Participants:
| Scene Title | Potential for Trouble |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Roderick and Nicole introduce themselves to Kelly, who asks about the people to look out for in New York City. |
| Date | May 16, 2010 |
The Corinthian - Bar and Lounge
Situated on the uppermost floor of the building, the Corinthian Bar and Lounge boasts an arched ceiling whose many small, square panes of glass double as a huge skylight. Of course, the large and open room is also lit by a dozen half-dome chandeliers suspended from that double-height ceiling and several high wall sconces. Brass fixtures gleam in the warm light, while the room's scattered potted palms drink it in with their bladed foliage. A ring of doubled marble columns supports the weight of the skylight dome and defines the two sections of the room: that lofty open space in the center; the quieter, slightly darker and more private edges of the lounge.
The tables are elegant rectangles of fine black glass, the seating a mixture of russet-upholstered couches and comfortably-padded oaken chairs. Most of the floor is covered by carpet shaded in the reds and golds of autumn, save for a runner down the very center of the room which is colored the exact shade of purple found in wisteria blossoms. The bar food at the lounge is much like its decor: expensive and beautifully arranged; but unlike many such spendy places, it's also very good. So is the alcohol.
For a newcomer to the city, Kelly seems to be handling the weather rather well. Though she's spent all her time since arriving at the Corinthian indoors, but still. Right now she's seated at the bar, with hr back to it, looking as though she's half asleep. She has a cigarette in one hand, a drink in the other, and her elbows propped up on the bar. She's also wearing a lightweight black jacket, though it gapes in the front due to her current choice of seating position.
"Hello there," drawls out the British accent of Roderick Sweeney, as he approaches the woman. "Mind a little company?" He flashes her a big grin, brows lifting, as he kind of bounces on the balls of his feet.
Of all the goons, he seems the least goonie, with his hay stack hair in a disarray, his gray rocker t-shirt peeking out from under his leather jacket, his fashionably torn jeans and all. His hands are currently tucked into the pockets of his jacket, which pull apart eough to make a gesture, without revealing his holstered weapons. "Come on… don't make a bloke drink on his ol' lonesome."
"Ever the charmer, Sweeney?" The woman that strides up to the bar shortly after Roderick sure looks like Nicole Nichols, but she isn't dressed anything like her. She too is sporting the fashionably torn denim look, with a white tanktop under a black leather jacket with more zippers than can possibly be functional, as well as metal studs, safety pins, and variously brightly coloured buttons. The jacket has to be a relic from the Nineties. It's rare anyone sees her dressed in anything but her smart business suits, or dressed well for her favourite club, or a social function. This is definitely unexpected from anyone who knows her.
"What are we drinking tonight?" Nicole asks, coming to sit on the opposite side of Kelly from where Roderick was intending to sit. She's not going to come between a man and his possible conquest, after all. Adopting a posture similar to Kelly's so she can rest her elbows back on the bar, she brings one hand up to run through her dark, glossy hair. Is there… No. That can't possibly be glitter. "Kelly, wasn't it?" Whether or not the two have been formally introduced, it's Nicole's business to know the names and faces of people in Daniel Linderman's employ.
Half-asleep or not, Kelly doesn't give any indication of surprise when Roderick address her, and she shrugs, motioning with one hand towards the chair next to her. "Free country. And I won't bite." Beat. "Probably." All said in the most humorless of tones. The cigarette is lifted to her lips and inhaled even as she looks towards Nicole and studies her for a moment.
"Yes, it's Kelly," she confirms with a small nod, before her head tilts ever so slightly, the action looking almost birdlike. "Have we met? And I'm drinking whiskey. Not sure what you two will be drinking."
"Oh bite me.. Nichols," grouses the small man, but then a hand comes out of his own black leather jacket to forestall any moments, the pair of silver rings on his fingers, glint in the soft lighting. "Wait. Strike that, cause you might just do that." He eyes Nicole with a small smirk before he slide up onto a barstool next to the two woman.
Something that Nicole says to the other woman, has Roderick looking Kelly over. "Oi… hold on…" He looks across Kelly to the other woman. "This the new bird?" He asks curiously, eyeing her again. "Interesting."
