Path of the Vampire forum

Elliot shook his head, laughing as he did so. He leaned forward—the weight of the computer complication lifted from his shoulders, they could now focus properly on the conversation. Elliot could get to know Keara a little better, just as she could get to know him. Just as she was starting to do, asking him questions—easy, unobtrusive questions that had nothing to do with the heaviness they had previously discussed. They had moved passed those things that might weigh them down, should they choose to let their emotions get the better of them. Talk of business was far easier. And would become easier still with drinks.

With a smirk, Elliot lifted his hand and waved, twice. He’d caught the eye of one of the waitresses—who nodded. They didn’t bow to his every whim, his employees. They were quick on their toes, and knew that they needed to make the customers happy. That the customers came first. They knew they could leave Elliot waiting until they’d finished with the customers they were currently serving. Elliot turned back to Keara.

”No, not here. Not all the time,” he said, with a sly grin. He considered not telling Keara about his other businesses. But he was proud of them, and couldn’t keep his tongue still. ”You can find me at 8th Dimension Mall, too. I have Curlew Musical Supplies. And if you’re ever in need of weapons… I’ve got a Weapon Exchange, at Honeymead,” he said, then shook his head.

”And anyway, even if I’m here a lot, it’s not always for business. It’s for pleasure, too,” he said, gesturing toward the stage at the other end of the room. And it was true, too. He didn’t come here all the time to work. It was indeed a boon that he didn’t have to go busk on street corners anymore, even though he did that sometimes still for nostalgic purposes. The fact that he had a stage open to him, to use whenever he wanted? He took advantage of that at every opportunity.

At that point, the waitress joined them. She grinned at Elliot.

”Sarah! A whiskey, straight. And a Special Bloody Mary,” he said with a wink. She nodded, not even flinching at the special, odd request. She acted as if it were nothing unusual. Coming right up! she said, and hastened off to complete the order.

The way in which he attracted the attention of the waitress was familiar to her. Perhaps he'd done that last time they shared a drink or perhaps she'd seen Ven do it over their years together. Was it possible that things hadn't moved on in taverns since the 1700's? It wasn't something she'd give much more thought to, as she noted that the best way to order a drink was just to try and attract the attention of a waitress by waving at her. No wonder she hadn't consider doing that; she spent pretty much every waking hour of the past few years trying to avoid drawing attention to herself.

It put her mind at ease though to know that he didn't spend every waking moment at the bar but she was more than a little surprised to hear that he also ran 2 other businesses along with this one. If someone could manage 3 places at once there was a very good chance that she could manage the one she had taken on. It was then that she realised that perhaps her decision to talk to Elliot might have been subconsciously driven by the need to speak to someone with more business experience than she had.

"Thank you for ordering for me," she said rummaging in a hidden pocket in her skirt and retrieving a handful of bills to pay with. She placed the money on the table and nodded slightly. "Know I do not the prices of such things. So if take the amount required you could. Helpful that would be. My turn it is to pay," she added, having remembered that he had bought the drinks last time around. She pulled her hand back from the cash on the table to allow Elliot to go through it. "Wonder I do, if ask you a question I may. Regarding business ownership," she paused just long enough for him to respond but didn't actually wait to see or hear if his response was positive or not. "Bought a business myself recently I have. But no experience have I in running one. Have you advice for one who new is to this kind of thing?"

The question didn’t really throw Elliot off guard, though he wasn’t sure he had a proper answer for it, either. He deliberated for a few seconds; the only thing he ever really truly wanted was to be helpful. He cast back into his memory, plucking at the different woes and predicaments that being a business owner had presented him with. He wanted to be able to pull something really clever from his brain; wanted to sound like one of those reference books new business owners might buy to make sure they’re doing all that they can to create a lucrative business. After a while, he could only shrug.

”The pub was kinda a surprise to me. It wasn’t something I deliberated over—it was something Pi organised, and then sort of presented to me. When I started, I was as new and fresh to this as you probably are now. It’s only been a year, maybe a bit more. Before then…” he shook his head, eyes glazed over as he recalled what his life had once been. He didn’t have any responsibilities, then. Nothing, really, to inform his career as a business owner.

”I suppose, you’ve got to care about what you’re doing. If you care about it, it’ll build. Be honest, and fair. If you’re honest and fair to the people you hire, they’ll be loyal to you. That’s it, basically—but keep an eye on those you bring in to help, though—the suppliers, the banks, and so on. They’ll try to rip you off if you’re not careful,” he said with a chuckle. He had a certain way of talking to them that had them all wrapped around his little finger.

Elliot waved away the notes. He wouldn’t let Keara pay for the drink. ”No no, on the house. Really. You just did me a great service, fixing the computer. This isn’t a payment. Just a gift. In return,” he said. He was doing well enough to be able to give away a drink or two every now and again.

