New Beginnings

[Existentially Odd]

Rigo was at Ichabod's side in a blink, his left arm gently draped around the slightly-taller man's shoulders and a total look of sympathy on his face.  "You know, technically, I imposed and you were here first.  My excitement overwhelmed my sense of decency and I sincerely apologise for that - you seem upset and I know you don't want to talk about it!" Rigo declared ostentatiously, raising his right hand and pressing it onto the air, palm outward, to reinforce the point, "but it seems like you have some rather important business with the good doctor and I, well, I'm just an overeager business colleague!  I can wait!  How about I make myself scarce while you conclude your business - I can just come back later!" Rigo announced enthusiastically, waving off invisible objections to the contrary as he took a step away from Ichabod.

The ancient was looking at him hopefully, his deep brown eyes encouraging the younger vampire to accept his apology and allow him to redeem himself by reversing their positions, as they should be.  He hadn't really intended to frighten the childe off so much as force him (in his own devious way) to acknowledge something of the business he needed to conduct with Jenna, so that Rigo could guess as to the right course of action.  Seeing the pretty young thing's forlorn exit and listening to his wish for not being identified as being here (simply because he didn't get to do things properly, he assumed) twisted the old Italian's heart and made him sorry he'd even said anything.  He was confident this could be fixed!

[pinkroses]

Ichabod’s shoulder’s tensed up slightly as Rigo’s arm slipped around his shoulders, but then he forced himself to relax them, not wanting to insult the older vampire. His gaze followed Rigo as he apologised and gestured dramatically.

He stayed silent for a few second, watching Rigo warily. He couldn’t really get out of seeing Jenna now, at least when he’d been loitering in the hallway there had still been the possibility of just leaving without meeting her. Ichabod took in a steadily breath, then gave a tiny nod of agreement that he would see Jenna, but he felt bad about making Rigo leave as well, especially when he had his mysterious box.

“I don’t know Jenna, I don’t have her mobile number or anything… could you help me find her?” he asked hesitantly. If Rigo disappeared then Ichabod knew it could take him a while to find Jenna – there were a few areas where exhibits were changed regularly, and the museum was quite large and not the kind of place Ichabod would considered practising tapping into his celerity to speed around (if it even worked). He’d stopped Rigo calling before, but maybe it would be helpful. Or Rigo could follow his nose.

[Existentially Odd]

"Of course," Rigo agreed, his demeanour affable though he found the fact that Ichabod didn't actually know Jenna to be rather odd.  What could this news be that a veritable stranger felt compelled to loiter outside the office of someone unknown to deliver it?  He looked down at his phone, the fingers of his left hand flying over the screen as he sent a text - Greetings!  I'm at your office with a SURPRISE!  Are you returning soon? - to the object of their discussion.  He didn't bother introducing himself, as he expected his name would come up on her phone with his text, so it would be redundant.  He spoke to fill in the silence once he was done typing, watching Ichabod with his left thumb hovering over the face of his smart phone, waiting for action.

"There, I've sent her a text asking when she's likely to be back at her office and she always replies promptly so I anticipate we'll find out very soon.  You know, I've only known her a few months myself - I've lived in the city about a year now and when I came here, I vowed that I would stay out of restoring and conserving artefacts, I was here for a fresh start but oh, of course I couldn't resist coming here to the museum and then I met Jenna and of course I couldn't keep my big mouth shut about what I do so naturally I ended up working for the museum to help them out because they don't have anyone local with my skills and though I hadn't intended to, I really do love it, it's a labour of love - the all-knowing 'they' say it and it is so true with - oh.  Oh dear, it seems Jenna's gone home for the night," Rigo said as his attention was caught but his screen coming to life, his expression crestfallen.

