Latent -Leviathan Ave| 12:47am -
"My point was that back a few centuries ago places like this were not for recreation. All that energy went somewhere. They were places of worship. The women that served their were revered as priestesses, chosen by the gods for their beauty and as the only way to let the mortal soul reach a small piece of some sort of heaven - a little death, as some cultures call it." Maximos was indeed driving. The mechanism itself was not difficult, a few pedals and a wheel, it just required a basic understanding of momentum to be manageable. You whip the horses with your foot and then steer them with the wheel, this told him nothing of rules of the road and infact made it so that in situations exactly like this Max was looking directly at Vahn expecting the horses to steer themselves and ignoring the road.
He caught himself just before driving into oncoming traffic and swerved across a sea of white headlights into....
Latent -The Cloistered Oyster| 12:50am -
"The Cloistered Oyster." Said Maximos with a smirk. "Did you know that a cloister is a part of convent or cathedral. To cloister ones self is to seclude yourself in such a place." Max pulled directly up to the front of the club. There were three main entrances under a large red awning. One for normal guests, one for people here to watch the fight, and one for competitors. The first two were guarded by large muscled men in shirts too small for them. The last was decorated with pretty but scantily clad girls. Max did as Jack showed in him a hundred of those G-Tube videos. He stopped the car, turned the key so it turned off, opened the door and the turn to look back at Vahn. "Old god's cling to old habits in the modern age. Mind yourself Mr. Fah, we're about to enter sacred ground. Oh, and dont leave anything this is a rental."
In one fluid motion, Max exited the car scooping up a sword in a shoulder sheath from beside the driver's seat and swung it over his shoulder as he hit the door shut. One of the club personnel ran up to the car and Maximos tossed him the keys and headed for the entrance fixing his cuff links and adjusting his jacket. It looked like something out of a movie. Now - Maximos had no idea of knowing this club did not have valet. That man had come to tell him he couldnt park there. Max also had no idea how to park, so shortly after himself and Vahn exited the car it began to roll back down the hill towards oncoming traffic.
Max ignored all that.
It was time to make an entrance.
[♫](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN-xVSlnWKQ)
Max would past all three entrances to the side of the building where a single staircase lead up the front door with one girl sitting on the steps letting a lazy stream of smoke rise from the cigarette pinched in her fingers. At first glance she might look like one of the working girls but she was too clothed. She short bob cut black hair with piercing blue eyes, a black that might as well have been made of paint with his smoothly it laid over her curves and a thick fur coat with the skin of some white furry animal puffed around the neck. Max didnt greet her, he just approached. He girl looked up from her cigarette, her pale skin made her eyes barely visible.
"Damara is expecting us." He said. And then from a couple hundred feet behind himself and Vahn was the awful sound of tired skidding across asphalt and the multitudinous crunch of fiberglass. Max didnt look back.
"Oh, you must be Mr. Black." The girl gave both men her full attention. She stood up, standing just an inch or two over six feet. Her dress showed legs that had not been toned by dancing. "Right this way." She made her way up the stairs to the very top where she opened a black iron door and lead Vahn and Max to the managers suite. Max paused before entering the door, standing beside it and gesturing wide so Vahn could enter first. A smirk played on his pale face spreading all the way up to his mismatched eyes.
"Dont let her kiss you." Max said before following Vahn in. "Her lips are cursed by death itself as a punishment for trying to seduce him, one touch will kill any man."
The Manager's Suite was a large balcony above the main club floor, separated by an elevator only key members of the staff had access too and a one way glass floor. From here you could see the whole of the club stretching out beneath and in front of you. Lights in kaleidoscope of colors painted the room played across the room, but did little more than provide color. A single main light shined dim ambiance on the main stage and left the walls and corners of the room dark. Keen eyes could make out shapes gyrating and grinding in the shadows. The air was rife with the smell of alcohol, expensive perform and sweat. Music thrummed across the walls mixed with moans and other sounds most often only heard in private places. The club felt like a thrumming heart beating in a cage of gold, but if you looked close enough you could see money stained with mud tracked across the floor, old men with too much money paying for services from women young enough to be their children, you could see track marks down the arms of the dancers who either were too popular and needed to keep up or not popular enough. Three things shaped like women, that lived in the dark with eyes like cats stepped away from a dark corner. Their necks and faces splashed in deep red, it dribbled down their chins and across their breasts and hands. From the balcony one could see someones expensive dress shoe poking out from a shadowy corner. By the time the bloody women reached the main show room the red had seeped into their skin and they danced in a trio on to the next man with enough green.
