Shimmer (batfish_crazy) wrote in birthrightrpg, @ 2021-03-10 04:23:00 |
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Entry tags: | celeste henry, derek mitchell, ellie sawyer, shimmer |
Shimmer's Critical Role
Who: Shimmer/Ellie/Celeste/Derek/NPCs.
Where: Curiosities.
What: After coming up with the idea of playing a table-top sword and sorcery RPG, surrounded by the real occult props of Curiosities, in the hope of invited guests being inspired to purchase some, Shimmer commences game night. And then... Something occurs.
The ground floor of Curiosities had undergone something of a magical transformation, itself. Soon after closing time, Shimmer had started putting up a mixture of birthday and Hallowe'en decorations like it was Christmas, kitting the place out to evoke a world of magic, sword and sorcery, as best as she could on a shoestring budget.
Role-playing games... Who didn't love an excuse to fire one's imagination with RPGs? And more so if it came with a reason to dress up in character! The hook being, Shimmer was hoping that, being set in a shop with actual occult artefacts for sale, the fun and games might coax some after-game sales. Some incense sticks here, some quartz crystals there, a few pentagram wind chimes to tinkle overhead... It all helped. In the background, a stereo was quietly playing one of the New Age music CDs.
Shimmer had worked her little socks off to try and generate interest and, while the group was small in number, a few dozen or so, she was hoping this would be the start of something bigger. With Celeste attending, hopefully she would put in a good word with James, if this proved a success!
Dressed up in hooded cloak, Shimmer was adopting quite the theatrical rendition of Dungeon Master. Or, as she termed it, "Dungeon Mistress, but probably with less bondage." She'd helped to introduce the players to one another, asking them to give a brief explanation of their characters, then had begun. Old friends, like Derek, were mixing with new, like Ellie.
"...ooh, but as you venture into the next room, your group hears a whisper. And it’s coming from a mysterious locked box in the corner. What do you do next?”
Celeste and Derek had driven to Curiosities together. At the behest of Shimmer to dress in costume, Celeste had done the best she could with her rather limited wardrobe. ‘The best she could’ being a black A-line dress with lace details, a few layered necklaces, tights, and her ever-present black combat boots. Derek, however, had actually gone to a costume store and had decided to dress as Link from the Zelda series.
The brunette had asked if he was Peter Pan, which sent the vampire into a laughing fit that Celeste suspected was aided by a certain mind-altering substance.
As they sat around the table, ensconced in a world of fantasy, Celeste spoke up. “Can we put up some magical shields or defenses, then open it?”
Hubert, a Vegas teenager, had done well in choosing a necromancer. Mainly because, even facially, there was something about the lad which gave off that vibe, just on the unnerving side of creepily entitled. Confidence was definitely not an issue for him. Being a little too enthusiastic and brazen could be.
“I could totally summon a dragon,” he said, trying to impress Celeste with one of those smiles: The type which tried to look friendly, but came across as anything but. Also the type of smile which he assumed looked utterly charming. “I could summon one, right now, babe…”
“No. No! There will be no… It’s a power level thing, OK?” Interjected Shimmer. “I never said you could summon dragons.”
“Yeah, but… I totally could… Fan’gor’s a really fuckin’ awesome necromancer. That’s why he can do anything.”
“OK, dude, you’re...” And, ignoring Hubert for a moment, Shimmer smiled brightly at Celeste’s suggestion. “That’s a good idea! You’ve got good willpower, right? Aaand do a me perception roll… Ooh, well done!”
Moving the little representative models across the map into the room, waggled her fingers theatrically, before describing what would be seen.
“So, thanks to your valiant comrade, you guys managed to avoid a trap-door! Yay! And then you see all these weird paintings on the walls. And on the mysterious locked box are the same symbols… Ooh! Ominous! And on the lid is a picture of this dude who looks like Bob Barker poking a spear up someone’s butt.”
