a brow. “Do you mean cold-blooded murder, or just killing someone?” He speaks quietly, but at ease, relaxed in his chair.
"Both, either," Rena says, glumly. "I just... I know we're monsters and all and I'm supposed to be the fearless fighter of the group, but. Thinking about actually ending a life really freaks me out. Even people who deserve it. I could beat them within an inch of their life but actually finally ending them feels worse somehow."
“It is worse.” He tilts his head and offers his hand for her to take. “I’ve killed a lot of people. I’m trying to...hold closer to my humanity now than I did in the past, but it doesn’t change the past. I mean, I was a soldier before I was a vampire, even. As for you...you don’t have to kill people to be a useful fighter. That’s actually something else I wanted to talk to you about, by the way. Putting your skills to use for the Ordo.”
She takes his hand, squeezing it far too tight. "I just fucking hate being afraid. Don't suppose there's a coil that lets you just shut down your fear all together?" She pauses for a second thinking things over before saying, "Phew. Got worried you were going to keep me on tenterhooks longer before asking me to start repaying my debt. Hell yeah, I'll fight for you guys. Only fair if I'm mooching this much."
“I mean, yes. The first Coil of the Wyrm lets you frenzy on command. Then you aren’t afraid any more, though that’s drastic. As for fighting for us,” he says, his tone clearly including her, “I have to ask. You can be a Guardian, in charge of protecting a site we hold, assisting researchers, or you can become one of the Sworn of the Axe.”
"Not afraid of anything? Fuck dude, as soon as we get that Crucible running, you gotta teach me this ASAP." She makes a tongue noise and closes her eyes, lost in thought. "I mean metal as Sworn of the Axe sounds, it's been a long time since I had a boat." She blinks her eyes open, standing shock straight. "I mean a home! Just a home. Nothin' else." Fuckin' smooth, Rena.
“Have you never frenzied in anger before?” He sounds curious, not accusatory. “Swearing yourself to the Bloody Axe of the Order wouldn’t prevent you from living on the boat, I promise. We’ll all make sure you find a home. Swearing will mean more work, but...” he pauses for a moment. “Come, let me show you something.” He stands, still holding her hand, though he doesn’t pull her up or anything.
"Nah, never once Frenzied," Rena lies. "And Bloody Order of the Axe now? Either you've gotten super British, Guybo, or this is the most metal thing ever." She stands. "Alright, show me what you got."
“Wait till you hear my title,” he says with a grin. He walks out of the room and makes his way deeper into the building. He leads her to a door in a quiet hallway which opens to another hallway, and leads her to a door at the end. “Don’t come here without me, for the time being, alright?”
"Ooh, scandalous! Getting me alone in a secret room. What would your velociraptor girlfriend think~" Rena teases. "My title kinda blows honestly. 'Parently Floretta's going to get me a cooler one though."
He opens the door and leads her into a small room. At the end is what can only be described as a small shrine. It has electric lights instead of candles, and a statuette of a stern looking woman holding an axe. “This is Mara, the first wife of Dracula and the founder of the Sworn of the Axe. She’s...our sacred warrior woman, the way some revere Joan of Arc, you know? The other members of the Ordo...don’t understand. We’re a pretty secular organization, after all. She teaches us to be devoted to the Order, fierce in its defense, selfless in our protection of the other members. We use our transcendence to protect the Order’s secrets, and allow the other Dragons to flourish.” He looks to Rena, and smiles softly. “I am The Dragon Knight Guy Dagenham, Supplicant of Brutal Fury who Attends Olympus. And I serve you as much as any other member of the Ordo Dracul.”
"Yo, what the fuck?" Rena says flipping everything Guy said over in her mind. "This is fucking rad." She walks over to the statue of Mara, looking her over. "Jesus Christ, I didn't know that there was shit this cool in the Ordo. I thought it was mostly sitting around pontificating over snifters of brandy." She turns back to guy, her mouth smiling but her eyes betraying her true feelings. "I don't know if I could do it though. I ain't exactly the subtle secret keeping type."
He moves to the statue and kneels, making her about as much taller than him as he normally is to her. “What do you mean? You keep the Order’s secrets, don’t you?” he asks as he looks at the statue.
"I mean you just told me you axe people who don't keep those secrets, so I'd have to be a moron to tell you if I didn't." Rena rolls her eyes and avoids eye contact with both Guy and, more firmly, Mara. "I just mean, I dunno, I told you about the dork I'm thinking about telling. Then I think of having to off someone else's version of them just 'cause somebody told 'em about our secret club and they started spreading it and I feel sick. Not to be all sacrilegious or anything, it's just- if you tell anyone about this I'll gut you like a fish- I don't think I have the guts."
