aterat | 002 [OPEN] UNPLEASANT CHANGES

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002 [OPEN] UNPLEASANT CHANGES

Who; Enis Edrin

blindpuppet & You
What; Enis slowly transforming into a vampire.
Where; The Harbor District & The Cemetery & her home if you want to run into her at the set up prompt.
When; April 4th - April 22nd.
Warnings; Possible - body dysmorphia, blood, self harm, gun violence, murder of random by standard, crude behavior, triggering depressive thoughts.

[ooc: please contact me if you would like to thread with Enis during this time but also wish to avoid sensitive topics. It will be easy to do but can influence when and how she is found. I am happy to set up specific top levels and work with those interested in CR. I want us all to have fun! Enis has permissions here, you can contact me there or on plurk

mizuyoko.]

It had been years since Enis had been allowed to dream. Each night, she’d close her eyes and let the soft whirl of spinning metal reverberate through her skeletal frame. At times, the absence was haunting but calm compared to the dreams that had plagued her waking hours over a decade before. Dreams had never been an escape and she didn’t miss them. Shutting down was enough… She was able to rest and release the feelings that would otherwise become an insidious disease.

In the past, she had been thankful that computers didn’t dream but her time living in the city was starting to change her mind.

Enis hadn’t been allowed her usual release. The nights plagued her, forcing her awake while the days droned on; long and lagging. It was easier when the clouds covered the sky but the days were getting depressingly brighter. The tired sleeplessness ached within every nerve but no matter how tired she was, she couldn’t sleep. Her father wouldn’t allow her rest and there was no reversing his curse.

She was going crazy.

Everything hurt.

Warning.

System reboot.

Systu-

- - - the cemetery - - -

It was two hours before sunrise when Enis wound her way back through the city streets towards the graveyard. The early mornings were perfect for collecting ingredients. Few people walked the streets and the darkness felt lighter despite its usual hushed shade. She would convince herself that didn’t need to sleep.

A pointed spasm pierced her temple and her vision blurred before immediately sharpening. The edges of the buildings became too clear as if a light was shining down from above and at the same time her vision doubled, outlining everything in a pulsing red glow. Enis placed her palms against her forehead to push back the pain but the phantom ache remained.

Warning.

“Shut up.” She growled to the empty street. She was nearly at the cemetery and there was a promised comfort to be hidden among the gravestones. All she had to do was make it that far.

Enis staggered forward with a hand out towards the building wall that lined the left side of the street. Her eyes were closed but it didn’t ease the irritation. There was a thundering steady beat echoing in her head that mirrored the steady calm heartbeat of another. It wasn’t her pulse. She could feel the blood in her vanes as her heart drummed at a frantic tempo.

She didn’t know how much time had passed but the ticking seconds felt like hours. Enis collapsed against one of the garnet stones, hoping to hide behind the tall visage of gray. She didn’t know what was going on but she knew that her father was to blame. She was out of time. There was no stopping the changes of his final failed experiment.

- - - the harbor - - -

Waves rose and crested over the wooden beams of the docks, birds called to the watery breeze while various citizens continued with their daily business. The noise grated against her senses as she slinked between the shadows to stay out of sight. Enis didn’t want to catch anyone’s attention and the dilapidated harbor was the perfect place to find shelter. She just needed time away from the sounds of the city to collect her thoughts but there were few places where she could find such a reprieve.

She wandered along backstreets and around the shady establishments that used the docks to shield its seed activity. Her path moved along a broken shipyard and then passed an abandoned ship that was labeled the Maiden's Mercy on its stern.

Her wondering stopped when her path reached as far as it would go without the risk of getting wet. A lighthouse stood at the coast, its empty light doing nothing to signal to the phantom ships that plagued the quay.

It was perfect.

Enis kicked the door and flinched when the loud crash echoed through the empty cylindrical tower. She hadn’t realized she had that much power nor did she have an interest in making her break-in obvious to an outside observer. She leaned the door back in place before slipping into the dark tower where she’d rest.

It was a dream but she heard the voice in her head.

Serum 85532.

Processing…

Error.

Data locked.

Processing…

Error.

Data locked.

Processing…

Corrupted data expunged.

Processing.

Base parameters updated.

A low groan escaped from Enis’s throat as she began to move. It had been days since she’d taken up residence in the lighthouse but the seclusion wasn’t helping. She felt weak but also uncontrollable power and the contradictions didn’t end there. It was as if every sense and nerve had been ripped raw and was now exposed to the world and its negligence.

She’d never felt like this before and as painful as it was, she couldn’t save herself.

