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Atalo's shop is much as it always is. As many have noted, he and change don't go well together. At the moment he's adding sums, doing math, checking inventory. All the fun stuff. Cerberus? Oh, he's taking the chance to nap.
"Mister Ceres!" A familiar voice with a distinctive accent calls out. Of course, Anna-Marie is following behind it. She's dressed in her puffy shirt vest combo with her silver headed cane. "You know, Mr. Ceres, this is the nice thing about your shop. I always know where I can find you, if I ever want to."
Rosalyn rode up to the shop on Elio-as-motorcycle, his whinny translating to an engine's roar before she patted his shoulder and climbed off to head inside. She was dressed in a pair of tiny shorts and a tee that was stretched out enough that it draped artfully off a shoulder. She smiled to Atalo and AnnaMarie as she came in, waving a little. "Good evening."
His head snaps up as Anna-Marie enters and the shopkeeper is gone. Instead a Hound of Acteaon focuses on the arriving Kindred and he stands in one fluid motion, starting to stalk towards her. A hand gestures at his side and Cerberus is no longer napping, but is at his master's side, eyes fixed on the Kindred before them. And then a motorcycle sounds outside and Rosalyn enters and he stops.
There's a flicker of frustration in his dark eyes before he's turning to Rosalyn, offering a polite smile as he attempts to redress a civil veneer. "Good evening. How are you Rosalyn?"
Anna-Marie's head whips around to look at the person that Atalo put on the mask to talk to. And, her previous bad experiences with non-vamp supers weighing on her, she lets her beast stretch out and look deeply at the newcomer. And as she does, Ann-Marie's pupils dilate for a fraction of a fraction of a second as she notices a faint sound of rustling leaves, a warm laugh and the gleam of light off of her skin.
"Mister Ceres! Look at you. I didn't know you knew someone as distinctive as this. And a beauty too. Hello there, Ms... Rosalyn was it? I am Anna-Marie Cordray. Wealth Management Specialist."
Ros grimaced with irritation and ran a hand through her hair, casually trying to mess it up though it was only artfully mussed. "I'm doing just fine, thank you for asking," she said to Atalo, then gave Anna Marie a longer look before turning to look through a rack of tops. "Delighted to meet you," she said.
"I find surface beauty is less important then what people display." Atalo tells Anna Marie simply before turning attention to Rosalyn. "Have you heard her name?" He asks Rosalyn quietly, moving closer to them both. "And do any of those take your interest?" A gesture to the tops.
"Her inner character displays an awful lot. Just like Mr. Mearcstapa's," Anna-Marie says to Atalo, her face not changing from a smiling poker face, "And it really is lovely to meet you."
"Well said, Atalo," she complemented him with a smile. "I'm afraid I don't know Miss Cordray as well as she clearly knows me." Her smile sharpened. "Then again, I'm not in need of wealth management. Some of these shirts are pretty cute." She held up a cute lace trimmed top in an Autumnal burnt orange. "This would look good on you," she told Anne Marie. "You should try it on."
"Hm. You sound like you're looking for something." He notes to Anna-Marie. "There's a lot to find here, but I didn't think it'd be for your taste. It's all second or third hand, with a lot of character." Alright, he can be a bit petty. A nod at Rosalyn. "There's a room you can use if you want." He tells the other vampire, indicating a small door in the back.
"Aha." She says at Atalo. It's very distinctly not a laugh but it is laugh-like. "Hm, don't mind if I do. I have a lipstick that would work wondrously with it. I'd have to be a fool to turn away a diamond just because it was worn before. Perhaps you two can catch up while I try it on." And with that, she heads into the changing room.
Ros raised an eyebrow after her and then shook her head a little as she picked out a couple other selections without bothering to try them on. She brought them up to the register and leaned against the counter. "She seems a familiar soul," she said with a nostalgic little smile. "Should I have heard of her?"
He holds up a finger with an apologetic look, producing a phone and tapping on the keyboard. And he's slooow. He finishes the short message though, looking to Rosalyn. "Familiar in what sense?" He asks quietly. "Mearcstapa has encountered her."
"My father was a politician and wealthy businessman," she said simply.
He nods with a grimace, glancing at the door, then back to Rosalyn. "I haven't seen a lot, and I'm a bad judge, often, but I feel you're a moral person. And you should ask Mearcstapa about her, when you have chance." More painfully slowing texting.
She chuckled. "You're very kind. Once upon a time I suppose I was even a bit like her- enamored with wealth and beauty. The surface things. It can take some time for the patina to wear and the interior to shine through."
"I had, some time to learn that." He notes, nodding. "Maybe she'll learn too." Might she be listening in? He doesn't seem to mind the possibility. "Who do you feel you are now, in that case?"
"I'm a stablehand," she said with a grin. "I'm free to be myself instead of everyone else's ideal, live life on my own terms."
A slight grin, rare as they are for him. "Perhaps that's part of why I'm a shopkeeper. I do other things, but here, I'm simple and quiet, and content to have chosen that for myself. It's freeing, mm?"
"It really is. And horses will love you no matter what, even if the students can be little snotballs. Though I don't have customers like you at least!"
He raises an eyebrow, that hint of amusement remaining. "Like me? And I'm sure your students would learn the importance of following your instructions if they fell of a horse."
She rolled her eyes. "As a shop owner you do suffer customers, yes? I'll have you know that I've never had a student fall from a horse. If they can't pay attention and treat them with respect and care, they don't ride."
"Ah, I thought you meant.." He smiles wryly. "No matter. But I believe that, yes. And most of my customers are ones I'm happy to have. Most." A slant of his eyes towards the changing room.
"Hm, no, it doesn't quite fit," Anna-Marie says returning. "I'll get it anyway though, I'm going to be meeting with my tailor soon anyway. Can I write a check this time or will you give it to your mongrel again? He thinks my money is no good, Ms. Rosalyn."
"Some things are more important than money," she murmured. "But I'll refrain from setting myself in the middle of an ongoing disagreement, if you please. Perhaps you could settle your differences and come to more comfortable terms with one another?"
"She thinks I'm for sale, bluntly." He tells Rosalyn. "Until she realizes otherwise, that's difficult." A nod towards Anna-Marie. "To buy clothing, yes." He lists a reasonable price for the item in question. "And insulting Cerberus won't help matters either."
Anna-Marie puts her hands up in a (very convincing) mock outrage. "I'm just trying to offer a carrot, rather than a stick. Its how civilized people operate." She doesn't write a check, instead handing him a black card. "I assume you take card?"
"Miss Cordray, it is traditional to offer carrots and sticks to beasts of burden," she noted- and stuck her nose in the dispute after all. "Perhaps treating others with respect will get you further than treating them as recalcitrant property?" For a stablehand dressed in secondhand clothing, Ros had a very refined accent, old fashioned and well educated.
"You're not the only one who's tried to make her see that." Atalo nods at Rosalyn. "But if you want to prosper in this city Anna-Marie, you should listen to her. I do take card, yes. And if you want to ask me for something else, do so. I'll hear what you have to say, at the very least."
"We are all beasts, Ms. Rosalyn, burdened with one thing or another," Anna-Marie says with a poetic lilt. Her accent is fairly similar to Rosalyn's, only from the other side of the Atlantic. "And Mr. Ceres, all I want is you to be on my team when the time comes. And hook or by crook I'll get you there."
Rosalyn laughed, full of humor. "Oh honey, no. Even beasts can't be properly trained with carrots and sticks, hooks or crooks. Have you ever seen a horse being trained? You can eventually break a horse by beating it and holding it hostage until it does what you want, but to properly train a horse it's about communication. You being able to speak in a way that the horse understands. Do you understand?"
Atalo eyes Anna-Marie, about to respond, but then Rosalyn speaks and he considers her, his head canting. A moment's thoughtful silence before he nods slowly. "I think I might." He notes. "I'm aware that explanation wasn't entirely for me. However." He turns back to the other Kindred. "I have value to you? Importance? But I don't think it's that." A finger points at her. "I think it's because I rejected your offer of money, twice. That your other methods haven't worked." He actually laughs. "You're so full of pride and ambition Anna-Marie. You're struggling with the idea of someone you can't find any purchase in, and I think it's frustrating you. That's why you've come back here. It's not about my value. It's about your pride and my rejection of your attempts."
"I... you..." The facade breaks. For a moment, Anna-Marie's low humanity becomes extremely evident. She looks for all the world like the Beast she desperately pretends not to be. But then she adjusts her tie, taps on the hilt of her cane and turns around to Rosalyn, a polite smile on her face. "Sometimes if you break a horse's friend, the horse complies, for fear it'll happen further." And with those words, if Rosalyn makes eye contact, Anna-Marie looks at her and says, "Come Now," with an odd intonation in her voice.
"Nonsense," Rosalyn countered. "It just doesn't work like that, though now it's clear why you haven't succeeded in whatever it is you address trying to do in this city. When you only have a hammer, all the world looks like a nail." She smiled, a vicious, feral thing. "I'm tempted to go with you, if only to teach you just how bad of an idea it would be. But... in deference to Atalo, no harm will come to you within this store. Should you threaten me again, I cannot guarantee you would make it out safely."
Atalo is silent a long moment, looking between them both. And then he sighs, looking resigned and glancing at Rosalyn. "I apologize for this. But she's just threatened you, in my store. And done it to try and get to me. So I need to make my own example." And then he spins with sudden speed, backhanding Anna-Marie with Vigor increased strength. "Do not ever threaten someone to try and reach me again." He warns her. And throughout, his voice remains perfectly level and calm. "I'm minded to stake you and to deliver you to Mearcstapa right now." (That's 6 bashing damage :S )
BAM. Anna-Marie gets slapped across the face. She recovers and spits out some vitaeless blood on the ground. Problem with being blushed. "You'd condemn one of your kindred to death over something like that?" She indicates at Roz. "She's not even kine. She's something else. I'm sure even the Circle finds that blasphemous. But that's not my area of expertise. I'm proper. And that my friend, was an invitation to a proper duel. Shall we arrange a time and a place?" She draws her elegant sword from it's hilt, ready to defend herself.
Ros grinned a bit and leaned back against the door. Outside, an engine/whinny called a complaint. At being left out of the 'fun' of whatever was going down here. Definitely not a cow," Ros agreed, all reasonably. "You are though."
"I don't find you one of mine." He tells Anna-Marie. "And you're not unarmed. Good. It makes it fairer." He reaches out, grasping the chair by the counter and snapping the wooden arm off to form a rough stake. "I think I will give you to Mearcstapa, after all." And then he lunges at her (and that's when her interrupt would trigger, I think.)
Anna-Marie whips into a duck as he moves at her, moving faster than a human should be able to, as she runs her blade into him. "Well, you've certainly lowered my opinion of your ilk," she says, a smarmy smile across her face.
Rosalyn pulled a bit of green paper origami and took a pen off the counter, jotting something down on it and finished folding it into a bird. "Atalo!" She called as she gathered up shards of dreams and memory and imbued them in the origami bird with a bit of glamour. "Be so kind as to wrap this up? My motorcycle is getting twitchy."
"holyfuck" Anna-Marie pants under her breath. The man hits like a Mack Truck. "You're a tough mother-Maiden-Crone-fucker. But I've got a question for Roz over here. Do your kind bleed? I threatened a couple but I don't know for sure." She's dashing over to stab Rosalyn with her rapier.
"You don't find out." He answered. As Anna-Marie turned to go for Rosalyn he moved in the manner of a trained soldier to take the hit, letting the rapier sink in with a faint huff. "So that's pain.." A low growl before he grabbed Anna-Marie's arm and dragged her closer. "No more from you." And with another snarl he stabbed the stake into her heart, letting her torpored form hit the floor.
Rosalyn let out a shaky breath when Atalo jumped in front of her before she could even think of dodging Anna Marie's sudden strike. "Fucking Summer," she swore, then quickly turned and flipped the store's sign to 'closed.' "I just came in to get some shirts..."
"Summer?" He asks Rosalyn, nodding at her and moving Anna-Marie's prone body behind the counter to avoid it being viewed from the street. "I need to contact Mearcstapa. And for your help, I'll buy you shirts." He produces his phone to send that slow, slow text.
