InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "and a knock upon the door,"

Darklis Tinka (mindblowing) wrote in light_of_may,
@ 2010-09-01 02:21:00

Entry tags:

2009-07-25

& sometimes I get nervous
Who: Layla, Odette & a Liev-cameo
Where: Odette's apartment
When: Morning

Right, so she'd gotten the number from the ad on Craigslist. And called it -- so far, so good -- and got an address. Layla had never really been employed before, but she knew job interviews weren't usually conducted from one's home. Although House of Interest didn't have any open hours, exactly. So when she was supposed to go in to ask about the job was beyond her. It sort of made sense in a round about sort of way. And it was kind of a spur of the moment thing. Or rather, she thought so. And if she didn't get the job? That was okay too. She would try somewhere else. There were quite a few somewhere elses in Scarlet Oak -- it was actually a lot bigger than she had originally thought. Well. There was a lot crammed into a relatively small space, anyway.

She hadn't directly told the others she was going out, for fear that Max might stop her, but she'd left a note in what she thought to be an obvious place. And then made a run for her car. Layla Stiltner was going to find herself a job -- thus proving she was entirely capable of being independent and would not need a degree -- whether her sisters approved or not.

Rolling into Cherryblossom Place, she spent a good few minutes staring wide-eyed at the area before leaving her car, armed with the crumpled piece of paper she had scrawled the details on. It looked expensive. Now if gravity could just not forsake me this time, everything will be fine.

Right. She could do this -- a mantra that she repeated over and over again in her head on the way there, and then for another few minutes while she psyched herself up to knock. It shouldn't have been that big a deal, really. Max would think she was being stupid. And it was that thought that pushed her to knock. Suddenly her stomach was full of butterflies.

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la_duchesse
2010-09-01 04:28 am UTC (link)

The girl had called the office phone number the day before and when the call had been diverted to Odette's home phone, she'd picked up and arranged a meeting. Her named was Lily or Lila or something of the sort. She had no experience with sales, but Odette wasn't particularly choosy about hiring someone for the position. She just needed someone pretty to stand there and look adorable while people perused...and to make sure no one stole anything. In Odette's opinion, if she was pretty; wasn't a slob and didn't steal from her, hey, whatever. The job was already given away, as far as Odette was concerned.

Knowing that the girl was coming meant that Odette had tried to sleep at night so she could be up this morning. Unfortunately, her sire had proved to be more than a distraction from the rest she had planned on. As welcome as it had been, it wasn't convenient for this particular morning. She heard the knocking and moved in bed, sighing the sigh of the newly awakened but perfectly content. Because it was kind of Liev's fault she wasn't bright-eyed and all that, she got up on an elbow and planted a kiss on the forehead that belonged to the body that was supposed to be in the guest bedroom. "Be a darling and go open the door. I have to change," she murmured at the still face. In her earliest years of vampirism, waking up next to Liev's still figure would always nearly give her cause to panic and cry at the thought of him being real-dead. Until he woke up and kissed those sorts of thoughts away. Nevertheless, she was used to it now and there was a kind of beauty in the silent peace over her sire's face when he was resting.

She poked his chest where her head had been resting only a few seconds earlier. "Go on, get the door," she prodded again (both figuratively and literally).

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lupinewanderer
2010-09-01 02:31 pm UTC (link)

Liev's eyes refused to open until he was poked the second time, his lips tugging into a lazy but undeniably smug smile. "You're perfect the way you are." Well, she was. She knew it. And he really did not want to answer the door. A moment later, he was shrugging his limbs back to life, propping himself up on his elbows. He was, if nothing else, a gentleman, and when a lady told him to answer the door -- when Odette told him to answer the door -- if was generally better to do so than risk arguing. Especially since he was in a good mood and wouldn't be able to take her annoyance seriously. "If you insist, liebschen." Which, of course, she would, and his legs were forced to make more practical use of themselves.

