Sensory Overload

[pinkroses]

William smirked as she attempted to keep him out and shook his head slightly.

Alright, but if you don’t drink from her, I will, Will shot at his fledgling. She had to take what she wanted in this world, she was weak and that was not the fledgling he’d left behind. There were figures in here William would prefer to take home or feed from, but tonight he was focused on Anna.

Now pay her the attention she deserves, he added finally, lifting his drink to sip from it as he watched them from across the crowded room.

[Harlequin]

A little confused, Vivi nodded. THe other woman seemed to just be repeating what she said, but she wasn\'t sending her away and it\'s not like Vivianne was a bastion of social decorum herself, so...

"That\'s right," she said, "We play a, um, like, a mix of modern-day stuff and old folk songs from the UK, only on modern instruments. Like...fairy tales, and things like that. Old ballads. We\'ve been doing a lot of our own stuff the past few months, and it\'s been really nice."

She was babbling again and she knew it, but the words were comforting. Talking about the things she knew.

"Anyway, that\'s what this show is about. Us showcasing our original stuff. It should be a good show, I mean," Vivianne shrugged, "It\'d be great if you came out."

[Saccharin]

Once William stopped chattering at her, she was able to focus properly. Even under normal circumstances, she wasn\'t the best at making conversation, but she would certainly manage a lot better without her attention divided as it had been.

  At the very least, it\'d allowed her to finally come to the understanding that the woman - along with her band - played music in this place, and she had just been invited to come and listen to them. The numbers, then, would be times and dates. Even if she didn\'t understand the entirety of the flyer, Vivianne had supplied Anna with the context she needed to make it back for their show should she decide to come.

"You want me to listen to your music?" She put the paper down on her lap and smoothed the edge out where she\'d held it. A smile, quite unlike the sardonic ones she usually launched at William, tiptoed across her lips, pulling them upward as it went.

[Harlequin]

That smile sent a peculiar thrill through Vivianne, and her tummy flip-flopped.

"Well, yeah. I mean, I hear we\'re okay, I guess." The young blonde blushed, and brushed her hair behind her ear, "And, it\'d be nice to uh, to see you there, I think."

Well, wasn\'t she was just the suavest thing to ever walk the Earth.

She kicked herself, feeling stupid. Why hadn\'t she listened when Joe tried to teach her how to talk to girls?

[Saccharin]

Anna was entranced by the color rising to the woman\'s cheeks. Seemingly every time she fought away the redness, she would stumble over a word and the warmth would come surging back to her face. It was endearing.

"I will come and listen to your music, then. And to see you," she decided. Without William. All she had to figure out was a way to make him stop lurking around and listening in on her thoughts. Unfortunately, she was beginning to suspect that her sire enjoyed tormenting her. The ass. If that was the case, she\'d have a difficult time of getting rid of him, because he knew all too well how to get under her skin. Why would he abandon such a ready source of entertainment?

"My name is Anna," she said, pronouncing it as \'Ah-nah\' rather than the typically heard \'An-uh\'. At that point in their introductions, she might\'ve held her hand out to be shaken, but such niceties escaped her. Instead, she leaned forward to look intently up at the blonde, fully expecting her name to be given in return.

[Harlequin]

And to see you. Really? To see her? This beautiful woman? She fought hard not to blush harder. Failed. If she got any redder, it would probably be a medical miracle. But, somehow, she only cared peripherally.

"You will?" Vivianne looked up, seeming genuinely delighted, "Great! That\'s great!" A wide smile lit up her pale face.

"I\'m Vivianne," she introduced herself in return, as expected. Being only slightly more learned in social norms, she extended a slim, delicate hand for shaking, "But my friends call me Vivi. I play the harp. And sometimes the piano."

[pinkroses]

“I bet those fingers of yours have many talents, you could be a master violin player if you put your mind to it,” William said, sliding up close behind Vivi and eyeing up the flyer on the table although he had to admit, he’d been listening in so he didn‘t need to look at it. He’d come over because he’d been approached by a girl wearing a skirt that barely covered her ass and he had got bored of fending off advances, although it hadn’t been long since he’d told Anna he would leave her alone for a bit.

“Are we going to see a band? Your band? Brilliant, who doesn’t love music?” he said, before moving to stand beside Vivienne, bowing his head to her slightly in a polite manner.

“Please, excuse my enthusiasm and the intrusion. Quite impolite of me. My name is William, will you join us?” the blonde asked, gesturing to the seat beside Anna. He would normally have lied, given a fake name, but he knew Anna wouldn’t let him get away with that.

[Saccharin]

She stared at the outstretched hand long enough for it to be at least somewhat clear she wasn\'t sure what to do with it. If she\'d been snubbing Vivianne, she would\'ve ignored it entirely, but she looked from the woman\'s outstretched hand to her face and back again with an expression of puzzlement.

When the hand wasn\'t retracted, she reached out to grasp the other woman\'s fingers with her own. Not to shake them, but to turn Vivianne\'s hand over, to see if perhaps there was something she\'d meant to show her on the other side. When she found nothing, she released her and smiled uncertainly.

As it was prone to do when William was around, her smile disappeared after he appeared at Vivianne\'s side. She\'d been so absorbed in what she\'d been doing that she hadn\'t felt him approach. It didn\'t matter, anyway. Even if she\'d known, she wouldn\'t have been able to properly prepare for the return of all the disgust, annoyance and outright hatred she felt for him. Especially now. He couldn\'t have allowed her more than a few minutes alone with Vivianne where she\'d been able to forget about him.

"I am going to see her band," she corrected sullenly, emphasizing heavily the \'I\'. She didn\'t invite you.

