fandomtownies | Caritas; Wednesday [09/04].

Entry tags:

Caritas; Wednesday [09/04].

Being halfway through the first week of the new semester, Summer wasn't sure what kind of night to expect, but she hoped it was busy, even if that meant it was only busy because it was halfway through the first week of the new semester, and this place was a lot to take. But she was glad she might get the chance to play sympathetic listening bartender at least once before she headed out, which she should probably, like, pick an actual day or make an actual plan for, shouldn't she? But she'd gotten Sabine started on painting the ship, that was practically all there was left to do, so that was progress, right? And around here, who even knew how long a ship make-over would take? You just couldn't plan for some things!

You also couldn't plan for your coworkers tryingt o badger you into adding things to the suggestion box that Summer was pretty sure hadn't even existed until this week. "Why would I bother making, like, any suggestions in the first place, Tino? I might not even be here next week, why would I care? You just want me to add a few so you can use my contributions to legitimize your own, but I am not going to play a part in your passive aggressive attempts to improve your work situation when you could, I don't know, literally just talk to her."

But that, apparently, was too much work when he could just roll his eyes and scribble down Fire the sassy redhead on a piece of paper and slip it into the box like it had any weight or consequences or like she wasn't pretty much leaving anyway. So Summer was just going to roll her eyes right back at him, because if he really wanted to get into an eyerolling competition with a sassy teenage redhead bartender, it was his funeral.

Wednesday Jello Shot Special!
Pumpkin Pie!
If you're new, the first one's free!

Caritas is open!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Seivarden sauntered into Caritas later than usual, and leaned against the bar.

"I'll have a whisky," she said, then squinted at the menu. "Without anything pumpkin."

"'Tis the season, Seivarden!" Summer chirped brightly, with an unrepentant grin, though she went and poured her a decent whiskey without the pumpkin and set it before her on a nice coaster. "Better embrace to it by your own volition than have the island decide to force it on you against your will anyway."

"It's going to force it on me anyway, so why embrace it?"

She downed the drink and nudged the glass towards Summer for a refill.

"Ooof," said Summer, in response to that downed drink, but she wasted no time in filling up another one for her. "Rough day? Or just really thirsty?"

"Just an ordinary day," Seivarden said. "And I just ran out of episodes of my favourite entertainment."

She made a gesture with her hand.

"I'd complain about this place being boring, but then I'll probably wake up to evil spaceships taking over the world or something."

"Yeaaaaah," said Summer. "After this last summer, the words 'boring' and 'bored' are, like, officially banned. But, hey, don't worry. There's definitely no shortage of mindless entertainment out there. What was it about the last one that made it your favorite?"

"A good love story with some great battle scenes," Seivarden said. "Hard to get those here. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't get Radchaai entertainments here."

She sipped the drink this time.

"Okay, then," said Summer, tilting her head a little thoughtfully at Seivarden. "So....what's your idea of what makes a good love story? Are you more the well-earned happy ending? Or the star-crossed lovers that ends in tragedy type?"

"Either works," Seivarden said. "As long as the characters are good. I have to admit I'm less picky these days though, both battles and romantic stories on Earth are fucking terrible."

Another sip.

"What about your preferences?"

She was actually a little curious.

Summer gave Seivarden an odd look there, because she sort of figured romantic stories were pretty much multiversinal. It almost made her wonder what exactly it was that made the Earth ones so fucking terrible, but she was almost afraid of what the answer might be.

She'd been to a lot of weird societies, too, so that said a lot.

"Me? These days, I'm more into the ones where the protagonist realizes that romance is all a crap shoot anyway so she might as well focus on just going and being a bad ass because who even needs any of that, anyway?"

At least that's what she was going to keep telling herself.

Oh, Seivarden could probably rant about it.

"So, not much of a romantic?" She snorted. "I mean, it's fiction. It's sweet. It doesn't have to have anything to do with your life."

Summer snorted right back. "It's fiction and it's sweet, but it's also usually bullshit and unrealistic. I like the media I consume to be more...relatable. Obtainable.

"I'm probably going to regret asking this," she added, "but now I'm just curious and it'll bug me more if I don't ask. What about Earth romantic stories so, quote, unquote, 'fucking terrible'? You know, from such an expert at romance such as yourself."

Seivarden downed what remained of the whisky. "People are supposed to behave differently depending on gender, and then it changes, and then they want to get married, either to have kids or for some kind of romantic reason. And you know, it's kind of boring when they never wear gloves and there's no point in taking them off. You kind of miss an important romantic scene there."

It didn't sound exactly how she felt when put into words, but close enough.

Aww, look at Rey, giving up on that self-imposed isolation to come out and see people on purpose.

Even if she was a little distracted by the special. "How do you put pumpkin pie in jello?"

"Ohmygod, Rey," said Summer, who met her with a barely contained look of excitement before she turned around, grabbed on on a small napkin, and held it out for her to see. "Look at them. The 'pie' is the jello, and they're in a little crust! Pain in the ass to make, but look at how cute they are! They taste pretty amazing, too, though I guess I'm biased because I made them, but, here, you're not new, but I'll give you one on me if you want."

These all came out of her pocket anyway, since she had a problem.

"...Sure? I liked the pumpkin latte thing," Rey said.

She did not understand jello, she didn't know why it wiggled like that, and she'd have a different answer if she knew Jell-O shots were alcoholic

She just figured they were small.

Summer beamed, because, seriously, not nearly enough people took her up on the offer, which was nuts, especially when they were free, so she set it proudly in front of Rey on its neat little napkin and just took a second to have a moment of pride.

"What else can I get for you? Water? How's your week been, Rey?"

