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.

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[primordial_visitation]

For a moment, Sabra just stood there. She rarely ignored speech, even if sometimes finding it somehow irrelevant. This was one of those times where she was silently processing; deciding how to proceed.

Her reply came in the form of stepping into Valerie's personal space, giving her a long, audible sniff. No physical contact, but it went from somewhere in line with the girl's throat to forehead. If there was one thing to be learned about Sabra, it was that, while she may have struggled to comprehend the world through relatively limited human senses, they were several times more sensitive than an ordinary mortal's. Keen.

"You've been touched..." The human-hosted demoness corrected. Lower lip hanging loosely before Sabra gave a tilt of head, curving mouth into a grin. "It liked you."

Then, before clarification gave way to elaboration, Sabra turned away, taking the offered food in the process. Didn't bother to sit at a table, though. Was rifling through the contents, deigning to remove the sandwiching bun. "This has no life..." Human teeth sunk into the burger, carving out a mouthful of flesh and Sabra registered it with a look somewhere between confusion and distaste. It was genuinely difficult to figure out which.

A look to Valerie's fries, then back to the dead meat. Up and back, again. Another bite. Another, eventually finishing it. The expression written upon Sabra's face, however, was one of severe uncertainty.

"The books showed me many things. This shows me only falsehood..."

[valerie_vause]

If it had been possible Sabra would be standing in Valerie’s aura, the surprise reflected on her face as she froze. The sniffing, although the blonde understood it, still felt strange when it occurred. Though by now it didn’t alarm her in the slightest. While the potential for danger lurked with such a creature the fear from first meeting her had subsided. Gradually. Enough at least for her to stand there without any worry that her throat might get ripped out for no reason.

Colour tinged her pale features and she stated indignantly, “I have not! I mean that’s the kind of thing you remember.” Valerie gave the brunette an odd look, took in the grin, and felt a shiver crawl down her back. “Sabra…” She began slowly, mind whirring over the choice of words used. “When you say it liked me what do you mean by it?”

In the back of her mind Valerie thought of Beth. Could she have done something? If she had why hadn’t she noticed? What did that even mean? Valerie felt like the bun Sabra seemed reluctant to touch and equally offended to have to deal with. Lifeless.

“You’re right, most of our food is like that but our bodies get the nutrition it needs from a variety. This isn’t considered terribly healthy but it’s quick and affordable.” For a split second she let her mind wander. Imagined what life had been like for mankind before fire’s could be hand made. Did early human’s feast on raw meat or did they scavenge for plants?

Absently the blonde ate the rest of her fries, half watching Sabra as she ate her own food without any complaints. Valerie was torn between impressed and thankful. She unwrapped her own burger and took a bite. “The food shows you falsehood?” She managed to ask between a confused chew. “What did the books have to say, anything you liked?”

[primordial_visitation]

"The burning.. The surge. The absence. Where once I dwelled... One was sent on its behalf. She tasted of you... Your flavour was appealing. You would not carry the stain, were this not so."

But sabra's visual attention seemed fixed upon the remnants of the food offering. It had more immediate relevance to her. "Yes," she agreed. "Because it is. There's no hunt here... It reeks of convenience." Then she eyed Valerie with logical suspicion. "Your trophy wall must be poor, indeed."

Because these items of human food were all the same, weren't they? No challenge involved. No hunt. No capture. Hardly worth even qualifying as prey.

"Keep the next for yourself. I prefer the undead."

[valerie_vause]

Green eyes watched Sabra curiously as she spoke. Chin lifted slightly to consider the information given. “The Deeper Well.” So, whatever Beth represented it certainly appeared ancient. Which begged the question as to why something ancient would show the slightest bit of interest in her. Valerie experienced nausea as it sank in. There were powerful beings and then there were powerful beings. If they had some sort of stake in your future it spelled trouble. They didn’t trifle in things that held no interest. No value. So what value did the blonde possess? More importantly, did she really want to find out?

The smart answer would be no, but the clever one would be to find out exactly what those forces were planning. Perhaps Beth counted on that. Which meant it would be better to keep contact to a minimum. Unless being kept in the dark was actually part of the plan. Valerie’s stomach twisted into knots. This wasn’t something she could afford to mess up, one wrong move and she could be up to her eyeballs in danger.

