Fun...Fun..Fun(open)

Sage sat silently on the edge of camp. His mind else where. He was looking into the distance, not focusing on anything. He didn't have to. Nothing was going on around him, just the faint cherps of birds.

He was dressed in his dark red silk shirt that was loose. The shirt was open leaving his chest bare. The long sleaves billowed in the wind but were tight at the cuffs. He black jeans were the perfect fit and tucked into his boots. The black vest he wore was in the grass beside him. The wind making it move ever so slightly.

He leaned back on his elbows, exposing his chest. The cool breeze dancing over his skin. His shortish black hair moved in the wind. He was perfect but yet something was wrong with him. He was marked as a diffrent vampire, as the cross burn on his right arm showed. He was also a little darker then some but had teh heart of gold. He liked sharp things. He owned a stripper club, one of the few, and a small cafe on the outsirkts of the city. He liked talking to the eldery peope that came in on afternoons. They made him smile.

Maybe that is where his mind lingered. On the small cafe or his club. No one would know until they asked the question. Or perhaps he was thinking about something else. Something more important, more complex maybe.

Alicesme was wandering aimlessly around the camp when she saw Sage lying back on the outskirts, jsut enjoying the cool breeze.
She came over and sat besides him. The wind picked up and she zipped her bomber (leather) jacket up around her t-shirt.
"Beautiful weather" she said.
And It was true, Alicesme loved the cold, she loved the wind and the rain and storms and clouds. She loved the speed that came with the lightening, she loved the power that came with the thunder, the beauty that clouds created and the atmosphere that the rain brought.
"Now if only that dark cumulus over there would rain on us"

Alicesme wrapped her arms around her legs, tilted her head to the side and rested it on her knees.
She closed her eyes and listened to the wind.

"I would ask what you're thinking" She started, "But I hate that question, when ever someone asks me that, all I end up thinking about is how to answer the question and not about thinking stuff. does that even make sense?" she paused, opening her eyes. "Sorry, I'm rambling."
She sat up straight and crossed her legs. "What's on your mind? no wait, that's just as bad....uhm....what were you thinking about that made you look like you were concentrating on it." She began to laugh. "wow, I'm really bad at small talk, sorry."

Sage lay there looking up. There really wasn't anything to see but he let his mind wander. Secretly if could have been something dirty, yet you may never know. He liked keeping things very vage to people. It was one of his best ways of staying hidden.

A girl, young by the looks of it, came and sat down beside him. It was his fellow team member, Alicesme. She was very smart and pretty in his eyes. Yet she wa a diffrent type of vampire. One that doesn't sleep. One that doesn't have to worry about the sun or crosses. Sometimes he wished he didn't have to but he did. He was a true vampire in his mind.

She started rambling. Small talk wasn't her thing. He laughed a little. "I was thinking of really nothing at all," his voice smooth like silk. "Nothing important anyway." He looked at her. "What brings you out this way?"

"What brings you out this way?" Sage's voice was smooth like silk.
"oh, the weather I guess. I just like the wind, hoping it'd get abit wilder acctually." Alicesme grinned. "yeah, I know it sounds abit weird, but I just love the power that comes with it. I think it's magnificent, beautiful, and it's stronger down here than it is by the river."
She lay down on her back and gazed up at the sky above. "I like the clouds too." She added.

They lay in silence for a while.
"You're different from the rest of us. Not the same.
why is that?" she asked,still gazing up at the sky, then quickly added. "sorry, I don't mean to be rude, I'm just curious.
You don't have to tell me if you don't want to"

she stretched out her legs and let out a deep breath.
Her hands lay at her sides, fiddling with the blades of grass underneath her.

Theresa walked out of the crime hoping to find someone to talk to, She saw Alicesme and Sage lying on the outrskirts
She wandered over, "hey, do you mind i i sit down here? Sorry i just had to get out of the crime room." She blushed when Sage and ALicesme stared at her. "i didn't get bored of crime, thank heavens, i just didn't have anyone to robb"

Alicesme tilted her head as she heard Theresa approaching.
"Yeah, sit with us. You can try and save our feeble attempts as conversation." She laughed.
Alicesme dropped her head back to the ground and returned to gazing up at the sky.

The clouds were slowly drawing nearer and Alicesme grinned.
"There's rain afoot" she said.
She kicked off her shoes and removed her jacket, revealing a white lace shirt.
Her hands lay at her side, pulling at blades of grass between her fingers.
And sure enough withing afew moments it began to rain.
Not heavily, just a light shower. One she hoped would progress further.
Alicesme closed her eyes and smiled as the first few drops fell onto her pale skin.

Sage looked over at Aliceseme. His eyes the color of a deep forest. They were tracing if you wre human. Even some vampires fell under the spell. He could case people to fall at he feet at will if he wanted to. One perk about being a vampire of his race. He even had something e could call. His was lepords.

"Yes I'm diffrent." his voice seemed to cut through the air. "I was changed by a diffrent vampire. I was 20 when it happened. He felt my power and changed me over." He looked back up at the coulds. "Every human has power with in and the key is to find it."

Rain started to fall. He took off his silk shirt and put it under his vest. The vest and shirt he created into a pillow. Silk was never goods when wet, it ruiens it. His burn mark shwoed clearly on his pale skin on his right arm. He wasn't trying to hide it. Rain started to fall on his chest then his face.

"The rain is winderful," he sighed. "Just wonderful."

Alicesme opened her eyes and looked over to Sage, his voice slicing through her thoughts.
Her face was still, portraying no emotion, not like usual.
Her eyes were drawn to his right arm, a burn indented upon the skin.
"The rain is wonderful," Sage sighed. "Just wonderful."
She watched as the rain fell upon his arm, the little droplets that edged towards his mark.
"It's magnificent," She said, still watching his burn. "I've found that it's one of the few things that still make me feel alive."

As she said this the rain came down heavier, the heavens opened and the water fell thick and fast.
Her stone face broke and she grinned.
Alicesme rested her head on the grass and opened her eyes, watching the rain fall towards her.
Little drops of water sending shivers of reality through her body. Each drop like a little bolt of electricity.
"Beauty is definatly in the eye of the beholder. Most people shun the rain and storms, shy away from it. But I've always loved it.
We used to do this when I was a child. When ever there was a storm my sister and I would lie in the fields near our house and even after the rain stopped we would lie there still, in the moist grass just trying to hold onto that little passage of time that made us feel alive."

A bright flash illuminated the surrounding area just before a deep rumble errupted from the clouds above.
"Brilliant" she beamed.

"Normally, I would start screaming now, becasue my hair and Clothes are going to be ruined, but oh well" Theresa laughed. She felt quite uncomfortable. She loved the rain but didn't like it raining on her. Her eyes wondered around the camp. She saw Major jasper "Um.. guys, i'm going to say hi to Major jasper, i haven't seen him since the battle.

Alicesme tilted her head to watch Theresa leave. "Bye Theresa." She called after her. "Tell the major I'll see him soon, I'm just enjoying the rain too much at the moment."
She grinned and rested her head back on the ground.

The surrounding area exploded in light and the thunder shook her.
She rolled onto her side to face Sage, her eyes focusing on his burn.
"It makes me feel as though I can cry again. The rain" she added, trying to make her sentance make sense.
"It feels like tears. It's glorious." She sighed, her voice was like chimes, another gift that helped in the immortal world that she was trapped.

A wet strand of hair fell down against her cheek and she lifted her hand and brushed it back out of the way.
Her eyes still focused on the burn.
"The brand?" She questioned, shifting her gaze up from his arm to his eyes. "Why?"

(OCC: USe J from now on...)

J rolled his head over to one side. He watched the gril beside him. Her eyes never really leaving the burn mark on his arm. He wasn't ashamed of it. It was a battle mark, or he liked to think so. Oh why it is on his arm and not his chest only the person that gave it knows. The burn was just something that was going to be there forever.

