I Wanna Join the Circus! ...Not. (Jeralt)

[Elloria]

Josk stood before a stall in a shady back alley of Ceunon. He picked up each vial one by one and closely examined them. Some were a shade too dark, others clearly didn’t have the right consistency. It was become a rather irksome task of finding the particular liquid he desired - a complicated base mixture that he used for his more delicate poisons. Its preparation was forbidden in DuWeldenvarden and few people outside that shadowy forest knew how to make it properly. Hence why he had been wandering the stalls for nearly a week now in search of the correct base. He was beginning to think he would need to hunt down Trifoud if he wanted to find any at all. With a sigh, he dropped the vial back in the vendor’s collection, whirled about and stormed off down the alley.

He emerged into one of the main thoroughfares of Ceunon, practically dead now that evening was setting in. He turned left and headed up the street, keeping his hood up and his head low. Although humans and elves mingled with relative ease here, he didn’t want to be seen by any of them. He simply kept his eyes down, thinking. Where else might he be able to find the base? Ceunon was sure to have the most plentiful supply, but perhaps there was some other city? He chewed at his lip as he walked. He’d never had the opportunity to look elsewhere - or the need to, for that matter. But since Trifoud had gone underground since their last encounter, Josk was having some problems getting a hold of many items he required.

He let out another angry sigh as he finally reached the gates of the city and slipped quietly through them. His attention was immediately drawn to a bright cluster of lights not far from the city. There were many tents all around and a large number of people milling about. Curious, he trotted over and slipped through the tents. There was much laughter and general merry-making going on. He poked around a bit, wondering if this was one of those ‘circus’ things he’d heard about - a human creation designed for entertaining the masses. When he reached the center of the tents and saw the sign over the largest tent, his question was answered. It read “Welcome to The Nine Moon Circus!” Josk almost laughed. The Nine Moon Circus? Was it some sort of ridiculous extension of that idiotic human religion based in the Tears of Leona? How absurd. But still, his curiosity had been piqued so he payed the five silver pieces for entrance into the tent and took up a seat at the front. He wanted to see what this ‘circus’ was all about.

[ladymoth]

“You know the great thing about blood?” Jeralt asked another one of his circus members as he walked after the man with the broken legs who was dragging himself over the blood soaked grass “is that it comes in so many different varieties” Jeralt finished.

“No way” his friend said, not sounding at all interested, apparently this sort of behavior was common place, his friend was far more interested in applying the red paint around his eyes to look up.
“Oh yah, and I’m not just talking different blood types here” Jeralt said putting his foot over the man’s chest. The man on the ground seemed to week and disoriented to protest. He had his hands over his face and his fingers were all broken and going out at different angles. “You know like it can cool you down on a hot day and warm you up on a cold day; it’s like it knows what you need. When it’s cold outside it makes all these cool steam clouds then when it dries it turns all crunchy like that stuff… you know that stuff” Jeralt’s friend shrugged “Oh you know it’s like um… broiled cream, you ever heard of that” Jeralt’s friend shrugged again “Oh it’s hella nice it’s like they take custard an-”

“Help Me! Help!” The man that Jerald had his foot on shouted suddenly, a gurgle coming from the back of his throat, he must have heard Josk approaching but the other two were too distracted to pay any heed “It’s Rude to interrupt someone!” Jeralt shouted stomping his foot down on the man’s jaw and unhinging it. The man was quiet, not because his jaw was out of place but because he had gone into shock. “… So you take custard and you put fire over the top of it and it makes the top go all burned and crusty”

“Oh yah I know what that is” Jeralt’s friend said looking up finally and seeing Jeralt hoist the man up and violently pull his arms away from his neck. Jeralt’s face twisted into something less than human and he mauled into the man’s neck causing a rope of blood to splash Jeralt across the face. The man let out an almost silently “ah-” his eyes wide, then his eyes glazed over and he stopped moving altogether. From outside a man’s voice called “Look alive, fifteen feet and counting.” Jeralt’s friend jumped up and threw saw dust over the blood on the ground, then with more difficulty pried Jeralt away from his kill and shoved the dead body under the lip of the tent. Jeralt’s face was still blood splattered and contorted, but his friend’s expression told him that he had to be ready to perform. Jeralt, with some difficulty, made his face look human again and whipped the blood off with a towel his friend had given him.

The second that Josk was under the flap Jeralt was there to greet him “Hello young sire, welcome to the greatest show on earth, magic performances and feats so fantasticle they can only be explained by the presence of our goddess her holiness Ny- you’re an elf.” Jeralt finished lamely. He friend elbowed him hard in the ribs, causing Jeralt to let out an involuntary snarl. “No, I’m sorry but what’s the point if he’s an elf” Jeralt hated performing in Ceunon for this very reason. He always brought this up, it seemed like a waste of time and resources, and he was grumpy and hungry.

