Well Hello There

Who: Michelle and Ash
When: just after dark
Where: random residential Marquette

The shadows were gone. He hadn't seen a single one all day, and while that should probably have been a relief, the ... abruptness of it had left Ash feeling kind of thrown off. Like some switch had been flipped. And unless he was the one doing the flipping, he was generally uncomfortable with that kind of thing. It left too many questions unanswered. That and the goddamn things didn't leave any bodies, which had been bothering him for days. He was a physical kind of person, he liked solid evidence of things. Blood and guts and something to drop in the middle of the woods where no one would find it. Not just that wispy shadow bullshit.

In any case, it had made him restless. He now was left with nothing to do, and his blood was still up. He'd slept some, showered, made sure the shop hadn't been totally destroyed, and then headed back out. The rain had stopped for the time being, and the sun had gone down, and he wasn't even really sure what part of town he was in anymore. He was just walking, in between houses, hands stuffed into his jacket pockets. So many of them seemed empty. In that abrupt way.

Michelle herself was exhausted from the shadow attacks and once everything had stopped, she sat down on the couch and slept all day, body bridged somewhat from the edge of the cushion to the ledge of the back, head tilted backward and mouth open with her arms resting against the back cushions--a very strange and not-lady-like position to find her in, but since no one was there except Tobee and Billie Jean, she couldn't care less how she slept. And goddamnit, if it hadn't been for the presence near her new little house waking her up, it would have been the best sleep she's had in a long time.

Closing her mouth with her eyes still gingerly closed, Michelle reemerged into the waking world, though other than that none of her features showed it. She wasn't breathing--a vampiric ability that took her a good number of years to master. It was also a nice little additive to luring prey to feed, though it was a tactic she used when she was desperate. Standing up, she stretched out her limbs and arched her back, popping dislocated vertibrae back in their places before trailing overt to a boarded up window on the side of the house. Someone was out there, she knew, and she couldn't help but tap one of her small, fine claw-like nails against the otherwise broken glass pane behind the wooden boards.

The tiny sound caught his attention immediately and Ash stopped walking. It was possibly stupid of him, but his heart picked up a bit with anticipatory excitement. It was probably just a cat or something, but then again ... maybe it was something to kick the shit out of. He didn't see anything around him, so it had probably come out of one of the two houses he was between. The one had boarded up broken windows, but the other was pitch black inside, so it was hard to tell. He took another step forward, senses alert, and pursed his lips in a low whistle. 'Shave and a Haircut', minus the last two notes.

Tobee, who had been laying down resting beside the couch, rose his head, slowly and easily, as his torso--now all wrapped up in gauze after being hurt from previous shadow attacks--ached and was pretty sore and not happy with movement. He whined and let out a loud bark, drawing Michelle's brief attention for a soft, "Shh.."

She peered out through a crack in the window, eyeing the man outside with some sliver of amusement. She grinned somewhat before softly speaking, "Hellooo..."

The dog bark drew his attention to the boarded house. He couldn't exactly see anything inside, despite the squinting he was doing. And then there was a voice, that was all the confirmation he needed. "Howdy," he said back in a normal tone of voice, to whoever it was that he couldn't see. Sounded female so far. And unless they had broken down into really paranoid? He didn't think it was the actual owner of the place, in there with all the lights off. He ducked his head a little to try and look under the level of the board, though he didn't step any closer. Not that it did him any good, really.

Backing away from the window, Michelle knelt down by the little Egyptian Mau Billie Jean, who was mewling at her feet to be let outside. Just under the window was a hole in the wall, which Michelle blocked with a few bricks to keep rats from coming in--of course, she didn't expect it to prevent their entry 100% but it didn't kill anyone to try. She moved the bricks, allowing Billie Jean to squeeze outside and trot up to the man and mew at him, rubbing her side against his legs and clawing at his shoes.

Michelle herself stalked away from the window and stepped outside the house through the front door before making her way to the side of the house where the man stood with the grace of a leopard. Looking him up and down, she didn't bother to hide her fangs, which were small enough to possibly be hidden behind her lower lip anyway--if she wanted to look weird, "Is there... anything I can help you with, sir...?"

