un: eudaimonikos; video

[eudaimonikos]

Hello, Trench! Boy, that's a fun name for a city, isn't it? Trrrrrrench. Sounds...about like what it is, I guess.

So! [He claps his hands together.] Who's here from Deerington? Man, it must've been at least a century since I saw you guys! How's it been? Oh - oh, and look! Eleanor made it too!

[He reaches off-screen to fling his arm around the neck of what, when he pulls it over in front of the camera, proves to be an enormous dappled grey Warg. Her teeth are huge. She's still wearing her enchanted leather war-armor, which really just makes the optics here worse.]

This is my dog, Eleanor! Also, I'm Michael, for all the new folks. I was in the nightmare city before this one, and then I went home for a little bit.

So - what's everyone up to? And what's with the new phones? Are we all using weird, smoky first-generation birds as phones now?

Comments

[eudaimonikos]

I'd hope so. I've been a few bloodier places, but none of that was...

[.....]

...well, maybe it was real blood, but they were all dead already anyway.

[prescind]

You've lived an interesting life.

( that's genuine. )

Did you kill them?

[eudaimonikos]

Of course not. You can't kill anyone from the afterlife.

[Though there's still guilt in his frown, because that's the only reason. If he'd had the capacity - sure, he's sure he'd have killed plenty of humans in his time. Maybe the only reason humans are still around is that things like him couldn't get at them.]

[prescind]

If you can't kill them, how did they die?

( since he'd just said they were dead. stefan frowns. )

Or is it that you can't kill them but they can die?

[eudaimonikos]

Well, sure they can. They died on Earth somehow, and then they went to the afterlife.

[Michael has no idea how they died, really - or rather, he probably knew for some of them, but there were a lot and it's not that relevant right now.]

You can't kill them after that, though. They're already dead.

[prescind]

Right.

( man, this guy's life. )

You know, I thought I was comfortable with dead people but I think you have me beat.

[eudaimonikos]

[He shrugs.]

Comes with the territory. I really haven't talked to all that many live people - most of them were here. Or, back in Deerington.

[...]

What's your deal with dead people?

[prescind]

Who says I have a deal?

( not that it's not obvious or anything. )

[eudaimonikos]

You were like "I thought I was comfortable with them,"...? Makes it sound like there's a deal.

[prescind]

( he had said that, hadn't he? )

I guess there's no real point in keeping it a secret after everything. I'm a vampire. I'm dead myself.

( so he has to be comfortable with dead people. )

[eudaimonikos]

Really? Huh. We don't have those, where I'm from. [.....] You're not really dead, though, are you? I mean, you're still walking around.

[prescind]

I suppose the appropriate word would be undead.

( but he's not a zombie. )

I'm walking around but I'm not really alive.

[eudaimonikos]

You pretty much are, by our standards. Soul's not in the afterlife, you must still be alive.

[He does understand what being clinically dead is, so he's not really arguing the point - it's just interesting to him. His world doesn't have ghosts or vampires or anything like that, so it's not a question he's had to think about too much.]

Things did get interesting when humans started learning to resuscitate each other.

[prescind]

Somewhat alive.

( he'll make that compromise. )

I died nearly two hundred years ago and I've been living like this sense. I can die but it's not easy to kill me. And I'd rather not be killed.

( his life wasn't easy but he still kind of liked it. )

[eudaimonikos]

Well, I'm sure the afterlife will be around if you ever want it.

[But yeah he super gets not really wanting to be killed!]

How do you get away with living all that long? The one time I was on Earth, we had to do all this...fake identity stuff, so we could have money and get on planes. It felt very spy-movie.

[prescind]

( it's a good question to which stefan doesn't have a good answer. )

I move around a lot, usually. But, close friends and family tend to know who I am so I don't have to hide. Otherwise, I just moved to different places so no one asked questions.

( easiest way to get around that whole thing. )

[eudaimonikos]

Sounds interesting.

[Maybe a little unpleasant, really. What's the point of being immortal if you're just surrounded by mortals all the time? But like, no need to be rude about it.]

Do you really drink blood?

[prescind]

Yeah, I do.

( fact of his life. )

I don't attack people for blood or anything. I get it other ways.

[eudaimonikos]

Doesn't sound like it'll be too hard here. Everyone in this place is really into blood.

[prescind]

Yeah, I've noticed.

( boy has he. )

It sometimes gets a little hard to resist the smell.

[eudaimonikos]

....really? Even though some of it's not...human?

[At least, he can't imagine that it really qualifies now - all this weird-colored, sparkly shit.]

[prescind]

Blood is blood. It's hard to resist for me.

( which, yes, is not very useful in a place like this. )

I've gotten better about it, though. It's not as hard to resist as it once was.

[eudaimonikos]

Yeah - like getting used to sulfur.

[Makes sense. A lot of places in the Bad Place smelled really bad, but after a day or so stationed there it always seemed to magically stop bothering him.]

At least it seems like you'll be able to get it fairly easily.

[prescind]

Yeah, like that but if you see me drinking sulfur, please stop me.

( because gross. )

[eudaimonikos]

Oh, of course. That's disgusting.

[Drinking blood is also sort of disgusting - it's sticky? But Michael's grown accustomed enough to it that it seems unremarkable.]