𝔴𝔢 𝔢𝔳𝔦𝔩 𝔳𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔞𝔦𝔫𝔰 𝔲𝔰𝔲𝔞𝔩𝔩𝔶 𝔲𝔰𝔢 𝔪𝔦𝔫𝔦𝔬𝔫𝔰 𝔱𝔬 𝔭𝔦𝔠𝔨 𝔲𝔭 𝔬𝔲𝔯 𝔡𝔯𝔶 𝔠𝔩𝔢𝔞𝔫𝔦𝔫𝔤 ♚ contact

[interminably]

@klaus.mikaelson | ■ ▲ ◌ ▼

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[snipedt]

[ He wants to ask questions, a lot of them, but the issue is that he doesn't really know where to start. Frowning a little, he sniffs, lifting his head, fixing Klaus with a serious look that isn't overtly hostile. ] Can we finish cookin' first?

[interminably]

Certainly.

( This he has no problem with, removing his hand finally and returning to his task. He finishes the shrimp in the pan, tilting so the olive oil reaches every piece. He turns the shrimp as they go. At times, he does look to Tim, watches him shop or prepare the vegetables he'd chopped in the pan Klaus provided. At one point, Klaus puts the top of his pan to steam a little but and keep the shrimp juicy as he takes another sip from his wine, again, glancing at Tim behind his back.

It's not long before their ready and he pours them over a colander. Taking it in his hand, he shakes, letting the excess oil out before collecting them into a bowl and moving that bowl to the square-shaped dining room table. )

[snipedt]

[ In the quiet, Tim has a lot of time to think. This whole place is so fucking weird and he never gives himself enough rope on that score. It's weird, and most of the people here are from worlds so far removed from his own that he can't even begin to comprehend it. Maybe having similar comprehension issues with the world that he now lives in is what's keeping him from just dissolving entirely – it's like a barrier, somehow, keeping him from a complete mental breakdown.

So by the time the food is ready, Tim's... not exactly clear-headed on things, but significantly less unsteady. He has another sip of his wine, which tastes fine, actually, it's nothing special but he can stomach it, and turns around to lean against the counter. Sitting down at the table seems presumptuous, somehow.

He's not terrible at interrogating people. That's not to say he wants this to be an interrogation, but it's how he feels comfortable. If Klaus is going to blindside him, on purpose or otherwise, then he doesn't want to just roll over to that. ]

Okay. You said everythin' you are is because of magic. What are you?

[interminably]

( There food is on the table, their pans on the stove. They stand, oddly in two separate places, but in the same apartment. So, Klaus waits. He doesn't sit yet, either.

He asks a very direct question, so Klaus gives a direct answer. )

I was born a werewolf, although my father and siblings were not aware. My mother had had an affair with a man in the neighboring village. Not long after settling in Virginia, by way of Norway, our brother Henrik died. On the night of the full moon, I'd taken him out of our village. You can guess what happened. Our mother was distraught, and determined not to lose any more of her children. She made it so that our lives couldn't end. There was no word for it then, but I believe the term you may have heard of to be, vampire. ( He knows the term, he just doesn't know how pop-culture obsessed Tim is, or if vampires exist in his reality. ) I'm half werewolf, half vampire. I called myself a hybrid. The hybrid.

[snipedt]

[ He should have been prepared for that, on some level at least. Nate already told him about vampires — or at least the one that bit him — and he's had more than enough time to deal with magic considering he has a power now, even if he can barely control it and doesn't really know what it is. But hearing it all at once is... a lot to take in.

Tim doesn't say anything for maybe a minute, his jaw working softly as he takes it in. ]

So d'you – like, turn into a wolf?

[ Maybe he'll freak out about this later. Really freak out, not just stand still, gently nonplussed, chewing the inside of his cheek. He remembers wondering if Klaus could see his heartbeat racing sometime and it worries him a little that maybe he could. ]

[interminably]

( Klaus can, if his heartbeat for quickening. )

It's not my preferred form, but before it was stripped of me thanks to an invasive neural implant, I could. It is not something to be trifled with or taken lightly. In short, you break every bone in your body in order to achieve the transition. Once you're a wolf, there's nothing like it. The freedom.

[snipedt]

[ Tim pulls a face; he can't really help it. He glances over at Klaus, his lips pulled up a little at one corner. Weirdly, he hasn't had much exposure to the fact that some people lose powers when they come here, instead of just gaining them. ] So d'you need, like... blood?

[interminably]

It's a bit crass thinking of it like that, as I can still taste and enjoy real food. But, yes. Blood sustains me. Without it, I would desiccate. ( He only lets one moment pass before adding. ) You and every other person here is safe from me. I'm not the rabid sort. El has arranged for blood.

