That's me, I'm knocking at the door (Costin)

[Costin Dracula]

She was taking this remarkably well, Costin thought. There were so many reactions a person could have to being told that someone's parents were vampires, and so many of them were justifiably extreme, and she was just taking it in stride. He was a little wary; it was possible she was still just processing the whole thing and she might flip out on him at any minute, but so far it seemed like she was still focusing on his issues with his father, vampiric eccentricities aside.

"You are probably right about that," he agreed, tilting his head slightly, "but my fathers...well, they're not exactly philanthropists. Doing great things in the world isn't really their style. Unless you count terrorizing the masses and murdering innocents as great." Costin may not have been raised with a firm personal belief in right and wrong, but he knew objectively that his fathers were not particularly popular with people who were hung up on that sort of thing.

She touched him. She reached over and patted his knee, and Costin looked down at her hand, momentarily distracted from his spiral of self-pity. He couldn't think of what to say. She had been kind to him just then, and he was truly not used to that kind of treatment. What was he supposed to say to that? It's alright, I'm used to it? That sounded even more morose and well...like he was wallowing.

"It's..." he began, slowly, uncertainly, and then trailed off, taking a quick sip of wine before finishing. "It's his nature. I can only imagine that when I am as old as he is now, I will have a similar disregard for petty human emotions and affections. It's only...you know, I'm aware, intellectually, that I'm only feeling the way I do because of human emotions, but in the meantime, it doesn't make it feel any better."

[Gwyn Locksley]

Gwyn pursed her lips and stared at him a moment. “No, I would not count that as great,” she replied, very unnecessarily. She was beginning to understand why Costin was so confused, and maybe beginning to understand him a little better. The picture he painted of his fathers certainly didn't come across kind, but the fact that they had taken him in and raised him spoke of some sort of kindness and affection. If they felt no qualms killing people, and lived off their lifeblood, why take in a defenseless child?

He looked down at her hand and went silent and Gwyn was suddenly unsure what to do. She stilled the patting motion, but that left her hand just resting on his knee while he talked. Surely that was worse? But snatching it away didn't seem very comforting, so the second he stopped speaking she... gave it a little squeeze first, then slowly retracted her hand. That gave an air of finality, right?

“Human emotions and affections are not petty, and obviously your parents aren't emotionless or they wouldn't be together, right?” she said, settling back on the sofa again and sipping her wine, glad the awkward moment was over. Some people believed that Gwyn was anti-romance, but that wasn't true at all. Romance had its time and place, and she thought her own parents had the greatest love story of all time. She just had no interest in it herself, and thought too many people let it distract them from greatness. A lot of people got really stupid about it too, mooning over people that didn't like them, planning their weddings after knowing someone for a day, acting like their entire life was over if someone dumped them. That was all rubbish. But true love did exist, she was a product of it, and there was nothing petty about that. “What about pride? Or that feeling you get when you accomplish something you worked really hard at? Those are human too.”

[Costin Dracula]

"I don't think the feelings my parents have for each other are really human," Costin explained. "There's so much you can't possibly know you want to share with a person based only on one mortal lifetime. So many people can barely manage to stay together that long, it takes...something else entirely, I think, something deeper than we can understand." He reached for the bottle of wine and refilled his glass.

A funny feeling of warmth blossomed in his chest when she squeezed his knee, and he looked away, trying to swallow it down. Here he was, lecturing about the shortcomings of human feelings, and he couldn't even keep his focus when a silly human girl touched his leg. Outrageous.

Then she asked about pride and accomplishment, and Costin flinched, looking down at his glass as if there was something suddenly fascinating about the liquid there. He had never really tried to accomplish anything - nothing of note, because what was the point, when he was only going to leave this life behind anyway? All his greatest accomplishments were ahead of him, in immortality. And pride...Costin felt stubborn pride, of course, he didn't like being embarrassed, he didn't like admitting he was wrong, didn't particularly like submitting to authority. But as far as pride as an emotion, as something centered on himself as a person or the things he had done...

"I've never done anything I'm particularly proud of," he said, as dismissively as he possibly could. "No one has ever been proud of me, and I don't see the point in exerting myself."

[Gwyn Locksley]

It was hard to fathom, this 'life' he spoke of. It was true, many people couldn't last one lifetime together let alone many. How deep must that connection be? To never grow bored of the same company, to never run out of things to discuss, to never stop enjoying someone's presence. She couldn't understand it, that was true. She was so used to spending her time alone that spending too much time around others was very irksome. She needed alone time. But she thought of her parents, and deep in her heart she truly believed that they would stand the test of time. If they lived several lifetimes they would always be together.

