i hope you're having the time of your life Who: Adam Fenn, Regina Hawthorne, & Bastion Delacroix. What: Adam gets acquainted with his new escort. Where: Beginning at the Bourbon Orleans, continuing to the Deja Vu. When: The night following this event, following Adam's meeting with his sire.. Warnings: None. Progress: GDoc, complete.
Savoy's description of Adam's new escort had left him uncertain what to expect. "She stands out" was just vague enough in this world of beautiful monsters and misshapen beasts to tell him nothing at all. Knowing what he hoped for but with no idea what he might find, Adam returned to his room long enough to change into something more presentable, and perhaps befitting of his station. He took the stairs down to the lobby two at a time, rolling back the cuffs of his soft pink button-up. His sisters had chosen the color as a joke years before, only to find it annoyingly flattering on him. Now he found it a comforting presence, a reason to smile in the face of yet another unknown.
He looked up from the rolling of his second sleeve as he entered the lobby. He nodded a greeting as he passed first one ghoul, then another, wending his way through the small gathering of Kindred to move toward the concierge desk. A woman stood there, her blonde locks doing little to hide three vicious slashes across her face. Adam drew his lip between his teeth. Out of habit he drew a deep breath and moved to her side, stopping just outside arm's reach.
"Regina?"
The woman turned a bored gaze toward him, one brow arching as she took in his less-than-manly colored shirt. Her eyes raked him from waist upward, clearly unimpressed with what she found. Her own form was clad in an outfit that looked incredibly out of place amid both Kindred and kine staying in the hotel, but there was nothing in her stance that announced her as uncomfortable. She pulled her hands out of her hoodie pockets, letting them fall to her sides.
"Adam, I'm guessing." One hand pulled a hair tie from around a wrist, and she swept up her blond locks into a rough ponytail. "Well, where to? I'm not getting paid to stand around and watch you."
He blinked, finding himself at a not entirely unexpected loss for words. "I, uh, really didn't have anywhere in mind. I just need to get out a little. Maybe go see a friend. You up for that?" It was a ridiculous question, and Adam felt ridiculous the moment it left his mouth. Her utter disinterest in him was quite plain. So he huffed a small, exasperated breath and tipped his head toward the door. "Forget I asked. You know where Deja Vu is?"
"Sounds familiar. Baronne?" She was already moving toward the door, expecting him to follow. And follow he did, though he quirked a brow all the same.
"I'm sorry," he said, when he'd caught up to her side. "I don't think I caught that last bit. Or I did, and we really got off on the wrong foot. So…" "I said Baronne. As in Baronne Street? You're not from around here, are you?" She leveled a quizzical look at him, sliding her hands back into her hoodie as they moved through the crowd bottlenecked at the hotel doors. Her brow knit. "What did you think I said?"
"Uh, nothing. Nevermind." Adam flushed. With fresh blood coursing through him, his high cheekbones turned a shade to nearly match his shirt. His eyes darted from hers to the crowd, watching with unnecessary intensity the faces that passed. "But no, I'm not from here. I guess you are, though. Are you glad you could stick around home?" He cleared his throat. "I've been wondering if it would've been easier that way, or harder."
Regina shrugged, moving through the crowd with an ease that spoke of someone used to such things. With Adam following in her wake, they were soon out on the street and headed in the direction of the bar. "Don't really have much of a choice in it now, not that I ever did. Not that that's any of your business." As tourists filled up the sidewalks, laughing with drinks in hand, Regina switched to the streets; once they were beyond the hotel, she moved down a street and started walking up the one she'd named to him earlier. It was clear she had no interest in conversation, merely in getting him to his destination unscathed.
Where the streets grew quieter, Adam longed to fill the silence. He began to wonder if perhaps a ghoul would not have been the better choice, but immediately the thought brought a downward quirk to his lips. "It's not my business," he said, "but it'd be nice to know a little more about you than just a name. Obviously we're stuck together at least for a while. Maybe we could try to make that not completely suck?"
She spared him another glance, his words reaching deeper than his previous attempts at politeness. She rolled her eyes, slowing her steps from the military-pace she had been keeping them to.
"Yeah, I'm from here. Garden District originally, though that was a long time ago. It's...it's kind of easier." Her explanation stopped there, but she followed it up with a question of her own. "You far from where you're from?"
"Far enough," he said. His posture visibly eased at the change in her demeanor, slight though it was. "North Carolina. Asheville, specifically. Might as well be Australia, though, with all the travel restrictions we've got. You have family around here?"
"Used to. A sister. She's away at college, though." Regina didn't offer further details, either due to a desire to keep something to herself or because they had come to the exterior of the bar he'd asked for. Regina came to a stop across the street and nodded toward the establishment. "This the place you were talking about?"
