Tomes, Scrolls, Manuscripts, Vedas, Scriptures, Mandates, and even carvings. All the information of the world compressed down onto these little sheets of paper which somehow felt so different from everything else in the world as if the knowledge somehow coated the paper in something invisible that not even Gabriel could see. New books were nice with the smell of their setting glue and the fresh crisp paper it all seemed so vivid and real, but left the rest of the world feeling pale in comparison. The true wonder of the world though were the older books, for they were the ones which you could touch and visualize great men like Alexander or Nostradamus touching and their feel was so much more then the other. More was the only world capable of describing them because everything else fell short, for they were simply more then everything else on this planet.

He'd been surrounded by books before, and even now his loft was more or less one giant book shelf while only containing a small bed for him to sleep on and a single chair which he used to read. That was nothing compared to this though, for while his last home had contained far older books the sheer quantity of Demaintre's library left the immortal wishing he could cry. Even better then just seeing them was knowing he would be here every night now and that in his hands would have the pleasure of caressing their spines as if they were his own children.

The job was simple enough, sort the books and file them away according to some “new” system which used something called a computer to locate each book. What a waste! Did they not realize that part of the majesty of books was spending time to find that one book that filled your needs? Regardless of his disdain for computers though Gabriel couldn't have forced away his smile if he wanted to, and besides the other part of the job was the upkeep of the older books. He had already seen to a book entitled Walden, by a Henry Thoreau and while that book wasn't as oldest he'd seen by a substantial margin it had still been a thrill to touch history again.

He had a more unpleasant thing to do at the moment though, so after setting aside a few pieces of literature he'd heard about while in hiding-- Gulliver's Travels by Jonathon Swift, Pride And Prejudice by Jane Austen, and The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck-- and locking up the several doors which led into the library, Gabriel began to search for a section on computers so he could learn how to use this strange filing system these people, these haters of literature, were using.

The true flaw with a computer based system was if you didn't know how to use one how were you to find a book to teach you how? By the time Gabriel finally found the section his brown hair was falling into his face slightly as the product which he kept it slicked back with was beginning to rub out due to his hands frequently going through it, and his reading glasses were firmly in place. The odd thing about these glasses were that Gabriel, being a vampire, no longer needed them to read, but rather he had simply never stopped wearing a pair since it seemed to set the tone for reading in his mind. So, as the night began to firmly settle on the library Gabriel sat in a rather stiff chair and began to quickly read through the uninteresting tome.

So, it’d been a little extra effort to seduce her meal than usual… Though Helen was fully satisfied… and managed to not kill her victim. She’d already cleaned herself up and didn’t look like she’d been a little too friendly with a butcher anymore. She crossed the street slowly, a few cars honking at her. She snapped her neck towards them, glaring at them with her brilliantly blue eyes. They quieted, and simply gazed at her glowing eyes. The vampiress continued to cross the street, and walked up to the library doors, only to find them locked. Cursing under her breath, she rolled her eyes, a bit perturbed.

She trudged along to the back, where they threw out all the old books that were falling apart beyond repair. How that was possible, she didn’t know. How could you throw away a book? They were timeless, they could be repaired… but, she supposed if one tore one up enough there would only be one other place for it – the fireplace. Shrugging with a long exasperated sigh, she held her forefinger out, watching the nail grow, and thicken. She walked up to the key lock, stuck her nail in, twisted it around, and quietly crept inside, shutting the door without a sound. Slowly she kept her eyes on whatever book decided to cross her path.

Helen walked down an aisle, the history aisle, and picked up a book explaining the 1800s… A small smirk crept across Helen’s face as she looked back on her mortal era. The things they said about the Victorians could be quite amusing… How women bent over backwards for beauty… As if they didn’t do that now as well. How the men all ran around in top hats and pocket watches… It was true, to an extent, but there weren’t as many of them as it was set to be. There were far more people who tried to look as if they had money, wearing a top hat… or having a pocket watch… But then going home to six starving children and a wife stuck in the kitchen. Fortunately for Helen, her grandmother had married well, which was another factor of the 1800s… Getting married at a young age to someone rich. It didn’t matter if they were young, old, handsome, what have you. As long as they had the means to support you, and you had the dowry to appease them.

The vampiress slinked the book back onto the shelf, and continued weaving through the columns of books. An art book… Helen’s eyes opened wide as she snatched it up, and ran to a couch with it, cracking open the cover, letting the smell of the aged pages wash over her. She stuck her nose into it and took a deep breath, as she then started to slowly turn the pages. Michelangelo… Da Vinci… Monet… A collaboration of European art. It was all so beautiful!

“M-Dos was one of the first operating systems to be used on a mass market...how interesting. Though I'd wager that it would be far more interesting if I knew what an operating system was to begin with. None of this makes any sense!” Gabriel let his head fall into the book slowly while his thoughts collected. “I've read six of these manuals now and still I have no clue what sort of filing systems these people use!” Here was a man who had lived through the holy wars, and while he wasn't living had seen the Renaissance happen, but now as he stared into the black screen of some cursed box he felt the urge to weep. “I'm going to lose this job because of you! You bloody pile of human excrement I will not lose these books to you! It's an unforgivable sin!”

