1783/'Salt Lick For Vampires'

'Salt Lick For Vampires'
Date of Scene:	01 August 2016
Location:	Pikarigaoka - Old Church
Synopsis:	Ayana introduces Kunzite to Lacrima in hopes that he can help her. It goes bad. Really bad.
Cast of Characters:	Norie Okana, Ayana, Kunzite

---

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima hasn't been 'Norie' since Norie ran away. Instead, she opts to remain Lacrima-- people are looking for Norie-- not Lacrima- with her pale complexion and long purple hair and similarly colored eyes. Though she's wearing a simple blouse with a floral pattern, a red skirt and ordinary sneakers.

Ayana-chan finally was able to arrange the meeting it seems, between her and her friend.

'Saito-senpai'. Not a name she knows, but if Ayana trusts him, she's willing to, too.

Lacrima is sitting at the end of a row of pews with a white convience store bag, that seems 'too full' of candy bars. Another bag seems to act as a trash bag. She's also apparently 'eaten too many' while she waits. A little apprehensive, a little nervous, but still here all the same.

Being in the church is enough to ease her though. This was her safe spot. She'd be safe here. Right?

Ayana has posed:
It's not that Ayana forgot. It's that she's had a lot of very pressing priorities, and Kunzite has been busy, too. Honest. She never stopped trying to coordinate this meeting! She certainly didn't have to be nudged by Ikiko about it.

Nevertheless, she shows up at the church a little ahead of him, and then waits outside, humming to herself as she sits on the steps in a red summer dress with her hair pulled back. Where her shoes have gone are anyone's guess, but the foxgirl has never been particular normal.

She hasn't gone inside, yet, to greet Norie; better to greet Kunzite and go in with him, just so there's no confusion.

Kunzite has posed:
The floral apocalypse, for one thing. The house reconstruction. Trying to watch over a friend who gets attacked on a weekly basis. Tutoring orphans for end-of-period exams, because of an attack none of them precisely remember. Riventon.

Lots of Riventon.

Kunzite isn't sure what to think of the meeting-place; churches and shrines still unnerve him, just a little. Dealing with two deities at once isn't making that any better. But he is, all the same, precisely four minutes early. He's dressed as neutrally as possible for a Japanese male in the summertime: white button-down shirt and grey trousers as if he'd just escaped from a typically overheated office. The stark white hair is a little too long to quite suit that image, but not too much: only a little longer than Takashi's, right now.

"Hello, Ayana." He puts a hand out in unspoken offer to help the foxgirl up. "No recent disasters to steer clear of, I hope."

Ayana has posed:
Kunzite's greeting draws Ayana's attention up from her phone. She looks up with bright eyes, and then blinks in surprise. "Hair," she greets him, then bounds up, tails wagging beneath her dress, and squeezes him tight in a hug. "You look really good," she tells him, grinning just enough to show her fangs. "C'mon, Norie-chan's this way," she says, grabbing Kunzite by the hand and dragging him through the door.

Kunzite has posed:
Also, somewhat amazingly, his scent has settled down. Which will be plainly obvious to a foxnose courtesy that tight hug. Hand being out already means he's at least in a good position to return it. Just as much as he's aware that Ayana's 'really good' means 'more like you used to look as a teacher.' "Not as much as you do," he replies anyhow, in the couple of seconds before he's letting her pull him through the door and into the church.

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima begins eating another candy bar. One gets the impression that, when one can eat all they want to make themselves feel better without repucussions, and one is nervous, one may eat fifty candy bars. That's what Lacrima is doing right now.

The doors open and she looks over her shoulder. She stands up politely and says in her deadpan-- though with a pleased tone to it. "Hello, Ayana-chan. Is this Sait-----" her eyes finally lay on 'Saito-sempai' and she blinks merely once-- and then she frowns and raises her right hand immediatly and that candy bar in it drops to the ground in a clatter. There's no flash of dark energy or even a build up of it, but the hand raise is clearly meant as a threat.

