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Tweak says, "Not again."

Erik von Brandt 🔥 Roy Mustang (burningitout) wrote in thereincarnates,
@ 2015-11-24 21:59:00

Entry tags:

andy lang, david ryan, erik von brandt, finley melville, gabriele whistler, holly strange, mark scott, riley kingston, shae holloway, violet ward

Who: Erik von Brandt & OPEN
What: PARTY THREAD. If Erik has to turn thirty, he’s doing it with a bang.
Where: The Capitol Club, Los Angeles, CA
When: Forward dated to Wednesday, November 25; evening
Warnings: Let’s go with ‘expect anything’.

Erik wasn’t a complicated man.

Actually, that was a lie. Erik was a very complicated man, but he did a good job of pretending that he wasn’t. It helped that the superficial layer of rock star out looking for a good time wasn’t completely off base, even if it wasn’t all there was to him. For the night, though, it was the only part that mattered, because Erik had invited anyone who wanted to come to a party at the Capitol Club, and he was hoping that the turnout wouldn’t be disappointing. He was also hoping for at least some nice legs in short skirts, but hey, he’d live if he didn’t get everything he wanted for his birthday. Look, it didn’t hurt to ask, did it? He wasn’t forcing anyone into a miniskirt.

He might have pregamed a little before he’d headed to the club, but it had only been a few beers. Good, strong, German beer, but still just beer. Just enough to get him started before he stuck with whatever selection of beer the club itself might have had. Hey, he didn’t remember what a place had on tap, from visit to visit, especially if he hadn’t made it there in a while. It wasn’t long after the place had opened for the night that he walked in the door, grinning and ready to be the life of the party, as soon as anybody started showing up. His bandmates, of course, were expected to be there, because Erik would give them shit about it for a few months, until he came across something else to give them shit for, if they didn’t show up. You might think that wasn’t much, but Erik was pretty good at being a giant pain in the ass, if he really wanted to be. It was a gift.

Just to get the night kicked off on the right foot, Erik started off by buying a round for all of the early birds that were there with him, and raising his pint glass of dark ale to them all. “To thirty, the year where you’re supposed to magically be a real adult!” He didn’t stick around at the bar long, though. He had people to mingle with, and someone whose drinks he’d already promised to take care of for the night. Erik von Brandt was a man of his word.

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Re: Gabi/Riley

redhoodie
2015-11-27 01:28 pm UTC (link)

Being spoken to wasn't completely unexpected, so Gabi was already smiling as she turned her head to look at the girl she'd squeezed in next to. Maybe making impulsive, snap decisions wasn't exactly the best way to be a responsible adult, but Gabi thought she had pretty good instincts, and they were telling her that the redhead was exactly her kind of people. Besides, if she was talking to someone, the bartender was way less likely to want to be rude by asking her for her ID, so even if those instincts turned out to be a bust, it still worked out to Gabi's benefit. If finding ways to get drinks without having to show her ID was a viable career skill, Gabi would be set on coming up with an impressive resume.

"When it comes to drinks, I always do. It took a lot of testing to find the cocktail with the best balance of alcohol content to taste." Not even joking. Gabi had made a point of trying out new drinks, when she'd first started going to clubs instead of house parties. So far, lemon drops got her fun drunk fastest without making her gag, which made them her favorite drink. Even when it came to her drinks, Gabi had pretty high standards. She didn't think that was being snobby, though, that was just being smart. Maybe it wasn't her lowest calorie option (Gabi had another go-to drink for that), but she wasn't thinking about that, at the moment. Right then, she was thinking about how to have the most fun on her first official reincarnate only outing.

She handed her card over when the bartender slid her a sugar rimmed martini glass filled with a pretty, pale yellow liquid, lemon garnish pointed away from her, then looked back over at the redhead. She had to look up to meet her eyes, even in heels, but Gabi had to look up to look most people in the eye. Finding someone shorter than her was kind of an accomplishment, and she celebrated it every time. She tilted her own glass, returning the salute, before telling her, "Hi, I'm Gabi."

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Re: Gabi/Riley

willyoutolerate
2015-11-27 11:22 pm UTC (link)

She looked a little young to be in a club, but it was hard to judge a person's age just by looking at them these days. Riley was really tall, so even if she had been under age, it wasn't likely that many people would assume she was, despite her youthful face. This girl, though, looked both young and was lacking a little in the height department. Bad luck there, but there was still no saying for certain that she wasn't legal. Riley was just used to Vegas and all the guaranteed fake ID's that came with it, but hey, she wasn't one to judge. She was even one to sometimes help them get away with it.

