paris ♔ tried to save myself but myself keeps slipping away

[necessaryevil]

♬ Facade (reprise) - Jekyll & Hyde

WHO || Faith Lehane, Max Rast, Lissa Dragomir, Helen Magnus
WHAT || The Knights investigate a string of vampire attacks in France
WHERE ||Paris, France
WHEN || April 11th, 2015 [backdated].
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread.

One vampire attack is cause for worry enough, but when bodies are found with telltale puncture wounds and heavy loss of blood become a recurring nightmare across any city, alarm bells are raised.  Such is the case recently in Paris, where Wynn suspects that either a careless clan has moved in, or some lone vamps are stirring up trouble.  With the locations of the bodies marked out in the eight block radius where the deaths have been occurring, the team arrives in the late evening, staring at the rows of apartment blocks, small businesses, and pubs that comprise this section of town.

Comments

[msattentionspan]

[Faith smirks, a touch of amusement coming out in an exhale.]

I mean vampires, werewolves - though some of those are pretty chill - and an assortment of horn-headed, fork-tongued, green-skinned demons. Sure, there are other issues that come up. I definitely have my share, but when we fight demons it's literally demons.

[roams]

Call me an optimist, but all this time I was really hoping those were one of the few things on the 'not so real' list.

[msattentionspan]

[Faith shrugs.] It's a wake-up call, I think, wherever you're from. I mean, those were vampires. Not well-dressed, but still vampires. I've seen werewolves out here, too, and some nasty looking floating things with eyes on the end of these like tentacle arm things. See that would be something I could've done without knowing about.

But I still fought it. Ripped those eye things right off of it. [She's more than a touch proud of that one.]

[roams]

Vampires and werewolves I've heard of, at least. But you're talking what, creatures out of Hell?

[msattentionspan]

I didn't exactly check their passports and I'm guessing if I ended up here, I'm not the only one just dropping in without a ticket.

I think the point is that you didn't know about them, which means that they're not causing too much trouble, because people like me take care of it.

[roams]

Sounds like the world owes you a very stiff drink. Maybe that one can be on me.

[msattentionspan]

[Faith frowns, because she wants to be proud of the work she does, but she also knows that she made a mistake tonight and two people died and a third is missing.]

Yeah, well, sometimes even vampire slayers screw up and I don't do this on my own. I mean, tonight, I am, but that's because the rest of the team I was on has either died or ended up missing.

[She takes a breath and stops walking, moving to reach for his arm so that he halts too.]

This isn't the first mistake I've made and it's not the first person to die because I didn't think things through, either.

[roams]

And how many more have you saved, because you were quick to react? I'm sorry about your friends, Faith, I really am, but doing what you do, you've got to expect that you can't save everybody.

[msattentionspan]

[She nods, because she knows that is true, but it's not everyone she feels like she was trying to save - she was just trying to keep her team alive. She knows that at least it's better that she's trying to save people these days, too, but it still feels too familiar to her. Death in a back alley. Hiding bodies. Trying to think that what she does excuses her from feeling bad about not being able to do enough.]

I have people coming to meet me. To help me find my friend. If this is enough for you - if you've had your fair share of the truth and demons being real, tonight. I get it. You can just take me to where you've put the bodies and you can call me when you want to get that drink.

Because, I might not be able to save everyone, but I'm not gonna put you in the middle of a mess I made anymore than I already have.

[roams]

Walking away might be my specialty, but it takes a special kind of cad to walk away from someone in the middle of this.

[ he gives her an attempt at a smirk, although his eyes are more serious than his tone ] Plus, if you wanna know the truth, I do like seeing you in action.

[msattentionspan]

[She offers a half smirk at his response, but she knows what he's putting himself in the middle of. She also doesn't know either of the two knights that are coming to back her up well enough to think that they can just trust some guy she's dragging along.]

The two coming to help - they might not agree with you coming with and I'm not in a position to argue it. [She's already lost too many lives tonight and putting someone that isn't a knight in the line of fire isn't exactly on her agenda.]

I do appreciate it, no matter how this plays out.

[roams]

Are these two vampire slayers too?

[msattentionspan]

No. They aren't. There's only two of us. Slayers, that is, and that's not even supposed to happen. She died, but she came back. One of those technicalities that I'm pretty sure meant they didn't think about CPR back when they made the rules. [Not that Buffy really counts in the current moment. She doesn't remember all that comes with it and Faith's not about to try and force her into something that even Faith has had her doubts on.]

They work with me. At the job that I'm sure you realize isn't the one where I'm at a desk. [She figures if she can just split the two jobs up... make it that she does this and works for the Institute it might be alright.]

[roams]

I see. [ he sounds almost thoughtful about it all, before he nods at a building on the left. ] This is the place. Are your friends meeting us here?

[msattentionspan]

They'll meet me wherever I tell them to. I just need to send a location to them. I'd like them here so they can look at the bodies, maybe see something I missed.

[Faith glances around where they are.] Do you want people that you don't know coming to this spot?

[roams]

You're trusting me with your secrets, aren't you? Suppose I can return the favor.

[msattentionspan]

[Faith nods and pulls her phone out to retrieve their map position and send them to Winchester and Hathaway. She hopes she sent it to the right Winchester. Then she pockets the phone and moves closer to Quinn. She's not trying to make out with him or anything, but she's just trying to show that she trusts him.]

Alright, I sent them my location. If they're already in the city they'll be here soon. Otherwise, they'll just send me an ETA.

[She shakes her head, her fingertips pressing to her temple and rubbing lightly.] Do you have that pack of smokes still?

[roams]

If I'd lost that, I might have a very different attitude towards sticking around. [ sure, quinn. he pulls it out, however, and shakes one out for her. ]

[msattentionspan]

Thanks. [She takes the offered one and slips it against her closed lips and glances to him, because she needs a light please. She just wants to clear her head for a moment and think about nothing but her breath.]

[roams]

Anytime. [ he steps closer, snapping his fingers, a flame jumping between them. his eyes drag across her face for a moment as he lights the end of the cigarette, but he opts not to say anything more. ]

[msattentionspan]

[The distraction is good. She doesn't really care about the damage she does to her lungs, she figures it'll heal. She just needs to try and not think about everything that could happen in the next few hours.

She burns through the cigarette a bit quickly, taking deep drags off of it and exhaling them quickly. Once she gets to having only about a third of it left she just lets it set between her fingertips. She wonders if she should have included that Quinn was going to be here with her when she sent her location. She contemplates sending a second message, but figures it's not going to change much either way.]

Did you already do that job you had here? [Sure, small talk sounds okay. Plus, if she gets fired from being a knight maybe she could have a back-up plan.]

[roams]

[ he nods, lighting his own smoke to follow. ] You're lucky I stuck around for awhile after. That's not usually the case.

[msattentionspan]

Yeah? [She turns to look at him.] Anything happen to change your plans?

[roams]

Yeah. The job didn't pay what I was hoping for, and I needed to find another way to scrape up something to make it worth the trip.

[ a beat ] Maybe hustling vampires at pool wasn't the best choice. Hindsight, 20/20.

[msattentionspan]

[Faith smirks, shaking her head.] Yeah, not the best plan. See, you should'a just called me for that spontaneous vacation thing. It seems, I could do with a bit of time off.