( he sets the glass aside on the small desk beside his bed, and then folds his hands in his lap. )
It was considered among my kind. I believe humans would be too clever for it to be a sustainable model.
( he and eric lived in a vampire commune in the seventeenth century. humans kept, yes, as cattle. it was a workable situation until one human escaped, and staked two vampires in his escape. he was killed, of course, but godric had admired his spirit. it was one of the precipitating events that lead to his change of heart on humanity. )
But I was speaking in jest, yes. I apologize if it offered offense.
No offense. I caught the joke, just wanted to confirm that there was truth in it as well. Granted, you don't seem much at all like the vampires I'm used to... is that true of your kind in general, where you're from, and the human farm types are the minority? Or are you the exception?
[ He's leaning towards thinking that Godric is just different, but if it's an origin-based difference, well. That's easier to wrap his head around, honestly. ]
( he has not concerned himself with the larger scope of vampire politics for some decades now. dallas is his domain, and though he has been offered an area kingship more than once by the authority he has always felt he has exactly as much power as he wants. he glances down at his hands, tips his head to one side. )
The vampires of my world are as wide and varied as its humans as far as such philosophies go. Some are peaceable. There are ones among us who have never frenzied, have never taken from an unwilling human even in their infancy. And there are those that have slaughtered countless innocents to slake their bloodlust. I fear the latter to be far more frequent. The former requires a very strong sense of self in one's mortal life, that one may overcome our baser instincts, and a sire who will foster that sense of self.
( he lifts one shoulder in a faint shrug. appius compelled him to feed on his own countrymen in the slave quarters. it was a punishment. he supposes a different sire may have compelled him just as easily to abstain. )
I am no exception, but my view of humanity is a rare one among my kind. I do not think very much like a vampire any more.
You didn't feel particularly human, either. Too... ancient.
[ It's not an insult, just an observation. Trevor, despite himself, is curious. ]
How do you sustain yourself, where you're from? If there are willing humans, I suspect you are more open about your nature than the creatures of the night are in my world?
There are perhaps some ten older than myself, though they have not all... acclimated as I have.
( the older the vampire, the more likely they are mired in the old ways. godric is, in that sense, an exception. )
Vampires in my world have revealed themselves to the public several years ago, with the advent of artificial blood that is capable of sustaining us. We have... public relations experts who have spun vampirism as a sort of... medical condition, treated by oral transfusion of blood. Quite clever. My kind have also been largely responsible for vampire literature in the last several centuries, leading to a sort of romanticized and indeed tolerant view of us. Humans view the bite as erotic. Many will come willingly to a nest to offer themselves in service, in the hopes that they will themselves become a vampire. It is a fear of death that drives them.
( stan liked those ones. liked crushing the hope in their eyes. it did not seem to matter how often godric told him to marshal himself, he did as he pleased. godric was not sorry for his loss. )
[ That's very different, Trevor thinks, from his world. He isn't certain the vampires he's used to fighting are so evolved as to be able to turn the pubic opinion like that, or that they'd ever bother. They think themselves so superior that it is a weakness in and of itself. And the mythology is correct, as far as Trevor knows. Certainly not romanticized. He can't imagine it, but... ]
This artificial blood... may I ask, it is a scientific advancement? Comparable to human?
Scientific, yes. And it is comparable. A vampire could sustain themselves on it alone, however for most the taste is... lacking. It is primarily the younger ones among us who still have memory of human food that best adapt to drinking it.
( he does not have a shortage of willing humans throwing themselves at his feet whatever their reasons. few know his age, but everyone who has set foot in his presence understands his power. he wears it unselfconsciously. )
And for the older ones it is insufficient... I'd imagine it's something like going from fresh steak to jerky, if you remember what meat is like. Does your world still have need of hunters, then, or has it found more of a balance?
[ Between the synthetic blood and vampirism being out in the open for humans to offer themselves, he'd imagine it almost possible to coexist... possible, but not how likely. Some of what Godric says does line up with his world, after all. With the love of chaos and death that power brings. ]
( it is an equilibrium. he has killed more than his share of them. )
It has recently come to human attention that ingesting vampire blood can cause several affects not unlike a drug to them, with considerably smaller risk. So, they are taking young ones of my kind and draining them. I have seen humans with necklaces of vampire fangs taken like trophies.