Looking from the money to Elliot and back again she gave a small shrug and gathered the notes back up, stuffing them into the pocket she'd got them from. "Pay next time I shall. And no argument then shall I hear," she said giving a decisive nod to show that she was serious in the matter.

She'd listened to his advice and kind of understood what he was getting at. Though since she'd only just started looking at the business side of things she had yet to experience the joy of working with the types of people he had listed as needing watching. While he was probably able to keep them in line with his fancy patter and allurist ways, she doubted it would be easy for her. At best she could probably hope that her strange way of speaking and her uneasiness around people might put them off from wanting to deal with the crazy woman for any longer than was necessary. Worse came to worse, she might have to employ someone else to handle that kind of things for her.

"Loyalty a problem shall not be. I hope. As consider myself fair I do. Perhaps try I shall the business within my clan to keep. Respect have we for one another so no issue see I there. Worked well with my sire and sibling I did in other time. See I do not why same here accomplished cannot be."

The name he mentioned seemed familiar and she considered if he had mentioned her before. There was a faint moment of recognition in her mind and that made her assume that PI was in fact a female and quite likely his sire and or partner. It had been a while since they had spoken last and the details of the conversation seemed just out of reach.

"Pi. Generous she must be for a business to gift you with. Recall I do that mentioned her last time we spoke perhaps you did. Is she here?" she asked casting an eye around the bar, not that she would have recognised her if she saw her.

”I’ve had to hire outside the family, myself, but that’s bound to happen when you run three businesses—but still, I employ at least five d’Artois spread out among them. And they are the ones I trust most,” he said with a shrug.

”Pi helps to manage Lancaster’s—I’ve mentioned her tonight,” Elliot said with a congenial smile, not at all irritated that Keara couldn’t remember that he’d already mentioned the name of his sire. They’d done a lot of talking in the past hour or so, and Elliot was quite aware of having a sieve for a brain himself, sometimes. Names dripped through the holes like water, unable to remain steadfast or solid. Especially when you work in an industry such as this, with a high turnover of human staff (the majority of his human employees were University students who moved on when they graduated, or when they found something more suitable to their field), and the many different suppliers he had to deal with—sometimes retaining names wasn’t within the best of his ability.

”She is my sire, and my… well, girlfriend seems too light a term,” he said, mumbling the last part. What he and Pi shared seemed to move above and beyond the light and trivial terms girlfriend and boyfriend. He felt as if they were so much more, but the English language didn’t have a word for the in between bits. ”—she might be out back in the office. Do you want to meet her?” he asked. He didn’t do anything to call Pi’s attention just yet, not until he was certain that Keara was open and willing. Maybe she didn’t want to meet anyone new just yet. Maybe she’d prefer to schedule another meeting. Maybe it was none of the above, but Elliot chose to wait, regardless.

She nodded when he explained about having more than just family working under him. She too would have to keep some of the current staff in the shop, else there would be no-one to deal with the running of the business in the daylight hours. She wasn't sure who, if any, from her lineage would apply to work with her at this point but she was quietly confident that a couple at least would be up to the task.

"Admit I must that modern day terminology a little confusing to me is at times. Relationships of this era sometimes a little difficult to fathom are."

She wasn't lying either. She knew there were many new words associated with dating and while she understood the label of boyfriend and girlfriend to a certain degree, she often found herself confused by all the other words and phrases that went hand in hand with relationships of the romantic persuasion. It wasn't that she couldn't retain new information such as that, but rather that relationships of that variety held no interest for her. Uninterested in such topics, she did not really need to learn the language that surrounded it.

"Like indeed I would your sire to meet."

She'd wondered if Pi was about and while she didn't know much of the woman besides the fact that she was Elliot's sire and lover, she was interested to meet her, if only to see if she and Elliot were alike in any way. If she were an allurist too, there was a chance that she would be able to converse just as easily with her as she could with Elliot. It seemed to her at times that she would be better off only ever speaking with allurists, as they seemed to bring out her more social side, which made conversation of any kind all the easier to have.

Elliot nodded. He knew well that the relationships of this era were a little hard to fathom. Sometimes they were even a mystery to those within the relationship--sometimes one half thought they were an item, while the other half was oblivious to there being an actual stated attachment. Sometimes one half thought they were ready to get married, while the other half wanted to break it off. Some couple lived together and never got married--which Elliot assumed, in Keara's day, was probably a very large no-no. He and Pi were one such couple. There had been no discussions about moving in together--no awkward segues into a topic of conversation that either of them were unsure about. It just naturally happened. They each owned different homes and places of rest. And they were each in and out of the others' homes before they'd even become a 'couple', in the vague sense of the word.

