EN: ATS, Chapter 2

**A/N: I own nothing, see disclaimers, totally AU, yada yada…**

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The ancient vampire smirked as he felt his Child’s frustration-tinged glee and figured that Eric must finally be finished with that joke of a show. It was about time, too.  Gods knew he was tired of hearing Eric complain about all the forms of “fucktarded asses” writing and supposedly producing there, but he was even more concerned with how that whole experience had jaded his Child even more toward humans.  Well, the determinedly incompetent ones at any rate, he thought to himself.

Initially he had tried to dissuade his head-strong progeny from stepping down as Sheriff and taking on this ‘actor’ role, but even he had to admit that Eric was the perfect candidate. So, he had held his tongue as that hack (with appropriate vampire assistance) created the glamour-approved version of his Child.

Ahh, those books, he thought as he needlessly tidied the massive desk in his office. The books had even been vaguely interesting…for a while. Well, he considered honestly, the character of his Child was interesting, but that Sookie couldn’t find her way out of an open paper bag, and that Compton character?  Yes, eventually, it became obvious that not only was the glamour no longer as effective as it should be, but that something else was going on, too.

For the most part the humans were portrayed as being rather too stupid to live, and while Fairies and Weres had no current plans to announce their existence, still, the book had shown them no favors either.  And touting book-Eric’s ‘Maker’ as a greedy, abusive rapist was certainly not in the best interests of the upcoming Reveal.

While in the past that situation often had come to pass in the vampire world, such occurrences were no longer common, and they were no longer tolerated, either. These nights, when news of that rare type of Maker inevitably spread, said Maker often found her- or himself staked out to personally greet the sun, and the now “orphaned” baby-vamp was fostered for the rest of her or his fledgling years. Progeny were to be viewed as priceless treasures, as that very best part of a Maker’s self which was destined for even better greatness – they were to be cherished and well-taught, never abused or taken for granted.

Whether it wanted to or not, the vampire world was cleaning up its act, and Godric was one of the prevailing forces behind these changes – which made The Twit’s creation of such a ‘Maker’ for book-Eric all the more insulting…and suspicious. Therefore, when the time came – Godric smirked at the memory – no one in the upper echelon of the WVL batted an eyelash when a certain vampire glamoured certain “honchos” and writers of a certain show and voilà – true Eric’s true Maker magically appeared on True Suck.

He sighed as he recalled those annoying nights spent waiting to shoot, starting shooting, actually shooting, waiting to be called back to re-shoot scenes… The whole mess was even more annoying than his Child had warned, but it was worth it simply to spit in the eye of the still-unknown entity responsible for that book fiasco.

An insufferably abusive rapist as his Child’s Maker? He’d be damned… 

While that hack had not been informed of his true existence, it still galled him that she would have created such an abusive, domineering ass to be his Child’s ‘Master’, even if it was only in the books. He fumed throughout his shower routine and while dressing, occasionally letting rather colorful explicatives regarding the probable ancestry of several humans slip from his lips.

Eric never knew of his more clandestine activities, any of them, actually, and he wanted it to stay that way. As he was meant to, his Child simply assumed that the “honchos” hadn’t liked the horrible book character of Appius, dubbed by some Rapey-Ass Appi-Ass, and had wisely chosen to go the route of using his true Maker so as to not disgust the human population. That change in the “scripts” seemed to bring the show back in line for a small while – a very small while, unfortunately.

The highly illogical and ludicrous ending to that fiasco of a series still dropped his fangs.

He drained another warmed bag of blood and considered other notable inconsistencies between the books and show and the planned mission behind both. The character of William Compton had been created to be the hidden antagonist – that was true.  Any good story has to have elements of good and evil, and he had been written as the eventual despised adversary. He was to come off Initially as the affable, somewhat bumbling yet seemingly well-intentioned protagonist, but his true character with its hidden, malevolent intentions was to slowly evolve until it became obvious to any sentient reader or viewer that he was actually the embodiment of a generic, moderately-evil antagonist.

Eric’s character was meant to be the opposite: he was to be the hidden protagonist. Initially he would be perceived as most of society would  likely view vampires when they first revealed themselves – scary, erotically suggestive, unapologetically strong and powerful, mysterious… As the book and show progressed, however, his humanity would slowly, believably, be revealed, which would show that vampires and humans were more alike than different. In the end, his character was to have been written as the true golden boy, the fair-haired savior of that idiotic “fairy hybrid” brat who never learned.

Godric shook his head wryly.  Able to become insulted over the most insignificant of details, the Fairy Contingent had been and still are far from pleased with how their species had been represented…no matter how correct it had been…  The Furball Contingent still hadn’t realized how close to reality the pseudo-mockery of them had actually been. .

He frowned as he looked over at his desk. Damn fairies…always more trouble than they were worth.

Not wanting to annoy himself with more haughty fairy posturing this night, he collected his phone and laptop then padded over to the soft brown leather sofa at the other end of his office. After making himself comfortable, he began scanning the few trustworthy international media sites. While times were always changing, these nights the socio-economic changes were being guided by more than natural human progression, and a smart vampire would make note of such things. As he made minute adjustments to his portfolios and snagged a property ripe for conversion into a vampire escape house, he thought back to the unbidden changes that had somehow found their way into the book and show.

