writers_muses; Prompt 33.4: Someone Long Dead
You've just learned that someone you thought long dead is instead alive and has been searching for you. It can be a friend or an enemy, the choice is yours. Begin your post with a knock at the door, or a phone ringing to bring you the news.
The gods mentioned in this story are not meant to represent any of the gods that may currently exist in the variety of prompt and roleplaying communities on Livejournal or elsewhere. They are gods inside of Athena's universe only, and their actions and personalities have no relation to, or effect upon, any other characters but Athena. Will Kennedy is my own creation and belongs to me.
The Madame de Pompadour in this story is used with permission (and encouragement!) from the player of ambitious_woman, the only Reinette I'll ever see/hear/write/read, and the player of much_beloved, who created the idea of a vampire!Reinette. This takes place in the Moonlight universe.
The title is from the poem "The Relic" by John Donne.
Something Else Thereby
The phone rings. I don't want to answer. It's really terrible what telephones do to peoples' voices. I've never been able to shake the sense of disconnect and artificiality that I get every time I talk to someone through a phone. I imagine this is what all of us who were alive before phones feel. I ought to ask Josef some time, because Victoria and I really never talk about stuff like that.
So the phone rings, and I stare at it for three rings, not wanting to hear her voice through the electronic speaker.
It had been late summer the last time I saw her, three hundred years before. I had taken my leave of the French court and its king, and waited for her in the gardens to say our more private goodbyes. I'd never liked gardens before that summer, but she gave me a certain appreciation for them. The Court, however, she could give me no appreciation for. I've always been forthright and honest, and I don't play those sorts of games. Am I good at them? Of course. I had played the part of a lord of court that summer - making them think I was a man gave me greater access to things I wanted access to - and now the time for play was done. War still spread across Europe, and I was needed. I'll always prefer the battlefield to the palace.
I met a kid once in 1958 in Detroit, who had one of the funniest hairstyles I've ever seen. When he told me what it was, I laughed until I cried.
The Pompadour.
I let the phone finish ringing. It's not that I'm scared. I don't get scared. I'm just not in the mood to deal with her, and I need time to think over the things that Josef had told me.
They made Reinette a vampire. We gods share with mortals the desire to preserve beautiful things forever, but there are some things that are best left for their eras. I couldn't imagineReinette walking around Los Angeles in 2008. I can't imagine her as anything but a woman of the French court. Louis' woman. My woman, for that summer.
Then again, could she imagine me walking around in Los Angeles in 2008? Probably not.
There's a knock at the door. Great.
Of course it's her. Of course. Of course she came out in broad daylight and afternoon traffic to see me. Of course.
"Athena."
"Jeanne."
She really does look like Beth. Or, I guess, Beth looks like her. Mortals and their genetics. But Beth, as lovely as she is, lacks the spark that has always been inReinette's eyes, even when she was alive.
What a lovely reminder that she's not alive any longer.
"Are you going to invite me in?" Her lips twist into a smirk. Another reminder, and she knows it.
"I thought that went without saying." I step away from the door and she comes in. I watch her as she walks, as she removes her sunglasses and comments appreciatively on my UV blocking glass. She runs her fingertips over the edge of a very old engraving and turns to look at me. I try not to shiver.
"Do you keep trophies of all of us around?" She's already moved on, and comes to stand near me again.
"Us?"
"The mortals you spend your time with. You know, I always thought you were supposed to be a virgin. I was just too polite to say it then."
Why does everyone say that? Man, move on people. "You still consider yourself a mortal?"
"You're not answering the question." She takes my hand in hers. It's cold. I don't know what I was expecting, but it's so cold. "Yes. I can die. Immortality is a guarantee of forever, and I don't presume I'm guaranteed anything. I heal. I don't get sick. These are all great gifts."
It's amazing that after so long I can still read her like an open book. Then again, I can read most people. There's nothing special about JeanneAntionette Poisson. She's just like the other mortals I've known. Yeah, it sounds real good in my head, doesn't it? "But?"
