fandomtownies | Cartias; Wednesday [08/09].

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Cartias; Wednesday [08/09].

When Summer went in for her shift at Caritas and saw that Tino was there behind the bar, she couldn't help but meet him not with a greeting but with a sigh, long and drawn out with a shake of her head. And, naturally, when asked about it, Summer begrudgingly explained that, what with all these people maybe going missing lately, that the island would throw her at least one bone and have one of those people be him.

Which, wooooooow, Summer. Wow. Tell us how you really feel!

And when he met her with a withering look in response to this situation, she went on the defensive.

"Don't tell me you weren't thinking the exact same thing when I walked through that door, Tino>."

There was....a pause. And then his own sigh and a pointed return to cleaning glasses, because Tino knew a point that couldn't be argued against when he saw one.

Wednesday Jello Shot Specials!

First One Free for All Wednesday Activity Participants!
And if you're AREN'T CURRENTLY MISSING

Pina Colada Pineapples
Amaretto Peach
Chocolate-Covered Strawberry
Lime Mojito*
Cherry-Olive

Caritas is open!

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Where you could count the zombies to see if any of them are missing, but does anyone really know how many there actually are?

Still two bartenders, which is sometimes just one too many, if you ask....either of them.

A way to go missing from the bar while still in the bar!

Mechanical bull, dart boards, and stripper pole? All not missing.

"I get back to Fandom at last and then people are going missing? Almost makes me wonder if it was safer back at the ARC... ALMOST. Good to see you aren't among the missing, Summer" Connor said as he took a seat at the bar.

Summer gave Connor such a look at that comment, even with the almosts tacked on there, and shook her head. "Connor," she said, "no one has died yet, so far as we know, so yeah, no, not even close to whatever you keep having to deal with at the ARC. But thanks. I am also glad to see that I am not among the missing, although there is a part of me that wishes I was, just so I can better figure out how to go un-missing."

That said:

"And hello, Connor, how are you? Glad to see you're in one piece after returning from home for a change."

"Yeah I guess knowing how to disappear and reappear could be helpful," he said thoughtfully. "And yeah... it was an ummm interesting trip home. Not the same interesting as usual but ya know... let's just say its good to be back in Fandom now."

If you thought Marc didn't need a drink them clearly you hadn't been putting putting up with Steven doing things like making an appearance to insist on giving the cat a treat because He misses his dad, Marc! and apparently making sure the cat wasn't sad was as big a priority as getting Watts back or something.

And yeah Marc got that Steven was trying to do something, anything to not feel helpless right now. Which was why Marc put up with it and didn't shoo the cat off the couch even when it was in the seat Marc wanted to take because apparently you didn't do that while they were sleeping or whatever and yeah. Point being Marc needed a drink.

"Whiskey," he said when he grabbed a spot at the bar. Because why say hello like a person who could pretend to have manners?

"So not the usual," stated Summer, who grabbed a bottle and a glass and was maybe going out on a limb here, since only one word had been spoken and she'd actually ever talked directly to this guy, what, like, that one time?, but she quirked an eyebrow as she set down a very heavily poured whiskey with her own lack of a hello. "Marc."

And, because she really couldn't help herself and she was honestly going to be kind of impressed if one entity inside a shared body managed to go missing with whatever was going on, she added, "So where's Steven?"

"I swear to god," said Summer, shaking her head, "I don't know why you two even ever bother, but congrats on the no dead people or visible injuries this time thing, I guess. What are we drinking tonight?"

Marc noted that heavy pour and was going to make sure to extra heavily tip accordingly.

"Freaking out about Watts," Marc said. He tapped the side of his head to indicate where because yeah, you couldn't rule out shit on this island. Steven had been outside of the body in the afterlife, after all. "I'm trying to keep him from doing something stupid."

"Sometimes something stupid is exactly what needs to be done in situations like these," Summer pointed out, which was a statement that was probably going to haunt her when she was trudging through some sewers tomorrow, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves here. "If anything, it definitely beats sitting here with our thumbs up our asses, but, then again, this is Steven, I'm sure he'd probably take it to a spectacular new level."

"That one," Marc said, because yeah. "He was gonna run out last night half-cocked. Like he even fucking knows where to go. Let's at least know what we're doing here. Check Watts's notes or something."

