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[Martha Villiers]

The Empire's Comic Vault!

Arguably the best comic shop in Sacramento.

Ben, the owner, is tackling a computer order.

A bright eyed pug serves as the mascot of the store and dreams in his bed in the corner. As usual, this careless hound seemed un-fazed by the arrival of a Vampire...

Once darkness had fallen tiny Martha began a patrol.

But, wishing to be attentive to the currents of popular culture, she decided to take a short break from the Elysian Field and pop into the comic shop.



Martha is neatly attired in her usual modest English school uniform: a neat straw boater, a black blazer...a pair of scholarly...yes, she'd admit it..."Hipster" style...spectacles are perched daintily on the end of her nose, she wears a long gymslip which shows her legs to just over the knee...her zombie blue hair is tied into two very long twin tails, each with the red ribbon bows.

A swift glance would reveal that most of her left leg is obviously a modern, if not full functional, C-Leg prosthetic. She wears a white knee sock on her flesh leg and a pair of carefully polished black Oxford pattern shoes, a crisp white blouse is obvious where the Edwardian style gymslip reveals it, as is her red necktie tucked neatly into her gymslip. She wears a useful looking school satchel and carries a simple metal walking cane. Though smelling of minty toothpaste and lemons, she's shunned more obvious cosmetics.

She emits no Beast, but has sensibly invoked her Blush of Life [-1 Vitae for this privilege].

Her petite presence exudes sweet and innocence.

Martha had entered and hobbled around the gaming tables close to the main entrance door.

The regular gathering of tabletop game players were huddled. Discussing the tactics of a small urban gun battle between neatly painted space marine figurines of undetermined fighting allegiance.

Martha smiled a friendly greeting as two of the gamers looked up before making her way over to examine the latest comic arrivals.

Ah!

She smiled, again, and enjoyed the comfort of flat terrain and open space...here she felt unrestricted...able to hobble about with unhindered ease.

Her plan was to take a look at a 1:112 scale model Star Wars 7 'Resistance' X-Wing but they could wait...

[Varyx]

There weren't that many places where Varyx felt truly out of place, but a comic shop was one of them. She'd been walking back to her apartment after meeting a client for dinner when, on a whim, she'd decided to wander into the shop. Wayland had said something about her name being from a game. League of Legends, or something? She wasn't, admittedly, familiar with it. Truly, she'd believed her Shadow Name to be a collection of meaningless syllables - and that had been the intent, too. This was what she got for not Googling the word before taking it. Not that she minded very much. Maybe she could learn about the character.

She stepped into the shop, dressed in a nearly-sheer white blouse, black skirt and a luxurious suede coat. She took a look around, and several of the people either standing behind the counter or gathered around the table at the back looked up at her entrance, and then did a double-take when they saw her. She wasn't the only woman in the shop, but she was the only one who looked like she'd just stepped out of a fashion spread - which was less a comment on her physical appearance as it was her clothing choices. There weren't many people in the store wearing things other than jeans.

Her gaze slipped around the room. There was so very much to look at, after all, and she had no idea where to even begin. Only, then her gaze settled on the girl in pigtails with the red bows, dressed in a neat outfit reminiscent of that of an English school girl... and a prosthetic leg. Smiling to herself, Varyx passed by the table of gamers, being careful to approach the young woman from behind. She stepped into place next to her, facing the rack of comic books but looking, out of the corner of her eye, at Martha, biting her lip to contain a growing grin.

"Why, good evening, Zatanna. Fancy meeting you here," she purred, turning her head finally to look directly at the shorter woman, a smirk gracing her lips.

[Martha Villiers]

A great many heads in the shop seemed to have turned.

Martha, aware of the sudden thrill that flashed through the room, glanced to see what had caused the commotion.

Wide eyed, she saw the lovely lady from Halloween.

Matching her smile for smile and resisting looking too long at the ladies legs, she actually gasped!

"Goodness me!" she chirped, breathless. Recognizing the Queen of Red, she dipped a playful curtsey. Her C-Leg creaking with the sudden effort.

"Miss! It is so good to see you again!" she blinked and, gripping her cane tighter, sounded both sincere and excited.

"Y...you...you are here to perhaps join the game...o...or...?" she smiled, looked towards the urban warfare playing out on the nearby table before looking back to Varyx, blinking again. One hand tightening around her cane, the other twirled a pigtail in an absent-minded and playful manner.

[Varyx]

Varyx offered her a broad smile, delighted by the adorable little curtsy the smaller woman offered. She chuckled as Martha stuttered out her question and shook her head. "While I'm certain such games are very enjoyable, I know almost nothing about them, I'm afraid." She sighed, leaning very slightly towards Martha and lowering hr voice. "In fact, everything here is quite well out of my comfort zone. I'll admit, I'm not at all familiar with comics, or these sorts of games, at all."

She suspected Martha was much more familiar than one might originally guess, given her previous choice of Hallowe'en costume. She looked back at the brightly coloured rack of comic books and plucked one that caught her interest - Black Widow. Wasn't she one of the characters from those superhero movies? Well, at least there was some familiarity with this one. "So, Martha, what brings you here this evening?"

[Martha Villiers]

"Oh, Black Widow! A good selection, Miss!" she chuckled merrily.

Her mind briefly flashed back to her own private and personal recollections of Romanov conspiracies while been clearly excited at everything Varyx was doing and saying, she leaned on her cane and, wide eyed, nodded to show listening.

As Varyx asked her questions, Martha began to stutter a reply; "... oh... I... er... Well, I enjoy reading comics... Following Richard and Zac's games... they have a keen instinct for the problems and tactical solutions required for successful low-intensity urban warfare..." she nods cheerily towards the gang of young men at the gaming table and nervously adding, as if confiding a secret to the increasingly close Varyx, "... making scale models...I was...I was contemplating purchasing..." she was about to explain more and gesture with her cane to those already assembled and on display as Brittany began to make her presence felt.

Her small hands gripped her cane as if Varyx's life depended on this moment of meditative calm.

Terrible, awful, things would happen to Varyx's toned calves if Martha's concentration slipped.

Brittany made a social splash and Martha was overwhelmed. Her thigh stump ached and she wanted to sit down. Were she to need to walk a step, she'd fall over. Growing pale, Martha was almost visibly disorientated and faint;

"Oh...goodness, Miss...Brittany...good to s...see you..." she stammered, glancing to Brittany's legs before investigating Varyx's legs again, adding, "...this is Miss Vanessa! We met at Halloween! Dressed as a most elegant queen!" she added with a shy and timid smile, making a mental note to wear her Zatanna outfit at the earliest opportunity.

[Varyx]

It took Varyx a moment to notice that Martha seemed somewhat off-balance all of a sudden, her hand gripping her cane tighter, and she'd gone pale. Well, paler. Varyx reached for her elbow, seeking to help steady the young woman before she fell. She grasped Martha's arm gently, waiting until she seemed less likely to fall over at any moment before turning her attention to the newcomer.

She released Martha's arm and began to laugh as the cute blonde exclaimed rather loudly about how sexy she was. The two other women exchanged greetings, and Varyx dipped her head in acknowledgement to the new woman, Brittany. "A pleasure to meet you, Brittany." Her smile turned impish and she winked at each of them. "Clearly I should come here more often. It's not every day I get two lovely ladies showering me with such compliments!"

[Varyx]

Varyx giggled at Brittany's back and forth, playful sort of interactions. She smirked, licking her lips and leaned forward towards the two woman again, as if about to tell a secret. "Oh no, you're quite correct in assuming I get complimented quite often." She tended not to spend her time with the sort of people who would find her that intimidating, not that it was out of a particular preference for such people. In fact, a little bashfulness often went a long way in drawing Varyx's attention - not that she minded confidence, just that such confidence was usually revealed to be thinly-veiled arrogance and bravado. "It's just that it's quite rare for the compliments to come from two such lovely ladies as yourselves," she explained, grinning.

[Martha Villiers]

Varyx's care and attention was beguiling. As Vanessa grasped Martha's arm it took her a few moments of wided eyed lip biting to resist the opportunity to try to kiss her carer.

Pale and blinking, she nodded and stammered her thanks; "T...tha..thank you, Miss! I suddenly came over faint there..." she sounded bewildered and didn't want to let go. "Without your p...prompt help," she whispered, "I'd surely have fallen!"

Holding her cane tight, she giggled her bashful acknowledgement of Britanny's compliment. Feeling ugly and crippled next to Vanessa and Brittany, she didn't make any show of actually believing Brittany and shot a very shy smile to the nearest two wargamers.

"Beauty can be intimidating..." she agreed with Brittany and Vanessa with a shy nod, "I...I came looking for scale models an...and...and..." her words sputtered out and simply smiled at Varyx for a moment.

"I was just complimenting Miss Vanessa on her selection of a 'Black Widow' comic book too..." she added, hoping to start a conversation and taking a moment, growing paler by the moment, to imagine latex costumes.