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[peasant]

WELCOME TO THE SALTBURNT NETWORK

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myshka

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[peasant]

If by pretty, you mean bird-brained — yes, whole-heartedly.

( fixed that for you, lexi. )

I've seen prettier peacocks, besides.

[abyssale]

better a peacock still than a duck. i'll take the compliment :)

[peasant]

Enjoy it. It's the last one you'll ever get from me.

( also — )

What do you have against ducks?

[abyssale]

you're a roast duck? remember?

[peasant]

( annoying, having her own words turned back on her like twisting a knife in her grip. a scowl puckers her mouth, jutting and petulant, for a flash. fortunately, she has a perfect manual for how to be irritating in return — step one: think of the most insufferable person she knows. step two: use his most eyeroll-worthy moments as inspiration. )

Oh. You remembered.
I do love it when you quote me.

[abyssale]

oh you love something about me? that's cute :) i'll make sure to remember that, too.

[peasant]

Obviously.
Your awful, sparkling personality has enchanted me. I dream of an eternity spent listening to you bore me to tears.

[abyssale]

you know, i could make that happen. give you immortality if you really want to spend all your days enchanted by me.

[peasant]

It's a bit soon for a marriage proposal, don't you think?

[abyssale]

i was talking vampirism but nice to know your mind is on marriage already!

[peasant]

And how would that work, exactly?

[abyssale]

i think our marriage would be passionate but loveless full of lots of insults. but in about a millenia you'll eventually realize i'm amazing and then hate me for it and stop talking to me altogether for another millenia. then finally we'll kill each other and fulfill our vows of 'til death do us part'.

[peasant]

Very romantic. You should try writing a play.

( and also a genuinely amusing answer, unfortunately for her. what an awful twist of fate. )

I was asking about the vampirism, actually. But don't let me get in the way of your fantasizing, if you want to carry on.

[abyssale]

( he's quite adorable when he's not being a complete asshole. )

i could include all the ways we'd be passionate but i don't think you could handle that sort of brutal honesty right now :)

but fairly simply. darin a human of all blood save for the very last drop, then feed them back your own blood until they live again. then they need to feed within the first six hours. it's essentially to get the taste of blood jumpstarting the rest of their system properly. then there. you have a new vampire.

[peasant]

My "passion" is quite satisfied without your help, thank you.

( as for the rest of it — the concept is a little gross, in all honesty. her nose scrunches into a series of accordion lines, thinking of the wandering isle's appetite for grisha blood, their so-called miraculous curative. )

And I'm meant to believe you're offering out of generosity? No hidden ploys? No tricks?

[abyssale]

i was just informing you of fantasies you said i was free to carry on with.

( hmm. interesting question. )

yes. the offer is only for you, of course. no need to suggest to any of your friends i might offer them the same.

[peasant]

( this would, of course, be the ideal moment to gloat in victory, show him how he's stepped into her snare — but giving away her triumph means giving away knowledge she's kept close to the chest. her own power. the ageless eternity ahead of her, if martyrdom doesn't see her crucified first.

she savors her own trick privately, instead, like sipping a fine vintage in a bubble bath. intimate, all the sweeter when indulged alone. )

No one offers power unless they stand to gain from it. There's something you aren't telling me.

[abyssale]

( he hopes she drowns in that bubble bath. )

were i a lesser vampire, there would be the chance of an unexpected bond with your sire - me. but i am not a lesser vampire. i can control whether or not i pass the bond.

and trust me. nothing could tempt me to bond myself eternally to you with that bond :)

so aside from that risk, there's nothing i'm hiding. nothing i seek to gain. i'm just curious what you would do with the offer. ( text isn't easy for reading tones, and maybe that's part of the game for him. keeping her paranoid and uncertain of him. it is kind of fun. but in all honesty, he's not not hiding anything else from her beyond that. if she asks, he'll give it to her. if not, well he wonders if the thought will sit with her late at night.

either way, he has nothing to gain. and nothing to lose, really. )

[peasant]

Why am I not shocked you would take any opportunity to brag?
I hardly believe you wouldn't be tempted to bind us out of petty spite.

As I remember it, it wasn't that long ago you were jumping down my throat over your own assumptions.
You didn't have the restraint to "wonder" about my feelings then.

[abyssale]

it wasn't just an opportunity to brag, but to assure you it's not my ulterior motive while giving you the whole truth.

and now i do. i am a man of multitudes.

i apologized for the mistake. i've moved on. now i'm curious about you.

[peasant]

There's nothing to be curious about.

( says the suspiciously cagey little freak. survival tactic #1: make yourself as uninteresting as possible, or risk men like alexei taking dangerous interest. the benefits to being a plain, scurrying mouse, rather than an eye-catching peacock. )

[abyssale]

a pretty, feral girl? no. nothing interesting about that, at all.

[peasant]

( feral??? pretty??? mixed messages, here. )

Does flattery usually help you weasel out people's secrets?

[abyssale]

you have secrets i would be interested in?

[peasant]

Plenty of them. Devastating secrets, in fact.

( she lets that sarcasm sit suspensefully, like dangling a treat above an untrained puppy's head. then, after she's made him wait: )

When no one's watching, I steal apple tarts from the kitchen.
I left a soggy worm in my friend's pillowcase after she ate the last cinnamon roll at breakfast.
And sometimes, when I feel particularly daring, I eat chocolate in the bath so no one will ask me to share.