milliways_bar | (no subject)

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"But musing what an easy thing it were to mix our opiates in a larger cup," Autor says, patting the counter in preparation to hop over it. "And drink, and not perceive"—and here he hops—"sleep deepening lead his truer kinsman up, like undistinguished Night, darkening the skirts of Eve.*"

After a few minutes of setting up his prior preparations, the boy reaches for the specials board. "Good night, Bar."

Bitter Chocolate Aria
Hot chocolate & one croissant

Submission Sonata
Virgin strawberry & wasabi daiquiri

Ode to Blood
Giga ant eggs, sour apple juice, seltzer water, flavored ice

Fiery Trigon
Grenadine, lemon juice, apple juice, passion fruit juice, & cinnamon

Silent Overture
Free coffee if you can prove that you’re knighted

Note: Virgin bar.

[This post is open forever.]

*Ode to Sleep , Richard Chenevix Trench

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And Autor squirms a little more. The word suicide stops him--just long enough to take a breath, a sip of tea, a moment to reorient himself--but then he's right back to squirming again. He's really getting annoyed with this feeling that he can't quite put a name to.

He's startled when he realizes that it's a mixture of not wanting to bring up his conversation with Eric because that would make Rae... uncomfortable, and guilt for keeping that sort of secret. Ha! This isn't guilt, he thinks. I felt that with Lohengrin and it was much uglier.

But he's curious. Yes. He's curious, and that will always be his downfall. The kid adjusts his glasses.

"Expanding my knowledge of mythology," he says, carefully. "Speaking of vampires," he says, and winces, unconsciously, "have you seen a blond one roaming around the bar lately?"

Sunshine's look and bearing sharpen, suddenly, and the weight of her attention falls on Autor. "Not lately, no. What's he done?"

"Nothing that I know of," he says neutrally. "More tea?"

"No, thank you," she says, the flat, sharp look unchanged. "Why'd you bring him up? You run into him? Are you all right?"

Autor's gaze flickers three seats down--where Erik started out sitting--and then to Sunshine again. The boy's own seat. He's relieved that Erik's former seat is empty, but it still carries the weight of a threat.

"I asked him why he was watching people," he says, and tilts his head back, so that she can very well see that he's perfectly fine, thank you.

"In my defense," he says, holding up a hand. "I didn't know what he was."

"Autor." Sunshine holds his gaze and repeats, enunciating very clearly, "Are. You. All. Right?"

Because her tone promises many swift retributions - but most not at Autor - if the answer is anything other than an unqualified Yes.

This is not the baker talking, right now. The light-web set into Sunshine's skin and hair glimmers, wanting to wake.

Oh, she's glowing, Autor thinks, a little distantly. That... can't be a good thing.

"Perfectly," he says, distracted by the way light threatens to bounce around in her hair.

"Good."

"Because if you run into him again? And things aren't all right? You call me. You let me know."

Because she can do what others can't. And she refuses to see another one of her people harmed by the darkest of Others.

"Vampires are faster than you, Autor. So very much faster snd stronger than any human. A vampire can kill you before you'd have time to draw a breath to reply to them, and a vampire only follows the rules here because it suits him to do so at that moment. The moment it doesn't suit his purposes? The moment he chooses not to follow the rules because none of the Security people could catch him to punish him, anyway? All bets are off. Don't ever forget that."

"I do not appreciate being provoked," the vampire had said, hovering just long enough to make his warning known. Autor remembers the breeze stirred up by his leaving.

So he laughs. A little brokenly. He turns to his teacup and finds it empty.

"He was fast. And I won't forget," the boy says, refilling his cup. "But he really didn't do anything to me, Rae. See? I'm fine."

Rae's eyes, the unassuming color of a summer sky, narrow. She might not be able to lie worth a damn, but her Dark Sight gives her insight when people are being less than fully truthful to her.

"He threatened you," Sunshine touches Autor's wrist, just lightly. "Whether by word or deed or manner, he made you feel threatened. That's not nothing, Autor."

The boy jerks back at her touch, though his reaction is more his being startled than annoyed. He clutches his cup and stares at the wood grains.

