thoughtformed | {closed}

Entry tags:

{closed}

Who: Helen Magnus and Arthur Kirkland
What: A walk, followed by dinner.
When: After this.
Where: The Beach | Somewhere with food?
Warnings: None, as of yet.

Having slipped out of her shoes, Helen stood barefoot on the beach as she waited, musing over her reasons for being there. It was rare she allowed herself such freedom, but perhaps Arthur had been right. A few moments taken for herself wasn’t likely to result in the world collapsing, as much as it sometimes felt it might.

She still wasn’t certain why she had asked him here, why she had invited him for dinner afterward. Had she actually asked him on a date? The thought registered as absurd; she was reading too much into the offer. An offer she had made. Had she wanted it to mean more than it did?

Whatever her reasons, she couldn’t deny she was looking forward to the evening.

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Somehow, Arthur had managed to get himself roped into the school summer camp (tempted by the idea of paintball, he would tell himself), and he definitely needed to have a good session of relaxation before he attempted to deal with a camp full of screaming kids. Children had never really been his strong point.. though he would argue he'd done a pretty decent job with raising several of them.

There were, of course, a few exceptions.

He was admittedly quite looking forward to this meeting. Something in his mind hadn't yet caught on to it being a date, and he was utterly perplexed as to why his stomach was twisting in a kind of anxiety that he hadn't felt in decades. The smile on his face when he saw her, though, was certainly genuine.

"Good afternoon, Miss Magnus," he said, in gentle mocking of her insistence upon calling him 'Mr Kirkland'. "It's good to see you."

She would refrain from the formal manner of address for the time being, the gentle reminder prompting a soft laugh. "You, as well."

Collecting her shoes, she debated putting them on again, ultimately deciding to carry them instead. She was comfortable enough, and she thought she had little to hide from him. At least, in this regard. For once, she felt her professional mask was unnecessary.

"Shall we?"

Arthur had decided on a less formal manner of dress - a pair of jeans and a simple shirt unbuttoned at the collar with the sleeves rolled up instead of his usual smart suits - and he took his own shoes off for the sake of walking on the beach, tucking his socks down inside them before he straightened up and stepped to Helen's side.

He gestured for her to lead the way, but barely let her pull ahead of him, his gaze turned forwards but all of his attention on her while they walked.

"It's a pleasant enough place, if you take away the fact that we can't leave," he murmured, knowing full well what Helen meant about not letting her guard down. It was difficult to do, but Arthur had no desire to be driven mad by his own paranoia. Sometimes, he just had to take a step back.

Glancing over to her, he smiled. "Would it be too intrusive of me to ask you to tell me more about yourself?"

She was content enough to lead, well aware of his attention even if she wasn't watching him. Living so long did have an advantage or two.

"I've known many pleasant places, I'd rather not have been," she answered softly, glancing down as she walked. The question got a small tilt of her head. "That would depend on what it is you wish to know."

"Likewise, but many of them have been far worse than this."

Arthur smiled a bit and looked at her briefly, tapping the soles of his shoes against the side of his leg.

"I'd like to know more of where you come from, the kind of work you do. I can't say I've ever heard of such a thing back home, and if it was happening you could be certain that I'd know of it."

She hummed faintly in acknowledgement. "I imagine you would. While my work is kept quiet by necessity, I worked within the government's knowledge for decades."

It took a few steps more for her to continue. She didn't feel she needed to keep her work from him, but some things she wasn't ready to share.

"I've told you of the creatures I work with, that I study them in order to learn more about our own evolution." She glanced back at him. "I've seen terrible things, but there's a certain beauty underlying even the most dangerous abnormals."

"Worked?"

Oh yes, he caught on to that change of tense and his eyebrow raised slightly as he looked over at her. That was interesting. He didn't expect her to share absolutely everything with him, but that had been a bit of a big slip to make if she hadn't meant it intentionally.

"Am I to understand, then, that you pulled away from the government?"

It hadn't been entirely intentional. Not consciously, at least. But if it was a line of questioning he wished to pursue, she would tell him what he wished to know, if she did omit certain details.

"They were never satisfied, always taking more control over something they didn't understand. It couldn't be allowed to continue."

"Mm.. that sounds accurate."

Arthur had never liked that about governments. It was one thing to take orders from a monarch - he'd never had a choice in that - but to be bossed around by some pompous twerp who had only got into the position he was in because he had some money to throw around was more than a little demeaning. At least, in those cases, Arthur was always free to say no.

Even if it tended to get him into trouble. Sometimes it was just easier to let them do what they wanted. Not that they didn't do that anyway, no matter what he said.

"If they don't understand it, they'll either try to control it or destroy it."

"In their quest to achieve the first, they nearly succeeded in the second," she answered softly.

Over the course of her exceptionally long life, she had learned not to regret the decisions she made. That didn't mean certain choices didn't haunt her. However necessary they might have been.

