The Shattered Veil [1x1]

[accalia]

Well that got a reaction at least. A clatter of things hitting the floor as the woman jumps in.... is she startled? or genuinely scared?

"I-indeed no." Okay, so a little of both then, her tone is the same as he remembered from that night ten years ago, hardly aged a day.

[yamikuronue]

Indeed no-- yes or a no? It was a simple question.

He doesn't let the flare of irritation show. It's a bad habit, irritation. Leads to anger, and that leads him to doin' things he'll regret in the morning. So he chuckles instead. "I never can understand 'em. Always on about pokey-mans and game-boys and whatnot."

[accalia]

"Miles, If you found your way here you know what kind of world you have entered, you couldn't have seen my shop if you didn't. Do you really believe that what my son said is a joke?"

Well, okay that confirms it, she remembers him, and that fiery attitude of hers is still present, that same spark of will and emotion that drew him to her back in Reno. She's startled to see him again, and doing a terrible job of hiding that she's scared of something about his presence, but underneath she's still the Elaine of his memories.

[yamikuronue]

"World? The world of retail?" His skeptical yet upbeat tone says it all: he thinks her no less foolish than he thinks her son, at best assuming the both of them are having him on. But... but he's here. Why would he be here, asking for weapons, if he doesn't know what she sells?

[accalia]

Elaine is spared from answering by the return of her son, He carries three guns and two strange pieces of metal. After laying the pieces out on the counter he remounts his stool and waves his hands over the items for Miles to observe. And what an odd collection of weapons they are, A revolver that appears to be made of crystallized blood and bone, a Beretta 9mm that is missing a barrel yet still looks capable of inflicting death with great vigor, what appears to be a prop alien blaster, except that this one is pulsing with tumescent green energy, and two rods of a strangely silver grey metal that seems to have been dipped in oil for a slight rainbow shading as the light plays on them.

"Honored customer, are any of these suited to you?" he asks, looking intently at Miles with those strange, almost familiar, blue eyes.

[yamikuronue]

"Now this looks a sight better," he agrees. "I'm sure these'll be suitable. What a beauty you are," he says, reaching his right hand toward the Beretta. Oddly enough, despite being left-handed, he shoots righty; it 'keeps people off balance'. Of course, he didn't do much shooting back when Elaine knew him, just at the range. He also didn't concealed carry.

[accalia]

As Miles' hand nears the Beretta a strange buzzing flashes from the tips of his fingers to his ears, a voice whispers in his head, oily and full of the rasping of rusty metal. 'Pick me up, pull my trigger, pour your life force into me, and use it to kill.... yessssssss....'

[yamikuronue]

He yanks his hand back, then lets out an awkward laugh. "Maybe too pretty," he admits. "Really not my style. Besides, it's broken," he adds, his voice back on steady ground now. "I mean, I'd have to buy a barrel to finish it out, and that's maybe not worth the cost. Whereas this one, now, this one's a classic. Look at those lines." He turns his attention to the (admittedly creepy) bone revolver.

[accalia]

"Honored customer jests." The salesboy says softly "all items for sale in our shop are in fully working order and require no restoration efforts."

The bone pistol growls inaudibly as Miles reaches for it, it wants to be used, it wants to drink of the blood of its wielder and use it to kill heretics and those who are judged abominable to the eyes of the lord. Miles isn't exactly sure how he knows what the gun wants, but he's absolutely sure that he does.

[yamikuronue]

Drink blood... and me with my checkered past.

He doesn't give the alien blaster so much as a second glance. Whatever that thing was, it's not alien tech he thinks, passing it over for the rods.

[accalia]

Now the rods, they feel odd. Not malicious as the Beretta had,  nor fevereshly frenzied as the bone pistol had. There's power in the rods, a great and terrible power, but it's locked away so only the sense of it's distance presence leaks out. There's a will there too, waiting for the right moment. That will becomes aware of Miles at the same time miles becomes aware of it. A brush against Miles' mind as he is sized up by that will power before words appear in Miles' head without bothering to enter via his ears.

"I wait for one who is just and true to wield me, you wish for a weapon to wield. For what purpose do you seek to wield me?"

[yamikuronue]

Well, now, that's a heck of a question. His mental voice is as genial and laid back as his outward voice... but there's more leakage of something underneath. Fear, for certain: a deep, gut-clenching dread of the Thing That Chases Him, a thing he hasn't seen and refuses to contemplate. But also the dread that it will follow him here, will destroy Elaine's life, coupled with the certainty that if he doesn't make amends now, he'll never get the chance, and that would just be wrong.

[accalia]

The will of the rods seems to shrug, apparently reading far more into the response than Miles intended.

"You are not the one I am waiting for, not as you are now. But you hold the potential to become the one I wait for. Pick me up then if you wish. Should you grow and become that which I wait for I will allow you to wield my full might. Should you fail, then I will fail you when you call upon me. I am Judgement, that which protects."

Well, it's not an acceptance, but it's not denial either and the feeling Miles gets from the rods feels.... right. Or perhaps potentially right. It's an odd feeling, but a pleasant one too.

[yamikuronue]

Now that sounds like a challenge. I never back down from a challenge, little missie, and you'll find I never fail either.

He takes the rods, feeling their weight in his hands.

[accalia]

As the rods are lifted from the table the metal liquifies and flows like mercury, hugging Miles' hands like a second skin, it also shifts color to the point that the only indication that they are there is the cool weight, and a slight distortion of Miles' skin patterns as the metal makes the palms of his hands slightly thicker.

"Honored customer, it seems Judgement has accepted you. Treat it well and listen to its advise and it will be a great friend to you." the child acting as shopkeep says, reaching to tidy away the rejected items.