Night On The Town

[Existentially Odd]

(Continued from \'Moving On Up\')

Kerr walked Ash all the way past the bouncers, through the entrance tunnel, past the private room passageway and to the middle of the club proper before he stopped and allowed the younger vampire to look around.  His thumbs hooked into his front pockets as he surveyed the place he\'d come to regard as \'his\' domain (along with about a thousand other people, of course), eyes narrowed as he tried to see it through his companion\'s eyes - for the first time.

It wasn\'t overly crowded tonight, no band was playing so there weren\'t too many more than the dedicated dancers up on the main dance floor and stage area, bumping and grinding sinuously to the throbbing music.  The lights flashed impressively no matter how many patrons were in the place and there was the requisite amount of debauched drinking and pairing going on in a few booths and some of the corners - enough to pique the interest and stimulate the appetite for such things, certainly.

He found that his appetite was a little \'whetter\' than he would have liked, thanks to Ash\'s choice of outfit but, again, he was doing his damndest to not think about it.  After he\'d rushed out of the penthouse apartment, he\'d hurriedly showered and done his bit to dress up, too, though he was being fairly understated tonight - black biker boots beneath light blue jeans that were tight at the top and slightly flared at the bottom with a tight white skivvy tucked into them.  He had his black leather necklace with the silver arrowhead tied around his throat and a normal black belt through his jeans loops with an extra black one with silver studs around his pelvis purely for decoration.

It was his final garment that made him stand out and it had drawn comment from Ash already (but he\'d known it would).  It was, ostensibly, a black vest, buttoned with three differently sized and coloured (blue, yellow and red) buttons from his sternum to his belly.  What made it different was that it was also part robe; the lapels squared off and formed a straight line across his belt line, before continuing from his hips down to his ankles.  There was a split at the back that went to his ass but the material overlapped so it wasn\'t always seen even when he walked; it was like a waistcoat with coat tails that went all the way around his back to the centre of each leg.

\'Skirt\' was another describer that could be used, if one was attempting to be derogatory, but when he moved, the thick, heavy material moved like the tails of a sheriff\'s coat in an old western, looking a little dangerous and quite mysterious (to Kerr).  It inspired his open-legged, pelvis-attending stance, with his thumbs hooked and his fists pushing the lapels back a little more to reveal his blue jeans.  He grinned as he looked down at Ash, the scents causing his mouth to water already.

"Welcome to Risk.  Don\'t kill, play nice, choose wisely and you and this place will get on splendidly," he quipped.

[Malkavian Riddler]

He\'d noticed the appreciative looks Kerr had thrown his way early on, and he\'d given the elder vampire some of his own, first with a ribbing about the waistcoat but then he\'d had to admit he liked it, figuring it was only fair to offer up the truth after a joke.

What he wore was a great deal simpler; cowboy boots with spurs so he jangled as he walked, stressed denim jeans that fit tight around his buttocks and thighs but flared out for a boot cut, a very tight - almost painted - black cotton t-shirt that defined his muscles, and an unbuttoned short sleeved shirt over the top, cream with navy pinstripes.  At his throat he wore a silver chain that ended with a bead holding two small red feathers.  He\'d started off the night wearing a thick black leather coat that ended at his ankles, but he\'d left it in the car.  For him to walk in wearing that while Kerr was wearing his bit of oddity would look like a poor attempt at upstaging him, so he\'d given his friend his dues and folded his coat into the passenger seat.

"Choose wisely?" Ash repeated, still looking around the club at all the delicacies already propositioning him with hunted gazed and liquid body posture.  "Even the bad choices look fun," he said, though this was more to himself.  He knew Kerr would hear, and likely comment, but he didn\'t care, he was still eyeing off which way he wanted to go.  Risk looked entirely more promising than the other clubs at Hollywood, including his own.  They were too much directed at the mortals and keeping all vampiric activities in the background.  It made so much more sense to have everything out in the open.  More sense, and a great deal more arousing, to all of his senses, not just his vampiric ones.

