&I can't change, even if I tried... [open]

With the sun shining and the air rushing past her face, she was finally up and away from everything that had ever plagued her. The birds talking back and forth to each other and she sped by them, nothing could possibly ruin this...

Bang, bang, bang

"Get up, girl! We've got work to do."

Groaning as she rose up from the bed she had been given, Jenna rubbed the sleep away from her eyes being harshly reminded of her first landing on the ground. "Coming," Jenna spoke hoarsely as she rose from her bed - slipping on some clothes to wear for her first day on the job. With her feathered wings stretching like her arms would be doing upon waking up, Jenna shook herself momentarily as if to shake away the rest of the sleep in her body. Making her way out of the room and down some stairs with her wings hugging close to her body, Jenna walked upon an interesting scene. The Tavern already had people coming into it, one that caught her eye in particular was a short woman who walked as if she was confidence embodied herself. Curious, Jenna was about to go talk to her until the tavern owner barked some orders for her to clean up some dishes for the customers.

This short woman ending up coming up to talk to the tavern owner himself, and Jenna stilled her movement a little bit to listen to their conversation. "Martina!" the owner hollered at the short woman, the said woman smirking at the owner. "What brings you here?" he asked her as he was cleaning up some cups. "I've been hearing some rumors lately George, and I was wondering if you could make any fact to them... " The old man nodded, waiting for the headmistress to continue. "Some of the people in town are getting uncomfortable with my students?" she asked him giving the old man quite a look. "I wouldn't say getting uncomfortable, I'm sure they've always been uncomfortable." George the owner said to Martina.

Martina frowned at that, looking around the tavern and spotting Jenna. "Someone working for you? That's new," she commented paying particular attention to Jenna's wings. George growled then, the owner seeming to always make dog noises. "Oh no you don't missy, she's my worker and you can't steal her away like you've done with others." Martina laughed at that, shaking her head "Whatever you say George, oh and you don't be afraid to check out the school near here," Martina then said to Jenna as she jumped down off the seat she had been siting on - exiting the tavern and leaving Jenna back to her dish cleaning.

It wasn’t often that Cade drank, well at his current age that was true. When he was younger though, things were a little different. Being the son of a gang lord gave him plenty of freedom to do just about anything he wanted, at the age of thirteen that was drinking. Cade wasn’t very proud about beginning to drink at such a young age, but past was past and he was a child who thought it was cool. The only reason he came on this particular day was because of a sudden urge he had that he couldn’t hold down. He estimated that it was probably about a year or so since he’s had alcohol, so that maybe why.

Mr. Lemaire was seated at a booth made for two, staring off into space as he pondered like he usually would whenever he was alone. Suddenly, a woman entered walking over to the old man who owned the bar. Cade hadn’t had too many drinks so he could easily spot that the woman was his boss. Given that they hadn’t talked much, it was probably not the best idea for him to give her an impression that he was the kind to get drunk early in the morning. She was mostly occupied with the owner of the bar so he probably wouldn’t standout being that he was on the opposite side of the tavern.

Even if the chances of her catching him were already slim, he wanted to make them even slimmer. A relatively large man got out of his chair and began to slowly pace toward the counter of the establishment with an empty mug clutched in his fist. Cade took the large man as his best chance of hiding, so he quietly slipped out of his booth snatching his bottle before he left and did his best to match the man’s slow strides. He became a bit worried that his plan would fail as the attention shifted from the owner and the headmistress over to the girl doing the dishes which was where the man was headed.

Luckily, his boss left the building before the man arrived to the counter to drop off his empty yet foamy mug. Cade sneaked onto the nearest chair which was also close to the before mentioned new employee. He glared at the owner for a short second and then back at the winged woman. “So, does that guy even pay you or has slave ownership gone back into style?” he asked jokingly.

Jenna was whistling to herself quite peacefully, while the Tavern owner worked on others things and eventually disappeared behind some doors leaving the woman by herself. Upon being spoken too, Jenna looked up in surprise while a cup slipped out of her hand - quickly a small gush of a wind caused the cup to land softly on the bottom of the sink instead of shattering loudly. Grinning, Jenna turned to the man that had talked to her while her wings bristled with her movement. "He's nicer than he seems, ya'know." Jenna took this moment though to look around the Tavern and absorb the overall appearance of the place. She knew that'd she'd be here for awhile, she figured she might as well get used to it while she could.

