ONGOING//CLOSED (affectionately known as 'daddypire is disappoint.')
Characters: Closed to: powerofgod and suckmysilver
Location: Room 1212, on the like deck.
Date: Three days after Eric nommed Vie, the aftermath of which is here.
Rating: PG-13
( Two days from now, at first dark. )
Location: Room 1212, on the like deck.
Date: Three days after Eric nommed Vie, the aftermath of which is here.
Rating: PG-13
( Two days from now, at first dark. )
Though what consequences the Captain had bequeathed were a pitiable failure of punishment. Three days dispensed of their inconvenience, gone without witness by the passengers. Impulses fought with one thousand years of will were an irritation when they gained momentary triumph and he would have nothing to do with fish sauce for ten years at least, but they remained inconvenience, not deterrent.
This is where I feel regret?
Eric bore familiarity with worse punishments, many dispensed by the magister against vampires he brought to tribunal. Their crimes varied in turn, from public feeding to the more grave lot, such as Bill Compton was familiar with after the little incident with Longshadow. The punishments doled out reflected the nature of his kin, cruelty reflected back upon them to enforce statutes grown more rigid as the community emerged from the coffin, becoming known commonplace to humans.
The travesty he committed could have seen his fangs removed by their laws, so that hunger plagued him in the weeks and months it would take to regrow them. Other atrocities could see a vampire locked in a coffin wrapped in silver chains. In comparison, Redd's reaction -- rubber fangs and an irritable compulsion? Eric bore grim amusement to this attempt at restraining him, and the anger inherent against a man comfortable in his seat of power, thinking that the Viking could be ordered like some subject of his monarchy.
No.
Not when both his existences were highlight to resistance of presumed authority. In times spent breathing, he had marched into battle solely to defy those comfortable upon the laurels of their rule. In times spent since, he fed on them, ignored them -- and on occasion, destroyed them. Godric had been at his side during those times, equally bloody and pleased with the carnage they two could wreak when it suited them.
These were the memories most difficult to dispatch in coming to terms with what time did to that cruelty. They had both witnessed the passage and impact of years, how it changed the very face of the planet. That it changed them came as equal inevitability, stable as they were compared to the fleeting lifespans that sustained them. Yet he recalled -- went so far as to prefer -- the nights when Godric had been cruel more than this kindness he exhibited.
It was an effort to better himself. Eric knew this despite his inherent disregard for equal co-existence with vampires. Vampires were better, stronger than humans. Amidst them, Godric was a rare pinnacle of how far their kind exceeded the human limitation. That he allowed the humans to approach him and encouraged them to speak -- if not as equals, then with the same reverence of a two or three century vampire -- exemplified that change, but it also drew him towards their level, made him familiar to them.
Fear faded with familiarity. Eric saw this in the way that the humans grew more obnoxious, increasingly pretentious in their conviction that they ought rule the planet alone, or rule the vampires that fed upon them. That idea would ever be ludicrous; since when had humans allowed cattle to dictate their actions? The vampires might permit them greater freedoms than being tagged and put to pasture, but the relationship reflected no less a power imbalance.
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