ioduanlogs | Return of the Ginger Menace

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Return of the Ginger Menace

Characters: Klaus Von Reinherz and You!
Date: Mid July, onwards
Location: Aifaran
Situation: Klaus has returned after vanishing a month ago.
Warnings/Rating: ~~Wet dress shirt~~ None for now. Will update as necessary.

I. A Soggy Return - Aifaran - Leo

There was a pop, the brief sound of rushing air and then a very loud splash. It wasn't the worst place Klaus could have landed, especially given the cloying heat of the day, but he'd have preferred not to have ruined his waistcoat upon arrival.

He surfaced from the fountain water quickly. He looked rather ridiculous with his hair plastered over his eyes and fumbling furiously for his spectacles that seemed to elude his grasp. He didn't need to ask where he was - the familiar feeling of memories rushing back was explanation enough. All he needed to know was how long had passed. And if Leo was alright.

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II. Old Habits Die Hard - The Narrakra - Devin

While Klaus had generally been content to keep out of the bigger issues back in Keeliai - they had largely been political and Klaus didn't have the wealth or clout to throw around that he had in his own world. But this - this was what he'd consider a matter for Libra to stick its nose into. But Libra wasn't here - at least, most of Libra wasn't here.

He'd left Leo sleeping back at the apartment - there was no need to pester him for use of his eyes - not yet anyway. He didn't want to put him in any unnecessary danger. So he was out on his own.

The night was foggy and the light from street lamps seemed somehow compressed by the soupy mist. As he walked, he kicked up vaporous swirls until he reached the docks where the Narrakra had made her landing. The whole area was roped off, the security much tighter and more vigilant than it had been the night of her return. He couldn't just slip on through, but he could use the fog to his advantage. Slipping down an alley, he used his blood arts to quickly scale the side of a darkened, deserted warehouse. For such a large man, Klaus made almost no sound as he crept silently over the tin roof to gain a better vantage of the patrols.

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III. Business as Usual - Die Rose Tulpa - Open

Klaus had returned to work only a few days after his return. He was a man who hated not being busy, and while Leo and the Fool had done an outstanding job keeping the place running smoothly, the plants desperately needed his undivided attention. The time he didn't spend helping with the morning, afternoon and evening rushes, was taken up by pruning, weeding, and transferring the flora. Klaus had always had a knack for horticulture - if things had been different, he'd have probably gone into conservation or used his considerable wealth to open a conservatory.

But things hadn't worked out like that. Still, he was happiest surrounded by friends and flowers, and that happiness tended to manifest in him humming Vivaldi's 'Spring' while he worked.

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"I hope your garden has not been injured beyond repair."

This from the Fool who, after the afternoon rush of customers has abated, wanders over to where Klaus works, carrying two cups of tea in hand. One he extends out to Klaus with a wry, rather apologetic smile; he will never be an avid gardener.

It was probably also pure dumb luck that Leo had been out running an errand for the cafe and ended up walking past the fountain in time to hear a splash and a ruckus coming from it. Leo just glanced over, doing a double take when his eyes spotted a VERY familiar aura.

He nearly dropped the supplies of tea he was holding in his rush to make sure he was not hallucinating, and when he did finally spot the man he thought it was, the bag went straight onto the ground.

"KLAUS!!" He shouted, breaking into a run-and tripping over the side of the fountain, crashing into it and landing directly on top of his boss.

"They're far from lost," Klaus said, though perhaps he might have been in denial. Still, he didn't expect the Fool or Leo to have quite the same passion he did for plants.

"I should have left instructions - suddenly vanishing like that... it couldn't have been easy for either of you. I don't know if I've had the chance to properly express my gratitude for keeping things running so well."

"...it couldn't have been easy for either of you. I don't know if I've had the chance to properly express my gratitude for keeping things running so well."