Somewhere along the way both The Twit and the “honchos” were made to lose sight of the mission glamoured into their small, dense brains, and not only were the more unsavory aspects of vampire life exaggerated and twisted, but the more truthfully humane aspects were often negated or ignored altogether. In neither the books nor on the screen was Compton to have been so incredibly villainous a character, and Eric was certainly never to have been “de-balled” or maligned in such insufferable detail, nor to such an intolerable extent.

The question was: who was responsible?

Godric could well guess the why; someone was opposed to the Reveal. That someone had to be powerful, though, and very well connected to have even known that the WVL was bothering with small-time writers and mediocre television personnel in the first place.

The object of the books and the show was to present vampires in a much more positive light than had been accomplished. Luckily core readers of the books had realized that something odd had happened to The Twit, that she had turned against her most popular character for no reason known to mankind, and blew her off rather gustily. He had laughed quite heartily upon hearing of all the canceled book orders after her greatest debacle. Thankfully, intelligent viewers of the show had shown a vast amount of common sense when they realized that the show’s producers were incompetent morons on the best of days, and still held the character of Eric Northman in highest esteem, as they well should. They also correctly viewed the character of William fucking Compton as a petty, jealous, despised freak of nature – something sadly not relegated to the “fictional” world of vampires.

The Authority part of the show…well, in theory it was a nice idea to show humans that vampires had a ruling party of sorts. Humans would surely feel somewhat more at ease thinking that there was a central force controlling the vampire population. The reality? He snorted…as if sentient vampires would ever allow themselves to be governed by such an incompetent, self-important, self-serving conglomerate of idiots…but then, he did know several politicians, so maybe they weren’t that far off the mark after all.

He wasn’t touching the “Billith” calamity with a ten-foot pole, but was very curious about what kinds of drugs had been involved during that planning phase…humans were such a droll, vapid little species at times…

However, as potentially helpful an idea as using written and televised media to prepare the human world for the reality of vampire existence, wisely he had warned his Child against becoming involved with that particular portion of Hollywood. But no, his hardheaded progeny would not listen. He was instead determined that he would be able to advance the vampire cause by becoming familiar with those ingrates and portraying his character appropriately, although Godric correctly guessed that Eric’s main desire was to end his abject boredom with being a Sheriff.  At first it seemed as though he was having fun, but as the seasons progressed, the tenor and outline of the show changed in subtle, and not so subtle, ways.

During his short stint filming his parts for the second season, things were still more or less progressing according to the WVL plan, but apparently innately asinine and jealous behavior could not be glamoured out of producers or other cast members. He knew…he had tried, and glamouring was one of his stronger talents at that.

The ringing of his phone brought him out of his remembered irritation with certain so-called humans. Maybe trolls were real…

“Yes, my Child. I feel your disgruntled joy so I take it you have finally washed your hands of True Suck?”

Eric let loose his first true laugh of the night.

“Yes, Maker-Mine, I am finished,” he pronounced with glee as he propped his bare feet up on his desk. “My double has a very few appearances to make on my behalf, but as for my part? Fuck. Them.”

Godric laughed silently, but couldn’t resist teasing his headstrong Child. After all, he had warned him… “But I understood that you were quite close friends with several members of the cast.”

“Hrumph,” came the younger vampire’s elegant retort. “Well, the actress who played Pam is a sweetheart, and, to use the man’s own phrasing, I adore Mr. Lafayette.” He decided to let his silence speak for itself concerning most of the others.

“Ah, my Child, what shall I do with you,” Godric muttered the age-old quip before changing the subject. “What are your plans now?”

“Pam is currently invading Barbados, and all my businesses, investments, and so forth are in good shape, so I’m thinking about taking off for a while.”

“Sunbathing, perhaps?”

Eric growled even as he sent Godric a burst of amusement. “Very funny…”

Godric laughed – he so loved teasing his progeny – then his voice became serious. “So, if you have no pressing need to be elsewhere, correct?”

“No, why? Is there something going on?” Eric lowered his feet from his desk and sat up in his chair. He had long been accustomed to his Maker’s end of their bond being muted, but now he detected an odd blend of excitement and concern.

“Perhaps.   And you are determined to not resume your position as Sheriff?”

Something was definitely going on, Eric thought.

“No, Master. Thankfully, those nights are also over.” He didn’t ask again, knowing that the ancient vampire would reveal all in his own time and way, but his curiosity was almost overwhelming.

“Good. Then I shall expect to see you Sunday night. Your assistance will be welcome, so come prepared to stay a while,” Godric announced, then promptly ended the call.

Eric stared bemusedly at his silent phone, then placed it on the charger.

Assistance with what?

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**A/N:  So…what’d ja think?  How do Godric’s opinions sound?  Ha!  Thoughts?  Thanks for reading!  Worth continuing?**

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