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Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li


Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

"No amount of danger will stop me from doing what I think right Corrine," Petra replied with a smile, deep brown eyes gazing at her new childe. "Just ask Emily or Charlotte. I'm sure they'd have a story or two for you."

Petra moved over to sit on the bench in front of a grand piano, her eyes cast to the side. "If you must know, I felt that I made a grave mistake. Lionel recruited me to assist him in acquiring a new childe, you see. It's a fairly common thing to do among vampires. We often desire a specific childe. A life bond is no simple matter after all, and it can be difficult to obtain the human we want without breaking our oath to secrecy."

Shifting around on the bench, Corrine's sire looked up at her. "When I met you in the dressing room, I already knew you had a pretty voice. I was struck, however, by the purity of your soul. You were so willing to help even without much in the way of reward." Petra shook her head somberly before continuing. "I regretted it dearly after I sent you to find him. Childer of Malkav manifest different versions of insanity after their embrace. You would not have simply lost your human life but your mind as well. I couldn't bear to have such a thing on my conscience, so I took you for myself. He would have found you eventually, so I felt it was the only way. If I had to die for breaking the traditions, then so be it."

Although vampires were dead creatures with nary a beat of the heart, perhaps something of their heart remained even in death. They felt all the same emotions that they felt in life, that was for sure, even one's as old as Petra, Theresa, and Lionel or as young as Corrine.

"I won't stop you from seeing your friends or family. I am not your master after all, though you will first need to learn how to masquerade as a human. ...I also have to recommend against trying too hard to maintain your old life. Such attachments to mortals frequently leads to catastrophe on both sides." Petra paused for a moment, looking at Corrine curiously. "If you don't mine me asking, what song is playing in your mind right now?"
 
Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

Corrine's eyebrow arched dubiously at Petra's bold claim. There were plenty of dangers that Corrine would be petrified of facing even to do the 'right thing.' Images of getting electrocuted to death like Christopher Walken in that Batman movie fluttered in her mind's eye. That would definitely be a deterrent. When the notion of her soul being pure came up, her forehead furrowed in confusion. Her? Pure? Well, she did try to be nice and not be a bother to people, but that was what everyone did. Or at least normal people. Was she really so great? The song lyrics "You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you..." brought her desire to preen back into check.

"But you hardly knew me," Corrine murmured. "You could have died, and Lionel, he's crazy, he might still kill you anyway. I mean, if he wanted me so badly that he recruited you just to help trap me..."

The pretty young asian sat on the piano bench beside her sire and looked down at her own lap, fidgeting her pale undead fingers together. This whole situation was embarrassing. That Petra might have risked (un)life and limb just to 'save' her by killing her first was so crazy that if she had not already committed murder by blood drinking and accepted the fact that she was a vampire, it would have been the most ridiculous thing she'd ever thought of today. Instead it could only be in the top 3, and the sad thing was is that she believed it every bit as much as she now believed she was a vampiric murderess.

"So on a lark and a chance you risked everything just to save a stray from going insane?" She asked, then winced immediately and wished she hadn't.

"Sorry, I don't mean to sound bitchy or ungrateful. It's just been the most horrible day, and it's not seeming like tomorrow's going to make it better. I suppose I really should thank you."

Finally she rose her dark eyes to meet the baby brown of her sire's and offered a sheepish smile. Her hand went to Petra's frizzy hair and attempted to pat it down a bit before draping her fingers along her collarbone.

"If I were still alive, it would probably take me weeks to get over all of this. I'd lock myself in my room, blare loud music, and eat ice cream all day, feeling sorry for myself. But now there's this dark part of me that's absolutely fed up with me crying about this, telling me I just should shut up and accept it. And also ice cream doesn't sound nearly as good to me now as it used to. Maybe if you put some real blood into blood orange sherbert, right?"

She laughed pathetically at her own bad joke, then hung her head again. She asked about her family and received an answer that she had pretty much expected. Logic had begun to work again and if Theresa was going to demand secrecy then there really wasn't a way for her to let her family know about this. At least Petra wasn't trying to rule her life. That made her like her a lot more than she thought she would. She didn't imagine that she would be so lucky with Theresa. That one seemed like she had a plan for her and everyone else in her 'kingdom' or whatever it was that a vampire Prince ruled over.

Petra asked about the song inside Corrine's mind and the daughter looked up again, brought out of her reverie. She looked at her sire in silence for a moment, then with a slight curl of her lips she spun about on the piano bench and lifted the lid to reveal the ivory and ebony keys.

