Care for a Bite and a Drink?

[baronbalaz]

Who: The Baron and Kimberly
What: Meeting for drinks
When: Backdated to Dec. 30th
Where: @ 11
Rating:  M for first meetings
Status: Open and Incomplete

Comments

[onlynewlife]

It was the second night in a week or so that Kimberly had made plans to meet a strange man in a bar. Something told her she should really stop doing that, lest she gain herself an unwanted reputation she didn't deserve, but for the time being, she wanted to make friends and the men were the ones she kept coming across. It wasn't her fault, she decided, so fuck it. She was going.

Kimberly made her way to @ 11 and settled on the bar stool she'd been sitting in the night she'd met Felix, just because it felt a little like she should, and she ordered a beer and tapped her foot anxiously against the stool's leg. It wasn't long before she'd put a pretty good dent in the drink and she looked at her watch. She'd gotten there a lot earlier than she'd meant to, but that just gave her time to down some liquid courage. She might need it. Byron seemed like a nice guy online but for all she knew, he was a total creeper. There was that fun and exciting anticipation settled in her stomach with that familiar and slight anxiety that came with wondering what she should be expecting.

Not a moment later, Kimberly heard her name and she looked over her shoulder at the source of the voice. "Hey," she said with a smile and turned. "Yeah, hi, nice to meet you, too," she replied, offering her hand to shake.

[baronbalaz]

Rather than shake the offered hand, Byron brought it to his lips--this was what came from working with manners and customs that were literally millions of years in the future. What was the saying he'd read? 'So far ahead you're behind?' With a graceful smile that almost revealed a set of pointed canines, Byron released Kimberly's hand. Thankfully unearthly good looks had meant Byron could get away with a lot regarding the opposite gender.

"You found something to wear, I see? It suits you." She was rather pretty, in the way Taki had been, hearty looking but still gentle, maybe a little unsure. "You'll forgive me if I seem a little out of practice, it's been too long since I've been out like this." Honestly, he'd never been out like this--it had been such a Human activity, below him as a Vampire Noble--but...when in Rome?

[onlynewlife]

Byron took Kimberly's hand and kissed it, leaving Kimberly blinking as she stared back at him, taken aback. No one had ever done that. Well, not seriously. Dano used to do it when he was drunk, but he'd done it to Shaina and Frankie, too, and just about anyone he could find. This guy was, like, literally doing it as a greeting. She wasn't quite sure how to take that, if she was honest. But she was, at the very least, flattered.

A soft huff of laughter came in response and Kimberly wrinkled her nose. "Yeah, sorry, I meant to leave you a note so you could find me easier," she apologized. "Thank you," she added to his compliment.

Lifting her drink, Kimberly took another long pull on the bottle. "Out of practice for what?" she asked, trying very hard not to sound uneasy. They weren't...doing anything... Kimberly was appropriately confused.

[baronbalaz]

"Back home I was not exactly what you might call a...social butterly." Byron said, asking the bar tender for a wine list--if it was one thing he could definitely get used to it was the wine in this era. He smiled as a thought occurred to him. "As a matter of fact my father would find meeting like this absolutely appalling--which is exactly why I plan to revel in it, if you'll allow me to." He ordered a glass of port wine, ignoring the odd look from the bartended. Where he was practically extinct. Or at least, what passed for a grape was nothing like what it was now.

"But I'm sure your reasons for coming to this quaint little hamlet are much better than to annoy a parental figure." The bartender set Byron's glass down and he held it up. "Is there anything in particular you wish to toast to?"

[onlynewlife]

Kimberly nodded, relaxing at Byron's answer. It would seem he just hadn't...maybe been out in a while. Out of practice socializing. That wasn't so bad. Definitely not creepy. "I think you're doing fine," she said with a genuine smile and a shrug. It struck her as a bit strange that he was ordering wine when most men Kimberly knew would've ordered beer or hard liquor - if not because they liked it better, then to save face - but he at least had good taste. Port was a good wine, she thought. Kimberly preferred sweeter wines, but she figured to each their own.

A smirk crossed Kimberly's lips at the addendum and she cocked her eyebrows. "Yeah? Well then, by all means, revel," she said pleasantly. "I have my reasons, yeah, but they're not nearly as honorable as trying to annoy someone," she added, wrinkling her nose slightly.

Byron held up his glass and Kimberly followed suit, lifting her beer bottle just slightly. "Um..." she stalled, thinking. Then, she shrugged. "To making new friends?" she suggested.

[baronbalaz]

"Of course," Byron smiled--too wide this time he knew, his teeth would be more than noticable, "to...new compatriots." As though nothing strange had just happened, he took a long sip and placed the glass down.

"And in my experience, reasons for meetings such as this do not necessarily need to be honorable to be enjoyed." It helped, maybe, but in observing humans he'd come to realize that even on the harsh borders of The Frontier, celebration occurred because it seemed almost necessary. "Although if I had the choice I'd do more than annoy him," 'I'd kill him' "but that scarcely matters now. What brought you here, if I might inquire?" The woman certainly seemed from this era, but so had Castiel, so Byron was learning not to judge too quickly.

