[one-good-leg]

about

Nothing is known of Flavius’s early life, including his own name. He was an Athenian, born around 10 BC; a slave purchased by a Roman citizen of Antioch who named him and educated him in Greek and Latin language and philosophy, Euclidian mathematics and Judaic scripture*.

In 10 AD, aged 20, Flavius loses his left leg below the knee during a boar hunt. His master nurses him back to health and has a replacement limb carved from ivory.

Flavius’s master dies, and he is sold to an Antiochian slaver, where he remains until he is purchased by Pandora c. 20 AD, aged 30. She makes him her steward, and he runs her house for her until she is turned by Marius. Still faithful to his now-vampire mistress, Flavius serves both Pandora and Marius.

In 30 AD, Flavius falls mortally ill. Marius, although greatly admiring of Flavius’s character and intelligence, will not save him: no more vampires are to be made, and especially not disabled ones. Pandora brings him to the blood instead, unable to contend with Marius’s great sorrow in the face of his death. Flavius becomes a vampire at the age of 40.

Flavius leaves Antioch and eventually journeys to Carthage, where, in the third century, he meets Nebamun and Chrysanthe. They welcome Flavius into their coven, the Blood Kindred, where he remains until the end of the twentieth century.

Long and short of it is, I’m here to enjoy myself, and I assume you are, too. If you want to interact with Flavius then please do - I’m not exclusive or selective (currently), and I still get that little excited feeling when I get notifications and messages.

Mun and muse are both (considerably!) 21+. Please be prepared for him to act accordingly.

The mun has a degree in ancient history, but his undergraduate days are also ancient history, so I’m going to get shit wrong, okay? Blog is 21+ and in the right (but probably rare) circumstances may wander into the NSFW, but isn’t by default.

My messages and asks are always open. Feel free to drop by if you’d like.

*Please, if you read the Alphabettery entry, don’t believe that Flavius’s Roman master taught him about Pliny the Elder. Gaius Plinius Secundus wasn’t born until 23 AD. The less said about Marcus Aurelius (born 121 AD), Tertullian (born 160 AD), and Augustine of Hippo (born 354 AD), the better.

[one-good-leg]

ooc:// tried to write but not working. Brains dribbling out of ears. Back soon I hope

[one-good-leg]

"Your masters never meant for you to live long enough to be able to steward the entirety of their bloodlines." Marius spoke in jest, in kind greeting.

"To which of my masters are you referring? I was a good slave - I think that I can make this claim without hubris - and none found cause to fault my service or stewardship. I have no doubt that I could have provided many years of loyal service had a certain master not taken issue with the altered contractual arrangements put in place by my mistress, and seen fit to terminate my indenture. Not that it was his to terminate." Flavius smiled. "If I may be so bold, certain bloodlines appear to have grown somewhat willful, and a degree more stewardship may not have been out of place."

[one-good-leg]

ooc/ I've been feeling a bit ropey for a couple of days - turns out I've got covid. I might manage a couple of short replies but the longer threads will likely have to wait, sorry to say

[one-good-leg]

✿ - sexual/sensual headcanon: Can they have sex and what does it entail for them? How important is physical intimacy for them? Are there things they’d only do with special people?

if you recall my mistress's very frank account of her - how shall I put it? - experiment with Marius in these matters (and, I do not doubt from your own experience as well) you will know that we are able, but that the exercise is somewhat pointless. 'A sterile organ which was no more to him now than his arm' was how she described it, I think.

You may also recall that my proclivities were somewhat specialised, even in life, and I can assure you that they are only moreso now. I have embraced my nature, and my nature resides in the blood.

Physical intimacy is not of course the same thing as physical love. Although I have not sought to share my life with a romantic partner, I am no more an island than any. Donne had the right of it - you will know his Meditation XVII of the Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, of course.

As for what I would share with whom, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's.

[darknessmolten]

I have not read those chronicles, but based on what you shared here, your mistress might make it worthwhile. Still, if you wish for me to know anything about your own person, I will learn it from the source, not anyone else's written account. I tire of being known through that lens myself.

Donne? And therefore never send for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee. Always enjoyed the anti-puritanical sentiment throughout. Or perhaps that is biased inference. I am prone to that.

What of falling in love. I always tried reasoning my way out of that but I am entirely too emotional. Sometimes, I despise that. But emotional love makes the physical matter more and I never learned settling for less than all.

May the night render unto you what you desire. Since I will not read the book, let me know, even in a way as frank as your Mistress - I relish that kind of frankness. What, or whom, do you desire?

[one-good-leg]

My tastes were ever irrumare and pedicare. If you remember your Catullus 16, you know everything you need to about me. And should you be ignorant then I will remind you, although then it would apply doubly: "Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo" which, as I truly hope you understand, means I will assfuck you and I will facefuck you.

I was never fond of using my mouth, which renders me a sorry vampire, does it not?

[darknessmolten]

Leaves your mouth free to recite, reference and lecture.

Back when I studied, I had one lecturer who told me that I had great promise. Told me I had a juristic mind. That might have been the day I decided to drop out. You remind me of him.

Assfuck and facefuck me, as long as you talk to me like that.

[one-good-leg]

Even were I still remotely interested in carnality, you would not be in receipt of my attentions. A fruit left some years too long on the vine.

[darknessmolten]

Ah, well. Nothing ventured and so on.

More the ages that start with 1, is that it? 23, when I was turned.

[one-good-leg]

your arithmetical facility would make Thales proud.

[darknessmolten]

My ambitions fulfilled at last.

Is it because I said I found it stimulating that now I don't get those lectures out of you any more?

If it is, I find that stimulating too. Just to warn you.

