zaira

[vampirezai]

╰┈➤ meet ZAIRA DURMAZ.

name: zaira durmaz

age: 35 (current) / 28 (turned)

species: vampire

╰┈➤ BIO.

Zaira's parents were, once upon a time, hippies. They spent the first six years of Zai's life travelling around in a van, teaching her about the earth and music and art and anything else that struck her fancy. She thought they would live like that forever, perfectly happy — and then her parents found God. It came on the tide of a bad acid trip and so the Durmaz family traded their van for four immobile walls and a roof, and became regulars at Sunday service. And Wednesday service. And any other service that happened to crop up.

Her parents transformed seemingly overnight. They became strict and fearful and tried to bend her to their new way of life, but Zaira had not lost her free spirit, and so spent most of her time at odds with her family and the church elders. When her siblings were born and became exactly what their parents wanted them to be, she felt even more like the odd one out and so resolved to be difficult, because that was what everyone expected from her. She ran away from home countless times as a teenager and finally left for good the day of her eighteenth birthday.

Nostalgic for her childhood she bought an old van and lived and travelled in it for most of her twenties, becoming wild and reckless with freedom. Whatever, whenever became her motto. Unfortunately her wild ways did her no favours, and one night she was attacked and left for dead — that's when Lorcan found her. A pacifist, a bleeding heart, a vampire. He healed her with his blood and compelled her to forget, thinking that would be the end of it; a terrible stroke of luck found Zaira involved in a car accident less than twenty four hours later, and she woke up a vampire.

Lorcan found her again and took her under his wing, trying to teach her how to be a "good" vampire; he still drinks from humans but tries to be gentle with them, and hasn't killed in over 200 years. Unfortunately, Zaira's hedonistic ways were amplified by her transformation. She has very little restraint and indulges in everything to excess, including blood, and has not taken Lorcan's teachings to heart. He's trying to gentle parent her by letting her make mistakes and has followed her up and down the country, cleaning up the messes she's left behind, convinced she will grow out of the bad behaviour.

Zaira has loved the last seven years as a vampire. The only thing that would make it perfect? Being able to go out in the sun. Lorcan has stopped her from acquiring a daylight right, scared of what further carnage she could cause if she were not limited to the night, and so she's ended up in Mystic Falls, trying to get her hands on one before her maker tracks her down again. Failing that, there are some interesting rumours about a sun and moon curse…

[vampirezai]

Zaira's van was on its last legs. Had been for years, but she was steadfastly refusing to let it go and find another. The van had been her escape from home. It was the place where she had died and become a vampire, and she'd compelled at least a dozen mechanics to get it back into shape after the crash. Why give up on it now, just because the engine liked to conk out every couple hundred miles? Plus, it was a crime scene on wheels. It'd be a pain in the ass to get the blood stains out of the interior, and she couldn't bear to see it burned.

Tonight's problem was at least an easy fix — the battery had died, another thing Zaira had been meaning to replace but hadn't gotten around to. The road her van had rolled to a stop on was quiet, out of the way, especially at this time of night. Fortunately her very limited patience wasn't stretched for too long; headlights swung around the corner and she stepped into their path, arm outstretched, heedless of whether they might stop or not.

[lockwolves]

grace wasn't quite sure what to make of the carnival. sure, it came to the town every year or so but this time things were different. animal attacks, strange people wandering around - there was always something new and creepy going on. she has her arms folded across her chest as she stares up at the ferris wheel in an almost grumpy manner.

[vampirezai]

"Wow. What did that ferris wheel ever do to you?" Zaira had sidled up to the stranger and now tilted her head. "Bad breakup? Get dumped at the top and have to do the awkward ride down?"

[wakeupstiles]

"No, no--I mean I'm sure it's totally normal to have a bunch of bodies mysteriously turning up drained of blood. Happens all the time in other towns, you know, animals just...do that, they bite people and....suck the blood out..." he hardly get the words out with a straight face. "I'm just saying, it's weird. I don't know any mountain lions personally, but I've never heard of one leaving the body afterwords. The point is kind of to eat it."

[vampirezai]

"Oh my god." Zaira's face contorted into something resembling surprise as she pretended to come to an unexpected conclusion. "I think you're on to something here. I mean… people being drained of blood… their bodies left to rot… you don't think…?" She gasped, perhaps a bit over the top, and widened her eyes as she lowered her voice to a whisper. "Vampires?"

[pasteurdaughter]

" Hey ! Could you give me a ride back to my farm ? " April was supposed to cycle back to her home but it was getting late. It was dark and she was past curfiew. She needed to find a creative solution to get home quickly." If my dad catches me outside when the sun has set, I'm in big trouble !" They had already fought the previous day and she did not fancy being grounded. " You're not going to kidnap me right ?" She joked. In such a small town, everyone knew each others and there was no such things as kidnappings.

[vampirezai]

Zaira's van rolled to a stop and she leaned out of the window, eyes glinting in the darkness. Now that the sun had set she was taking a quick driving tour of the town, looking for places she might be able to stash her van undisturbed during the day, but this could be a fun detour. "Didn't your dad teach you not to take rides from strangers? I could be a deranged serial killer for all you know." Her eyebrows were raised and then her face split into a grin. "I'm not though," she lied. "I'll give you a ride. Name's Zaira."

[bewitchedruin]

The dead were always loud, but it was worse in a public setting. so many people gathered with spirits attached to them like puppets on a string. Ghosts were exhausting because no one ever left this plane with their life tied up in a neat little bow. That's the thing about dying--no one's ever ready. They always have something dire left to be said or done, and as soon as they knew she could see them, they chained themselves to her like anchors to an unfit life raft. It felt like drowning, except it wasn't water she was choking on, it was a tsunami of everyone else's grief. It had been stupid to come, but she was trying not to be a hermit. So much for that, since she was already off at the edge of the lot where it was more quiet. She could hear the games and rides playing over the distant crowd as she dug through her purse, looking for a lighter to smoke her joint. Someone struck the bell on the strength game really hard with the hammer and all the lights went off, blasting celebratory music. Isa angled her purse into the momentary brightness to confirm what she already knew.

"shit." she muttered. Isa looked around, scanning the few people nearest to see if any of them looked like they might actually smoke. It was a long shot since most people vaped now. Isa hesitated as she spotted someone but ultimately took a step forward. "Hey--you wouldn't happen to have a lighter I could borrow, would you?" If not, maybe there was one she could buy around here. Hell, maybe this was her cue to leave and go home.

[vampirezai]

"A lighter? Sure." Zaira fished in her jacket pocket and produced a handful of debris: three pennies, a vape cartridge, two rings, a dusty gummy worm, and a lighter. She extracted the lighter and held it out to the stranger, noticing then the pair of bright pink plastic boobs affixed to it, and remembered that she had taken it from a trucker two states ago — or was it three? Either way, she was almost certain that the boobs would light up as soon as the lighter was flicked on, and it made her grin. "I'll trade you the lighter for a cigarette. Great deal, honestly. I'd ask for two but, you know," she flicked at the pink plastic, "they don't jiggle. Wouldn't be fair."