Peace Offering
| Peace Offering | |
|---|---|
My purpose is to punish the wicked among mortals. | |
| Players |
In which Arnaud brings a peace offering to Haliburton. |
Whether Arnaud arrives first or not (probably not), he isn't alone. His company has no word in who to spend time with tonight however, since he is very unconscious, has a small sack over his head and has his hands and feet zipped together. The volatile changeling is carrying him over his shoulder as he walks into the midst of the abandoned warehouse, dumping the (still alive) man on the floor with little regard to his health. He brushes his hands off and looks around to see if the sneaky vampire is here already. The sneaky vampire seems to have some manners, since he doesn't sneak in. In fact he opens a door and walks through it openly like anybody else would, and appears not two minutes after Arnaud does. Suit and tie like usual, he casts an eye around the open space and says after seeing the Changeling, "Good evening Arnaud. Who's your friend?" A grin splits his face as he walks toward the two with hands in hip pockets, relaxed. Arnaud is pacing about lazily as he waits, which is thankfully a short time - he's not known for his patience. He straightens up and lifts his chin to stare at Haliburton, and then nods a stiff greeting with arms crossed over his chest. "Evening, Haliburton." He pokes the unconscious tied-up man with his foot. "He's not my friend, he's dinner. Your dinner," he offers and then looks expectantly at the vampire. Realising that this might demand more explanation, he adds; "It's for calling you a bloodsucker and insulting you. A make-up sort of gift. Least I can do." He smiles a strained smile; this must be giving his pride a hit, but he's trying. Hal raises his eyebrows. Well this is unexpected. "Well. This is unexpected." he says, having one of those moments where the surprise makes an utter lack of contextual disconnect. He approaches the two at a relaxed pace, drawing a long knife from behind the small of his back as he focuses on the bound up mortal and reaches out to execute a shallow cut on the man's neck. It'll bleed but it's only skin-deep, and the vampire brings the blade to his face to touch a tongue to the very faint bit of blood collected thus, testing it for quality as he looks to Arnaud. Regardless of what he tastes, he tells the other man, "You're a complex man, Arnaud. Please don't think I took your remarks personally, but regardless this is very much appreciated." Arnaud doesn't hint at any particular emotions when Haliburton moves forwards - he only takes a few steps back and gestures invitingly as if this is a fancy dinner restaurant and he's paying. Still, he says after Hal has tested the blood; "Appreciate if you don't kill him. I don't like him, but I'm not supposed to murder people." No moral qualms about doing so per se, it's just that it's a hassle and people get so mad at him. "I'll get him out of here though and he won't remember shit. He's just another low-life, but he doesn't use drugs that I know of." Indeed, the blood tastes fine - no fancy vintage perhaps, but perfectly normal blood. "I'm actually not complex at all. I'm pretty much exactly a what you see and hear is what you get." "I don't know. I think you might have depths you're not aware of." replies Hal simply to the Changeling. He cleans the knife blade off with a pinch of two fingers, then resheaths it behind his back, beneath the coattail where it goes unnoticed. "Your apology is accepted with honor, Arnaud. I will not kill this man, as you request. A gift like this is worth more than an apology though. You have my respect and the right to call upon me for a trivial boon. Something short of what a coin would pay for, but still of value. Does that agree with you?" Arnaud listens with growing surprise. When offered a trivial boon in return, his eyebrows go up. "I didn't do this to get something in return, but - thank you. That's very agreeable." He rubs his jaw, watching Haliburton with an openly calculating look (he doesn't even try to hide things like that). "You are maybe better than I thought." The response seems to please the vampire, and he nods once before grabbing the nameless man up in one hand that shoots out to stuff fingers forcefully into the mouth, thumb under the jaw to his it like a handle. Thus he lifts the startled and suddenly panicking man before savagely biting him on the neck and feeding. He drinks quickly, the whole process taking just seconds before he licks the wound closed and then tosses the bound man in a heap