Caritas; Wednesday [09/23].

[somethingwithturquoise]

When Summer got into the bar for her shift that evening (and still feeling sore from hiking and gun-toting and planning to practically live in the onsen tomorrow), it appeared that whatever situation was going on with the actual alcohol had not been fixed because someone couldn't turn down a good set-up, and she was faced with iced tea and seltzer and now apparently lemonade for the clear liquors, too. Curious as to what that meant for the jello shots she'd brought in (spoiler alert: just regular cider to not mess up the recipe too much for the one, who even knew with the other?), she experimented by having Apu bring over a bottle of something from the store, which was fine when poured outside the door, but as soon as she brought it in...iced tea.

"Yeah," she said, "that's a problem."

Hopefully one that would work itself out before the weekend, because that would be one hell of a weekend for something like that to happen, or before literally every table in the place was flipped.

Meanwhile, Summer figured she could at least try to make the best of the situation with a terrible idea:

VIRGIN NIGHT
Since all our drinks are virgin tonight,
10% off your bill if you are, too!
(Don't worry. We'll probably take your word for it)

Today's Jello Shot Specials
Butterscotch Apple Cider
????? But it's green idk.

Caritas is open!

Comments

[weirderthanthou]

"We're sure the green jello isn't a living thing, right?" Jesse checked as she stepped into the bar.

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Nope!" Summer answered cheerfully. "But I'd still put it at a solid 95% that it isn't, even if I don't know quite what it is anymore."

And, with a smile to match that very cavalier approach to things just deciding to not be what they were supposed to be, she then asked, "Can I get you a nice, generic...iced tea, Jesse? 'Cause that's kind of what we got tonight."

[weirderthanthou]

"Localized event?"

God, now I even sound like I belong at the Bureau.

"... I mean, yes," Jesse amended, smiling. "Please."

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Extremely localized," Summer confirmed, as she grabbed a bottle of what, for all intents and purposes, should be a generic beer but was currently not, "as in to just the bar, and hopefully something that gets worked out of its system by the weekend, although I suppose if it doesn't, that could mean some good booze sales over at the store instead..."

Unless it spread.

Ugh.

[weirderthanthou]

"Could always try curbside pickup," Jesse mused. "Might be fun. I wonder if it extends to the roof?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

"It does seem to make a good case for considering a sort of patio space," Summer offered back, although actual space was sort of the issue there. "And I'm not sure, I didn't think to try, although that would definitely determine whether it's just an inside the walls thing or within a certain perimeter of space."

Which meant she was now pinning down Tino and gesturing with her chin toward the roof, to which he met with a disparaging eyeroll, and Summer met that with a mildly insistent look, and then Tino just sort of grumbled a little, grabbed a bottle and a glass, and went to make his way up to the roof to check.

"Thank you, Tiiiinoooooo!" Summer sang out after him.

[weirderthanthou]

At least that saved Jesse the headache of figuring out whether she was okay with Summer finding out that she could fly?

"I'll buy him a shot when he comes down," Jesse said, watching him go. "It was my idea."

[badassprodigy]

"Hey Jesse," Barry said with a wave. "How's life as a bureaucrat treating you?"

[weirderthanthou]

"I'm beginning to learn all the codes for the paperwork," Jesse offered, "which is why I was almost looking forward to my beer today. Hi."

[badassprodigy]

Barry rolled his eyes. "We have got to get you off this manual work bullshit," he replied. "Have you even tried using a modern phone, yet? Because using your admin assistant as a go between is not what I'd call efficient."

[weirderthanthou]

"I haven't, and I'm not about to," Jesse said frankly. "Sorry, Barry."

[badassprodigy]

Barry sighed. "Have you even tried anything remotely modern since coming here? Like a television remote?" he might sound somewhat pleading at this point.

[weirderthanthou]

"I have a phone from the 90s at my place?" Jesse offered. "But that's the most modern I've gone."

[badassprodigy]

“Oh, hey! You’re back,” Barry said cheerfully as he took a seat at the bar. “How did the mission go?”

[somethingwithturquoise]

"I am back!" Summer confirmed, with an almost proud sort of grin, because, hey, sometimes that was kind of an accomplishment, even if it hadn't been much of a concern this time around. "And it went really well. Very smoothly. A little...weird, because of the time displacement from where I'm used to out there, but not a whole lot has changed, and it was just really nice to get to do stuff out there again, you know?"

