ΗΑΔΕΣ (underworldly) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-06-02 08:48:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, hades, nico robin |
Who: Robin & her new BFF the Lord of the Dead
What: Browsing for potential props and finding treasures
When: Last week probably~
Where: Remember Yesterday
Rating/Warnings: Pretty much on the low side
Status: Complete
Hades hadn’t been kidding before - historical accuracy was important when filming a nugget of celluloid significance, but you also had to tow a fine line with what you were making; it was either a documentary or it was for entertainment, and Inferno was the latter. He, as the director, couldn’t compromise the drama or storyline for the itty bitty details - but he also wanted things to be accurate so that even those who tended to be more savvy about snapshots in time wouldn’t roll their eyes and dismiss the merits of the film. The general audience too, they had to believe that these events had once taken place and the story was unfolding like they were really there. It was why he’d employed historical consultants, had them on set when it came to the courtroom scenes especially because they provided insight and guide about everything - where the jurors sat, the clerks and lawyers, the judge. He hadn’t known that mirrors were important when it came to showing the reflections of the faces of those being questioned, but apparently it was - the gas lighting of the room too, in that time, also had to be accurate. Sometimes, it was the little details that really made the whole picture. Though he also had to admit, he was curious about what could be found at an antique shop. Obtaining props and keeping up with them was the prop master’s job (then those props were usually auctioned off elsewhere once the film was wrapped), but since Hades liked to be involved with every facet of the films he directed, he wouldn’t mind taking a peek at potentials and making a few mental notes. To pass along for later. He was also fucking exhausted, but when was he not these days? Granted, he liked to think he covered it well with the extra shots of espresso in his coffee, and drops to make him look less bleary-eyed. At least he hadn’t turned to snorting cocaine like others in those elite Hollywood circles. It had been a long day, but he was here. At the address given to him, suit and tie and on his sixth cup of joe - the biodegradable container was chucked into the trash outside and then he had two hands free as he opened the door. Most of the shops around Remember Yesterday had closed for the evening or were in the process of closing. However, the antique store was to remain open for at least another two hours to allow Robin a little time to do what it is she loved, as well as catch up on inventory and what had been sold during the day while she had been home. Being without her shadow and being unable to go out while the sun was up had taught Robin that she wasn’t much for day sleeping. She felt as though she were missing out on the world if she snoozed during the day and being awake at night made her feel extremely lonely, as if she were the last person left on Earth. So, she had decided to split the difference. That had worked well enough, although, it wasn’t a lifestyle Robin particularly wanted to continue once she figured out how to get her shadow out of the little doll. She hoped that her store’s weird hours weren’t becoming too expected among her clients. The tinkling of little bells over the store’s front door caught her attention and drew it towards the front. She put on a warm welcoming smile, as she did for all her customers, new and old and stepped from the shelf she was straightening to greet her visitor. “Good evening,” she said, her voice low and flowed like satin. She had just the slightest hint of an accent, as if she had grown up speaking English in non-English speaking countries. “Is there anything I can help you with?” Robin had found that those who arrived at her shop at this hour were usually looking for something specific - legal or otherwise, as was part of her trade now - and were not there to simply window shop. Whoa, hey there. If being the wacky dream forum’s official antique guru didn’t work out, she could always be a phone sex operator - nice voice, it was pleasant. Gave the ears a tingle. “You’re Robin?” Hades asked, though clearly she must have been - still, he wanted to check to be sure. Purely out of politeness. “We spoke on Valarnet, I’m Hades.” And yes, he was aware that it was a pretty unusual name but his mother and father didn’t seem to care that they’d set him up for questioning stares, wide eyes, and fears about his penchant for summoning the undead (hint: he didn’t really do that, and only ate souls for breakfast sometimes). “Nice place,” he added, taking a glance around - it seemed like a lot to sift through, he could see how someone could get lost for hours. “Your best witchcraft-related antiques though. Show me what you’ve got.” This new comer in her shop was handsome, Robin was quick to pick up on that, and quite professional looking in his suit and tie, particularly at this hour. Interesting. She raised a finely manicured brow in his direction and gave a small bow in greeting. “That’s right, I’m Robin Nico.” When the man said his name was Hades, her smile broadened from one of professional courtesy reserved for off-the-street customers to something far more friendly. How could she forget such a unique name? “Ah, Hades. It’s a pleasure to meet you in person.” She took a few fluid steps towards him, holding out her hand in a pleasant handshake. “I’m glad you decided to come by.” Hades, of course, wasted no time in getting directly to the point of his visit. Robin could admire a soul who knew exactly what they wanted. It made business so much easier. She was proud of her shop. Its recent expansion to incorporate the business she had recently inherited from Isabela had allowed her to bring more inventory from her store room out into the front. She had aisles with shelves full of unique treasures for anyone to lose themselves among. She turned towards one of the aisle and tapped a slender finger against her chin. “Let me think,” she mused as she went through a mental inventory of what she had. “Oh! Come this way.” He shook her hand, a pleasantly firm grip (wimpy ones tended to set the tone for all future interactions - and one thing Hades did not have was a wimpy handshake), and returned the smile despite the fatigue from the long day which he felt in his bones. It was worth it though, entirely worth everything. “Pleasure to meet you too, Robin. And I’m glad I decided to stop in.” Even if he didn’t find anything, it was still a fun place to wander - who didn’t like sifting through all sorts of treasures? Idly, he had to wonder where she found everything, because there was a lot. Maybe she had contacts. A whole network of antique treasure hunters - she seemed to know her shit, so that wouldn’t have surprised him. “I place myself in your capable hands,” he told Robin as he followed. “Just curious though, what made you want to go into the antique business anyway?” Funnily enough, he really was curious - Hades could small talk with the best of them, but at this late in the day, fuck it. So his interest wasn’t manufactured. Robin smiled pleasantly as she led Hades through the aisles of shelves. At Hades’s question, she glanced over her shoulder at him. This was a familiar question and one she had answered numerous times since she had taken over the shop. Usually those who asked were simply making idle, if curious, conversation. However, Hades genuinely seemed interested to know the answer. It was a shame she didn’t have more of an interesting story to tell him. “I came about it by accident, I suppose you could say,” she told him with a simple, but elegant shrug of her slim shoulders. “A friend of my mother’s loved this place,” she said. “My mother and I moved to Laguna Beach when I was in high school. She is archaeologist and anthropologist and when I was younger, she used to take me with her to dig sites or when she went abroad to conduct studies. However, when I reached high school age, I suppose she thought it would be better for me if we set down some sort of roots.” Robin chuckled. “Not that settling was something Mother was ever truly capable of doing. She still travelled a lot and when she was away a retired colleague of hers came to stay with me. He used to take me to a little antique shop after school. I’ve always loved history and he would regale me with all kinds of stories about the items we would find. In fact, I’m sure it was those stories of his that prompted me to major in history when I attended University. At any rate, after I graduated I went abroad for a few years, travelled a bit with my mother again. However, I suppose I just wanted to come back to Laguna Beach. It was really the only home I knew of, and Mother needed someone here to look after her house and affairs. It was then that I rediscovered this shop.” She smiled wistfully. “My mother’s old colleague had passed away a few years ago. He had been the closest thing to a father figure I had growing up and I missed him greatly. But when I was here it was as though I were with him again. I learned that the old owner had passed away as well the previous year and the shop had been left to his son. The son lived in Las Vegas, owned his own business…trucking, I think? Anyway, he didn’t have the time or the desire to run his father’s old antique store and was going to close it up. Well, that broke my heart, so I offered to run it for him. Over time, I had enough money to buy it, and I did. This isn’t the original location, I’m afraid.” She made a gesture to indicate the size of the store. “I’ve done a little expanding, incorporated an antique and rare book dealership as well, and just recently moved to a new location. I’ve done considerably well and I think my mother’s late colleague would approve.” She stopped walking and turned to face Hades, her hands behind her back, head slightly tilted and smiled. “I’m sorry, that isn’t terribly interesting, is it?” she