She didn't speak to Joaquin the entire car ride back to the apartment, and he didn't make an effort to start a conversation either, nor did he even cross to this side of the veil. In chilly silence, the two dead people eventually get back to the sanctity of Noa's apartment.
As Noa places her things on the accent table, Quino slips to this side of the Shroud, placing his feet on the ground for once. Noa clutches Nythanel’s rose to her chest as she looks for a place to display it. It won't be put into water, it will be beautiful and then it will die and remain beautiful still. She decides to put it in one of her decorative store-bought vases, removing the fake flowers and letting the rose stand alone. Joaquin grimaces at her for not just tossing the damn thing away.
She tries to let her anger work itself out in her head for a bit before speaking, but it was so hard now. Every button was pushed, and she wanted to cruelly bind him and toss him into something foul as punishment. She knows she shouldn't, she loves him so much, but he is so unbearable at times.
Noa opens her mouth, but he speaks first. "I'm sorry."
For a second she's not sure she heard right, she turns and looks at him with mild shock. His eyebrow raises, clearly a little insulted that she was surprised.
"I'm sorry, Noa. I reacted extremely bad back there. I interfered when you were just trying to get stuff cleared up with the m- with your co-worker." His arms cross and he's not looking straight at her.
She had bent over to place the rose in its new home, but she now fully rests her knees on the shag rug, sinking to the floor. Emotionally exhausted. Her hands lace on the coffee table and she sighs, "What exactly happened?"
He throws out his arms and does a big dramatic gesture. "Damn it I don't know, I got pissed off seeing someone give you flowers, I guess. A handmade vase? Who the fuck does that?"
"That's so extreme, Quino." She huffs, "You broke a handmade gift a potential ally was giving me as a sign of good will. Is that all it takes to set you off now?"
"Noa, I don't know if you've caught on, but this-" He gestures to himself with rigid fingers, eyes wild. "-fucking sucks. Yeah yeah, I can do some cool shit, but being dead BLOWS. I'm here but-" He goes to her and bends over to put his hands on her face, her body shivering from the chill, and he passes right through. "I can do fuck all. And if I wanna do anything with some weight I gotta sit inside someone else's body and just hope they do what I want. Maybe I can convince them to twitch if I try hard enough. God, if I wanna touch you, I have to inhabit the bodies of strangers and let them put their hands all over you..."
He runs a hand through his curls, making a noise of impotent frustration. "It's rough. You keep meeting new people, they're all hot and can do cool shit and provide you with everything you could want. Your world is getting so big, and I am just floating around you, unable to be a part of it."
They're quiet for a bit, and she watches him pace around the room like a trapped animal, trying to think of a way to respond. Anger once again deflated.
"You know I don't want other people for their looks or their powers. I only want you." Her face contorts slightly, "I don't like using these bodies as a conduit just as much as you."
"I can get over using the bodies, cause at least I get to feel everything when I do, y'know? But I see you talking to these power players, and they're looking at you and seeing what you can bring to the table. Ken, Ballard, the manlet and all his friends, even Kat and that fuckin' pretentious doctor. They're all gonna use you up and toss you out, just like the Family did with me. You're too good for them. We should've done what I'd said, run away while we could've but no, y-"
"Joaquin, please." She insists urgently, shaking her head. "I'm trying so hard to make amends to you."
"Yeah. I know. We're trying. We're practicing. We're studying. I know... you're perfect and do nothing wrong." He throws up his hands and flies off the floor, lingering below the ceiling fan. "After all the shit that's been done to us, what they've made us do... you're still theirs."
His back is to her as he appears to stare at something far off. And she's quiet, because she has been watched her entire life and didn't expect it to stop now.
She was her own, but her hands were still held by the council, Kenneth Brackston was her Sire and he must have her loyalty. Yes, he was right, the family has hurt her and made her do terrible things, but it has made her so strong. She was a full steam ahead locomotive, she couldn't stop, only advance.
"I'm under a lot of pressure here, Quino." She murmurs. "I'm trying to keep my coterie informed and safe, satisfy the needs of my Sire, assist with running a company and its projects, meet and please the local Camarilla, trying to keep the Anzianni happy, trying to study my craft and get you back-"
He flips in the air and gives her a look. "Well you know my answer to most of that, fuck everybody else and get yours." But his expression softens when he sees how small she is, and he floats down to be at her level. Helpless in the face of her, though he would never admit it. "But I know you, always thinking light-years ahead of everyone else. Even at your dumbest bullshit you've already figured things out."
She snorts, then looks up at him, and they gaze at each other quietly. "I hope you understand me."
"I do. You're mine remember?"
