Ridgefield Ana

During the baby shower!!!
outfit

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There were a few things Minnie had noticed here, after not a very long time of being in this apartment draped in blue and white. There were other vampires here, as she had been told there would be, and while she had not singled any of them out, nor been singled out, the room was full of Eyes. How many of these women were vampires? How many of them might have it out for her, or Joaquin? It was a train of thought she had to dutifully avoid.

The second thing she realized, on the topic of species, was that there was no trace of animal smell here. Not a shifter in sight. There was a story there, she was sure - Asha had been one, once upon a time, hadn't she? Right? Maybe not...

The third thing she realized was that Ana was here. Looking bright and lively, even in all-black, which was really nice. Minnie, standing awkwardly beside a table of food she would not waste, stared hard at the rare familiar face and wondered if she had nightmares about vampires. Or if she had crushed that night under her own boot heel and marched boldly on in her skirt-and-blazer style. Minnie wanted to hide from this person, this harmless human woman, even realizing that she would not be recognized. But a vampire hiding in the bathroom all night would be suspicious, and-or rude!!!

"Ana" had just finished DEMOLISHING her round of baby bottle drinking. Like the ability to stop feeling like a piece of shit for breaking up with her Were boyfriend was hidden on the other side of a fake nipple.

Anywho, some furious sucking later, she emerged for air and gave some loud woops of victory. A high five to her fellow competitor! Finally, a quick scan of the room to see who was up next. Cat and Grace were nowhere to be found (she hoped they weren't fighting on the lawn because she'd be devastated not to be called for backup). Grace was probably using that massive booger as a whip or something.

Oh well, she would aggressively make nice with people who did not yet have reason to hate her. A friendly-looking woman in an adorable dress caught her eye and she bounded over, holding a fresh bottle in offering.

"Hey! Wanna suck?"

Minnie was, for the record, only just realizing that she had been staring at the woman for a questionable amount of time. And was still staring at her while realizing that she was skipping in her direction. And then. There was a bottle of milk, and a proposition that might have sent her pale if she were human, or maybe flying into space propelled by a jet stream of nose blood if she were in an anime. Instead, her initial response was a sharp widening of her eyes, stunned.

The irony. It took Minnie a long, awkward moment to recover, to convince herself that this was about the bottle.

"Oh!" she said as quickly as she could, and her eyes remained wide, though she flashed her too-wide smile. "Uh, I'm trying to kick the sober. Er. The. Bottle." D'oh. She laughed, nervous, and waved her hands a little. "Dang it. Almost a good joke."

Bree laughed and dragged the back of her hand across her mouth to chase away any beverage remnants.

"I get it. Last milk bender had me—"

She paused what would undoubtedly have been a 10/10 clever bit of filthy banter to check a buzzing text in her pocket.

"Huh." A slightly raised eyebrow. An inner struggle as to whether she had a moral responsibility to out those vampires to this sweet wide-eyed lady.

Her almost-good-joke made its wandering way home, and where Ana might've had a funny shot to make in turn, she instead pulled her phone from her pocket. Huh! Minnie glanced nervously at the back of the woman's phone, and then back at her face. Her too-wide smile had shrunk down to something small, meek, polite. A text hailing Ana someplace else might be a relief. It might spare her from saying something foolish to this poor woman who had earned Minnie such wrath from her brother. Sorry about that one time! That guy's a dick, haha!

"Everything okay?" she asked softly, instead.

Didn't need to be specific, right?

"Oh. Yeah. Um. Someone was giving the heads-up that there are vampires at the party. So...if that makes you uncomfortable and you'd like to leave, I can tell Asha? Or walk you out if you want a buddy."

Like she was a mighty gladiator or some shit. Oooooh quake in your boots, supes. This human was STAYING HUMAN and she would smack you upside your face.

Ana shared her text message, in a way, and Minnie felt some thin layer of flesh between her skull and her brain tingle. She had so many questions. Who had sent that text! How did they know? Who were the vampires? Did they know she was a vampire?

More than that, though, was this sweet, sweet lady making space for Minnie to be nervous, if necessary. And oh, don't worry, she was, just for a slightly different reason! Minnie's demure smile widened some, eyes softening, her dead heart strings tugging. She had been right to respect Ana's request that night, to defy her brother. Still, for all this endeared the woman to her with powerful swiftness, it also made her feel increasingly bad. She had played a hand in a frightening night, and she stood here before her again, identity so neatly concealed.

It made it hard to look the other woman in the eye, and it might be a little funny now, given the topic, that her gaze should droop toward the floor. "That's sweet of you. I'm okay, though. Are you... okay with that?"

The info was absorbed and had some kind of effect. A furrowing of the brow. A dropped gaze. Bree was reminded of her own behavior when she first met Crystal with a certain pang of shame. And shame for everything that followed.

She decided in that moment that if this woman didn't leave, she wouldn't either. Not that she'd been planning to. The fateful vampire experience was fading further and further into the past, leaving some familiar boldness.

But she had a responsibility to this lady she'd accosted with a baby bottle! And poor Asha, how fucking awful would it be if everyone up and left her party?

"I am, yeah. Lucky to not have many bad experiences to my name. And Asha wouldn't invite someone she didn't trust."

