capriciousdrop (capriciousdrop) wrote in summerview, @ 2019-01-24 10:44:00 |
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Entry tags: | complete, zeddie nashton |
There ain't nothin' in the world
Who Peisinoê and Eddie Nashton
When: 1/24 9PM
Where: The Arcade
Warnings: None! Maybe some weird medical talk tho.
Peisinoê is, by her very nature, a curious person. Now, granted, that usually wasn’t applied to the world at large or people in general. It really only showed itself in regards to her sister, and wondering how things worked, science, chemicals, if I did this and then added that what would happen? Behavior, emotions, those things are inconsistent and so often without reason. Rather, she has always been drawn to things that she can map out and understand, to recreate.
However, all that being said…
She had to admit — only to herself, and to Parthenope, obviously, she was a bit curious about the Arcade. And maybe.
Maybe
About the owner. He certainly sounded like a slimy little man, the kind that her parents had warned them about; kidnappers, who would harvest them for their inherently magical voices, for their scales and their names. Or skeevy as her favorite study buddy from medical school would have said. Though, Lori had always ended up shagging the men she complained about who were skeevy so maybe she should be careful about using her rants as guidance. This man couldn’t really be all that bad though, could he? After all, they were careful about who they let into town, within reason, and Parthenope was an excellent judge of character. Both with and without the use of her sight. So when she stepped into the Arcade to pick up her sister after her shift — a little early, so she’d have time to poke around — it was with eyes sharp from both curiosity and a little trepidation.
Parthenope was behind the counter labeled “Prize Booth” with a face lit up at a group of children and teenagers, so at least she was having a good time, looked like she fit right in. Then again, that was the story of her life. Peisinoê was only at home, truly comfortable, at home in PJs with her sister, or in a lab working, while her sister could walk into a bar brawl and somehow be at ease and make friends. It didn’t help that she had been told she resembled a gazelle, and it certainly showed here as she towered over the younger, excited patrons of the arcade.
Josie’s Arcade was hopping with activity. Kids lined quarters up on their favorite machines to determine who got next. Fathers held their children up so that they could reach the joystick of a cabinet and teens occasionally burst out into cheers as someone got their ass handed to them in Marvel vs Capcom. Eddie got a buzz seeing his alternative community blossom. The island was beautiful and he appreciated the warm surface, but people needed places like the arcade to let loose. To try and beat that pesky top score.
Eddie was always comfortably cool, it was the beauty of being undead, but walking around in a full suit when everyone else was sweating in front of machines made customers uncomfortable. Years of working casinos, fronts, parties had made the gangster vampire very aware of the mortal moods. So, the usual suit jacket was gone, his dress shirt sleeves were pulled up to his elbows and he had a cute green bowtie on to top off a matching vest. It was still so very old school, but kids were less afraid to run up to him and ask for help with a busted machine. Parents would tell children to never approach a vampire. Eddie wanted to be the exception to the rule.
He was in the middle of fixing a Spongebob themed game that spit out tickets depending on how many jellyfish you could catch. Eddie was knelt down, the kid who was playing it watching him mess with the circuit board and wires until it chimed back to life. Spongebob suddenly shouted “I’m REEADDDYY” and Eddie grinned up at the kid. “Here, for your trouble.” He pulled out an arm’s length of tickets and handed it to the kid before locking the machine up and stepping aside. Eddie turned to head back to his office when he caught sight of the second mermaid sister, likely the one he was razzing on the forums a few days prior. His neck craned back as he looked up, always so surprised at how goddamned tall mermaids seemed to be. It made sense they’d walk out of the ocean looking like supermodels, sure, but he expected the more short and red-headed variety. With the stealth of a vampire (though he didn’t need it in a place like this), he slid up next to the towering beauty and smiled sharp teeth up at her.
“Do you think I’m asking too much for the teddy bears at the prize counter? 500 tickets isn’t too steep, is it?” Eddie gave her rounded, dark eyes, like a cat trying to be cute so he could get a treat.
Normally, she considered herself the sort to be aware of her surroundings too, part of that curious thing, her raising about how to be a good hostess, and even at hospitals. Looking for new patients, or current ones taking a nosedive. Had to keep an eye on a dozen screens and numbers.
