#SCURR

[enlitment]

Click on read more if you want to read tired & miffed philosophy student's musings

Jokes aside, I do personally disagree with Scurr when she claims that Robespierre is making an "unabashed populist argument" (wow, okay) when referring to his adherence to the "will of the people". [1]

She links a particular Robespierre's quote to Rousseau's Social Contract (of whom we know Robespierre to have been a devout admirer): "the spirit of the people is good, and it alone renders justice to its friends and its enemies" [2]

Scurr is making it sound - although admittedly implicitly - as if by Rousseau used "the people" to refer to only the lower classes, and thus she feels justified in calling Robespierre a populist. (I do also think there's an issue with seeing populism as something inherently worthy of criticism, but that's an argument for another day),

The problem is that in his Social Contract, Rousseau uses the phrase "the people" to refer to a collection of all individuals in a given state as in "will of the people"). [3].

Maybe it's not the most important thing in the world, but the passage kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. Scurr takes what is arguably a quote meant to champion democratic ideas (as in the importance of taking into account the wishes of all citizens in some way) and uses it to paint Robespierre as someone who's attempting to uncritically appeal to the masses (while also implicitly suggesting that appealing to 'the masses' is in itself worthy of criticism, re the word "unabashed").

NOTES:

[1] Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution, Ruth Scurr, p. 170

[2] Robespierre (1910-67), vol. 8, pp. 179-80 (in (1) footnotes)

[3] Jean Jacques Rousseau’s Concept of People, Patrice Canivez, doi: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0191453704044025

Relevant passage here:

[azzrael99]

I finally found the book "Fatal Purity Robespierre and the French Revolution" !!

thank you for wishing me luck @earlgrey24 🥰

Now it's time to translate (it's exciting... jeje)

[hwaslayer]

im actually tweaking out rn u dont understand

I SORRRRRRY 😭 IT GETS BETTER 🥺

[empirearchives]

The Elbans were real ones for this

[dukeoftheblackstar]

I squint at all the Duke related asks.

[il-mostrc]

"Oh Will, do you remember when you provided the meat. It held an acidic taste, one of someone frightened. You would taste exquisite, not a drop of fear in the very sinew. Most animals will consume their mate if it boils down to survival."

Hannibal never worries. While that was true on many levels, there was one that had always been designated to Will. Per usual, his smile remains as he observes Will eat the fruits of his labor. "I could be fattening you up for the slaughter. They do the same with poultry and swine." Least they not forget the farm where Hannibal's hands became the deepest of stains.

Can't live with. Can't live without. Hannibal killing and consuming Will would be the same as killing himself. Will isn't threatened by his smile. The scar across his forehead was not nearly as deep as the one against the side of his face. One scar was from a man with the intentions to take his face off. The one Hannibal gave him had hesitation.

"You enjoy me better alive." It's not speculation. It is fact, though Will harbors little doubt their lives now conjoined would be free of any violence amongst themselves. It was simply something they understood.. like a language few others could speak.

Hannibal wanted his friend. He would not separate himself from him without cause. Not that he finally had what he wanted from the start - his equal all to himself. Will continues to eat his lunch undisturbed by the threatening promises in the air.

[transrevolutions]

maximilien robespierre (6 may 1758-6 may 2024) and the ways he's been described. sources for each quotation under the cut.

disclaimer: I don't agree with everything quoted here, and some of them are truly incomprehensibly batshit (looking at you, betty from finance). primary sources are in bold. no discernable order.

wikipedia introduction louis-marie stanislas freron ARBR petition bertrand barere several deputies defended by robespierre germaine de stael mary duclaux peter mcphee georges lefebvre alexandre dubois-crance lazare carnot jonathan israel vladimir lenin alphonse aulard marc bloch citizen garnier (prenom unknown) pierre-joseph cambon manon roland honore mirabeau jeremy popkin sieclesetcieux on tumblr gracchus babeuf ruth scurr marie-helene huet

[tricitymonsters]

Thankfully for Mori, i like metal and rock bands. Sadly for Mori, i am far too chickenshit to get ANYWHERE near the pit and live venues scurr me.

He'd send you recordings if you were dead set on not going but also he'd def try to talk you into it with big promises that he'd keep you away from the pit all night if it would make you feel better. He knows a lot of people at most venues too so he'd be happy to introduce to you to people he trusts that also don't mind keeping an eye on you to make sure you stay comfortable and safe! It's very punk to look after each other, after all!

