Trash Panda

~Bonsoir~

That's what my husband is hoping for, since it's already started snowing this year! My university president never cancels classes for inclement weather though (even at the risk of students not getting to campus safely), so I just hope the city plows my neighborhood earlier this winter ^^;

~Bonsoir~

It snows off and on for about 5 months out of the year where I live ^^ We get a lot! Usually there's only one heavy blizzard per year though. My friends and I call it the snowpocalypse because everything gets completely buried in snow and ice, and we're usually trapped in our houses for a day.

~Bonsoir~

That's fun! Kai loves eating the snow too. The first thing he did was shove his nose into it when I let him outside xD It'll be interesting to see what he does if/when it gets deeper. I live in the mountains, so we get up to about a meter of snow during the heaviest blizzards. That's taller than he is!

~Bonsoir~

Yeah, he was trying to keep an emotional distance from Victoria before, but now that he's given up on doing that, he's starting to be more genuine with her ^^

Since you're an animal lover, I figured I'd share another couple photos of Kai. We just got snow for the first time since last winter, and he's never seen it before! I got some cute pictures of him exploring in it, haha.

Snow dog

~Bonsoir~

The rattling of the pills in the bottle Doctor Walton had left behind drew Vail’s attention back to the bed. He frowned, noticing Victoria’s inability to open the container on her own. Spared from the suffering of physical weakness because of what he was, he had never been so infirm that he couldn’t even take a lid off a bottle. It looked frustrating, but she didn’t ask for help. Instead, he took it upon himself to get up and approach her, sitting on the edge of the bed by her side. His father already knew he hadn’t followed the rule that had been set earlier, so there was no point in trying to pretend like they’d kept their distance now. His scent clung to the sheets where he had been laying before.

“I would be shocked if he wasn’t,” he answered her question as he picked up the pill bottle and opened it for her. The medicine had a slightly bitter odor to it, and he was glad he didn’t need to take anything like it. “My father isn’t used to being disobeyed,” he went on, looking up from the container to meet her gaze. “As the leader of our clan, he is supposed to be our absolute authority. Whatever he says, goes. But,” he drawled the last word while he tilted the bottle. One of the pills fell into his hand, and he pressed it into her palm, letting his fingers brush against hers during the exchange. Her skin still felt cold to him from the combined illness and lack of blood, and he wondered briefly how furious Peter would be if he climbed under the duvet to help her keep warm.

“In this case, I think he’s wrong,” he stated simply. Glancing from the medicine back up to her face, he took on a puzzled expression. “So, do you just ingest it as it is?” Now that Lord James was gone, he was less reserved with his bewilderment. Victoria already knew he was a vampire, and he needed to learn more about human medical practices now that she was part of his life. Maybe not for long, he reminded himself silently, recalling the possibility that he could turn her. If she was willing to give up her humanity for him, she would never have to take pills again. However, he didn’t want to bring the subject back up when Peter would be returning at any second, and there was no guarantee that she would even agree to do it. For now, he would just have to take care of her in her sickly condition and hope for the best.

~Bonsoir~

Yay! Glad I accidentally nailed it then xD I like his character a lot too even though it’s different than my go-to guys. There’s a lot of development opportunities since he’s still learning to be more independent and trust his own judgement as opposed to going along with everything Peter wants. I also think Vail and Victoria complement each other really well. Their relationship is one of my favorites!

~Bonsoir~

Thanks! It's for one of my husband's cousins, so I won't know most of the people there, haha.

And it was good! I had considered having Vail say something to Victoria after Peter left, but he's so soft-spoken in general that it felt out of character ^^; Most of the characters I make are a lot more talkative, so it's interesting trying to navigate one who keeps to himself like Vail does.

~Bonsoir~

That’s great! And okay! So you know, I’m going out of town for a wedding this Fri/Sat, so I won’t be writing much on either of those days.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Can't wait ^^ Glad you had a good time too.

