Casual Encounters -Daci-Merlin-

[Daciana]

February 10, 2012
Approx 6:00

It was a casual Friday. Yes, there were casual Fridays among the Templars, from which none were exempt. The custom costumes were rather elaborate, one of which looked like a biker man... disturbing. Anyways, Daciana was looking for a man. She hadn't much of an idea on who he was or what he did, but she had been ordered to get a sample of sorts from a Demon hunter in the dungeons.. which she regrettably had done and was glad when she could run away. It was at times like that, she had to wonder if she was really ready for such a job. She didn't like doing, it didn't feel right, but it was all she knew- so how could it really feel wrong? Conflicted emotions welled up in her chest, but vanished when she simply stopped contemplating the meaning of her life.

"Dr. Pryce?" She called when she at last had reached the door with his name scrawled so elegantly on. After three more knocks, she tried to open the door, but it was locked. Well, it WAS 6'o'clock, which meant most people were at home, but she needed to get the sample to him. With a frown, she weighed her options, the found that there was someone else in the building still. She stared quietly until the woman was done talking on the phone, then Daciana spoke. "U-uhm.. I-I need to talk to Dr. Pryce... I-It's important." Her eye avoided the woman's. A loud popping sound resounded, announcing that the woman had popped her bubble gum obnoxiously.

"Ahn what for?" She asked with a genuine disinterest.

"He uhm- I did an e-errand.." The words were barely above a squeaky whimper. "S-sorry."

After a roll of her eyes, the woman dialed on the phone. A minute later, she hung up. "Looks like his phone is off. You'd best find him 'ere if it's that important. Good luck." Her hand finished scribbled and handed the little note to her.

Daciana took the card and nodded. "Th-thank you." Naturally, she then hurried off.

When she had at last reached the area indicated, it was a pub. Of course! Daciana had never been in a pub before, but work was work. Shyly, she slipped in and looked around. She had no idea what this man looked like, so she would have to start at the bartender.. hopefully. She wiggled ad weaved her way to the back. The man at the bar looked surprised and gave her a glass of something, despite Daciana's obvious DO NOT WANT face. Her head shook and she motioned to her card. The man looked a bit confused and finally leaned in.

"Have you seen a Dr. Pryce? I-I need to talk to him," she asked. The bartender shrugged his shoulder and went back to his thing, leaving Daciana rather confused and frustrated.

[Merlin Pryce]

Well, if that wasn't the weirdest first week of work, he didn't know what was. Learning about the fact that the things he learned in Sunday more-or-less existed and right on the other side. Talk about fucked up. Merlin was still kind of reeling with this whole “good vs. evil” business, demons and Inferis. Yet even as he processed through this new information, the science nerd in him was jumping for joy. New things to experiment and learn about. Pretty damned cool!

The first week hadn't been too busy. It had mostly been research and messing with a few new samples. He had to go gradually into this business, as blowing up the building was somewhat frowned upon. He was able to keep his own hours, but for now he had settled into the average workday hours. And luckily for him, there was a nice pub down the street from the lab. He had went there after his first day on Monday, because after learning about that kind of shit, you needed a tall ale. Now, four days later, he was still going there. He'd sit back, enjoy a beer or two, then mosey on home to his empty apartment for movies until he finally crashed. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The pub was busy tonight, being Friday and around dinner time. He'd been unable to sneak into a corner booth and had to settle for sitting at bar. His two legs were hooked around the legs of the bar stool, his feet gently swinging. Jeans and a Train t-shirt covered his body, along with an oversized hoodie, the hood thrown over his head. Random bits of his hair stuck out from underneath the hood, but it managed to do the goal of hiding his lack of eye. He was nursing his second Snakebite of the evening, somewhat absorbed in his own thoughts when he thought he heard his name. Sort of.

"Have you seen a Dr. Pryce? I-I need to talk to him." Merlin looked up and to his left. A short, young woman was being shrugged away by the bartender. It looked like she was wearing an eyepatch, which startled Merlin just a little bit. People usually stared at his eyepatch or made some stupid pirate joke... they weren't common. And yet here was an eye-patched girl looking for him. Weird. He turned his head towards her slightly, voice picking up to be heard over the noise of the pub. “Not a doctor, but the Pryce is right.” Heh. Merlin could've won a prize for being the wittiest bastard ever. “What can I do yah for?”

[Daciana]

Daciana was beginning to feel helpless. Her search had brought her to nothing it seemed. Now she was just awkwardly sitting on a stool at the bar, by herself and with a sample tucked to her side. She was rather clueless as to what to do. She could wait- but that wouldn't work as well. After all, how did SHE know how to take care of the samples?