The way Elliot was sitting, he was unaware of where Pi was. He remembered seeing her earlier, behind the bar, but since delving into the accounts had lost sight of her. She was around somewhere, though. She would have come to say goodbye, had she left. At least, he was almost completely certain that she would have.

"Okay, wait here. I'll go see if I can find her," Elliot said with a grin. And, as if perfectly timed, as he stood up their drinks were brought to them. Keara would have something to drink while she waited. Elliot's scotch was neat, with no ice--it wouldn't matter if he left it sitting for a while. He stood, and meandered toward the bar. He slipped behind it, offering an apologetic smile to the waiting customers--he wasn't actually on duty, and he knew someone else would get to them, soon enough. He opened the door to the office, only to find that the small space was empty. It was only as he was on his way back to Keara that he noticed Pi sitting by the fire, Dingo at her feet. The dog was always around, somewhere or other. Why he hadn't thought to look by the fire to begin with, he didn't know. It was where Pi could most often be found, if she was at the bar.

He approached her, pushing her hair away from her forehead so he could kiss her on the bare skin of her forehead.

"Pi. Keara wants to meet you. Come say hello?" he asked, always courteous. Not that he'd ever really demand anything from Pi, anyway.

She sat at the fireplace, her head pillowed against the high back of the chair there. It was an artistically indolent sprawl one legged tucked underneath her, the other crossed over the top. The skirt of her demure dress flowed over knees and calf to swish over the top of the head of the collie under her swinging foot.

The fire was flickering, hypnotizing her. It was a purposely relaxed position her gaze switching between flame and Elliot, narrowing on one and coming back to contemplate on the other. She’d come because she always spent at least an hour here, sometimes catching Elliot, sometimes not. When Elliot was playing she stayed longer, if family didn’t pull her away or creatures she needed to kill.

Her position by the fire and her calm pose was an act. Pi rarely relaxed but this was as close as she came when she was in public and really only here in this place. She watched the table across the room, frowning when Elliot moved to the side of the table with the woman, her gaze narrowing before sliding away to stare at the flames. Her hand clenched on the arm of the chair and she tried to pull her thoughts away from that table and the woman she didn’t know.

Was she a new staffer, a bartender or server, maybe someone that was going to help Elliot with the hackers she knew had plagued his business. Although, she thought that’s what Madison was for, with her tech skills and her quick mind. Without her volition she found her gaze dragging back again, assessing the woman, whether she was vampire, stronger, faster or something else. She couldn’t help herself, Elliot held such a place in her life she found herself struggling to be reasonable where he was concerned. He had taken such a pivotal role in her life she sometimes wondered if their connection, her connection was healthy. So much of what she had become was tied up in who she was, what they were together.

And she really didn’t like other women hanging off his every word, although it was something she’d accustomed herself to since he had a way about him that made women…. Gravitate. She could probably take the woman out if she needed to, disarm, disable and make her disappear. It was a fleeting thought, created by a jealous dart. It was discarded for being unreasonable but lingered long enough for Pi to roll it around on her tongue and play with it before tossing it away.

She raised her gaze when Elliot came towards her, her smile soft, hiding her uncharitable thoughts, her fingers let go of the chair. Her lashes swept closed as he kissed her brow in greet, her free hand reaching up to capture his hand for a second in a fleeting caress. It was the automatic touch of a couple, brief but telling a story of their comfort with one another.

He pulled her out of her chair, her legs untwisting smoothly as she rose with the grace of their kind. Dingo followed the dog keeping pace, its flank nudging her calf as she walked and as Pi sat, so did the animal, flopping itself in a lazy sprawl at her feet. The dog dropped its nose over her foot trapping it on the floor so she was forced to cross the other letting her pet keep ownership of the appendage it used as its pillow.

“Bonjour Keara.” She greeted, keeping her voice purposely neutral. She knew the name and connected the dot. Pi didn’t move in public but that didn’t mean she hadn’t made it a point to know the players in this new life. The quiet elder and one she hadn’t met yet and now that Pi was close she took the opportunity to take a closer look, face, hair, eyes, and body. It wasn’t a body check, but it was close. They were predators and Pi treated this meeting just like the meeting of two tigers, testing and purposely cautious.

Part of her caution was about being a predator, and part was about Elliot. They were opposite, her and Elliot, the polarity of their differences no more obvious than in situations like this. He accepted so readily and she accepted cautiously, treading carefully, assessing with quiet prudence. Inside her mind a creeping suspicion about the woman’s motives where Elliot was concerned, paired with the natural wariness of meeting an elder, someone so much older and stronger than either of them put together.

