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[prodigalvampire]

Okay, everyone, I can't take the silence anymore. What's the consensus on the party Halcyn's throwing? It smells like a trap to me, but that's never kept me from a good time.

[There's a pause here as though he's shifting verbal gears.]

And has anyone else noticed the altars around town? Weird, right?

Comments

[prodigalvampire]

Damn, it'd be great if we could choose, wouldn't it?

[skyward_eyes]

Well, I choose to fight it, so that's something, right?

[prodigalvampire]

Yeah.

That's the difference between you and me, I guess.

[skyward_eyes]

That I dislike myself when I'm self-destructing?

[prodigalvampire]

[He chuckles, but there's a self-deprecating sound to it.]

That you can choose. Then again, I guess I could, too.

[He could choose to stop fighting the demon wrapped around his soul, he could let it have the last dregs of his humanity.

But the was too damned stubborn.]

[skyward_eyes]

I like to think there's always a choice. That we're always making choices.

[prodigalvampire]

Sure, but when your choices both suck, what's the difference?

[skyward_eyes]

For me, it was a difference between wallowing and living. I chose to live.

[prodigalvampire]

Well, lucky for you choosing to live doesn't sacrifice other people.

[skyward_eyes]

Sometimes. Sometimes it's what we're forced into.

[prodigalvampire]

You have no idea.

[skyward_eyes]

Nope. Nor do I believe that I can make them better, so at least I'm rational enough to know that all I can do is offer words and hope they inspire something.

[prodigalvampire]

You can't inspire a monster to be human.

[Melodramatic? maybe a little, but melodrama is one of Thomas' hidden talents.]

[skyward_eyes]

I don't know. Humanity is more than a mental state. And being a monster is more than having things you need to do that humans don't need to do.

[He's met a vampire before, after all.]

[prodigalvampire]

[Good for you, bucko. Too bad that doesn't give you insight into how twisted their desires can be.]

Thanks, Kimosabe. I feel all better now.

[skyward_eyes]

You are just pricklier than a cactaur.

[prodigalvampire]

You shouldn't insult people with things they've never heard of.

[skyward_eyes]

Firstly: that's very prickly.

Secondly: you don't know what a cactaur is?

[He sounds genuinely surprised.]

[prodigalvampire]

Firstly: I don't care.

Secondly: Why would I ask if I did?

[skyward_eyes]

I don't know. People ask weird stuff all the time.

They're like cacti, but they have arms and legs and faces and run around and shoot their needles at you.

[prodigalvampire]

That sounds like a possessed cactus.

[And terrifying.]

[skyward_eyes]

Not exactly a bad description of them. They're pretty deadly. But they're also sorta like crows in that they can be very mischevious.

[prodigalvampire]

Cool. I'm really glad I have never found one.

[skyward_eyes]

Yeah, guess your world is lucky. You probably don't even have dragons, only bears.

[Forever Nida will return to that point.]

[prodigalvampire]

No. I wouldn't mind something as simple as a possessed cactus.