With an undeniable air of whimsy about the gesture, the Fool waves off the near-apology, scoffing. "Oh, nonsense. Fate's intervention can neither be helped nor anticipated. We were fine."

(For certain values of 'fine,' keeping the business from going down in flames must qualify.)

He lifts up his teacup to sip from it, perhaps to mask his tiny fib, before he goes on mildly with, "Quite a lot has transpired in your absence, you might have noticed. The Narrakra has returned."

His fingers brushed the frame of his spectacles when a familiar voice called his name and then there was a splash and instinctively he reached out to steady Leo. It was practically reflexive now, he didn't even need to see what was happening. Still, instead of retrieving his glasses he now had an armful of Leo who was now just as soaked as he was.

Between the disorientation and Leo dropping the formal 'Mr.' from his name, he may have been just a bit red in the ears. Or maybe it was the heat of the day.

He pushed his sopping bangs out of his eyes, inspecting the blurry blue-and-white blur he'd caught. Almost definitely Leo.

Klaus gave a sheepish, apologetic smile. He had a lot of questions, but for now...

"Er... I'm home."

"I thought you were gone forever!" He wailed, burying his face directly into Klaus' now wet shirt. "I didn't know what to do at all."

He was half relieved and half worried that Klaus wouldn't approve of what he'd done to try and hold the whole place together, but he couldn't let go. He also apparently couldn't stop being a crybaby either.

"I'm sorry, I think I killed one of your plants and I also stepped on a cactus by accident," he continued.

He wanted to insist, even so that even so, he should have prepared more, as it was such a possibility. He opened his mouth to say as such, but his jaw quickly clicked shut.

The Narrakra has returned.

There had been an air of mystery about it before he'd vanished back to Jerusalem's Lot. A small headline, nothing major, but odd and worrying.

But Klaus was a man who did his homework. His contrite expression had grown grim.

"I heard. I've read over the old network - things have been very odd around here."

An understatement, of course, but Klaus's threshold for 'odd' had grown expansively from his years as a Fang Hunter and his time in Jerusalem's Lot.

"Did all the Dreamfolk see visions of the crews experiences?"

There was a soft 'shh' from Klaus, his hand gently squeezing Leo's shoulder.

"Don't worry about the cactus," Klaus said gently. He did feel a pang of loss for whatever died at Leo's hand (or foot) but it was never Leo's responsibility to care for the plants to begin with. It's not like he'd left behind instructions in case this happened.

Of course there were onlookers - one of the Dreamfolk had just popped into existence in the middle of the fountain, and another was crying all over him. There was one of the helpful sorts who greeted newcomers hovering a few feet away, not quite sure what to make of this spectacle.

"I'm sorry to have vanished so suddenly," he said, smoothing the damp hair from Leo's face, fussing as he always did when the other man was remotely distressed. "Have you been alright? How long have I been gone?"

"Did all the Dreamfolk see visions of the crews experiences?"

The Fool dips his head once in a nod, his expression growing more serious as the subject veers away from the state of Klaus' plants and towards the strange mystery settling itself across Aifaran. (Some part of him is excited by these developments, much though he knows the crew aboard the Narrakra undoubtedly suffered terribly through their ordeal. He does not delight in their pain--but a life spent pursuing mysteries and adventure is not so easily set aside.)

"Yes," he replies, tracing a thumb along the rim of the cup. He frowns. "It seems strange, to me, that it was only Dreamfolk who witnessed these visions, and not Aifaran locals."

While Devin had been keeping largely to himself of late, the Narrakra's return had piqued his interest. The mysteries surrounding it were enough to distract him some from his personal problems, and the Sentry's tight guard on the ship presented a challenge.

Klaus was not the only one who favored rooftop vantage points. Devin could smell blood before he heard someone climbing to the roof and hid himself behind a ventilation stack. The person that emerged was much larger than their stealth suggested, and Devin's eyebrows rose. He knew that frame.

