The Lost Voices {Tag Lore}

[Crystal Deboir]

Crystal followed her, looking around curiously. The place was something like.. a compound. It seemed in some areas like a very large mansion, and in others, definitely some sort of facility. The fact that they'd just entered an infirmary sort of confirmed it for her, and she nodded a little as Mitchell addressed her, still somewhat wide-eyed.

"Well," she began slowly. She looked to Loreanna for support, and then back to the man to whom she'd just been introduced. "I seem to have picked up a, ah, stalker, for lack of a better term." She paused, wondering how in depth she was supposed to go with this. It was... some of the things that had happened were quite personal, and she didn't know how she felt about telling a man she'd only just met all the gory details.

She settled for a sort of Cliff's Notes version of what had happened at the bash, omitting some of the more torturous things Griffon had been doing to her since then, but certainly not leaving out the attacks at school, home, and the mall - anything that didn't involve some of the mental and physical things he'd done to her, anyways. She wasn't really ready to talk about those yet, to anyone.

"I don't know what to do anymore. My life is at some sort of impasse; I can't go forward, because he's there. I can't go back, because he's there. I have no idea how to... get away from him," she trailed off, looking a little vacant in expression as she stared off, focusing on a point somewhere beyond the doctor as she spoke. "Sometimes I think if I just kill myself, it will fix the problem, but it seems like... He gets inside my head, I don't know," she concluded, frustrated.

She looked at Loreanna again, eyes a little watery. "I don't know," she whispered.

[Isabelle Sweet]

Doc Mitchell listened to Crystal's story without interruption, maintaining that calm, detached expression the entire time.  His eyes were not without sympathy, however, when he finally spoke. 

"I know just the Hunter you need," he told her, standing and heading for the door.  "Wait here a moment."

Which left Lore with Crystal.  "I'm so sorry," she murmured, stunned by the revelations, but even more so by the things Crystal wasn't saying.  She was still holding so much back.  The stench of fear curled around her like a miasma, and it only grew stronger every time she glossed over some detail or another.  Whatever was so horrible that she still couldn't even speak of it, Lore wanted to know.  She wanted to know, so she could make sure whoever had done this to her was punished properly. 

No vampires fucked with her friends.  Not on her watch.

The vehemence of that protective mental declaration startled her a little, as though someone else had thought it.  She recognized it as part of being a wolf.  It was something she would have to accept. 

But she was human as well, with human compassion, and right now Crystal needed a friend more than a protector.  Without any hesitation, Lore pulled her into a hug.

[Crystal Deboir]

Crystal nodded to the doctor, lower lip caught in her teeth as she crossed her arms tightly together, trying to stave off that dirty feeling she had that came with all of those emotions when she thought of Griffon. She looked at Lore when she spoke, the noise surprising her a little - Crystal was wired back up again, obviously. She was more surprised, however, at the sudden physical contact, and it took her a moment, but she did eventually wrap her arms around Loreanna in return.

At first, it was a light, sort of unsure touch - but the longer Crystal stayed wrapped in the warm barrier of protection Loreanna offered, the more she seemed to grip her, until she was full-out clinging to the young wolf. Her shoulders shook, arms trembling as she held on for dear life, and she pulled back, shaking her head as though she were trying to push the thoughts out.

"You don't understand. He... does things. And he makes me... " she just dissolved into tears. He made her what? She didn't understand how, but Griffon made her like what he did to her, he made her beg for it, want more. He was chipping away at her sanity one mind-roll at a time, and it was fairly obvious he was doing a good job of it, what with the strange bi-polar tendency she'd developed.

"How can I be the victim when I keep asking for it?" she asked her, a hand withdrawing to splay across her face, to hide herself for a moment. She shook her head again, and then backed away, feeling absolutely disgusting. She'd tried - she'd tried to burn herself to death. She thought back to the fire she'd started in the house where the bash had taken place, where she'd first met him... It had lead her to Jack, but really, was that a good thing? She should have died in that fire. She should have died, and ended it there.

