The Woes of the World [active]

[withwingstofly]

Character(s): Setzer, Soma
Content: A pair of silver-haired men compare notes on life's foibles
Setting: Palazzo Townhouses
Time: Shortly after this thread
Warnings: None that I can think of

Comments

[withwingstofly]

"It rarely happens on mine as well," Setzer answered before settling in to listen. The tales told on the stage were all well and good, but that could hardly hold a candle to a tale told by one who had heard it passed down through the generations. After all, it would have been far too much to have expected the man he'd just meant to be one of the beings of the story. More likely he'd be a descendant. It would, after all, make the most sense from a story-telling standpoint.

Still, Soma would find him to be quite an attentive audience, nodding where appropriate and not making many attempts to interject with his own comments. The story would make itself known in time. No sense interrupting more than he had to.

"Protected by Death?" It was an odd phrasing, one he hadn't expected. He could understand being protected from death, in the same way one could be protected from magic, but to be protected by death spoke of far greater powers then most people he'd had the luck (by it good or ill) to know.

[notquitedracula]

"Yes, by Death. An incarnation of Death has fought with every single wielder of the whip down the centuries. Even when defeated, Death continues to protect Dracula by taking away his soul and his powers, in turn investing them in a new host once every fifty years or so. Except this last time, he screwed up."

Soma took a moment to drink some of his coffee, letting the cup warm hands gone suddenly cold with remembered terror. "After a thousand years, Death screwed up. Dracula's powers and soul were split between four individuals, each of them receiving an aspect of the count's abilities. Only one of them, though, was truly suitable as an heir. And he didn't want the job."

[withwingstofly]

The idea of Death making a mistake wasn't entirely new to Setzer. He'd gambled a time or two with death, when the cards were right (or wrong) in fight and he couldn't say that it had always gone as he'd wanted, although there was usually someone around with a spare Raise spell around in the case it backfired. He had a feeling this might not be quite the case where Soma was from.

"And this individual had a name, I trust?"

He had half a suspicion as to whose name this heir might have, but still. Better to hear from the lips of the storyteller. He could hardly guess correctly all the time.

[notquitedracula]

"He does indeed," Soma said, with half a grin that quickly faded. "If it had just been me, I might have given in. I'm not proud of that fact, but I'm only human; eternity and the kind of power I was offered tends to be a bit tempting, even if I knew it wouldn't be me in this body anymore. I wasn't alone, though; if I had gone for it, a very dear friend of mine would have died. I don't betray my friends."

He took another drink of coffee, then shook his head. "It almost didn't matter. After I beat Graham, the power he had been usurping backlashed into me. For a while there, I -was- Dracula. I knew everything he had known, everything he had done, and his full strength was within my grasp. It almost drove me insane. But what scares me the most is that in the same situation, I might have followed his path all on my own."

[withwingstofly]

Ah, yes. Eternity. That greatest and grandest of wagers, put up only by those were impeccably sure of their hands and who dealt crooked deals besides. No surprise, then, that it was far more the fare of the opera stage than anything he'd seen in his lifetime. Nor was he quite sure he'd wish to see one. An eternity in the skies was tempting, but he knew his plays. Eternity never turned out how one wished it to.

"Better that then power enough to drive a man completely to insanity," Setzer answered, turning a dark look into his own drink. Completely and utterly insane, even before he shattered the world.