Match of the Millennium

Description: Velvet discovers Vinnie after the latter dispatches a darkstalker in Southtown.

[VINNIE]
The empty-eyed stranger pulls his thumbs out the eyes of the Darkstalker he was pursuing in an alley -- the corpse drops and he looks down at his bloody hands. She made him chase him all this way, the Child did, and he didn't even know the thing's name. It was a werewolf, the kind that didn't turn back once dead. His eyes turn back towards the dead thing, and then he turns away. In the old days he used to vomit after a murder, but these days he was too used to it. He instead goes out into the street, breathing ragged as the claw marks that it left slowly fade from his flesh -- though his shirt isn't as lucky, torn and bloody.

"Shut up," he tells her when she starts to giggle, his hand fishing around and finding a cigarette, which is placed into his mouth. To anyone else, he's talking to himself, the bloody-handed psychopath. He might as well be screaming at her and none would be the wiser. Sometimes, in his darkest days, he wonders if she's even real.

Regardless, the Darkstalkers were on their way out. It was killing season, but the game was getting scarce. The empty-eyed man didn't mind. It meant a reprieve from all the blood. Maybe he'd go find a temple or something and meditate. He's never meditated before.

[VELVET BLUE]
The death rattle of the werewolf sent out a bit of a ripple throughout the surrounding area--Velvet felt it, how could he not? If the sound it made as it died and the commotion it and it's prospective victim made wasn't enough--the kind of sound you only heard in a bad dream just before dawn. Finally getting to the body and dropping down--the sound of heeled boots clattering off the alley walls, he glanced over at the corpse. Another of Kira's 'indoctrinated' creatures. He supposed he shouldn't feel too bad--that one had probably never been human. Like a briarwolf--the outcome of a vicious murderer or rapist that somehow fell into the Makai and succumbed to their baser natures--the outside eventually reflected what was internal, transforming them. Likely NOL would be around at some point if there was more of these--he thought most of them were cleared out already, but suspected there was still a few more that only came out at night.

"There is an explanationf or this, you know," Velvet seemed to say to no one in particular, emerging from the shadows of the side street behind Vinnie, not seeming to be concerned the man was talking to himself. Velvet was clad in their usual all black suit with fur ruff around the shoulders and long lavender boots, through they'd added a denim jacket and cut off pair of shorts to their 'work' attire since fighting the catwoman and werewolf horde with Lyraelle.

[VINNIE]
Vinnie slowly turns at the sound of Velvet's voice, taking the clearly inhuman creature in with that blank stare of his. He turns to face them, the cigarette his lips are wrapped about bloody from his hands. Vinnie himself is wearing a brown suede blazer at the moment, his once white shirt ripped and torn and bloody. He takes Velvet's appearance in stride, finding a zippo lighter in his back pocket and igniting it so that he can light the cancer stick. The Child is circling Velvet, unseen, lest Velvet has some ability to see ghosts or primal entities.

"Who the hell are you supposed to be?"

The Child is touching her chin thoughtfully, and Vinnie knows the look. She's doing her thing. Measuring Velvet -- doing whatever it is she does to pass judgement. "You should go."

[VELVET BLUE]
"I'm Velvet, Velvet Blue--I help run the Gold Lounge cabaret club--it's downtown, that's my stage name there--that your work back there? I don't mean any harm," Velvet kept his hands up for a moment, so Vinnie could see he didn't have a weapon in his hands. Of course, the nightwalker could likely also see the white lacquered wakizashi tucked into the performer's right boot. A right-handed draw, it would appear.

"I thought we'd killed all the werewolves plaguing the area, I was out looking for any of them that might be left... I was hoping I could try to catch the ones that were left and release them from Kira's control, but... haven't been successful," he shook his head, brushing long black hair back.

There really wasn't a word for what Velvet was looking at. Western folklore was surprisingly limited in scope, compared to the myriad of Eastern Religions and those older still. 'Fury' was perhaps one of the better ones, though 'Revenant' might have also worked--but neither exactly. The furies were ghosts of vengeance, punishers of all beings young and old--their task was far less personal.

[VINNIE]
A cabaret entertainer armed and turned into a freak just like Vinnie; the nightmare never ends. Once upon a time he'd be trying to avoid this encounter, but this time his free hand flexes and unflexes, still soaked in the poor creature's blood. There's a flicker behind Vinnie -- holding that hand suddenly is a little girl with eyes even deader than his -- her pupils cataracted over and inky black tears of ectoplasm dripping down her face. Her head cants to the side and she flickers back out of existence like an old static film.

Kira. She whispers Kira's name into Vinnie's ear. She's the cause of all this. She needs to die next. Vinnie ignores her for now and she lets him -- after all, they just learned the name and she needs to judge her first.

"What do you want with me, Velvet?" He just assumes that this new creature is something with purpose for him -- they're supernatural, clearly, and they're actually talking to him. Most inhuman beings don't bother even with that, in his not insignificant experience.

[VELVET BLUE]
"Nothing I can really do for you or about you, I don't think. I'd rather these poor creatures didn't have to die... but with everything that's happened... they probably did something to deserve it," Velvet sighed. It wasn't something he liked to say or feel, but it was the truth.

In quick glimpses--he saw the girl--though it was a like seeing an image inserted for just a single frame or two in a movie--you saw it subconsciously, mostly--and it affected you--but not in a way you realized. Only when she made herself more pronounced and wanted to be seen did he really 'view' her.

"But... why do you hurt? you hurt inside, I mean--is there some way to fix it? Did you have something you needed to do before you go? Is there something I can try to help you with...?"

