ioduanlogs | silent, in the trees [open]

Entry tags:

silent, in the trees [open]

Characters: Trahearne, open to everyone
Date: Early February
Location: In and around the Dreaming Bridge
Situation: There's a quiet plant guy lurking around. That might be a little weird.
Warnings/Rating: Nothing yet

A. During the day - outside the Dreaming Bridge
When he's not busy with other matters, Trahearne has been spending some time right outside the Dreaming Bridge building. He mostly walks around the outside of the Quayside wing, though sometimes he makes a circle around the Breakwater wing as well, to cover all his bases.

What exactly he's doing out there might not be immediately obvious. When he's not just walking around, examining the dirt and peering under bushes like he's looking for something, he's been leaving little pieces of jerky in specific, tucked-away places. Trahearne later returns to check to see if the jerky is gone, but even when it's disappeared, he seems to keep walking away with nothing to show for the endeavor.

Whatever kind of animal Trahearne is trying to lure out hasn't yet revealed itself, but he's certainly patient enough to continue trying.

B. At night - in the Dreaming Bridge lounge/lobby
Trahearne hasn't been sleeping well. Tossing and turning is one thing, but after the first night when he kept waking from terrible nightmares, he decided that persisting in a useless endeavor would only end in disturbing his roommates. The idea of having to explain what he was seeing in his dreams to two complete strangers wasn't just unappealing, he knew that it wouldn't help matters any. He'd still have trouble sleeping, and he'd still wake them with it, whether they knew what was happening or not.

Instead, he's taken to slipping out of his room after the others are asleep, taking with him a small pile of books on the Planes that he's obtained from one of the local libraries. Trahearne then curls up in one of the more comfortable chairs in the public lounge, reading by the light of a lamp, up until he dozes off or simply can't see straight anymore. Whether he's found awake or asleep, he's always gone before sunrise, either to get breakfast or to return to his room to prepare for another day.

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Perhaps Trahearne isn't being expressly hostile, but he's on edge now, watching Devin with a far more wary expression. He'd be on his feet if he weren't confident in his magic, that he could absorb the brunt of an attack without needing to stand.

Besides, this one was also rather talkative for a dead man. He might still be able to learn something useful.

"Predators," he repeats in a flat tone. Perhaps he did have his magic, but it was hampered somewhat by not having a weapon. Trahearne thought he'd have time before needing to buy one, and now he was cursing himself for the oversight. "I see. And who do you serve? What kind of master must you have that you were able to retain your intelligence?" That was how it worked on his world - only powerful lieutenants kept enough of their minds to have a personality, and they still slavishly served Zhaitan despite it. Even then, they had either been rotting husks or shades formed with death magic. It made meeting an undead creature that so easily mimicked the living more than a little frightening.

By contrast, Devin remains completely relaxed, even finishing the page he was reading and flipping to a new one as Trahearne spoke.

"We serve ourselves, more or less. There's a hierarchy associated with sire lines, certainly, but it's not actual enslavement. No, that is reserved, unfortunately, for the humans that many vampires claim as property. Ghastly business." One reason among many he hunts vampires, although there's just a shade too much sarcasm to make it clear he despises his race. "That said, demons have been known to play puppet master from time to time," Devin allows, chagrined. "When they can get away with it."

"Vampire," he repeats in a mutter. How curious. Trahearne has only ever heard that word as a descriptor for certain magic spells, not to refer to an entire variety of undead. It was what those spells could do that bothered him the most. Such a thing makes him think of curses, powerful ones, but now wasn't the time for theories. He couldn't let the details distract him.

"Then tell me," Trahearne asked, "What reason do these 'vampires' have to enslave humans?" His eyes are narrowed now, one hand gripping the arm of his chair. Oh, he could guess based on the descriptor alone, but he wants to be absolutely certain first.

At that, Devin lets out a sigh. It should probably make him feel better in some way that another person has a negative reaction to undead creatures like him.

"Reasons, multiple," he corrects. "Primary among them is that we require human blood - or approximately human, as this place has made evident - to survive. They're kept for long periods, sometimes." Here, Devin allows some of his abhorrence to be heard. "Enslavement, or Binding as it's 'officially' called, is also commonly a precursor to being turned into another vampire. There's the ego aspect, too. Vampires, especially the older and more powerful, like their entourages. It's a show of power, and occasionally humans are also used as chess pieces in their own right," he explains. "Like I said: nasty buggers."

"Then I've heard enough."

Trahearne pushes himself out of his chair, horror and anger warring in his expression. He's seen undead creatures do things too terrible to think of, but never before has he heard of the undead keeping the living for food, making them suffer before becoming cursed things themselves. The idea of allowing a vampire to go about that dreadful business here went against everything Trahearne had struggled against and fought for the majority of his life.

