Julian Markum (tangiblemoments) wrote in darkcarnivale, @ 2011-06-06 20:15:00 |
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Current mood: | working |
Entry tags: | arkady von wulf, julian markum |
Who: Arkady & Julian
Where: Julian's store
When: Just before opening hours
What: Arkady has some items he needs Julian to look at
Rating: Low/mild
Status: Complete!
Arkady had a black velvet bag held in one hand, and it was late afternoon hours, long before any of the performers would be required to earn their audiences. Julian would likely be setting up his stall, however, so that was where Arkady was headed, dressed in black jeans and a clean black t-shirt, his dreadlocks tied into a loose ponytail at the nape of his neck.
Julian was in fact setting up his stall, looking more like a professional business banker than a Carnival stall worker, but appearance was everything when dealing with a public that had already been shocked, amazed and overwhelmed by all the Carnival had to offer. They tended to trust a man who looked “normal” and Julian played on that, to further his game and obtain many wonderful items that would have normally escaped his grip.
He had a cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth as his hands went to work at laying the store out how he liked it to look, particular to a frightening degree. Julian saw no harm in being precise, in knowing your audience and catering to them.
Julian blew smoke to one side and saw it curl in the breeze before being chased away at a sudden shift, a movement of nature that dissipated the unnatural cloud that attempted to clog oxygen and steal health from all those that passed.
He stepped back, cocked his head and then nodded a second later. “That’ll do.”
"It looks wonderful, Julian," that smooth voice said from just behind him, a faint smile on Arkady's lips. The sight of the immaculate young man always filled him with a sense of gratefulness; he paid Julian well and kept him close under his wing if for no other reason than to have such a trustworthy and talented man on his payroll. But it was more than that; he respected Julian greatly both for his ability and as a man in general. "You should do well here... people in the south do love their treasures. Many interesting things may cross your hands tonight." That gentlemanly smile spread a bit, reached the dark gaze beneath the heavy brows. "I wondered if you would mind taking a look at some things for me, Julian. If you aren't busy at the moment, that is."
Julian turned his head as the distinct sound of Arkady’s voice caught his attention and he spun on a heel in a smooth another precise movement. Whilst Arkady respected him, Julian returned the feeling in kind with a distinct appreciation for the fact Arkady had offered him a new home and had made him feel for the first time ever that his ability was in fact a gift and had a reason for being.
“I look forward to it,” he affirmed with a nod of his head. “And I do love their treasures just as much if not more so.” He blew smoke to one side and dropped the cigarette to the ground, crushing it out beneath the sole of his shoe as he’d all but smoked the life from it.
He shook his head a second later. “Never too busy for you.” He approached the other man and noticed the bag he was holding. “So… what can I do?”
"A few odds and ends I've picked up," Arkady said nonchalantly, and for the most part this was entirely true. Only two things in the bag were out of the ordinary, and he knew he could trust Julian with the secrecy of them. He led the way back into the stall, the blessed shade of the awning there that would relieve a bit of the discomfort on his skin. He opened the bag and began to set items down on Julian's appraisal table, spacing them a few inches apart and handling them with care. One of the items was a silver antique comb that he meant to give as a gift; it had been used in Europe to brush out the hair of a young maiden on the night before her wedding. Another item was a sapphire necklace that, while beautiful and quite expensive, had very little history to it; an unfaithful man had bought it to mollify an incensed and suspicious wife. A small pocket watch had belonged to a young man who had given it to his daughter before going away to war. And the final item was an amulet, an ornate thing on a silver chain, heavy and tarnished-looking. It was this amulet that had been the center of a ritual Arkady had done, a ritual darker than any he'd attempted in many years, and he needed Julian's confidential take on its current status. He was concerned.
Julian followed Arkady out of the public arena and into a more private setting, watching as the items were removed from the bag and laid out on the table in front of him. Over the years he’d adopted a bit of a feeling for objects and tended to go to the one that demanded if not pulled his attention first.
The amulet caught his eye and held it and Julian approached it slowly, a certain amount of apprehension present in the way he held himself. Almost as though the object was speaking to him long before his skin had even touched it. But something pulled his attention and it came in the form of the pocket watch. Julian veered off from the amulet and reached for the pocket watch. The reaction was instant, his eyes flickered wildly and his breathing changed the further and deeper he was pulled. The watch held a wealth of emotion, a sense of trepidation and fear. The longer he held it the more he experienced, being hit with images and spoken words, whispered promises and a sharp pang of guilt and worry.