He glanced up from the text at Ichabod before he looked worriedly back at the screen again and read aloud the message on it.  "Ohh sorry!  I've been working extra hours with the exhibit opening and I left work early tonight because I was exhausted - can we reschedule for tomorrow night?  Hrmm.  Well, she obviously needs the rest if she's not offering to come back so, uh, I'll reply that that's okay?" he asked Ichabod awkwardly.  They didn't really have any choice in the matter; Rigo wasn't about to insist Jeanne turn up to accept her surprise package, nor to alert her to his young companion's presence.  He watched Ichabod to see how he was feeling about definitely not seeing Jenna after all, his thumb still poised to reply.

[pinkroses]

Ichabod dropped his arms to hook his thumbs into his jeans pockets to wait for Rigo to text Jenna. He’d been expecting that Rigo would know where the exhibit was and they would go there together, but texting was faster and had been the vampire’s intention in the first place so he didn’t know why he was surprised it had continued that way.

“Ok,” he said softly at Rigo’s declaration of what he’d done, before he fell silent to let the older vampire talk, satisfied to stay silent as Rigo explained how he’d met Jenna and how they had become friends. He’d always loved to hear Kerr talk about anything, he’d had so many brilliant tales, but he didn’t know how his sire had met Jenna. He’d never asked. But when it wasn’t Kerr talking about how he’d met someone he’d dated and who had become his lover, it became more interesting. Rigo was so enthusiastic about his work – restoring and conserving artefacts - it was a delight to hear him gush about it and Ichabod found himself edging closer slowly.

He caught himself when Rigo’s attention drew him back to why he’d been here as Jenna replied and he glanced down at the phone grasped in the ancient’s fingers, pouting thoughtfully for a few seconds before responding.

“Sure, yeah, you should reply,” Ichabod said, his dark eyes returning to meet Rigo’s and he felt some of the tension leave his body as he realised he wouldn’t be seeing Jenna tonight and he didn’t need to at all because she didn’t know he’d been here. Maybe he could actually plan what he would say next time. But for now he didn’t need to worry about it.

“Why would you want to stay out of doing something you obviously enjoy doing so much? Surely if you love it and it’s helping the museum you should carry on as long as you want to? Is that a book you restored for her? Or one from your collection or something? Does it need to get back somewhere to keep it right or is it ok in the box for a bit?” Ichabod asked, his fingers itching to see the box and distract himself for a while with Rigo. It wasn’t like he had anyone waiting for him at home, or even next door (upstairs anyway) since no doubt Ash would have gone to Venture without him. Ash was happy enough doing her own thing, whether or not Ichabod was there. He was a lot more confident than the youngster when it came to going out on his own and Ichabod couldn’t really imagine Ash going along with something he didn’t want to just to spend time with someone like Ichabod would.

And hopefully Rigo would consent to give the fledgling a little more of his time, even though he no longer had a reason to hang around.

[Existentially Odd]

Rigo began texting back when he was told to - Sounds like a plan - I'll text first next time!  Rest well :-) - but when Ichabod fired so many questions at him he couldn't help but glance up at the youngling and quirk a bemused eyebrow.

"This box is mine but the book inside is the museum's property.  I don't think it's needed urgently but the repair on the vellum pages interested me - it's not something I've done a lot of - so I worked on it a little more speedily than was necessary," he smiled, sliding his phone into his back pocket and wlaking over to pick up the box.  He continued speaking as he walked back to Ichabod, expecting the boy would fall into step with him and they'd both head out through the museum, towards the exit, together.  It wasn't as if they had anything holding them here now.

"I'll take it home and plug it into the electricity tonight so the battery doesn't wear down, although... I could possibly put it back into the chamber but... no, I'll just leave it in there.  The less fussing with it, the better.  It can stay in the box until I bring it back tomorrow night," Rigo smiled, leaning slightly towards Ichabod as he spoke, his manner triumphant simply because he'd just managed to talk himself into a decision.  Sometimes he talked and talked but he never did manage to figure out what he meant in the slightest, so there was good reason for him to look so proud of himself.  In doing so, of course, he'd completely forgotten that he was asked why he wanted to get out of conservation and restoration.

