Date Night

[Emily Makerith]

"You came out blurry. Is that a thing?"

The werewolf squirms again. "Don't make me saaaaay iiiiit. You know what. I just.... like....since last winter, you've... made my life better. And you mean so, so much to me. So, yeah. Y'know. That."

God that sounds good... This isn't fair.
"Mable." Emily growls a little, her irritation getting the better of her. "Come one, babes. You're more than a one-dimensional plaything, I know that, so can you please be it? This is important to me." She sighs a little, and offers an apologetic smile. "Have I ever not slept with you? I just want to know what kinda girl I'm dealing with now."

"You don't have to show me if you don't want. I'm just curious. This is how I learn." There's a small smile at the joke. "I mean, like, don't? I'm not much more durable than most people - we just live rough lives and bounce back faster. Something that floors a human for weeks I can be on my feet the same day. Builds up a hell of a pain threshold. Mostly it's the shapechanging, the fangs, the claws. And Spirit stuff. Some werewolves get a lot of weird spirit powers." She looks her girlfriend up and down. "Just how strong are you?"

[Mable Wood]

"Ya blurry is a thing. I can make it so I'm not blurry. So like if we decide to go and get pictures of us as a couple, I can do the thing and make it work."

"You have made my life so much better also. When I am feeling bad about myself you make it better. And you are right. I know I'm not a one-dimensional play thing and neither are you. Just... it's so hard dealing with emotional stuff. I'm sorry. I'll try to resist your charms for now."

Mable looked away, "Being able to share with you really puts things is a different light. Being able to share all of me and you sharing you...is incredible. So, ya. Feelings are getting deeper. I uhh thought I was falling in love before. Now, I am sure I am. You are wonderful, supportive, kind, fun...just everything I could want."

She looked back at Em. "Fangs and claws? Me too. MMm pretty strong. I might look little but I can kick ass."

"So how about family. I realize it may be a hard subject but I think we need to visit it." She looked serious and a little sad.

[Emily Makerith]

Emily squeezes Mable in a tight hug. "I just thought you should know. Just... saying that is hard for me to do and really, really mean it. And I don't want to and not, and you deserve that."

Hearing Mable was the same, the werewolf begins to blush a deep pink and goes very quiet. But she's also smiling, and rocks a little antsily.

"Come on.... show me! lift something. Lift me!" Emily says, trying to push past her embarassment.

When Mable asks about family, the Ithaeur shifts a little, and cracks open another beer. "You know about my family..." she says, a little guardedly.

[Mable Wood]

"I know how you feel." Mable says quietly.

"OK, I'm not lifting you right now because if I do it will be to the bedroom." She grins and realizes she hasn't shown Em anything of her vampy self. "I'll show you a little fang." And with that she extends her fangs, smiles, then retracts them.

"What happened for realsies? I will share my real family past. But we need to keep honest with each other from now on." She stares right into Em's eyes waiting for the real story.

[Emily Makerith]

Emily replies to Mable's quiet comment with a shy smile.

She shakes her head, laughing. "Dammit, woman. And I thought I think with my pants..." She watches the demonstration wide eyed. "Woah... Strange how close body modders got, huh?"

Chewing on her lip, Emily frowns, watching Mable closely. She drains the second bottle, opens the third, and starts drinking that as well.

"Okay," she says when she comes up for air, the bottle over half-gone. "Well, first, Dad was a werewolf, like me. And the short version is werewolves are not all happy families. We're at war with ourselves - 2 sides on different histories, but that doesn;t matter. And about seven years ago, the other side did a thing that... well, wiped out the werewolves in the city. All of them. Or... vanished. I don't know. and I don't know because I wasn't here... and I wasn't here because I went on holiday, and dad encouraged me so much to go. He knew something was coming. I should have been here, for my family, my pack, but i wasn't. He.... he saved me, but I... didn't want to be. Not like this..."

The werefolf is choking up. She stops and forced the rest of the beer down her throat. A single tear leaks out over one cheek.

Emily stands slowly, takes Mable's hand and leads her to the closed door. The one that had always been locked. She takes out her keys and slips one into the lock.

The room inside is a bedroom. A made double bed fills the bulk, wooden closets and study-looking drawers on the outside. The wallpaper is a floral motif. Stood on the drawers are three photographs - one of teenage-Emily with shocking pink hair, one of a slender woman with Emily's pale blue eyes and cheek shape (who looks younger than Emily does now) and a family picture - the man Mable will recognise as Emily's father from the picture in the living room, the same woman in the single frame, and blonde toddler in a denim skirt that is clearly Emily.

Everything has a thin layer of dust, and the air is slightly stale.

"it's... it's why I can't do anything to this room. They never found any bodys - of none of the werewolves. about twenty people just vanished, and the cops had no fucking clue. But if I change this room.... if... if I stopped it being his... That's admitting he's never coming back." The voice is barely a whisper. "And I konw.... I... I know. I just can't. It's too hard. And loving someone.... means you can lose them. And I... I just can't, Mabs. I can't. Not again...."

The wolf sniffs and wipes her eyes with a sleeve, leaving the room.

[Mable Wood]

Mable listened quietly. Not even breathing as Emily spoke. She followed her silently. Stared hard at the pictures. Emily left and Mable stayed. One trickle of a blood tear dripped down her face. She smeared it off with her hand leaving a little trace of blood on her cheek and hand.

Quietly she closed the door. And walked into the room where Em was. My turn. She almost whispered the words. Afraid to say them too loud because she might fall to pieces. "My mum dies when I was little. I lived in a little cabin in the woods with my dad and brother. They were both lumber jacks. I was the baby, about 10 years younger than my brother. I grew up in the woods hunting, foraging, and climbing trees." Her eyes got a far away look as she continued.

"A tree fell on dad and he was hurt. So I took care of him while my brother continued to work. One evening after my brother came home I went out to gather some herbs and mushrooms. Something happened... I'm not sure what. But I got back home and the whole cabin was on fire. The animals we kept for food were dead or gone and there was no sign of either my dad or brother." She was not breathing as she spoke.

"I waited for days, weeks? I don't know. Finally I gave up and left. I got a job measuring trees. And kept working from one forest to another. Alone most of the time. Happy with just animals as friends."
She sat down and just stared into space.

Pulling herself back, "I wasn't always a vampire. I was chosen. I was created, given a real purpose. But I couldn't protect the ones I loved. I failed. I failed..." Her voice was barely audible.

[Emily Makerith]

As Mable did for her, the punk listens quietly.

"It wasn't your fault..." Emily slips her arm around Mable, and just holds her. "It never goes away, huh." The werewolf can feel herself starting to cry again, and gently pulls her girlfriend back into the sofa, where she wraps her arms around her and puts her head in Mable's shoulder.

After a few minutes, she starts regaining her composure. "I kinda went off the rails for a few years. Never measured trees, more the traditional breakdown. Managed to hold down the garage, barely, but I went out hunting things from the Spirit nearly every night and drank til I fell asleep. If I didn't go looking for a fight, I was looking for someone to fuck and forget. Decided if I was going to be alive I would live every day like it was the last. If I wasn't a werewolf I'd be in the 27 club for sure... or maybe just a walking advert for Liver disease, lung cancer and STDs. It was... I dunno,. anything to feel alive, anything to feel.... to feel." Emily sniffs.

"Then a few years ago, werewolves started coming back. I met people - I wasn't alone. Started making friends. Started feeling for people." She pauses, thinking, then presses on. "Echo was the worst. Like, she was the best, but hurt a lot. She's my Ex, and probably the first person I felt anything for since my Dad... since it happened. We would go out, drink, party, fuck and vanish... It was all about the feeling, about being happy, just for a little time. And then, just as we started getting serious, she moved away." She sighs. "I've... never been good at relationships. It's why I kinda like that you'd just drag me to the bedroom or we'd have fun. I'm good at that, it's uncomplicated. And then there was the whole vampire thing...." Emily rubs her hands over her face. "Urgh. I need a smoke. This is a lot of sharing."

The little werewolf gets up and heads into her bedroom, coming back a minute later with a cigarette and wreathed in the immistakable scent of weed smoke. "Okay, I got, like, this, the beer, and a tonne of icecream in the fridge. Is there anything I can get you? Anything to make this a little less... tense?" She gives her girlfriend a small, ressuring smile.

[Mable Wood]

"I'm all set, thanks. I know I seem weird around here. I don't smoke. I like to drink but usually its why spend the money. Sex is my major vice and I have spent years denying myself that."

"When I first came to Sacramento, I had been on my own for a very long time. I would come out of the woods to feed. That was about it. I realized I was starting to become almost feral. So I got a job at the Urban Forestry Project. And joined the local group of vampires. Basically all I did at the beginning was work. And part of that work was to help protect the area. I was kinda a hit first ask questions later kinda girl. I joined a few local boxing gyms. Made a name for myself as an underground fighter. I also tried to make friends with others of my kind." She shook her head.

"Let me tell you, most don't want a friend. But I made a few. I also made mistakes and trusted the wrong people. Big character flaw. I trust too much. Most of the individuals in my group just don't understand me. They don't understand my need to help. Or my complete lack of social skills."

"I failed to protect someone I looked up to. I have been abandoned without word from someone I trusted and I found out they had also thrown me under the bus to further their own cause. Worst of all is after all the time I spent alone... I never felt lonely until I was with a group of my own kind. Then I met you. The first time was at the fun escape room. I thought wow, here is a really smart cool person I wish I could get to know. But I felt so dumb and inadequate next to you. Then I saw you again at the little bar near my gym. But you had a girlfriend and I was dating a guy who abandoned me when I was in mortal danger." Mable grimaces at the memory.

"Then we just started seeing each other around town. And that night we hooked up. I was not expecting to be set up with anyone. I was trying to avoid it. But I was drawn to you. And I really liked the whole physical part. You could keep up with me. That was really cool. And I never seemed to hurt you. But something has happened along the way... Do you think it was just us learning each other's secret identity? Or was it before then?" If Em wanted serious talk that's what she was going to get.

[Emily Makerith]

"Ohhhhhhhh..." Emily says thoughtfully. "That explains a lot. So You're working through a forty-year abstinence on me huh?" She asks playfully.

"Underground fighter? Really?" The Crescent sounds both amazed and a little challenging.

That's kinda fucking hot.
Emilia Louise Makerith, don't you fucking dare. We're finally talking about things.
Dammit, I know...

The werewolf listens again, smoking her spliff and settling down in the chair so she could watch her girlfriend. "Trusting people isn't wrong baby. It's how we connect with them. And... sure you've had some shitty partners, it sounds like. But.... like... you have to believe there's good in people, right? or then... I dunno, there's only bad in people, which is really fucking bleak...." she blows smoke into the air and sighs contentedly.

Does this do anything? Or do you just think it does? Is psychosematics effect really so powerful it overcomes werewolf metabolism?
Mable's talking, dummy.
Oh fuck...

"Wait, wait, I remember that night clear! We were trying to help you get laid... which we did! It's not my fault you kept licking my chest and making all the signs at me...." Emily retorts primly. With the vampire's question though, she squirms in the chair, before getting up and going to the kitchen. She comes back with a tub of ice cream and a spoon, and sits next to Mable.

"Before." She says, quietly, looking intently at the ice-cream. "We have fun. You're adventurous and want to try things, but we can curl up and watch tv too... you can be so sweet and innocent.... Like you've missed some bits of culture in the last eighty years." She glances up defiantly. "I'm just gonna keep making those numbers up unless you tell me."

[Mable Wood]

"Yes, well. Basically it's not normal for my kind to actually try and connect with others. I work super hard at it because, umm. I guess I like to pretend I am normal. So I have a normal job. I try and make normal friends Like Sera. She's so lovely and so nice to me. Then there is you and Sonnie. But you two aren't really normal so maybe bad examples? Anyway, I try hard to live a normal life within my super abnormal bonds." That was a terrible explanation. But it is what it is.

"How the fuck old do I look like to you?" Mable tried to look pissed and hurt. "Do these boobs look like they are 80 years old?" Her body looking this banging even when she was 100 was inconsequential. "And just how old are you? Do you age normal? And that whole healing fast thing? If I like spank you hard can I time the bruise disappearing?"

"Ok. So, I do love movies and TV. Anytime you want to watch something let me know. I love watching reality TV and old movies the best. Oh and comedies."