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

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."

Both perfect predators in their own ways. Su-jin, built to easily rip through flesh and bone, to devour every last bit of his prey. Su-jin, with his human appearance and intelligence and his predatory instincts. By all accounts, he's perfect. As is Vena. Vena, who can take the form of as beautiful a human as he wants. Vena, who has a power about him that's designed to want him and need him, that's designed to make them continuously come back for more even though he's slowly killing them.

Perfect predators who The Council decided to turn on each other. Smart of them.

Vena allows Su-jin to pull his hand away, leaving his hand to rest against his own stomach for a moment longer before letting it fall back to his side. What he doesn't allow is for Su-jin to put any sort of distance between them. If anything, he lessens the distance between them when Su-jin tries to increase it, stepping in close. "Anyone can. Everyone can. What leads you to believe you're exempt?"

Damn. Of course Vena wouldn't allow him any escape. He didn't seem the sort who is often denied what he wants. How could he be with the innate power he holds? A power that's certainly stronger against mere humans. One Su-jin will find he isn't wholly immune to, either.

He flusters a moment when Vena chases him, moving too close for the comfort of someone who can hear the other's blood coursing through his body, who can smell too much of that enticing scent (perhaps incubi also have pheromones to aid in their supernatural appetites). "I... do not enjoy scenarios where I am prone to lose control."

And, well, he has no experience in that particularly arena.

It's true that Vena is not often denied what he wants. People have a remarkably hard time telling him no. Humans have no real defences against him, nor do some monsters. It can take a little longer and require a little more effort on the part of the incubus, but even then, he usually gets what he wants in the end. He's sure he can count the number of times he's been denied.

So of course he doesn't allow Su-jin any escape. He doesn't allow him to put distance between them, to escape his influence, to stop breathing him in so completely. Besides, Vena has no concept of personal space (not when he'd far prefer to have people in his personal space). He deals in closeness, after all.

"Don't underestimate my ability to take control should you lose it."

Su-jin's still young enough as a monster to instinctively judge based on appearance. Vena may be a remarkable beauty, but he's petite. It's hard for Su-jin to imagine that Vena could handle him when he's lost his senses, when he's nothing more than a hungry monster. It's hard to imagine a lot of what he's experienced in the last century. And yet...

He swallows hard, turning his head to peer away from the incubus. "I have never," he explains in a much more hushed tone.

Su-jin will learn in time that he shouldn't judge based on appearance. Experience will teach him such things. Appearances can't be trusted. Not for monsters. Especially not for demons. Their human appearances mean little. Even their monstrous or demonic appearance doesn't always mean much. He'll learn that Vena's petite, human form hides a powerful demon.

Vena side-steps around Su-jin, trying to keep himself in the other monster's view, all the while looking him up and down with a touch more interest than previously. "You're a virgin," he states rather plainly.

There's so much for a young monster who's been living almost exclusively in survival mode to learn. About himself and about other monsters. As it stands now, he's not even aware of the sheer number of them out there, the variety of them. Demons, creatures from myth and legend. He has no idea that they live and breathe, just as he does. It's still so beyond his realm of experience. All he's ever encountered (that he knows of) are himself, this demon, whatever the Council's envoys might have been (surely no common humans), and Fomorians.

And this demon, small though he is, commanded too much space in Su-jin's mind. He seems to crawl into every sense and linger there, seeping deeper into the crevices Su-jin didn't realize are even there. Beautiful, commanding those around him to look. Entrancing to hear him speak. The scent of him, perhaps unnoticed by humans, trying to drive Su-jin into some sort of frenzy. The brief touch that left Su-jin skittering away... Soft and warm. It's only natural for a creature like Su-jin to then wonder what he must taste like. But Su-jin doesn't want to think about that. Not now or ever. He hates the way he craves the salt and iron of flesh and blood...

Alright, if Vena's going to insist on staying in his line of sight, Su-jin will simply stare over his head.

"Yes." There's no shame in that. He's had more pressing issues to deal with.

Another reason, perhaps, for pairing up Su-jin and Vena. Perhaps their complimentary dietary requirements aren't all that The Council considered when deciding to put them together. Use Vena's experience as a demon who has always been a demon who help to teach the young monster the ways of his relatively new world. Or it could be that it's merely a happy accident. A convenient side-effect of their union.

Ah so Su-jin is already realizing that, for such a small looking creature, Vena takes up a lot of space, so to speak. He has a widely felt presence. There's few places to escape from him without physically removing oneself from the situation. Otherwise it's like trying to hide from a scent in an airtight room. There's simply nowhere to go for fresh air. It allows Vena time and opportunity to poor himself into every available space. It's give him a chance to really start digging in. He allows him to do what his kind do to get what they want.