"Some people don't agree vampirism is the way to go," he sighed and looked back at the stars. "The feel it is suicide and want it to stop. There was of stoppong it is killing off the worlds Vampires. My kind are legal in the united states and parts of Europe but that doesn't stop vampire groups from riseing up. The whole thing is a horror story."

Rain fell on in his eyes. He blinked them out. "My burn comes from a last attepmt chance to save their lives," he laughed at little. "There is realy nothing worse then seeing a athist with a cross. It almost makes you feel sorry for them. Almost."

"I'm sorry" Alicesme said as J turned his head back to the sky.
She continued to watch him as the rain was slowing and the clouds parting to reveal a stary nights sky behind.
The cresent moon shined down through a gap in the cloud bank.
"Really though, Atheists with a cross?" She laughed abit at the idea and rolled back onto her back and watched stars aswell.

A quick breeze picked up, whipping her dripping hair around her face.
Alicesme sat up and picked up her jacket. She lay back down and clutched the coat to her chest,
closed her eyes and breathed in the leather. Memories filled her head, ones from her human life.
She smiled at the comfort that such little things could bring.

"So," She started. "What do you do for fun? you know, when we're not planning battles.
I mean I've got my dictatorship to plan with Elizabeta, what do you have?"

He smiled at the girl next to him. Come to think of it she was cute. He pushed the thoughts out of his head. He had a love. Human but he loved her. She worked at his cafe. She was nice and he admired her from a far. She was wonderful.

"I run a cafe in france," he laughed. "Full of people that if you listen will tel you a life story."
He pictured the old couple that came in everyday at noon. They were a around 85 but still going storng. The woman had come in with out her husban one day becasue he had a heart attack. She talked to him for hours on end. "There is this one couple that come in everyday and talk with me. They are perfect for each other. And more then once the old man gave me advice on how to get the girl."

He turn on his side to look at Alicesme. "My kind of vampire is known by the world so they know I'm a vampire," he smiled. "They haven't shied away from me because of it. I'm the Master of the City there."

Alicesme smiled and rolled over to face J.
"I'd love that, to be known for what I was.
I don't think I'd even care if anyone accepted me or not.
I'd just like the secrets to be over. I hate hiding what I am.
You can't trust anyone or expect the truth from them if you're never honest in return."

She fingered with her jacket some more.
"I love my life here, it's just hard sometimes.
The only people's trust that I can recipricate are part of an army.
How messed up does that sound"
She laughed a little, but it didn't reach her scarlet eyes.

He looked at her. He thought about what she had just said. She was right only his kind of vampire was known to the world. And even then his kind was rejected at time, hunted even.

"There is a up side to not being known," he sighed. "You aren't hunted."

He knew it was silly but it was a bright side.



(done from my iPod so sorry for the shortness)

(that's fine-hehe, I just previewed my post....It's extremely long, looks like I'll be making up for your short one anyway. )

Alicesme took a moment to consider what J had said.
"I know that I should be grateful that I'm not hunted," her eyes flickered to his burn and then quickly back to his eyes.
"but at least if I was then this place would feel like a sanctuary, a safe haven, I would be here out of choice.
No, I mean I am here now out of choice, only.
Oh, this is so hard to word."

She bit her lip and stopped, trying to re-think how she would say this.

"I am here out of choice, this being the better instead of roaming around, even if I had a coven of my own I would practically be alone.
I see this place like a child would see living at home with a father who beat them.
They live there, not because they are forced to, but neither because they want to.
They stay there because the option of running away is even less appealing.
But if they had come from the streets, if I had come from a place where I was hunted,
then living with a parent who beat you would seem better than what you had escaped from.
Do you understand what I mean?"

Alicesme's clothes had began to dry off and so she sat up and put on the leather jacket.
She crossed her legs and sat, back straight, like she always had.
She noticed then, for the first time, J's beauty and was suddenly very consious of the fact that he was topless.
Physically she was two years older, but by vampiric standards she was deffinatly the younger,
being changed only about 2 years prior to this date.
She had never been one for hiding her feelings but at this moment Alicesme decided it best not to paint these emotions over her face.

