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]

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.