Now she rolls with Rockerfellers (OPEN)

[kleptofaeniac]

1. Guilty Pleasures - night

Kenzi wasn't allowed to eat the dancers. She knew that. Which was why she was pointedly avoiding them. Jean-Claude didn't say anything about clients though...but just to be careful she directed her meal covertly into the restroom. She wasn't sure if it was the mens or womens though...seeing through that haze of hungryneeditbloodwarmeateateateat that was driving her forward on the fumes in her tank. She'd gone what felt like days without drinking - when in reality it was closer to only a day.

Perks of being a newborn. You eat like you've been fasting.

Kenzi was just glad she'd found a guy who swang both ways, otherwise there was no way she could have coerced him this far. Unfortunately for him, he just thought he was getting laid tonight.

Apologies if you were enjoying the relative peace of the restroom...

2. Your favorite drinking hole - night

Why she thought this would work, Kenzi had no idea. She was currently in the alley outside a bar - she didn't know the name - puking her guts out. It was mostly just alcohol at this point, as she had been drinking like she hadn't had one in a month.

Which was mostly true. It was close to a month since she'd been turned.

She was craving a drink. Not blood - well not in the same way - but alcohol. Vodka, whiskey, wine, whatever she could have she wanted and did in the very bar she was bent over next to now.

The taste had been horrible, but she drank it all anyways. Alcohol wasn't supposed to taste good. But it was the feeling she wanted from it.

And it was that very same feeling she was heaving up now.

3. Portobello Road Street Fair - day

Some things never change, though, and Kenzi was in her customary booth on Portobello still working her gypsy fortune teller cliche look and accent - just with a new piece of jewelry to keep her from burning alive in what little sun was shining today.

She looks...slightly more miserable than usual though. Because she can't just stop the witch aspects of her stall, that would ruin everything about this. So being surrounded by her old life and the reminders that she'll never be able to do magic again stings more than she thought it would.

At least she was never actually trying with the tarot cards in the first place?

4. WILDCARD

If you want to come up with something with me, ping me on cupcakepantry!

Comments

2

[stauncherhearted]

"Alright, that's it. Get it out." Nancy had taken the night off in favor of spending time with her bestest friend in the whole world. It was time to have a good night after the past few months of hell, and maybe pretend everything was the way it used to be. Which was why Nancy was at Kenzi's side, one hand holding up her friend's long hair, the other rubbing her back.

"You're going hard." Harder than she should. And given that Nancy was the alcoholic of the two, it was cause for at least mild concern.

[kleptofaeniac]

"I missed Spring Break, what can I say?"

She spits out what little was left in her stomach, sticking out her tongue like that would make the taste go away. Maybe becoming the undead made her more sarcastic or something but to her own ears she just sounded mean.

Fine. It's not like she's ever been a bitch before.

[stauncherhearted]

Mean, sure, but Kenzi has every reason. She's been turned, she's had to give up magic, she's dealing with being a new species. It's hard. Also she's dead, and that's kind of important to remember.

"Isn't that just an American thing?" She has to ask, even jokingly. "I'm sure I've got mints somewhere."

[kleptofaeniac]

"I could be American. Proximity, yo."

At least the puking stopped. And Kenzi isn't even drunk which is the real tragedy here. When Nancy offers the mint though, Kenzi almost starts up again.

"As much as I want to be minty fresh, I think it'll just taste like shit again."

[stauncherhearted]

"All the same country, isn't it?"

She'd never been to school, her geography was shit, anyway.

"It'll taste better than vomit," she promised her. Because sorry, Kenzi, she was not opening up a vein for you without some back-up.

[kleptofaeniac]

"Pretty much."

She wasn't going to argue that. Not that there weren't Canadians who wouldn't be upset about that association; she just didn't care. It was a place she once lived. End of story.

Kenzi grimaces but she pops the mint anyways. It's slightly less unappetizing than vomit. Slightly.

"Ugh there are no words."

[stauncherhearted]

Hey, she'll take it. She's never been outside the London area.

"Good or bad?"

1

[baisant]

Jean-Claude watches his charge disappear into the restroom with one of the patrons of the club and a small frown appears on his face. It's not that he disapproves of feeding on the human, not exactly. It's more that he knows what sort of unknown she is, as a baby vampire, knows that she won't be able to control herself, and knows that if someone finds a dead body in his restroom then that would be bad for business.

So he decides to step in himself. He'd been in enough trouble with the police when Phillip had been called out for the possession of dark magical artifacts. He didn't need any more Guardians knocking on his door.

Stepping forward and swinging into the bathroom behind her, he takes stock of the situation before him before he states, as calm and coolly as he can, "I suggest that you let him go now, ma petite souris."

[kleptofaeniac]

Kenzi only looks up from kissing the stranger for a moment and in that time she looks like a wild animal being confronted over a meal. For a moment she almost feels that way because she's hungry and JC can go fuck himse -

That frame of mind leaves her quickly and Kenzi steps away from her prospective meal before gingerly patting him on the cheek and sending him on his way.

The guy didn't seem like he was too keen to argue before flitting out of the restroom in a hurry; leaving Kenzi to pout at Jean-Claude like she got caught by her parents trying to sneak some alcohol.

"Duuude. I was just gonna have a little...," by the way she's eyeing the door behind him that her 'friend' just left out of...no she wasn't.

[baisant]

Jean-Claude raises an eyebrow at her in a manner to suggest he sincerely doubts that she was just going to do a little of anything. He steps forward towards her so that he is blocking her view and her pursuit of her former victim, should she choose to stop listening and follow instead.

"You were hungry," he says, matter-of-factly. "Perhaps I have been too lax in my allowances, however. If you start leaving bodies in my bathroom, people will talk. Do not tell me you have learned to restrain yourself so quickly." He raises both eyebrows at her in question, as if to dare her to try it. No one has that level of self-control, and especially not his newest progeny here.

[kleptofaeniac]

"I'm always hungry!"

Ah, here it was. That culminating moment of the combined frustration, fear and grief that came with dying and being reborn again lacking the power you'd grown up honing.

It was hard.

And Kenzi was showing that struggle now.

[baisant]

Ah, yes. The struggle is real, Jean-Claude won't argue that. He had been as young and hungry as she was, once upon a time. Even if it had been so long ago that he barely remembers it now.

Jean-Claude stays still and calm in the face of her outburst, waiting a beat before speaking up in response. "We are all hungry," he says. "It is up to you how you control such urges." Or don't, perhaps. Although not having a grip on oneself is a lot more dangerous, in this day and age.

[kleptofaeniac]

His lack of a response as far as lashing out deflates her anger quickly and she's left leaning against the wall with a tired pout.

"Can I eat? I really am hungry....," like, actively so. She didn't care if Jean-Claude had to watch she just wanted to drink.

3;

[iustitiae]

The whole thing is kitschy is what is it. But it's so over the top it's enough to draw Connor in. He is, however, surprised to see that she looks pretty miserable. He takes a seat across from her, looking over the tarot card deck and then up to her, taking in all the cliches and her miserable attitude.

"What, did you read the end of the world this morning, or something?"

[kleptofaeniac]

"Maybe," she shoots back, looking a little perked up at the prospect of a customer. Her accent is thick and Russian like she'd just hopped off a boat from the old country.

"Maybe I'd read that someone impertinent would visit my tent."

It was part of the act, but she hoped that it wouldn't make him leave if he was like...super offended. Usually people loved getting told off by a crazy Siberian witch.

[iustitiae]

Connor is offended, but she's guessed right - he's not planning on leaving. He's not even sure her accent isn't as fake as the rest of it, but that almost makes it better, that she's gone to all this trouble to make all of this be a thing.

