Arachnid had been with Nickolas for a few days and he was getting used to being in this big house but he was getting a little sick of being inside all the time. Didn’t Nickolas want him to help with his domain? Then why was he stuck here all the time?
I mean he likes being in the house, it's super big, and he spends a lot of time just watching tv in his huge living room, or just reading books upstairs in the library. He also doesn’t mind his new room even if he still has to get Nickolas to move the wall for him to go down. A very interesting method for protection. And that's still happening but what else is new.
Though he did get intruded to some of Nickolas’s ghouls. One a woman with shorter shoulder length wavy red hair, blue eyes, and cool painted nails, named Alison. Another ghoul, a man with longer brown hair in a ponytail and green eyes, named Jacob and finally two more ghouls both with copper colored hair who are siblings named Jason and Mallory both with brownish eyes. All the ghouls have a uniform with a white top and navy blue bottoms.
They were all cool but he misses talking to real humans his age. He wants to talk to people who don’t think that having a parlor is normal, is that so much to ask?
So he had asked Nickolas if he could go out. Nickolas seemed surprised that he asked. Nickolas looked at him confused, “Why do you want to go out so soon?” He was annoyed but kept calm and said, “well the house is nice and all but some fresh air will be good.” he added a smile, trying to seem pleasant. Nickolas smiled back and answered, “Then why don’t you go in the garden, it's quite nice you know.”
Arachnid decided to bite the bullet, “I want to talk to other people then the ones inside the house, besides shouldn’t I be helping with the domain?” Nickolas seems hesitant but nods and calls “one of the ghouls” to his study. Alison comes in with as much excitement as he would expect for getting more work. Nickolas smiles and turns his head to arachnid. “I’ll give you your answer soon, until then goodbye. I have much to speak with the ghouls about.” Arachnid nods and leaves the room.
Ok so if Nickolas had his way he’d be stuck in here forever! Over dramatic fledgling. Shut up voices! Just as he was planning his escape Alison came in to talk to him. “Well Nickolas has agreed to have you brought out, but you’ll need this before you do.” She handed him a white shirt with navy blue dress pants, the ghouls uniform.
He looked at the clothes confused. Why was he getting these? “Umm thank you but why..?” She looks amused and she says, “Well you can’t be known to be another kindred if we all don’t want trouble, so looking like one of the ghouls is your best bet.” He nods, taking the clothes and going to one of the bathrooms to change.
The clothes fit well and are comfortable enough, he can’t wear one of his hoodies though which is sad, but he will deal with it. Anything to get out of this house already. He comes out of the bathroom and walks back to Alison before asking, “When do I get to go out?” she smiles and answers, “When I’m ready, you're not going out alone.” Arachnid stops, what he's not going out alone, she has to come with him?
Oh of course the older vampire wouldn’t let a new other vampire into his territory unsupervised why would he do that? Why would a vampire leave their fledgling unsupervised? Fucking voices again! Ugh great, now he has a babysitter or a patrol officer. Take your pick. He sighs and says, “Well when do we go then?” She smiles and says soon before getting a coat on and handing Arachnid a coat as well, he was about to argue but she talks before he can. “No, take the coat, it's fall, and it's getting cold out. If you walk around without one you will look weird.”
He takes the coat and puts it on, begrudgingly. He misses his coat but this is better than nothing. He decides to ask, “So where are we going first?” Alison thinks for a moment before answering, “The business around the college first, just a quick walk around, then to the college itself.” That sounds like a fair evening.
So they go outside to one of Nickolas’s cars, with how old Nickolas is Arachnid wonders how he knows how to use a car. Maybe he gets the ghouls to do it, sounds stuck up enough. Alison got in the car first getting in the driver's seat, was she the ghoul that drove Nickolas around? Maybe he should ask. “Do you drive Nickolas around, or does someone else drive him around?”
She turns the key and looks at him as he sits in the front of the car beside her, “I’m the main driver, yes. But I have other duties in the house, like helping organise everything or entertaining guests when they come by." She seems to have been annoyed by him implying that she just drove Nickolas around all day. He sinks into his seat and mutters an apology. “Sorry, didn't mean to offend you…”
Her look softens and she speaks more evenly, “my apologies, I’m not used to a kindred so,” She pauses and looks around as she drives before continuing, "interested in the ghouls, lets just say. It's not really your fault, so don’t feel bad. Alright?" he nods, not wanting to make her madder. What's the ghoul going to do? She takes a breath and keeps going on the road until they pass the art college and go to the main college that arachnid hung around not even a week ago.