( a human gang once tried the same with him. they would not make the same mistake again. )
But many believe that a vampire is a damned creature that ought to be put down, that the devil can collect its own. Religion plays its part in that assumption.
People are as capable of monstrosities as any monster, that I know well. Especially the religious.
[ He sighs. ]
It does seem that the nature of vampirism is far more nuanced, in your world. And I've never heard tale of imbibing the blood of vampires or demons for anything other than black magic.
( he saw proof enough of that before he ever knew anything of vampires. it should not surprise anyone, truthfully, that a human given the strength and speed of a vampire, unfettered by inhibitions, would become a monster? )
You are quite open-minded on the matter for a human.
I would be a fool not to be, especially here where all of our origins and natures vary. But as a matter of fact, my previous companions were a mage and a dhampir -- a half vampire set on defeating his father for declaring war on humanity -- two more who would be condemned by most back home.
[ It's clear enough, although Trevor doesn't say it, that he has been as well. ]
( quite. godric cants his head curiously at the comment about half-vampires, though he does not press the matter. doubtless, it is as it sounds — even if such a thing is impossible by his metric, it is not difficult to grasp. )
They were called as such because it was the midpoint between the fall of Imperial Rome and the modern age. It's a rather outmoded view of the era, as it paints those who inhabited it as primitive and simplistic when the reality was anything but. Humans in the seventeen and eighteenth centuries preferred to think themselves markedly more sophisticated than their forebears.
( they were not, in point of fact. but burgeoning world travel, literacy, advancements in medicine and the like certainly convinced them of it, though godric himself had attended surgeries aplenty in his childhood. the druids knew which plants helped and which harmed. which could bring down a fever or draw an infection. technology was not the only lost thing. )
I see... from your perspective, having lived so long and seen so much, do you think people became more sophisticated? I don't believe we're much more so where I am from the past, as much as innovations have come to pass. This place and time seems much the same... people are still people, I don't find them particularly more advanced.
[ He's not dissing anyone, but... people really don't seem too different to him. Just more technologically developed. ]
Some do enjoy treating me as if I'm impaired somehow for not understanding the technology, though.
( the human condition is not an innately sophisticated one to begin with, but after a moment he amends — )
In the era of my birth, you had those that hated slavery, violence and brutality. That took joy in learning about other cultures rather than tear them down, that were honorable to their enemies and generous to their friends. In the era I am most recently come from, you have those that are much the same and in being so, those people were and still remain good people. The issue is that those that revel in humanity's worse traits are the loudest and have always been so. The future has given them more platforms.
( he lifts one hand, palm-up. )
A city is still a city. Streets, sewers, coliseums. People value displays of wealth in the same way. People still make promises they don't intend to keep. And people still stand in defense of others for the betterment of mankind. They have cultivated a better idea of things like germ theory, social and medical sciences, preservation of art and the like, but those things always existed to an extent, it is humanity's understanding of them that has shifted.
( he has a great many opinions on a great many people, too many to list. history has remembered the loudest voices but very rarely the best. his attention snaps back to trevor as if pulled by an elastic, and he sets his mouth into a firm line. it isn't dissimilar to the look he wears when expressing displeasure at an underling. )
And any who treat you poorly for an ignorance you cannot help is themselves a fool. You are an intelligent man, the advancements of the age are merely a matter of experience. You will learn.
[ Trevor listens to Godric's observations on humanity and nods along in agreement, finds himself wondering that he isn't balking at listening to a vampire's opinion but it's...... correct, to him. And the way he speaks, Trevor doesn't have to ask him to explain what he's saying the same way he often does with other people from the far future. It's strangely comfortable, already, and he doesn't know how to feel about that.
He realizes with a bit of a gutpunch that he likes Godric, despite himself and the difference in nature between them. It's almost like the moment he realized Alucard was a friend, but more shocking for it being a full vampire and there being no Sypha to mediate, to calm his instincts.
Who would have thought?
