Paint it Black (Invite)

[Roderic]

She asks a question, to which I almost blurt out, 'because you're a chick, and chicks usually take two or three times longer than a guy to get ready.' But I bite my tongue. Sometimes, I am capable of this. Not blurting out the first thing that comes to mind, even if there is truth behind it. Not in this instance, maybe, but typically I hold no reservations back on what I say, because I don't like to beat around the bush or play games like that. Playing the 'what's really on your mind,' game.

Instead I bite my tongue and shrug and watch Dominique move around her space. I take in every movement and routine she has before her shoes are put on. She asks me a question and I only shake my head. "Looks like you are ready to meet any challenges that might crop up. Not that I suspect any will." I report, before she claims she is ready to head out. And that I can take the lead. I already had planned to anyways, but I don't tell her that. Women like to think they are in charge or barking orders every once in a while. Makes them feel good or something, I suspect. Powerful.

My arm goes around Dom's shoulder after I nod, and drag her out the front door with me. It's a casual, but yet not sort of action. My arm is loose around her, but I more or less drag her out with me. I'm taking the lead, I always know I have. "First, and only stop for the night planned, is my shop." I remind her as we make our way out of Vita Bella. "Train would be easier, but..." I dislike people. The majority of them. I don't think I have to vocalize that. Almost everyone seems to know that I have a few people in my life I can tolerate and the rest could get fucked. We head in the direction of the mall (another place I hate), but recognize as being a hub for people to come to when they want to spend money. Lots of it. And money was good for business. Mine especially.

[Dominique]

The arm around her shoulder was comfortable. Perfect really in the positioning. Strength was behind it and she felt it. Even after the effort that it exerted in getting her out the door. The shadow went with it without hesitation. He wanted to go somewhere and she was wanting to go with. There were no questions and she didn’t feel the pressure to come up with any answers. However, she had them at the ready if he ever asked. His shop it was. It was interesting. A step inside to the world where he inhabited while at work inspired her eyes to widen with the full intention of absorbing what surrounded her. It would seem it was the only place she would be seeing the rest of the night.

“So, where did you come up with the interest in taxidermy?”

She asked as she looked over the place, her eyes resting on nothing specifically. It had an odor that she would not be entirely familiar with. It was likely the salts used though the smell of the place overall was hardly offensive and more of a surprise given all the dead carcasses on display. As her eyes shifted from one creation to the next she was soon realizing there was statements in each piece he took the effort to create. A six point buck was not just that, It was blended with a bear that stood tall on its back legs. Her head craned back to take in the full view.

“It is fascinating how you manage to blend two extremes.” She stepped around it with her hands fixed on the curve of her hips contemplating how much time and effort went into cleaning out, drying and stuffing the massive project. “How long did it take to make this one?” She stepped in closer and HOPE reached out to discover the dry coarse fur of the bear with a simple brush downward of her fingertips. “It is so clean. Do you wash and condition the fur too or…?” The shadow had no clue what a taxidermist did but it would appear she was in the right place with the right one to ask.

[Roderic]

A question, which seemed so simple was passed my way not long after we got inside my shop. I suspect most people would say it was because of something they killed with their dad and they wanted to keep it for forever. Or some sort of medical reasoning. Those would probably be the safe and what would consider the 'right' choice.

"I was twelve." I start out, the tone in my voice formal and not at all narrative as some people's might be when thinking back to a memory they were sharing with someone else. "The neighbor two doors down had a dog. It would harass me every time I walked past. Barking, snarling, jumping at the fence trying to get over. I tried to befriend it, but it was just an asshole. Not its fault. It was mainly kept outside all day and night, so it just what it was. Something I didn't realize at twelve." I move away from Dominique to go collect her special surprise for the night, but continue with the story.

"I outsmarted the thing one day. Gave it a treat, laced with something and needless to say the dog ceased to exist." I felt no remorse for what I had done then, now. I move to another crafting bench and grab the object that's covered with a light weight sheet from below and put it on the table. "Part of it is an understanding on how things work in the body. Any body. Part of it..." I pause once the thing was on the table and make eye contact with Dominique, making sure she hears right and understands right. "Fills a need. An itch just below the surface that no one can see, or do anything about. My mom tried..with therapy and other methods, but...needless to say those things didn't work." They didn't work because by the time she realized something was wrong, it had been too late.

"That one..." I point to the one she was standing by, "Total took around seventy hours." I say without it meaning anything. I suspect most people couldn't put in about three days work on a project, but I could sit for hours and hours and be just fine. Granted it wasn't three days straight, but a mixture of five days...but most people these days seemed to lack the drive to see anything out past a single day. "There are products I use...Maybe one night I will show you the tricks of the trade." I might tell Dominique about my methodology later, as in another day, but the thing on the table had my attention the most. "This is for you. A one of a kind." I pull the sheet off to reveal the racoon riding squirrel, and grin at Dominique. "This one took me sixteen hours. Plus a couple more to find a miniature cowboy hat." I add in for good measure.

