By The Water's Edge

[Niamh Sionnaigh]

A ragged moan is loosed between chapped lips. A hand leaves the muddied grass, showing indents lefted by the sharp points of gravel kicked astray by careless feet, and shoves itself between nashing teeth.

But not before a lowly growled "Fuck!" is loosed into the night.

This carries on for sometime.

The poor sumach dosen't even realize that not once had his partner come up for air.

Not once had he a complaint until- "Bitch watch the teeth!"

[Niamh Sionnaigh]

darn tablet an me accidentally hitting submit before I was ready!

Ready to thrash the gash that'd dared, grabbing her skinny arms and dragging her up our of the water, blood touching the corner of her mouth, "Fuck you, ya fucking cunt!"

Then belatedly, the fine hairs in the back of his neck rose.

He was gonna fucking die!

Naked, bleeding he snatches the pile of cloths he'd shed, and books it. Leaving the whore to her fate.

***

Niamh rises fully from the river, unashamed by her nakedness.

More concerned by the mewling wretch that had interrupted her meal. The urge to stake her territory was vast. Larger then anything the savage had yet felt on land-or by it rather.

Finally, eventually, an infinity later the rage subsides and Niamh manages to grunt out, "Takeda," in greeting.

[Takeda Katsumi]

Even though Takeda currently spent her days within the porcelain embrace of a bathtub in a windowless apartment, she still yearned for the water. No matter how marvelous plumbing might be, it could not replace the spirit within nature's moving waters. There was a power there that could not be captured in words, and Takeda craved the solace of that power after the upheaval of recent nights. She need to stare out across the rippling surface of water that was soothed by the night and allow the essence of the river to wash it all away.

Yet, as she neared the water, her shoes marking her passage in the sand, she heard the foul sounds of sex and violence. A bleeding, bedraggled waste of flesh stumbled away into the darkness, and in his place a water demon rose and spoke her name. The unexpected rush of sakki nearly knocked Takeda off of her feet, the concentrated rage, hatred, and bloodlust as palpable as the current seething unseen beneath the surface of the river, and it took her a considerable effort to reign her panic back in.

"Forgive me," she forced out, her fangs glinting in the dark, "but I do not remember how to pronounce your family name."

Trembling momentarily, her fangs once again sheathing themselves within her gums, Takeda forced herself to continue to walk toward the water's edge.

"I seek no quarrel with you. I came for the river."

[Niamh Sionnaigh]

Doe eyes stare at opalescent fangs, before carefully slipping a pink tongue from her mouth to collect the remains of life from her lips.

Then, not for the sake of propriety, but because they were riverside in February Niamh reaches down and tuggs up the same denim trousers she's been seen to wear, paired with the haphazardly strewn shoes, leaving the grey sweater for last.

And if Niamh could get away with not taking her eyes from the mewling wretch in front if her she would, as it stands she must, for a moment. But only for a moment.

Something she's realized more and more about America, sometimes she's released and others annoyed that she forewent anglicizing her name.

"Sionnaigh." said simply effortlessly, tongue tasting the syllables before releasing them from her mouth.

"Sha-nay." she enunciates a moment after, "Though, if you wish to save your tongue. Call me Fox. Won't bother me none."

Shifting in her shoes, the wetness of her body and the immediate press of cloth and whatever else her clothing was created from wasn't ideal.

"There's no quarrel here. Idiots like that are a done a dozen. Hardest part about it all was convincing him I didn't care what his pecker looked like in the river. Cold as it is." her lilt deadpans, "For it is very, very cold out apparently."

[Takeda Katsumi]

Beneath the fear (or perhaps because of the fear) an anger was building, an anger at seeing the river despoiled like this. This act of feeding in the river felt no different to her than if she'd come across an american eat a disgusting burger over a sacred text, dribbles of grease and ketchup splattering across ancient ink and paper. Even as the anger rose, however, Takeda knew that it was a foolish response. The boar doesn't care if it pisses or shits near a lake or river, and the wolf hunts wherever there is prey. Nevertheless being reminded of such truths was still distasteful, and she couldn't help but voice this as the water demon wriggled uncomfortably in her sopping wet clothing.

"Omekashi kitsune-san ka?" Takeda quietly mocked, the petty verbal revenge helping to mollify her acidic temper.

"I am pleased," she continued immediately, not wishing to give away the sarcastic insult, "that I have not offended you. If I may ask, why did you let him feel your teeth? He was already compromised, why not let pleasure hide your nature?"

"I am not criticizing," she added. "I rely upon sudden force, so I do not mean to imply that I know better, I am merely curious."