She straightened and glanced at the empty space next to her when William gestured at it. While she hoped  the human would join her, she also feared  what would happen if she did while her sire was there. She remembered all too vividly the threat he\'d made when she\'d said she had no plans of feeding from her. If you don\'t, I will, he\'d said. Maybe if she did, he\'d leave them be.

[Harlequin]

She watched Anna turn her palm over, as confused by her the behavior as the other woman was by hers. She furrowed her brows. Maybe shaking hands was frowned upon in vampire culture. Was Anna even a vampire? Vivi couldn\'t tell from the touch of her hand. Would it be weird if she was?

Well, she\'d come to that later. Startled by William\'s sudden invasion of her personal space, Vivianne took a step to the side – closer to Anna – as he spoke. Her mouth twisted to one side. He was using words like \'us\' and \'we\'. Boyfriend? Probably. Silly Vivianne, thinking a pretty lady like that would be available. And interested in her.

"V-uh-Vivianne," she stammered in introduction. A little bit overwhelmed by the situation, she opened her mouth again to accept the invitation to sit. But then she saw the expression on Anna\'s face, and kept her trap shut, electing to simply sit down gingerly on the seat indicated as her eyes darted between the two combatants. There was obviously more going on here than she was aware of.

[pinkroses]

“That’s a beautiful name, fitting,” William said with a warm smile at the mortal, noticing how skittish the girl seemed when he’d got close to her and making a mental note of it. He didn’t intend to make her uncomfortable, but if it happened whilst he was working on Anna, well, that was an unfortunate side effect.

William kept the polite smile on his face as he felt the hatred radiating from his fledgling and he waited until Vivi had sat down before slipping into the seat opposite her, pulling her flyer a little closer and examining it.

“Oh, I thought it was a public event, did I get that wrong? Do we need a specific invitation?” William asked, giving Vivi an apologetic look, his eyebrows pulling together in an expression of disappointment. He pushed the flyer back towards the two wom

[Saccharin]

"No," Anna relented, "but you can come by yourself. Not we. You. Me. Separate." She lifted a pointer finger from each hand. At first she held them up side by side,  but then she created a great distance between them by moving her forearms away from each other. "Separate," she repeated, slowly, as if to a child with an addled brain.

She didn\'t wait to see his reaction before turning to face Vivianne, angling her body so she could look directly at her without turning her head. Unless William moved, it made it so she didn\'t have to look at him unless she chose to.

"You did this," she said, offering her hand in a similar fashion to what Vivianne had prior to her sire\'s arrival; the primary difference was that she had her fingers too far apart and she held her arm too stiffly. "Why?"

[Harlequin]

Looking from one vampire to hte other as they exchanged, Vivianne did her best impression of a deer in he headlights. If it had been any better, she would\'ve sprouted antlers. "Uh–" was all she got out before Anna cut her off.

Well, that settled that, then. She was most definitely stuck in the middle of something that didn\'t concern her in the slightest.

Just as soon as she was getting ready to take her leave, though, Anna stuck out her hand. Vivi frowned down at it, unsure of what to say. Did she really not know? She glanced at William for some hint that this was a joke, but his expression gave nothing away.

"You know, A handshake?" at her companion\'s blank look, she went on. "It\'s, like, uh, it\'s a way of greeting someone. It\'s polite." Hesitantly, Vivianne reached out to grasp the extended hand in a light shake. Clasped briefly, and then released. Anna would find that her palm was cool, but not moist.

[pinkroses]

You don’t want to go with me? That hurts William shot mentally at Anna as he gave a tiny nod and a sigh, lowering his gaze to the table as though he words actually had upset him and she was being a complete bitch for being so nasty to him.

He lifted his gaze as his fledgling asked about the handshake though, resting his head on a hand as he watched the display with an interested look. Seriously? Was Anna that out of touch? Or was she doing the whole ‘ignorant Native American joining society for the first time’ act? It could be charming, William was sure, but he guessed it was the former. Fuck, this was now how Anna was supposed to have turned out.

[Saccharin]

After her hand was returned, she nodded and smiled her understanding. It made sense. She\'d seen people clasping hands on the reservation before, and sometimes, they\'d use it as a means to pull the other person into a friendly hug. If she\'d given her brain a chance to forge some connections before asking, she might\'ve remembered they did it when they first saw each other.

  Oh well. Now she knew.

  She rested one arm on the low back of the couch they sat on and put the freshly shaken hand in her lap. Since the human seemed agreeable enough to answer her, she\'d opened her mouth to ask Vivianne another question, but closed it again when William\'s thoughts intruded upon her own.

  No, I don\'t. Find someone else to

  and she sent him a vivid picture of a man being held down to have a hot poker pressed into his side repeatedly

torture. Why does it have to be me? You haven\'t found anyone else to make unhappy?

  "What does your name mean?" she asked Vivianne when she finished communicating to William. Anna\'s chocolate dark eyes were focused entirely on her. Like a child who hid under their covers to keep the monster from eating them, she seemed to be under the impression that if she didn\'t look at William, he\'d disappear.

[Harlequin]

Even if the interaction had been odd, Vivianne had liked holding the other woman\'s hand in hers.

She tilted her head to the side when Anna asked about her name. "Vivianne was the name of the, uh, Lady of the Lake. The one who gave King Arthur his sword." Nope. Nothin\'. "It\'s an old British legend. There was a great King, and his sword was taken from him by his enemy and cast into a lake. Thinking it lost, he went to the banks to  mourn – and a woman rose up from the depths to return it to him." She liked the story – even this condensed version – and she\'d lost some of her hesitance in her bright-eyed telling of it. Vivianne wasn\'t her real name, after all. She\'d chosen it. But she was the only one who knew that.

When she was done, though, she shrugged, "So, well, I guess it doesn\'t really, like, mean anything mean anything, but I like it."