The Time Traveller

[Trillian]

THE VAMPIRE WAS knee deep in the dumpster, though it wasn\'t full of rubbish in the traditional sense.  Its past life had been as a donation bin where those who had old furniture or goods they no longer needed would throw them away on the off-chance someone might want what they no longer did.  They weren\'t things that anybody would pay for - such as one red stiletto, a dog lead without the end clip, a stovetop with missing elements - but Rich could find a use for many things that seemed their use had ended.  Especially electrical appliances, which he could take apart and redefine their pieces into a new existence for some other kind of component.

Tonight, however, he\'d found a great treasure lying half-buried beneath a mound of clothes whose stitching had been stretched so that they weren\'t quite falling apart but threatened to.  After digging out his prize he set it down upon the alley floor and stared at it for a long moment, a musing smile fixed upon his lips like it had been glued in place.

"You are my Venus, my ageless companion like the time traveller from H.G. Wells."  When he spoke, he rolled his R\'s slightly, letting them slide off his tongue in an accent ill-defined.  "Yes, a time traveller, just like me."  Speaking to his prize didn\'t seem so strange, considering it had a head, body and a face.  No hair and sexless, though her gender was apparent by the bodyshape the mannequin had been crafted into.  A seam of manufacture met at the sides of her torso, joinery lines at her head and limbs, reminding him that she could be modelled in any way he pleased.  A puppet of fancy.  "A silent observer."

He pulled out a cigarette and lit it, cupping the flame with a hand and as the light seared a dancing path before his eyes, it drew his attention to the mouth of the alley where there was someone standing.  Another silent observer, it appeared.  He wondered how long the other had stood there, if they had heard him talk to his new discovery, and what they were thinking about this well-dressed young man standing knee deep in a dumpster talking to a naked, hairless mannequin.

"Want to join me for a smoke?" he offered, before they could steal themselves away.

[moongazer]

Thessar stopped and stared as he blew the bluish vapor out of his mouth before stopping to muse about the question of a smoke, one which most people wouldn\'t ask as he walked closer before stopping and answering. "No thanks, I\'ve got my own" he said with a grin as he blew upwards to let the blue vapor trail again before taking his thumbs out of his pockets to reveal empty hands at the very most with some recent scars. He stopped to think as the large back-pack and the curled up rug along with the hilt of the sword and the white shadow all appeared out of place to him he would think, IF he were looking through the strangers eyes. He wouldn\'t say anything though as he calmly looked down at the mannequin and then back at it\'s finder before giving a warm, toothless smile as some vapor escaped his lips as he pursed them to form an O and blow it out. "So I\'m guessing dumpster diving is tonight\'s activity?" he asked calmly as he stood there before bothering to say anything else.


He wasn\'t sure how this fellow would take his intrusion as he smiled and said, "sorry but I couldn\'t help over-hearing your talking out loud as I was taking a walk, you see . . .the back-alley\'s leave something to be desired, . . perhaps it\'s the silence which allows you to do many things by yourself, with your echo giving you company" he said with a bemused smile as he leaned against the wall.

[Trillian]

Mentally, Rich rolled his eyes as the other fellow refused the offer to join him with an answer that didn\'t exactly match up.  Obviously this man was like most everybody else in this strange little city - hearing but not listening, talking but not caring what came out of his mouth.  He hadn\'t offered a cigarette, he\'d offered to be joined while smoking one.  Immediately Rich would\'ve lost interest in him, except for the oddball items that were being carried upon the intruder\'s back.

The next thing out of the other\'s mouth was just as bad as the first sentence, a declaration of the screamingly obvious.  Yes, yes of course dumpster diving was tonight\'s activity, absolute genious, what on earth had given Rich away?  Could it be that he was standing knee-deep in a dumpster?  He wasn\'t exactly dressed for it, in black suit pants and a black long sleeved shirt open at the collar, but then, this activity hadn\'t exactly been planned for tonight.  He\'d been meaning to go to the local nightclub and behold, he\'d found this particular bin, filled with items that his nose had detected were not household garbage (or any other kind of perishable refuse) and so he\'d jumped in to see if he could gain some item of interest.

