Luke's, Thursday

[betterthanaplan]

The true joy of living in the future was that you could impulsively throw your phone into the sea and still recover all the data from "the cloud" on the spare you kept hidden on your boat ten minutes later. Which meant went Duke came into the diner Thursday morning with a cooler full of crab, he also had with him a cardboard box full of decorations to put up, including several random photos of the island he'd taken with his phone over the last ten months. His staff watched him unpack the box with raised eyebrows -- no one had bothered to redecorate the diner since Vincent had been here. Someone put on a playlist of songs Duke remembered from high school, and he rolled his eyes but didn't make them change it.

It was mostly kitschy stuff like tickle sticks and decorated paddles and old life preservers. The photos included shots of the furry fish from the river in the preserve, the porgs hanging out on the rocky bits, and his pirate crew from his first class. A picture of femme-presenting Duke, hair braided, holding a toy shark -- from well before he and Octavia were even a thing, much less them adopting sharks as one of their symbols. Blown up large and glossy was an 8x10 of Williams sprawled on a scooter from the shenanigans yesterday, looking pissy while Tahani awkwardly pushed him around in her stilettos.

Duke was pretty proud of that one. It was terribly artistic! He hummed along as the next song started, not really paying much attention as he decided where to hang his old cavalry saber.

I've been looking so long at these pictures of you
That I almost believe that they're real

He kept his expression carefully blank as he pulled out the prom photo Octavia had left in his office before she disappeared. He hung it up next to his office, under a beaten and blunt-looking old machete. He stepped back and looked at it for a long moment, debating whether or not he wanted to take it down. Whether the ache in his chest was the good or bad kind.

And screamed at the make-believe
Screamed at the sky
And you finally found all your courage
To let it all go

Duke choked faintly as he registered the lyrics he was listening to. "Change the song!"

"But it's the Cure!" Greg protested.

"CHANGE IT."

The song switched to some innocuous pop ditty, and Duke's shoulders drooped. He took a few deep breaths to recenter himself, then turned back to his box and pulled out the tip of an antique harpoon.

Let's not look too closely at how so many of his "kitschy decorative objects" could easily double as weapons.

Today's specials
CATCH OF THE DAY!
Maryland blue crab boil with beer and old bay

Luke's was open and OCD free.

Comments

[suitably_heroic]

Was Atton avoiding the actual apartment until the very last minute?

Yeah, yeah he was.

Also, he was hungry. "And here I thought, 'let's try some seafood with alcohol at the diner'," he drawled as he wandered in. "'That can't possibly be depressing'. Feels like somebody died in here."

[betterthanaplan]

"Didn't think my decorating skills were that bad." Duke's decorating skills were on point. Just, you know, also depressing if you looked too close. "Seafood with alcohol is absolutely on offer. You a crab fan?"

[suitably_heroic]

"Right now I could eat just about anything that isn't entrails," Atton said. He gave a vague wave. "It's not the decorating skills, it's my karking Jedi emotion sponge poodoo, ignore it."

[betterthanaplan]

"Jedi. You're a Force user." And feeling all those emotions Duke was doing his best to suppress. Oh goody. "I'm happy to ignore it. Helps if you don't bring it up."

[suitably_heroic]

"Yeah, frankly I'm not a big fan of the whole 'looking in on people' thing," Atton sighed, "But some things come with the territory." Beat. "Food. And please tell me you also just serve alcohol."

He'd never been much of a real drinker, but right now, every visit to Fandom seemed to warrant it.

[betterthanaplan]

"I have beer," Duke agreed. "And if you don't tell the troopers, I have harder stuff, too."

Liquor licenses were expensive, okay?

[suitably_heroic]

"Please," Atton said, rolling his eyes. "The day I tell Ralph and his tin-headed sleemos anything is the day after someone removes my grey matter with an ice cream scoop."

That was a drink order, right?

[betterthanaplan]

"Evocative," Duke said dryly. "So . . . you a scotch kind of guy, then?"

[suitably_heroic]

"I'm a juma juice kind of guy," Atton said, picking a table pretty much at random. "But since that's more of a my-universe thing, I'm going to go with 'sure'."

[betterthanaplan]

"That's good, because I have no idea what 'juma juice' is." Duke set a glass of water down for him. "So crab special and a scotch. Anything else?"

[suitably_heroic]

"Think happy thoughts harder?" Atton said. "I'm kinda working on my own soon-to-be drunken sulk here."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke rolled his eyes. "I'll see what I can do."

He was possibly going to be deliberately gloomy for a little while just out of pure shitheadedness.

[suitably_heroic]

Atton did have a singular talent for inspiring shitheadedness in others.

"Thanks," he said. Dryly. Then again, his regular speaking voice was always dry, so who could tell the difference? "Nice pictures."

[magnusrushesin]

Wanna know who couldn't feel your emotions other than as a bro who wanted to be a bro to his bro? This bro right here. This one.

"Hey, these are new," Magnus said, looking around.

[betterthanaplan]

"They are," Duke agreed, looking around at the photos and kitsch with a certain amount of satisfaction. "Felt like time to make this place my own, you know?"

[magnusrushesin]

"I think it needs one of those talking fish," Magnus decided after some serious thought on the matter.

[betterthanaplan]

"One of the whats?"

Duke was not unfamiliar with the talking fish, he was just, you know, in Fandom so could be maybe forgiven for thinking Magnus meant literal, living talking fish.

[magnusrushesin]

"You know, those talking fish. I'm Billy the big mouth bass!" he did a very good hillbilly accent for that last part.

[betterthanaplan]

"Oh!" Duke nodded. "Absolutely not."

And he wasn't even here for the giant fish trauma.

[magnusrushesin]

BUT MAYBE HE DID.

"Did you also get eaten by a giant fish after killing an NPC just to mess with your brother?"

[betterthanaplan]

". . . No, I can't say I have," Duke said. "I just have a general objection to rubber animatronic fish in general."

[magnusrushesin]

"Okay, that's fair. But if I find one that has magic stat increases, you want it?" In his life, it was entirely possible to exist.

[betterthanaplan]

"Well, I have no idea what 'magic stat increases' means, so I'm going to go with 'no'."

Duke did not his personal variety of magic to increase, thank you.

[magnusrushesin]

Oh riiiight. Murder powers didn't need extra juice.

"You'll never be able to compete with Cracker Barrel with that attitude."

[betterthanaplan]

"Why on earth would I want to compete with Cracker Barrel?"