“It is nice to meet you.” She spoke softly, her words softly accented in the rounded vowels of Paris. “Elliot spoke of meeting you… before. Although, I didn’t recognize you or I would have come over earlier.” She finished, although she wondered if she lied and whether she would have come over knowing who the woman was. Probably. Maybe. Maybe she wouldn’t have had felt the dart of jealousy although, Pi wasn’t sure about that either. There was still a subtle tension in her words, although she tried to be welcoming. That was Elliot’s job, to be welcoming, to carry the conversation in polite situations like this. His talent and so definitely, not hers.

Keara nodded to Elliot as he excused himself and went to find his sire. She was perfectly content to be left alone, well, maybe not perfectly content, but she was all right where she was. The crowd seemed to be a little more noticeable without any company to distract her and so she poured all of her attention into her drink, which now sat on the table before her. She cupped the glass with both hands, allowing herself to concentrate on the feeling of the smooth surface upon her palms. She still wasn't comfortable drinking from vessels like this and yet she couldn't bring herself to dip her finger into it so that she could taste it from that, as there were far too many people about her. She stared it it for the longest time before bringing it to her lips to take a sip. Having tasted it, she placed it back on the table and glanced around the bar wondering if Elliot had been successful in finding Pi.

"Greetings," she replied getting to her feet when Pi said hello to her. At least she vaguely remembered that being the French form of greeting. It had been entirely too long since she had spoken the language and since having returned to the mortal plain of existence, she was yet to have to recall or speak it herself.

While Keara noted the way that Pi looked her over, she didn't think much of it; people had a tendency of giving her odd looks and so she really didn't see it as anything to be concerned about. Keara was the sort to do the same thing truth be told but she rarely looked people over on first contact, she was far more subtle than that. She made sure to keep eye contact and waited until Pi had finished speaking to seat herself once more, her hands moulding to the glass once more.

"Pleasant to meet you too it is. Lancaster spoken of you has. So curious I was to meet the one whom him a second life did give." Keara wasn't the sort to show emotion on her face and so while her words were pleasant enough, her facial expressions gave little hint as to what her mood might be. "Expect I would not to be recognised by one I have never met. Though say I shall, that glad I am that you the time had for an introduction to come make." She gave a slight nod to back up the truth of her words. "Lancaster very kind to me has been. Though sure I am that he no such realisation in this has made. Patient and pleasant he is to converse with. Not many, outside my clan, the time take for my words to understand."

She looked down into the glass. The red liquid held a certain fascination to her when presented in a glass. It was strange to her not to be able to drink it from the source but it was a skill she was determined to master, as she would never be able to socialise with others in such a setting if she didn't make more of an effort to become comfortable in those surroundings.

A wave of abstract turmoil jolted from the point at which Pi’s hand met Elliot’s. Confusion cascaded across Elliot’s brow; the turmoil was at odds with his own mood, an ethereal feeling that could only be compared to rubbing one’s finger the wrong way along a piece of hair. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled, and he found himself assessing Pi’s demeanour. Was there something wrong with her? But she gave nothing away. The smooth textures of her expression spoke of nothing but easy lightness, a willingness to come with him. And so he pulled her up out of the chair, and led her back to the table where he and Keara had been conversing.

At first, he heard nothing awry in Pi’s tone. As she sat down, however, he caught the way she looked at Keara, as if she weren’t just a friendly new acquaintance but an undecided friend or foe. When next she spoke, her words weren’t clipped, necessarily, but the tone was off. Just that tiny bit. Maybe no one else might have noticed, but Elliot was an expert in sound. This was a string that was just slightly out of tune. As if to make up for it, his own smile broadened, a glint of anxiety in his eyes as he took a seat beside Pi.

He got so accustomed to Keara’s way of speaking, he didn’t think to warn Pi about it. Even now, he’d completely forgotten about it, until Keara brought it up herself. Elliot figured—hoped, he had her right, didn’t he?—that Pi wouldn’t comment on it, or scoff at Keara for it. Still, he reached under the table for Pi’s hand, enclosing his long fingers around her smaller palm. They weren’t much for public affection, but Elliot was aware of a strong undercurrent. The water on the surface of the ocean might be calm, but underneath, sometimes, the colliding eddies and tides wreak chaos. He gently squeezed her hand, wanting again to feel that abstract jolt of turmoil, but it doesn’t happen. It’s more of a constant, now, vague and flimsy.

”I was having problems settling the accounts,” Elliot said. ”I’m okay with computers, but not as good as Keara, here. She found a virus. Easy fix. I’m only being kind because she deserves some kind of payment for her help,” he said in explanation. He folded his fingers around his own drink. The tumbler is heavy, made of quality, crystalline glass. It was cold against his lips, but the alcohol burned down his throat. The fumes drifted into his eyes, clouding them. He revels in the taste, before returning the tumbler to the table.