[Elloria]

The look on Josk’s face was anything but kind as the human that greeted him called him out as an elf. Whether it was obvious or not he was an elf, did this cretin really need to announce to the world that he was? Fortunately, it was just him for the moment in the spacious tent. His lips parted to reply, but he pressed them back together tightly as he caught the scent of blood. Fresh blood. He wondered if it had anything to do with the gurgling voice he’d heard earlier. He had dismissed it, of course, as illusory. Nothing had followed it and it had been so quiet, he’d thought he was hearing things. He gave the man standing before him a once-over, completely ignoring his friend. It was from the black man that the fetid scent was wafting from. He was tall and dark, with a bulky torso and lanky legs. His outfit was garishly colored and bright, with a hooded cape of an equally revolting coloration.

His eyes narrowed and darkened, becoming more of a stormy grey than their usual dull silver. There was something wrong about this human. Aside from the scent of blood, that is. His skin seemed almost metallic in the dull firelight. His lips curled into a derisive smirk. “I came to be entertained, human. Paid for admittance and everything. I don’t give a rat’s ass if what you do here is magic or not - though I highly doubt it is. I simply want to have a good laugh and be gone.” He wrinkled his nose in distaste. His voice dripped with sarcasm as he continued. “Though if you’d rather go back to whatever butchery has caused you to reek like a fresh corpse, I’m more than willing to ask for a refund and leave. A circus can’t be all that fantastic, now, can it?”

[ladymoth]

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▲▼▲▼► Jeralts face darkened “I like elves” he noted, though the quip had a double meaning. Jeralt’s friend elbowed him again Jeralt sighed, “Behold, smoke and mirrors!” Jeralt said with exuberant sarcasm. Jeralt’s friend walked into the foreground juggling brightly colored pins. It was good, but it wasn’t magic. It wasn’t much at all really. It was only Jeralt and his friend in the tent, the rest had gone out for the night to explore Ceunon. Jeralt walked closer to Josk and put his arm around Josk’s shoulder. “So Rubies, what do you want to see first? You name it we can do it, we’re magic like that” Jeralt said in a smooth con-man sort of a way; he could be quite silky. “You played for it, so you should be able to order something up, the impossible. Challenge us.”

By some hidden cue Jeralt’s friend through his pins up high as he juggled them and they came down on fire. “I mean, you’ve got to admire us humans at least, we don’t have any magic of our own so we have to invent it. We’re highly intelligent.” Jeralt wasn’t talking to Josk any more; he seemed to be talking to Josk’s neck. Josk’s neck was white and his skin was so perfect that it needed to be broken. It was one of those long necks that gave ample room for chewing. Jeralt thought that if he were to taste the elf’s blood it would, like other elf’s blood, be extremely rich and, judging by the elf’s rounded features, have a slightly heightened fat content. There was really no reason for him not to kill the elf, except that the elf might over power him, and ruin everything. He shouldn’t risk it, but he was hungry.

Jeralt shook himself mentally and looked back to his friend who had started to juggle more and more flaming pins which seemed to be coming out of thin air. “you’re impressed, aren’t you, I can read it all over your face” Jeralt was cocky, self-centered, and nearly incapable of reading emotions, which meant that he assumed everyone was in awe of him all day and all night. “come now Rubies, let’s show you another one, what do you want to see?” Jeralt drew away from Josk and towards his friend. He picked off one of the pins and held it in one hand by the none-burning side. His other hand dipped into the flam and came out aflame, Jeralt seemed not to notice.

[Elloria]

Josk leaned away from the strange human, disgusted by the overpowering aroma of blood and death radiating off him. What a revolting specimen. And he was touching Josk. “So Rubies, What do you want to see first? You name it we can do it, we’re magic like that.” Grasping the human’s arm between his thumb and forefinger, Josk gingerly lifted it off of his shoulders and casually tossed it back at the human. “Of course you are," he murmured disdainfully. He watched the human juggling the flaming pins, unimpressed. There was no hint of magic in the air, so it was probably due to some sort of chemical reaction - if they were even flames at all. He stopped paying attention to the words spewing from the human's mouth and concentrated, instead, on the sense of him.