Finally returning her attention back to the man, she smiled once more as she spoke "I'm sure you haven't seen me before, and I definitely haven't seen a charming man like yourself before so I might as well be the first to introduce myself." Jenna leaned on the counter separating them and with one elbow resting on the wood and the other arm holding a hand out toward Cade it was very easy to already see her as a little bit over-friendly. "I'm Jenna."

Cade chugged another swig of his bottled drink as he observed the winged woman. A dying question he had in the back of his head was how often she got the pickup line ‘did it hurt when you fell from heaven?’ but he wasn’t sure how to word it without him sounding flirtatious. He assumed quite a few if she’d worked at any taverns before. He swirled his bottle by the neck as he listened to flatten the drink a bit, he preferred it that way.

Jenna greeted and offered a handshake to complete the whole ‘meet and greet’ process. She seemed a bit overly friendly and usually Cade would feel threatened by that since most who acted overly friendly toward him tended to want something or were hiding their true feelings. With Jenna though, Cade could assume that the bar’s dish washer wasn’t aiming to break his legs. “I don’t believe I’ve met you before either, I probably would’ve remembered if I did. I’m Cade” he replied as he completed the woman’s gesture.

He finished another swig as he stared at the brown tinted bottle. “Charming isn’t something I’ve been labeled as many times before, but I suppose it works” he proclaimed as he sat his empty glass bottle on the counter. “Though, flattery alone won’t get you your tips” he continued grinningly. “Another of these, if you don’t mind” he spoke as he pointed to the bottle. It was possible that the lady was acting nice for good tips; he’s seen it many times before. Though, she didn’t seem like she was acting.

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Cade." Jenna offered up another easy smile as Cade seemed only a little bit off-put by her earlier compliment. "I should think a compliment is just something to make someone's day better," she said to him with a thoughtful look for a moment. "Although, it's easy to assume I'd want your money working in this place." With her wings stretching out wide enough to almost knock some glasses over - Jenna chewed on her lip for a moment though considering her next words. "I'm pretty sure I'm not any sort of bartender yet, but I can sure try and help you out with that."

Jenna examined what Cade was drinking and turned back to the options behind her. Soon finding his drink, she grabbed it and set it down on the counter in front of him. "You're from that school, aren't you?" Jenna then asked Cade curiously - leaning on the counter once more to continue conversation with him. Cade was the first person to talk to her, since starting her new job - besides George of course and a few random regulars here and there just nodding their heads at her. She frowned at that momentarily, seeming to be floating off in her own world (the expression could be obviously seen on her face). After a few seconds though, Jenna snapped herself back to reality while her wings seemed to fold down closer to her body in response. "You also wouldn't happen to know any interesting wide open spaces would you?"

At the least Cade could trust Jenna enough to know that her general attitude toward him was legitimate. Most waitresses or bartenders he called out gave him an disgruntled glare and kept silent unless it was necessary to speak. He thought it was because he caught them in a lie and that put them in a foul mood, but other times it could probably seem rude of him to accuse someone of that. “Some wouldn’t have that same intention” Cade quietly replied to Jenna’s comment on compliments.

Cade waited as the winged woman got him a new bottle. He began to wonder why someone would hire a person with wings to tend the bar in such a small space. Within the few seconds that Cade had been there he already noticed that the girl’s wing almost knocked over a couple of glasses. Luckily none had fallen yet, but it seemed like a questionable choice on the owner’s part. Finally, he received his new drink and he popped the cap off as he listened to the woman speak once again.

“Yes, once the summer is over I’ll be teaching classes for the first time.” Once Cade finished his sentence he gave Jenna a curious glance before taking another swig. She seemed to be staring at something, but he could tell what. She obviously did not have a very long attention span. His attention went off of her until she spoke once again, which startled him a bit. He lightly shook his head and looked back at Jenna. “Well, this is an island. There are plenty wide open spaces all around. Unless, you’re looking for wide open spaces on land. Well, there’s plenty of space around the school. I haven’t seen too many other places, but maybe my memory’s bad because of the alcohol” Cade thought off the top of his head.

Jenna stared at Cade curiously as he spoke so quietly, decided that the owner was not coming back anytime soon to check up on her. Jenna quickly raised her finger up to Cade as in a signal for him to hold his thoughts and walked around the bar to sit in stool next to him. Her wings followed her movement but stayed close to her body so as to not make too much noise. Resting one elbow on the bar top and placing her cheek in her hand, Jenna continued to stare at Cade some more as she spoke. Grinning at his last comment, "Should I get you another one then?" she laughed lightly - seeming amused at the idea of getting someone drunk.