[one-good-leg]

I was in Rome in 64 and barely survived the conflagration. I have taken a dim view of fiddlers ever since.

[darknessmolten]

With talk like that, who can resist you? Truly dark and empty nights filled with loss for all the nubile youths of the empire when you swore off carnal pleasure.

[one-good-leg]

I swore off nothing. If your memory is sufficient to bring back to mind the detail of conversations you had all of a day ago you might retrieve from the cavernous chambers of your intellect the knowledge that it was the Gift that changed my ability to express my desires, not any will of mine.

[one-good-leg]

✿ - sexual/sensual headcanon: Can they have sex and what does it entail for them? How important is physical intimacy for them? Are there things they’d only do with special people?

if you recall my mistress's very frank account of her - how shall I put it? - experiment with Marius in these matters (and, I do not doubt from your own experience as well) you will know that we are able, but that the exercise is somewhat pointless. 'A sterile organ which was no more to him now than his arm' was how she described it, I think.

You may also recall that my proclivities were somewhat specialised, even in life, and I can assure you that they are only moreso now. I have embraced my nature, and my nature resides in the blood.

Physical intimacy is not of course the same thing as physical love. Although I have not sought to share my life with a romantic partner, I am no more an island than any. Donne had the right of it - you will know his Meditation XVII of the Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, of course.

As for what I would share with whom, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's.

[darknessmolten]

I have not read those chronicles, but based on what you shared here, your mistress might make it worthwhile. Still, if you wish for me to know anything about your own person, I will learn it from the source, not anyone else's written account. I tire of being known through that lens myself.

Donne? And therefore never send for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee. Always enjoyed the anti-puritanical sentiment throughout. Or perhaps that is biased inference. I am prone to that.

What of falling in love. I always tried reasoning my way out of that but I am entirely too emotional. Sometimes, I despise that. But emotional love makes the physical matter more and I never learned settling for less than all.

May the night render unto you what you desire. Since I will not read the book, let me know, even in a way as frank as your Mistress - I relish that kind of frankness. What, or whom, do you desire?

[one-good-leg]

My tastes were ever irrumare and pedicare. If you remember your Catullus 16, you know everything you need to about me. And should you be ignorant then I will remind you, although then it would apply doubly: "Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo" which, as I truly hope you understand, means I will assfuck you and I will facefuck you.

I was never fond of using my mouth, which renders me a sorry vampire, does it not?

[darknessmolten]

Leaves your mouth free to recite, reference and lecture.

Back when I studied, I had one lecturer who told me that I had great promise. Told me I had a juristic mind. That might have been the day I decided to drop out. You remind me of him.

Assfuck and facefuck me, as long as you talk to me like that.

[one-good-leg]

Even were I still remotely interested in carnality, you would not be in receipt of my attentions. A fruit left some years too long on the vine.

[darknessmolten]

Ah, well. Nothing ventured and so on.

More the ages that start with 1, is that it? 23, when I was turned.

[one-good-leg]

your arithmetical facility would make Thales proud.

[darknessmolten]

My ambitions fulfilled at last.

Is it because I said I found it stimulating that now I don't get those lectures out of you any more?

If it is, I find that stimulating too. Just to warn you.

[one-good-leg]

I was in Rome in 64 and barely survived the conflagration. I have taken a dim view of fiddlers ever since.

[one-good-leg]

✿ - sexual/sensual headcanon: Can they have sex and what does it entail for them? How important is physical intimacy for them? Are there things they’d only do with special people?

if you recall my mistress's very frank account of her - how shall I put it? - experiment with Marius in these matters (and, I do not doubt from your own experience as well) you will know that we are able, but that the exercise is somewhat pointless. 'A sterile organ which was no more to him now than his arm' was how she described it, I think.

You may also recall that my proclivities were somewhat specialised, even in life, and I can assure you that they are only moreso now. I have embraced my nature, and my nature resides in the blood.

Physical intimacy is not of course the same thing as physical love. Although I have not sought to share my life with a romantic partner, I am no more an island than any. Donne had the right of it - you will know his Meditation XVII of the Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, of course.

As for what I would share with whom, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's.

[darknessmolten]

I have not read those chronicles, but based on what you shared here, your mistress might make it worthwhile. Still, if you wish for me to know anything about your own person, I will learn it from the source, not anyone else's written account. I tire of being known through that lens myself.

Donne? And therefore never send for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee. Always enjoyed the anti-puritanical sentiment throughout. Or perhaps that is biased inference. I am prone to that.

What of falling in love. I always tried reasoning my way out of that but I am entirely too emotional. Sometimes, I despise that. But emotional love makes the physical matter more and I never learned settling for less than all.

May the night render unto you what you desire. Since I will not read the book, let me know, even in a way as frank as your Mistress - I relish that kind of frankness. What, or whom, do you desire?

[one-good-leg]

My tastes were ever irrumare and pedicare. If you remember your Catullus 16, you know everything you need to about me. And should you be ignorant then I will remind you, although then it would apply doubly: "Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo" which, as I truly hope you understand, means I will assfuck you and I will facefuck you.

I was never fond of using my mouth, which renders me a sorry vampire, does it not?

[darknessmolten]

Leaves your mouth free to recite, reference and lecture.

Back when I studied, I had one lecturer who told me that I had great promise. Told me I had a juristic mind. That might have been the day I decided to drop out. You remind me of him.

Assfuck and facefuck me, as long as you talk to me like that.

[one-good-leg]

Even were I still remotely interested in carnality, you would not be in receipt of my attentions. A fruit left some years too long on the vine.

[darknessmolten]

Ah, well. Nothing ventured and so on.

More the ages that start with 1, is that it? 23, when I was turned.

[one-good-leg]

your arithmetical facility would make Thales proud.