From the corner of his eye, Josk noticed the human's particular attention to his pale, slender neck. He barely suppressed a disgusted shudder at the look of hunger in the human's eyes. What the hell was he? He reached out with his mind, trying to find the bright light that should have been this human's life force. His brow furrowed slightly. He felt nothing but some sort of...magic? And something that felt diseased. Josk warily eyed the obviously cocky human-that-wasn't-human as he moved to stand by his friend. “You’re impressed, aren’t you, I can read it all over your face. Come now Rubies, let’s show you another one, what do you want to see?”

“My name is not Rubies. It’s Josk. And no, I’m not particularly impressed with your sad parlor tricks. Or with you,” he added, watching the human dip his hand into the flames. “You’ve probably got some chemical on your skin that retards the flames. If they’re even flames at all.” He tilted his head as he contemplated the two before him. What would he like to see next? He’d never been to a circus before, so how on earth was he supposed to know what to expect. He sat back down and leaned back against the seat behind him. He grinned as a delightful thought passed through his mind. “How about you dance for me?” He murmured the word brisingr and the freakish human’s cape caught on fire as the magic fled from his body to ignite it.

[ladymoth]

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▲▼▲▼► Jeralt’s act of deep concentration stopped and he looked at Josk with a dead-pan “I want to kill you so bad” face. He blew out his hand and folded his arms across his chest “Your face retards.” He retorted through gritted teeth. He really really wanted to eat this guy, he was about to lose it. So what if Josk was an Elf, he was a vampire, he could probably take him. Then Josk asked him to dance. Jeralt rolled his eyes and turned around only to feel a sudden harsh pain in his leg. His cape was on fire and was hitting the back of his pants which were made of the sort of fabric that melts to skin rather than burns away. Jeralt yelped and fumbled franticly with his cape, yanking through the chains until it was off and on the ground. He stomped on it repeatedly.

“Go, now!” Jeralt shouted at Josk, but no, it was his friend that left, leaving them all alone. “You want to see something new?” Jeralt grinned showing long and pointed canines. He flung his right arm out suddenly and grabbed Josk by the neck then swung his other arm around and punched Josk’s temple as hard a he could. The blow felt the same as being hit with a war hammer. “Come on, bleed for me Rubies, I want to see that blood” Jeralt begged longingly walking Josk back against a pole then raising him up so that he had to stand on his toes to avoid being lynched by Jeralt’s vice grip. “I just need to see a drop to get me started, come on, I bet you have a knife on you somewhere” started to pat Josk’s pockets, looking for the tell tale shape of a knife.

“Josk, was it? Stupid name” he smirked. He was trying to seem playful but he felt desperate. Without seeing Josk’s blood there would be no way to turn his face. “You know you look kind of stupid too, not elf like at all, chubby cheeks. Too youthful” he added scrapping a fingernail across Josk’s face, trying to make it bleed- but he had a bad habit of chewing his nails so it didn’t do anything. “You look like a woman, you don’t even have stubble. are you child or a woman?” he laughed then hit Josk’s head against the pole, trying to draw blood again.

[Elloria]

Josk laughed at the freak's idiotic comeback and laughed even harder when it yelped. The look of surprise on its face was too delicious to the malicious elf and he doubled over with laughter. He couldn't even hear the freak over his own laughter and so didn't notice the long, sharp canines or the threat in its eyes. So he was quite surprised when he suddenly felt a vice-grip on his neck and what felt like a war hammer slamming against his head. He was quite dazed and rather exhausted now but distantly thankful his hood was up. Even with the ringing confusion whirling through his immediate thoughts, he was instinctively certain he would probably be dead from the force of the blow - save for the fact that his cloak was magically reinforced. He was jerked from his seated position and slowly walked back against a pole, hardly resisting because it was a tad difficult to breath and he was still dazed. Blood? Why did this freak want his blood? No, he had no knife on him. He wasn’t even carrying his sword. He used magic to defend himself when he needed to. But right now, none of the right words were coming to him.

He did, however, rise with the lifting arm so that he wouldn't have his head pulled off. That much he was aware of. Unfortunately, that put him on his toes and in a rather unfavorable position. “Josk, was it? Stupid name...You know you look kind of stupid too, not elf like at all, chubby cheeks. Too youthful.” Josk felt something dull scraping across his face - as if it were trying to make him bleed. Other than scraping away the first dead layer of skin, though, it had no effect. “You look like a woman, you don’t even have stubble. Are you child or a woman?” The freak laughed before starting to hit Josk’s head against the pole. The cloak was absorbing the blows for now, but he could feel it rapidly draining his energy. He mentally cursed the freak before taking the wrist of the arm currently manhandling him in a grip that was almost hard enough to crush bone. Reaching out with his right hand, he gathered a small amount of energy from his rapidly dwindling supply and murmured, “Thrysta.” It wasn't enough to send the freak flying, but it did cause a satisfying pop to sound as its right shoulder dislocated.

