In the Neighborhood ((Elliot and Pi))

[Pi dArtois]

“Ah yes, you do.. and always will unless you get the power that allows you to throw off sleep and walk in the day.” Pi answered, looking towards the stage at Elliot again. He slept like Charlie, and she assumed most vampires did. Not that she’d had the chance to know for herself. She had only slept with one and he was at this moment crooning up on stage with his mouth close to the mic and his attention squarely focused on the music. “I don’t sleep as you do, and sometimes when…” Pi paused, unwilling to say what kept her awake some days when others, Elliot, slept. They were her own demons that drove her and when they did sleep, even the deep sleep that they all indulged in wasn’t proof against. “I can .. and do walk in the day.”

Pi wondered if it wasn’t a curse, her inability to sleep the deep sleep. She did, sometimes, but not always, not near as often as she would prefer. And when she woke in the day, she couldn’t lay still, she had to move, even sluggishly, even with hats and long sleeves so she wouldn’t have to think about what kept her awake. None of this Charlie needed to know, and none of it Pi spoke about. But the power to stay up, that was something she could share, because she wouldn’t know if Charlie would one day gain that ability for herself or not, and despite her own demons driving her, Pi knew Charlie should know she could, if the power would be hers one day, walk in day like Pi did.

“It might be something you can do, as you grow into your own.” She added. “There is a lot you may gain as you develop… in time. I had hoped, eating… might be something I could one day do.. given … time.” She joked, even though she didn’t believe it. “Ahh to eat again, even just a little.. would be nice.”

“If you’re going to stay a while longer, then you can enjoy the music a bit more. I will be checking on my… Michael.” She was going to say thrall, but she tried not to refer to the male human she’d made her puppet in those terms. It seemed disrespectful to refer to him in terms one would allocate a pet they had. He was, despite what she’d done to him, still human and in his way, was a human still. She’d got that from Elliot too, an awareness of morality. They were what they were, but that could not mean they should lose sight of what they had been. Even if, what she had been was something more vicious than she was now. Consciousless-ness is what she’d been and it seemed the ultimate of ironies that becoming a vampire had been the catalyst in her life to finally question that moral perspective.

The night was winding down, people shifting to quieter talk. Many had called in their last drinks and sat nursing those they knew were their last. Soon a good portion of people would sip their last, stand and leave for homes that awaited them. This place was only a stop in their daily routine, a small oasis before they retreated back to their own spaces and lived their normal lives. And Pi knew she’d slip out soon too. To see Michael, to check on the Caverns where she spent some of her nights.

Before she left though, she wanted to speak to Charlie about what Pi would give her later, to help her, an entrance to the place her and Elliot had built to serve as an oasis of another kind, for those in their lineage. “Later… soon.” She said. “I’d like to make you a tome so you can come to our Den… a place we created. I’ll spend a few days making the tome for you and then I will show you around our.. place.”

[CharlotteC]

Charlie gave a little nod of her head as Pi told her about the power that would allow her to walk during the daylight hours. It reminded her of the first day that she had come to Harper Rock, the moment just after he-who-must-not-be-named had managed to stop the guy from raping her in an alley. At the time she was grateful, and in truth, she still was, even if everything that happened after became just another story of abandonment for her. She remembered Killian standing there, the slight smoke coming off of him. And then when they moved into the sewers - that was a weird moment - and she knew that the sun was up and yet, he had managed to stay awake enough to bring her back to his place.

Shaking herself out of her thoughts, she once again concentrated on Pi as she spoke, telling her that she might grow into the power with time. Some how, she didn't question it. The woman was obviously older than her in that respect, had been a vampire longer than she had, so she would know of things like that. She smiled at Pi and nodded "One day perhaps. The guy that did this..." she stopped to motion with a weak wave of a hand at herself "had that ability. I doubt that I would live like this now and not learn how to gain said power if I really wanted it. In truth, how I sleep doesn't really bother me other than the fact that if I needed to, I couldn't even defend myself." She said, remembering once again what happened when she had been part of the 5th. To this day she didn't know what she did that brought the bullies wrath on her.

She focused once again and smiled at Pi "It may be possible, one never knows." She said, trying to stay positive for the woman. "We have quite a while to find out don't we?" She asked with a little bit of a laugh before she turned to watch Elliot for a moment and then looked back as Pi went on to talk about someone - a Michael person. She had noticed of course that she had started with 'my'. That right there hinted that perhaps this Michael person was like Rhett was to her. She smiled to Pi and nodded, understanding in that moment, or at least to a point. She didn't know if Pi was just being careful or if she was like Charlie in that she didn't really see the man as a thrall. Yeah, there were times Charlie would call Rhett her thrall, but for the most part, that was only when she wanted to annoy the guy.