“Belonged to a father,” Julian muttered after having pulled himself forcibly out of the trance. “He was going to war, but wanted to leave something of his with his daughter. Something to hold him to her and to seal his promise of returning home. I don’t know if he ever made it home, but I know his daughter held it every night and prayed for his safe return.” He placed the item back on the table and took a moment to clear his mind and shove the lingering sensations from the pocketwatch to one side so he was better prepared for the next object.
This time he picked up sapphire necklace, the beauty of it completely undeniable, but honestly? He felt very little from it. He did, however, feel the salaciousness of the man who bought it and the ill felt regard of the woman upon receipt of it, arguments broke across his mind as if he were directly plugged into them. The husband was a cheater and the wife had begun to suspect as much, the necklace had been meant to placate, but all it had done was rouse her suspicions further. “If he thought this necklace would be enough to put his wife’s suspicions to rest then he was very sorely mistaken.” Julian shook his head. “All it did was enrage her and make her sure her suspicions were correct. Shame really considering the cost of it, more than he could afford.”
Now only two items remained.
"Infidelity is a shameful thing among mortals... they put a price tag on reconciliation. If you believe you can fetch a fair price for it, the necklace is yours... keep it as payment for your services to me tonight," Arkady said, then hesitated as he glanced at the amulet. "I have questions to ask you before you touch the amulet, Julian... questions that I must insist you keep confidential, and you must not tell anyone what it is you feel or see when you lay hands on that. I can almost guarantee it is nothing you've ever felt before, and... and I wish to prepare you as best I can." Arkady tilted his head, remembering the night he'd done the ritual. Written in a very old grimoire, it was a very dangerous ritual, one that called for an experienced warlock and ingredients that he'd had to push aside a few scruples to obtain. However, it was a ritual the likes of which so few had ever accomplished that Arkady had felt he had to try. He had captured the soul of a man at the instant of his death--- a man named Noah Gatlin, a young man who had been riding a motorcycle and chosen the wrong moment to miscalculate a curve on a deserted highway near the carnival. Arkady's ritual had captured his soul at the very second it left his body and put it into the amulet, binding the boy effectively to this realm as a reaper. The reaper who now wandered the carnival known as Angel. But a reaper was not supposed to have feelings, emotions. They were supposed to do your bidding and obey you, much like the djinn race, except a reaper could harness Death itself, could deliver or absolve someone of their final moment. And yet he'd seen Angel on Lettie's trailer at night, had seen something almost sympathetic in the reaper's eyes... and it made Arkady uneasy. If the ritual had failed, if Angel began to regain memories of his past, feelings... then he could turn like a dog off its leash.
Julian frowned slightly as Arkady’s tone took a very serious edge, an edge he hadn’t heard in a while. “I’m sure I can make a good profit on the necklace, ” Julian remarked, placing the necklace back on the table, slightly away from the other items as it was his payment for his work here today. An impressive payment, but Arkady always paid him well for his services.
“You know your secrets are safe with me,” Julian offered. He’d passed so many items through his hands in the name of Arkady and not all of them pleasant, but their secrets were his and Arkady’s alone. “And the comb?” He asked, tilting his head towards it. “Do you still wish to know more about that?” If so, he’d touch the comb first and the amulet last.
His gaze drifted to the amulet before it finally came back to rest on Arkady.
"The comb is to be a gift for a very troubled girl. I wanted to make sure it had no bad vibrations," Arkady said quietly, simply. "It would not do to upset her with something that had negative energy. I was assured by the one who passed it to me that it was fine, but I don't trust them. I trust you." So much implicit in that statement, and he glanced at the amulet for a brief second, then back at Julian. "To be honest, I'm worried about you touching it. It's... have you touched anything that's been used with dark magick before?"
Julian wet his lower lip and nodded, a little taken aback by the trust that Arkady had in him. He didn’t think he’d ever get used to that. “Dark magick?” He echoed, shaking his head. “I mean I’ve touched a couple things that were used in conjunction with magick before, but never particularly dark magick.”
