He'd thought, quite a few times recently, about moving himself and Jex to a better area, especially after what had happened to Jex and what he was becoming because of that. But he hasn't and he knows he probably won't. It'll be put on his to do list, you know, the place where things go when they never do and never will get done.

For now, he's once again rendered to contemplating the never do to do list. It's found him on a street that he doesn't quite recognize, though he's been here a million times before, or so the little voice at the base of his skull, located in the place that rates an even lower rank then the to do list does, keeps insisting. As a matter of fact, he can't actually recall walking from the cemetery to here, or that he even entered the cemetery. The only assurance he has of that fact is the tick crust of drying mud on the bottom of his boots. He can't remember getting too the cemetery either. Actually, the whole night was a blur.

Morose stopped walking with this realization, which apparently left him standing in the middle of an empty sidewalk on a corner, there’s a stop sign but no street sign giving these cross-roads any quirky (or other wise dead presidents) names. In fact, the street and the building on it looked quite empty.

Morose is tall, six feet and another inch actually, but his boots lift him to six feet three inches and towering. His thinness, which is so far as to be called skeletal, only makes him look taller, grim reaper at his best. His skin is pale, indicating no feeding for this vampire, and considering how dark his blue veins are standing out against his pale skin, probably not for a week before tonight. His hair, against any normal flesh, would look bright and brilliant. Against his own paleness it's shocking. The red of it off sets the bright blue of his eyes. The lack of sunlight has caused the orange and blonde streaks to fade, making it redder. The unbelievable sorrow is so deep that one might think they can actually feel how sad he is.

His clothing is grave, black pants with dark purple stitches, a purple fishnet below a black shirt, a cross cut out of the shirt to expose fishnet and pale flesh. The collar where he usually wears his cross is missing, the cross tucked into the pants pocket. His thin hands and what flesh is exposed on his chest have scars, obviously made by fingernails. He's empty, he looks empty. And he feels used, wrung out, tired and finished.

Apparently Morose is very morose.

A slight smirk danced along the corners of Shen's slightly upturned expression as he walked out of an alley not so far down the street, but still nearly invisible against the shadows of the poorly lit street. He was running his index finger from the right to left corner, upon his lowerlip, as he did so.

Zhou Shen folded his arms over his chest and began the walk down the street and away from where his latest meal now lay, going cold. The full length trench coat he doned this night hid most of his frame, but did leave his face and neck quite visible with a now softly-flushed out appearence. It would begin to pale a little, but was still quite fresh for now.

At first he paid no attention to the only other man within shouting distance, but as Shen came closer he started to watch them just a little closer and finally came to a stop less than a dozen paces away. Who he was still was unapparent, but a "person" to speak with always held the potential to be a treat. Morose's appearence alone spoke volumes to as dark eyes watched him and a hand rose instinctely to pull the long flowing chestnut hair over his shoulder.

"My pardons," he began, "you seem... lost." Many people seemed lost anymore and a few months ago he was one of them, until he had came across another of his kind by pure dumb luck.

The man usually would have noticed another in the vicinity, even without vampir inhanced skills, as he's come to call them. Morose took no note of him for a few long moments, just like everything else. And even when he finally did turn his face to the other, half a black away, he treated him as if he belonged to part of the scenery. When the other stopped before him, his pale, sad eyes zeroed in and focused on him as if he really were there. Jesus, what was wrong with him? He lifted a wiery thin wrist to swip at his eyes, as if rubbing away sleep.

Looking at the man again, watching his mouth move, hearing his voice, but the words didn't register for a few seconds after the lips stopped moving. It was as if everything were playing in slow and as he normally would have been annoyed, he didn't seem to mind, or for that matter, care at all.

"I've always been lost." Leave it to Morose to go a little biblical and a little bit too literal with peoples words, but this just wasn't like him at all. He really needed to feed, that was the problem. This self-induced stuppor came from self-induced starvation. He shook his head, he was not going to feed and he was not going to let it make him stupid. Like this. "I'm sorry. I..." shut up. Thin lips pressed togather tightly before going on. "Yes, I can't quite recall how I ended up here."

"You look like you're starving," it was a comment made from ghastly appearence the man held, but it was also a tad sarcastic, even if his tone did not reflect it. With Shen becoming more comfortable within the city his openess to speaking with others had increased slowly over the last few weeks.

