Disclaimer: Still don't own Shadow Hearts.
~~
Alice was trying to think if anyone living nearby was a photographer or had a camera. And there was also the problem of who had a darkroom. She wasn't having much luck thinking of anyone.
"At least, not one who lives close enough. I want to take a picture of everyone, right when they get here. Do you know anyone, Yuri?"
"No. Why do we need a photo?"
"Because-because, for all we know, this will be the last time we'll all be together! So I want to have a picture. A picture would be nice," she murmured quietly.
"Margarete sent a letter right? When's her train coming?"
"Oh! Well, now that you mention it, she didn't say anything about taking a train. She said she was taking an airplane."
Yuri blinked in surprise, remembering the last time she had flown an airplane. "She better not be the pilot or she's not getting here. Well, the others-any idea when they'll come?"
"Um, Koudelka said her train should come in the evening, so Halley and she shouldn't be here before probably four-and Zhuzhen's taking a train too, but I think he'll actually get here sooner. He's had to travel a lot more than the others."
"What about Keith?"
"Well, he didn't say. He knows the date though." A thought suddenly occurred to Alice in her nervousness and she repeated, "He DOES know the date, right?" Alice was starting to panic now, pacing the floor next to the bookcase. "I told him in the letter and all-but what if he didn't get the letter? What if he doesn't know? Everyone has to come or this'll all-!"
"Alice, Alice, calm down." Yuri grabbed her shoulders and forced her to stay still. "Don't worry. He'll come. Just wait and see-"
Then they heard a screech and a yell from upstairs, making both Yuri and Alice look at the ceiling wonderingly. "Mother?!"
Her mother came running downstairs, screamed something about a rat as she passed them, and ran into the kitchen.
"The hell?" Yuri asked. Then Alice and he saw what had upset Mrs. Elliot so much as it came downstairs.
It wasn't a rat, but a bat. Alice and Yuri had both had enough experience with bats to know it was a vampire bat. Without pausing to think of why a bat would be flying about during daylight, Alice grabbed a heavy book from the bookcase and ambushed the bat, whacking it to the floor. She was about to hit it again when-
"Wait, wait!"
She stopped and stared at the bat in surprise. "Keith?"
In a flash of light, the bat quickly turned into the blonde nobleman. The two could only stare at their friend as he rubbed his head a bit and said, "You are quite deadly with a book, Alice."
"Keith, in all your 400 years have you ever heard of KNOCKING?" Yuri demanded.
He shrugged. "Of course; however, I wished to get here as quickly as possible. Has Margarete arrived yet?" Keith asked.
"Nope, you're the first one here. Good thing too, Alice was freaking out about if you'd even come."
"I wasn't sure you'd gotten the letter," Alice admitted. "You didn't send a reply."
"I am sorry about that. The problem was I slept so late in my coffin," Keith told them. "I did not know about the party until a week ago. Unfortunately-" He stopped and corrected himself. "Fortunately-Although at the time-"
"C'mon, spit it out Keith," Yuri said.
"Well, Margarete was so kind," he said with just a touch of sarcasm, "as to make sure I would come to the party." At this point he looked a little irritated and then grinned a little, as if satisfied. "She is late."
"She's not late really," Alice said. "Koudelka and Halley aren't even getting here until the evening."
At this moment, the kitchen doors chose to burst open and Alice's mother came out, wielding a broom. She almost began storming up the stairs, but then she noticed there was a guest in the house. The broom dropped with a clatter and she seemed quite embarrassed.
"Um, Mother," Alice said, "Are you alright?"
The older woman blinked and gave a cry of surprise. "Oh, you're one of Alice's friends, aren't you! You must be Keith," she said, taking in his appearance and dress. "Why are you sitting on the floor?"
"Al-"
"Mother, you don't have to worry about the bat," Alice interjected. "We, um, we got rid of it."
"Oh good. I hate bats, nasty little things, don't you?" she asked Keith.
He opened his mouth, but he didn't know how to respond to this. He felt like he had just been insulted. "Well, I think they are rather fascinating."
"Really? Do you study them?"
"Actually, I can turn-"
Yuri's foot then *accidently* slipped, kicking Keith's back. The vampire turned a glare to the Harmonixer and frowned as his friend shook his head slightly. They obviously did not want Mrs. Elliot to know that he was a vampire. "I have studied them a bit," he said.
