Dark Times (Open)

[Gideon Barnes (DELETED 8781)]

Mona was fine with his reasoning, or excuse. That's what it was, wasn't it? An excuse to keep the things that were personal and private that for as long as Gideon could. Hell, he wasn't even sure her name was really Mona, and wouldn't blame her a bit for giving him a false name as well. The world was going to ****; what, with vampires running around like they owned the thing.

He couldn't help the sly smirk that fell on the corners of his lips when Mona asked if he minded riding behind a chick. Sure, there were a few other words she added to that inquisitive statement, Giodeon pretended to have either not heard them, or just chopped them out of the question altogether. "I have no problems riding behind a chick, so long as the ride is worth it, Mona." Giodeon chuckled as his thumb came across the top of his lip line, and rubbed at his upper lip, attempting to help the smirk vanish. Really, riding behind a chick in any situation allowed him to not only see the goods, but to get a good feel of them as well.

[Mona McGee]

Mona led Gio out to the parking lot to the black Harley. She slung a leg over it gracefully. Turning she patted the seat behind her and smiled. " If you want a helmet there is a skull cap in the saddle bag." She watched him sizing up his response. He would learn who she was soon enough. Her apartment didnt exactly sceam secrecy or tact for that matter. It wasnt exactly a rat hole or a palace either. It was what Mona like to think of as Urban chick. It was a small place over a garage that had been renovated. It was quite comfy for Mona. She doubted anyone else would think so. All she needed was a bed fridge and a place to work. The garage filled her need to tinker and work on whatever her mechanical fancy at the moment was. Not every chic was into restoring old cars bringing them back to life .

When she wasnt doing that or working at the Chop shop tearing down junk for Brock. She was out on the streets finding her stories for The Sun. Her first issues dotted the painted brick walls proudly fraimed. Gio would know exactly who she was when he got a gander at her digs. She would see how well he held his secrets when she Told him the full of it . Told him what she didnt want to repeat in a bar that was owned by vampires.

[Gideon Barnes (DELETED 8781)]

He glanced at the saddle bag before digging out the skull cap. Gideon might no longer be one hundred percent human due to a couple reasons; vampires and that sorcerer nut job, but his brains still squished like the best of any human. He wasn't about to risk his life, or go about failing his mission in such a way. Not by something so preventable, something so stupid and reckless.

Once the metal cap was on, Gideon was behind Mona without a second thought. One leg hiked over the bike, his frame pressed against her as he took his seat behind the dark haired woman. This gave Mona a 'sneak peek' in what was bound to to come later; before or after a beer was still undetermined. His hands wrapped around both sides of the seat that he sat on, as Gideon finally scooted back, allowing Mona some breathing room. He didn't need to be on her now. They had her place for that. "Ready for the ride of my life." He said just loud enough over the sound of the engine that had come to life a few seconds before. A bit forward? Hell yeah, but that's just who Gideon was.

[Mona McGee]

Mona pulled out of the parking lot slow and steady she only had one helmet and it wouldn't pay for her to wipe out on the pavement . Especially since her prospects of getting laid were at their maximum potential. The wind whipped through her raven hair and she was conscious of the male sitting behind her. She had felt him brush against her as he took his seat. A small shiver went through her body and she adjusted herself on the seat a bit nervous all of a sudden. It wasn't long before she was pulling up to the darkened garage. The doors slid up and she maneuvered the motorcycle inside and came to a stop as the door moved back down into place.

Her garage was her temple it was neat and everything was in its place. It was the polar opposite of her apartment. Copies of the Sun were stacked and her dining table was strewn with letters and pictures from readers . The ones that weren't hoaxes , the ones that had real evidence of vamperic **** heads doing things that they shouldn't be doing .

She put the kick stand down and turned back towards her passenger "Well we are here home sweet home . Come on upstairs and we will get that beer " she gave a awkward smile after her head had nodded towards the staircase in the corner .

[Gideon Barnes (DELETED 8781)]

Either the ride to her place wasn't all that long, or Gideon was too entertained with keeping his eyes busy on what was in front of him, because they were at her place before he even realized it. As the garage door came up, Gideon did his best to try and 'see' what he could see in the minimal light that pooled in from street lights and the moon. Which, wasn't a lot. Nothing, really. She could have a table full of weapons smack dab in the back of the garage, and he wouldn't know any better.

It's not until the they make it inside that Gideon can make out a little light source near the staircase, and some objects near the staircase. It appears as if everything is on the up and up-nothing crazy. Then again, what Gideon couldn't see, could scream a whole lot of crazy. The sorceress lady had seemed like a straight runner, but after a few hours of drinking and other things, Gideon found himself a changed man. It wasn't an experience he was bound to forget. How could it?

Mona was off the bike, and Gideon slowly followed after her. He kept his eyes trained on the stairs, only because it was the only thing he could make out, other than a form of what would be Mona in front of him. "Sounds like a plan." He said after clapping his hands together and rubbing them together. He moved to the stairs, not too quickly, but not too slowly either. He didn't want to appear to be too eager for a beer, or to see a little bit more of Mona than he saw in the bar, and Gideon didn't want to seem uninterested either. "What do you do now? Other than hang in bars? Now that the group is gone? Is there another like it?" Gideon asked when he got to the stairs and stopped at the bottom of it. He extended a hand, not because it was the chivalrous thing to do, but because he didn't want his back to anyone, even to Mona.

