Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2013 16:11:31 GMT -8
DISCLAIMER: Kara and I wrote these on paper while in Reno. Yes they are short, yes they are all together.
From now on the posts in this thread will meet the word count as well as will they be posted from the appropriate accounts.
We apologize that it might upset you. Sorry, not sorry.
Looking through a few tents at the Christmas Festival in Syracuse. The trip to Italy for all of the students was growing ever more close and the poor guy wanted to make sure he had all the Christmas gifts done and taken care of before the students arrived. Not to mention he needed to go find a tree large enough to fit them all under. After looking through a few vendor tents, Vincent had managed a few things and got a couple more objects for the Lestrange boys. They were going to receive a very delicate and special invitation along with the Black sisters. Now what did you buy those girls? It couldn't just be anything. Eyeing a very detailed necklace, Vincent let his fingers drag across the metal work and he let it drop. Cheap.
A woman appeared at the corner of his vision and when Vincent turned she seemed to disappear. Shrugging he left that small tent and made way to another. Maybe he could find something lovely for that Integra girl who is always hanging around Joram. Moving through the festival crowds his eyes searched for anything that caught his heart. Onyx was a good color for the two boys, but what to get them? Pulling his jacket tight around his shoulder, Vince passed a couple more art peddlers and the same girl with those icy blue eyes caught his interest again. With out turning to look he waited and looked over a few more items.
Nothing was really screaming at him to by and there wasn't much time left. "Crap, I still have to do stockings..." Grumbling lightly to himself as he looked over some more junk his feet began to wander in a different direction. Time to find stuffers. Rubbing his eyes as he continued to walk, Vince decided to get something to eat. Coming to a food shack he managed to purchase a bag of saltwater taffy and a few other sweets followed by a cup of root beer.
Holiday bazaars were always packed full of high spirited shoppers. Families dredged along pulling gleeful faced children from booth to booth. The best customers were the young love struck couples. They bought almost everything that put a twinkle in their lover's eyes, and they were always full of wonder and an undying thurst for affirmation. Nadya loved that. Security and reassurance was something she could give them. It was hard to tell just how many times a season she said, "I see... a long, happy and fruitful life for the both of you as a pair." Being the one with the crystal ball had it's advantages.
Disappointingly, there were not a lot of these sappy puppies around that day. Nadya would just have to pick someone else. Which meant totally different tactics. Days like this Nadya usually just picked out someone she felt would be the most interesting it talk to. Right, time to find someone. Draping a cloak around her shoulders and pulling the hood up. Nadya headed out of her tent and spotted him almost immediately.
A tousle haired man gazed at the tables full of goods. When he looked up, Nadya slipped behind the fold of a tent. This was the game. Grinning a little, she tailed him once again. Of course he was watching her now. After so long she disappeared again. Okay, time for the hook. As he sat down with his snacks, Nadya shuffled her deck of tarot cards and pulled the top one. She walked deliberately past the man and placed the card face up beside his hand. Once she was past him, Nadya looked over her shoulder at him, peeking from behind her hood with a cunning smile, and then she was gone again behind the cover of the crowd. Finally back at her tent she sat down behind her table and watched the entrance. He'd come. They always did.
Food always had its hold on Vincent, the worse it was for the body the more he wanted it. If it wasn't for the fact of him being a vampire he probably would have been dead by now. Feeling the woman who he knew that was tailing him; a card appeared next to his root beer hand and with that he looked down. "The Tower? Really?" But she was gone.
Grumbling, Vin flipped it over a few times before finishing his junk food feast. Grasping the card he marched through the crowd toward her tent and flipped the flap to the side. "Honestly woman! Are you trying to tell me you see failure, catastrophe and ruin in my future? Honey, you're a couple decades to late if you want me to believe in your fancy parlor tricks." Crossing his arms, Vincent set the card on the table and waited for her response.
Nadya looked up coolly, and there he was. They always came. "They aren't as accurate as you think." She gave him a smile and looked him over. Clearly he was loaded. There was plenty of money to be had in him. Seeing this as a perfect business opportunity, Nadya waved to the chair before her.
"Sit. Let me read your palm? Maybe see into your future by gazing through the mists of your present?" It was a ruse. Sure she looked like a fortune teller, but half of the predictions she made were the lies she told to make people feel good about themselves. Sometimes there were special cases. "You... have an incredibly old soul. I love that about a man."
Vin blinked a little at the gypsy girl before sitting down. "Well if you're that adamant about reading my palm that will be five coins." With a laugh he leaned forward. "I don't want any jank readings either and trust me I'll be able to tell." Breathing in through his nose his violet eyes scanned the woman before him with a smile slowly creeping across his lips.
"You seem like you could do much better away from the carnival my dear." Skeptical about getting his fortune read by just anyone due to the length of his life and the occasional nightmare or relapse, Vince hesitated for a moment and then relaxed. "I suppose it can't hurt." His words were very quiet. "Let's do this, if I think you're lying I'm not paying, but if you give me and honest effort, you have to let me take you to dinner."
Pausing for only a few moments, Nadya narrowed her eyes at him. He was obviously not falling for her act. As he hands pulled off her cloak and lowered her hood, a fiver was pushed across the table toward him. Nadya was actually very lovely, as most expected old hags with warts to gaze into a crystal ball and be super mystical. Nadya wasn't about that act at all.
