Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » Barton Village

Barton Village was once a simple New England town along the east coast. It had a simple founding...with one small extraordinary difference.

Five of the original fifteen signers of the village charter were vampires from the old world.

And starting with those five influential members, the town's doom was sealed.

Fast forward to modern day. Ninety-eight percent of the city are vampires.The humans have either died or been turned. The whole place controlled by these predators of the night. Within the past three decades, more and more mythical creatures masquerading as men begin to slip into the city's population. Nearly 100% of the vampire's hunting at this point is done by migrating out of the town to surrounding town, under the ruse of having an out of town job, and feeding on the whole human population there.

But not all predators are so careful. Sometimes they are discovered, and when they are, the Hunters come. They are from all sorts, these hunters in the shadows. Some are sponsored killers from secret societies, some are from small guerrilla pockets of resistance against being food, some are lone wolf crazies who think they are one-man badasses. They, however, are not as clever as they would believe. They make mistakes, just like their prey, and one of those...is failing to tell vampire from all other beast of the night.

Whatever the case, word spreads through veiled whispers, and Barton Village becomes a pilgrimage for Hunters and a place of sanctuary for Those that Walk as Men. It's a secret war they share, wandering amongst one another by day, keeping their violence out of the public eye. This is the story of this little sleepy village of night...of Barton Village...and the last human that lives in this place.

Daylight.

The sun restoreth.

The sun brought life and hope.

Swirls of dust danced among the beams of sunlight pouring in through the stained glass window of an angel with a glowing golden halo. The tap of an Italian leather high heeled boot resounded off of the cracked but still beautiful mosaic marbled floor. A small hand brought up to stifle a cough as the dust swirled up higher, giving the broom resting in her hand a small rest as she finally reached the double doors to sweep it out and down the stairs.

Rich, Sapphire blue eyes rimmed in a black mascara peered out at the city streets. Her church rested in the middle of the city. How long had she been there? Was it now two months? She took a deep, cleansing breath inwards as she swept her hair back over the robes she had been wearing, the scent of jasmine incense burning on the altar escaping past her as she took a breath. A relaxing scent as her blonde hair was swept back into place as she descended the stairs and swept what little mess there had been out of the church and away from the stairs. The paintjob on the church was still cracked and peeling, and soon, she'd want to get a fresh coat of paint on it, to help bring it back to the regal status in town, as it once had she was sure.

She planned to open it as a center. A center for anyone who needed a place to hide away, to be protected from the darkness. Here, no one would be judged, no one would be turned away. This was her dream. To help those that needed it. Wasn't it why she had been called to this place by some mysterious inner compass?

Gazing at the empty streets in front of her, she realized she how alone she was during the daylight hours, but this was where she was needed. This was where she would work from. No matter the odds, no matter how odd in itself it all seemed. Giving herself a small calming, reassuring smile, she went back to humming some unknown tune as she swatted her broom over the metal railing, as it resounded in the empty city streets, making sure she got any excess hair and dirt she might have missed.

After all, Wasn't cleanliness next to godliness?

There was something digging in the church courtyard, a bushy red tail with a white tip thrashing the air, as the fox was shoulder deep in the earth with his digging. Throwing it back and getting it all over the path.

He had found a decorative bounder away from the path, as it stood by the oak, and was attempting to dig a cache to store some things...Though what is was storing was truly an odd assortment. A small tied up plastic bag, a packaged cornish hen, and a small ipod. A theving fox? Is that what had infested the church this day.

Tenoji was busy with his work, snuffling from the dirt that caked his nose. He backed out of the hole, and bit at the dirt caking his paws. It should've been big enough now, as he began to push the bag with his nose, shoving it towards the door. It's contents made a shuffling noise like rustling pages as it was pushed into the hole, and the fox began it's small grunts of effort to get the bag inside.

It was either the motion of the red tail or the sound of digging that caught her attention as she swung her head up off to one side to see the small garden path off to the one side of the church. The opposite side of the small, almost unkempt cemetery that some of the older churches still had as proof that once, this church had actual members. Living members that had passed on, but it had been a parish at one time at least.

She paused a moment as she found her feet descended the stairs, now standing at the very edge of the open double wide doors behind her, the rays of light coming in through the cracks in its ceiling lighting up past the rows of pews to either side of the once grand walkway behind her.

