what the water gives you

[necrocabbage]

Characters: Trahearne, Leo, Kit, and possibly you!
Date: Through the second half of March
Location: The Dreaming Bridge and the beach
Situation: In which Trahearne gets cornered by Leo and also helps with the beach cleanup efforts. There's fewer open prompts this time, but I included a wildcard if you want to interact with him elsewhere.
Warnings/Rating: None yet


A. A TALK (for Leo)
Trahearne has his room to himself for the moment, sitting on his bed with a good handful of books, a notebook on his lap and a mug of the closest thing to a tea-like drink the cafeteria had to offer on the nightstand next to him. This time, he's changed his reading to general magic theory and writings about Dreamfolk and the planes, and he's taking notes on what he finds interesting or might need to cross-reference. Most of it is easily readable, but every now and then he takes five minutes to struggle to write a sentence in New Krytan instead, the lettering looking a little like basic calligraphy in the way the foreign letters are stylized.

He gives the door a confused look at hearing the knock, but doesn't take long to get to his feet and step over to open it. Trahearne's possibly more wilted than the last time Leo saw him, the edges of the leaves on his head curled inwards somewhat and looking brittle to the touch.

"Hello again, Leo. Are you here looking for someone?"



B. BEACH CLEANUP (for Kit & Open)
Being no stranger to dead creatures out of the ocean, the cleanup job at the beach rather appealed to him. It was a nice excuse to spend the day out in the sun, and the beaches here were nice enough that it felt more like a vacation than coming out to do heavy lifting. Perhaps Trahearne wasn't exactly suited for physical work, but he did have other tricks up his sleeve.

After being sent out onto the beach with their tools, Trahearne turned to the other members of his assigned team. "I have a spell that will make the going a little bit easier. Please, don't be alarmed by it." With that said, he summoned fourth a couple of flesh golems, two of his largest and most intimidating-looking minions.

... Which then proceeded to act entirely docile. While the flesh golems each had a single long talon instead of hands, they were still somewhat helpful in scooping up pieces of jellyfish on their own, perhaps moreso in pushing wheelbarrows. It distracted Trahearne somewhat to be mentally conducting their movements as he was working alongside them, but the work didn't require one's full attention in the first place.


C. WILDCARD
[If you want to run into Trahearne somewhere else, feel free to pick another location!]

Comments

[iseeall]

"And I am pretty sure I know how Blood Br-I mean vampires work too," Leo shot back, his eyes scrunched tight. "And he's a lot different from the ones I normally encounter. For one, he's a giant dick, but he's never once actually physically tried to harm me. And I'm supposed to be his food, remember?"

At this point, Chain managed to slip out of his arms to light on the ground, sniffing around Trahearne's feet for anything tasty. "And by understanding, I mean he hates himsef. I hate myself. Of course he's not gonna defend himself against your accusations, even if its a matter of semantics."

[necrocabbage]

Trahearne was briefly distracted by the bibiru sniffing at his bare feet, undoubtedly trying to decide between nibbling on his toes or the leaves that seemed to be sprouting from around his ankles. He couldn't pay attention to Chain for very long, though, not with what Leo said next.

His somber expression briefly looks pained. "Leo..." He raises a hand halfway before dropping his arms back to his side, looking away from him awkwardly. "I can't claim to know what's 'normal' about vampires. They already seem to be an aberration from the way undeath normally works. I haven't accused Devin of anything he didn't directly tell me himself." And that was the crux of it, really. What Devin told him had been uniquely horrifying, even for someone who had made a career of studying his own world's particular brand of undead beings.

"I have already pledged to not attack him again - against my better judgment. Will that at least satisfy you?"

[iseeall]

Chain decided that the ankle leaves were good to nibble on, though Leo was too distracted by the conversation to see it. "Well, I don't know what you mean by undead! Like zombies or whatever, but even then it doesn't matter because A, he's not a zombie and B, I'm pretty sure he'd rather die than actually hurt someone like me. Physically. He likes to drive people away with his personality."

Well, he couldn't defend that part at least. That's just what it was like and it's something he hated as well. But still, not grounds for attacking someone. "But you didn't seem like the type of person would just up and attack someone for being a dick. I-guess a promise means something but I'm more concerned it happened in the first place!"

[necrocabbage]

"There are many varieties of undead, Leo. They vary in intelligence and don't always have to be inhabiting a physical body." Trahearne was starting to frown a little, also no longer paying even a scant bit of attention to the bibiru trying to eat his leaves.

He gave Leo a level look, keeping his tone carefully even as he spoke up again. "I spent most of my life studying the undead, among other things. I wouldn't have become a necromancer without such a need to understand the workings of death. Later on, I directed an army against the Risen. I read the reports every time my troops died, every time a unit fell at the hands of undead that had been their friends and allies moments before."

