Crimson Hawk Hotel [Page 13]

Despite how warm the air near them was from them being in proximity to each other, he still felt a hot flush creep along his cheeks as she leaned in and spoke softly. She always did know exactly how to make him feel as if she would devour him whole anytime and anywhere.

He swallowed with a dry mouth as he did his best to look unbothered as she moved her fingers down, even going so far as to stare in a completely different direction. He was saved when she stopped and laughing more than likely mercilessly stepped away from him.

"...Tch..." He furrowed his brows at her teasing, inwardly breathing deep and getting himself back under control. He knew she enjoyed teasing him- he would just have to make her pay for it later...

"Hrmm...yea. It's...been a while" he absently scratched the side of his cheek as he realized it had been actually close to several years now. "He can't have changed too much," he thought aloud suddenly.

He allowed himself another smile, as he watched her. Her attitude had always been contagious and he could never find himself swallowed up in any personal darkness when she was near. She was a light to him in more ways than one after all.

Scratching the tip of his nose absently, he considered her request. He hadn't eaten anything all day himself- which was bad since he needed to constantly replenish what he lost in exerting himself in fighting. Having to stay constantly hydrated could be annoying on the really bad days. "Yea, that's fine," he said as he looked sideways at her, "we can grab something from downstairs if you want."

He offered the crook of his left arm as he smiled gently. "Ahhh...I don't think I've done any of that. Maybe that bossy lady is still downstairs and can handle it for us." By "bossy lady" he, of course, meant Twitch.

"Something tells me she's used to dealing with crazy on a regular basis..." he trailed off as he cocked his head to the side, listening to her. The open air was good, and he had finally 'cooled off' so to speak. He could just imagine what the papers would say tomorrow, never mind any of the gossip shows or news broadcasts.

In hindsight, he should have done better than to let it escalate to the point it did...but... I'll let the me of tomorrow worry about that. "..."

He took note of her nervousness, grinning just a bit. "I'll be sure to protect you from the evil metal box Princess." He patted her hand gently and a tiny bit genuinely even as he began leading the way.

Come to think of it, his stomach was growling now as well.

"Tch. What a joke. Like I can afford even the "cheap" rooms in this place. Gonna have to take out a loan just to cover even one night..."

The platinum-haired young man mumbled to himself as he meandered through the hotel lobby toward the elevators. Over his shoulder were hoisted his meager possessions: a cheap suit, still in the plastic bag of its most recent dry cleaning, and duffel bag containing the supplies for one overnight stay. Even if he'd wanted to stay longer, he'd never afford it on his salary.

"I oughta make *him* pay for it, ya know. I don't even have any PTO left. Missing work's costin' me money to even be here..."

It had taken some time to secure the lodging he'd managed to acquire. Some altercation with crazy people at the front desk had left him standing there for a while while the situation had been dealt with. Not that he wasn't sympathetic to their plight. He'd gotten the same aggravating information. Suites booked for the Ball and some exhibition, no tournament, and previous tournament entrants, not even champions, definitely weren't getting any free rooms. He just hadn't reacted quite as... violently.

"Nice to see the Hawk hasn't started to attract any... less unusual patrons. Uh oh, speaking of which..."

As he passed the entrance to the bar/dining room, he rearranged his carried items, looking away and hunching over a bit to hide his face. Not telling what unsavory types were already in there, and he didn't risk wanting to get noticed by anyone he wasn't prepared to deal with yet. Once past and out of sight, he'd finally arrived at the massive ground floor entrance to the large number of elevators serving the entire height of the sizable hotel. Some of them even went all the way up to the roof level, or damn near it.

He pressed the call button, keeping his head down in patient silence, while he waited for his death box to arrive.

“Wait. Wait. Hold up? Tournament? You mean THE tournament?”