Seeing a fox in the city was something she hadn't in a long time, she found herself smiling at once at seeing a wild animal and then it hit her, it was digging awfully close to her newly planted herbs and spices as well as the ring of roses she'd set to grow only last month. Broom clutched loosely in her right hand as she twisted it between both hands now, debating on hitting or scaring off the small woodland creature. It wasn't hurting anyone though. And that would go against her oath to the church to harm one before someone would harm her she was sure.

"Shoo!" She found herself speaking quieter than usual, almost afraid as if to disturb it from its job of digging and burying what it was. She licked her lips, trying to steel herself to not back down and run from her purpose. Her purpose that seemed to be keeping this fox from making a bigger mess than it was. There was no way she was going to be able to shoo it off with the broom. Not wanting to hurt the poor thing accidentally.

She gave up a moment later and leaned slightly on the broom, standing there watching it kick up dirt on the walkway. She'd wait and clean it off after it'd done its job. Like she had any right to deter anyone or anything from going on about their business. "Hmm. Some protector I'm turning out to be. Can't even save a bunch of roses." She laughed quietly, finding it funny that she was talking to herself before she gave the Church's Welcome Mat a good dusting off. She found herself smiling at finding life in such a dead town. Of course, she knew everything going on about the wars. The hunters and the vampires. Beyond that, she hadn't an inkling.

Minnow sat on the roof watching the two and purring. The day had been a long one so far, but the weather was wonderful. The sun especially. Making little circles of light that shone though the gapes in the clouds making the grassy areas warm and very comfortable to lay on. Today though, she had wanted to be higher and look out over the town. Her ears had picked up the barely audible 'shoo' from the woman who held the broom, making her look back down at them. Surely she didn't think that would scare it off.

In the end though the lady had decided to wait for it to finish whatever foxes do. She was glad to be a cat because being one was very fruitful. Minnow could be anywhere she wanted to be due to the form of her feline state. Now she yawned and stretched, rolling over to her other side to let the sun warm it.

The fox was truly unmoved by her attempts to make it shy away from it's newly dug cache. But then again, it was waist deep in the hole at that point. It just stuffed the plastic bag deep into the hole, and wiggled it's way back out. Then it took note of the woman and her attempts to shoo it away.

The fox just stood there, looking at her, until she gave up. It apparently found her attempts laughable enough to yip at her, before rushing towards her. The woodland creature nimbly wove in and out of her legs in tight circles, cackling and yipping all the while, brushing the backs of her knees with it's bushy tail. It was almost as if it was trying to trip her up.

In his mind, Tenoji was laughing up a storm as he played his little game. What was a little trouble for one woman...wait...her scent. He hadn't smelled a scent like hers since he had come to this town...untainted by the grave and human blood, or the sweet putrefaction of flesh, or the lingering musk of wolf...or the spicy smell of gunpowder and grease. Truly, could this be someone wholly human?

Magik had figured she'd be able to clean up after the fox. She'd never been this wrong before. Though, for a moment, she'd raised her head and felt as if someone or something was watching. It was a feeling she sometimes got at night, but never in the day like now.

When she lowered her blue eyes back to see just if the fox was done, she saw it headed straight in her direction. "Ummmm...NO! Nice Fox...go away!" Her eyes were shining with abit of fear, weren't foxes nocturnal? Maybe this one was confused or maybe even...diseased? That was so not a reassuring thought. She had frozen when she looked down and felt it weaving in and out of her legs, trying not to move. She wasn't sure of its temperament. This was by far not a cat, but was behaving like one. Wasn't the strangest thing to have happened. By far.

She put her broom down to act like a shield to keep it from sashaying between her legs and acting like a typical cat as she backed up for the church steps. Oh no. She'd left the doors wide open. Her eyes lowered down to the dirty paws and back towards the clean white marble floors. "This is so not good..." If he got into the church, he would make a mess of her clean floors, not to mention, how on Earth would she ever get him out?

She raised one foot and started to go up the steps backwards, holding the broom down to try to keep him at a distance. "Nice Foxy Loxy...Go back to hiding your stash. There's nothing you want in there, trust me." She spoke to birds sometimes too, maybe to break the silence or for the company. But she knew they'd never actually answer.

