Well, Jeshickah had given Persephone permission to go out alone for some horrible reason to be certain, but Persephone, having never left Midnight since she was brought there many years prior, couldn't believe her ears when she was told. She was supposed to go and re-affirm herself with the world, and Jeshickah was confident Persephone would return as instructed (which she would; and why not? Jeshickah was perfect.)
Unfortunately for Persephone, the only place she knew or remembered how to get to was Hellcat's Hollow, and it didn't actually occur to her that she might not be welcome since her previous audiance there of the tiger-Triste Ash was alongside Jeshickah and Ian, neither of whom he seemed to care for. Persephone didn't have time to stop and wonder if she was welcome or if anyone liked her - Jeshickah and Ian's opnions were all that mattered to her, and so long as they were content, she, too, was.
Persephone had chosen simple clothing for her outing - jeans, boots (begrudgingly) and a black tanktop. Her hair was growng some, finally, brushing her shoulders in waves - she had let it dry wet, and she couldn't manage to brush the curl out. Her bangs were swept to the side slightly, as best she could to keep them from her eyes. She -looked- normal, if you ignored the black choker she wore (fashionable to some, a collar to her) and pearl-coloured scars all over what exposed flesh she had that wasn't on her face.
She stopped outside the door as an intoxicating scent caught her nose, pulling her from her mission to 'explore and learn social skills'. It was that green stuff, that wicked herb that Ian had used to taunt her. She closed her eyes and smelled her way around until she found the culprit - an abandoned cat toy in the form of a small ball with a bell on the inside. It was laced with catnip!
She forgot all about the building she was standing next to, and leaned on the wall just next to the door, concentrating on rubbing the little 'ting ting'ing fabric orb in her hands, and on her chin, and against her nose. Her eyes were that charicteristic shade of chartreuse, pupils dialated like ink blots as she busied herself with the ball.
What a treasure! she thought to herself. Someone sure is stupid for dropping this! Oh well, it's mine now. Minemineminemine.
Usually, Darren was far more aware of his surroundings than he currently was as he busted out the front door of Hellcat's Hollow, but it was hardly his fault that he'd been joking rather loudly with Dave (who was taking the next shift behind the bar) and that he'd just gotten pelted with the balled-up specials page from the lunch menu. He hadn't known Persephone was out there, and in fact didn't notice until he ran right into her, having been paying attention to the werewolf shouting something after him.
"Oh, whoa, sorry about that!" he apologized quickly, reaching out reflexively to ensure that he hadn't knocked her off-balance or anything, and only noticed the ball in her hands in passing. It was actually her eyes, and her scent, which caught his attention first. Feline.
She had eyes quite like his, actually. Too green to really be human, compliments, more than likely, of spending far too much time in their second form. That was what his mother had always warned him about as he grew up, and his eyes had gotten rather vivid over the years, so he believed her. It wasn't terribly shocking to find another shapeshifter right outside the Hollow, but he was interested nonetheless.
Persephone was thrust forward a few feet, shoving the ball right into her nose at an awkward angle. She didn't react to Darren right away, instead sneezing for a moment and suddenly becoming aware of herself. And something else. That sneeze had cleared her head up, but that smell.. it was so... She cupped her hands and rubbed her nose sort of like a squirrel might, trying to make sure it wasn't that catnip messing with her head.
She turned though, finally acknowledging that she'd even been bumped, as the man stood, waiting for a confirmation that she was fine (it had only been about four seconds since the initial run-down). She opened her mouth to say something, but then that smell hit her again. Head tilted to the side and her mouth hung like that, slightly parted, as though she was confused.
His EYES! Persephone had never seen another cat with eyes like that, like hers. It came from being forced to stay in her natural form for so long, so much that Persephone was practically feral with the ability to walk in shoes (barely) and comprehend conversation. She blinked rapidly, and then reached out to catch his arm before he had a chance to run off. It wasn't a hold so tight he couldn't move out of it, she just... didn't want him to go yet.
She leaned forward on her toes, smelling him. Luckily dusk in New York City brought many passerbys, and nobody actually stopped to -react- to a girl smelling a boy on the sidewalk. He smelled like warm and fuzzy and things she hadn't been around in at least twenty years. He smelt like something good that she couldn't remember.
Jeshickah letting Persephone out may not have been a good idea, just yet.
He didn't have the slightest clue what that ball she had was, but he'd seen her drop it right after he bumped her, so the first thing he did was pick it up for her. It was a damn good thing that he didn't bother to take a whiff of it, considering what was inside the damn ball. He just offered it back to her...and stared.
She was sniffing him. Of all the things he might have expected her to do, sniffing him wasn't one of them. He'd met other shifters, and he'd recently discovered that, somehow, his boss was now one. He'd never had one sniff him like this before, though. "Er, hi. You dropped your ball," he prompted her, lifting it somewhat to remind her.
It was like a Disney cartoon - Persephone was engrossed in his scent, it was something she could drench herself in. She'd never, ever felt that way before, and she didn't understand it, but it was exciting - and not exciting like beating someone to death, but exciting... she didn't know!
