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phormthevixdjinnKayte's ears perked upright in surprise. Her eyes fixed directly on the mink who was suddenly there, steadying herself against the wall with uneasy legs at the bottom of the stairs. Clad in a rumpled white undershirt and a pair of black pants, the punk-styled mink looked disheveled and exhausted. Her eyes were blearing red.
"Shit, Vect," Kayte rumbled softly, "Get back to bed. You're probably half drunk still." The massive wolf went back to polishing the mirror behind the bar gingerly, her enormous paws moving with more grace than one would initially presume possible from such a gigantic creature.
"`M fuckin' fine," Vect sputtered from numb lips, "Jus' waking up. Need like ten minutes." The mink slumped her way to the bar, spilling onto a stool as she laid her head on the bar top.
"C'mon, I just washed that. I don't need you to vom all over it this early in the day," Kayte turned around, facing Vect from the other side of the bar. Kayte towered over the mink - particularly with Vect feeling about three feet tall in the moment. "Do I need to carry you back up the stairs?"
"NO," Vect grunted mostly into the bar. "`M just... just pulling myself together. Gimme water."
Kayte shook her head with a gentle sigh and then proceeded to pull a highball glass from beneath the bar. After quickly dispensing the requested water, she gently set it on the bar top next to Vect's nose. Vect was cognizant enough to note that Kayte's paw nearly engulfed the entire glass.
"Look, Vect. I know this is hard. It's hard for all of us. Hell, Terri still won't come out of her room. Didn't eat last night. I'm worried sick about our sweet little bun." Kayte's deeply rumbling voice belied a silken concern, "But that's exactly why we need you right now. We need someone to hold us together. We need a center. Something to ground us and keep us tight. Whether or not you like it, that's you, yaknow?"
"Mmf. `h know." Vect raised her hand just enough to grasp the glass. Slowly, the mink peeled her face off the bar, bloodshot eyes on full display to the wolf opposite to her. She leaned forward to put her lips on the rim of the glass, and then slowly lifted it, taking a tremendous gulp. She drained the glass slowly, but completely.
"Goddamn," She said through a gasp, "I ought to drink this stuff more often."
"No shit."
"Where's my jacket?"
Kayte leaned down behind the bar, before rising up holding the well-worn, patch-laden denim jacket. The wolf moved as if to toss it at Vect, but thought better of her condition. She slowly handed it to her, only to have the mink snatch it up in a flash, offended.
"C'mon. I'm not that bad. I'm just not a morning person, okay?" She slid the jacket on while clearing her throat, rolling her shoulders as she slipped off the barstool and headed for the door.
"Woah, woah," Kayte interjected. "Where are you going?"
Vect paused with her hand splayed upon the exit, stopping for a beat before turning slowly to face Kayte. A heavy silence hung in the air as she struggled to speak at all. It was obvious from her lips that she was trying, and failing, repeatedly. The words simply died in her throat.
Eventually, she managed to get out a single word.
"Breakfast."
The sun was already so goddamned oppressive. It was just barely before seven in the morning, and it already felt overwhelming outside. Vect could feel the heat radiating off the pavement as she walked across it. And why was it so bright this early? Was all that sunlight really necessary before noon?
Still, the fresh air and natural light were doing her good. It was waking her up, if nothing else. And she was going to need... Well, she was going to need a lot for what she was about to do. She didn't relish it.
Vect slowed to a halt in front of the diner entrance. It was a small establishment. A real hole-in-the-wall place, set between a predatory payday loan office and a liquor store, off a forgotten street that was just barely narrow enough for traffic to pass through. Despite the surrounding grime, the sign still had that level of polish she always remembered. The kind of polish that gave the sign a well-worn, but still clean, appearance.
It wasn't shiny and new, but it still proudly proclaimed, "Violet's".
Vect put a hand to the entrance despite the large 'CLOSED' sign. With a deep breath, she closed her eyes, readied herself, and pushed within.
The sound of the jukebox could be heard through the empty restaurant, volume just a little too low to be enjoyed, but more than enough to be present.
"Garbage," the mink muttered to herself as she recognized the musical group. Vect knew this song. Well. Her reflection was cut short by the din of the jingling bells that announced her arrival as she pushed the door ajar.
A voice immediately shot out from the kitchen in the back, just out of view, "Hey, we're not open yet." She always had a powerful voice, one that sounded to Vect like her years of experience went beyond running the diner.
