First Reply Three Weeks [Sith Preferred]

[Vitoria]

Terminus​

Vitoria had never gone this long without a meal.

Deep within the forested lands of Ukatis, feeding had been easy. Her coven consumed the blood of wild game not out of tenderness, but out of necessity. Humans were attacked sparingly, for they were harder to come by and presented additional danger. If too many went missing, suspicion would be aroused. Suspicion that would threaten their safety.

So, they drank the blood of animals.

Terminus was a large, filthy planet. Vitoria was beginning to regret leaving Ukatis, with it's verdant forests and crisp, clean air – but she had to leave. After three-hundred years, not much held her attention; but she desired to see the greater galaxy her creator had spoken of. What good was her long lifespan if she did not fill it with experience?

Vitoria staggered through the network of alleyways behind the spaceport. Glazed eyes searched for their next meal in the dregs of cantinas, spice dens, and houses of ill repute. Light had winked beyond the horizon, giving way to a humid night that blanketed the every-busy streets. Tough less populous, the desperate vampirika preferred the backstreets, hoping to feed in relative peace.

Mother Karrys had warned her of hunger madness.

 

[Madrona A’Mia]

Though heavily populated planets did not hold the same appeal to A’Mia as more natural or wild worlds, the woman’s more business oriented goals necessitated going outside of her comfort zone to make connections. She’d found herself on Terminus after a lead about an exotic flora dealer offered to put her in touch with one of their sellers.

The contact had been a bust, and the seller was nothing more than a mediocre smuggler with fewer routes than A’Mia had hoped. Her shuttle was slated to leave the next day, but in the meantime she had an evening to kill. She had no use for a cantina, unable to partake in most of what they offered, and she could produce far more scintillating substances than any spice den. So instead she found herself adrift in the streets, people watching and wearing a nondescript outfit so that she could not be easily picked out as Sith. Her bizarre sight allowed her to scan the thinning crowds and entertain herself endlessly. One such figure captured her interest, as a familiar aura surrounded her.

Vitoria​

 

[Vitoria]

Pale, glassy eyes followed each figure they landed on. A'Mia was not one of them.

That one was too young, too small. That one...no, a pair would not do. That one…

Hunger gnawed at Vitoria with each pass. While she'd never let the madness set in completely, she could feel the edges of her mind begin to turn and twist, urging her to go feral, to tear her way through the nearest civilian in an all-consuming need to relieve her starvation.

Then, she spotted him. A hunched figure, shambling into the darkness of an alley. His footfalls unsteady, his hand clenched around a bottle of liquor. She could smell the alcohol from here. Not an ideal specimen, but one that would be easy to subdue and feed from.

Vitoria crept in his shadow, one hand braced against the cool grime of the alley's wall. The drunkard stumbled, and she struck with a desperate gasp. Pointed canines sank into the tender flesh of his wrist, her hand coming to clamp sharply over his mouth and muffle the inevitable screams.

She was too focused on her meal to feel the gaze of any wandering eyes.

Madrona A’Mia

 

[Madrona A’Mia]

It made sense that the likes of A'Mia would be uninteresting to the creature she'd honed in on, the dark green sap that flowed through her form was no doubt far less appealing than the crimson meal she sought. Assuming the neti's suspicions were correct, that is. The unfamiliar form of Vitoria slunk into the shadow of another and A'Mia moved with uncanny grace, taking a slightly roundabout course so she wouldn't draw undue attention to alley.

Finding a nearby alcove, the neti utilized her many limbs to discretely propel herself up the side of the shadowed wall and onto the rooftop, practically scampering as she cut across toward the alley that the two figures had disappeared. Momentum slowed as she neared the edge, carefully peeking down so she could judge the best time to descend. It was her intention to allow whatever was transpiring to occur without interruption, and to perhaps introduce herself afterward. Or to collect a specimen if the thing went too wild with hunger.

When the coast was clear, A'Mia crept like fast moving ivy down the wall to the back of the dark alley. From there she lurked and waited. Having purposefully chosen not to corner her fellow predator, knowing it was rude enough she'd intruded during a hunt.

