Not Diamonds: Shoes. (Seph)

[Vivian Nazarova]

[atrb=width,450,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/1300666/Characters/Vivian/H2/Viv12.png,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/1300666/Characters/Vivian/Viv1_02.png][atrb=style,padding:0px 50px;background-position:top;background-repeat:no-repeat;]   There had to be thousands of practical uses for super strength, but out of all of them the only one Vivian Nazarova was happy for was that it let her carry obscene numbers of shopping bags around the village without getting tired.   It had started with the usual shopping run. The groceries and other nick-nacks for the Hogs Head had become her responsibility shortly after she’d moved in; an arrangement she was quite happy with. Ed didn’t like shopping, Cassie had work, and she had nothing better to do. As long as she got up early she had enough time to run around and pick up numerous ingredients and necessities and thereby preoccupy herself for a few hours.   After saying goodbye to Ed, Viv had grabbed the grocery lists, pulled on a jacket out of habit, and was down in the market before you could blink. Tomatoes, potatoes, shrieking cabbages in soundproofed bags, some sort of magical fruit that kept changing colour, mooncalf meat marinated in screechnap, some potions ingredients, yadda yadda yadda. Mostly the usual.   But the gloom of stress that had been hanging over her like a cloud still wouldn’t abate, even with tasks to occupy it. She was worried, constantly worried, fearing the future and her own inability to cope. It was draining, and she was tired even when she shouldn’t be, and always teetering on the edge where anything would make her burst into tears. But she couldn’t bring herself to let it show, for Scotty’s sake or anyone else’s.   Heading home to the Hog on the way back to the grocery markets, she made the decision to go through the shopping district. It ought to prolong the trip for a bit and delay the inevitable return. Of course, everyone knows you don’t let fifteen year old girls (or most women, really) with money near shoes. Or clothes. Especially if they’re on sale.   By the time Vivian finally made it back to the Hog, she was astoundingly late, carrying more bags than should be physically possible... and couldn’t fit them all through the door. Drat. Oh well, no regrets. Shopping for one’s self had some good cathartic properties and Vivian was for once cheerier coming in than she had been when she’d left. It was Cassie that eventually came to her rescue, guarding the bags outside while Vivian moved all the food to storage before coming back for her stuff.   After a quick check on Scotty, Vivian had placed herself at the bar, surrounded smugly by her numerous purchases. So much frantic shopping had given her an appetite, so Edward had been nice enough to provide her with an on-the-house mug of blood mixed half O+ with one fourth B- and one fourth A+, just for something different. Having only four flavours to live off had inspired her to start mixing and matching and the girl sighed contentedly, cupping her chin with her hand while her elbow rested on the bar. There was still some time before Scotty woke up and her shift started, so she may as well use the chance to eat while she had it.

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[Sephora Forrest]

Same old day, same old routine. Sephora had no idea how a person like her even managed to have a routine. Or keep it up. Or put up with it. They say variety was the spice of life… well guess what, it was the spice of half life too. There was possibly nothing more mundane than her current daily activities. Get up, shower, eat breakfast, hang around rearranging her growing shoe collection go to work, eat someone every few days, go home and rearrange her shoes some more. She’d ask someone to kill her now, only she wasn’t so sure that would do the trick.

Sephora had also been drinking a bit too much alcohol of late, mooching around Scores, and thrusting her crucifix at any dark shadow that caught her eye as she was walking the streets. Someone might call her paranoid, but it wasn’t without cause. Dacian was unfortunately still in one piece, which meant he still had the ability to maim her or eat her or kill her. Whichever came first.

Speaking of alcohol and shoes, that was where she as heading now, in a pair of her bright red heels. Though she lived in the Three Broomsticks, today Sephora found that she could not bring herself to have her wine in the crowded downstairs pub again. The place she was heading was hardly any more upmarket, but at least it was a change of scenery. The Hogs Head.

The temperature change between the chillier outside air and the almost oppressive heat from the inside of the pub made her pause for a second and blink while she adjusted. Glancing around at the various patrons loitering about, she strode over to the bar and slid herself onto one of the surprisingly comfortable barstools. Crossing her legs in front of her, she took a few moments to admire her footwear before turning to try and get the bartenders attention. At least she had until she spotted the tell tale signs of a shopping spree laid out around a black haired girl clutching a mug of some kind.