"I wasn't going to let that happen."

"That's admirable."

Speaking from experience yet again - he did have a lot of it after all - Arthur could say that nine times out of ten, people would simply buckle under pressure. It took a special kind of person to stand up to an entire government.

"You're a rather impressive woman, Helen."

"I suspect there are many who would disagree." She did offer him a soft smile, though.

"I simply did what was required."

She had proven several times over that she would ensure the survival of her work, whatever the cost.

"What is required is often a far cry from what people are willing to do. I'm sure you're well aware of that."

He touches her arm lightly, coaxing her closer to where the tide is gently rushing up the beach. It's been a long time since he just... took a walk like this.

She follows his gentle prompting, walking closer to the waterline. It's been some time for her, as well. And a walk with pleasant company was even rarer.

"Few understand the true importance of my work, the consequences should the Sanctuary fall."

"I'm afraid that I might count myself amongst them, but it certainly isn't wilful ignorance on my part."

He was interested, that much was clear, but there was always a certain level of understanding in things like this - even far away from it all, honouring confidentiality and a certain kind of secrecy was still needed. That in mind, he wasn't about to badger her for information. After all, he wouldn't like it if someone started bothering him for national secrets.

"Of course not."

She fell quiet again. While it wasn't often she shared her work without excellent reason, these were unique circumstances. And he was a unique individual. Making her decision, she tilted her head to watch him.

"I work with monsters, Mr. Kirkland, creatures many prefer to believe exist only in the realm of fiction. Some, of course, lead relatively normal lives with no one the wiser. But not everyone can hide their true nature, and few are accepting of such pronounced differences. More than that, they're afraid. There's little more dangerous than fear bred from uncertainty.

My network acts as a buffer between our world and theirs. Without it, they would destroy each other. We protect both sides by keeping them separate; they aren't yet ready to coexist."

".. That sounds a rather splendid idea."

Arthur was being quite serious. He pushed his hands into his pockets and looked ahead of them as he thought about what she'd said.

"I've spent much of my life seeing these monsters that you say you protect. There was a time when they were very much revered, but those years are long since past. It's such a pity that so much of humankind's first reaction to that which they don't understand is to destroy it."

There was a faint hint of sadness in his voice as he said that. He'd seen the attitude develop, over centuries, and it was more prevalent now than it had ever been.

"You do good work. It would be a pleasure to have an organisation like yours where I come from."

"Fear is a powerful motivator."

A brief smile lit her eyes at his comment. "I wish more leaders shared that belief. At best, we were often considered a nuisance."

"Ah, if I were a leader.. there were many things I would change."

His own smile was faded, slightly bitter. "I am not made to rule, Helen. Only to be ruled."

Edited 2012-07-30 19:54 (UTC)

"A incredible waste of intelligence."

She shifted her focus back to the space in front of her. "Unfortunately, even leaders have their limitations. Some things can only be changed with time."

"Aha.."

Arthur had never taken compliments easily, and he was rather glad she looked away as a bright blush flooded his cheeks when she spoke. He nodded, and cleared his throat.

"I think that we would be two people who would know that better than most.

She hummed her agreement. "I've certainly learned the value of patience."

Offering a small smile, she glanced back at him. "If you've anything more to ask me, now would be the time." She was in a rare mood to answer questions

"A valuable lesson indeed."

He paused to think, then. She was a very interesting woman, and he had always found humans interesting to begin with. There were questions, of course, and many of them, but some of them were hardly appropriate to be asking on a first date, even if he was terribly curious.

"I wonder if it might be too much to ask for you to tell me how you became so long-lived?"

"Ah." It was a soft sound, barely audible, and it took several steps for her to continue. "During my time at Oxford, I was a part of something. A group of students, bound together by a desire to push the boundaries of science. I knew of my father's work by then, and I was able to obtain a rare sample of blood. We were young, foolish, and we wanted to make our mark on the world. Even more, we wanted to see what we could become."

She shook her head, briefly squeezing her eyes shut. They couldn't have known the results of their experiment, but she sometimes wonders if they would have gone through with it if they had.

"We injected ourselves with a serum I devised from pure vampire blood. I don't believe we fully understood the consequences. The effects were different for each of us, and mine was perhaps the simplest." She stopped to look at him, then. "I won't live forever, Arthur, but I could have decades more, centuries even. That might be the most difficult knowledge to carry."

Arthur wouldn't have pressed her for an answer to that question, but the answer he did get surprised him more than any conclusions he might have come to himself. A small line creased between his eyebrows as he listened to her explain her experiments, and what they'd done to her, and when she stopped, he did too, hooking his thumbs over the top of his trousers.

"I have to say I'm rather curious as to where you managed to get vampire blood.."

He'd only ever met one vampire, and the man was another nation like himself. They were secretive creatures, from his experience.

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