[open] General Store

[flambeaux]

WHO: Louis de Pointe du Lac and YOU (new players welcome too)
WHAT: Opening the General Store!
WHEN: throughout February (at evening/night if you want Louis) + party on an Aurora night second half of the month
WHERE: General Store, Milton

Feel free to also use this setting as open starters or closed to characters other than Louis! Just indicate it if you do! His general store? No... Our general store...

A. Home Improvement

CONTENT WARNINGS: a little bit of vampire blood, talk of hunting animals for food

It started out of the practical need to store and barter goods. Louis's home is not a fit place to entertain anyone other than rats, and he doesn't want to disturb the people who live in the Community Hall.

Louis turns his attention to the thoroughly-looted husk of the General Store. Louis feels oddly shy about starting up anything, self deprecation rearing its ugly head. Lestat called his business back home a "human hobby."

He needs all the help he can get. There's the plumbing and leaks from the recent storm, trash to throw out, walls to paint, shelves to fix. He'd like to make arrangements for daytime hours when he can't be there. And finally, putting a new coat of paint on the GENERAL STORE sign with an addition:

Marché du Lac

How handy is he? Louis did small repairs at his club when a handyman wasn't available at night, he's fairly nimble... and he's never done construction in his life. But any fool can board up a broken window and repair shelves, he reasons.

"Fuck!" he hisses when he hits his thumb with the hammer. He automatically puts his thumb in his mouth, and the taste of that little bead of blood is shockingly good. He must be hungry. Time for a break.

He slips his hammer into the loop of some scavenged cargo pants. He might be terrible at construction, but at least he looks good doing it.

...Why is he working at night?

B. Having a Few People Over

To celebrate the reopening of Milton's only general store, Louis invites the town for food and drinks on the next Aurora night. At the risk of being accused of living in it, he wears his best 3-piece suit, the gray one from home. The place is well-lit, both due to the Aurora and every light source Louis could get his hands on. It's a myth that vampires don't like light. They just have a sun allergy.

Louis used to run a club, he knows how to plan a party. He doesn't know how to cook; he enlisted help for that. Among as much variety as Louis could get, the caterer Lalo Salamanca made a mushroom stew. Delicious--but watch out! A few special mushrooms may have found their way into the batch, possibly into a few bowls, and Louis has no idea...

He puts jazz records on and opens the doors. Empty shelves have been pushed out of the way for mingling or making music--he sorely misses live music. Louis would only request that it be good. (Louis reminds himself to explicitly instruct Lestat not to eat any musicians he deems bad.)

C. Open for Business

It's little more than a single counter and a few shelves worth of stock. Louis contemplates trying to bring in people to sell their own wares just so the rest of the shelves won't look so empty.

He arranges the odd collection of whatever he could scavenge and make presentable: dry goods, cans, candy, alcohol, cigarettes. The storeroom is depressingly half empty. The freezer, moved to an unheated room, is surprisingly full of meat.

In the window he puts up a passable copy of Tim's missing bunny poster. He sets up a little seating area where people can eat and drink if they wish. (It feels odd not to place the round little tables and woven chairs outside like at home, where the weather was mild enough.)

Louis emerges from the back room in an apron at the sound of the bell over the door. His suit and tie are so people won't mistake the owner/manager for a lowly clerk... as much as anyone can "own" anything in this scavenged town.

"Evenin', what can I get for you?"

D. Back in 15

Louis expects at least one teenager to take up loitering... Big mistake. If any hapless souls hang around too long and are trusted not to steal, Louis simply takes off his apron, dons his coat, and says without warning as he leaves,

"Mind the counter while I'm gone."

Congratulations, you now work here until he returns. He'll be back in a few minutes... right?

Do you:

1. Invite friends and avail yourselves of the candy, booze, and free aprons
2. Actually tend the store

Comments

[desperate_times_right]

[Uh oh, he's disappearing again. Chloe tries to tap his shoulder and accidentally hits him in the back instead.]

Hey. Hey, you still with me?

[salamanca]

[ It turns out, a hard slap is exactly what Lalo needed to call him back to reality. A tap might not have done it. ]

Uh! Yeah. I'm fine! It's just, uh... does the floor look kind of gone? To you?

[ Lalo looks up at her with lost, dark eyes, pupils dilated. ]

[desperate_times_right]

No? It looks fine. Maybe a little burned, but present.

[salamanca]

[ Lalo shakes. He stands up, slowly and unsteadily, because he still can't go fathom what's real and what isn't. He takes a deep breath. Vividly, he imagines people coming for him with torches and pitchforks -- but he really hadn't meant for this to happen. He'd wanted the stew to be good, even! He'd tried hard to make it something that the residents of Milton might like.

But he can't dwell on that right now. He nods at Chloe, trying to keep his composure even though his eyes look wild. ]

How... how are your hands, eh? [ Said a bit distractedly. ] Getting worse? [ He reaches out, to gently cup her hands in his own, very warm ones. ] Better?

[ He hopes they're only numb from cold, but he kind of doubts it. ] Let's go somewhere else. Somewhere private.

[desperate_times_right]

[Chloe might have suspected deliberate poisoning if Lalo himself hadn't gotten so fucked up. This seems like a long way to go to put suspicion off yourself.]

Not better. [She's numb halfway to her elbows now, watching him hold her hands in a sort of detached horror.]

I don't know if I wanna go anywhere alone with you when you're like this.

[salamanca]

[ Lalo would probably be clinging to his insane theory that Chloe had done something somehow if she wasn't also fucked up, so they're even.

Fuck. He feels a little sick when he realizes he's not making her better. She might be dying. Worse, he realizes she's right that it wouldn't be smart for her to go anywhere along with him. He'll have to just stay in public and try not to make as much of a fool of himself as he potentially could right now.

Lalo heaves a sigh. ]

Yeah. Okay. You got it, seniorita. [ He really hopes he seems normal, for a person who is currently seeing and hearing Chloe as a loudly crackling fire monster. ] We'll stay out here.

[desperate_times_right]

I don't know how long it's going to take for you to come down off of that, so you're going to have to trust me, okay? If you see something weird I'll tell you if it's real.

[salamanca]

And why should I trust you, eh? So you can lead me out to the snow to die? [ A derisive snort. His eyes, which had previously stared past her and out into the vision he was seeing, seem to actually focus on her for a moment. But it's clearly he's mulling it over, considering his position and his options, despite his defensiveness. ]

[desperate_times_right]

Oh sorry, you're right. You can ask one of the dozens of other people lining up to babysit your paranoid ass!

[salamanca]

[ ...ouch, Chloe! But he deserved it, and it only stings because deep down, he knows she's right. For a moment, he keeps glaring, but it doesn't last, and soon Chloe will get the delight of watching Lalo's entire body sag in defeat.

This is humiliating, he thinks, not for the first time since he realized what was happening. Not even for the first time since he set the table on fire. ]

Okay, okay. Fine. [ He sighs. Then he looks at her quizzically. For the moment, still lucid. ] What's in it for you, anyway? Why do this for me?

[desperate_times_right]

[If Chloe were a more honest person, maybe she’d tell him about Charlie and what had happened to him. What would have happened to him if she hadn't been there. No one deserves that, and here if she leaves this guy behind she’ll feel responsible.

Instead, she snorts.] Everyone else guards their food better than you.

[salamanca]

[ Does she really want to be honest with Lalo Salamanca, though? Of all the people...

Lalo's face threatens to twitch into a smirk, and he immediately stops himself, not wanting to give her the reward of making him smile even if she is in the process of saving his life.

His eyes get big, though, as he's overtaken by another hallucination. ] Is there... is there a giant yeti reaching in through the window? [ It sounds insane to say it out loud, but it looks so real that he almost can't believe it's a hallucination. ]

[desperate_times_right]

[Okay, listen, yetis are (kind of) real so this is a valid fear, even if they're not usually found on this continent.

