I Like My Rabbit Stewed

[skeggsismad]

Maggy was fuming as the words spilled out of Lisa-Joe’s mouth. Her Jaw dropped wide open and just like that, the young blonde’s arms lashed out for Lisa, intending to give her the slap of her lifetime in order to shut her up. That didn’t happen because Emil immediately reached out to grab her arm and halt her. This was horrid situation, and the vampire felt like he’d been stuck in the middle of some practical joke gone horribly wrong.He knew he had to stay in character, but the way that Maggy was reacting to this all was making him simply sick to his stomach. He could already predict- oh yes, she’d never forgive him for this.

 Furthermore, the later comments- as well as the telepathic communication of Lisa Joe- led Emil to think Maggy had just one more reason to hate him: He was going to have to drag her away from her true love. It was times like these that Emil realized the downfall of his lifestyle he had chosen some hundred years ago. He couldn’t argue with Lisa-Joe, and since Maggy didn’t know the secret that he wasn’t exactly human, he couldn’t spill the beans and apologize here on the spot.  

Still, Emil gripped the young girl’s arm and tugged her away, giving a scornful look at Lisa and Claud. It was all part of an act, but Maggy didn’t realize this and struggled against his grip.

“Emil! Let go of me!” Her voice was shaking as it had become apparent she was now crying, tears smearing eyeliner and mascara lines down her face.  When the two had reached a distance that he thought at least Claud wouldn’t be able to hear them, Emil loosened his grip on his friends arm and she shook it off, giving some viscious and heartbroken looks in his direction.

“Maggy wait, I can explain,” He  spoke in his normal tone, but the girl continued to walk towards the door. Emil tried to follow but she turned out sharply and held her hand out to indicate he should stop. Between breaths, the girl wiped her eyes and shook her head at Emil.

“I can’t believe you would do that! What’s the matter with you!” She screamed. Emil made a shushing noise and then,

“Maggy I can explain please just let me-”

He was cut off promptly.

“No. I don’t even want to hear your circus story, okay! You can take a taxi home.” She shouted as her finale and then stormed out- and would leave the club if nothing was done to interfere with that. It was clear to Emil that she hadn’t been acting, and frowned, eyes flitting back to Claud and Lisa-Joe. He hadn’t known he was supposed to keep her here so Emil allowed Maggy to storm off, grieving the remains of what had looked like a promising night.
During the entire conflict, Claud had not looked over to pay attention to Emil and Maggy; he didn’t seem to care. Similarly, as Lisa-Joe had flirted with him he showed interest but restraint of that interest. Yes, he was drunk- but that didn’t mean he was going to go for a crazy. There were plenty of women in this club that wanted to fuck a guy who was in a band (whether or not it was just some obscure garage band that hadn’t yet performed anywhere notable) and so he wasn’t worried. However, he wasn’t sure how to get Lisa-Joe away from him…since she seemed pretty persistent.

“I don’t want nothing to do with you if that guys gonna come on back,” He responded, wobbling back and forth on his uneven footing. Claud didn’t consider it would be worth having a physical fight over a girl if there were plenty others who had come here without another guy.

[Black Philip]

Lisa-Joe fixed her cold stare on poor Claud, her power of persuasion taking hold of him. His eyes became glassy and blank. His posture fell to a slouch and his mouth began to drool slightly. He was like putty in her hands. This Brujah was a master manipulator, and although the Ventrue and the Tremere considered persuasion an inferior form of mind control to domination, Lisa-Joe could work whole rooms in a matter of minutes. She held her gaze and finally spoke.

"Hello Claud," she said. "Are you afraid of me?"

In his stupor all Claud could say was, "yes."

"Good," Lisa-Joe mused. "Claud, were you going to hurt that girl?"

Again Claud said, "yes." Tears fell down his face.

"How?" Lisa-Joe asked, her tone a bit more forceful. She was ready to take him out back and drain him depending on the answer.

Claud was so terrified of Lisa-Joe that his hands began to visibly tremble. Emil lay off to the distance, and Lisa-Joe hoped he was within hearing distance of this interview. She knew that she\'d caused Emil\'s friend Maggy to be very upset, and was hoping Claud would provide a justification to her efforts. Otherwise, her hunch would have caused a lot of problems, and was very bad manners to her new friend and patron. However, as much as she wanted to know if Emil could hear, she couldn\'t turn her head to look. Doing so would mean taking her gaze off of Claud, and breaking her gaze would break the mind control. She also had to push her thoughts concerning Emil away. Her mind had to be blank. Otherwise Claud would see her thoughts, and that would weaken the bond.

"How?" Lisa-Joe asked again.

"I- I- I- was going to fuck her, tell her I liked her, and then never call her back. That would teach her a lesson."

Lisa-Joe\'s expectations were slashed. He was just a normal kind of doucebag, not a murderer or rapist like Lisa-Joe had thought. She sighed and for a moment broke eye contact.

