Filling In Time

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr\'s chuckle at Sebastian\'s female helper not understanding their species died off as he belatedly turned around to look in the direction the ancient was looking, only to see nothing.  He frowned as he turned back, supposing Jenna might have passed by because the staff toilets were off that way somewhere (he thought), but it was odd she hadn\'t said anything.  Possibly because she\'d seen he was talking to Sebastian?  It would be easiest to scan the old one\'s mind for who he\'d seen out in the hall, to confirm his theory, but he wouldn\'t dare.
 
He blushed once the question - and the implicit request for details - registered, silently cursing his earlier ingestion of blood for causing his cheeks to heat.  "Uh... well, it\'s a little more complicated than that," he demurred, fighting the sudden urge to get up and pace.  "There\'s nothing to be jealous of anymore, we\'re... past lovers, good friends, now," he smiled, keeping it as simple as he could.  "I go home to Ben each day, he\'s my lover and fledgling.  Jenna and I just get together once a week or so to attend something extravagantly cultural together; she gets a partner and I get the pleasure of a very special friend\'s company for a few hours."
 
Again, the Irishman smiled, feeling that he was hiding the depth of his lingering feelings for Jenna quite well.  "I suppose, if she\'s going to get ready, she\'ll be back soon and I can introduce you, if you like?" he mused, wondering what the ancient would think of his beautiful fire demon companion.

[pinkroses]

Good lord, nothing like a love triangle to keep things interesting. The way he’d been speaking about Jenna earlier didn’t really imply they were just good friends.

“I would be delighted to meet her, yes. Just to confirm we’re talking about the same person…” he added, sending a mental image of the woman he’d seen to Kerr, since it was obvious the Irishman had missed her when she’d gone past and really it could have been anyone.

“Your Ben must be very understanding, for you to be out on a date - your word, not mine - with a past lover,” Seb said bluntly. “Or is he out doing something similar?” maybe that would be how they kept thngs interesting and stopped from getting bored - siring someone you loved must be a hard choice to make. You would be bound forever and that didn’t seem to mean as much to people nowadays.

[Existentially Odd]

Again, Kerr felt heat flare in his cheeks as he considered how best to answer the ancient before him.  Did one so aged and accomplished really care about his petty and convoluted private life?  Should he share detail or just... hint at the basics?  Respect urged to him to answer with complete honesty and that implied detail for him; conscience was pushing strongly in the favour of discretion and minimal information given.

"Well... he\'s actually visiting my, uh other fledgling tonight, spending some time bonding.  He... doesn\'t mind me having outings with Jenna, though we\'re of the understanding that it\'s strictly, er, hands-off," he replied awkwardly, smiling sheepishly at the ancient.  "We\'re still feeling our way through... possible variations in the relationship, shall we say?  We\'d rather see as much of eternity together as possible but... it\'s a complicated thing.  How long was the longest relationship you\'ve managed to enjoy?  Do you have fledglings?"

[pinkroses]

It was easy to see how uncomfortable his line of questioning was making the younger vampire so decided he should probably stop it, but Kerr seemed to be on a roll. Seb wanted to know still though, so he made no attempt to stop Kerr explaining his situation.

“My sire. Seventeen hundred years. We weren’t together all that time, but we would see each other every decade at least. She was… she tired of her life and ended it. She was two and a half thousand years old, I suppose that is quite a while to roam the earth,” Seb explained, giving Kerr a smile. It hurt to talk about her, Seb had thought it wouldn’t be so bad, but it still stung. Like there was a hollowness inside.

“And no, I have no fledglings. What we have been given is a gift. I wouldn’t feel comfortable choosing someone to bestow that upon without knowing it was meant to be,” Seb added, glancing down into his lap. “I suppose it’s like having children. Some people just aren’t meant to.”

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr was excited to hear about Sebastian\'s extensive relationship with his sire - until that comment about seeing each other every decade came along, and that deflated his eagerness somewhat.  He supposed his and Ben\'s and Ichabod\'s relationships might come to that - his and Ichabod\'s, particularly - but for the time being, he couldn\'t imagine living without Ben beside him every night and day.

He\'d fought so hard for this damn relationship, he wasn\'t about to whimsically toss it away and put their parting down to fate or anything as trite.  He wanted to hear that love could conquer vampiric variances in emotion and outlook, but he was beginning to think he never would.  Well, he and Ben would just have to be the exceptions to the rule.

"I can understand that," he agreed with Sebastian wryly.  "Though I wouldn\'t necessarily agree that this is a gift to be bestowed on anyone.  Ben would certainly agree with you; he actively campaigned for it!  Ichabod also came to vampirism with an ultimatum," he mused, frowning as he realised how little choice his emotions had given him in this matter.  That probably made him weak in Sebastian\'s eyes... and in his own, really.  "Personally, I never asked for it, it was forced upon me and I\'ve never viewed it as much beyond a curse.  It\'s a convenient way to keep people close to you for a very, very long time, though," he added with a light shrug.

[pinkroses]

Seb turned his blue eyes back to Kerr, unable to keep a little sadness from them as Kerr explained his views.

“It’s a shame you see it that way. And I can see how you do, but… our mental abilities, speed, strength, all the time in the world to do whatever we want to. I was going to be killed for my beliefs and God saved me through Irene on more than one occasion. And I have been scoffed at many times for believing it, but I see this as a reward.” He reached out to lightly touch Kerr’s cheek, smiling warmly at the thought that this man had managed to find someone, more than one someone, that he wanted to keep with him and share this life with.

“You will have all the time you want with those you love. And know that they wanted to share it with you. You may have been forced into becoming this, but they weren’t. They chose you.” His hand dropped away as he searched Kerr’s face.

“Kerr Galvin. There must be something special in you. They all see it.” Not just his fledglings, he’d become Luminary, and from what he’d heard he had a lot of support behind him. Supernatural creatures of all kinds wouldn’t back just anyone.

[Existentially Odd]

Awe washed through Kerr as he was touched by the ancient and he quailed internally, feeling weak and aflutter.  The best he could do was an adoring smile until the hand dropped away from him, and then he was able to think a little more clearly.  Only a little, for the flattering words embarrassed him astronomically, bringing the blush back yet again.

"Noooo," he drawled, his gaze dropping and his feet shifting coyly as he squirmed beneath this attention.  "You humble me with flattery but I\'m just a man - one that you don\'t even know particularly well!  And I don\'t know that they chose me so much as they acquiesced," he chuckled, trying to downplay the powerful words and defer Sebastian\'s attention away from him noticing how chuffed he was because of them.

"If there\'s anything special about me, it\'d be that I\'m stubborn and I like to do a thorough job.  Many supernaturals have no interest in or respect for the council, though; I didn\'t establish it, it\'s something that was thrust upon me," he confessed, still feeling guilt for accepting praise of any kind.  A thought occurred that gave him the confidence to make steady eye contact at last and he looked curiously at Sebastian.  "What are your feelings on the matter, since you\'ve obviously heard about the Oligarchy?"

[pinkroses]

Seb gave a shrug as Kerr tried to brush off the praise whilst also looking extremely pleased with it. If he didn’t want to accept it easily then that was fine - maybe Seb didn’t know him well, but it was clear that the people who did thought a lot of him.

“Well being stubborn and doing a thorough job can be very admirable qualities. Sticking to your guns and all that. And you didn’t just disband it given the chance. You took the role,” Seb countered, before giving a nod at Kerr’s question.

Yes, Lucy had given him the bare basics of the system when he’d awoke - it had all come to pass when he’d been sleeping and he’d felt a spark of guilt as she told hikm how terrified she’d been during the apocalypse, hoping he would wake up and come protect her and her family. She’d been fine though, nothing had happened to her and her family were none the wiser.

“Better a council than a dictator. As long as the rule is not too harsh. Supernaturals are drawn here for one reason or another, they can’t help it. But it would be a shame if they came to live in a prison. But having their own kind a member on the council… that is how it works isn’t it? Different races ruling their own kind… that’s a wise move.”

Seb twisted towards Kerr a little more, raising his knee up on the bench between then and looping his hands around it.

“Hypothetically, what would have happened if I had killed a human upon waking? And would anything happen to those who killed a human at that Risk place? That’s owned by another group, isn’t it?” Seb asked with curiosity.

[Existentially Odd]

"Well... in your circumstances, we\'d likely have understood that desperation made you do something unavoidable in that one instance," Kerr mused, unable to help mirroring Sebastian\'s turn towards him with a slight body shift of his own.  His own hands remained clasped on top of his left thigh, though.

"You would\'ve been ordered to make reparation to the mortal\'s family somehow, I imagine.  The decision would be made by one of my vampire oligarchs, they\'re certainly sympathetic enough to the thirst to allow some leniency, I imagine.  We\'ve all made mistakes," he admitted with a wince.

Truthfully, he wasn\'t entirely confident that, should Sebastian have met the very upstanding Vomas, he wouldn\'t have had his freedom taken from him for a time as well, but he didn\'t think that worthy of mentioning right now.