“Not a doctor, but the Pryce is right." Her eyes perked and she turned to see a man approaching. Daciana gave a shy and sheepish smile. She had got his name wrong- but she was sure she'd seen his name was Dr. Pryce- well now that she thought about it. "S-sorry, sir. My eyesight isn't the greatest, I may have mixed up M for D." Her cheeks reddened darker.

Of course the whole point was to give him the sample. "[color=mediumpurple]OH! Uhm- right![/olor]" She turned and grabbed the pounch from her side and offered it out to him. "I-I got th-that errand done for you. S-So here. Sorry I-I'm late. I passed out on my way." It wasn't a complete lie, since the torturing always made her black out. "I hope I d-didn't ruin it."

[Merlin Pryce]

"S-sorry, sir. My eyesight isn't the greatest, I may have mixed up M for D." Merlin chuckled, rising from his bar stool to come sit down next to Daciana. As he did he pulled his hood back, revealing his own reason for poor eyesight. “No worries. I've got the same problem sometimes.”

"OH! Uhm- right!" Merlin was beginning to wonder if this young woman was in fact... a woman. Well, she WAS a woman. But she seemed more like a girl. Kind of scared and awkward and definitely ignoring the beer sample the bartender had given her. Fake ID, maybe?

"I-I got th-that errand done for you. S-So here. Sorry I-I'm late. I passed out on my way. I hope I d-didn't ruin it." Merlin looked down at the extended pouch, a puzzled look on his face. His eye stayed on the pouch as he took a large drink from his beer, before grabbing at the pouch. He looked down at it in his own hand. Sample...sample. Work-related. He definitely didn't remember asking for an errand to be run. Which meant that someone else had sent this girl on an errand for him. And apparently it was important. Why else would she have come to find him at the pub? He decided against opening the pouch for the moment and set it down against his arm. He then turned to Daciana and gave her a polite smile... at least as polite as he could manage. He was out of practice.

“Well, thanks. No one told me I was getting an important sample. Guess I should work on it.” In response to his own comment, he downed the rest of his Snakebite. He slid the glass towards the back edge of the bar and gestured to the bartender. The bartender caught his gesture and nodded, indicating that Merlin would have a delicious new beverage momentarily. “In the meantime. I'm Merlin and I have no idea who you are.” That was polite, right?

[Daciana]

“In the meantime. I'm Merlin and I have no idea who you are.” That was a phrase that Daciana was vaguely familiar with. Most people DIDN'T know who she was. It wasn't a depressing thing though, since she WAS in London, which kind of made her out of her element- if she ever even had one. Daciana always was kind of stand-offish, even while at home. It was just her nature. Nevertheless, the man had kindly(?) introduced himself, and so she should return the favor.

"I'm D-Daciana, sir. N-nice to meet you." And as usual, her stutter was back and strong as ever. She stared at the drink she had been offered, but didn't dare touch it. Daciana had never consumed alcohol before, so this would be a first and she did hear stories from Mr. White about how it was dangerous to consume, especially around people she didn't know too well. It could possibly end disastrously.

"So do you come here o-often?" It was less of a pickup line and more of a sincere question.

[Merlin Pryce]

"I'm D-Daciana, sir. N-nice to meet you." Okay, this chick had to be like twelve. Calling him “sir” and stuttering. Merlin just didn't understand it. Okay, he did. Sort of. She was probably nervous and was respecting his unbelievable power as a scientist-extraordinaire. And the bouncer would not have let her in the door unless she was at least eighteen. So that clearly explained all of that. Merlin was trying really hard to be nice, but he could feel the polite smile becoming harder to hold up. Smiling was such a burden these days, but he didn't want to spook the girl even further. That would've been kind of rude. And after all, he was only rude to strangers once in awhile. “Just Merlin, okay? Don't get all formal.”

"So do you come here o-often?" Merlin shrugged his shoulders, nodding his thanks to the bartender as his newest Snakebite was deposited in front of him. “In my life? No. In this past week? Hell yes.” He took a long pull on the drink. “I'm guessing you don't. I'm also guessing you don't drink. Which is cool, I guess.” Another minute or two later and Merlin had finished his drink. He slapped down some pounds onto the bar, nodding to the bartender that his “tab” was officially closed. He then stood up, showing nary a wobble from the alcohol. He then looked down at Daciana. “You coming, Daciana? Let's go back to the lab so you can tell me about this thing.” He probably could figure out the sample on his own, but with the exception of like three people, he knew none of his fellow Templars. And the people he knew worked at the lab too, which didn't totally count. He was mildly interested to hear about someone who was more “in the field” and to get another person's take on this strange organization he was now a part of.