He drew back his head from the book and glared at the box for a long moment before noticing a small looking groove which seemed to be the outline of a button, “What's this?” The plastic was an unwelcome feeling to someone who had grown used to the feel of paper, but as the box began to blink to life Gabriel hissed in surprise and slid back into his chair. “Hmm, well I suppose it makes sense that I had to turn it on. Now don't get me wrong box, for I still loathe you however for the sake of these books I shall work with you...unless you cross me.” He glared at the computer for a long moment before a shiver ran down his spine, and that could only mean one thing.

“Bloody immortals coming into my library! I swear if I find blood....oh just you wait.” It did take a minute for him to stack up his reading material at his work station before Gabriel began to slowly search between the shelves for his company. For a man who was quite timid in public he did have a tendency to lose himself while alone, but as he spent so much of his immortal life alone it rarely seemed plausible that he could remain completely sane. In truth though Gabriel was not sure what he had expected to find, but what he did not expect was the young looking woman who was sitting on a couch with her nose in a book.

“Um....excuse me, but can I help you....” Despite his rather brave talk before approaching the woman Gabriel's voice seemed rather small coming from a decently sized man, and by the way he spoke it was almost as if he didn't really want to be heard by her. “Oh, what book is it you have there?!” Suddenly forgetting his reason for perusing her Gabriel walked over quite quickly and attempted to examine the page she was on which was quite difficult given his need to crane his neck over the book. “A modern art book? Or...wait this would be a art history book now wouldn't it?”

(Sorry, I sort of lost it during this one....a little emotionally involved since I've had many an argument with my computer which followed along those lines.)

“Um....excuse me, but can I help you....”

Helen’s eyes shot up, however, her head did not move. She felt herself shrink a little, despite the small voice of the, of what she assumed, librarian. She’d never been caught before… “Err… I…” What was he doing here after-hours? She was prepared to defend herself, kick him in the throat, bite him, what have you… But his stance quickly changed as she noticed what she was reading. He ran over to her, looking over her shoulder, which she twitched slightly, not knowing who he was and him getting so close to her. She extended the book slowly, making it easier for him to see.

She looked up at him, not really afraid anymore, now that he didn’t look like he was going to crucify her for being here after-hours, but now wanted to see what kind of artistic taste she had. Perhaps she’d take up the Renaissance style… Since she had nearly the rest of eternity to master it, and she loved it so much… Why not? Or… She could be one of those people who recreate them or refurbish them when they become faded or something of that nature. Her mind had quickly floated off into her own little world of possibilities, until the man asked her a question.

“A modern art book? Or...wait this would be a art history book now wouldn't it?”

Helen nodded slowly, “Renaissance… I’m looking at Da Vinci’s Grotesques now.” Helen looked at the sketches with endearment. ‘To know beauty, one must understand ugliness.’ He had said. Helen loved Da Vinci… She loved his mind, the way he thought, and his beautiful masterpieces. She had spoken to his works when she was still mortal to escape the pressures of her grandmother to marry. Helen wanted to so badly to tell her grandmother she was going to marry Leonardo Da Vinci! He was so delicate, such a genius, in not only art, but philosophy, inventions, and his mind was more advanced than that of her own time and even this one. Helen was a bit opinionated on this particular subject… But could you blame her? “Do you know of it?”

The picture on the page was hardly what Gabriel would consider beautiful, but maybe that was the point? Books about the flaws of humanity tended to be far more captivating then those drawing from the perfection. The image had no true color to it though and as such it did little for Gabriel's untrained eye. “Hmm, I've heard the name before, but in truth art has never exactly been my forte.” He could see it was the work of someone with skill though, and while he could tell that much of escaped his grasp Gabriel still found himself appreciating the piece. “I do not believe I was in Europe during this particular era, but in truth I never spent much time there.” By his tone he was in fact talking to himself aloud though his eyes were now moving from the page and beginning to examine the burglar.

It took him a long moment before he realized he was being rude and getting far to close to the woman, and it was only seconds after this realization that he jumped back some and began to slowly back up. “Quite interesting art, but-” He cleared his throat rather loudly and looked deliberately away before finishing his sentence, “It's not very proper for you to come into a library after hours, even more so since you haven't even given notice to the establishment's...owners.” Being stern wasn't something Gabriel had a particular fondness for, and as such he deemed keeping eye contact with the woman to be a sheer impossibility. “More importantly, how did you even get into here? I made sure all of the doors were locked and I'm sure I'd have noticed a broken window.”

The thought of how she had entered the library made Gabriel grow suddenly paranoid with the thought that he had somehow missed something and even now hundreds of vandals were lurking through the library with torches trying to burn his books. The thought grew so strong that he even began to look around rather frantically as if at any moment a youth was going to appear and set him ablaze with the tomes of knowledge around him, “Well I suppose if I had to die there could be far worse ways...”

