Bartending!

[hey35andholding]

When the door catches Clementine, she actually freezes in her tracks in surprise - and juggles the basket of laundry she'd been carrying into a Suds and Fold back in Reno.

She shrugs and heads over to the bar, prepared to order something so cold it'll make her forget what August in Reno feels like. But there's a napkin and ugh...no arguements.


~SPECIALS:

Washington Square
Royal Laundry
Arctic Mouthwash

Peppermint Candy, soda, and beer on-tap, 20% off if you're ordering a craft brew from Reno Nevada

Fifty percent off your drink if you're willing to fluff and fold



She lips the top off of her bottle of cola and leans back against the bar. Within minutes you can find her eyeing the pile of laundry as if it's a mountain she must climb. Commiseration or mockery are equally welcome.

[OOC: celebrating the long-awaited conclusion of my home remodel! Tags are happening allll freaking night, and I'm cleaning out my backlog, and all slowtimes will be far less slow from now on.]

Comments

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Thank you," says Ellen, and deposits a number of bottlecaps on the Bar. "We don't have this in my part of the country. Just plain old Nuka-Cola. I'll help with folding the laundry, though- is there anything special you need done?"

[hey35andholding]

"Nuka-Cola?" that's a new one on Clem. She picks up a transparent black blouse and starts folding it with expertise. "Only for you to be careful with my delicates, they cost more than the blouses."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"If you open the reach-in cooler over there and look in the back, there's usually a couple of bottles of it," Ellen says. "The glass of the bottles is blue, the soda is brown, and the label is red and white. It's not bad, as long as you don't get a bottle of Quantum instead, but you'd know Nuka-Cola Quantum if you saw it. It glows in the dark."

[hey35andholding]

And so there is a cooler, and into it Clementine reaches, bending over and snagging one of them. "Glows in the..." She holds up the bottle and eyes it with caution. "The future is braver than I thought."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Oh, Quantum's worse than that. I only know two people who've ever actually swallowed it," Ellen says as she settles to folding trousers and shorts and things of that nature. "One of them told me it's like drinking a regular Nuka-Cola and then eating a fistful of sugar and then getting punched in the head. And then he didn't have to turn on the light when he went to the bathroom for a week. The regular kind's just soda."

Which tastes remarkably like Coke, although not entirely.

[hey35andholding]

Clementine gingerly replaces the soda. "It's like taking Pop Rocks on coke," Clementine says. "And chugging a glo-stick. No thank you." She picks up her beer and settles down with it. "So how're things on your side of the door?

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Pretty good, for once," Ellen says. "I've been promoted to Paladin, and they took the opportunity to make me an official chaplain at the same time before sending me out on an assignment. We're working on getting a prewar robot factory up and running again. How about you?"

[hey35andholding]

"A Paladin? Well, good for you." It sounds pretty damn important. "Just for that, your first drink's free." Plus she's doing a pretty damn good job folding up Clem's jeans. "Dangle was promoted a couple of weeks ago...and he screwed it up, so he's back in town. The Wolves almost made the Western Conference. But otherwise, nothing much."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Thank you! It's a military rank. It's kind of like being a commissioned officer," Ellen says. "So that's something. Is Dangle his actual name, or just a call sign? I ask because I've got an initiate called Dimple on guard duty at the factory, but I haven't found out how she got stuck with that name yet."

[hey35andholding]

"Dangle's his last name," she says. "He's a Lieutenant, and he's right over me in rank - and his name's just Jim." And Ellen's admission gets a grin out of Clementine. "Well, well - you've moving up in the world."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"If it means I get projects that keep me away from having to deal with the people in the Vault I grew up with, I'll take it," Ellen says. "Up until now I lived in a town right near Vault 101. I still do, I mean, my house is there, but the factory assignment means I'm too far away from Megaton for the town sheriff to knock on my door and ask me to come play ambassador to people who never liked me growing up and who used to make fun of me all the time and who're just starting to see the surface world now and don't know what to do."

[hey35andholding]

"Anything to escape the assholes, right?" Clementine shakes her head. "Do they appreciate you where they're putting you?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Thankfully, yes," says Ellen. "There's only seven other people and a couple of robots, but the people I'm working with are all pretty decent people. Scribe Thornburgh keeps hiding my things as pranks, but he hides everyone's things if he thinks he can get away with it, so I don't think it counts."

[hey35andholding]

"Are the robots like...sentient? Or are they normal push-button-go-beep robots?" that's the pertinent question, right?

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"They can act independently and speak English, but they're Protectrons. They're not self-aware," Ellen says. "They only respond within their programming, and they weren't designed to be especially bright to begin with."

[hey35andholding]

"All right. That's better than the other way around." The other way around sounded plenty bad enough to Clementine. "But anyway, forget about the prankster. Just loosen up and have fun."