rogue. (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
theycalledmeacurse) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fateandfortune2015-11-24 11:11 pm
theycalledmeacurse) wrote in fateandfortune2015-11-24 11:11 pm
Just two vampires, traveling the galaxy... [For Todd the Wraith]
[continued from here]
It was a pleasant surprise to glance over and see Todd asleep on the bed, relaxed and peaceful. He can't have gotten much quality rest the night before propped up in the chair as he had been, certainly not when he'd been woken by her nightmare. She hoped that didn't happen again tonight, he had important things to take care of tomorrow; she didn't know all of the details, but with a civil war going on between his people, he needed his wits about him.
To that end, Rogue forced herself to stay awake for hours into the night, eating the dinner he'd brought for her and looking through one of the books from the collection he'd shown her before their sparring session. She didn't recognize anything on the pages, but it gave her a topic for conversation with the voices in her head, providing ample entertainment to pass the time. Eventually she fell asleep herself, the book held carefully to her chest as she curled up in the armchair, her boots set on the floor beside it. It was a fairly deep sleep, and she didn't dream for one of the first times in many weeks, something she was eternally grateful for when she awoke.
It was a pleasant surprise to glance over and see Todd asleep on the bed, relaxed and peaceful. He can't have gotten much quality rest the night before propped up in the chair as he had been, certainly not when he'd been woken by her nightmare. She hoped that didn't happen again tonight, he had important things to take care of tomorrow; she didn't know all of the details, but with a civil war going on between his people, he needed his wits about him.
To that end, Rogue forced herself to stay awake for hours into the night, eating the dinner he'd brought for her and looking through one of the books from the collection he'd shown her before their sparring session. She didn't recognize anything on the pages, but it gave her a topic for conversation with the voices in her head, providing ample entertainment to pass the time. Eventually she fell asleep herself, the book held carefully to her chest as she curled up in the armchair, her boots set on the floor beside it. It was a fairly deep sleep, and she didn't dream for one of the first times in many weeks, something she was eternally grateful for when she awoke.
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The change in her vision was sudden and entirely unexpected. With a hissing breath, she pulled away from Todd, stepping back and covering her eyes. There was a slight burning as she felt them physically change, and when she looked up at him again, it was with the eyes of a Wraith.
They'd theorized that something like this might happen, that she might temporarily take on wraith genetic changes based on how much she absorbed, but it hadn't happened before now. Apparently those brief periods of pulling his lifeforce into her had added up quickly.
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Todd stared at her a long time, not quite understanding, then remembered she'd taken on physical characteristics of those she absorbed before, and all their sessions together had been enough to change her.
The dim of the room would not be such a hindrance, in fact it was far easier to see everything, even the rolled up papers in the normally black cubbies above the desk. Everything was also far more sharp and little details stood out more. Todd himself even looked a bit different with her new eyes, the dark veins in his skin were far more pronounced, the color of his hair, the face tattoo was far more bold.
Wraith might look a lot alike to humans, especially the males, but through the eyes of one another, it would be like lining up Ronon, Sheppard, Keller and Teyla, the differences were far more noticeable.
He got a feeling that he need not tell her something had changed about her. Instead he asked, "How long do the physical changes last?"
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"It varies," she answered quietly, moving to lean against the desk as her strange new eyes wandered over everything around her. "A few minutes, hours." Days. If she had full control over the abilities she absorbed from others, she might be able to switch it off at will, change her eyes back to their usual human shape and color, but that wasn't an option.
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Last thing he wanted was to give her the hunger of a Wraith.
No sparring, no training. Her ability and injury were certainly not making the trip all that fun.
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"No, let's keep going," she countered, stepping away from the desk and back toward Todd. "We knew this might happen, there's no point in waiting to continue. For all we know, this'll just happen again next time."
She was worried about other potential changes as well, but the only way to completely avoid them would be to cease training altogether. And she wasn't about to do that.
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"If we continue, there is the very real possibility of you developing the need to feed." he pointed out, and he didn't think he had to tell her how serious that could become.
