24 Nov 2022, 02:47
Festival of Light and Divulgence
23 December 2022
During the entire trip to Crystal Palace Park, Simon prepared himself for another no-show. To think that Adrian Hawthorne, his father, would actually plan and implement a meeting between the two was rather an impractical belief. Still, despite his snippy letter, showing his anger at their last meeting, Simon had received a letter back and instead of pushing him away, it seemed that his father wanted to welcome him in - maybe not with open arms but he would take what he could get at this point.
Simon had heard some pretty awful reviews of this festival of lights when it first opened in November, but now that it was able to get all the kinks worked out, it was back up to its award-winning status from the previous year. He had been glad it wasn't marked a failure, otherwise the meeting with his father would never happen.
It was chilly. Not that the weather usually bothered him. Still, he wore a coat and walked along the London city streets. No snow was falling from the sky, but that was normal for December in London. The crisp air didn't seem to bother the shoppers, walking around the city streets to purchase their last minute holiday presents.
Nearing the entrance, he looked around for the man with the sharp facial features and similar swoop of hair but didn't see him. It was a little tricky to pinpoint anyone in the darkness even with the lit streets but it didn't seem to be Adrian's style to just wait at the entrance, so Simon followed his intuition and presented his ticket and headed inside.
He winded his way through the path, his eyes hovering over the big light displays and then to some backlit trees with projected lights upon them, making them flash and sparkle in a subtle sort of way, almost like a lightning storm.
"London is beautiful this time of year," he heard a familiar voice. That voice carried with it such a distinct tone, a commanding sort of one, with each syllable perfectly articulated. He knew it instantly and turned to his left. "London is always beautiful," Simon said, not realizing that a small smile was playing across his face. He came. He actually came!
All the tension that Simon had been feeling since the last meeting was quickly fading away and while he somehow felt he should keep his guard up around the man, it was increasingly difficult to do so. HE CAME!
"Always? Perhaps often is the correct term. London is often beautiful." Simon was rather shocked. Not only did the man come but he was talking and engaging in a conversation!
"The lightning trees are pretty cool," Simon said as he pointed to the ones nearby that he was admiring just moments before. Adrian nodded slowly, "The Dandelion Garden and Peacock are most impressive." Simon watched him curiously. Adrian Hawthorne not only came but he had come early; early enough to already partake in a preview.
They were only minutes in but so far the talk had centered around nothing but the light display surrounding them and that was far from the reason why both were there. "I'm glad you came," Simon told him and slowly reached his hand out. The man's eyes seemed to follow the movement and he brought his hand into his own, giving it a quick but firm shake as he replied, "likewise. There is much to be discussed."
Simon nodded, glad they were maybe FINALLY going to get somewhere! "I don't know if you have doubts. I've looked it up and there seems to be two equally accurate ways to test for paternity. There's blood tests where we would both give blood samples at a medical office and they'll send them to a lab for analysis or there's cheek swabs. We would both swab the inside of our cheeks for buccal cells and mail the applicators to a designated lab or, you know, the medical office could do that."
Adrian Hawthorne listened. Expressionless.
"Admittedly, the news came as a surprise but there is no doubt that you are of lineage....." and his voice seemed to trail off as maybe he saw the look upon Simon's face. It was a bit of confusion but a lot of frustration. "Can we just talk?" Simon interrupted. "Please? Regular talking. No....hidden metaphors of lightning striking the North Pole or hidden morals like the Prodigal Son. Please."
The man didn't deviate his gaze nor still show any emotion as he watched him. Simon wondered if he was getting through to him at all. Maybe this was pointless.
"Very well," the man answered and then continued. "I will admit that the news of having a son came as quite a surprise but I have no doubt that you are my son."
Finally! Finally, Simon could understand him! It was like a barrier had been taken down and he finally began to feel both relief and hope.
"If I was a surprise, might there be more? Any potential siblings out there in the world?" Simon asked with a teasing smile, not realizing that the question could be entirely too nosy of one to ask. He watched as Adrian's mouth came to a slight smile. "Surely not."
Simon sighed, but nodded at the same time. While the idea of having a family seemed quite amazing to him, it was sort of good to know that his father wasn't someone who seemed to go from woman to woman and in that case, it was good. Maybe Adrian Hawthorne had truly cared for his mother. Simon would soon learn that she was still on the man's mind.
"What became of Arabella?"
Simon took a moment to try and detect in whether there was any sadness in the man's voice or showing in his eyes but as always, emotionless. Still, he had asked so therefore it must be something on his mind if he inquired what happened to his mother.
"She got sick. Cancer. From what I've been told, it hit pretty fast and pretty hard. She ignored it while tending to me and her sister and her job that it took her before she realized the severity in it."
Simon did notice a sigh escape the man.
"And you have been living with Margaret? Still here in London?"
