David was worried, as he approached the club, but he was doing his best not to show it. He'd heard rumours about the city over the past two weeks... that the Oligarchy was no more, that there were districts and leaders or some shit... that things weren't as they had been. He didn't know what to make of it and he'd kept his head down, walking the streets and picking up on peoples' thoughts as he drank from them, scanning crowds for unseeable auras so that he might gravitate towards supernaturals and make up excuses to converse with them. Not all had known anything, a few had known something and some had known enough to leave him completely unsettled and needing to know more.
Tonight, he decided he needed to find out for himself. He'd been something of a hermit when he wasn't hunting down rumours, though he'd been calling his sire more often and discussing training his powers with him. At first, Darius had brushed him off, impatient with him as always, but when he'd shared the secret Cicero had given him and explained how the spark had re-ignited his passion for learning to hone his talents, his sire had started listening. They'd even had a conversation that had lasted almost ten minutes.
Despite what a positive step talking to his sire was, it had also made David feel lonelier. His visit tonight would be twofold, for he hadn't spent any time with anyone since he'd taken Bill to his place nearly three weeks ago. He wasn't sure why. He'd checked his phone more often than he usually did too, to be sure he hadn't missed any calls or messages, to no avail. This visit was just what he needed to get everything straight with regard to the city's rumours as well as cure his loneliness for a while.
Dressed in black trousers, shiny black dress shoes, a white button-up business shirt (with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and the top three buttons undone), black suspenders and a jaunty black
fedora with a short brim upturned at the back and positioned suavely over his right eye, David strolled up to the entrance of Risk. His hair was pulled back into a pony tail with a black leather cord at his nape. There wasn't a line up outside the club tonight, which surprised him, as did the fact that the meaty bouncers usually positioned at the door weren't there. There were two vampires there instead, casually chatting with one another as he approached.
He hesitated and they stopped talking, looking at him as if they expected he had something to say, since
he'd stopped to look at them. An awkward silence ensued before one of them told him he could go on in, he was welcome and David decided they probably weren't the ones to ask what was going on, anyway. He pressed ahead, walking straight towards the inner entrance of the club, thinking he should stop and review the laws posted when he was distracted by someone hovering in the doorway. She rivalled
him in the fashion stakes tonight, causing him to slow as he approached, looking at her somewhat warily.
Jeanne was aware of the young vampire before he even entered the club's entryway, but it didn't alter her position. She remained where she was, casually leaning her right shoulder against the inner doorway to the club proper, her hands in her pockets and her right foot crossed over her left. She currently had blonde hair extensions that fell to just below her shoulders and it was styled in a perfectly smooth nineteen-forties style with a distinctive curl at the end and a fringe pinned in a sweep back to the right, held in place with a clip sporting a tiny pink bow. In fact, she was wearing a dark brown pants suit reminiscent of
Katharine Hepburn from the same era, though it was fitted and she had a shimmering satin camisole beneath it in a light pink colour, rather than a shirt. Her pale white skin shone almost as radiantly above it, the sleek lines of her collarbone and throat adding to her regal aspect as she watched the handsome blonde walk towards her.
He stopped before her, a frown marring his forehead and she straightened off the wall, her dark red high-heeled Mary Janes bringing her a little closer to his greater height, though her hands remained in her pockets. She watched him expectantly, sweeping his mind in a manner that he wouldn't feel, seeing that he had many questions but not feeling obligated to answer any of them for him, unless he asked. He stared at her perfectly-arranged face, observing the heavy-lidded stare he was getting with some admiration, feeling the age of her though she looked as fresh as a twenty year old. An eternal twenty year old.
"Things have changed," he hinted.
Jeanne smiled lazily, the left side of her mouth lifting and producing a dimple in that cheek. "That is true, but we're still here, still open for business," she told him in her smokey tones, her accent making the words sound mysterious even though she wasn't trying to be.
"Rumour has it that the Oligarchy's gone," he said and when she nodded pointedly at the wall behind him, he turned. The old Oligarchy rules had been changed to district laws and declarations that took him some time to read through, a feeling of dread settling in his gut as he looked it all over. He didn't read in-depth, but saw enough to understand that things had definitely changed. Another advertisment caught his eye and he spun on his heel to look at the woman again. "Risk is
moving?"
Her red lips twisted, like she was disappointed with his parlay. "Indeed," she murmured, smiling coldly as her hands emerged from her pockets and produced a colourful advertisement that she held out to him. Once he took it, her arms crossed beneath her breasts, elegant hands grasping her biceps loosely.
He read it and saw that Risk was moving to a new site at the end of September and taking on a new name: Venture. At the bottom of the pamphlet it told him that he, as the bearer of the document, was entitled to the use of VIP donors for one night once the new club was opened.
That intrigued him, for he'd never had a chance to see inside the exclusive areas in
this club but he'd always wondered what went on in there. What made a VIP donor different to the riff raff? He could only imagine.
"You're free to go in," Jeanne prompted while the blonde stood there reading and thinking his transparent thoughts, relieved when he took the hint and walked past her with a nod. She turned to watch him go, seeing that he pocketed the advertisement carefully as he moved into the club proper. With a sigh, she went back to leaning against the doorway, staring into the club and hoping there'd be some genuine distractions soon.
David found the club a little underpopulated tonight, though it was no quieter for having less bodies to squeeze between. He went to the bar and got himself a glass of blood to nurse, finding somewhere to sit more easily than usual. He decided to stay there, perched on a stool, and watch what was going on. His usual arrogant stare was replaced by a far more critical one as he leaned his elbow back on the edge of the bar and watched for signs of the changes he now knew were in the air.