"The smell," he said shortly, for there was a thick scent of blood and sweat in the air, and underlying that, wafts of sex both past and present, of spent juiced and lingering perfumes, of alcohol and pheremones, a heady aroma that awakened a wilder side of him.  "Oh, Ash is going to be a bad boy tonight," he said with a grin, and turned that deviant smile to Kerr, hoping to see it mirrored in the other.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr laughed, his adam\'s apple bobbing noticeably when his head tilted back slightly.  "Yes, but don\'t be too bad; be especially careful with the tattooed ones.  They\'re protected by the club\'s owners and you don\'t want to be banned on your first visit now, do you?" he chuckled, having lifted his hands away from his hips in order to point at his wrist, where Ash would see the Risk mark on some mortals.

"Oh, and there\'s something you should see," he hissed conspiratorially, stepping close to his friend so that he could speak close to his ear while he grabbed hold of his upper arm to steer him.  The move only lasted a few steps, whereby he moved past the younger vampire and was, in essence, towing him by the arm, but a short while after that it seemed awkward and he dropped his hold.  it wasn\'t like Ash wasn\'t following him, anyway.

He led him back to the corridor for the private rooms, indicating the hole that was the stairs down to the mortal recovery room as they passed that.  "Down there, they can get food or drinks after you\'re done with them.  sometimes you have to carry them down but most regulars know what\'s what and can take care of themselves.  And these are where the fun can happen - if you choose not to be a complete exhibitionist and do it out in the club or take them back to your place, that is," he grinned, pausing in the first doorway and flicking back the gauzy curtain that constituted the entrance, in an effort to get Ash to have a look inside.

He would move on down the line and do the same thing to all the empty rooms if his companion would follow, just so he saw that not every room was furnished the same way.

[Malkavian Riddler]

"Nice setup," Ash murmured upon seeing the stairs disappearing to end at a tiled floor and smelling the sweet odour of puddings - perhaps there was a bain marie setup keeping the food fresh and hot.  Free buffet to those who needed their energy returned after their blood was sapped.  Clever.  Look after those who looked after the main clients - the vampires themselves.  It seemed that these mortals weren\'t familiars or paid pets either - that they were loose and understanding, that they were willing to please anyone that could slake their thirst with them.  How interesting.

He was happy to follow Kerr further in, and was interested in seeing that each partitioned area was different.

"Bet you\'ve had some fun back here," Ash mused, then remembered belatedly that Kerr had been with his fledgling, Ben, until fairly recently.  He clapped Kerr on the shoulder and added; "Seems you and I have some picking up to do."  A sideways glance when there was a thick moan coming from behind one of the occupied curtains had him stifling a giggle.  He gestured with his head for Kerr to follow him back out into the main area.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr raised his eyebrows as he followed Ash back out to the dance area.  "Don\'t think we\'ll find our mystery lady here, tonight," he mused as they rounded the final wall and were hit anew with a wave of sound.  He was distracted by a black-booted, red-vinyl-wearing blonde with her hair in pony tails and sucking on a lollipop looking Ash over as she strolled by.  It made him laugh again, the irony thick.  "But you never know!" he joked, his gaze lifting.

"Oh.  And there\'s something else I need to show you, too," he mused slyly, looking at Ash and jerking his head in the direction of the stairs set into the wall at the back of the room.  "A perk of the job.  Come on," he encouraged and again stepped ahead of the younger vampire.  He wove them a neat path through the crowd, parting the way with his breadth moreso than his station - but the dragon tattoo on his neck peeked out of his collar and drew a few stares (though he always felt that, whether it was true or not, simply because he was self conscious about his station).

When he got to the top of the stairs, he smiled at the bouncer, half expecting he\'d be turned away - even though the Sacramentum had had two meetings with him for diplomacy\'s sake, he still didn\'t feel welcome in the club.  It was like they... were reserving judgment.  Or perhaps just keeping to themselves, he could never be sure but told himself not to be paranoid.  Either way, the bouncer opened the door to the Topaz Lounge and allowed he and his guest entrance.  "This is the Topaz Lounge," he told Ash, his voice far more hushed as he stopped just inside the doorway.