Apparently, this was not her proudest day though. Because that slimy little man managed to sneak right up on her! In her defense, this place was so distracting! All the screams, the giggles, the yells of triumph and frustration, not to mention the lights and irritating noises. It was a wonder that Parthenope’s extra sense wasn’t short circuiting here like an overloaded electrical circuit. Or maybe that was an aspect of this place that she enjoyed, for all she knew. It had been awhile since Parthenope received any sort of tutoring regarding The Sight and they hadn’t talked about it.
A hand clutched her chest over her heart as she jumped, one heel clicking against the hard floor with a sharp clatter, “Excuse you!” Peisinoê ran an anxious hand over her dress unnecessarily, as if it could have been wrinkled by the act of her jumping. Her eyes narrowed at him, completely immune to to — whatever that expression was, thank you very much, “I haven’t the foggiest! Is that a lot? I’m sure they are two bit toys anyway, probably fall apart before they get home.” Hmpf. And that was saying something too, in a town their size.
Eddie laughed as she recoiled in surprise. Sneaking up on people never got old and she did not disappoint. When the cute vampire look didn’t land, he relaxed his features and settled into his resting smirk face. “Yes, I also fill the candy up with little razor blades.” He steepled his fingers together like an evil genius. His natural inclination to try and make all his guests find fun was completely overshadowed by his devious need to mess with an uppity mermaid. “And, any kid who brings me a report card with straight F’s get a handful of free tokens.” Okay, maybe he was laying it on too thick.
“You must be sweet Parth’s sister. Cousin? Fish monger.” Eddie held out his hand out for a handshake, the smirk on his face slightly smug. “Thank you so much for recommending her to me. She’s wonderful with the children and helps me find unsuspecting victims for meals. I mean, sales.” He waggled his eyebrows up at her.
Maybe if she hadn’t been prepared for some amount of foolishness from an arcade, more importantly from a man who apparently visited strip clubs and called her a pimp, and somehow didn’t believe in Mermaids, then he would have gotten that over on her for longer. As it stood though she still managed to work herself up into a snit, preparing for a lecture far too close to her mother’s for her own liking; shoulder’s back, righteous look of displeasure on her face and her hands on her hips. But then her eyes narrowed, red lips pursing in displeasure as one of the ridiculous disco balls on top of some absurd dancing machine glinted off one of her necklaces, “You’re putting me on aren’t you?”
What terrible things to say and imply! Not that she should have expected any less. She caught her sister’s eye as she yanked her own away from him and she felt her expression transform, relaxing and grinning broadly, even under a bit of guilt that her scowl had managed to distract cheerful Parthenope.
“Twin.” She correcting, scathingly, definitely channeling their mother on that single word. Still, manners had been drilled into her at an early age, and sometimes she found herself unable to ignore them, so she extended a hand, “You are welcome, luckily I have enough faith in my sister to resist your bad influence.” Well. Mostly at least. If nothing else, Parthenope has The Sight to warn her of any truly vile intentions.
Normally, she preferred to get off on a better foot than they had, but in her defense, she had tried! Not that her parents would believe her. Peisinoê was known to be opinionated, impatient and tactless, foregoing social niceties when she was ready to high tail it out of a situation. But at least she was aware of her faults and worked to correct them.
Sometimes. Unless she was annoyed or had something else to do. Or genuinely didn’t realized when she had tripped into another social faux paux.
Against her better judgement she actually let herself actually take him in for the first time, and yes he was shorter than her — but most people were, especially in her heels — and he wasn’t, okay, well, he was actually handsome looking in his way. Except he was still skeevy as anything she had heard from drunken frat boys prowling around campus at night when she was working in the labs while other were partying. He was a little like her in that, not bad to look at until words started falling out.
“Twins, of course.” Eddie nodded sagely, as if it made perfect sense. Eddie knew his way around socialite women and despite his first impression, it was clear that Pez wasn’t what he imagined. No, if Eddie had to guess, she had a hard time handling his brand of charm because she didn’t like being out here. Doing things. Stepping a toe into the unknown. Even the dumbest of trophy wives he had seen come and go in his line of work had a slyness to them. They knew, they allowed, they brushed it under the rug. Pez stood here, towering over the entire arcade, willing to keep insisting she did not like green eggs and ham until the end of time. Eddie’s need to entertain and smooth things over reached to take the wheel. His new goal was to make her smile, really smile. Even if she didn’t think it could be possible in a place like this.