Turning his attention to the prospect of a drink, a hand goes up to flag down the bartender, so that Roderick can shout over the slight din in the room. "Tetley Ale, mate."
"It is," Nicole confirms for Roderick with a lopsided smile. "Clever boy you are." Yes, she might bite. He's one of the goons, and she's the bitch. Although she's seemingly off her game tonight. "Electric lemonade," she tells the bartender when he glance to her for her order. Kain would be snorting with laughter.
Turning to regard the other woman, she offers her name, "Nicole Nichols. Executive Assistant to Mister Linderman. Among other things." She offers also a polite smile that's made a little less polite by an appraising look. A look she then turns to Roderick, unashamedly lifting her brows in askance to him. What do you think?
Kelly glances to Roderick and gives him a faint nod, again confirming that she's the new bir…girl. "That would be me." Then her gaze is returning to Nicole, and she returns that impolite look with a very direct gaze of her own. This is no wilting flower here. "Other things," she says flatly. "And I suppose that asking about those other things would just get me a shrug or some other noncommital answer." Though it's clear from the slight shift in the way she looks at Nicole that she's imagining unflattering 'things' that Nicole could do for Mister Linderman.
Again her attention shifts back to Roderick. "So we know who I am, and who she is. But who, I wonder, are you?"
A flat look returns Nicole's look, tho' there is a slight upturn at one corner of his mouth. Smart ass, the look clearly states, before he turns back to the new girl. Flashing her a toothy grin, the smallest goon, gives a nod of his head. "Roderick Sweeney, employed by Mistah Linderman, as well."
"Welcome to the gang, I suppose, yeah?" A brow lifts at Kelly, before he turns to look down the bar in an attempt to see what is taking so damn long. "Bloody good timing too…" He jerks his head at the door. "With all this cold, polar bears and such."
Nicole heaves a disgusted little breath, rolling her eyes toward the ceiling. "Don't even get me started on the damn polar bear again." The bartender also seems to have good timing, as he sets first Roderick's ale down in front of him, and then Nicole's blue alcoholic concoction.
Shaking her head, Nicole is only amused at Kelly's assessment of the answer she might get to what exactly other things entails. "By other things, I mean I am also his scheduling coordinator, I help out on the PR front now and again, and I also help protect and cultivate his political interests." She jerks her thumb out toward the bar's exit, to indicate an area beyond. "I also designed Chambery at his request. So, among other things seems an apt addendum to my title."
Kelly shakes her head. "I'm not new to Mister Linderman's employ, just new to this particular city," she tells Roderick. Then she glances between them. "Polar bear? I'm not sure I really want to ask. In fact, if it's been dealt with, I won't. Little reason to worry about past problems when you can focus on current ones."
"Yeah… then Guz redecorated it." Roderick comments about the bear, as he lifts his glass to his lips, the amusement plain in his tone. "Fine job he did of it too," he adds after taking a drink.
"PR… I do not envy you that position what with everything that's been going on." There is a rankling of his nose at the thought of having to deal with that sort of job. "I'm more then happy to stay behind the scenes." Which, is part of his job. Bodyguard, thief… doer of bad things on occasion. Plus, the one thing very very few know, the old man's seer.
"I don't know. I'm getting used to this whole impossible public relations task position," Nicole offers wryly, taking a sip of her own drink. "I worked on Rickham and Chesterfield's campaigns. I've got this running into a brick fucking wall business down pat." At least one of those campaigns was successful, even if that success was short-lived.
"So things have been exciting around here then, even with the god awful weather?" Kelly asks, putting her cigarette out and downing every drop of her scotch, before silently requesting a refill.
"Excitin' is one way to put it." Roderick nods slowly, "With large pockets of sitting around on your arse, doin' nothin'." A another longer drink of his Tetley, before setting it down gently on the bar. "It definitely puts Vegas to shame. Beyond even this, the city is full of nutters."
"You'll get use to it though…" Roderick comments with a short nod of his head.