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Did anything really get as cliché as a vampire taking a casual stroll through a cemetery? The answer to that was an obvious, and resounding, no. It was about as cliché as one could get and yet here Ivy was doing exactly that. There was something oddly comforting about coming to a cemetery like this, mostly because it made her think about a permanent death and that was comforting. How twisted did someone have to be envy a real permanent death? Pretty damn twisted. That was Ivy in a nutshell though: twisted and doomed to die and be reborn as an undead vampire. There'd be no nice gravestone for her when she'd die, she'd just continue on living. Most humans envied that, but they didn't get the consequences that came with it and they never would.

Besides that it was a pretty good way to avoid people. Who else would come to wander in a cemetery?

Up until now that'd been pretty sound thinking. Now though she could have sworn she heard someone. Not just heard someone, she'd caught the scent of someone else too. It wasn't one she was particularly familiar with, which wasn't really surprising. Wasn't like she went out of her way to make friends here. The scent was definitely mixed with a lot of heavy emotions that seemed to be permeating the air. There was pain there and pain always pulled at the instincts of her kind.

Before she could even think better of herself she found herself heading in the direction it seemed to be coming from. As she got closer she picked up other negative emotions mixing with them. Each one of them hit her like a jolt and then pulled her in. She'd like to have said she was going there to see if someone needed help, but there was a part of her that was a bit more predatory. That fact brought her an inordinate amount of shame that she decided to do her best to ignore.

She clenched her fist as she noticed the woman collapsed on the garnet stone.

"Are you alright?" What a stupid question to ask Ivy.

It was an awkward place. Enis was paying attention to every detail of the surrounding area, each blade of grass sharpened into crystal clarity but she couldn't focus on any singular object. It was overwhelming and grated against her senses. It was only the presence of the computer chip in her head that was allowing any semblance of sanity. Humans weren't meant to go through this type of transformation.

That was when she felt the presence of another walking through the graveyard. It wasn't so unusual, the apothecary was nearby, but it was poorly timed.

Enis turned so that she was propped against the grave stone. A thin layer of sweat dotted her forehead while vibrant blue eyes focused on her company. "That is-" She inhaled and the air felt like needles in her lungs. "-a really stupid question." She groaned and pulled her knees closer to her chest. "I am not-" To make it clear she added. "-okay."

As Ivy got closer she'd likely notice the vibrant blue was beginning to be stained with dots of blood that moved about Enis's iris like it was alive. She was a truly strange creature.

Her pupils dilated more and she narrowed her eyes at the woman. "You know, I didn't need to even check." There was a clearly defensive quality to her tone. She wasn't precisely great with people, even on a good day when there wasn't blood pulling at her instincts. There were dots in the woman's eye and she had to take a deep breath to control herself. How pathetic was this that she couldn't even fully control herself in a simple situation like this? Extremely pathetic, which was exactly what her Master had wanted: a scion that needed him and needed blood. She shook her head to try to force herself to focus.

"What happened?" The only thing she could assume was that it was something happening in this place. Though she hadn't actually seen anything going on at the moment.

Enis couldn't help but briefly smile at the defensive reply. "No you didn't but... you did." She really didn't understand the people in this city. The emotions were complicated and they didn't really make sense to her. Enis wasn't used to people giving a damn. "When I'm not in pain I might ask you about that." Maybe.

She was feeling a little delirious at this point and wasn't even trying to act tough and aloof like normal. There was no point. She was too much of a mess.

"It's a-" Enis placed her palm on her stomach as another thread of pain stabbed through her organs. "-long story. The short answer is- I have no fucking clue. Knowing my father I'm turning into another species." Her insides were working to rearrange themselves but she didn't know what she was turning into. She only had a guess. "He was a dick."

There was no love for her father or anyone in her life. They all sucked.

"You won't get a very interesting answer." At best the answer would just be that she was prone to bad decisions. Her lips quirked up in something almost like a smirk. "Or more likely you won't like the answer much." Because really, she wouldn't say that actually cared, she didn't know the woman enough to really care. It was more that she had some sort of instinctual need to investigate people in trouble.

The pupils of her eyes overtook more as she picked up the scent of the woman's pain. It was an intoxicating smell really. "He infected you with something?" Was that something she should really be asking considering the situation? "What do you need to help?" If her father was the one that did this then she might know how something that would help her. Though that seemed optimistic.

In many respects, Enis thought similarly to this unknown woman. She too would consider stopping to help someone a bad decision. "You won't hurt my feelings." Enis tried to joke but her voice was tight and strained by the effort it took to keep the unending pain from tearing its way from her lips. It felt as if her insides were rearranging themselves and no matter how many times she blinked her vision remained painfully sharp.

Humans weren't meant to handle the stimulant that was funneling into her brain and even with the computer chip keeping her alive, it was too much. She would have put herself down if that had been an option but she didn't know what reaction that would cause. The failsafe her father installed was still running.