She mumbles something about bad parking before pulling into the college. Arachnid is very confused. “Why are we at the college weren't we going to the business first?” She seems really annoyed as she says, “Well there is no parking in this part of the city that you don’t have to pay for, and I don’t have all the money in the world you know.”
He smiles and nods as they get out of the car. He sees a really big building in front of them and a field past that. They move out past the gate again moving into the street, there is no sidewalk here. They very carefully move over to the right side of the building seeing a few clubs on the walk. As they get to the now existent sidewalk they see a few buildings: a coffee shop, an ice cream shop that's closed at this hour, a taxi business no one ever enters, and he's not sure if it's closed?
She sees him looking at the taxi “company” and starts talking about it, seeming to know a lot about it already. For some reason? “Oh that, it’s a shell company. For whom? I’m not sure. But no one comes in or out day or night.” he thinks for a moment. “That's creepy…how do you know that stuff though?” she thinks before responding with, “Nickolas has us watch it sometimes.” He nods and they keep walking.
They walk down into the opposite of where they had started this little tour. They saw mostly normal stores: a general and party store, a laundry mat, a burger place that Arachnid wishes he could go to, he can almost see the auto repair shop he's passed a few times.
She seems to be considering what to say before settling on saying, "There's a pawn shop past the street that's right next to the furniture store. They are both fronts for some people, but I don’t think kindred are involved, we looked at the places plenty of times and nothing.” arachnid is weirding out, how much do they have to stalk people? Will he have to do that? Maybe maybe not. You're being so helpful today! You are talking to yourself.
They keep walking going back up to the top of the campus, but on the way they see a few bars. He wonders how many of those are around here? And they also see a big art museum a few streets from the campus. Alison notices and decides to give him more information on the place. “That museum was built by Nickolas's sire, Pleasence. She's the toreador primogen and an elder. Hopefully you’ll never meet her if you don’t have a good plan.” he hopes he doesn’t meet her too, that doesn’t sound fun.
He looks around, aren’t the toreador super art focused? “Wait if this is all toreador then why aren’t there more art things?” Alison considers this for a second before explaining, “They can’t have all the businesses be art or people couldn’t eat. Besides, Pleasance likes bloomhill glade more than here. That's why Nickolas's haven is there and not here.” Arachnid guesses that makes sense.
They walk back up to where they started after that going back towards the parking lot but stopping short. Alison turned and smiled, “Ready to see the college?” he nodded but he's already been around a few times. Not like she needs to know that.
They go to the building he saw earlier which is apparently a changing room for the athletes, which explains the smell, and they pass the big field that he saw on the way out. They go to the main courtyard with both the stem building and the mathematics buildings on either side. It's a pretty place with flowers and bushes to the sides with a few trees and a fountain in the center. He really likes this place.
There are a few students walking around presumably trying to get to the dorms or the library. Though it's still weird to be awake this late, even for college students. Though not vampires.
They walk down to what is the campus library. He went here a few times, not to read but to watch the people. It’s a big building near the bottom of the campus, there are a few people who look like they got kicked out for being in the building too late, some look like they had been sleeping. The library is near where they go next, the main building that apparently has the English hall in it too?
It's a really big place but kinda off to the left? Weird that it's called the main building but who is he to judge? There is no one around here this late in the main building. They pass by the auto shop and one of the dorm buildings, they both are kinda weirdly sized. The dorm is pretty big and the auto shop is really small. Whatever.
Around the dorm there are a few strangling people, some look drunk, some look like they haven't slept in days. Most just look like they are trying to get out of the cold as fast as possible, not like he could blame them. Though the cold doesn’t bother him as much anymore, he can barely feel the cold wind against the jacket.
They walk to the other side of campus to see the law building and the culinary building which are both right by the second dorm building which is just as big as the last one. The crowd is slightly bigger, a barbeque seeming to have happened at a more reasonable hour of the day. They looked to have had fun though so that's good for them.
After that they walk back to the parking lot and go back in the car. He doesn’t mind going back; it's been a lot of walking. On the drive back he decides to ask a question, “what type of stuff will I be doing for Nickolas, do you know?” she laughs at the question and responds, “Oh don’t worry about that, he was considering if he should even put you on package deliveries, you’ll be fine. Promise” she says that last part with an evil grin.
Great baby missions ugh he's going to (double) die of boredom at this rate.