Sneaking up on Klaus was probably not the best idea, so Devin just stepped out where he'd be visible and leaned casually against the stack with his arms folded. "Slinking about like a thief in the night, are we?"

"Even in Keeliai, we've always had a strange connection to the Dreaming. Things may have changed somewhat with the onslaught of the Death Plane, but that's remained a constant."

He gently set a few pots along the line of the windowsill. The sun blazed orange through the thick haze, and even the cool air of the cafe couldn't quite keep that cloying feeling at bay.

Klaus seemed to make up his mind about something.

"I won't ask you to tell me what you saw," he said, "but if there's any information you can share, anything that I couldn't find on the network, I would appreciate it."

Klaus didn't startle easily but it was still smart not to sneak up on the Blood Arts user. Especially if you sported a pair of overlong, oversharp incisors. Klaus wasn't a violent man by nature but some impulses were harder than others to control.

Fortunately, he'd been wanting to meet with Devin, but the vampire had been elusive.

"I could say the same of you," he remarked, giving a small nod of greeting. He didn't take the remark particularly personally. Libra often had to work outside the law and while people like Chain, Steven, and Leo were much better suited to espionage with their particular skillsets, Klaus wasn't averse to dirtying his own hands and had been on his share of missions in the past.

"Has there been a quarantine for anyone who's come in contact with the Narrakra?"

The space parasites had been a painful lesson in that regard.

Leo would've been embarrassed but honestly, emotions and his boss were more important right now. He looked up with his eyes still shut tight, unable to tell the difference between the fountain water and tears.

"Um. I've been having really fucked up visions, but I'm fine. And you were only gone like a few weeks or so, I think." Leo was worried that Klaus had gotten himself in trouble with getting attacked or something, but the man just hadn't returned and it wasn't like him.

Still, as Leo finally started looking at his boss, he realized something really, REALLY important. "Um. Mr. Klaus. Your-your shirt."

Klaus looked down.

...Of all the times to be without a waistcoat.

Thank goodness for his undershirt. And that his slacks were made of thicker, darker material.

"Are my things still at the flat?" He asked hopefully. A few weeks may have seen the cafe sunk, but Leo might still have the apartment. If not they could just go to the Dreaming Bridge and hope for the best.

Besides he wanted to hear about these visions. His fingers finally closed around his spectacles and he tucked them into his breast pocket, and he scooped Leo up in one arm and carried him out the fountain.

"Tell me more about what you've been seeing - it sounds like things have been rather interesting."

Really, Leo should be used to the fact that he weighed absolutely nothing to the majority of his friends but it was still just....embarrassing how easily Klaus could tote him around.

~~Not that he was complaining.~~ But it was embarrassing in front of so many people. "Mr. Klaus! I can walk on my own-your things are fine, I'm fine, except for the dude getting eaten alive by shadows and time, I don't really know."

The Fool's curiosity about Keeliai is bordering upon the obsessive, but given the circumstances, he reins it in for the moment. Nevertheless, he makes private note of that connection between Klaus and the city from the past; there is much to be learned there.

As for what information he might share, he can only frown. "I am not sure I would know what information would be useful to you," he confesses, and lets his gaze wander out the open window to consider the haze that has engulfed the city.

Klaus obediently set Leo down, both of them dripping a puddle of water onto the flagstones.

"Easy, Leonardo. Slow down - what is this about someone being eaten by shadows?" He asked.

The heat was good for drying off quickly, not so much the humidity though. He really had to land back in the dead of summer it seemed. Hopefully the flat was a bit cooler.

Leo resisted the urge to shake himself out like a dog, instead wringing some of the moisture out of his hair with his hands. That impromptu swim had actually felt great, but with the heat creeping in again, the water was just annoying.

"Well at first I thought it was just my eyes doing their thing again, but other Dreamfolk started reporting that they were seeing similar things on the network." Unfortunately he never got around to actually replying to them because he had been so worried about Klaus and the cafe and...well, his input didn't seem to be needed.