[VINNIE]
Velvet's concern is new, and some part of Vinnie feels something in response to it, but it's buried underneath a few lifetimes of shame and other emotions, emotions he's burying already internally. Instead he takes a drag of the cigarette, smoke coming from his nostrils and slithering into the air. He doesn't know if he believes the werewolf deserved to die, but Hell, he doesn't know much anymore. He just looks down at himself when they mention he's in pain, empty eyes taking in the blood soaked hands and clothes.

The Child flickers into existence again, this time several feet off to the side. She doesn't like these questions that Velvet is answering. It always leads to the same thing -- after all, she's the source of his pain, and the only way to end it is to split the pair up. She doesn't like that idea. She looks over at Vinnie with those leaking eyes. He can hear her already. She wants him to hurt them.

He doesn't, though. Not yet.

"You're barking up the wrong tree. I don't need your help."

He wants it, he really does. But Velvet can't help him. He deserves this.

[VELVET BLUE]
"She hates," the performer's gold cat-like eyes rove over to the side, as if catching sight of something--but there's nothing there. Maybe he can feel her better than he can see her, given his empathic qualities.

"Maybe the path you walk on has no end, it's not really for me to say," Velvet wanted to say how much he'd like to help, but it wasn't something that was going to happen soon, if ever.

"If you wanna kill her, I think I might know where she is," she, meaning 'Kira' in this case. "If that will help you--at this point it will probably help everyone in the city," Velvet sometimes hated how... objective morals had become, but at this point, it seemed like the only thing that was true anymore. He'd left the debating of the human world behind a long time ago.

[VINNIE]
Vinnie had long lost holding out hope that the murders will eventually set him free. He didn't really want to kill this Kira woman. He couldn't care less about her or the people in this city. All he wanted was rest. Still -- maybe she'd let him get a few nights reprieve if he did do the job. He wasn't so sure -- he was never sure.

"You see her, huh?" That wasn't quite new, but it was rare. Vinnie's eyes move towards where the Child stands now -- hidden from everyone else at the moment, watching Velvet with those dead eyes -- perhaps reconsidering. He doesn't linger long on the subject -- the less he talked about the Child, the better, really. "She wants this Kira dead," Vinnie confirms. "So... where is she, Velvet?" He's taking the bait. It doesn't occur to him he hasn't told Velvet his name yet -- who knows, they might already know it. Creatures like them sometimes know things. He's resigned to it.

[VELVET BLUE]
"She's an imbalance, she has to die," Velvet says in a forlorn tone, it pained him to say it as much as it hurt to live it--he wanted beautiful things in life, and to foster them--but somethings certain things had to be pushed aside for the greater good. He wasn't naive, not in the slightest. It was something that needed to be for the pain and destruction to stop.

"In the casino that the NOL were trying to attack, she had a forcefield over it--but we killed the darkstalkers protecting it, it should be down now--if you want to try and get at her--I think now is the time," he tilted his head, looking at him.

"What do I call you? It's fine if you don't want to use your old name, I don't use mine either," he shook his head, walking a little closer now--walking more past Vinnie, though the walk was more a casual sashay--the heeled boots clattering off the pavement.

[VINNIE]
"She should join the club," is Vinnie's cynical response regarding the absent Kira. He doesn't know who the imbalance he means is -- him or the Child. Maybe both. It doesn't matter in the wrong run, and he watches the Darkstalker as he moves past, taking another long pull of his cigarette and turning sideways to keep an eye on the creature.

"NOL," he then echoes. Another reason why the Child has brought him to Southtown -- he's supposed to be killing them, too. It's going to be a bad month -- he can already tell. "You work with them?"

He has no reason to hide his name -- it's not like there's much research to be done over the Internet about it, at the very least. "Vinnie," he says drably. There was once a time where only his friends called him that. They were all dead now.

[VELVET BLUE]
"The NOL? no, I don't want to be prodded and poked like I'm a science project--I spent time in cages before, I won't go back to one--they'll have to kill me first," Velvet shook his head, waggling a finger. "Just as long as your point your knife towards the people it needs to go to--I think we'll be fine, Vinnie," the performer nods, taking in a deep breath again.

"There's plenty of time left in the world for the people who want to enjoy it, and who deserve to--I wanna preserve the dreaming for those people, you can help me with that.." he looks over at the man again, his blue spaded tail flicking, bat ears twitching.

"If you want."

[VINNIE]
The offer's tempting, it really is -- but if Vinnie doesn't keep killing, the Child will start killing herself, and she's much less picky about her targets than he is. He doesn't tell Velvet the truth -- some of the people he murders don't need to die. The whole vicious cycle gives him a headache, and he tries to banish it with another pull from his cigarette -- it's on its way out though. He envies it.

What's left of the typically death-dealing tobacco stick is tossed to the ground and the fire at the tip is snuffed by his shoe as he regards Velvet.

"How could I possibly help you?" It's an honest question. At this point, the forever battle Vinnie found himself embroiled in was really his only talent. He had nothing else.

[VELVET BLUE]
"I just said, start with Kira--then maybe we can talk about other things," Velvet looked back over to Vinnie with a wave of his hand. "I'll be at the gold lounge if you ever need me, and I don't think I need to impress that I don't want anyone turning up dead there, if that's okay," Velvet started to just walk away--though he was crossing the street and disappearing into the shadows of the alley over there--in a rush of steam from a nearby sewer grating.

"I'll see you around..."

Log created on 06:40:05 07/03/2020 by Velvet Blue, and last modified on 18:33:08 11/06/2020.