“Well, your sister has time before her shift ends.” Eddie cocked his head to the side, dark eyes wandering towards the arcade. “What do you say we find something you might actually want to play? Have you played an arcade game before?” Eddie might have asked her that already, he was getting into the habit of asking all old souls since most of them were stuck in their ways. “I have pinball, I have games that give tickets, retro arcade. There has to be something here you might enjoy.”
Peisinoê was used to people doubting that they were twins. Their whole lives really. Not only were they not identical, but their personalities were often so different, and seemed to excel (and fail) in such contrasting subjects. Not to mention Parthenope seemed to have hoarded all the natural grace and softness in the womb. So maybe she was a tad defensive, and that was what was behind her narrowing her eyes at his tone, “Do you doubt that as well as us being Mermaids still, or did she manage to convince you?” Not that she really cared, or maybe a little. It seemed like such an odd place for a Vampire to draw the line.
This seemed...too easy. He was going from egging her on and acting like he was going to find her a job as some sort of sideshow to being nice?
“I have not.” She finally responded, hesitantly, thinking over the list he gave, seeing no concrete reason to not respond even as she followed his gaze around the chaotic place. “I prefer puzzles?” It wasn’t a question so she wasn’t sure why she sounded unsure. So she cleared her throat and tried to unwrap her arms from around her middle, and when had that happened anyway really, isn’t that weird, “I don’t think I’m your target audience, really. And her name is Parthenope not Parth, Mr. Nashton.” Personally, Peisinoê really didn’t even like being called Percy, but it was better than people botching up her name 15 different ways or calling her Van or Zee both of which had been tried during college and had given her a twitch over her right eye she hadn’t shaken for days.
“Parth Vader.” Eddie said, shaking his head like they didn’t have any choice in the matter. Parth was too cute of a nickname in his opinion and nerdy to top it off. He came from a life where nicknames were not only crucial, but preferred. Eddie himself had at least five. “In my head, I call you Pez, but I got a feeling you wouldn’t jive with that too well.” He gave her another smirk and lead her over to the heart of the arcade.
So, she liked puzzles. Eddie’s dark eyes lit up and he nodded appreciatively. “The reason why I got into games is because I like puzzles. It’s not all just push the button at the right time. Even if I’m great at pushing buttons.” Eddie stopped in the middle of a row of machines. All of them looked like they were plucked out of the arcade district in Tokyo. Minus the cigarette smoke. The machines didn’t look like the tall, stand up kind that Americans were used to. Instead they were meant to be sat at, short and bulky with large screens that displayed Japanese characters in flashes of color. He pointed to one machine with Kickle Cubicle on it. “This one involves kicking an ice block around so you can make paths to achieve your goals. Though, I will admit it is very old and outdated.”
Parth Vader? What kind of absolute nonsense! And what was worse, was that her reaction was so very much Peisinoê’s mother, her voice and her horrified, pompous tone at someone having the audacity to present such silliness to her. It made her jaw snap shut at the retort, because what was it about this (clearly) conniving man that brought her mother’s behavior out of her. So she took a deep breath, “Peisinoê,” She enunciated the Greek syllables with the distinct air of an old annoyance, “Parthenope probably won’t mind, but if you cannot manage my name, Percy is acceptable.” There. That wasn’t quite as acidic as her mother would have spat out.
She followed, making her way through excitable children and adults alike, to the rather odd looking game he lead her to. His words about it being outdated actually made her a little more open to it, truthfully, and earned him a small smile as her eyes skirted along the screen, curious fingers tracing the controls. “I don’t even know how to drive, Mr. Nashton, you’ll find I do not rush headlong into new technology for the sake of it.” Peisinoê smoothed out her dress as she sat carefully down at the machine, trying to find a way her relatively modest heels would fit under it. “And people...pay to play these things? Is the chaos.” A vague gesture around the place, “Part of the appeal somehow?” But ever the impatient multi-tasker, she was already reading the instructions in garrish but faded stickers on the machine.