 

[Vitoria]

Vitoria drank. She drank and she drank until her head rolled back and she gasped in satisfaction. The man let out a pained groan, muffled into her hand, and struggled dully against her grip.

She latched back onto his arm. Though her hunger pains had dulled, she was far from sated. So distracted was she by her first proper meal that Vitoria barely noticed the creeping plant that spilled over the far wall of the alley.

Until sense returned to her and she did notice.

Vitoria turned sharply, dropping what remained of her meal. The man had since succumbed to unconsciousness and slumped to the ground.

Lines of crimson dribbled over her chin as she hissed at the pair of bright, luminescent eyes that peered at her from the shadows. With a defensive hiss, she launched herself at the interloper, strong jaw ready to bite, sharp claws ready to sink into flesh.

Madrona A’Mia

 

[Madrona A’Mia]

The woman had time to consider the frenzied creature for only a short time before suddenly she whirled upon A'Mia. Ready for the possibility of violence, two long and sturdy limbs shot out to intercept the lunging vampire. One snaking limb encircled Vitoria 's waist while the other aimed to encircle one of her dangerous arms. The close proximity to her mouth meant a bite was almost certain, but the woman would find neti sap cool and bitter compared to the rich warmth of blood.

"Wait, hungry one-" she interjected in a strangely calm voice, one of her more human hands held up with palm extended in a peaceful gesture.

No matter how the woman tore into her, A'Mia didn't express pain though surely she felt it.

 

[Vitoria]

Suddenly, Vitoria found herself ensnared in an urban thicket. She struggled, yanking at the flexible wooden limbs with unprecedented strength for such a small thing. With a hiss, the vampiress sank her fangs into a vine that had bound her wrist, her savage countenance suddenly changing to one of surprise.

Vitoria unlatched from the limb with a retch, stringy lines of sap connecting her teeth to the sentient vine. This was...disgusting? What the hell?

"Wait, hungry one-" she interjected in a strangely calm voice, one of her more human hands held up with palm extended in a peaceful gesture.

Her head snapped toward the Neti with a snarl, seemingly unperturbed by the woman's strange appearance. The hunger madness had not yet worn off entirely.

"Unhand me, you wretch," she spat. "You do not have anything with which you can sate me!"

Madrona A’Mia

 

[Madrona A’Mia]

Though the neti did not outwardly react in that moment, she did still feel pain. Her blunted affect did not change the fact that she had a natural aversion to discomfort like most living things, and to experience it was irksome.

At realizing how strong the little woman was, A'Mia shot another several long vines out to reaffirm her hold on Vitoria and gave her a small smile. There was an uncanny 'tut tut' sound that wasn't spoken so much as it was felt within her mind. Then the woman's more natural, brightly pitched voice murmured chidingly.

"Oh... That was an unfortunate choice of words to use whilst you're being so rude to me."

Yet another new limb appeared from within the trunk of the strange botanical, but this one was holding the rather long hilt of a lightsaber.

"Do you know what this is?"

A'Mia asked sweetly as she drew the weapon level with one of the feisty woman's hands, not yet igniting it.

"And don't be so certain, if you can be reasonable, I might yet aid you with your hunger."

 

[Vitoria]

The anthropomorphic tree with a doll-like face did not relinquish her grip on Vitoria. In fact, she produced several more vines which sought to further restrain her.

The vampirika craned her head, catching one of the plant-like limbs with her prominent canines and crushed it between her powerful jaw. Another sharp jerk of her head tore the vine, which she spat back in A'Mia's face. If she'd even heard the Neti's words echoing in her mind, they did not register.

Then, the saber.

Yellow eyes, bright and scattered with madness locked on to the metallic cylinder. A sated Vitoria would not have bothered with her continued struggle. A sated Vitoria might've gone limp, playing dead.

A sated Vitoria would not have attacked a sentient tree in the first place.

"Something dangerous," she said. There was a vile hiss in her voice, a type of strain that came only from someone grappling with mania.

Vitoria did not know that what she was looking at was a lightsaber hilt. She only knew what she felt in the Great Weave.

A pink tongue peeked between her teeth, swiping some of the green chlorophyll into her mouth. With a grimace, she spat it back out.

"I am listening."