Ash looked down at the cat as it came out of the hole and started rubbing on him. He'd really always been more of a dog person, but let it do what it wanted to do anyway. The weird normalcy of it made him tempted to reach down and scratch at the animal's head or something, but Brian's cat had made him kind of wary of doing that. The faint rustle of grass made him look up, and he arched an eyebrow ever so slightly at the -- lovely, he couldn't help but notice -- woman standing in front of him. He gave her a lopsided little grin that belied the alert tension in his frame. You really just never knew, not in this damn town. "Just out for a stroll, enjoying the air," he answered. "Apologies if I disturbed you."

Michelle put all her weight on one leg as she looked first at her own house and the other on the other side of them before looking back at him, "Between people's houses...? I suppose air channels a bit better in confined, tubular areas... but seriously..." She grinned at him before kneeling down and clicking her tongue, attracting Billie Jean's attention from the man's shoes and drawing her forth into her arms before picking her up.

"There's always more interesting shit in the back yard than in the front," he said, shrugging a shoulder and grinning back a bit. "This your place? Needs a little carpentry work ..." He reached out and casually knocked his knuckles against the board over the window, glancing down at the hole below it and wondering if there was anything else in there to come out of it. He'd heard a dog.

Cocking her head to the side, Michelle smirked a bit, "Well, since none of the... shit... back there is mine, you can take it... And I just got this place last night... If you want to scold someone, scold the last owner of this junk heap... but yes, it is my place... Would you like to come in and sit a bit? It's... getting a bit dark out here... Wouldn't want to leave you out here by yourself." She pursed her lips somewhat, putting on a somewhat sarcastically concerned look on her face.

It was dark, but that didn't mean that Ash couldn't read it well enough. It just made his grin widen, and he locked his elbow to lean against the house, tucking the fingers of his other hand into the back pocket of his jeans. Closer to the butt of the pistol tucked into the back of his belt. "Think I can handle myself out here," he assured her in friendly enough tones. "No offense, but y'know ... a guy can never be too careful, acceptin' offers like that."

Billie Jean wrestled out of Michelle's arms and dropped down to the ground before skittering back into the house through the hole in the wall. Michelle folded her arms across her bosom then and turned her back on the man, "Please... you don't have anything to worry about with me... If I wanted to tear your throat open, I would have at least attempted it by now... I'm not as... indirect as others of my kind..."

Well ... if she was going to just come right out and say it, he supposed she had a point. Besides, it wasn't like he hadn't ever tangled with vampires before. Vampires aside from the Acherus. They weren't as much fun of a foe to him as demons were, but they were all right. He let his arm down and ambled a step forward. "And how do you know I'm not just waitin' for the opportunity to tear your throat open?" he asked. "Just as a rhetorical."

Michelle looked back at him over her shoulder, "What is an opportunity when every breathing moment we are in close proximity is right? I'm fairly vulnerable--I just woke up from a nap... I think if you wanted to hurt me, I think you, too, would have tried something already..." She turned back around and held out her arms, "But, if you do want to cause me harm, then now is as good a time as any..."

Ash eyed her for a beat or two. "Isn't my intention at the moment," he said, and took his hand away from his gun once more. The karma feeling she was giving off wasn't terrible, after all. He wasn't in the habit of striking down those that hadn't proved that they deserved it yet. One just had to be cautious, especially in this town. "So a pre-emptive cease-fire, then? If we're gonna be hanging out and all?"

"Perhaps..." she looked down at the man's belt, "Unless of course... you intend to... try anything..." She turned her back on him once more and walked down the alleyway between the two houses, turning and stepping up onto the porch of the building in which she now currently resided.

"Never without an invitation," he said as he watched her walk away. If she was what she seemed to be, he knew he'd hear her perfectly fine. The implied threat didn't bother him in the least; when it came to shit like that, he fully expected to get hurt if he crossed lines. Not that he had. Not in a really long time, anyway, and not sober. Ash trailed after her, eyes roaming over the front of the house before he stepped up onto the porch with her. "I'm Ash, by the way."

Michelle turned, standing before the door of her new little home, and faced him, hands on her hips and eyes steady and unblinking, "...Michelle." She opened the door of her house, Tobee standing up though wobbly on his legs, and whining at her. Looking in the doorway, she said gently, "Lay down Tobee... it's alright." When Tobee laid back down, she said softly, "Good boy..." She walked inside, not exactly expecting him to follow her, but she left the door open in case he decided to come in.

