Arlo James

See what it's like to be a vulture's lunch

Steel death traps? Well- not everyone had to like cars he supposed. Maybe it was for the better. He hardly knew anything about them and if she had no interest them then it was unlikely this was going to end up as one of those long, drawn out conversations where he pretend he had a clue about what he was saying and she pretended to be interested. Such refreshing honesty. Well, sort of. He was fairly sure she was lying about a few things but then wasn't he as well? So what did it matter? It was that softly uttered nickname by which he had a habit of calling anything and everything female by that seemed to capture her attention the most, her features frowning as if vexed by the utterance and truly Arlo half suspected she might be akin to Mi in that she was going to take some offense at it. That look of surprise on his features was entirely genuine as she seemed to find disdain for that name based entirely on the very notion she didn't seem to understand it, her words holding an unspoken question of sorts before her hand rested delicately upon her waist as if to highlight those curves Arlo had been very much aware off since he had first laid eyes on her. Dinner or not he knew when a woman looked good in the least. Still- he was hardly willing to have her think it was an insult he was offering her, else some misguided attempt to inform her she looked like an infant. Arlo shifting those words once more, offering her that explanation of just exactly what he meant. Her face remaining almost deadpan as she repeated it. Cute.

"Yeah, babe. Cute."

That grin pressed easily upon his own features, hardly caring for that new nickname she had found for him even if he was sure Romeo was possibly the worst description of him ever. He was, usually, rather hopeless with women. He always had been and yet, once, it hadn't mattered. Once, he'd been to stoned or high or drunk to give a damn what he said or did and the girls hadn't cared either. Groupies tend to be like that. They came for the band. Everyone knew what they were therefore and he'd been more than willing to give it then. How different the world looked sober. How much harder it was to face those niggling emotions and yet getting high or drunk as a vampire was a distinctly more difficult thing to do. The irony off his own venom was hardly lost upon him. Arlo more than capable of giving that exquisite, addictive high to anyone and anything he bit, that venom designed to work more potently on vampires than any other and yet....it did nothing to him. That oblivion was lost to him now. Maybe it was for the better. Maybe he deserved to feel for a little while.

Those softly uttered words from beside him seemed to draw him from those long forgotten memories of his human life, one he had hardly lost all that long ago, his attention focused upon his newfound companion again as they wandered further and further away from those crowds and engines and noise. His head nodded easily at her mention of his nomadic existence. One he was forced to live rather than chose too. That street was becoming deserted, quieter and darker the further they moved down it now and yet what did it matter for them when they were the very things that stalked that darkness? That query on why he had chosen not to ice skate was met with a soft snort of sorts, Arlo seeming to waver entirely between the very being he was and the predator that hunger drove him to be- as if he could hardly hold either personality for long- as if he was very much at war with it still and yet, perhaps, that simply made him all the more volatile. Her question however, was met with that ready honesty once more, those easy words finding him again, his tone so implying he knew exactly how ridiculous that admittance he was about to make surely was.

"I was with a girl. I didn't want her to see I couldn't do it. I was trying to be at least a bit impressive and falling on my ass every three seconds wasn't the look I was going for. She's a pretty cool girl. See.."

He reached into his pocket, briefly flashing that phone screen at his new companion, letting her see that picture of the red panda on his shoulders he'd made his screen saver before tucking that phone away. He grinned easily again, that gesture exposing those fangs now. Arlo hardly seeming to care in the least his best friend was a panda. It was almost a shame he was going to upset his newfound company though, he almost liked her, almost. She was intriguing, a little strange, Arlo almost entirely sure she was lying to him about several things including exactly how aware of his game she was and yet he simply let it continue. After all, he was mere moments away from showing his own hand. Arlo half expecting she might do the same in turn. He led them further down that street still until they were away from anyone else, those shops closed and sidewalks abandoned. Most people would hardly run to help a vampire in distress and yet, even amongst their own kind their existed those veritable shining few. Malek had perhaps been the easiest to bring down, Sebastian had seen fit to veritably gag him with a fist to the teeth until he'd managed to convince the man to willingly share his blood and Damon.....Damon was another matter entirely. Where this woman sat remained to be seen and yet upon those empty streets the scent of her was all the more cloying to his senses. That steady rush of blood in her veins from her own last meal veritably calling to him, the man fighting back that look within his eyes as he stepped neatly in front of her then, forcing her to halt. Something almost akin to an apology on his lips before he evaporated from before her- only to come from behind. Revealing his metaphorical game now.

This was hardly his first time either. Arlo using his own body as a veritable brace against her, her slender, feminine frame fitting neatly against his own as one arm wrapped around her waist to hold her still and his lips brushed along her pale neck- hunting for that vein beneath. Those words all but whispered against her neck and yet truthful all the same. He had no desire to hurt her. He just wanted to eat. The points off his fangs teasing that flesh before that woman spoke. Her voice almost echoing, as if there was...more than one. That surprise alone enough to momentarily pierce that haze of bloodlust, his nearly blackened eyes shifting back to that striking and exquisite blue as the woman within his grasp all but disintegrated before him. Arlo stepping slightly back in clear bewilderment. That laugh echoing from down the street, his head turning towards it, those words seeming to come from somewhere else again. Well. This was new.

"To be fair babe, I was offering you dinner. I was offering you the starring role in it."

Where she truly resided he hardly knew, Arlo simply offering those words to the darkness around him, his senses expanding in every direction all the same, searching for her amongst those shadows and crevices of the street. Where there had been nothing there was suddenly something. Four off that woman suddenly visible. One peered out from behind a tree a short distance away, another stood behind him, another standing off to the side within the darkness and....another. He was sure there was a fourth....somewhere. He could sense her presence. Those words echoing around him again in a way that was almost maddening and yet that corner off his lip twitched all the same. She wasn't attacking him. This was a game. A part of him almost....delighting in that, the man turning to face that one that stood behind him even if he was assured this was hardly the real one. Why would she go to the trouble of making decoys if only to place her real self so within reach? Yet it was this one he offered words to all the same.

"If that's the game you want, then fine, I don't mind earning it- but if I catch you Chicka, you have to let me feed. If I don't, you can go. That's the deal."

Whether she truly accepted those terms or not he hardly knew, the man stepping briefly back from that illusion of her all the same, his gaze flicking to that one behind the tree and the other that stood on the cusp of darkness some feet away. They all looked...identical. Arlo hardly willing to give her the time to move them all the same as his hands lifted, his own affinity engaged now. That sticky spiders web shooting from his fingertips simultaneously at all three of those visible women, Arlo a veritable Spiderman in every sense of the word, that webbing sticking to all three before the man abruptly wrapped his fingers around those thread ends that remained attached to himself. Those streaks of blue electricity flew down those threads then, colliding with all three of those women in near the blink of an eye. Illusions after all, did not conduct his electricity like a body did, those illusions doing no more than fracturing apart and disintegrating in to nothing- those blue pulses returned to himself as he let his own webbing flutter to the floor in turn. Arlo quite content to show off his own skills in this.

"I've never seen anyone work illusions before, clever."

He was intrigued by them too and yet now hardly seemed the time to discuss them in length, Arlo unwilling to let her come up with another idea, the man disappearing again only to reappear atop the nearest building, affording himself a birds eye view so to speak, his gaze piercing that darkness as only a vampire could to spot that outline of her figure in the shadows. Arlo hardly fool enough to leap down just in case this was yet another illusion, that webbing summoned again before firing at her rather exactly like a net to ensnare her for his own enjoyment- and he was enjoying this.