"As for your Risk scenario... yes, that\'s owned by a very private consortium of extremely old vampires, known as The Sacramentum.  They\'d most likely deal with the death on their property as they saw fit - which, from something I heard last week, would involve a ban from the premises for bringing the club into disrepute and a boon paid to the owners.  If the Oligarchy got involved as well - depending if mind wipes or police managed to become involved - the same retribution deal for the mortal\'s relatives would come into it and possibly some jail time at our Chambers."

He paused then, considering the information he\'d just given and wanting to be sure he\'d covered it all.  Given that the situation was hypothetical, Kerr could really only hypothesise, but he was confident the information he\'d given was accurate.  The Oligarchy was focussed on protecting all species and maintaining a cloak of secrecy from mortals.  The Sacramentum was interested in protecting itself from scrutiny by outside forces and was happy to solve its own problems.  Yep.

"Every case is weighed and judged by its own merits, with the idea of fair treatment paramount.  The Oligarchy\'s main concern is protection and secrecy.  Have you ever encountered other councils such as these, old one?" he asked with a reverent smile.  "I\'m wondering if ley lines have ever caused such behaviour in other places in the world."

[pinkroses]

Seb listened quietly, letting Kerr explore the different scenarios and giving him time to mull over his responses. Their ways of dealing with these issues seemed more fair than a few of the situations he’d run into. He’d never been in trouble with them himself, but witness to a few of the harsher punishments.

“The last city I visited with a set up similar to this was in Germany,” Seb replied when Kerr finally paused and gave his own question.

“They did not care so much about fair treatment and judging each case separately. If you killed a human, you would be killed. I saw one vampire be ripped apart by the guards. Another chained up where daylight would find her. There was no retribution for the human’s family though. It would just be an unsolved murder for them and the police were in the pockets of our kind so no further investigations would be made,” Seb explained.

He wondered vaguely if any of that had improved. It was probably a hundred years ago or so that he’d been there and found it all too bloodthirsty for his liking. The smallest slip could have you killed and the vampire population had been shrinking as they were punished or those who feared the place fled despite the pull.

“But there have been councils like yours for millennia. Since before I came to this life for sure. Not many I am aware of had so many different species under one council though. There would be different councils for each type an certainly not one head of all of them. I’m surprised it works so well here, that demons and shifters and the like allow a vampire to head their council.”

[Existentially Odd]

"Ahh, but I\'m really only a head in name, rather than deed.  Each species is governed by one of their own - for the most part - and my role is generally more of an overseer than the ultimate decision maker.  I have a powerful team of demons that work closely with me too, so even that is a bit of a team effort, I have to say," Kerr smiled humbly, genuinely feeling that he couldn\'t take all the credit for the Oligarchy\'s smooth running.

"You know," he glanced around once more before he leaned a little closer to the ancient, his entire manner conspiratorial, "I believe that the man who was once the head of the Oligarchy was a dragon.  I never had it confirmed, though I think the cowardly ancient vampire that killed him knows more than he\'s let on.  Lazarus was the murderer - supposedly the.  He took control of the council for a while, but he was no leader," Kerr confided bitterly, thinking with great sadness on the fact that Halen had died at such scum\'s whimsy.

[pinkroses]

As Kerr leant forwards slightly as though he had a secret to tell Seb obliged, leaning closer to the younger vampire. His eyes widened a little as Kerr told him his suspicions, wondering where these suspicions had come from and fascinated by them. He’d never seen any proof that dragons had ever existed, but then again he’d never gone looking for evidence either. And he’d seen a lot in his life that he’d never thought might exist.

“Lazarus… well if anyone could kill a dragon I would have said he could,” Seb said with a small nod. It was over a thousand years since he’d seen the blonde and although he doubted the ancient would remember him Sebastian could remember the meeting - well, some of it. More the mood of it. It had not been anything like he had expected, but had been an experience. A disappointing one. He doubted to Lazarus he had been anything more than just another Christian longing to hear the story of his resurrection. Vain, cunning, vicious.To call the blonde cowardly though?

“Why do you call him cowardly?” he asked, straightening up a little as he watched Kerr. It definitely sounded as though there was no love lost between the Irishman and Lazarus and Sebastian hadn’t been around Lazarus long enough to have been able to truly judge his character. It was always interesting to hear other people’s opinions.

