Open to Join The Raven and the Ghost

Only a vampire can love forever.

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A few shadow-turns, she had been here. Enough to estimate the season, the way the moon moved. She was closer to hiding away behind the horizon than she would have like, but for now, she had been roof hopping, across the tall-walker barns. Her pink eyes seemed fixed on everything that moved and yet, she still landed every leap.

But then... there was another. The rain battered pale fur, and the pink flesh beneath. Her eyes followed how this other cat moved and then, she began to pluck at the plants. And then, she took the safest way down, jumping on the closest ledges until she felt grass under her paws. 

"The Sun-Beast burnt them harshly. I've witnessed their road to downfall. But the Moon grants them peace, it seems." She spoke after simply staring at the tom to see if he would do anything, to see if his attention would waver. Interesting in appearance, he was. They wondered what his colony had called him, or if he was born outside like she had found many had been. "She has proven merciful. Verily."

Survival demands caution, but greatness requires daring
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Kosmo did not turn at the sound of her voice as he had already marked her arrival by scent as she neared. The rain had muddled the finer details...but underneath it all, the stranger approached without immediately making herself a threat. Kosmo was nothing but confident and engrossed in his work.

With great care he eased the surrounding soil loose with one paw, working it away from the roots rather than tearing the stem free. The rain had made the earth pliable but too much haste could still damage the plant. He placed it in the grape leaf.

"Mercy is an interesting word to use for the moon." His voice was quiet, nearly lost beneath the patter of rain. "The sun scorches and the rain restores. These herbs have endured a miserable season..." A pause followed as his ears angled subtly toward the stranger. It seemed little would distract him from his work.

"A bit early to be out. Do you stay with a human or do you live freely?"

Only a vampire can love forever.

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Spectre watched him as he meticulously sorted through the earth, pulling the plant upwards of the ground with such gentle care that one would think that he was picking up his young. "You claim she is not?" She tilted her head, not accusatory, just... curious. She hadn't met a cat that hadn't thought the moon to be peace. "She does not burn my flesh. Nor blinds me." she answered with a dip of her head before glancing at the herbs. It reminded her of the Moon-Eyes of her colony, in a way. Perhaps he is like them. Herbalists.

"I've been beyond the pale gates since Sun-Beast crossed the threshold, giving way to the Moon. That is when I rise, I am in no risk of burning that way." She explained, giving her chest fur a few tentative licks, taking her eyes off a stranger was risky. "I return before the Sun-Beast awakens. There is still time to be spent." Spectre added, glancing briefly at his missing tail. Her ears quirked for a moment but she chose not to ask the question that bubbled.

Spectre let out s little hum at his question. "If only living freely was possible. I risk burning to ashes under the Sun-Beast's fierce eye if I were to dream of such a thing. With the tall-walker, I am in no pain." Her voice trailed for a moment before letting a smile curl her lips, her protruding fangs even more visible than they were before, and they seemed sharp enough to cut flesh in an instant. "I would be dead if I lived in freedom. But I am unbothered by that fate if it befalls me."

Survival demands caution, but greatness requires daring
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For the first time during this encounter, Kosmo diverted his attention.

Rain traced the contours of his sharply angled face as his vibrant mismatched eyes shifted towards her. He took in her pale fur...her peculiar pink eyes. None of it prompted any visible alarm, though their was some sort of lingering fascination to her eyes. That was different.

But it was her words that interested him most. A curious way to describe the sun, certainly. Yet she spoke with such conviction. So matter of factly. She wondered if she was entirely metaphorical. "You speak as though daylight itself might kill you...." He mused, head tilting slightly. "Do you mean that literally?" Wax poetically all she wanted, he studied her as if she were some unfamiliar plant.

He had witnessed enough peculiarities in the world to know better than to dismiss an unusual claim outright, but he wouldn't he accept one without question. If this she-cat truly believed the sun would burn her flesh there were several possibilities worth considering...

He took a few steps forward, the tip of his half-tail partially lifted. "Some afflictions make themselves known in ways that seem impossible to others. The body can be a strange... and rather uncooperative thing." Exhaling out of his nose his odd eyes momentarily scanned over her, clinically...half wondering if she'd submit to an exam.

Only a vampire can love forever.

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And finally, he looks at her. And with just as much interest as any other cat that had ever looked at her in her past, but instead of reverence, it was curiosity. But she had expected such a thing, not all cats would know of the Red Moon Colony, unfortunately. 

But instead, the cinnamon tom asked of her legitimacy and her head gave a slight tilt. Perhaps he had been used to the burning? His fur and eyes were rather... different than her own, more pigmented. Her smile hardly twitched at the claim. "Certainly." She replied narrowing her eyes and wrinkling her nose as if recalling a tough memory. "I made the mistake of greeting the Sun-Beast. His eye burned, as I said." 

