10_20_15_5_50 | sometimes it isn't what you know

Who: Evangeline, Zeran, Amon, and Sam.
What: Today's trash-witch introduces one of her extremely inquisitive friends, and her most responsible friend, to one of her newer friends... who happens to be a centuries-old vampire.
Where: Tombstone, AZ.
Warnings: Shitposting senior Granny Stevens, Sam's potty mouth.

“Take me to Tombstone,” Sam had said; she'd phoned Zeran, to grin to herself over his insatiable curiousity. “There's someone I want you to meet. Someone you would want to meet, if I told you anything more about her---though, maybe you already want to meet her, to see why I want you to meet her. I'm not going to tell you much more about this fairly recently made friend, but I will tell you I'm up for wherever you want to stay, wherever you want to go while we're in town, cause the last time I was there was also the first time I was there, and I was only tooling around for one day and one night. Not cause I was up to anything sketchy, but cause I'd bussed over from Pheonix after coming down for a concert. If Amon's overheard this call, you can tell him to be cool and not worry.”

'Take me to Tombstone,' had sort of been the start of it. The next part might've made a good montage; an airport reunion, some time traveling together, reaching their hotel---unsurprisingly, a nice one---unloading, having a bit of a break in a convenient cafe, and then moving along to Curated Curiousities. Twenty-four thousand square feet of bafflements, oddities, and freaks of nature, complemented by some pretty weird postcards and an institutional motto, if it could be called that, of 'WHY THOUGH'

The museum's contents would speak for themselves, but Sam was too excited to keep her opinion to herself, declaring “This place is great. C'mon!”

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"Welcome, everyone, welcome!"

Eva gestured to the museum around her with fond warmth and gave a sheepish expression to her visitors.

"I'm terribly sorry I didn't greet you when you came in. We had an incident earlier in the week with a drunk on the porch and I'm still waiting for some parts to fix the doorbell. Rather, our current owner Lav is waiting for those parts."

She looked to the other individual with Zeran and Sam and nodded warmly in invitation.

"As I said to Zeran, my name is Evangeline Stevens. I became acquainted with dear Sam a little while back and I see she took my invitation to bring friends down here very seriously. I like that! May I have the pleasure of your name? And, perhaps, might I know which exhibits intrigue you most?"

At the mention of 'an incident with a drunk,' Sam grimaced sympathetically, underscoring the sentiment with an exasperated huff. "Drunk rowdies are the worst, wherever you go. My own workplace sees very, very few, cause a small art gallery isn't a big draw on it's own, and there's no neighbour shop with that kind of clientele to overflow, but I've been at enough concerts and festivals and karaoke hours to speak from some experience." She gave a little shrug... and grinned up at Amon, indulging in a little light-hearted aside (which was nonetheless audible to all).

"I'm 'dear Sam' already. Told you, I'm charming."

"Certainly sounds like you have nothing to apologize for, though my sympathies regarding the troubles." Zeran found himself eyeing Amon. He didn't need aura sight to know his friend was uncomfortable still, and likely would remain so at least until he had a better idea of the oddity before him that was Eva.

For the two that knew him, likely especially to Sam, Amon's discomfort would be painfully clear when he didn't tease back at Sam's comment, but instead merely gave a small nod, as if to concede her victory.

To, Eva, someone who didn't know him at all, he would just seem like a reserved type as he answered. "Amon. It's a pleasure, Miss Stevens." The greeting came out by rote, not entirely a lie, but not yet truly sincere either. "I'm afraid I can't really answer yet regarding the most intriguing exhibit, as we've only seen a small part of the museum so far."

Eva smiled a winning smile, and extended a hand towards the rest of the museum.

"Well, since you've only had a chance to see a small section of our deliciously strange establishment, might I offer to escort you all around the place? We can start wherever you like, from bad taxidermy to mythical relics!"

Her stance was open and friendly, with just a tiny hint of mischief. She held her hands together in a genteel fashion, an antiquated gesture of a lady waiting on her guests.

Sam sidled closer to Amon, releasing his hand to slide her own across his back; hopefully, having a friendly arm around him would provide a little comfort to offset his unease. She'd expected some uncertainty, maybe some mild exasperation tempered by his fondness for her (and possibly a cautious appreciation of Zeran's glee) but not for her friend to be so discomfited he'd pass on a bit of banter. She didn't say anything about it---what she said was "It's up to the guys, since I got a good look before,"---but kept her hand on Amon's back, rubbing lightly to try and convey a wordless (and discreet) 'hey, it's okay.'

Zeran wished he knew what Amon's issue was so he could help his friend walk though his discomfort. Amon would tell him at times that emotions still felt so new, and he didn't know what to make of them or what actions were actually appropriate and what were not. He also knew his friend wasn't going to compromise his cover in front of strangers and potentially give away that he wasn't human. For now, so as not to draw attention to Amon's discomfort, he'd let Sam see to him, and instead put his attention back on Eva. "An escort sounds great! We'd just come around from that way, so maybe just continue on the way we were heading? You can make sure we don't miss any of the best things to see."

Amon just gave a nod of agreement to Zeran's suggestion, glad Zeran answered so that Amon would not have to. As much as he appreciated her attempts, Sam's reassuring touches weren't actually helping him to relax. At least, outwardly, he was managing to keep a neutral, if perhaps a bit stoic, expression.

sometimes it isn't what you know

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Phone tags while I'm stranded at Jon's

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FRICK GUYS I'M SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY

you've had stuff happening!

Ya. You never have to apologize for "late" tags. It's always "as you can"