Eleanor had been confused by the Question, "Oh, I forgot, you need….what is it called. L'internet?"
"Yeah! Probably, if… Vampires do that? I know you have your um… Thing." Katherine says, not remembering the word.
The week had come and past, and the two had spent days relaxing together. They lounged in the bedroom, and occasionally would watch shows, videos, or listen to music on her phone. Food came to the house, and Katherine had made good on her promises to try and eat. Not only that she made good on her promises to work out, a full gym set now adorned one of the spare rooms in the expansive domicile. Most things in the home were old but very slow modern amenities had found their way into Eleanora's life.
"I've only used it at…libraries I think." Eleanora muses interestingly, "I will pay that guild-excuse me, corporation."
She looks at Eleanora, with big eyes, "You're going to have a treat then, there is so much cool stuff, and some of it is even true. Very little though."
"Will you show me?" She asks, smiling at Katherine's excitement.
"Yeah, I think I just figured out how I can be extremely useful just by doing that."
"Then let us call…is it Google? Are they the ones that link homes to the internet?" An innocent question, legitimately having no idea. "I'll have to find their number in the yellow pages." Eleanora muses.
"Morsels will have to come in and run cables, but you contact one of three companies, based on your location. Then you prove you live here with like a bill, sometimes a credit check, but you can skip that if you pay cash. They rent you a router and a modem, and then you have internet. Though to access it you need a device, like a laptop, or a computer, or a phone." Katherine starts pulling things up on her phone to show Eleanora walking her through the process.
Looking at the information, Eleanora eventually says, "I may have to rely on you, mon amour. I learn…slowly." An admittance that evidently pains her to say, "It was barely five years ago I learnt…how to say…send SMS?"
"Don't worry about it, before I left the force, I used to do Adult Computer classes at the Y," Katherine responds brightly, "Everyone learns in their own time."
Eleanora thinks on that a moment, "Why did you stop?"
"After I left the force, I stopped going out during the day, and so I stopped doing the classes." Katherine started collating the information to set up the home with internet, and other necessities. Writing them down in her phones note app.
"Hmm, you hated the gendarmerie, yes?" Eleanora mumbles, "I should see if I can do anything about the issues you were speaking on."
"You can't," Katherine said not looking at her, "You'd have to kill twelve thousand people, hire another twelve thousand, and then make sure none of them are corrupt, then deal with all the pissed off judges, lawyers, criminals, and presumably vampires that had deals with those first twelve thousand, and trying to corrupt the twelve thousand you just hired."
"Mon amour." She smiles at Katherine's passion, even as her hand reaches out to calm her, "I would kill many more than that for you. If it made you smile, I'd burn this city to the ground."
"If you destroyed the LAPD the city would burn itself to the ground trying to fill the power vacuum, but it'd probably be a better place for it," She said absentmindedly. Finally getting the entirety of her list collated she turns to Eleanora. "You know how to SMS, but its' really slow right, because you're not used to typing?"
"Yes, and…the screens aren't always cooperative." She shows this off by gently accomplishing nothing on Katherine's phone with her finger, having to press down hard to make it respond, "I miss the keyboards."
"They still make those, they're just a bit more expensive," Katherine slid up a picture of more modern day Blackberry knock offs. "You can also get a stylus that works with touch screens. One of the first things I learned at the Y was that a lot of people's problems with phones come from a lack of circulation." She moves to her trench coat quickly, and pulls out a handful of cheap styluses that must have been there for who knows how many years, considering she left at least two years ago by her own admission. "Use this."
Eleanora was able to get the screen to react almost immediately. The capacitive stylus was able to give her the ability to quickly maneuver about the screen. Before she could speak, Katherine said, "As for typing, you probably remember writing letters I imagine, and had neat handwriting?" She quickly tapped the pen to something on the keyboard and made it into a blank pad. "Just write your text in handwriting, and it'll translate it to text."
She tries, writing a flowing, looping script, gorgeous and careful, repeated dozens, if not hundreds of times as she gets a sentence down and watches it turn to print in seconds, smiling at the screen. "Incroyable!" Eleanora whispers, "You are fantastic, mon amour." She turns her face to Katherine, smiling at her as well.
"Of course! I was actually a pretty good detective, I'm good with people and asking questions." She finished the list on her phone very quickly, then sent it to Eleanora, so she had a copy of the tasks she was setting out to do. "Is anything on this bad for your masquerade? It's a list of things that might come up."
"Oh, I think there was some order to not use…telecommunications? But I don't overly care about that." Eleanora admits, shrugging.
"Internet… Is a hundred percent telecommunications, they are most likely specifically referring to the internet."
She waves a hand, "It is in fear of the Inquisition, a stupid fear. It is not twelve-hundred anymore, the Church will not rise up to burn us." Speaking as if its a ridiculous idea.
"True, but let me write a second list just in case, that at least follows the letter of the law but not the spirit. Instead of getting a line put in, we can just get a hotspot on a burner phone, then pay via cash. Anyone looks, it'll just look like it's mine, so technically you don't have any proof of using telecommunications." Katherine said very quickly, looking through options,
"That also means they probably don't want social media, which means you're lucky you picked me instead of someone else. I don't have any social media, you need friends for that." Again, absentmindedly as she burns through accounts, closing them out or deleting them. Burning through things as quickly as possible before looking up more information to collect in a database for herself.
"Would you speak to someone for me, mon amour?" Eleanora whispers, suddenly, Katherine realizes she's never spoken above a whisper.
"Speak to who?" She says looking up suddenly, her fingers still whirring and dancing across the screen even as she looks away from it.
Extracting her own telephone and slowly tapping through it to find a number marked, 'Assistance Technique', she points at it, "This is who I relied upon somewhat when troubles came, he is like me, but very young, only eight years Kindred I think. Of another clan." Eleanora explains, "His curse is greater than mine by far, I do not like gazing upon him, but the telephone is fine."
"He can't look that bad," Katherine said looking at her, "That's so mean, but sure yeah I'll give him a call. Do you want me to say… I'm a vampire or… He's going to ask who I am when I call him from your phone."
"Say you are mine." Eleanor answers simply, handing Katherine the phone, "He will understand."
Katherine nods, "Okay, yeah sure." She quickly looks at the phone before the call, "What am I saying to him?"
"Oh, just ask him any questions you have, about the orders from the Justicars and, uhm…how you say?" She thinks, "And of how the law applies to us, he knows much about that."
"Sure, ok," She presses the green button to start the call, then quickly cuts on speaker phone. "Don't say anything, we'll hear him, he won't hear you."
"Bien sûr, mon amour." Eleanour smiles, whispering with a happy, fulfilled voice.
The phone rings, once, twice, three times, picks up on the fourth. There's a slight hiss on the phone a crackle that doesn't seem… right and the voice is there. Somehow all gender ripped from it, it's emotive without extremes, and has record studio quality sent through a speaker that very much does not. "Yes?" Katherine picks up on that, voice anonymized, no name, knows the caller ID.
"Hi, I'm setting up someone here with internet." Katherine responds, no introduction, they know who owns the phone. "What's the rules?"
"Orders from on high say we can't use the internet, miss." The voice answers coolly, unbothered, "Second Inquisition's too close to anyone who breathes wrong." It explains, rattling from word to word with a slow, languid energy, never bothered by something as blase as a simple conversation.
Katherine listens, and rubs her chin, "And yet we're using phones that very clearly use the internet as part of their infrastructure, and have internet access. So what's the real rules?"
There's a cough that sounds like a laugh on the other side, wet and filled with entertainment, "The real rules, miss, is that your patron is too old and too wily to care what a Justicar says. Here's tips to not get her killed." Noises of paper flexing, the shutter-snap of folders opening and closing as very analog methods of information storage are audibly pursued. "First things first, never post a location, capisce?"
"No deliveries?" Katherine says, "Stuff a morsel would eat, groceries and things? Or just don't use chats or message boards."
"Deliveries are fine, already pinging red on that." The creature on the other side roughly cackles after a short burst of tapping keys. "But don't post pics of her to Insta, get it? Your patron's blessed, she has no pictures of her online, none at all."
"I'll keep it that way," She says looking at Eleanour, "Alright, I'll go pre-paid and satellite then on a burner hotspot."
"Don't." The voice warns, "Think special operations squirrels, they'll be looking for that. Be as normal as you can be, boring, placing, ignorable. Make sense?"
