Natasha 'Asha' Porter

Holden nodded as she spoke, playing her words over for a moment. “All societies end up wearing masks. That’s pretty intense. Not wrong though, we all guard ourselves sometimes. That’s being human,” he replied. “Shit everywhere, also not wrong. A sad statement but definitely not wrong.” He knew that, he’d lost his parents due to a shit person. He’d been to college in the city and had his heart broken. He knew there was shit everywhere. “Okay, now I need to know that joke about the fisherman. I might be missing out.”

-

Asha nods, “Can’t say I can take credit for it, its from Jean Baudrillard, he was a French philosopher.” Someone she read a few theories from but never really spoke about it to most people, she figured it was something that would bore most. “Somethings are easier hidden than others, that’s what people should look out for but I’m just a young bartender what do I know about the great big world.” Only what she learned from the hub, the news she heard from across the world, which usually painted supernatural creatures in the worst light. “Fine, only cause you seem like someone who won’t let something drop.” She lets out a sigh and tosses the towel on her shoulder onto the bar. “It was raining hard, and a big puddle had formed in front of an Irish pub. An old man stood beside the puddle holding a stick with a string on the end and jiggled it up and down in the water.A curious gentleman asked what he was doing. ‘Fishing,’ replied the old man. ’Poor old chap,’ thought the gentleman, so he invited the old man to have a drink in the pub. Feeling he should start some conversation while they were sipping their whiskey, the gentleman asked, ‘And how many have you caught today?’ ‘You’re the eighth.’ The old man replies finishing his drink.” She shrugs sure that maybe she didn’t deliver it the best but that was more her father’s style.

“Come on, stop pussy-footing around already.” Asha jeers making a small kick at the other to get a reaction. Sparing was never supposed to go balls to the wall wild but she always seemed to have a chip on her shoulder when it came getting into a match with someone. Always feeling as if she had more to prove than anyone else. Hopping around on the balls of her feet practicing her foot work, she clenches her hands and releases to ease the tension.

“I don’t know what it is exactly, but there’s an… aftertaste? When you make coffee in the machine at the hub,” he made a face. “It’s distinctly tar-like. And I haven’t had a lot of time to head home lately.” He tried to explain. He could get a new coffee maker for the training room, but it wasn’t like he was exactly flush with cash. The slayers didn’t pay that well.

-

Asha nods her head understanding what the older slayer was saying, “That’s because Paul keeps insisting on grinding his own beans and he isn’t doing it right.” It didn’t seem to matter how many times someone cleans it if Paul just keeps coming behind brewing his large chunky beans. “I don’t worry about it too much, I try to keep my limit to one cup a day. Last thing I need is jittery hands or something when I’m trying to train.”

“I like to teach my students to be themselves and to be proud of, that’s the example I want to set. So I’m not going to hide who I am, bad jokes included,” he laughed gently. “I don’t know, I went to high school here actually. I bet that was nice, you had a group of friends and didn’t have to deal with the shit at school.” He nodded. “Oh, come on. I bet you do.”

-

Asha could agree with that, though she knew as a slayer there was always a layer of herself that needed to be hidden. From unknowing humans, from supernaturals so they couldn’t use any of her weaknesses against her later on. “Nothing wrong with teaching kids that I guess. ‘All societies end up wearing masks.’ they should know when its a good time to and when its not.” Asha wished she has learned that, instead taking off her mask seemed more difficult as time went on. “There’s shit everywhere.” She remarks knowing full well that there were just as much trouble with the other slayer kids as there would have been in any school. Asha lets out a scoff, “I really don’t.” She wasn’t most sociable and she was more serious than joking, “Only joke I know is from my dad about an old fishermen.”

“It certainly helps me and that’s all that matters, right?” he laughed a little. “Yeah? How was homeschooling? I was pretty into everything at school, sports, music, I dork out about a lot,” he nodded. “Give me your best corny joke?”

-

She found no fault in his logic there and gives a soft nod of her head in agreement, “I guess if it helps you, in the long run it must help your students.” She surmises having no other choice. “How was it supposed to be? I learned what I needed to, knowing my mother a lot more than I needed to for those years. Grew up with some of her co-workers kids, so I was socialized, I’m sure to her it was as much a success as she could have hoped for.” While her mother likely would have liked her to enter college she was more so happy with her training in the Slayer’s hub. It was a life long job, no need to learn something else. “Oh no, I don’t do jokes like that.”

Holden laughed slightly, shaking his head. “I like to think my material is unique and has some charm,” he joked. “No, high school. I like to think the teenagers somewhat appreciate my nerdiness. Part of my style.”

