[She doesn't balk to kneel because she fears to lumber down into a more vulnerable position for a jinba, who moved quickest when already on all four hooves. She does not come to a stop at a slight distance from him because she fears his teeth will sink next into her own neck. But the motivation behind her actions does not change the state of her physical reaction and how it can be interpreted. Does not change the fact that the action of drinking blood was one she cannot see as anything but disgusting. Who would not? It is blood, not wine, it seems at first thought to be no different from eating human flesh as one would devour rabbit or pheasant.
Liem had not smiled. But when she looks him in the eyes as he demands, his face still reminds her of Mikuni's blood-stained one, twisted by an almost eerily innocent and welcoming smile as he held out the human liver in his hands in offer. There is horror that is not entirely fresh in her eye.]
I do?
[Already he declares as if she should understand why he had betrayed her confidence, her trust, as if she should somehow forgive it as sensible and logical, but sense and logic have nothing to do with what she had felt when she saw him bite into Amos' neck. Washing away the relief at being "saved" (though she would contend she already had him on the back foot, she'd have finished it herself-) had been such an overwhelming shock, as if she'd been stabbed in the back when her guard was down. Because-]
You- You know everything about me, and I do not know you drink blood?
["Everything"... was an exaggeration, perhaps, but. Thanks to the way they had met in Kenos, Liem Talbott knew more of her past than maybe any single other shard-bearer in existence. He knew things she had never said to others, that she hesitated to share even with those who claimed they wished to know her, to be her friends. He'd-]
You called me your friend-
[That day in Alenroux, when they had come to an Accord. She remembers everything about that moment, because so few... so few people called her by that title. So why, then... How many times must she feel this awful twist of the knife in her hearts, all at the hands of those she has tried to take a chance on, to let close when she knows better, when she'd always known that to have such ties was nothing but a vulnerability, something that would weaken her and dull her edge. Claude, who had smiled and called her a friend for months before she found out that he'd been concealing his rank, even his name. Set, who had desperately pressed that word into her being and claimed they needed each other before he took his own life without a single word of warning, leaving her unsure if he had vanished or simply grown bored of her. And now Liem, too- ?]
You called me your friend, and you have been a banpire this entire time?
[No, that's not right, is it. His smell... she'd recognized it only recently on someone else, she just... Hadn't wanted to believe it. She'd dismissed what she sensed because it couldn't be true, because Liem... Liem would not lie to her about something so intrinsic. About being a-]
no subject
Liem had not smiled. But when she looks him in the eyes as he demands, his face still reminds her of Mikuni's blood-stained one, twisted by an almost eerily innocent and welcoming smile as he held out the human liver in his hands in offer. There is horror that is not entirely fresh in her eye.]
I do?
[Already he declares as if she should understand why he had betrayed her confidence, her trust, as if she should somehow forgive it as sensible and logical, but sense and logic have nothing to do with what she had felt when she saw him bite into Amos' neck. Washing away the relief at being "saved" (though she would contend she already had him on the back foot, she'd have finished it herself-) had been such an overwhelming shock, as if she'd been stabbed in the back when her guard was down. Because-]
You- You know everything about me, and I do not know you drink blood?
["Everything"... was an exaggeration, perhaps, but. Thanks to the way they had met in Kenos, Liem Talbott knew more of her past than maybe any single other shard-bearer in existence. He knew things she had never said to others, that she hesitated to share even with those who claimed they wished to know her, to be her friends. He'd-]
You called me your friend-
[That day in Alenroux, when they had come to an Accord. She remembers everything about that moment, because so few... so few people called her by that title. So why, then... How many times must she feel this awful twist of the knife in her hearts, all at the hands of those she has tried to take a chance on, to let close when she knows better, when she'd always known that to have such ties was nothing but a vulnerability, something that would weaken her and dull her edge. Claude, who had smiled and called her a friend for months before she found out that he'd been concealing his rank, even his name. Set, who had desperately pressed that word into her being and claimed they needed each other before he took his own life without a single word of warning, leaving her unsure if he had vanished or simply grown bored of her. And now Liem, too- ?]
You called me your friend, and you have been a banpire this entire time?
[No, that's not right, is it. His smell... she'd recognized it only recently on someone else, she just... Hadn't wanted to believe it. She'd dismissed what she sensed because it couldn't be true, because Liem... Liem would not lie to her about something so intrinsic. About being a-]
A dhampir?!