Pending Deal

[Nessy]

raven said:

Mina frowned for a moment. "Let's go to the Grid. I have a pending deal with Pixie", she decided, patting a small bag dangling from her belt. "The codes of the elevators' shafts are getting problematic again, we need her to replace them. I got the two nanoprocessors she wanted for pay, now it's time for her to fulfill her part of the deal. Come on, we don't have much time before the sun rises." As they reached the ground floor, Mina headed to the entrance and left the building, heading to the right.

Sven nodded and was sure to walk all the time quite close to Mina - if there was an ambush, he'd be sure to let her escape. He was her Beta and he would place himself in "the shooting line" if she ever was in danger. He'd be quiet the whole time. No matter how chatty he could be, Sven knew when it was time to be focused and serious.

If they did walk to their destination with no problems, he'd let Mina get in Pixel's domain, still pretty close. He looked at his Mistress and arched his eyebrows, expecting her to lead the way.

[Mina Crow]

The pair walked across a few streets in silence. Pixie's domain was not far from Rhymes Square, yet it was hard to know what the shadows hid. Fortunately they didn't have to approach Central Park, where the Wildcats lurked.

Eventually they reached a dark alley, a mountain of rubble blocking one of the ways. A soft buzzing sounded overhead, and the flash of light on glass turned toward them. "Keep quiet and raise your arms", muttered Mina, giving the example. "It's one of her cameras."

[Isn't your muse supposed to inspire you? Mine is just consuming air and room. Inspiration, niente.]

[Nessy]

(It's maybe because YOU DON'T SLEEP. =D)

Sven blinked and looked at Mina with an arched eyebrow and an expression that clearly said, 'you're kidding me' . But as he saw her lifting her arms up, he arched his eyebrows furthermore and snickered. "Parainoid much?", he shook his head and lifted his arms up a bit, looking at the source of the light and smiling at the camera.

"Cheese?"

[Mina Crow]

[Lass, I'm a Vampire. No sleep needed. End of story.]

"She's crazy, that's all", whispered Mina as the camera moved back. There was a soft clicking sound and a door opened ten feet away, shedding a pale blue glow. "Follow me." Mina pulled the door full open and entered the building, waiting for the Beta to follow. The inside was in complete contrast with the outside. A sturdy steel stairway went down through a hatch from which the light emanated, and everywhere was the soft buzz of electrical mechanisms.

[Nessy]

(No, but your braaaaaiiin does. =D)

Sven snorted. "Heh, and aren't we all?", he arched his eyebrows up and down and snickered. As Mina opened the door, he followed close behind her, watching the surroundings. "Faaaan!^*", he murmured in his mother language. "This place looks it just crawled out of a sci-fi movie.", he scratched the back of his head, turning his head around to observe the whole place. Afterall, as the Vampire's Beta, it was his job of sorts to observe, learn and find the weak spots.

(^*Fan!: Swedish for "Fuck!")

[Mina Crow]

[It's long dead - it's been sleeping for the last 18 years, my dear.]

"Shush it", hushed Mina. "Better not to provoke her. Keep down, Rooster. Let me do the talking." They walked through a rounded archway, entering another long room. Its end wall was completely covered with screens and computer processors, yet they were all turned off. On the left, at a small desk lighted by a blue lamp, sat a girl typing furiously on a laptop, apparently not aware of their presence. Mina coughed softly, and the girl turned to face them. She was wearing bright pink and purple baggy clothes, clashing to the eye and hardly matching her blond hair, held back by a violet ribbon. Pixie. She giggled and pulled the chair back, rocking softly from side to side in the middle of the room. Her pink gloved hands twitched softly in the arms of the chair, and her green eyes had a strange, alienated glow.

"Mina! How nice of you to come and visit me!" she greeted between giggles.

"Hi, Pixie. Nice to see you again", returned the Vampire. It would be hard for them to look any more different; Mina stood still in her black robes, grimacing, while Pixie grinned in the middle of that jungle of colors."This is Sven. Sven, this is Pixie."

[Nessy]

Sven snickered to himself as Mina commented about her doing the talking. It struck him as odd; yes, she was the Mistress of the Tribe, but she wasn't that much of a talkitive one. He nodded at her and walked almost shoulder by shoulder, looking at the walls and wires, afraid something would fall on her (or their, to be more accurate) head or something of the sort.