She'd asked him in in the first place, so that was where Ash went. He let out a very low whistle at the size of the dog that had greeted them, and stepped carefully. It looked hurt, but he'd lived long enough to learn that sometimes that didn't matter to dogs. "Hey boy, hey Tobee," he said quietly, leaning down a bit and holding his hand out to the animal to be sniffed and approved before he went any further into the dog's territory.

Tobee whined and barked a bit at the man before reaching his head forward and giving a sniff. Pulling back, he rolled onto his side, tilting his head to nip at Billie Jean who batted at his hackles with her paws. Michelle strolled over to the beaten couch, her foot lightly petting at Tobee's big shoulder. She looked to Ash, lightly smiling, "It seems he trusts you... to an extent."

"Seems to be a theme around here," he said, straightening up a bit and flashing the woman -- vampire, he corrected himself -- a crooked grin. He was still edgy and mentally mapping out what he could see of the place, but it didn't show. He didn't follow her to the couch, instead moving toward a chair that looked like it had seen it's better days. "So, new to Marquette, hey?"

Michelle relaxed on the couch, watching him with half-lidded yet unblinking eyes, "Indeed you could say that... It seems to me, however, that a certain group... disapproves of my arrival... You haven't encountered such a group, have you? These people... these figures.. shadow-like and birthed from mirrors? I've seen happier welcomes in my day..."

Ash plopped down into the chair and got comfortable, hooking one jeaned leg over the arm of it, chuckling a bit. "You too, huh? Yeah, there was a rash of 'em for a while, fuckin' people up in varying degrees. Dunno what they were, but I ain't seen any since early this mornin', so I think we're in the clear. They were bastards on a schedule."

"Ah, you too? That makes me feel a little bit better..." she smirked at him before looking down at Billie Jean, who trotted over to Ash's grounded shoe and biting at a lace, paws grabbing and batting at the end playfully, "This town isn't as it seems... You... You seem a bit... different... from most others I have seen here." She eyed him as she said this, knowing something was strange about him but unable to place it.

He grinned down at the cat and leaned over enough to ruffle her fur a bit. Brian's cat had never played with his boots, so maybe this one was okay. "We're all a bit different, in our own ways," he said in a musing tone, not minding getting gnawed on. The angel glanced up at her, aware that she was trying to get him to show his hand, so to speak. "Some ways are just ... more extreme than others, as I'm sure you know." He'd never been one to answer indirect questions directly.

Michelle had a good feeling he wasn't even going to hint her as to what exactly he was and that was typical and fairly unsurprising. She wasn't expecting such revelations, though she did hope for them. "Aye... this town is no ordinary town..." she said softly, looking down at the sleeping Tobee at her feet. "So, other than fending off killer shadow-figures... what do you do around here... Ash?"

Ash had played more than his fair share of poker, and he knew that even if a table-mate let something about their hand slip, it was probably best for you not to do the same. Even if he knew that she wasn't one of his main targets, maybe an angel had killed her sire or some shit and she had a grudge. Best to not test the waters just yet. "To pay the bills, I fix cars. Got a shop downtown. Besides that? Kinda all runs along the same lines as killin' shadow-figures. I take it you're not settled enough yet to have an answer to the same question?"

Michelle's thin brows curled upwards before she lowered her head and gaze to the floor, "..Wandering, mostly... working odd jobs to keep these two alive and healthy... Other than that? My life has little to no meaning... Once they've grown old and kick the bucket, I'll probably search for a way out... I'm not looking forward to eternity... It's not like I asked to be this..." She said softly, holding out her arms slightly, referring to her vampirism. "Waiting for, perhaps, a hunter strong enough to actually kill me... Many have tried, though none have succeeded..."

The angel in her hijacked living room, who had lived nearly two hundred years of his almost-eternity already chuckled softly, sitting back up from petting the cat. "Only meaning in life comes from what you put into it," he said casually enough, watching her a little bit closer. "It ain't gonna have meaning on it's own, that's up to you. But that begs the question ... if your existence is so empty and meaningless, why the survival instinct? Or have they failed by their own doin' and not your's?" He arched an eyebrow at her a little. He knew about his reasons, but then he usually didn't whine to people about how life sucked, either. No pun intended.

Michelle smiled a little at the man and his words, "Before I was turned, I would have hoped that I'd be a happily retired old woman right now... As for my survival instinct... These two." She nodded her head to Tobee and Billie Jean. "They need me alive for them. I don't live for me, but for them. I suppose my life does mean something... Even if it's only temporary..." Michelle gently glided her toes over Tobee's flank.