[pinkroses]

Ichabod did as expected, matching Rigo’s pace, his shoulders turned towards the older vampire a little as the walked. He noticed that there was no response to his initial question and although Rigo seemed friendly Ichabod was still intimidated enough to stop him from asking again.

“It sucks that books are there to be read but obviously the more people handle them the more they deteriorate. I mean, nowadays I guess it’s not such a big issue, because everything’s so mass produced, but not that long ago it would have been so difficult to make a book, and I guess that must be kind of a rare one, especially if it’s written on vellum. And it’s got to be kept in that, so people can’t even enjoy it properly,” Ichabod said, Rigo’s rambling narrative of his plans bringing out the more chatty side of Ichabod as well in his response.

He heard himself though and knew it was quite a sudden change from how quiet he’d been just a few minutes before. Now he wasn’t going to see Jenna he could relax a little at least, even if he was with someone so much older, but the realisation made him hesitate when he probably could have carried on spouting more rubbish or firing another string of questions at Rigo. He couldn’t just completely cut off though so he forced himself to go on, hoping Rigo wouldn’t have noticed the pause, or at least wouldn’t comment on it.

“I wouldn’t even have a clue how to start repairs to something like that. I guess the museum must be pretty happy to have you. The library has some pretty old volumes too, I don’t really know how far back their things date though.” No, more recently he’d been more often at the Oligarchy Library than the city one. But that was gone now, and after the incident in Austria he hadn’t found pouring over all sorts of information as appealing as it had been before. There was the nagging feeling that someone should still go back there to get the book Kerr had been going to collect, but as far as Ichabod was concerned now that was someone else’s problem. He’d lost too much already over that damn thing.

[Existentially Odd]

Rigo took the opportunity of Ichabod's pause to fill it in, so he didnt find it unusual in the slightest.  "Not just anybody would be able to read this book anyway, it's written in Classical Greek and very few people speak that, or read it - I've seen some debate that it's a 'dead language' but I don't know if I believe that when there are still vampires around who speak so many of the old languages!" he quipped, a cheeky smile lifting one corner of his mouth as Ichabod continued commenting.

"Yes, the museum's happy to have someone so close who can do these repairs with such a fast turnaround - oh!  You asked why I'd want to get out of the business when I love it, I remember now.  Well, you see I didn't know that this city was so filled with superntaurals when I came here!  I've previously moved around every ten years or so because it gets difficult to explain to people why you look so young when you should've aged at least a little in the decade they've known you and it becomes a huge drama to create a persona that can be explained on a human scale, to produce credible documentation about where I studied and stories about how I learned my amazing skills and so on, and so forth, that I decided this place would be the black hole city.  Every century or so I take some time to drop into a black hole, you see, where I don't get to know anyone meaningful and I spend, oh, I don't know, fifty or so years just keeping to myself until a new generation or two have emerged and then I might start getting back into society the way I want to," he explained with a dashing smile.

As he spoke, his voice was filled with colour and tone, lilting not just with his unusual (basically Italian-sounding) accent but with the flair of his enthusiastic speech.  It would be quite obvious to Ichabod by now that Rigo enjoyed talking about himself, though the young vampire wouldn't know that there was another level of perception in the ancient that was carefully observing the youngling, noticing his restrained air, the tension around his eyes and the sadness within them - especially when discussing books, unfortunately.  It seemed he was interested in finding a diversion and Rigo was all too happy to oblige; he didn't have to speak only on books either, but the topic was set for now.

"But then I got here and mio dio if the first person I met wasn't a vampire!  I've spent more than a millenium meeting less than fifty kindred and suddenly, I arrive here and I meet almost that many in a month!  And there are so many other kinds of supernatural here!" he exclaimed, though he leaned more obviously towards Ichabod now that they'd left the office area and were walking through the museum itself.  Staff and visitors were milling around but not too close, so he simply had to make sure his voice was kept at a reasonable level - a difficulty, when discussing a subject that still filled him with surprise and glee.  "I've since found out it's likely because of the ley lines, though they didn't draw me, this was just my next destination by default.  Still, the population here is decidedly 'in our favour' if you know what I mean, so when I met Jenna, I didn't even have to make up a story - she picked me for what I was and there were no difficulties at all, before I knew it, I was back in business!"