“I think Percy is too geeky for you. I’d like to stick with Pez, but I can manage Peisinoê.” Eddie parroted her accent with relative ease. He learned languages quickly. People didn’t become mobsters because they were born with a silver spoon in their mouth. No, they were all fresh off the boat, or their mom and dad were, and in order to make it in with the top dogs you had to learn the language fast. He paused, thinking over her name for a moment and then snapped his fingers in the air like he just solved a puzzle. “Siren. Daughter of Poseidon. Oh, is that true? Does he have a beard and a six pack? I always imagined him as the most ripped grandpa of the sea.”
Eddie pulled a stool up next to her and stacked tokens in front of her to use. “This is easier than driving a car.” He promised and reached to show her the controls. “This is a joystick. This is button A and button B. You can move with the stick and kick ice cubes around.” He took a quarter from the stack and plopped it into the arcade machine. Japanese flashed on the screen and suddenly her little sprite was standing on one side of an iceberg with the goal on the other. Cute blue blobs hopped in her way. “Kick an ice cube at one of those adorable slimes.” He instructed. “Don’t worry, he’ll be fine. Probably.”
That was nearly too much, and she rolled her eyes, finally reacting in a way that her mother would never have, “Too Geeky? How in the world is a candy brand geeky?” But her look of distinct exasperation turned to one of shock when he mimiced her name perfectly, which she had not heard someone do the first time on the surface since College, and Professor Doll was kind of cheating, seeing as she taught Greek History and Mythology. “You’re a brat on purpose, aren’t you?” Her eyes narrowed at him, catching onto his game, even if it was a little late. That was the story of her life, “Surface perceptions of our history never cease to boggle my mind with their silliness.” Really. A ripped Grandpa, now she had heard it all.
Poseidon, like her, was a bit of a moody nerd, if they were being honest.
Her hands rested on the side of the chair for the briefest of moments before they were snatched up, “This seat is sticky. I bet this place is more of a source of sickness in this town than even the daycare.” Not that Peisinoê was exactly germaphobic or overly repulsed by body fluid, awful hard to do her job if she were, but she also had a dislike for unnecessary risks. Sitting in a seat where drinks had been spilled and touching controls that children had probably sneezed on right before touching them seemed to fall into that category. Still, she was curious, and had a hard time resisting a challenge. So she reached out to poke the joystick with one finger, making the sprite move towards the ice cube haphazardly, moving a bit crookedly on account of the fact that she wasn’t actually holding the joystick properly.
“Becaaauuse the only reason why Pez is still in business is because they got license from geeky things? I mean the Star Wars Pez alone probably earned them a giant, gold candy dispenser.” Eddie quipped back easily, a lot of his gangster swagger gone in place of nerdy banter. It reflected the arcade better than the suits, like he was living two lives and couldn’t stand to be without the other. And, yes, both sides of Eddie loved being a brat on purpose. That was the first and last thing he was good at. “He is your dad.” Eddie took out of her little comment about surface dwellers. “Does he know you’re walking around an arcade with a man who has two legs? Am I going to be assaulted by hermit crabs the next time I walk by the shore?”
Eddie didn’t care about her flippant comments about the seat, the children, the plague that was infecting the walls of his neon arcade. Instead, he just wanted to watch her play. The undersea princess was a nerd, he could tell, and if she really liked puzzles she wouldn’t be able to resist one asking her to play in front of her. She pushed the joystick like a button and he smiled, but didn’t laugh at her. Nerds hated to be laughed at. He hated to be laughed at.
“Like this.” He offered and turned his palm open and out, put the joystick between the ring and pinky finger and then closed his hand over the top. It was second nature to him, but he saw kids try to guide it with their finger tips or make a claw shape over the top. This was the most natural way, even if they didn’t realize. He took his hand away and gestured for her to try.
Peisinoê stared at him for a long moment, eyes narrowing as she blinked at him as if trying to solve a particularly hard equation. Finally she sighed, “The Human economic systems, especially the American one, is still ineffecient to me.” Absurd. Perplexing. Imbalanced. A moment later they were widening at his question about hermit crabs, and surprised herself by laughing at the image, big bad smart mouthed vampire running from a small army of crabs on the sand. What a ridiculous — wait. What was he implying, exactly? “You seem to thinking walking around has more importance or risk than I have been lead to believe. Do you know something I don’t?”
Finally though, she yanked her eyes back towards the game, watching Eddie move the joystick and the little sprite on the screen navigate about with his movements. This didn’t seem overly difficult, and she reached out to mimic his motions once his hand withdrew. Peisinoê had her doubts about him, and about the game, but she also couldn’t resist a puzzle or a challenge. So she was going to give in and humor him, at least this time.
The sprite moved as she focused on the screen, hitting the button as well so she could ‘kick’ the...ice cube? At the little jellyfish, watching it disappear. The first level was finished easily, the most basic of puzzles, and she looked at him skeptically even as the second level loaded. “And what is your favorite sort of game, Mr. Nashton?” She asked him as she proceeded with the level, already catching onto how it was going to become progressively more difficult but still not overly concerned.
“You didn’t get in trouble with your family for joining the people on the surface?” Eddie asked honestly. His only knowledge of mermaids came from Disney movies. There wasn’t a lot of nuance associated with mermaids. They were hot, they had cool fins and women on the land wanted to be them. Mostly for the reasons described above. “Isn’t there a sign somewhere around your kingdom that says two legs bad, fins good?” He teased.
Eddie watched her play and was happy she picked it up quickly once she understood the controls. Yes, it did start of simple, but it was cute and got more aggressive as it went on. Each level had more ice islands to reach and faster blobs bouncing around them. “I like all kinds of games.” He said in a way like he had answered this question before. But, he considered it. Tried to think of his favorite game. “Games can mean so many things. My favorite sport is baseball. That’s a game. My favorite arcade machine is Dragon’s Lair, I can show you that later.” He sat back, taking one of the quarters that he had stacked for her and spinning it between his fingers. “But, my favorite game was always hustling. Changing things with money and agreements and ideas.”
Steal in her eyes, calmer than an ocean wave yet somehow twice as dangerous, “You seem to greatly overestimate my willingness to be on the surface.” This man wasn’t Cohen, who could make her open up briefly about the Plague that had forced their evacuation onto the surface without making her resentful or angry. The implication that she was here out of some silly rebellion or that she was so young that her parents were watching what she did on a day to day basis was aggravating to say the very least. “Yes, and in fact, I have found it entirely warranted.” Ah, and there was that tongue that ruined her engagement.
The second level was just as easy as the first, but it was still nice to have something to focus on as she worked on burying her anger. Honestly she was surprised it hadn’t been enough to ping on Parthenope’s senses, she always had a way or three of identifying impending disasters caused by her sister — even if she sometimes made them worse. Her eyes slid over to him briefly as he spoke before going back to the screen, not that she heard him any less, Peisinoê was an excellent multi tasker. “You have quite a few hobbies for someone who owns a business.” Ah, there was her mother again, “I went to a Dodgers home game once.” She offered, at length.
But then her eyes narrowed at that, “So you’re a swindler.” As if it was the only conclusion to draw, and it made perfect sense really, wasn’t even that surprising, the only surprise was that he just...tossed it out there so freely.
“Mm, so you didn’t want to be here. Can’t say I blame you. If I was an underwater princess and the first thing I saw when I popped my head up was Atlantic City? That dump? I’d go freeze in the arctic instead.” It might have been surprising that Eddie really had no qualms about talking trash about his trash city. He was born there, he was also trash and he accepted that it was for trash people. He was proud of it in his own way, but he didn’t exactly think anyone on the island understood the beauty of oil glimmering on the surface of the ocean. She snapped like a shark at the tail of an ornery fish and he got the picture. Didn’t seemed bothered by it, since getting under people’s skin was what he did best.
And, the anger didn’t bother him either. His best friend had a temper worse than she did. He stayed calm as she eyed him and tried to find places to stab. He was dead, a shadow. There wasn’t actually a lot of pride left in the old vampire. “People who spend too much time running stuff are like sailors busy trying to keep water out of the boat. Find a good crew, a perfect rhythm and you can get a lot done in a day. Or nothing at all, if that’s more your speed.” He cocked his head to the side, trying to imagine her at a baseball game. “You get a hotdog? Sing during the seventh inning stretch?”
