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From Revenant, July 21st 10:01 p.m.
We can meet whenever you like.

10:01 p.m. Are you busy now?

10:02 p.m. Not at all! You want to meet somewhere?

10:02 p.m. I'd love to! I don't know the area very well, though. Do you have a favorite place?

10:02 p.m. Most of my favorite places aren't the places you take nice girls. There's a cafe near where I used to live, though? Real small.

10:03 p.m. I like real small cafes. I can meet you there. What's the name?

10:05 p.m. It's called Affinity. I'll be there shortly.

He said he'd be there shortly, yet there was a good chance he'd be there before Verbena. Her cellphone ran slow in bringing up directions--her savior--and she had to run back through the apartment twice for things she'd forgotten before she was finally out the door.

The cab let her out and, when she fixed the black trilby on her blonde hair, it pulled off. So far as she could tell, he was absolutely right. The cafe was real small compared to the others she'd been, but it held a sort of charm to it. Besides, the smaller the place, the less capacity for people and thus the less chance of an accident. Thank God.

He fiddled with his phone as he leaned back in the chair, only two of the four legs on the ground, the heels of his shined shoes resting on another chair. His suit jacket was draped over the back of the chair he was in. Revenant had always liked this place as a human, and now as a vampire, he could relax in the atmosphere without worrying about going on a murderous rampage. Win win.

Chatty Cathy was never one to not approach strangers (Hell, she was even the one to ask about when this meeting would happen), and yet she found herself walking slowly between the tables. Just to be certain, before she made an *** of herself, she glanced twice in two separate directions just to find other patrons either already in company or solely focused on their laptops.

"And I promise you from now on, I'mma try and be a good, good man."

The music played low in the background, a soft hum heavy on a harmonica with a man's deep voice thrumming over it. "...Revenant?" she asked when she walked close enough to the table.

He saw her before she saw him, judging from the way she looked around, lost, walking slowly. It gave him a chance to study her, posture and face and the way she carried herself. He smiled to himself, as she finally reached him, lowering his legs in order to stand up and offer her the third chair at the table, drawing it out for her.

"In the flesh. Pleasure to meet you, Verbena." He gave a half bow, motioning for her to sit.

Slipping the hat from her head, she hooked it on the back of the offered chair, smiled in thanks, and lowered herself to sit. She scooted up the table and tucked her arms underneath on her black pants to keep from making sure her white shirt was straight.

"Pleasure," she answered, turning her head to watch the man return to his seat. "So, you've known Legion for a while now? And you knew Vigilant from before?"

He moved fluidly, situating himself back in the chair and waving one of the young kids who worked there over to take their order. "Black coffee." He could smell it, at least. "And yeah, I have. Legion and I were brothers, of a sense, and Vigilant was a thorn in my side." Rev winked.

"French Vanilla creamer, please. Extra sugar?" She smiled at the waitress before taking her attention back to him. The amusement written on her face was about as clear as the depth of his voice, and she had no reason to hide it. "I can imagine, being on opposing sides. He hasn't told me much about it, though. How are you...getting used to things, if you don't mind my asking?"

He smiled widely, for a moment, showing the fangs that wouldn't recede before he remembered they were there and let the expression fade. "I'm fine, really. It's not so different than how it was before the business crumbled. I drink blood instead of eating; I kill things, just for different reasons; I never have to worry about going gray or getting arrested. And you? How do you factor into this little enterprise?"

"That's something I'm still trying to figure out, actually," she smiled, sweeping her gaze down to the table in front of them. Picking one hand from her lap, she laid her forearm on the surface and glanced back up. "You can consider me the...charismatic one, I suppose," she mimicked his wink from before. "As for getting on, it's getting easier. I didn't have it come as easily as it has for you and restraining myself is sometimes a hassle, but I quite love it. And look at the people I'm meeting. How did it come about? Did you ask him for it or did he find you?"

"I threatened blackmail so he would either give me enough money to leave Canada or turn me into a vampire." He leaned back in his chair, carefully watching her expression to gauge her reaction. "The warehouse fire a few days ago was me. He bit me, I shot myself in the head for the cameras, then burned the place down. Death or immortality is a very, very easy choice for someone like me."