And then the ball was right in front of her, and she crossed her eyes, and then looked up at him, and reached up to close her hand over his and the ball, pushing it towards his face. The little noisemaker on the inside could be heard sliding around, making 'ting ting' noises as she did so, though the motions were very fluid.
"Play?" she asked. She tilted her head from right to left, and oh, how she smelled of that catnip. She was still spinning from it, she felt all heavy and euphoric. Man, that was some good shit.
It was good shit, and he realized it all at once when she shoved it back towards him. There was a sharp intake of breath as he tried to jerk his head back to avoid getting bopped in the face with it, and that was all he needed to become very interested in that ball.
There was a reason he'd never been exposed to this stuff except in a 'don't touch it' sort of way, and this was that reason. Once he'd recovered from his initial reaction of pulling his head away from her hand, he leaned right back towards the ball, sniffing first at it, then at her hands. His eyes, which were already kitty-cat green, had changed to a more feline-esque pupil by the time they flicked from the ball to her.
He nodded, leaning even closer to her and invading her space in much the same way she'd done to his, sniffing at her. Jaguar. Not so different from his leopard, but enough that he could easily tell.
The level of closeness that cats seemed to attain even for brief moments was so utterly strange to watch that it was a wonder someone hadn't stopped. As Darren leaned in, Persephone tilted her head and rolled onto the tips of her toes again, burying her nose at the crease of his shoulder by his neck. When she pulled back, she rubbed her cheek along his, and a soft rumbling sound came from her throat.
Persephone was purring.
She held the ball back, because, well, this was the game of BALL!!!! and the ball was hers, and so right now, she was winning. She didn't understand anything else about it, but she sure was glad she didn't have to go through it alone again.
Her chartreuse eyes still remained dialated for the most part, 'til she finally, reluctantly, pulled away from the other cat. A leopard. He was so similiar she almost didn't realize he wasn't a jaguar, but the Azteka had a way of... being their own, and there was a distinct flavour of difference once you noticed.
She didn't know if she should throw it or not; technically someone else was supposed to throw it, bcause she couldn't throw it for HIM to chase and then they'd both go after it, could she? Blast, she needed Hades around; he had a good arm.
Persephone wasn't the only one purring, and he went right along with it when she rubbed her cheek against his, still breathing in her scent and that of the catnip. He was done for.
She didn't need to throw it, since he understood on a very primal, animalistic level what was going on. This was Ball. She had the ball, and he was supposed to get it from her so that she could steal it back until they got tired of it. So, when she backed off, he understood the rules and gave her a moment to realize that he was on the same page while he eyed it. Then, he pounced.
The game was on, and his backpack lay on the ground where he'd been, temporarily forgotten.
Persephone was Pounced, and went crashing to the ground, shielding the ball -- HER BALL -- from the new cat. She rolled onto her stomach and wiggled loose, and then ran straight into the Hollow. She caught her arm on the door as she ran, and the ball she was cradling popped up and sprang free.
It went loose in the bar.
Persephone could hear it, and jumped on top of a table, crouching as her arms hung free at her sides, listening, listening for the 'ting ting' as the ball rolled to a stop. She finally zeroed in on it, and lept off of the table -at- the ball, intending to destroy it.
A noise to her left though, something normal but awkward to her, caught her mid-leap, and she froze, landing on her feet several yards from her target. Like a typical cat, she had the most confused expression, a kink in her human-tail (human tales? humans don't have tails, they have big, big bottoms and walk around in bad shorts going HI HELEN!).
When she realized she'd wasted precious seconds and the new cat might get HER ball, she just dove at it, chairs and tables in her way or not.
He was after her the instant she moved, headed right back into the Hollow as though there wasn't a werewolf in there just waiting for him to do something stupid like this. He tore after Persephone, his movements barely human at all by that point, and he had the advantage of not being distracted by the sounds in the building. He was accustomed to them by that point. Thus, he landed on the ball with just enough time to savor the victory before she was on him.
He didn't take notice of the blond man behind the bar staring at them, who'd just begun to laugh like hell. The man was headed for the phone, and neither of the cats cared.
Dave, for his own part, had been about as shocked as he got when Liten busted back into the bar after some girl with a little ball, but he'd figured out that they were 'playing' rather quickly. He just didn't realize initially that there was catnip involved for sure, though he had his suspicions. If Liten was acting like such a doofus, there had to be something going on. He had a phonecall to make before he did anything about it, though.
"Hey, girlie, I have a favor to ask you. Are you free?" he asked the girl once she'd answered, his eyes on the two cats. "Your boyfriend is acting retarded, and I think he's going to need a ride home. No, there's nothing wrong with him, but he's....probably not going to be driving. See you soon?" Of course she'd come. It wasn't like she'd just leave the guy there, even if Dave hadn't explained things fully. He didn't have time for a long conversation.
He had a pitcher of water to go fetch.
