WHEN: 1944 March 22, early afternoon
WHERE: Windgrace manor to Roesler's airship
WHO: Dinah Windgrace and Niles Roesler
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[11:46] Dinah (dollihead) had felt the initial spike in the mood for her suitor, but hadn't quite chalked it up to the why. With no real reason to believe that the mood had been anything she had done..perhaps with the exception of rather abruptly disconnecting as she had. The lingering sense had been...strange. Normally it was not something she was used to, feeling other people's emotions beyond that of her immediate kin.
Her own emotions in the aftermath of Sato's visit had been a muddle. A mixture of sharp, spiteful triumph had twisted in with the displeasure of even having that thing back close enough that he was stinking up her tunnels, but as the reaction emotion hadn't gone away... she hadn't tried probing at it, fleetingly curious from time to time as the sensation remained
[11:54] Niles Roesler (ohsoincoherently): He should have let it be. Niles was not a jealous man but what shared sensations, emotions came through the blood bond he shared with Dinah stirred enough question that he could not ignore the yokai's visit entirely. Still, beyond curious inquiry any lingering irritation was irrational and simply unnecessary. Yet here he was.
The doctor stood for a moment on the grass of the front yard, his eyes on the upper floor's windows. When approached by a member of the staff he met an offer to summon the lady of the house with a sharper-than-usual "Oh that won't be necessary," before disappearing in a swirl of heavy black smoke. Niles didn't care where Dinah happened to be in her quarters or what she happened to be doing - when he materialized he stepped to her and slung his arms around her waist.
"Having a good morning, my dear?" he asked, his chin resting atop her shoulder. That sensation rose, spiking into something more fiery than simple annoyance.
[12:04] Dinah (dollihead) had felt the increase in proximity when he had arrived at the front porch and had been finishing buttoning her dress when the spike increased and he was suddenly there immediately behind her. She uttered a sharp gasp and some of the lighter items on the vanity rattled, but relaxed after the initial shock of it. Nothing flung yet today
"Dull thusfar, but at least that woke me up" she rested her arms atop his around her, though his chin on her shoulder made it difficult for her to turn without shrugging him off so she remained where she was. "I forget you can do that. How did you know I wasn't in the bath? you'd have been soaked" she muttered almost ruefully. Her mind had been a little...scattered this morning thusfar. Scattered and shining.
[12:16] Niles Roesler (ohsoincoherently) nudged his lips against her neck, a smile spreading slyly against her skin. "And you in for a more exciting morning," he remarked. His hands moved to her hips and push-pulled to turn her towards him, insistent steps urging her backward until her back met something solid. "But I think you've had quite a bit of excitement lately without me, haven't you?"
Warm red tendrils slipped from beneath his sleeves to wind about her waist, wrapping up her body to encircle her neck and squeeze. "I'm offended, Dinah. I'd think with as close as we are you could trust me with anything major happening. Anything important you'd need help with. That you wouldn't need to resort to..." he punctuated his words with a slide of that tendril under her chin. "...raking the gutter for assistance."
[12:23] Dinah (dollihead) could feel the goosepimples rising against where his mouth touched and she tightened her grip a little against his arms until he looked to shift her. Perhaps if her more rational mind were at play she might have considered this more of a danger sign than otherwise, but as he shifted her to face him she looked up to study his face, a curious expression on her own.
The red ribbons caused her to grit her teeth a little, but her eyes shone and danced, fascinated at his behaviour.
"are you referring to father?" she whispered, voice quietened by the squeezing around her throat, resting her own hands quite casually against his chest despite the very clear danger. Her pulse was racing, part surging with the creeping unease.
[12:32] Niles Roesler (ohsoincoherently) either dismissed the odd swells of her soul or wasn't bothered by them. One of his tendrils settled under her chin to keep her face tilted to him as his hands found hers. Lithe fingers entangled with her own, something that might have been intimate if he weren't using his grip to pin her hands to the wall behind her. "Your father. Is that it? You enlisted the corpse eater to bring daddy back?" Niles glanced at the door, a sweep of his senses searching for the other siblings in the house. Whether he felt them or not it was a simple-enough decision not to linger. More of his blood coiled around her body to bind her close to him as he moved them, teleporting them both much higher into the sky unless she worked to stop him.
[12:38] Dinah (dollihead) lifted her chin at the point of the tendril, fingers flexing and squeezing as his hands moved hers. Alternating between gripping at his hand, pricking the back of his knuckles with her sharp little nails, or questing them about as if feeling for something like the legs of a spider.
