Scene #8568: Kvaland Intermission

Owner	Pose
Zero Kiryu	Bi, Kvaland The evening of Gudrun's capture, just after the ferry arrived... The little inn that Zero chose was older, and though purpose-built to be a hotel of sorts it was not a greatly robust one. A three-level structure resembling a greatly oversized house, it had accommodations that could be rented per bedroom or per floor. The lobby area was small and cozy, with common room seating, and a U-shaped countertop off to the side suggestive of a morning breakfast being available-- which was indeed the case. After a moment's consideration, he had elected to rent out a floor in its entirety. After reviewing the layout he chose the second floor, and organized everyone who was planning to stay outright towards their particular spaces within the floor. Only one, relatively plain staircase connected the two floors save for an add-on fire escape bolted to the side at the far end of the corridor. Gudrun was placed in a room on the far right end of the corridor and interior-facing, as far from convenient egress as possible. The room immediately next to it, nearer to the staircase, Zero claimed for Yuuki and himself. It was one of the larger bedrooms upstairs, with its own robust bathroom and more space all-around to work with than all the others save its twin on the left end of the floor, which was outward-facing instead of inward-facing. Immediately after making certain that Gudrun was settled, Zero disappeared for a short while back to Elysium Apex, and returned with six sets of clothes for himself and another twelve for Yuuki; Yuuki's were deliberately split between over-the-top elaborate and more casual, so he brought more of them so that she could choose for her mood. His were three casual, three formal which was the usual for him. He also brought a change of black sheets for the four-poster and immediately switched out the white ones which were on it in the first place. NOW, as all tasks are done and the sun sets... Zero shuts the door behind him, determines that Yuuki is in the process of (or possibly already) settling in herself, and locks it. The last 18 hours have been a trial, and although so far it appears that they will pass it, that doesn't make it less exhausting in the slightest. He is tugging his red tie loose as he falls back into an old pattern thoughtlessly, walking towards a window that doesn't exist with every intent of drawing the curtains. But there is no window, and there are no curtains. He stops at the foot of the bed, realizing his mistake. His chest throbs, and he reaches into his pocket to retrieve a paper packet filled with tablets-- only to fumble it with an uncharacteristically shaky hand, sending the package skittering under the bed. It's a wonder it doesn't explode open comically and fill the room with blood tablets. Faintly red-tinted violet eyes follow the trajectory of the loose packet. "I seem to be... quite spent," he comments, dryly. This should surprise literally no one, since he distributed no less than five blood cordials in the last 12 hours. "... I know that after my waving my blood around all afternoon, you need taking care of too, but would you mind?" Zero asks, though he turns a vaguely wary glance towards the wall separating their room from Gudrun's. His eyelids droop a little, lambent illumination fading gently. "It's been a while since... we didn't have complete privacy." A little grumpily, perhaps because of the absence of privacy, he asks, "What do you think of our assassin?"
Yuuki Kuran	BEFORE... Another Yuuki sits at a tall desk in the Elysium Apex, trying to focus on drafting a message. Diplomacy required a careful consideration - and a lot of spying. Surveiling her rivals had become a kind of odd care, arranging everything for the nasty old cats and their clans of psychic haters trained only in how to be the worst humans they could to be the best lesser cats. Second Yuuki had become a cat lady in the metaphorical, and it was maddening in its own way. Heavy rested the crown of a meddling queen. She answered the questions of the Partners from a place of least resistance, as her heavily split attention existed primarily on a boat. Yuuki encouraged Zero to spend of his power, and then... NOW Having arrived early, Yuuki had time to prepare, but with their powers combined didn't need it. A selected and prepared location, the ritualized moving of clothing, taking claim of the place with locking doors and simple, human wardings gave everything a nostalgic romance. Not that the Director of the Concord and the Queen of Vampires was going to let Zero get away with it. Nor Cross Yuuki. On the bed, sidesitting and awaiting, is (First) Yuuki, dressed in a black nightgown, with a black choker, butterfly lace wristpieces and anklepieces that drip with long trailing ribbons. She idly swipes her finger aross a tablet computer, though dismisses what she's doing when Zero leans against the end. He shakes, and she leans forward, crawling first on the bases of her palms, and then with the extension of her knees, drapes over Zero's shoulder, arms slowly wrapping around his chest. "You worked so hard." Yuuki agrees, having had her own taste earlier, and now in a slightly different sort of mood, with Zero's truly apparent need. "Would I mind?" Yuuki asks, turning her lips towards his earlobe and repeating the words to his neck, scooching her knees in to sit besides Zero's back in a more stable position. "I wouldn't." Second Yuuki, in a matching dress of cotton-white states from in front of the droopy-eyed Chevalier, her eyes intense-red and kind-drooped. "We can have it any time we like, but you put it off until a man would have it." She chides, falling on Zero from the front and brushing the blood tablets out of his hand while she settles. First Yuuki, from behind, laughs lightly, snickering into Zero's neck. "Well, now, we're alone together. And there's not even a bunch of Concord business interrupting us for a few hours."
