She had liked the glowing sign out front, not to mention the attractive young bouncer. Now, two hours into a decidedly enlightening visit to 'Faded', Vanessa Kennedy found herself in exactly the state that had led to the club's christening.

She was currently dangling across a couple of barstools, seated not-so-firmly on one while her crossed legs formed a bridge that led to another, this one the resting place of a pair of size seven stilettos. The toes within them were painted Devil's Red, #267, curtesy of Revlon Qwik-Dry.

A young man with a glittery grin and too-bright eyes was seated next to her, laughing raucously into the young woman's ear while he toyed with the strap of her tank top. Vanessa hadn't been opposed to this a few minutes ago, but now Billy or Ben or Whoever-He-Was seemed utterly horrific.

She sighed, toying with her Martini as thoughts of an ex-boyfriend cam swirling into her mind. The gentleman in question had become past tense in her life just three days ago. Vanessa hadn't really minded much, but the surrounding circumstances were utterly depressing. She had called him up due to a strange and pressing desire to rant at him about all the ways he made her life miserable, had gotten hung up on, and then recieved a call the following day that his mum had passed away and 'we need to stop seeing each other, because the emotional damage is really too much right now.' Not too traumatizing... except that this happened to be an amazingly standard reocurrence. Had Vanessa had any idea that she was half Banshee, things might have been a bit clearer, but the girl was as clueless to this as the young man nearby was to the ritual of courting.

She turned her head at another outburst of hysterical laughter from the stranger, accidentally whipping him across the face with her unbound hair.

"Look, you might 'swell juss' go away. Unless you wan' yer mum to die."

Well, needless to say, the young man went away, and Miss Kennedy was once more left with only her Martini and a couple of barstools to keep her company.

Benji wasn't the last person one would expect to see in Faded, but definitely wasn't the first, either. This nightclub was far calmer than the kind of place he preferred - noisy with blacklights and strobes which, if he wasn't careful, could trigger a seizure (he's epileptic). Funny how people are most attracted to the things that are bad for them.

He walked in, strolling at a leisurely pace towards the bar, his overlarge hands tucked into the pockets of his black jeans. A number of assorted keychains were dangling off one of the belt loops, but there were only two or three keys with them. His shirt was a long-sleeved white cotton thing, with a black stencilled image of a person's face splashed across the front. His clothes might have been just a tad unusual, but they were nothing compared to the person wearing them. Benji was six-nearing-seven feet tall, with wiry, naturally mustard-colored hair, a clumsy sort of figure despite its thinness, and an incongruously delicate face with large brown eyes.

He went straight to the bar - just because this wasn't his preferred nightclub, didn't mean he was going to let himself feel out of place - and slid onto a bar stool, right next to Vanessa.
"H'lo," he said amiably, giving her a brief but honest smile.

Vanessa peered up at him through a sheet of pale blond hair, opening her mouth to repeat the previous statement, and then closing it again when she realized this was not the same young man that had recently disappeared.

She narrowed her eyes, scrutinizing him as best she could from three drinks deep. He was all right looking. Nice face. Actually, at the moment, he was fabulous looking. She managed to pull herself into an upright position, swinging her legs from the second stool so that she could rest her back against the lip of the bar.

"H'lo! Yer tall. ...I like you."

She grinned at him brightly, nodding towards the 5'8 length of her own thin body. After a brief examination, she frowned, readjusting the plain black tanktop and fidgeting with the band of matching colored lace encircling her neck.

She gave up after a few moments of this, lifting the Martini to her wide mouth and tipping back a fair amount of liquid. When she was finished, she began to return it to the counter, then thought better of this idea. The glass was thrust towards Benji, a pair of mottled, moss colored eyes peering at him from over the rim.

"Try it! It's really good!"

Benji smiled faintly, leaning forwards to rest his forearms on the counter. He tilted his head to one side, the better to look at her. She was quite pretty, and he hadn't had so much as a sip of a drink yet. She obviously had, but he wasn't going to hold that against her.

He blinked mildly at the glass as it was pushed towards him.
"I..." he hesitated, smirking apologetically and trying to quickly think of a way to make his refusal sound tactful, "Thanks, but no thanks. I'm ... it's not really my sort of drink, but thanks for offering..."

Vanessa shrugged compliantly, returning the glass to her lips once again and drinking deeply. She placed it on the counter when finished, not looking as her fingers managed to uncurl from the stem without toppling the glass' contents.

After this had been delt with, she continued appraising him, lips pressed into a light and enigmatic grin. One hand lifted to tuck a few strands of her behind her left ear, but for the most part, she remained still.

"I'm Vanessa."

She was calm, her eyes placid for the moment.

"Does your family have a history medical problems?"

She paused, eyes widening as though she hadn't realized she had been speaking aloud, then placed a hand over her mouth and began to giggle.

He held her gaze as long as he could, but soon broke under her stare - it made him feel a tad uneasy, being looked over like that. When she spoke again, he managed to bring back his smile, which had been slowly waning, and look at ehr again.

"Nice to meet you, Vanessa. I'm Benjamin," he replied, after a long pause. "Or Benji, Benny, Ben, or Benj. Whichever. I answer to all of them."

Benji gave her a bemused sort of look when she started giggling.
"History of...? Not... not that I know of, no," he said, deciding to treat her like she was acting normal, rather than dismiss what she'd said as being silly and nonsensical. "Why do you ask?"

Vanessa stood slowly, still eyeing him unabashedly but without any malace. Under normal circumstances, she would never have continued staring in such a manner, but tonight she was... not herself.

"Hmm. Well, I think Benj should be reserved for close friends, maybe an ex-girlfriend, Benny makes you sound young, and Benji reminds me of that little dog. So it'll have to be Ben. It's a good name."

She grinned at him, placing her hands on her slim hips and momentarily allowing a few inches of skin to show between the fabric of the tank top and that of the cream colored skirt.

"I guess you could call me Nessa. I think that's pretty, but no one's ever used it before."

A slight pause, and she looked longingly at the glass she had left on the oh-so-faraway bar counter-top.

"Um... stupid question. I just... tend to... find people who do. I mean, have other people die. Er... pass away. I mean, of natural causes. Most of the time. Not that... I have anything to do with... um. Never mind."

Yeah, the glass was definitely looking good right about now.

"Okay, Ben it is," he agreed easily. One of his nicknames was the same as any other to him. He leaned heavily on the counter, forcing himself to keep eye contact with her. Even if her staring was unnerving, it'd be rude to avoid her gaze. "Nessa's a pretty name. Better than Ness - that calls to mind the fabled lake serpent in Scotland."

It was at this point that the bartender came over and asked Benji what he'd like to drink. Seeing Vanessa's current state, Benji was tempted to go with something nonalcoholic, but changed his mind at the last second and ordered a beer.

"What do you mean? Don't tell me you're an assassin or something," he kidded Vanessa, having misunderstood her explanation. "License to kill and all that?"

Vanessa laughed brightly at his little joke about her name, smiling with her even teeth revealed.

She waited to reply to his other statement until the man returned with Ben's beer, slowly mouthing the word "um" and staring at the trendy little swing band that held the stage for the night. They were good, and a change from the usual.

She returned her eyes to his after a moment, looking as though she had just found out something terribly shocking about herself.

"Haha, nope, not a 'ssassain. Little more boring. Um, I wirte obituaries for the Herald, which I never realized... well, now I just sound so strange."

She covered her face with a hand, leaning back against the bar while still on her feet.

"I'm not usually like this..."

((ack, I'm gonna be in NY from tonight until the 15th, so I won't be able to post 'til around then.))

He took a sip of his drink as he listened to her talk. "Obituaries, huh? That's..." Don't say anything stupid "-kind of spooky."

That was stupid.

"I don't mean that in a bad way or anything," he added hastily, seeing that she already seemed to be feeling awkward, without his idiotic comments. "I mean, it's just weird- I mean, unusual. Sorry."



((S'ok, I'll be patient :) ))