fandomtownies | Devil's Nest, Saturday Night

Faye hadn't made it over to this bar yet, having spent the majority of the last week trying to repair the minor damage to her ship after her (fine) not-that-great landing, and drinking alone.

A girl could only go through so many bottles on her own before it started becoming kind of pathetic, though, and so she wandered in and took a seat. "Hey, how's it going?"

Allie tucked her phone into her pocket and smiled at the new customer. "Good, taking advantage of some sales. What can I get you?"

"Some of that," Faye said, pointing to a bottle of whiskey fairly at random. "In a glass. What kinda sales?"

Faye loved shopping, even if she had what one might generously call 'limited spending power.'

It was simple enough to pour the whiskey in a glass and push it across the bar. "Nothing to exciting, mostly some little treats for some friends of mine that don't usually get stuff like that."

"Thanks," Faye said, lifting the glass in a little toast. "And that's always fun, spoiling friends." Not how she would take advantage of a sale, but sure. "Any particular occasion, or just 'cause?"

"The holidays are coming. It's a big thing around here," Allie explained. "It's weird, especially if you're from someplace that doesn't celebrate. But it's easy to get caught up in the excitement."

Faye shrugged a shoulder - she was pretty used to just kind of going along with whatever the locals were doing, when she visited a planet. And she'd at least heard of Christmas. "I can see how it could be," she replied with a little smile. "Especially if shopping's involved." She paused, tilting her head. "When you say around here, do you mean the holidays are a big deal on the island?"

Faye had no idea what she was in for, no.

Allie couldn't help it, she laughed. "How long have you been on the island?"

"Since Monday," Faye admitted, a little sheepish. "Hadn't really planned on staying, but the place is cute."

So she might stay a little longer.

"Yeah, this place will draw you in. But there are definitely worst places to be."

Allie leaned against the bar, it had been a long time since she had had to explain island weirdness to someone. "I only got back to the island a few weeks ago myself, but I lived here for a few years several years ago. I don't think it's changed all that much. Starting in the next few days, the island will start celebrating the holidays in its own unique way. You might wake up with a Santa hat on your head that you can't take off. Or your shower will be running mulled wine." She shrugged, aware of how crazy it sounded. "It's weird, but mostly harmless."

And that lined up with what Kitty had said about the mulled wine on Tuesday, which didn't really help but at least was consistent.

Faye winced, sighing out a little breath. "And it goes all the way up to - what, like the end of the month?"

Because that sounded like a lot, even if the town was cute. (Santa hats sounded cute, too, but not on her head.)

"Pretty much. I can't remember if it ends on Christmas or goes all the way to New Year's," she admitted.

"Hmm." There were definitely worse places to be - trust Faye, she had been to several - but that was just weird enough to make her curious. Of course, give her one day of mulled wine faucets and she'd be crying to leave, but still. "A whole month of joy. I guess it could be worse. I'm Faye, by the way."

"Stick around long enough and you'll get to worse, unfortunately. But you should be good for at least a few more weeks." Way to sound reassuring Allie. Nice job. "And I'm Allie. Nice to meet you."

"Well, that's ominous," Faye laughed, raising an eyebrow.

Internally, she was taking Allie's words a lot more seriously - she really hadn't wanted to go somewhere with an option for worse.

"Yeah, sorry about that," she apologized. "Usually it's some sort of invasion of some sort. Or a bad guy slinking into town. There's drama, then we get to hit things..." Allie looked entirely too pleased at the thought. "And then we celebrate kicking ass."

"What kind of bad guy?" Faye asked, leaning her elbows on the bar in interest.

She was pleased at the thought of a bad guy, not at getting to beat him up, necessarily - bad guys were usually just pretty interesting.

"He was some kind of warlock. He gave out charms granting our greatest wishes," she explained. "Except it was a trick to use us to make him stronger."

Faye's eyebrows shot up to her hairline in surprise. "Warlock, like as in a guy who does magic?" she confirmed. "That's...new."

Like, she'd learned awhile ago not to rule anything out, in general. But still. Magic was new.

