The embrace lasted for a long moment before he asked a question that made Valerie laugh. Arms were taken back so that the blonde could put a small amount of distance between them. Enough to grab two beers, one she handed to him, the other she opened for herself. Rather than answer straight away the petite girl tipped the bottle up to her mouth and in five or so swallows, emptied it entirely. “No that’s not what I think.” Even if Brian did hurt her, it wouldn’t be physically, she’d heal just the same. Nothing lasted forever, not the stars that sparkled above, not the building they stood on, if they parted they parted. Such was the way of life.
Valerie tilted her head, really looked at Brian then nodded as if deciding something internally.
“If we’re jumping down this rabbit hole together then you need to know everything. You might not like it, you might not understand, but if you’re choosing to be with me you need to know exactly who I am.”
The blonde waved the hand with the empty bottle in front of herself then set it aside to pick up another. Right then she wished she’d brought more than just a few beers, preferably something stronger, but it would do for the time being. She flicked the cap off with her thumb and took a sip.
“There’s a name for what I am, a name I’ve never said out loud, and I’ll get to that later. The point is I have a literal duty to battle the darkness that plagues the earth to maintain the balance. Before I turned fifteen I was called, not by a phone, into action. Taken to England actually. During those years with The Watchers Council I was trained in various martial arts, fighting techniques, strategies unbelievable amounts of knowledge of demons, Hellmouths, supernatural entities…”
She trailed off with a shake of her head and took a gulp of beer. “Anyway, at any given time there are only nine of us in the world at the same time. Nine girls, all separate, with no knowledge of the ones who were before us. No Watchers with us, either, expect there is a yearly check up and I just had mine about a month ago by a woman named Julianna who naturally happens to have recently started work at UNLV, because coincidences in my life never really are. You see in order for another chosen one to be called into duty, one of the existing nine must die. I’ve never heard of anyone who managed to make it to thirty. Most don’t make it to mid twenties.”
She paused again, gazed up at the stars then back to Brian, voice calm and clear as she continued.
“There are girls who have gone rogue, and who could blame them, really? The Council, the Watchers, they get paid to do their job. To train us and set us loose on the world, to sit comfortably behind desks and never get their hands dirty with the mess of death, and we the lucky few get nothing in return because it’s our destiny to fund ourselves and die for the cause. If you go rouge, which doesn’t mean off the scales crazy, just that if you stop patrolling at night, go off somewhere for a month and try to live like a normal person, let yourself slip mentally or physically, then they treat you like a horse that needs to be shot. Except The Council doesn’t kill you. They strip the very essence of your power from you by magic then lock you up in a lunatic asylum for the rest of your natural life because they can’t have you running around knowing what you know. Personally I’d rather die than that ever happen, and I do believe in saving people, but I don’t exactly trust The Council either.”
Valerie finished off her beer with a heavy sigh and shrugged.
“The bottom line is, either way, my life isn’t completely my own. I’m not the girl you can have a future with, I don’t have a future. You need to understand that. There are things out there that look at hunting the chosen nine as sport. They might go through you to get to me, which… Remember you found me in the Skylark elevator? There were four of us. The one that pointed you out to me was Rhiannon, she’s… Like me, first time I ever met another chosen one. The other two were vampires. The red head though, she saw you, she knows your face. You need to be careful, Brian. You can’t tell anyone any of this either, it could get me or you killed. Information is vital to my survival, and if you feel like you can’t keep any of this secret you need to tell me.”
Yes it was a lot of information. Crucial information. If Brian was going to love her then she wanted to make sure he wasn’t blind to the truth of the situation.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ninetydegrees
no subject
on 2013-10-31 12:05 am (UTC)Valerie tilted her head, really looked at Brian then nodded as if deciding something internally.
“If we’re jumping down this rabbit hole together then you need to know everything. You might not like it, you might not understand, but if you’re choosing to be with me you need to know exactly who I am.”
The blonde waved the hand with the empty bottle in front of herself then set it aside to pick up another. Right then she wished she’d brought more than just a few beers, preferably something stronger, but it would do for the time being. She flicked the cap off with her thumb and took a sip.
“There’s a name for what I am, a name I’ve never said out loud, and I’ll get to that later. The point is I have a literal duty to battle the darkness that plagues the earth to maintain the balance. Before I turned fifteen I was called, not by a phone, into action. Taken to England actually. During those years with The Watchers Council I was trained in various martial arts, fighting techniques, strategies unbelievable amounts of knowledge of demons, Hellmouths, supernatural entities…”
She trailed off with a shake of her head and took a gulp of beer. “Anyway, at any given time there are only nine of us in the world at the same time. Nine girls, all separate, with no knowledge of the ones who were before us. No Watchers with us, either, expect there is a yearly check up and I just had mine about a month ago by a woman named Julianna who naturally happens to have recently started work at UNLV, because coincidences in my life never really are. You see in order for another chosen one to be called into duty, one of the existing nine must die. I’ve never heard of anyone who managed to make it to thirty. Most don’t make it to mid twenties.”
She paused again, gazed up at the stars then back to Brian, voice calm and clear as she continued.
“There are girls who have gone rogue, and who could blame them, really? The Council, the Watchers, they get paid to do their job. To train us and set us loose on the world, to sit comfortably behind desks and never get their hands dirty with the mess of death, and we the lucky few get nothing in return because it’s our destiny to fund ourselves and die for the cause. If you go rouge, which doesn’t mean off the scales crazy, just that if you stop patrolling at night, go off somewhere for a month and try to live like a normal person, let yourself slip mentally or physically, then they treat you like a horse that needs to be shot. Except The Council doesn’t kill you. They strip the very essence of your power from you by magic then lock you up in a lunatic asylum for the rest of your natural life because they can’t have you running around knowing what you know. Personally I’d rather die than that ever happen, and I do believe in saving people, but I don’t exactly trust The Council either.”
Valerie finished off her beer with a heavy sigh and shrugged.
“The bottom line is, either way, my life isn’t completely my own. I’m not the girl you can have a future with, I don’t have a future. You need to understand that. There are things out there that look at hunting the chosen nine as sport. They might go through you to get to me, which… Remember you found me in the Skylark elevator? There were four of us. The one that pointed you out to me was Rhiannon, she’s… Like me, first time I ever met another chosen one. The other two were vampires. The red head though, she saw you, she knows your face. You need to be careful, Brian. You can’t tell anyone any of this either, it could get me or you killed. Information is vital to my survival, and if you feel like you can’t keep any of this secret you need to tell me.”
Yes it was a lot of information. Crucial information. If Brian was going to love her then she wanted to make sure he wasn’t blind to the truth of the situation.