cursedveilarchive

[cursedveilarchive]

thebloody-king

“I mean that the blood is probably rotten. I haven’t changed out in months.”

On top of the blood, Mellon thought that sleeping in sewers and wet dark tunnels periodically couldn’t have helped his situation. He didn’t want to mention that to Vaska, because there was still a chance he could convince him to come along to the city. Mellon didn’t want to ruin it.

“I’ve washed in the rain, but I don’t like rain. I don’t like water. Did you know they didn’t have showers when I was born?”

He always cheered a little when bringing up his advanced age. “But I actually didn’t wash back then either much. I grew up sort of on the street, so I just don’t think I have to that often. Everyone’s so posh now, you know.”

But when people smelled you, even Mellon could admit it might be too far. “I’ll take a shower sometime if I have to. But I don’t have other clothes, and that’s the actual problem.”

He pouted and made it clear that he saw making him shower to be cruel, but wouldn’t risk being kicked out over it all the same.

Vaska never heard of someone not liking water before. 

“...Oh..do you not even like swimming?” 

He raised a brow at Mellon. 

“Yeah, I know they didn’t have showers for a long time. We learn about that stuff in school.”

He turned onto his stomach, resting his chin on his forearm. It made him sad to hear that Mellon had to live on the street. He insisted that he didn’t mind living on his own, but Vaska knew some part of him had to dislike it. How could someone be happy all alone with no place to call home? On top of that, how did Mellon keep out of the sun. 

“If you live on the street, where do you sleep during the day?”

Vaska wanted to provide for his friend. What kind of host would he be? What kind of friend would he be, if he didn’t give?

“You can have some of my old clothes.”

[cursedveilarchive]

thebloody-king

As Mellon hugged back, he rested his chin on Vaska’s shoulder and wondered what he would do for the rest of the night, if it wasn’t too late already. The reminder of water actually cheered him up. He could do that now, so they could spend plenty of time in town tomorrow! He could find Mia some other good rat things, too.

Mellon was surprised when Vaska mentioned the shower. His eyes shot down to his dirty clothes, realizing why Vaska must be asking.

“Uh… I’ve… used them.”

How bad did Vaska think he smelled…? Mellon couldn’t smell anything. Maybe it was the old blood, because he was a vampire… He couldn’t look back up for a moment, and only hoped his embarrassment wasn’t obvious.

“I have on…” he paused to count, having not removed his shirts in a while. “four shirts. Some of them have blood on them. It’s just that mortals don’t like the smell of blood. So I’ll take them off. So you don’t smell them.”

He used them?

Vaska was unconvinced. With all the dirt and smell, he doubted Mellon bathed in the last week. Maybe he’d used one once in his life. Though the smell of blood wasn’t particularly troubling to him. 

"I don’t smell the blood. Its just that.”

He stretched, resting his arms above his head and looking down to Mellon. He had to persuade Mellon into agreeing to the shower. 

“Even if you don’t smell it’s good to have a bath every other night. Did you have to wash in the rain?”

The mention of cleanliness needed to sound pleasant as well. Vaska smiled, trying to soften the blow. 

“The water is warm here, you’ll like it.”

[cursedveilarchive]

thebloody-king

“You’re so weird,” Mellon replied, laughing along the whole time.

He moved to hover over Vaska, reaching down and threatening to tag him back. “You tagged me and didn’t even run away! Made it too easy.”

He poked Vaska squarely on the nose before sitting back on the ground beside him. Looking up at the window, it was still dark… Mellon had no idea at all how long it had been since he woke up.

He had heard the phrase ‘time flies when you’re having fun’, yet tonight felt like it had gone on longer than a hundred nights on his own would. He’d only been here two nights… he couldn’t wait to see how much fun they had tomorrow night, when they went into town.

“I can watch The Baby Mia at night, and you can watch her during the day. I’ll never leave her alone too long.”

Vaska laid on the ground for a few minutes, trying to put off sleeping as much as possible. He reached at Mellon, giving him soft pokes out of boredom.