The funny thing was, Persephone acted like a cat in human form, and that meant she wrapped up around Darren and started doing the 'kick bite' thing cats do when they want something to go their way and it's not happening. Of course, she wasn't doing it hard, or barely even at all considering she wouldn't have had to have hit him hard - she was evenly matched in shifter terms, sure, but Persephone had been raised to -eat people- so she might hit slightly more aggressively.
She jumped up suddenly, and just took a lucky swipe of her foot, trying to kick the ball out of his hands like it was a golf ball on a tee. And LUCKY* she was, because it flew up in the air again. Persephone actually might have left marks when she took off after it, colliding with a table. It didn't matter, though, because she had the ball! She curled it under her chin and rolled around on the floor with it.
MAN she was HIGH.
~~~
Sorry for slight power-play, let me know if I need to edit it.
As Mars had taken her own car that day, she wasn't the least bit inconvenienced when Dave had phoned her in. Stopped at the intersection just a few blocks away from the Hollow, Mars figured that it wouldn't hurt to drop by and pick up the boyfriend anyhow. She had rarely had a daytime kill, but today was one of those days, an unfortunate undead ending up being gutted and eventually slain at a dumpster behind her bank. Mars had stopped in to cash a check, and had emerged with the bad sensation that she was being tailed.
She glanced at the black leather seat of her Audi TT before slamming the door, locking it, and walking into the bar. It had been early evening, just before Darren's shift expired, and the slim girl walked in to a rather... bizarre scene.
Her significant other was entangled with a tall brunette, and even without stepping any closer than the threshold of the doorway, Mars immediately sensed the feline blood pumping through the girl. Ahh, so that explained it. She knew of only one substance that could drive Darren as insane as he looked at the moment, and couldn't stifle the laughter.
"Poor guy must've caught a whiff of the catnip in that," she nudged her head towards the ball, deciding to wait a few moments before approaching the two struggling shifters in order to retrieve the damn thing. Dave didn't question the bruise that was quickly forming on her left cheek, though as soon as it began to form it began fading, and Mars was left in her grecian sandals, khaki shorts, and a voluminous, white blouse. Very Banana Republic. It was a shame that her left sleeve had been visibly torn in her previous scuffle.
He was going to be positively humiliated when he realized what was going on, but for the moment all that mattered was the Ball. He had it for a short moment before she attacked him for it once more, and she got that lucky shot in that pitched it in the air for her to catch. He was right after her, though, pouncing at her and using the weight advantage he currently had in an attempt to keep her from getting at him with her feet again, and he bit her shoulder just hard enough to have her attention, but not to leave any lasting marks before he rolled her.
Dave had come up alongside Mars when she walked in, and he just gave her a nice big grin, the full pitcher in hand. "Must have. He's never living this one down," the wolf assured her, watching and just waiting for the two to get close enough that he'd only need one pitcher of water to get at both of them.
"You get the damn ball, and I'll be right behind you to keep them from going after you for it," he told her, and then Darren pounced at the catgirl again. By the time Liten had rolled her over, Dave was there with the water, dumping it upside-down on the two of them. The wolf was pleased to see the leopard freeze mid-movement.
Darren actually flinched at the sudden introduction of water to the game and would have bolted if he'd stayed in cat mode. It was the fact that he was shocked back to reality by the cold water that kept him frozen in place, and he turned wide green eyes from Persephone to Dave and finally to Mars.
Even as the witch snapped up the ball, he shot away from Persephone and across the floor a few feet, certain that he was going to be in a load of trouble. Not to mention, he ddn't need any of that starting up again. "Aw, hell," he muttered.
Persephone may have been splashed with water, but the difference between the two was that Persephone had been twisted way too long to realize that water was a bad thing, one, and two? Jaguars like to swim. Most of them spend, like the tiger, a lot of time lazing around in water to escape from the heat of their environment... and since Persephone was already getting hot from rolling around, the water was while surprising somewhat... refreshing.
She didn't react quite like she should have, not like Darren did anyways, and instead sat, crouched on the floor. The scene looked fairly bad, but Persephone had eyes only for that ball, and so she waited, patiently, soppping wet, though Darren had gotten hit with most of it. Mars had the ball, and now she needed to throw it.
Unlike human reason, Persephone fell back into kitty reason most of the time, and now was play time, and the ball was in play, AND it was not a cat who had it, which meant that she could stop throwing it around herself, and someone ELSE could throw it. So...
"Throw?" she asked hopefully.
She reguarded the witch carefully, curiously, and with wide, exited eyes. Oh yeah, and she was still kind of high with that catnip.
Amber eyes shot towards Darren, still recovering from his little foray into catnip land, and feigned an impatient 'tut' with her lips. Mars crossed her arms. Though the sight of Darren entangled with another female wasn't exactly the most welcome, she did have to admit that for what it was worth, the scene was hilarious. In fact, she would've taken the rather cruel route and thrown the ball back into play, had she not already given it a good squeeze and felt the slightly crunchy texture of the catnip inside. Dry stuff. Potent.
