Happy Birthday, dear Antichrist...

[damien-thorn.livejournal.com]

((Open RP in the library.))

To some, it would be quite a boring way to spend a birthday, but Damien Thorn was quite enjoying his time in the library. Many of the mindless impostors and traitors had asked him why he was spending his time in a musty school for magic, and now he knew that he had found the ultimate answer in the pages of a well-worn text.

The Fidelius Charm, a very complex bit of magic that binded a secret to the soul of a person who kept it. Once bound, the secret could only be revealed by the Secret Keeper, and only if they so chose. A person who had not been told the secret could be standing right in front of what they were searching for, and still not find it. Damien had something that he very much wished to keep away from prying eyes.

It was this charm that kept him quite happily occupied on his thirty-fourth birthday, with a bottle of brandy ont he table and his dog by his side to keep him company.

Comments

[sidney-reilly.livejournal.com]

Reilly raised his glass. "To good taste, then, and the wherewithal to indulge it." He took a swallow of brandy.

"Do you know, I rather need something good to read at bedtime? Once I find a sufficiently dull tome, a few pages and I'm out like a light. But I've finished 'Hogwarts: A History' already. Have you anything to recommend?"

[damien-thorn.livejournal.com]

Damien blinked, halfway through his own swallow. "That was a fascinating piece of information about you that I never needed to know," he said, carefully setting down his snifter. "Now that you've told me about your sleeping habits, please do not feel free to move on to dietary habits, or anything else, really.

[sidney-reilly.livejournal.com]

"Well, it was less a piece of information than a request," Reilly pointed out. "Read any not-so-good books lately?"

[damien-thorn.livejournal.com]

"Of course," Damien replied. "You can't have a library this big without having a few books that should have never seen the light of day. I can recommend one about a boy named Ephraim who becomes a great Wizard, or something like that." He knew damn well that wasn't what Reilly had in mind.

[sidney-reilly.livejournal.com]

"A penny dreadful? I suppose every culture must have them. Those I used to save for long train journeys." He took a sip of brandy. "No, I was thinking something on the lines of nonfiction, the more obscure and impenetrable the better."

[damien-thorn.livejournal.com]

"Do you have any plans for a long journey soon?" Damien asked, changing the subject. "I hear the trip to London can be rather boring. Have you had a chance to go yet?" He managed to pull off a curious yet innocent expression while asking that question.

[sidney-reilly.livejournal.com]

"Once, to pick up some proper clothing and other supplies. The trouble with coming back from the dead is one never really has the chance to pack," he observed.

"But I found a few interesting wizards to converse with on the train out, so that wasn't so bad, and I had new books to read on the way back. It's not a trip I'd care to make very often, though. This London is so different from the one I remember..."

Reilly looked away and applied himself to his brandy again.

[damien-thorn.livejournal.com]

Was he getting sentimental? Oh, this was too good. "I suppose that's the problem with dying," Damien said. "Do you suppose somebody even bothered to bury you?" he asked.

[sidney-reilly.livejournal.com]

Reilly took a swallow of brandy. "There will have been a memorial service, certainly. I was married, you know. As for my actual remains, probably not. Dzherzhinski could depend upon the flora and fauna of the Hills to take care of that." He cocked an eyebrow at Thorn. "Ah well. We all come to dust in the end, now, don't we?"

[damien-thorn.livejournal.com]

"You did," Damien said. "It is a pity that humans were made so weak. As for myself, I'll sleep quite secure in the fact that there is nothing you can do to to stop me. I'm afraid that dust isn't in my future any time soon."

[sidney-reilly.livejournal.com]

Reilly's eyebrows rose. "Stop you from what? And here I thought we were getting on so well."

[damien-thorn.livejournal.com]

Damien felt a monologue coming on. It seemed to be one of the downsides of being evil. "From achieving my purpose. From overcoming the wretched Christ, and all of his sniveling, weak, and mindless followers. From reclaiming this world in the name of my Father, as it always should have been. You will not stop me from showing mankind the true glory that awaits for them; the purification that comes from eternal salvation."

He had gripped the edge of the table, and his knuckles were turning white. "I don't know who you are, or what your mission is here, but you will not succeed. The fate of the earth is sealed, and now, at this school, I have found the secret to securing my eternal reign. Finally, at the very least, you will not stop me from grinding your very soul under my heel."

[sidney-reilly.livejournal.com]

Reilly gaped for a few seconds at the sudden rant, really the first display of passion he'd seen from Thorn since their meeting.

Then he burst out laughing, helplessly, and rose to his feet.

"No, really, that's just too much. A writer of pulp fiction would cringe in shame had he written such a speech." He set his brandy snifter down on the table. "I thank you, Mr. Thorn, for the drink and the entertainment. Do enjoy your day."

And with that, he started toward the door.