Just as suddenly as the thoughts had entered his mind though the man's eyes fell onto the woman yet again and he jumped in shock as if he'd forgotten that she was even still present thus pushing the vandals far from his current train of thought, “Oh yes, I must not forget that I do already have one intruder to deal with, and as I've learned 'Do not let the assassin behind you distract you from the enemy ahead' though I can't really see the true relevance it has to my current situation as this is not a battlefield and you are no enemy...or are you? Is it my job to stop people from coming into the library at night, or just to fix the books? I should ask the owner to make sure, but it's quite late and I'm sure he is asleep by now and he did tell me I could handle things here though if I don't tell him and I'm wrong then I could lose this job and the books and I mustn't allow that to happen after only one night because then I'd be back at home with the books I've already read and while they're quite entertaining I do need new material and so perhaps I should call him...” He nodded slowly before once again jumping from the shock of seeing her. “You shouldn't sneak up on people...it's rude and well....well it's just rude I suppose, but that still is enough reason to not sneak up on me. Now...why are you even here?"

“Hmm, I've heard the name before, but in truth art has never exactly been my forte.”

A sheepish grin crossed Helen’s face as she prepared herself to explain one of her many obsessions since her immortal turning. Of course, she’d studied these works… But never an obsession this profuse had ever entered her life…or death. “Well, you are aware of an exceptionally talented artist by the name of Leonardo Da Vinci, correct?” She paused for a moment, allowing the man to respond, and even ramble on if he deemed necessary. She then looked back at her book, running her fingers along the outlines of the grotesque sketches. “He went into a local tavern, and sketched these people… he said, ‘to know beauty, one must understand ugliness.’ So, he drew ordinary people. Of course, these particular people weren’t exactly the blossoms of society… But he was…” She stopped simply in awe at his work. “Brilliant.” He said something about Europe and living there for only a brief time, but Helen felt as if he wasn’t exactly speaking to her.

“More importantly, how did you even get into here? I made sure all of the doors were locked and I'm sure I'd have noticed a broken window.”

He cleared his throat, trying to look intimidating, or threatening or at least… Something to where she would take heed to what she said. He seemed to be a little on the topsy turvy side in the way his mind wasn’t exactly a focused one. However, she wasn’t one to talk… His eyes wandered around the room as if looking at her for a prolonged period of time could be hazardous. “I… Well…” She wasn’t exactly sure how to explain this one. ‘I have nails that I’ve learned can be used for wicked lock picks…’ Sure, that would do it.

She could see the fear storming in his eyes and about what, she wasn’t exactly sure, but then soon he started rambling on about dying. She rolled her eyes and slouched slightly in the chair. She flipped through the book a little, seeing the Mona Lisa, and then looked back up at the man. Then, out of nowhere, he just started talking… Forever… He wouldn’t stop! She opened her mouth, but closed it when he didn’t notice, and just continued on with his babble. She bit her lip, listening to everything he said, a bit amused by it. She raised her hand slightly as to tap him on the shoulder when he suddenly turned around, jumping, telling her it was rude to sneak up on people. She rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated sigh.

“You shouldn't sneak up on people...it's rude and well....well it's just rude I suppose, but that still is enough reason to not sneak up on me. Now...why are you even here?"

Helen looked up at the man and couldn’t help but let out a dry laugh. “I, well,” She let out another little laugh, “I wasn’t going to steal anything… I just like spending time in the library… Please… Don’t call your boss, I don’t steal books. I just like to come in here and read them…” She looked at him for a long time, questioning his mental situation. “Are you okay?”

Gabriel looked at her for a moment, before nodding slowly. “Hmm, he does sound like quite the interesting person, and it pains me to think that I passed up on the chance to get to know his work better while the man still lived.” He spoke slowly for once, and in a way that hinted he may have actually had a bit of sanity left, “Though, who is to know what would have happened had I taken the chance to meet him? Would that have set me down a completely different path whose end result may have not been this chance encounter with you at a library?” The thoughts of alternative lives always made Gabriel question the actions which he had taken in order to get to where he was today, for had he not killed his mentor would he have even become a vampire? Or perhaps would that have led to an even earlier death at the hands of another? Or if he had not been a roamer in life would he have ever become a templar? The questions always made the vampire wonder if he was even real, or if this was just one of billions of outcomes for a separate man's life.

It was her question that brought him back to life though, and with it came the information she had already said.

“Are you okay?”

“Isn't it amazing? How one can use those same three words and mean so many different things? I mean it could be asking if I'm healthy, or if I'm emotionally alright, or if I'm okay with a particular outcome. It can ask if you've offended someone or if you've surprised them. English is such a versatile language...really though isn't language amazing? Truly...it is the divine spark in man. God's gift to humankind, and perhaps to vampirekind.” He paused for a moment as his own words rubbed in before actually answering her question, or in a sense. “I think I'm alright, but from what I understand most people who are not alright do not know that they are alright. So, perhaps I am not alright in the least though the fact is that I'm an undead corpse which feeds off the life of other people whom I may envy during the day, so I think it's reasonably safe to assume that I am not okay in any standard use of the word.”