“Could I use my power?” That came from Wilma. A shy young teen in attendance, who thought Derek’s costume was really cool. “I could spray butterflies around the room and they could glow and help to raise our perception?”
Nodding vigorously to the suggestion, Shimmer used a flashlight to simulate magical lighting shining over the room.
“Great work, team! Now you’re starting to notice all these magical strands connecting the pictures to the box… And the box has a magical lock on it. Maybe that’s some kind of connection, huh?”
“I could summon a dragon…”
“Fan’gor will not be summoning any dragons,” Shimmer objected. “How would… It wouldn’t even fit in the room! God…”
Celeste subtly moved her chair away from Hubert and closer to Derek. The vampire listened to Shimmer narrate what was happening, trying to follow the rules of the game and who took turns when. Sometimes his attention span worked against him, but so far, he was digging this. He adjusted his green hat and raised his hand like he was in school. “Can I go next?” He squinted at the map despite having excellent eyesight.
“I think we should see if there’s a key in the pictures? Like maybe it’s hidden in one of those Magic Eye things and you just have to have the right… What’s the word?... Perception. Perception check?” He gave the shy Wilma a knowing smile.
Shimmer wasn’t really working from proper ‘Dungeons And Dragons’ rules. There were dozens, if not hundreds of different game companies, all with their own systems. It was all vastly simplified, able to be printed out on a double-sided A4 sheet and handed out - mostly with helpful illustrations, instead of words.
A cheerful, “You certainly can, Mister,” was followed up with a dramatic shivering of multi-coloured tissue paper below the overhead lighting, simulating magical energies wafting through the room. Hubert gave a noise of frustration. Wilma’s eyes, on the other hand, widened, caught up in the imaginative theatrics of it all.
There was some to and fro as each player took turns, steadily revealing a mystery, between the symbolism of the pictures and what was being whispered from the box, until it was understood the paintings held the spirits of guardians keeping the box locked up.
“But do you open the box? The spirits claim it holds a great ancient power, which should never be released… But it’s whispering a promise to reward you if you destroy the pictures and let it free!”
“What if we choose…” Wilma chewed on her bottom lip. “What if we choose… A third way?”
Delighted at the response, Shimmer was rather pleased at the mini-human’s idea. “You cooooould,” she helpfully encouraged, nodding. “Ellie, what do you think? Guys, you’re so close to figuring out this quest!”
To one side, an impatient Hubert scowled.
Ellie smiled at Shimmer. Having never played this game before, she hadn’t been exactly sure how to put her attire together. Flynn gave her some tips and she had come dressed like a pirate - three corner hat and all. She had ended up with a dwarf bard, and so far the game structure and mechanics had turned out to be so much fun. Also, the people playing weren’t too bad.
“I could have my bard sing to the box to see if it could give us any insight?” Her character was supposed to have magical, musical qualities and the charisma for the character was high enough that the suggestion could possibly work. “If that’s alright with you guys?”
She looked around at each person at the table to make sure the plan was set.
“I think that’s a good idea, but you have to actually sing,” Derek spoke up, turning his attention to Ellie. “Those are totally the rules and I’m not making them up or anything.” He fiddled with some glittery pink dice that he had purchased from a comic book shop in Vegas.
Celeste rolled her eyes. She had seen Ellie around Searchlight a few times and knew of her through Flynn. “You don’t have to sing if you don’t want to,” she told the redhead.
Ellie snorted. A hand crept up over her lips and a redness flushed into her cheeks. “The bard can sing,” she said, lowering her hand. “But I think the song will work better if more people sing, too.” Strength in numbers and all. “Do we need a dice roll to see who can sing and who can’t?” And then possibly another to see if their idea even would work on the box.
“No, go for it! Did you have some lyrics in mind or…?”
Singing? Shimmer was super-down with that! There was a murmuring of laughter from within the group and even Wilma gave a small, high-speed slap of encouragement.
Hubert, meanwhile, was not amongst them. He was sliding a small book out from under the cloak, anticipating his own upcoming turn.