With a sigh, he sat up and gave his friend one last hug. It was longer, and out of a sudden need for comfort. Then he parted and reluctantly climbed into bed. He pulled the covers up to his chin. 

“We’ll have to find her some water tomorrow.”

He laid there, waiting for his eyelids to get heavy. There was a gross smell under the blanket. Vaska pulled the blanket up and sniffed around, finding it was coming from his shirt. It must have been from hugging Mellon.  How was he going to bring this up?

“I’m gonna take a shower tomorrow. You probably haven’t had the chance to shower yet, after leaving the city. I’ll show you how to use it.”

He then laid back, brushing his fingers over Mia’s cage, hiding his anticipation for Mellon’s reaction.

[cursedveilarchive]

thebloody-king

“They’re smart! The best animals,” Mellon professed, speaking proudly as if the entirety of rat-kind belonged to him and him alone.

“No one else really knows how smart they are.”

He finally leaned back from the cage again, wiping sticky apple juice and rat hair off onto his shirt. Mellon thought about how to phrase his answer for longer than he actually considered Vaska’s question.

“Well… if one of us is the mum, and one’s the dad… I think that you’re the mum. And so, I’m the dad.”

Mellon wasn’t sure what to expect Vaska’s reaction to this news to be, so he broke it to him as matter of factly as possible.

“I don’t mean to say you’re a girl, but between the two of us you’re more the cute and gentler type- not to sound weird by that. Because you’re younger is probably why. But I’m more fatherly.”

Vaska giggled at Mellon’s answer. He was the mom because he cute and gentle, and the look of his pajamas probably didn’t help either. Then he wrapped his arms around the cage.

“Oh Mellon, it’s a beautiful baby rat,” Vaska said in a high voice, attempting to imitate a female pitch. 

He then rolled on the floor, covering his mouth to silence a cascade of giggles. Vaska was feeling the final bursts of energy before he’d turn sleepy. On his back, he wriggled over to Mellon and reached up at him upside down, just managing to give his face a poke with his fingers.

“Tag you’re It.”

Maybe it was time to go to bed.

[cursedveilarchive]

thebloody-king

“Mia! Good name!” 

Mellon smiled and watched her eat the apple. When Vaska asked about his first rat, though, his smile faded as he tried to concentrate. He didn’t have much hope of remembering… it was so long ago.

“…No. But I know I had them. Oh, you know what I did for a while?”

He sat up straight, eager to tell something he did remember. Not clearly, but at least he knew it had happened.

“I would let my rats out places in secret, then have people pay me to get rid of their rats. No one really knew rats could be trained to come to a whistle like that! I practically discovered that.”

It still made him laugh, even now. “Once I got a reputation for that, I couldn’t do it anymore… But then, you can train rats to steal too! I used to have them nicking coins. They can even open up bags. It’s true.”

He slowly attempted to pet Mia again. “She’s warming up fast. We’ve been good parents.”

Vaska smiled brightly and sat straight, proud that he had selected a name worthy of his friend’s approval.

“They’re that smart?” 

Vaska was quite amazed that such a small animal could be trained so well, and that Mellon was capable of that training. That must have been really handy to have a little sidekick. Guessing from his attire, as well as all the trinkets he had in his back, he assumed Mellon must have stolen often. 

“Haha. Who’s the dad?”

[cursedveilarchive]

❤ ♣ ✂

♣ - discovering them crying

Vaska couldn’t hold it in any longer. He curled up on the edge of his bed. Tears flooded his eyes, pouring down his cheeks as his body trembled. His crying became more audible as he struggled to maintain his breath. He desperately wiped his eyes, looking up to find his friend standing above him.

“I-I’m sorry I k-keep crying. I-It’s so h-h…hard…”

✂ - threatening them

Mellon was Vaska’s only friend. He thought they were friends. Why would he pull a knife out on him? He tried to back away from Mellon, but soon found himself up against a wall.