Letting both arms drop to his side, the vampire gave a nod that could have been taken as a sembelence to a bow. "I am Shen." He made an open handed guesture toward Morose and waited, his head lowering slightly and gazing past seemingly half-dead man.

Half dead?

Unfortunatly that's not true.

Unfortunatly that he is dead or that he is not completely dead and wishes to be, take your pick. The pittiful creature.

Morose wasn't offened by the comment, though it wasn't one he heard often outside of Jex and Enyo since most people avoided speaking to someone who not only dressed like he did but also looked like he did. Besides, no sane man would be walking around on a cold night without a jacket, therefore, he must be avoided. Of course, given how empty the street was and how small a selection towards conversation the other had, it was either talk to him or don't talk at all.

Starving doesn't begin to cover it. By now, he sensed what the other was, of course, standing so close, how could he not? "It's like being deprived from a much needed drug," either that analogy is going to drive the other, Shen, away or it will mean something. He never had been addicted to drugs or cigerettes but now he knew why the habbit was so hard to break, he was addicted to blood.

"Morose," uncertian if the open hand guesture was meant to be shaken or not, he let his own very bony, very pale hand hoover in mid air between them.

Morose... he muttered silently in his mind at first and finally remembering where he had heard it once before.

The guesture had not been to shake the other vampire's hand, but he did so though a bit reluctantly at first. It would be as brief as possible, he really wasn't much of one for touching others too much as of late.

"Morose." This time spoken aloud, it had seemed to make the clockworks roll in Shen's head, "a name I have heard once or twice before, an honor." This time there was no hidden mirth to be found in his words.

He did stand back upright completely and began to look around again. Shen was a little uneased being so far out in the open, and it showed to a degree. Perhaps he was just being paranoid again as tended to happen from time to time.

Unease shown to Morose will be taken, at first, as a poor sign. Was this other vampire uneasy with him? The idea was especially sound now that Shen said he knew his name. Did this mean he knew his name spoken as his name or someone elses? There was one way to know.

"From a lovely Enyo no doubt," unless he knew Enyo was a name of a woman Morose was bound to receive an odd look. He tilted his head just a little and let blue eyes move over the terribly empty street. Nothing. Nothing but Shen and himself that is. "Do I unnerve you, Shen?"

Shen nearly smiled at the mention of the name, but didn't quite. "No, you don't, my unease comes from another source." It was in truth an old presence he had felt a few nights ago that had him so uneased, but he was still trying to pass it off as mere paranoia.

"And yes, it would be from a lovely woman named Enyo." He thought back to that meeting briefly, but then returned his attention to his current company and remotely to the question of being uneased. It was an old demon which he could deal with when the time came, if ever at all.

"She mentioned you a couple of times."

"Then perhapes..." one solution and one soltuion only, simple. So like Morose. "You should move away from what brings your unease." That or face it, unless it can not be faced and can not be run from...like being a vampire. Yeah...that one makes one certian christian man very uneasy. Unavoidable situations suck.

"I won't depress myself by asking why I was mentioned. When did you meet her?" Was there just a little possessiveness in his tone, or perhapes that's only if the emotion is interperted incorrectly. The real sound in his voice is not possessiveness, it's protectivness. "She didn't mention you." He didn't mean to sound rude and had the humility to look embarassed.

He did laugh a little then, "I have moved manytimes throughout the years because of this uneased feeling..." He wasn't about to admit he had never seen who, or what brought it on. But it was there like the phantom dream that haunts a child for years for no apparent cause.

With the soft laughter dying out he turned to face the empty street and watched the yellow lines that drove down the center of the pavement. "A few months ago, when I had first arrived here." He stopped short of going into detail of how long they had spoken for, or on specific subjects. Such really wasn't that important to him.

"But, I'm not suprised I hadn't been mentioned, some subjects just never arise." He made a motion then in the direction of the other sidewalk, which had a bench for the taking, "would you care to walk or perhaps sit?"

"Then you've received your life..." here he faultered. Since speaking to Asher, he now understood what immortal meant, and he a. didn't like it and b. found it harder to refere to their sort of beings as living. "Life long haunting. Is it something that can be helped?" He shrugged, as if every one gets one, like it's a life challenge. Perhapes it was.