Ellie looked around. She bit back a laugh and with red cheeks she shook her head, “I don’t but OK-“ and then she started to sing, looking around, “Lovely box, with your secrets, please give us a chance to know you…” She looked at Derek for help and then at Hubert.
Derek piped up in an effort to save Ellie, since Hubert - or Huey, as the vampire had started to call him in his head - didn’t seem keen on the task. “We just want to be your friend, until the end, and we’ll take care of you… Lovely box, open your locks, we are asking nicely!” At the end of his verse, he gave a small bow.
Celeste watched this display with a small smile tugging at the ends of her lips. “That was beautiful, you guys.”
There was an, “Euuureugh,” from Shimmer before smacking her hand over own mouth. “I so want to react to that! You… You almost…”
A little shaking fist slowly punched down in mid-air, towards her feet and Shimmer restrained herself with a big smile. She really did want to narrate the next step! But… There were rules and she had to abide by them.
“OK, just one more turn and…” She looked down at the check-list and realised who it would be. The smile didn’t waver, but her eyes did widen. Head gradually turning in the direction of the player in question. “Hubert…”
“Fan’gor.”
“Yes, Hubert. It’s Fan’gor’s turn and… A-a-and I know he’s a necromancer-”
“A really fuckin’ awesome necromancer.”
“Yes. A really, really, really super-cool necromancer, but all he has to do is just… Like… Go ‘ta-da’ or something! Because the group’s almost-”
“You’re not allowed to give us clues, though.”
“Well, sort of, I mean… OK, look. It’s your turn, so… You’ve - Fan’gor! Fan’gor’s almost got this. You… You don’t have to do much, just…”
Hubert sneered and countered, “Where’s the fun in that?”
“Um…”
“OK, time to Cobra Kai this bitch up! Break it up, people!”
Again, Shimmer’s eyes went wide. Hubert wasn’t really going to do anything crazy, was he? They were almost there! The mystery was almost solved! Was he going to-
“You can’t summon a dragon! That’s… That’s the GM speaking, OK? Just… No dragon-summoning.”
The forbidding of his signature move caused the boy to pause a couple of seconds. Damn it… He really wanted to summon that dragon… It was Fan’gor’s thing, man! But…
“Fine,” he readily agreed and, impulsively, took ahold of a prop from a nearby shelf. A big chunk of discoloured crystal and… Removing it, a tattered piece of broken old slate was revealed underneath. Something was etched upon it, but he didn’t have a clue what it meant. Just that it looked old and kind of sharp. The kind of stuff his character, Fan’gor, would use. Yeah… It totally did.
So, putting down the quartz, he grabbed ahold of that, instead, tossing it onto the map. “Fuck, cut myself,” he hissed. The liberated blood smearing over the pages of the journal-like book he’d brought from home, to where he had opened it. An odd breeze having suddenly caused it to leaf over at the last moment.
“While you pussies are prancing around singing, Fan’gor knows power when he sees it - and he’s gonna’ show you how to crack it open and take it!”
Wilma made an unhappy face. “I really hate Fan’gor…”
“Shut up!”
A little incensed at the unprovoked hostility, Shimmer took on a more serious look. “Hey… Listen, you don’t get to disrespect your team, OK? You want me to de-level your character? Huh?”
“Wha… Whatever, man,” Hubert bitchily responded. “Fan’gor’s casting, uh…” And he looked down. The blooded droplets spreading across the open book in his hands, drawing attention to a title. He didn’t understand how to pronounce it but did his best.
“W… Wait,” Shimmer responded, holding her hand up. “What…?” Why did that phrase sound like… She’d heard of it somewhere before. What did it mean? “What did you just say?”
Repeating it, Hubert just went full steam ahead, waving his hands and reading the text aloud.
“I know that,” muttered Shimmer, gaze travelling down to her feet. “Why do I know that...”
There was another breeze which suddenly whipped up. Where was it even coming from? The doors and windows were all close.
“I’ve heard it...”
“...and I call forth from the depths of the Great Abyss…”
OK, not a dragon. He couldn’t do a dragon. But he could summon something else. Now they’d understand. Now they’d respect him. Now they’d see why they should have let him use Fan’gor. Because why would you want Fan’gor on the team and not let him to unleash?
“Wait... “ And Shimmer suddenly looked up, meeting Derek’s eyes. “Wait…” Celeste’s. “That’s…”
“...unshackled, I pledge this, my sacrifice, to…”
Wilma really wasn’t liking this. Where was that wind even coming from? Why was there Growling? Why was the power flickering?
A chubby guy at the back thought it was rad.
“Yeah! Fuckin’ dungeons and dragons,” he celebrated, fist-pumping the air. “Flame on, bro!”
And, looking at Ellie, Shimmer realised, all too late, where those words being read aloud were from.
“Wait!”
At the last second, Hubert did just that, giving Shimmer a stormy look.
No. He wasn’t going to be stopped, again. They always stopped him when things were getting cool. He never got to be cool.
“As above… So below,” he spitefully finished. Then slammed the book together. A book Shimmer tried to grab ahold of and just missed before it slapped closed. She lunged across the table, sending the piece of flint spinning to the edge.
“Where the hell did you get this?!”
“It’s my dad’s,” Hubert said with a shrug, nonplussed at the GM’s behaviour. “He’s always role-playing with his buddies in the basement. That’s how it got into this… Can I have my spellbook back? God...”
The flint lost balance, falling to the floor.
It smashed, fracturing.
“I don’t think your dad’s doing role-play…”
The wind and noises might have died down; most of the group assuming they were just more of Shimmer’s special effects. But from where the stone had splintered, ethereal glowing energy was gathering in intensity.
“I really, really don’t like Fan’gor,” Wilma repeated, already scared enough to be backing away.
The light show danced, sped up, began to form into a shape… And the overhead lights exploded, leaving everyone in darkness. Wilma screamed, the big guy went, “Yeah!”
And Hubert yelled; something grabbing and pulling him across the room.
When someone used a flashlight from their cellphone, something big was in the room with them. Something very big. It looked something like what might happen if a cockroach fucked a car… An exoskeletal exterior of weathered metal, covered in arcane sigils. A segmented machine with a dull glow formed around it. Something… Bright and turquoise was hidden within the armoured hulk and Hubert was caught in its grasp. Whatever the inner being was, it was staring into the youth’s eyes with a terrible gaze. Something old. Something intelligent. That inner turquoise light was bathing Hubert’s head.
Grabbing ahold of Ellie by the arm, Shimmer yelled to Celeste and Derek to get everyone out. Planting herself in front of Wilma.
Derek was about to chew out Hubert on the misogynistic language when the lights went crazy and the wind was almost loud enough to block everything else out. He recognized the horror in Shimmer’s eyes, standing up and knocking his chair back when he saw the hulking creature form in front of them. “You stupid fu-“ The vampire broke off when it grabbed the misguided, annoying Huey. “We don’t want him to die, right? Could be bad for insurance purposes?”
Celeste swore under her breath angrily. This was Sam and James’s shop and she wasn’t about to let it get destroyed. She broke away from the group to run upstairs to the restricted section and grab some supplies. They were going to have to trap whatever it was before it could do any damage.
Her hair flapped around. The hat she brought to go with her ensemble flew off, escaping the scene being laid out before them. Ellie’s blue eyes widened, her jaw dropped and she felt frozen. Even when Shimmer grabbed her by the arm it took her a minute to register what was happening.
And then she stepped forward and used her mental power to keep the summoned creature where it was until Celeste or someone could get a hold on it. Ellie focused hard, harder than she ever had in her life to will the creature into a state of motionless existence.
Held in its mechanised grasp, Hubert could only adopt a slow-motion gasp, as if trying to scream with no breath to give. It was doing something. The unquesitonable presence of it was filling his mind, somehow interfacing with him like a computer seeking a wifi connection. He didn’t know how, he only knew that it was.
And then it seemed to shudder. A motion not unlike a car whose engine was spluttering along. What passed for eyes on that thick metal shell were more like camera lenses; each one mechanically sliding one type of glass in exchange for another. The entire head attempting to turn in another direction, trying to search for what was locking it in place. A noise of something like hydraulics protested and the glowing thing within that shell seemed to thrash within its confines.
“Is… Is this part of the show?”
“Uh… Yeah! Yeah, it’s… Come back next week and you’ll find out what happened!”
“Cool!”
Shimmer, ever the opportunist, hardly convinced herself with that excuse. But then… Humans were strangely convinced by anything to explain away the unusual. Maybe they’d buy it? Even Wilma seemed unsure of how to react, but scampered away at high speed.
“Ye-yeah, it…” Derek had a point. Hubert getting murdered would be… Bad in general. His plight reminded Shimmer of witnessing something caught in a spider’s web. “I think our new friend’s got this covered! Grab him, dude!”
Shimmer, herself, didn’t possess the speed or strength of a vampire, nor was she a practitioner like Celeste was in training for, but she did used to be gifted in a different way. And, moving over to Ellie, placed her hands on the telekinetic’s shoulders, doing her best to soothe and stabilise the energy flow around her.
The thing noticed that and was, slowly, but surely, trying to creak in Ellie’s direction. Its interest momentarily lost in poor Hubert still held in those garden shear-like talons.
Derek looked around for a viable weapon. He turned to Celeste to ask her if they kept something behind the counter, but she had gone. Then he realized he was in a magic shop. Magic was the weapon. Instead, he collapsed one of the folding chairs and held it aloft, using the creature’s focus on Ellie to sneak behind it and swung as hard as he could. The metal of the chair folded against the thing with a loud crack, rendering it useless. The vampire tossed it aside and looked for some kind of weakness in its metallic looking shell.
Upstairs, Celeste was gathering a powdered substance into a bag. She was trying to think of a basic holding spell. If they could get it immobilized, she might be able to look into the book Hubert had pulled out and find something to send the creature back from where it came.
With the pressure of Shimmer’s hands on her shoulders, Ellie set her feet and took a deep, slow breath. She hadn’t used her power this way before; Flynn had been testing her and trying to help her get control of it. She was glad for that. “It’s going to be weaker if we get stronger,” Ellie murmured. Her red hair flowed around her face with that gusting wind as if she were a runway model with a hair dryer blowing her hair back.
What she was doing was trying to buy time, distract the creature. One of her hands lifted and extended out, “Stronger together!”
Hitting it with a chair looked like it was about as much use as a toothpick against a battleship. Much like the pictures on the tabletop game, those sigils engraved over the creature were glowing, but quite what they could mean was unclear. Nothing about this was clear. They should get the recorded CCTV footage and play it in front of kids playing ‘Magic: The Gathering’ as a public safety disclaimer.
Still, the distraction was enough to cause Hubert to be unceremoniously dropped to the floor. Scuttling away as soon as reality hit him. His first course of action was just to yell in horror, screaming irrationally at Shimmer to give him the book back. A scuffle broke out and Hubert managed to snatch it, bounding for the exit.
Like a proverbial Thanos being held at bay, the thing managed, somehow, to wrest control just enough to lunge one segmented leg forward, but was immediately locked back in place, thanks to the enhanced energies surging through Ellie.
“CELEEEEEEESTE! DEREK NEEDS HEEEEELP!”
Unable to physically retaliate, the thing’s head snapped towards the direction of the vampire, mantis limbs trying to unfurl in a threat display. The symbolic markings of the exterior glowing brighter… And brighter… And brighter…
And there was something in what it used to stare at Derek. Something old.
“Stronger together... Nyuh!” Shimmer was straining with effort to enhance Ellie’s power, as best she could. It was difficult. Hadn’t done anything like this in a very long time. “Celeste! I think this thing’s going nuclear!!!”
