8248/Moping in the Garden

Moping in the Garden
Date of Scene:	15 October 2021
Location:	The Gardens
Synopsis:	Clarice and Lydia talk about her transformation - and how to accomodate it.
Cast of Characters:	Clarice Ferguson, Lydia Dietrich

---

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    There are few places to hide on the Asteroid - and none that will actually work when you realize that one of your brothers is able to telepathically track your location. So why even bother?
    Clarice certainly isn't, as she sits under a tree in the garden. She has one of her comics in her lap, and is trying to concentrate on it - but she's pretty sure she's read the same sentence about five times now. In her mouth is the stem of one of the fennel flowers - a spray of yellow blooms gently jiggling off to one side of her face as she chews on it. The last week or so has been stressful, between Mystique's disappearance and recovery, planning such a large and important op, Lydia's kidnapping and ...transformation, and what seems like a never ending fight with her little brother.
    In theory the fight's over, for now. In theory. She's learning not to trust that, though.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
With Mystique avoiding her by keeping herself busy, Lydia has found that their room to be more claustrophobic than anything else. So she's going to take her laptop to the garden to edit what she has so far on her book. She had thought it would be unique to set this next book from the vampire's point of view, and her recent experience has caused her to rethink the wisdom of this.

When she gets up to the garden she's suddenly assaulted by a barrage of smells. So far her entire existence as a vampire has been in the relatively sterile halls and rooms of the Asteroid. Here, where life abounds, it's like she hit a wall face first. It takes her a good minute to steady herself and to start sorting out all the smells, when a familiar one catches her nose: Clarice.

Following the scent she comes upon the woman sitting underneath the tree. "May I join you?" she asks politely.

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "Lydia," Clarice greets her friend with surprise, a smile crossing her lips as she regards the other woman. "Of course. I, uh- wasn't really expecting company." She shifts the flower to the other side of her mouth before asking almost automatically, "Do you want me to grab one of the flowers for y-" She cuts herself off abruptly with a look of uncertainty and consternation crossing her features. It wasn't //food// - you didn't eat it. Was it something Lydia could, or would still enjoy?
    She realizes she has no idea - and has no idea if she's being insensitive by even asking. "I, uhh - can you...?"

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia gives Clarice a gentle grin in response to her hesitance. "Apparently I can still enjoy food even though I get no nutrition from it," she says as she eases herself down next to her friend. "So, yes, I would love to enjoy one of the flowers. My sense of taste is a bit more acute than it was, so I haven't tried something like the waffle bar or an alcoholic drink." She sets her laptop on her lap and turns it on. "So something simple like like a fennel flower would be a good trial."

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "Okay," Clarice agrees, the tension she'd managed to work up evaporating almost instantly. "I'm sorry. I'm making things weird, aren't I?" Not that she has to //make// things weird. Things are weird. Her friend is a vampire.
    In a casual display of her power, she summons a small portal, reaching through it to pluck one of the flowers off the plant. She offers this over to Lydia with a brief smile, as the portal blinks back out of existance. "You're doing alright today?"

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
"You can't make things any weirder than they already are," Lydia says with a smirk, taking the flower and popping the stem in her mouth. "Mm," she says. "It /does/ taste like licorice." She considers the question of her wellbeing for a while, staring at the blank screen of her laptop. "I think I'm doing about as well as I can. It all feels so... surreal."

She's silent for a moment. Perfectly still, not even breathing. "Mostly it's the little things that weird me out. I think I've gotten used to the whole not needing to breathe thing." She chuckles ruefully, "it's either that or go mad. But the thing that gets me is how /silent/ I am." She shakes her head. "The human body makes so many little sounds in it's daily function that we've all kind of learned to filter out that their absence is disturbing."

"It's why I decided to come out here.," she says. "I needed some noise to distract me from the utter /stillness/ of my body."

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "Well... Happy to give you a bit of company, if that's what you need, Lydia. And noise. You know the boys would be happy to, as well." She shifts, so her shoulder rests lightly against Lydia's, as her head falls back against the trunk of the tree behind her.
    She's silent a moment before she remarks, "You know the thought I just can't get out of my head? Is how scared you must have been. I keep telling myself we're here for you now - and you're still yourself, stupid vampire jokes and all... But you must have been so scared."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
"I think the boys would be too much noise," Lydia says with a chuckle. "I wanted a bit of calm right about now which is why I didn't go to them. That and a bit of nature." She looks out to the stars and the earth that's visible out of the dome. "Soon, I think, I'm going to go to earth. To my apartment, first. Then head on over to the Laughing Magician so John can stop freaking out about this."

