RP for pace_tua

[techpire]

Nicolae had been in and out of the safe house for several days. In that time, he'd barely been there except when he slept during the day. Only once did he ever come in after dawn, and that morning, he'd spent about an hour cursing and rubbing aloe over sunburns over his face and hands. Once he came back in visibly different clothes than he left in, drenched and so tired he fell asleep on his bed almost immediately.

Now, though, he was sitting at the table, carefully sketching and transcribing a stone tablet into a program in his computer. Several of the heiroglyphs and pictograms on the tablet portrayed demonic-looking figures.

Comments

[pace_tua]

Peace had more or less not moved from her spot on the bed in the days Nicolae had been in and out. Sometimes she was sleeping, soemtimes she was sitting up, other times, Sir Pugsley had claimed her hip for his seat and she was tap-tap-tapping away on a laptop with a pair of earphones in.

Today was one of the middle days, tap-tap-tapping on her laptop with lightning speed while Miklos was out. Occasionally she looked up at the back of his head. Since the touching incident, Peace had given him almost a hilariously wide berth, and she was pretty sure that if it were possible for her to become one with the wall, she would.

But that would also be rude as shit, and she was not about that life. Pulling her earbuds out, Peace straightened up and stared at the back of Nicolae's head.

"So. What's that?"

[techpire]

"I'm not quite sure yet. It depicts demons, but I don't think it's anything more than superstition. Dad will know for sure. I'm doing some of the initial work for him." Nicolae answered her without looking up from his work, still carefully sketching the tablet. "This is ancient history. I'd rather be working with something newer."

[pace_tua]

"Ancient history isn't so bad," Peace replied. "Generally the--" Right, she wasn't supposed to be talking about that little part about her. "The information has a longer history to pick through, the newer things are usually harder to pick through, because there isn't as much available information that hasn't already been tampered with one way or another."

[techpire]

Nicolae turned in his chair and lifted an eyebrow. "We do totally different things. Dad and I aren't chasing ancient history, we're chasing the now. Shit's always changing, always moving, you have to adapt. And this stuff is superstitious nonsense wrapped in pig-headed ignorance disguised as decent information." He gave the tablet what he thought was a well-deserved look of disgust.

[pace_tua]

Peace looked back at him and tilted her head as though studying him. "We literally swallowed bees, and you're talking about superstitious nonsense." She paused, "Well, I did. I dunno about you."

[techpire]

"Nope." Nicolae shrugged. "Dad and I didn't. Bee stuff isn't really our deal. Hence, you know. Jet lag when I got here."

[pace_tua]

"I wondered about that. I know Agartha isn't for everyone, so some people still travel the regular way." Peace yawned and stretched her arms over her head. Today, her gloves were made of a thin material that didn't slide off the keys when she typed. "That must suck."

[techpire]

"Not really. Agartha sounds weird, especially with that Filth stuff infecting everything. Jets aren't so bad. Dad doesn't like 'em, but he's...well, his health isn't the same as it was." Nicolae looked a little guilty, like he said something he shouldn't have.

[pace_tua]

"Well, there's a lot of buzzing. And everything is golden yellow." Peace looked thoughtful, still watching Nicolae like a hawk. "Though, the Filth does pop up every once in a while, but where doesn't it these days?"

"What's wrong with him?" Someone get tired of his creeping on them in the break room? an uncharitable thought crossed her mind.

[techpire]

Nicolae shrugged, though it was clear he was uncomfortable with the conversation. "He's just been working on our project for a long time. I think it's been catching up with him. I've been trying to do more of it myself. But...it kinda sucks having to." He scratched his head absently. "It's like...sitting in an empty room I swear I can feel stuff moving around me. Watching. It's creepy as hell."

[pace_tua]

"I know that feel," Peace nodded. "Like, a lot more than I care to admit." The skin of her hands itched just thinking about it, and her fingers closed on her palms, trying to ineffectively scratch them. "But, you know, it does go away. Sometimes."

[techpire]

"Yeah, sometimes. But I dunno if I like that either. I mean, I do but I don't. I dunno." He looked frustrated. "It's complicated."

[pace_tua]

"Okay, so. I hope it uncomplicates itself." Peace shrugged again. "Or at least becomes as uncomplicated for you as it is for me."

[techpire]

Nick looked at her for a long moment. "I don't think we're talking about the same complications. Not unless you've been mistaken for a vampire in three separate cities, too."

[pace_tua]

"No, a crazy person, maybe, for wearing like, seventy-two layers in the Southeastern US. And pretty much everywhere else the temperature rises above sixty degrees. But vampire would be new." Peace put her hands up on either side of her face.

"Already half-way there with the complexion though, right? I call this look, 'Countess Bathory Hates Short Sleeves."

[techpire]

Nick just frowned and shook his head, then turned around back to his laptop. "A Templar tried to stake me once because he caught me drinking someone's blood, back in Kingsmouth. Not sure if he thought I was a vampire or one of the zombies."

[pace_tua]

There was a strange tingle at the back of Peace's neck where the hair was standing on edge. "You don't say?"

[techpire]

Nicolae kept his back to her, still working on his laptop, and shrugged. "Yeah, it kinda sucked."

[pace_tua]

"...okay, but why?" Peace squinted at the back of his head. The tingle remained constant, and for a moment she wanted to send Miklos and SMS - see! i do too have a sense of self-preservation! - but resisted. "And not, 'Why did the Templar attack me', you know. 'Why were you having a people-flavored snack?'"

[techpire]

"Because dad's research does really weird shit to people." Nick ran a hand through his hair. "At least I'm not as bad as dad, but still."

[pace_tua]

"You mean it gets worse?" Sucking the blood out of people seemed pretty awful, and she had to touch dead folk in various states of mess.

[techpire]

"Yeah, there's a reason I was handling the interrogation of the Orochi guy. Dad wouldn't have been able to do it."

[pace_tua]

"Well, that's cheering." Peace pushed herself to her feet and padded to the small kitchen to make herself coffee. The Belgian stuff wasn't so bad, after all, and Miklos was forever going on about how much better European coffee was.

She moved out of the way of the ghost in the kitchen before reaching up to the cabinet for the coffee tin. "Are you trying to go forward, or go back?"

[techpire]

"I don't know yet. Always been all about dad's mission, but...kinda didn't like my brushes with demons in Kingsmouth."

He watched her curiously when she moved at random, eyebrow going up. He did, however, look longingly at the coffee. "I miss coffee. And pizza."

[pace_tua]

"I wouldn't be able to survive without the coffee. Bee-approved or not, they like making me work and work and work." Peace opened the fridge to use the gallon of purified water. "I'm fairly certain I'm like 99% caffeine at this point. Caffeine and like, hamburgers."

She twitched when the ghost walked through her. "Oh my GOD, don't be rude."

[techpire]

Nicolae gave her a strange look." ...I'm way over here not saying anything."

[pace_tua]

"Not you," Peace replied, giving the air a look that would've curdled milk before she went back to making her coffee. "Someone else."

Moving here for readability

[techpire]

Nicolae blinked and looked back at his laptop. "Ooookay."