The New Town Drunk

[Bladen Thorne]

Bladen smiled at Nate in his own strange way. Some found the smile creepy, others found it terrifying. It depended on the individuals state of mind.

"I thought I smelled a bit of hunter on her. I would like to say 'pleasure to meet you,' but most don't find it a pleasure to meet me, so I prefer not to repeat the pleasantries." He could sense the uncertainty in this hunter. He wished that he could feel more of the uncertainty more than the lovey-dovey romantic emotions between the two. It was enough to make him want to vomit, eat it, and then throw up again.

"Oh, I know Alavda. I've met her way back in the 16...the 16...80s?" he looked up, trying to remember the date. Bladen was reaching some decade within his 700s, so dates were sort of a blur to him, "Fine girl of 18. But would we be friends? You could say that," he was reading the couples emotions as he was talking, trying to detect anything that would be interesting if amplified, "But as to the details of our relationship, I don't really want to explain. Too boring. I think Alavda might be willin' to tell ya though. Me an' 'er got along REAL well back then. But it was always...ah," he laughed, his lack of soberness apparent for a few seconds, "I'm startin' to tell the story. Mind must be catching up with my age!" he chuckled at the old fogie he was turning into.

"Out of whack?" he blinked, the picture of devious innocence, "Now what do ya mean by that now, luv?"

[Annabelle Ventus]

Annabelle listened to what Bladen had to say towards Nate to make sure he could answer Nate's question accordingly. Once Bladen asked what she meant by out of whack, she slightly tapped her foot.

"You know what I mean by that...we discussed it earlier. Now, please, behave yourself..I would like to have you stay for awhile." She smiled at him, then remembered something. "Oh, your water is still here! I'll be right back to go and grab it." She said then walked off to the kitchen to grab Bladen's water that she put in the fridge after he left.

[Nate Brightmore]

Nate was feeling uncomfortable around the new vampire. His eyebrows furrowed as he listened to Bladen and Belle talk back and forth. He wasn't really sure what was going on, but for once he was glad about that. Something told him that Bladen wasn't a vampire that he should be relaxed around, which made no sense to him since Annabelle felt fine having him in her home, not to mention he had a past with Alavda, whatever that was.

He wanted to object to Belle leaving him standing there with Bladen while she went to get the bottle of water, but thought it would be rude. Instead, he crossed his arms and tried not to look at Bladen. This lasted for maybe 2 seconds. He then looked at Bladen.

"I don't remember seeing you around Shadow Peak, how long have you been here?" He asked. He wasn't trying to be rude, but the Hunters were suppose to keep track of all supernaturals, which was a hard task in Shadow Peak.

[Bladen Thorne]

Bladen didn't reply to Belle telling him to behave himself. He merely gave her one of those grins that suggested that he wasn't all there. He also didn't say anything when she went to fetch the bottle of water that she had offered him earlier. Something in the back of his mind wondered why she had kept it. Was that something young people did?

He could sense the hunter's discomfort. The smile returned. He fiddled with the idea of making the hunter have a little case of emotional whiplash. Bladen had enjoyed doing this with young hunters in the past. First, he would enhance the discomfort, then he would make then absolutely giddy, after that, they would be angry, and finally frightened. Sometimes he would mix it up and make them little Don Juans. However, he decided that he wouldn't want to do that to this hunter given that the room was already overloaded with gushy, lovey-dovey feelings.

Before he could make a decision on how he wanted to tinker with the hunter's emotional state of mind, the Nephillum spoke to him. "I wouldn't think you would, hunter," none of his cockney accent could be found, "I've been spending most of my time at the mansion. But I haven't been here that long," he felt unusually talkative about menial topics of conversation, "Couldn't tell you the amount of days though," he did think back. He found, not to his surprise, that he coudln't recall how long he'd been there. Sometimes he'd just down so much booze that he'd black out, "I think it was cold when I arrived," he was looking at the ceiling, trying to remember. He even furrowed his brow. The result of his pondering, however, only ended up with him having a powerful urge to find some whiskey.

