Workplace

Who: Mathias and Reiz
Where: Babylon
When: Night

Babylon was busy - not quite 'line out the door' busy, but crowded all the same. Only so many people in town could actually even find the place, after all, so that limited numbers. And having a queue really wasn't something that you wanted when you had a bar/club that 'normal' people shouldn't be able to find without help.

Mathias had been there all evening so far, skipping the day shift to organise moving things. He hated to admit it, but tonight Babylon was almost an escape for him - get away to other things. He just couldn't believe that he was actually glad to be here tonight!

Moving through the crowds toward the door, he gave short greetings, occasionally stopped for conversation with some of the regulars he'd gotten to know. He pulled his pack of cigarettes out of his pocket as he neared the door, lighting up and inhaling the hit of warm smoke and nicotine, feeling the rush as it hit his system.

Reiz didn't exactly have a busy schedule, but after he'd left Amy's, he'd spent a little more time walking around, thinking maybe the cold air could sober him up some. He had a feeling that waking up tomorrow was going to be a chore.

It was getting dark, so he decided to head back to Babylon--maybe actually do his job of cleaning up the place. As he got closer to the entrance, it looked like the place was actually pretty busy tonight, so maybe he'll be able to fulfill that duty.

Entering the building, he had his hand in his hoodie pocket, looking down at the ground. Shielding himself was just what he did in a crowded place.

Mathias recognised the man coming toward him as he left. Not that they'd ever spoken, but he recognised him and so he slowed, taking his cigarette out of his mouth and moving into the guy's path blatantly. "Hey, how's it going?" he asked, with a friendly, conversational type tone.

Looking up as Reiz felt a presence in front of him, his eyes glanced back down a moment before going back up. 'Eye contact, eye contact...' he prodded himself mentally with a reminder.

"Good," he said slowly, giving a small nod to the man. 'course 'good' probably wasn't the choice word for the day, but it was just polite not to dump on a stranger. "And... you?"

Mathias shrugged and brought the cigarette to his lips, inhaling deeply, then letting the smoke escape his lungs. "So, so - crowded in there tonight," he said, glancing back toward the bar. "Guess everyone needs somewhere to go on a Friday night, right?" he added, seemingly oblivious to Reiz' body language. He wasn't - he was aware that the guy seemed somewhat... withdrawn, maybe? But Math often didn't let on what he noticed about others, and a generally friendly approach was his usual default stance.

Reiz nodded. He'd never been one with a social life, so things like Fridays and weekends didn't have the same connotation to him as everyone else. But he'd understood that other people had them as day offs and used them to relax or something.

"Don't think we've ever been formally introduced - not that 'formal' is really my thing, but, yknow - I'm Mathias, Math - whichever you'd prefer," Mathias told him, balancing his cigarette in one corner of his mouth as he held his hand out to the other guy, hoping to encourage him to talk more.

Too many handshakes... Reiz took Mathias's hand, giving it a light squeeze--he didn't really want to put too much pressure in it--"Reiz," he stated simply. "I. Um..." He felt like there should've been more to his greeting. "...clean. Here." ...Yeah.

"Yeah, I know - I've noticed you around," Mathias told him in a friendly manner. He noticed people - and he had a way about him that sometimes made people feel special for being noticed, that suggested that maybe he didn't notice everyone, but that he'd noticed you. Mathias had never found out if it was just an aspect of his personality, or an inherited trait of his demon blood, but he'd always had a way with folk, and he depended on it. It had kept him alive more often than he could count, and got him what he wanted on a regular basis. And, in between - it was just good for getting to know people. And at the end of the day, bottom line was that Mathias, for all his abilities and talents, did actually like people. Most people anyhow. He might have a thing for being able to talk to people, but it was bolstered by a genuine interest - well, for as long as that person had his interset, at least. Until he was distracted by the next big thing.

Well... that was nice. Though Reiz was just guessing it was more of a, 'hey, there's a new guy here' noticing (he'd always noticed new employees at his old workplaces) but even so, it was still nice to be noticed. Though that might be the opposite of what he wanted to be...

"Um. What do you do...?" He was going to assume that Mathias worked here, just because... well, after he said he noticed Reiz, it wouldn't be very nice of him to ask if this was his place of employment.

Wasn't that the question? He didn't exactly have a specific role - other than 'make sure nobody kills your boss', but that was a pretty vague job remit. "You know, this and that. Keep an eye on the place, people - whatever the boss wants me to do, really," he said, realising that, considering the backroom activities of the place, could be really rather wider than the truth - and more than Mathias would ever do.

So he was sort of like... a bouncer or something? Well, the keep an eye on things bit anyway. Reiz imagined that bars mighta gotten rowdy at some times, but Eris had said there was no fighting in Babylon, so... Maybe Mathias kept an eye on that? Made sense to him anyway.

"Do you live here?"

"Live here?" Mathias asked, exhaling smoke with a laugh. "Hell no - I have a place in town. Take it you don't either - given you had to ask and all," he observed. He knew a few people did, but they were mainly the back room types. And Eris herself, of course. Course he knew what many didn't: that she couldn't actually leave, even if she wanted to.

Er. Well, Reiz did, but he just wasn't very observant of the people who went in and out of their rooms. He figures that they get up at different times of the day and their schedules weren't synced up. But he didn't want to correct Mathias. He'd feel kinda bad. "Oh. Do lots of people live outside Babylon?" 'course he meant when it came to the employees.

"It's a small town - I figure people live where they want," Mathias said, without seeming bothered by it one way or another. "But, for me - why live where you work? Change of scenery once in a while would be good." That and there was no way in hell he wanted his little brother going through puberty in that kind of an environment.

Change of scenery would be nice, but Reiz unfortunately had no money and no place to go, and the first person to offer him a home was Eris, so... he took it. Beggars couldn't be choosers, and it was a good place to stay--in his opinion anyway. It was nicer than some of the other apartments he'd stayed in throughout his life, or even the streets or outdoors he'd been in.

Reiz nodded. "Have you been here long?"

"Me? No - not long," Mathias told him, easily. "Few months, tops - I travel around a lot, see the world. Sometimes end up in the most random of places," he added, covering against the question of what had brought him to Marquette in the first place. "you?" he asked.

Seems that maybe they had some things in common. Reiz could understand the traveling a lot thing, though his wasn't so much trying to see the world as much as it was just... ...running away. But Mathias didn't have to know that detail, did he?

"Maybe a little more than a week?" He didn't remember the exact date of his arrival, or today's date, but that sounded about right.

"Woah - you really haven't been around too long, have you?" Mathias laughed. God, that really wasn't long at all. "So - how you finding Marquette so far? Quite the interesting place, isn't it?" he asked with a grin. After all, the guy worked in Babylon - that meant he was Something.

Yeah... real interesting place. Witches, angels, hunters... Though he couldn't complain, this was sort of what Reiz wanted. Either he lived his life quietly, or he got killed by all the weird that went around this place. It didn't really matter since that sort of thing followed him around anyway, may as well just put him in their lap, right?

Reiz nodded.

Mathias raised an eyebrow at the non-verbal response and figured that he'd kept the guy too long from his job. Really, he knew, he should be getting back inside himself. "Well - nice to talk to you. Guess I should get back into the fray," he said, gesturing back towards the doors, and the crowd inside.

"You too." Reiz thought Mathias seemed like a nice enough person... and even if he had a lot of stuff going outside Babylon, he would always be safe here, which was good enough for him. Ah... but he did have a job here, which he was more than willing to do, even in his current state. He'd be sore, but keeping his mind preoccupied, and helping out others was good enough for him.