“I'm coming on to strong aren't I? I mean I know I need to ease back some when I talk to people, but it's just that...well I don't talk to people so when I do I tend to just yammer on about nonsense. You see a normal person would have just said, 'Yes.' You see? How simple would that have been...just a three letter word and I would have avoided this entire awkward situation which is exactly what this is. I'm sorry, I really am. I mean I'm just not use to...I'm doing it again aren't I? Yes, I am. I'm sorry.” He spoke somewhat slower then before, but still his words had a way of bleeding together in a manner which made it difficult for anyone to get a word in themselves.

“Don't worry though. I can make it up to you! See, I'm so sorry that I won't tell anyone. After all, you're not harming the books and I can see you enjoy them. Besides, it's not like you can come here and read them during the day, so feel free to come in whenever..., but if you'd be kind enough to leave me a note or something I'll leave a door unlocked for you.” He nodded quickly before suddenly remembering the others, “OH, but you musn't let vandals into here, for that would be very tragic and I can't have damage done to my books because then...well then the books would be hurt.” (I used to write plays for fun so I'm a little...dialog happy which is most likely why most of my posts consist of speech.)

As he spoke, Helen could only come to the conclusion that he was a vampire as well… and knew she was one too. How could he tell? Besides her deathly pale skin… There really wasn’t much else. He pondered vocally about meeting Leonardo and such an event deferring him from meeting Helen. She simply shrugged and bit her lip slightly. “I don’t know. Time is such a strange thing, isn’t it? I remember reading the Time Machine… And the Traveler experienced such strange things with the Eloi… Just imagine how simple his life would have been without them, huh?” She grinned slightly, wondering how complicated life could get if you meddled with time travel. “But we aren’t talking about Time Travel… Just events in time that would defer the future, hm?” She patted the seat next to her on the couch. “Why don’t you join me for awhile? It’s been awhile since I’ve gotten to speak with someone who might actually be older than myself.”

“I think I'm alright, but from what I understand most people who are not alright do not know that they are alright. So, perhaps I am not alright in the least though the fact is that I'm an undead corpse which feeds off the life of other people whom I may envy during the day, so I think it's reasonably safe to assume that I am not okay in any standard use of the word.”

Helen listened to every word that spilled from the man’s mouth. Surely he didn’t have conversations with many people very often. She bit her lip, as he explained to her how he wasn’t all right, as far as he could tell, no matter what different perspective she wanted to look at it. She nodded slowly, and her lip turned upwards, but then fell back into a frown. “Join the club… We have jackets, you know.” She pulled on her turtleneck softly, and then turned a page in her book, staring at it. She ran her fingers over the page, reading the description of another of Da Vinci’s works… She was now entering the section of the book that described the inventions he’d scribbled about in all of his journals. “Is anyone ever okay?” Helen let out a dry laugh as she pondered the subject. “We are all these vessels of hurt trying so desperately to appear as if nothing happens to us… As if we are impenetrable to pain and sorrow… But inside we secretly die and especially… vampires. We’re such cowards to death that we adopt immortality… Giving us not freedom from pain, but many lifetimes over of it…” Her eyes became distant as she looked up at the man, who she’d barely even met… But she felt as if she could randomly babble as well… Though she felt stupid, and reverted her attention back to her book. “Kind of pathetic, right?”

He started to apologize about his strong conversation skills, and with that, Helen shook her head and waved her hand dismissively. “No, no, really, I enjoy your company. You…” She bit her lip, trying to think of the right word. “You make me feel like it’s okay to talk.” She smiled, but it quickly faded away. “I haven’t felt this way in…” She breathed deeply, closing her eyes during the inhale, and opened them during the exhale. It was not needed, but it was for her muscles to relax. “Such a long time. I prefer your long answer to a simple one, really.” She nodded, and pushed a tress of her hair behind her ear. The damn bun was letting loose again. She had so much hair, and never bothered to cut it. She pulled the tie out of her hair, letting it fall onto her shoulders, before quickly, wrapping it into another bun, plopped upon her head. It was nearly as messy as the one before.

Biting her lip once more, Helen listened to his apology, as he told her he wouldn’t tell his boss, would even leave the door unlocked, and as long as she would prevent vandals from entering the library, he’d do these things for her. Helen grinned, looking down at her book, and then back up to the man. “I’d like that…” She bit her lip, the skin reddening at her harsher bite. “Will you be here every night?” She then closed the book, and set it aside, feeling that an introduction was in order. “If… I’m going to start coming here regularly on your clock now… I guess I should introduce myelf?” She held out her hand, remembering how Claude had done it earlier that evening. “I’m Helen. Helen Gustare. Nice to meet you…?” She paused, waiting for him to introduce himself, as well.