"I see your wandering eyes. Stranger." She had recognized clinical glances well enough he was trying to analyse an explanation, she couldn't give one to him. Only what she was told herself. "Blessed with an ability to walk the night, is what I was once told. However, good fortune tends to be shadowed by misfortune just as easily." Spectre added with a twitch of her ears. It wasn't his fault for curiosity, and there was no punishment for it, not here.

"If you'd like to examine me. I will not waste energy... and blood to harm you."

Survival demands caution, but greatness requires daring
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Kosmo regarded her for another moment, absorbing her explanation without so much as a twitch of his whiskers. Be it blessing or misfortune the distinction between the two was often a matter of perspective and he had never been particularly inclined to trust either word without further investigation.

He had known stranger things than a cat who feared the sun. Or claimed to, at least. The world was full of peculiarities... H didn't seem especially disturbed by her unusual appearance or her willingness to spill blood if necessary. "Appreciate the restraint." He meowed, not trying to provoke her but with a confidence that came easy to him.

Kosmo turned toward a broad oak standing a short distance away, its heavy canopy offering some shelter from the rain. "Examinations are more reliable when a cat isn't rained on. If you'd follow me to the oak we can begin." He left enough room for her to join him beneath the boughs with the soft patter of rainfall almost a world away. "The name is Kosmo." His posture remained relaxed but expectant as if he were a cat used to being obeyed.

High within the branches rested a figure dark against the bark, a raven of some size peering down at both cats with beady black eyes.

Only a vampire can love forever.

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"Very well." Spectre responded, following Kosmo into the shade and mostly dry area beneath the oak. When she was free of being batted by rain, she groomed the white fur meticulously and thoroughly. Her ears perked at the name "Kosmo." She repeated, to herself one might not be able to find out much information of a cat with a name like that. When she was still Moon, her name truly did tell her apart from her brethren.

But she was not Moon anymore, her name had been changed, the tall-walker had repeated it to her until she knew it by heart, until she was able to introduce herself without accidentally saying her old name. But she didn't say it, not without a request for it. "I will know what name to call if I an in need of treatment then?" She hummed sitting below the oak tree, still as if she were carved from stone.

Her ear twitched as the rain dripped through some of the leaves, but it was certainly no longer battering her fur like it was before. She was dry enough for whatever Kosmo intended to investigate.

Survival demands caution, but greatness requires daring
⋆｡°✩ ⭒ ──● 𓄿 ●── ⭒ ⋆｡°✩

Kosmo gave a small chuckle as his odd colored eyes narrowed over her. "That would be the purpose of an introduction, yes." Dry amusement, though it smoothed over as his attention returned to his task.

He approached Spectre without hesitation expecting a certain degree of cooperation from those who sought his expertise, but he was not so careless as to mistake an offer of examination for permission to do whatever he pleased...For now, though, she had agreed to be examined. He intended to make good use of it.

Kosmo began at her shoulder, lowering his nose into her fur to inspect her skin. His whiskers brushed through the coat as he worked feeling for unusual warmth, tenderness, or irregularities beneath the surface. He moved toward her back and hindquarters to follow the length of her body...

Hmmm... The pinkness was not confined to her nose, paw pads, or the usual sparsely furred places. It seemed to extend over her entire form...an unusual uniformity that caught his interest. He paused briefly to part the fur in several places, peering at the skin beneath for darker patches or any discoloration. Usually a cat didn't just have pink skin, but blotches or freckles of darkness - even white cats had some sort of indication. some sensitivities in bright sunlight. Perhaps it was even moreso for her.

At last Kosmo withdrew enough to look at her face directly. "The coloration is consistent" From such closeness they could be able to see their different colored eyes. "Now if you curl your lips back for me. I would like to examine your gums." He settled back onto his haunches, leaving her room to comply, his composure remaining entirely professional. "The color of your gums may offer another hint to this matter."

Only a vampire can love forever.

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Spectre sat as Kosmo poked, prodded and pulled at her coat without as much as a ripple in his muscles. "Though there is a planted seed of doubt. If you should need me, I respond to Spectre." She answered while the cinnamon tom examined her like some project. But she didn't feel at all violated by any means, nor uncomfortable. She just, sat.

When Kosmo moved back from his examination, she took note of his expression, how he looked at her like something unique and fascinating, just from a look at her skin? Perhaps she was more of a marvel than she had thought. Or perhaps he was simply trying to find the source of her peculiar sun-weakness. But she wouldn't stop him. He seemed to be almost engrossed in her form.

Without a second word, she curled her lip, any excuse to show off her fangs, however slightly red tinted they had been. Her fangs were bared as if she were snarling, but her eyes were completely calm and no sound came out, simply a clearer view of her mouth. Alter canines and all. Her lower lip was covered in long healed cuts, presumably from the fangs that seemed... much sharper and pointed than normal.