"Fuck," she whispered. Just as Claud began to regain control of his senses, Lisa-Joe once again caught his gaze.

"Listen up Claud," Lisa-Joe said angrily. "I want you to promise you\'ll never do that again."

"I promise," Claud said. He nodded his head up and down.

"Because if you do I\'ll know about it. And if you do, I\'ll kill you, understand?"

This was of course a lie, but Claud didn\'t need to know that. He nodded his head, and with that Lisa-Joe told him to get out and never come back. He left faster than any normal human could have ever done. Lisa-Joe turned back to face Emil. She was extremely embarrassed.

"I\'m really sorry about that," she said. "I\'m not usually this crazy. I hope your friend is okay."

[skeggsismad]

Indeed, from Emil’s peripheral vision he could see what was occurring and with his hypersensitive hearing the words that Lisa-Joe and Claud were exchanging ended up being all too clear. He had not been gestured over or spoken to, so he stood his ground, looking around the club idly as he waited.

Phones seemed to be well enough distractions. Not wanting to seem to obviously unattended, Emil plied his phone out of his nearly-too-tight pants pocket and looked upon the screen of the Blackberry curve. The white casing of plastic rested fittingly in his hand and he manipulate the scroll ball in order to look preoccupied. Soon enough Emil wasn’t pretending to be using his phone. Text messages from the dozens of friends that he and Maggy shared were pouring in by the boatload, which such messages such as ‘did u call maggy a whore?’ , ‘wut did u do?’, and one less disturbing one that had been left untouched for the past twenty minutes, ‘when are you coming home?’.

Pecking away at the full keyboard of the phone, the vampire attempted to calm and soothe as many people as he could, as well as assuring anyone who was waiting on him that he wouldn’t be out all night and would be coming home in sure enough time. How true that was, he didn’t know. Lisa-Joe could keep him here most of the night and he wouldn’t cry out that he had to leave until the absolute last minute, for the thought of behaving with bad manners and upsetting the other vampire had put him into silent submission. Too, he had for the most part been enjoying the encounter quite more than just a smidge.

When Lisa-Joe did reproach, Emil gave a polite smile that grew in length when he thought he could detect a hint of mortification within the spectrum of the woman’s emotions. Sure, it had made him feel awful to see Maggy storm out like that- it was true! Too, the threat he had overheard Lisa-Joe deliver made him cringe…it did sound a bit excessive, but at least there had been no sort of physical altercation. Regardless of whether or not Emil thought the behavior of Lisa-Joe was right or wrong, he still felt desperately guilty at the thought of her being so bothered by something. He decided then that it would be his duty to wrinkle the crinkles out of this ordeal and make everything hunky-dory as it had been before.  

“Hark now! Difficulties are meant to rouse , not to discourage! It is conflict itself that grows the human spirits. Albeit, I’m paraphrasing, but I do believe that was William Ellery Channing. Words of quite the wise man!”

Emil gave a chuckle and wave his hand as if to dismiss the whole ordeal. He couldn’t speak on the behalf of whether Maggy would be alright or not, of course. But at least he could give some encouraging words on how conflict was never the end of the world as it always seemed to feel.

“…Now, you were saying something…oh, yes, right, I’ve got it now. About your hometown, South Carolina. Did you fancy it so? I’ve been quite a few times but never really settled much in the south. I’ve always been much more of a western coast lover, myself,”

He attempted to work the conversation back into the direction they had been going before. As well, he made a ‘one moment’ gesture with his index finger after finishing his statement, swooping to retrieve the faux Bloody Mary that had been made for him earlier but had been inevitably abandoned and the first whiff of troubled waters. He took a bit of a sip- not because he was necessarily hungry, but as a sort of social nicety.

Dance with me, because if you\'ve got the poison,
I\'ve got the remedy  

[/size]

[Black Philip]

Emil had a resilience that Lisa-Joe found astounding. She\'d inadvertently scared the shit out of a mortal for basically no reason, pissed off a good friend of his, and he still wanted to chat? It took Lisa-Joe a minute or two to process Emil as a person before responding to his question.

"Ugh, yes, I love the south. Well, I love the old south. Now, the south is dead more or less, damn yankees," she said. She let out a soft chuckle at the thought of her old burning plantation.

She decided to find out more about Emil, as opposed to talking about her past. "What part of the west coast?" she asked."This is a bit embracing, but I\'ve never been west of Tennessee."

[skeggsismad]

It did rub Emil the wrong way a bit to hear someone put the ‘old south’ in such high favor. Admittedly, it really depended upon which old south one was talking about. If Lisa-Joe was speaking over the changes of perhaps a ten or twenty time span, then perhaps it may have been a bit better. Crime increases, the  degrading of society’s moral because of increasingly violent and sexualized media…yes, Emil could certainly agree that in the way of the world things were better in the olden days.

But was Lisa-Joe honestly commenting on a time period that to someone of her agespan might seem like a blink of an eye? Emil somewhat doubted it, and he bit his tongue on what he wanted to inquire about: What was better in the old south?

