008: A Good Deed in a Weary World [Location: Around the City]

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

It was time.

Drusilla had been waiting patiently – for the right moon and the right moment and, most importantly of all, the right people – and, at long last, it was time.

“Little lamb, little lamb
My birthday is here at last!
Little fish, little fish
Do you think I'll get my wish?
Little lamb, little lamb
I wonder how old I am ..?”

Centuries and centuries. It didn’t matter. She’d made her wish and Miss Edith was already on her way. A hundred birthday gifts – a thousand! – couldn’t mean more to her than that.

The vampire stayed close to the shadows. Not because she needed to, no, but because the darkness was soft and familiar. The sleeping city rippled with anticipation. Something was happening. It had started with the Extras, though they hadn’t – wouldn’t – harm Drusilla. Unlike the rest of the residents, she was moving with purpose and determination, encouraged by the hamsters and aided by the stars. They guided her footsteps, telling her who to seek and how to find them.

The first one would be easy. His name had been on the tip of her tongue since she’d spoken to the hamsters. He was so lonely. The loneliest man in any world. He’d be delighted to see a familiar face, wouldn’t he? Just for a little while? His hearts – two of them, which would make sure a mess if his throat was ever slit – hammered with the need for love and attention.

She didn’t know the others, not really. Just their faces. Just their faces and wishes that called to her across the city.

That was more than enough.

OOC: Open to the unfortunate lucky individuals who are about to benefit from Drusilla’s sudden surge of charitable feeling. There is also a fresh heart in a box on Ruby's desk. Good luck with that?

Comments

The Doctor [Location: Wherever the Time Lord is Lurking]

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

Oh, so many ghosts to choose from! Did the Doctor know that they were there? Did he feel them, each day and every day? There was the child who had walked the Earth and the woman that had died to pave the way to the stars. The figure made of stardust and the daughter he hadn’t had a chance to love and the uncrowned queen.

And then there was her. Yes.

Drusilla could be whoever the Doctor wanted her to be. He probably didn’t know it, but the person he wanted most of all – here and now and here - was her.

Two hearts. Heavy robes. Blonde hair. The weight of a race on her shoulders.

Drusilla had crossed the city, but it was Romanadvoratrelundar – former companion and current president of the High Council – who completed the journey.

Re: The Doctor [Location: Not Far From His Old Work Site]

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor was getting tired of being bruised and sore. Just when his stomach injury was finally healing up, that Extra took a swing at him with the pipe, bruising his jaw and splitting his lip. He'd heal, he always healed, but something was very seriously wrong in Taxon.

Still, the ache was physical, at least. Emotionally, he was used to the ache. Used to feeling alone even though he had the presence of friends all around him. Still used to feeling so very old even though time never seemed to pass here.

He pried open a stone and retrieved a new set of plans, something he'd been working on but didn't want to commit to the tablet. He stood and turned, ready to bolt back to HC Clements, when he saw her. Looking just like she was the last time he saw her.

"Romana?"

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

Romana. It was still a mouthful. It didn't really roll off her tongue. At least she had a name, though. He didn't. The man who was staring at her didn't.

"Doctor?" Because she'd know. She'd know. Drusilla fashioned her Romana from the Doctor's memories and from the scraps of thoughts that escaped from his mind at the sight of her and she'd know.

She'd been examining the bracelet, because that was something else that the Time Lord - the Time Lady? - would have done. He'd interrupted her.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

He took a few steps towards her, not close enough to hug her---wasn't the time for that, not yet---but close enough that he could take her in. Romana. It had been a few short centuries since he'd seen her last, calling out through a videoscreen to him during the Time War.

She hadn't changed a bit.

"W-When did you get here?" he stammered. "There wasn't anything on the tablet about you arriving---"

What about the Time War? What about all the things that had to happen to her? All the things he had to do to her.

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

Careless of him to change his face so frequently. Would she be able to see the others - all teeth and curls, all smiles - underneath if she peeled this one away?

"The tablet?" Held in her other hand, as it had been held in Drusilla's. "I have no desire to broadcast the fact that I've been kidnapped, Doctor."

She hadn't changed because his memories hadn't. Romana's image was fixed in his mind. Like a photograph.

"I arrived a few minutes ago. Would you like to tell me where I am?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

Oh, that attitude. Very like her. He found himself smiling, just a little, at the memory now before him. Still, important things to talk about, especially since she's just arrived.

"You're in Taxon," he said, fumbling a little with his papers and stuffing them into his pockets. "Basically it's a great big prison cell. A bit like the Death Zone, only we get reprieves to heal up before our captors toss more at us."

It had been a long time since he'd used a landmark in Gallifrey so casually.

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

A smile. If she'd had a heart, it would have raced in response to that. She'd chosen well. Her expression - Romana's expression - was as intelligent as it should be. The cogs of her mind were ticking away behind her mask.

"Their timing is impeccable," she remarked, as dry as a Time Lord could be. "I take it that we can't contact that outside world? Is ..." - the savage in her skins, what did she call her? - "... Leela here? K-9?"

He was so eager to see Romana that it was easy to seize his memories and slip in further.

Sam [Location: the Edge of the Forest]

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

Drusilla understood loss as well as she understood love. (In a twisted and tangled way that made sense to her alone.) She loved Daddy and Spike and her Slayer and the Dawn Bird, but she’d lost all of them over the years. She’d love the Lady of Camelot, one day, with time and patience. Sometimes they came back. Sometimes they didn’t. She knew, without a shadow of doubt, that she’d relish any opportunity – even a brief fragment of an opportunity – to see them again.

The vampire crept through the trees towards Sam, knowing that she was about to offer him a truly remarkable gift.

He’d be ever so grateful, when he realised.

Re: Sam [Location: the Edge of the Forest]

[eaturbreakfast.livejournal.com]

Sam has just finished training with Ruby and he's exhausted. When his mind is tired like this it tends to jump to more comforting places: The Ozzy concert he saw with Dean, sleeping safe in the Impala when he was a kid and always, whether he wanted to or not, always:

Jess.

That's where his mind is lingering tonight and he doesn't have the strength to pull away from a memory he knows will end in pain. She's leaning against the door frame, smiling at him and dressed in a white nightgown (which is amusing only in that she never wore a white nightgown. It was always his boxers and a smurf tee shirt). He's bent over his books in the living room studying for an exam.

Sam, come to bed. You're going to ace the test

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

Although Jess had chosen simpler clothes while she was alive, the vampire adopting her form had more elaborate taste. The white nightgown was only proper. White for innocence. White for purity. She was an angel in Sam's memories so she became an angel as she hurried towards him through the trees.

Leaves crunched beneath her bare feet. Her eyes were wide. Her blonde hair flowed out behind her, like a banner. Drusilla had never been blonde before. It suited her.

"Sam?"

[eaturbreakfast.livejournal.com]

Sam stops in his tracks and shakes his head. That makes him wince because it makes the headache worse. It can't be. He reaches up and runs a hand through his hair, still hesitating and finally taking a step toward her.

"Jess?" He stutter-stops then takes another step, reaching out a hand to her. "Are you--you shouldn't--"

He swallows hard, choking back emotion. "Are you real?"

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

She was real enough. The hand that reached out for Sam would feel real, if he wanted it to. The slight frown on her face - confusion and not-quite-uncertainty - came straight from his memories. It was hard to reconstruct a person from shattered memories and deep grief, but Drusilla was a very clever girl.

"Are you?" she retorted, taking the hand. Proof. "Where are we?"

[eaturbreakfast.livejournal.com]

He wants it to feel real very badly. His fingers curl around her hand and a little part of him just breaks. Drusilla has him in the palm of her hand. He chuckles softly and nods.

"Yeah...I am." And he moves to crush her to his chest in a hug. He just wants to hold her again; his Jess. "It doesn't matter. It's not important right now. I'll explain later."

In truth he's terrified she's going to be taken away from him any moment or she's going to dissolve into thin air. He doesn't want to waste his time talking about Taxon.

Ruby [Location: Sam Spade’s Office]

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

The box was gold, yes, but the ribbon was red. Not a weak or watery red, but the pure and crystalline red of a drop of fresh blood. The heart inside it didn’t beat. Not anymore. It hadn’t even come from a real chest. The chip in Drusilla’s head had put an end to those ambitions. Still, it was a good present. The vampire would have been happy to receive it herself.

She’d glimpsed the demon in Sam’s head. Clever eyes and blonde hair and a chest filled with the wonderful wickedness that Drusilla adored. Despite herself, and despite the fact that her good deeds were all but done, the vampire had been intrigued.

She didn’t know if she needed friends that weren’t dolls, but, if she did, she’d choose someone as interesting as the demon.

A gift – left without a card on Ruby’s desk – was a good place to start, wasn’t it?