[Mona McGee]

Mona led the way up the stairs. She slid the key into the dead bolt Opening the door only a crack she slid her hand inside and ever so carefully unhooked the line that ran across the back of the door. She turned to Gio "Well I tear cars apart and restore them ... then I have this other little hobby. Its well I think I should show you instead of explaining it would be much easier. " Mona swung the door open it freely swung not tripping the shotgun trap that she kept set.

There were framed issues of The Sun hung on the walls . Her first issues and special Editions. A couple of bundles of the latest issue were stacked beside the door . Mona was going to drop them off for distribution in the morning . She sort of loosely gestured at the mess strewn out on the table. Pictures of vampires doing things they shouldn't ,lists of names and letters to the Editor were strewn about her work space . This is what I do . She gestured loosely at the whole mess.

She didn't wait for the questions to start she just walked over to the fridge and grabbed a couple of beers out . The bottles clinked together as she walked back over to Gio ... "Well what do you think ?"

[Gideon Barnes (DELETED 8781)]

Gideon followed after Mona, pausing only when she did, to disable the trap she made to keep people who weren't her, off her property. He doesn't comment about her tearing cars apart or fixing them up either. He listens to what she wants to share about anything. What this paladin has been doing, because it means more than what she thinks it means. If she's been doing mediocre things since the collapse of the order she was in, then that means the rest are probably doing the very same thing. Going to work, paying bills, probably even forgetting who they were. Who they are.

He catches the name of a magazine on the wall, along with stacks of editions that could be old or new with the same title. He doesn't recognize any names, not really. Maybe one or two, but it's not the names under the pictures or written in blurbs that catches his eye or attention. It's the photo's of people doing things that weren't possible by any regular human. Paladins? Maybe. But he suspected they weren't paladins. They were the things that only came out at night to play.

Mona disappears and he hears her getting the beers out of the fridge. Gideon takes his time to look at the covers of each edition while she's in the kitchen, then looks at the beer she was offering him. He puts the top of the bottle between his teeth and gives it a twist, popping the top off, thinking about what he's seen. "I don't know. What do you plan on doing with all these things you collected over the last few....months?" Gideon looked around for the date of the editions, then corrected himself. "Years?" He took a swig from the bottle before taking one last look at the first edition ever printed, then back at her.

[Mona McGee]

Mona handed him a beer as he looked around. She watched as he pulled the top off with his teeth, ******* good way to loose a tooth and they don't grow back she thought to herself as she twisted hers off and tossed it into the ashtray on the table . "Well at first it was a way for people that had been seeing things here in Harper Rock to know that they weren't alone ... and to get others to maybe believe. The Tabloid angle was just a way to keep it going and keep my skin intact ... If I published a hard core news paper with all facts in it and started saying there were vampires .... Id have either been committed or met a nasty ending one night. This way I am able to get information out there before the world believed there were vampires ." She paused a moment and took a swig of beer. She tried to gauge his reaction before she continued. He might not think that this was important or really fighting against the vampires but to Mona it was a essential part of it . She had learned from Dom something important if you went at them full force alone you got your *** kicked. So she was going to play it smart and stay alive and human ... and keep the Human populations eyes focused on the Vampires .

"Now that the Vampires have been outed by the Government I'm going to use it as a way to get eyes on as many of the fuckers as possible . Make it difficult for them scratch their asses without someone seeing it or knowing they are up to something. They want to kill someone they will get their asses caught . They want to suck a granny in the park and leave her in a state that she might wander in front of a bus they will have eyes on them and people outraged . I want people to get to know them ... The real them ."

[Gideon Barnes (DELETED 8781)]

With her top tossed in an ashtray, Gideon followed Mona's lead and did the same with his top as he gulped down the beer. The beer was slowly pulled back from his lips as Mona started talking, wondering where this was going. At first, it seemed like a tabloid that kept things hinting at something that may or may not be vampire related, but slowly nodded his head. He might not agree with the route taken, but at least she was doing something. Gideon would have went the hardcore route, if he was talented in writing up articles and things like that, but that wasn't his style. Word of mouth was his best tactic, and weird looks and mockery aside, be damned, in Gideons's mind.

He saw her looking at him while she drank her beer, Gideon wondering if Mona wanted him to say something, or do something then and there. "It's a step in the right direction." He said with a nod of his head as once again he swallowed down some beer. "Only helped to out them in the end. Can't keep attributing things to the boogeyman or some other crazy creature for years and year." He said, not implying if he agreed or disagreed with the route Mona took.

The beer was brought back down again as Mona started talking about what direction she was taking the paper in now. A new, stronger and fiercer approach. "Hell, yeah." Gideon said as he walked over to Mona, his beer being set down on the table that the ashtray was resting on. "Now, more than ever, we need to keep people informed. They don't know what to think-most the world is probably sitting back in denial, or hoping for the best." Gideon said with a nod, before he reached out and wrapped his hand around her beer. "Expose those fuckers for what they really are; let people know they aren't like you, or me, or them." He said with a dark grin, before he shook his head. "But for now...let's not let them ruin another ******* night." Gideon said firmly as his other hand found the arch of her lower back, before he tugged her into him, his hand sliding down to her *** to give it a sturdy squeeze.

[Mona McGee]

Mona guessed that talking time was through as Gio took her beer and tugged her into him. She didn't mind one bit she hadn't exactly brought him here for his brains or opinions. Though she had to admit it was a definite plus that he had both. She smiled as fingers firmly grabbed her *** , her hands were doing a little exploring of their own moving slowly up his chest and around his neck. There was one sure fire way to knock that cocky grin off his face. Mona didn't hesitate. Her lips met his and she pushed the city out of her mind . She pushed everything out of her mind except the moment .