love_and_poprocks

Eliana watched him through the rain-speckled glass without so much as a blink. The shift was minute. To any mortal eye, Auvinux Windcaller looked exactly the same as he had moments before. His pace never faltered, his posture remained relaxed, and his expression betrayed nothing. But she had not survived thirteen centuries by watching faces. She watched muscles, breathing. The rhythm of a heartbeat. The way predators carried their weight when another predator entered their territory. "...There it is." She cooed, a faint smile tugged at the corner of her lips. "He felt me." The butler glanced toward the retreating figure as Austin disappeared beneath the awning of the mall entrance. "The wolf, or the man?" Eliana's crimson eyes lingered on the doors long after they slid shut behind him. "The wolf noticed first." There was a note of satisfaction in her voice, not pride, but appreciation. "So few still listen to their instincts." Outside, rain continued to gather strength, drumming softly against the sedan's immaculate roof. The clouds overhead had become nearly black, swallowing the morning sun until the parking lot resembled late evening. It was as if the weather had bent itself around her arrival, eager to cloak its mistress beneath a veil of storm. She reached for the door handle but paused. "No." The butler remained silent, accustomed to allowing her thoughts to unfold at their own pace. "If I chase him now, he'll spend the entire encounter expecting claws." "And if you wait?" Eliana looked toward the mall with the detached curiosity of someone deciding whether to open an old book. "Curiosity survives longer than fear." The door opened with scarcely a sound. Cool rain kissed the toe of her polished heels before she stepped onto the pavement. It did not soak her. It simply... parted. Droplets curved around her dress as though unwilling to touch the ancient vampire. The hem of her black gown remained impossibly pristine while the storm continued unabated around everyone else. The butler emerged behind her, opening an umbrella out of habit. She didn't acknowledge it. Her gaze swept across the sprawling shopping center instead. Children laughed somewhere near the food court entrance. Teenagers hurried inside to escape the rain. Couples wandered beneath awnings, oblivious to the ancient monster walking among them dressed like a forgotten countess. A century ago, they would have fled at the mere sight of her, now...they smiled politely as they passed. How wonderfully absurd. Eliana entered through the automatic doors, the warm air carrying with it an overwhelming tapestry of scents. Fresh pretzels. Burnt coffee. Cheap perfume. Synthetic fabrics. Floor polish. And beneath all of it...wolf, strong, old, dominant. Her eyes drifted lazily across the atrium until they found him several storefronts ahead. She made no effort to close the distance. Instead, she wandered toward a nearby bookstore, idly tracing a gloved finger across the spines of modern novels with faint disappointment. "So much ink," she murmured. "So few worthwhile thoughts." The comment was quiet enough that only her butler heard it. She selected a book entirely at random, opened it to the middle, read a single paragraph, then returned it to the shelf upside down. "I've been alive for over a millennium," she sighed. "Do you know what the greatest curse of immortality truly is?" The butler already knew the answer. "You eventually become impossible to surprise." Her scarlet eyes drifted once more toward the Alpha somewhere deeper within the mall. "...Perhaps," she said, almost thoughtfully, "that man intends to prove me wrong."

The farther they drove beyond the center of Pine Heath, the more the weather began to change. At first, it was subtle. The bright Montana sunlight dimmed behind drifting clouds that seemed to gather from nowhere at all. Warm rays faded into silver-gray shadows rolling lazily across the mountains in the distance. A breeze stirred through the streets hard enough to send leaves skittering over asphalt. Inside the sedan, Evelina’s half-lidded gaze lifted toward the darkening sky beyond the window. "...Mm." The butler adjusted his gloves against the steering wheel. "You’re doing it again, my lady." A small pause before looking up at the sky through the tinted glass. "I am not." Another low rumble of thunder echoed somewhere far off despite the forecast having promised clear skies all morning. The Night Mistress sighed softly. Her moods had always affected the atmosphere around her. It came with age, power, and blood thick enough to drown kingdoms in. Lesser vampires inspired discomfort. Ancient ones distorted nature itself. The clouds thickened overhead as though the heavens themselves sought to shield her from the sun. Convenient. Eliana lowered the window slightly, allowing cool air to curl into the vehicle. The scent reached her immediately: rain, pine forests, wet asphalt, and wolf. Closer now. Ahead, Auvinux’s old Dodge rumbled steadily down the highway, entirely unaware he was being shadowed by a predator old enough to remember when his ancestors still painted symbols on cave walls. A faint smile touched her lips again. “He smells stubborn,” she mused. The butler remained silent. “Also tired.” “You can smell exhaustion?” Mirthful and slow, she responds, “I can smell everything.” Thunder cracked louder this time. The sky shifted from bright spring blue into dark storm-gray unnaturally fast, shadows swallowing the road ahead while the first droplets of rain splattered against the windshield. Around them, other drivers instinctively slowed. Austin’s truck did not. The loud old pickup barreled onward with all the confidence of a man who had driven these roads his entire life. Eliana watched him carefully through the rain, beginning to streak across the glass. There was something almost nostalgic about it. Predators recognizing predators. Ancient blood staring across generations of violence and survival. Most wolves she’d met throughout history were beasts pretending to be men. But this one… this one carried himself like a man forced to become a beast for others. How irritatingly interesting. Lightning illuminated the mountainside for a brief moment, pale silver light reflecting across Evelina’s crimson eyes. Beneath her elegant calm, something ancient shifted restlessly. The storm intensified eagerly around her. Not violent, not yet, simply protective. As though the sky itself preferred her in darkness.

Will do!

@BladeRunner Sorry for the delay. If you haven't seen my wall post, I'm in the process of packing and moving and stuff, so I'm preoccupied IRL. That said, did you want the scene to continue in the shopping center or where we have been posting?

Posted!

Eliana sat in the backseat of a black vintage sedan that looked expensive enough to belong in another century. It rolled silently through Pine Heath’s quiet streets, untouched by the rattling imperfections of modern life. No engine noise. No radio. Only the faint tap of gloved fingers against the polished armrest inside. Her crimson eyes lingered lazily out the tinted window as storefronts drifted past one by one. Small town America. How unbearably quaint. The Night Mistress of the Blackthorne Family had crossed oceans, empires, and centuries only to find herself trapped in a town where people worried about grocery sales and lawn care. It should have driven her insane. Instead, it merely exhausted her in a very old, familiar way. The sunlight overhead should have burned her alive. Instead, enchanted black lace veils draped beneath the sedan’s roof dimmed the lethal rays into something tolerable, bathing the interior in perpetual dusk. Ancient magic woven into thread by hands long dead. One of the few luxuries she still appreciated. Evelina rested her cheek against her knuckles, expression distant. “…I miss the plague years,” she murmured. From the driver's seat, her chauffeur remained perfectly still. “Understandable, my lady.” Not even a beat. “People were more honest while dying.” The old vampire’s gaze drifted toward the streets again just as an obnoxiously loud pickup truck rattled through the intersection nearby. The sound alone was enough to pull her from her thoughts. Crimson eyes narrowed slightly. Old Dodge. Poor muffler. Smelled of pine, gasoline, dirt roads… And wolf. Well, that was mildly more interesting. She watched the truck pass through the sunlight, her expression remaining deceptively neutral, though the air inside the car grew subtly heavier. Predatory instinct stirred beneath ancient boredom like something massive shifting in deep water. “Austin Windcaller,” the chauffeur spoke calmly before she even asked. “Alpha of the Midnight Pack.” Evelina hummed quietly. “So the mutts still reside here.” Rhetorical, but the chauffeur answered anyway. “They do.” The truck disappeared further down the road toward the highway, country music faintly audible even through closed windows. For a moment, she simply watched it leave. Then unexpectedly, she smiled. It was small. Sharp. Interested. “…Follow him.” Hesitation, “My lady?” Her lips curled into a mischievous grin, bearing a fang on the rearview mirror. Though not like she had a reflection to show it off. “I wish to see whether age has made werewolves wiser or simply slower.” The chauffeur sighed almost imperceptibly before turning the wheel. Outside, Pine Heath continued its sleepy Sunday morning, completely unaware that one of Europe’s oldest monsters had just decided she was bored enough to involve herself in local affairs.

Hell yeah

Once approved would he want company from the enemy vampires clan leader?

Name: Lady Eliana Blackthorne Age: Appears 29 | True Age: Approximately 540 years old Species: Vampire Sex: Female Gender: Woman Sexuality: Bisexual Role: Vampire Rank: Night Mistress of the Blackthorne Family Personality: Evelina is unnervingly elegant, carrying herself with the grace expected of one born into one of Europe’s oldest vampire bloodlines. Time has worn away much of her passion for ordinary pleasures, leaving behind an apathetic amusement toward most things around her. She rarely grows angry, rarely grows excited, and rarely appears surprised. To outsiders, she can seem soft-spoken and strangely harmless, a noblewoman with sleepy eyes and a faint smile. Those who know her understand that the calmness comes from absolute confidence. Very little in the world poses a threat to her anymore. She possesses deeply eccentric tastes cultivated over centuries. Evelina enjoys funeral processions, decaying cathedrals, old poetry written by dying lovers, and keeping strange company simply to observe how people unravel around her. She often disappears for weeks without explanation, returning with obscure relics, half-dead travelers, or new “pets” she loses interest in just as quickly. Despite her detached demeanor, she is highly intelligent and terrifyingly perceptive. She notices shifts in tone, lies hidden beneath compliments, and fear masked behind courage almost instantly. She simply chooses whether acknowledging them is worth the effort. Evelina is not openly cruel, which somehow makes her worse. Her punishments are calm, intimate, and utterly merciless. That said, she has been known to show to a few the softer parts of her personality. Appearance Details: For someone of her caliber is surprisingly short, standing at five feet three. Evelina possesses pale skin with cool gray undertones, giving her the appearance of marble beneath candlelight. Her dark hair is thick and curled, usually pinned into elegant Eastern European styles popular among old nobility, though loose strands frame her face intentionally. Her eyes are a muted crimson, glowing brighter whenever hunger or irritation surfaces, though most of the time they appear to be a muted amber shade. Combined with her delicate features and soft expression, the effect is deeply unsettling rather than overtly monstrous. She favors high-collared gowns in black, deep burgundy, and wine-red velvet accented with antique silver jewelry. Lace gloves, gemstone chokers, and embroidered corsetry are common parts of her wardrobe. Even at rest, she looks aristocratic, like a portrait hanging in a forgotten castle. Evelina will wear modern clothes if she is amongst the human population of Pine Heath. In her monstrous form, Evelina becomes a massive bat-winged horror with elongated limbs, blackened claws, and vast crimson membranes stretching from her arms like torn royal curtains. Her face becomes partially bestial while still retaining traces of feminine beauty, making the transformation all the more disturbing. Lesser vampires instinctively lower their gaze in her presence. Only those old enough are able to pull off this beastial transformation. Other Details: Considered one of the oldest living vampires outside the Dracula lineage. Fluent in several dead languages and archaic dialects. Sleeps hanging upside down within the cathedral crypt beneath Blackthorne Manor rather than in a coffin when feeling restless, which is often. Keeps a blind human choir solely because she enjoys hearing them sing in the dark. Rumored to have personally executed three previous heirs of the Blackthorne bloodline for sport. Her butler has served her family for nearly four centuries and fears her more than death itself.

Sorry, I disappeared as well. Not my intention. What about a diner space? Or a sort of outdoor mall with the old shops on Main?

No totally take your time. I just want to make sure any character I make does your vision. So more details the better. When things calm down of course.

So like normal family members in the pack? I just want to make sure I understand

Do you need help making the characters? Are there specific story plots you want?

I know I just don’t want to take the opportunity from someone else. I will need to flip a coin

I'm so sorry, I hope you feel better. @BladeRunner I'm also stuck on the Blackthorne character. I could be a thrall again to Kabiki, or I could be a Mistress. I'm not sure which to choose or what is needed.