Then they could do Marc's brand of stupid. Which was obviously better.

"Well I mean they are friends back home... family in a lot of ways most of them so..." Connor gave a shrug. "But yeah umm, we'll go with the usual, one of each jelly shot... aside from that last one."

Summer shrugged a little, since, well, yeah, she couldn't really argue that point, because family was sort of the reason she kept winding up back home, too. That, and her universe was way more interesting than this one and also her therapist was there, but, anyway....

She dutifully began to set out the line of shots. "Olives and alcohol are a classic combo, though," she protested lightly. "Ever heard of a martini?"

"So have you checked Watts' notes or something yet?" Summer asked.

"Not really an olive fan in general. Not even on pizza" Connor said with a definitive nod. "So think that one will have to be a hard pass." Unless ya know, the shots dulled those taste buds enough that he didn't notice by the time he got through the line.

"You know what weirds me out?" Summer offered. "People who put olives in their tacos."

Just a nice little tidbit of trivia as she still added the cherry-olive one to the line-up, because, yeah, exactly, narrative, exactly.

"Been trying," Marc said. He took out his phone and pulled up pictures from when he'd had vague hope that running them through a translation app might yeild something. He turned his phone around so she could see. "Guy's handwriting is the worst. Look at that one. Is that an M or a G?"

"Does it make more sense as an M or as a G?" Summer asked, squinting a little as she leaned in for a closer look. "Like, context clues are helpful, my guy. Like, 'mouse' makes more sense than 'gouse,' although in the instance of 'moose' and 'goose,' that'd be a toss up, but, around here? Blaming the moose is never too far off."

"Problem is not like the rest of it is better," Marc said. He turned his phone back around and frowned at it. "I'm not even sure this one's a word. Might be a scribble because he was running out of ink."

"So," Summer said, with a faint smirk on her face, "long story short, Watts' notes are worthless. What's your plan B?"

"Looking for clues myself," Marc said. He put his phone away. "Part of why I came here. Figured as busy as this place gets on Wednesdays if somebody else went missing here'd be the place to find out."

But what were the odds of someone else going missing today?

"Yeah, no... I gotta agree with ya on that one. Olives definitely do NOT goon tacos." Or in jelly shots!

"Okay, so," Summer ventured, "now I've got to ask, while we're on the subject, what are your thoughts on pineapple on pizza?"

Summer hitched up a shoulder. "Been pretty quiet more often than not lately, honestly," she admitted, which was fine, she wasn't worried about it, shut up. "But there is...some consistency there, sure. At least a good place to start if you expect someone to show up and they don't."

Also another phrase that would come back to haunt her later, but, again, they were clearly getting ahead of themselves and someone who almost always showed up not showing up or answering any of her texts or calls, even, like, what is this, 2003?, surely was nothing to worry about at all.

Clearly not! Everything was fine. No news was good news, right?

"Plus if anybody knows somebody who's gone missing they might be here to talk about it," Marc said. He then frowned at Summer. "You don't, do you? I've got Watts, Prompto, Gladio, some kid named Jo, and Dwight."

Watts's notes had had more information but there was again that issue of the handwriting.

"Oh, pineapple on pizza is amazing!" Connor nodded enthusiastically. "Especially with ham... but my favourite of all time, since we are talking about one of the most perfect foods in existence, is mushroom and sausage, and extra cheese- of course!"

"I think I heard something about Eliot, too," Summer pointed out, leaning on the bar thoughtfully as she went over that list and added a few of the other names she didn't have on hers to it, "and don't forget that chipmunk that the squirrels put all the signs out for.

"I think I liked it better when we just thought the portals to Eos were being dicks again," she decided. "At least when it was just Gladio and Prompto, there was a through-line. With this line-up, good luck trying to find a connection there, damn."

"Yeah, sucked but made sense," Marc said. Then, long as they were on the topic, "Anybody heard from Ignis lately?"

Summer's mild head-shake at the pineapple answer because more fervent the more he went on. "No way, man," she said, "extra cheese? Why not just dump half a bottle of extra oil onto it while you're at it, too. I mean, come on, it's about balance, don't let the cheese just take over.

"Although, then, now: thoughts on Chicago-style, or are you too British to have a firm opinion on that one? Oh, god, I never thought about it before, but I bet British pizza is super disappointing and depressing, isn't it?"