Entering in that girl's domain, he watched her bright colours and tried not to burst out loud, mockingly, at the choice of colours, nor trying to do any nasty comment, as Mina advised him to, thus he compelled. Sven just sucked his lips into his mouth and nodded at the computer expert girl, lifting a hand up in a silent hello. He turned his head to Mina and then back to Pixie and, again, tried not to snicker: the contrast was amusing.

[Mina Crow]

"Oh, you've got such a nice puppy, Mina!" Pixie rose to her feet, a childish smile on her face. "He's adorable!" She eyed the Vampires' Beta from head to toe, giggling constantly.

"Where did you find him? Did you get one for me as well? I like his hair-style." The girl reached out with a gloved hand, but Mina lashed with her arm as well, grabbing Pixie's wrist before she touched Sven's hair. "He doesn't like people touching his hair, Pixie", she said curtly.

The bright clad girl pouted. "Why?" Pixie seemed to be on the verge of tears. Repressing an exasperated sigh, Mina lowered her hand and gave Sven a warning glance.

[Nessy]

Sven tipped his head to the side and frowned a little, clenching and unclenching his jaw in a kind of habit. He was being called puppy by a psychadelic loony bat? How nice. He twitched his eyes as he saw that gloved hand approuch, pulling his head back, trying not to touch the girl, as to obey his Mistress' orders, and was trully glad Mina did what he wanted to. As she grabbed her hand, Sven breathed out through clenched teeth... But then made a confused face as Pixie pouted and seemed to be about to cry. He rolled his eyes and groaned. He hated kids.

"Pet peeves, ever heard about them?", Sven tilted his head and arched his pierced eyebrow, massaging his shoulder, trying his best to speak with a blank tune of voice, instead of his usually sarcastic and acid one.

[Mina Crow]

Mina made a strangled sound, a mix of a growl and restrained laughter. Pixie smiled wide, and rose on tiptoe to mess up Sven's hair, laughing all the time.

It was too much for Mina. The girl turned her back, trying to keep some degree of control, and covered the lower half of her face with the red scarf. She breathed deeply and turned around once more, trying desperately not to look at the remnants of Sven's mohawk. Pixie was simply standing there again, head cocked slightly to the left, inquiring eyes fixed on Mina. Suddenly she seemed to remember something. The girl stepped back, still eyeing Mina. "Look, I got a new shirt! It's lovely, isn't it, Mina?" The Vampire could not trust her voice, so she just nodded vehemently, before Pixie turned to Sven with the same inquisitive smile. "Do you like it, puppy?"

[OMG. Pixie is killing me... xD]

[Nessy]

( She's killing Sven too =D... D= )

Sven held his breathe, twitching his cheek and clenching his jaw. He was trying really hard not to grab her face and throw her on the floor, fingers twitching by his sides. When she was done messing up his hair, he let out a long and raspy sigh, kind of a growl coming from the deep of his throat. Well... messy-sloppy look wasn't that bad on him - hah, maybe in someone else's eyes, but to Sven it was just ruining his whole style. The mohawk was essential. He lifted a hand to his hair and tried to adjust it, looking for a mirror somewhere.

He turned to Pixie with narrowed eyes and breathed loudly through his nose. "It's Sven or Rooster. And no I do--", he shut up, looking at Mina, before giving a forced smilie to Pixie. "I don't like it; I love it.", he muttered between clenched teeth, before muttering something barely understandable, along the lines of "annoying little colourblind nerd", still trying to fix his hair.

[Mina Crow]

Pixie let out a little yell and clapped her hands joyously. "Oh, and Mina-" The older girl lifted a hand imperiously. "I'm sure you would show us something marvelous, Pixie. Puppy would love it. But we don't have much time, this is a quick visit." Pixie pouted again. Mina forced herself not to roll her eyes. "Come on, my dear. Do you have the codes ready?" Pixie nodded slowly, biting her lower lip, arms crossed over her chest. Mina picked up the small bag and took off two silver balls, slightly smaller than her fingertips. Pixie's eyes lightened up at this vision, and the pout was gone in a flash. "I'll be right back!" With that, she disappeared through a side door. Mina sniggered softly, looking at Sven with a smile twisting her mouth. "You look like a flustered chicken, my dear puppy."