[Daciana]

He came here often this week..? Well that was good to know, she supposed, but she never did see the appeal to drinking. Then again, she never did DRINK before. How would she know why people did it? She wasn't going to, though. Her mind was set. She wouldn't crack whether the barman bought her a drink or not. The man was getting up, which meant he was getting ready to go. Daciana in turn got ready as well.

“You coming, Daciana? Let's go back to the lab so you can tell me about this thing.” She looked at him with a bit of confusion. He was the scientist- not her. All she did was collect a little blood from a demon hunter. She hoped it was what he had wanted, but honestly she had no idea what she was doing- she never did.

Her feet moved before she could really speak. She was up on them and moving within moments. "Uhmm y-yes.. well I uhmm." Words were a bit hard to form, it seemed. She fidgeted at her skirt as they moved. "I-m just- it's just y'know.." Her voice turned into a hushed whisper. "Blood- you know.."

[Merlin Pryce]

"Uhmm y-yes.. well I uhmm. I-m just- it's just y'know.. Blood- you know.." Merlin continued to walk out of the bar, holding the bag in one hand. He heard a couple cat calls and guffaws coming from a group of university students to one side. Cursing his lack of peripheral vision he looked over to see them making a gesture to Daciana. Clearly she was hot and/or a butt of a joke. Frowning slightly he threw an arm around Daciana, letting it rest on her shoulders. He gave one of the guys a pointed look, eyebrow raised over his patch. It was a very brotherly look, rather than boyfriend-y, and it seemed to do the trick. The guys turned back to their pints and debated some other girl to oogle at.

Outside the bar, Merlin dropped his arm from Daciana, not wanting to give her any odd impressions or to make her feel more awkward. Once he was outside the pub he did pause to look in the pouch, seeing as Daciana had stated, several vials of blood. He pulled the drawstring closed and looped it through one of his belts, tying it effectively to his pants. “Can you give me a little more to go off of? Like who or what it came from?” Merlin took off at a leisurely pace down the street in the direction of the lab. He had nothing to go home to, as usual. Just an empty flat and a fridge filled with too little food and too much beer. Might as well get this sample looked at. “I need to know more about it so I know what to analyze. Unless you think that whoever asked you to get this for me sent me an e-mail? Because that'd be damned nice of them.”

[Daciana]

As they were walking, a few men started howling and wolf-whistling.  Daciana turned red and tried to hide her distress.  Luckily, her new friend had taken over the situation.  An arm slid over her shoulders and though it was strange for her to be touched in such a way, she was oddly okay with this.  Though it hadn't been expected, it did make the men shut up somehow.  Bonus!  She could focus on just talking to the man without a fear of people overhearing her.

She looked a bit shifty, since she wasn't exactly comfortable with talking about work- at all.  It wasn't something she enjoyed.  "I- zink- it is supposed to be blood from an exclusive demon- hunter- or somezing.  Zey didn't really give me information ozer zen I justhad to do it." Her eyes were blank; on her feet a moment.  God the way it made her feel was just the same as being garbage.  That she had to torture another human?  It made her skin crawl.  "Zey should have sent an email- I believe."  HAD they mentioned that?  She was pretty sure they had..

[Merlin Pryce]

"I- zink- it is supposed to be blood from an exclusive demon- hunter- or somezing. Zey didn't really give me information ozer zen I just had to do it. Zey should have sent an email- I believe." Merlin noticed as they walked slowly along the street that Daciana suddenly had an accent poking through. It had not really appeared in their initial conversation, but now in the quieter area of the street it was much more apparent. Merlin was mildly curious to what language and country the accent was attached to, because saying “zink” instead of “think” didn't really narrow the pool. He'd have to ask her later. In the meantime, they had ended their journey at the front door of the lab. The building was dark, for the most part. Some lights still flickered in several windows, but most people had gone home for the weekend. Good for them.

He tried two of the doors in vein to find them locked. He spied at the fourth door on the end a small security pad next to it. Smacking himself mentally for not noticing it sooner (and then reminding himself it was fine because he couldn't see out of one damned eye) he went and waved his security badge. The red light flickered to green and he heard the satisfying click of the door unlocking. He grabbed the handle and pulled it open, looking back at Daciana as he did so. “So, do you want to come check out my swanky lab? Or are you gonna split?” It would be kind of nice to know, after all. She clearly couldn't get into the building without him so it was now or never.

[Daciana]

“So, do you want to come check out my swanky lab? Or are you gonna split?”

She stared at him for a moment.  The question was good and on most cases it would be likely for Daciana to run, however the place didn't likely have a whole lot of people and 'labs' were practically a home before, so she felt an odd sense of wonder to be toured around one.  It was- a form of curiosity.  It was as if her past would constantly tug her into such places.  There was no escape from them, there would never be.  Whatever she did, those white rooms would always follow her, but it was better than the cells.  The rooms with tinted windows and walls thick enough to muffle her every scream- THAT was what she feared.  