"More like you're mine." She throws back, clicking her tongue. "And don't forget it."
He doesn't roll his eyes, possibly accepting his fate. "Fine Mistress, I'll be good."
"Please, the last thing we need is people discovering you because you got jealous of a flower. What we have is too strong for something like that to come between us." Though it was a really nice gesture...
"And how will I do that?"
He leans in close, Noa's eyes still upon him, and he murmurs. "You need to break up with Cal."
She blinks. "You want me to break up with our conduit. Someone safely bonded to me who hasn't even had enough blood to get powers. Our conduit who is blissfully ignorant of all things dark and Kindred?"
"Joaquin, I don't understand. Does it not... feel good for you?" She rubs her forehead.
"Ha. Don't get me started on how good it feels for me. I crave it all the time, it feels so good." She's noticed, "call Cal" was becoming his normal go to wrap-up-and-lets-leave phrase. "No that's not it. Look at me Noa, is there something different about me?" He floats back and presents himself.
She stares at him. Not noticing anything out of place really. "Did you cut your hair?"
"No! I'm getting fat!" He pulls up the shirt adorning his caul, revealing a slightly pudgy stomach. Noa gasps slightly, Joaquin had been athletic in life and died physically fit. There were no defined stomach muscles, but a soft belly. It made him look a little older even... or perhaps he was just getting older? She kind of liked it actually.
"You want me to break up with Calhoun... because you're gaining weight."
"Look I'm not kidding. I was talkin' to some of Ken's people on this side. It's my powers. When I take over people, I can start taking on some of their looks. So, if you're doing the fuck on short, fat and British, then that's what I'm going to start looking like. I'm gonna look like Uncle Arrigo if we keep doing this. No way, we're going to find someone hot, so break up with Cal."
"Joaquin, this is so petty. He's safe and perfectly serviceable for what we're needing. And hey, firstly, I don't mind your body like this at all, and secondly, when we find the right person for your spirit, it won't matter what your caul looks like then."
"Come on Noa, I just... wanna look good. It's already torture enough as it is floating around watching everyone... I don't want to also have my body starting to go just because you don't wanna shake things up a little here. You're the most beautiful girl I know, we don't gotta settle for Fuckingham Pale-Ass here."
She shifts uncomfortably. "I don't know."
"I know, you don't like it. I hate it too, but it's what we have to do until we're really together again. It's like you said, we gotta keep practicing, right? Let's drop this dude and upgrade."
"Come on Noa, after everything you've done, I think me asking for this is the absolute least I could ask for."
Noa grimaces and looks at the rose, completely silent. The flower is still a beautiful and deep crimson, not yet succumbing to its thirst. She hears Joaquin exhale and land next to her, and they look at the rose together.
"I guess in the end he was never going to be your new vessel." She admits, though she did enjoy her time with Calhoun immensely, even outside of the bedroom. "Maybe I could try dating around again..." The idea felt a little off, but it was more like shopping for toy rather than finding a life partner.
"I'd like someone who can carry a conversation."
"People talk on Tinder, No-no."
She huffs, "Yeah I guess."
"Look, you gotta talk to the Ballard fuck soon right? I saw you eyeing all that muscle he's got around there, maybe ask if you can get a bodyguard or something. That way you're safe and we're both happy right?" He leans back, hands on the floor. "Then when I'm in a body again, easy transition back into what I did before. Lookin' good and protectin' my favorite girl."
There is a bit more time in silence, Noa's mind spiraling from all the strange disappointments and sweet elations this night has given her. "When you're in a body again Joaquin... what are you going to do first? I don't think I've asked you."
"Slap the fucking shit out of you."
She believes him. "I understand."
"And then I'm never letting you go again."
OKAY so context: This is from when I was playing Noa on a server taking place in Chicago, IL, USA. She had been Embraced into clan Hecata by the Seneschal - Kenneth Brackston .
Joaquin here is her wraith servant - and her brother - that she killed herself because he had gotten in trouble with the family and she had been given the ultimatum: Kill Joaquin herself, or the Family does it. Sensing the family would do worse to him than just death, she did it - and now they are bound further than blood now. Joaquin and Noa's end goal is for Noa to gain enough necromantic power to perform a resuerrection ritual to bring Quino back to life so they can be together forever... but gaining power also means getting to meet beautiful new strangers.
Your overbearing older brother looks like a lot less of a candidate for a life long partner when you meet Primogen, aspiring Thinblood upstarts, beautiful Banu Haqim.... it makes a Wraith feel unloved and inadequate. As frustrating as this server had been, I think mine and @thesixthplaneteer best work came from here! Thank you for dealing with all my self posting today!