Her thoughts were called to a halt as Pi started to speak once again and Charlie turned her concentration on the woman with a soft smile. "A tome?" She was a little shocked, but at the same time clearly happy that Pi would offer her something like that. She had heard of tomes that took people to certain places, much like the portals that were littered about the city in hidden places. "You'll have to explain how those work, I mean I had heard about them but never really the mechanics of it... Still, I would love to see the place. Elliot mentioned a place I could go if I ever needed a place to be safe once before." She wondered if Pi was speaking of the same place.

[Pi dArtois]

Pi smiled at Charlie’s words. “Oui.” She answered simple. “Yes, we do.” Yes, they had time, so much time, eons of it if the histories were to be believed. Then again, there was also the holocaust, and like those creatures who came before them, who also believed they had eternity, maybe hubris was something to consider. They had eternity, up to the point they themselves didn’t **** it up and create for themselves another holocaust like the previous .. generation.

It was this that Pi disagreed with Elliot about on a very fundamental level. His belief being that humans wouldn’t, couldn’t be that bad, and all out slaughter in order to protect an eternity we didn’t realise was threatened seemed.. overkill. And it could well be he was right, but even as Pi smiled at Charlie’s words, she considered that maybe, they didn’t actually have as long as they believed. In human years, Pi had yet to reach 40, had a few years to that point. She couldn’t test the reality of her agelessness because she’d hardly aged enough to realise the true benefits of permanently smooth skin. But she believed that would be the case… she just wasn’t entirely certain she’d be there to meet that eternity when it came.

Turning her gaze from Charlie for a second she let it wander to the stage again. Then again, she had something more to live for now than she ever had. “Hrmm..” Pi hummed I reply, pulling out her own tome to show the woman. It wouldn’t be the same as the one Pi would make for Charlie, only her and Elliot received the tomes that put them directly onto the portal floor, but it would look like it, work exactly like hers did.

“The tome, like this one… is charmed. Using a ritual so it can be used to transport you back to our… faction location. We call it the Den, and it sits behind a hidden wall in the Training Room, but the only way to get into the place is to use the tome I’ll give you… or powers. The doors below remain… locked, to everyone except me and Elliot. So if you want in, to use the portals, shops, banks, ritual circle, crafting table and.. well, so much… then the tome is the way to get in. I think.. once you learn to use it.. you will enjoy the freedom having the city opened up to you can… give you.”

Pi answered fully, her words coming out much like those of a museum guide whose brain knew the stories she’d told a million times over. And she’d told this story enough, to many others she’d given the tome to. But none had chosen to use the location like she had, hadn’t figured out the benefits inherent in having every part of the city at your fingertips. The only thing missing in the Den right now was a forge, and that was only because she’d run out of room. A renovation, or extension, was definitely in order. “Once I have the tome made, we will use it together and you can see.. then I or Elliot will give you the guided tour. Sound good?”

[CharlotteC]

Charlie paid close attention to Pi as she began to explain the idea of a tome to her. It seemed like something she would indeed enjoy using, that she would use quite often, or at least when she thought about coming out of her own apartment. She usually rarely left that small little place. And when she did it was usually just to rob someplace. Lately though she had been feeling something close to cabin fever. Of course, she knew that spending all her time in this 'Den' as Pi called it would give her the same problem, but at the same time she said there was lots of things to use there. It would be interesting to see at the very least even if she didn't spend her entire time there.

Pi said that it would open up the city to her, to her the city was pretty open already, she could drive most places, and those she couldn't she knew how to get to now. However, any place that she didn't know she had a feeling that Pi had a way to get there in this Den place. Charlie smiled at the woman at the thought of a tour of the place when the tome had been created for her. She would definitely like to see what this place. See what it had to offer her aside from what Elliot had hinted at when he has asked if she would like to become his 'childe' instead of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

"I would really like that, though, I have to be truthful, faction and some of the locked buildings aside, this city is already pretty open to me." She said with a soft laugh before she added on "That said, I would love to see the Den, I have seen mention of it on the family Crow, and it has my curiosity piqued. Perhaps that could also be when we have that dinner idea we were talking about? Just a thought." She said with a soft smile towards the woman.

[Pi dArtois]

“Yes, that is a good idea. We will work out a time and then make it happen?” She answered, nodding in agreement. The bar crowd was slowing up, the conversations quieter as the night stretched out. The responsible ones in the friends group had already left leaving the stragglers behind to nurse the drinks in front of them. The not so responsible of the friend group weren’t nursing their drinks at all, but hauling them back and making another circuit to the bar to get the next. But it was nearing the quiet time, when only the die hards stayed, clinging to the dark corners of the bar. Pi smiled at Charlotte.

It was time for her to go, that time of the night when she left the pub to haunt the deep caverns below the city, seeking out the being that lurked there, keeping her skills as a hunter honed to a sharp point.

Even now, when she hadn’t cause to kill, she ensured she was as sharp as she ever was as a human, better now, more deadly, more accurate, faster. She liked that about what she had become, the speed and agility that came with being vampire. There was no guilt at killing beings like those she found in the caverns. They were an ends to a means, a community service in a way, just as it had been a community service to hunt the Paladins & Hunters in the sewers.

“I’m about the head to the caverns.” She said, nodding towards the door. “If you’d like to come along….or are you still going to hang out here?”

[CharlotteC]

"Indeed, we will." She said happily, a smile on her face and in the glimmer of her chocolate eyes that caused them to warm to that of milk chocolate goodness. Elliot had become the sire that she needed, while he wasn't overly talkative, he was always willing to help if it was asked for. Now she also seemed to have Pi in her court as well. The family that she had been offered from the beginning... to bad it had been offered by someone else first and hot held up to. She shook away the sad, angry thoughts and focused on the woman before her. She seemed to be getting antsy, as if she needed to be somewhere else. She didn't have to wonder why for very long because Pi let her know what was up.

With another smile she shook her head and pulled out her phone, lighting up the screen just long enough to check the time before putting it away again. "No, Thank you." She said politely and then added "I gave that place a look when it was first discovered and though the gems are quite tempting. Those things down there with them. I don't think I'm ready to face one of those quite yet." She wasn't a fighter, not a big one anyways. After all, Elliot had to save her from a creepy *** zombifed wolf the first time they met and since then she still hasn't been able to nail one of those bastards. However, just because she wasn't a fighter didn't mean that she didn't understand the concept that people needed weapons in this city. Of course, she always had to wonder how people hid things like large machine guns or swords almost as tall as the people wielding them. Another thought for another night perhaps.

Charlie looked over, the time had read 4:30am, she still had a little time left. "I think I will make money another way." She said as she smirked to the woman and tilted her head in the direction of the pool table that was currently occupied by drunk men that clearly couldn't play well while in such a state. "Then head back, Plus, I want to say goodnight to Elliot." She added on and then once again smiled to the woman. "It really was a pleasure to meet you face to face Pi, and I look forward to that tour." Charlie smiled a little more and stood up, stretching out her limbs a little. "Have fun with all the gems." She added with a light laugh.

[Pi dArtois]

Pi smiled, a genuine one, (which was rare for her but she was getting better at it) it reached her eyes and she reached out a slim hand, touched the other woman’s elbow, a small touch, something a friend would do before leaning forward and pecking their cheek goodbye, except Pi didn’t follow through with the kissing on the cheek (even if it was something almost natural for her). Instead she let the smile linger and dropped her hand away.

“It has been… when you have time. Call me. I’m looking forward to showing you around the portal room. I’m quite proud of what we have put together.”

It would have to do as a form of departing, a touch, a smile and words that expressed the right amount of pleasure (and it had been, quietly comforting) at meeting the woman before she took her leave.

She stared up at the stage then, lifting her hand so Elliot could see her before touching her watch. Routines worked like that, the time you did things and in the order in which you did them. They owned this pub together but this was only one of many for Elliot, enterprises he kept careful watch on, bolstering their profit with his time and his effort. Splitting hours here, and there and the other place. Soon he’d get up from the stage, make his excuses and then he would work at Bunk, or Curlew. For Pi, this time of the evening heralded her own routine. Breaking down her gun, the movement almost completely by muscle memory alone. Her fingers moving over barrel and action with little thought on her part. Then she would oil her sword (again, because a weapon required caring for) and only once all that was done would she don her holster over her front hip and the other along her back for the sword and like Elliot she would move onto her second job, blood letting.

"Bonne nuit Charlie." she said quietly, before turning.

Slipping away with a small nod from the man on the stage Pi slipped out the door, waiting for it to slam behind her before using the portal directly into the Training Room.

Her night, had just begun.