The fox wasn't really having that. Tenoji though at least took her suggestion into some form of consideration, looking back at the cache it was digging. And then back to her, he looked up at the human woman. And he did some considering. Then he slumped at his shoulders, It was almost like he shrugged nonchalantly at her.

He gave her one sharp yip, and then suddenly stood on his hind paws, hopping back and forth on his hind-paws, turning in a slow circle like a trained dog doing a trick. Perhaps that would put her at ease, as he sat back and yipped again...

Then he swung back to the mischievous yang once more, and rushed her ankles, but it wasn't her feet he was going for. It was the broom, he seized it in his jaws and attempted to tug it from her hands. If he succeeded in this, he knew exactly what he would do. It was straight to the cache with the broom, even though it wouldn't fit, and attempt to bury it.

Tenoji was smirking on the inside.

When the woman shouted, it made her jump sending her out of her peaceful slumber and out on end. What the...was this fox mad or sick? She couldn't wrap her mind around this little event. A fox acting this strange had to have something wrong with it. Slowly she got up and stretched making her way closer to the ground.

Would the lady need help? She seemed concerned about something. She balanced herself as she walked across the limb that hovered a good bit from the ground. Enough to keep the fox unable to reach her if it so happened to do the same thing it was currently doing.

Why was this fox tormenting this peaceful woman? Minnow landed gracefully on the ground and crept closer to the woman. Surely this lady would finally smack it or something instead of just standing there gawking at it.

She winced somewhat backwards and lost her footing and wound up sitting on the top step on her behind with the broom just looming before her. The yip had sort of well...caught her off guard. Or maybe it was the fact he was behaving oddly for a fox. Someone's pet maybe? It left her watching him amazed at his trick and how he was acting.

Least she was sitting down for it. "WHOA!" As he rushed for her she hurriedly scrambled backwards again, getting to her feet, but she released the hold on her broom. Mostly because she didn't want him hurting his jaw or getting jabbed inside his mouth and hurt. She had her hands held sort of open and up, caught off guard at the tenacity of this lil critter.

"Hey! I don't like housework either, but still..." She let out somewhat of a sigh and leaned her elbow on the railing, supporting a hand under her chin while she watched him trying to fit that huge broom in such a tiny hole. She shrugged as if to say "What can ya do" And wondered what she could possibly do about dinner. The sun would be setting soon. Which meant she'd have to stay in her church, safe with her wards. Long as she didn't come out. Sitting in that church, she sometimes felt like a sardine in a sardine tin. But most of the things that went bump in the night knew better than to mess with the church or were simply unable to. Faith and belief were two of her strongest weapons. "You hungry? Why am I still talking to you? YOu stole my broom..tch." She laughed again, glad to be laughing for once.

The laugh stopped for a moment before she saw a cat? She let out a sigh of relief and looked over towards the fox. The two of them wouldn't fight would they? "Rut ro. Perhaps trouble in paradise? It's ok, Kitty. The fox is busy cleaning his den." She got down to a crouched position and held out her hand to show she was friendly. Funny, she wasn't afraid of the cat, perhaps because she had been used to cats. "I can say hi, then I need to get something to eat before the nights comes. Might be a busy, busy night."

She purred and pressed her head into the woman's hand and walked a little more as she watched the fox. She was laughing on the inside at it's attempts to fit such a long object into a hole. Minnow walked out of the hand and back into, once again starting by pressing her head first. Her blackish gray fur was being laid down by the hand of the lady.

Maybe if she was lucky the woman would let her inside instead of leaving her out here with the fox. At least she wouldn't be too much- Oh! String! She pawed at it and rolled on her back as she tried catch the annoying thing. Bah! She was too old for this kind of thing. This was what kittens did, not fully grown cats. But it was so tempting and she finally caught it.

"Now see, Mr. Fox? This is how a cat behaves. You are not acting as a fox should." She laughed lightly, giving the cat a nice long pet and then letting her fingers glide over the tail playfully, and then went back to scratching behind the left ear gently. Now she felt things were somewhat back to normal.

