And So it begins ((Alaric))

[Anne Weiss]

As he began to speak, Anne realized that he took when she said 'you' that she had directly meant him, when in fact, she had been using 'you' in the more general sense of the word. As he stopped, she opened her mouth slightly as if to correct him, but he continued, so she licked her full lips a little then reached for her drink, sipping it slowly while listening as Alaric spoke. He spoke with a tone that was just the right side of condicending, thankfully, she could see in his demeanor that he had not meant it in such a way. The one thing that really told her that he had not meant it as condicending, was the way he smiled. It was the way the smile reached his eyes and made the green that much brighter.

He really was quite handsome, he was clearly an old soul, she could hear it in the way he spoke, the way he carried himself. She also saw it the night of their first meeting when she could see the way her shirt had put him on edge. Sipping her drink once more, he spoke again, it was the way he spoke that made her freeze, the glass frozen at her lips, the gold leaf filled liquor causing the gloss she wore to glisten and glitter. One perfect brow arched at his words and the way he smiled, it was clear he had something mischivious planned. What though, she didn't know.

Slowly, she lowered her drink, licking the liquor that coated her glossed lips from them as he went about complimenting her and then asking her to steer clear of the gnat. Anne placed her drink on the table and looked between the men. "I will steer clear of him," she started but then added, "So long as you will tell what it is you are planning." She wasn't demanding in her question, it was more a curious request as a means of preparing for what could possibly be coming around the corner.

"Please." She added with a tone of politeness, meanwhile she ran a finger of the hand that rested on her drink up and down the stem of the glass. It was clear that she was doing this unconsciously, as a means of releasing the stress of the unknown. She tried to plan for everything, or at least as much as possible. Was she a control freak? Perhaps. She preferred to see it as a means of preparing for as much of the unknown as possible. Her gaze shifted from Alaric to the gnat and back again, meeting his gaze but making sure that she didn't miss the subtleties in his face. That was something she learned earlier on in her life, especially while she was at school. Everyone's face had the same hints no matter their poker face. A twitch here, a glance there, they all hinted at emotions hidden in the stoniest of faces.

Right now, she wished she could get into his head, but she didn't have the ability to read minds. Only emotions and faces, and of course body language. Someone's features were always different when they were lying or being deceitful and when they were truthful or at ease. He was planning something, she hoped he would tell her but she knew there was a big chance he wouldn't. No matter how much she begged. That is why she was studying him now so closely.

[Alaric von der Marck]

Even as he spoke, Alaric watched that gold tinted drink as it was lifted, mesmerising, to painted lips. He wondered what happened to that gold; whether it was digested, whether it entered the blood stream. Would her blood be tinted with gold glitter? It was a good thing that he was distracted by the conversation at hand so that his thoughts did not linger on blood, on what it might look like, and thus what it might taste like. This was not an issue that he was accustomed to, his tight control slipping just a little. For centuries he’d been clean of a substance he’d been addicted to. Now he’d had one more taste…

The elder turned to the blonde, relaxing there on the ice as if settling into an armchair by a fire after a long day of work. Instead, the controlled vampire was relaxing into his power, his abilities; the walls he’d built in his mind to keep out the modern world also, to an extent, dampened the power he himself could use. Holding those walls up was exhausting; letting them down allowed a moment’s reprieve. Only a moment, before the noise crept in.

But he held Anne’s gaze and he focused only on her. The noise became background noise. Alaric’s eyes closed momentarily. They rolled back and forth beneath the lids, before he blinked, open again. Sometimes, people could feel it when he delved into their minds. They could call him out on it. Most of the time, they had no idea. Whether Anne was the former or the latter was yet to be seen.

”I know that you are trying to read me. It is a trick that you have learned from a book. You read it, after heartbreak,” he said. He skimped on the details, but were they really needed? A small smile tugged at the corners of his lips. ”And I know what you desire. Respect, in your work. And love—though that is not a revelation, I do not think,” he said. It wasn’t too long ago that he’d read nearly the exact same desire in someone else. Anne, however, held her desires close. They were not so obvious, looking at her. Looking at her, one might assume she already had respect, and that love was only a plaything. Alaric’s head canted to the side.

He had not answered Anne’s query in so many words, not yet. He didn’t spell it out in black and white, what he could do to the gnat. What he would do. But she was given a hint.

