After a few weeks in the city filled with moving, unpacking, job hunting, and then working, it was finally time for Cesca to take a night out. It was a different city, sure, but they were all the same deep down. You had your flashy night clubs, your fancy sit-down joints, your holes in the wall, and your seedy bars. Better judgment said pick somewhere reputable, somewhere where trouble won't be found so easily. Somewhere trouble wouldn't know where to look. But alas, that's not what happened.

Something about the rough neighborhood bar with the broken window and the neon "OPEN" sign that the 'N' had burnt out of, leaving just the word "OPE" seemed to call to her. Her leather jacket was zipped halfway, showing a lavender, low cut tee shirt underneath, and was accompanied by a pair of leather pants and some black combat boots. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail, and while the wind had a bitter bite against her exposed skin, that was a small price to pay to look this badass. Hey, first impressions were everything.

Cesca Galloway strolled into the seedy back-street bar like she owned the joint, thumbs stuck in her belt loops, nudging those who stood a little too close to her path, and shooting anyone that protested a stern glance with her venomous yellow eyes. With a smirk, she let the black ball of her tongue piercing brush against her lips as she sauntered up to the bar and slid onto the stool.

"Rum and coke, chief."

The bartender gave a grunt, sliding her the drink before going back to his conversation with some blonde popsicle stick. As she took a healthy swig from her drink, she swiveled on the stool to get a look around the room, her eyes scanning the faces and goings on in this new stomping ground. Sure, she promised herself she'd behave this time, but hell. That was a whole month ago. She downed the cocktail and set the empty glass on the bar. "Keep 'em comin', chief," she said with a wink. She would have apologized for interrupting his conversation, but she wasn't sorry.

Zek pushed back from his table and sketched a quick bow as the other people at the table roared with laughter. “And there’ll be more where that came from, right after I get the next round!” he said, his eyes literally twinkling with mischief and bright blue light.

The trenchcoat-cald man danced and juked his way over to the bar. It was a fun night so far - he’d run into a small biker gang and a barbershop quartet about to have it out in the parking lot earlier, but after a few well-timed jokes, the entire group had ended up at the bar, thick as thieves.

“Another round!” Zek said, hailing the bartender. “And more pretzels! I’m already out. Hey, do you have any beer cheese to go with the pretzels? Or marshmallows? I could really go for something sweet.”

The bartender nodded quickly and began making the order, which gave Zek plenty of time to observe everyone around him.

That included the lady next to him who had such fantastic style!

“Ooo, where did you get those boots?!” Zek gushed. They looked similar to the ones he was wearing, but he didn’t recognize the brand.

As she settled in, the young woman's ears picked up on something that she'd somehow missed when she walked into the door.

Oh no...Merriment...

Someone over there was just...too damn happy, and to make matters worse, he was coming this way. She focused on her drink, turned a bit sideways and became unusually interested in a spot on the far wall as the rather...perky gentleman put in another order.

"Might as well ask if he'll whip you up a platter of S'mores[/i]," she murmured, to which the bartender gave an annoyed grunt and shot her a look that said 'Don't give him any ideas,' though she missed that part. And then, despite all her best efforts to become invisible, the energetic lad decided the woman in all black leather with the mean face would make a good conversation.

She turned to look at him, then glanced down at her boots. She propped one foot on her opposite thigh, so as to give him a better look. Her face softened a bit, into a nostalgic almost smile. "Chicago. Place called Valheella. Name's dumb as **** but hey, they make good boots."

Exhaling, she glanced from him back to his table. "What you got going on? Someone just get married? Divorced?" She gave a slight smirk as she set her now empty glass back onto the bar.

Zek’s eyes widened and the whites of his eyes started glowing white. “Yessss!” he said in awed inspiration. He turned to the bartender. “What the lady said!” he said as he jerked a thumb at her and completely missed the sarcasm and the bartender’s expression. “Do you have any S’mores?” He looked expectantly at the bartender’s blank face of doom.