"Oh, that's very interesting. Could you please excuse me? I'm planning to go shopping soon," She said, and went upstairs.
Keith stood up, turned to Alice and Yuri and demanded, "What was that about?"
"Please, don't tell Mother you're a vampire," Alice pleaded. "As far as she knows, you're a nobleman who hired us for an exorcism."
"And don't tell her about the real job," Yuri added.
"What on earth is this about?" Keith asked again.
"Well, you see...Mother knows a lot about exorcism and spirits, but not much about actual...monsters and demons and such. And, she would not like to hear that her daughter helped kill God and a few people and was kidnapped on quite a few occasions and used to summon a demon god. I think she'd try to exorcise me." Alice ran out of breath and took in a deep breath. "So-"
"So basically, you couldn't tell her the whole story. And since you couldn't tell her that, you made up a new story," Keith said, seeing where this was going. "There must be a lot of editting in this story." She nodded.
"Just remember, I never left Europe, alright? And no monsters. Just exorcism." She smiled at him, trying to make him feel less upset about the story changes. "Alright?"
"It is no trouble," he said easily. After all, vampires had lived among humans for centuries without being discovered. What was a week? Suddenly something occured to him and he looked at Yuri. "Does she know about you?"
Alice winced. "No, she doesn't. Um...I suppose we've got to tell her sometime, but...I don't think she'll take it very well."
"Surely if she's handled spirits, the idea of someone being able to control and harness a spirit's power wouldn't be too foreign to her," Keith said.
"But," Yuri said, gesticulating as he spoke, "If we tell her about the fusion, she'll probably hear about the Graveyard. If she hears about the Graveyard, she'll probably hear about the masks. And if she hears about the masks, she might hear about Atman."
"Ah," said Keith. Just that. He was pretty sure any mother would go insane to hear that their child had come as close to sacrificing their soul as Alice had.
"Yeah."
"Would you like some tea, Keith?" Alice offered, remembering that if he had flown here as a bat, he was probably a little tired. Keith nodded, although Yuri did not seem nearly so pleased about the idea.
"Is there any coffee?" Yuri asked her.
"That stuff is disgusting."
"Better than tea."
"I don't see how you can even stand to drink it, let alone like it."
This argument went on as they went to the kitchen. Their guest in back was able to see how at first they just walked close, but their hands eventually found each other and joined. Keith had an amused smile as he watched the two with his light blue eyes. They really were in love, it seemed. Margarete had been right.
Although she was still going to be in serious trouble when she arrived.
"What, Alice?" He said, suddenly realized Alice was talking to him.
"I said, why didn't Margarete come with you?" she repeated, pouring water into the kettle and setting it on the stove. "Did she have something else that she needed to do?"
"More bombings?" Yuri guessed. All three heard the door open and close as Alice's mother left to go shopping.
The vampire frowned and looked at the door. "She proposed...a race. To see which one of us would get to your house first. There is a little prize for the winner." He scowled heavily.
"What's with that Keith? I mean, if there's a prize, shouldn't it be good? You did win after all," Yuri pointed out.
There came a knock at the door and Keith said, "That should be her." With that, he stood next to the door but made no move to open it. Alice and Yuri followed him, and although a little puzzled by Keith's behavior, Alice gave him nothing more but a puzzled look before she opened the door.
In strode Margarete, looking flashy as always in a tight blue dress and her hair down, instead of in its usual ponytail. For once she had given up her gun, probably only because there was no place to conceal it-except in probably one of her two overstuffed bags. Instead, she had a sheath around her waist, one that looked familiar.
"Margarete, why do you have Keith's sword?" Yuri asked.
She just grinned slyly, her eyes with a mischievious glint in them. "Is he here yet?"
From behind the door, two hands grabbed her shoulders, making her jump in surprise. "Margarete," Keith said in a voice that suggested he was about to lose patience, "I would like my sword back. Now."
After the blonde had recovered from her shock, she sighed and said, "Damn, it's such an awesome sword too...But I guess you won. Here's your prize." She held out the sheath and sword to have them snatched away. Keith checked over them both, seeing if any damage had been done to either.
"The prize was his sword?"
