bringing Kat to the vampire village

[slayers_desire]

April was feeling pretty happy right now. She had made a promise to Kat that she would bring her to the Vampire Village, that she had found. And today was the day to keep that promise.

Right now, April was waiting in the Nexus for Kat (and whomever else she brought along) to arrive. Jonathan was home, with his father. Safe and sound.

April was confident that the Vampire Village would be a nice experience for Kat. She just hoped that her friend liked it.

Comments

[toreador_saviour]

Again... if Kat still had blood flow, she'd be more red in the face than Ed's coat. Ed fights back an amused chuckle, and Bakura just arches an eyebrow, a touch of amusement to his expression as well. "Uh," Kat stammers out a bit, "I take it... you're going to be participating in the hunt too, then?"

[buffyverse_npcs]

"Participating?" Spike draws her closer to him, with a very amused look on his face. "I will be winning."

April shakes her head slightly. "Where is Shasta tonight, father?"

"With Jash. He intends to win the hunt too."

[toreador_saviour]

Kat gives Spike a smile that's almost as amused. She lets him pull her closer, but not that much closer, staying out of his personal space. Honestly, all of the male attention she seems to be getting tonight is rather flattering—she rarely gets any manner of flirting from guys. She lets out a small chuckle, then tells him, confidently, "I, too, intend to win. You're on."

((Bedtime))

[slayers_desire]

"We will need a side wager then."

April just chuckles herself. She knows that the hunt can triger the more primal and passionate side of most vampires. Her father is no exception.

((me too. great timing))

[toreador_saviour]

"I suppose we will," Kat agrees, still smiling confidently. She gently removes her hand from Spike's. "Excuse me for a moment. Lehrer, may I borrow one of your Sharpies?" she asks Ed.

Ed smiles a bit and tosses her a Sharpie from his utility belt, which she uses to draw out the Alchemy array she'd scratched into the ground with the titanium rod earlier on the palms of her hands. She then recaps the marker and tosses it back to Ed, quickly followed by the aforementioned titanium rod. "Danke Schön."

[slayers_desire]

"How about you love, you hunting tonight?" Spike asks his daughter. April smiles softly, "Of course."

Other vampires from the village are starting to gather near the Village Square. Mykal walks calmly towards the Square, greeting others by name. Woman embrace each other. Men are hooting and high-fiving.

[toreador_saviour]

Kat takes that as her cue to do the same, and follows Mykal to the village square, Bakura walking beside her, holding hands, and Ed a few steps behind the couple. He's taken off his utility belt and draped it over his shoulder for the time being; he's pretty sure he won't be allowed to take it with him on the hunt.

[vampire_village]

When they get closer to the village, a beautiful dark-haired woman comes up to Spike, hugging him tightly. There is a looming, tall feral vampire behind her.

"H'llo luv." Spike grins ear to ear. "Shasta, these are friends of my daughter's. Kat. Bakura and Ed."

"Hello all." Shasta beams in return.

[toreador_saviour]

Kat smiles at Shasta and offers her free hand, the one that isn't holding Bakura's. "Pleasure to meet you, Shasta." She flicks her gaze to the feral vampire for a moment, then back to Shasta, and asks, "And who's your friend back there?"

[slayers_desire]

"Jash." Shasta replies simply. Jash gives a predatory growl, sniffing the air like an animal. He looks eyes with April and growls again.

Spike puts himself between Jash and his daughter with a simple move.

[toreador_saviour]

Ed does the same, moving to stand next to Spike between Jash and April. That's his job, after all, though it's not the reason he decided to come with Kat tonight. He had assumed that April wouldn't really need protection here, from what she'd said about it at his birthday dinner a couple of weeks back; he decided to come along tonight because he was curious about it, and because Kat's his apprentice—and he watches out for his apprentices. That's one of the responsibilities of being a teacher.

Kat looks back over to Jash for a moment, then smiles a bit and nods. "Ah, right... Spike mentioned him a few minutes ago." She can tell, from the way Jash is acting, that he probably wouldn't understand the usual pleasantries people go through when first meeting someone. He honestly reminds her a bit of some of the Gangrel she's run into during the past year or so. "He... hasn't had much contact with people, has he?" she asks Shasta quietly.

[vampire_village]

Jash studies both Ed and Spike for a long time. His primal reaction is normally to attack. But with Mykal standing close by, the feral vampire is keeping his temper tamed.

For now.

"He was raised in the wilderness, before I found him." Shasta herself has her own power over her feral lover. With a soft look from her, Jash will take a step back.

[toreador_saviour]

While Jash studies him, Ed remains calm, coolly watching Jash while also avoiding eye contact. It's a bad idea to show fear to predators, and while he isn't sure if the same is true of vampires, he does know that making eye contact with an angry dog is usually interpreted by said dog as a challenge—and dogs are predators. When Jash takes that step back, he relaxes a little, but remains wary of the feral vamp.

