strigoisak

[strigoisak]

Person: @einolegion Location: It's the South Arms over his bare chest that's only mostly concealed by his jacket, Isak does as he usually does, broods by the medical encampment until he's needed elsewhere. He watches, heals, he offers advice, he gives some people affectionate slaps to the back of the head to tell them to get it together. The moment Eino approached, Isak made a point to sigh heavily, shift his weight from foot to booted foot. He likes Eino like he likes Haelim, because somehow, they're both old men. Isak didn't even think it really had anything to do with age, he thought it was because of their more reserved natures. Granted, he thought Haelim was wise and Eino was....Cool? There was this kind of air about him, Isak partially thought it was the hair. "Don't tell me you're here to get patched up."

[strigoisak]

"No, in this essay I will outline how you are endearingly persistent and at what point I started finding the persistence endearing." It'd been annoying and then a curious thing, and now it was just kind of a part of the elvhen in Isak's head, the stubbornness. It made more sense now, knowing where Aurelien hailed from. There are legs on him, legs that are not his and they're across his lap and his brows threaten to disappear into his hairline for just a moment. The hand that's on the back of the couch leaves it to rest on Aurelien's knee all too casually. It is not a touch out of affection, but spite, it'd been done to fluster him, he wouldn't let such a thing happen. But he does think about how the weight of another body on his is.....Nice. Grounding somehow, not like he's trapped between the elvhen and the couch. "You are persistent, you are passionate, you perhaps have bad sense of self preservation if you truly keep coming around me and dancing on my last nerves." There's the faintest hint of amusement to Isak's tone and his head cocks to the side just a bit, watching the way the lowlight casts shadows on Aurelien's stupidly pretty face. "You're more like one of those sleek housecats. I'm surprised you haven't knocked something off of one of my desks for fun."

Isak all but completely sinks into the couch and if the doctor was ever trying to bait the elvhen, this would be the best attempt yet. Auri is entirely hooked, wholly invested in the rapid shift of the uptight doctor who kept them completely at arm's length to this casual and somewhat forthcoming creature who had, in a way personal to Isak, dressed down for the occasion. They shift their own body, ginger fling their legs over Isak, and he can only hope the doctor doesn't view it as some cheap trap and instead as the clear test of boundary Auri is experimenting with currently.

"So what do you see me as?" They raise a curious brow, scoffing somewhat, "-And don't use the word resourceful in your summary." There was this unfortunate pit in his stomach that reminded him he, on some level, cared what Isak thought.

[strigoisak]

"Intellectual conversation." Isak agrees, hands crossing behind his head as he sinks down a bit more into the couches cushioned corner. He's not hiding, but he is highly aware that Aurelien has never really seen him like this, for all of the badgering, Isak had kept things professional, kept his shirts buttoned up all the way, hid away most of the ink and scars on his body. It is something he cares about, something he liked to differentiate and the fact that he's dressed down only further severs the fine line he'd drawn in the sand regarding the elvhen. Under watchful eyes, he feels somewhat exposed. "Is that how you see yourself, a mouse?" Isak's own brow quirked, his brow furrowing as he meets Aurelien's eyes. Logically, considering where they are and what he'd really came for, now would probably be a time to further that boldness that he'd had earlier. But the statement perturbs him somewhat. "I don't see you that way."

"I like being the mouse that slips away just in the nick of time, Isak," it's deadpanned this time, no fluent sarcasm or half-truths, eyes flickering up to the strigoi's. There was a silent game here, even if the Doctor would never much admit to it, and while Auri relished in said game, their patience was grated ever thin as time went on. There was half a beat where he wanted to clarify further that maybe this time he wouldn't entirely mind being caught, he had half expected it at this rate.

"What do you think we're looking for?" Auri is batting their pretty eyelashes at this point, walking across the space they had created, sitting on the plush fabric Isak had already gotten comfortable on. "As opposed to everyone else here?" Those who vied to be bit, to fill the space with blood and venom through a mutually considered, fang-driven pact. Now it was Auri's turn to bite back with is words, "Intellectual conversation?" The ytried not to snicker at that, doe eyes looking over at Isak's as they raised a brow at the strigoi.

[strigoisak]

[strigoisak]

You stand in a stone corridor that stretches far beyond reason, built of Amon Sul architecture – but wrong. Too tall. Too narrow. The torches on the walls give no heat, only light that flickers without flame.

