The World's Fair, at night

"I see. Do you travel often?" Katrina asked in a friendly tone.

--

Luke offered a small smile in return, an expression typically foreign to his face. "Glad I could 'elp you keep in touch," He responded. He glanced over at Alistair when he approached, small smile lingering. "Speaking to Ivanna and 'Arry," He replied.

Garrett followed after the two, giving the brother a cautious but curious look. This was hardly the type of thing he'd ask outloud, though he'd look for clues as to what they were talking about later.

"When I must," Lavinia answered politely. "Travel is a necessity for my research."

******

"Ah... I see." Alistair frowned slightly, a bit off put. "Well, shall we move on, then?"

The little smile on Luke's disappeared with Alistair's put off face. "I guess," He grumbled, glancing back at the two ghosts before moving to take the lead again.

Garrett, finally letting his rage out, hissed to Alistair, "He... he bought a Ouija Board. Everyone knows those things are scams. Is there nothing that man won't take at face value?"

---

"Research you say?" Katrina asked. "What sort of research? The exciting kind?"

"I think he knows what he's doing," Alistair mumbled back as he followed Luke. "I'm starting to think his talk of speaking with ghosts isn't complete bullshit. He doesn't have a dishonest bone in his body, and I don't want to believe he's crazy just yet."

*********

"Oh, I don't know," Lavinia answered. "Some may call it dangerous, others would consider it boring."

"You're willing to wait for him to go absolutely crazy?" Garrett grumbled back. "Start foaming at the mouth and talk about the voices in his head like they're real people?"

---

"So, Mr. Konstantinov, you are helping her with research?" Katrian asked.

Dmitri listened as Lavinia and Katrina talked. He was glad that Lavinia was taking over most of the conversation, as it meant that Dmitri had less of a chance up slipping up who he actually was. Still, he never thought he would meet a Kuzlov outside of Naughtsha. If it weren't so rare to see a Naughtsian outside of his homeland, he would think, or at least hope, that this woman were not of the same family, but he doubted this was the case. When she asked him a question, Dmitri answered, "Ne, I missed my flight out of Phiah, and asked Miss Highland here if I could ride on her ship."

~~

Ivanna watched Luke leave, and suddenly remembered that she had wanted to apologize to him for earlier on the ship. She caught up to him, saying, "Um, Mister Fairchild? I wanted to apologize for earlier... I didn't mean to annoy you..."

"Where where you heading next if you had job?" Katrina asked.

---

Luke stopped walking, looking back to the ghostly woman. "Don't worry, you're not annoying me. I just need to avoid talking to everyone in public. Don't want people thinking I'm some sort of nut or nothing."

"I was heading back to office because I needed new assignment." Dmitri was trying to answer the woman's questions without revealing too much about himself or his intentions. Despite boasting that he could think on his feet at times, this was proving rather difficult.

~~

Ivanna nodded, saying, "I see. That would be bad thing..." And idea came to mind at that moment, and she smiled, saying, "What about telling everyone you're ectomancer? I may be wrong, but most people don't think ectomancers are 'nuts'." Putting her hand to her chin as she looked skyward, thinking, said, "At least, not ectomancers I've seen."

Lavinia had nothing to say to that.

*********

"I'm not sure if he's insane or not," Alistair answered back. "He's mentioned information he couldn't possibly know before. I'm half inclined to believe him."

Luke glanced over his shoulder, waving a thumb in the general direction of Alistair and Garrett. "They sure think I'm nuts."

Garrett glanced at some bright, colorful vests as they passed by, stopping to admire a green one with yellow rings on it. "Your funeral," He responded to Alistair.

---

"I see. I hope your assignment is still good," Katrina replied, moving to stand again. "If you excuse me, I should leave. It gets close to midnight."

"No' sure Ali does all th' way," Harry responded, following Luke with his hands in his pockets. "I 'eard 'im."

Alistair looked over the vest and shook his head. "You'll see." He picked up a green vest with a hound's tooth pattern in red on it. In his opinion it would suit Garrett much better. It would also go nicely with the cufflinks he had just purchased. Holding it up, he admired the effect. "Just leave him be for now."

Ivanna looked over at Alistair and Garrett, asking, "Doesn't Mister Alistair say he's ectomancer, though? Why would he think you're crazy?" She didn't know enough about the younger looking man to say anything about him.