OOC

I do not know Japanese, so I apologize if the internet lied to me. Omekashi kitsune-san ka is intended to mean 'dressed up, Miss Fox?" Also, it's a reference to a song ^^

[Niamh Sionnaigh]

Is this what others feel like when she wraps her tongue around Gaelic?

For a moment she tips her head and looks quizzical. If the Haunt cared to enlighten her she would.

Her emergency telephoning Sindy informed her about Takeda's name, while while sarcastically wondering how and when Niamh had become a 'weeb'. Then the shadow had ended the call before Niamh could dare to ask what a 'weeb' was, and of course it hasn't lent any knowledge to the Asian language.

"That was my intention. I could hear him under the water, I can just imagine what he sounded like up here. Well," she stops a little hesitant on how she should continue, its not like she's ever had to explain this before. "It's been a while. Forgot to keep his hips in place. He moved. Teeth grate." it's as simple as that.

The wind rustles the leaves, the scent if the water is carried with it. There is silence, then there is not.

"What brings you riverside this evening?"

[Takeda Katsumi]

"Well, only a fool would forget his place when he is between the teeth of a fox," Takeda replied, her annoyance fading, though whether that was because of the water demon's sincerity, the cleansing effect of the river, or a combination of both she couldn't say.

Nodding, the Japanese haunt stopped by the edge of the water and with the grace of a lifetime of practice, she sank to her knees, feet folded beneath her, her spine straight. No matter if her plan of meditating by the river had been disrupted, she still wished to show respect for the river, and sitting seiza was the least she could do in that regard.

"I came to sit by the river," Takeda explained, lapsing into a brief silence before she continued a moment later. "I've found my first week in this city to be chaotic, and there is nothing better than the river to help wash those emotions away. Flowing water purifies the mind and helps restore clarity. Something I suspect you are in need of after having that creature in your mouth."

The last was delivered with a calm sincerity, and yet somehow there was still humor lurking in those words.

[Niamh Sionnaigh]

"Full of beer and god knows what else, no wonder he forgot a mouth job wants teeth as well."

Niamh watches. Uncomfortably. The practiced actions, the reverence. Did she worship the water, or what swelter within?

Had the Sunken Mother and her lampreys journeyed so far?

"It has been chaotic," Niamh echoes woodenly, thoughts a'flutter. "I had to find a pub, and then ask if that idiot wanted to skinny dip before I could convince him to be alone with me." Niamh snorts, and edges her way to the waterside, same as the Haunt, with less grace to be sure. "Aye it dose purify." eyes stare out into the not quite deep, nearly missing the hidden humour, "You'd be right. Foul. Unwashed," a faux lament "Maybe I should stop trying to socialize with my food and return to ambushing them in the dark." serious words forgotten as the savage tries to joke with the aggressive haunt.

[Takeda Katsumi]

"If you value expediency, I would recommend it," Takeda said simply, her eyes closing, the power of the blood stirring within her and bringing the sounds of the world into even greater clarity. The sound of the river rushing onward to where it would meet the sea, the quiet stirring of insect wings, the soft sound of fabric moving in the breeze, it helped to bring the moment all the more into focus. Just as it did, though, a thought occurred to her.

"It all depends, of course, on what you want out of your meal. Just because we can no longer eat food as the kine know it does not mean that our food must be purely for sustenance and devoid of culture. Think back to when you still drew breath. What were your favorite foods? Why were they your favorites? When I think back to such things, I think of the joy and comfort that I was brought with a warm bowl of soup, or to the reverence I felt when I savored a perfectly cut piece of fish, fresh from the grasp of the sea. Each dish brought me something different," Katsumi said, a moment of profound sadness entering her heart as she acknowledged the death of those times.

"But, even if we cannot enjoy those same experience," she continued, "who is to say that we cannot still enjoy the same? Perhaps that is why you chose to eat, tonight, in the river."

[Niamh Sionnaigh]

Niamh hum noncommittaly. She'd already pounced on poor Jeremy and found it wanting. Niamh wasn't an ambush predator.

"What i miss most..."Senses sharpened, the notes of a deep longing are easily heard in her lilting voice, "Cooking. For my family. Looking at my children's faces when make-made their favorites, or when I managed to sneak together what I needed for a pie...." not being as careful with her words as she usually was, no one could hurt her boys anymore, they're all long dead.

...and if someone were to use their memory against her, well. There's a reason she has claws.

"Perhaps you're right," and ignores that she'd have to came to the water anyways, damn her blood. Damn her drowned kin and damn their drowned mother.

"is it the movement of thevwater, or just water itself you need?" asked abruptly as the self claimed sea wolf fretted her way into words.