Quickly, she assessed the other shifter. The fact that the cold water had shaken Darren out of his leopard mode didn't surprise her - what was surprising was the lack of change in the female's behavior. She hadn't looked a bit fazed when the droplets struck her, which struck Mars as terribly suspicious. The only encounters she had ever had with people who seemed unable to shake their shifter modes were... pets. With a slight furrow of her eyebrow, she chucked the ball a good fifty feet towards the door.
If Darren had half a mind to run after it, he'd be out of luck. By his time, Mars had already hooked three of her slender fingers around the back of the man's collar.
Well, Persephone certainly took off after it, and this time, she -did- drop four, and when her hands made contact with the ground, they were soft, but quite large, paws of black fur. She slid into the wall, reaching out to stop the ball before it went anywhere else, and quickly jammed it into her mouth and began gnawing on it.
She rolled onto her back, feet kicking in the air as she chewed on her new toy, not even really coherent that the other cat had gone. She'd won, and that was all. She rolled over to her stomach suddenly and pressed her body flat to the ground, looking up at the witch and the man, eyes dialating fiercly. Was she about to attack?
She wiggled, and then sat up abruptly, and began gnawing at some invisible thing on her tail, depositing the ball on the floor. She had completely forgotten whatever it was she was about to do, and thus, stood up, and walked at a leisurely pace towards them. She sat down in front of Mars, and looked at her expectantly. She wanted another ball.
Darren was pretty damn sure he was safely 'awake' again, what with exactly how much water he'd been hit with. He'd gotten most of the pitcher, probably something Dave did intentionally, and Mars' presence had him hoping he wasn't about to get himself into a load of trouble for wrestling Persephone for that ball.
Or at least, he was hoping that until Mars threw the ball again, having not noticed her grabbing the collar of his shirt, and he tried to go after it once more before he even had a chance to think about it. Of course, her grip on his shirt hadn't changed, and it was suddenly very tight on his throat. It kept him from humiliating himself again, though. For that, he was grateful, and he leaned back against her hand to look up at her from his sopping wet position on the floor.
"Er, sorry about that," he apologized a bit sheepishly, wincing. This was why catnip was bad. Of course, it also felt very good, and Persephone seemed to still be enjoying it. He didn't like her popping into her cat form and dropping down like she might pounce, though. With Mars present, his ideas of 'playing' had changed out of protectiveness for her. He wasn't about to deal with a shifter pouncing at her in his presence, and the growl that issued from his throat should have been enough warning in cat language to keep Persephone from playing too hard with Mars.
Dave was just watching, though he'd returned to the bar to deal with the customers that were actually present at that time of day. They all seemed rather interested in the exchange, and since it wasn't getting too out of hand, the werewolf didn't interrupt further just yet.
The speed with which Darren instinctively lunged for the ball took the witch by surprise, and she actually had to dig her weight into her heels to maintain her grip on his collar. In retrospect, it was a wonder that Darren didn't pull her forward with his momentum, given that he easily topped her by sixty pounds.
The female's shift confirmed what the witch suspected, and with a casual look around, Mars identified no readily-available throw toys lying around - and why would she? It was a bar, after all. With a slightly wary glance tossed at the black jaguar, she hesitated. Had she sensed malice in the female's movements, Mars would've made her move to exit, but for the meantime, it wasn't quite malice as it was curiosity. This creature was definitely intensely absorbed in her surroundings, almost as if she had rarely been out before.
A wave of pity for the feline before her (not the male one, who was about to be in a lot of trouble as soon as they got home) pulled Mars's lips into a sympathetic 'tsk', as she tried to figure out what to do with the expectant female. Dante, her abyssinian, wasn't nearly this demanding, preferring to stay his aloof and independent self. And get into the occasional scuffle with Darren. Glancing to Darren, she raised an eyebrow.
"What... where did you find her?"
By now, he figured Mars could let go of his shirt without him bolting or anything, but he didn't say a word about it. He couldn't guarantee it, and if it made Mars happy, he could handle it. Given that 'big trouble' he was going to be in, he didn't need to do anything else stupid anyway.
"Um, actually, I ran into her on my way out the door. Almost knocked her over while she was sniffing her cat weed ball," he explained, feeling just a little stupid. "Ending up back in here was kind of an accident."
Actually, playing with the ball at all had been an accident, but he was hoping Mars knew that much already. He wasn't the sort to just go and chase after jingly balls full of catnip in public.
"Ahh," she replied calmly, though her mind had been streaming together the connections and deducing her next point of action. Mars was exercising that which made her a perfect Crimson hunter - planning, planning, planning. Execution was just as important as premeditation. But her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the shrill pain that had just streaked up her arm, probably on account of that stubborn wound, which had still been bandaged. When Darren had (to her chagrin) inspected it a few nights earlier, he had pronounced it under watch, deciding to give it a few days.
After a few days, no change. It must've been some sort of special poison. She'd have to look into it. For now, she masked the wince with a dart of her eyes at the expectant feline, still rooted to the spot on the ground.
