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piper902020-10-21 06:04 pm
smallmediumwelldone) wrote in piper902020-10-21 06:04 pm
Entry tags:
[Video]
Good evening.
[There’s a woman speaking, tone clipped. The corporate jumpsuit hangs off her small frame, and her hair is swept up into an old-fashioned bun. Or so it seems - she’s standing a bit away from the screen, and it’s tilted at an odd angle.]
I am given to understand that this is how to contact my new coworkers? My name is Beatrice Brewer, at your service, and I assure you I am quite qualified. I am - was - an apprentice of the fifth circle in, ah, a collection of magi, have experience in a thrilling variety of crises, and am quite keen to get started on - [a heavy sigh, more notable for the fact that someone observant might catch that she doesn’t breathe] - this situation.
[There’s a long pause.]
Drat, is this bloody thing even on? Dreadful place, what sort of dog and pony show are they running, honestly. Stuff? Stuff? Of all the names?
[There’s a woman speaking, tone clipped. The corporate jumpsuit hangs off her small frame, and her hair is swept up into an old-fashioned bun. Or so it seems - she’s standing a bit away from the screen, and it’s tilted at an odd angle.]
I am given to understand that this is how to contact my new coworkers? My name is Beatrice Brewer, at your service, and I assure you I am quite qualified. I am - was - an apprentice of the fifth circle in, ah, a collection of magi, have experience in a thrilling variety of crises, and am quite keen to get started on - [a heavy sigh, more notable for the fact that someone observant might catch that she doesn’t breathe] - this situation.
[There’s a long pause.]
Drat, is this bloody thing even on? Dreadful place, what sort of dog and pony show are they running, honestly. Stuff? Stuff? Of all the names?
no subject
It's enough not to know who Alexa is, I got it. You don't have to tell me what you are on this record if you don't want to, but I will be asking if I can't figure it out once we cross paths.
[Dan had to explain that one. At least by that point he already knew what emoticons were. Meanwhile Bea's stiff formality is funny enough that he starts dialing up the Australian in his accent just a tad more.]
"Bunny"'ll do fine. "Mr. Bunny" sounds like some stiff fella wearin' a bowler hat and offerin', I dunno, crumpets or something. You'll get more mangoes from me.
no subject
[She hates so much about what her life is. The Easter Bunny is here. The Easter Bunny is here and the damned thing is laughing at her. Beatrice frowns.]
It's hardly a secret what I am – ordinarily I would be happy to answer any questions, but now you've gotten me curious what your guesses and extrapolation would be. Particularly given your unique - er, if my kind or the like have had any interactions with the - the -
[She refuses to say the words Easter Bunny. She will not. Beatrice sighs.]
- Australians.
[Incredible save. She did it.]
So, are you a spirit, Mr. Just-Bunny, or? How do you...
no subject
[Kevin may be gone, but he's still upset by how uncomfortable his presence made Kevin, and how he can only explain it now that he remembers his soul is literally on fire with a flame direct from the sun, courtesy of a murdered goddess.
Hes absolutely not going to say any of that on any record, even a secure one he's personally tested.]
I'm a Guardian. [He clarifies it with a sudden curt pride, because he really, really does not want to get into it, not when losing his memory and then getting it back through watching it with strangers has brought his traumatic ascension so close to the surface, centuries after he'd processed it.] If you're supernatural and you don't know that part of who I am, we haven't had dealings, because you're not from my neck of the universe.
[He's kind of a big deal. According to him.]
Anyway, while I've got your attention - what's your favorite fruit, and can you or can you not eat chocolate?
no subject
[Beatrice settles back, her already reserved expression closing off a smidgen more after a flash of wariness. The Easter Bunny is here, And it burns the unholy or whatever, fantastic.]
That does rather spoil my puzzle curiosity, but I appreciate the warning. Perhaps it is for the best I stay away, then – I am indeed a vampire. And you are a..Guardian. Of what? Easter? Do holidays have personifications?
[Hypothetically, at home, given enough belief, maybe... That thought distracts her, before she blinks back.]
But my nature also answers your other questions, I should think. This isn't Bunnicula, we can't eat greens. Or chocolate. It physically goes down, but the process after is unpleasant. Well, maybe – I had an acquaintance that created some sort of infusion of blood and hot chocolate, but that's about the limit. [Yes, she has read Bunnicula. No, she refuses to explain.]
no subject
[If that's her she can just admit it herself, but vampire or no, he hasn't gotten that vibe yet.]
North handles Christmas, but between you and me the tulpas that tend to pop up as holiday personifications tend to be a little one-dimensional.
[Don't ask him about the Groundhog.]
What's Bunnicula?
[You brought this on yourself Beatrice.]
More's the pity. [At least Bea isn't a child like Kevin, because where would he get blood to put in hot chocolate? He sure couldn't use his own, not when Kevin was itchy and uncomfortable just from being in the same room as him. He's running through the potential recipe but none of it seems very tenable.] How about warding plants, you need any of those grown?
no subject
So you're some sort of...tulpa?-Spirit? being that protects children. No, you were correct, we certainly don't have anything like that where I am – not even in the colonies either, as far as I'm aware.
[She adds the last bit on wryly, a quip to lessen the bitter shape of her words. If the Easter Bunny is going to be Australian for whatever godforsaken reason in the joke her life is, at least she's allowed to amuse herself.]
Thank you for your offer, though. One can never have too much wormwood, and I have quite the black thumb. So, if you're not a holiday personification – or, er, are you? What makes you different from the other ones? Are you not actually the..
[Beatrice makes a vague gesture that is meant to encompass the general concept of an easter bunny, as she continues to do her best to never have to say it.]
no subject
[He's completely aware that Bea has backed herself into having to explain something silly, some just-new tulpa or even a pop culture joke that he's not up to date on, but he wholly wants to see how far he can back her into the corner of having to explain.
Maybe because it's a good distraction from admitting that he doesn't want to have to explain to her how he became the Easter Bunny, not when he only just re-learned it himself and that trauma is still fresh, all the faces he did so much work to memorize alive and happy dead in front of him again as if in real time, the smell of the bodies defrosting and rotting cruelly renewed in his memory.
Explaining that he survived a targeted genocide that took out a goddess and an entire sentient species only ever has two outcomes. Either it bums the other party out, and they're locked into a vein of etiquette where they give condolences that they don't owe him, that cannot possibly equal the scope of the story he's just told. Or, terrible in a different way, the story doesn't bother them.
It could be a good litmus test to gauge the empathy of vampires, but it's too personal for him to hear someone brush all those deaths off. If Bea, or anyone else on this Rig for that matter, can hear a story about being the last of his kind and shrug it off, he wants to find that aspect of their personality through other interactions.
He never has this problem at home, where everyone already knows him for the survivor, the hero, the remnant he is. Even children usually take "I'm the Easter Bunny" at face value, and don't ask him why or how -
Actually, how would he explain this to a child?]
I was born mortal. The Man in the Moon gave me the job.
[It's . . . misleading, but "my Goddess was murdered" leads to the question of "how is a Goddess murdered," and he still doesn't know how the Old Man did it, and wouldn't go around telling anyone if he could. Being solar powered won't explain the Moon's influence, but -]
I was Enlightened by a sun goddess before I caught Manny's eye.
[There, that's enough truth to cut questions. Maybe.]
Now I protect the kids with my mates back home, and get stuck here growin' the food for most everyone who doesn't survive on blood.
Now what's your story, how about those magi and their circles? They the ones that turned you, or do vampires happen spontaneously on your plane of existence?
no subject
[She adds the last part on part haughtily. It's a reference and that makes it literature, okay? Beatrice doesn't have to explain that it's a children's book or that she sometimes reads dumb vampire media for shits and giggles. She's also about 60% certain that Bunny is messing with her, but if someone asks questions, it's so hard to not do her best to answer. Besides, is the Easter Bunny actually allowed to screw with people? Legally? It's The Easter Bunny.
Beatrice also went on what is best described as a face journey as she listens to Bunny's brief but still wild explanation.]
The...Man in the Moon. Alright. Sure. [Beatrice would, without a doubt, take emotional damage from having to physically face that concept as well. And also try and earnestly call him "Mr. Moon." Unluckily for Bunny, she's still got questions – but perhaps luckily, she's more interested in the logistics.] We..definitely do not have that either. Or goddesses, as far as I'm aware. What precisely differentiates a goddess from an embodiment? What defines that?
As for my own nature, we certainly do not happen spontaneously. That would be – chaotic. Very inconvenient for all involved. To turn another is a deliberate act from the party doing so, and then the one Embraced – our term for it – takes after the particular subtype of vampire that their Sire is. It's a rather linear process.
So to answer your question, yes, I was turned by a clan of vampiric magi. Our circles are grades of responsibility and competence – we’re rather organized compared to others of our Kindred.
[ She unknowingly follows Bunny's strategy of give enough of the truth to tap-dance around the upsetting parts.]
no subject
I dunno. [He answers it very honestly!] I wouldn't dare call the goddesses I've met anything else. What's an embodiment?
[The thing about dancing around upsetting aspects of vampirism is that . . . Bunny just expects most of the aspects of vampirism to be upsetting. He was in fact quite upset by what little he learned of Kevin's world and the lack of safety Kevin's returned to there. Asking Bea "are you safe with them" is pointless when they already demonstrated she was not safe by turning her, asking her to elaborate on the details of her magic feels callous without first asking after her wellbeing when her wellbeing has, at least once, been extremely compromised. If he's going to dodge upsetting points of his own he's got to respect she might want to do the same.
What the heck does he ask then?]
I figure this might not be something you want to talk about much, but I gotta ask. How'd they select you?
no subject
You know, like you, or your holidays. An embodiment of a concept, some sort of collective weight of beliefs. Goddess is such a grandiose term, it's difficult to put the actual existence of one in my frame of reference – is it a question of scale of power or? The closest we get is that a subset of vampires credit a god, singular, with our existence. Or perhaps blame would be more accurate? In any case, the first murderer gets cursed into being the progenitor of all vampires. The verses on it are all terribly melodramatic.
I can't imagine Kevin brought it up, and it's not really your loss, but alas.
[Alas for Bunny, he's stuck with her now instead of Kevin, and Beatrice is in turn stuck with having to care about those sorts of things these nights. Meanwhile the forbidden acknowledgement that there is horror lurking under the idea of selection, that she might have reason to clam up – that sets Beatrice to bristling inside. To be a victim is unthinkable, and the thought of the Easter Bunny potentially judging her is doubly so. As well as a new level of nonsense that she's not sure her day can handle. The set of Bea's jaw is lifted, defensive as she answers.]
It's no matter, it's hardly a secret, just not generally of interest. As a mortal girl – perhaps nine? I became able to sense and communicate with spirits of the dead. So you see, I can be quite certain that we do not have any spiritual 'guardians of childhood' floating - or hopping - about our realm. My later explorations on this front brought me in contact with the more physical undead. The Tremere – the clan of magi – took interest and embraced me once they were satisfied with my value and cooperation. As I said, the Tremere are quite organized.
[Everything she said was completely factually true. It's just so much more convenient to skip past what obtaining cooperation tends to mean with Kindred, or how the Tremere ensure it's kept after. There's only one other vampire here, after all – who's gonna call her on it, the vampire cops?]
no subject
He remembers Eos - absolute scorching deadly power, blinding immolation, unquenchable fire that nothing on earth could withstand. Wrapped up in layer after layer of her own protection, cloaking her light until it illuminated instead of blinding. Pure destruction, choosing to render herself nurturing. At the expense, in the end, of her own life.
It'll never stop being a terrible mystery, how she was able to be killed.
But Bea's asking for quantification, and he doesn't have it.]
You'd know it if you met one.
[He could leave it at that but he's already being a little hard on her, so -] It IS hard to put them into our reference. That's not a failing on our parts. How good do you think a housecat would be at describing you?
[Anyway, she'd be more than bristling if she knew that he isn't thinking of her so much as a victim, as he is thinking of her as a casualty.
That's reductive thinking about a person who's still got her own autonomy, who's doubtless time and time again had her own choices to make and made them. He knows it. But here's an adult primly informing him that vampires groomed her from an unknown age for an eternal life dependent on murder, with the sort of organization that the vampires under his radar didn't get to build up. Not long enough to groom as many of the children as they wanted to, anyway.
Anyway, whatever life they locked her into, she is living it. She doubtless won't take well to him leaning in to the concept of grooming and digging for how the vampires of her world do it, not on this short an introduction, not when he can already read the defensiveness in her body language.]
Yeah, I've heard we're not around in too many worlds.
[More's the pity. But he says it as casually as he can.]
Which first murderer we talking, the Cain one or some other belief system?
no subject
[She lets it drop, pornography jokes aside. Besides, Beatrice figures that Bunny might not be too pleased that she truly wanted to get an idea for what she might be dealing with in her own world – for if there are any gods, she wants to fight them for doing a terrible job.
Yes, that's definitely knowledge that the goddess-blessed Easter Bunny could do without.]
In any case, you have the right of it that it's Caine credited. Personally, I think that even if there is a single progenitor, it's a convenient shorthand at best – we predate any tales of Caine by a large margin, and there have been concerted efforts over the centuries to lend such trappings to the work. Whatever the original was has been lost, although to imply such is terribly controversial.
[Beatrice is more animated as she goes into it, losing the careful stiffness that went with explaining her embrace. She's a nerd through and through, and being able to ambush new people with hot vampire lore and takes (whether they want it or not) is always a special joy. Besides, there's no vampire cops in space – no one here is going to attempt to kill her for talking about it. Therefore, Beatrice is unstoppable. Being able to ramble on a more comfortable topic unthaws her enough that she fixes Bunny with a bright, curious gaze again.]
So what sort of garden do you maintain? I hadn't even realized this place had gardens, it's so..sterile. Do you grow only food for the mortals, or?
no subject
[That cats can accurately describe the parts of humans they care about just, in his opinion, illustrates his point more. He could tell Bea plenty about how Gaia so masterfully guided the development of her offspring so that one plant puts into the ground what another takes out so that they grow together perfectly, how one animal that eats the plants is eaten by another so that they never eat too many of those plants and run out and starve themselves, how her work was already so balanced and precise by the time Eos decided she wanted companions, and yet Gaia still took constructive criticism on the design of original rabbits so that his people got to have speech and opposable thumbs, among other blessings - but that's hardly a deep analysis of Mother Earth's rich inner being or what distinguishes her from any of the variety of local kings and queens of the forests and deserts and wildernesses of the planet.
It's for all those reasons that Bunny would not, in fact, mind if Bea wanted to fight her own deities. The impression he's received from others so far is that the deities of other worlds largely do not do as much planned, compassionate nurturing of their own children as the Mothers still do. Just another blessing in his life to be grateful for.
Just another injustice to set his sights on once he figures out his own way into other worlds.]
Controversy's for mortals. [He's able to shrug it off.] People have liked to take credit for explaining things that don't have an explanation or that they don't actually have the knowledge to explain for longer than I've been around. But you seem like you like evidence.
[He approves of that!]
I grow anything that New Hires need grown. [He places emphasis on the anything - he is going to have some wormwood for her sooner rather than later - but does have to look aside, thinking about it for a moment.] You're gonna have to have a real good argument if you want any intoxicant or psychedelic, though. "Trying to have a vision quest" isn't a good enough argument. Jorgmund only overlooks a little bit of dirt, and I can fit a lot into a small space, but there are still limits. Anyway, unless you can eat SOMETHING that grows in the dirt, chances are I do only grow food for the mortals, but that's just because the only people here I know aren't mortal are, yanno, your type.
And myself. Obviously I grow food for myself too.