milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Mike isn't so much seated at Bar as he is slumped over her. He hates days like today. You know the kind, where what you've been putting off all week just has to be done.

The concern du jour is the lack of writing on this week's Happy Hour schedule. There's just no amount of squinting that's going to make writing magically appear on the calendar before him, and he knows it.

It's just unfair the way the universe works, you know? That procrastination can't continue indefinitly.

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"Not habitually, but it's all right."

"I'm not a huge fan of it myself, but it might help set, you know the mood. Er...not that kind of mood."

Mike reaches behind the couch and retrieves a couple of square cushions, which he then tosses onto the middle of the floor.

"Lemme just move the coffee table here. Good. And I'll go put some water on."

Then he scurries over to the kitchen.

"Okay, thanks."

Guppy sits on the couch and waits, glancing around at the other rocks.

"So like, have you never done this before at all?

...

I swear I'm not trying to sex you up."

Calls Mike from the kitchen.

Guppy goes very red and clears his throat.

"Not properly, I never managed to clear my mind."

"Okay good to know. Then the tea will totally help. It's all like...calming and stuff. OH! And speaking of calming: Steamed sweet bean paste dumplings or rice balls? You know...while I'm in here."

"Um, rice balls please."

"Righto!"

Mike transfers some pre-formed riceballs into a steamer to keep them warm, then pours the kettle water into the tea pot, which in turn goes on the tray.

"Okay, there's a bit of a ceremony that goes along with this. I don't know if it's official or anything, but it's how I learned when I first started learning. Basically what I'm going to do is start making the tea and you're going to focus on the making of the tea. Then you're going to drink the tea and focus your mind on how your body takes the tea.

But first and foremost take off your shoes and plop yourself comfortable-like on the cushion of your choice."

"Okay." Guppy says. "Er, sorry about the smell of my feet."

He sits on the cushion.

"You mean like... think about how the tea is going down my oesophagus and stuff?"

"Yup!"

Says Mike, loading the tray with wisks and other implements.

"I'm sure it'll come as a shock to you, but as a kid I had a little bit of an attention span problem. So Splinter, my father, thought that this was the best way to keep me still."

Because surely, as an adult what he's now burdened with is an overabundance of focus.

"Splinter is an unusual name."

Guppy knows quite a bit about his oesophagus, though he isn't sure if that helps.

He grins, walking back into the living room.

"Master Splinter is an unusual guy."

Then a thought occurs to him.

"You...do know that I normally a turtle, right?"

Blink... "Literally?"

Shrug. "I don't think so. But I hear many unusual things around here, it's possible someone told me a long time ago and I forgot."

"Literally. Figuratively. Honestly and truly I swearedly. Here...lemme get a picture."

Mike puts down the tray and sprints out of the living room to his bedroom. After a few short seconds of massive whole-sale rummaging he returns with a picture in a Margaritaville frame.

"That's me there."

He's pointing to the turtle in the orange mask.

"And that's Master Splinter."

Now he's pointing to the rat. The four and a half foot tall rat...in the kimono.

"Wow, cool!"

Guppy smiles at the picture.

"Are all the other turtles here too? I think you mentioned Raph, who I met once or twice."

"That's cap'n grumpyshell right there."

Mike points to the turtle in red who isn't really smiling.

"Leo and Don don't come in much anymore. If I could leave I'd ask them why but..."

He shrugs.

"You're bound?"

"I'm Barman. It kind of goes with the territory."

"Oh yeah, point. But don't you ever get leave?"

"Uh...not really, no."

Mike takes the picture back and stands it up next to a rather sizable quartz crystal.

"I mean, I go out by the lake a lot, but that's pretty much it."

"Is that because you're connected with Bar, or can you just not get cover?"

"It's because of the Bar connection thing, but...get cover?"

"You know, ask someone to cover for your work. Like if I'm away from work I get a locum to cover."

"Oooooooh! Hah! Right right, I thought you meant...like...because of the turtle thing...nevermind.

I could, but it'd mean bonding them with Bar."

"Ah, sounds difficult and possibly painful."

He runs a hand through his hair. "So, we start with tea?"