He nodded faintly. "Sit, if you would. Walking seems to be bringing me nothing but complications tonight." It's gotten him lost after all. He moved towards the indicated bench with long, leggy strides. "You've not spoken with her sense? It would not suprise me. She's been," again he paused. It was none of Shen's, or really his (unless it meant protecting or taking care of her), business what Enyo had been doing. "Busy recently."

Zhou moved with his strides toward the bench, "no, I haven't. I have been... preoccupied a lot myself." Folding his arms again he stayed silent for a couple of moments until they had reach the bench and then he stood there, waiting for Morose to sit before him.

It wasn't until then he decided to speak on the other subject and did so with his elbows resting onto his knees. "Everyone has their hauntings, some of them are self-induced, some are not. This one has been with me for nearly four hundred years now..." He hesitated himself then, "I suppose I should become used to it by now."

It was truly a feeling that had first haunted his consciousness not long after the disappearence of his Sire, and thinking back that far brought a brief saddness to his face that was promptly wiped away with a swipe of his hand into the chilled air before him. "Always there is the future, a very long one to look forward too." It didn't seem to be a fact that bothered him at all, though Shen wasn't too sure the same consenscious held true with his company.

"I see," he stood for just a moment and realized that he was going to sit first either way, and he sat slouching backward with his shoulders rolled forward in that slump that tall people have when they're trying to look shorter.

His smile was wane, faint, and as sad as it was, did nothing to put a dent in the misery of those eyes. "No. You never become....used to something you don't want." He glanced sideways to watch Shen wipe his saddened expression away in the same fashion Morose often did himself. He lifted a questioning red eyebrow, in case the other wanted to talk about it, but in case he didn't, Morose didn't verbally ask.

Long future isn't exactly on Morose's agenda. "Maybe."

Long pause. He folded his fingers togather. "Nothing is eternal." Imortal is not, for the record, the same as eternal. Especially not when your talking to Morose. Both Vampire and Man of God.

"Yes, immortality ends whenever you wish for it to." Was his simple answer in response, though he offered no ways for that to be. Morose was a vampire as well and figured it common enough knowledge for him knowing just how to make such a thing come to pass, but he'd not wish nor suggest such a thing to anyone.

"Do you still live with her?" It was the first question to come to mind in order to change the subject from where it currently was, with Shen passing a look over to him a moment later. His gaze only moved to turn toward the alley Shen had came from earlier, he wasn't worried of anyone potentially coming out, and really was not sure at all why he looked in that direction.

He didn't reply to the first comment. He knew all too well that immortality can end, by his own or by someone elses hand. He's heard two tragic stories from two vampires, young and old. He knew well that immortal did not mean forever.

"I did not live with her," he replied, without further comment on death. He is solemn and morose but he will not inflict his feelings upon others. "I took care of her. But no, I'm afraid she's moved in with another. Or perhapes it is for the best." He smiled and it was wane. It's one less person he need worry about fixing their life and setting it up so that they won't mind when he dies.

"Would you have me wish her well for you?"

"Sure," he said simply, working through the contradiction of information from what he knew, which really was still next to nothing about him, her, or anyone else in this city. Change was to be expected, Shen himself had began to change some since he had came here. This place was vast and the humans wandered like ants about their lives, until now he had only lived in smaller places where most everyone knew the other person. This change in location had dulled that slight guilt which had always lingered around, even during his first months here.

"Do you always loath yourself so heavily?" Was Shen's next question. Perhaps he was being to invasive into another's life, but it was a young night and he had nothing else to do since he would not be working. Sitting back he began to strum out a drumline upon his knee with one hand, each fingertip striking in succession, as he passed a look over to Morose.

The question startled him, not only because it had caught him off of his gaurd but also because of the sheer openness of it. People, or vampires, or beings in general, simply weren't suposed to be so bold to be so inquisitive. His first instinct was to push the man away, which he could not supress and began with a "Are you always so rude as to inquire in a strangers personal affairs?"

But he bit his tongue, one set of upper and lower fangs puncturing it, the moment he let the words slide. They felt like venom on his tongue, a sin that could not be taken back. His tongue didn't bleed, there wasn't a drop of blood in him.

"I...forgive me. It is not so much that....I loath myself as that I loath what I am and what I am becoming."

monster his mind cried at him.