"I- vill come vith you, if zat is okay?"  Her eyes were oddly bright when she asked.  This new man was her friend, or at least in her mind her was.  Even if he wasn't actually, it was okay.  It felt good to KNOW somebody who wasn't going to smack her for being human.  "[color-mediumpurple]It vill let me know now if somezing is rong.[/color]"  Meaning she wanted to make sure she wouldn't have to do it all over again.

[Merlin Pryce]

"I- vill come vith you, if zat is okay?" Merlin nodded his head with a half smile. He waved Daciana into the building, being the (perfect) gentleman and holding the door opened until she had passed through. His mother had practically beat chivalry into him. (Okay, not really. But he wasn't going to be an ass!) Once she was inside he followed her inside, letting the door click shut behind him.

"It vill let me know now if somezing is rong." He shrugged his shoulders as he walked casually past the empty security desk to the elevators. “I'm sure the sample is fine.” He didn't say “I've worked with worse.” That would've led to a possible question and explanation and he didn't feel like talking about much of anything related to other samples or past things. The past left back there, ignored. Following the almost-ingrained ritual, he hit the “down” button and as the elevator chimed open, he stepped through with Daciana. He scanned his security badge and hit the “B3”. There was a moment of quiet (potentially awkward) silence as the elevator churned downwards and the doors slid open again. He extended his left arm out slightly to prevent himself from knocking into the elevator jamb as he turned left and went down to his door. Security badge was scanned one more time and he was ready to enter.

Rather than let Daciana enter first this time into a dark room, he went in and flipped the light switch. Since starting at the beginning of the week, he had added a few new elements. A frame on the desk showcased a picture of his parents in Vegas the year he was born. A stereo also took over one corner of the desk. He shrugged his hoodie off his shoulders and hung it up, slipping into the lab coat instead. “Welcome, welcome. I don't have an extra lab coat, but grab a seat.” He gestured to the chair at the desk as well as to one of the two stools that were dotted around the lab. He hit the power button on the computer and as it woke itself up he went over to an empty table. He pulled a rack from a cabinet underneath the table and unlooping the drawstring bag, removed the samples. They were neat and still sealed in their test tubes and he placed them in the rack. He went back to the computer to log on and grabbed some pen and paper, tossing it on the table by the sample. Just had to wait for his e-mail to load and he could get to work.

[Daciana]

The two of them walked through doors then to an elevator and walked a bit more. Naturally Daciana was quiet the whole way, despite ow awkward that made things. She didn't really realize, though, because she had little to no social skills.

There was something about labs that made her both comfortable and squeamish at the same time. It had to be her past that made her feel such a way, but it didn't stop her from feeling like it. She could only think of Mr. White's 'lab' where she experienced feelings that she was pretty sure wasn't normal for others. She was just Daciana; a templar who still didn't know how to kill on demand unless she was demanded to by that man. As if subliminal to the thought of him, his eyes bore into the back of her skull, but only through her subconscious.

She shivered. It wasn't cold, but she couldn't help but feel the chills running up and down her spine. "It is okay," was her response to the fact he had no extra labcoats. At first she stood awkwardly in the lab. Her eye roamed from object to object; trying to make sure HE wasn't there. After that, she finally sat in a seat and stared at him intently; trying to gather more about him. "Have you been vorking here for long?" She asked only after she had realized she had been staring.

[Merlin Pryce]

"Have you been vorking here for long?" Merlin shook his head as he entered his password for his e-mail. “No, this is just my first week. Fun, right?” He gave a small chuckle, but it lacked the typical mirth. “How about you?” His e-mail finally loaded, he found the unread e-mail that read “DH Sample” in the subject line. At least it was perfectly obvious, so he didn't have to go digging through vague stuff. Opening it, he looked through the minimal text. He was to analyze the sample and try to determine some kind of genetic mutation within the DNA. They wanted to compare the sample to other samples obtained from other demon hunters to see if their was a commonality. A way to determine who a demon hunter was simply by a blood sample.

Merlin was puzzled by this thought, but who cared? He wasn't going to spend time mulling over how they'd obtain samples from EVERYONE just to figure out who was a demon hunter. Luckily, that wasn't his department. He turned the screen off on his computer and hit the power on button on his stereo at the same time. Then he hit play, letting his favorite band emerge from the speakers. He bobbed his head to the beat, the ghost of a smile on his face. Something about Train always put him in a good mood, always. Maybe that was why it was his favorite band. Or was it because they were his favorite band that they put him in a good mood? However, this wasn't the time for existential questions. He turned on a few machines so they could warm up and then got to work dividing up the sample. “Hope you don't mind the music. Good for the soul, yah know.”

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