Scene #632:

Owner	Pose
Eric Bane	This is a weird place to meet, but then again given what's going to be happening here, probably a good idea. It's the roof of a large abandoned warehouse building. Getting up there was a trick for Eric; he isn't really trained in acrobatics or the like, and his ability to teleport is... very limited. He'd had to resort to using a fire escape to get up here and then teleported onto the ledge when the last few feet or so of the rusted fire escape crumbled under his weight. He didn't die, thankfully. And more to the point he got up to the roof. Which is where he is now, sitting on the edge of one of the ancient AC units that have managed to not completely succumb to the effects of rust, decay, and abandonment. He's waiting for Corvo, that strange guy who had... somehow become his teacher. They seemed to have similar abilities, even if Corvo wasn't a vampire. Something about the way he teleported... leaping through shadows as easily as a child would jump rope... Outlined in the spotlight on his gun's scope was a twisted figure with fangs, standing about fifty feet from him. He fired at it, it disappeared into darkness. It reappeared, about thirty feet away from him. He fired again, and the figure disappeared again, leaving nothing but wisps of black smoke. There it was again, about fifteen feet away from him. Again he fired. Again he missed. The creature reappeared again, no more than five feet from him. There was no time to fire. All there was, was a fanged maw and darkness... Suddenly pain seemed to explode through his head, setting it pounding like the heartbeat he no longer had. He doubled over and gripped the sides of his head, hissing in pain. He waited for the angel to come and take the pain away. But she didn't. There was no angel here. Only the pain and the nightmarish, twisted images from his disordered memories...
Corvo Attano	A hand, gentle, careful. There'd been no sound. No whisper of gravel. No crunch of stone. No hiss of dust. Nothing. Just a hand, gentle, on his shoulder, on the back of his neck. A shift, and then, crouching nearby, eyes concerned, staring into his own. "You are weak, hurt. What troubles you friend?"
Eric Bane	Ordinarily a sudden hand on his shoulder would startle Eric enough that he'd Shadow Leap instinctually. But not now. Now he's in too much pain. The voice. He recognizes the voice through it though. "I just..." He can't concentrate on words, and his voice is taut and strained. "...Hurts... whenever I remember something..." Pause, hiss. "...It'll pass. Gimmie a few..." And indeed, true to his words, the pain eventually passes. He concentrates on taking deep breaths, though he doesn't need the oxygen. Finally, his hands move from the sides of his head. Propping his elbows on his knees, he looks up at Corvo. "Sorry about that. I... have amnesia. I'm told it's pretty common for newly-made vampires," he explains. "Just... sometimes I have these flashes of memory, and they usually hurt."
Corvo Attano	A hand, beside his face, the man's own concerned. "...I understand." He doesn't, but he understands that part at least. His fingers would be kind, his thumb brushing. "You need to eat." He's rolling up his sleeve. There's something, with tubes and, a rubber band and, he shifts, there's a slight wince, and then he's got a- glass? A line of red down a tube, not shooting out but pouring slowly, dark dark red... his hand works, several times, as it grows cool and sort of tingly on the skin, and he shudders... before placing a cotton ball and pulling the needle out, sort of gripping some gauze in his teeth and then wrapping the lot hastily, maybe a touch too tight. "...Drink this." He places the glass at the vampire's lips, letting him take it. it's a good pint, and Corvo looks dizzy as hell as he's sipping something of his own- cool, clear water. His color comes back in degrees, eyes closing. "Hopefully it helps with the headache." His own drink is, the pounding of the lowered pressure easing in his head...
Eric Bane	Eric kind of turns his head, a little confused at the thumb brushing against his face. Corvo seems like the touchy-feely kind. Nothing wrong with that, even if it's a little weird for Eric. Nothing inappropriate about the touch, either, so Eric doesn't say anything about it. And then Corvo's doing something... That looks almost medical! He's bleeding himself. Well, that's significantly less awkward than the biting! Eric offers a smile, and accepts the glass. "Thank you. I really do appreciate it." He just wished it didn't have to cause Corvo so much stress.