said. She had left all the “interesting” parts of the story out. She wasn’t about to divulge her pirate like nature to just anyone who came in off the street, no matter how handsome or interesting he may have seemed. “Here we are,” she swept her hand along a shelf stack near the far left of her store, closest to the store room. Among the shelves were all manner of items, each of them at least a little odd looking. Some were spheres of glass and crystals imbedded in rough looking stones, or kept within small wire cages on long bits of chain. Since Robin had done a bit of research when she had looked into acquiring stones for Zelda on Jonathan’s request, she had decided to incorporate such items into her regular inventory when she could. Other items were decidedly more creepy, such as a shrunken head kept within a glass belljar and a chicken foot with an extra toe kept in a jar of formaldehyde. “Not everything here is related to witchcraft, of course,” Robin said, “But they all have been authenticated as being from the mid to late 1800’s. I’m sure you have been told by your advisors that mysticism played a large role in the culture of the time period. They were absolutely fascinated by it. With the Industrial Revolution shaping and changing the landscape of what would become modern society, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the counterculture of the time would embrace the strange and macabre. In a way, that hasn’t changed. Please, feel free to look around as much as you like and let me know if you should have any questions.” That was a long story, but he didn’t mind listening to her talk. It was enjoyable, on the contrary. Maybe Robin had been a bard in another life - Hades would have never guessed pirate, but looks were deceiving. He liked being surprised every now and then. “No, it’s actually very interesting,” he assured, rubbing his hands together in quiet glee upon seeing all these trinkets. “Your roots, I mean. Got the traveling bug though, huh? Amazing that you decided to settle here. But it sounds like everything fell into place as it was meant to - if you believe in Fate and all of that.” The chicken foot was capturing his interest most of all; maybe it was about tied with the shrunken head. Because what even. “My prop master would have a field day with all this,” he chuckled, a grin that flashed the stark white of his teeth flickering on his face. “You’re sure you’ve never done any historical consulting? Because you’d be great at it.” He’d be keeping her in mind for certain. She stuck out, certainly not in a bad way. Robin chuckled a little, quite flattered. Her story didn’t seem all that interesting to her, then again, she wasn’t a famous movie director. Hades probably could see the interest in the most mundane of things. That was, after all, his job, wasn’t it? She stepped out of the way so Hades could browse the shelves to his heart’s content. She was pleased at his enthusiasm and happiness as he looked over the inventory. She didn’t want to distract him, but it would be rude to not continue their conversation. “Fate?” She repeated thoughtfully. “Yes, I suppose I believe in fate. I suppose you could say it has played a large part in my life lately, especially with the shope and...other things. Everything does seem to work out in the end for whatever reason. Even if we do not always seem to know what that reason is or like it. But, at the same time, I still feel as though we have a bit of autonomy when it comes to what we do with ourselves, how we react to the things we discover and how or what we learn from our experiences.” She chuckled again, a mirthful sort of noise that originated from deep within her. Robin was the sort who enjoyed laughter. “Oh, make no mistake. I still do quite a bit of traveling. Perhaps not to far flung places as I used to, but all over the region. These treasures don’t find themselves.” She patted the jar containing the shrunken head. “and i have clients who occasionally have special requests that require me to go even further, although, it has been some time since I’ve received anything of a challenge.” She blinked and then made a wave of her hand. “Oh, yes, I’m perfectly sure I’ve not done any consulting work. At least not the type you’re thinking of, but thank you very much.” None at all? Huh! Hades just found it hard to believe - but maybe Robin’s passion for history and culture shone through with most everything she did, including manning her shop. “Yeah, that’s true, I can imagine that you have to track down a lot of these beauties,” he nodded. Like, legit, that was a cauldron. Or, well, an iron pot that looked like a cauldron - he studied it carefully, dark eyes, the shade of a gargoyle, flicking up to assess what else was around there. A silver-plated chalice, mortar and pestle, pewter bowls. All of this was amazing; he’d be sending someone back to pick up a few things for re-shoots, probably. But because Robin had mentioned books, something else triggered in his thoughts just then. “Do you have any...uh...let’s see - “ How to describe this? He