deercountry | March Catch-All [Open and closed prompts]

Entry tags:

March Catch-All [Open and closed prompts]

Who: Anyone
What: D having experiences with March's blood power issues
When: March
Where: Around Trench
Warnings: None in top levels

1. When the night is overcome[open]

The sun wasn't a pleasant experience for D, but that never stopped him from enjoying it. Vampires who died to the burning effect of sunlight always did so with a smile on their face. The suffering sunlight brought D wasn't as great, but that didn't diminish the enjoyment of it.

So as he forced himself to go out during the day when his body wanted nothing more than to sleep, he focused on that warm, quiet joy that sunlight brought to him. As a warm blood, he'd never had to worry about blood magic spreading his feelings out to others.

But with the month giving warm bloods the abilities of other blood types, D was unknowingly broadcasting how much he enjoyed the sun to anyone nearby. With his hat providing shade for his face he didn't turn his face to the sun to enjoy the feeling of it on his skin, but he very much wanted to do so. That, too, the desire to just stop and enjoy the warmth of the sun, was shared with anyone close enough to get caught up in the emotion D was sharing.

2. You may rise to find the sun [open]

Dark blood is all about manipulating reality. D's purposeful experiments with harnessing powers of other blood types are done further away from everyone else. In the areas outside Trench, night turns to day in a small radius around him. Plants are illuminated and shadows are cast as if it's the middle of the day, but only in a small area around him.

Other times, during the day, the warmth of the sun vanishes, shadows blur and blend together into cooling night even though the area around him is no dimmer than it is. It simply feels like night time. Plants that close during the night curl up as if the sun is gone, and flowers that open only at night bloom in confusion.

3. Don't stand so close to me [open]

The carnivorous plants that are visible around trench don't seem as eager to grab D. They start to reach for him, but as soon as any part of the plant comes within three feet of him they recoil and shrink away. It's not enough to stop them from being cut down.

D walks around with his longsword in hand, and swings it with such speed that it's little more than a crescent of light severing plants and leaving them to writhe and wither in his wake.

4. The difference between realities [Closed for Mayerling]

It's a conversation that can't be put off forever. Mayerling found out about his death while he was a human, and even if he didn't remember that time, D was sure that Johan would have informed the Noble of D's memories shared with Trench.

D didn't want to discuss it at the time, though he was willing to do so, and he owes no less to Mayerling, even if this isn't the Mayerling of his memories. Their realities are extremely similar, even if this Mayerling might be older, or the rules that govern Nobility slightly different.

Mayerling burned in the sun the first day he was in Trench, but has no scars to show from it. In D's own reality that skin would never be nearly as pale and flawless. Recovering from sunlight so perfectly was something only those who had human blood in their ancestry could claim.

5. Defoliation [Closed for Sharon]

The Staging Point, with one ancient Dhampir and one ancient Greater Noble in residence, is largely free of plants attempting to take it over. D sleeps there at night, and Mayerling during the day. The area D effects while moving around is much lower, but the two of them spending so much time in one place is enough to discourage all kinds of pests.

Rats, insects, and this month encroaching plant life.

D doesn't mind lending his time and effort to Sharon.

"You don't need to stay here while I do this. It won't be pleasant for you," D says one last time. He keeps the worst of his aura in check most of the time, but he can easily use it for attack or to exterminate hostile plantlife.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The night always makes D feel more awake, and it takes effort to sleep at night even when he has been wake most of the day.

"I do," D answers. He's certain he knows at least some of the topics of discussion coming his way, and he's less than eager to have any of them. D could attempt to tell Mayerling there's no need to discuss Sharon, but instead of trying to nip that in the bud and prune their pending conversation, he'll hope that Mayerling will avoid that topic on his own.

Mayerling waits a moment because everything is serious and heavy. It's not easy to bring up his death, his death at the hands of another (not D, another world where D spared him). When he thinks about it though, it's only the recent happenings in Trench that keep him from the terrible dark thought—what difference does it make? It can make all the difference in the world.

"The most overdue is," Mayerling says, "our differing worlds, our different histories, the difference in my life." A pause because all significant moments deserve their proper weight. "Your complete silence on the matter."

D needn't have had a conversation. He could have left a note. Anything. He chose silence. He chose to know that difference and say nothing. That choice has come home to roost.

"It didn't seem important when you arrived. You recognized me, you were similar enough that another D spared you. When your play revealed how far the difference went, it seemed inappropriate to defend myself with that difference," D explains calmly and evenly.

For him it changes nothing. Mayerling lives, which is one less death than happened in his own history. "I think you're older, or perhaps more experienced with the world, but the difference is subtle."

