Happy Hour

[strongest_faith]

When he enters Milliways, Alec Lightwood's face undergoes a transformation from furrowed concentration to pleased surprise.

No gear today, he's dressed in a sweater that probably used to be black and dark jeans, and he's carrying a dusty, leatherbound book. When he reaches the bar, he's greeted with a napkin, which he reads and frowns slightly.

"You know I'm not twenty-one, right?"

He gets another napkin and nods. "I mean, sure. How bad can it be?"

He vaults the bar because...Shadowhunter, and before long he's scribbled out a specials board:

Specials

Coffee
Coke
Canada Dry

After a moment's thought, he picks up the board again and scrawls across the bottom:

...or any kind of ginger ale, really

While he waits for customers, he opens his book and starts flipping through it idly.

Comments

[fiery_ring]

"Ginger ale sounds good, please." Carlotta says, sitting on the barstool.

[strongest_faith]

Alec looks up from his book with a crooked smile. "Sure," he says. "Any particular brand?"

[fiery_ring]

"Whatever you recommend." Carlotta says, with a smile.

"Bar decided you weren't old enough for alcohol?"

[strongest_faith]

He shrugs. "I'm seventeen. I wouldn't trust me with alcohol either." That is to say, he doesn't like to break the rules. Not without a reason.

[fiery_ring]

She laughs. "At least you're honest. You're not missing much anyway."

[strongest_faith]

He finds the Canada Dry and pours it into a tall glass without ice. "I've seen what idiots it makes of people," he says. "I don't really need that in my life."

[fiery_ring]

"My ex husband was a drinker. Trust me, more trouble than it's worth when it's in excess." Carlotta shakes her head.

[strongest_faith]

"I've heard that too," Alec says. "I'll stick to coffee and Coke."

[fiery_ring]

"Good plan." she offers him a hand to shake. "Carlotta Brown."

[strongest_faith]

"Alec Lightwood," he says, shaking her hand warmly. There are black runes scrawled all up his arm. "Nice to meet you."

[fiery_ring]

"You too." Carlotta says. "Have you been coming here long? You'd only have been a little boy when I was last here, if you were around then."

[strongest_faith]

"Oh no," he says. "Not that long. It's only been a few months? Since the first time I visited."

He thinks for a moment about what Max would think of Milliways, and it makes him smile. When his parents get back from Idris, he'll have to see about telling Max.

[fiery_ring]

"How are you finding it?" Carlotta asks.

[strongest_faith]

"Strange?" He shrugs. "I thought it was part of Faerie at first, and I'm still not sure I trust it."

There's a beat, and then he smiles. "It's still pretty incredible."

[fiery_ring]

"I was still in school when I came here first. Thought the teachers had a very fancy common room."

[ooc: Whoops, sorry!]

[strongest_faith]

Alec laughs a little. "I was pretty sure I'd been through every inch of the Institute, or I might have thought Hodge was keeping a secret from us."

[fiery_ring]

"Is the institute a type of school?" Carlotta asks.

[strongest_faith]

Alec's mouth twists into a sort of thoughtful pucker. "I mean, kind of? It's the base of Shadowhunter operation, a sanctuary, and a training facility if there are minor Shadowhunters there. There's one in every major city."

[fiery_ring]

"What's a shadowhunter?"

[strongest_faith]

"Oh!" Alec looks a bit surprised. He so rarely interacts with mundanes in his world that he basically never has to explain what a Shadowhunter is, and he's new enough to Milliways that he isn't used to it here either.

"Right, um...Shadowhunters are children of men with Angel's blood in their veins. Nephilim. We're demon hunters, basically."

[fiery_ring]

"Ah, I see, that does sound like it would require a good deal of training." Carlotta nods.

[strongest_faith]

Alec nods. "Most children are trained by their parents or with a tutor in Alicante, but my parents run the New York Institute."

He does not, notably, sound like he is from New York. His accent is sort of like someone from northern Switzerland learned to speak English fluently from someone with a British accent. Mostly British with a dash of vaguely central European.

"It does sound like a school, though, doesn't it?" he says, as though this has never occurred to him.

[fiery_ring]

Carlotta's own accent is sort of a half cockney half Spanish.

"A little, a fun sort of school." she grins. "Nothing that dramatic went on at my school."

[strongest_faith]

Alec laughs, and it comes out as a sudden burst of sound that's cut off just as quickly.

"I...I wouldn't call the Institute's training fun, exactly. Some parts are okay."

He finds the physical training difficult because Jace is always better, always faster, and always so good about trying not to make Alec feel like he's lagging.

[fiery_ring]

"Did you at least make friends going through the same?"

[strongest_faith]

He thinks of Jace, because he often thinks of Jace, and then shrugs. "Not exactly. It was just me and my family."

[fiery_ring]

Carlotta nods.

"What do you make of it now?"

[strongest_faith]

"Of the Institute?" he asks. "It's home. Or as near to home as anywhere can be, outside of Alicante."

[fiery_ring]

"I meant of the job, really." Carlotta says. "But I understand what you mean, I felt the same about my boarding school. Not least because in the holidays I used to go to my father's house, and I'd hardly known him before I went to school."

[strongest_faith]

"Oh," Alec says, ducking his head a little. "I don't know that I've ever thought about it as a job. It's just...what we do. What we've always done, what we were made for.

"Was your mother not around?" He asks this fully expecting that the answer will be that Carlotta's mother has died. That's usually why Shadowhunters stay with just one parent.

[fiery_ring]

"She died." He's right. "When I was a baby. I was raised by the circus folk because she'd ran away from my father."

[strongest_faith]

He nods, serious. "I'm sorry," he says. That's fairly common where he's fro as well. His brother Jace isn't really his brother, just a foster they took in when his father was murdered.

"What was that like? Growing up in a circus?"

[fiery_ring]

"Actually, it was a lot of fun." Carlotta says. "They were very kind to me, and I learned many skills, but I was very behind in my education when I went to school. I was lucky to have the best of both worlds. I hope to have that for my own children."

She gets up. "Speaking of which, I best get them into bed. It's been nice talking to you."

[strongest_faith]

"You as well," Alec says, clearing her glass from the bartop with a smile.

That really wasn't such a challenge after all.


[ooc: Thanks for the thread!]