Fetzen
Bloodrose
jeroukoo
Master Bruce
BCTheEntity
SilverPaw
Mintz
strawbsandsugar
BillyTheKid
Punished GNCollab with @Hellion
Los Angels
The Hollywood Hills
The Sunset Lounge
“Look out for her, she’s young, not tested in our world.”
“I’m not running a creche, love.”
“Do you mean that, or is it just another British thing?”
“Take a guess, I’ve a bar to run, something you occasionally let me get back to.”
“Thank you, Henry, try not to think about me too much.”
In truth, he never truly needed convincing to aid the lost and the damned of LA. That would have been the height of irony. No one was as lost or damned as the Archtraitor. The thought brought a slight smile to his lips as he went about the business of working the bar, the brief snippet of conversation with Eva playing back over his mind as he did his best to pay attention to whatever slice of Kindred politics the couple across from him were providing with their incessant need to gossip, to impress. He couldn’t quite pinpoint when exactly he became someone worth impressing in the supernatural underworld of LA, but it hadn’t been overnight.
That’s when she slipped into the next seat over. The woman that looked out of place, yet finally home, all at the same time. The scars that marked her out most of all. They all carried scars, one way or another, these aristocrats of the night.
“Hypocrite” he thought to himself in a voice that sounded distinctly like a certain Toreador, as he passed his way down the bar, cleaning a glass as he did so. It was an awfully typical view of what a bartender ‘should’ be doing, but then, that was half the point.
“Drink?” He asked plainly, his mouth forming the words in such a way that played on the years he had spent in a similar, but different life in the dive bars of another continent. Somewhere else he had become someone worth impressing quite by accident. He watched her for a moment, gauging the reaction of all new kindred to the words. “A drink that won’t have you hurling it right back up on the bar.” He clarified. He was pouring before she really answered. A scotch he had grown to enjoy from back home, laced with enough plasma that a kindred could keep it down without effort. If they were lucky, they might even taste it, beyond the buzz of alcohol which when mixed properly, their kind could still feel. He placed it down, uncaring of whether she took it up or not.
“Henry Locke, I’m told we’re friends now.”
Nicole eyed the drink with curiosity if anything else. While she and Eva had shared various blood-infused wines during their time together at the oceanside villa, that had been about the extent of it, so a concoction based with Scotch would certainly be a new experience. The woman held the glass up to the light, and then looked back at the gentleman across from her.
“You know what? I don’t even like Scotch, but I’ve had a crazy enough few weeks, that I don’t even give a fuck right now.” Nicole motioned her hand toward the other as though she were going to toast, before knocking back the glass and draining its contents in one fell swoop.
“Holy shit monkeys” She choked on the words, as the mixed drink made its way down her throat like a fiery dragon descending into a tunnel. “That’s-” She coughed a couple of times to clear her voice before continuing. “Yeah, that’s just what I needed.” She chuckled, returning the now empty glass to the bar top, and rubbing the bridge of her nose.
“Whew, okay.” She smiled at the rugged man with the hauntingly beautiful eyes. “Good to meet you, by the way.” She then nodded her head. “I’m Nicole. ‘Nikki’, if you prefer. And yeah, I suppose we are friends now.” The Gangrel couldn’t help but feel rather stupid and awkward in the other’s presence, but she also assumed it was the effects of the drink moreso than anxiety welling up just for being there.
Or perhaps it was both.
“I-um, I think I was supposed to meet a woman by the name of ‘Rachel’ here. Do you happen to know where I’d find her?”
“You’re looking for perhaps the one woman more busy in this city than our other mutual acquaintance.” Henry spoke plainly, although he didn’t hide the slight smile of amusement at her reaction to the drink, a somewhat teasing expression utterly lacking in any true malice. “But I presume if you’ve been sent after her, she’ll also be making time for you, I’ll give her a buzz, let her know you’re here.”
Henry wasn’t the only person paying attention to Nicole, however, the couple the man had been speaking with before carrying on their own conversation with far less zeal, carefully watching the pair as they spoke, the tang of fresh blood in the air. There was more than just the usual Kindred nature in this, with the news steadily rolling in from the North, newcomers were both a greater threat and curiosity than ever before.
