Comic 1184 - Slyly ask about the candle
Posted on 13th Apr 2019, 6:45 PM
in Like a Bullet from Behind
Average Rating: 5 (4 votes) /
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Author Notes:
You also take a moment to try and read their auras. The girl with the glasses has a withdrawn, tighter aura, though its flow is fairly erratic. The much larger man with the... unfortunate face has a surprisingly still aura--very calm, but honed and focused. You think if it had a physical shape, it'd be like a solid cube with sharp edges.
The old lady's aura is... different. For the most part it's calm, quiet... faint. Only when you really pay attention to it do you notice how forceful and wild it is nearest to her core--just utter chaos, like a tiny storm.
You noticed there was a candle on the counter when you walked in--after staring at it a little harder, you realize it's the same color as the candles you use for the tradesmen questioning ritual. You ask about it... subtly.
The elderly woman's associates noticeably tense up, leading Caius to do the same.
"Oh, that?" The old lady smiles. "Yes, I don't know what it is about that color, but it's quite the conversation starter. You seem like a nice girl--you remind me of all those kind nurses at the clinic. It's hard getting old, but they're always very patient with me."
You used to be a nurse yourself, actually.
The old lady grins a little wider, and begins to make her way around to the back side of the counter. "Ah, that explains it. You know, I was told you'd be blonde."
The girl in the glasses... does something with her hand. You have trouble registering it. "You sure it's her?"
"It's like a strawberry blonde," the big guy states.
"She's a redhead," counters the younger girl. You keep trying to see what her hands are doing, and you just... can't. You can't really explain it.
"That's why it's called strawberry blonde," replies the other bodyguard. "It's usually sorta red-ish."
"It's her," the old woman finally clarifies, pulling a book out from under the counter. "You can settle down. Your guns won't accomplish much anyway, I wouldn't think."
It's only then that you see the girl reholster a shotgun to her back. You never even realized she had it.
You couldn't.
The old lady hobbles back around and toward you, book in hand.
"That..." Pierce starts to say, but doesn't finish the sentence. He gives a subtle nod toward the girl with the glasses--specifically, the shotgun. "Is there a way to do that with people, or is it just--"
"Only weapons, I'm afraid," the old woman replies. "And it's not a very easy process. I think one does exist for people, but... finding out about it was a little more than I'm eager to pay."
She smiles sweetly, and holds the book out to you.
"This one's on the house, dear. I owe it to someone else to get it out of here."
Not sure if it'd be polite to ask her about who she owes it to - maybe our mother? - but I am pretty curious about it.
In the same vein I'm kinda curious how she got into contact with the Tradesmen, and whether she has any tips on dealing with otherworldly forces to share - I get the impression's she been doing this for longer than us. But again, not sure if all those questions would still be polite...
Aside from that, we could let Pierce shop for a few minutes. Couldn't hurt to give them a little business after they've helped us.
This is probably documented as Mine's signature move by now, which should confirm the old lady's guess that she is who she is.
Perhaps we can also see if there's anything we can do to help the big guy, since he's looking kind of green...
Beyond that see about books for the girls, books for Pierce, and any potentially helpful information they might be willing to give, trade, or sell us that would help us in regard to spiritual strengthening or other things that might help with the upcoming fight.
1, might be rude.
2, we don't know if there is anything wrong with him
-1 to offering to help the big guy, It might be rude, and whatever's ailing him can probably wait until the world isn't ending if they're not bringing it up.
Let's not bring the blood antics out just yet until we introduce ourselves, and let them know if we are going to do something extraordinary beforehand.
I'm getting a "golem," or at least "construct," vibe off of the big guy. "Boxy aura" almost cinched it for me. He even looks like clay.
Maybe ping Pierce to see if he knows anything about that.
even more so if we had anti-memetic guns, so that they don't see us holding a gun at all
and then anti-memetic selves could be really good, it's like superior invisibility, someone might have found a way to do that to themselves and they could be working as a fantastic spy
they could be spying on us right now
It seems that they already know somethings about us, it should be fine to confirm that we are who they think we might be. Confirming the details they have , yes we're that nurse who survived the Tobu Cyberbrain incident, that we dyed our hair to make it harder for our enemies to identify us (though it's only really worked on present company so far), and a brief, minor demonstration of Blood powers, like making a syringe levitate or something.
A couple of questions to ask:
How do they know about us? On the whole we've tried to keep a low profile and most of those few that know about us are less than friendly about it.
Just who are they? We don't need too many details, but them knowing about us, the candle, the unseeable shotgun trick, and even how we got directions here say this is far more than just a book store. Additionally where they stand in the current affairs of the city, and how we can help them (even just by not mentioning them to others) would be helpful information.
Conversely if they just want to conclude our business and part ways the we'll respect that. Pay for any of the other books we might have found, thank them for their time and head out.
Maybe subtle-hint about "Can we talk about magic?" via bringing up our "mutual friends" and asking if this is a good place to "trade information"?
We should be careful about whipping out the blood like that, because it could easily be taken as an offensive maneuver coming from a bloodmage.
I like the idea of chatting with this lady some, introducing ourselves properly and all that. Ask her if there's any assistance we can offer her in exchange for the book, even if she says it's on the house-- we can *at least* offer a hug in exchange :3 And perhaps we can ask her some questions in exchange for some help; does she need anything looked at by a nurse, have any questions about medications that we can answer, perhaps? Or we can just offer info of our own in exchange for info.
We *should,* however, ask everyone present to say the name Patton Thale, just to be suuuuuper duper sure. And say it ourselves and have Caius and Pierce do likewise, to prove our non-Queenedness, of course.
Another thing we might be able to offer her in exchange for info or assistance: information on the activities of the Feds, since she'd probably be interested in avoiding them, if she's involved in magic.
EDIT: Another thing... we *might* wanna offer a vial of our blood and explain what it is and the fact that it prevents being Queened. We should be completely honest about what it entails, but also offer it freely in case they want to make that decision, or just to have it on hand. If they have ways of protecting themselves, though, or just don't want to risk having a strange blood goddess's blood around, it's fine if they don't want it. (Also, if they have ways of protecting themselves that don't involve our blood, that'd be lovely to know about so that we don't have to jump straight to blooding people in order to protect them.)
Can we ask about it ? Imbuing various items with special properties would be a great addition to our skillsets.