Unusually Unusual

[Roderic]

Invite

I'm not working tonight, so I make the most of it.
I need a few supplies, things people can find if they know where to look.
Scalpels; Science surplus stores. Acids; again at some science stores.
Goggles; any place like a Target or Wal-Mart.
Then there are a few other things that I can get just about anywhere.

I take care of my personal items first; shaving cream, toothbrush and razors. I never use a razor more then once and a toothbrush only lasts a week before I do my best to get any saliva off it.

After I get these items, I head to the mall where I know I can get the other things. I usually pretend I'm some science teacher if asked about the stuff, not that it's illegal to get goggles or acids. You can find the stuff online, bit it'll take a couple days to get here. I don't like deviating from my schedule.

Things go off without a hitch, I even take part in a brief exchange with the guy behind the desk.
Nothing personal, just some talk about global warming.
Someone needed a life.

I take my things and head out of the mall.
I skip past the train station.
I need to keep in shape.
Trains dont keep people at their finest.

Plus, I get to make a quick headcount this way.
Three homeless at the station.
Seven in the park.
And a couple here and there.

I'll come back tomorrow and scout better.
I cut past the library and cafe and some building that looked like it had seen a fire.
Then a gas station where I stop and buy a pack of cigarettes.
I sit outside the gas station, unwrap the pack and lit one up.
I'm in no hurry.

I sit in silence and think about her.
I'm sure I'll kill her soon.
I guess it always had to be this way.
She made it this way.
Me or her.
It'd be interesting to see who came out on top.
The master or the protege?

I dig around in my bags, just to double check things, but stop when I hear mumbling.
I look left and, right, then back to left.
I stand to get a better look and think I see a homeless person.
This was going to be a good night.

[Keara Aithne]

Deanna had been out on one of her usual nightly walks. Seeing as the poor thing had nothing better to do than creep around the city and eavesdrop on random people in Harper Rock, she took what little pleasure there was to be had in knowing what others would perhaps best wish to keep private. She hadn't heard anything particularly noteworthy thus far and seeing as she really only had one person to talk too, she floated off in Keara's direction. The wraith hadn't really made an effort to get to know any of her spectral kin and preferred for the most part to just hang around the human populous. Of course every once in a while Keara asked her to do something, follow someone or find someone perhaps, but those occasions were few and far between.

Keara was taking the road from the mausleum to Cherrydale when Deanna caught up with her. She still hadn't figured out how her wraith companion was always able to find her, but then she didn't really mind, as some nights the only real conversation she had herself was with her spectral sister.

"Seen you in days past I have not. Thought perhaps hiding from me you were."
...
"No mad I am not. No need of you had I."
...
"What? Why wish I to know that?"
...
"Care I do not if cute he is. What is meaning of that word anyhow?"
...
"Oh. Still care I do not."
...
"Across the city you have travelled from Mall to Garage. Why follow you this male?"
...
"Know what global warming is I do not. Remind me later when home we are. Look it up on computer I shall for you."
...
"Yes. Okay. Fine. Stop talking now. Need another child I currently do not. Content you must be to shadow him."

To those not possessing the medium power, she would have appeared to have been carrying on a conversation with herself. This mixed with the fact that she looked unclean and ragged made her appear, perhaps, to be a member of the homeless community. Usually her signature short skirts would have played against that theory, but she was wearing a pair of plain black cotton trousers and a dark green camouflage style t-shirt. Her dreadlocks hung down around her face and she was covered in dirt smudges from head to toe.

[Roderic]

I'm trying to be as quiet as I can be, but I'm not wearing things that would make this task easy.
Boots, and jeans with a chain that swings every move I make, letting people know I'm coming.
Plus my clothes smell like cigarettes.


I didn't really hear much of what was being said, I just heard words coming from someone in a place where most people wouldn't hang around. But it seemed the individual was alone because I only heard one tone.
Female.

This makes me hesitant, as I almost always prefer my victim's to be male.
There is usually a little more fight in them.
A test of brute force, if you will.
But the opportunity is almost too good, too perfect to pass up if she is alone.

I stop when I hear her say something about the mall.
I'd just been there.
Was she talking about me?

That seems unlikely as I think I would know if I was being followed.
Then she talks about global warming and I'm pretty sure she's not talking about me.
Then I stop dead in my tracks.
Apparently this woman had children.
I'm not a guy who gets his jollies off by killing some kids' mom.

So I think of taking a new and different approach.
Homeless people might be alone sometimes, but they knew other homeless people.
Sometimes they slept in the same places for security reasons.
So this encounter might not be a complete waste.

I flick my cigarette away, then pull out a five.
I'm not rich. I doubt I'm even considered "middle class."
But it's just a five that will pan out to something bigger for me later on.
I can go without something this week.

