Devil's Nest | Thursday Evening

[defenderofdesmoines]

Despite the fact that Annie had actually slept for a not-insignificant portion of the day, she was still pretty tired when she wound her way into the bar tonight. And after two weeks away -- and the things she'd gone through over those two weeks -- she was too happy to be back at her regular old bartending job to even care about what in the hell was up with the olive thing.

But she did also kind of wonder if that was for her, the balloon-arch-style structure of olives constructed behind the bar tonight.

"I like it," she told Tiny, her only contribution towards him tonight. No questions of whether he'd missed her, or explanations of where she'd gone.

Her specials were gonna be simple, too.

Specials
Chocolate Chip Cookies and Bailey's Shake
Strawberry Shortcake Boozy Shake
Kahlua Cookies and Cream Shake

It was kind of just nice to be home.

Comments

Bar | 8/25

[defenderofdesmoines]

Drink! Annie's making milkshakes, but Tiny also makes things that don't have, like, a crazy sugar content, necessarily.

Re: Bar | 8/25

[special_rabbit]

In the particularly convoluted logic that was Amaya Blackstone's, time was running pretty short for figuring out a way of getting out of this shopping trip tomorrow in a convenient and most of all supposedly accidental fashion. She couldn't quite bring herself to establish a poorly timed smashed hand or a clandestinely conceived bit of arson, though, but, hey, a potential incident with a drunkenly thrown axe certainly did have some appeal!

If anything, even if she didn't get to the ill-advised axe-throwing, she was definitely going to use the drink.

Which was why the specials board was getting a particularly dubious but also speculative look as Amaya made her way to the bar, because she was feeling that road could lead to a lot of regret.

The real question here, then, was whether it could be useful regret.

"You know what?" she decided. "I think I might need to try that strawberry one."

Re: Bar | 8/25

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Per usual, you have great taste, Amaya," Annie congratulated her, grabbing her ice cream scoop. "How's it going?"

For the record: short of her actually being in hospital, Amaya's shopping companion would broker very few excuses. And even then, if she was laid up in traction, that just sounded like they'd have to cozy up with a screen or two and shop online!

Re: Bar | 8/25

[special_rabbit]

A menace. That woman was an absolute menace, but that also begged the question of how that menace would feel if said excuses only lead to her having to hold back Amaya's massive hair for her on account of far too many boozy milkshakes.

(Although the more frugal, scrupulous side of Amaya would also contemplate if there might be a discount on trousers if the trouseree had all too recently and tragically lost a leg thanks to an axe throwing incident...)

"Oh, well," Amaya drawled, in that universally dismissive way of all people who had a bit too much going on but were desperate to ignore every single bit to of it, "not a whole lot. Figured I'd drop in, though, maybe have a look at the axes. New semester coming up, I'm sure Eric'll want 'em all good and sharp, been a while since I checked in on them, anyway, and might as well enjoy the wares while I'm here.

"....and the new decor, too, it seems."

Look, she wasn't actually going go mention the olives, but now that she was right there, it was almost impossible not to.

"Definitely...a choice."

Re: Bar | 8/25

[defenderofdesmoines]

What a bonding experience that would be, though. (And, honestly, probably entirely too illuminating to that menace how she wouldn't mind holding back all that hair, and how she'd just want Amaya to feel better, and oh, shit.)

Shame about that leg, though. In theory.

"Tiny," Annie explained, throwing some strawberries and the vodka in her blender pitcher. "Apparently he's taken up a new hobby? I dunno, I'm kinda catching up -- I had a whole, like, psychopath back home to deal with for a couple weeks, and apparently that was enough time for Tiny to decide that olives are like...his medium."

Re: Bar | 8/25

[special_rabbit]

(Ugh. That's what she was afraid of).

And it was a very good leg, too! Amaya may be all about those arms, but she was never one to skip a leg day, either.

A look of mild sympathy passed over Amaya's face at the whole 'psychopath back home' ordeal, because, really, what could you do?, before considering Tiny's handiwork a little more.

"Could be worse, though."

How, Amaya? How?

"Could be onions?"

Was that really worse, though?

"At least you're all pretty safe from it being garlic, all things considered."

Sometimes you just had to look on the bright side.

Re: Bar | 8/25

[texted3times]

Eric came out of the office and stared at the olive arch. "Well, at least it's not the Olive de Milo," he muttered.

Tiny rumbled something under his breath.

"Oh, that's in the cold storage unit?" Eric rolled his eyes. "Drink. Big one. No olives."

Re: Bar | 8/25

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Is this a new thing I've missed?" Annie asked, nodding to the arch and just letting Tiny go ahead and handle Eric's drink (because she knew it was gonna be a blood thing, probably, and she was way more okay just sticking to scooping ice cream tonight, thank you. There was knowing you carried the bottled blood, and then there was, like, pouring it and maybe microwaving it, ew.) "It's very creative."

Re: Bar | 8/25

[texted3times]

"Tiny needs more to do," Eric said flatly. "He's taken up olive sculpture. You should've seen the bar last week--the entire place smelled like brine."

Re: Bar | 8/25

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Seems like a waste of garnishes, too," noted the woman who routinely ate all the maraschino cherries over the course of her shift. "Maybe he needs, like, a cleaning project he can work on over time."

Just Tiny. Not her. Annie -- and, like, Octavia and Lucifer, right? They worked here too? Workers of the world et cetera et cetera -- did not need a side project.

Re: Bar | 8/25

[texted3times]

Eric nodded. "He should use the cocktail olives," he declared. "They're disgusting."

Re: Bar | 8/25

[thatwaslucky]

Rey hadn't talked to Annie in a while, and she had a few free minutes between training and people needing her for something.

How are things going?

Re: Bar | 8/25

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie had kind of wondered whether Rey was even on the island at the moment, given that she knew she had her own stuff going on back home, these days.

But hey, at least one of them had caught a break for the moment.

pretty okay. I'm back in Fandom. Prob permanently, actually.

And it was feeling like the right choice more and more every day.

Re: Bar | 8/25

[thatwaslucky]

Rey read that a couple times to make sure she read it right before responding. Why permanently?

Important question before celebrating or not!

Re: Bar | 8/25

[defenderofdesmoines]

Honestly, Annie had kind of figured Summer would have told everyone -- no shade to Summer; it had just been a very public ragequitting on Annie's part -- so it was sort of a nice surprise that she got to tell Rey herself.

I quit, actually. Last week. Really publicly. It was basically Believe Expo 2.

Re: Bar | 8/25

[thatwaslucky]

There was a pause, and then Rey was calling.

Re: Bar | 8/25

[pocketpretzels]

"Miss January!"

Look, it had been long enough since he'd seen you, Annie, that you even got a smile out of him when he spotted you behind the bar. Statistically speaking, unless your name was Steven Grant, that was pretty rare.

Re: Bar | 8/25

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Hi there, Mr. Watts!" That was actually a very sweet way to be greeted -- Annie hadn't realized it at the time, amidst all the White Claw rejection and whatnot, but she'd totally picked up another regular, hadn't she? "Miss me?"

Again -- another thing that was making her feel really good about, you know, forgetting her lifelong dream. No one had ever greeted her like this at the tower.

Re: Bar | 8/25

[pocketpretzels]

His hat was, as per usual, deposited on one of the hooks where the axes went and he sat down at the bar.

“I did, as a matter of fact,” he informed her. “I paid a visit on a different night last week and the atmosphere… was not the same.”

Re: Bar | 8/25

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Did you get Octavia, Lucifer or Eric?" Annie wondered, already moving over to the wine bottles in anticipation. "And what can I get you? The shakes are fun...."

But she would understand his hesitation regarding her recommendations. Even if ice cream seemed like pretty good insurance that they were, in fact, more fun than a glass of wine.

Re: Bar | 8/25

[pocketpretzels]

“Mr. Northman,” Watts informed her. Although Octavia had also been there, and helping herself to some of the contents of the bar. Not that he’d known that’s who she was.

And listen, a glass of wine was plenty fun, but he did like ice cream.

“I’ll try the strawberry one,” he decided finally. The wine would still be there if he wanted a second drink, after all.

Axe Range | 8/25

[defenderofdesmoines]

Get some aggression out. Annie might, later, if she's feeling up to it.

Re: Axe Range | 8/25

[special_rabbit]

When Amaya did eventually make it over to the axe range that evening, it should be noted that she was an expert at making axes, not throwing them.

Although the boozy milkshake and subsequent other drinks tempted her to think otherwise.

Back Office | 8/25

[defenderofdesmoines]

Maybe there's a lurky vampire lurking?

OOC | 8/25

[defenderofdesmoines]