[ flashback prp ] somewhere to hide ( ember & lex )

[its me debz]

The year is two thousand and eleven and Angel-- still Angel, not yet found his new name and voice, still on the cusp of his dreams-- is walking down the strip in Las Vegas. He has a curfew that's one am and there's two protection charms tucked into his bag (purse, he thinks giddily, all his and brand new) to ward off strangers and their danger.

It is almost midnight, and he stands under multi-coloured lights, his breath taken away. Not yet fond of acid-green and black, Angel is armed with a long wig and a traditional black ensemble, and tall black boots, he's happy as could be.

He's not stupid: he keeps to the busy areas, stays in the lights, stays near shops that are nicer than they're not. He's already tall enough to be seen easily-- especially with the boots-- and finds himself starving.

"Excuse me!" he says to someone under a streetlight, beaming. "Do you, like, know where a good pizza place is nearby?"

carhop cavalier

 

[Carhop Cavalier]

Lex is just getting onto his allotted hour break - his mother insisted forty-five would do, but Lex was always good with pouting and saying something about how Nistor would have treated him better - and he pulls a silver flask out of his black blazer, taking a hasty sip of the bar's top shelf bourbon. Mother would kill him, but she was never actually at the club - there were more men to chase, after all.

Just as the shot of liquor is heating his chest in the arid, chilled desert night, Lex hears someone get his attention, and sees the hair and the attire before he hears the voice. "Look, Azure or whatever your stage name is now, I told you we can't schedule you in for another - oh." Lex tripped over himself a little, suddenly realizing that this was not one of the girls.

"Sorry about that, I've got a lot of girls who look a lot like you talking to me a lot of the time."

He stuffed the flask back into his jacket, and pulled out a business card in its place. The card itself is on thick black stock, matte, with silver print reading THE PRESIDIUM in sharp, clear typography. If Angel flips it over, he will see the name Martha Knowells, with no contact information. Underneath the woman's name is Alexei Jamil, with a phone number, a company email, and a FAX number.

"Call me for an audition - this whole noveaux-goth thing-" Lex motioned to Angel's attire, their hair, "Is trending right now. Sure you'd be a great fit."

xxlurks beneath

 

[its me debz]

Angel pouted, cheeks puffing out in indignant fury. "I don't like, work for you, guy!" He crosses his arms in a huff, which did not-- in reality-- do him much of a favor in appearance of both his age and his masculinity.

He took the card, confused and bewildered. "I don't want to be a movie star," he said, slowly, squinting enough to show that he had heavy black eyeshadow on. Even his eyeshadow had eyeshadow, and it was all black. "And this is Vegas, not Hollywood, so I'm not really sure like, what you're playing at--"

Wait.

"Ohhhhhhhhhh, uhm." Gingerly, with pale hands and black varnished nails, Angel tucked the card back into one of Lex's pockets. "You can ask me again in two years if you can find me. But not unless you like, open up a titty bar for guys without titties."

Carhop Cavalier

 

[Carhop Cavalier]

Lex stared blankly at the boy - not a girl, as it turned out - while he put his card back into his suit pocket, and gave him a wry smile once his brain rebooted from the idiocy. "Ah, so sorry. I just... well, thanks for letting me know." He chuckled, sliding one hand into his fitted pants and the other pulled out a phone from yet another pocket in his suit coat.

"You looking for nicer pizza or just something quick and easy? There's always Circus Circus' buffet, Betalli has his pizzeria - OTTO - down on St. Mark's Square if you've got the cash, and there's always Naked City if you just want a slice or two." Lex passed his phone to the boy, with maps and quick directions on the screen.

Hold on a second.

"...Should you even be out this late?"

lurks beneath

 

[its me debz]

"It's like, super fine!" He flashes the horns with a grin, looking pleased. "That's kind of what I'm going for, anyway. Androgyny! Super success!"

Angel hums, checking his wallet for how much cash he has. Not a lot, as it turns out. Which is, in actuality, probably for the best. "Uhm," he says, scrolling down the phone a little, "I like the look of that pizzeria." He taps the name into his own phone, getting directions for himself. "Unless it's like, gross or something, baphomet forbid."

At the question, Angel just looks up at the stranger with wide, innocent eyes. "Oh! That's very nice of you, but I'm fine. My parents said I could be out another hour or two, until they're done with their parties, and I haven't eaten like, all night, so I am starving."

He tilts his head, giving Lex a critical once over, but his voice is genuinely curious. "So are you like, just out here to scout girls? Is that like, a full time thing that exists here?"

Carhop Cavalier

 

[Carhop Cavalier]

Christ. Lex thought as he took the phone back and slid it into his jacket, then sliding it into the pocket of his pants. Just who were this kid's parents, anyway? Letting their hooker looking son run around on the strip this late at night...

"N-no. I don't scout - that's for talent agencies and sleezy men in unfitted jackets. I manage a few clubs, and I happen to be on my hour break." Lex tilted his head down the road at that point, indicating a smaller building with heavy, roaring bass shaking its windows. "If I don't get away from all that, I'd have a migraine larger than Texas."

