Tours of the Shops (open!)

She did not really like to shop for clothing, never enjoyed it. Sure she always looked good, especially in the office or when doing a meeting but that didn't mean that Pak spent lots of time on clothes. Basically she was an in out oh look shiny kind of shopper. It was not an experience to be savored.

However, she'd broken the heel on her favorite black Dior heels (Kem was not responsible for the damage this time). They were being fixed, but she needed them for the suit she was wearing for a client meeting tomorrow. Effortless Essentials should have something that would serve. It wouldn't be as good, but it would be better than the wrong shoes all together. The trick, though, would be finding something in a size five. Apparently she had little feet.

She strode in, all business, and headed right for the shoes. She did nod at a woman who was talking to herself while looking at something disturbingly gauzy and idiotically romantic. Pak was less concerned about the woman talking to herself (after all Pak talked to herself and her children on a regular basis) than she was the fashion. Well everyone had their own style she supposed.

Saffia nodded to Pak, not sure who it was other than the clothing imparted that it was someone special. Her jeans, tank top and flannel shirt were not exactly high style for the vampire elite. She dropped the sleeve of the gauzy dress with a soft sigh and headed deeper into the store.She needed business suits more than anything, and then after that something light for the summer weather. She used to love sundresses, her hair down, a light shawl or shirt against the slight chill of the night air on the beach.

She shook her head, going deeper into the store, closer to where the other woman was. "Excuse me." She spoke quietly, "Would you happen to know of another store here in the Towers that would specialize in woman's apparel? While lovely, most of this isn't my style." She could afford it, but she didn't want to. "I'm new in town. My name is Saffia." She did not offer her hand to the other woman. Handshakes for her had mostly gone out of practice when she had been turned.

No meeting tonight, they were running maintenance mostly, which is why Pak had time to run down to look for shoes. But because tonight was a low key night, she wasn't dressed to the nines, just classy casual. A pair of straight leg chocolate brown linen pants, which had of course wrinkled as soon as she'd sat down at her desk, a tan light weight fine knit sweater with short sleeves with a cross over neck line and a white silk camisole under it, after all the neck line was very low. She'd topped it off with a simply pair of silver earnings and a long chain of woven silver. She only had on simple leather sandals, not even heels, flats. It was nothing that would make her stand out but of good enough quality that no store in the mall would chase her out.

"Why do they always have sevens and eights? Ah! God damned... six."

As she browsed the shoes waiting for some one to come help her Pak found herself speaking to her children. Her daughter found the frustration funny.

Noticing that a voice not speaking Siamese had said something Pak looked up from her search for the elusive size. Ah, gauze girl. Rather uncharitably Pak wondered if they didn't have any of those fun mall maps and 'you are here' signs. But when the woman said she was new in town Pak figured it was less about the clothes and more about getting to know people.

"Pakpao. Welcome to Nachton." She said, using her best polite professional but not -too- friendly voice. Pak wasn't looking to play tour guide but she could behave herself. "There are a few places here, but I'm not sure I could recommend one over the other. They've all bee good at one time or another it depends on what you're looking for."

Saffia nodded as she pulled a black pencil skirt off the rack and held it up against her long legs to see how it fit. They called her petite, but she was all long legs and a short torso. It made fitting her clothing difficult. Back in the middle ages she had been the perfect proportion for the empire waisted gowns that were favored.

"Not quite my size either." A grin towards Pak. She replaced the skirt and picked up two camisoles.She held them up against her in the mirror and nodded, "I think I'll take this one." It was silky, a light pastel blue and was gorgeous. "It was nice to meet you. I'm staying in the other tower for a while, hopefully for a long while." She exclaimed as she saw a long black skirt that was actually long enough to reach her ankles. She needed a suit jacket but that would have to come from another shop. "Would you like to get a coffee or something? I'm supposed to be finding myself while I am here."

One thing Pak prided herself on was her poker face. She was totally unreadable when she didn't want people to know what she was thinking and when you backed that up with her subterfuge no one knew anything. (Well except Kem, and maybe Aishe... but they were special cases.). So as she turned back to the shoes, and made polite non-verbal semi interested noses you couldn't tell that she wanted to roll her eyes at the running commentary. Honestly she didn't care what the woman bought, or wore, she didn't even bother to point out if Saffia liked the skirt, there were other sizes. She had enough on her mind trying to find the right size, style and height of black heel.

She caught a sales persons' eye and explained the shoe and size she wanted. The woman disappeared into to the back and Pak prayed for a miracle. As she waited it became apparent she was expected to respond.

Find herself? What was she lost? Or worse yet some new age hippy college chick. Her completely neutral demeanor didn't flicker for an instant. She -had- planned on stopping at Barney's on the way back to work. No point in changing her plans now.