Chloe whips around to look with maybe a little too much concern and sees nothing.]

No. Window’s real though, if that helps.

[salamanca]

[ Lalo nods when she says the window is real. He swallows

It is a terrifying thing, to be unable to trust your own mind. To be fully reliant on somebody else to tell you what is and isn't true. ]

Can you help me sit down?

[ He reaches out behind him, feeling for the chair. He can see it, but that doesn't mean it's really there. He's almost surprised when he does feel his hand grazing wood. ]

How are your hands? Not getting any worse, are they?

[desperate_times_right]

Don't worry about it. [The numbness is creeping up her arms, but what can she do about it?

I think you've got it.

[salamanca]

[ Lalo takes a deep breath. His newfound physical warmth seems to be eating him up inside, despite the cool temperatures. He fans his face with his shirt. He's flushed. ]

I'm burning up. [ He looks desperately at Chloe. He's not ripping all of his clothes off, but it takes an embarrassingly high degree of self-control to not do that. ]

[desperate_times_right]

No, no, you're fine, you're just freaking out. Take a deep breath.

[salamanca]

[ As instructed, Lalo takes a deep breath. His paranoia whispers to him that she wants him to take a deep breath because she probably poisoned the air somehow, but logic manages to win out. Amazingly.

Deep breath. In, out. In, out. He tries to remind himself he's not dying, but it doesn't work. Logic says one thing but what Lalo knows to be true in his heart says something else entirely. He forces his hands down, to not pull his shirt off, trying to calm himself.

Then he lights his own shoes on fire and starts screaming again, stamping up and down until the fire is out, before bolting away from Chloe immediately in his hallucination- and fire-induced terror. ]

[desperate_times_right]

[He’s actually doing pretty well for a minute or two - clearly wrestling with it but at least he's breathing - but then another fire sets off and he takes off running. Shit.

Well, if this situation is doing anything at all it's convincing Chloe that she's not disappointed that she didn't get fire powers.

On top of all of this, she's numb to the elbows now. No time to worry about that, though, when she's hurrying after a paranoid, drugged-out psychopath.]

Hey! Hey!

[salamanca]

[ Lalo stops running, panting, turning to face the sound of Chloe's voice with wild eyes. Of course, his shirt is half-unbuttoned, but at least he's wearing a (dingy) undershirt underneath it, visible now. ]

How's your hand? Thing? [ Said breathlessly. Seeing her without seeing her. ] If it's getting worse, you should sit down. You might crack your head open if you're standing when it hits your legs.

[desperate_times_right]

[Chloe looks down at herself, nervous.] I'm trying to keep you from setting more fires. You really think it's gonna get that bad?

[salamanca]

[ Lalo snorts. The world is hazy around him; Chloe is the only thing visible. He puts his face in his hands. ]

I don't know. Is it spreading? [ Not that he trusts her to be completely honest with him. Honestly, it's more of an accusation than a question. ]

All I'm saying is this, chica. If you fall down and pfft, you what, crack your skull open and bleed out? And I don't know if you're really dead or if I'm hallucinating - do you think I'm going to stay calm? [ Lalo has dropped his voice to barely above a whisper. Even after all that, admitting he's close to publicly losing his shit is too much to bear. ]

Then think about the fire that's going to start.

[desperate_times_right]

Okay, that's fair. [She still doesn't like it.] If this paralyzes me, I'm going to make someone hold you down so I can bite you.

[salamanca]

[ Even hallucinating, Lalo doesn't miss a beat. Just a little bit, he cracks a smile. ] Sexy.

Now, come on! Sit. [ If she doesn't do it on her own, he'll stand up, to gently push her down onto a chair. It's a little disorienting, trying to guide someone else to sit when you're not sure if the chair is real or not. ]

[desperate_times_right]

Ugh! [Chloe rolls her eyes, but it really is nice to have something normal in the midst of all of this.] Fine, fine. I'm never eating mushrooms again.