"Water's good," Rey said, looking at the shot and realizing she had no idea how to eat this and she didn't want to ask. "The week's been all right. It's been all training and settling in, mostly."

Summer got the water and returned with it, placing the glass on a coaster in front of Rey and she grinned a little. "How's the training going?" she asked. "Where are you going to be living? How many questions can I ask you before they start getting annoying?"

"Well, I have an apartment, actually downstairs from Kanan." It was ridiculous. It was giant, she didn't need much space, and she had no furniture. "And training's going well, I think. I don't really have a metric there."

"Just downstairs from Kanan's good!" Summer noted. "When I come visit and crash on their couch, it'll be easy to come say hi. And that's a good point, about the metric, so, I guess, maybe I could ask....how's it feel? Do you like it?"

"Yeah," Rey said after a pause, like she shouldn't be actually enjoying it or something. "I have no idea what I'm doing most of the time, but when I'm doing it, it feels right."

"It's good, though, isn't it?" asked Summer. "That it feels right? I mean, it'd be a pretty bad sign, I think, if you were trying it and it all felt wrong. Isn't the Force sort of all about, like, instinct? Intuition? That sort of thing, anyway?"

"Some of it? Most of it?" Bless you for having some working knowledge of this stuff, Summer, because Rey was still figuring out how to talk about this. "I kind of feel like it might be more about listening. I don't know if that makes sense."

"No, that does make sense," Summer assured her, nodding encouragingly. "At least, it does based on what I've been reading up on and what I know from, like, you know, Kanan and stuff. I figured, I mean, it's a pretty big deal out there, I'd better bone up on it so I can at least pretend to know what everyone's talking about if it comes up."

Then Summer's expression went thoughtful for a moment. "Hey, it, like, wouldn't be weird or anything if I were to ask to swing by and kind of maybe watch one of your sessions? It might help to sort of, you know, put a visual to it, see it in action. Unless, like, they're actually really super boring and I'll probably just fall asleep or whatever."

"I think it'd be okay," Rey said thoughtfully. "It might be boring to you depending on what Kanan has me doing, though. I doubt meditation looks that exciting. And I tend to ask a lot of questions."

And Kanan hated those, of course.

"Yeah, meditation could be a little difficult to make interesting as a spectator," Summer snorted a little, "unless I decided to just try and break Kanan's concentration the whole time."

Which honestly sounded great, and now she kinda wanted to do it.

"But questions are good! Right now, I'm just trying to soak up as much information as I possibly can. Kind of like cramming for a really big test coming up, only this time, it's the biggest test ever and one wrong answer is, like, you know, horrible death and shit."

Not that she was worried....or anything...psssh. Please.

"I know the feeling," Rey said. "Do you think you're going to have to field a lot of questions about the Jedi out there? Or do you just want a feel for where we come from?"

"God, I hope not," said Summer. "If they're out there grilling rando shop girls questions about Jedi, then the shit's probably already hit the fan. But..." She bit her lip a moment, brow furrowed in thought. "I want to know what to look for, you know? In case there are any more out there. And I want to know enough that they can trust me and I'm not too weird about it. Or...well, they might not be asking me about it, but there will probably be talk. Whispers, maybe. I want to know what to listen for, too, recognize the important flags before they even go up."

"Have you talked to Kanan about that part?" Rey wondered, and shrugged. "He figured me out pretty early in."

"I...haven't," Summer admitted. "I probably should, though, huh? I guess this Coruscant thing was so built-up," and with good reason, although he'd done really well, she was actually super proud of just how few kittens were actually shat that day, "that I haven't really wanted to bother him with too much else. You know how he is. He'll just..." Summer rolled her eyes, "...worry. More."

And she figured she'd got him worried plenty enough already.

"He probably already is," Rey pointed out.

She also didn't know that finding more Force sensitives in his timeline right now might freak him out a little.

Seivarden glanced at the kid she hadn't seen here before.

"Are you sure you want to know?"

"No, but I have to now, or I'll wonder," Rey said, thinking that one through.

"I'm sure Summer will be happy to tell you all the details," Seivarden said, emptying her glass and putting it down for a refill.

"I mean, what's the point of putting a pie in a drink?"

"I'm honestly the last person who would know," Rey admitted. "You won't try it?"

"No," Seivarden said. "I'm sure Summer will be happy if you do though. She tries to get me to try one every week."

She smiled a little. "I'm not going to judge. Have we met, by the way?"

"I don't think so." They hadn't really run in the same circles. "I'm Rey."

"Seivarden Vendaai."

She frowned a little. "You're one of the sword club kids, aren't you? Or the one who makes phone calls?"

"It isn't sword club, but I did used to call," Rey said.

Last week had been the first time she'd even touched a lightsaber here.

Seivarden made a gesture with her hand. "Oh, yes, Kanan insists it isn't. I do the radio broadcasts on Saturdays, that's why I remembered your name."

"Oh, you're the one with the tea," Rey realized.

She had been called worse things, so:

"I suppose that's not completely wrong. I mean, here. Where I'm from that would mean someone with very good tea, although I have to admit the tea on Earth isn't too bad, unless you get it in fucking teabags."

Rey wanted to ask what was wrong with that. She also knew better, because she'd heard radio.

"That's a real problem," she said instead.

Seivarden wasn't sure if she was being ironic or not, but it didn't really matter.

"The staff at the Perk are really rude about it," she continued. "They know by now I only order proper, loose leaf tea. And the tea house would be ok if it wasn't for the crazy owner."

"I didn't even realize there was a tea house."

It was possible she'd heard about it, but it wasn't like she'd ever have reason to go there.

"There is," Seivarden said. "The tea is good, the owner had a breakdown because I didn't like his obscene art."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Caritas; Wednesday [09/04].

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject