unknownballad | ❝ I, in my corner, with my monstrous needs ❞

The West is so very different from the East. Everything is so alien, from the way the people look, the clothes they wear, their strange language(s). Of course, to them, it's Su-jin who is alien. More alien than they can know at a glance. But, he left the East for good reason and if some want to stare, let them. It's hardly a hardship.

The journey took over a year via the Silk Road. Due to the nature of his feedings habits and his frequent starvation, Su-jin couldn't travel with any one caravan for the entire time. Even a tired human notices when someone who looked as if he'd been at death's door is suddenly flush and healthy. They get more superstitious when calamity befalls them and members of their group go missing. And they're very canny about patterns. Su-jin can only starve himself for so long before he loses his sense of self and becomes nothing more than a feral beast. So he eats at regular, though far more prolonged intervals. They would notice members of their group disappearing like clockwork.

It was a long and arduous journey. Weather, bandits, broken wagon wheels, even one Fomorian attack made the trip stretch long. Su-jin rested in towns and cities a few days between switching caravans which added to the duration. He knew no one in Europe, and yet, a month before he set a toe within in, a letter was delivered to him. An offer... or a warning. The missive, signed only The Council warned that was too dangerous to exist in Europe. He faced death there unless he acquiesced to their plan to pair him with another creature whose feeding habits complemented his own. They would be able to mask each other. And if he could not agree to that? Well, perhaps he just go back East. If Su-jin wanted to remain in the West, that was the price.

He couldn't write back to say he agreed since he didn't know from where or whom the letter came. So he continued onward, hopeful that whoever knew he was coming would take that as his agreement. After all, despite the hatred he bore for his monstrous nature, he wanted to live. Who didn't?

Another letter came as he drew closer with instructions. He would be a met by a representative of this Council at a certain time and place. There he would be introduced to the one that would make his life in the West possible. Be grateful Do not throw away this opportunity. A hooded figure met him on the appointed day, after dark. He was escorted to a room in an inn where he was to meet his savior.

Vena had received a similar notice once before from this elusive Council. His solution had been to simply not cross over into the West. Though he prefers to think of it as him ignoring their missives, the reality is that he was technically doing as they'd told him. He was staying out of the West, and keeping his indiscriminate killing to the East. It was a task that felt so easy because so few men were willing to admit that they'd been seduced by and had sex with a young man. No matter how much they craved him, no matter how many times they fell into bed with him, if given the chance (and Vena often did give them that chance), they would deny even knowing him. Few people would connect the deaths to him once the bodies were found.

He hated feeling confined to one place, however. He hated being cut off from an entire half of the world. An entire half of the world that he still wouldn't be able to interact with the way he wanted while under The Council's watchful eye, it seemed. He didn't fear them, necessarily, but they could make his life miserable. He agreed to behave and restrain himself. No bringing harm to humans or the consequences would be dire. In exchange for staying away from the humans, they would direct him toward fellow creatures deserving of punishment until they could find a more permanent solution.

It's several years before he receives notice from The Council that they've found the creature that he'll be paired with. They found the creature Vena will be shackled to for the foreseeable future. The one who can satisfy Vena's hunger and whose hunger Vena can satisfy. An excellent match, they'd said. Should he decide that the pairing is not to his taste, he can go back to the East. The previous arrangement was only ever meant to be temporary.

Vena follows his own hooded figure to that very same room, in that very same inn to meet the creature who would serve as his leash.

"How are you meant to keep The Council from bothering me?"

Later on, further down the line when he's seen more of the stranglehold this Council has on the West, Su-jin wouldn't be surprised by their manipulative and brutal tactics. Some part of him might even understand; the good of the many outweighing the good of the few. There are significantly more humans than them in this world and it wouldn't take a great deal for humanity to turn against all of them. One too many mistakes, one too many sloppy kills.

At present, without knowing anything of them, he can only guess the extent of their power and influence. Both are certainly more than he has in this strange new world. Ergo, he must acquiesce to them. The last thing he needs is a powerful and potentially immortal enemy who can hold a grudge into eternity. Life on the run from one side of the world to the other over the last few years was difficult enough. Running forever? No, thank you.

