Tram Lines *Open*

[Rae-Star Berii]

Blood.

Beautiful. Bitter. Bashful. Blood.

It trickled down the soft, porcelain curve of Rae's arm.

Sweet release.

Rae sat on the titled bathroom floor of the Chicago Subway station; it was dark; after the evanescent rush-hour traffic, after the sycophantic fantasy of evening life. She had slumped against the hand-basin and was sloped like a rag-doll against the graffiti dirtied wall watching the gentle caress of the glistening globules of blood with an almost hypnotic attraction. It consumed her soul. Slipping down the bare underbelly of her forearm the blood rolled and tumbled and danced on its way to the floor. Rae sighed, relief swamping her, filling her, satisfying her need to feel something, anything.

She hadn't done this to herself in months...but recently she had felt tortured by her own soul, entrapped by the path she had taken. Here she could not purchase alcohol and as the destructive need thrived and swindled her, this seemed the only sensible outcome; that or she'd find herself on the street begging for someone, some stranger, to mistreat her.

Rae had considered drugs, but she couldn't bring herself to fall so low.

Blinking her vision swam, red stained the cream of her long t-shirt. It bore the "born in the 80's" branding that was popular, but the star like sparkle was gone now, replaced with the smatters of her self-harm. She sighed again, and brought her wrist to her mouth, sucking on the horizontal razor cut. As the iron-tasting sweetness tarnished her tongue she winched, relinquishing the positively vampiric feeling and spat.

Control reinstated she sat a moment longer. That's what this was about; after all, this was all about control. It was not, Rae assured herself, a suicide attempt. Stemming the bleeding, for now, she staggered to her feet and faced the tram lines of mascara in the mirror.

[Vrases Claudt]

walking quietly and smiling, Vrases walked springily along to the music that pumped loudly into his ears, shaking his head a bit to the beat of the music. The songs had been set to random, and one of his favorites from Bassnecter had decided to be played, much to his delight. walking down the tram stairs as the music blared, he walked towards the bottom of the stairs, intent to get to the meeting that one of his clients had made, specifically for his talents. He had happily obliged him; after all, it was right after the concert he wanted to go too, and the man apparently wanted to pay him quite well for his job. smiling at the thought of being payed, he walked over to the railway, looking from side to side keeping his guard up ever so slightly; chuckling silently to himself, he couldn't ever seem to let that fall; wherever he went he was always on guard.

It' struck him immideiatly, though; that familiar and enticing stench. he was used to the smell, however he could not quite ever get over the smell; the thick, irony smell of fresh pure human blood. feeling his heartbeat quicken, he felt his pupils grow immensely as adrenaline shot through his body. Now, blood was always enticing to him and his kind; however they were able to control it, usually because if they let only their instincts take over, it usually ended up with a bloody scene and witnesses. however, Vrases had forgotten to do an extremely important job that all of his kind needed to do; feed. Not human food, oh no; they needed to eat something more substantial than that. "maybe this is why tyrant called my people cannibals." Vrases thought to himself quietly. But this scent though, it was different from the others; it was...intoxicating. on top of that, he was hungry. Cursing silently as he felt himself breathe heavily, he sprinted to the restroom, throwing open the mens room, and tossed all of his gear into a stall, locked the door, and stood in the middle of the restroom, which was empty; it was already nearly 3 in the morning.

if you've never seen a were transform, its not exactly a pretty sight. grabbing his head, he felt himself silently scream a feral roar as his head elongated and changed, feeling the facial structures shift and crack as they moved. feeling himself grow taller, he went down on his knees, and watched as his arms grew heavier, bulkier, and hairier; black and orange hair to be exact. Smiling a bit insanely to himself, he felt his teeth grow much larger than normal, and he began to finally finish his transformation as his eyes and ears grew larger and more primal; luckily he had done this many times, and his transformation time had been cut down to nearly 10 seconds.

"Hunger." he thought primitively. sniffing the air, he ran quickly but silently towards the scent, intent on satisfying himself; hey, a mans gotta eat. Except in this case the man was a massive Bengal tiger, and by eating...well, he meant eating. padding quietly into the bathroom that the scent had led him too, he went in completely ready to kill whatever had enticed him, but he stopped when he walked into the room. There, with a slit wrist and looking into the mirror, was Rae, the hunter. " damn, how come i keep running into this girl?! the hell..." he thought, shaking his head slightly. walking silently behind her as she fixed her make up, he sat quietly in the corner that wasn't able to see him in the mirror, and wrapped his tail around his paws; "so this is what lead me here; a girl cutting herself...." blowing air quietly through his nostrils, he wondered how she would react to a big cat being right behind her and just sitting there, inspecting her wrist.

[Tyrant Creed]

Tyr ran one hand through his jet black hair. He was feeling frustrated and needed to let go of some stress, calm down, blow off some steam, and all that. His week had been awfully busy, the young hybrid's twentieth birthday having gone by unacknowledged. Work.

Currently, the budding crime lord was tapping his foot impatiently in the back of some 1980s model Buick. Nondescript. Two goons sat in the front seats, one was his favorite driver, the other was the new guy, Gary.

Gary had come well recommended, but the young blood was barely seventeen, human, and had never killed a man. Ideally, Tyr should have let them handle this job alone, but he felt the need to stretch his legs a bit. Sitting behind a desk all day did that to a person, well, to him, at least.

The pulled in next to the subway station and the hybrid waited patiently for Gary to open his door for him. When the human had finally managed the task, Tyr climbed out and ignored to inhale deeply, knowing he would just get a big lungful of pollution.

