Chat Log with Lorne
Otto: *begins playing with moving photographs. Brings Lorne a picture of a baby duck swimming in the reflecting pond. Wait for it...and the ducky SNEEZES so hard it scoots itself back wards in the water into its mum*
Lorne: ~coos at the itty bitty baby duckling <3~
Otto: I can't have it in zer classroom. Zer kiddies get all distracted.
Otto: And zen I am sinking, 'I know somevun who could use a picture of a baby duck!'
Lorne: I can see why, it's A list. A for ADORABLE! Come here you! ~pulls him in for a friendly back-slapping hug~
Otto: *is being hugged!* ^__^! *pat pat pat* Also, I sink you are doing vell vit Gabe. He is still low energy, but it is a different kind off energy, you know?
Lorne: Really? That's great! ~grins, and steps back~ I hope I can help him. And I know. All that tension is morphing to imminent zees if I know those vibes correctly. And how are you, my little Ottoman?
Otto: Vell, he has his garden, vich is good for getting him off zer couch. Oh, I am zer same old. Busy busy! OH! Lorne!
Otto: *clutches his chest in grinning melodrama* I am in -love!-
Otto: I haff discovered a new thing! /Mexican/ hot cocoa. It has this...it is like a pepper in it or somesink. I don't know but it has a -bite- to it...irresistable. *purr deep voice for just a moment* I vill make some for you soon.
Lorne: ~flops wrist at, pointing~ You had me going there for a minute, shame on you, sweetie! XD Cocoa, hmmmm?
"And you'd better stop with that purring or you'll have me swooning before you can say 'timbeeerrr'.
Otto just stands there for a moment, grinning and with an eyebrow cocked. Orly? Aaanyway, he seems to say as he flops into a chair. "Bah. I haven't made anyvun veak in zer knees in years. No more undervire nightgowns or drunken noblemen for me."
Oh, come on, it's only some friendly bantering. Lorne takes a seat too, sans flopping, pulling up his suit pants just a tad and unbuttoning his jacket. How he does it, wearing so many layers when it's sunny and bright outside, no one will ever know. Clasping his hands on his crossed knee, he cocks an eyebrow of his own in response. Drunken noblemen, hmm? "Are you telling me you don't think you have it in you anymore? Lemme tellya, you're sorely mistaken if that's the case. You're quite the charmer, even when you're not even trying. Us mundane mortals have to work our butts off, but you have charisma, and don't you deny it."
"Ah, zat is just zer sing, my friend. I /am/ charmink and I do not haff to sink about it." He shrugs a little and opens his hands. "I am a vampire, zer power to influence and seduce for us is second nature, like scenting and stalking for a volf. I /do/ deny it." And here he pats the black ribbon on his vest. Does Lorne understand?
Oh, he understands. He understands, but that doesn't mean he's just gonna accept it and let it slide. "I get that we're from two very different worlds," he starts, working out a rhetorical strategy of sorts. "I do. But I don't see how denying your nature is in any way a good thing."
Shifting to lean his elbow on the armrest and his cheek on the knuckles of his closed fist, he looks at his friend for a moment. "I've spent the majority of my life believing there was something wrong with me. That I was a disgrace to my clan, to my family, that the entire world thought I was crazy - and believe me, it did... But then I came to this other world. A darker world, in some ways, and a whole lot brighter in a whole lot of ways. The vampires in that world could never take a vow of abstinence, or they'd either shrivel up like a prune, or go into a feeding frenzy before you could say bloody Sunday. They can survive just fine on animal blood, but most of them just don't care about people. You do.
"I guess what I'm trying to say is, how do you do it? How do you deny part of who you are without dying a little every day?"
Wincing at the b-vord, Otto settles back and tilts his head onto his hand.
"Vithout...I do not sink it is possible. But I haff many years under my belt, und ve are hard to kill anyvay." All the same, Otto never quite looks healthy, and that jittery behavior might well be explained by a constant state of starvation.
"As for zer vy of it all...It's a strange feeling, to go for hundreds off years und suddenly realize you can't remember ven you last had a conversation vit somevun. To discover zat you can conquer zer crippling power of zer sun and valk like a free man after being so long a slave off zer night. I sink you of all people perhaps undersand. I vould trade a sousand moonlit rendezvous for vun afternoon vit Villiam. Or Gabriel. Or you."
He nods thoughtfully, but not yet ready to hand it to Otto. Nevertheless, he smiles warmly at the compliment. He's too sweet, and Lorne too eager to suck it up like a sponge, or maybe a humming bird. "I think I do, but I'm not sure I do. Does that make sense?" Making a gesture as if sweeping the question aside, not strictly needing an answer, he shrugs. "I don't know about you, but I'd like to think we can be who we are and what we are without either of the two overshadowing the other. I'm not saying that black ribbon of yours isn't a wonderful initiative and a badge of honor all rolled into one, and kudos to you for being clean for so long, but... I've seen my share of vampires, Otto, and I gotta tell you, you look...drawn. Tired. You're my friend, and I have every right to worry about you, don't I?"
Just try convincing him otherwise.
"Ah, Lorne," Otto says with a laugh, eyes twinkling, "I haff been burned, drowned, chopped up, decapitated, staked, and tossed into a bOttomless pit. A little cocoa isn't going to kill me!" He sounds very sure of it, but then, he can't see himself through his friends' eyes.
A half-hearted "bingley bingley bop. Get to class." comes from one of his vest pockets. "Zen again, all of zat pales in comparison to the perils of a classfull of students and a vat of developing fluid." He stands. "Vell, off into zer fray!"
Lorne makes a few shooing motions with both hands, getting up to follow Otto to the door. "Go on, dazzle the kidlets. I'll bug you some other time, and don't you forget about that promise of spicy cocoa! It's a date!" He winks. "I'll see you when, Toto. Take care. I mean that." Cue stern look, only softened by his trademarked cheeky smile.
"Yes, Lorne," Otto replies without a whit of contrition. He pats Lorne's shoulder and heads off down the hall with a last "Cocoa!" over his shoulder. Talking to the demon always brightened up a day - and in that rainbow of a suit beside a big sunny window, we mean it in every sense of the word!