[ About wanting a friend instead of a lackey. Sharkface isn't sure he believes it, but he sat with the question for a long time after talking with Angela. Wondering where he stood with her, where he stands with other people. The lines have blurred, just a little. And he's started to wonder, why not? Why not stand next to people he likes and spend time with them? He's already gotten to the point where he'd kill someone if it meant protecting Angela or Gene, and not because they're useful to him. But because he doesn't want them to be hurt and the world seemed well positioned to do just that.
It's a strange, dangerous thought. One he's only beginning to define the edges of. It cannot last, and he knows that, but maybe he could try to be Ephemera for real.
Just for a little while. ]
Anyway. Thought you might appreciate this.
[ He sends over a picture. It's taken inside the apartment he's been crashing in. The lighting isn't very good, but it shows a wide expanse of wall, the hint of a ceiling above. And on it someone has painted a mural in acrylics, depicting a sunrise over a Morningstart safehouse. The colors are vibrant and heavy, the shadows a little too thick to be entirely realistic. The buildings rise with the sun, ghostly faces peering out of dark windows. Too distant to see clearly, but paying witness nonetheless. And at the center, the sun is rising the light chases back the dark. ]
( it's its own answer. he hadn't wanted to assume which side the boy would come down on, but this is... a step, perhaps.
he studies the picture for a long time. memorizing the lines, the places where the paint dipped into shadow. godric has lived a very long time and, as needs demanded, descended into the hedonism of the renaissance age. he has known artists whose names have been remembered by history and those that time has forgotten. he remembers them all. oddly, it is one of the only things that has ever been very good at moving him. art was very important to his people, though little of theirs has survived.
this is a statement. a moment. frozen, suspended in oil and acrylic. )
[ It's odd to share his paintings with other people. Something other than the work he'd done on his armor. That was meant to be seen, a warning to anyone he met in the field. So they'd know exactly who was coming for them.
This is something different. He's not entirely sure what to make of it yet. ]
Hangovers don't last that long.
[ That's probably not what Godric's asking, though. ]
( he drank wine, of course, and other things of that nature, but it was so normal as to be part of life. his tolerance therefore was greater than a child of modernity would have ever been.
he has chosen to feast on inebriated humans, which does transfer some of the effects of drunkenness, but it does not last and leaves no trace.
it isn't what he was asking, but he will let the man answer as he wishes. it is a personal thing, after all. )
[ That's — huh. Godric looks young, even through Sharkface knows he's not. Most of the stories say vampires start out human. Get bitten and then boom. Turning, that's the phrase he remembers. Maybe Godric turned before he could get hungover the first time. It's a rite of passage, back home. Maybe not a very good one, but one of the few he remembers from before he joined the military. Getting drunk on his foster mom's stolen whiskey. Hurt like hell afterward but it'd proved that he could do it. That he could make his own goddamn decisions, even if they were dumb.
[ It's not a lie. He's feeling steady now. In control of himself and the persona he's trying to show to everyone. ]
I get caught on things sometimes. It passes.
[ Some of them do. Not all. But that's a secret he intends to take to the grave. Or at least back to Chorus, where he can find Washington and Carolina, and then nothing at all will matter. ]
( he might have been contented to leave it at that. yet a short time later, he returns to this conversation. )
What did you hope to gain by telling a vampire hunter of me?
( of all the people he has divulged his nature to, only ephemera feared him. it is a reasonable, logical conclusion to have come to, and he does not think himself incorrect. )
And if I got you some blood? The local hospitals should have plasma and their security's probably shit.
[ He's more than wiling to rob a hospital if it gets the job done. ]
Sunlight, silver, beheading. Wooden stake. Something about holy water and crosses.
[ This is very clearly not his area. ]
I'm not strong enough to go up somebody like you, even a younger one, or however the fuck that works. Not without armor. But if I got somebody to make silver bullets at a high enough caliber, something big enough to take a person's head off, would that work?
The preservative they use in the blood is unpleasant to ingest, but it would suffice.
Holy water and crosses do not work, at least on the vampires of my world. The idea of a singular faith being effective against my kind when others are not is a form of propaganda we have perpetuated to protect ourselves.
( he does not like giving away vampire secrets, that is something ingrained in him bone-deep, yet if the awareness already exists he will not lie. )
I would rather you not kill her. To my understanding, she is not like this normally. Something of this place has caused her to become so.
[ Sharkface isn't among them. It's what he does, and what people have tried to do to him for as long as he can remember. But he knows that's not how the rest of the universe operates. ]
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timeasmymeasure
@terrence.ephemera
Date: 2020-01-21 02:40 am (UTC)[ About wanting a friend instead of a lackey. Sharkface isn't sure he believes it, but he sat with the question for a long time after talking with Angela. Wondering where he stood with her, where he stands with other people. The lines have blurred, just a little. And he's started to wonder, why not? Why not stand next to people he likes and spend time with them? He's already gotten to the point where he'd kill someone if it meant protecting Angela or Gene, and not because they're useful to him. But because he doesn't want them to be hurt and the world seemed well positioned to do just that.
It's a strange, dangerous thought. One he's only beginning to define the edges of. It cannot last, and he knows that, but maybe he could try to be Ephemera for real.
Just for a little while. ]
Anyway. Thought you might appreciate this.