Corvo Attano	He'd had to study something fierce not to hurt himself. Water had been used. Blood had been lost. He'd snapped a needle in the wound and it had been hell getting it out. But he'd gotten it down... eventually. He wasn't causing Corvo stress. Corvo was causing Corvo stress. As per the norm.
Eric Bane	At least all that hadn't been in vain. Eric accepts the blood in the glass and drinks it. And it does indeed seem to help the headache, given the relaxing the frown from his brow. A thought occurs to him, and he looks at Corvo. "...Is it weird that a vampire can get hunger headaches? I thought I'd just turn into a monster, like what happens in the movies." Then again, that's probably the /last/ thing he wants to happen, given that whole 'ghoul' thing hanging over his head like a hammer ready to fall...
Corvo Attano	To be, thoroughly unfair... It tastes... JUST a bit fishy. Even his blood tastes fishy. Just a bit. A glance over. "Headaches are often the result of blood flow being restricted. The medicines of the blood, the willow bark that allows for the flow often ease this and allow it to run smooth. Your hunger is a lack of blood, yes? This seems to make sense to me." A lack of blood leads to a headache. Adding blood eases it, like taking an aspirin. Just makes sense. He actually ruffles the man's hair, a soft smile on his face. His eyes are sympathetic. "...We'll, fix it. We'll win the day. You'll see." He'll do whatever he can. Whatever he can.
Eric Bane	Bleh. Tastes like a fresh Bandaid. With an undertone of fish. But, fishy and Bandaid-y or not, at least it's human blood. Given the now-familiar warmth that spreads through him as he drinks the blood, his body is happy with it. Even if his still-human tastebuds aren't. They haven't quite learned to associate the taste of blood with nutrition and the healing warmth that blood causes in him yet. He thinks about Corvo's words. Though before he can say anything, his hair is ruffled. This gets a blink, and he turns to look at Corvo, a little confused. "Well... I guess so. But I don't have a heartbeat, so my blood doesn't exactly flow like a normal person's." Comes with being a walking corpse. The mention of 'winning the day' pulls his gaze back to the cityscape. "...I hope so." A pause. And then, "...You mind if I ask you a question? I'm grateful for the help, but... why did you want to help me? I don't have much." Then he adds, "And I'm not going to make you into a vampire. Hell, I don't even know if I /can/."
Corvo Attano	His voice is lean and low. "...I want to help you because you don't have much." A low smirk. "And I didn't exactly necessarily sign up for being a witchman either, any more than you did. I like my patron. He's good by me. But I understand sudden life changes." Like having your lover and empress murdered in front of you, being blamed for it and set up for execution, being let out to escape, being empowered by an eldrich devil figure thing from the dark between the stars. Or any of the other crap that had happened. He smiles, shaking his head. "I'm already a witchman. I don't want to be a vampire, so you don't have to worry about me asking." He looks away. "When I got here, I was lost and hurt and tight and breaking. And a man found me, a man and his friend. And they became my friends. Good, close friends. The kind of friends you'd die for. The kind of friends you'd live for." Soft. "Without them I wouldn't... be. But they helped me. Though they didn't need to. Though the one, I drove him up the wall, and he me. They helped me... when I had nothing." He turns a soft eye on the young vampire. "...And when I was, starting out, I didn't have anyone to teach me. And it hurt." He shows the scars. Some of the scars, quick little flashes of skin. "It, is no fun, learning on your own. I can help. Why would I not?"
Eric Bane	'Sudden life changes'. That's probably an appropriate way to describe it. Even if he doesn't remember anything before he woke up in the nightclub. "Might be a little easier for me... I don't remember what I was before I was a vampire. So, no basis for comparison." There's a bit of a smirk there, but it's not a mean one. More a rueful one. He listens to Corvo's explanation. Nods. "I'm glad you found someone to help you straighten things out when you needed 'em." Pause, and he looks at the scars, winces. Damn. He saw some of the scars the other night. Somebody tore into Corvo but good. And now Eric's curious about it. But he doesn't ask just yet. The explanation gets a nod. He understands. "'All because they do not wish to see anyone else suffer the way they do'," he quotes. "...Damned if I can remember where I heard it. Seems appropriate, though." Pause, half-smile. "...I appreciate it." Suddenly he looks distracted. He raises a hand to his ear-- there's a little bluetooth headset type thing in there. "Yeah." Pause. "Dunno. Not yet. You want to be sure before I do, right?" Pause. "That's what I figured. We'll see how it goes." Looking back to Corvo, "Sorry about that. Rose. She's the closest thing to a 'vampire teacher' I have. But our gifts are different, so there's not much she can do but point me in a direction and let me figure things out."
