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napkingKrave was a warehouse in an industrial area, seemingly innocuous except for the parking lot full of cars in the middle of a Saturday night.
And the bass you could hear thumping through the walls as you approached the building. Also that.
A bouncer greeted the brothers as they approached, and then eyed Arden. "She human?"
"She's my friend," Gray said, which got him a narrow-eyed, suspicious look at the non-answer.
"Is she old enough to be here?"
"I dunno, man," Raiden told him. "You know we don't know that human age shit. She's in college?"
The guy thought about it for a moment, then said, "Eh, close enough. 21 is a stupid number, anyway. All right, Gray's friend, here are the rules. No fighting. Anyone in a fight will be made to leave. If you get in over your head, someone's hassling you, they won't back off, tell an employee."
"But first tell 'em you're with us," Raiden put in.
"Yeah, that works, too." He paused, then said, "There are no other rules. Have a nice night." He stepped aside and opened the door in one motion, gesturing them into the club.
At first glance, it might seem like any other nightclub. Music with bass that rattled your bones, green, blue, and purple lights flitting across the packed dance floor, bar stations along the walls, a sweet and smoky smell like incense hanging in the air. But when one looked closer, it was...different.
On a couch to the right, a woman exposed her slender neck as a man sunk his teeth into her throat, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. Another man bit the opposite side of her neck, and her blissed-out expression said she wasn't having a bad time here. Another woman flitted around the room at an impossible speed, and when she stopped for a moment to talk to a group of people, small translucent wings trailing a glittery substance were visible on her back. In the corner, two men were making out, and when one slapped the wall clawlike fingernails were visible, protruding from his skin.
There were beings with blue skin and some with green. Some had small horns jutting from their heads, while others had tails. Men danced on raised platforms in various shades of undress. Gray gestured to one of them, a slender, gorgeous Nephilim with bronzed skin and dark hair, just as the dancer released his wings, shades of green mingling with the black feathers. "That's Daman." So Arden had sort of kind of met all seven brothers after all! Gray turned and grinned at her. "Welcome to Krave."
(For that totally-a-human-she-swears. NFB due to distance. Part of this post adapted from book one of my dumb Nephilim books, Galen.)
And the bass you could hear thumping through the walls as you approached the building. Also that.
A bouncer greeted the brothers as they approached, and then eyed Arden. "She human?"
"She's my friend," Gray said, which got him a narrow-eyed, suspicious look at the non-answer.
"Is she old enough to be here?"
"I dunno, man," Raiden told him. "You know we don't know that human age shit. She's in college?"
The guy thought about it for a moment, then said, "Eh, close enough. 21 is a stupid number, anyway. All right, Gray's friend, here are the rules. No fighting. Anyone in a fight will be made to leave. If you get in over your head, someone's hassling you, they won't back off, tell an employee."
"But first tell 'em you're with us," Raiden put in.
"Yeah, that works, too." He paused, then said, "There are no other rules. Have a nice night." He stepped aside and opened the door in one motion, gesturing them into the club.
At first glance, it might seem like any other nightclub. Music with bass that rattled your bones, green, blue, and purple lights flitting across the packed dance floor, bar stations along the walls, a sweet and smoky smell like incense hanging in the air. But when one looked closer, it was...different.
On a couch to the right, a woman exposed her slender neck as a man sunk his teeth into her throat, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. Another man bit the opposite side of her neck, and her blissed-out expression said she wasn't having a bad time here. Another woman flitted around the room at an impossible speed, and when she stopped for a moment to talk to a group of people, small translucent wings trailing a glittery substance were visible on her back. In the corner, two men were making out, and when one slapped the wall clawlike fingernails were visible, protruding from his skin.
There were beings with blue skin and some with green. Some had small horns jutting from their heads, while others had tails. Men danced on raised platforms in various shades of undress. Gray gestured to one of them, a slender, gorgeous Nephilim with bronzed skin and dark hair, just as the dancer released his wings, shades of green mingling with the black feathers. "That's Daman." So Arden had sort of kind of met all seven brothers after all! Gray turned and grinned at her. "Welcome to Krave."
(For that totally-a-human-she-swears. NFB due to distance. Part of this post adapted from book one of my dumb Nephilim books, Galen.)
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Date: 2024-09-15 04:34 am (UTC)Arden looked very curious about what they were talking about, but again, this seemed less like a time to ask.
Instead, she just nodded. "Sorry," she said. "I'm not used to...Uh. Never mind."
Look, she'd had a decade of 'if you're dumb enough to get yourself caught by the Duskwatch, we're not going to save you' drummed into her head. Remembering that there were other people that could help - other families that wouldn't hesitate to go into danger for one of their own - was kind of an uphill battle.
"If anything like that ever happens, you'll be the first person I call," she promised Raiden, which was much better and more decisive than continuing to explain bits of her tragic backstory to these nice people who all had their own and yet managed to be competent about things anyway.
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Date: 2024-09-15 04:41 am (UTC)"Well," Alastair said. "If you're confident you can travel without vomiting in my car, how about we go home and you can sleep this off?" And in the morning, Raiden would make breakfast. The dream.
It helped that everyone else in this conversation wasn't a teenager, even if one of them had, for reasons the rest of them found absolutely baffling, opted to pose as one. You grew out of dramatics eventually, or your brothers all mocked you without mercy until you did better. One of those.
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Date: 2024-09-15 04:46 am (UTC)Arden paused to take stock of her stomach. It didn't seem to be terribly sloshy and she nodded. "I think I'll be okay. Though if maybe I could use the bathroom first?"
She thought about the dancefloor.
"...Is there one for this lounge?" Otherwise, she could hold it.
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Date: 2024-09-15 04:54 am (UTC)"Right this way," Konnar, who didn't have an icon, said, standing up to show her the way to the bathroom. "Remember to hydrate, dear," he told her, "and if you have any painkillers with you place them by your bed before you sleep. This lot don't have to worry about hangovers for more than twenty minutes, but who knows for you." Yes, he was a vampire, but you didn't last in the nightclub business without knowing a few things.
no subject
Date: 2024-09-15 05:02 am (UTC)All of them had.
Regardless of his answer, Arden used the facilities, splashing water on her face after washing her hands (it did nothing for her makeup, but looking pretty was not high on her priorities list), and then returned, ready to head back to the brothers' place and just climb into bed. Maybe she'd wake up tomorrow and they'd tell her that she'd drunk too much, passed out, hit her head on the ground, and all of this had been a concussion!
The fucking dream, yo.