Ahead, a door remains open. Beyond it, a voice calls. You step through.

The chamber is cavernous, but shadowed. It smells like old ash and forgotten blood. In the center lies a mirror of water, smooth as glass. You approach, drawn, compelled. You look in. It doesn’t show your reflection, it shows the one you couldn’t save.

Their mouth moves. No sound. Then their body twists. Your own face stares back eventually, weeping black tears.

Behind you, unseen but unmistakable, the vast coil of a silver dragon shifts. The air hums, heavy, but not with sound, just absence.

“This is the truth, Legionnaire.” “All roads end with me.”

The silence tightens around your heart.

“Tell me, who will mourn you when the world forgets your name?”

The mirror cracks.

Please write a response to this and post it by June 16th on the dash and link it in the writing submissions channel.

The architecture is familiar and yet only somewhat. It towers over him, the hall almost claustrophobic. It reminds him more of a tomb than anything and that’s how he knows it has to be a dream. He feels like he watches himself move forward through the doorway, walk up to the pool and somehow it’s even more cruel that his subconscious can’t dream up an appearance for him. Instead the pool is full of Legionnaires. Those he knew from Amon Sul, replaced by those at Nornwatch, and then Veilcrest. They’re screaming but their mouths are too wide, bodies twisting til limbs looked gnarled like the trees in the forest back home from another life.  And then it is him. The him he remembered from so long ago, the last time he’d seen his reflection. But the black running from his eyes isn’t the familiar grease paint he puts around them.  A voice speaks from behind him and the surface of the mirror shatters.  And Isak’s mouth twitches into a smirk and then he laughs, perhaps for a moment free of the control of his subconscious, lucid.  “No one that isn’t already dead.” A non-answer, he thought of his father and how he’d buried what was left of his family far before he’d had fangs in his mouth.  He rolls over in his coffin, feeling somewhat perturbed. 

[strigoisak]

"And you thought you'd find it here of all places." There's the slightest hint of amusement to the usual deadpan as Isak leans back a little to situate himself in the corner of the couch, his arms spreading across the back of it. His eyes take in the elvhen in the softer lighting and it's strange to see him outside of the office, like a baby deer walking on two legs instead of four. Something about them seemed almost out of place, like he could easily convince himself that Aurelien was actually some kind of hallucination. It is neutral ground, vampire frequented place or not, this felt like some kind of stalemate to whatever game was going on between the two of them. Or at least it felt like Aurelien had let him have a peek behind the curtain. "I don't come to places like this." He admits, ears tuning into the voices outside the room in the tavern area. It's such a strange concept, people flocked to be fed on and flirt to these sorts of establishments. "So maybe we're both looking for something different."

There's some sense of disbelief Auri feels compelled by as Isak's hand finds their lower back and all but guides them somewhere quieter. The thrum of the music outside is instantly muted within the private room, but there's still the familiar buzzing feeling that ebbs and flows through each song. A half smile finds Auri, shrugging as Isak poses the obvious question again. He'd always been incredibly voluptuary; ever since he'd earned his first coin off scamming another it'd ben a particular sort of high they had chased from the beginning of this merchant journey. Learning to twist the truth despite being held to this standard of being unable to tell lies was something undeniable for Auri; as Iskaldrik, and his business endeavors burned, the silver elvhen attempted to chase this feeling elsewhere.

"Looking for something," its simple, punctuated by that vexing shrug Auri often finishes his sentences with, but they felt it was important to note they hadn't said someone. "My whole life burned away with Iskaldrik and maybe I'm just having some growing pains." Nyla had offered him money, Nero had offered him a job - they'd try not to faint at that reminder that they were currently a glorified shelf stocker - but still so much of his life felt like a hollow representation of what had been.

[strigoisak]

Isak looks over from where he's laying flat down on the large ledge before the window of the lab and lets the book he'd been reading rest on his chest. "You're so brave." It probably sounded sarcastic being said with his usual deadpan, but he meant it. A small smirk tugs at the right side of his mouth, maybe he was being a little sarcastic, too. Sitting up and placing his bookmark into the leatherbound journal he'd been perusing, he swings long legs over the ledge and practically floats down onto the floor. "Let's get to it then."

who? @strigoisak where? The Labs™, Caer Glas when? Post Aurea’s slay

“I have a new sample to test,” Nurcan calls out to Isak as he enters the labs and closes the door quietly behind her. In her hands, she is holding a pot filled with blood with the lid firmly shut. Stepping away from the ice-cold room holding the rest of their samples, she places the pot on the table they used for cooperative experiments and begins taking out some of the tools she uses for research. “Riandur suggested we test Kossith blood, based on their prolonged exposure to the Blight in Itzcoatl, so I went and got some of their blood.”

[strigoisak]

There's something about the slight stammer that makes something in Isak's chest seize. He'd been the one who'd made his apartments a safe space for Asael, he was incapable of actually kicking the witch out, not just because he was his pet project, but because he was genuinely concerned that Asael would die out there. Freeze or burn to death while taking out members of the Vanguard. The home they stood in was his, but it was Asael's too and he'd.....Glancing around the room, he realizes that his tantrum was indeed a bit half assed. "No, we're not going somewhere else." Exhaling slowly and reaching to run a hand through the front of his hair, Isak turned to face the witch amongst the wreckage of his living room. Asael's heart rate had spiked, he could hear it and there's this creeping feeling that there was a chance that the witch was afraid of him. "I'm fine. Frustrated." His tone is petulant but it is soft, he'd done a lot more reading on that whole bedside manner thing.

Asael's defensiveness was warranted, a new danger seemed to rear its head before he'd had a chance to recover from the last. The moment he heard crashing in the lower level of his palace, he approached the source carefully with a quaterstaff outstretched in front of him. He was ready to attack the intruder, weaves swirling around the object to form a weapon at its end. He was more reckless than most and had all the strength he needed to defend his home, but between the damage and the moving shadows Asael became afflicted by terror. "A lot. You weren't quiet." In that moment, he was too scared to do anything but stare at the frightening visage of someone stronger than him. His grip on his staff tightened out of frustration. "If you're gonna wreck the place, just do it. Don't be half-assed about it," Asael said, a slight bite to his tone for reasons he wasn't entirely sure of. Fear? Envy? Worry? It was never straightforward with Isak, which made his next words as he lowered his weapon that much more surprising. "Are we … are we going somewhere else? I like it here."

[strigoisak]

For a brief second, Isak is shocked because frankly, he hadn't expected that to work. The nod of his head he gives is curt and no book he'd ever read had covered this kind of thing, not really. He is not an anxious person, and yet in a way he is as his hand finds Aurelien's lower back and leads them towards the small alcove that leads to the rooms meant for more privacy. He's being irrational, the elvhen had agreed to keeping him company, logically that means he has to appeal to Aurelien in some way already. "You still haven't said what you're doing here." The private rooms are a lot nicer than he remembered, the lighting soft and couches plush. Isak sinks down onto what feels like expensive velvet after taking off his long coat.

Auri tried not to smile, beam really, because Isak was once mortal, and there were faint flickers of that within the strigoi's gaze, within small quips and expressions. Faint, hidden and obscured within however he'd been rebuilt as this blighted creature, but Auri saw it now, so distinctly, a passing glimpse of fractured light that was stowed away in such dark isolation. They remembered the very day the light left them, from high to silver, how despite this jovial and detached nature he'd kept up, that Auri had felt such absence so deeply, it'd been blinding. He recognized this sense of loss in Isak, how they were distinct opposites with how they'd managed the reconstruction of their lives.

He'd never know what it'd taken for Isak to be rebuilt, but he'd like to try to understand.

"Yes," Auri had never been shy, but Isak had never been so direct, and the silver elvhen would allow him to navigate the situation as he saw fit, as though Auri was worried of scaring the strigoi off.

[strigoisak]

Person: @rancorasael Location: The Apartment, Eterna Note: sorry u saw me crash out do you still think im hot

He has half of the place overturned before reality kicks in and reminds him that there is another being in his proximity. Whatever had been on the table before the couch was gone, scattered on the floor, a cup from earlier shattered on the rug, the actual table itself upturned. An end table and the lamp atop it, the pillows on the couch, books, all on the floor. Shadowy crows swept over the room, cawing and flapping and it's the sound of Asael's heartbeat behind him that has him standing stock still there in the living room, his back to the witch. The crows dissipate the way they do, sink into the shadows in the corners of the room. "How much did you see?" He asks without turning around to look at the owner of the approaching footsteps.

[strigoisak]

"You should go." There's little hesitation to the sentiment and he kicks himself for blurting it. Straightening up where he leans against the doorframe, he reorientates himself. "Alucard's in no state to leave," Not that Isak blamed him in the slightest, he was hyperaware of how Vlad's son had faired. He had hope that with the dhampir's partner returning, he'd settle. "otherwise I imagine he'd go in your stead." "I wasn't entirely looking for anything relating to the Kossith at the time while I was in the library there, aside from notes on their cruelty, but we're aware of that." His mouth quirked into a thin line and he takes a breath he doesn't need to take to keep from outright just cussing the bastard's out. "It's worth going."

The Field Officer had been unapproachable for months. Not in the way he thought he was, plenty of his friends and other Legionnaires sought him out, but his inner turmoil was enough to drive a wedge between himself and his desire to remain within Caer Glas. Althea, Vicoya, they all pressed him to go to Amon-Sul, and he would, as soon as the Kossith were stopped from pressing closer and the fleeing Darkspawn were taken care of. "I know. Our friends will survive. The Kossith destroy the Blight, but not those who fight against it. Amon-Sul will know more, but I can't afford to leave while ours are gone."

[strigoisak]

Isak is physically incapable of blushing, he doesn't think he'd even been capable of it as a mortal, and yet here he was feeling sheepish. There's always something somewhat electric about the merchant, like he's perpetually amused by him, like he's always in on some joke that Isak doesn't understand. It's equally intriguing and infuriating and he thinks that's why he finds himself drawn to the elvhen. "Would you like to be?" It's not a line, it's not even smooth, it's said with the same near deadpan tone he usually uses. Aurelien is there for a reason, he was there for a reason, he didn't think he could handle seeing them sidle up to another vampire, it was the logical thing to do, just get to the point.

He offered a lazy smile, said nothing on the matter; Auri was in agreement on such fact, but he'd rather not offer the satisfaction or the callout of that. It was simply that.... up until now, seeing Isak around other strigoi, in an element that was supposed to make sense for the doctor, it was funnily jarring. A leper even to his own kind, so Auri had assumed. But to say that aloud, it insinuated an insult, when to Auri that was far from the truth. After all, he was rather isolated from his own kind, his family was in Avalon, tucked away to where he'd never see them again and he'd brazenly tossed that right to see them away with little care. Auri had never seen the regret coming, but now he couldn't live without it either.

"No," the humor was in his tone, Auri couldn't help it, and he sidled up towards Isak as if it daringly proved this. He couldn't say he'd been waiting for Isak to show up within such a place, that would be a lie even he couldn't twist, but there was satisfaction at seeing Isak, and it showed intently on Auri's face.

[strigoisak]

He'd been expecting that reaction. Alucard had never cared for his company which was why Isak had been hoping someone else would get to the dhampir first. But he can't ignore his own feeling that something is wrong, the whole overall vibe of Caer Glass feels off to him with the loss of those from the Legion that'd been taken. And the room is evidence that Alucard feels it too, far more strongly, with far more reason to be upset. So without any hesitation, he pulled a flask from inside his coat and set it on the sidetable near the door, surprised the thing was still standing. He'd been concerned before when he'd just heard things getting thrown around, actually seeing the way those boyish features look gaunt, exhausted, Isak couldn't just leave him. The boy had been through enough already without losing his partner. "I'm not leaving you like this." He says, voice calm and even as he stands there, back to the door and eyes on the form of the dhampir. Too many people had left Alucard already.

What was it they were fighting for, again? 

Amid the wreckage of whatever future Alucard was meant to design, he could see only the sum total of everything that was missing. A wolf at the foot of his coffin with pained, aging eyes, and too many questions that Alucard didn’t have the answers to. Had he fed? 

No, no of course not. 

Like a door snapped shut, the a’dam fell around Etienne and all at once the dhampir felt all but cut off from the thrall. Their connection was there, gossamer-thin but present until now. Alucard hadn’t fed since that morning, two weeks later and if the door had closed, the click of the lock was a nail in their coffin. He’d felt that moment come to a close - when the last of him finally left Etienne’s system and the last of the wolf had washed from Alucard’s system. 

The cloak he’d forgotten that morning was still slumped over the back of a chair in their chamber, the furs that Etienne insisted on piling in their coffin remained, and all the places where their skin had pressed still remembered the wolf’s impression. All these things were true, and yet-

And yet-  

What was it they were fighting for, again?