Katherine nods, "Yeah, sorry thinking small time crook probably," She touches her chin, "You do digital fingerprinting?"
"Obfuscating yours now." The voice chuckles, wetly.
"Thanks, also… Keep it to yourself for now." Katherine says with a deep breath, "So big big data."
"We think it's the NSA." The voice interrupts, "Can't be sure though. Seems to be like their MO, hyper aware." It explains quickly, rattling from word to word.
"Can you walk me through setting up the utility," Katherine asks, "Or is it something you do. I'm not sure what's over-reliance in this situation."
"Utilities are run through the mademoiselle's great, great, great, great, great grandchildren. Add a couple more greats probably." Another wet, vile chuckle, "You, on the other hand, are a problem, hell of a record, hmm?" Its curiously prodding, seeing if Katherine will talk.
She looks to Eleanora, Do you trust him? she mouths.
Eleanora nods, speaking very lowly, beyond the perception of microphones integrated into phones, "I've trusted his people for decades." She emphasizes the last word, decades.
"Eleanora vouches for you so… Yeah," Katherine admits, with a deep breath, "Yeah a… I'm a digital flare, basically. In my defense, they were very bad cops."
"Don't worry, I've seen worse. 'Least you don't show up on Liveleak, or whatever's replaced it now." It chuckles, a wet droning, like a diseased pauper.
"Tiktok, if you'd believe it…" She said rubbing her chin almost absent mindedly, "I have location services turned off on my phone and a dual sim tray with two numbers, I keep it in a wave blocking clutch. I took it out here though, is that an issue, should I ditch it?"
"No, no point." The creature on the other side mumbles mostly to itself, "Watch out for physical observation, they always confirm their targets." It describes, voice rolling over the worlds like a jagged tooth avalanche, ever so slight lisp in it.
"I did a once over of the house while she was gone, no good sight lines from anywhere, zero out-facing cameras. Is there a friendly neighbor that might want to take up drone piloting as a hobby?" She says, her jaw clenching at how… Insecure and uncontrolled everything is. "I'd say something automated, but it'd have to take off and land from the same place constantly. It's legal if it's under half a pound."
There's a kind of dry scraping sound, as if it was scratching something stubbly, "Maybe… You'd still have a drone flying over the block twenty-four seven."
It wasn't wrong, was it worth looking like a hotshot moved in just to ward off spooks? She wasn't entirely sure. "Okay, I'll get one of those little "protected by" yard signs, and put cameras up. If someone is getting deliveries here they must stay here." She finally decided. "Alright, I'll secure the place then, keep off social media, no pictures, no keyword searches or said over the phone."
Katherine was going through a mental rolodex of information she could access to find people. "I think I'll leave my things at my apartment then and just get new ones. I don't think it's worth it over a laptop that can only run linux, a few bottles of vodka, and garbage bags." She said more to herself than anyone at this point, mostly thinking out loud still, "Ok, thanks."
"Don't worry about it." The hacking noise on the other side resembles a close cousin of a laugh, enough to be familiar and recognizable, but still noticeably different. They hang up first, or, more worryingly, disconnect the number as a, "Number not available," starts droning out of the cell used.
"Don't worry, the contact always is changed mon amour." Eleanora is unbothered by it, or the fact that someone can change the contacts on her phone at will. She's fully resting herself against couch cushions, letting herself lounge with the repose of an ancient noblewoman, all silk and elegance.
With a frown now, looking at Eleanora finally matching the concern that Eleanora showed to her from earlier, "Eleanora, technology is dangerous, very dangerous. C'est mortel dangereux. For anyone, not just you, but me as well. So… Just be careful, I kind of thought vampires were just a… Small thing, but I gleaned enough from that information to know there's a lot of resources being thrown around." There's kind of a nervous energy that's dissipated when her alarms go off to a quiet "Ugh," before she walks off to count out a handful of separate pills.
"Je ne suis pas en danger, mon amour. Je t'ai." Eleanora whispers with a smile, watching Katherine swallow the pills.
She groans a bit before flicking through the phone and ordering a few things to wire the house up with Cameras, dental putty and modeling paints to affix and paint the cords, and a few other basic necessities including replacements for her own things. Suddenly, there's a buzz on her phone of a News Alert she set up with Google News. It's around her address. No, it's the one for her address. Katherine switches phones, opening multiple feeds on social media flitting through accounts and news.