"Now there's something," she said, picking her head up so that it was straight. "Shooting yourself in the head for the rest of the world's ignorance..." Folding her full lips together, she considered. "Easy choice, indeed. Seems we have something in common, Revenant. Aside from, you know, the same circle," she smiled.

Sitting back, she moved her arm for their coffees to arrive and quietly thanked the server. Because she knew the extra sugar she ordered wouldn't be enough, she picked up her spoon to blend in more. "Since you weren't leaving anything behind, what are you looking forward to now?"

"What do we have in common, then, aside from being ridiculously good looking vampires?" He smirked, but the compliment was sincere, and he leaned to take a long inhale of the coffee.

God he missed coffee.

"I'm looking forward to a life free of worry. A life to become the person I want to be without regrets. And yourself?"

Verbena knocked her spoon off against the cup and, in her attempt to blow the steam to scatter and cool the top, she laughed. Sincere or not, the smirk was well-placed topper. All in good humor. "Something completely unknown was such an easy choice, so much so that we were willing to go to extremes to make sure we could look forward instead of the **** behind. Pardon my language."

It wasn't as though the coffee would burn too badly, but she waited long enough for finally braving a sip. The extra sugar barely took the edge off the bland taste, but she could complain when others like Revenant, like Vigilant, didn't have the same luxury. "And I suppose that's something else we have in common. I think that's all anyone could hope for. Are you planning to join the bounty hunters like Legion?"

"I don't know. If Legion asked me, then perhaps. I take orders from him and by extension from Phoenix." He took another inhale of his coffee, unable to stop the envious glance he sent towards her actually being able to sip it. He would have to throw the coffee into the bushes. What a waste. "The **** in the past should stay in the past. Looking forward is how you live. Even if we're technically dead."

"I'm not so sure that we can be considered 'dead.' At least," she began, making a show of glancing around them at anyone else. She smiled at him, afterward. "No one else seems to think so."

After she took another sip, vaguely aware of his watching, she dabbed the soft remnants away with the back of a finger and smiled. "So, are you like...Vigilant? Like Legion? Don't drink, don't eat, but can walk in the sun?"

Instead of responding to her question verbally, he held his hand out, palm down, over the table, showing the lack of shadow that he cast. "Phoenix is like this, I think. I'm pretty sure I'd fry if I walked into the sun. I tried to drink and it didn't end well. I see you can, though. I'm jealous."

"The first few times, it didn't end well for me, either," she said. "Well, not as badly as for you and Vigilant, but not well. I kept trying. To be honest, though, in comparison...it tastes like dirt. You're not missing much, anymore." As she spoke, she stared at the table top under his hand, glancing from the surface to his fingers and a little above where the light caught. Roy told her there were differences between the vampires, tried to explain why she and he were different, but she was still trying to grasp them all. It wasn't easy.

"If I concentrate, I can make one appear. Makes my head hurt, to be honest. Zombies don't care if I have a shadow or not." He shrugged and withdrew his hand, looking around for a moment before quickly slinging the now-cold coffee from his cup into the bush beside him, then setting the ceramic back on to the table. "I wasn't just trying to be charming, earlier, you know. You are very lovely."

She continued to stare below his hand until he moved it away. Following his wrist with her gaze, at least until he tossed the coffee--which she laughed at--she tried to mark the lines of ink in his skin to no avail. Picking her eyes up to his face, her eyebrows lifted a little in near confusion before she smiled, genuinely. A lot could be said about her, good or bad, but genuine was almost always a guarantee. "Most times I can brush off that compliment when someone's had too much to drink, but..." she laughed again, referencing his empty cup, "I can take you at your word. Thank you. My real name is Sara, by the way. It won't mean anything to you, now, but maybe one day you'll be able to say, 'Oh, yes. I knew a Sara.'"

He noticed her staring at his arm and he undid the cuff of his dress shirt, allowing him to roll the sleeve up to expose the golden form of the phoenix envoloping his left forearm, meeting just the ends of the blue of the dragon. "Rebirth. I got it after Legion...died." He smiled and extended his left hand. "Gavin McCoy. More human that Revenant, at any rate. Your name is as lovely as you are."

