re: slogging through the app.

[enfant]

Keep writing. I should like to go where I was promised as soon as possible.

Comments

[thelivinglegend]

Where are they sending you? If you don't mind my asking.

[enfant]

To a city called Anatole that is full of fog. Have you heard of it?

[thelivinglegend]

I haven't. There's...a lot I need to catch up on, though.

I'm guessing the fog isn't the reason you're so keen on this city.

[enfant]

I want to see the new-age vampires.

[thelivinglegend]

...what happened to the old-age vampires?

[enfant]

Why, there barely are any who haven't lost their minds. I should know, having traversed most of the old world with my former companion in search of them.

[thelivinglegend]

[ Okay, he thought there was something a little too sharp around the edges with this little girl, and now it clicks. Oh. ]

It's true, then. Nothing lasts forever.

[enfant]

[ Just a harmless little immortal child. Mmhmm. ]

Everything is death and decay, yes. In the interim, we do what we can to live — that much is true of anyone.

[thelivinglegend]

Suppose so.

Though I like to think it's more than that.

[enfant]

Oh, definitely. Should you have seen the world through our eyes, you would be amazed.

[ One step after another, her satin shoes take her closer. ]

The drop of a pin becomes as the swing of a blade. Flowers in bouquets are irresistible, fires and lakes in a vase collected and wrapped up tight like true wonders. Even a button may mesmerise one for hours at a time, the most minute scratch engraved with meaning.

[ Sup, bro. You're taller than even some of the male vampires she's known. ]

Light is beauty, that becomes the one truth. We seek it out.

[thelivinglegend]

It does sound incredible. I believe it's everything you say it is, if it changes you to that great an extent.

[ And there's definitely enough different about her to be marked. Improved eyesight and all that. Her hair, her eyes, the pretty glint of her teeth as she speaks. All just a little more than human.

A little predator. ]

But I couldn't. I'd never want to be that far removed from what I'm fighting for.

[enfant]

What do you fight for and why should it remove you from such a cause?

[ Come here, see? Taking a hand and leading him to a bench; she has skin as cold as stone, quick to leave him be from the touch once the direction is given. ]

Explain yourself.

[thelivinglegend]

I'm a soldier. There isn't a lot to explain...

[ Alright, he's trusting that you're a civil not-little-girl and he's going to behave as if you are until you give him reason not to.

Easing down to sit, he keeps aware of her even as he glances away. ]

I've seen what power can do to some people. You stand far enough above everything and everyone, and start caring less and less about where you came from.

[enfant]

[ Hah, as if she could bring you down. ]

That doesn't apply when there's a food-chain involved. Would you destroy all the lions for eating all the lambs? Standing above others as their better is not a condemnable offense, last I heard.

[thelivinglegend]

Maybe not, but you never see the world quite the same again. Your perspective changes.

[enfant]

My perspective has never changed — nor will it, for it cannot. There is only enlightenment in short degrees. As you say, nothing lasts forever.

[thelivinglegend]

And when I start viewing my friends as a food source?

[enfant]

Make them one of us and you will be together for longer than you can imagine. They will cleave to you in this new life in which none can live alone.

[thelivinglegend]

It's not that simple.

[enfant]

It would be nice if we could people the world with vampires of our choosing, but they never turn out right. You're smarter than most for not jumping at the chance, not that I could have helped you.

[thelivinglegend]

And why is that?

[enfant]

My body hasn't the strength.

[thelivinglegend]

...you were turned as a kid, weren't you?

[ A pretty horrifying thought, to be honest. She's all but said she's one of these older vampires, and here she is. Still a little girl. ]

[enfant]

I was. My fathers were very foolish on equal terms.

Old backtag is old.

[ohlouie]

Claudia.

[ All right. It hurt a little to see her. He's not going to lie.]