Now Hunter, it seemed, was obviously a very intelligent man. How could he not be intelligent after acknowledging the fact that Juka was, most certainly, going to be famous? Not that he had himself said the words 'most certainly' or even 'sure thing' but that, clearly, had been his intent. Yes, of course it had been because how could it be otherwise? Even a hundreds of year old vampire must see that his future had greatness in store.

"Oh, I'm sure we can find someone," Juka stated. He thought about the people he knew, trying to figure out who would want to participate and who would want to be the judge. "I know lots of people, I'm sure that someone would be willing to judge."

It looked like Juka had missed the sarcasm in Hunter’s comment about his impending greatness. The boy had quite the ego and Hunter was pretty certain he’d just accidently fed it a little too much. Still his ego seemed to be confined to music. Juka didn’t seem fussed that he was losing the game.

“Well if you every get something organised you can count me in,” Hunter said as he took Juka’s last knight. Traded for a bishop but at this stage he could easily afford to. “The only problem would be deciding what to do. The trouble is I have a wide array of talents. Picking which one to do will be tricky.”

Juka was well aware of the ego he possessed but, really, what did it hurt anyone anyway? Was it his fault that he was talented and beautiful and wanted by men and women alike? Hardly. Besides, he knew that as fabulous as he was he needed to be shared with the world so everyone could have just a little of what he had. Thus, becoming a performer and literally sharing his little something of greatness with the world.

Juka's remaining five pieces were looking rather sad and lonely sitting there on the board surrounded by all those mean looking black pieces. He proceeded to pout at them as he made his next move in the game. He was pretty sure pouting wouldn't do much good, but it couldn't make matters any worse given the current sorry state of affairs of his little white team.

"I'll be sure to start asking around as soon as I get back to the Mansion," Juka agreed. "Do you think it'd be ok to have it there? I don't think Abyss would be too welcome there and if you have a history with him, well, wouldn't want to put it somewhere where they woudln't let you in, now would I?" He knew Hunter had some kind of dark and mysterious past so it was best just to make sure of these things.

Juka knew he was beat, but Hunter was glad to see he kept playing. While he couldn’t win he could watch Hunter’s endgame and see how he wrapped this up. Learning from experience was always the best way. When you had all the time in the world it tended to mean that you learned a lot.

“The mansion would be a suitable venue,” Hunter said, “but there might be some who’d object to my presence. It would be best to run it by the staff first, make sure they’re ok with it. You also need to decide are people allowed to use powers? It makes a big difference in a mutant talent show. Powers can tip the scale for some.”

"I'll be sure to ask Ghosty," Juka agreed. "She's lovely, let me come live at the Mansion. Well, maybe not live at the Mansion exactly since I still have my apartment and my kitties, but half live at the Mansion. Well, she let me have a room anyway." Yes, that's exactly what he meant to say. Not confusing or rambling at all. Nope, not a bit. "Plus, she can turn all misty. I met her in the sky." Which was pretty much the highlight of his first week in the city. That and the meeting of his Master Kitty later on that day which, speaking of his master Kitty Calley, he should really go see him more often. It had been far too long.

Juka could see that victory was hopeless at this point, but that didn't mean he was about to give up on it entirely. Never give up, never say die, that seemed like a good motto. Well, unless someone was shooting at you then it was perfectly acceptable to run away, or float as it were. "Of course powers are allowed. What would be the fun in a mutant talent show if we couldn't use our powers?"

“Ghost,” Hunter said, trying to join the dots in his mind, “Is that Maya who owns that book shop Full Circle? I met her this morning, bought those books from here in fact. I didn’t really make a great first impression.” Unless nearly attacking her and destroying her office counted as a good first impression. He really needed to make amends for that.

“Would you mind not asking her about me until I’ve had a chance to speak to her again?” he asked. He wasn’t sure how the mansion people would react but based on their meeting he’d understand if Maya would rather not have him visit.

"You met Ghosty at her bookstore?" Juka asked. He didn't know how one could make a bad first impression on the woman, she was one of the sweetest people he knew but he didn't ask. If Hunter wanted to let him know he would, otherwise it probably didn't matter to much. "Did you know she helped teach me to do laundry?" Which was probably a rather sad fact, now that he really considered it, the fact that he hadn't known how to do a simple thing like laundry when he was 18.

"If you don't want me to mention you to Ghosty, them my lips are sealed." Juka made a zipper motion across his lips with his hands to emphasize the point. "Does this not mentioning of you extend to anyone else that I should be aware of?" Good to be certain, just in case.

Though he had only met Maya once he could see her teaching Juka laundry. It also didn’t surprise him that the boy needed teaching. Nice as Juka was he didn’t strike Hunter as someone with a great deal of common sense. His bubbles meant that he didn’t have to learn how to cook, which was probably a good thing.

“I’m going to see if I can patch things up on Friday,” he told Juka, “I’d go earlier, but I’m booked solid until then. Once I’ve spoken to her you can tell anyone you like about me, but until then I’d appreciate it if you’d keep it to yourself.” While he didn’t want to hide his return he wanted some of the staff at the mansion to know he was back before students began talking about him.

"Good." Juka approved of Hunter patching things up with his Ghosty. He didn't know what he could have done to make her mad at him but it must have been pretty bad. Ghost was one of the nicest, most mellow people he knew and he honestly couldn't imagine her getting mad at anyone. The curiosity about what he could have done ate at him but somehow, with a monumental force of effort, he didn't pry. Nope, because he was minding his own business. Yes. Yes he was.

"Um...Have I just lost?" Juka looked at the bored. Blinked. Looked again. And proceeded to glare disaprovingly at the pieces as if it was their fault.

Hunter was glad Juka would let him at least try and sort things out with Ghost. He would understand if the staff at the mansion weren’t exactly thrilled with him being around their students. After all he was a dangerous mass murderer, and despite the fact he had changed he wouldn’t hold it against them if they kept students away.

“Well my knight’s going to force you to move your king and then I’ll take your last rook,” Hunter explained, “and then I’ll use my overwhelming piece majority to take your final pawn and bishop. From there it’s only a matter of time until I checkmate your king. So yes, you’ve lost, but it wasn’t bad for a first try.”

Juka nodded at the explanation regarding why and how he had just lost. It made sense, more or less, and he was pretty sure that it would make more sense still once he had read through the stack of books that he currently had sitting beside him. Who would have ever thought that he, Juka Miami, would ever be sitting in a park learning to play chess?

"You can still have that bubble ride I promised you, if you want." Everyone like riding around in floating bubbles, it was pretty much a scientific fact. Surely Hunter could be no different. Even a 400 year old vampire wasn't likely to have experienced that particular joy before.

“Maybe some other time,” Hunter replied with a smile. Honestly he wasn’t sure what a bubble ride entailed. He was pretty certain however that it would involve sacrificing control to Juka. Despite the changes he had undergone Hunter was still very much a control freak. It wasn’t easy for him to just let someone else use their powers on him.

“I’m afraid I must be going,” he said as he started to carefully pack away his chess set, “But you have my number, so give me a call when you’re ready for a rematch.” Without a need to sleep Hunter had a feeling that Juka would power through the books in no time. Next time they played he might have to actually work for his win.

"You don't know what you're missing," Juka said, with just a hint of disappointment. He liked showing off his power and, when people actually gave it a chance, they seemed to like being showed off to. But it wasn't like he was going to try and force the issue or anything. He'd just have to work on Hunter another day.

Juka bowed and waved at the departing Hunter. "Be careful, I'm a quick study." With a wink he walked off, just far enough to get out of the interested eyes of too many people before proceeding to bubble himself (and his new books) and float away.