The grip on his throat immediately disappeared as it stepped back and Josk dropped to his feet, gasping. He took a huge lungful of air and, jumping slightly, promptly kicked it in the chest - sending it flying nearly half-way across the ring. He leaned against the pole, breathing harshly and reaching out for the energy stored in his obsidian clasp. Strength immediately returned to his limbs as he depleted the fairly meager store in the gem. “Woman? Child? I have walked this earth for two hundred and forty-five years. I am not a child by any standards, freak.” Fury coursed through his veins as he sprang over to the freak. He kicked with not-inconsiderable strength at its side. How dare this thing so grossly underestimate him and overestimate itself? He kicked at it once more for good measure. “Learn your place, filth. You’ll need to survive another couple of centuries before you can even hope to truly match me. Regardless of what unwholesome magic fuels your existence.”

[ladymoth]

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▲▼▲▼► Jeralt whipped his hand out and grabbed Josk’s leg; get gave it hard pull putting Josk on his back. Jeralt sat up and let out a heavy sigh then slowly raised himself up and grabbed his shoulder. He pushed it back into place as easily as someone might push a key into a lock, the look on his face never changed, he really wasn’t human, and that really wasn’t good news for Josk. “Oh, a couple of centuries, give me a few years please, I’m doing my best” Jeralt smirked. “What would happen if I cut out your tongue? You’d be no more a threat to me than the corpse outside the tent” Jeralt mused lifting Josk up by the neck again, and now it was noticeable just how little effort it took him. Josk was little more than a rag doll to him.

“Let me show you the old fashioned way of throwing your weight around” Jeralt drew Josk back and was about to fling him when he stopped short giving Josk whiplash “Or… you could put that magic of yours to good use and make yourself bleed, I promise what comes afterward will be short and to the point” he smiled and showed his sharp teeth once more “pun intended.” Jeralt drew Josk in again and set him down on the ground. “Come on Rubies, fight or death? Keep in mind that both options end in death, the former is just foreplay.” Jeralt laughed again and drew back putting his fists up in front of his face “Come on, make your choice, I’m hungry, come on, let’s go.” Jeralt was desperately hungry, but he did so love play with his food and Josk, he really needed to put him in his place, he wanted to humiliate him before he was done away with.

[Elloria]

“You really are an idiot, aren’t you?” Josk stood there, staring incredulously at the freak. Truly, truly this thing was an idiot. First of all, if those teeth were so damn sharp and it wanted his blood so much then why wasn't it using them? He wasn't going to mention that little tidbit of information to it, but come on. Second of all, it obviously knew nothing of magic if it thought cutting out his tongue would stop him. True, using magic would be considerably more dangerous if he couldn’t voice the Ancient Language - but all he needed was the idea. The idea and enough focus to keep out stray thoughts. And it didn’t even know that much, despite being fueled by some sort of magic. Probably wasn’t its own, then. It really was all brawn and no brain. “There is absolutely nothing but hot air in that thick skull of yours, is there? Not even a pebble to call your brain. That is the only explanation I can think of for your monumental stupidity.”

Josk slowly circled the freak, sizing it up. Whatever it was, he was rapidly coming to the conclusion that it was not human despite its appearance. But the appearance wasn't an illusion. He felt no magic in the air, save for the unwholesome one which kept this thing moving. So what was it? Curiosity drove him now, not anger. “What are you, freak? What makes you human and not human?” He dashed forward and rabbit-punched at Jeralt's neck before dodging back out of the thing's range. He was just going to toy with it for now. He wanted to know more about whatever it was. “Tell me and perhaps I’ll give you what you want.” He grinned. “Perhaps I’ll give you blood.” But perhaps not his own.

[ladymoth]

