Dirty

Who: Jovie and Ash
Where: Lakeshore
When: Early afternoon

The shop had been slow that morning... which didn't surprise Jovie, considering she was still trying to clean it up from the goddamn Acherus attacks. She had managed to sell a few pieces, using the "gang-related incidents" as a sympathetic tool. People felt bad for those suffering, and my, my, wasn't Jovie, a lovely girl, suffering with her beautiful shop damaged and torn apart? But the poor thing needed to make a living, so she was braving the business day and hoping for her luck to turn... People bought that shit right up, along with her jewelry. At lunch, she closed the shop to wander down the street to the lakeshore where people were selling different forms of art. If that's what one could call it. She walked through the maze of booths and people, mentally listening to people get scammed over what was an original and what wasn't, what was one of a kind and what seller had three more replicas hiding under the table. She smirked as she listened to the masses, most of them annoyingly enjoying the day. She checked out the jewelry, wondering if any would catch her eye. In Marquette, you never knew what you might be buying - she could attest to that. At any given moment, those ruby red earrings you just had to have could cause temporary - sometimes permanent - deafness once you put them on. Jovie could attest to that as well, given she'd sold a pair just three hours ago...

Sighing, she moved on from one of the jewelry booths, bored already with what she'd seen. Cutting through the crowd, she moved to walk on the outside of the entire set up, out of the way of the people milling around like cows. What furthered her boredom was the lack of any interesting thought. With all of the people around her, none of them she deemed worth listening too. Were were all of the secrets? All of the interesting bits of knowledge she could file away to use later? Where were the people who caught her eye and made her want to truly fuck them over until they were sobbing, empty shells of who they used to be? That was what she enjoyed... that was why she'd come here. Marquette was suppose to deliver, and dammit, if it didn't, she was going to have to make things interesting on her own.

Ash? Had a fucking headache. Why had he not learned that tons of hard liquor all in a short period of time wasn't good for him? One would think he'd suffered through this particular pain enough to know, but one would be grievously mistaken. He'd gotten up that morning -- which had, in truth, only really been about an hour before -- and thoroughly hated himself, even though drinks and pool and talking with Brian had been a good time. Asshole cat aside. He'd taken a cold shower and hated himself even more for that decision, then had a beer. Which his stomach rejected outright, and that was where the decision for fresh air came in.

He'd decided to go for a walk down by the water, donning some wrap-around sunglasses and long sleeves. Only there just so happened to be an art ... festival ... thing going on. He'd stared blearily at one or two things, before finding a bench to park it on for a while. Ash sat and smoked, crowd-watching. A lot of them weren't such good people, it seemed like, which didn't help his hangover feel much better. It seemed that even shitty wastes of skin came to waste money on 'art'. Or maybe he was just cynical today.

Cynical was a trait Jovie could get behind. Cynical was, at times, a sign of misery, and misery drew Jovie to it like a moth to a flame. It was maybe for that reason that Jovie found herself slowing as she neared the bench where Ash sat smoking. Surely someone who looked like him would give her something more than just a few shallow, dull thoughts. Then again, she thought that of Alex and she couldn't even get into his head to figure out exactly what he was like. Maybe she needed an easy target this time. Jovie didn't give it much thought before she sat on the same bench, not waiting for an invitation, or even asking for permission. It was a public bench, after all. Besides, she would know soon enough whether she was welcome or not. Not that she'd care either way. Setting her bag down next to her before crossing her legs, Jovie spared him a glance. "Art collector, bargain super shopper or just casual people watcher?" she asked him, smoothly her skirt modestly over her knee.

One eyebrow arched over the top of Ash's sunglasses as he looked over at his benchmate. Beautiful woman, bad air around her. Perfect, of course. He returned his eyes to the other people who weren't so great themselves and took another drag off of his smoke. "Little of column A, little of column B," he said, voice roughened by his night. He smoked more when he drank. And talked louder. Ash shifted just a bit, effecting a more comfortable slouch on the bench. Gods, his head hurt like a bitch. It had occurred to him to maybe keep his eyes open for something for Eury, if-and-when she ever came back, but he hadn't had the energy to do it today. But shit like this usually lasted a few days at least. Maybe tomorrow. "You havin' a nice time?" he asked the woman without looking over.

Poor guy was sick. Or hungover. He certainly sounded like shit, and she was willing to bet if he took off those sunglasses, his eyes would match his voice. Rough and tired. Lovely. She wanted to smile at her good fortune, but resisted and instead shrugged casually. Yes, she was powerless against the pull that was misery. It made her feel wonderful. "My wallet is still full and you'll notice I have no shopping bags. I just watched a baby throw up all over it's mother more fluids than is probably healthy for a thing that size, so my appetite is shot. Oh, and I have a blister." She wigged her toes in her sandals. "So, I guess you could say I'm having a blast. How about yourself? Is the beautiful, handcrafted pottery getting it done for you?"