Mayerling snorts. A difference that matters greatly to him. D spared his Mayerling? Given how his Mayerling died, that happened while Charlotte was alive. He was trying to save a human woman he thought in danger, until he spared Mayerling. Mayerling's D (What an odd turn of phrase, it's not one he cares for, given he cares more for this D)... The play didn't end as badly. Charlotte, in the end, wasn't dead as the play versions of Mayerling and D thought. Still—

"An explanation is not a defense," Mayerling notes. He gets emotional over Charlotte; how could he not? Steeled for this conversation, he's as level-headed as he can be over the matter.

He appreciates that D adds the differences he knows about Mayerling, but Mayerling is a small part of the world. He inclines his head with a small flick of his cloak.

"What of the rest of the world?"

"There was no other Noble who played a part in your counterpart's journey. There were no functioning ships at the space port he fled to. Sunlight leaves scars on Nobles, some differences among the Barbarois. Judging by your carriage and the horses, the technology is available is similar," D says calmly. He could elaborate more onto the finer details, but there's too little information for anything relevant.

No functioning ships at the space port he fled to.

It hits Mayerling like a seeking arrow. He staggers slightly. Carmilla was always against them, Mayerling knows that now. Her ship, however, was real. The hope was real. If he had been faster, better, they both would have reached the City of the Night. What of this other Mayerling? Were there spaceships somewhere else? Were their fates sealed because he chose the wrong destination? Was there no hope for them at all?

Johan's life with his Charlotte is infinitely happier than either Mayerling's or his counterpart's. His life, his chance for life with Charlotte, seems better than the other's. An odd sensation, that his time with her, cut tragically short in similar moments of about the same time, should be the one with more hope. The one that might get looked at with longing.

Mayerling mentally breaks that arrow to shreds. Nothing was set in stone, save the past. Before it all happened, they had a chance. Mayerling will not take that from them even for how it ended.

"Charlotte told me she met D, when she went outside," Mayerling says, "to enjoy the sunlight. She told him she loved me, not to take her back to family, and that she'd rather die. When we fought, he and I, it wasn't mere vampire possessiveness. Nor only to honor her wishes, though that was the lion's share of it. Either he didn't believe her or didn't believe her will mattered."

D isn't that D, but he's the closest thing.

"Which would you guess?"

He doesn't ask if D would do the same because there's no point. They're living together amiably enough.

There's no need for D to comment on Mayerling's reaction to learning there were no operational ships. D's aware of his cruelty in letting them flee that far.

"You've seen the people who follow me around, or at least heard them outside the staging point," D says. "I've seen people similarly enamored with Nobles, but it's less common. I was going to kill him until it became obvious to me that he hadn't consumed even a drop of her blood. My counterpart made a similar choice if it came to a fight and he backed down."

The difference in power and endurance between a Noble who has recently consumed fresh blood from a young human and one who hasn't is considerable. Even D is much stronger with just a sip of blood.

Mayerling huffs a hollow laugh. It's not particularly amused because he understands the dangers and utter lack of amusement with the people obsessed with D. Not that he blames D. The dhampir exists and lives in Trench. Some people will fall for that allure. How few people act on it is itself commendable.

He sighs, still frustrated. Yes, a human could grow enamored with him. Charlotte? Charlotte never feared him. If she feared that D, it was that he would separate them, not because he was a dhampir. It wasn't that engineered fear. It wasn't what either D faced in town after town. Had he more time with Charlotte, he would have seen that.

Not that the D Mayerling faced said as much. Mayerling knew it was more than he'd said, but he hadn't particularly reanalyzed the moment since coming to Trench. Before then, his anger usually clouded his judgment.

"Shame he couldn't see that before she was dead," Mayerling says.

"Yes, that is a shame," D says calmly and seriously. He's seen many tragedies, both those he witnessed happening and those on a grander scale outside his view, of which he's seen only the aftermath.

He doesn't say that he saw it before she was dead and that it did them no good. Mayerling already knows the tragedy D saw first hand, he doesn't need a reminder of how poorly his love has gone in more than one dimension.

"Do you have any other questions?"

It may not have helped D's Mayerling and Charlotte, what with their lack of means to escape—at least by the route they chose. It may have helped him, Mayerling and his Charlotte. Just imagine what could have happened if D were on their side and earlier—

That was part of the point of the draft of the story for Julia. Julia Sodder being a half-Pthumerian, like a dhampir that way, blurred a different point. Another question.