Vena tips his head up to look at Su-jin, breathing out an annoyed huff when he sees the other is looking clear over top of him. Fine. He doesn't need Su-jin to look at him (though he will. They all do eventually). Sight is hardly Su-jin's only sense. He once again grabs Su-jin's hands, but this time it isn't so soft of gentle. This time he has a firm grip on the taller man. He puts Su-jin's hands on his slim waist and holds them there as he steps in closer. Soon there will be no distance between them at all.

"Give your virginity to me." No, there's no shame in Su-jin still being a virgin. Even Vena doesn't think there is. But that doesn't mean he intends to allow Su-jin to keep it for much longer. "I'm incredibly well-versed in sex. There can be no better partner to lose your virginity to. All you have to do is sit."

The truth is, Su-jin knows this — sleeping with Vena, giving his virginity (as if it's some treasure he covets) to Vena — is inevitable. The Council's whole plan hinges on them becoming sexually intimate. Su-jin will owe that much to Vena once he tears him apart to feast on his flesh and viscera. Watching over the incubus, looking after him while he convalesces will be Su-jin's duty since Su-jin's the one who will be responsible for putting him in that state.

Another truth? Su-jin's always been something of a romantic. He always daydreamed that sex would be something special, far less transactional. Well, daydreams always romanticize reality, don't they? Soften the hard edges and cast it in a warm light. If anything, the last few decades have revealed to Su-jin that there's little hope of a soft reality for him. How can there be softness for something sharp and destructive?

Yet here stands his new reality. Standing there, staring up at him as if expecting an answer (Vena probably does expect a response to his suggestion. That's what it was, not a question). No doubt an incubus of indeterminable age is incredibly well-versed in sex. No doubt, if Su-jin can manage to focus, he could learn a great deal for any potential future partners (can he even imagine having a relationship at this point? No, but at least he can ease into the thought giving himself to this demon). And, no doubt, Vena's had terrible sexual partners before. Surely someone without any experience can't possibly be the very worst of them.

Finally, Su-jin turns his gaze back to Vena. Not looking at him for a matter of minutes threw into sharp relief how painfully beautiful he is. It took Su-jin's breath away. But then he remembers himself and something close to indignity creeps into his face and his voice. "... Now?"

The whole plan hinges on turning the monsters on each other. Though Su-jin could clean up Vena's messes in a pinch, that's not the intention here. They didn't fabricate this union just for Vena to continue doing as he pleases, manipulating and killing humans. Even if his own feeding doesn't need to end in death for his human victim, Vena's not really bothered to show such restraint in the east. He's proven time and time again that he can't be trusted to respect human life.

So the plan hinges on turning the monsters on each other. It hinges on them becoming sexually involved. It hinges on them feeding on each other (Vena isn't particularly inclined to allow Su-jin to tear him open if he isn't getting something in return). And their ability to remain in the west requires the plan working. Though The Council had come up with a solution for Vena previously, they probably won't be quick to give him that option again. It was only temporary until they could find a more permanent solution. Su-jin is his permanent solution. Make it work.

Vena is expecting a response, whether it be words or actions. Agreement or compliance. Those are the options Vena is giving Su-jin. Yes, or yes. Su-jin's lack of experience is of no consequence. It does not change what he wants. He's had partners of varying experience levels over the years (decades, centuries) as well as skill levels. He's had great and terrible. He's had people who thought they were great but had no idea what they were doing. Su-jin will not be that bad. Being a virgin means he hasn't picked up any bad habits yet. It means he's a completely blank canvas, a shapeless lump of clay for Vena to mould.

"Now."

There really isn't a choice in this matter. Now or later, it's going to happen. It's going to happen or a far worse fate awaits them both. Su-jin doubts this Council will simply let them walk out of the West if they fail to make this partnership work. Thus far, there's very little that Su-jin hasn't recovered from. Surely, he can survive long-term exposure to an incubus. No one said they have to live together. Distance will let him recover from the sensory overload that is Vena.

It could work. It will work.

He swallows hard again, eyes still fixed on Vena. Su-jin's hands tighten at the incubus' waist. This will work because they'll make it work. Give and take. Feed on each other for the rest of eternity like an ouroboros. And it all begins now.

"No," he says softly. "You can't simply have me. Teach me."

Surely, Su-jin is hearty enough a monster to survive prolonged exposure to a creature like Vena. Surely, Su-jin can recover from Vena feeding on him just as Vena can recover from Su-jin. And with time spent apart from one another, Su-jin can prevent Vena from becoming a permanent fixture in his mind. He can take the time and space required to flush as much of the incubus from his system as he can.

They can make it work. They're going to make it work.