[onlynewlife]

Kimberly took her drink as her brow furrowed just for a split second. What was it with the goth people and their prosthetic fangs? Seriously. How could those possibly be comfortable? She'd seen her fair share of them in college and she'd long since decided, she would never understand and that, again, to each his own. So, she said nothing of the too-pointed teeth she saw peeking out of Byron's smile. Leave it alone, Kimmy, she told herself. And she did.

"Good point, but still," she replied with a grin, taking another drink. Her eyebrows raised and reflexively, she asked, "yeah...?" But he went on and so Kimberly followed the line of conversation, her fingernails tapping on the glass of her bottle. "Actually? I needed to get away. Start fresh, you know?" she asked.

[baronbalaz]

Byron nodded, his wild blond hair shifting. "When I left home for the first time, it for something of the same reason. Starting anew was the best way I could think of getting revenge on my father for deciding I wasn't exactly the perfect son and heir he always expected." Granted, The Baron had left mostly because of his father's repeated threats--attempts--to murder him, and by the time he was old enough a formal challenge had been issued that the next time the father and son saw he each other, it would be in a life or death duel.

That aside, leaving had allowed Byron to cultivate himself and learn as much about humanity as possible. "Did you travel long before settling here?" He asked in return, honestly curious. "I found it hard to settle for my first few years on my own. No place ever quite felt like home. Odd how humans...or rather, people are so eager to leave only to look for something that reminds them of home." The Baron shook his head in silent self-reprimand--it still hadn't sunk in that people in this era were not trained to noticed vampric nobility when they saw it.

[onlynewlife]

"To leave, you mean?" Kimberly asked, taking another drink and raising her eyebrows curiously. She wanted to sympathize with him, she really did, but Kimberly didn't know how it felt. She'd been a daddy's girl her whole life and even if she hadn't been, she and her mother were really close when her mother had been alive. There hadn't ever been a time in which Kimberly had felt like she was disappointing them. It did, however, sadden her to meet someone that felt so strongly that he'd disappointed his family that he was expressing it casually to a complete stranger.

Shrugging, Kimberly shook her head. "No, not really. I'm not really looking for someplace like that...I'm just looking for a lengthy vacation," she replied. "But, you know, it is kinda weird how people do that, though, you're right," she agreed, missing the significance of his slip up. "How long have you been here?"

[baronbalaz]

"Some months now, I arrived in the fall. Another compatriot and I have a home on Blanche Avenue, bordering the park--it's taking some time to renovate but as I understand it, it is custom to have a welcoming celebration of sorts. I have been considering one for some time now."

Krauhausen had been one of the few cities on The Frontier with an active night-life, which was proving more helpful here, millions of years in the past, than it ever had in in his own time. Although, turning his attention to the few couples...dancing? talking and laughing he still felt vaguely out of place. Somewhat amazed he nodded towards the dancers. "Perhaps this will sound pretentious, but is that really what passes for dancing...these days? It doesn't seem like there's much skill involved." Compared to the grand balls held at his father's estate and even the crude Frontier peasant dances what he was witnessing at that moment seemed almost...animal. It made his blood thrill.

[onlynewlife]

Kimberly nodded. "Oh, like a house warming party, you mean? Yeah, I think if I decide to stay, when I get settled I'm totally having one. They're always a blast; you should do it," she replied with a smile.

When Byron nodded, Kimberly followed the movement with her eyes, curiously. As he spoke, she grinned and let out an airy huff of laughter. "Uh, yeah. There's really not. I always thought, like, real dancing - you know, like, ballroom dancing - was really cool but the music doesn't really work with it, you know?" she asked, looking back at him. "Latin dancing is cool, too. I wish I could do that," she went on. Then, with a nod back toward the dance floor, Kimberly tucked her hair behind her ears and blushed slightly. "That's about my skill level, personally, right there," she replied, giving him a sheepish grin.

[baronbalaz]

Byron listened--he had no idea what Latin dancing was, but his mother had been teaching him classical dance since he could walk--it was one of the many hallmarks of Great Nobility, those descended from the first few vampires turned by The Noble Ancestor.

"The music is certainly...unique, and I am quite sure you're a better dancer than you let on. In my experience all women are possessed of the gentler graces." There was a trick Byron would use on human women while he traveled--a combination of charm and mild mental manipulation-- take them out onto the dance floor and prove that they were 'better than they thought' but The Baron resisted. As tempting as it was, if he couldn't get through a normal drink with a young woman, his chances of really integrating with this era were rather shot, as the saying went.

"I was taught to dance at the same time as I was learning to walk. If you ever wanted to learn, I would be glad to teach you one day. It may be one of the few skills I have to earn my keep here." Not that he was worried about money yet-- he was able to mind control a number of the contractors in getting the house up to building code.

