( hearing the surname of his child in reference to himself suffuses him with warmth and old love — he misses eric, but he is old enough that he carries those he loves alongside him and there is no grief at their absence.
this earth is not the one he knows. otherwise, eric would have already come for him. )
I have found it necessary to learn.
( he is private by nature, but he has learned that admitting to his humanity has cost him nothing. it is not a source of shame, or something he wishes to conceal. it is simply something that has become part of him, and so without preamble — )
The activation of the gates seems to have granted me a great gift. I am human, wholly and entirely.
[ Trevor's brows furrow at that. It's not as if he understands how the Gates work, or their connection to the Displaced -- it seems magical to him, but he's been assured that it's some sort of technology which places it even further out of his understanding -- but that's quite a thing for them to do. To change his species in a blink? And no one has ever come back from being a vampire, that Trevor knows of.
Just as no vampire has ever denied their nature for as long as this one has. Had. Past tense now, wouldn't it be?
He steps forward cautiously, curiously, to get a better look at the other man. ]
( he has yet to tan, but his skin is perhaps less deathly pale, and now holds a living temperature. he breathes by necessity rather than a desire to speak. he still does not seem a teenage boy — none have his composure and poise and the surety of self, but he is unequivocally human.)
I cannot say how or why. I do not believe the others of my kind were affected thusly. This is mine and mine alone.
And you view it as a gift. Again, you prove yourself distinctly different from others of your ki-- former kind.
[ There is one more obvious difference besides the lack of undead pallor -- Godric is breathing. Not simply to speak, but as he sits at the table his chest rises and falls in a rhythm that would be difficult to engineer. Trevor lifts a hand to his mouth in wonder. It would seem the other man is doing quite well with all the changes to consider, and a million questions spin through his head. The first he asks is perhaps the most important to him. ]
Do you feel different? Not physically, but. Yourself.
( he himself has struggled with explaining it. he feels more present. more aware in some ways, less so in others. emotions are sharper, hormones are running riot through a body ill-accustomed to their management. his mastery of self is being tested by struggles every sixteen year old go through.
it is... a curious thing. a welcome one. things he had thought he would never experience, and yet. )
I have found myself grappling with aspects of being human that have not concerned me for thousands of years. But my mind is my own, and my personality is unaffected. I believe I may be more likely to lose my temper now.
( a slight upwards quirk of his lips. that is intended as humor, as trevor is likely aware of how little chance there is of that. )
[ Trevor gives a soft huff of a laugh because yes, he knows how unlikely that still will be. He's endlessly curious about this new development, though, and how Godric is dealing. ]
Which aspects are those? I may be able to offer some insight.
[ He's unfastening his coat, which Godric might notice is new -- nothing fancy, but it's long enough to hit his knees and when he pulls it off to drape over the chair he intends to take, there's something else different. He has a chain whip coiled on his hip, explaining the splurge on new attire. ]
( he does note the jacket, and the weapon at his side. it is a curious thing, and given the man's occupation it seems like as not to be an accouterment of the job.
somewhat wryly, )
I've forgotten more than once that oxygen is a necessity to life.
( please enjoy the mental image of him just taking an enormous gasp of air because breathing is not a matter of muscle memory for him now. )
I felt adrenaline a few days ago for the first time in millennia. I'd forgotten the havoc it wreaks on the body.
Your body seems to have caught on again now, or are you still breathing intentionally? The trick for most people is to not think about it -- much easier that way.
[ Ah, adrenaline. Trevor is very familiar with it, but he doesn't know it by that name. He sits adjacent to Godric, mostly focused on the conversation but part of him is wondering what it means that the other man doesn't deem himself inherently changed by the alteration of his species. ]
It is becoming easier, day by day. The body understands what to do, it is the mind that struggles.
( he gestures a little to the soup tureen, an open offer to help himself should he be interested in food. it seems only fair, after their initial meeting. he cants his head in the interim, trying to ascertain how he should describe adrenaline to a man from a time before its scientific discovery. )
Adrenaline is the name of a hormone that affects the body. It is what is responsible for the bursts of strength and speed you get in a life or death situation. It quickens the blood, aids in faster reactions.
