OOM - Fangtasia

[lazy_but_loyal]

[Continued from here.]

Fangtasia is closed for the night.

The red neon sign in the window is still on, the door still unlocked, but the place is empty except for Ginger in the kitchen and Pam in Eric's office.

Pam is changing out of her leather bustier and miniskirt into more comfortable clothes that she'd brought along. Hot pink cropped leggings and matching Uggs for starters.

She takes her time as she slips off her top, revealing a leopard-print bra. She thinks of nothing in particular, only that she hopes to hear from Eric before dawn.


[Dialog lifted from True Blood season 3, episode 9.]

Comments

[onceaviking]

Eric looks up.

He's not smiling, but he is managing to keep the fact that his mind is racing off of his face.

"I find it difficult to find something to smile about in this situation," he says, blandly.

[dobadthings]

"If you have nothing to hide, then it should be easier," she counters.

"Now, then. For the record: it is true that the Magister came to see you about a problem with V dealers in your area? We're assuming that the matter has been resolved. The Magister disappeared before he reported back."

[onceaviking]

"It is," he replies, looking straight at the cameras.
"He came twice. First in the company of my Queen. The second time he arrived with his - associates. I was away and he decided that he would -"

He stops, his jaw working.

"Rectify what he says was noncompliance on my part by torturing my Progeny and threatening me with her true Death, should I not be able to catch whomever was the culprit within three nights."

His lips twitch.

"And yet - I did not kill him."

[dobadthings]

Nan glances at Pam, whose eyes remain fixed on Eric.

Nan knows about the Magister's methods. Everyone in the Authority knows about his methods. Frankly, they've been effective, but it hasn't won the Magister any popularity contests.

"I applaud your restraint," she says dryly.

"However, nobody has implied anything about the Magister having been killed."

She tilts her head at him.

"What are you implying?"

[onceaviking]

"I am not implying anything," Eric says, his voice suddenly low and intense.
"I amtelling you that The Magister was killed. In my basement. But not by me."

There.

Now, there is no turning back.

[dobadthings]

Pam's eyes widen.

Nan's already piercing gaze grows sharper.

There's a murmur in her earpiece as the members of the Authority have Things to say about this. She doesn't take her eyes off Eric as she listens.

Then,

"Who killed the Magister?"

[onceaviking]

"Russell Edgington."

The name falls like a stone into water.

"But that is the least of his crimes. Are you telling me you do not know this?"

[dobadthings]

"The King of Mississippi?" she says, disbelieving.

There's more agitated murmuring in her earpiece from the Authority.

"What do you mean, the least of his crimes?"

[onceaviking]

"The King of Mississippi. Who feeds vampire blood to werewolves. His own blood. And has done so for millennia."

There's a snarl in his voice now.

[dobadthings]

In all her centuries in the Authority, Nan has never heard anything like this before.

She presses her earpiece closer, frowning deeply as the Authority convenes yet again. This is serious. Very serious.

"How do you know this?" she asks Eric. She may be even a little curious, if he's telling the truth.

Also curious...is Pam.

[onceaviking]

"I've researched it," he says.

"There's a pattern. The Turks told folk tales of shape shifting jackals at the fall of Constantinople.
The Aztecs were decimated by disease from the Conquistadors' war dogs. Each time, there's been wolves fueled by vampire blood."

Back to sounding intense.

"I nearly found him in Augsburg in 1945. His wolves were in the service of the Wehrmacht. He disappeared after the war, and I-- I thought he finally met the true death."

But he'd been wrong. So wrong.

"Now he's returned."

[dobadthings]

"Do you know why?" Nan asks.

While Nan's interest is in the name of the law, Pam's interest is personal. She knows Eric never liked weres, but he's never mentioned this to her before.

[onceaviking]

"In times of conflict, Russell Edgington inserts himself into the affairs of men," Eric replies.

He is not looking at Pam.

Now that he has made his decision, he can relax as he tells them the truth. Elbows still on his knees, hangs hanging loosely.