Seeing the cat playing with a string that must have come out of her robes, she tsked quietly, bringing the end up to check. It would need mended. But before that, she pulled the stray string out and landed it gently on the cat's head to give to it to play with if it wanted. Standing she wondered how the edge of her robe got so worn. Then again, She'd been on Pelor's mission for awhile now, fought with things with sharp claws. Her eyes lost their focus for a moment, just a moment as she saw a blood stain on the edge of her robe. A single tear came into her eye but she wiped it away with the palm of her hand.

She'd lost her only friend here awhile ago. The only other human she had known to, what was it called again, Lycan something. She shook her head to not focus on the dark, dismal part of everything as she patted the kitty's head and absentmindedly walked back inside, leaving the doors open for now. She liked to watch the sun set across the floor, when it reached the altar, she knew to close and bar the doors for the night.

She went to the fridge and poured a small saucer of milk, walking it back out to sit on the church stairway. She really did mean no one would be turned away, least of all a meal. The least she could do while she rummaged through a small sack to find her sewing kit. "Has to be in here somewhere..."

Tenoji was busy as the cleric played with the cat...busy burying her broom in a light covering of dirt to seal the cache up. This mischief-making had roused his appetite, and so by the time Magik returned, the fox would have torn the plastic off the Cornish Hen, leaving it in shredded tatters in a small pile beside him, as he was tearing into the raw breast of the bird hungrily. The fox wasn't eating like an animal however, he was being careful and selective in his bites, making sure to get all the meat and not be messy.

Magik was so not wanting to sew with unfinished business still about. So instead, she set the sack down, walking back down the stairs past the cat and over to where the fox seemed to be indulging in dinner. "Sorry to interrupt your dinner, but I do believe, this is mine?" She crouched down a somewhat safe distance from the fox, keeping a careful eye on him while her left hand moved slowly towards the handle of the broom.

She was being careful to not make him upset. Her hand closing around the top of the handle and her gaze flickered up to the darkening sky. Yep, she had a good bit of time left, but she couldn't continue dallying much longer. "Just let me take my broom back and sweep the walkway here, ok? And we're all good." If there wasn't any protest, she'd do just as she said, sweeping bits of dirt off the walkway, if not, well...She'd have to think fast.

Tenoji watched her hand out of the corner of his eye, she could see that. But he made no defensive sound, he didn't growl or bear teeth, rather what he did, was to raise his rump up as he took a big bite of chicken, waggle his tail and haunches at her, and then flop his rump down unceremoniously upon the broom. Then he gulped down the bite, and rolled the chicken closer, continuing to eat.

He wanted her to abandon the tedious chore. To see what she would do if she was forced to do something entertaining with her free time.

The smile slid off of her face at the fox's actions. An eyebrow raised before an incredulous look filled her eyes. "Oh really now?" She stood back up, wiping off her robes where they had touched the ground to get rid of any twigs or dirt that might have gotten picked up.

"Well, that was unsuccessful." She knew she liked to keep herself on a schedule, but still, she wasn't about to punt a fox off a broom. Wasn't a reason to.

"You are rather stubborn, then again...isn't that a fox trait?" She scratched the back of her head absentmindedly as she headed back contemplating that very question. She didn't study forest critters, she had other studies she had taken up. Maybe being alone was making her somewhat mental after all, talking to herself. She shook her head as she headed inside, rolling up some newspaper and grabbing up a long match. She'd start a fire to keep the evening chill at bay. And it wasn't just how cold the night got that sometimes gave her chills. She struck it against the side of the fireplace and lit the paper,rolling it in her hand until it caught, positioning it inbetween the logs in the fireplace and then latching the glass case. Smoke would be seen coming from near the steeple for about a half hour or so, then it would be too dark for normal eyes to see.

She stayed watching the flames for a moment before letting out another held breath, walking over to one hand the satchel her sewing kit was in and sat back down in front of the fire. She slid her robes off one sleeve gently and carefully at a time before laying them on her lap, sitting indian style as she sought the correct color of sky blue for her robes, a dozen or so little spools lined up in a row in front of her as she continued to hum some unknown song.

She was left in a pair of blue jeans of all things and a light sapphire blue poets blouse, matching the color of her eyes. Comfortable and practical while she fixed her robes.