[Victor Batten]

Victor, despite being ridiculously obvious about his presence, was unusually quiet and unobtrusive right then and there, and that was frankly because he was 'hiding'.  He was sick of being at the hospital, sick of dealing with Bly and the mystery illness that was spreading, but he knew better than to go home.  He had a newspaper and a desk where he did a lot of his paperwork and the like, and he was just fine with settling in there with a cup of coffee while Mitchell dealt with Lore's newest problem. 

Problem child, actually.

He didn't lower his newspaper as the girl explained her situation, but he certainly stopped reading it.  Who would ignore such a story?  Scowling, he heard Mitchell excuse himself to go get a hunter, which made a lot of sense to him, but he frankly didn't understand why Lore was HERE.  She could have gone to any guild and had either himself or Mitchell called in, and Crimson had Connor.  As much as Victor didn't understand Lore's friendship with his oldest nephew, he knew it was there and it was certainly beneficial to Lore, if she would only take advantage of it.  She was friends with the highest-ranking bleeding heart of a hunter in the Guilds, and Connor would have done this job for free, just to help.  She made no sense to him.

That was besides the fact, though.  Mitchell had gone to get a hunter, and he was pretty sure he knew which one.  Ortega was doing the job that Bly had screwed up, Devlin was sick as hell, Felix and Verde were ridiculously bad ideas for this, and the other hunters that sprang to Victor's mind were all busy in some way or other.  Xander Ulrich was a good option to take, but Victor wanted a stab at this before the wolf arrived.

He crinkled his paper loudly as he closed it and set it down, giving them warning that he was actually there before he approached them and spoke up.  He took Crystal in carefully, and finally glanced at Lore.  "Please excuse us for a moment, Lore?  I'd like to have a few moments to speak with your friend," he told her before turning his eyes back on Crystal.  He waited until Lore was gone to continue.

"I can call a female in here if you'd prefer it, but I won't touch you without asking you first.  I think you should give me a chance to take a look at you, given what you said, but I won't force the subject," he explained to her, trying not to be too aggressive or demanding in his tone.  His bedside manner was pretty bad, but he wasn't going to blatantly mean to her.  "Can you come have a seat on the table here?"

[Crystal Deboir]

Crystal jumped when Victor suddenly lowered the paper and spoke. She hadn't even seen him, which attested to just how much trusting someone did to her senses. She slapped herself in the face, hard, shaking her head as if she would dump out all of the shit she was thinking. It didn't work, and she looked stunned as Loreanna left the room without more than a gentle squeeze on her arm.

Left her alone.

What? WHAT? She couldn't breathe. She put a hand to her chest, and her heart was fluttering so hard that she thought maybe she was about to have a heart attack. Was this what it was like? All she could hear was a strange rushing noise, and she took in a few breaths to try and steady herself. By a few, of course, she meant to hyperventilate, and all of a sudden she felt very fuzzy and cold, and inverted - if that were possible.

When she came to, she was laying on the table, a very stern pair of eyes staring down at her. "I'm.. I'm sorry," she managed. "I wanted to answer you, but I guess you just scared me..." She trailed off, and looked away. She felt bad. Was she going to panic every time someone startled her? Was she really this far threadbare, to the bottom of the barrel where she couldn't even function when she was left by herself?

Her eyes slid to a pair of scissors, and she wondered just how easily she could grab them. How easy would it be to just end it? She was certain that if she hit herself in a vital organ, the doctors wouldn't get to her in time. She didn't know where she was fully or what sort of medical supplies they had, but there was only so much you could do if your victim had a fatal wound to, say, the throat or the heart even. The heart, she thought, a wry smile on her face briefly. How appropriate.

"I'm sorry you had to hear all that. I didn't think anyone else was in here," she said. She closed her mouth tightly. She'd never say those words again. Ever. EVER.

[Victor Batten]

Well.  Having her faint wasn't exactly one of things that Victor would have preferred.  He'd assumed that, after her talking about such a traumatic situation, she would be feeling a little relieved?  Wasn't it supposed to be a relief to talk about such a thing?

Hmm.  It hadn't done him any good, but perhaps he could help her out after all.

He pushed the cart with the scissors and other sharp objects out of her reach after her glance, just in case.  He knew better than to trust a victim that was so badly abused with sharp objects, and he didn't even usually handle these types of people.  It definitely wasn't his forte.  "That was my fault, and I apologize.  I wouldn't have interfered, but I'm afraid I'd like to ask you some questions."

He wanted to say that they'd kill the vampire, but he also refrained from saying something so drastic until he was absolutely CERTAIN of her opinion on the matter.  Some victims could be funny.  "As I was saying, I won't touch you without asking first, with the exception of getting you settled here.  I'd like to take a look at you, particularly anywhere he's recently hurt you.  Will you let me?"

[Crystal Deboir]

She watched the scissors as they departed her immediate vicinity, and let out a little sigh. Perhaps today she would live, at least a while longer, anyways. She glanced back to Victor, and shook her head a little. "It's fine. Nothing of note in the passed few days, anyways. Stabbed me with a nail file," she said, holding up her arm so he could roll back her sleeve. "I didn't feel it; didn't even know it until I woke up and rolled over on it. He bites me, too, but those seem to... heal."

She frowned. Did they really heal? It was her opinion that they just went into her mind, somehow. They were absorbed, and the scar tissue ended up fragmented in her brain, like a small and wildly swinging ninja, shredding anything it could get its hands on for sport. At least, that was how it felt. She looked away as Victor made a disapproving noise to the wound on her arm, and squinted when he cleaned it.

"I used to want to be special, to think that I was chosen for something," she said suddenly. She looked at Victor, catching his eye. "I don't want that anymore." She closed her eyes again, wincing as he swabbed her arm with something that stung like a motherfucker.

[Victor Batten]

Having an injury to focus on, something to do with his hands, was something that Victor appreciated, and he set to work on her arm immediately.  From the sound of things, the vampire wasn't terribly old, which meant that once they found it, it wouldn't be hard to kill.  That was good news, though somewhat anti-climactic.

"Yes, the bites should heal," he confirmed, otherwise letting her continue to talk until she felt like stopping, which was when he flicked his eyes up to her.  Hearing her bit about wanting to be special was almost heart-breaking, even though Victor didn't get emotionally involved with most of his patients.  This one had just gone far too long without attention.

Or at least, without the right attention.  She'd had enough attention to last her a lifetime, obviously.  "There's nothing wrong with wanting to be special.  It's a common thing, something most people desire.  Very few people actually want to vanish into the crowd," he agreed with her, not blaming her for her change in opinion, but he also didn't blame her for wanting it to begin with. 

"You shouldn't look at this psycho attacking you as the same thing.  Believe me, you could still be special and chosen for something good, and there's still nothing wrong with wanting it."  God, he was bad at this, or at least, he thought he was.  Reassuring young girls wasn't something he did often, though he'd had to deal with two recently and hadn't really enjoyed either.  Strange timing.

[Crystal Deboir]

"Pft," she said. She was silent for a while, and then spoke, though she refused to look at him, forcing her eyes to somewhere else, some spot on the wall that was carefully blank and void of anything that could stir her thoughts any worse. "There's a lot wrong with it," was all she said. There was everything wrong with it. If she'd have been a nobody instead of popular, she never would have been at the bash. Jessica would be alive. Her life would be fine. She wouldn't have Jack, but then did she really have him, even now?

Her thoughts were interrupted as there was a harsh rap at the door. Not that Xander had meant for it to be harsh, of course, he was just so goddamn big that it didn't matter how gently he tried to do something, it would be harsh. At Victor's order, he came into the room, folding his arms as he nodded to Crystal.