[Malkavian Riddler]

Ash was pleased to be taken to yet another ace up Kerr\'s sleeve, not oblivious to the fact Kerr was parting the crowd like Moses had done the Red Sea.  He didn\'t bother analysing it any further, following the Irishman up the stairs and interested in the way Kerr made his much softer announcement.  Ash peered in then screwed his nose up as he turned back to face Kerr.

"That\'s starting to look more like my place," he said, thinking of the Asp Club, and not realising he hadn\'t really told Kerr about the nightclub that was Isaac\'s gift to him after he was unable to act in movies.  "I like downstairs better.  It\'s more us."

There was something about the Topaz Lounge he\'d immediately sensed and hadn\'t liked.  It smelled of lingering Ancients.  Likely Kerr knew and was used to that smell, because he knew the club and the Lounge, and was expecting it.  Ash was always a great deal more suspicious of the elders, for they didn\'t seem to be quite right in the head after spending so long on the earth.  Isaac was old, but hadn\'t lost the plot yet, he simply seemed much more refined, but whatever usually lurked in the Topaz lounge was old enough to give him the chills and he didn\'t particularly want to meet with it face to face.

He made a quick retreat downstairs, and gestured at the bar.  "How about you show me that?" he suggested, happier now that they were both downstairs in the club proper.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr was baffled by the words \'my place\' but followed the younger vampire out of the Topaz Lounge placidly enough, feeling cool and rather chuffed at both being seen with Ash and also having him label something as communally \'theirs\'.  It felt... good.  It felt really good, and had him smiling for no real reason, in a way that wouldn\'t be wiped off his face easily.

"That," he began rather pompously, "is a bar where you can order your favourite blood type - or a mixer - in hot or cold or anything between, for a very reasonable fee, should you not find anything you, uh, like," he laughed, as he was momentarily cut off from Ash by a five foot tall man wearing leather chaps around his hairy ass, a leather vest and cap, holding his own studded leash (until he found someone better to do it for him, Kerr could only suppose).

As they got to the bar, the Irishman settled himself on a stool, grinning at his handsome companion.  "Which happens more often than you\'d think, if your standards are as high as mine," he announced airily, momentarily closing his eyes as he pressed a hand to his chest, to reinforce his high standards by literally sticking his nose in the air.  Of course, the fact that he\'d been scared of drinking from a live mortal after centuries of witnessing his sire\'s and his fledglings\' debauchery didn\'t seem an appropriate thing to cross his lips just then; it was easier to stick with the appearance of snobbery.

He opened his eyes almost immediately afterwards though, too interested in seeing Ash\'s reaction to stay ignorant.

[Malkavian Riddler]

"My standards aren\'t very high at all," Ash retorted with a grin, even though they were higher than most.  It was a fun comment, he thought, to play against Kerr\'s \'straight man\' routine.  He had a feeling though, that his standards probably were a great deal lower than the others.

As they walked to the bar, he pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his inside shirt pocket (the button up one) and opened it up to reveal three cigarettes left within and a cheap lighter.  Pulling one out, he glanced at Kerr as he put it into his mouth about the same time as he selected a stool to perch on, and gestured towards him with the packet.

There was an instinct in him that Kerr would refuse, and another, grudging instinct, that Kerr might even ask him not to light up.  Or that he couldn\'t, in this club.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr\'s nose wrinkled with disgust as he looked from the cigarette pack to the one in Ash\'s mouth and then into his eyes.  "Speaking of standards," he said with exaggerated loudness, "those things are disgusting.  These lips never touch lips that touch those things," he said imperiously, not really considering the implications of such an innocent statement.

[Malkavian Riddler]

He chewed on the comment, considering the implications that Kerr hadn\'t bothered to think about, pulled an expression that screamed his resentment and then plucked the cigarette out of his mouth and secreted it away back into the packet before hiding the packet back into his shirt pocket.