"I don't have any tattoos, but I can appreciate ones that are well done. I hope the artist got a nice tip for it." When she took his offered hand, she continued to follow the lines up to his elbow before she considered that staring could be considered rude.

"Like it or not, we were all born that way. And my parents were far from hippies. They'd never name their only daughter after a flower. Revenant, though...As Vigilant said, it is clever."

"I can be clever when I want to be. I'm far from a grunt wielding a sword, after all." He laughed, careful to not expose his fangs again. He wondered if it was because he was Legion's childe as he had seen other vampires whose teeth remained normal. "I have two more, other than the phoenix. I would have to take my shirt off to show you the rest." He winked again, clearly intending to continue to charm her until she told him to cease, and rolled his sleeve back down, rebuttoning the cuff.

Clearly. And because of it, she couldn't help but wonder if that wasn't just his nature, in vampirism and former life. He took well to it, after all, and it seemed to come naturally, his confidence. Perhaps, because of that--the ability to see him charming anyone else he may meet--she took it in stride, with wholehearted amusement. "Well, since you offered that, I hope you don't mind getting a little personal, then. How did you get tangled in the lifestyle that ultimately brought you here? And what, exactly, did you used to do since you're not a grunt wielding a sword?"

His eyebrows rose high on his forehead and he shrugged, undoing the buttons on both cuffs before starting in on the ones traveling down the front of his shirt. "I was poor, orphaned. Joining a gang gave me purpose and direction, quite a bit of wealth, too. I'd never be hungry or cold again."

His expression turned somber for a moment, before the smirk was back. "I was an enforcer. I killed people, or I dragged them to Legion for punishment. Whichever was required." The shirt was pushed off his shoulders, showing the pale, sculpted muscles beneath and the blue dragon taking up his upper left arm, shoulder and pectoral. He turned, sweeping some of his blonde hair to the side to show her the two red fish on the back of his neck. "Power and wealth."

"That makes sense and is a completely logical choice. Because of that, I can't exactly apologi-- I've seen those before! So, from what I can gather, you are a symbolic man. Loyal to the utmost. Independent, confident." She referenced his bare shoulders, sitting back in her chair from the lean to better see. "Though, because you are so loyal and have been to Legion for years, how do you feel that he turned Vigilant? What was it, anyway, that made him a thorn in your side, as you put it? Did he chase you like he chased Legion?"

He took a moment to put his shirt back on and rebutton everything, smoothing the fabric back into its proper place. "Yes, that would describe me perfectly. Also charming. I'm very charming."

Settling back in his chair, he thought for a moment. "Yes, he did. Legion and I were important. Not to brag, but if you took the two of us out, it would be like taking the gang out at the knees. Losing Legion was...one of the very big reasons we crumbled."

"Also charming," she agreed, folding her arms on the edge of the table to lean into them. The cooled coffee was long forgotten, nothing to even glance at anymore as she watched him explain. After a moment, she nodded in understanding. "Thus leading to you having nothing to lose... I'm sorry I keep asking so many questions. Vigilant is my only connection to either of you. We've known each other for a very, very long time, but he never really talked to me about...well, work. And I think he's trying, now, to let me make my own opinions."

"You can ask me as many questions as you like. In return I get too spend time in your company, after all." He smiled, placing his hands on the table and shifting again in his seat. The lack of secrecy was nice for him, being able to let go of the paranoia that had been a constant presence in his mind since Legion's 'death' was like a physical weight lifted from his shoulders.

Maybe that whole 'talking it out' thing really was cathartic.

Laughing, she made a nod as though to say that was true and adjusted her lean against her arms when she moved one temporarily to push her hair behind an ear. "I'm glad you're enjoying it as I am. I'd hate to be terribly boring and unimpressionable." She set her sights back on him. "Speaking of, have you met or know anyone else besides those two brutes?"

"Boring and unimpressionable? You? One would have to have no brain at all to think that of one such as yourself." He gave what he could see of her an appreciative once over. "I've met Phoenix, briefly, but otherwise I haven't."

