Caritas, Monday evening

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Monday Night and somehow the TV in the backroom was playing curling. And table tennis.

Kenzi was just going to catalog what the most exotic liquors in the cabinet were, thank you kindly.


[open, flying OCD-Free, mod Tino if you don't want Kenzi, but she and I are here.]

Comments

[notapredator.livejournal.com]

"You actually have this job, right?" Mira asked as she took a seat at the bar. "It's not something you're being forced to do?"

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Kenzi snickered, climbing down from the shelves with a bottle of absinthe in one hand and something that shimmered gold in the other. "Yup. I can leave any time. Force Tino to be the only one to deal with customers. Of course, that way I don't get paid, but it's good to have the option. Especially on days when the zombies are extra-smelly." She set the bottles down and grinned. "What can I get ya?"

[notapredator.livejournal.com]

"I actually have no idea what kind of drinks you have around here," Mira said. "So I'm basically just going to throw words out and make you figure out a drink to match them, which is the best way to have fun with a bartender. How about something tough, but feminine?"

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Kenzi cackled, amused, and got out a bottle of chilled Stoli. "Something a bounty hunter who knows how to streak her hair would drink?" She got out a glass and some chartreuse. "One Emerald Vodka Martini (http://www.drinksmixer.com/drink3354.html) coming up. Tell me if I need to add in more of the booze." She dropped the lemon peel into the glass and asked, "So how's non-compulsory life going? And what bouncy castle did you end up in?"

[notapredator.livejournal.com]

"Funkytown Zoo," Mira said before taking a drink. "And it's going about as well as it can when I'm sleeping in a bouncy castle that says I'm a funky animal. Hence the drink. Where'd you end up?"

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Kenzi took a pull on her Diet Coke and grinned. "'Down on the Farm.' Which just opens itself to soooooo many raunchy jokes, I swear. I know they know we're teenagers, so they must not care what we're gonna say about it. It's especially hilarious to share a bouncy castle with a rich dude and a prince."

[notapredator.livejournal.com]

"They don't happen to need anyone tracked down as far as you know, do they?" Mira asked immediately. "Sorry, that's a reflex when I hear someone's rich."

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"Pretty sure Ulrik doesn't, he's from another century, but Lex might. He's all corporate. Don't those types live off industrial espionage and shit?" Kenzi wondered. "Got a business card, or should I just drop their name to them?" Hey, she understood having to hustle for the money.

[notapredator.livejournal.com]

"I've never been one for traditional advertising," Mira said. "So no cards. I figure, if somebody really needs my services, they'll find out about me through reputation. Even if the way they find out about my reputation is that I keep telling people about it until I get something to do."

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"How'd you get into that, anyway?" Kenzi asked, pulling a blue bottle off the shelf, then an orange, examining the labels. One of them said something about lava. "Family thing, or just beat school?"

[notapredator.livejournal.com]

"Well, my family died in a big war a few years ago, and I got thrown on a grease stain of a planet called Nar Shaddaa with a bunch of other refugees," Mira said. "And if you actually want to makes some money on Nar Shaddaa, you have to either become a career criminal or a bounty hunter, and I'm too gentle a soul for the former."

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"Sucks," Kenzi sympathized on the first part. "Personally, I aspire to really high-class, accomplished career criminal who does not indulge in excess violence. But this world actually has openings for that. I'm guessing Nar Shaddaa didn't." She looked thoughtfully at the blue bottle. "Invent a new drink, see if it melts through glass?"

[notapredator.livejournal.com]

"Go for it. Let's see what happens," Mira encouraged. "And I guess you could make your way to the top without being a common thug there, but it's a lot tougher. For one thing, once you start making a name for yourself, lots of people are going to try to kill you to make a name for themselves. So you'll probably need a gang, and they're not going to be as idealistic as you. There are other worlds in my galaxy that would suit you better."

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"How many worlds have you been to?" Kenzi asked with some envy, pouring the blue into a highball glass, and watching it smoke a little, then rummaging for the absinthe, putting it back, and grabbing some Blue Curacao. "And yeah, my relatives are all working in different areas of financial reallocation. Personally, some of them are not bright enough to join my gang. Dima thinks his dad is Don Corleone. And that's a fictional character."

[notapredator.livejournal.com]

"Including Earth? Maybe a dozen," Mira said. "My people are nomadic, especially while the war was going on, so I bounced around from planet to planet until I ended up on Nar Shaddaa.

"How successful is your family at their jobs? And as I ask that, I promise I'm not gathering intel."

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"Mmmm, we do okay. We split from a county on the other side of the planet when I was five, started over north of here," Kenzi explained. She poured vodka into the concoction, and it began to bubble and fizz rather ominously. "Everybody's got a niche now. The aunts do the fortune-telling, love-potion, fake magic gig. Sima and Dima grab cars, but they've both done some time, the dumbasses. The uncles gamble. So, you know, not what you'd call highly successful, but better than it was in the old country, I tell you. And they're good with helping me out when I need it."

"What was the war about? Is it over now?"

[notapredator.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, we lost bad. But now the guy who led the Republic against us spent some time off who knows where doing who knows what, came back, and is trying to take over the galaxy for himself," Mira said. "So I'm not exactly complaining about being nowhere near there right now, you know?"

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"I hear ya. Jeez. Dictator types really are universal, aren't they?" The drink (http://lh3.ggpht.com/i_RNQmydKv1Tbhiph4iW27a6p5MlwXIjKMmwqGDjuUteqMWNR9gbSDDdciV8rAzAH1IxXLjIM0RPJoFJY-Sg=s730-c) was now just bubbling. Burble. POP. "How'd you get pulled to Fandom? And do you wanna taste this, or should I feed it to the zombies?"

[notapredator.livejournal.com]

"I'll give it a shot now that it's settled down," Mira said. "Been nice knowing you."

Mira raised the glass, took a swig, and didn't even choke as she put the glass down. "Well. That definitely cleared my sinuses." After taking a moment to clear her throat, she answered the other question. "I made a few enemies, but one of my better clients thought I was too valuable to, you know, let die. So he's basically paying for me to lay low for a while as an investment for the future."

And then she took a second drink from the glass. It actually wasn't too bad.

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Kenzi watched avidly, then grinned as Mira survived. Yay! Success!

"Suggestions for a name?... and oh, cool. That's better than the juvie-or-here deal I got." Kenzi looked slightly embarrassed. As well she should. "Everyone can have an off day, you know? Do you have to work for your mentor-guy when you get out of here?"

[notapredator.livejournal.com]

"Not a mentor. Just a client," Mira said. "And if he has jobs for me, sure. But I'm not really tied to any specific syndicates or crime bosses. I'm still a free agent."

"And I've never been great with names. But the name really needs to get across the fact that it feels like it might kill you, even though it probably won't."

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"Best thing. Syndicates just get messy, jeez." Kenzi contemplated the blue fizzy thing and said, "Turquoise Bite? Chemical Buzz? I don't even know what that third booze in it is, after the vodka and curacao. Sudden Meteor Strike?"

[notapredator.livejournal.com]

"Wait, so you're not even sure what's in this?" Mira checked before taking another sip. This really kind of reminded her of home on Nar Shaddaa. "If I need help getting to my zoo once I finish this glass, you're stuck volunteering."

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Kenzi showed off the blue square-cut bottle. "I don't read whatever language this is. It could be alien yak spit for all I know." Or worse! "... okay, my mind went to the place where it turned you into a llama or something for a minute. But sure, that's why I have all the rickshaw guys on speed-dial."

[notapredator.livejournal.com]

"Actually, alien yak spit would still be better than some of the drinks on Nar Shaddaa," Mira noted. "But as long as I stay shaped like this, I should be fine."