The Devil's Nest, Wednesday Evening

[okteiviakom]

Octavia hadn't been in for a couple of weeks, but that didn't matter much. Everything was the same as it always was, with piano bar-y music in the background, Tiny serving drinks, and the axe-throwing range fully operational.

That Octavia herself was exhausted in a way that stopped being a feeling altogether and just seemed to come right from her bones, well... That wasn't as unusual as it should have ideally been, either.

But she was there, behind the counter, doing her best to not look like she wanted to go home to sleep.

(She'd been doing it since Friday. Thought she was even getting pretty good at it.)

[ooc: OCD free because I am also tired.]

Comments

[okteiviakom]

Octavia left the axe where it had thunked into the target, and finally came back to the bar.

And slipped back behind it.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke watched her move and sipped his vodka, the bottle blocking view of his precise expression as he said: "Show off."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia shrugged as she picked up her glass.

Then downed what was left in it, in one go.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke watched her.

"Feel better?"

[okteiviakom]

Feeling better didn't really enter into it at all, for her.

She looked up.

"Do you?"

[betterthanaplan]

Duke met her gaze and held it for a long moment as he sipped the vodka.

“So how’s Dante doing?”

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's gaze dropped again as she went to get herself a fresh drink. "Chipper as ever."

That was so not the right word for Dante.

[betterthanaplan]

"You make him sound like a chipmunk," Duke said, sounding amused.

(It was easy to sound amused, even when he'd just been furiously throwing axes. Duke had been wearing a mask of amusement from the womb.)

[okteiviakom]

Octavia wasn't as good at that, and her particular mask that she'd been wearing for a few days now had been kind of slipping tonight.

She poured herself gin.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke sipped his vodka, then turned the bottle to look at the label again. "Not as good as rose vodka. But it'll do."

[okteiviakom]

"Mm."

She took... really far too big a gulp from her glass.

"I didn't look." They probably had the rose stuff, too. But she'd just watched him instead of finding it.

[betterthanaplan]

"Grabbed whatever was handy?" Duke guessed.

[okteiviakom]

"It was there."

So that was a yes.

(But she should've been making an effort to sound something other than flat.)

[betterthanaplan]

Duke made an affirming noise. He considered the bottle. Considered getting up and leaving.

Considered whether their relationship could handle both of them being messed up at the same time.

There was still vodka left, so he stayed where he was, drinking steadily and letting his eyes rove over the wall behind the bar.

[okteiviakom]

And Octavia kept drinking her gin. Kind of a poor choice on her part for more than one reason, but that was where she was at, tonight.

Trying to fill a pit with alcohol.

Tiny gave them both a wide berth.