@LAFD
Alert- #Watts Structure Fire - Be advised…
Read More
@LAPD
An explosion in an apartment building on Compton Ave has…
Read More
@KTLA
BREAKING NEWS: Fire breaks out after Explosi…
Read More
news.google.com
Because you favorited: Gangs in Watts
Suspicion of Bombing in Watts Apartment. Gang related?
Katherine's face gets pale, paler then it's ever been before, and her heart starts to beat like a drum. Not good, that's not good. It's been two years, why would they even care.
@KTLA
BREAKING NEWS: Shots fired in Watts Read the news as…
"Qu'est-ce qui vous inquiète?" Eleanora has leaned forwards, nearly standing as Katherine worries. "Mon amour?" She asks again, trying to draw more attention.
There's a split second where she can't breathe, "Weird ask, I need your hand." She reaches out for Eleanora's hand. It's proffered immediately, and the icy cold sensation breaks through the anxiety. Distracting the mind from the stimuli. Trying to focus on that and not… Whatever this is. A minute passes, then another. She practices her breathing.
"Someone shot-up and then blew up my apartment… I think." She admits to Eleanora, trying not to make eye contact suddenly.
The light of a put-upon humanity fades out of Eleanora, a false face that is fully cracked with a threat to what's hers. Fangs slip free and her breathing, rhythmic and perfectly acted as it was, ceases. "I…see." She speaks with a careful, slow tone, like a fuse waiting to be lit.
"I will have this…investigated. Tonight." She keeps up the slow, word to word carefulness. As if she could make herself too angry, break her own control. "Le téléphone, mon amour?" Eleanora reaches out, waiting for a phone to be given to her.
"Sorry, here…" Katherine immediately obeys Eleanora, returning her phone to her, while reading through her own. Clicking on an article.
Breaking News - Explosion Rocks Watts
Los Angeles, CA - A devastating explosion tore through a low-income apartment building in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles today, leaving several dead and injured. Authorities have not responded to KTLA question on the incident, and no eye-witnesses has come forward at this time. Chief Commissioner Miller is set to give a statement at…
Three slow taps, and then two rings sound out as Eleanora waits."Estella. Come to my home." There's no room for disloyalty in her voice, a tone she's never used with Katherine. "Quickly, I will not wait." A reply from the other side, curt and short before it clicks off.
"Do you mind meeting family this early on?" Trying to break tension and calm Katherine, Eleanora cracks a soft smile at the joke, mask of mankind finally placed back on.
Katherine's trying to smile, but the look on Eleanora's face makes it clear she's not quite managing the task, "Of course I don't mind," she says. "I moved in after the first date, and I tend to move fast anyways." There's a wink, but it immediately feels less fun than it's supposed to be.
Tilting her head, Eleanora prepares something else, "Parfaite." She whispers, "Then, I can ask you. Diamond or coloured gem?" The vampire smiles broadly at Katherine, rapping fingers on the arm rest of the couch.
Staring back, there's a deep blush, and it cuts through the anxiety like a knife, "Are… You asking me to marry you?" She says with a smile.
"I'm asking what you want to be…proposed with." Eleanora chuckles, tinkling, quiet bells the only earthly equivalent of the sound.
"Oh! Uh… I've… Never thought about it." Katherine admits, looking around herself, "I was pretty sure I wasn't going to make it to thirty-three. Honestly, I thought I was going to catch two to the back of my skull like… This year." The thought of marriage, has forced out the negativity, any fear or apprehension, just bringing forth a kind of manic glee topping an already intense manic episode. "Are… I love Rubies actually? Or… Anything red. Oh wait, diamonds are the thing that's supposed to be picked right?"
"I will have bloodstones made, then." Eleanora waves her hand past the worries, "Come, mon amour. Sit with me while we wait." She brushes the seat, tapping it in a silent request.
She realizes that she must be over gripping the poor woman's hands as she looks down at her own knuckles now bright white with tiny pinpricks of red. So she loosens her grip, "Oh sorry," She whispers, and sits next to her. "This is bad, I only disappeared for, what a day or two?"
"You have enemies, mon fiancé, we will handle them." Eleanora comforts the other woman, leaning into her side.
More news alert on her phone now, more buzzing.
#ExplosionInWatts now trending in your area
#SantaMonicaPierShutdown now trending in your area
@LAPD
Santa Monica Pier will be shutdown as an investigation into…
At that point, Katherine decides to take her phone, one of the last of its kind, and removes the battery. Then she removes the dual sim tray, and throws all three onto the couch with a quiet sob.
Eleanora rubs Katherine's back with icy fingers, leeching heat and stress out all the same. Vampiric in every sense as she whispers sweet nothings to her. It's only a few minutes before a distraction arrives in the form of a knock on the front door.
"Estella." The vampire whispers, "Can you tell her to come in?" She turns her head up to meet Katherine's eyes.
Katherine nods, before realizing her mascara is running down her face as she touches it, "Nooo…." She whispers looking in the mirror with a sniffle. Then with a deep breath, finally feeling calm she walks to to the door, opening it trying to give a winning smile, even through the dripping make-up. "Hi!" She says in a ragged in a chipper tone.
A woman meets her gaze and mostly, her height. She's lanky though, thin and tall. Sunglasses at night, a band tee and leather jacket combine with distressed jeans to form a very punk look.
"Umm… Come in? Oh right, you have to be… Right come in." She says quietly, but the voice shudders as she still hasn't quite caught her breath.
"Nah, just haven't seen someone built like you." The woman, Estella chuckles, a smokers grain to her, moving past Katherine to enter the house.
Katherine laughs wiping at her eyes making sure to step aside respectfully, "I get that a lot, thank you. I think." Another sniff.
"Estella, this is Katerina, who has a problem that needs solving." Eleanora says as the other woman approaches. Estella chooses to stand instead of sit, and watches Katherine sit back down into a cuddle with Eleanora. She's not entirely sure if she's seen Katherine before, or just her type. The walk is off, like it's normally got a heavy utility belt on, and Katherine's step is just… Slightly wide, trained.
"You're a cop." She states, moving to put herself on a chair, slightly muddy boots landing on Eleanora's coffee table, sparking the first real glare Katherine's seen on her.
Katherine nods, sniffling, "Not anymore. I made a choice, and it's… Coming back on me."
Estelle takes a notepad out, nodding as she writes the information down, "So…Watts was your place, yeah?" The young vampire has signs of life that Eleanora doesn't, tiny twitches as she writes, little flickers of her gaze, the sunglasses slipping down as she writes to reveal twin, glowing yellow eyes.
"Yeah, I was in an… Unintentional discharge, that resulted in the death of five officers." Katherine looks away, "Officially."
"Gotcha." She notes that down as well, there's a gun on a jacket holster, it's a broad barreled, heavy revolver, the sort that can take a chunk of flesh out of a human, maybe make a vampire feel it. "And now the biggest gang in the city's coming back for its pound'a'payback?"
"I'm just supposed to stay in sight, but I went off the radar for a week. I'm on the police insurance still, technically I'm on 'Paid Suspension,' but the funds have never shown up in my account for the actual pay." She shakes her head quietly, "They want me dead, but they… Haven't… For whatever reason. It gets close and then things just kind of… Dissipate. This is the first time it's been an actual attack."
Nodding at the words, head bobbing near-constantly, she takes out an MP3 player and starts it, letting rock music blare out, heavy with guitars. Eleanora glares at her harder but still doesn't say anything. "From how high up do you think the piss is falling?"
Katherine realizes this might be the first time she's talked about this, with anyone. Anyone ever. "I was investigating a homicide… Dock worker got killed down by port at the Trade Connect. Something didn't feel right about it, so I started rattling cans around the place. Telling Dock Workers we had informants, offering plea deals for a definite criminal suspect. Then I get a call from Internal Affairs, and they say to knock it off, they're taking over…" Her jaw grits, as she stares into the muddy foot print, as if it were a scrying pool. "Sent a message to my boss, 'Hey, I'm dropping this case,' All standard procedure so far, but I copied both just in case to my personal E-mail. Then, I got a call…"
"Ms. Doukas, I need you down here, please, something's going on." Clarissa says quietly, "There's yelling… I hear… People, a lot."
