Out of Mind [2430-2-1-Sun-3:00pm]

[Klove Makem]

He was being stubborn. Maybe it was childish, but Grace started it by bringing the vampire on board, and Klove wasn't going to let down his guard.

This would have been so much easier without the bullet wound in his shoulder, and even easier if he would just take his medication and sleep and give his body time to heal. But he couldn't sleep, not with the vampire sleeping across from him, espeically not when he'd caught Eli peeking in on him once and he'd smiled that smug vampire smile when he'd been caught. And there was no way he could take any painkillers and give Eli that upper edge he needed.

So he sulked and resisted and drug his feet for two days before Grace finally snapped and marched him up to the second level when he damn near passed out while eating lunch. He was too tired to be properly embarrassed, but that would come later, when they got rid of the vampire. Or maybe he would die from lack of sleep first.

Grace made him sit down on her bed, and he wrinkled his nose. He hated coming in here when other men had been living with her. Their smell always just hung around in the most annoying way possible.

"I'm not taking anything." He said, trying to sound defiant. After two days of little sleep, it just came out as petulant. "And you can't make me."

[Grace Forjacks]

Grace rolled her eyes at Klove. He was usually good about not being too much of a teenager, but some weeks, he really made sure to act his age. She couldn't remember being this annoying at eighteen, but it had been a while. Next time she saw Holo, she'd have to ask him if he spent his day trying not to strangle her too.

"You're being a useless first mate." She told him, digging through her medicine cabinet. Grace managed to find the pill bottle marked with a capital C. It wasn't fully of pills, but something else. She walked over, sitting beside Klove and ignoring the way he tried to physically pull away from her. That was easily fixed with one hard hand on his wound. She ignored the yowl of pain and popped the cap lid off with her thumb, holding it under his nose. "Inhale."

When Klove pointedly did not, she stuck her thumb in the wound again. Maybe it was a cheap shot, but Grace believed you took any shot you could get, not just the ones that applied to someone else's arbitrary universe. The snarl was louder this time, but he had to breath in to do it, and he got a big shot of catnap straight to his system. Klove pulled his head back, and Grace just waited, watching him rub at his nose.

She picked up the cap, snapping it back on and setting it on her beside 'table', a flap of metal that stuck out of the wall and could folded either in or out. At the moment, it was out, holding her pistol and a half-empty glass of water. Grace gave his head a rub, "There's more there when you want it. And I'm not letting you out of here until dinner. Just curl up and heal."

With that, she left him alone, closing the door behind her and setting the lock for the inside so she could get in, but Klove couldn't get out. She'd look in after an hour or so and make sure he really was resting up. And if not, then she'd get the big guns.

[Klove Makem]

Klove's shoulder was really fiking throbbing now thanks to Grace, but he was finding it hard to concentrate on it. The catnip was already taking hold of him, and as the door closed, he flopped back onto the bed, barely noticing the small throb of pain from his shoulder as he twisted it.

He didn't use catnip often. Grace didn't approve of it, and it was the sort of stuff where if you used it too much, then you needed even more next time around. Mostly he carried some dried leaves with him and every two or three months, he'd relax when they were in port. He usually didn't actually inhale the dust though, mostly just rubbed it up against his nose and smelled the whole leaves.

The dust was really affecting him. Already he could feel his fingers getting kinda numb. Klove looked up at the ceiling, and at the star chart that Grace had affixed up there forever ago, and stared at it. He was still angry at her.

"bitch." He muttered to himself, and then giggled nervously. Wasn't like she could hear him in here, with the door closed. "bitchy bitch." Klove added, and gave another nervous giggle. The catnip was really starting to kick in.

[Eli Wellington]

Plain and simple, Eli was bored. His eyes were tiring from being in all the constantly lit rooms all day, and he was on the prowl for a room that wasn't in use so he could finally sit in the dark for a change. He knew he was eventually going to have to get used to the obnoxious glow of the artificial lights the humans had somehow developed, but it didn't mean he had to do it all in one week.

