open // sing a song of sixpence

[babette .]

one two buckle my shoe three four shut the door .

Babette gathered her skirt up as she moved lightly between the gravestones, tome tucked under one arm. She had frequently debated about switching to trousers. Three hundred years of tugging around a yard of extra fabric that only served to trip her or get caught on branches was more than enough. But blending in required that she dress like every other ten year old girl and not as though she were a girl who has outlived her natural life five times over.  It required the doll stuffed into her belt, though she’d not really played with dolls in the last hundred years or so. Occasionally it was fun to take them out of the crate she kept them in and have tea parties with them. It was not really a big deal. She just made sure that she was alone in the sanctuary before even considering it. She spent a lot of time trying to convince everyone and herself that she was not a child but an assassin worthy of her armor. Not that she ever wore her armor. A child in armor would immediately draw attention. A child sneaking through the graveyard at night would draw attention as well, but she needed some place to read and the sanctuary was unnaturally full this evening. It was as if almost every one of the assassins had returned from a contract at the same moment. She was used to sharing the sanctuary with just Nazir and Astrid most days. All the clamour was unsettling for the tiny vampire. All she wanted to do was read her book. There were new spells she desired to learn, and she could not focus with all the noise. There was no noise in the graveyard. She found her favorite gravestone. It had been round once, but age and elements had flatted out the the top into a perfect bench long ago. The words that had once been carved in the stone were far too faded to tell who’s remains she visited every night. She called him Edmond, for her younger brother. Her brother’s grave was in High Rock and she had not been to visit since she had left so many centuries ago. She liked to pretend that Edmond had been allowed a life, to grow up and marry the woman who now occupied the grave next to him. When she watched the other children of Falkreath play she imagined that some of them were her brother’s children’s children. She never let the other dark brotherhood members see her sentimental side. They would not understand. They’d only had one life. Even Allimir, who was her vampire brother had not even seen the end of his own natural life. It was impossible for them to understand. She liked having attachments to the life that she had lost. She had heard a rumor that one of the Mortierre family was in Skyrim currently. But she had yet to ask Astrid for a few weeks away from the sanctuary to look for him. One did not come to Skyrim for a brief trip, especially not iin the current political climate, so she imagined she had plenty of time to seek him out. She perched herself on top of Edmond’s grave, her short legs dangled over one edge as she sat, reading the heavy tome that took up most of her lap. Thankfully her vampire gifts allowed her to see better in the dark or she would have had a terrible time reading. She had flipped through a few pages when she heard a noise at the other end of the Graveyard. She wondered if it was perhaps a mourner coming to visit a family member. She closed her book quietly and slid backwards off the large gravestone, crouching behind it. One of the advantages of being a child was her ability to fit into incredibly small spaces. She peeked out around the edge of the tombstone trying to get a better look at the person who was disrupting her reading. Perhaps they would make a nice snack. She drew back behind the tombstone listening for their footsteps or the noise of their armor, trying to keep track of their movements. This would be an easy meal. No remorse. She closed her eyes focusing on the calm spell that she had been practicing on Lis. She was certain that Gabriella would not have approved of her using the spider for spells, but she was not about to practice on one of the assassins. Maybe one of the newer initiates, but that hardly seemed fair. The trespasser in her graveyard, however, would make a perfect practice target.

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word count - 784. tag - open . outfit .

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[ALLIMIR DAGGERFALL .]

PUT ME BACK TOGETHER

OR SEPARATE THE SKIN FROM BONE

tagged babette, with 568 words, wearing this.
hope this is alright c:

[STYLE=background-color:#191919; width:325px; height: 350px; overflow: auto; font-family:Arial; color:#aaaaaa; text-align:justify; text-transform:lowercase; font-size:10px; opacity: .8; padding: 10 10 10 10px;]there weren't many people who travelled to a graveyard for company, and falkreath's people didn't seek anything from the graveyard but a sense of grief. at least, most of them, anyway. there were few, like babette and himself, that enjoyed the dead air that haunted the large graveyard's atmosphere. it helped that when people came to visit their deceased loved ones, they were alone, and generally helpless to the wits of a vampire's hunger. however, tonight allimir wasn't looking for a meal, although it might've strengthened him a bit better to actually make it back to sanctuary to seek the proper help he needed.