<You don't think it's a bit suspicious that she's unable to control her shifting and seems a bit overeager to be out here? Even if she hasn't seen your shift, she must suspect that you're some sort of leopard or large cat shifter,> Mars left out the part about his potentially being in danger in her transmission. He didn't need to hear her paranoia any more, she figured, as she fidgeted with the button on the cuffs of her crisp button-down.
Persephone had figured by now that the exchange was less than pleasant, but since no anger had been directed at her, or ill words had been exchanged as far as she could hear, she just walked the small space between she and Mars, and began rubbing intently on her leg. Persephone wanted attention, and she wanted to be scratched. It was quite strange, the jaguar so openly wanted attention, but hey, she was a cat, and what the cat wants, the cat wants.
She couldn't really sort her thoughts out into human terms at the moment, so she stayed in her natural form, choosing to watch this or that, head moving from Darren, to Dave, and back to Mars as they spoke, as though the large feline was watching a tennis match of the vocal chords.
Oh yes, and damnit, she wanted to be petted.
Any wince of pain comes complete with a sometimes small, but always sharp, intake of breath. Most humans wouldn't have heard Mars make such a sound, but Darren's head shot up to look at her, then at her arm. That was the only injury he knew of offhand, so it was the one he assumed was still bothering her. They were dealing with that very soon.
Taking a moment to look at her though, he finally took notice of the ripped sleeve. Usually, that meant trouble had occurred and he had something else to ask her about when they were in the car. He wouldn't ask with an audience.
The problem with her talking to him with her mind like that was that he couldn't return it, even if he'd have liked to respond. He couldn't do anything telepathic, so that was just a bit of an issue. He'd just have to be discreet, which explained his nod as he reached out to scratch Persephone's head. He'd noticed her behavior, assumed it was because of the catnip, and was realizing that it couldn't be. She was still acting funny, and it had to have worn off at least some. He knew for a fact that she was aware of him being a cat, though. That much had been obvious just from her behavior towards him, and he'd returned it after the catnip incident. Unfortunately, her leaving out anything about danger to him meant that he completely didn't think of it.
Who would want to do anything to him, anyway?
"Aw," she murmured softly as the great feline rubbed itself on her leg - really, it was like a much bigger, more lethal version of her own cat, Dante, and she reached out a hand and ran smooth, slender fingers through the feline's shorthair fur, enjoying the moment of somewhat strange intimacy, even if it had to be short-lived. She disengaged herself from the feline with some reluctance, but as usual, duty called more sharply than affection did. Sad. She really had taken a shining to the shifter, and this was another rare moment in which she cursed her existence as a hunter. It was impossible to feign ignorance and go on with throwing balls.
"D'you think we should get going soon?" she suggested softly to Darren, who by now had stood beside her. She had noted his brief glance at her sleeve - again, something she'd have to explain later. For the moment, however, she was uneasy about their position. The longer Darren stayed, the greater the risk that this feline would run back to her owner and explain things, and if she mentioned Darren's form at all and piqued anyone's interest, it'd mean another fight with a Midnight Trainer.
That didn't interest Mars at all. With a jangling of her keys, she stepped a few paces back and was prepared to head out.
Persephone began to purr again, enamoured with Mars as she began to rub on her fur. Persephone responded more openly to female humanoids, but moreso because men had been her buyers, sellers, and usually opponents. Only reason she reacted so differently to Darren was as much as she'd have done to ANY feline shifter like herself - like attracts like.
When Mars jingled her keys and the pair eventually headed for the door*, Persephone just got up and followed them. They were going to play more, right?
~~
Grah short post. Sry for powerplay, figured the door would be natrual progrsssion of things.
Once Mars took a turn petting Persephone, Darren stood up. He was still drenched from Dave's pitcher, but at least he wasn't acting like an idiot anymore. In fact, he took a moment to look back and Dave and give him a wave somewhat as a way of saying 'thanks'. The werewolf just grinned and waved back, leaving Darren to deal with the lady and cat with him.
"Yeah, probably," he answered, and then he winced at the memory of leaving his backpack on the sidewalk outside the Hollow. He just hoped it was still there. He thought he'd dropped it close enough to the building's outer wall that hopefully someone hadn't nabbed it, but he couldn't be sure.
"You didn't see my bag on the ground outside when you came in, did you?" he asked Mars as they headed towards the door, though he frowned upon hearing the sound of soft paws padding after them. They sure as hell couldn't walk out with a jaguar behind them. People would notice that. "Er..."
And that was where he realized he didn't even know her name. "Could you take your human form before you walk outside? People might freak out if you don't," he warned her, though he didn't know what they were going to do if the jaguar tried to follow them right to the car. How does someone react to that?
She sighed - the cat actually sighed. Why, oh why, did the other cat want her to be in her humanoid form? She felt strange, confined, and angry when she was like that. Her clothes felt tight and binding, and so did her skin, for that matter. She always just wanted to smash things, but she couldn't figure out why - just did.