He strolled up the stairs, remembering that Grace had told him it was okay to go in her room as long as the door wasn't locked. Or was it if it wasn't closed? He couldn't quite remember. Locked would mean privacy, right? Closed would just mean... trying to keep a draft out? What was he thinking, there was no such thing as a draft on a spaceship. At any rate, he tried the handle and it clicked open. Perfect...

He slid the door open and frowned when he realized the light was on in here too. "Damn it!" He was already dreading the fact that he'd probably end up hiding out in the smelly storage room or something at this rate. But then he noticed Klove sprawled on the bed. "...what the... wow, you guys really have a special relationship, don't you?"

[Klove Makem]

Klove glanced over. It was the vampire. Why was the vampire in here? Probably to be a jerk, because vampires were basically huge jerks 24/7. Maybe dying turned you into a complete jerk who didn't understand things. Like not killing. And families.

"You're sick." Klove said, slurring his words a little. "Why's it all about sex with you? Grace is my mom. Like my mom. Not actually my mom. My mom's dead. But Grace looks like my mom. She cares about me. But she's a huge bitch sometimes. Like now."

Klove glanced back up at the ceiling. The stars looked like they were shifting ever so slightly. "I'm not letting vampires anywhere near my ship. You can stay on Nox and starve."

[Eli Wellington]

There was something up with him. Normally he'd be up and nearly at Eli's throat, but he remained laying on the bed lazily. And he was rambling. Slurring and rambling on like he was on something. Had the cat taken drugs or some sort? Eli could only guess at what it might be. For all he knew, the humans from Terra had a whole array of drugs he never saw on Nox, so he decided not to worry about the cause and ponder more over it's affect. It was certainly an interesting affect...

"Why not all about sex?" Eli shrugged, leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed. "Grace isn't my mother. And it's not like you'd be good for anything else, all poison blood and grumpiness wrapped up in a cute little package."

[Klove Makem]

"Because there's so much more to life than sex? There's so much more to people than just sex." Klove half-sat up, leaning on his one elbow. "I'm more than just... cute. Or a cat. I'm... I'm good at darts. I like western novels. And I'm fast. And, I'm good with electronics. That's something. That's more."

His elbow slipped and he sprawled back down. Klove didn't really notice it too much. The bed was soft. Grace got great perks. Like her own room, and her own bed. "You don't always have to sleep with people. You can just be friends. Or... or buddies. You can hang out and talk. Or get drunk, or... or watch movies. You don't always have to think about fiking people."

Klove reached up and rubbed his face. It felt pretty good. It would be nice to have someone to pet him, but Grace was gone and Cass was far away and the only person in the room was the vampire and he was high but he wasn't that high.

[Eli Wellington]

"Like I said... you're nothing but grumpiness. You can't be..." Eli could barely even say the word without spitting it out like a nasty taste had crossed his tongue. "...'friends' with someone who's all grumpiness and hostile glares twenty-four seven."

Friends. He hadn't had friends in a long time. Not real ones, at least. Not the kind that actually fulfilled the definition of the word, if he was even remembering the definition right. Most of the vampires barely got along any more, with too little food between them and far too much time spent with one another. He wasn't even sure vampires could be friends. Didn't you need a soul for that?

Or maybe that had just been religious hearsay, back in the day. What was a soul anyway? He'd killed plenty of people and animals and never seen anything in their bodies that didn't already have a name. Eli's body was dead, but he still walked and talked and had rational thought and hell, he even breathed. Somehow.

That was all that mattered, really.

He stepped further into the room, not too fast just in case the cat was on something that would make him extra jumpy. "I don't even know what the hell western novels or movies are. And I sure as hell don't understand electronics shit. So right now? You're just adding gibberish to the cute little package."