He couldn’t help but wonder what the amulet had been used for and why Arkady held such apprehension for the object in question. “I’ve touched a lot of bad objects in my time, murder weapons for example, but…” He trailed off and shrugged.
Julian chose to focus on touching the last item before the amulet, figuring Arkady needed to know that the gift would be a good one for the girl, to try and take his mind off the tone in Arkady‘s voice. “Lemme just check that comb for you.” He clasped his hand around it and felt a faint tremor run through him, a combination of nerves and excitement. It held no bad feeling and he was left feeling elated. “The gift will be fine,” he assured Arkady. “The comb was only used to brush the hair of a young woman on the night before her wedding. All there is to this comb is a feeling of excitement and nerves, the good kind of nerves.”
Julian laid the comb back on the table and then flexed his hands, working out the tingles across the tips of all his fingers and thumbs. “So… the amulet?”
"Yes," Arkady said quietly. "If you... if something should happen, if it feels wrong, Julian... break contact with it immediately. It's a talisman and nothing more, but it is serving at the moment as a vessel... it contains something very precious, and very dangerous." Arkady hesitated and then said, "You are the only one at this carnival who knows this,
Julian. But the very essence of Death itself has been harnessed in that amulet's core."
“The essence of Death,” Julian repeated as he attempted to take in what he’d just been told. There was a string of words going through his head at the moment and most of which were too rude to be considered healthy to speak aloud, but the loudest was “Holy shit”.
He had questions, but none of them would be helpful and he would know all he needed to know when he laid his hands on the amulet.
He swallowed hard and turned his head, running his tongue along the front of his teeth as he considered it. “Okay,” he said after what felt like a long moment of silence. “If it feels wrong I’ll break contact.” If he could that was, he had a habit of getting dragged under and suffocated by particularly powerful objects. It had happened infrequently in the past and he’d been left reeling, but this was Arkady and he was asking for his assistance. He wasn’t about to refuse, not when it was clearly important.
With a lingering look at Arkady, Julian reached out and touched the amulet.
Arkady was right, it was unlike anything Julian had ever felt. It was so powerful that it did in fact knock him backwards and there was a violent shudder that ran through Julian, causing his entire body to shake. The grip around the amulet attempted to loosen before against all will and reason it tightened and Julian was swept into the exact moment when the bike veered. The crunch of precious bone was audible and he all but choked on the taste of blood and a string of babble escaped Julian as he was rapidly assaulted.
His fingers paled as his grip threatened to cut off blood supply and his eyes rolled upwards to reveal the white flesh, mouth hanging open as the amulet remained clasped in his hand and the chain swung loose in the momentum of Julian’s reaction.
Julian felt the biker’s last moments and the sheer weight of it forced him to his knees and when the soul was captured his free hand shot out to hit the ground, fingers splayed and arm straining as he attempted to hold his weight.
It felt wrong, very wrong.
“Arkady-” Julian gasped out as his fingernails cut into the palm of the hand and he felt as though the amulet was burning him, attempting to emblazon him with its imprint and make him feel its desperation and everything else that came as a result of having your soul trapped.
Arkady reached across the table in alarm and his fingers gripped Julian's wrist, his thumb finding the pressure point that would cause the man's fingers to involuntarily jerk open. The amulet tumbled from Julian's grasp and only lightning-quick reflexes caught it before it could hit the wood; Arkady's eyes were wide and he stared at Julian for only the length of a single heartbeat before he got up, moving around the side of the table. He reached for Julian's jawline, his fingers finding his pulse point, but such a thing was unneccessary; he could hear the boy's heart thrumming in his ribcage, feel the choking panic that exuded from him. "Julian," and he poured every ounce of his vampiric influence into that voice, low and intense, a command meant to make the other man pay attention whether he wanted to or not. A tone designed to dissolve the free will of mortals. "Julian, look at me and breathe," he ordered in that hard voice, leaning in close to the psychometrist's face. His eyes burned black holes into Julian's face, the rolled-back eyes. "It is not you in there. Distance yourself."
Julian acted as if he’d been winded by the removal of the amulet, leaving him physically unable to draw in a breath. He was trapped, forcibly stuck, in the moment. The sensations were strong, powerful, overwhelming and Julian was well and truly lost. It was as though he’d been on reins and had slipped his mother’s grasp at the last second.