"My pardons," was his response to the first question, but really he was when something came to him as curious. It remained quite curious of it up until Morose had finally answered him. It made Shen rub his chin, while the lonliness had gotten to him a few times before his 'state of being' had never really been much of a thing to loath. Though, the Chinese Vampire definately missed the warmth of the sun, which is where that line of thought eventually carried him.

Shen sighed and admitted aloud, "the only things I truly regret is times when existence become lonely... and the warmth of the sun." That was as much as he would concede, in part for his own invasion of Morose's personal strife.

"Remain in one city long and perhapes lonlieness will wane some." As for the sun, he couldn't do anything about it. "I don't miss it. I was...never...I spent much of my time at night and slept most of the day as it was. When you travel and have no means of money and must do so on foot, you learn the sun is just too hot."

He didn't mention traveling was from cemetery to cemetery or that walking through cemeteries at day time made him feel awkward.

After a moment of silence on his half, he looked at the other.

"You have no reason to be pardoned. I'm....touchy tonight. I'm feeling off of my element." That must be it. Off of his element. Sure, keep telling yourself that. "Is it so apparent that you would guess my...attitude is from self-loathing rather then for any other reason?"

Shen nodded slowly, "aye, it shows pretty clearly when watching and listening." Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a small pocket watch and toyed with it for a minute, it was something he had bought after arriving here and wasn't sure why he had. He'd just liked it.

"I was an officer," he began while opening up the back of the watch, "so, I was often up from before dawn until after dusk. It was an uncomfortable period trying to adjust waking after dusk and finding sleeping before dawn." Fixing, or becoming bored with it, he replaced the backing and sat the watch back into his pocket with a graceful motion of his hand. "I would guess you are rather young, yes?"

"I see." It brought him no pleassure and no pain to know that if your watching carfully you can read him like an open book. Maybe he was.

His blue eyes watched the hands, watched the watch and the hands. Watches meant time and time meant nothing anymore. "I was nothing. An orphin run away with nothing left to loose and nothing left to gain. Two years," he replied, making those three sentances seem like only one. "Two years dead or not, if that is what you mean. And you?" Of course, that would make him twenty years on earth in an eighteen year old'd body.

"Does it mean much too you?" He indicated the watch with one shaking hand, as Shen's hand tucked the watch away. "Now that time is irrelevent, does the watch mean something?"

"Three hundred... seventy... years so, I can't recall exactly." He shrugged slightly, wasn't too important was it? Yeah, it was to him actually. He would sit down later and recount exactly how old later, when he had time or felt like it.

"Time always carries meaning for me, thinking of the now... the hours and days, minutes even, can make life a little easier. And you are only dead... if you let yourself be that way. Life is renewed with every drink, but maybe that is my own belief."

Shen probably figured Morose would disagree with that point of view, but it was one he had adopted recently of his own accord. Sitting forward he watched the pavement with a critical eye, following the first crack he had seen to its end. "If you hate what you are, why do you torture yourself so?"

"The seconds only make it all seem...longer." Longer until he would face judgment. He'd been so faithful, so sure, but now he didn't know, now he dreamt of heaven and woke up pleading loudly not to go to hell. He'd always thought vampires didn't dream.

Life is renewed with every drink, but maybe that is my own belief.

He lifted his head and let his sorrow show as he searched the other's face. Until that moment, all that sorrow in his eyes, that had been only what he'd been unable to hide. Quickly he tucked away the massive amount of pain out of the window to the soul and looked away.

"It is wrong. I believe," he added, because now he knew no matter what, just because he could not drink blood, this stopped no one else from doing so, not even Enyo. If you hate what you are, why do you torture yourself so? Did he mean why did Morose keep living?

"Because I am obligated to protect two beings I love. One will go on," obviously this was Enyo, "but if she's found love then I worry little about her now. The other...he is mortal and one day he'll......die. And I can stop torturing, as you put it, myself then."

Shen stopped to actually consider his words, staying quiet for several long minutes. In all of his ears he never had really questioned what it was he kept going on for, was there anything? For the first hundred years or so it had been with hopes Xiao would return, but he had given up on that hope. As he crinkled his brow he could only shrug, "I cannot think of a reason as to why I continue on, only that I am not ready to let go."

That was a good enough reason wasn't it? Yet, it still lingered in his mind how close he had came a few weeks ago to turning another simply because of the want for company. Now it was him becoming somewhat depressed as he processed more and more thoughts.