But he cannot look at her.

[dobadthings]

Nan frowns. This isn't making very much sense to her. What would Edgington have to gain from meddling in human affairs and controlling lower life forms like werewolves?

"To what end?"

[onceaviking]

"He claims it's to prevent humans from destroying the planet and themselves and thus our food source," Eric replies, without adding his own thoughts on this idea, Edgington the Eco Warrior.
Right.

[dobadthings]

Nan is already shaking her head even before he finishes.

"But TruBlood changed all that. Humans are no longer food for us. The Great Revelation--"

[onceaviking]

Eric cuts her off, looking straight at her.
"Russell opposes the Great Revelation. And he doesn't want to coexist with humans."

She'll know what that entails.
He still says it though.

"He wants to subjugate them."

How do you like that, oh members of the Authority?

He briefly wonders if Nora is sitting there, on the other side of those cameras?
He's never told her either.

[dobadthings]

Edgington may be old and a king, but he is bound by the same laws as any vampire. That's the way it's been for centuries. Coexistence has always been the objective.

"The Authority will not--"

[onceaviking]

"Fuck The Authority!"
Eric's voice is startlingly loud.

Then he adds, in a normal tone of voice. "Russell's words. Verbatim."

That they won't stand for. They cannot be questioned.

[dobadthings]

Nan raises her eyebrows at the sudden outburst.

The members of the Authority grow uneasy at this insolence.

And for a tense moment it's uncertain if it's Eric's own sentiment. But he clarifies, and there is more discussion. Nan listens in before continuing her questioning.

"This is why he killed the Magister?"

[onceaviking]

"No, he killed the Magister because the Magister defied him,"Eric replies, flatly.
"He kidnapped queen Sophie-Anne because she refused him."

He really shouldn't have to spell it out. But he does so anyway. Shifting his focus to the cameras.

"Now, if the Authority or the AVL stand in his way, well ..."
He's got very expressive eyebrows

[dobadthings]

...There will be anarchy. Possibly bloodshed.

Nan looks Eric in the eye. As much as she dislikes him, she wonders just how far he's willing to go.

"These are treasonous allegations," she reminds him. "Why didn't you report this?"

Pam, who's been listening intently throughout, is very interested in the answer to this.

[onceaviking]

He knew she would ask that question.
Never mind that turning Edgington would have landed him in just as hot waters.

"Oh, I should have," he says. Quietly.
"But the Authority has existed for only a few hundred years. My history with Russell Edgington goes back nearly a thousand."

There is no way back. The truth it is. As much as it exposes him, as much as these people will never be swayed by soft emotions, many of them are old. They will understand the need for vengeance. And perhaps, they will even respect it.

"My family was massacred. All of them, by wolves. I managed to kill one and I watched him change into a man at the end of my sword."

Looking intently at the cameras.

"And these wolves, they're the same. Sweden, Germany, here."

A small pause. Then the truth.

"With all respect, I did not report Russell Edgington to you, because I want him to die at my own hands."

[lazy_but_loyal]

Pam exhales a silent breath at this revelation.

A massacre. By Edgington's wolves. Nearly a thousand years ago.

And Eric never told her, never even once hinted at something so tragic. Suddenly the past century that she's been with him are cast in a different light. It's painful. She can hardly process it, her heart aches too much. Yet somehow, she sees him better now. She just wonders why, why he chose not to tell her.

The two webcams swivel back toward Nan as the Authority takes Eric's statement into consideration. Nan listens carefully. She nods.

"Yes. ...Yes, I understand. I'm flying immediately to Portland. Thank you."

And she removes the earpiece and switches it off. Two V-Feds take away the cameras.

[onceaviking]

He manages to squeeze in a snarled "I have waited a thousand years for this," before everyone's attention is diverted by the private discussion going on between Nan Flanagan and the faceless Authorithy.
And then she is closing the connection and he is left gaping.

"What? Is that it?"

They can't be serious. They have to do something about Edgington.