It was almost too difficult to concentrate with Izzy breathing down her neck while she dealt with the cat-girl behind the massive counter, in the lobby of the famed Crimson Hawk Hotel. The woman was like an antsy child, eager to move on to the next exciting thing, never able to stay still for longer than it took to take a breath.

Or at least, so she was today.

“AH. SERIOUSLY?! IT IS TIME?!”

Izette’s mood had taken a complete 180 degree turn from her earlier fugue like state, coupled with embarrassment and shame. Here she was now bouncing on her heels and fighting to get a look at the seemingly bunk flier that Ryke was waving around in her confusion.

What kind of misunderstanding was there, if it was possible for fliers advertising the famous tournament to be plastered all over Gaia? Actually - a much more thorough look at it was enough to catch something she had not before. In small print near the bottom there was some addendum, something about a Midus Sonners and absolutely no mention of the Noah Foundation OR the Crimson Hawk. In fact - and she certainly felt ridiculous for not having seen it sooner - Heaven had been spelled incorrectly throughout the entire flier. A clever trick to avoid a messy legal situation.

Well, so much for that. She let Izzy take the flier away from her willingly. What Ryke didn’t expect, was for the woman to shove her way past and clamber up to the desk with a mission in mind.

“Now, now now. My beautiful Zandy Dee, let me have a go with this lady, hrm? I speak fluent customer service. AND cat girl.”

”What? No. She speaks co-”

“Well? Are you booking?”

Ryke tried to ignore Izzy and push her back to the other side of the counter. ”Yeah sorry we just ne-”

Izzy interjected, again fighting for space at the counter. This was getting ridiculous. “Hi Mitsu-bitchy. I am afraid we are misunderstanding one another. I want you to give us our hotel suite. One of the nice ones for this upcoming tournament that you see here on this flyer. Cause you see, we got a team. A team so great that no one will know what to do when we come up on the roster! And if you don’t….”

She was arguing, and not well. Ryke exhaled a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding, expecting the tirade to be much worse, not that it was great to begin with. Izzy could be a wildcard at times, and wasn’t afraid to tell someone where to shove their opinions, if she didn’t care for them. Usually, that was an admirable trait and she would have been proud of her friend for sticking up for herself but this was not one of those situations where such a reaction was appropriate, or helpful. There wasn’t actually a tournament being hosted this year, which meant that they weren’t going to get the VIP treatment. They were nothing more than ordinary hotel guests causing a scene.

”Izzy, enough. She’s not trying to dupe us-”

Flick - was the sound of one of the woman’s switchblades opening. Before anyone could do or say anything else, the unhinged punker was pointing it threateningly at the cat-girl clerk.

“I have no problem introducing you to Sarah. She just came out to play, but I’m sure she has no problems making friends with your insides.”

“Are you threatening ME in order to get a room for YOUR confusion? “SECURITY!””

”Woah woah WOAH - hang on!” She protested, loudly, and stepped in between Izzy and the desk. Ryke placed her hands on her friends shoulders and forced her backwards. ”Okay let’s not threaten staff.”

Security loomed and she waved at them to give them a moment. ”Hang on. Just - hang on.” They paused, much to her relief, and muttered amongst one another about crazy guests and not getting paid enough to deal with them.

Izzy was laughing, partly from nerves and partly from - well whatever rush she got from what just transpired. It was enough to tell Ryke that something was seriously wrong with the woman. Whatever happened here in the hotel, before she had arrived at the garage had seriously taken its toll on her. Before, she had not wanted to pry into what seemed obviously like a sensitive subject, but now she was worried. Now it seemed pertinent to know.

“Welp. I’m out of ideas. What do you wanna do?”

”Well I would like to not get kicked out of the hotel. So I’ll sort things out and get us a room. And you can go wait in the bar. Go order us some drinks, and I’ll be there as soon as I’m done checking in, alright? Good.”

With her hands still on the punker’s shoulders, Ryke spun Izzy around towards the hallway leading around back and to the bar. She gave her a good push to start her off. ”Now go. Before security changes their mind.”

