It had been almost a month since Inigo had started at "The Awakening", a stylish bar in the downtown area. He had been through two years of Bartending School, a requirement from his mother, and now he finally had a cool job he could brag about to girls. He'd been getting used to all the regular opening and closing duties, and had now learned the names of all his co-workers. His ears had even adjusted to the pounding EDM music that he worked through until the early hours. It was now feeling em regular . It felt good.
"Inigo?" a voice called as he opened the employee entrance door, "Aren't you early?" Inigo smiled at the grumpy looking redhead.
"It's scheduling day, Severa," he grinned back at her, "I need to know when to schedule all my dates," he continued, no note of sarcasm in his voice. The girl with pigtails rolled her eyes at that comment. He and she both knew that that wasn't the case, but she shrugged and continued on into the kitchen, dumping an armful of dirty glasses for the unfortunate dishwasher tonight. Inigo knew not to take her silence personally – she was just a bit of a grump, but a drunken bonding session after work the other week had brought them a bit closer together.
Exhaling and pulling off his jacket, Inigo glanced at the schedule for the week. On it were everyone's hours written neatly in different coloured markers (his boss was nothing if not thorough), and under tomorrow's shift were the letters VLARP; big, red, and intimidating.
"Hey Sev, what does VLARP mean?" he called to her, and he saw her head emerge from the kitchen.
"Oh, you haven't had one of those yet, have you?" she smirked, and then waved her hand, "Don't worry about it, it's just like any other night. Just stock lots of Clamato and you'll be fine." Clamato? Inigo tried to imagine who would order that many Bloody Marys, but nothing really came to mind, and he decided it could wait until tomorrow. He quickly punched in, and began taking inventory for the evening. A Wednesday, so probably slow. He brushed a lock of silvery blue hair behind his ear and began to get to work.
The bar closed at 1 AM, early for bar hours. Inigo finished putting away the last of the drink garnishes as they turned off the music. His ears were ringing, he noticed, and he waved down Severa who was just about to step out the door.
"Hey, if you don't polish the glasses Kjelle will get mad at you again," he teased, but in all seriousness she probably would get mad. Severa never missed an opportunity to slack, a trait that both earned his annoyance and admiration.
"Yeah, yeah, fine," she grumbled, putting down her purse and grabbing a cloth from the bar. Inigo observed her, weighing his options, then decided to gamble.
"Severa, can you tell me more about the VLARP thing?" Immediately feeling himself blushing, he glanced away and tried to laugh a bit, "I have no idea what it even means."
The redhead eyed him over the glass she was holding up to the light, then lowered it and looked him dead in the eyes, "It's a bunch of weirdos, if you ask me. Rent out the entire bar for the night."
"That's….it?" he blinked, a bit of disappointment in his voice. He'd been expecting to be something big, some video being filmed in the bar, or a secret society meeting. It was in red marker after all; nothing was in red marker unless it was important.
"That's it," she put down the glass and dropped her cloth in it, "Now if you'll excuse me I have someone waiting for me." Inigo waggled his eyebrows at her, and she brushed him off with a wave of her hand, and grabbed her purse. "It's my bed."
Inigo grinned at her and made an obscene gesture, earning him the finger from Severa, and closed up the bar for the night. VLARP day sounded a lot less intimidating now, and he decided he didn't need to come in early after all.
He should have come in early. He would have definitely needed at least half an hour to process what was going on. Around him stood cloaked men and women, some with false vampire teeth, talking in strangely eloquent language, sipping Bloody Caesars and laughing. Apparently the V stood for Vampire. Live Action Role Playing, is what Kjelle had told him at the beginning of his shift. Apparently they rented out the entire bar once a month and mingled. Inigo wasn't even sure how to react.
"Greetings, human," a voice shook Inigo from his thoughts, and he turned to the man, flashing his bartender's smile.
"What can I get for you?" He looked the man up a down. He wore a black velvet cape, had blonde hair that hung in front of his red….red? eyes, and two long fangs hanging out of his mouth. Oh jeez.
"A bloody Caesar, extra bloody," the man smirked, lowering his lashes seductively. Inigo swallowed quickly, then began to mix him his drink, finishing off his fourth (fourth!) bottle of Clamato of the night.
"Can I see your ID?" Inigo asked, rimming the glass with celery salt.
"My…ID. Right," the man stammered, shoving a hand into his pocket nervously. Inigo raised an eyebrow. Eighteen year olds were allowed in the bar, and quite a few people had tried to casually order a drink while underage, and Inigo was used to it. He waited patiently as the man fumbled through his pockets, then mumbled something.
"What was that?" Inigo implored, smiling a bit. It was always satisfying to catch kids in the act.