[pinkroses]

“I did Classical Greek for, like, two months at school. I couldn’t get my head around the different alphabet though, not when I was taking other classes, I just didn’t have time to focus on it,” Ichabod said with a small shrug. Maybe he had time to do it now, but he hadn’t even thought about studying properly since before Austria.

As Rigo went on Ichabod was more than happy to listen. It was refreshing to hear someone chatting about something exciting – not mourning, not wanting food or sex, not bitching about their problems.

His step faltered slightly as he gazed at Rigo with wonderment, his own lips curling into a smile at the handsome look on the Italian’s face.

“Every hundred years? You just… hide away? And you only met fifty in a millennium?” Ichabod said, his voice lowering into a loud whisper. He’d lived here his whole life and when he found out about vampires and Risk and the Oligarchy – it felt like there were vampires and other supernatural creatures everywhere. Ichabod knew it was something to do with the laylines, but he’d assumed there were plenty of other places like this in the world. How could there not be? But how could Rigo not have found them in his incredibly long life?

“You don’t go to ground or anything? Don’t you get lonely not making friends or anything?” he asked, skipping a couple of steps to keep up with Rigo, his stomach fluttering with the excitement of speaking to someone who had been alive for so long. To go into a black hole for 50 years at a time – and from the sounds of it he’d done it several times. He could hardly wrap his mind around even thinking about someone so old.

[Existentially Odd]

"You studied Classical Greek?  Why, even for a short time that's marvellous!" Rigo commended, his grin broad, before he went on to explain more of his lifestyle.  It didn't seem so odd to him, but apparently Ichabod was thoroughly surprised by it.

"Yes, every century or so and well, perhaps more than fifty in fifteen hundred years," he considered, making a play at looking abashed that he'd exaggerated about the number of supernaturals he'd met in his life - until he lifted an austere finger that told Ichabod he was still standing (mostly) by his original claim, "but not many more!  Not nearly as many as I've met here in a year!" he asserted, completely ignoring the fact that he'd just altered most of his timelines too.

"I'm never lonely!  What is this... 'go to ground'?  What does that mean?" he demanded in a curmudgeonly manner, squinting imperiously at the young vampire beside him.  He prided himself on being knowledgeable - he was very vain about it, in fact - so the idea that he, with all the languages he spoke and the career he'd had, didn't know something that an infant knew caused him to be quite abrupt about acquiring some understanding of whatever the childe was speaking about.  His eyes glinted, showing how eager he was to understand.

[pinkroses]

Ichabod gave a shy smile at Rigo’s praise, but the look faded away as Rigo went on, and suddenly added another five hundred years to his timeline. He hadn’t been around ancients enough to be able to judge at all how old he might be, but with the way Rigo had changed it so easily perhaps he’d be able to add on another half a millennium without batting an eyelid.

“Oh um,” Ichabod blinked as Rigo suddenly questioned him on going to ground and seemed so interested in finding out the answer. It felt like it had been ages since someone was really interested in what he had to say. With Ash it felt like conversation was just a means to stick in another comment about himself.

But how could Rigo not know about going to ground? Sleeping away fifty years sounded better to Ichabod than going into self-imposed wakeful solitude. But unlike Rigo, Ichabod would become far too lonely living like that to be able to stick with it.

“It… some vampires bury themselves and sleep underground for a while. I’m not sure how it works really, but then don’t seem to get hungry… but I suppose it’s only really older ones who do it… like I couldn’t, I’d get too hungry, but you…” his voice trailed off as he gestured at Rigo with wide eyes. He knew well enough that it was considered rude to ask a vampire how old they were, but the question was right on the tip of his tongue and it was hard to keep it inside.

