INBOX

[corporeity]

WELCOME TO THE SALTBURNT NETWORK


USERNAME
@WATERDEEP

text 🔮 audio 🔮 video

Comments

@stefan

[interpersonally]

( in the late evening, he places a call.

he has since defied his brother's wishes and cured him. the pulsing, venomous veins have disappeared, but the bite remains in it's place. a bite that festers. a bite not taken care of for weeks because it couldn't be. )

[corporeity]

[ he sees the username, and it’s hard not to wonder if the worst has come to pass. grief and failure both, bitter on the tongue. ]

Hello.

[ gentle, to start (or, perhaps, always). ]

Stefan? How can I help?

[interpersonally]

( He's calming. Careful. Stefan decides he likes Gale. )

This isn't going to make complete sense to you, but I gave Damon what's called the cure in my world. For vampires. The house... I found it. ( A pause as he looks down at his brother. ) The venom is no longer fatal. He's human. But, he still has an infected bite.

[corporeity]

[ the cure for vampirism, which gale would think madness if he hadn’t seen such things in the house already. astarion’s sunstone eyes turned blue as waterdeep’s harbour — armand withering away — caroline’s nerves, over being returned to how she was before. it’s still a shock to the system, and it takes everything in him to tamp down his scholarly instinct to question stefan. they’ve more urgent matters to tend. ]

Right. That’s — wow.

[ recalibrating, ]

There are nurses in the infirmary on the premises, but they may have gone home for the night. A safer bet, then, is my friend Shadowheart, who can heal him with magic in mere moments, provided he’s truly human again.

[ specificity to ensure this doesn’t backfire and to clarify why her help wasn’t sought earlier. ]

[interpersonally]

That's --

( Betrayal, but wow covers it. )

He's truly human, just with the cure in his veins. Shadowheart? Is that a title?

[corporeity]

Quite.

[ but we don’t have time to unpack all that. ]

Uh, no. She’s an acolyte of Shar? The Goddess of Loss, the Nightbringer, the Lady of — a story for another time. Dark in name but not in spirit, shall we say. She’ll not deny you, if you declare yourself a friend of mine.

[ because for all she pretends at being uncaring, she isn’t. and certainly not in the matter of their little crew. ]

[interpersonally]

( he only has so much time. and so many resources. (that is, none) )

Okay. Shadowheart. Thank you, Gale.

[corporeity]

Of course.

[ softer, then. ]

Call me if you need further assistance — or company, as your brother recovers.

[interpersonally]

( He wouldn't say no to company, but he wouldn't ask for it, either.

Shadowheart confirms she can help, which is his first priority. She does. And he doesn't know how to ask for - anything. He doesn't check in. He waits. )

text — a half hour or so later.

[corporeity]

Any news?
I’ve gone looking for a bottle of something strong. Perhaps not for the patient.

[ but for him and Stefan. ]

text — action

[interpersonally]

He's asleep, no doubt from the toll his body took these last few weeks.

Bourbon?

( Should he come to find him (and his brother,) Stefan is sat at Damon's desk, ontop, feet dangling. His phone sits beside him, from the myriad of messages he's been sending and fielding.

He just couldn't sit in that chair by his bedside any longer.

He will again, just not yet. )

[corporeity]

Sacrilege, around these parts, but I’m sure Jonty has imported something for his collection.

[ and he does find some, in the recesses of Jonty’s cellar (thinking of how he found another vampire there, not so long ago). Gale knocks lightly before easing open the door, button down partly undone, his tattoo almost glowing in the low light.

No glasses, in his haste, but with a flourish, he conjures two on the desk beside Stefan. After the spell, lavender lingers in the air. ]

Don’t tell Giles [ the butler. ] that I’ve helped myself. I think I’m close to winning him over.

[ after attempting to befriend him for months. ]

[interpersonally]

( that's a look. nice tat, bro.

he's thoroughly impressed that something can be conjured out of thin air, nodding. )

You should call him Rupert. I hear he loves that.

( Gale gets no holds barred sardonic Stefan. )

The patient is still asleep.

[corporeity]

Hah, I do wonder if there’s a relation.

[ between the gileses. they have a similar bearing, after all.

gale fills and passes stefan a glass. ]

Forgive my potential rudeness — but does it taste of anything to you?