he'd been on his way back from collecting a fee, and a group of bandits had ambushed him. it had been odd, since allimir hadn't taken talon with him on his travels, so he had kept off the main paths. still, the group of bandits had circled him, and his carelessness and their unfair numbers against him had given him a very sharp, painful crash to the side of his abdomen with a steel mace. it had broken the skin, he could feel from the warm soaking of his dark brotherhood armor, but the bosmer didn't hesitate to check how serious it was. after the few remaining men had been taken care of, allimir looted what he could from their pockets, looking for any information on who they were, but found nothing but a few gold pieces, charred sheever tail, and some obviously stolen gems.

luckily, he hadn't been ambushed too far from the back entrance into the city. the first place he thought of reaching was the cemetery, a place where he could let himself rest for a moment and think, while he ransacked his pouches for a potion. he hadn't been expecting to find babette crouched behind a tombstone when he stumbled into the shadows, however, and upon approaching her presence, she nearly startled him off his feet. given his condition, he didn't bother feeling ashamed; he'd lost quite a bit of blood, and for all he knew, his bottom rib might've been cracked. bandits were usually annoyances over anything, but not a lot of them hit as hard as that orc bastard had.

"what are you doing.. all the way out here?" he questioned, slowly coming to ease his weight against a tombstone not too far from the one she was currently at. sliding to rest on the cold ground, allimir let his head come to settled against the cold stone, almost welcoming the cool surface against his hot temperatures. his right hand was still clasped to his side, doing his best to keep pressure on it, but he wasn't sure if it was helping, or really making it worse. "you didn't think i was food, did you?" the bosmer asked, a slightly pained grin struggling to pull over his lips. it was cut off by a cough, but he quickly silenced it.

allimir was well aware of babette's age, but he was still someone who was seen as a leader. the last thing he wanted was to appear as weak, despite the fact that he needed help. his pride was always too damn important. "i don't.. mean to be a jerk, and ask out of context, but you wouldn't happen to have something for.. this," he glanced down at his side, grimacing a bit. "would you?"

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[babette .]

one two buckle my shoe three four shut the door .

What was she doing all the way out here? What was he doing here looking like he’d lost a fight with an orc stronghold in the graveyard at night? She would have advised him to stop at the Dead Man’s Drink. She found the name incredibly fitting as the vampire residents of the Falkreath Sanctuary used the place for just that. Technically she used it as a dead child’s drink, but that was an even worse name for a tavern. She was amused momentarily thinking of even worse names for an inn before answering his question. “I was reading. And you are interrupting with your bleeding.” She set her book on top of the gravestone as she stood. Though bosmer were amongst the shortest of the races, even sitting he was still almost as tall as she was. “I would not drink from you if I were starving Allimir. You are not my type, and you know it.” She brushed off her knees and the back of her skirt as she moved closer. Her small hands pried his larger ones away from his side. “Oh you poor thing.”She said with as much sarcasm as she could muster. She reached into the pouch at her belt and took out the small vile of health potion that she always carried. In the Dark Brotherhood, there was a constant need for her to practice her abilities as a healer. ”Take this.” She instructed placing the small bottle in one hand and pulling out her bandages from her pouch before setting to work on his side. ”So... Bandits? A vampire hunters? A group of little girls?” She asked in an attempt to get find out how exactly her brother had gotten himself so beaten. She knew that it took quite a bit to bring down far enough to ask her for help. Men were strange like that, vampire men were even worse. She tied the last bandage into place. There. He was not going to bleed out. She paused and then rolled up one of her long blue sleeves, offering her bare arm out to him. ”Just remember that I am a child.” She instructed. He was going to protest. And under normal circumstances she would have just let him suffer through messing up a kill. ”Don’t argue. We both know that Astrid will personally rip out our hearts if we bring any more attention to our sanctuary. And if you go out like this you’re going to be sloppy and make a horrible mess. Killing all the witnesses is even messier.” The last time she’d had gotten sloppy had been before Allimir was even born. Honestly she was still a little bit afraid to go into Rorikstead. But, if you were a vampire you needed blood. That was just how it was. As you starved your appearance got more and more monstrous, and the villagers began grabbing their torches and pitchforks. Though Babette tended to have an easier time with this. Being turned so young had some advantages. Without blood vampires starved same a any mortal would without food. It became difficult to control one’s self when feeding after a long absence. Sloppy feeding on humans was far more noticeable than it was on cows. But not everyone could keep down animal blood. Babette had personally never been able to keep down anything that wasn’t fresh human blood. ”You were in a fight, lost a lot of blood, and broke at least one of your ribs, Allimir. Drink. So I know when you feed on that pretty nord at the inn you won’t kill her.” Babette had no desire to find vampire hunters at their door. She had heard that the number of vampire attacks had increased around Skyrim as it was. They would all be on high alert. And if they came snooping around the Dark Brotherhood door, Astrid would murder them both. ”Or we can go to the sanctuary before you bother Narri.” Babette was probably the only memeber of the assassin’s guild that would willingly let Allimir feed on them. Only out of self preservation and understanding how tough it was to be a vampire. He’d only been a vampire three years. Granted from what he had heard of his story, he chose this. That must have been nice.

