Epiphany of the Doe [Charlise/Yaksha]

Charlise had entered the rather bustling city of Los Vegas after crossing quite a bit of country both on foot and by hitching a ride on public transport. She had no clear idea of where she was going, she just knew she was going somewhere. Aimless walking until somewhere struck just seemed reasonable at this point of time... She couldn't stick around England forever, especially since things look.. Far different than how she remembered, despite there being very little to remember. She scarcely recalled much rougher looking transport and more horses... Now people were hidden in strange machines that sped faster than a bullet. The amount of change was headache-inducing.

In the present day, she was walking in the busy, colorful night streets of Vegas, being tucked away in a crowd of people as she walked by a couple stores. A rather colorful and pinkish store caught her attention, her breaking from the crowd and looking at the display case. The contents of it... Were puzzling. The name of the store hung above a little setting in clouds, the letters in bright pink and white colors. A couple children came over also mesmerized by the display before being pulled aside from their mothers or fathers, begging for them to go inside. Charlise was a bit shocked at the misbehavior of the children; if children behaved that way at.. Whatever point in time she was at, they'd get a raw bottom and teary eyes. She shouldn't be too concerned about what commoners did with their children; she was lower than them, and the children weren't her masters.

Her gaze pulled back to the display case, now noticing the stuffed animals in diapers, being strung up with string and holding a bow and arrow with an overall cutesy cupid appearance. A few stuffed animals looked like fluffy angels with wings and halos and everything while holding candy wands. Candy canes stuck out of the ground along with various other types of candies on little cardboard cutouts of pink bushes. She didn't know why, but she was just as pulled in by these stuffed creatures as the children were. She didn't understand the concept of, well, set up, so she was wondering why they were strung up or even visible. She had her hands gently pressed against the glass, her interest pulled over to the light pink background and everything. It was hard to take her eyes off of.

The streets of Vegas were bustling as ever, the sky positively flooded with lights, and the delightful mixture of various sounds and smells making it feel almost stifling. It was like being in the midst of a roaring maelstrom, surrounded on all sides by pack animals; Yaksha could nearly feel the vitality radiating off of each of them, like heat radiating off of a stone that had been soaking up sun. Each of these people had been repressing rage, and fear, and frustration, and lust, all for this night...and Yaksha could feel it being released in incredible waves, that were almost dizzying. For a being like Yaksha, this much humanity in such a small place, so tightly packed, was...intoxicating. It was like the air itself carried a heavy funk, a scent that got him higher and higher with each inhalation.

And then, all at once, it grated against his hands, like the feeling of sudden friction burn; like he'd suddenly just slipped and grated his palm across the carpet, he could feel it immediately. There was another hollow present. Another fractured soul, edging in on his territory. For a few scant moments he contemplated simply finding them, and ripping their throat out. A fitting message to the world...but certainly one that would upset Shadow Fall. He was merely a guest in their territory, and that meant there were manners to be upheld. So instead he adjusted his tie, folded back his sleeves, and began to walk the streets, extending his senses, waiting for that grating, nauseating, hideous pain to come back.

And there it was. Right there, from...the rather pretty woman, observing the stuffed animals. There was, naturally, only one way to move from here. Yaksha approached, with the smooth silence of a trained predator, and spoke without preamble, his smile wide, wolfish, almost delighted.

"Ah, Cupid. A classic. Would you like one? I'm sure they aren't that expensive. Or maybe you'd prefer one of the angels. In my experience, they're a little gaudy. Cupid, though. Can't go wrong with Cupid."

Charlise continued to stare at the display quietly as a crowd of people crossed behind her. She had a vague recollection of never having a single toy in her life, even as a baby she wasn't given anything to entertain herself with aside from straightforward education books and how to color in the lines. She had a bit of child-like wonder, curious of what the inside of the store was like, but she would be overstepping her boundaries... She was soon backing away from the display to join back into the crowd, until she suddenly heard a man's voice.

She slowly turned, staring at the taller male, quickly keeping her gaze from his face or eyes.
"I wasn't planning on getting anything, and I couldn't possibly ask someone of higher class than me to purchase something for me." She soon got a better look at what he was wearing and immediately went down onto the floor in a bowing position, "Y-you aren't just a mere commoner either... I'm absolutely nothing compared to you, I apologize for my presence, I apologize for even breathing the same air as you.."

"You don't breathe the same air as me and we both know it."