"It's going to be at least an hou-"
A modestly tall lynx emerged from the kitchen mid-sentence, wearing a well-washed apron over her diner dress. Her hair was tied up behind her with a large white ribbon. She was about as big as Vect, if perhaps a touch broader in the shoulders. And right now, from behind her overly large, circular glasses, she was looking at Vect as if the mink were a tornado on the horizon.
"Shit," she softly whispered.
She pointed at the bar, "Take a seat, Vect. And make sure that door is locked."
"Yes ma'am," Vect did as she was told, latching the door and then sliding up at the diner bar. She slumped onto the counter in front of her, putting her head into her hands for a moment as she closed her eyes. She could hear the sounds of the kitchen as she sat there. The clattering dishes, the sizzling of the stove, spatulas scraping against the surface, banter between the workers.
One might mistake it for a normal day.
Vect heaved a heavy sigh as she dropped her hands from her face. How the hell was she going to do this?
Before she could come to terms with the question she found a plate being slid under her nose upon the diner counter. She blinked her bloodshot eyes. Scrambled eggs, sausage, hash browns, sourdough toast. Just the kind of greasy, heavy meal her body was desperate for.
"Violet, you're an absolute treasure."
The lynx set a glass of orange juice down next to Vect, "Don't flatter me, dear. Now eat."
Vect needed no further invitation. She picked up her fork and proceeded to positively demolish the meal, tearing into the sausages immediately and with abandon. She was almost feral, the way she assaulted her breakfast - But her body was crying out for food, and some manner of relief from her hangover. She was desperate in a way she hadn't quite realized yet this morning.
Violet walked around the bar as Vect stuffed her face unhindered. She sat down heavily on the stool next to the mink, leaning an elbow on the surface of the counter, gaze piercing Vect without wavering, even as the mink devoured her breakfast. Violet didn't move. She didn't flinch. If Vect hadn't been so absolutely hungover, chances are she might've felt uncomfortable while eating.
"You're not here for breakfast," Violet interjected between Vect's mouthfuls of toast.
Well, now she was uncomfortable.
Though rightly so. "Yeah, I'm not... Violet," Vect started. The mink had a hard time continuing.
"Violet, I... L... We..." Vect couldn't. She just couldn't. She turned her head to the other side, gaze slipping away from Violet.
"No, you look at me."
Vect turned to face Violet slowly. The lynx's eyes were softer than she remembered. She always had this impression of Violet as being this hardened, unflappable woman. A woman of experience, steeled by a difficult life, unmovable. But here and now, she could see anything but a rock-hard exterior. Behind those round glasses were the eyes of a vulnerable, scared girl. One who knew what it was to be hurt, and feared it again. One who already knew what was coming.
"You look at me, and you tell me this thing properly."
"Violet..." Vect heaved a heavy, deep sigh. Inwardly, she knew she had to.
"Violet, last night... Candice was murdered."
Violet began to shake her head slowly, lip quivering as her eyes welled with tears she couldn't contain.
"Sometime just before midnight, the Alliance raided the motel room where she was making contact with a new girl. She... Look, Violet," Vect turned her entire body to face Violet, urgently and earnestly looking into her eyes. "Violet I want you to know that Candice was a sister to all of us. That she helped people so much, and was so beloved by everyone. And I also... I want you to know we're going to fucking make them pay fo-"
"Shut up," Violet's voice trembled through tears. "Fucking... Vect, just shut up."
Vect slowed, leaning back on the stool. She nodded for a moment, "I know. I can't believe it either. We're all absolutely devastated. No one at the club is okay right now. We're all scared, we're all s-"
"Fucking shut up," Violet's voice wasn't raised, but it was powerful. "You think I give a shit about any of that? You think I care about your club? Or your goddamned crusade?"
"Violet-"
"NO! Fuck off, Vect." Violet was struggling with eyes full of tears, but her voice didn't quaver for a moment, "You have the fucking gall to come in here and tell me this, and then immediately spin it into a revenge fantasy before I can even start to process it? You're fucking sick, Vect. SICK."
"I just want you to know that we're going to do everything we can to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else, ever again. That's what this is all about, Violet. That's why Candice was there last night. No one should hav-"
Violet stabbed a finger through the air at the mink, "YOU are the reason she's dead, Vect."
Vect was stunned silent.
"I don't give two shits about your justification, I don't give two shits about your girls, and I don't care about your petty, ignorant quest to rail against these people who do this shit. Do you understand me, Vect? Do you understand that even if you go out there right now, and you put a bullet in the head of every motherfucker responsible for what happened to my Candice last night, that still I won't ever get her back? Do you understand that even if you succeed, even if you somehow can make this world this better place with more death, that SHE'D be the one who paid the price? DO YOU UNDERSTAND I'LL NEVER SEE HER AGAIN?" Violet's voice was breaking now, sobbing between screams.
