Participants:
| Scene Title | Martinis and Corsets |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Three converge in Tartarus over a few drinks and discussion. |
| Date | November 14, 2010 |
"Abandon hope all ye who enter here."
That is the sign that rests just above the double doors that lead from the small foyer into the club proper. Once through the doors the music is all-encompassing, the heavy bass beat filling the room and senses of the club-goers. The decor is all dark, the walls painted black, the bar a sleek dark wood. The lights all have a reddish tinge to them, with the bar and DJ booth being the only places in the club proper that have more normal white light.
There are high tables with equally tall chairs circling a large dance floor, and booths set along two of the walls. But while socializing is a big part of the club, the dancing is the priority. People, some Goths, some punks, and some just people who like to dance are all packed on the dance floor. Weaving through the sea of people are servers, men and women both, dressed in black pants or skirts, and tee-shirts that have "Taratarus" written across the chest in red lettering. Likewise there are security people at the door and mixed through the club, in similar outfits, only their shirts have "SECURITY" on the back.
Sunday night is normally by far the slowest night of the week for the goth club. Of course, this isn't a normal week, and people are drinking more since the riots. Melissa, however, looks like she's sleeping less too. She comes out of her office in her pinstriped pants and corset, the fedora left behind, and she's made no effort to hide the bags under her eyes as she heads towards the bar.
"Can't sleep either?" Nadira asks, reaching to snag a glass from under the bar as she glances over at her boss. She's at least made an effort to look less tired than she is, mostly because she's out in front of the faces of people. At the very least, Tartarus is getting some business. Tips are good. "Want me to make you something?" She's in her usual work outfit these days, black skirt and purple-and-black corset.
The pulsing noise of the music hammering its way out of the bar's soundsystem resonates in Reuben's head like a stray bullet with no sense of gravity or momentum. His hangover from last night lasts all of about five hours the next day, thought the headache itself was still lingering. To his credit, he dressed appropriately for the venue. Black slacks to match his black suit coat with a deep purple undershirt that remains open at the second button from the top. His glasses are tinted, though the low light in the club renders such a cosmetic decision to be both ill-advised and a bit stupid to boot. "S'cuse me, sorry," he says to the fifth person he bumps into as he makes his way towards the bar.
Stepping up to the bar, he signals to Nadira with a wide smirk. He recognizes Melissa from Nadira's description the night before, though makes no notice of this as he leans across the bar and shouts over to last night's drinking buddy, "Hey, Nadira, could I get a Vesper martini?"
Usually Melissa will always accept a drink offer immediately, but this time she hesitates before sighing and nodding. "Yeah, amaretto sour, would ya? Nice corset by the way," she says, leaning against the bar. "And no, I can't sleep well. Ended up taking in an orphan and she's been keeping me up all night with her crying and my worrying," she explains, rubbing her hands over her face. Reuben isn't, as of yet, paid much notice to. For now he's just another unknown customer to her.
"Much more appropriate a drink for you, Mr. Bond." Nadira comments to Reuben. She moves to mix the drink, getting the ingredients out for Melissa's amaretto sour in the process. "The corset is Quinn's fault." She seems a little surprised at the mention of an orphan. "Wow. That is… I did not take you for the mothering-type. I wish I could say a crying baby kept me up, but I've got no such excuse."
She slides Reuben's drink over towards him, and hands Melissa hers. "Ah, Melissa, you should meet Reuben. He's a new friend of mine and kept me company so I didn't have to drink all alone. Reuben, this is Melissa, my boss."
With a face-splitting grin, Reuben takes the drink from Nadira and sips it silently. When introductions are made, he raises his glass to Melissa with a smile. "This place is a lot nicer than Flannigan's," he says to Nadira. "Also louder. Much louder, what're you playing, KMFDM?"
Truth be told, he had been researching the place out of curiosity. Well, curiousity and wanting to know where the exits for the bar were located in case somebody from the riots decided to show up and turn the goth club into a darkly-colored bullet festival.
"I'm not," Melissa says, very quickly about being the mothering type. "I take in strays, but I don't deal with babies." Beat. "Didn't deal with babies. God." And then she lifts her drink to her lips and just chugs it, very nearly choking on the cherry.