Right to business. Devin could respect that and wasn't bothered; he and Klaus had never had a particularly touchy-feely relationship. Their interactions were perhaps best described as 'rocky'.

He shook his head. "Not that I'm aware of. The Sentry was a bit disorganized when it first arrived. I think it's reappearance and condition had everyone on edge, but so far there's been no sign of it bringing back infestations or infections like the Moqsing," Devin answered. "Thinking of going aboard?"

Beat. "Welcome back, by the way."

'Conflicted' might have also been a good term for their odd friendship. Klaus had all kinds of complicated emotions when it came to vampires who weren't complete monsters.

He watched Devin out of the corner of his eye.

"Thank you," he said, and like always, he meant it. It was good to be home, and as fraught and tense as things were around Devin, he was glad to see that he outwardly seemed alright.

"I am. I've been watching the Sentry, listening in on their conversations, but nothing noteworthy has come up. If there isn't a biohazard risk, I'd like to get a look at the ship."

Another sidelong glance to Devin. "And yourself?"

"Some sort of telepathic link," Klaus said with a nod, "Likely fueled in some way by the Dreaming."

He'd have some backreading to do later, but that was a given. He'd been gone a month, he intended to catch up, even if all that was on the network was gossip.

"I can't imagine it was a pleasant experience, though."

Die Rose Tulpa and their flat above it was in sight now. Klaus felt a rush of relief to see a few customers at the outdoor tables, cooling off with cups of iced tea and coffee.

Klaus didn't miss the look of curiosity from the Fool when he brought up Keeliai. Not that he blamed him - it had been a fascinating place and experience, and Klaus wasn't exactly recalcitrant about his time there. But then, he wasn't one of the Foreigners who'd been there for Malicant's reign either.

"Like I said, if it's not a matter you want to discuss, I won't push it."

Plenty had been forthcoming about their experiences on the network - and he had his own plans for the evening.

"How have you been faring since we last spoke? Mr Parker seems to have taken a liking to you, if I recall."

"...Mr Parker seems to have taken a liking to you, if I recall."

It's such an innocent observation, but the Fool startles too abruptly--and colours a bit too visibly--for the comment to be purely benign. "Oh," he begins, but then sighs some and looks aside; there is little point in pretending Klaus hasn't touched upon a sensitive subject in bringing up Devin, not when he himself is so absurdly transparent about it.

(He will need to get better at that.)

"Yes," he allows at length, his lips twisting into a somewhat wistful smile. A little laugh escapes him, and he considers his tea. "He is infuriatingly circumspect about some matters, but I like to believe he and I have become friends since my arrival here."

Inwardly, Devin was very much not alright, but his ability to hide that had improved recently. Klaus had seen enough of his troubles already, and he felt too exposed to share more now.

"I was considering it. The Sentry has tightened the guard considerably since moving it here, but it's not an impenetrable fortress," Devin replied, shifting to where he could look down at the Narrakra. "I don't doubt there are considerable hazards below decks, if only structural ones. Not that that will stop either of us, I imagine."

"No," Klaus agreed. "It won't."

He picked up a loose brick from his perch and hurled it in the direction of a nearby alleyway. The resulting crash had the desired effect - several of the Sentry were moving towards the alley.

"Quickly, if you're coming," he said, gesturing for Devin to follow as he swung down from the roof and landed easily on his feet and made a beeline for the Narrakra.

Klaus didn't miss the expression and he seemed, for a moment, puzzled. One moment the Fool and Devin had been getting along swimmingly - now there was apparently some kind of tension.

He'd only been gone a month and while he knew friendships came and went in shorter periods it still seemed odd to him.

And then the Fool explained something Klaus knew all too well, in a rather roundabout way.

"Ah. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring up a sensitive topic," Klaus said. "But yes, Mr. Parker can be ... like that."