Corvo Attano	A shrug. "I can help. If I could help, and I don't. What good am I?" He looks over, his eyes sick and haunted, even and relaxed. He looks at him, head tilted, at the one sided conversation. "...Am I stepping on toes?" A small smile, and he looks confused and curious, just smiling softly.
Eric Bane	Eric shakes his head. "Nah. Like I say, Rose can't really do much to help aside from point me in a direction. Her gift was becoming a technological wizard. Her buddy Tom can see through nearly anything. Mine was a connection to the shadows. Not a whole lot the three of us can do in terms of teaching each other anything about our powers." A rueful smirk. "I told her about you. Told her you could teleport like I did. She asked if you were a vampire, I said no."
Corvo Attano	He shakes his head, lifting his hand up, showing the brand. "No. I got, marked. By a god. He wanted to see what I'd do with power. I was hurt. And angry. Tortured, for, oh about six months. About to be executed. By the people who'd killed my empress." The my there has a lot of meaning. He looks like he's mourning a lover there, for long moments, his eyes shining and his face tired and in pain. He looks back. "I think he wanted to be surprised." It's soft. "...He expected me... to go on a roaring rampage of revenge. When I, didn't. I think I surprised him. I don't kill. When I can help it, and I can always help it." Bragging? No. Neurose. It's all deep in him, that particular madness. Deep and tight, thorned. He smiles. "Not a vampire. Just a witch man. They'd kill me for this mark- they'd kill me for a lot of things, but that, especially. Our religion is all about hating Him, though He doesn't really do anything. Not really. Well. Not often." Handing out the odd bits of power. Just, to see what he'll do with it. And then he meets Eric's eyes. And his own are deep, and quiet. "...So I suppose. The question is... what. You will do. With what I teach you."
Eric Bane	Eric tilts his head to look at the mark as Corvo explains. Marked by a god... a mark that would make Corvo's people hate him... yet a mark that gave him the power to hurt those who would hurt him. "That sounds... familiar," Eric notes thoughtfully. Then he quoted, "'And Cain said unto the Lord, "My punishment is too great to bear! Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me." And the Lord said unto him, "Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold." And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.'" Looking back at Corvo, "That's in the Christian Bible. Genesis 4:14 and 4:15. Story is, Cain killed his brother Abel because he thought God loved Abel more. God knew what Cain did, but he gave Cain a chance to 'fess up. He didn't. So God exiled him. But Cain said everybody would try to kill him. God put the mark there so someone didn't kill him for killing his brother. No perpetuating the cycle of murder with more murder." As for what he's going to do with Corvo's teaching? "Try not to be any deader than I already am," Eric says honestly. "I don't want to /not/ exist anymore than anyone else does. I'm not planning to go kill anybody. But I /will/ need to go after another vampire at some point. And-- at least the ones in my world-- they won't give their blood voluntarily. I already tried once." A look out over the cityscape. "Sick bastard was killing people and hacking them up to sew together for life-sized dolls made of real flesh," he recalls. "Tried to take my hands for it." He raises his hands, looks at them, front and back. "...He said I had 'lovely hands'." Snort. "Sick f**k."
Corvo Attano	A smirk. "Well they are nice hands. But he has no right to them." His face is tight, his eyes elsewhere. "So take your nice hands, and use them. To keep you alive. To do what you will. To make the changes you want to see in the world." A look back. "I won't be the sort of man who tries to make you do what I think you should, who forces his way on you. You play it how you'll see it played. I'm just here to help. I don't kill, because it's important for me not to. For Emily's sake. For my people. For all the folks in there who need help, not a blade in the dark. But your world is your world and your choices are your choices. And it's no place of mine to do anything but help you and do what I can. Your choices are your own." He trembles a little at the words, though. What horrors those in power with money and time and a self-entitled god complex can do...
