myownface | A Bar in Baltimore, Saturday Evening

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A Bar in Baltimore, Saturday Evening

If anybody were to ask Sparkle, he'd happily tell them that the last person he ever figured he'd be going for drinks with was Seivarden. Like. Ever. He'd also admit that he'd put more time than he had ever figured he would into picking a bar they could both probably enjoy, something with live blues music on Saturdays that still didn't get too rowdy. He had no idea what kind of music Seivarden liked if she even did, admittedly. Mostly he just wanted some sort of guaranteed background noise, in case whatever drunken conversation they had turned into something weird.

They lived on Fandom Island. That was always a pretty good possibility.

"Huh," he said as he stepped in and looked around for an empty table. "Cozy."

It was that sort of bar that always kind of felt like it was being lit by the streetlights outside, with the occasional neon sign or dim lamp doing the rest of the work, though the light on the singer at the stage was doing wonders to brighten it up the slightest bit, too.

"What do you think, Seivarden? How's this for tonight's drinking establishment?"

All the other places Sparkle knew were gay bars and dance clubs. So.

[OOC: For one!]

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"If you say so," Seivarden replied. "But I'm guessing you didn't care or you wouldn't be here."

"It's not a dealbreaker," Sparkle agreed, shrugging. "So maybe it isn't about you."

Sparkle was sure that would come as a surprise. That there were things out there that didn't actually revolve around Seivarden.

Surprisingly, Seivarden was aware of that.

"What is it about, then?"

"Maaaaybe," Sparkle drawled, "it's about me. Maybe I'm a survivor of abuse and talking about it actually causes me pain, or I'm a fugitive who doesn't want to get caught talking about it in public. Maybe the most important people in my life are murderers, or I don't want to tell you about how I'm dating royalty because I just don't think that's any of your business."

He shrugged.

"Or maybe it's all of it. Or none of it, it's something else entirely."

Seivarden might be an entitled snob and unwilling to admit it, but she had a lot of experience dealing with baby lieutenants who wanted to come across as interesting. Which, granted, was a lot more difficult if you were Radchaai and your senior officer had access to your records.

"I'm sure it's very interesting, whatever it is, but I'm also sure you didn't decide to join me tonight just to play mysterious."

She laughed and topped up both their glasses.

"Well, no," Sparkle replied with a grin. "I decided to join you tonight because there were going to be drinks."

Which he was still going to take his time with, but hell, if she was going to top him up again, he wasn't going to complain.

"The mysteriousnes is just half the fun."

Or the complete transparency, as the case actually was.

"I'm glad to hear that," Seivarden replied. "Mysteriousness gets dull pretty quickly, at least when you've had enough people try it. You could be worse at it, I grant you that, but it might be because I can't access your aptitude data."

She sipped her drink, grinning at Sparkle.

Sparkle laughed a little and shook his head.

"Yeah, for that you'd need to be taking out my professor for drinks instead," he replied. "And it isn't like he knows the first thing about me, either."

Except that Sparkle could sew, and had a good eye for storytelling and motivation.

"So, you're trying to be mysterious with everyone, not just me?" Seivarden tried to hold back a laugh. She was, by now, definitely drunk. "Who is your professor then?"

"Some guy on the mainland," Sparkle said, waving a dismissive hand and smirking. "And sure, there are plenty of people who know about me. But I've known them for, like, years."

For better or worse!

"I'm sorry to hear that," Seivarden said, laughing again, "I don't plan to stay around that long. But I'm glad you came along. I probably shouldn't finish this bottle on my own."

"Pretty sure if you finished that bottle on your own, I'd be taking you to the hospital for alcohol posoning," Sparkle snorted. "But you know, I'm actually enjoying myself, here?"

That was a surprise. He really expected to have gotten fed up and left by now.

"If I had finished the bottle on my own you probably wouldn't have been here," Seivarden pointed out. "But I'm glad to hear you're not bored, I wouldn't want that, of course." By now, she had trouble staying serious.

Which was such an odd change of pace, Sparkle wasn't completely convinced she hadn't swapped out with a secret twin while he wasn't looking.

"Of course." Sparkle grinned. "I wasn't too worried about boredom being the problem, anyway."

"So what kind of problem were you worried about?" Seivarden asked, reaching for the bottle of Coke. "Maybe I should try some of this."

"Might not be a bad idea," Sparkle replied, and then paused and added, "it's sweet."

Mostly so it wouldn't catch her off-guard.

And then he shrugged.

"And, I don't know. I was halfway expecting that we'd be at one another's throats fighting by now. This beats that and boredom."

"You're a bit unpredictable," Seivarden said, sort of in response to what Sparkle had just said.

She added some Coke to her whiskey. "But I agree. And I've been far too bored for a long time."

"Sounds to me like you need a hobby," said Sparkle, who made being unpredictable into a lifestyle, really. "Like jogging or solving puzzles or something to keep your mind busy, you know?"

"I did have a job," Seivarden said. "And then... well, I was fine as long as I could find kef. Now I'm really bored and restless, and no," she raised a hand, "I don't need suggestions."

She paused, trying to focus on Sparkle. "Do you have hobbies?"

Sparkle shrugged. Hey. Suit herself, right?

"Sure I do," he replied. "I enjoy cooking because of Dr. Lecter. And I like singing and dancing. And acting, though there's not really anywhere on the island to do that anymore. I can sew, but that's more my job these days and less of a hobby."

Even if it was what he was going to school for. Sort of.

"Plenty of stuff."

He was leaving out the 'stealing things' one. Among others.

Seivarden found she almost envied him that. "I'd just want my job back," she said. "Can't see how that's going to happen."

She drank deeply from her glass this time.

"I can't even remember what plans I had for when I'd retire from active service." She frowned. "There must have been something." Then she shrugged. "That wouldn't be possible either."

"Guess not," Sparkle agreed, and then took another drink. "So what are you doing now? Things aren't likely to fix themselves, after all."

"Not much. Working in the flower shop." She frowned. "I'd never thought I'd do something like that. You know, there isn't really anything I actually want to do. Well, apart from kef, but I can't get that either."

If Sparkle had changed his mind about helping her to find a substitute he was welcome to mention it now.

Yeah, Sparkle was drunk, but he wasn't that drunk. He nodded a little in understanding.

"Yeah, drug withdrawls are like that," he said, instead. "It's hard to care about anything else. It fucking sucks. Distractions help, sometimes."

"So what did you take?"

Being drunk meant she really failed at being subtle.

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