Devil's Nest: Wednesday Evening

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack rocked on in Devil's Nest. She promptly tripped. "What the.." There were beads everywhere. The floor was littered with cheap plastic bead necklaces in purple, gold and green. Some had little tokens on them. She looked around. They were on literally every surface of the place except Eric's chair.

Tiny was wearing about a dozen. Jack gave him some judicious side-eye and he held up surrender hands, "Look, they were getting in the way of the register." Uh huh, sure. With a minor scowl, Jack went and got a push broom and began shoving the beads into a pile for easier cleanup. She snatched them off the bar stools, walls, light fixtures, then made Tiny give her a lift up so she could get them off the damn liquor bottles as well. "Did Mardi Gras just vomit in here or what?" she asked. Tiny gave her a look and muttered, "Boss is from Louisiana. It's a theme night." Jack scowled but nodded. Ok, that made sense. "There better be some king cake somewhere or I'm havin' words," she declared. Tiny chuckled and pointed to an area behind the bar where, yup, there was most of an uneaten king cake.

She made Tiny scoop the beads into a giant plastic garbage bag while she held it open. She wrote on it with metallic silver paint pen.

FREE BEADS! GET YOURSELF READY FOR NEXT YEAR!
TAKE THEM ON YOUR WAY OUT

The first few patrons began trickling in. Some of them had dark schmutzes on their head in the shape of a cross - when it wasn't just a totally smeared schmutz. Jack sidled up to Tiny. "..dafuq?" "Ash Wednesday, they're Catholic," Tiny muttered back, "We are going to run low on crappy beer, just you watch."

Sure enough, he appeared to be correct. Jack was running crappy beer into the under-counter cooler most of the night. Good thing there was cake.

[Devil's Nest is Open! No OCD.]

[OOC: ah, the fine Minnesotan tradition of going to church on Ash Wednesday and then going to the bar and being virtuous by drinking weak beer instead of spirits.]

Comments

[1000yearstoolate]

Seivarden was in a shitty mood. After her conversation with Fjord earlier she doubted that even the nice view would be worth trying to hold a conversation with him, and if it wasn't for owing Amaya drinks she might skip Caritas on Fridays.

When in a shitty mood she forgot things, like who worked in the other bar on Wednesdays.

"What the fuck!?"

Seivarden clung to the door to keep herself from tripping on the beads.

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack watched from a perch behind the bar and blithely said, "Oops. Must've missed those. Unless they just appeared and that wouldn't shock me one fuckin' bit if they did. How are you, Seivarden? Need a drink? You look like you need a drink."

[1000yearstoolate]

"Oh, fuck."

That was Seivarden's reaction when she looked up and saw Jack.

[biotic_psychotic]

"What's wrong, Seivarden? Bad night?" Jack asked pleasantly.

[1000yearstoolate]

"I'm great!" Seivarden said, trying to pull herself together.

Fjord might have moved to the list of people too annoying to talk to, but he had adviced her not to be prey to Jack.

So she put on her best slightly condescending smile and said:

"But I really need a drink."

[biotic_psychotic]

"Glad to hear it," Jack smiled, "We can hook you up with a drink. Got something in mind? You usually stick to draft at Caritas, that on your menu tonight or do you want somethin' different since you're here?"

[firstofitskind]

Liam wasn't much of a drinker, especially since the tremens last year, but tonight... it seemed like a good idea.

He was dressed in black jeans, a turtleneck, and... yes, gloves, though not the fingerless kind he usually sported when he wore gloves. These covered his entire hand. Top it all off with a long black leather jacket and it was very much a look that said 'don't fucking touch me'.

Apparently it was the night for people in shitty moods at the Devil's Nest.

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack looked up and arched an eyebrow at Liam. "You goin' through a goth phase or do you plan to burgle the shit outta something?"

She squinted at his face for a second and then asked more seriously, "You ok?"

[firstofitskind]

"Neither," Liam said, with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. The dark colors were his usual aesthetic, but the 'cover nearly every inch of skin' wasn't, so much.

"I just need a drink." A beat. "Several drinks." Whatever it would take to stop Robert's memories from swimming to the surface, the way they'd been doing the past couple days.

Definitely not okay.

[biotic_psychotic]

"We can fix that problem for you," Jack assured him, "Grab a seat. You want beer, straight liquor, mixed drinks..?"

Definitely not ok.

A beat later and she offered, "You want me to call Kaidan so he can sobercab you later?" Or, you know, be a friend who had things like compassion and empathy?

[firstofitskind]

"Umbena, if you've got it." The island was a dimensional nexus, maybe they'd have Taelon booze? "Blue, kind of glows a bit. Bottle'll have script that doesn't look like anything from Earth."

He shrugged, and then in answer to her second question: "If you want."

It was probably a good idea, yeah.

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack went for a rummage. Nothing on the rack so she sauntered back into the storage room. After some digging through the rack of forgotten or unwanted boozes, she found something might be it.

A very dusty bottle, faintly glowing blue, was brought forth and held up for inspection. "This it? It's a language I can't read, anyway." For all she knew, she was holding nuclear runoff.

She was gonna text Kaidan the second her hands were free.

[okteiviakom]

"You look like crap."

Well, technically speaking, he didn't (especially from one all-black-wearer to another). But it was the air that he had about him. And Octavia was bad at not being blunt about that kind of thing.

But it didn't sound like an insult. More of a question disguised as a statement.

[firstofitskind]

"Thanks," Liam said drily.

He felt like crap, so yeah. Her instinct was absolutely correct.

[okteiviakom]

"Any particular reason?"

It would've been weird not to ask, even by Octavia's standards.

"Don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

[firstofitskind]

"A few reasons." That was nice and vague, Liam. "I fucked up." ... Still not terribly specific, there.

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan got Jack's text and frowned a little. If this was going to become a habit, they were going to have a talk. He definitely wasn't slapping Liam with medigel unless the only other option was his imminent demise.

But he could go to Devil's Nest, sure. He had no other plans that evening anyway.

He walked in and over to Liam, plunking down on the bar stool next to him. "Hey Liam. Shitty night?"

[firstofitskind]

"Shitty..." Liam frowned. How long had it been, since Dominic had first told them about the Covenant's arrival in Baltimore? "Shitty couple of weeks," he managed, after a moment.

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan frowned a little. "I thought the island didn't do crazy over the breaks? What gives? Verity ok?"

[firstofitskind]

"Not the island," Liam shook his head. "Covenant showed up on the mainland, in her version of Baltimore. Preparing for a purge."

[okteiviakom]

Unlike most of tonight's patrons, apparently, Octavia wasn't in a shitty mood. She just had a face that made her look sullen more often than not. Mostly, she was here just because she was bored, and maybe she'd thought to see whether Eric was in and whether she could annoy him into giving in about the ID thing.

But mostly, just bored.

Maybe a little confused, too, though that was hardly new either. "What's with the beads?"

[biotic_psychotic]

"Octavia!" Jack greeted, "How you been? Haven't seen you around in awhile. The beads.. there was a celebration down south yesterday and the bar did a theme party for it, I guess. These are the remainders. Take 'em, if you want some."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia raised her eyebrows. "And what would I do with them?"

Sorry. She was very practically-minded.

[biotic_psychotic]

"I dunno," Jack answered honestly, "Decorate something? Choke someone out in a pinch?"

[okteiviakom]

"Stabbing's so much quicker," Octavia replied dryly. Still, she was reaching for some of the beads all the same. "Never been much for decorating."

Never had much to decorate.