Four!

[tobeajedi]

Who: Vima Sunrider, waking up from hiatusy coldsleep.
Broadcast: Video
Action: On the Heron.
When: 12/2

[Vima rubs her face and groans, making a face because wow, did she brush her teeth last night? And then her eyes pop open wide. When did she get back on the ship? She looks around... something is different. It's warmer, for one thing.

And then she spots the flat, circular portrait holoprojector laying on the bunk... she picks it up and she's about to turn it on when she notices her comm is broadcasting. She makes another face--obviously Atroma wanted to see her emotional reaction--but she might as well make use of it.]

Hey, if anyone's picking this up.

Is everyone else back on their ships? Have our hosts said anything yet? [there's a pause as she goes back through a few posts... uh...] I think I overslept.

Comments

[tobeajedi]

I'd only be interested in a marriage I arranged myself. [she knows about arranged marriages but they sound like garbage to her tbh. there's better ways to deal with diplomatic issues.]

For me? I'm honored--but I think I'd have to have a crack at it first.

[stefanged]

[He hesitates, letting out a bit of a sigh] I used to say that myself, but if you take charge of it, it's not so bad. If I hadn't met my girlfriend, I would've been in one myself.

Even in your sleep, Vi?

[tobeajedi]

[She raises her eyebrows; that's not entirely the reaction she expected.] Really? What's it like?

Sure! Maybe. You could wake me up first and then I could try.

[stefanged]

Uh.... [A lot of words come to mind. "Normal," "not as soul crushing as stories told you," etc. He tilts his head, trying to figure out how to best put this.] Anticlimactic.

It's a lot less "marrying someone you hate" and a lot more "sifting through paperwork to find someone who'd make a perfect match." If I wasn't a reincarnation, I would've gone through with my marriage, but I - I couldn't put her through that.

[There's a bit of a longer story, of him finding (and subsequently breaking up with) another girl, but the bigger idea was "not wanting to put an innocent in danger because they knew him."]

[tobeajedi]

Hah, paperwork isn't climatic at all. But anticlimatic is okay for real life.

I... guess it would be a lot, to get married to a person who used to be someone totally different. [Like. If her mom was a reincarnation of Jori Daragon, or something.] I hope the fallout from it wasn't too painful... were you able to tell her the real reason?

[stefanged]

[He shakes his head] Not entirely. I wanted to - and she figured out most of it, when I ended up on the news - but I couldn't. Not the part about living two different lives.

Back home, uh, most people think that being "Numbered" means you have superpowers. Not a lot of them know about the reincarnation thing, and where I'm from, it's against our religion to believe in them.

[tobeajedi]

Oh. Well, uh, getting broadcast on live holo--TV, I mean--would kind of blow your cover there.

That has to be a strange feeling, not to believe in something that you know exists. [Like someone not believing in the Force.] Never mind people thinking you can do superhuman things.

[stefanged]

Just a bit.

[He nods, though he does have the decency to look embarrassed]

Islam has this big belief in - in all lives being different. There's no "cycle" of people dying and living again as a new person, and the last time we talked about this... I kind of think you're right. Maybe I wasn't reborn as someone else.

[tobeajedi]

[Vima considers this for a moment, trying to piece it into her own understanding of life and death. As... far as she's experienced, the spirit stays itself after death.

She thinks back to that conversation and how he described "regaining" bits of his old life.]

Do you think maybe it was... artificial? That the thing that "brought" you to the different Earth took someone else's memories and gave them to you?

[stefanged]

It's possible. Whoever brought me to Earth could've given me the life of an identical stranger. My soul remains intact and they've got the warrior they need.

[He gives a slow, reluctant shrug.] But I don't want that whole thing to be artificial, because then my memories aren't really mine. I'm both Salvatore and Alesci, so I want to honor those two lives and... I don't know, figure out what works for me.

[Whoever that is.]

[tobeajedi]

Yeah... there are worthwhile things in both lives. [She considers him for a moment.] People talk about "the new me" when they learn something new or have a change in a single life. Maybe you could think of it like that, just... more literal.

[and, you know, totally un-volunteered-for.]

I mean... reincarnation happens after you die, doesn't it? Did Salvatore die?