( he lifts his left hand, where a knife has lately been driven through it. he has removed the bandage, but neat sutures are visible where angela put them into the skin. )
[ Trevor smiles quietly, then nods his thanks and leans forward to get himself some soup while Godric explains this 'adrenaline' to him. He's always hungry, honestly. ]
Ah, the hysterical strength of battle... it does come with a rather unpleasant crash, doesn't it? Especially when pain begins to set in.
[ He hisses when he sees the sutures, knowing instinctively that the blade must have gone clean through. It looks well tended, though, and healing healthily. ]
( after trevor serves himself, he takes his share as well. it is an old, old recipe, modified somewhat with the modern ingredients available to him. at the question about his hand, he pauses. )
It is difficult to say. It aches, certainly. I am aware of its existence, and the sensation is one to which I am unaccustomed. But human pain is... ( he is silent a moment. it is not often he struggles so astutely to describe much of anything, and yet — ) It is as if pain travels a different pathway in my body. I am not certain how else to describe it.
[ Interesting, Trevor thinks, lifting the spoon set at his place and stirring the soup before he tries it. ]
Experience leads me to imagine it's worse, as a human. More... urgent, insistent? Vampires in my homeland seem to be able to ignore it far more readily.
[ He takes a spoonful of the soup, curious how Godric's newly-human taste buds are serving him. ]
It is more acute, yes. But my tolerance for pain had cause to be considerable even before my humanity was taken from me.
( it seems in line with what he remembers, for what it is worth. yet he does not think himself an accurate metric of the human experience — he received his tattoos at a young age even by the standards of his people, and did not flinch. )
( he is beyond caring. there was a time and a place his secrets were sacrosanct, but now? he is scarcely attached to them as anything beyond what shaped him. )
I had no shortage of human companions in my nest. Due to the nature of our arrangements, it was often necessary to provide them with food. Cooking interested me for a time, and I received few complaints as to my skill.
Alright... what was the cause? I hope you didn't find yourself mistreated.
[ It's even odds that's the case and Godric doesn't care after so long, or that it's something less fraught. And the explanation about cooking makes a great deal of sense. ]
And now you'll get to benefit from your own abilities.
( he tips his head to one side. considering, as he mulls over his soup, stirring it soundlessly, without the metallic ting of the knife against the side of his bowl. it is still slightly too hot for his preference. )
I was the son of a king. Pain was necessary. I learned fighting, broke bones, took injury. And I have many tattoos, tests of said tolerance.
( he lifts the spoon. the soup is now about the temperature of blood. he supposes it is a holdover. )
Then, I was a slave to a vampire master. He did not put stock in kindness.
( trevor is a compassionate sort. an odd thing in a vampire hunter, to bleed so for a creature he is sworn to hate. yet godric finds he does not mind it overmuch. this rough-around-the-edges boy puts him very much in a mind of eric when he least expects the comparison to arise. he gestures a bit with his spoon. )
And I suppose I will, yes. I trust you will come to dinner often, that I may see to it you are fed.
[ Trevor watches, listens, sips his own soup and appreciates it. He's glad to hear that Godric's human family wasn't specifically abusive -- he also learned to fight and sustained injuries as a child, at least, it doesn't seem done from cruelty. He doesn't personally know how much a tattoo hurts, but if it's what was done in Godric's culture they are probably badges of honor he was praised for enduring.
He both does and doesn't want to hear about the vampire master, and debates it briefly before deciding it might put him off his soup. Another time, perhaps. ]
I see. I don't have any tattoos... what and where are yours? I've heard placement matters.
[ He can't help the smile that curves his mouth at Godric's sideways offer to feed him, softer and more genuine than when he smirks out of amusement. This is an appreciate expression that Godric may not have really seen on him yet. ]
You may, of course. I will never turn food down, but do I look underfed?
