Devil's Nest: Wednesday Evening

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack was silent, lost in thought when she headed in to work. Tiny threw her the keys and she caught them just out of habit. Took inventory without much thinking about it and put the slip in the till. Idly noted that they'd been going through some of the better quality booze lately.

Tiny gave her a wary glance when she showed up to lean against the bar and a more pointed one in response to her cranky, "What?" Glowering, Jack shrugged at him, "Nothing's wrong, I'm just thinking." Another. Pointed. Glance. "Fuck off. I'mma go throw axes for awhile."

It gave her something to do and an excuse not to engage with Tiny. It also distracted her enough that she didn't notice the DJ had gone with a 90's boy band theme.

Probably good for them that she didn't notice.

[Devil's Nest is Open!]

[OOC squirrel note: When Sparkle starts talking legal stuff with both Jack and Kaidan, the squirrels have been bribed to ignore. Thank you!]

CW/TW: Child abuse (Sparkle's threads with Jack and Kaidan - the 'r' word is used in Kaidan's thread), violence, some gore talk, and some really terrible culinary abuses.

Comments

[betterthanaplan]

Duke, on the other hand, was full of bluster and cheer after what he considered to be a much more successful piracy class. And absolutely noticed the music when he came in.

"I never want to hear you say: I want it that way. . . ." he sang along idly as he went to see where Jack was. "Never would have pegged you for a Backstreet Boys type, Jack."

He was probably risking an ax to the face, wasn't he.

[biotic_psychotic]

"Huh?" Jack asked eloquently. She paused throwing axes to bring herself back from wherever her thoughts had wandered. "Hi Duke. Nice voice."

Then the music filtered through and she turned such a look on the DJ and demanded, "What the fuck?!"

Tiny, from behind the bar, burst out in a loud laugh at her outrage. The DJ rather hurriedly changed the song for generic 90's club music. It wasn't an improvement. "I swear to god if there wasn't an actual rule saying I couldn't throw axes at you.." she growled in the direction of the DJ booth.

Her attention returned to Duke and she asked, "You know that music?"

[betterthanaplan]

Duke shrugged. "It was kind of unavoidable for awhile." And he may or may not have had occasional youthful crushes on various boy band members. "You alright? You seem . . . slightly less situationally aware than usual."

[biotic_psychotic]

"Yeah, I'm not from this century," Jack groused, "and this is definitely not my style of music. I think Tiny bribed the guy. This is the crap he listens to." Tiny threw her a dark look. Jack stuck her tongue out at him like the mature adult she was. "I'm fine," she told Duke, "Just trying to think of what the fuck to do for someone's birthday. I'm bad at this shit. The two suggestions so far have been candy and pornography and neither one of those is a thing that'd work. Though I saved the idea for the suggester's birthday. Not that he has one, but I'll make one up for him eventually."

Yeah, she was a little off her game. She twitched a shrug. "What do you do for your friend's birthdays?"

[myownface]

"Oh my god, finally someone else who isn't afraid to sing in public," Sparkle cheered, from over in the general direction of one of the axe targets. There was a knife in his hand, though, not an axe, because Sparkle was a rebel like that. "Tell me whyyy!"

[betterthanaplan]

"Ain't nothing but a heartache," Duke answered, then pointed at the knife. "You any decent with that thing, or should I be ducking?"

[myownface]

"I'm told I'm not terrible," Sparkle declared, and then turned and threw the knife at the target by way of demonstration. To his relief (he was still new at the whole throwing part of this deal), it hit the target and stuck, not too far from center. "... And thank god I didn't fuck that up right then."

Knowing his luck, there weren't bad odds, really.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia was having a restless day. The plan at the back of her mind was to take the beers she'd bought from T&C to the beach tonight and hang out there until she felt like returning to town, but... she wasn't there yet.

So maybe add 'adrift' next to 'restless'.

