open to: followers, non-followers (anyone) suggested relationship: absolutely none. the less connection between our muses, in this case, the more room we have to maneuver! suggested muses: mortals/humans - i'm open to immortals, but would rather give them a different opening; film buffs, art enjoyers, vagabonds; lady muses because i think i'm funny genre/s: vampire & adj. media | horror, romance, intrigue, thriller, mystery scenario: ⛧ POST ⛧ // VAMPIRE VERSE 1 OF ? // 3 is a vampire who, just before he turned, stared in one and only one film. I'm dumb and love irony, so it was a vampire film, and he was the vampire. I would appreciate if the particular genre of thread you're interested in writing was also the genre of film, but default to a "classic" vampire 'cause Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992 & also the novel) forever has me in a chokehold. Anyway. This film 3 was in was decades ago, early silent film era, and he thought it didn't survive. Surprise! It did! Or at least a single copy did, which a museum near your muse is able to show one night. Your muse and 3 both attend the showing--3 pulling his usual of wearing a face mask out in public, though tonight to be safe he's also wearing deep brown contacts to hide his natural eyes. He sits in the back of the theater, and after the film has an accidental (?) run-in with your muse. They part ways but...god...your muse just can't get those eyes out of their head. 3's, either in person (dark and strange and alluring) or on film (heterochromatic and intense, inhuman). nota bene: you do not need to match my length, i am just currently physically incapable of shutting the fuck up about this.
He wanted to stay outside of small theater until the film began: alas!, he was not allowed. No one would be allowed into the theater from the moment the presenter began his speech to the moment the credits finally ran. That was part of the agreement for screening it as they are, free to the public, late into the night. He sits in the back row instead, frown hidden behind his face mask except for where it furrows his brow. The presenter drones on and on about the purity of early cinema, the last of the universal languages, and while Terzo appreciates the sentiment...if it was delivered any more dryly, he would have to walk out of the theater in protest.
Thankfully, then, the presenter turns her attention to the biographical. "As for the film itself...not much is known. Most of the team went uncredited, or used pseudonyms, likely inspiring or inspired by the rumors surrounding contemporaries such as 'Nosferatu' star Max Schreck being an actual vampire acting under a false name." A vague, polite chuckle ripples through the room. She gives a tight smile, waiting impatiently for the audience to simmer back down. Once it does, she adds: "Tonight's presentation actually pre-dates 'Nosferatu' by a few years, and its mysterious star is believed to be the 'real' version of that rumor. Although Max Schreck went on to do several films before and after 'Nosferatu,' tonight's feature film is the one and only piece of media credited to its star, Luca di Beneditto. Whereas Schreck's rumor is about a vampire staring in a film about himself, Beneditto's is that his performance as a vampire was so well-liked, he was turned into one.
"Ladies and gentleman, esteemed guests and colleagues, it is my pleasure to present to you--for the first time in over a hundred years--'Appartenere alle Ombre',. 'Belonging in the Shadows'!"
There's applause. Even Terzo claps, slow and sardonic, unnoticed. Then: the lights dim to black, and in that blackness, the world seems once again to hold its breath. There's the sound of whirring behind him, and then the projection starts, and the world exhales. Terzo sinks back into his seat and watches the memories of over a hundred years ago wash over the screen in black-and-white. The others in the theater enjoy the story for what it is, watching the film before them unfold: Terzo enjoys it for what it was, seeing instead the memories behind the film, everything that went into making it. Everything that came after. The credits roll, and only when the last name has been wiped from the screen does the projector stop its whirring, the lights coming back up and on. Terzo wipes away a tear he hadn't noticed from under his right eye--green beneath the contact, his "human" eye--and shuffles his way into the lobby with all the others, the small throng of humanity that witnessed his first and final act among them.
He's distracted by his own melancholy when his body collides with another, hard. Reflex acts before he can stop it, slightly too fast to be strictly human: he grabs the other by the arm to act as anchor before anyone falls. Isn't sure whose fault the collision is and doesn't quite care regardless.
"Ah--careful, don't fall and hurt yourself." He smiles a bit behind the mask, feeling mischievous. "Wouldn't want the vampire coming for you next, ah?"