Then Godric says he's intelligent and Trevor finds himself feeling a strange sense of pride in that. He never thought of himself as being especially so, he's not a scholar or scientist, he's the one who hits things until they die, but. The rest of it makes sense to him and he finds himself valuing Godric's opinion. ]
That's something I've not heard since I was a child -- but yes, anyone can learn. Especially practical things such as this. Is your time as advanced as this city?
( but all human cities are essentially the same. all develop along the same lines. all grow from one small settlement. he has seen it enough to track the progress and understand it. )
New Amsterdam exists roughly five hundred years beyond my own time.
I see. So you're closer to this time than I am, but still a ways back. Interesting. I wonder if there's some correlation with the times and places people are drawn from, or if it's entirely random.
[ And now they're just.... chatting. As if Godric wasn't a vampire and Trevor wasn't a vampire hunter, as if he didn't just feed the other man his own blood. Strange. ]
Ah... I should get out of your hair, so to speak. Let you go back to whatever it is you were doing.
[ And reflect on his life choices. Possibly with more booze. ]
I would extend you the same courtesy. If you find your hunger growing again, or anything else I might be able to assist with.
[ And he'll definitely follow up if Godric doesn't, on the first count. But for now he nods and turns away, heading back to the kitchen for some privacy more than anything. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
It was considered among my kind. I believe humans would be too clever for it to be a sustainable model.
( he and eric lived in a vampire commune in the seventeenth century. humans kept, yes, as cattle. it was a workable situation until one human escaped, and staked two vampires in his escape. he was killed, of course, but godric had admired his spirit. it was one of the precipitating events that lead to his change of heart on humanity. )
But I was speaking in jest, yes. I apologize if it offered offense.
no subject
[ He's leaning towards thinking that Godric is just different, but if it's an origin-based difference, well. That's easier to wrap his head around, honestly. ]
no subject
The vampires of my world are as wide and varied as its humans as far as such philosophies go. Some are peaceable. There are ones among us who have never frenzied, have never taken from an unwilling human even in their infancy. And there are those that have slaughtered countless innocents to slake their bloodlust. I fear the latter to be far more frequent. The former requires a very strong sense of self in one's mortal life, that one may overcome our baser instincts, and a sire who will foster that sense of self.
( he lifts one shoulder in a faint shrug. appius compelled him to feed on his own countrymen in the slave quarters. it was a punishment. he supposes a different sire may have compelled him just as easily to abstain. )
I am no exception, but my view of humanity is a rare one among my kind. I do not think very much like a vampire any more.
no subject
[ It's not an insult, just an observation. Trevor, despite himself, is curious. ]
How do you sustain yourself, where you're from? If there are willing humans, I suspect you are more open about your nature than the creatures of the night are in my world?
no subject
( the older the vampire, the more likely they are mired in the old ways. godric is, in that sense, an exception. )
Vampires in my world have revealed themselves to the public several years ago, with the advent of artificial blood that is capable of sustaining us. We have... public relations experts who have spun vampirism as a sort of... medical condition, treated by oral transfusion of blood. Quite clever. My kind have also been largely responsible for vampire literature in the last several centuries, leading to a sort of romanticized and indeed tolerant view of us. Humans view the bite as erotic. Many will come willingly to a nest to offer themselves in service, in the hopes that they will themselves become a vampire. It is a fear of death that drives them.
( stan liked those ones. liked crushing the hope in their eyes. it did not seem to matter how often godric told him to marshal himself, he did as he pleased. godric was not sorry for his loss. )
no subject
[ That's very different, Trevor thinks, from his world. He isn't certain the vampires he's used to fighting are so evolved as to be able to turn the pubic opinion like that, or that they'd ever bother. They think themselves so superior that it is a weakness in and of itself. And the mythology is correct, as far as Trevor knows. Certainly not romanticized. He can't imagine it, but... ]
This artificial blood... may I ask, it is a scientific advancement? Comparable to human?
no subject
( he does not have a shortage of willing humans throwing themselves at his feet whatever their reasons. few know his age, but everyone who has set foot in his presence understands his power. he wears it unselfconsciously. )
no subject
[ Between the synthetic blood and vampirism being out in the open for humans to offer themselves, he'd imagine it almost possible to coexist... possible, but not how likely. Some of what Godric says does line up with his world, after all. With the love of chaos and death that power brings. ]
no subject
( it is an equilibrium. he has killed more than his share of them. )
It has recently come to human attention that ingesting vampire blood can cause several affects not unlike a drug to them, with considerably smaller risk. So, they are taking young ones of my kind and draining them. I have seen humans with necklaces of vampire fangs taken like trophies.
