The Colour of Venom

[Nessy]

Do you know that the sound of a cracking whip is more than leather mauling thin air? Oh, yes, it's much more than that. It's a sound that makes you turn your head to its direction and freeze, and wait. You wait to hear it again, but this time, you are expecting to also hear a cry of agony and the stench of blood and torn flesh.

How much gore can a thick rope of leather create?

She knew it. Nails with the colour of venom, green with a pitch of dark blood red in the mix, hair of curves and curls, almost black, and eyes that were matching the venom on the long fingernails, but lake green. On her lips danced a twisted smirk as she held the whip over her shoulder, watching the poor mauled rat that now was left to its bloody death.

Françoise. Le Serpent. The little snobby bitch around the block. If you could call New Pork a block.

In any case, she was having fun in mauling whatever moved around there. She cracked the whip in the air, before turning on her boots and arching her eyebrows as she spotted the Gargoyle Tower. She knew that, up there, there was a certain Cigarette and a certain Vampire getting very beaten up. Françoise really wished she could be there giving a hand to her beloved Mistress.

Oh, yes. She'd give her a hand or two.

[Masquerade]

The sound of her pen scratching over the paper was the only company Coraline had. In the distance, she could make out a pair of Vampires, their rank indistinguishable from her current distance. They appeared to be heading towards the neutral territory of the Grid. Coraline dutifully noted down their direction, and a rough guess at the current time. As the pair disappeared from sight, the young Vampire sighed. Nothing much else to do. She'd already tried to take up the time by marking down the days weather in extreme detail (something she discovered to be exceedingly aggravating) and run her track about the territory twice.

She could've gone back inside, dug up one of the books she'd pilfered from here and there and hid for a while. Yet the Tower wasn't the best of places to occupy at the moment. Not with the strife regarding the high-end prisoners. Too many already crazed Tribe-mates on edge.

And anyone with half a brain knew to avoid madmen with knives. And yet... here she was, living with a skyscraper full of them.

Somewhere along the line she'd obviously made a terrible error in judgment.

[Nessy]

Françoise was also heading towards the Grid - perhaps she would find some Loners she could... play with. But, as she walked past Coraline, her eyebrows arched subtly and a dancing smile curled on her lips. She stopped and walked backwards, bending over her torso and watching the girl scribble on the notebook.

"Salut, ma petite.", the French youth wiggled her fingers at her. "Tu est nouveau pour ici, non? Ah, pardon moi. Tu ne parles pas Français."

The young woman watched the girl and looked at her Star Wars t-shirt, smirking furthermore. "You are, new?", she asked, with a thick French accent. "I cannot recognize your face, dame mignonne.", she smirked and pulled her chin up with the handle of the whip. "Comment tu t'appelle?"

[Masquerade]

Coraline had, on some obscure level of consciousness, seen Françoise in her peripheral vision. On the more in control levels of awareness, however, she'd been rather engrossed with a somewhat silly doodle of a ladybug with comically over-sized eyes. She jumped slightly, suddenly clutching her notebook and pen to her chest in surprise. Fear was quickly replaced by fascination and mild annoyance, though, has the woman began to speak to her.

French? One of the subjects she'd enjoyed in school, yet retained little of it seemed. She understood little of what the woman said, although her English came through clear enough.

"Mon nom est Coraline." she said briskly. "Et tu?"

Coraline had a vague idea of who the young woman was; there were only so many Hunters under the Crows rule, and only one of them was famed for her whip.

[Nessy]

With a snicker, the woman released Coraline's chin and put her whip on her belt, watching the girl curiously. As she spoke French, she smirked and laughed, standing on her full 1.80 meters. "Mais tu parles Français. Ho ho, magnifique. Je suis Françoise. Le Serpent.", she watched the omega quietly, before tipping her head.

Finally, Françoise decided to stay. She sat down by Coraline's side and pulled her legs up a little, resting an elbow on a thigh, holding up her chin on the back of the hand, watching the girl with interest.

"I have never seen you around here.", the Hunter smirked, pulling down the notebook so she could see the little scribble. "Up there must be a great mess, non? Sang everywhere.", the green-haired woman smirked eeriely, letting go of the notebook.