His eyes shifted to the little table by the bed, noting the small container. It was probably what Klove was taking. Curiosity was starting to take hold of him as he eyed it.

[Klove Makem]

"I don't want to be friends with you. You're dead." Klove said rather dismissively. "And I have friends. It's easy. You start by having interests. And not being creepy."

Klove sighed in frustration. Vampires. Bad as everybody else on Nox. Nobody knew how to use the Network, and nobody knew what movies and books were, and everybody wanted to just stay in their stupid little huts, eating tiny animals and being a failure of a species. It drove Klove insane. Humans had so much stuff.

"If you weren't so backwards, you'd know they were great." Klove told Eli, moving his hand down to scratch at his stomach idly. "Movies are like... moving pictures. Stories with pictures and sound and music, and plots, and like... guns and cowboys, or space stuff, or horror or whatever else. They've got all sorts of movies. Like. Everything can be a movie. It's amazing."

Eli entered the room but Klove didn't feel too concerned about it. He didn't like the vampire, but the catnip was making it easier to tolerate his presence. Plus, it was Grace's room. Nothing bad could happen here. "Humans even have vampire movies. But they don't get vampires. They think they're sexy and romantic, and that they'd willingly eat animal blood and fall in love with humans. It's so dumb. And their movies about weres are even dumber."

[Eli Wellington]

"See now there's the problem right there," Eli shook his head, walking over to the edge of the bed. "You give me shit for not having friends, and telling me it's eaaasy to make friends... and then you flat out tell me you don't want to be my friend. Not as easy as you're making it out to be, now is it? This dead body still has feelings, and you're hurting them." Eli sent him a mock pout as he picked up the container, and then opened it, giving it a sniff. Immediately he recoiled in disgust at the scent, slapping the cap back on it. He had no idea what it was, but it sure stunk.

"Movies sound interesting," he added, waving his hand in front of his nose, trying to get rid of the stench of whatever was in the container. "Instead of making fun of me for not knowing what they are--which is no fault of mine, by the way--you could enlighten me, you know. I'd like to hear these vampire stories. Sexy vampires, well that's true." He put his hand on his hip, unable to resist the urge to pose a little. "But falling in love with humans? Sounds like an epic comedy to me. What poets write that nonsense?"

[Klove Makem]

"You don't have feelings. You're a vampire. The only thing you feel is other people." Klove would have snapped it back, but it was hard to snap when you felt a bit like you were melting, so it came out less sharp and more matter of fact. "I'm still not being your friend. You can try being friends with other people, if you don't murder them first. Or sex them up."

Eli did have a point about the movies. Grace had showed him. It wouldn't be that hard to show Eli. Assuming Klove could find the remote. He lazily moved up the bed, reaching out with his good arm and sorting around through the little pull-out box on the other side. His shirt rode up but he didn't really notice. He finally found the little remote, ignoring the letter keys that he was too high to use. It took a couple of presses to get it on, but the screen finally snapped to life.

He navigated through the menus, finding films and scrolling down to horror. "The vampire stories are stupid. They're supposed to be romances. Like, this vampire has been waiting three hundred years, all alone and shit, and then one day he comes across a human, and suddenly he's so hot for her that he's willing to do anything for her. But he also wants to bite her too, but doesn't because that would kill her, and they're in love and then he's got to decide if he wants to make her a vampire too. Or there's another one that's basically that same plot, only she kills vampires, so it's like Romeo and Juliet. And there's a bunch of others where the girl isn't human exactly but like psychic or a werewolf."

Klove finally found one and brought up the trailer. He pressed play and watched as melancholic music started playing and the obviously-human 'vampire' started monologuing about his lonely immortal existence. Klove rolled his eyes. "So dumb."

