Of Bunnies And Religion

IC Time: Evening of August 30
Location: The Park
Synopsis: Esme and Kyler discuss vampires, religion and bunnies
Submitted by: Esme


It's a bit eerie in the park tonight, with the heavy fog clouding the area. The playground equipment looms in the white mist, and the occasional street lights look almost other worldly, with the fog hiding their posts. In other words, it's a perfect night for strange people to be crawling the park, and there is none stranger than Kyler. Rather than crawling, however, he is…hanging from a tree by his knees. His eyes are half-closed and his arms folded across his chest. Even his hair doesn't stir. This is why parents warn their children away from the park at night.

Enter Stepford house-vamp, stage left. Well, not exactly, but Esme Cullen easily slips through the trees to the park, her bare feet silently skimming over the grass. The fog does give the woman a bit of an ethearal look, in her white sundress with her auburn curls and pale skin. The woman, however, easily catches the scent of a certain vampire. "Good evening, Kyler," the woman greets, politely, as if she's not surprised to find the lad out here.

Kyler enjoys haunting the park at all times of the day, so she /shouldn't/ be surprised. He remains utterly still as she approaches, but when she speaks his name he blinks a few times, and focuses his eyes on her. He remains still for a moment, but then without warning he releases his grip on the branch, giving a little flip to land on his feet. "Mom-mom! Come to play?" he asks, head tilted with kittenish curiosity.

Esme quirks a brow as she watches Kyler. "I hadn't, no. I'd come to enjoy the silence of the park when no one is around," she gives with a subtle shake of her head as she moves to locate herself upon one of the swings. Kyler can't possibly expect a woman over a century old to play in the tree's, although that's something Esme truly does enjoy.

Kyler can expect anything he wants. He has a very unstable grasp of cause and effect, you see. "Well, that was a stupid thing to do," he announces, as cheerfully as though he was complimenting her on her dress. He follows her to the swing, a bounce in his step as he adds, "Because there's not no one around, is there? There's a Kyler around. And…you know. Other people. Besides, it's /never/ quiet. /I/ come here to listen." Rather than join her on the swings, he climbs up one of the posts to use the cross-bar the swings hang from as a balance beam.

Esme sighs and shakes her head. "You aren't normally around when I'm here, Kyler. And I do mean the peace and quiet that comes from no humans. Something I'm sure I would have enjoyed when I was younger," is stated with a firm nod of her head. She certainly doesn't seem surprised by his antics. It's Kyler, after all.

Kyler smirks faintly. "Silly Mom-mom. Just because /I'm/ not here doesn't mean that the other people aren't here," he points out, cheerfully. Even though he probably could walk across the post with no problem, he is a bit more dramatic about it, sticking his arms out and wobbling purposefully, as though he were a circus performer. "Well, I suppose there aren't any /humans/," he admits, distractedly. "But it's still not quiet."

Esme shakes her head. "Just crickets, birds, owls, night animals. It's peaceful here. It's nice when Carlisle isn't home, to come out here," is given with a slight little smile and a shrug of her shoulders. She looks up now, and snickers, faintly, as she watches Kyler.

Esme's little snicker only encourages Kyler to greater theatrics, gasping and wobbling his arms as he nearly 'falls to his doom'. Clearly, this circus performer is working without a net. "And voices," he corrects her. Because clearly she forgot one.

Esme chuckles and shakes her head. "No voices, at least nothing of consequence. The only voice I ever heard when I came out here was my husband's," she gives with a bright smile, shaking her head at the lad's antics. Silly Kyler.

Kyler 'slips' from the bar, but catches it with his knees to hang upside down from the bar, peering down at Esme, thoughtfully. "No, well. I suppose you can't hear them," he decides, watching her with something akin to sympathy. "It's too bad. Sometimes they're fun."

Esme offers Kyler another smile, she's in too good of a mood and they're not in her house. "No, Kyler, I can't hear them. I have a feeling that those are your friends," she does attempt to word what she's saying in a polite fashion, at least. "I imagine that it would be similar to what Edward can… hear," she gives with a shrug as she pushes herself and the swing into a gentle back and forth motion.

Kyler ponders this for a time, and then nods faintly. "Some of them are my friends, I guess. Some of them are kind of mean, though." He pulls himself back up to the bar, calmly crawling to the end so he can jump off without risk of landing on Esme. "Want me to push?" he offers, hopefully.

Esme hmms slightly, listening to what the younger vampire is saying. "I suppose the mean one's could get annoying," she offers as she lets her legs slice through the air, causing her to go higher. "And I'm fine, thank you. Why don't you have a seat," she motions to another swing.

