Caritas; Wednesday [02/26].

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer was definitely not a whisky drinker; she was barely a beer drinker, and her preferences definitely ran closer to the 'throw so much sweet and fruity stuff into it that it barely tastes like alcohol anymore' of beverages, but she couldn't help looking over some of the lists from last night with a faint sense of amusement, marking a few that she might be interested to try and definitely marking a few places she might be interested to go visit one of these days. Get the old ship running again, she missed a planet-skipping dimension-hop, and she didn't want the thing to just sit in parking, gathering rust.

Perhaps for another time. At the moment, she had a bar to tend, and a few zombies who seemed to have misplaced an arm and a legs or two sometimes between last night and tonight.

Summer was not going to ask.

Wednesday Jello Shot Special!
Strawberry w/Pop Rocks!

Caritas is open!

[[ although after work, I go into pre-con crunch mode straight into actual con-mode, and so I am serving this up with a big fat mega-SP warning until probably around Monday afternoon ]]

Comments

[1000yearstoolate]

"I was expecting jello shot tasting," Seivarden said as she leaned against the bar.

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer could only meet that comment with a broad grin. "Awwww," she said, "you're not disappointed, are you? I thought you didn't even like jello shots, Seivarden."

[1000yearstoolate]

"Of course I don't," Seivarden said with a grin. "But I would try them to make you happy."

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Ohhh," Summer mewled a little, her expression one of utmost flattered gratitude as her hands went to her heart, "thanks! That's super gross!

"But," she added, grinning more genuinely now, "I did make these ones especially with you in mind."

Because she felt Seivarden actually had been enjoying the jello shots a bit too much lately, and figured the pop-rock crackle that would go down with these ones was a good way to really up the ante on things for her to complain about.

She dutifully set one down in front of her. "And a whiskey to wash it down?" she offered, already reaching for the bottle.

[1000yearstoolate]

"Of course," Seivarden said, looking down into into the shot glass. "What's in it?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer set down the whiskey, looked at Seivarden for a moment, and then pointedly looked back at the specials board.

"Strawberry," she said, moving her hand under the word as she read it it, "with pop rocks.

"Well," she amended, "with champagne and Kinky Red Liqueur."

Because you couldn't make a jello with a name like that and not mention it every chance you got.

[1000yearstoolate]

"And what's Kinky Red Liqueur? And pop rocks?"

Those were important questions, Summer.

[somethingwithturquoise]

They were fair questions, at most.

"Kinky Red Liqueur is a fruit-infused vodka," Summer offered, easily enough, while internally debating the concept of transparency, "and pop rocks are a special type of candy."

She considered Seivarden speculatively.

"I feel like telling you how they're special sort of ruins the fun."

The fun for Summer? Or for Seivarden?

Up to debate, really!

[1000yearstoolate]

"Really?" Seivarden said, looking doubtful.

That didn't stop her from drowning the shot, followed by the whisky.

[somethingwithturquoise]

"You have got," Summer complained, shaking her head, which worked well to mask her eagerness for when the pop rocks actually kicked in (and hoping the swig of whisky didn't just kill it, she didn't know how that would work out), "absolutely no style. You've got to savor it, Seivarden! Let it really linger. Geez."

[1000yearstoolate]

That was when the pop rocks kicked in. It was probably noticeable from Seivarden's expression.

"Aatr's tits! What the fuck did you put in them?!"

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Aaaand that would be the pop rocks," said Summer, doing a poor job of hiding her self-satisfaction at that reaction. "Now you can see why I didn't want to ruin the surprise.

"Don't worry," she added, because Seivarden seemed the type to overreact. "It's harmless, and it'll go away, probably just as you start to enjoy it a little."

[1000yearstoolate]

"I'm not having another one," Seivarden said. "Well, I am having another whisky. That was terrible."

Maybe not terrible, but Seivarden wasn't going to admit that.

[thatwaslucky]

It was habit now. Rey always had to look at the specials board when she came in.

"What's Pop Rocks?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer already pretty much had what she was going to consider an apology Dr. Pepper on the ready by the time Rey made it in, and then she was setting one of the little pink shots next to it, since she'd asked, and, really, it was best experienced than just explained.

"It's a type of candy," she offered. "That does this sort of...fizzling crackling thing in your mouth when you eat it? Hard to describe, really, so you should probably just try it, you know?"

Her smile was a little apologetic, too, because sometimes, she just couldn't really turn the whole salesmanship off when she was in work mode.

"How's it going, Rey?"

[thatwaslucky]

"All right," Rey shrugged, frowning a little at the shot. "How are you? How was Saturday?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Just the one," Summer suggested, "only to try it. And Saturday's just kind of a hazy blur of hamburgers, cat snuggles, and not leaving my bed unless absolutely necessary. What about yours? Did you actually end up doing your training?"

