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 Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 2:03 am
Sally held the card with the library's address, sitting in the tub of blood in the windowless basement bathroom of her home. Night had fallen but she could see just as fine in the dark, and she was staring at the address now. Izaak asked for her help, and while she wasn't the biggest fan of that man, he really did want to help her in his own annoying way. Right now...he was really the only person in existence she didn't have to hide from, nor worry about getting them hurt or killed.
"Ugh, what am I doing..." The card, complete with her bloody finger print, was dropped to the ground. The Monster in the bathtub stood, her grayish skin a deep red, her hair matted with blood. Two steps out of the bath and she was in the standing shower, washing the dark liquid from her body and hair.
After dressing, she left the house to feed and headed to the library whose address she had committed to memory. Once she arrived she stared up at the library, standing helplessly outside and away from the street lights. Well, she was here...but how to find Izaak? It wasn't like she could go inside and find him.
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Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 2:18 am
Izaak had gone about everything as usual. He didn't really sleep normally as one might hope. The bald man could take naps so long as he had his grave dirt to put under his pillow or under his mattress depending on how he felt most 'secure' that day. Other than the occasional naps he also had to work but that was a necessary evil and helped support his true passion in Folklore. When it became evening time it was time to shed the 'healer' skin and wear the skin of the predator. Once he fed he was at the Library where he waited near the entry for Sally to show up.
The fox-eyed man had absolutely no doubts that she'd appear, in fact he was very annoyingly certain about the fact that she would come to help him. It was just something about her that assured him, somehow, that they'd always be in each other's 'lives' until something happened to 'remedy' it. Izaak liked her because she was blunt and honest and always told him exactly what she thought of him.
Even if it wasn't the most pleasant thing to hear.
When he saw her he tucked away the small journal he had been scribbling in and pushed away from the wall he had leaned on and moved to the door where he saw her, "Hey Sally," he said in a chipper tone. Did he have to say something special? Well if she looked at him as if he was a moron he'd know for certain. The bald man stood back a bit and swung his hand inward in a clear invitation, "Come on in. It is just you, me, and a crusty old librarian in here tonight."
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Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 2:41 am
Red eyes turned to stare at the figure that greeted her. More often than not she looked at him like he was a moron, but right now her gaze was a bit perplexed. She didn't know what she was doing, or how to proceed...she was lost, and that in on itself was...kind of exciting. For someone who had lived their undead life on almost ritualistic habit, anyway.
"Hello, Izaak." She said quietly, watching his hand extend an invitation into the building. "Thank you." Stepping forward, she walked slowly into the library, taking the first step into a building she was barred from the moment she became...what she was. If she could bring herself to cry, she probably would have. But she couldn't, not with Izaak around! So instead she just stood there, on the other side of the doors, and stared in wide-eyed wonder, her arms lifting to cross against her chest, holding her arms.
"So...what are we doing?" The Monster asked once her moment of wonder and mild (probably imagined) heartache had passed, looking over her shoulder at the bald thorn in her side.
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Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 2:54 am
He watched her carefully as she entered to make sure nothing unfortunate happened. When she seemed to suffer from no ill effects he was pleased with himself and let it go at that. Izaak could ask questions of course and he'd probably be answered if the question was straight forward but on the other hand that was no fun at all.
The bald man looked thoughtful before he nodded a bit, "I've two projects going to be honest. One dealing with trolls and ogres and their tales and another one dealing with the undead - mostly vampires," he said simply. Obviously the irony of the last one didn't escape him it never had. It had been his project from before his death and it was something he didn't really let go in his current life. The vampire research actually helped him in a fashion.
"Tonight I'm focusing mostly on trolls," he said with a shrug as he moved further into the building, "though if you find anything interesting you can of course make note of it."
Tonight was research night for the most part, to see if he would find any new material.
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Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 5:56 pm
Vampires. Of course he had a project on Vampires. The irony didn't escape Sally either, but she let that one slide for now. He was focusing on trolls tonight. The sickly looking woman wandered after the bald man, her arms folding a little more relaxed against her stomach.
"I don't know a thing about trolls." She stated simply, looking around at the stacks of books that they passed. This was like heaven to her! Being in a library shouldn't make someone this happy. "Can I read what you have so far? What I might find interesting may be something you already know." Her eyes never rested on him, instead looking around quickly at her surroundings. So many books...and so many places to hide.
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Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 12:44 am
The whole research on vampires was more or less a coincidental thing, something he worked on prior to his ... change. He just simply didn't stop just in case he ran across something interesting to help himself along and to survive. Granted his type was a little different from a lot of the more traditional strains of vampirism but now and again he found tidbits.
"Of course," Izaak replied as he began to unpack his messenger bag and then gather all his notes and set them to where she can easily pick them up and do so before he began to pick through the books he had selected to study for the night. There was a small pause before he dug through his bag again and presented a book bound in black hardcover with Sally's name written at the lower right corner in rather lovely golden font. He offered it to her, "Your personal journal to write whatever you want in. Research, personal stuff, whatever you want."