It was only when Arkady filled his personal space and overwhelmed his senses that Julian could finally feel something beyond panic and all the things that set his heart racing and gave more than a little cause for concern.
Despite him being locked in and effectively trapped in what the amulet held Julian’s will no matter its state reacted to Arkady’s voice and the psychometrics’s eyes finally found their focus on the Ringmaster’s face, relinquishing the whites of his eyes. He was still choking, but the more he looked the longer his gaze remained and slowly but surely the shudders in his body began to lessen, allowing his tight chest to relax ever so slightly.
He’d felt… everything and the amulet had pulled at him, making him feel trapped and contained, claustrophobic and surrounded by glass. The mere thought of it caused his chest to restrict again before he registered where Arkady’s hand was resting and how his voice was impossible to ignore or even deny.
Julian’s body gave one final movement until he finally just slumped forwards, breathing ragged and weak. He was back, out of the moment, and finally present again.
"I am sorry, Julian," Arkady said, and there was genuine remorse in his voice. "I was not sure what impact it would have on you. Dark magick is... very strong, and very pervasive. It clings long after the actual ritual." He tilted his head and slowly, gingerly moved to the chair he'd been occupying before. "The ritual was one that is very old, and very dangerous, and near impossible to be successful with. You harness the soul of a man at the exact moment of his death. He is marked for death... and the ritual merely prevents his soul from escaping. It captures him... and binds him as a reaper. He must collect other souls while in your service." Arkady looked away for a moment, his eyes dark. "He remembers nothing."
Julian was most definitely still feeling the after effects and that much was evident in the way he was slumped, eyes half lidded and half moon marks left behind from where his grip had tightened despite his attempts to do otherwise.
“He- He remembers nothing?” Julian repeated. “Is he- Is he here?” In the Carnival? Would Julian see him? That would be strange considering what Julian now knew and he felt something akin to sympathy for the man, considering what his fate now consisted of.
Julian pressed trembling fingers to his temple and swallowed the lingering taste of blood. “Any particular reason you decided to pick this man’s soul?” He felt the beginnings of a headache and he was sure he’d felt a trace liquid around his nose and so his fingers touched it briefly, expression pulling tight as they came away slightly red.
Arkady was quiet for a moment. The scent of Julian's blood pounded in his head like a persistent snare drum and he reached into his back pocket, produced a folded bandana and passed it over silently. He chewed over the words for a moment, then said, "You've seen him. Angel." His eyes lifted to Julian's. "He had a strong soul. The ritual didn't pinpoint him over anyone else... I didn't know who it would be. I just knew that my ritual would summon a freed soul at exactly that time."
Julian accepted the folded bandana gratefully and he pressed it to the blood now flowing from his nose, tipping his head back to try and slow its persistent movement.
“Oh… right.” Julian could recall seeing him around, but now… He had no idea how he was going to look the guy in the eye. Maybe he could avoid him? Probably, he was good at avoiding people, just look at Aubrey.
He briefly removed the bandana, lips pulling into a tight line at the display and he knew the blood was still coming. Julian returned the bandana to his nose and looked at Arkady. “And you needed a Reaper?” Julian was visibly shaken by his experience with the amulet, skin a shade paler and eyes darker.
"People die at this carnival every night, Julian," Arkady said quietly, his voice low and confidential. "You know this as well as anyone. People get carried away... people have to feed... people get angry. A reaper is... a reaper is a necessity. He makes sure that it's a quick, clean operation. That we aren't detected. That... that the sanctity of the carnival is preserved. It was a security measure. He would have died anyway," Arkady said quietly. "I did not cause his death. I merely harnessed it for a higher purpose."
Julian nodded his head, slowly. “Makes sense.” He as much as anyone knew the amount of death the Carnival brought with it, especially with some of their residents. He was just thankful that he was off limits as far as being dinner went because he wouldn’t stand a chance if anybody decided they didn’t like him or felt he’d make a good meal.
“I think I’ll just give him a wide berth.”
He sniffed and blinked his eyes slowly, trying to stop the world from spinning so unbelievably out of control. “I won’t tell anyone,” he swore an instant or so later because it felt important to say. “I keep your secrets.” And he did, to his grave if needed be.