Finding another cloaked figure isn't all that shocking. Seeing the other party in the room, however. Another monster from the East. That surprises Su-jin. Familiar features in a youthful face were unexpected and, as a youthful creature (a century is hardly much to some of them), he's unable to hide the astonishment. Eastern features and an unforgettable face. It could be his beauty that astonishes Su-jin. Glancing between the cloaked figures and other monster, he stammers a quiet, "I'm not sure" in a language he only recently learned.

More than the comely appearance, Su-jin can smell him with the heightened senses of a true apex predator. Beneath any soaps and perfumes, beneath even sweat and blood, there's an alluring musk, the heady scent of sex. It's so potent, it's nearly distracting. Nearly a century with these inhumanly keen hunter's senses and Su-jin's still blind-sided by them.

There's hardly time for Su-jin's floundering to become awkward. One of the cloaked figures steps forward. "Vena is an incubus," he says in this new language. "Do you understand 'incubus'?" Then he repeats the word in the language of Su-jin's homeland. That is a word Su-jin knows, evidenced by the sharp intake of breath and the slight widening of his eyes. A nod. How is he expected to aid a demon who has sex with those who sleep?

The hooded one turns to Vena and explains, "Su-jin subsists on the flesh of the living... or very freshly dead." Surely Vena can see where this is leading when Su-jin cannot. Su-jin is still such a naive young monster.

Vena ever so slightly tips his head this way and that, watching curiously as the other creature's expression changes from one to another. He's not particularly well-versed in keeping his thoughts off of his face now is he? Vena's own expression is mostly neutral, bordering on uninterested. A practised expression, honed over centuries, though there is a bit of truth to it as well. For now, at least. He has yet to hear how he and this young monster are meant to be of aid to one another.

He spares the hooded figure no more than a passing glance when he gives Su-jin the short and sweet explanation of who and what he is. Then the recognition that seems change Su-jin's expression yet again once it's repeated in a language he can understand. A language Vena's sure he's familiar with as well, though it's hard to tell from a single word. He's spent a long time in the East though, so it's not impossible to think that Su-jin's language is among those Vena's picked up over his many years.

Unlike when Su-jin was told of Vena, when Vena's given the information of the creature he's to be paired with, he doesn't even so much as glance at the cloaked man who's speaking. What he does do is take a few steps toward Su-jin, eyes roaming over the young creature, really taking him in for the first time. It's all starting to come together.

Though he speaks to the hooded figure who'd been The Council's mouthpiece, his eyes remain on Su-jin. And he speaks in a language he hopes Su-jin might understand. "I suppose I can understand now why The Council chose this one for me."

At least one of them understands. Su-jin has some inkling, but no certainty what role he is to play in this partnership. He'll be there to dispose of Vena's victims. Still, Vena won't be able to kill on the regular. Too much death in one town draws suspicions quickly. They'd have months, maybe years before having to move on again. It's not completely ideal, but it's better than what Su-jin had before.

The cloaked visitors, however, seem satisfied. They share a glance and silently take their leave, leaving the pair alone.

Su-jin glances after them, but quickly turns his focus to Vena. Vena who's very close, too close perhaps for his heightened senses to brush off. It's too late for distance now and retreating would show weakness (as if his un-schooled expressions didn't show that). Instead of the proximity and scent of his new companion, Su-jin chooses to focus his attention on the language. A familiar one spoken throughout much of the East.

After only a slight pause to ensure the cloaked emissaries are gone, Su-jin swallows hard and states, quite frankly, "I don't feed often." Probably evidenced by the look of him: sallow skin, hollowed cheeks, dark rings beneath his eyes. In another week, his eyes will start to look red as the monster tries to claw it's way to the surface.

Vena assumes he understands. He assumes his own understanding of a lot of things and though he's been around long enough that he's right often enough, this is an entirely new situation that's been manufactured by an entity that he still feels like he only has base level knowledge of. But the way mention of Su-jin eating the freshly dead was tacked onto the end of the short explanation makes it seem like it's an absolute last resort. A sort of fail safe, should Vena make a mistake that he's expected to not make. And he can't imagine his previous arrangement with The Council is meant to continue now that they've found him a more permanent solution.

Which makes him feel safe in his own assumption that the intent is for the two of them to use each other more directly.

When the cloaked figures move to leave, Vena actually turns to look over his shoulder to watch them leave, properly acknowledging them for the first time and the last. Su-jin's words quickly draw his attention back, however. "You will." Next to poor Su-jin, Vena looks like the picture of good health. He doesn't deny himself a meal like Su-jin does. But the deaths of his victims also aren't quite as quick as Su-jin's, nor are they quite so obvious. They're not even guaranteed. He has the option of simply finding a new victim before the previous one passes. He can imagine Su-jin has the same luxury.