There wasn't a modest bone in Liev's body. The moment he realised he couldn't be bothered putting his misplaced clothes on and that there was no towel to hand, he dropped all pretense of caring whether he was seen naked of not. Odette may not appreciate it when she realised the naked figure wandering off to answer the door was not going to cover himself up first, but she had told him to get the door. No specifications were made over his state of dress.

Hearing the heartbeat on the other side of the door, he could, at least, put to rest any notions of having to hurl Edward out of the closed window and then contending with Odette's temper for leaving broken glass everywhere. It did make him curious, though. He tilted his head around the door with a perfectly amiable smile and no intention to hide the fact he had fangs. "Wilkommen, fraulein." And then a moment later, lest she not understand the very basic niceties in his language, "You can come in. Odette will be with you shortly." He was already walking away from the door when he added, "Feel free to take a seat or something. And close the door." Now he had played the host and he was going back to being bone-idle.

"Your breakfast is psychic," he informed Odette, trying to get comfortable again. It was a scent he avoided when feeding. He liked keeping his mind intact.

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la_duchesse
2010-09-01 04:08 pm UTC (link)

She smiled when he could not see and rolled away when he started to rise. She walked into her closet to find something appropriate to wear. She didn't even really notice that her sire had not paused to put anything on before exiting the bedroom. She chose what was possibly her most demure dress. While she stood in her closet, she bent down to take a sip of fae-blood from the bottle or two she kept in the mini-fridge (which was banished to the closet because it didn't fit in with the decor of her bedroom).

Returning to her bedroom proper, she rifled around her jewelry box for a pair of earrings to match the necklace she was already wearing and selected something she thought was prudent enough. As Odette put them on, Liev returned and she caught sight of his bare body in the mirror. She swung around, amused but also appalled. "That was my new employee, mon cher," Odette scolded half-heartedly, giving Liev a reproving look as she swooped her hair into an easy bun.

Pinning it in place, she figured that was about all she needed. She hadn't bothered asking for a resume as the girl had said herself that she had no experience. Smoothing down her skirt and checking her reflection one last time, she figured that it wouldn't be appropriate to keep her waiting any longer...especially not after Liev's rather startling welcome. She exited the room without any further bother to her sire and smiled as she saw the girl in her living room.

"Good morning, ma cheri," she greeted in her best easy manner before taking one of the seats across from the couch. "I apologize if the welcome wasn't very professional, my..." she paused. What the hell, the girl would have to know at some point anyway. "...sire is not very fond of getting up in the morning," she told her, smile still on her face. "He tells me you are psychic. What sort?" Not a very conventional interview question but, hey, if she was a clairsentient, she might come in handy for dating some of the materials.

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mindblowing
2010-09-01 10:23 pm UTC (link)

Truly struck dumb by that brief, naked encounter, Layla had just done as she was told. More than a little embarrassed, the colour was high in her cheeks when the took a seat, smoothing her dress out underneath her. She should have chosen something more... professional. She didn't own anything more professional. And maybe she should have tried to find out whether her employer was even human before she set out on this venture. Wait, did it matter? It was a morning job, right? Vampires didn't seem to do mornings, or she wouldn't be here looking for employment.

Oh, Max was so not going to approve of this.

"Oh, good morning!" She dragged her features into a rather more alert smile, though it was still a little nervous. But who didn't get nervous about any kind of job interview? With or without the vampires. "I--um," she faltered over the reference to the naked man with fangs, unsure as to how she was meant to respond to that, though it dissolved rather quickly into a fairly casual shrug, "I honestly don't think I would be either." Especially not if she was answering the door to some kid who had no doubt looked like a deer caught in headlights.

Wait. Pause. Rewind.

"He said... that?" The colour was retreating from her face again. "Because I'm--I mean I'm not psychic--I'm just. Just--" Layla's speech cut off as something somewhere fell over. One of those small, background noises that made you jump when you knew you were on your own. They made her jump even more when she suspected she was the cause. She wasn't. Even if her cell was trying to evacuate her bag. I'm not psychic. "I'm just Layla," was her rather weak answer. One hand pushed the phone back into her bag.