"I don't know what's happening." Enis pushed herself back against the gravestone. "If I knew we could find a way to deal with it. All I know is the compound that held off the change." She groaned but her mind continued to race. "This stopped my aging, most likely, I am turning into a species that doesn't age. I only know of two such races in my world." And neither was particularly comforting. "Fay or Vampire."

"I'll keep that in mind." Because she so often took the feelings of strangers, or other people in general, into account.

"Helpful," she said with a purse of her lips. Her eyes were almost completely black as she watched the woman like a hawk. Or maybe more accurately like some sort of predator watching something that could potentially become prey. Pull yourself together, she said to herself. Don't let Piscary's conditioning rule you. It was surprising how little good this self talk was doing.

"Where's your compound?" Surely the woman had more of it or had found a way to get it here. She'd heard of ways to get things form your own world here, though she'd never looked into it herself. "For your sake, I hope it's fay."

"On Earth," Enis replied with a soft huff of air. The pain was receding but the changes weren't going away. She had a sinking feeling that what she considered normal was able to change. "I can't get it now." It was too late to administer the compound anyway.

She pushed herself up to stand and shoot Ivy a frustrated look. Perhaps it's because of her own internal struggles but she didn't like the way that the woman was staring at her.

"You'll find that I won't be an easy target, pain or not." She had no control over the safety system that was programmed into her brain. It didn't matter how much she hurt, her body would fight without taking her current physical state into consideration. "Fuck." Enis groaned. "I'm so thirsty." It wasn't a thirst she'd ever felt before.

"Sounds like something you should have been trying to figure out." This wasn't Rachel, Ivy reminded herself as she winced at having just said that aloud. Chastising Rachel like this was one thing, but someone else that was a complete stranger? Probably not the best idea to be doing here.

"I'm not going to bite you," she snapped. She had more control than that. Maybe. Maybe not. She liked to think she was, but it wasn't as easy as she was trying to claim either. "Look, maybe I can carry you into the city to a clinic," she said stiffly until the word thirst caught her hearing. "Do you need water or..."

Enis looked up at Ivy with a raised eyebrow that said 'no duh'. It wasn't that she hadn't looked for a solution but that there wasn't one in this world. The chemicals she needed required refinement and technology that hadn't been invented yet. Enis could have made this equipment but she didn't have the time.

A dark chuckle found its way to her lips as she shook her head. "I am pretty sure that being around people is a bad idea." She didn't know what she needed but she had an uncomfortable guess.

"Do you think they have blood banks here?"

"They might, I've heard they have options for that," she said with a roll of her shoulders. Suddenly she wished she'd looked more into that instead of just brushing it off as not worth her time. Blood wasn't the main thing vampires in her own world took when they fed, so just getting a bag of blood hadn't been a top priority. In fact, it'd sounded pretty disgusting.

She paused and then looked at her and bit down on her lip. "You haven't taken blood before have you?" If not then just getting her a person would probably be a really bad idea.

It sounded disgusting to Enis too but the discomfort was beginning to outweigh her personal feelings. No matter what, the fail safe program wouldn't let her die and as it had already taken over her body once before, it worried her. She didn't want to attack someone just because she got hungry.

That was how you got shot.

She shook her head. "No." Enis lifted her fingers to her teeth and winched when she felt the sharpened canines. "Looks like I'm all ready though." The information on vampires were limited in her world. "Do you think anyone would get pissed off if a chocobo went missing?" Animals would work though the thought of feathers make her nose scrunch up.

This was a really weird conversation.

He'd followed her from the Cemetery, keeping well away, allowing his infravision to lead him when the light was too dim to see by. His eyes shifted reflexively between the standard and IR spectrums and necessity dictated, and he kept downwind and to the shadows as he followed her. He'd seen the woman when he'd arrived, another resident of the building to which he'd been assigned, but she acted erratically, and even suspiciously as of late. She seemed unwell, truth be told, but she also seemed to have a secret she didn't want the others to find.

The lighthouse offered her seclusion, that much was true, but what was she up to? He'd have to risk a closer look of he was to get any answers, and that meant making his way to the roof of the house, near the pillar that raised the light above the bay, looking for an entry point, or a skylight.

He didn't anticipate the wood rot in the rafters and they buckled under his weight, light as he was, sending the ranger scrambling for a hold that gave way under his hands, and leaving him crashing into the room below.

Enis pressed her back against the cool stone wall of the lighthouse and focused on controlling her vision. Her head constantly ached but little by little, the pain began to recede. It was the only indication that promised an improvement to her current state. After her vision had sharpened, the sounds came next. If it wasn't for the lighthouse's location, she would have been driven mad by the constant barrage of white noise.

