Last night at Maple Grove after the wedding reception...
Helena and Elias somehow managed to get Jon into the big house and get him into bed without rousing the suspicions of Humphrey or any of the other family members, just yet. To most of the guests, he seemed merely drunk, but that was only part of the problem. What had started out as a family celebration had once again turned into yet another family crisis.
Once away from the crowd, Jon's condition had only worsened and it had become apparent that it was not only caused by imbibing of too much alcohol. He had turned ghostly pale and was shaking like a leaf, but instead of feeling feverish, he felt cold and clammy, and if one was observant enough, they might notice a small mark upon his neck, partially healed.
Once Lena's brother was tucked under blankets, supplied with water (and a nearby wastebasket), Elias pasted himself to the doorway to watch the man for a bit. For the last hour and a half his thoughts had strictly been his own, and he kept on stewing. His arms folded tighter. He nibbled briefly on the end of an imagined cigarette.
Helena was the most elegantly-dressed sickroom nurse in the history of bad drinking binges. Lena made sure he was tucked in comfortably in the guest bed, and went so far as to get him some cold water and a cool, wet washcloth. "How much did you guys drink before the ceremony, Jon?"
He only groaned in reply to his sister's question, lost in delirium.
"Helena." Oh so rarely did Eli call her that.
She looked dreadfully worried, something she hadn't let Jon see in her face but which she gave freely to Eli. "Should we call an ambulance, do you think?"
Eli bit his lip, considering more what to say than whether or not he needed an ambulance. In a moment he shook his head. "It's withdrawal," he croaked quietly.
She froze, shocked in an instance of denial and acknowledgement that was terrible to see born in her eyes. Not again. Oh, Jonny.
Jon heard voices in his delirium, sounding like they were far away, though they were right there beside him. One he recognized as his sister, the other sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. Though he tried to form words, he couldn't make his mouth work, teeth chattering as they were.
"Thankfully, the....action, in question, doesn't cause any lastingly harmful withdrawal side effects. That moving picture he's in..." Elias looked over at her. "It's about vampires, right?"
"Murder of Crowes" Yes. They just finished filming though, I think. Why?" It was a distracting question. She hadn't seen any marks on his arms, but she hadn't looked for them, really. His addiction wasn't something people told her about, not really. Their father had refused to discuss Jon then, and it had all been a terrible, terrible secret.
Eli thinned his lips. He took a step closer, then drew back the bedsheets and the man's collar, carefully touching the skin just below the angry red mark there, careful not to touch it directly. He imagined it was still rather sensitive. "I'm sure your brother's had....an awful lot of pressure, learning about something he doesn't understand." The words came out almost ploddingly. He could find sympathy for Helena, but expressing it wasn't easy.
She watched Eli, not comprehending what he was leading up to, yet. "He has been. He works really hard. But he's been clean for a long time."
The position of his fingers allowed him to check the pulse again, too. "He tell you what he's done to puzzle out vampires" Homework he's done for his role?"
"No," she shook her head, the light catching at her mother's jewels and making her shimmer.
"Steady, Lena. This" I've seen it before....afraid to admit it, I've gotten a couple close calls myself. I've seen them up close. This is a vampire bite."
Jon groaned a little when Eli got close, lacking the strength to pull away, the craving for vampire blood burning in his veins, not unlike any other craving for a foreign substance, the withdrawal more painful than the addiction to cocaine had been, more physically addicting.
"He's a vampire?" Her knuckles went white on the nearest thing at-hand: the door jamb.
"Oh, no," Eli replied, shaking his head. "Far from it....very far. Your brother is..." There was a very faint pang of heartache at the words that followed. Very faint. "He is perfectly mortal. But I imagine in researching vampires, he's met a few, and there's been one, or more, who's fed from him....and who've fed him in return. He's addicted to the blood. It's an extremely potent drug, and it was very deliberate....very cruel of them, to give it to him."
Eli extended his arm over poor Jonathan's head, snapping his fingers in several different locations, observing his reactions, then giving a slow nod. "He's not manifesting any ghoulish behavior. He isn't controlled by it....except so far as, like any other potent and enjoyable drug, he wants it, and believes he needs it. And he hasn't let himself have any in some time, hence, he's going through withdrawal."
There was no reaction to Eli's snapping other than a slight flinch, the noise irritating and making Jon's head ache more than it already was.