Kyler brightens a little as Esme offers him a seat on the other swing. "Okay!" he announces, and bounces forward to settle on the swing. He sits still for a moment, watching her, and then copies her movements to start swinging. "You should try swinging from trees," he comments. "It's much more fun."

Esme laughs. "Kyler, I was swinging from trees before you were born," she points out with a crooked grin. "Trust me, how do you think I met my husband? Not by being a good young lady and courting gentlemen, that's for certain," is given with a light little laugh.

Kyler gives a startled giggle. "Oh, you're lying to me," he retorts. "You wouldn't swing from trees." He kicks his legs, sending himself swinging a bit higher, stirring up a breeze and an elated grin. "You might get dirt on your hands! The horror!" he teases, with a childish little giggle.

Esme turns her head and stares at Kyler for a moment, before easily jumping off the still swinging swing. "You'll wish you hadn't of said that," she gives as she moves to the largest tree that's nearby. With an easy grace she climbs up it, to the top of the tree, or at least to the highest limb that she can get to that won't break under her. Once there she stands up on the branch and smiles before she moves downwards, to a branch that has enough clearing under it. The woman sits down and makes sure her dress is tucked securely under her knees before she lets go, and is hanging upside down from the branch. If she were the type to stick her tongue out, she would right now.

Kyler drags his feet on the ground to stop himself as Esme decides to show him up. He watches her, head tilted, with a calm sort of half-grin. As she is suddenly hanging upside-down from the branch, he gives a gleeful giggle and abandons his swing to scramble up the tree after her. "I never knew you could climb trees!" he announces, landing on a branch that puts him eye to eye with her, even if she /is/ upside down. "Do you like sparklies, too?" he wonders, eagerly.

Esme flips herself right-side up and shrug. "I fell out of a tree when I was sixteen, broke my leg. That's how I met Carlisle," she gives with a crooked little grin, that does bare a bit of resemblance to her oldest (first) sons own grin. "Some sparkly things are okay," she gives, choosing her words carefully, "but not everything can be sparkly."

Kyler hops up onto the branch beside Esme, swinging his legs. "Don't be silly. You can't break your leg falling out of a tree," he says, matter-of-factly. "Only bunnies can break their legs." He gives her a little sideways glance, suggesting his belief that she must be pulling his leg. "/Everything/ should be sparkly. Sparkly is pretty and happy."

Esme quirks a brow. "Kyler, we all used to be bunnies. I was one, many years ago, and it was when I was that I broke my leg," she gives, shrugging slightly. "I bet you had a few injuries when you were a bunny too," the woman points out. "And, no, I can only take so much sparkly before I go insane, and no one likes that."

Kyler gives a derisive little snort. "Maybe /you/ were a bunny, but I wasn't," he announces, staunchly. "I was /never/ a bunny. I've always been Kyler. Since forever." He tilts his head a little, looking aside at her, thoughtfully. "But /you're/ sparkly," he points out, with his own brand of logic. "So does that mean you're insane?"

Esme nods. "And I've always been Esme. When I was young I was Esme Ann Platt, and then I married and took a different last name, and then I died and became Esme Platt again, and I marred Carlisle and became Esme Cullen, but I've been Esme for one hundred and thirteen years," she states with a nod of her head. "But I wasn't always a vampire, and neither were you."

Kyler eyes Esme, doubtfully. "I was just Kyler. Kyler McAlister," he replies, looking away and down at the fog-covered park. He's not nearly so cheerful now that she's pushing the point, but he remains seated on the branch, swinging his feet just a little. "I was always a vampire. There's no such thing as a bunny-Kyler," he insists.

Esme nods. "You died young, though, you were never married. I was married before I died, I had a son before I died. He went before me, and I followed him," she gives in a dry, matter-of-fact, to the point manner. "You were a bunny, Kyler, we all were. Do you think we just appeared as vampire? Fully cogniscant vampires?" she questions.

Kyler shrugs a little. "I'm not dead," he insists, mulishly. "Dead things don't walk around and talk." He eyes her, thoughtfully. "No, I suppose /you/ were a bunny, once. But /I/ wasn't. I don't know where I came from. Maybe I /did/ just appear. Or maybe Tom made me appear. I don't know…"

Esme shakes her head slightly and lithely drops from the tree and makes her way back over to the swingset, taking up her former seat. "Kyler. We were all humans, every one of us. You were, Edward, Bella, myself, even Carlisle was, at one point in time, many many years ago," she gives. "We were all bitten by another vampire and turned into one ourselves, it's just the way it works."