wasn’t even sure, but if it would help Hazel then he’d try. “I think they call it Geokinesis? Books on that. Like having that kind of...relationship with the Earth, or something.” A seemingly random question, and he wasn’t expecting a whole library’s worth, but maybe there was a rare gem or two (pun intended). She wasn’t sure what earth manipulation had to do with his movie, but she wasn’t one to question his methods or train of thought. Robin tapped her chin thoughtfully, her head tilted a little to the left in forward as she ran through another mental inventory. Book dealing was still new to her, and she hadn’t quite mastered that inventory as she had with her antiques. “I’m not really sure,” she said after a moment. “I will have to go and see what I have in stock. If not I can probably look elsewhere for you. As I mentioned before I do take on special requests.” There may have been something in the shelves of the book section, tucked away with the other books on obscure magic and mystical research. Robin tapped her chin again before turning her attention back to her customer. “If you would like to remain here and look around, I will check to see what I have.” Pause. “Are you looking for a study on the subject or a manual?” Uh. Well, that was a good question, wasn’t it? “Anything, really. A manual might be nice, but I wasn’t expecting any how-to’s, that’d be far too easy, right?” Hades rubbed his jaw, half contemplation, half anxious gesture. Megara probably knew the most about him yet he had never really truly let his guard down for anyone - not even his own ex-wife, nope, there was always something preventing her from fully reaching him. And that was his own fault, he knew that. But his kids were a different matter entirely - maybe he was a shit husband, but no way would he become a shit father. First, he distracted himself with firing off a text message to his prop master, telling him the address and to come in and pick up a few things. “There we go, expect a guy named Ed to come by tomorrow - he’s basically gonna clean out your witchcraft supply here, but as for the other thing. My daughter - “ he started, muscles tensing just a little, teeth grinding. The words that came from between them, he had to force them out. But it was for Hazel’s sake, he just needed to remember that. “She has those...dreams. And I guess she got some kinda magic from them, that has to do with the earth and the things within. I thought maybe if there was anything mystical she could read, theory or something, it might help her.” Otherwise, he didn’t really know how - it bothered him, to be faced with a problem that he couldn’t fix like a dad should be able to do (it wasn’t scraped knees, or memorizing the state capitals for school). Robin seemed nice though. Understanding. He probably didn’t need to be tense. “I don’t mind waiting though, if you wanted to check.” Robin’s chin tilted forward a little. Ahh, Dreams. Well that certainly explained quite a bit, didn’t it? Hades was on the network, it was only a matter of time before he started Dreaming himself. Robin supposed that would be enough of a surprise. Being the only one she knew of who dreamt of her world of pirates and ships and her only family being her mother, she could only imagine the type of anxiety Hades must have felt concerning his daughter. Robin’s smile changed again to one of understanding and kindness. “Magic and special abilities aren’t uncommon for those of us who dream of worlds other than this one,” she explained gently hoping to calm his clearly sharp nerves. “There are quite a few of us on the network, in fact. Any one of us would be willing to assist by either helping your daughter learn about her new ability, or simply as support. I don’t recall offhand if anyone has an Earth bending ability, but there are a number of magic users who might be able to lend a hand if you ask.” The corners of her eyes crinkled slightly, “we’re all in this together, Hades. It’s important to lend a hand whenever possible. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll see if I can find you a book or two on the subject.” She turned to head towards her book section, paused and looked back. “Would you like anything to drink? I have a pot of hot water on in the back. I could get you some tea or coffee if you would like.” Something comforting to get that very sever look off his face. He wasn’t expecting the offer of something to drink, but it did sound good. Hades also probably needed to drink less coffee, so... “Tea, tea would be fantastic, actually,” he said, and it didn’t matter to him what kind. Not like he knew the differences between them anyway. Hazel also wasn’t much of a reader in her spare time, but maybe if the text was something related to her newfound abilities she’d be more open to the idea. It might help, to have some kind of a book as a guide while she practiced. “I’m sort of new to the idea of magic users even being a thing at all,” he admitted, smoothing his tie down, beginning to wander the aisles a little in order to see what else was around; he just