[darknessmolten]

My ambitions fulfilled at last.

Is it because I said I found it stimulating that now I don't get those lectures out of you any more?

If it is, I find that stimulating too. Just to warn you.

[one-good-leg]

✿ - sexual/sensual headcanon: Can they have sex and what does it entail for them? How important is physical intimacy for them? Are there things they’d only do with special people?

if you recall my mistress's very frank account of her - how shall I put it? - experiment with Marius in these matters (and, I do not doubt from your own experience as well) you will know that we are able, but that the exercise is somewhat pointless. 'A sterile organ which was no more to him now than his arm' was how she described it, I think.

You may also recall that my proclivities were somewhat specialised, even in life, and I can assure you that they are only moreso now. I have embraced my nature, and my nature resides in the blood.

Physical intimacy is not of course the same thing as physical love. Although I have not sought to share my life with a romantic partner, I am no more an island than any. Donne had the right of it - you will know his Meditation XVII of the Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, of course.

As for what I would share with whom, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's.

[darknessmolten]

I have not read those chronicles, but based on what you shared here, your mistress might make it worthwhile. Still, if you wish for me to know anything about your own person, I will learn it from the source, not anyone else's written account. I tire of being known through that lens myself.

Donne? And therefore never send for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee. Always enjoyed the anti-puritanical sentiment throughout. Or perhaps that is biased inference. I am prone to that.

What of falling in love. I always tried reasoning my way out of that but I am entirely too emotional. Sometimes, I despise that. But emotional love makes the physical matter more and I never learned settling for less than all.

May the night render unto you what you desire. Since I will not read the book, let me know, even in a way as frank as your Mistress - I relish that kind of frankness. What, or whom, do you desire?

[one-good-leg]

My tastes were ever irrumare and pedicare. If you remember your Catullus 16, you know everything you need to about me. And should you be ignorant then I will remind you, although then it would apply doubly: "Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo" which, as I truly hope you understand, means I will assfuck you and I will facefuck you.

I was never fond of using my mouth, which renders me a sorry vampire, does it not?

[darknessmolten]

Leaves your mouth free to recite, reference and lecture.

Back when I studied, I had one lecturer who told me that I had great promise. Told me I had a juristic mind. That might have been the day I decided to drop out. You remind me of him.

Assfuck and facefuck me, as long as you talk to me like that.

[one-good-leg]

Even were I still remotely interested in carnality, you would not be in receipt of my attentions. A fruit left some years too long on the vine.

[darknessmolten]

Ah, well. Nothing ventured and so on.

More the ages that start with 1, is that it? 23, when I was turned.

[one-good-leg]

your arithmetical facility would make Thales proud.

[one-good-leg]

✿ - sexual/sensual headcanon: Can they have sex and what does it entail for them? How important is physical intimacy for them? Are there things they’d only do with special people?

if you recall my mistress's very frank account of her - how shall I put it? - experiment with Marius in these matters (and, I do not doubt from your own experience as well) you will know that we are able, but that the exercise is somewhat pointless. 'A sterile organ which was no more to him now than his arm' was how she described it, I think.

You may also recall that my proclivities were somewhat specialised, even in life, and I can assure you that they are only moreso now. I have embraced my nature, and my nature resides in the blood.

Physical intimacy is not of course the same thing as physical love. Although I have not sought to share my life with a romantic partner, I am no more an island than any. Donne had the right of it - you will know his Meditation XVII of the Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, of course.

As for what I would share with whom, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's.

[darknessmolten]

I have not read those chronicles, but based on what you shared here, your mistress might make it worthwhile. Still, if you wish for me to know anything about your own person, I will learn it from the source, not anyone else's written account. I tire of being known through that lens myself.

Donne? And therefore never send for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee. Always enjoyed the anti-puritanical sentiment throughout. Or perhaps that is biased inference. I am prone to that.

What of falling in love. I always tried reasoning my way out of that but I am entirely too emotional. Sometimes, I despise that. But emotional love makes the physical matter more and I never learned settling for less than all.

May the night render unto you what you desire. Since I will not read the book, let me know, even in a way as frank as your Mistress - I relish that kind of frankness. What, or whom, do you desire?

[one-good-leg]

My tastes were ever irrumare and pedicare. If you remember your Catullus 16, you know everything you need to about me. And should you be ignorant then I will remind you, although then it would apply doubly: "Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo" which, as I truly hope you understand, means I will assfuck you and I will facefuck you.

I was never fond of using my mouth, which renders me a sorry vampire, does it not?

[darknessmolten]

Leaves your mouth free to recite, reference and lecture.

Back when I studied, I had one lecturer who told me that I had great promise. Told me I had a juristic mind. That might have been the day I decided to drop out. You remind me of him.

Assfuck and facefuck me, as long as you talk to me like that.

[one-good-leg]

Even were I still remotely interested in carnality, you would not be in receipt of my attentions. A fruit left some years too long on the vine.

[one-good-leg]

✿ - sexual/sensual headcanon: Can they have sex and what does it entail for them? How important is physical intimacy for them? Are there things they’d only do with special people?

if you recall my mistress's very frank account of her - how shall I put it? - experiment with Marius in these matters (and, I do not doubt from your own experience as well) you will know that we are able, but that the exercise is somewhat pointless. 'A sterile organ which was no more to him now than his arm' was how she described it, I think.

You may also recall that my proclivities were somewhat specialised, even in life, and I can assure you that they are only moreso now. I have embraced my nature, and my nature resides in the blood.

Physical intimacy is not of course the same thing as physical love. Although I have not sought to share my life with a romantic partner, I am no more an island than any. Donne had the right of it - you will know his Meditation XVII of the Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, of course.