[Anne Weiss]

Anne's finger froze as he watched her much the way she was watching him, and yet, his gaze felt different. There was something there, she didn't quite know, maybe it was the way his eyes shut for that moment, when she watched his eyes dancing behind his lids. Or maybe it was the soft ringing in her ears that distracted her from the slow up and down stroking her finger had been doing on the crystal. The ringing grew louder for a moment, she didn't feel dizzy or sick or even hung over. It was more just a distracting sound in the back of her mind.

At first she almost missed what he said, her green gaze moved to his lips to pay attention to what he was saying. It was when his words sunk in that things clicked and recognistion registered in her gaze. For a moment she was angered, at the invasion at his words, she didn't know but it made her skin tingle and her grip tightened on her cup for a moment. Then she glanced over to the gnat and when her eyes returned to Alaric's she nodded. At the same time, she didn't quite know how she felt knowing that her client now knew that she was studying him. That she had been heartbroken in school. That she still yurned for love.

Then again, someone who was like her and knew how to do their research could safely assume that a woman such as her self, one that some called a '*****' had been hurt before. It could also be a safe assumption with the way she held herself that she wanted respect even if she already had it. And yes, she had respect, worked her *** off for it, but there was always those rare few that would never respect her.

She stayed frozen for a moment, and not because they were sitting in an ice bar where everything was made of ice. Anne then took a deep and steadying breath before her eyes shifted from Alaric to the gnat and back again. "I would appreciate being warned next time you wish to invade my mind. And I'm sure you would too, you never know what you may find in there." Her voice was calm, quiet, almost cold but with a challenge hidden in the shadows. If he could read minds, control them, what ever his power was, she wondered why he needed her. In that moment, she let him in on her thoughts so that he wouldn't have to dig. "If you can do that, why do you need my help? Can't you sus them out by yourself and just make them forget who they even are or just make them jump to their death?"

She had watched the way the gnat had fallen from his seat, had felt the distracting ringing in her ears that once had just been a medical problem she heard of, she would now always associate with him trying to read her thoughts. Was it just him? Would she have to protect her thoughts from others as well? If she drank from the right vampire's blood would she be able to do what he had? Was it even a talent a vampire had? She would have to find out. Test the vial of blood she had up in her room.

[Alaric von der Marck]

Anger was expected. Nobody liked their privacy invaded. Alaric himself hated it, and ought to have taken that into account. For a while he’d tried to be courteous, to stay out of other people’s minds unless strictly necessary, but more often than not curiosity got the better of him. That, and his need to protect. When he sought out family members, for instance, it was only to see if they were nearby, to touch briefly upon their minds to make sure everything was sound, that they were okay. That they were not in need of help that they were too stubborn to ask for. With Anne, it was to prove a point. With the gnat, it was to prove a different point. Still, he would not be defending himself. He laughed, though it was barely audible, and shook his head.

”It does not work like that,” he said. ”The power is limited. Memories are open to me, but not all of them, and I cannot pick and choose. I can glean what is on the surface. I can delve for more important things but they come in flashes, and often open to interpretation. I can speak into your mind and hear you if you choose to speak back, but I cannot read your thoughts, or your emotions. The gnat, as you call him, has learnt what it is like to be bombarded with gruesome images, with confusion. I can cause confusion. I can read desires. Once upon a time perhaps this is all I will have needed,” he said. Not was the time for honesty, and reading Anne’s memories, her desires, he had less reason to doubt her, or distrust her. Knowing these things only added layers to the woman in front of him, made her more personable.

”Ms Weiss, I was born in fifteen-ninety-seven. I have been dead for two centuries, recently resurrected. It is only two years, perhaps a little more, that I have known this modern world. The technology is still beyond me, and it is still a hurdle I have yet to master. That is why I need you. If there is proof in memories I do not have the skillset to turn that proof material, usable in a court of law. The court of law itself has become a beast I do not understand. You see?” he said. With the full story, perhaps Ms Weiss would be more determined to do the job she was hired for, knowing she was a requirement and not some mystery pawn.

[Anne Weiss]

Her hand began to stroke the stem of her glass once more, her eyes watched his eyes, the way his pupils stood. If he looked one way or the other. People rarely knew the unconscious mind, the way they did things without thinking about it. The tone their voices changed between lie and truth. At first she thought it was just part of the story, but as he talked about the powers - he had multiple - and the way they worked, both on her and the gnat. She glanced at him, he sure looked confused.