[katanablue]

I STRAIGHT UP JUMPED WHEN I OPENED TUMBLR AND THIS IDIOT IS THE FIRST THING I SEE

AWOOP JUMP SCURR

[joons]

So I became a huge fan of the French Revolution a few hours ago and I'm particularly interested in Maximilien Robespierre. I've been speed-reading lots of articles and they all say different things. Some present him as an Evul Bloodthirsty Executioner Dictator, others present him as a misunderstood kitten. And whenever I find a headline that goes "He was a complex individual, click here for a nuanced take" when I click on it, it says "This post is deleted." 1/3

I’ve browsed your entire Robespierre tag (as well as your French Revolution tag). In a post a long time ago, you called him a “fretful adorable hopelessly self-righteous psychopath.” And more recently, you reblogged a post talking about how he wasn’t really a psychopath, but a scapegoat and not really to blame for the executions in France. So now you have me really curious! 2/3 I already have a list of books about him to check out, as well as a list of films. What I'm mainly interested in is your present personal opinions about him (particularly on a moral, good vs. evil scale) and how/if your perspective on him has changed over time. 3/3

I love this question, anon! "A few hours ago." [zooms through all the reading immediately]

I have been interested in the French Revolution since childhood and started reading more about Robespierre specifically at 17. My earliest sources were Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution and Ruth Scurr's Fatal Purity, which are both entertaining but flawed. Carlyle, writing in the 19th century, really nails the fever high of the period, taking readers on a lurid, emotional journey through the events of the Revolution, but it's a history based on popular misconceptions that existed at the time and is not the best way to get to know the characters well (but it is brilliant literature). Fatal Purity is a Robespierre biography that comes very close to characterizing him as a "fretful psychopath," endearing at times but ultimately unhinged. Scurr is basically interested in how he rationalizes certain things to himself, but she tends to stay kind of shallow, like, "Well, he was just Like That," instead of going deeper into the time period and examining how Robespierre compared to his peers and how the revolutionaries adapted as circumstances changed. I've read many more books since and don't think Scurr is the final word on him, but even though she situates him as more of a "villain" figure, that book had a big emotional impact on me. I found his death absolutely haunting, and I immediately wanted to learn more about him.

I think you will find quite quickly that the French Revolution still generates heated emotions for a lot of people, and it's often true that you can pinpoint someone's exact political leanings and the time in which they are writing based on their depiction of Robespierre. A lot of this starts to make sense if you look into historiographies of the Revolution, how the story reshapes itself in the telling, how its central figures can become caricatures and symbols that are no longer regarded by their words and actions but by what we believe about them. They become portents, not people, and they bear the anxieties of whoever writes their story. Robespierre's image as a bloodthirsty, deranged, egotistical dictator was set by the people who drove him from power in a way that was quite bloodthirsty itself, and many of them were much more actively involved in constructing systems of violence and persecution in France than Robespierre ever was. However, there are also plenty of sources that are politically invested in downplaying or excusing the mobs and the massacres that were at least politely sanctioned by all revolutionary leaders. You can see the positive appraisals skyrocket after the Paris Commune's rise and fall - many budding Marxists wanted to look back with fresh eyes at the progressive ideals championed by the revolutionaries and even by the Terror, so while we owe a debt to many of those historians for sifting through the reactionary propaganda that way overstated Robespierre's culpability, they can be misleading too. A lot of the scholarship is fun to read because Robespierre always forces people to take sides, to speak in absolutes, because he would not hedge on what he believed - ever. And because he held the ideal of the Revolution above himself, because he defended it and was so strident about its moral necessity, because he was willing to be judged by the Revolution, then of course now he is going to be judged for it, even when his influence is entirely absent from the scenes of its most extreme violence.

All this to say I am not interested in the Revolution because I necessarily see my politics reflected in it; that is not what interests me about it. I love it because it was one of those rare moments in history where anything felt possible and no one knew what would happen next - and I love learning how the people living through it responded and resonated and reckoned with the world coming unglued under their feet. I stan Marie Antoinette, Robespierre, and Napoleon equally, all of whom could not be more different politically or personally, but they all show why this is my favorite historical period to explore.

