Caritas, Friday Evening

[built_fjord_tough]

For reasons Fjord couldn't quite put a finger on, he felt it was actually pretty appropriate that he was utterly waterlogged by the time he set foot in Caritas for his shift, it was raining so hard. He wasn't settled enough on the island yet that he owned little conveniences like umbrellas, but that was fine. The water didn't exactly bother him, after all.

Tino took one look at him and threw him a towel. Not a bar rag, no. A full-sized beach towel.

"... Why do you even have this here?"

Tino just shrugged, and then made a gesture at Fjord meant to indicate his... well. His all of him.

[OOC: Open bar! OCD-free! Fjord needs to be soggy tonight as penance for last night's CR.]

Comments

[special_rabbit]

Well, Amaya did say she'd swing by the bar to give Fjord more work, didn't she? She'd always been a woman of her word, and a little rain wasn't going to stop that, especially since her world did come with umbrellas. Plus, spending all day on a new project meant she'd earned it.

Granted, she spent most days on one project or another, but that wasn't the point.

"Hey, there, Fjord," she greeted with a small wave when she got to the bar, "how's the day treatin' ya?"

[built_fjord_tough]

"Can't complain so far," Fjord replied, nodding over at Amaya from where he was wiping out a glass, beach towel still slung over his shoulders, hair still kind of sitting damp around his face. "Got caught in the rain, I'm making a note to add 'umbrella' to my list of things to buy on my next pay. Yourself?"

[special_rabbit]

"Spent all day in the shop," Amaya said, with the sort of wild grin that would have almost made it seem like she didn't spend most of all her days in the shop. "New project came in earlier this week, started on the steel this morning, and just in the nick of time, too." She shook her head, faintly amazed. "Pleasantly surprised how steady the flow of work's been on this island. Sure beats what I had back in Daventry, which was steady enough, sure, but there's only so many spears and lances you can mend over and over before you go a little mad. And start really wonder what it is all those knights are doing to break them so much and so often."

[built_fjord_tough]

"I'm mostly impressed at the call for swords given that nothing's really happened to warrant a need for them around here since I arrived," Fjord mused. "I hear that'll only be a matter of time, though. I'll believe it when I see it. What can I get for you tonight, Amaya?"

[special_rabbit]

"People around here seem to know the value of having a good weapon on hand at all times," Amaya mused with a nod. "It's one of things I've come to really like about this place. A good variety, too, even if most of my jobs have been swords with the exception of Diaz and all her axes."

So....so many axes.

"And I'm not sure," she admitted to his question, "but I know I'm not picky. So long as its something bold and robust and goes in one of those big sturdy mugs."

Which, really, seemed the only way to drink at any tavern.

[built_fjord_tough]

"Bold, robust, big mug," Fjord replied, smiling a little as he went to fetch an ale that he'd found pretty satisfying in his efforts to figure out a good one. "I do believe that can be arranged."

Hell, he could get to appreciate this sort of work, too. Getting to know the tastes of the people around him, talking about the goings-on around the island.

[special_rabbit]

"I should certainly hope so," Amaya noted with a laugh. "Otherwise, I think you might be better off just sticking to the blacksmithing, you wouldn't make nearly as competent a bartender, unless I just stuck with...what was it you said? Rum and coke?"

[built_fjord_tough]

"Rum and coke," Fjord confirmed. "Two people ordered it the other week while I was a snake. Once you make a mixed drink without the benefit of hands, I think that's when it's safe to brag that you're a decent hand at preparing it."

Still smiling, he filled the biggest mug he could find and slid it down the bar toward her.

[special_rabbit]

"Oooh, good slide!" Amaya complimented, and she meant it, especially since she caught it easily, then lifted it up in a toast before taking a swig. "Maybe I'll have to try that one of these days, since you'll probably whip it up even nicer now that you've got thumbs. Unless, of course, the magic came from your lack thereof. Or no hands, for that matter. Or arms..."

"You know," she added after another thoughtful drink, "I think I'll save that for the next time you're ever a snake."

[notallbluemonks]

Go figure, the rain meant that Beau was also soaking wet by the time she got to the bar, trails of water dripping from multiple points on her waterlogged robes. Weirdly, seeing a half-orc behind the bar made her feel slightly less than completely out of place, but that didn’t stop her from glaring at him like this was completely his fault. For some reason.

She squelched her way over to the bar and claimed a seat, smacking both hands on the counter like she needed to prove it was her spot.

“Oh my gods, I need a fuckin’ drink.”

[built_fjord_tough]

Fjord gave the newcomer a faintly bemused once-over, and then, wordlessly, pulled the towel from his shoulders and held it out to her.