"Riley," the red head returned the introduction with a grin once she'd swallowed down the sweetly sour drink. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the bartender pausing, and Riley could practically anticipate the wheels turning in his head, maybe rethinking that decision not to ask for the girl's ID first, and Riley was quick to distract from the situation by continuing the start of the conversation. "Been here before? You look familiar..."

She let that suggestion hang in the air for a few seconds as she paused, making a show of squinting at the other girl before contorting her face to light up, as if the recognition had just now dawned on her. Riley was nothing if not a good actress. "Oh, I know! You've been to Vegas before, haven't you? I never forget a face."

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Re: Gabi/Riley

redhoodie
2015-11-30 01:33 am UTC (link)

Gabi was an expert at telling when she was about to be made, but normally she had to make up her own distraction. She'd been ready to spill her drink (on the bar, of course, not on her dress) and make sure to flash the bartender a good shot of her cleavage as she apologized and tried to clean it up. When Riley started talking about how she looked familiar, though, Gabi was smart enough to pick up the hint.

"Totally! I love Vegas, oh my god." Gabi had never actually been before in her life, but she'd seen enough movies to pretend well enough for the sake of someone, like the bartender, who wasn't a native. "Some girlfriends and I got a room at the Bellagio and stayed a weekend, once. The fountains are gorgeous." She watched out of the corner of her eye as the bartender shrugged and answered a summons from further down the bar.

Thank god. She really owed Riley one, now. "So, is that where you're from?" She guessed that Riley could have been faking the Vegas thing just as much as she had, but if that was what they were going with, they could both pretend, right? "That must be an amazing place to live."

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Re: Gabi/Riley

willyoutolerate
2015-12-01 08:47 am UTC (link)

It spoke well of Gabi that she picked up on the game so quickly, and as soon as Riley spotted in her peripherals that the bartender had lost interest, her grin widened. Pulling one over on someone was always fun, especially when it involved sticking it to any kind of establishment. Still, Riley decided to keep up the act for now, if nothing but for appearances sake. Wouldn't due to prematurely blow their cover.

"The Bellagio? No way!" She was exaggerating her performance on purpose for the bartender's benefit, but in general, Riley was just a genuinely excitable person. It wasn't all that hard to get her worked up about something. "I work there! So that's where I've seen you."

Not a lie, she actually was from Las Vegas, and she did work for the Bellagio. It was just luck that Gabi had name dropped that casino first, and luck that the Bellagio was one of the more well known names on the Las Vegas strip. She wouldn't exactly call Vegas an amazing place to live, it was pretty seedy, and repulsive a lot of the time, but that didn't scare away Riley. She was comfortable there, even if she often found herself running away to other places. "I'm a Black Jack dealer."

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Re: Gabi/Riley

redhoodie
2015-12-03 05:16 am UTC (link)

If Riley did work there, she was almost definitely aware of the fact that Gabi was lying through her teeth, but as long as they were still playing, she'd play it risky. "You might have been the one taking my money, then!" She bit her lip, shrugged, carefully playing the airhead. "I'm so bad at that game. I mean, you wouldn't think it would be so hard, right? But it gets kind of hard to keep count once you've had a few drinks." Probably true, and that was probably how casinos made a lot of their money. Gabi had a lot of vices, but gambling was not one of them. She preferred to actually get something for her money.

"But you have to be really good at it, don't you? Since you're a dealer." The house won, most of the time, of course so she had to be. "That's so fun!" She managed to sound sincere about it... not that she didn't think it was at least a little bit fun, but she hadn't had quite enough to drink to be at quite the level of excited about everything that she was pretending.

Fair was fair, and how boring would it be to get stuck on just talking about Vegas and gambling the whole night when both of them knew that Gabi had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. She tilted her head to the side. "I'm from New York. I mean, it's not as exciting as Vegas, but that thing about it never sleeping? Totally true."