"I'll take your word on the open spaces part though, I really haven't gotten to fly since I landed here and my wings have been getting restless," Jenna also skipped over the fact that she was getting restless as well - instead her hand that had been the holder for her cheek instead turned into a hairbrush as the woman started to mess with her blonde locks quite a bit. Twirling one piece of her hair around her finger, Jenna's attention seemed to turn quite suddenly back to Cade again "You seem like a shy man to me," she said suddenly to Cade - her expression showing nothing shy of an easy-going attitude. "That's alright though, I've met plenty of shy men before. They're always the sweetest in the end," Jenna winked at Cade with that comment - seeming quite a bit more flirty than she was before.

Jenna was aware of how overwhelming she was being though, the woman had decided that if she was going to be here for awhile she might as well make the most of it that she could. This of course would start with some potential interest here and there. With those thoughts Jenna resisted the urge to laugh at herself, seeming like she was off in her own world again.

Cade continued to down his drink as he waited for the woman to do whatever it was she wanted to do when she walked away. The more he drank the more he could feel his buzz coming along. It had been a long while since he drank, so his body would no doubt become drunk faster than he had originally anticipated. He wasn’t fully aware of it though, in fact he thought he was a lot more sober than he actually was.

It was a bit strange that Jenna would walk all the way around the counter only to offer him another drink. He nodded not realizing that she was pulling the same trick as he did to seduce women a long while back, though her intentions might not be the same as his were. She seemed oddly distracted by something, he couldn’t tell by what nor could he even think too overly complexly. Once she finished playing with her hair, she claimed that he was shy. He’d never been described as that before, but it did make sense considering that the girl was definitely the more outgoing of the two. “You’d be surprised. I’ve met some outgoing people who seem sweeter” he spoke nodding his head at her with a sweetly smirk.

Cade reached into his pocket and pulled out a standard deck of cards, which he tended to carry with him almost everywhere he goes. In fact, he keeps a small pack in his wallet. He turned toward Jenna splaying out the deck for her in one hand making sure that the skin on his hand was touching every card. He tucked away his other hand into his pocket and said “pick a card.” He was definitely drunk at this point if he was trying to woo her with a card trick.

Jenna let out a girlish giggle as Cade offered up a subtle compliment, she was definitely enjoying his presence despite the fact that the man seemed to be growing ever-more inebriated. As he pulled out a deck of cards, Jenna watched his hand curiously. "I wonder what sort of trick you're going to show me here," she said to him - tilting her head slightly as a dog or a cat would if they were curious of something. At his prompt - Jenna reached forward and grabbed a card - finding herself looking at a six of hearts. "What do I do with it now?" she asked him, still holding the card with a curious expression.

[ooc; sorry, it's a little short. D: ]

As the girl took the card out of the deck, Cade quickly scanned the card and began to replicate it into his other hand. The transaction was completely seamless and unless she was looking directly into his pocket she wouldn’t have noticed. The trick that he was performing was a very basic act he used to do on the streets if he needed a quick buck or he was trying to impress a woman like he was currently. It was a trick he perfected so well he didn’t even need to see the face of the card to determine which it was. A collaboration of his brain and his sense of touch was all he needed to know which card someone would be pulling.

He became slightly light headed for a moment since he was consuming alcohol and he was becoming slightly dehydrated, which was not a good combination. He shook it off momentarily and focused back on the woman with a gleeful grin. “Just put it back in the deck” he answered quickly after she questioned him.

[OOC: If I would have just included “and put the card back in the deck” in my last post we would have had two less transactions]

Jenna wasn't paying attention too much as she put the card back in the deck upon Cade's request, instead she noticed that her companion was looking a little out of focus. With a small twitch of her fingers a cool breeze of air rushed by the two of them, the action seeming so brief that it almost seemed natural. She glanced toward the door where she had last seen the tavern owner go through as well - wondering what happened to him but deciding that her friend was a lot more interesting instead.

As she turned her attention back to Cade, she offered him a charming smile and leaned forward a little bit to put a hand on the man's thigh for a brief moment. Deciding against doing anything more with that action she pulled back to lay one arm on the bar top and the other on her leg - waiting patiently to see what kind of magic trick Cade was going to show her.

