Nicodemus Castalia (makedeadwalk) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2010-09-22 19:58:00 |
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Entry tags: | 2009-07-27 |
Don't you know what I'm thinking?
Who: Laurent and Nicodemus
Where: Heme
When: Closing time
Sulking would be a completely accurate way to describe what Laurent was doing as he finished washing the glasses that had been used by the last few patrons of the night. He should have been at Odette’s, playing in her dreams after a nice long discussion about the France of their time and such, not here. Working. But he had not even seen Odette, deciding that it would be a bad idea to continue there after his discussion with Rae. A ghost from the past that never quite faded, one he did not want to fade, and that should never, ever be allowed anywhere near Odette. He knew that Rae thought he had had an affair with the other French vampire and he really, truly did not want her knowing they were in the same town. It spelled trouble he did not want to have to deal with.
Falling into the drone of working a shift he had not been scheduled for had been one way of clearing his mind. Another would have been searching through dreams until he found a good one but after his rather recent encounter with Saiorse he had decided to perhaps not wander too much, just to go straight where he wanted to be. Only he doubted Odette would be as welcoming now after he broke their meeting. “Women,” he grumbled, ignoring the other person left in the bar. A human worker. Now while that was nothing to be surprised at since Heme had a number of them in their employ it was the job that this one - Laurent could not recall his name - had that made him unusual. A human bouncer at a bar for vampires. Seemed almost like he was going to be asking to have his neck snapped if a vampire got irritated and needed to be removed. “Okay,” Laurent said, leaning his elbows on the counter with a rag in one hand. “I’ve got to ask because you know it’s really weird - why is a human working as a bouncer at a vampire bar?” Straight to the point, yes, and normally he was better than that but Laurent was a little shaken by his recent encounter.
The night had been long and boring, something that never sat well with Nic. It was those nights that he tended to stir up trouble for himself, and yet he’d seemed to make it till close without doing anything that would get him fired. This was really nothing to be impressed about, yet he was pleased regardless. What he needed to do most of all was train himself to stop thinking of uneventful as boring. It just might keep him alive a little longer. As Laurent spoke to him, he looked up from his sweeping and leaned on the broom, looking back with an amused smirk. “I have a death wish?” he said, eyes sparkling. This was not something he discussed with the patrons, no matter how curious they might be, but this was a fellow employee. Grayson knew, Saiorse knew, and so, really, it wouldn’t be hard for his co-workers to find out. But it was more fun to string them along, if he could. “Better question might be whether or not I’m human or not.”
What was it with people in this day and age and all of the smirking? Laurent could remember a time when a smirk like that would have gotten him a reprimand from a commanding officer. None of which even exist here. People can smirk all they want and I can too. “That’s a good question but it’s also a little rude,” Laurent pointed out, wiping up a ring of moisture from where someone had spilled a bit of their drink. Regular alcohol, so a non-vampire patron had been responsible for that one. “The death wish one makes sense though, working with us when we’re so dangerous.” Not really. Only they could be... Laurent just tended to not really view himself as such. “But fine, are you a human or... some sort of a psychic? Witch? Not a were, I’d smell that.”
“True,” Nic said, a bit more honest this time. “But I don’t typically tell vampires what I am. I’ve been told it makes them uncomfortable.” That wouldn’t be a surprise, seeing as how he’d be uncomfortable in the reverse situation. “Honestly, I don’t think vampires are any more dangerous than anyone else unless you want to be. It’s your decision how you want to handle yourself. The only danger for me is if a vampire turns out to be faster than I am-- if one snaps my neck, there’s not a damn thing I can do about it.” He’d be dead in a second and he knew it, but that was a small price to pay for a job that kept things interesting most of the time. He was certainly enjoying it more than he had the police force. “I’m... none of the above,” he smiled. “Well, that’s not true. I am a witch, but that’s kind of a side thing, and not the reason Grayson was willing to hire me. I’ve been told I do smell,” he said, nose curling up. “Any other thoughts?”
Something that made vampires in particular uncomfortable? Now that caught Laurent’s interest and he actually stopped wiping the bar off. He had heard rumors of various psychics or witches that were better attuned to vampires and the like, but never one that should make them uncomfortable. Maybe I just wasn’t listening to the right rumors. “That’s morbidly to the point.” Snapping someones neck did tell to kill them rather quickly. Not that Laurent really thought about that sort of thing anymore. Killing people was frowned upon. “Hmmm...” Laurent tapped a finger on the counter and leaned in closer to the man to take a deep breath. There was something there, it smelled almost... like death? Yes, it smelled a bit like death. “You almost smell like something that’s supposed to be dead and in the ground. Don’t think I’ve ever smelled that before.”