She closed her eyes, gathering herself. It had been a while since she'd played piano, but she still thought she could pull it off. After about fifteen seconds, she began to play. The soft jazz notes became apparent, the melody sweet and relaxing, like wading along the shoreline as the water rolled over her feet, and like the wet sand tugging at her toes, it sucked her spirit in and embraced her. Next, the words came in a dulcet tone, and she echoed them aloud so that Petra could hear:

"~~Come away with me in the night.
Come away with me,
And I will write you a song.

Come away with me on a bus.
Come away where they can't tempt us, with their lies.

I want to walk with you,
On a cloudy day,
In fields where the yellow grass grows knee-high.
So won't you try to come?

Come away with me and we'll kiss,
On a mountaintop.
Come away with me
And I'll never stop loving you.

And I want to wake up with the rain
Falling on a tin roof,
While I'm safe there in your arms.
So all I ask is for you
To come away with me in the night.
Come away with me.~~"

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When she had finished, the music's notes continued to play an easy melody from out of the ether. Even though the constant music was taking some getting used to, Corrine had discovered that she didn't mind it that much. She had loved music throughout her life, and she had been fortunate enough to have encouraging parents with the means to fund her development. She had had vocal, piano, and violin lessons from a very young age, and her high school boyfriend had taught her guitar throughout her junior and senior year. Singing and performing had been her favorite activity by far, and now music itself was a part of her life - unlife - in a very real and inspiring way. She just hoped that it wouldn't driver her as batty as Lionel. The other Daughters, Petra, Emily, and Charlotte, they all seemed like they were level headed enough.

"So what did you think? Do we hear the same song? Or is it different for everyone?"
 
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Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

Petra smiled warmly as if sensing the conflicting emotions swirling within Corrine, her brown eyes moving from Corrine's gaze to the hand patting down her hair then back again. She picked up a mirror from the top of the piano, doing her best to fix her cacophonous hair situation.

"Ha, I suppose the electricity is no good for my complexion is it?" Petra asked with a rueful smile. "My body will heal in time so no need to thank me. When you live to be as old as I am, you'll probably understand. Most vampires will tell you that every day is a struggle with the beast inside you. I don't believe in such things. The beast is transient, primal. Urges that can be understood and dominated. The real enemy is your conscience. Hell hath no fury like a conscience once scorned... Anyway, lucky for us, we'll never need to blare loud music again."

Corrine's laughter brightened Petra's mood a bit and when Corrine spun around to take up the piano, the older vampire's brown eyes lit up. Petra didn't say a word but just watched and listened to her childe's song. The piano strokes were light and jazzy, Corrine's voice filling the ballroom like a barrel of smooth honey. Petra swayed side to side with the rhythm as Corrine sang, almost like it was the only song she heard.

Playing the song inside her mind out loud warmed Corrine's undead heart. Each note buoyed her soul, soft prickles of magic building within her. It wasn't overpowering, just a feeling like she was nestled in the soft, sturdy arms of a lover. When Corrine finished the song, she could see Petra was smiling, offering a little applause.

"That was simply divine. Cacophony will be very pleased, if I am any judge." Petra complimented Corrine, stiffening up in obvious pride. "That is the secret of her power and our power as daughters of her. Simply sing or play her songs enough, and she will be pleased and offer you power. Your power is greatest when singing in tune with Cacophony, but as long as you have sang or played recently, you will retain vestiges of her power. It will allow you to use the power of your voice to distract or attract, seduce, or even attack with enough power."
 
Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

Petra's words about the beast being conquerable echoed what Emily had said. The sentiment calmed her a bit. That was two vampires now who had told her that it was possible. The real enemy, just as Petra was saying, would be her conscience. What she had already done. Maybe she wasn't wholly to blame for what had happened to that girl with the flowers, but she doubted she could let herself forget what had happened, and her failure to stop and give the girl a chance to run, to live.

The subject change to music was a welcome one, and the song she played and sang for Petra was wondrous and jazzy and utterly soothing. If her soul had been burned raw by tonight's horrendous events, then this amazing music was her aloe vera, her balm. For a few happy minutes, she brought Cacophony's music into reality, sublimating her undead condition into something beautiful. By the last note, Corrine was smiling, and her sadness abated, if not totally, than at least for a small while, and she cherished the respite.

More than this, she could FEEL the magic building. A power, something alien yet apart of her, was lurking in her voice and in her blood, and it was supporting her, like the arms of a friend or lover. Just like in the song's lyrics, she wanted to come away with it in the night, let it carry her off and away from the death and angst.

