Burn and shrivel (Open)

[doreyg]

Cora's met Life again, and Darkness too... Both were quite fun experiences for her, though she has the sneaking suspicion that she might have unnerved quite a few in the process... Ah well, they aren't dead so they should feel lucky.

And she's always rather liked dancing, the type of dancing that is closer to death then life, the slow shamble, the hot and heavy atmosphere of almost destruction... Such things she finds wonderful, such things she is drawn to like it is her temple.

But few build temples to death do they? most are afraid of death.

Apart from vampires, who laugh at it... There are plenty here and although they are less afraid of her then the humans most still give her puzzled glances... She's got the signs of a witch, she certainly doesn't smell like one.

So here is Cora, a lone girl standing near the door and swaying to the primal beat... And she can almost sense somebody coming...

[shinigami]

Darren is there. No, not at the bar. No, not on the dance floor. No, not even in one of the booths all somber gloom and darkness. Darren is there, seated -- dark hair un-mussed, dark shirt un-buttoned, chin in the palm of his hand, upon some stairs that lead god knows where. To another level for select clientele, maybe. To a storeroom, just as likely.

His eyes are half-hooded, and his muddy hazel eyes have been given the illusion of dark due to his placement, the way light and shadow carve his features. Darren is bored. He's bored and he's thinking about -- ... And he's bored. And he wants.

So Cora, with her je ne c'est quois, her wild, mad eyes and her wild, mad hair, is as likely a target for his attention as anybody else. He watches her. And Darren is old, and Darren is strong, so he can recognize it. He rubs the side of his neck then sort of reaches out with his mind to give the witchlet a nudge. A gentle sort of why don't you go hang out over there by those stairs and that dark-haired guy, you know you wanna.

[doreyg]

Cora is not afraid of vampires, she's known them since her second birth and they itch in her mind but it is not a unpleasant itch... More the recognition of one professional passing by another.

And here's another fun fact, Cora is pretty much uninfluenced by mental prodding, she hears it yes but it's just words to her, a suggestion with no push behind it... Unless she chooses to listen.

But this time she does choose to listen, turns around (Giving Darren a good flash of those mad, fiery and just plain old eyes and drifting over to him (There's no other word but drifting, she doesn't really seem to walk but she's too heavy to fly) And then instead of drifting just vaguely over to that space she drifts right up to Darren and gives him a look over and a dreamy smile "Call me?"

[shinigami]

Mad as birds. Cora's eyes are mad as birds. Of course. Because batshit insane women appear to be a working theme with Darren these days. He watches as she drifts over, unabashed, although he is surprised when she drifts right up to him.

"You looked lonely," Darren says, with a smile. The smile is beautiful, but cruel. Very cruel. He recovers from the surprise -- mild -- that she felt his suggestion. Clearly, a powerful witchling; maybe even something other. "And I'm alone. We could keep each other company."

As if Darren didn't keep company with death all the time already as it were.

[doreyg]

Cora looks at him for a moment with a slight wicked smile (That one she hasn't really used since her first life) and then nods "not lonely but I am happy to keep company with those of the midnight."

No self respecting vampire would claim that once Cora was their queen... But then again she considers it so and while she has no wish to regain her title she still feels affection for those of the darkest nights, the Midnighters and vampires of the world.

[shinigami]

"Happy, really," Darren echoes, and his smile is a shadow; is boyish, is endearing; is a shadow. There's something about it. Don't call him sweet; he isn't. He really, really isn't. He pats the step next to him in invitation. "And they say call no man happy until he's dead. Do you believe that?"

Darren? Darren is watchful. He is the quintessential predator. He's that thing in the dark you just don't want to have watching you, even though the watching doesn't necessarily mean harm.

He's just a guy, really.

[doreyg]

"Think I'm a thrillseeker or jsut plain mad" Cora smiles, it isn't really a question... She remembers (distantly) a vampire long ago, thinking her just a idiot and being so shocked when she made him a skeleton, not dead... Just showing what he truly should be.

She wonders if he's still around.

But anyway, she smiles again, sits on the step and jsut watch her pretty little smile spread out until there is something almost wicked about her, something very old and almost skullike in the faint flickering light "Oh, you could stay I started that."

[shinigami]

"Hadn't decided," Darren says, neutrally. There's a smirk sheathed in the smile, but the keyword there is sheathed. "Which do you think you are?"

Then he raises an eyebrow again, as cool as winter can be at dawnlight, and as bleak. Yes, Cora? Cora is differently odd, even considering the women he's been meeting lately. Does Eve count as "women"? He wasn't really certain yet.

"Didn't ask who started it. Asked if you believed it. Or did you start it because you believed it? Some kind of religious thing?"

[doreyg]

"Neither" Cora sings (Yes, actually sings) tilting her head back to the ceiling and shaking out her hair "and I have no religion though they all have me... Round for tea."

Frown, things sometimes slip out with Cora... she doesn't mean to say them but they just appear and take residence inside her skull... and then they have to be said.

As does the next statement, still directed to the ceiling "Do you wanna know what I really am?"

[shinigami]

Of course he does.

But that is a line he's used many times in the past. Too many times. Darren is jaded; he's done it all, he's seen it all. Where is the bloodlust? He used to know. He used to know it in the Biblical sense. He knew it like a book he had tattooed on his heart, but somebody took it, and now? Now he was at a loss.

The (old, aristocratic) lamia rubs the back of his neck and watches Cora for a second, three, the line of her throat when she looks at the ceiling, the way the pulse jumps, before he answers.

"Depends, I guess, on whether what you are is worth knowing."

[doreyg]

Cora's pulse is very thin, barely there half the time and it only really shows when she's very excited or using her powers... And oh she's starting too, there's that dark uncoiling just there.

she smiles, lowers her head to Darren for a moment, lets out a mad chuckle and then tilts her head back the ceiling "Oh, it's worth it alright."

There.

Cora rarely uses the traditional grim reaper form but tonight she is feeling like her old self, is feeling rather wicked and in the mood for a change... So her arms are thinning away to bone, her cheeks are hollowing away and in a matter of seconds that long black skirt, long armed top and hoodie are filled with a strangely animated skeleton.

Which laughs again, still Cora's laugh but strangely darker and louder "GUESS."

[shinigami]

It takes a lot to really and honestly surprise Darren. And a young woman, sure, clearly mad, and, sure, clearly possessed of (or by) some very strong and very old power, shaping herself into a skeleton in a black hood and cowl just about does it. Both of his eyebrows are up, and he flickers fast as a flame guttering out into a crouch; still, there's something almost impossibly cold about him, even though he's clearly puzzled. His head is canted to the side, and it's not at all a human way to look at somebody or something. After a moment, he unsheathes part of his smirk.

"Anorexic. A fan of Halloween. Pestilence." He pauses, says, quietly: "Not a witch, like I thought."

[doreyg]

There is a faint flicker and then Cora sits up with a wince, shaking out her hair and coughing, when she stops she turns back to Darren and giggles again, this time more innocently "I'm a witch, a old witch, a Death" Pause, scowl "Death, I'm Death."

There is a moment where her face grows darker but it is only a moment and she is soon smiling again "What'cha want?"

[shinigami]

Darren's gaze is now pensive. He strokes his chin and then runs his fingers through his dark hair. Impeccable Darren. Even surprise doesn't muss him. Doesn't shake him from being what he is. "Really."

So his senses didn't lie. Essentially, Cora is as vulnerable as any witch. How strange; how odd to contemplate. He presses his palm against the side of his jaw, cracks his neck. "Still company, is all. Unless..."

Darren trails away, lets his voice untangle. Then: "What do you want?"

[doreyg]

Cora certainly wouldn't say that, but she likes Darren so far and is unlikely to go all evil queen of death on him even if he does try and hurt her.

Really she only does that if Vita's being threatened.

Anyway, she blinks, blinks again and then gives him a faintly coy look... Cora isn't really interested in men or woman as such but she is rather interested in the balance of death and life involved in the most intimate of acts... though a rejection would be just as amusing for her, caring is quite beyond her.