In need of a little...something ((open))
Kat perched on the tall stool at the bar, her fingers tracing through the sweat on her drink as she watched the masses dance. It was not exactly what she'd expected when she'd been given the name of this place when asking about fulfillment of some darker needs.
Still, she'd not seen the entirety of the place, and she did not feel as silly in the ridiculous skirt and corset she'd chosen for the evening, as there were girls in much more...disrespectful attire. It was not easy to find what she was looking for and the outfit, and six inch black heels she'd paired it with helped set the tone. Well she hoped it did. She usually turned to Peter when such needs arose, and she wasn't about to ask him to fly to America just for that, nor was she going to ask anyone at The Domicile. The Mercs looked at her as a bit of candy anyway and she did not think it would be wise to offer them reason to.
So she was here, and so far there was nothing even approaching acceptable that had bothered to come say hello. One thing she did notice, was that she would not be able to sit here un-harassed much longer and joining the masses on the floor would be necessary. Michael and Magdalene were all but Fred Astair and Ginger Rodgers-ing it in her head.
You two keep your mouths shut for the next ten fucking minutes, or I swear to God, I'll...I'll, well never mind, just be quiet. Fine, ungrateful little bitch. Talkin' about I swear to God. Like you even know who God is. Damned idiot, indeed.
Why'm I included? I didn't say a thing. Just a precaution. Oh, well fine.
She uncrossed and recrossed her legs, her fingers toying with the stem of the martini glass before her. Kat was so out of her element here, and she was quickly regretting ever stepping foot in this place. Debauchery, hedonism, a bit of violence were all friends of her's, but this asking for what she needed, was just irritating enough to make her feel like a child.
However, Akio's smile encouraged her a bit and she had a feeling, the woman was just being a pain in the ass to find what Kat was made of. Well then, what was she made of?
"You tell me you're not cheap, and I'm the one implying you're a whore? Huh, and here I thought I was opening a line of communication."
A short soft chuckle passed her lips, and she did bring the glass to her lips, bringing enough of the shockingly cold liquid into her mouth to swallow. It was nothing more than for show, as she had no interest in anything liquid that wasn't red, viscous, and tasted faintly of copper.
It was the closest he would come to sympathy for the other woman; Tai pretty much figured no one was holding her here to play this game. It was clear she was a little off-balance though, the way she fidgeted. As he pulled away from Val, Tai inclined his head to Kat and said, "She has a point, Moira."
Draining his glass, Tai tapped it back down on the bar top and looked at Kat. "What sort of currency did you have in mind?"
If she hadn't offered money, Tai was interested in what else Kat considered acceptable trade.
Point, smoint it was Val's game and she was winning. She always won her games. Especially when she changed the rules four or five times. But it made her happy so who was going to complain?
Sex or a brawl, sex or a brawl... Val couldn't make up her mind. It hit her that one could do both. Sometimes both together. But usually one after the other. And if you were going to do them one after the other, it was best to brawl first. That way, when all was said and done, she only had to worry about whether two people were coming to bed with her, or one.
She decided to give Kitty one more chance.
"Good, then communicate. Tell me -exactly- what you want. Don't play games, you're just going to loose. And you see,"Â?
Val lightly dipped her finger in the highball and drug it around the rim of the glass, making it sing,
"I've made up my mind what I want."Â?
And what she wanted was probably going to involve buying another pair of shoes. It was a good thing her little business with Tai was making money.
"I could list my skills and abilities for you, Akio, but I doubt very much that you would believe me. If I were in your position, I wouldn't believe me either."
A small smile curled her lips, and she sipped the icy liquid in her glass again. She found she was becoming a bit more comfortable, reflecting this in a straighter back, and a cessation of fidgeting. She turned kohl lined eyes to the woman, the small smile still in place.
"I want a little pleasure, a lot of pain, and perhaps a plans for future indulgences."
She inclined her head toward Moira. "I am curious to know what it is you want."
Kat's avoidance of his question was met with another raised eyebrow. "By all means, list them anyway. Now I'm curious. Real or fabricated, it doesn't matter."
Aside from that one request, however, he was more than willing to let Val and Kat sort this out between them. Val knew what side Tai was on; she was his business partner and, at some point in the past few months, he had come to consider thinking of her as a friend.
He waited patiently for the question of their immediate future to sort itself out, wondering if Kat would answer his question and if she did, if she would be truthful. Either way, they might find out on their own.
Raising one perfectly shaped eyebrow she turned away from Kitty and rather determinedly not answering the question. Twisting to face Tai and slid her arms around his neck. Val made it a point to keep her voice low,
"What do you think lover. It wasn't what I'd settled on."Â?
By default, he'd know she'd settled on a brawl.
"But maybe you've had enough of that kind of action for the night?"Â?
Smiling suggestively, she teased him a bit more.
"Or we could play with her more while we made up out minds."Â?
Given that he was already waiting for her to make up her mind Val didn't think he'd want to play with her any more.
