bartending

[salver]

All Bobby wanted to do was come in for a six-pack so he didn't have to go out for one. He's got his own idea of what he needs to be doing -- there's a sheaf of papers ripped out of a book to translate and send down to Cheyenne to be pieced back together, and there's his battered old copy of The Milagro Beanfield War to reread for the fifth time -- but apparently the bar has other ideas.

"Yeah?" Bobby asks the bar. "What's in it for me?"

A note appears.

Bobby smiles.




Shortly thereafter, he slings a towel over his shoulder behind the bar, and chalks something up on the board in very precise handwriting:

SPECIALS

MOONSHINE MADE FROM A CACTUS

I DIDN'T ASK WHAT KIND OF CACTUS AND NEITHER SHOULD YOU

AND IF YOU GO BLIND IT'S NOT MY FAULT; CAVEAT EMPTOR

Looks like happy hour is open.

[Open until ten Mountain time! Threadhop! Try the moonshine!

And for the record: there is no known liquor made from the cactus.]

[ETA: The witching hour has happened! All threads are slowtimed. Thank you for tagging in! And good god, what is WRONG with you people that you would subject all your characters to CACTUS MOONSHINE. *laughing*]

Comments

[shadowsusannah.livejournal.com]

Susannah usually avoids bartending, for a couple reasons. But tonight, she's tempted.

"Mr. Singer," she says. She wonders if that really was his name, or a convenient alias suggested by their discussion of Dylan. She's watching his reacting, serruptitiously. Her sightline is kind of crap, though, which is one of the reasons.

"I have to figure there's two kinds of people in this world," she goes on. "People who see that and get scared, and people who see that and get thirsty. Guess who I am."

[salver]

"Well, now, Mrs. Toren, I'd say you're a lady that's got a taste for better liquor than cactus moonshine -- you serious?"

Bobby's smiling anyway.

[shadowsusannah.livejournal.com]

"It's not that I don't know better," she admits. "I just can't help myself. Curiosity and cats, and all that."

She eyes the bar. "Be prepared to pick my black ass up if this goes wrong on me." She grips the rail around the bar and vaults herself onto a stool; it rocks a little, but settles.

Still got it.

[mr-v-and-mr-c.livejournal.com]

"And why are we forbidden to inquite as to it's variety, my good man?" This from a short, fox-faced and rather sinister man.

"That is, why not ask," explains his friend, a tall, wolfish, equally sinister fellow.

[salver]

Bobby's smile is easy.

"You could ask. I don't know the answer."

[mr-v-and-mr-c.livejournal.com]

"Point, point." the shorter man grins, revealing teeth like an accident in a graveyard. "I don't believe we've met. Mr. Croup at your service, and my boon companion here is Mr. Vandemar."

[cutting_edgex23]

X, dressed in a pink T-shirt and black track pants--the shirt, at least, was a present from Jamie--looks up at the specials board and frowns.

Slightly.

"Moonshine is alcohol."

Beat.

"I did not know you could do that. With cacti."

This pause is longer, and she studies Bobby for a second or two. Carefully.

"You are not blind."

[salver]

"I got it on pretty good authority that you can make alcohol out of whatever organic plant material that rots, miss. That don't make it good."

And he shakes his head. "Nope. I'm lucky. 'Course, I didn't try it for myself."

[cutting_edgex23]

"I do not like alcohol," she says.

And then, a little more awkwardly--

"There are healers here. If you did go blind. Or if someone who drank the moonshine did."

This is relevant. Clearly.

[ellectrical]

"Oh."

Beat.

"Why's it called that?"

If X knows it's alcohol, maybe she knows that, too?

[cutting_edgex23]

X tilts her head, frowning slightly.

And then--

"I do not know."

Beat.

"I did not ask."

X never thinks of stuff like that.

[srsdrinker.livejournal.com]

Who is he to turn down the special?

(Especially when it reminds him of the trip to Shadow with Sallie Reynolds, and the delightfully strong moonshine he'd tried. What little of that trip he remembers.)

"I'll have the special."

Oh yeah, he's in full Musketeer getup. Tunic, breeches, boots, and rapier.

[salver]

He's in full Musketeer getup.

Bobby tilts his head to the right as he reaches for a clean glass.

"Sir, I'm hoping you're not gonna take this the wrong way. You know what a cactus is?"

[srsdrinker.livejournal.com]

"I read about them...in a..."

Athos thinks a moment.

"National Geographic the lady provided me."

[will_scarlett]

"Cactuses are those things that grow in the dessert, aye, sir?"

Will is curious and confused, this could end badly.

[salver]

"Yep," Bobby agrees. "Some of 'em are real big, and some of 'em aren't. Spiky, though. You ever seen one for yourself?"

[will_scarlett]

"Oh aye, once, sir, when I was aidin' me friend Doc Scurlock. New Mexico's just bloody dusty though, needs more trees."

Accent and outfit do fit rather well for an outlaw from Sherwood and he'd stand out really horribly in the Old West but that's Milliways for you.

[ellectrical]

Elle's been sitting at the Bar, resting her head in her hand and not looking at anything in particular before her eyes glance over to the Specials board.

"... is it good?"

She doesn't sound genuinely interested. More curious as to why it would exist.

[salver]

"I wouldn't know, miss. I'm not planning on trying it myself." Bobby leans against the bar a couple of feet down. "Can I get you something?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

There's a young woman with steel-grey hair and grubby black body armor squinting up at the board. She has the look of someone who's earnestly trying to sound out words without giving away that she's, well, trying to sound out words.

[salver]

Bobby leaves the giant glass beaker behind when he approaches. "Can I get you something, miss?"

[untiedtheknots]

A tall brunette is staring at the specials board with an expression like rapture.

"...cactus moonshine?"

[salver]

"What it says on the label," Bobby says cheerfully, gesturing to the board.

It should perhaps be noted that the giant glass beaker out of which he is dispensing the cactus moonshine with a turkey baster does not have a label on it.

[simon_doctor]

Simon's looking at the Specials sign very dubiously indeed.

[salver]

Bobby beams at him. "Evening. What'll it be?"

Even money it's not the cactus moonshine.