Edward-Carlise Historical OOM's Two

[themidnightson]

Time is inconsequential to them.

Time bends and breaks and folds in their different world.

There is no falling asleep, no waking up, only the times when Carlisle works or the time when they cannot be outside in the sunshine or time to hunt again. The rest is the same endless, spinning free open time, that hasn't closed since Edward opened his eyes in that small dank apartment. The same endless, spinning free open time which will be afforded to him for all of eternity.

---

Time is inconsequential to them.

They are both at the beginning of something terrifyingly and wonderfully new.

Carlisle counts the months and keeps track while Edward delights in an endless exploits of an edgeless world. They hunt wild game across the border in Canada, and aside from Carlisle showing up one last time to the hospital to resign his position and make sure Edward Masen's death certificate is never filed, they abandon Chicago entirely. There is nothing left there but dying people, and while Carlisle is still drawn to easing the burden of those suffering people, his action that night has already chosen who he will help first.

It's an entirely new world. A century had come and gone since Carlisle had anything resembling a peer and never had he had a companion who brooked no complaint at his habits, nor whom had chosen to resolutely follow them alongside him. Edward, free of all but the faintest, blurry shadows of life behind him, found himself in a leisure he'd never known.

---

Time is inconsequential to them.

Especially in those moments right after they've glutted their fill for the evening. When everything is smooth and calm, surrounded by the unquiet nature that is aware of the monsters in its midst.

Sitting on a boulder, Edward fingered the rip in his bloodied shirt, unnoticed earlier in his enthusiasm for the fight and subjugation of the now still and empty carcass of a large elk. "I think we could leave now."

Comments

[themidnightson]

It's no more or less than he expected.

Edward followed beside him, keeping his walk and glancing around as casual as he could. After a few seconds he said, "That way."

It was hard to tell with all the racket sometimes, but many of the words and pictures had to do with articles and the keeping of books. It wasn't so easy to pick them all apart, having to wait for repetitions of certain images or words.

"I think."

[ofthefamily]

Carlisle moving through the building is disorienting. The layout is wrong, but it isn't. He has to constantly remind himself of his role as visitor.

This isn't his life anymore; hasn't been for a long while.

The library is their next stop. Carlisle smiles at the smell of the books, speaking to Edward again.

There should be a decent amount of information here about the City itself, if you're interested. I think I will take a walk around the room instead of sitting.

[themidnightson]

Edward murmured an agreement, the sound lost in the doors being gently swung open. There were Fitted huge, well maintained oak bookcases but he stopped first near a large framed map on the wall.

[ofthefamily]

The map is well-preserved, but still a replica.

A replica of a map pre-dating the Fire.

Carlisle breezes past it, trying to appear nonchalant when he points to a neighborhood in an eastern district of the city.

[themidnightson]

Edward glanced up, looking at the sector pointed to for a few longer seconds. The end of the beginning or the beginning of the end?

He studied it for a few more seconds, at least hovering long enough to make her perusal of the document seem humanly curious. Then walked along one row of the bookcases reading titles slowly. He picked up one and scanned the first two pages, glancing up halfway through to keep track of Carlisle.

[ofthefamily]

Carlisle's frozen at a display case.

Altar Cross, wooden
circa 1650

Donated by M. Benifici

It's older, Carlisle thinks to himself dumbly.

[themidnightson]

A cross?

Golden glance moved his way again before looking down at the book's thin sheet of paper. His eyes studied the weave of the page as he struggled to get his thoughts to stay near the image in Carlisle's thoughts, against the loud wrinkle of surprise and....other things.

[ofthefamily]

It shouldn't be here.

Loud and factual and hard, for about a million reasons.

If it's here, the church is gone. Whether it was in the Fire or some other atrocity later, it's ashes and dust now.

Carlisle exhales forcefully as if he were trying to push away the feeling of ownership he has over his father's cross. He can't see it with the way it's situated in the case, but Carlisle wonders if his father's initials are still legible on the back.

[themidnightson]

Cataloging hands and someone speaking in another language blur through the image, but not enough to pull him from it.

"Problem?"

It's polite and quiet enough that the library would miss it.

[ofthefamily]

My father carved this. He was a priest.

Carlisle's hand falls to the nameplate, and the M. Benifici label. He succeeds in suppressing a growl, and starts humming a song to himself to shove aside thoughts of the benefactor.

It would have been mine, eventually.

"We should leave."

[themidnightson]

The book in his hands closes as though he's lost interest in it. He had said at the first words. He hadn't said that part out, and though he sometimes forgot Carlisle was not in the possession of his thoughts as well, he had meant it.