She'll give him the chance to defend it before she googled it to confirm.

"But cheese is amazing- never have too much cheese! You never heard of six-cheese pizza before!" Connor shook his head, some people just did not appreciate cheese enough.

"Not too sure about the CHigao-style bit... is that, what do you guys call it, deep dish pizza? Not too familiar with it... But we actually eat pizza a good bit back home. And I wouldn't say it's depressing to anything. Just... different. Most of it is more homemade style, even at restaurants and pizza places. You get a lot of toppings, pepperoni and ham and pineapple, and some more unique ones like margherita, chicken, and even tuna... which I will never understand that one, personally!"

Edited 2023-08-09 19:32 (UTC)

"UGH," said Summer, immediately groaning and making a face and rolling her eyes. "Too much, honestly. Seriously, out of all the chocobros to not be kidnapped, whatever's going on picks Ignis? Don't get me wrong, love him, he's great, but let's not pretend that there isn't a tier list and he's at the bottom of it. At least now that we're pretty sure it's Fandom related, he's stopped bugging me every two seconds about my portal gun, though, there is that."

"Your future constipation and upset stomach would like to differ with that never too much cheese comment," Summer stated. "And six-cheese pizza is different than extra cheese pizza. It just means more variety, not literally six helpings of the usual amount of cheese. Might as well just eat cheese if that was the case.

"And I have discovered, over the years, that people will literally put tuna on almost anything."

"Take the positive where we get it?" Marc said. Both in the sense that at least one of the chocobros hadn't gone missing and in the sense that Summer was getting some peace. Marc could sympathize with someone not wanting their phone to keep ringing.

(Of course in Marc's case it was his own damn fault when people kept trying to contact him but still. Sympathy.)

Marc sighed. "This island is too damn small for people to be hiding. Right? Unless there's some fucking raccoon hole again."

Not dirty.

Gross.

"Yeah, that one involved whole ass buildings disappearing," Summer remembered, her expression going a little fond as she remembered what had happened at the end of all that and wondering just how that boss raccoon was doing, after she'd booted his ass to an eternity on screaming sun planet.

She had a good track record, after all, with dealing with raccoons effectively...

"And you'd be surprised, this place as got some major shit going on underneath it, too. No one really pays much attention to the sewers and the whole mechanical works under the surface, but there are plenty of places for people to disappear into without even needing a big giant hole for them to fall into. Honestly, it's mostly just a matter of figuring out who, where, and what the most effective ass-kicking method is. Unfortunately, no one's been able to dredge up enough information to get us going on any of that...or, if they have, communication has been shit."

From the look on Marc's face it was pretty clear he'd never once thought about anything under the surface of the island, let alone that there was mechanical stuff down there.

"Huh," he said, his island related worldview appropriately rocked. As for the rest, "Well that's the problem, isn't it? Whatever's happening, the people involved can't talk about it. Their phones don't work or some shit."

Or they were dead but Marc wasn't lingering on that option when he was still trying to keep Steven from freaking out more than he already was.

"We lost Watts when he was looking into it," Marc said. "That's gotta mean something. Can't be random if it got him then, right?"

"I meant communication between the people looking into it," Summer said. "There's no cohesion, you know? Just a bunch of people going off and doing their own things without reporting back to each other...."

Ahem.

"Or disappearing themselves, apparently," she added. "Which, I mean, it could totally still be random, radio said something about Nell, Ignis, and Lana looking into things, too, didn't it? And I just saw Lana earlier at the shenanigans. But if one of them disappears next, or even all together, then maybe there's something there

Did that mean Marc was currently the person communicating most? Because boy was that not the natural order of things.

"Good point," Marc said. "Though that's already a difference from Watts. He looked into it and vanished. They did and at least Lana's still around. So whatever they did didn't - " Marc made a vague gesture, because how did you even describe it when you didn't know what it was? " - hit the button or whatever."

"Eh, my stomach can handle it" Connor said with a nod. "And I'm all for unique pizza toppings.... but tuna is a bit much, even for me."

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Cartias; Wednesday [08/09].

The Stage - 08/09.

The Bar - 08/09.

The Lounge - 08/09.

The Back Room - 08/09.

OOC - 08/09.

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