"I think we should wait until this clears up, then we can gauge how long it takes exactly." it would be boring, but better than the alternative.
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Even if it did frustrate her to no end.
"Fine," she finally agreed, though her expression and tone made it very clear that she wasn't happy about it. "We'll wait." And she grabbed her shirt from where she'd left it, wincing slightly as she pulled at her side while tugging it on.
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After pulling his coat and boots back on he let her lead the way as usual to the kitchens. By now she could do it perfectly, but he still wanted her to do it as often as possible without his help. Since they were done for the day, they might as well get dinner started as they'd be feeding quite a lot of the crew tonight. They settled on making stew as it was the easiest to cook a lot of.
Tomorrow they would return to the rendezvous point for the commanders and Todd wanted his warriors in top condition in the event their possible queen decided to inspect the ranks. Which also made him think of another issue. Should he allow her to meet Rogue or wait? Distracted, Todd cut his finger with the knife he'd been slicing potatoes with. He hissed in more annoyance than pain and quickly withdrew to wrap a towel around it to avoid dripping black blood everywhere.
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"Are you alright?" she asked quickly, concern apparent. It wasn't like him to be so careless. It wasn't like him at all.
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He looked to her a long time, finding it very strange to see wraith eyes on a human.
"I don't want you gaining the ability to feed. You understand that, correct?"
By no means did he want to cease their training, she'd made wonderful progress, but...she couldn't shift anymore.
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Chewing on her lower lip for a moment, she finally nodded and moved away, picking up the bloody knife to clean it. "I know," she assured him quietly. "I don't want that either. I just..." She glanced over at him from the sink, trying to decide how to say it, but just shook her head in the end and changed the subject.
"Was that what had you so distracted?"
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"I have not met her in person yet. I suppose you could say I'm nervous" he chuckled.
Like the blind groom and brides of old, not finding out what your partner looks like until the day of the wedding. Though he was less concerned with physical appearance than he was with ensuring she found him up to snuff.
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She set the bowl of spices aside and set to work on chopping her own vegetables. "Is there anything I can do to help?" she asked carefully. "With the visit, or trying to make you less nervous?" They needed the visit to go well, and if there was something she could do, she wouldn't hesitate.
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Soon enough, those that would eating tonight filed in. Todd quickly explained to them about what had happened to her eyes, as they were surprised by their teacher's change in appearance. They settled and asked nothing more of it after that.
Those with less experience in cooking took Todd's place and helped Rogue out getting things together. As the stew bubbled away, the commander and human browsed through a very large cookbook also included in their delivery to find something for dessert.
They finally settled on key lime pie as it wasn't too sweet and they'd not tried any meals let alone dessert with lime before.
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It was nice to have the distraction after the reactions she'd received in response to her eyes. There was none of the disgust or fear she was certain would have been present in humans, though, so she was incredibly grateful to the crew for that, and they didn't let their surprise get in the way of their tasks. For that alone, they'd endeared themselves even further to her, and she took extra care in explaining the processes involved in the cooking and especially the baking. Baking had much more science behind it than what they usually dealt with in the kitchen, and she thought that might appeal to this particular group.
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Todd had listened to her tell many of his crew about all this before, but still, he listened again. Rogue's southern drawl and presence was quite...wonderful.
The pie was a success among the group, and after they finished cleaning up, Todd escorted her back to the worshiper quarters. While the worshiper's sleeping room was roomy, there were no windows to show her the stars or even the blue haze of sub-space.
"Tomorrow I'll come by before the commanders arrive, however, you're to stay here until they've gone." he said
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"Of course," she agreed easily, not even considering arguing against his orders. She was a human among wraith, the bottom of the food chain despite the arrangement on Todd's ship. It would be incredibly stupid of her to wander around and risk running into wraith who didn't know her and might possibly see her as dinner.
"If you do see your potential Queen, will you tell her about me?" It was something that had occurred to her during dinner preparations, but she hadn't wanted to bring it up around the others. She didn't want them to know how worried she'd become over that prospect, and how her presence might affect things for Todd.
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