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▲▼▲▼► “Mother ******” Jeralt had obviously not been expecting a physical attack, though how he had planned on defending himself against magic no one can say. Jeralt rubbed his neck as if he it was vaguely sore. He was glad of his high defenses, but with Josk’s offense it was just a matter of time until he went down. He had to do something, but then Josk was making a deal with him. Well fine then, but this wasn’t over. Jeralt put a pin in the fight. At least he could continue his verbal assault, that was always fun. “Oh Rubies, brains aren’t everything. In your case they’re nothing” he added with a grin as he approached Josk, slowly. “Oh how easy it is to be brave from a distance, you foolish coward.” Jeralt stopped walking mid-step and took a step backwards so that they were standing three feet apart. “You fight from a distance or else hit once and flee on the rebound. I am fast too you know” he added and tapped his toes against the soft earth to draw attention to his lanky legs.
“Not elven, but fast enough to wring your neck the next time you draw near. Transparent freak of nature.” He said that last one more to himself as he looked Josk up and down. He’d never seen a civilian dress odder than he did, but there Josk was, decked out in all manner of feathers and obsidian jewels “I’m an elf, like you” Jeralt grinned widely to show his pointed canines again “I started life as a human but I transcended, but it’s not my ears that grew pointy, it was my teeth- imagine that” Jeralt spoke slowly and kindly, as if he was telling a whimsical story to a child “and I don’t get my energy from berries and bark or whatever the hell you guys are eating these days” he gave a pittious snicker “I get my kicks from blood, blood from sentient stuff, never had dragon” he added, in the same way one might throw out a coment like 'I’ve never eaten duck a la orange'. "But I like elves" Jeralt put his hand out towards Josk's neck, but his eyes were glazed over as if he wasn't really thinking about what he was doing.

[Elloria]

Josk laughed quietly as the freak called him a coward. He didn't mind jumping into the thick of things. Sometimes it was fun to take part in wholesale slaughter. But then you didn't get to see the expressions on your victim's face. You didn't get to hear the screams, savor the scent of their pain. You didn't get to play with them like the toys that they were. And really, that was far more entertaining wasn't it? At least, he thought it was.

But even in his amusement, he paid close attention to what this idiot was saying. It stayed alive by drinking blood? And it was human once, after all. An elf, indeed. This thing's arrogance knew no bounds. So some type of blood magic kept it alive - or existing, rather. If it was alive, there would be that light all living things shone with. The freak was just a dark spot in his line of sight. And it was only a few feet away now. Close enough so that when it reached out with its hand, it was mere inches from his neck. “An elf, huh? Of course you are.”

He raised his right hand and gently clasped the freak's wrist. He moved it aside and released it. In the blink of an eye there was only a hair's breadth between his body and its, his head tilted so that his neck showed tantalizingly. His breath was warm against its ear as he whispered, “Those lanky chicken legs of yours are not evidence of your speed - merely of how freakishly disproportionate your body is.” He ran a hand up its torso, noting how cold it felt, and gently cupped its cheek. “How am I supposed to be frightened of that?” He pulled back and was once again three feet from it. He gave it a twisted smile. “One more question and then you’ll see blood. What is your name?”

[ladymoth]

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▲▼▲▼► “J-Jeralt- Jeralt” Jeralt said in a faltering nervous manner, than again in his usual cocky attitude as if to cover up the former reply with the later so that his shock didn’t shine though. It was a rather pointless endeavor because A) Josk didn’t have a memory like a goldfish which also meant that B) he knew enough about Jeralt to tell that Jeralt usually didn’t come right out with information and preferred to banter before saying anything that was relatively important. The fact that Jeralt just spluttered out with his name probably meant that he had been caught off-guard, to say the least. The way he was standing made him look like a tin soldier; he was kind of metallic, his legs stuck together rather self consciously, and he wasn’t moving.

He had his hand on his cheek where Josk had touched it, perhaps thinking of how oddly warm it was just as much as Josk was thinking the opposite. Jeralt’s face darkened “suppose I want your blood now, you’re waving it in front of me like a loose woman lifting up her skirt, what form of freak are you?” Jeralt rushed in and grabbed Josk’s collar pinning him against the floor. He was over compensating for that lapse of dickery a few seconds ago “Come on Rubies, you promised me blood and I aim to make you deliver through any force necessary. If you don’t have a plan then I’ll bleed it out of you, I’ll find away.” He bared his canines but did not put two and two together, even then. His body seemed to be figuring it out for him though, he was getting that glazed look in his eyes and the restraint he was showing was gradually fading; he kept digging his fingers harder and harder into the earth.

[Elloria]

“Jeralt, huh? And you called my name stupid?” Josk laughed again as Jeralt pinned him to the ground. “And what if you do want my blood now? Did I ever say you’d get my blood?” He smiled. This creature was becoming interesting. Its eyes reminded him of a time when he'd found a starving lynx in the forest. It had been wounded and unable to get enough food for itself for quite some time. Josk doubted Jeralt was in such an untenable position, but the glazed look in his eyes was the same. And it looked as though whatever instincts were natural to it were starting to kick in.