"I'm a thief, a good one, trained with the trail of the seven bells. I consider myself rather scrappy, and I can play piano."
Let him make of that what he would.
She wanted to feel annoyed with the woman, but she couldn't it was necessary for them to speak about what she offered. So she played with the stem of her glass, and waited.
"I had just gotten warmed up," he protested mildly to his partner. "Question is, you want her on our side, or on her own side?"
Tai wasn't opposed to starting a bar fight at the House of Pain and had done so on one or two occasions. In fact, it was how he and Val had met. It would be no great matter for him to channel Jan and piss some random HoPper off. It had to happen on a multi-nightly basis here.
Craning his neck over Val's shoulder to look at Kat, he said, "Hold please," and resumed his previous position, waiting for Val to decide if they were going to invite Kat to throw some punches with them, or let her fend for herself.
Well it sounded like Tai was still up for a bit of violence. He was right though, did she want to throw a punch at Kitty or get Kitty rolling with them. Hrmmm decisions, decisions.
"We'll connect you to the next available operator in just a moment."Â?
Val teased both Kitty and Tai while she turned her options over in her head.
"Shall we try her out and see how she does?"Â?
Lord knew that alliances could shift in the middle of a fight.
Without another thought Val stuck a tiny foot out as a leather and chain clad giant went to walk by them. He'd apparently just gotten a fresh drink and it spilled all over Kitty. Val, however, just sat back to watch the results.
They conversed, she twiddled and then quite suddenly she was very wet, covered in that swill known as American beer. Now Kat considered herself a pretty rational kind of gal, but see here she was, just sitting and this guy went and dumped yellow liquid all over her brand new corset.
It didn't help that he started apologizing and trying to clean up his mess. Damn, now she was cold, wet, and being groped without her permission. It was enough to make even a rational gal pissed off. She couldn't be blamed for the right hook that flew across his jaw, she was in need of violent sex and that made her on edge. She'd been forced to ask strangers for it and that pushed her to teetering over the edge and then this big dummy spilled his drink on her and well, she just fell clean off that damn edge.
He straightened from the punch with an indignant, "What the hell?"
He rubbed at the spot where she'd clocked him, and stared at her. "I told you I was sorry."
Kat planted her feet, hands on her hips and offered him a fangy, wicked smile. "I'm supposed to care? You put your big meaty hands on places you had no business touching."
He growled something that sounded a whole lot like you fucking bitch, and charged her. Kat laughed, stepped out of the way and gave his ass a push with her high heeled foot. That sent him sprawling into a near by table full of big shouldered, black banded collar, suits.
Tai rested his chin on Val's shoulder; she had turned to view the action and had her back to him so he rested his hands casually upon her hips and made a wordless commentary. He'd been chatty enough for one night.
As the guy spilled his drink he sucked in a "oh, bad move," breath. Kai's punch, which failed to throw the man across the room, drew forth a tiny snort. The man's reaction, a little anti-climactic given that as a vampire, Kat's punch really -should- have thrown him around a bit more, made Tai give an exasperated sigh. He was apologizing again, trying to make things right.
Kat's rejoinder was a little bit lacking in grace but it made up for that tenfold. While Tai suspected the big guy in the chains was out of the action owing to a distinct lack of balls, the suits at the table looked a lot more serious.
He gave an interested "hmm," and waited to see what happened next. His hands tightened gently upon Val's hips in a quiet hint; if business headed in their direction, they would be prepared.
Dear, dear, dear this would never do. Well she wasn't bad, maybe not the best ever but she seemed OK. Right up to the point that she wound up shoving the mark into a pile of suits. She couldn't help but chuckle a little bit, although the sound never left her throat.
She felt Tai's hands on her hips and grinned. He was ready for a fight if the suits decided to include them. And wouldn't she be a surprise if they did get included. Beyond that, if she watched much more of this would be ready for something else entirely. Everyone had their switches.
Oh look, the suits had played together before. Currently they had no interest in she and Tai but they were advancing on Kitty in a wonderfully coordinated move. It was almost pretty. And, it also meant she'd probably be in over here head fast enough. That was fine by Val, she'd not mind jumping in. Hell, she was hoping too, but not just yet. She lightly patted Tai's hand, not just yet. Soon. Soon.
Hell, yeah! Don't bitch, I get to talk when we're fighting big guys in suits. She ignored Mike as the suits half-mooned it around her and glared. Not a word was said, and then like someone had dropped a flag, #1 on her far left threw a punch. Sighing, Kat ducked, and swept her leg up and into his stomach forcing him backward out of the group to loose his balance and land on his ass. If she'd had time to look, she'd have compared him to a cartoon character that was pissed and had steam coming out his ears.
#4, the guy on the opposite end from #1, took that as his cue and grabbed her by the top of her head, mashing her hair into his big fist . I can't believe he touched your hair. I mean honestly dear, you're killing this one right.
