Muse hard bass school

Perhaps going to an LGBT-friendly place would help him find some answers about his own sexuality. If not, he could always just dance.

So he found himself at the dance floor, this time not looking that much out of place. Opted out for the look more fit for dancing, Adidas sweatpants and a sleeveless, deep-cut hoodie that showed a bit of his musculature.

The mass of people provided him a bit more anonymity and it felt good. He closed his eyes and let the music carry him away. Despite his shyness, the young vampire found himself joining another person with a big smile on his face.

But he'd go away if they didn't liked his company, of course!

outfit

---

Modern society would've labelled Ruth as anti-social, so it was to her benefit that she didn't subscribe to nothing modern anyway. Modern geography didn't make much sense to her, and neither did the modern gibberish that boys and girls shouted as they flashed selfies all damn night long on Ridgefield's sidewalks. If she'd aged in the way she was meant to, skin cracked and hair turned white, every year poured over her features, her being the way she was would've made sense. Instead she was untouched like every other immortal, a perfect sculpture made of wrought iron, moving through time like it was nothing.

Someone else was moving, too. Ruth couldn't distinguish who was Catrina's in a crowd like this, but killer instinct told her it wasn't just her here. Frankly Ruth didn't have a single reason to disturb anybody, so she didn't, but she would hang around. She'd come here for herself, anyway.

Gum in mouth, the intimidating woman approached the bar. Her gaze snaked around, evaluating women, before she paid the bartender to send one a drink. It didn't have to mean much. Cheap thrills came and went.

A song he didn't liked came on, so Theo happily hoped towards the bar. Soon he felt the presence of another vampire, definitely... Oh. That woman! She looked as if she could murder him by just glancing at him.

But the presence felt familiar. A clutchmate... so he thought.

A little bit intimidated, he sat at the bar and just gave her a small wave of recognition. If she wanted to chat, he wouldn't mind! But Theo didn't wanted to bother her.

Eventually, there were two waves. One from the lady and one from the man. Ruth took her pick.

”Evenin’,” she greeted him in her drawl. ”It’s lookin’ like we dressed the same,” Ruth recognised with a short glance at his exposed arms.

Pleasant was as pleasant did.

Theo chuckled bashfully, giving her a bit of dorky smile. He was having fun! But he still remained... well.. himself.

"Uh, matching uniforms?" he made an allusion to the fact they were in the same group. At least he hoped it would come up this way. "Errr... Ah, I'm Theo, by the way!"

He smiled young.

”May be,” Ruth answered, separating the word in two. ”Name’s Ruth. Stopped here from Tennessee a few months back.”

His eyes brightened a bit. Theo couldn't help but just smile happily. He wasn't alone in his... newness?

"Ah... I also came here a few months ago." he said.

How about that. Ruth listened with her head angled towards him but kept an ear out both ways, even in a place like this.

”Not from the South, I’m guessin’,” she presumed. It was real obvious he hadn’t come from there, and that was the joke.

"Nah, I'm actually from East." Theo picked up on the joke and went along with it. "East enough to be considered a problem by McCarthy."

Glorious Motherland. Even though he was born in Scotland.

”Who?” Ruth asked, not especially learned.

Was McCarthy someone he knew?

"Uhh... Cold War American senator, famous for searching for communists everywhere..." Theo mumbled out. "I'm Russian... well, half-Russian. But still."

He felt so awkward explaining the joke and it seemed like all the steam powering his motions was gone.

He talked real human, seem to think real human. What was the difference between a half Russian and a full Russian? Far as she was concerned, nobody came in halves.

”N’ a communist,” Ruth surmised, except that comment wasn’t serious either. Her lips quirked just faintly, eyes glazed.

”Like what you see here? These boys?” she asked.

Theo never really had strong political opinions, but he didn't protest. His eyes widened once he was asked about the boys...

"Well... I'm just trying to figure out if I like what I see..." he mumbled out, scratching the back of his neck. Ah yes, complicated feelings...

He was hesitant, or else uncertain, while she was thinking about what two immortals could do about dinner.

”Why don’t you pick one n’ take him ‘round to one of them rooms?” she coerced, glancing to a side room.

"Eh?"

