010 // video

[ingenue_bait]

[The video is of a young man, dressed in some combination of Western and Middle Eastern wear, with a black mask covering his features. He might be in his late teens, he might be thirty--it is difficult to tell. What is immediately noticeable is that, unlike the Erik seen until now, he is... seen. In full view, and apparently comfortable with that

Comments

Private-Video

[thegooddrjones]

Hello Erik, my name is Martha. May I come see ya so we can chat. I'm a friend, and I mean ya no harm.

[thegooddrjones]

"Because, Erik, you trust people so little in the future that I know how important of a step it is that you are even concerned about my welfare." She took a deep breath and then released it slowly. "Erik, sometimes you don't even talk about yourself like you are. Because of that, I'll gladly take caring even the smallest bit about me as a step. Also, I'm here to help look after ya now. I'm your friend and you're not alone anymore."

[ingenue_bait]

Erik shrugged fluidly. "I do not need anyone," he said. "You remind me of the little policeman who has been sent to look after me. But you meant something, when you said I don't use the word 'I.' What does that mean?"

[thegooddrjones]

"Everyone needs someone, Erik. Even you don't realize that you do." She was amused by the fact that Erik was comparing her to the Daroga, and there was a little smile on her face. "Yeah, he says that too, about the Daroga."

However, she frowned quickly when he asked about the 'I'. "You always talk about yourself in the third person. 'Erik's possessions. Erik's life."

[ingenue_bait]

It was unthinkable, Erik thought, to imagine the daroga would be enough a part of his life as to still be talking about him. What was he but a minor functionary? He was nothing. Polite, certainly, and he laughed at Erik's jokes. But that was hardly sufficient reason to remember him.

"Do I?" he asked, genuinely confused. "That sounds mad."

[thegooddrjones]

"It's not mad." Martha was quick to defend him, even from things that weren't intended on being a slight. She worried about Erik remembering that his younger self had thought him mad. "He's just trying desperately not to be human." It worried her; he seemed to do it more often when things were bad.

[ingenue_bait]

"You seem very defensive of him," Erik said. "I myself am not certain what's so great about being human. I have never striven for merely human goals."

[thegooddrjones]

"He's my friend, and he's not mad and I don't like people saying bad things about my friends." Martha considered for a moment, and then she pointed a bit, replaying his sentence within her head. "Notice ya said 'merely.'"

[ingenue_bait]

Erik cocked his head. "Why should I not?" he asked. "Did Mozart content himself with human ideals? Did Alexander the Great? Or Michelangelo? Nothing is accomplished if man remains within the confines of what has been done."