Gabriel stood there for a moment as if his mind had slipped away, but then suddenly he blinked a few times and exited his trance before nodding to her, “Oh! How rude of me, if my father could see me now he'd be quite upset with me. I'm Gabriel, Lanorus that is and yes I think I should be here every night. Unless of course I'm fired for some reason which would be quite depressing.” Her comment on sitting down almost caused Gabriel to shift strangely, as if his hand were reaching for something and then pulling back just as suddenly. “Sit? Yes, I can sit.” Even as he sat Gabriel demonstrated a very vivid awkwardness which ended with him holding one knee to his chest while the other was positioned off of the couch.

“Simplicity though is rather overrated. I mean had my life remained simple then I'd have died hundreds of years ago without ever reading any of the works which I cherish now. Given, sometimes I crave for life to be simple, but in truth I think I prefer my cowardice way of hiding from death because had I been brave then I'd be dead.” He smiled slightly over at her and relaxed some before moving on, “Besides, the pain isn't all that bad and without it I wouldn't be who I am. I like happiness, but sadness motivates the great actions of the world as well as those which are tragic. It moves life with such power that mother's can lift cars and that spouses will kill each other over who ate the last...well I do not even know what they eat now a days, but my point still remains valid I believe.” He seemed slightly calmer now, or at least he spoke in a much less rampant method then he had previously.

“I think the true tragedy is that we all choose to hide our motivations from the world as if others will judge us poorly based off of our flaws. I personally believe that our flaws are one of the most important parts about us, for if we were all perfect then we'd all be horrific. I mean a book is only great when compared to it's flaws and one can only appreciate a writer's work on a particular scene when they compare it to earlier works or different books. Besides, if we were all okay then your club wouldn't even exist so you couldn't have jackets.” He shrugged slightly and snickered some at his own joke before looking up and away towards one of the many sky lights that were built into the ceiling.

“I'm just glad you can tolerate my company. It's nice talking to people, and most people are rather put off by how I act. I think I try to hard sometimes, but I just want people to like me. I know I shouldn't care, but it just seems like people don't get along the way they should, and then I hope that the world will have changed when I come back to it, but it never does. Sure, they get new weapons and nicer homes, but people still shun others and hurt people. I don't know what I'm even trying to say honestly, but I'm just glad I'm not talking to mysel- You're not some figment are you? I've had that happen before and it was quite depressing, but I doubt it because I have a hard time talking to pretty women, so most of the time my figments tend to be animals....though I think that's a bad sign, for if I ever thought that animals could talk then I'd really and truly be crazy. Though personally I think it was do to the wine...” He paused as Gabriel realized exactly how insane this all made him sound, so he did what he thought would help the situation and gave a small laugh which sounded slightly off and only made his sanity come deeper into question. “I am sane really. It's just I can't take my alcohol and sometimes...well sometimes I get a little lost if I read for too many years straight that I eventually start seeing things.” This of course made him pause yet again before quickly moving on to cover his tracks, “Not crazy things of course just..things. Like cats, I mean I like cats, do you like cats? I'm particularly fond of small white furry cats, but that's just my preference.”

“Oh! How rude of me, if my father could see me now he'd be quite upset with me. I'm Gabriel, Lanorus that is and yes I think I should be here every night. Unless of course I'm fired for some reason which would be quite depressing.”

Helen smirked, nodding. “Nice to meet you Gabriel... I've always loved that name...” She breathed out with a small smile, looking down into the book on her lap. Looks like she wasn’t the only one with stiff folks. The young vampiress watched Gabriel as he accepted her offer to join her, but sat uncomfortably. Was he all right? He didn’t seem like he was very okay with sitting next to her. She couldn’t help but shift her weight slightly away from him, so maybe to give him more room, and put him at ease? Well, hadn’t they already discussed the matter of him not being all right? Helen merely tried to accommodate Gabriel’s insecurities… because she of all people could relate to such things.

With her head turned, Helen listened to Gabriel’s explanation, and couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle. He always made the same realizations she did… but with different words, and different points. She’d figured that there was a reason for everything, and that eventually, there would be an end to her suffering, especially if she were to live forever, and well, to be honest, wasn’t it more fun when you had something tragic under your belt. “So, then are we all just traveling tragic love songs?” She grunted, and kicked her feet up on the coffee table in front of her, flipping through the pages of the art book a bit displeased with the way things worked. It wasn’t like it was his fault, though.

Helen watched Gabriel as he made his assumptions about flaws, and her having jackets because of the club, resulting in her flaws, and Helen laughed out loud. Her shoulders hunched forward slightly and her brows furrowed, quite amused with Gabriel’s declaration. “I… suppose you’re right. But…” She shrugged and shook her head. “I suppose I’m still in the mindset of the Victorian Era where you have to be perfect to get a man to take care of you…” Helen smirked with bitter distaste. “But of course, my dowry was so high that it didn’t matter what I was…” That’s all they cared about.

The young vampiress looked to this fellow vampire with a bit of pity as he started describing his loneliness and speaking to animals that weren’t really there… and he reminded her so much of herself. She placed a hand on his shoulder, and shrugged. “No, I’m not a figment of your imagination… But, I do like cats. I used to have one… She was black with a white silvery boots.” Helen smiled, in remembrance of her cat. “I called her Moondancer.”

