Pomona's Pub (Private: Me and Belle)

Luke sat at the counter of Pomona's Pub after an almost long night of partying at The Tipsy Toga, but had managed to get in a fight with a bartender over something fairly trivial and had been kicked out well before midnight. Not wanting to spoil his plans for fun completely, he walked himself across the street to the very uneventful Pub. Well, he assumed some people liked this setting, but he knew he'd probably be going home with the capability of being able to remember everything that happened. "Why can't I get another one?" He asked the bartender for a fifth time, unfortunately he got the same answer, a firm "no, you're drunk already." Damn old man wouldn't be swayed... Luke sighed, and played with the straw in his cup of water that the bar tender placed in front of him. He glared at the tasteless stuff, wishing it was beer instead...

Luke looked over to the voice, and smirked. He recognized the girl to be the fourth cohorts current centurion. Luke had never really talked to the girl other than on formal centurion stuff. He figured she'd be retiring soon, since she wasn't that much younger than him. He unceremoniously picked up his cup of water, and stood up to walk the few steps over to her spot at the counter. "Hey, I don't get hung over, ok? I'm barely drunk as it is... What ya working on?" He asked, as he sat down next to her.

Luke nodded his head as she told about the paper work, paper work had been his least favorite part of being a centurion. It had been so taxing sometimes, especially when all he had really wanted to do was sleep or have fun. "Boring," he told her, "you need to have some fun instead."
He had to think about what he wanted to say next for her question. In reality, he just wasn't cut out for things like school, but the parties were pretty cool. "Yeah, its fun. Interesting, kind of different. Everything you'd expect college to be." He finally answered, giving her a smile.

Luke laughed, "But regardless, there's nothing fun with working on stuff when you're at a place where you should be having fun..." He rambled, then stopped for a second trying to decide if what he just said was actually intelligible or not. "Well either way, the paperwork can wait, trust me. I've been there." He said, before taking the pen from her. Luke was generally a carefree-does-not-care-about-work, but that didn't mean he hadn't done his best when he was centurion, though he did learn that even when your swamped with work, its still ok to put the pen down and have fun, even if the paper work was do the next day.

Luke rolled his eyes, "I promise you'll probably get it back." He was joking of course, he would never purposely steal it from her. He liked her, well not like that, he liked her as a friend, and he tried to not steal from his friends. In this case, Luke was meaning that he'd probably just forget that the pen was in his pocket, and maybe she'd be too drunk to remember it was there. But Luke also got the feeling that this girl would definitely be the kind to remember her pen even if she forgot everything else. He gave her a smile, how would they have fun she asked, "How else do you have fun in a pub?" He asked her back. Luke didn't wait for an answer as he called the bartender over, and ordered the a few shots of a couple different drinks each. Then he looked back over at her, "This is how you have fun. I'd take you over to tipsy toga, but I got kicked out earlier, so this is just gonna have to suffice for tonight." He explained.

Luke sighed, he wouldn't force her or anyone else to do something they didn't want to do. She obviously didn't have to if she didn't want to. He picked her cup up. "More for me then." He told her, as he drank it before the bartender could stop him.

He smirked then, "I was joking about losing your pen. I would never purposely lose something that isn't mine. Though I can't promise you'll have your wallet by the end of the night..." He told her, placing the pen in front of her. He was joking again, about the wallet. He wasn't going to steal her wallet either, he didn't even know if she had a wallet with her...

He gave the girl a quick nod, to let her know that he heard her. Luke figured she was either making a run for it, or she actually needed to go to the bathroom. He wasn't sure if he would even care if she ditched him. It's not like he knew her all to well. It would just suck not having someone to talk to, since he loved to run his mouth when he was even mildly drunk. Luke took the last few shots while he waited, and by the time Caelia had walked back over he was finally starting to feel the affects.

He openly laughed at the question. How had he gotten kicked out? "It's really not that great of a story..." He started, "Me and a few others had decided to celebrate finals being over..." Not that most of them had even gone to their finals, really, he needed new friends. "And long boring sorry short, someone said something, bartender got mad, so I got mad. And next thing I know I'm exchanging punches with the guy. So another bartender broke us up, and all but literally threw me out the door." He told her. Like he had said, it wasn't that great of a story.

Luke began to explain why he had been kicked out of the Tipsy Toga and mentioned that it wasn't anything interesting. He was right, it really wasn't. Although, she felt it was weird he'd be kicked out over that. There were plenty of rowdy people in the club. That was why Caelia steered away from there as much as possible. Last time she was ever in there was when she had turned eighteen and her friends ordered her the big three shot. Caelia remembered having to prep for that night by not taking any of her pills. It was one of the hardest things for her to do, but she knew she wasn't getting out of those shots then.

She noticed the difference and could tell it was hitting him a bit more now. "Did you want me to walk you home?" She offered. The daughter of Vulcan would hate to see anything happen to another person just because she decided she was going to go home. Caelia felt it was just something she needed to do, make sure he got home safe. She had done it for many of her friends before, and many people in the legion too. This wasn't any different. One time she had to even go get her younger sister Marina from the Tipsy Toga and bring her home.

Luke rolled his eyes with a smirk on his face. "Don't worry about me getting home safe." He told her, chances are he would still be here even after she wanted to leave. He wasn't going to make her wait around just so she could drag his sorry drunk ass home. The bartender would call someone around closing time, likes always. "You can do what you want though." He added.

"I'll wait until you're ready to get home. It just wouldn't sit right on my conscience to leave now. Especially if something happens to you." Caelia said. It felt like it was her duty to do it. Being in the Prescott family you were taught to do things for the greater good no matter the cost. It was just the right thing to do.