There was that warm, fuzzy glow that she'd felt pretty much the moment she and Rey took off and would probably be clinging to for quite a few more days.

"Even got to squeeze in some shopping," because that was important, and not just because she may have picked up a few things for him, too, "partied down with some cool aliens. I got pictures if you wanna see. I really liked the Zixon, I never met any of them before because they're pretty reclusive and don't use ships. But they really know how to treat guests when they've got them."

And not once did things take a sharp turn from adorable to disturbing at the drop of a hat, and that was why she loved it out there. It was just so nice when cute things managed to stay cute for a change.

[badassprodigy]

"Zixons? I've never heard of them," Barry said, again making a face because he didn't know an alien race from another dimension and yes that shouldn't bother him but it did. "So fuck, yeah. I'd like to see and hear all about them. I'm glad to hear the mission went well."

[somethingwithturquoise]

"It was exhausting," Summer admitted, feeling that exhaustion creeping in on her again with her shoulders wilting, but there was still a grin on her face as she pulled out her phone, "so much climbing and hauling, but we got the place cleared out and they're really hard workers, too. That's them," she added, as she pulled up one of the shots of the little fuzzy green well-armed space bunnies and handed the phone over so he could see, with a little nod of approval to scroll through, because there were a lot of pictures, "and the planet's called Minfar. Those tunnels were made by these huge things called grobel, there's a few shots of one that tried to attack us in there when we were crossing this super trippy invisible bridge, and then there's shots of their city, which is just adorable and beautiful, and I really want to talk to someone about implimenting some sort of spa up there if I ever make it back because there are so many jungles and tunnels and it's all uphill to get there, and it would be choice and I think very popular. Good food, too, but after that kind of trek, almost anything tastes amazing. And then there's just a lot of pictures from Corellia while we were there, which really hasn't changed much since my time, which was kind of weird, I mean, if you get to the selfie outside of a cantina? That's the same cantina I threw up outside of once, that same spot, but, like, different dimension, and, like, thirty years ago." She shook her head, grinning, even if it maybe trying to cover up some other feelings that had been shoved way down. "So that was cool."

[badassprodigy]

"Time travel and dimensional travel can really fuck with your mind," Barry said scrolling through the pictures and nodding in approval. "Especially if the dimensions and time differences are only off by a few degrees or so. Those Zixons look adorable but also like they can take your fucking head off if you cross them."

He stopped at one photo and blinked before turning the phone around. "Who's the walking carpet?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer didn't even need to see which photo Barry was probably on with a question like that, and she grinned. "That's Chewie," she said. "Chewbecca. He's a Wookiee. One of Rey's friends, and the other girl you see with us is Rose, they were helping out on the mission, too."

[1000yearstoolate]

Seivarden walked in, looked at the menu, and said:

"Oh, fuck."

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Seivarden! Welcome back!"

Honestly, like, could Summer have even asked for better timing on that one? Wow.

[1000yearstoolate]

"Is this the island punishing me for leaving it?" Seivarden asked, as if Summer would have any helpful answer for that.

"Anyway, good to be back, especially if I can leave soon."

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Oh, yeah," Summer snorted. "It's definitely being weird specifically to punish you."

The island wasn't Summer, Seivarden, geez.

But then she was giving her a little bit of sardonic look. "Leave soon?" she asked. "What, did LA put the fire under your feet all of a sudden?"

[1000yearstoolate]

"That's what I wanted since I arrived here," Seivarden pointed out. "Even a big city wasn't going to changed that."

She continued: "So, what have I missed?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Yeah," Summer allowed, "but it's also not usually the first thing out of your mouth after being gone for, what? A few weeks? But you're in luck. I actually managed to get the gun to Barry last week, and he got to pull some diagnostics and data for it, so it shouldn't be too long before I've got my own to work with, and that should make it so much easier to figure things out. I'm also thinking of dumping all the data I've been collecting for figuring out the coordinants on him to run through an algorithm or something that'll increase the chances of us actually getting them right, I think."

She...did kind of feel a little bad that maybe she was dumping a lot on Barry for this, but if you had a super genius boyfriend, it was almost a shame not to put him to good use, right? And she was pretty sure he actually enjoyed it, too.