Robespierre is just one man of many who got jostled into action and into prominence by the Revolution, a bright, ordinary lawyer with a heart for ordinary men, who went from advocating against the death penalty to inflexibly calling for the death of the King, not out of hypocrisy, or social pressure, or contrarianism, but by seeing no other way to proceed while staying true to his highest ideals. The Revolution is full of moments of supreme irony like this, where you can see people steeling themselves against the horrible thing that is coming next, suspicious of everyone else's motives, only for the thing never to materialize, or for them to be so accurate in their predictions that no one around them is ready to hear it. The events that preceded Robespierre's downfall were not of a man consolidating power but languishing in his bed and clutching at a way to again make sense of what France should be, first by envisioning a grand revival of patriotism (not logic or calculation, but a bid for the heart) and then - when he felt disillusioned and betrayed - by refusing to abandon his faith in his country. He could never doubt her, only the people who served her. That optimism drove his paranoia, his disappointment, and it drove him to the scaffold believing there was one more turn of destiny waiting for him. He is a fascinating person who could be exceedingly warm and terrifyingly cold, whose idealism was mixed with a clear-eyed practicality (but not with cruelty), who was often on the verge of nervous, sickly breakdowns but whose appearances at the Convention brought out his fierce tenacity and passionate moral vision. He had a sense of his own myth, aligning himself too closely with the soul of the country, but he also refused to be revered as any sort of hero or leader, preferring to spend time studying minute details and writing in his room. He saw himself as a servant of the greatest ideals, someone who could bring justice to those with none. Any way you look at it, whether he was always essentially pure-hearted and stymied by those who were more self-serving, or whether he lost his sense of justice and gave into a kind of manic paranoia, becoming subsumed by the contradictory demands of the Revolution's ever-evolving aims, perhaps sacrificing something essential and human in order to serve the hope of something better, it is still a tragic story. That is how I see him.

Some recommendations, if you don't have them on your list already:

Books

Twelve Who Ruled - R.R. Palmer (absolutely ESSENTIAL; there are few texts more measured or more informative, and it does a fantastic job of showing the spheres of responsibility of each member of the Committee of Public Safety); Robespierre: A Revolutionary Life - Peter McPhee (one of the latest English biographies, and very good at clearing up misconceptions without being overly romanticized or ideological).

Films

La Revolution Francaise (1989) - A detailed, accurate epic with great casting; Danton (1983) - I remember this being pretty good, but I watched it a long time ago while having the worst migraine of my life, so who knows; Napoleon (1927) - Visual feast! A classic.

Novels

A Place of Greater Safety - Hilary Mantel. I have my quibbles with some of the characterizations (mainly for Saint-Just), but I love her writing and I think she portrays the main three wonderfully. She also wrote this great essay about Robespierre I reread a lot. ("He was a man of spectacular absent-mindedness. He liked flowers. Sometimes he laughed till he cried. He caught Madame Tussaud when she slipped and fell downstairs on her sightseeing-trip to the Bastille. Discern a subject, not an object, and feelings creep in.")

[houseofbrat]

Did Kate have emergency brain surgery?

Remember this?

Back in 2011, Kate was suspected of wearing hair extensions.

The spokesmen at St. James Palace--clearly better than the current crop at Kensington Palace--said it was a scar.

Shimmering in silver, the Duchess of Cambridge conducted her first solo engagement as a royal yesterday – and displayed a hitherto unknown childhood secret. Underneath Kate’s stylish half-up, half-down hairstyle a prominent three-inch scar could be seen on the side of her left temple. A spokesman for the Duchess at St James’s Palace confirmed last night that it was the result of surgery as a young child. ‘The scar related to a childhood operation,’ they said. The palace declined to discuss what kind of operation because it was, they said, a private matter.  Senior royal sources also confirmed that it had been ‘a very serious operation’ but declined to comment further.

Some people speculate that Kate had a VP shunt placed during this surgery.

What Is a VP Shunt? A ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunt is a thin plastic tube that helps drain extra cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from the brain. CSF is the saltwater that surrounds and cushions the brain and spinal cord. Why Are VP Shunts Placed? VP shunts are placed to treat hydrocephalus. Hydrocephalus (hi-droh-SEF-eh-less) happens when CSF does not drain out of the hollow spaces inside the brain (called ventricles) as it should. VP shunts drain the extra fluid and help prevent pressure from getting too high in the brain.

