Late night fix (Very Open)

Feeling much better and reading to get out and about again, Addison headed down to the little cyber cafe he'd seen once while passing by. The establishment had looked ok, but he didn't trust the machines there farther than he could toss them so he'd brought his own powerbook. Gabriel, the thin little power book of his, was tucked under one arm, cradled in his cozy, expensive leather bag. It was late, but the place looked to be quite busy still. Addison supposed that on a diet of caffene and nicotene, these were the all-night gamers of Nachton. 'We all have our vices,' he thought with a shake of the head.

Stopping at the counter, he looked over the memberships as the pimply faced kid came over and started speaking. Hmmmm.....to go for the seasonal pass or not? It wasn't like he couldn't afford it....


'I can hook you up though.'


Addison looked up at the tone Mr. Gross gave. He noticed with some distaste that the youth was leaning towards him in a lecherous manner. "No thank you. I'll take the seasonal pass and an iced latte, extra large, carmel, whipped cream, and an extra shot of expresso in that..."

And with that, the red head dropped his money on the counter and backed away, keeping a wary eye on the fella behind the counter until he got to a free seat. Gabriel hummed happily, starting up the newest OS of Mac, his data port clicking happily with the connection. Yes, he thought of his powermac as it's own living entity, but that wasn't so strange, was it?

Pulling open excel, Addison started going over the financial reports for a business he was considering investing in. The clerk dropped off his drink and Addison purposely ignored him, concentrating on the screen in front of him to avoid further conversation with the letch.


(OOC: Openness!)

Valentine 18 years ago
She needed a new hobby or to blow something up or something because she had been bored far too often of late.

Parking in front of some cyber joint Val decided that if she were bored she could at least check the numbers on that filly she’d had her eyes on. The current trainer had been sending Valentine the fractions on the workouts and Val was considering purchasing the horse. It had been years since she’d been that closely associated with the racing world.

Ordering just a plain black coffee earned her a dirty look but she just smiled sweetly until her back was turned and she could scowl. Apparently, they thought she should order something frilly like Mr. Excel over there.

Standing a bit back from Mr. Excel she again smiled, her nice cheerful smile.


“You are looking far to serious for this time of night.”
Addison 18 years ago
Elbows-deep (preverbially speaking) in the form balance sheet of Dubine's lesser business ventures when he heard the voice behind him. Blinking owlishly and trying to get his eyes away from the screen, Addison turned to see a pretty young woman with a bob hair cut.

"Not necessarily...if you love what you do..." He flashed a smile and pointed to the seat next to him before holding out his hand. "Addison Monroe. So I take it you are here for less serious persuits?" He looked around the room at the gamers, faces inches from their screens. "A gamer yourself?"
Valentine 18 years ago
After taking is hand Val sat down and flaunted, er crossed her legs. Even though she had on jeans, they were well cut for that sort of move. She was rather pleased he wasn’t a total nerd and hadn’t blown her off.

“Valentine Connor, nice to meet you Addison.”

She was making the rounds, getting used to the city before settling into anything more serious. It was groundwork though and had to be done. She also didn’t mind it that much.

Laughing at the idea of being a gamer, she shook her head and sipped at her coffee, letting it burn her lips.


“Hardly. I just don’t have the attention span for it, can’t stand staring at a screen that long. I came in to check on a potential investment.”
Addison 18 years ago
Addison took a long sip from his iced latte while pretending he wasn't watching the attractive young woman sit down. She'd made it look so...professional - from such a common action. "Valentine? An unusual, but lovely name. Parents were romantics, perhaps?" Or fans of massacres, but it was more likely the former than the latter as an explination for the rare name.

"It could be considered pererverence or laziness...depends on who is talking about it." He smiled slightly. His mother had been pleased when she found he had the knack with numbers and the ability to sit still long enough to get everything done. Most of his schoolmates, however...did not.

"Investment, you say? The cafe itself? I dare say that it could use new..." He looked over his shoulder and frowned slightly as pimply promptly winked at him. "...staff."
Valentine 18 years ago
Over the years, she’d grown rather fond of her nickname and only very –very- rarely used her given name, she treated it more like an alias than anything else. The idea of romantic parents though, that earned a short laugh.

“Thank you I’m rather fond of it, but it wasn’t my folks who were the romantics. It was my guy at the time.”

