The Shattered Veil [1x1]

[accalia]

"No, it isn't is it." Elaine's voice drips cold venom "I told you that the price must be balanced and that if you did not balance it yourself it would be balanced for you. It may have not been your hand but it was you who did this to me. Now if you have nothing else you wish to buy, get out of my shop."

[yamikuronue]

She can see the anger in him: the tightening of his jaw, the tension of his arms, the paleness of his lips. For a moment she can almost see his course of action: his arm tightens, as if to strike a blow against the doorframe next to him.

His eyes close. His arm remains still. His chest rises, slowly, then falls.

When his eyes open, the old, easy smile is back. His eyes still burn with that odd intensity, but the rest of his posture is easy, casual. "Well then. I suppose I'm here to buy something." His tone is light, jovial.

[accalia]

"In that case, how may this humble shopkeep assist honored customer?" Elaine sarcasms at Miles.

[yamikuronue]

"Let's see -- there's something I wanted. Was it gold? Or bronze? I think it was round? Or maybe square?"

[accalia]

"If honored customer would stop prevaricating and decide what it is he wants this shopkeeper may be able to assist, but we are not the reference desk at your library and cannot find that book you read ten years ago that had a blue cover and it turned out the butler did it."

[yamikuronue]

"Oh! I remember now. It was definitely blue. Or green." He begins browsing one of the aisles, clearly in no great hurry.

No kid today... that's worrysome.

[accalia]

Elain snorts frustration and sits on the stool behind the counter once more. She wonders briefly what she ever saw in that man. Sure it may have been Beltane, and he was good in bed, but.... the price of letting him find the shop a second time was.... too much, and now she couldn't move the shop to avoid him. She'd managed to do it for the last week,  but today the shop refused to move.

[yamikuronue]

He browses, his eyes barely seeing the items on the shelves except to snag on one every so often so he can comment on it. "I think it was bigger than this," he says, holding up a vaguely round something his brain doesn't bother trying to fit into a context.

I'd expect the kid to have gotten curious and come out here by now. She must have hidden him from me. Not that I blame her.

"Oh! Did you ever see that movie, The Matrix?"

[accalia]

"Honored customer has a purpose with such a question? Honored customer must remember that this humble shopkeep is unable to leave this shop but once a year, on which night honored customer most certainly remembers."

The anger that Miles felt directed at him changes briefly to grief before returning to raw anger. Surprisingly Judgement speaks up in Miles head without being prompted to speak.

"She has a great and justified anger towards you. That you avoid addressing it does not show you as fitting to wield me, Is this what you desire?"

[yamikuronue]

I'm not avoiding anything, he replies to the living weapon. Provoking her would be more of an injustice. I'm giving her some space to calm down before I get to the root of the problem.

"Sure, sure, but everyone has Netflix these days, right? It's a good film, you should see it sometime."

[accalia]

"Honored customer, get to the fucking point. You want something, you know what it is, ask for it so i can provide it then kick your ass out into the street where it belongs."

It really doesn't look like Elaine is going to calm down any time soon, in fact she seems to be getting angrier the longer Miles spends in the store.

[yamikuronue]

"Of netflix? Uh, I guess the point is you watch movies," he says, with a broad grin. "Of course I want something. I'm shopping, aren't I?" If she wants customer, she'll get customer. When she wants Miles, we'll talk.

[accalia]

Elaine declines to talk, instead sitting and brooding. Miles wants to play the fucking imbeciel she'll let him. He did this to her and her son, and he doesn't even realize it.

[yamikuronue]

Miles looks down at the object in his hand, and is startled to realize it's a baseball. His eyes rebel, filling with tears before he can give them the order to stop. Has he spent his whole life trapped in this shop? Has he been able to do little league? School? Does he have friends to play with on the sandlot?

He puts the ball back, forcing his tone at least to stay cheerful, his back to Elaine. "Anyway, the Matrix. So there's this scene, right, where Neo -- that's the main character -- walks into the home of the Oracle, the mystic prophet lady who's going to tell him he's The One. And there's all these kids there, see."

He'd been planning to babble about the cat scene, but somehow, he can't bring himself to be quite that unaffected.

[accalia]

More silence. Elain will wait him out, either he'll get to the point of making his request eventually or closing time will come and she can kick him out then. It's only a couple of hours, then he'll be gone one way or the other and she can move the shop somewhere he can't find her. Maybe an alternate dimension would be the way to go.