Adrian Talbot is a vampire,
and a gorgeous one. Standing a bit shorter than average height, very slender and
graceful, black-haired, aquamarine-eyed, a pretty boy. He was turned somewhere
around 1600 at approximately the age of
22 or so. Born to a prostitute in a filthy Elizabethan brothel, he was never
certain of his exact age or his family tree. He was rescued from the streets and
turned into a player's boy (and other things) by none other than Christopher
Marlowe.
He has had many adventures since; and wears many masks. Actor. Director.
Professor. Anthropologist. Drama coach. Drama queen. He once ran a speak easy in
disguise as a woman. He took up residence in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in the
1990s, teaching Early English Drama (who better?) at the University of Toronto.
When the venue where he was directing a play accidentally burnt to the ground,
taking two of Adrian's students with it, he resigned his position with the
university. Reluctantly, to pay the bills, he recently took up a teaching
position again at a community college.
Adrian is bisexual and has had many lovers of all descriptions. Matt is one of
the rare few he has allowed to be really close to him. To learn more of him go to
Centre Stage
Elijan (Matt) Matkovich is in his 30s. He's a non-practicing Jew, gay (mostly), and despite a lot of tragedy in his own life, is pretty good at maintaining an upbeat outlook on life. Matt is a journalist and war correspondent. He was captured by secret police in Bosnia and tortured by them (they thought he was CIA - he wasn't)- he was doing investigative reporting on war crimes at the time. His lover was killed, accidentally, just as Matt was being freed due to a sizeable ransom paid to the secret police. Immediately after his rescue he went to cover the tragedy in Rwanda, mainly so he didn't have time to think about the death of his lover. The combination of those emotional issues finally led to a mental collapse and he went home to NYC.
He was in NYC during 9/11 and his need to process that drove him back
into reporting and he regained his mental health and his body healed.
He is currently in a PhD program at Columbia, in International Relations,
utilizing his ability with languages and a willingness to understand others
viewpoints. He met Adrian several times, but fell for him hard at a St
Patrick's Day party at Oakwoods.
They have traveled back and forth to visit each other several times; Julian
(see
Adventures in Decorating) gave them both magical coins to
facilitate the trips. Pippin is Matt’s young cousin, and has taken quite a
shine to Adrian due to a shared love of baseball. At the beginning of this
story, Matt has agreed to bring Pip to Toronto in order to go to a Jays game
with Adrian. Pip is 10 going on 30. Whereas Matt is 30 something going on
eighteen.
T'beth, which is short for Tabitha
though she would kill you for calling her that, is a member of a nomadic Middle Eastern
tribe known as the Black Balucchi. Somehow or other she nomadded all the way to
Italy in the Middle Ages, where she met a vampire known as Lord Carrock.
Fascinated by this fierce, unusual-looking (her mother was Middle Eastern, her
father African) woman, Carrock turned her. A woman who tends to fight rather
than kiss has her attractions. T'beth moved to Toronto shortly after Adrian did,
since she tends to turn up wherever he is eventually. They long since ceased
being lovers, but there's still a strange sort of negative attraction between
them. She works as a private investigator/private security when the spirit moves
her and lives in a minimalist loft with a dead plant and now Fluffy. (see
Agent Fluffernutter).
Jake Fowler is your ordinary average guy in deep merde up to his
eyebrows. It all started when he went to a lecture on vampires in folklore,
given by one Professor Adrian Talbot. Adrian suckered Jake into thinking that he
and his companions were vampire hunters hot on the trail of a real vampire named
Safelli. Too late did Jake find out the truth--that Adrian and co. were also
vampires. Safelli was slain and Adrian, bastard that he is, kissed Jake. There
was blood on Adrian's lips. Vampire blood. Jake has been very slowly turning
into a vampire-human hybrid doomed to vampiredom when he dies--which he has no
intention of doing for quite some time, thanks. A certain amount of sheer morbid
fascination keeps him hanging around with Adrian and T'beth--he feels sorry for
Adrian, and life is more interesting with him around.
Agent Fluffernutter, aka Fluffy, aka Ambrosius (no last name) is a former
BOO agent turned ORC agent, where he is known as The Man Without a Lab Coat. He
and T'beth met during an adventure with ORC (see:
Tag You're It ) and it
was instant... um, well, something. Not sure it's love. Fluffy is one of those
instantly forgettable types, but T'beth must see something in him.