Her sire's applause roused her. And the allusion to Cacophony had piqued her curiosity as well. Was she an old vampire? She sounded like it. Corrine imagined some eldritch undead goddess figure with the voice of a fabled siren.

"If you'd told me about the music, and that I could live forever looking nice and singing better, I might have just let you bite me," Corrine said with a wry grin.

It probably wasn't entirely true if she was honest with herself. The urge to scream and run away would probably have gotten the better of her if Petra had tried that approach. However, now that she was a vampire, she decided it was important to see all the silver linings, lest she get depressed about the ugly bits.

"When I was singing, I felt something in my voice. Like there was a power there. So if I keep singing, my songs could affect people? As in... magic?"

Corrine didn't ask this incredulously as she might have not long ago. By this point, she was ready to believe almost anything. She would just have to trust that Petra and the other daughters weren't out to turn her into a vampire just to mislead her.

"How exactly could I do that?"
 
Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

"I seem to recall there not being much time to stop and chat. But..." Petra chuckled, smiling back at Corrine. She reached out to stroke Corrine's hair, gently brushing stray hairs from her childe's cheek as her smile curled into a smirk. "You could always let me bite you again, you know? If it's so enticing."

Petra let that hang in the air for a moment, smiling somewhat demurely as she nodded in reply to Corrine's question.

"Yes and no. You have the power because of your connection to our lady Cacophony, but you must summon her to assist you. She will so long as you please her. At your level of power, you can do things like modify the pitch of your voice, amplify it to fill a theater, move it to different locations that you can see, and even perform a duet with yourself. To summon the lady, just think of her with love in your heart. Like so... Ahem..."

"Hello Corrine," came a voice from directly behind the young vampire. Petra hadn't opened her mouth, but if Corrine spun to look there would be no one there. Petra just smiled and then sang "Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do" each syllable changed pitch slightly from low to high, loud and soft, echoing against the walls in different areas of the room.
 
Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

As Petra's hand stroked Corrine's hair, and the silence between them grew, Corrine was forced to look at her maker in a new way, considering the implications of being bit again.

Petra's suggestive offer sounded like some sort of vampire come on, and it had caught the new vampire off guard. Corrine wasn't sure yet exactly how she felt about this other woman, this vampire. She had already made up her mind to forgive her. Petra had been heroic, saving her from insanity, and giving her a gift of music. But it still didn't change the fact that she hadn't asked Corrine about the life she was taking away from her. Corrine was leaving family and friends and a life in the sun behind, becoming embroiled in a world far out of her depth. A world of blood and magic and music.

That was what she had been trying to say. That if she had just been told about the music and the rush of feeding and the immortality, there would have been a part of her that might have listened, that might have come along willingly. It would have been a mutual thing, an intimate thing, perhaps even loving. Instead, it felt like she had been victimized, half-murdered and half-raped. Even if the end result was that she became a badass vampire, this hadn't been a nice first experience. So even though she knew from recent experience that there was amazing pleasure in biting and being bitten, she just needed more time to distance herself from the emotional hurt of her Embrace.

She wanted to like Petra, maybe even leaving the door open for something more. But what she needed now from the frizzy haired soprano was her knowledge, not her fangs. Pleasant though they might be.

"No, you and Lionel didn't have much you wanted to tell me about any of this before hand. But there was time to sing Phantom songs, apparently," Corrine replied sardonically, effectively icing the increasingly awkward silence.

She put her hand on her hip while the other rubbed her neck where Petra had bitten her and turned her into an undead creature. She recalled the feeling of being bitten. There had been a brief pain, followed by an ecstasy that was comparable to a very animalistic and charged orgasm. It would have been a lovely memory had it not been steeped in confusion, horror, and death. She let the bad thoughts drift away for the moment and focused more on what Petra was saying about the Lady Cacaphony and the power of the voice.

"Hmm. Summoning Cacophony?" Her eyes narrowed keenly with interest as the powers of amplified projection and misdirection and the incredibly cool idea of singing a duet with herself were suggested.

Then came the demonstration, with the missing voice appearing behind her, causing her to turn and look, even though she knew she would see nothing. If anything, it was to confirm that Charlotte wasn't hiding in the shadows and playing a prank on her. Then came the different musical notes, all of different pitch and tone, coming from the far flung corners of the room.

"Spin it however you want, Petra, that's magic." Corinne smiled, genuinely. This was the sort of thing that could make her forget about her misgivings. She just had to lose herself in this.

