[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

[sputnik]

[ That weren't human.. 'anymore'. Konstantin doesn't miss that wording. ..And wasn't his body beginning to change, as a result of the creature inside of him? He felt as though he were becoming... less and less human. This place seems to have mercifully stopped such a transformation, but it's possible that something similar could have happened in Levi's world. ]

What did they... look like?

cw: body horror

[solitarysoul]

[He lowers his voice, no one needed to overhear this.]

S-some of them were mostly human, but some...o-one I could barely tell he used to be human. But I recognized his face...and his voice. And one s-she changed before us. I-it was like her head exploded, h-her face pulled away and the skin formed...k-kind of like a halo. H-her flesh rotted and we could see her muscles and organs.

[He shivers.]

It...i-it...it was...she was--she turned...she turned horrific. B-because of the god, because of Rher. He scorched her, all of them.

[His voice drops even quieter, hard to be heard even by the man right next to him, at least over the noise of the gathering.]

She kept saying she was radiating.

[Though he's good at hiding his fear, this has clearly left a mark on him, watching the shy but unhinged Samarie turned into the monster Dysmorphia.
[He closes his eyes, taking a moment to compose himself before looking back up to Konstantin.]

C-can...can w-we talk about s-s-something else?

[sputnik]

[ The man's brows are knit severely as he listens, all trace of his more cheerful demeanour completely gone. And it's... strange, and horrifying, and none of it should be possible, but neither should what's wrong with him.

But more than anything is the boy's reaction. Clearly disturbed by it, by the memory of such horrific imagery. The god, Levi says, and Konstantin remembers him mentioning such a thing the first time they'd met. There's more he wants to say, to ask, but Levi's quiet plea makes his heart split right down the middle. This boy shouldn't know such terrible things. ]

Yes, yes of course— I'm so sorry.

[ He reaches out to grasp Levi's shoulder, gentle but securely, giving a squeeze as his other hand gestures to the soup bowl. ] Here, why don't you have some more to eat?

[solitarysoul]

[Levi flinched away from the touch, as if he expects it to be an attack. It's not, though, and he realizes that immediately. But he still flinched, when Konstantin was only trying to provide support.
[He's just not uses to touch being a nice thing. He looks down, seemingly ashamed at his reaction.]

S-sorry! I didn't, I didn't mean to.

[sputnik]

[ The man's hand moves back at the flinch, immediately giving the boy his space. Konstantin has been trained, extensively, in mental stability and capability. It's a huge part of what the cosmonaut corps values and requires of its spacemen.

It means he's also very sensitive to the psychological reactions of those around him. It's... telling, in a very particular way, when someone is so averse to touch. Even frightened of it, the way Levi seems to be, as though his body perceives it as an attack.

And given what he's been told about this boy's experiences.... is it any surprise? He must be severely traumatised by what he's seen and known. Konstantin's quick to shake his head, voice soft, as though to hide them both from the party going on around them. ]

You have nothing to be sorry for, malchik. It's all right. I'm the one who should apologise to you.

[ He smiles warmly, even though his heart hurts for the boy. ...And even though he feels the creature shift inside of him, sensitive to his own moment of surprise. He ignores it, focusing on Levi. ]

You know, the Aurora lights are still going so strong outside. Why don't we step out for a moment and get some fresh air?

[solitarysoul]

[He nods.]

Y-yeah...that sounds like a good idea.

[sputnik]

[ Konstantin nods too, smiles again as he reaches to pick up the bowl of stew he'd slid towards Levi earlier. ]

We can have a warm snack while we're out there.

[ He lifts his other hand to a nearby volunteer who's handing out more bowls, getting a second one for himself (maybe if he's extremely careful, he can stomach a bite or two.) With that, the cosmonaut leads them out and out into the crisp night air. He heads over to the porch of the general store, and sits down on its edge, waiting for Levi to join him before he hands the bowl back to him. ]

There's nothing like a chilly night to clear one's thoughts. Back home in Russia, I used to sit outside in the cold like this sometimes, when I needed to get away.

[solitarysoul]

[He follows after Kostya, taking a seat and the bowl back before saying anything.]

...Before here, I've never been anywhere this cold.

[sputnik]

The cold of Russia... can be quite unforgiving, especially in the winter. But this place is something else entirely. [ He gives a thoughtful hum as he looks up to the Aurora lights overhead before returning his gaze to Levi. ]

Are you adjusting all right to it? Do you have enough warm things to wear?

[solitarysoul]

I...guess. I've gathered a lot of warm things or layers. I'd like it to be warmer, but I don't think that will ever change. I'm not sure if the weather here is normal, so I don't know how much it'll ever warm up.

[A time where everything wasn't covered in white would be nice, though.]

[sputnik]

What you need is an ushanka. Keep the head warm.

[ He smiles a little, then offers a soft, wistful sigh. ]

I could use one, as well. It's a shame there are no nice shops around... or else we could have a shopping trip.

[solitarysoul]

An ushanka?

[Some sort of hat, probably.]

My coat has a hood, but maybe that would be smarter.

[sputnik]

A hat — very thick, very warm inside. Who knows? Maybe there was a Russian family living here who left something behind.

[ He smiles at the teen, a little less brightly — it's strange, to take things from the dead. ]

I'll do some looking around, see if I can find one for you.

[solitarysoul]

I didn't really think about looking for hats...I guess I should have. The other store had a lot, but they've probably been picked through by now. But maybe someone had one somewhere.

[sputnik]

There's a store here? [ He's enthused at the thought! He enjoys a good shopping trip... ]

We should check it out sometime. There might still be a few fun things to try on inside, and shopping's always more fun with friends, right?

[solitarysoul]

Yeah. There's one with hunting supplies and stuff like that. Over that way.

[He points towards it.]

I haven't been through it in awhile. I doubt there's any ammo left but maybe some guns. And they had coats and stuff earlier.