Kat ignored her too, as she used his momentum and a tiny bit of her body's contortion abilities, to slide between his open legs and because the angle was awkward for him, he let go of her hair and stumbled a bit. Which seemed to piss off his other two cohorts, who had turned to face her again. Kat jumped, and kicked #3 in the chest, sending him backward to land very nearly in Moira's lap.
As Kat neatly (sort of) dispatched the businessmen Tai let out a soft sigh of displeasure. If she was going to be all efficient about it, he and Val wouldn't get in on any of the action at all. And while he had gotten some earlier, Val would be the only one left out - and he didn't relish the drive home with a pissy Val.
Fortunately Kat had dealt with, but not finished, three of the men. There were a few remaining and the first round were recovering and thinking about heading back in. Some of the bystanders were wisely moving away; others were clearly looking for opportunities to join in.
He flexed his fingers at Val's hips. Now?
But damned it, she wanted to hurt someone. She wanted to risk her shoes and throw a few punches and Kitty just wasn't giving them an opening. She was irritated enough she was tempted to walk out with Tai and work off her frustration some other way.
Thankfully any kind of bar room brawl very rarely stayed limited to those directly involved. By standers were always inclined to jump in and they were starting to circle now. Val was almost more interested in them than in Kitty and her friends. Some of them looked quite interesting.
Feeling Tai's grip tighten she laughed softly and nodded.
Now.
She had no idea what he was trying to accomplish, she only needed air to talk and put power behind a punch, 'course he didn't know that. But a broken rib would suck to heal, so she did the only thing a girl in six inch heels could do. She brought her knee up, and rammed her foot back right into the family jewels.
He subsequently dropped her to the floor, where the willing and recovered numbers 1 and 4 were awaiting her. Damn.
That wasn't fun at all.
He turned to say something snarky to Kat and was thwarted as a pair of strong arms grabbed him around the neck from behind and yanked back. Restraining a giggle of delight Tai clamped his hands onto the arms and didn't resist the pull. Instead he heaved himself up and over, taking his attacker with him. As he landed the man who'd grabbed him twisted once again and they both careened into a table of formerly innocent bystanders, one of whom stood and pushed the table over angrily. Tai and his assailant tumbled away once more into the next table over, whose occupants began threatening their neighbors for sending the tousling vampires their way.
It didn't take long before all hell broke loose, and that was much much better!
Val shouted with cheerful abandon as she flew threw the air with the greatest of easy. Tai had a good arm and decent aim and she caught a new guy stealthy approaching the fight right in the stomach. The bastard was big, that always made her happy, taking on some one who had more than a foot and a hundred pounds on her.
As she connected, there was a satisfying 'oof' as she knocked the wind out of him and her momentum carried them both to the ground. Bouncing back up quickly, she noticed he was equally fast and was on his knees, almost to his feet as she rolled up right.
Sinking the pointy toe of her shoe into his kidney followed by a hard right to his jaw didn't seem to phase him much. Oh, it apparently hurt and he did stager backwards a bit but he recovered fast and came after her like a charging bull.
Huh, vampire Val noted. Right before he kicked her in the stomach, throwing her back on to her ass. Still she grinned, flashing her fangs at him. This was fun.
Flipping over she scuttled under a table seating herself between a few 'innocent' patrons. That didn't seem to phase the big guy. But it was going to make life more interesting.
Do you know what would be fun? Killing people, that would be fun. God, Mike shut the fuck up. Seriously. Party pooper.
Kat rolled her eyes, as she got down and dirty with some tall slim thug that flashed fangs at her. She showed him her own and they went to town. It was fun to be pitted against another vampire, he was trained, she could tell by the precise angles in his body as he landed a kick to her chest that knocked her back into the bar.
Snarling, she charged him. He was surprised enough at her that she was able to catch him full on and they rode the momentum to the ground. She landed on top of him, pinning him with her legs. "Hey cowboy, wanna go for a ride?"
That seemed to really piss him off, since he picked her up by the waist and tossed her off of him. Laughing she picked herself out of the table wreckage, cold clocked the guy that was bitching at her and returned to dance with the lanky vamp again.
The vampire (he had no doubt) that he grappled with was a particularly twisty and bendy individual which made certain positions a lot more interesting than they normally would be, and certain throws downright impossible. Not all of them though. Tai caught a boot to his jaw and saw stars for a moment but he knew where the next blow was coming from, so he ducked it and drove bull-style for the man's midsection. Plowing him backwards Tai let him loose and delivered a good kick to his solar plexus, watching with satisfaction as Gumby tripped over himself and crashed into Val's table.
Tai didn't have long to smirk, but he managed anyhow, sending one Val's way as Gumby bounced back upright and lashed out quickly, his speed keeping Tai on his toes, literally, dancing in a tight circle around him. It was to their advantage to keep the melee contained a little bit; normal though it may be, any brawl out of control here would have them paying a harsh price fast.