“In what way am I stained?” Julianna’s words came back to haunt her about psychic attacks. Honestly she didn’t feel any different. Other than the few nights she’d woken up, heart racing, covered in sweat, unable to recall exact details of what she’d been dreaming. Just the unease that lingered behind to taunt her. “Do you know who the girl was, can you tell me her name?”

“My tro-” Valerie cut herself off and let out a breath, left hand raised to rub the side of her face. “Okay. I don’t keep trophies, but I do like camping and have hunted for food. Many people do when the season allows for it. If it interests you maybe one day we could do that.” Truth be told she wasn’t big on viewing it as a sport but for actual sustenance she could get behind. Thankfully her father had taught her survival skills on those trips. Stressed the importance.

Though when Sabra spoke of the undead Valerie rolled her eyes and said wryly, “Speaking of no life and falsehood.” For the most part the blonde managed to understand Sabra, however sometimes the woman said something so mind boggling that she had to find the funny side. Cooked food is disgusting, but walking corpses demonically possessed were scrumptious. Well, as long as Sabra didn’t try to take a bite out of her she wasn’t going to complain.

[primordial_visitation]

Unfortunately, the young Slayer's train of thought was derailed with a simplistic, "No." For she was not that insightful. Just happened to know when another of a high status had been sniffing around, proverbially or literally. Knew the what of it, not the who. "The stain has always been there... But some now how to wake it. Nurture it."

The proposition, however, caught Sabra's attention. Camping... If Valerie had a fraction of the idea of Sabra's true form, the mental image of sharing a campfire with it, like a school outing, would have been equal parts startling and amusing. Mostly the former, though. There was a reason she was not yet used to moving around in a human vehicle.

So, true to form, Sabra gave her answer in the most direct, forthright way: And stuffed Valerie's mouth with the uneaten remnants of what she had been passed. Telling her to shut up or just trying to make a point? Or was it more to do with experimentation? The way in which she attempted to get Valerie to chew, like a puppet, suggested it might have been.

"You already hunt. Their skulls turn to ashes... Nothing to take. Your victories are fleeting."

[valerie_vause]

“The demon essence.” The very thing Sabra had picked up on when they’d first met. The stirring inside, the reaction it had obviously had around Beth had awoken it? Valerie didn’t panic even if she did realise that potentially, at the very worst, she was walking around with something positively volatile inside her. Entwined with her very being. Did that make her at war with herself, or with it? Too many questions ran through her mind. Inevitably she would need to talk to someone who hopefully knew about such things. If the Watcher really wanted to work together then this would be a great time for it.

Valerie had great patience at the best of times. She had used it with Sabra through quite a lot of awkward interactions. However none were so invasive as this and she felt her patience stretch to near breaking point when the demoness literally smothered her with a mixture of salad inside a bun and fries. Some of which weren’t so forgiving as they were forced past her lips to stick into her gums. Which, coupled with the way the brunette tried to make her chew, only served to aggravate her further.

It was with a throaty sound of anger and a slap of hands as she took a step back that Valerie managed to resist the urge to push Sabra away. Instead turning to spit and cough the mixture into the empty bag with a shout of, “What the ffrraghh!”. Wilted lettuce stuck to her cheek, she had crumbs stuck up her nostril, the taste of blood on her lips as she wiped her face with the back of her right hand. “How would you like it if I did that to you?”

Valerie asked, grabbing her own burger to unwrap. No hesitation, no thought, just quick reflexes as she smooshed the whole thing against Sabra’s face in a ridiculously childish yet ultimately satisfying moment. Valerie didn’t care if she even got any in her mouth as she threw the remains into the bag with a sigh of, “Not so great, huh?”

[primordial_visitation]

For something which had a capacity to stretch its jaws into some obscene portrayal of spider crab, it was a potentially dangerous move. Sabra, though, didn't seem to know what to make of it, frowning, rearing head back with an expression of distaste, like an aggressive puppy being forced to play with a toy it did not want.

Snort.

Lowly mortal guides were not meant to do this. Not... Permitted.

"Are you trying to mate with me?"

She was wiping away the food from mouth, not at all grasping the lesson which had been attempted. Head quizzically tilting, as Sabra attempted to provide her own interpretation to the mystifying return of her own gesture. What Valerie had tried to force into her mouth, being casually thrown into a small pot with soil in it.

"It would be... Difficult."