“We have a fair few rooms here, I only have hillside free at the moment, but you’re welcome to it. Rest, freshen up, whatever. No rush to clear out while you get your bearings.” There was no need to add that this life required you to find those bearings imminently. Anyone who made it passed the first few nights knew that, if nothing else. As he spoke, he removed a sleek looking phone from his pocket, thumbing the screen without turning his attention from those across the bar, passing on the previously mentioned message to Rachel.
“You don’t necessarily look like the type who used to enjoy the company of big city lawyers too much, so, fair warning on that front.” Henry continued with the same hint of amusement, although his eyes were studying the room behind Nicole, noting whoever was trying to listen in without appearing like they were.
“Between you and me, don’t mention to anyone that you’ve come in from out of town.” He spoke a little quieter, his lips barely moving as he did so. “That might get you in even more heat from the old bastards you’re going to be bumping into around these parts.”
Without trying to seem too relieved by the prospects of staying at the hotel, per Henry Locke’s invitation, the offer did ease her mind nevertheless. A mind that still had so many thoughts swirling around that needed an answer, and yet the mental weariness of just the last few days alone began to creep up on her like a looming shadow. But, she allowed a half-smile, and nodded as her host spoke, knowing that she would need to lay low for a bit longer, replace things she no longer had, and just generally figure out who she was and what role she was supposed to play within her new life.
“I appreciate the offer.” She said, glancing around the lounge area, before meeting the man’s eyes once again. “And God knows I could use a proper shower.” She snorted, thinking back to a couple of days prior, finding a campground somewhere up in Northern California where she was able to slip in and clean up before continuing the journey. “And a change of clothes.” Nikki shook her head and smirked at the silly comments, which were apparently brought up by the recent ingestion of a fairly potent drink. “Although it’s not like I have to wash my hair.” She ran a hand across her bare scalp, feeling only the stubble from taking electric trimmers to it, and yet missing the beautiful hair she once had.
“Anyway…” She sighed.
Henry’s comment, however, regarding her being “out of town” did pique some curiosity in the back of her mind, and yet she didn’t even bother to ask about it, and only nodded in acknowledgement as though she understood the meaning behind the “advice”. Perhaps such a statement came as a typical warning to those vampires who were relatively new to the unlife, because someone as green about her existence as Nicole was, even she knew there were always bigger fish in the sea and the neonate was simply a worm dangling at the end of a hook.
“If it’s okay, I think I might stick around here for a bit.” She broke eye contact with the other momentarily, instead staring at the empty glass on the bartop. “I don’t really know what to do next other than wait at this point.”
Nicole didn’t want to have to admit -especially to a stranger- that she was lost, but she was. Despite Eva’s help, it was tough returning to a city you came to know well over the course of many years as a police officer, only to have no real direction in a life you just couldn’t fully comprehend.
“I still have so many questions.” She continued, looking back up at Henry, who certainly played his part as a proper host to listen as long as he could. “But, maybe this isn’t the time to ask, and you have better things to do no doubt. I can wait for Rachel.”
“Take your time here, I’m in no rush to keep rooms empty.” Henry set another glass back down on the bar, admiring the shine in the light for the moment before placing it onto a row of similar, if not all identical, receptacles. “Other needs, beyond a place to stay and a hot shower, can be attended to here as well. Usually there’s a charge, unless I decide otherwise, which I do.” He explained further. Kindred might not need solid food, but they certainly needed sustenance. Henry might not have had a warehouse of thinbloods chained up in the basement, but he had the next best thing; Los Angeles.
“You can ask away, I’ve got nowhere to be, love.” He answered her, slipping more heavily into the accent that spun from his lips, a brief smile feathered across his lips. “They can’t exactly fire me, I can show you the rooms now, if you’d like?” He offered, absentmindedly selecting another glass to shine while he waited, a good enough ruse to subtly keep his eyes on the couple at the end of the bar, trying to pin down their nebulous allegiance in the cold dark.
Her eyes lazily followed the path of the glass as Henry replaced it with the others, folding her hands atop the bar and periodically glancing around the room before meeting with the eyes of the man across from her once again. She didn’t quite know where to start in her line of questioning. Nicole was, afterall, a police officer, and was trained to ask questions about a great many things in order to get to the bottom of an issue. But, did any of that even matter anymore? Was she even a cop? The training was there and the memories retained, sure. But the urge to get back to her previous life was just out of reach. As though she had any real choice.
“How do I find-” The woman paused for a moment, unsure of even how to phrase the question. “I need to know where I came from. What I mean to say is, like...how do I find the one who made me? You know, my Sire.”