Curiosity aroused, and sensing that the girl might be another person who should sign up to Shopaholics Anonymous, Sephora hopped off her stool and went to sit on one that was next to her. Ok, what was that smell? Hang on no, smells.

After a barely noticeable moment of hesitation, she plonked herself onto the seat she’d been intending too, and offered a nod in greeting. The number of warning bells that her nose has set off had confused her for a moment, but it didn’t take long for her to work out the first one that she’d caught on to. The all too familiar smell of a vampire. Her crucifix was lying hidden under her scarf, and separated from her neck by her high necked sweater, but Sephora had gotten her grab-jab time down so low that it was becoming an art.

The other smell was blood, but it was all kind of wishy washy - mixed up like there was lots of different people who’d contributed to it. It was better than like half the population, but not as good as half the population either. Weird.

Glancing sideways at the dark haired girl, Sephora assessed her options. Raven-hair didn’t look dangerous, but then again she guessed that she didn’t look all that scary in normal circumstances either. Unfortunately, a number of tempting shoe boxes were distracting her attention - she needed that to decide whether to walk away now or make a scene and be over it. Oh screw it, she was going to leave it be. How much harm could one teen do anyway? Unless she tried to eat her, Sephora didn’t see any reason to flee or act rashly.

“That’s quite a haul you’ve got there,” commented Sephora approvingly, finally turning her body towards the girl and her bags. “Do you mind if I ask where you got it?”

[Vivian Nazarova]

[atrb=width,450,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/1300666/Characters/Vivian/H2/Viv12.png,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/1300666/Characters/Vivian/Viv1_02.png][atrb=style,padding:0px 50px;background-position:top;background-repeat:no-repeat;]   Vivian wasn’t left alone long. People moving on and off the stools next to her were a natural occurrence that she usually ignored. This time however, she had to give a glance. A woman had slid in next to the seat next to her wearing a very flashy getup and shoes that just screamed ‘LOOK AND WEEP, BITCHES’. But it wasn’t the insanely-well-coordinated-that-made-Viv-feel-inadequate-by-comparison outfit that got her attention: it was the smell.   She’d been stalked by Sam (and Dom. And Dacian.) enough in the past that she was getting better at locating vampires when they got near. But this girl didn’t smell like a vampire. More like half of one, in the same kind of style you got when a vampire had just fed on a human and left their smell all over them. (Whether this was also a way to signal presence or territory to other vampires she wasn’t sure. The vampires that passed here on their travels drank the blood for sale at the pubs, not people.)   Vivian stared forcibly ahead to try and not get caught looking, feeling the now-familiar sensation of nerves creep up. The woman had been fed on lately, she’d put money on that, but she didn’t recognise the smell of the vampire on her. That was worrying. Who else was lurking in the village feeding on residents? Another coven member assisting Sam, hopefully. The idea of it being anyone else was too unsettling.   The witch gave her a friendly nod and Vivian stiffened, giving a rather nervous one back. Oh shoot, had she been caught looking? She didn’t want to look like a weirdo who checked out other women in bars. Not to say the girl wasn’t very pretty, because she was, but combined with the clothes and the fact she had the same sorta confidence and bearing that reminded Viv of the popular girls in high-school made her a little intimidating. It was enough to make Vivian hunch slightly in a subconsciously submissive response so she wouldn’t be seen as a threat. She was well aware of her low-rung in the social pecking order, and this girl definitely looked like someone near the top.   But still, the fact a witch that had just been fed on recently had managed to find her of all people was a bit of a funny coincidence. The mug of warmed blood Vivian had in front of her was not exactly subtle. Maybe she was a voluntary feeder? Sam had said something about those existing. And Viv hadn’t seen her before, so maybe she was just trying to talk to a vamp because they were more familiar in a strange town? She sorta looked like a vampire’s type too, in a way that was hard to explain.   Her question as to what the woman was after was answered for her. Shopping. The great female social unifier.   “Oh! Errr—” Smooth, but she’d been caught a bit off guard. Vivian tried to wipe the deer-in-the-headlights look off her face and turn around to face the woman properly. “Zhere’s a shopping district back in zhe centre of town,” she explained, trying and failing to sound unconcerned. “Some of zhe prices vere marked down, so I...” she gave a nervous, apologetic grin. “... I couldn’t help it.”

