[Gabriella Bellamonte] The night had come and gone and found its way back again, and Gabriella was having trouble remembering very much of it. She recalled her family walking away, some stone-faced Fenrir standing witness, and that she didn't sleep with a roof over her head last night. She was pretty sure she'd found a park bench or curled up in the plastic tube of some piece of children's play equipment, but she couldn't recall for certain anymore.
She'd walked, carrying her bag on her back and her violin case in her hand like the transient she was finding out she truly was. Through the streets of Chicago, loitering here or there while she tried to collect her thoughts and plan her next move. She found herself at the De Paul University, strolling through campus and finding her way to the administrative offices. She had a long talk, a very, very long talk with one of the heads of the art institute, someone that had come aside to speak with her privately before about her skillset, about scholarships and internships and other such things that she hadn't quite needed at the time. Now she needed them, though, and the head of the art institute said he would see what he could arrange for her. She was left with a solid 'maybe' to carry her through the night.
So she sat at a bench just out in the front of the college campus, with hills of snow, tall old buildings and paths and frozen ponds behind her. Her legs were crossed indian-style and she had her bag on the bench behind her, as well as her violin case, though that was open. With chilled fingers she was checking the strings, plucking and adjusting so the instrument was finely tuned. There was no audience for her to perform to, no hat upturned on the ground in front of her for her to be panhandling. She seemed to just be escaping into something comfortable and familiar for a while.
[Alexander] "Playing for pennies, are we?"
That's an unexpected, albeit familiar voice. They shared a room for months. Didn't interact much. She was out most of the day; he was in bed by 10 and up again before she woke in the mornings. When they were actually in the same space, she was doing homework and he was playing his Xbox, either in the room or out in the commons. Then she moved out. Alex never bothered to find out why.
He's here now, though, in doublelayer jeans -- not (entirely) for the look but for the warmth -- and a familiar motorcycle jacket, red. Who the fuck rides motorcycles in 20 degree weather, Liadan asked him last night. His response was that he hadn't crashed yet, though at this rate, that might not be a boast he can make for long.
"I'd tip you," he adds, "but I'd have to take my gloves off. And I don't wanna get frostbite."
[Gabriella Bellamonte] Her eyes had been faraway, unfocused though they were cast down at her work. Fingers were moving automatically, ears picking up on the sound and transferring the message of whether to twist clockwise or counterclockwise to her fingertips without any true thought necessary for this to occur. She hadn't heard Alex in a while, she was pretty sure that the last things she heard out of his mouth were mumbles from his sleep or some curse at a game he was playing on the TV placed precariously atop the bookshelf.
She wasn't expecting anyone to stop and speak to her, the campus grounds were fairly vacant, the sidewalk in front of them void of traffic this time of night. So when Alexander Vaughn showed up, it was a curious thing. Blue eyes focused, sharpened some, and lifted to find the familiar, not particularly welcome or unwelcome either face. She lifted an eyebrow, then smiled vaguely and shook her head.
"When I play, it's for hundreds of dollars and an audience of socialites. I'm just.. preoccupying myself."
She paused, eyes searching him for a second, his coat and doublelayer pants, then dropped back to her violin. Her fingers were fairly numb, but she didn't care. "It's not that cold anyways."
[Alexander] "Preoccupying yourself," Alexander repeats, dripping with dubiousness. "Outside, on a schoolnight, in subfreezing temperatures. What's the matter, princess, was the music room at your fairytale mansion too stuffy for you?"
[Gabriella Bellamonte] "More like off limits, Alex."
She lifted her fingers from the strings and nobs of her violin, wriggled and flexed them in the sub-freezing air, then placed the instrument back in its case. The lid was closed, latches done up, and that and the bag both were set on the dry, frosted pavement of the sidewalk in front of the bench, then slid underneath, out of the way, like carry-on luggage on an airplane. She patted the bench seat beside her, offering it up to the Glasswalker Kinfolk, then took cheapy white gloves out of her coat pockets and started to pull them on.
"My family grew sick with me and cast me aside, and so here I am, waiting to hear if I'll have a home on campus by the weekend or not." Something about the tone of her voice was far from 'pity me', though. More along the lines of 'matter of fact'.
[Alexander] Which is probably a good thing, all told, because Alexander Vaughn is the last place anyone should look for pity. That much is evident when his first reaction is a hoot of laughter.
It's followed by a long once-over, from the top of her head to the tips of her shoes, taking in the subtle changes in her attire -- the cheap white gloves where once she would've worn nothing but the best in cashmere and leather, for one. He even goes so far as to bend to look under the bench, as if expecting to see a hobo bag down there with all her worldly possessions in it.
"That's fucking hilarious," he says. "Gabriella Bellamonte, Princess Extraordinaire, out on her ass on the streets. So now you're staying... what, under a park bench? What'd you do to piss them off so bad?"
[Gabriella Bellamonte] Alex laughed, and she didn't expect anything different. She simply eyed him when he decided to stand rather than sit, then leaned back and crossed legs sheathed in cheap Wal*Mart brand jeans at the knees and let an arm stretch out over the back of the bench, pulling the sleeve of her nice, expensive heavy black coat up past her wrist a bit in doing so. Her hair was left unbound tonight, so it fell against her shoulders and down her back, but again she hadn't bothered with any make-up.
"Oh, any number of things I suppose." The Kin shrugged, faintly, and slipped her free hand into her coat pocket. "Nothing monumental, I didn't get anyone killed or sleep with the poolboy shaman or anything like that. They just..." The hand resting at the bench's back twisted in the air, searching for the right words. "...grew sick of my impertinence. I was dragging their names through the dirt by not tucking my head anymore."
She huffed a breath, something between a sigh and an angry grunt. "That's fine. A long time coming I suppose, since Dad died."
[Alexander] "Huh." Alexander doesn't sit; the bench is too damn cold. He'll stand. He'll move the fuck on soon, and go somewhere warm. He adds, as though this summed it all up: "Fangs."
A beat. Then, "So ... you didn't answer me. Where are you staying now? Under that bench?"
[Gabriella Bellamonte] "Yeah, Fangs."
Not too surprising that he'd get an agreement from her. Rarely ever has Gabbie agreed with or been enthralled by the politics or superiority involved with her tribe. She hated being staunch, upright, smiling at strangers and letting them bounce ideas of matchmaking off her mother and siblings while she sat aside quietly. She preferred simplicity, and that was the last thing on the list of how Silver Fangs work.
A revisit of the question of where she was staying, and Gabbie's eyes dropped away from his face, off to the side, so she was looking past his shoulder and furrowing her brow thoughtfully. "I think... I think I stayed in a park last night, but I don't recall very much. I've payed for some motel rooms, but funds are drying quickly."
She gestured over her own shoulder now, toward the college campus they were in front of. "I have a scholarship here, spoke with a dean about making space in the dorms for me. He said he'll see what he can work out, but nothing is certain yet."
[Alexander] "Well, if you've got bus fare, Coronet Motel down in Bronzeville is cheap. Stayed there when I first got here. Pretty good place. Shitty beds, shitty sheets, shitty shower and shitty coffee, but random women will walk by and fuck your ears off." Alexander pauses. "'Course, later she turned out to be one of the most batshit women in the city, so maybe you should just not do that.
"Still," he concludes, "it'll be cheaper than the inns up in Lakeview."
[Gabriella Bellamonte] The girl nodded, then rubbed her palms against the thighs of her jeans, as though she was making an effort to warm her legs up, and glanced up the street, perhaps hunting for a bus that was due to arrive. Her head tipped to the side, an exaggerated motion that was pushed until something in her neck popped, then she relaxed once more, head leaned back more comfortably so that she was regarding Alex down the length of her nose, but without the flavor of snobbery usually accompanied with such a gaze.
"I'll keep that in mind. I heard rumor of some pretty ferocious monsters in that area, so I was trying to make a point of avoiding it, though. You know, defenseless girl with heritage strong enough to beacon from under her skin..." Another askew wave of her hand, this time more toward herself than out at the world around them. "But... if there are girls willing to bed with me..." A wry grin pulled at her mouth, and she shook her head.
"Thanks, I'll look into that."
[Alexander] "Yeah, well," Alexander replies, never one to candycoat shit, "if you were worried about getting nabbed up by monsters drawn to your shining heritage, Princess, you probably shouldn't have gotten your ass kicked out of the gilded cage, huh?"
He follows that up with a shiteating grin of extraordinary wattage, then swings his motorcycle helmet from one hand into the crook of the other arm.
"Well, I'm freezing my ass off. I'd offer you a ride, but one, I've been told it's unsafe to ride a motorcycle in icy conditions, and two, I'm not going down that way. Try not to get mugged, Gabs."
[Gabriella Bellamonte] She shrugged to Alexander's shit-eater remark, but didn't reply to it. She figured it was better snatched away and gobbled up at this point than to continue in a half-present state that had no forward motion for any longer. At least then things would change, and she'd have a chance at rebirth, or heaven, or whatever the hell came after death. Something new, a fresh start.
The announcement came that he was going on his way, and she chuckled and shook her head at the thought of riding on the back of Alex's motorcycle like one of his floosies. "Thank you, I'll do my best." Her chin bobbed up the road, where a bus was rounding the corner. "That's my ride anyways. I'll see you around, take care."
come find me
13 years ago