"Hey," he said casually to her. He'd been given a brief version of what was going on, and even in his human form, he could smell the fear coming off of her. He knew better than to move around or do anything to alarm her. It was like dealing with a feral animal, to be honest.

"....hey," she replied. She stared at him, stared, and Xander had never felt so sized up in his life before then. She let the gaze linger for a moment, and then looked back to the wall, waiting for Victor to finish what he was doing. She was thankful for the wolf, though. Without him, Victor might have wanted to pep talk her more.

She wasn't in the fucking mood.

[Victor Batten]

Okay, seriously, what the hell?  Victor tries to reassure someone, to give them a 'pep talk' for once, and he gets arguments?  Attitude?  He cocked an eyebrow up at her appraisingly, deciding silently if she was going to get a little more of the Victor that everyone else saw, or if he was going to have to keep playing it incredibly safe with her.  He was leaning more towards the first, but that was because it was most comfortable for him.

Then, Xander arrived.  From Mitchell's absence, he was assuming the man had sent Xander in and gone to check on other problems, including Bly.  That pretty much settled it, since he wasn't going to be all sugary sweet in front of Xander (even if he was NEVER particularly 'sweet').  "Crystal, I'm willing to bet that there was no true 'choosing' or fault of your own in what happened to you the first time.  You were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the wrong vampires showed up.  It happens to some of the best of us, I can assure you of that," he told her, finishing up with her arm and doing a quick check for breathing and the like to fill in a file on her. 

"Ulrich, did Mitchell fill you in on the situation?" he asked, turning his attention to the wolf as he worked.  Considering this was essentially a pro-bono case, he was going to need to be filled in and decide if he wanted it.

[Crystal Deboir]

Crystal just stared at Victor as he spoke to her, the way teenagers do when everything you've just said went in one ear and out the other. All she could think was how much she'd heard it before, in different contexts, but all boiling down to one very fine point: wrong place, wrong fucking time. That was just ducky for her. Everything was destroyed and she was trying to find some grip on reality because some vampires had decided that she was just going to be their favourite girl for the hour - and then, of course, one got a little obsessed. She exhaled through her nostrils, sitting up and staring at Xander more.

Really, it was disturbing how she leveled her gaze on him; Victor wouldn't even be missing that one, for certain considering as astute as he was. She was still sizing him up. Suicidal would be a good word that came to mind when someone did something as dangerous as looking the large man dead in the eyes like she was, but for all of the things she was afraid of, it sure as fuck wouldn't be him. Griffon was terrifying because he could get inside her head. This man didn't look like he could do much besides mind-meld with a fern.

She smirked a little. Game on.

[Xander Ulrich]

Xander wasn't unaccustomed to being stared down, or people attempting to at least, so Crystal's hard gaze seemed to meet the brick wall that was his impassive eyes. At first. The little huffing noise she'd made at Victor told him that she was going through some bipolar bullshit at the moment, and if he was going to be doing this clean-up job without getting paid for it, he was going to set her ass straight on a few things.

One of which, of course, was that you never stare a dog directly into the eyes unless you want a confrontation. As he moved forward, graceful somehow despite his truly massive form, something in his face changed. A partial shift, something he'd learned purely for intimidation - eyes became shaped somewhat differently, golden-amber and smoldering; teeth that were straight now seemed jagged and sharp, and his jaw shifted forward a little. A growl escaped his throat, but he stopped short - and was completely human again.

It seemed to have served its purpose, because she wasn't trying to spark a nonverbal sort of repertoire between them any further; alternatively, she was closer to Victor than she'd allowed him to get to her, almost hiding behind him. He could hear her heart beating very fast, and he smiled.

