It's been a long and busy week and it's time for some fb-fb:
Boy that was a close call for Selene, although she performed amiably.
Also many congratulations on concluding the Eagle in the Winter! Finishing off an AAR in style is a great achievement...
I'm glad the fight came off like I'd hoped. I needed to make them both strong people, with Sebastion a bit stronger. But Selene can hold her own. She's a tough cookie. And thanks on Eagle. It was a long time coming but it feels good. Now if only a few more people would read it. ::
sigh::
I agree with the Tolkien analogy, and I see merit in your comparison to Sauron. But I say that Sebastion is not (yet) Sauron, he is Saruman - absurdly ambitious enough to try for total rule but without Sauron's power to back it up. He may grow into Sauron's role in time, but I think he is not there yet.
The real source of Sebastion's disfunction is not that he can't see that others want the Eye, but that he cannot see why they deny it to him as a matter of right. He'd have been right at home as a king of the 'divine right' school; his merest whim should be law.
I can agree with that. Sebastion has quite a self-image and little patience for other's desires. On the one hand, you could say it is how he survived all these years. But he might get reckless, which may end up hurting him. We'll have to see.
Nooo, more vampires!
The whole world shall be cover in them! Though I wonder how he got to be that way. Are vampires immortal or did that certain girl give him the gift of life, which then means that she is still alive and that she is immortal..
Ok too many rampant thoughts
o
Vampires are indeed immortal, though I do think they have weaknesses and can be killed if handled correctly. I'm working on a way to show that. Stay tuned.
Left with no clues, Sam Finch is for now. And the man feeding on Oscar would be none other then Sebastion as Abraham Huard would never sink this low to feed. Unless the long years have depraved him and he is not as Selene thought he was.
EDIT: Of course it is entirely possible that I'm missing something and that I'm totally wrong.
I'd say that was a clue but not one Sam can figure just yet. He hasn't put two and two together simply because the thought of what he's just seen is foreign to him. He has no idea it exists yet. As for who it was at the end...I can't say.
It's a bloody infestation!
Good work, sir!
Heh. Well, who's to say we haven't already met this one...maybe not in this timeline, but another.
Perhaps poor Oscar's last name is...
... Renfield? ...
Ahh, you caught it. I didn't want to make it too overt but I love that character - so odd but perfect for the story. Now what to do with him?
Had to do some Googling to make sense of that allusion, Director.
It's been a long time since I read Dracula - that's my excuse, and I'm sticking with it.
Since this mysterious (and miserable) Oscar talks about bringing the Eye to 'him', it seems logical to assume that he's been turned vampire either by Sebastion or by Huard (the voice that calls out to him that it's time to feed is deliberately left undescribed - so it could be Selene, but I'll ignore that possibility for now). Either Huard has lowered his standards in the last 140 years, or Sebastion has grown more sophisticated. Neither option makes me very happy, though the latter should be more reason for concern.
At least Jasper wasn't bitten, with all the complications that would bring.
I would hesitate to call Oscar a vampire. I won't say he's not but consider him at least a rung down the ladder. He's certainly a pet of someone. I'll bring that out a bit more as we go along. As for Jasper being bitten...now that's a scary thought. Depends on how he was bit, I guess. It's something Sam surely wouldn't want to deal with for sure.
I do get the feeling Oscar is a sort of cattle, hoping to trade the the Eye for his freedom, perhaps?
That's a bit more along the lines I was considering. He's a servant wishing to trade the eye not so much for freedom but perhaps favor.
There are three vampires that we know of, Huard, Sebastion, and Selene. From what we know of them, this apparition is more in Sebastion's line than the other two, but time will tell.
Sam and Jaspar are going to get a mightly shock when they start to put 2 and 2 together and find it equals 7. Mind you, if/when Oscar tells Sebastion (presuming it is him) of this little visit, they are going to get a mightly shock anyway
All good thoughts. But I'll not give anything away just yet.
I'm about halfway through at the moment, and I'm enjoying the noir/vampire crossover. Excellent so far.
Thanks, Fiftypence. Always good to have you reading along. It's been interesting trying to connect the two strands.
When he ate the bug it was a dead give-away. Except Renfield had more hair.
Joe
Yes, that was my one sop to those in the know. It's a dead give away (oooh, bad pun.)
Seems a sure bet that it's Sebastion so I think we can be sure that it isn't him.
I mean coz wouldn't be that obvious would he?
Joe
Wouldn't I? If I have you guessing, I'm doing something right.
It's Huard, Selene was wrong, Sebastion is dead, and Huard is even more powerful than Sebastion was before.
Ok how wrong was I?
Can't say you are right or wrong, but that's an interesting guess. I think we can reasonably assume it's a vampire but which one, I'm keeping close to the vest. In truth, it may be one we haven't yet met.
True, true, it would be very obvious. But then, what if coz1 is being obvious on the assumption that such blinding obviousness will throw us off the scent, allowing him to make the obvious choice of Sebastion be the surprising one after all? Or maybe he made it obvious, so that we'd think it couldn't be him, but then we'd think it was Sebastion after all, so that we'd be doubly (triply?)surprised if it didn't turn out to be Sebastion in the end. Or maybe...
This way madness lies, clearly.
Good to hear from you, Joe, it's been a long time since I've had the pleasure of your banter (the fault's mine, for being absent for months).
Very good, Stuyvesant. I wanted to keep it ambiguous just for this very reason. Another interesting theory.
Awesome set of updates Coz. Ill echo everyone's comments on Selene and Sebastien, the particular update with the exchange and the chemistry between them was tantilizing
So now Abraham is a vampire, it should be interesting. Selene calls it a gift, but as Abe says, it sounds more like a sentence. Just to confirm, do you vampires die in the sunlight? or do they just hate it?
It should be interesting too, if Sam would meet Abraham in his time
the guy is immortal after all, and judging from the eye's disappearance in the present, someone might have done a great job protecting it after all.
Thanks. I had fun with the Selene/Sebastion fight. It won't be the last, though it may happen earlier, if you know what I mean.
As for vampires and sunlight, I can go ahead and say it does not kill them in this world, at least not right away. It is an extreme irritant and were one to go out and simply stand in the sunlight too long, it could kill them.
Finally, you are on to something with the Eye and the 1930's. Won't say what just yet.
To all - I am working on the next update. It'll either come today or tomorrow. Thanks for the great comments, folks. I love the guessing game and you all have done a great job looking at the story abd coming up with some solid theories. Keep 'em coming.