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word count - 733. tag - allimir . outfit .

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[ALLIMIR DAGGERFALL .]

PUT ME BACK TOGETHER

OR SEPARATE THE SKIN FROM BONE

tagged babette, with 1299 words, wearing this.
i like these two~ c:

[STYLE=background-color:#191919; width:325px; height: 350px; overflow: auto; font-family:Arial; color:#aaaaaa; text-align:justify; text-transform:lowercase; font-size:10px; opacity: .8; padding: 10 10 10 10px;]all allimir could do in response when she told him matter-of-factly that he was interrupting her reading was breathe out a bit of a struggled laugh. he knew it wasn't a joke, and that he actually was interrupting her, but that didn't change the fact that he found her to be one of the most interesting people he'd met. and by interesting, of course, he meant curious, and slightly humorous. her sarcasm was to be admired from a quick-tongued man like himself, but he was more so interested in the fact that he always saw babette as a child in his eyes until she started to speak to him. if she didn't speak, he'd catch himself forgetting about her age, and whenever she did start to say something incredibly cynical, it filled him with a lot of pleasure, even if it was directed towards him.

not bothering to try and struggle against her removing his hand from his side, he lifted up his clothe to expose the wound, so she wouldn't have to work through the material of his armor. the cool air made it sting a little more, but allimir didn't let himself absorb into that feeling. instead, he focused on babette's infamous sarcasm, doing his best not to laugh again, knowing it might hurt if he stressed his torso too much. taking the vial of health potion with his bloodied hand, allimir sized it up, squinting one eye, before he gave up on trying to pretend like he didn't trust babette's mixtures. he had no idea as to how many times he'd been saved just from the simple fact that he'd conned her into mixing him up a few health philters to go. "thanks." using his teeth to pull the top off, he tipped the opening to his lips, swallowing the contents inside. settling back against the tombstone, allimir closed his eyes, sighing as the fire-like sting faded into a bit of a throb. it was still a little painful, but not nearly like it had been. "no little girls, just bandits. least eight of 'em," allimir replied with a bit of a smirk, knowing that he was probably off by two bodies, but he didn't care. his pride was still on the line, after all.