Adam nodded. He let her tight-lipped answer be the end of it; they had made more progress in the last block than he had managed in all their brief time before, and he had no desire to take any steps backward. He started across the road, watching Regina as he did. "You comin'?"
"Don't have much of a choice," she retorted dryly, following on his heels. At that early evening hour, the bar was sparsely populated with locals and regulars; a bartender was prepping for the inevitable crowds, cleaning stacks of glasses and making sure everything was in its proper place. Regina glanced around the space, but found nothing of particular interest. She looked to Adam. "What is it exactly that you're looking for?"
"Who," Adam corrected. He did not look back to Regina, too busy scanning the tables and dimly lit booths for his friend. Seeing no signs of him, Adam sidled up to the bar, flagging down the passingly familiar bartender.
"You seen Bastion?"
The man barely glanced up from his duties when it was clear Adam wasn't a paying customer. "Out back. Won't stop playing on his phone; told him he had to take it outside, was scaring the customers." With that, he turned away from Adam, pointing toward a door that led deeper into the establishment. Regina glanced toward it, then looked back to Adam with an arched brow.
"You're definitely not going out there by yourself. Do you know the crime rates around here? This is the biggest tourist area of the city, and if you get mugged while I'm here, Savoy will tan my hide."
"Come on, then," he said, and started off without looking to see if she followed. His pointed show of apathy fell apart when he reached the door and held it open for her to pass. He looked sheepishly down to the floor, saying nothing as they moved down the hall and to the bar's back door. He held this one for her, too. Whether he noticed or not, Regina was hard pressed to bite back a smile, but she kept her focus on the job at hand. Adam spotted Bastion close by, his attention still firmly on his phone, and gave a sharp whistle.
"Hey! What's so interesting?"
Regina stayed in front, glancing back at Adam for some sort of context as Bastion remained near a dumpster, staring intently at the smart phone in his hand. His only response was to hold up one hand, finger extended, in a wait gesture. The hand holding the phone flicked out, and he groaned.
Regina looked to Adam again, her skeptical gaze querying him for an explanation. Adam only shrugged. Bastion flicked the phone again, moving slightly to his right as his eyes never left the screen.
"Seriously. What are you..." Adam moved just behind Bastion, peering over his shoulder at the blue-toned screen below. "Oh, come on. You too?" He chuckled. "I had to mute this as a keyword on Twitter, you know. I've already hit the point of oversaturation. And now it's taken you, too."
"Shut up, do you know how long I've been waiting for a fucking Pikachu to appear?!" Bastion flicked the screen again, sending the small red ball hurling toward the yellow mouse. He bit his lip as he waited for the ball to land true, and, thankfully, this time it did. "Fuck yeah!" He raised a fist toward the sky, spinning around to hold out his new prize toward Adam. Ever the dutiful friend, Adam looked, lips pursed on a smile that was only slightly mocking.
"Suck on -- oh shit, did you bring a date?" Bastion's enthusiasm waned a little at the sight of Regina, who rolled her eyes.
"Are you fucking shitting me," she muttered under her breath, moving back toward the door to hover in its entryway. Bastion's gaze moved to Adam, confused.
"Are you seriously that at a loss for things to do that you brought her here?"
"Not a date," Adam said. His smile waned. "New babysitter. Antoine's on edge since last night. It was her or a ghoul, and I figured this was the right call." He lowered his voice. "Hopefully I wasn't wrong." Clearing his throat, he took a step back, moving slightly closer to his utterly unimpressed escort. "Regina, Bastion. Bastion, Regina. But maybe you already know each other. She's a local, too. So… why don't we go back inside and talk there. Sound good?"
"Uh, sure," Bastion replied, obviously still slightly perturbed by the introduction of a third party. He waved his arm, motioning for Adam to head inside first; he followed, the unhappy blond leading the trio back into the bar. Bastion then took the lead, guiding them to the booth where he and Adam had formerly sat during their last encounter.
"Uh, here OK?"
"I'll take a seat at the bar." With that, Regina excused herself and moved away from the two men, leaving them slightly gaping in her wake. Without hesitation, she took a seat at the bar and glowered at the bartender when he spoke to her. Bastion looked to Adam.
"Well. She seems fun."
Adam sighed. "She lightened up for a second on the way over here. I thought I'd actually get her to talk to me. Maybe in a few days or something." He shrugged. "Sorry for raining on the parade a little. I didn't have a lot of choice. It was this or house arrest. And I wanted to see you, be sure you're okay and all. Did you know the guy that died?"