Sometimes there was a need for secrets.
Arkady nodded slowly and leaned in. "I know you do, Julian. If I had even a doubt in my mind I would not have entrusted you with this knowledge in the first place. I have not even told Adair what I've done; the carnival needed additional insurance, protection against the intrusion of mortals... and I ensured that we had that protection. As long as the amulet is in my possession, Angel is bound to me, and will remain at the carnival as a reaper." He pursed his lips, then smiled almost gently at Julian. "I see you as the son I would never be able to have, Julian... you are very dear to me, much more than an employee. I consider you an advisor."
He hadn’t told Adair? This was definitely big, considering Adair was Arkady’s second and if rumour had it, a lot more than that. But rumours were not to be trusted and Julian rarely listened, even if he was prone to human curiosity.
Julian was taken aback when Arkady confessed to seeing him as the son he wouldn’t be able to have and he ducked his head, trying to properly formulate a response to what was in his mind a truly breathtaking moment.
“Your trust is well placed,” he assured Arkady as he finally looked up and rested his eyes on the older man. “I don’t think I have to tell you this, but please be careful.” He knew Arkady was more than capable of looking after himself, but Julian still worried. “Not that I doubt you or anything, but I felt what was in the amulet and I just don’t want you to get hurt. I don’t think I’d handle that very well.” And there it was, as laid bare as Julian had ever been. It didn’t happen very often, but this was Arkady and Julian had always been honest with him.
Arkady offered him a slight, almost-paternal smile, the tip of his fangs visible against his lower lip. "I am careful," he promised. "And I told myself I'd do the ritual only once... I would only bind one soul to such a fate of an eternity of handling Death's errands. Noah Gatlin was snuffed out like a candle, but Angel will never die, will never know of Noah's existence. He... concerns me, however. He's developing emotions for a girl here. He's developing empathy. These are not.. traits the book warned me about."
“I guess even a Reaper needs emotion,” Julian responded. “Or he might not be able to do his job effectively. Although,” he mused. “If he is developing emotions for a girl it could be worrying, especially if… love gets involved. Nobody thinks straight or even rationally when they love somebody. Things get complicated and sometimes ugly.”
His hands were still shaking but Julian forcibly sent his thoughts to his right hand in particular, to try and stop it, just long enough for him to get his cigarettes. After that? He needed a cigarette and maybe a drink.
“Empathy on the other hand might be what he needs to connect with the people who die, but then again I don’t know a whole lot about this whole magick deal, that’s your line of expertise.” He wet his lower lip. “But if I learned anything during my life span however short it might be there’s always a lot more to things than what you read in books.”
"I know," Arkady said wryly. "The grimoire really should have been more specific. I read about the boy in the paper the next day and realized whose soul it was that I captured... when I saw the picture and realized that it matched Angel. Luckily we left town the next day... it wouldn't have done wonders to have someone recognize a dead man walking our carnival grounds." He turned his head away for a moment, fidgeted with the amulet before sliding it back into the bag. Out of sight, out of mind, and potentially out of dangerous reach.
“That would have been awkward,” Julian drawled, an edge of his old self creeping back into the tones of his voice. He still felt exceptionally weak and now a little bit sick, the blood at his nose and the taste of it in his mouth doing nothing for the churning in the pit of his stomach.
It felt like his head was too heavy for his neck to support and he couldn’t for the life of him still his hands as proven by the way he dropped his cigarettes, cursing quietly as he retrieved them slowly.
“But if you want I can keep an eye on him?” From a fair distance mind you because Julian had knowledge of his final moments and that tended to affect how you treated and reacted to somebody.
Arkady held out his hand for Julian's lighter and wiggled his fingers in the classic 'give me' motion. "Do you want something to eat? Or to drink? You look light-headed," Arkady told him, then tilted his head. "You know if you're ever ill, Julian... my blood is yours for the sampling, you need only ask. It cures a great many ailments." He bit his lip for a second, then added, "It cured Roddy of several overdoses before I finally allowed him to succumb."
Julian passed Arkady his lighter and was obscenely pleased with himself when he finally procured a cigarette, albeit slowly. “I don’t think I can stomach anything to eat right now. I have a habit of throwing up if I’m not careful.” His lips pulled into a wry smile. “And if by drink you mean a strong one then please.” He gave a soft chuckle, but the movement caused his head to spin so he silenced the sound a few moments later, determined not to lose the contents of his stomach in front of Arkady.