Val shook her head at his comment and after making sure the clerk couldn’t see her grimaced.

“Thank you no. I’ve got one business, I’m not sure I could handle this one. I’ve actually got my eyes on a filly at Aqueduct.”

She set down her coffee and absently fidgeted with the ring on her right hand. It was totally unconscious, using her thumb to spin the platinum and sapphire around.

“This means you’re a numbers man though doesn’t it?”
Addison 18 years ago
Addison smiled. When younger, he'd wanted any name but his own...something more...ordinary. Like Bob. But as he got older, he'd gotten used to it and the realization that if he'd had a nickname, it would hav just annoyed him anyway. "Well, then...has to be a compliment, yes?"

Addison looked back over at the clerk and was quite relieved to find he was talking to someone who'd just walked in. "He rather creeps me out, so I was hoping you might mean to buy this and fire Mr. Visual Stalker over there. But wishful thinking..." He chuckled. Ok, the fella was forward and unattractive to him, but that didn't make him a bad employee, he supposed.

"Filly at the aqueduct? You into investing in race horses?" That's what it sounded like anyway.

His eyes were drawn to the action on the ring and he made a little "hmm" noise as he sipped his drink again.
"Yeah...I'm in finance and accounting...mostly business."
Valentine 18 years ago
Val thought about the circumstances that had lead to her name: guns, violence, being turned. Still, all things considered it was a compliment, and an apology too if one were honest about it.

“I’ve always taken it as such.”

Laughing, she had to laugh, own a coffee shop? Her? Not in this lifetime or the next, perhaps the one after that though. The idea of her investment though got a cheerful nod.

“Yes I am. Well, thinking about it, I’ve never been an owner before. I used to work for a trainer and be around the track a great deal but I’ve never owned. I thought it might be fun. She’s quite a promising two year old.”

Finance, good accountants were hard to come by. She currently had at least one at the dealership she wanted to fire but without any potential replacements, Val was reluctant to do so. Obviously Addison was engaged, employed that is, if he were here in the middle of the night working on a spread sheet, that and she didn’t know if he was any good or not.

“Yours sounds like a much more stable line of work though, at least much more so than the ponies.”
Addison 18 years ago
Addison nodded. He knew so little about horses...ok, he knew which end was which, but only because he'd seen something on tv once and the show horse had...done its business right there. It had actually been amusing to watch. The trainers, handler, and the judges had made a face. The horse looked fine with it though. They made rather tremoultulous investments though. Unless you were born or loved that sort of thing, one couldn't make a sure investment in a living thing. There were too many variables...like it's geneology and what it ate that morning. No sure shots in horse racing. But if you played numbers right, you could make some at the races, he'd heard. Again...was more interested in the solid investments.

"Yours sounds like a much more stable line of work though, at least much more so than the ponies."Â?


"Yes, corporate finance is where it's at if you can handle it." He smiled, knowing he was good, but it was nice to hear every now and then...which reminded him. He'd have to stop into Carol's office at some point and pick up some files he'd asked her to look into.

He leaned back and gave the young woman his full smile.
"I work over at Dubine." He reached up to tuck a lock of red hair behind one ear and yelped when the motion offset the overly large cup of latte, sending the remainder of the liquid over with the ice....

Addison's cheeks went red. Ok, it had missed his own powerbook (sometimes he thought Gabriel was charmed to not get liquid on it) but it spilled all over the table and between this and the other, soaking the cables of at least two computers occupied by teenage boys with circles under their eyes ( a sure sign they had been Wowing it too long).

Both PCs sparked and the fans cut out.
"Oh wow...." Shit...that wasn't good. But at least pimply was rushing over and taking care of it. He did NOT want two angry gamer geeks after him, yelling "magic missle magic missle" and throwing tennis balls at him or something. "...and I just made an ass out of myself in front of a lady..." he sighed...some days, one shoudl stay home.
Valentine 18 years ago
The mention of Dubine caught her attention, enough so that Val stopped fidgeting with her ring. She didn't know many, ok she didn't know any, accountant vampires but that didn't mean they didn't exist. Aware she was jumping to conclusions Valentine reminded herself he could be a familiar or just a regular human who may or may not know about them.

While still debating how to approach the subject, she watched the latte fiasco occur. She allow her typically pleasant and friendly demeanor drop, just for a second, to give the clerk a cold hard look. She did not want to be interrupted right now, she was trying to think. She didn't think he'd have nightmares or anything, but Val occasionally had trouble controlling that.

Returning her attention to Addison, she laughed lightly.


"Hardly. I've seen guys do much worse trying to impress those six foot blond amazons with casaba melons strapped to their chest. So don't worry about it, I'll just take it as a compliment."Â?

That sounded reassuring enough so she sipped at her coffee for a second trying to think how to turn the subject back to Dubine. She wasn't good at subtle and so went for obvious.

"So what exactly do you do over at Dubine?"Â?
Addison 18 years ago
Addison was glad that the clerk hadn't tried to use the accountant's clumsiness as an excuse to come over and try and talk him up again. He was thinking he might just become physically ill if the guy actually got up the nerve and tried asking him out or something. Urgh! Despite his..recent activities with Nic, he considered his tastes to run more to the female sid of things.

But soon the empty cup was gone and mess cleaned up - gamers moved to new stations and a new iced latte almost seemed to materialize out of no where at his elbow. 'Hmmm....maybe the kid got a clue...' Addision eyed the new drink and looked back at Valentine, still embaressed about the whole thing, despite her words.


“So what exactly do you do over at Dubine?”


"I'm chief financial officer and Controller there. I oversee the financial and accounting departents that work on future as well as day to day finances." Ok, that sounded important and big, but really, he was just a finance guy/accountant. "You've heard of Dubine? Not thinking about trying to purchase the business...our boss doesn't seem the sort to give up the company easily."

(OOC: Am assuming that would be his title. If I am wrong, please let me know and I will edit)
Valentine 18 years ago
She smiled coldly at the kid who'd brought the new drink. Damned that meant she'd probably over done it and freaked him out. Giovanni had never been able to teach her to get that under control, he'd blamed it on her Irish temper. She blamed it on his being easily distracted by her.

"That is one hell of a title, how do you get it to fit on your office door?"Â?

She teased him, from what she'd seen Val didn't think that Addison would be upset by that sort of thing. That and it would distract him from the moment of clumsiness.

"Do I look like a hostile take over sort of girl?"Â?

Smiling more broadly than she usually did she pretended to be shocked.

"I have heard of it, fascinating business actually. Not that I have a head for medicine or anything."Â?
Addison 18 years ago
Addison smiled and sipped again, caffeene finally starting to take affect. "Well...very small print." He figured she might be joking, but he didn't know her well enough to be 100% certain. Granted it was a long ass title...but he supposed "financial wiz" was too comical...something you'd expect on a saturday morning kid's show.

"Do I look like a hostile take over sort of girl?"Â?


He smirked and tipped his cup in her direction, being much more careful about it this time around. "Well...looks can be deceiving...one of the things I've learned at Dubine." That's for sure. Who knew that a multi billion dollar corporation was really being run by vampires. Well...it did have a lot to do with the synthetic blood business and that he could understand in the corrilation, but medicine? Seemed such an odd undertaking for vampires to him. After all...they didn't die like humans did or get sick...

"I have heard of it, fascinating business actually. Not that I have a head for medicine or anything."Â?


"Yes we have...a lot of difrerent employees. I actually just started recently. They have an excellent health plan. But dreams of ponies and the like would keep you from corporate life, I am sure."
Valentine 18 years ago
"So your saying I -do- look like a hostile take over kind of girl."Â?

She laughed at her own joke.

He was cautious, that was certain look at how he'd side stepped the question, both of them. It made her think he did know something, but she wasn't sure. Why couldn't they just have a secret handshake? It would make life so much easier, knowing who you could talk to about what instead of all this tip toeing around.


"I should hope a medical company would have a good health plan, it would be a bit odd if they didn't."Â?

What was she going to do, ask if he got a lot of use out of it? Val shelved the idea for a while and would come back to fishing later.

"No I'm just not suited the corporate life, I like to keep my own hours and the ponies well they're a hobby. Will be a hobby if I buy this one. I just can't make up my mind."Â?
Addison 18 years ago
"Not that there is anything wrong with that, of course." Addison smiled and slid his drink to the side, saving his work so far and opening up his messages. He'd been away from the domicile for a while now, concentrating on work and staying in his townhouse and wanted to touch base in his E-mail to see if Carol or Ellis had messaged him.