When he raises his head again, he has donned his characteristic smirk, a protective a garment as his blazer. "He told me, quite reasonably, that he did not appreciate being provoked," Autor says, and holds her gaze. "Make of that what you will."

And then would be when she doesn't just touch his wrist. She grabs his elbows, looking like she's holding back the urge to shake him.

"It means you provoked a vampire, Autor." This is a horse of a different color than just feeling threatened by a vampire. Her eyes are blazing. "What the everloving fuck did you think you were doing?"

And here he grins at her. Shakily, but he grins--his first reaction to danger is to smile at it, and this isn't any different. He tries to hold up a hand, but her grip on him is too firm. Ow, Rae.

"In my defense, I didn't know he was a vampire when I started talking to him," he says, and pauses to think about his phrasing. He's well aware that his words will tip her reaction one way or another.

"He... intimated that being bitten was a thoroughly satisfying experience, so I asked him why he didn't ask me outright," he says, and quickly adds: "He asked if I was offering, and I said no, naturally."

"But you stayed, even when you found out what he was," she says, deathly serious. There is no kidding around, when it's vampires. "Even knowing that he could've taken what he wanted even if you didn't offer."

The vampires here are not like the vampires back home, and even those could break a person's will and make them say yes.

"This vampire is dangerous." It feels a bit like saying rain is wet. "Eric's not something to take lightly, Autor. I've run into him before."

"I'm well aware of the danger," Autor says softly. Now. He wiggles a bit, trying to disengage himself from her grip. "Milliways welcomes powerful creatures, and it's only a thin veneer of civility that protects us from one another."

He tilts his head. "Eric said he wouldn't do anything, primarily because he'd be reviled, and he wants to stay. That, and I suspect you'd make his life hell. Still, I'll try to avoid him."

The kid blinks. "Apropos of nothing, do you know if he has access to the library?"

Rae lets go of Autor's arms, abruptly. "I wouldn't make his life hell."

It's the knowledge of her inability to lie believably that make her next words ring true.

"I'd kill him."

Autor adjusts his glasses and looks away. Words have fled his swollen tongue, and his chest hurts.

"Which would make me sad," the boy eventually says. "Not for his sake, but for yours."

She could say something about necessary evils, but it'd ring even more false than usual.

(You'd think killing vampires would feel like community service, like doing good, but it doesn't.)

Her fierce look softens slightly at the sight of his awkward care. "I'd live with it." A long moment later, to cover her lack of comfort, she adds:

"I don't know of any reason why he'd not be able to get into the library; other vampires have struck in the library before. It's where Jane Austen was attacked, some years ago."

Autor's jaw sets at her statement, but rather than arguing, he lets it drop. Some other day, perhaps.

At her comment about the library, though, the boy pales. "Ah. Well. That's good to know," he says, swallowing, "because I sleep there, out in the open."

"This, among a number of other things you've done recently, is not a smart thing to do, Autor," she says, feeling tired. "You need an actually defensible place to sleep, not a public area."

When you're not the guaranteed top of the food-chain, you think about things like this.

Autor sighs. He knows that look. And he has thought about that, especially since the encounter with Eric, which is why he asked.

He offers her a shrug and a smile. "Yes, but I do have the key to it for a reason," he says, and shows off the chain from around his neck before tucking it back in behind his cravat. "I don't suppose we could ward a magic carpet?"

"Most things like it in my world are warded against things like flying into stuff at high speeds, crashing without warning, and catching fire, but I'm not a wardsmith," she replies.

"The point about the library is that it's a public space, even if you have a key to it. Vampires can only come into a private or residential place if invited, but that doesn't cover public spaces, even if the door is locked."

Autor is well aware of that, but until now he'd successfully ignored it. In fact, he's now well aware of a lot of the dangers of vampires, due to the research he's done after Eric's successful attempt to make him marginally uncomfortable.

"I had a room before, but I only spent four to five hours per day in it," he says, furrowing his brow. "But after I received my sylladex and earned my carpet, my life was portable, just as I like it. So why not surround myself with books? Living in a library has always been sort of a... well, a dream I've had."

And Autor doesn't dream.

The boy purses his lips, a little annoyed. "What a terrible inconvenience this is."

I wonder if I can make a bargain with them? No, Rae would kill me.

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