Is it the welcome wagon

[reluctantsword]

Who: Wallie Smith and Anna Demirovna
When: Evening, day 16
Where: Wallie's house.
What: At last, meeting in public.


Wallie had tea on.

He suspected Shonsu would have rather died than make tea for an impending guest, but as far as Wallie figured, he was operating more in his own world than Shonsu's. So never mind what Shonsu might think.

As it was, he was feeling a bit ridiculous. Whoever the previous owner of the house had been, the man of the house had apparently been quite a bit smaller than Shonsu was, and Wallie was a bit pressed for clothing that might fit Shonsu's much larger frame. Pants were, at present, an impossible dream, so Shonsu's blue kilt would have to do for now. Sorry, Anna. At least he had managed to find a shirt that sort of fit, even if he couldn't button it up.

He really would have to ask around for clothing donations, at some point.

Comments

[reluctantsword]

Oh, Wallie knew what she was doing, though that didn't make him -- or Shonsu -- any less susceptible. Well, maybe knowledge made him a little more cautious, but her request wasn't unreasonable, if she were really vulnerable.

"I think I can promise that," he said, "but I'd like you to tell me something."

It was, he thought, a delicate question, but he needed to know. Not just for his own sake, but for the sake of everyone here.

"You subsist on blood," he said, picking his words carefully. "And nothing else, you said. You must be eating, but I don't think it's out of place to ask... what."

Or whom. Either way.

[indiscreet]

She straightened, letting her fingertips trail to the edge of Wallie's knee as she leveled her gaze with his. A moment's hesitation, and she withdrew her hand with an almost sudden motion, let it hover in the space between them, and then placed it back, neatly, on her lap, as if reassembling her dignity.

Her eyes still had that wide, half-desperate expression — maybe now a bit wider: hurt.

(Still Anna knew precisely what she was doing; wanted so badly for him to believe it all the same.)

"You don't trust me." She looked down at her folded hands. "But I suppose that's only fair." And her eyes glanced back up to meet his again. "Still, you should know that I've been feeding on animals — I'm still very young; I can do that. There may be others here who could easily recover from...assisting me, if it's true that I'm not the only, ah, non-mortal here, but until I can confirm that, I— I won't hurt anyone."

[reluctantsword]

Animals, then. Well, he couldn't have any moral reservations about that, not if he was being honest with himself.

"Maybe I don't trust you," Wallie said, with as genuine a smile as he could muster, "but I did just meet you, and this is still very new to me."

To be fair, there were a lot of other things he wanted to ask her about vampirism, how close was it to legends and which legends, but now maybe wasn't the time.

"Your secret is safe with me, Anna. I can promise you that."

[indiscreet]

"That's true," she admitted, almost but not quite returning the smile. (It hovered at and then faded from her lips.) "It's...hard for me to trust you as well, as much as I want to. Secrecy is normally paramount among the Kindred and... well, I'm a bit shocked at myself for telling you so much, so quickly."

That, at least, was complete honesty. There was a part of her — well, most of her — that was utterly panicked at the notion of just how thoroughly she'd broken the Masquerade for this man she barely knew. She wanted him to...well, she wanted him to like her. Entrancement crossed her mind, of course, but...it felt like cheating.

She sighed, ran a hand through her hair. "Thank you for listening."

[reluctantsword]

"Thanks for listening to me, too." Wallie gave her a smile. "Look, I'm guessing there aren't any more... anyone else like you, here." He'd been about to say "any more like you" and then thought better of it; it sounded kind of insensitive, not to mention demeaning. For that matter, was what he actually said any better? Maybe, maybe not, but it was as good a save as he could come up with on the fly.

"But either way, I think I can easily promise not to reveal your transgression to your Kindred, if it matters to you. If it comes up." He shrugged easily. "I won't lie and say this is easy for me to accept; it isn't. But I have some practice at coping with previously impossible things, so."