Sensory Overload

[Harlequin]

So there it was. The reason she\'d felt like she\'d been missing a big part of the conversation – was because she had been. Stupid vampire telepathy. The teen watched William speak with brows knit and lips pursed.

When he finished, Vivianne sighed, and looked away, out toward the dance floor. This had been a mistake. She\'d been silly to think she could be anything more than cattle to these creatures, as beautiful and powerful as they were. She was nothing more than a toy to these people. A pawn to move around a board. It had been that way with Tom, and it was the same here.

She was tired of it. She\'d done nothing to earn their disrespect, but here they were, using their power to play some messed-up game that they had no business involving her in.

Whatever charm she\'d found in their banter quickly dissipated as Anna shot her reply back at her sire.

"I, uh, I should probably get back to work," she said, letting her eyes drop back to the tabletop. She withdrew her hand from Anna\'s, using it instead to smooth out the folds in her skirt before she slipped out of her chair, preparing to vanish back into the crowd.

[pinkroses]

William shook his head slightly at Anna’s petty response. He’d already given a reason for his wanting to be near her - although there was a lot more to it than just that. Anna’s thoughtless reactions and impulsive responses were her downfall here and if she didn’t act quickly then she was going to lose this beautiful young human.

“We’ve made you feel uncomfortable?” William said to Vivi as he sat back against the cushioned sofa, one hand lifting to gently play with the chain he wore around his neck, watching her without making any attempt to move to stop her. That would be up to Anna.

[Saccharin]

She watched with growing resignation as Vivianne stood to leave. She could\'ve reached out, surrounded a thin wrist with her fingers and prevented the woman from leaving, but she didn\'t. Unlike William, she wouldn\'t force anyone to do what they didn\'t want to do. If she wanted to leave, then she would be able to leave. It saddened Anna, but she didn\'t know of any better alternatives.

"Your flyers," she said, gathering the stack of purple paper Vivianne had placed on the coffee table when she\'d first joined her. She straightened them and then held the stack out for the other woman to take. "I am..." Words escaped her again, so she reached out to Vivianne with a thread of emotion, and wove what she felt into the surface of the girl\'s mind.

Regret.

She regretted how things had turned out. The touch was light, and she lingered only long enough to convey what she\'d wanted to. She didn\'t want to intrude beyond that.

"I hope I can still come listen to your music, when you play here," she said, smiling wanly.

[Harlequin]

Confused by the foreign emotion worming its way between the folds of her brain, Vivianne twitched her head to the side as if trying to get water out of her ear. Wow. That was weird. She frowned at Anna, guessing her to be the culprit, as she reached out to accept the previously-abandoned stack of fliers with a vague \'thanks\'.

"Yeah, it\'d be neat if you could come out. Maybe, I\'ll, uh see you around." A fleeting twtich upward at the corners of her thin lips, but the words didn\'t have the same oomph. Then the young woman took her leave, shouldering her way into the crowd with her back bent like a lilly of the valley.

[pinkroses]

“You really handled that very badly. Have you spoken to humans at all in the past hundred years?” William asked casually as Vivienne disappeared into the crowd, watching her go before returning his grey eyes to his fledgling.

[Saccharin]

Anna\'s eyes remained on the crowd, even as she responded to William with a glum, "No." It was totally unlike her not to take an opportunity to attack him, but she had handled things poorly. She hadn\'t had the slightest at how to keep Vivianne from leaving beyond physically restraining her, and now she was alone with her sire again.

"I watched. If I talked, then they would\'ve known I was really there." Those that had spied her in the woods surrounding their reservation had written her off as a spirit. It\'d been better that way. Safer for them all.

[pinkroses]

“Fucking Hell. You’ve been wasting your time in a horrendous manner,” William muttered, rolling his head back along with his eyes. “They didn’t need you. People have survived well enough without a guardian vampire. You could have been doing anything,” he said, lifting his head to gaze across at her.

“Why are you still sat there? Not going after her? She’d love it, I’m sure. Offer to help her pass out those flyers,” he added with a shrug. He may as well give her another chance. Where was the sport in beating someone who had no idea how to play straight away?

[Saccharin]

"It was not a waste of time," she said, some of her spirit returning to her as she defended her choice to act as guardian to her people. There had been so few that had actually made it to the reservation. Her mother\'s clan had once numbered in the thousands, but by the time she found them again, there were hundreds - and only a dozen or so from the portion of the clan she\'d lived with at her village. It\'d been her obligation to protect them from what she could; to hunt for them when they could not.

"And I remain here because she left. Why would I follow someone who does not want to be around me?" She faced him then, her eyes again holding some measure of annoyance.

[pinkroses]

“She does want to be around you. She just got uncomfortable. And if she had really not liked you, well, people can change their minds with a little persuasion. It just takes persistence,” William explained before giving her a smile which showed off his fangs.

“I can show you if you’d prefer.”

[Saccharin]

She too showed off her fangs, but to snarl at him when he suggested he might go after Vivianne himself.

"No," she said fiercely, "you leave her alone." The tall woman pushed herself from her seat and looked down at her sire. "We leave now. I will talk to her again when I come to see her play."

[pinkroses]

“Leave? And go where?” William asked, not moving an inch from where he sat. “We’ve only just arrived and the night is young. You haven’t even danced yet,” he added, gesturing towards the dance floor. He hated dancing in a crowd like that, it was so different from previous times, where people had their space and invading it was deemed the height of rudeness. Still, you had to adapt, roll with the times. He worked around that discomfort instead of avoiding it or making a fool of himself as Anna seemed prone to do.

[Saccharin]

Her lean shoulders shifted when she shrugged at him. "Then you stay here. I will go." she said. Anna had no desire to remain in the club; she\'d fed already, and had no reason to dance. Vivianne had occupied her for a short while, but now that the human woman had left the booth area, she could think of nothing worth staying for. William might argue she could find someone else (there were plenty of humans around), but it would mean having to listen to him criticize her as she struggled to talk with them.

Without saying another word, she stepped into the crowd, making a beeline toward the glass door that would grant her access to the outside world once more.

[pinkroses]

William paused for a moment, watching her go. She was such a vision, but completely out of place in this world. Maybe he shouldn’t push her into this, maybe he should just let her go back to her cabin and stay there until she drove herself crazy. She couldn’t hide from the modern world forever, when she couldn’t hide any more it might break her.

And now she was back in his life, he couldn’t just let her do that to herself. She was his blood and he had his pride - this wasn’t going to be his failure. He would help her, then work out what he wanted to do with her from then. She had betrayed him and he wasn’t going to forget that. He’d just put it to one side for a while.

The blonde slid out of his seat and headed swiftly for the door, intercepting Anna on the way, appearing in front of her but not putting out a hand to touch her.

“You need help, and I will give it to you. But if you want to go tonight… go. I won’t stop you,” he said, stepping to one side to let her go past. Forcing himself on her all at once would make her clam up which would do no one any good.

"Have a good night," he said, bowing his head to her politely before turning and disappearing off into the crowded club once again.

[Saccharin]

She regarded William warily when he moved to block her way to the door, but her expression smoothed out when he went on to say she was free to go. It was a good gift he\'d given her, excluding the fact he seemed to be promising interference at a later date. What mattered was that she could escape him for the time being. When he moved away, she didn\'t linger for long before going through the door and into the night.

It would be a good night, now.