( a human gang once tried the same with him. they would not make the same mistake again. )
But many believe that a vampire is a damned creature that ought to be put down, that the devil can collect its own. Religion plays its part in that assumption.
no subject
[ He sighs. ]
It does seem that the nature of vampirism is far more nuanced, in your world. And I've never heard tale of imbibing the blood of vampires or demons for anything other than black magic.
no subject
You are quite open-minded on the matter for a human.
no subject
[ It's clear enough, although Trevor doesn't say it, that he has been as well. ]
no subject
What is the era from which you hail?
no subject
no subject
They were called as such because it was the midpoint between the fall of Imperial Rome and the modern age. It's a rather outmoded view of the era, as it paints those who inhabited it as primitive and simplistic when the reality was anything but. Humans in the seventeen and eighteenth centuries preferred to think themselves markedly more sophisticated than their forebears.
( they were not, in point of fact. but burgeoning world travel, literacy, advancements in medicine and the like certainly convinced them of it, though godric himself had attended surgeries aplenty in his childhood. the druids knew which plants helped and which harmed. which could bring down a fever or draw an infection. technology was not the only lost thing. )
no subject
[ He's not dissing anyone, but... people really don't seem too different to him. Just more technologically developed. ]
Some do enjoy treating me as if I'm impaired somehow for not understanding the technology, though.
no subject
( the human condition is not an innately sophisticated one to begin with, but after a moment he amends — )
In the era of my birth, you had those that hated slavery, violence and brutality. That took joy in learning about other cultures rather than tear them down, that were honorable to their enemies and generous to their friends. In the era I am most recently come from, you have those that are much the same and in being so, those people were and still remain good people. The issue is that those that revel in humanity's worse traits are the loudest and have always been so. The future has given them more platforms.
( he lifts one hand, palm-up. )
A city is still a city. Streets, sewers, coliseums. People value displays of wealth in the same way. People still make promises they don't intend to keep. And people still stand in defense of others for the betterment of mankind. They have cultivated a better idea of things like germ theory, social and medical sciences, preservation of art and the like, but those things always existed to an extent, it is humanity's understanding of them that has shifted.
( he has a great many opinions on a great many people, too many to list. history has remembered the loudest voices but very rarely the best. his attention snaps back to trevor as if pulled by an elastic, and he sets his mouth into a firm line. it isn't dissimilar to the look he wears when expressing displeasure at an underling. )
And any who treat you poorly for an ignorance you cannot help is themselves a fool. You are an intelligent man, the advancements of the age are merely a matter of experience. You will learn.
no subject
He realizes with a bit of a gutpunch that he likes Godric, despite himself and the difference in nature between them. It's almost like the moment he realized Alucard was a friend, but more shocking for it being a full vampire and there being no Sypha to mediate, to calm his instincts.
Who would have thought?
Then Godric says he's intelligent and Trevor finds himself feeling a strange sense of pride in that. He never thought of himself as being especially so, he's not a scholar or scientist, he's the one who hits things until they die, but. The rest of it makes sense to him and he finds himself valuing Godric's opinion. ]
That's something I've not heard since I was a child -- but yes, anyone can learn. Especially practical things such as this. Is your time as advanced as this city?
no subject
( but all human cities are essentially the same. all develop along the same lines. all grow from one small settlement. he has seen it enough to track the progress and understand it. )
New Amsterdam exists roughly five hundred years beyond my own time.
no subject
[ And now they're just.... chatting. As if Godric wasn't a vampire and Trevor wasn't a vampire hunter, as if he didn't just feed the other man his own blood. Strange. ]
Ah... I should get out of your hair, so to speak. Let you go back to whatever it is you were doing.
[ And reflect on his life choices. Possibly with more booze. ]
no subject
Please, do not hesitate to call on me in the future. I will help you if I am able.
no subject
[ And he'll definitely follow up if Godric doesn't, on the first count. But for now he nods and turns away, heading back to the kitchen for some privacy more than anything. ]