Eddie nodded with a chuckle. “Actually, I used to be. Retired swindler. Came here to start a family. Pretty wild, don’t you think?”
“Why do you keep calling me Princess? And if you hate Atlantic City so much, why do you live so close?” She honestly didn’t know if he meant Princess to mock her or he really did think that her and her sister were some kind of Undersea Princesses. Parthenope was quite elegant when she wasn’t flailing about on a sugar high, and thinking that abilites like her’s were limited to Elites was a common theory. There was a good chance he was just doing it to mess with her, as he seemed like the type, but Peisinoê was notoriously terrible at tone and he seemed to be acting nicer to her now than before.
It was also entirely possible that was some kind of trap.
The third and fourth levels were knocked out easily as well, which was good because the fifth was taking a bit longer as she got distracted thinking about that ridiculous baseball game she had been dragged to. Her face twitched into another expression of displeasure, “I should have been studying, but I lost a bet with one of my lab partners so I had to go.” It really wasn’t as bad as she made it sound, and she felt a bit guilty for putting them in a bad light, “I did have a hot dog, I am not entirely sure it was actual food, even though it was surprisingly good, and Parthenope did not approve of it.” That had been part of the bet though the full experience, as it were.
There was so much to unpack in that sentence that she outright stopped playing for a moment to turn towards him, one stocking clad leg pulling up, out of her heel and into the seat as it so often did when she encountered a puzzle. “First of all you better not teach my sister anything skeevy, like pickpocketing, or behave in an ungentlemanly way. I went to a major university, I know how men are — magical or not.” Another glare just for good measure, a little less sulk and a bit more of that icy glare she used on patients who thought that cursing at her would get them out of treatment, “Secondly, yes, yes it is. Were you going to adopt children? Experiments on Vampiric fertility are on my list, gestation on the part of the bearing partner is probably more tricky than for the other party, have you ever looked at your own DNA? It’s pretty fascinating. I have other projects going on now, but perhaps I can use it as a stress reliever. “ A tap on her chin as she considered it, “I think that question would be better left to Undersea healing magic than mortal science, personally. Hm. Do you think, mixing it with the toxin of — oh that’s not bad —” And she was digging into her purse for her notepad and a pen to jot down ideas.
Just like that, Peisinoê was in her element, relaxing, animated, with her face lit up and whatever vestiges of her pretentious mother she had been channeling were gone in her shoulders. It was as radical a transformation as if she had brought her tail out, really, not that she noticed, knee bouncing in the chair as she wrote things down quickly, biting at her bottom lip in concentration.
The game beeped at her and her head whipped around, eyes scanning the screen quickly and solving two levels in a row with hardly a blink now that she was in The Zone.
He didn’t bother answering the princess question. He figured the reasoning behind calling her that was just short of your majesty so what was she really expecting? Instead he shrugged. “I am Atlantic City. As terrible as it is. Being from there, you see the value even if you know outsiders can’t.” He had traveled other places, had spent almost a year straight in Vegas. But, he kept coming back. The dirt, the grime. It had a magical quality to it. He listened to her recant the baseball game, the hotdog. Part of him was sort of relieved she didn’t have a wide-eyed appreciation for all of it. Parth didn’t either, though she was more accepting. No little mermaids here.
Eddie watched her mentally tear through his sentence like she was separating pulled chicken with two, sharp forks. His eyes lit as she mentioned vampire fertility, but the flame was gone as soon as it appeared. “I’ve never looked at my DNA. Does it have little bats that hang off the double helix?” He joked and then waved his hand. “It doesn’t matter. My lady and I broke up. She didn’t want to be with a vampire. So, I’m here. Skeeving locals and teaching their sisters how to pick locks.”
He watched her go into science mode and chuckled. It was endearing, though she probably didn’t want to hear that from him. “Listen, I’m going to let you and the game have some alone time until your sister is done with her shift. Message me on the forums if you ever need blood samples.” He winked and stood up.