guppy_sandhu (
guppy_sandhu) wrote in
ways_infirmary2013-08-25 02:12 am
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Guppy and Hannibal spent a fair amount of time working on Sunshine yesterday, and she is currently resting in one of the beds.
She could probably do with some gentle company.
She could probably do with some gentle company.
Re: Sunshine awake
Vampirage? Is that even a word? She can't be sure. Maybe vam-peerage? He is of noble lineage, after all.
Some part of her drowsy mind is aware that she's rambling. If not out-loud. Well, even that's up to debate, isn't it?
Re: Sunshine awake
He trusts her, completely.
'Shh.' He laughs, under his breath, pulling back to smile at her. 'The medicine seems to be working. Would you like me to come back later?'
His hand still covers hers on his chest.
Re: Sunshine awake
"Ideally, I'd not still be here, later." Rae murmurs. Stay. "I'm not sure how long the doctors are going to want to keep me here."
Rae would much rather not spend the night out in the open like this. Though most wouldn't consider an indoor infirmary 'out in the open,' Sunshine has somewhat specific ideas - however woozy those ideas are - about what constitutes private versus public space. He is not the only vampire in the bar.
Re: Sunshine awake
'No threshold here, is there? But you're hardly alone. Your friend, Dr. Lecter has only stepped away for a moment.'
Re: Sunshine awake
"But Dr. Lecter is human."
However capable a doctor and a chef Dr. Lecter is - for that is what her friend is, to her - he is human. And human bodies are fragile things, when a vampire wants something.
He knows that better than most.
Re: Sunshine awake
The 'but' in that sentence remains unspoken.
'You are safe, here.'
And you do not want my protection, and all that comes with it.
Re: Sunshine awake
Rae will assume he knows where that is. Even if she's safe where she is, she would feel better with the solid awareness of wards around her. Sunshine is not at her best right now, and won't be, for a while.
Re: Sunshine awake
He almost said the word 'business'. But no, that would be a lie, and he has no desire to lie to her.
'I am leaving for a few days time.'
The words are spoken almost as a guilty confession.
Re: Sunshine awake
Curiosity as to the whys and what fors wars with the desire not to know those same things, because - though she trusts him in the context of her, here, right now, out there is another matter - she knows something of him, and has seen something of his ways. Some of the things he might politely term 'business.'
And if it is something that he chooses not to shroud that way, that he confesses, guiltily, him...
Sunshine gazes into his eyes, unsure what to say, what to ask. Whether or not she should, at all.
Re: Sunshine awake
'He thinks he is dead, Rae. Is convinced that he has fallen from Grace, and that I am some devil sent to torment him.' That his actions may have brought that judgement on himself completely escapes him.
'He is a stubborn fool, and I am taking him back to Wallachia. A retreat of sorts.'
Even if he has to hogtie the man and drag him, he will see this through to the end.
Re: Sunshine awake
"I've met him. Javert, right?" she says, musing and muddled with painkillers, but solemn. This isn't a matter to take lightly. "He and I had... a discussion on kindness, and the righteousness of suffering."
His argument had not made sense to her.
"What are you hoping to accomplish by taking him to Wallachia? What sort of kindness do you think he would accept, and to what end?"
Re: Sunshine awake
His head falls, and he clutches her hand, his thumb stroking the softness of her skin.
'I think he would not know kindness if it bit his nose off. And I think kindness might be meaningless. The most I might hope for is for him to find -- purpose, again.'
Re: Sunshine awake
"What purpose would you give him?"
Re: Sunshine awake
'I cannot give him a purpose. I can only hope to show him that he needs one. The purpose, he must choose for himself.'
He could easily break his mind, and make him into a servant, like Renfield. But that would be a cruelty even he could not stomach. For as pigheaded as Javert is, the Prince finds him beautiful in his own way.
He shifts next to her, gently, and moves to lay his head across her. He takes her hand and lays it on his head.
His eyes are turned away from hers.
'I would make of him -- a friend.'
He doesn't even know if that's possible, but he knows that it means too much not to try.
Re: Sunshine awake
"There are a lot of people in the universe who've known cruelty, both causing it and receiving it," she says, her fingers threading lightly through his hair. Rae can't even say for sure what he means when he says 'friend.'
"Why would you choose him?"
Re: Sunshine awake
He misses Elizaveta so much. He misses his wife, his friend, his lover. He misses having someone to share space with, someone that didn't want anything from him but what he has to offer by drawing breath.
'His reason defies all logic, Rae. He torments me as surely as I torment him.'
He thinks, casting back through centuries, trying to find something to explain his fascination.
A tiny dry laugh escapes his lips. Why did he not see if before?
'He reminds me -- of Radu.'
Re: Sunshine awake
"Would you tell me about him?"
Re: Sunshine awake
'Who? Javert? Or Radu?'
Re: Sunshine awake
"Of Radu. You've not spoken of him before, to me."
Re: Sunshine awake
'He was my brother. We were given to the Sultan as hostages of the Court when we were ten. He bent to their will, while I would not.'
Re: Sunshine awake
"What happened to him?"
Re: Sunshine awake
'I killed him. In battle, his sword raised against my own, but nonetheless, I struck him down.'
He sighs.
'And I do not regret it. He would have slain me, had I not. But he was my brother.'
God is a bastard, in Vlad's eyes.
Re: Sunshine awake
"There is nothing... wrong, in killing someone who would have killed you, had you not killed them first," Rae murmurs. Two years ago, she would not have been able to say that with any certainty. She knows more of war, now. "One's... I don't know what to call it, one's drive to survive... requires it. One shouldn't have to regret fighting for survival, but that doesn't mean there isn't horror to it."
She knows that, too.
"And you see something of your brother in Javert," Rae murmurs, drifting her fingers through his dark hair.
Re: Sunshine awake
'I do. He is stubborn. Proud. Refuses to see reason. And -- is there not something worthy in that? The ability to stand fast, even when -- '
He swallows, and presses his face against her.
'Even when all else falls around you.'
Re: Sunshine awake
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay.
Sunshine swallows, and nods. Even if he doesn't see it, the thought is there and she knows he hears it.
Trying single-handedly to hold back a flood? Refusing to give in, and refusing to back down, despite the threat of annihilation?
Like either of them could deny the nobility in that. It's what they do, after all.
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Re: Sunshine awake
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