How Do VP Shunts Work? Most shunts have two catheters (small, thin tubes) connected by a valve. One end of the upstream catheter is in a ventricle. The other end of the downstream catheter is in the peritoneal (pair-et-NEE-ul) cavity. This is the space inside the belly where the stomach and the bowels are. The shunt is all inside the body, under the skin. The valve opens when the pressure in the brain gets too high. This lets fluid drain from the brain into the peritoneal space. From there, the extra fluid is absorbed into the bloodstream.

[...]

Are There Any Risks From VP Shunts? VP shunts are generally safe, but there are some risks during and after the surgery. There can be bleeding, or an infection can develop. VP shunts do not work forever. When the shunt stops working: * The child can have another buildup of fluid in the brain. * Another surgery is needed to fix it. Problems with a VP shunt happen even with regular care and at unpredictable times. The shunt can get worn out or move as a child grows. A shunt also can get infected, which can be very serious. It's important for families to follow the surgeon's instructions for when to call and when to go to the ER. This way, treatment for an infected or worn-out shunt can start as soon as possible.

Rebecca English's article continues:

John Scurr, consultant surgeon at the Lister Hospital in London, said it was unlikely to have been the result of a tumour. ‘I really doubt it was any serious medical condition and I would say it is as a result of an arteriovenous malformation – a birthmark – being removed, ‘ he said. ‘It is remarkable, given the measurement, that no-one has noticed before.’

Katie Nicholl has a different surgery story regarding Kate when she was at Marlborough:

In her book Kate: The Future Queen, royal expert and biographer Katie Nicholl relays the story, which is just terrifying. Apparently, during Kate's time at Marlborough, she discovered a lump on the left side of her head. The school called Kate's mom, who promptly took her to the doctor. That doctor ordered an emergency operation to remove the lump. "I can remember the incident and her having an operation," Ann Patching, who worked at Marlborough for years, told Nicholl. "I don’t recall anything happening on the hockey pitch [field] that had anything to do with the lump. Catherine had the operation during her term time. She was back at school very soon afterwards. As usual, nothing was too much of a big deal for her. You could never accuse Catherine of being a drama queen, but Carole was very worried, as any mother would be." The evidence of Kate's emergency operation is still around today, in the form of a scar on her hairline that you can still spot in pictures of the Duchess.

So, is the real medical issue that Kate had an emergency admission to a hospital on 28 December 2023? Had an emergency operation and then went home thinking everything was fine.

Then a few weeks later she had serious, post-op complications and had to go back into have things re-done at The London Clinic? In an emergency situation?

That the Spanish reporter was correct she was in a coma, intubated, and with doctors fearing that she would die?

"Water on the brain," aka hydrocephalus is a serious issue and can kill.

Of course, still have to wonder if there were prior contributing factors such as "overwork."

[enlitment]

Never mind, scratch the part about me saying Scurr's biography seems to be well-researched so far. As was pointed out by @anotherhumaninthisworld (thank you!) she just gets Camille Desmoulins' age wrong by 3 years when describing what is arguably one of the most important events of his life/of the revolution itself

Like I get that the biography is about Robespierre, but still, I'd be dragged for a thing like that if I had it in by undergrad thesis and she's an academic

I'm just incredibly confused as to why/how? He was born in 1760, which, you know, makes the calculation incredibly easy even for the less mathematically gifted.

There's barely any big difference between 26 and 29, at least in my mind. Like both is late-ish 20s? Is 26 fine but 29 already too old to be seen as 'attractively boyish'? What's going on there?

I'm probably overthinking it. It does, however, show that her research/writing is sloppy, at least in this particular instance.

[wizzard890]

Hello! I've been getting really into the French Revolution recently, I was wondering if you had any book recommendations about it, or any recommendations for biographies of Robespierre?

I'll do my best to keep this brief and not just dump a syllabus in your lap.

On the French Revolution generally

Twelve Who Ruled, by R.R. Palmer - a classic of French Revolutionary studies, it's constantly released in new editions with new forwards and scholarship. It examines the Terror through the lens of the Committee of Public Safety, drawing the reader into each of the twelve deputies' lives and political struggles. You won't find a college class on the Revolution that doesn't have this book on its reading list.

