Caritas, Sunday

[suitably_heroic]

Well, it looked like it was one of those weekends.

Atton walked past the zombies and tossed his jacket onto the counter. "Right," he said. "Someone get me the specials board."

WELCOME TO CARITAS
FIRST ALCOHOLIC DRINK FREE
IF YOU REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE
IF YOU DON'T
TRY THE LEMONADE

"Guess this is not going to be a cocktail night."

[[ open ]]

Comments

[biotic_psychotic]

Was she absolutely heading to the bar the second she'd tagged out of whatever she'd been tagged into? Hell. Yes.

"Make my night. Tell me Tino forgot who he is and he's not here."

Hi Atton.

[suitably_heroic]

"That's got to be the easiest night I've ever made," Atton said lightly, walking down to the counter. "What'll it be, Jack?"

[biotic_psychotic]

"Feels like a Sun Also Rises kind of goddamn day, if you've got the shit and feel like mixing it," Jack suggested, "Otherwise.. surprise me with something both sweet and burny? How was your trip?"

[suitably_heroic]

"Never took you for a prosecco kind of girl, but I can make that work," Atton drawled, turning around to go through the bar's collection of liquor. "And it was fine. I only lost a weekend to kolto this go-around."

[biotic_psychotic]

"What kind of girl did you take me for, Atton?" Jack grinned at him, "Cuz I kinda wanna hear what you think my cocktail should be."

She frowned at the unfamiliar word. "The fuck's kolto?"

She was about to be unhappy.

[suitably_heroic]

"Something with whiskey in it? Or just straight-up scotch," Atton said. "... Your drink, I mean. Kolto's just healing fluid."

[biotic_psychotic]

"Hey, why mess with the classics," she said absently because she was more focused on that whole next thing. "You spent a weekend in it? What'd they hit you with?"

Jack wasn't going to ask if he was ok. If he was here, Atton thought he was ok. A weekend just sounded like a long time for that. Medigel took minutes.

[suitably_heroic]

"Just a small case of abdominal... shrapnel... thing," Atton said, hoping she'd get distracted by the bottle of prosecco he was slapping down on the bar.

[biotic_psychotic]

Abdominal wounds were the worst but he was upright and moving and not turning fun shades of grey and puking or doubling over in pain so she assumed kolto knew its shit.

"Scars are hot," was all she said about it. "Do you want to thrill me with tales of your dashing heroism or is this the kind of shit not worth the story?"

She actually meant that dashing heroism part. You didn't catch shrapnel from hiding.

[suitably_heroic]

Joke was on her: Atton was extremely uncomfortable telling actual tales of dashing heroism. Bragging about how heroically handsome he was, yes. Admit to actual deeds of heroism, not so much.

"Eh, you know how it goes," he said. "One week it's getting kicked in the head, another week it's people throwing explosives at you."

He snagged a champagne flute and poured in a healthy helping of prosecco.

[biotic_psychotic]

She'd figured he'd come up with outrageous lies. After all it's what she would have done. The actual stories were dark and not at all fun. They never were.

"And then you wreck the shit out of them so they can't do it again," Jack agreed. Paused. "Unless this was another diplomatic thing where you had to play nice. That shit sounds boring as hell. Bet you're glad to be back here."

[notconflicted]

In a way, Sia didn't want to get in the habit of reaching out too much, especially after last time. But she also wanted things to be okay after last time, and she really needed to deal with people who she wasn't stuck with at home.

So she was even calling for once.

[suitably_heroic]

... Was someone calling him? That was new.

Atton grabbed for his phone and answered before he bothered to check who it was. "Atton Rand here, if you want a drink, you're going to have to physically move to the bar."

[notconflicted]

"That's far too much trouble," she said, sounding amused.

[suitably_heroic]

Atton's head shot up. "... Uh, hi, Si."

Crap. Crap crap.

[notconflicted]

"Is this a bad time?" she asked. Which was always possible when he was probably at work.

[suitably_heroic]

"No, it's fine," Atton said, weakly. "I just, uh, didn't expect you to-- I mean, not to assume anything, but..."

Splutter, splutter.

[notconflicted]

Sia rolled her eyes. "We're fine," she told him.

As far as she was concerned, feelings were a problem there was no solution for, and therefore she was just going to ignore that as much as possible to keep her sanity.

[suitably_heroic]

"Okay," Atton said slowly. "But you're calling. You never call."

[notconflicted]

Sia sighed. "The real irony of my life is that you're apparently who I call when I want to talk to someone who isn't trying to pick a fight."

High school Sia would never believe it.

[suitably_heroic]

Yeah. That deserved that very long pause, Si.

"Okay," Atton said finally. "What's going on and what universe did I wake up in?"

[axe2grind]

The kid who walked in, (who was thinking of himself as "Nick" because he picked it out of a list of names) looked like he was having... a strange day. Or two.

"Lemonade," he said with a sigh, stumping up to the bar. He rested his head on the surface and asked, "Do you ever feel like you're in someone else's nightmare? Not even your own?"

[suitably_heroic]

Atton pretended to think about it. "Not really," he said, walking to the fridge. "I've got too many of my own to worry about."

[axe2grind]

"I don't know myself well enough to know what I'd dream about, but I don't think this is it," 'Nick' said in resignation. "Who dreams of waking up with amnesia? And a suit of armor as a body?"

[suitably_heroic]

Atton shrugged. "Someone who's had a really messed up life? With some body image issues?"