Stream of Unconsciousness (Hypnovamp Hyperfixation Powerhours)

A weird pile of questions but I keep wondering:
Is Lexi not doing Lia more than once a being ace thing, or a incompatibility thing? Related, is his reluctance to hurt her even for fun him being upset by her -gestures at Lia- or him being actually kinda vanilla?

 

It's mostly a compatibility thing. Lexi's trauma-ace; it's not that he doesn't experience attraction, it's that he thinks about acting on it and his brain immediately goes "wow! let's not!!"

The first time between Lia and Lexi (they do end up fucking again, there's just a pretty long while between) was. Fraught. It wasn't so much an incompatibility thing as the fact that they were very compatible, but Lia was very On Her Bullshit and Lexi is. Well, to answer your question, very not vanilla and also not very ok with it, considering how fraught his sexuality is already. So Lexi went "that's not happening, at least not like that again" and refused to sleep with her again until they sorted things out.

Lexi's got a lot of internal conflict re: being a predator, especially since he managed to mostly ignore it since he was so isolated. And then there's Lia pushing all these buttons he really doesn't want pushed, and when he responds he's uncomfortable with his responses and Lia is increasingly [eyes emoji. eyezoom emoji. EYESHAKE EMOJI. EYEZOOM SHAKE EMOJI]

Lexi doesn't like hurting people in general, he doesn't like what he's been made to be- literally, as a vampire, and socially- and then there's Lia being both so very, very breakable and eager for it and he just. Cannot cope. Especially since she wants breakage that's pretty far past healthy (she completely fails to see the problem with what Kat did to her, for instance) and Lexi is, as noted, a big ol' worrybutt who's already afraid he'll go to far, Lia balks at negotiation and really any attempt to make things safer for her, and probably wouldn't care if he did go too far.

They are an absolute mess and after his control slips the once Lexi refuses to do anything until at least Lia is Less Mess.

 

It is time to break out the rare "Oh no Lexi" and also now i wish to at least pet him.

 

Same. oh no lexi....[attempts a hug??]

 

Lexi is also not very OK, he just hides it better.

 

1207 words last night, which means I am almost

almost

done with this section

I don't like the end of the party scene or the transition, but it might be better after editing, or I might come around to it after letting it sit.

 

I have finished it. Need to assemble warnings. Gorlfren has read, had many thinky thoughts, made me very happy.

 

I am prolly gonna nap but

-cups hands together- Queerstions? Prompts?

 

i have yet to backread so apologies if questions were asked before
favorite genre of music? do any of them play an instrument or sing?

 

This is a very silly one but, you mentioned Lexis height changes. Does that change how is clothes fit, or does it adjust itself to them because of his expectation of how his clothes fit?


Prompt: Opal and her Vamp: Gathering

 

Lia likes anything loud and thumpy, but she's not especially picky genrewise- she's as likely to go for industrial as heavy metal.
Lexi likes. Weird. He prefers a softer sound but actually enjoys darker lyrical content. He probably does like Birdeatsbaby, which is fitting considering how many of his songs are by them. Some softer rock-adjacent music like Tapping the Vein and Pretty Girls Make Graves. Also whatever's going on with Bitter Ruin, and a fair amount of dark cabaret (more towards Harlequin Jones and Clare Fader.)
Caelia's taste is 'horny' and is likely to listen to Genitorturers as Jill Tracy.
Pietro has a weakness for symphonic metal.

Caelia's picked up a couple instruments but gets bored easily. I think the only ones she's really kept up with are piano and harp. She and Lia both sing.

The variation in height is usually subtle enough it's not much of a problem, but if there's enough of a difference between what he's trying to wear and his current height he'll subconsciously adjust.

Prompt will be a separate post while I multitask on it :P

 

Spoiler: Birthday!

Opal didn't know why she expected a speakeasy to smell dusty. It didn't- it smelled like a bar, but nicer. Old leather and hardwood and gin. This wasn't her first time among vampires- she had lived with one for most of her life, and he hadn't kept others away, but he had also only allowed the ones he felt could be trusted. Now she was being introduced properly, and it felt at once familiar and strange. She recognized Xiulan, one of Callen's long time... friends? Callen typically didn't exactly have what your average person could easily call 'friends,' and Xiulan was certainly closer to a friendly adversary, but she had certainly been a fixture in Opal's life. There were a few others, too- Faizel, Lumi, Stefan- all of whom were practically family friends. Others she had only seen once or twice, many she didn't know at all, and some she knew only by reputation- like the man in front of her.

She had sat herself on a squashy leather couch from which she could see almost the entirety of the room, including the only exit- and the rest of the room could see her, which was only fitting considering it was her birthday. Most vampires, as they arrived, stopped to wish her happy birthday. Some lingered on their feet for just a few more minutes- typically those she already knew- before moving on; others left immediately. Then a rather small, unassuming man arrived. The room's response wasn't anything so obvious as silence, things just seemed to become muted in his wake, suddenly distant as if he were the only fixed point in reality. Opal had dreams like that, sometimes, where the world became malleable except for a single thing, a place, a person, an object.

There was nothing special about the man's face, a little broad in the way that sometimes got described as 'honest', skin deep gold past the pale cast of death, a little too thin to be attractive- but his eyes were pits, a cold and sharp blackness. Opal thought of the obsidian mirror she had seen at the museum, so dark and fathomless she could have believed they showed another side to reality. He was dressed well- an immaculately tailored suit that appeared black at first, but when he moved showed there was a subtle pattern only slightly lighter than the base- that suited what he was, but still lacked the pull of his eyes, and his brown-black hair was kept incredibly short. He set his elbows on the little table, laced his fingers together with his thumbs touching, and leaned in. "Happy birthday, miss Parlow." He spoke in a baritone as dark and smoky as the sky in a forest fire, and made no introductions. He didn't have to- Opal could have been blind and known who he was.