He wanted to get her something to commemorate her being 'hired' on.
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Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 1:00 am
"Thanks." Sally said absently, still looking around at whatever she could see from where she stood, focusing on books, shelves, the ceiling; if it was there, it was looked at. With the exception of Izaak...part of her worried that she'd get too used to him being there if she saw him often, and didn't want to set herself up for disappointment should something happened. In her gleeworld world, Izaak was safer to remain a background character unless necessity stated otherwise.
She was about to reach for the notes, having just noticed they were there, but she paused when something else was offered to her. Sickly eyes rested curiously on the black hardcover, and it wasn't until she took it from him that she noticed her name was on it. That urge to cry returned; hitting her harder than the invitation into the library itself. It was probably a good thing she couldn't bring herself to do it...she would have been too embarrassed.
"...Thank you, Izaak." Sally said quietly, her eyes resting on the beautiful journal, lidded with emotion. "This means a lot to me." She said sincerely, brushing her thumbs over the cover. Of course, she was never one to linger too terribly much, and so she held the journal against her with one arm, reaching out her free hand to take his research notes.
Sappy time was over, weakness showed...it was time to distract herself focus on work.
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Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 1:30 am
He simply nodded and let her do as she wanted until he got the notes and everything out that she would need to look over. Izaak watched her curiously as she accepted her gift. He was expecting just about anything from her reactions, even for her to reject his gift and throw it back at him and tell him it was unwanted and unneeded. He was pleasantly surprised when she accepted it and even sincerely told him that it meant a great deal to her. Izaak didn't know a great deal about Sally but he could tell it would be a better idea to just not make a big deal about it just by her personality on its own.
Izaak wisely nodded and smiled, "You're welcome. Enjoy," was all he said before he began to go through a small box of index cards as he sat down in a chair at his chosen table for the evening. He had written down some books he wanted to look into since his last visit and he pretty much was allowing Sally to do get adjusted for a while.
After a while he got out his own notebook and began to scribble some things down after he got a hold of his pen, there was a small pause. He got out a pen for Sally and set it down for her, "Can't take notes without a reliable pen," he said with a small laugh. The pen came with her notebook, naturally.
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Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 10:33 pm
Sally had taken a seat in a chair that was more or less on it's own. She could still see him if she wanted to, she could still hear him if he insisted on talking, but she wasn't remotely close enough to touch, even if he stretched out. Her knees were pulled up to rest her heels on the chair's seat cushion, her new journal trapped between her thighs and torso. Sickly eyes were moving quickly over his notes, absorbing the information at a pretty decent speed.
The Monster was a bit startled when he spoke again, her head snapping up to stare at him, then down his arm to the pen he set down for her. It seemed to match the notebook! ...Wow, Despite her first impression of him, he was really ni---no! Nope, he wasn't nice. He was...logical. A good assisstant needed good tools; it just happened to be the job that provided the need for this type of gift. First impressions were never wrong, of course. Crawling off of the chair with all the grace of a suspicious squirrel, she took the pen and sat back in her chair the way she had been, looking it over.
"Thank you, again." She said, tucking the pen where her journal was; which was once more between her thighs and chest. Her gaze was on the notes again, flipping through the pages. "For a moment I thought these were typed." In a roundabout way, it was the best compliment she could give. "I was expecting complete chicken scratch from someone like you."
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Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 10:47 pm
He didn't seem to note or mind her choice of seating and didn't say anything about it. After she had thanked him for the pen he briefly smiled and nodded and continued to write out his notes. Izaak paused a long moment and gazed up at her with his eyes slightly open showing lightly glowing red irises before he nodded a bit, "Thanks, Sally. Always been like that, went to one of those real strict school as a kid, they kind of whapped your hands if you didn't write 'neatly'," he chuckled and shrugged, "couldn't claim abuse since they managed they do it to where you couldn't prove a damn thing but it didn't harm me any just made me write better."
That and the sound of a ruler hitting the desk or skin gave him the willies.
Izaak uttered a soft 'hmm' and continued his scribbling for a while and even did a couple of sketches of things he found in a light handed manner and when he was done with that he set his notebook aside and pulled the index box closer to him and began to flip through them before he seemed to find one he wanted, plucked it up and wandered off to gaze at a few shelves for a bit thoughtfully.
..It had to be around here somewhere!
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Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 11:26 pm
That bit of information was filed away, under 'things she didn't care to know but make a lot of sense'. A lot of things about Izaak ended up there, truth be told. As a rule she didn't want to get too incredibly close to people, and keeping a safe distance was easy to do if you pretended not to care, or at least told yourself that you didn't. Still, she nodded her head politely and went back to skimming his notes. Interesting stuff really...a lot of it she recalled from her wanderings and fantasy novels, but there was still quite a bit that was new to her.