"You." she says. "What are /you/ doing here." she snaps. "You get away from Ayana-chan!" she says suddenly more worriedly.

Like she thinks Kunzite is a threat.

Kunzite has posed:
Clearly the 'Ayana warns Lacrima beforehand' plan did not go as well as hoped. Kunzite doesn't lift his hands in the usual gesture to invoke peace, because Lacrima's fought against him and knows perfectly well how he invokes his power. He bows to her instead, steady and apparently unworried. "Ayana-chan asked me to come and talk with you," he says. "She said that there were certain things that worried her, apparent limitations on your abilities that caused considerable inconvenience. Given who you've been working with, it's entirely possible that that's been settled to your satisfaction by now. But if not, then it seemed worthwhile to see whether another set of eyes on the problem might help."

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima frowns. "She said someone named 'Saito' was supposed to be with her. /You're/ Kunzite." she says all gloomily. Her eyes look over to Ayana and she frowns a bit as she huffs and hesitantly lowers her hand as she reaches down to pick up the candy bar and trash it. It's well past the five second rule by now. She frowns and sits back down in the pew, back facing Kunzite as she hrmphs.

"Riventon-san takes care of me." she says matter of factly. "But there's only so much he can help with." she says quietly. "He's at least figured out how to make it so I'm not consuming massive amounts of energy for trivial things." she says quietly.

She just sits there. "Limitations....?" she asks. "Oh. How I. Need to feed. Yes. I need to touch people. And say a word. It doesn't lend itself to the kind of 'sneaky draining' she was mentioning." she says.

"That, and I know it hurts when I do it." she states.

Kunzite has posed:
"'Saito' was the name she knew me by first. And it's close enough to the real one that it makes no difference if she keeps it." Saito. Kunsaito. Only missing a syllable.

The taller, older boy comes around to the pew in front of her, settles himself half-sidewise in it so that the two of them can at least in theory regard one another. Also so that she doesn't need to wonder if he's manifesting some kind of knife.

"Riventon and I share a goal in the long run," he says, matter-of-fact. "We disagree on what methods are acceptable. But I don't wish him ill, and I don't wish you ill for working with him. I'm pleased that he takes care of you. I hope that he'll continue to do so well. And I'm pleased that he's been able to help you with efficiency; that's an area in which I'm catching up to his skill."

Kunzite pauses for a moment or two, examining Lacrima carefully as he ... well. Just sits there. "It's people specifically?" he asks. There's no accusation; he might as well be Riventon casually doublechecking a fact. "Nothing lesser -- not animals, not other forms of energy. Not sunlight or heat or electricity. Is that correct?"

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima nods. "He made me a device that kind of acts like a 'flow control' for my energy. It helps a lot." she says softly.

She head tilts and frowns and shakes her head. "No, not sunlight or electricity." she says softly.

"I tried animals I... um." she says. "I don't wanna talk about it." she says quietly.

"Jiaying-chan, a friend of mine, tried to have me eat an angry ghost. That...didn't work." she says quietly.

"I can't factually say 'only humans', but I can say 'presently, only humans.'." she says matter of factly.

"I haven't tried like. Aliens. or anything." she asides.

Kunzite has posed:
"It sounds as if what you do has a fundamental difference from what I do, then. I'd suspect that most aliens that behave like humans would be acceptable to you; it sounds as if the important part for you is most likely that your target is in present possession of a soul, or at least something that functions like one." Kunzite settles a hand just above his knee, largely so that he can tap a fingertip against something without making enough of a sound to be noticed. Pews tend to echo if one isn't careful. "It's possible that that might be what causes the pain; I can't be sure without seeing it at close range."

... why is he entirely not surprised that she knows Jiaying, too.

All of the rest of it is a little bit of a sideshow, though. Necessary. But nothing Riventon isn't likely to have already taken apart seventeen times. "What are you trying to accomplish? What about your abilities would you try to change, if you can?"