"Sure why not. If you'd like."

Part of her was a tiny little bit curious about this 'finding herself' thing.

The sales woman came back with the shoes she'd requested and Pak tried them on quickly. Ha! They fit and looked halfway decent. Good enough for one meeting. She wandered up to the register and paid. She'd only brought a card and her phone with her on this quick errand, no purse. Shoes were quickly purchased and bagged and rather than running off for Barney's Pak remembered Saffia was apparently lost and new in town and waited so she could lead the way.

Being an empath who tended to pick up on everything by touching it as well, Saffia was intrigued by the concept of a person she didn't sense anything from. In a way Saffia was almost grateful for this. She was feeling overwhelmed enough as it was. Pak wandered up to the front and Saffia quickly collected the camisole and skirt she had chosen. She paid for both quickly, and nodded a polite thank you to the sales person. She had planned to explore some, to see what there was to be seen here in the towers, and it appeared to her at least that she had found a native guide.

"Do you live or work here?" She asked quickly, stuffing her wallet back into her jeans pocket. "I was wondering where might be a good place to get a drink and talk? I'm a writer, I like talking to people." She grinned, showing perfectly white teeth as she followed Pakpao's direction.

Pak started walking toward Barney's trusting that Saffia would follow. This kind of open chattiness wasn't something she was terribly good at or something that she particularly liked more times than not. But on the other hand you couldn't just sit in silence and some one had to do the talking.

"Both actually. Saves on commuting times."

She actually smiled a little. It was an old joke and one she told often. Funnier yet when you considered that she occasionally telecommuted.

Writter huh? Well that was nice. Mind she'd known her fair share of writers, fiction, non-fiction and reporters so it was an interesting profession and she respected it but it wasn't terribly impressive to her.

"What do you write?"

After all she had been a librarian, so even if the profession didn't impress her books fascinated her and it would be interesting to know if she'd read anything by this woman.

They'd gotten to Barney's and Pak ordered a cafe mocha, wanting a little bit of a chocolate fix. Order placed she found a place to sit down and waited for Saffia to do the same.

"Well... there is the George and Dragon, it is an English style pub, mostly regulars there not where you'd head for a lively night and it can get smokey."

Of course that was part of the reason Pak liked it. There had to be something else though, something a bit more... ah of course.

"You might try Shades. It is a jazz joint. Live music, usually a good crowd an it can be a lot of fun without going all techno night club teeny bopper on you."

She never felt bad sending people to Shades, human or vampire it didn't matter the strict no hunting policy the old man enforced made it a safe place as well as a good time.


((OOC... assuming Saffia is following along and will eventually sit down. Can change if you'd like.))

She ordered a chocolate milkshake, and sat across from Pakpao. There was something odd as she listened, as if she was filing the information away the way a computer might. "I'm not sure where you are from. And the language you spoke in the store, what was it? I haven't ever heard it before." Curious she was, more holding her milkshake than drinking it. "I have wandered the halls some and have heard so many different languages here. I just never, ever have heard anything that sounded like that one." She leans forward slightly, her body language showing her interest in the subject.

She then realized the earlier question and went on without pausing for breath. "I write romance novels - very similiar to Harlequin. The stories are formula, but they pay well, and I try to keep the historical details correct. I also write paranormal teen romance stories - mostly about vampires. Kinder and gentler stories that are designed to give the teens a bit of daring. They are selling very well with the Anita Blake and Twilight crowd. In a few years the taste in the market will move on to something else, probably ghosts or werewolves or something like that."

Then and only then did she take a drink of her milkshake. Her eyes closed in pure bliss at the taste of the chocolate, smooth, creamy and rich.

Language? Pak knew full well what language she must have spoken, she only knew three or four and really only used two these days. But why had she been speaking... oh yeah. Her kids. That answered that.

She was all for living and working with humans and being open. But there was being open and there was being stupid. Pak didn't know Saffia at all, so her answer was a half truth, and the story most people knew about her.

"I moved here from Washington state, Meridian had a better career path for me."

The next part of her answer Pak had to think about, just for a second maybe less. It wasn't a noticeable pause. But she had to remind herself that Siam didn't exist any longer and if she answered as if it did, that would raise questions. The miniscule pause with a sip of coffee.

"Thai. My parents were from Thailand, we always spoke it at home."

Of the two subjects the romances were less objectionable. These idiotic vampire romances... well she had no patience for them. Some days Pak was amused by them and pitied the people stupid enough to get caught up in them and some days she was insulted by their very existence. But she managed not to expound her personal philosophies over coffee.

"Well... given the whole team Edward team Jacob thing and the mess that is Charlene Harris I'd say the market already has moved on, or at least incorporated. Witches and wizards have been done, they'll probably get hooked on past lives or aliens or something next."

