Keeping Up With The Browns III

Irwin's heart was racing. Hell, it was being dragged through the streets of London and quartered by four warhorses like the damned king of England.

He knew that his earrings were not infallible, it's identifying effect wasn't even its main ability. He wasn't scolding himself because he had used the earring's ability as a crutch, but because he forgot to buy another item to confirm what the earring had told him.

Still, there was enough time to buy one as the way to the refurbished dining room was towards the other end of the apartment building, an entire room connected to the fourth floor kitchen. Honestly, Irwin liked Congressman Brown's house more than his own.

Sure it involved a lot of walking along dimly lit hallways with beige plastered walls, but there was a certain coziness and weirdness to the rooms that he couldn't quite get with the manor and its large, often oblique, room.

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[ Trade Store ]

▪︎ Item Trade

▪︎ Store

▪︎ Trade Counter

▪︎ Store Credit: 12 696

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Irwin resisted the urge to whistle in billowing gratitude. Even with all the hubbub of setting up a place for Brunhilde, the Garden Park, the manor's cleaner, and all the potions and concoctions in between, he still had twelve thousand credits. Enough to buy twenty werewolf cures, a hundred Health potions, or, if he was feeling very nasty, fifty Artificial External Soul Bombs. 

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▪︎ Armors & Mystical Items

▪︎ Weapons

▪︎ Spells & Rituals

▪︎ Flora & Fauna

▪︎ Potions

▪︎ Materials

▪︎ System Consumables

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It had taken until the cusp of the dining-room door frame for Irwin to track down the specific item–a mystical item that could synergize with his system's categorization method.

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▪︎ Ruler's Demarcation ▪︎

Price: 442 Credits

Type: System Synergy; Amplification; Identification;

Effect: Once planted into a fifty-foot cube of unobstructed solid ground, an invisible dome surrounds the one thousand feet radius that effectively marks the area as the host's personal domain. Anyone within that domain can be senses, if invisible, seen, if hidden, and identified, if unknown. All of the host's attacks are reinforced by 10% which is stackable to other amplification magik, skill, or technique.

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From the wording of the first sentence, the item would be a permanent fixture in the area once used, which would be a shame if not for the fact that having this here would essentially create a permanent surveillance system.

'This'll help me keep the Congressman in check. The only thing is, does it work even if I'm not here or within the half-a-mile range?'

"Like what you see, Mr. Greythorne?" Suzie Anne brought me out of my reverie as she walked towards me, now in a new, shorter dress that showed her thighs enclosed in black stockings. "Come now, Mr. Greythorne. I'm not that beautiful."

"Oh, uh, sorry. Just had something on my mind." He excused himself and made his way past her, but before she could completely disappear from his sight, Irwin blinked his eyes and checked her category.

[Suzie Anne - Class ? ????]

His hands clenched uncontrollably, but he was quick to hide it within his jacket pocket and sat next to Dean Winchester. He didn't like being enclosed in a building filled with unknown creatures, not when he had experienced it before.

Still, he calmed himself in case his expression was telling of his emotions. He knew that Linda was magik, but Congressman Brown was not; keeping him alive was paramount, but not absolute, as his seat in the upper congress would make his future plans easier.

"You look like you just rubbed one out." Dean remarked in a whisper, noticing droplets of sweat trailing down Irwin's temple.

"Discussing business with a politician needs brain power and extreme awareness. Guess what I have a lot of and you lack a lot of," Irwin teased, but instead of rising up to it, Dean grinned exuberantly and shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know, man. I have a lot of… something, if you know what I mean." Dean winked at Irwin before surreptitiously training his eyes on Suzie Anne.

"Jesus. Already?" Irwin's heartbeat flared up for a moment as he asked with a strained smile.

"You were gone for half an hour and she was 'touring' us. What was I supposed to do? Look a gift horse in the mouth." Dean assured Irwin that it was nothing but fling, yet Irwin was still worried for some reason.

'No matter. He'll still live. Heaven needs him for the fight, so they'll escort him out if he dies. Actually, the perdition of the damned soul might quicken the advent of the Apocalypse and break the first seal.' His thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of Congressman Brown, his wife, and another woman carrying a child with obvious signs of Down Syndrome.

While Doctor Giselle never worked with one, she still toured around the country and helped with her colleagues. One of them was working on psychological profiles of children or adults with Down Syndrome.

In fact, Irwin had once spent two weeks with another pediatric psychoanalyst while the good doctor tried to wean a patient with psychogenic pain off of his Vicodin addiction.

"Glad to see you're all set. I told you, Richard, this meal is going to be superb." Anthony sat down at the head of the long oaken table while his wife sat next to him and his left.

Linda kissed the boy on his forehead and whispered something to him before turning towards the others, "This is our first son, Joseff. He's a bit of a rascal, but we still love him."

Joseff giggled loudly, eliciting warm smiles from around the table as Anthony ruffled his son's head. "Hello!"

"You joinin' us for dinner, boy?" Bobby, seemingly despondent all of a sudden, asked warmly.

Joseff shook his head, which caused Linda to chortle like a dove. "Joseff, here, only likes to eat grilled sandwiches for dinner."

"And this is Ninmug. She's my son's private teacher." The woman nodded at our attention, softly gazing at Ellen for a brief moment, before returning to her book. "She's LA's finest blacksmith, too. Handy with a hammer and a forge and a book, she is."

"Really? Who certified you? Was it Gangnar?" Bobby asked, seemingly interested in her work.

"I am not certified in the country, although back home I am." she answered curtly before looking at Congressman Brown. "I'll have to excuse myself. Joseff needs to learn."

Congressman Brown cleared his throat as Ninmug left the room with Joseff in two, awkwardly smiling at Irwin and the rest.

"Do forgive her. She's a bit, uh, shy." Linda giggled as she excused the teacher.

Irwin turned his head towards Bobby and asked, "You know the blacksmithing authority in LA?"

"Yep."

"Like, the guy who stamps newbie forgers?"

"Yeah. You got a problem with that?" Bobby, understandably annoyed, glared at Irwin.

Irwin shook his head hurriedly. "Nothing at all."

"Uh, before we eat," Anthony stood up and raised his glass, briefly gazing adoringly at his pregnant wife before turning back to the whole table. "I would like to thank my lovely wife, Linda, for always being there for me, for being the rock that keeps me floating steady as I traverse an unsteady ocean of vipers and acid…"

Linda raised her wineglass, albeit full of sparkling water.

"My life hasn't been easy. I grew up poor, living as a child in Compton. But I persevered, graduated top honors in high school, and served a decade in the army. After that? Nothing. I requested out and a year later… A year later, I was selling car vacuum cleaners on Sunset Boulevard." He sighed convincingly, tilting his glass a little lower. "This is what this country does to its citizens. Use them, wring they dry, and throw them away the moment they lose any potential. It was my 31th birthday, wasting away and drunk off my ass, when this beautiful woman came into my life…"

Linda blushed at his words, hiding her flushed cheeks with her wineglass.

"It was amazing. Her words, succinct and filled with ancient wisdom. She energized me, told me the words I needed to hear." Anthony gazed at his wife lovingly. "To think that, at the cusp of my 45th birthday, I would have the most precious son and another daughter on the way and I would have the most amazing life I never would have thought I would have."

Anthony bent his neck towards the ceiling, hiding away the tears in his eyes. "I-I am thankful. For Suzie Anne, Nima and her sister, Mrs. Green, everyone who came together and helped me achieve everything I didn't even know that I wanted. I… I just wish my father was here to see it."

Linda stood up and hugged her husband as he trembled with emotion. "I know for a fact that he's up there proud of you." She said, fixing his hair and kissing him on the forehead.

Irwin raised his glass and cheered, "To the future senator of California!" 

"To the Senator!" Everyone raised their glasses and cheered, albeit the hunter's three were somewhat despondent compared to the cheery smiles on everyone's face.