Boyz Night Out - Part 1
by Anne Fraser and Jean Hontz
copyright 2005
Matt was sitting cross-legged on the floor playing with
one of Pippin's gameboys. He was sitting on the floor since, as usual, Nat's
apartment was an utter disaster area. There was no other seat available in the
living room.
"You're sure you'll take care of him?" Natalie asked, her bottom lip quivering.
Matt looked up and met her eyes. "When haven't I? He'll be fine." He looked
around at the wretched apartment trying hard not to be judgmental. The only neat
and clean place in the apartment was Pippin's tiny tidy room.
"You've got his passport? And the lawyer's stuff?"
"Yes. I can show them at the airport. I've already talked to everyone including
the consulate in Toronto. We'll be going through customs here, anyway. You'll
know if anything is wrong before we even set foot on the plane."
"Okay," Natalie sniffled.
Matt, of course, had good reason not to be worried about any paperwork since he
was going to use the coin Julian gave him to take Pippin to Toronto. He was
unwilling to trust her with that knowledge though. So he'd put up with all the
stuff she'd insisted upon with patience. "Mom took him to Italy with her last
year and that worked out fine. Trust me. She's helped me set things up." A lie,
of course. Dammit, he hated to lie.
Pippin came out of his bedroom then, dragging a stuffed to the gills backpack.
"Okay, I've willowed down my stuff to fit," he announced proudly to his uncle
Matt.
"Winnowed," Matt corrected him gently.
"I don't know what a winnow tree looks like," Pippin complained.
"Let's see..." Matt carefully checked the precisely folded clothing. Underwear?
Check. Socks? Check. PJs? Check. Two tee shirts. Two jeans. One baseball cap
(the one Adrian had given him). Toothbrush and paste. Check. Allergy pills?
Check. Extra eye glasses? Check.
"How about soap and shampoo? Mom says..."
"Nah. You can use mine. No sense the both of us carrying it."
"Okay," was Pippin's happy response.
Matt pretended not to notice the little stuffed giraffe hidden between the tee
shirts. Natalie would have a cow. Pippin's dad had sent it to him from Africa.
Of course Pippin's dad hadn't bothered to send any child support along with it.
He and Pippin met each other's eyes. Understanding. Shared secrets.
"Okay!" Matt said. "Looks good, buddy."
"You'll make sure he eats right? Takes his allergy pills? And don't forget..."
"Nat," Matt said quietly. "He'll be fine. You'll have a weekend for yourself.
You need it."
"Yeah Mommy," Pippin said as he walked over to put his short skinny arm around
his mom's shoulders. "You and your friends can go out and you don't have to
worry about me. Uncle Matt can handle anything! He's a hero!"
"Am not. You're uncle Josh is the hero. So, are we ready to go, or what?"
Pippin kissed his mom on the cheek. "I'll call, Mom. I promise."
Matt got up, stuffed the gameboy in his pocket for Pippin to play later, and
picked up his own backpack. It was mostly empty. He held out his hand to Pippin,
who glanced worriedly back at his mother. Natalie looked like she was going to
burst into tears. Matt frowned at her, which made her struggle for control.
"Bye, honey. You have a good time in Toronto and tell me all about it when you
get home. You call me Matty."
Pippin walked over to Matt, took his uncle's hand, and looked up at him
trustingly. The two walked out of the apartment, pausing, of necessity, to wait
for an elevator.
"She'll be fine, Pip," Matt reassured the boy.
"You've got Uncle Josh and Granddad gonna check on her right?"
"Right. My mom and Archangela too."
"Good. I don't want her in the hospital again. She needs me, yanno? Maybe I
should stay home."
Matt swallowed hard. A little kid had no business feeling responsible for his
mother's well-being. "No. It's good for her, Pip. She needs to build a life for
herself again."
"Yeah. I know. It's hard though letting her feel bad."
"I know, Pip. I know. But listen. You need to be a little boy now and again. Let
Grandpa and my mom and Josh and Archangela worry about her just for this
weekend."