on the floor. It's as if he has discarded a banana peel. "You chose very well. He's healthy. Might've been an athlete. Drug dealer? He's no junkie...tastes clean. Absolutely a sinner...I can taste the pure of heart." <regain> Haliburton regains 3 points of his Vitae pool, for Feeding on a mook.. Arnaud is shamelessly watching the whole feeding process, the whole affair interesting to him and not the least troublesome. "Drug dealer," he confirms. "I'll leave him where I found him. Heck, we did him a favour - he picked up business around the area where that gang used to work," he explains, meaning the gang they literally obliterated. "He paid back for some of it now." He leans down and makes sure the drug dealer is knocked out again, and satisfied that he won't wake up for awhile, he straightens up. "You can actually taste shit like that from the blood?" "I can taste all sorts of things in the blood. Any substances they've consumed, if they're wholly human, if they have magical talent, strongly-felt emotions, sometimes even heritage. I have a fondness for Arabs, especially if they've had khat...it's been a very long time since I've had an Arab who has chewed khat recently." Hal says this while he looks at the heap on the floor that is a defeated drug dealer. Then he looks up to Arnaud. "Why so angry, Arnaud? Is there something I could do that would help?" "That's useful," Arnaud says and looks suitably impressed - he just learned something new about vampires, though any nuances of it are lost on him. The question has him taken aback and then he snorts in amusement. "I'm always angry. Some of us Lost built a whole society around that - we just need something to focus on. But trust me, compared to some, I'm a calm kitten." "Fair enough." replies Hal simply, accepting the answer. "I can't help what I am. It's the accumulated...sediment I guess, of decades of just..." The vampire gestures around the room, or really the whole world as he tries to explain, "...all of this. What it's done to me. What others have done to me. What I've done to me. What I do to others." There he points at the drug dealer in a heap on the floor. "I can understand I think a little of what you mean." Arnaud purses his lips and watches Hal with a more focused interest. It isn't often, but sometimes he can empathise with someone - because they touch on something he has experienced himself, or how he acts. "I'm not some justice warrior if you think that's why I grabbed this guy. I think of it more like a story coming full circle," he jokes darkly, "and of him paying the cost of his success. I won't bother him again. It's up to him now." Changelings, their reasonings are weird at best and outright alien quite often. He seems to think this drug dealer owed the 'world' or the 'story' something, and he made sure he paid up to the right people. Or the right vampire. "What was done to me, and to all of us Lost, is..." He struggles to explain - not only because it IS hard to explain, but because he is not one used to expressing emotions. "It fucked us all up. And yet we need to strive for some sort of normalcy or we'd just turn into outright monsters. So, if it's anything like that, I get it." "Oh it's very much like that, just less esoteric I guess. It's all grounded here instead of in some outside dimension." says Hal, sounding very much like he agrees with Arnaud. He once again looks down at the drug dealer. "I don't care about sinners like this. My purpose is to punish the wicked among mortals. It's a calling, part of my religion. And like a religion it gives me purpose, and lets me continue on with a semblance of order rather than being left to question the point of everything." Casually he wipes the bottom of one shoe on the drug dealer's pant leg, treating him literally like a doormat. "In the grand scheme of things all sinners are more or less equal. By acts alone Man cannot attain Heaven, but from where we stand it is very clear that some sins are worse than others. This one's not the worst I've seen, but he'll certainly do." A nice wicked grin about that. "Purpose," Arnaud repeats thoughtfully. It is all-important for Lost, and for Vampires alike, it seems. He bends down and hikes the unconscious drug dealer up onto his shoulder again, making ready to leave with the 'dinner'. "Well - this was fun. I got to get going and put this guy somewhere where he will wake up no more hurt than he already is. You and I are all good, right?" "We're good, Arnaud. Thank you for your kindness." says Hal simply, stepping back and...only then vanishing from sight. | |