( He keeps back how classy he always was about it, compelling those whose wrists they fed from. Usually from glasses. But, with a daughter in tow, they did store their blood. They still drank from glasses. )

[snipedt]

[ Tim's eyes narrow a little. He's just going to get the dumb questions out of the way first, don't mind him. ] Could you turn into a bat?

[interminably]

( His ) No ( Comes out among the laugh he doesn't keep in. ) Garlic does nothing. Likewise, crosses.

[snipedt]

Okay. Just coverin' my bases here in case you turn on me. [ Which is a concern, but only in the sense that Tim doesn't reserve a whole lot of trust for most people without proof. ] D'you have fangs? Can't see any right now but then I ain't ever done a very thorough inspection of your teeth, so.

[interminably]

( He does set his glass down, then, and turns back. ) And is that something you've been wanting to do?

[snipedt]

Tim blows out a breath through his nose, close to a laugh. Not even a little bit. Just wonderin'.

[interminably]

( Okay. ) I do have fangs, but they aren't always apparent. I have to ... show them.

[snipedt]

[ Tim's eyebrows lift up a little, and he nods. ] Right. And – [ Okay, here's the big one. ] How old are you?

[interminably]

( One more. Beat. ) Over a thousand years.

[snipedt]

Shit, man.

[ He can't help it, it just blurts out before he can temper himself. He'd been expecting maybe a couple hundred at most, for some fucking reason. ]

Well, you look great.

[interminably]

Thank you, Timothy. You don't look so bad yourself.

[snipedt]

I'm told I have a baby face. This ain't about me, though. [ Their food is getting cold. Tim has another sip of wine. ] How are you not sick to death of bein' alive right now?

[interminably]

Well, truth be told I recently died. For good. And from dying, I came here. I see it as a second chance at raising my daughter which is, honestly, still more complicated then the thousand years I spent on Earth. ( He does pick up the glass again, moving back to the table. ) Over the years I've sampled all of life's pleasures. I've learned and studied. I ran for some time, for my life and my family's lives. Stick around for long enough and there's always something new to discover, always another purpose that sustains you. ( He sits then, gesturing for Tim to sit as well. ) I had thought I was done with it, with all of it. I actually felt at peace. ( And now, back out of his head. ) And here I am again. With Hope. And, with you. I believe the shrimp may be cooling off.

[snipedt]

[ The whole time Klaus is speaking, Tim's kind of silently begging him to say something that isn't so heavy, so when he mentions the shrimp Tim practically leaps on it, moving over to the table and dropping down into a seat. He places his wine glass very carefully on a coaster, avoiding looking at Klaus while everything else he said rests quite heavily in the air between them, a presence he can almost feel.

It's hard for Tim to engage with people on this kind of level; he did all of his growing up in situations where people just don't talk to each other like this. No time for feelings. He was never especially open as a child, but almost a decade in the army plus a few years being raised exclusively by his father after his mom got sick – those things will change a person. He wonders if he would have been any different if he hadn't enlisted. Probably he would've. Either way, he would've gotten out from under his father's thumb, probably gone to college somewhere and grown up normally. He's bitter, sometimes, and annoyed at the non-existence of this hypothetical Better Tim, who can express his feelings properly, who doesn't clam up so tight around people he likes, who maybe wants things like dates and boyfriends, who can sleep past six thirty and doesn't have to regiment his life strictly enough that sometimes it feels like he's living in a prison he made for himself.

To distract himself from all of that, Tim picks up a fork, stabs a single shrimp on the end of it, and eats it. ] This is good, [ he says, which isn't an answer to anything Klaus said, except maybe that last thing about the shrimp. It takes more effort than he'd be willing to admit to clear his throat and add, ] What d'you mean, you died?

[interminably]

I died. For good. I am an Original vampire, and indestructible at that, but one thing, the ash from a white oak tree that my mother used to help -- make us like we were, can kill us.

( This, he tries not to make sound as heavy as he pours some vegetables on his plate and sets the bowl back down. )

[snipedt]

[ He hadn't even meant that, but maybe it makes sense, that he's not so easily killed. Except for when he is, apparently. Tim scoops some vegetables onto his own plate and nibbles at one thoughtfully. ] Y'know, [ he says, around a smile, ] I could slip on a banana peel walkin' down the street and die. You just said indestructible so easily.

[interminably]

I did, didn't I. And, if you died with vampire blood in your system, you'd wake up in transition. One drop of human blood and you too would live forever. Forever and indestructible are quite normalized for us.

[snipedt]

[ That makes him laugh, another little exhale around a grin. ] You sound like you're sellin' it to me. Like, "for just twelve instalments of $49.99 you too can be immortal as fuck."