Only when it's empty but for ice is it lowered and set down on the bar so she can look at Reuben, then nod. "Hi Reuben. And damn straight it's better than Flannigan's." Not that she's ever been in there, but hey. "Hottest club in town." Which it may or may not, but she's the manager. She has to say stuff like that.
"Baby blues are really getting you down," Nadira shrugs a little. "If you need a sitter, I could comply. I am not sleeping anyways. At least then you could get a few hours of sleep." She points at the empty glass. "Another?" She looks over towards Reuben. "Usually Quinn's DJing, but like I said… a lot of people are out of town. Melissa's right. Hottest club indeed, especially with the events Melissa comes up with."
"I'll have to check some of these events out, then," Reuben says as he leans forward in his seat a bit, huddling around his drink just a little. "You know I'm looking to find some local venues with music, live or otherwise, to promote on my show. If you could get me some flyers or other material to go off of, I'll be happy to plug the club." Of course, not many people wanted to be represented by New York's newest shock jock, but what the hey?
Melissa looks at Nadira like she's a godsend. "That would be amazing. I'd never even touched a baby before I got this one and I'm sorta flying blind and then with…everything else." She's quiet for a moment before nodding and holding out her empty glass for a refill. She nods to Reuben then. "We're always coming up with something. We have regular date auctions, the occasional karaoke, theme parties…Whatever we think'll be awesome."
She moves around the bar then and digs around near the end, not at all in Nadira's way. After a minute she comes up with a flyer and offers it to Reuben. "And here you go. Any advertising'd be good."
"Nice font size," he says, mostly to himself and folds the flyer up, tucking it into his inner jacket pocket. He brings the martini glass back up to his lips and takes a lengthy sip of the elaborate cocktail before looking around the bar a bit more. He leans a bit closer to Melissa so he doesn't have to scream over the din of the bar. "Do you ever have any local bands in here? I can understand the DJ'ing aspect and how it fits in, but do you ever have live groups that perform?"
"I can't say I'm the most experienced with children, but I've taken care of them before. I'd be more than happy to help. Just let me know when and where and how long and I'm there." Nadira says, moving to mix a refill. She glances back to Reuben. "We have a live band once and a while during events. I know I've seen the band Quinn's in play."
"Yeah, we have bands sometimes. Opening night we had a band. The DJs band, actually, yeah," Melissa says, nodding to Nadira. "Mostly though it's the DJ. It's simpler, cheaper and we've got the best damn DJ in the city," she says, sounding proud. She glances to Nadira. "Actually, right now I'm at Quinn's place. Can't get to mine right now."
The martini is drained and another is ordered quietly as Reuben listens to the conversation going on right in front of him. "Cool. I'll see what I can pull as far as strings go in the advertising department. The show I run is still fairly new, but I get quite a few listeners and callers," he says with a shrug, the subject of children not within his realm of comprehension. He knew that kids ate and threw up a lot, leading him to draw frightening similarities between the little humans and German Shepherds.
The martini is mixed, then slid over to Reuben as Nadira nods a little bit. "Quinn's the best, honestly, and I'm not just saying that because I love the woman to pieces." She leans against the bar slightly, glancing between the two. "Advertising is good. Although clearly we don't need it tonight." She peers around.
"Hey, no worries if you can't. We get a lot of word of mouth advertising, which seems to work," Melissa says, nodding. "But yeah, she's awesome. You should meet Quinn sometime."
A nod as Reuben takes a sip of his refreshed drink. "Yeah, Nadira says she's a lot of fun to hang around with—drunk or sober." He grins widely and nods his head a bit to the beat that comes out of the speaker system. "I'm thinking of doing some kind of Homegrown segment on my show every Friday morning, kinda to showcase a local band or two. Maybe even a local DJ, if I can find one that'll tolerate shenanigans."
"Hit up Quinn, seriously. If it weren't for the fact she is not inclined towards the male of the species, I'd say you'd get along on more than one level, but… in any case, she's a fantastic friend and enjoys a good time. She's free in the mornings, too, most of the time," Nadira snorts. "I sound like I could be her agent or something."
