milliways_bar | (no subject)

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The specials show up on the board the minute he gets there. Bartending's fun -- at least he had fun the last time he was back here -- and if nothing else, he'll have paid off that new set of clothes Bar gave him after his trip to Ellen's world. The last thing he wants is to be known as some kind of freeloader. He's always paid his way, ever since he was seventeen and found himself alone, and there's no reason he'd stop doing it just 'cause he's stuck here.

Tonight's Specials

Easy Action
Between the Sheets
A Goodnight Kiss

The specials make him laugh but hey, they're kind of appropriate and at least they go in progression. He adds one more thing to the board before setting up shop for the duration:

Pyramid advice & info always free

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"A few, huh?"

He had uncles and aunts and cousins but none of them lived on Picon, although he's got the vaguest memories of some big family get-together, some reunion or other, when he was a little kid.

"All looking after you, all turning you into the kickass lady you are now." It's just a little fond supposition on his part; he's got no idea what it was really like and that's exactly how it should be. They're not even from the same world. They only intersect at a place that shouldn't even exist and no, he's decided he's never gonna give up on that supposition, on the theory that all of this might just be some long involved dream.

"Just not kickass enough for your pyramid team to beat mine."

(He had to throw that in.)

"Are you kidding?" Dinah says, apparently unimpressed. Although that doesn't fit well with the laughter she's biting back.

"I've seen your team lineup. What, did you lose the coin toss and had to pick last?"

"Hey." His hands go out, generous, palms up. "Someone had to get stuck with me."

"It's true," she admits, heaving a sympathetic sigh. "Those poor jerks."

She lifts her glass, notices it's empty, and hands it to him.

"So how about Between the Sheets?"

He doesn't even miss a beat. "Oh, I'm good there."

Even for an older man. But he doesn't give her much time for rebuttal, just gets a clean glass and mixes up the second drink. Brandy, rum, Triple Sec, and a squeeze of lemonade, all shaken together. Because he can, he garnishes it with a pair of cherries linked by the same stem -- something appropriate about that -- and hands the glass over with a wink.

"Between the sheets."

He is, if she stopped to think, probably about the same age as someone who has been making lewd remarks like that for a while now. In fact, Dinah grins when the drink arrives.

"Some of my team would be devastated to miss this happy hour," she remarks.

"Well, you know, there's only so much of us to go around." He's awfully amused, thinks about telling her that Bar put the drink specials up there, not him, but ultimately he decides it's more fun not to protest his innocence.

Why start now when he hasn't done it his whole life.

"It's true," she says. "There's already one other who comes here. I think I like having it as my secret. At least until I catch up with all the future people who litter the place."

If he only had the ability, he'd open up that frakking door and usher in all 98 of his people, no question about it. That's one place he and Dinah definitely differ, on the whole secrecy thing, although he can see its appeal. He also knows just a tiny bit about future people littering the place, although Felix only counts as one and the guy's not exactly crowding him out.

"These future people, are they people you know from home? Like... future versions of them? Or did you meet them here for the first time and figure out about being from the same place after?"

"Mostly they are future versions of people I don't know yet," Dinah says. "I mean, Diana I know at home, now. But Batgirl, Charlie, um. Stephanie? You know her?"

Stephanie, Stephanie... nope. He shakes his head. "Should I?"

He doesn't know Batgirl or Charlie either. Shows how much getting around he still ought to do.

"No," Dinah says. "I haven't seen her for a while. But she's like, this teenage superhero from my world who thinks I'm the greatest person to ever step on to a rooftop. It's nice, but I thought my Mom's were big boots to fill. I didn't think I'd have to fill my own."

Filling other peoples' boots, that's something he knows a little bit about. He remembers the pep talk Coach gave him when he first got to Atlas Arena as a member of the C-Bucs, about how he was the franchise's hope, about how people were looking to him to bring the Kobol Cup back to Caprica for the first time in 48 years, but no pressure, Sam, no pressure at all, just get out there and do your thing. At least no one expected him to have superpowers.

Or maybe they did.

"So is there anyone in your world who isn't a superhero?" He can imagine if they all have superpowers, it might get pretty redundant. Then again, everyone's gonna excel at something, and it won't be the same all around. Aside from knowing flowers and being a hell of a fighter, he hasn't even asked Dinah what her special power is.

Personally, he thinks she's kickass enough even without knowing, but that's just one guy's opinion.

"Yeah," Dinah says. Clearly amused.

Just because everyone in her immediate acquaintance is a superhero, that means nothing. There's most of the entire world, for one.

"My Dad wasn't a superhero. He was a cop and a PI. Just the regular kind of hero."

