life, seconded.

Date: Early Spring, 2021 Time: 14:09 PM PDT Location: Takanashi Ancestral Home, Tea Room With: @acvso​

“Uh, so…” This was more awkward than he envisioned it being. “Thank you for agreeing to meet like this…” An awkward silence hung in the air. “…And sorry for hitting you in the head with my husband’s birdcage. But, would it be possible to give it back? He really liked that cage and refuses to sleep in the new one I bought him from the pet store.” Though if you asked him, Ryo honestly thought Nagisa was simply using it as an excuse to sleep closer to him at night. “I won it at an auction, you see, and besides the monetary value, its sentimental value cannot be summed up.” Despite everything he was told about the woman in front of him being someone to be feared, he had hoped she had at least a shred of sympathy with his situation. 

“I’ve also heard a curious rumour that you’ve since become a composer and left the Justitia life behind. I didn’t know that on New Year’s. I genuinely thought you were out to get me. So, let me apologise again.” He knelt down and touched his forehead to the ground. Excuses tended to fall flat, but Ryo wanted to make sure that she knew he never attacked someone without reason.

Zanna didn’t spend her years exploring every corner of the Earth. She wasn’t interested in looking at every nook and cranny or turning over every rock, but she remembered Japan. Even though her mind was still hazy in some aspects, the memories that she could pull up were clear photographs and moving pictures. Her mind hadn’t deteriorated, but it had fallen asleep to protect her as she healed. “It isn’t every day that I get invited to a lovely home. Very traditional, authentic even...” She walked around to admire the room some more and moved closer to the man, even though she could hear him just fine. “Yes, of course. I’ll even have someone fix the dent... I was worried about how the bird would feel...” She paused and then quietly added, “I didn’t know that shifters would marry actual animals though...” Zanna didn’t know too much about Shifter culture, but in the human world, bestiality wasn’t well supported by society. 

date: february 9, 2021 time: 2:53 pm location: zanna’s house for: @acvso​

Elyas quickly volunteered up himself when he received a report of a shed being caught on fire. Assignments like that would typically be assigned to someone on a lower level, but the familiarity of the address and location was enough for him to keep the task to himself. Considering how Zanna had lost most of her memories from what he has recalled at least, he possessed a sense of worry when it came to her, so when news of a shed on fire came to his desk, he was slightly alarmed. Though, that wasn’t expressed through his demeanor. “Is everything alright here, Zanna?” he asked as soon as the door opened. If she called him Charles again this time, he might just have to dismiss the entire case, whether that was ethical or not. 

location: streets of lethe date: january 2021 time: afternoon

There was no use to dwell on the past. In fact, Emira hated how Lethe rang in the new year, but that was nothing new. Although her past literally came to haunt her, she kept busy, distracted even until the goddamn spell or whatever wore off. While many faced trauma to the incident, the vampire on the other hand saw it in a same shit, different day perspective.

It did inspire her though…

It was easy to find a specific individual. With heightened senses, their scent and a small ass town, you were bound to cross paths with everyone more than once. To Emira, she avoided this person on the daily, for the sake of not killing her of course. However, today was going to be different. 

Today, Emira was going to say hello to Zanna De Varona—without any acts of violence. The thought brought a proud smile to the assassin’s features as she stuffed her hands into her coat and approached the woman she despised so much. “De Varona.” she greeted. “Happy New Year.” Tilting her head to the side, she kept their distance at arms length and asked, “Did the dead bless you as you entered 2021? Hopefully, they weren’t as chatty and touchy feely as the ones I’ve encountered.” 

@acvso​

“Blessed as hellfire.” The dead did more good for her than harm. With her disjointed memories, she felt like she was suffocating in a muddy death, but the shades washed her troubles away, reintroducing clarity to her tired mind. “Feliz año nuevo...” She sighed and rested her eyes away from Emira, finding something more interesting in the distance. “They talked enough, but they seemed more interested in magical artefacts. Did you manage to use your surrogate Chucky?” Although she wasn’t the woman she was before, she kept up a few habits unconsciously. She collected rarities and of course, some of them were of the magical variety. 

The crowd was thinning out and people were headed home. She knew that there were afterparties to be had and beds to safely warm elsewhere, but she wasn’t too keen on calling it a night. Going home meant that she’d have to confront her other-self. Whenever she saw her own reflection, she saw another woman wearing her face. Zanna couldn’t stand it, the hard glare of disappointment, and quite frankly, she wasn’t ready to dedicate any energy to her predicament. She didn’t want to admit that her nightmares were actually her memories.  And on top of that, she didn’t want to be at home if it meant spending time with a stranger. 

She slowed to a stop at the edge of the festivities and took a sip of her drink. Tiredly, she rested her eyes on a man, who seemed more lost than entertained. Zanna tilted her head at him. “Hey...” She started hesitantly. Her mind was a mess of tangled yarn. “Have I seen you before?” 

