video

[sleepingstar]

[ video ]
[She had meant to select the voice option, but it's hard to use the device properly when you are completely covered in blood. She's curled up in the bathtub, having tried to wash the blood off in the shower to no avail.

She doesn't look upset, though. Perhaps mildly annoyed. She doesn't like leaving a mess, but it's kind of impossible to avoid.]

Does anyone know how to get bloodstains out of a mattress? [Eternally practical. Her nightgown is a lost cause, as are her sheets, but they're cheap enough to replace. Mattresses get a bit more pricey.]

Comments

[mortemscintilla]

They have a monopoly on the blood-trade Underground. There's few better alternatives.

[ But enough about these snotty NPC vampires. ]

Once the curse ends, I'll take you to a pet store.

[ Not a non sequitur, when you consider Hei's thought-process, and the concerns that keep cropping up where Pai is concerned. ]

[sleepingstar]

[Pai gives him a small, puzzled look.]

What would I do with a pet? [It's not like you do much with your lizard, brother, except spend money feeding it.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hey. He and the lizard exist in a state of harmonious indifference. It's a beautiful thing. ]

Anything you want to do. [ There's a smile in his voice, a little dry and a little playful. How does the Buddhist folk medicine go? Having trouble with human relationships? Try plants and animals. Hei's reasons for getting Pai a pet aren't that straightforward, true. But there's such a dearth of activities in the City, that she'd enjoy. She'll spend her time living like a middle-aged matron stuck in beleaguered post-war UK, if this carries on -- caught in a head-space where it rains all the time and there is a ration on sugar. At least, it seems that way to Hei -- a stale, drab, isolated existence. The air in the house might as well be suffused with some soporific drug -- even on the sunniest, freshest day, with all the windows open, all Pai seems to do at home is nap and loll. Sometimes they bake together, colorful sugary cakes with inches of icing, sheets of gooey cookies. He feels vaguely proud of those co-productions -- like they seem to indicate that she's still a normal girl, because isn't it the height of girliness, to manipulate sugar into shapes? Is supposed to have something to do with love. ]

[ It's absurd, of course. They eat most of what they've baked while watching TV, and there's never much to show for those lighter moments. Nothing worthwhile to offer her. That's the way it is. Nothing to offer. It fills him with pangs of sympathy and loneliness for her, like splinters cutting his palm. ]

[sleepingstar]

......but there's nothing I want to do with a pet. [She knows what he's trying to do, the problem he's trying to solve. But a pet isn't going to change the fact that she's the only Contractor in the city, or that there is nothing she can do with her abilities and her intellect. A pet will only demand affection that she can't give it and waste money on food and other necessities. They're affluent in the City, true, and can certainly afford the expense of an animal, but that doesn't mean they should just throw their money down the toilet.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ He knows the pet won't change anything. He and Pai aren't normal people -- whatever the word normal encompasses. They're trained to be living weapons, dangerous and finely-honed to the exclusion of all else. In the City's cloistered environment, it's inevitable that they'll feel marginalized, their talents stymied. Pai, in particular, is fresh off the terrain of Heaven's War. Nocturnal prowling in the Underground, peaceful outings with Hei, the distractions of curses, help only so much. Situational awareness for countering potential threats is one thing. Existing in a state of hyper-alertness, 24-7, because you can and will be killed if you slacken your guard ... ]

[ That's something else entirely. ]

[ Everything Hei is introducing to Pai ... it isn't a cure. It's a palliative. But it's still better than nothing. ]

You'll think of something, once you get one. [ A beat. ] Any animal -- or creature -- you like.

[sleepingstar]

[He says that like there's a kind of animal she would like, except she's incapable of caring. Dog, cat, rabbit, goat -- they're all equally useless to her.

She shrugs.]

I need rainboots, a rain slicker, and a wide brim hat. [Perhaps that way, she'll manage to get to the Underground with minimal fuss.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ There's so much in the City that's useless, if they're focused solely on pragmatism and functionality. Hell, things like TVs, a full fridge, Imugi, air-conditioning -- Hei knows they could do without all that, too. But back home, the asceticism was a matter of necessity, not choice. Granted, he and Pai are hardly extravagant types. It's not in their natures to gravitate to frivolity. For another, there's a difference between Hei's streamlined self-denial, and Pai's minimalistic, Contractorly apathy. But ... ]

[ But he wishes she had something to call hers. Something to lay claim on, other than a strange, moody, volatile sibling who still doesn't know himself. ]

[ When she shrugs, he knows she's not changing the subject so much as dismissing it completely. He doesn't argue, though. It's one thing to be concerned about her isolation. It's another to force those concerns, those ideas of her, down her throat. Instead, with an exhale -- not defeated but conceding -- he straightens. ]

I'll see what I can find.

[sleepingstar]

[She nods in acknowledgement, and while Hei goes to rustle up the waterproof clothing, she slips out of her blood-soaked clothing. There's really no point to wearing it anymore, and she'd feel more comfortable naked. The pet subject has been completely dismissed from her thoughts; the discussion is over, no need to spend any more time thinking about it.]