Vect swallowed hard. She felt as if she had just been punched square in the kidneys.
"Violet, if we don't stand up to these assholes, if we don't make them think twice about this shit, they'll kill every one of us with impunity just for who we are."
"FUCK. OFF." Violet blurted messily through exasperated tears, "Do you think if Candice were here waiting tables with me last night that they would've come through that door and shot her in the head? Just because she was different? I fucking know they hate us, Vect. And I know they want to hurt us. But FUCKING CHRIST, you were the one who sent Candice directly into their hands and gave them the excuse to pull the trigger!"
"You think they can't hate us any more than they already do? You think that your pathetic stabs at them don't make it WORSE?" Violet was shaking now, "How many more girls are going to have to die for you, Vect? How much more blood on your hands is it going to take until you fucking wake up?"
Vect winced. She closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. "Violet, I realize how it looks to you, but I need you to understand that they aren't going to stop hurting us just because we play nice. We can't ever be good enough for them. Candice understoo-"
"No, no, no, NO. You do NOT get to come in here and tell me what Candice would think about her own fucking death. Get out."
Vect paused for a moment, inhaling another deep breath.
"I SAID GET THE FUCK OUT!"
"Okay. I'm leaving," The mink slid backward off the stool and onto her feat, reaching into her jacket pocket to extract enough money to cover her breakfast.
"Fuck your money and LEAVE, you goddamn murderer!"
Vect tossed the money onto the counter anyway as she pulled a hasty retreat. She swiftly moved to the diner entrance, opening the door - and pausing.
"Before I go, I just want you to know that if you need anything... Please... Please call us, okay? It doesn't even have to be me. Kayte will help. Terri would be more than happ-"
KSSSSH
A spray of glimmering shards and orange juice splattered across Vect's face as the glass impacted the wall beside her. Violet had a good arm.
"OUT!!!!"
Vect stepped out into the sun once again. She squinted upward, bloodshot eyes narrowed as she shielded them with her hand. She shot the sky a dirty look for being so bright.
"Well," she muttered to herself as she put her hands in her jacket pockets and began down the sidewalk, "Two more to go."
It was already getting way too hot.
Her tears nearly evaporated before they hit the pavement.
"Shit, Vect," Kayte rumbled softly, "Get back to bed. You're probably half drunk still." The massive wolf went back to polishing the mirror behind the bar gingerly, her enormous paws moving with more grace than one would initially presume possible from such a gigantic creature.
"`M fuckin' fine," Vect sputtered from numb lips, "Jus' waking up. Need like ten minutes." The mink slumped her way to the bar, spilling onto a stool as she laid her head on the bar top.
"C'mon, I just washed that. I don't need you to vom all over it this early in the day," Kayte turned around, facing Vect from the other side of the bar. Kayte towered over the mink - particularly with Vect feeling about three feet tall in the moment. "Do I need to carry you back up the stairs?"
"NO," Vect grunted mostly into the bar. "`M just... just pulling myself together. Gimme water."
Kayte shook her head with a gentle sigh and then proceeded to pull a highball glass from beneath the bar. After quickly dispensing the requested water, she gently set it on the bar top next to Vect's nose. Vect was cognizant enough to note that Kayte's paw nearly engulfed the entire glass.
"Look, Vect. I know this is hard. It's hard for all of us. Hell, Terri still won't come out of her room. Didn't eat last night. I'm worried sick about our sweet little bun." Kayte's deeply rumbling voice belied a silken concern, "But that's exactly why we need you right now. We need someone to hold us together. We need a center. Something to ground us and keep us tight. Whether or not you like it, that's you, yaknow?"
"Mmf. `h know." Vect raised her hand just enough to grasp the glass. Slowly, the mink peeled her face off the bar, bloodshot eyes on full display to the wolf opposite to her. She leaned forward to put her lips on the rim of the glass, and then slowly lifted it, taking a tremendous gulp. She drained the glass slowly, but completely.
"Goddamn," She said through a gasp, "I ought to drink this stuff more often."
"No shit."
"Where's my jacket?"
Kayte leaned down behind the bar, before rising up holding the well-worn, patch-laden denim jacket. The wolf moved as if to toss it at Vect, but thought better of her condition. She slowly handed it to her, only to have the mink snatch it up in a flash, offended.
"C'mon. I'm not that bad. I'm just not a morning person, okay?" She slid the jacket on while clearing her throat, rolling her shoulders as she slipped off the barstool and headed for the door.
"Woah, woah," Kayte interjected. "Where are you going?"
Vect paused with her hand splayed upon the exit, stopping for a beat before turning slowly to face Kayte. A heavy silence hung in the air as she struggled to speak at all. It was obvious from her lips that she was trying, and failing, repeatedly. The words simply died in her throat.
Eventually, she managed to get out a single word.
"Breakfast."
The sun was already so goddamned oppressive. It was just barely before seven in the morning, and it already felt overwhelming outside. Vect could feel the heat radiating off the pavement as she walked across it. And why was it so bright this early? Was all that sunlight really necessary before noon?
Still, the fresh air and natural light were doing her good. It was waking her up, if nothing else. And she was going to need... Well, she was going to need a lot for what she was about to do. She didn't relish it.
Vect slowed to a halt in front of the diner entrance. It was a small establishment. A real hole-in-the-wall place, set between a predatory payday loan office and a liquor store, off a forgotten street that was just barely narrow enough for traffic to pass through. Despite the surrounding grime, the sign still had that level of polish she always remembered. The kind of polish that gave the sign a well-worn, but still clean, appearance.
It wasn't shiny and new, but it still proudly proclaimed, "Violet's".
Vect put a hand to the entrance despite the large 'CLOSED' sign. With a deep breath, she closed her eyes, readied herself, and pushed within.
The sound of the jukebox could be heard through the empty restaurant, volume just a little too low to be enjoyed, but more than enough to be present.
"Garbage," the mink muttered to herself as she recognized the musical group. Vect knew this song. Well. Her reflection was cut short by the din of the jingling bells that announced her arrival as she pushed the door ajar.
A voice immediately shot out from the kitchen in the back, just out of view, "Hey, we're not open yet." She always had a powerful voice, one that sounded to Vect like her years of experience went beyond running the diner.
"It's going to be at least an hou-"
A modestly tall lynx emerged from the kitchen mid-sentence, wearing a well-washed apron over her diner dress. Her hair was tied up behind her with a large white ribbon. She was about as big as Vect, if perhaps a touch broader in the shoulders. And right now, from behind her overly large, circular glasses, she was looking at Vect as if the mink were a tornado on the horizon.
"Shit," she softly whispered.
She pointed at the bar, "Take a seat, Vect. And make sure that door is locked."
"Yes ma'am," Vect did as she was told, latching the door and then sliding up at the diner bar. She slumped onto the counter in front of her, putting her head into her hands for a moment as she closed her eyes. She could hear the sounds of the kitchen as she sat there. The clattering dishes, the sizzling of the stove, spatulas scraping against the surface, banter between the workers.
One might mistake it for a normal day.
Vect heaved a heavy sigh as she dropped her hands from her face. How the hell was she going to do this?
Before she could come to terms with the question she found a plate being slid under her nose upon the diner counter. She blinked her bloodshot eyes. Scrambled eggs, sausage, hash browns, sourdough toast. Just the kind of greasy, heavy meal her body was desperate for.
"Violet, you're an absolute treasure."
The lynx set a glass of orange juice down next to Vect, "Don't flatter me, dear. Now eat."
Vect needed no further invitation. She picked up her fork and proceeded to positively demolish the meal, tearing into the sausages immediately and with abandon. She was almost feral, the way she assaulted her breakfast - But her body was crying out for food, and some manner of relief from her hangover. She was desperate in a way she hadn't quite realized yet this morning.
Violet walked around the bar as Vect stuffed her face unhindered. She sat down heavily on the stool next to the mink, leaning an elbow on the surface of the counter, gaze piercing Vect without wavering, even as the mink devoured her breakfast. Violet didn't move. She didn't flinch. If Vect hadn't been so absolutely hungover, chances are she might've felt uncomfortable while eating.
"You're not here for breakfast," Violet interjected between Vect's mouthfuls of toast.
Well, now she was uncomfortable.
Though rightly so. "Yeah, I'm not... Violet," Vect started. The mink had a hard time continuing.
"Violet, I... L... We..." Vect couldn't. She just couldn't. She turned her head to the other side, gaze slipping away from Violet.
"No, you look at me."
Vect turned to face Violet slowly. The lynx's eyes were softer than she remembered. She always had this impression of Violet as being this hardened, unflappable woman. A woman of experience, steeled by a difficult life, unmovable. But here and now, she could see anything but a rock-hard exterior. Behind those round glasses were the eyes of a vulnerable, scared girl. One who knew what it was to be hurt, and feared it again. One who already knew what was coming.
