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The music is bumping, and with the way the light is moving and strobing, it might seem like the room has a pulse. Standing at the bar is Belle, serving drinks with a blank look on her face. She slaps hands, snatches things away from grabby hands and very occasionally slaps someone upside the head when they get grabby. The dance is not complicated, and it seems as if she's used to doing it now. She pulls a bottle from the cooler, setting it on front of a man who slips her fifty dollars and leans in to quietly speak to her. She takes the money, rolls her eyes, and moves to the next customer. The beer bottle gentleman looks incensed, standing from his stool. "I didn't give you that money for a fucking beer!" He calls out.
"If you're used to paying for women, you should be used to disappointment." Belle counters, continuing with her work.
"Hey, can I get some Heineken?" That comes from Isaac as he muscles some other guy out of his seat, taking up the spot like he'd been there all along. It's not a move that earns him any friends, but he doesn't look like the sort of person that's all that worried about it. The other guy thinks about making some noise, but takes a second look at Isaac and rethinks some of his life choices. He settles in, looking around at the other people at the bar, particularly the guy losing his marbles over the fifty bucks. "You're an idiot if you think you're going to pick up the bartender," he drawls in tired, sarcastic amusement.
Belle pulls the Heineken from a cooler, setting it in front of Isaac, using a bottle opener to open it. "Six even." She says, wiping up some damp spots on the bar surface. "Listen to this guy." Belle says, pointing at Issac. "There are thirty girls here, and twenty eight of them really like money. Go buy a lap dance and get comfortable, because if you keep making noise here I will happily toss you out on your ass." She raises both eyebrows, stares the man down, and then pockets the fifty with a wicked grin. "Have a good night, Sir."
Beer at bars is so expensive, it's written there on Isaac's face. But he doesn't kick up a fight over it, instead he reaches into his pocket and thumbs out the bills for Belle. His eyes slowly track over to the man she's talking to, his lips continuing to curl into a facsimile of amusement. "Are you also the bouncer?" he wonders curiously, encircling his fingers around the neck of the bottle and tipping it back for the initial drink. His eyes are sweeping over her, it's an assessing sort of interest.
"When Lew isn't here, yep." Belle responds, taking the money and shoving it into the cash drawer. She finishes serving various patrons, and when the next set starts, they all move back to the couches to watch the women strut out to strip. Issac remains, so of course that gets Belle's attention. "Is there something else I can help you with? Usually people don't come in here to drink." She points at the undulating woman, an amused smile on her face. "They come for that."
"Hmm, interesting." Isaac doesn't expand on that comment, instead turning his shoulder over to watch the beginning of the next set. But it's true, he stays there at the bar with his drink. When Belle calls that to attention, he cants his head in her direction. "I'm waiting for a friend," he explains to her simply with a shrug. "This is as good a place as any to get a beer, the atmosphere is nice."
Belle looks around with an amused expression on her face. "Well if you need a refill, or anything else, let me know." She cleans the dirtied glass, makes sure that the bottles are restocked, and fetches a new bottle of tequila. She pays absolutely no mind to the strippers as they work, cleaning the bar and checking with the woman at the entrance instead. Once she's done, she hops up on the counter across from the bar and sips from a whiskey sour as she waits for someone to need served."
Andre has arrived.
Isaac has turned in his seat, watching the show from afar while he continues to wait for his friend to show. And he waits and he waits. And the waiting continues the entire time that Belle is restocking the bar and doing her thing. At some point, he pulls out his phone and begins to punch his index finger into the screen. Some people are good at tech, he's clearly not one of them. The screen even has a crack on it from mishandling, probably dropped too many times. He holds the phone up in the air to get a signal, when he finds a spot he just stops like a statue. Satisfied that sending has happened, he lets it clatter down onto the bar counter and takes another drink.
Andre comes strolling into the club after a (rather vigorous) patdown by the bouncer at the door, his lips bowed into a slight frown. He's wearing a pair of dark jeans, slightly baggy, and a casual t-shirt, and he noticeably avoids looking at the stage as he heads straight for the door. "My mama would smack me upside my head if she knew I was here," he mumbles to Isaac as he slumps into a barstool, "She's probably looking down on me right now and rolling in her grave."
Belle slides off the counter and walks forward. "So what can I get you?" She says sweetly, aiming a look at Andre that would freeze a glacier. "Just know, that you're not getting whatever it is that you want to drink until you either …cough up my phone.. or set down enough money to cover a new one." She taps the bar with two fingers before she leans against it. "Take your time." She aims a 'this is your friend' look at Issac, her expression turning wary.
"What took you so long to get here? I was just texting you. I think…" Isaac stares critically down at his phone, like it's his enemy. He tips back the beer again and gives Andre a long look and then glances over at the stage. "Did your mama have a problem with strippers…" He starts to trail off when Belle arrives and wants Andre to pay her for a new phone. He squints between both of them. "What the fuck did you do, Dre?"
"I didn't get any texts," Andre doesn't go fishing out his phone though, he just ploinks his elbows on the bartop and shrugs his big broad shoulders at Isaac. "My mama was all about respecting women. And she was a God-fearing Christian. She'd beat me with a rolled up newspaper if I even looked at a girl sideways," he says to his friend, his beady black eyes flipping up to Belle as she walks forward. There may have been a subtle eye-widening. It was hard to tell. He was quick to the punch though: "It wasn't me." Ah, the good ol Shaggy defense, as though there were numerous 6'5" black men walking around Calaveras.
Belle nods at Andre, a ghost of a smile on her lips. "Yeah, it was some other massive black guy that slammed my head off a table and swiped my phone." She glances around, a pissed off look on her face. "Where is your little IT buddy? You know, the one who called me on my phone?" She slaps two hands down on the bar surface, eyebrows raised. "I think you two need to give me a dandy of a fucking reason why I don't put you both out the door with a kick to the ass and a don't come back anytime in the future?" She stands up straight, her arms slowly folding over her chest.
"Really?" Isaac picks his phone up and starts jabbing his finger at the screen again. "Oh, I sent this shit to Maaa- Whoa, hey now. I'm a paying customer," he reminds her with an incredulous expression and a gesture to his half finished beer. "And I didn't steal your phone or slam your head into a table. Andre, apologize to this fucking woman right now before I go out to the cemetary and get your mama in here. I bet she'd smack you upside the whatever shit you were rambling about when you got in here."
"Yeah!" Andre agrees with Belle almost eagerly, but he's actually startled when she slaps her hands down on the bar surface. And then Isaac is chastizing him, and he looks quite like a beaten puppy as his shoulders droop. "You're gonna get my mama out of the cemetary? Man, that's fucked up," he says to Isaac in a mumbled voice, before he looks to Belle and frowns. "I'm sorry, lady. OK? I was just trying to protect my friend, you were taking pictures. You can't take pictures!" he expresses insistently. "And I said I was sorry when I did it. I said I was sorry!"
Belle watches the pair and she shakes her head, letting out a sigh. "Well tell your friend to stop aiming for the small time, a fucking tip jar in the coffee shop?" She shakes her head back and forth, reaching under the bar. "You two can stay." She pulls out the shotgun, primes it, and quirks a brow. "If you get any ideas about Eternity, get rid of them." She stows the shotgun and stomps down the bar to deal with a customer who is taking a break from the display of naked flesh on the stage. He snaps out an order to Belle who just gives him a look, a moment later he mutters it a bit more respectfully and gets his shot of Cuervo.
"Yeah, I would dig her up. And man, you just went on this thing about your mama and the strippers when you slammed some woman's head down? Be consistent." Isaac makes an exasperated noise. Like that's the BIG PROBLEM here. "Wait, wait," he holds up his hands. "You guys tried to steal a fucking tip jar? Where's your money from the last job? I had you on a /budget/!" All that bookkeeping for nothing. He frowns at Belle when she brandishes a shotgun at them, his expression dark.
"That's just cold, Isaac," Andre mutters about his mother, before he lifts his hands up defensively. "I was just gonna grab her phone, she started fightin' me. She was taking /pictures/!" he shoots back, and then nearly falls off his stool when Belle brandishes a shot gun. "I'm not hear to cause any trouble! Promise, promise," he says to Belle, keeping his hands up and palms facing her, a sign of surrender. Needless to say, he breathes a sigh of relief when she puts the shotgun away, and then looks sheepishly over to Isaac. "It was just for fun."
Belle returns, her whiskey sour in hand, leaning on the counter across from the two men. She speaks to Isaac, her voice measured and polite. "You really should keep a closer eye on them." She takes a drink and then sighs. "Lewin and I don't want any problems, so you stick to your shit and we'll stick to ours. We got our hands full with a crazy cyka anyway. You might want to steer clear." She glances to the office where there is a head inside a Fed-Ex box. She turns her attention to Andre, eyes narrowing slightly. "Fun, but potentially a way to get caught. Why take the risk?"
"People take pictures of other people all the time! There's probably a camera recording us right now. You gonna bust the place up? Did Maggie make you take the phone?" Isaac tips his beer back and drains the bottle before putting it down on the counter. "Cyka?" he repeats at Belle and glances to the office where she's apparently delivering a rather weighty look. "I'm not their babysitter. So what's your deal? Really. You're not just the bouncer. Are you his old lady? This Lewin guy? And I'd stick to my shit, but I don't actually know what yours is."
"Maybe," Andre mumbles about whether or not Maggie asked him to take the phone, but despite his evasiveness? The answer is rather clear in the bashful way he hangs his head. It takes him a minute before he's leaning back against the bar, furrowing his brows over to Belle. "What's a Cyka?" he asks this to Isaac. "Is that like a girl cyborg or something? Why would you have problems with girl cyborgs?" he scratches his big bald head, as Isaac rapid-launches questions at Belle, and Andre decides to play the part of the muscle by folding his arms over his chest and going: "Yeah!"
"Cagna, Perra, Cyka, Bitch." Belle speaks in the same polite tone, a slight inflection can be heard as she goes from language to language. She takes another drink, eyes rolling briefly before she chuckles at Isaac. "It's clear who's in charge, so don't babysit them, just keep them away from here. Blow up, steal, shoot up any other place you want, just leave Eternity alone." She glances down at herself, and then back up, frowning. "My deal? I'm a bartender, a bouncer, and someone with a short temper. I want to come in to work and not have to deal with shit, but shit just keeps turning up." She raises her glass, tilting it slightly. "All you have to do is not cause trouble here, full stop. We won't have any problems."
"I only speak American," Isaac drawls to Belle with a smirk as he starts to pat down his jacket, the universal sign of a man looking for his pack of smokes. When Andre starts mentioning girl cyborgs he looks at him with a real confused expression. "If you think that I'm in charge of them, you're in for a whole world of disappointment." The idea that he is, actually prompts him into a fit of real genuine laughter. When he finds his pack of cigs, he starts tapping it against the palm of his hand. When she explains who she is, he shakes his index finger and the smirk returns. "No, no. I call bullshit. Lewin and I. Ours." He pulls one out and slips it into his mouth, biting on the end but still talking. "But anyway, if you were /just/ the bartender and /just/ the bouncer, I wouldn't be worried. I don't lose sleep over hourly employees."
"Are those names?" Andre looks frankly confused, until she gets to the bitch part. "Oh, I know that word! So you have a problem with Cagna, Perra and Cyka. I get it now," he bobs his head in a slow nod, unwinding his arms from around his chest and plunking them back down on the bar. "You could beat them up," he says helpfully, before he looks to Isaac when Belle suggests he's in charge. Isaac starts laughing, and so does Andre, deep rumbly chuckles. "Yeah, how could /he/ be in charge? Can I get a coke?" he flashes Belle a big smile.
"English." Belle corrects, giving Isaac a look of extreme pity, or amusement, it's hard to tell. She glances briefly at Andre, and then back to Isaac, chuckling softly. She kneels down briefly, comes up with a can of Coke and sets it in front of Andre. "I didn't address if I was his old woman or not, because frankly, it's none of your business. Let's just say that you can be worried, if you have a need to. I'm not just an hourly in this place." She takes a drink from her glass, letting the ice clink around when she sets it down. "If you want to cause trouble here, feel free, but the woman that I'm speaking of is fucking insane. You want her attention on you, that's your funeral." She sets a lighter down on the bar as she speaks, turning to briefly deal with another customer.
"Crazier than the woman who just brandished a shotgun at me?" Isaac inquires from around his cigarette. He doesn't comment on the language issue. He knows the language is /American/, damnit. When Andre confirms that there's no possible way for him to be in charge, he lifts his shoulders helplessly and points at him. See?! He smirks some more when she comments that being Lewin's old lady is none of his business, just like a cat. He bounces his eyebrows like a smartass and leans his elbow onto the counter. "Who's the real crazy woman? I feel like there's a story here."
Andre looks suspiciously at the can of Coke that's sat down in front of him, as though he was very reluctant to drink from it. There's a quick glance around as though he were looking for /somebody/, and upon deciding said person wasn't there? He finally drags the Coke towards him, peeling back the tab to open up the can with a satisfying hiss of carbonation. "It really tastes better in a can," he says to Isaac, "Even if it does give you Alzheimer's." Toting Maggie's conspiracy theories, probably, he lifts the can to his lips to take a big gulp, and breathes a sigh of relief. "I thought the crazy girls were Cagna, Perra, and girl-cyborg?"
"I've had a few whiskey sours, so I'm feeling generous. I'd rather warn you before you walk into something you can't stroll out of." Belle aims a look at Andre. "The woman who I was sitting with when you took my phone? She had a goon follow me home, for my safety." She rolls her eyes, takes another drink and continues, "He followed me here to work, and was a bit of an asshole. I slugged him in the face, threw him out, and shortly after we got a phone call from his boss. Natalya." She gazes toward the stage for a few moments, taking in the current routine that involves a kitty costume and a ball of yarn. Hot. "She asked that I come up to see her, to make amends for my rudeness. I went, she hit on me, and then she told me she'd punish the guy that I hit." She gestures to the office, frowning. "So, there's a severed head in the office. In a Fed Ex box. Is..that crazy?" She pushes away from the counter, lifting the can of Coke, placing a napkin underneath before she puts it back down. "Oh, and she thinks I'm Batman." She says this with a straight face, glancing between the pair before she turns to pick up the bottle of whiskey.
"You and Maggie have been hanging out together too much," Isaac mumbles when Andre starts suggesting the can is going to give him Alzheimer's. He's still fooling around with that cigarette, but he takes it out of his mouth to stare hard at his friend before looking over to Belle, another helpless shrug. She starts to talk and explain the situation and he reaches into his pocket for a lighter, his eyebrows gradually drawing together into a deep furrow. He's quiet for a few moments before he finally concludes, "I'd send the head back to her with an explosive in it. And I'd draw the Batman symbol on it with a sharpie."
Andre just shrugs at Isaac, neither confirming nor denying that he hangs out with Maggie too much. He just drains the can of Coke and promptly crunches it in his palm, the metal crinkling easily. There's a look to Isaac as Belle tells her story, and then a glance to Belle with a deep frown on his lips. "I dunno. I'd probably just do what Isaac said," he says. "Or we could go beat her up."
"I'll float that idea past Lew. I'm pretty sure he's going to say no. I told him to call the cops, and he finds too much wrong with that." Belle shrugs, leaning against the bar as she keeps an eye on the men near the stage, touchy feely is a no no in the club. "Something needs to be done with her, I appreciate someone wanting to get me a gift, but a head is a little bit much." She pushes herself up to stand straight, eyes on Isaac. "So you see, we have enough problems."
"If you call the cops they're just going to ask a bunch of questions," Isaac says with a grunt and starts messing with his lighter. "If this Lewin guy really hates explosions that much…" SIGH. "We could beat her up or cause enough chaos for her that she's not focused on you. She can spend all her time chasing her tail. You think about it. Discounted rate, since at least /one/ of us owes you a phone anyway."
"Cops ask a /lot/ of questions," Andre agrees, setting his crushed Coke can in the very middle of the bar. He glance back to Isaac, considering what he was saying, before he nods back to Belle. "I'm pretty efficient anyway," he says, cracking his knuckles as though to emphasize his 'efficiency'. "Where does she live, anyway? We should probably have Maggie check for survellience."
"I think Lew is just trying to find the most peaceful way to deal with this. I was considering just going behind his back to deal with it on my own." Belle opens her arms, glancing down at herself before she looks back up at Isaac. "I can deal with her fine, I can't deal with her and the guards she has. Her mansion is like a fortified castle." She glances at Andre, relents enough to say. "The phone was a piece of shit smart phone. I never keep them more than a few months. It was the principal of it." She pushes her hair out of her face, smirking. "How much?" She looks at Andre again, frowning. "Mendoza Mansion. Ever hear of the Mendoza Cartel?"
"Yeah, sure. Peaceful negotiations always work with a person that sends decapitated heads to your place of business. That's how I get all of my dates," Isaac offers up with a smirk. "Look, we've got fire power expertise, fighting prowess and the smartest tech in the entire state of Colorado. We can break open her little fortress like a can of cat food so you can walk in for your showdown, what you do once you get in there is up to. It'd cost about 5k. We'll add the phone discount." He finally starts to slide off of his seat. "You and your old man think about it."
"If the rest of her guards look anything like the guys she brought with her into the coffee shop?" Andre smirks, puffing out his chest. "One punch. That's what it'd take. You just gotta know where to hit." He slides off his barstool afterward, craning his neck from one side to the other to crack it, and then he flashes a broad smile to Belle. "I think you'd be smart to take us on. But I guess we'll see," he shrugs, looking back to Isaac. "I'm gonna go warm up the car."
"We have a car?!"
"I'll talk to Lew. We'll see." Belle watches Andre leave before she smirks at Isaac. "Five thousand dollars, you must think we make money in this club." She teases, going back to work, serving drinks to handsy assholes with no sense.