"And you all banded together to defeat him, or whatever?" she added, unable to keep from sounding a touch sarcastic about the idea.

Allie nodded, it had been years but she still remembered having a similar reaction. "Warlocks and magic. We didn't have anything like that in my world either. "

"I mean, there might be warlocks where I'm from, but I've been all over the solar system and never met one," Faye offered, smiling a little. "How'd you guys chase him off?"

"Oh you're from space? One of my good friends lives on a space station. I was visiting once and there was this whole thing with an alien mafia..." She couldn't help but smile at the memory, before grimacing at the next one.

"We all had to break the charms he'd given us, which broke his power."

"I'm from space," Faye confirmed, because at least as far as she knew it was true, anyway. She was pretty interested in that alien mafia thing - not that she knew any aliens, but she'd run up against an organized crime ring or three. "And that sounds - I wanna say it sounds easy, but I'm sure there's a catch. Like, you didn't want to break the charms, 'cause of magic or something, right?"

She was just spitballing, but if she was a warlock, that's how she'd play it.

Reaching under the bar, Allie pulled out and popped the top of a bottle of True Blood. "Got it in one." She took a drink before seeing the bottle on the bar. "Didn't want to break it, was going to hurt anyone that tried to take it from me. I was lucky I didn't kill the friend that came to tell me how to break the curse."

"I guess it's good guy guys were able to take care of it." And okay, Faye could be casual about her next question. So casual. Casual like a person who saw people drink weird things, like they were a vampire or something, like, every day, practically. "So like are you drinking blood right now?"

Casual.

"The island is full of good guys," Allie laughed. "All sorts of hero types. It can be intimidating at times." Like Allie wasn't firmly on Team White Hat herself.

"I am, yes. Since I am a vampire after all." This time when she smiled it was a little more toothily as her very sharp fangs made an appearance.

And like, okay, Faye didn't exactly knock over her barstool and flee, but she did rear back in alarm. "Holy shit." And when it seemed like Allie wasn't going to, like, leap over the bar and bite her, she calmed a little bit. "Um. No vampires where I'm from, either."

...that she knew of. Just like warlocks, couldn't rule it out.

"Next drink is on me," Allie promised, now feeling a little guilty, her fangs once again receded. "Vampires are a thing in my world and in at least one other that I know of. One of the owners of this place is a vampire." Considering Faye's reaction, Allie didn't want to be the one to tell her about Lucifer.

"Eric's from a world where vampires exist in the open and there's things like this," she said, gesturing at the bottle of True Blood. My world is a little more vicious, so this is a nice alternative if you don't actually enjoy hurting people."

"So okay wait," Faye said, holding up a hand. "Wait. You're a vampire, but that," she pointed to the bottle, "has...okay, is it not blood in there? Like...the blood equivalent of, like, soy milk or whatever?"

She kind of understood!

"Honestly, I never asked for the details, but it is real blood with a few preservatives." Her nose wrinkled in distaste. "But it's, what the phrase they use? Ethically sourced."

Faye made a face. "See, that just makes it sound organic," she said, relaxing into a little smirk. "Like it came from people who don't smoke or drink and consented to an IV. But hey, I'm not gonna knock it if it's keeping vampires from biting me. No offense."

She was going to have to, like, take a little bit to wrap her mind around vampires, but she could at least try to be nice to the one standing in front of her.

"As a rule I try not to bite people unless they deserve it. Call it my own set of ethics." And it had taken her some time to become comfortable with that.

"Then cheers to remaining someone who doesn't deserve it," Faye said, lifting her drink in a little toast.

Allie returned the salute with her own bottle. "So how did you wind up coming from outer space to Fandom?"

"I actually was trying to get to Callisto," Faye explained, waving a hand with a sigh. "But then you guys were just here, so I landed, and I'll tell you what, this is a lot more appealing than Callisto, so I haven't left yet."

It helped that no one lived on Earth in her time, so there was kind of a novelty-slash-'are these people playing one big, collective prank on me? ' factor at work, as well.

"The island is nice, even with all its quirks," Allie said. "You should enjoy your time here."

Devil's Nest, Saturday Night

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