His eyes cut upwards to rest on Arkady and he put shaking fingers into the depths of his dark hair, lightly scratching at his scalp. “I’ll have to remember that,” he said with a small smile. “If I get really sick.” But so far so good, but then he was only human and how far could that get you? He wet his lip and blinked again, trying to better focus himself. “I just- Some objects always get me, you know? It’s a miracle I haven’t just…” Well, yeah, he hoped Arkady could make some sense out of words he was pretty sure no longer made sense.
“But yeah, I’ll remember that.”
Oddly enough he’d never even thought, had always assumed he should handle his issues alone. Even after all these years.
Arkady flicked the lighter to call the cigarette to life, helping Julian get his cherry going before he turned and stood. "Where do you keep your good drink?" he asked, leaving the appraisal table to help Julian regain his footing through more familiar means. He'd known it would shake the human, but he hadn't expected how seriously it would impact him. "I'll get you something to steady your nerves. I'm sure today's been a bad day for you... you said you touched a negative object earlier?"
Julian desperately inhaled on the cigarette as he lifted a hand, grasping the table in the fullness of his fingers and palm to help him to his very unsteady feet. “My good drink? Provided Ash hasn’t stolen it or borrowed it as he calls it I keep a bottle of Jack in the booth and the rest in my trailer.” He remained almost rooted to the table, cigarette clasped between two unsteady fingers as Julian sought the comfort of the familiar routine.
“Yeah,” Julian nodded his head. “A knife some guy bought in to trade. I should’ve known better, but I touched it anyways. Turns out he killed his girl with it, sliced right into her and just kept-” He swallowed and his tongue flicked out, wetting his lower lip. “His pleasure and her panic were… overwhelming. I told him no sale and to fuck off. Took everything I had not to turn the knife on him.”
He found the Jack with a simple inhale, acute senses picking out the scent of whiskey on the air and he retrieved the bottle and found a silver decanter for sale on a shelf. He set them before Julian, uncapping the bottle and pouring him two fingers' worth. "I would not have faulted you. The human condition fascinates me, and I am in love with the race, but... it bothers me how we are regarded as the freaks and the monstrosities."
Julian sought out the decanter and knocked the liquid back, hissing as it burned its path down the back of his throat and set fire to the pit of his stomach. It tasted like what he imagined a home baked cherry pie might to a child seeking the comforting reassurance of home. He should probably be worried about his thought processes, but he really didn’t care.
“You and me both,” he remarked with a nod of his head. “We’re the freaks and monsters when people like him are consider virtuous. If only people knew.” He shook his head and reached upwards, undoing the top two buttons of his collar and loosening his tie. A clear sign he wasn’t entirely himself right now.
He tipped his head to look at Arkady. “I guess even I suffer from the human condition at points even with my unique abilities.”
"There's nothing to be ashamed of about it, Julian. Your gift is tremendous and while I see it as a blessing, I am more than aware how it could be construed as curse. You cope with such things any which way you can. We all do." He shook his head, then watched Julian carefully. "You seem distraught... even before you touched the amulet, something is off. Is everything alright, Julian?"
“It’s nothing,” Julian remarked with a shake of his head. He scratched at the back of his neck and reached upwards to loosen the tie again, hoping that might go some way to making it feel not so… tight and constricting. God, he hated the lingering after effects of particularly strong objects. “Falling out with Aubrey aside, I can’t really complain.”
He shot Arcady a reassuring smile. “I’m alright, honest.”
“Falling out with Aubrey? The black dog? Why?" he asked, furrowing his brows a bit in concern. He had been initially apprehensive about allowing two black dogs on the grounds along with a reaper; it was so much death potential, so many bad omens that he worried it might give the marks more chills than they paid for. But Aubrey was well-behaved and more than that, much more outgoing and bubbly than he'd have expected of a haunt hound. "What's happened?"
“She neglected to mention what she was and then I touched something of hers and got pretty assaulted,” Julian explained, wondering if it sounded as stupid as Aubrey was making it out to be. “I dunno, I freaked out. Only because she just didn’t say anything and I got really close to her.” Which for him was a big deal because Julian? Didn’t like getting close to people, felt too much like opening himself up to a world of hurt he wasn’t entirely sure he was ready for.
He breathed out slowly as his head spun a little. “I guess I’m just used to people being more upfront about themselves, but Aubrey kept that back about herself.” Then she goes and tells Faelan like it’s no big deal. That right there was what was getting to Julian the most, not that he’d say that out loud and Aubrey would probably just turn it around on him.
“Sufficed to say she didn’t react well to me freaking out.” And being hurt and angry all at the same time, but again Julian tended not to speak about the too personal feelings.
"You reacted strongly because she was a black dog, or because she kept it from you?" he asked, tilting his head to the side. "I don't believe Aubrey even takes into account her situation. It simply is, just as she has dark hair and likes sweets. Or perhaps she neglected to tell you because she was afraid of judgment. Although I will say I believe she should have been more up front than allowing you to find out the way you did... that was unfair to you. You must be prepared for such things." Arkady shook his head slightly, then refilled Julian's whiskey with another finger's width in case he wanted another slug. "Please don't find this insulting, but you are... fragile above all else. A tenacious and very resilient young man who I admire greatly, but a mortal nonetheless, and Aubrey above almost all others at this carnival should appreciate the preciousness of your very life, the impossibly short duration of it, and make the most of that. Don't sully the time you have with those you consider friends by harboring petty grudges."
Julian may have bristled ever so slightly at being called ‘fragile’, but he refrained from commenting as the more Arkady spoke the more Julian understood. He was mortal and his life span was shorter than others, his ability to withstand certain circumstances was limited at best and he knew he’d die. Granted the idea of dying was not one that appealed to him and he detested the thought that one day he’d be old, incapable and probably alone.
It was really that thought process that caused him to pick up and knock back the whiskey. God, he was going to get old and die one day. Jesus, that was a depressing thought, really depressing.
“I’ll consider that,” he advised with a nod of his head. Arkady made it sound all so simple and he would consider the other man’s wise words, but hurt made seeing sense a whole lot harder. All in time.
"I wonder often about you, Julian," Arkady said honestly, for he was not used to speaking quite this candidly with some of the others but rarely held back with the young man. "I've thought of offering you the gift, you know. A heavy decision for any one of our kind to make, because in the act of creation, we implicitly assume all responsibility for our kin. But if you were to become immortal, with me as your sire... I cannot guarantee your gift would persevere through the immense change your body would undergo. That, I do not think either of us could stand to bear." He shook his head slightly. "Such a thing should be not squandered. Not when it is one of the most marvelous gifts I've ever seen your kind to be blessed with."
Julian’s fingers slipped beneath his collar and his tips sought out the fevered flesh that seemed determined to flare and itch. His touch stilled when Arkady confessed what he’d been considering and Julian found himself a little lost for words.
“Raincheck for when I’m an old man well into my years of dementia, huh?” He said casually, a little too casually. Growing old scared him, especially when Julian knew he’d end up alone and if his grandfather on his father’s side was anything to go on? He was not going to go pretty.
He picked up the whiskey and helped himself to another shot, figuring he might as well live for the moment and regret his choices later. “I should probably get back to the store.”
Arkady nodded slowly, then stood. "Of course. I don't mean to keep you from work." He smiled a bit sadly, rising to his full height. You take care of yourself, Julian. Should you need anything, don't hesitate to ask. I relish these talks of ours, morose though they sometimes may be." He picked up the bag containing the remaining items, leaving the sapphire necklace for Julian as payment for services rendered. The man could get several thousand dollars for it without breaking a sweat, and if the carnival wasn't the place for such a hefty transaction, a private broker would see to it that the deal was fair. "It was a pleasure, and you've been immensely helpful."
Julian collected the necklace and made a note to get it appraised and sold within the week, maybe put the money aside or say ‘screw it’ and spend it frivolously. Not that he was all that good with being careless with money.
“As always,” Julian replied. “It was my pleasure to help.” He gathered his whiskey and willed his legs to steady as he finally left the reassuring steadiness of the table and relied on his own body to support and guide him in the direction of his store.
He was about as shaky as a man could be on his feet, but his shaken appearance only lasted as long as it took Julian to exit private ground and enter public domain.