( text | un: salvatore )

[prescind]

( he doesn't typically make use of the network, content to read and stay within his own boundaries but he's feeling a little thoughtful today so.

so, here he is. )

if you had the choice, would you stay alive eternally and watch everyone you love eventually die or would you die young and miss out on a life lived?

Comments

[stayscared]

I get that a lot too.

People saying it, and the actual thing. They're not wrong.

[prescind]

what do you do that you get attached to that kind of thing?

[stayscared]

Open my mouth and say words. Or write them.

[prescind]

bad luck or some weird ability?

[stayscared]

A little from column A, a little from column B.

I've always been a bit gloomy, I guess. But sometimes I really rise (or sink) to the occasion.

[prescind]

what did you do? back where you come from?

[stayscared]

I wrote books. And I hunted ghosts.

What about you?

[prescind]

in between jobs, really.

but i'm pretty good with my hands.
did a lot of carpentry and such back home.

[stayscared]

Me too.

Is there something else you want to do that isn't what you were doing before? Were you building stuff, here? You could pick up an old skill, or learn a new one.

[prescind]

last place i was, i worked in an apothecary.
just doing stock work and stuff.

did odd jobs on the side.
left me with free time.

[stayscared]

What kind of odd jobs? I'm a bit of an odd jobs guy myself, so just curious.

The thing about free time is that, well, it's great if you don't use it to dwell on things. Too much free time, too much time to think, to really think, and it's straight down Navelgazing Lane and next stop: Morbs Alley.

[prescind]

i like to restore cars when i can. older cars, make them like new again. work around my house, that sort of thing.

i help out when i can around my town, helping out friends. it makes me sound kind of like a layabout, doesn't it?

but yeah, i've always found that when i get free time, i get up in my head. never a good thing.

[stayscared]

Maybe a bit, but who says being a layabout is even a bad thing? I'm not even sure if I could grant you the status if you're doing housework and helping friends out. A real layabout? That's that one friend that's mysteriously never around to give help but always needs it.

I haven't seen a car here now that you mention it, but it's not like it would be all that out of place. Which makes me wonder what would be out of place, and ...I'm not coming up with a very long list.

[prescind]

i used to have a few cars at the place we were at before this. like three of them.

and then we went from one weird place to another and they didn't come along. miss them.

[stayscared]

I heard that things wash up on the beach sometimes, things people recognize, but there doesn't seem to be any real reason for it other than "that happens".

You should find yourself a car, or someone that can get you one.

[a thought comes, and well, what's the harm in asking. it's less insane sounding than saying these things out loud.]

Do you have superatural abilities? Besides the ability to hop from one weird place to another?

[prescind]

you could say that, yeah.

i guess i don't have to really be secretive about it but i'm a vampire.
have been for about two centuries.

[stayscared]

[yep. he has just read what he thought he'd read. he reads it again just to be sure. text is always a blessing, because after the reads, the re reads, and a bit of contemplative silence, he starts to laugh uncontrollably. it's not that he doubts the words - he's way past that now, and he tries to say it aloud - can't catch his breath, and when he does he looks at the small grey and white rat perched on his end table, points at his omni and wheezes out:

"he's a vampire."

the rat tilts her head and blinks.

breath found, mike deadpans:

"i'm texting a vampire on the omni. he's about two centuries old."

the rat (who does have a name, it's delmira, mike just doesn't know it) thinks about speaking back, but she's afraid that might just be a bit too much for him now. he doesn't know she can speak, hasn't yet figured out she's his omen. he's had a lot happen his first month here - so maybe let's not push it. she cleans her face and gives her best sympathetic "just a rat nothing to see here" look.]

Oh. How does that work? Does make the whole blood thing different for you? Vampire like Dracula, or more of a Lestat, or one of those new ones with the sparkling skin?

[sure, that's what you ask a roughly two hundred year old creature of the night, right?]

[prescind]

i don't sparkle.

and i try and not drink human blood.
so, didfferent i guess.

[stayscared]

I would say not sparkling's a plus.

That would explain some of what motivated your question, I guess. And why The Morbs catch up a little quicker.

What about sunlight?

[prescind]

i've got something that helps me with that.
if i didn't have it, i'd burn in the sun, yeah.

[stayscared]

Well, that's helpful. It'd be a real shame to not be able to enjoy the beach on a nice day. Sun shining, breeze blowing, nothing abominable coming out of the water with dire purpose.

[there are days like that here, right?

[prescind]

well, i doubt you'll find me on the beach
don't really do the tanning thing

is there even a beach here?
i haven't checked.

[stayscared]

Besides the one we wash up on, sure, there's a stretch of it, and a couple of spots that are prime for self reflection, reading, a couple drinks, what have you. Not much of a tanner, either.

Been meaning to get back out in the water, but that's going to be a while. It's too cold, and I don't feel like drowning again. Also need to find the right board. Haven't seen a whole lot of any surfboards here.


[well, kind of. the spot he's thinking of in particular had been a bit of a hallucination. only it seems to have stuck around. it's through a door in the middle of town because that's where he manifested it. it's like a ...tiny pocket dimension. the tiniest.]

[prescind]

drowning again?

[stayscared]

Might've drowned shortly before I came here. Might've drowned way before that, or maybe not at all. Memories sure are fun.