-

“If that helps.” Asha mutters under her breath as she works behind the counter. “I wouldn’t know about that, I was homeschooled and being a nerd that the kids relate to isn’t really my mother’s thing.” Though her mother was in her own way a charming nerd, supposed someone had to be if they wanted to be a diplomate for the Slayers. “I would think teenagers would be more cruel about corny jokes.”

“Here, here, I’ve got one for you. Okay,” he pretended to clear his throat as he prepared to tell his joke. “The past, the present and the future all walked into a bar.” He paused. “It was tense,” the male grinned, hitting his hands against the table.

-

Asha pauses listening to the joke and there is a clear blank expression on her face, “You really need new material.” She remarks cleaning a glass behind the bar with shake of her head. “Don’t you teach at the college level?”

“Not sure there’s enough coffee in the world to get me through this week,” Leon commented as he mixed a dollop of cream into his mug. It had been a few days since the gala, and he’d finally made time for a trip to Express-O for a badly needed cup of joe. “But at least the coffee here doesn’t taste like tar.”

-

Asha was getting her own black coffee ready with only sugar added, stirring it while looking around the coffee shop, eyes landing on Davey father. “I would like to think that the place that specializes in coffee would at least make decent coffee. Otherwise I’d have to listen my mother and get my own coffee maker.” After all it didn’t take magic do that so she had to think the Beaumont coven leader was then standing ahead of the curve. “Trudging all the way out to Southside for a coffee would be too much.”

“No, you’re not at all,” he noted taking a sip of his whiskey, blue eyes watching as she wiped down the bar top. “I agree but then I was army and now I’m the lead guitarist in a band so gotta give your all in both those professions.” Eli, however, had always given his all at everything he did. Sports, school (though he mostly kept that hidden not wanting to hurt his image in high school), he was driven and hard working no matter what he did. “Ahh yes that would make sense then,” he nodded in agreement. “I suppose you have a point there. Can’t say something sucks if you haven’t experienced it. If it’s any consolation, having younger siblings ain’t all that fun. They can be very annoying 99% of the time.”

-

Slowing the wiping of the bar she glances up at the other, “My dad was a Slayer, solider in his way, I picked up a lot of his mannerisms growing up.” She followed him around like he was the next best thing to sliced bread and she had no regrets on that. While her mother likely did, not that Asha would pay much mind to it. Perhaps with the disappearance of her father she took things far more serious than he ever would have. “I’m sure they likely say the very same thing about you.” She points out, “Besides, I have own annoyance in the form of a best friend, I like to think Davey is what its like having a sibling, sort of.”

Ollie quirked a brow. “No need to get defensive. I meant our world. I’ve got nothing major against the Slayers.” The treaty, in general, was another story. He genuinely believed the Slayers were doing their best, even if there were things about their current approach he would change given the chance. The problem, he thought, was the treaty itself. It was on his long list of things to change. He took a sip of his drink before saying, “If VIGILANTE was only a Slayer-based organization, I think their approach would be different. No offense, but the Slayers are scrambling way too much for this to be a slayer-generated threat. No…a few slayers might be involved, but I think it’s likely that there are plenty of people around us who behind this mess.”

-

Asha kept her head up high, Slayers were getting nothing but grief lately and she wasn’t going to shrink back looking as if they had something to hide. While she knew the likelihood of Slayers being a hundred percent innocent was low but that didn’t stop her from feeling the need to stand up for them. Not when her father went missing just trying to do his job. “I don’t see anyone doing much but scrambling.” She replies holding the towel in her hands tightly wringing it. “That isn’t exactly insightful, not that it matters, VIGILANTE is getting just what it wants. Maybe they aren’t so wrong about things, treaties seem pretty easy to follow and yet seem to get broken left and right.”

“Better than most people,” he shrugged. “Most people just do the bare minimum just so they can get paid. Seems nobody really cares about doing good jobs these days.” A smirk slid across his lips as he laughed at her response. “I used to know everyone in town but I joined the army at 18 and was gone for 10 years so I guess now not so much.” The wolf gave a shake of his head at her question. “Nah, just the whiskey, thanks,” he grinned. “Sheltered life, huh? Must’ve sucked. I’m fortunate enough to be the oldest of 4 so I got to do just about whatever I wanted not that that was always a good thing.”

-

“I’m not most people.” She remarks wiping down the bar in front of her, “Job isn’t worth doing if you’re not going to do it correctly.” Famous words of her father that she took to heart and couldn’t let go of. So far they haven’t stirred her wrong and her mother seemed nothing if not glad for it but there were times her mother pressured her to shift her focuses. She nods along to his story about the army, “If it helps you wouldn’t have known me ten years ago any better than you do now. Since I would have been eleven.” She reports with a raised brow, wolves however aged at a different rate than she did age at a certain point seemed to freeze here and there or slowed at any rate. Taking in a deep breath she wipes the bartop harder. “Only child, wouldn’t know. Than again I wouldn’t have anything to compare it to so no, can’t say it all sucked.”