This place, like this tournament was heaven and hell. Some of the best humanity had to offer directly beside the worst. The girl who opened the door shut it behind Max and Vahn cutting off the cold air from outside and leaving the balmy heat of the club itself to swarm them.
A single woman rest against the edge of the balcony looking over it. Her figure was petite but loud. Her hair was stark white, as was her skin, and the silk dress she wore swayed in the air as if it were made of the lightest gossamer. She didnt have as voluptuous a body as some of her workers but, there was something about her. Something in her nature that just spoke of primal desire at some gut, instinctual level. She turned around as the door shut.
"Luci!" She cried out and moved toward Max and Vahn. She walked like a tiger or a lioness stalking prey, each step careful and poised but still fluid. She threw her arms over his shoulders and immediately moved to kiss him square on the lips. Max deftly moved his head to the side and pulled her in for something more like a hug. Her eyes, if indeed you could call them that, were already past him and onto Vahn. What she called eyes were as red as freshly spilled blood on snow with tiny pin pricks of white for pupil. She looked at Vahn like he was a snack laid out at a buffet and she hadnt eaten in years. The distance between the ground and here seemed to make conversation possible in this room. "Oh, and this must be Mister Fah...Mmmm...I approve of the company you keep nowadays. First that demone -" She stopped as Max placed his hands around her waist and slid her back.
"Are the preparations ready?" He said, forcibly adjusting the subject. Damara sighed dramatically.
"Yes...always business with you. He came in an hour ago with his team. Shall I send them now?" She asked, Max nodded.
"And the instructions I had Jack bring over?"
"Oooh! Jack! That sweet little boy, you must let him come visit again."
"No, I dont." Said Max flatly, with a smirk. Damara frowned and made a sad mewing sound like a disappointed cat.
"No fun...yes, it came." She waved her hand over and a girl moved from the shadows at the edge of the room. She was dressed in form fitting blue dress with hair like liquid marble and she moved so silky and fluidly she made water look like clumsy stone. She carried over a golden tray and presented it to Max and Vahn. It had two drinks in what looked like martini glasses. One was black, and one was red. Damara scooped up the black one and handed it to Max. "Perternity Mistique, just as you requested. I lost two girls finding this we had better be even for what happened in the Maltess and Marchesa. Two for two." Max accepted the drink shrugged. Damara frowned and then she picked up the red drink, and stepped to Vahn. She didnt pierce his personal space so much as she hovered just at the border so her presence and her warmth was felt. "Luci told me where to look but I never expected we'd find this. The drink is called Fire's Breath, do you recognize it? It was brewed just over two millenia ago in a kingdom far, far away. The kingdom is gone but it was theorized some of the ruling class may have kept a few casks aside somewhere that could have survived the ages. We found it in ruins. Rumor has it, it's distilled from the blood of some terrible fiery beast..." She breathed that last word, and reached her hands out, thin fingers like some albino spider. She wrapped her hands around Vahn's hand and slipped the drink into his grip. She leaned forward to whisper in his ear while letting one hand slid up his chest and caress his cheek. "...but...I wasnt there...who really knows the secrets of the Kingdom of Allen Fah...?"
And then she danced away. She clapped her hands and made for the elevator in the back of the room.
"You boys have fun!" She said with a grin before leaving the manager's suit entirely. Max didnt have need of a bunch of riches and power persay. He just knew where to ask and who to lean on.
When she was gone, Max turned to Vahn with a splash of neon light painted across the lens of glasses and offered his glass up for cheers. "To rousing times and friends in high and low places."
Vahn Fah Wrote:
