The Devil's Nest, Monday, August 15, 2021

[texted3times]

Eric was at the bar tonight, enjoying a Manhattan expertly poured by Tiny and relaxing.

Tiny was creating an elaborate three-dimensional castle made entirely out of cocktail olives in a cabinet under the bar.

Eric was very much ignoring that.

The Devil's Nest was open!

Comments

[texted3times]

"Oh, I never plan for that part," Eric said with a grin. "I'll have abs forever. It was one of the selling points."

[hasaknightjob]

"Yeah Konshu left that off the sales pitch," Marc said. Granted, he hadn't mentioned the repeatedly coming back from the dead part either.

[texted3times]

"Should've held out for vampirism," Eric teased.

[hasaknightjob]

"I'm supposed to be protecting those who travel at night," Marc replied, taking the teasing as intended. "Pretty sure that means no snacking. Anyway, the ones I do go after probably taste bad. Does evil have a flavor?"

[texted3times]

"Not that I've ever noticed," Eric admitted.

[hasaknightjob]

Now Marc was curious. "Is that the kind of thing you'd check before eating?"

[texted3times]

"No," Eric admitted. "The really good people aren't normally out in dark alleys looking for trouble."

[hasaknightjob]

"See, that's where I come in," Marc said, by way of agreeing with Eric. "When it finds them."

[texted3times]

"Are they just...terminally dumb people, generally?" Eric asked.

He'd always kind of suspected that.

[hasaknightjob]

"The ones I protect?" Marc asked. "Depends. The ones I go after? Some aren't the sharpest knife in the drawer, but all of them liked hurting people. They needed to be stopped."

Whole lotta past tense there.

[texted3times]

"Needed?" Eric repeated.

[hasaknightjob]

"Don't need to be stopped after you're not moving anymore," Marc replied. Hey, Eric had just mentioned eating people. No point in Marc beating around the bush.

[texted3times]

Eric was still Viking enough to take that very much in stride. "Fair enough. Fewer vows of vengeance if they don't wake up again, too."

[hasaknightjob]

"That's the idea," Marc said. "If you can't protect, you stop it from happening again. Ideally in a way that's a lesson to others. Least that's Konshu's way of seeing it."

[texted3times]

"Well, he's an old god," Eric said. "They were very direct."

[hasaknightjob]

"Very," Marc said. "Plus he might like blood even more than you do."

[texted3times]

"I'll allow that because pissing off a god is a terrible idea," Eric decided.

[hasaknightjob]

"His like is a lot different from yours, I'm guessing," Marc said. He gave Eric an assessing look. "At least these days maybe."

Because there was the Viking thing, after all.

[texted3times]

"He's probably not as buff as Thor," Eric said because he liked dropping in the fact that he'd once met Thor.

[hasaknightjob]

"Yeah, last thing I'd call Konshu is buff," Marc agreed. Nine foot tall skeleton, after all. The name Thor sounded like it was supposed to be something Marc knew, so he took a guess. "Your ex?"

Steven would've known it right away. Marc unfortunately needed Eric to hum a few bars.

[texted3times]

"Norse god of thunder," Eric said. "He taught at the school for a bit."

[hasaknightjob]

It took a second but finally it clicked. "Right, the one with the axe. Yeah, he's bigger than Konshu. I mean not height but he's probably got a good standing dead lift. Not bad if you're into it."

Marc absolutely still thought Eric and Thor had dated.

[texted3times]

Eric had kiiiiind of wanted it to seem like that, so score.

"Thor is everyone's type," Eric said with a nod.

[hasaknightjob]

If Steven had been there he would've pointed out the court of public opinion had been divided on the beard and the weight gain. But it was Marc and he paid attention to other things. "It does seem to drive tourism."

[texted3times]

Eric blinked. "Tourism?"