She obliged though, and stood up, tossing back her hair. She didn't smile, but only because it didn't occur to her that despite being deceptively slender, her eyes and overall stature made her somewhat aggressive. Persephone just was what she was, she'd never given it any deep thought past that.
"Better?" she asked, voice accented and distinctly British. No, she'd retained her voice, even from childhood. Didn't help she spent most of her life in Europe; the US was a new thing. She didn't offer her name, though; she didn't feel that she was supposed to. In fact, Persephone had no idea of what she was supposed to do, and so, she stood there, in her humanoid shape, waiting.
Once the female had shifted once more and now towered over her by a few inches, Mars crossed her arms and glanced sidelong at Darren. Evidently, they couldn't go on playing - the ball was nowhere to be seen and there wasn't a spare. The female's expression told her that she was no longer terribly amused; instead, she was restricted and on her guard.
"No time to play, sorry kitty," Mars said very simply, though her tone indicated a true reluctance of sorts. She really would've liked to perhaps make the acquaintance of this stunning creature, but circumstances didn't permit her to, and she didn't press the girl with questions of her whereabouts or origins. It was just better to limit contact altogether, even if she ended up being completely harmless.
Mars doubted it. She didn't seem malicious, necessarily, but as with all pets (which Mars had no doubt she was) there was potential for danger. She wasn't sure if Darren recognized it yet.
Persephone sighed again. For a moment she seemed to be distracted, looking up and at the door, head tilted a little; curious again. This time her expression was different, something menacing beneath the surface. If she'd been in her cat form, her ears would have twitched for a moment, at something beyond them all, outside somewhere, something she'd overheard, or felt, or whatever it was that allowed Persephone to just do whatever it was she did.
"Okay," she said finally. She just.. accepted it. She headed for the door, not really feeling as though there should have been any sort of good-bye's or I'll see you soon's. She didn't really know what a good-bye was, and she certainly didn't expect to see others soon, not in her line of life.
She walked past them, giving the other cat a final look. She didn't feel sad - Persephone didn't know what sad was. She knew her stomach felt twisty for a second, but she couldn't recognize that for what the emotion was (which was, in fact, sad). Pushing open the door, she simply stepped out into the evening warmth of the city. She hadn't been called back to Midnight yet, but she had no further reasons to stay.
It wasn't 'til she'd completely extracted herself from the Hollow that a mugger on the street mistook her for a common girl, and grabbed forcefully at her wrist, intending to pull her back into an alley. Persephone just -stared- at him stupidily and moved nary an inch (it was quite hard to push around the jaguar, even in her humanoid form).
When he spoke harshly and in commanding tones to her, though, and threatened to stick her with a blade, her expression changed. This man was not her Master, nor was he her Mistress. Her lips curled into a snarl, and with her free hand, she snapped out quickly, hitting the man directly in the throat. It was a killing blow given her strength and speed, and she stood there like a moron as he fell uselessly over.
She just stared down at him in disbelief. Were humans really like this? It didn't occur to her that she should have felt fear, or worry, for the fact that she'd just put a man over on the sidewalk. She was just... bewildered.
"You're not Jeshickah," she finally said, staring down at him. She didn't.... know what else to say. "You don't get to touch me."
No, Darren hadn't recognized any of the danger Mars had. The only danger he saw right then was the potential damage that a jaguar could do, even if Persephone was being quite friendly. Mars may not have been delicate, but she was not built with claws and teeth for fighting. He felt instantly better when Persephone was human once again.
"Yes, much better," he told her, visibly relaxing. He felt better about their ability to protect Mars with Persephone in human form. And what of his concern for himself? He had none. He healed fast enough that he didn't even worry about himself, and he didn't have a stubborn wound lingering around like Mars did.
He'd smiled at Persephone as she walked by, though it faltered somewhat at the expression she wore. He couldn't quite tell for sure, but she looked almost...sad? Because they wouldn't play? "Bye!" he called after her, then shrugged at Mars as the shifter girl walked out. He called a goodbye to Dave and they slipped out the door as well. Darren was scanning for his bag, which was thankfully still sitting where he'd dropped it near the door, but it was impossible to miss the exchange happening in the alley nearby.
He froze, eyes widening some, and then glanced at Mars. He could smell the blood after Persephone's blow to the man's throat, even if Mars couldn't, and he actually just didn't know what to do about it. He didn't deal in a line of work that involved dead bodies. He was sure to put his own body between Mars and that alley, though.
She had said her goodbyes to Dave and gave the girl a sort of helpless look as she walked by, though it was quickly masked by passive detachment. Mars squinted through the bright late afternoon glare as the girl stalked out, shoulders looking a bit less jaunty than her mood had been a few moments earlier. As soon as they had shut the door behind them, however, Mars heard the exchange.
More importantly than the sudden death of the would-be mugger, her acute ears had caught the woman's words right afterwards. She wouldn't be the one dealing with the body now, naturally - she'd leave it up to the NYPD, and they'd probably chalk it up to a homocide. It'd go unsolved, of course.
