you can keep on getting better [open]

[hauntedsavior]

Who: Anna Amarande and you!
What: May catchall
When: May
Where: A bar in Cellar Door, other locations to come

Content Warnings: Light alcohol use, conversations about humanity and murder, blood, vampirism

a. if you want, you can buy yourself a drink [at the bar]

[anna's made plans with a couple people to hang out this month. it's not a tense environment at all, and sometimes she can even be seen on the tiny little stage playing some chilled out bass grooves for the patrons. no concrete songs, really, mostly just improv for vibes. when she's not on stage, and most of the time she's not, she's nestled herself down into a booth down near the end. it's quiet, well-lit but not obtrusively so. people around here know her and know that that's basically her seat, so any conversations that happen there are as private as they're gonna get.]

[she's expecting a few people to show up as she nurses a beer that's so weak she might as well not be drinking anything at all. probably for the best that she's sober for these talks, whatever they end up bringing with them.]

Hey. Glad you could make it. [she tilts her drink at her guest.]

b. no you'll never drink like me [for kainé]

[there's always been a few problems with going out and hunting beasts, no matter how confident and comfortable it makes anna feel. no matter how many lives she saves, she's always putting herself at risk of corruption or injury or beasthood or all three, and one of these days it's gonna sneak up on her. all at once, extremely loudly and incredibly close.]

[anyway, when she comes back home this time, it's clear that she's been in better shape. she limps her way into the house, and she's at least cognizant enough to fix her roommate/girlfriend with a sheepish little look as she holds her side. the cloth there isn't dripping yet, but it's clear that it didn't start as red as it is now.]

Motherfucker out there got the best of me. [she's talking like she's not in pain, or like she's trying very hard to pretend she isn't.] I think I stopped most of the bleeding myself. Don't suppose we've got anything here that can help seal it up before I go to the doctor?

Comments

[hauntedsavior]

[PM sounds like he's had to refute this idea before, and maybe the line that anna's found is one she shouldn't have crossed. but he talks her through his protests very civilly, in a way that she can understand, and in a way that doesn't... immediately sound like she's offended him. so she's more than okay with just leaning back a little more and removing that whole concept from her mind.]

[she does suppose he has a point about long-lived empires leaving their worst crimes out in the open. her own only made it about 250, maybe 300 years tops before the kindly prince took it out.]

You know, the more you tell me about him, the more he starts sounding like the last guy I knew who made such a big fuss about God. Wonder if he's got some rebellious dyke of a daughter who fell in love with a mysterious woman who taught her how to live, too. [pause for laugh.] Man. I don't even wanna think about this bastard having sex. I'm sorry I brought that one up. But he sounds like a total fucking control freak.

[she leans in just a little more, resting her elbow on the table and letting her wrist hang limply. it's like she's sharing just a tiny little secret with him.]

Tell you what, dude, I would've been ready to kick his ass just from all that stuff you just told me. Even if he weren't some self-made emperor, some jackasses just deserve to get their shit handed to them.

[megatheorem]

[gee it would be weird if that happened twice

Palamedes sips his water, expression even. He isn't offended, or even particularly irritated; but Six for the truth, and so on and so forth. There's value to be had in putting his cards on the table frankly, without qualifications. He wouldn't lie to her and hem and haw around something of this magnitude, after all; best for everyone to be on the same page from the getgo.

Which is why he more or less told God to eat shit with all of his control freak Lyctor garbage, but at least Anna seems less likely to murder him out of pettiness.]

How many people do you think about having sex? [pfft. he holds up a hand,] No, never mind; that line of thinking stays firmly within literature circles.

[horny book club]

In any case: I see what you mean. I don't disagree, I just— [Hm; he drums his fingers against the side of the glass, frowning. He recalls listening to the Lyctor list her reasons for all her murders, her endless sins, as though she were justified and interesting about it, and he thinks, Is that not God, in miniature? Was she not an insufferable piece of shit in His image?

One time, he often thinks, is enough. He says,] Well, I've never kicked anybody's ass. I don't know how good it'd be for me, you know, emotionally.

[hauntedsavior]

[oh, thank god he's not going to make her think about the bonelord supreme doing some supreme boning. she will take this small favor and she will run with it for as long as PM lets her. which is roughly as long as it takes him to say he'd have some sort of emotional problems kicking someone's ass, and she nods.]

No, I get it. I mean... you should've seen me when I was a kid, you know? You think I jump to that answer now, I was a goddamn terror when I was younger. [with just a small hint of pride, she smiles and points at an incisor.]

That was the first baby tooth I lost. Some asshole punched me in the face 'cause I wouldn't let him call my little sister a weird nerd. [there's not a lot of pride in it anymore, or rather it falls off quickly.] But she never threw a punch herself. Never wanted to. Some people aren't built for it, but they're still some of the most interesting people I've met, you know?

Like this one guy, for example, has a literature circle where he talks about people banging.

[megatheorem]

The Sixth's literary canon is very vigorous, [he says by way of explanation, for that last bit. Just wait until he quits his minister job and becomes a smut peddler full time, that'll be a day to remember.

He makes a face for a moment, a thin smile, because somewhere in there whether she meant it to be or not is the implication that not throwing a punch is uninteresting, at least for other people. Palamedes has met those other people. Camilla threw more than a punch, for emphasis.

He holds up his hands, fingers spread, like Well...]

Well, I don't profess to sainthood, or anything. [ha HA ha] I've done my fair share of violence and wanting to do it, make no mistake. I'll own that.

[He runs through his mental shortlist of things that could inspire him to Do a Violence again, and:] For me, it would have to meet at least two criteria, bare minimum: first, it's personal; second, it's a last resort.

[hauntedsavior]

Mmm. [she nods again.] Yeah, I get that. I definitely think you could throw some hands if you needed to. I just hope nothing pushes you that far, you know? Way I see it, people with rules like that set 'em for a real good reason.

[something about still, nerdy waters running deep. though maybe she's reading too far into things again. whatever, it's not important, ultimately. or at least she's convincing herself it's not so she doesn't end up probing too deep into the life of someone who might not be ready to reveal it, whether with questions or assumptions.]

Real glad you're not above telling people to piss off, though. You craft one of those well enough, you can cut deeper than any sword. And in the meantime... well, hell. You much of a storyteller? 'Cause I think if it's not gonna be bringing down an empire, you probably have some lore in your head that could at least be good campfire fodder.