So find a way to keep its attention off its hunger. That little seductive move earlier had worked quite well in distracting it. The flip side of that tactic was that it might set the freak off even more. Josk mentally shrugged. What did he care? It might bring him one step closer to Rensu, after all. He shoved at Jeralt, rolling them both over so that he now pinned Jeralt to the ground. He leaned over him so that his long, unbound silken hair slipped from beneath his hood and hung like a curtain around their faces. His eyes shone with delight as he grinned down at Jeralt. He licked at his dry lips as he gazed down at the freak beneath him. “One of the delightful things about speaking in a human tongue is how easy it is to lie.” He leaned down closer and kissed Jeralt slowly, almost lazily. He pulled back and licked his lips again. Jeralt tasted like blood and death, like pain and slow suffering. It was a surprisingly heady and delicious taste. “Interesting,” he murmured.

[ladymoth]

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▲▼▲▼► Jeralt still wanted to gnaw something’s head off but the thing was that he was so god damn full of adrenaline that he probably would have done anything to vent it out at that second. So if someone was going to take his relentless need to drink blood and replace it with one of the other needs on his hierarchy, well they’d probably be successful. As such Jeralt had his hand on Josk’s back and was returning the kiss with some earnest until Josk pulled away and said “interesting.” Jeralt came to his senses then and looked up at Josk slightly confused and slightly afraid for himself and his own sanity, did what he think just happened just happen?

Well it defiantly wasn’t the worst twist a fight’s ever taken for him, as a matter of fact now that he looked at it this guy was something of his elven equivalent; a smart, talented, handsome ***hole- and Jeralt was in love with himself. Jeralt’s face softened and he wound his fingers around Josk’s long black hair. When he reached the roots his tightened his grip violently “I’m still hungry” her growled in Josk’s ear. “You’re no replacement for a good meal, stop flattering yourself” Jeralt said getting up and dragging Josk up onto his feet by the roots. He let him go and pulled him in close to him. ”get me something to eat, and maybe you’ll get to see the really interesting stuff” Jeralt hissed in Josk’s ear.

[Elloria]

Josk hissed in irritation and slight pain as Jeralt pulled him to his feet by the roots of his hair. He didn't give a damn if he was good enough to completely distract from hunger or not. He just didn't want this freak eating him. Close to Jeralt’s body once more, Josk huffed in derision. So the freak wanted something to eat. Or, more likely, someone. Well, that someone wasn't going to be Josk, that was certain. Still, he couldn't just get Jeralt a goat and call it good. The freak would want a human or elf to feed on. Now that technically went against his principles. Elves revered life, after all.

Well...most elves did. But like a lot of elven principles, Josk followed along with it when it suited him to. Which was most of the time, but now was not the time to quibble over principles. It would undoubtedly get him killed. “All right.” He smirked and kissed Jeralt again. “Sitja here wiol eka un eka enda ono aptr somhlutr eom eta.” With that, he pulled away from Jeralt and vanished from the tent. It didn’t take long to find a solitary man pissing behind a tent. He seemed to be in top form, if a little drunk. So as soon as the human had finished its business, Josk stunned him, snatched him up and dashed back to the tent. He dropped the man in the center of the tent, then retreated to the stands at the edge. He leaned back, as he had before, and grinned. “Dig in.”

((OOC: Italics Translation ~ Remain here for me and I'll bring you back something to eat.))

[ladymoth]

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▲▼▲▼► Jeralt looked down at the man on the ground, then back at Josk “he’s going to make me drunk.” Jeralt griped, he gave Josk a moment to come up with an excuse for it then rolled his eyes and repeatedly stomped his foot down on the man’s fingers until they were a bloody mess. As the smell of blood rose upward Jeralt’s face deformed till it was sloped at bat like. He grabbed the man by the neck and tore into it. The blood didn’t splatter like it did the first time but welled up quickly and went dribbling down onto the man’s clothes soaking into then dripping down onto the ground where it was absorbed by the soil. Jerlalt was a messy eater. He didn’t seem remotely human anymore; he was crouched down over the man holding him tightly; though the man was still stunned.

Jeralts red eyes cast around the room wildly like a jackal wary of vultures, the noises coming from him sounded animalistic, like a caged rat. Every so often he would drop the man’s neck and bite into it again, trying to get a good purchase to keep the blood running. In the end the man’s neck started to look like used chewing gum. At length the tips of the man’s fingers began to wither like prunes and the skin around his teeth pulled back like a mummy, he had been sucked dry. Jeralt emerged from the man’s neck with caked blood smeared over his lips. “Sooo good!” he sighed pleasurably. He got to his feet and staggered, whipping the blood off on his sleeve “Ooookay, so what do you dant to wo?” Jeralt asked swaying where he stood.

