Apocalyptic New Beginnings

[stand_and_delivia]

Above ground? A haunted house attraction - and one which had done brisk business during the recent Hallowe'en season. Below? Ragnarok... A supernatural-friendly bar, for which the former provided the ideal disguise for whoever wished to attend.

Sometimes, there was an act booked. An act who would have to be introduced. Other times, like now, not so much. Which left the venue's four-armed entertainment manageress able to retire to a small booth off to one side. In one hand, a glass. In another, a chocolate biscuit. The lower pair idly shuffling cards, flipping them from one palm to the other.

It was the looming shadow which caused their owner to glance up.

"Hello, lovey," she greeted. British accent; not like most of those in Nevada. A little lower-class than one might expect of her, too. "What'll it be? Business or pleasure...?"

Comments

[valerie_vause]

Valerie’s first thought earlier that night, after she had scuffled with a particularly odd looking demon, was to bury him somewhere in the nearest park, but it hadn’t come to that. He’d sneezed blue mist that had taken her by surprise, more so when one of his horns fell off. Unaccustomed to that sort of thing she had blinked and tried not to laugh. So, they talked. He wasn’t actually a bad… Whatever he was, apparently he fed on embarrassment from people who were particularly clumsy. There were worse things, so in her book that made him harmless. In the spirit of parting on relatively good terms, minus a horn, he’d shared the location of a bar he frequented.

At first she’d walked off highly suspicious that it was a load of rubbish. Until her feet carried her to the location and low and behold, it was real. Ragnarok was filled with all sorts, and as Valerie took a tentative step inside, nobody so much as glared. The blonde let out a breath and found herself actually cracking a smile. In a place full of content demons she could almost feel like she belonged. Strange, but nice.

It had taken half an hour, four drinks, and a large tip to finally get the bartender to tell her the name she’d been looking for. Deanna. According to him, a fight broke out between her and another vampire a while back at one of the underground places she’d yet to discover. Valerie had felt quite pleased to know that, and for good measure, ordered another drink.

Finding her feet, drink in hand, she’d wandered through the crowd curiously, enjoying the way others seemed to interact. Sure, she’d been in bars before that catered to the demonic but they were hellish, prone to fights for the sheer sake of it. Ragnarok was entirely different. “Oh!” Valerie had been so busy leaning against the booth that she hadn’t realised it was one. “Sorry.” She said, a bit bashfully as she turned to face the woman. With an extra set of arms. If she were shocked it didn’t show, then again with the particular crowd inside the place, it wasn’t anything that unusual.

“I…” Valerie shrugged lightly, a bright smile being offered as she sat down. “I guess pleasure? Maybe business?” She grinned a little, “Lets go with the first one, it sounds better. So what do you do?” The question was genuinely curious, akin to a child asking to see a magic trick.

[valerie_vause]

“Yeah.” Valerie mused lightly, picking up her drink to take a gulp, “Just a bit of fun.”

At least, that was how she chose to look at it. Like cracking open a fortune cookie, reading the message, and ultimately scrunching it up in favour of eating the sweet treat that had encased it. What Livia had shared, or what her palms had inevitably told her, things were… Okay. No random catastrophe lurked around the corner to snuff out her existence. Rather, if there was, she could at least enjoy the ignorance of it for a little while longer.

Shoulders lifted then in a somewhat playful shrug before she fished her wallet out of her pants pocket and thumbed through some of the bills inside. She plucked up a few and slid them across to Livia with a curious look. “Does forty sound reasonable? I’m a bit new to the whole palm-reading thing, I don’t want to you know, under-pay.”