Eric Bane	Eric gives a bit of a snort, an amused laugh, at Corvo's observation of his hands. He sobers as he listens to Corvo, though. And for the first time, it really hits him. He /does/ have power. And if he learns from Corvo... he'll have /more/ power. Over life and death. The lives and deaths of all the people he has to interact with. It's... not a pleasant realization. Mainly because he realizes that he needs to restructure the way he's doing things. He'd been looking at it all as something he had no choice but to do. That he was fighting from a position of lesser power. But really, at the Harding Museum... he killed anyone that crossed his path. Still looking at his hands, he heaves a sigh. Corvo is not going to like this. But it needs to be said. "No one ever taught me how /not/ to kill," he began. "What little bit I do know about it, I had to figure out on my own. Going through the museum after Blooming-- the guy who was making the dolls from body parts-- I just went through and... killed the guards. I didn't even try not to. I just focused on the goal and told myself I had to." He raises a hand, scrubs it across his face. "...God, I'm turning into him, aren't I?" he mutters, voice muffled by his hand. Despite being muffled, there's still a tremor audible in his words.
Corvo Attano	His voice is soft. Instructing. Not condemning. But it might be hard all the same. "A guard job is a good position in an uncertain world. Dangerous, yes, but it allows them to have money. To eat. To support their families." There's a slight hesitation before he says the word. He doesn't want to hurt the boy, even if it's simple truth. Families. Enough money to juuuust be able to support a young wife and a young child or two. A life. A future. Ended, abruptly. Bad happenstances in trying times. A hand goes to his shoulder. Squeezing. Fuck this guy's got some big hands. His eyes are concerned, soft, sad. Sympathetic. "Hey. We are the agents of our own destinies. But there are times... you just don't see it. That you have choices. You're afraid, and you just don't want to die. I've been trained. For years and years, in combat, in stealth, in all of it. You hadn't. You just didn't want to die... there's no shame in that." And then he's hugging him. What? Arms around him, trying to reassure him, hand over his face. "You didn't want to die. That's a world away from what that thing is. You weren't willing to let them kill you, and you didn't know how to put a man down without doing it permanently. You lived. There is NO SHAME in that. You did what you had to." His hands are on the man's shoulder, shaking him slightly, eyes intense and intent, staring into his own. "I can show you other ways. I can show you that you have the choice. But you didn't back then. You didn't know HOW to do it. You did what you needed to, what you HAD to. There is no shame, in not going gentle into that good night." A poem he'd heard. It had been powerful. And he used it now, hands tight.
Eric Bane	'Families'. Eric winces at the word. "...Yeah, I... didn't think of that. It was just... a 'mode' I got into. Fight now, worry about the consequences later. Like a soldier, you know?" He shakes his head. "Doesn't make it right." Suddenly he's being hugged! Eric kind of tenses at this, because what the hell? But he's aware Corvo's from a different world. Besides, he's not looking for a place to put a knife, right? ...Right? No knife is forthcoming, just words. Words that he listens to. Hell, they cut as deep as one. Even if it's to cut through the bad to the good rather than to cut into the good. It's true. Eric's scared-- moreso now, since he's afraid that he's going to turn into a monster either way. But there's an offer to help him learn not to kill others. That's one he's going to take. With a nod, he agrees, "That's definitely something I'm interested in learning." A long pause. "I'm honestly worried. See... Rose thinks that if I drink the blood of an ancient vampire, it could substitute for my creator's blood and stop the transformation into a ghoul. But... all the ancient vampires in my world-- Blooming, one that calls himself Vladimir, Victor Steiner-- they're all... sick people." A sigh. "I wonder if... even if I don't turn into a ghoul... what if I turn into what they are?"
Corvo Attano	His hand works on the shoulder, squeezing reassuringly. His eyes close. "...So take some from each." A narrow gaze, turning it on the boy. "Give no one the strength to hold you. Just take a bit from each. Balance the bad with the bad till all are like sand. Irritating, to be true, but nothing enough to crush you. Same weight as tha massive rock, but it sits easier and is easier to work around." It's a suggestion. He's not even sure if it's possible. But it's an offer. Maybe, a solution.
Eric Bane	"I don't think that'd work," Eric replies. "I need one of them for their blood. I don't think I can take from all three, I think it's either one and saved or none and dead." A pause. "Besides, if they're such horrible people, wouldn't it be better to get rid of them? That way they wouldn't hurt anybody else. They won't stop unless someone else stops them."
Corvo Attano	...It's like, listening to Altair. That argument, back and forth. Intent. Intense. And always leaving the both of them upset. No. Just him. Altair had known where he stood. Neither of them agreed with the other's point of view. But only Corvo had been left shaken afterwards. Because he just, didn't, have an answer. And Altair did. He shakes his head. "I can't answer that for you. ...I can't even answer that for myself."
Eric Bane	Eric sighs. "...It's a hard question," he admits. "Because if you do, that's deciding someone else's fate for them. And that's not a road anybody needs to go down. It's the road to end up just like them. But if you don't and you had the chance... it feels like you're responsible for anybody else who they cause pain to. I don't think there /is/ an answer. Not a 'right' one, anyway." He at least seems to respect and understand the dilemma. "But... if you can teach me how not to kill the people who guard these vampires, that'll be one less problem I have to deal with. It's not like I can feed off of them in any serious way anyway-- I don't want /them/ to turn into ghouls."
Corvo Attano	He nods. His eyes close. "I have... been lucky." For Corvo, there has always been another way. Another solution. One often... worse than death. In one or two cases. But... always better for the people. Less damaging to his world. Better, for everyone, usually. Even him. Though it... hurts, sometimes. Sometimes you just want to kill them, more than you want to LIVE. He remembers. Distantly. Screaming at Daud. SCREAMING at him. Just SCREAMING. For DARING to beg for his life. For a chance to live. To change. For a second chance. The thing he'd been handing out like fucking candy. And the bastard had, had, asked him. Asked him for it. He'd known he was betraying her. Betraying her. It was one of the only things she'd ever shown emotion about, after she'd died. Him. That he couldn't stop. That there were no second chances for people like him. And Corvo betrayed her. He gave him a chance. To stop. To move from this world and be someone else. TO start over. To change. He gave him his life. And he howled, to do it. Howled, screamed, wailed in his own skull, his own heart to do it. SCREAMED. "I will teach you. Everything I can. Your choices are your own. You have choices now though. You have them now. And they are yours to make."
Eric Bane	"That sounds like it's a big story," Eric notes. He doesn't know what it is. Just that it's a big one. "I won't ask, since it's probably personal." And he hasn't known Corvo for very long. He doesn't want to try to pry the man's life story out of him after having known him for two days. He'd feel a bit weird about that, even if he could remember his own past. The agreement to teach him draws a smile. "I really appreciate that. I won't let you down, if I can help it," he promises. "I can't promise I'll be a very capable student, but I'll promise to do my best." Half-smile.
Corvo Attano	Softly. "...It was a big story. And it is. Personal. Though I might well tell you some time anyway." A kindly smile. "...And that is all that may ever be asked of you." Do your best. "...You might well surprise yourself."
Eric Bane	"Dunno about that. I'm pretty bad at stealth," Eric notes. "It's weird. I'm so bad at it, but it feels like a calling. Maybe that's the whole 'connection to shadows' thing Rose told me about."
Corvo Attano	His hand pats the vampire comfortingly on the shoulder. "We have to start somewhere, brother." A slow, low nod.
Eric Bane	"That's true," Eric concedes. "Where do we start?" Something occurs to him. "...On the bright side, if you're going to teach me how to choke people out, I don't breathe, so you don't have to worry about killing me that way." ...Okay that was really stupid. But it felt like it needed to be said.