She grew quiet as she considered this. Not very often she was at a loss for what to say, but she really had no answer. It was not a world she had ever known nor thought possible, so how could she comment? So she let him continue, watching as he refilled his wine and stared into it as if her words had stung him. And his response surprised her. Surprised... and saddened.

“Nothing?” she asked, incredulous. What would she even be without her pride and accomplishments? And yes, a lot of that was born out of the need to make her father proud, but not all of it. “No point? How about because it feels good. No, it feels great to be the best at something. To have people admire you, to want to be as good as you are at something.” She loved that feeling. Not quite as much as her father's praise gave her, but she loved it nonetheless.

[Costin Dracula]

Costin shook his head slowly. It sounded pathetic, now that he thought about it. She must think he was the most unremarkable person in existence, mustn't she? Costin had to remind himself that it didn't matter, that the opinions of his current contemporaries were largely irrelevant in the grand scheme of his life. In a thousand years, he would still be traveling the universe, and no one would remember that he couldn't impress a human girl when they were both teenagers back at this silly school in this unremarkable dimension.

"I'm saving my effort for the life that's going to matter," he explained. "It's always seemed like...well, you know, I'm going to be immortal, someday, and when I am, I think I won't much care how proud anyone was of me when I was human. And..." He hesitated, then went on slowly. "I don't think I could make my parents proud of me if I tried, and that's really just a devastating thing to try at when you know from the start you're going to fail."

And there was no one else. No one else for him to impress or let down, and Costin tried to keep it that way. He thought back on some of the interactions he'd had while he was here at this school, and he couldn't think of any of those people it would thrill him to impress, that it would please him that much if they told him they were proud of him.

"I'm never going to be the best at anything while I have this body," he said, gesturing towards himself. "So I have to wait until I have the tools to get the job done."

[Gwyn Locksley]

Okay, this was just sad. Costin was so fixated on his parents' lack of interest and pride in anything he did that he showed none even in himself. He was immaculately dressed and groomed, and carried such fine airs about him, but had no pride in anything he actually did. All because he had it in his head that he would be immortal and therefore never had to try.

She frowned at him.

Thankfully he did elaborate about his parents, and that was a little easier to swallow. Fear of failure she could understand; fear of trying so hard to impress someone only for them to not care, that was... human. “Sometimes the admiration of strangers can be satisfying,” Gwyn offered, but she knew it wasn't nearly the same thing. She reveled in it, the admiration of her peers, or complete strangers, she didn't care; but would any of it be worth it without her father's first? That she could not answer.

But then he started on the immortality kick, about having to wait until then to truly live, and Gwyn couldn't help but roll her eyes. “That's just stupid,” she stated bluntly. “You can't waste your life waiting for the one you want to start. What if it never happens?” Probably not the right thing to say at all, but Gwyn was never good at saying the right thing, nor ever concerned if she did or not. “You have a perfectly good body, I'm sure you could do a lot with it with proper training and practice.”

For a moment Gwyn eyed him up and down. He looked rather fit, not sickly, not overweight. She could work with this. “In fact, I will even help you. You want someone to be proud of you? I will, but you have to earn it.”

[Costin Dracula]

People had been surprising Costin almost constantly since he came to this school. That wasn't all that surprising if one thought about it; Costin had traveled the universe with ancient vampires as his only companions, so in context, it wasn't exactly shocking that he was just now getting around to experiencing and learning from ordinary people. Nonetheless, her responses in this conversation so far had been completely different from anything he'd expected.

He waved a hand dismissively at the admiration of strangers notion; Costin didn't even want to talk to strangers if he didn't have to, let alone try to impress them. Somehow, though, he did still want to talk to her, even if she was saying things he didn't necessarily want to hear, like telling him that his waiting-to-be-a-vampire strategy was stupid and futile. What if it never happens, she said, and Costin felt the cold grip of fear well up in his chest and give his heart a firm squeeze. It would be a lie to say the thought had never occurred to him, but it was so unthinkable that he pushed it far down in the darkest depths of his brain, refused to give credence to it when it threatened to pop back up.

"I can't think about a reality where this is my only lifetime, where I have to live with this existence, this limited set of abilities, and then just...what, die an old man? No, thank you." Costin shook his head and lifted his glass to his lips again, taking a sip and swallowing before adding, "I think I'd rather just die now."

The offer that came next was the most surprising thing she'd said yet by far. She was just...offering to be proud of him? If he earned it? In spite of himself, Costin sat up a little, obviously intrigued. "How...what would I have to do to earn it, by your standards?"

[Gwyn Locksley]

It was the way he was raised, she had to remind herself of that. He had been raised by immortals, so of course he would always assume that was how his life would be. It was the only life he knew. Did he have to be so dramatic about it, though? He would rather die now? Please.

