“Wake-up, ugly!” Alexei’s method of rousing Kvornan was always to first imagine firing a cannon at bowling pins and then to recreate the effect vocally where Kvornan represented the pins and Alec, the cannon. Kvornan’s eyes shot open.
“What is it?” Kvornan pressed the bridge of his nose with the heel of his hand, squinting groggily.
“What is it?” Alexei parroted. “What is it? Why it’s only the first respectable snow of the year! Check it out. It’s sticking and everything.” Alexei perched above Kvornan’s bed wearing a smile that eagerly awaited some form of reciprocal enthusiasm. Kvornan knitted his brow in confusion, turning over and murmuring a phrase in Ashkay that Alexei would later learn translated to ‘your mother's cunt is choked with the seed of dogs’. Alexei grabbed a handful of Kvornan’s blanket and tugged, finding it unnaturally immovable. "What have you done to your bedding, mate?"
"Asshole-proofed it," Kvornan muttered, drawing the sheets around his chin.
"You're no fun." Alexei pondered saddling his roommate and pulling the covers down from that position but he knew that the attempt would be futile. Rejected, Alexei returned to his post at the window.
The powdered world was serene, beautiful even. Hours seemed to pass as Alexei watched the asphalt disappear. Early morning snow reminded him of sand. Sand brought to mind an often revisited memory—Black saltwater waves. Kvornan’s breath suspended in the night air. Shelter beneath a tower of beveled glass. "Remember that time we had to spend the night on Amrita Beach?" Alexei offered.
"You mean three weeks ago?” Alexei’s gaze traced the window frame while his mind skipped backwards through a series of recently filed memories until he reached Amrita.
"Oh right. So it was. Seems like longer though, doesn't it?"
"No." His tone was heavy, flat. They never discussed Amrita Beach, not even as it was happening. From that night on, they were bound by a mutual understanding that was intrinsic to the situation and therefore warranted no discussion. Alexei had seen his friend transform the very ground beneath him from sand to glass in a matter of seconds and now every word, every moment, every glance that passed between them would recall Kvornan’s divinity. Amrita Beach was for Alexei a souvenir in a crystal display case with a caption that read: Death eats at your table. Death shaves his head with your razor. Death watches your television screen. Death never laughs at your jokes.
Antoine questioned whether Alexei knew what he was doing in bringing Kvornan into their lives. The truth, which Alexei admitted freely to himself, was that he did not know but he was already too invested in the other man. Alexei could not have walked away even if Kvornan returned home to Ethelden. Not if, Alexei reminded himself. When. Kvornan twisted in his sheets.
"You want me go so you can get back to sleep?"
"Pointless. I am very much awake now, thank you."
"Oh good!" Alexei beamed at Kvornan, who made an annoyed, guttural sound. He sat up in bed.
"What are we doing today anyway?" Kvornan asked.
"I don't know. Antoine and I thought we might catch a show tonight. You want to go?"
"Sure. I read in the paper that Ursula Paris is singing at Golding's tonight." Alexei rolled his eyes at the announcement.
"Pssh, she ain't kin. You want to hear real Rock and Roll, Big Meggie's playing down at the Swan Dive around seven. Your girl could never hold a note like Meg." Kvornan smirked with his eyes alone.
"Ursula's better looking though,” he said. Alexei shook his head.
"I disagree. She’s got nothing to grab onto. Big Meg's a real woman. But who cares what she looks like? When she starts singing, Yoouuu ain't noth'n but a hound dog! Quit snoop'n 'round my door! everyone in the joint goes mad. Meg could look like a walrus in a frock and still go home with anyone she wanted. Damn. One thing's for sure-- If she ever let me anywhere near her door I'd do a lot more than snoop." Kvornan bit his lip, concealing what Alexei suspected was a chuckle.
"I've never heard you speak this way before," Kvornan said.
"What? About broads?"
"No. Like a Townie. 'She ain't kin’?"
"Oh!" Alexei laughed airily, feeling self-conscious. "No escaping who you are, I suppose." Kvornan kicked aside a bit of the afghan that had tangled its self around his ankle.
"Do you still consider yourself a Townsman?" Alexei began rocking on his heels.
"’Course I do."
"You say that as though it were obvious."
"Isn't it though? We don't live in Millhaven for our health, Vince."
"But surely you're outside of the caste system as a vampire?"
"Legally, yes. Socially, never. I couldn't pretend to be a Res if I wanted to. Townie is more than a caste. It's a state of mind." Silence. Kvornan looked up at nothing in particular.
"I was born a Townsman," he said. Alexei stopped his rocking.
"Really? I believe it, actually. You look like a Townie." Kvornan knitted his brow, more in humor than in confusion.
"What does a Townie look like?" Alexei shrugged.
"I don't know but you have the look."
"So are we going to the Swan Dive tonight?"
"Yeah but don't talk when you're there. The whole illusion of Vincent Randall sort of evaporates the second you open your mouth."