He smiled at the other man with a practiced and easy genuine smile to hide the contempt within his mind.  He climbed out of the dumpster and was about to make a remark that would separate him from this boring fool when finally something interesting came out of his mouth about the silence of echoes in alleyways.

Rich looked his way for a long time, giving the words the pause that they deserved, noticing the stranger\'s artificially blue eyes (detected by the unnatural ring around the iris) and wondering how comfortable it would be to lean upon the backpack with those things within it.

"Sounds like you know the alleys better than I do," Rich said, standing beside his mannequin and placing a familiar hand around its back and upon its hip.  The words were an open invitation to discuss at more length, but Rich wasn\'t going to chase conversation with this fellow too hard.  The other\'s first impression hadn\'t carried well, so the rest of his conversation would have to be pretty meaningful.

[moongazer]

"Sounds like I do, but it doesn\'t at the same time, to me. I know the alleys, but not as much as I understand the thoughts that lie here." He smiled as he stepped back a little cautious of this man, lightly putting down his back-pack as he took out the short sword, and putting the tip on the ground he started to strum his fingers across the sword, as a music came out but no strings were apparent, as he opened his mouth but the words became distorted but instead turned into light musical notes, stringing together to form lines of music which played themselves. He stopped talking as he looked up and said: "it\'s all the sword, not me, it allows me to sense sound waves so I can hear all voices within such an area as these alleys or within a certain range. "He sat where he was as his fingers continued to strum across the sword, creating music as he sat.
((The music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K6LBs3fZ4k))


"Do you see with your eyes or ears on this occasion, and which do you trust?" he asked the man with a dry expression on his face, no smile present. His face was as hollow on the inside as it was on the outside, the man was obviously disturbed by something as his voice indicated from a slight waver earlier which his sword detected, but he decided to ignore that as all his thoughts flooded together to cohesively continue the music to the tune. "If you had your own world, what would you fill it with?"

[Trillian]

Rich wasn\'t the type to frown, but as this scenario played out, he frowned deeply.  The fellow with the musical sword was just a little bit too weird for him.  Rich wasn\'t really interested in musical swords or anything supernatural beyond his comprehension.  He wasn\'t exactly the type of person to bathe in ignorance, but he\'d been around the world enough times to recognised what should and shouldn\'t be messed around with.  The sword looked harmless enough but he didn\'t understand the full truth behind it besides whatever this stranger thought to tell him.  Trusting a stranger wasn\'t exactly one of Rich\'s characteristics.  Being asked about what he trusted was a little too deep and personal for him to pursue further conversation as well.

"I\'ve never met anyone that sees with their ears," he said blithely, but took a firmer hold around the mannequin\'s waist in order to pick the female form up.  Shifting it so that it was at an angle sitting balanced on his hip, Rich turned to walk out of the alley and leave the oddball stranger behind.


* * * * *

EIGHT minutes later Rich was at the bus stop, arranging his mannequin partner so that she was perched upon the seat.  She was a model that had a few clicks of bend at the knees but nothing that could seat itself too nonchalently.  A ball and socket joint was found where her arms attached to her shoulders, giving her an ability to move her arms around in a fashion that Rich could entice the impression of panic (with hands wildly flailing in picture perfect freeze frame above her bald head) or sedateness, hands positioned upon her lap as though protecting her modesty.  It was the latter position Rich finally opted for, though the alarmed body language had amused him for quite a long moment.

He\'d finished his cigarette a long time ago and had another in his shirt pocket, but it wasn\'t something he would smoke so soon after the first.  He liked catching the bus, there were always a variety people to watch - if not at the bus-stop, then on the bus itself - and Rich was an avid people watcher.  Humans, mostly, though his own kind offered him hours of amusement as well.

[skeggsismad]

After watching the vampire\'s behavior with the mannequin Jared couldn\'t help but twitch a smile. Whether this creature just had an odd sense of humor or if he was another one of those \'Disturbed\' personality types that the Oligarchy so frequently warned about, Jared felt the air tingling with excitement.  Why not stir up some activity while waiting for the bus? The demon hadn\'t exactly been planning on taking the bus, but if things went well and his newfound subject of interest decided to depart he might consider it. Jared felt satisfied with having the upper hand; his presence was apparently undetected, and that left him time to figure out how to make his big theatrical entrance.