Ash glanced down at the animals indicated, and held his tongue on the point that someone else would probably adopt them. Or she could give them to a no-kill shelter or something. But hey, who was he to question someone else's excuse not to go out in a blaze of glory? Didn't he kind of have an annual thing where he came up with one that wasn't even as good-hearted as animals? No, his mostly centered around fear. So judge not, Chambers, he muttered internally. "There's worse shit to live for," he said, with a good chunk of the playful sarcasm cut out.

She gave him a fake, that-is-very-true smiling look, "Indeed, which is why I choose to live for these two darlings rather than the 'worse shit' of which you speak." Purring, Billie Jean leaped up into Ash's lap, stretching out her body and neck to sniff at his face, her paws kneading his chest.

He wasn't positive that she wasn't full of shit and maybe just feeding him a line. But what did it really matter, anyway? He let the cat sniff, moving his hand over to scratch at the scruff of Billie Jean's neck and wondered absently what he was doing there. Was he really that hard up for company? He sniffed back at the animal. "Well, if there's a hunter for you to be found, you might find it here," he said to the vampire woman. "This town's stepped up to some hardcore shit so far." He got the vague sense she didn't like that word, so he kept using it.

Michelle was starting to wonder why she invited this guy into her new home. She gritted her teeth behind her barely smiling lips in frustration before saying quietly, "I look forward to the excitement. If there's anything else that I'm alive for other than these two, it's a good bloodletting. Especially if others of my clan are involved..." Her voice hissed slightly with underlying hate.

Ash looked at her sideways, one eye narrowing just slightly. Now that was a telling thing to say, and not a very good attitude if she was going to be presenting herself as not on the Kill On Sight side. "Got a hate-on for leeches, do you?" he asked rhetorically. "You'll find some kin here, then. We had a rash of crazed Acherus sweep through not long ago. So if I were you, I'd either make some friends quick or keep your head low. Some people might have an itchy stake finger."

Michelle sat up and crossed on leg over the other, her smile completely gone, "I'm not one to cause trouble that isn't needed." Somehow, she felt that the man wasn't warning her for her own good. It sounded more like a threat. The facade was gone and she was letting her frustration show through freely, even if it be through the subtlest twitch in her brow or lips.

He continued to pet her cat for the time being, but signs were pointed toward it being time to go soon. In Ash's world, 'needed' was such a subjective term. After all, Hitler had thought that the Holocaust was needed. And he was getting to her, so if she wasn't a threat ... "Then you've got nothing to worry about," he said, and gave her a faint smile. He would have to keep an eye on this house, for sure.

Despite his words, Michelle didn't trust him. She could lunge forward and attempt at tearing at his throat. She could try to talk him into leaving. She could think of different ways to make him 'go away' but only sat there in a frustrated heap. "I'm sure I don't..." she replied quietly, folding her arms across her chest. Billie Jean, however, was content in her position and attempted to rub her face against against Ash's.

He let the animal do what she wanted, wondering in a faintly amused way if the cat being between them was keeping anything untoward from happening. But maybe that was a little cynical. Not that he didn't have his reasons to be. "Excellent then, welcome to Marquette," Ash said, his smile broadening a little bit in her direction. He nuzzled Billie Jean briefly and then picked her up, rising into standing with a grace he normally kept under wraps. "Suppose I'll leave you to your evening, then."

"Thank you," Michelle said, her face a bit calmed and expression-less. "I suppose you will..." She looked down at sleeping Tobee, her foot still lightly rubbing at his ribs. Billie Jean mewled and pawed at Ash's face, purring loudly and wiggling her tail.

Yeah, that was definitely a 'get the fuck out' kind of statement. Which he didn't mind, really. Ash looked at her as he gave Billie Jean a scratch under the chin for another moment, then gently set the cat down on the floor. "Take it easy, Michelle," he said easily enough, and started for the door. Though every nerve and sense was still aware of her, just in case.

Michelle watched him leave, beckoning Billie Jean to jump up into her lap and lavish in the attention of familiar hands and nails. Once he was gone, she heaved a little sigh and shook her head before scratching Billie Jean's ears. She looked down at the purring Mau and pursed her lips a bit, "..Don't know what you see in him..."