The Devil's Nest, Monday, November 28, 2022

[texted3times]

Eric came into the bar to discover a six-foot tall turkey sculpture made out of stuffing and mashed potatoes and placed right on top of Lucifer's piano.

"Why," Eric asked, pointing to the sculpture. "Why?"

Tiny shrugged.

"Well, at least it'll piss off Lucifer, too," Eric decided, looking on the bright side.

The Devil's Nest was open.

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[sword_chocobro]

"Well, you've got to hand it to him," said Gladio, as conciliatory as one could in the given circumstances, after having gone over and giving that attention-grabbing piece of artwork a complete 360 evaluation, "the man's got talent."

Sure. Let's call it that.

[texted3times]

"Well, food-based art pays nothing, so that explains why he's still here," Eric said dryly.

[sword_chocobro]

"It's almost making me sad that I missed his iconic Olive Period."

It was also making Gladio kind of hungry, too, but that was beside the point.

"Think he'd ever consider working with Cup Noodle^TM as a medium? I know a guy who'd might consider commissioning it."

What a lovely centerpiece it could make for Liz and Prompto's wedding, maybe!

[texted3times]

"I'm sure he'd love to work in Cup Noodle," Eric said. "The freak."

[sword_chocobro]

"Yeah, right?" Gladio couldn't keep the smirk off his face if he tried. "What a weirdo."

A weirdo he might definitely need to talk to later. What? He supported local arts!

"So. How've you been, Eric? Guy like you do anything for that holiday we just had?"

[itsananomaly]

Cutter had had a very rough few days dealing with a future predator, nearly getting a teammate killed and being fired for a few hours as a result and after his conversation with Connor this morning he really needed a drink, “scotch, a lot of it please,” he sighed as he took a seat at the bar.

[texted3times]

Eric shook his head. "I don't eat food," he said, "so it's not really my holiday. I prefer Halloween where I can really lean into the stereotypes. How about you?"

[texted3times]

Tiny brought over a scotch--not a lot of it--as Eric arched up an eyebrow. "Bad weekend?"

[itsananomaly]

“It wasn’t one of the better ones,” Cutter sighed, “I shouldn’t have gone back, it wouldn’t have turned out to be such a huge mess,”

Yes he had eventually resolved it but he should never have let it get that bad in the first place.

[fates_jaye]

"He's never gonna make it in the art world unless he gets some proper training," Jaye tsked.

[texted3times]

"Why did you go back, then?" Eric asked.

[texted3times]

"I'm not sending him to school," Eric said.

[itsananomaly]

“Jenny asked,” Cutter admitted, “she …well she looks like a woman I cared about before she well …got erased by the timeline, her name was Claudia … I don’t know how but she became Jenny,” he sighed, “I could never say no to her, Claudia was the one who recruited me for the Home Office,”

[texted3times]

That was a lot of names without context for Eric, but he nodded along anyway. "So a stranger than looks like a dead coworker you loved told you to go home and everything turned to shit?"

[fates_jaye]

"Good, it would be a waste of your money," Jaye agreed.

[texted3times]

"Plus I'd need a new bartender," Eric said.

[itsananomaly]

“Pretty much,” Cutter nodded, “got attacked by a future predator, nearly lost a member of my team and then found out this morning that another member of my team is going to die if I don’t stop it,”

Also that his ex wife was going to be involved in his own death but he was trying to not think about that right now.

[texted3times]

"How would you stop it?" Eric asked. "Are you a doctor?"

[sword_chocobro]

"Not from this world," Gladio offered, "much less this country, but my roommate's a total gourmand and will take an excuse to take over a kitchen. So from where me and my stomach are sitting, I'm a fan of it so far."

[fates_jaye]

"What, you don't wanna pick up the slack?"

Asked Jaye, the laziest bartender.

[itsananomaly]

“I’m a Professor,” Cutter explained, “I mean not a medical one, I’m an evolutionary zoologist,” he added, “but surely I can change things, stop them from happening…” he wasn’t sure exactly when it was meant to happen but Connor had mentioned that the future predators had been involved, which seemed to indicate that it would be soon.

[texted3times]

"Did he serve Cup Noodle?" Eric asked.

[texted3times]

Eric blinked. "Didn't know that evolutionary zoologists were equipped with instantaneous time-changing powers," he drawled. "I thought evolution took millennia."

[texted3times]

"I don't serve humans," Eric said.

Beat.

"I make exceptions for blowjobs. Occasionally."

[itsananomaly]

“Well it normally does,” Cutter admitted, “where I’m from we’ve been encountering these time distortions called anomalies, it started off with being links to the past, to the dinosaurs but our most recent encounter was the far future,” he explained, “these anomalies …they can …they can have ripple effects,”