"Ah, yeah. The same for me, more or less. They have 'get-togethers' about once a month or so, but the only one I went to was pretty slacking. I got the interrogation from Legion, met Phoenix, and saw a few faces, but they're the strong silent types. You make the first real conversation besides Vigilant and Legion that I've had in a long time." She started to laugh as she said so, though looked a little surprised at the revelation. "You should be proud, sir."

"Me a conversationalist? Fancy that. Usually I either kill things or sleep with them." How was that for candor? His piercing blue eyes once again looked towards her expression to check her reaction, curious if she'd be as cheerful in the face of that.

Stride. It was amazing what people could pick up, especially after being under the scrutiny of Legion. Verbena reached up and pinched a lock of her hair, straightening it against the back of her ear before releasing it again. The way he stared at her, watched, was enough to make her well aware of that commonality between the two men.

Nudging her bottom lip up to the top, a little, in the hints of a smile that didn't quite bloom out to a full one, she could answer the only way she knew how. "It's never too late to break the mold."

He held his hand against his heart, taking on a look of mock pain as he nearly doubled over. "The lovely princess wounds me, truly. My pride might never recover." He grinned at her as he straightened, not mindful of his fangs this time as he had been previously. "I suppose I can add conversationalist to my list of skills now."

"Oh, please! A truly charming, loyal, confident conversationalist will have nothing to worry about, I can almost promise," she laughed, but settled into a true smile--the one that was started--at his grin. She couldn't tell who was spurring them, but they were infectious. "You're welcome, by the way, for that. No thanks needed here, oh no," she joked.

"Oh really? Isn't that promising." His expression became sly and he leaned forward over the table as if studying her. "Many thanks, my lady is too kind." He carefully reached to lift her hand into his own and kiss the back of it reverantly, as if he were a gentleman.

As if he were. The fact that he didn't try to hide it or dull it down at all was what was so amusing. Infectious! She couldn't help the smile or laugh even if she tried and truly, that was what he wanted. When he bent his head to kiss her skin, she could only watch, bemused. "Tell me, Revenant, are you always like this with women you meet?"

"Only the especially lovely and engaging ones." She wouldn't have believed him if he had told her she was the only one, a cheesy line wouldn't pass his lips regardless. Besides, he had no reason to ply her with lies, and it would be an insult to her to even try.

"Fair enough," she laughed. When her hand was released, she used it to prop her chin up, fingers showcasing the smile. "I do believe you'll find what you're looking for in this life. No worries, no regrets. You'll have no troubles, at all."

"My only hope, really. That and having a lot of fun." He rolled his shoulders in a shrug and sat back in his chair so he wasn't crowding her personal space. "You'll find what you're looking for, too. If I can help in any way, just let me know."

"I'm pretty confident that I can, yeah. You...surprised me, tonight. I should've known by your initial greeting on CrowNet, but I was completely unprepared for a man like you. And that's a good thing. So..." She looked down at the table, at her arms, then back across at where he sat and his lean back. She decided, then, that she should also sit up. "Thank you, for meeting me here, and getting in touch with me. Hopefully we'll see each other again before the next Altaire 'get-together'?"

His expression softened, almost, as he looked at her again, his smile a quirk at the corner of his mouth. Then he stood, taking his wallet out of his pocket and placing a few bills on the table before putting his jacket on.

He moved to pull her chair out for her and offer her his hand to stand. After all, it seemed as if she were ready to go. "I am pleased to have surprised you in a pleasant way. I would love to see you again. You should call me the next time you're free."

As Revenant stood to pay for the coffees, she nudged her saucer more to the center of the table, even though the cup was still mostly full. Just as for him, the appeal was more in the smell and they both seemed satisfied for that. Taking his hand, she pulled herself out of the chair and slipped the hat off the back to place it, instead, on her hair. She smiled under the narrow brim. "I will, the next night off work I have."

She lead the way to the door, trailing just a few steps ahead and was the first one to step out. The same way she entered, Verbena stepped slow until he followed out behind her. "Enjoy the rest of your night, Revenant."