Anne was in a way glad that that he hadn't used that particular power on her, but at the same time, she was intrigued. The powers had limits, he had limits. And on top of that, he didn't use his powers on the innocent. Not that she could be classified as such. She had skeletons in her closet. Everyone did. She brought her glass to her lips once more, taking a longer drink than she had earlier in there conversation. He could know her thoughts, but then, in ways she had a skill similar to his and flawed. He began to speak again and his words were not what she was expecting. The glass was frozen against her lips, the gold flakes coating them as she heard and absorbed what he said.

At first the only thought in her mind was 'vampire' but it was filed away as quickly as it appeared. One thought that lingered was what his blood would taste like. From the vials she had drunk from, she could bet that their blood wasn't the highest quality. Would his, with two centuries under his belt, be aged like wine? Or like milk? Again she filed it away, his words took on greater meaning now that she knew what role she played. Granted, she knew from the beginning this would be about leverage, it always was. But this needed more refinement now. He knew little of the modern world. And the justice system even less. She was born of the modern world, and justice wasn't blind or stupid with her. Most times the court of law became her plaything. Her *****. Her gnat.

'So you can hear me if I think about you?' She kept that thought at the top of her mind even as she set the glass down and leaned forward a bit on the table, her eyes never left his. "Let me handle the justice system for now, it's a beast I have learned to tame. The knowledge of modern technology though, that may take some time. You see, technology changes so quickly that the moment something is invented it is already obsolete. In thirty years, one piece of tech has been updated, changed, and updated so many times that the number could out do you in age. I was born at the time where I grew as it did, I learned when it was learning."

"You say you were pretty much dropped into this new world, you know I know lie from truth, but you see, my skill only works if the person knows they are deceiving me. So while it will take a bit more time for me to really understand that I have come in contact with a real vampire and not just some sleaze on a corner selling a high, as I teach you of tech and how it has changed in my lifetime, I ask one thing of you, let me learn your subtleties what you can and can't do, when you lie, white or otherwise, when you don't. You have been dropped into an ever changing one, I have been dropped into one I just thought of as myth for most my life. It will take some getting used too."

She watched him still, reading the subtle cues that any person mortal or immortal would have. Then she upped the ante, she let another thought breeze though her mind, 'And warn me when you are hungry.' She leaned back again, relaxing just a bit, "I don't believe I have yet felt a bite from one of your kind. I'd hate to miss it." she smirked playfully and lifted her drink to take the final sip of the liquor inside.

[Alaric von der Marck]

The words were thought at Alaric, and thus he could heat them buzzing in his inner ear. He could, now, perhaps compare it to a telephone call waiting to be received. The small smile at the corner of his lips indicated that he had heard, the slight nod an indication that yes, should she think about him, to him, he would know that she was calling, so to speak. He would know that she wished to speak, and he could open up the lines of communication. He couldn’t quite explain it, the way he knew. The lines were already open with Anne tonight, would it work in future, at greater distance? He couldn’t guarantee. The power came from him, not from her, so it had yet to be fully tested.

As she spoke, he cocked his head to the side. He listened. He understood in a way that he hadn’t before. The modern world was new to him, but he hadn’t stopped to think how the regular human might feel as mythology cracked open and spilled into their world like a volcano spewing red-hot magma. This kind of knowledge could be destructive, not only to humankind but to vampires, too. Alaric had already lived through one holocaust, he didn’t want to have to live through another. It would be far better were he to deal with the corruption and greed within his own company by normal means than by vampiric ones; he didn’t want to put vampires in the spotlight or cause more issue for their continued existence.

”My telepathic power, it seems, has evolved in this time. It is why I dislike that ever evolving technology so much,” he explained. ”It is as if there is an abyss lurking overhead, following me around like a raincloud threatening to drown me. As I can access the memories of others, I can also access computers, telephones, and such. It costs me to dwell in the city too long. I often need to return home, to where it is not so…noisy,” he said. It was as if he could feel whenever someone approached him with a live cell phone in their pocket. He could sense the waves of information that the device sent and received. It was an annoyance, a mosquito constantly at his ear.

He then smirked, and shook his head. Telepathically, he shot back: Ms Weiss, we do not all live up to the stereotype. My sustenance is not gained from humans. You will fear no bite from me, and then his smile faded, and he peered at Anne with clear seriousness.

