Nicodemus Castalia (makedeadwalk) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2010-10-02 11:53:00 |
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Entry tags: | 2009-07-28 |
The Wrong Way
Who: Antonin and Nic
Where: Coffee shop
When: morning or night?
Antonin knew that he’d been an idiot the previous night and he had the hangover to prove it. Thank everything that Circe hadn’t actually stayed mad or stalked off on him for the rest of the night or he’d have spent his time playing with vampires. And not in the nice way. But in the way that would have ended up with him somewhere he didn’t really want to be - like the morgue. Even less than there would’ve been home with Zaviar because he didn’t think he was anywhere near up to facing his housemate then. Not after what Zaviar’s words had put him through. And Zaviar’d known what was going to happen. He couldn’t have not. The snake was a little too tricky for his own good and Antonin was going to have to pay better attention to what he was listening to from now on. Before it ruined something.
But right then he was getting himself a large, strong coffee along with some aspirin so that he could get through the long shift that was ahead of him. Hopefully nothing happened because he didn’t want to deal with some pissy vampire out for a meal that night. “Large coffee, black,” he informed the girl behind the counter with a tired smile. “And be a doll, toss in one of those big cookies.”
Working at Heme night after night had Nic’s hours so off that he needed coffee almost every time he woke up. It didn’t matter if it was morning or not; he just needed to get his mind moving at a normal pace. As he stood in line to place his order, he tried to remember last night’s dream. Had Laurent been in it? If so, was it just him or a figment of his imagination? He was always going to wonder about that now. Not one but two vampires could creep into his mind at night and he might not even remember it in the morning. Maybe it was something to worry about, but at least Laurent and Saoirse were both friend-ish. They hadn’t spent tons of time together, but they hadn’t gotten in a fight with him either. That was certainly better than his run in with Liliya or Whisper. Sure, those were both is fault, but messing with their minds had seemed a good option at the time, or at least an amusing one.
Accepting his cookie and taking a bite, Antonin leaned against the counter while he waited for his coffee and let his thoughts roam. For most people that meant thinking about things that they’d done or planned on doing (and yeah he had plenty of things in there to go over) but for Antonin that meant he was perusing the thoughts of his fellow clientele to see if any of them had done anything interesting lately. Shoes, dead cat, too much sugar in her coffee... wait, vampires? Antonin’s eyes widened a little and he turned towards where he could hear those thoughts stemming from, accepting his coffee with a nod. Looked like a regular guy (but then so did he) but those weren’t normal thoughts at all. Oh right, they said there was another necromancer in town, but he quit. Former police officer necromancer, well now wasn’t that just a pretty package? Normal people might not have an idea how to go about this sort of thing, but Antonin? Didn’t have a normal way of doing anything. “I’ve met a lot of people, but I don’t think I’ve ever come across one of us who actually goes around befriending vampires. Almost seems like a dog making best mates with a cat.”
Nic heard the man speak, but didn’t immediately realize he was being spoken to. The comment had come out of the blue, after all, and Nic assumed it was directed at someone with whom the man had been speaking. But then the words sunk in and Nic stared back. “Excuse me?” He understood what was being said, of course, but not how it had come about. “One of us?” What? A human? A supernatural? If the man was a telepath-- which he had to be-- then Nic wasn’t totally sure what they had in common. They could both read minds, sure, but Nic could only read the minds of vampires, and this man could clearly read his. A telepath befriending a vampire didn’t seem any different than any other human, and maybe the man just assumed he was a vampire telepath and-- Oh, shit! My mind needs an off switch!
What was he, slow? Though his mind was firing off possibilities so rapidly that Antonin didn’t think he could actually be slow, he just seemed to deliberately be going out of his way to think of all the other options. Except the obvious one. Antonin rolled his eyes and took a drink. “Yeah, your mind really does, or at least a ‘pick the obvious answer instead of every other bloody one’ button.” Chuckling to himself he shook his head. “You were a police officer who specialized in vampires, now I heard about you when I first came in. I’m like you, just add in the telepathy. Get it now?”
Having never had his own brain picked, Nic now understood why vampires despised this talent. It instantly put him on guard and made him want to get as far away from the man as possible. While he might only be able to pick up thoughts as Nic thought them, Nic didn’t know how to control what might or might not pop into his head at any moment. “Got it,” Nic said, deciding he no longer needed a cup of coffee. “Have a nice day,” he added, turning on his heel and heading for the door. The man already knew too much about him, for whatever reason, and Nic wasn’t willing to give him any more.
