Knowledge isn't power, power is power

She’d unwound a little, a few beers in and a light buzz running through her veins, Maggie swayed a little to the music as she listened to the performance on stage. She loved music, all kinds of music, and so the Monster Jam had become her favorite event over the years. She had been so wrapped up in the music she hadn’t noticed someone near her, “Having fun?”

Runa had given up on truly enjoying Monster Jam and had instead decided that she was better off standing towards the edges, keeping an eye on everything. There were more people around than usual, supernatural beings from around the world here to enjoy the festivities. And, quite frankly, she wouldn’t put it past certain members of the clave to try to sneak their way in. The last thing she wanted to do during such a joyous occasion was fight. Actually, that was exactly what she wanted to do. It had been way too long since she last had a fight outside of Purgatory and she was itching for some excitement. But the woman pushed that off, bringing her bottle of tequila to her lips and taking a sip. “I think Abba may be the best band here. But I have my biases.” she spoke to the nearest person.

Elena didn’t usually ride anything (well not anything at a carnival anyways), but sometimes, especially at events like this, it was nice to find somewhere to just relax and be alone for a moment. She was over a thousand years old after all, the elderly needed breaks too. She decided to take a casual ride on the ferris wheel, thinking the slow-motion and rising up to overlook the monster jam would be a good way to rewind. She intended to go alone, so when she sat in one of the pods, she was very surprised when someone snuck their way on too. “Um, the fuck? Excuse you!?” she said, but by that time the ferris wheel began to move and she was stuck with them.

“I used a junkie as a puppet just for fun in the sixties.” Mako grinned and shrugged. “That’s something you didn’t already know. Or did you? Hell.” He shrugged it off, negligently dismissing something he wasn’t too terribly proud of. “Something exciting.. nope, don’t have a damn thing. I’ve spend, what, ten-odd years on the boat, haven’t run into Ariel yet. I’d let you know if I had." 

“You are very much like your brother,” Ryder commented, thinking back to a day when Noah had been in his bar and said something very similar. “You Blackwells need to lighten up.”

“Cool is where you’re at, man.” Pleased as hell to see his maker, Mako hopped to the dock and sped forward to give Lukas a bear hug, an extra squeeze and wiggle with it. “Shit, it’s been too long. How the hell are you?”

“Okay… we can call it that… though can we shorten it a little bit?  That’s a very long description,” he said, leaning forward on his arms towards the other.  “You can congratulate them all, but now that I know about it tell me more.  They take bets right?  It’s been a while since I had the chance to do a bit of gambling.”

“So..” Mako snapped his fingers and popped a palm on the curve between forefinger and thumb. His legs swung off the bow of The Poison Princess and he gave what he saw a long gander. His breath puffed out and he continued to snap, pop, snap and pop as restlessness settled into curiosity. “So this is Hollow Grove.” A broad grin appeared. “Cool.”

There were times when Ryder would sit in his own bar The Saloon, watching people walk in and converse, like a hawk watching its prey. He was new to town and had the luxury of still being an unknown to many of the people here. He recognized a few faces, some of the people he had dealings with in the past, and those who knew him, some disgruntled looking regulars who came often to his bar, would walk by with a nod to him in respect, though none dared to disturb him at the table.

So when he saw someone across from him as he sat at his table order something from the bar, he spoke out. “You know that stuff can kill ya,” he said, sipping on his own glass of whiskey.

Despite the fact that he owned Purgatory, Lukas had no problems dropping into other bars around town. There was one, however, he spent little to no time but that wasn’t The Saloon. His avoidance of Hair of the Dog was driven because of his aversion to werewolves. He eyed the top shelf, picking a bottle of scotch. The glass was nearly to his lips when Ryder spoke up, a grin pulling at the corners of his mouth.

“I’d be impressed if it manages. A drink accomplishing what many have tried failed to do over the years. I don’t even know if I could be upset.” He swirled the liquid in the glass, then took a long drink, pausing afterward and waiting for the impact that didn’t come. “Nope, hasn’t killed me yet.”

“So what you’re telling me,” Patrik started, his voice raised to be heard above the music of Purgatory with his tenth drink in his hand.  “Is that downstairs in the basement is an illegal fighting ring?  How come I haven’t been in here before?”

She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t on edge, looking out for things that could go wrong. But, she hadn’t realised that someone had been talking, she’d been so zoned out watching for threats. Resolving to focus just as much on the event, she turned her attention back to her companion. “Sorry, zoned out for a sec what were you saying?” 

Maya kept staring at the two morons fighting at the bar, shaking her head as she took a couple sips of her margarita, finding it interesting until it was over. “I would say two months, tops,” she said. “But if you want to ban them for a month, go right ahead-and then make them pay 20 bucks to get back in if they come around once the ban is over.” In all honesty, she didn’t have the patience for the fighting shit anyway, finding it annoying as hell, but it did interest her enough to watch.

“Touche.” Teo simply agreed. A lot of the stores in this town profited from old supernaturals with too much money they really needed. Not that he blamed them- he, himself, charged ridiculous rates for his services. “You know, I might just pick randomly. It might be ten times easier than having a headache over something like this.” he agreed, looking over the suits he had tried out, and simply picking out the first three ones that caught his attention.

Ezra’s eyebrows lifted as he watched the fight get more and more intense. He was wondering if he should use his magic to break it up when Lurch as a vampire did it instead. “Uh,” he said, looking toward the door where the two men had been thrown out. “They both seemed pretty peeved, I’d say a month would probably be the safer bet.”

“So be it. It’s thirty eight and twenty three months.” Maggie played along, continuing to tease her brother. It was one of those simple things, something so casual, and just something she had needed after the past few months. “Mostly is still better than none at all. It almost deserved a celebration, you know.” She was well aware of what was happening in Purgatory. Well aware of the many laws it broke. And she was just as well aware that it was exactly what this town needed at times. “Don’t tell me you came here to boast about that.”