Worlds Collide

[Danielle Vida]

Danielle seemed sort of surprised at the question, and raised a brow. "No," she said. She thought about it, and then shook her head, blonde hair tossing against her cheeks lightly. "No, I haven't." She supposed she could imagine how it might feel pleasant. A vampire could control what the mind felt and how it felt it, which she could see as being a great deal useful when attacking.

"What happened when you met Kaleo?" she asked, trying to divert this back to the original subject matter. While Danielle had toyed with the idea of being bitten before, she didn't really think it was quite the can of worms she was looking to open. Not until she had another one of her episodes, anyways.

[Charles Hawthorne]

C?leste nodded, then sighed and tossed her fair hair back over her shoulders. "A vampire bite feels... very good. I could show you if you like, actually, but I don't need to unless you want me to." The vampire subtly added a suggestion, a bit of curiosity and a slight desire, to the witch's mind as she spoke, but not much. It was more a helpful nudge in the direction C?leste wanted her to go then anything else, and if she didn't...? Well, then she didn't. It would be a bit of a disappointment, but she wasn't really trying; she didn't really care. Not right at that moment, anyway. Besides, Danielle's thoughts were harder to fiddle with then a humans would have been.

"When I first met Kaleo, though, I didn't know he was a vampire; he was simply a handsome, charming young man. I found out what he was before very long, however, and I let him bite me. It, as I told you, felt... good. And then my father died, and the world seemed to crack and half the time I wanted to die and half the time I didn't even want to do that.... Kaleo still stayed with me - actually, he was one of the few people I took comfort from, and I begged him to bite me again and again." She looked down at the tabletop and absently twisted a napkin in her slender white hands, twisted it around and around. "One day I hurt myself, hurt myself too much, and I was going to die. And then Kaleo came, and I decided that I didn?t want to die after all. It was a surprise, really. But he changed me, when I asked him, and that kept me alive." Not that alive was really the word for it, but ah well....

It was amazing, really, how honest she was being. When did this happen?

[Danielle Vida]

"I think I'll pass," she responded to the remark about the bite. Danielle didn't need yet another problem to deal with later, which it would undoubtedly come to.

Danielle wondered if she were to mortally wound herself she would suddenly want to live? She didn't know. She'd yet to be put in that situation - she wagered if someone else had put her down that far that she was in immediate danger of dying, they'd probably be prepared to finish the job. It would be a stupid thing to let the Vida Witch live to come back for them later. Danielle was... vengeful.

"Kaleo, eh? The name sounds familiar. I'm pretty sure he caused a bit of trouble for my estranged cousin," she mused. Sarah was technically ex-communicated from her entire line due to that entirely huge mess that had happened a while ago. Danielle didn't really think Sarah wanted anything more to do with them anyways, though she did speak to her from time to time.

"Did you stay with him long? I've met vampires who hang with their sires for a long time, and some who pack up and go the moment they realize that they can... well, go anywhere they want."

[Charles Hawthorne]

"All right," C?leste agreed easily to Danielle's refusal. She sighed inwardly, just slightly, but there would always be time for that later....

The vampire laughed at the witch's mention of Kaleo, and the sound was once again perfect and bell-like. Her laugh was music, her movements were perfect, her very person divine.... "Very likely," she said in an amused tone. "It sounds like him.

"Yes, I stayed with him for quite some time. He gave me my first big cat; the white tiger I mentioned earlier. Her name was Agla?; he gave her to me when she was still a kitten. Agla? started the tradition, really - ever since her I have always had a big cat; white, of course. I love the color white." She played with a strand of her hair rather self-consciously for a moment, then laughed a little and shook her head, tossing the lock back over her shoulder. "And speaking of which, may I repeat that you look marvelous, Danielle. Ash obviously doesn't know what he has; look at you. You are wonderful, and you will be able to do so much."

[Danielle Vida]

On the suggestion that Danielle would be able to do 'so much', she sat up a little, brow arched.

"Why is it that only you can see my potential, Céleste?" she asked softly. "What is it that I do wrong that makes the others so blind? I could have been a powerful asset to my family, to my bloodline, but they chose instead to box me up. Where is the sense in that?" she continued, annoyed. There was a lot to say about her mother's bad parenting, but that was neither here nor there.

"Oh, I wish my brother were here," she sighed sadly. It was always obvious how much Danielle missed Marcus; that had cut her more deeply than any blade, any fang.

[Charles Hawthorne]

"You do nothing wrong, Danielle," Céleste said, expression softening as she reached out to brush the witch's cheek. "They are simply blind - so focused on what they believe is the right view of the world that they completely disregard all things that might contradict that. And it is stupid, but you will certainly be able to show them how very wrong they were. As I've told you - the talent is there. It just needs a little bit of guiding to get it to the proper shape."

Her black eyes strayed down to the table. "I am sorry about your brother. Would you like to talk about him, or not disturb the past? Either is fine with me - if I can help...."

[Danielle Vida]

She shrugged a little, stiffening when thoughts of her brother flooded her mind. Marcus was the only soul, living or dead, that she could never manage to block out. Not entirely. She could shut Ash down, and it would be his magic that worked himself back in, but Marcus had some preternatural tie to her that she could not sever, no matter how hard she tried... and she had tried very hard. Every life she took worried away at that golden thread a little more, but it never quite broke it entirely.

"It's complicated. I mean, I love Ash very much, but it isn't the same. This is something consuming, something twisted. Sometimes I wonder if we should have been twins. We bickered as all children do, but Marcus was more parent to me than my mother and my father, and more a mentor to me than any teacher. It's almost as though we were bound together, literally. One of us would get hurt, and the other would cry. One of us would get angry, and the other would react."

She looked away for a moment, and then swallowed hard. "It doesn't matter. He's dead - the real kind. In the ground. Rotted away. Nothing left. So why does it bother me?"

[Charles Hawthorne]

"Of course it's not," Céleste sighed, her mouth twisting a little. "I'm sorry for bringing it up. But I don't know why you think it shouldn't bother you - sometimes things change you, and nothing will ever alter that fact. Lives are shifted around them - sometimes it's even a good thing." She smiled a little, though it wasn't a smile of happiness, and looked down at the table. "There are certainly things in my life that have changed me, for better or worse." And that was a lie, of course it was, because as she was perfect everything that had happened had been to lead to that end. To ever-changing perfection.

She blinked up at Danielle with those big, coal-black eyes and smiled a little. "I get the feeling that I've ruined everything - first I chased your Ash away and then I started delving into subjects that I suppose are best left untouched. I am sorry."