003 | OPEN. red lipstick on the end of a cigarette.

[norea]

Who: Hasibe Ozcelik, and OPEN.
What: A show premieres at The Vault.
Where: The Vault.
When: Evening til the wee hours of the morning.
Notes: I will set up sections in the comments for people to hang out.
Warnings: WELL IT'S AN ADULT CLUB, SO.

The show starts at nine o'clock, and the bar is full pretty quickly thereafter, but the variety in the club is pretty striking. Xenians in their best suits, non-Xenians in leather and ripped fishnets, everything in between. There doesn't seem to be a lot of cultural divide here between human and not, even given recent issues. Hasibe makes good on her promise to have members of her cohort given seating preference, as she's sweet-talked the cocktail dress-clad hostesses, and the bartenders (in their vague approximations of suits with very open shirts) are aware that she's invited a lot of heavy drinkers. ...she just assumes people in her cohort want to drink--they've been kidnapped to a strange city with many new things to offer, so why wouldn't they?

Comments

[deservesadaisy]

"You know, I always wondered. What part was the immoral one, as far as you're concerned. Feeding at all? Killing them? Where's your line between guilt and lack of it?" He just sounds curious.

[martyrdomoption.livejournal.com]

That question is one of many that's run around his head lately and there's been a lot of time for introspection these past few weeks. Which means, for once, Mitchell is going to give an honest answer.

"You remember what it was like sixty years ago, there weren't any vampire groupies or anyone willing to be bled like you would milk a cow. Feeding meant killing; you had to in order to clean up after yourself. Then when Carl finally got me to go clean, he insisted cold turkey was the best way. To hold yourself back even with someone who was willing to be fed on ran the risk of giving into temptation." Never mind that that happened anyway.

"As for guilt... I remember feeling gradually more and more tired with the way of things." He even looks a little heavier as he says it. "I started to question myself but I never really had the strength to do anything about it. Then one day, someone saw the last glimmer of a good person. And I felt like I had to try. I don't know if there is a line so much as a series of processes to remind you that what you're doing is wrong."

In other words, there isn't guilt in an emotional sense (other than that last, lingering part of the human conscience) so much as exhaustion and the certainty of disappointing one of the few people that have managed to get through to you, that you actually care about. He looks at Ivan, half-expecting a joke or comment at his expense.

[deservesadaisy]

Ivan doesn't joke. Instead, he leans forward a bit. "Here's the thing. It seems to me you're equating goodness with mortality. Being as human as possible doesn't make you good or bad, Mitchell. What it does make you is hungry. And that means when you do fuck up, as inevitably you will from time to time, it will be much, much worse. By your own standards."

He doesn't say "Look at Carl;" he doesn't have to.

"We aren't all Herrick. But we are still all vampires."

[martyrdomoption.livejournal.com]

There's a long silence before Mitchell finally begrudgingly concedes, "I'll get off the wagon."

There, Ivan. Don't say 'I told you so.' (As if he actually needed that much convincing and it's debateable whether he was really on it to begin with.)

Although it bears noting this isn't going to make him any less of a trainwreck.

[deservesadaisy]

"I just think you need to decide what your concept of 'goodness' is, and where you have it from." Ivan's not going to talk him out of blood, but he sees it as a symptom of a larger issue.

"It's not simple here, but you can have willing donors, if you know you can stop before you drain them. That was the compromise you gave me in Bristol, after all." Well, perhaps they were a bit more actually willing, here, but even so. Ivan won't swear that he's only fed legally here, but he's tried to keep it more legal than not; there's no way out of Baedal, and that changes some things.

[martyrdomoption.livejournal.com]

Mitchell knows Ivan is right. He also knows his previous response was patently sulky. Although the comment about Ivan's feeding situation in Bristol gets a look.

"Nothing is simple. Neither is the concept of willing donors. It's not like a cup you fill and then that's it, you're full. If I'm being honest, sometimes, even if I'm feeding every so often, I still feel this need to keep going. Herrick kept pushing me but the desire was always there. I don't just want blood, I want to kill. But I know that can't be right. I don't know where that comes from --well, I mean, it comes from everywhere. Doesn't it?"

[deservesadaisy]

"We weren't designed to stop," he says, with a shrug. "Sometimes it's a choice, and sometimes it's a survival technique, but we're going against our natures when we do. We haven't haunted humanity's nightmares for centuries because of our inclinations for moderation."

[martyrdomoption.livejournal.com]

"Yeah." It sounds more than a touch sad and he rubs his face, tired of proselytizing (not so much from Ivan as his own mind going back and forth). With a little sigh, he comments, "I'm too sober for this. Want anything or is Ilde due back?"

[deservesadaisy]

"I don't know where she's wandered to, but I'll have a drink in the meantime. Sobriety, at least, we can do something about."

[martyrdomoption.livejournal.com]

"What's your poison tonight?" Not that drinking would really have the same effects on the health of a vampire, but whatever.

[deservesadaisy]

"I was working on red wine - I thought it thematically appropriate. But I'll switch to something else if you prefer."

Ivan would suit his drink to his trolling-the-other-patrons costume.