September Catch-All for Klaus Von Reinherz

[purered]

Characters: Klaus and YOU!
Date: September 2015 (2016 in game)
Location: Various
Situation: September (aaaand some of August probably) Catch-All
Warnings/Rating: Will be given as needed in the headers.



A. Closed to Enjolras and Backdated to 8/11

Klaus was hard to miss, especially in a fairly quiet cafe. He was seated with his back to a corner with a cup of something that might have once been coffee but the wanton use of cream and sugar and foam had mutated it into some sort of caffeinated abomination from sugar hell.

Klaus had a bit of a sweet tooth. The strawberry danish had never stood a chance.

Getting his phone charged had been a blessing. At the present time, he was playing a rousing game of Prosfair on it. Not against anyone but the phone itself, and it was a simplified version at that. He enjoyed it nonetheless, and it made for a pleasant distraction while he waited for Enjolras.

B. Closed to Raine - Cooking up a Storm (Hotel Kitchen)

It was, of course, a phenomenally bad idea. But it was something he'd have to learn to do for himself. He wasn't a child for God's sake, and Gilbert wasn't here to handle the cooking. It was embarrassing, really, that he'd never learned. He was perfectly good at any other sort of housework, but something about mixing ingredients and staying in one spot to make sure they didn't congeal was somehow beyond him.

That being said, Klaus tied the apron around his middle with the grim determination he reserved for dealing with the most unpleasant of vampires. He set his jaw, and picked up the small book of recipes, deciding to start with something simple.

How hard could pancakes be?

C. OPEN - Flower Shop (Wood District)

It was a small shop in the Wood District that had a smaller greenhouse attached to the back. The owner was an elderly Kedaan gentleman and he handled the floor of the shop. Klaus was being paid very handsomely to tend to the plants (and only the plants) on account of his rather... extreme features nearly sending an old woman into cardiac arrest.

That had been an interesting day. He'd mentally filed it under 'never speak of this again'. Much of that mental file seemed to have Zapp's name recurring frequently.

The afternoons were nigh unbearable, especially in the greenhouse, though you'd hardly know it looking at Klaus. He was more than content to see to the plants that were blooming beautifully in spite of the heat and drought.

He really had a green thumb.

D. OPEN - Daily Constitutional

He took a walk through and to various districts when the evenings were cool. He was getting a feel for the city the way he had a feel for Jerusalem's Lot. The ebb and flow of her people, the trends and lingo - Klaus found the best way to get over any culture shock was the act of simply immersing himself in it. He stopped at stalls and asked about wares, he wandered the back alleys quite sure no one would be keen to pick a fight.

In another month or so, he'd know the city well enough that he may as well have lived there all his life.

He may or may not have been keeping an eye out for any trouble with the city's most recent visitors. Klaus was a trusting man in general, and always willing to give the benefit of the doubt, but there was a low key tension that left him worried about what might happen next.

E. OPEN - Letter (forward dated to 9/16)

This makes it the third time in so many months.

Please consider some restraint. He would have been worth questioning.

Klaus was seated outside the Midnight Hotel on a stone bench. He stared at the small, neatly folded letter that bore his unmistakable handwriting. He stared at it for some time.

Then, with great care, he removed his spectacles and dragged his hands down his face with an exhale of frustration.

...This really was getting to be a bad habit.

Comments

[purered]

"Exciting and a little frightening - much of this technology is born from or has been turned to warfare as well."

Klaus wasn't a pacifist. He knew that, for all his ideals, sometimes force was a necessity. He didn't like it, nor did he encourage it in others and he accepted that often his response could be seen as part of the problem.

But it still frustrated him to no end that the first applications of new tech were so often considered in a military light. It really rustled his jimmies and Klaus's jimmies were not easily rustled.

"To my eyes, even though we share a world," or some version of it at least, "Your time seems quite distant and impossible. There has been such a rapid change in ideas and how people fit in society. Though, many of them were built on your revolution."

[solo_patria]

"Technologies used in the wars you've mentioned, I should assume." Enjolras made a face. "There were...bombings here, a few years back." He shuddered a little, remembering those first hours, when he had known his friends but NOT known them, thought himself to be in Paris amidst the destruction, even though he had been in Wood.

"Those were...terrible enough to witness." Enjolras would prefer peace, where possible, but yes, violence had its place in the narrative of humanity and humanity's rise above the horrors and darkness of the past.

"On a wider scale such as you've mentioned, I cannot imagine, and can only be glad that medicine was there to aid those in such need. There was...I knew a little to help here, and got some help to learn more but I wished, especially after my Etienne was sent away from here, that I might have learned more, done more to help. I can't imagine what horrors must have come from something even bigger. Terrible that the future is filled with so much brutality as to make it necessary, even as medicine has a triumph. I do wish it had happened for a better purpose. And that war need not always be the mother of necessity."

Enjolras does smile at the mention of things there. "Distant and impossible. I think the same applies to your time. I will be forever grateful that I came here to learn of things beyond my own barricade. I could..." He stops, unsure of how to say this, and to someone new to him...

"It seemed that I could see the future, laid out before me, when I led my friends into our portion of the fight, the years stretched out before me, like some progression of what our ideas might bring. If we played much effect in the July revolution, or our attempt in June two years later that the ideas progressed as to aid society, I am glad of them."

[purered]

He listened quietly to Enjolras's explanation of the war two years back. He wished he couldn't imagine what it was like, but Jerusalem's Lot was a warzone in all but name.

"Some yes," Klaus admitted. "Ingenuity can be turned to nightmarish things. People will always seek more efficient methods of murder. Seeing that... it must have been horrible."

It was still a wonder to Klaus that people could be brought back from the dead here. There were some things that, even in the city of miracles, were impossible. He wondered if Enjolras was here permanently, or if going back would mean the end for him.

"You should be proud. It is such courage on which the greatest changes come."

[solo_patria]

It would be the end so far as Enjolras knew it. One did not come back from death in his world, and he was...all right with the fact, truly. The last few years had been additional, even that which he had spent asleep. As much as it wearied him at times, especially lately, he could not hate the fact that he had come here, somehow.

Hate the circumstances, yes, but still, Enjolras did agree that things had become something of a wonder, though he didn't quite understand how Eshai had managed it. He could be grateful for that though, even knowing this, or perhaps a place in the Dreaming someday, were the options until he was dead.

As Klaus spoke, though, his smile was a little worn, frayed at the edges, maybe.

"At the moment? I think I am tired, mostly. I would do it again, in an instant but it catches up to you." He was near thirty, or would be had he lived, he realized, suddenly, a little shocked. Maybe part of that explained it.

[purered]

Klaus knew that expression. He'd worn it in the past and seen it on Steven and KK and Gilbert. The exhaustion with the world and all the violence therein, walking that endless path because no one else should have to.

Klaus's expression softened a little.

"It does. Sadly there's no end to things that need to be done."

[solo_patria]

"No, indeed." Enjolras had to agree that it was true. "And if we do not do it...well there is no guarantee another will."

It was just one of those things. Still.

"It's good to know someone who...who that does not sound incredibly selfish and horrible to."

[purered]

"I fail to see how it's selfish to find an endless cycle of bloodshed exhausting," Klaus said. "You continue to move forward in spite of it. That isn't selfish. That's brave."

He sat back in his chair, surveying Enjolras. He was sure the man was well aware there was a big difference between being knocked down and giving up.

[solo_patria]

"I suppose some of us do." Enjolras nods. "I...did not always. Lately, even. The end of the war was difficult." It had been almost a year since then, he realized, surprised. "I've...done quite a lot of nothing, lately." he added, feeling, almost, like this was a confession.

"Maybe that can change. I'd like it to, if I can find that within me." And then, something else occurred to him.

"I know someone who I think would love to meet you." His thoughts turned to Taraja, who he'd talked to about these harder things, from time to time, when she'd grown up a bit. "If we are ever in the same time and place as the hatchling...as the children of Asti, anyway."

[purered]

This got a reaction from Klaus. "You are one of the Foreigners linked to the hatchlings?" He felt a rush of delight tinged with sadness. The story of the hatchlings was one of the first things he learned about this place.

"And if I may be so bold, it isn't wrong to take time to yourself," he said firmly. "You're thinking about getting back into something you were passionate about before, yes?"

[solo_patria]

"I am." There was a fond light in his eyes as he thought of the hatchlings, remembering the best of the times they'd spent together, how it was like nothing else.

"I have been, yes. Some sort of an outlet, I think. I've found some fencing partners so far who seem to be good for me. It does seem to be helping."

[purered]

"This is wonderful to hear. I'm very glad for you, Enjolras," he remarked, his expression softening.

"And the hatchlings sound like wonderful children. It must have been an experience helping them grow and learn."

[solo_patria]

"It's been..interesting so far." Enjolras pauses, looking serious, though not especially upset by anything just now. "I think my approach may need something else, though I am not sure of what just yet. Perhaps a group, for those of us who have been through something awful, where we might share our stories if we wish to, and discuss the ways we handle things.

I...Psychology is nothing exact, I know, and rather new and just emerging where I come from., but I think that may help as well. And if others benefit, it could be good. And yes..." Here his own face softens, his eyes going a bit misty with fondness.

"They were always so curious about the world and everything in it. It was quite a lot of fun, most of the time, though I admit there were a few frustrating times as well. The good most certainly outweigh the frustrating, however."

He could never, after all, call any time spent with the hatchlings bad.

[purered]

"What you describe are support groups. My organization back home funds several internally for our members."

A 'secret' society of vampire hunters meant more than a few of them had need of therapy. Klaus was no exception - he'd taken full advantage to the access to therapy. He'd not be in the place he was without it.

"But the way you speak of the hatchlings... it certainly sounds like a positive experience for you both."

[solo_patria]

"Support groups." Enjolras smiled. "Good. Now I have a term to put to it when I ask the others here about such things. Given that all of us have been through a shock to even come here, I am surprised we've not established official ones of those, yet."

And really, it was true, considering. Even the most mundane lives changed when you woke up here, after all. Sometimes in traumatic ways. But when it came to the hatchlings, no trauma involved whatsoever.

"It was, at that. I hope that it was good for them, at least."