Zero Kiryu	Zero remembers the actions he took within Yuuki's mind that resulted in this particular 'split'. Calling it a split was to give simple terms to a less-than-simple situation, which went on to be re-simplified when Yuuki decided to give those internal revelations a concrete physical form. He remembers, distantly, commenting on the number of familiars she summoned one night. In comparison to what she is now, the concern he expressed then seems infinitely tiny. It is at least a little unusual that he has both of her expressed aspects to himself. Though he can hardly remember a time when he was met with a 'buffered autoresponse' as some people are, he was increasingly under the impression that Yuuki usually felt ill-at-ease not having one of herselves attending to some form of business. This has benefits for Yuuki-- he doesn't notice whichever incarnation isn't in his line-of-sight unless his sixth sense is very precisely tuned to look for her. Tonight, it wouldn't be even if he wanted it to be. Tonight, his reserves are emptied and familiar aches are working their way through what he now recognizes to be his circulatory system. It's like spending too much time holding one's breath-- a building anxiety first, and then increasingly intense urges to do anything at all about it. So he is, at first, only expecting Yuuki to come from the direction of the bed. His head turns slightly to get a better look at her. A small noise in the back of his throat -- a soft hum, abundantly audible to somebody as close as either Yuuki -- betrays a that a threshold of surprise was passed. It's a pleasant enough noise, and not altogether common outside of interactions between them. Most of the time, Zero is so good at pretending to be unphased by everything in front of him, that such expressions simply don't occur. Even this one is special-- a private signal, to let her know something that a predatory being reviles exposing. "I must be... a little too predictable," he muses aloud. There is faint dissatisfaction there, but only in the sense that there always is. Zero is used to being the one in control; he's not displeased to be blindsided exactly, but certainly rankles a little at the fact that it was possible. Mutually exclusive wants. Previously postured to look back at First Yuuki, his attention is snared by Second Yuuki -- the one he missed -- pushing the blood pack away. Zero blinks, and smiles, and ultimately issues an amused sort of breath that is as close as he usually gets to actual laughter. The fading light re-asserts itself in his eyes, one hand moving to Second Yuuki's waist and the other to cup her face. He's ravenous, and he really should have just gone for it by now. Which means that he's doing it on purpose. Lidded eyes re-open fully, meeting Second Yuuki's gaze evenly. "Praising me for half-starving myself-- that's a little unorthodox, Yuuki." Diverting his attention, he leans back into First Yuuki and angles his head to look at her out of the corner of his eyes. "I'm fine with that. And with setting work aside. But I have to ask--" Once again his attention swerves back to Second Yuuki. "Did you approach the side with fangs dressed in white on purpose?"