Simon hesitated a nod because no one called Aunt Maggie 'Margaret' even if that was her real name. He also began to realize that his father was starting to ask personal questions and well, AngelFyre had sent up the reddest of red flags when it concerned the man and therefore Simon would need to try and be cautious.
"Yea, yea...." he trailed off a little, figuring that not giving details and being vague was best. "London's great and all. Often beautiful," he smiled in reference to their conversation earlier. "Born, bred it seems," and he tilted his head to Adrian at that one because he'd know better on that part than Simon himself would, "and still here. It's a good place to be."
Now it was Simon's turn to ask a personal question because it was one of several that were weighing heavily upon his mind. "Do you know why she ended the relationship?"
The man slipped his hands into his pockets and turned, beginning to walk down the pathway of the light festival. Simon followed, ensuring that he remained at his side and not behind him. He didn't want Adrian Hawthorne to think he was backing down to him for a second. They were finally making a hint of progress and Simon wanted that to continue.
"No, not completely. I think, at a certain point, she realized that something was not conventional when it came to my lifestyle. That was when she began to withdraw. I wanted her to understand but also did not want to scare her off. Needless to say, she did not appreciate the invitation to look into my world. Instead of attempting to understand, she fled and became lost to me."
He might have said the words with a lack of emotion, but Simon could gather from the words themselves that this was something that bothered him. So vampires did have emotions, huh?
"What does your world encompass?"
Adrian Hawthorne just looked over to Simon Kincaid. "It's easier to show than explain."
They walked on, past the Crystal Palace and Simon had to stop to pull out his cellphone to capture a photo of the dragon. As he did so, he waited for Adrian to continue, but he did not.
"Can we at least establish something so I don't think I'm mental? Make sure we're on the same page here at what we're talking about?" Simon asked, breaking that silence between them. "There are certain traits about myself that I think must have passed on from you, like.....aversion to things: sunlight, most foods. I have pale skin and unusual teeth and my eyes are something that others would think a little abnormal if they could see them clearly right now in the night and when I cry, it's not clear liquid. I've got increased strength and incredible reflexes for my age or anyone for that matter and I have this notion that I need a certain substance to sustain myself. You understand where this is going, yes?"
"Yes."
It was Simon's turn to sigh. It was quite frustrating how this man couldn't just speak his mind in the moment and clear everything up in an instant. Little did he realize, it was another trait that the two shared and one that others, especially poor AngelFyre, had to fall victim.
"You are not crazy. This is the lifestyle I wanted her to understand, the world in which I wanted her to discover."
"So, to be crystal clear, for example - this dragon here....which was once thought as nothing more than mere fantasy.....you're suggesting that such things can truly exist?" Surely Simon knew that dragons, vampires, and much more existed now thanks to his Hogwarts education, but he wasn't going to let his father know of his knowledge of the magical world. Somehow, that seemed something best kept in his back pocket.
"Oh, many ancient historians and writers clearly believed creatures like dragons were real and the word dragon is mentioned in the Bible on more than several occasions."
One more time for good measure. Simon knew that the two had already established something here, but he wanted to appear as the dumbfounded teen who had no knowledge of any such creatures existing. "Okay, so what you're telling me is..... widely believed mythical creatures can truly exist. Dragons. Werewolves. Unicorns. Vampires. Mermaids...." he tossed in the one he was truly curious about in a list of others.
"I do not know the validity as to the existence of mermaids," the man replied.
Simon looked to Adrian Hawthorne and smiled.
The smile was returned.
Be kind to one another. (*iNPC is Miles Thatcher)
11 Dec 2022, 07:27
Festival of Light and Divulgence
They were now at about the halfway point of the light festival, just passing the Magical Christmas section and heading toward the Fantasy Flowers portion. It was all quite spectacular really and Simon was glad to have experienced it. It would have amazed him how this was all done by just science and technology of muggles without any help from magic at all if he was thinking on it. He would have thought it was a wonder what the non-magical community was able to accomplish but his mind rested elsewhere - right on the previous conversation they had. It was almost as if not only were they communicating, finally, but that they were almost amicable toward one another for a moment.
"You have fallen entirely silent," Simon heard his father remark.
His hand brushed along the vial of Vervain Infusion that rested corked up in his pocket. It had been given to him by his girlfriend AngelFyre McCubbin under the promise that he kept it on him each time he visited with his father. She had such awful previsions of him and he knew to take them into consideration and proceed with caution.
Vervain Infusion was a strong tonic made from Vervain. Simon knew Vervain under the reference of "herb of the cross" as it was described in the Bible that was used to stop the bleeding of the wounds of Christ after the crucifixion. In 1905, a lawyer, bibliographer, editor, and writer by the name of William Carew Hazlitt quoted in his book "Faiths and Folklore" a short line from author John Aubrey's book "Miscellanies Upon Various Subjects" that "Vervain and Dill / Hinder witches from their will." Simon knew quite well that witches weren't inherently evil but he wasn't so sure of vampires.
