PRIVATE i'm so obsessed with you(r ex) ; meteor

[kole.]

Kole would never understand it. He was always so damned careful about exposing his secret, and yet, no matter how much effort into subduing the bloodlust and keeping his instincts at bay, someone always knew. Perhaps he wasn't as good at keeping a secret as he thought he was. Perhaps he let himself get too close to mortals over and over again, and that was the reason for his continued foiled plans; but the idea of Kole getting close to anyone was preposterous, not to mention mildly terrifying, and he refused to entertain the very notion of attachment. And so the blame went to simply being a bad liar, which in all honesty, could not be further from the truth... He'd been pretending to believe in these damned deities for so long he was actually starting to believe in them, for starters..!


With an exaggerated sigh and a despondent huff, Kole's long, slender body flopped down onto the warmed stone ground of his own little cave in the communal area. Meteor was set to arrive any minute, as they'd agreed upon, and Kole was stressed about it. Was his home clean enough? Would Meteor like the decor? Would Meteor enjoy spending time with him? Was there time for idle chit-chat and get-to-know questions, or did Meteor just want to get into the nitty-gritty straight away?

His thoughts were running rampant. Vayu and Requiem had it out for him, he would swear it up and down. But, yet, there was little he could do but sit and wait; it's not as if he could summon Meteor with his thoughts, after all; nor, even, did he particularly want to... Uncharacteristically nervous about the upcoming conversation. Damn, his fangs were starting to ache.

[METEOR]

METEOR

Meteor walked through the underground communal area through the passageway into Kole’s cave. Honestly? His thoughts were on the miraculousness of the underground cave system surviving the eruption and earthquake completely intact. But, then, the oral history of the Descendants of the Departed said these caves had survived each and every natural disaster. Meteor had never truly believed in that mythology (like how he also believed Requiem and Vayu were a useful fiction for his cult), but he had to wonder if there was a logical reason for the mythology.

However, once his paws stepped into Kole’s personal cave, Meteor’s golden eyes (and thoughts) drifted to the waiting vampire.

A quick glance around. An ear flick. He knew Kole was a clean freak, but it looked like the vampire had cleaned up even more, hadn’t he? Then a head tilt as Meteor considered what that meant. Maybe Kole wasn’t as practical about his eating habits as Meteor.

That brought a half-smirk to his lips. The lion continued walking to Kole’s rock, then mirrored Kole’s body language by flopping onto the warmth. Meteor’s smirk widened. “Did you warm this rock with fire magic?” Meteor asked. “My lightning is useful in combat, but less useful for life's daily pleasures.”

[kole.]

Kole hadn't much been thinking about the surprisingly in-tact cave system, but now that it was a point of focus; huh, yeah, that was weird. Then again, Kole hadn't been born here; a nomadic vampire from a far off hell place, in fact, but that fact had remained largely a secret for the duration of his time with the Descendants. Until now, it seemed, because Kole was stupid and couldn't keep secrets for the life of him; or perhaps more accurately because Kole was stupid and had been overly obvious one time too many in Meteor's presence, however one liked to look about it; and so he had, like, half of the knowledge on folklore and old wives' tales that Meteor did.

Maybe he should ask, in the future. He'd always liked Lore™.

He was struck quite unceremoniously from his thoughts by the sound of a much larger creature flopping down beside him, and he jerked his head to the side, surprised. His carmine eyes met gold, and, oh. That made sense. Gods above (and below), he was a vampire with enhanced senses, why hadn't he heard Meteor come in? Too absorbed in his own thoughts of The Lore™?

"Magic indeed," he agreed, only dimly registering Meteor's question and answering appropriately; to be perfectly honest, he was having quite a spot of trouble dragging his thoughts away from the lazy smirk on the lion's handsome mug. Wowza. "You'd think I'd be tired of the heat by now, but it's useful for cold-bodied creatures like me." He would say cold-blooded, but, well, Kole had a distinct lack of that.

[METEOR]

METEOR

“Cold-bodied, huh?” Meteor repeated. He shifted to rest chin on a paw—the ram horns looked pretty, but relaxation was often difficult—while his golden eyes narrowed and analyzed Kole’s body language, facial expression. The vampire was definitely not practical in his feeding habits. That was useful knowledge.