She smiled meekly.
"I'm sorry if you can't see what I mean, I've never been too good at thinking on the spot. Come back to me in afew hours and I'll have thought of the perfect way to word it.
Unfortunatly that tends to be the case when I'm argueing aswell, I'll loose the argument and be fuming over it for the rest of the day, by the next morning I'll have though up the perfect comeback, unfortunatly I'll have missed the opportuninty to use it."
She grinned.

J sat up to listen to her. He wanted to hear what she would say.
He watched her talk and was listing to almost every word.
He was studing her or vagly that is.
Intersted in what she had to say on this point was more then he expected.

"I so see your point," he smiled at her. "I get the feeling. You really don't belong her but you stay becasue you don't have anywhere else to go." He ran a hand through his hair, the short black hair. He watched a flicker of some emotion cross over her eyes. "And in that you won't leave becasue this place has become your home."

She was talking about a beaten child. She knew nothing of he thought. He knew all to well what it meant to be beat bloddy. he still had the scars to prove it. Just one more flaw to him. He was waiting for the final mark of holy water. Then he would perefctly mared but he could hold off on the water.

"But if the child was beaten enough running away would be better," he looked her in the eyes. A flicker of sorrow passed his eyes. "They would run becuse they couldn't take another lash by their father. Running away would seem right to them and even if they were hunted it would be better then having to look the man you care about in the eyes as he lashed you."

He laid back down in the grass. He looked up at the stars. The clouds had gone away. He turned faceing away from her. The scars on his back where whiter then his skin. He sat up and grabbed his shirt. It was wet regardless of him trying to save it. He put it in the grass to dry.

Alicesme watched as J brushed a hand through his dark hair.
"But if the child was beaten enough running away would be better," J looked her in the eyes and she saw a flicker of sorrow pass through his. "They would run becuse they couldn't take another lash by their father. Running away would seem right to them and even if they were hunted it would be better then having to look the man you care about in the eyes as he lashed you."
She realized that she had touched upon a 'raw nerve' so to speak, that this matter was obviously something that he felt connected to.
"Then I hope this place dosen't beat me too badly."
She added solemnly as he lay down and turned away from her.
She saw then the scars that ran down his back. Dozens of pale white marks, ones even whiter than his skin.

Such pain he must have endured to collect all of these.
Oh, Who could do such a terrible thing to such a beatiful soul?

The idea of such pain brought a lump to her throat and if she had been human a single tear would have deffinatly be crawling it's was down her cheek by now.
He suddenly sat abruptly upright and grapped for his shirt. This surprised her a little and she composed her face.
J then, due to it's dampness she assumed, placed the shirt out on the grass beside him.

((sorry, can't think of anything more to put))

He put his heand in his hands. The memory was fresh on his mind now that he thought about it. He had pushed it away from so long that it was hard to let it come back. He had grown up that way. It wasn't uncommon at that time to take a horse whip to your child. It had been done to him. Even the rich did it to their children.

He turned back towards her. His eyes a deeper green then they had bee na few seconds ago. A light sigh pased through his lips as he looked at her. "This place here is something better then most," he looked out. "Sure it isn't perfect but nothing is."

He passed his hand through his hair again. His thoughts lingering on the whips used to mark him. He knew of the whips in the punishment chamber he knew how they were used. He also knew that they were just for show as well. She had a lot of things just to make it look worse then it already is. Eva wa good at stuff like that.

He looked up into her eyes. Thoughts floowed through them and he could read her like a book. "Ever hear the term whipping boy?"

J looked up into Alicesme's eyes, something resembling understanding was portrayed there.
"Ever hear the term whipping boy?"
Her stomach clenched as his words cut through her.
She instinctevly reached out and stroked his arm.
"Oh, that's...oh I'm sorry" were all the words that managed to escape her lips.
She kept rubbing his arm, not sure why, she just felt she needed to.


((okay, I've tried to edit this post....and I really don't know what to put, so sorry for it's shortness))

He looked at her. His words cut through her, he could tell.
She started to rub his arm.
He wanted to pull it back but did nothing but let her.