( he may be a barbarian, born savage and without civility in the eyes of the roman high society of the time, but he is hardly going to take his shirt off at the dinner table. instead, idly, he tugs the collar of his shirt askew to show off the one done just beneath his collarbones. it was a sign of nobility among his people.
unintended, perhaps, is the fact that this also reveals he has two oddly elongated (and sharp, no doubt) teeth on a strip of leather around his neck. )
The others are on my biceps and down my spine. You'll forgive me if I do not strip to show you. As to the food — not necessarily, no, but it is a courtesy and a custom of my people.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2020-02-24 04:49 pm (UTC)this earth is not the one he knows. otherwise, eric would have already come for him. )
I have found it necessary to learn.
( he is private by nature, but he has learned that admitting to his humanity has cost him nothing. it is not a source of shame, or something he wishes to conceal. it is simply something that has become part of him, and so without preamble — )
The activation of the gates seems to have granted me a great gift. I am human, wholly and entirely.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-24 04:54 pm (UTC)Just as no vampire has ever denied their nature for as long as this one has. Had. Past tense now, wouldn't it be?
He steps forward cautiously, curiously, to get a better look at the other man. ]
...pardon, Godric?
[ Very eloquent, Trevor. ]
no subject
Date: 2020-02-24 05:01 pm (UTC)( he has yet to tan, but his skin is perhaps less deathly pale, and now holds a living temperature. he breathes by necessity rather than a desire to speak. he still does not seem a teenage boy — none have his composure and poise and the surety of self, but he is unequivocally human. )
I cannot say how or why. I do not believe the others of my kind were affected thusly. This is mine and mine alone.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-24 05:06 pm (UTC)[ There is one more obvious difference besides the lack of undead pallor -- Godric is breathing. Not simply to speak, but as he sits at the table his chest rises and falls in a rhythm that would be difficult to engineer. Trevor lifts a hand to his mouth in wonder. It would seem the other man is doing quite well with all the changes to consider, and a million questions spin through his head. The first he asks is perhaps the most important to him. ]
Do you feel different? Not physically, but. Yourself.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-24 11:03 pm (UTC)( he himself has struggled with explaining it. he feels more present. more aware in some ways, less so in others. emotions are sharper, hormones are running riot through a body ill-accustomed to their management. his mastery of self is being tested by struggles every sixteen year old go through.
it is... a curious thing. a welcome one. things he had thought he would never experience, and yet. )
I have found myself grappling with aspects of being human that have not concerned me for thousands of years. But my mind is my own, and my personality is unaffected. I believe I may be more likely to lose my temper now.
( a slight upwards quirk of his lips. that is intended as humor, as trevor is likely aware of how little chance there is of that. )
no subject
Date: 2020-02-25 05:07 pm (UTC)Which aspects are those? I may be able to offer some insight.
[ He's unfastening his coat, which Godric might notice is new -- nothing fancy, but it's long enough to hit his knees and when he pulls it off to drape over the chair he intends to take, there's something else different. He has a chain whip coiled on his hip, explaining the splurge on new attire. ]
no subject
Date: 2020-02-25 07:03 pm (UTC)somewhat wryly, )
I've forgotten more than once that oxygen is a necessity to life.
( please enjoy the mental image of him just taking an enormous gasp of air because breathing is not a matter of muscle memory for him now. )
I felt adrenaline a few days ago for the first time in millennia. I'd forgotten the havoc it wreaks on the body.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-25 07:56 pm (UTC)[ Ah, adrenaline. Trevor is very familiar with it, but he doesn't know it by that name. He sits adjacent to Godric, mostly focused on the conversation but part of him is wondering what it means that the other man doesn't deem himself inherently changed by the alteration of his species. ]
What's that now, wreaking havoc?
no subject
Date: 2020-02-26 02:20 am (UTC)( he gestures a little to the soup tureen, an open offer to help himself should he be interested in food. it seems only fair, after their initial meeting. he cants his head in the interim, trying to ascertain how he should describe adrenaline to a man from a time before its scientific discovery. )
Adrenaline is the name of a hormone that affects the body. It is what is responsible for the bursts of strength and speed you get in a life or death situation. It quickens the blood, aids in faster reactions.