Bastion slid into the booth, shaking his head. "Naw, though a lot of people are claiming they did. Hard to know how many are telling the truth. Shit people come out of the woodwork with this kinda stuff, you know? Tragedy-mongerers or whatever you wanna call 'em." He put his phone down on the tabletop, glancing back at Regina, then focusing solely on Adam. "But you don't gotta worry bout me. Who the fuck's gonna kill me? I'm not important. You, on the other hand, obviously warrant a Terminator. They got more models of her?" He screwed up his face in thought, rethinking his previous sentence. "On second thought, I'm not so good with blonds."
Adam needed the laugh, and he readily took it. "I usually am," he said. "But she's obviously gonna be a bigger challenge than most." He reached across the table, toying idly with one corner of Bastion's phone. He grinned. "She says she's got a sister, though. I could always ask…"
The Malkovian held up his hands in a pleading gesture. "Naw, man, if anyone needs help with women, I'm pretty sure it's you. No offense. So. Anyway. This mean Savoy knows something the rest of us don't?" He tapped the screen, bringing his previous game back up. The music blared for a moment, and Bastion hurriedly turned it down by furiously hitting a button on the side of the device. The few patrons in the bar glanced over. "Jesus Christ, you'd think they thought everyone was deaf."
This time, amusement didn't come so easily. Adam chewed his lip as he stared at the table, his thumbnail following a deep cut in its surface. "I think Antoine knows a lot the rest of us don't," Adam said. "But about this, I don't know. He thinks it's murder, not suicide, that's obvious. But everything else seems pretty up in the air." He shrugged. "Better safe than sorry, I guess. If you see anything weird while you're out and about, you should let him know."
"Oh, sure. I'll just page him if something looks weird. Because you know, we've got a lot of that going on around here." Bastion tapped the screen, and then made an excited noise when another monster blipped into being. He hit the screen again, picking up the phone.
"Seriously, man, you should try this. Very stress relieving, and I think that's something you need." He flicked the screen, almost holding his breath. "Fuck, stay in the fucking thing!" He flicked the screen again, dropping the phone to the tabletop as he glanced back at Adam, whose eyes had widened slightly at the outburst. "Oh, I forgot to run my business idea by you. How do you feel about candles?"
"I don't…" Adam blinked, shaking his head. It was difficult to keep up with his friend's leaps in conversation; it had been a while since Adam had seen him in this state. Still, he tried to follow, even if he could not see the threads that connected each topic (if indeed there were any at all). "I honestly have no feelings at all about candles. My sisters love them. Why do you ask?"
Bastion shrugged. "Seems like a solid idea, you know, patent it or copyright it or trademark it or whatever it is you do with ideas. Make a little extra cash, right? Women are all into those scented candles. Maybe some guys, too, I don't know, I'm not judging." He held up his hands as though pausing an internal monologue.
"OK, it goes like this. I know you're new to all this jazz, all the...I dunno, important vampire business, blah blah blah. But people wear way too much body spray these days. I mean, the other night, I had this guy who tasted like the bottom of a fucking can of Axe and it is way less appealing than the commercials make it seem."
"Even the commercials don't make it seem that appealing," Adam said. "Except the Old Spice guy, I guess. But yeah, that's true. How's a candle going to make them stop bathing in aerosol, though?"
"No, like...I was thinking, people use candles to mask other smells, right? So what about, like...a human body candle?" He leveled an imploring gaze at Adam. "You know, something that just smells like a normal person?"
More doeish blinking from the man across the table. "You lost me, buddy," Adam said. "I mean… if 'clean linen' candles sell, I guess this might. Seems a little weird, though, don't you think?"
Bastion slouched back in his seat, looking more than a little crestfallen. His eyes darted to his phone. "Yeah, I guess it's pretty equivalent to putting newspapers down before, you know, ah…" Naive to the very last, Adam furrowed his brow, pondering this new metaphor. "Anyway, besides the new ball and chain, anything else going on with you? I've got a tour here in another 20 minutes, you guys can tag along if you want." He glanced up with a questioning look.
Adam was already nodding. "Yeah, I'd like that. Literally nothing is new with me, and it's killing me. I'll listen to your whole spiel yet again to avoid going back to the hotel and sitting around, staring at the walls and the same handful of blood dolls." He glanced to Regina, his smile weak and flickering. "Maybe you can get her to come out of her shell a little. Seems like you're in a chatty mood tonight, if nothing else."
Bastion grinned widely, holding up his hands in a mimish pose.
"I live to entertain," he replied, glancing at Regina over at the bar. She had glanced back toward them, and frowned when Bastion met her gaze. Bastion flinched and looked away first. "Just promise she's not gonna hurt me or anything. Sometimes I get a little too enthusiastic."
Laughing, Adam said, "I know you do, man. But that's part of your charm. And I don't think she's gonna hurt you unless you try something first." He gestured down to Bastion's phone, already sliding out of the chair to stand. "So grab that and let's go catch some Pokemon before your tour starts. Find some cute monsters for a change..."