[002 - audio] by the pricking of my thumbs

[freeholding]

[There is the rumble of an engine in the background and some wind distortion, but John's voice is very clear. The benefits of training your voice to be as measured and newscaster-bland as possible.]

You spend enough time around certain elements and you get a sense for things. That feeling of 'something wicked this way comes.' Though a friend of mine is always quick to point out that in context, the hero of that story was the something in question and blind to it.

I tend to have a better track record than that, though. [Not that he isn't wicked, mind. But he's not exactly in the hero role anyway. Christ, and he can almost hear Nathan ranting about literary theory and storytelling conventions and et cetera.]

Anyway. Does anyone know where a concerned citizen might gain access to some firepower? Something better than what the pawn shops have on offer.

[With an ounce of humor:] It is the shopping season, after all.

Comments

[matri]

[Pfft, Fallen Angels. Small fry.]

Curious, perhaps. Merely curious.

[So basically fishing. But she wants to know. People here aren't from her world. They aren't like people from her world. She's curious.]

[freeholding]

[Not-spoken like someone who's never met Nicodemus Archelone.]

Fear is an immediate response that is only useful to those who can use it as fuel for magic. Fear wastes time and leads to erratic reactions. I don't think less of people who can't suppress it, but I often don't bother with it.

[matri]

Fear is chaotic. Beautiful, if used correctly. What do you fear, then? [Oh, personal questions. Will he answer...?

She bets not.]

[freeholding]

Anymore? Nothing.

Is your curiosity yet filled, miss?

[matri]

Perhaps.

[She's sitting with her chin in her hands and really, it's a little stagnant, but still interesting. She learns more from things unsaid than anything.]

Call me Eve. Or Ma'am. [Not Miss.]

[freeholding]

Should I bother offering my name? You seem more interested in heavier topics than something so transient.

[matri]

I won't reject an offer. [Really, she can be nice. Amiable.]

Heavier .. stuff, just interests me more. Is that a crime?

[freeholding]

[And John can be a catty asshole.] Marcone, or Baron, as you please. [The proper title is, for once, preferred and his first name isn't even on offer.]

No, but generally we mire ourselves in the small talk and pleasantries first. Jumping ahead feels like cheating, no?

[matri]

Baron Marcone.

[Inneresting. But hey, she doesn't really need names. She could read him and find it out, but sometimes that just makes things so boring.]

Cheating, or taking a risk. Small talk is so boring.

[freeholding]

Allow me to disagree. Going straight to the punch may get you the big, cosmically significant answers, but the trade is that you miss out on the small things that truly make a person tick. Never waste the missile strike when a shiv will do the job neater and faster.

[To say John is unimpressed is an understatement. This Eve sounds like half the people John takes his monthly Accords meetings with. Only the goddamn vampires are less subtle.]

[matri]

Who said anything about finding out what makes you tick?

[He's like every other mortal(ish?) being. Boring. It's only the cosmically big answers that even interest her any more. Usually.]

[freeholding]

Then this whole conversation is fairly pointless. [If Eve is not jockeying for some sort of influence or advantage, he's going to be disappointed.]