Date: Monday November 16th, 2020 Time: 2:06 pm Location: Evening Primrose diner

The fae rarely left the diner during his lunch breaks. Besides, old Herbert Stewart let his employees eat for free there so it seemed like a waste of time and money to go somewhere else. So Marek hung his apron at the kitchen and was enjoying his meal at the bar. He wasn’t the only one sitting there and out of the corner of his eye he saw how someone skillfully slipped their fingers into someone else’s pocket and successfully pulled out a wallet. The fae frowned, and by the looks of it, he’d been the only one to notice the sneaky theft. He wasn’t a fae guard anymore but a part of him still felt it was his duty to do something about it. “I wouldn’t walk out with that wallet if I were you” he said as he turned on his stool, looking directly at the pickpocket. It wasn’t a threat, really, more like a civilly delivered warning. “There’s less of a chance of you getting in trouble if you hand it back now”.

“Right, precious. Because I look at this thing and think of it in the same way I think of my son,” Irma deadpanned. “Your friend has very peculiar hobbies, have you considered talking her out of it and into something more normal?” She didn’t like the smile on the other woman’s face, a tinge too delighted at this find for Irma’s comfort and it left her a little on guard. Fitting, really, for manhandling an angry, possessed doll into a potato sack, and she brushed her hands on her pants as Zanna tightened the top of the sack. The small movements made Irma recoil in surprise, and then narrow her eyes. She crouched by the sack, jabbing it sharply. “If you follow me home, you will never see the light of day, so stay with her friend if you know what’s good for you,” she ordered, looking up at Zanna. She stood up, eyeing her with speculation. “You are sure this is a good gift for a friend? It seems more fitting for a gift to an enemy. If your friend happens to meet a tragic demise, do let me know, I have a couple of people that would be a fantastic fit for this.”

Nicolas: Sounds painful yet powerful. Can I do that to other people?

Nicolas: You musicians are interesting creatures

Nicolas: While that sounds very... imaginative, I believe the more obvious answer is that you simply killed someone last night while sleepwalking.

Nicolas: Zanna, what the fuck is your life?

Nicolas: Why would your former lover's twin sister ruin your house?

Nicolas: And that depends on what your cravings are today

Zanna: What? Like murder in a poetic sense?

Zanna: As interesting as a musician is, I'm sure that sleepwalking requires that I sleep and I don't. No one has raised an alarm, so I can't be bloodthirsty.

Zanna: I don't know? Maybe I killed them and she wants revenge. Or they had a near-incestuous bond? I don't know! There are so many possibilities!!!

fayreavci‌:

She had underestimated the vampire. Hale’s new identity had mildly diminish some of the fury she held for vampires, but Emira only escalated it to a new height. What she considered a successful attempt of harming Emira only put her in a vulnerable position. She had lost her grip on the vampire when her head came in contact with the other’s, knocking out her sense of control of her surroundings. Before she could gain back a conscious perspective, her hand had already been twisted, eliciting a muffled scream as her teeth clenched down on her lips. She failed to regain the limited time she had to get back on her feet to protect herself from the girl’s next move. Before she knew it, she had landed on the float, a heavy anchor of pain came crashing through her body as she fell on the bottom surface of the float. Pushing her upper body up from the ground, she spat out a volume of blood that pooled up from her teeth piercing through her lips. 

A loud piercing noise that rattled through her brain acted as a shield from outside noises to the extend where couldn’t even sense the other bodies on the float. With flashes of Emira before her eyes, she was able to roll her body away from where the pumpkin came crashing down, missing her by a few inches. Now on her back, Fayre looked up at the sky, gathering a mix of different screams in the distance. Whatever was happening was keeping them distracted from what was occuring on that float. Finally catching her breath and pushing that throbbing pain of her misplaced arm aside, Fayre finally got up.

Had she not had her mind solely on Emira, she would’ve shot Zanna a glare of daggers. They both seemingly had the same agenda, stimulated from the same purpose. That means that death was inevitable for Emira. “You talk too much,” the hunter greeted Emira within a second as she appeared before the pumpkin throne. Not wanting to give her time to speak again, Fayre tightly gripped her fingers around Emira’s throat and staked her body through a stem from a nicely enlarged pumpkin. If the stem was a bit longer, the tip of it would’ve been seen through the surface of her body. Not wanting her in her sight any longer, Fayre utilized her abled arm and her last remaining energy to pick up the decorative pumpkin with Emira’s body on top and toss it off the float. “Let’s get this over with,” she directed over at Zanna.

Emira was on the brink of breaking.