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima head tilts. "'Soul'?" she asks softly. "Maybe that's the key then..." she says quietly. She frowns and taps her chin as she thinks this over. "All I know is, it hurts, and people fall into unconciousness, but are fine later, if sleepy upon waking up." she says.

She frowns and looks down. "Trying to accomplish....? Make it so I don't need to attack people to remain 'a person'... as for abilities...." she says quietly.

"I dunno. Draining people from a distance without too much notice or needing to yell out some sort of stupid power word could help me a lot." she says.

"I dunno what else you could help with." she says quietly. "I can't have what I really want... to be human again." she says softly. "Someone's trying to help me feel 'good feelings' again." she says. "But not much luck there." she says.

Ayana has posed:
While Norie was busy accusing Kunzite of being dangerous, Ayana's ears wilted and she slipped into the shadows, worried but believing that Kunzite would figure things out. Since he did, eventually, do just that, she felt a little more willing to emerge once again.

As the questions turn to how he can help, Ayana notes, "I was trying to teach her how to drain subtly. Small amounts, here and there; nibbles rather than bites. So that she doesn't hurt people. So that she doesn't wind up getting in trouble with magical girls who laserbeam first and ask questions later.

"I know what it's like to rely on draining people," Ayana explains, though Kunzite already knows. "I know what it's like to feel helplessly overwhelmed by the darkness. I just ... want to help her. But I don't know how, anymore."

Kunzite has posed:
The conversation is quiet all around. There's no need to draw attention to themselves. Particularly not here.

Kunzite nods to Ayana as she rejoins them, but his attention stays on Norie. "That's a beginning," he says. "Thank you. I didn't want to presume that what I might want for you would be the same thing as what you actually wanted for yourself."

He studies Lacrima quietly for several moments before speaking again. "I spent a number of years as something other than human, something that needed to feed on humans. I was fortunate enough to be restored. So I cannot agree that there is no hope for your own restoration. But I won't argue that you should feel otherwise, since hope can bring with it despair, and despair is one of the things that you need most to avoid. You know better than I how your mind works, and what you can afford to risk.

He glances to Ayana, reaches out and places a hand on her forearm for a moment, just long enough to reassure; then lifts it again and draws it back. "I was able to show Ayana that technique," he says to Lacrima, "when we both needed to use it, because her abilities were similar to mine. I'm not certain that yours are. If the word of power is simply a spell, then there's the possibility of creating another spell that works differently. If it's calling the attention of something else that lends you some of its power, then that might be more difficult. If you need the pain to feed from as well as the energy, or if your ability requires an investment of your own energy to create the connection, than it might be very difficult.

"Even if my ability is different from yours, though, we might be able to use it to learn something about yours. If Riventon hasn't already done that. Has he had time yet to study what happens when you drain someone?"

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima listens and blinks once. She frowns. She doesn't say /anything/ when Kunzite says he used to be inhuman but is a human now, but she seems to be silently fuming at something now. It's obvious she's keeping her mouth shut and it's clear it's for obviously Ayana's sake as she clenches pointed teeth just a moment before she gathers herself.

"I dunno what it is." she says frankly. "I'm able to manipulate dark energy itself, but I'm still learning." she says. "I can absorb dark energy, but I can only use it to repair physical damage to myself, it doesn't 'feed me'." she says. "I can shift into the Dusk Zone and I can I mess with people's heads." she says.

"But when I want to do something like... drain. or fire off more complicated I need to start using words. I dunno if these are spells or commands or just something I need to do." she says silently.

"Um. I'm told my draining isn't much different than anything else that drains." she says quietly. "I mean. Everything's a little different but I'm not unique in that sense." she says softly.

She kind of looks down a little ashamed suddenly as Ayana says she doesn't know what to do.

Ayana has posed:
Ayana slides in next to Norie and puts her arms around the girl, hugging her briefly. "You can still drain me, if you need," she points out. "I mean, we can't do that all the time, but I'm a good target for practicing on, and if you get in an emergency."