Maybe talking to Adrian Hawthorne was a way to gather some information. Philosopher and statesman Francis Bacon in 1597 proclaimed that "knowledge was power." Perhaps he could learn something about his father here that would be important eventually. If nothing else, he could test if his father truly wanted to have any sort of connection formed between them.
"Just a lot of questions on my mind," Simon answered, keeping his hands in his pockets and his eyes on the vibrant colored massive light displays before him. His gaze remained on them before his attention was drawn away as his father motioned for them to both sit at a picnic table near a large tree, off the pathway of the lights and sort of obscured from the public.
"Ask no questions and you will be told no answers," Adrian surprised him by saying this. Was he welcoming not only conversation but some big topics?
"I believe the quote is 'Ask no questions, and you'll be told no lies.' - Great Expectations, Charles Dickens."
"I would have nothing to gain by concealing the truth from you," his father answered. Simon watched him closely and wondered if he could believe anything that this man said? There was one way to find out......
"Did you come to London during the first two dates that we were to meet over the Summer?"
Adrian Hawthorne stared back at him in that seemingly emotionless way that he always did. He didn't show surprise, or shock, nor anger. Nothing.
"I came," he answered. Simon was surprised to hear the truth from this man and knew it to be true only because about a month prior to Christmas Break, his seer of a girlfriend divulged a vision she had of Adrian following Simon after leading him to believe he had been stood up for their first two intended meetings.
"I don't understand," Simon admitted.
There was a pause before his father spoke. Maybe he was gathering his words and figuring out his reason or maybe he was working on formulating an excuse.
"Trust. It is a big feat for my kind. I wanted to see who you are, Simon Kincaid, in your natural environment. I was being prudent and thought I was showing caution but it revealed only mistrust. That does not allow us to have a deeper understanding of one another nor a better relationship. Moments like now can. Do you have additional questions for me?"
.....Only about a hundred thousand.
"Any questions?"
"Any at all."
Simon looked around to ensure they were secluded enough away from the others at the festival that it was safe to ask some rather highly classified questions here and just hoped beyond hope that he would get truth instead of lies. There truly was a hundred thousand questions that he wanted to ask - some that he had in his head forever and a day and some that popped up out of no where. If only he had his notebook with him where he had written some of them down. Maybe then he could have asked in a better sort of format but for now it would just all spill out randomly.
"Were you ever human?"
"Yes."
Asking how he had gotten turned seemed to be quite personal, so Simon would stay clear of that one. Still his next question bordered just as personal. "If you had the chance to be human again, would you?" and Simon lowered his head just slightly upon asking that. It was nearly just as bad and he regretted saying the words. Still, he heard his father answer."Unquestionably."
"Can you fly or, like, turn into a bat?" Simon hadn't heard anything like that from the books within the Hogwarts Library but it was all over muggle folklore.
He watched as his father watched him with that expressionless face, as if just studying him, but he felt he might have caught a slight bit of amusement from the man, perhaps the slightest eyebrow raise and a slight tug at one side of his mouth. "Neither."
"Do vampires actually hunt people down for their blood?"
"Some have been known to," his father answered. His words flowed as if it was just the most normal sort of conversation in the world. "It was more common in the past but there are ways to find willing donors. Those that kill or attack people for their blood risk exposure of our kind and are very dangerous."
"How many humans have you turned into vampires?"
"None."
Boy, did that answer surprise Simon. He was thrown off a bit at what his next question should be. Now that the communication was flowing, he didn't quite know what to ask. All those millions of ideas were just swimming around in his head, so fast that he found it difficult to grasp one of them.
"Do you have a job? If so, what is it?" he asked, not knowing if vampires even had or not. What sort of job would a vampire even have? Something on the nightshift?
"I have answered my calling to be a leader and a pastor for my community."
A pastor? Simon was rather surprised by that although he shouldn't have been if he gave it any thought at all. The man had quoted Bible verses in nearly every form of communication they had, but somehow vampirism and Christianity didn't seem to go hand-in-hand. Then again, some could say the same for Christianity and the wizarding world, and Simon didn't see that as a hindrance at all.
He mentioned that he was a leader and pastor for his community. What community? Was this some place that he lived unidentified? Was it somewhere that only vampires lives? "Where do you live? Do you live alone? If not, who do you live with?
"A small settlement here in England. I have a family, but not in the conventional sense. As previously stated, it is easier to show than explain."
"You should come visit me someday, Simon."
Visit him? There was already talk about him coming to visit? Father and son aside, the two were practically strangers and one didn't just invite a stranger to their home!
Simon was starting to see that not much was conventional with Adrian Hawthorne.
Be kind to one another. (*iNPC is Miles Thatcher)