”Cthulhu Wish” Wrote:

"It'll be fine." He smiled reassuringly even as they had made their way towards the elevator, and were already waiting for the doors to open up. The rooftop was normally a pretty busy locale but with the recent influx of individuals - attention was pretty much elsewhere for the time being. "Just hold onto my arm- I won't let you go, promise."

He guided them both into the waiting car as it dinged open- numerous flashes for other floors already going off as they stepped inside. "You'd think this place only had one elevator, geeze." He pushed the button for the ground floor- even as he pressed Sierra closer to him everytime he felt her tense up. He recalled when the advent of technology first started its progress- and how long it had taken him to get accustomed to things many took for granted now, but he had never become as fearful as she was of anything restrictive and mobile at the same time.

"I guess this means catching a flight to Gambino is off the books after this huh?" He said it teasingly, in an attempt to keep her mind off her current surroundings.

Now, this elevator was making it's way down- and there were sure to be more than one in the Hawk...but it would just so happen to be the same elevator that would come to a halt, and open up on a certain floor on its way to the lobby.

He blinked once as somebody entered and immediately asked for eggs.

She stepped into the elevator car, poking at the "door close" and "Lobby" buttons until the door decided to close.

"Morning Vahn. Morning, Sierra."

Attire consisted of black slacks and a long, pink shirt. It was the type of shirt that you'd expect a girlfriend to wear if they slept the night at their boyfriend's house, except this shirt actually fit. She wore no shoes, sporting respectable claws on her feet and the hands that softly slapped her own face. Her long, shaggy, black hair was... well, a mess, but one could tell she actually put effort into combing her hand through it to give it some kind of order. Dark skin, pointed humanoid ears, crystal blue eyes, and markings reaching from beneath her collar to her left eye rounded out the general appearance of the woman who stepped onto the elevator with at least one person who could be considered a celebrity, and tiredly greeted them as if they were coworkers at an 8-5 dead end desk job.

"Or... afternoon. Whatever time it is." Pause. "Do either of you have the time?"

Vahn Fah Wrote:

Lady Sierra Wrote:

Although Izzy thought her plan was the best plan, cause, after all, she was Izzy and none of her plans would have been considered a bad idea. Ryke, protested rather loudly as she interrupted between the two of them. She even scolded her like a child as the security was now on their toes about both of them.

”Well I would like to not get kicked out of the hotel. So I’ll sort things out and get us a room. And you can go wait in the bar. Go order us some drinks, and I’ll be there as soon as I’m done checking in, alright? Good.”

“But…”

”Now go. Before security changes their mind.” Grabbing the punker by the shoulders, Ryke quickly shoved her off to the bar and the Punker almost grumbled as she began to walk towards it. She just wanted to help, that was all. Is that really too much to ask. With a quickly flick of her wrist, Sarah danced between her fingers before she shut the blade tightly.

Her heavy combat boots hit the floor as she walked over towards the bar that she was all too familiar with. She even witnessed a familiar face disappear through a portal burst through the side of the wall and caused a rather familiar face that the punker could have sworn she had only seen in a dream. A dream full of jerks that is.

“****** weirdos, they do not pay me enough for this st.”

The bartender muttered to himself as he began to pick gold pieces quite literally out of the bar. Could his day getting any worse? Well…it was about too.

Walking up the punker tucked her baby girl away on her belt and hopped up on the counter rather than the bar stool. Izette was above bar stools. Just like how she was above doors. Izette was her own world entirely. Turning slightly, the punker made eye contact with the barkeep and smiled brightly. Nothing pleased her than to get a drink.

“…Jesus. It’s you. Aren’t you banned from here?” The bartender groaned as he realized just who exactly was sitting on his bar top. Izette wasn’t exactly ever someone that could easily be forgotten. Especially if you had a reputation of setting the bar on fire once or twice.