As for what I would share with whom, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's.

[darknessmolten]

I have not read those chronicles, but based on what you shared here, your mistress might make it worthwhile. Still, if you wish for me to know anything about your own person, I will learn it from the source, not anyone else's written account. I tire of being known through that lens myself.

Donne? And therefore never send for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee. Always enjoyed the anti-puritanical sentiment throughout. Or perhaps that is biased inference. I am prone to that.

What of falling in love. I always tried reasoning my way out of that but I am entirely too emotional. Sometimes, I despise that. But emotional love makes the physical matter more and I never learned settling for less than all.

May the night render unto you what you desire. Since I will not read the book, let me know, even in a way as frank as your Mistress - I relish that kind of frankness. What, or whom, do you desire?

[one-good-leg]

My tastes were ever irrumare and pedicare. If you remember your Catullus 16, you know everything you need to about me. And should you be ignorant then I will remind you, although then it would apply doubly: "Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo" which, as I truly hope you understand, means I will assfuck you and I will facefuck you.

I was never fond of using my mouth, which renders me a sorry vampire, does it not?

[one-good-leg]

Cairo

Flavius had not returned to Egypt since Gregory had moved the Blood Kin out of Carthage a millennium ago. Although he considered himself a man of logic, his heart ruled by his head, there was still something about the lands around the eastern Mediterranean that were an uncomfortable reminder of what his life had once been.

But Avicus had heard a rumour of a vampire in Cairo, and Zenobia that it was Sevraine. Concerned to keep Gregory from knowing until they discovered the truth of it, the three of them had agreed that Flavius would visit the city. After all, they both had even more reason not to return to Africa than he.

A long week in Cairo had resulted in nothing, the only vampires the usual riff-raff that cluttered any great city. But there had been gossip among them. Some vampire none of them knew, a woman some said, a man others insisted, last heard of heading south towards Asyut, said some, West towards 'Izbat as Safih said others. Flavius had no stomach for the desert so headed south, up the green valley of the river.

Even if this strange vampire did not turn out to be Sevraine, there was something about the way the Cairo rabble muttered about them that had piqued his interest. Who could it be, and why were the city rats so unsettled?

@gabrielle-de-lioncourt-anon

[gabrielle-de-lioncourt-anon]

Cairo was precious to Gabrielle. As precious as anyplace could be. The night air of Cairo carried a heat even after sunset, clinging to the skin like a memory that refused to fade. Subtle twinkling lights flickered along narrow streets. It was a city that never truly slept.

Gabrielle stood apart from the movement. She was well aware of the chatter and the yammering going on around her and found it gloriously satisfying. To think she was such a topic of conversations was laughable. She frequently had to turn her mind off to it. It became deafening.

There was something different about this night, in a way that was intriguing. Her gaze sharpened, though her posture remained relaxed, almost indifferent. Someone was searching for her. Not blindly, not desperately, but with purpose. With patience.

The realization did not alarm her. It stirred something much more rare in Gabrielle than fear. Interest! She waited patiently in anticipation of their arrival.

[one-good-leg]

Still nothing... If his years of slavery had taught him anything, they had taught him patience. Another blind alley exhausted, Flavius returned to the bustling heart of the city.

Timeless, the nightlife of the ancient towns that ringed the shores of the Middle Sea, and he could have been in Alexandria, or Carthage, or Massalia, or Naples, only the hot scent of the dark desert adding an undercurrent of threat. Somewhere... somewhere... again he heard the cries and calls of the Cairene blood drinkers. If the towns had not changed, how much the denizens of the Blood had. What poor stuff they seemed compared to the splendour of the vampires of his youth. He recalled Marius' tales of Those Who Must Be Kept abandoned in the sunlight, only a moment from here; the stench of burning vampire flesh; the charred thing pursuing his Mistress.

A sudden silence brought him from his reverie and he knew that, almost in spite of himself, he had come upon the object of his search. A way ahead of him, in the book market in Al-ataba Square, a figure. Not Sevraine, for sure. A man, it seemed, with a long rope of hair over one shoulder. He was about to turn away, vanish unseen into the night, his quest ended, when the figure turned, their face illuminated by the guttering light of a nearby lantern.

Intrigued, Flavius hesitated, and stepped forward.

"My greetings. I hope you will forgive the intrusion."

[gabrielle-de-lioncourt-anon]

Gabrielle did not startle, she never did. The silence that had drawn this one in was not an accident. She had felt him long before he chose to reveal himself. The faint pressure of an old mind moving quietly through the night, wrapped in mystery like an old cloak.

She turned to face him, only after his greeting. Her eyes settled on him with an intensity that was neither welcoming nor dismissive.

"For an intruder," her voice was low, with a touch of amusement, "you are quite polite."

Her gaze moved over him with precision, taking in more than just his appearance. He had the weight of years on him, the haunting of something older than the city around them.

She stepped closer, unhurried. "You were about to leave." Gabrielle observed. "You decided I was not the one you were seeking. And yet," her lips curved just slightly, not quite a smile, "you stayed and approached." Her eyes held his now, steady and unblinking. "Why?"

[one-good-leg]

"You see much, Madam."

He gave a half bow, inclining his head toward her. Not the man he had presumed, in spite of her attire. A curious one, this.

"And you are entirely correct. I was in pursuit of a rumour, and while you are, I think, that rumour, you are not who you were rumoured to be." He laughed softly. "If you follow that somewhat tortured logic."

He felt no animosity from her, just a studied calm interest. Intriguing, from one not nearly so old as he.

"I hope you will pardon me, but I have no other excuse for approaching you than curiosity. I am Flavius, once of Antioch, now Geneva."