"They fed from him." She had to repeat it to make it real in her own head. "He drank their blood." The idea was horrific. See it in her eyes, in the way her milk and honey skin went pale as alabaster beneath the faint touch of blush and lipstick. "He let them do this?"
Maybe now she'd understand why Jon had been so adamant about not wanting her to go anywhere near vampires when she'd joked about bedding one.
"It is my understanding that there are a number who, when allowed to survive the experiences, enjoy them, or grow to do so. For all I know he may not have, because I am not sure how it happened....a vampire can be a very forceful being, physically, psychologically, occasionally both at once." Elias forced himself to pause, to offer comfort instead of academia. "Mine is a dangerous field, full of careful lines to tread, and I've seen many of my colleagues fall so, so much further. Men of strong character and moral fiber. Your brother has stopped it early, and is evidently fighting it....and that, takes considerable strength." Jonathan ached for the powerful blood; Elias ached (though considerably less) for nicotine. A cigarette would be perfect right now. He itched at his arm.
"So how do we help him' There's - we can't just watch him like this. What do we do, Eli?" She trusted him before, but this was more than that. She needed him to tell her what to do.
"It's the worst at night, and for tonight, we'll just have to watch him," Eli admitted. "In the daytime, even if he's laid up, make sure he's in a sun room; if it's a cloudy day, light a lamp. Try to get him to go to sleep as close to dusk as you can."
"Morphine seems to help," he added. "Small but regular doses, for the first two weeks. If any severe symptoms persist after that time, don't continue with the morphine. Small amounts of cannabis instead."
Jon was starting to shake uncontrollably, curling into a ball to withstand the pain, which felt like his whole body was on fire. Up until now, it had been somewhat manageable, but as the nights wore on and he had resisted his body's cravings, staying away from the vampire's call, even as he heard them in his head, calling to him, beckoning, it had become harder and more painful, substituting booze for blood, which only seemed to make things worse in the end. Replacing one addiction with another was never a good idea. The alcohol had helped numb the pain for a while, but once night had fallen, all bets were off.
She folded her arms across her midriff, arms pale against crimson silk, the festivities outside forgotten in her worry for Jon. "How long is he going to be like this?"
"Like this, exactly' Only tonight and tomorrow night, if we're aggressive in our treatment. Addicted, generally?" Elias shut his eyes for a moment. How long would it take for him to do what had to be done....God damn his foolish cousin, for making these actions necessary... "One month. Keep him the hell away from alcohol," he decided, as an afterthought.
"He's had a lot tonight. Is it dangerous?" He'd had ....how much outside" How much had Dom given him before"
"It could have been, and it certainly made things worse. Fortunately for us, the amount he had tonight is not life threatening, though it easily could have been." He breathed a sigh into his hand as he rubbed his face.
She closed her eyes a moment, letting it all settle into her bones. "I can't thank you enough for coming tonight, Eli. What would have happened, do you think" "
The question definitely knocked him off balance. He was unsure how to respond, and had to think for a moment. "...Your brother's very strong," he said, finally. Then he looked at her, reaching for her hands with his; his were cool, though certainly not so clammy as Jon's were at the moment. "Midget....could you do something for me, please?"
"Of course." She twined her fingers in his as she took the hands he offered her.
He squeezed her hands, pleading for what he considered his only friend's safety: "After dark, don't go out alone....just to be safe. Just until I've....checked things out. Made sure this mess is....sorted. Okay?"
"You think they're still after him." She was quick enough to pick that up out of his worried plea, blue eyes piercingly sharp on Eli's face. She was silent for a moment. "All right. I won't go out at night. Not until you say it's okay."
Eli nodded, glad she was not defiant about it, and breathed a relieved sigh. Let her hands slip away. "I'll be by the front door. Give a shout if you need me." He cast another long look at Jonathan, watching his shivering form....then collected his coat and left for the front of the house.
"Oh, Jonny," she breathed after Eli left them there. "What did you do?"
Jon couldn't answer, too lost in delirium and wandering through dreams and memories that weren't his own, the sound of a woman's voice calling to him through the din, beckoning him sweetly. He'd tried to resist that call for days, and it would take all his will power to resist it now. He could feel her somewhere close by, and he knew what she wanted. She wanted to finish what she'd started. She wanted to make him immortal.
((Huge thanks to the players of Helena and Elias for this scene and also many thanks to everyone for the role-play that led up to this scene. Thanks, everyone!))