Apparently her suggestions for going out were either uninteresting. Pak didn't dwell on it. Either Saffia would try them or she wouldn't. And there were any number of people here who could probably make better recommendations.

"So what brings you to Nachton?"

Pak asked lazily as she took another sip of coffee. It was a potentially dangerous question giving the whole concept of finding herself, but she was a little curious.

Saffia listened as she drank her milkshake. She reminded herself mentally that it was all right to be open here. But still she was cautious. "I loved a man for a very long time and together we... adopted... a fa... a girl" She corrected herself. "who lived with us. My mate and I lived on the coast of New Orleans where there are often storms. There was a terrible one, and our cottage was destroyed. Because I was unable to conquer my fears, I lost both my mate and our fa-" She cursed herself mentally for doing it again, "Young girl. The authorities found her body in the wreckage of the cottage, but my mate, his name was Luke...was never found. He was declared deceased by the authorities, and I was chastised for not fleeing when the evacuation order was given. We did not know it had, or that the storms had been upgraded as we lost our power early on, and the generators did not work the way they should have." Indeed they had been tampered with, which made the authorities believe that she had tried to kill him and herself in a desperate suicide attempt. She shook her head in disbelief remembering the inquiries. "Luke told me he had family..of sorts... here, and it interested me to find out about the possible relations. Luke as very against ever having contact with his extended relations, so I figured that like many of his other policies that I should see for myself what the reality was."

She took another few sips of the rich chocolatey goodness in her glass and finished in a rueful tone, "It does seem that I have a lot to learn."

Clumsy, very clumsy. Pak thought as Saffia stumbled over what could only be the word familiar not just once but twice. Well if they wanted to play house who was she to dispute it. But even though she was fairly certain that Saffia was Evenhet and part of the clan she was hesitant to share that information about herself. If the woman was this clumsy with her own secrets who knew if she could be trusted with others. Well that or Pak was a bit more gaurded than most people any way.

She didn't like the term 'mate' either it sounded like animals. But she wasn't going to say anything about it. It was how Saffia saw the relationship. Although if it didn't make her sound like an animal it sounded like she was one of a pair, socks or something. But Pak just shrugged it off.

"Sounds rough. I'm sorry to hear that."

It didn't sound like anything she wanted to do, but it also sounded like the two of them had set themselves up for trouble too. Still Pak did have some sympathy and meant it when she said she was sorry. But every vampire she knew had a past and often it wasn't pretty. OK every one but Aishe. Granted Saffia's was more recent than most, but that didn't mean she needed to be hand held.

"Family is a privilege. It shouldn't be disregarded or taken lightly. Still it is good you'd want to find them. Have any luck so far?"

Why the hell would any one want to stay away from the clan? That was the stupidest thing Pak had ever heard. She'd spent half of her life or so on her own not having any idea beyond superstition and trial and error what she was and how to survive. Hell she hadn't met another vampire until just as she left Siam and she was over a hundred at that point. Part of Pak rather uncharitably hoped this Luke was dead. He didn't deserve Evenhet if he'd shunned the clan like that.

She nodded, not realizing the real thoughts that were going through the other woman's mind, "I have, and they have taken me in. It was gracious of them. They told me that I didn't have to be afraid here. I'm not used to being so open. It's unfamiliar." She shook her head ruefully. "My pardon if I have overstepped any bounds. I was given to understand most here understood."

She took a deep breath and looked away, into the distance. She was nervous that she had said too much, and this was the first time she had admitted to anyone that she wasn't intimately involved with what she was.

"What do you do here? You mentioned that you both lived and worked here?" She was curious about everything in this new world and still unsure of how to tread it.

For a moment, just a very brief moment, Pak looked puzzled. Why would Saffia apologize for over stepping any bounds? Pak knew good and well she hadn't done or said anything that should indicate she was uncomfortable with what had been said. If she were honest Pak would admit that she wasn't exactly warm and friendly, nor the most open or easiest person to get to know but that hardly warranted an apology.

The moment passed quickly and she resumed her normal impassive unreadable expression easily.

"There is open and then there is -open-. Flaunting isn't typically a good idea and you shouldn't assume. That is a bad idea in just about any circumstance whether it be relations or professional."

Pak grinned, or tried to it probably came off more like a grimace, trying to soften her words. God Saffia had to be young to be this naive. Had she ever been this clueless?

She had carefully phrased her response to avoid admitting anything though. It sounded like Saffia was family and Pak wouldn't throw her under a bus or anything but just being part of the clan didn't automatically equate to trustworthy or friend not to Pak.

"IT." Pak said softening slightly, almost smiling as she sipped her coffee again. "I work in IT. Although I think we should change the department name to 'Geeks R Us' or something more creative."