Once the card was placed back into the deck, he began to form the mess of cards into a more cohesive shape with his one hand as the other slowly moved out of his pocket so subtly that it was difficult to actually determine if it was actually moving. As he kept fixing the deck, he felt the cool draft blow around him. He quickly twisted his head to investigate where it originated from, but he wasn’t able to determine its source and with him being in the drunken stupor he was he couldn’t put two and two together.

Suddenly, Jenna reached for his thigh which made him a bit nervous that she had caught on to his trick. Though, it turned out to be more of a tease than anything else. He gave off a bit of smirk because he thought that her gesture meant that his charm had been working. To complete the reshaping of the deck, he smacked the bottom of the deck onto the counter a couple times as a distraction that looked completely natural for him to do to catch the eye of the girl so that he could quickly sneak his other arm behind his back.

He lifted the deck over his head and dangled it behind his back. “And your card is…” he spoke in a tone that a vendor at carnival would. As he finished his words he dropped the deck and let it hit the floor, however he replicated the sound of catching on of the cards and made his hand look as though it was snatching a card. He pulled his other arm back out and held the six of hearts card in his thumb and index finger. “The six of hearts, is it not?” he stated with a large smile on his face feeling that his act went perfect and that he would soon reap his rewards.

Jenna's attention quickly went to Cade smacking the deck of cards on the bar top. It was easier this way for Jenna as well, to pretend that she hadn't seen this trick a thousand times before. Enjoying the theatrics nonetheless, Jenna gasped as Cade revealed her card. "It was!" she laughed then, pushing Cade in the shoulder for the moment as if she were saying 'Get outta' here!' in a playful manner. "I suppose you can't tell me how you did it now, huh?" she asked him with a slight pout on her face. Cade wasn't a completely unattractive man, Jenna had finally decided. He wasn't exactly the type of man you would notice easily it seemed either.

Flexing her wings, Jenna took this moment to glance around the Tavern to notice that Cade and her were the only people seeming to be left in the whole place. The woman was only slightly surprised at this, but didn't mind either which way. "You wouldn't want to leave a girl in complete mystery, would you?" Jenna finally said with a flirty smile - letting one of her crossed legs rest gently against Cade's for a moment before pulling away.

With the succession of his magic trick grew a wide smile as well as a few breathily chuckles. He would probably have to clean up the mess of cards on the floor behind him later, but that wasn’t at the center of his mind. Though the sudden playful shove was unexpected, but it was enough to make him a bit more aware of the things around him. He shook it off and laughed since she didn’t cause much change in his posture.

“A magician never reveals his secrets…” he said as he raised his two fingers in the air as though he was swearing to an oath. He quickly scanned the area around him with a simple twitch of his eye and notice no one was around anymore. Too bad, he owed that large man a huge favour. As his gaze returned to the woman she had her leg rub against his, no doubt teasing him once again. His teeth chattered soft and slightly as he felt her leg slide against his pant. “… But I suppose I could make an exception for you” he grinned largely.

He pulled the card in his hand back up and focused his vision on it. He then pulled out his other hand and laid it flatly in front of both of them. A clear liquid formed out of his hand which took shape into a rectangular figure until it became solid and the colours began to form on the cloned clone card. “If you want I can sign it and you can keep it, perhaps I could also include some contact information if you have an upcoming birthday. I prefer one on one acts though” he spoke jokingly and suggestively at the same time.

Jenna couldn't help but smile right back at Cade as he grinned. It was when he revealed what his power was though that Jenna was in all honesty surprised. Her smile grew and she quickly but lightly took the cloned card from Cade's hand for a moment - making it so there hands did touch for a brief moment as she did this. Finding a nearby pen, Jenna scribbled some words on the back of the card and then stuck the item in a pocket on Cade's vest. "You can keep that," she said to him letting her fingers linger over the area for once again just a few moments. "I must say, Cade you are quite the charming man. It's getting late though and I'm half expecting the owner to come back and yell at me at any moment," Jenna admitted to her companion sounding as if she was dismissing him after all of the not-so subtle flirting.

She stood up at this though, and went to walk back around the bar again - putting a barrier between them not necessarily on purpose but more-so to seem busy if the tavern owner showed up at any moment. This also appeared to make her way more of a tease than she was actually attempting to be, her wings hugging close to her body once more as she moved around the small space behind the bar.