you can keep on getting better [open]

[hauntedsavior]

Who: Anna Amarande and you!
What: May catchall
When: May
Where: A bar in Cellar Door, other locations to come

Content Warnings: Light alcohol use, conversations about humanity and murder, blood, vampirism

a. if you want, you can buy yourself a drink [at the bar]

[anna's made plans with a couple people to hang out this month. it's not a tense environment at all, and sometimes she can even be seen on the tiny little stage playing some chilled out bass grooves for the patrons. no concrete songs, really, mostly just improv for vibes. when she's not on stage, and most of the time she's not, she's nestled herself down into a booth down near the end. it's quiet, well-lit but not obtrusively so. people around here know her and know that that's basically her seat, so any conversations that happen there are as private as they're gonna get.]

[she's expecting a few people to show up as she nurses a beer that's so weak she might as well not be drinking anything at all. probably for the best that she's sober for these talks, whatever they end up bringing with them.]

Hey. Glad you could make it. [she tilts her drink at her guest.]

b. no you'll never drink like me [for kainé]

[there's always been a few problems with going out and hunting beasts, no matter how confident and comfortable it makes anna feel. no matter how many lives she saves, she's always putting herself at risk of corruption or injury or beasthood or all three, and one of these days it's gonna sneak up on her. all at once, extremely loudly and incredibly close.]

[anyway, when she comes back home this time, it's clear that she's been in better shape. she limps her way into the house, and she's at least cognizant enough to fix her roommate/girlfriend with a sheepish little look as she holds her side. the cloth there isn't dripping yet, but it's clear that it didn't start as red as it is now.]

Motherfucker out there got the best of me. [she's talking like she's not in pain, or like she's trying very hard to pretend she isn't.] I think I stopped most of the bleeding myself. Don't suppose we've got anything here that can help seal it up before I go to the doctor?

Comments

[hauntedsavior]

Hey, three cheers for the forever warriors. [she raises her glass in a mock toast, but her lips stay as dry as her tone.] And to snapping your leash.

Nothing tastes as good as freedom feels. Been about ten years since I cut myself loose and I never looked back. [she's lying, but faith doesn't have to know that.] And now the world's opened up to you in a way that you definitely had no idea what to do with, like, six months ago.

[she leans in. it's maybe a little flirtatious, but she doesn't mean anything by it.]

You doing anything else interesting with your newfound freedom around here?

[slayerskiss]

[Faith doesn't know what that means, but she smiles and raises her drink anyway. She wishes she could say she never looked back, never felt like she should go back between the chains like the uncontrollable beast that she is.

She wishes she didn't feel like the bond she severed meant she'd lost a limb. She wishes she could enjoy being the one girl in all the world here, without walking the shores and waiting for B to come crawling up the bank.]

Nothin's sweeter. [She smiles. Faith is likewise used to being casually flirtatious in just about every interaction she's in. It only sometimes means something.]

Hate to disappoint, but I'm still sort've getting used to it. I spent the past two years in prison. It's a weird adjustment. [Not that she didn't have six different escape routes mapped out on her first day there. They're not built to hold Slayers. All she'd have to do is go up to the Warden and punch her and then she could just grab the keys and go. What the fuck are the others going to do? Shoot her?] Though I dunno, might see if that mysterious captain you were on about is hiring.

[hauntedsavior]

She always is.

[okay, though. she's listening. faith is meeting all the bad girl standards in anna's head, and for a moment she understands why lillian always thought that anna herself was so hot.]

Shame she's in a committed relationship or she might be interested in helping you get a little more used to things around here. [she's reminded, briefly, of how terribly she had bombed with kassandra back last autumn. how things have changed so quickly. how it still doesn't matter because she actually found what she was looking for. still, her fingers trail a little closer to the middle of the table, and her eye follows them.]

Wouldn't want to sic a hot angry woman with two huge-ass swords on you or anything like that. I like your company, and people are usually way more fun to be around when they're not chick filets.

[slayerskiss]

[She laughs a little, eyebrows raised.]

Well, that's not where I was going. [She takes a sip of her drink.] Head out of the gutter, captain.

I'd prefer to leave the whole screwing taken people back in my teens, honestly. [She says like she didn't make out with Gideon, fuck Jessica Ushiromiya, make out with Sayo Yasuda. Technically none of them were taken!]

I meant actually hiring. Like, sailing n' vigilante shit.

[hauntedsavior]

I know exactly what you were talking about and meant nothing beyond it. [she's slipping the affectation of an old sea salt into her voice just barely, just enough to sound different. and dryly amused.] A captain's not allowed to call her crewmate hot? Suppose women can't do much of anything these days.

[she nearly takes a drink, but decides better of it at the last second.]

I can't pay you, but if you're in it for the adventure, I won't turn you away. Just recall we're a peaceful crew, sailing on the strength of my reputation and the shadow of our prow. Too much death in the waves already. [the affected voice drops.] Plus the people you're rescuing tend not to like it if you show up covered in pirate blood.

[now's a good time for that drink.]

[slayerskiss]

[She's smiling and huffing a small laugh at Anna saying that women can't do anything these days. God, ain't that the truth. You kill one person and suddenly everyone gets on your ass about it.

But her smile fades a bit as Anna reminds her not to kill, and she feels a little self conscious and insulted despite herself. It's... fair, probably, that she's reminding her of that considering what she just said, but... It hits too close to home.

(Anna probably meant nothing by it. It's a joke. It still hurts.)

There's an affronted look in her eyes as she speaks up.]

...Yeah well. I don't kill people. Not anymore. I didn't tell you that so you could act like I do, alright?

[She's reminded of why she felt comforted by the Doctor - by the Mayor - in the first place. There's no judgement in the eyes of a monster.]

[hauntedsavior]

Whoa, whoa, hey.

[she puts her drink down hastily, not even giving herself time to savor it with how quickly she gulps down what's in her mouth. she's trying to be measured no matter how surprised she is by that reaction.]

Standard disclaimer for everyone. Your captain included. Because there's a lot of things that can happen around here that make it harder to hold to your morals, and none of them are very fun. We're at the whims of the gods out here, and we never know what's going to come for us next.

[slayerskiss]

[Well. That makes her feel bad. She deflates, feeling frustrated at herself for being unable to just be normal.]

...Yeah. Sorry. I know that you didn't mean anything by it.

[She stares at the table between them, her finger scratching the wood as a nervous tick as she thinks on whether to explain.]

It's weird over here. They'll forgive you for anything. Back home... well, the stain tends to follow you a bit more.

[hauntedsavior]

[this is some surprise information that will help anna later, but she doesn't know it yet. instead, she tries her best to combat the awkwardness by just... talking, person to person.]

Well, lots of people around here who've done a lot of shady shit, I guess, you know? You poke around in my past, you'll find some things that people back home will think are unforgivable.

[but her problems have always been less serious than others. she's always had an easier life than the people she knows. she tries not to dwell on it by shrugging casually instead.]

But take a look around here. We're up to our necks in blood and beasts. We have creatures rising from the sea to try to take out our lives. People die a lot more often than I'm used to. [that's a bit of a grim realization; she shakes it off.] I don't think any of us have the time to hold grudges for stuff that might not have even happened here.