Pippin looked up at his uncle just as the elevator arrived. He smiled and said,
"Okay! So tell me about Mr Adrian. What wasn't I supposed to ask him again? What
he eats, how he feels about you, whether he likes sleeping all day, what else?"
"Uhm, never mind."
The elevator deposited them in the basement and Matt hurried Pippin off into an
alcove. He pulled out the coin and checked his watch. Six twelve. Adrian said
he'd be ready.
"Okay. This may feel a little weird the first time."
"Should I close my eyes?"
"Sure. If you wanna. Take my hand. Hold tight."
They grasped hands, Matt securely wrapping Pippin's tiny one in his.
Here we go! He held the coin in his other hand and thought of Adrian. (the coin
is a magical one given to Adrian and Matt by Julian Vyse)
--------------------------
Adrian awoke at a few minutes before six. It was still light outside, he could tell even through the heavily curtained and shuttered window of his bedroom. His neighbors thought he was a bit weird, for having such heavy window coverings throughout his house and keeping them closed during the day. Since he barely spoke to them, he didn't care what they thought of him. This was the Annex, after all; home to artists, university professors, and other denizens on the cusp of insanity. There wasn't such a thing as normal in this neighborhood.
He jumped into the shower and then dressed, remembering to put on clothes that wouldn't cause comment at the Skydome. A pair of black jeans and a Pirates of the Caribbean t-shirt that Jake had given him--Jake had made it his life's mission to upgrade Adrian's wardrobe to include something other than clothes that said either "I'm a working professor" or "please come fuck me".
By 6:15, Adrian was downstairs, hair still damp, waiting for his guests.
He was trying not to look too excited.
Adrian felt the same touch to his mind he always felt when Matt was using Julian's coin to travel to him. Matt reported he felt the same sort of warning.
Then, without fanfare, Matt and a small boy were suddenly standing in the living room with Adrian.
Both boys were dressed in jeans and tee-shirts too. Matt's featured a water-colour depiction of Greenwich Village, Pippin was wearing a Blue Jays tee shirt.
Matt also wore a wide grin which wavered when he saw Adrian was looking aloof. Every so often he was pretty sure Adrian really did care for him, but then once again Adrian seemed to distance himself from him and his hopes came crashing down. What sort of serious relationship could an immortal (or near to it) vampire want with a normal guy from New York anyway?
"Hey, dude!" Matt said a bit too heartily. "Lookin' cool, Adrian." Then he added to Pippin, "You can open your eyes now, Pip."
Pippin, whose eyes had been screwed as tight shut as he could get them, peeped out of one squinted eye and then opened both of them. Wide. "Wow. That was pretty cool, Uncle Elijan. I like it a lot better than a plane trip."
Matt laughed. "Yeah, me too."
"Yo, Mr Adrian. Thank you for letting me come to Toronto. And thank you for the ticket to see the Jays play."
Matt helped Pippin off with his backpack and then removed his own, dumping the both of them unceremoniously on the floor in a corner. "We'll worry about them later."
Adrian had seen Matt's smile falter, and cursed himself. Just _show_ the man how you feel, he told himself. That was something he was almost incapable of doing, however. Matt might think he was just acting, anyway.
There's almost nobody more paranoid than your average vampire.
He put one arm around each of his guests, to try and make up for his cold reception. "You're welcome," he said to Pippin. "You showed me the New York subway, so now I get to show you the Toronto version.
Ready?"
"You bet!" Pippin exclaimed.
"We're taking the subway?" Matt asked.
"You think parking's bad in New York?" Adrian laughed. Without warning, he turned and kissed Matt, hard, right on the lips.
Matt's knees buckled so it was lucky Adrian had a good hold of him.
Pippin's, "Oh yuck. Are you two gonna be as sappy as Mom and her boyfriend?" brought the two men to their senses.
"Uhm, right!" Matt said brightly. "Let's get to the subway."
The two men were kept busy answering Pippin's back to back questions regarding nearly everything he saw. It was all new to him. No one could convince him that one city was the same as another.
Matt kept glancing behind himself as they walked along. He wasn't usually paranoid, well, except where love affairs were concerned, but he kept thinking someone was watching him. But when he did glance around he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.