Derek decided to go for the thing’s head. If it had a head, it had a neck, and necks could be broken. That was the vampire’s logic, anyway. He jumped on the creature’s back, wrapping his arms around it and squeezing with all his strength. “Come on!” he yelled through gritted, extended teeth. “Pop off.” He used his feet to stabilize himself and pulled, and was reminded of the hybrid zombie animal thing that he and Brian had fought in Searchlight a few months prior. If only they had an SUV and a rope…
Celeste ran downstairs, the supplies secured. She opened the plastic bag and began sprinkling a dark looking powdered substance around Derek and the creature. “When I say, jump off and get outside the circle,” she instructed Derek. “Just don’t break the line.” When that was done, she put an elemental candle on the table and lit it. “Where’s that book?” the brunette asked Shimmer, before looking around and realizing Hubert was absconding with it.
Ellie gritted her teeth. Lips pulled back as if she were growling. Her focus waned. She didn’t know if she could hold the creature much longer. But she couldn’t let anyone get hurt. She didn’t think she could live with herself, and the shop was precious.
With Shimmer’s help she didn’t feel so overwhelmed though. And as her focus tightened, so did her hold on the creature.
Derek didn’t have to be told. He didn’t even have to do any jumping, because the next thing they knew, the glow from those symbolic engravings suddenly warped into a humming field of energy around the mechanised beast, throwing its vampiric assailant off like two magnets of the same polarity.
“Derek…!”
Shimmer’s concerned outburst caused her to momentarily lose connection with Ellie and the telekinetic grasp around the dimensional interloper lessened just enough for the force-field of energy to intensify further and… ZAP! It was gone.
“Where… Where’d it go?” Shimmer was whirling around, concerned that something might leap out of the shadows at any given moment. Those bulbs would definitely have to be replaced in the morning. Fortunately, there was surprisingly little in the way of actual damage caused. “Did it blow up?” Then, turning to Ellie, she observed, “Guess your secret is out… But-but for a really good cause!”
The vampire collided with the floor of the shop in a heap of limbs. He blinked rapidly, looking around the space but couldn’t see any sign of… Whatever he had been trying to fight. “Actually, I might rescind the ‘no killing Hubert’ policy,” he said, rubbing the side of his head gingerly. Derek stood up slowly, looking at Shimmer, Ellie, and Celeste in turn. “Are you guys OK?”
Celeste looked dumbfounded and annoyed at the same time. “Physically, yes. But that should not have happened.” She blew out the candle irritably and looked down at the smudged circle she had drawn. To Ellie, she said, “Don’t worry about your secret. Everyone here has something. It’s also surprisingly common in Searchlight.”
Shimmer echoed Ellie’s same thoughts. Where’d it go? Her concern was also for Derek, who had been thrown off of the beast causing her focus to wane more. She looked around at the room and found that everyone seemed to be okay. Her cheeks went scarlet, though.
Shit. Her secret. Ellie chewed at her lip. There had never been a second thought about what she had done. Abilities aside, saving people came first even if that meant using her telekinesis. Wait until Flynn heard about this one.
Ellie moved over to Derek to offer a hand up. “Are you?” She was going to have a bit of a headache later, the focus had never been so firm and direct before. A nod toward Celeste’s reassurance, Ellie smiled. “Thanks.”
Shimmer was muttering something about, “Mean ole’ Fan’gor,” making sure to check her vampire friend was still intact and braving a smile at Ellie’s helpful manner towards him. She sought to make sure Celeste was OK and none of their guests weren’t smeared over a wall, then made a comment to her about it being wise to give the place a cleansing, just to be on the safe side. The consequences of dimensional portals could be unpredictable.
Well, at least the shop seemed OK. Derek’s comments about the role-playing necromancer, however, caused the nymph to frown.
“Sorry about Hubert’s being kind of a dick,” she apologised aloud. “I don’t think he meant it, though. Kid’s probably going to need therapy after tonight… I’ll go see if he’s OK, tomorrow. I mean, looks like his dad’s into some dark shit at home. It’s not safe there.”
She stooped to the ground, picking up the broken flint with a shudder. It still had some majorly dark energy attached to them and she held it out at arm’s length, gesturing to Celeste with her other hand holding her nose with a sneer of distaste at the offending objects.
“He nabbed the journal thingy, but… Maybe keep ahold of this? Those engravings on it probably mean something.”
Celeste grabbed an empty jar and held it out so that Shimmer could drop the object into it. She would put something cleansing in with it, show it to either Sam or James later on. “I think this might be our last session here at the shop,” she said. “But there’s always Derek’s trailer.”
Derek returned Ellie’s smile. “I’m okay. I’ve had way worse knocks to the head. I think it actually makes me smarter,” the vampire joked. His green hat had fallen off in the fray, and he stooped down to pick it up. “I think I can still return this costume and get the money back. Or wear it on the Strip and charge for photographs.”
Ellie giggled a bit. “I like it,” she murmured. “I think you should keep it. Halloween would already be covered.” While she didn’t play many video games she felt the costume was familiar. And it was way better thought out than her homemade, impromptu pirate costume.
Knowing Derek was alright, the telekinetic turned to the other women. “I’m glad everyone is okay.” If this was how Dungeons & Dragons was supposed to work she supposed her normal life was just boring.
The proverbial elephant in the room was what to tell James. As she relinquished the broken pieces into Celeste’s waiting receptacle, Shimmer suspected that, if she didn’t say something to him, then Celeste would. Those lights weren’t going to replace themselves. “For what it’s worth, wearing that get-up and playing Buckeroo with a netherworld visitor, made it a lot less traumatic to witness,” she observed of Derek’s costume, removing the cloak from over her normal clothing. “Maybe laughing in its face would have shamed it into non-existence.”
Looking around herself, clapping hands free of any karmic residue, she wondered if this was how cartoon superheroes felt after averting the latest apocalypse.
“What Celeste said? About people with…” Shimmer danced hands in front of herself to Ellie, conveying a gesture for spookiness. “We know others, too. We can, like, plug you in,” she offered, getting out a contact details card and pen, so the new girl could write down her details. With the overhead lighting still out, she shone the light from her cellphone over it. “Make you part of the fam’... If you want? ‘Stronger together’, right?”
Ellie seemed a bit eager, perhaps too eager to know who was as special as she was. Jazz hands weren’t meant for just anyone. Or maybe she was kidding herself.
Outside the shop window, a glimpse of pale skin in shadow passed by, just for a fleeting moment. A familiar English accent whispering Celeste and Derek’s names whispering, feather-light, into their respective minds.
To Derek, that whisper had two different effects. The first was to step protectively closer to his friends, because his nervous system seemed to process the implication first before his brain did. His hands balled into fists as he looked at each of them in turn, something troubled passing across his dark eyes. “Yeah, let’s... Let’s get her into the network,” the vampire agreed with Shimmer distractedly, turning to look toward the window and seeing nothing.
Celeste, however, felt a ripple of anger course through her like an electric current, followed by an undeniable flush of curiosity. She stalked straight toward the windows and peered out, but saw the same thing as Derek: Nothing. The brunette let the curtains fall back into place before turning toward the others. “I thought I heard Hubert outside whimpering,” she lied. “You guys don’t have to stick around. I can get this place mostly cleaned up by myself.”
Ellie offered Derek a smile and then looked at Celeste. “I don’t mind helping? If you’re okay with that, I’d be glad to.”
Shimmer, characteristically sensitive to unusual energy fields, had looked around herself, though wasn’t quite sure for exactly what. The pair’s verbal exchange brought her attention back to the room and the nymph smiled, making to clear away at least the table-top pieces to one side.
“I’ll come back in the daylight,” announced Shimmer with a yawn, stretching. “That whole thing really took it out of me… Sorry a giant tank-monster got summoned to the material realm, but, hey, we made a new friend!”