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la_duchesse
2010-09-03 12:15 am UTC (link)

Odette had neither notebook nor pen to take notes down with. Really, all she needed was her own clear mind and for the other girl to not be so jumpy. "Please, I won't bite you," she reassured her with a flash of fangs for her own amusement before settling into her seat. Okay, so perhaps she was aggravating the situation, but it was her house and her interview. As far as Odette was concerned, her rules. She smiled at the little joke the girl cracked. It wasn't in very good taste but Odette let it slide. Taking in her clothes, Odette had nothing bad to say...which was interesting. If everything she owned was well-priced, then why would she need a job?

Odette smiled again. "I do believe your phone would like to disagree with you on that point," she teased, clasping her hands on her lap. "Telekinetic, then, are we? How in control are you of your powers?" Odette asked. The proof was right before her, but she needed to ask the question to be polite. As much as she needed the help, she couldn't be bothered to contend with an employee that broke half of the things in her store. Then again, with another curious sweep over her clothes, she might be able to pay for it. Odette waited patiently for her response, trying not to think of the comfortable bed she could be resting in right now. Or, well, the man in it.

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mindblowing
2010-09-03 12:54 am UTC (link)

Layla gave a sheepish smile, made aware that she probably still looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Bloody hell. The remark about biting really didn't faze her, which probably said a lot. Though really, if she had planned on eating her, she doubted there would have been as many pleasantries involved. Unless that was just how she was, in which case... Well, no, it still wouldn't make sense. She tried not to think her way around that scenario. If she dwelled on it too much she would find a way for it to make perfect sense and then she would just turn into a nervous idiot. Plus, vampire or not, she seemed nice enough. Right?

"A lot of things like doing that," she answered, thoroughly embarrassed. If her face didn't stop changing colour she was going to pass out. She could feel the heat in her cheeks. I'm not psychic, but fine. You showed me yours, I'll show you mine and then we can just never mention it ever again. Ever. Please. She let her phone levitate itself out of her bag. Frowning slightly in concentration, she managed to draw it into her open hand herself -- then had to catch the piece of paper she had let go off. "It's just the small things... When I'm mad or really upset--" Or scared. "--things shake and explode. And the lights go haywire." The nurses hadn't liked that parlour trick any more than she had. But she wasn't psychic. Even if the term 'telekinetic' made her sound less like a freak.

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la_duchesse
2010-09-30 05:44 am UTC (link)

Odette crossed her legs and leaned her elbow on the arm of the chair and tsked. "I would love to hire you, my dear," she said sweetly. "I can't, however, let you be alone in the store unless you can assure me that you won't break a fifty thousand-dollar vase simply because a customer said something not very nice about you." Odette liked how she looked and, again, was willing to hire just about anyone looking for a job. The issue at hand, however, was that while she was not in want of money or had no special attachment to anything in the store, she was still looking to make money off of their sale.

She sat up in her seat and clasped her hands over her stomach. "Can you control your temper enough so that...say, a rotund woman who thinks you're incompetent and is yelling at you at the top of her lungs will not cause anything expensive to explode? I am actually willing to let you have the shop as a place to practice your skills...but not at the expense of a loss of profit to my establishment. A vampire has to eat, you know," Odette smiled again, fangs clicking. "The lights, I am not too concerned with as long as, again, you don't break them." People could be mean and, certainly, Odette had nearly decapitated a customer or two but Layla needed to be able to maintain a relatively level head.

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mindblowing
2010-09-30 04:28 pm UTC (link)

Fifty thousand dollars? She nearly choked on air. "I--I actually can't," Layla managed eventually, letting go of the sense of what-the-fuckery that came with that price. "Well. I mean." She paused, trying to actually word her response to that before voicing the wrong thing and sounding like a completely idiot. "I kinda learned really fast how to walk away before I get angry. And I'm actually really hard to insult? So explosions would be outside the shop if anyone was actually nasty enough to manage pushing buttons I'm... not aware of." Well done, Layla. That still sounded stupid.

"She might make the stationary dance slightly, but someone cranking their volume up to eleven doesn't bother me. And she may think I'm incompetent, but I'm a really fast learner and it will take months for her to lose that weight, if ever." She paused, realising that floating objects may actually make the hypothetical mean lady shut up, but chose not to voice it. She didn't want to scare away customers. And she wasn't usually that nasty about other people, but bitching about them internally was cathartic and every job had its share of morons, right? And did blood really cost that much? Wait, back up. That wasn't something she wanted to dwell on. "I don't think I've ever broken a light..." Her puzzlement over that was most likely visible, but she had to wonder why, for all the crazy strobe effects she had caused in the recent past, she had never actually blown the bulbs. Or the fuse. Huh. "Wait, practice?" Seriously?

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la_duchesse
2010-10-02 09:57 pm UTC (link)

Odette's eyebrow shot up at the admission and she tried not to show any of her frustration. Okay, so this one didn't seem like it was going to work out but there would be other people who would answer the ad, right? Sure. But she was still talking. Odette turned her attention back to the girl, who was assuring her that she knew how to walk away when she was angry. And were more likely to blow something outside the shop up than anything indoors. Odette worried the inside of her lip for a second before shrugging. She was a believer in second chances...even fifteenth ones, given the right person. "Well, if you promise to try, I suppose I can give you the position. It will be a given, however, that anything you break will be taken out of your salary. Though...a payment plan can, of course, be put in place."

Odette wasn't mean. Really. "And, yes, practice," Odette added. "If I'm going to let you continue in my store, I would like to be assured that, at some point, I'm going to stop worrying about whether or not I'd come by and see a crater in the ground." Odette looked at her nails, which were devoid of polish for once. "Whether or not you practice when the store is empty or when there are customers is really of no concern to me. It all depends on whether or not you're ready to publicize your skills. If you're seemingly fine with all that, then we can schedule a date to meet at the store and we can draw up the paperwork, I can show you around and you can start."

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mindblowing
2010-10-02 10:22 pm UTC (link)

"Completely understandable." She nodded, trying not to wince. Payment plans. Jesus. But then if you break it, you buy it. Most places operated like that, right? What am I doing here again? Promising to try. Well, that part was sort of a given since she spent most of her waking hours trying not to move things around. "Um. If it helps, I can only blow up things the size -- er, or density, I guess -- of my phone? But, yes. I will really be trying." She was.

Layla paled at the thought. "I... don't have anywhere near that kind of power." People would actually do that? No, that was just something else she didn't want to be thinking about. She didn't want to think that, at some point, she could possibly do that. It made her feel like a walking timebomb. "Right. I'm more than fine. With that." Funny how suddenly things got more nerve-wrecking when she realised she may be signing up for something that she could actually screw up. And yet the fact her employer would come complete with fangs was not the issue.

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la_duchesse
2010-10-02 11:13 pm UTC (link)

Odette was satisfied with the girl's responses for the moment. She'd have to contact a lawyer and try to see what the necessary paperwork would be. As she hadn't employed anyone in a couple hundred years, the rules must have changed since then. And Odette wasn't about to take any chances whatsoever with the IRS and things like that. She'd have to try and remember what her current alias was. She was certain she had it somewhere in her safe. Or maybe she should just keep everything in...in that woman's name and have her deal with it. Yes, the latter seems far easier as an option. Odette realized this was probably why vampires didn't have legal businesses. And the Light of May has just made it that much more complicated. She nodded at Layla's statement about...something about her phone.

"I'm sure you don't," Odette said with a small smile. She rose. "Well, I suppose your interview is over, Layla. You have the job pending you don't make too many things explode. When is a convenient time for you to meet me at the store? We can get our paperwork and everything in order," Odette asked calmly. Considering she'd already closed down the store, it would be nice to have it back open as soon as possible.

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