Why she chose here instead of the bar where her lack of ID wasn't a problem was a mystery. (Maybe add 'contradictory', too.) Just a whim, but still, as soon as she was in, something caught her interest: "Is the axe-throwing a regular thing?

[biotic_psychotic]

"Octavia," Jack greeted her, "Haven't seen you in forever. How you been?" She waggled an axe, "Yup. Boss decided the best thing to add to a booze establishment was thrown sharp axes. Wanna give it a try?"

[okteiviakom]

"Well, your boss still doesn't let me drink here," Octavia drawled, a little dryly. "So I think that doesn't even leave me a choice."

Mostly she just really wanted to throw sharp things. She was already good at it!

[biotic_psychotic]

"Yeah, he's kind of a dick that way," Jack acknowledged, "You want a soda or anything while you throw?" She handed over the hatchets.

[betterthanaplan]

Ooo, hey, an unknown person. Duke nodded to her with a small smile. "Hey."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia bro-nodded back at him. It was the best way to describe it, even if it wasn't a term she was, herself, familiar with.

"Hey," she said. Then tilted her head just a tiny fraction. "You new?"

For someone as prone to falling into antisocial slumps as Octavia was, it was sometimes hard to tell. She was pretty sure she wouldn't remembered seeing him before, though.

[myownface]

Sparkle knew all about restless days. That was part of the reason he was here at the bar with his knives, after all. One of which was in his hand and being raised slightly to kind of wave by his head in a pointier-than-usual hello salute.

[okteiviakom]

You know, that weirdly made her feel right at home, somehow?

She nodded at him, in greeting. "Hey, Sparkle."

[spectre_alenko]

Jack had been squirrelly the last few days. That was pretty normal, but she wasn't talking about it, and that wasn't normal. Usually when something bothered her, she made up new and inventive swearwords to describe it.

Kaidan went to the bar to check up on her. The music made him wince and filled him with instant regret. "Jesus, Jack, why?" he called over to her, gesturing at the speakers.

[biotic_psychotic]

"I look like I fucking know?!" she yelled back at him, "I don't hire these assholes! That's on Tiny!"

Tiny looked affronted and glowered back at her.

"The fuck are you doing in a bar?" Jack asked Kaidan, eyes narrowing.

[spectre_alenko]

"Trying to find out what's bugging you," Kaidan shrugged at her, smirking a little, "Besides, I heard about the axe throwing. Thought I'd come check it out."

[betterthanaplan]

And another pretty new face. It was a good night for that.

"Aw come on," he said with a smirk. "It's got rhythm and you can dance to it."

He was pretty clearly not dancing, no.

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan turned to answer and just sort of stopped and blinked for a minute. The eyes weren't the same color, and the voice wasn't the same, but for all that, the guy who'd spoken could have been Kanan's brother. "I think I'd have to see that before I'd believe it," he offered in return, "I'm not much of one for dancing." He blinked again and offered a hand, "Kaidan Alenko. You must be one of the new people."

He'd have noticed another copy of Kanan's face walking around.

[myownface]

"Kaaaaidan!" Incoming: One Sparkle, diving in to limpet on for a hug. "Buy me a drink!"

Also, hello, it's been a while, how are you doing, Sparkle missed you!

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan laughed and caught him, "Hi. And I will, but it's not going to have a horrible name. I can probably make sure it has lots of little umbrellas, though."

[myownface]

Sparkle was maybe two steps through the door and already heading toward the axe throwing range.

Before pausing.

And blinking.

And squinting just a little.

"Ohmygod."

The music. The MUSIC!

[biotic_psychotic]

"Shuuut upppp," Jack groaned, "If you start dancing I swear I am gonna throw shit at you." Probably not the axes, though. She liked Sparkle.

[myownface]

"So that's a no to getting up on the table and letting my jacket sexily slouch off one shoulder, then?"

Sparkle was pouting at you, Jack. That was his favourite thing about these stupid boy band songs.