His eyes widened. This place seemed to be awfully public, too public for Theo's liking. What if they got caught...?

"I mean... right here...?"

"Where else?" Ruth asked. "These kids ain't sober like you. Some of them can't even stand no more."

That... felt so damn wrong. So damn wrong. Theo couldn't really bring himself to feed on someone so drunk. It could have been dangerous for the human, too! No, nuh-uh...

"I already fed before coming here." A swift lie to get out of this situation. Thought about grabbing a snack on his way home from here or perhaps to snack on someone he'd form some connection with...

He was top of the animal kingdom, and he sure as shit wasn’t acting like it. Ruth wondered if this was something Catrina enforced, or if he was going against his own nature in a show of self-denial.

”You lyin’ to me?” Ruth asked, looking him in the eye.

He knew better that he'd crumble under the pressure from someone definitely stronger and older than he was. The young vampire shook his head and looked over the drunk boys again.

"I mean, fuck..." Theo blurted out. "They're plastered. It feels so wrong..."

Theo was also plastered when his sire bit him a bit too hard. He nervously scratched his neck at the place her teeth sunk into, even though his resurrection left no scar there. But he remembered, remembered a bit too well...

"It's a recipe for disaster..."

Plastered was a damn good word in more ways than one.

"No it ain't," Ruth countered, releasing her gaze to glance at the bartender. They were taking up room and paying for no drinks. "Not if you take your time."

Ruth thought shoving people off cliffs was a reliable way of filtering who was worthwhile. That was how she'd been taught everything in her life. It left her with two choices after being shoved: learn to fly or splatter on hard rock.

"But if you ain't ready, that's a different story. Don't let me get in your head."

He felt intimidated and a little bit ashamed. Theo was a good man and a very lousy vampire, or so he thought... But for how long he could be a lousy vampire? He glanced over the drunk men, definitely younger than him...

"Shit, alright..." Theo sighed and lifted himself up from the bar stool.

He felt the anxiety bubbling up as he slowly tried to approach them. Like a boiling kettle that was left on the stove for a bit too long... ... and before he knew, the kettle popped off the whistle, letting the hot steam come out.

Or teeth in his case. Teeth and claws... Theo remembered that night too well. Teeth clenching on his neck, digging deeper, deeper, deeper... He felt his own claws digging deeper into his palms, black blood seeping in. Black. He was a vampire. Black. He died. He was dead. She killed him...

The vortex was drawing him in... But his mind could still recognize danger. The young vampire dashed out, out of the public before his consciousness faded and the feral beast took over.

Gently put, his leaving was abrupt in a way even he seemed to recognise with those parting words. Ruth said nothing, only turned with her jaw to follow his disappearing shadow. The fuck was he doing?

She saw him bumble for a few painful moments and then explode. Something like that. It was nothing good, but it wasn't too unfamiliar of a memory to her. She'd been about as wild as a mustang at his age.

Then he was gone in the blink of an eye. A swinging door at the exit and a handful of bewildered faces that belonged to people who'd been standing in his way was the only sign of his escape, and with a displeased grunt, the imposing woman followed outside.

It'd gone from hunting dinner to hunting an immortal. Except the problem with the latter was that they weren't gonna be found if they didn't wanna be. But she picked a direction in the night and committed to it. When she eventually arrived to an old home for warehouses it was by teleport, her gum devoid of flavour and tasting like pennies. She was unfazed by the idea of how she might find the feral kid--if she did--or with whom it might be.

If the feral vampire was there, he wasn't making any noises. Probably bunkered himself up in an office room or something, in fear or his brain wasn't fried enough not to try to save other people from himself.

Crying noiselessly, hiding. A tragic little monster.

Ruth noticed the door to the office, how it hung off one hinge, cracked open. She edged towards it with her shoulder, spotting and sensing just enough of Theo to know he was in there somewhere.

Whoever had failed him like this, leaving him defenceless in his own skin, had done him one hell of an injustice.

”You fed, kid?” she asked him flat, but not devoid of understanding.

She didn’t enter the room. Instead she kept by the other side of the door, eyes searching the ground out front like it might give her answers. Maybe show her blood she hadn’t smelt somehow, or point her to a body he’d done damage to.