“I was.” Izette at that moment reached in between her breasts to pull out a familiar silver tin that she quickly flicked open to reveal some nicely rolled black cylinders with red filters. She had upgraded from her regular s**t, she was now smoking Melech’s fancy smokes. Reaching down she plopped one in her lips and proceeded to light it as she often did.

“But that ban was only for two years. It’s been much longer, now hasn’t it?” Smoke drifted from her lips as she spoke rather calmly towards him. A regular person may have started gagging over the smoke, however, Izette was a trained professional when it came to her nicotine cravings. This stuff did not bother her in the slightest. Without any effort, her tin was gone and back into her breasts as she pulled out the smoke from between her lips.

“Now, why don’t you be a dear and fetch me something strong. I’ve had a rough ****** day and could use something to kick my a.” Lightly she patted his cheek with her smoke hand and proceeded to pull out her Gphone. As she took another drag she quickly looked on the locked screen where there was a selfie between herself, Melech, Ryke, Jake, and Connor. Naturally, Ryke was protesting in the picture, Izzy was laughing, Melech was perfectly posed, Jake was looking the wrong way, and Connor was blinking. It was the perfect picture.

However, her attention wasn’t on the picture itself, but rather the lack of notifications. Normally by now, Melech would have mentioned where he was. And yet there was nothing.

“So…Here is a bottle of that cherry whiskey you guys used to chug. But I have a question for you… how are you expecting to pay? You still owe from last ti-”

“WORRY NOT FRIEND. I actually am equipped with enough money to buy this whole bar.” With that Izette plopped her phone on the countertop and turned to talk to the bartender once again. He was a cutie with his blonde hair and blue eyes. They must have been roughly the same age, however having a new body…the punker looked much younger than she actually was. It was definitely an advantage when you were wanting to have a cheap date.

Reaching into her pocket, the punker pulled out the same plastic card that she had used earlier to book her hotel room with the Hawk. Ryke had never asked for it back, nor did she make any comment about it. So clearly that meant it was okay.

“It’ll be on credit, handsome. And keep the liquor flowing!” Shoving the card at him, the punker grabbed a hold of the bottle he brought her and proceeded to rip the cap off with her teeth. Sure it was a screwtop, but screwtops were for babies. And Izette was wanting her booze. Once spitting the lid to the side she proceeded to chug the liquor back.

The feeling of the liquor burn ran down the center of her core and she felt it trickle down into her stomach. It must have been three seconds before she needed a break and let out an exasperated sound of relaxation.

“This is Zandra’s card….”

“b***h. She is right in the lobby. It’s fine. And while you are at it, better bring Zandy a bottle too.” Waving her hand the punker placed the bottle on the counter and proceeded to continue to take another drag. Sighing, the barkeep continued on his merry way as he went to process the card. Money was money. He wasn’t really all that worried about it, seeing as he knew the two of them were often glued at the hip.

As the smoke poured from her nostrils, Izette froze for a moment as she could have sworn she saw a woman in a business suit standing at the back of the bar. Although, people normally didn’t bother her. It was the fact that she had no facial features that through her off completely. There were no eyes, nose or mouth. Just a clean slate….waiting to speak to her. However, shaking her head a bit, the woman disappeared and the punker was still alone in the bar with the barkeep who had now returned with her card.

“…Did you see that?” The punker took the card back in her hand as she took another drag from her cigarette.

“See what?” The blonde man looked around her and proceeded to scan the room. However, they were still both very much alone. His eyebrow lifted as he waited for the punker to explain why she was acting so oddly. He knew she was odd, but this was out of the norm even for her.

“HA. MADE YOU LOOK.” The punker started to laugh as she began to take another swig of her liquor. The bartender swore a bit as he finally wandered off to take care of his other daily tasks of checking his own phone by the cash. Sipping her drink the punker continued to gaze at the far left corner of the room where she had seen the mysterious woman appear.

"Sins of an Angel" Wrote: