Nightly Strolls {Closed/Finished}

Some nights were finer than others, and this definitely was one of them for sure. The moon was bright in the sky, and there was not a cloud in sight, making for a very nice environment for a nightly stroll. I had nothing to do tonight on either my research or my work schedule, so I decided to take advantage of this rather lovely night, and take a stroll through the city. Before long, I found myself in the shopping district, and given the time of night, everything was closed of course, which meant that there were very few people around. Occasionally I would see rebellious teens, ungrateful for the things that their parents gave them and the easy lives they were given, whiling away the small hours of the night smoking or doing drugs in the alleyways of the district. It was this kind of human filth that helped keep me from feeling too bad about my prey, after all, if there were such trash of humans around, then I would rarely have to feed on more upstanding members of society, and they would work excellently for research materials if the opportunity arose.

You only may be able to fool others, but you will never be able to fool me or yourself that way. After all, I know you have some pangs of remorse even for that trash when you kill it, even if you refuse to admit it. And that kind of softness simply will not do if you want to fulfill the reason why you threw away your humanity. 

I sighed internally a bit when I heard Izodar give her thoughts on the matter. She always felt the need to go poking at me when she was unwelcome, it was almost like she enjoyed teasing me. Or perhaps it was out of some sort of twisted kindness only a Daemon could understand. Either way, it didn't really make it any less irritating, that was for sure.

I would very much appreciate it if you would keep your commentary to yourself, Izodar. I am well aware of the fact that I am softer than I would like to believe, but you pointing it out doesn't really help the matter. Please don't ruin such a good night with your snarky commentary.

As long as you remember it is something you need to work on, I shall be silent, milady. 

And with that final remark, Izodar once again faded from the forefront of my mind, going back to whatever it was she did when I wasn't calling on her or she was not annoying me. I'm unsure of what that may be, but honestly I probably don't want to know. Over the years the Daemon has grown stranger than she was already when I made a contract with her. Perhaps she was starting to go a bit mad from imprisonment? Or perhaps she always was just a bit of a loon and it just became more obvious as I spent time with her. Either way, it was the same in the end. 

Returning my attention to the outside world, I took another look at my surroundings, and I saw someone who seemed rather out of place for this time of day. Instead of the angsty teens and hoodlums that normally populated this kind of place at night, there was a girl who seemed not too much older than I looked, though was quite a fair amount taller than I, as I was rather short after all. She was dressed far too nicely, and carried herself far too well to be some kind of hoodlum. That was not the only thing that was off, however. She seemed to be...window shopping? That was a rather odd thing for someone to do in the middle of the night....unless they couldn't do it during the day. It seems that I may have come across a fellow kindred, and given the way I carried herself, I had a decent idea of what clan, and that would be reinforced as I came closer to the woman. She exuded an aura that made one want to address her with at least common courtesy, no matte who you were, she had a bit of natural demand for respect about her.

No doubt about it, she was a Kindred all right, and an Aristocrat at that. Perhaps I ought to have a bit of fun with her to see how long it would take to figure out how I knew what she was. In my experience, nobility was often rather easy to toy with, their pride being a great weakness to them, much like Daemons. 

With my plan of action already in mind, I walked over to the woman in question and began my plan, "You are quite a strange sight in these parts at this time of night, normally one goes window shopping during the day, after all, it is best to do so when you can get something if you like whats available. Though, I assume that for some reason, you can't go during the day, and might need to rely on sending a loyal hound to do your dirty work for you,"  I said, taunting the vampire while going out on a limb. Not all Fangs vampires had their trained pets, but it was a common enough occurrence that I was willing to go out on a limb and use it against her.

Figuring I had said enough to warrant her rapt attention, I simply waited for the woman to respond, imagining what kind of confused expression she might give me as she tried to figure out how I knew.

It was obvious that the woman was rather adept at hiding her surprise, as she barely even flinched when I called out from behind her, either that or she had already sensed me there. Either way, it really did not matter much in the situation, what mattered more for sure was what would happen after she turned around. She took the bit of mocking that I gave her in stride, not reacting too overtly to it, though it was obvious she was suppressing a reaction given the fact that her only reaction to it was a twitch or two of a brow. 

My, it seems we have come across a rather rare specimen today, Ruby. An aristocrat who knows to hold her tongue and temper her outrage at being insulted. I had thought they were non-existent in the human world.

It seemed at some point that Izodar had stopped whatever she was always doing when she was not needed, and was eavesdropping on out my encounter with this Aristocrat. Deciding to humor her with a response while paying attention to the aristocrat I began to reply to her mentally, as I usually did.

Indeed, Izodar. Such a thing is rare among humans, as so many were raised from birth with privilege that they cannot possibly comprehend the fact that anybody could ever disobey them or, gods forbid, dislike them. To think that I was once a member of that group disgusts me sometimes. I much prefer your kinds system, those with the power obviously are more fitting for their station. Now if you would not mind being quiet, I would like to pay attention to the matter at hand, I do not mind if you watch as long as you hold your tongue until called for.

Very well then, I shall remain silent until you have need of me, Mistress.

With Izodar once again silenced, I turned my full attention back to the Aristocrat in front of me. It seemed that my guess was spot on, she did have a Loup Garou, , and he had terribly poor fashion sense. Isn't that just generally the case with men? I assume that would be even more the case if one was essentially a domesticated animal as well. I doubt he would care as long as he had clothes to cover his nudity, if that. She also decided to turn my comment back on me as a question, mentioning that I was just as strange of a sight, and asked what exactly I myself was doing out here at night.

There were so many good ways I could answer a question like this, after all, I was not out for an particular reason, so its not like I had a specific answer to give. Deciding that simple and to the point was best, I decided on a plan of action and began to speak.

"Men in general are not to be trusted with clothing, after all. I sometimes wonder how some of them manage to get dressed in the morning sometimes with how bad their taste in clothing can be, Adelige. As for a reason why I am out and about, Procus, is that Id found this to be quite the excellent night for a walk, and I got absorbed in talking to a compatriot of mine who I met while out walking, and parted with not too long ago, that I found myself here in this,"  I said, giving a semi-true and rather elegant answer to the Aristocrat's question before deciding to introduce myself. "Ah, but where are my manners. I am Ruby Boivin, and as for my House...I shall leave it up to you to guess it. What should I call you, or would you just prefer I call you Miss Aristocrat?" I said, giving her a rather sarcastic jab at the end of my introduction, hoping to get a better reaction out of her this time that I did before.

It seemed that this Victoria shared the same opinion of men's taste in clothing as I did, albeit likely with a bit more experience in the department of men who dressed absolutely terribly. After all, she likely dealt with a lot more people than I did. At least more people that were not experimental subjects or food, that is. I also took note of the fact that she did not decide to fire back with her own verbal jousting, which meant she was fully aware that if she did anything rash now I would likely just turn it around on her. She likely was used to this being an Aristocrat, but it still was interesting to see one react so well to it, instead of starting to bluster and fire back trite or just plain irrelevant insults. She definitely was an interesting find, and my nature as a magus drove me to see how far I cold push her before she finally did bite back.

As for the woman, I learned another thing, she was from House Valentine specifically, apparently that was supposed to mean something but I knew very little about the internal squabbles of the Aristocrats, so there was not much I could do with it. However what she said next would be far more interesting. She made the observation that it was far too late at night for a normal person to be going out walking, and then asked if they were a kindred, jumping straight to that conclusion and testing it without testing any other possibilities. She was a rather straightforward person, at least comparatively to me it seemed. It was subtle but I also got the feeling she was trying to steer her way into being in control of the situation, but that could just be a bit of paranoia on my part as I have dealt with Aristocrats before, and they all have loved to be in control. Either way, it was better safe than sorry.

There were many ways to answer her question as well, I could flat out lie, but that would not be fun and I could probably be exposed as doing such. No, it was much better if I told a half truth. If I told the truth, she would be on even footing with me on knowing what House I was, after all, the person I was talking to is a demon in my body, if she knew anything about the Strigoi she would peg me right away. No, a half truth was definitely best, but how exactly to answer? There were so many good ways to answer this, and after a second of thought I figured out exactly how to answer it well, and began to reply.

"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Victoria. And to answer your question, it would depend on what you believe makes a Kindred. If it is the soul, the person within the shell, then no, she is not. But if you mean her body, then yes, she is. After all, she is a Daemon inhabiting the mortal shell of a Kindred. I've known her quite a long time, and frankly she shows up out of nowhere at the strangest times and I am afraid to ask where she goes when she's not talking to me. She's a rather odd individual so I would rather not know what strange things she does with her free time," I said, giving this Victoria a half-truth of an answer to deflect her question before taking back control of the conversation with a question of my own.

"What about you, Victoria. Unlike my kind, Aristocrats like you aren't very readily able to defend themselves without their precious hounds around, and I don't see your loyal retainer nearby. It would be rather unfortunate if a dog of the church came across you and did to you what the Romans did to your house's namesake. I mean, walking around with an aura like that is bound to attract the attention of those who know what to look for. Perhaps I might suggest you keep it under wraps, this town seems safe enough, but I doubt the church forces would balk at killing a lone vampire in the middle of a deserted street,"  I said, pointing out the Aristocrats fairly silly move of seemingly coming out here alone and probably unarmed, if my observations were accurate. It was a weakness of the fangs that unlike the other houses, none of their abilities were very effective in combat, so they had to rely on the weapons of humans or their trained hounds if they were dragged into a conflict.

Deciding that I had said enough for now, I simply waited and watched to see the woman's reaction to my words.

It seemed that the Aristocrat had caught the drift of what I had said to her, giving a vague remark that was clear enough to show that she had indeed figured it out. Oh well, it's not like it was a particular problem for another Kindred to know, they usually reacted far less negatively than humans or mystic kind did to her house, after all, vampires are rather immune to being used for necromancy, which is what our house was most known for after spirit binding, which also was not as big of a deal to a vampire. She also did another thing that was a tad surprising for a noble, she admitted that what she had been doing was careless, a mistake, even though she was armed apparently.

It didn't seem that she was carrying a weapon anywhere I could see, so it was either a smaller blade like I used or a gun of some sort. Although a gun would likely not be the best choice against supernaturals, given the fact that many of us regenerated and she likely didn't have silver bullet or anything of the sort as it could easily harm her in the process of loading or putting the bullets into the clip. It likely was for self defense against church agents, but even then it would be a mixed bag as some were trained to fight against enemies with guns.

She also mentioned something I had known, but didn't particularly cared about, the fact that this area of time was not often frequented by church agents. It was true, and it was sort of a pity really, not that I wanted stronger church agents that could be a threat to show up just yet, but some of the weaker ones I could turn into prey would be very fun to have around indeed. After all, it would be rather easy to make them squirm, and if I turned them they would likely be in such despair that they would walk straight into the next sunrise to die. A rather fitting end for their kind, killed by the very weakness they often relied upon to hunt us.

Deciding to allow the Aristocrat in front of me to know that I was armed, I brushed aside a bit of clothing that partially obscured the Dagger that I carried, currently held in a beautifully crafted red and black sheathe that often blended in well with my attire. This dagger was my Arma Sanguinia, a type of modified Arma Maga created by House Strigoi to run on blood instead of mana. Otherwise, they worked just like a normal Arma Maga. This one in particular I had named the Pugionii Sacrificii, and it had quite the nasty effect added to it. The magic embedded in the dagger would feast upon my blood when activated and cause the target it was embedded in to react as if they were injected with a powerful paralytic and anesthetic, rendering them totally unconscious if they were not supernaturally tough, and even then it would work if they were worn out or beat up. Satisfied with my little display, I began to reply to the Aristocrat in front of me.

"It seems I was far too generous with my hints, Victoria. It seems I have underestimated you slightly, it will not happen again,"  I replied to her first statement, giving off a tone of absolute truth, with nothing else in it. However I was not done, and I continued to speak, "Being armed is always a good thing, but I must say one should always take into consideration what is fit for the job. A mundane dagger would not be of much use against the supernatural and I must say a gun draws for much attention for my taste. After all, it is best to eliminate an enemy as silently as possible as to not draw the attention of their allies or others whose allegiance is unknown,"  I said, giving her a tiny hint about my dagger while chastising her about her choice in weapons. It was obvious she was not carrying something large, given her attire was not suitable to hide it, and since she was likely not able to procure magical weaponry, those were the two most likely options.

However, there was one final point I needed to address in what she said, and that was about the church agents and their presence in the area. After all, I probably had a much different opinion on the matter than she. "Personally, I find it quite a disappointment that the church is playing it so cautiously. Of course, I don't want to encounter a group of them or a knight or something like that, but I wold relish the chance to get my hands on a young initiate. Fear only makes the meal more delicious, and seeing their despair as they realize that they are going to become one of the undead sounds like quite the delectable sight to behold,"  I said, licking my lips as I did so, relishing the thought of watching the despair on one of THEIR faces as they realized that everything they cared for was taken away from them. Such a thing sounded just absolutely delectable. "Oh well, peace has its benefits s well though. I can do my research without worrying too much about a raid given the cease fire of sorts in this city, even if it is boring because it goes bot ways,"  I said, shrugging and sighng a little bit as I said it. Deciding to take the lead back again, I posed my own question to the Aristocrat in front of me.

"What brings you to this city, Victoria? You can probably guess mine, after all my house only has so many motivations for doing things, but yours is far too fractured and self-defeating that one can never be sure of the purpose of one of your kind without asking, and even then, that's no always certain,"  I said, taking a slight jab at her house as I did so, after all they were far less politically coherent than the Strigoi by far. After all, the houses of their clan pretty much were in constant war with each other, even if it was all behind the scenes.

With my piece said, I simply eyed the Aristocrat in front of me carefully, watching her carefully to see her response.

So it seemed that this Fangs vampire did not enjoy hunting her prey as much as I did, her reason for choosing her weapon belied that heavily. It seemed that it was less of a weapon and more of a tool to draw attention, a defensive item rather than one used for killing. Quite a shame really, I had figured a person of her standing would rather enjoy the hunt. She did not have my hatred of the church, at least by how she seemed to react to my own opinion on their absence, at least not as much as I. Though, to be fair, not many had as much reason to hate them as I did. 

However, it was what she said when guessing my reason for being here, even if it was way off the mark that truly intrigued me. It seemed that she was soliciting me for a trade of sorts, resources for...something.It was likely not my research or my tools, as even she must know only the Strigoi could use such things. Think, what would I have that an Aristocrat might have use for. As I thought, only one thing really came to mind given the situation, and that was information. It seemed the Aristocrat wanted some sort of information out of me, but did not want to say it directly. Normally, that sort of offer would entice many vampires into asking what the price was, but what she was offering me really had no value. After all, the Guild provided me anything I needed for my research, and I could feed off of the blood they gave me as well, so I was rather content with my current resources.

After that, the young aristocrat said something rather foolhardy to me, that war turned the cogs of progress. The rest of her statement really didn't stick out to me much, but that sort of stuck out. After living though the time of the two greatest wars of human history, and being involved in one side of the second, It made me rather inclined to disagree with her. War, while it did push forward technology, did far more harm to progress than it helped. So much wasted potential died on the fields of battle, unable to do anything with their lives before they were mowed down by bullets. Conflict indeed did push people forward, but all out war was normally to be a last resort when nothing else would work, like with the problem of the existence of the Church. No amount of conflict short of war would get rid of them, unfortunately.

Deciding to put the screws into the girl for her mistake, I began to speak back to her. "I actually am not here for supplies, Victoria. My associates at the guild give me everything I need for my research, and I do not believe that a young Aristocrat like yourself would have better quality stuff than the guild. So I believe I will decline your offer, seeing as it is not in my interest to be exchanging information with someone with nothing of value to pay for it,"  I said, needling the girl as I revealed her true intentions behind that statement. Indeed, I would keep the jabs coming and let her know what exactly she was dealing with when it came to my age."I am rather disappointed in you, Victoria, I had thought you were wiser than to think war was a force of progress. Indeed, conflict, in healthy amounts, can drive a being to new heights. But  war? Let me tell you that after living through the two great wars that ravaged Europe, I have seen enough war to know that it is a force of regression and stagnation. It quashes intellectual pursuit, forcing industry to simply produce more and more weapons, instead of focusing their minds on more worthy matters. Not only that, but so much potential dies on the field of battle before they can do anything with their lives. You must not have lived through that sort of war, youngling, if you think that way about it," I said, barbing her with jab after jab that implied just how much of an amateur she was if she truly believed what sh said.

With my piece said, I simply watched the young aristocrat to see how she would respond to the verbal barrage that I had laid down on her.

Mistress, you are letting your emotions get the better of you again. Please calm down before you speak again, you are letting your emotions show through.

It seemed that this particular topic had riled me up more than I had realized, and had let my emotions show through more than I had planned. This is why I hated to deal with the subject, it was hard to be rational about it when I had seen bodies destroyed beyond any sort of recognition by the weapons used in the Second Great War, and had to get used to seeing humans as experiments and food to deal with the horrible conditions that some of them that were given to us were in. I didn't learn it until after the war, but we were getting prisoners from Dachau, which was a death camp run by the Nazis. I knew I had to learn to deal with my emotions on the subject better, but as a for human, it sickened me to see the violence and hate they inflicted on one another, and whenever the topic of war was brought up...it was hard to keep this from showing through.

In essence, what the aristocrat was saying to me was correct, but it was obvious she could only say something like that because she had never seen a true war before. War, indeed, did turn the wheels of innovation somewhat, but it stagnated invention. The point about the airplane was true, but that was innovation rather than invention. People merely were improving already existing ideas instead of creating new ones in order to get the edge on the other side. Not only that, but while technology was advancing rapidly, was it worth the cost? As a being who has lived for a very long time, and will continue to do so, I questioned that heavily. Perhaps war did increase that pace, but it did cut so much to reach it, focusing all of a country's effort on that instead of intellectual pursuits. Many of those advancements could have been made without the war, it simply would have taken longer. And while that would not have benefited the humans, we vampires who could live far longer do not benefit as much from quick development. It might be because this aristocrat was fairly young, but she seems to have not fallen into the mindset of extremely rapid progress not being necessarily a good thing.

Deciding that I had calmed myself down enough and formulated a few decent arguments on top of it, I too the opportunity to respond to Izodar.

I know, Izodar, but I am calm now. This topic is still a sore one, I must say, though I should have definitely handed it far better than I did.

This is why I worry about you sometimes, milady. On the outside it seems that you have fallen into ourrole as a vampire splendidly, but deep down you still haven't totalyl thrown off your past life. 

I know it is weakness Izodar, but I have a hard time totally throwing it away. After all, without it what would make me better than the people who slaughtered my parents.

It is not ideal, but okay to have a bit of compassion so long as you do not let it get in the way. After all, that compassion could easily destroy you. Though this is all I will say on the matter for now, Milady.

With that, It seemed that Izodar returned to deeper within my mind and no longer was speaking to me. That was fine, the conversation was over anyway, and it was time to reply to the Aristocrat in front of me, and respond to what she put forth as a counterargument. "Potential dies everyday indeed, young aristocrat, however it is widespread and often replaced by more potential, after all humans do indeed breed like rabbits. Normally there are more people born than die on a daily basis after all, that potential being constantly refreshed. However, during a war such as the two I spoke of, who are of a kind that make modern 'wars' seem like mere skirmishes, that is not necessarily the case. Not only that, however, but at what price did those innovations come at? They came at the price of new invention, after all, the nations involved, mine included, did not have the time for the creation of completely new ideas or purely academic pursuit. Instead, they diverted their resources to the far more practical and more immediately useful goals. And to a researcher like myself, that is a serious offence to my craft," I aid, laying out a point in my favor before continuing to another one.

"Not only that, my young Victoria, but war makes people desperate. And more often than not, tragedy arises from such feelings, You mentioned the Second Great War for your point, so I shall do the same. You may not have been born yet when it happened, but you likely know why we have horrors. The Nazis, desperate to turn the war around, turned to Thule and had them throw open the doors to the horror realm, letting them spill into our world, forever breaking the masquerade and putting us Kindred at a great disadvantage in our eternal struggle with the Holy Church, as our prey now knew of our existence and could hunt us back with their superior numbers. Perhaps a young one like you who was born after the masquerade was broken cannot understand the difference, but I must say that it is large. Secrecy is a powerful weapon, after all," I said, finishing off my argument now that I was once again completely composed.

With that done, I simply waited for the young vampire to reply to my arguments.

It seemed that the young aristocrat was rather stuck in the mode of thought of the young who were sired after the breaking of the masquerade, to her it seemed like a limit, a shackle. Indeed it was limiting, but in the end it was far more of a boon than it was a burden, especially for my clan. It was far easier to feed and gather materials from the unwary and unknowing than those who were aware that there were predators in the night that hungered for their blood. Perhaps it was because she was more interested in the mundane than the supernatural, after all, hers was a clan incapable of harnessing magic in the slightest. I decided to reply as such to her, despite her obvious and admitted distraction.

"I think you misunderstand, young aristocrat. What is advancement to your clan means absolutely noting to mine, indeed the mundane barely means anything. To a practitioner of magic, this world has done very little for us, especially among our house. It is far harder to gather materials from an aware populace than one that is unaware. Furthermore, to one such as myself, my allies have not grown from gaining the public's knowledge and my enemies have, so simply objectively this state of affairs is rather bad for my clan," I said, explaining my viewpoint and my House's viewpoint on this change. After all, we did not deal much with people who were not already aware of our existence before the masquerade was broken in friendly ways.

"Perhaps to your clan, and especially one as young as yourself, Victoria, this may seem strange, but secrecy to my clan was a force that helped us progress faster. To be frank, the advancement of the mundane and human technology is not something I really care about. War is simply an irritation as well as the breaking of secrecy. The first diverts researchers like myself from what we do normally to efforts to create weapons and the like, and the latter has made our research that much more difficult," I said, continuing to address the young aristocrats points. Indeed, this could all come down to a difference in perspective, a young aristocrat involved in the mundane affairs of the world heavily, versus an old mage centered on the advancement of her craft. Even if I wanted to use it for a semi-mundane purpose, it still would have been better to have the humans unaware.

Indeed, it is truly best to work in secret when dealing with the magic you do. But you must admit, you take pleasure in terrifying human believers, do you not?

Even if they weren't sure of what I was, I could still enjoy it. Probably more so, after all the unknown is oh so terrifying to the sheep who flock to that place.

Indeed, mistress, but that is where you and I differ. I prefer to have my victims know exactly what they are dealing with and fear me for that, rather than blindly fear me.

So be it then, Izodar. Just don't try to rope me into you hobbies. I prefer to do things that won't hinder me in the long run.

Very well, mistress. Just remember, they know what you are, so why not take pleasure in that fear?

With that, Izodar left before I could respond, leaving me to ponder what she had said. That Daemon was sometimes almost as much trouble as she was worth, never more so though. Its not like I could ever get rid of her anyhow, she was too useful ad knew far too much abou me to ever make it worth my while to cut her loose. Plus, I got the vague feeling that if I did, she would somehow get me back for my binding of her.

"In the end, this argument is rather pointless. I won't be able to convince you since our views, while contradictory to each other, both make sense from our own standpoints.yours from the mundane standpoint, and mine from the standpoint of a mage from my house," I said, sighing as I decided to end this pointless argument. Arguing with a youngling unable to practice magic was rather pointless on this topic after all. Deciding that I had just about enough of of this discussion for now, I began to speak to the young aristocrat before leaving, "If you happen to believe you have come across something truly unique or information that you believe could be valuable, feel free to drop by the guild and ask for me. Just because I have a different viewpoint than you doesn't mean I'm unwilling to deal if it seems like you have something valuable. I am not as childish as my body looks, after all."

With that, I began to turn to leave, and unless the aristocrat had something particularly valuable to offer or say, I would make my way out of the shopping district and continue my walk.