middaeg | [OPEN] bite & arbeit

Uhh... to the Coven? Makoto glances at her, still tense, but no longer so focused on his anger. "I've behaved badly?" he murmurs. "No I haven't. He attacked me. Drag him over there, and let me go."

Although, at the same time, the attacker seems to be begging the same thing. Neither him nor Makoto know or have noticed that this woman is a Mirrorbound too. Makoto tugs on his arm, trying to wrestle out of her grip as the other man flaps his mouth.

"You both behaved badly. One does not tackle people for getting egged on. Clearly you need potions to calm down."

She looked at the attacker, eyes narrowed. "And you need to learn manners." Without looking back, her grip tightened on Makoto. "I'd ask for you not to try and squirm. I've been told to follow my instincts, and I have quite the interest in pouncing on those whose backs are turned to me. You don't want to feel my claws."

That warning seems to shut the both of them up, but Makoto doesn't look happy about. He stops trying to pull away from her and looks down at the floor. Is she right? He'd reacted so instantaneously. When he distances himself from the incident in his mind, he realizes, no, he wouldn't have lunged at him that way at all. He shouldn't have.

...Is this because he still doesn't have any bonds? What was feral vampire behavior like, anyway?

Either way, he's sure he really doesn't want to go back to the Coven over this. After a moment, he looks back up at the woman, ignoring the man being dragged along next to her.

"You're right. It was an accident." Pause. "What I did, not what he did."

She might try to bite the back of their necks too, but that seems a little too much to make them mind. And thankfully, she wasn't feral in the least, if just...a little annoyed. Most people would be in this situation.

Though not many would get between a vampire and its meal.

"It's full moon. You get the benefit of the doubt, at least from me." Caren's expression softened, or at least became less stoic. "But there are potions that will help you feel stable until...well. If you behave, I'll let you have some blood."

From her she means, though the other man could think she meant him.

"I don't need blood," he says, somewhat bitterly. He'd been walking into a vampire bar, after all. Blood isn't what this is about.

"Just take him. Come back for me if you want to give me a potion."

He doesn't expect this to work, but he really doesn't want to go back to the Coven and make a name for himself as someone unstable and dangerous. Even though that's precisely what he's thought of himself for the past six weeks.

"But you want it, like I want to hunt." Her voice was matter of fact, no judgement in the soft voice.

"But I don't know you, so I can't trust you. If you walk peacefully, then I won't have to drag you."

She glared at the agitator; she wasn't going to give them the option, the little weasel. Likely him or his companions tried to ruin her home.

But her tone was reasonable as she glanced back at Makoto.

"We'll hold hands on the way there. I've taken the potion myself. There's no shame."

Makoto goes silent and walks beside her during the walk to the Coven, docile like she'd asked. He hadn't answered her attempt to make him feel better, but he holds her hand loosely, hoping she doesn't mind his clammy, cold palm.

"How much longer?" he finally asks a few minutes later. The Coven is looming in front of them, just another minute away, so he's really asking how long it's going to take to get the potion and have this resolved. "What are you going to tell them?"

She doesn't mind. The coolness is welcome with how warm it's felt lately-and too, with her fur -she could use the coolness.

"Not much longer. And what I will tell them is the truth." Simple as that. She glanced at him. "You'd be best to tell him the truth. And you." She gave the other man a shake, which only got a yelp and tried to squirm out of her grip.

She wouldn't have it though, and renewed her grip on the egg slinger.

"You'd best tell the truth too. I'm sure they'll have truth spells ready." Not that she knew if they had that.

Makoto goes silent again. He's already walking here to confess what happened and take the potion, so there's no point in lying about it. He has no plans not to tell the truth.

Ignoring her words to his attacker and avoiding eye contact, he falls in step with the woman, letting him lead them wherever it is she's leading them.

Smart of him. She'll speak on his behalf-she already knows what it's like to accidentally lose control-but him being honest will work for his case.

Caren merely walks in and...uses lifting and shaking his attacker off of his feet to grab attention of a witch. After one of them-more then one-took him off of her hands and wisked him away, Caren made to explain why they were here, and what had happened, before deferring to Makoto to tell his side of the story.

From the squirming and thrashing around, she was pretty sure the anti Coven man would lie.

When the Coven witches look at him expectantly, Makoto sighs and slumps. He's mad that he has to do this, including at himself.

