A Pooka, A Sheol, and the Big Bad Wolf Walk Into a Bar...

[flickerflash]

 Who: Bigby, Katie, and Sascha
Broadcast: Nope
Action: Iskaulit
When: About now

[Not too long ago, Bigby asked Katie if she'd be willing to meet a vampire.  To which she said hell no and then maybe and then okay fine but I'm dropping him in a lake if he scares me.  Well.  More or less it happened that way.   She has bad experiences with vampires.  They're walking frozen entropy for one, and then there's the whole blood drinking thing.  Fae blood is a delicacy.  Mihawk was a vampire once.  It didn't end well.

But okay no, she's prepared for this.  Well-rested on every level of the word for the fae, so today's a good day for it.  So let's do this thing, huh?

What a pity Sascha isn't actually a vampire.

...this is going to be a pretty short log lmao.]

Comments

[bb_wolf]

[Bigby really isn't sure what will happen.

He hopes that Katie will find Sascha inoffensive and doesn't set off whatever fae senses she has.

Burn that bridge when they get to it. He's grabbed Sascha and told him they're going to meet someone he knows on the Iskaulit.]

[pneumo]

[ Which of course Sascha is totally thrilled by, because Bigby never brings him to meet new people. And of course he's just happy in general to be brought somewhere, squinting despite the daylight hour and his UV shades as if that's going to help him see anyone approaching. ]

Who did you say was coming again??

[bb_wolf]

Kid I know. She'll introduce herself, she likes doing all those things herself.

[He's not making the mistake of using her name without her go ahead again.]

[pneumo]

Ohh... Okay! Cool. [ He had no idea Bigby knew any kids. Heck, he only knows Kirito and even he isn't super-young. ]

[bb_wolf]

[Bigby vaguely knows a few people. He and Katie just bonded a bit over being thoroughly unreal creatures.]

She's a good kid. Not shy, just a bit odd. Well, I suppose she is. I don't really know any actual human like children. Pinocchio doesn't count. He's over three hundred year old but unaging.

[flickerflash]

[Katie knows they're here. More from the glamour-soaked feeling she gets whenever Bigby enters her general vicinity than any sense she gets from Sascha, but then Bigby is so literally larger than life that he drowns out all else.

She was kind of meant to meet them up by the bars because that's where most of the people are, but she's gotten kind of distracted playing with the foxes intead. Easy enough to find! But her attention is most definitely on the playful balls of fluff in the enclosure, so. Feel free to whistle or something.]

[bb_wolf]

[Bigby locates her by scent. Which is how he usually finds anyone he wants to find, just following his nose to them.

He keeps Sascha close to him, to try and mute his scent of 'predator' with his own scent of 'predator but natural predator'.]

Hey, kitten.

[pneumo]

[ Wait, did Bigby just say "kitten"? As in, tiny furry small baby cat, kitten? The adorab;e kind that meows??? He really hopes it's that kind of kitten and not just someone's name, although he really would like to meet someone named "Kitten" so he could introduce them to Kitty and--

Hey, this is where the foxes live. Neat :D

What is less neat probably is the way they react to his mere presence rather than his scent directly, heckles rising as they suddenly tense around Katie and turns towards the approaching parties with anxious chattering. ]

1/2

[flickerflash]

[...

Well, Bigby had warned her animals didn't like Sascha. It gives her a faint sense of dread, but she's prepared!! She isn't afraid of any vampire, okay. And... to be honest, she doens't feel the creeping sense of banality that often heralds them. Maybe Bigby is drowning it out. Or maybe meeting Sascha won't be so bad.

So, she's flippant.]

Meow. [You're gonna call her a kitten and all... she reaches out to give one of the foxes a reassuring pat, but most of them scatter after a few moments and she sighs mournfully before getting back to her feet and turning with a smile.]

[flickerflash]

[Which...drops right off her face when she actually sees Sascha. In point of fact, she takes a step back into the fox enclosure herself, nearly tripping over the one that's trying to hide behind her ankle.

That's totally a good sign she likes you, right?]

[pneumo]

[ Oh most definitely. But it's understandable with what she sees compared to everyone else.

Sascha isn't a vampire. He's never been, never started out as a human who had the misfortune to become something that hungers for the blood of mammals. No, he's something worse.

The first sign that he's different is in his presence. That alone is pulsing and emitting a void of hunger so powerful it literally seems to draw life out of the very air around him. It pulls vitality from the ground, the grass at his feet and even the air. It was nothing more than to eat and rend and tear apart all the flesh around him: Sascha wants to eat Katie. He wants to eat the foxes, to eat Bigby because the bottomless entropic abyss inside him is just so hungry.

He doesn't of course. But he wants to--always wants to, no matter how fond or attached he is.

And that's not even counting the flashes of memory that even Sascha can't quite summon up and string together, images of flesh and blood and bone, that impossible gnawing hunger and so much regret--






Yeah. Sorry Katie :c ]

[bb_wolf]

[Bigby sees the way Katie stiffens and steps back.

That's not uncertainty. That is is base, animal fear. He has seen that expression, that behaviour, a thousand times, a million times, across the centuries. That is the instinctive terror of facing one's annihilation.