[ He sends over a picture. It's taken inside the apartment he's been crashing in. The lighting isn't very good, but it shows a wide expanse of wall, the hint of a ceiling above. And on it someone has painted a mural in acrylics, depicting a sunrise over a Morningstart safehouse. The colors are vibrant and heavy, the shadows a little too thick to be entirely realistic. The buildings rise with the sun, ghostly faces peering out of dark windows. Too distant to see clearly, but paying witness nonetheless. And at the center, the sun is rising the light chases back the dark. ]
no subject
Date: 2020-01-21 02:59 am (UTC)he studies the picture for a long time. memorizing the lines, the places where the paint dipped into shadow. godric has lived a very long time and, as needs demanded, descended into the hedonism of the renaissance age. he has known artists whose names have been remembered by history and those that time has forgotten. he remembers them all. oddly, it is one of the only things that has ever been very good at moving him. art was very important to his people, though little of theirs has survived.
this is a statement. a moment. frozen, suspended in oil and acrylic. )
Is this your answer?
no subject
Date: 2020-01-21 03:06 am (UTC)[ It might have been better to lie and say yes, no qualifications, but that's not who he is. Not in the long term.
Still. Maybe he can be Ephemera for a while. Just until he gets back home. ]
no subject
Date: 2020-01-21 03:13 am (UTC)Have you recovered from our first meeting?
no subject
Date: 2020-01-21 03:25 am (UTC)This is something different. He's not entirely sure what to make of it yet. ]
Hangovers don't last that long.
[ That's probably not what Godric's asking, though. ]
no subject
Date: 2020-01-21 03:31 am (UTC)( he drank wine, of course, and other things of that nature, but it was so normal as to be part of life. his tolerance therefore was greater than a child of modernity would have ever been.
he has chosen to feast on inebriated humans, which does transfer some of the effects of drunkenness, but it does not last and leaves no trace.
it isn't what he was asking, but he will let the man answer as he wishes. it is a personal thing, after all. )
no subject
Date: 2020-01-21 03:41 am (UTC)Yeah, well. They can't change that now. ]
Can you get drunk?
[ It's an obvious stall, but also: can he? ]
no subject
Date: 2020-01-21 03:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-21 03:55 am (UTC)[ He's a little jealous. But, of course, that's not what Godric asked. Not really. ]
If you're asking whether I regularly get drunk and pick fights, no, I don't. That won't happen again.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-21 03:58 am (UTC)I wished only to know if you were all right.
( physically, yes, but mentally equally as much. )
no subject
Date: 2020-01-21 04:07 am (UTC)[ It's not a lie. He's feeling steady now. In control of himself and the persona he's trying to show to everyone. ]
I get caught on things sometimes. It passes.
[ Some of them do. Not all. But that's a secret he intends to take to the grave. Or at least back to Chorus, where he can find Washington and Carolina, and then nothing at all will matter. ]
no subject
Date: 2020-01-21 04:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-21 04:14 am (UTC)[ Godric didn't push the issue. Just accepted it. So. That's something, too. ]
no subject
Date: 2020-01-21 06:20 pm (UTC)What did you hope to gain by telling a vampire hunter of me?
( of all the people he has divulged his nature to, only ephemera feared him. it is a reasonable, logical conclusion to have come to, and he does not think himself incorrect. )
no subject
Date: 2020-01-21 06:26 pm (UTC)An exchange of information. I asked him how you go about killing a vampire.
[ Brutal honesty seems like the way to go at this point. ]
Take it you know about the other one.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-21 06:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-21 06:29 pm (UTC)And?
no subject
Date: 2020-01-21 06:30 pm (UTC)I caused her to lose interest in her human victim. The rest is irrelevant.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-21 06:34 pm (UTC)Look. I don't understand half of this shit. But you've been straight with me so far. Can you deal with her or not?
no subject
Date: 2020-01-21 06:37 pm (UTC)What did Mr. Belmont tell you of our weaknesses?
no subject
Date: 2020-01-21 06:42 pm (UTC)[ He's more than wiling to rob a hospital if it gets the job done. ]
Sunlight, silver, beheading. Wooden stake. Something about holy water and crosses.
[ This is very clearly not his area. ]
I'm not strong enough to go up somebody like you, even a younger one, or however the fuck that works. Not without armor. But if I got somebody to make silver bullets at a high enough caliber, something big enough to take a person's head off, would that work?
no subject
Date: 2020-01-21 07:38 pm (UTC)Holy water and crosses do not work, at least on the vampires of my world. The idea of a singular faith being effective against my kind when others are not is a form of propaganda we have perpetuated to protect ourselves.
( he does not like giving away vampire secrets, that is something ingrained in him bone-deep, yet if the awareness already exists he will not lie. )
I would rather you not kill her. To my understanding, she is not like this normally. Something of this place has caused her to become so.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-21 08:01 pm (UTC)I'm willing to follow your lead on this one. But she's already dropped bodies. There's going to be a reckoning one way or another.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-21 09:05 pm (UTC)The next time you see fit to approach another for weapons against my kind, you might instead consider asking me directly.
( he isn't angry. just resigned, and somewhat disappointed. )
no subject
Date: 2020-01-21 09:14 pm (UTC)Most people take that sort of thing personally.
[ Sharkface isn't among them. It's what he does, and what people have tried to do to him for as long as he can remember. But he knows that's not how the rest of the universe operates. ]
I got no intention of going after you.
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