The Malkavian is not amused...or...a muse?

[stranger_to_the_rain]

I know what it means when you pretty up a character's journal like you have.

No.





No.

I won't have it. Just because you're bored, fishie, that doesn't mean that I am too. I'm a much bigger fish than you.

The answer is...

...

...

...no.

Comments

[indiscreet]

[ Almost strange, to see her of all kindred unsettled. She's not sure whether to just appreciate the moment or be unsettled herself.

Of course, reverence was never really her style. ]

Oh, I don't know if I would complain. The makeover's rather nice.

[stranger_to_the_rain]

The quality of it is irrelevant. I have no time for other worlds.

This one is bad enough.

[indiscreet]

I would think, then, that the vacation would be a welcome respite.

Personally, I found the offense at being transported out of Chicago faded with the dawning of the realization that I was out of Chicago.

[stranger_to_the_rain]

Therein lies the difference.

I like Los Angeles. No one belongs there.

in context of certain recent events I am slightly loling

[indiscreet]

No one at all? How...charming.

:P

[stranger_to_the_rain]

Why do you think I chose it?

[indiscreet]

Oh, I don't know, something about the nightlife, perhaps? I imagine there must be some thrill to hobnobbing with celebrity. [ a subtle tension in her voice, though — an edge of curiosity beneath the flippant words ]

[stranger_to_the_rain]

[She laughs. It turns into a giggle. And then into a titter.]

[indiscreet]

[ Anna frowns briefly.
Of course, it wouldn't be a conversation with Artemis Seth if she weren't largely bewildered for most of it. ]

[ a brief sigh ] Thrilled to know I can still be entertaining.

[stranger_to_the_rain]

When I first came here, the only nightlife were the rattlesnakes.

More enjoyable company than the celebrities, to be sure.

Better conversation.

[indiscreet]

[ Damned elders. Was age what made Mina so infuriating? (No, she had some different...knack...all her own.) ]

[ skeptical: ] I shouldn't think a snake would have much to offer in the way of pleasantries. At least a celebrity has the decency to not be venomous.

[ a pause, and her mouth twists wryly as she admits- ] ...Or, to not be literally venomous.

[stranger_to_the_rain]

Clearly, you've never been forced to socialize with any of the Kardashians.

[andifeelfine]

Oh? What does it mean?

[stranger_to_the_rain]

Worlds.

It means worlds.

[gisella]

[ "quiet" and "contemplative" are subtle matters of scale when everything you say is a whisper, but it comes across all the same ]

There is always a bigger fish, though, isn't there? In a manner of speaking.

[ bitterly ] It's not such a simple matter, to be certain one isn't being toyed with.

[stranger_to_the_rain]

We're all being toyed with. It's only a matter of how much and by who.

And don't start with me on fishies.

[gisella]

I thought I had spent enough time, by now, to be free of "toying." It turned out to be more of a temporary respite.

...So yes, I am inclined to agree with you, on the matter of fish and fishermen.

[ a pause, and she gives a slight, exasperated shake of her head ] —Even if I'm no longer quite sure what I'm talking about.

[stranger_to_the_rain]

That is the first step into a larger world.

[gisella]

You seem half-pleased at my confusion. However, I've more than had my fill of madness.
[ she narrows her eyes, suspicious ] What sort of larger world, pray tell?

[stranger_to_the_rain]

Madness is a larger world.

And I'm not half-pleased.

More like...all pleased.

[gisella]

[ There is the slightest hiss of air between her teeth, and for a moment her Beast stirs within her, at that. Her voice, were she capable of raising it, would be elevated; instead, the words come out sharper. ]

Charming. What, you think to welcome me into this world of yours? Even the man to blame for this...tedious infection...was hardly interested in portraying it as anything but exactly that: a disease.

And this disease has done enough damage —no, I have done enough damage already.

[stranger_to_the_rain]

It's rare you meet someone who would admit that.

It makes you warrant further investigation.

[gisella]

[ a brief flick of her eyes: deciding whether she wishes to spare the effort to be insulted at the notion that someone should investigate her, rather than the other way around ]

[ but no, this isn't the time for that. ] It is easier to see it, now: I can buy myself a few hours of clarity, at least.

And that is the worst of it: that I became so accustomed to the fog that I ceased to realize that it was there at all. I should have been above madness, and -- because I thought myself above it -- I let it overtake me.

[stranger_to_the_rain]

That is the Malkavian's ultimate secret. Knowing how to control madness, not transcend it.

Use it.

[A weapon. Dementation. But also a tool.]

[gisella]

So it's true, then. You are mad. [ "Like me," she almost adds, but that's still a step further than she wants to take this. ]

I might advise you to stay out of Chicago for a while, although the Underprince's witch hunt for... Kindred like us [ there it is -- the acknowledgment, or close enough ] is perhaps the least of that city's problems.

And I would be a poor scientist indeed if I had neglected to study how to wield this madness, curse though it may be.