It could smell better but she wasn't about to complain about it and who could she complain to.

Breath by breath, she had to focus and find her center again.

That was when the loud crash rang through her ears. Enis was on her feet in a second, moving faster than she'd ever moved before. Her handgun was in her palm, her finger balancing on the trigger as she walked towards the small living space that was attached to the lighthouse. She had thought that she'd be alone out here but she'd been wrong.

She slowed her breathing and listened while taking silent steps towards the door that connected her to the adjacent room. She could hear a heartbeat and animal or human, it was going to pay for interrupting her voluntary seclusion.

Admittedly, he had a slower recovery than he normally would. Fragments of rotted wood dug into his ribs and he struggled to suck in a breath. Nothing was broken from what he could tell, but the fall had been farther than it had appeared and something he was thoroughly unprepared for.

He was only just pulling himself shakily to his feet as she approached and he pulled his hood down over his hair and ears out of reflex. He didn't know how this was going to go, but his air of surprise was past.

The scene sharpened into view as Enis stepped into the room and pressed her shoulder blades against the wall. She didn't know what had fallen in on her solitude but she wasn't happy to be interrupted. She skillfully flicked the safety off the gun and rose it before her. She only saw the shadow of the figure before she shot. It wasn't meant to kill him but to send a warning.

Enis didn't want people following her or visitors and the only way he'd found her here was if he had been following her. If it was happenstance then this stranger was incredibly unlucky.

"Consider that a warning." Her voice was low and careful. She wasn't willing to show her own weakness by admitting that the wall was the only thing keeping her on her feet.

It was a searing, raging pain in his shoulder when the weapon, it was a weapon, in her hand barked, impossibly loud. He'd done his best to dodge, but he was incapable of teleportation which he noted in a sort of detached way would have made the event much more tolerable. He reached to his burning shoulder, feeling the warm flow of blood there between his fingers. Breathing heavily, he barely registered she'd spoken, took a moment to comprehend her words.

"A warning," he repeated. It was received, loudly and clearly. He moved to get his feet under himself, to stand, but stars burst behind his eyes when he closed them and he took a few more ragged breaths. He'd never known pain that swift or deep. "I will go." Or he would try, at least.

Even in the dimly lit room, she could make out his features. He was close to her height but possibly shorter than her when standing side by side. His features were angular and his skin dark. He didn't look like any of the races that she was familiar with and while there was always a possibility that her data was lacking, Enis assumed that he was from another world.

Shit. Was he connected to others who had appeared in the city the same way she had?

Her mind was racing when the thick heady scent of blood filled her nose. It was to be expected but the desire it stirred within her was new. 'Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.' Thanks to this stranger she knew exactly what her father had done to her and she'd never been more terrified of the monster living inside of her.

Enis pushed her shoulders against the cold wall and growled as Drizzt staggered. "Leave now." Logically, she knew that he was trying to leave as fast as possible but it wasn't fast enough. Nothing was fast enough. Every nerve in her body hummed with an unfamiliar instinct.

Her voice lowered to a whisper. "Move as fast as you can... before we both regret it." Her throat ached to be cooled but she wasn't a monster. Enis refused to follow the path her father had laid out for her.

Similar instincts thrilled Drizzt's blood. He's existed in the lightless dark of the world for 20 years, surviving because he became as deadly a predator as those around him. He heard the warning edging her words and he took them to heart. His mind shouted run and his feet obeyed, discarding the pain in his shoulder as something to be handled when safety was found. He aimed for a window, for it was nearer than any other portal, and willed into existence two things to aid his escape without thinking of the consequences.

He raised a hand and a globe of absolute, impenetrable darkness dropped upon her, and then her head was consumed by heatless, harmless but exceptionally bright blue flame. He didn't know how much time it would buy him, but he hoped it was enough to be free of the window and away from the monster who wanted to devour him, and the biting weapon in her hand.

It was nearly impossible to keep her back pressed against the concrete wall but her hesitation was all the man needed to plan his escape. At first she focused on the soft sounds of his steps and the movement of his shadow in the darkness but then her senses were cut off. There was darkness and then flame.

Enis screamed and buckled forward at the seemingly blinding light. It lasted only for a moment before she shook it off but that was all that was needed for her to loose site of the man who had come crashing through the ceiling.

The darkness spell remained but Enis didn't need to use her eyes to see. She felt the wall behind her and remembered where the door was. The soft echoing sounds of her steps told her hold far away each wall was as she walked back to the lighthouses main room. When she stepped out of the darkness she exhaled and collapsed to her hands and knees.

She couldn't keep going like this.

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002 [OPEN] UNPLEASANT CHANGES

the cemetery

the cemetery

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the cemetery

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The Lighthouse

The Lighthouse

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