Kyler drops from the tree to follow Esme. Apparently he's not disturbed enough to stop following her around in that puppy-ish way of his. "Fine," he replies, stubbornly. "If I was bitten, how come I don't remember anyone biting me? I don't remember any of that. Because it never happened. Because I wasn't ever a bunny." And he settles into the swing with a plop, as though that should convincingly make his case.

Esme shakes her head. "Most vampires don't remember it. I actually don't, I just remember my husband there. Some do, but, most don't remember anything from before they were turned, or only glimpses of their human life," she offers with a slight smile. "I remember the aspects that I dwelled on a lot in my first few days. My baby, my human husband, and Carlisle."

Kyler rolls his eyes. "If they don't remember it, how do they know it exists?" he asks, skeptically. He starts to swing slowly, dragging his heels through the dirt to make shallow furrows. "I think it's just something someone made up. They /want/ us to believe that we were bunnies. Probably the bullies came up with it."

Esme shakes her head faintly. "I remember it, and Rosalie has perfect recollection of her human life, all the memories she had growing up, turning, and everything since then, if I remember it right," is given with a slight nod of her head. "Carlisle remembers his father, he remembers the events that turned up to his turning, and Edwards, mine, Rosalie's and Emmett's, Jasper remembers some of his human life, we don't forget everything, but our human memories fade over time, only those we dwell on after we're turned, I think, do we remember. Jasper's first years as a vampire mimiced his last years as a human. I couldn't let go of what happened to me, Rosalie dwelled for the longest time, she still does, on what lead up to her turning," she gives. "Look at Bella, you know Bella was human."

Kyler ponders this for a moment. "Nah. Bella-bunny was different. Someone came and took her away and brought our Bella to take her place. She can't be the same. She smells different," he points out. All of Esme's explanations don't seem to change his mind, as he kicks up an experimental cloud of dust, to watch it mingle with the fog. "The bunnies think that the man in the black cape comes to take them away. Maybe /he/ brought our Bella," he theorizes.
<OOC> Esme snickers!
<OOC> Kyler grins.

Esme debates between laughing and crying, instead she snickers slightly. "Humans smell like food to us, we don't smell like food to each other, because we're not. Bella when she was human smelled like food, now she's not human, but she's till Bella, she's still my daughter, and my son's wife, she's still the police chief's daughter, she just is like us now," she gives. "And not all humans believe that the Grim Reaper comes to get them, there's many beliefs. Carlisle and I believe than when you die your soul goes to Heaven, or Hell, and that it's just your time, for those who are good, it's that God has called you to his side," she gives, lightly dragging a bare toe in the ground.

Kyler snickers to himself, perhaps in response to Esme's snickers, or perhaps because he thinks she's funny. It's hard to say. "I suppose." He glances over, looking at her. "You believe that you're dead. And that dead people's souls go to Heaven or Hell." He ponders, thoughtfully, then asks, "Where's your soul right now, Mom-mom? Heaven or hell?"
[CONNECTIONS] Nick has disconnected.

Esme shrugs slightly. "We're slightly different. Vampires are dead, we have no heartbeat, no blood inside us except what we drink, we don't breath, but we still walk, interact. We still have our souls, but if something should happen that would cause our bodies to no longer function as it does now, I believe our souls would go to wherever they should go, and I sincerely hope that my soul would be with my husband's and my families, though I doubt we would all be sentenced to 'death' so to speak."

Kyler ponders this for a moment, vaguely disturbed by all of this. "What if when our bodies stop, our souls are just trapped here? You know, like…inside our bodies, but we can't move or anything?" His brows lower, and he stares at the ground for a few minutes. "Maybe /this/ is hell."

Esme shakes her head. "I don't think that's the way it works. I think our souls go to wherever they're supposed to go," she responds, though she ponders his last question, before smiling. "If this is Hell, than I would hate to go to heaven. I have my whole family. My children are all happy and with their spouses, I have my wonderful husband, this is my Heaven."

Kyler continues to frown, his brows knitted with confusion. "Well, if you ever get to real heaven, your other husband is going to be pretty mad," he comments, puzzled. "And then what if Carlisle goes to heaven? Then you'll have /two/ husbands in heaven… Which one would you want to keep?"