"I'll tell them that I’m a Resident and that I’m there because Emilia and I are lovers."
"Two things wrong with that. One, people will be pissed that you would parade that around and two, Emilia isn't even going. Best to keep quiet. And you can't pretend to be with me, I'll be browsing the buffet. And you can't pretend to be with Antoine because everyone knows that he lost the key to his chastity belt decades ago."
"When you say 'browsing the buffet' do you mean--" Alexei interrupted Kvornan with a wince.
"Just flirting. It was a poor choice of words. I don’t play with my food."
"What if I want to order a drink?"
"Sorry?"
"I'm not allowed to speak."
"You can order but no prolonged conversations. I'm serious. Your accent makes you sound like a professor of religion."
"I was a professor of religion."
"My point exactly. Forget who you were. You're Vince the Townie now."
Yeah, Kvornan would stick out like a sore thumb at any Townie gathering if he opened his mouth :S
ReplyDelete2051 Alexei is amusing. He's like a little kid, all excited about the first snow and thinking three weeks ago was another lifetime and keeping a teddy bear on his bed (at least, I'm assuming that's his bed). And then he starts talking about what he would do if Big Meggie showed up at his door :P
Antoine needs to get laid :P His concerns are valid, though, and that's especially obvious given the advantage of dramatic irony.
I know, right? Poor Kvornan at this point has isolated himself so thoroughly that he really has no idea how to act around anyone, let alone a bunch of Pleasantview Townies. He is starting to get comfortable with Alexei-poo though. Alec is simple and that is what Kvornan needed-- Someone who likes dancing and lager, candy and snow. Kvornan still thinks that Alexei is strange but in a good way.
ReplyDeleteYep, that's Alec's bed and bear! He doesn't sleep clutching the bear or anything, it just kind of gets tossed around. Sometimes, Alec even hides it in Kvornan's cot to annoy him. :p
Oh boy, if you were to ask Alexei, he would tell you (in 2074 as well as in 2051 as well as ALWAYS) that source of Antoine's grumpiness and tiresome piety is just that he needs to get laid. And there might be some truth to that. :p More Antoine to come, much to Veron's delight.
Thanks, Van!!! :D
"More Antoine to come, much to Veron's delight."
ReplyDeleteDAMN STRAIGHT. SQUUUEEEEEHEHEHEHEHE!
Kvornan. Looks. Like. A. Bum.
And I really enjoy hearing Alec talk about broads.
And will personally go searching for the key to Antoine's chastity belt.
And I'm with Van. This is just such a clear example of the dichotomy that is Alexei. He's a man and yet he's still got this boyish charm to him.
I am soooo excited for their bar trip. So. friiggin. excited.
Okay put pause. Is it really kosher fo Alexie poo face to go sniffing around townie tail? Yes he still considers himself townie, but in grand scheme... with the caste system and all...
ReplyDeleteI guess if he woke up next to someone and confessed that he was not really a Townie but in fact a vampire, his caste would be the least of that person's worries. :o His friendship with the Sheut is a lot more scandalous.
ReplyDeleteI laughed so hard, Veeroni. Kvornan IS a bum! Sort of. I mean, he is living with the Garrisons right now and he could go back to Ethelden at any time but before this, he had been squatting for a couple of years. He only has like 3 changes of clothing apart from what he borrows from Antoine.
Alexei's childishness comes out in a lot of ways, some of which are a little grating for Kvornan. His tendency to ask, in all innocence, really profound and depressing questions always throws Kvornan for a loop. "Can you still love someone after they've died?" "At what point did you get to be so heartbroken that you stopped noticing all the good in the world?" Things like that.
OH! I FORGOT A NOTE ON THIS CHAPTER!
"[He or she] ain't kin." is Townie slang meaning that the person in question is not a Townie. The implication is that the person, as a Resident, does not maintain a certain level of authenticity or street cred'. Ursula Paris is not a Townie, ergo she can't rock. This phrase is a little dated, even in 2051.
This really is a different side of Alexei these last couple of posts. He is so...amusing.
ReplyDeleteI imagine it must be difficult for Kvornan to go anywhere and hide who he is. This bar trip should be quite interesting.
Sorry I haven't been commenting but I most certainly have been reading.
Amusing is a good word for it. There are a couple of adjectives that I try to keep in mind when writing Pre-Kvornan Fiasco Alexei: simple, bubbly, warm. I may have to add amusing to the list and make simple more tentative. He certainly has a simple exterior and to some extent a simple interior but there is still an amount of depth and perceptiveness to him that probably comes from age. My other reference point for Alexei is just something that Wyn thought about him briefly in Chapter 66: "Boy always was stupid as hell." :p
ReplyDeleteThe bar trip promises to be both fun and long.
No worries at all, Gayl! I am pleasantly surprised that people are still following along at all, considering the frequency of my updates. Thank you, as always!! XD