milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Elaine did not sleep well last night, even with the light on, but she came to the bar anyway. She tries to be in the bar as much as possible--when she is alone is when she begins to feel unhappy again.

And the last thing she wants is to be unhappy.

Elaine takes her sketchbook and pencils and some strange stick-things that have colors in them, and goes to sit at a table. She's never gotten to use colors with her sketches before. She did some experimenting with the colors earlier, and found that they could be blended with her fingers, which produced a particularly pleasing effect.

The meal she gets at the bar is simple, bread, cheese, and beer. While eating, she thinks about the long talk she had with Beth last night and how far she has come since she first arrived at Milliways.

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Beth walks over to join Elaine. She's got an apple in one hand and some kind of portable music device in the other, her earphones on.

She pulls one earphone away from her head and smiles. "Hi, Elaine." She nods to the meal. "Need anything else while I'm up?"

Elaine looks up and smiles, shaking her head. "No, I am just fine. What are those things in your ears?"

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Elaine jumps as suddenly there is music in her ears! Once the shock wears off, she listens; the music is unlike any she's heard before.

"The music is so...complicated and strange. And amazing that you carry it around with you."

She removes the earphones and gives them back to Beth. "So many things to learn about," she sighs, then smiles.

"I'll let you hear for yourself."

She sits down across from Elaine, removes the earphones completely, and places them at Elaine's ears.

The music is Latin and rhythmic; it's music that makes a person feel the urge to move.

"It is amazing, isn't it?" She grins. "The music is the bar's choice, but I like it. It's hard to stay still and listen to it."

She presses a button to turn the music off, eyes drawn to Elaine's drawing materials. "Using colors today?"

Elaine's eyes light up and she grins. "Yes, I've never had colors to use before. And these are great." She's been drawing various denizens of the bar, and is pleased with the addition of color to her pictures.

"Hey."

Nursing a little bit of a hangover and a hot cup of green tea, Spike wanders over to visit with his two favorite ladies.

"Hello, Spike...are you quite well?" She looks a bit concerned.

"Yeah."

It feels like there's an ice pick stuck behind his left eye when he talks, so he doesn't say much.

"Drawing?"

She smiles and drops her voice just a bit. "Yes. I found some of these colored stick things in my room this morning, and I really like the way they work with my drawings."

"I bet you're making good use of them, Elaine. You draw well. I'm afraid my artistic ability has always been limited to stick figures."

She turns her attention to Spike. "Too much to drink?"

"Yeah."

Ouch.

He nods very slowly to Elaine. "Pastels. Chalk."

Elaine smiles. "Thank you, Spike. It's nice to know."

He closes both eyes, barely nods, and sips the green tea. Not as good a hangover cure as the usual, but he's not in the mood for gin & egg yolk & hot sauce & pepper at the moment.

Beth lightly rubs a hand over his back.

"I thought you knew some good hangover cures." She almost shrugs. He never told her exactly what they were.

Mmmmm. That feels good.

"I do, but they taste like shit."

He leans into Beth's hand and arm, but speaks to Elaine. "Sorry. They taste terrible."

Fumbling for a cigarette, he offers one to Beth.

Elaine shrugs. She's heard men curse before. "Brian said that bananas were good for a hangover, but I don't know what they are. The men in my time used to sleep it off, where ever they happened to fall down." She makes a small grimace of distaste. Large, unwashed, drunk men were not fun to clean up after.

Beth happily takes the offered cigarette. She chuckles a little.

"Who's Brian?"

Elaine colors slightly, though she's not quite sure why. "Oh. I met him the other day, he was putting on a bit of a show for two children. We talked a bit. He made me laugh."

Which reminded her, she would have to draw him the next time he was in the bar.

"Sounds like fun."

The green tea's starting to work its magic; he doesn't have quite the headache he did. He lights the cigarette for Beth first then for himself and sets the empty teacup down on the bar.

"Hey Bar, got any bananas?"

One appears; Spike hands it to Elaine. "Banana. Try it. Oh, you have to peel it first."

Elaine furrows her brow and figures out how to peel it. She manages it without destroying the fruit too much and takes a bite. "Oh, that's good. Such interesting foods here. I've never seen the like of these things in Britain."

Beth remembers her own fruit. She picks up her apple again and takes a bite, munching as quietly as possible.

"I have a list of things I haven't eaten lately and want to get from the bar." A mental list, anyway. "Onion rings, ice cream sundaes, steak, shrimp."

Elaine shakes her head. "Such a variety. I would try everything, but I'm going slowly. I'm not used to so much."

"Beth, want any of those now?"

Suddenly, the idea of food is kind of appealing. Steak. Shrimp.

"They're tropical, Elaine. Bananas, that is. You wouldn't have had them around."