Madrona A’Mia

 

[Madrona A’Mia]

Large blue-green eyes narrowed at the very rude destruction of one of her limbs. She'd regain the mass soon, surely. But it was the principle of the matter. If this creature was still lacking manners after her thirst was sated, A'Mia thought she'd surely have do a public service and remove this menace from the streets.

"I have a near human captive on my shuttle," she'd decided the smuggler that had wasted her time with over-selling his services would at least make himself useful as a test subject.
"You'd be welcome to feed on him."

"Or... I will assist you in hunting prey that's less pathetic and riddled with intoxicants."

The woman tipped her head in curiosity, one or two of her grasping vines loosening slightly, as if to coax the enraged Vitoria to be more reasonable.

"I offer this, and in turn I would like to interview you!"

Her voice was bright and friendly, as if it were a perfectly normal bargain to make with an aggressive stranger at the end of a dark alley.

 

[Vitoria]

Vitoria seethed in the Neti's grasp, but she'd given up on struggling. She'd only been afforded a minute or so to feed on the drunkard's tainted blood. At the moment, she was akin to a dying man who'd had a sip of water; possessed by the furious need for more, tempered only by self preservation.

Then, the tree-woman's demeanor shifted. It was enough to throw the wary vampiress off her guard.

"You want to…what?"

It was the last thing she'd expected to hear and disarmingly benign. Victoria's brow scrunched in distrust. A beat passed as her frazzled mind weighed her options.

"Yeah, sure, whatever. Meal first."

The questions this chlorophyll filled freak had for her wouldn't be given a decent answer until she was sated.

Madrona A’Mia

 

[Madrona A’Mia]

"Oh good!"

Vitoria's soon to be interviewer exclaimed with delight. The woman released all but one hold on her unwitting companion. The excitement that suddenly animated her probably seemed extremely at odds with her veiled threats from moments before. A'Mia all but carried her newest fixation to her shuttle where it was docked for the evening.

After showing her guest to the available accommodations, and the would-be smuggler likely tried to get a word in edgewise about being someone's dinner, A'Mia happily set up a cozy little space for her to sit across from the vamipress. Datapad in hand, the neti took on a scholarly air as she wasted no time getting started.

"It is customary for me to take down various bio-metrics such as height, weight, age, and so on. Maybe we just start with your name though, how's that?"

Suddenly her strange eyes widened and she blurted out.

"Darkness, where are my manners? I'm A'Mia! Sorry about that, I was just so thrilled at our bargain."

 

[Vitoria]

"Huh," Vitoria murmured, muffled.

The smuggler proved to be a filling meal. She took a moment to unlatch her fangs from the unconscious man's wrist. Perhaps she'd indulged just a bit too much, but it had been weeks since she’d fed properly.

"He's out." She blinked, once, slowly down at the man's pallid face. Vicious as her hunger had been, she had no lust for killing. Her concern was less over the man’s life, and more that she’d be perceived as a poor guest.

The vampiress' gaze panned up to A'Mia, now far more docile than when she'd first lunged at the woman in the alley.

"Vitoria. Sorry for attacking you." She ran her tongue over her top row of teeth, collecting the tiny droplets of blood that clung to her incisors.

"Why do you want to talk to me?"

Madrona A’Mia

 

[Madrona A’Mia]

The neti's uncanny peppiness continued to shine through but there was a gleam of intensity in her odd eyes as Vitoria apologized and finally seemed more herself. The woman flicked her wrist in a little sweeping motion, long fingers brushing the niceties between them away as she leaned in, eager to properly begin.

"Yes, Yes- certainly something I am not unused to. You're fiercer even than I thought you might be, beset by hunger as you were!"

A... compliment? The arboreal woman pressed on, hand perched over the datapad once more as she clarified.

"You appear different from a sangnir, of which I've known a few, but have a very similar aura. So first and foremost, I wished to learn what you are and go from there. I also find your Force signature intriguing and would like to interview you about whatever preternatural abilities you might have. Is that an agreeable place to start, Vitoria?"

The final question seemed to have been asked more as a way to include the woman in A'Mia's process, and less so an invitation to change course entirely. The truth was, A'Mia had shared resource with this stranger. In turn, as any tree might, she expected her due.