He flipped his wrist over to check his watch, seeing he still had around fifty minutes to spare. "Tell you what, I'm feeling a little peckish too. I'll walk you down there." Not a request, but a statement. If Angel didn't want to talk, he didn't have to - but Lex wasn't going to just let the kid alone.

lurks beneath

 

[its me debz]

Angel looked Lex over from head to toe, and then just shruuuuuggged. "Texas is like, huge though. You've clearly never driven through East Texas."

But at the offer, he grinned and bounced on the balls of his feet, clapping his hands excitedly. "Great! It'll be like, an adventure. And then you can tell me how you like, got to manage clubs and stuff, cos you have a baby face!"

(Said the pot to the kettle.)

Clearly, not wanting to talk wouldn't be a problem. It likely never had been.

Carhop Cavalier

 

[Carhop Cavalier]

"It's just a saying, kid." Lex chuckled, a little gruff, rubbing the back of his head. This kid was...special, certainly. There were all kinds of special people that Lex saw daily in Sin City, but some were just a tad more touched than others.

At least Angel wasn't annoying. "So, what's your name, little man? You've already got mine." Lex started, taking lanky strides to the pizza parlor. "And what the hell are you doing in my city, again? Said something about your parents? They dump you while they're off at Burning Man?"

Because Lex, though highly aware of the social goings-ons of Vegas, had absolutely no sense of time or date. If the Percy Jackson movies got anything right, it was that casino scene - You were never aware of the calendar or clock unless you made yourself so.

lurks beneath

 

[its me debz]

"You yankees really are a trip, you know that?" But Angel said the words without any bite, just...well. Wonder.

"Angel," he said, holding a gloved hand out to shake. "Burning Man's not for a few months, silly! They're at like, a chakra realignment or something. Or well, dad is. Mom is at some party. I think it's an orgy, like, they try to keep it on the down low, but I can read between the lines, you now? I'm glad they're like, vague. Cos, you know."

Angel made a face, nose scrunched up. "But yeah, I have some free time, and we're seeing a cirque show tomorrow, to make up for it and junk, praise Baphomet."

Carhop Cavalier

 

[Carhop Cavalier]

Lex made a face as Angel blathered on about orgies and chakra alignments and all the nonsense he actively ignored. Well, to be fair, he'd been to one orgy, and was pretty sure he lost more than just his car keys during the time.

"Uh....huuuuhhh...."

Also, the guy kept talking about Baphomet? Wasn't that a demon, or something? "Cirque's pretty cool; their performers are just as talented off the stage." A sly little grin crept up on Lex's face, before he dropped it and looked Angel square in the eye, his businessman smile back on.

"Funny, a kid named Angel, all by his lonesome in Sin City. Sounds like a terrible Summer movie." Lex made conversation,, because even if Angel was weird and way out of his comfort zone, Lex was an operator. "You said you wanted to hear about how i started managing clubs?"

lurks beneath

 

[its me debz]

Angel laughed uproariously, a skip in his step. "I'll have to come back in a few years," he replied, impish, and then just rolled his eyes.

"I'm like, not that big on my name. But my parents say I have to give it a few more years, and then they'll call me something else if I want. They changed theirs, after all. I know my mom wasn't named Crystal Xelyiana at birth, duh."

He sidestepped a pair of drunk girls before falling back into step with Lex. "Sure! You can make it up if you want. Telling tales to strangers is fun, I won't like, begrudge you and junk."

Carhop Cavalier

 

[Carhop Cavalier]

Jesus ******** Christ.

Lex could hardly maintain a poker face with Angel. Sure, Vegas brought the weird people in, and sure, Alexei had seen his fair share of weird s**t crawling around in the corners, just out of eyesight. But, God, this kid was just... Strange.

Lex blamed the parents, truly. "Any ideas for a different name?"

The man shrugged as the duo got to the pizza parlor, holding the door open for the boy. "Not much to lie about. It's pretty straightforward, to be honest."

lurks beneath

 

[its me debz]

Angel sighed dramatically. "Well, like. Most people pick something entirely new. But, I don't know. Maybe my middle name. Well, one of them. I have like, two, so. Ember, probably. Better than Meadows, for sure."

He shrugged, waltzing in, beaming at the fellow behind the counter who called him miss, seemingly charmed. There was an impish quality to him, almost something fey and trickster. It got him into trouble.

"Whaaat? You're crazy. Stretching the truth is the best part about anything."

Carhop Cavalier

 

[Carhop Cavalier]

"Yeah, Meadows would be really weird." Lex nodded with the most driest of nods, checking his watch yet again. Social butterfly he may be, this Angel kid was just the epitome of odd. "Ember's the far better choice."

Lex held up two fingers to the guys behind the counters, and briefly considered just ordering his standard order of two slices of Combination pizza before realizing that this Angel kid was probably some kind of hyper-herbivore, or something. "You eat meat?"

lurks beneath

 

[its me debz]

He liked the sound of it, too, but it was nice to get a complete stranger's approval.

Angel grinned, toothy. "Lots," he said, "for his lord and savior, Azazel, as sacrifice."

Carhop Cavalier