Dead Meat

[Valko Holt]

The doe was definitely dead by the time Valko got there. He kept his eyes flickering around just in case something leaped out. Fortunately it didn’t look like anything was going to surprise him, so he motioned the others over.

“Well, there you go then.” He said, pulling out his arrow before gesturing to the deer. “Might not be a buck, but it’s better than nothing.” Hopefully the other hunting parties would return with as much. They had food already, but getting more was always good. Besides, the deer breed like rabbits. He didn’t need to worry about them dying out at this rate.

“We’re going to take most of it though.” He informed her. It should’ve been obvious from the beginning. They had more people which meant they needed more meat. Still he flicked his eyes over to her to see her reaction. “I can cut off a leg for you. Or we can go hunting for another deer, if you’ve got the time for it.

Alice Gamble

[Alice Gamble]

"Keep it," she replied with a shrug. After all, she hadn't come out here for the sake of food, but practice and the way the hours had passed her by since she'd escaped the wall, she'd rather not get slowed down more than what she needed to be. Besides, the doe's foot wouldn't exactly offer much food regardless. It wasn't worth it - nor was carrying around the smell of blood. That surely would attract gangrels.

Leaning down, she pulled her arrow from the doe's neck and wiped it off against a few leaves on the ground. She didn't want to walk around stinking of blood when the few precious hours of daylight was cutting down. "Looks like your friend over there managed to shape up," she said, nodding towards the guy who'd supposedly scared off their previous prey.

"Besides," she said as she finally turned towards the leader. A thin smirk formed on her lips. "Even if I did demand more, I highly doubt I'd win a fight against three of you."

[Valko Holt]

Now she managed to surprise him. “What, were you just out here to enjoy the scenery and shoot some deer? Possibly run into a hissy fit of horror?” He asked, a little amused. However he was at least relieved he wouldn’t have to argue with the stranger. She was just starting to get interesting; it would be a shame to put her down.

Valko’s eyes flicked over to the mentioned man. “He’s learning to shut up and lose the sound, but that doesn’t equal good shooting skills. Still, it’s better than nothing.” He granted. The man remained wisely silent, though he did nod faintly. Improvement was improvement. A little was better than none.

“At least you acknowledge it.” He returned with a smirk of his own. “You were just starting to get interesting and I would hate to put you down like this. Besides, the smell might attract gangrels like this thing here.” He said, nudging the dead deer with his foot. “Which, speaking of, we should take back into the walls before any find us.” He added. Pointing at the disarmed tribesman, he motioned for him to carry the carcass. Obediently he hefted it onto his shoulders, with a little help. Then Valko turned to the girl again. “So, you staying out here to relax more? Or heading back?”

Alice Gamble

[Alice Gamble]

"No," she shook her head before gesturing towards the bow, then the doe. "Practice - we don't get a whole lot of that in the city." Unless you wanted to go on a killing spree and start shooting humans. Granted, a few of them probably deserved it, but that sounded like quite the trouble she wasn't about to get herself into. At least, not yet.

There was plenty of ways Alice could describe ways that man would end up getting all of them killed due to his inexperience, but she knew better than to speak up about it. After all, these weren't her people and how they decided to go about things were absolutely none of her business - or her concern.

Shrugging, her own smirk grew. "I might be a bitch, but I'm not stupid." She raised her eyes, as if challenging him to say otherwise. Then her brows furrowed. The walls? Did these people live within the city? How on earth did they get past the walls so many at a time? "Wait, you live inside the city?" she asked, almost dumbfounded. Either they had an eye for timing or they were as stealthy as they got. Or maybe she was jumping to conclusions here and the wall he was referring to, wasn't quite the same as she meant.

Looking up at the sky - the one she could barely glimpse between the trees. "This doesn't quite strike me as the day I die to gangrels, so unless I want to become the meal, I'd best find my way back to the tunnels."

[Valko Holt]

That made enough sense to satisfy him. Not everyone was as comfortable using live people as targets as he and his tribesmen were should anyone invade their territory. “Then set up a range or something. There’s enough useless junk around here, and enough empty spaces back in the city that you could shoot at junk and no one would care.” He responded.

“I’m not about to make that call. You could still do something stupid before the day’s out.” He returned, raising an eyebrow in equal challenge. She was entertaining enough though. Especially with the confusion his little tidbit made her show. “No, we come from elsewhere and bring news that the rest of the world is just as shitty there as it is here.” He said with a roll of his eyes. “We live within the city when it suites us. Although it doesn’t concern you, we usually stay in the ruins.” It was easier for his tribe to live out in the ruins than in the Outer city. More room and less problems with other tribes or the vampire population. In their full number, gangrels were nothing to deal with.

“Well you might as well follow along then.” He said before heading off. “I’m guessing you live inside the city as well then?” He said, more than slightly mocking her for her earlier question. “Inner or Outer? Neither would surprise me."

Alice Gamble

[Alice Gamble]

Alice supposed that made sense. Not that she could see the appeal of living out here, though, living within the city grounds hardly counted for more. At least the outer city was safe from gangrels. That was about the only upside the young brunette could think of. She simply nodded in return.

His question had Alice thinking back to the conversation she'd had with Alistair; where she'd practically offered herself up on a silver plate for them to get anywhere. "Outer," she replied, her tone even. She didn't think she'd strike anyone as a registered human, though she'd seen all kinds of people mill about the inner city like ants. 

Chewing on the inside of her lips, she wondered if she went ahead with her insane idea, would she ever get to see the ruins again? Would she be able to step through to the outer city? There was so little they really knew about the inner workings of the inner city. "What, do I look like one of those pimped up registered ones?" she smirked.

[Valko Holt]

Outer city? Valko nodded his head at her answer. “Like I said, doesn’t surprise me either way.” He repeated with a shrug. She had the level of looks some of those vampires would look for, but there was a toughness to her that screamed Outer city.

He kept walking, expecting the girl to follow along. Although her question made him look back. “You’ve got the looks they’d go after. Although that attitude of yours would only appeal to some. Too rough around the edges except for those who’d like someone hard to get I’m betting.” He answered. it was only a guess really, but he’d seen enough to figure that would be the case.

“Although your clothes are the first thing to give you away. Too shitty for the likes of those pampered fools, I’d imagine. You want to look like them, you’ve got to dress it first.” He added with a shrug. He’d only seen one Inner city human, but he could easily remember the difference in clothing quality.

Alice Gamble

[Alice Gamble]

As she followed the man, Alice couldn't help but to raise her eyebrows at him. She wanted to snort - to laugh - anything to show just how insane she thought he was sounding. Then again, part of what he was saying was through. She was rough around the edges. She had heard that on more than one occasion and it was usually what got her into trouble in the first place. "That's gotta be the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me," she said finally, sarcasm lacing her voice.

Lifting her arms, Alice looked at her tattered clothes. He was right. And in some ways, Alice was glad she looked the way she did. Maybe it was because she'd grown up into it, but she couldn't imagine wearing clothes that wasn't a heartbeat away from tearing. Then again, she had little to compare it to, after all.

"Kind of makes you wonder though," she said thoughtfully. "If you don't take the worst case scenarios into account, maybe being registered isn't the worst thing in the world." She didn't belive that for a second, but it was also hard to believe that it could be any worse than barely getting by and being at the brink of starvation or hypothermia during the winter.

[Valko Holt]

”If the nicest thing you’ve ever heard about yourself is coming from me, then you’re only proving my point.” He returned without missing a beat. Attitude was something he needed for his job. For a vampire’s pet, however, he could imagine it was reversed, depending on the person.

Was being registered the worst thing in the world? Not in Valko’s own opinion, not really.
“There’s a lot of worse things then being one of those fanged fools’ pets. You could be tortured, burning, or dead to name a few.” He said bluntly with a shrug. “Although some people would rather be that then offer their neck up to them. It’s all about ‘dignity’ for some people.” He added with a snort.

“The reason I don’t care for those bastards is because I’m not looking to become a slave. They could’ve set up a whole trade system, but no they had to pull the whole ’superior race’ thing.” He growled. Turning his head back to her, he arched a brow. “”See what I mean? The world is only full of assholes and idiots."

Alice Gamble

[Alice Gamble]

At that, Alice had to let out a laugh. "Yeah, well," she began, her hazel green eyes studying him for a moment. "I guess I can't argue that." She realized then that if she actually did go through with her plan, she really needed to work on her temper. It would only get her killed as she doubted there was few vampires willing to put up with it.

Considering that, Alice bit her bottom lip. "In a world like this, none of us can afford having dignity." After all, pride wouldn't get you food on the table. Pride only worked for those who had something to compensate for it for and neither of them really had all that much going for them. Sure, they could consider themselves free, but at the end of the day, they were still under the protection of a vampire ruled city.

Not that many people would care to admit that, of course.

She stared at him, contemplating his words before she looked upwards at the sky. "They are superior," she said. "If they weren't, we wouldn't have been here. And besides, had the roles been reversed, human kind wouldn't exactly miss the chance of being on the top." She wasn't as much defending the vampires as much as she understood the rules of power. Everyone wanted power, whether or not they wanted to admit it. Power was addicting and it kept you fed and alive. Who wouldn't want to be on top?

[Valko Holt]

“Glad you aren’t one of the people that plays pretend.” He snorted. Dignity did nothing these days. Humanity was in shambles. From what he’d seen, honor had been given a good beating and then got left in the gutter to rot. Being alive was more important than having dignity.

“Again, like I said: assholes and idiots.” He repeated in response. “The vamps were just a little less on the idiot side, so the won out. Still, they could’ve done something different.” He said, gesturing towards the city they were headed to. “They didn’t have to pull this whole ‘master and slave’ thing. Could’ve set up some sort of exchange thing for blood that didn’t make people literal feed bags.”

“But whatever, it’s all said and done. Doesn’t really matter now.” Grumbling, he shook his head. Dwelling on that sort of stuff always managed to annoy him. He’d rather think of reality in the present. What good was it to think of something that happened decades before?

Alice Gamble

[Alice Gamble]

Furrowing her brows, Alice couldn't help the slight smile that formed on her lips. "If you were in their position and food was about to go extinct, what would you do?" She wasn't trying to defend the vampires, but she could understand their reasoning. After all, most of the humans from the outer city knew exactly what it was like to starve. Food was scarce and times were desperate. As far as she'd understood, vampires couldn't eat regular food anymore.

"Yeah," she replied silently, a nod following as she looked away from him. She'd always hated the vampires, even if she understood that this was how things were. How they had to be in order for them to survive. But that didn't mean she was happy about the way they threw humans around like cattle. One would think the plague had taught them to value humans.

"At least you've got your group," she said. He had protection, an army of people who'd protect each other and take care of one another. Most people didn't have that. Most people didn't have anything.