Esme laughs, a harsh, bark of a laugh. "Charles Evenson did NOT go to Heaven, he went to Hell. If any man deserved that fate it was him. Carlisle rescued me from him, from the hands of my tormentor. Tormentors don't go to Heaven," her words are vehement, she clearly means every one she speaks, though it's clear if her knuckles could be whiter, they would be, by the fact that the chain of the swing is all but squished in her hands.

Kyler continues swinging lightly, failing to notice Esme's state as he stares at the ground. He's gained a kind of dazed, slightly distant look as he listens to her explain that. Eventually, he drags his heels on the ground and slows to a stop. "I won't go to heaven," he murmurs, reluctantly.

Esme quirks her head slightly. "Why not. I don't see any reason that you wouldn't. Sure, you're a trouble maker, mischief, to be certain, but you're not a bad kid," she gives with a faint shrug of her shoulders.

Kyler continues staring at the ground, and his lips tug down into a puzzled frown. "I don't know." He blinks a few times, until suddenly his brow clears and he looks up again with that creepily sudden grin. "You should come swing in the trees with me. We can find a rope and swing into the water, even."

Esme smiles slightly as she barely swings. "I don't know, I think you'd make it, if you ever had to, but I doubt you ever will, we're immortal, after all," is given wit a light laugh before she quirks a brow. "You know, I'm not dressed for swimming, besides, I have my own swimming pool."
Kyler's grin fades just a bit, and eventually dies away entirely. "We don't live /forever/. Just a really really long time. Vampires die." He gives a more forced smile, "We could swing into the swimming pool?" he suggests.

Esme quirks a brow. "You know what kills a vampire right? Someone actually has to attempt to kill us, we don't die of old age, or have heart attacks, or get diseases. We don't have aneurysms, we can't drink ourselves to death, or overdose on drugs. Someone, be it human, vampire, wolf or shifter, has to intentionally want our death," is given with a laugh and shake of her head. "It's possible but swing into it, but it's closed for the evening."

Kyler blinks, and forgets about the pool for the moment. "That's not funny," he informs her, his grin changing to a frown in a flash. "Vampires being killed isn't funny. It's horrible," he insists, giving a little kick at the dust. "The park's no fun," he decides, suddenly. "Neither is the pool. I'm going home now."

Esme nods slightly. "It is horrible, it's one of the worst things to ever see, or have any hand in. I would hope that no one would ever have to deal with that, and I hope you don't either," she gives as she holds a hand out to Kyler, a motherly hand, really, she understands that she said something that's bothered him.

Kyler glances back at Esme, uncertainly. He looks down at the hand, slightly untrusting. Eventually, however, he accepts the hand. He even slinks out of his swing to sit on the ground closer to her. That probably makes it a little difficult to swing. Whoops. "I don't know. But he's still gone," he says, unhappily.

Esme moves and sits on the ground as well, crossing her legs so that her feet are tucked slightly underneath her. "It's sad when you lose someone you care about, and it's hard to get passed that pain, sometimes you can't. But I know you've got people who care about you, Kyler," she gives, in a gentle tone, though she doesn't say another word about vampire deaths.

Kyler curls up next to Esme, slowly soothed by her gentle tones. "Jasper loves me," he agrees, quietly. "And Alice." He looks up, suddenly, searching Esme's expression for something. "What if Carlisle was lost?" he asks, suddenly. "Would everyone else be enough?"

Esme nods. "They do love you, very much," she gives, but she pauses at Kyler's question, and then offers a deep, shuddering breath. "I love my family, but I would not be able to live without Carlisle. I could try, but I know that I would fail, quite miserably. He's my soulmate, my everything. My children know that, and though they may not like it, they accept it."

Kyler nods a little at that answer, and drops his head to her shoulder. After a time, he says, more calmly than one might expect, "/My/ Carlisle is gone. I looked and looked, but I can't find him…" He hesitates, and gives a long, weary sigh. "Maybe God doesn't want me to find him."

Esme shakes her head and moves her hand to gently rub Kyler's arm. "You're still here, though. If your 'Carlisle' is gone, than you're a lot stronger than I am," she gives, it is a compliment, of sorts. "I don't think it's that, untimely things do happen, and you might see your Carlisle again, but, don't think that you're not being watched over. Those we love keep an eye on us after they leave this world."

Kyler shrugs a shoulder a little. "No he's not," he says, a bit flatly. "If there's a god that created Heaven and Hell, then he doesn't love me and Tom…" He pulls away from Esme's embrace, and hesitates there for just a moment. "I don't care about god. I'll just love my Jasper and my Alice, and keep looking for my Tom whether he likes it or not." And with that, he scampers off for the forest, disappearing almost instantly into the mist.

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