Luke gave her an odd look, "Suit yourself." He finally said, shrugging his shoulders. He kind of felt bad to make her wait around for him though. Luke glanced over to the clock that was hung on the other side of the room. It was only 11pm, and the bar closed at 1am. He decided he would just leave earlier than usual, instead of waiting for the bartender to kick him out at 1:15. This way, at least she wouldn't have to deal with that.

Caelia ordered a glass of water with ice. Once she got it she began to sip on her drink. She was about to turn to Luke to strike up a conversation when a group of people came in hooting and hollering. Obviously just came from one of the clubs or bars. They sat down in a booth and began shouting and yelling at Luke to come over and sit with them. "It looks like your friends found you." She said with a small chuckle.

"Bring the girl too!" One of them hollered.

The daughter of Vulcan was a bit uncomfortable with that and she looked over to him. "You can go hang out with your friends if you'd like, but I'm going to stay here." The blonde said with a small smile. Not too long after that some other rowdy New Rome University students came in and started to yell at the other ones. It wasn't long before a fight broke out.

"Is this typical at the other bars and clubs?" She asked him now just curious to know. One of the bartenders came out and started to try to break up the fight.

"I wouldn't say typical.... Well it is, but only then they're there." Luke said, as he took another drink. Like he had said earlier, he needed new friends. "I'm good here. No need to get kicked out of another bar tonight." He added, as he watched the bartender kick out his rowdy friends. Luke wondered if they had been kicked out of the tipsy toga also.

It seemed like an average everyday night in the sanctuary of New Rome. But to a closer observing eye, that was not the case. There were so many pieces to be moved on the chessboard of New Rome politics. Tonight would be a change in pace. New Rome didn't face a lot of deaths; Camp Jupiter surely would, but once you were behind the safe walls that Terminus provided, you were in a whole different ball game. If people needed to die, they needed to die in rapid succession. Long term change changes the climate of mood. Short term change only changes mood in an short burst. Making long term change was all about short term solution, at least, doing it the right way, the head of the Decimus figured to himself. He was only here for the show.

With a simple lift of his glass, a gesture simple enough to be just him taking a sip. Two younger figures stood up from their bar stools, two bulky figures. The rowdiness was enough of a display to make it work. The first figure approached as the bartender desperately tried to break the group up, and further assisted the group of restless and drunk young adults. The second figures got in the commotion too, slipping his empty beer bottle into his hand, and violently smashed it against the bartenders head.

The head of the Decimus household appreciate the irony. Why would the child of a politician leave themselves so vulnerable? Still, with a soon-to-be dead child, he was sure that Julius Triarius wouldn't run for Senate again this year. After him, there were a few more slots to open. One of them being Liam Davenport.

Everything happened in a manner of minutes. It was hard to process what exactly had gone on. She had always been told in moments like this time would slow down, but it was the opposite, it was almost if time had sped up. She could feel her heart beat faster in her chest as he brain was still trying to make sense of it all. She was in shock. Not once had this ever happened while she sat in Pomona's Pub.

The daughter of Vulcan could feel her anxiety levels rise. The xanax didn't seem to be working. What was she supposed to do? Part of her wanted to pound back a drink, but she knew she couldn't She heard it calmed you sometimes, but Caelia didn't feel calm right now. She looked around the room, what was she supposed to do? She grabbed her glass of water and took a drink of it and looked over to Luke. Maybe he knew what to do.

She never responded this way to conflict. Usually if it was her cohort, she knew how to react and how to respond. She was good at it. She was good at leading, but in this instance, she didn't know what to do and didn't know what to say. Caelia was like a deer caught in the headlights.

Luke had been content to sit and drink his nice cup of beer, while watching the bar fight from the safety of his and Caelia's table. However, even he hadn't expected the bar tender to drop dead to the floor with pieces of glass sticking out of the back of his head. In fact, no one in the entire bar had been expecting this of all things to happen. But it just did. What would happen now? Luke was almost 100% certain something like this has never happened in his life in New Rome.

He looked over at Caelia to find her looking at him. What did she think he was going to do? He was drunk... He looked back over at where the fight had happened. The bartender falling, seemed to have effectively broke up the fight, and now everyone was just kind of staring at the dead bartender. Luke couldn't see anyone standing around with a broken glass bottle, so he had to assume that the bartender was dead because someone actually wanted him dead. However, whoever had done the crime had managed to do so completely unseen because of the fight, and even seemed to leave the scene before he was noticed.

Unsure of what to do now, Luke found himself running his hand through his hair, effectively pushing the blonde hair out of his eyes. "Should we call the police? Or maybe an ambulance?" He asked no one in particular. He just brainstormed outloud when he was somewhat in distressed. And this was a fairly stressful situation.

Her heart kept beating in her chest. She felt like she needed to take more pills. She needed to calm down to be able to deal with a situation like this. How was it the bartender was now dead? She didn't see who did it, were any of them next? was this a targeted attack. The daughter of Vulcan had no idea what to do.

When she had looked over to Luke. She thought maybe he'd know what to do, but he seemed a little shocked himself. Caelia looked down at her hands under the table. They were shaking. She had to take pills, she was craving to. The demigod needed to be calm, but she couldn't be. She felt like she was freaking out all over again. She couldn't take them out in the open like this, someone would see.

"I don't know. Maybe we should just leave." She said softly, yet a bit distantly.

"Yeah, maybe..." Luke said, standing up. The alcohol had made him just a bit too tipsy, and he had to grab the table in front of him to keep from falling over. He used that extra time it took to get his balance back, to also search the room for any possible people who could've killed his favorite bartender. Whoever had done it was gone now, though.