wasn’t very good at standing still either. The shop was small enough though, need to shout to be heard, so he kept talking. “But we’re all in this together...yeah, that’s a cute sentiment. You always this optimistic?” “Tea then. I’ll be right back.” Robin nodded and disappeared around the corner of the aisle. She made her way towards the book section, which was actually an entire other store connected to the antique shop by way of small doorway. It wasn’t a very large space, all things considered, but Bela’s business had required her to literally expand. The front doors to the annex were closed and locked, leaving only one way in and out for customers. Robin found she could keep better track of who entered and who left. As for the rest of security, well, considering she could literally have eyes anywhere she wanted, she didn’t see much cause for concern. It took her a moment or two of looking over book spines before she found something that might fill Hades’s request: Raising the Ground: A study on Earthbending and How to Shape the World around You Robin carefully flipped through the pages to be sure the book was sincere and not written as a hoax. Satisfied that its contents would help and not hinder the young geokenetic, Robin tucked the book under her arm and ducked into her office to pour some tea for the two of them. She returned to Hades a few moments later and offered him a cup of jasmine tea. “You don’t believe in sentiment, I take it,” she said, still with that constant smile, although it seemed more amused now than before. “And perhaps that’s all it is, but it’s a comforting one and one I try to adhere to. As for my optimism, I suppose you could call me an optimist if you wanted. I have had my share of strife. Some have come directly from the Dreams while some has not. Life is difficult, Hades, and it is difficult for everyone in some way. We can either allow ourselves to be bogged and beaten down by it, or we can fight to rise above. Survive. It isn’t easy and for some it is a constant struggle, I do not pretend otherwise. However, I have found that for myself it is better to do the latter, otherwise I may as well quit this life now and be done with it.” With that said, she produced the book from under her arm and presented it to her customer. “It’s a newer title,” She said, “Written within the last ten years. I looked through it quickly and it seems to be a legitimate study as well as a guide to those willing to take on the practice themselves. Your daughter may find the primer section redundant as she already has the power, but the study and techniques discussed may be of some use.” She let him take the book from her to look through himself. “Now then, when can I expect this Ed to stop by and does he have a last name? Also, will he be providing his own means of delivery of these items to you or do I need to arrange a delivery?” The scent of jasmine was a powerful one - sweet fruitiness, yet beneath the creamy notes there was something more animalistic about it. Something dirtier. It was dark, kind of soporific - he just hoped he didn’t pass out in this store, given how tired he was, but a cup of hot tea tended to bring about those sleepytime effects anyway. A good way to wind down after a day that felt endless. “This is great, thank you so much,” he said sincerely, kind of surprised (it took a lot to surprise a jaded fucker such as he, mind you) as he took the book in his free hand, and turned it over to read the back of it. “You’re a gem yourself, Robin, with those nuggets of wisdom.” Honestly, a cup of this tea and her reading a to-go menu aloud or something - he’d be out like a light. Zzzzzzz. “As for Ed, he’ll bring the prop truck, so no need to worry about setting up a delivery. Just put everything in there and we’ll be good. I told him to come by tomorrow around this time, because of the later hours thing,” he continued, sipping from the teacup. “And I appreciate all the help. Anything I can do in return, you’ll let me know?” He had all sorts of connections, of all types - even if it was a favor for later, he’d do his best to make it happen. Robin had never been one for tea, but she had always kept some on hand for when Leon paid her a visit. She had done a bit of research on the various kinds and in doing so maybe had developed a bit of a taste for it herself. Coffee was still her drink of choice, but she could certainly understand why tea was the second most popular drink in the world. Jasmine was one of her favorites as of late and seemed suited for her. “It was my pleasure,” she said with a nod of her head and a slight bow in her posture. She could not think of anything offhand that Hades would be able to do for her, now or in the future, but there may come a time in which she would need to call on his area of expertise or make use of his many contacts. One never knew about these kinds of things. “I will, thank you, she said. “If you would like, please, let me know if there is anything further you need of me, either any more props, or just someone to speak to, you know where to find me.” |