"I didn't want him back. it was a lot of work to get him out to sea in the first place and now he's stinking up my temple but we need him to break the veil" she muttered. The little flare of spite and triumph prickled through her for just a moment, short lived as the blood swept up around her. She didn't fight it; not expecting to be bodily transported from one place to the other. A shudder of dislike at the sensation shifted through her but she remained very, very still even if the bonds had slackened. Her pulse was still risen, eyes a fraction wider
[13:02] Niles Roesler (ohsoincoherently) | Bold as he was, the doctor was bolder still in his own environment. While the blood unraveled from her body his hands stayed at her waist, pushing while his feet bore them closer to the bed. The push was more forceful than he usually was, vampiric strength behind it in the event her mind fought back with any telekinetic knee-jerk responses. "To break the veil..." he murmured, always close to her, looming if she stayed standing, bent with his hands above her shoulders if he managed to push her back. "That's far too important to trust to any old half-dead gremlin that wanders by your estate, liebling."
His teeth found her neck, piercing skin and popping into her carotid artery. Niles reached for her mind, the slither of his own empathic manipulations winding through their blood bond. < And don't you worry that the corpse-eater is dangerous? > came the whisper of his mind. He pushed unfamiliarity, uncertainty towards suspicion, nudged doubt towards accusation. < He boasts connection to the shard... to Hunter. He helped you once but what now? With the trust of your family? >
Images came to her mind of the frail, near-skeletal body of the shard contorted and writhing in obvious distress. Sato's ghastly unglamoured form flickered in and out in swirls of blood. < He ripped the shard from stability, from security once. Aren't you afraid he'll bring more chaos to your family? >
[13:11] Dinah (dollihead) was weaker than he was, lighter and smaller. Physically she'd never stand much of a chance even if his strength hadn't been augmented. He'd manage to push her, toppling her easily and with another sharp, startled gasp. The differences in him were sharp and prickly, even if she hadn't the blood bond she'd have been able to see it in him.
"Half dead gremlin" she almost tittered at the name, but she tipped her head back as he bit down, a soft hiss uttered between clenched teeth. The Song in her mind pealed louder, almost drowning out his words for a moment until she crushed it back. for now, at least.
"hunter trusts him" she murmured, voice wispy and dreamy, though she flinched at the vision of the shard in pain.
<"Noone hurts us anymore"> her inner voice was colder, sharper, thrumming with the Song.
[13:24] Niles Roesler (ohsoincoherently) fed until her regeneration needed to kick in to replenish blood supply, the excess blood swirling around them wind around her skin again. It slipped beneath her clothing, hugging tightly to her frame to hold her firmly, offering a tangible sense of security he could seize upon when needed. < Hunter is vulnerable, isn't he? Young, too trusting, too eager to learn. He's already been hurt, > Niles warned. A peal of Hunter's screams in captivity tore through their shared minds before he quieted them. His lips found the already-healing bitemark and kissed it gently. < No one will hurt us. No one can. Together we can handle anything that could try. >
He rolled to reposition her, helping her on top of him to give her the freedom to move. "You have people you can trust with these important things, Dinah. People who love you - your brothers, and me." His hands moved to cup her face. "And we'd never do to anything to endanger or take anything away from the family." An image came, sneaky and insidious, of Sato speaking with Dorian alone on the front lawn. And in one of the rooms of Seiiki's Tea House. And by the koi pond in the Seiiki market district.
[13:34] Dinah (dollihead) could feel herself cooling, the drifting sensation of her extremities becoming tingly and unresponsive. Not that she was trying to move, she remained still, flat where he'd pushed her but for her head tipped aside to let him at her throat. She remained silent, squirming only slightly at the blood winding around her, but her eyes flickered open a fraction at the sound of Hunter's screams.
"never again" she murmured. "I won't allow it." she mumbled, sullenly soured and hurting and bristling all at once from the memories of her boy being in pain. Her own mind flickered back to what remained of max, that corrupted skull that sat in front of the King in Yellow, crystalised from her own magic. A fragile relic of what happened to those who crossed them.
She almost sighed as he moved her, swaying a little as her healing caught up with the bloodloss. It was a little dizzying when that happened, and she planted a hand on his chest to steady herself.
"why are you so worried about this boy? there is only one of him. We are many now" The lilting tone of her voice was unsteady, difficult to tell quite who the we was that she spoke of. The hand that wasn't helping to keep herself balanced reached to bury at the hair of her temple,closing her eyes again. "He is nothing to us. He knows better. they should all know better. they will know better"
Sagging, she drooped to bow her head against him, eyes still closed. "it's getting louder, niles" she whispered into his shirt.
[14:09] Niles Roesler (ohsoincoherently) curled the tendrils of blood around her, pulling her down to cradle her against his chest as she leaned closer to him. "Never again," he repeated and stroked a hand down her hair. His fingers combed through the golden strands to rest against the back of her neck where creeping, wriggling tendrils of flesh and nerve, not blood broke through the skin to penetrate her own. They creeped through the back of her mind as he attempted to connect them, to flood the cacophony of the Song to the others of hers not yet afflicted and dull the noise by distributing it elsewhere.
