InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Clean it again."

Ethan Chandler (somenightwork) wrote in valarlogs,
@ 2015-05-15 02:19:00

Entry tags:

!open, ethan chandler, jonathan harker, vanessa ives, victor frankenstein

Who: Ethan and OTA
What: Hootenanny
When: Thursday 5/14
Where: Ethan's homestead
Rating: Keep it PG-13, folks
Status: Open

Honestly, he's not really sure if anyone will show up. Which would be pretty damn depressing, considering the point of having this damn party is to cheer himself up, but what can you do.

Guests or not, everything's all set up on the vast lawn Ethan calls his yard. The music is loud and classic rock flavoured, since he figures no one can argue with that (and if they can, they can keep their mouths shut). Tables are set with meats and cheeses, veggies and dip, and some premade sandwiches, with desserts and sweet treats on their own table. Since he didn't want to bother with trying to set up a full bar, he's got coolers full of beer, individual servings of wine (what a nifty invention), and those bottled ready-to-drink cocktail things. No straight hard liquor in sight, just in case.

He'd chucked a couple of beach balls into the pool to make it look festive and strung up some lights in the trees, for after the sun sets. Hopefully, it should be a good time.

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icon roulette~

businesslike
2015-05-15 08:00 pm UTC (link)

At least they weren't using the pool as an ashtray. That had to be of some consolation. But of course Jonathan took the cigarette offered, with a thanks, igniting the end cherry red before passing Victor back his lighter. He blew out a plume of exhaust, carefully, relishing the decadence that always came with the very first puff.

"You can disagree with someone about nearly everything but still have respect for what they can do," he stated, flicking an ash off the factory-rolled vice. "People are often tied together in the most unlikely of ways, aren't they?"

Yes, yes. Something like that.

"Imagine if we were both staunch Victorian Englishmen in this reality though." They probably wouldn't be at the hootenanny, for one thing. Granted, Victorian Englishman Jonathan really didn't quite get Americans either.

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anewprometheus
2015-05-15 08:41 pm UTC (link)

"Oh, believe me when I say that my dream self has very little respect for Mister Chandler," Victor scoffed.

This was probably not how 'hootenannies' were meant to happen, standing to the side, tucked away against a wall while drinking terrible wine and smoking cigarettes. Victor was sure they made quite a picture. With any luck, people would opt to leave them alone. What was the appropriate amount of time to stay at a party before leaving?

"We've made an oath. Some vampire attacked the house and then the vampire we caught died, and now we've made an oath. Honestly." Victor let go of an exasperated breath. "Honestly, at this rate, I don't think we're ever going to find this Mina that's caused all this fuss in the first place."

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businesslike
2015-05-15 08:51 pm UTC (link)

Good job, Victor, you managed to tase Mr. Harker with just your words alone.

He coughed, the ambrosia from the peel-back glass sloshing down his throat, down the wrong pipe, and curly tendrils of smoke drifted upward off the end of his cigarette which was still scissored between his fingers.

"Wait, what?" Did they share a dreamworld after all? Jonathan hadn't thought so, but the similarities were beginning to become a little uncanny. Perhaps it was just a fine line. A really fine line. "My Mina? Which Mina? She shouldn't have anything to do with - "

No, she was back in England. Right?

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anewprometheus
2015-05-15 08:56 pm UTC (link)

Victor had noticed. Of course he had. It was impossible to miss the way Jonathan stopped and started, and it became even more evident with the sudden cough. What had he said?

Oh. ... Oh.

What an odd world it was.

"You have a Mina?" Victor's eyebrows went up a bit. He couldn't help the curiosity. Though he hadn't ever heard Jonathan's name come up at all in his dreams, Victor knew he was remarkably detached from the rest of the makeshift company. He was there to poke at bodies and do science. Nothing more, nothing less. "Her last name would be Murray. I would assume. Her father's name is Murray, in my dreams."

It felt ridiculously conversational. Like they were talking about a mutual colleague and not some poor soul that was doomed in a world beyond reality.

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businesslike
2015-05-15 09:20 pm UTC (link)

The rest of the juicebox went down Jonathan's throat in one smooth gulp, head tipped back, he finished it. Now would be about the time when he went for something stronger, but it didn't seem like that was an option. If he drank enough peel-back wine glasses, maybe that would take the edge off.

"Mina Murray, yes," he coughed again, and he felt a pang of something strike him like a lance, right through him. "We're engaged. In my dreams, I mean." And he loved her - that was just it, they were in love because they were in love, not really any complications about it all. They worked on the household budget together and laughed at each other's stupid jokes. It wasn't really the stuff people would be sobbing dramatically over.

He knocked more ashes off his cigarette, absently. "But what happened, then? In yours, she got involved with vampire hunting somehow?"

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anewprometheus
2015-05-15 09:29 pm UTC (link)

In contrast, Victor's peel-back-shiraz was all but forgotten. The dreams were already strange. This was an entirely new, entirely unexpected, and entirely delightful twist.

"Mina Murray," he repeated. What were the odds? "I don't recall you being there. I think I'd have remembered that." Though Victor had a lot going on with his own issues beyond the vampires.

"Oh, yes. She's being used as bait, we think. To lure in her friend Vanessa. All I know is that she got taken by some vampire some night. Her father seems convinced she'll be one of them by the time she's found. Hence myself and Van Helsing looking for a cure."

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businesslike
2015-05-15 09:53 pm UTC (link)

Jonathan practically sucked back the rest of that cigarette - no short puffs, or dragon-breathing out clouds of smoke in sleek circles, but instead it was a race to the finish line and a hazy cloud he breathed out before using the empty wine cup as a place to stub out the embers. Wouldn't do it on the ground, as he was far too polite to litter Ethan's property with cigarette butts.

"Bait," he snorted with disdain. "That's...that's pretty terrible, I'd say. I can't fathom her turning into - " No, that wouldn't happen either. At least not where he was, in his nightmare world, right? Mina was far away from Transylvania, and he was grateful for that. "Well, let me know if you ever discover that cure. I don't think we're on the verge of anything like that where I am."

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	anewprometheus 2015-05-15 10:02 pm UTC (link)
	"Jonathan." Victor finished off his own cigarette, using his friend's empty cup as an ashtray as well. "I dream about reanimating corpses. Everything involved in my dreams is pretty terrible." He didn't sound too torn up about it. Victor was disturbed by the subject matter, yes, but his fascination was stronger. "And what, exactly, is happening in your dreams?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

businesslike
2015-05-15 10:28 pm UTC (link)

"Point taken. But do you ever think that's going to really sort of...come back to haunt you? Doesn't it always?" Had it ever been successful, anywhere? The dead were supposed to stay dead. That was the only sure thing in life, death. Well, that and taxes, as the saying went.

The talk of his dreams meant Jonathan was lighting up another cigarette, offering one of his own - they had a different sort of taste to them, kind of a smooth smoke. Some brands were like sticking your head into a chimney. But regardless, he and Victor would be chainsmoking in the corner like the classy fellows they were, until either the party ended or they both decided that enough social interaction was enough.

"So, what's happening is that I'm playing house with a vampire only I don't actually know that yet, and I just had another where I cut myself shaving and he nearly pounced, but surely you're asking, why is this guy watching you shave? I'm also pretty sure he watches me sleep, which is either flattering or creepy, probably the second." Inhale. Thank god for cancer sticks.

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anewprometheus
2015-05-15 10:36 pm UTC (link)

"It has, in a way. I abandoned my first creation and made a second, better one. But the first came back and killed him. It's a mess. I'm remarkably desensitized to it, somehow."

Victor happily accepted the cigarette. It was a fair trade off. Though he preferred the punch of his own, if he was honest.

"I am asking why." Victor stuck his free hand into his pocket, effectively closing himself to everyone but Jonathan. "I assume he's not going to kill you. Or he would have, right? -- Actually my experience with vampires tells me they're assholes, so he may be biding his time. That probably wasn't too comforting, I'm sorry. Maybe you look nice when you sleep."

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businesslike
2015-05-16 12:01 am UTC (link)

God, Jonathan really hoped that he wasn't going to just dream up that point and then simply...die. At the hands? Fangs? Something like that, of a vampire. It seemed far too pointless - shouldn't he have his boundaries pushed, and be slowly nudged to the brink of something first, some sort of precipice, before finding his way back? Wasn't that how these things worked?

"Maybe I do," he laughed roughly, tapping his cigarette to knock the ashes off with his thumb. "Better than drooling, or snoring." Mr. Harker had apparently missed the memo about how you shouldn't cut yourself shaving in Transylvania, it was against the law (well, next time don't skulk around like a creeper if a man has a razor in his hand). Then the pompous ass threw that travel mirror out a window, rude.

If anything, it had just shown dream Jonathan that it'd been a good idea to wear that crucifix after all, even if at first he thought it was nonsense.

"But really, to watch someone sleep? He should have just invited me for popcorn and movies on Netflix."

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	anewprometheus 2015-05-16 03:58 am UTC (link)
	"Well, then." Victor took in a large breath and downed a good portion of his 'wine.' "Cheers to our fucked up dream alter egos. And what have you." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	businesslike 2015-05-16 04:20 am UTC (link)
	That was as good of a toast as any to make. "Cheers to that indeed," Jonathan snickered, and blew out a stream of grey from his mouth, a thin stream of it, and stubbed out the second cigarette. It wouldn't be the last. And see, Victor, that wine wasn't too bad, was it? Okay, just kidding. It really was. (Reply to this) (Parent)

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