Kunzite has posed:
The interesting part is not the reaction. The interesting part is that Lacrims is still capable of holding it back. "Not everything that drains is alike," Kunzite says quietly. "Some feed on any energy they can get. Some only on life, or luck, or emotion, or specific emotion. Let's see if we can get a better look at exactly what you're doing. I'm not carrying any energies that might harm you, today; it should be safe enough to try."

His eyes flicker one way and another, studying the church. "It seems likely to draw attention, though. Is there anywhere nearby that we wouldn't be interrupted?"

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima frowns and shakes her head. "This is a quiet spot, out of the way and no one's here today." she says. "I only come here when I know I'll be alone.. or with a friend I trust." she says quietly.

Then she realizes Kunzite is here and she might aswell throw that all out the window and this causes her to glower gloomily.

Luckily, Ayana is there with hug-like actions and this helps a tiny bit.

"I find this place comforting. I dunno why." she shrugs. "I'm pretty sure it's the archetecture that reminds me of... something..." she seems confused at herself as she just shrugs.

"Just... tell me what to do..." she says as she looks down.

Ayana has posed:
Ayana squeezes Norie gently, then leans away and looks to Kunzite. "Should she drain me? Or do you need her to drain you to figure things out?" Quite willing to be the sacrificial lam--err fox.

Kunzite has posed:
"Then we'll take chances." Kunzite inclines his head to Ayana. "We'll use me first; I'll be able to see parts of it more clearly that way. If we find anything she can try immediately, then I'll watch and try to help guide as she practices on you."

He pauses, glancing between the girls. "What I'm going to do," he says to Lacrima, "is change, and invoke my own power. I will not try to drain either of you. There will be a small drop in temperature, and it will get a little darker. I'll cue you when to start. Work slowly, if you can. You may feel a little resistance; that will be my trying to see exactly what you're doing. I may try to resist more directly, if that's needed to see more; if I do, you'll see a barrier made out of shadows form. I'll try to talk to you about it while it's going on, but I want to make sure you know as much as possible in advance, in case I cant speak."

He glances to Ayana. "If something seems to be going wrong, or if you see light manifest instead of shadow in a way that's not usual for your friend's abilities, please try to interrupt us. If you perceive anything interesting, or if you can explain anything happening, please do."

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima nods a bit as she stands up and sighs and brushes her clothes off. She's already Lacrima so she kind of just walks over to Kunzite as she frowns a bit as she raises her hand... then pauses. "Right. I'm going to need to touch you." she says softly. Then another pause.

"Let me know when you're ready." she says quietly as she looks back to Ayana unsuredly.

"This should... be alright, okay?" she says just a little softly as she looks back and swallows some. Yup.

Nervous.

Ayana has posed:
Ayana reaches up and grasps the little bead of inspiration dangling from her collar. "It'll be okay," she reasusres Norie with a smile. "Saito-senpai's a good person," she promises, "and he won't hurt you unless you try to hurt me." She's actually pretty sure he wouldn't even hurt her to defend himself; he'd probably just leave. But that's a guess.

Squeezing the ball tightly, Ayana concentrates her power there, and then forces herself to calm her emotions and focus as much as she can on the situation at hand. "I'll keep an eye out," she promises Kunzite.

Kunzite has posed:
Kunzite rises as Lacrima does, but mostly to accommodate something else; something not quite like lightning flickers over him, an incongruously warm pink in tone that picks up the feel of the church as a whole and echoes it faintly. Where it passes, he's dressed in the uniform she's seen before; and as she comes around the end of the pew, he bows to her slightly again and seats himself, maneuvering his cape by reflex so that it interferes with neither of them.

"One moment," he says quietly. And the area just around himself and Lacrima grows darker and cooler, a casual little sphere just large enough to contain the both of them. As promised, there's no draw on Lacrima herself, nor on Ayana if she's staying within range. It doesnt slow either of their motions, doesn't do much of anything -- but it lets him perceive the motion of energies within that range much more closely.