"That's not necessary," she protested. "What do you do with a body anyways." Ros couldn't help stare at the corpse. "I've never had to... ah... Do that."
"She's not dead. Entirely." He clarifies. "But she's no threat until that stake's removed. And I've asked Mearcstapa to come here."
"Right. The whole Vampire thing." She shook her head. "I guess turning to ashes is just a myth then?"
Mearcstapa arrives a little before Lux, and stares at Elio blocking the doorway. "Right, you didn't like me all that much, but I need to get in there. Please?"
"Myths and truth get twisted a lot." Atalo eyes the damaged chair with a sigh. "I'll need a new one." Not the most agile question dodge ever.
Elio barred his teeth at Mearcstapa but backed up a couple of steps, just enough room for Mearcstapa to pass but still within teeth and horn range.
Lux arrives a few moments later, looking... nervous? Uncertain. They touch Mearc's back lightly, slipping in after him and looking around.
Mearc leads Lux into the store and also does the glancing around thing--he doesn't seem the least bit surprised to see Ros, and Atalo gets a polite nod. "Status?"
"She's behind the counter." Atalo tells him. There's two holes in his shirt, and in him, but he seems fairly untroubled by that status. "I've taken no serious harm and Rosalyn is intact."
Elio reached in to snag a nibble of hair off of Lux as they slipped by, then stuck his head in the doorway to see what the commotion was about.
Lux is still clearly put off by Atalo, eyeing the man but... polite enough, at least. Ros get a little nod in greeting. "..She?"
Mearc moves to behind the counter, looking at the corpse. "The Cordray bitch. Rosalyn, did she threaten you?" Even as he speaks, he's pulling out his phone.
Ros gave Mearcstapa a little nod. "It seems this... lady was more nuts than a bag of peanuts. I'm afraid she got very upset when I didn't let her threaten me. She wanted me to go somewhere and just about lost it. On the other hand, her attempts at manipulation were a bit adorable. I was tempted to be friends and help her work through her lack of tools but... Hopeless."
Atalo moves back as they talk, watching from afar and patting Cerberus as his wounds heal over.
Lux freezes, going tense and not moving closer to the counter, frowning at it.
Mearc sends a text. "Lux, she's not going to harm you like this. In fact, we can be sure she doesn't harm anyone ever again, clumsy as her attempts may be. See, there's a reason Atalo texted us..."
He receives a quick text back, and he grins, the freckles on his face all brightening, red and green alike. "...ah, good. Atalo, the Sakima's been informed that I'm tending to the matter. May we have a sunrise bonfire on your rooftop?"
Lux frowns at Mearc, then back at the counter. "I'm not worried about her hurting me. I swore to Jack I wouldn't get involved in this."
"Are you taking responsibility for her Final Death?" Atalo asks. "If I'm held responsible, it might be my own end. Ah, and wait." He moves over to Anna-Marie, retrieving the rapier. "Is this of use to anyone?" He eyes the group. "Hgn.. and I need to feed soon." Partly to himself.
Rosalyn frowned, then narrowed her eyes at Elio. She marched towards the door and pushed the unicorn/motorcycle's head back outside and led him back to the parking spot before giving him a quick and quiet lecture.
"I am taking responsibility, Atalo. I have just done so. Saagochque said not to get too close, because burning vampire smells bad." He glances at Lux. "Go, don't worry about this, then. Just...you can let Jack know he's safe. For certain."
"It might be alright, so long as I don't... touch her or anything. I promised I wouldn't get directly involved in getting revenge on her." Their arms cross over their chest, frowning. "But leaving might be... safer."
"Thank you Mearcstapa." He inclines his head, rubbing at his arms with a display of restlessness. He lies the thus far unclaimed rapier on the counter. "I take satisfaction in knowing she won't bring you and yours any more harm."
"Or you could ask Jack to let go of that promise, and invite him to come watch. That's a matter between you." He shrugs, then carefully moves to lift the body. "Roof access, Atalo?"
"Have you texted him yet?" Lux pulls out his phone to poke at.
"Not yet."
Ros came back inside, frowning at Mearcstapa and Lux. "What did she do?" She asked.
Lux starts to text.
"Yes." He nods, moving behind the counter and gesturing for the three to follow. The back room isn't much to look at, though an old looking axe and shield do hang on the wall. And despite the position, they don't look like they're purely display weapons. He moves to a key safe, opening it and then unlocking a door at the back leading to a fire escape. "That'll take you to the top." He advises the Changelings. "It's best I attend to personal matters." A glance at them. "I won't be here in the morning, obviously, to let you back in."
"She blackmailed a member of the Spring Court, trying to first bribe him, then threaten him with intimate knowledge of his personal faults, including using the line 'I own you', while acknowledging him not being human. She has repeatedly tried to use hard leverage against other vampires and changelings, prying and threatening and making of herself a problem."
Ros stared at him in surprise. "Well... That worked well for her. Keep beating a horse, you can't be surprised when it kicks back."
"Hgn. She was incapable of learning." He moves briefly into the front, returning with the rapier and offering it hilt first to Rosalyn. "I'd have a hard time to explain having this. Is it of any use to you?"
He nods, then gives Atalo a smile. "Hey, don't forget who I am. I'll let myself back in. Or you can leave me the key and I'll put it back in the safe before you awaken."
Lux glances up from the phone to the rapier, eyeing it. “That hers?”
"It was. That's no longer the case."
"Probably worth a pretty penny at the market," Ros murmured.
“If anyone is gonna sell it, it should go to restitution for Jack. My two cents.” They shrug and look back at their phone.
"That I leave to you." He nods to the three of them, still holding it towards Rosalyn. "And, I won't forget Mearcstapa, no." A small grin and he passes him the key.
Ros accepted the blade, and nodded to Lux. "He was the one that was blackmailed and threatened?"
“He was.”
She smiled to Atalo. "Thank you, for protecting me earlier. And for doing what needed to be done with her."
Mearcstapa takes the key and pockets it, holding Anna-Marie's body on one shoulder like a bag of flour. "Knowing him, he'll do something like sink the money into the union, though. Which might also be fitting here?"
"She did want to donate." He drawls. Was that a joke? He pauses, looking at Rosalyn and considering her quietly before speaking up. "You were in my shop, I was responsible."
“I was actually thinking of offering that to him. It’d be fitting, yeah.” They nod to Mearc.
"She was responsible," Ros countered. "If I'd let her take me outside, she'd have died just the same though probably a bit messier and rather... er... more publicly."
"Publicly would be bad, for us and for them. Marjorie and their leader, their Sakima, are on good terms, but that sort of display in the open might have caused as much strain as she herself was causing." He smiles slightly at Ros. "Also, I'm not sure Elio would have enjoyed the taste of her flesh."
"Then I'm glad it was settled relatively quietly." He looks back to Rosalyn, digesting her words. "You're a warrior?" He asks, then shakes his head. "I'm sorry if I gave offence then, and suggested you need protection. But I don't regret that. We're hard to injure. And yes, private is best for this sort of thing, I don't want to lose this shop either."
"No." She shook her head. "Not a warrior as such, just no fainting maiden. My, er, motorcycle can be a bit bloodthirsty though. If she'd just left us alone after that I'd have had a flock of pigeons stalking her for a week."
Lux sends some texts back and forth, then looks to Mearc. "Jack wants to be here. Sealing is dealt with." They step closer, eyeing her body with look of distaste. "She looks like a proper bitch, don't she?"
"She was a proper bitch. Now, she's nothing more than a corpse that doesn't even have the dignity to rot." He sighs. "Jack is very welcome to be here. Ros, do you plan on staying for sunrise?"
"I hear of a surprisingly number of unusual motorcycles." Atalo notes. "Regardless, I need to find food. If you don't need anything further from me, I'll leave this to your hands." And with that he's gone, faded from view! Woosh!
"I think I'll go. I don't have the same connection to her demise and it seems a bit ghoulish to just hang around to watch her burn without it." She offered Lux the sword. "Please give Jack my regards and best wishes. If he needs an escort to the market, I'd be happy to tag along."
Lux accepts the rapier, holding it carefully but clearly without any knowledge of how to use it. "Thanks. Will do."
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