#sorel.

a purposefully slow sip is taken, another hard-to-beat habit of appearing human. it would be entirely unbecoming to guzzle the stuff, anyway, even if he did love the bubbles, the taste as it went down, the warmth it left in his belly.

CATHERINE'S STYLE FILES - 2018

he’s not exactly like them. adjacent, perhaps, is the correct designation. while anyone is welcome into the club, provided they could find it, most of the patrons were outcasts. being outcast comes in many forms, and none of them were turned away from the door. especially those not quite human. the proprietor – and the man who could reliably be found standing steadfast and loyal next to him – were, after all, not quite human.

smoke signals.

sorel's fingers interweave, forearms resting lightly but firmly atop his thighs. he glances over to conrad, corner of his mouth crooking, though not unkindly. " what else could they then be, my boy? "

first and foremost, they don't kill. they don't even turn a human unless that human is absolutely certain, and the process tends to be very intimate, if not a little sexual, depending. it is implied that these vampires greatly outnumber "twisted" vampires, aka the general mythology that exists for vampires. they love humanity, they admire it and protect it.

evil vampires are banished from communities, and usually killed by other vampires. the only way to kill them is to literally pluck their heart from their chest, and preferably burn them and their clothes. this is also the preferred method for vampires to take the true death -- suicide once they don't want to be immortal anymore.

sunlight doesn't really bother them, but they do tend to stand in the shadows, or where there's shade.

garlic is fine! gilda and bird love garlic.

they can see themselves in mirrors. silver is also fine.

speaking of clothes, there's a little soil from their homeland (in gilda's instance, louisiana) sewn into every article of clothing they own, and sometimes items like pillows, blankets, and plushies.

they can't get drunk. they might get a little tipsy, but never drunk, and it takes a lot to get there.

they don't sleep. they do rest, which usually involves laying down and staring at the wall for a few hours. that's akin to sleep, and it doesn't have to be done every night.

they don't cry. you can tell when they would be crying, though.

family means a lot to them. they're continually reshaping what family means! new members are welcomed and loved. the bigger the family, the better the times. they may not wish to live together at all times, but they're always there for each other. as anthony said, "either in each other's company, as we are now, or seperate and in each other's world".

they can speak telepathically. usually only to each other, as they know that would be scary for anyone else.

also, they can plant ideas into people's heads to persuade them. used when taking blood, often to keep them asleep with a pleasant dream, but also if they want to do something small to make somebody's day easier. (for example, gilda felt a coachman missed his family, so she reached inside the mind of the man he drove there and gave him the idea that he was tired and wanted to go home.)

they need blood every night. methods to getting it vary from vampire and vampire.

stronger and faster than regular humans.

children aren't turned. that doesn't mean they don't exist. anthony and sorel have taken care of many turned children. their home is one safe house / halfway house / etc etc suggested when a turned child is found and needs somewhere safe to live.

the gilda stories.

breezily: " that can certainly be arranged! "

a ledger thumps heavily onto the countertop. licking his index finger, sorel flicks through a few pages before tracing it down the left hand column.

the second time, they’re posed together for a tintype. observant eyes will notice these two men (historians will say they’re best friends!) are holding hands. sorel has anthony’s in his lap, held tight and lovingly. they’re both looking directly at the camera, unsmiling. but sorel’s boyish curls and anthony’s subtle lavender boutonnière give a voice that these men weren’t stuffy. they certainly hope people look back on all those early photographs from the beginning of photography and don’t paint them all with a broad brush. people certainly had fun back then. sorel made sure of that. his san francisco club opened a few years later.