[onlynewlife]

Letting out a huff of a laugh around the lip of her beer bottle as she took a drink, Kimberly shook her head and cocked her eyebrows. "Oh, believe me when I say I'm not. I'm so white, oh my God," she laughed. It sounded like a pickup line if ever there was one, but it was a polite one at least; Kimberly had to give him props for that much. It was weird. In this place, the guys were...nice. She'd yet to meet a sleezebag and for that she was beyond appreciative, but Kimberly was, so to speak, almost waiting for the other proverbial shoe to drop.

She looked appropriately impressed when Byron said that he'd been taught to dance as early as he'd learned to walk. Blinking at him, she looked taken completely aback not only by the dancing but also by what she thought was maybe an even more slick move, offering to teach her to dance. Kimberly, however, no matter how hard she tried, could not deny the temptation in the offer. "I've always wanted to know how," she replied, tucking her hair behind her ear with one hand. "That'd be really cool sometime, totally," she agreed, grinning.

It occurred to Kimberly that maybe she was being a bit rude by not engaging him in more conversation about himself. She would've normally meant to start a conversation in which they could both share bits and pieces of themselves, but Kimberly wasn't feeling much like sharing. Listening, though...that she could do. "So, where did you originally come from? Or should I ask when...?" she tried, taking another drink and focusing on the man in front of her as she waited for his answer and hoped for the conversation to move forward with little to no awkward stalls for lack of things to say. That was the not-so-good part about meeting people for the first time. The stalls in conversation felt like torture and she hoped she could get through the night without running into that with Byron. He seemed nice enough, so Kimberly found herself thinking it would royally suck if they couldn't carry on a conversation. Mainly because she'd feel badly.

[baronbalaz]

A single narrow eyebrow quirked decidedly upward at the phrase, 'I'm so white'--mostly because compared to Byron Kimberly had a healthy human glow to her, but also because he failed to see the connection between palor and dancing ability.

"I...fail to see what your skin color has to do with your ability to dance, but it would be a pleasure to teach you." He finished his glass of wine and ordered another--something about the music and the sheer raw nature of the dancing was starting to stir the vampire instincts he did his best to keep supressed. Alcohol would help.

He was just about to take another sip of his refilled glass when the question of his origin was posed. Really, there was no harm in answering, especially when most of the town seemed willing to believe literally anything they wee told.

"As for where I come from, I believe it is this planet, Earth...as for when, I'm an unsure of the exact date, but I believe somewhere close to three million years in the future. Would you like to hear about it?" Byron needn't say explicitly that he was Vampric Nobility, after all, and although life on the Frontier was incredibly harsh in the living, it could also been seen as rather romantic.

[onlynewlife]

It took Kimberly a second to process the first part of what Byron had said and she blushed, wrinkling her nose. "It's, uh, just a way of saying I have no rhythm. A kinda racist way, forgive me, but basically...yeah. I can't dance," she replied sheepishly. Suddenly, Kimberly felt fairly stupid for having used such a phrase, but it had been reflexive. Too many years hanging out with Dano, she thought. "But, uh, thank you," she added almost as an afterthought.

Kimberly's eyebrows arched when Byron's answer started with "Earth." Duh, she thought even as the niggling voice in the back of her head made her think that there might be people floating around in this town that weren't from Earth. At that, the alien conversation with Connor popped into her head and she found herself wondering if a human being would reflexively answer Earth or if that sort of an answer would be one that came only from someone not from Earth, trying to blend. She'd have to ask Connor another time, she thought, what his opinion on that matter would be.

Part of her wondered how Byron could not know what year he was from, but she didn't ask. "...three million...?" she asked, incredulous. "Jesus Christ, we must all look and act so...primitive to you..." she mused, finishing her beer and setting the bottle down on the bar again, turning her full attention to Byron again. "Yeah, totally, are you kidding me?!" she asked, eyes wide with wonder. The future?! Hell yeah, she wanted to hear what it was like that far ahead in time!

[baronbalaz]

Byron chuckled--on The Frontier, primitive was a matter of perspective. Aside from the technology, life as Byron had known it had been feudal, with the Nobility still clinging to power over the human cities and villages they ruled.

"Well, I suppose the first thing you must understand about the future is that thanks to war and massive advances in technology, the continents are nothing like they are now." He glanced around quickly for a way to illustrate the incredible changes--thankfully their drinks had left enough condensation on the bar to do so; with a long pale finger he traced a large, globular shape on the bar. "That is roughly the shape of the Earth in my time. Centuries before I was born a number of the continents were made to float, but all either crashed or were brought back to the surface safely."

That was when the Nobility were at the height of their power and could change the Earth to their whims. Before the petty wars and Outer Space Beings attacked. "Also thanks to the many wars, technology is not what you would assume it would be--remnants remain, such as the odd space port and cybernetic horses, which I arrived here with...but for the most part mass travel over huge distances is dangerous unless you are incredibly well equipped, as I was when I left home. Mutants and monsters from every old human legend roam the land by night, werewolves, banshees, witches." A slight smirk crept into Byron's features. "Even vampires."