“Mellon, whatever I did, I’m sorry. Please don’t hurt me!”

[cursedveilarchive]

send one for my muse’s reaction to your muse ---

[cursedveilarchive]

thebloody-king

“It won’t.”

Mellon returned the hug, wrapping both arms around Vaska tightly. He was only distracted by the joy of companionship to wonder if those fuzzy striped shorts were normal now, or something… they looked like a very odd choice to him.

It would probably be rude to ask that, he decided as he went through a list of names in his head. “I’ve used every name I can think of for a rat a million times. You should pick. It’s your first one.”

He pulled away to lean forward and examine the rat again. “She doesn’t look very viscous, so maybe it should be a cute sort of name. Especially since she’s a girl.”

Vaska likewise leaned in, watching the rat thoughtfully. She looked so soft and sweet. He wanted to give her a cute name to fit her cute face. He imagined it was how being a parent felt, of course, with a rat instead of a baby.

“How about...Mia?”

He reached for another slice of apple and carefully brought it to her nose. The rat chewed the edge, grabbing it with both paws. When she had eaten away enough, she clutched the apple in her little hands and took it, eating the rest of it in a corner. 

Vaska sat up again, leaning on his friend and wiping the apple juice off on his knee.

“You’re really good with them. Do you remember your first rat?”

[cursedveilarchive]

thebloody-king

“It’s terrible. It’s worse than starving ever was when I was like you, even, ‘cos I did some of that too. It burns, and it makes you weak and… corpse-y. Then you get mad eventually. Crazy, I mean. It hurts so bad, it’s all you think about.”

There was no point in trying to sound tough when it came to Hunger, even Mellon knew that. No vampire could ever stand not having blood.  

“Then if I still didn’t drink, I’d just sort of… fall asleep and not wake up unless someone brought me blood. I’d be too weak to move or anything. I’d be basically like dead.”

The thought troubling to Mellon, but it had never gotten to that point so far. The hunger was much too strong to let things get to that point. “It only really happens if a vampire gets stuck somewhere, I think.”

Mellon pet the rat with one finger, careful not to make any sudden movements. “There’s blood types and all, but I don’t know them. So I just like human blood. That’s fresh! Drinking blood from someone is the best thing in the world.”

Hearing about the details of vampiric starvation made Vaska worry for Mellon. It sounded horrific, and he didn’t want to think about his friend starving so badly. Being a vampire must have been scarier than he thought.

“I hope that never happens to you.”

He scooted next to his friend and hugged him tightly from the side. 

A few moments later, however, he remembered Mellon’s smell. One of these day’s he’d have to give him a bath. There was even a spot on his bed from where Mellon had sat the night before. He let his hands slide away, but he kept himself close to his friend, tolerating the stench.

“Should we name her?”

[cursedveilarchive]

thebloody-king

“Maybe there’s none at all in the city!” 

It was as if Vaska had read his mind about feeding. He was already hungry again, enough to be aware of it. By the time Tuesday came, he’d probably be wanting to bite every time Vaska was around…

Still, he couldn’t accept the offer to feed tonight, knowing that every day wasn’t good for even adults to donate. He really wanted to drink, but he had to stay strong. “Well, I-”

Mellon was taken off guard when Vaska decided to just change right in the middle of the room. He immediately cast his eyes straight down at the ground, where they stayed until Vaska had rejoined him at the cage.

“I think that by tomorrow I’ll be very hungry, but as for tonight… I’m not so hungry yet. I think I’ll just feed tomorrow in town.”

He leaned around, trying to check the rat’s sex without trying to hold it. It had been sniffing around his hand for a while, but he didn’t think they were ready for the next step just yet.

“Hm… he must be a girl! That’s what I think. You could see back there by his age if he wasn’t… so it’s a daughter after all.”

“She’s so cute. I can’t wait to hold her.”

Vaska wanted to pet her so badly, but he settled for gently wrapping his arms around and hugging the cage, resting his chin on the top. Maybe they should have given her a name.

