You would look quite fetching with a polished club, Mademoiselle.
[Javert is unfazed.]
Mana's services would do the trick for your clothes, [he says lightly.] Or have a spare set nearby, sewn for your troll self. No reason you must stay indecent and immodest unless you choose it.
Well, that's a thing you said that I'm going to take as a positive.
[ She sticks her tongue out at him and puts the folder to her side. ]
I don't choose it, but I can't imagine lugging around clothes for someone twenty-foot tall, either. So maybe Mana can do it. I guess I'll check into that. But basically, I only get big when I get super upset, or if I have to and lately I haven't had to do either of those things.
And last time I was huge, I'm pretty sure I ate a whole person and that was... Not great. Buttons actually suck to spit up, if you weren't aware. Maybe I can see if there's another way to eat that isn't... meat-based. I can be like you; a hemotarian.
[It tumbles out a tad more harsh than he means it, a lopsided grimace snagging the corner of his mouth. Javert wrestles with himself inwardly, and for once in his existence he contemplates the tact of what he is about to tell her.]
Thank carefully before you make that bargain, [he cautions.] People have it in their skulls that drinking blood simplifies the feast, that it is gentler. No, I do not think so. Once you have a smell and a taste for the stuff, it... [his grimace darkens, eyes glazing as his focus fixes on a point several feet past Peace's left ear] devours and consumes. It is all you will smell and listen for when you...
[He lapses into a tepid silence, a vivid portrait of heartbeats and coursing blood pulsing above the noise of their conversation.]
But that's still better than flesh and not as sacrosanct as souls. I can just ask someone with a connection to get things from the local blood bank.
Feeding on flesh - even if it's what you and Jack provide - it ruins just talking to people. Because you find yourself thinking about how that person's too gamey and this person is too fat, and that other person is probably fine to eat.
Alternately, blood is fine. I'm not a vampire - no special senses, unless you count being really good at digging holes, or in Altair's case, controlling rocks. I won't think about it unless I have to eat it and even then I can make a quick and easy few swallows. You know?
So I'll take one annoying issue against the one that means someone's life has to absolutely end.
[There's a breathless pause, the laser focus of his gaze finding Peace's again. He plunders the depths of her four eyes, searching, and he sees laid bare her fiery will with a touch of melancholy hope; not dissimilar to the witch of the lake he met what feels like an eternity ago, in a hazy dream world where she alone shouldered the burdens of the dead.
If anyone can conquer a lust for blood, perhaps she will. But then, where do her sins lie? It isn't the first time he wondered such a dark thing about her, and each time, he draws up relatively minor transgressions beside his own. He concedes to her explanation with a shallow bow of his head.]
Something tells me that you will never stop seeing men as the sum of their flavors, [he says dryly.] It is written for us, we the predators. But may the blood bring you the relief you want. Lord above knows there's plenty to go around.
[Peace grins back at him. It's gruesome, she knows, but being here for a year has at least desensitized her to gruesome. Now it's just hanging on to her moral compass that is the hard part. Remaining human while looking in the mirror at four eyes and hardened skin. ]
I know you're immediately going to deny it, but: you're a really good person, Boss. Like, even when you're being all... stiff and staid, you've never once done wrong by me, and I'm happy to know you. Like, for-real for-real.
[Javert recoils slightly like Peace had delivered him a slap upside the jaw. Along with him, he loses his hold on the stillness of his coat, and it drapes in small curls around his arms and hips.
Insults are simple to take. Compliments prove an insurmountable challenge, especially when he feels they are unmerited.]
Tell that to the town the next time they call for my head, [he murmurs out the corner of his mouth. A dark wrinkle blooms between his eyes. He slips off the desk and firmly back onto his own two feet, and he makes to leave before some insane emotion threatens to grip him.
He pauses in the door frame awkwardly.]
You are... [His weight shifts from one heel to the other. He hisses a sigh.] A good witch, mademoiselle. I do not know why on earth you stay here. It is appreciated.
[A beat, and he cannot resists adding wryly,]
No one is more appreciative than the plants, of course. They would wither without you.
Well, they do like me a lot. But also, you could use a little reminder that everything isn't doom and gloom, Boss.
[She held a hand out.]
Wait right there, Boss!
[Peace ran over, and probably for the first time in a year, gave him a firm hug. Literally; the girl's hard as stone skin does not have much give to it.]
Plants or not, I stay here because I like you and this place.
[Javert stiffens beneath the touch, awkwardly, like he isn't sure what to do with an embrace from a wily young woman. Young troll. Wily, young, rock-hard and unyielding troll-woman. All the same,, his expression is hidden from her earnest face, his eyes wide and the lines in his face steeped with worry and a touch of...
Panic? Is that panic, that rush through his icy veins, enough to prickle the ends of his coat? Surely not.
He bares his teeth and slowly, the tension loosens just enough for his body to give a little to her stony hug.]