At Klaus's words, the Fool can only shake his head some, lifting a hand to wave them off. "Please," he insists with a warmer smile, "there is no need for an apology. It was a simple observation that merely..." There, he takes a breath and shakes his head some, making a vague gesture with one hand. "...caught me off-guard. It shouldn't have."

He comes to stand a little nearer to Klaus, taking a brief interest in the plants that he is in the process of salvaging from the Fool's paltry attempts at horticulture in his absence, then peers up at him, pensive. "I would know more of him, if I could," he admits quietly. "But I would not ask you to betray his confidence." A pause, and then, with another smile, "I would ask you not to, in fact. But whatever you do feel would be right to share, I would be glad to know."

"Well no, not really, but I'm kinda used to seeing stuff like that. I'd worry more for the other Dreamfolk. And uh, your plants," Leo added as they finally went inside the cafe.

It looked almost the same as it did before; well cleaned and maintained, though a few things out of place, and a couple of customers waved at Leo as he walked in. As long as Klaus ignored the crooked 'Temporarily Under New Management' sign and the wilting plants, it could almost be like he never left.

Leo, however, looked more than a little frazzled.

"I doubt he's shared with me more than he's shared with you. Our relationship is..." Klaus considered his phrasing here, "...fraught to say the least, given what we are."

Klaus didn't make much of a secret of being a vampire hunter back home and he was fairly certain Devin was open about being a vampire.

"Still, I do prefer to keep others' confidence when it's given to me. But I can say Mr. Parker reminds me a great deal of a dear friend back home. He too is overfond of keeping his secrets close and others at arms length. The walls he built around his heart can make him difficult to get along with. But like this person, Mr. Parker is a better man than even he thinks."

It left Klaus with a pang of guilt of how he'd treated Devin in the past and how little credit he gave the man.

Most of the plants, Klaus knew, were hardy enough to get through a month or so of inadequate care, but there were some he could see would probably not make it. He resisted the urge to immediately tend to the ones showing signs of under-watering.

There was a deep breath from Klaus. He had to remind himself that he couldn't expect the Fool or Leo to be as... passionate as he was about gardening.

He rested a reassuring hand on Leo's shoulder.

"The cafe looks good," he said, and meant it. "You both have really done a phenomenal job."

His poor begonias though.

"Will you tell me more about what you saw and what's happened upstairs?"

"...The walls he built around his heart can make him difficult to get along with. But like this person, Mr. Parker is a better man than even he thinks."

Softly, the Fool says, "Yes, he is," and there is perhaps more revealed in the gentleness of his tone when he says those three words than in anything else he's said so far. For a moment, he is quiet, contemplating his reflection in the surface of his cooling tea; the private smile that quirks the corners of his mouth is wistful as it fades.

Well, this is all a bit too revealing for the Fool's tastes. How best to remedy that?

He lifts his eyebrows, takes a sip from the teacup, and remarks instead, "Leo missed you terribly, you know."

(When in doubt, go for the, uh. ...eyes.)

Klaus quickly hid the smile that was tugging on the corners of his mouth by taking a sip of his tea. It wasn't Gilbert-made, but it would suffice and he didn't feel the need to inflict his eccentricities on the Fool.

The way the other man spoke of Devin, Klaus had to wonder if there was more there than just...?

No, he was imagining it, surely.

Of course the remark about Leo had him (nearly) sputtering into his teacup. It wasn't so much the remark itself, but the undertone of it that felt as though it were insinuating something.

He recovered magnificently, clearing his throat and setting the teacup down, though the red tinge to the tips of his ears was telling.

"Er. Yes. He said as much," he said, trying not to sound too interested. But Klaus had no pokerface whatsoever, unfortunately.

"...Was he... alright?" He asked. As much as Klaus considered Leo a dear friend to him, he didn't think his absence would have an effect that would cause him to 'miss him terribly'.

