"I will see to Nathan. You have my word that he shall be safe." Tegan solemnly bowed her head to Mona seated in the passenger seat of Bart's '69 Mustang, letting her hair drift across shoulders bared in her deep red, high necked dress covered in a thin film of black lace. The small clip in her hair kept her bangs aside, which showed every inch of her dire, fearful little frown to Bart as he closed his luggage-filled trunk. "Be certain that you do the same for each other."

Bart pursed his lips as he raised an inquiring brow toward Tegan, turning on a sneakered heel and leaning against the trunk as he pulled a glass pipe and a rather generous bag of green contraband from an inside pocket on his jacket. "Uhhh, you really worried about her?"

Mona had already turned on the electrics in the car, specifically for the old dashboard lighter as she pulled a cigarette from her pack with her lips. The window was already down, sending a draft of beachside air through the car as she drew the lighter from its holster and set her coffin nail alight. The cherry flared to life, sending the primal ping from her crown to her root, swallowed and digested as she took that first draw. She leaned her head out of the window, wordlessly blowing a series of smoke rings back toward her two companions. I am bored and I want to gooooooo.

Tegan's boots skiffed softly against the smooth gravel of the driveway as she approached Bart, carefully waving her hand beneath a few of the smoke rings to set them off in various directions still intact. Her eyelids kept low, and though whispers were difficult, she kept her tone to a quiet rumble. "Your peers... though they boast the pinnacle of humanity's capabilities, they too often treat other variances of the same as game animals at best, and delicacies at worst." She crossed her arms, cupping her elbows with her hands as her lips pressed tightly together. "You have proven to be a welcome exception to my opinion of willworkers, Bartholomew. I trust her with your life as much as I trust her with my own. I simply ask that you entertain that I need you to prove yourself worthy of my trust of her."

Bart had set the baggie of weed on the car's spoiler, callused fingers plucking out buds and crumbling them perfectly into the pipe's chamber, just coarse enough, and still a bit shallower than his usual dalliances. He raised it up toward the moon with his head bowed, then brought it to his lips, a hand flicking his antique lighter to life and lighting his bounty. Soon, slow tendrils of blue smoke wrapped around the smoke rings, dissipating them into a neutral haze of particulate matter that carried on the intermittent breeze. With vapor still rolling off of his breath, Bart faced the sea, winter blue eyes slowly panning toward Tegan. "Indiana's Camarilla territory. The Warlocks* there make it pretty rough on mages who try to flex too much magic muscle. I can't guarantee that some jagoff won't try to start **** with her because she's a vampire, but most of 'em are too scared to be the butterfly wings that blow up a ****storm of financial and social life-wrecking that the Camarilla does so well." He closed his eyes, drew on a smirk and sighed, waving his free hand in the air for a moment. "But... yeah. I'll try to keep the black hats and creepy wizards from taking an interest. Plus, we're going for a reason that gets just about all parties on board. We can't be the only people trying to bury Cavendish."

"Bartolomeeeeooo," Mona dipped her head out of the window once again as she crooned the gearhead's name, making her already great amber eyes larger, a kitten begging for scraps as it clawed its way up a leg. Her tone and look, although only partially seen by Bart, was enough to bring half a smile to his lips, a chuckle to shake his shoulders, and, with his own eyes rolling and his stash placed in his jacket, his body to start its casual stroll and glide into the driver's seat of his car. Her look to Tegan held a steadiness, even as her own lips set to a small, tender smile. "I will be fine, Tegan. I will find you something interesting, because no place can be as dull as Bartolomeo tells me his home is. Make sure that Nathan does not get his head stuck in the furniture, okay?"

Tegan cleared her throat as she brought a curled hand to her lips, stepping back one long stride away from the vehicle as the engine rumbled to life. "I... erh, I shall. The birds and Hallah will be in good company during your journey, as well." She drew on her elfin smile as she turned her hand toward them, opening her palm in a farewell wave.

As Bart touched the dangling array of talismans hanging from his rearview mirror, he took one, final draw from his pipe before tucking it away, holding his breath. He beeped his horn in two little bip-bips before rolling out from the driveway, turning toward the road. As he exhaled, the simple two-lane road that ran toward their home seemed to shimmer, the landscape becoming less gritty, more saturated, as the road slowly turned into The Road. As they passed the sign for Highway (square root negative one), he turned his reddened eyes to Mona briefly, pressing his lips together in a tight little smirk to Mona. "... so when did you filch my car keys?"

Mona simply leaned back her chair as she brought each bare leg up one at a time, unclipping and unzipping her ankle boots and tossing them to the floor while squirming herself to a comfortable lean. She smiled around her cigarette as she exhaled smoke from her nose, the tobacco mixing with the cannabis to a strange, diffuse haze between them. "This will be a mystery to itch in your mind until we come back home, sweet boy."

((Mona Oliveira used with the permission of her fantastic player.))

*:"Warlock" is slang for Clan Tremere among mages and vampires in the old World of Darkness.