When Clarice brings up the night of her abduction, a glower pulls at her lips. "I wasn't at first," she admits, quietly. "I was angry. How /dare/ they kidnap me. They'd bring down the wrath of a three-thousand year old vampire and the entire Brotherhood on their heads." She gives her head a slight shake. "The first guy that they had watching me was laughable. He talked like a Saturday morning cartoon villain. If he had a mustache he would have twirled it. Hatshepsut made short work of him."

She looks down at her hands, playing with a fingernail. "I didn't get scared until that woman... the mastermind behind it all, I assume... replaced him." She's silent and still for a moment as she recalls what had happened. Looking up at Clarice she'd be able to see the pain in Lydia's expression. "She was Evil, Clarice. We bandy that term around, 'Oh she's evil,' 'what an evil thing to do,' but this woman... she was /Evil/. Capital E. You could /feel/ it oozing off of her like a dark black slime. That's when I started becoming afraid."

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    With another shift, Clarice drapes an arm around Lydia, resting her head against the other woman. "I'm sure we'll figure out some sort of reprisal - hopefully remove the bitch from this world so she can never do something like this to anyone else. I wish there'd been a way to get to you sooner. It- the truth is, things could have gone much worse. Both Raven and I running off half-cocked like that..." She hates to think what it would have meant for Brotherhood, and Theo, and Pete if they'd all fallen.
    "I'm just glad that you're still here, and you're still you, because if I- if I'd had to make the call, I don't know. I wasn't sure what you would have wanted."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia inhales just so she can let out a weary sigh, as she drapes an arm around Clarice. "The night I got back, when I couldn't sleep and you all were resting, I went over and over in my mind about what we could have done differently. Was there any mistake that we had made along the way that lead to this? The more I thought about it, the more scenarios I ran in my head on what /could/ have happened, it always came around to this being the best outcome we could have hoped for."

"A great man once said, 'It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness... that is /life/.'" Lydia squeezes Clarice's shoulders reassuringly. "I believe that this was one such situation." She leans her head back against the tree contemplatively. "All in all, I'm okay with the outcome. That bitch didn't get what she wanted, and lost a lot of people, Hattie and you two didn't get injured despite how tired you must have been, and I survived, in a fashion. It was a pyrrhic victory, sure, but a victory nonetheless."

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "We were running on an adrennaline high - and we absolutely shouldn't have gone in without more back up. But if we'd taken the time gather more people..." Would they have lost Lydia entirely? "On a completely selfish note - I need you, you know. As much as I love Theo, we'd be the death of each other, without you and Pete." She smiles a bit wryly before she adds, "Can you imagine if we had grown up in the same house together? There'd've never been a day of peace."
    She gives Lydia a little squeeze as she adds, "I'm sorry you went through all that. I wish we could have prevented it, or gotten to you sooner - but I'm so glad you're still here."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia chuckles with a grin, "Please. I'm no use when it comes to you and Theo. I've never had any siblings before so I don't know how to deal with it." She shakes her head, "Pete is way better than me at it."

"It's funny how much you and Mystique, and now the boys have come to mean so much to me in such a short time," she says contemplatively. "I never would have thought that I would have found a second family amongst you all."

She's silent for a moment, looking at her feet. "I'm glad I'm still here, too. It's going to take some getting used to... by all of us, but once we're used to the routine, it'll all start to feel normal again."

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "I meant it by the way - what I said. If you need blood... I can give some, sometimes. I'm not sure how much you need, or how often, or even how much I can give, or how often - I guess that's something to talk to Doctor Hathaway about. Or Hattie. I, uh... I appreciated you turning the boys down, but- well. I think they may make both of our lives miserable if we deny them to right to help, as well."
    Clarice lets out a huff of air before she adds, "I'd be lying if I said I didn't find the whole idea strange, and or that it doesn't make me uneasy, but as long as we know how to do it safely, it's- There's no real, logical reason why we shouldn't help provide you what you need. Is there?"