"Or she'll run screaming," Nicole tacks on. There's an approving nod in Kelly's direction, however. "I think she can take it." If the stone cold bitch exterior is any indication of Kelly's wherewithal, at least.
"I don't know about that. I was rather fond of Vegas. But I was told to come here, so here I am," Kelly says with a small shrug. The look she gives Nicole next comes with the faintest curving of one corner of her mouth. Amusement? Could be. "I can take it," she agrees, picking up her freshly filled drink. "So who are the important people in this city anyway? Besides our mutual employer, of course."
"I haven't known the old codger to pick people that would run, yet." The pre-cog comments lightly, fingers turning the glass on the bar top slowly, watching it. "So yeah… probably right there Nichols."
The question from Kelly, draws Roderick's eyes from the glass of ale, to her. Brows lifting slightly, he leans forward to look past her to Nicole. "I'll let you field that one, you know more about that climate then I do."
"Sylvia Lockheart is the current mayor. If you're looking for someone to keep an eye out for, she's near the top of my list. Got to hand it to her, she can be ruthless." There's a grudging sort of respect there from Nicole. The kind one gives to their opponent when they've been bested on the field of battle. "Phoebe Thornton. Old, old - practically ancient - money and pro-Evolved activist." Nicole tips her head back, mentally filing through her list of People to Watch Out For. "The Petrellis, of course, are worth noting." Though she doesn't go any further than simply noting at the moment.
"The Chesterfields are gone." If you don't count their daughter, which Nicole clearly does not. "That Hunter girl was found dead not that long ago… Ell-Arr Maxwell went down in a plane crash…" Ticking names off the list is easier than remembering who's actually left alive on it, it would seem. "Eh, those are the big players in New York right now. Plenty for you to go on." The woman waves a dismissive hand. She doesn't suspect Kelly's going to remember these names past a few days anyway. Not unless she does some research, and that's all on her.
Nicole gets Kelly's full attention, or so it seems, though she doesn't nod at each of the names like others might, but sits still, watching and sipping at her drink. "Any of those people like making trouble for us?"
"The one with the most potential to make trouble for us, I believe is Lockheart." Roderick might not know a whole lot about the political climate in the city, but he at least watched the elections. "Some of the stuff I heard her say…" He shakes his head. "Not exactly someone I woulda voted for."
The pre-cog turns thoughtful, his expression a touch distant, for a long moment before adding. "Tho' at any moment really things can shift. Always shiftin' this city. You blink and somethin' else happens. Someone new rises to power, while others fall."
"Definitely Lockheart," Nicole readily agrees with Roderick. "My own personal grudges with her on the campaign front aside, she's not exactly ideal leadership when it comes to our position." That is, Daniel Linderman's position. Whatever that may be.
"Giovanna Civella fancied herself a contender for a while after the District Attorney's Office finally managed to make some charges stick to her father. She has allegedly taken the reins of the Civella crime family, but she hasn't got any of the talent dear old Frankie had for the business, if how quiet things have gotten over there is any indication." Nicole considers this for a moment, then with a tilt of her head, a shrug, and a sip of her drink, she concludes, "Though I suppose the fact that Gigi hasn't gotten herself whacked must be some sort of testament to either her leadership, or continued respect people hold for her father." For all that's worth.
Kelly nods to them both and seems to file away that information on Lockheart. "If Gigi is a problem, then let's hope that it's respect for her father than is keeping her in her current position. If she's no leader, then that respect will no doubt fade in time. People have a hard time respecting that which is gone."
Roderick's head tilts slightly in the direction of the woman's chattering, head nodding slowly as his listens. At least til there is a squelch of sound from his jacket pocket. "«Sweeney!»" The sound making him jump a little from not expecting it.
Fishing it out a red and black walkie, the little goon, rolls his eyes at the other two. "Yeah? What you want?"
"«Got a feisty one over here.»"
Roderick sighs heavily out of his nose and moves to hop off the stool. "I'm on my way." The walkie talkie is tucked back in his pocket and he nods to both as he turns to leave, flashing that big grin of his, "Work never sleeps. I will talk to you lovely ladies another time."