Yuuki Kuran	The time they spend is special, and part of making it so is being wholly so. Yuuki can just cheat and be here twice, but also, it means more clearly when both of her active selves are present. She is here, because Zero had made big movements in front of her, and still thought of her first, and so she thought of him first, even before the rest of the world. She had such love for both that it didn't matter, but... Zero, specifically, was the object of her sole obsession, so of course she noticed and moved especially for it. He was just too tired to notice the arrangement. Drank dry - a terrible state for a garden of roses to be in. "I'm praising you for working yourself to nearly falling over for me, Zero." First Yuuki chides, amused. "Idiot" Grumps Second Yuuki, kissing Zero's shoulder after. Lifting her lips in time to Zero's backwards-lean into the resting-supportive First Yuuki, Second Yuuki carries on her explanation-in-tone. "It's just cloth, and this can bleach. It's not even something the vampires invented - humans know how to get stains out of pure white cloth. It's safe, even if you messily pour red all over it. Why not indulge a little? When no-one's watching?" First Yuuki hmm-hmms, her arms dropping lower as her hug leans her ear to the back of Zero's skull. "It's easier to get blood out of white than a colored dress. But even if you ruined it, you brought twelve more. We have to be allowed some enjoyment."
Zero Kiryu	"I don't mind being praised for foolishness. It's a specialty of mine," Zero answers, dryly. He leans forward a little, lips parting, some of his patience wicking away unsteadily. It's been a long time since he was starving himself on the regular, and she's spoiled him well enough since then that he doesn't have the tolerance for it that he used to. Not enough that he can't pause, though. "I'm not worried. Even back then, I wasn't a messy eater," he says, head craned for easier access to Second Yuuki's neck. It was just another part of how he handled the instinctual 'shock' of being vulnerable-- and perhaps to slow himself down, just the tiniest bit. His lips brushed her neck, teasing and light, a ghost-echo of something he hadn't dared do many years ago. "But, you know..." "I did bring business to you, as well," he reminds. An unspoken question lingers on the air: Did you intend to handle it this way, as well? Which is to say, with a psychic exchange rather than a mood-smashing conversation. A small nip precipitates the bite. It's a habit that Zero adopted well after their entry into the multiverse at large; something more human and deliberate than some of the more feral 'tasting' he'd been prone to at Cross Academy. He'd never said so, but it was impossible to miss it on his blood. It is a rare occasion that he drinks deeply without particular invitation, but tonight Zero does-- and it's plain that he needs it. The unthinkable weakness of fumbling a paper packet once again gradually becomes unthinkable, and after a moment he withdraws his fangs, resting his head against Second Yuuki's neck. //It's easier...// "I started wearing black shirts," he murmurs against her skin, "because you said they were more convenient for... 'this'." It wasn't just this, but it was this too. Straightening back up, Zero withdraws his hand from Second Yuuki's face to reach back and touch First Yuuki's head-- a gentle urging. Go on, if you like. A river of thoughts awaits. Zero isn't certain what they currently intend to do about the assassin. The pull of that thought is weak, though-- for all he brought it back up, he's willing to let it go. It's more like he's asking for permission to let it go.
Yuuki Kuran	"A specialty, huh?" First Yuuki asks, leading. It's palpable, her intent, and she's not trying to hide it. The play, back and forth, is light and harmless. She's doing more to support him than she is needle his graces. "Then you should try stopping. We wouldn't want you to over-exert yourself." Says the queen of the overextended and exhausted, of course. Second Yuuki, baring her neck up to Zero receives a gentle nip and a draining, drinking, drawing drink off of her, a flow tumbling away to join the 'rest of her' in him. Neither of them is 'vulnerable', though, with both Yuuki present. One is, in the simple sense, able to keep watch. "I've never had a perfect plan. I've trusted people to scheme and plot my success, but it's not my specialty. I couldn't bring myself to do anything to Maria, and I had you share your blood because I..." Second Yuuki exhales slowly and nasally while Zero's fangs withdraw from her neck, a little woozy and dazed-eyed. Hand removed from her face, she leans forward to kiss the palm and step back from the bed. Bending down - sitting down, as it is easier - the red-eyed and cotton white dressed Yuuki settles to clean out Zero's collection of pocket pills by dumping the lot into her mouth and chewing, crunching loudly. She intended to handle it that way, too. An impulse, a feeling, just a whim. First Yuuki resumes speaking a moment after, a hand brushing the top of her head leadingly. "I selfishly... want so many conflicting things." A soft, murmurous breath spills from her lips as the black-dressed Yuuki rises the span of her hug-from behind, shifting underneath Zero's arms like lifting a doll to squeeze. "I want you to wear black shirts so I don't have worry, but I want to wear white dresses for the thrill of staining them red when you kiss my neck messily. I don't know the truth. I just want things." Opening her mouth just a little to nibble on Zero's shoulder through cloth, and work little through-shirt-and-collar bites-without-fang up Zero's shoulder to plant a kiss on the underside of his chin. "We both know what we want. We want the long night to be warmer, and the hard day to be easier. And we'd prefer it to take the kindest route to get there. That's why we hired Sougo Tokiwa, and why we fund Sapient Heuristics." Second Yuuki observes pillmouthed from the floor, sidesitting on the rug.
Zero Kiryu	"If I hadn't lived it, I would think it was absurd that I was 'overexerted' only a moment ago," Zero remarks. He is, in the end, not a messy eater and doesn't have to wipe his mouth-- though the white choker mirroring the dark one is too near a thing for him to spare it. His sixth sense becomes a more active thing, oscillating about to examine the surroundings in more detail. He doesn't seem to find much of interest about it, though his presence does linger momentarily 'facing' the opposite wall. "There are... around three-score in the city, not counting those who are too weak to register and non-Dhampyr support personnel. No more than a hundred total, giving room for error and distance." A questioning look follows Second Yuuki's retreat. A discontented noise hums in his throat, the ghost-echo of an idea of how to respond coming and going without being actualized. It would've been an awful lot like him to steal the pills, as he'd stolen them from him. For now though, he seems more inclined to acquiesce to her decision. It helps that First Yuuki continues to move, though-- he's not inclined to dislodge her. With his newly freed hand he discards his tie, and undoes the first couple of buttons of his shirt-- enough that his collar is only as in the way as they're inclined to let it be. "You knew she wouldn't be able to bring herself to refuse, and so you wouldn't have to simply command her directly," he fills in the details, coolly. "I understand. I didn't want to have to force the issue the other ways, either..." Or more accurately, he might not be quite certain that he really could. Zero leans into the nibbling at first, but after the kiss that follows he deliberately angles his neck so that it's irritating to get at without adjusting on purpose. The hand that's still angled back, fingers tangled through her hair, gives her a playful mussing. "I don't think... you should leave the 'you' that I took from out in the cold, eating blood tablets. I'm fine. And so--" Another exchange years back had modified Zero's behavior towards Yuuki. Generally, he did not take advantage of his disproportionately monstrous strength -- even compared to hers -- to move about unimpeded or manipulate her unasked. As things are, he lifts her in that rear-hug and circles back around to the side of the bed, properly seating himself so that First Yuuki can do her hugging-a-giant-stuffed-toy thing from behind without awkwardly hovering at the edge of the bed. He motions for Second Yuuki, lips curling into a lopsided smile as he leans back into First Yuuki and angles his neck so that she can actually get at it again. Finally, he returns to their actual conversation, "So the answer is, 'look for a miracle until we can't anymore', is it?" But it's practically a rhetorical question. He knows the answer. That answer is the only reason he's here at all.
Yuuki Kuran	Second Yuuki, sitting on the floor, has all of the energy of a marionette whose strings are cut and all of the feeling of the specific part of Yuuki she was. She and the other Yuuki are one whole person together, even if she can split herself conveniently. Drawn apart, and drawn from, much of her has been drained or retreated. The pills were a convenient boost, and better, a cold bit of harmless taking from Zero, joking, irony, the faint giggle of distant shadow. Blood came back, flowed from the fountain of an opened vein, but Zero would have to go get a fresh box of pills thinking of her. Just like a dress that could be bleached, both 'halves' of Yuuki had a little revenge. Sitting upon the floor before the bed, Second Yuuki swallows down the last of the medicine and sweeps the first knuckle of her thumb across her lips. She composes herself and begins to speak, answering on Maria. A hunter, cool enough to recite her own flow of thoughts. "I hate them. The council, the nobles. Having to optimize interactions with my friends. Having to be pitted against them. So of course I'll use my best weapon when asking politely will not work. The strongest isn't necessary - the best will always do. And that's you, Zero. I understand, now, why the Forge Ancestor went to sleep as an ever-burning forge instead of deal with it all." First Yuuki waits, lipping and kissing air as Zero leans away, frustrated. A low 'mouuuh!' grows in volume and rumble in her throat. "It's so much easier to let a weapon do its work." She laments. And, of course, being a muted-intelligence moron stabber was such a dream after fumbling in the snow for loose miracles and mostly finding sticks and snakes and red-eyed shapes shambling close behind. Forever was such a long time if it was unkind. There was only solution, and that solution couldn't be compromised on. Pulling on her squeeze and lifting so she can rock forward, First Yuuki rocks forward and opens her mouth wide, biting down on the inconveninetly-cocked-away neck to sink her teeth greedily into her Chevalier's neck. Because of the angle, and Yuuki's slightly-messy greed, and because she was invited so clearly, a blooming red kiss of blood escapes her lips and rolls down Zero's back. First Yuuki, wearing black, doesn't think to stop or slow it, instead moving to more gentle kisses as her drinking slows. The red isn't lipstick quality, too sticky and wet both, and so smudges more than leaves clean lipmarks, but Yuuki cleans that as she finishes, even if she gets a litte on her nose when she draws her head back and down. "I've got a date tonight." Proud and greedy both. "So 'I' was going to go with the outfits you were bringing there. Aido's got his latest pills he wants to test, and he and Sayori promised we'd have some time to talk after." Or, that with the more refined versions of the anti-turning medicine she would have time to spend some very greedy quality time with one of her favorite people. Plucking a fruit that had ripened and sweetened for years and now she could finally taste it. And Hanabusa would be there too! "You're coming, of course. I have picked a favorite hat that goes with rose thorn." Second Yuuki adds, standing up from the floor to begin changing. "Forever can be kinder. And eventually, we'll be able to enjoy what we want, if we're patient and work towards it."
Zero Kiryu	Treating them as somewhat separate was something that Zero would probably never fully be broken of. The mindscape split of Yuuki is too vivid a memory for him not to look at the 'two' of them and perceive the neglected parts that needed validation to go on. It was a strange thing to think of, and he didn't like to linger on it too much, but if there wasn't a part of him that really was the image of the woodsman, he would long since have ceased to be himself. "The Council is long gone, though... all that's left is what could piece itself back together beneath your wings," he observes as much as reminds. The Council cast a long shadow over their lives, as did the previous administration within the Hunter's Association. None of them would be quick to forget how troublesome it was. "And I don't think the Sacred Ancestor wanted to 'burn' so much as 'help', and those things overlapped." He has further thoughts on this, but the deeper they spiral back into the politics and particulars of the Sacred Ancestor and Fangs and the Hunter's Association, the more the mood would be dashed against the rocks. Even if Zero HAD 'asked' permission to deviate from business, he's not interested in going so far. "Impatient," he answers First Yuuki's frustrated vocalization. It shouldn't surprise him as much as it does that Yuuki just bites down in mid-transit, but-- it does. Zero snorts, moving to accommodate instead of making himself a nuisance like he was, an odd little cant of his neck nuzzling him more-or-less comfortably into her fangs as droplets fall into loosened cloth. He issues a faint sigh, a little of his inclination to be restrained evaporating -- it doesn't ever go away entirely, as frustrating as that can be -- in reply to the soothing kisses that chased after the sharp bite. Zero translocates himself without actually moving to a different position, the posture that they're resting in reversing. What scant blood still flowed trickles down his back, soaking into his button-down as he comes to face First Yuuki. "I think you're... counting on a level of non-complication that I wouldn't," he murmurs, raising a hand to brush his blood away from her nose and offer it to her. It's only once she's accepted or declined that he inclines his head, stealing a quick kiss without regard for how messy things have gotten. "But I'll try to make sure we can keep our appointment. Though if you prefer, we could have one of our own in parallel." "I'm a little surprised she hasn't come around, though," he adds, thoughtfully.