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia looks uncomfortable at the notion of taking blood from Clarice. "I need..." she begins. "I haven't talked to Raven about this yet. I need fresh blood daily, really no more than what somebody would donate to the Red Cross. Maybe more if I'm more active and use my powers, once I get them. It takes a couple of weeks for somebody to recover fully, but in an emergency I could take more sooner."

She chews at the stem of the flower in her mouth, not really meeting the eyes of her sister. The grizzly day to day maintenance of her new life isn't something she enjoys talking to other about. "We're going to need volunteers. A lot of volunteers. And a schedule. Soon. I'm riding high on Hatshepsut's blood right now, but come tomorrow I'll need somebody."

She shakes her head, still not meeting Clarice's gaze. "I... I don't have to take from them directly. They could bleed in a pint glass and that'd work, but it's far more pleasurable if I take it directly. For both of us. Its..." words cannot describe the rush of pleasure she's gotten from feeding. "ecstasy but not in a sexual way."

She's silent now, still staring at her feet, letting Clarice digest this, as it were. She finally lifts her head to look at her friend, eyebrows creased in worry. "Do I... do I make you uneasy?"

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "Okay..." Clarice says quietly, and a bit uncertainly as Lydia describes feeding to her. She does indeed take a moment to turn that over in her head. "You haven't fed off anyone yet, though. Right? Except for Hattie? Are you sure you would know how much to take? That you'd be able to stop?" she asks. "I don't want to put you in a position where you might accidentally take too much, and make someone ill, or worse - just from your inexperience. You'd beat yourself up over it. So... I just feel like we need to put some sort of safety net in place until we're sure you have a handle on things."
    She glances at her foot-gazing friend for a moment, and then away again, staring towards her own feet and giving a wince as Lydia voices her question. "If I said no, it'd be a lie. If I said yes, it's not the whole truth. I believe you're yourself. I believe you would never intentionally harm any of us. I just don't know enough about what all this entails to really understand it, and that leaves me feeling uneasy - and I do worry a little that if we're too careless while you're learning, someone could get hurt by accident. I mean, it happens often enough when mutants are learning their powers. So... I'm a little uneasy, yeah, but I don't think it'll last. I trust your character, Lydia - I just don't trust your control yet. You know?"
    She shoots her friend an anxious look as she finishes - hoping her honesty hasn't hurt her, but lying would be the wrong choice.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia is still for a long moment as she listens to what Clarice has to say. By the end of it she nods, "That's fair. I won't say no to being overly cautious." She pulls up a hand to run it through her dark curly hair, "As for knowing when to stop.... how do /you/ know when to stop? I get full, too, and if I'm not starved, what I take to fill me up wouldn't be enough to harm anybody."

"Other vampires.... they're like gluttons, who take more than they need, just to cause pain and suffering to their victims," she says quietly. "I've been on the receiving end of when a vampire wants to make it painful and it was the /worst/." She shakes her head. "I don't want to do that to /anybody./"

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "I know you don't," Clarice assures. "And maybe I'm being paranoid, but I want to protect //you,//" she insists. "I mean - it's not too different from how I wanted to protect Theo, yeah?" She leans a little harder into Lydia, giving her a gentle nudge. "Maybe we just have Hattie there the first time you actually feed off of someone? So she can step in if you aren't aware enough of when to stop? Maybe we do it in the Medbay?"

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia leans back against Clarice. "Hattie taught me how to feed," she says. "It's mostly instinct anyway. I don't... I don't want to bother her as much as I can." She nods, however. "Doing it in the medbay with the Doctor there with either you or Pete there to shut me down if I try to take too much."

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "Yeah, sure," Clarice agrees. She doesn't want to push too hard - but she wants to ensure everyone is safe. She gives Lydia a gentle squeeze with her arm before suggesting, "I could talk to Mister Creed? With his healing factor - I'm not sure how quickly he regenerates blood, but it's fast. He might be willing to be, ummm, your first... donor?" What the hell do you call it? "He should be able to donate more frequently than others - if he's willing. I don't really know what he'll say to the idea, though," she admits in a thoughtful tone.
    "I can't really blame him if he says no. He hardly knows you, himself."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
The thought of drinking from Victor makes Lydia shudder, causing the ash flakes of her ectoplasm to whorl in agitation. "No. Not him. I know you mean well, and the two of you are close but...." She shakes her head. "Like you said. He barely knows me and he'd just as likely rip me to shreds as soon as I start." Even in undeath that man scares the bejeezus out of her.