Another breath or two, as he focuses quietly down, bringing his own condition into conscious awareness; and then he lifts an ungloved hand and offers it to Lacrima. "If any part of this hurts you," he says quietly, "then stop; or if you can't stop, call out for Ayana. But as long as you were able to walk outside to get here, then nothing I'm carrying should hurt you at all. Ready when you are."

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima is used to the cold. She herself is cold. Not a warm body. "I'm going to go slow." she says softly. "Because I dunno how the quick one is going to effect this and quite frankly you can't tell me anything if you're unconcious." she says.

She frowns a bit as she hesitantly places her hand to Kunzite's chest and closes her eyes.

"Drenaje." she calls out. Her hand gets engulfed in a purple aura and it comes on strong at first before she seems to concentrate and it comes down to something Naru described. Cold and tingly, like ice crystals.

The energy, or this effect, seems to be orginating from herself- expected. Nothing else seems to be coming off her power wise.

What the energy seems to be targeting doesn't seem to be very specific. In fact, it feels like little icy tendrils lashing at a little bit of everything... good emotions... bad emotions... general 'energy... life... taken down into her hand and----

Kunzite can't really get a read on it once it passes the threshold of her hand. For right now.

Kunzite has posed:
Once it passes the threshold of her hand, he's not trying. Nothing intrusive. Nothing at all intrusive. But that her hand is placed on his chest, over the uniform, catches his attention visibly --

And then she's calling down her power.

The cold is marked by a sharp indraw if breath between Kunzite's teeth, but he remains still, and lowers his hand to the wood of the pew. "Nothing visibly external," he reports quietly. "If it's invoking something else, it's something that's reached through you, not a connection that passes through the rest of the world. I can't rule out the Dusk Zone. I'm going to run some tests; tell me if you stop being able to feed properly."

There's quiet for a few moments, and Lacrima can feel subtle changes in what she's taking in. Emotions at first; the 'calm that she first gained was as useful to her as more active emotions might be, but it's replaced by something surprisingly negative for an ostensible hero, full of calculation, wariness, anger held in the background so long it's nearly structural. The anger is fed for a few moments, though there's no visible change in his reactions. Then it falls away almost to nothing; then it's outweighed by a surge of affection, and the combinations of the two are tested in turn.

A rush of energy, warm with summertime heat. A drag on the pure-energy component, letting the rest flow free. A drag on specifically life, without the rest being involved.

And last of all, something --

And then a glimmer of light, faint and subdued in warm pinks and cool violets, at his forehead. It comes with a resurgence of that initial calm, a capacity for focus strong enough to be almost an emotion or an energy in itself, a deep-rooted connection to people that has been wounded and beaten and honed again until it can be wielded like a weapon. It's not more energy for Norie, but it feeds her more strongly in precisely the way that animals don't.

Ayana has posed:
Ayana watches, still clutching her star ball as Lacrima begins to drain Kunzite. She watches and says nothing, but by the alertness of her ears, and the stillness of the four tails beneath her dress, it's clear she's worried and attentive.

As Kunzite asked, she's watching for any signs of Norie's powers being different. Not that she has a lot of experience with those poiwers to judge by, but she has more than none, and she's got a general idea of how they work, so she watches unceartainly.

As Kunzite begins experimenting, Ayana raises her other hand worriedly, then lowers it again. He knows what he's doing. She trusts him to be true to his word. But boy is she worried for both of them right now.

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima seems a little nervous as Kunzite speaks. She nods a bit. "Well. Yes, it's coming from me, not somewhere else...." she says quietly. She can talk while she drains. She did so while she was draining Naru after all.

Kunzite begins switching gears and feeding specific things. Lacrima's power doesn't seem to agree to this. Like it dislikes that Kunzite's trying to keep things from it, or decide things for it. This causes that cold feeling to intense and deepen as it trys to claw past this break and Lacrima frowns... "I'm not doing that..." she says quietly. She can feel the change.

