2480/Redirecting Conversation

Redirecting Conversation
Date of Scene:	17 February 2017
Location:	Mitakihara - Downtown
Synopsis:	Alexis is really bad at it!
Cast of Characters:	Norie Okana, Alexis Raskoph

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Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima had been out hunting and she's done for the night. She's ended up on top of a rooftop. It would be easy to track the vampire by the unconscious people she left behind. The usual kids trying to tag. Some workers at a fast food joint taking the trash out. Someone taking a shortcut they probably shouldn't had.

Right now she's sitting on top of an ac unit. Some darkness under her spreads out to scour the surface of dirt before she sits as she sighs and flips her head.

It never gets any easier.

She crosses her arms a bit and stares off into the distance, to try to gather her thoughts. It helps to reflect on what she just did. Keep it from coming back to haunt her later.

Alexis Raskoph has posed:
She's not the only one of the darkness moving around. She can sense as much, too, before she sees or hear it.

Afterall, this one shares a certain essence with her.

Still, if it wasn't for that sense that Norie has for him, Alex might be able to come along largely unnoticed, the way he moves around. As it is, she can still sense his every move, perhaps-- all the way up to the upraised portion of the building atop the roof that covers the stairs leading down back into the house. Leaned up against it, just besides the door, one of his arms draped up and over his head that's tilted in an odd angle of his neck-- hips slightly twisted to the side to turn his back into a slightly sideward arch.

She's surely noticed him by now. But he still calls out, after a moment, "You were... feeding just now?"

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima blinks and turns to the right. She head tilts. "Alexis-kun." she says softly. "Yes, I was." she says. "It was feeding day. I did what I had to do. But you know that already." she says silently.

She purses her lips. "I met your... patrol friend?" she asks. "Blue hair." she says with a frown.

"She wasn't particularly pleasant at me." she says.

"Accused me of many things. Doesn't understand why I need to feed."

Alexis Raskoph has posed:
"I heard," Alex murmurs, and though he doesn't move himself from the Bizarre pose, he does tip his head a different way to look away from Lacrima, for a moment.

"For whatever it's worth," he starts saying, after a few seconds. "She seemed.... like she was sorry for snapping at you." He bites at his lower lip.

"I told her I am not angry at you for all this. So she shouldn't be, either."

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima frowns. "'Snapping at me'." she says. "She said. I shouldn't had saved you and let you die. That. I only saved you because I was selfish." she says. "Did she tell you that?" she asks.

She takes a deep breath. "I do not like people who just see the world in black and white like that. I used to see it that way too. When I was human." she says.

A pause. "How was your Valentine's Day?" she asks curiously. "Did you...spend it with someone?" she asks.

"I did. It was nice." she says softly.

A pause. "No.. voices. Or burning. Right?" she asks.

Alexis Raskoph has posed:
That pushes Alex into silence, for a moment. His brows furrow down - either from thoughtfulness or something else - and he glances aside from the direction of Norie again. "No," he says after a moment. "She... did not." He lets out a heavy sigh with that. SIlence. He has to think on that for a while.

But he's distracted by the question of Valentine's Day. And he blinks in surprise at the other vampire over it, too.

"...I didn't, no," he admits, in deadpan. "It's not... that unusual, really. I never put much thought into it even before I came here. It's solely about couples where I come from, did you know?"

Beat.

"I did get chocolate though. That was... surprising."

He headtilts at the last question she presents him. He seems confused. "...No?" He says, with a slow blink. "Why?"

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima head tilts. "It can be about couples here too." she says. "But it's also about giving obligation chocolate and things like that and I know that isn't a thing everywhere." she says softly. "I... confessed. In so much as I can confess.. to someone, as I can't feel love, but something else that isn't as nice that could substitute for it." she says. "It. went well." she says matter of factly.

She head tilts and frowns heavily. "Don't you remember? Those are the signs of the transition becoming permanent. Please pay attention to those two things." she says softly. "It's very important you let someone like me or Kunzite know. I'm not sure what can be DONE about it, but if it's anything like mine, you'll want the support anyways." she says softly.

"Don't think on what she said too hard." she says. "She is right in so far as /I/ was afraid of losing you that night." she says softly. "But. Everyone feels like that. In the face of losing someone."

"Don't they?" she asks.

"I remember that much..." she says quietly.

Alexis Raskoph has posed:
"I..." Alex sounds uncertain about... something, suddenly, and he lowers his eyes down to the ground.

"I think someone... confessed to me," he murmurs, then. "But it feels... I don't know. I don't know how it feels. I can't feel.... anything like that. I can feel fond of people, still, and I do... of people I consider friends. But... While I can remember the way I felt about Naru, that feels so distant, now. While I understand having felt it, I can't comprehend any of it now."