She couldn’t help but notice that her voice lowered to almost a whisper on the last few words as though it was some big secret within the confines of the Sunset. This had been a place full of vampires, at least presumably, but at the same time, she didn’t know any of them and they didn’t know her. Eva warned her that Kindred politics was a dirty business, sometimes even more so than that of the mortal realm, and trust was something not easily obtained. Sold and destroyed at a whim if anything else. But there was at least something she felt for Henry Locke, a trustworthiness that perhaps was born out of having no other recourse…?
“If you want my advice, Kindred are always far too hung up on who their sires are. Our mutual friend and her sire? They’re no different. They’d have all lived happier, longer lives if they’d all just decided to let old bonds die.” As Henry spoke, the volume of the Lounge’s ambient music seemed to rise, ever so slightly, just enough to gradually obscure his words from those further than his immediate area. He studied her again, yet another desperate child clinging for something, anything, to steady themselves before being pulled under. This world did not deserve them.
“The kind of Kindred you’re looking for, best to start at the Last Round, a bar Downtown. Gangrel, what you are, and Brujah of a certain...lack of sensibility, flock to the place.” Henry spoke with a theatrical sense of hesitation, as if speaking the name of the place pained him. “I apologise for sending you there, the smell is really something, but the owner, Nines, he’s not so bad, when he’s behaving. If anyone can find a Gangrel in this city, it’s probably him, or someone in his ‘bar” Henry almost seemed to shiver at the final word, as if it were forced out of him. As he finished speaking, however, he rested a somewhat small, if ornate, looking key on the bar top.
“Room number is on the back. Chipped as well, but don’t tell the rest of the clientele that, they like it old school.”
“Sensibility” She echoed, with a wry smile growing. “That’s a tough thing to find, especially in this city.” Her voice raised just a bit over the music, wondering if it was her hearing that wavered or the volume. It seemed that everything was so much more sensitive since her embrace, and she still found herself trying to manage every sense at once. “But thank you Henry, I think you gave me just what I needed. At least a start anyway.”
Nicole slipped the key in the inner pocket of her leather jacket and hopped off the bar stool. “I think I might just freshen up before I get dirty again.” She winked at the other, as she walked off toward the direction of the elevators.
Los Angels
The Hollywood Hills
The Sunset Lounge
“Look out for her, she’s young, not tested in our world.”
“I’m not running a creche, love.”
“Do you mean that, or is it just another British thing?”
“Take a guess, I’ve a bar to run, something you occasionally let me get back to.”
“Thank you, Henry, try not to think about me too much.”
In truth, he never truly needed convincing to aid the lost and the damned of LA. That would have been the height of irony. No one was as lost or damned as the Archtraitor. The thought brought a slight smile to his lips as he went about the business of working the bar, the brief snippet of conversation with Eva playing back over his mind as he did his best to pay attention to whatever slice of Kindred politics the couple across from him were providing with their incessant need to gossip, to impress. He couldn’t quite pinpoint when exactly he became someone worth impressing in the supernatural underworld of LA, but it hadn’t been overnight.
That’s when she slipped into the next seat over. The woman that looked out of place, yet finally home, all at the same time. The scars that marked her out most of all. They all carried scars, one way or another, these aristocrats of the night.
“Hypocrite” he thought to himself in a voice that sounded distinctly like a certain Toreador, as he passed his way down the bar, cleaning a glass as he did so. It was an awfully typical view of what a bartender ‘should’ be doing, but then, that was half the point.
“Drink?” He asked plainly, his mouth forming the words in such a way that played on the years he had spent in a similar, but different life in the dive bars of another continent. Somewhere else he had become someone worth impressing quite by accident. He watched her for a moment, gauging the reaction of all new kindred to the words. “A drink that won’t have you hurling it right back up on the bar.” He clarified. He was pouring before she really answered. A scotch he had grown to enjoy from back home, laced with enough plasma that a kindred could keep it down without effort. If they were lucky, they might even taste it, beyond the buzz of alcohol which when mixed properly, their kind could still feel. He placed it down, uncaring of whether she took it up or not.
“Henry Locke, I’m told we’re friends now.”
Nicole eyed the drink with curiosity if anything else. While she and Eva had shared various blood-infused wines during their time together at the oceanside villa, that had been about the extent of it, so a concoction based with Scotch would certainly be a new experience. The woman held the glass up to the light, and then looked back at the gentleman across from her.