[Dominique]

Dominique stayed still while listening to Ric answer the question she asked. It was not what she expected and she was pretty sure he knew it. Most have other reasons for getting into taxidermy. Roderic proved he had his. She blinked. He poisoned the neighbor dog then who knows what. She wasn’t going to ask. It would be interrupting and truth be told she couldn’t remember the last time someone gave her something they made with their own hands. At least she was pretty sure that whatever it was he made himself.

“We can’t be anything but what we are, Ric.” She watches him while he pulls out what appears to be a bumpy item that is concealed by a sheet. “It can’t be changed, not when it is deep and the core of who and what we are. It’s sort of like the spines you see in your work. It is there and kind of supports the rest.”

Perhaps six months ago she would have said something different. It would have prompted her to dig deep and try to find that supposed little light she thought was in every thing. The place she tried to reach and draw out so that the rest of the dark world within what she was focusing on was possible to be reasoned with. The shadow learned lights go out or they are sometimes never there at all. She had realized a lot since the night she took it upon herself to dig out two warm human hearts and sew them together. The same night she took them and took great care in their placement in the large jar before sealing it. It was a gift. The reasoning behind it was solid in her mind. So was the statement it made when she gave it to the one it was intended for. That night and perhaps before that the darkness had seeped in and drown out what light was left. At first she believed it was the goal of one finally being reached, but it wasn’t. It was who she was. She always was this way. Maybe she lost because he saw that all along. Perhaps. She was the master of her own fate though. Watching Ric set the item on the table reminded her of that. So did the one he pointed out. Seventy hours worth of time went into it.

“I look forward to it.” She responded to the suggestion that maybe he would introduce her to the tricks of his trade. Of course everyone had them. She definitely had her own when it came to what she did in and out of the shop. “Just let me know when you want to do it.”

The sheet came off the item with no fancy pull of his hand. It was matter of fact and so was the grin that was fixed on Ric’s face. A raccoon being ridden by a squirrel complete with a tiny cowboy hat perched on top of the squirrel’s head. She blinked in the initial first second of setting eyes on it then she stepped forward and without asking if it was okay HOPE and LESS lifted it up with care. Each detail again was taken in closely not so much to look for flaws but to appreciate what had managed to capture his attention for sixteen hours beneath his hands and the final product to come from it.

“I can keep it?” Were her first words. She was hopeful. Then a question came from her mind and to her lips before she could stop them from rolling out. “And can I ask a question?” She didn’t take her eyes off what she was holding, her gift. Sixteen hours of his time given to her. Time that he used his hands in creating, his mind and what fueled it. Waiting for an answer about whether or not asking was possible didn't seem to be on her agenda.“You don’t obviously have to answer but have you done this with bodies?” Now her wide chocolate orbs were on him.

[Roderic]

This was not the reaction I had been anticipating. I remember how she wanted me to replace those rabbits a while back, and so, I assumed (incorrectly) that Dominique would at the very least be telling me I owed her a couple new pets on her property. Instead, she asks if she gets to keep it. I just nod at first. "Yeah. It's a present for you. Made from the animals at Vita." There. I said it just how it is. Maybe she didn't realize that small factor. I was happy to remind her that she was down two furry critters.

She then asks me something that had come to my mind before, but it's highly risky and while I don't mind taking risks, I'm also more careful than I am risky. "No." I tell her slowly shaking my head. "It could be done." I inform her, because I know I could do it; it would just be a lot more work. Internally and externally. "But, then doing something like that, if found out wouldn't be hard for police and a jury to pin it on you and get you a life long sentence, or in some parts of the world, a death sentence. I prefer to keep things a little more low key; even if slightly peculiar and out of the ordinary for most people." I think about what she said about being who we are.

I've accepted what I am. Who I am. What I do and am capable of. I've been at terms with it since I was around fourteen. Sure, what I do, and have done is illegal, but it's also controlled. I'm not a homicidal lunatic. Not in the slightest. Regardless of what most the world would actually think, if they saw what I did, or knew what I did. "I wouldn't suggest anyone do this on humans. Hard evidence is difficult to argue against in a court of law. If someone was to, say...experience an untimely death, it is my opinion to get rid of as much of them as soon as possible." I turn to look her dead in the eyes, waiting to see what her facial reactions were, and what she had to say about that.