[Annabelle Ventus]

Belle smiled as she walked back into the room. That was until she felt the tenseness in the air between the two. Most of this feeling coming from Nate. Why was he feeling this way? Did Bladen do something while she was gone. She found herself glaring slightly at the ground at the thought , but quickly recovered, going back to smiling and walking over to Bladen. Once she got over to him she poked him with her free hand and put his glass towards him.

"Here you go, sorry about the wait you guys..Ala and I just went shopping so looking for things in that fridge can be a hassle." She smirked then looked up at Nate, not really saying anything, but seeing if his emotions changed when he would look back at her, if they did, that would be a good sign.

[Nate Brightmore]

Nate frowned slightly, not sure really what to make of the vampire. "I'm not really welcome at the castle, but it is very pretty.. or atleast that's what my sister gushed about when we were there for the party." He said, continuing to make small talk.

He relaxed when he saw Belle coming back to where they were standing, though seeing her so "cozy" with the unknown vampire was a little unsettling. However, he submerged the feeling and offered her a relieved smile.

"You should see what it's like to go grocery shopping for a bunch of hunters.. most of us eat way too much in order to keep our strength up." he said and chuckled while thinking about it. It wasn't unusual to see a eatting contest or a fight for the last roll or whatever in the church.

[Bladen Thorne]

Bladen took the glass of water from Belle, but then proceed to set the glass on the table. Water wasn't what he wanted. Blood or alcohol would do. He had a feeling that blood wasn't going to be on the menu anytime soon. Alavda lived here though...maybe there would be a stash of wine...of course, he wasn't much of a wine vampire. He preferred hard liquor. But then again, beggars can't be choosers.

His mouth quirked into a small smile as he felt the hunter's emotions shift. He was highly tempted to fiddle with his emotions, but he had the feeling that if Belle found out, he'd be kicked out. He wasn't ready to leave yet.

As Belle and Nate discussed groceries, Bladen marveled on how much food non-vampires consumed. Most vampires would be satisfied by draining a body of all blood. But that was sort of looked down upon by the hunters and the rest of the supernatural society. But why? It was their natural diet. Why stop them?

[Annabelle Ventus]

Annabelle frowned when she saw Bladen set down the drink she got him but shook it off and smiled at Nate, giggling slightly at the grocery comment. "I'm predicting carbs galore? Well, those and proteins. That is probably why you like your main cuisines so much, they have both in them." She then thought of something. "I now feel bad for the cooks...." She said and smiled at Nate.

"Picture this, they make all this food! But it's not enough, so then, they get complaints...and these complaints aren't coming from just your Average Joe...no...it's coming from people that could probably kick your butt in four different fighting styles..." She said, really putting thought into what she was saying.

[Nate Brightmore]

Nate chuckled and ran his fingers through his hair, "You've got it.. main courses are the best source of our requirements. With all the weight training and fighting, it's hard to keep up with the weight requirements." He said. His right hand instantly went to his left bicep and rubbed it, but he wasn't even aware of it.

"Well, the cooks are pretty tough too. But at the church alot of the other hunters take turns cooking. We did have a live in cooks ever so often but for some reason they don't seem to last very long." He said and shrugged.

[Annabelle Ventus]

Annabelle smirked slightly as she saw Nate rubbing his arm. "Trying to show off I see." She giggled and put her fingers on her lips then nodded her head in understanding of what Nate just said. She then looked over at Bladen and tilted her head slightly.

"You alright Bladen...? You are kind of staring at my ceiling.." She smiled.

[Bladen Thorne]

Bladen looked from the ceiling to Belle, "Hm?" he gave her that weird grin again, the one that suggested insanity, "I'm just thinking of how ceilings have changed over the years...and booze," and emotional changes, he thought.

He was starting to get bored with their mundane chitchat. Time for some fun.