“You know what? I don’t even like Scotch, but I’ve had a crazy enough few weeks, that I don’t even give a fuck right now.” Nicole motioned her hand toward the other as though she were going to toast, before knocking back the glass and draining its contents in one fell swoop.
“Holy shit monkeys” She choked on the words, as the mixed drink made its way down her throat like a fiery dragon descending into a tunnel. “That’s-” She coughed a couple of times to clear her voice before continuing. “Yeah, that’s just what I needed.” She chuckled, returning the now empty glass to the bar top, and rubbing the bridge of her nose.
“Whew, okay.” She smiled at the rugged man with the hauntingly beautiful eyes. “Good to meet you, by the way.” She then nodded her head. “I’m Nicole. ‘Nikki’, if you prefer. And yeah, I suppose we are friends now.” The Gangrel couldn’t help but feel rather stupid and awkward in the other’s presence, but she also assumed it was the effects of the drink moreso than anxiety welling up just for being there.
Or perhaps it was both.
“I-um, I think I was supposed to meet a woman by the name of ‘Rachel’ here. Do you happen to know where I’d find her?”
“You’re looking for perhaps the one woman more busy in this city than our other mutual acquaintance.” Henry spoke plainly, although he didn’t hide the slight smile of amusement at her reaction to the drink, a somewhat teasing expression utterly lacking in any true malice. “But I presume if you’ve been sent after her, she’ll also be making time for you, I’ll give her a buzz, let her know you’re here.”
Henry wasn’t the only person paying attention to Nicole, however, the couple the man had been speaking with before carrying on their own conversation with far less zeal, carefully watching the pair as they spoke, the tang of fresh blood in the air. There was more than just the usual Kindred nature in this, with the news steadily rolling in from the North, newcomers were both a greater threat and curiosity than ever before.
“We have a fair few rooms here, I only have hillside free at the moment, but you’re welcome to it. Rest, freshen up, whatever. No rush to clear out while you get your bearings.” There was no need to add that this life required you to find those bearings imminently. Anyone who made it passed the first few nights knew that, if nothing else. As he spoke, he removed a sleek looking phone from his pocket, thumbing the screen without turning his attention from those across the bar, passing on the previously mentioned message to Rachel.
“You don’t necessarily look like the type who used to enjoy the company of big city lawyers too much, so, fair warning on that front.” Henry continued with the same hint of amusement, although his eyes were studying the room behind Nicole, noting whoever was trying to listen in without appearing like they were.
“Between you and me, don’t mention to anyone that you’ve come in from out of town.” He spoke a little quieter, his lips barely moving as he did so. “That might get you in even more heat from the old bastards you’re going to be bumping into around these parts.”
Without trying to seem too relieved by the prospects of staying at the hotel, per Henry Locke’s invitation, the offer did ease her mind nevertheless. A mind that still had so many thoughts swirling around that needed an answer, and yet the mental weariness of just the last few days alone began to creep up on her like a looming shadow. But, she allowed a half-smile, and nodded as her host spoke, knowing that she would need to lay low for a bit longer, replace things she no longer had, and just generally figure out who she was and what role she was supposed to play within her new life.
“I appreciate the offer.” She said, glancing around the lounge area, before meeting the man’s eyes once again. “And God knows I could use a proper shower.” She snorted, thinking back to a couple of days prior, finding a campground somewhere up in Northern California where she was able to slip in and clean up before continuing the journey. “And a change of clothes.” Nikki shook her head and smirked at the silly comments, which were apparently brought up by the recent ingestion of a fairly potent drink. “Although it’s not like I have to wash my hair.” She ran a hand across her bare scalp, feeling only the stubble from taking electric trimmers to it, and yet missing the beautiful hair she once had.
“Anyway…” She sighed.
Henry’s comment, however, regarding her being “out of town” did pique some curiosity in the back of her mind, and yet she didn’t even bother to ask about it, and only nodded in acknowledgement as though she understood the meaning behind the “advice”. Perhaps such a statement came as a typical warning to those vampires who were relatively new to the unlife, because someone as green about her existence as Nicole was, even she knew there were always bigger fish in the sea and the neonate was simply a worm dangling at the end of a hook.
“If it’s okay, I think I might stick around here for a bit.” She broke eye contact with the other momentarily, instead staring at the empty glass on the bartop. “I don’t really know what to do next other than wait at this point.”
Nicole didn’t want to have to admit -especially to a stranger- that she was lost, but she was. Despite Eva’s help, it was tough returning to a city you came to know well over the course of many years as a police officer, only to have no real direction in a life you just couldn’t fully comprehend.
“I still have so many questions.” She continued, looking back up at Henry, who certainly played his part as a proper host to listen as long as he could. “But, maybe this isn’t the time to ask, and you have better things to do no doubt. I can wait for Rachel.”
“Take your time here, I’m in no rush to keep rooms empty.” Henry set another glass back down on the bar, admiring the shine in the light for the moment before placing it onto a row of similar, if not all identical, receptacles. “Other needs, beyond a place to stay and a hot shower, can be attended to here as well. Usually there’s a charge, unless I decide otherwise, which I do.” He explained further. Kindred might not need solid food, but they certainly needed sustenance. Henry might not have had a warehouse of thinbloods chained up in the basement, but he had the next best thing; Los Angeles.
“You can ask away, I’ve got nowhere to be, love.” He answered her, slipping more heavily into the accent that spun from his lips, a brief smile feathered across his lips. “They can’t exactly fire me, I can show you the rooms now, if you’d like?” He offered, absentmindedly selecting another glass to shine while he waited, a good enough ruse to subtly keep his eyes on the couple at the end of the bar, trying to pin down their nebulous allegiance in the cold dark.
Her eyes lazily followed the path of the glass as Henry replaced it with the others, folding her hands atop the bar and periodically glancing around the room before meeting with the eyes of the man across from her once again. She didn’t quite know where to start in her line of questioning. Nicole was, afterall, a police officer, and was trained to ask questions about a great many things in order to get to the bottom of an issue. But, did any of that even matter anymore? Was she even a cop? The training was there and the memories retained, sure. But the urge to get back to her previous life was just out of reach. As though she had any real choice.
“How do I find-” The woman paused for a moment, unsure of even how to phrase the question. “I need to know where I came from. What I mean to say is, like...how do I find the one who made me? You know, my Sire.”
She couldn’t help but notice that her voice lowered to almost a whisper on the last few words as though it was some big secret within the confines of the Sunset. This had been a place full of vampires, at least presumably, but at the same time, she didn’t know any of them and they didn’t know her. Eva warned her that Kindred politics was a dirty business, sometimes even more so than that of the mortal realm, and trust was something not easily obtained. Sold and destroyed at a whim if anything else. But there was at least something she felt for Henry Locke, a trustworthiness that perhaps was born out of having no other recourse…?
“If you want my advice, Kindred are always far too hung up on who their sires are. Our mutual friend and her sire? They’re no different. They’d have all lived happier, longer lives if they’d all just decided to let old bonds die.” As Henry spoke, the volume of the Lounge’s ambient music seemed to rise, ever so slightly, just enough to gradually obscure his words from those further than his immediate area. He studied her again, yet another desperate child clinging for something, anything, to steady themselves before being pulled under. This world did not deserve them.
“The kind of Kindred you’re looking for, best to start at the Last Round, a bar Downtown. Gangrel, what you are, and Brujah of a certain...lack of sensibility, flock to the place.” Henry spoke with a theatrical sense of hesitation, as if speaking the name of the place pained him. “I apologise for sending you there, the smell is really something, but the owner, Nines, he’s not so bad, when he’s behaving. If anyone can find a Gangrel in this city, it’s probably him, or someone in his ‘bar” Henry almost seemed to shiver at the final word, as if it were forced out of him. As he finished speaking, however, he rested a somewhat small, if ornate, looking key on the bar top.
“Room number is on the back. Chipped as well, but don’t tell the rest of the clientele that, they like it old school.”
“Sensibility” She echoed, with a wry smile growing. “That’s a tough thing to find, especially in this city.” Her voice raised just a bit over the music, wondering if it was her hearing that wavered or the volume. It seemed that everything was so much more sensitive since her embrace, and she still found herself trying to manage every sense at once. “But thank you Henry, I think you gave me just what I needed. At least a start anyway.”
Nicole slipped the key in the inner pocket of her leather jacket and hopped off the bar stool. “I think I might just freshen up before I get dirty again.” She winked at the other, as she walked off toward the direction of the elevators.