[Dominique]

It was in fact a present. Her eyes were wide and on him as he admitted to making it for her. She was not lost to the fact that two of her cotton tailed critters were now gone as well as one of the shady masked bandits. There were countless raccoons that routinely raided her dumpster on the northwest corner of her property. Which of course made coming home such a pleasure when it meant rebagging garbage. She eyed the gift again with a deeper appreciation when she gave the stuffed and harmless creatures in her possession some extra consideration. A smile appeared across her lips.

“You like me, Ric?”

She felt like she had gained some degree of acceptance when it came to him. Sure, anyone could have sex. It didn’t mean those that did liked each other. It could be as meaningful as wiping a nose or scratching an itch. So she was hardly inclined to assume because they shared a set of sheets that it was anything more than that. However, what was in her hands said something. Spending a few hours on a project let alone taking something from her own land to create it and make something entirely different and unique with it...well no one had ever done that before. It wasn’t like he had already been contracted to make the item for some customer who failed to pay or show up to claim it when complete. This was for her.

“And if I wanted to get rid of a body what would you advise to be the process?”

She found a spot to perch her backside on keeping her critter creation in her hold. She was already thinking of putting it on her desk at work and possibly taking it home with her when she left in the morning to rest. It would be something she would have to keep out of Vader’s reach. The bull terrier had been trying for years to get his chompers into a raccoon but never succeeded. No way was he getting a chance at what was a one of a kind...she eyed it while giving it thought...piece of art. That is what it is. Art.

[Roderic]

Two questions were posed to me and I had to take each question and separate it not only by the means of time that passed as I watched Dominique studying the critters I made her as she sat down, but by how much each question weighed that was asked. The first needed me to process things longer, so I skip to the second. Something more familiar.

"It would depend on variables. Is it a human body or a vampire body? If it's a vampire body, the answer is simple, unless you run across one of those that leave a body laying around. I've only encountered that...twice, I believe." I stop to think about what I just said and nod my head. Yes, twice was accurate. I remember taking a leg and an arm and having to get rid of those things later on after a Tytonidae hunt. "So, we'll treat those as humans because humans leave bodies too. Isn't it strange how they leave human remains about, but there are claims that killers are the least human based of all classes?"

I think I'm veering off track, so I return back to familiar waters instead of choppy ones. "If you're a novice and can't get supplies for whatever reason, burying it would seem like a good choice. I beg to differ. It takes a lot of time to make the spot big enough for a person, shove them in and then cover them back up and make sure the ground doesn't look too out of place. Don't ever go that route. Never mind the fact that the ground is a perfect source for collecting boot or shoe size and tread markings. It's a nightmare." I pause to see if Dominique is genuinely interested, and to make sure she isn't mortified. We typically don't have these conversations, as few of them as we've had.

"Some might think to dump them in water. I've done that a time or two if you're in a big hurry, but the truth is water rises, boats cause waves and bodies might sink, but eventually they'll rise. Unless you're pouring cement down their throats..." I pause and think about how that might work, then shake my head. The person would be insanely heavy with dried cement down their wind pipe and in their lungs. "Plus in today's technologically advanced era, water dumping isn't as good as it once was. They can tell how long the body's been down there due to some scientific advances." Again, I pause and then open a drawer and rustle around in it. I pull out some pliers and open and close them. This continual motion of opening and closing the pliers brings a comfort to me as I talk about things I don't typically, or ever, talk about with anyone else. "So word of advice don't go either of those routes."

Suddenly an idea crops up and I stop playing with the pliers and look at her. "Is there a body you need to get rid of?" People don't typically ask these sorts of questions, so before I divulge too much, I want to know what her reasoning is. Sheer curiosity, or is it something more? Which brings me back to Dominique's first question. I open my lips and then close them to think some more before opening them once again. "I don't dislike you." I tell her with a shrug of both shoulders before the pliers are tossed back in the drawer and it's closed. "So, who needs to be disposed of?" I change the subject as quick as it came up and just looked at her.

[Dominique]

Dominique was eyeing the raccoon and squirrel combo. She had names for all her animals. The two would have had acquired some if they approached her on the grounds or were around long enough. Obviously there was all the time in the world to come up with something fitting. She would be seeing a lot of them. When he wasn’t looking she brought the stuffed duo to her nose. There was no smell that stood out. HOPE gave the fur of both a slow stroke while pondering how they were to be cleaned. Surely they would need upkeep. Was there some special cleaner? Was she supposed to drop them off at the dry cleaners? Her head tilted as she gave them a glance under the base to see if there was some sort of stamp giving the suggested maintenance tips. That was when he admitted to not disliking her.