Iva, the second oldest vampire in existence, founder of his own line, to whom Callen was legacy- one of the most dangerous creatures in the world, a known killer, barely restrained by some internal ruleset only he himself was fully privy to- had sat in front of the young woman and opened a dialog. Perhaps someone else would have been afraid- she was, her heart was pounding, but it was purely a physical response to the fact that every facet of her awareness was screaming about having the attention of a consummate predator- or uncertain, but Opal was intrigued.

"The only ones who ever call me 'miss Parlow' are people who knew my parents."

That ended up being Opal and Iva instead but it's Callen's fault so I'll say it counts.

 

what are eligible so, nonvamps, coffee orders?

 

Lia: Coffee. Is it caffeinated bean juice? If yes, she will drink it. She'll order cold brews and drink them black, or will order whatever looks interesting at the moment. If she can't be bothered to make an Actual Decision she defaults to spiced/Mexican mochas if available, or caramel macchiatos.
Azalea: Not a heavy coffee drinker; will typically order a latte with flavored syrups.
Vanessa: White chocolate mochas or nothing
Kat: Orders gas station coffee and drinks it black. She'll put in the little STōK pods if they're available. It's frankly kind of impressive she hasn't had a heart attack yet.

Nico: Actually likes his coffee halfway to cake. Will order obscene sugary frappes without the barest trace of irony.
Gale: Prefers tea.
witch! and mage!Laverna: Will drink anything. Trends towards lattes and sugary coffees because her metabolism demands calories.
timefcku!Laverna: Plain drip coffee, but with a handful of creamer pods and sugar packets until it's pale and sweet.

 

I donno if anyone's noticed but hunter names have been a little rare, at least for PNW where Blusridge is.

This is 1) me liking distinctive names and 2) because hunters are this weird mix of modern and traditional

So old names that have gone out of fashion where they're living are still being passed down even as naming trends change, and while most hunters stick to their home areas more important members might travel globally, so names get spread around. Names also aren't passed down linearly- for most people a name is usually inherited from a family member (Lexi actually named himself after his grandfather) but hunters typically name children after unrelated hunters- someone they were trained alongside who died, one they worked with on an especially hard hunt, the stronger healers get so many kids named after them, with family names (typically piblings) being the least common inheritance. This is also how the less stationary hunters effect name spread; they might only be in a town for a month or two, but end up with a kid there named after them for whatever reason. With them gratitude and inspiration are the most common reason.

 

There was something else I was gonna do a writeup about but I forgot. Something about mages/magic I think, but it was fuck o'clock in the morning and it fell outta my brain.

Send questions/prompts if want

 

Prompts: Smug, fluff.

 

Spoiler: Smug

"So, I've finally figured something out about you." Lia said without looking up from whatever arcane nonsense she was cooking; there were eggs and anchovies involved, and Lexi really didn't want an answer to the number of questions that were forming as he watched.

"Oh? Only just now?" It was perhaps a little unfair; he knew he was more than a little difficult to figure out, but he also knew she appreciated it more than his usual picking through a minefield of manners. He had found that candor always went much farther with her than gentleness.

"Fuck you, you opaque asshole." She bit back without any real anger, gesturing sharply with a wooden spatula that only just failed to flick hot tomato sauce in his direction. "But also thank you for proving my point before I've even made it."

He couldn't help but laugh at that, settling his arms on the island counter. "Now I'm very curious. Please, share this new revelation."

"You're a smug bastard. You're quiet so people don't notice it, but you-" the spatula shook again behind her in his general direction "-are horrendously smug. It's terrible. Insufferable."

He didn't even try not to laugh this time.

I'll start 'fluff' after nyap

 

I lied; I'll write 'fluff' once I've decided if I want to take it literally or not (or both)

 

Spoiler: Fluff (mild torture aftermath)

There are a few things Laverna remembered from those early nights. At the time she only knew Zedra as 'the woman with the dark eyes,' too lost and disjointed to remember her as anything else. She remembered the press of cool hands against her wrists, staunching the flow of blood after her bindings were released. She remembered being carried, the first touch of fresh air in so long. (How long? How long had she been down there, in the cold dark?)

The first thing she really remembered was the bath, the first time she had been warm in so long. The water had probably been a perfectly reasonable temperature but it was nearly too much for her, bordering on discomfort. Zedra had been so, so careful back then with her, with the terrible intimacy that came from caring for anyone, but especially her as she shivered naked in the tub while Zedra carefully cleaned the blood and grime away. It took two changes of the water, and a third just for her hair, but the combined discomfort of the touch and the warm water meant that by the time they were through she was almost real again.

What stuck the most, though was after; the towels were new, the first touch of genuine softness in so long, and they left a layer of loose burgundy fluff clinging to her skin in places. She was wrapped in an equally new an shed-prone robe, then carried to a spare bed. It felt like it hadn't been used in a long time, or ever, but the blankets were soft and warm. Zedra tucked her in- she was barely strong enough to stand on her own, not with more of her blood outside her body than in, getting into bed herself was already utterly exhausting- and drew back, a woman on a precipice.

"No. Stay." Laverna rasped out, blanket bunched between her arms like a body. "Not- can't be-"

"Alright," Zedra had said, "I won't leave you on your own."

She didn't.