Vena, even at a glance, seems like an old monster. Someone who, if he ever had reservations about what he had to do to survive, long outgrew them. But, from what Su-jin knows of his ilk, they don't necessarily have to kill their victim. Unlike Su-jin. There's no way to survive what he must take. Blood alone can get him by, but not for long. It's like trying to live on water alone.

His brows draw together, a deep crease forming between them. "I cannot."

Even 'if' sounds like a rather strong word in this particular instance. Vena's never really had reservations about what it is he has to do to survive. Nothing about taking advantage of people in their sleep or manipulating them when they're awake. Using his powers to practically brainwash people into loving him and obsessing over him. Being unable to live without him. Needing him so much it drives them insane. It's never bothered him that each time he has sex with someone, they grow closer and closer to death. He chips away at their mortal lives until there's nothing left.

But that's just it. It's a slow death. People may be able to recover from him eventually (physically, not emotionally or mentally. Few people ever get over their incubus) if he decides to simply leave them alone. Su-jin eats others. There is no coming back from that. There is no surviving that. Su-jin's feedings mean the end for anyone on the wrong side of it.

Unless the other person can't die in the first place.

"You will," Vena repeats. "Have you not figured out why we were chosen for one another?"

The incubus gives a slow, pleasurable death, if stories are to be believed. There's nothing pleasant in being torn apart, in having the choicest meats ripped out, and almost everything else devoured as an afterthought. He may not look it now, but Su-jin is more than capable of chewing and digesting even bone. There's precious little left if he isn't interrupted in his feeding. And if he is? A mauled body with missing organs gets people talking.

"I suppose I'm to dispose of your corpses."

There is, indeed, nothing pleasurable or even mildly pleasant about being ripped open and pulled apart piece by piece. The victim can't even be promised a swift death. They'd feel so much of what's happening to them before they finally succumbed to the pain and injuries. They would suffer immensely before they ever died. Then the family wouldn't even have anything left to grieve. The victim would simply cease to be.

Vena gives them a slow, pleasurable death, and leaves the loved ones with a body to mourn. Which is also why he's a different kind of problem.

Stepping even closer to the other creature, Vena reaches out to take Su-jin's hand and presses it to his stomach. "I can't imagine they want me leaving corpses at all. I believe their preference is that you feast on me."

Vena's clearly a predator, too. A different kind than Su-jin, for sure, but a predator nonetheless. And one who knows how Su-jin's kind works. Why else press his hand to the soft spot? To the spot he himself has torn through on too many humans to get what's hidden inside. Impulse or instinct prompts Su-jin to curl his fingers slightly against that tender flesh.

His eyes widen at the realization. If that, indeed, is the intent... Vena could survive it? Could he? It wouldn't be much of a solution if they were providing Su-jin with a one-time meal, would it?

"You... could survive it?"

It simply makes sense that Su-jin would go for the soft underbelly. Most predators go for that or the throat, except that there's little in the throat for Su-jin to eat. Go directly for the belly, where there's easy access to the organs. Start there in case he's interrupted. Eat the rest if there's time. Clean up his mess if there's time. Leave no evidence if there's time.

Vena inhales deeply when Su-jin's fingers curl against him. For just a moment, he envisions those fingers digging into him, tearing him open, digging out his organs one by one. He curls his own fingers around the hand on his stomach. "I could. Not only will I survive, but I'll heal as well. Given enough time, I'll heal from most anything, though the process is made faster by sex that would be provided by you."

Well, Su-jin does go for the throat a lot. To prevent his victims from alerting anyone around them. That part isn't for nourishment; it's for survival. At his very core, Su-jin is a predator and, despite his hesitance to be so, he's a very good one when he gives in to those instincts. When he's starved and bordering on feral. Exactly the sort of situation these mysterious Council members wish to avoid.

Suddenly, touching Vena seems too intense, too intimate. He tries to pull his hand away (if the incubus will allow it) to put some distance between them. "I..." How best to put it? He's certainly not repulsed by Vena (who would be? The man is beauty incarnate). "I cannot help you with that."

The first meeting

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At a crossing signal

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