milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Varric had meant to enter the Hanged Man this evening, but if the odd magic bar decided to appear instead, who is he to argue? Although the note that appeared when he went to see about getting a pint was pretty well unexpected, he reads it and solemnly nods. "Far be it from me to cause trouble when there's magic involved," he says. "But I'm going to need a stepstool."

He gets one.

Specials Tonight:

Antivan Brandy
Ale
Wine

After some thought he adds:

Drink a pint of Orzammar dwarven brew without making a face, and your next drink is half off

He's a surfacer. He can get away with that.

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Axel is. Well, he kind of can't resist a challenge.

"So, what's this dwarven brew?"

"The dwarves of Orzammar," says Varric, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the bartop, "have a long and storied tradition of brewing, with the most famous tavern in central Orzammar offering no less than fifty-two varieties of ale. Unfortunately for the drinker, we aren't talking about a tradition that involves a whole lot of going out into the sun, so they're all made from lichen and fermented mushroom."

"Interestin'. Don't think I've ever had somethin' like that before. Lemme have one."

He kind of wonders how it measures up to Atlantean. Or some of the other more exotic things he's had in this place.

"Suit yourself," says Varric, turning around to find a cask. "Tapster's Red. Best they've got."

It's... strong, it's got that much going for it. But it tastes about like you'd expect beer made from stuff scraped off rocks to taste. Apparently the dwarves of Orzammar start acquiring this particular acquired taste early.

...yeah, Axel makes a face. It tastes awful.

"That's... the worst stuff I've ever tasted," says the man who likes stuff brewed out of blister-the-tongue peppers.

"You see why the specials are everything else?" says Varric, indicating the board. "Sorry about that. Would you believe there's humans who think they're being enlightened and worldly by drinking that stuff voluntarily?"

Axel gives a laughing snort, and carefully pushes the rest of it away.

"Yeah, I'd believe it. I might've done it myself, when I was a kid."

Or, you know. Drank it because it was booze and he wasn't supposed to. Lea was the opposite of an obedient child.

"Fair enough," says Varric. "Can I get you anything decent in the meantime?"

"Glass of the red stuff," Axel says pointing it out on the shelf.

The 'red stuff' is in a small bottle, and is about the colour of his hair.

Varric considers the contents of the bottle a moment before shrugging and pouring it out. "Looks like some of the stuff I saw an herbalist selling in the Hightown market the other day," he says. "Mind if I ask what's in it?"

"That's a really good question," he replies. "It was made for me by a god of booze."

He doesn't remember that day very well, er.

"Huh," says Varric thoughtfully and eyes the stuff more closely. "When you say 'god', do you mean something like a Paragon? Or would that be a god who actually made himself useful, unlike the humans' Maker?"

Axel shrugs.

"One of the Greek pantheon, I think," he replies. "Wouldn't know anything' about the rest of that."

"And I," Varric says, "have no idea what 'Greek' is. Guess we're even."

"Greece is a place on a world far away," Axel explains. "They ahve a lot of gods, that constantly get in peoples' business, until they get beat up by teenagers with giant keys."

...Or at least that's how it works in his experience.

"Great food though."

Varric has to think about that for a while. Eventually he says, "Sounds like Rivain. Or the stories they tell about the place, anyway."

"Greece is a place with a lot of stories. So, gonna go out on a limb and guess you're not from any of the variations of Earth."

So far as he knows, they all have Greece, or a reasonable facsimile thereof.

"Not so far as I know," says Varric. "Back home they say we dwarves come from the Stone, originally. That's as close as I get to being from earth."

"Nah, Earth's a place. Most people here come from one version or another."

"Is that so." Varric shakes his head. "Well, it's not any place I ever heard of. They're welcome to it, as far as I'm concerned. Plenty of opportunities back home."

"No interest in other worlds?" he asks.

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