"I want to try!" She said, standing up. "Let's see... something from the Little Mermaid seems apt, just don't steal my voice."

With that being said, Corrine began to sing, starting low and then letting her voice gain more power and volume naturally. But moreso than that, she tried to do what her sire had told her to do. To open herself up to Cacophony's love. She had no clue what this meant, but tried to focus on the emotion of it. She thought of a wild looking woman, like a Greek goddess, harp in hand, flame haired, sitting in a forest glade, looking at her across a pool of reflective water. She was smiling at Corrine, showing her fangs.

Now there is Cacophony, Corrine thought. My version of her anyway. And I will love her. But how? As a mother? As a sister?

With the hungry, fiery look in Cacophony's gaze, neither of those relationships seemed to be appropriate. Cacophony might be those things in a sense, but she was something else too. She was beautiful, deadly, uninhibited, fierce, and Corrine just knew that when she sung she might rock the foundations of the earth.

I will let her bite me. The thought came suddenly to Corrine and she realized the implication would be that she was imagining herself as a lover to this goddess figure. This imaginary figure that seemed so very lucid, alive, and aware at this moment. The smile deepened and the goddess flickered, suddenly looming large and closer, the surroundings fading into blackness behind her. Fading until there was only Lady Cacophony left, and she was descending upon Corrine's consciousness, preparing to bite...

Corrine's blood quickened and she felt her voice amplify and then diverge. She was singing with two voices now, yet surely one of those was Cacophony, singing with her?

"Ah aah ahh. Ah AHH AH AHHH. Ah AHHHH AHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHH..."

The final note hung in the chamber for a long time, before Corrine let it fade and her mind came back to the present.

"Did it work? I think it worked." She beamed at Petra.

I was just thinking she would sing like in that scene from the Little Mermaid where she was giving up her voice to turn human.

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As a reminder.
 
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Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

Petra looked delighted to see Corrine's excitement for her newfound powers. Her sire smiled widely, even showing a bit of fang from within her crimson lips. The last remains of the brutal torture she received were already rapidly fading from her pretty face.

When Corrine sang, Petra nodded to encourage her and continued to watch intently. The young Daughter of Cacophony definitely felt something as she tapped into her powers. There was a distinct presence, more than just Petra. It supported her and made her feel more talented than she'd ever been. She might not have sounded any different than usual, but there was definitely something different about her, even if it was difficult to pinpoint what it was exactly.

"Bravo!" Petra exclaimed, clapping her hands with a soft smile when Corrine finished. "Your voice is simply divine my dear. Bravo."

"With a little bit more concentration, you'll gain a better control of the effects you create, but the instincts are certainly there." Petra explained. She curled her arm through the nook of Corrine's own and slowly led her across the room to a large pipe organ. When they reached it, Petra stopped and looked up at the massive instrument.

"I'd like to show you a secret of mine, but you will have to use your power to unlock it. This time, I'd like you to sing again, but instead of simply amplifying and separating your voice, try to focus on using it to fill the pipes of the organ."
 
Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

Corrine smiled warmly at Petra's applause, and demurely cast her glance downward at her pale folded hands. She knew she could sing well. It wasn't just a matter of raw gifts. She had put many hours of hard practice into training her voice and had learned to pair her raw ability with developed skill.

Be that as it may, she knew that no amount of training or technique could have given her voice the hauntingly beautiful quality that had just been demonstrated. It was only more shocking to realize that she had been the one to give it that edge. Or perhaps she was just the instrument, and Lady Cacophony had been the true performer. Whatever the case, it gave Corrine a pleasurable shiver to know she had played a part in creating that feat. And this was just the first step, to hear Petra speak of it.

What an amazing rush this new found hunger was. Blood powering abilities that were the things of faerie tales and comic books. How could such things exist and yet no one know about them yet? Theresa's threats were dire, certainly, but accidents happened and it would only take one ungodly performance to bring the whole show tumbling headlong onto the front page news.

"Thanks," she said, then cleared her throat a little, more out of social habit than out of need. She let herself be led to the far side of the room where Petra showed her the magnificent pipe organ, and mentioned the secret that would be revealed if Corrine could prove her abilities once again.

Keeping her arm interlocked with her true sire, the neonate daughter of cacophony lifted her chin upwards as she began to focus on the task in front of her, sizing up the opening of the pipes, deciding how she would in effect direct her voice into them.

Once again, the fiery haired goddess filled her mind. The face had changed, such that she resembled a young woman of Chinese or Mongolian descent, but it was still clearly Cacophony. The young vampire didn't know why the visage had changed. Was it because Corrine had wanted Cacophony to look more like her, or had Cacophony decided a closer resemblance was more apt?

