The Dive – Thread 1 (Near the Bar)

[rhiannon_lee]

Rhiannon ordered a domestic beer because it was cheap and leaned against a pillar by the bar, her plastic cup full to spilling. She sipped at the foam. The place was a cave. It had dark ceilings with wooden rafters, a polished concrete floor, a few tables scattered in the vicinity of the bar, and an open space by the stage where a punk band played through the third song in a short set. The walls were covered in stapled flyers advertising everything from upcoming concerts to eyebrow waxing. On one side of the venue, there was an exit leading to a fenced patio where many of the smokers congregated.

Despite its grubby appearance and smell of old beer, Rhiannon liked the Dive because it wasn’t pretentious. It was a true hole in the wall for locals.

She watched a couple of people jumping around and dancing.

[Thread: Open to anyone]

Comments

[tiny_dancer81]

"Jesus Christ, make a hole, short person coming through."

Theresa had read about The Dive in the local entertainment rag, and it sounded like the perfect place to hang out and just chill for a few hours. She had a beer in her hand because the bartender had stared blankly when she asked him if he knew how to make a margarita. She couldn't believe they didn't do mixed drinks here.

The vampire made her way along the bar, wiping a foam mustache away from her upper lip with her free hand. She bumped into a taller brunette because she'd been watching the dancers hop around like turpentined cats. Beer slopped out of her plastic cup, narrowly avoiding her shoes.

"Shit." Theresa stepped around the splatter, further into the other woman's eyeline. An icy finger, the same one she'd felt in the stalled elevator, alighted on the back of her pale neck. Fuck, not again.

[rhiannon_lee]

"Well, hey there," said Rhiannon, cup of beer raised in avoidance of a party foul. "Nice to see you, too." She smiled at the vampire, who was probably about five inches shorter than her and thus constantly in a state of looking up into people's faces. "You're in luck. I left my stake in my other pants."

Not true. But as she had assured Holly, she wasn't in the habit of busting out a medieval weapon in mixed company, especially when the vampire was drinking a beer instead of an open vein.

[tiny_dancer81]

"Heh. Ha ha."

The vampire offered a slightly foolish smile when she said it, tucked some hair behind her left ear. The cup made another trip to her mouth, left a smaller amount of foam behind. Theresa wiped it away absently. Blondie was nowhere in sight. That was an improvement from last time. She could do without two Slayers in her face.

"I didn't know you girls went anywhere unarmed," she said, taking the words at face value. Thank Christ she'd fed before coming here tonight. "I guess this is my lucky night."

[rhiannon_lee]

"Well. Technically," She made a claw-like shape of her left hand, as if demonstrating that it was a weapon all by itself. "But if I twist your head off with my bare hands, people might notice." The cold beer washed down her throat. She looked behind the brunette, as if expecting to see the redhead from the elevator. But no, this wasn't the type of place you wore silk blouses.

[tiny_dancer81]

The diminutive vampire looked over her shoulder when the Slayer did, saw no one familiar, faced forward again. Conversation was difficult when the taller woman made her want to crawl over the bar and hide behind it until she was gone. The itch was that bad.

"Waiting on someone?" she asked semi-facetiously. Did Slayers date? That was weird to think about. Theresa tried to imagine Blondie with a boyfriend. On second thought, ew. She forced her expression to flatten out to hide the distaste.

"This must be your regular place to hang out. You seem to, uh, fit in."

[rhiannon_lee]

"Never been here in my life," said Rhiannon dryly. She briefly contemplated what it meant to 'fit in' someplace that smelled and looked like this. More blue collar humor at her expense, she supposed.

"This girl told me about it. Apparently it's one of the only places to hear live music around here that isn't saturated with Elvis impersonators."

She could literally think of nothing less appealing, and she had a creative imagination.

"And no, I'm not waiting on anybody. You?"

[tiny_dancer81]

"Nope, I'm stag tonight. I just read about the place, so I figured it'd be a nice hole in the wall to spend some time in."

The mention of Elvis impersonators made Theresa think of Holly, which made her expression threaten to sour, but she controlled the urge lest the Slayer think it was her. It was not her fault that Holly had problems. The vampire would rather have open hostility than fake nice bullshit.

"I don't guess you'd want to introduce yourself, would you?" she asked. "I know we're kind of on opposite sides, but fangs aside I'm basically harmless."

[rhiannon_lee]

"Stakes aside, I'm basically harmless, too," she said. "But fangs and stakes are a big deal."

Rhiannon watched the lead guitarist attempt a knee slide, only to get caught in his amp cord. Genius.

"Anyway, I remember from the elevator," she said, pushing off the pillar. "You're Theresa. I'm Rhiannon." She finished off her beer and leaned aside to toss the cup in a trash bin. "And you should avoid that redhead at all costs. I saw you checking her out. She'll get you dusted."