There were bloody handprints all over the cracked door. Someone could be heard shakily calling for ambulance in the near distance of the building. Another person was heard gasping and crying in pain. Theo has fed, it seemed. Bit two innocent bystanders, in fact. But both were alive, alive enough to grab a phone and call for help.

He heard a voice, felt presence of another vampire. Theo was coming down from his frenzied state, but it was hard to tell the difference. Dear God, what have he done? He couldn't help but curl himself up and cry, cry, cry, shaking and whimpering. He felt like a monster, a ticking timebomb that finally went off. And he hated it so damn much. Perhaps it would have been indeed better if his sire let him bleed out.

"I... ye... yeah..." He finally managed to speak.

Speak up, boy. Ruth drew in a silent breath after he found his words only to stop it all at once, the scent of blood damn well good enough to make anyone hungry.

She took a step back to peer at him in the darkness again, figuring if he was crying, at least he wasn't going to go nowhere. "Good. Don't move," Ruth instructed, words hardened.

There were at least two people in here. She heard them. They were the same but different. One was in pain, the other on the phone. She found the one on the phone hiding behind some wall. Ruth snatched the device, ended the call, and grabbed her. If she could've had it her way she would've made a mess of her, but as it stood, Lauderhill was real close to their territory, and this wasn't her job to finish. No can do.

A hard woman to fight against, Ruth pressed her up against the wall firmly, narrowing her gaze until she caught her eyes in the dim light. The command given was simple. She'd forget tonight when she let go of her. The second command was even simpler. She was going to go walk her way home. That one didn't work too good. Ruth could tell in her face it didn't.

She released the woman to find the second victim. She was all used up, Theo. Who'd have thought he could take down not one, but two humans.

"You 'n' me don't got a lotta time," she said to Theo, were he still there, as she reemerged and hauled a man into the room. If there ever was a moment to learn under pressure, it was now. "Get up. Look him in the eye," Ruth added, fangs stifling her.

---

first suggestion success
second suggestion fail, fail :3

Oddly enough, Theo didn't needed to be told twice. He knew what he had to do as soon as he have seen Ruth drag the man in. Wiping his eyes, he took a shuddering breath. Alright. Okay...

He held his unfortunate victim's face, gently but firmly enough to make sure he wouldn't avert his gaze. Magic pushed through his voice as he quietly spoke two commands, both easily and both that would be executed.

"When you wake up, you'll forget everything about this night. Now sleep."

And the bitten man was out cold.

The young vampire then tore apart his victim's shirt and used the material to dress his wounds.

---

success! and success

He reclaimed himself. She kept the man as close to as still as a pillar as she could while Theo twiddled with his memories, her eyes fixed on the younger immortal's, reading if it was landing.

The second command sure did. The man slumped in Ruth's arms, dead weight, and she lowered him to the ground with only enough kindness to not cause him more injury. This was a good time to go, except Theo started wrapping him up like a tender-hearted medic would.

Reluctant to assist, all she grumbled from behind was, "Don't give him no blood."

"I won't... I'm not ready to be a dad..." Theo gasped out as he was finished with the first aid he could afford.

He got up and looked at his bloodied hands. Jesus... Just... what a mess. How could he let this happen? Let the monster out...? Should probably tell Catrina about this. Yeah...

The young vampire looked at Ruth, despair and shame still rather visible in his eyes. He muttered a soft apology.

Good. This man wasn't their friend, he was dinner.

"You did good, kid," was all she said to his apology. "You got any objections with me takin' you back to the Collection?" Ruth asked, seeking to grip him around the shoulder, magic coursing just beneath her skin.

Theo didn't really picked up what Ruth really meant by that. He wasn't really all that well-versed in magic, didn't even knew that teleportation was indeed possible...

"Yeah, I thought about going there anyway..." the young vampire just nodded. He needed to wash the blood off, talk to his domina and apologize for the mess...

"Grab onto me if you don't wanna fall," she instructed as he trailed off, giving him three whole seconds before she vanished them from the scene in the blink of an eye, landing them in a dim corner of the Collection's cellar.

Ruth landed on sure feet, still clutching the kid. Magic was strong here, anchoring her senses in the wash of all that blood they'd just been in.