A New World Begins, by Jeremy Popkin - this came out only a few years ago, and while there will never be a Final Book on the French Revolution, this one puts up a damn good fight. Popkin is also an historian of the Hatian Revolution, and this book immerses the reader deep in the moment when it felt like a new epoch in human history had begun.

The French Revolution, by Thomas Carlyle - this is not a history, nor is it an effort by a researcher to put forward a clear and rigorous examination of the people and events involved in the Revolution. Instead it's a sort of prose-poem with ambitions on par with the Iliad, a narrative of the French Revolution that so seized the British imagination that it inspired Dickens' Tale of Two Cities, and bled from there into nearly every Anglophone depiction of the events. If you have an interest (like I do) in how the French Revolution exists in past/contemporary imagination, it's a must-read.

Choosing Terror: Virtue, Friendship, and Authenticity in the French Revolution, by Marisa Linton - Linton is one of my favorite historians in this field, I could recommend nearly anything from her, but this is the book that introduced me to her approach: understanding how being perceived wreaked havoc on the internal emotional lives of the revolutionary leaders.

On Robespierre

Fatal Purity, by Ruth Scurr - a biography that is curious without being sentimental, and empathetic without being a hagiography. I like when women write about Robespierre, male historians can get super weird about it.

Robespierre: A Revolutionary Life, by Peter McPhee - here is one man I will allow. This is one of the few biographies that dives deep into Robespierre's youth and early career. McPhee goes out of his way to chase down the few leads we have about his subject's years in Arras, including a great story about how a colleague once threatened to hit him for refusing to chill the fuck out.

Robespierre and the Festival of the Supreme Being: The Search for a Revolutionary Morality, by Jonathan Smyth - this is a slim little book and a very academic one, but it's worth reading if you are interested in Robespierre. It explores his years of thinking on the need for a national moral system, and shakes away the half-remembered Thermidorian cobwebs of "this guy declared himself God at a party that nobody liked and then was executed a week later". Smyth's concern is with the feeling of the French people, and how they responded to the cult of the Supreme Being in both rural and urban spaces.

I have more (god, so many more), but those should give you a place to start!

[reggiespoon]

Camille Desnton slamming that circle repeatedly in the name of the Revolution.

I think I’m gonna get this book, the author really seems to know what he’s talking about.

[dimachina]

My Death🥳🥳🥳🥳 yes want some wormed Pie with a glass of poison juice and pudding pudding pops and puff puffs i robotbing to størrelse you pussy lol to srpunch your please make sure to be ready for me to do a scurr of your ass with my aprimany sticker toothbrush it’s going to be the lickest toothbrush sucker of my cock suck design engineers have every served y poor because of how indestructible the hard forces of germs is coming from my uiooo funky cockhead kncking of your palace since the first day we metarlers beXI believed in but oh u want my jerk fuck your stomach u large jebaits are ✅ or ❌ lb. The barber still talkingblueah – vídeo de TikTok e shi lI just pulled a big funny shit that was fun lol lol lol ohhhhhh my sexy little pussy was wet as fuck as fuck it wasn’t there bby even with a guy like colorfuls but no one cuddles me like u do 🚶✌🏻❤🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓

[tigorrrr]

𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗧𝗶𝗲𝘀 || ℭ𝔬𝔩𝔡 ℌ𝔞𝔫𝔡𝔰 𝔚𝔞𝔯𝔪 ℌ𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔱

Banners made by, and AU belongs to @another-vampire-au

[continuation] [last]

"Peace?" he scoffed, his voice a raspy growl and his permanent sneer creased even deeper when he found the embedded emblem on her uniform. Just for seeing that symbol he wanted to claw it out of her breast as if it would leave a print on her ivory skin nontheless. "Lin-Kuei, seeking peace? That's like a viper seeking friendship with a rabbit."

The air crackled with tension the moment Diya stepped into the Tarkatan's lair beneath an imposing mountain. A symphony of guttural growls and the clinking of metal echoed through the cavern, the scent of blood heavy in the air.

The stories she had heard about this group of savage half-vampires, worse than those of Taira clan, were enough to make even the bravest of souls quake in fear. The Tarkatans were known for their barbarous ways and their disfigured appearances, a side-effect of their immortality. Impure vampires that other pure-blooded vampires think of as some bastarded ghouls.