She grinned at Corrine, fangs exposed. She wore a traditional white, flowing robe like out of a Wuxia movie, and she knelt in darkness over an exquisite guzheng - a Chinese harp. She did not play it though. She merely knelt and waited expectantly for Corrine to do something.

The neonate opened her mouth and let a note flow out, long and sustained. At first it wasn't directed in any sense beyond the way that Corrine's face pointed, but as she sang, Cacophony began to pluck the strings of the guzheng, and as she did so, Corrine could feel the reverberation of the music in her blood.

The harp strings formed a simple melody, a pattern in her veins, which quickly began to repeat itself. Corrine stopped her singing, and as she did so the guzheng stopped. In her mind, Cacophony went back to looking at the mental image of Corrine with that original expectation. Her hand rose, palm up, and swept slowly in front of her. Lady Cacophony was goading Corrine to carry on the tune.

Corrine began her sustained note again, and this time Cacaphony remained silent, but the phantom memory of the musical pattern still remained. Acting on her instinct once again, the fledgling daughter 'plucked' at the blood within her veins, making it reverberate within her, and as she did so, her voice took on that haunting, other-worldly edge as it had before.

The physical sound waves that left Corrine's lips changed and altered fundamentally - funneled by invisible, eldritch forces towards the pipe organ. With concentration and mental fortitude that Corrine did not fully understand, her voice carried into the organ and music began to play.

First one, then two, then more of the pipes were filled with sound. Corrine continued to repeat the directing pattern within her blood until hopefully she fulfilled Petra's wish.
 
Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

Corrine's song worked perfectly just as she hoped. She felt a rush of happiness sweep through her body as her voice reverberated through the ancient pipes of the organ, and she knew Cacophony must be pleased. That was one explanation anyway. Petra certainly seemed to believe it was true.

The combination of Corrine's voice with the pipe organ created an enchanting melody that spread throughout the chamber. It likely would have enthralled any audience had there been any to speak of other than the pair of Daughters. Still, there was something special about a performance that was reserved only for a few special listeners.

As the melody reached its crescendo, the whole chamber filled with the wondrous sound. It filled up every nook and cranny of the place. Even Corrine's own body vibrated gently from the music.

Corrine could also feel her voice traveling through the pipes and noticed a few divergent paths, pipes that would be impossible to play without her abilities. Those pipes filled with sound as well, and before she knew what was happening, suddenly the floor just in front of the organ shifted, slowly sliding open to reveal a secret passage similar to the one Corrine found in Lionel's dressing room not too long ago. It was difficult to see inside because it was so dark, but the entrance to this passage looked more ornate than the one in Lionel's chamber with polished wood rather than stone.

Petra smiled all the while. There was a spark in her eyes, and her fangs extended in satisfaction as she listened to Corrine's haunting performance. They had another spectator as well, Emily or Charlotte, it was hard to tell the difference, was watching silently from the other side of the chamber. She didn't approach, though, and Petra didn't acknowledge her presence.

"Excellent performance Corrine," Petra complimented, continuing to smile widely. "As you can see, only a Daughter of Cacophony like yourself can enter this part of the mansion. It will stay that way, so long as we all remain true to each other. Let us not dilly dally. I'm sure you are just dying to find out what lies within."
 
Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

The music echoing withing the pipes was positively enchanting. Corrine felt her spirit being swept away and swirling around the corners of the chamber, riding the melody like a drifter on an ocean wave. This was the power of music, the power of Lady Cacophony. Euphoria swelled in Corinne's chest, she stood taller, feeling more majestic now than she could ever recall.

Did one have to die before one could truly live?

"Petra. The music is beautiful." Corrine gasped, clutching her hands together, enraptured. She looked around the room, first at her sire, who looked on with bestial approval - a wild spark in her eyes and extended fangs that seemed to intimate violence and a dark loveliness all at once. Corrine's gaze roamed further and spotted one of the twins, Emily or Charlotte, watching silently from the far side of the room. The expression on her face was unreadable, and the fledgling vampire had little time to consider it before Petra addressed her.

"Thank you, Petra." Corrine answered, trying to affect a humble tone. "Whatever is guarded by that melody must be important."

The neonate followed along with her sire through the trap door in whatever order Petra indicated. Corrine felt her anticipation build with every step along the intricate polished wood. The song of the pipe organ had been prize enough to witness, she thought, so what would Petra and the other Daughters have hidden away here?
 
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