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Devil's Nest | Thursday Evening

Annie's long August had finally come to an end (literally and figuratively) with her visit to New York yesterday after getting back from Rey's galaxy. And while there had certainly been tears and relief in play last night, today she was entering the bar with a renewed sense of purpose. It kind of felt like a fresh start, in a way, all this adventure and her life blowing up and everything.

But also: she had been to space again, y'all, and that was never going to stop being cool.

~*Specials*~
The Galaxy
The Truth is Out There
Planetary Punch

[open and flying OCD-free over here, too!]

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"Ooooooh," said Summer, with a note of approval as she scoped out the specials board, "obviously I am going to have to try all three of those!"

And then, of course, "Hi, Annie, how's it going?" as if, you know, epic space battle not even a few days ago? What epic space battle not even a few days ago?

Pffffff. Just another normal day. Annie rode into battle on space horseback all the time, you know.

"Pretty good," she replied, already grabbing a hurricane glass to dip in her prepared pink sugar, because that galaxy thing was by far the prettiest of the drinks. "I swung by New York to tie up one last loose end last night -- sorry I didn't make it into the bar."

She'd thought about it, but weeping into her jello shots with her new Maid of Honor over seeing off her former, supposedly dead one had seemed like kind of a bummer?

Well, if you were going to be weeping with your new Maid of Honor over seeing off your former, supposedly dead one, into jello shots wasn't the worst way to do it!

"Eh." Summer shrugged; she'd been mostly eaten by metaphorical work goblins, anyway. "Biggest thing you'd have missed last night were New Thor's arms."

Which, to be fair...

"Even the shots were pretty phoned in, with the time crunch," she added, watching Annie now with professional, aesthetic, and personal interest. "Unlike tonight's specials, apparently! Look at you! You're really stepping up your cocktail game, Annie, is that even going to require a blender?"

"It actually requires two blenders," Annie admitted, shrugging one shoulder in concession as she reached for both of the prepared pitchers demonstrably. "Which feels sort of advanced?"

As opposed to her initial, 'if I blend this, no one can tell I forgot the Curacao' foray into bartending.

"But thank you." She still poured way too heavy, but if Eric didn't bring it up, Annie wasn't gonna stop.

Edited 2022-09-01 14:14 (UTC)

Oh, please. That wasn't heavy, it was generous, and Summer had been a generous bartender herself for a while now.

"Two blenders?" Summer asked, brows lifting, clearly impressed. "Good thing all my classes are early in the week now!

"And," she added, "you're welcome."

"I mean, I don't know if it's like -- you don't need to get your sunglasses ready," Annie assured her, looking mildly alarmed at the memory of, maybe, a sangria hangover last Saturday. "Probably. But yeah. Are you teaching two things?"

She thought she had heard something like that, but also that was pretty on-brand for Summer, and she wouldn't be shocked if it was actually three.

"I am teaching two things," Summer confirmed with a nod. "Both with Stark, so if you split it a certain way, that's like just one class? The idea for the Chopped one came up in Cupcakes class, and then the other one ~~much more handwavily~~ came up when we both realized that a community center class probably disqualifies us for the school trip."

And they couldn't have that, Annie!

Edited 2022-09-01 15:17 (UTC)

"I'm pretty sure that that trip is why a lot of people teach," Annie noted, sending both blenders blending with a quick flash of her eyes. "You guys don't know where you're going yet, right? The mystery is part of the charm?"

Annie wasn't even gonna try to tag along this year, since she suspected she would be waist deep in wedding stuff, given the timing.

Summer ~~really needed to check the plot calendar more~~ would realize one fatal flaw in this school trip plan when the time got closer, yes, but lately, her schedule had been so full up, it was sometimes even difficult for her to see past even the week ahead of her.

And, for now, she was nodding. "Part of the charm," she agreed. "Honestly, I wouldn't be half surprised if, the week before hand, they just set an atlas in front of the moose, and whatever page he winds up drooling on or eating, that's where we go."

Pff. Summer had a portal gun and could work all kinds of scheduling miracles if, say, Annie had a flower emergency and required her Maid of Honor the week before the wedding.

(Flower emergencies were pretty unlikely, anyway.)

"I mean, I feel like you guys are gonna end up in Omaha one of these days if you do it that way," Annie noted, carefully layering the drink before presenting it to Summer with a flourish. "And I've been to Omaha a lot. Trust me -- you're good on that."

She couuuuuld. The gimmick might be getting a little tired by now, but, well, maybe if it wasn't Omaha...

....although....

"I don't know, man," said Summer. "Barry took me out to Utah once and it was surprisingly fun."

Because Mormons loved their jello, Annie.

Summer could have probably started something there, but she was pretty sure not even her crazy could even touch Mormon crazy.

