I don't exist

[deservesadaisy]

Who: Ivan and Ilde Decima
What: in-person meeting and comparing notes
Where: out and about in the Brock Marsh area
When: Veerdi, early evening
Notes: If anyone feels a burning need to run into Ivan pre-Ilde, feel free, but brace for possible trolling.
Warnings: They are both terrible people.

Since the militia's raid, Ivan has mainly been cautiously exploring his new city. He's not quite sure yet precisely what he intends to do; he'll get bored eventually, he'll need to do something, but in the meanwhile, he's gathering information and blending in without much effort.

He's looking at some of the new inventions in a curiosity shop in Brock Marsh, and though Ilde has never seen his face, she could very well recognize his voice as he asks the shop keeper a question, clipped English with a deceptive hint of Wales and no hint of Russia at all.

Comments

[rhinemaid]

Off the network and without a specifically notable quality to get past the volume issue, Ilde doesn't really hear Ivan; he blends into the muted sounds of the rest of the evening that are rather oddly like trying to listen through water. (And then, conversely, she hears much better when she's submerged. Funny trick of certain fairies.)

She's more easily recognizable, though, familiar illusion in place as she stands slightly off to the side, waiting to buy a modestly sized locking wooden box.

[deservesadaisy]

He finds himself at his shoulder, and smiles a little. Addressing her without preamble, he says, "Something to keep all the young men's hearts in, after you've cut them out?"

Some people say hello.

[rhinemaid]

The long, slow look that Ilde gives Ivan has the air of someone considering whether or not she objects to him and if she does, what course of action she would most like to take. (The impulse to knife everything that irritates her is one that circumstances of have encouraged, let's say.)

...seems familiar, though.

"Do I know you?"

[deservesadaisy]

"Not personally, but we've spoken. I was the, uh, one with the empty room and the Kate Bush tape." He smiles. "And if that doesn't narrow it down, I've really been in the wrong parts of this city."

[rhinemaid]

A pause.

"Oh," at length, "it's you."

Since Ivan is apparently more interested in trolling, she nudges him out of her way with her shoulder to pay and package her box; Sonja's mere existence has significantly lowered any theoretical inherent wariness of vampires.

"Give me a minute," she says, briefly.

[deservesadaisy]

"If you like." Ivan is always interested in trolling, but on the other hand, he's in no terrible rush. He's decided he's not going to purchase anything, so he goes outside to light a cigarette.

[rhinemaid]

As long as Ivan tolerates Ilde's peremptory treatment of him, she'll probably continue to do it; it amuses her and she doesn't see why it shouldn't. Accordingly, when she emerges from the store with her purchase in arm, she holds an unlit cigarette up to him for his lighter. Make yourself useful, sir.

"You're unnecessarily tall in person," she observes, resisting the impulse to consider making him carry her packages only because he probably can't be relied upon not to find it more amusing to walk off with them. Vampires can still move faster than she can.

[deservesadaisy]

He leans down to light her cigarette; frankly, allowing her to be superior amuses him, so at least they're both amused.

"And here I was going to say you didn't appear nearly so tiny over the phone." He lets her set the direction, given that he had no solid plans for the evening.

[rhinemaid]

"I did. You don't pay attention to scale." Her tiny imperiousness temporarily satisfied, she adjusts her grip on the box and starts walking westward; she'd have gone home, probably, if she hadn't run into him. Since she has and she's sufficiently curious to let it draw on, she has no intention of leading him directly to where she lives, and instead has a vague idea of going past the art galleries in Howl Barrow. It's quite a walk, and if they get tired of each other on the way, well, she doesn't lose anything.

"Settled in?"

[deservesadaisy]

He shrugs. "We had a lovely visit from the militia the other evening, but generally things are comfortable enough. I trust you found your friend Boromir sufficiently unmolested after he let me out."

[rhinemaid]

"I said don't bite him," she says, placidly, "it's not my business what else you didn't do." Ilde knows full well what he means.

She watches the smoke trail in the air for a moment, then, "What were the Militia like?"

It's a little inconvenient to try and keep someone's face in view when you're walking side by side on the street, as a sidenote.

[deservesadaisy]

He shrugged. "Full of their own importance, mainly. They were little interested in me when they found out I hadn't arrived in the city until after all your excitement. They harassed a few people quite a bit longer, though."

He thought the whole thing had been a bit of sturm und drang, himself, but then he hadn't seen these creatures for himself.

[rhinemaid]

"Harassed?" she persists, albeit without significantly (or noticeably, really) changing her tone or manner. An impression of the Militia is more interesting to her, in the immediate, than whether or not Boromir had cause to clutch his pearls.

[deservesadaisy]

"Long examinations from which people emerged frustrated," he clarifies. "But they were rather careful to put on a very certain type of show."

It was not a show with which he was unfamiliar.

[rhinemaid]

"Which was?" She isn't even pretending not to be interrogating him about this a little - she's not always very subtle, when she doesn't feel inclined to be - but it doesn't matter. Why shouldn't she be interested in the Militia? They're sort of relevant to anyone living in this godforsaken city. Even Ivan.

[deservesadaisy]

His smile is canny, but he said, "The kind where they're making us feel safe and protected from whatever horrible individuals are behind this unpleasantness. And if they step on a few rights here and there, well." He exhales a jet of smoke. "All John Wayne, cowboys and indians, with this lot."

[rhinemaid]

That sounds more or less like the picture of them she'd formed in her mind, and she frowns, falling quiet for a while as they walk. The Militia didn't prevent their first, distressingly publicized escape attempt; they didn't interfere with them afterwards. On the other hand, it was an isolated incident they were expected to die of - a failed suicide mission. It'll be another story if they're seen to be agitating the populace.

Problematic. Not surprising, but problematic.

"I don't like westerns," she says, abstractly.

[deservesadaisy]

"They do get repetitive. Though The Searchers was quite good, for what it was." Ivan's opinions on film, as with most art, are solid but casual.

"Regardless. They seem confident of their power, but probably not without reason. That's what you were asking, wasn't it?"

[rhinemaid]

"Partly." She was also asking if they seemed corrupt or untrustworthy, which he also helpfully answered for her. ('Yes'. While Ilde has a marked bias, she's also perhaps not wrong, here.)

"Are you staying at the inn?"

[deservesadaisy]

"For the time being." He may move eventually, but he feels no big rush to depart. (And part of him can't help thinking that new arrivals make for easy prey, before anyone knows them.)

"Unless we keep getting exclusive visits from the militia, of course, but I've the sense they keep their eyes fairly far afield as well."

[rhinemaid]

"We didn't stay long. I wouldn't have liked to." It was odd to be in mixed accommodation again, and she didn't care for it, wasn't interested in having men underfoot. The out of the way house in Raven's Gate is quieter, more private, and generally a preferable situation. It's all right, for now, that it's just her and Sonja, and not the rest of the enclave.

[deservesadaisy]

"Still looking for a way out?" He may have taken the time to hear a rumor or two about her, after their first chat.

[rhinemaid]

"Until I find one," she says, peaceably. (She has yet to quite work her way up to actually going into one of the temples, but there's that, too- probably not a rumour, though, unless someone is paying very close attention to the places she walks past most often on her outings.) "You're not?"

[deservesadaisy]

Ivan shrugs, easy. "I move about, generally, so I may eventually. But I've only just arrived, and I can't say I'm in any great rush to leave."

That, and the fact he was fairly certain he couldn't, at least not back to where he came from.

[rhinemaid]

"I guess you can be obnoxious anywhere." Ilde is progressively more inclined to like Ivan, but that doesn't mean she's going to be sweet to him when they have such a nicely established alternative going on.