She didn’t know where she went wrong. However, exhaustion overcame her and she was well aware that she was weaker than usual. Ideally she would have put up one hell of a fight, but out of all days in her years of being an assassin, she had to falter in strength. Cursing herself mentally, the vampire tried to keep her distance from both women by getting up from the throne. However, Zanna caught her blind spot as the stem of a pumpkin pierced through her, forcing Emira to remain stuck from where she sat. 

Blood engulfed her airway as she coughed and spat. This was a bad sign. Did Zanna remember? She fought the same way back when she was head of Interpol. Fuck. Emira needed to leave. Her hands shakily gripped on the object, but her attention snapped over to the screams. Something was happening. Perfect, a distraction. Now all she needed to do was kill both women.

Suddenly, she was greeted with a hand to her throat, the tight grip cut off her airways as she held onto Fayre’s wrist. Her intention was to break another part of the she-wolf’s body, but a stem pierced through her once more, which immobilized Emira completely. A cry of pain escaped her lips as she cursed in her native tongue while she getting thrown off the float. Landing hard on the ground, she groaned at the impact and tried to remove the heavy stems from herself. However, with how weak she was, she laid there, taking deep breaths as she awaited for an opportunity to help herself. 

It’s official, Emira Birsen hated pumpkins. 

“L-ladies.” she croaked out. “How about a t-truce?” 

@acvso​

Zanna tilted her head until there was an audible crack. She rolled her shoulders around, trying to release tension as she approached the downed vampire. Emira looked delicious this way, all spread out like a macabre Halloween decoration. The sounds of terror around them only made the scene feel all the more enjoyable and she couldn’t help but smile. Her thoughts were peppered with noise, so she stopped thinking and let her body move as if a ghost had taken possession of it. The composer wouldn’t have accepted that this was her.

“And let you be a coward?” She chuckled as turned on the float’s engine. “That’d be poor form.” Zanna adjusted the gear shift and then pressed her foot down on the throttle. The float lurched forward and soon (though not soon enough, in her opinion) the decorated vehicle struck Emira before rolling over her. She waited several moments before shifting into park and then engaging the parking breaks to add another level of difficulty for Emira.

If they weren’t pressed for time, she would have dragged out this mess, but this was enough.

The composer suddenly felt sharp pain coming in through her eye and into her head. She reached up and hissed while stumbling away from the float’s controls. “Fuck.” She muttered to herself. If she stayed here, she bet that her headache would immobilize her. “I need to get home.” She glanced at Fayre. Who the fuck was she?  Why were people yelling?  Zanna covered her ears for a moment and then turned away from the werewolf. Things sounded awful and she didn’t want to get caught in the chaos. She fled the scene.

“I wouldn’t mind if I appeared at a Grammy party either. Though I’m not sure why that invitation would extend to me. I can’t say I’m the best singer unless I’m singing in the showers.” He was going off topic. Elyas should’ve been more concerned with the lack of remembrance from Zanna, but the idea of him at a Grammy party momentarily took priority. He slowly shook his head as if the shake helped snap him back to his purpose. He knew he wasn’t wrong in connecting the name and person to that part of his past. Was he overestimating the organization if Zanna couldn’t remember it? “Yeah. International Criminal Police Organization,” he explained the name, even though it was more commonly known as Interpol. A humorous laugh ran from his lips at the thought of her finding police work too exciting. It was contrary to the person he remembered. “Too exciting? If anything, I don’t think it was exciting enough for you. If I remember correctly, you were a detective too. So why the shift to a composer? Was the work too overwhelming?” 

Still on the topic of Interpol, Elyas pulled his sight away from Zanna and to his enclosed hands before him as if it held all the answers to his problems, keenly searching for it. Instead, he was faced with a wave of guilt that engulfed him. He finally looked back up. “I’m sorry for abandoning the mission in the middle of it. I heard about Lethe, and I thought that after everything I’ve done, coming here was my redemption.”  With Zanna’s questions regarding Emira, he knitted his brows in confusion. Has her life been so eventful after he left that those events replaced her collaboration with him on the case? Emira was their primarily link. “I know it’s been a while Zanna, but you really forgot about all of this already?” He lifted his head in thought, attempting to recall as much information he can about his sire. “I don’t know too much about her personal life, but no. I don’t think she does have any siblings. We would’ve known if she did. It’s just her.”

"You only need to perform a little to get the right connections. That’s all it is.” If she hadn’t networked as well as she did, she probably would have never won that award or found a way to experience drugs again. Zanna chuckled and gently waved her hand at him. “Oh, I know what it is. I’ve watched the Mission Impossible franchise and those spy shows. It’s impossible not to know unless you’re completely daft. Not that I think many people are daft. It’s all a matter of circumstance, isn’t it?” She placed a hand over her mouth and chuckled as politely as she could. Their meeting was becoming stranger. It felt like there was a bad case of mistaken identity on both of their ends. “Ehm... I don’t remember being a detective... I woke up in Lyon after a fire.”

