[So Quick Bright Things Come to Confusion]

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

Characters: Drusilla (a_pretty_fire) and Juni (swanseer)
Time: After This
Location: The Theatre
Summary: Although Drusilla's favourite theatre trips usually involve dancing girls in beautiful dresses, she has decided to let Juni give her a tour. At least she'll get to spend some time with her sweet little swan bird.
Warnings: I think 'Drusilla' is enough of a warning in itself. Vampirism and insanity, at the very least. And femslash?



Theatres were filled with shadows. The actors left ghosts behind every time they played a new part and stepped in and out of someone else's skin. Drusilla could hear them whispering as she made away across the empty stage. All those forgotten characters. As soon as they'd said their lines and taken their bows, the audience just dismissed them. How rude.

Puck, Ophelia and Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Cleopatra, Macbeth. They were all crying out for vengeance and acknowledgment, but their lips had no sound left. They were hollow.

The girls had been played by boys, once. That's what Daddy had said. Long ago, but not too long. Longer than Drusilla could remember. Would she have had to play a boy instead, if they were stealing her clothes? She'd have a made a good Hamlet. She'd learned to pretend to be mad a long time ago. Keep them guessing. Never let them see the real face in the mirror. (She didn't get to see it. Why should they?)

Mama had read Shakespeare to her. Not Hamlet, though. Murder and suicide weren't suitable subjects for a good little Catholic girl. Even a good little Catholic girl with the devil's mark on her brow.

Strange, really. Telling her about fairies had been even more foolish. It opened the door for the pixies, before Mama and Drusilla had even realised there was a lock.

"So quick bright things come to confusion," she murmured with a laugh. Her bare feet left prints in the dust, and she twirled in a wide circle before stopping and facing Juni with a wide smile on her face. "It's beautiful."

Comments

[swanseer.livejournal.com]

Now Juni would love Drusilla to meet the lambs, with their stupid ideas about science and genetics… The lambs couldn’t just accept magic as fact, they had to analyse everything from a scientific viewpoint and in that they were starting to lose their true purpose… Or at least that was what her father had told her, daddy had never approved of the lambs, most people from her family hadn’t.

Of course, times had probably changed… Though she didn’t think that it’d changed that much, those descended from Bartholomew knew how to hold a grudge after all.

Juni smirked slightly at the air and settled herself deeper into the alcove, slinking back into the shadows and waiting… There was no possibility of Drusilla not finding her really, even if she used magic to turn invisible or something Drusilla would still know that she was in the general area… She suspected that winning at hide and seek with vampires was about as possible as winning a eating contest against demons.

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

Drusilla wouldn't have liked the Lambs very much. She didn't just dislike science, she didn't believe in it. She hated the idea of bits and molecules and wires. She hated the idea of anything that told people how they were supposed to work. The vampire saw it every day in her poor, broken Spike. She'd rip the Lambs to pieces to keep them from doing the same thing to the other creatures of the night.

With a smile of her own, her blissfully free of troublesome science, Drusilla crept forward and rested a cold hand on Juni's shoulder.

[swanseer.livejournal.com]

Magic was much more powerful than science anyway, with most science it took ages to get anything done while with magic a flick of the wrist could change the universe in seconds… Juni was quite happy with having no knowledge of the process; all she knew was that it probably wasn’t up to genes.

The truth was that most humans were capable of magic, but few of them were ever called on to use it and when faced with the true use of such magic most refused to acknowledge it, magic wasn’t really down to genes and Juni held the opinion that the lambs were fools for thinking anything of the sort.

Juni was still smirking at the air when Drusilla touched her, to her credit she didn’t jump into the ceiling or scream but instead just started slightly and turned around to face her “That was fast.”

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

"Swift as an arrow, I am," she purred, drumming her fingers against the material of Juni's clothing as she moved her hand down the other woman's arm and into her palm.

Magic wasn't necessarily common in Drusilla's world, but it was common enough if you knew where to look. Witches and wizards danced under the moonlight, although Drusilla had been very disappointed to discover that they didn't use broomsticks. She'd checked.

There were gypsies with their wicked curses and sorcerers with their clever books. Who needed science? The world was complicated enough.

[swanseer.livejournal.com]

As Drusilla hand moved down her arm Juni's smirk softened just slightly and she gave the hand in hers a slight squeeze as soon as they were touching "much swifter than any of my demons, most definitely."

She had checked after all, there was nothing so wonderful as running down a corridor at full speed to check how fast most demons could run... Most of them were extremely fast but Drusilla was still faster and had a much better way of finding her (ripping up entire rooms just to get to one little human did rather lack tact.)

People had existed without worrying about science for many years, magic was far more useful anyway, science couldn't keep you alive against demons.

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

"They're your demons," Drusilla chastised cheerfully, "You'd pick prettier demons. Brighter demons."

Demons like Drusilla, perhaps. Although not that prettier. No hand-crafted demons could compete with a wild princess like Drusilla.

"Shall we run? Wind in our hair and sand in toes."

[swanseer.livejournal.com]

"I suppose I would" Juni smiled softly, nodding "and I'd make them listen to me occasionally too... But I certainly don't have the skill to create demons."

Only the demon masters could create life out of nothing, and even then the process had a high chance of going very wrong... She had nowhere near that power, she would have loved it but her power manifested in stupid visions that she couldn't control.

The universe had a twisted sense of humour.

Juni paused for a second and then looked back over her shoulder "...We can't really run in here."

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

"I can," said Drusilla in a conspiratorial tone, "That's how I made my Spike. I took his blood and gave him mine instead. Much sweeter. Now he's a demon, just like me. Now he's mine."

She gave Juni a comforting pat on the shoulder.

"One day, sweet. One day."

The vampire blinked.

"Why not?"

[swanseer.livejournal.com]

"Unfortunately my blood does not have such power" Juni murmured softly, absently inspecting the skin of her wrists where the veins were... Her blood had some inherited magic from Bartholomew and some lovely hangovers from her distant demon ancestors, she doubted that either of those could turn demons into her slaves.

Juni smiled slightly and nodded slightly... Maybe, maybe one day.

"Well, we'd crash into things, unless we were very careful."

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

"It's still special, though," Drusilla cooed affectionately, turning over Juni's hand to trace the veins with a fingernail. Just a tiny bit of pressure would have been enough to split the skin. She'd killed people - she'd killed a Slayer - with this nail, but her touch was infinitely gentle now. She was even smiling innocently.

"I don't crash into things. That sounds very silly. It's almost as silly as trying to put moths in your sandwiches."