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[Sephora Forrest]

The vampire girl looked tense - really tense. In other contexts, Sephora might had said she’d just seen a ghost. She replied to her welcome with a nod of her own, but it was nervous, twitchy and incredibly uncomfortable. In her experience, this wasn’t classic vampire behaviour. Then again, she’d only ever come across male vampires, and they’d been overly self confident to put things mildly. Maybe female vampires had a reason to be more nervous.

But this didn’t make sense in her mind, surely creatures who would live forever unless they had a nasty run in with a wizard would naturally be arrogant like they had nothing much to fear. Maybe this one thought she was a witch or something. She knew that she personally wasn’t comforted by the idea of a wand potentially being used on her, so maybe that was what the raven haired girl was so freaked out about. Or maybe she could sense her crucifix.

The more Sephora studied her, the more defensive the girl seemed to become. Kind of like she was intimidated. But what could she be intimidated of? Vampires weren’t intimidated by half vampires: it didn’t work like that, unless the vampire was very, very stupid. Strange, but she wasn’t complaining. Maybe, in contrast to her first theories, the vampiress thought she was one too: since she still wasn’t sure how different to a vampire she smelt. Whatever the case may be, Sephora figured she wasn’t going to try any funny stuff if she was scared silly. Which would work for her just fine.

It was all Sephora could do not to laugh out loud at the girl’s discomfort when she was finally questioned, though whether it was because of her expression or out of relief that she seemed to have the self confidence of a mouse she didn’t know. The accent was an interesting development, thought she sort of had one too so she couldn’t judge. Sounded sort of… northern European. Russian maybe?

“I know exactly what you mean,” replied Sephora with a laugh, shaking off the annoyance at the girl’s somewhat stuttered reply. Would it kill people to answer the question straight away once in a while? “It would be blasphemy not to buy some things at the prices that they’re offered at during sales. Same goes for some things regardless of price too.”

Her glance dropped to the girl’s own feet: surely someone with shopping instincts might have some stunning heels, but no, the girl was just wearing boring old sneakers. And matching get up of equally plain clothes. Where was the fun In that? It was probably a good thing that she’d gone shopping then - it looked like the girl needed it.

Should she use an alias? It wasn’t hard to turn Seph into Steph; a far more common name and a million times more inconspicuous, the question was, was it necessary? Probably not: this one didn’t give off any of the creepy or dangerous vibes she’d been getting of Dom and Dacian, so she was probably safe enough. Probably.

“I’m Sephora by the way, Sephora Forrest,” she said, offering out an artfully manicured hand in greeting. “Full time shopaholic, part time waitress. How about you?”

To be perfectly honest, Sephora thought the vampire girl looked like she should still be in school, so hopefully her answer to this question could give her some bearing on her actual age. She didn’t come off as any older in the way she acted, but then again, looks were often deceiving.

[Vivian Nazarova]

[atrb=width,450,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/1300666/Characters/Vivian/H2/Viv12.png,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/1300666/Characters/Vivian/Viv1_02.png][atrb=style,padding:0px 50px;background-position:top;background-repeat:no-repeat;]   The woman was judging her. Vivian could tell. The lingering gaze she was giving her worn-out and bordering-on-embarrassing sneakers was hardly subtle. Vivian’s feet quickly retreated under the stool and out of the woman’s line of sight. Being visually sized up like that was disconcerting. Why hadn’t she put more effort in before going out today? Drat.   “I’m Sephora by the way, Sephora Forrest,” the stranger introduced, holding out her hand. Vivian pepped up a little. Having a name to work with was always much nicer than not knowing who you were dealing with. “Full time shopaholic, part time waitress. How about you?”   Vivian laughed. Okay, maybe she’d been overly put off at first. She seemed nice enough. Unless she was one of those girls who was always sweet and sugar to your face and turned into a harpy the moment you left.   Her ‘new feeder in town’ theory was probably right. There were plenty of other people in the bar to talk to and Vivian was fairly sure you didn’t walk to a place like this dressed like that to talk to younger girls.   ... Unless you were a lesb—   ... Nah.   Couldn’t be.   ... Right?   She was reading way too much into this.   “Vivian Nazarova,” she replied with less hesitancy, accepting Sephora’s offered hand for a brief handshake, staying mindful of the pressure. She still didn’t know her own strength, so either she’d gotten away with it, barely held on at all, or broken the bones in the woman’s hand. Hopefully not the last two. “Me too. I vork here, so I just haff to vait until my shift starts,” she continued, absently swirling the contents of the mug.