( he lifts his left hand, where a knife has lately been driven through it. he has removed the bandage, but neat sutures are visible where angela put them into the skin. )
As you can see, not fast enough.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-26 02:37 am (UTC)[ Trevor smiles quietly, then nods his thanks and leans forward to get himself some soup while Godric explains this 'adrenaline' to him. He's always hungry, honestly. ]
Ah, the hysterical strength of battle... it does come with a rather unpleasant crash, doesn't it? Especially when pain begins to set in.
[ He hisses when he sees the sutures, knowing instinctively that the blade must have gone clean through. It looks well tended, though, and healing healthily. ]
Does that hurt you now?
no subject
Date: 2020-02-26 02:46 am (UTC)It is difficult to say. It aches, certainly. I am aware of its existence, and the sensation is one to which I am unaccustomed. But human pain is... ( he is silent a moment. it is not often he struggles so astutely to describe much of anything, and yet — ) It is as if pain travels a different pathway in my body. I am not certain how else to describe it.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-26 02:51 am (UTC)Experience leads me to imagine it's worse, as a human. More... urgent, insistent? Vampires in my homeland seem to be able to ignore it far more readily.
[ He takes a spoonful of the soup, curious how Godric's newly-human taste buds are serving him. ]
no subject
Date: 2020-02-26 04:46 am (UTC)( it seems in line with what he remembers, for what it is worth. yet he does not think himself an accurate metric of the human experience — he received his tattoos at a young age even by the standards of his people, and did not flinch. )
no subject
Date: 2020-02-26 05:52 pm (UTC)[ ...this soup is really very good, though, Trevor is impressed and it shows on his face. ]
What you will have to tell me are your cooking secrets. Human for what, a week, and you're doing better than I've ever managed.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-27 03:52 am (UTC)( he is beyond caring. there was a time and a place his secrets were sacrosanct, but now? he is scarcely attached to them as anything beyond what shaped him. )
I had no shortage of human companions in my nest. Due to the nature of our arrangements, it was often necessary to provide them with food. Cooking interested me for a time, and I received few complaints as to my skill.
no subject
Date: 2020-03-03 05:52 am (UTC)[ It's even odds that's the case and Godric doesn't care after so long, or that it's something less fraught. And the explanation about cooking makes a great deal of sense. ]
And now you'll get to benefit from your own abilities.
no subject
Date: 2020-03-03 07:00 am (UTC)I was the son of a king. Pain was necessary. I learned fighting, broke bones, took injury. And I have many tattoos, tests of said tolerance.
( he lifts the spoon. the soup is now about the temperature of blood. he supposes it is a holdover. )
Then, I was a slave to a vampire master. He did not put stock in kindness.
( trevor is a compassionate sort. an odd thing in a vampire hunter, to bleed so for a creature he is sworn to hate. yet godric finds he does not mind it overmuch. this rough-around-the-edges boy puts him very much in a mind of eric when he least expects the comparison to arise. he gestures a bit with his spoon. )
And I suppose I will, yes. I trust you will come to dinner often, that I may see to it you are fed.
no subject
Date: 2020-03-03 10:11 pm (UTC)He both does and doesn't want to hear about the vampire master, and debates it briefly before deciding it might put him off his soup. Another time, perhaps. ]
I see. I don't have any tattoos... what and where are yours? I've heard placement matters.
[ He can't help the smile that curves his mouth at Godric's sideways offer to feed him, softer and more genuine than when he smirks out of amusement. This is an appreciate expression that Godric may not have really seen on him yet. ]
You may, of course. I will never turn food down, but do I look underfed?
no subject
Date: 2020-03-04 03:19 am (UTC)unintended, perhaps, is the fact that this also reveals he has two oddly elongated (and sharp, no doubt) teeth on a strip of leather around his neck. )
The others are on my biceps and down my spine. You'll forgive me if I do not strip to show you. As to the food — not necessarily, no, but it is a courtesy and a custom of my people.