Man, that makes him nostalgic. "My dad was a marine biologist. My mom, she was the hero in the family. A nurse." Really, they were both heroes. It's a discussion he heard them having over and over while he grew up, although he doesn't need to share that with Dinah or with anyone. They're gone and the memories -- like the one of that playful argument -- that's all he has of them.

That's all he has of most things.

"What was he like? Your dad, I mean."

"Dad?"

She settles her hands around her drink, with the said fond smile she had for Ted, only tainted with the sadness of loss.

"He was funny. Or at least, he tried to be. Took nothing too seriously and always assumed everything would work out. If you could bottle cocksure optimism, that would be my dad.

"And he had impeccable style."

Under other circumstances he'd make some crack or other ("impeccable style like mine, you mean?") but nah, not here, not this time. It's not appropriate.

"He sounds like a great guy. Natural optimists like that, they're pretty rare." A lot of people give lip service to it, but they're just twisted cynics deep down.

"What happened to him? If you don't mind me asking." Sometimes dredging up the past is good, but other times? Not so much. He'll leave it up to Dinah.

She doesn't mind. It's not the easiest topic in the world, but it's not too complicated, and one of the perils of her chosen life.

It takes a swallow of her drink before she can answer, though

"Alien invasion," she says. "He didn't usually tag along with the Justice Society on missions, but I guess that night he got caught up and went along to help? And it went wrong."

Only one thing he can really say about that.

"Frak. I'm sorry that happened." He knows what it's like to want to go and help. It's why he volunteered to go with Ellen, and he didn't even think twice about it until Kara got mad at him for offering to go. Probably Dinah's dad felt the same way, just felt like he was being useful or wanted to see what it was all about or...

Yeah.

"Mine died when I was seventeen. Accident on a deep-sea research ship. Took my mom too." Dinah didn't ask but misery kind of loves company, so what the frak. It's not like it's a secret or anything, and at least this way she'll know his sympathy isn't... isn't false or contrived.

"I'm sorry."

To lose them both - Dinah had a hard time with her mother after they lost Larry. Dinah snr blamed herself, but she blamed Larry as well for being there. Watching her mother lose herself in grief was hard, but Dinah couldn't imagine having to lose them both.

She wonders if losing them so young was easier than losing them in the robot attack, but it doesn't bear thinking

"I was fifteen. Mom - she retired shortly after. Said she didn't want me thinking about doing it, either. But I remember thinking - if Mom isn't out there, someone has to be. And I think Dad would be proud."

She thinks.
Hopes, anyway.

"It was a long time ago." Half his life ago by now, and while it's clearly been a defining factor in making him who he is, he's been independent for... for years.

Dinah's a lot younger than he is, and her wound is a lot more fresh. "It never goes away, but it gets more bearable, I can promise you that." It's no lie -- he remembers how acute the pain was when he got the word, how torn up he was, how much he had to figure out without their guidance -- but it was a long time ago. He still loves his parents, no question about it. They were great, and losing them was awful.

But by now it is what it is, or what it was.

"I used to talk to my dad all the time about playing pyramid. When I was little, I was such an armchair critic. He was originally from Caprica and he watched the C-Bucs, but I was born on Picon so I was a Panthers fan. I used to rag on the C-Bucs all the time, all the godsdamn time. One day he told me if I didn't like the way things were, it was up to me to change it. I told him I would."

Yeah. He nods, a little wistfully.

"I guess he'd be proud of me for living up to that promise."

She knows it gets bearable, at least. It's been a long five years and she's lived the recovery.

And now, she smiles, not wanting to get too deep into maudlin when she's nearly two drinks down.

"You sure it was that and not that the Panthers wouldn't take you?"

Ha. That's the spirit.

"Oh, the Panthers wanted me. Got drafted right out of college by the Sagittaron Archers in the first round. They traded me to the Leonis Wildcats for their next two picks and cash, and the rep for the Wildcats told me the Panthers were angling for me but they weren't gonna budge. They needed a big forward guard, the Panthers, but so did the Wildcats and they had me. That was a great place to play."

And after that, by the time Leonis put him on the trading block, he was way out of the Panthers' budget.

"Pro sports." His shrug is idle enough, but tinged with pride. He could talk about the shit that goes on behind the scenes in pyramid for weeks without getting tired.

Dinah also shrugs, shaking her head.

"Team sports. Ted never had to worry about this."

He's gotta laugh. Point made, at least.

"I don't have to worry about it any more. Only about kicking your team's ass, and Team One's ass. Just because I'm not getting paid to do it doesn't mean I won't."

Yeah, a little friendly rivalry's always a good thing, especially in pyramid.