More Among The Books

OOC: JP with Lasersexpanther and Cindy

(Takes places the same night as Aurora's rescue.)

Colette had gone to help rescue Aurora. Leon wished he could be a part of the rescue but there were still other matters to take care of. The Butcher and The Cult, be primary on that list.

It was time to investigate one of those. Leon did hope that one would lead to information about the other. There was no telling when or where the Butcher would strike next and the Nosferatu wanted the culprit caught before then.

It was bag to the bookstore, with cash on hand. Leon made sure to change his appearance back to what it had been the last time he had gone there. Then the Nosferatu stepped into to store, the familiar sound of a bell overhead as he opened and then closed the front door behind himself.

A lot of loud shuffling came from the back. Followed by a loud bang and a yelp, less of pain more of fright. But eventually the owner of the book store Lucille appeared from the back room. "Oh! You came back!" she said excited as if she didn't really believe that the man would in fact come back.

Leon smiled at her, "Of course. I wouldn't want such a treasure, as that book, to get away." He paused. "Is everything alright? I don't mean to pry, but you sounded in distress a moment ago."

Leon sounded genuinely concerned with Lucille's welfare, probably because he was. She didn't seem hurt or anything but he wanted to check.

Lucille looked a bit confused for a moment. "Oh the crash." she said sheepishly, pulling the small curtain divider aside to show the backroom "Just a bit of a precarious mess back there." she said, "sometimes stuff just falls over when I try to move something else. Like a Jenga tower back there." she added. "The book right." she fished under the counter, "I can't give you the actual book. That's far to important to my research but..." she slapped two marbled composition notebooks on the table. "I copied the important stuff. Anything I could find about cults or cult adjacent things." she said proudly. She took out a single sheet of paper that had been neatly folded and slipped in the front of one of the notebooks. "This is a cipher." she said unfolding it to show Leon. One the page were several letters and symbols from other languages. Though none were English, and some were letters that make more complex sounds like in the Cyrillic alphabet.

Lucielle saw a bit of confusion on Leon's face. "Oh...okay this is going to sound weird and hard to explain but I found a page a while ago, and after much trial and error I translated it. But for some reason, fully written down in English it's not quite gibberish but like rantings of a madman but if you go through the coded message it's not so crazy. Still crazy dooms day stuff. I don't even think its part of the original texts I think it might be someone who was crazy who wrote it in a manic state." she gave a shrug. "I included it though." she said slipping the page back. "Now the other books." she said, taking out a few on the other cults the discussed and and the book 'Grammaire Egyptienne'. Slipping it into a plastic protector she gently placed it on the counter with the rest. "Will you be needing anything else?

"Thank you for doing all that work for me. I certainly look forward to reading it." Leon paused, "Have you gotten in any other books that might be of interest?" He asked.

Leon really wanted an excuse to observe her a little more without Lucielle knowing it

Lucille twisted her lips a moment thinking, making soft chirpy hums to herself while she thought, eyes flicking to and fro on the shelves, "Hmmm... I don't know if you'd be interested in it but I do have another fairly old book though...it is a reprint of a reprint." she dug under the counter a for a moment taking out a dusty book in fairly decent shape, though clearly very old was not an original print. "The Epic of Gilgamesh." She placing it where he could see. "I have some other less old language books on that shelf over there." she pointed to a corner of the room. "Those are more linguistic books though, for learning new languages and such." She pointed to nearly the other sides of the store, "Occult books though they are mostly...frankly dreck. Fantasy stories and the like. Religion on the other side, Adventure two shelves over, psychology and sociology." she pointed to the left side of the store. "Or if you see anything in the case let me know." She said.

"Yes, Gilgamesh. I believe the original tablets are in a few
museums" He knew the British had most of the tablets and Sulaymaiah museum had one. Some had been lost over time. "Translating from the original Akkadian would be time consuming. " Leon said, jokingly. "Yes, I will take that and maybe I will look around just a little more."

Leon started looking though the stacks and as he decided to try and get to know Lucille better. "So, have you always lived in New Orleans?" That was fairly easy, even most Vampires could answer it if they did narrow down dates.

Lucille seemed to have spaced out a second before responding. "Oh...let's see. Lived here my whole life." she said. "Well not my whole whole life. Wasn't born here. My family moved here when I was six when my dad got a better job. I was born in Arkansas." she said. "How about you?" she asked with a smile.

"I am originally from France. Moved to Oklahoma when I was in my twenties. Then moved here a few years ago." His French accent was purposely slightly faded to make what he said more believable. "It seems though, no longer how I live here, I'm always find new and interesting places.," Leon responded, as he pulled out, a copy of Jung's interpretation of dreams.

Lucy nodded. "Yeah, plenty of interesting places if you know where to look." she was still smiling but not way that would be uncomfortable. "Though..." she said in an admitting tone. "I know my little place is harder to find than most. Covered windows and old sign and all." she said. "But." she beamed. Now that you've found it you know where to come back to." she said, her tone clear she was happy to have someone so intrested in old books not just shopping here but talking about books with her.

"Yes, and I must bring my sister here." Leon stated. His current look didn't make him look old enough to be Colette's father. He could have likely said niece but sister worked. "If your working alone, most nights, I do hope you are being careful." He said with genuine concern in his voice.

"If she's half as interested in books as you I'm sure she'd very much enjoy it here." Lucy said, at the comment about being careful she flexed her skinny arms jokingly saying "I'm pretty tough." she smiled.

"She is almost as interested in books as myself." Leon chuckled slightly at Lucy flexing her arms. "Yes, I am certain you could handle anything." Leon paused for a moment. "You have seen the news, correct? I mean about the one their calling The Butcher." He wanted to judge her reaction without being incredibly suspicious in the process.

Lucy's face went from anger to sadness. "It's disgusting that someone could or would do something like that. To break and maim someone like that. Like an animal would it's horrible that would even cross a mind to do." She said. "It's gotta be more than one person right? To do something that brutal?" She asked him. If Leon was observing her aura was genuine feelings.

"It is horrible. I does seem like a one person couldn't do all that. It a shame they've not been caught." It seemed as if Lucy responded the way anyone would to the topic. Which didn't give Leon a lot of information. He had a few more books, including a version of the DSM-I, which was more than a little outdated but it was the version he hadn't been able to get a copy of. "I should probably be going but I'll take these, as well." Putting the books on the counter.

Lucy smiled again and rang him up. "Thank you for shopping here." She said "Please come again I get new books all the time." She explained hoping he'd come back.

"I'll be sure to return. Thank you." Leon paid for the books and left the store. On his way, he spotted one of the flyers attached to the widow. Making sure no one was looking he took a picture of the flyer with his phone. This was certainly becoming a puzzle on top of a puzzle.