“Surely someone would know something about this… dragon, other than his murderer. How would you hide something like that? Some sort of magic,” he added thoughtfully, trying to figure out how they might discover more about this.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr at least had the grace to look ashamed when Sebastian questioned his description of Lazarus and the events he had absolutely no proof had expired, blushing for a whole new reason.  "Well... I suppose cowardly may be an, uh, inappropriate description," he responded awkwardly, his entire demeanour sheepish as he also sat up a little straighter.

"It just struck me that way; one minute Halen was in charge of the Oligarchy, the next thing Lazarus was - and he was smug about it.  I don\'t trust Lazarus as far as I can spit and I just feel that the whole act of killing the head of an organisation - rather than staging a coup based on who the superior leader is - was cowardly.  But he would never have won, had he stepped from the shadows and thrown his hat into the ring, so he had to be sly about it.  I guess the demons that worked under Halen - who eventually switched their allegiance to me - would know more but I\'ve never asked," he shrugged, feeling silly that he\'d even shared his suppositions so quickly, now.

Something in him had obviously been trying to impress the ancient, but he doubted very much that he\'d done so with his smoke and mirrors.  When levelling accusations such as these, proof was necessary; he was doing little more than trading unfounded gossip, no matter how much he felt he was right.  He had nothing solid and should have simply kept his mouth shut.  He cleared his throat, feeling every bit a fool, and searching hastily for something to change the topic.  What he came up with didn\'t exactly do that, but at least it was a sideways step.  "So... you know Lazarus, then?"

[pinkroses]

“Well, perhaps you should ask them. It seems like the simplest way to find out more information,” Seb said with a shrug. “And killing someone to take their place, that’s how things used to be done. People didn’t see it as cowardly, it was a matter of the strongest taking their rightful place. And if cunning does the job instead of physical strength, it still works,” Seb said softly. He knew things were different nowadays, but survival of the fittest still applied. That didn’t mean the ancient agreed with it, but he wouldn’t argue against it.

“I wouldn’t say know. I met him once, a very long time ago. I think I was expecting more than I found. It was somewhat disappointing. And judging from the way you speak of him, it doesn’t sound as though you are all that impressed with him despite his age. Do you have other reasons not to trust him, other than his underhand way of gaining power?” Seb asked.

Kerr had looked so abashed at having to change his description of Lazarus, Seb felt a little bad for questioning it. But if Kerr had good reason to dislike the blonde then Seb wanted all the facts. Even little bits of information, how people felt about each other, they all helped build up the picture of what had been happening whilst he slept.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr stared at Sebastian for almost half a minute before he answered this time, trying to get his thoughts and feelings on the Lazarus matter sorted.  He didn\'t want to misrepresent the very powerful ancient, but he did have some very serious issues with the man.  Mostly they revolved around Ben and the way Lazarus had raped his fledgling\'s perception of immortality... yet those memories were his alone, now that Ben had lost them to the deceased Jakra, and it was likely trivial to still keep hanging onto them.

He was trivial, though, because he did.

"I do," he dragged the word out slowly, thinking on the answer even as he gave it.  "Mostly, my poor experiences relate to my two fledglings.  Ichabod was his pet first and one night Lazarus went off with someone else, so I took Ichabod home.  Lazarus, in a fit of spite, drank him to near-death, went to the Oligarchy and made him my official pet then dumped the bewildered boy on my doorstep.  Not long after, he took Ben - still mortal and uncertain about our relationship - under his wing and showed him what it was like to drink, kill and fuck.  His way of surviving eternity," Kerr described with false brightness.

There were so many other details he could have added, the memory of them still vivid and burning in his mind and his breast, but he refrained, his bitterness instead leaking out of him in bitter smiles and glittering eyes.

"When Ben eventually came back to me, Lazarus had become Luminary and wanted me to work for him as an Oligarch.  I had no interest in the position.  He threatened Ben\'s life if I didn\'t comply.  He\'s immune to mind control thanks to a ring he stole from Halen, so I knew I would have no choice but to comply; four hundred years is no match for two thousand.  There\'s more to the story but I won\'t bore you with the extra details right now.  Just know that I have many reasons for despising the man personally."

Kerr\'s eyes crinkled briefly with a forced smirk that faded as quickly as it rose.  He cleared his throat, thinking he should not dwell on negativity but the subject of Lazarus was difficult to extricate himself from.  "He did help all the supernaturals come out of hiding and take over the city for a while about seven years ago, though.  He\'s a visionary, I\'ll give him that much."  The joke fell flat after all the bad feelings he\'d just oozed, but he was curious to know just how much Sebastian had been told by his mortal contact - who might not have had her memory wiped, due to her duty to the ancient.