[Existentially Odd]

"But I'm old enough to be successful at it!" Rigo finished on Ichabod's behalf, laughing warmly at the thought, his head tilting back to allow the rich sound easy passage from his belly, showing that he was genuinely amused by the comment rather than insulted.  When he sobered, he was grinning at his companion again, his eyes dancing.

"But sleeping underground?  How terribly boring!  I've never heard the like!  I couldn't imagine doing such a thing, even though I manage to bury myself in my work when it's necessary - but you know, it's only been necessary really in the last few centuries, once people started to communicate globally and the population advanced to the proportions it has.  In my first thousand years, I spent my time happily travelling from village to village, meeting artists touted through word of mouth and spending almost their lifetimes with them studying, learning, debating.  The only time I came close to total withdrawal was when my lover and sire was killed and even then I absorbed myself in creating a city beneath some mountains rather than sleeping!"

Rigo's expression was a mixture of scorn and grief; even now, fifteen hundred years on, he ached for his lost love and the connection that he'd had with that one vampire, so long ago.  It was an old pain, true, more nostalgia than genuine misery now, but he wondered every night how different his life might have been if he hadn't been forced to experience it alone.

[pinkroses]

Ichabod couldn’t help but smile at the comforting sound of Rigo’s laugh. It was warm and reassuring – when it led on to Rigo explaining more about his life Ichabod was eager to hear. He had always wanted to go travelling – perhaps he hadn’t been as enthusiastic about it as Ben, but the idea of going around the world, meeting people and learning from them was definitely an attractive one. Especially when compared with sleeping underground.

His smile disappeared abruptly as the ancient went on and suddenly reminded Ichabod of why he had been searching for Jenna and all at once the ache in his chest which had disappeared for a couple of minutes returned like a kick in the gut.

That Rigo was claiming he’d built a city barely registered after the mention of the death of his sire. He’d withdrawn completely – but he was here now, back out in the world. He glanced up at Rigo, pain in his own eyes as he saw the grief in Rigo’s.

“And… did that help? Does it get better?” he asked quietly, praying for a positive answer but there was no hope in his eyes. It felt like this pain would never end.

[Existentially Odd]

"It helped me," Rigo shrugged, tilting his head enquiringly as he observed Ichabod over his box.  The look in the youngling's eye triggered a suspicion that had perhaps been building throughout their whole conversation but which was only really obvious now.  "You... know this pain?  The loss of a sire?" he queried, his exuberance very sharply toned down with the raising of this serious topic.

[pinkroses]

Ichabod hesitated for a moment then gave a small nod in response. Shouting it at Connor had been so easy, when it had still been raw, a wound begging to be poked. But now he was more ginger about talking about it.

“Two months ago now,” he said quietly, lowering his gaze to the floor. “Every night I wake up it still shocks me not to be able to feel him. I know I have to get used to it sometime, but it’s not changing.” Maybe it would take months, years or decades. Until then there was just this gaping hole.

His steps slowed as they reached the foyer of the museum and Ichabod folded his arms across his chest, suddenly feeling cold.

“Do you have to go home now? Could we… do something?” Ichabod asked, biting his lower lip slightly. For a few minutes he’d been able to forget what worried him, Rigo was the only person who had been able to help him do that and Ichabod didn’t want to lose him again so easily. Ichabod didn’t want to have to ask Jenna how to find Rigo again.

[Existentially Odd]

Rigo contemplated his precious cargo, knowing the battery life had a few good hours in it and would allow him to socialise for a while, before he looked back at Ichabod.  "I could be persuaded," he grinned more naturally, understanding the childe's need to find distraction wherever it arose.  He could believe that he was a very intriguing proposal altogether and didn't blame his companion for wanting to spend more time with him; especially when they shared such a heartbreaking commonality.  "What did you have in mind?"