Aw look at that, the other little necromancer didn’t like having his brain picked. Antonin wasn’t surprised, not many people did, but he’d expected a little more grace out of one of his own. If you went around reading people’s brains then you couldn’t really afford to freak out when they played in yours too. At least that was his logic. “Oh get over yourself,” Antonin remarked with a roll of his eyes, stepping after the guy. He was hungover and able to be social, why couldn’t he be? Didn’t seem like he had anything else going on in his head. “Don’t really find many of us in the world so why don’t you just breathe, build a bridge and get over it because I’m tired of being the only one.”
“Stay out of my head and maybe we can talk,” Nic said, turning on his heal to face the guy. “I don’t want my mind picked, and if that’s what you’re about then I don’t care what we have in common.” There were just too many things that he wanted to keep to himself and, knowing the control they had over reading vampire’s minds, Nic figured this guy could do the same with humans. He’d heard of telepaths who couldn’t help listening, who didn’t know how to stop the voices, but Nic was going to make the assumption that this guy had progressed beyond that. Even if he was told differently, he wasn’t sure he’d believe it.
Awww, that took all the fun out of it. And Antonin never stayed out of heads anyway. That was boring. The only person whose mind he actively attempted to stay away from was Circe’s and that was because she wanted him to and he loved her and that was enough of a reason. Zaviar’s he skimmed over because, well, it was Zaviar and there wasn’t anything on the surface to hear anyway. Normal people? Hell no. “Fine,” Antonin said, realizing that this was someone who just didn’t want to be listened in on. So many telepathic people were like that. Antonin? Didn’t care. Pick through his mind and he’d offer popcorn to go with it. “Take a bloody chill pill. You Americans can be so uptight about your privacy. I’m Antonin and like I said, I’ve heard about you at the station.”
“Joy,” Nic said, the sarcasm so thick it was practically dripping. “I’m Nic, and I take it you’ve filled my position.” That was just peachy. While he knew the Scarlet Oak police could use a necromancer on their team, Nic didn’t have to be thrilled that someone else could so easily fill his place. Then again, there weren’t a lot of necromancers running around, so it was possible they’d sent in a request for one. They sure as hell needed it around here, with all the vampire nonsense they had going on. He had his ears open and, while he’d heard a great amount of gossip, he knew no more about who’d been on a blood rampage in Scarlet Oak than most of the vampire did. What he did know was that they were just as eager to stop them as everyone else. “Can I help you with something?”
Antonin said he wouldn’t listen, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to. There were always interesting facts to pluck out of people’s minds during a general conversation. Besides, this guy was like his predecessor and anything he’d get from him was good. Plus he didn’t want to stumble across whatever had caused this guy to leave. “Like I said, I wanted to say hi and see what was up with people in this town. Blokes like me aren’t common at all; I’ve known maybe one, so it makes sense that when I find one I want to have a chat. Provided you remove the stick from your arse and stop acting like you’re some sort better.” He was pretty sure he was older than him for that matter. “Come back and have your coffee.”
If this was the method that Antonin used to win someone’s favor, then Nic wasn’t impressed. All it did was make him more agitated, ready to bolt at the first open window of opportunity. “Don’t tell me how to behave,” Nic said, unwilling to budge. “I never implied I was better than anyone. I just find it amazing that you think being an ass is going to make me want to sit and talk to you. No, thank you. The coffee’s not that good.” They might not be common, but necromancy ran in Nic’s family; he knew everything he thought he needed to know. If not, he could always ask the other necromancer in town who hated him. As nice as it might have been for at least one of them to get along with him, this guy was hopeless.
Truth be told, Antonin cared sod all for what Nic thought about him. It was kinda funny that he called him an ass though. He wasn’t even trying to be unpleasant. “So.. you’re five-years-old then,” Antonin remarked with a laugh. Infuriating another necromancer was something he hadn’t ever done so maybe he could mark it off the check-list when he got home. Really though he hadn’t come across many adults who went all stiff and stubborn just when they didn’t like something. It wasn’t like he was telling Nic to do something bad, just trying to get him into a conversation. Listening to his thoughts while he was upset was nearly as good though. And he didn’t try to win anyone’s favor unless that someone was valuable to Zaviar, Zaviar himself or - of course - Circe. “Really mate, you need to stop being uptight. You ever decide to do that maybe we can have a merry little chat. ‘Til then.” Still grinning, unaffected like he nearly always was, Antonin tipped his head and headed back into the shop himself. He was going to enjoy his coffee.