"Hey. I was walking by.." I extend a five towards the woman who looked a little rough.
She'd never look any better then this. No one hires "crazies."
"It's for you." I finish my sentence, then look around.
"Got any friends who might need a good meal?"
There was my ticket in.
I just hope she would take it.

[Keara Aithne]

Keara could hear the faint sound of chain links grinding against one another and there was the scent of tobacco in the air, though the later was hardly anything out of sorts for scents on the street, as it seemed to her that many of the frail creatures smoked in this day and age. Still she had a feeling she was being watched and glanced over her shoulder as the conversation with Deanna continued.

"Yes...Quite sure I am. Need your help I do not in this matter."
...
"No. If help I needed. Help I would ask for. If asked I have not. help need I not. Understand."
...
"Good. Settled it is then."

It was then that the male, who was holding out a five dollar bill to her, really appeared on her radar. As a rule she didn't pay much attention to the humans of the city, it was only if they did or said something that drew her attention that she noticed them at all. She tended to be of the opinion that is she ignored them, they'd ignore her and while it wasn't a fool proof system, it had worked for her thus far.

"Look I like I need your money do?" she asked the man without really thinking through what she was saying, after all, she knew what her finances were.
"If friends of mine in need of nourishment are, sure that they their own food can find." Again this sentence didn't do much to sway the idea that she might in fact be homeless, as normal people didn't tend to have to find food to eat. She was of course referring to her kind, who did have to pick and choose who they fed from.
"No. This qualifies him not as candidate. What talk you about?" she said, seemingly talking to thin air just off to her left hand side.

[Roderic]

She's still going on and on in her conversation when I approach her.
It's not like I'm being quiet. Killing someone isn't a spur of a moment thing, unless you want to be caught.
I don't plan on ever being caught.

When she asks me if she looks like she needs money, I'm not really sure what to say.
Yes? I didn't feel like getting in to an argument with a person who wasn't in their right mind.
So I shrug and put the money away in a pocket quick.

But something strikes me as odd.
It's the way she talks about friends and nourishment.
Instead of just saying food or a meal, she said nourishment.
That's a very scientific and biological way of looking at things.
Maybe she isn't so crazy after all.

Maybe this was a scam of some sort.
I look over my shoulder quick, expecting someone, a friend of hers to come from behind me and try to mug me maybe.
When I don't see anyone, I turn back to her.

"What sort of scam are you running here?" I toss my cigarette to the ground at my feet then snub it out. "Five bucks ain't enough? You want it all?" I look around, still expecting an ambush to come at me at some point. Then I remembered my bags. I couldn't lose the things in here. It'd set me back a day, maybe two. "I'm not sure what game you're running here, but I saw some cops a few blocks back." I throw a thumb over my shoulder, even though I know there's not a cop around for a mile, maybe more.

[Keara Aithne]

"Scam?" she repeats, barely recalling what the word means, having only really heard it in passing. "No need have I of scams. If wanted your money I did, perhaps take it I would. Think you not that a female so effective alone could be?"

Keara flipped her dreads behind her shoulders, with two confident waves of her right hand, allowing her to see the male and the surrounding area a little better. She wasn't really on her guard and the mention of cops didn't frighten her but the man seemed a little confrontational, so in her mind it didn't hurt to be a little cautious in his presence.

"Need your money I do not, as home I have. Asylum more than sufficient is as place of rest. Though rest there perhaps I do not as frequently as family would like. Returning there now I am. Or was. Before distracted I was in conversation with friend. And now you. Throw you money at people often? Think perhaps that not best idea is, if money so precious to you is. Which assume I do, if fear me taking it all you do."

She wasn't entirely sure why she was still having this conversation, perhaps it was just because Deanna seemed so excited by the male and she wanted to see for herself what all the fuss was about. As far as she was concerned in that moment, there was little reason for Deanna's excitement but then she had never fully seen eye to eye with her sibling.

[Roderic]

The strange woman is upset. Maybe even offended.
I was beginning to learn that people in Canada got bent out of shape so easily.
Her ranting lets me know some things.

She isn't homeless. A five wouldn't have gotten this kind of reaction.
I wasn't expecting undying gratitude, but the fact she is insulted lets me know she isn't a street dweller.
My mistake.

But it seems she was crazy.
She was going on and on and mentioned am asylumn.
I'd have to do ny research, but I thought there was only one in the city.
And the fact she was talking to herself sent my thoughts home.
The woman must be out on a night pass or something.

"I'm sure you can take care of yourself." I mutter.
Who the hell wants to deal with a crazy person?
Then it struck me.
No one.

A plan started to unravel in my mind.
No one wanted to deal with them.
Few people would miss them.
I'd been doing things the hard way since getting here.

