milliways_bar | Happy Hour

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Happy Hour

Indy and Veronica did Happy Hour together last week. Indy's heard about it ever since, from a deeply (if perhaps a bit theatrically) wounded Lilly. His protest of "but Princess, I've been asking ya to do Happy Hour for ages and you've always said it sounded like too much work" fell on deaf ears, but eventually he figured out how to make it up to her.

Lilly's getting her own Happy Hour. She's behind the bar, chalking up the specials list with a serious look on her face. There's not much that Lilly takes seriously, but alcohol is on the list.

That's why the specials are mostly shots.

Three Stages of Friendship
Virgin Whore
Sweet Flower

She smiles triumphantly up at the board celebrating a few of her favorite things. The liquor bottles are within easy reach. The shot glasses have been washed and lined up. Her skirt is shorter than her apron. This is as close to ready as it gets.

"What up, Milliways? Who wants a drink?"

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The keys click briefly before Mac spins her PowerBook around.

"Pretty simple stuff, but we're going for functionality over looking slick right now. I'll slick it up later."

A beat.

"And go me and my inability to recognize double entrendre before I say it," she mutters to herself, then drops the dock and pulls the program window to cover the entire screen. "You've got your login -- it's set up as a fake employee right now, since my account doesn't have the appointment option, which is right there..."

She gestures with the cursor.

"Basically you just click in, enter the data, it goes straight into the payroll system on your account, and I've also got some options in there for cancelling appointments, which...I don't know how you want to work that, if their pay gets docked or whatever if they cancel too many, if they have to do it before a certain time cutoff...."

"Oooh, that could be handy," Lilly says. "Because mostly I don't care if they cancel, they have client choice, but if they're canceling too many after they make them we could have a problem."

She tilts her head.

"I'd also be able to track appointment volume and high performers much more easily this way, which is awesome. It'd make it possible to start some incentive programs."

Go on, ask her about her brothel incentive programs. You know you want to.

Mac's eyebrows go up.

"...What kind of incentive programs?"

(She is weak. So weak.)

"I'm not sure yet," Lilly says thoughtfully.

"Something catchy. Like,'get some extra cash to blow for blowing the most clients' or getting people to sign up for frequent fucker status."

Mac closes her eyes and props her forehead in one palm.

Well, she did ask.

Muffled, and oh so resigned: "The second one's got a nice ring."

Lilly looks proud.

"Thanks! I thought it up myself."

That's the problem. She just keeps thinking things up.

"Yeah, I figured."

Mac drops her hand and looks up.

"Anyway," she says, with the subtext of we're changing the subject back to the FIRST one now, "I'm gonna keep combing through it to clean up the last few bugs, but it's more or less a full working version if you want me to get it installed in the office."

"Definitely," Lilly replies happily.

"I seriously can't wait. This is going to make my life so much easier. Thanks again for doing it."

Sure, she's paying Mac, but she still appreciates the effort.

"No problem. It was fun."

Beat.

With a small snort, "Now I just have to figure out a tactful way to word it on my resumé."

"Call us an entertainment or event-planning company," Lilly says promptly. "DF Services, I'll get Duncan to set up a shell account with a number we can check if anyone calls for a reference or to verify employment."

She grins.

"Wouldn't be the first shell company in Kane Enterprises history, so."

She blinks.

"Duncan can get here, too?"

Mac can't think of any other way Lilly'd be able to get in touch with him.

"He's been here, yeah," Lilly replies, smiling a little wistfully.

"But... where he is now, it's harder to find a door. So I mostly just visit him in his dreams now."

"That's cool. Can everybody who's dead do that?" she asks, crossing her arms and leaning on Bar.

It was a casual question, to start; it takes a split-second after she speaks for the implications to register, and Mac, suddenly, pales a bit as she drops her gaze.

"No," Lilly says hastily, aware of who she must be thinking of. "Not really a common thing."

She shrugs, one-shouldered.

"I belong to Dream, of the Endless. He gave me the freedom of the Dreaming and even before then, when I was all ghosty, I could visit people. But... most dead people can't. Almost all of them can't, actually."

Thank God. She doesn't want to think --

She had a lot of bad dreams after graduation night.

The tense hunch to Mac's shoulders eases. When she looks up, there's far more curiosity than worry now.

"What're the Endless?"

"Uh, Endless?"

Lilly laughs.

"They're anthropomorphic personifications of the big stuff, Death and Desire and Destiny and Despair and Dream and Delirium and... there's another one, too. Destruction! Anyway, they've been around since before time and are unbelievably powerful and you don't want to piss them off."

Dream probably wishes Lilly paid a little more attention to her own advice.

It'd mean one of them would, anyway.

Because after she hears the name "Destruction," Mac freezes, and doesn't hear much else.

"Are you serious?" she asks, a little sharply.

Lilly frowns.

"Almost as serious as I get, actually. Why?"

Consciously, the next morning, she'd made a decision to write off that night as a dream.

Unconsciously, she'd never really thought it was.

"I met him." Quiet, but abrupt, as if she's trying to say it before she changes her mind. "The last one. Destruction."

Lilly's eyebrows go up. Way up.

"Oh? Um. How'd that go?"

"About as good as it could've gone when you're talking to the personification of destruction," she tells her, still low, and runs her fingers through the ends of her hair without thinking about it. "It was a while ago."

She pauses to consider.

"It...wasn't like he was mean. Just scary without even trying. One of those kind of people."

"Yeeeah."

Lilly nods.

"Dream's like that. Or he can be. Mostly we're cool, but when he's upset... you just know that he could blink funny and wipe you out. Which can be a bit disconcerting."

Mac snorts.

"Little bit, yeah. Plus the fact that -- okay, with Destruction, at least, he's roughly the size of a baby elephant."

Lilly giggles.

"Yeah, that wouldn't help much. Although... if he actually were a baby elephant, that would help a lot. Who could be intimidated by Dumbo?"

That gets a flat look.

And then, just the tiniest bit of a smirk.

"I've got four words for you," she says. "Just four. Pink Elephants On Parade."

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awesome_lilly - 2006-08-16 04:04 (UTC) - Expand

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q_in_training - 2006-08-16 04:09 (UTC) - Expand

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