Skeleton City // AU

[hatesblindjokes]

[you, sir or madam, have just been transferred across dimensions to The Hanged Maiden, which is really quite an unfortunate name for a grubby-but-popular little bar on one of the higher levels of the Skeleton City Underground. it's a work night, so the place isn't packed and rowdy so much as it is buzzing and kind of hungover.

there's a guy at the bar, near the end, who kind of sicks out. he's near seven feet tall and conscious of it, seeing as he's hunched over in the way that really tall people just seem to subconsciously manage. he's got a drink with ice in it and seems perfectly content to stare vacantly and broodily down at the counter in front of him.

part of that's because he can't actually see, but that's not immediately obvious.]

Comments

[hatesblindjokes]

No it don't. You just made that up.

[yep.]

[tabbytastic]

Sure it does! Sounds like something you'd name a count or a duke or something.

[pause for a thought and a fake drink]

Or maybe one of those really big dogs. The gray ones.

[hatesblindjokes]

[he makes a sound that's somewhere between a huff and a laugh.]

'D rather be a dog than a duke.

[which he sits and thinks about for a moment, while he sips his drink. pretty ironic, seeing as they're the Stray Dogs and all.]

...You're not actually drinking that, are you.

[tabbytastic]

Tch, neither are you. Man up.

[playing it off like he's not being literal about that]

[hatesblindjokes]

No, no. I'm drinkin'.

I mean literally. You. Not drinking.

[he taps the counter between them.]

That stuff gets expensive. Hand it over if you ain't gonna drink it yourself.

[tabbytastic]

The hell-- I thought you were blind.

[hatesblindjokes]

I am. [he grins to himself.] I just got tricks.

[tabbytastic]

What kind of tricks?

[not that phrases like that make her nervous or anything :\ ]

[hatesblindjokes]

Does that freak you out?

[he will try and reach over and... find her drink. because if she's not drinking it, he will. :|]

[tabbytastic]

[well, being freaked out at least gives her an excuse to let him take her drink without going "yeah sure, you caught me." She leans away a little in her seat when he reaches over]

...Until you decide to explain, yeah kinda.

[hatesblindjokes]

I just know my bar sounds. And that was not the sound of you drinking.

[only half-lying, as he finishes off his second drink himself. he's really got a bit of bizarre extra-sense, probably has to do with him being part monster and all that.]

[tabbytastic]

Shit--and you're drunk?

[welp. apparently not drunk enough, at least.]

[hatesblindjokes]

Not drunk enough. [he's on the same page, girlfriend. :|a]

[tabbytastic]

Apparently. [--the closest to being huffy or pouting that she'll ever get]

[hatesblindjokes]

[he just smiles. C: nice to see her a little less smug.]

[tabbytastic]

[she just props an elbow on the bar and drops her chin into her hand]

Oh sure, now he smiles.

[hatesblindjokes]

Guess it's all that effeminate charm of yours. Or somethin'.

[he kinda smirks before he goes back to drinking all of the things.]

[tabbytastic]

Course it is.

...Hey, if I said it was a cute smile, would you get all dumb and blushy again?

[can't get rid of her that easily]

[hatesblindjokes]

[he makes what might be becoming a characteristic GRUMP noise and shoves her shoulder again.]

[tabbytastic]

That's a yes, huh?

[jostling to one side with a chuckle when he shoves her, and then... sort of following him back, rocking a little in the other direction until her shoulder is kind of shrugged up against his]

So... you haven't told me to fuck off yet. [even with catching her on the weird not-drinking thing] Should I take that as a good sign?

[hatesblindjokes]

I don't fuckin' know. [t-tries to lean away a little more. he tries scowling at her too, but that doesn't work very well.] You really that intent on sticking around?

[tabbytastic]

[when he leans away, she can't quite catch the little bit of an exasperated sigh before it slips out]

Well, I was, but usually it's not so hard for me to make friends.

[hatesblindjokes]

You really ain't from around here.

[ugh, he wants to be annoyed back, but he thinks it's too funny.]

I'm being plenty friendly.

[tabbytastic]

...Am I missing something here?

[hatesblindjokes]

People down here ain't the friendly sort. But I haven't told you to fuck off and I haven't left yet.

[he takes a moment to just finish off that last drink before it gets too watery.]

So yeah, fuck it. Call it whatever good sign you want.