"This has been quite informative, and I have you to think for that. But don't think for a moment that I can allow something like you to exist. Prepare yourself!" Concentrating, drawing on his magic, Trahearne made a gesture that caused a swirling, dark portal to open in the center of the room. The hulking creature that crawled up out of it could very well be described as having emerged from a nightmare, with glistening bare muscle stretched tightly over the wrong bones in the wrong places, its purpose evident between its two large, sharp claws and the horn of bone protruding from its head.

Usually, Devin is not trying to actively provoke people into attacking him (Kylo Ren possibly excepted), especially here. Dreamfolk often have their own magical abilities, and that means unknown risk factors. Trahearne's expression is a warning of its own, even before the portal opens and a vile monster emerges from it.

It sets all of his senses on edge, strings tension through him like a tightly-wound spring, and yet the vampire remains resolutely seated with a look of bored incredulity on his face.

"Really? It's the middle of the bloody night; you're going to wake someone up." Devin sighs as if greatly put-upon, closing the book and rising to his feet. Giving the opposite reaction to what was anticipated was as much to unnerve Trahearne as to buy time to figure out what this thing can do. "Besides, if you're so bent on damaging me, there are simpler ways. But, if you're going to insist, then consider the gauntlet thrown," the vampire announces dryly, giving a flourishing little bow.

Seeing the vampire act so blasé about being faced with his strongest kind of minion only served to irritate Trahearne even further. He was already sleep-deprived as it was, which probably wasn't helping his decision-making process. But what was he supposed to do, wait until morning and bring with it the possibility that he'd get away? Or kill someone in the meantime? Failure to act could be dangerous.

"Is that your greatest concern right now? Sometimes, one must take action first and beg for forgiveness later. I can apologize once you're truly dead." Trahearne scowls, flicking his hand to the side, and that's when his summoned flesh golem begins to move. It promptly rounds on Devin, lumbering forward to slash at him with its clawed arms.

Devin rolls his eyes as the flesh golem turns to swipe at him, and then quite suddenly the vampire isn't there.

Faster than most eyes can see, he darts to the side of the room and leans lazily against the wall. "I'm fairly certain that's not how you apologize to someone for murdering them," he remarks, offering a nasty smirk to his attacker. "But I look forward to it anyway. Didn't you get the memo? Death doesn't stick to people like you and me."

Startled, Trahearne whirls around to face Devin's new location, the flesh golem following suit. By the Pale Tree, it was like he simply teleported! Actual teleportation, he had some experience in fighting, but speed like that was like nothing he'd ever seen before. It was the first sign that he had perhaps gotten in over his head, but that thought wasn't making much headway against his renewed surge of anger.

"Don't speak to me of death, you puffed-up poison ivy!" This time, there's no motion or warning from Trahearne, not that he needed to signal to his minions in the first place. The flesh golem simply lowers its head and rushes towards Devin, its large, bony horn aimed like a lance.

There's a slight pause before Devin burst out laughing - it's completely inappropriate in the middle of a fight, and if he weren't more careful the outburst would have distracted him from the golem rushing forward. He rushes away again, this time coming to rest while holding a chair aloft like it's made of balsa wood.

"I think that's the best insult anyone has ever thrown at me," Devin wheezes, still laughing. "Do I need to break your little friend with this, or can you calm down and talk like a reasonable person?"

He could just as easily zip behind Trahearne and knock him unconscious or worse, and yet he does not.

With its target nowhere to be found, the golem's momentum sends it smashing right into the wall, its horn leaving a good-sized hole in the drywall. The poor golem struggles there, trapped for the moment as it flounders in bringing its arms up to push itself backwards.

Meanwhile, Trahearne's left staring at Devin like he just lost some of his marbles. He had forgotten that no one here was actually used to the more unique parts of sylvari speech. "You already talk too much." Closing his hand into a fist, Trahearne drags it upward, and another portal opens close to where the first one did, a twin to the first flesh golem starting to crawl out of it. If he couldn't catch the vampire, then he had every intention of summoning enough minions to trap him in a corner instead.

Edited 2018-02-21 06:54 (UTC)

Kei had heard the noise and become curious what was going on. Peeking in around the doorway... well, those certainly are some gigantic flesh monsters attacking a man with truly remarkable speed. He half wonders if they're kaiju and whether he'd be able to summon them (if he'd had the right capsule, the riser, and Belial's power), though they do look a bit small for that.

Overall, this is not his problem, but it certainly is entertaining. He'll watch as long as is feasible, and if the trouble comes his direction he'll just teleport away.

The Fool has this way of simply appearing in a place without seeming to have walked there. He did, presumably. Walk there, that is. But right now, roused from his sleep and wearing only his night gown, hair in a loose braid, he's watching the fight, face pale and his lips tightly pinched.

He doesn't speak, but there's a wretched, subdued brand of anguish on his face.

Endless bickering was a day to day occurrence back in Libra headquarters - usually between Zapp and Chain, though such things usually had a way of sorting themselves out.

But this was another matter entirely.

Powers were being used in close corners, and Klaus wasn't sure how many of the onlookers were capable of defending themselves. And of course - of course Devin was part of it. Klaus wasn't about to make too many assumptions but he already had his suspicions about just who started this mess.

Whether his suspicions were on the nose or not, however, was irrelevant for the time being - both these men were capable of doing some severe damage.

There was a flicker of red light as Klaus drew blood from his palm, and it spiraled outward from the red stone set in his knuckle dusters, expanding and shaping into a wall of rather morbid looking crosses between the two combatants.

"That's enough from the both of you," Klaus said. He didn't raise his voice much, but there was a certain finality to his tone that suggested he wasn't going to tolerate an argument.

The arrival of the second golem is not concerning, exactly. It changes the math that's currently whirring through Devin's head about how to handle this problem. He was considering vacating the building to draw this fight away from people, when a crowd begins to arrive. The blood-red crosses get little more than a cursory glance - he's seen them before, and hopefully this means the scuffle can end soon.

The pink pajamas on Klaus' hulking frame, however, causes another spasm of laughter.

"Ah, Klaus. Excellent timing," he declares, breathlessly amused, and catches the book that Leo throws at him before it can either hit him or be damaged. He sets the chair down one-handed, and the book on the nearest table, though he remains ready to move. "Look; I found someone else who hates vampires as much as you and I do," Devin informs the man with a mirthless grin, gesturing to his attacker.

The appearance of the crosses made Trahearne take a step back in momentary surprise, gaze following the wall to the one that had summoned them, his two flesh golems also turning to look at Klaus as though they had eyes to see with. Despite the man's appearance, Trahearne certainly didn't find any of this funny, in fact turning another scowl at Devin over the latest round of laughter.

That angry shouting from the hallway does make him wince a little, though. Thorns. Drawing a crowd hadn't been his intention, but then, Trahearne had expected to be able to end this quickly. How wrong he'd been on that front. Taking a deep breath, he straightens his shoulders and points to Devin accusingly. "If you know what he is, then I have no need to explain. Such a creature can't be allowed to prey upon the living!"

The furthest golem from the group, the one that had just freed itself from the hole in the wall, slowly lifted a claw up to poke experimentally at one of the blood crosses. Even during a tense moment like this, Trahearne couldn't quite restrain his curiosity.

Klaus's resting expression could be rather intimidating regardless of his mood - it was just the unfortunate way it was. But the expression he shot Devin could be described as nothing short of livid.

He turned his attention from the laughing vampire and instead gave Trahearne a small nod.

"I understand how you feel," said Klaus slowly, "more than you can know. However, Mr. Parker has shown in the past he's not a slave to his darker impulses."

Another glare at Devin.

"...Beyond the occasional deliberate provocation." And once again his tone, whilke not loud, had an unusual edge to it. "What were you two thinking? In a place like this - what would you have done if someone who couldn't fight back got caught in the crossfire of this little spat?"

If Devin didn't know Klaus as he did, that glare would have had more of an outward effect. As it is, he's fully aware of the seriousness of this situation, but there's a facade to maintain. Laughter ceases, but he doesn't quite bow to the glowering.

"Then I'd have let him kill me so the fight would end," Devin replies seriously, and without hesitation. "That said, I was not, in fact, trying to get him to attack me in close quarters. I'm not an idiot, nor do I take entertainment from endangering innocent people. I admit to needling, but I haven't made a single strike here." Though he could have tried to defuse the situation more quickly - it hadn't seemed necessary until the second golem appeared. "Not that I particularly blame you for your hatred," he adds to Trahearne. "I'd kill me if I were you, too, just outside."

Trahearne listens with his lips pressed thinly together, casting a glance past Klaus and to the hallway beyond. "Outside where you could run away. I simply thought... I meant to end it much more quickly than this." Yet he hadn't, and while that recklessness hadn't truly put anyone in danger, he had to admit that it could have done so.

Both the flesh golems fell to their knees as Trahearne released his hold on them, now as truly lifeless as they looked. Soon after collapsing, the golems rapidly disintegrated into dust - a dust that would in time disappear, presumably back to the plane they originally came from.

"You're certain he's not a threat?" He directed the question at Klaus, not trusting an answer from Devin in the slightest. "Absolutely certain?" Trahearne still didn't like the idea of letting the vampire walk away from this, but he also didn't want to start a larger brawl over it. It was just difficult for him to fathom why anyone would be so eager to shield one of the undead from harm.

"If I wasn't," Klaus said solemnly, "he wouldn't be standing here right now. As a Fang Hunter, I do not tolerate a Blood Breed's existence lightly."

He'd had enough dealings with vampires to know it was usually better safe than sorry, but as far as Devin was concerned, he didn't act like nor have the seemingly boundless power of the blood breeds back home. That already made him exponentially less of a threat - the fact he was apparently a good vampire was almost secondary in comparison.

"Mr. Parker, I'm sure you didn't intend to start a fight, though may I offer some advice to mind what you say in the future."

Devin shoots a flat look at Klaus. "He asked me questions; I answered them." Albeit more sarcastically than was strictly necessary. "Then he decided to kill me. Apparently, he subscribes more to my theory of pest extermination than yours."

Klaus had at least given Devin a warning when they first met; Trahearne hadn't hesitated.

This could and clearly was turning into 'he-said-he-said', with Devin somehow unavoidably in the wrong - the fact that Klaus seems to assign even that much blame actually pisses him off more than Trahearne's actions. The sylvari had attacked because he's undead, because he's a vampire, something which by now Klaus must know Devin hates about himself.

Just like everyone else, whispers a nasty voice in his head.

"Are we done? Because clearly no one is interested in what the vampire has to say about this, so I see no point in arguing," he snaps.

Trahearne slowly nodded to Klaus. He didn't quite understand those terms in the first place, but the meaning was clear. It made this situation slightly easier to swallow, but only slightly. But what other choice did he have? For whatever reason, certain undead were tolerated here - or perhaps it was only Devin in particular.

It was still difficult to accept. Trahearne knows all too well what the undead are capable of, and to him vampires looked to be a more insidious version of the rotting creatures he was familiar with.

He narrows his eyes at Devin, only seeming further annoyed, but he manages to hold his tongue this time. "I would also like to be done with this. The hour grows late." It had been a late hour in the first place. So much for finding a moment's peace, or even being able to finish one of his books.

"I agree this should be resolved promptly," Klaus said, dispersing the barrier now that he was certain they were done fighting. The crosses dissolved into dust.

He regarded Trahearne for a moment - he could certainly sympathize. When Devin had spoken with Leo, he'd reduced the man to tears. He wondered what he could have possibly said to incite someone to try and kill him. He'd have to ask the vampire later because right now he seemed a bit too tetchy to approach.

"Mr. Parker is antagonist but he's not a monster. And such rash behaviour could have gotten bystanders hurt. Please exercise more caution in the future - I do not want to have to intervene again."

With the crosses gone and the situation rapidly moving towards settling itself out, Devin decides that he would rather not give their small crowd of spectators anything more to gawk at.

"Well, then - I shall take my leave, seeing as I'm not welcome anyway. We can continue this outside the city limits," he tells Trahearne, "if you won't take Mr. Reinherz at his word." Devin pivots towards the door, pausing at Klaus' shoulder.

"When I told you I was concerned that people would not be different, Klaus, I did not only mean forever having to stand at their gravesides," he hisses under his breath. "I meant this. You clearly still see me as a Blood Breed first before anything else, no matter what you say. This is where the honesty you advised gets me."

Without another word, Devin stalks out of the lounge, resolutely not meeting the eyes of their spectators. Leo will probably come make his opinion known later anyway, and a glimpse at the Fool's expression does not improve Devin's mood. The third is a stranger, and that's annoying, but right now he just wants to be gone.

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necrocabbage - 2018-02-23 07:10 (UTC) - Expand

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afoolsgold - 2018-02-23 20:29 (UTC) - Expand

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purered - 2018-03-05 21:43 (UTC) - Expand

Loud crashing sounds and arguing were a normal backdrop for him, but usually not when he was sleeping. And usually not close enough that he wasn't able to go back to sleep, forcing him to get up and go out in the hallway to find the source of the problem.

Klaus looked like he'd gotten to it first, but once Leo saw who the instigators were, he lost all sympathy. "YOU MOTHERFUCKERS! I'm trying to sleep!!" He yelled, and tossed the nearest thing he could at Devin's head-which happened to be a book. "Stop fighting or I'll kick both your asses!!"

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silent, in the trees [open]

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this is literally his 'are you serious right now' icon, best use for it ever

omg that's a winner

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spectators comment here

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guys wtf