I've been good! Mostly putting work into my hospital project. I'm probably going to have to take a break today though because it's been raining all day, and pressure changes always trigger my migraines :'D I'm gonna take it easy and hope it doesn't last long. How are you?

~Bonsoir~

Vail observed Walton from a distance as the doctor began his examination. He was protective of Victoria, but he was also genuinely curious to see how humans treated other humans. It wasn’t something he had ever had reason to watch before, since he had never grown close enough to another human to bear witness to any medical issues. Idly, he wondered what each of the man’s instruments did. James only pulled two from his briefcase, but the Hygrace heir could see more inside. He could tell the first tool that the physician used was designed to check the lady’s breathing, since he’d instructed her to breathe on his command, but the second test was more mysterious. Subtly, he touched his own wrist as he studied the interaction, trying to figure it out on his own. He couldn’t ask his question out loud, in case the procedure was common. It would come across as strange if he accidentally confessed he’d never seen a doctor in his life.

Upon pressing down lightly with his fingers, he discovered he could feel his own pulse just beneath his fair skin—a pulse many humans didn’t believe vampires had. The thought brought an amused half-smile to his lip. He knew the myths that had been spread about his kind, that they were undead demons who had clawed their way up from their graves to fill their bodies with blood they no longer had. Their skin was supposed to be clammy from death, and the sun would turn them to dust.

His hazel eyes roved to the window, through which the afternoon light warmed his chair. The legends were fantastical at best, but he couldn’t complain. The more misled the Order was, the easier it was for his kind to remain hidden. Vampires had cooler temperatures than humans, but they weren’t icy, so they could explain away the abnormality by claiming to have poor circulation. Similarly, their skin was pale enough to burn with prolonged exposure to the sun, but they didn’t turn to dust, so they could tell keen observers that they spent most of their time indoors. All of their excuses were plausible enough to put most nervous humans’ worries to rest.

Walton’s voice drew him abruptly from his musings when he inquired about Victoria’s bite. Vail turned back to the bed, concealing his concern with a mask of calm. He trusted that Lady Crest wouldn’t tell the man who had bitten her, but he felt a little guilty that he was the one who had caused her condition to worsen so drastically. Even if she had offered her neck to him, it had been foolish to take any of her remaining blood when she had been too weak to walk from her manor to her summer house. He had given in to his inner predator when he should have stepped back and let logic guide his actions.

While penitence seeped into the heir’s eyes, his father grew tense. Not knowing Victoria like Vail did, Peter didn’t trust her to keep their secret. He watched her with a hardened gaze, as if silently warning her not to confess that it was his son who had sunk his fangs into her flesh. The Hygraces had agreed not to kill the humans they fed on, but they didn’t abstain from taking lives because they believed it was a sin. If Lord James discovered them, he would not hesitate to drain the physician to death to keep him from spreading word.

When she blamed Lord Spencer, both Hygraces relaxed. Vail studied the bottle of antibiotics doctor Walton presented with interest. It fascinated him how much effort humans put into maintaining their health. There seemed to be something about mortality that gave them the determination to create and invent and make life better for themselves and for the generations to follow. In his two centuries on Earth, he had seen countless examples of human ingenuity, the most recent being the telephone. He was sure the new invention would become widespread once all the lines were set up, since mortals liked to improve the speed of things like traveling and communicating. He supposed medical advancements were highly valued as well.

When the physician finished his work, Peter casted one more look at Vail and Victoria before he stepped over to the door. “I’ll return in a minute,” he forewarned them as he escorted Lord Walton out of the room.

The Hygrace heir knew what that meant. He avoided his father’s gaze until the clan leader closed the door behind him. When Peter returned, he was sure there was going to be a berating over his rebelliousness. His father wouldn’t let him off when it was obvious that he hadn’t kept his distance from Lady Crest. He sighed, sinking down in his plush armchair. At least Peter had found someone to tend to her.