Today, he wore a charcoal grey armani, attempting to downplay the whole gangster look Tyr seemed to have adopted recently. He glared at the two goons and motioned for Driver to remain with the car, and for Gary to come with him. Why Driver? He never could remember the man's name. Ah well.

They went inside and headed for the women's bathroom. According to the men Tyr had assigned to the job, the couple who had mugged one of his dealers earlier that day were enjoying their spoils, shooting up in the third stall. The hybrid had told them that was good enough and left immediately to handle things himself.

They paused outside the bathroom and Tyr had Gary kick the door down. For dramatic effect. He was bored after all. Walking into the restroom, the hybrid blinked only once at the sight of a tiger and some girl bleeding on the floor. "Chicago." The pale faced Gary muttered under his breath at Tyr's side.

Nodding his head towards the third stall, Tyr drew a 9mm glock from within his suit jacket and flicked the safety off as Gary kicked down the door of the third stall and pulled a man kicking and fighting while and woman screamed from within. The hybrid waited patiently, tapping the gun against his right thigh while Gary worked the addict over, dumping him bloody and groaning at Tyr's feet.

The hybrid grabbed the man by the scruff of the neck, hardly acknowledging Gary as he held the woman at bay. After dragging the man into a stall, Tyr made the man open his mouth and bite down on the rim of the toilet. "Never steal from me." he told the man before stomping on the back of his head, shattering his teeth and driving him forward, face first into the toilet.

Whistling to himself, Tyr backed out of the stall and lifted his glock and fired one round into the back of the man's head and two more into his back. Gary cursed and slammed the screaming addict's head into the bathroom wall. Apparently she'd stabbed him in the thigh with a needle. Tough luck. "Shut her up already." the hybrid sighed exasperatedly, tossing the young man the glock.

Almost as if he had just remembered, Tyr turned to look curiously at the woman and tiger. It wasn't exactly normal to see a tiger in the bathroom, he realized, and so the hybrid looked to be sure if the two were actually there or if he had imagined them earlier.

[Rae-Star Berii]

The person looking back in the mirror was ghostly, her face was pale, and her eyes were clouded. How long had she let this happen? Tracking a trembling finger down the black mascara on her cheek she sighed and washed her face, bending to the swirling water and washing the make-up off her face. As she straightened she heard the door spin on its hinges and watched it in the mirror as it double swung and then closed into place with a click. Rae wet her lips, running her tongue across them slowly, and turned away from the sink. Her eyes widening as they came to the tiger sat in the corner of the ladies bathroom. A Tiger…

Rae blinked at him and stood very still; then the door exploded off its hinges and Rae jumped back, the razor blade that she kept so lovingly folded in a silk handkerchief clattered into the basin and down the drain; Rae turned to it, scrabbling to catch it, cutting her finger tips several times and still failing to save her precious blade from the sink. It was gone…It was…gone…

Putting her fingertips in her mouth she sucked on them as she turned back around to survey the scene. It was not a pretty scene and she winced as the gun sounded. The first time the noise reverberated off the walls, the second time it made her brain hurt. Rae closed her eyes, scrabbling to the other side of the room, to a corner and pressing herself into it when a man slammed the girls head into the wall right next to her. Rae was holding her breath, her eyes went momentarily to her rucksack on the floor, and then she watched as Tyrant Creed came out of the stall alley and towards the larger part of the small tiled room. Tyrant sodding Creed- now, what did he want here?

Her eyes went back to the tiger, and then went back to the two men. Her ritual had been interrupted for this? She wet her lips, slowly, tasting the blood on them as she rubbed her face with the bottom of a somewhat bloodied shirt. Rae…was not having a good day.

[Vrases Claudt]

staring quietly at the two, he watched intently as the two cronies dealt with the thief and the addict. probably new people, considering how badly theyre doing their job. Tyrant must be breaking them in or something, he thought to himself. glancing over at tyrant as he rubbed his eyes, he blew air through his nostrils, sounding like someone was laughing once through their nose. padding over quietly to rae, he watched with a little glee as she froze up as he walked over, but he did not do anything malicious, he simply rubbed up against her once as he walked over towards the other side of the bathroom, as silent as a ghost. walking over to about 5 feet against the wall, he sat down, and looked at the two cronies with somewhat disgust. they were somewhat botching their job he felt, looking at it from a professionals standpoint. "hey, everyone is a little green on their first job, plus i think this was kind of the reason why tyrant wanted to come, to make sure they didn't mess up."

looking at tyrant, he gave a quizzical look at the daemon and then looked at the two dummies who were simply staring at the massive tiger that was quietly sitting in the bathroom, swishing his tail back and forth, and licked his lips once to simply mess with them. he gave the look as though to unconsciously asking "new guys? that why you're here, to break them into the life?" and smiled with primal fierceness and the new guys, licking his lips once again.

[Rae-Star Berii]

There one moment, gone the next…Rae watched as the Tiger became very familiar once more. There was something about the look he was giving, about the sparkle in his eyes and the cheeky grin on his lips that was more than familiar- Vrases, the Were in his beautiful Tiger form. She was definitely being stalked by these men; they seemed to be following her absolutely everywhere. As the situation became much clearer and as sense was once more made of the world around them, Rae grabbed her rucksack and ran out of the bathrooms.

In the late night of the underground trains she leant on the ugly tiled pillar that held the world above in place, she vomited. Rae was trembling, she had lost a little blood, was feeling extra-ordinarily low and depressed in herself and now, the torturous murder of the poor couple in the toilets tipped her brain over the edge. Like a drunk after a vulgar night out, she leant in place and vomited up the little remains of her lunch.