Mars's mind raced as she caught Darren's eye. He had probably heard her words, but she didn't have to explain any further. It was proof, or near-proof, of her status as a pet. Jeshicka... Mars filed that name away for later, though she could've sworn that it sounded familiar. Probably something guild-related.
Their car had been, thankfully, in the opposite direction as the alley, and she took a few paces backwards, pretending not to have heard anything at all. Mars knew the best course of action was to peel out of there immediately, and though she and Darren drove separate cars, she was no less impatient for him to get to the safety of his Corvette.
Persephone, completely unphased by the sudden exchange, bent down and picked up a gum wrapper on the ground that caught her attention. She sniffed it, decided it was spearmint, and began playing with it, rubbing it into a ball with her fingers. And now that she had yet another aluminum foil ball, no matter how small, she was content again.
She began the walk back to Midnight, mind focused entirely on the little shimmering ball of trash in her hands.
~~
Annnnnd she's gone. Lol.
He took Mars' lead when she backed up to head for her car, rather shocked by the sudden violence from the girl. Just further proof that she wasn't altogether there, he supposed. At least the man HAD tried to hurt her, so she'd at least had the proper provocation. He wasn't getting involved. Not his place.
The ride home didn't take long, and the ride alone gave him the chance to think things over. Unlike Mars, who'd thought Jeshickah's name sounded familiar but couldn't place it, he knew that name. He'd been warned by his boss to avoid that particular vampire, and a few others. Hearing Persephone mention that name wasn't a good thing, so far as he could tell. He just had to wonder if Mars was aware of that.
No doubt, he'd be finding out shortly after he walked into the apartment.
With a weary sigh, and the familiar jingle of her keys now hung by the doorway, Mars strode in the door of their apartment. It had been a somewhat long day, and as she bustled about trying to obtain her sewing kit. Her torn sleeve wouldn't mend itself, and it was better to get rid of it before Darren had time to ask questions further.
"Mmmh... that name. Sound familiar to you?"
She retrieved her sewing kit and sat atop the kitchen stool, stripping off her button-up top to mend the sleeve, as she couldn't sew with just one hand, for the life of her. Mars looked quite a sight, sitting in the kitchen in a black bra and shorts, looking as if she had not a care in the world.
Darren was in the door just a few moments after her and just in time to see her pull the sewing kit out. He'd no sooner opened his mouth to ask about the sleeve and who she'd run into when she asked her own question, though. That shut his ass right up.
He should have known better than to think she might not ask, though why she would think he knew that name, he didn't understand. Had he given some sort of indication when Persephone had said it? Well, either way, he couldn't lie to Mars about it, even if he knew she was going to be less than pleased to hear it.
"Jeshickah is a vampire. From Midnight," he said, that short little explanation really enough to tell Mars all she really needed to know, but Dave had informed him further when it became known that she might stop by. "She's actually the original founder."
Nimble fingers paused in mid-stitch as Mars glanced up from her place on the stool, quirking an eyebrow.
"What?" she repeated, knowing that Darren didn't really need to reiterate what he had just said. The severity of the situation suddenly dawned on her, and her stomach twisted in knots. Images of Darren's horribly mangled form - or worse, his feline form entangled with that other feline's...
Furrowing a brow, she remained silent and continued sewing, fuming silently. She wasn't exactly sure what she was irritated about - perhaps the sight of Darren and Jeshickah's pet, or the thought of Darren being chained and controlled, possibly by a feline-loving vamp in it for the trade. In her distracted state, her finger slipped and she pricked herself with the needle in her index finger.
"Ow!" she managed to stick it in her mouth to sooth the pain, tasting the metallic taste of blood on her tongue.
He winced as she pricked her finger, aware that it was because of what he'd just said, but there wasn't really anything he could do about it. At least she had something to busy herself with. He'd started kicking his shoes off, dropping his bag by the door so that he would just have something to do while they talked about this. It would only take so long to get his shoes off, though. He just didn't want to stand there like an idiot for a conversation like this. Hell, he didn't even want to think about it all.
He sighed, figuring he might as well just tell her what he knew, and took a seat on the coffee table in front of her with the excuse that he was looking at her sewing job. He was more interested in the arm that had been covered by the ruined sleeve, personally. "Apparently, she's been absent from Midnight for years and only just decided to come back. She's, ah, supposedly the one who figured out how to infect a triste with shapeshifter blood," he managed about as gracefully as he could. He'd told Mars about Ash's condition before, about how a vampire had somehow managed to infect him with tiger blood, but that had been a less interesting topic when he was hearing it all from Dave.
She softly removed the finger from her mouth and rubbed it on the sleeve of her crisp oxford, continuing to sew. When Darren came over to 'inspect' her work, she raised another eyebrow and subtlely paused in her sewing, intrigued in his next words.