Yuuki Kuran	When the mindscape was two kingdoms, split across a vast forest of forbidding danger - unexplored territory, unshared bonds, Yuuki's 'seperate halves', human and vampire, were at odds. With a meeting point, the barriers between them diminished. There was a difference, between the two, even if both tasted like Yuuki. She had become stronger by accepting more parts of herself, and stopped being at war with so much of her own nature. Slopping and mixing in seasoning vessels in a loop, there and back again with Zero too, the strange loop of a feeding pair. Even if Zero wasn't Woodsman... There was a shape like that in Yuuki, that was the things that she needed to be shaped like Zero to bridge the gap in her. There might - with Yuuki, there must - be a thing-shaped-like-Yuuki inside Zero. With Zero, there are several other shapes, and not all are as overwhelmingly supportive in expression, fullest or figment. "I hate them making it as hard on me as it was. I hate the current problems for making things on hard on me as it is. It's fine." First Yuuki is about to wick the rest of the blood off of Zero's neck when he flips, and then she is about to jam her thumb in his lips... so she does, flicking the top lip up with a little motion of her finger. "I'm used to lessers keeping me busy at night. It's why people had Queens in the first place, to solve their problems." The lament of the sarcastic royal comes easily to Yuuki Kuran today. Her hand is frustrated while Zero more gently touches Yuuki's face, and she falls idle and hands-in-lap as he does, demurely leaning up to lick the bit of blood offered off Zero's finger with an 'ah, blood that wasn't on my nose' faux surprise for show. Her lips still taste strongly of him, how sweet, how familiar. "We crave her, so badly," Yuuki says, just Yuuki, the one that Zero kisses, the one that kisses back, all of her. Hot, needy, greedy, knowing it's a sin, but quiet and alone with the one she can't keep any secrets from, she spills honest and hot and just a little whining. "...but we'll wait as long as it takes. She promised, and she's never let me down, so we'll be patient. But soon. Soon."
Zero Kiryu	//It's fine.// she says. "No," Zero says, his lips parting around Yuuki's thumb. His eyebrows lift-- too committed to the motion to back off from it? He doesn't bite, though the tips of his fangs are anything but distant in these circumstances. Anybody else would have taken the gesture for what it was, but he has to show off by pretending he's not tempted. //I'm used to lessers keeping me busy at night.// He doesn't speak, but his voice drifts as if on a bank of fog regardless: Then... let's take this place, out on the sea, where these troubles have only reached them by way of an equally distant interloper. It's different, from the mountains... Her hands are withdrawn, as are his a moment later, and his teeth come back together with the faintest click-- not that he's permitted any opportunity to act on that. Yuuki's lips are against his before he's had the notion to take a breath to speak, much less actually done so. Zero may not need to breathe, strictly, but he's still audibly breathless when she breaks away to talk. "... Don't worry," he mumbles, self-evidently forcing himself to cool down a moment so he can talk about it usefully. "Wakaba does things on her own time, but she's a rational, reliable person. And we're not that old yet, even if things out there..." His eyes flick to the ceiling. "... make it feel so much longer than it has been." "... These butterfly streamers are cute," he adds after a moment or two, guiding the topic away from potentially unfulfillable cravings. For all that it's that, though, Zero is being sincere. His hands, previously withdrawn as a part of his forced 'cooling off', rise again to trace a path along the outside of her legs to her hips, deliberately bunching her gown up asymmetrically as he goes. "I should probably... wear something other than this sometimes, I suppose..."