"Yes," Mayerling says. He knows the answer might not be the same for every D. However, his instinct says that this question is less likely to vary between their universes. He looks at D intensely, not in the manner of those struck by his beauty (though he can remember that, thanks to Johan), but with deep scrutiny.

"Are you the son of the Sacred Ancestor?" Mayerling asks. Not a regular dhampir. Not merely one with the parasite in his left hand. Something more. Something Carmilla asked the D in his universe as she died. Not that D had answered.

It's a question D has received many times, though he rarely answers it. With Mayerling he can't just ignore him until the job is done, but if he answers he will also have to put up with Mayerling for however long they are both here.

But the information is here already. Mayerling won't be the first to know, even if he might be the first to understand what it means.

"I am. Does that change anything?"

It's not unexpected, but it's... heavy. Like understanding gravity. Mayerling stands steady because he's long practice with the matter, as well as months of contemplation while sharing housing together. He keeps the faith, but he's no young child to run up and ask questions about the Sacred Ancestor. Actions and teachings speak for themselves. D's existence yet another one of those.

"It explains some things," Mayerling says. "You—neither of you—are like any other dhampir I've met."

He takes another breath. "Your actions are independent of his?"

Not representative of what the Sacred Ancestor currently wants, Mayerling means. Vampires have long tilted toward extinction, and the Sacred Ancestor has done nothing. After all, they are only transient guests. However, to hunt them down and to hurry the process along is something else. D is a vampire hunter.

"I am a Vampire Hunter by my own choice. He has no say in what I do," D says with calm certainty.

Never mind the mysterious jobs. Arranging for D to cross a desert knowing he'll be forced to kill a failed experiment, perhaps even knowing he would cross alongside an unborn half sibling. The Noble who with a single word sent D chasing the shadows of his past, who could only have been sent by him.

Time and again coming across individuals or towns instructed by him to aid any of his bloodline.

"I don't know where he is or, specifically, what he's doing." Just what he's doing in a general sense. D is the only success, but that hasn't stopped him from trying.

"You do as you will," Mayerling says. D's strong will and determination have been clear from the start, even when the jobs he takes are a mistake. At least the one. That idea snags his attention more than the distant Sacred Ancestor. His faith is what it is, but he's used to the Sacred Ancestor being far away. His son's presence, oddly enough, hardly changes that.

"How well do you usually get to know those who hire you?" Mayerling asks. "Or judge their character before taking a job?"

Understanding Charlotte's father explains why she might choose leaving with Mayerling.

"It varies. Some people I hear of through previous employers, some spend a lot of money to ensure a message reaches me. Others I come across are already victims. I've even worked for Nobles. Another baron was the second to last to hire me before I came here. I decide at the meeting, it's easier to judge in person." D explains. He can see the question Mayerling is circling.

"I don't know if I would have accepted the job to go after your counterpart and rescue her if the town hadn't been full of the freshly drained and freshly turned." They weren't even properly turned either. One lapse and an entire community was simply gone.

The rest of the pitfalls waiting them D wasn't going to share. The body guard's betrayal, the parasite.

"It's the type of job I least prefer. That's what people finders are for." D has met a few who are capable of taking on a Greater Noble. If Mayerling doesn't know what often happens to people who are successfully rescued D isn't sure he wants to share. Taking the job when he only had to see an adult safely to somewhere she never lived before made the job more palatable.

Mostly, it makes sense. Logical. A fair way to work. A better way to work than how plenty of hunters do. Mayerling had heard of D before they encountered each other, and what this D says mostly aligns with what he'd heard. His experience had been somewhat wanting, but perhaps everyone (who lived) on the other side of the experience might say the same thing.

His brow furrows at the description of the town. A stark difference between their realities, one that doesn't make sense, not even accounting for minor differences in his character.

"Drained and turned," Mayerling repeats, horrified, "I admit, in a moment of anger, I bit her father when I found him beating her." That admission fouls his stomach for the moment of weakness it was, something come partially from the fact he knew Charlotte didn't want the man dead, simpler though it would have been. "I did him no other wrong with my bite. No turning. No harm besides some blood loss. I made sure of it." He hadn't lost that much control.

Mayerling takes a breath. "When I came for Charlotte," he says, his cheeks pinking, "It was entirely classic as we planned. I rode directly into town—bending crosses, freezing the fountain, killing the plants... to take her from her bedroom. No one was harmed, not until they followed us. A rescue party of fifty men. I gave them a chance to leave then killed all of them, save her brother."

"Nothing that would call for a people finder. I... find it difficult to believe my counterpart would act so differently."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

March Catch-All [Open and closed prompts]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject