Lessons In Living

[valerie_vause]

Sleep hadn’t come easy when she finally returned home at six in the morning. A lengthy patrol had seen that four of the undead returned to the earth as nothing more than ashes. Classes went by in a blur, her mind had been elsewhere, lunch had been skipped. Though she returned to her room to change, leave her books behind, then left again. Wandered, preoccupied, through shops. Picking up a few things of interest then off in search of something new to fill her mind. By the time she showed up outside Sabra’s door it was seven.

Bags sat at her feet so that she could knock while the other arm clutched several to her chest. The same routine had been needed at the desk, another month paid for. She either had to sell a few pieces of art or get a job soon. The prospect didn’t feel pleasant so she shook her head to clear her thoughts.

“Sabra, it’s me. Are you in?”

Valerie bent to pick the other bags up. They weren’t heavy to her, just awkward to manage all at once. A couple filled with clothes, others with books, one with toiletries, and one with food. At first it had been odd, bringing things to the woman, but over the weeks it gradually felt less peculiar. Perhaps slowly becoming a new normal, that only applied to the situation.

If she didn’t answer the blonde would have to walk back to her dorm with everything. The thought made her cringe and she sighed at the door.

Comments

[primordial_visitation]

Sabra's head tilted, registering, processing the reply. Valerie seemed to have a knack for knowing what to say and how to say it, at moments like these. She was appointed to act in the capacity of a guide. It made the demoness pause in consideration.

"Why?"

Which was just as valid a response in its own right. The Slayer was fast, agile and, most of all, strong. Capable.

"You serve another?" She asked, frowning in suspicion. "You would rather take another station - a concubine?"

It had a form of logic to it. Especially when Sabra could not understand why the offer would be logically refused. Was she seeking a more applicable role?

[valerie_vause]

Valerie tilted her head in turn. Eyebrows arched ever so slightly as she waited for the inevitable questions. Deceptively easy and innocent on the surface like a child questioning the order of things. The trouble however was that the questions were never easy to answer. Complicated, complex explanations were required to justify her own answers and it was difficult to gauge what would be accepted and what would be scoffed at.

“No, no, I serve myself.” Valerie’s words were soft, not coaxing, just gentle. A way to convey that she wasn’t trying to upset Sabra. Then just like that, they were back to the earlier discussion, and the blonde felt her mouth hang open for a second as she tried not to think of what being a concubine would truly entail.

“Oh, well that’s, tempting.” She said, tense, trying to pick her words carefully especially since Sabra was so close and still blocking the exit. “But you don’t find me mating material and I like to snuggle so that would just be…” She swallowed thickly. “Odd.”

Lips pressed together as Valerie took what she hoped wasn’t going to be her last breaths and added, “I just think it would be best if you didn’t limit yourself to that idea so soon. Experience the world, mingle, learn to adapt before you decide to destroy the world as I know it. I can’t help you otherwise. I mean look at it this way, you’re not dying anytime soon, perhaps ever, so there’s no rush for any kind of apocalyptic refurbishment. Right?”

[primordial_visitation]

There was an addition to the list of awkward moments when Sabra queried, "Snuggle?" Like an insect or bird, upon each fresh question; eyes wide with curiosity and head being given to quick, darting little movements.

Again, though, Valerie's instincts proved correct and her logic was met with Sabra's gaze trailing to the floor, weighing up options. Considering. This was, after all, a completely different species. Something very much alien to this world and a living fragment of somewhere far more terrifying and dangerous. A proverbial dragon in paradise and potentially capable of subjecting the mortal creatures of this realm to unknown horrors. Something dark and old, risen from the primordial.

"Your words have value," Sabra replied, after a fashion. Score one for the Slayer... Prospective city-wide - perhaps even planet-wide - destruction had been headed off at the pass. Who said befriending ancient powers of death didn't have benefits? "You prove your wisdom."

Nodding silently, Sabra moved, allowing the girl to pass if she wished. Was satisfied by the answers.

"My past is still lost to me... I should discover this," she observed with a glance at hand, opening and closing the palm. The hand of a woman once named Sabra, now apparently consumed and adapted for a hellish being's vehicular purpose. "There lays a skeleton. In the desert. Will you help retrieve it?"

[valerie_vause]

It was a toss up as to whether the question itself caused the most embarrassment or the proximity it had been asked at. Sabra’s wide eyed curiosity combined with the light scents of cleanliness left Valerie feeling very much like the rabbit about to be run over, startled but frozen to the spot. “It…” She bit the inside of her lip and cringed. “Okay affection can take many forms. It’s considered intimate when two people like to snuggle, which is like a longer version of a cuddle together, kissing is sometimes involved.” How did she get herself into these conversations? “You know what a cuddle is, right? A hug?” Don’t make me demonstrate.

Stunned came close to what Valerie experienced when Sabra not only decided to scrap her plans of world domination but actually gave her a proverbial pat on the back. So it happened to be incredibly peculiar, in that moment the blonde didn’t care, she’d take it. Earth wouldn’t be swallowed by an army of supernatural mass destruction. A moment of silence to take it in, feel relief flood her veins, warm her blood.