Don't say so, [says Javert, and it almost resembles a plea.] I... [A frustrated pause, and he trails off for a few beats. Such a thing has never been said to him before! He resumes tightly, without pity,]
Pardon me, mademoiselle. Let us pray your judgment is sound, and I don't make a liar out of you.
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[Peace huffed and her fluffy tail thrashed and bristled against the desk.]
Besides, wouldn't it need magic to work? All my clothing rips when I get bigger. No amount of spandex is going to help with that.
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[Javert is unfazed.]
Mana's services would do the trick for your clothes, [he says lightly.] Or have a spare set nearby, sewn for your troll self. No reason you must stay indecent and immodest unless you choose it.
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Well, that's a thing you said that I'm going to take as a positive.
[ She sticks her tongue out at him and puts the folder to her side. ]
I don't choose it, but I can't imagine lugging around clothes for someone twenty-foot tall, either. So maybe Mana can do it. I guess I'll check into that. But basically, I only get big when I get super upset, or if I have to and lately I haven't had to do either of those things.
And last time I was huge, I'm pretty sure I ate a whole person and that was... Not great. Buttons actually suck to spit up, if you weren't aware. Maybe I can see if there's another way to eat that isn't... meat-based. I can be like you; a hemotarian.
no subject
[It tumbles out a tad more harsh than he means it, a lopsided grimace snagging the corner of his mouth. Javert wrestles with himself inwardly, and for once in his existence he contemplates the tact of what he is about to tell her.]
Thank carefully before you make that bargain, [he cautions.] People have it in their skulls that drinking blood simplifies the feast, that it is gentler. No, I do not think so. Once you have a smell and a taste for the stuff, it... [his grimace darkens, eyes glazing as his focus fixes on a point several feet past Peace's left ear] devours and consumes. It is all you will smell and listen for when you...
[He lapses into a tepid silence, a vivid portrait of heartbeats and coursing blood pulsing above the noise of their conversation.]
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Feeding on flesh - even if it's what you and Jack provide - it ruins just talking to people. Because you find yourself thinking about how that person's too gamey and this person is too fat, and that other person is probably fine to eat.
Alternately, blood is fine. I'm not a vampire - no special senses, unless you count being really good at digging holes, or in Altair's case, controlling rocks. I won't think about it unless I have to eat it and even then I can make a quick and easy few swallows. You know?
So I'll take one annoying issue against the one that means someone's life has to absolutely end.
no subject
If anyone can conquer a lust for blood, perhaps she will. But then, where do her sins lie? It isn't the first time he wondered such a dark thing about her, and each time, he draws up relatively minor transgressions beside his own. He concedes to her explanation with a shallow bow of his head.]
Something tells me that you will never stop seeing men as the sum of their flavors, [he says dryly.] It is written for us, we the predators. But may the blood bring you the relief you want. Lord above knows there's plenty to go around.
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About that blood, I mean. At least people are less likely to die if I drink a few pints. Or... make black pudding or something.
CW: Blood Feeding Discussion
[The corner Javert his mouth twitches.]
My reserves, I mean. Provided you do not care about the source. And I know a fellow with the skills to cook up a mean blood pudding.
[He snorts.]
I don't recommend heating the blood too much aside from pudding or sausage. There is little less appetizing than clumpy, clotted sludge.
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I know you're immediately going to deny it, but: you're a really good person, Boss. Like, even when you're being all... stiff and staid, you've never once done wrong by me, and I'm happy to know you. Like, for-real for-real.
no subject
Insults are simple to take. Compliments prove an insurmountable challenge, especially when he feels they are unmerited.]
Tell that to the town the next time they call for my head, [he murmurs out the corner of his mouth. A dark wrinkle blooms between his eyes. He slips off the desk and firmly back onto his own two feet, and he makes to leave before some insane emotion threatens to grip him.
He pauses in the door frame awkwardly.]
You are... [His weight shifts from one heel to the other. He hisses a sigh.] A good witch, mademoiselle. I do not know why on earth you stay here. It is appreciated.
[A beat, and he cannot resists adding wryly,]
No one is more appreciative than the plants, of course. They would wither without you.
no subject
[She held a hand out.]
Wait right there, Boss!
[Peace ran over, and probably for the first time in a year, gave him a firm hug. Literally; the girl's hard as stone skin does not have much give to it.]
Plants or not, I stay here because I like you and this place.
no subject
Panic? Is that panic, that rush through his icy veins, enough to prickle the ends of his coat? Surely not.
He bares his teeth and slowly, the tension loosens just enough for his body to give a little to her stony hug.]
Don't say so, [says Javert, and it almost resembles a plea.] I... [A frustrated pause, and he trails off for a few beats. Such a thing has never been said to him before! He resumes tightly, without pity,]
Pardon me, mademoiselle. Let us pray your judgment is sound, and I don't make a liar out of you.