"Besides, the hostile take over women always are the sexiest in the movies and have the classiest excessories..." Somewhere in his jacket pocket, slung over the back of his chair, came a faint chime. He smiled apologetically and pulled out his little cell, quickly reading the message. Eh...nothing interesting. His old professor wanted him to help design the end of term practical from real business experience. Eh...boring, but it was good to keep up contacts.

So, while his E-mail was loading up, he tried to think if he had ANY information in his mind on horses. Nope...not a thing.
"I'm afraid I can't give you much advice on it...I think I might end up basing my decision on the horse based on it's color. Do you know much about the horse's background?"
Valentine 18 years ago
"The hostile take over women are always the sexiest? Good to know."Â?

Val preened slightly, she did like to look good and that was down to the last detail, today was no different.

Being a multi tasker herself, she took no offense to his checking the phone and his continued work on the computer.


"Actually the name isn't a bad thing, a lot of times it's tied in to the name of the sire or the dame. Look at Seattle Slew, a lot of his off spring have Slew as part of their name. The filly I've got my eye on isn't that well connected though. She's a Strike the Gold filly. Her dame isn't as impressive but still a graded stakes winner so she got a nice pedigree. And none of this means a thing to you. Please don't let me bore you."Â?
Addison 18 years ago
His mind was reeling. The woman was listing off names and information on horses at the rate of a mile a minute and he struggled to make heads or tails of it. "It sounds more complicated than I thought before...investing in horses." He'd have to write to his friend who had connections in horse breeding...or, he knew someone who did, and ask.

The little powerbook showed no new mail from Ellis...and what looked like a forward from Carol...something quirky and strange no doubt. He shook his head and turned his attention back to Valentine.
"You a resident or just passing through?"
Valentine 18 years ago
“It winds up being equal parts science, art and luck. So yes it can be complicated.”

She was lucky in the respect, most prospective owners had no clue what they were doing and relied far too heavily on the trainer. Often they didn’t even pick the trainer well and wound up with either a total novice or one so over loaded the apprentices were training the horse any way.

“Me? I’m a new arrival, just got here a few days ago. I’m still trying to decide what I want to do for digs. Any recommendations?”

((OOC.. I’m going to be sans net out of town until Sunday… just so you know 8) ))
Addison 18 years ago
Addison fiddled with the sleeve of his shirt, the dark blue material was a little long over his hands and when typing he always had to roll them up. Made him feel like a kid, but better than doing errors because one could not type correctly around sleeves.

He thought on how to answer her question. He preferred his domicile diggs, but he didn't know who this person was really, and he'd been cautioned not to speak of the clan to anyone...at all. Addison looked around to make sure that the clerk wasn't listening in. The last thing he needed was some wierdo stalking him.
"There's a new complex of townhomes just north of here. A nice little culdusac really. And while they give off that "white picket fence" vibe, the occupants so far are more singles and couples without children that still head out at night. Cause if it's one thing I wouldn't have been able to stand is a whole lot of breeders as neighbors." He wrinkled his nose up. He'd had his share of too many people about at home and then at college. The above ground abode was perfect so far....but it was new and still developing it's niche. [/i] "You should check them out. Very nice...secure and seems pretty active even at night."
Valentine 18 years ago
Val shuddered delicately.

“Shoot me before I get to white picket fence time.”

And the idea of kids and yuppies, gir, the idea just made her cringe mentally.

“Although night life is not to be dismissed. Actually I’ve got one or two people I need to see before I jump to any conclusions.”

It would probably be best to live with the rest of Tacharan, but Val had a bit of an independent streak in her. She’d have to check in before doing anything too fancy.
Addison 18 years ago
Addison chuckled. "Not for you either then." No, he didn't see himself out looking after his lawn or plants and re-painting a fence with a golden retriever any time soon either...ever...if he could manage that. HIs parents would want a third generation of tax machine probably, but now he was away...

"I actually have housing through my work place, but I like the townhouse for visitors and a place to get away where it's harder for things to bother me."

"Although night life is not to be dismissed. Actually I've got one or two people I need to see before I jump to any conclusions."Â?



"Can't say I've seen much. Just the Museum of art and the House of pain. Both were interesting in their own right."
(OOC: I be back chiki!)