"Don't be sorry for me," he sighed. "It was such a long time ago."
He moved his hand on top of her's. He moved his fingers lightly over her skin.
"You never answered my question," he smiled at her.

J's fingers danced lightly over Alicesem's skin leaving little buzzing lines traced around her hand.
A smile played over his lips and she smiled back, meeting his gaze.
"Your question?" she asked. "Are you reffering to the previous. The whipping boy, I am aquainted with the term." She tried to smile but anger swelled through her system, anger for those who proclaimed that 'the devine rights of kings' meant that Princes couldn't be punished.
That the friend of the prince would be whipped in their stead.
She hid this anger merely for her benefit, she knew that J would be able to tell anyway.
She hid it to try and supress it, to keep it under control.
Her life had been so easy in comparrison and she felt immensly guilty for that.
Not a rational guilt, no blame for his torments could be laid upon her and yet she felt responsible for them alll.
"A scapegoat, that's what they were. The term orriginated from tudor England. When the devine right of the kings, the belief that they were placed in power by god himself, led to the belief that the princes could not be punished for their wrong doings, a boy who was raised with them, brought up to be the princes friend, was whipped in his stead." She recited the information and smiled, remembering where it came from.
"It must be about 10 years ago now, in my history class we were studying the Tudors and asked to write an essay about anything from under their rule and present it to the class. Most people chose the marital record of Henry VIII, I chose whippingboys. A topic that truly disgusted me."
A small smile played on her lips.
"Sorry, I just..It's just so weird being here, with you.
I mean you are like a real peice of history, if it wasn't for all you expreienced in the past then things would be different today.
And here I am, talking to you.
Talking to a man who should have died so long ago."
The smile fell from her lips and she dropped her hand back to her side. "Sorry, that sounded so, so...sorry.
I mean, I'm really glad you didn't die...
Oh crap, that just sounded even stupider.
Sorry, I'm just, sorry."

He listend to her talk. Her vocie filled with emotion.
He could feel the raw power coming from her. It ran down his spin and he shivered slightly.
Qucikly he rubbed her arm then her back trying to calm her.
"I see you are familiar," he sighed. "I was hoping you would be."

He ran a hand through his hair in one quick motion.
"I should have died but I didn't," he smiled at his thoughts about his master. "I was saved by a kind soul, one who had been through hell and back. He was so old, about as old ad time itself."

He thought back on the old man. He died the best way he could. By his own creation, by his wishes of course.
J wouldn't kill anyone he didn't have to.
He looked into her eyes and saw them swiming with emotion.

He reached over and kissed her cheek. "What questions do you have for a peice of time? I'll answer anything."

She smiled as his lips brushed her cheek.
Little electric shocks pulsated through her body.
The quiet serenity that passed in that place was calming and she was thankful for that, for the peace gave way for the anger to leave her.

"Any question? ” She mused,
“Wow, you really shouldn’t have said that, now you’ll never have a decision out of me.”
She looked deep into his eyes.
“There is so much that I wish to know, so much that I would like to learn and understand, or at least to comprehend.
The origin of the universe, how life came to be upon this planet,
why we can search to understand the workings of our mind without the driving force for these questions allowing itself the answer,
if there is such a thing as god…I could go on for hours.”
A smile played on her lips.
"Know any of those?
Or, were you thinking more personal questions?"

She said questions and he wasn't that old.
He hadn't been here since the begnining of time. That was his master.
No he was here for around 1000 years if that.
"No I can't anser any of those," he laughed. "I'm not that old."

He smiled back at her. hsi green eyes grwoing darker.
"Personal is fine," he sighed. "I don't mind at all. I have nothing to hide."
He spread his arms out showing he had nothing.
his shirt moved and made him look puffy.
"I lood like a berry of some sort without my shirt tucked in," he laughed.

he stood with one motion and turned. He wasn't aboutto undo his pants with her eyes watching. That would be crule. He quickly tucked his shirt in and turned back to face her.

"Questions?"