"We are many. But Time wears down all and the shard of Yog-Sothoth can be addled by human whims. Be careful. Be wary." He didn't answer her question about fear. Instead he leaned into what quiet he could offer her through leeching the noise off to her other selves through the power of the contained shard decks below them. "You're right, Dinah. They're all nothing. We can handle it all."
[14:17] Dinah (dollihead) tilted her head so instead of pressing against him, she rested her cheek against his chest. the lack of a heartbeat had stopped being quite so strange, so as his hand settled at the nape of her neck, she tensed at the sensation of the nerves pressing through with a noise of discomfort in her throat.
"never again" she whispered, reaching her own hands to burrow behind him. The cessation of the Song was strange, the unnatural quiet when she knew there ought not to be made her shiver a little.
"we." she agreed, opening her eyes again to watch him from her spot against his chest. "I dont think ive seen you cross like that before. would you go sifting through the ocean for a body if I asked you?" she relaxed a little as the Song quietened more, a little more 'present'. "you were frightening, you know"
[14:20] Niles Roesler (ohsoincoherently) shut his eyes as she settled her cheek against his chest. The lack of his own heartbeat made hers all the louder and his blood called to it, trying to ease it to a less frenzied pace. "Of course. In one manner or another," he said easily. There was no lie there though the truth of it was layered. "I might not properly be able to weather the depth and pressure myself... but the means exist, don't they? And the motivation. The desire." His other hand slid to the small of her back and he chuckled quietly before pressing a kiss to her forehead. "You did want to see me jealous, didn't you?" he said quietly.
[14:28] Dinah (dollihead) chuckled quietly, settling now the threat had passed and her blood was lulled down so easily. "I shouldn't think i'll have a need for it another time. when we're done with papa, I will be happy to throw him back into the ocean." she sighed gently. "I shouldn't want you to stink of corpse. especially one so...sludgy as he was." she lifted her chin at the kiss to her forehead and she pushed herself up onto her elbows just a little.
"I did. I'm glad I did. you are so controlled, even then. so intense" she tittered. "do you think you need to be jealous of him, darling? Worried i'll forsake you for someone shorter and much less gracious?" there was the slightest of tease in her voice, but also a curiosity. SHE knew jealousy well, after all.
[14:35] Niles Roesler (ohsoincoherently) hummed. "Water does have a way of making a mess of things for how often we use it to clean." He opened his eyes when she propped herself up to look down at him, an easy smile back on his face despite the lingering sharpness in his eyes. "Forsake me?" he repeated, the hand at the back of her neck, gripping a bit more firmly while he rolled to put himself on top of her again. "Should I really worry about that?" He bent to press a kiss to her lips this time, one of his legs slipping its way between her knees. A nip of her lower lip broke skin and he pulled back to run his thumb over it, smearing crimson. "Maybe. You do like being devoured. Perhaps I ought to be more ravenous." The kiss that followed was hungrier, more forceful. He crushed his lips against her own, his body pressing her into the bed.
[14:42] Dinah (dollihead) wrinkled her nose, chuckling quietly "I like the water. It's quiet in the below. One day I will introduce you to grandpa properly. He will like you better than father might. he would be more scandalised that you are foreign than you being dead" she added bitterly "..maybe i'll tell him before we throw him back to the crabs" she tensed a little at the grip on her neck and she laughed as he rolled them, lifting her lips to his.
"you tell me. do you think you need to worry about that?" she countered, tongue poking out to taste her own blood a moment. She had begun to reply as he kissed her again, pressing herself into him as he pushed her into the sheets.
<"you have already eaten my heart once"> the thought flitted through her mind, pulse fluttering again and she pressed her fingernails into his chest over his shirt. <"do you think I would let just anyone?">
[14:51] Niles Roesler (ohsoincoherently) scoffed. "Foreign? Well I'll have to make up for that terrible failing I suppose," he murmured against her lips. The kisses moved downward, over her chin and down the front of her throat. They paused at the notch of her clavicle where the slight hesitation was accompanied by a thoughtful hum. "Well then consider me pleasantly surprised to have won your favor much earlier than I'd originally thought," he teased. One of his hands rose to run up the front of her body, sliding over fabric to rest his index finger against the top of her sternum. "It was an indescribably otherwordly experience then. I can only imagine it would be breathtaking now. Shall we find out?" Blood formed a blade at the tip of his nail, letting him pull a thin, precise slice down the skin of her chest, perfectly between her breasts.
[14:57] Dinah (dollihead) clicked her tongue and she grinned, reaching up to curl her fingers in his hair "I suppose, the cross you have to bear" she feigned a dramatic sigh, one that hitched as his mouth moved across her throat again, anticipating another bite.
"before, it was..." she contemplated the word "..competition, I suppose. if there is to be a gold standard of anything i would want to surpass that. I'd say it was hard to best" she watched his hand skim her dress and at the slice of his nail she sucked in a sharp breath, tilting her head upwards in case any blood spilled into her hair.
"...don't send the pain away this time" she whispered, voice trembling. (( To Be Continued...))