The vampire shrugged the curiosity off.

“Although I’ve never experienced it much myself, I’m sure that the ideals of the old south were something admirable,”

He couldn’t rightly comment on something he knew nothing about, could he? Up until the eighties, Emil himself had ignored the country for a good sixty years, due to the depression and the lack of glitter and glam that had been present in the 1920’s when the performer had originally set foot on the soil.
The Polish man’s hand shot out onto Lisa-Joe’s shoulder, giving her a good pat on the back as his memory plunged deep into his stays in western coast cities. He was jovial and seemed to have pushed all remains of regret and worry over the disaster that had unfolded moments prior out of his head. Out of sight and out of mind, no?

“Oh yes, Pookie. Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles; they’ve grown to be a part of me, really they have. I love performing in those cities because they’re so full of life- the energy is contagious!”

He now hinted to the extent of his career. He wasn’t only an entrepreneur in the works who dreamed of opening up a theatre one day- he was a performer. Art, music, dance, song, musicals and plays. The only thing left untouched in the world of creative performances by Stanislas Fransquito Wojcik was film, something that had simply never interested him in pursuing.

 “You needn’t be ashamed of not being born with an exploratory nature. Really, it’s something that’s innate in oneself…and if you’re birthed in the same place that happens to be your calling, why move around in attempts to see the world when you’re perfectly content where you reside? Pumpkin, I’ve sailed nearly all seven seas and although I admit I favor some locations over others, there has never been a place I have loved as much as one that I’ve lived in good company with friends amassed.”

He gave a bit of laughter after that, amused with himself. Oooh, that was brilliantly phrased! Hallmark should hire me to be the maker of those gimmick cards and I’d give them all the sentimental lines about friendship, love and grief they’d need for the next century or two!

[Black Philip]

"I must say Emil you got a way with words," Lisa-Joe chuckled. "The south was my first real home. The place I was before that, well, let\'s just say it wasn\'t exactly a hospitable environment for me."

She grew a little sad at the thought of her life before Charleston. She saw the dirty streets of London, the inn where she was both slave and owner. She saw her maker, a long forgotten image now visible for only a moment.

"You see Emil, I know what the old south is famous for. I don\'t pretend. Yet, it was more than just a bunch of white people holding slaves. It was the only place I\'ve ever felt accepted, save of course for here." She laughed at the acknowledgement.

"If I had known what actions being a slave owner would have had I would have done that part differently. But the spirit for me would have been the same. Kindness, concern for your neighbor, and a sense of togetherness. That\'s the old south for me. Oh God I must be boring you silly!"

She gave him an apologetic look. She only hoped he didn\'t mind her yammering. Whenever someone mentioned the old south, she had to just talk and talk and talk.

[skeggsismad]

( Sorry about how late this post is! I got caught up in some things )


There was not a hint of rankle on Emil’s features as he listened to the vampiress speak. He chuckled after the compliment, wishing that he wasn’t in such an undead state so that he could muster a blush to such words. Since he couldn’t, he did his best to express his jovial mood in the rest of his body language and the proceeding words,

“Why! I think you’ve got me quite buttered up this evening, Missus!”

It was nice to be adored, and he absolutely couldn’t adore Lisa-Joe anymore. She was cute as a button and her concern for his reception of the conversation was endearing. Many he had spoken to in this city had prattled on about something needlessly without once pausing to gauge the reaction of their audience. In this day and age of constant entertainment via glowing white computer and television screens, people seemed to be less and less interested in two sided communication. And then there had been that one poetry slam he’d attended where an fashionably dressed young man had spoken verses he’d authored about this ‘The Facebook’ causing the youth to becomes self-absorbed and obsessed with oneself. Yes, if there was anything he could take from this woman’s speech, it was just that: the old south was a time where people spoke to one another face to face rather than behind a screen.

“But, nonsense darling, you’re no bore! Tis’ a conversation that keeps me on my toes. I must admit, too,”

The male lowered his voice to the point that it wouldn’t be able to be heard by anyone who wasn’t a supernatural. He knew the rules of the city and wasn’t a daredevil in the least. Keeping himself looking and sounding as human as he possibly could was something he strived to achieve, and speaking of this to Lisa-Joe would certainly give away the fact that he was born of a different era entirely if he didn’t take the proper precautions.

“ When I was a wee lad, I didn’t know how to treat a lady honestly like in this day and age. I had the misfortune of being born in an era where members of the finer sex were viewed as mere commodities rather than human beings. My mother- bless her soul. If I had known then what I know today, I would have gotten to know her. Truly, I would have. There is no judgment here for actions of the past, Missus Hampton. There is not but one man on the planet that hasn’t had regrets.”

He smiled sincerely afterwards, trying to clear the sudden air of emotion that was radiating from him. He really would have liked to get to know his mother better- it was one of those guilts that no matter what he did, Emil never seemed to be able to free himself from it.