Tenoji waited till she was gone, and the hen was fully consumed. He was a clean fox at least, burying the remains and scraps deep in the dirt to decompose. Then he drew her broom out in his mouth and resealed the cache. He dragged it up onto the fall by the door, and propped it up there with some effort.

Then things became much more strange, as the fox continued to follow the line of his curiosity about this woman. He leapt up to a window's eave, and then up another that was around fifteen feet above that. This was obviously no ordinary fox.

He advanced to the window, and merely watched her. He let out a small growl. He had tried to direct her to doing something fun, to see if religion had failed to stifle that element of humanity from her. But there she was, engaged in yet another tedious task. Then again, sewing used to be a pleasurable way for a woman to spend her time, perhaps this woman was a throwback to those bygone days.

Drastic measures should be taken...Hrrmmm....

She probably hadn't even been aware she had been humming. The fire's light highlighting her platinum blonde hair to make it look as if the very sun had set in her hair. Flickers of orange and red dancing around the small area of the floor she remained seated at. She threaded the needle and then started to close up the broken seam of her robe, which had probably gotten stuck on someone's claw. She gave a light shiver in remembrance as she hummed louder as if her soothing song could chase the shadows away.

She turned towards the open doorway, to see if the cat had drank the milk she'd left out. Watching a spill of colored light headed slowly across the floor of her church. Night was coming. It caused her to lick her lips in light worry as she threaded that needle through a second, third and fourth time, pulling it tightly closed each time before she bit the end off. The thread snapped back to the spool as she tied it, securing the needle in the thread before putting it all back away in the sack nearby.

She stood and stretched in place after she hung her robes up on a hook by the door, peeking out and seeing no sign of the fox, though the close appearance of her broom startled her a moment, reaching out a hesitant hand as she took it and said "hmph" as if still thinking to herself, before she swept what little dirt there was away again from the steps. How had the fox, if the fox did prop it up, do exactly that?

She set it inside the doorway and set about looking for something to eat. Supplies didn't come into the church often unless she braved the streets sometimes. She had some bread, that seemed to almost be stale and some cheese. Grabbing a pot and tucking it under her arm she headed to the stove, setting about to make some grilled cheese. Maybe tonight she could grab some shut eye, as long as the scratching didn't happen again...

Tenoji grumbled and clicked his teeth once more. Now he leapt down from the window, to the church and ran about the other side, he darted into the shadows, and emerged changed. Now, where he had walked as a animal, he now stood as a man. A man dressed in a long white trench coat, jeans, and a broad black belt. he flicked an ink brush between his fingers as he walked around to the front of the church.

Tenoji casually flipped his black hair over his shoulder, brushing fingers through it to assure it was straight. He was going to get a proper rise out of this priestess if it was the only thing he managed to accomplish tonight. He continued to make the brush dance between his fingers, before sliding it behind his ear.

He marched his proudly striding tushy right up to the churches front door and knocked briskly upon it.

She had just tossed the grilled cheese sandwich to one side when she heard the knock. She utterly froze with fear for one moment, knowing from experience that those undead and of the nightly persuasion couldn't possibly just stroll across and into holy ground.

She had left the door open in case the cat would stroll in, maybe to curl up to sleep by the fire, having any company to get through the night would probably be a blessing anyways. But now, Spatula in hand, she crossed the distance, leaving the sound and smell of cooking cheese and bread wafting on the air as she reached out hesitantly and finished opening the door on the right, blinking up shocked at the tall, black haired man with a paintbrush tucked behind his ear.

Politeness forgotten a moment, she simply stood there, before breaking eye contact with the man before gazing along the street as far as she could before looking back up at him. "Is there...something I can help you with perhaps, Sir?" Her voice came out abit uncertain, abit fear driven, but still, she was trying not to show she was shaking lightly. A man doesn't just come out of anywhere, right? How could she have not heard movement along these quiet streets? Perhaps because she had been cooking and not alert. That could have cost her if she wasn't to be more careful?

The cheese started to burn somewhat on one side, not that she could smell it, but she had become distracted by this man's very appearance. "You do know this...isn't a very safe area?" Not that she was going to go on and on about some kind of creatures that could suck people's blood or creatures that might rip this man asunder with claws bigger than most people's heads. She'd sound totally bananas for sure.