[Masquerade]

Coraline tensed a little when she realized the higher-ranked Vampire meant to stay, drawing her knees up closer to her chest. She flinched as her notebook was moved, grasping it tightly against herself soon as Françoise was finished glancing at it.

"Simple coincidence." she replied, keeping her tone quick and business-like. "I'm not one to hide."

She didn't hide per say. More like she just avoided making trouble, and thus stayed out of the limelight. She avoided answering Françoises comment on the bloodshed; it made her visibly uncomfortable to think of it.

[Nessy]

Françoise laughed out loud at Coraline's behaviour. She moved in closer, like a snake drawing near her prey. "Oh, no. I didn't say you hid. Us Vampires do not hide, do we?", she laughed again, appearing to be quite amused. The French girl ran her free hand on Coraline's arm, actually trying to make her uncomfortable, but showing a blank face, as if she wasn't aware of it. She let her index and middle finger walk up her arm, and slide down.

"So, you must be a little Omega. Whatever did you offer to the Corbeau to be able to roam here in the Vampires?", Françoise pratically purred her words out, slipping like silk traps from her tongue to Coraline's ears. She trailed her hand to the underside of the girl's chin, making her tip her head towards herself. "Whatever do you do, ma petite, to pass time?"

[Masquerade]

Françoise was... Françoise was creepy. 'Le Serpent' indeed. Coraline shrugged absently, the gesture more to conceal a tiny shudder than anything else. What did she do for the Vampires? How was she useful? Good questions, too bad Cor' didn't quite know the answers.

"I'm loyal." she replied eventually, "I serve 'Corbeau' the best I can, but doing what I'm able to help the rest of the Tribe."

Such a totally crap answer. She could've just said 'blind obedience' and saved her breath. She always prattled on when she was nervous. Hiding a hint of a frown the girl withdrew a little further, reluctant to jerk away (and possible offend her superior), her knees coming up to meet her chin, still clutching her notebook in white-knuckled hands.

[Nessy]

The taller girl chuckled at the other's answer, her lips forming a bit of a very amused pout. She trailed her fingers down to Coraline's knees, before sliding them down the legs, stopping at the ankles. Finally, she retracted her hand and stood up, dusting herself off.

"Well, my dear Omega.", the French girl started, leaning over her, hands on the wall, towering the sitting figure. "If I was to guess, I would say you would do a bit more than serve the best you can.", she practically purred out in her French accent, grinning almost morbid-like, "Dis, ma petite, how can you serve her.", she, in a snake manner, quickly pulled away the notebook, holding it on top of her tall height. "Anything to do with this?", a predator smile.

[Masquerade]

God she was tall.

Coraline's skin crawled uncomfortably where Françoise's touch had wandered, making her want to scratch at her leg. She resisted the urge. The next sound to leave her mouth was a squeak of surprise as her notebook was torn from her grasp. As it slid from her hand the pages rubbed against the palm of her hand, one angled just perfectly to leave behind a thin, stinging laceration; a paper-cut, at the base of her pointer finger.

"Ow, damn..." the Omega was momentarily distracted but the small pain, shaking her hand and then giving the wound a cursory glance. It hurt, but other than a thin red line and a tiny amount of blood it was nothing. What distressed Coraline was that her carefully charted observations of her Tribe-mates were in the hands of... well, someone who wasn't her.

"That's nothing, just a hobby!" she said quickly, eyes fixed on the notebook. "It- it's just notes on what I see; you know, who goes where, who made a kill, that kind of thing." she said, sounding rather distressed. "Please give it back!."

[Nessy]

The French woman smirked and watched from the papercut blood slide around the finger of the little Omega. "Oh, this sounds important.", she snickered. Then Françoise grabbed Coraline's hand and tightened her grip around her.

"Tu sais, it's a very bad thing to let wounds open in this city. The tiniest wound infects gravely with such air.", there was an eerie smile playing at the full lips of hers. "Le sang... c'est délicieux."

Still holding the notebook over Coraline's head, pinning her to the dirty wall behind, she took the bloodied finger to her mouth and wrapped her lips around it, her tongue rolling around the skin, cleaning up the blood, teasing. She opened one of her venomous eyes to Coraline's, grinning her evil smirk.