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Post by Zuyuri on May 31, 2017 21:53:29 GMT
The night's new drink was called 'Bad Blood'. Cruella was beaming as the bustiered girls trailed from the bar and back. She was reclining at the crimson velvet seat, her trademark cigarette holder twirling in her fingers. The night was going smoothly. The moans of pleasure in the curtained upper rooms, the laughter of people at the tables, and the rattling of heels on the dance floor. What could go wrong?
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Post by skyeknight on May 31, 2017 22:27:32 GMT
Axel was furious. He left his bar in a storm. He made a good honest living for his workers at his bar. They were always happy. They were always paid on time even if it meant he didn't have a lot for himself (on bad weeks). He gave a lot of people from rough situations a chance to make something for themselves. Make a better lives for themselves! So it frustrated him when he got word that one of his girls was working part time at Mina. After what happened with Anna, he might have chewed Chloe out but that didn't mean he wanted her working at Mina. He knew what sort of viper's den the bar was.
He seated himself dead center at the bar. The old crone would come find him. It was, after all, hard to miss him. He might not be able to get Chloe out of Mina but he would be damned if he let Cruella take any more of his workers. He waved over the bartender and asked for the special of the night. Bad blood. The irony wasn't lost on him. It tasted like despair. He pushed the drink away in disgust.
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Post by Zuyuri on May 31, 2017 23:00:08 GMT
Cruella's dark eyes narrowed. How dare that...that hothead show his face around here? He disappeared when she had let him go, and thought that was the last she saw of him. He had been good, protecting the pack from drunkards. Instead he ran off, even with her giving a good reference. She puffed her cigarette lightly, asking, "Too bloody for your type, darling?"
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Post by skyeknight on Jun 1, 2017 15:21:17 GMT
"Most drinks come with a warning label." he said.
He peered over at his former employer. Not much had changed since he left. Except that he finally hit that growth spurt, got taller and actually cleaned up his behavior. If he had stayed with her, he knew he probably would have been in prison or doing some shady things on her behalf. Good thing his loyalty to her only went as deep as his pocketbooks. It was only through the money he scraped together working for her that he was able to afford his own bar after all.
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Post by Zuyuri on Jun 1, 2017 16:26:18 GMT
Cruella ignored the poke at the bartender. Note to self; make her pack try to take bartending classes. Also, when creating a drink, make sure the title didn't actually betray the contents, or, make a version that applied to other clients. She stood up, a pale figure amod elegant mini furs, a nod to her dual heritage. As if her hair wasn't the same. "Tell me, how is your little gig at the Bourbon doing?"
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Post by skyeknight on Jun 2, 2017 13:38:49 GMT
"Didn't know we were on friendly enough terms to start talking shop," Axel bit back.
When she stood, so did Axel. He wasn't about to just let her go when he had things on his mind. He fished out his wallet before he threw some cash on the counter to cover the disgusting drink. It would probably end up down the drain or given to some vamp who needed a pick me up but wasn't picky about how they got it. He might not have liked the drink, but he wasn't about to stiff the bartender his pay just because they fixed him a lousy drink. He knew sometimes drunk customers could make or break a bartender's night. He wasn't drunk but he wasn't about to have the bartender suffer for that.
"But if we're going to start, how about we go with why you're strong arming my girls into joining your little cult... Wait, you prefer the term pack, don't you? My bad."
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Post by Zuyuri on Jun 2, 2017 15:56:45 GMT
Cruella's lips curled upward. But despite the smile, she was inwardly seething. Axel had some nerve coming here to insult the very work she had started. The curled lips pulled back to a sneer. Despite Cruella's smoking habits, they were a pristine white. Those teeth parted, and out omitted a loud, diabolical cackle.
"Cult?!" She repeated amid laughs. Yes, Axel corrected himself, but the word was still heard.
"The only god we worship is life itself." She stopped laughing to glance at the discarded drink, and the money haphazardly thrown down. A penny was spinning before falling to the other side of the bar. "As for your girls, the choice is theirs. I wouldn't call it arming so much as I am...giving them a suggestion."
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Post by skyeknight on Jun 2, 2017 17:16:36 GMT
"Maybe I'm misremembering. I thought the only thing your pack worshiped was you." he said.
His sarcasm might have been lost on her, but every word was laced with a barb. He smirking face wanted him to light her coat on fire. Watch her scream and rage as she tried to get out of the blazing fabric. But that was him before he left Mina - the one who gave into the baser nature of his demon instincts, who relished in the pain and anguish of others and wouldn't blink twice before setting a woman on fire. He wasn't that person now, but really, what was stopping him? He didn't have friends. The one he thought he had left because he thought her science experiment was a bad idea. Tossed aside at the drop of a hat.
"Stay away from my girls." Axel said.
Now that was a threat. He already broke his flameless streak for Anna - to protect her from men worse than he was. It would be so easy to break it again. In fact, his streak had gone on since the day he left Mina. No one would really be surprised if he took a building with him considering he had gone a year and a half without fire. Especially a building laced with flammables, everywhere. It was a recipe for disaster. He flirted with that same danger at his bar, but it beat being a bouncer. Literally. The city would be better off without the likes of Cruella and he was a man with nothing to lose. No one would miss him, if he were gone.