"And what were you doing this time, Ms. Spy Genius?" Yuri asked Margarete.
She shrugged innocently. "Well you know, I was passing over Blue Castle to get here and I decided to check on Keith. And guess what Keith was doing, only a week ago? SLEEPING! I kept telling him to wake up, get out of the coffin, if you don't you're going to miss the party-and he just keeps on sleeping! He rolled around a bit, muttered some stuff about garlic and bad breath, and he would not wake up.
"So then, I just took his sword and left a little note saying that if he didn't beat me to your guys's house, I was going to keep it. I think I left it in Steven's coffin."
"That was my father's. He is a lighter sleeper and when he found that..." Keith could barely suppress a shudder. "I wished that I was fighting God on my own."
"He's that bad?" Yuri asked incredulously.
"That sword is a family heirloom. It has been passed down, vampire to vampire, for millenia."
"But hey," Margarete said, "It woke you up." Keith glared at her and she seemed to shrink. "Um, never mind." She turned to Alice and asked, "Where do I put my things?"
"Oh, just put them upstairs. In my room, the room on the right. And Keith, you're down here in the guestroom with Zhuzhen and Halley. Wait..." She trailed off as she realized something. Keith had traveled here as a bat. Meaning, he couldn't possibly have brought anything with him. "Where's all your things?" she asked, knowing and fearing the answer.
Keith's eyes widened and he groaned, resting his head in his hands. "I was in such a hurry. That was the last thing on my mind."
"Well..." Yuri sized Keith up and nodded. "It's not that bad. You could probably wear some of my clothes." He stood up and said, "I'll just go get some stuff right now. Alright?" He opened the door and called out "Bye!" before leaving.
~~
A/N: Short chapter...I was stuck a bit in dialogue mode. This chapter has a lot of conversation, doesn't it? I thought it'd probably be easier on myself to just break up the chapter I originally had planned (basically everyone arrives) into two parts. So count on more arrivals in the next chapter too (Zhuzhen and Halley and Koudelka).
Thanks to both Delka and Greyfriars, my first two reviewers!
Not too much progress in storyline...hopefully next time?
Fanfiction.net is still stupid about formatting.
~~
Alice was trying to think if anyone living nearby was a photographer or had a camera. And there was also the problem of who had a darkroom. She wasn't having much luck thinking of anyone.
"At least, not one who lives close enough. I want to take a picture of everyone, right when they get here. Do you know anyone, Yuri?"
"No. Why do we need a photo?"
"Because-because, for all we know, this will be the last time we'll all be together! So I want to have a picture. A picture would be nice," she murmured quietly.
"Margarete sent a letter right? When's her train coming?"
"Oh! Well, now that you mention it, she didn't say anything about taking a train. She said she was taking an airplane."
Yuri blinked in surprise, remembering the last time she had flown an airplane. "She better not be the pilot or she's not getting here. Well, the others-any idea when they'll come?"
"Um, Koudelka said her train should come in the evening, so Halley and she shouldn't be here before probably four-and Zhuzhen's taking a train too, but I think he'll actually get here sooner. He's had to travel a lot more than the others."
"What about Keith?"
"Well, he didn't say. He knows the date though." A thought suddenly occurred to Alice in her nervousness and she repeated, "He DOES know the date, right?" Alice was starting to panic now, pacing the floor next to the bookcase. "I told him in the letter and all-but what if he didn't get the letter? What if he doesn't know? Everyone has to come or this'll all-!"
"Alice, Alice, calm down." Yuri grabbed her shoulders and forced her to stay still. "Don't worry. He'll come. Just wait and see-"
Then they heard a screech and a yell from upstairs, making both Yuri and Alice look at the ceiling wonderingly. "Mother?!"
Her mother came running downstairs, screamed something about a rat as she passed them, and ran into the kitchen.
"The hell?" Yuri asked. Then Alice and he saw what had upset Mrs. Elliot so much as it came downstairs.
It wasn't a rat, but a bat. Alice and Yuri had both had enough experience with bats to know it was a vampire bat. Without pausing to think of why a bat would be flying about during daylight, Alice grabbed a heavy book from the bookcase and ambushed the bat, whacking it to the floor. She was about to hit it again when-
"Wait, wait!"