[rubinuslapis.livejournal.com]

When she sees the box, a million things that aren't a cold gooey heart cross Ruby's mind as she anticipates what's inside. So when she lifts the top off after tearing off the ribbon, Ruby gasps a little.

Then comes the suspicion. There are only a handful of people in Taxon who know her preferences, and none of them would approve in this way. Nobody would know that something like this would give her a little skip in her step for the rest of the day. She shoves the top back on, yells to Sam that she's taking her lunch early and stalked out of the office, looking left to right in hopes to glimpse her admirer.

Her feet take her left, and she follows the streets for awhile, cooing here and there when she feels like she's getting warmer. "Come out, come out, wherever you are."

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

Although she'd disappeared, Drusilla hadn't been able to stray far. She was a naturally selfish creature, like all vampires. She'd given the gift out of the goodness of whatever heart she had left, yes, but, most of all, she'd given it to see the demon's reaction.

When she heard the demon approaching, Drusilla - hugging the shadows, peeping out of an alley way, smiling sweetly - laughed. Softly, softly, but loud enough to betray her presence.

[rubinuslapis.livejournal.com]

Her eyes flick to peer at where the sound seemed to come from, and Ruby stalks forward slowly, tipping her head to the side and box still in hand.

"Listen, I'm the last person who's going to freak out over having a psycho stalker, really. So either we play nice and say hi in the open or I say hello to your intestines on a stick once I find you." She stops moving to look back down at the open box. "After I thank you, of course."

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

Drusilla stepped out of the shadows with a sweet smile. For once, the threat - the fight - was something she could respond to. The chip wouldn't hamper her and that knowledge was something to be savoured. After so long, it was almost as thrilling at the fight itself would be.

"Did you like it?"

[rubinuslapis.livejournal.com]

Ruby's been twitchy for something to really sink her teeth into as well. With Captain Moron she still had to be careful and the rest of the kidnapped she'd met were as pansy as they came.

The woman that reveals herself isn't what Ruby expected but the grin on the demon's face means that it's not an unpleasant surprise. "Not every day I get a heart in a box. If mine beat any faster I might have a flush."

After another step forward, the smile turns a little sharper. "Still wondering whether you hoped I'd like it or hoped I'd cringe away like a little bitch, though."

Shane [A Random Street]

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

Last but not least. Never least.

They'd spoken once or twice - and met once, up in the moon - and, although they weren't close kin, they were close enough. A vampire too frightened - of himself, not of pain - to feed. Trapped behind conscience, just like the Angel Beast and the newly arrived version of Spike.

For a moment, she'd considered catching an Extra and making it squirm until he couldn't resist a drink. But then the jealousy had hit her. She'd changed her mind quickly.

She'd have to give him a different sort of gift.

[shaneonyou.livejournal.com]

The good thing about resisting people, the real people, for over four months was that despite the frustration, it eventually helped. Shane found it easier to walk alone. It was risky, sure, a little bit. But Levi was off at his Fangtasia shift and Shane didn't feel like getting a job yet, so why not work at restraint?

Staying to the shadier parts of the street, Shane was a million miles away, lost in thought. When he was alone, it was easy to get homesick. It surprised him, how much he missed hearing stupid comments from the living room, and the house having people in it. He missed Des, Gustav and Leo, but most of all, Ty. Not having him around, to talk or to hunt or to tease Levi, it was just... weird.

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

He wouldn't be alone for long. Drusilla glided towards him, swift and silent. The memories were there. The people he loved and the people he missed. (So many lost people, despite how empty the city was! It had been easy to pick them.)

The figure closest to the surface was a boy. A mischievous, bright eyed vampire.

Just a little closer. Just a little further. She'd be able to pluck him out soon.

[shaneonyou.livejournal.com]

Shane didn't get much further before he could feel someone nearby, the realisation nudging at his thoughtful state. Shane slowed, cautiously glancing around the area, but didn't see anyone. Not yet, anyway...

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

Drusilla stepped out of the side street, but Ty - Tiberius, like the emperor - was the one who gazed around at the unfamiliar buildings. He was charming and as smooth as silk, but, because he should, he wore the confused expression of every new arrival.

He had a bracelet on his wrist. Her wrist. A wrist that took shape as Drusilla unraveled the memories and picked at the edges.

[shaneonyou.livejournal.com]

Someone stepped out of a side street only feet from him, and Shane froze. For a second his mouth just dropped open, surprise making his words stick in his throat, but then he stepped forward, forced those words out.

"Ty? Is that --" No, he couldn't be so gullible -- but he had a bracelet, he was real. "Holy -- holy crap."