"I've never actually hung out with her drunk. Unfortunately it's mostly here at work lately," Melissa says, sighing softly. "Quinn'll tolerate shenanigans though, but she's out of town for a week, give or take. Leave your number or card though, and we'll pass it on to her if you want."
"Actually, I had my business cards taken away from me," Reuben explains as he swirls a bit of lemon peel around in his glass. "My boss got mad that I had them printed with "Jesus H. Christ" on them rather than my given name. Still, I thought it'd be a good marketing ploy, at least with the highly-religious types." He shrugs and takes out a pen, writing his name and number on a napkin, which he then slides to Melissa. "Look me up if you want to arrange some kind of advertisement deal, or if you just want The Revolting Rooster to come down for a show. Hell, I might even draw a name or two." A grin.
"You are quite a rebel, aren't you?" Nadira chuckles, shaking her head a little bit, then glancing between the two of them. "Kinda neat to have a live show-type event earlier before we normally open. Who knows. I am not any sort of event planner. But I can tell you that you'll always have fantastic drinks when I'm around."
The number is picked up, folded, and tucked away as Melissa nods to Reuben. "Would be good publicity for both your show and the club to have it here once. I'll give you a call once things settle down a bit, so we can set something up."
"And you even know how to make a damned decent Vesper," he says, raising his glass and pushing his glasses a little further up onto the bridge of his nose. He turns to Melissa, nodding. "Definitely ring me up when or if you'd like to make some sort of arrangement. I'm honestly getting bored having to make up joke companies to plug on my show, so I might as well plug a damned good bar and club."
"Best in town. I challenge you to find someone who makes a better one." Nadira says, offering Reuben a smile. Her gaze, however, shifts back to Melissa. "Mel, I've… been meaning to ask you. You know, with the 8th and all, a lot of people are dead or missing or whatnot…" And by whatnot she means arrested. She clears her throat a bit. "Any chance you might have, perhaps, heard anything about Griffin?"
"Sounds like a plan then," Melissa says, nodding to Reuben and managing to work up a faint, tired smile. It disappears as she looks back to Nadira, shaking her head. "I haven't heard anything, no. I'm sorry," she says, sounding like she means it.
Reuben stays uncharacteristically quiet as the two ladies speak. He remembers Nadira speaking of a 'sort of' boyfriend going missing after the riots, but nothing seemed to turn up for him. He remains quiet at the bar while the music continues to pulsate onwards. "You know, when I woke up with that Jim Beam hangover this afternoon, I checked the news reports and talked to a person or two that works with or for the pigs — there's been a casualty or two, but nobody named Griffin. Not that I've been told, anyways."
"Well, I suppose it's good to know he hasn't been reported dead… that leaves a number of possibilities, though. They did pick up a bunch of people from the riots, and Griffin was off to help people that day." Nadira glances back towards Reuben. "Unfortunately there's no way they're going to release a list of who they nabbed. But… in any case, thanks for checking that out. Means a lot." She nods back towards Melissa. "Let me know if you do hear anything about him. From anyone."
Melissa's quiet for a moment. not hearing Griffin's name on the news doesn't mean anything either way, she knows that. There's been no mention of Knox or Pandora on the news, after all. "I'm sure he's fine," is what she says aloud, before smiling at them both. "I gotta get back to work. Was nice to meet you, Reuben," she says, before pushing away from the bar and heading back towards her office.
"Yeah, you too," he says into his drink as he watches her depart. Turning to Nadira, he shrugs. "Well, at least she didn't hate me right off the bat. Most people do, to be honest," he says with another wide grin.
Nadira offers Melissa a nod before she turns back to Reuben. "Melissa and I are not exactly most people, in case you had not noticed," she retorts, smiling. "And Quinn isn't either. So you're in good company."
Reuben grinned and tipped Nadira handsomely. "Hey, call me if anything turns up with your squeeze, okay?" He waves to the girl as he steps away from the bar and turns towards the door, making his way out.
The tip warrants a grin, and Nadira nods in Reuben's direction. "Thanks! And I will certainly let you know. Glad you dropped by. And you had better come back sometime!" With that, she's brought back to her job as a pair of customers heads over and order some drinks.