~

He picked up the beer with a smile. “Keep my mouth shut? Can’t make any promises,” Davey shook his head sadly, but the grin he was trying to hide quickly grew across his face. “Alright, fine, I won’t forget my Slayer responsibilities, and I’ll try not to forget my name either.” He glanced around the bar with a sigh, the scattered Slayers huddled around bar tables discussing the events of the gala in hushed tones. “Not like this crowd is here to party, anyways,” Davey said glumly. “I just want one night to escape all this vigilante stuff, you know?” He looked at Asha with a hopeful grin. “Want to take the train to the next town over? Give everyone fake names, dance the night away, forget about all this craziness?”

-

Asha glanced around at their fellow Slayers, “Well you can’t really blame them can you?” She asks knowing full well that her mother was likely still locked away in some offices on the phone with a number of other hubs across the world talking about those stupid pictures. Hard to think that at each party there were people lurking around from VIGILANTE and they were right under all their noses. She puts her attention back on Davey with an sigh and offered an sympathetic smile, “Tempting but I’m pretty sure not only my mom but your father would track us down and drag us back here. And I rather not be embarrassed by that, my mother already has enough dramatic flare to her. Don’t you have training and work to keep you busy enough?” She asks knowing that there wasn’t enough time in the day sometimes to get everything she wanted done. “Can’t put blinders on, Davey and forget this is happening. Its serious.”

“Appreciate it,” he nodded as she began fixing his drink. “You know a lot of these bartenders don’t even know what a whiskey up is. I usually have to explain it to them. I’m impressed.” The male chuckled slightly as he shook his head at the girl. “Only the pretty ones,” Elijah retorted, shooting the girl a wink before laughing. “No, but seriously, I just hadn’t seen you before. I’ve only been back in Roseport for 5 years and I hadn’t seen you before. Considering we’ve had an influx of people moving here I just figured you were new around here.” 

-

Asha doesn’t find it to that big of a deal, “I like to be prepared for the job ahead of me, doesn’t matter what the job is.” She says simply, pouring the cooled whiskey into a proper glass and setting it in front of him on top a coaster. Her face twisting slightly at the cheesy pick up line, “Right, I’m sure that’s the case.” She remarks tapping the bar and offering another customer service ranked smile, “And do you know everyone in this town? I mean it seems like a pretty significate population and since I lived here my whole life and don’t know who you are...well it might be creepy if you knew me.” Than again how many people did the slayers know simply because they were part of the local clan, pack or covens? “I’ve had a sheltered life what can I say? Anything else I can get you?” 

The gala had been nothing short of interesting to say the least. Having discovered his alpha’s little soft spot for a certain blonde witch and Rhys deciding to go and explore the Slayer hub even though it was off limits, he felt it safe to say that his night wasn’t too bad. As he seated himself at the bar, his fingers tapped against the top lightly waiting for the bartender to approach. Blue eyes peered up at the girl as she greeted, a small grin turning up the corners of his mouth. “Whiskey up,” he responded. “You new here? I don’t recall seeing you around.”

-

It took everything in Asha to keep from rolling her eyes in annoyance, that would hardly be very customer friendly would it. “You got it.” She replies with a forced smile as she turns to grab a bottle from the shelf behind her. “Here, as in this bar. Yeah I guess you can say that but to town, no.” She answers as ice clinks into the shaker before she pours the whiskey in shaking it to expose the liquid to the cold. “You memorize all your bartenders or something?”

Davey was a man with no plans tonight, and he planned on taking full advantage of that fact. He’d finished slayer training earlier that day, his muscles aching from the new routine his dad had enacted, and had escaped the facilities quickly before anyone could entangle him in anything else. So Davey had ended up at Euphoria, grinning at Asha as she glumly walked down towards his end of the bar. “Hmm, I’d order a complicated cocktail but I think you’d smack me, so I’ll take a beer,” he smiled, waving generally at the taps along the wall. “Anyone will do, I plan on having multiple tonight and forgetting my name.” Davey raised his eyebrows at her with a grin. “You want to join me? Let down the slayer responsibilities for a night, Asha?”

-

Asha gave her famous raised brow look that told him just the same that she would smack him, though the simple order might not save him completely. She opens her mouth but moves on the taps grabbing a glass without a word carefully planning her scolding. “I hope that won’t keep you from forgetting to keep your mouth shut about some things.” Sour as her words were she knew Davey wasn’t an idiot even though some of his actions said otherwise. Letting out a scoff she shakes her head putting the glass in front of him, “No thanks, I rather enjoy remembering my name and who else would you call if you needed helping getting home?”