Only half dressed and less cognisant, garnet eyes and gaunt features craned unnaturally to stare at the legionnaire behind him. Alucard’s lab was in ruins and the narrative was clear: he did not wish to be disturbed. Blood he’d long-stopped crying dried and matted against his face, and flaked where it fell on his chest. Either from fatigue or malnourishment, but Alucard couldn’t conjure anything beyond the rage that simmered beneath still waters. 

“Get out, Isak.”

[strigoisak]

"It makes more sense for me to be here than you." It is not snippy, it is a fact, he is a strigoi, this establishment was for vampires. Vampires and those that wished to look upon them or hoping to be fed on, and the realization makes him blink at the merchant not once, but twice. And there's a bit of....There's some kind of feeling in his chest that's unfamiliar, this little annoyance that sits in the back of his head at the idea of Aurelien being there to be fed on by anyone. It's irrational, the elvhen has no tie to him aside from the way he keeps showing up at the office, he is not his thrall. "Are you here with someone?" That is snippy, short and clipped and he finds himself looking from Aurelien to the other patrons of the establishment.

All the influence and coin in the world couldn't pluck Nyla from that boat, and instead of stewing on the loss of one of the minute few who cared for Auri, they simply decided to just shut their eyes to the conflict entirely. There had been the cruel thought to reach out to his father, one of the Seven, but even Auri knew how absurd that would be; if his father couldn't be bothered to care for him, why would be use his striking influence as a Sinarian to face against the Kossith?

Auri had trudged into Iskaldrik on the promise of lethal adventures, and in some strange way, it was how he'd found himself within Veil of Veins, too. Who he hadn't expected to see amongst a motley of fang whores and strigoi was one strigoi in particular. "Isak," the very name dripped with surprise, Auri sitting up straighter as a result.

"I think the better question is what are you doing here," a lazy smile erupted on their features, delighted at this encounter, "You keep managing to surprise me, Doctor."

[strigoisak]

Person: @alucardrakul Location: Caer Glass, thee Lab It's been days and every time he walks by he hears something breaking and every time he raises a hand to the door and promptly leaves before his skin can make contact with it. Three of them were missing, it wasn't something that was lost on him, he'd had his own fair share of throwing things around after Progress Day. But while he'd been frustrated, he had lost colleagues, peers. That wolf had come to Caer Glass and had immediately moved into the dhampir's quarters, he'd glimpsed the inky shadow wolves and those that looked like ghosts running together in the courtyard, Alucard had lost more than just a peer. Isak chooses not to knock, instead he opens the door and slips inside, Alucard would know it was him anyways. Inside, the lab was in disarray, the dhampir's back to him, and Isak closes the door behind him and practically tucks himself against it's frame. "Have you fed?" Arms across his chest, his tone is quiet, he's not there to ask if the other is alright, anyone with eyes could see his distress.

[strigoisak]

Person: @riandur Location: Caer Glass One day he'd very much like to just go to Riandur to say hello. But he didn't like to bother him, which meant it always felt like he was asking the other man to unravel some kind of crisis. What Riandur didn't know, because Isak would not tell him, he was probably one of the few people capable of quieting his spiraling thoughts. "It feels off." Caer Glass is emptier, three of their own never showed back up after Progress Day and it's not like the place had been teeming with people to begin with. He does not offer it as a problem to his commanding officer, he wishes to express his general discomfort to one of the few people who could quell it.

[strigoisak]

Person: @aurelientrader Location: Veil of Veins Notes: Pit stop before the end of the world Isak would like to think that he is a fairly rational person. He is relatively calm and collected, cynical sure, but he has a good head on his shoulders, Vlad had never had to stitch that back on. But even he has his breaking points and he would blame months of frustration for the complete tantrum he'd thrown in his apartments. He'd blame being at Veil of Veins on it, too. Such a place was not somewhere he frequented; he didn't have time for the spectacle of it all. He still doesn't, he moves through the doorway and to the bar, asks for something strong enough to kill a horse, and it's only when he has his pint in hand does he survey the crowd. The dregs of the Progress Day crowd, tourists, fellow vampire stopping in to mingle with the locals, and - "What are you doing here?" He was sitting across from Aurelien in the plush booth the second he spotted him, moving through the crowd with a speed and grace that'd be out of place if they were anywhere else.