She does, however, take that energy in...

Kunzite feeds it specific emotions, regardless-- and It doesn't quite have the effects Kunzite is expecting. Lacrima just stands there. Deadpan. Expression unchanged except for the occasional nervous flash. Kunzite /knows/ what he's fed it and Lacrima seems unchanged--- until he gets to the strange anger. This causes something to flash across her face and she frowns heavily---- this in fact, causes her hand to claw inward, fingertips pressing against the uniform---but she blinks and backs off--- Kunzite only letting that feed for a moment.

She frowns more heavily at this. "I dunno what happened there. I suddenly felt very angry." she says.

It seems that whatever Noire does with this energy, it gets processed somewhere inside her. It's unlikely the intent is getting through because of this. Maybe anger doesn't need to be processed? It's a reasonable guess if Kunzite thinks on it.

There's a rush on 'life energy' and this causes Lacrima to shiver. Not in a bad way. She /liked/ that feeling and it causes the intensity of the sudden intensity of her drain to back off.

Then something different she's not used to getting--- some sort of feeling of calm and connection that makes her look... confused and disorientedly. Like she's trying to remember something.

She blinks once. "Huh...?" she asks. At nothing really specific.

"What...."

"What was that?" she asks.

Kunzite has posed:
The interesting part, of course, is that Kunzite wasn't expecting anything specific. Between self-control and his own powers, he varied the content of what she was getting simply to see what, if anything, happened. Her standing there deadpan gives him information. Her power moving without her conscious will gives him information, if rather more uncomfortably so. Her reaction to the anger is interesting, and her awareness of it is more interesting still. The rush she gets from the surge of life is, too -- there may be a mental note made somewhere to try to avoid her feeding on Mamoru in future, but that's really rather redundant -- and then there's the confusion.

That's interesting.

That's very interesting.

(One of the characteristic sounds of progress in research: "That can't be right...")

"Tell you shortly." Kunzite's voice is strained, distracted, in a way Ayana hasn't heard before. His control over what she's getting is let slip, carefully, returning her drain to something more normal for her. "For now. Finish up as you can."

He went into this with the assumption that he could probably intervene on his own behalf if she were, in fact, draining him unconscious. That assumption is proving not to be as sound as he thought -- his energy reserves are still so much greater than a normal human's that he's not concerned on that front, but energy isn't the only thing she's tapping, and he's not inclined to risk the kind of damage that might result to both of them if he tried to pull away too sharply there. But at least he's sitting up. If he does pass out, his head won't strike anything too hard.

And if he does pass out, he's fairly sure it won't be for long.

Ayana has posed:
The strain in Kunzite's voice draws Ayana's eyes sharply towards him. "Norie-chan," she suggests gently, "I think you'd better stop now."

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima keeps draining because Kunzite hasn't asked her to stop. She still seemed confused. Something drives her to continue draining because she wants to know what that /feeling/ was, but it doesn't come back.

She suddenly slacks a bit... like she might stop, or bring herself to- and in fact gives that impression, expression going back to deadpan a moment.

"....Give it back...." she says flatly... her hand flexes against his chest again as either she looses control of the drain-- or she willingly let's it go full force from midly uncomfortable ice crystals to full on freezing agonzing pain of the full drain she gives most normals.

"/GIVE IT BACK!/." she says as that purple aura seems to shift into something dark and black against Kunzite's chest. This is most likely intensely uncomfortable as she seems all but deaf to Ayana's suggestion.

Maybe feeding Norie one of the things she misses most, her connection to 'people' wasn't the best of ideas. Not like Kunzite would know that. Maybe Norie didn't even know herself the extent of that.

But right now she aches for that feeling again as she screams-- beinging to glow herself with that same aura.

Ayana may need to step in proper or Kunzite will need to do something rash.

Kunzite has posed:
Not in so many words. Not in words that would make it through that confusion.

There's some of that feeling there, in what she's draining from him. Always some of it. Just a little. But when the glow subsided, when he stopped pushing it, she stopped getting as much ...