Vena's own eyes drop for an instant when Su-jin's hands tighten and he inhales deeply, gaze slowly moving back up Su-jin's body to his face. Give and take. That's the only way this will work. It's the only way to comply with what the Council wants. Vena will give Su-jin his body, and take Su-jin's in return. There won't be one without the other.

At Su-jin's initial refusal, Vena presses his lips together indignantly. Not only is he refusing the incubus what he's decided he wants, but he's refusing a regular source of nourishment for himself. He's refusing survival. What a stupid, ridiculous creature.

"Teach you?" So he is choosing life. "Mine is a hands on lesson."

If this is something they have to do, he may as well use it to his best advantage. There's also some small satisfaction in that look on Vena's face. Who knows how old the incubus is and he's probably heard 'no' so infrequently he can count the times on one hand. Yet here stands some young monster with the audacity to tell him 'no.'

At least, no it can't be one-sided. Su-jin can't feast on Vena's flesh without giving his own. It's a fair trade, but Su-jin doesn't want to be simply a means to an end. Vena's a sex demon, surely he can teach Su-jin to be more than an inanimate object in the act.

Su-jin's hands tighten even more, hinting at the inhuman strength behind them. "My hands are on."

Vena's certain he's only heard the word 'no' less than a handful of times. So infrequent is the occurrence that he's sure he can still recall every detail of each separate event. He usually surrounds himself with humans, and humans aren't exactly built to ward off something like Vena. They're weak willed. They can't help themselves.

But something like Su-jin is built to survive. He can clearly hold out against an incubus longer than a human can. Vena hates that. He wants to change it, which means staying near him long enough to infect his mind and make him compliant like everyone else. Long enough so that he never even considers saying 'no' to Vena again.

Vena inhales sharply when those hands tighten even more at his waist. It's not an unpleasant feeling though. Far from it, actually. And besides, he isn't as breakable as he looks. He can handle a little show of strength from the young monster. He'd even like to see more of it and put it to some proper use. "They are. Right where I put them, when my entire body is yours to explore."

Once more, Vena looks toward the bed in the room (a bed more than large enough for two. Hardly a coincidence, he's sure, much like the fact that they were set to meet at an inn) and then back up at Su-jin. "Never mind. Take your hands off of me and go sit."

No coincidence at all. Even Su-jin realizes that. This arrangement is meant to begin immediately. Something that also needs to begin immediately: Su-jin setting boundaries. A soft and submissive creature he may be but...

His grip doesn't loosen on Vena's waist. "I'm not your servant to command," he points out. Is that his way of saying 'ask nicely'? Perhaps it is.

Let the monsters immediately grow accustomed to how they're meant to interact with one another from now into the end of days. Let them get used to their new arrangement. Make sure they really are compatible, otherwise they have to be dealt with. Again, make it work. Figure out how to make it work. Or else.

Vena's eyes slowly drop to the hands still firmly on his waist. He didn't feel so much as a muscle twitch in the face of his demand. Another refusal so soon after the last. Vena breathes out a rather loud, exasperated sigh, and looks back up at the insolent creature for the express purpose of making sure that Su-jin can see him roll his eyes. "Take your hands off of me and go sit," he repeats, and considers simply leaving it at that once more. He sighs again, this time a little less dramatically. "...please. You're tall."

That wasn't so hard, was it? Almost the instant the word please died on Vena's lips, Su-jin releases his hold. A little civility will go a long away with him. They may never be equals in his eyes or Vena's (their difference in age and experience makes that's nearly impossible), but Su-jin won't allow himself to be treated like a slave.

At some future time, Vena pointing out such an obvious fact as 'you're tall' will be met with sass. However, now is not that time. He nods once and moves toward the bed to sit. He presumes that's where Vena means for him to go. Rather than sit there stiffly, he extends a hand to invite Vena closer (as if he needs such an invitation).

It was excruciatingly difficult. Vena has never needed 'please' or 'thank you' before. He's always gotten what he's wanted without having to be polite about it. Some even seemed to prefer that he wasn't. He looks back down at his own waist, now free of Su-jin's hands, and mutters something under his breath that could almost sound like a 'thank you' to anyone who's paying close enough attention. Despite his aversion to the words.

Reaching out to take Su-jin's extended hand, Vena makes his way toward the younger monster, climbing onto his lap. He sits on his knees, straddling Su-jin, and releases his hand to drape his arms over Su-jin's shoulders. "I'm not going to say 'please' every time I give you an instruction." Though he will drop the sharp severity from his tone, make it sound more like a request or a suggestion than a command. He'll even try to phrase things a little differently.

"Put your hands back on me." Wait. No. "You can put your hands back on me."

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

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