”I have lived through holocaust, and not the one that my countrymen wrought in decades past. The vampires were discovered once before. They were killed, all of them, most of them save one, or two. That you wish to know all that there is to know… you will forgive me if the secrets do not come easy, if it is information that might one day be used against my kind. Against myself,” he said. It was that trust thing again. Though they had agreed on it, it wasn’t so easy to do. Trust had to come with time.

[Anne Weiss]

Anne had cocked her head slightly to one side as he spoke, her hand rested on her now empty drink and she truly seemed interested in what he had to say. He didn't seem to take pleasure in the powers he had, as she had picked up through media and rumors. He seemed weighed down by it. When he spoke of the rain cloud she had one thought that was fleeting but powerful. He just needed an umbrella of sorts. A dam. Something to protect him from the main flow. She was that in a way. Or she would be.

Though, she had to admit that she would like to have the ability to telepathically hack into any computer or tech. The things she could find out. The people she'd be able to help, or screw over (depending on if they were client or foe). In a way, she could play god. Anne licked her lips again and glanced towards the glass before she her eyes, full of her own contemplative thoughts turned back onto Alaric. The smirk on his face was answered by one that almost mirrored his as she heard his voice in her minds. Pity... Then he spoke aloud and she gave him her full attention.

It was equal parts interesting and terrifying. The thought that history could repeat itself so many times. Not just in World War Two, but with the vampires once before, and in the latest days in the states to the south. There was a chance that it could happen again. There was always a chance. Still, she preferred to wait until she saw smoke to yell 'fire'. She nodded to his words and sat up a bit straighter. "I don't expect you to tell me all right now. I suspect if you did that we would be sitting here for months or maybe years. That said, you know what it is I ask for. That you be open and honest. If you tell me something it goes into a steel trap that can't and won't be broken. If I find it out on my own or find out I've been lied to, then it is fair game." She looked him straight in the eyes, the same seriousness he had was with her as well.

"There is one thing that you have now on your side, on every vampire's side that holocausts in the past did not. Acceptance. Now a days those that are open minded and accepting are the majority in most matters. There are so many out there that if the government or someone else tried to pull off another, it wouldn't just be fought by vampires. It would be fought by mortals as well. Yes, vampires may be monsters, but I know far too well that mortal men and women could be more monstrous." Depending on who was asked, she could be one of those monsters or one of those open minded freedom fighters.

[Alaric von der Marck]

Alaric peered at Anne with uncertainty. It was borne from many different places. Again, she said that she requested he be open and honest and that she was a steel trap that would and could not be broken unless she willed it. And she would only will it if she feared some kind of deception. She had already proven herself to be a powerful and dangerous woman. Her words ought to have comforted Alaric but instead he found himself wondering about mistakes. They could happen, and he had not yet fully gauged Anne Weiss. If she suspected deception would she confront him, or would she act upon it without all of the information? Could he risk the possibility?

”Your job pertains to my employees,” Alaric said, calm as you please. ”I have revealed my ineptitude to you so that you might understand why your services are required, and why there are certain things that I myself am not capable of,” he said. Any work during the day, for example. That, too, would require eyes and ears where his own could not be. ”You will have whatever information you require so that you may do your job. You will ask, should there be anything that you need to know that you do not already,” he said. He could not see how the intricacies of his past were required to get this job done. What he had revealed thus far was due to good will, to extend an olive branch, as it were. A small smile graced his lips.

”Although I do not much like the signal it requires, I do watch the television of an evening. I do read the newspapers. The world is, as you say, more accepting than it once was but humanity still has a long, long way to go before it reaches peak generosity,” he said. America had a President ostracising their neighbour, wanting to build a wall to keep them out. Australia had an island where they kept innocent refugees imprisoned, in worse condition than they were in their own home country. Not to mention that war… well, there would always be war, that seemed certain.

”I believe that the government was taken by surprise, and that vampires are not accepted, nor in the clear. Your reassurances are appreciated, but I am not yet ready to let down my guard. I know my kind, Ms Weiss, and I trust them as much as I trust humanity not to bow to its inevitable fears,” he said. Alaric could not help his pessimism, nor his anxiety. One could almost go so far as to say he did not know how to relax, as much as he may try.