After mulling over it a while, his mind settled on one and he began to weave in and out of the shadows being silent as a post, eventually materializing behind the bench. For the benefit of any humans that might decide to venture near he morphed into the appropriate human form, despite his hatred for the disguise. The vampire might have still been unaware of his presence, but it wasn\'t for long. One of the demon\'s hands ran through the creature\'s hair briefly, attempting to push as many buttons as he could manage. Wasn\'t it vampires that didn\'t like to be caught off guard? Though most species didn\'t like to have someone sneak up on them, Vampires seemed a bit melodramatic about it.

 "I think you should name her Vicky. It\'s her lips- they give her this look..." Jared spoke with a deliberate tone that was smooth and unhurried, dragging his sentence on as if he were giving a lecture. The scoundrel inhaled deeply as he smelled a light nicotine fragrance hanging on the stranger\'s black clothes. Maybe later he\'d take a few cigarettes, all depending on how well things flowed.

"She has beautiful lips, but sitting next to you detracts from her beauty. Yours are much more alluring, but perhaps that\'s because your lips aren\'t synthetic."

He tried to remain serious through it all, but at the end he let out a low rumbling chuckle.  What an ordeal it had been for him to stifle his laughter for so long! What luck had he gained to stumble upon such a fruitcake? Jared didn\'t bother to explain his laughter to the vampire as he dawdled in place, expecting some response. If this loon was going to sit at a bus stop with a nude figurine, it made perfect sense that he expect his actions to draw attention.

[Trillian]

Attention mattered to Rich.  Ah, but to travel through the ages without having some sort of social interaction.  What point was there living forever if he was going to do nothing except be a shadow?  Impact was what it was about.  Changing lives, being remembered either fondly or with malice - either way was good enough.  What did it matter what name they remembered him by, as long as it was his face they conjured?

Being snuck up on wasn\'t something he was going to get hot under the collar about, but the touch was an unusual addition.  A vampire that hadn\'t yet seen two hundred years wasn\'t exactly a being that couldn\'t be snuck up on, especially by his own kind older than he, and more than one person had done it to him in his lifetime.  The caress upon his hair though, caused his spine to tingle but he fought off the shiver that would give him away.  Instead, he cocked an eyebrow and turned his head to regard the fellow that sat beside him, making a statement in his own self, not needing an artificial companion to draw stares on his behalf.

With his gaze on (what was that mossy smell anyway? certainly not a vampire due to the lack of coppery tang coupled with the smell of dirt, something his cologne tried to hide on his own self though he knew others of his kind would be able to draw the scent beneath it, but this creature was something else, something that smelled like mossy stones, almost like the night air it had appeared from out of) Jared, but not knowing his name, Rich perused him as he spoke, liking the way the words rolled liquidly off his tongue, like they\'d had so much thought behind them.  Rich offered silence for a moment until the other finished, and thought about what had been said.

"Less Vicky, more Victoria," he clarified, knowing that his mannequin would wear rich furs and jewellery when he got her home.  "And my lips are only alluring to those who would have them curved or pursed."

[skeggsismad]

Jared was deeply disappointed to see his touch seemed to have no effect on the vampire. A fight, a gasp, even a few menacing words would have been better than the punching silence that followed. The stranger\'s eyes locked onto him and for the first time the demon had a good look at the supernatural he was addressing.  Though the vampire\'s eyes were dark and pleasant to stare at, Jared found his attention drawn to the thick eyebrows that rested above them. He didn\'t like eyebrows at all; those thick clumps of hair always distracted him.

Once Jared had gained a response he casually strolled around the bench, thinking up thousands of insulting phrases he could coin. Speaking of names--what\'s your? Mannequin Man? Barbie Boy? Or should I just call you Mr. Vampire? They all seemed childish, and the mood tonight didn\'t seem like it would blend well.  Jared stopped his walking when he was an arm\'s length distance from the supernatural, trying to account for the difference of height. It really was irritating to always have to look down upon others, for not many people were worth straining his neck for.

"Oh, but who wouldn\'t? I can\'t imagine how many have walked past this stop, today alone, and thought, \'What would it be like to have those lips on my neck?\' One can only assume that such gestures mean little to you, since you\'d rather be in the company of a lifeless doll than something that has more flesh to it."

[Trillian]

He didn\'t exactly prefer the mannequin\'s company over flesh and blood, she was merely a nifty accessory for his house, something to sit in the corner instead of an anonymous vase with a bunch of flowers, either real (which would smell of decay even if they were fresh) or false (tacky!).

Because Jared was standing and Rich was sitting, the difference in their height was truly appalling.

"Alas, she\'s merely an ornament than a companion, not anybody I would bother seeing eye to eye with, but then again, there are a lot of people like that too."

Because of his words, he had to take action, lest they be considered offensive.  Standing, he took another step up so that he was upon the platform of the bus-stop chair.  Thankfully it had no roof, it was merely a bench with a back to it as a final thought, in order for bus patrons to lean back.  That happened to be handy, considering Victoria was unlikely to sit herself upright without a little help upon her plastic spine.

"I\'m Rich," he said, and smiled, wondering if the other fellow would attach himself to Rich\'s name and spit out a bad joke like so many others.  Frankly, he didn\'t seem the type - but then, he knew what vampires were in no uncertain terms and made sure that Rich knew he\'d known as well.

[skeggsismad]

Jared was much better at understanding a person through their expressions rather the words the spoke. He was a visual person, the type that fed upon every unconscious twitch to distinguish what his opponent was really thinking. Not that he considered the vampire in front of him much of an opponent; the demon had given him plenty a motive to slit his throat but nothing seemed to come from it. Maybe he was passive aggressive.

As the stranger rose, Jared couldn\'t help but snicker. This one\'s a little too literal, he mused, eyes suddenly flickering to a black demonic color. Despite the vampire\'s best efforts, there was still a difference of height; maybe two, three inches, but it was much better than previously. The conversation began to lull and Jared came to the realization that this was the introduction segment. It seemed courteous to extend his name, but the immortal hadn\'t exactly asked for it. If he hadn\'t asked, then why should I say it? Jared concluded, deciding to curb the exchange altogether.

"You\'re a little off to be seeing eye to eye, Rich. Maybe you\'d have better luck with Victoria; surely her height isn\'t problematic." If it hadn\'t been for the pleasant that embodied the demon\'s face his spirited phrase might have been misinterpreted for a jarring insulting. Brown human eyes replaced the pitch-black orbs of hostility as Jared\'s mood changed to quite a lighter display of emotions.

"Lucky for you, I\'m flexible," Jared\'s knees bent only slightly, but it was enough to allow their sight to match. Rich\'s eyes were of an interesting color and an usually large set of pupils that seemed to be gawking at him, but Jared found it most desirable. Smugly, he assumed he must be quite a sight if Rich couldn\'t open his eyes wide enough to look at it him.

[Trillian]

The lack of a greeting disappointed Rich.  The giant wasn\'t interested in exchanging social niceties and though the vampire had little need for them (after all, \'Rich\' was the wearing of a new person, with fake I.D.s to match) it was still something that gained the next step towards \'getting to know each other\'.  Rich very seldom gave out his name first, in fact most of the time he\'d make a point of it.  This time he was in good spirits, for the other had hinted at some interesting conversation while in the middle of naming his mannequin.  Rejection was something Rich had dealt with time to time, but not while giving his name.

He eyed the other man off when he spoke about Victoria, and Rich had just enough time to consider calling her Cassandra when he realised that words spoken in such a manner could\'ve been accusing him of shallowness.  He wasn\'t sure how he felt about that; it was a word that had haunted him for some time now as others had outright said so.  Shallow, was he shallow?  He gave off that impression on purpose.  If it was on purpose, then what mind should he give to those who were fooled by it?

"If that\'s flexible, I\'d hate to see you rigid," Rich said, then took another step up so he was balancing on the thin plank that the back of the bus-stop bench was made of.  Balancing in boots wasn\'t so easy for some, but he\'d always had impeccable balance even in his mortal years, so the supernatural enhancement of every sense could only heighten that skill.  He stood upon it as though it were a full platform and looked down first at Jared (without knowing his name) and then at Cassandra/Victoria.  "I wonder to think what sights she will see at my home," he mused, though it was a false musing, for most of the sights Rich helped to cause were usually whilst cavorting at other people\'s homes - and it wasn\'t like a hotel room really felt like much of a home at all.  When decorating, he had to improvise.

[skeggsismad]

Jared surveyed Rich as he stood steadily on the sliver of wood, impressed at the heightened abilities of the vampire. Those beautiful creatures were always so graceful, never bothering to make the same slips and falls that mortals often did. Although they were unable to hop from one puddle of darkness to another they did posses incredible reflexes that could make even the most egotistical shadow demon blazing with jealousy. Jared didn\'t exactly acknowledge this thought as he scrutinized Rich, being too prideful to compliment any creature besides himself.

"I\'d choose my words carefully. You\'d never know what a sight it was unless you saw it yourself," The demon\'s face grew vibrant with a teasing look, almost as if it were a dare. In order to move the conversation along, Jared shifted his expression, tilting his head upward to meet the other supernatural\'s stare. Well, this is a change. It\'s rare that someone gets the opportunity to look down upon me. He wasn\'t very happy about it either, but as long as the vampire didn\'t try to spit on him this action was dismissible

"If it were my house she was venturing to, I wouldn\'t wonder; I\'d know exactly what she\'d witness," He hissed, a certain enthusiasm overtaking him. Jared was picturing the sight of the ineffective dummy in the middle of one of his heated scenes, her painted-on eyes quietly studying something she would never be able to see.

"If it were a favorable night, I\'d have a stranger over and make use of them. But if it were a lousy night it would be the identical situation apart from the blood splatter that would ensue after I\'d tired of them."  Jared\'s intentions were mixed as the air whipped from his mouth. He didn\'t want to scare Rich off, but then again, he did want to toy with him. What fun was life if things were always how they appeared to be?

"But what would you consider a satisfactory night?" The immortal prodded, trying to take the focus off of himself, and the doll. Victoria had served her purpose enough as the middle-man.

[Trillian]

It would be difficult to win over Jared\'s respect, he thought, for it seemed to him that the other handed it out as eagerly as his name.  Did he want respect though?  Did he want this creature to wonder about him?  To sate his burning curiosity?  He wasn\'t sure about that, wasn\'t sure he wanted to know more about this man who wasn\'t a man who didn\'t seem to think much of him.

"Something not so predictable," Rich said, his words callous to the exact nature of the other\'s description of how the night would end.  "I\'d like the night to be a little more spontaneous.  That, I would find enriching."  He shifted on the back of the chair, swivelling his feet out and wobbling ever so slightly before finding his balance again.  By the time he was steady, he could place his hands in the pockets of his jeans and develop a casual look - perhaps a little too casual for someone standing on a sliver of wood.

[skeggsismad]

Such a blank face the other man held. What was Rich cloaking beneath that heart of stone? Rarely did the immortal come across such soulless creatures; and when he did they were the sort he would expect it from, such as a depressed demon or a statuesque wraith. Jared\'s portrayal of the Vampire species was notably narrow, limited by generalizations and mimicry. He didn\'t want to have anything to do with this creature unless it involved a Bronx cheer and ironic ridicule. The way he lounged on the bench made him seem relaxed and laid back; Jared wondered if he was overlooking something important about this man.

"What exactly about a bus stop is so spontaneous? It\'s a sore loser compared to the missile dodging thrills of Iran or the non-stop twists and turns while exploring the amazon. Why, of all places would you settle here if that\'s what you wanted? I say you picked a terribly unsuitable spot to live."

 The demon observed the vampire\'s body with a soft focus as it lost it\'s artistic balance, feeling as if he had finally set the world on fire. But not a space of time was allowed to pass before Rich regained his gifted ease, disappointing Jared once again behind his suddenly heavy eyelids.