Valerie watched Sabra curiously as she spoke. The woman could be intensely frightening one second, then honestly open in such a way it almost appeared vulnerable. A glimpse to the creature she’d empathised with, confused in a world where it didn’t quite belong. “I agree.” The words were quiet but held a resolve, they needed to know where Sabra came from and if there could be a way to send her back. Even if it meant discovering that they couldn’t. After all, how did you take a demon out of a body once it had been fused with it? If they could even find out what primal entity it actually was.

The impending headache quelled when the question was asked. Valerie actually smiled, crooked but genuine as she savoured the fact that Sabra had asked for help instead of instructing her to do something. It was nice, albeit over a skeleton somewhere in the desert, but still. The blonde checked her watch, barely quarter past eight. “Yes.” She said with a nod. “I will. In fact, we can skip laundry for now. Dusk is close, we can leave right now if you want to get the next bus, we’ll need to make a quick stop for shovels, though.”

Given that the end of the world was no longer nigh, digging up a skeleton seemed like a pretty fair trade, especially if it gave them insight into how Sabra came to be. More importantly, who had been responsible for it happening. “So where in the desert is it and what was it when it was alive? Wait hold on, how do you know there’s a skeleton out there?”

[primordial_visitation]

Cuddles and hugs? Fortunately, Sabra's silence made it ambiguous. Perhaps she was aware of the gesture, but even if she was, it didn't sound like the kind of thing she had personally experienced or tried to elicit. If she had demanded a demonstration, it would have been awkward, to say the least. A cynic might be tempted to say this was Valerie's lucky day.

"Dangerous," she replied, answering the girl's initial query. "How do I know?" A fleeting smile... Slight, but it was there. But that indicated fondness. Pleasant nostalgia.

What did a demon find enjoyable to remember?

"I witnessed its exile."

[valerie_vause]

Silent was the sigh of relief when the topic of affection simply dropped off the proverbial path to be replaced with something honestly sinister. Well, the smile wasn’t entirely bad. Sabra clearly enjoyed the fact that she had watched a demon being banished to this world. Perhaps even found a sense of satisfaction in the things demise, but couldn’t the same be said for her? Every fight Valerie won, every kill she had to make, they granted a fleeting sense of satisfaction. They evoked a form of pleasure because ultimately she had survived. Grim perhaps to find enjoyment from anothers demise, but when it was a fight to the death anyone that didn’t enjoy the fact that they still breathed must have a death wish. Frankly the blonde didn’t, even when the odds were stacked against her Valerie survived because of one thing. She wanted to live and had nothing to lose. Did that make her ruthless in combat or simply tactical? Both, perhaps, a creation of all that she was.

“Oh, well that sounds fun, in a Roman-Gladiator-spectator way.”

Though the tone was light it was hard to tell whether sarcasm had been involved. Valerie shrugged lightly. The mystery now solved. “So these bones.” She began breezily, stepping into the hallway so that Sabra could follow. “You want them for decoration, right, or to learn something about your past? Not for some kind of ritual to unleash…”

Valerie’s left hand raised to wave between them like a snake as they walked down the corridor and out of the front exit. She held off from finishing until they stepped onto the street, after purposefully ignoring the curious glance from the woman at the front desk. “Well, anything, actually. Decoration I’m fine with but I’m not helping you if it’s to do some kind of hocus pocus spell to cause havoc. I have a test next week, I’d like to have slept at some point before it. You know, rather than spend every waking hour hunting it, or whatever, down.”

Digging up bones in the desert would cause any normal person to frown disapprovingly at the very least yet the blonde was looking forward to it. It spoke to that child inside that had wanted to go off in search of buried treasures. Skeletons weren’t quite what she’d hoped for when she was five but right now it didn’t seem so bad. Curiosity to discover what exactly the thing looked like, how big it would be, these were as good as gold to Valerie. Thirst for knowledge, you either had it or you didn’t, and if you did you knew it would never truly be quenched.

“What did it do?”

The question came from seemingly nowhere as the blonde side stepped a guy on a bike to glance up at Sabra. “To get exiled. What did it do?” Valerie held no remorse for it, if Sabra claimed it to be dangerous then she was quite glad it had met its demise rather than it roaming the earth.

[primordial_visitation]

"It will be a gift... You will like the reason."

Sabra's walking posture had improved from the relatively primtive gait of before. Still, though, she gave the impression of being both watchful and... Entitled might not be the most accurate term, but someone self-assured. Confident. Looking left and right as she came to corners; looking for threats, but not in the least afraid of the potential challenge.

"It..."

But the question made her falter. Gaze trailing down until it hit the ground, searching for answers and ultimately finding none.

"It was disagreeable," she settled upon and continued on. "It is difficult to know of things, but... Not remember. To only have stirrings. I should have eaten their minds... Those who summoned me. Perhaps they would know."

At that, Sabra halted her step and turned suddenly the Slayer's way. Yeah... She was considering it. Thinking about eating Valerie's brain. Wondering if it might help. Then recalled the girl hadn't been at the ceremony.

"You have..." A look somewhere between distaste and confusion. This was a concept Sabra still didn't understand and wasn't sure if she wanted to. "Compassion. What would you do to help me remember?"