Post by mildred bagley-aldaine on Dec 22, 2012 5:57:42 GMT -5
It took a couple days, but the somewhat cowed Mildred finally found her way back to the antique store she had left her daddy's credit card at. It wasn't that she really had trouble finding it physically, she just plain old didn't want to really go back. She knew she had to, and though she managed to put it off for a whole, like, 44 hours or so, she gave in. She couldn't just leave the card there. First of all, it was dangerous. Second... Well, she just couldn't leave it there and that was that. She looked up at the front of the store warily, wrapped up a little more this time but still wearing a skirt and tights combination. It was like she didn't learn, but really, she would not be buying jeans in this century.
The wool off-white scarf with thin, navy stripes she wore (more for show, really) trailed a little behind her as she opened the door once more and walked in out of the dark and cold, half expecting the place to burst into flame or something. She glanced around, looking for either the cat or the person that had left her so oddly disoriented last time.
"Excuse me." She shifted the weight of the messenger back on her right shoulder.
Post by varnock acerbi on Dec 22, 2012 6:07:23 GMT -5
The shop was just as quiet as it had been last time, but there was a bit of a difference. A few items were missing or replaced with others, and a few things had been moved around. And of course there was the cat staring from her place on the counter with lazy eyes that somehow portrayed a grin. "Welcome back dear. Do we get your name this time? I don't remember the last vampire that came here being as impolite."
Once again Ellen signaled Varnock as to who had entered the shop and he silently stepped down the stairs to the counter. "Well hello again miss. Are the knives serving you well? I certainly hope you've been taking care of them." He seemed unaware that Ellen had spoken to you at all. He blinked for a moment before smiling once more. "I almost forgot again. My name is Varnock Acerbi, owner of this fine shop. I do believe I have something of yours though." He held a hand up to gesture for a few moments as he went to the back to open the safe and collect the card.
Ellen yawned and spoke up again now that her master had walked away. "You are a vampire right? I certainly hope my eyes aren't failing me just yet."
Post by mildred bagley-aldaine on Dec 22, 2012 6:20:55 GMT -5
Well, there the cat was again. That was good. And there was the voice, too, the one that had followed her out of the shop when she last left. The only problem here was that the voice was coming from the cat. That wasn't supposed to happen, as far as she knew. The cat wanted her name. She felt weird.
A long time ago, her daddy sire, from this point referred to as 'R', taught her about magic. It was soon after she was turned, and it was a very eye-opening lesson for her. The only problem, really, was that R held a distinct hatred for those who used magic, and though he claimed he'd once had the skills himself, he'd long since renounced the use of it. It seemed like a shame to Mildred at the time, all of that power at your fingertips and refusing to use it, but long years with only R for company left her with little room to form her own opinion on magic. Though it'd been literally centuries since those times (a fact she didn't like to think about, age was a sore spot for her), she'd never really had a chance to get any sort of formal education on it. Even the small form of magic that she, herself, used was a confusing matter for her. To be honest, she'd never really connected the little glamours that she could put up with actual magic.
But here she was, faced with a talking cat and apparantly her keeper. Did he know he had a talking cat? He certainly didn't look like a wizard. He didn't have the hat, for starters, which she had heard was a major part of their powers. (Fantasia may have had something to do with that.) He didn't mention anything about her being a vampire, either, though the cat did. Did that mean they didn't converse? Who mastered who, here? It was always hard to tell with cats, but this was an especially convoluted situation.
She stayed awkwardly quiet as Varn came up and then left, unsure of what to say to him and trying to portray a snobby brat that didn't want to admit she'd forgotten something. Once he was (probably?) out of earshot, she looked to the cat and spoke.
"My name is..." Thoughts of aliases crossed her mind. It was suicide to tell strangers your name, let alone your powers. She thought better of it, but she gave it anyway. "Mildred." It was hard not to trust a cat, as slippery as they were. There was something honest in the way that they gave no fucks. "And yes, I am. I apologize for my behavior last time, I was... Caught off guard." Which, of course, brought them to a more important question.
"But what are you?" A pause. "If I may ask?"
Look at her, showing respect to a cat all because it could talk. If she had to show respect to everything that could talk she'd probably never go outside.
Post by varnock acerbi on Dec 22, 2012 6:30:02 GMT -5
Ellen gave what appeared to be a smile, or what amounted to one from a cat at least, and returned the greeting with a more official one of her own. "I'm Ellen, black cat familiar to the owner of this shop. The whole talking thing is a bit more recent though. As my master gets stronger, so do I. A pleasure to meet you officially Mildred. I apologize for the bite last time. I had to check the teeth you see."