She stopped and stared at the bat in surprise. "Keith?"
In a flash of light, the bat quickly turned into the blonde nobleman. The two could only stare at their friend as he rubbed his head a bit and said, "You are quite deadly with a book, Alice."
"Keith, in all your 400 years have you ever heard of KNOCKING?" Yuri demanded.
He shrugged. "Of course; however, I wished to get here as quickly as possible. Has Margarete arrived yet?" Keith asked.
"Nope, you're the first one here. Good thing too, Alice was freaking out about if you'd even come."
"I wasn't sure you'd gotten the letter," Alice admitted. "You didn't send a reply."
"I am sorry about that. The problem was I slept so late in my coffin," Keith told them. "I did not know about the party until a week ago. Unfortunately-" He stopped and corrected himself. "Fortunately-Although at the time-"
"C'mon, spit it out Keith," Yuri said.
"Well, Margarete was so kind," he said with just a touch of sarcasm, "as to make sure I would come to the party." At this point he looked a little irritated and then grinned a little, as if satisfied. "She is late."
"She's not late really," Alice said. "Koudelka and Halley aren't even getting here until the evening."
At this moment, the kitchen doors chose to burst open and Alice's mother came out, wielding a broom. She almost began storming up the stairs, but then she noticed there was a guest in the house. The broom dropped with a clatter and she seemed quite embarrassed.
"Um, Mother," Alice said, "Are you alright?"
The older woman blinked and gave a cry of surprise. "Oh, you're one of Alice's friends, aren't you! You must be Keith," she said, taking in his appearance and dress. "Why are you sitting on the floor?"
"Al-"
"Mother, you don't have to worry about the bat," Alice interjected. "We, um, we got rid of it."
"Oh good. I hate bats, nasty little things, don't you?" she asked Keith.
He opened his mouth, but he didn't know how to respond to this. He felt like he had just been insulted. "Well, I think they are rather fascinating."
"Really? Do you study them?"
"Actually, I can turn-"
Yuri's foot then *accidently* slipped, kicking Keith's back. The vampire turned a glare to the Harmonixer and frowned as his friend shook his head slightly. They obviously did not want Mrs. Elliot to know that he was a vampire. "I have studied them a bit," he said.
"Oh, that's very interesting. Could you please excuse me? I'm planning to go shopping soon," She said, and went upstairs.
Keith stood up, turned to Alice and Yuri and demanded, "What was that about?"
"Please, don't tell Mother you're a vampire," Alice pleaded. "As far as she knows, you're a nobleman who hired us for an exorcism."
"And don't tell her about the real job," Yuri added.
"What on earth is this about?" Keith asked again.
"Well, you see...Mother knows a lot about exorcism and spirits, but not much about actual...monsters and demons and such. And, she would not like to hear that her daughter helped kill God and a few people and was kidnapped on quite a few occasions and used to summon a demon god. I think she'd try to exorcise me." Alice ran out of breath and took in a deep breath. "So-"
"So basically, you couldn't tell her the whole story. And since you couldn't tell her that, you made up a new story," Keith said, seeing where this was going. "There must be a lot of editting in this story." She nodded.
"Just remember, I never left Europe, alright? And no monsters. Just exorcism." She smiled at him, trying to make him feel less upset about the story changes. "Alright?"
"It is no trouble," he said easily. After all, vampires had lived among humans for centuries without being discovered. What was a week? Suddenly something occured to him and he looked at Yuri. "Does she know about you?"
Alice winced. "No, she doesn't. Um...I suppose we've got to tell her sometime, but...I don't think she'll take it very well."
"Surely if she's handled spirits, the idea of someone being able to control and harness a spirit's power wouldn't be too foreign to her," Keith said.
"But," Yuri said, gesticulating as he spoke, "If we tell her about the fusion, she'll probably hear about the Graveyard. If she hears about the Graveyard, she'll probably hear about the masks. And if she hears about the masks, she might hear about Atman."
"Ah," said Keith. Just that. He was pretty sure any mother would go insane to hear that their child had come as close to sacrificing their soul as Alice had.
"Yeah."
"Would you like some tea, Keith?" Alice offered, remembering that if he had flown here as a bat, he was probably a little tired. Keith nodded, although Yuri did not seem nearly so pleased about the idea.