He chuckled faintly at the mental image of a never-ending-puking baby and took another drag on his cigarette. "Yeah, I'm really a filigreed teacup kinda guy," he deadpanned, still looking out into the crowd. Then waved a hand in a 'do you see this?' kind of way. "All this ... there's no great art anymore. It's all heat-transfer patches and pictures of rocks in black and white and homemade candles ... hell, you turn half that shit over and squint the right way, I bet you a dollar you'll find 'made in China' on most everything. Even bullshit people bought a hundred years ago had more craftsmanship in one square centimeter than most of this crap. Nobody gives a good goddamn about your velvet Elvis." He took another drag. Wow, he was in a spectacularly bad mood today.

Jovie arched a delicate eyebrow at him as he went on... and on. By the time he was finished ranting, she burst into laughter, lifting her fingers against her lips to try and stifle it, but what the hell. That? Was funny. It rocked her body for several moments and only when her laughter trailed off into amused sighs did she respond. "You're either in a horrifically bad mood, or you really don't like art." She bobbed her foot up and down, eyes trailing over the festival he'd just bitched about. "Some of the stuff down there is one of a kind. Some. Most of it though? You've got pegged. A woman was selling this Russian teapot, no teacups, sorry, but supposedly this was one of a kind, for over a hundred dollars to some poor housewife looking to piss off her husband by splurging the cookie jar money on something meaningful and pretty. The saleswoman had four more in the tent behind her ready to be sold as one of a kind once said housewife took off with it in her hands." Jovie reached up to brush her bangs away from her eyes. "I did, however, see three velvet Elvis portraits. Very depressing."

Generally, he wasn't opposed at all to making beautiful women laugh, whether he meant to or not. But this one ... just kind of felt dirty. Like she'd racked up some bad points. And that didn't sit very well with him today. Ash glanced over at her behind his sunglasses without moving his head. "People are so eager to throw their money away," he muttered, shifting a bit on the bench again. He finished up that cigarette and flicked it away. No concerns about litter today, it seemed. He didn't question quite how she knew so much about the transaction she didn't say she was a part of. She was either good at embellishing or had talked to one or both of them, or just had a very keen eye. Something like that. People with her sort of karma did, a lot of the time.

"Nothing wrong with that, if they find something that makes them happy," Jovie said. People who left her store were always happy. For awhile. "And it's not your money they're tossing," she pointed out, reaching into her bag for her own sunglasses to slip on. She was making him uncomfortable. Or perhaps, not uncomfortable, but wary at least. She had to bite the inside of her lip to keep the smile from forming again. Deciding to push it, she offered her hand to him. "I'm Jovie, by the way. I'm curious, do I get a name to go with the jaded attitude?"

Ash could've gone into a tirade -- he was feeling ranty today -- about how no, it wasn't his money, but they could be using their money for things better than teacups and beach-glass windchimes. Say, oh, helping one another. How was that for a fucking concept? People were still trying to rebuild, and these bastards were wasting their cash on just stuff. But as he hadn't done a whole lot to help himself, aside from fighting the motherfuckers while they were around, he bit his tongue on it. "Too true," he assented, leaning back a bit in a half-stretch. Then he reached and gave her hand a brief shake. "Ash," he told her with a nod. Jovie. It was a cutesy sort of name, and he was willing to bed she used it that way.

"Ash. That's an interesting name." It suited him, at least. Jovie pulled back her hand and rested again against the back of the bench. "What do you do here in town, Ash?" Because she hadn't seen him before - or at least she couldn't remember if she had. Her focus had been her shop - and stupidly, Alex - but now she was determined to get to know the locals properly. And choose a few she could fuck with. It was the best way to alleviate the boredom that had nothing to do with fighting off bloodsuckers.

"Short for Asher," he told her, though he wasn't terribly sure why. Nobody ever called him that, and he didn't usually feel defensive about his name. He definitely wasn't mentioning the 'Isaiah' part of the equation, that was for sure. He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, and linked his fingers loosely together. "I run a mechanic shop," he informed the woman, glancing back at her half over his shoulder. "Just opened up a couple months ago. You?" Since they were asking questions.

Ash, short for Asher. She found she liked Asher better, it had more of an "mysterious air" around it. Jovie shifted her gaze to the crowd around them, eyes examining the faces, sorting out the thoughts that seeped through to her. Boring, boring and boring. Didn't Marquette harbor any deep, dark secrets? Good god. "I run a jewelry shop down Washington Street," she explained. "Just opened a couple weeks ago myself. Already it's been broken into and ransacked. Twice." Jovie smiled brightly, watching a young couple stroll by hand in hand. "So much for small town hospitality."

