It's like paradise, spread out with a butter knife :: [OPEN]

[bonhomme7h.livejournal.com]

Who: EVERYONE
What: Réjean has decided that more people ought to celebrate and help raise a bit of dosh for one of his favourite bars. See: flyer.
Where: The Apache.
When: Misdi night and into the wee hours of the morning.
Warnings: Discussion of Pickman's manky feet.

The Apache is much the same as it always is: dimly lit, with the jukebox playing in the background, and the bartender serving whatever's on tap. Tonight, the bar is packed with people from all across the city, different cantons and cohorts, all out to celebrate surviving the fungal plague. Patrons are encouraged to buy tickets for a door prize with the proceeds going to repair the damage tunnelling ants made to the cellar.

Comments

[rhinemaid]

"A fairy," Ilde says, promptly; what kind is slightly debatable, beyond some generalities, but she makes no secret of it and there's a certain pride underlying the declaration. "I'm a fairy."

[pinkmoon.livejournal.com]

Ruby looks closely at Ilde for a moment, and then nods in confirmation, as if to say so you are. Her body language is still uncommonly familiar, for this being their first meeting, even considering Ruby's general catlike amiability.

"A river fairy, aren't you? A nixie."

[rhinemaid]

That's-

-actually, that's a little unexpected. The word 'nixie' is not one she's heard before, and she's briefly bewildered by it before it occurs to her that not everyone is making this up as they go along.

"Am I? That sounds as if I'm a pixie, only wetter." Now is perhaps not the most ideal time she's ever attempted some sort of meaningful conversation. "I didn't know that. Can you tell those things? That's clever as anything."

[pinkmoon.livejournal.com]

"Well--a bit," Ruby admits; her gifts are as unpredictable and mercurial as she can be, but they're somehow stronger in Baedal. Or perhaps there's just a lot more to notice. "I did some research on these things not very long ago."

She pauses.

"We should have a drink. You really didn't know?"

[rhinemaid]

A drink sounds like a very good idea, Ilde decides, and she starts moving in the direction of the bar accordingly; at some point, presumably, she'll realize she's still holding onto Ruby and think to let go. "No one to tell me," she shrugs, absently adjusting the sit of her skirt with her free hand as they go. She leaves it at that, here - a party isn't the best place to go into her history as a captive of Prometheus - but it's almost tangibly not all. "I've been making it up as I go, I suppose-"

[pinkmoon.livejournal.com]

"That sounds familiar." It really does. (And if she knew as much as she should, she'd understand how distressing it is that her first ever spell was one of invisibility. That's powerful magic a newbie shouldn't be capable of freestyling, much less performing.)

At the bar, Ruby orders a gin and tonic, citing gin's appeal to Ilde: "It tastes like Christmas, have you ever noticed that?"

[rhinemaid]

"Does it? I drink brandy more." After considering the possibility of tasting Christmas, she orders the same, pleasantly curious, and at long last lets go of the other woman so she can rest her hands on the bar, swinging forward against it and leaning there, in some part just for balance.

The last Christmas she remembers was...loud, the house filling up with people and colour and arguments and music and alcohol over the course of the month. She hadn't liked a December birthday as a child until she'd realized she could essentially con her father into turning the entire season into a month long birthday festival, which hadn't been a bad deal, all told.

It seems vaguely appropriate that thinking about alcohol leads to thinking about her family, she thinks, absently.

[pinkmoon.livejournal.com]

Brandy reminds Ruby vaguely of her father--but then alcohol in general does, too, in a really negative way, so she tends to only drink lightly. It's something she's trying to repurpose and reclaim; these experiences shouldn't be denied her because of where she comes from, she supposes.

Their gin and tonics appear, and Ruby takes a decently long pull off hers.

When she puts it down (without coughing), she also informs Ilde, thoughtfully: "I think dives like this make their alcohol extra-strong, somehow."

[rhinemaid]

"I can't hardly tell," Ilde laughs, quietly, her fingertips against the sides of her glass, "it all goes straight to my head just the same way no matter what it is." Really. Even piss-poor weak beer would have approximately the same moderately hilarious effect on her, which is presumably why her sipping is a bit more careful.

[pinkmoon.livejournal.com]

"Are we going to have to carry you out of this bar?" Ruby inquires, with a sidelong smile. Whoever 'we' is--she assumes Ilde's got a few people here who know her already.

[rhinemaid]

"Sometimes Sonja puts me over her shoulder," is the blithe response to that, in the tone of someone who thinks this is an extremely charming thing for her to do. (Sonja is the only person who can do this without receiving a protest - usually issued through the direct means of 'teeth' - because it's all right when she does it. Ilde just doesn't like to feel helpless.)

[pinkmoon.livejournal.com]

"Well, as long as you don't mind, I suppose," Ruby says, thoughtfully. She can't imagine being lifted (at least by most other women; very tall and relatively strong men could probably manage, given that she's leggy but slender), but then, Ruby usually doesn't give the vibe that you should try.

'A stare that can stop a man at a thousand yards,' someone said to her once. She hasn't had any cause to show that in Baedal, though, which surprises her.

[rhinemaid]

"I don't mind Sonja." That's a statement that could stand to be picked up and examined, but it seems to make perfect sense to her, and further makes perfect sense that she should be the exception to whatever rule. (Ivan, for example, earlier tried his luck and got threatened with a high heel and menaced by Amazons for his trouble.) It is perhaps inherently sort of worrying that in this specific case it's because Sonja makes her feel safe, but nevermind that.

Ilde has some interesting relationships with some interesting women, best leave it at that.

"I had a conversation with a man over her shoulder once. He looked surprised." Yes, probably.