“But I’m not dead,” Nic pointed out with a smile, dragging his broom over to lean on the other side of the bar. He had a heartbeat, just like any human did, and appearances would only betray him if his eyes went dark. In the mood he was in, that wasn’t likely to happen. “I’m not supposed to exist,” he said. “It’s only the older vampires that know the legends, and even then I might as well say I’m a unicorn.” To most vampires, necromancers were on par with dragons, unicorns, and other creatures of fables. Nic didn’t blame them, and wouldn’t have believed in himself either, except there he was. “I’m a necromancer,” he said. “But it’s easier to do my job if people think I’m human.”
Laurent did not like feeling confused but he currently did. He may have loved dreams and figuring them out, but he did not really believe in fairy tales or the equivalent. And when he heard the bouncer declare himself a necromancer he immediately laughed. Until he realized that, hey, he was serious. “Wait, wait, wait,” Laurent said, holding his hands up. “Really? I don’t really know what that is past a rumor I heard about them controlling the dead... and now that I know what you are I’d like to know who you are. I’m Laurent and I should probably know your name, but I’m not always good with names.” Hopefully he could forget that necromancer thing too because it seemed... now he got why it made people uncomfortable.
Nic was doing his best not to listen in on Laurent’s thoughts, interesting as they might be. It wasn’t polite, plus it made conversation far more difficult when he had to keep track of what had been said aloud and what hadn’t. “It’s exactly that,” Nic nodded, then leaned forward to offer his hand. “Nicodemus. I’ve seen you around, but we hadn’t officially met. Probably because they won’t let me behind the bar.” He’d been a bartender in a number of high profile clubs in the past, but none of those clubs served blood. He understood the rule, seeing as how he had no idea how to prepare the stuff.
Accepting the hand, Laurent gave a firm shake and filed the name away. Not that he thought he could ever forget a name like Nicodemus, that sounded like it came straight of his time, not the modern days. “Of course not,” Laurent was surprised that a human would even want behind the bar at a vampire establishment. They would mix the blood up like nothing else, lacking the ability to scent it like vampires did by instinct. “No offense, but better you stay out there where you can’t mess the orders up. People can get really riled over that sort of thing.” Especially if you gave angelic instead of demonic or water in place of fire. Which Laurent completely understood, the tastes were nothing alike. “So, necromancers, I don’t know anything about them. You feel like sharing?”
“I know I could never handle blood properly,” Nic grinned. “But I could assist with drinks for the human clientele, should you ever need a hand.” With at least half the patrons being human, it was a useful skill to have, but it did nothing to serve the focus of the bar. A bartender who could not serve vampires was useless. “So long as you don’t tell everyone who walks through the door,” he said. “It’s an inherited skill that runs in some born witches. I can control the dead to do as I say. The more powerful you are, the stronger the response rate.” He wondered if Laurent had picked up on vampires being considered among the dead. They weren’t corpses by any means, but that didn’t stop them from falling under the umbrella.
“I’m sure that Grayson would use you back here if he thought it was a good idea.” For all that he was not very old, Grayson was good at running the business; Laurent had no problem admitting to that. He did struggle a little with listening to someone younger them, but it was probably just as awkward for the other vampire, which was probably why Laurent did not work full-time and tended to just do his job. “And I don’t really tell the patrons anything, I listen more.” He was good at that for whatever reason. “Now when you say ‘dead’ do you mean corpses? Or us?” Us clearly referred to vampires. If it was the latter than Laurent would definitely understand why he put vampires on edge. The idea of someone trying, much less succeeding, to control his mind and make him do things was nowhere near pleasant.
Nic took a deep breath. There it was, the question of the hour. Once he’d gotten into the conversation, Nic knew there was no way to avoid it. “Both,” he answered. “Corpses are easier, to some extent, as they have no will to fight the command. But vampires won’t walk into a wall just because I didn’t say to go around it. I think the best way to describe it would be like an impulse you’re unable to fight. Typically, when I ask a vampire to leave the building, they don’t realize I’ve done anything to persuade them. Even if angry, it’s a natural chain of events.” But if he were to, say, make them fetch a rubber ball like a dog, then they would know they were under his control. That was blatant misuse of his powers and something he should work to avoid, but the memory still made him smile.
Now that, that did not sound cool. Laurent was not sure he liked that even in the slightest. Unable to fight an impulse just because someone else was encouraging it? That could create a lot of trouble... of course it could come in really handy and he supposed that was why Grayson had hired him. Because getting a vampire to head out when he needs to without starting up some sort of a fight is brilliant. Laurent just really, really hoped that he never had to experience it. “Useful,” he admitted, retrieving the rag to finish wiping the counter down like he had been doing before he got distracted. “If you don’t go doing stupid things with it. I can imagine it’d be tempting. Especially when you were younger.” Even if in Laurent’s eyes, Nicodemus was hardly more than a child.
“I’m not a child,” Nic said, then closed his eyes in frustration and regret. Shit. Shit, shit, shit. Was it that hard not to listen in? Perhaps Laurent would not pick up on that slip and just assume it had been pulled from his own comment. “I know I’m young, especially compared to most vampires, but that’s the case with all of us. When I was young, the best I could do was animate rats and frogs. Then dogs, to larger animals. Vampires are new to me, in a sense. It’s not like they all hung out in one place or another.” Nic wasn’t sure if it was a decent cover, but he’d tried his best. He bit the inside of his cheek, hoping that would occupy at least part of his mind. Anything was better than accidentally picking up on thoughts he did not want to hear.
“I said younger, not child.” A small thing but the reaction that Nic had to saying it was what really caught Laurent’s eye. He had not been alive for this long because he was unintelligent and when he had been actually alive catching onto little things like that had been what helped him up the ranks of the army. Necromancers could control vampires and the dead... could they hear their thoughts as well? There were telepaths in the world so... it made sense... “That’s all very fascinating,” Laurent agreed, as though he had been paying attention. “But what else can you do? Pick my thoughts? Because I didn’t call you a child, I just thought it.”
Nic stilled, then sighed, picking up a nearby rag to assist in cleaning off the counter. “I try not to, at least from people I might consider a friend,” Nic said, glancing up at Laurent. “It’s something I have to think about to do, it takes energy, but I find myself doing so when I’m worried about their thoughts.” It was instinctual to listen in when he could, like eavesdropped through a crack in an open door. Knowing the answers were there made it hard to resist. “I could probably hear the thoughts of a corpse as well, if there were anything to hear.” When he tried, he found a silence so thick is frightened him off. Their minds were dead, and listening to the quiet sent a chill down his spine that he couldn’t escape.
So he could read minds. Well that was a little odd. I don’t have much room to talk, Laurent reasoned with himself. Is listening on thoughts really better than dreams or emotions? Emotions was a very possible yes, but dreams were slightly more shaky ground. They might actually qualify as more personal than ones thoughts. “So when you’re working, do you just let your thoughts wander and listen to what they’re thinking to weed out the problems?” It was easier to express curiosity than to worry about whether or not his own thoughts were currently being rifled through. If they were then he only hoped there was nothing interesting in there.
That Laurent did not respond in anger was a huge relief to Nic, even if the vampire had put himself on guard without making it known. Questions were much easier to deal with than people who hated him for what he could do, since he’d never asked for the powers in the first place. “Mostly, yes. Recently, I’ve been trying to listen for the person responsible for all those deaths. I know it’s a long shot, since they obviously don’t visit Heme to get their fill, but someone might know someone with some kind of information. There’s always a chance,” he said with a little shrug. When he had a purpose, he felt like he was attempting to accomplish something for the greater good. Plus, it sounded better than just saying he was nosy.
He’s playing in my mind. Figuring that fair was fair, Laurent let down the walls that kept the emotions of others out and felt out towards the young man, necromancer, whatever he was. He had been anxious about something but now he was relieved. Perhaps he had been waiting for Laurent to explode into some sort of temper over learning that there was someone who had a sort of power over him. Not quite. Laurent was far too old to get upset over new bits of information like that. Weirder things existed in dreams than someone who could make him do things just because he felt for it. “A noble goal to have,” Laurent conceded. “I hope that you’ll be able to find what you’re looking for. Does it ever bother you, knowing that most vampires would likely be more than delighted to take a bite out of your neck?” It was a nice neck.
Nic shrugged, well aware that it was not a normal response-- not for a human and definitely not for a necromancer. But then, most necromancers wouldn’t concede to working for vampires in the first place. “I don’t even know that they’d be delighted with what they got,” he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his pocket knife. Growing up with a blood witch, Nic had become accustomed to doing things that were far beyond the norm... such as poking the tip of his finger with the knife so that a black dot of blood pooled on the end. Nic leaned against the bar as he examined it. “Part of me would love to see them try, just because it would give me a reason to really see what I can do. So maybe I really do have a death wish, but when life’s short, why not push the boundaries?”
Wait, was his blood black? Laurent’s eyes widened as the scent of something not-quite-right struck his nose, reaching up to rub at it. His blood was where the scent lay, of course it was, but despite that he had never thought it would be an unnatural color. Laurent had been seeing blood since before he was a vampire but it had never, ever been that color. “I think it’s funny that you’d have a short life when ours are eternal,” he remarked, first thing that came across his mind popping out. “Maybe not the sort of funny you laugh at, of course, but amusing in a slightly morbid way.” He was a vampire, he was allowed to be amused by things that dealt with death and dying. “I won’t give you a reason to test those boundaries because I’d rather not have my mind played with anytime soon. People do that enough.” Rae - ah no, don’t think about that with a telepath equivalent right there.
Black blood. It was how his parents had known at birth that he was a necromancer, the only one in his generation. The power seemed like an amazing gift, till he’d learned what came with it. “I’ve got about ten years, give or take,” he said. “It is amusing, in a fucked up sort of way. Like if a fruit fly could control humans. 30 days of annoyance is nothing in the long run, so long as the fruit fly doesn’t kill you. And if it tries, all you have to do is step on it.” Nic stuck his finger in his mouth, sucking off the drop of blood-- it was habit. As far as he knew, it tasted like all other blood. “Well, I don’t think attacking a co-worker would be a good way to keep my job,” he smiled. “I’ve never had a vampire fight back, actually. In the few times I’ve been stupid enough to bate them, they just get mad and stomp off.” Or blackmail me. It reminded him that he should contact Liliya sometime soon. “Have you got people playing with your mind literally or figuratively?
That was a good comparison and Laurent filed it away for something that could make an interesting joke. Also spread the word that hey, necromancers were real and needed to be watched out for. Even if they were not all out to get them. “Generally fighting with each other gets the employer mad,” Laurent agreed, “but he wouldn’t fire me. Boss or not I’m still his elder.” Which he had been told was really weird for non-vampires to accept. Grayson looked a bit older after all and he had always looked young for his age while alive. “Figuratively, thankfully, I don’t know many telepaths.” Or if he did then he did not know they were such and that meant they hardly counted for his analysis of whether or not people were actually messing around in there. “Seems like the older you get the more people you have mad at you for this or that. Maybe a good thing about dying young is you won’t have the chance to irritate so many.”
“You might keep your job, but I’d both lose mine and successfully make more vampires aware of me than I’d prefer. I’d enjoy sparring sometime, just to see what I could do, but a real fight’s more trouble than it’s worth.” Nic didn’t enjoy watching his back all the time and would like to avoid situations that earned him the sort of enemies that might stab him there. He knew Liliya and Whisper would probably like to see him dead, but since they had yet to kill him, there was a good chance they weren’t going to. “So you’d rather die by forty than live forever?” Nic asked, clearly confused by such a decision. “I think you’d be surprised how quickly humans can make enemies. It could be that the shorter time span means we try to pack more in. Life is short, so make it worth it, that sort of thing.”
“True, and maybe sometime.” Laurent was not sure if that would actually happen because his idea of a fight involved, well, a gun. Sure he was old but there were guns and swords back then, not fists, and he had been trained to use those. “But what I’d rather do doesn’t matter that much since forty happened a long, long time ago. And in case you forgot, I was a human.” Laurent was amused and it reflected on his face. “I was almost thirty before I was turned so I spent most of my life living it just like everyone else. And I made far fewer enemies then than I have in the ensuing centuries. Granted, I wasn’t going around poking vampires with my mind...”
The difference, as Nic saw it, was that Laurent hadn’t lived his life knowing he would likely die before he turned forty. That put a different spin on things, and in Nic’s case, it meant he was more reckless than he should be. “I’ve never thought the world to be a normal place,” Nic said with a little smile. “But I’ve never met someone, then later met them as a vampire, so it’s easy to forget, I guess.” He wondered what that would be like, changing from one being to another. If it was a possibility for him, he would have considered it. “I’m barely poking around. Most of the time I do it just to keep the migraines away. But since you mentioned it-- what type of swords did you train with?”
Forty was actually a respected age, usually around the time when Laurent would have been in retirement and bored out of his mind. Or, he reflected. Staying at Maddie’s playing with fire and her children. Maybe she would not have died so early then... no, the revolution still would have come. “I did, and I liked it as it was.” The question, however, caused Laurent to arch his eyebrow. Someone was inside of his head after all. Constant intrusion... yeah, okay, he was really starting to see why necromancers were not so welcome around vampires just like telepaths could be difficult for humans. “Only the sword that was necessary for use in the cavalry, you might have seen them in museums. I preferred the gun.” He smiled briefly. “Killed people quicker and kept them farther away.”
Normality, for Nic, had always included witches and magic and things others thought to be fantasy. It had been a hard concept as a child, to learn not to talk about certain aspects of daily life. “Do you regret becoming a vampire then?” he asked. Even though Nic could hear his thoughts, he wasn’t pushing around, attempting to pick up anything and everything that passed through his mind. “Not a fencing sword then,” Nic said with a nod. The cavalry? It made him wonder just how old Laurent really was. “Did you fight in a war?” He didn’t even know which war to ask about. There had been so many between now and then, and Laurent could have been just about anywhere.
Laurent blinked at the question. People did not go around asking things like that. That was rude and outside the typical bounds... oh give it a rest, you go outside of them all of the time. But that was different, he was doing it. Double-standard that he embraced quite happily. “No, if I hadn’t then I would’ve missed out on quite a few things I enjoy.” Rae, Odette, watching the world shift, Jezebelle, Sara, writing... not in that order exactly but they were all in there. Staying alive would have done nothing for anyone and he simply would have died a bloody death sooner. “And yes, I did.” He gave an indulgent smile. “The Seven Years War is the most notable and remembered. I was turned before the Revolution came. Thankfully.” He would not have been on the winning side of that battle. Though he would have happily taken part helping America free themselves from the British, just to irritate them. “If you’re not a student of history you likely know little of my time.”
Nic didn’t pick up on how inappropriate the question was as he was trying his best not to listen in just because he could. He knew it was rude and, having sensed Laurent’s irritation earlier, he decided it would be best if he tried to cut himself off completely. “Not a history student,” Nic said with a little smile. “Though I think... I think if I had the time, I might have considered it.” Time seemed to pass so very fast when he knew it was to be cut short. Thinking on it always made him depressed, so it was better not to wonder what all he might have done if he could live a full life. “To see history first hand, I’m sure you catch all the little things that the books leave out. And the mistakes. Humans like to ignore or erase the parts they don’t like, but that will be harder with vampires around to correct them.”
Oh right, that shortened lifespan thing. Laurent would have hated knowing that he was going to die young. Being in the military was like agreeing to the possibility but completely different from, say, signing the warrant that agreed to it in the long run. Being born what Nicodemus was must have been like being a firecracker, seeing the fuse burn and no chance to escape the inevitable. Everything doesn’t have to connect to fire, you know. Yes it did, and it happened so well. “There are a lot of mistakes,” Laurent grinned just thinking about some of them. “Names wrong, giving credit where it isn’t due and claiming that this happened when it didn’t. I intend on fixing a few things relating to French history if people become amenable to it. After I prove that I come from then, of course.” Not everyone just believed how old a vampire was because he said so. But his had been a good family and he knew that there were records of his birth and service, and when it ended a slight more abruptly than it should have. Without a corpse. “Is this all you do then, play the part of a bouncer at a vampire bar? That sounds like it would get boring.”
How would he go about proving his age, Nic wondered. It was easy enough if born in this century, but past that it seemed more of a challenge. Then again, Laurent could have tracked his own family line as it moved forward, a task far more difficult if looking backwards instead. People forgot those that they’d never met, unless they had reason to remember. “You’re asking me that, a two hundred year old vampire working as a bartender?” Nic grinned. “I’ve only been working here a couple of weeks, and so far it’s both entertaining and... uh... relaxing? In a different sense. If I don’t use my powers, they eat away at me, so working here is better than spending every night hanging around graveyards. The conversation is better.” And he looked far less creepy while standing by the door than sitting on tombstones-- it was not the best way to meet new people. “Outside of work, I’ve just got hobbies, I guess. I play the guitar, drums, a little piano. I fence, which was why I was curious about the sort of sword you’d fought with. And I practice magic.” It was still odd to say that aloud. Only a few months ago, he would have omitted it completely, so as not to look crazy. “So what do you do, outside being a bartender at a vampire bar?”
Laurent grinned. “Yes, but I’ve never done this so it’s like it’s new to me and I only do it a few times a week.” If he kept the same job for the equivalent of a lifetime then he was sure he would grow more than a little tired of it. But for someone whose life passed so quickly he supposed that any job would seem long. Though what Nicodemus said made perfect sense. Laurent would not have seen the allure in being in a graveyard. There was one he visited in France whenever he was there, but other than that he preferred to stay out of them. They were just so full of death and, despite being the walking undead, Laurent did not like being around dead things. There was simply nothing appealing about them whatsoever. “So other than magic and raising the dead, you’re just a normal guy. Not bad. And outside of this I write and play in the dream world. You can see in here so you must know what my House can do.” Or he would. Laurent was not too terribly familiar with telepaths or those who had abilities similar to them but it did not seem all that difficult to figure out.
“I can’t see things you’re not actively thinking about,” Nic said. “It’s not like a trunk I can rifle through when you’re not paying attention. And I know I was being nosy earlier, but I haven’t been listening since.” Did that make up for him invading Laurent’s thoughts? Probably not, but at least he was trying. “You’re in Seer’s house,” he smiled, recogizing it as soon as he mentioned the dream world. He didn’t know many vampire houses, but his discussion with Saoirse had been enlightening enough to stick clear in his mind. “She let me see through her eyes when she did this change perspective thing and I practically fell on my ass. It’s the only time I’ve ever done anything like that, tried to see what a vampire sees. And I think she visited me in a dream once, but it’s hard to remember.” It frustrated him that he couldn’t recall everything that happened in a dream state, but that was the way dreams were, he supposed. There was nothing he could do to change it.
Ah, so a little change had to be made in how Laurent regarded telepaths and necromancers. So long as he did not think about something, then it was safe and unattainable. Good. Don’t think about anything you don’t want to share. Nicodemus said that he was not listening but Laurent did not know him all that well and had known quite a few people in the past who would do things that they said they would not if it helped them out. Seer? Oh, that girl he had stumbled across the other night or morning in the dream world. Fiesty little thing for her age. “Yes, that can be quite useful at times.” Laurent would have liked it during the war. Sure he had lived through it but it could have helped him save a few others or something. These were the things that he thought about when dwelling on his abilities. “It’s hard for the humans and their like to remember their dreams. I’ve visited quite a few people who either don’t remember later or only remember the slightest bit. For all I know, I’ve been in your dreams since my arrival. I wander.” He shrugged his shoulders. “For someone who doesn’t sleep, the day can grow boring.” As close to an explanation as he would get.
The idea of having Laurent in his dreams made Nic all kinds of uncomfortable and curious. Like with Saoirse, he could come across anything and Nic would have no control over it. There was huge potential for embarrassment, as well as stealing secrets without Nic having even the slightest clue that it had happened. “You don’t remember whose dreams you’ve been in?” he asked. He thought that dreams would have been memorable experiences, but then he had never seen one from another perspective. There were just his own and the vague pieces he remembered from them. “How do you decide whose dreams to visit? How do you find a dream?” Nic envisioned it as closing his eyes and seeing multiple roads to choose from, but he really had no idea. Maybe it was different for everyone.
“Nope,” Laurent denied with a shake of his head. “It’d be like you remembering everything that you’ve ever done and everyone you’ve ever met. For a few centuries.” Laurent’s mind simply did not have the capacity for something like that. Surely it would have driven him crazy if he was not able to forget things. To make a modern reference, like a computer that reached its limit and needed to get rid of things or nothing else would fit in there. Though occasionally he did have problems remembering newer people’s names. “Most of the time I don’t really care-” not strictly speaking true “-but when I want to go somewhere specific I just think about them before I go in. And when I open my eyes I’m just there. It’s hard to explain to someone who can’t do it. Read my book.” Now the vampire grinned. “I explain it there, but it doesn’t work for humans. Can’t. Funny to hear them say that it does though.”
“You have a book?” Nic asked with a little grin. “I’ll have to pick it up. I’m sure it’s a good read.” Though he’d always heard that vampires were supposed to be a necromancer’s bitter enemy, Nic found them fascinating. Every vampire he’d met thus far was different from the last, either in abilities or temperament or personality. This made perfect sense, but movies and other media had led him to believe they’d be predictable... or wearing capes and turning into bats. He was glad to see that wasn’t the case. “Let me know if you ever stop by my dreams. I’d be curious to see how much I can recall the next day, if anything.” He remembered a bit of meeting Seer, so he knew it was possible, but if he’d seen Laurent outside of Heme, then he couldn’t recall.
Laurent rolled his eyes, though in a good-natured way. “You won’t get any use out of it, I promise you, unless maybe it helps remember dreams.” Was not as though things like that mattered to him since he could not have dreams of his own. But if it helped the non-vampires then he supposed that was a nice little side effect of him getting paid and the newer members of his House having something to read to help them out. “And if I decide to swing by your dreams I’ll remember to let you know the next night.” Suddenly he grinned and flicked the wash cloth over his shoulder. “But if you just dream me up it doesn’t count because I won’t actually be there.”
“Doesn’t matter about it’s usefulness. I find it interesting,” Nic shrugged. If he discounted and ignored everything he couldn’t do himself, he’d be very ill-equipped to handled them when they came up. In this case, he figured he’d have a better idea at what Laurent and Saoirse could do, even if he couldn’t control his dreams any more or less. “How would I know the difference?” Nic asked, the butterflies in his stomach kicking up at the comment. There was something to worry about, as Nic had even less self control in his dreams than he did in real life. If he was dreaming Laurent up, there was only one way he could see that swinging, something he was unwilling to mention in casual conversation. If I come on to him in a dream, how will I know if it’s him or not? Probably by the reaction, if I can remember it.
Laurent supposed that was correct and gave a nod of acknowledgement. He did not really care either way, another few dollars his way and another person who had read his works. “Oh, I’m not sure,” Laurent replied. That was not a question that many people really asked him. Surprising, with how open he was about his abilities when it came to his friends or those he didn’t consider a threat. Funny that a necromancer would not worry him, but he supposed that the reasoning there was Nicodemus could have read his mind anyhow if he wanted to. Might as well beat him to the punch and tell him himself. “I know that if it’s me then I’ll remember, and I’d probably tell you in the dream. But ah, in telling you that I might have told your subconscious how to form a better image of me if I do pop up in your dreams so... really, you can never be sure of if whose in your dreams is a figment of your imagination or actually someone whose wandered in. Such as myself.” Occasionally Laurent wondered how many times Phillipe had found his way into his dreams before his turning.
Nic’s teeth scraped over his bottom lip as he stood in thought for a moment, leaning on the bar. Would his own mind play tricks on him? Most likely, and that made it impossible for him to try and guess reality versus imagination in his own dreams. To make things more complicated, Nic dreamed of vampires on a far more frequent basis than a normal person should-- they fascinated him, and those he met were more often in his dreams than figments of his imagination. How often had he dreamed of Saoirse, or Whisper, or Liliya? Laurent would now make that list and however Nic handled things in dreams might still impact reality. “Let me know if you do,” Nic said. “Wander in, I mean. I’d say I’ll try not to do something stupid, but it’s a dream, so... We don’t have control over what we dream, do we?” It never felt like he did, at least.
“You don’t really. I do. Well, and the dream eaters if they’re still around and then the occasional person who learns how to lucid dream.” Humans were good at that if they gained a hold on it, but it took a lot longer than they thought. Shrugging, Laurent looked at the counter and saw that it was fine. Grayson would have absolutely nothing to complain about. “And I’ll make sure to stop by when you’re sleeping. Which perhaps you should be doing shortly and I? Should be going home before the sun comes up. I don’t want to fill up on fae-blood yet again.”
You could learn how to lucid dream? This was something Nic had never considered and thought might be interesting as well, if really possible. He wasn’t entirely sure it was worth the effort unless he started having people visit him every time he went to sleep. And, oh shit, that might be happening again. Nic made a mental note to try and keep his mind clean before he slept until after Laurent came to visit. “I probably should be,” Nic said with a glance towards the clock. “It’s harder to get to sleep once the sun comes up.” It was later than he’d expected, but the floors were clean and he’d rather enjoyed talking to Laurent. “Have a good night,” he said, grabbing the cleaning supplies and heading towards the back. “I’ll see you later.”