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Jul. 20th, 2013 08:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sunbaked_bakerIt is the heart of summer, and the days are long. The sun sets late, and the nights are pleasantly warm.
At the moment, this particular day is finally relinquishing its grasp, the half-light of evening settling in, turning the world varying depths of grey.
Yet there is still a light out in the forest. Out past the baseball diamond, in a clearing where a great, thirty-foot wide circle of arcane symbols has been burned into the ground, Sunshine is practicing.
Three figures made of animate soil and water struggle with her. They are faster than she, but Sunshine has her magic. Has her knife in hand, beginning to glow as the daylight fades around her. Has her glimmering network of light set into her skin and hair, awake and alert and pulling from the sun that has already disappeared from the horizon. Has her silver and amber ring on its cord about her neck, gleaming. Her semi-transparent shielding spell appearing and disappearing in a ghostly golden light. Each strike by the figures of magically-animate soil and water she blocks, quick as thought, until she moves to lets one through so she can strike at its heart, in and up into where the chest would be.
The object of this exercise is to stay dry. Stay clean.
Except for her right hand and arm.
At the moment, this particular day is finally relinquishing its grasp, the half-light of evening settling in, turning the world varying depths of grey.
Yet there is still a light out in the forest. Out past the baseball diamond, in a clearing where a great, thirty-foot wide circle of arcane symbols has been burned into the ground, Sunshine is practicing.
Three figures made of animate soil and water struggle with her. They are faster than she, but Sunshine has her magic. Has her knife in hand, beginning to glow as the daylight fades around her. Has her glimmering network of light set into her skin and hair, awake and alert and pulling from the sun that has already disappeared from the horizon. Has her silver and amber ring on its cord about her neck, gleaming. Her semi-transparent shielding spell appearing and disappearing in a ghostly golden light. Each strike by the figures of magically-animate soil and water she blocks, quick as thought, until she moves to lets one through so she can strike at its heart, in and up into where the chest would be.
The object of this exercise is to stay dry. Stay clean.
Except for her right hand and arm.
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Date: 2013-07-30 09:10 pm (UTC)She is stunning. Her memories flow over him, through him, mingling with the sweet symphony of her heart beat, the flush of sweat on her skin, the scent of her hair. It's an assault on his senses, and one that he gladly submits to. She reminds him why he chose to return from the wilds.
He lets her feel his weight as he stands, using her as a counterbalance. It's easier now, after sparring with her. They've danced, so to speak.
'You need to rest. And something to drink, perhaps.'
He doesn't want to seem uncivilized.
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Date: 2013-07-30 09:40 pm (UTC)Sunshine smiles faintly, a bare twitch of the corners of her lips as she watches him. He is suggesting she have a drink, when she - a feeder of people - cannot return the favor.
They are both aware of it, of course. How their eyes meet, and how much of their paired attention is on the feeling of the hand against their own. How the other moves. Why they dance, and fight, and chase, and yet...
(There is always a need for ceremony, my lady. At least where you and I stand.)
"I think," Sunshine says at length, and because there is no point in it she does not hide the knowledge of just how much she is tempted to answer otherwise, "that I'll be fine. Thank you, however, for the offer."
They both know why, for they both know wars of necessity.
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Date: 2013-07-30 09:55 pm (UTC)'I have not forgotten my debt to you, lady.'
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Date: 2013-08-01 03:11 am (UTC)"Nor have I."
Sunshine's replying gesture, something of a bow, something of a curtsy despite not wearing a dress -
(...she wiped her tear-stained face on the hem of her dress, there in that ruined ballroom, a dress finer than anything she had ever owned. Hearts-blood red silk, cleverly sewn on the bias so that it clung around the low-cut bodice but swirled out in the ankle-length skirt to what feel like yards of material at the hem, draping over her awkward knees in drifts like something out of a Renaissance painting...)
- comes as naturally to her as drinking blood. Which is to say, it doesn't.
Nevertheless, the gesture is true, and honest, and respectful. He represents everything she fights against and everything she is drawn to; not to acknowledge whatever gravity-like force that binds them together would be to lie.
And neither of them do that.
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Date: 2013-08-01 03:27 am (UTC)'Thank you, for this. I should like it if we could train like this, again. If you're amenable?'
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Date: 2013-08-01 03:48 am (UTC)"Thank you, as well." It is a strange feeling, to have danced in this way with a vampire, this vampire, and know that it will be genuinely useful.
In her fight against vampires.
"I would... like it, too."
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Date: 2013-08-01 04:13 am (UTC)Perhaps it is simply another facet of his mask. Perhaps it is not a mask at all. Certainly, when he lifts his gaze to hers again, the look in his eyes is as open and honest as she has ever seen.
'I look forward to it. Until then?'
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Date: 2013-08-01 04:35 am (UTC)Mask or not, lingering humanity or an act, she meets him as he is. With all she is, and all that he is, open and honest. Food-maker, warrior, hands covered in flour or in blood to feed her world body and soul. Monster, man, living blood and unbeating heart in unending love and impassioned hatred.
"Yes," she agrees - then, greatly daring. "Until then... Vlad."
Sunshine has never before spoken his name aloud. His title, the one best known to her, yes, but never his name.
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Date: 2013-08-01 10:10 pm (UTC)'A good evening to you... Rae.'
Again, he dips his chin, and turns to leave. The shadows pool around his feet, licking up his legs until it seems like the night itself draws him in. His silhouette dissolves and maybe she can hear a faint sound. A contented, quiet chuckle that echoes around her, coming from everywhere and no where, all at once.
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Date: 2013-08-02 08:25 pm (UTC)Then and only then, Sunshine lets out a breath she hadn't been aware of holding. She stands alone in the circle until her heartbeat slows towards normal, until her nerves - heightened and aware and seemingly sensitive to every breath of a breeze - calm to the point where she becomes aware again of her fight-grimed weariness, the dirt smearing her skin, the sweat making her clothes stick to her. And in that moment, complicated relationships and divided loyalties aside, all she wants is a bath.
Human again, her mother's daughter, feeder of people, Rae fetches her water bottle from the edge of the clearing, and heads back towards the bar in silence.