Gabriel let a small smile go back to his lips as he listened to her speaking about a cat she had owned. After a moment though he shifted some to face her more directly and then tilted his head slightly to the side as he examined the vampiress's face carefully. It took him a moment of close examination until the vampire was content that she was completely real, and then he relaxed visually as he settled back into the couch more. The look on his face was calmer now as the paranoia was beginning to fade drastically. Gabriel was growing quite content with sitting on the couch, but he knew that they were indeed still talking, even if his scattered comments had begun to make their topic of choice an indecipherable one. “Well, it is good that you've owned a cat before because I personally feel that by spending time with an animal that keeps it's independence while still being dependent we can learn a lot.” He was happy now, for once glad that he was speaking to someone because we was sure that this time the person actually did exist, and more importantly that they might be visiting him more often, even if it was just for the books.

As the night wore on Gabriel shifted his reading glasses some to keep it from getting to uncomfortable on his nose, but when that didn't work he simply raised them and put them on the top of his head so he'd have them if they were needed, but so they'd be out of the way until he did. So, she was from the Victorian period? That was one era which the vampire had been glad to spend in northern China, but much of what he had hurt was most likely exaggerated some though by the way she spoke of marriage maybe it wasn't. “I'm sure you'd have been able to find a man who didn't care for the money if you'd been looking in the right places, I mean I've met some people from that era and they don't seem all that greedy..., but that could be because now they have as much time as the world offers to collect the money which they desire. As for a dowry I was actually quite surprised to find that so many different cultures use a dowry system. I mean I can hardly imagine why one family would want to collect money from another when they're already getting that family's daughter.” That was actually one of the very few things Gabriel actually regretted about his life, for he had never married and as such had never experienced love in the way so many of his books described it. Given he had loved Alexi in life, but not from the relationship of a lover or spouse, but from one of a sibling. Now though, it seemed far to late to dwell on a life so far in the past.

He gave a small laugh at her comment about them all being tragic loves songs, but shook his head slowly, “No, we're all just novels which haven't been finished yet. Right now we're just writing the middle of the story, so of course we're bound to have strife and conflict. Tragedy is a fact of life I guess, one which everyone experiences during their existence, but it gives us the strength to handle our confrontations when they arise.” Gabriel continued to smile while talking, but now his gaze was directed more at the table in front of them then at Helen. “Maybe we our all songs though, and perhaps I'm just deaf to the music which we're being played to.” He shrugged slightly and then leaned back so his head was resting at the top of the couch and left his eyes to stare just below a light socket on the ceiling.

“The world is an interesting place I'd say, and though I don't think I believe in fate it does seem to bring people to each other in very surprising manners. Though maybe it's not the world at all and the people are seeking each other using a mysterious primal method which we'd never be able to truly fathom.” He rotated his neck some so that he'd be able to look at her from the corner of his eye, “Still, I've found that in my life I always seem to find someone right before I lose it. Maybe it's because of fate, or more likely it's because once I'm this close to the edge I'm more willing to talk to new people. Either way though...it just seems interesting to me.” Gabriel let his mind wander for a moment as it moved through the various times in his life where he'd met someone who had forever changed him, and it always seemed to hinge so greatly on sheer chance. “We can change our actions, tastes, and tone, but we'll never be able to escape who we are, and no matter how long we live our actions will still haunt us at times, so perhaps it is best to just accept them and move on, or maybe running from them is the right thing to do after all...”

Helen smiled too, as she noticed Gabriel relax slightly. She wasn’t sure if she would consider herself comfortable with Gabriel quite yet… But she was definitely more comfortable with him now, than she was a few minutes ago, and definitely more comfortable than any other bimbo on the street. Of course, even being a vampire, you had one up on the average bimbo. Helen nodded slightly as he talked about having a cat. She’d even considered biting the cat, and turning it into some vampire cat… But thought that it might be a little weird, and wasn’t even sure if something like that would have worked. “She took good care of my grandmother, after I left…” Helen’s voice trailed off as she remembered telling Moondancer specifically to never leave Grandmother, and to show tons of affection… even more than she’d shown Helen.

Finding a man had never really been very important to Helen. Of course, love was such a dream to her, a thing she read about in books… Not an actuality. Things didn’t work the way Romeo and Juliet perceived them to. “You know, I never really looked for a man.” She smirked slightly, running her fingers down a self-portrait of Da Vinci. “I fell in love with an idea; Da Vinci’s mind… and no one else could really compare. Call me a hopeless romantic, but really, he was brilliant, and comforted me when I was down.” She closed the book, and set it on the table in front of her. “But, that’s enough of him for now. He died so many years ago that there’s no point in trying to pretend that I could ever have him.” She stood, and walked over to the aisle that she’d pulled the book from, placing it back on the shelf.

“No, we're all just novels which haven't been finished yet. Right now we're just writing the middle of the story, so of course we're bound to have strife and conflict.”

