Surround the Prey

Grigor spent those hours between meeting with Nicoli and the knock on his door preparing. Nicoli was rough and young and it would take some time to teach him how to really utilize that in a manner that would reach people. He had pulled out videos and transcriptions of speeches that he was moved by or that were exceptionally well-delivered and crafted. Even if they weren't relevant to the vampire equality, they were good pieces that deserved to be shown. He also gathered some of his own speeches, ones he had either written for other people or given himself during conferences. They weren't always the best, but they had good frames to start from. Every speech needed a good foundation and frame, after all.

The vampire also set his laptop up with some video feeds that they could watch--things like anti-vampire propaganda and anti-gay propaganda so that when they craft his first speech, they can refer back to them and write opposing points with specific examples. He had just finished when he caught Nicoli's scent and he heard the knock on his door. He stood carefully, moving to open up the door.

"Hello," he greeted before moving aside to let Nicoli through.
 
Nicoli raised a hand in a silent greeting before entering the house, his gaze moving around slowly as he took it all in. He was a tad bit suspicious of the house. After all, he was going to be 'taught' in the rooms how to be able to produce speeches and the like. It was a tad bit frightenful to tell the truth. No one knew how he would work out. He was afraid he'd disappoint or fail completely. All sorts of things banged around his head as he moved out of the doorway. "So, what are we going to be doing first? I mean I know I didn't come earlier so that we'd have more time before the sun, so we really only have an hour or so before I'm going to have to go to avoid the sunlight."

He tried to smile but the nervousness kept him from completing the smile and he started to let his eyes wander over the rooms walls. There was no reason to be so nervous. After all Grigor hadn't ever threatened him.
 
Grigor's apartment was almost completely bare and had a much more open floor plan than most of the others, so it was easier to see that. There was no easy balance to the rooms and barely any distinction. In what was meant to be a living room, there was a large conference type table, but on a lesser scale than ones found in corporations. There were papers and folders piled high on it, surrounding a laptop computer that sat at one end with an attached mouse. It was clearly a very expensive, but basic model. On the walls, there was nothing--no pictures, nothing. It was easy to assume that the few rooms that couldn't be seen, such as the bedroom and bathroom, were most likely the same way.

"I suppose we can do some listening to speeches first then and watching, if I happen to have the video. Go on and sit at the table while I get those," Grigor indicated the messy table absently, as if not really paying much attention to the fact that it was indeed rather messy and probably going to be slightly difficult to maneuver around, and moved towards one of the few closed doors.
 
Nicoli stared at the rather empty room. It was so clean and unbalanced. Even if he hadn't paid attention to his classes in Feng Shui, living with his brother for the last couple of centuries had left him with some knowledge as to how to decorate a room. He didn't talk about it though and simply let his mind make the few adjustments before turning his attention back to Grigor and then turned it to the table. He walked slowly to it and looked over some of the papers. "Erm, Grigor, wouldn't it be easier if you categorize or sort these papers? I can see three or four stacks that could be combined to form one. Just--well, it'd be easier to work if it was less messy," the younger vampire said with a small grin, rubbing the back of his head.
 
"Hm..?" Grigor came back with a CD case that held probably fifty or so DVDs, all of some sort of speech. He eyed the table a bit and shrugged. "I suppose it would. I just never paid much attention. I guess it would be more functional to fix it though.." He set the case down on top of the laptop and stacked some of the papers together randomly, pushing them aside so that Nicoli could sit next to him.
 
Nicoli looked at him and then shook his head with a large smile, though he didn't argue. Stepping forward he took a seat and relaxed back in the chair offered to him. "One of these days, when I'm not busy studying or getting stuff ready for whatever I'm supposed to be doing, I'm going to organize this house for you. In particularly these papers," he joked before stretching a little and getting ready to watch the realm of speech making on dvd. Not his favorite subject but hey, he'd promised to give it a try.
 
"What's wrong with how it's set up?" Grigor raised a bit of an eyebrow in curiosity but just shrugged after a moment and slid into his own seat. "Well, either way, I have quite a few speeches.. Would you like some older ones so I can show techniques or ones relevant to our cause to start out?"
 
Nicoli looked at Grigor and then the conference table with it's hundreds of paper. He snorted softly and shook his head. "I'll make sure to take before and after pictures just so that you can see the differences," he muttered before focusing on the speeches again. "Um, I guess whichever you think is the best. I mean, knowing both the better quality of speeches would be nice--just don't do Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech about 'I have a dream'. I was there and could probably recite it word for word if I was ever in a life or death situation. Not the best speech, but definitely powerful because of the guys charisma." He was being totally serious now--the person from his blog with a sense of humor but one tha the used sparingly. He supposed that if he was going to do this he might as well be the person people knew from his blog and not the person he let most people see.
 
"Hm.. I've never been a large fan of Martin Luther King Jr. He was charismatic, yes, and extremely intelligent, with a wonderful message, but not my favorite. No, I think I'll be showing you Andre Penton, who is a Vampire's Rights activist, first. He crafts very good speeches and is quite charismatic." He pulled a DVD from the case and slid it inside his computer, pressing play when the player platform popped up.
 
Nicoli closed his eyes and listened to the DVD as it played a few different speeches. Each of them were relatively good quality. If he hadn't been a Vampire Right's activist before, the vampire would have converted. He opened his eyes and fidgeted a little. As the DVD went on, he rose and started to work on the papers. If anyone would have asked, he would have said he was bored. But there was really another reason. He had 'restless hand syndrome'. If he didn't keep his hands busy, he couldn't focus.