"What happened to his parents, do you know?" Kat asks Shasta, frowning a little. Scratch that previous observation—Jash seems to be in a far more feral state than most of the Gangrel she's met.

[vampire_village]

"He can't tell me. And he hates the one person who can read him." Shasta looks at April.

"We got into a disagreement in regard to claiming prey last hunt." April explains.

[toreador_saviour]

"Yikes," Kat mutters. She shakes her head a little. "If I were more experienced at the whole vampire thing than I currently am—like, way more experienced—I could potentially try to find out, but... I was Embraced a little over a year ago, and there's no way that I've had enough practice with my Auspex Discipline to be able to read his mind. At this point I can only perceive auras, and even then, I have to really concentrate to pull it off."

((Yeah, right now, definitely thinking I need to work up a character sheet for Kat... Want me to share it with you when I'm done? =P))

[slayers_desire]

"You have gifts?" Mykal turns his attention back to Kat.

[toreador_saviour]

Kat considers her wording for a moment, frowning thoughtfully. "Sort of," she hedges. "My particular flavour of vampire—in my reality, there are more than one—we don't all share the same strengths and weaknesses. There are some abilities and disadvantages that all Kindred possess, but there are several more that only some possess. We call those powers—the ones that vary between individual vampires—Disciplines. Which Disciplines you get depends mostly on your Clan. The Clans are... essentially families, bloodlines, passed down from Sire to Childe. Each Clan has three Disciplines that its members can use.

"My Clan, Clan Toreador, has the Disciplines Auspex, Presence, and Celerity. Auspex is similar to the kind of psychic Sight that April has, but only very old Kindred are practiced enough at it to be able to read thoughts. And I am a very young Kindred."

[slayers_desire]

"Strange, but very unique. Perhaps you will be able to show me some time." Mykal is always willing to learn about different vampires.

April steps closer to her father and Ed, shivering slightly. "Speaking of psychic sight... I just felt something weird. A shiver. Something bad is going to happen tonight."

[toreador_saviour]

Kat smiles at Mykal. "You might get to see me use some of my Disciplines during the hunt tonight. If not, I'm more than happy to give you a demonstration and tell you more about them at a later time."

Ed grasps April's shoulder gently, frowning in concern. Kat also looks back at her friend, an equally worried expression on her face. "Something bad?" Ed asks gently. "How so?"

[slayers_desire]

"My dear, I do not go on the hunt. The leader must help judge the kills." Mykal smiles regretfully.

April concentrates for a moment. "I see a river of blood. A screeching cry from an Eagle. A wolf with a feather in his mouth. Outrage. Demand for justice."

She shivers, opening her eyes, "Me in chains."

[toreador_saviour]

"Ah," Kat says with a small smile. "Then maybe afterwards I can show you."

April's prediction seems to spook Ed a little bit. He shivers too. "Not if I can help it," he says, quietly, determination giving his voice a knife's edge.

Kat and Bakura both look worried as well, unconsciously drawing closer to one another, gripping each others' hands more tightly.

[slayers_desire]

"Do we need to stop the hunt, Sister?" Mykal has a worried tone to his voice. The hunt is very important to his village.

"Stopping the hunt won't stop what will happen."

[toreador_saviour]

"What can stop it?" Kat asks April quietly. She is, of course, automatically assuming that it can be stopped. In her experience, there's little about the future that's set in stone.

[slayers_desire]

"I sense... things can be changed. If one watches for what is important."

[toreador_saviour]

Kat lets out a thoughtful little noise, though there's a bit of concern mixed in there as well. "I'm going to assume that the things you mentioned—the eagle, the wolf with a feather in its mouth, the river of blood—are some of the things that are important to watch out for..." She maintains a thoughtful silence for a moment longer, then 'exhales' and closes her eyes, focusing for a moment on heightening her senses—accessing her Auspex Discipline. Nothing visibly changes about her, other than—perhaps—a general sense of heightened awareness, to those who know what to look for. Bumping her awareness up to the point where she can perceive auras would require too much focus at the moment, so she opts to keep it toned down for now.

Ed takes April's words as a cue to go into Sherlock Scan mode. He's only just begun attempting to develop that particular skill—an ability to take in a whole bunch of little details and use them to deduce information about an event, person, place, or thing—but he takes every opportunity he can to practice it, and he's always been good at finding connections between things that aren't immediately obvious to most people.

Bakura, meanwhile, is going to rouse Malik, the ancient Egyptian Vizier and wizard with whom he shares a body, and keep his own magical senses extended as far throughout the area as he can. He could also open his Wizard's Sight, but if he did that right now, and held the Sight open for too long, it could potentially drive him insane—and with Malik around, there's already one insane person too many in his mind. No, he'll save the Sight for an emergency; Malik opts to do the same, keeping his magical senses open as well and covering some of the ground Bakura is unable to, but keeping the Sight closed off. Nothing visibly changes about Bakura, either.