[tiny_dancer81]

"She was a fox. I've always had a thing for red hair."

Theresa said it without rancor, watched the guitarist untangle himself from his instrument's cord. She wondered idly if all Slayers had a wait-and-see policy, or if there were those who killed randomly, even humans. Maybe that one girl had been the exception and not the rule.

"The music must be better than the setting suggests," the vampire told Rhiannon, noting the bare-bones decor. Then again, all bands had to get their start somewhere. At least it wasn't over-run with tourists. "I didn't know there were places in Vegas that didn't use a million watts of electricity to show that the place is open."

[rhiannon_lee]

Rhiannon acknowledged that with a quirked mouth. The Dive seemed like a place that thrived on word-of-mouth. Even the sign out front was understated. You could drive past the bar and the only clue you'd have about it was the gaggle of mohawked patrons on the sidewalk. "The best shows I've been to were in places like this," she said, tucking her hair behind her ear. "I think it's a good sign if management dumps all its money into booking bands. Although I gotta say, the bathroom could use an upgrade. I'd avoid the stall on the left, unless you're into cracked toilet seats and broken latches."

She thought about the 'fox' comment. There were times when Rhiannon wished she was temporarily blind so she wouldn't drool over every tattooed, long-haired troublemaker she saw. She definitely had a type. Cian wasn't it, and yet... As she thought about it, heat rushed onto her collarbone.

"Maybe it's time to experiment outside your type," she said, returning to the topic of sex. "Find a blonde cheerleader or something."

[tiny_dancer81]

Theresa made a noncommittal noise, sipped at her beer. She wasn't sure she had a 'type'. Men's bodies were okay in that they weren't repulsive to her, but she did prefer the softness of bellies and breasts if she wanted to feel good. If she was going to give up hooking, maybe she'd give up guys altogether. No one had to know she identified as straight.

"I am trying to turn over a new leaf," she told Rhiannon obliquely. She wasn't going to tell a Slayer what she did for money, if only because the other brunette would think it was typical. "But cheerleaders are too perky for my taste. Maybe, like, a poet or a musician. I can appreciate an artistic soul."

[rhiannon_lee]

Rhiannon was lighting a cigarette but she did a quick-take on that revelation, the slayer's cupped hand glowing orange in the low light of the venue. "Jesus," she mumbled. "Do we have the same taste in lays? I mean, genitals aside?"

She pulled the cigarette from her lips and rubbed at her eyebrow.

"Because I can speak from experience, they're rarely so artistic in bed as they are with a pen in their hand."

[tiny_dancer81]

Wow. That was even weirder to think about than the thought of a Slayer having a sex life at all. Theresa futzed with her hair with her free hand.

"I never know unless I try it, right?" she said, assuming a cheeky expression. "Girls usually know where to touch better than guys, anyway. It's a home court advantage thing."

The band currently on stage was wrapping up their set, and the crowd shifted and muttered as instruments were carried into the wings. A hole opened up, and Theresa used it to toss her empty cup into a trash can. Feedback whined through the microphone that remained, and someone with tattoos all over both arms and a braid of hair down to his leather-clad ass stepped up to it to adjust the height and blow into it.

"Next set's in ten minutes."

"Want another beer?" the vampire asked. Fuck it, why not? If they were going to discuss whether or not they had the same sexual tastes, she might as well buy Rhiannon a brew.

[rhiannon_lee]

Rhiannon took a contemplative breath. Share a beer with a vampire. Okay. It wouldn’t be the first time. She’d shared a hell of a lot more and walked away unscathed. It was always easier for her to hang around the enemy than an ally. What was with that? Well, screw it. This was no time to get reflective. “Alright.”

A DJ took over where the band left off, which kept the venue from plunging into ear-confusing silence. A track by New Order blared through the sound system. One band hauled equipment off and the next on. Local bands often didn’t have the cash to hire a bunch of roadies, so they moved their own equipment with a little assist from friends. A guy with dark, floppy hair began to set up a synth, while a lanky girl in overalls crouched next to an amp and fiddled with it.

Rhiannon headed into a gap at the bar before a restless crowd could fill it. She held their place with her body. “I would’ve jumped the fence a while ago, if I wasn’t so fascinated by men,” she said, picking up where they left off. Fascinated by her reactions to them, too. She always felt like being around them made her into a whole other person.

[tiny_dancer81]

The acceptance of Theresa's offer immediately elevated Rhiannon a notch above Blondie, who probably wouldn't accept a drink of water from her if she was dying of thirst, and she plunked rumpled bills on the bar to pay for two fresh cups of beer. Some of the crowd took to the dance floor as the DJ prepared records. The vampire offered the second cup to the Slayer, wishing for the billionth time that she wasn't so short.