[gabrielle-de-lioncourt-anon]

Gabrielle acknowledged the cordial gesture with a nod of her head. There was a quietness about him. Not emptiness, but depth. The kind that comes from having seen too much, endured too long, and chosen not to be hardened by it entirely. It made him…careful, perhaps. Thoughtful, in a way most men forget to be.

At his name, something in Gabrielle's expression shifted. "Flavius," she repeated, letting it rest between them. "Antioch. Geneva. You travel well. Or you flee well. Sometimes they are the same." She winked, under a knowing chuckle.

"I am the Marquise de Lioncourt. You may call me Gabrielle. So, tell me, Flavius of Geneva...who was I rumored to be? Because now, I am the curious one."

[one-good-leg]

"Marquise..." he bowed again, much of her bearing suddenly making sense. "My Lady, you honour me. I am, I admit, surprised that anyone would dare bring a noble Lady into the blood. One would expect the... difficulties... to be off putting."

He regarded her again. Noble, certainly, and not unlike the woman he had thought she might be. "I was hoping... forgive me, that sounds as though I am disappointed to have encountered you, which I assure you I am not. I was hoping to find a very old companion of someone I call my family. I had heard that a woman, a great and noble woman, indeed one not unlike yourself, a woman who once at least was called Sevraine, had been sighted in these parts. But alas, I am certain that it was not so, and that indeed ones to whom the Great Sevraine is no less than a myth mistook you for her. They did you no disservice by the comparison, I assure you."

[gabrielle-de-lioncourt-anon]

Gabrielle would go still at the mention of that name. The distance in her expression would soften, giving way to something warmer, touched with a memory.

"Sevraine…" she repeated, gently. A small smile followed, subtle but sincere. "You have not been chasing a myth, Monsieur. Only someone who has always preferred not to be easily found."

Her gaze settled on him again, no longer weighing him as a stranger, but regarding him with a quiet, shared understanding. "I knew her," she continued, eager to revert to another topic.

At his earlier concern, she gave a slight incline of her head. "Your courtesy does you credit," she said, her voice calm. "But you needn’t be so careful with me. I have long since stepped outside the expectations that once came with such titles. It was no act of daring. I choose this life quite willingly. Whatever difficulties you imagine, they mattered less to me than the freedom it offered."

Gabrielle regarded Flavius with a quiet, attentive respect, her curiosity neither concealed nor intrusive. "I wonder," she said, her voice measured, "does this mark the end of your journey?" With a slight pause, she proceed, "What was it that compelled you to begin it at all?"

[one-good-leg]

"I think that I have intruded upon a memory that is not entirely a happy one." He watched the expressions chase themselves across her face, features which had been so impassive until now. Surprise, recognition, sadness, something else not so easily nameable. "Please, forgive me."

He paused, glancing around. "It is a pleasant evening, and I do enjoy the fragrance of the markets, but I wonder, if it is not too presumptuous of me, if we are to continue our conversation should we not find somewhere more conducive to talk?"

There were, he knew, others of their kind, young and arrogant, too impertinent to observe the courtesies, hiding among the market throng, watching them, listening, hanging on their words, hungry for morsels of gossip to barter among themselves later.

He moved towards her, wondering if he should take her arm. "I am not quite certain, now." He hesitated. "I have satisfied my curiosity. Sevraine is not here. But we are, and I am loath to return so soon and empty handed. Come, if you would, let us talk further and I will tell you what caused me to come here."

[one-good-leg]

"Oh, without doubt, madam." He nodded in agreement. "Aristotle - of course you remember - in his Nicomachean Ethics defined this as akrasia. Why else do we find ourselves in the state of acting contrary to our own deliberate choices, doing what we know to be wrong, failing to do what we know we should?

Socrates claimed that no one knowingly does wrong. He believed that if one truly understood what was good, one would naturally do it, and that wrong action is always a form of ignorance.

I have to admit, I am inclined to disagree. I have myself met, and I suspect from your words that you share the experience, those who deliberately and in full knowledge of the damage they cause, choose nonetheless to cause it. How to account for such madness? I remain at a loss, but in hope that my researches may contribute in some small way to a solution."

He paused, momentarily uncertain. "But perhaps I speak out of turn. Perhaps you were referring to some personal grief, on which I surely did not mean to intrude."

[crypticcovenmom]

Her eyes seemed to light up just the slightest, to grow bright as he spoke of his disagreement with such gym-bound intellectuals without true experience in the world.

"I am of the same mind as your sentiments. It is in our nature to err against ourselves with such clarity, to bring about the very dilemmas we agonize over after the fact. It is simple to teach a child right and wrong but it is an entirely different matter to teach them to act against their own nature in the pursuit of righteousness. Through the lens of conceit, there will always be a reason to covet, deceive, and steal. There is always the qualifier of the moment, of your unique situation.

"Your own unique passions will always outweigh righteousness but that it is why it is such a noble struggle to achieve goodness. It is only with true resolve that we can live as we are meant to, in harmony."

[one-good-leg]

"Harmony." His voice was almost wistful. "If you will forgive a further personal reminiscence, I was - long ago now - a servant... let me be frank... a slave, in the home of a great noble lady and her companion, no less a man than she. They were well matched, and for a time very much in love. But harmony..." he laughed, a sour little laugh. "Harmony was a very rare visitor in that house."

He pondered her words, silent a moment. "I wonder if true harmony can ever exist among equals? In music, after all, two equivalent notes do not make harmony, only different notes in the correct relation to each other. Discord we must strive to avoid, no doubt, but I wonder if harmony is within our grasp while we still exist."

Ahead of them, the pale stonework and dark roofs of the Collège de Sorbonne rose from among the huddle of buildings, the alleys they had followed opening into a square. Flavius brought them to a halt.