As the bartender got to work on the drinks he turned back to Leather Lady. “You have fantastic taste,” he said. S’mores, combat boots, leather jackets and….lavender shirts? Where was the catwalk?

He cocked his head when she gave the origin of the boots. “I don’t get it,” he said with a shake of his head. “Was Val a heel or something?” He shrugged. “Chicago is fun though. I was a rodeo clown there for a few weeks. They had amazing tofurkey.”

As he admired her boots and even propped up one of his own to casually gauge sizes, he shrugged. “Maybe. I just met them all tonight, but you never know. I’m trying to get the barbershop quartet to teach the bikers how to sing and dance,” he said nonchalantly. At that moment three of the guys in red and white striped shirts and white pants started snapping their fingers rhythmically and elbowing the bikers to get them to join in.

He suddenly smiled broadly. “Hey! You wanna join us? I’m trying to get them to live out West Side Story! You wanna be the Maria?”

She shot the bartender a half-assed apologetic glance and a shrug when she realized she did indeed, give this guy an idea. Oops. Oh well, she'd make sure to leave the poor sap of a bartender a nice tip before she left. She had to smile at the compliment; it wasn't often she got positive comments about her taste in fashion--or anything for that matter. Then again, most of her family was of the type that dressed fancy, while she went for more of a...rough kind of persona, while still looking nice, it was probably more intimidating. 

She shook her head before taking a sip of her third drink. "Nah. It's an attempt at a play on words. Like Valhalla, but with a foot fetish," she explained. "Like I said. Stupid name." She paused, thinking back to home for a moment. "Yeah, I grew up there. Honestly only recently left." She left it at that, listening to the spiel about at attempt at putting a musical together. Honestly, if she had been the writing type, this did have the makings of a cheesy musical that Broadway would eat right up. 

"You know what? Maybe it's the rum and colas talking, but I'm in," she said with a nonchalant shrug as she decided that this drink should probably be her last before she did something really stupid. "One question though. Who's my Tony?" She gave a sly wink, subtly revealing that despite her appearance and not normally blurting it out, she was actually pretty into musicals. 

This was why Zek liked getting the round for people. It let you meet new fascinating people where you least expected it! Well, Zek actually tended to expect to meet interesting people at bars - he had a 100% success rate.

“Well welcome to the Big Apple Pie!” Zek said grandly and with gusto. Two pitchers of beer for the table and an aqueous martini on the rocks appeared on the counter, along with another basket of pretzels with a piece of string cheese and a glare from the bartender. Zek blew him a kiss and didn’t even notice the lack of s’mores or marshmallows.

“Here, you carry this one,” Zek said, shoving a pitcher at her as he hopped off his barstool and started making his way back to his table. It was really two tables smashed together. Four burly, hairy men in biker leathers were on one table and four clean-cut guys in aforementioned pinstriped jackets and white pants were at the other table, their canes and pork pie hats hanging on the backs of their chairs.

“I like you!” he informed his new best friend as she played along. “Your Tony is gonna be Bruiser, on the left with the tribal face tattoo.” Zek nodded his head at one of the barbershop quartet guys. “He’s a teddy bear on the inside, and inside that teddy bear is a box of razor blades and jasmine soap, so be careful about playing too roughly, but otherwise, have fun!”

Then Zek was dragging another chair over. “Hey guys, I got the beer and a friend. This is Maria!” he said.

“MARIA!” the bikers and quartet chorused, a noticeable four-part harmony weaving through the coarse and drunken gusto.

"I do like apple pie..." she joked, maybe a little bit too happily, but after three drinks she was starting to feel a bit more...bubbly than her usual self. Just a bit. 

"Careful there, Sport. I think the bartender's less keen on you than he is me, and that's saying something," she whispered to the upbeat gentleman a bit too loudly to actually be a whisper as she grabbed the pitcher and made her way to the table. "You seemed a bit...high energy for my blood but you know what? I like you too," Cesca admitted as they got to the table, and she sized up her Tony of a Bruiser--er, Bruiser of a Tony. "Most teddy bears are, actually. Really sweet until you **** with em the wrong way." 

She gave a nod. "I'm a little rusty on my West Side Story, but my new friend here is very persuasive," she admitted with a slight shrug, taking note of how well the two vastly different groups of men harmonized together. Deep down she really felt she needed to try her hand at writing, because this would make one hell of a musical. 

Zek flashed Maria some truly epic winks as she sat right down in the midst of the guys and made herself at home.

“Lady, you could be sweet or do whatever you want to me,” one of the bikers said with a leer, right before another smacked him upside the head. Bruiser, however, blushed deeply enough that it almost matched his pinstripe jacket.

“Anyways,” Zek said as he deftly refilled some mugs, “Maria’s new in town. I figure who better to show her around than some of the best guys I know? Unfortunately none of them were available so I’m gonna hafta settle for you knuckleheads!”

Several of the guys began hooting and hollering and Zek nimbly dodged a few playful jabs.

“Careful there, Shrimpy!” said the biker with neatly parted hair and the clean shave. “Keep that up and we’ll have to rough you up!”

“Promises, promises, Wrecker,” Zek said, flopping into his seat with the bowl of pretzels appearing in his hand. “You’ll have to at least buy me dinner first.”

More laughter and guffaws as some of the guys began nudging and jabbing Wrecker.

“So whaddya think, Maria? What’s a girl like you like to do on a Friday night?” Zek said with a grin.

Sitting down with the guys, she flashed a grin, content with just letting them know her as Maria. "I don't think I'm quite drunk enough for that yet, Sport," she quipped with a coy smirk. She sat back in her chair, arms folded across her chest as she watched the scene with amusement. It really did seem like these people had known each other for much longer than they had. Hell, even she seemed to mesh right in with the group, even if they did look like they belonged together like peanut butter and asparagus, or mismatched socks with a pair of flip flops.

"Dinner, drinks, it's really all the same, isn't it?" she said with a grin as her Chicago accent bled through, her yellow eyes glimmering with a hint of mischief.

"Oh you know, the usual. Sometimes go out drinking, see how lucky I can get…sometimes I'll put out a drawing or two if the mood arises, maybe try and sell some prints on the side. Usually…just seeking some sort of action or adventure, whatever suits the mood." The fingers on her left hand idly toyed with a stray bit of hair that had broken free from its ponytail prison and now rested against her jawline.

"So tell me a bit about you. Do you always attract the makings of a cheesy musical or is this just a special occasion?"

Zek was suddenly getting a hankering for a peanut butter and asparagus sandwich, but since the bartender didn’t have any s’mores, he doubted he’d be able to whip up that delicacy for Zek either. Ah well, he’d drown his sorrows in water and pretzels.

“Action, huh?” one of the guys laughed, to a mixed chorus of cheers and boos, depending on the propriety of the people involved.

“She’d a dame, don’t talk like that around her, Butch,” one guy said, throwing a pretzel in his direction.

Zek intercepted the pretzel with his mouth and sat back in his chair. His eyes glowed with golden light for a brief moment as he grinned at Maria. “This is pretty much a regular Thursday afternoon for me,” Zek said smugly, his eyes returning to brown. “But if it’s action or drawings you’re into, I think I have an idea of how you can achieve both.”

He slid a hand into his trenchcoat, formed a ball of white light that became a tiny portal, and then reached through that portal to grab something off a shelf in a storage room in Zekworld. He pulled his hand back across interdimensional lines, dismissed the portal, and then dragged hand and item out of the trench coat and set the can of spray paint on the table.

“Wanna help us graffiti the Fifth Street Mudpuppies’ hangout?”

Cesca chuckled playfully, smirking a little. “In his defense, I kinda started it,” she said with a small shrug. “Even if that’s not what I meant for this point and time, I said what I said.” She leaned back in her chair, actually liking how the name “Maria” was starting to fit her. In fact, it crossed her mind to note Maria as an alias if need be in the future.

She quirked a brow at Zek saying he had an idea, but was silenced as she saw his mutation at work. Okay, that was interesting. And while the odds were that she was never the only mutant in the room, especially in a hotspot for them like New York, it was nice to know for sure who the other mutant(s) in the room were, just in case.

“You know…I’m normally a pen and paper kinda gal, personally, but you know what? I’ll take you up on that. Could be fun, after all.” She smiled. “Just say the word so I can pay my tab and wrap things up~” Oh, this was shaping up to be an interesting night indeed. Maybe, just maybe, things would pick up and they'd find themselves some real action before the night was older. Would also give her a chance to stake out this so-called gang and their turf. 

Just say the word? “The word!” Zek said and he slapped his hands down on the table and shot to his neet. “Come on, boys! We’ve got a hangout to vandalize!”

The bikers and the barbershop quartet roared with laughter and approval and eight men started scrambling to their feet.

“Don’t you worry about your tab, Maria,” Zek said with a wink and a thumb pointed at Bruiser. “He’ll take care of it. Let’s go, gang!”

Zek strolled confidently and purposefully toward the door, except for the slight detaour to flip a very shiny coin that looked golden at the bartender. “My man!” he said, before heading out into the night.

The bikers and the quartet were streaming out with him (although Bruiser stayed back to open the door and hold it for Maria) and everyone quickly made their way to their respective motorcycles. Zek merely held out a scarlet orb of light and dropped it, where it swiftly became a four wheeler. He snagged his helmet off the seat and put it on. “You’ve got options if you wanna ride double!” he shouted at Maria.

Cesca chuckled, slightly shaking her head. She was amused, but maybe it was the alcohol; usually, when one was about to go do something illegal like vandalize property, they didn't go announcing it for the entire bar to hear. But hell, who was she to judge? After all, if something went down, all they had on her was the name Maria, right? Yeah, sure. Then again, she didn't have anything on either of them, either, though Mister Perky sure did seem to be charming, having someone else take care of her tab? That was...admirable, even moreso than taking care of it yourself, especially since Bruiser could have probably broken the kid in half without breaking a sweat.

On her way out she gave an apologetic wave to the bartender, and a clear "I'm sorry" read in her yellow eyes.

Okay, this gift...likely mutation of her new...acquaintance's was neat, she had to admit. To herself.

"Honestly, Mr. Perky? You got me into this mess, so I think it's only fair that you be my knight in shining armor and let me share your steed," she said coyly, brushing a bit of hair out of her face and winking just a little.

Zek flashed Maria a too-wide grin and cackled. Now that gal had style! He tossed his helmet at her and reached into his trenchcoat where once again, a ball then a portal appeared and he was able to pull a second helmet out. This one had flames on the side of it so it was extra cool.

“Well, then, what are you waiting for? Hop on!” he said, turning on his vehicle as the motorcyclists started up their engines. “Hey Bruiser! I’ll keep her nice and safe for ya!” he jeered, a round of catcalls and hooting bouncing back from the non-Bruiser bikers and quartet members.

“You might wanna hold on tight,” he said, spinning his head completely around to look straight behind him. “This might be a bumpy ride!” he told Maria.

Then he was off! The other bikers too! Zipping their way through the streets, ignoring traffic laws and traffic and rude people getting in their way! All the way to the Mudpuppies’ hangout!

"I love a good bumpy ride, on occasion," she said with a slight smirk as she put on the helmet and sat behind her newfound friend and wrapped her arms around him, hanging on. It'd been awhile since she'd ridden a motorcycle. Maybe when her money issues sorted out she should get one.

It really was a nice ride, her heart racing with excitement for probably the first time since she'd made it to New York. Buildings zipped by, lights blurred, the wind ruffled her leather jacket, and under the helmet, she was grinning, anticipating the evening to come.

Once they got to their destination, she climbed off and removed the helmet, shaking her hair free from its prison and cracking her neck. "Lead the way, Mr. Perky," she said with a smirk. "I warn you, I'm an artist but spray paint is not my usual medium," she said quietly