the secured bandage against his side helped relieve him of pain, too. there was no longer a chilled breeze eating as its hot surface, and now it felt more secure. the pressure was comforting, and as he lowered his shift, he started to feel more like himself again. he'd been about to look up to her, and properly thank her, when she surprised him by hovering her wrist in front of his face. allimir's eyes widened a bit, and he looked up at her, a protest on his tongue, but she silenced him before he could even wet his lips. her argument was extremely valid, and there wasn't any room to discuss or counter her logic. so, with a small sigh, allimir pressed his lips together in a tight line for a moment, still trying to process the idea of taking blood from their oldest member. second in command or not, he still felt very out of place- requesting a bit of first aid was a little different than sinking his teeth into babette's veins.

with no other options, allimir slowly focused his eyes back up at her. "narri's nice, but she's rather far from here.." he breathed, glancing towards the graveyard's outskirts. with his energy loss, it seemed like a lot more of a walk than what it truly was. plus, with his broken rib, he was more than likely going to struggle with more than just walking with his hunger throbbing in the back of his mind. "i'd rather astrid didn't see me like this. and that has nothing to do with my pride- we've got enough to worry about back at sanctuary."

[/color] swallowing, he slowly raised his clean hand, taking babette's hand within his own, but more in a manner to just keep her arm steady. this was the first time he'd ever experienced something like this before, minus his first feeding after he'd been completely infected with the disease. his sire had starved him to the point that when she exposed her neck to him in a taunting manner, he nearly ripped chunks. but this was different; this wasn't some kind of dominating battle between a disgusted but hopeless man and a woman who'd taken everything he loved. it was his sister, offering to help him in a very hard spot, and it wasn't the sort of help that anyone else would ever offer to him. but no one understood the way babette did. she had several centuries to wrap her head around the things that allimir was just starting to get used to, after almost three years.

closing his eyes, he leaned forward, allowing his teeth to sink as gingerly as possible into her soft skin. another part about this that made the hair on the back of his neck slightly stand on end was the fact that her immortal body was ten years old. he'd never fed from a child before, and this felt very much as though he actually were. nonetheless, he attempted to shove past that, and began to allow her crimson life force fill his mouth. at the first taste of her blood, he couldn't help but release a satisfied sigh of relief, automatically feeling himself start to regain his lost strength. that encouraged him to drink more, however, and it soon became an inward battle not to get too rough. he normally wasn't rough with his feeding, considering he wanted his victims not to realize they'd been mauled by a vampire in their sleep, but this wasn't like this regular feedings.

after his second hand had grasped onto her arm, keeping it in place, his eyes shot open. forcing himself off of her, having felt himself slowly starting to lose control, he pushed his head back against the tombstone once more, calming his breathing. wiping his mouth off, he hesitated with the idea of cleaning his fingers off, but thought against it. he wasn't an animal. he still had his humanity. "i'm sorry, if i took too much. i wasn't anticipating to be ambushed.." regret slightly filled his voice as he thought about the last time he'd fed. it'd been a day and a half ago, not enough time to make him outrageous, but enough to alter his mood after receiving an injury like he had.

quickly wiping the look off his face, allimir slowly pulled himself back onto his feet, leaning against the tombstone for a moment as he rested his side. it was still obviously broken, but the bandages did well to keep it in place, even when he inhaled deeply. casting his eyes towards the inn, allimir's mind transferred between walking back to the sanctuary or stalking into narri's room. she was his usual victim, as he was sure most other male vampires could understand why. not that allimir would ever do anything to his feeding victims while they slept, but it was a lot better to walk into a room with a sleeping beauty curled on her side, rather than an old hag. when his mind couldn't quite focus enough to make a decision, his eyes dropped to babette, offering a small, weak smile. "this is our secret, right? i mean, i've already been hiding the experiments you do on lis from everyone else," he started, now joking around, trying to establish a normal atmosphere again. allimir hated lingering over sentimental moments, especially when he was on the receiving side of things. "i've never really liked her, anyway. too many eyes."[/div]
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[babette .]

one two buckle my shoe three four shut the door .