"Give it back."

Well. That confirms what he had the uncomfortable suspicion was going on.

It's not the pain that he cares about, particularly. It's the possibility that that no matter how much warning he gave, that sharp a pain might be getting someone else's attention.

"Lacrima, stop." It's an order given. There's nothing of threat in it, nothing of anger. He locks down on holding concentration, holding focus, on not feeling in case the empath linked to him catches it and shades into alarm.

His own shadows draw in on himself and darken, a sharp black shield warring with Lacrima's still blacker drain. Trying to insulate himself against her increasing use of power. But he's not an empath; energy and life he can fight her for, but there are other things that he can only hold on to by force of will. His will was enough to hold him together, literally, for years. In the Dark Kingdom. In the Dusk Zone. But it's not a power. And every moment that he exerts it, he is also, in another sense, feeding her -- a bizarre feedback loop between the two. Asserting his sense of identity against her power both fights and fuels it all at the same time.

There's no mystery for him any more about why it hurts. None at all.

Ayana has posed:
There is a danger, inherent in reaching in between a creature of darkness and their victim. There is a danger in becoming the victim yourself.

But Ayana doesn't even think of that danger, as she reaches up and grabs Norie's wrist. She doesn't think of that danger, as she twists just so, and drags Norie away from him.

The kitsune's eyes burn with anger and disapproval, but she doesn't say anything; she just forces Norie to lose her connection to him, neatly and promptly.

Then, she looks up at Norie--Lacrima--sapphire eyes meeting purple. And she can't hide the betrayal there. But still she doesn't say anything.

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima doesn't want to let go. So when Kunzite asks, curtly, to let her go, she patentedly ignores it. Luckily, she can't increase her drain past what she's using right now--- she seems. Agitated and angry and confused suddenly all at once. Whatever that is. She wants. She wants and she covets it.

Ayana steps in and forcibly breaks the connection by physically moving her hand away with a twist of her wrist and drags her away. Dark aura seems to lick and tries to lash out to stay behind-- to try to keep some link, but luckily for Kunzite, Lacrima doesn't know how to do such a thing- but /something/ just tried.

Her hand reaches back over Ayana's shoulder at Kunzite..."/Give it back!/." she says again, like some sort of record on repeat for a moment before she begins to shake and that confused, angry expression begins to fade first to her neutral deadpan... then to a soft frown and then to just outright shock and surprise and she falls down to her butt in the middle of the aisle of the church. She wraps her arms around herself protectivly, even as Ayana gives her a look as she spits. "What did you do!? /WHAT DID YOU DO!?/." she demands.

Like Kunzite just did whatever to her on purpose.

Kunzite has posed:
That answers the question of whether she's ultimately capable, one day, of draining from a distance. Not a surprise. She didn't need skin contact in the first place. He'll consider that. Later. When he can.

"Moment." The word's barren of emotion, toneless. Kunzite sits still for a second or so, then reaches up and traces with his fingertips the trim on his jacket. He's usually expressionless; now he's gone past that, as if his body were a mannequin that he happened to be animating, incapable of making any such subtle changes.

It takes more seconds for him to recover. To remember to blink, to turn his head, to lift it to look at the two girls. Finally to lift a hand and rake it back through his hair; not that it's long enough to warrant the effort, but the gesture is his habit. Something that's his.

"Thank you, Ayana." He's still not trying to stand. Not trying to move much. His tone is quiet, the vocal equivalent of Lacrima's deadpan, still. "What I did was try to find out what you feed on. What you need that you have to get from humans. I'm not sure that it can be separated from the pain. It might be possible for you to learn another method, or it might be inherent." That's not what she cares about right now. It took him a moment to remember that he should be concerned about that, and perhaps in another couple of moments he'll remember why. "Apparently -- I'm a better source than you're used to."

That'll go on his tombstone, no doubt. Here lies Kunzite, salt lick for vampires.