Path of the Vampire forum

A bell chimed as she walked into the dark shop, the scent of dust and rusty beams hitting her senses immediately. Cornflower blue eyes cut across the traditionally industrial features of the building, lingering on the equipment that seemed wholly out of place in its newness before shifting to the counter. There wasn’t a body there awaiting business, and all she could think of were the faces of those who entered her Sire’s shop and huffed like children when either of them were busy with stock.

She was absolutely resolute in not being that kind of customer.

Still, the latest heist had ended unfortunately for the police and, as would be indicated from the bandage on her right arm, inconveniently for her. There always seemed to be at least one problem and far too many guns involved. At least she still got away with her loot.

Gingerly, Lilianne pulled her hip lengthen hair out of the tight bun that had, most likely, kept her from getting snagged by the guards, then tapped the calling bell near the register.

It wouldn't have looked to anybody like James Carpenter was doing something even remotely approaching work had they found him in the back office, feet kicked up onto the desk and his eyes closed. Indeed, they'd probably have assumed he was sleeping on the job, but it wasn't the case. Behind those closed eyes, the telepath's mind navigated its way through the Harper Rock City Police database - among others - filtering through for images, videos or descriptions of himself in some place he ought not have been seen doing some thing he ought not have been seen doing.

The stills were swapped out for others that he had taken from elsewhere on the internet, videos became nothing but static and descriptions in written statements were adjusted to point towards another. He could almost feel the intensity of the search for him decreasing as he worked and attentions turned instead towards those whose identities replaced his own.

The chiming of bells within the physical world distracted him and the mental attention shifted away from law enforcement recordings and towards the images currently being captured on his own extensive network of cameras and audio recording equipment. Finally, he thought, opening his eyes and snatching two small items from the desk before he made his way out to the front of the shop.

"Up to no good again?" He asked, glancing at the bandaged arm before holding out two closed fists in offering, "Which is it to be?"

It had, somehow, become something of a tradition: A game of chess while he sorted out the trash from the treasure.

She’d just snapped the hairband around her wrist when he appeared, her hip-lengthen hair still unattended to for the moment. The young witch couldn’t help but chuckle at his question as she followed his gaze to the bandage.

“Aren’t I always? This one isn’t bad, at least,” a smirk tugged at the right corner of her lips, those blue eyes settling on the man. “He was completely inept… Couldn’t hit anything he actually aimed for. I’m fully convinced that this,” she motioned to her injury with her free hand, “was an accident.”

Lilianne shrugged, offering a playful grin before she lifted her bag full of loot onto the counter. It was chock-full of what she thought was useless garbage, but James always seemed to be able to make something out of what she hauled in. The girl looked at his hand, lips pursed, and gave him an answer. “Black, I think.”

"You must've met a stormtrooper," he said, entirely deadpan as he crouched down to collect the chessboard from beneath the counter and setting it between them. He put the two kings in their positions and spun he board carefully so the black ranks were nearest Lilianne. The smile flickered easily back into place though as he shunted a pawn forward two squares to begin the game and turned his attention instead to the bag of who-knew-what she'd deposited in front of him.

"You need some stuff making or just cash today?" He asked beginning to pull items out at random and setting them in little groups along the counter. Antique: Couldn't do much with that, except maybe strip out any workings inside. The electronics, even the ones that looked beyond all saving, left him with endless opportunities for repurposing. Scraps of metal offered the same potential. He took the chemicals out last and, rather than set them on the counter top, turned to place them on a shelf behind him, lined up with the warning labels facing outward. "You should probably keep them separate. Might blow up one day," he said, not for the first time and knowing that she wasn't going to listen. Risk assessments looked really quite different when immortality was a real thing.

The same look of confusion she always gave him when he mentioned the unfamiliar crossed her pixie like features as she took perch on her normal stool. “A… stormtrooper? When did they add in another rank?” Only because of her history, Lilianne had remained sheltered from the marvels of the modern world, leaving her blissfully unaware of his charmingly geeky reference and wholly convinced that she had yet another type of officer to try not to kill.

She watched him move his pawn on column E, then moved her own, from in front of her bishop on column C before she looked back to his face. It was… abnormal for Lilianne to have friends. She wasn’t sure that she’d ever really been able to consider someone a companion of that sort beyond childhood playmates. Even the relationships she’d had with her lovers were vastly empty and simple… but she liked James. He was a bit of an enigma.

“The games last longer when you make something… so a gadget of some sort would be nice.” Her fingers finally made their way to the knot in her hair, gently combining it out with her nails while he separated her loot and gave her his ritual warning. She’d never listen, though she always intended to. “Mm… Maybe. I might.” She smirked. “I probably won’t.”

The knight on his right jumped to sit in front of the row of pawns and occupy F3. The opening gambits and exchanges usually played out quickly between them and he'd barely taken a glance at the board to see how she had opened. "No. Y'know, Star Wars?" He said, aghast as ever at her complete lack of even basic pop culture knowledge and it only got worse when his own references became more obscure. Star Wars was ubiquitous though; how could she not know Star Wars? "It's a space movie with these soldiers - stormtroopers - who can't shoot for ****. Eleven movies and I don't think they've ever hit a target they were aiming at."