Yasemin wore a helpless expression as she shook her head at Zanna. “Stay.” she ordered. “And please don’t say that…For what it’s worth, I don’t want you to leave this world.” Yasemin began cleaning up to the best of her abilities the surrounding areas around them. “Tax evasion is common, so no surprise there.”  

While they were sitting, the air nymph listened and tried not to react in an odd fashion, but this was a lot to take in. “Oh! Uh, congrats….Um…” Was this a vampire thing? They seem to have their own stories that intertwine with other vamps, but it probably had to deal with the whole sire aspect. “You should pay close attention to your fledgling for the most part. If you’d like I can reach out to Miss Wade for extra protection if you feel like you’re in danger?” On the topic of Zanna’s sex life, Yasemin giggled and looked through her phone for other therapists. “I can forward you some of my contacts if you’d like to work on your addiction. This is a good step in recovery. In the meantime if you don’t find the right fit, maybe learn to limit yourself? Take…things—er beings in moderation?” She shook her head to politely decline the donation. “It’s my duty to look out for our citizens, so you don’t have to worry about it. I appreciate the thought though. Let’s focus on getting you better.”

Zanna stopped trying to move around. “Has anyone ever told you that you have a voice fit for a politician? You make me feel it in my bones that I should stay... while also admitting to tax evasion.” She giggled before she started to cough. She brought her hand to her mouth. “I won’t-” Zanna started to cough again, but more violently. She didn’t stop until specks of blood were on the back of her hand. “Ohhh... Ma’am, I think you’re right. I’ll relax.”

Nicolas: The power of will? What did you do? Scream at it to stop bleeding??

Nicolas: If you've been restricted to bed rest, then did someone come to you last night and milk their blood all over you?

Nicolas: You're just saying all of this buffoonery because you want me to come over 😏

Nicolas: You know that room is always prepped for you. Fuck your lawyer. Nothing should stop you from partying 🤑🤑

Zanna: Clearly, I clenched the muscles in my nether regions and did a focused meditation on going against gifts of nature.

Zanna: Possibly. I mean, it wouldn't be the first time. Musicians come up with the most interesting rituals~

Zanna: Oh, I would have you over, but a former lover's twin sister ruined my house. I'm not quite ready to host anyone yet.

Nicolas: Sorry to rain on your parade, but it's not mine. Are you sure it's not your period blood??

Nicolas: Do vampires even get their period? How does that work?

Nicolas: Regardless, it seems as if you had a grand time last night 🤑🤑🤑

Zanna: Yes! I know I look deliciously alive, but through the power of will, I have stopped such processes. 🤢🤢🤢

Zanna: By my self??? This isn't my blood! I've been restricted to bed rest. My lawyer has told me so.

Zanna: I need advice...

Zanna: If I wake up naked and covered in blood, was it a cultish orgy?

“I’m sorry.” Yasemin didn’t know what she was apologizing for. There was just so much to take in and she was quite overwhelmed. “No it’s okay, you need to rest.” She wanted to help as much as she can, especially with the extent of Zanna’s injuries, it may take some time for her to fully recuperate in comparison to how a normal injured vampire would heal. “I don’t know…But perhaps, you should hold off on getting another one. She might destroy the new one too and that’s a huge expense.” As a pianist herself, the air nymph was crushed to see the grand piano destroyed upon her arrival and although Zanna was a composer in her own right, it was best to tackle the issue at hand to prevent a repeat of today. 

“That’d be wishful thinking Zanna. I think you’d need to be extra careful and vigilant moving forward.” The Councilwoman took out her phone and began scrolling through her contacts, figuring out who could assist without it being so exposed to the Council. If Delilah were to step in, the circumstance would have been completely different. They needed to make it look like a break in to soften the blow. “It doesn’t matter. You deserve to know the truth. In the end, what matters is your present and you’ve already made this your life. Understanding your past will give you insight, but it’s your choice how you take it…You don’t have to fall back into who you once were.” Shaking her head, Yasemin reached over and took Zanna’s hand with her own. Giving her a gentle squeeze, she wore a reassuring expression while nodding in understanding. “I was never going to rely on the town’s resources. I’m using mine. Please, you don’t need to take care of this mess alone.” 

“I’ll rest when I’m dead... dead times two... not lich dead but actually dead. Deleted dead. I can clean it up later.” She tried to get up before falling back down against the headboard. Zanna hissed and squeezed her eyes shut. She was still a little sore and she could feel the tear in her stomach. “It isn’t very much, Yasemin. Humans have made it painfully easy to navigate. If not through legal means, I’m sure through illegal ones... How many of us, in our actual age, pay taxes? I’m sure people have used Lethe before for tax evasion.” She kept talking, trying to hide how much pain she was in.