~~

Dmitri nodded when Katrina spoke, saying, "Thank you. It was a pleasure making your acquaintance, Miss Kuzlov." It was a shame the woman was a Kuzlov, Dmitri thought. She looked very attractive, and seemed like she was a nice person. In other circumstances, such as not having to hide his identity from her and being with Juliana and Lavinia, Dmitri probably would have offered to walk her home, seeing if he could work his "magic" on her.

"Yeah, 'e's kind of strange. I'll tell you more about it later," Luke replied, not bothering to stop for the two as the continued to shop. He hardly thought it was in good taste nor good for either of their healths to publicly mention that Alistair was a fake.

Garrett paused and glanced at Alistair, his face only showing small signs of contemplation and organization. The gesture was pretty obvious in what the intention behind it was, but the motivation was still eluding him. Didn't this man just steal from him, and now he was buying a vest? "As you say, sir," Garrett responded, setting down the vest he had been looking at and choosing to go down the street a few steps again, listening for Alistair's pace in walking and any conversation be might have been having.

---

"I hope to see you tomorrow, Mr. Dmitri," Katrina replied with a smile and small bow. She then continued her way back across the restaurant and paused at her table. After a few moments of contemplation, she took her stuff and moved to exit the restaurant. She was going to have to look over her notes again to see if she could find out any more signs to see if he was a vampire or not.

Alistair turned to the merchant. "This one, sir." After a moment, he walked away five kenetra poorer but with the vest wrapped up along with a blue and turquoise one in a leaf pattern that had caught his eye. He caught up with Garrett soon enough.

Garrett paused to give Alistair time to catch up and glanced down at his purchase. "Didn't take you for much of a vest sort," Garrett responded.

"Waistcoats mostly," Alistair answered, "but I'm trying to get my brother to start looking like a human being. He looked so horrid when I found him I barely recognized him."

Putting on a smile, Dmitri replied, "That would be great." He watched her as she left, and only just managed to keep himself from sighing in relief.

~~

Ivanna nodded, deciding to leave Luke alone for a while. She instead became interested in a stall of jewelry that caught her eye.

It didn't take long after Katrina had left for a plate with six dumplings to arrive. Ana looked mournfully at the meal offered. "Not much 'ere," She commented.

---

"So I imagine he looked pretty different when you two last met before Phiah," Garrett responded, trying to keep up some casual conversation as he looked over the goods. Part of him hoped they'd pass a wine booth of some sort. That wish was granted after a bit more wandering, and Garrett stopped again to look over wines and other exotic alcoholic beverages from distant islands.

"That is because it is only a single course," Lavinia answered easily.

******

"Yeah," Alistair answered. "He had a beard for one thing, and his hair was in bad need of a cut."

"I was meaning before he was on Phiah. Saw his beard before, though hair was nice enough," Garrett responded.

"It was too wild," Alistair answered, shaking his head. "He needed to cut it to be taken seriously."

Dmitri chuckled at Juliana's reaction, though apologized afterward. "If it makes you feel better, there are multiple courses." He took a dumpling himself, taking a bite into it.

"You're going to need more than a makeover to make people take him seriously," Garrett responded. "A few speaking lessons and a backbone to begin with." He paused when his eyes spotted a bottle of green liquid. Well, he thought, best be prepared. After all, Alistair seamed to be up to something himself. With a smile to the clerk, he picked up the drink and paid for it, finding his wallet quite a bit lighter after the purchase.

---

"Oh, I see," Ana replied, looking over the small plate. She hesitantly reached out for a dumpling, not quite sure if it was finger food or fork food. She just had to assume finger as she plopped the morsel into her mouth. The tasty, tasty pork dumpling flavored with a hint of garlic and ginger. She stared at the thing in surprise and practically inhaled the thing, quickly reaching for a second one and pretty much inhaling it in the same fashion.

It wasn't long before the entries arrived on their own, each highly decorated in the tradition of plating. Ana couldn't help but stare at Dmitri's place and the openly viable cloves of garlic in his sauce.

Dmitri smiled when his plate reached the table, having finished a second of the dumplings. He cut a piece of his filet mignon, bringing it up to his mouth to eat it, mushrooms and garlic sauce on it. At this time, he saw Juliana staring, and asked, "Would you like to try some?" as he lowered his fork. He didn't know why she was staring, but figured that maybe she thought that his food looked good.

"Isn't that garlic? I thought, you know, garlic and your condition and..." Ana sputtered on, trying to grasp for a tactful way to point out that garlic was supposed to kill vampires.