No poker face indeed. The Fool masks his sly smile behind another well timed sip from his tea cup.

"He managed the shop quite admirably in your absence, as you can see." Perhaps things were not quite in the state that Klaus would have preferred, but the business had not folded and their regular customers seemed happy enough with the service to return time and time again. Yet while managing the day to day operations of a cafe suggests resilience in some respects, the Fool suspects that is not Klaus's real concern.

He frowns some. "He seemed to doubt himself very much, without you here to affirm for him his better qualities. Your opinion is important to him; I believe he wishes you to be proud of him."

Leo had tried; some of the plants actually may have looked like they were over watered. Otherwise he tried to avoid eye contact with his boss as he was complimented. It really didn't feel right somehow. "I don't know if I have much more to say than the people on the network, though. I've been too busy trying to run this place to respond to anyone, but they have more information."

"You're lucky I don't work in law enforcement any longer," Devin quipped, leaping down after Klaus as he headed for the Narrakra. The smile on his lips did not reach his eyes, halted by the steel of training. Sneaking aboard a potentially dangerous ship was not supposed to be fun.

While the ship was cordoned off, it was still too large to covered by Sentry from end to end. The grim circumstances of its arrival probably kept some people away, as well as the lingering fog, but such things were hardly barriers to people who lived the supernatural daily.

"Is there anything specific you're looking for?" Devin wanted to know as they crept towards the edge of the pier.

"Libra and the JLPD never quite saw eye-to-eye either," Klaus said, almost idly. "I don't see why that should change."

Klaus was a man who moved with the nimbleness of someone half his size. He was quick, quiet, and almost ludicrously efficient, using unloaded cargo boxes and the fog to his full advantage.

"I don't know yet. I wasn't here when people were afflicted by visions, but Leonardo mentioned that he saw some... peculiar things."

His pace slowed once they were aboard, and he paused to listen for any approaching steps. It didn't look like there was much of a Sentry presence aboard the ship.

"I'll certainly be looking through the network, if only to catch up. But I trust your insight more," he remarked as they ascended the stairs to the two-bedroom loft. As he pushed open the door, there was a flurry of feathers and fluff.

"Ah, leiblinge! Ich habe dich vermisst," he exclaimed, scooping up Leo's tiny legion of bibiru's and planting little kisses on their snuffling noses.

"They look very well," he said. "Have you gotten more since I vanished? There seems to be new faces."

"Leonardo is quite an admirable man," Klaus said very matter-of-factly, keeping his tone quite neutral, "I've always been proud of him."

His shoulders slumped a little, and he exhaled.

"I wish he could be proud of himself. He's done so much, and yet he diminishes his accomplishments. Not out of humility, but because I think he genuinely believes he hasn't done much to be proud of."

Klaus took off his spectacles and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I apologize - I shouldn't have dumped that on your shoulders. You've worked just as hard to keep things going."

An idle, gently dismissive gesture with one hand, accompanied by a soft sound somewhere between a laugh and a sigh. He smiles at Klaus rather mysteriously. "Now I believe I understand where Leo comes by his penchant for offering apologies where none are required," he observes, a glitter in his eye.

He takes another sip from his tea, then looks back towards his end of the shop, where a few patrons are milling around his work station admiring what is on display. "I should tend to my work station," he says, then gently rests a hand on Klaus's forearm. Earnestly, he says, "I'm very glad you're back, Klaus."

There was a chuffed rumble from Klaus that could have been a chuckle, though it sounded more like the growl of a bear. It was hard to tell, given he'd covered his mouth, but the corners of his eyes had crinkled and his shoulders shook with something resembling mirth, so he was probably amused by the Fool's observation.

"Alas, he came to Libra that way," Klaus said, lightly patting the Fool's hand. "And thank you. It's good to be back in your company again."

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Return of the Ginger Menace

III sup boss, sorry I killed ur begonias

1. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

he'll forgive, but he'll never 4get

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