"I must make an admission. I have no appointment at this honourable institution and rather intend to gain entry by subterfuge. While I am certain that such an approach would prove no obstacle to one of your pedigree, I have no wish to insist that you squander your time or energies on the befuddlement of the scholars or the scaling of the walls. Please, I pray, feel no obligation to accompany me further, although your company has proved a most unexpected boon."

[one-good-leg]

"My son!" She darts to him and grabs him into a bear hug<3

"Mistress!" He laughs. "Mistress, please, you are... I cannot..." Arms pinned to his sides, unable to return the hug. "It is so good to see you."

[pandoratheancient]

She squeezes more but then let's go to adjust her hold under his arms so he can do his own squeezing, "Ahhh Flavius I've missed you! I've waited lifetimes to see you again!" She couldn't believe he was finally here, finally in her grasp again, the sensation was overwhelming and of course blood tears swelled in her eyes, heart bursting with ancient anticipation. Her first fledgling finally here, finally a reunion with the man who saw her through the last days of her mortality and stayed so diligent and loving at her side for the first decade of her immortality. "Flavius!" She just couldn't believe it was finally time to know him again, to learn what his life had been. Her pretty friend who so deserved her dark gift, he survived!

[one-good-leg]

"Ah, my mistress, maker, friend, how I have longed to see you!" Flavius ran a thumb gently over the swell of Pandora's cheek, brushing away the first crimson hint of a tear. "You do me too great an honour."

He draped an arm over her shoulder, returning her embrace. "It seems that so many things must have happened since last I saw you, and yet seeing you again now it is as though it were just last night and you had sent me to buy a scroll for the master. All the years fallen away. But tell me of yourself. Has time been kind in its passing?"

[pandoratheancient]

She had to concentrate to not cry more and make a mess, beaming with soft aching love as he wiped the blood from her eyes, closing them then and laying her cheek on his shoulder, still squeezing. So often she would think of him, her first made, wonder of his life, how he would have loved and made friends and had adventures. The ache to know it all had been a festering hole in her mental palace, a crack in the base floor that had caved in and she so craved to have it mended right. Finally now she could begin.

She grinned as the picture he made of their life before, nodding but still trying not to cry of joy and then of all the dark memories between then and now. She could have used his companionship in many a hard time.

She sighed heavy, pulling back to look at those darling green eyes and to take his hands, "Half the time perhaps, it's hard to quantify.... gods we have so much to talk about!" She laughed with how absurd it felt, how exhaustive it would be to get through two millennia each of catching up.

"Come to my room? We must get comfortable to begin hmmmm."

[one-good-leg]

"Madam, lead the way!" He gestured with an exaggerated grace, taking her hand and pressing it to his lips. "Forgive me. I was not sure... I was never sure... the circumstances of our parting were so harsh, so sudden, that I sometimes doubted that you would wish to see me again. But what I said on our parting I meant with my whole being, and it is a delight I did not expect to experience to be able to say it to you again, now."

He took her hand again, both of hers in both of his. "Thank you. For the Dark Gift, and for my life."

[pandoratheancient]

Her golden brown doe eyes threatened to bleed again as she listened to him, squeezing his hands in return. "You deserved it more than most. I had to grant you the most precious thing I could in return for your devoted care. I had to."

She kissed both his cheeks, "I'd say how could you believe such a thing, that I wouldn't want to see you again, but I know too well what the absence of a loved one can do to even the strongest convictions. I hold no antagonism whatsoever, believe me, it haunted me to let you go after being so reprimanded by Marius. I was a fool not to follow after you and see that you were safe. I don't even ask for forgiveness for that. But I knew your mind and new strength would be a sanctuary you could carry anywhere in the world. I was so happy for your freedom." She had to stop there, sadly smiling and obviously fighting the tears. "Yes come to my comfy nest, we'll talk forever like we are always meant to." Yes their conversations in Anticoh, with and without Marius, had been epic every time. To Pandora his gift of limitless wisdom and loyal companionship would forever be sacred.

She stayed connected with him by one hand, how could she ever let go now, some wild mythical creature may come down and pluck him away from her again and she'd have to suffer another lifetime to see him. Silly thoughts but her love was desperate and deep.

She moved them through the quiet shinning halls of the tower, a tower picked by herself for very few had taken rooms there. Her's was at the very top because always she required a large hearth for her fires. The room was dark but upon entering she lit the many candles with her mind. It was a large space and the walls were a dark forest green, dark furniture and old painting of nymphs and titans and gods and women scattered all around, clean but not tidy and neat. Little piles of books and piles of crafts moved on from for something else. Gems of all sorts decorated any level space and even hung from string in places along with many plants of ivy and more.

The whole west wall was a window and against it a red lounge chair and old wooden desk, floor lined with plants too. There were pillows and blankets before the stone hearth where she spent a lot of time, but she took him to the couch nearest there and sat with him, taking his hand and kissing like he had done hers. "Can we start at the very beginning? I want to know it all, each step, how you felt, what you saw... Where did you go that first night of eternity?"

[one-good-leg]

"That first night..." sitting beside her on the couch, her hand is his, Flavius felt again the splendour and terror of that long-ago moment. "How could I have known? How could I even have supposed to know the fear and wonder of it? I thought I knew..." he smiled at the memory of his own foolishness. "Having watched you and served you, the two of you, I thought I knew what it meant, this gift you sacrificed so much to share with me. But I knew nothing. Nothing."

"It is hard to recall how I felt, now, how confused, pale, fantastical. Do you remember the inexpressible joy of it? How every sound was like a choir, every detail on every facet of every thing a universe in itself? Do you recall how the world seemed upside down? The learning by which I had put so much store seemed but the babbling of fools, and I was glad to be a babbling fool for the babbling of fools seemed to contain the secrets of the wisdom of the ages."

