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Titania now sat in a clearing of the forest, a few miles from Maddys trailer.
She is sitting on the floor of the clearing surrounded by stumps. There was not a clearing here before she arrived a few moments ago.
The fallen trees are covered in bite marks, punch holes and evidence of claws.
The supernaturally fast vampire was pursued swiftly by an even faster supernaturally enhanced mage. Three steps seemed to bring them almost sixty feet with the enhanced momentum. With their previous spells, they could see far and wide for the area around them, and easily caught up with the vampire.
"Lady Titania?" her voice was soft, not prey-soft, but not hostile soft, "Are you okay?"
Titania tilts her head to look at the sound.
Her eyes are still slits though she seems much calmer, her hands covered in cuts which heal even as Bones is looking at them.
Voice showing emotion for the first time since Bones has known her. Its not much that she says.
Just a simple. "What?" But it carries recovering rage behind it.
"You seemed quite upset, and with the eyes and your emotional mask slipping, I was worried both about you and what would happen if you ran across a normal person."
A crow lands in one of the nearby standing trees, cawing softly. Titania can sense the Beast inside the creature, though Bones’ Peripheral Sight doesn’t ping as the bird drops to the ground and becomes a Guy on its way down.
He lands on his feet, and glances around the clearing. “Quite the ruckus I heard…” He glances between Bones and Titania. “You both look…well.”
Titania feels Guy approaching and clicks her tongue.
"Landsknecht. I was frustrated, I know, an uncommon malady for me, but here we are."
She looks to Bones. "The child needed to be reminded of his place, then the Lost took it one step further and you decided to make it even worse."
Her voice during this still has that same hint of emotion.
Bones was worried about Titania and it was obvous, but the fear would also be obvious to the two predators. Especially now in the middle of the forest with them. However they smiled through and breathed, "I'm sorry for making it worse. Fire is the easiest for me. Did it do something for you?"
Guy snorts. “Fire invokes a primal fear in vampires, causing their base spirit to attempt to take hold. It also burns us far worse that humans. You…pulled plutonium out of your pocket to deescalate,” Guy says with a glance to Bones.
Looking over Titania, he shrugs. “Just thought I should check in on anything tearing down trees in the night, I was already flying through the neighborhood. I see it’s been…quite an evening.”
Titania nods at Guys assessment. "Thankfully I am very good at keeping my beast in check."
There is a hint of a smile at Guy. "I appreciate it, I did in fact punch trees down. Im sure it was quite a ruckus."
"I am so sorry for the inconvenience," she bobbed her head, blushed fully, "Would there be something I can do to make up for that?"
“Vampire law says you have to…uh, damn, I’m drawing a blank. That’s a joke—it’s between you and Titi.”
He picks up a chunk of wood and hefts it a little in his hand.
Titania tilts her head at that.
"Really, name calling. After all we have been through? Sorry for causing you stress, the new kid didnt know his place."
She turns to Bones speaking very softly and slowly.
"Dont. Try. To. Set. Me. On. Fire. Again!? Sound good?"
"Yes. Sorry. I could give you some protection from fire if you'd like. Would that be a good compensation?" She seemed eager to please and worried still.
Though her eyes showed a tint of recognition and humor at Guy's deadpan.
Guy looks at Titania for a moment, face as neutral as ever. “Even bother to try using my name, as I’ve requested, and I’ll think about it,” he says before he closes his hand and the hunk of tree explodes in a small shower of splinters and a little roar of a shredding crack.
He brushes flecks of wood from his leather jacket.
"Couldnt you have picked something more interesting? Guy. Guy! Really? Was that the best you could come up with."
She pauses for a moment before continuing. "Sorry, my emotions exist tonight and im not used to that. Thank you for coming to check on me Guy I do appreciate it."
Shaking her head to bones she continues. "No, its fine, really. Im more resilient to fire than most of our kind."
"Okay," she sat down on the ground and started shaking a bit, even that was done fast enough to look like a vibration. As they casually break trees and logs, Tommy is reminded about how outclassed mages could be physically
“I mean. Didn’t know it was you, to be fair, but you’re welcome. And Guy was the first one I came across after crawling out of a grave after 150 years asleep, and I liked it, so…that’s what I went with.”
She shrugs.
"The thanks stand none the less."
Leaning back and looking to Bones she says. "You good? Oh and Bones this is Guy, Guy Bones. They are a mage."
"Nice to meet you again, Guy," she said with a supernaturally strong air about her.
"Yeah. Just having a moment of ... adrenaline dump. I could clear it, but I don't want to right now," she offered Titania.
"Honestly, I was more worried about anyone else getting banned, but I fucked up. Now I have more trouble with all the other folx. More rooftop meetings or something."
Guy nods. “Nice to meet again.”
He tucks a leg behind another and sort of…leans on nothing. His center of gravity isn’t defying physics, or anything, he just isn’t putting forth any real effort into standing anymore like he was leaning against a wall or something, and is just standing on one leg and balancing by curving his body slightly instead. It looks absolutely exhausting. And kinda cool.
“So, ah. What happened?”
Titania nodded to Bones before continuing to Guy.
"We were socializing and the new kid decided I was being rude and gave me a look to not be mean to his friend. I gave him a look to not be rude to me. One thing led to another and I had a flaming knife at my throat."
She stops then adds a moment later.
"I left as soon as that happened. Didnt want to lose it there or anything."