Helena and Elias somehow managed to get Jon into the big house and get him into bed without rousing the suspicions of Humphrey or any of the other family members, just yet. To most of the guests, he seemed merely drunk, but that was only part of the problem. What had started out as a family celebration had once again turned into yet another family crisis.
Once away from the crowd, Jon's condition had only worsened and it had become apparent that it was not only caused by imbibing of too much alcohol. He had turned ghostly pale and was shaking like a leaf, but instead of feeling feverish, he felt cold and clammy, and if one was observant enough, they might notice a small mark upon his neck, partially healed.
Once Lena's brother was tucked under blankets, supplied with water (and a nearby wastebasket), Elias pasted himself to the doorway to watch the man for a bit. For the last hour and a half his thoughts had strictly been his own, and he kept on stewing. His arms folded tighter. He nibbled briefly on the end of an imagined cigarette.
Helena was the most elegantly-dressed sickroom nurse in the history of bad drinking binges. Lena made sure he was tucked in comfortably in the guest bed, and went so far as to get him some cold water and a cool, wet washcloth. "How much did you guys drink before the ceremony, Jon?"
He only groaned in reply to his sister's question, lost in delirium.
"Helena." Oh so rarely did Eli call her that.
She looked dreadfully worried, something she hadn't let Jon see in her face but which she gave freely to Eli. "Should we call an ambulance, do you think?"
Eli bit his lip, considering more what to say than whether or not he needed an ambulance. In a moment he shook his head. "It's withdrawal," he croaked quietly.
She froze, shocked in an instance of denial and acknowledgement that was terrible to see born in her eyes. Not again. Oh, Jonny.
Jon heard voices in his delirium, sounding like they were far away, though they were right there beside him. One he recognized as his sister, the other sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. Though he tried to form words, he couldn't make his mouth work, teeth chattering as they were.
"Thankfully, the....action, in question, doesn't cause any lastingly harmful withdrawal side effects. That moving picture he's in..." Elias looked over at her. "It's about vampires, right?"
"Murder of Crowes" Yes. They just finished filming though, I think. Why?" It was a distracting question. She hadn't seen any marks on his arms, but she hadn't looked for them, really. His addiction wasn't something people told her about, not really. Their father had refused to discuss Jon then, and it had all been a terrible, terrible secret.
Eli thinned his lips. He took a step closer, then drew back the bedsheets and the man's collar, carefully touching the skin just below the angry red mark there, careful not to touch it directly. He imagined it was still rather sensitive. "I'm sure your brother's had....an awful lot of pressure, learning about something he doesn't understand." The words came out almost ploddingly. He could find sympathy for Helena, but expressing it wasn't easy.
She watched Eli, not comprehending what he was leading up to, yet. "He has been. He works really hard. But he's been clean for a long time."
The position of his fingers allowed him to check the pulse again, too. "He tell you what he's done to puzzle out vampires" Homework he's done for his role?"
"No," she shook her head, the light catching at her mother's jewels and making her shimmer.
"Steady, Lena. This" I've seen it before....afraid to admit it, I've gotten a couple close calls myself. I've seen them up close. This is a vampire bite."
Jon groaned a little when Eli got close, lacking the strength to pull away, the craving for vampire blood burning in his veins, not unlike any other craving for a foreign substance, the withdrawal more painful than the addiction to cocaine had been, more physically addicting.
"He's a vampire?" Her knuckles went white on the nearest thing at-hand: the door jamb.
"Oh, no," Eli replied, shaking his head. "Far from it....very far. Your brother is..." There was a very faint pang of heartache at the words that followed. Very faint. "He is perfectly mortal. But I imagine in researching vampires, he's met a few, and there's been one, or more, who's fed from him....and who've fed him in return. He's addicted to the blood. It's an extremely potent drug, and it was very deliberate....very cruel of them, to give it to him."
Eli extended his arm over poor Jonathan's head, snapping his fingers in several different locations, observing his reactions, then giving a slow nod. "He's not manifesting any ghoulish behavior. He isn't controlled by it....except so far as, like any other potent and enjoyable drug, he wants it, and believes he needs it. And he hasn't let himself have any in some time, hence, he's going through withdrawal."
There was no reaction to Eli's snapping other than a slight flinch, the noise irritating and making Jon's head ache more than it already was.