"Well, Utah is beautiful," Annie pointed out. "But I suspect you did something to torment Mormons, rather than just admiring the scenery."

She didn't sound remotely sorry about this. Mormons were, honestly, a little out there even for Annie.

"No, actually," said Summer. "We actually partied with them. I mean, as much as you can party with Mormons, but they have this fucking huge annual jello festival, and, I gotta admit. I was impressed. I almost felt like I was among my people, until I remembered none of it had booze and, you know, the whole crazy cult thing."

#sorrynotsorty, Mormons. You were fascinating, and respect for anyone who can Respect the Jel, but you're also just weird.

"You partied with people who believe caffeine is a drug and that the garden of Eden is in Missouri?" Annie asked, eyes wide. "Did...did they like you guys? It went well?"

Annie loved you, Summer -- she loved you so much -- but you were not the ankle-length short-sleeved dress-wearing, crockpot-toting type of person she could picture getting along with Mormons.

Edited 2022-09-01 20:50 (UTC)

"We were on our very best behavior," Summer informed Annie, somewhat proudly. "Barry didn't even swear the whole time!"

Oh, sure, he definitely made up for it in the trip back, in ways that made even Summer blush a little, but still!

She shrugged. "That's just the magic of jello, i suppose."

"I'm honestly impressed," Annie told her, completely sincere. "You didn't even try to convert them to your devil cult?"

More than a few Mormons tended to find themselves at Believe Expo, for some reason.

"Evening, Miss January," Watts greeted, sliding on to a seat at the bar after having hung his hat over one of the axes. "What have we?" he asked, gesturing at the specials board. The last few had worked out well, he was willing to continue giving the specials a chance. And if not, well, there was always plenty of wine ~~since basically no one else drank it~~.

"I went to space earlier this week," Annie shared, all casual-like (even though she still found it very exciting to go to space, personally, regardless of the circumstances), "so these are all celestially-themed. The galaxy one is really pretty?"

Jury was out thus far on how it tasted, but she was pretty confident there, too.

“You say that as casually as one might mention a trip to Baltimore,” Watts observed. “It’s ‘pretty’, but how does it taste?” he wondered.

"Fruity, with a little tequila bite," Annie offered, fairly sure of herself here. "Like that margarita you tried."

But also: blue, importantly, and thus kinda orangey in flavor.

“Very well,” Watts decided. “I will give it a try.”

"Good, 'cause I made pink sugar for this, Mr. Watts," Annie told him gravely, going to dip a hurricane glass in that very pink sugar. "And yeah -- space isn't a casual thing for me quite yet, but I have a really good friend from another galaxy, and another friend who has her own ship and has access to all kinds of crazy planets."

The ice cream planet remained Annie's favorite that she'd visited, personally, though she totally suspected Boob World might be part of her bachelorette party.

“I don’t know that I’ve met anyone from space just yet,” Watts said. “Living in the future is fantastical enough for me at the moment.” He did enjoy fiction of the genre that would eventually come to be known as science fiction, but they hadn’t quite progressed to space travel there just yet.

"Yeah, this is like -- living in the future for someone who's from this time," Annie offered, tilting her head. "Though it's a separate galaxy entirely so I'm not sure if it's actually our future?"

It was, in fact, a long, long time ago.

"But they have...fast space travel, that sort of thing," she added, loading up the two blenders she was using. "Much more advanced than what we have in this time."

(Okay, to be fair there were a few stories about space travel in Watts's time, but it was still an emerging genre, was the point.)

"That is... fascinating. And a little terrifying, to contemplate how much more there is out there."

"I'm gonna be a little intrusive," Annie warned, setting the blenders on their respective stands. "Are you a man of faith, Mr. Watts? Because I was taught growing up it was God and God and more God, but the more time I spend here, the more I think we have no damn idea."

“I am- of Jewish heritage, but I only found that out rather recently. I was raised with no particular faith,” he told Annie. “A skeptic, you could say, for the most part. So I’m inclined to agree with you there.”

"Ah-ha. Less a skeptic," Annie supplied, jabbing a thumb at herself as she did the now-routine move of illuminating her eyes and sending those blenders blending, "and more -- raised Catholic, and now I've seen the real world, you know? But yeah. I think it's honestly probably a lot of nothing out there, but I've also seen enough to know that's probably pretty self-centered."

Earth-centered, maybe?

“On the other hand, six months ago I would have said time travel was an impossibility,” Watts pointed out. “Let alone the idea of other realities entirely. So even as a skeptic I find I cannot discount the idea of there being something worth discovering in outer space. A fact which would absolutely delight a colleague of mine from back home.”

Not, it should be noted, the same colleague who’d recommended him for the job here in the first place.

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Devil's Nest | Thursday Evening

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