He decided to start with the hunter. He sifted through his emotions like one would go through legal papers. He picked out happiness and turned it into a sort of...giddy. The kind that would make people want to giggle like a five-year-old girl.

[Nate Brightmore]

It felt like a balloon of laughing gas had burst open, Nate felt the laughter begin deep in his stomach and it was making him feel giddy. Giddiness was something he was very unfamiliar with and at first it kind of surprised him. Though any thoughts of how strange it was quickly flew out the window as the giggles escaped his lips.

"I work hard to get these, I should be proud of them... you enjoy them too, don't you Belle?" He asked, his eyes bright with laughter. He took her hand and put it on his bicep after he flexed, "See.." he said and winked at her.

Nate then glanced up at the ceiling when Belle mentioned it to Bladen, and he was struck with how easy it was to see faces in the ceiling. When he was little, he and Neah would stare at the walls and make out little faces in them, and then make up stories to go along with the faces. Remembering this caused him to laugh again.

"Have you noticed that there's faces in your ceiling? If you look there.." he pointed up at one spot, "you'll see the eyes..and there's the nose... and there's the mouth. It kind of looks like it has fangs..." he said and bursted out laughing again, finding this extremely funny for some reason.

[Annabelle Ventus]

Annabelle looked at Bladen and giggled slightly at his comment on boozes. "Don't you think you have had en-" She would have finished when she heard Nate...giggle? Belle's eyes quickly flew to Nate's and just looked at him.

When he brought up if she enjoyed his muscles, her face went completely red, and got worse when he put her hand on his bicep and flexed. "Yes..umm..." she cleared her throat and nodded. "Yes I..I do."

She then watched as he looked up at the ceiling and commented on the faces on it. She was so confused my his laughter and sudden cheerfulness, she couldn't think of anything else. She wasn't even thinking if it WAS Bladen's influence or not, she just stared at Nate as if something finally snapped in him.

[Bladen Thorne]

"Never enough," he was referring to both the booze and the emotional changes, of course. There were two things that Bladen truly loved: Booze and toying with emotions. Oh yes. Put them both together, and he'd have a party. His smile widened at the thought.

He knew that he was going to get a good reaction from the hunter. This Nate fellow seemed to be really uptight and dull. But to see him have Belle feel his muscles was just plain hilarious! He snickered, pleased with his work.

What should he do next? He thought for a split second before deciding on a huge mood swing. He would make the hunter experience rage. Yes, rage. He worked his "magic" on Nate's emotional state of mind to turn the giggles into...whatever sound the hunter made when he was angry.

[Nate Brightmore]

As if someone had flipped a switch, Nate's giddiness disappeared, completely swallowed by an emotion that Nate was almost too acustomed to... anger. Not just regular every day anger, but blind anger.. the kind of rage that made you see red. The kind of rage that made it almost impossible to think.

Nate didn't understand the sudden mood change, nor the cause of it.. what made him angry? He looked first at Belle.. no, she wasn't the cause of his anger. Why would he be angry at her? He loved Belle. He then looked at Bladen. Ah, the vampire... yes.. vampires did make him angry.

Well, to be honest, not all vampires made him angry.. Nate was beginning to understand that not all vampires were blood demons that were only out to destroy the world. However, Nate wasn't exactly himself now was he? No, and so when he looked at Bladen, it was easy for him to compare this unknown vampire to those that had taken his mother and father away from him. He blamed this vampire for his world being turned upside down and all of the joy ripped out of his very soul.

Nate tried for a few moments to contain his rage, he forgot why it was important to restrain his instinct to behead this creature of the night, but he couldn't help the nagging in the back of his mind. He clinched his fists, opened them, then clinched them again. He tried to focus on his breathing, but this didn't do anything. He was fighting a losing battle. He just kept reliving the moment that he found out that his parents were killed. This only increased his fury.

Suddenly, all control was yanked away and Nate rushed at Bladen and within seconds, he had Bladen in a choke hold, with the tip of a dagger pressed against his back. "You... I'll kill you for what happened to my parents.." he growled.