Penance for all the wet that was somehow all his fault. For some reason.

"Well, you're in the right place for that," he drawled a moment later, not about to hold annoyance against anybody with a face that new and a wardrobe that waterlogged. "What'll it be?"

[notallbluemonks]

Totally all your fault, Fjord.

Beau rubbed a hand over her face, and maybe one tequila bender followed by all the jello shots at the party were actually taking their toll.

"Yeah, basically I live here now. Just ale tonight, I guess. Whatever."

[built_fjord_tough]

"Ah," Fjord said in understanding, making a reach for a large mug. Good night for ale. "The island ate you, as well."

He felt your pain, Beau. He really, really did.

"Did you wake up here? Go through a cave and find this place on the other side?"

Wash up mysteriously on the shore?

[notallbluemonks]

Beau chopped one hand through the air. "Nah, dude, I was like, in one place one second and then here the next? I didn't even do anything, it just happened. From what I've heard this is a thing that goes on?"

[built_fjord_tough]

"It's most certainly a thing that goes on," Fjord agreed, and briefly contemplated pouring some ale for himself, as well. It seemed like the done thing, tonight. "I myself ended up here under mysterious circumstances. Went to sleep in the mountains, woke up on the shore."

Staring up at the weird, single-moon sky.

[notallbluemonks]

Maybe a loaf of stale bread to go with it?

Beau took a gulp of her ale, contemplated the mug, and took another gulp before setting it down. "I feel like it's kind of warmer here than I'm used to? That's not a bad thing, but this whole totally different world thing is throwing me off. Like even the sky's all weird, you know?"

[built_fjord_tough]

Pocket bacon.

Pocket bacon made everything better.

"Tell me about it," Fjord sighed. "I spent far too long looking up at the sky when I first arrived here, wondering where the fuck the other moon went."

[notallbluemonks]

Yeah, she was going to have to work on that pocket bacon situation really soon.

"Get the fuck out, you too?" Beau slapped both hands down on the bar as she jumped up from the stool. CALM DOWN, BEAUREGARD, GEEZ. "That's been bugging me for three days!"

[special_rabbit]

Amaya never really considered herself much of the sociable sort, though it had certainly gotten better over the years. But there was just something about the night that definitely made her feel more open to it, more comfortable, more at home. The rain pattering on the roof, the half-orc behind the bar, the tankard of ale, it all felt very much like her younger years in Llewdor, when storms kept the ships at the dock and the pirates in the tavern, and those were always sociable times, even for a shy, awkward kid with her nose stuck between a book and a pair of too-big glasses.

So she nodded to the other patron, glad she was there to give Fjord more work, and lifted her mug as a sort-of toast. "It's definitely a good night for staying inside with a couple two, three pints, no doubt about that," she offered approvingly.

[notallbluemonks]

It did feel weirdly familiar in here somehow, despite the freaky too-nice construction of everything on this island and the electricity that she'd already figured out how to use but just struck her as deeply suspicious somehow.

Beau huffed a laugh that somehow managed to still sound grumpy. "When isn't it? Especially in this rain, though, because fuck the."

[special_rabbit]

"Well," said Amaya with a thoughtful gulp of her drink, "as long as there's no sharks in it, I'll be happy. ...Or cats and dogs, for that matter."

She could this island thinking that was funny.

[notallbluemonks]

Beau nearly choked on her drink. "Sharks? What the hell? It rains sharks around here? People keep telling me this place is fuckin' weird, but come on."

She might have been a little bit cranky about missing out on shark-punching, which would be exactly her kind of terrible idea.

[special_rabbit]

"Now, I wasn't here for that one, myself," Amaya conceded with a faint grin, "but I've heard enough stories and I've seen some insurance reports on the place I used to own, which got a shark straight through the front window, so I think it was just the one time, but..." She shrugged. "'Round here, you can't ever quite tell. You a bit new to the island yourself, then?"

She could never really quite tell if it was someone new or her own lack of social prowess at work around an unfamiliar face.

[notallbluemonks]

Who needed social prowess? Beau, who had turned around and leaned back against the counter on her elbows, certainly didn't have it.

"Two whole days," she confirmed. "It's kind of bizarre? But I think I'm into it. I'm guessing you're not, though."

[special_rabbit]

Amaya shrugged. "I like it well enough," she said. "Bit better than where I was before, too. We didn't have shark-rain or anything like that, but things like that help keep me in pretty good business around here. Amaya Blackstone," she offered out a hand, "local blacksmith. You need anything weapons, construction, or demolition related, I'm your gal. Little invention work on the side, too, if that's more your style, though I'm still catching up a bit with all the technology around here. It's..." She shook her head a little. "A lot to take in."