Welcome to Gaia! ::

He shut the door neatly, and stared at her for a moment as she took the environment in...well. He supposed she had been around when he made that proclamation, though he could scarcely imagine why someone like her would be following cultists and murderers, much less still be alive from the experience. Yet, it didn't seem like a suitable time to ask her about the situation, especially with what looked like total blankness in that gaze... a frown, and for the first time, due to a lack of a better topic, he started with formalities.

"What's your name?" he asked, though it sounded more like a very, very reluctant statement.

"Bella." He noted in a manner he thought was fairly neutral, but was honestly tainted by his general displeasure as always. "I am Vlad. And those two -" a sharp jerk of his head towards the pair, "that idiot is Talulah. And that idiot is Estra." Not statements which were very helpful, but Vlad really didn't think introductions warranted much at all.

Estra floated over, following Tali's lead. She was much more distracted than the goldfish girl though, and a delighted smile had joined her dreamy expression. "Oh, you are so pretty!" she exclaimed; the newcomer was one of the loveliest book children she had ever seen.

"Me?!" Estra, who owned no mirror and consequently had very little impression of her visage, said, surprised, "Oh, no no! Tali is very very pretty, but you are so very pretty as well - what beautiful blonde hair you have!" Her own hair was unerringly straight, and, oh, tangled all the time, but the newcomer's curls looked so very luxurious. Her hand crept forward, wanting so much to touch it, but it would be rude, wouldn't it?

Pretty? Vlad was increasingly convinced that there was stupidity in the air, permeating every fibre of anyone present. How was it possible that this Bella lady was as stupid as everyone in this room? Tali's smile at him - an irregular occurance, he was used to her dismissive pouting - ran a chill down his spine; if this stupidity was contagious, didn't it mean his brain was atrophying too? His wing-collar fluffed up irrationally, beating lightly to blow the stupid away. The one thing he was fond of was his mind and he did not relish the thought of it shrivelling under this onslaught.

"Enough," he snapped, irate. "We're not all here for giggles and dinner. We're here to talk about those darn murderers and we should start."

The smile dropped from Talulah’s face. She clutched her mysterious cloth wrapped item closer; having not let it go throughout the cooking, grinning and hair touching. “No. I don’t want to.” She turned her back on Vlad; making quite obvious that she was shutting out whatever he had to say. “He’s dead anyway, so we don’t have to talk about it.”

She had almost forgotten that the man that had died in front of her had not been alone at the start. There had been others. That was not something she wanted to remember. Tali had also forgotten that there was no way Estra or Vlad could know what she had been doing the other night. It also had not occurred that his talk of murderers meant she and Faris has not been the only ones out and about getting in trouble.

On a whole Tali had been trying hard not to do any thinking at all and it had mostly worked. Until now.

Her eyes widened and she gave Vlad the most pathetic, ‘leave me alone’ look he was ever likely to see. It probably wouldn’t work. The crow had so far been immune to every trick or charm she tried. So there was only one thing for it.

“No.” Talulah shut down completely.