[stefanged]

Only requirement of reincarnation, right? He sure did.

[For a certain definition of it. That guy had the worst luck when it came to staying alive.]

I don't remember everything about my past life - it comes in bits and pieces, and sometimes in whole chunks because Elena's here - but he was uh. He was a character.

[tobeajedi]

You're a character now. [Sounds strange, though, having a whole life coming back in fits and starts. And it's not really nice to know that he died, even if... he got better.] Okay, so... you did meet the requirement, not sure I want to ask what happened.

Did you look the same when you were Salvatore?

[stefanged]

Gee, thanks. [He'd elbow her, but he feels like it would kill the moment.]

Yes... and no. Salvatore was a lot younger than me. [Technically speaking, since vampire.] He was seventeen when he died, but I'm twenty four.

[tobeajedi]

[Vima's eyes widen. Seventeen? He was just three years older than she is now.]

That's too young to die!

[seriously, thank goodness for reincarnation in that case.]

[stefanged]

Yeah. [He caves into temptation and pulls her in for another hug.] Yeah, it was.

Thankfully, he still got to... [he pauses] Vi, how much do you believe in other supernatural stuff? Like werewolves and vampires and stuff?

[tobeajedi]

[She hugs back. Him being a reincarnation would mean thst, but she had never thought he had been killed that early in life.]

Um... I don't know. I think I might have a different view of the supernatural than some people.

[What with rhe Force and all.]

[stefanged]

Um, well... [He doesn't quite pull away, even though he knows he should. He kind of needs this more than he's willing to admit.] Back home, they existed, and they were pretty commonplace.

It turned out that even though Salvatore died at seventeen, he uh, didn't die for real. He became a vampire instead.

[tobeajedi]

[Didn't die for real? Okay, now Vima gets the question about the supernatural. People in her life have become Force ghosts, but... it was still quite final.]

...And... being a vampire isn't all the way dead? [She pokes lightly at his chest.] You keep the body?

[stefanged]

Sure did. [He laughs, baring his fangs so she can see them. No true vampire face yet. He's not interested in scaring her with the truth.] See, if you die with a vampire's blood in your body... you kind of become one too.

It happened to Salvatore, and then to me. Completely unrelated circumstances, same end result.

[tobeajedi]

[She lets go and leans back to get a better look. This isn't the same as just being a Near-Human, then.]

I'm sure that's not a coincidence.

What does it mean to be a vampire?

[stefanged]

It means a lot of things. [He lets the fangs retract, if only so he can kep talking to her without an awkward vampire lisp] Vampire traits aren't consistent, and there will be a lot of people who try to convince you that they're bad. That we're - they're nothing but trouble.

[His voice's quiet, like he doesn't want to have this conversation with her, which may be why he reaches for her hands. He's trembling, even with that physical touch.]

Because uh, Vi - being a vampire means that you live forever, but in order to do that, you have to drink blood. Human blood, animal blood, substitute fake blood, it's all the same to some people.

[tobeajedi]

Oh, well. If that's all, I don't usually listen when someone tries to give me that kind of warning.

[She takes his hands when he reaches out, though--geez, he's shaking. What the heck have people done to him?

And when he talks about what kind of sustenance he needs... what, possibly, has he done himself? It's not a question out of fear, but she wonders.]

That's... one heck of a requirement. But I'm just making a guess that you drink the animal or substitute blood.

[stefanged]

Yeah, Atroma gives me blood substitute instead of protein. [Honestly, Stefan's not sure which tastes worse. His shaking subsides at how well she's taking this, and he's not sure if that's good or bad.]

I would've told you a lot sooner, but... ["But I was scared." The words hang on his tongue, so he instead says,] I guess I was waiting for the right time.

[tobeajedi]

I guess it does one good thing, then. I bet it's not much better than the protein goop the rest of us have to eat, though.

[Good, he seems like he's calming down. Vima grins--she can guess why he would have held off, if he had bad past experiences. And to be sure, "I have to drink blood" is a big deal to tell someone. But he's a sentient being, not a rancor or some other mindless predator.]

You don't have to worry. Trust me, being a decent person in the present is a lot more important than your species.