That made him more determined to concentrate on Pippin and Adrian and ignore that itch between his shoulder blades.
The people on the street looked pretty much the same as people in any large American city. Matt had noticed that before. The racial mixture was, perhaps, a bit more ... well, mixed, with a higher percentage of Asians; but they dressed, looked and talked very much like Americans did. Even the streets and subways seemed familiar; Matt realized that this was because Toronto had convincingly played so many American cities in different movies.
Many of the stores were American chains. Rents were high in Toronto; only stores that catered to a large common denominator survived. Not once did he hear anyone say "eh" or "aboot" instead of "about".
But there was a sort of friendly buzz to the atmosphere in the subway; many people seemed to have the Skydome as their destination. Nobody expected the Jays to win. The team was in the cellar and digging themselves in deeper with every game; but going to the Dome was a good time all the same, and hey, there were miracles. Jays hats, shirts, and banners were in evidence.
A few people had their faces painted blue, or being more properly discreet Canadians, had small red maple leaves or blue jays painted on instead.
Pippin commandeered the front window of the car to look out of as the train hurtled through the dark tunnels between the Spadina station in the Annex and Union Station, the stop for the Dome. Adrian looked amused.
"Do we have different tunnels here?" he asked.
Matt shrugged, keeping an uneasy eye on Pippin while at the same time trying to watch everyone else in the car. A few people were looking at them--no, at _Adrian_, who could draw attention anywhere, but the looks weren'tthreatening. Except maybe to Matt's currently exclusive rights to said property. Nobody but the driver had noticed Pippin, the driver was letting the boy watch him work. And nobody seemed to be interested in Matt. Still...
How can you tell if you're being followed in a crowd? How could Adrian, with his hunter's instincts, not have noticed that itchy feeling?
Then Matt saw Adrian glance behind as they left the subway car and followed the chattering throng along the Skywalk to the Skydome.
Pippin was hard to keep a handle - or a hand - on. He was really chuffed at being out with his favourite uncle (well, okay second cousin but that didn't make Elijan any less his uncle to Pippin) and the ever interesting and highly unusual guy his uncle was dating. Pippin felt safe so he was more likely than normal to engage other folks walking near them in conversation.
Matt rolled his eyes at Adrian when heard Pippin describing life in Manhattan, and then after a complex segue was describing his uncle's exciting line of work. "Yeah, people shoot at him all the time, but he doesn't mind."
Matt choked on that one and Adrian obligingly beat Matt's back.
"I'm gonna be a war correspondent when I grow up too!" Pippin announced. Of course last week he'd announced he was going to grow up and be a fireman like his other uncle, Josh. Matt wasn't _too_ worried that Pippin would follow through on that threat.
Matt reached out several times to put a hand on Pippin's shoulder, just to reassure himself, but after a glance back at his uncle and a contented smile, Pippin would squirm away again and engage other Jays fans in conversation. Mostly about baseball.
Matt hadn't missed that glance Adrian had cast behind them as they left the subway. And the small of Matt's back still itched. He had a lot of respect for that itch. It had saved his life a couple of times in tense situations. Still. This was Toronto. What exactly could happen in Toronto! Canadians were, after all, a very civilized lot.
After stopping to get Pippin, and Matt, hotdogs and Cokes, Adrian led the way down the steep concrete steps in the dome to their seats. Matt was really impressed Adrian had managed to get seats halfway down, rather than in the nosebleed section.
As they reached their seats, Pippin having hopped down all the stairs, the boy announced, "I have to go to the bathroom, Uncle Elijan."
Matt, juggling two cokes and two hotdogs looked a bit flustered. "Can you wait until we eat?"
"I don't think so," Pippin countered with a frown.
"Oh, okay. Adrian, can you make sure nobody sits on the dogs?"
At the look on Adrian's face Matt added, "Save that thought for later. Where exactly is the can around here?"
"Up there," Adrian offered helpfully. All the way up from where they'd just climbed down.
"Great," Matt muttered. "Okay, Pip, let's hot foot it up there. Damn, the game's almost ready to start."
Adrian waved sweetly at Matt as he and Pippin began mounting the stairs toward the nearest mezzanine and its attendant restrooms. He sat back, signed contentedly and concentrated on the game.