To see an opera

[sunbaked_baker]

(Up in her room, Rae gets ready.)


When Sunshine comes down the stairs, today, she may not look wholly like herself. The baker is usually seen in the bar wearing bright t-shirts or sweaters, with colorful jeans and sneakers, her hair up in a ponytail or held back by a likewise colorful kerchief. One colorfully casual customer.

Today her hair is down, tumbling about her scarred shoulders in loose waves of red, and what she wears is not her normal style at all.

She takes care with her steps, and not just because of the silver heels that grace her feet. As she moves down the stairs, Rae consciously straightens her spine against the fluttery nervous feeling in her stomach, and hopes it will soon pass.

This is going to be an enjoyable outing. Rae refuses to let her feelings of self-consciousness mar it.



(ooc: Sunshine will likely be out of the bar for a while after this, so any and all threads are welcome, but will be millitimed to before her thread with Hannibal Lecter.)

Comments

[cook_the_rude]

Dr. Lecter scatters a few herbs over the salads, then serves them, with the bread in a basket between them.

He steps around the island, and smoothly sits on a stool. "Bon appetit," he says. "What books and movies are the same?"

[sunbaked_baker]

"Thank you," Rae says with a smile, settling before her plate.

"There are only a few I know for sure cross over, but there are likely plenty of others. Dracula - I knew that one crossed over even before I met him - Sherlock Holmes, Godzilla, Polidori's The Vampyre, Le Fanu's Carmilla... Autor and I discussed The Count of Monte Cristo together, the first time we met - though from what he says it was also his suggestion that led me to read it in the first place, as a kid," Rae chuckles slightly. Time lines, man, how do they work?. She makes sure to get a bit of each ingredient in the salad before she takes a careful bite.

"Mm," she says, wondering at the sauce. "That's lovely, Dr. Lecter."

[cook_the_rude]

Hannibal is watching her eat, as if trying to gauge her reaction.

"Is Dracula really the same?" he wonders then, while starting on his own salad. "There is some heavy Christian symbolism in that one. And The Count of Monte Christo means your world must have had a France, and Napoleon."

[sunbaked_baker]

"I'm not sure of it being the same, really, in any case. But the shape of the work remains," Rae says, thinking as she prepares another bite. Though the topic is an intriguing one, she eats with every sign of enjoyment. "The author of Dracula in my world was Christian, and did put his own religion's symbolism into the story - but then, it's pretty widely known that much of what is stated in the book to be true, isn't. Now, at least. Even a century and a half later, the lingering belief that garlic and holy water repel vampires led to heavy death tolls in that part of the world during the Wars."

Legends die hard. Mrs. Yanovsky's point, exactly.

"Vlad as I met him in the bar is most definitely not the character in the book Dracula as I know it."

She knew that the moment he revealed who he was.

"It's likely there are many different versions of the same stories, of the same people. An opera of a Bible story of a historical king, just across worlds."

[cook_the_rude]

"That is how many of our stories have carried across worlds," Dr. Lecter nods, eating one of the small tomatoes. "And vampires are different in every world, I think, so with all the fictional variants, nobody can e certain about anything."

[sunbaked_baker]

"Would explain how so many worlds that don't have vampires have stories about them," Rae muses, carefully spearing a tomato with a tine of her fork so it doesn't roll upon her plate, then touching it to a small dollop of the saffron-colored dressing so it and the balsamic glaze blend. "And some worlds that do have them follow different rules. Silver and garlic and graveyards and... teen romance, and so on."

Yech. The tiny, tart tomato with the dressing and glaze and herbs leaves a much better taste in her mouth.

"Stories and legends and peoples' lives carried across, changing depending on the world that interprets them. All meeting at Milliways."

[cook_the_rude]

Dr. Lecter watches her eat, almost avidly.

"Teen romance," he echoes. "I don't really understand that part, but I think those books are quite a large thing in this world. And movies of them, as far as I know. Yech."

[sunbaked_baker]

"Yech, indeed," she echoes, with a brief raise of her eyebrows. "I was shocked the first time I heard that's the primary association some worlds have with stories of vampires. With screaming, vehement fans, even."