[Elloria]

“I wasn’t going to spend half the night finding you a sober idiot to suck dry. Get over it.” Josk leaned forward and watched Jeralt with disgusted fascination. Never before had he seen a human transform like that - even elves were hesitant to do even partial transformations. It was rather disastrous and often lethal if done wrong. And it was too easy to do wrong. But this freak slid through it so easily. The smell of blood was strong as Jeralt knelt beside the man and proceeded to literally rip open the throat with his teeth. It was a bit like watching carriages crash. Bloody and horrific and utterly absorbing. Right now, there was nothing left of the human Jeralt had surely been. He had been reduced to his most base animalistic self.

Josk watched the entire feeding process, unable to pull his attention from it. It was vile. It was cruel. It was enthralling. He was strongly reminded of an informant he'd worked on several years ago. He hadn't drained the fool of blood or anything, but by the end of the sessions the informant was as mangled and dead as the corpse Jeralt was now rising from. “Sooo good!” the freak sighed with pleasure. It sent a small shiver through Josk. He wanted to hear that sigh again. And again and again. Jeralt staggered as he wiped caked blood off on his sleeve. His face had returned to normal, thankfully. Otherwise, any desire Josk currently felt would have instantly died. That bat face was hideous. “Ooookay, so what do you dant to wo?” He grinned as Jeralt swayed in place.

He rose and stretched. His voice, normally a clear and pleasant baritone, was husky as he said, “I think it’s time for something more...interesting than food.” He took Jeralt by the wrist and dragged him from the tent, leaving the dessicated corpse right where Jeralt had dropped it. There was something more pressing to take care of at the moment. He ran through the tents, occasionally stopping to pick Jeralt up off the ground when he tripped over something. Seeing the freak drunk and reeling was rather endearing. It made him vulnerable and Josk rather liked that idea. He frantically searched for an empty tent and eventually found one. It even had a cot in it, ready to be used. Thrilled, he dragged Jeralt in and shoved him onto the bed. Straddling him, Josk said, “You’re going to be a lot of fun. I can feel it.” He leaned down and kissed the freak again - relishing the fresh taste of blood. It was more tantalizing and exciting than he'd ever thought it might be.

About five hours later ~
Josk held his weight up off of Jeralt with unsteady arms. His breath came in short pants and his pale skin was flushed. The small handful of ‘encounters’ he’d had since Rensu’s death hadn’t been quite that...lengthy. This freak had quite a lot of stamina, despite being extremely drunk. And was good. He lifted his right arm and practically collapsed off of Jeralt, letting out a low groan. He had a feeling he was going to be sore all over, not to mention the scores of bruises and bites he would have to heal. And yet...it had been worth it. Now he just needed to get the motivation to move again. He was rather comfortable right here, though it was probably dangerous to pass out next to something as freakish and insatiable as Jeralt.

[ladymoth]

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▲▼▲▼► Jeralt looked up at Josk smirking, then he rolled over onto his stomach and said “Get the **** out of my bed” into his pillow. So the tent they had stumbled into was Jeralts. It made sense; they wouldn’t erect a tent they wouldn’t sleep in, and it was about two in the morning when they retired. Jeralt’s tent was spacious with a light fold out table covered in daggers, and cards, and bottles, and colorful squares of silk, and other such tricks of the trade. Leaned up against the legs of the table was a folksy looking string instrument, and folded and pressed in a basket under the table was a pile of clothes. The bed it’s self was spacious enough for a traveling cot, padded with a feather mattress and covered over in a colorful quilt that was currently thrown to the ground. Everything was arranged in right angles and lined up tallest to shortest. There wasn’t a speck in the place, Jeralt was a neat freak as well as a messy eater.

“Rubies I swear to god I’m going to eat your ****ing head like a mantis if you don’t get the **** out of my ****ing bed you ****.” Jeralt groaned kicking Josk in the leg repeatedly “I’m not a ****ing bed and breakfast, get your smothery cuddly ass out of my bed.” Jeralt lifted his head up enough to move it to the left so that he was looking at Josk “I have a show in like…” Jeralt looked around and calculated the time in his head by the amount of light and the bird singing outside “-three hours. Be there, I have a business proposition for you.” He added putting his head back down into the pillow “and straighten up before you go, look at what you did to the place!” Evidently The tent wasn’t as spotless as Jeralt usually had it, Josk had done something to it... somewhere.

