Devil's Nest | Thursday Evening

[defenderofdesmoines]

"No, that's not acceptable," Annie was saying into the phone as she wrote up her specials board, blowing out a sigh of frustration. "Would it be possible to talk to your supervisor?"

A pause as she listened to the other end of the line, followed by, "The owner, then. Someone else."

Another pause.

"Look, this just isn't right. You guys didn't deliver half our stock this week, and keep putting us off, and then today -- "

She glanced up from her writing, closing her eyes against the headache that the stacks of crates of fucking butterscotch schnapps were giving her.

"We got the wrong product. The mistake wasn't corrected. Do you understand?"

Another patient, long pause -- apparently Annie's actual breaking point.

"Look, man, you people need to either get the fucking scotch you owe us here by the end of my shift, or I'm coming down there to get it myself. And I'm pregnant. Do you want to deal with me in person?"

He evidently did not, and Annie was assured that if it did not arrive by the end of the evening, the shipment of scotch in question would be the distributor's first stop in the morning, and she supposed that was all she could really ask for. Though, like, damn. Between ragequitting Vought last year and the hormones she had now, Annie apparently gained a couple levels in Karen.

~*Specials*~
Butterscotch White Russian
Butterball
Butterscotch Mudslide Shake

[open and flying OCD-free!]

Comments

[hasaknightjob]

Marc came in after the usual round of Steven getting off work and then going home to change. He took note of the specials board.

"You expecting a busload of senior citizens?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Supplier apparently can't tell the difference between scotch and butterscotch," Annie told him with a heavy, dramatic sigh that spoke to her long and irritating phone conversation with the vendor. "So, you know. Lemonade out of lemons. Or milkshakes, in this case, I guess."

[hasaknightjob]

Marc looked appalled. "That's evil. I'd ask if you need vengeance but I know you can handle your own."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I think it started earlier in the week, too," Annie told him, fishing around for Octavia's note and waving it as evidence. "Like, honestly, this is one of those times where I kind of want to start a group chat with the other bartenders, because like -- I bet this would get fixed fast if we all showed up in person."

A vampire, the Devil, a really visibly badass chick (Annie did not know Octavia well, no, but like -- she'd be intimidated if that woman showed up mad at her!) and a pregnant superhero walk into a liquor supply company....

(Stop us if you've heard this one before!)

[hasaknightjob]

(Then the horse asks why the long face?)

"I'd be more impressed by that than the Avengers," Marc said. "Probably look cooler too."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Probably slower-moving," Annie noted. She had a sense that the Avengers, between their superpowers and a good chunk of these people having the ability to fly, tended to hurry places. And she had never seen Eric hurry...anywhere, at all, to do anything.

(Ironically, Eric could probably hurry the most of this group, if pressed.)

[hasaknightjob]

"Still think you'd kick their ass just fine," Marc said, since he only knew Annie well enough to try to gauge her speed and, well, she was pregnant with twins.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie could, in theory, fly if she had to, which might help!

(...ooh, something to consider once she got real big. Maybe Diego could just follow her around with a generator, and Annie could float to save her feet.)

"Probably. I kind of threatened to," she noted, getting together his whiskey without prompting. Or at least, she'd threatened to Come Down There, So Help Her, et cetera. "So hopefully they get it right by tomorrow."

OR ELSE!!!!!

[hasaknightjob]

Marc gave her a salute with the whiskey glass once he had it. It wasn't that he'd worried the problem might not be limited to scotch, but it was nice to get confirmation all the same.

"I wouldn't want to be the guy on the other end of pissing you off," Marc said. "Course I'd like to think if I did it wouldn't be for fucking up a drink order."

Maybe Marc would get in the weeds if the order was for wine. But on the upside there was Watts for that.

[pocketpretzels]

“Good evening, Annie,” Watts greeted as he made his way to a seat, sitting down with his usual flourish. “Is everything all right?” Nothing seemed immediately awry, but there was a tension in the air he couldn’t quite place.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Tell me you're a fan of butterscotch," Annie replied plaintively, though she offered out a tired smile, all the same. "I've been fighting with the vendor over the phone because they sent us the wrong thing."

[pocketpretzels]

“I am not not a fan?” he said. “And that sounds awfully tedious, I’m sorry.”

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Apparently I'm just the most recent in a line of frustrated bartenders," Annie shared, waving Octavia's note at him with a little roll of her eyes. "Though, like, they promised they'd get it here by tomorrow morning, so hopefully that's the end of it."

TIME WOULD TELL.

"Anyway! What can I get you to drink, Llewellyn?"

[pocketpretzels]

“I’ll give that first one on your specials board a try, if you can make it with oat milk?” he asked.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Absolutely," Annie replied, snagging one of the many, many bottles of schnapps before heading to the fridge for the oat milk. "And how's it going? You and Steven going to tomorrow night's gala?"

Yes, she absolutely did put a little excited, fancy flourish on the word gala. Annie didn't go to many galas these days!

[pocketpretzels]

“I believe so,” Watts said. “Though I’m afraid we don’t know either host particularly well- though different versions of them are figures of some renown in the world Steven and Marc hail from.”

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Yeah, they're both Avengers," Annie told him, grabbing ice. "Wanda, too."

...that might actually not be true anymore? But Annie also -- you know, was kind of ready to think that maybe it should be true, if it wasn't.

"But I'm pretty sure they're all from different times, from what everyone's told me. Not confusing at alllll."

[pocketpretzels]

“That sounds quite confusing, actually,” Watts said, not quite picking up on the sarcasm.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It is, I was being sarcastic," Annie said simply, setting the completed drink before him. "You can also add a layer of confusion because a lot of folks back home for me seem like they're sort of like alternate-universe versions of Avengers, too. Though I don't know anyone like Tony back home, actually."

Because he was coming in season 4!

(Probably! Unless Tek-Knight was more like a different playboy billionaire-turned-hero guy from a different, darker, grittier franchise. Kind of a toss-up!)

[pocketpretzels]

“Huh,” Watts said thoughtfully, nodding in thanks for the drink.

“The colleague who originally was offered my current position attended school here as a boy, thirty years ago,” he offered, taking a sip. “Only from this world’s perspective, it has been less than a decade since he graduated.”

[defenderofdesmoines]

"That's like when Diego and I go to do stuff with his family, usually," Annie noted with a little nod. "Time gets weird on us -- last time, we were gone like...I don't know, less than a week? But here it was almost two. The time-traveling stuff probably doesn't help, honestly."

Like, unless you personally were able to line it up to the minute -- and honestly, it kind of seemed like Five might be able to? But that was beside the point -- you probably caused all kinds of butterfly effect shit everywhere, every time, right?

[pocketpretzels]

“When we paid a visit to Toronto back in February,” Watts said. “The same amount of time passed in both places. I don’t know whether that would be the case should I return again, but to be quite frank I am uninterested in finding out.”