"Is there any coffee?" Yuri asked her.
"That stuff is disgusting."
"Better than tea."
"I don't see how you can even stand to drink it, let alone like it."
This argument went on as they went to the kitchen. Their guest in back was able to see how at first they just walked close, but their hands eventually found each other and joined. Keith had an amused smile as he watched the two with his light blue eyes. They really were in love, it seemed. Margarete had been right.
Although she was still going to be in serious trouble when she arrived.
"What, Alice?" He said, suddenly realized Alice was talking to him.
"I said, why didn't Margarete come with you?" she repeated, pouring water into the kettle and setting it on the stove. "Did she have something else that she needed to do?"
"More bombings?" Yuri guessed. All three heard the door open and close as Alice's mother left to go shopping.
The vampire frowned and looked at the door. "She proposed...a race. To see which one of us would get to your house first. There is a little prize for the winner." He scowled heavily.
"What's with that Keith? I mean, if there's a prize, shouldn't it be good? You did win after all," Yuri pointed out.
There came a knock at the door and Keith said, "That should be her." With that, he stood next to the door but made no move to open it. Alice and Yuri followed him, and although a little puzzled by Keith's behavior, Alice gave him nothing more but a puzzled look before she opened the door.
In strode Margarete, looking flashy as always in a tight blue dress and her hair down, instead of in its usual ponytail. For once she had given up her gun, probably only because there was no place to conceal it-except in probably one of her two overstuffed bags. Instead, she had a sheath around her waist, one that looked familiar.
"Margarete, why do you have Keith's sword?" Yuri asked.
She just grinned slyly, her eyes with a mischievious glint in them. "Is he here yet?"
From behind the door, two hands grabbed her shoulders, making her jump in surprise. "Margarete," Keith said in a voice that suggested he was about to lose patience, "I would like my sword back. Now."
After the blonde had recovered from her shock, she sighed and said, "Damn, it's such an awesome sword too...But I guess you won. Here's your prize." She held out the sheath and sword to have them snatched away. Keith checked over them both, seeing if any damage had been done to either.
"The prize was his sword?"
"And what were you doing this time, Ms. Spy Genius?" Yuri asked Margarete.
She shrugged innocently. "Well you know, I was passing over Blue Castle to get here and I decided to check on Keith. And guess what Keith was doing, only a week ago? SLEEPING! I kept telling him to wake up, get out of the coffin, if you don't you're going to miss the party-and he just keeps on sleeping! He rolled around a bit, muttered some stuff about garlic and bad breath, and he would not wake up.
"So then, I just took his sword and left a little note saying that if he didn't beat me to your guys's house, I was going to keep it. I think I left it in Steven's coffin."
"That was my father's. He is a lighter sleeper and when he found that..." Keith could barely suppress a shudder. "I wished that I was fighting God on my own."
"He's that bad?" Yuri asked incredulously.
"That sword is a family heirloom. It has been passed down, vampire to vampire, for millenia."
"But hey," Margarete said, "It woke you up." Keith glared at her and she seemed to shrink. "Um, never mind." She turned to Alice and asked, "Where do I put my things?"
"Oh, just put them upstairs. In my room, the room on the right. And Keith, you're down here in the guestroom with Zhuzhen and Halley. Wait..." She trailed off as she realized something. Keith had traveled here as a bat. Meaning, he couldn't possibly have brought anything with him. "Where's all your things?" she asked, knowing and fearing the answer.
Keith's eyes widened and he groaned, resting his head in his hands. "I was in such a hurry. That was the last thing on my mind."
"Well..." Yuri sized Keith up and nodded. "It's not that bad. You could probably wear some of my clothes." He stood up and said, "I'll just go get some stuff right now. Alright?" He opened the door and called out "Bye!" before leaving.
~~
A/N: Short chapter...I was stuck a bit in dialogue mode. This chapter has a lot of conversation, doesn't it? I thought it'd probably be easier on myself to just break up the chapter I originally had planned (basically everyone arrives) into two parts. So count on more arrivals in the next chapter too (Zhuzhen and Halley and Koudelka).
Thanks to both Delka and Greyfriars, my first two reviewers!
Not too much progress in storyline...hopefully next time?
Fanfiction.net is still stupid about formatting.