Pink! performance at oscars 2014... Tomas' First Night Back.. 8/22/14

It was dark down there, not velvety black, not that dark, but dim and shadowy. They were in the tunnels, the ever so deep, never used tunnels of the Philadelphia Subway System.... extra tunnels. Many cities have them, remnants of an age before motor cars. But they do not go to waste. Thin, little trickles of humanity have found their way down there for decades.... a refuge for the homeless... a place of magical exploration. 



Tomas was in a chamber, an old Edwardian restroom. They have them down there... places for business-suited gentlemen to refresh themselves on the way to their concerns.... pull-chain toilets... white enameled, cast iron, pedestal sinks... old mirrors not quite as silvered as they once surely were. A large, zinc bathtub, dragged out from a long forgotten store room, occupied the center of the space. Tomas reclined against an old, canvas drop cloth, folded to cushion the backrest. Sylvia, first daughter to the Mole King, filled it with countless droplets raining down from an old, lead pipe overhead.... eleven decades of never ending subterranean rain. If the tub wasn't there the floor drain would catch it all. Most 'nights' the small, white tiles glistened.



The former vampire leaned back, as the princess of hidden places bathed him.  Neither spoke. They didn't have to. Both knew the routine. Her sister, Aura, knew it too. But she's been missing since the chaos up above first began. Tomas loved the mole people. He enjoyed his time with the underground tribe. Their large eyes were so expressive in the sputtering candlelight. And now, for the first time, he experienced it all as a mortal. The illumination was less varied. Tactile sensations vibrated with a different frequency. But the animal part of it all was deep and overpowering. No blood drinks. That would come later...



When she met him at Penn's Landing, Marianne (the adolescent vampirina) asked if he planned to remain mortal. She, being night-folk herself, was quite willing to change him. But her line was younger and he wanted the old power back. Perhaps they'd reach 'Papa?' Perhaps he'd reappear? Twenty eight thousand year old Cro-Magnon 'life eaters' (another vampire designation) can be so capricious. 



Sylvia dropped the sponge and climbed in. No need to disrobe. She'd already done that. They spooned in the cool, soapy water, then did something else.



After, they dined on grilled mushrooms and roast pigeon. Both raised underground. Mole folk were adept at sun-free husbandry. Some clans kept clean, domesticated rats. Humans can be so resourceful.



Later he'd go up above, exploring old haunts and narrow, cobbled lanes. How different it all was. Armed bands roamed the streets. Flotillas of police helicopters combed the city looking for... well, just about everybody. 'Urban Feudalism' it was called. Municipal government answered to a congress of warlords. And werewolves (they said) prowled the quiet places.



But how had he sublimated down from Franklin's craft? Where did he get the power? ... He didn't know. Tomas just did not know. He wished Sarah was here. He wished Edith was here... even Conrad.



How vulnerable mortals are.



Life is so brutal.



How easy it is to die...



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please COMMENT. thank you. And in case you want to know 'sublimation' is vampire method for streaking through solid matter (even air) and achieving something very much like invisibility.