[thatwaslucky]

"I did. And I regretted it," Rey admitted. "It's good motivation to not get in the habit of drinking that much."

That was cute.

"Is there a spoon? I never do these right."

[somethingwithturquoise]

"I can definitely get you a spoon," said Summer, with a faint smile, "but the trick to it is running your tongue along the outside of the shot," her finger did a little twirl in the air as if to demonstrate, "to loosen it from the cup.

[thatwaslucky]

"I can do it, it just feels like a weird way to eat something," Rey pointed out.

At least in public.

[somethingwithturquoise]

"It's not that weird if that's the way it's supposed to be done," Summer reasoned. "I mean, drinking blue milk and eating ice cream with flies in it is weird here, but it's not other places. It's all about context. And the more you do it, the less weird it feels."

It should be noted, though, that, as she was saying this, Summer was, in fact, handing Rey a spoon.

[thatwaslucky]

"I'm still new to this," Rey said, taking the spoon.

And a moment after trying it and feeling the popping, she asked, "....Thjs is supposed to happen?"

It felt like an accident?

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Being new to something's a pretty weak excuse, B-T-Dubs," said Summer, but not at all unkindly. "It's got term limits; it'll only work for so long.

"But yes," she confirmed, her grin growing wider and sounding all too excited. "That is supposed to happen. Weird, isn't it?"

[thatwaslucky]

"It feels like my teeth are being bombed."

Yes, weird.

[somethingwithturquoise]

"That's actually a really good description of it," Summer realized with a bit of a laugh. "I feel it more in my jaw, usually, though."

Her jaw, which shifted a little just thinking about it, before she settled into just being pleased by the reaction.

[thatwaslucky]

Here was the thing about having a spoon for this: she was now poking at a Pop Rock in the cup with said spoon to see if it did anything.

"I don't know how I feel about this."

[somethingwithturquoise]

"You could always try another one," Summer suggested, because she was really just awful lately. "You know, to give you more data to help you figure it out."

[thatwaslucky]

"Absolutely not," Rey said firmly. "The rest of it was good, I think? My ears still feel it."

[somethingwithturquoise]

"It'll fade away soon, I promise," said Summer, setting down a glass of water in front of Rey. "Here. This might help it out, too. Sorry to kind of spring that on you. I just really needed to throw Seivarden through a good loop right before the school trip. But you can probably see what I meant when I said it's better to just experience it."

[thatwaslucky]

"It's okay, I'm glad I tried it, but I never want to do that again," Rey said, taking the water and sipping it. "What kind of loop?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Despite her complaints," said Summer, "it's pretty clear she's actually starting to enjoy the jello shots. Like, I don't even have to goad her anymore, which literally takes, like, all the fun out of it for me. And so...bam." Summer crossed her arms in front of her in a pwning gesture. "Pop rocks jello shots."

Yes, this is how she spent her time. Don't judge her.

...actually, no, please, please judge her. She could probably use some judgement. This is what happened when she didn't have certain former bus drivers around to judge her and/or take the brunt of this kind of energy from her.

[thatwaslucky]

"So you're... trying to discourage her from wanting your specials?"

She judged.

[somethingwithturquoise]

Good.

"Yes," Summer said. And then opened her mouth to refute that, closed her mouth, thought about it, then tried again. "Actually, no, it's more like I'm...Mmmmm." How exactly did she put this? "Encouraging her to be a bit more immediately cautious about the specials."

So that Summer could feel a sense of accomplishment with her increasingly complex and clever methods of convincing her to actually have some.

Which was...totally a normal thing.

[thatwaslucky]

"So she... might not want to order the specials?"

Explain!

[somethingwithturquoise]

But how does one really explain one's deeply mired need to find validation even in the stupidest of endeavors?

Summer sighed a little. "Okay," she said, "so it's like this. Someone comes into the bar, looks at the board, and is all, 'okay, sure, I'll have the special!' That's that, that's it, yawn, am I right? But someone comes in, looks at the specials board and is all, 'Hmmm, gee, now, I don't know about that!', then that's interesting. That's a chance to show them that they really should try it and it opens them up to new experiences and everyone's happy in the end, right? It just makes my night a little more entertaining when I kind of have to fight for it a little."

[thatwaslucky]

"But for one specific person," Rey noted.

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Because that one specific person basically has the personality of a wet mop," said Summer dryly, "and it's one of the few thing so far that's made her even remotely interesting so far."

Harsh. But true!

[thatwaslucky]

"So I was collateral damage?" Rey asked.