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[Sephora Forrest]

It did not go unnoticed that the girl hid her sneakers away and out of site after Sephora had examined them. Her only response to this was the girl should be wearing around something nicer if she didn’t want to be embarrassed: Seph wouldn’t be seen dead in anything less than three inches high.

Smiling at receiving the other girl’s name without any fight, Sephora wondered whether it was in fact the other vampire’s real name. Dom had given Si a false name, but the one he’d given her she was sure was the real one. Maybe vampires thought she was safe to confide in for whatever reason.

Vivian didn’t shake her hand very firmly at all, it was almost tentative, and Sephora wondered why. Weren’t vampires supposed to be like super strong when they were full? Maybe this one was really, really young and didn’t have much strength yet. Still that didn’t make sense either. Couldn’t things just be logical every once in a while?

So clearly the girl wasn’t at school anymore, but did that mean anything about her age? Sephora doubted they let vampires run around schools anyway, so really she was no closer to finding out who she was dealing with. Brilliant.

Vivian then brought Sephora’s attention back to the mug and its curious contents. She was beginning to wonder exactly how much this girl knew about half vampires - Silas had certainly given the impression she was rare in the vampire universe at least, so maybe she wasn’t thought of as one here either.

“What’re you drinking if you don’t mind me asking?” questioned Sephora, probing while leaning over a little to see if she could spot what was in the cup - mainly to see if Vivian pulled it out of her eye sight. In which case she could assume that the raven haired girl didn’t know that she was one of her own. Sephora was increasingly curious about the blood in a cup and why there were different flavours in it, but she wasn’t going to ask outright. Far more fun to let Vivian think she was your average run of the mill witch who had very nice shoes.

[Vivian Nazarova]

[atrb=width,450,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/1300666/Characters/Vivian/H2/Viv12.png,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/1300666/Characters/Vivian/Viv1_02.png][atrb=style,padding:0px 50px;background-position:top;background-repeat:no-repeat;]   Okay, so the girl had definitely noticed what she was drinking. The question of if she was expressing a genuine curiosity or already knew was another matter entirely. If Vivian had to hazard a guess, she’d say Sephora already had an idea. Blood was a bit... distinctive. Her hand stilled over the mug and then withdrew to her lap.   “Err...” Vivian stuttered before staring at the mug like it contained a hidden secret.   What if Sephora wasn’t a feeder and Vivian was totally wrong and she started running like hell? After all, she might only smell of vampire because she was recently attacked. Then she’d just yell, panic, scream, or flee. Not exactly a desirable result – Vivian hated being in the centre of attention; it never worked out well for her.   But what if she knew it was blood and got offended if she tried to lie? Or if she found out later and it got really awkward about her not having told the truth?   Well, what it really came down to was if she wanted to pretend she was someone she wasn’t. Pretending to be human was a conscious effort and Sephora would find out anyway if she hung around for any length of time. Vivian could only go so long without grinning and accidentally revealing her fangs for all to see.   Ergh.   May as well bite the bullet.   “It’s... um.” Oh shit. “I can’t really remember,” she realised, pulling some of her hair behind her ear and looking miffed at her own inability to recall. It wasn’t a dumb lie, it actually had slipped her mind. “I sink it vos half O positive, and zeh rest is A positive mixed with B negative, but I forget how much,” she finished, giving Sephora a cautious look as though half expecting her to either freak out or leg it.

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[Sephora Forrest]

Sephora watched Vivian intently: reading her reaction to her question. Reluctance was there more definitely, meaning she probably didn’t think that she was a vampire. Good good. So her natural camouflage worked far better than she had first imagined - vampires might pick her out of the crowd, but she was still going to be underestimated as just another human who smelt odd. This would be useful for later.

And still the girl was hesitating. Sephora wasn’t one who liked to wait for long, with a window of about thirty seconds being about average. Anything longer without her being occupied got her grumpy. Did some people’s thought processes really run that slowly? It wasn’t even a huge choice either - Vivian would either lie to her, since Sephora already knew what was in the cup, or she’d spit it out for whatever reason.

