milliways_bar | Days of the Dead

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Days of the Dead

"CAN'T BREATHE"

███████ feels an unexpected pressure around her waist and the bottom half of her ribcage when she comes into the bar from out back. She is in a corset, but not only that is different about the way she is dressed; roses, marigolds, and a tiara featuring stylized sun rays decorate her head and long sleek gloves cover her hands and much of her arms. The gloves, her tight black miniskirt, and the corset far thus far conspired prevent her from noticing her skin has turned the color of sun-bleached bone. What is more, her face is decorated to look like a stylized skull.

She feels around the corset, looking for a way out of it or at least a way to loosen it and she finds a note:

You need to stop sleeping outside. It is dangerous both for you and those who may accidentally find you. I will give you a room upstairs after you do me this small favor.

Just as she is ready to object, a tray decorated to look like an altar is strapped to her shoulders. On the tray are various candies - mainly candied pumpkin and lumps of sugar shaped and decorated to look like skulls -, bread, brochures explaining the Joe Manco Fund for deceased and bound patrons and Phil, which (or who? I was told not to ask) disperses funds for underage patrons, and a sign proclaiming
Free candy and information for deceased and underage patrons

D:
Fake Tag: Amascut

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That, Charlie thinks, is a striking costume. It's sexy but not just another "sexy nurse" outfit. It looks like something that belongs in a really good Halloween story.

Not like the silly ink-blotted mask he's got on.

"I'm deceased. What sort of information?" The candy wouldn't tempt him even if he could eat through the infernal mask.

"Um" She is still kind of wide eyed in response to the duty that has been suddenly dropped on her.

When she looks around at the patrons, she realizes something. "Is it Halloween here?"

She picks up the sign and a random brochure, studies them, and hands the brochure to the deceased man. "I didn't know tabs were covered for bound patrons..."

"That was what I was told about a year or so after I arrived. Given that my bank book died with me, this was a relief." He stares at the face under the makeup, at the bone structure (so to speak) and listens to the voice.

"Sarah? It's Charlie. And yes, it's Halloween." He is not thrilled.

"Yes, its me. Why? Do I have something on my face?" She is looking around for some sort of reflective surface.

The Bar produces two hand mirrors, one for each of them. "Damn. It looks worse than I thought. Did I mention how much I don't like this face?

"Yours is interesting, though. Very gothic. Like something from an album cover." From back in the day when albums were vinyl and large.

Her eyes widen at the sight of her reflection, then narrow in anger. Someone here doesn't like the fact that she's keeping secrets.

Either that or someone is having a little innocent fun at the expense of her secrets. The thought doesn't occur to her though. The multiverse is conspiring to keep her from having as good time. Always.

"What is gothic?"

" A bit creepy, a bit dark and disturbing, but without blood and gore and violence.

"I guess you don't know enough Earth culture to know it when you see it. But it's very much in keeping with Halloween. Which is about being scary a lot more than it is about being sexy or silly." He liked being scary as a kid. Mainly, he liked scaring the bullies in the orphanage for once.

"Oh, then…Halloween-ish. We celebrate Halloween on our world." Her brow furrows. The Man in the Maze, the cacti, now this. "There seem to be many things in common between our worlds, but it … Okay, I think that humans came to my world from yours about twelve thousand years ago… but there was a war that lasted close to four thousand years… it should have destroyed everything… Why do we celebrate Halloween?"

This is odd.

"Do you want the historical, anthropological reason, or my own theories?" Four thousand years of war. That isn't pleasant. And yet they survived. And still have Halloween. Weird.

"I suppose one of the other races could have preserved the tradition. It seems like one the vampyres may have enjoyed." Wait a minute, did she just give away her age? "Then again, since they didn't have such a bad time during the wars, they can make up whatever history they want. Who would say different?"

"Then again, my people didn't go through such an absolutely bad time as the rest of the humanity either. We didn't revert to barbarism, at least. We could have rewritten history, too." Yes, the four thousand year war and the twelve thousand year history of human occupation of the planet are all stories she heard, not facts that she knows. At least that's what she wants Charlie to think.

"Hmmm… what is it about that mask you don't like?"

He digests her brief synopsis of what must be a very strange and tragic history, but reserves comment for now.

"First off, I can't get it off. Seems the Bar removed my belt and the binary gas in the buckle that lets me release the mask.

"But more importantly, it's the mask of a fictional character I'm not fond of."

That gas must be why he smells odd.

"Do you usually were a mask that is released by gas? I haven't seen you in one, unless… is the face you usually wear a mask?" If it is, it is a very fancy mask.

"I don't wear the mask too often. It's been called my real face, but it was more importantly the face I wore as a crimefighter. It suits me sometimes, but not often. I just made the mistake of putting it on today." Though all things considered, it could have been much worse.

"Aha, and what is so bad about the fictional character that you have been dressed up as?" she asks.

"He's also a crimefighter, but the sort that I have come to despise. Fights first, and asks questions later. Holds himself outside the law. Rejects the society he protects. At first, I thought he and I had something in common, but his ways are just adolescent power fantasy, not suited to the real world." He has no idea how ironic this might sound to those who know both him and Rorschach as fictional characters.

Exactly the kind of hero she loves. The kind she encourages, by feeding their, and perhaps her own, delusions. The kind she sends out into the world and the kind she finds such delight in ending.

One could say she is such a character, but she has become wise to the ways of the world and has learned to operate covertly over the long centuries.

"Oh darn, it is unfortunate you are dressed up as him and not as your own persona. I would like to see it some day." It's only fair. This costume hints and reveals more about her than she would like to show; she would like to see Charlie's true 'self' in return.

"I could do that. I'm not in the habit of carrying the mask with me anymore, but I don't mind wearing it on occasion.

"Though you would be surprised that I'm not really different with the mask on." Or so he thinks.

"Oh, you never know, a mask can really change a man."

"Has it changed me today? Or you, for that matter." If he starts snarling and speaking in incomplete sentences, someone please shoot him.

"Not that I have noticed, but I haven't known you for that long. I may not notice a difference when you have your mask on."

As for herself, she is alway wearing the mask. She is stuck in it. But there are several others she wears, some which are scared off by cats, some which the gods can convince to fall off by making her sob and pour her heart out.

Hurm. Avoided the question.

"It might be interesting to see how you react. Seeing as how you don't come at things the way Earthlings do." And also seeing as how Sarah is clearly, shall we say, a bit on the differently sane side?

"So can I ask why you are given out information about the Manco Fund?"

"Oh, apparently Bar doesn't want me sleeping outside anymore, but wants me to earn my keep before giving me a room. It was getting cold I suppose."

It is more cold than she is letting on. It has been very cold, especially for someone who was live in an equatorial desert most her life. Sure, you can still die of exposure sleeping in the desert on a cloudless night, but the cold of the Scottish autumn night is a very different kind of cold. Sometimes, tree cover doesn't help.

That catches Charlie offguard. "You never knew about the fund yourself? Or even thought about at least running up a tab?" He does relate, though.

"No, I suppose that is part of the reason for this," She gestures to the tray. "I have a tab though, but... its getting way bigger than I would like."

"Between you and me, I don't like having to rely on the fund. But I never found a job that suited me her." And he is sure that returning to his poker playing is a bad idea.

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