"Look, I'm sorry..Ok?"
I wasn't really sorry, but I knew what to say to get her off my case.
"Was only trying to help." I take a few steps back, then look down at my bag.
"If youre alright and dont need anything, then I'll be on my way."
I hold the bag up a little as if to imply some sort of social cue.
My old man did it once. It was one of my last memories of him.
"See you around."
And that I meant.

[Keara Aithne]

As the male began to give some form of apology, Keara stayed quiet. It sounded like platitudes but then most apologies were just lip service, a way to easy a person’s conscience or to curry favour with another. At least this is what Keara believed, as so few apologies were ever made out of any real emotional places. Saying you were sorry to a stranger was not unlike saying you were sorry to a sibling while your parents are watching, it was polite and expected but deep down you really weren't sorry for whatever it was you had done.

"See me you likely will not," Keara replied without really thinking. She hated rudeness in others and to some the statement may have come across in such a way, but really she meant nothing by it, it was just a statement of fact. The fact that their paths had crossed once was just something that happens, the chances of their paths converging again in a city of that size while not astronomical, were slim, especially if one considered the amount of time she spent in those dark caverns under the city.

"See you she shall," she said with a nod in Deanna's direction.
"Though see her you likely will not."

Those were her parting words to the male, whose name she had not bothered to learn. She could have appraised him of course, invaded his mind and summed him up but then what was the point of that. Keara rarely used the power by design, and only really used it to check on the strength of her lineage, which she did once every couple of months since the power to do so emerged in her. As for using the power on those outside of the clan, well that wasn't so much in her control, as one slip in concentration or perhaps one moment of concentrating on someone too much and she suddenly knew more than she wanted too.

With the brief encounter behind her, she hoped on to the next train at Cherrydale that was heading her way and made her way home to the Asylum. Deanna had gone decidedly quiet which could only mean one of two things, either she was angry at her sister for not giving the male more time, or she'd disappeared without saying good bye. The latter being the more likely of the two scenarios and the one that made Keara slightly more annoyed, as Deanna knew how Keara felt about lapses in manners. She made a mental note to chastise her later and then thought no more on the subject as she walked in through the heavy wooden double doors of her home.

The place was quiet as usual. An image of Epsilon sat at the front desk but it didn't move or speak. Regardless she greeted the illusion nonetheless. She had missed him of late and was worried for his safety. He was after all a link to her past and to lose him was to lose yet another piece of herself. She took a moment to look upon his likeness and with a soft sigh, she made her way up the steps into the large hall and took the elevator up to her room. Once there she began to disrobe so that she could cleanse herself once more of the grime upon her. The night had been a long and eventful one, with not one but two encounters and so she welcomed the idea of a shower through which she could cleanse her mind as well as her body.

[Roderic]

I heard what she said about not seeing me again. I didn't comment.
But when she said someone else would see me, but I wouldn't see whoever she was, I looked around again.
This woman was alone. Or was she?

I watched her walk off a ways, my eyes going back and forth.
I didn't see her. I didn't hear her either.
Who was her?
I had to admit I was both excited and unsettled.

I decided to forget about this "her" for the time being.
I was more interested in the other anyways.
I followed after her. A safe distance.
Every once in a while I would stop and look around. At fliers, shops, anything.
I didn't want to let the strangw woman know I was following her.
Plus, I knew where the asylum was.

I waited five minutes to go in after she had.
I slowly pushed open the door and see a man at the desk.
Easy enough fix. I walk up to the desk.
"I'm here to see my grandma." I start out and wait for the man to say something.
Only he doesn't. He just stares at me.
"She's on the second floor."
I know there is at least two floors, possibly even three.
Still, he doesn't say anything.
I take this as a good sign and head down the hall.
My eyes are working full force, sweeping around as I look for her.
Either of them.
When I get to the elevator, I press the button to two.
I'll work my way through the place to see what's of interest and where the strange woman is.

[Keara Aithne]

The shower was short but effective. As she stepped out from under the running water, she wrapped a towel about her and let her hair down from under the shower cap she'd used to keep it dry. She set everything back in its place, scooped up her crumpled outfit that had lay on the floor and placed it in the hamper. As she entered her bedroom, she tapped her iPod that sat in its docking station and waited just long enough for the first song to start playing before she went to the dresser and began rummaging through it.

She was humming along to the song, which filled the once empty silence of the room. Deciding what to wear was always a problem but since she planned to spend the daylight hours here before going out the next night, she decided that perhaps a light, loose fitting dress might be best. The more she thought on it the easier it seemed perhaps to dress in one of her nightdresses, (as even a vampire could enjoy wearing nightwear as they rested). Pulling out the black silk garment, she let the towel drop to the floor as she slipped the dress over her head. Kicking the towel up in to the air, she caught it with her right hand and went back in to the bathroom, to place it on the rack.