tampered | Log; Complete

Log; Complete

When; July 29th, 9pm(ish)
Rating; PG, PG-13
Characters; Promise (

ananticlimax )
Summary; A vampire and a werewolf walk into a bar. No, really, Oz is interviewing for a job at the Blue Light.
Log;

Promise made her usual rounds when she arrived at work after sunset, making sure things were running smoothly and everything was in place for the night. She retreated to the office for awhile to work on paperwork and shortly before nine she headed back to the floor to keep an eye out for her interview candidate.

She sat at the bar, a simple club soda in her hand and waited.

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Oz found the Blue Light easily enough, getting there, as he said, eight or seven minutes earlier than the nine o'clock his interview was scheduled for. His shoulders were a little hunched as he entered the door to the Blue Light, as nervous as he ever gets-- it was his first real interview, all of his previous work being with the Dingoes at home. He didn't spot Promise right away, instead scanning the layout of the bar with his chin slightly tilted, taking an unself-conscious sniff of the place, one eyebrow raising at some of the more unique things that were part of the potpourri.

Clearing his throat, he made his way deeper into the bar's intimate lighting.

Wolves. Always scenting the air. Promise smiled and slid off her stool, intentionally keeping to the shadows. It wasn't that she wanted to frighten the young man, but she did want him slightly off-kilter. She approached him from behind and with a small smile on her face she asked softly, "Oz?"

He whirled around to face her without a pause, slightly anxious eyes but an otherwise neutral expression-- a year of vampire hunting would do that to a person. When he noticed who the voice was coming from, a person who was obviously the manager-- a beautiful, impressive, slightly intimidating but fair-seeming person --he relaxed.

One hand held out, he greeted her in a soft-edged and quiet but firm voice.

"Hey. Miss Nottinger? Interview time, right?"

He had nice reflexes, a natural balance. Promise was impressed. She took his hand warmly and extended her smile.

"That would be me, it's lovely to put a face with the name." She motioned toward a table in the corner, held empty at her request. It wasn't a busy night, at least not yet, but there was enough ambient noise that she wanted somewhere out of the way.

"Please, have a seat over here. Can I have someone bring you a drink, some water, soda...?"

[ooc: off for the night, i'll tag back later.]

The shake was relieving even more than the smile was, and Oz took the invite to make his way over to the table. There weren't a lot of people to dodge on the way yet, but he kept close to her, partially out of instinct and partially to give the impression that he wasn't rushing anywhere-- not difficult for a man who seldom rushed much of anything.

"You too. You've got really nice hair." The compliment was delivered honestly before he found a seat in the chair and folded his arms over his chest.

"I'm fine. I mean, if you insist. A Coke's fine."

Edited 2009-07-29 06:44 (UTC)

Promise gave Oz's request to a passing waiter as she led him to the table and sat across from him.

His compliment seemed devoid of artifice and genuine so Promise accepted it with another warm smile and a simple thanks as she sat. "Tell me about yourself, Oz," she began, "what was your life like before you decided to see me about a job?"

He considered her, and then considered her question. Tell me about yourself? Not a question or a command that Oz came across very often, but one he could deal with easily enough. He leveled a quiet, steady gaze on her, pausing for a few moments to consider his answer.

"At home? I worked nights in a band. We were okay. And sometimes I worked nights killing demons, honestly, but even then it was mostly Buffy doing the killing and me carrying stuff. Here? No band. No demons. Not much to do."

Promise simply raised an eyebrow. It wasn't that she was surprised so much, this was the City after all and heavens knew that her own life had some parallels, but it was more the tone he said it in. Calm, matter-of-fact, unruffled.

Choosing not to follow up on hunting, the experience may be useful in a pinch, but hardly relevant now, she leaned forward a bit and took a sip of her own drink.

"A band? What do you play?"

Oz's own drink arrived soon enough-- he ignored it in favor of answering Promise as honestly as possible, rolling the drink back and forth between his hands.

"Dingoes Ate My Baby. Alternative band. Not really difficult music-- I played lead guitar. Sometimes bass or drums. Not very useful as far as job skills go."

"Au contraire." This young wolf might be more useful than Promise initially thought.

"We have an excellent house band, jazz of course, but with the way curses tend to run rampant through the City we occasionally have to scramble for subs. Someone already working here with musical experience would be nice to have in an emergency. But only if you were interested, of course."

The Coke was there, and looking at it for long enough made Oz realize that he hadn't had much to drink or, come to think of it, eat yet that day, so he finished off half of it before answering Promise, face betraying a minute amount of excitement, but excitement nevertheless.

An offer like that was unexpected.

"Seriously? Of course I'm interested. I mean-- I'm more interested in having a steady job, of course, and washing dishes is fine. But I miss playing."

Promise waved her hand. "You needn't worry about the porter position, it's still yours, but it will be a relief to me and the band to have a potential backup on-hand should we need it. I'll let Blue know you're available, he may want to hear you play, but I'll leave that to him."

Promise leaned back, "Did you have any questions for me?"

"Blue," he repeated the word to commit it to memory, nursing his soda again. "He's the owner, right?"

When she asked if he had any questions, he finally looked away from her, studying the Blue Light and the people in it again. That was a good question itself: Did he have any questions? He didn't ask many questions normally, but then, he'd never had a job interview before.

"This place is pretty open-minded, right?"

"He is."

She watched Oz's reaction, curious to see what if any questions he asked her. She wasn't disappointed. He seemed more concerned with fitting in than he was about any aspect of the job. It made sense she supposed.

"We don't discriminate, agains non, or partial, humans, Oz. It would be hypocritical of me and any number of the staff."

"That's good to hear." Oz greeted the news with an honest half-smile, which was replaced a moment later with another question.

"Hypocritical?"

"I'm not human. Never was." She lowered her eyelids a bit and relaxed her posture, a slightly predatory gesture to be sure, but interviews were about gauging a person's reactions under stress. She may have hid what she was in the city once, but after Robin's little show... perhaps it wasn't worth the effort.

"Tell me, Oz. Do you have vampires in your world?"

It's more the 'never was' that caught Oz's attention than the 'not human,' but in either case, his eyes lift to face her directly again, but don't linger long before flickering down to stare at his hands around the glass of Coke. He didn't want to start anything, and even a week from the next full moon, alpha material he wasn't.

There was a smile in his voice, however.

"Loads. I mean, Angel's here. And he's a vampire from my world. But they weren't born that way. Same old story. Got bit. Changed."

Ah. His cool demeanor slipped at that, he had more than a little experience with vampires in addition to the demons he'd mentioned earlier.

It took Promise a moment to place the name he gave her, though. And when she did it explained a few things. "Angel? I've spoken to him I believe. He's not typical of vampires in your world, is he? I remember he said they fell into the "soulless" category."

She placed her elbows on the table and smiling she leaned in again. "I can assure you, I have a soul, as much as I believe in them, and my diet has often been called vegetarian or even vegan. You have nothing to fear from me."

"That's kind of relieving to know. No offense."

The nervousness he displayed a second ago was gone, now that she had explained herself a little, and Oz shrugged conversationally and finished off the rest of the Coke that was in front of him-- because it was there, and it gave him a moment to think, mostly.

"Yeah, he's pretty atypical. It works a lot differently where I come from-- based on the people I've talked to about that kind of thing. Like there was this beautiful woman I talked to the other day who told me she was, like, born as a werewolf. Doesn't work that way where I'm from. Get bit by a vampire, lose your soul, become a demon. Get bit by a werewolf, become a half-breed. Different levels of demony taint. Your way sounds preferable."

"None taken, believe me I understand. And as for preferable... well never having known an existence other than my own I couldn't tell you. But we're only as demony as we choose to be and believe me, some of us... still live up to the legends in my world."

Promise sipped at her club soda as well, keeping her description neutral. Female, beautiful and wolf could probably mean many things in this City, but Promise was starting to believe that coincidences were rare. "Tell me, Oz, this wolf you met, did she have scars along her abdomen?"

"It's not too bad. Just preferable because, the whole demon thing. Very much literally. Live on the mouth of Hell. Kind of a long story." It was obvious from his tone of voice that he was leaving out most of the story more because there were too many words involved, rather than any personal discomfort.

Oz crossed his arms and leaned forward on the table, examining Promise's hair as he spoke, sneaking a glance at her eyes, as if to figure out how he could have missed that she was a vampire.

"Don't know. Never got that close-- not even sure if it's a good idea to. Name was Delilah, though. Like just Delilah. Like Samson and Delilah. Which I might be tempted to say is unusual, but I'm not sure a guy called Oz should talk."

Promise didn't miss his examination, but decided not to comment on it. After all they perhaps had other things to discuss, namely...

"Ah, Delilah. She's an acquaintance from my world, recently arrived. And as for getting close... she can be a handful. A very lethal handful, but as she's been in the City before she may tone down her normal behaviors. However, if you're at all squeamish I wouldn't recommend hunting with her."

For the first time perhaps, he gave what could honestly be called a reaction, eyes growing wide before narrowing, his head shaking on his shoulders. The voice he responds in isn't exactly clipped, but it has the weight of upset behind it.

"No. I wouldn't, I don't hunt. At all. I'm dangerous like that, and I'm not an animal besides. That's why I'm not sure she's a good idea to get close to. You know."

He offered Promise an apologetic look, as if he might offend her talking that way. He was reluctant to change the topic away from Delilah-- she had a way of getting stuck on his mind like nothing else when he thought of her. But he was here for a job offer.

"Do you guys get really busy here?"

"Believe me, I know, and I believe you, Oz." Which didn't necessarily mean she wouldn't keep an eye on him. And on Delilah for that matter.

"We can, don't worry, they'll be more than enough work to keep you on your toes. And you can start as soon as you're ready. I'll have some paperwork for you to fill out, but after that we can set your schedule and get you to work."

With the shift in discussion, he was quickly visibly comported again, wiping the perspiration from the glass off on the legs of his blue jeans.

"I'm ready when you're ready. I should probably get started training right now. You don't have to pay me for training, if you do. Because, and I'm sorry, but I think I'm going to need most of the day the fourth through the sixth off if you hire me. And it just seems stupid to work a few days and then...yeah."

Promise shook her head. "All training is paid, and I told you, the time off won't be a problem."

She stood and motioned Oz to join her. "Let's go to the office and get the paperwork squared away, and then I'll take you to the kitchen and introduce you around."

Promise offered her offered her hand and another warm smile, "Welcome to the Blue Light, Oz."

Once again, he stood, joining and following her, holding his hand out to pull hers into a warm, firm shake. The hand was warm. And she didn't smell, frankly, very dead. More things he would have to ask about in the future.

For the moment, he was grateful just to find someone understanding to work for.

"Thanks again. Seriously. I didn't know how long they would put up with me at the old job. I'll do my best."

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