The things that the undead can do, when they aren't pretending to be human, had Bones studying Guy for a moment. When Titania spoke up, "Close enough for a town this size..."
Interestingly, the entire time they all spoke together, she didn't seem offput by the darkness either.
“Ah, so there’s a new kid, who has a friend,” he says with a nod. “That explains a lot.”
"New kid is the illegally embraced one that the Estate is looking after."
She nods getting his point.
"Friend is one of the Lost, they dont seem to like me very much."
"Ling pulled a knife held it to my throat, then Bones decided to set it on fire?"
"As Lady Titania said, a 'a Mage, a Lost, a Child and a Vampire walk into a diner? What will happen?' A bloody lot happened. I revert to fire when its combatty stuff. His Lost thing making things hot made it easier to make fire. I really just wanted him to drop it.... and I didn't know y'all had that mystical fear..."
Guy grunts. “Yeesh. That’s a clusterfuck.” He glances to the sky, and sighs. “Let’s hope it doesn’t…become a situation. Sounds like some…talking needs to be done.” He pauses. “That wasn’t a swing at either of you. I’m just thinking out loud.”
"Yeah. Thats a word for it. Hence I am here. Clearing the woods."
She tilts her head.
"Somebody worse than me is going to react to that kid though."
Its hard to tell if she means Avery or Vinny with that response.
"At least I'm not one of them," she mused. Then looking to the pair, "I have a theory, that you're powers are obviously powered by your blood that you drink. Given all of the shit that you had to do to get away from them without taking their heads from them.... do you need a drink?"
Guy glances between the two. “Maybe. But then, your blood may not be enough for her. It’s complicated. And depending on how thirsty she is, that may not be a wise course.”
Titania looks up to Guy.
"Im not actually sure if his blood would be enough. Id rather not risk it not being enough. Im fine really, I didnt do all that much by my standards. Less than 5%?"
"Not enough? What's more than a human? Do you need to hunt like Lions or something?" a tilt of her head, very curious now.
The eyes flickered back and forth like a tennis match.
“The opposite. Only the weakest of us can feed on animals without great effort—the blood of other vampires, or, with practice, other supernaturals, is eventually needed. The blood of Mages is fundamentally human, in this regard.” He pauses. “Some of us have various tricks to get around this in one way or another. I have come to understand the nature of blood in a way that fundamentally changes the way I consume it, for instance.”
Titania is grateful for Guy being there and nods.
"Now im intrigued. That sounds far easier than hunting Ghosts and Werewolves or ya know. The other option."
"Fuck a duck..." her jaw dropped as she absorbed this information, "I most definitely apologize in that regard. If you ever need help hunting Ghosts, or Spirits, or even a Big Bad Wolf, let me know... I'd love to help. Especially now that I can't help at Maddy's."
“Oh, you can bite ghosts? Cool.” He grins slightly. “Perk of the Order, members only, sorry. It’s how I control my Beast, too. Well, different path of learning, but yeah.”
He looks to Bones. “Double secret vampire club stuff. She gets magic, I get altering the rules of my vampireness.”
"Ah yeah. That tracks. My Bloodline is how I control mine and we are oh so good at it."
She chuckles looking to Bones.
"Sorry. But on that note I think its time for me to head home. I need to tidy up for tomorrow and the likely fall out from this."
The Mage was obviously absorbing ALL of the terms and concepts that she could. The arcane knowledge was just building potential imagos in the future.
She bobbed her head at both of the Kindred as they spoke, "Thank you so much for sharing what you have. And feel free to ask questions next time about my titles and what they mean," a wink to Titi about her journal earlier.
To Guy, "I get that. Double super secret mage things let me do magic differently than others."
“Have a good night, Titania,” Guy says with a nod. “Hope it’s not too much trouble.”
He nods to Bones. “With all due respect, I have no context, but I get you.”
"So, you were a bird. SHe was a bird. Is that common?" she stood and dusted herself off.
“Not exactly. It’s a particular gift for our Clan—branch of the greater vampire whole. Our…flavor, if you will. I’m sure you have an equivalent.”
He stands back on two feet, his movements an odd mix of bestial and mechanical, like he’s floating on the air but firmly on the ground.
"Interesting," a head tilt the other direction now, "Very very curious. It makes sense, but makes me wonder how the world all links together in the background. The rules behind the curtain or the like."
He shrugs. “Way above my pay grade, but probably interesting if you’re into looking into that sort of thing.” He picks up another hunk of wood and tosses it between his hands. “It’s all…connected for you, isn’t it?”
"Well, it can be. THere are definitely things that we see as Absolute Truths that are hidden by the Lie that is this physical world. Things like distance is a myth, if you know what you're doing. Or the fact that I looked at a knife and made fire from a distance, yeah?"
"However, if our myths are correct, which seem to be because creatures that can't lie have said so, there was once a time where everything was connected and magic was normal. Would be interesting to know if there were Vampires, Werewolves, or anything else at that time, or if it was the fracturing of reality that began some of that."
Guy blinks. “Uh…. Well, I dont know if that’s answerable, since it sounds like things were always the way they are now, in this reality as opposed to the other one. But I’m sure that’s, ah, real interesting to think about.”
“Our magic, or magic-ness, is a bit different. Blood calling to blood throughout time, shaping us and being shaped by us.”
"Interesting. Do you all have a creation mythos for the Kindred overall? Archaeologist in me loves those sort of things..."
And then their phone chirped and she realized what time it was. "Oh! Sorry! I need to get going. I hope you have a great night!"
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