He said eight bandits, she heard group of farm girls. No not farm girls, farm girls were tough. They were probably four city girls. From Solitude. The children in Solitude were significantly weaker than the farming children or Whiterun or the orphans in Riften. Orphans had to be tough. He had to say that they were bandits of course. It was his pride that was on the line after all. Men had big egos. Vampire men had egos the size of dragons. It was a common problem in her life. The Dark Brotherhood’s policy of tolerance of all races, species, and circumstances as long as you wanted to kill things was perfect for vampires. But they always thought that they were the toughest vampire to ever roam Tamriel. And then they found their heads separated from their bodies, it was not even always Babette’s doing. She liked Allimir. She really did, but that did not make her believe his story about eight bandits anymore than she would have were the words coming from a vampire she despised. It just made her less likely to accidentally mix up the bottles of health potions she gave him with poisons. She was a good friend like that. Babette bit her lower lip to keep from making a sound as he bit her, careful not to tense in a way that would pull her arm away from him. It was a strange feeling, being fed on. Her contact with other vampires was limited, and vampires she liked well enough to let them feed off of her were even less in number. She could not remember the last time she'd been bitten. She could the remember the first time. It was a memory she avoided revisiting. Her free hand traveled up to rub the spot on her neck that had first felt the vampire's bite. Her own teeth dug into her lower lip a bit harder as she thought about all that she had lost due to that moron. She often thought about seeking him out and making sure his miserable existence was ended throughout her three hundred years, but she had never acted on the desire. Not yet. There was still time. If someone else killed him before she got around to it, she would hardly be disappointed. It would be satisfying either way. When Allimir had finished, Babette pushed her sleeves back to cover her wrists. "It is fine. The idea of an ambush is to not expect it." Though a good assassin was never unprepared. He was going to get himself killed. She actually liked him too. How sad. She was feeling a little light headed, but otherwise fine. She was just smaller than the adults he normally fed off of. Her frown deepened as he commented on her experiments. "I don't know what you are talking about." She said picking her tome up from the ground where she had set it, before settling back on the ground next to him. "But I can keep a secret. Which one would you like to be our secret? That you fed from me or that you got your arse handed to you by a few bandits?" She did not imagine that he wanted anyone to know either. Somehow she figured practicing her alteration on Lis would be more acceptable than feeding on a family member or for the big tough vampire to lose a fight. She doubted anyone would believe her if she told them that Allimir had gotten himself beat up anyway. Babette had a tendency to exaggerate the truth to make a story better. ”Lis is much better company than the initiates. One kill and they strut around like they own the place. Do you know often I think about asking Nazir to give the a contract he knows they won’t survive?” Nazir seemed much more likely to do so than Astrid was. ”They’re driving me crazy, you know. Two hundred years, and I’ve never seen as pathetic a group as our newest members. We need to revise our recruitment strategy if we’re ever going to return the Brotherhood to its former state.”

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word count - 697. tag - allimir . bleaugh, short post .

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[ALLIMIR DAGGERFALL .]

PUT ME BACK TOGETHER

OR SEPARATE THE SKIN FROM BONE

tagged babette, with 1184 words, wearing this.
sorry this took forever, and that it's so long D:

it wasn't very hard for allimir to see in babette's eyes that she didn't believe him for a second. well, at least, she believed that he'd been attacked, but as by what, he wasn't so sure. the look in her eye when he started going on about bandits made his stomach slightly settle on the thought that she was filling in her own blanks, like she normally did. it didn't bother him in the least; she may be much older, and therefore have a lot more experience with things than he did, but allimir was still alive. that's all he needed as encouragement. getting lectured by a woman who was stuck in a child's body didn't really come off to him as something he'd find dreadful- if anything, babette's outer exterior would just make it more hilarious for him. he already had a hard time taking most things seriously, so taking it from babette or someone else within that kind of situation would more than likely throw him off his rocker. inwardly, of course. he'd never actually display anything that disrespectful towards any of his family members.