Helen let out a small ‘hmmph,’ thinking about what Gabriel had said. There was a wonderful truth about it that made Helen seem like everything wasn’t so pessimistically intolerable: That it wasn’t over. There was still time to turn things around, brighten the night, things of that sort. Helen smirked, and placed a hand on Gabriel’s shoulder. “Yeah, guess you’re right. Perhaps I should start looking forward to the falling action, eh?” Helen then crossed her arms, and slunk into the couch, contemplating his words. Really, she wasn’t sure why everything he said made her fall into this ponderous mood, but he really did. She didn’t even know what exactly life was about, especially since she had overcome it, and was still existing even after her death. It wasn’t natural, and everything that happened to her she felt as an exception. To mortals, they were able to move on and what not, but for her own self who had lived so much longer, things still stuck to her like lint and glue. The occurrences of her life were like gobs and gobs of dirt that had attached themselves to her sweater and followed her around, even after she washed it. It was strange, and well, to be frank, Helen was tired of it.

Gabriel nodded slowly as she spoke, but his head paused when she began to talk about her life as a mortal which involved her love of Da Vinci. The way she spoke of this artist gave the vampire an impression that she may have actually fallen in love with this idea of perfection to such a degree that no one would ever be able to fill the shoes left by a fallen painter. It was not these thoughts which he dwelt on though, but rather thoughts on his own love devoid life. Given he had loved once in his life, but that woman had shattered his heart so heavily that it would be impossible to repair. Still, Gabriel sat still as she spoke and tried to keep his mind from drifting off as it had so many times in the past. The fact was that Gabriel went through many phases of sickness and even now he struggled to keep his mind focused on anything for more then a few moments. “I...I can see how that would become problematic for you, and for the men who wished to win you over.” His voice had slowed down very dramatically now, and as she stood to return her book Gabriel's focus slipped long enough for him to slip forward some after a brief batch of intense dizziness.

The entire ordeal was beginning to pull on Gabriel's control slowly as he slipped in and out of consciousness for a few minutes until finally being brought back by Helen speaking. Her words were simply in response to his early comment about them being writers, but for some reason he made him dread what awaited him in the future. Many books had long endings which wrapped everything up nicely, but how was he to be certain that his own wouldn't cut off in mid story? The immortal took a deep inhalation of air, which was completely unneeded, and then exhaled quite audibly. “I do not know what we should look forward too honestly, but I know that our lives are not yet over which means that if we stop living then how would we ever finish our own story. I may be wrong though honestly...it's just that...well it helps me cope to think of the world as being as kind as the books I read, for even the most sinister of books is kinder then the actions of men.” It wasn't a pleasant thought truly, but he'd experienced the horrors of man throughout both his true life and his extended death and never had he seen a more cruel species then that of the human race.

To Gabriel he lived through sleep, and so he was hardly one who should council others on affairs of life. Regardless though the immortal always felt to urge to pass on wisdom to anyone near him, even if the wisdom was false, for if he did nothing then how would his time awake be any different then his time in slumber. Now though, after one hundred and fifty-seven years of being awake Gabriel felt his urges grow to end it all. He'd sleep soon, but first he still wanted to see what this city was life. Perhaps after then he'd finally see the sun again...though who knew if those poor souls which burned in the majesty of the light even saw it before their deaths. For the time being Gabriel would stay alive which meant he'd continue to smile at Helen and give his false wisdom to her, all the while knowing he'd be hiding from the world soon regardless. “Perhaps it is because of how men act that vampires feel the need to feed upon them, for despite us taking lives on occasion we are at least clear as to what we want from them. We do not put up the facade of aid while seeking only profit.” He sighed again before standing slowly and wiping his knees off which uncalloused hands. “Or perhaps that is just the ramblings of a madman who's past his prime.” Gabriel laughed slightly at his own comment and gave Helen a small grin, “Either way I think it sounds profound...even if it's not.”

Helen watched Gabriel’s movements as she saw that he was growing a bit uncomfortable again. For whatever reason, she was getting better at picking up on his fidgets and movements. Usually she was pretty good at reading mortals, but vampires were a bit trickier. They had more control over their emotions most of the time… unless they were young fledglings… They were careless and reckless and were always emotional wrecks. But, could you blame them? Going through another change of life… except this one involved death.

“I...I can see how that would become problematic for you, and for the men who wished to win you over.”

The young vampiress snorted. They were all piggish, wealthy snobs that cared nothing for her. Each looking for their hearts so buried in their pocketbooks that it was damn near impossible to recover. Helen just wanted once… just once to meet a man that felt money was trivial, and unimportant… Like she had. Even her own grandmother was obsessed with it, motivating her to find a good husband for her strange granddaughter. A waste of time, really, that’s all it was! “Perhaps… But no one showed that special bit that I had always been looking for… You know, when you see that person and you just…” Helen looked up; her eyes wandered down the many aisles and raised her arms, making a starburst with her hands, “…click.” She looked over to Gabe, who seemed to be acting a bit strange. She tilted her head, watching his eyes, which seemed to practically glaze over. “Are… you alright?”