"I can't feel that warmth. And I don't think I can give it, either." He closes his eyes, there, and lets out a sigh, with the full understanding of that fact that he's lost something else human about him.

Anyway.

"I have not felt anything like that, no," he assures Norie, then. "Only thing that changed... I..." He lowers his arm from the top of his head finally, and guides his hand to sliding along his chest. "I think I've become... More conscious of the wounds I got before you changed me. I've been thinking back on them, and... It's a wonder I didn't just... die outright. My heart wasn't pierced, but an artery right by it was cut and my lung was collapsed. I think a piece of my spine might have been broken off too."

He frowns.

"In theory, Norie... If I... actually died just before you turned me. Wouldn't that mean I can never go back? At least not without... ceasing to exist?" It's very possible that this is something he has been thinking of a lot.

He looks up to her, then. And her question? It takes him all of two seconds to consider it before he tells her, bluntly, "I would have done the same thing. If our positions were reversed."

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima head tilts. "I never ... felt 'in love' when I was human. So I didn't have a baseline for it." she says softly. "So when people started confronting me about it I didn't know how it felt and I still don't." she says softly. "The boy... he knows how I am. He understands and he is fine with the fact that- I cannot 'love' him back, because he himself has trouble 'loving' because of. His own condition, that. I cannot talk about. Because I value his privacy when he asks me to." she says.

"And what matters is that someone that likes you can deal with it, and if their presence makes you comfortable." she says.

She head tilts. "I want to tell you about how I came to be this." she says softly.

"It was shortly after my birthday and I had money from it. I wanted a few things. A few days before, girls were talking about... jewelry. For a dance recital. I didn't typically care for such things." she says.

"But when I saw this... necklace. In the window of a second hand shop- and for a price that wouldn't prevent me from obtaining another thing or two I wanted. I jumped at it." she says.

"Then two days latter. I just collapsed during dance recital and I started writhing. It felt like my entire body was burning. and it burned and burned and the doctors had no choice but to induce me into a coma like state. My heart stopped a few times during this whole affair. My family was worried I might die."

"I'm pretty sure I did. But then suddenly. I was okay. This was because the process was done. I wasn't flesh anymore at that point. Not that I knew. I felt odd. But that was expected afterall that. I went home..."

"The next day. That's when all this started setting in." she says quietly.

"I tell you this because my theory is that when you're dead... that's when you just become a dark energy construct." she says. "You're still human. You're still alive, I think." she says.

"That being said."

"If you were to magically lose your power right now- I imagine you'd just go back to how you were when you were laying on the ground." she says.

"So while you might not be dead yet. I imagine it would only be moments at that point." she says.

"Not that. That's any comfort." she says. "Which I apologize for." she says.

Alexis Raskoph has posed:
    "I... do not think she would really be happy, with me, the way I am" Alex murmurs, his tone rueful for a moment there. But he shakes that thought away, when Norie begins her story.

He's heard a bit of it all, before. But not like this-- not told like this. And most certainly not with the lesson she brigns with it.

But still-- after all that, he looks down at himself, thoughtfully. He frowns, briefly.

"So either way," he says. "I am probably going to die, that way."

He closes his eyes, and takes in a heavy breath, only to be slowly released in an exhale.

He... really seems surprisingly calm about that realization, really.

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima head tilts. "Maybe not. There are magical healers that might be able to stabilize you fast enough- if you were able to be turned back to a full human at a time of our own choosing." she says softly. "Some working in concert should be able to save you, or save you enough that a hospital can take care of the rest." she says.

"Or perhaps a way to undo the wounds one by one and repair them one by one. Lots of ways that might or might not work." she says.

She head tilts. "Who is this girl that confessed to you?" she asks. "What did she say?"

Alexis Raskoph has posed:
"I suppose there's not really much use worrying about it," Alex suggests then, in deadpan, with an entirely nonchalant roll given to his shoulders. "Since we don't even know how to... reverse it in the first place."

But then she goes and asks THAT question. And Alex promptly looks ELSEWHERE. Scratching at his head.

"... So the weather's been pretty cold lately, huh?"

WHAT ABSOLUTELY MASTERFUL REDIRECTION, ALEX.

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima just kind of stares at Alexis.

"You are really bad at redirection." she says.

Alexis Raskoph has posed:
"I have no idea what you are talking about," Alex claims promptly, first-- but he sighs out right after, with the impending realization that there's really only so long he can keep dancing around that subject.

"It was Sayaka. Okay?" He lets out another sigh.

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima head tilts. "Well that much was obvious. She blushed a lot when she spoke about you." she says softly.

"I don't think she particularly cares about who you are right now in terms of 'how she likes you'."

"What do you feel around her?" she asks.

"Even I.. feel things. Around people. Usually it's discomfort. But there's people I'm comfortable around. And even prefer to have around. Sometimes." she says.