[Voice]

[deservinghell]

[For Henry, the past month has been rougher than any other in recent memory. Confessing to the only person in this wretched place he is comfortable calling a friend that she'd been keeping intimate company with a vampire was more emotionally trying than he expected. But that paled in comparison to a week spent living--finding himself with a pulse for the first time in four and a quarter centuries--and then having it taken away again.]

Surely I'm not the only one who'd rather our personal timelines never sorted themselves out.

Comments

Voice, filtered

[deservinghell]

There's something to be said about solidarity, I suppose. Do you want to talk about it?

[painfeels]

It was pretty similar, to the life I used to have. I was supposed to go back to school and I didn't look like...

Nevermind. It's all over now, so what does it matter.

[deservinghell]

No, it isn't useful to dwell on what we can't have. But it's human nature to do it anyway. For me, it's a comfort to know I've still got a bit of that left.

[painfeels]

You're not human...?

[deservinghell]

[A brief pause before he neatly sidesteps the question.] You might say I have reason to feel I'm sometimes lacking in humanity.

[painfeels]

I know the feeling, trust me.

[deservinghell]

Do you? I'll be honest with you: I didn't come here expecting to run into any kindred spirits.

[painfeels]

This is place will do that. Surprise you.

In a good way, even.

[deservinghell]

I'm finding that out. To be stuck here is what one might call a bittersweet sentence, to be sure.

[painfeels]

Sentence makes it sound like some kind of punishment.

But I guess it could be, for some people.

[deservinghell]

It's what we make of it, really. But for many, it's difficult to see forced servitude as anything but punishment.

[painfeels]

Is that how you see it too?

[deservinghell]

[It's a good question.]

I'm not sure. Long ago I made myself a slave to a purpose I can no longer fulfill while I'm here. In a way, I'm free fort he first time.

[painfeels]

There's something I know a bit about. But I think it's good, maybe, that you're not a slave while you're here.