"Guess you are a fortune teller, after all," he laughs, playing along. "How much do you charge for a reading?" I mean even if she tells him soon he'll meet a very nice girl, at least it'll be funny. There are worse ways to waste money

[kleptofaeniac]

"Sixteen quid."

She doesn't mess around with the prices and she certainly wasn't going to try and string him along. Either he'd pay or he wouldn't, it was pretty simple.

[iustitiae]

"I can handle that." He pulls out the sixteen quid and slides it across the table. Perfect change and everything. "I am prepared to be amazed."

[kleptofaeniac]

Kenzi tries not to snatch the money off the table too eagerly, but she hasn't seen much of a paycheck lately thanks to the Night Council's ban on black magic and the fact that she is no longer a witch...sixteen quid isn't exactly a lot but it's enough for food for the day.

As she pockets it, Kenzi smiles welcomingly - the whole atmosphere she put off now changing to a friendlier vibe. Kenzi spreads the deck in a wide arch - face down and speaks again.

"What would you like to know? Future relationships? Money? Change?"

As she rattles off the different spreads, she pulls cards that mesh well with them and turns them face up. The Lovers, The Ten of Pentacles, and the Wheel of Fortune - specifically.

If Connor looks closely, he can see that each card has some weathering around the edges. Possibly for the purposes of her little trick she just preformed?

3;

[spionin]

It isn't rare, to see booths like this, the acts those running these little one-man-or-woman shows put on to lure in the unsuspecting (or suspecting but in want of a distraction) passer-by... but what is rare is the lack of said show, any kind of indication that the young woman even wants customers.

It's rare enough to draw Gaby's attention.

"A slow day?" she asks, her voice nonchalant, conversational.

[kleptofaeniac]

"Care to change that?"

Kenzi quickly replies with all the eagerness of a dying fish. She wants her paycheck, it's true but being a fresh vampire brings in it's own challenges. She can smell that this girl was a shifter, and she can hear the blood in her. It sounds delicious but she's determined not to be a monster.

The threat of getting killed for her lack of control is enough to keep her instincts to feed in check.

She shuffles through the deck and spreads it over her crushed velvet patterned table cloth with a bit of flair -meant to draw her in.

[spionin]

Where Kenzi can smell the changes in her, Gaby can hear-- and with her enhanced senses, it's easy enough to tell this girl certainly isn't a human.

Which is just as well. If she's dangerous... Gaby is better at handling herself than any human lured here would be. Besides, who knows? This might be fun.

"Tarot cards? Why not," she says, humming softly under her breath. She sits down next to the fortune teller and looks at her over her over-sized sunglasses. "Let's hear it."

[kleptofaeniac]

"Sixteen quid." she first states, ever the mercenary when it came to her fees.

"What would you like to know? There are many different spreads."

Her accent is thick and more than likely put on, but it is a very studied Russian (specifically St. Petersburg) dialect and she does a bit of shuffling flair as she waits for Gaby's answer.

[spionin]

"That sounds quite high," she responds, rather nonchalant and unbothered for someone who is commenting on the fee... but she digs up a twenty-pound note from her purse and places it on the table.

"Doesn't everyone want the same? Find out how successful their career is, or their romantic life... both." She shrugs; entertain her.

Before that, though... Gaby raises one elegantly-shaped eyebrow as she listens to Kenzi's voice. "That is a very good Russian accent. Have you studied it... or is it your homeland?"

[kleptofaeniac]

She takes the money off the table quickly enough and it's pretty clear that she is used to it being snatched back in this line of work.

"Girls gotta eat," she works out thickly and begins dealing out a celtic cross when Gaby shrugs - hey if she doesn't want to actually pick, it's no skin off Kenzi's back. In fact it makes her job easier.

At Gaby's observant ear, Kenzi's back straightens noticeably - being caught in her lie was something you never wanted so she simply smiled tersely at her and continued dealing the cards.

"It was home."

She hopes that's enough to satisfy her customer.