"I smoke a lot, not that it gives me a buzz anymore, so I don\'t know why I bother," he said, all but telling Kerr he might as well give up. Perhaps it was because Kerr had told him he hadn\'t approved in a fashion Ash liked. Isaac would outright tell him not to smoke, whilst Kerr hadn\'t asked him to - he\'d simply outlined his opinion of them and what Ash couldn\'t hope to achieve.

Funny, the thought hadn\'t crossed his mind to lay his lips on Kerr, nor was it crossing his mind now, but the other had enough influence on Ash for him to put the things away.

"I\'m guessing you don\'t drink from smokers, drunks or addicts either?" he tried, hoping that Kerr\'s standards didn\'t go this far and that he didn\'t go past alcohol-infused blood.

High standards indeed.

The bartender came their way and he put in an order before Kerr answered, though looked back at the elder after their orders were taken, interested in his response.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr\'s lips twisted bitterly as the memory of he and Ben drinking from drunken Englishman and then falling giddily over one another surfaced; ah the bittersweet pangs of being the only one with a memory of love.

"Not addicts, no, and very rarely from drunks," he conceded, his expression turning into a sad smile without his permission.  "It depends on my mood, where I am, if I feel comfortable about indulging.  I, uh, can\'t really afford to be seen stumbling around this place," he admitted, glancing around the club from beneath his lashes, giving the impression that he felt he was always being watched - and he did, whenever he was here, for there was always someone who recognised him - before he looked back at Ash, "plus, I\'m a bit of a control freak anyway, so... "  He trailed off into a shrug, letting his companion draw his own conclusions.

He glanced back at the bar as Ash\'s blood was delivered; he hadn\'t ordered anything because he wasn\'t young enough to need it every night and if he drank tonight, he\'d prefer it be from a soft neck - or even an inner thigh.  He certainly wouldn\'t say no to that.

[Malkavian Riddler]

Ash grinned at Kerr\'s \'control freak\' declaration and lifted his glass to his friend in a salut before drinking from it, not taking his time with it.  He was finished in a few big swallows, and set the glass back down on the bar before wiping his lips with his wrist and then checking that there wasn\'t a droplet or three there before setting it back down on his own thigh, both hands resting on a thigh each and making him look very casual as he checked out the club.

"We\'ll have to do something to challenge that," he said, not looking at Kerr, but responding to the last comment made.  "That\'s a nice piece," he said, his stare finding a superb looking redhead that Kerr likely recognised.  She either felt the stare or it was blind luck that had her turning her head and looking his way - then at the both of them.  Ash grinned at her, invitingly, he hoped.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr followed Ash\'s gaze, his interest piqued by the enthusiasm... but he had to chuckle when his gaze fell on Carly.  She was a lovely piece and his gaze roved over her with interest as she looked at them looking at her, but he knew that she was far too good a girl to interest Ash - especially if he was in the mood to be \'bad\'.

"Very," he agreed, nodding and then turning to face Ash with a secretive grin.  "Her name\'s Carly, would you like me to introduce you?" he queried, implying heavily that he and the redhead had intimate knowledge of one another, even if it was completely false.  It was enough of a challenge laid down to Ash, he believed.

[Malkavian Riddler]

Ash heard the knowing tone and did a half-turn on the stool in order to look at Kerr directly, attempting to read his expression and figure out how much the other vampire knew of the nice young thing Ash had pointed out.  It made sense, of course, that Kerr would\'ve had a go at the better class of Risk-goer.

"So she\'s met your standards then," he said, before turning back to smile at Carly once again, though pensively this time.  "Go on, then.  Take me to her."

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr chuckled, slapping Ash on the back good-naturedly as he got to his feet.  "That she has," he agreed, nodding as he walked towards the lovely redhead at a sedate pace.  With a final sly grin at his companion, they arrived at their target and Kerr couldn\'t help but play up his part.  He slid a hand around Carly\'s slim waist and leaned down to kiss her cheek.

"Good evening," he murmured near the mortal\'s ear as he withdrew, smiling at her with twinkling eyes.  "Carly, I\'d like you to meet a friend of mine, Ash," he introduced gallantly, withdrawing his touch from her and stepping back slightly to allow the pair to greet one another.