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Atalo is sketching again, carefully, intently, sat at the counter and working on drawing several faces. He pauses in his work, considering it. "Good?" He asks Cerberus, receiving a lazy look in reply. "I know." A faint sigh. "But I'm at least figuring out how to make drawings other that flat."
Floretta approaches the shop, knocking on the door, peeking inside if the sign would still say open. She's dressed like she just got out of a bar, she's dressed in a little black dress, a little lacy choker around her neck, she's barefooted and hollding her shoes in her free hand. Her make up just goes full goth: Dark lips, heavy eyeshadows and powdered skin.
"We're open!" Atalo calls out, looking up and carefully shuffling his drawings together to tidy up. Floretta gets a polite smile. "Good evening. How are you tonight, and can I help?" It's polite, but rehearsed, like he says that a lot.
"Good evening." She closes the door behind her and approaches the counter and looks at him. "I wanted to check in on you, belatedly." Her gaze falls on the puppy too, she smiles at him, waving even.
Cerberus looks up, chuffing quietly in greeting and padding out of his bed to stretch. Atalo pauses himself, then smiles. "I am quite well." He assures her with a nod. "I've been keeping busy, with both work here and watching for the Nereids. But, thank you for coming to check."
A shrug and a smile. "I have a bit of a philosophical quandary to ask of you. Given the role you played, I'm not... asking for the details of what happened, just... more a conversation I've been wanting to have without people dropping in randomly."
"Ah." He nods. "Turn the sign to closed, please? It'll help avoid interruptions. And I'm happy to talk and discuss, yes." He moves out from behind the counter, collecting some chairs. "If you want to sit in the back?"
"That would be good." Floretta moves to close the store with a flip of the sign, she moves past the counter and risk petting Cerberus on the way to where Atalo would lay the chairs down.
Cerberus sniffs at the petting hand, padding after the pair as Atalo leads Floretta into the back and sets the chairs down. The room here is small, but holds a desk that's currently got a cloth covering it, with an axe, shield and set of leather armour strapped to the wall over it. For now the Gangrel sits, lacing his fingers and considering Floretta. "How can I help? What questions did you want answering about the event?"
"I've been struggling with a few things internally." She point to her head, then drop the hand to run her fingers on top of the dog's head. "Does it bother you that she's gone for good? Even though she had all of it coming?"
"I'm not." He tells her simply. "I've had a great many enemies in my life Floretta. Some I left dead, others left me for dead, or I simply left them behind. They fade, like everything else. So has Anna-Marie. But if you're still carrying her with you, she's not entirely gone. I think I might regret it more if she'd been a respected enemy, one who kept my edge honed in competing against, but in the end, she was simply a nuisance to me, and a threat to some I call friends.
Can I ask why it troubles you?"
"It's a bit philosophical, I've been struggling with retaining my connection to my humanity, so I've been exploring mentally some of the things I've been feeling regarding this." Floretta points to Atalo, a very casual, conversational gesture. "And I picture speaking to the person who was involved in the source of the conundrum." she lick her lips "And it troubles me because I can tell I'm not where I was before, the feelings and the reason behind them."
He pauses with a slow blink. "I might not be a good person to ask these things." Atalo tells her slowly. "I am struggling myself Floretta, to keep bonds, to interact with those who aren't kindred. But no, you're not who and what you are. You retain strong traces of that person and her nature, but you also carry the Blood and that is part of who you are now. "
He rubs his mouth. "I don't have answers for you, but clearly the very fact you're troubled seems to be a sign of humanity."
"It's why I got Herbert, he reminds me of things I used to need, I used to do, simple, everyday, simple normal things." She relaxes, thinking about the small pup, her smile returns. "The reason that i'm troubled though is maybe a sign it's slipping too." she leans forward. "I'm not mourning the woman, I never met her. I'm mourning the fact that I'll never hear the very unique kind of gossip she'd bring around with her nonsense." she leans back into her seat. "Is that what it is? When your humanity erodes away it just... changes who you are that much? I remember the kindred I was ten years ago and that wouldn't have been her feelings."
"Isn't this a contrast to where you are now?" He asks. "You joined the Ordo Dracul, you seek to become something more, and different, then what you are now. And everyone changes Floretta, not just us. A human would be different today to who they were ten years ago.
Still, don't make my mistakes. If you're worried you're losing something precious, cling to it. Spend time with human friends, do absurd, silly things. Laugh, cry, love. Because I'm trying to relearn that myself, and it's often a struggle."
"Not necessarily to where I am now, it's...actually part of it, understanding the condition I'm in to better change it." Floretta explains. "Humanity effects things I can do, some of my powers, how hard sunlight burns..." A tilt of her head and a breath later, she offers a smile. "It helps not to be alone, to have compasses and guides...It feels fake at first, but I'm feeling it getting easier. It's a slow process." she shakes her head.
"Ah." He nods. "To be more human then? I can understand the appeal." After a moment he returns her smile. "Who do you have as guides? I've friends myself, among the Changelings, and a new one I've gained recently. It helps, doesn't it?"
"Can I talk to Cerberus for a second?" She asks, a bit out of the blue, as if the idea just sprang on her right there so fast it skipped a turn in a priority order. "And it does help, I have Eyrgjafa that I model a few of my actions after, even if I don't always understand it, I ... can trust it won't lead me a somber path." she shrug "I know very little of the changelings and ... I would prefer to keep a safe distance from their secrets, if I can."
"Of course." He nods towards the hound who looks up in response. "And, hgn, understood. I'll make sure to respect that. Can I ask though, why you came to me to ask these things?"
Floretta turns her attention to Cerberus for a moment and whispers a few words and makes dog-like noise, even barking cutely, scritching the dog behind its ears holding a, for all intent and purpose, very casual conversation with the dog and asking that he takes good care of Atalo. Which sends Cerberus next to the other kindred, but acting just a little more affectionate than he would otherwise. "That kind of worked better than I thought, to be honest." she seems surprised. She clears her throat. "And to answer your question, Because I figured someone different than me, with a different persective might be more helpful. Because you're the one who dealt with the situation on our end of it, because I knew you enough so that you'd let me ask."
A slight grin touches Atalo's face and he joins in the canine conversation, teasing Floretta slightly about how a stubborn Cerberus insists on looking out for him anyway. Patting the dog as he head butts his hand Atalo nods, slipping back to English. "I, hgn. I don't know you so well. I'm not opposed to that, and, were you wanting to know how I felt in that moment when I staked her, and in the time leading up to it?"
"Maybe that would help" She leans forward, watching Atalo curiously as he seems willing to talk more about the particulars of the event. "But if you'd rather not, I understand, those aren't easy topics to bring up."
He nods. "There was someone else there, who I consider a friend and who's story isn't mine to tell, so I won't give her name. But knowing I wasn't alone is important for context. And, I don't mind, no. I'm hoping the answers I'm giving are helpful ones for you."
He leans back, musing. "Anna-Marie had entered my shop, as had my friend. For a short time we talked and it was civil, if not friendly, she was planning on buying some clothes. But then she made it clear she wanted my services again, whether she force me into it or buy my loyalties outright. And I had a realisation that I threw in her face, that she wanted me so badly because I kept denying her and her arrogance couldn't accept it. Which is when she threatened my friend's wellbeing to try and gain my concession."
A faint growl. "I responded to that by warning her, but she took that blow as a challenge and drew her rapier, demanding a duel. I initially planned to simply stake her and wake her later, but she then tried to stab my friend instead. I simply staked her then, and handed her to the Changelings. I was.. angry, Floretta, more then I've been for a very long time. And deeply satisfied when I staked her and handed her over. And I knew she was fated to burn.
So I am not a good person, because I had no regrets about her death, and I know you're supposed to."
"Perspective." Floretta says simply. "You protected your friend, that's something important, in that story you're right. Because it recontextualize what you should feel too." She shake her head. "I remember a conversation surrounding Phaedra you had in the Elysium, I think, you're a guardian. A protector and that counts." She explains "You protected your friend, your personal place of work, that counts for something." She smiles. "Safety for your friend, for yourself brought you relief and satisfaction by its finality. I'm not sure if it means you're bad or good, but it means there's something for you to work with."
He pauses before nodding. "It's what I'm trying to be, to protect. It's far better a thing then destroying." He smiles, then chuckles, shaking his head. "And I apologize. You came here looking for advice and thoughts and instead you're giving that to me."
"I'm looking for understanding and thoughts, this is helpful that I can see a situation in which I recognize something in you, even if our time in those nights was very different." A smile and a shrug. "I have a lot to think about here, it's fair I give a thing or two in return."
"Then, thank you." He smiles at her. "Has it helped? You're allowed to regret never met her, never have witnessed who she was yourself. How do you feel about her death? What emotions does it inspire?"
"Never having met her, never having known her, I'm wondering I could have said something or told her something that would've maybe set her off her path?" A shrug. "Her death by itself feels like almost nothing since I didn't see her, but It sparked a conversation between people who made me wonder about how I deal with everything."
"I can't answer that. I know others tried to turn her from her path without success, but, it's possible you would have found a way." He nods at her. "Then maybe she did do some good, if only incidentally?"
"Maybe she did." A deep breath is taken. "Thanks for taking the time out of the evening." she looks around a bit, then back to Atalo.
"Of course." He smiles. "I'm glad I was able to help. Please, let me know if I can again?"
"Same here." She stands up and waves to both him and Cerberus.
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