There was amusement in that tone, and a knowing smugness to it too; like the voice a stage magician used when he was winking to an audience member he knew had figured out the trick. Both hands rested in his pockets, his stance one of absolute calm and ease as he watched her fall to her knees, prostrating herself before him as if he were a lord. He watched in silence for another five or six seconds, before finally circling around her, and walking into the store. He kept the door propped open with a foot, even as he reached into the window display, plucking out one of the Cupid dolls, and gently tossing it over his shoulder, towards her.

"Catch. A gift. Vegas is a land of chance encounters and unexpected fortune. This is where people come to do the impossible. It's not even unheard of, for a slave and his master to switch places for the day in a place such as this. So get up, and let's give you the grand tour."

His brows raise ever so slightly, teeth poking through from his pale, tiny lips like odd barnacles rising off of a water-logged ship; far too white, far too straight, far too neat. He even leaned down, his eyes meeting hers, and his hands resting by his side. He sounded completely relaxed, totally at-ease, but there was an obvious core of steel behind it all; beneath this velvet caress, under every sweet word and kind comment, there was an iron fist, a man who would never take 'no' for an answer.

"Call me Yaksha. Do you know the story of Cupid, dear?"

Charlise tightened her hands into fists on the cement ground as her eyes were widened. She looked up slowly at the rather well dressed man, feeling a lump in her throat. A hint of fear could be caught in her eyes, fear of the greater. A fear so deep seated that no amount of memory loss could eliminate it. She stumbled with catching the stuffed bear with cupid wear, sitting on her forelegs while taking a look at the stuffed bear. She was vaguely reminded of a child, but she couldn't quite place an emotion on her thoughts. She didn't quite notice but she was rather gently hugging the stuffed bear as the man had spoken to her about the city.

"A slave and his master switching places..? That-" She held her tongue. She almost stated negatively of what he spoke of. How dare she almost make that horrid of a slip up? If she had a master as of presently, real or not, she would have been whipped for even opening her mouth, at least in her mind.

She kept her mouth shut for the remainder of him speaking, slowly shaking her head. She didn't quite understand why this man wished to take her to see the sights, not only because she thought it was all fabrication of her diseased mind, but because she couldn't imagine someone willing to do something so kind for someone as lowly as her. Her gentle embrace of the teddy bear persisted, as if it were a child she had not seen in forever.

"I... I don't know if... I..." She didn't quite know how to respond to his last question, and his offer. He obviously didn't take rejection in any form, so she knew she had to go with it. She slowly stood up, keeping her gaze on the ground like a wolf to it's alpha.

Yaksha stood before her, hands in his pockets, his entire stance one of relaxation, of endless patience, as he watched her clutch the bear tight, as if it were a talisman against evil. Some way to ward off all the bad feelings. He thought, for a moment or two, that she really was a child, someone who had never truly been part of the world proper. And then he thought to himself that this was, at the end of the day, a tragically common thing among hollows. He tilted his head to the side, snapping his fingers, and pointing to the doll. When had he removed his hand? It was hard to tell, the motion far too smooth and automatic to be anything but practiced.

"He was Roman. Represented love, and passion. He was often seen as both a blessing and a curse; able to harden one's heart, and ensure they could never experience love, and able to engender love entirely without one ever realizing it. The wings were meant to represent the...uplifting sensation of love. His father, interestingly enough, was the god of war."

He reached out with one hand, ever so gently drumming against her shoulder, as he spoke in that same amused, off-handed, pleasant tone. Something clearly practiced, and no less powerful for it. The tone of one coaxing a timid animal into opening up, the tone of a father getting a child to reveal their secret fears.

"Eyes are the window to the soul. You don't have a soul anymore, you are a soul. You can't hide your soul when it's all you've got. Look at me when I'm talking to you. Conversation isn't a spectator sport."

Charlise's gaze was kept away from the man of clear importance, keeping a strong grip on the teddy bear. Her mind was stagnant with her thought process, and she had no desire to trudge through the muck of a set mind. She began to back away slowly from the man, slowly seeing him disorganize and then finally...

Vanish.

She looked around, as if confused for a moment. The entire street was empty, at least to her. It was quiet, it was isolated... She slowly lost grip of the bear, walking off silently into the unseen flow of the crowd. She blinked yet again a long ways away, and noticed people all around her as she was walking. The clamor of Los Vegas was alive once again, leaving her a little confused as to why she was in the crowd. She soon sighed, shaking her head. It wasn't real.

None of it was...

[EXIT THREAD]