"A triste - with shapeshifter blood? Ever wonder when she'll need shapeshifter blood next?" she asked rather pointedly, leaning forward. Noting that Darren had been quietly inspecting her arm instead of her sewing, since his eyes didn't remove themselves from her arm when she had stopped her sewing.
Quite suddenly, Mars was struck with an irrational, unreasonable fit of fear, and though she hadn't felt like this in quite a while and it seemed a bit foreign, it was unmistakable. Nothing could shake the feeling that Jeshickah would undoubtedly pursue Darren as soon as her little pet informed her of the adventure. It was times like these that Mars wished her line of work and her human side didn't coincide.
Quietly, she leaned in and used her spare hand to lift Darren's gaze to hers, a certain intensity in her own gaze as it met his emerald one. Without a word, their lips met with a force that Mars couldn't really explain. Perhaps it was the emotional drain of the day or the prospect of losing him that drove her hungry lips to press against his, and soon the sewing had been gently moved aside to rest on the kitchen island.
He'd sighed when she made her point regarding shapeshifter blood, but he couldn't argue with her about it. She was right, even if he thought she was overreacting. To him, the idea that some vampire would go to such lengths to get him was just ridiculous. Especially when said vampire already had a black jaguar. What did she need a black leopard for?
That kiss took him by surprise, though. Mars was fine with taking the initiative normally, but there was usually some actual build-up of some sort. This had seemingly come from nowhere, and though he wasn't complaining, he was curious when his lips belonged to him again. He didn't really want to be talking, but he couldn't quite keep from asking her. "What was that for?"
With a sigh, she tore herself away and refused to look him in the eye, as much as it pained her.
"Jeshickah won't give you up if she ever made you a target. Or another trainer. I just can't bear the thought of losing you, is all," she replied very simply, swallowing the lump that had arisen in her throat. Strange, it wasn't usually like her to get so emotional about things.
"I know you're careful but, sometimes... you don't know how close you are to death or capture all the time. I worry, that's all," she reiterated, her golden gaze meeting his emerald one, expression full of nothing but worry and tenderness.
Actually, he wasn't nearly as careful as she seemed to think, but he wasn't getting into that with her right then. It would only make her worry, just as informing her of what Dave had made him promise would. He personally thought that her worry about him dying was much more reasonable, especially given what he hadn't told her. He'd promised to stay behind and hold off any potential attackers while Dave got their boss out of the Hollow in the event that one of the especially bad vampires came calling on Ash. Darren didn't think that he'd be in danger of being 'stolen', considering his freeblood status, but his chances of ending up dead in that kind of a situation were rather high. He was still just hoping that it never happened.
"Relax, I doubt a vampire's going to try and steal me," he tried to reassure her, smiling and reaching out to rub his fingers over her cheek. "I'm far more trouble than I'm worth, you know that by now."
All teasing aside, his bets were on him dying before ending up as a pet. He just...wasn't very good pet material. He knew how to wear on a person's patience.
Despite herself, Darren's warmth and reassurance melted away her concerns for the moment, and she hiccuped twice and - looking sheepish with her sudden outburst of emotion - tried to brush off the incident and resumed patching her sleeve back up.
"Mmh, well. You'd still be in danger of dying every day, and that's not something I'm willing to deal with. Even more so now that Jeshickah and possibly other Midnight trainers know of your existence. If ever they decided that they want a new feline pet... don't expect me to bail your careless ass out."
She resumed her sewing, eyes averted. She had blatantly lied, and she knew that he also knew she'd fight to the death for him, but she wasn't about to egg on his carelessness.
It really made him feel guilty that he could alleviate her concerns like that, even if he wasn't really lying. He just wasn't addressing the issue of him potentially getting killed, because he really couldn't make any promises for her there. He wanted to, since he definitely didn't want to die, but the shit was going to eventually hit the fan. If he happened to be around when it did, all bets were off.
"Well, then if you wouldn't come rescue me, I guess I'd just have to content myself with lapping milk from a saucer for some vampire," he said matter-of-factly, as though it were nothing. He knew better than to believe she'd leave him to it, but he also knew not to count on happy endings if that were the case. His standing plan for if a vamp or anyone else came after him with the intentions of kidnapping him was to run like hell. "Dante would love it, he could take his place as the rightful king of the apartment."
"Hah," was her only response to his snarky remark, and she slipped on her button up once it was completed. Once done, she kissed him softly once more, letting the lips linger a bit longer, slipping her slender fingers in a swirling pattern down her boyfriend's firm chest, stopping (as usual) with a tease as she pulled away.
"Darren, just promise me you'll be careful, please?" she asked gently, getting to her feet and considering the topic dropped.
"You must be hungry," she remarked, getting pots and pans and bustling around the kitchen for a bite to eat.
[Ready for close?]
He sighed at her words, unable to really refuse her. Damn promises, they were going to make him crazy. "Yeah, I promise, Mars," he told her seriously, meaning it. He'd just have to try to avoid trouble where he could. On the job, though...
"Sure, food sounds good," he agreed, glad for the change of subject, and he followed her to help out.
((Done!))