On Through The Night

[RendertheVoid]

Violet rested her elbows on the bar top, the aged wood of the bar was stained in numerous places, the young woman could only wonder what those stains could have been. Throwing back another shot, the liquor burned her throat, taking the chill of the night away. She had decided that she would drink here for a while longer, then go upstairs to the room she had been staying in for the last two weeks. Though her funds were starting to run short, she would be out on her ass soon enough.

"Did you hear the news? They found another body." A voice from the far side of the room said in hushed tones.

"I didn't just hear the news, I saw the crime scene!" Another drunken slur. Violet's brows narrowed, her head turned slightly to look in their direction.

"Well what was it like?"

"I didn't see much of it, but there was no blood."

"No blood?"

"Yeah, it was like the guy was.... Just empty. Literally. I'll never drink enough to get that image out of my mind."

Violet's face screwed up in disgust, who could do such a thing? That didn't sound like a normal murder that was for sure. The young woman started stacking up the shot glasses like a tower.

"Shot glass forts, eh girl?" Violet looked up at the rugged bartender, Ruby was her name, she was nearing 50 years old and was a legend around these parts. Apparently she had a whole arsenal of weapons in the pub somewhere.

Violet nodded. "Ah, yeah." She chuckled. "Can I get a few more?" Violet put down a note on the table and watched Ruby pour her more shots.

 

[Daffu]

To say that Asphodel was annoyed was an understatement. He was downright upset, angry about the turn of events the last several weeks had taken, and it was, in turn, taking all of his own self-control not to grit his teeth as he pushed the door of the bar open. An initial, wide look around the room offered him no real information, and he desisted in his attempt quite swiftly, instead making his way to where the bartender was serving a random girl.

The small snippets of conversation did not go unnoticed to him, and it was then his self control finally cracked, forcing him to grit his teeth and bite his tongue in a conscious effort not to growl out loud, both in frustration and anger. As he took his seat by the girl, ordering himself up a glass of brandy to calm his nerves, he turned his head slightly to the right; an obvious movement so he could keep the two talking drunkards within earshot. Sometimes, Asphodel had difficulty figuring out who were worse; humans or the supernatural beings that populated the earth unbeknownst the former. Most of the time, his money was on the humans; today, it was actually on the supernatural beings and the apparent sense of superiority.

While he'd obviously kept ties with his own community, when he'd retired... he'd not particularly expected to be called back in. Specially not because there was some rebel, rogue something or other killing humans about in the most annoyingly obvious ways he or she could muster, in his particular neighborhood. Of all the neighborhoods, in all the cities in all the countries of the world, this jackass, whomever they were, had picked his. This made it impossible for him to turn down the request he'd received to track down and either turn in, or eliminate the perpetrator of such crimes.

He hadn't expected this to be an easy task, given he was woefully out of practice, having retired from his previous duties a handful of years ago, having only wished to remain alone and unperturbed, surrounded by books and a nice, warm fireplace. Yet, this asshole was actually turning out to be horribly hard to pin point and track; they rarely left evidence, and aside the blood draining, he had no idea where to even start looking for the identity of the perpetrator; blood loss in a victim was, after all, not a lot to go on. Just with that much information, the predator could range anywhere, from a Glaistig to a Vampire.

He was straining so hard to hear the conversation that when his glass of brandy arrived, he forgot to make eye contact with both bartender and glass, which in turn... caused his hand to knock the glass right on over when he reached for it.

Apparently today was simply not his day. In all honesty, it hadn't particularly been his month to start with.

 

[RendertheVoid]

The front door squeaked open and for a brief moment Violet could hear the torrential downpour from outside. She turned her head slightly to make very brief eye contact with the stranger. He took a spot beside her, and Violet looked back down at her own collection of shot glasses. The stranger ordered a glass of brandy, and as it was being brought to him, he knocked it out of Ruby's hand, the glass tipped and spilled all over Violet's jeans, thankfully they were black, but they would smell now. A frown settled on Violet's face as she looked down at the spill.


Violet didn't say anything, only stayed silent for a few moments, then she spoke, resting her gaze on the newcomer, she hadn't seen him around here before, and when she actually had a house and a job, she was a regular here.

"You know... if that was anyone else, you would get your ass kicked." She told the stranger, arching a brow at him. It was a little annoying, but she did have a room here so she could just go get changed.

"Be glad it's just me."

 

[Daffu]

Asphodel's breath hissed through his gritted teeth, his free hand coming up to pinch the bridge of his nose as he closed his eyes and counted backwards, from ten to one in an attempt to calm his frazzled nerves; nothing was going his way today, and it was really starting to upset him. When he finally lowered his hand and opened his eyes, the woman sitting beside him had begun to talk, which forced him to at least acknowledge her somewhat. As such, he politely turned to face her and took a moment to eye her up and down before he returned his gaze to her eyes, "Are you quite finished?" the words were drawled at her after she finished her silly, little idle threat, "I had been planing on apologizing for my clumsiness, but I don't think you warrant any apologies, given your attitude, miss," his eyes narrowed down for a moment, red and strange as he locked his gaze with hers, "Still, being polite goes a long way, and thus I apologize, but I also warn you to be careful who you aim that sharp little tongue of yours at."