"I was about to go into a vampire bar when I saw this person waiting near the door. Before I'd said anything, he threw eggs at me and started yelling about mirrorbounds and bonds or whatever."

Makoto doesn't even have a bond. It's wrong for them to be getting demonized right now, but being bondless makes the misplaced prejudice that much worse.

"I lost my cool. I'm sorry. I was on my way to eat."

The instigator does, of course, lie; he claims he was walking down the street when the vampire randomly attacked him. Makoto displays no reaction to the lie, stuffing his annoyance below the surface.

She didn't like having to do this, but it was this or deal with street justice. And that would be...rather frowned upon, considering their positions and how it could be spun out of control.

It didn't look like things were going the best here, but...at least she was in a position to do something about it.

"If I may." Caren raised a hand, and waited to be acknowledged, before moving on. "That's not a very good lie." She gestured to the eggs all over Makoto's shirt, still shiny even if dried.

"I am aware that of the parties here, I am the only one with senses beyond the norm. However-it's quite obvious there are eggs on his person. And it seems this man," she gestured to the instigator, "Has signs of eggs on his person. It smells of egg shells and while yolk could be explained if he had been defending himself by trying to push on the stomach...he had been clearly pushing against the shoulders, with little fumbling in between."

She paused. "And rather poorly at that."

Makoto is grateful for the stranger to vouch for him; the Coven witches appear to be instantly persuaded by what she says. One of them takes the instigator by the arm, handcuffs him, and begins to drag him away, even as he pathetically attempts to repeat his story.

Once he's gone from the room, Makoto heaves a loud sigh of relief and stares at the floor. One of the remaining witches announces that she'll fetch some potions to help the vampire and disappears through a different doorway.

"...thanks."

Caren had all the gain by keeping silent but...it wasn't the truth, and it wasn't honest. She wanted to help people to the best of her ability, and she wasn't going to sabatoge it by lying.

And really, she thought that the fact that she was a freakish combination of creatures would make the vouching might invalidate her claims. Thankfully, things have turned out well.

"There's no need to thank me. It was the truth. Now," She turned towards him, and pulled her hair away from her neck, tilting it back. "The potions will help with the control, but you said you were going somewhere for blood, yes? Let me apologize for dragging you like I did by offering some of mine."

She thought he might refuse. But...this would be far better for him to drink then witches blood.

Makoto furrows his brows at her proposal. His reaction isn't positive, but he hesitates to say anything rude after everything she's done for him tonight.

"It's fine," he says firmly but quietly. "I can walk back to get the blood I need. That's the place I've been going the past few nights."

If he took blood from her, he'd have to hurt her. That isn't acceptable to him. He looks back to the doorway that the witch had disappeared from, hoping to see her return with a potion any second.

"Is there a reason you're giving a stranger so much help?"

She didn't think it would be the most positive. It was a kind of a weird thing to offer, after everything they've gone through tonight.

"Mmm." She eyed him briefly, before offering a small shrug.

"It'd be quicker if you had blood now rather then later. But as for why I'd helped...it's not anything complicated. Just-we're monsters. It's the right thing to do."

Their conversation is interrupted by the return of the witch, carrying a fist-sized potion in a brown glass bottle. She hands it to Makoto with a stern look and he drinks it without saying anything.

It tastes horrible - although, to be fair, that may be because it isn't blood. When he hands the empty bottle back to the witch, he wrinkles his nose and smacks his lips with disapproval. And then, within a few seconds... he feels his nerves calm. He feels the sharp edges of his thoughts dull back to normal. He feels his shoulders relax, and at the same time, he feels more energetic.

And with that, it seems like this is all over. As Makoto looks around to the witches around them, he gets the feeling that he's allowed to just... leave.

He looks over at the stranger, looking confused. "They're letting me go?"

That was fine-she didn't want to hear his polite refusal and how he didn't want to be a burden or how he didn't understand.

The potion seems to work, and that's important. Seeing him relax has her relax, making her nod once in approval. Good. He didn't have to take more then one then-but then again this was his first.

"They're not the police. They're not going to hold you in a cell." She made to turn away. "The potion helps. Just don't let your temper go wild, and you'll be fine. If you don't want my blood, then you'd best hurry to the blood bar, then back to your residence.

"You've had enough excitement for one day. There's no need to tempt fate."

[OPEN] bite & arbeit

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