Even without a jaguar she commanded respect. Bree pitied the fools who messed with her.

Her bad experiences with vampires were few, and apparently none bad enough to cause a greater feeling of mistrust or prejudice. Minnie liked to think she had felt that way, in the not-so-distant past. She'd had a few bad run-ins herself, some really frightening ones, and had still been... pretty open-minded, right?

Her point to Asha's taste made Minnie laugh a little, gathering the courage to look the human woman in the face again. She nodded her head, eyebrows rising some in an expression of agreement. "That's true." A quiet breath. "And I'm glad. That you haven't had many um, bad experiences."

Oh, boy. This was really eating at her. But it was easy enough to rationalize that this was not the time or place for any kind of confession. They were here to celebrate a new life on the horizon, a new chapter in Asha's life.

"I'm Minnie, by the way." Her name offered, but no icy hand extended. Just in case.

"Thanks!" A timid smile. Would she be so keen to stay human if she had a library's-worth of supernatural trauma to bear?

Bree wondered if the other's quiet empathy was masking harrowing vampire tales. Or Were, for that matter. If so, would shared commiserating help? Was this the right forum for it? It was kinda hard to suppress the need to poke poke poke.

"Hi, Minnie." Right. Intros first. Exchanging traumatic stories later. Minnie was such a cute name. She wondered if it was short for anything.

"Bree. Two E's."

No handshake offered so Bree passed the bottle from hand to hand to occupy herself.

Bree, with two e's. Not Ana. Minnie grinned broadly again for the preemptive spelling clarification, and before she could stop herself, she spelled out, "B-R-E-E. Got it. Nice to meet you." To meet her for real, in a normal, comfortable setting, like two normal, comfortable people. Oh, the trouble she would be in if Joaquin ever knew about this.

It was hard to keep her brain in this normal, comfortable place. She had never been a particularly skilled liar, for all vampirism sometimes seemed to demand it. Keeping secrets was something she was getting better at, though, if not for sheer determination.

"So, um. How do you know Asha? Milk chugging contests?"

Name spelled out, correctly, with no added letters or jokes about cheese. Damn, this woman tho. It was nice, striking up a conversation with no ulterior motives—no angling for an interview. Nice to know she still kinda remembered how to do it.

Minnie's joke made her laugh, and she couldn't resist. "Oh no, wet t-shirt contest. Not water. Just milk."

But she followed up immediately with the truth. Cuz who knew what kind of banter Minnie enjoyed? "Uhhh we met at Splashfest! Ended up each needing a partner for canoeing, though I don't think we're gonna repeat that experience anytime soon." Cuz she sucked at it.

The truth, minus the book stuff. She'd been removing fliers and posts from forums. Now that the interviews were done she was keen to protect identities. Or at least try her best.

"How about you?"

Milk wet t-shirt contest. Minnie wrinkled her nose and laughed, listening on as Bree described their actual meeting: canoeing at Splashfest. Minnie had wanted very much to go to that event. Alas.

Her turn. Minnie drew a breath, and her gaze wandered toward the ceiling as her mind reached back through time. To some place in the woods where she'd drawn silver from the earth and Asha had earned a glaring scar on her palm. Bree wouldn't be the only one editing her tale.

"We met on a hiking trail," she said after a moment, grinning. "But we didn't really know one another until I made her wedding rings." She liked that better, anyway. See, Ana-Bree, she was more than a monster!

Oh! OHHHHH.

Friends from the before times. Friends from the pre-unturning, pre-wedding, pre-divorce times. Bree was reminded how fresh af her and Asha's friendship was, making her all the more chuffed at having scored an invite to the shower.

She knew dick-all about metalworking and it showed. Her face lit up with obvious admiration and interest, and she stepped a few paces closer like they were sharing key intel.

"No WAY. That's amazing! You got pics? How many years of study does something like that take?"

Hadn't even occurred to her that magic might be involved.

Indeed, Bree was impressed, and it wrote itself across her face. Minnie felt some phantom twinge in her stomach as the other woman came closer, and if she could blush, she'd be pink for the combination of embarrassment and shame.

"Oh, many years, probably," said, both cheeky and sheepish, pulling her phone from her dress pocket to begin pawing through thousands of various photos in search of Asha and Abraham's wedding rings. She would first have to make it through a sea of flowers, Dude, the moon, Dude, food, paintings, Dude. So many dog pictures. "I have, a um. Ability. Like, haha, telekinesis, but only for metal." Her eyes fluttered back towards Bree. What did she think of that!

She wasn't, like, trying to creep on the phone roll but the scrolling went on for so long her eyes kinda flicked down. Of their own accord. Minnie was clearly a nature fan. She seemed like someone who found beauty in the little things. Tiny flower petals and pretty color combinations. Ohhhh a doggo! Adorable doggo. Familiar...doggo...?

Midway through mulling that over, Minnie dropped the magic reveal. Bree's gaze snapped up from the phone to meet the other woman's. Looking even more impressed than when she thought she'd spent years mastering a trade. NEW PSYCHIC POWER UNLOCKED!

"Heyyyyyy look at you! I had no idea some psychics could manipulate metal!" What was the list, now? Teleportation, plants, healing, sound, emotions, summoning objects, explosions. DAMN!