“Hello!”, Coal smiled his best fake smile, taking survey of the whole group. They definitely were a colourful bunch. Well, not colourful, just varied. The amount of dark colours they sported made gun-metal grey look colourful, and that was rich coming from Coal.
Still, these were Coal’s co-workers, they seemed like an O.K. bunch to him, though a little taken aback it seems. Did he just walk in during a conversation? God he felt stupid. For the fiftieth time today.
“Ah you must be Mr Coal,” someone finally spoke to him, stopping him from zoning out again. A tall Germanic woman, almost towering above Coal, spoke kindly to him, and he fake-smiled again, giving them a little wave. Contrary to his, hopefully, cool exterior, Coal was burning up inside. Slightly intimidated by everyone in there. Everyone in that room looked like they could squash Coal under their foot. All worn from experience, and decades older than him. Possibly even centuries knowing the unpredictability of magic.
“Oh, yes, hey!” he fumbled up again, public speaking wasn’t Coal’s strong point, “I’m Coal. Though you already knew that,” Coal’s voice faltered as he finished his sentence, silence flew upon the room once again after that muck up. Coal was too spooked to speak anyway, he could feel the eyes of everyone in that room sizing him up, he felt his face flush, praying for a distraction.
And a heavily clothed man unknowingly answered his prayers by, badly, pretending to cough. He felt eyes glide off him for a glorious split second. Coal could finally stop himself from hyperventilating and also ponder where he magically came from. He was gigantic, wearing the male equivalent to a burqa, and holding what looked like a needle from a bad sci-fi film, hard to miss, and yet Coal did. His first guess as to who this mystery man was, was that he was a vampire. Judging by what he’s wearing, Coal couldn’t have been that far off the mark.
Eyes slid right back at Coal, and Coal, after revising a mental script hundreds of times, was ready to talk like a normal functioning human being.
It was mostly just small talk, “How are you”s were asked and names were exchanged. Though it was unnecessary, Coal already probed their minds for their names, and knew how they felt, but not on purpose anyway. Something as natural as a name was easy to figure out, with or without knowing it.
Small talk continued and Coal finally mustered up the strength to asked his question. “Him? Oh he’s Atlas”, Lenya jerked her thumb towards the heavily clothed man. He was too busy muttering to himself to greet the newcomer, and by the fact no one was paying attention to Atlas, it must be a common thing for him to zone out like that. Coal was fine with it, Coal was fine with everything. Everything was fine right about now. Got a proper job, met some nice folk, got called a “bumbling hooligan”.
”Hooligan?” Coal mentally gasped. Atlas was still looking as scatterbrained as ever, and Coal must’ve accidently wandered in his head, and witnessed a memory.
Lenya was talking about something, Coal didn’t really care, he was just called a hooligan! A part of him wanted to invade Atlas’ mind and force an embarrassing memory of his unto him, and another wanted to congratulate himself for accurately guessing what Atlas was as he swiftly bounded down the stairs again.
Swift, mysterious nature, afraid of being open. Definitely a vampire.
Coal then later let out a garbled “huh” as Lenya finished her story.
