The Devil's Nest, Wednesday Evening

[okteiviakom]

Octavia had found herself back on the mainland today. Back at the aquatics center, and back in the pool. Like she couldn't help herself.

And even at work tonight, when she wasn't serving the occasional customer or tidying up or something, she was watching videos on her phone. On mute, of course, with titles like LEARN TO SWIM: TUTORIAL FOR BEGINNERS.

And yes, she'd set some rum out for the squirrels not to look too closely at her screen.

[ooc: Open, no OCD. *flops*]

Comments

[rebelseekspizza]

"'Sup?"

Kathy was still sick at home, and, well. Anders was the actual healer of the team, and all their fussing left Dante kind of aimlessly hanging around hoping for a job or something.

So... stopping by the Nest seemed like a decent idea. He leaned against the bar, glancing at Octavia's phone, and grinning.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's phone went right back in her pocket as soon as he was there.

"You want strawberry vodka again?"

She assumed he also drank other thing, but...

[rebelseekspizza]

"Eh," Dante said. "Gonna kick it off slow with a beer, I think."

[okteiviakom]

"Sure," Octavia rasped. "Any preference which kind?"

She personally never had one, and mostly thought beer was beer, but look at her trying to do this job, for once.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Just grab me something random," Dante said, grinning. "I feel like living dangerously."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's snort was a little on the faint side.

But she did what he'd asked for, which was to turn and to grab the first beer she happened to see, without looking at what it was beyond checking that it was, in fact, beer.

Then she turned again, and set it down in front of him.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante snagged the beer by the top and twisted it around.

"Huh," he said. "Pumpkin. Kinda outta season, kinda weird. I like it."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia shrugged one shoulder.

"You're welcome. I guess."

[rebelseekspizza]

"So how've you been?" Dante said, undaunted by that 'I guess'. "Nothin' weird happened this weekend as far as I can tell."

[okteiviakom]

"It didn't," Octavia confirmed, mildly. Getting herself water. "It's a quiet week."

That wasn't really answering that first question, and that was entirely on purpose.

[rebelseekspizza]

"You doing better with the quiet?" Dante asked, undeterred.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia gave him a blank look.

Look, the question didn't really connect with anything in her brain.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Right, don't want to talk about your week at all, huh," Dante said. He took a sip of his beer. "Kathy's sick," he said, "And I know better than to get in the way of a healing mage when somebody's sick."

[okteiviakom]

At least Octavia gave that a small nod of -- sympathy, maybe? Although she also asked, "A healing mage?"

That sounded like something Magnus would say.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Yeah, Anders is from a universe with magic," Dante said. "And a lot of mage-hating dicks, so movin' over to my universe was a no-brainer."

[okteiviakom]

"I'm not surprised," Octavia muttered. "About the hate."

People were dicks, all across the multiverse.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Yeah, people fucking suck," Dante said, shrugging. "But hey, there's demons running around my world. Anders' magic healing hands are their loss and our win."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia looked up again.

"What kind of demons?"

She wasn't sure about the answer she was looking for, there. But the question bubbled up almost by itself.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Ones a lot less pretty than me," Dante smirked. He lifted his beer again. "All kinds of demons. There's a whole range of claws and teeth and blades and fists and ice and fire out there."

[okteiviakom]

"All the ones I've seen were just... human-shaped."

That word choice was deliberate.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Demons can look like humans in my world if they really want to," Dante said, shrugging. "It's just not what they really look like."

His own dad was a giant bug thing.

[okteiviakom]

"I'm not sure it was as much of a choice for the ones I've met."

Well, met was probably the wrong word for the horde at Lux. But anyway.

[rebelseekspizza]

And she hadn't actually seen Maze's real face.

"Hey, it's a big multiverse," Dante said, "And I kind of shook out on the human-looking side of the equation too."

[okteiviakom]

Oh, Octavia definitely assumed it wasn't Maze's original face. She just also assumed the body wasn't quite as directly a borrowed one as all the others.

"Mmh."

Tavi, that was not a sufficient contribution.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Course, that might be my mom," Dante mused. And took another big sip of that beer.