"So, I'll get paid back and you'll take me to dinner?" She pondered this for a while before taking up his hand. In honesty, anywhere but here was going to go down better than carni-food. It could really make a person regular. "Alright..." there was a silence before she began to really study not just the lines, but the over all look of his hands.
"The quality of jewelry on your hands suggest that you needed that fiver like I need a hole in my head. I also get the feeling that you actually work. Maybe not hard like in a field or on a boat, but you work. That makes me feel like you do it either because want to and enjoy it, or that you work because you have to do the job regardless of the money."
"But that's just a first glance. This line here means you will live a very long, full life. But this one suggests that you will be lonely quite a lot. You'll be happy often, but your joys may not always be shared. And this line says you will have two children... possibly three, this line is very thin and hard to read. Your knuckles tell me 'Joram' is important to you as well as the numbers '1776'. So... what's for dinner?" Her piercing blue eyes caught his and refused to leave.
Vincent let her fondle his hands in hers and listened intently. Thoughts like 'you've no idea' crossed his mind and he was left a little awestruck. Lonely was putting it lightly and even in his past there were a few bouts of complete emptiness. "Joram is my son, my only son." Scrunching his face up a little Vince looked back up to Nadya and smiled. It was very possible for someone to find out so much by just looking at the two-hundred year old's fingers. That was just the way it happened to be. "Italy has a lot of lovely places to eat. I know of a wonderful non-tourist place that is normally packed with locals. If that sounds good?" She shrugged and pretty much said sure, with that Vincent held out his hand to the young girl and they were off. After she secured all of her valuables of course.
Walking through the streets, the pair turned toward and alley. "Don't worry I'm not going to jump you." Coming down to a door with a few seats out front, and umbrella was perched over a very old and aged man with a cup of coffee reading Di Giornale, he peered over the pages. Vince rose his hand and greeted the old man as he did countless mornings and days. Holding the door open for the lovely lady, the gentleman behind the counter called out. 'Buona! Vincent! The usual?' With a nod be held up a couple of fingers. "Make it two Andre!"
"Don't worry, working at these gigs has made me pretty tough. I think I can take ya!" The woman teased and looked him over, "you sure you've only got the one kid? No little one on the way? No... one night stands gone wrong in France?" Nadya stepped inside the shop and looked around. Luckily under her fortune teller's cloak she wore normal clothes. She let him order for her and found a seat near the window.
Immediately she was touching the things on the table. It was an odd habit, but she had to check everything out. "So... dare I ask.. what is on your usual?" The woman's body had eased a little, but was obviously still on alert, waiting for something exciting to happen.
"Oh? You think that you can take me? Well!" Vincent laughed quietly before sitting down. "Also, France, no. Nope! No, no, no. Only the one as far as I can tell. He is the cutest damn thing I have ever seen!" With that he pulled out a picture and slipped it across the table toward her. "That's me and him before he left for school this year." Resting his chin in the palms of his hands Vincent just thought about Joram.
"Ah! The original er... usual is just a pastrami and prosciutto panini with olives, banana peppers, oil and vinegar, with salt and pepper. Nothing too insane, but delicious none-the-less." When talk turned to Joram, Vincent's eyes lit up. There was only one thing more important than his own life and that was his son. "You mentioned me being lonely and you couldn't have been more right. When my late wife passed away I was distraught. So mia mamma took care of Jorrie for the first eleven years of his life. Now I'm trying to fix things between the both of us, but it's hard. Especially since I didn't really have a father in my own life. I feel like I'm drowning in it."
She started to feel terrible that she'd been so accurate His son was older than she had expected but the 'proud papa' thing had obviously not been lost in his grief. "I've seen a lot of people going through loss. It's good that you can come out of it on top. Ready for change and responsibility." Nadya gave him a smile and pulled her arms out of the way as their sandwiches came.
"So you're obviously a native. It's nice to not have falaffel again for dinner." She wanted to know more about him. The man made her curious, but she didn't want to pry and she was purposely not saying anything about herself. "So, how old is Joram? Where does he go to school? And tell me, how did he grow to be so devilishly handsome?"
The sandwiches arrived before he could answer and he smiled as he breathed in the garlic scent of the bread and melted cheese. "Eh, it happens." With a shrug he waved over Andre and ordered a couple Italian sodas. "Jorrie is sixteen, he'll turn seventeen in June. He goes to a private school over in Scotland." Just talking about Joram made Vincent realize just how much the boy meant to him.
"I know! He's a very good looking boy and I really am glad that he is mine and not anyone else's. Look at that smile!" Vince pointed out. "Granted now he has a mean mug and black mop of hair. He's grown up so much since September, it's remarkable!" Taking a huge bite out of the panini he looked over at Nadya. "What about you? You're far to gorgeous to be working as a fortune teller."
"The nomadic life came to me." She gave a little non-committal shrug and picked up her sandwich. "Private school in Scotland, eh?" Giving the man a cheeky smile, Nadya sighed. "I had a very good teacher when I was in school. My professor recognized what I was very early on in my education. After graduating I chose to use my training as a way to see the world."
Diving into their food, Nadya hoped she was vague enough. Though why she bothered she didn't know. If he asked Nadya would tell him. "So, what brought you to the festival today? Alone, no less."