Eventually he got up and left, and Sally peered at the notebook that was left behind. Glancing at him to make sure he was far enough away to sneak a peek at his notebook. Setting his notes down on the table but still holding her journal and pen, she moved to peer at his notes, taking an interest in the little scribbles. Her head tilted and a realization donned on her, making her turn away and walk right past him, heading straight to the section on architecture. Her eyes darted along all the books until she spotted the one she wanted - the one she had a copy of at home. Picking it up, she headed back to Izaak and their table, flipping through it as she walked.
"Um, I don't know if you knew this, or if it's any help..." She said uncertainly, her voice oddly quiet. "But...This here, has a...kind of relevant story." One hand held the book, and the other pointed a grayish finger at a picture of a building, with a human-like carving sitting resting against the stone wall as though waiting for someone. "I...knew...the man working on this building," Under the photo was the name 'Mark Whittaker' under Main Architect - Sally's late husband. Yes, she knew him...very well. "He told me that the one who commissioned it specificially told them to not disturb the statue in any way, shape or form...he said it was some beast that was tricked into waiting for someone so long that it turned to stone, but it's still waiting...and the commissioner didn't have the heart to move it." Which...kind of sounded like the stories she'd read in his notes, and the carving looked like one of Izaak's scribble-doodles.
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Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 12:18 am
Ah ha! Here it was. He plucked up the book and returned and began to flip through it. He was so absorbed in his search he hadn't even realized that Sally had left the table for a moment until she suddenly spoke up and was nearby. He blinked at her words and then stared at the picture she pointed out with his head canted toward the side before he finally reached forward and added things to his notes after she pointed these facts out to him, "Nope, that's a new one on me, thanks!" he said cheerfully though the fact that she said knew the man architect caught his attention and since he was curious he did ask rather bluntly.
"Was he a friend of yours?" with a curious gaze and a slightly raised brow, of course if she decided to ignore his question or just not answer him at all he wouldn't pry much further ... for now.
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Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 12:31 am
There was a little swell of pride when he said he did not know this little story; sure there was no proof that the carving used to be a troll, but it certainly fit, given what she knew thanks to his notes on the subject. Nodding once, her attention went back down to the book; it was about as worn as her personal copy was. The only reason she was interested in that particular subject was because it was pretty much the only tie she had left to Mark. He'd loved creating that building and gushed about it and how he made it compliment the carving; this book had an entire and rather extensive chapter. It was now an important Parliament building, rebuilt after it had been destroyed when the tower fell.
Izaak's question pulled her from her memories, and her unfocused eyes snapped back to life, fixing on his curious stare. Pursing her lips, she dropped her gaze and looked to the right. "You could say that..." She said lamely, turning away to head back to her out-of-the-way chair, sitting down like she was before. "Mark was very special to me." Apparently she would need more prodding on the issue to reveal the truth behind it, but until then she was okay to leave it at that, merely flipping through his notes in case she missed something.
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Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 12:44 am
Izaak listened to her answer and even glanced at her for a long moment. He could ask questions but her follow up answer seemed to confirm something for him. He looked thoughtful for a long moment before he began to open the book he brought over and began to scribble down more notes with concentrated effort to not look at her for a moment. There was something he could say but would it be insincere? Izaak hated to be insincere or even to say things that might seem out of line for him to say since he didn't really know their relationship. Before his 'change' Izaak lived on his own. He dated but he never married or anything of that nature and his family...
... He barely remembered them anymore.
It didn't seem to bother the bald man but he suddenly stopped scribbling his notes before he took an un-needed breath and said, "Well, he's lucky to have had you by his side. You obviously cared a lot to him if he was special to you..."
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Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 1:15 am
The silence was almost comforting, but she had a feeling this would be far from over. Of course he would say something more, or ask more questions; if it wasn't today, it would be down the road. That was inevitable, especially when working as partners. A person and their assistant couldn't remain distant strangers forever... Perhaps this decision was not the best one to make?
Izaak's notes were put on the table and she leaned back just enough to free her book, opening it to the clean, crisp first page. Her new pen was also freed and lifted, hovering over the brand new paper. She was scouring her thoughts and memories for any other mention of trolls, anything useful she could jot down. The breath was heard and it had her attention though she didn't look up at him.
Those words were...remarkably sweet. An odd thing to hear coming from the man she'd already convinced herself to not get too close to. Her resolve faltered, and for a moment she considered telling him everything; her long, depressing, painful, lonely story. Luckily for her the feeling subsided, and after swallowing hard on habit alone, she nodded once to acknowledge that she had at least heard him. The pen was set down and she absently toyed with the ring that was no longer on her left hand.
"Sally Andrews-Whittaker." She piped up after a moment of silence, seemingly changing the subject, but clearly not. The near-irony of her initials being 'SAW' wasn't lost on her, either. "My name, I mean...I never told you that, did I?" Sally put her faith towards the hope that he was clever enough to understand what she wanted to say without saying it.
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