"I seem to have forgotten it. A…virgin Caesar then," The man, em boy glanced away awkwardly, but then inhaled and seemed to regain his composure. "Are you new? I tend to know the humans who work here around this time."
Inigo blinked at his natural slip back into confidence, "I'm new at the bar. Can I assume you're a…." he paused, "A vampire, then?" He didn't even know why he was going along with this. Was he supposed to? Was this in the job description? The entire night was feeling more and more surreal.
"I mustn't reveal my secrets, human, no matter how cute you are," the man smirked and Inigo felt himself blushing. This kid isn't even old enough to drink, what kind of confidence did this kid have?
"Do you like it, human? Being…." The man licked his lips, "….mortal?" Inigo didn't even know how he was supposed to answer this.
"Uh, I guess?" he tucked some hair behind his ear, sliding the finished drink over to the boy.
"Perhaps I could take you on as a concubine, it's not like you'd have much of a say in the matter," the blonde man continued, smirking enough to reveal the fake vampire teeth. It was kind of endearing, he thought to himself.
"I'm not sure….how I'd feel about that, I kind of like my job."
"Unfortunate," the man let out a theatrical sigh, "I would have loved to spend long nights with you, in blood and passion."
Inigo swallowed and stammered out, "Wh-what? Hold on, I...I need to check something in the back, pardon me." What the heck? Was this kid speaking vampire nonsense really getting to him? VLARP night was even more intimidating. Damn Severa for not truly warning him, and damn the blond vampire boy for hitting on him so much. He was probably only like eighteen. Nothing compared to Inigo, who was almost 24. He found himself in the bathroom, leaning against the sink. He splashed some water onto his face and shook his head violently. Gotta focus on the job. It's one thing when cute girls hit on him, but he wasn't exactly used to such blatant seduction by men. He heard the toilet flush and immediately absconded from the bathroom, even more embarrassed at anyone else seeing him flustered.
When he returned to the bar, the blonde man had disappeared, probably off mingling with some other "creature of the night". Inigo wasn't even sure what the point of this kind of meet up was. Who wanted to spend their Thursday nights pretending to be some ancient vampire? Was there a point? Did they really come every month? He busied his hands polishing glasses, occasionally sneaking glances to the strange patrons of the evening. There was a woman whispering in a man's ear, and by the expression on his face, he'd be lucky that night. There were several men talking and laughing in a group, giving each other a "cheers", a few women talking quietly, shooting suspicious glances around, and what appeared to be a game of poker going on at the main table. It was…strange, but Inigo found himself strangely entranced by their world.
After having to go to the back to get another crate of Clamato, the blonde "vampire" was back at the bar, talking quietly to another man. He was honestly pretty scary looking, a long scar down one eye, frazzled blonde hair, and a practically menacing expression. Inigo nervously stocked the mini fridge, listening in to their conversation.
"They've ratted us out, Sanguin," the young boy said in what was probably supposed to be a hushed tone, but sounded more like a shout over the loud music, "I think we need to flee for our lives soon."
"Can't you just call me Brady when we're the only ones talking?" the other blonde man sighed, resting his head on a hand and stirring his drink with the other, "And why did we decide to be brothers? Can't we stick with cousins?"
"Come on San-...Brady, we gotta stay in character, that's the point," the other boy scowled at him, "And it's a ROLE playing game, you don't just come as whoever you normally are." He then put an arm around the other man, pulling him in /
"Look, the fighting's going to happen soon, and we can't stay out late enough to go so we need an excuse to leave before then, so stay. in. character."
"Uh, whatever, Odin," the gruff man replied, then cleared his throat, "Y-yeah, brother, they're gonna fuck us up if we stay any longer," he continued, with the acting skills of a lemon, "We should get outta here before they burn us or something."
"You don't burn vampires, you burn witches, idiot!" Odin narrowed his eyes, but continued in character, "It is time to make our leave then. You go first, then I will join you to deflect suspicion."
"So you want me to get the car warmed up?"
"Yeah, that'd be great. I'll be there in a few."
The other man stood up and pulled some car keys out of his pocket, side stepping past a group of hooded women. Inigo noted the time - almost midnight. How young was this kid? Inigo grabbed the empty glass left behind and smiled at "Odin".
"Anything I can get you before you make your daring escape?"
The boy turned to him, looking up at him through half lidded eyes, "No, but thank you for your kindness. If anyone asks, I was never here." Inigo resisted the urge to snort at his attempt to be "gentlemanly", then nodded and brought a few glasses back to the dish pit.
Upon returning, he found a generous tip and a note.
"My offer still stands.
(519) XXX-XXXX
-Owain"