He takes her hand again, still looking at the statue. “Our secrets are largely from other vampires, but we don’t exactly let them spread among others. That being said, there’s a difference between telling someone close to you what you are, and sharing the secrets of the Ordo. I don’t want you to burden you, Rena, I want to help free you. What I can offer isn’t easy, or necessarily...comfortable, but it can give you something to hold on to. Purpose, the ease of people who understand, the release found in violence with meaning. If you did Swear, you could serve under me, and...I wouldn’t make you kill. I would take that responsibility on myself if it was necessary.”
He looks up at her. “I just don’t want you to be afraid anymore.”
Rena shakes her hand free of his and takes a subtly defensive stance, ready to dodge at a moment's notice. "Fuck you. I'm not afraid," she growls. "I can work for you doing this and I can learn all about your 12 step guide to punching your way to recovery, but don't fucking say shit like that. You aren't my dad. You aren't my principal or my rabbi neither. We don't have to get all mushy about this shit. Fuck."
He stands, but makes no aggressive motions. “Fine, we won’t be mushy. You’re terrified. Of loss, of loneliness, of fucking up the best thing that’s happened to you, of being someone’s slave, of owing things that can’t be repaid. And you want to know how I can see all this? Because those fears are in me too.”
"Fuck. You." Rena snarls, taking a fighting stance. It looks like she's about to lunge for a second but she cools down. However, she doesn't leave the stance. "You might be right but fuck you anyway. If you want us to work together you can't do this high school guidance councilor shit. I'm going to fix me. Not you, not Eyrgjafa and sure as hell not Floretta. I'm going to conquer my shit. Me. And don't you fucking pretend to know me. You don't know my last name. You don't know a single damn thing about me from before I was embraced."
“I think you misunderstand, Rena,” he returns, a little heat slipping into his voice. “If you’re going to work for me, it means I’m trusting you with my life, and if I’m gonna do that, you can’t lie to me, and you certainly can’t lie to yourself. I’m not trying to fix you, I can’t, I’m trying to get through your thick skull that I’m here for you to talk to while you fix yourself. Because everyone needs that.”
The rage drains out of Rena's face, swapping out for an affected indifference. She sticks her hands in her pockets and scoffs. "Yeah, alright. Whatever. Complete honesty from now on. And trust me, you don't want me to unload my shit on you. Lotta horseshit happened to me and you don't want to get caught up in it."
He looks at her for a long moment, then bursts out laughing, a deep belly laugh that makes an odd rasping sound in his chest. “You...you think I haven’t heard worse?” It takes him a moment to collect himself, sighing in amusement. “Sorry, not to make light of your situation...but yeah, uh, I’m not worried about you unloading, that’s why I offered. Seriously. You can talk to me about all your shit, I can handle it.”
"Yeah, fuck it, might as well. Just to make you feel like even more of a dick." Rena pulls up the bottom of her overlarge shirt to reveal the scar of a large dog bite. "One time in the summer when I was 10 and my dad got pissed at me and threw me out into the back yard and cuffed me to a tree. After beating the shit outta me of course. Just assume that any time I mention my dad, he beat the shit outta me. That same day, the neighbor's dog, this massive Rottweiler that she never bothered training broke out of her yard and into ours. And so the dog got all friendly with me, but I wasn't full grown yet, so it was like a bear trying to suffocate me. Freaked me out somethin' fierce.
Then a few weeks later I was at a party with some investor or whatever who worked with my dad and one of those tiny puff ball dogs started barkin' and I jumped. So my dad figured out that I was getting my fear of dogs so he told me that 'no daughter a his would be afraid of something so fucking dumb' and so he got this cop friend of my mom's to give him an attack dog. He cuffed me to the radiator in our basement (which was off that time) and let the dog in and told it to attack. It ripped the shit out of me. Supposed to teach me how to fight my fears or somethin'. All it taught me was how to lie at the hospital while you're bleedin' heavy."
The whole time she said that, her face didn't move from its set state of affectation, her looking more bored than sad or angry. "Fuck, I need some heroin. I don't suppose you know a coil that lets you get high easy, do you?"
He listens to her story, nodding along in a few places. When she’s finished, he looks at her for a few moments. “Can’t help with the dogs. Well, not directly. Good news is I can help with the drugs. Or do you prefer Vitae now? Both? Regardless, I can help with that. But it’s a shit way to fix the problem, so there’s no rush. Since I’m guessing you don’t want a hug I won’t offer, but...you aren’t the young woman who had to go through that anymore. Not if you don’t want to be. That’s what I’m offering. Not me controlling you, or trying to fix you, me showing you the path, and supporting you as you walk it. And it doesn’t have to be ‘mushy’ if you don’t want.”
While her face doesn't show it, the fact that Guy isn't cooing over her makes her happier than she's been in a while. "Yeah, alright," Rena says with a sniff, "I'm in. Fuck it, let me be your padawan and I swear to god if you don't know what that is I'm going to tie you down like Clockwork Orange and make you watch Star Wars. And vitae is way fuckin' better. Makes me feel better in ways dope could never. Like a spiritual fuckin' wholeness."
“Petra did have me watch Star Wars,” he says with a small grin. “First things first, I’m an old toad, and touching people is normal for me. Modern norms about physical contact are weird to me. So if that’s not your thing, tell me now. And, if you need a fix for some Vitae, let me know. At least while your bond with your Sire keeps you safe from bonding to me. Once that’s ended, we going to work on kicking that habit, ok?”
"If I don't lie to you, you gotta promise that the shit I tell you about lives and dies with you. No 'oh Petra might want to know this' or 'oh Eyrgjafa and Floretta care so much'. This shit is not gettin' out. Or I promise you, I'll hit you so hard your head lands in Pittsburgh."
With that speech said, she cracks her knuckles and says, in a small voice, "Physical touch is kinda rough for me when guys do it. That's with a lower case G. Girls? Mostly okay. And nonbinary folx are pretty much all allowed. Hand holdin', maybe. But don't touch me anywhere but my hands without me givin' you the go ahead first, got it?"
She then blinks at him. "Any time I need a fix?"
“What you tell me about yourself, the personal shit? That can just be us, absolutely. And I will respect your feelings about contact.” He looks at her a moment. “I mean, I need my blood, you know, but when we’re together, I can usually spare a drink. If I say no, it’s with reason. I know that won’t help when you’re burning, or chilly, or itching, or whatever it is for you, but I’m telling you now, when you’re rational, alright?”
"Itchy. Like my skin is on wrong," Rena said, shuddering. "It's one of the worst things I've felt. And I've felt some bad shit. Pretty sure quitting will ash me based on how it feels."
She scratches at the back of her neck, trying very hard to look more with it than she is. Like hell she's letting Guy know how badly she's doing after all that.
He studies her for a moment. “I know how bad it is,” he says softly. “I won’t judge you for feeling the need.”
"You go through this too?" Rena asks, staring real hard at the statue to not look at his veins. "Because fuck. This hurts. A lot."
“I was mutually fully bound to my sire for 350-odd years, minus Torpor. Pretty much the only times I wasn’t addicted to Vitae was when I could only feed on Vitae.”
Rena stares at him with wonder before ruining it with a joke accompanied by the best smirk she can muster, "maybe your girlfriend isn't the dinosaur in the relationship." After she finishes laughing at her own joke, she flops her face back to serious, but with a soft smile. Guy is clearly back in her good graces after all of this. "How'd you get through it?"
“What do you mean? We were obsessed with each other, thought each other’s feet made the grass grow. We did whatever we wanted, and loved it.” He sits on the floor, pulling off his Hellhound jacket. He’s wearing a black tank underneath. “It was...well, I’m not proud of all the things I did, but I literally cannot forget how good it all felt. So that’s not awkward or anything.”
"I mean the addiction part. 'Cause maybe it's me but you look real damn stable. Like a rock. A geriatric rock." Rena says, though her face doesn't look like she just got a burn in. Her face is trying desperately to hide the fact that she needs to be with her sire right now. He's somewhere and she's not there for him.
“Oh. That’s because I slept for 150 years, and my humanity returned. Slipping further away will do it to, and is much easier.”
"Oh," Rena says, sadly, "Yeah, that ain't going to be an option for me any time soon." She cracks her back, relishing the little popping sounds. "Now, unlike you, the night is still young so I should probably get going before I waste my whole day with my boss. But before I do, want me to swear an oath or anything? Do any ritual stuff to tell the Ordo that you're going to train me even though I could kick your ass one hundred percent? Apostilled paperwork in triplicate?"
“Not tonight. But soon, we can definitely see about getting you properly Sworn, alright?” He stands, and offers his hand to shake. “Be seeing you, Rena. Be safe.”
Rena shakes it back, giving him the full firm handshake of someone with Strength 6. If he's gonna mentor her, he better survive a handshake like this. "Nah, I like to live dangerously. Text me when you need me~" she trills as she takes off.
He shakes back with the same Strength of grip, and gives her a nod as she leaves.
|