mogget_cat | New Orleans w/Jason

From the bar, the two of them step out into the humid, New Orleans night. The clouds cover the stars and moon, leaving it up to the streetlamps to cast light upon the people who are out and about this evening.

There's the scent of rain in the air. Rain, and the scents of people, cheap hot dogs, alcohol, and the underlying scent of the city, always there.

"It's not far. Just a few blocks over," Yrael says as she looks out at Bourbon St.

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Another pull on the cigarette, followed by a smoke-obscured flash of a grin at the crowd.

"Not thick brown rice and rice pilaw
Or mushrooms creamed on toast,
Turnips mashed and parsnips hashed,
Mmm, I'm dreaming of a roast.

Health-food folks around the world
Are thinned by anxious zeal,"
Disdainful, "They look for help in seafood kelp.
I count on breaded veal."

I've got your roast...

He finds himself grinning at her...and also wanting to suck that smoke out of her mouth.

He watches, spellbound; hoping to God that he's not up next. He'll need a moment.

Her tone is strong, cigarette held away as she speaks derisively into the mic.

"No-smoking signs, raw mustard greens,
Zucchini by the ton,
Uncooked kale and bodies frail
Are sure to make me run!"

Pause.

"...to..."

That is one defiant grin.

"Loins of pork and chicken thighs,
And standing rib, so prime,
Pork chops brown and fresh ground round-
I crave them all the time.

Irish stews and boiled corned beef
and ribeyes by the scores,
or any place that saves a space
For smoking carnivores!"

She laughs, cigarette heading back to her grinning mouth as the audience starts its applause.

He fights back the urge to howl as his hands shoot up in applause. He turns his head to Bianca with a sly grin.

"I take back my previous statement; please throw me to the wolves. That one."

There are plenty of hoots and whistles from others around the bar.

"I haven't met Wik myself, but I'll see what I can do," she smirks, as the next performers are announced and take the stage.

"Wik, huh?"

He snickers and watches her leave the stage as he sips his drink. His eyebrow shoots up to Bianca.

"Think she'd go for a threesome?"

"You'll have to ask her that, yourself," she says with a smirk, sipping her drink. "At least I am not being passed over in favor of some girl you've never met."

Jason snickers. "Slut."

He turns back to scan for Wik. "Hey, we already agreed we'd be willing to have another go at each other. You think I'd pass that up?"

Especially if he can manage just a quickie in the bathroom.

The current performance is meh. Local meh, so it gets some support from the audience, but meh all the same.

"I don't think you're that foolish, no," she grins. "Even if it is you we're talking about."

Talking coolly with people complimenting her performance, Wik is making her way over to the bar. Many of them (most men) want her to stop and chat with them a while, but she handles them easily, not stopping for more than a moment before moving on. She's not rude to any, but none of them can keep her.

He watches her idly, taking careful note of her reaction to the scores of admirers. It won't be easy, but he does enjoy a challenge. He speaks over his shoulder to Bianca, still watching Wik.

"You got my back on this, or are you planning on submarining me?"

"I only submarine you when you ask me to," she says, taking her arm from around Jason; wouldn't want it to look like he was already taken, after all. "I got your back."

And the fact that her hand brushes across the small of his back as she says this is completely... deliberate.

There's a small smirk at that last brush against his back. "Yeah you do. Thanks."

Wik has made it to one of the few openings at the bar, conveniently made by an older man perched next to Jason, giving her the practiced leer of an aged Italian barfly.

He can't help but grin and chuckle into his drink as she expertly -yet politely- dispatches him. Jason can feel her eyes shift to him at the chuckle, and he turns to meet her raised brow. "Nice. Wasn't much of a challenge with a guy like that, but I can't say you aren't skilled."

"Comes with the territory, hon," Wik smirks briefly at Jason before turning to the barman. It's polite thanks for the compliment, but it's the same politeness as she's been giving everyone else. "Rum'n'coke please, Jack. Myers Dark if you got any left."

Jason looks up at Jack and gestures for another drink as well.

"You perform professionally?"

"It's more a hobby than anything else, but yeah, deals like this help get my name out and help pay the bills every so often," she replies as Jack sets her drink in front of her, before he starts on Jason's refill.

Yrael leans back against the bar, pretending to listen to the current performers, a garage wannabe group called Outrageous Flavor They're enthusiastic, Yrael will give them that.

"What do you do when you're not onstage?"

He smiles to Jack and nods a thanks.

"I enjoy trying for a quiet drink while fending off over-enthusiastic opportunists in the politest way possible," Wik says, grinning at him over the rim of her drink.

Ignore the not'cat at your back, Jason. She just swallowed wrong. The coughinglaughingfit will pass shortly.

Jason rolls his eyes and makes a disgusted smile, but still grins. "Jesus. Some people just can't take a hint, can they?"

He glances over his shoulder at Bianca, shooting her a not too friendly look and praying they call her onstage soon.

He turns back to Wik. "So you must sleep in the daytime and perform and/or try to enjoy quiet drinks. Hmmm...sounds like quite the life to me."

"No, apparently not. And I work during the day, thanks," she says, sipping her rum and coke. "Tomorrow's just my day off."

Yrael ignores Jason in favor of the Outrageous Flavor going on onstage. It's kind of outrageous. Or is trying to be, at least. Enthusiastic Flavor may be more appropriate.

They're loud at any rate. Makes talking a bit harder.

He laughs. "Well I guess I can scratch 'vampire' off your list of occupations." He's joking, of course. He wouldn't really think she was a vampire. They smell completely different...

"Hardly," Wik says as she stubs out her cigarette on an ashtray, though she does sound amused. "Not even in this town."

"This tow...oh right, the books." He snorts slightly: he'd tried reading them once and had fallen over laughing. Not to say that some things weren't eerily true, but...

"Get a lot of the hardcore fans around, do you?"

"Some," she snorts. "As you always do. The city makes a tidy sum off of the Haunted New Orleans tours even without looking to airport fiction."

"Eh, what city doesn't want to cash in on whatever it can? So long as the crazies keep their crazy to a minimum."

If it's one thing he's come to hate, it's the vampire freaks. Only want one thing, and it's not him. One woman...girl...even went so far as to ask him where the vampires slept...whilst in mid-coitus. Talk about a turn-off.

He turns slightly to offer a hand with a wry grin. "I'm Jason, by the way. Not one of the crazies. At least I don't think I am."

She hesitates a moment, before moving to shake his hand in return. "Nice to meet you, Jason," she says with a wry answering smirk. "Genevieve, though I'm technically here as Wik, tonight."