When Vivian spoke up, Sephora was very close to making any number of exasperated comments. Fortunately, the answer she’d been after finally came. She couldn’t help but pull a face at O+ - ew in her opinion. So common and mundane. That’s why it smelt half like crap. The other half - as she’d guessed was just the usual so so As and Bs.

“So I take it you don’t hunt then?” she inquired, ignoring the girl’s cautious glance as if she might take off at any moment. Like that was going to happen.

Should she keep up some sort of facade still? The conversation wasn’t going anywhere that wasn’t awkward if Vivian’s expression was anything to go by unless they at least half shared vampirism in common. Though Sephora had no problems talking openly about meals in public, so long as she was sure the public wasn’t going to take her down on the spot, Vivian looked like the sort of vampire who didn’t confide in people she didn’t completely trust first. Fair enough too. You never knew who you could trust.

“Personally, I think that takes the fun out of it. Why bother getting take away when you can pick and choose from a nice buffet?”

[Vivian Nazarova]

  Vivian almost faltered at the face Sephora pulled when she mentioned her choice of meal. Oh shoot. She’d been wrong. The girl hadn’t known and this was all a disaster and why couldn’t she just keep her mouth shut and—

  “So I take it you don’t hunt then?”

  Um. Vivian blinked. Not the answer she was expecting. So... she didn’t mind? Vivian’s response arrived a little quicker this time, despite the confusion. “No, I don’t like to,” she answered, wrinkling her nose in a manner resembling distaste. “It doesn’t seem fair.”

  Or, well, that was the short version anyway. She knew full well what it felt like to be violently attacked by a vampire and it wasn’t a feeling she ever wanted to voluntarily impart on another human being. Whenever she got too stressed she’d see it again in her nightmares. But it was eerie, like watching it happen to someone else. Not to mention her habit of slinking away like a frightened dog whenever an older man with grey hair ended up too close to her.

  “Personally, I think that takes the fun out of it. Why bother getting take away when you can pick and choose from a nice buffet?” Sephora asked.

  Okay, now she was definitely confused. Sephora made it sound like she had firsthand experience with it.

  “Food vhen you vant it, how you vant it,” Vivian replied, holding up the mug a bit for emphasis. “I prefer to mix and match and don’t haff any time to go looking.”

  That wasn’t entirely true. She had more than enough time to go hunting; she just had no clue who to look for or how to isolate them, let alone how to bite anyone. She could only tell blood-type when people accidentally happened to exhale or talk while looking at her face, and getting that close would just give her away, wouldn’t it? Heck, she didn’t want to bite anyone anyway. The last time she had had been to save Scotty and she still felt dirty and savage just remembering.

  This Sephora mystery was going to do her brain in. “I’m sorry,” she added, giving Sephora a curious look. “Are you..?”

[Sephora Forrest]

It seemed Vivian had certainly had no idea she was a vampire - of sorts - from the expression on her face. Or maybe she was astonished she was still sitting here. If Sephora had told a normal wizard (which didn’t include Silas) what Vivian had just told her, she probably have expected them to vacate the room sharpish too.

Sephora gave a half laugh at the mention of fairness. Life wasn’t fair - how did humans consider raising animals in horrible farms only to slaughter them while they were still young fair? At least most of her dinners got to live.

“Well that’s just boring - no variety,” she commented, mentally adding that it actually took up some of her boring hours of nothingness too. God her life was boring. “I cannot stand O - possibly the single most mundane thing I’ve ever eaten. Still everything’s tasking really bland lately…” Ok, so trailing off vaguely like that was likely to raise questions, but she was hardly going to elaborate on that one.

“Its nicer fresh anyway,” she finished, pulling her train of thought back in, peering at the mug of blood and crinkling her nose. It was probably reheated and congealed and disgusting. Bleah. She had never really been one for blood pudding, despite her dietary preferences.

“Am I? Like you?” she said, finishing Vivian’s sentence for her, still completely unshaken and feeling quite confident for the situation actually. Maybe it was because she was convinced she was the more experienced one here.

“Not exactly.” Let her make of that what she would. If she had any idea what a half was, then she could suggest it herself. Being mysterious was always useful. “But for all intents and purposes here, yes.” On second thoughts, if the girl knew what half vampires were, she didn’t want to act like there was such a significant gap skills wise.