[Eli Wellington]

A bit back snarl translated into a minor twitch of Eli's nose as he listened to Klove, still ragging on him simply because he was a vampire. He was beginning to wonder how Klove had any friends at all, let alone have the right to judge Eli's friend making techniques. This was usually the point where his patience ran thin and Klove would have probably already been tackled to the floor. But Eli's eyes were on the prize. His desire to reach Terra in one piece was far greater than the need to lash out at a bitchy stoned cat.

He said nothing, simply watching Klove fumble for something. His focus momentarily shifted to the cat's shirt riding up as he reached, eying the bared skin hungrily. He took a step closer, but was quickly distracted when the screen on the wall flickered to life. As he spoke about ridiculous sounding stories, Klove was scrolling through menus, the kind both Malcolm and Grace had showed him on the eInker. But he wasn't ready for the "movies".

It really was a moving picture. Klove hadn't been exaggerating at all. Eli stared, transfixed, and then walked to the end of the bed where he slowly sat down on it in order to see it better. The person in the screen was claiming to be a vampire, but he definitely wasn't, which made Eli a little angry at first. Who would pretend to be something they weren't for a moving picture? Then he pondered it a little further, realizing it made more sense than he'd originally thought. He just had to jog his memory a little. "Wait... this is like... shit what were they called... gods it's been so long since I saw one... with people on stage... he's acting, right? They used to do this on a stage, and we'd go pay to see it..."

[Klove Makem]

Klove stretched out on the bed again, not really minding when the vampire sat down beside Klove's head. This was the first time he'd seen a vampire not being a jaded asshole, or creepy, or both. Films had kinda freaked Klove out the first time he'd seen them. It was like there were people in the screen, only they weren't actually there because they were somewhere else, and somewhen else too, if you added time in. Woah. Somewhen else.

"Yeah, acting. That's called theatre. Humans still have them. They do plays, and like... sometimes really fat humans yell loudly and you're supposed to dress up for it. People play to watch it in person. I don't get it but it's popular, espeically with rich people." When the trailer ended, Klove scrolled around and found another one. This one had more action in it, and a love triangle with the worst werewolf Klove had seen in a long time. "It's a huge business on Terra. They also do a lot of shows that are like hour-long plays that happen every week and follow the same characters. And then there are shorter ones too that are made just to sell you things. They're called commercials."

[Eli Wellington]

Theatre. Plays. Finally remembering the words brought a flood of memories back with them. "Yeah yeah yeah! That's the word I was looking for. Plays." But at the same time, this was different. They weren't on a stage, with cutouts that looked like trees. There were actual trees. It looked... real. Granted, as real as it could look with a man in white makeup pretending to be a vampire.

Eli watched in amazement for a while, trying to figure out the mechanics of it. Cameras had been what had taken photographs... hazy black and white reproductions of life. Before that, painters had recreated colourful portraits. So what had the humans of Terra invented that could capture not only an image, but the image as it moved and spoke? Astounding.

Suddenly he had another more uncomfortable realization as he dwelled less on the how, but finally on the what was being portrayed. "Humans are... disturbingly dumb," he stated as he watched the girl fake in love with the fake vampire. He glanced down at Klove. "Is this... do they really believe these images?"

[Klove Makem]

"No. Well. Most of them don't. They're just movies. This one is older than I am, they made it way before they ever got near Nox." Klove looked up at Eli, hair flopping into his face, "They had their own vampire myths and werewolf myths, and pretty much everything before they got off Terra. Some have real history in them, but a lot of them are just pretty lies."

Klove backed out of the vampire stuff, more than ready to leave behind badly done depictions of what was a real and terrifying enemy, and headed up the list, switching over to films-by-popularity. "They make up stories about all sorts of things that don't exist, or they'll guess about things before they do. There's a whole genre of movies all about the future, and a lot of them get it wrong. And there's another genre called 'superhero'. It's about human beings, only they can fly without wings and punch through buildings or are telepathic."

"There are millions of these things. There's no way you could watch all of them, even if you tried." Klove glanced back at the thing of catnip. He sighed. It was so far away. "Can you pass me that?"