Devil's Nest Monday, 7/29

[bitten_notshy]

It had been One of Those Weekends, and Jack was more than glad it was over. Jaina's Stockholm Syndrome theory didn't seem so far off. Jack knew he was staying where he was, but he still daydreamed about moving back to London as he organized the bottles behind the bar.

The DJ, who thought he was funny, was playing a fire-themed mix of '80's songs.

[OOC: Open club, no OCD.]

Comments

[not_a_whiner]

Kaidan wasn't so much horribly traumatized as horribly confused, as evident by the expression on his face when he entered the Devil's Nest.

"Hey," he said, to Jack. "Has your weekend been as crazy...?"

[bitten_notshy]

"I was a firefighter-slash-barista with a hopeless crush on Derek Hale," Jack said in a strained voice. "So I'd guess that it has. Yours?"

[not_a_whiner]

"...Crazy," Kaidan settled on. "I don't even really want to think about it, but... uh. That's rough."

[bitten_notshy]

"It was one of those weekends where I wonder why I stick around," Jack admitted. "I hate losing control."

[not_a_whiner]

"I'm not really a big fan of it myself, but I'm stuck here until the brass tells me not to be," Kaidan said. He blew out a breath. "One of these days, this is going to turn ugly."

[bitten_notshy]

"Hasn't yet," Jack said cautiously. "I used to worry about it too, until I realized every story ends with everything being fine in the end."

He rapped his hand on the counter behind the bar as he said this. He wasn't superstitious, but some things demanded you knock wood.

[not_a_whiner]

"I don't think I'll ever be able to get used to that," Kaidan said, sinking into a seat. "Everything has consequences."

[bitten_notshy]

"Normally it does," Jack agreed. "I wonder about it sometimes, you know. If someday all the bad things we avoided by staying here are going to blindside me because this place has trained us out of being cautious."

[not_a_whiner]

"Beer, please?" Kaidan asked Tiny, then turned his attention back to Jack. "You could go soft in a place like this," he agreed. "But... jumpy, too. It's a different kind of on your guard."

[bitten_notshy]

"Soft and jumpy," Jack mulled. "That's about the worst shape we could be in if things really did go wrong."

He watched Tiny pull the beer, making sure he got a decent Canadian lager for Kaidan.

"Sorry. I'm sure you didn't come in here for me to worry at you."

[not_a_whiner]

"I came here to get a beer and check up on you," Kaidan said, taking the bottle from Tiny with a quick 'thanks'. "I mean... radio sounded pretty crazy."

[bitten_notshy]

"It was all absolutely mad," Jack confirmed. "There was a strip club, half the island was making coffee, and -- was there something about Emma and Specialist Traynor in there?"

The afterthought wasn't an afterthought at all, of course.

[not_a_whiner]

"Did they?" That came out... a little too quickly. Look, shut it, he was a romantic, not a dead man. "Huh."

[justlurkinghere]

Derek slunk into the bar like a dog with it's tail between it's legs. Because he didn't want to be here, but got the feeling that he needed to cling to pack today. For some odd reason.

[bitten_notshy]

"Are you okay?" Jack asked carefully.

It was the obvious question.

[justlurkinghere]

"Are you?" Deflect like the wind, Derek!

[bitten_notshy]

"I asked you first." Jack could deflect too.

[justlurkinghere]

"Nothing that happened was real." So. Yes. Possibly no? It was very confusing.

[bitten_notshy]

"I think it was real but it doesn't count." Semantics were important. "Also, no offense, but I've now gazed into your eyes more than I ever needed to."

[justlurkinghere]

"I was apparently in love with everyone I met." So. There was that.

[bitten_notshy]

"I only had eyes for you," Jack said lightly. "And firefighting. I was very interested in firefighting."

[justlurkinghere]

"I was a stripper." Were they playing 'who had the worst weekend'?

[bitten_notshy]

"Was it to fight depression?"

Look, that's how Jaina had explained it.

[justlurkinghere]

"To put myself through college," Derek replied dryly.

[bitten_notshy]

"I knew it had to be for a good cause," Jack said. "So ... at least it's over."