He steps between Sascha and Katie.]

Kitten, calm down, he's not going to come any closer...

[flickerflash]

[Calm down? How dare he. Doesn't he know? Don't treat her like she's overreacting, she knows what she sees--

Bigby gets a fraction of a look when he speaks of shattered panic and betrayal (this was your idea--) before her attention swings back to Sascha, and she makes a high sound of distress in the back of her throat. That isn't a vampire. That's closer to fomorian, and Winter, and doesn't Bigby know how hungry he is?

Stepping in between them doesn't do anything to calm her down, that's for sure, because it just pulls into relief the fact that the roiling glamour that makes up Bigby's presence is bending in toward Sascha, fraying away a sliver at a time. It recreates itself as fast as it dies. He's immortal. So he'll never notice.

But she's not. And neither is anyone else.

Her face twists, more feral snarl than anything else, and she bolts before she realises what she's doing. And when she does realise, she just jumps. Fast, for the quickest exit out.

Sorry, Sascha.]

[pneumo]

.....................................

[ That. Was just.

:CCCC BAWW.

Sascha doesn't understand why he gets that reaction, why Bigby has to step in between him and Katie, but one moment they're scaring away foxes and the next time he pokes his head around Bigby's frame, they're apparently scaring her off, too.

He's very confused. And very disappointed, but not exactly surprised. He does feel like he should apologize, somehow. ]

Um.

[bb_wolf]

[Bigby can't explain exactly what just happened, but he can stop Sascha going after her and try and off something of an explanation.]

She's... sensitive to things. We knew there was a chance that she'd sense what you are, but I didn't think the reaction would be that strong. I don't think she did, either.

[If she had, she wouldn't have agreed to meeting Sascha.

Bigby turns and firmly steers Sascha away from the increasingly distressed foxes.]

[pneumo]

Oh.... So, I didn't do anything wrong...? [ That's his biggest fear out of the whole thing, easily steered away even though he does drag his feet a little because he's so busy looking back over his shoulder at Bigby. ]

[bb_wolf]

No. You didn't do anything wrong. Just... what you are grates badly on some folks. In a way they can't control.

[He keeps his hand on Sascha's back, propelling him forward.]

[pneumo]

[ He might notice then the minute way Sascha's head leans forward, shoulders not exactly slumped but a gesture halfway between that and discomfort. It doesn't match the foolish tone he offers. ]

Hehe...yeah, that happens sometimes. At least I got to see foxes~

[bb_wolf]

[Bigby actually picks it up this time and rubs a hand between Sascha's shoulder blades.]

Not your fault, pup. Sometimes, just how things are.

[pneumo]

[ He doesn't expect the gesture of comfort so when it comes Sascha stiffens a little with surprise, the half-hearted smile catching on his face. Then comes "pup" and he actually does hang his head proper, but this time there's a happy clutch in his chest that both hurts and makes him feel better. ]

I know...

[ "Thanks, Bigby." ]

[bb_wolf]

[Bigby just nods slightly and keeps marching them back to the Bloodsport.]

It's as good as the middle of the night for us, might as well get some more sleep before evening.

[pneumo]

Oh....right. [ he was so excited, he'd completely forgotten about that. It'd been hell to get himself up and out in a function manner before "sundown", and the thought of going back to catch a few more hours of rest is incredibly appealing. ]

I'd like that.

[bb_wolf]

Wait until I've changed to come in, it's easier than trying not to kick you while I get settled.

[pneumo]

Hehe...okay♥ [ Sascha slows his pace, but only so that he can match his pace to Bigby's and fall into step beside him. ] I don't mind when you do, it doesn't hurt that much.

[ Any time he gets to spend with Bigby is important to him, and worth it. ]

[bb_wolf]

I have delicate feet. Kicking you might hurt 'em.

[Sure. That's it. Those fucking leather pads he calls feet are sensitive.]

[pneumo]

[ Oh yes, most definitely. That is totally the reason and Sascha isn't going to be at all enamoured when he hears that, leaning into Bigby's shoulder a little more. ]

I promise I'll stay out of your way♥ [ Best dad best dad best dad ]

[bb_wolf]

[Bigby's already pulling off his tie and when they get back to the ship, he slips into his room to finish stripping and then shift back again.

It's a sigh of relief to do so. He's getting spoiled living here, being able to shift when he wants.]

You're good.

[pneumo]

[ Sascha is getting spoiled living here, being allowed to not only stay in someone else's room nearly every night but with a beast like Bigby as well. That he even goes as far as to try ad comfort him in his own roundabout, grouchy way means all the more to Sascha, so that when he has the go-ahead to do so, he enters the room to immediately give one of his front legs a big hug.

He wanted to earlier, but he knew Bigby wouldn't have appreciated it as much. ]

And you're the best.

[bb_wolf]

[Bigby tolerates the hug for a few moments before stretching his paws and half dislodging Sascha.]

[pneumo]

[ It's as good as sign as any, so Sascha lets his arms fall away so he can instead clamber over limb to get closer, huddling up next to Bigby's hulking frame and getting comfortable. ]