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "Well... maybe he'll fill a pint glass for you," Clarice offers, before adding quietly, "He wouldn't you, you know. He's- If I'm no monster, he's not either. And wouldn't hurt someone dear to me. But if what you said is true - if you need a pint every day, and if it's going to take us week to recover - Lydia, you don't have enough family to keep you fed," she points out.
    "But like I said - I can only ask him. I'm not sure he'd agree."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia still really doesn't like the idea of feeding off of Victor. "I suppose," she relents. It'll make Clarice feel better, and it doesn't hurt to ask. "We're going to need to reach out and get volunteers," she says. "There's going to have to be a ... a feeding schedule." She hates saying it like that. It makes her sound like some wild animal kept at a zoo. She draws her legs up to her chest, letting the laptop slide off of them and into the grass. "Because it's either that or I go hunting and... I just don't have the tools for that. I don't have the heart."

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    Clarice turns to face Lydia more directly, her concern evident on her features. She keeps one arm around Lydia, while her other hand capture's one of Lydia's - with only the briefest flicker of sadness at how cold her friend's skin felt to her touch. Everything about this felt //wrong// - but since she doubted she was waking up from this nightmare anytime soon, the only thing for it was straight ahead. "We're going to figure it out," she promises her friend. "You're not alone. We'll make sure you get what you need. We'll find volunteers. Family looks after each other, right? We're here for you, I promise you that."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
She's not gonna cry. She's not gonna cry. GODDAMMIT! She's crying now. Thick red tears weep from her eyes. "I know. I know. It's just that.... with everybody walking on eggshells around me always thinking, 'when is she going to lose control and start eating people?' and Raven throwing herself at work all the time and Hattie is... it's like she's living in a different plane of /existence/, and I don't have /anybody/ I can relate to..." She sounds small, now. Lost. "I still feel alone."


"FUCK! I'm crying again!"

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "It's okay to cry," Clarice promises Lydia. "God, I've bawled my eyes out." She frees her hand from Lydia's, so she can reach up to wipe at the tears, concern showing on her features. "I don't mean to make you feel alone. I mean- Pete said you're yourself. And then you made that stupid joke about the fangs and- and it's you. It's really you." Tears spring to her own eyes as she admits, "I was worried, for a little bit, that you wouldn't be. That it might be like... something else, walking around in your body, but it's not. It's you. And that- Most of my worries left when I realized that. It's you, so it's going to be okay."
    She studies Lydia's face with concern. "What can I do? How can I make you feel less alone? What do you need?"

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia laughs bitterly. "Yeah, but your tears won't stain your clothes." She wipes at her tears, too, and between the two of them leave smears of blood on her cheeks. "I don't know what else you could do," she admits. "I can't fault you for being cautious. But how would /you/ feel if you almost died and when you got back everybody treated you differently? As you said, I'm me."

More tears spring from her eyes, which she furiously wipes away with the back of her hand. "Except I /did/ die, and now I'm just some soul piloting some blood fueled corpse around like Jaeger pilot, and it feels /amazing/." She looks up. "You don't understand. This is the best I've ever felt in my /life/. I could run a marathon and not even get winded, not that I need to breathe."

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "It's like I said, Lydia - some kids, when they get their mutant powers - that can be a danger too. Mine were. The first time I killed someone wasn't on purpose, and I know how much it would hurt you if something like that happened," Clarice explains. "Am I treating you any different - right now?" she asks. "We're sitting here - we've got our fennel flowers. Yeah? Just- just spending time under a tree. I could, umm - if you wanted to see the photos Pete took after my 'make-over,'" she suggests. "I've got that."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
It's weird crying and not getting the sniffles to go along with them, Lydia notes. She takes a moment to compose herself before nodding. "I think I'd like that." She needed something 'normal' right now, to distract her from the fact that she probably looks like she just walked out of an abattoir. God forbid anybody walk in on them like this. That'll start some rumors. So she leans over to rest her head on Clarice's shoulder to look at Pete's job. And after this? Well, maybe she'll actually get a chance to work on her book.