[ the bourbon. it varies, for the vampires he knows. ]

[interpersonally]

There's not, to my knowledge.

( He's met Giles. Good guy. A little in over his head but aren't they all.

He takes the glass, holding it in both hands, head dipped down. You've joined the pity party. He did what he did. Now he lives with it. He reacts, turning to look at Gale, eyes the glass and then tastes it - a bit reluctantly.

It burns well. )

There are notes of vanilla. Probably barrel cask. It's good. Thank you.

( is that the right answer? )

[corporeity]

[ stefan’s rightfully sour mood doesn’t phase him, though it’s typically his role in any twosome. the melancholic type.]

Oh. [ mouth and eyes rounding. it’s certainly an answer. ] You’re the first vampire I’ve met who can enjoy such things. [ he taps his finger against the glass. ] Astarion insists anything but blood tastes like swill.

[ which takes away a positive he was going to offer about damon’s condition — a world of food and drink! gale glances at him, then, undeniably curious about the nature of this so-called cure. too good to be true, he would think. ]

Would it help to discuss your unlucky start in the manor — or, ah, would you prefer we speak of just about anything else?

[interpersonally]

Our vampires can taste. And even eat. But, it doesn't sustain us.

( Coffee warms their bodies. Alcohol helps curb cravings, especially for young vampires. A lot of vampires are lushes, Gale. )

My unlucky start? ( that's a way of putting it. ) I guess that depends on what you'd call unlucky. Damon being here and alive. Albeit, from after Tyler bit him. ( he slips. only subtly. damon wasn't back there. he disappeared into oblivion when the other side collapsed.

Bonnie, too. ) We're from different times in our lives, apparently. Is that common?

[corporeity]

A fair point.

[ damon here and alive. any pretence of neutrality softens into sympathy. he doesn’t have siblings, but he’s always been close with the family he does possess. ]

I don’t know. It’s understandably something individuals often prefer not to disclose — I was once behind Astarion, but I’ve since caught up, and now Shadowheart is from our past as well. It’s not unusual, I suppose.

[interpersonally]

I guess the last thing I'd want to be is unusual.

( He supposes it's easier for him to be here, than Damon. Klaus' ritual "killed" Elena, thanks to her uncle John. Her father, John. But, he has a lot to catch Damon up to, if he even wants to be. )

He's from a much more tumultuous time. A breakneck pace of events that didn't let up.

( And then this month dragged on, and other than the wedding neither of them attended or the burning down of the chapel -- they were focused on - well, Damon. )

[corporeity]

[ Gale leans against the wall, head tipped back. ]

There’s no easy way to navigate these…misalignments. [ measured, in this as in all things. ] I myself stood at a precipice, two radically divergent paths before me. Astarion did not reveal all he knew to me, back then — and I think I’m grateful for that.

[ for allowing his agency to remain intact, for not trying to sway him one way or the other. it isn’t a universal experience, surely, but it’s one example for stefan to consider. ]

[interpersonally]

It wouldn't be fair to him, to know certain things. And I'm not planning on telling him.

( unless he asks. but, he doesn't expect him to want much from stefan for a while. he'll live with the burden of everything else. of his own actions, of klaus, of silas. whittemore. and the Travelers. )

[corporeity]

I can understand that.

[ it’s possibly the only reassurance he can offer. it was better, that astarion didn’t taint his perspective. it will be better, for him not to force shadowheart’s future upon her. knowledge is a burden. ]

It’s — a lonely path, though, isn’t it?

[interpersonally]

I've walked the lonely path before.

( Isolated himself. Changed jobs. Lives. This is no different. And what he's done, his brother may not forgive him. )

There are some things I can't hide. I won't. But nothing unnecessary.

[corporeity]

[ gale nods, sipping his drink as he turns over stefan’s answers in his mind. ]

Well, you’re not alone at this precise moment, now are you.

[ a statement of intent. gale has also trudged that narrow, winding path, and he’d do most anything to keep others from it (overstepping, drowning, anything). ]

[ lighter, ] The manor makes isolation difficult, besides.

[interpersonally]

( It's not for nothing, at least, and he turns his head, acknowledging Gale. He's not. Maybe it means something for him to hear all this. )

Does it. Because of the musical rooms?