at her small quip about the whole point of an ambushing is that it was a surprise made him scoff a bit at himself, mainly for trying to find some sort of level where they could both laugh at this, but he constantly had to remind himself that babette wasn't the type to laugh over almost dying stupidity. nazir might've thrown him a bit of a smirk before calling him an idiot, at least. of course, in his defence, allimir would probably bring up the fact that he'd been outnumbered by rather unfair odds, and getting away with only a few cracked rips and a lot of bruising was a lot better than what could've happened. he had no idea how many recruits he'd had to pull from sparring because they were going to either hurt themselves, or someone they were sparring with, because they were so terrible at being aware of their surroundings, and didn't know how to adapt to that fact.

a little part of allimir felt a bit embarrassed about his wounds, however. mainly because babette was much older than he was, and he felt rather inexperienced to her in most cases, especially with the position he'd been handed after his father's death. naturally, he didn't let a spark of that feeling flash within his eyes. he'd never let himself seem that vulnerable in front of anyone, even a member of his family. broken ribs were one thing, they healed with time and a lot of persuasion. anything emotional? when he was around others, it was as though his conscious was always scrubbed clean of anything; things just "tended" to roll off his shoulders all the time.

"preferably both," allimir began in a bit of a gruff tone. "but if it's a one-secret deal, then i'd rather you tell them i got beaten by farm girls." getting his ass kicked by a bunch of girls seemed like a much better thing to share with the family, rather than him having fed off babette. he'd never fed from another vampire before, and despite hearing stories on how it was still relatively the same, it left a bit of a dark feeling on his tongue. either that, or he was just too weirded out by the idea, so it was lingering worse. he still wasn't all that happy about feeding on humans as it was. either way, allimir was confident that babette wasn't about to blabber to sanctuary that she'd saved his life. and even if she did, he doubted there'd be specific details on how. it was probably just as odd for her as it was for him, after all.

as he started to set his head back against the tombstone again, breathing out a sigh of peace, babette's words caused a chuckle to push from the back of his throats. he had to settle himself before the movement became too much for his chest, but even after he'd started to hold his wounded side, he wore a grin. her words were nothing but the truth; as an ex-trainee, he knew all about their cocky egos. "it is rather ridiculous, isn't it? letting their pride's cloud any sort of.. actual judgement towards their situation. and they're never impressive kills, either. lousy drunkards, wobbling home from an inn- a man who could've stumbled and killed himself if he was intoxicated enough." shaking his head, he closed his eyes, his grin still visible. he used to be like them; his first contract had almost gotten him killed because of it, and he was a rather quick learner from that point on. although he was pulled from field assignments, it still opened his eyes a great deal. even with his cockiness outside of contracts, allimir knew when to trust his instincts, and consider facts.

"it's gonna take a lot more than just a handful of good recruits to bring us back to where we were. we need a big contract, something that's going to scare people back into their shells. i'm rather tired of hearing people slandering our name without an ounce of question; they used to fear even uttering 'brotherhood' under their breaths in conversation." shrugging his shoulders, holding back a wince from the bit of strain it cased, allimir turned his attention to the vampire beside him. since he'd seen her within those dragging few moments, he hadn't noticed the tome clasped within her child hands. not until then, at least.

narrowing his eyes, he tried to look for the title, but he gave up when he started to get a headache. "is this where you normally slip off to when everyone's home?" he asked in a much quieter voice than he'd been using before. "it's usually hard to catch you around when everyone comes back from their contracts." for a moment, his small façade had come down, and he was talking to her as though she actually were blood-related to him. his ego was non-existent, and there was nothing left but a wounded bosmer, who's roots had always been in the soil he now sat upon. and, a little bit of him was scared. his father had died in such a horrific and unexpected way, leaving many devastated. allimir didn't want to die like that, with unfinished business. who would protect those he cared about? he wasn't about to let himself go without having some sort of plan. allimir wouldn't let the position of second in command fall into someone's unsuspecting lap, all because he was irresponsible with his actions.

when he snapped out of it, or rather, back into his usual method of thinking around other people, he shook his head. "i think narri sounds like a good idea. thinking's starting to give me a headache." doing his best, he sat up a bit straighter, getting ready to brace himself to stand. "care to join me, or is your tome more interesting than making fun of me?"

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