"But it was never a gift I asked for." She lets my hand drop and wanders to the fridge. "Josef tells me you keep blood around in case he drops by."
"So he won't whine." I'm glad her back's to me now; I don't want her to see my face. "I'd really rather you not."
Obviously she doesn't care, because she pours the blood anyway. She turns back to me, that smirk on her face again. It's a strange smirk, and I realize that's because I'd never seen her smirk like that before. Three hundred years of death can change a person. "Oh come on. You're a goddess, and you can't handle a little blood drinking?"
"Not from you."
The cup is at her lips, but she pauses and puts it down. When she looks at me again, it's like staring into the face of the woman I once knew. All of the pain and cynicism is gone, and here is only her bright light left. "I didn't choose this."
I shrug. "Most of you don't."
"You could have stayed. Could have... protected me from them."
"No." This is pretty much exactly how I picture the conversation going, which is exactly why I wanted to avoid having the conversation in the first place. "I couldn't have stayed." But I could have protected her. We both knew it. I'd asked her to come with me, to be my companion, and she'd said no. It was her choice to make, but I was hurt enough by her rejection that I didn't go back to France for a sixty years.
I missed the French Revolution because I was being a big baby. Not one of my finer moments. Then again, the French Revolution wasn't one of the finer moments in modern warfare, so maybe it was for the best. That wasReinette , really: a hidden gift wrapped in layers of cloth and bone corsets. I think Louis and I were the only people who really appreciated her.
"You want me to go." She puts her glasses back on and, wham, it's like a barrier between us.
So I take away the barrier. We're both three hundred years older, we're both three hundred years wiser, and this modern world makes cynics out of everyone. But she was still the little queen. I take her glasses off. "No. I didn't want you to come, but now that you're here I want you to stay."
Her eyes stare into mine for a moment and then she nods, almost imperceptibly, and moves to the couch. She's clearly waiting for me to join her and, after a second, I do. I hate when mortals can tie me up like this. This is why I used to look down on my family and their constant entanglements. Then Rome happened, and now look at me.
I live a long life, too long for regrets.
"I can't believe, all these years, and you didn't know. You're a goddess, Athena, how could you not?" There's no accusation in her voice, only curiosity. She's not angry at me. Good.
I laugh. "I'm not that kind of goddess. It's not my job to know who's alive where, or who's dead where, or who's doing anything where, really. I've got a sense of the minds of all weavers and warriors, but I don't just walk around constantly knowing who's doing what where. You told me no, I left, I heard you'd died, that was the end of it. I'd lost companions before. And since."
She nods and smiles. "Purposeful ignorance from the goddess of wisdom."
"Are you trying to anger me?"
"I no longer fear death. What's the worst you could do to me?"
Well okay then. Fine. "Force you to hear one of Josef's lectures about how capitalism is the greatest thing to happen to vampire kind since the Red Cross."
She laughs, and it's an old and happy laugh, and I think I've missed that a lot in my life. I realize in this moment that Will reminded me a lot of Reinette, except gayer and more masculine, and I really miss him for the first time in a long time.
"Got me, I won't say anything else about your ignorance." She smiles playfully. "Purposeful or otherwise."
In that moment I want to hold her and to have her hold me, but I'm afraid of how she'll feel. Can I make her human again? Is that in my power? Even if it's not, it would be in the power of one of my relatives. But it would be like handing her a death sentence. Besides, I can't just go around curing vampires. Even if I wanted to, there are rules about that sort of thing, and I can't go giving the angst-ridden vampire population any false hope.
Who am I kidding? I'd do it in an instant if she asked.
Reinette touches her fingertips to my chin and I realize I must have zoned out. "You're thinking of something."
I nod.
"Me."
I nod again.
"I won't ask you."
Damn her. "That's not what I was going to ask."
"You're a liar, ma belle guerre." I must've made a face, because she laughs again. "Very well. What were you going to ask."
I take a breath, and I can almost forget that she no longer breathes. "Will you stay the night, Jeanne?"
"Yes."
"And after?"
"After, I don't know."
It's a start.
Word Count: 1618