Katherine's jaw clenches, and her heart falls a bit. She had just sent the e-mail. "Clarissa, I'm off the case, you need to call nine-one-one if you're hearing people screaming."
"I did thirty minutes ago Ms. Doukas, no-one showed up." The voice is sad, frustrated, a little broken.
So she sent a second e-mail, "New lead, sorry."
It was dark and dreary, a heavy marine layer rolling into the night making the only lights pin prick auras of ancient LEDs. She didn't like it, and the smell hit her immediately as she walked forward the smell of flesh, sewage, and blood. It wasn't her case, she could have just walked away. A few more steps as she heard it, people quietly sobbing. Rough men with rough voices making rough demands. The sound of scared footsteps on metal then pavement.
"Detective Doukas," The voice behind her said, it was a low growl, she hadn't heard him approach. Gun in her back, there for seconds, and already going to be dead. Couldn't shoot her here though, couldn't shoot her now. So she was marched in front of the steel container. Seeing five of her fellow officers around her. Friends, hell, kin. They argued about what to do, one showing them his phone angrily. Shouting in a language she didn't understand.
All while a death march of women and children passed in front of them into loading vans. The arguing gets louder, more intense, arguing over what to do. One pulls a gun, the other pulls a gun. All at each other, but also… None at her. She reaches quietly, into her trench coat. Watching them, watching the argument get louder and more heated. A thought.
Her hand hits her holster, and she fires, into the pavement. That starts it. Bullets fly as officers of the law gun each other down in greed and fear. Katherine dives, eliminates the final one. Looking at everyone there some people run, some people look lost and confused, a single girl with… Eyes of stone something… Wrong, a look a child should never have.
"Can I make a phone call?" She says, professional. Curt. She can't be older than seven.
"Yeah… I guess…" What else was she going to do, this was bad, she just killed an officer after IA told her to call it quits."Don't steal my phone please." She says as she hands it over.
The kid walks off, is back in three minutes. "Go home."
"What?" Katherine says suddenly, incensed, looking at all these people, looking at everyone who might need help. "These people they need food, and clothes, an—"
"Go." The child says, with an internal steel that frightens Katherine, "Home." She hands the phone back.
A Department E-mail up, her inbox and sent e-mails all deleted. Only a single word from her supervisor. "Fine."
"I got put on suspended leave, my paychecks stopped coming from the office, and then… I had to make rent. Started taking pictures." Katherine finished, the story still burned into her mind. "Officers would show up pretty much everywhere I went. Everywhere. Never could get a stable job. Money started running out. Eventually all I had was lifting weights and Netflix."
"That makes this simpler." Estella stops writing, having filled multiple pages of her notepad in this questioning. "So, you dropped a few bobbies," A very diminished accent slips into her at that word, English? "And they've got a grudge. Easy enough, just have to convince the right people you're a good and honest girl."
"Sorry, it's a sticking point with me. It matters to me," Katherine corrected Estella, "I killed one. The other four shot each other." She didn't know why it mattered but it did. She killed lots of people, but all of them good shoots, all of them approved. It mattered.
Nodding politely, a sort of practiced way to say I hear you without actually needing to speak. "I'll get back to you on this. Stay quiet tonight, and tomorrow night, might need two to track down exactly what the hell's going on." There's an excitement, a familiar excitement to Estella, of cracking something apart, of getting to rip into a mystery and find the truth.
"Thank you, and… Good luck… And uh… Stay safe. Please." Katherine says, looking at the floor.
Stepping through the door, Estella smirks as sunglasses slip onto her face. "Staying safe's the opposite of what I'll be doing." A muscle car, at least fifty years out of production awaits her, the body obviously rebuilt over and over again, the dent of a harsh side impact recently visible on the passengers side.
As Estella gets into her car, and Katherine is about to shut the door, she says to Eleanora, "She seemed really nice. I liked her music," The door clicks behind her. "I… I'm sorry I didn't mention this, it didn't come up, and I didn't… How do you start that conversation?"
"You don't, mon amour." Eleanora seems much less annoyed now that Estella is gone, though the tiny tracts of mud on her table are an attention grabbing new feature of the ancient and expensive furnishing.
Grabbing one of the now piles of Amazon boxes, Katherine very quickly takes out wet wipes for antiques, "I got cleaning supplies, I didn't see any," she says. Taking one out and wiping the mud down.