Edward put the book back into its place.

He walked toward the door as a plan started to form.

[ofthefamily]

Vampires make good tourists, if not necessarily the best tour guides. Quiet, courteous, and usually big tippers for privacy.

It's nearing nightfall.

"We should probably hunt."

[themidnightson]

He can't say he's not thirsty.

It's not his preeminent thought by far.

Edward looked at the building speculatively while they made their way out of it, nodding congenially. "I hadn't thought the voyage would be quite so trying."

[ofthefamily]

"You did admirably for being so young," Carlisle compliments sincerely.

[themidnightson]

There was the smallest frown, but only for half a second. Even as a distractionary tactic he didn't exactly agree.

He'd spent the whole time nearly in his bunk, thirsty or over run with voices. While Carlisle had actually managed interaction with passengers, when it was gry or evening, as though he were simply one of them.

It didn't feel admirable in comparison.

Especially not compared to his ease at it.

Opening the door they'd come in through finally, he asked. "Which way?"

[ofthefamily]

"I'm not sure."

Carlisle's thoughts are still scattered. Some small section of his mind flings a thought to running towards his old neighborhood. See what is left standing, even though it's ridiculous to assume anything is.

"I should scout and find some place where we can have a level of privacy for hunting. You can come with me, but if you'd prefer to sightsee..."

[themidnightson]

The division of thoughts is disheartening. Not that it exists, but because in a large part he's created it and he's hardly certain where things will shake out. Carlisle had not seemed shakable before now.

Edward feigned for speculative, eyes narrowing on a distant point. "I hadn't looked at all of the others. There was a leaflet for Buckingham."

[ofthefamily]

Carlisle nods. "It's a worthwhile stop. Why don't I see what is out there for us to pursue this evening, and I can meet you at the palace?"

Carlisle turns to leave, but stops before picking up speed. I wouldn't leave if I thought you needed round-the-clock supervision.

The older vampire heads away from the city on the lookout for both a private place to hunt and something potentially appealing to even make the effort palatable.

[themidnightson]

He's not positive he's the one who needs the watching, even though it's ironic that in response to the words his first reaction is to dart a look at the people nearby and take a breath in.

Then to look back to empty space where Carlisle had been.

Edward listened to him through the tumult of everyone else around him, even as the voice was drowned the further it got. More of a hum than told him it was fading than a sound he could pin point.

Then gone, swallowed into the multitude again.




He looked out toward the teeming masses, toward the direction of the assumption, and then turned back, hand pushing the door to the livery back open.

[ofthefamily]

Carlisle never heads to the district he'd pointed out to Edward on the map.

It takes some investigating, but he does finally locate some open land. He spins on his heel and heads back to the city proper.

As much as he trusts Edward, it makes Carlisle anxious to be away for very long. He'd never expected turning someone would feel like this - it wasn't something Carlisle knew from experience.

[themidnightson]

His walk back to the library is a touch speedier than it should be, but no one is paying him much mind. His gait was slower down the aisle to the case he hadn't been near himself.

It's image in his mind was Carlisle's. Even looking at it with his own eyes, it was superimposed with the echo of Carlisle's emotions. The reality a shadow before the first introduction.

After a brief pause to orient where the thoughts and people in the room were, Edward broke the seal around it easily and lifted the glass case top off with one hand.

A small parade of doubts, against the backdrop of earlier conversations (of their nature, of the lies the world assumed, of not being evil), showed only in the sudden stillness of his other hand when he reached out. Before he finally pressed two of his fingertips to the old cross.










He's waiting, conveniently, in a place where Carlisle will be able to find him easily. He's outside, leaning against one of the trees. Anyone might look worried about being told to stop that, but he was relaxed studying the building.

[ofthefamily]

Edward hears Carlisle before he sees him.

I found an appropriate location, Carlisle starts about a mile away. Several minutes later, he's behind Edward. "Did you amuse yourself while I was away?"

[themidnightson]

"Well enough," Edward admitted, standing back upright. He glanced over, with the faintest edge of a smile. "I think I prefer the space and the gardens to the crowds and the building."

[ofthefamily]

"So not much in the way of city life for you in your future," Carlisle returns amiably. "Where are we to now?"

[themidnightson]

"As though it would stop me," Edward said, challenge in his scoff to the first words. He refused to think about failing. (At least more than he already did.) Especially with the example of the possibilities afforded standing next to him.

"I was thinking about run," he followed those words up with though. He reached up a hand, with a graceful gesture toward his head. "To find some quiet."




Cause that wasn't also convenient or nothin'.