He sighed, and took her other hand in his. "Mistress, I was heartbroken to be sent away from you, and yet that heartbreak felt to be the most exquisite pain and in that moment I would not have foregone it. Forgive me. Forgive me for not seeking you out, your wisdom, your guidance. I felt their lack in every moment of my new life. You ask me where I went that first night? I went nowhere. I wandered our familiar streets and courts, laughing, weeping, embracing the few fools who did not flee from me, blind to their peril and my own. I was like a drunk man, and truly I was, drunk on your precious blood."

He cast his eyes around the room, not seeing it, his mind in Antioch long ago. "But please, do not ask me to relate the tale of millennia before you tell me of yourself. I am desperate to know. Did the saving of me cost you dear?"

[pandoratheancient]

She watched her gorgeous fledgling with wonder and a rare motherly care that ached so deeply from her core. She turned away from ugly feelings of guilt in her mind, focusing solely on knowing his story now and the bright full feeling at his presence. She nodded softly at his surmised realization of knowing nothing about that life in the darkness, squeezing his hand and again nodding for she indeed recalled the glaring beauty of seeing life anew.

She frowned but cooed with love as he went on, asking for forgiveness and describing the bliss and heartbreak of that first night. She should have been with him but felt at ease now knowing what glory he had revelled in at last on his own with no master to point which way to go. Tears bloomed again, swelling as he turned his concern to herself. She took one on her blankets to rub away the blood. "Oh Flavius, you bring me so much gladness to hear you tell me these feelings. And no, it did not cost me dear. He stayed upset as a front only for a little while, but I know absolutely that he was glad of it, glad I had done it so that he didnt have to ache with knowing he could not do it himself. I know Marius would have become a wretch at your death, especially later on. You were the truest friend to us both."

She gave him a smile but felt heavy, the things she would need to talk about now were most painful things. Wounds that still stung. A deep breath and retaking his hands she continued, "Honestly, we could have used your help in time. Enemies appeared, knowing too much...." She had watched their hands together, bolstering herself for the exchange needed, and found his green gaze again after a short pause. "What were your theories about our tremendous secret, down in that temple? Did you realize when Lestat performed the secret for the world? Or had you known before?"

[one-good-leg]

He was almost ashamed of himself, he who placed such store in his learning. He knew - of course he did, all those unchanging years with Gregory and Chrysanthe and Avicus and Zenobia, each of them ageless and changeless and only ever finer, and whiter, and more like porcelain or the ivory of his own leg - of course he knew, that his beautiful mistress and maker would still be the wonder he had seen her become, sitting atop the wall of Marius' garden, young and pliant in a boy’s sashed tunic, her hair wildly free, the lines of age gone from her.

And yet, was there still some part of him that wished that he had persuaded her to return home, to come back out of Marius' garden, to never enter the lovely plastered villa that held their unimaginable fates within its walls? To return to her home, mistress and servant, mistress and slave, and together grow old and wither and die? Still he did not know the answer to that question.

"Madam, I believed... I do not quite know what I believed. At first, when the burnt thing pursued you, when all seemed madness and danger and you as if driven by some fierce spirit to seek out your own destruction, I clung to logic as though it were a bobbing timber on the storm-lashed sea. I knew that such things did not exist outside the tales I sometimes sang to you. I knew it. And yet," he broke off, gazing into her eyes.

"And yet once you had become as you now are - as we now are - and I served you both in his house, I did not know what to think. That there was some great secret I could not doubt. When, later, I spoke with Marius of Hesiod and Xenophon and Aristotle and he debated with me on the nature of the universe and the gods, I knew that I was merely peering through the keyhole of a boarded door, while he knew the vast secret that lay beyond it. But what that secret was I could not guess, not until you gave to me this Gift and I began to hear the voices, scarcely possible to believe them though it was."

For a moment he was silent. "Can I ask, now," he said, quietly. "Now, after all this time. What was it that she did to you, our Queen of Heaven?"

[pandoratheancient]

She smirked when he spoke of how she seemed to seek out her own destruction, not even knowing herself at the time that it was immortality she would win. The loving revery of his epic songs and that last night's adventure kept her lips upturned. She adored the poetry of his speech, nodding and petting his hands with her thumbs. His question made her eyes widen, at first afraid, thinking she'd be too disturbed to recall the transformative act, heartsick for how things were and what became of it all. But to be with him now, it felt good, it would be wholesome and healing to share with him what happened just beyond the walls where he stood there and waited, poor man full of fear and anxiety for her fate. He certainly deserved to know.

"Well, she called to me. Our Queen of Heaven, she saw me in Marius's mind and wanted me for him. I received cryptic dreams, like they were memories of a past life. Blood dreams, I saw her. Finding Marius in the Temple of Isis, I had to have him decode my dreams. That night-" She grinned again thinking of how desperately Flavius called for her to come out of the man's garden, and she only ignored him. "I went inside his home and took a nap." She grinned and laid back then, becoming comfortable like she had in her memory." When I woke I had heard again this flowing beat, like a sleeping heart or the flow of water, I followed it, it felt like I was still in a dream. It was a back room I found, and two huge stone doors opened on their own, a chamber beyond, another heavy door opened and there was a staircase down. All white marble. The sound was louder, and that's when you shouted to me, he had come. He was Akbar, a burnt ancient from the East, burned when the previous Egyptian guard placed Akasha and Enkil out before Amon Ra. He took me though I fought back, and he drained me, used me to make Marius let him close to the Queen. He called her Goddess Inanna." She sighed again heavily and motioned him to get closer, lifting her legs to lay and where he could sit under her knees. She then touched his cheek and then turned her hand to present her wrist. "Would you like to see my darling Flavius?"