Varnock walked back in with a large book and sighed at Ellen before carefully placing it on the counter. "Well at least you weren't wrong about her Ellen. A pleasure to meet you Mildred." The book's pages began to turn rapidly towards somewhere a bit past the center. One of the pages began to ripple as the end of a credit card showed and Varnock pulled it out to offer to his returning customer. "I call it the lost and found, but really there isn't much in it. Not often people leave things behind on accident."
Ellen hopped off the counter and wandered towards the stairs in the back as Varnock continued to speak. "You're probably a bit curious about the situation. Would you like to come up for some tea? I have water as well if you prefer. No blood though, sorry."
Post by mildred bagley-aldaine on Dec 22, 2012 6:41:59 GMT -5
Familiar. She was, no pun intended, familiar with the term, but she'd never come across one or even really thought about the consequences and perks that both the master and familiar would get. So Ellen could take because he... So he knew. She waved the bite away. It really hadn't hurt, afer all. It was no reason to apologize.
"It's quite alright," she was saying when Varnock came back. She smiled at what he said about the lost and found, but really she was entranced as she watched the book move on its own before the card suddenly materialized out of it. It was, quite simply, magical. She accepted the card back, looking over the front and reverse side of it before sticking it in her pocket, this time a safer one built into her skirt. For safekeeping, you know. "It's a pleasure to meet you too," she said, voice a little breathy. It was a lot to take in, really, for someone who wasn't used to it.
He offered tea and an invitation 'up' somewhere. She didn't really need the blood, or even the tea, really, but he did give her what was important: an invitation. It just made things so much easier. She didn't like people knowing that particular weakness, but using conversation to steer talks in the direction of an invite was just time-consuming and best avoided. This was simple, and she was glad.
She smiled again, and nodded her head.
"That sounds pleasant." Her words were crisp, very mildly English. "Tea would be nice after the cold outside." There was a moment of silence, and she decided that wasn't quite all she had to say. "I am very sorry for my behavior last night." A bit of michief pervaded her formerly simply polite smile. "I was just having a bit of fun."
Post by varnock acerbi on Dec 22, 2012 15:46:09 GMT -5
He nodded with another small smile and gestured towards the door at the back that Ellen had walked towards before. "I have an apartment above the shop you see. Makes commuting quite a bit easier all things considered." There was a hint of a laughter in his voice at the terrible half joke he had made as he lead the way towards the door behind the counter and to the dimly lit staircase up.
The room at the top was large than might be expected for an apartment. It was a living room with a sturdy table and set of chairs, one of which Ellen had taken to occupying, and bookcases taking up almost every stretch of extra space on the walls. A kitchen connected to the side of the room with a small hallway going off to the other half of the home on the opposite wall between two more shelves. To say the least their were books everywhere. A few open ones rested on the tables, but mostly they were well organized.
Ellen stretched a bit before speaking up. "You're lucky he cleaned the place up a bit last night. Usually his books are all over the place taking up space and crowding the walkways." Varnock only shrugged as if it had never bothered him before going off to make the tea and gesturing to the table. "Make yourself at home.
Post by mildred bagley-aldaine on Dec 23, 2012 1:45:00 GMT -5
She followed him, chuckling softly, more out of simple politeness than actual amusement. She was pretty sure everyone in attendance was aware of the badness of the small-talk joke he'd just put out there, but hey, that was what made conversation work. She knew how it went.
She looked around, noting the ridiculous amount of books. It was cozy, even though it brought to mind images of stuffy libraries and modern spinsters with cat's eye glasses. Libraries were nice, but she found that she liked this place a little better. Contrary to the opinion she'd originally expressed to Varnock under the guise of a dumb teenager, she did like to read. As of late, she'd been disappointed in new releases, and there was only so many times that you could reread books before you started wasting your time. Still, what she'd usually been found reading was fiction. There were various genres here... She supposed Ellen did say she only recently started talking. That implied that Varnock was studying or training or whatever to get better at Cat Magic or whatever it was that he did.
She smiled politely as Ellen spoke. It wasn't hard to imagine. Books everywhere... That meant he lived alone, or anyone he lived with was as big of a nerd into books as he was. A better and better picture of this guy was slowly forming in her head, but there was a lot she didn't know. Her natural curiosity was kicking in. She often found herself falling into people's life stories once she started looking into them. No matter how many she outlived, there were interesting differences between people in any day and age.
She sat in one of the seats that the cat wasn't in, settling herself. She highly doubted she could honestly 'make herself at home' here, but the gesture was definitely appreciated.
"You must save a lot on gas," she said, as a bit of a late reference to the 'easy commute' joke she had graciously laughed at. "and television."
She turned once again to the Kyetty, looking her up and down. She looked pretty much like a normal cat, but she was obviously intelligent. It was still a weird that she was, you know, talking, but whatever.
Post by varnock acerbi on Dec 23, 2012 15:35:02 GMT -5
Varnock's chuckle could be heard coming form the kitchen as he made the tea and hunted down come cups. It wasn't that he was disorganized, he just didn't often need more than the cup he had out for himself and cleaned by the sink. "All that gas money goes towards getting larger objects to the people that buy them. The prices for that are jacked up around here like crazy. We do have a television though, it's just in the study since no one really uses it anymore."
Ellen readjusted her position on the chair a bit as the conversation went on. "More like the room he commandeered as a study. To answer you though, yes, I read often. As Varnock gets stronger I have the option to get more powerful as well. Reading is one of the things that helps with that for instance. Do you read often? I assume the way you presented yourself originally wasn't your actual personality.
There was a noise of success in the background as Varnock found the cup and the water for the tea began to heat as the hunt continued for some good tea. He couldn't go and hand out the cheaper stuff with company over right?
Post by mildred bagley-aldaine on Dec 24, 2012 0:52:14 GMT -5
"I used to," Mildred said, a little wistfully. She had gone through a phase where all she did was read, bored with actual life as she dove into the fantasy worlds of Boz (or rather, Charles) and those that grew close but never quite close enough to that same outstanding amount of quality. It wasn't that she tired of it, truly, she just got bored, just like she did with everything else once she'd done it dozens, hundreds, thousands of times. She was sure she'd tire of New York at some point, too, but she wasn't sure where she'd go from here. It was going to be hard to top it, she was sure, unless something crazy happened... again. "A long time ago. As of late, however, I've fallen behind... Honestly, I only went out of my way to read fiction anyway. Nothing too studious on my part." Once upon a time, maybe, she would've been caught reading a textbook. Textbooks, no matter what school of study they belonged to, contained too much history for her tastes.
She smoothed her skirt, awkwardly shifting as her legs kicked a little, still not actually hitting the ground. It must have been weird for someone not in the know see a girl of her age talking like this... but then again, here in the big city it seemed that little oddities were often overlooked. She supposed that was why so many non-sleepers seemed to call this place home. It was much easier to get by than it must have been elsewhere. Why was she having these thoughts so often these days? She swore she'd just thought about that standing in this store the other day. She didn't want to move, did she?
She was so... So comfortable, here.
Her fingers fidgeted together in her lap.
"I assure you, I'm much less annoying than how I must have come across the other night."
Post by varnock acerbi on Dec 24, 2012 3:19:25 GMT -5
Varnock carefully tended to the tea once it was ready and brought the cups over to set them in front of two chairs. He chuckled a bit as he placed the tea down. "I hope you don't mind chai... It was all I had lying around that was fit for guests." He took a sip and leaned back with a content expression as he listened to the conversation. "I can lend you a book or two if you wish. Alternatively you can come by the shop whenever you wish and I can let you take a look at some of my rarer volumes. All I ask in return is that you think of me when you see something I might be able to add to my library."
Ellen rolled her eyes at that one. He was always trying to increase his collection one way or another, but who was she to blame him? It gave her more to do during the day when no one was around to talk to. "So what does the life of a vampire entail these days? I only really know what I've read in Varnock's books and most of those are older accounts."
Varnock chuckled as the conversation came back to their first meeting. He was certainly glad she turned out differently than that. If she hadn't he wouldn't have invited her up even if Ellen seemed happy to talk with her. "I'm glad to hear that that is the case. I can't honestly say I would have invited you up if that had persisted. Ellen certainly would have kept you company though. She talks with most every non-sleeper that comes around."
Post by mildred bagley-aldaine on Dec 24, 2012 3:54:12 GMT -5
"Chai will be fine," Mildred said, accepting the tea graciously as she took a small sip as well. To be honest, she probably wouldn't have minded any sort of tea. It seemed to vary or something between the bloodlines, but once she was turned there wasn't much that she could taste that she cared about besides blood. Blood, now that was a marvelous thing. There were different flavors, vintages, millions of different experiences... It was wonderful. Tea she could care less about, but the less she made people feel awkward, the better, and so she drank it. It wasn't like it'd hurt her. "And thank you for the offer. I might just take up on that, and I'll definitely keep you in mind." A library, a real one, with things to interest her, hey, maybe she could make use of that somehow. And she was sure she'd come across something or other that he'd want to see for himself sometime. It was a good offer.
"Vampire life in the 2000s..." She muttered, and sighed as she stretched her arms out and leaned a little onto the table. "Politics and people watching, these days. There's little reason for us to fight when there's so many guns and vehicles everywhere. There's only political warfare for us, now, and I find that that makes my stomach turn." Old people were so boring and the same went for vampires. Still, she held a fondness and loyalty to the older vampires in their little 'society', and definitely wasn't bored enough to go join the apparant hellhole that was V. That wasn't exactly news she ought to be conveying to a cat, though, and so she kept it to herself.
"Do you get a lot of us?" Mildred asked, eyeing Varnock again. "Non-sleepers?"
Post by varnock acerbi on Dec 24, 2012 5:30:34 GMT -5
Varnock nodded as he continued to sip at his tea. He wasn't quite sure how the intake of food and liquid other than blood affected a vampire, or if it even had an effect for that matter, but he figured if she accepted the tea that it wouldn't cause any harm. "I appreciate it. In fact if you find any books that I might be able to use I'm willing to trade well for them even if you don't want to take the offer. I'm always looking to expand my library after all." He smiled over his cup.
Ellen gave the cat equivalent of a snort as she listened. Even a cat's patience would be overwhelmed by something like that. "I can see why it might bore you. I know I wouldn't be able to stand it at all. Lucky for me Varnock often goes off and does interesting things that I can entertain myself with."
Varnock answered the next question as Ellen took a moment to groom herself. "I have about ten Magi that come around for things they can use in their studies or to pawn off magical items they wouldn't be able to in other places and a few magical beings. I'm convinced a Fae or two has been through here, but I haven't confirmed any of them yet. How about you though? Ever grab a magi by mistake when looking for a snack? Are Vampire hunters still around? Surely you have many an interesting story to tell."
Post by mildred bagley-aldaine on Dec 25, 2012 3:12:46 GMT -5
Ten Magi, handfuls of fae... It was good information to know. Not the most accurate of information, but certainly enlightening and personal. She tried to stay away from non-sleepers that weren't of her kind, but she knew that they thrived in New York. That much was obvious. Ten frequent customers who could do things she couldn't. It was dangerous, probably, being here, but she felt safe with the warmth in her stomach, even if the taste didn't really matter.
"I haven't come face to face with a magi knowingly for a long time." She said, looking at her nails absent-mindedly. "And vampire hunters..." A sigh left her body as she slumped even further against the table, more and more unladylike as the seconds ticked by. "Nothing so exciting in this century. The worst I deal with day-to-day is an overbearing landlady and boring meetings." You know, inbetween her sucking blood out of people and junk. She left that out of her stories in general, which really did make her life seem a lot drabber than it was. Truth be told, she just enjoyed complaining. There was a sort of pleasure in it.
"No hunter friends for me, I'm afraid. I am a very safe individual." She quirked an eyebrow up at him, her curiosity piqued. "Why do you ask? Have you learned of any in the area?"
Post by varnock acerbi on Dec 25, 2012 3:36:57 GMT -5
Varnock absorbed what information he was gaining silently as he contemplated his answer and following questions. He hoped he wasn't worrying her with talk of hunters though. He hadn't met enough vampires to know the general reaction to them. His last vampiric customer had just shrugged it off saying he wasn't overly worried about it all. "None that I know of in New York. Closest I can think of are part of my own family, a small group I assure you, and living off in Europe where that sort of job is a necessary one. I only ask to increase my own knowledge and warn my clientele of anything dangerous in the area."
Ellen spoke up at this point before Varnock could continue on with his next question. Sounds like you live a rather boring, if safe, life. Maybe you would be interested in coming around more often then? I'm always looking for people to chat with. Maybe Varnock can even take you on one of his little adventures if you feel comfortable with us."
Varnock gave Ellen a sharp look that caused her to laugh and go back to grooming. Ignore her. You're more than welcome to come by whenever you please though. My shop is open every day after all." He paused for a moment as he contemplated how to word his next question. "You wouldn't mind telling me more about yourself right? I've always been rather interested in vampires you see."
Post by mildred bagley-aldaine on Dec 27, 2012 14:18:45 GMT -5
There was a little relief there when he said there weren't any in New York, though she was a little suspicious as soon as he said his own family. Could she really trust someone to put her over family? At any rate, this guy wasn't learning her address or anything any time soon. Anyway, it made sense that there wouldn't be any active ones in New York. She could honestly see Ordo Dracul making use of them to take care of rogue vampires or, you know, the sore spot that was V, but she hadn't heard of anything like it recently. Still, it wouldn't surprise her. Vampires would be the number one client of a vampire hunter, she was sure. That was just how things went. And what did he mean by dangerous? Dangerous to vampires, or vampires who were dangerous to other clients? Did he consider her, Mildred, dangerous? The thought was cute. One upside of her appearance was that she was always underestimated. It was also, of course, a downside.
She laughed a little, a soft, quiet laugh, one that seemed a little underused.
"I'd love to come talk to your cat." She winked at Ellen. "As for your adventures..." She trailed off, both suggestive and playful at the same time. "We'll see about that."
She looked at him seriously. "It depends on what you're asking, of course." Weaknesses, at this point, were definitely a no-go, even if half of them were plastered all over pop culture anyway. At least as of late some confusion had been spread as to what exactly the weaknesses were, thanks to that idiot Meyer. Her books were hilarious. "But... I suppose it wouldn't hurt anything if I talked to you for a bit."
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