Whether to avoid conversation, nervous energy, or simply a lack of something to do she started to clean the mud out of the carpet with a can that had a brush affixed to the top. Scrubbing the ancient carpet carefully. "I did spot tests earlier today, it's all safe on your furniture."
Eleanora looks at Katherine, a slow warmth exuding from her as she smiles at the sight. "You are amazing, mon amour." She whispers out, as her home is put back into order
In a few minutes, everything is clean once more, "It's easier if you keep things clean, then doing big clean-ups." Is that an excuse? A reason? Her legs bouncing now as she sits back down. She feels… bad, something's off. She goes back to her pills and looks at the pills, before finding one of the lesser anti-anxiety meds. Six hydroxyzine go down her gullet. "These ones aren't addictive, basically Benadryl. Can't take the other one all the time. Bad for you."
Nodding once, Eleanora returns her cool touch to Katherine's back, "Nothing you do is wrong, mon amour. I do not mind that you did not tell me." The assurance is soft and elegant.
"Ok…" She whispers, tapping her leg not truly trusting, but not wanting to argue. Knowing that she's beyond luck, that at any moment this could come apart. "I wanted to tell you where I put all the guns in the car. There's a shotgun under the bed, an M16 under the couch, my Sig P365 is in the kitchen in the fridge. Under the toilet's chamber, there's a twenty-two I forget the make. There's also an MP5K in the washroom between the washer and the wall. Two magazines with each. The M16 has a 3D printed bump stock so does the MP5 I think. Also… One more that I lost."
"Does that feel safe? Or do you need more?" Eleanora's question is a tad surprising. Uncaring of the firearms.
Looking at her, realizing she could unfurl her paranoia fully, "The LAPD has those new… Heavily armored SUVs, so a PTRD-41, it's a soviet anti-tank rifle… You can get them grandfathered in I think. Or anything that fires either uranium or 14.5×114 mm rounds."
"In the morning, mon amour, call a number that says…." She opens her phone, searching for it, "Maître d'armes." Eleanora shows the specific contact to Katherine, "He handles my weapons, when I need them. Whatever you want, no matter how dangerous." There is a hint of apprehension after that, "Except…lance-flammes."
"Those aren't really effective in urban combat. I don't think we're going to be digging trenches." She says looking back at Eleanora.
"A touch of fire could give me Final Death in heartbeats. It is the same for my other kin." Explaining carefully, revealing a weakness.
She looks at Eleanora very nervously, "That's… So dangerous do you know how easy it is to make napalm? Like gasoline and styrofoam in a glass bottle will wipe out vampires? That's insane."
"Imagine being one in the era of torchlight." The smile on her face is broad, a fun memory at least. "Lean too far on the wrong wall and you'd have… maybe ten seconds? I had a compatriot once, he did exactly that."
"We're switching to electric stove and water heater then," Katherine says matter of factly, tensing with the mention of death in ten seconds. "Is it the reaction, or the heat? Actually, putting up cameras and updating the utilities would be about right, Gas lines are pretty much illegal now."
"Fire. Not heat." Eleanora states firmly. "An electric furnace does not have the same danger, lest my clothing catch. It is a curse, one of many."
"Christ…" Then she thinks about what she said, "Oh… Sorry. That's a swear I use, can I?"
There's a wry smirk on Eleanora's face, "I drink blood and lay with women, Katerina. I am not a good christian."
"You're a vampire though? I guess it answers my question either way though." Katherine starts making a list of every appliance in the house that still uses gas, which unfortunately was most of them. Two water heaters, the stove… It would look right if they were re-selling the house… Could call tech support when the number changes. No flames, Christ ok. Weapons are pretty much placed. No more GPS, probably downgrade Eleanora to a phone with a keyboard… One like yours. Dual-sim pre-paid only. Something else?
The nerves kept cracking over and over, parts unravveling as she felt more hyper, more manic, less in control. She took her meds why was she getting like this, before the cold hand. The nice, cold hands like ice touched her, brought her mind to other things. Better things, and eventually Katherine found rest.
![[oWOD] The Vampire and The Time Mage: Now, Then, and Forever - [COMPLETE]](/data/threadmark-index-icons/l/74/74966.jpg?1711223606){kind=icon}