Eek.

"Media depicting romantic relationships between humans and vampires are flatly illegal, in my world. They still get made, of course, but the penalties for getting caught are steep. Usually fantasies about vampires are limited to a brief moment in adolescence, with the heady thoughts of power associated with the rule of vampires having to be invited. Then the kid grows up a bit, realizes what would happen the split second after they issued that invitation, and moves on with their life."

[cook_the_rude]

"Making them illegal might only make them more interesting," Dr. Lecter says. "I don't believe in censuring media. Not even that -- Dawn or Dusk series, or whatever it was called."

Pause, while he eats a spear of asparagus.

"But power over a monster, if only for a tiny moment, is a heady fantasy."

[sunbaked_baker]

"They were illegal long before the Wars - and the Wars only served to help curtail that genre's audience," Rae remarks, savoring a bit of avocado. "These days most people don't want to think about vampires at all, let alone think of them in a romantic sense."

"The short-lived teen power fantasy tends to overlook that while a vampire can neither drink nor have sex with a person without an invitation, they can still kill someone at will. They just wouldn't get a square meal out of the deal."

[cook_the_rude]

"Would they even kill, if not for food?" Dr. Lecter wonders.

[sunbaked_baker]

"Oh yes," Rae answers, without hesitation.

[cook_the_rude]

"What for?" Hannibal asks.

[sunbaked_baker]

"As revenge, or a warning," Rae says, cutting a piece of the asparagus spear to go with a smooth bit of avocado, and focusing on those rather than on what she says. "If someone got in their way or is causing them difficulty. For fun."

[cook_the_rude]

"Like a stoat in the henhouse," Dr. Lecter nods.

He eats another tomato, looking thoughtful.

"Monsters have many reasons to kill. The very human monsters of my world do it as well, after all. And if there's no law enforcement to deter them..."

[sunbaked_baker]

"The law enforcement of my world seems to deter vampires just as well as the law enforcement of your world deters serial killers."

They don't, she means.

[cook_the_rude]

"They are trying, you mean?" Dr. Lecter guesses.

[sunbaked_baker]

"Law enforcement does their best," Rae nods. "In both cases. But from what I've heard, serial killers and vampires are alike in that they aren't going to be discouraged or persuaded to stop by the threat of punishment if they get caught."

[cook_the_rude]

"Like a wild creature following its instincts," Dr. Lecter nods.

He takes a sip of his wine.

[sunbaked_baker]

"Neither serial killers nor vampires are animals," Rae says, after a moment of faintly troubled consideration. "They choose what they do. Consciously."

And with great enthusiasm.

"Consequences just mean little if they don't believe they're going to be caught."

[cook_the_rude]

"I thought vampires get turned into vampires, and then have to have blood, one way or another?" Dr. Lecter muses.

[sunbaked_baker]

"One way or another, yeah, but I'm talking about killing people, in particular," Rae clarifies, not feeling like she's explaining herself well. "Otherwise there's no reason for law enforcement to try and deter them, is there?"

"But it's not down to instinct. Vampires don't have to torment before they feed - they choose to. They don't have to feed on humans - they choose to. Law enforcement can't offer a sufficient deterrent that would persuade them to stop."

As though resigned to it, Rae shrugs her scarred shoulders. "I can. Either by explaining to them what they're doing to themselves by doing so, what it costs them in the long run, or... by the other thing."

Deterrence is always down to persuasion.

[cook_the_rude]

"It comes once more down to that principle of enlightened self-interest," Dr. Lecter muses. "There is nothing along those lines, unfortunately, that we could offer to our serial killers, so try and catch them is all we can do."

[sunbaked_baker]

Sunshine nods, gathering another bite of the lovely salad. "If they won't be persuaded, they won't be persuaded."

It's what she tells herself, when things go badly. She can try her best, but she can't make them listen. And there is no room - no time - for half-measures, when it comes to vampires.

Or serial killers, she would imagine.

[cook_the_rude]

"I think," Dr. Lecter muses, "we have time for a tiny dessert before we go."