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Re: Gabi/Riley

willyoutolerate
2015-12-05 07:32 pm UTC (link)

"Guilty as charged. I've been told I deal a mean game," Riley responded with a friendly laugh. She did have a good memory for faces, so she knew even beyond her own fib that she'd never seen Gabi there by chance, but it was a believable lie. If you were young and had the money, who didn't go to Vegas? For some it was just a rite of passage, while for others it became a pretty nasty habit, but Riley had never fallen into either category. She'd always been too poor before she'd started actually working at the casinos, so she'd gone right from picking pockets to robbing people in plain sight. Really, at least she was working in the same field.

People who didn't realize the casinos were essentially stealing from you were blissfully ignorant, but it was also kind of a given. What wasn't always a given was their own dealers engaging in some petty theft too. If Gabi had ever shown her face at Riley's table, she probably would have lost, Riley was a really good dealer, but that wasn't all she was. She was an expert at literally stealing the money out of your pockets and the rings off your fingers, if you let her close enough. Since mostly wealthy people or people pretending to have more money then they did usually ended up at casinos, Riley typically walked away with more than just tips at the end of a night.

"That's the casinos biggest secret," Riley added in a hushed voice, like she was actually telling a big secret, but really, it was something that probably most people knew. "They get you drunk enough so that you start throwing your money to the wind." She laughed and took another sip of her drink. "New York, huh? I dunno, that seems pretty exciting. I've never actually been, how sad is that? But I've heard the night life is incredible. Maybe I'll go sometime."

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Re: Gabi/Riley

redhoodie
2015-12-06 06:48 pm UTC (link)

"I knew it!" Gabi wasn't quite a good enough judge of people to know if dealing a mean game was part of the fib that Riley was telling for her, or if it was true, but she kind of wanted it to be the truth. So far, she was really liking Riley, and being able to actually fleece people out of their money like that would just make her even cooler. Gabi didn't know anyone else who could do that, and Gabi knew a lot of people. Most of them were just like her, more focused on other ways that they could blow through their trust funds as quickly as possible. "I mean, that's okay, though, I knew what I was signing up for when I drank and gambled."

Of course, Gabi knew what she was signing up for with a lot of the more foolish things that she'd done, and she'd still done them anyway. Maybe, if blowing through all her money at a blackjack table would have gotten her parents' attention on her, she would have gone ahead and done that, too, if the option had been there in front of her. It hadn't been, though, when she was going furthest off the rails, since that had been before Thea and the MTN and a way to get to Vegas with no one else being the wiser about it until it was already done... that, and she'd have had to hide it, anyway, since she wasn't exactly planning on telling her parents about Thea any time soon.

New York, though, New York was her playground. Gabi knew all the best places in New York, for almost anything that you needed to get your hands on. Whether you wanted drinks, pills, or anything else that could knock you out of your head for a while, Gabi could take you there. It was just a token, friendly offer, but Gabi told her anyway, "You should look me up if you do. Otherwise you'll just end up in the awful tourist trap bars. You need a local to show you where the real fun is happening." If Riley did take her up on it, Gabi wouldn't be disappointed. Partying was way more fun if you had someone else along for the ride, not to mention way safer.

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Re: Gabi/Riley

willyoutolerate
2015-12-08 04:46 pm UTC (link)

Riley probably could have gone to New York by now, what with the MTN being here and all. She could have gone a lot of places already, with that kind of opportunity there right in front of her, but she hadn't. Why? She wasn't sure. It's not like she liked Vegas all that much, it was just comfortable. She'd gotten comfortable there. It was just different enough from her hometown in the Chino Hills that she didn't feel suffocated, but just dirty and seedy enough that she still felt a little at home. Riley had been a creature of habit for a long time.

Not that she was opposed to going on adventures to new places. She'd gotten in the habit of doing that with Rhett, and those were always fun, but other then that? She hadn't done much exploring yet. She hadn't even gone to see Sherwood yet, and she and Robin both knew it was out there. She wasn't the first Robin Hood reincarnate in the last decade, there was already a lot of reincarnate history behind those woods, and that was maybe what was intimidating Riley just enough to stay away. Having a talent for stealing was probably the only thing she and Robin actually had in common, so in a lot of ways, Riley didn't exactly feel like she belonged there. She didn't even have a gang, much less a cause.

"I'd like that," Riley grinned, genuinely pleased with the offer. It was nice of Gabi, and Riley did like her. If she ever found herself in New York, that wasn't an offer she'd probably turn down. Besides, why shouldn't she take it? She really needed to start getting out more. "I've never been one for the tourist traps anyway. Vegas is full of them, and it's always the same people." Draining the rest of her drink, Riley swallowed it down and set the empty glass on the bar top. "What were your plans for tonight, beyond having some drinks at the bar?"

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Re: Gabi/Riley

redhoodie
2015-12-09 05:17 am UTC (link)

Normally? Gabi's plans would have been to get as fucked up as she could and then crash... wherever, with whoever would take pity on her and make sure that she got home in one piece. It had ended badly for her a few times, but mostly? Everyone she partied with knew who Gabriele Whistler was, and that her daddy had plenty of money to sue their asses off if they did any damage to his baby girl. They were usually smart enough to leave her alone, and there were enough people from the days before she'd started partying too hard that remembered enough of when she used to be fun, but not crazy, that they'd step up for her if it looked like someone was going to try to take advantage.

Here, though, Gabi didn't know anybody except the girl she'd just met at the bar, and as fun as Riley seemed, Gabi wasn't going to count on her to save her ass if she got too messed up before the end of the night. That meant that she was going to have to tone it down, a little, something that she'd at least developed enough self-control to do. She shrugged, tossed back the rest of her drink and put the glass back down on the bar. "I thought I might do some dancing." It was what you did at a club, when you weren't there just to hang out with someone, but you weren't there to get completely wasted, right?

"...maybe flirt a little, if I happen to bump into any cute guys worth my time." That would be a little more unlikely. Not as many guys were worth her time, anymore, now that she was a little older and a little wiser. Not by much, but enough that she realized that maybe hooking up with whoever paid attention to her wasn't the smartest way to go about having a good time. "What about you? Do you want to dance?" Dancing was more fun with a girl friend, anyway, someone to help chase off any creeps that might decide to get a little too handsy... without beating them up, of course.

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Re: Gabi/Riley

willyoutolerate
2015-12-09 11:59 pm UTC (link)

Riley had about the same priorities, as far as going out were concerned, though she was a lot more used to taking care of herself than relying on other people to do it for her. Riley could count the number of times she'd gotten out of control blitzed enough that she needed someone else to make sure she got home on one hand, it wasn't something she made a practice of, but she did still know how to have fun. Controlled fun was still fun in her book.

She also had an inflated sense of girls looking out for each other, and since it seemed like Gabi was alone here tonight, and Riley was positive she was underage, she couldn't very well not watch her back if no one else was going to. Besides, she did seem like somebody who knew how to have fun, and Riley was all about that life. It was one of the reasons she and Rhett had bonded so instantly in the first place, that was always high on the priority list for them. If Gabi was the same way, then they would most definitely get along. Riley had a good feeling about this one.

While she wasn't really trolling for any men that night, dancing sounded like an excellent idea. It was a club after all, and what else were you going to do when you'd had a few drinks and just wanted to move your body around for a little while. Riley leaned forward like she was about to tell Gabi some big secret, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Not only do I want to dance, but I made friends with the DJ earlier. He'll probably let us request some songs. You in?"

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Re: Gabi/Riley

redhoodie
2015-12-10 01:37 am UTC (link)

If Gabi really had one strength, aside from killer accessorizing, it seemed like it was finding exactly the right people to hang out with to get her good times on. Riley had befriended the DJ? Now that was a smart move, and one that Gabi could respect. After all, being able to persuade the DJ to play your jam could make your whole night. Sometimes, it was all about the right song at the right time.

"I am so in." Gabi slid her empty glass back across the bar to get it out of the way of whoever might want to grab it next, then started sliding away, holding her hand out to Riley to take. Sure, it was pretty friendly for a girl you'd literally just met, but how else were they supposed to make sure that they didn't get separated in the crowd? There was no missing the fact that Gabi was kind of tiny, and that meant getting lost in crowds a lot. Besides, the only thing that was more persuasive in getting a DJ to play your song than being a hot girl was being two hot girls.

Maybe she'd never actually see Riley again after that night was over. Gabi hoped that wasn't the case, especially if they ended up having as much fun as she thought they were going to have, but hey, sometimes the friends you made in the club weren't your friends anymore after the drinks were gone and the dancing was over. Whatever, they were still going to have the best time that night, Gabi was pretty sure they could make sure of that. "Let's go!"

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