10 ~ comparing those worlds to this boring, normal life [audio/picture]

[menial]

['Well. It sure got cold pretty fast, huh? Which means that I'm rapidly approaching the one-year mark, so I should really be proud. Or something. After burrowing myself away to avoid complications from refugees, my antisociality has reached a certain limit.

Unfortunately, I also have nothing to contribute beyond the observation about the weather which I already blithely used up there! Not that people can read my thoughts, but if they could, they'd find out. Well, they'd find out a lot of things. But who would want to anyway? It would just go on and on without any point.

Anyway, I guess I'll poorly disguise my attempt to see who's up for a random conversation with some kind of opener. Hey, if I were at home, this would be a mind-scarring Omegle session or something. At least I'm pretty sure I won't run into the usual problems stranger-chatting over the journal.'

...and so:]

So I found this in a book the other day.



Maybe this doesn't work as well over the journal, but I thought it was cool, anyway. Or at least different from discussions about fire and eternal suffering, continued kidnapping, disappearance, reappearance, cross-dressing, and so on.

Comments

[ voice ]

[menial]

Well, ... I mean... It's gotta be hard to make it look even moderately accurate, right?

Hold on, there's another one in the book. What do you think of this one?

[ voice ]

[herotypical]

...I think I once knew a guy who looked like that.

[ voice ]

[menial]

.....

In what sense.

[ voice ]

[herotypical]

He had a moustache. Just like that one. Only not quite as white.

[ voice ]

[menial]

Who was "he"?

[ voice ]

[herotypical]

Quentin Travers. Head of the Watchers' Council.

[ voice ]

[menial]

Huh. Well, that's definitely a pretty representative look for what I think you described as a bunch of old guys with rules that you ['predictably'] weren't too interested in.

[ voice ]

[herotypical]

So, what? Are you big into optical illusions normally or is this a one time thing?

[menial]

Huh, is that a thing? Being big into optical illusions? I always figured it was something that everyone searched for once in a while when they were bored.

[herotypical]

Name anything and someone, somewhere, is big into it.

[menial]

You think? Does anyone really like vampires who isn't one, in your experience?

[herotypical]

Do you want me to answer that honestly? Because I can. But you might never look at me the same way again.

[menial]

.......

Well, I'm not going to say no now that you've set up the teaser trailer.

[herotypical]

My first serious boyfriend? Vampire.

[menial]

Hm.



No, I can buy that. Although it does shed new light on your character.

[herotypical]

W-wait. Shed new light like what?

[menial]

Just... general new light!

Uh, for example, if you had asked me, "Is Buffy Summers the kind of girl who could date a kind-of-sworn enemy," I probably would've said yes before, but now I know for sure. And...

['... Likes "exciting" guys? Yeah. More confirmation there.']

...Other stuff.

[herotypical]

Well. It's not a thing I'm particularly proud of. But...he was a good man. Still is! Just -- he has a soul.

[menial]

Well, that's what really matters more, I guess. That and open communication for resolving conflicts of interest. Guess it's more questionable why it began than how it kept going for a while.

So wait, vampires don't have souls, is that it?

[herotypical]

Only two have ever managed to get ensouled, afterwards. It makes all the difference.

[menial]

Who's the other one? And what's the difference?

[herotypical]

Guilt. Conscience. That feeling of horror at yourself when you do something you shouldn't have done. That seems to be the difference...

As for the other? He's...recently arrived. Spike. His name's Spike.

[menial]

... Ah. Well, that's... grim. Seems like you might be better off without one, right?

[He pauses.]

Spike, huh? Pretty... descriptive name. Do you all have names like that in your world?

[herotypical]

N-no. That's not, like, his real name. Just the name he goes by.

[menial]

... So he voluntarily chose to call himself "Spike."

['I guess "Kyon" isn't that bad.']