Her heart hammered against her ribs, but she forced a smile, her gaze fixed on the pale figure perched on a throne made from bones and pelts. The guards eyed her warily, burning holes from the back of her skull, their stake bone weapons growing from underneath forearm muscle tissue at the ready.

Baraka, the Tarkatan chieftain, was a frightening sight, his disfigured face contorted into a perpetual sneer of mouthfull of fangs, his body a grotesque tapestry of jagged bone pieces sticking individually from beneath his skin and muscle.

"I am a member of the Lin-Kuei, however," she pressed on and finally met his gaze that only held animosity. "I come to you, not as their envoy, but as an individual."

The other Tarkatans, their bodies and faces deformed by the curse of immortality, watched her with hungry red eyes. A low growl rumbled from the depths of Baraka's throat, a sound that sent shivers down her spine.

As a companion of the notorious Lin-Kuei vampire clan, Diya knew that her presence here was risky. Her clan, or any other clan for that matter, and Baraka's were never on great terms. The two clans had been at odds for longer centuries though, their differences too great to overcome but what mostly played the part were teritorries that the fuss was about. Diya had a plan to make things right, albeit behind the Grandmaster's back.

Baraka studied her for a moment, his gaze lingering on her frail-looking form. He didn't move, his crimson orbs boring into hers, a silent challenge. When she didn't even scurr away a step he knew he's dealing with an ossified human, and that's a first for him.

Baraka regarded her with skepticism, his gaze cold and unyielding. "Why should I trust you, human?" he spat. "Your clan have only shown us disdain and shunned us away to crawl underneath this mountain like worms!"

"I do not judge your people," she said softly while trying not to visibly whince under his raised tone. "I understand your pain. I have seen the prejudice you suffer, the cruelty that has been meted out to you. I am not here to convert you, to force you to bow to the Lin-Kuei. I am here to offer you an alliance."

A ripple of unease ran through the Tarkatan ranks. Baraka's hairless brows narrowed, his gaze piercing. If the clan were waiting for a punch-line then they will be disappointed that there isn't any, Diya is dead serious behind that smiling exterior.

"An alliance?" he parroted, his voice a low growl. He glowered with ire at her impudent offer than laughing in her face. "What good could possibly come of that?!"

"We can be stronger together," Diya dared a step forward for her mind was lost in a moment of passion, her voice unwavering. "We can fight against the evil that threatens us all."

"Spare me your play on empathy." his jaws snapped, rows of sharp teeth clicked together, finally unveiling the true reason for her sudden attendance. "You should rather explain your proposal. human."

Baraka stepped down from his seat — that had Diya momentarily wonder if it's comfortable to sit on at all, his heavy gait resonating through the cavern and the guards backed off from the spotlight of the moon's light that spilled through the man-made hole of the cave. He circled her, his hulking form casting a long shadow across the dirty, wet ground.

Diya held her ground, refusing to be intimidated yet it was still a little difficult to swallow. "Baraka, it's no secret that there are only a few Lin-Kuei left—"

"Good! The less the better! It was about time those murderous lapdogs have a taste of what it feels being squashed underneath someone else's boot!"

Diya took a deep breath and reassessed the situation, fists clenched by her sides. "... You have every right to be angry. I do not blame you. But I wish to save my family from extinction."

"Family? HA! You're a human! Nothing else but an emergency food."

Diya's smile was empty as she nodded to his somewhat understandable conjecture. "There has been plenty of oportuninties for my brothers to bleed me dry, yet here I am— talking to you, unharmed, not bitten even once."

The Tarkatan headman disappeared out of her sight behind her and suddenly Diya felt cold breath against her ear, gravelly, low voice muttered; "And what makes you certain you'll leave this place alive?"

With a shuddering inhale Diya composed herself and straightened her posture. She swore she felt the blunt underside of a few fangs brush against her lobe, however, the featherlight touch disappeared as soon as Baraka fled the close proximity. "Because I know you're a smart man—"

"— A monster. More like."

"— If I am slain by your hand then the Lin-Kuei will know where to look, seeing as there is no greater enemy of theirs than Tarkatans... And while there is a short amount of my clan, yours is shorter by a couple of figures. It would be a risk to put the neck of your twenty clansmen on the line because of one human."

There was a heavy moment of silence as the disfigured vampire stood in front of her, staring her down with intensity that had her hold her breath, Diya was actually ready to apologise for overstepping until he replied...

"You are brave, Diya Grau, clever too," Baraka rasped. "but you're also naive." seeing the amused curl twitch on her mouth told him it's not the first time she was called by that, and he took a note of that for whatever reason. "You have lived in your gilded cage, coddled by your... merciful owners. You have no idea what it is like to be cast out, to be hunted, to be feared. And with the likes of Lin-Kuei, they will never accept us, even if there is only one vampire left in each clan."

Diya's slim brows furrowed and pinched the impeccable skin. "I know, but we have to start somewhere or our clans will be stuck in this nonsensical cycle of hate..." she whispered, her voice soft but firm.

In a way, Baraka began to see her reason, although it has a selfish purpose, and he did wish for a day like this to come. Come to peace with any other clan so his people didn't need to silently suffer no more. But he's a realist and knows for a hundred percent the Lin-Kuei's grandmaster would never allow such a thing to happen while he still draws breath.

"You are not a monster, Baraka –" Diya spoke up before he could, her eyes softening and it slightly put the Tarkatan off guard. "you are a warrior, a protector. I have seen the way you lead your people, the sacrifices you make for their sake. And I believe that together, our clans can be stronger than ever before."

Baraka dismissed her words as false flattery because of the slightest hint of oozing fear he smelled off of her, but also because he doesn't want to get his hopes up. He's been immortal for centuries and he had been burned an embarrassing amount of times, he no longer wishes to be the fool.

Diya held his gaze, her own violet eyes, framed by snowy lashes, blazing with a quiet fire. "My brother is not the same as the late Grandmaster, there is a chance of making him see the potential of this alliance... I understand that the world has turned its back on you. But right now there's a chance to change that before the hunters will come for us all, show the world that the Tarkatans are not monsters, but survivors and equals."

Baraka inched closer, his face inches from hers. The scent of blood clung to him, a potent reminder of his savage nature, but she had gotten used to the iron stench that it didn't bother her nose. His eyes skeptically squinted as they searched over her face for a sign that would reveal her ill intentions — if she had any.

Diya did not flinch. Instead, she offered him a smile, one that held both understanding and a hint of something else – something Baraka has yet to place a tag on. But her heart picked up in speed, the beat drummed in her ears. She mused to herself that while her brothers described Tarkatans as hideous she really had thought nothing of that sort the longer she looked at Baraka's face underneath the rays of the moon.

The silence stretched between them, heavy and charged, and it unsettled the Tarkatans around them.

Baraka saw nothing but the compassion in her eyes that traveled around his face with no hint of disgust, the sincerity in her words were not laced with dishonesty either.

He saw not a Lin-Kuei, but a - human - woman who understood his pain, who saw beyond the monstrosity of his clan. Never in his life had he thought he'd live this long to meet such an accepting soul.

"There is bloodthirst in my clan," he said, his voice a low rasp, deciding to test the waters. "a curse that can barely be controlled. Just with your presence alone, our sane minds are tempted to rip you to shreds."

"I know," she calmly replied, her head tipped more forward, nearly brushing her flat nose against his permanently scrunched one as she murmured for him to hear. "while you have more appetite than the other vampires it does not mean that you can't live among them if you're well fed." she added, as a matter-of-fact.

He knew his people, himself included, were desperate, consumed by a hunger for blood that could not be ignored. Yet, a part of him, a part he had kept hidden beneath the hardened exterior, craved something more. He craved peace, he craved acceptance for his people and him.

Baraka stepped back and for a long moment there was silence as Baraka considered Diya's words, until he accepted she is on their side but that did not made him less wary, she's still a Lin-Kuei.

"I will grant you safe passage back to your clan." his voice thick with emotion and his ruby orbs traced around the room on his people, as if they were communicating telepathically they ceased their grunts and growls. "But I offer no alliance. Not yet. You must prove your worth, Lin-Kuei. You must show me that your words are not just empty promises."

Mouth breaking into a gentle smile, she folded her dainty hands over her breast. "A vow of a Grau is as unmovable as an iceberg, dear Baraka."