"You look at me, and you tell me this thing properly."
"Violet..." Vect heaved a heavy, deep sigh. Inwardly, she knew she had to.
"Violet, last night... Candice was murdered."
Violet began to shake her head slowly, lip quivering as her eyes welled with tears she couldn't contain.
"Sometime just before midnight, the Alliance raided the motel room where she was making contact with a new girl. She... Look, Violet," Vect turned her entire body to face Violet, urgently and earnestly looking into her eyes. "Violet I want you to know that Candice was a sister to all of us. That she helped people so much, and was so beloved by everyone. And I also... I want you to know we're going to fucking make them pay fo-"
"Shut up," Violet's voice trembled through tears. "Fucking... Vect, just shut up."
Vect slowed, leaning back on the stool. She nodded for a moment, "I know. I can't believe it either. We're all absolutely devastated. No one at the club is okay right now. We're all scared, we're all s-"
"Fucking shut up," Violet's voice wasn't raised, but it was powerful. "You think I give a shit about any of that? You think I care about your club? Or your goddamned crusade?"
"Violet-"
"NO! Fuck off, Vect." Violet was struggling with eyes full of tears, but her voice didn't quaver for a moment, "You have the fucking gall to come in here and tell me this, and then immediately spin it into a revenge fantasy before I can even start to process it? You're fucking sick, Vect. SICK."
"I just want you to know that we're going to do everything we can to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else, ever again. That's what this is all about, Violet. That's why Candice was there last night. No one should hav-"
Violet stabbed a finger through the air at the mink, "YOU are the reason she's dead, Vect."
Vect was stunned silent.
"I don't give two shits about your justification, I don't give two shits about your girls, and I don't care about your petty, ignorant quest to rail against these people who do this shit. Do you understand me, Vect? Do you understand that even if you go out there right now, and you put a bullet in the head of every motherfucker responsible for what happened to my Candice last night, that still I won't ever get her back? Do you understand that even if you succeed, even if you somehow can make this world this better place with more death, that SHE'D be the one who paid the price? DO YOU UNDERSTAND I'LL NEVER SEE HER AGAIN?" Violet's voice was breaking now, sobbing between screams.
Vect swallowed hard. She felt as if she had just been punched square in the kidneys.
"Violet, if we don't stand up to these assholes, if we don't make them think twice about this shit, they'll kill every one of us with impunity just for who we are."
"FUCK. OFF." Violet blurted messily through exasperated tears, "Do you think if Candice were here waiting tables with me last night that they would've come through that door and shot her in the head? Just because she was different? I fucking know they hate us, Vect. And I know they want to hurt us. But FUCKING CHRIST, you were the one who sent Candice directly into their hands and gave them the excuse to pull the trigger!"
"You think they can't hate us any more than they already do? You think that your pathetic stabs at them don't make it WORSE?" Violet was shaking now, "How many more girls are going to have to die for you, Vect? How much more blood on your hands is it going to take until you fucking wake up?"
Vect winced. She closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. "Violet, I realize how it looks to you, but I need you to understand that they aren't going to stop hurting us just because we play nice. We can't ever be good enough for them. Candice understoo-"
"No, no, no, NO. You do NOT get to come in here and tell me what Candice would think about her own fucking death. Get out."
Vect paused for a moment, inhaling another deep breath.
"I SAID GET THE FUCK OUT!"
"Okay. I'm leaving," The mink slid backward off the stool and onto her feat, reaching into her jacket pocket to extract enough money to cover her breakfast.
"Fuck your money and LEAVE, you goddamn murderer!"
Vect tossed the money onto the counter anyway as she pulled a hasty retreat. She swiftly moved to the diner entrance, opening the door - and pausing.
"Before I go, I just want you to know that if you need anything... Please... Please call us, okay? It doesn't even have to be me. Kayte will help. Terri would be more than happ-"
KSSSSH
A spray of glimmering shards and orange juice splattered across Vect's face as the glass impacted the wall beside her. Violet had a good arm.
"OUT!!!!"
Vect stepped out into the sun once again. She squinted upward, bloodshot eyes narrowed as she shielded them with her hand. She shot the sky a dirty look for being so bright.
"Well," she muttered to herself as she put her hands in her jacket pockets and began down the sidewalk, "Two more to go."
It was already getting way too hot.
Her tears nearly evaporated before they hit the pavement.