milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Well, this is new. And that's OK! New is good. Unexpected is not, particularly, and that's why this particular young man's surprise at finding himself wandering strange corridors has quickly melted to suspicion, and then anger.

He schools himself out of it by the time he finds the stairs. He waits at the bottom of them, perfectly still apart from large, dark eyes that flit over the whole place, taking it all in with no expression on his face. Only the Window gets a second look, and when he's finished his surveillance he walks over to it and stands there, staring in mute wonder, one hand pressed to the glass.

He can investigate the room later. This is more interesting for now.

[OOC: Open all weekend! <3]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"No, it takes a a lot of thinking," Margolotta says. "People are complicated, and dealing with them is a kind of art form."

'People aren't complicated.'

Not even a little bit. They are distressingly, horribly, transparent. He is sometimes a little scared of how much he despises them, and their simplicity.

'If you have to think a lot about it, you're doing it wrong.'

"No," she says. "Never underestimate the prey; you are setting yourself up for garlic and pitchforks. That is what my father keeps saying."

So her father thinks of people as prey. That doesn't sound like the definition of 'treating people politely' his mother works so hard to instill in James, which means everything Margolotta has said so far has been full of shit. She's pretending to be nice.

His eyes narrow.

He can respect this.

'What does 'underestimate' mean?'

Heh.

"Believe that they are as simple and stupid as they want you to think, take too many risks, and cut corners," she says. "That's when they will start fighting back."

He feels so much more educated now.

'You're just copying what your Da says,' he points out.

'And anyway, he's wrong. No one fights anything if they don't know what they're fighting.'

"But they know who we are," Margolotta says. "And who the werewolves are. It's a balance of terror."

'Why do you say that like you're not a normal person?'

Balance of terror. Whatevvvvvver.

"I'm a normal person," she protests. "Just not a human."

'...what?'

"I'm not human," she repeats.

It's not that difficult a concept, is it?

'Then what are you?'

She looks human to him. He's never met a non-human before, and was not prepared today for that to possibly change.

"A vampire, of course," she says.

Really, what else could she be?

He tilts his head, clearly confused but not scared.

'How can you be a vampire, and a kid?'

This is asked after a pause.

'Are you going to stay that age forever?'

"No, of course not -- I will grow up," she says, smiling. "As will you, unless you do something inadvisable and die young."

She has pointy teeth in her smile -- not enough to be crude or threatening, but noticeable.

James has no fear of teeth, noticeable or otherwise. He's just curious about all of it.

'But how? Vampires are just supposed to be people who are bitten, and should be dead. They don't get old.'

Not in the books he's read, anyway.

"There are different kinds," she says, "but most of us are born that way. At least where I'm from."

'You're born only drinking blood?'

Well.

He has no opinion on that either way. If it is, it is.

"Yes," she says. "Our parents get it for us when we are still young."

'What happens if you eat something else?'

And more importantly-

'Do you kill people?'

"We don't eat anything else," she says. "And yes, some of us have killed people they drank from. We try not to, though. Live and let live. Let live to drink another day."

'I meant you.'

He doesn't care much about groups as a whole, not when he's talking to one person.

"I haven't killed anybody yet," she says. "I probably will."

Sounding rather unconcerned.

He is not concerned with her unconcern. It occurs to him a moment later that he should probably pretend to be scared or worried, but there doesn't seem to be much point.

'Are you stronger and faster than normal people? Do you think you'll be able to kill them?'

She doesn't look particularly fearsome.

"Yes," she says. "I don't suppose there's somebody here I can try that with?"

Not necessarily kill, but to show off her strength and speed.