“Where I come from, people don't tend to live long lives. I don't expect to grow old, though I do hope I get a glorious death in battle when it is my time,” Gwyn said in her usual matter-of-fact way. She had thought about it more than a young woman her age probably should. “But I certainly don't wish to die now, and neither should you. Maybe you can't fly or turn into a bat or whatever it is that vampires do, but you are not as limited as you think.”

Honestly, Eddie was terrible at practically everything he did but he still loved life. He had a lot of friends, and enjoyed his stupid comics and movies and things that didn't exist in their own world, and was generally a happy guy, or at least had been before Richard had messed everything up. She really should check in on her brother soon, so how he was handling not being the first born anymore.

At least she had Costin's attention. He actually seemed quite interested in her being proud of him, and despite herself Gwyn felt her heart soften a little. Maybe his line of thinking was stupid, but his childhood hadn't allowed for much else. “Well, let's start with a few simple questions. Do you have anything you really enjoy doing? Hobbies? Sports? I bet you would be an excellent runner.”

[Costin Dracula]

A glorious death in battle? Well. That certainly was something. Costin tried to imagine what a glorious death would entail for a girl like Gwyn, which was hard, because he couldn't imagine a glorious death for anybody, let alone the only person in this school who interested him beyond superficial entertainment.

"It's more than flying or turning into bats," he protested, but he was smiling in spite of himself. There was something uniquely charming about the way she phrased things, like she wasn't trying to offend him, but she also wasn't putting on any pretenses to avoid doing so, either. "It's...well, you know, there's glorious things about vampires, too."

Hobbies? Did pretending to be a vampire count? He wasn't going to tell her about that. How he liked red wine because it reminded him of blood, how he stood in high places even though he loathed heights just so he could pretend he could fly, how he tried and failed so miserably to read people's intentions the way his father had always been so good at doing...no, she didn't need to know any of those details.

"I like wine," he said, gesturing towards the bottle. "I've never tried...any of those physical things. You can't really have a game of catch with your vampire dads, you know?" He wasn't trying to be closed off with her questions, he just wasn't sure how to answer them. "Maybe we should start with swords." Sword fighting seemed like something that might still be useful even when he was a vampire; he might have to ward off some enthusiastic vampire hunter looking to behead him, after all, and it seemed...gentlemanly.

[Gwyn Locksley]

She took his smile as encouragement, though she hadn't intended to be funny. Honestly, she didn't really know much about vampires, just little bits of lore she had picked up from Eddie and her silly roommate. Eddie said vampires caught on fire and died when exposed to sunlight; her roommate said they sparkled. Neither one sounded too appealing to Gwyn. “Surely not the drinking blood bit. I have had my share of split lips and cut cheeks and blood does not taste good. And catching on fire in sunlight sounds very inconvenient. And sparkling is just pointless.”

Wine, she supposed, could be a hobby though not one she could help with. “Some people make a living off of that,” she offered lamely. But he had seriously not tried any physical sports or games or fighting? Her father had started teaching her archery when she was barely as tall as his knees, and she actually felt a physical pang that Costin had never had that in his life. She almost patted his knee again, but remembering how awkward that had been the last time she refrained.

Luckily he did offer her something she could work with. Swords! Her face positively lit up. “Now that I can help you with!” she exclaimed, and would have clapped her hands together if she hadn't been holding the wine glass. Carefully setting it on the table, she sat up straighter. “Tintagel has an excellent armory we can make use of, but I would suggest eventually getting your own sword, one with the proper weight and feel. One that is just yours.”

[Costin Dracula]

"Blood doesn't taste bad," Costin insisted. "It's not like...well, as a human, you wouldn't go and have a nice tall glass just because you're thirsty, but it's not all that bad. And for a vampire, it's quite different." He frowned at the mention of sparkling, and let out a short, exasperated sigh. "My fathers don't sparkle," he said, shaking his head. "I don't know why people think that. But...you know, when you can see just as well in the dark, and you can live forever, not going out in the sunlight is an acceptable tradeoff, I think."

Costin had never had much of a parental relationship at all with Dracula. Vlad Dracula had played a lot of roles in his lengthy existence, but playing father to Costin had never been one he'd done well. He had made sure Costin was fed, that he had a place to sleep, clothes to wear, all the basic essentials for survival. It was always Tulio that Costin went to for the more emotional things, though, and even so, it wasn't a 'let's go outside and run around in the yard' type of relationship. It probably wouldn't have been even if either of Costin's fathers had been able to go out during daytime hours when Costin could actually see outdoors.

So when Gwyn readily moved on from all of those things, the sports and games, and locked onto the swords suggestion, Costin breathed out a little sigh of relief. Thank goodness she wasn't going to press the other thing. Although...now it seemed like she was talking about him acquiring a personalized sword, and he wasn't sure he was that invested in it. But she seemed so enthusiastic, and Costin found that he didn't want to be the reason that went away.

