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Post by Teja on Mar 1, 2014 13:58:00 GMT -5
She smiled back at him shyly before abruptly returning to business as usual, remembering that she was on the clock and though the shop was empty, someone else could still come in.
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Post by Graf von Krolock on Mar 14, 2014 20:32:52 GMT -5
"I hope that I am not bothering you-" he said quickly as she turned away from him.
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Post by Teja on Mar 16, 2014 1:24:03 GMT -5
"You've shopped here before, you have every right to be here," she said in a still-light tone. She was thinking about her very complicated feelings on anti-vampire legislation, and given the earlier evening and the incredibly humiliating event at the opera - which had no doubt brought on Herbert's fit - it was extremely clear there was deeper meaning to her statement.
Vampires were monsters, but in the post Geneco era it should not be a problem to provide for them, and given that a starving vampire was only likely to produce more starving vampires, unwilling ones, it was a public service. Instead they were treated like cockroaches.
There were vampires who behaved like predators and though she knew extremely little about the von Krolocks given their social status in life she surmised they had lived like that themselves, but they were relearning their behavior. It was time society made room for them. It wasn't even the same as animal rights, or even android and replicant rights - vampires had been, indisputably, human.
The whole thing made her wish Loki had not dropped out of the race. She was starting to face up to the fact that she might have been using Loki as a means through which to access her own activism desires. She could never be the face of a movement and didn't even have the desire to - Loki enjoyed attention and public speaking in a way she absolutely didn't even beyond the fact that a tall white-seeming man with a posh accent was a better public figure than a short brown woman with a high voice. But managing Loki, writing his speeches, guiding his gaze.... it had an appeal she missed sorely.
Maybe she could go into speechwriting. She wondered if it was possible after working on her fiance's campaign, if she had the experience to recommend herself even though she had no degrees and no previous involvement in politics.
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Post by Graf von Krolock on Mar 16, 2014 2:41:50 GMT -5
"How... altruistic... of you."
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Post by Teja on Mar 16, 2014 3:10:28 GMT -5
She looked mildly apologetic as she shrugged, continuing to restack things.
Herbert and his fit kept naggling at her as she stocked and stacked shelves with perfume bottles. She didn't want to be rude to the count, of course, but he couldn't expect her to have total comfort with him given that he was both a vampire specifically and a much older man in general. But then, he couldn't know about her problems there, could he? It wouldn't be too much to assume that a young woman would have discomfort with older men, though.
Her mind reminded her that she wasn't uncomfortable with Adrian Veidt, then just as stubbornly that Veidt wasn't particularly old-seeming and didn't behave much like a father, certainly not like her own father, and she hadn't known he was a father, as a matter of fact, when she'd known him. Nina Fortner had come so very recently. (It was unnerving to think she was the same age as Veidt's daughter. She certainly hadn't related to him like he was a parent.) Adrian Veidt was as different from that mold as possible.
Unlike Krolock, naturally.
But Krolock wasn't so similar to it after all, was he? Imposing and a little stiff, at most, but a completely doting parent.
The pressure of the memory of Herbert's fit and another sudden realization forced themselves on her so quickly she gasped and stumbled where she stood, knocking a number of things she'd just set up, cardboard display and a few boxed bottles, to the floor.
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Post by Graf von Krolock on Mar 16, 2014 3:20:14 GMT -5
He glanced back at her over one shoulder, eyebrows raised.
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Post by Teja on Mar 16, 2014 3:35:14 GMT -5
Teja scurried behind the counter in a grab for composure, and when composure didn't come, she could at least keep her back turned to him.
She didn't break down entirely, but she started to shake and choke down silence after her first initial cry, covering her mouth with her hand.
Put into words the gravity of it didn't even show up. But somehow, though superficially Krolock still discomforted her in a way that was in general to all middle aged men yet still came back to her emotionally volatile, intensely controlling, abusive father, the fact had occurred to her that all her personal problems with her father had begun when she had begun to display the same mental illness that had led him to isolate and abuse her mother... yet Graf von Krolock, when faced with an intensely mentally ill son, had remained fiercely and furiously devoted to him for hundreds of years.
That a bratty vampire had earned something she had not, had been deemed intrinsically too base to deserve, left her with the worst and most awful feeling of filthiness in the entire world, and she was having a minor meltdown in front of that vampire's dad. Glorious.
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Post by Graf von Krolock on Mar 16, 2014 23:59:43 GMT -5
He swept over to the counter in concern.
"Miss Johnson-"
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Post by Teja on Mar 17, 2014 0:06:57 GMT -5
The humiliation of this and the repressed part of her brain wanting somebody to comfort her brought her right back around to tears, however. She had enough self-control to her take her glasses off and then she slowly moved to crouching on the floor, covering her face and crying silently.
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Post by Graf von Krolock on Mar 17, 2014 0:09:42 GMT -5
He frowned and lowered himself to the floor beside her on one knee.
"Would you like for me to call for help?"
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Post by Teja on Mar 17, 2014 0:13:08 GMT -5
She shook her head, reaching out to stop him from moving to do so, but not seeing him and hesitantly touching his chest and pulling her hand back sharply.
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Post by Graf von Krolock on Mar 17, 2014 0:14:36 GMT -5
He gave her a mildly appraising look, and then slowly extended a hand toward her, fingertips lightly brushing her shoulder.
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Post by Teja on Mar 17, 2014 0:28:51 GMT -5
She stiffened in apparent fear, and then bent over his arm slowly, not in a deliberated way, but a slow collapse.
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Post by Graf von Krolock on Mar 17, 2014 0:30:02 GMT -5
He stood in a single fluid motion, lifting her, stone-faced as ever, and tried to steady her on her feet.
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Post by Teja on Mar 17, 2014 0:34:43 GMT -5
She felt a little wobbly, but as soon as she had her footing she swiftly turned her back to him, fumbling for some tissue paper on the counter to roughly run it over her face. Her mascara wasn't all down her cheeks, but it did come off onto the paper.
"-I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I know this looks ridiculous-"
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