“So you are a vampire.” Meteor stated this as plainly and as non-judgmentally as if he were remarking on the weather. This hardly bothered Meteor—he led a cannibalistic cult, literally killed and ate his own father—but it seemed quite impractical. Meteor’s smirk muted, but he nonetheless managed to look amused while he added, “With the current ecological crisis, that seems problematic.”

“How were you feeding before?” Meteor licked his teeth, golden eyes narrowed slightly as he ran a few calculations. “How often? How much blood?” A slight hesitation—more thinking—and then another question. “When you ate the coconut crabs, did that sustain you? Or did you need to fake it because I drew attention to your—” Meteor’s golden eyes gleamed playfully. “—dietary restrictions?”

[kole.]

Of course, Kole hadn't been expecting Meteor to be necessarily bothered by the fact that he was a vampire; the guy ate his dad; but he hadn't been expecting that level of... Deadpan. In any case, it settled his frazzled nerves a bit that he hadn't yet been given the 'i am not for eating!' talk yet. As if he ate other sentient creatures; that just wasn't his style. He preferred to leave that to the other Descendants, to be quite frank.

"It filled my belly well enough, but I get no nutritional value from meat," Kole explained patiently, feeling himself settle a little thanks to the lack of judgement. Not that he'd been expecting any; but, well, when you've put up with vampire prejudice for as long as Kole has, you start to worry about meaningless shit like if the cannibal overlord is going to think you're a freak because you have to drink blood to live. "It doesn't make me sick, if that's what you're asking."

He fell silent again, the only noise from him a thoughtful hum that resonated from his throat moments later. "Too many years of un-life has taught me that I need to drink enough blood to fill my own body at least once a month, hence the coyote; the smaller I am, the easier I am to fill. I can drink in small amounts every now and again, or I can drain someone dry in one go, doesn't matter."

[METEOR]

METEOR

Meteor listened, then hummed softly to himself as he thought this over. Not quite so impractical, maybe? His golden eyes focused on Kole.

“If you get no nutritional value from meat, then, I’ll put it bluntly: stop eating meat, and openly feed as a vampire.” Meteor chuckled. “You live amongst cannibals. We have a shapeshifter who sheds gore whenever xe’s flirting. If anyone gives you nonsense for your eating habits? I’ll handle their stupidity.”

Meteor’s golden eyes narrowed. “Your vampirism is actually practical. We’re in lean times.” He hesitated and analyzed Kole’s coyote body: the size, the musculature. “And you’re like Vale, then? You don’t die if the body dies.”

His smirk returned. A claw tapped the stone as he finalized a few loose threads of logic.

“You’ve lived here for a while; you know me, you know the worth of my words. When I say you can openly exist as a vampire here, I mean it. To me, it’s simple.” His head tilted. The claw stopped tapping and retracted back into his paw. “However. That’s not what you actually want, is it?”

[kole.]

If he was being completely honest with himself, Kole himself couldn't fathom why he'd been so nervous and secretive about his sanguine hungered nature. He lived with a bunch of cannibals, and if they weren't cannibals, they were deranged in... Some other type of way. Not exactly the type who'd judge him harshly because he needed to consume a little blood every now and then to keep himself afloat.

He filed that invitation away for later. Openly feed as a vampire, eh? Well, now that he had the big boss's go ahead, count him in. Hiding it was tiring and bothersome and wholly inconvenient; you wouldn't catch Kole complaining.

'That's not what you actually want, is it?'

Those words rang in his head like somebody had just chimed a church bell directly above him. He turned his head, brow muscles furrowed in an expression of thoughtfulness, to meet Meteor's golden gaze head-on. What ever could he... Mean? His tongue flicked out, swiping along his maw in a wolfish gesture, licking at his too-sharp teeth. The muscle of his tongue was cut cleanly, but Kole didn't bleed.

"Hunting is tiring," he rumbled quietly, rolling onto his side, the fur along his shoulders bristled slightly. He was taking a big gamble here, and he was visibly preparing himself for some kind of backlash. "Consumes a lot of energy; and if I haven't fed in a while, I might not even be able to catch anything... But if I had an, ahem, willing donor... It'd certainly be easier."

[METEOR]

METEOR

As Kole met his gaze, Meteor smirked. So he hadn’t miscalculated. The vampire had preferences, and preferences were often exploitable. It was no loss to Meteor. What was the difference between feeding a vampire and shedding blood in the fight pits? Nothing, really, so long as he understood the risks and consequences as well as he understood the fight pits’ dangers.

“There are times for coyness and subtlety, but this is not one of them.” As he spoke, Meteor grinned. He reached out a paw to rest on the coyote’s shoulder. “This is a negotiation, a trade. Speak plainly. I want to hear your offer.”

Slowly, deliberately not to startle the vampire, the cannibal attempted to drag Kole a bit closer and rest his head on the coyote’s side. Lions couldn’t purr, but Meteor’s relaxed posture and slight smirk conveyed the same message. Kole had clearly expected this conversation to lead to some sort of violence—verbal or otherwise—so Meteor figured treating him like a pillow might set the skittish vampire at ease.

“You want my blood, Kole.” Meteor stated this as fact, not a question. “What are you willing to give me?”

Then Meteor’s golden eyes narrowed. Internal calculations. “And what kind of relationship dynamic are you expecting?”

[kole.]

Of the many, many ways Kole had expected Meteor to react to his thinly veiled proposition, cuddling him was not one of them. He couldn't say he was complaining about it, of course; he'd never been the type to initiate anything physical, as flirty as he had the capacity to be, but he also wasn't about to turn it away, either.

One moment he was laying there, internalising his panic and visualising lion teeth ripping into his flesh for so much as insinuating he wanted to drink Meteor's blood, and then the next, there was a particularly large lion paw dragging him across the space between them, a big, heavy head resting on his smaller, slender body.

If lions could purr, Kole suspected Meteor would be. On the other hand, if he currently had the mental capacity to scream, he absolutely would have. Thankfully, for both his eardrums and Meteor's, his voice seemed to have gotten stuck in his throat. He was tense for several moments, breaths stuttering and frame markedly still, until all at once the tension seemed to seep out of him, expelled in one large exhale, and he sank into the 'embrace' as if he were butter on a hot skillet.

"If... If, ehh, I'm fully fed-" his voice cracked; how utterly embarrassing; and he cleared his throat noisily, swallowing harshly to try and generate some saliva in his mouth, which had suddenly gone dry. "What I'm trying to say is that I'm stronger when I'm being... Properly sustained. You've seen me in the pits... I could be an asset. I could be... Loyal. All I need..." he raised his front limb, tentatively laying it over the lion's broad shoulders, "...is a little blood."

[METEOR]

METEOR

Meteor’s eyes half-closed as he relaxed on his ‘pillow.’ The tension in the coyote’s body carried, but Meteor refused to budge. He actually seemed oblivious to Kole’s internal distress, except, however, for when the coyote finally relaxed. Then one of Meteor’s eyes opened fully and his lazy smirk returned.

While Kole stuttered out his offer, Meteor held eye contact. There was impatience in his golden eyes, in the twitch of his ear. But not judgment, not unkindness. He’d seen enough of the world and its creatures—journeying upon the mainland for two years as an adolescent—to understand what he lacked.

Meteor couldn’t, for the life of him, understand why everyone else had these strange reactions. Shame. Guilt. Affective Empathy. What was the point of these things? They seemed to provide others—like Kole—nothing but distress and actively impede their ability to act in accordance with their wants.

“There’s nobody here but me. No need for embarrassment.” Meteor frowned slightly, but his voice was soft, compassionate. Genuine, too. By Requiem and Vayu, how did others live like that?

“You’re offering loyalty and to fight for me, in exchange for my blood.” As he thought this over, Meteor adjusted his head to rest on the most comfortable place on the coyote’s fur. “I already have that as your pharaoh.” He had already given Kole the ability to live freely as a vampire among cannibals. Clearly, with the amount of trauma Kole carried, that should be enough to keep Kole a loyal Descendant.

“However….” A wide smirk. Meteor’s canine teeth flashed. “I can’t make a final decision until you show me what you mean by stronger when you’re properly sustained.”

Meteor’s golden eyes gleamed. “Feed from me tonight. Then demonstrate what an asset you are.”