By the end of the video, he had sorted the papers in three stacks. Most of the table was clear now with the three stacks at the head of the conference table. Then he sat down and frowned a little. "He repeated a lot. Do you think that intentional or just the way he spoke?" the younger vampire asked.
 
Grigor watched him carefully, gauging his reactions to the DVD. He had figured before that Nicoli simply could not stay still, that it had nothing to do with him, and so didn't interrupt his paper-sorting. It was kind of endearing, really, that he would fix the papers instead of simply doing something else with his hands.

"Well, it was most certainly intentional. Repeating certain words or phrases cause them to stick in the mind--for example, he said 'oppression' quite a bit. Around fifteen times throughout the speech. Now, when someone who listens to the speech talks about it, oppression is likely to be a word they use and if they know what it means, it will have a negative connotation towards the treatment of vampires."
 
"The only problem I heard with his speech making is that he rarely spoke of the history of vampires. Should one not point out both sides of an argument to seem credible and then go on to show how their own is more logical based? Say I was making a speech about gay vampires and their public reaction. Wouldn't it be better to say while yes there were many gay vampires that came out successfully, most receive bad reactions. That way I'm not just saying that all gay vampires have bad reactions and thus seem balanced and fair," Nicoli asked, truly seeming to want an answer. He was looking at the computer as he phrased his question so that he didn't see the reaction of the other vampire.
 
"Very good," Grigor said, rather pleased that Nicoli had picked up on that flaw. He himself had listened to the speech when it was initially said and had afterwards advised the man to revise his speeches so that he pointed out both sides of the argument. "You are right. It is better to 'address the opposition' and make their points invalid in your next argument. He would have done infinitely better in this particular speech had he spoke about the fact that some vampires are criminals, but that does not mean that all should be persecuted.. It would have been even better had he gone on to compare that to persecuting all humans for the crimes of the criminals among them. His speeches became much better after this as I pointed this out. We could watch some of his recent speeches, if you would like, or we could move on to another one."
 
Nicoli was frowning still at the computer, as if trying to think of the answer to a particularly puzzling question. "Whatever the teacher wants I--" he started to say before jerking as his pocket started to vibrate. Cursing about pockets, vibrating, and weird feelings, the young man dug in his pocket and pulled out a phone before flipping it open angrily. "What in the blazes of light do you want?" Very smooth greeting, his inner critic told him. When he heard a sigh of relief come from the other end he pushed himself up from his seat and held up a hand to Grigor to excuse himself before going towards the kitchen. His voice spoke in rapid Chinese for several moments before he hung up and left the kitchen, a dark look on his features.

"Sorry about that," he grumbled before slouching in his chair quietly. "Brother. So, where did we leave off?"
 
Grigor waited patiently as Nicoli spoke to what he assumed was his brother, setting up another of the same man's speeches. It was a more recent one, an interesting one that was much more well developed than the first that they had seen.

"It's alright," he directed the screen towards both of them again. "This is another speech by the same man, but there is a large difference from that first one. He gets progressively better in his speeches."
 
"To the speeches then," Nicoli said, relaxing back to watch the video as it started. Despite the intention to listen and critique and learn, Nicoli inevitably zoned out. He stared not at the video but at the area around him, his eyes seeking out some form of personality in the room and finding little. It made him wonder about the man that lived there. What kind of man would not have anything on his walls? In the end Nicoli found himself staring at Grigor with a look of contemplation and intrigue on his face.

"He is pointing out the differences between the two perspectives," Nicoli said when the speech ended though his attention still remained on Grigor. "What else should I take from that?"
 
"His tone. Notice how calm he remains, even though he's speaking with passion. That is something that's needed for professionalism, especially since this particular speech was done in front of some government workers. His tone switches between this and the last because his audience is different, you see? He is making some of the same points but he approaches it much differently here." Grigor explained this all quietly, seemingly unaware that he had been the subject of observation.
 
"So the lesson to take from this is to remain calm but at the same time sounding passionate about ones' topic?" Nicoli asked, slowly peeling his eyes off of Grigor and looking cautiously at the front window. It was no longer pitch black out, but nor was it light yet. "Fools Dawn. I have to leave Grigor." He rose from his seat and looked at the clean table with the three stacks of papers with a satisfied smile. "Well, it doesn't look like a cat came running through here. I suppose that's an improvement. Do you have my home number? You could call if you have any questions were anything went--which pile I mean. You were paying attention to the video instead of how I was organizing and my methods could be a bit confusing since I sorted them the way my mother would have sorted stuff."
 
"Exactly. Don't attack the opposing side, however much you want to or think they deserve. It's sort of a 'take the high road' thing." Grigor looked out the window as well, nodding a bit. "Yes, you must. Wouldn't want to get caught in the light." His gaze moved to the papers and he frowned a bit, looking them over. He couldn't make heads or tails of the order of them. "And yes, it would be much appreciated if I could call you about this..organizing you did."
 
Nicoli couldn't help but let out a small laugh before pulling out a pen from a cup that he'd put all the pens he'd found on the table in and writing his number on the top of the middle pile. "Quick run down, middle pile is the really long files that I want to say were research documents or speeches. Pile on the left was important documents from your email about upcoming agenda's, calenders, oppositition marches, et cetera. Last pile on the right is what I am goin gto assume are personal items that you just threw down--mail, letters, things like that. Should you need to know where an individual thing is, just call, I'll tell you which pile and about which item it is in the pile. It'd really only make sense to someone like my brother who knew our mother," Nicoli said before putting the pen in the cup again. "Oh and all of your pens have been recovered. I hope you don't mind that I put them in this cup that I found that was clean."

And with that he raised a hand in farewell and started towards the door before stopping and turning around. "Any quick questions before I leave sir about the organization? Any homework, or anything?"
 
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