He chuckled faintly, looking out in much the same direction as she was. It was funny, with all the money he had tied up in his shop with the tools and such, it hadn't gotten broken into. Though he guessed the Acherus were more interested in wreaking havoc than stealing. And his shop was a mess in the first place. So breaking pretty shit was more fun than throwing wrenches around. "S'just been that kinda time," he said, glancing over at her again. He started to wonder in that vague and familiar way if he could get under her skirt, and how much he would hate himself after.

"It's certainly been something," she murmured thoughtfully. She turned her face just a touch toward his, eyes examining him through the dark sunglasses. Amusement trickled through her again at the direction his thoughts had drifted. There was something jaded, cynical and dry about Ash. In a way, oddly enough, he reminded her a bit of Alex. And just with Alex, Jovie never allowed herself to be a temporary distraction for anyone unless it somehow benefited her. And she had yet to decide if Ash had, or knew, anything worthy enough for that. Still, it was a nice day, and he was so wonderfully grumpy that Jovie decided to have a bit of fun. She shifted a bit on the bench, not bothering to fix her skirt when it slid a couple inches higher on her leg toward her thigh. She lifted her arm to the back of the bench and bent it at the elbow to rest her head on her palm as she watched him. "So, what's the name of your shop? I've been in need of a tune up for awhile... I'd love to give you a bit of business, owner to owner."

His eyes did indeed tick behind his shades to the exposed skin. Gross-feeling karma or not, she was still attractive and he was still a man. A lonely one, at that. Even though he'd talked to The Mourning Star and everything about doing better with things, he was currently hung over and feeling rather on his own in the universe. Women were almost always a good distraction from that, for a little while. "It's called Motor Masters," he said, and a faint smile flickered over his mouth. "I inherited the name, not my idea. But yeah, bring your car by, we're open pretty much every day. And if we're not, I live above the shop, so all it takes is a couple of rocks thrown at the window for us to open up."

"Motor Masters. I completely expect to walk inside and see tattooed auto mechanics blaring Metallica. I think I'll definitely come by. I've always been wary of mechanics, with that old tried and true way of taking advantage of a woman with her car. Convincing her she needs more work done than what's actually necessary." Not that it'd ever worked with Jovie. She arched both eyebrows in his direction, lips curving into an amused smile. "Throwing rocks at your window... are there restricted times for that sort of practice?" Suddenly Jovie wanted to know why he was so hungover and lonely. Family issues? Business trouble? A woman? Or was he just a raging alcoholic? She wanted to dig deeper, but didn't have the time or privacy to be able to concentrate on his subconscious.

"I don't cheat anybody," he said, even though that wasn't quite true. He cheated the people he knew deserved it. He wasn't entirely sure about this one, but since she'd said something about it, he wasn't going to. There'd be other ways to cleanse her. The tattooed mechanic comment made him smirk a bit, however, and he sat back against the bench again, pushing his long sleeves halfway up his tattoo-covered arms and crossing them over his chest. And he happened to like Metallica. "Rock-throwin' is unrestricted by time. Just don't throw any real big ones, and bear in mind there's always the possibility I'm out," he informed her.

Jovie's eyes drifted down to his tattooed arms and her smile widened as she was sure she was going to burst into laughter. She managed to resist, though a bit of a quiet giggle shook her chest. "No big rocks... I can handle that." Bobbing her leg lazily over her knee, Jovie sighed and lifted her head up to the sky, wishing it were warmer out. "And I can already hear Sandman throbbing in the garage." He wasn't going to cheat her out of anything, that much she was sure of. He could try, sure, but he wouldn't succeed. Jovie liked to remain one step ahead of people like Ash and it helped that she had the means to do it. "Where is it in town that you like to be when you're not working?" Bars, no doubt. Babylon, perhaps? If he were the type to actually know the place existed.

"Heavy metal is inspiring when you're shoulder-deep in a hot engine," Ash assured her. "It's not an environment for bubble-gum pop or chamber orchestra." Usually, a bit of ribbing didn't bother Ash at all. Today, with this woman, the giggle got a little bit under his skin. Not that he let it show, really, it was just there. He tilted his head to look at her a bit more directly. "Why, you tryin' to ask me out?" he asked, fully aware that was definitely not the case. He did it mostly just to watch that reaction he always got out of women that looked like her. That involuntary nose-wrinkle and faint air of 'gross'. It was a touch masochistic, maybe, but that was just how his day was rolling so far.

"Heavy metal is inspiring when you're deep in a lot of things," she said, keeping her eyes closed and sighing a bit when a breeze danced by her. Autumn was coming. Her expression didn't change once when he inquired about her asking him out except for the tiniest upward twitch of her lips. Drawn to misery. It was an unhealthy addiction that she welcomed with open arms. Jovie looked over at him, one delicate eyebrow arching. "Would it be stupid on my part to try?"

... okay, well that was unexpected. Though he wasn't sure if he really bought it, and he was old enough not to always jump at the suggestion of a possible lay. Not always. "Depends on what you're hunting for," he told her mildly enough, eyes steady behind his sunglasses on her expression. From the feel of her, he highly doubted it was flowers and romantic music.

"Do I have to be hunting for something specific?" Jovie asked. Just because she was a woman didn't mean she was looking for commitment and romance. The mere thought of either was enough to make her want to wrinkle up her nose and fight off the nausea. She was after much, much more than that. Secrets. Pain. Maybe a good lay in the process. It really all depended on the man. And to Jovie, this one reeked of secrets. Seeing as how she couldn't find any mental block in him like Alex, she was more inclined to try.

"Everybody's hunting for something specific," he said, and chuckled faintly, looking away again. The kind of love he and Eury had talked about, that non-selfish kind ... it was rare. All too rare. He wasn't even sure it existed, really, if it wasn't just a writer's fancy. But now was not the time to really be thinking about love. "A fuck, a free brake job, a life-partner, hell ... doesn't matter what, it's always something." And yes, yes he was bitter today, thanks.

It wouldn't have done her any favors to laugh. No, she felt it best to keep a straight face at the moment if she wanted to walk away from this without thinking she'd wasted her time. Jovie said nothing at first, turning to look back over the crowd roaming along the lakeshore. Love didn't exist. She knew too much about people, saw too deeply into their minds to believe it was anything but selfish and shallow. And then she looked back at him with a smile. "I guess you have a point. So I suppose what I'm hunting for is someone interesting to have a drink with. Whatever might transpire after that? Well, I don't try to plan those things. I'm a woman who likes to be surprised."

That was certainly leaving it open, wasn't it? Hell, maybe she was just lonely herself, and had shit in her past that had never been purged, or balanced out. Or maybe he was trying to justify the impulse to accept the half-offer. Or maybe she was just looking for a lay herself. Women weren't any strangers to lust, he'd come to completely understand. "And what makes you think I'd be interesting to have a drink with?" he asked, looking back over at her once more. There was a little smile playing with his lips this time, though. This, at least, ought to be good.

"Instinct," Jovie answered with a small grin of her own. She didn't want to tell him that his cynical attitude was attractive to her, or that she's dying to find out what's behind the jaded personality and bloodshot eyes he was no doubt hiding behind his glasses. Jovie reached up and pushed her own sunglasses up to the top of her head, squinting just a touch before her eyes readjusted to the light. She ticked her hazel eyes in his direction again. "I'm usually right about how I read people, and clearly I've found something about you that's been interesting enough so far to keep me sitting here talking to you. And, might I mention, attempting to ask you out for a drink sometime. If you're not interested, I won't be offended if you say so. And I'll still bring my car around for a tune up," she added with a light tease to her voice.

Ash thought about that for a minute. Yeah she was dirty, but so was he, wasn't he? He was an angel, but definitely wasn't any kind of saint. And maybe she could dance, and maybe she'd like a ride on the bike before it got too cold. There were some roads around the edges of town that he would bet were something else to speed down. "I think I can handle a drink sometime," he said at last, looking over at her again. His sunglasses stayed where they were, however. Granted, he could handle a drink almost all the time. If she turned out to be a bad idea, he could always ditch and spend an evening with himself. Again. He didn't comment on what she could possibly find interesting about him. Some women just were into the tats and the piercings, and the bad boy thing. But a drink was a drink, why the hell not. "Whenever you got the urge, come on by."

Jovie nodded, thinking that he might be much more fun than she initially thought. She was not a girl who was necessarily into the bad boy thing - she liked all kinds of men as long as they kept her interested, but she could admit that the ones with a slightly more dangerous edge to them attracted her more than others. She always wondered what made them such bastards, and if they could, and would, push as hard as she did. Though once she knew what made them tick, she usually got bored and moved on. That was the one thing that forever remained constant in her life. Hopefully Ash wouldn't disappoint her. "I will," Jovie stated, unfolding her legs and standing from the bench. She grabbed her bag and smiled at him before slipping her glasses back down over her eyes. "See you." Turning, she began to walk away, pleased at the progress she'd made. She might start to find something interesting about this town after all.