"Thinking too much can be a bad thing also," he said finally, resteeling his resolve and pushing away such thoughts. He had become discplined in life to put away the things that could weaken oneself, it was a trait he planned to never forget as his face became solid and almost stonelike. "Who is the mortal you look after?"

"You don't need a reason to keep going. It is only that I would not keep going except that I do have a reason to." He leaned over put his elbows on his knees, lacing his fingers. His back bone was riged through his shirt.

Now, turning another for company, Morose might have to argue. He'd been turned for someones company and all he had brought with him from human to vampire was bitterness and hatred. He'd hated Enyo, despised her in a way that he'd never known possible, for those first months. But he'd loved her too because one can't help but love their sire. Eventually, he stopped hating her because what was done was done and couldn't be taken back.

The faintest smile, the first real smile, touched his thin lips but didn't extend to brighten his face. "Yes, it is. But I was not turned to become an unthinking zombie of a half dead creature. Thinking is a human quality that I tressure." Upon the next question, he turned his head, sitting up and letting his eyes bore into Shen, looking him over with darkened, gaurded eyes. After a very long moment he sighed. Apparently he really treassured this human, really loved and guarded him. "His name is Jex. He is a friend I found not long before Enyo attacked me. He was starving and I brought him back to health.

It was actually quite a lot like nourishing a baby, which is probably why Morose has such fatherly instincts for this man.

"I see." He said quietly, watching Morose's reaction to each question and listening to every response. Shen began to stroke his hair as he thought for a moment, paying half-attention to a stray car that came flying past without ever slowing for the intersection near where they sat.

"But, how can you protect this other when you starve yourself to disillusion?" Protection, in Shen's mind at least, required guile and strength. Neither of which could be accomplished successfully, or at least easily, when so close to the edge from malnutrition.

Maybe his curiosity was invading where it did not belong again, but the question was asked and he really hadn't thought better of it until the words were spoken.

"I...am taking care of the only physical part of his protection when it comes to that." Meaning he will feed and he will have strength for that one feat in particular. "Everything else he needs does not require me to drink blood to provid for him. Everything I own belongs to him, and everything he asks for, I give. The only thing he needs now is my company."

Trust him, he's thought it all the way through. There are things that may require him to feed but access to blood when it was needed was a quick, not so easy for him but definatly quick, process.

"I provide him protection from others like...ourselves that have ill intentions for him. And I give him the love that every person needs."

Shen nodded, "I should probably be going. It has truly been a pleasure, Morose." As he stood up Shen turned and bowed to him before taking a half-step backward and turning on his heels. His pace was very slow and his arms returned to being folded over his chest.

In truth he had much to think on with what was left of the night, in part to a few things Morose had said, but mostly from other events that were bothering him to end. Stealing once more glance over his shoulder, he stopped and made the walk back to where the other was sitting.

"Do you want help back to your... home? Make sure you get back in one piece, and hopefully not wandering lost when the sunrises." It was a left over 'flaw' from his human years, caring about the fate of others at times, even if they held no real sway over his own.

“Likewise,” though he wasn’t sure yet if it had been a pleasure or an inconvinent accident with comments and quotes that would haunt him for months. He tipped his head in a sort of dizzy fashion when bowed to. Arms folded over his chest, in a pace that was slow, he wondered if that was how he often looked to others when he walked.

Standing was a slow process, weak and tired, and by the time he managed, Shen had turned. “It would be nice, but you’ve brought me out of my mindlessness,” for the evening at the very least. “I think I can manage.” In truth, he was reaching down the line of connection that connected he, Jex, and Enyo (and Vivienne) together, searching for Enyo. “I will be home and hidden before the sunlight. Thank you.”

Shen listened to Morose's words and nodded slowly. "Very well, take care of yourself." Moving back off down the street again, away from the other, he shook his head slowly and passed a look up toward the moon. That was definately a strange one, that much Shen was convinced of as he stopped and let car pass by before crossing the road.

"You too," he replied.

Morose didn't move for a long time after watching the other go. He tipped his head back and turned his blue eyes to the sky. Closing them, he stayed there longer before standing, eyes closed, and begining to move away. Eventually he opened his eyes and when he finally did, he found himself on a different street in a different area, Enyo not far in front of him.