[Elloria]

Josk grumbled irritably as Jeralt kicked at him. Smothery cuddly ass was he? Well, Jeralt could just go fuck himself, even though Josk had just done it for him. Ignoring the freak, he looked around and took in the surprisingly neat and organized tent. So this was where Jeralt slept? It was at total odds with Josk's initial perception of the freak. Jeralt's lair was supposed to be messy and somewhat disgusting, not as pristine as his own estate in Ellesméra. It was certainly more colorful, though. Gaudy, just like Jeralt's attire. That was proof enough that it was Jeralt's tent, in Josk's opinion.

After a moment, he sat up and stretched - and promptly shoved Jeralt out of the cot. He swung his feet over the side, grinning as Jeralt hit the floor with a satisfying thud. He placed his feet on Jeralt's back, stood and stepped off of him. He scratched his abdomen, looking around for a moment longer before starting to gather his scattered clothes. “I’d tell you to suck it up, Jeralt, but you did such an admirable job of that earlier and it’s too soon to be getting you started on that again,” he remarked snarkily as he pulled on his clothes. He would definitely have to shower and change when he got back to the inn. “And don’t ever call me smothery or cuddly. I don’t give enough of a damn about you to do either with you, you frigid marble statue.”

He ran a hand through his hair, easily smoothing out the tangled mess until it fell in a perfect curtain around his face. Pulling on his cloak and clasping it around his shoulders, Josk walked to the tent flap and lifted it up. Before he ducked out, however, he turned and grinned at Jeralt. “And you can pick up your own damn mess. As I recall, you were the one throwing clothes left and right, not me. I’ll see you in three hours.” With that, he ducked out and proceeded to make his way back to Ceunon, breathing in deeply the fresh air and just loving the sounds of nature and the silence of civilization.

[ladymoth]

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▲▼▲▼► Jeralt hit the floor growling, he was glad to be alone when Josk left though. He looked at his tent, got onto his feet and re-knotted the flap. He hissed and winced when the sun light touched him, and where it had he developed small red marks like burns that vanished in moments. He walked around the room and straightened things up throwing his quilt back on the cot and tucking the corners in before getting into the bed- making the bed making redundant. “That guy is perfect” Jeralt smiled in a bonny way and fell asleep for a short time.

Three hours later Jeralt was there to greet Josk at the gate, he looking tired under the eyes and was wearing his hood up, and silk gloves, and stilts. “Good, now watch the actual show this time, you didn’t have our full attention the last time you got in” the fair was none the less expensive. In the day time the circus was far more interesting. Fire breathers, jugglers, sword swallowers, there were two twins; one standing the other’s head on one foot. “I don’t like those two” Jeralt remarked as they passed “Identical twins freak me out.” Everyone filled into the big tent which was now lined with rows of benches. There was no sign of blood from the other night.

“Greetings Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages and welcome to the greatest show on earth, magic performances and feats so fantastical they can only be explained by the presence of our goddess her holiness Nyx, who grants unfathomable power to those who follow the essences vital to the Voyage of the Nine Moons! Many of you think that only the elves are capable of magic” There was a slight pause aloud for booing “but Nyx allows us to exceed even their power! You may know the Elven word Brisingr, but can that little word do something like this?” And that seghweighed into the first act; the ring master lit himself on fire and then divided into five separate female dancers who then extinguished themselves and assisted other acts. Jeralt was there with his flame swallowing and flame throwing, the other man from the night before was doing his juggling trick with the flames that turned themselves on and off.

Other acts proceeded in the same fashion with deferent elements of magic like transfiguration (where in a woman was turned into a lioness,) and healing (where in a man was cut into pieces and brought back together.) Considering that none of the performers knew anything about magic it rather impressive, and certainly grander than the performance Josk got last night… well the first performance he got. Suddenly the performers disappeared in clouds of smoke and the ring master walked forward to address the audience “Many of you heard that the hope of a human rider died with Eragon, but that is not so” the man lowered his voice “The Great Nyx delivered to us a dragon egg of our own! All of the performers you saw tonight touched the egg but it would not hatch to any of them, but me.”

There was a cloud of smoke and when it cleared there was a young horse sized dragon in the tent unfurling it’s ghostly green wings and roaring at the crowd who all shrieked in terror “amazing isn’t it?” Jeralt said, he was sitting next to Josk with his hood down, god knows when he got there.

“Fear not!” The Ring Master shouted to the audience “The beast is my tame pet, and won’t breathe fire unless I will it! I am its rider, I command it through my thoughts” The Ring Master held up his hand palm out so that they could see that it was silver on the inside “Leona, raise your right leg” The ring master ordered. Still in the crowd Jeralt flashed a red scarf and the dragon raised its right leg. Jeralt seemed pretty smitten with himself, Josk couldn’t have found this boring.