“Well, I don’t have anyone particular in mind at the moment.” The shadow hadn’t needed to get rid of a body for awhile now that she was giving it some thought. “I just think it is always something handy to know before that time arrives.” Truth was she couldn’t agree more with what she just said. She learned that the hard way. What a mess.

Gingerly the gift in her hands wemt down to the surface so she could tap at the miniature cowboy hat. She wondered if there were aset of spurrs or chaps to match. Not that she wanted to improve anything at all about what he made for her. It was perfect. Still she wondered how small things like that could be made.

“Industrial incinerator also works.” She figured why not just rig up one of those and not have to explain anything. It wouldn’t be too hard coming up with a reason with her business to have one. She would be checking into it. Ric asking meant he was likely interested in the need if she had one. “Give me some time and I am sure I can round up someone for you.” She shrugged. “I can’t knock it until I try it, right?” No wonder he and Doc got on so well.

[Roderic]

I watch Dominique looking at the crafted item; the way her fingers go over the animals and even play with the miniature hat. This lets me know that she's a tactile individual. Meaning, she worked with or through her hands or at least absorbed information that way. Processed things that way. I don't mind, as I'm a hands on sort of guy as well. I'm a firm believer that the only way you'll learn something is to just get your hands in it and do it.

I nod my head at her offer, then shrug my shoulders. "I'm patient. Just let me know if, or rather when, the time arises." I'm positive it will come. We're vampires. Something will happen one day or night that will need some cleaning up from yours truly. "And does work. If you happen to know where one is, or can get to one easily." I grab a small shard of animal bone that I had been whittling away at most the summer; a small bear outline in the bone of a bear from the northern parts of the wilderness. Then I collect a bent gouge and start making a small hole in the thing for where a hole will be for an 'eye.' As I do this, I walk towards Dominique, making a slow, small circular cut into the head part of the bear key chain.

"I answered your question. Now how about mine?" I stop in front of Dominique, still making a small circular gouge in the bone, flakes of white powder dropping to the ground between our feet. "Do you like me?" She asked me, which was the only reason I asked her. Had she not, I wouldn't have even thought about it, or bothered to ask or care. Probably. The hole is complete, and I look away from the project and over at Dominique as I pull the small chiseling tool from the hole I created.

I flip the thing in my hand a couple times, before I move forward to put it on the table at her back. The other hand extends on the other side of her, so that I can place the bone key chain on the other side of her. My depth perception is off just a little bit, so as I place down the key chain, I step forward a little. The gouging tool slips from my hand as I twist it and bounces off the table and then to the ground. And on her foot. Or rather, through her shoe and what I assume is through her foot too. The key chain is dropped down and I bend my knees to bend down. "Sorry." I don't mind hurting people when it's intentional, but this wasn't intentional.

[Dominique]

Dominique nods at Ric’s willingness to be there if she decides to get rid of anyone. It’s not high up on her list of things she needs to get done but it will be at some point. The rise of power growing from vampire and human as well as the awareness level it was only a matter of time. She figured with his ease that disposing of human remains was right up there with discarding the entrails of the random Rocky and Bullwinkle he came across and cleaned out so he could stuff them. His steps toward her shifted her focus from her thoughts back to him where they should be. Especially since he was digging with a tool of some kind into what appeared to be a bone.

Did she like him?

The shadow shifted her weight from her right foot to the left. That was not something she expected him to ask. Not because it wasn’t a good question, or that she thought he would care if she did or didn’t. He was different than anyone she had spent any amount of time with. Maybe she was different too. She was once emotionally charged, passionate and given how things had unfolded in the last few years she arrived to a state of existence that didn’t have her emotionally invested in everything like she used to be. Certainly not to the degree she once was. For her it was a good thing. She was reminded of that while his steps continued.

She settled back against the surface behind her for support. HOPE and LESS fixed at the edge beside each of her hips and her fingers curled slowly to lock down for no particular reason other than comfort. She waited while he left his trail of dust behind him. He asked a question and she owed him an answer. She was fully prepared to offer it as her lips parted. That was until he was close enough that she was the landing site for the tool that was far more sharp than she had first given it credit for. Sure, she had been stabbed, hit harder than a moving train would feel like and filleted impressively by some of the city’s most fucked up individuals.

So her rose tattooed foot being skewered should be no big thing but oddly it had her attention. Namely the throbbing setting in due to a foreign object trying to remain where it was lodged. It was deep enough that when she tried to wiggle the offended toe beneath the spot it was impaled she felt a loss of range. That meant her shoe was fixed more securely to her foot than it ever had been before.

“Yes…” She answered with the pain lacing the tone of her voice. Her jaw tightened. “Would you mind pulling that out?” Her eyes dropped down in the minimal space between them.