He spoke of men being far crueler than the confines of a book had ever been. Helen nodded slowly, knowing more than anyone else the value in such a statement. Parents were taken from her during her early youth, murdered at a young age, and abandoned after her living death. Helen knew all too well the cruelties of the world… “It’s a shame, isn’t it? How sometimes our own lives experience more hardships than a simple character in a book ever had to.” She smirked, “despite its tragic entertainment.” Perhaps that’s why she continually read books, to keep her own mind off of the things she refused to face in her own life. She wanted to dive into the lives of fictional characters, weep with them, laugh with them, because she knew that she had no such partner in the real world.

“Either way I think it sounds profound...even if it's not.”

Helen stood, stretched and grinned. She rubbed her eyes, growing bored of the library. Wow, that was a thought, wasn’t it? She was looking for more these days… simple black blotted pages just weren’t as satisfying anymore… Probably because she’d read every single book at least twenty or more times each, and she could recite each line on command after a second or two of thought. “How about we go out on the town? I’ve never really been before… And now I have someone to get lost with me. What say you?” She tilted her head, pushing some hair out of her eyes, hoping that Gabriel would accept.

It wasn't until a good minute after Helen had asked the question that Gabriel finally began to comprehend what exactly she was saying to him, “What? Oh! Yes, I'm perfectly fine! It's just..I dunno really what it is, but it's most definitely something.” He nodded slowly while speaking in his typical quiet tone before finally beginning to pick up a little in the area they were in. “I just sometimes lose focus, so perhaps that is what this is or else I've developed more issues then I was previously aware of.” The entire matter made the vampire shift his feet slightly before finally moving on in his thoughts to a less worrisome matter.

Of course this less worrisome matter was still an interesting topic, for it wasn't often that he had a chance to speak his opinion on love. However, the strange thing was that even though he'd been presented a good opportunity to talk about his opinion on something Gabriel found himself holding back as she talked about clicking and eventually just nodded in agreement with her. The fact was that she'd said everything he knew on the subject, and as such by adding anything it would it just water down the previous statement.

“Well...I don't know if I should go out I mean I do have...well you know I don't know how long I'm going to be around this time, so it would be nice to have someone to see the town with. Besides, I think I've been spending too much of my time around books recently.” Gabriel nodded slightly, though by how he was looking around the library it was as if she was asking him to go tanning with her. “I just...um...well let me just grab my keys so I can lock that back door up on our way out.” He nodded slowly since his mind could come up with no reason to stay at the library alone.

Gabriel was hesitant to leave his sanctuary really, and so the closing actions took a bit longer than was really necessary for them. As the immortal began to pick up the few keys which were on a small a fuzzy white key chain he felt himself shiver. The man was around seven hundred years old now, and he still had never gotten used to being out in the world since his self imposed house arrest. “Well...I guess I've done everything I needed to do. So..um..shall we?” He continued to glance around the library slowly before giving a worried glance to the back door and towards what would be on the other side of it.

“What? Oh! Yes, I'm perfectly fine! It's just...I dunno really what it is, but it's most definitely something.”

Helen had almost forgotten her question as it had taken Gabriel so long to reply. She jumped slightly at his sudden outburst and let out an exasperated laugh. She nodded and furrowed her eyebrows slightly, trying to make sense of this strange man’s actions… As she listened to him speak of his difficulty of focusing, Helen couldn’t help but grin. He sounded so much like her it was ridiculous. Except, he seemed to have a happier nature about him than she did… At the very least, it was always nice to meet someone that you had something in common with… Even if they were the funny little quirks you acquire from solitude.

“I just...um...well let me just grab my keys so I can lock that back door up on our way out.”

The young vampiress’ eyes glittered, showing a new excitement with her new friend. Of course, her facial features still remained stoic, not showing one bit of emotion, other than her constant amused smirk upon her lips. Though he was a bit hesitant, Helen knew that this little outing would be great for the two of them. It would get him out of the damn library, and it would give Helen a great social experience! Unfortunately, that was more of her grandmother speaking, than anything. Helen was just grateful that she’d found someone to share her time with. Lord knows, she had more than plenty to share. “Great… Can I help with anything…?” Helen shuffled around with the magazines on the short table in front of them, trying to act as if she was getting something accomplished – either that, or making it look as if she had some kind of OCD tendencies.

“Well...I guess I've done everything I needed to do. So..um..shall we?”

Gabriel that finished cleaning up, and apparently he hadn’t needed Helen’s help. Well, he’d practically lived in this library for God knows how long, and suddenly it arose Helen’s curiosity that she hadn’t noticed him before, despite her own frequent visits to these halls of literature. She nodded and walked towards the door, and went through it, waiting for Gabriel outside. Helen crossed her arms, thinking for a moment; on what kind of event they could busy themselves with on the town. She wondered if he fancied the drink, or would just rather go on a walk through the park. “What would you like to do? How does a walk in the park sound to you?” She smirked a bit wider, “it reminds me of England… My mortal home.”