He made show of motioning towards the two drunkards, still talking in the background, "After all, these are terrible times we live in, wouldn't you agree?" Asphodel then turned towards the bartender, narrowed his eyes, and swiftly dug a hand into his pocket to fish out a bit of money. Slipping it on the counter, he then lowered himself from his place on the bar; this place was a waste of his precious time. And it smelled nasty; which was saying something, coming from someone that had worked hand in hand with Death for many years.

He shoot the girl one last cold look before pushing himself back out under the rain. One strange thing about the man was probably noticeable; he'd walked into the bar without an umbrella, and yet he'd been perfectly dry. And now... he walked back out into the pouring rain, completely unperturbed, and still without any sort of umbrella to be seen.

 

[RendertheVoid]

Violet was a little taken aback, it was true, she could have worded it better. But that was a bit of a difficulty for her, Violet often had trouble putting sentences together properly and often people would get the wrong idea. She furrowed her brows at him, not wanting to escalate anything further, (Violet was good at that) She quickly finished off the remainder of her shots as she watched the strange character walk back out again.

"He hadn't paid for that, the bastard." Ruby said through gritted teeth. "No matter, if he comes back I'm sure he'll be open to negotiation."

"He took what I said the wrong way and didn't even give me time to apologize." Violet childishly pouted, she always liked to make amends, and if there was no exchange of apologies, Violet would feel guilty about it until it was settled, that was just the way she was.

"Don't worry about it darlin'." Ruby gave her a warm smile, which was unusual for the aging redhead. Ruby had grown up around here and she was a bit of a rough sort. In her teenage hood she had suffered a terrible incident which ended up developing some kind of superhuman ability, and Ruby utilized that, turning her into a local legend of sorts. People looked at her with both fear and admiration. Violet never really had the chance to witness this, however. She had only met her a few months ago, and Ruby didn't do that kind of stuff anymore, running around being a vigilante. She just tended to her bar, and she was pretty happy doing that.

Violet wondered what it would be like to have a place to belong. Her eyes turning somewhat darker, she turned her saddened gaze to the ancient woodwork of the bar top, running her fingernail through the little gaps in the wood. Eventually Violet stood up and wandered around the back, where the rooms were. Almost tripping and falling back down, Violet eventually made it up the old wooden steps that led up to the row of rooms. Fishing around in her pocket for the key, Violet almost had trouble putting it in the lock. Sucking in a breath of air, Violet's half-closed eyes looked around her room. She was definitely drunk and she could pass out right about now. But she wasn't tired. Frowning again at the now drying stain on her jeans, Violet decided to shower and then go out for a walk. The rain had finally stopped so she would take her chance before it started again, she had an umbrella, but misplaced it somewhere.


Violet loved the smell of rain. She hugged herself around the waist as her jacket wasn't really enough and her long dark hair was still wet. Stupid. Should have dried my hair first. She chided herself as her eyes looked about her surroundings. It was dark and unsafe around here, Violet didn't really know what possessed her to come out here, drunken thoughts would be the better reason for it. No matter, she continued onward, Violet really had no regard for her own safety, it wasn't like she didn't care about herself, she was just a bit of a scatterbrain. Often getting herself into trouble or hurting herself. Violet couldn't remember much of her childhood for some reason, but she has images of being small in a hospital, all the time. For a little while, Violet thought that she was visiting someone, family perhaps? But she soon remembered that she was the patient, the little wristband with her name on it was clear in Violet's head when she thought about it.

Violet thought she heard shuffling behind her, but when she turned her head, there wasn't anything there. She began to feel a little anxious, she was oblivious but not that oblivious. She didn't like hearing things moving around in the darkness. The thought of heading back crossed her mind, but it would be stupid of her to turn around and walk in the direction she heard the noise. So against her gut, she pressed on. Her steps noticeably quicker, every now and again she would hear something scratching along the walls, or a deep, distant growl. Eventually, Violet broke into a run, mentally cursing herself for going out this late now that she had begun to sober up, but, still being drunk, she was even more clumsier than she normally would be sober. She did fall, but quickly got back up, determined to escape whatever was now chasing her, it was apparent, she could hear something in the sky, like massive wings, and a high-pitched cry filled her ears, her eyes widened in surprise when she looked up, she could see it now.

It had the figure of a naked woman, but there were no defined features, it was like her skin was made from rubber, and it was a dull grey color. The wings were about the same, though Violet could see through the thin skin, she could almost see each individual vein in the creature's wings.

Violet was, again, lost in thought as she stared up at the creature, or maybe it had hypnotized her, and the winged-woman swooped down.