"They fed from him." She had to repeat it to make it real in her own head. "He drank their blood." The idea was horrific. See it in her eyes, in the way her milk and honey skin went pale as alabaster beneath the faint touch of blush and lipstick. "He let them do this?"
Maybe now she'd understand why Jon had been so adamant about not wanting her to go anywhere near vampires when she'd joked about bedding one.
"It is my understanding that there are a number who, when allowed to survive the experiences, enjoy them, or grow to do so. For all I know he may not have, because I am not sure how it happened....a vampire can be a very forceful being, physically, psychologically, occasionally both at once." Elias forced himself to pause, to offer comfort instead of academia. "Mine is a dangerous field, full of careful lines to tread, and I've seen many of my colleagues fall so, so much further. Men of strong character and moral fiber. Your brother has stopped it early, and is evidently fighting it....and that, takes considerable strength." Jonathan ached for the powerful blood; Elias ached (though considerably less) for nicotine. A cigarette would be perfect right now. He itched at his arm.
"So how do we help him' There's - we can't just watch him like this. What do we do, Eli?" She trusted him before, but this was more than that. She needed him to tell her what to do.
"It's the worst at night, and for tonight, we'll just have to watch him," Eli admitted. "In the daytime, even if he's laid up, make sure he's in a sun room; if it's a cloudy day, light a lamp. Try to get him to go to sleep as close to dusk as you can."
"Morphine seems to help," he added. "Small but regular doses, for the first two weeks. If any severe symptoms persist after that time, don't continue with the morphine. Small amounts of cannabis instead."
Jon was starting to shake uncontrollably, curling into a ball to withstand the pain, which felt like his whole body was on fire. Up until now, it had been somewhat manageable, but as the nights wore on and he had resisted his body's cravings, staying away from the vampire's call, even as he heard them in his head, calling to him, beckoning, it had become harder and more painful, substituting booze for blood, which only seemed to make things worse in the end. Replacing one addiction with another was never a good idea. The alcohol had helped numb the pain for a while, but once night had fallen, all bets were off.
She folded her arms across her midriff, arms pale against crimson silk, the festivities outside forgotten in her worry for Jon. "How long is he going to be like this?"
"Like this, exactly' Only tonight and tomorrow night, if we're aggressive in our treatment. Addicted, generally?" Elias shut his eyes for a moment. How long would it take for him to do what had to be done....God damn his foolish cousin, for making these actions necessary... "One month. Keep him the hell away from alcohol," he decided, as an afterthought.
"He's had a lot tonight. Is it dangerous?" He'd had ....how much outside" How much had Dom given him before"
"It could have been, and it certainly made things worse. Fortunately for us, the amount he had tonight is not life threatening, though it easily could have been." He breathed a sigh into his hand as he rubbed his face.
She closed her eyes a moment, letting it all settle into her bones. "I can't thank you enough for coming tonight, Eli. What would have happened, do you think" "
The question definitely knocked him off balance. He was unsure how to respond, and had to think for a moment. "...Your brother's very strong," he said, finally. Then he looked at her, reaching for her hands with his; his were cool, though certainly not so clammy as Jon's were at the moment. "Midget....could you do something for me, please?"
"Of course." She twined her fingers in his as she took the hands he offered her.
He squeezed her hands, pleading for what he considered his only friend's safety: "After dark, don't go out alone....just to be safe. Just until I've....checked things out. Made sure this mess is....sorted. Okay?"
"You think they're still after him." She was quick enough to pick that up out of his worried plea, blue eyes piercingly sharp on Eli's face. She was silent for a moment. "All right. I won't go out at night. Not until you say it's okay."
Eli nodded, glad she was not defiant about it, and breathed a relieved sigh. Let her hands slip away. "I'll be by the front door. Give a shout if you need me." He cast another long look at Jonathan, watching his shivering form....then collected his coat and left for the front of the house.
"Oh, Jonny," she breathed after Eli left them there. "What did you do?"
Jon couldn't answer, too lost in delirium and wandering through dreams and memories that weren't his own, the sound of a woman's voice calling to him through the din, beckoning him sweetly. He'd tried to resist that call for days, and it would take all his will power to resist it now. He could feel her somewhere close by, and he knew what she wanted. She wanted to finish what she'd started. She wanted to make him immortal.
((Huge thanks to the players of Helena and Elias for this scene and also many thanks to everyone for the role-play that led up to this scene. Thanks, everyone!))