Trahearne paused momentarily, sighing before adding, "My point is that I know what terrible things they're capable of. A type of undead creature that can easily move among the living, and feeds on them, is one of the most chilling thing I can imagine. And now you come to me saying that I shouldn't worry because he's found some reason to not want to hurt you?"

[iseeall]

"Okay that absolutely sounds like zombies, and vampires and zombies are completely different forms of undead, but I'm pretty sure I don't know enough to argue semantics like that. ANYWAY, that's not the point. The point is that Devin isn't that."

Leo considered himself lucky that he hadn't encountered zombies as more than a 'Femt was messing around with things because he was bored' thing, but he knew about vampires. Even Devin's type of vampires. "Yeah he looks human to people who aren't me. Is he ever gonna take advantage of that? No. Hell, he avoids me half the time and I'm actively trying to be friends with him. He says he's capable of doing all those sorts of things because he hates vampires. But like I've physically grabbed him and he's done nothing? I don't know what more you need. Just because he CAN doesn't mean he WILL."

[necrocabbage]

"You're asking me to put a lot of trust into a dangerous stranger," Trahearne pointed out, his jaw set stiffly. No, Devin's behavior towards him hadn't helped, but that wasn't nearly as much of a sticking point as the 'being undead' part. Even the most benign ghost was better off being freed from their imprisonment on the mortal plane.

Finally feeling a tug at the bottom of the legging-like coverings he wore, Trahearne looked down and saw the bibiru merrily munching away at his leaves. He briefly kneeled down to pick up the animal before rising back to his feet, holding Chain gently.

"If he's as careful as you claim he is, I'd rather see it for myself. All I have been told is that he's kinder than he acts, and I'm supposed to simply believe it, despite knowing what he's capable of?"

[iseeall]

"Yeah well he likes to act like an asshole to drive people away because he thinks he's too dangerous for friends-CHAIN, NO!!" Leo was absolutely horrified to see that once again, his bibiru was attempting to eat the plant man like he was a giant cabbage.

"God, I'm sorry. I'm just not going to bring them around you anymore. Does that hurt at all?" Also he was sidetracked easily by being rude to a plant person. But what if Trahearne thought he did it on purpose?

[necrocabbage]

Shaking his head, Trahearne gave Chain a few strokes over the forehead before offering her back to Leo. "No, it doesn't hurt, or else I might have noticed sooner. These leaves are like clothes, or armor. It'd be a little like if you had an animal eating your hair, I suppose." He could live with one slightly bared ankle until his leaves grew back in. At the very least, he had too many leaves to make it easy for a rabbit to go through it all.

"How Devin treats others is still entirely his own problem. I'm not as familiar with vampires, but there's no cure for being undead. If he's failed to come to terms with his condition, that's on his head and no one else's." Trahearne briefly pauses before adding, "You also shouldn't ignore anyone that claims to be dangerous. Chances are that it's true."

[iseeall]

Leo sighed. This again. (Even if he was still grateful Trahearne didn't seem to be mad at his bibirus for grabbing him for a snack. There was that, at least.)

"I mean, if you wanna go with that logic, Mr. Klaus shouldn't let me around him. You shouldn't either. Hell, literally every single one of my coworkers could easily kill me without breaking a sweat. But I know they won't, and its the same with Devin. You don't even have to like...go near him again. But I'm just saying that he's not as bad of a person as you make him out to me," Leo shot back, stuffing his face in to the side of Chain's fur. She whacked him in his face with a wing.

[necrocabbage]

Trahearne is quiet for a moment, his lips pressed together in distaste. It'd be difficult to argue the point, and he wasn't so sure that he wanted to. Having so many people you could trust in was an admirable trait, when it wasn't taken to extremes.

"I wasn't suggesting that you should become paranoid. I have... simply never seen a case where someone's force of will was strong enough to drive back that manner of curse." Perhaps he hadn't seen it in undead, but there's a thread of a similarity in his thoughts to something that's starting to nag at his mind. It's making Trahearne look even more uncomfortable than before.

"I don't know what else you want to hear from me. I'm sorry, Leo, but I can't simply take your word for it. That's not going to put my mind at ease."

[iseeall]

"I'm just....sure he's not a bad person," Leo said in a rather small voice, muffled by the bibiru in front of his face. He didn't know how else to explain it, other than Trahearne seemed to think it worked differently than it actually did. He just felt like the bad guy now, and it clearly showed in his posture.

"Sorry. I'll stop bothering you then," He said, turning quickly to the door so he could get out quickly.

[necrocabbage]

Thorns and brambles... this wasn't how he had intended this conversation to go, but Trahearne had also never been good with this kind of thing. It seemed he really was better suited to keeping to himself. After all, he seemed to be the outsider starting trouble here, even among other outsiders.

"I'm not intending on remaining troublesome. At least know that." He couldn't imagine what else he could possibly say to stop Leo from leaving like that, so Trahearne makes no move to stop or follow him after those words.