[one-good-leg]

"I admit," he settled himself against her, marvelling at the old familiarity, "that I was in terror. For you, for he, for myself. I had thought myself a capable man, and I found myself utterly unable to act. At the time," he turned to look at her, taking the hand that she held before him, "I took it to be my greatest shame. That I had failed to protect you."

He turned her arm toward him, smooth, and cold, and lustrous, more like his own ivory leg than like living flesh. Bowing his head, he raised her wrist to his lips, gently pressing his lips against the skin before letting it fall again. "It was not long until I learned my error. That what I thought was my failing was anything but. But nonetheless I swore to myself never to forget that feeling, the desperate emptiness that overtook me when I knew that I was powerless to aid you. I swore that never again would I allow myself to be so weak that I could not stand between you and any danger that threatened you. I swore that I would face my own destruction sooner than I would ever again let anything harm you. And I promise you, Madam," he raised his face to hers, "I promise you that for as long as it were within my gift, I kept my word."

He smiled. "Of course, I soon came to understand the irony of my self-appointed task. The idea that you would need my aid, you who were become a goddess." He shook his head. "I was young, and foolish and - I think I can admit it to you now - a little in love. Still," he laughed softly, "who could have anticipated that we would both survive the dangers. We have lived through some tempestuous times, have we not?"

[one-good-leg]

.

[one-good-leg]

♡ - friendship headcanon: What does it take to be considered their friend? How many friends do they have or have they had? Were or are any of them mortal?

remember Socrates conversation with Lysis and Menexenus. “I would much rather acquire a friend than all of Darius’ gold.” I have indeed been wealthy, in that I have over the years been granted true friendship on perhaps six or seven occasions.

What does it take? Again, Socrates: “If you are wise, then everyone will be your family and friend” but amidst that, one must admit to qualifications. Socrates himself admitted to four, and experience has taught me that the truest, the longest lasting, comes between those who are relatives by the nature of their souls. When soul recognises soul, then are we in the presence of something ineffable. Poor Hippothales, who's soul would speak to Lysis', but it would not listen!

Ovid, of course, described common friendship among men. “It is shameful to say, but — if truth be told — most people value their friendships on utilitarian grounds”. A sorry state, but a true one. I have had no real friendship among mortals since I received the Gift. What commonality of soul could I find? How could I not suspect a utilitarian motive?"

[one-good-leg]

✿ - sexual/sensual headcanon: Can they have sex and what does it entail for them? How important is physical intimacy for them? Are there things they’d only do with special people?

if you recall my mistress's very frank account of her - how shall I put it? - experiment with Marius in these matters (and, I do not doubt from your own experience as well) you will know that we are able, but that the exercise is somewhat pointless. 'A sterile organ which was no more to him now than his arm' was how she described it, I think.

You may also recall that my proclivities were somewhat specialised, even in life, and I can assure you that they are only moreso now. I have embraced my nature, and my nature resides in the blood.

Physical intimacy is not of course the same thing as physical love. Although I have not sought to share my life with a romantic partner, I am no more an island than any. Donne had the right of it - you will know his Meditation XVII of the Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, of course.

As for what I would share with whom, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's.

[darknessmolten]

Vampire Chronicles Headcanon meme

☾ - resting headcanon: Where do they sleep? Do they make sure their resting place can’t be discovered easily? Do they sleep in a coffin? Do they die/rise early or late?

★ - mortal headcanon: What is an event/person/circumstance from their mortal life that significantly shaped them?

☆ - immortal headcanon: What is an event/person/circumstance from their immortal life that significantly shaped them?

☠ - anger headcanon: What riles them up? What can make them angry enough to get violent?

$ - money headcanon: How are their finances? Do they have a lot of assets? What kind of assets do they have?

✿ - sexual/sensual headcanon: Can they have sex and what does it entail for them? How important is physical intimacy for them? Are there things they’d only do with special people?

■ - housing headcanon: Where and how do they live? Do they have more than one residence? What continent/country/city do they prefer and why?

♡ - friendship headcanon: What does it take to be considered their friend? How many friends do they have or have they had? Were or are any of them mortal?

♥ - romantic headcanon: Do they fall in love easily? Who do they consider their lover/lovers? How long have they been together and what is the dynamic of their relationship/relationships?

☮ - coven headcanon: Have they ever lived with more than one other vampire? If yes, for how long and how was the dynamic? If not, would they ever want to? Why yes, why not?

♦ - quirks/hobbies headcanon: What do they occupy themselves with? Do they have any quirks that might seem strange to humans or even other immortals?

☯ - powers headcanon: How do they feel about their powers? Which of the vampire powers - mind gift, cloud gift and fire gift - can they use and how comfortable and competent are they with it?

▼ - maker headcanon: Who made them? Under what circumstances? How was their first night as an immortal for them? How is their relationship to their maker now?

∇ - fledgling headcanon: Have they turned anyone and if yes, who and why did they choose to? If not, have they ever considered it? Why or why not?

♒ - hunting/feeding headcanon: How do they choose their victims? Do they go for the little drink or do they kill? How often do they feed?

☼ - appearance headcanon: Do they ever cut or dye their hair in different styles? How about their clothes, do they follow current fashion? What is their preferred style? Does appearance matter to them, do they want to be seen as beautiful?

ൠ - Talamasca headcanon: Have they had any run-ins with the Talamasca? If yes, how did that go? What information might the Talamasca have on them? What of their old belongings might have ended up with the Talamasca?

◉ - Any other question of your choosing: Just ask whatever you’d like to know.