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Post by Zuyuri on Jun 2, 2017 20:49:38 GMT
"Or what? You roast this entire city to the ground? I think an angry donut dunker beat you to that."
Axel's flames were a danger. And Cruella knew it. She couldn't risk something she had worked so hard from her mother's inheritance go up in flames. Literally. He had been good when he started out forget. But like a coward, he had fled. She didn't need him, nor did she need him on the brink of harassing her.
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Post by skyeknight on Jun 3, 2017 2:31:03 GMT
"Nah, not the entire city." he shrugged.
He wouldn't burn the entire city. The entire city didn't deserve to be incinerated under his rage. Just a few parts here and there. But he'd gladly take out Mina with him. He just needed one bad day to push him to that edge. Though, if he wanted to fight business with business, he could also go a more legal route. Cops often frequented his establishment, because he had good beer and a good listening ear. They knew him. They would believe him if he said they should check out Mina and he still knew some of the dirty little secrets Cruella didn't want anyone to know.
"Besides, I know people. The cops like coming to my bar. One word from me and they can make things real bad for your 'business.'"
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Post by Zuyuri on Jun 3, 2017 3:15:26 GMT
Oh, good. The entire city wouldn't feel the insufferable wrath Axel couldnt; control when upset. Of course, Cruella didn't say it out loud, but oh, did she want to. However, business was business. She had covered up accidents with the police before, and her life burning to the ground killing thousands of innocents...although dying while making love was a much more pleasant death...that would be too big of a mess for even her and her pack to clean up. She siwlred her cigarette holder, shaking the ashes off of the now burnt out stub.
"You have the cops, I have the cops' little advocates in my pocket. The last thing we want is an all-out turf war now, do we? Besides, my pack has no interest in taking over the Bourbon."
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Post by skyeknight on Jun 3, 2017 14:58:05 GMT
"No, not the Bourbon. You couldn't care about the Bourbon." he agreed. "Just the workers. So leave my workers alone and I'll leave yours alone."
The people he had there were the only thing making the Bourbon worth while. Some of his workers were single mothers, trying to make ends meet legally to feed hungry mouths and keep a roof over his head. He knew a few of them suffered from drug habits. He was making them stay clean. He was sitting with them and helping them through the withdraws. A few were under aged kids, who only served food, who worked for him to keep them off the streets, out of trouble or out of bad homes, so they could save up and go to college or get a better house away from bad parents. He cared for his workers as much as Cruella cared for hers. He just wanted them to live on the right side of the law.
"Please?" he requested. "Just leave them be. They're coming clean. Unless they come to you, leave them alone."
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Post by Zuyuri on Jun 3, 2017 18:16:27 GMT
Hmm...to agree to the bargain or not to agree with the bargain. That was the question. The Bourbon had a share of workers Cruella honestly didn't make good enough money, Sure, she could hire them and give them a livable wage. Sure, she could have them make half of what minimum wage in Louisiana was. However, a questionable crowd was being hired at the Bourbon. Yet, she knew from experience that sometimes the runts of the litter could grow up into becoming some of the strongest and most feared people in the city. Her wicked smile slipped from her face and he looked long and hard at Axel's emerald eyes.
"Since you said 'please' like a good boy, I'll give you this; I'll leave the ones with drug-laced blood alone. They're not good for my babies."
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Post by skyeknight on Jun 3, 2017 18:49:05 GMT
"I don't think so. Some of mine are trying to quit drugs. Once they're clean you'll snatch them up. If they work for me, you and yours don't touch them." Axel hissed.
He was not about to make a clean 'food source' for Cruella's kin by cleaning up junkies and the downfallen. He was trying to help those people get better. He wanted them off drugs and they did too, but some of them were still easily tempted or tempted to different things. He couldn't save Chloe from Cruella's clutches, but he wasn't going to let anyone else become one of Cruella's. His workers were models of successful recoveries. He wasn't about to let them become someone's dinner or forcefully become a vampire if that was not what they wanted.
"All of my employees, past, present and future, are safe from yours." he said. "Or I'm not responsible for what I'll do if I catch yours near my people. Got it memorized?"
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Post by Zuyuri on Jun 3, 2017 21:11:49 GMT
"Axel, because you are not a blood drinker like myself, let me give you a small summary of what drugs do to a good supply," Cruella's glare hardened to the point where it was icy. "Even when they quit the residue still lingers, leaving it to taste...moldy."
She pulled the cigarette butt out of her holder. The clump of black ash fell like snow, and was kicked to the shadows of the tables leaning in the red and black attire. Besides, it would get vacuumed up eventually. Picked up by someone who would be stupid enough to think if was a clump from the burning incense from the private rooms. She sniffed the air, looking for, well, any sort of drug lace in the air. Cruella and her pack could pick them abd, well, if she wanted to be a goody goody, would have used this skill for assisting the police. However, she had other things in mind.
"You're one to talk. One of your employees burned one of my girls with sunlight the other day. It appears we're had an equal path that none of us are pleased with. Little Chloe from you and Lola from me."
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