Devil's Nest [Saturday Night after sunset]

[texted3times]

The Devil's Nest was open again tonight. The DJ had decided to go with Beyoncé's greatest hits tonight, which Eric, for once, wasn't objecting to. A DJ that would live through the weekend: would wonders never cease?

Eric was in his usual corner, Tiny was behind the bar, and "All the Single Ladies" was blasting at just shy of earsplitting. Come on in, everyone.

Comments

[arboreal_priestess]

Okay, so she'd heard of Caritas, but not this bar. Still, with Beyoncé playing, it sounded like a place to check out. She could continue on her way to Caritas after poking her head in here.

After all, she'd been here for two weeks. It was time to see more of the town than just rooftops and staircases.

Pushing her way through the door, Verity entered Devil's Nest and looked around. Okay, nice place. Way nicer than the only bar near her parents' place in Oregon.

[texted3times]

Eric raised an eyebrow at her entrance. "You're new."

Because he was kind of a stalker, especially of the blonde and female.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Everyone keeps telling me that," Verity said, with a small grin. "So either this town doesn't get people often or everyone wants to make sure that I remember that."

She held out a hand. "Verity Price, hi. I'm new."

[texted3times]

"We get new people, but they're mostly teenagers and so I don't care," Eric said, shaking her hand. "Eric Northman. I'm not new."

[arboreal_priestess]

"I'm surprised an island that mostly exists for the school can support two bars," Verity admitted, looking around the bar again. "On the other hand, if things are as weird as I hear, maybe it makes sense."

[texted3times]

"Things are definitely as weird as you hear," Eric said. "This bar doesn't serve the children. And our DJ smells better than the zombies."

[arboreal_priestess]

"...That wasn't just, like, a grunge band that took their aesthetic way too seriously?" Verity asked. "I thought zombies were all mindless slaves unless you fed them salt pork."

[texted3times]

"...salt pork?" Eric repeated. "That's a new one for me."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Vodoun zombies?" Verity asked. "The kind revived by a bokor and set to work, usually in cane fields?"

Yes? No? Not ringing any bells?

"The only other kind of zombies I've ever heard of are the ones in Romero films and Inhabitant Wicked games." Which weren't real, right?

[texted3times]

Eric blinked. "What's a bokor?" he finally asked.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Vodoun sorcerer," Verity said. "Serves the loa, practices magic, that kind of thing...I'm getting the feeling these aren't the same kind of zombies, though."

[texted3times]

"Probably not," Eric agreed. "We get all kinds, though, being on a dimensional nexus."

[arboreal_priestess]

"So I've heard," Verity said. "Weird, though, going from one place where no one would believe in a zombie if they saw one to this one, where they'll have to explain which type of zombie it is."

[texted3times]

"There have apparently been a few invasions of them, too," Eric offered helpfully. "But other than the band, I don't think any are around any more. We have clones, aliens, vampires and werewolves, though."

[arboreal_priestess]

Well, only because a resident demon had cured her, thank goodness.

"...Invasions?" Her dad's intel on this place certainly hadn't mentioned those. Or any cryptids beyond the deer and the alot. She blinked at Eric a couple of times. "I love how casual everyone is about this stuff."

[texted3times]

"They happen pretty regularly," Eric said. "Before graduation, sometime in the summer, and then right around Christmas."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Okay, when you can set a clock to your invasions, there's something really weird going on," Verity declared. "I'm going to need a drink for the rest of this conversation, I think. Excuse me?"

She wandered over to the bar and after a frustrating conversation with the bartender, ended up coming back with a soda.

"...This place doesn't accept out of state IDs?" she asked, not realizing that Tiny just liked to be difficult sometimes.

[texted3times]

Eric snorted. "Tiny's just being a pain. What would you actually like to drink?"

[arboreal_priestess]

"I'll give him pain," Verity muttered under her breath, unaware of just how acute Eric's senses were. "I'll take a jack and coke if he just wants to add a bit of jack to this," she said, holding up her glass of coke.

[texted3times]

"He'll add more than a bit," Eric promised with a slightly toothy smile, retrieving her drink himself and going over to the bar, where he reminded Tiny that screwing around with hot blondes was done on a case-by-case basis.

He turned a few moments later. "Your Jack and Coke."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Thanks," she said. Tasting it got Eric an appreciative smile and another, longer sip. "Is this your place?" she asked.

[texted3times]

"One of them, yes," Eric said. "I own a club in Louisiana as well."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Hell of a commute," Verity noted. "Do you split your time between them, or...?"

So sue her. He was cute and she was curious.

[texted3times]

Eric smiled. "More or less. I've been down in Louisiana for work for a bit, but now I'm up here to avoid the Mardi Gras tourists. What brought you to Fandom?"

[arboreal_priestess]

"It's a hell of a lot cheaper than Baltimore," Verity said with a laugh. "And a country away from my parents. Though if I'd been paying enough attention to realize it was Mardi Gras..."

She still wouldn't have gone.

Probably.