"I'm afraid you'd have to help me there, as well," he told her. "I don't know the first thing about swords. Other than that you can kill a vampire with the right one."

[Gwyn Locksley]

Costin tried to defend the taste of blood and Gwyn just scrunched up her nose. “It tastes like metal. You might as well just suck on a penny.” She supposed he had a point, though; if it was all vampires ate it probably tasted different to them. Still gross though, she preferred cooked meat. It was good to hear that the sparkling thing wasn't true, though, as what a useless quality to have, but she wasn't sure about the tradeoff. “I think... I would rather have the sun,” she replied a bit quietly, though giving it some decent thought. She didn't intend to live forever, why would anyone want to if the people they cared about didn't as well? No, she would take the sun instead.

Exceptional night vision would be cool, though.

It was hardly important, though, because Costin was going to let her train him in sword fighting! Now that was something to be excited about. “I will definitely help you!” Though all he knew was what killed vampires? Did everything come back to vampires with him? “But maybe we should start with a loner first, get you used to the techniques before you get your own.” Not because she believed he would be terrible and it would end up a waste of money, but... well, she wasn't certain he would stick with it. She had hope. Sadly, she had the feeling that nobody had every been hopeful for him before either.

[Costin Dracula]

"It tastes like metal to us," Costin said, "because we've already got enough blood and iron in our bodies. We don't need it, so it tastes like...an excess." That had always been his theory, anyway, or one of them. Costin had a lot of theories, thanks to his parents' vague answers whenever he asked questions about vampires. "Anyway, you might choke on a penny, that's dangerous."

It was easy, Costin thought, for someone like Gwyn to say she preferred the sun. She had plenty of things going for her in the daytime - she was beautiful, she knew how to fight with swords, she was brave enough to say things like I want to die a glorious death. Costin didn't have any of that. All the things he was good at, most of the memories he had ever made and the aspirations he had dreamed up, all took place in the night. He loved the night, he was at home in the night, he just wished he had all the gifts and abilities to live in it.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad, to let her show him a little of the day. He couldn't avoid it completely, not until his parents stopped jerking him around the way they were, so he might as well try to learn things that would serve him well later on.

"I can borrow a sword," he agreed. "If you don't think I'm terrible at it, I can always purchase one later. I defer to your expertise in this, as you clearly have much more experience in the matter."

[Gwyn Locksley]

Hmm, that was actually interesting piece of information. If she were injured and bleeding out, would blood not taste so bad? Not really a theory she intended on testing any time soon, but she had to admit she was curious. But if Vampires didn't have an excess of blood, where did all the blood go that they drank? Did they literally just piss it all away? So many questions, but Costin didn't seem exactly keen to discuss it right now, and wasn't she trying to get him focused away from the vampire thing afterall? She did stifle a little snort at the idea of choking on a penny. She supposed anything could be dangerous if someone was stupid enough.

She also supposed someone like Costin probably didn't appreciate the sun, having been presumably raised mostly in darkness. She felt a pang of sadness at the thought. She liked the night as well, the cool air and cover of darkness, and the solitude it seemed to carry, but just as pleasant was the warmth and inclusion of the sun. Why would anyone want to choose one or the other when both offered so much?

That was a thought for another day.

“I have more experience than most people here,” she said, sounding more like a statement of fact than bragging. “We will start you with something light, perhaps a rapier, until you get the technique down. Some swords can be quite heavy so you will need to build up some muscle if you want to handle those.”

[Costin Dracula]

Costin could have gone on for another hour, at least, about his theories on vampires, on the ways he had perceived their nature while not sharing it. But if Gwyn was done talking about vampires, Costin wasn't going to linger on the topic; he wanted her to be interested in the conversation. And he was perfectly willing to talk about swords, about training to fight with them. Costin didn't know if either of his fathers were good with a sword, but it would be nice to have some kind of skill they didn't once he was a vampire. It had not escaped his notice that even once he had gotten his way, he would still be comparing himself to his parents, perhaps to an even greater extent.

But again with the muscles. "You know," he said, lifting one finger, "you're the second person this week to tell me I need to go to the gym. I'm going to start developing a complex if this keeps up." He gave her a smile, just in case it wasn't clear that he was joking (most people who were acquainted with Costin even a little bit were startled when he attempted humor).

"I'd be happy to start with something light, though," he agreed. There was something charming about the confidence she had in herself, the way she talked about her expertise so matter-of-factly, as if she wasn't saying it to impress anybody or make a point, she just knew her own gifts and wasn't afraid to talk about them. Costin envied that; he tried to project an air of confidence, but it was mostly a reproduction of the self-assured smugness his father wore whenever he was talking to someone he thought was beneath him (which, for Vlad Dracula, was just about everyone).