She didn't mention she was head of the department or her work on MARI. Oh certainly Pak could and would brag, but when appropriate.

She listened, "What sort of IT? I admit that I don't know much about technology. I know how to work my laptop and I'm thrilled that it is configured in such a way as to not allow me to break it." She grinned a little, more relaxed than she had been since meeting Pakpao. "Does the towers have a help desk? I really am a bit clueless where my laptop is concerned. I know how to work the Microsoft Word to write, how to use the Firefox to browse and not much else."

She laughed and signaled that she would like another chocolate milkshake. "I've taken up a lot of your time, and I want to thank you for talking with me. Allow me to pay for our drinks?" After all it was only polite to do so. She had money and knew how to work a debit card.

"Programing, design work, some architecture, database work, whatever needs doing really."

She'd spent so long around the technology that Pak was truly a jack of all trades with computers. She didn't do much desktop work, but she could. And some days she wondered if she might be happier just doing programing or design. She enjoyed the creative process, and it was creative just different than some creative work.

Mentally Pak cringed.. She did -not- do support work. Something about not killing the users... she did in fact own one of those tee shirts that said "I will not fix your computer". But instead of a tirade or showing any kind of discomfort or distaste she only shook her head slightly.

"No. Liefde doesn't, not for the residence. Obviously Meridian does, a company that size you couldn't -not- have a help desk but it is for employees only."

Pak was oddly uncomfortable letting Saffia pay, even though it was just a cup of coffee, not even a very fancy or expensive one. But they hardly knew each other and really she hadn't done anything but listen. On the other hand she didn't want to be rude.

"Thank you, but there is no need. I had been planning on having some coffee any way. Really I just took up space at your table."

Saffia nodded politely, but spoke firmly, "No, really I insist." And handed her card to the waiter that was waiting for payment. She hadn't had a lot of chances to buy anything for another person in the past and the novelty intrigued her. Her emotions were open and honest, an eagerness to please mixed with an intense desire to do this right. It was unclear, even to herself, if the 'this' referred to her time in Nachton or to just the act of paying for the drinks. Regardless she would not be deterred although the waiter stayed for several moments, giving Pakpao plenty of time to pay if she wished to go against Saffia's wish.

"I'm not sure what I should do next. Perhaps call my agent and see if I have a new assignment. Would you happen to know if there is a loaner vehicle available until I have a chance to purchase one?" She signed her credit card receipt as she asked this. She supposed she could afford a car and driver but she really enjoyed driving herself and didn't like the idea of getting indebted to someone else and giving up the freedom that she had so recently acquired.

While still uncomfortable with Saffia paying, Pak reasoned it was just a cup of coffee and not a car or anything. SO she murmurer a polite thank you and let it go. It would have been rude to make a scene.

Huh... what would she do if she had her life ripped out from under her. Well, running to Nachton would be first on the list. Then running to Kem and then going back to and/or finding work. So as far as Pak was concerned Saffia was more or less on track.

Loaner? She thought possessively of her 'Lil Bird. No way in heaven or hell she was loaning that to any one. It seemed like an odd question too, what exactly did Saffia think the clan was? But she just shrugged.

"Ummmm... no. Not so much. It is easy to get a cab, we're right on a bus route and some of the rental car places will pick you up though. So there are plenty of options."

Pak knocked back the rest of her coffee with gusto oblivious to how hot it still was. But she was used to gulping hot coffee or tea in a hurry. IT occupational hazard it seemed.

So many misconceptions she had. She nodded and rose, "Perhaps I should ask my questions at the desk and stop taking up your time. Thank you for the company and the information." A bright smile that wasn't quite real as it did not meet the shadows in her eyes. Something was bothering her still. She picked up her packages, "Fair winds to you." An odd form of goodbye from a time long ago. In many ways Saffia missed the past, which was part of the reason she wrote about it.

(( Saffia out per Pakpao's response. Thank you! <3 ))

Well that was curt and borderline rude and it wasn't like she'd never seen a fake smile before. But if she thought one little weak barb was going to change her attitude she had another think coming. Rather perversely Pak smile was even more genuine.

"Don't worry about it. Like I said, I was just taking up space."

The out dated departure didn't really phase Pak. Some people couldn't keep up with the times and it wasn't their fault really. As her coffee was done and a quick check of the time confirmed that she needed to get back to work she stood and with her shopping in hand headed for an elevator.

"Good luck with the fresh start."

Pak meant that. She wasn't the warm and cuddly type but she didn't automatically wish ill on people. It would be interesting to find out if Saffia could manage here, get her head back on straight. The elevator doors closed and the conversation was over.

((OOC... Pak out))