There weren't many people who stopped by who had any interest in socialising; usually they wanted to buy, sell and go about their life and most of the time that was fine, but it was good, sometimes, to indule in a little face-to-face interaction that went beyond simple business transactions. Lilianne gave him that and, in return, he gave her an education in being a proper millenial. The chess was fun too - it was nice to have a challenging game from someone other than the computer in his mind.

"I've been working on something. Hang on," he said excitedly and taking up some of the metal she had brought him. He moved around to the front of the counter and dumped it into a small crucible that was then set into the flames of the nearby forge. Customers used it from time to time, if they had the skill to make something worthwhile of their own. Once the metal had been set to melting, he returned to the chemicals she'd brought and began casting an appraising eye over them. "Can't believe you don't know Star Wars," he muttered good-naturedly under his breath while he debated his next moves.

“Are you meaning to tell me that we’re meant to believe that the human race can achieve space travel, but soldiers cannot master their weapons?” Utter bewilderment flashed in her eyes as she shook her head slowly, the knot coming out slowly under her persuasion.

She was beginning to think that her island upbringing was stealing more from her now than it had during her youth. This Star Wars business seemed to be an essential staple the modern culture and she’d only watched one film with her cousin… and it was about a princess and a journalist in Rome. The royal security was a bit lax, sure, but far more believable than soldiers who couldn’t shoot. While she grumbled quietly to herself, she thoughtlessly moved another pawn from D7 to D6.

Her eyes followed him in the wake of his excitement, watching as he worked to craft something out of the metals she’d brought in. In her time with him, she’d learned a few bits and pieces about what each piece of equipment did and often found herself as curious about their ability to do things like melt metals without impacting the surrounding environment as she had been about the coal fuelled train she’d met Habren on. She’d held onto a lot of wonder through her years, and it managed to outweigh the horrors.

“Can’t believe you don’t know Star Wars.”

Laughter bubbled up from her and danced through the air as if it were made of pixies. “You know, the solution to this is to watch them with me. That way, I can ask obnoxious questions and you can explain the geeky intricacies.

"Can't master them now," he pointed out, indicating once more her wounded arm while he pulled an assortment of flasks and beakers onto the countertop. Usually he did this sort of thing in the back, unobserved and where everything was already set up, but if he did that he couldn't play chess and lament her startling lack of proper education. "The tech might change, but people are still pretty much useless at using it."

Another pawn shunted forwards, occupying D4 and exposed for potential capture. "Usual warning: This might explode, we might both get hurt or die, please don't chase me through the shadow realm if it does." That was why he usually worked in the back; people tended to blame him if reactions got a bit out of control and something unpleasant happened as a result.

“You know, the solution to this is to watch them with me. That way, I can ask obnoxious questions and you can explain the geeky intricacies."

"Tell you what," he said, smiling and beginning the process of mixing barely-measured quantities of chemicals that had arrived in bottles plastered with warning labels that cautioned against things like death and long-term contamination of the environment. "You win this game and I'll answer every question you can come up with. Deal?"

Another idea seemed to strike him as he spoke and, abandoning the chemical concoctions to their whims, he snatched up some more pieces of metal, adding another crucible to the flames. "How risk averse are you?" He asked, casting a wary look over his shoulder.

“I suppose you’re right about that” smirking, she finally loosened the last of the knot and pushed her hair over her shoulder. He was an interesting man to watch. She could never quite follow his train of thought as he jumped from one project to the next. He seemed to do it so seamlessly… without any evidence of getting caught up in doubt.

After he moved his pawn and uttered his ‘this might explode’ warning, she narrowed her gaze at him, trying not to grin through her response. “I can’t promise you that I won’t give chase. I would be remiss if I didn’t at least train while shunned from the mortal world.”

She crossed her pawn from C5 to D4, capturing the first of his pieces before eyeing him and his tempting proposition. “Yes?” Her voice was quiet as she watched him- first his smile, as no matter their relationship, he was pleasant to look at- and then the seemingly reckless way he mixed his chemicals. There was a realisation then that those warnings might have some weight behind them. “Really? You mean it?” Perking up, she looked over to study the chess board, giving herself confirmation that she hadn’t already lost. Once she’d assured herself that there as at least a possibility of victory, she rested her elbow on the counter, and her chin on curled fingers as she smiled. “Deal.”

Even if it might have been a little expected, Lilianne still chuckled at his project abandonment, brow arching at his question. “I don’t know that I am risk averse… probably should be a little, but,” she shrugged and winked at him, “I’ll take a gamble today.”

"Fine, fine, chase away," he conceded with a laugh. After all, a good amount of what he spent his time doing, he didn't need a body for anyway. He preferred to have one, of course, but it wasn't technically necessary for the telepath to perform many of his greatest tricks. "But if I come back to life a shrivelled shell of my current glory, it'll be your fault," he added with a strangely self-effacing grin.

The pawn was lost, but James was back to watching the chemicals, making a slight adjustment to the temperature below one of the flasks as he spoke somewhat distractedly, "Sure. Someone's gotta educate you properly," he said, turning to move his knight to take the pawn she had just moved before he darted back to the forge and took the first crucible of molten metal carefully from it with a long set of tongs.

“I’ll take a gamble today.”

"Great. I've been waiting for someone to try this out with. Not sure it'll work, but..." He spun in a precarious circle, apparently looking for something he'd mislaid and muttering incohearently under his breath about it. "What kind of ammo you using these days anyway?" He asked, eyes finally lighting on the mould he'd been looking for and moving towards it.