"Men are all right," she said to the other brunette after her first pull. "I don't hate them or anything. But they're kind of..." How to put this politely? "I've tried both genders, and maybe I just picked the wrong guys, but they were kind of self-focused in bed. Women are trickier emotionally, harder to figure out, but most of them are kinder. Most of them."

[rhiannon_lee]

"Yeah, but it's not just about that," the Slayer said, sipping at her second drink. "Anybody can learn to be good in bed. It's about how they make you feel here." Rhiannon touched the center of her torso. She thought about the rush she felt when she met a man's eyes, or that instant before bodies joined in one of the many ways they could. "Something in their DNA. Or maybe something in mine. Anyway, you can't teach it, not to either one of us."

She elbowed her way past the newest arrivals at the bar.

[tiny_dancer81]

If Theresa said what she'd been thinking, it would have come out as crass. She was lucky if she got to enjoy the feeling of sex every now and then, and she wasn't sure vampires could make the emotional connection Rhiannon was talking about. Not that she'd ever tried, of course.

"Are, um, are relationships hard?" she blurted, because this was too weird a conversation to have not to ask. "For you, I mean. Being what...who... you are. Um..."

She couldn't say it right, and she looked down at her new beer and wished for eloquence.

[rhiannon_lee]

"Are they hard for you, being the 'what-who' you are?" Rhiannon laughed, although her question was mostly rhetorical. She flicked her cigarette down by her side. "I don't usually try. Not with anything -- family, friends, boyfriends. If you omit details, they sense it. If you lie, you're a bad person. If you tell the truth, you turn their whole world upside down and they either hate you for it, or try to pull you away from it. I don't have any patience for that."

She took a drag. "Once in a while you stumble across a person as abnormal as you are, but the pool is pretty shallow, and then you have to overlook certain things you normally wouldn't, like... sociopathic tendencies, or being an egotistical asshole. Especially the last one."

[tiny_dancer81]

"I wasn't a very nice person when I was alive."

Theresa didn't elaborate, but it was true enough. It had been partly the drugs, which had turned her into a manipulative user who'd sell out anyone if it would benefit her, but the neglect at home had started her down the path to try coke in the first place. And then she ended up the victim of Dane's whim, which had cemented her habits as certainly as if she was a fly trapped in amber. But she wasn't happy, whatever that meant, so she seemed to have reached a fork in the road.

"It must at least be nice to live without bullshit," she said to Rhiannon contemplatively, pulling back from the memory of her past self. "The relationship thing seems to mean learning to tolerate stuff, even if it's just minor annoyances. They don't talk enough. They talk too much. Wet towels on the bed. Whatever the hell."

[rhiannon_lee]

"For me, it's about making room." Rhiannon crunched her cigarette underfoot, where it joined a dozen other filters. "Being what I am, nothing else can come first. Except Peter Murphy, he could come first." The corners of her mouth quirked. She finished the second beer and watched the second band make quick work of the set-up and launch into a quick sound check. The drummer tapped relentlessly. The lead guitarist strummed a couple of cords, while the bassist plucked away at her instrument.

'Check, check, heyo.'

"You heard these guys before?" she asked. A banner for the Fraying Nerves had been unfurled behind the drum kit.

[tiny_dancer81]

Theresa looked just as the banner started to unfurl, and when she recognized Maddy on stage she grinned semi-stupidly before she could cover it up. She had bought a car the other night, a 1978 Volkswagen Beetle with thirty thousand miles on it. It had cost her nine hundred dollars. It was orange. She had named it Clarence.

A wave accompanied the stupid grin, and then she sobered her face before Rhiannon could really make note of it. She couldn't decide if the other brunette had noticed her among the throng. She needed to invest in some fucking stilts or something.

"I've heard of them, but I've never seen them live," she said, trying to salvage her cool.

[rhiannon_lee]

She didn’t see the look on Theresa’s face, but she did notice the wave and erroneously assumed the vampire was waving to someone in the crowd that she knew. “Well, I hope they’re decent,” Rhiannon said and gestured at the dance floor. “Because I’m gonna head out there. I need to move around.” It was either that or light another cigarette; she was starting to get antsy.

[tiny_dancer81]

"Yeah. I think I might do that too."

Theresa lifted her beer to her mouth and finished it off in a few quick gulps, then tossed the empty cup into the trash. She was mindful of the fact that she might get an elbow in the forehead if she went into the crush on the dance floor, but it wouldn't be any worse than dancing at the Funhouse. And after the set was over, she could try and catch Maddy backstage. She should have already put those blue streaks in her hair, just to find out how it looked.

"It was, uh, it was very weird to see you again."

[rhiannon_lee]

"You, too," Rhiannon said. "Try not to exsanguinate anybody." The slayer eased into the crowd and looked for a place to park herself with enough room to move.