Planning and Inventing

[Ϛ The Inventor]

"Forgiven. I've yet to meet a second perfect person; we all have faults. Take me for instance; some times my hair sticks straight up, for no reason at all! It's as if a large farm animal slathered it's tongue all over my head and glued it that way." His eyes were as wide as if he'd been telling a ghost story by a camp fire.

"Anyway, my notes are all up here," he said, tapping the centre of his forehead. "Or you know, wherever in there that they're stored. Auto-biology doesn't interest me much. Point being, they're not exactly accessible to the public." He and Sophia both knew digging around in his mind for knowledge wasn't exactly worth the risk. "But of course, you're welcome to..." he waved the piece of the Artifact in front of her, waiting for her to take it. He didn't particularly feel like holding it all day, it made him all tingly having it in his hand too long.

"How interested am I in..." he repeated to himself in low tones, looking to be deep in thought. "Well, not at all, really. I've seen the thing before. I studied it a while. I grew bored, I left. It doesn't affect Djinn much, other than to try and make pure energy soup out of them if they mess with it, and I could care less what it does to humans. I learned what I wanted from it a long time ago."

He gave Sophia a wistful look. "I suppose you wish to see it, though...?"

[vamp]

First, the vampiress plucked the tidbit from the Inventor's hand. Since her body had long since died, the bit didn't even react to her in the least. It felt like nothing more than a paperweight in her hands.

This thought amused Sophia, and she smiled as she turned the piece in her fingers. "Perfect people don't exist. If they were perfect, they would not be people."

She frowned upon hearing the location of his notes. Yes, she could dive into the Ancient's mind. In fact, Sophia might even be able to work her way out of it again. But it probably wouldn't be worth the effort of doing so. It didn't sound as if the Ancient knew that much more then Sophia did.

More disappointingly, it didn't sound as if the Ancient wanted to examine the Artifact further. Which meant that one of Sophia's best cards had just been brushed away.

"I've seen it before," she murmured, shaking her head. She locked eyes with the Ancient, wondering what was going on in his head. It took a great deal of effort for her not to pry into his thoughts. She had grown so used to the dual conversations that having only one felt nearly like being deafened.

"You prefer bluntness, yes?" she arched a brow. "In truth, I was hoping to recruit you in my struggle against the Academy. I figured that the best way of doing so would be to appeal to your curiosity. If you have a better suggestion..."

[Ϛ The Inventor]

"If you mean they wouldn't be human, then I'd have to agree," The Inventor said with what was perhaps an overly-pleasant and dangerous smile. He may have been upset with what Sophia said, basically accusing him of lying about a perfect being, had he not justified her words with a loophole of his own creation. But of course, it was absurd to think that someone wouldn't see William as perfect, in his mind. Anyone with a firm grip on sanity, anyway.

The Inventor inclined his head and the corners of his mouth twitched, almost as if the ghost of a real smile had just passed them by. This was the only hint of the amusement he felt; Sophia's frown was the only answer he needed to know he was right about her. As she met his eyes, he raised an eyebrow for no particular reason other than to not be completely still without breaking eye contact. He didn't seem to notice that she made nearly the same gesture at the same time.

There would be, assuming Sophia waited for a reply, a moment of complete and utter silence while the Inventor simply mulled things over. Appeared to mull them over, anyway; he could have been thinking about mariachi bands for all I know. The point was simply that Sophia did not receive an immediate answer. In fact, it was only when it seemed that he didn't intend on replying at all that he spoke again.

"The Academy has given me no reason to struggle against them," he said frankly. "But you've given me no reason not to help you, either, so that makes the two of you even."

He took a few paces around the room until he had wandered to what was roughly the middle of it. "Fortune," he said, holding up a hand that was suddenly holding a fan of bills, "fame," a suit and shades replaced his current attire, "even immortality," his other hand was occupied by a bust of his own head, "these things hold no sway over me. If you want my help, you had better have something downright intriguing to offer in return."

The money and the bust disappeared, the shades he pushed slightly down, looking over the frames at Sophia. The feeling behind the look was a very different one, one he hadn't emoted in a very long time. It was a challenge, that much was obvious, but there was something almost playful about it.

Maybe he wanted to help, and simply felt like testing Sophia first. Maybe he would simply do almost anything to experience something new for a change. Either way, it was clear he'd either give this his all, or nothing, depending on what Sophia came up with. It was a shame the curiosity card had already been played.