Invitations and Inclinations (Clement/Ruby)

Tonight was just another night, albeit one of the nights I had that I set aside for rest. I had long ago decided to mirror the schedule of human society and rest on the weekends, as I had found that constantly running myself frayed on my mind and concentration, and made it hard for me to properly learn. While I had surpassed the limits of humanity physically, I was still mostly human in my mind, and as such even one such as I had to rest at times. This had irked me at first, but I had long ago decided to accept it, and picked up a few hobbies and things that I did for pleasure in the meantime. One of the main ones, which I was indulging in at present, was reading. Given my natural gift for language, I had always been interested in books from a young age, but that had waned for a bit after my Embrace, as I had been too busy to spend any time reading things that were not related to my studies.

However, once I had settled into my new existence as one of the damned, I once again picked up my old hobby of reading anything I could get my hands on in any language. I preferred reading things untranslated, which while it would often be harder to find for older manuscripts, it was often so much better, as I could read it without anything being lost in translation. At present, I was reading a foreign murder mystery by an author named Edogawa Ranpo. It seemed that our oriental allies had developed their own period of Golden Age detection, and this particular author was considered one of their most famous, so I decided to start with him and work my way through his books. I rather liked mysteries, and while some may wonder why I was not reading something from my homeland, as Izodar had asked me earlier, it would be because I had read all of them that were considered "Golden Age" long ago, most of them while I was still alive, though a few authors had escaped me and I had read them soon after I set up my leisure day system.

I was about halfway through the book and had a few good theories when something unusual happened, I heard a knock at my door. I would have thought it was my sister as she said she was coming back, but it seemed....too calm  and collected to be her, at least from what I could tell from how she was. Taking the bookmark, which was a very white piece of fabric embroidered with crimson thread in patterns of roses, and putting it in my book to mark my place, I made my way over to the door before opening it to see who was there, deciding that trying to get on my toes to use the peephole was not worth the effort. Anyone who was interested in hurting me would likely have come in by force, after all, and I still had my Arma Sanguinia strapped to my waist, as it almost always was.

What I saw when I opened the door was....odd to say the least. The person outside my door was a man as far as I could tell, and he was wearing very heavy clothing over most of his body, and had a cane. Given it was night in spring and it could get a bit chilly, this was not too terribly odd, but what really stuck out about him were what was on his face and his hands. On his face he wore some sort of iron mask, in the visage of a man. Rather odd, but I had dealt with eccentrics in the past. What really intrigued me, however, was his hands. They appeared to be those of a desiccated corpse with long, spindly fingers ending in what seemed to be yellowish claws. This, combined with how thin he appeared under the clothing led me to believe he was kindred of some sort, as I was not aware of any other form of undead that could keep any sort of sentience, though I could only wonder at what render his body so...deformed. After inspecting him for a few seconds, I decided to greet him. "How odd, I was not expecting any visitors tonight, though the presence of a fellow Kindred is not exactly unwelcome. Before I decide whether to invite you in or not, may I inquire as to your name and what brings you to my home?"

It seemed that this man had me at a bit of a disadvantage, given he knew a few things about me already, and was at least ostensibly trying to come to confirm some things. Its not like anything outside my specific methods of magic were much of a intentional secret anyway, so it really did not concern me too much that someone had found out. What was more curious was that someone had come to me looking to confirm such things. His curiosity was rather intriguing, and I decided I would hear him out, if only to see what he found so fascinating about me that he would come to my home to confirm such things. That business proposition of his also sounded rather intriguing to say the least as well, given that he was coming here looking for information, it seemed that he was perhaps an information broker of sorts, and having one of those in your list of partners was always good practice.

His name was apparently Clement Thebault, and given his proper pronunciation of my last name, it did seem like he was of French decent, although he could also have just lived there for a long period of time after his turning. Either way, this gave me an idea of possibly what clan he was combined with the deformities, which he only solidified given his mention of wearing the mask for politeness's sake. This led me to suspect that he was turned improperly, given how badly this can mess with a Kindred's body upon turning, though most normal blood wouldn't cause such....severe problems upon turning. Which would lead me to my other suspicion, that he was perhaps one of the Fleur. This was all speculation, of course, and as such I figured I might as well test it. It was not for sure, and while it might make me look silly if I guessed wrong, it wasn't much of a concern to me. Status never really mattered for a matter of pride for me, so a bit of laughter at me for a mistake would not bother me overmuch.

"Very well then, Mr. Thebault, I will hear you out, both on your questions and your business proposition. I do wonder what kind of offer a french fleur who seems to be an information broker of sorts, let alone why one such as yourself would come all the way to my home to ask me about," I said, throwing the guesses at him before beckoning him to enter and making my way to the table in the middle of the room which had a few chairs just for this sort of occasion. "if you wouldn't mind closing the door on your way in, that would be lovely. Oh, and would you like something to drink? I have wine, tea, and of course a healthy supply of blood if you are feeling particularly parched. Don't worry about whatever you have under that mask, I've dealt with corpses and experiments from some of the most horrid magi of the forties, not much bothers me when it comes to that," I added, letting him know that he didn't have to wear the mask if he didn't want to.

It seemed that my guesses were rather on the mark. My years of experience among Kindred society gave me insight onto this sort of issue, as it was always important to ascertain who exactly you were dealing with, as one could often glean bits about their general personalities from it. After all the Clans did tend to attract people of a certain kind, though that was by no means a hard and fast rule, exceptions did exist. At his mention of wanting tea, I snapped my fingers and one of my skeletal familiars came from the room in which they normally loitered, and began work on preparing the tea. I decided to make an earl grey, since he said he could not taste it much anymore, going for my preference since I would be the one tasting it. 

I was about to say something about an offer to see under his mask before he clarified it was simply a joke and took it off, revealing a bit worse version of what I expected. It all just confirmed what I had in mind, and as such it really did not bother me overmuch, deciding to comment a bit on it calmly, "As I thought, not a proper Embrace. A perfect warning to those kindred who are careless enough not to fully drain their intended childe fully before giving them the blood. And with as blood as volatile as that of the Fleur, it seems to be especially burdensome for you, Mr. Thebault." It was a rather intriguing case, the blood had likely started to eat at his body as it converted him, which would explain the permanent wounds and desiccation of his flesh. Quite careless on the part of his sire, but rather interesting none the less.

Deciding to strike up a bit of conversation while my familiar prepared the tea, I began to reply to what he said. "It was, as you said, a guess, but an informed one. After all, who else would rationally come all the way to my humble abode to ask a few questions, let alone find it. Though I wonder if the people you heard about me from are the same people who told my sister's clan the false information that it was my sire living here, and not myself, which resulted in the broken door you must have noticed on your way in," I said sighing. The familiar returned with a pot of tea and cups on a platter, and I nodded, dismissing it to the other room before pouring us both a cup and sipping at mine. "Now that the tea is here, what exactly did you come to me to discuss, Mr. Thebault? You have me rather curious."

It seemed that the man was either unwilling, or perhaps unable, to share where he got his information. No real matter, it was not too big of a deal after all. One could probably find where I lived as easily by looking through a directory or something that the guild kept for ease of contacting its members. Its not like it was a classified secret where I was living, after all. His proposition was as interesting as what he had said at the beginning, both of which were of interest to me, though I would probably just file the first one in the back of my mind for further discussion at a later time after the business at hand was done. After all, I did not want to derail the conversation at present just to satisfy a bit of curiosity of mine. 

"That seems like a very enticing offer, Mr. Thebault, and if this is a standing offer where each piece of information were to be negotiated for, I would gladly accept. I am not one for flat fees, after all. Some things are worth more than others, and I believe very much in the principle of equivalent exchange. When one has been a mage for as long as I have, they learn that it is always best to enforce such a thing in all matters, instead of trying to come out ahead. Conning a partner in business simply generates ill will and could sour the connection, after all," I said, giving a small hand gesture and sipping at my tea.

"I would be more than happy to negotiate with you for data that would not be detrimental to the guild or house in exchange for goods or services, I see no reason to turn down this offer, as long as one condition is respected," I said, giving him a serious look before continuing, "That is under no circumstance shall you mention me as teh source of your information, no matter how much you are offered to do so. If I get wind of this, you will find out what it means to become an enemy of a scion of House Strigoi, do I make myself clear?"

With that I sighed and gestured at one of my skeletal familiars to bring me one of my usual wine bottles which were a mixture of potent wine and blood, allowing for me to actually feel the effects and feed at the same time. I never had wine before I was turned, so this is the only taste I knew, the mixture of it with the ambrosia that is a good drink of blood. I poured myself a glass, and sirled it a bit before drinking from it, it was as delicious as always. "As for perhaps a go to currency, I could probably take blood, either from yourself or another kindred of an identified clan, sometimes I will require specific clan blood. As you probably know, I do have a distinct interest in researching the blood of our kind. In turn, I can probably acquire either information or other rare items you need, perhaps even find a way to adapt Arma Sanguinia to work for one such as yourself. How does that sound, Mr. Thebault?"

It seemed that the deal had gone smoothly, a bit too smoothly if you had asked me. He had agreed to my terms a tad too easily for me to believe that he would hold them up wholeheartedly, but that was about par for the course when dealing with Kindred from outside the House. After all, we may be related, but each house, and indeed often the members of  within the houses, always just looked out for themselves first. A shame, but it was how our society worked, and it seemed to do well enough that we had survived since time immemorial. 

However, there was a slight issue that he was having that I could notice from the way he was reacting, He had spilled a bit of tea for no apparent reason, just that his arm had convulsed. That was strange, such things didn't normally happen to Kindred. Perhaps it was a peculiarity of his Embrace that left him wracked with spasms or pains and maybe that had caused it? Or perhaps it was something else, what it could be, I could only speculate on, as it was unlikely I would get a straight answer out of him. 

As he stood up to leave however, he made a very enticing offer, one that I could not turn down. A chance to get a vial of his blood to study would be an excellent opportunity to advance my research, possibly quite significantly. If I could figure out magic to control the mutagen nature of their blood, I could use it to run experiments on the blood and flesh of other Kindred, which would be quite useful.  Standing up, I gave him a few words before continuing, "If you are truly willing, then I recommend you take a seat quickly and wait while I go retrieve the necessary equipment for blood drawing from my lab. I will gladly compensate you with some of the finer blood I have in my personal stocks as a result, and I will not take no for an answer. I could not possibly take some of your Vitae without giving you a way to replenish your supplies."

With that, I made my way back to my lab and made my way to my tools, and quickly found everything I needed to draw a vial of blood from him, all of it sanitized. After all, we could not come down with disease, but we could still pass it on, so we had to still be very cautious. I then made my way to the refrigerator in my lab where I kept my human blood, and went digging around for a pack I knew I had in here somewhere. The guild always labelled the specifics of the blood, perhaps because other vampires liked knowing what kind of human they were drinking from, but I never really minded too much. All that mattered was what it came from, be it human, elf, spirit, et cetera. However, I remember that my sire always enjoyed a good female virgin every once in a while, and I figured it was probably a suitable gift for another vampire, so I retrieved it and filled a glass I kept in my workshop for replenishing my own reserves while working, and made my way back to the main room where Mr. Thebault was.

"Sorry for the wait, Mr. Thebault, give me one moment and I can get started, when I am done, feel free to help yourself to this glass" I said, putting the glass on the table, and if he was willing and seated, I would begin to draw the blood quickly and effortlessly, setting it aside on the table. If not, I would wait for him to sit down and prepare himself before doing so, going about the same procedure. "Painless, right? Do let me know what you think of the blood, its a surprise, but I will say that my sire always enjoyed the source that this is from."