milliways_bar | (no subject)

(no subject)

Urania is in the bar, doing something she hasn't done in a while - horoscopes.

Although this is quite a bit more complicated than the way most people do them - on the table in front of her is several star charts, an abacus, a sextant and compass, and a pad of paper with notes.
(She knows what she's doing - she did invent the original process, after all.)

Maybe if you ask politely, she'll tell you yours?

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She's not a human.

Eric doesn't know what she is exactly, but he is rather interested in finding out.
Unless she's a witch in which case she can rot on the vine for all he cares.

He makes his way over, dressed all in black, tall, pale, and quiet.

(No heartbeat. No breath).

His smile however, is perfectly friendly.

"Hello. That looks like your about to embark on a sea journey."

Urania looks up at the man's voice.

She's not quite sure what sort of creature this is, but growing up in the Underworld, this certainly isn't her first encounter with someone who's dead. All the same, she shows the same courtesy she would a shade.

"Not quite," she replies with a friendly smile of her own, "But I am charting courses, so to speak. I'm plotting horoscopes through star charts."

"Ah," he replies, politely.

"I've never put much stock in that sort of charting myself. Plotting a course for travel, sure, but the rest -"
He shakes his head.
"I don't need to know what anyone thinks I ought to do."

There was a time when Urania would have disagreed - her sisters have inspired many works where mortals suffer greatly trying to defy the fates the gods have set for them.

But times change, and so do people.

She nods. "It doesn't necessarily show you what you should do - just what's ahead. Think of it as a road map - you can still choose which turns to take."

"I prefer the kind of roadmap this place can provide you with. Knowing how everything else fails out is very useful."

And leaves plenty of room to navigate.

"I'm Eric, by the way. Eric Northman."

Urania chuckles softly. "I definitely agree with you there." Knowing about scientific advances centuries before they happen has been very useful, and certainly makes her job much easier.

"Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Northman. I'm Urania."

He looks at her. Consideringly.

"Like the Greek Muse?"

He likes the Greeks. It rather, he really enjoyed Orpheus, back when he was available. And Ganymede.

And the muses were sort of divine.

Urania gives a knowing smile.

"Glad to see we're not forgotten."

"Some of us know our classics."

He says it with the air of someone fully aware of the contrast between how he presents himself and the notion of him having read the classics.
Or much of anything, really.

"Always useful," Urania nods approvingly.

"Since you know what I am now, if you don't mind my asking, what exactly are you?"

(Tact is not Urania's strong suit.)

Eric, on the whole, is very much in favor of less tact.

"I'm a vampire," he tells her. "I was a man once, a thousand years ago, but I was transformed. Willingly."

Only a thousand? He's a baby.

"I can understand why someone would choose immortality. Goodness knows you're not the first to seek it out."

"It was offered to me as I lay dying. Frankly, I don't jnderstand why anyone would refuse."

He looks at her
"Not all are cut out for it though. Immortality."

"All the more reason, then."

She shrugs. "I certainly can't complain."

He smiles.

"Immortality does seem to become you," he agrees.
The others from her world he knows tend to be a little less enthusiastic about it.

"Well, it's like you said," Urania gives a small shrug. "Knowing what comes in the future, all the discoveries and advancements made...how could I not want to be around for it?"

He gives her a small grin.

"Exactly. People don't get that. When last I bought a house, I got the biggest shower installed. The luxury of not having to break the ice on a lake in winter first -"
He shakes his head.

He lives in the South. He wouldn't have to.
That's not the point.

"I'm still in the 1700's at the moment." Urania smiles. "Running hot water will be something to look forward to for me."

"Yeah, that century was pretty lacking on that front," Eric agrees with a small grin.

"Everyone from my world seems to have found their way here in the early 2000s, give or take. I came here much earlier, comparatively. I'm not sure why."

"I first came here around that same time," Eric says. "Maybe there's a quota or something."

"Maybe." Urania makes a mental note to herself to look into that later.

"I only seem to find this place every few centuries or so, so I suppose I fill a few different quotas."

"I had a break that lasted a century or two," Eric replies.
"Then I came back and it had been like two days. This place really knows how to trip you up."

"It does. Still, it's something of a comfort, having a place where nothing ever really changes."

"I suppose," he says, slowly.

"Apart from the people coming here."

"That's true. Though, admittedly, I haven't spent quite as much time talking to the people here as I have wandering the library."

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