"So," he said, voice as smooth as milk chocolate. "It seems Little Red Riding Hood has picked herself up a stalker in the woodsman, and now the wolf is here to save the day." His tone was deep, harsh and yet somehow... not. He was laughing at her without actually doing it. Truly yes, she had been completely victimized and he hated it for her, but he needed to set a few boundaries up before she got comfortable with being the aggressor and trying to take out her anger on people who wanted to help her.

"Let's get a few things straight before that happens again. I don't like misplaced anger, or false bravado, little girl. I'm here to squash that little fucker who keeps gnawing at your brain, and anything you do or say to try and stop that is going to result in -- "

A sharp noise from Victor cut him short, and he didn't finish what he was saying, knowing that the man would simply talk louder than he would if he wanted to.

[Isabelle Sweet]

Meanwhile...

Loreanna felt a little guilty about leaving Crystal alone in the infirmary with a bunch of "strange" men.  They weren't strange to her, obviously, but Crystal wouldn't know them from Adam.  After everything Crystal had told her, too, she wasn't sure it had been the best idea.  She really did need to get home to Vin, though.  He was timing her.

"I'm home," she announced, sounding about as frustrated as she felt as she tossed the keys to the Nova at her brother.


"Hey, Pumpkin.  You're back early."  He sounded surprised, but not unpleasantly so.  "Have fun?"


"Mm," she grunted vaguely.  Then, she gave herself a mental facepalm.  Why she hadn't gone to Vin about this in the first place, she had no idea.  Maybe it was because she didn't think he'd take her seriously.  Maybe because he'd worry about her getting mixed up in any business involving vampires.  Or maybe just because she wanted to handle this herself.  But now what?  She'd just left Crystal in the hands of some other Hunters and expected them to sort it out.  What sort of friend was she?  A friend with a curfew, she told herself with a mental groan. 

But it didn't have to be that way.  "Vin, I have something important to tell you, and I need your help."

Vin sat at attention, instantly serious.  "What is it?" he asked, dreading the answer.  Oh, god, what's she gotten herself into this time? he had to wonder.

Minutes later, the Nova was roaring back to the guildhouse, this time with Vin behind the wheel.  Lore rode shotgun, managing to look serious and somehow quite pleased with herself all at the same time. 

As Lore dashed back into the infirmary, Vin waited outside.  "Hey, how are you doing?" she asked Crystal, who was currently speaking with Xander and Victor.  Well, "speaking" was putting it optimistically.  From the atmosphere in the room, it was more like a bizarre pissing contest.  "Um... did I miss anything?"

[Crystal Deboir]

Crystal jumped off of where she'd been sitting by Victor and practically mowed Loreanna down, keeping careful to stay away from Xander and his ego. She wrapped her arms around her, and then slid to her side, like some sort of koala, looking around the room and then up at Vin with a very curious brow-raise. That was her brother? He was tall. Crystal felt like she was the smallest person in the room.

"Where did you go?" she hissed, trying not to sound so panicked that everyone heard her. Of course, the room was filled with trained hunters, so it wasn't like there was much she could do do hide from them. She wanted to drag her into the hall, but she somehow felt like that would be one step towards the door, which she didn't need. She wanted help, yes, but she didn't know if she could just throw all this out in the open. It made her feel stupid.

[Isabelle Sweet]

Lore made a startled squeaking sound when Crystal glommed onto her like a mad koala, then immediately turned a suspicious glare on the other hunters.  "You ok, Crystal?  What'd you guys do to her, anyway?!  She's already been through a lot with this vampire problem of hers.  I didn't bring her here to be badgered."

Granted, she had no idea what had actually happened, but from the way Crystal was acting like a panicked wild animal (and wasn't that ironic, Lore being the wolf here), she could only assume they weren't exactly being sensitive to her situation.  Effing Hunters.


Vin frowned.  "Someone mind filling me in, here?" he asked, glancing from Xander to Victor.  Though he didn't think either of them would cause harm to Lore's little friend, he was still essentially clueless on the whole situation, aside from the very brief summary Lore had given him in the car.  "Which vampire is it?"