[Nessy]

Sven groaned when Mina called him that. He frowned and looked quite displeased. The things he had to put with. So he entertained himself with the thoughts of torturing Pixie. Oh that would hurt. And that would definately work, he he...

When Pixie walked off, Sven watched the back of her head, thinking how good it would be to just kick it with his heavy boots. Crush the skull under the-- Mina's voice interrupted his thoughts, making him snap back to reality. He looked at her and frowned, narrowing his eyes. "Please, Mina, I can take that from a psychadelic loony bat that's also colourblind, but from you? Fan!", he crossed his arms over his stomach, shaking his head. He had given up in trying to fix his damn hair, since it was a complete mess.

[Mina Crow]

"There, there, no need to fret like that... puppy." Mina was openly teasing now. He had teased her so many times already, he was due to have a payback. But this was not the time nor the occasion. "You won't let a 'psychedelic loony bat that's also colorblind' get at you this way, will you, Rooster? Here, let me fix it", she offered, reaching for his head with her pale hands.

[Nessy]

He groaned and breathed out in frustration, frowning. And kept imagining poking Pixie's eyes out, since it wasn't really Mina's idea to start calling him that. That, and he couldn't really bring himself to picture hurting the Vampires' Mistress. Sighing, he turned his eyes to the girl as she outstretched her hand. Oi... Nothing good would come out of that. But, hey, what the heck, his hair was already in a mess, and he was pretty much imagining she was going to mess it up even more, so he just sighed and rolled his eyes, clenching his jaw. He didn't back off, but he didn't bend over to make it easier for Mina to reach his hair. Too bad she was nordic-ish tall too.

[Mina Crow]

"It wouldn't hurt you to bend your stiff back a little, Sven", admonished Mina. He was only an inch taller than she was, yet he stood proud as a rooster on his perch. Just like his namesake. She sighed deeply, molding his hairstyle back to its original form as best as she could. "There. As good as new, you arrogant cock." She had clearly intended the double sense of the comment. Casting Sven a slightly dirty look, Mina stepped away from him a bit, crossing her arms and frowning at nothing. What was taking Pixie so long?

[Nessy]

He arched his eyebrows as she did straighted his hair. He blinked, looking at her surprisedly. He wasn't expecting that, at all. Sven snickered a little to himself and bowed his head a little. "Thanks, Mina."

That little comment made him laugh a little more. He opened his mouth to most likely spit a naughty, dirty response, but then closed. He liked to push it, but he also liked Mina in this mood better. He put a finger to his lips and grinned silently, looking at the black-haired girl with interest.

"Probably regained colour sight, looked at the mirror, and got blind.", he murmured, arching an eyebrow.

(Your muse seems to be back with a twisted sense of humour, BTW. =P)

[Mina Crow]

[Hmm, thanks. Hope she stays alive for a while, now.]

Mina paced around the room, restless. Pixie was still showing no signs of returning. Anyway, it was a relief to be away from her lunatic being for a few minutes - as fun it was seeing Sven caught in his own kind of trap. Sven and Pixie? She chuckled. The girl was incapable of coherent thought beyond her world of 1s and 0s. And Sven... Well, he was himself.

Not really aware of her surroundings, Mina suddenly found herself in front of Pixie's laptop. Behind the soft electrical humming, there was something like... Birds? Chirping birds? Okay, that was final. Pixie had no sanity left. Pressing a key, she started to browse through the files, frowning.

"Sven. Come here. I think you should see this."

[Sinclaw]

[Can't really say it's a good idea, but I can't look away now]

[Nessy]

Sven stretched his arms above his head and cracked his back in doing so, sighing in relief. As Mina walked around the room, the young man when to observe it quietly. Were there cameras around the place? What colour the walls had been before? Perfect constructed structure. Those were some of the questions he was asking himself, trying to figure them out, but never getting to since the Vampires' Mistress called him. He turned his head to her and frowned at her request, seeing what she was seeing.

"Do you think that's wise, Mina? She might be right outside.", nevertheless, he walked up to her and peeked over her shoulder easily, but still alert. He wouldn't want to Pixie run on them prying her things: that psychadelic bat was insane enough to snap and try to hurt them, he'd reck on. So he pretty much put himself close to Mina, so that the chances of him protecting her were bigger. "What is it?"