“What is it like when you don’t drink for a long time? Like the longest you could go without dying? Do you just attack people?”

Vaska was suddenly curious about Mellon’s condition again. It was sometimes easy to forget that his friend was a creature of the night. He wondered what it must have been like. That immortality and power had to come at a cost.

“Do you have a favorite blood?”

[cursedveilarchive]

thebloody-king

…Maybe no one really liked being alone. It was probably silly to not consider that. There was a reason it was embarrassing to be all alone, after all. He didn’t think less of Vaska for it, because it wasn’t his fault.

But at hundreds of years old, what was Mellon’s own excuse? He didn’t have any demons to make people think he was crazy. What could he say?

“I don’t like it either,” he finally replied. “There’s just not many people… worth being around. Most are shit. Especially grown up people, you know.”

Mellon felt a responsibility to his friend now. To not leave him by himself again. It was no way for a child to grow up. Mellon only wished that they had met in the city, or that Vaska wasn’t so obsessed with staying here, in the middle of nowhere.

The moment Mellon heard it was Friday he began counting the days until Tuesday, when Vaska said he could feed again. How long could Mellon keep that up? He normally tried to feed every single day. Twice a week forever, he couldn’t do. He’d survive, but he’d be so hungry all the time that he’d go crazy.

“Oh, wait. Saturday, no school? We should have an adventure tomorrow night! You can sleep as long as you can tonight, and then you won’t have to sleep until really late tomorrow.”

“I like people who don’t act like I’m a freak.”

Vaska gently put his arms around the cage, trying to approximate holding the rat. He couldn’t wait until it was friendly enough to pick up. A smile made its way onto his face. The prospect of an adventure lightened his mood. 

“Maybe we could try sneaking around the town at night if we get bored of the woods. There are less shadowmen out there too.”

Vaska then remembered that Mellon also needed to feed. 

“There’s probably some people you could drink from too.”

He felt a little bad that he was depriving Mellon of his only food. It must have been like him going without food for a whole day. Vaska knew he would have felt so hungry it would hurt. 

“....If you want you could have some blood tonight. Maybe before I go to bed.”

Which, now that he thought about it, was approaching sooner rather than later. He got up from his spot and shed his clothes, paying no attention to the fact that Mellon was in full view. Then he opened his drawer and donned a soft baby blue t-shirt and a pair of fuzzy zebra shorts.

He then returned to his spot by the cage.

“Do you know if its a boy or a girl?”

[cursedveilarchive]

[cursedveilarchive]

thebloody-king

Mellon only hummed in response at first, trying to minimize his volume and motion as he watched the rat consider his offering. When it began to nibble, he smiled over at Vaska, then answered.

“I didn’t have any most of the time,” he admitted.

Despite it feeling a little embarrassing to admit he’d had few friends in hundreds of years time, wasn’t it sort of an accomplishment too? To not need any friends to survive, to keep going when you feel alone… as long as the other person didn’t know it was never what he wanted, it sounded very strong.

“You don’t really need friends. But we’re friends now, so you have one.”

His suggestion that he stay in the closet had been thoughtless. Now that he considered it fully, he wasn’t sure.  The thought of the closet door being opened on him made his skin crawl. And technically he couldn’t say whether Vaska’s foster parents had come in during the day, since he was a pretty deep sleeper up until someone tried to move him.

“Hm… maybe I can just shove some clothes or blankets under the bed. To try to make it darker.”

Vaska met Mellon’s smile with a more somber expression. Being without friends had made him feel isolated and helpless in dealing with his curse. Nobody believed him, nobody spent time with him, nobody wanted to be around him. The more he thought about it, the worse it felt. He whispered:

“You don’t need friends to survive, but I do. I don’t like being all alone.”

He looked down at the rat and smiled. It was already crawling its way into his heart. 

“Yeah I think I could put some boxes under there too, that way they won’t be able to see you if they look. But tomorrow’s Saturday anyway, so I think you’ll be fine. I can spend time with the rat during the day.”

[cursedveilarchive]

(105/365) : Unknown To The I/Drab Majesty

[cursedveilarchive]

thebloody-king

Mellon reached into the cage with a single chunk of the apple, holding his hand there in hopes their rat would have the courage to approach him for it.

He was flattered that Vaska thought he was fun to be around. And even though there was nothing at all to do here compared to the city, he was having more fun than he’d had in a long time here with Vaska. “You are too. You’re a lot cooler than most kids are.”

School, that was right… Mellon found himself wishing that Vaska didn’t go. That way he could stay up all night, just like Mellon did. But he wanted to keep going, for some reason. Graduating, or whatever it was he’d said.

“Do you have a lot of other friends, besides me? You’re the only kid I know anymore.”

The rat slowly began to approach his hand, but didn’t seem completely sure about it’s new owners yet.

“He can stay under the bed with me and he won’t be lonely. or else I could stay in the closet if we can make it dark enough. Under the bed wasn’t as dark as I like it anyway.”

“Thanks!” 

It was nice to be called ‘cool’. Vaska desperately wished for friends. Other kids could be very cruel, calling him a freak or just avoiding him entirely. He wished Mellon could stay with him. He even wished that Mellon was a normal kid that could come with him to school. 

“No...I don’t have any friends.”

Vaska was a little worried that his parens would check his closet, though they had no reason to. They didn’t seem to check under his bed, anyway. His main worry was that the door would end up opening and Mellon would exposed to the sunlight. 

“Are you sure you’ll be safe in there?”

He looked down at the rat, which was cautiously sniffing at the apple. 

[cursedveilarchive]

infernal-king

Infernum forcefully pushed the man in the direction of the castle, though it was more of a move to get the other away from him. Being so close to this source of food served no aid to his appetite, or rather too much. His belly rumbled with the same intensity of his own growls. They would need to move fast.

  “Keep… Keep moving straight. Hurry.”

Vision was beginning to fade to black around the edges, veins pulsating with gluttony. Seemingly liquid smoke dropped through his teeth and down his chin. He couldn’t even feel his own limbs anymore; they were numb with the sudden burst of energy in his starving system. Maybe just a little taste wouldn’t hurt?

The King sheathed his sword, tail swiping the ground as he hunched fowards slightly. A low, thundering snarl discharged from the depths of his gut and out through parted jaws. This one was different from his previous; it was nearly predatory, desperate. He needed food immediately.

The growling spurred Vaska to keep moving, and he hastened at the demon’s insistence. He felt eyes on his back, causing the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Vaska wanted to be away from this, away from this monster. 

The scraping sound of a blade rung through the air, inciting Vaska to move faster, at half-jog. He nearly tripped at the sound of the snarl, his instincts yelling at him to run. Yet, he wasn’t sure if the creature would try to kill him if he did. He didn’t know what to do.

Vaska looked behind himself, back at the demon.  He soon wished he didn’t. Letting out a yelp, the urge to run became heavier. What would bring him more pain, running or staying put? 

“Please don’t hurt me, please!”

[cursedveilarchive]

Bold what applies to your muse. Italicize what’s situational. {repost, don’t reblog}

╳   FLAWS.

moody | short-tempered | emotionally unstable | whiny

controlling  | conceited | possessive

paranoid | lies | impatient | cowardly | bitter | selfish | power - hungry

greedy | lazy | judgmental | forgetful | impulsive

spiteful | stubborn | sadistic | petty | unlucky

♔   STRENGTHS.

honest | trustworthy | thoughtful | caring | brave

patient | selfless | ambitious | tolerant | lucky

intelligent | confident | focused | humble | generous

merciful | observant | wise | clever | charming

cheerful | optimistic | decisive | adaptive | calm

Tagged by: @thebloody-king

Tagging: Everyone who follows me! Assuming you haven’t done it yet!