milliways_bar | (no subject)

“I’m very you could make it.” Gavin smiled from across the table.

“Thanks for having me.” Phoenix glanced at the menu. “I, ah, can’t really afford this right now…”

“Don’t worry about the cost.” Gavin waved a hand. “Order whatever you like. I’m sure it’s been a while since you’ve had a good meal.”

And whose fault is that? Phoenix thought bitterly. He wasn’t even sure if Gavin knew that Phoenix knew about his likely involvement in his disbarment, or if the things he was saying were just for his own twisted amusement. Better if he thought that Phoenix saw him as a friend.

Eventually their food arrived. Phoenix wouldn’t put it past Gavin to poison him, but he didn’t think he’d do it in view of so many witnesses. Besides, Gavin couldn’t watch Phoenix suffer if he killed him.

And besides, Gavin was right - he hadn’t eaten like this in a while.

Gavin steepled his fingers together. “So tell me, how has life been treating you, Wright?”

You know exactly how it’s been treating me, you sick bastard.

“It has its ups and downs. Still trying to adjust, I guess.”

“I know I’ve said it before, but it was positively cruel the way you were disbarred so quickly.” His voice was like honey as he spoke.

Phoenix had left the Magatama at home - he didn’t need it picking up psyche-locks every time Gavin opened his mouth; he’d get a headache.

Phoenix shrugged. “It is what it is.”

“Have you managed to find out anything else about what happened?”

Phoenix had spoken to a few people recently - namely the forger and his young daughter, the latter of whom Phoenix suspected had actually produced the forged page. She said she had spoken with a man who visited her. She also said that as she spoke to him, she thought she saw the devil. Phoenix could begin to hazard a guess who it was.

“Not much, no.” Phoenix raised an eyebrow. “I heard you were the only one on the bar who voted against disbarring me.”

“It was the least I could do. I’m only sorry it wasn’t enough.” Gavin pushes the food around his plate. “What are you doing now?”

“A few odd jobs here and there.” The more in the dark Gavin was about Phoenix’s current life, the better.

“I’m sure life must be so difficult for you now.” Gavin leaned forward slightly. “I do worry about you, you know.”

Phoenix wanted to punch him. He wanted to puke.

Instead, he took another sip of wine.

Gavin continued. “Gramarye’s daughter is still with you, yes?”

Phoenix gripped the edge of his chair, fighting back the bile in his throat.

“Yeah,” he said. “She’s almost eleven now.”

“The poor little girl.” Gavin tutted. “To lose everything, at such a young age…”

Phoenix allows himself to swallow, in lieu of reaching over and strangling him, for even insinuating that he’d threaten Phoenix’s daughter in any way -

“I know. But she’s adjusted really well.” Phoenix, for once that evening, lets himself be genuine. “I’m really proud of her.”

“She deserves a happy childhood.”

“She does.”

The rest of the meal continues mostly in silence, and

“Have a good evening, Wright,” Gavin smiles. “Do tell me if you find out anything else.”

“Sure.”

After the dinner, Phoenix enters Milliways, a stormy expression on his face.

He puts his face in his hands, nails digging into his beanie. He takes in a deep breath, until he can't take in any more air, and then lets it out.

I need a fucking drink.

A beer is waiting at the bar for Phoenix before he is even across the room. He manages to mutter a "Thanks," before unscrewing it and putting the bottle to his lips. He only had a sip or two of the wine, and it wasn't nearly enough.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Nice hat," comes a voice from down the bar.

It comes from a young man a few seats down, wearing his own conspicuous headgear. With a bottle of beer of his own, Loki has been going through several newspapers. Beyond the one he's currently flipping through, there are several more neatly stacked off to one side, with an iPad sitting on top.

Phoenix glances in the direction of the voice, and scans the man up and down.

"Could say the same about you, bud." He takes another sip. "You new here?"

Loki feels like he's been vaguely insulted, but he ignores it.

"I suppose so, yes," he says. "You're not, I take it?"

"I've been coming here for a few years, yeah." Phoenix shrugs. "So what do you think of the place so far?"

Loki looks around casually and shrugs.

"I don't trust anything that thinks for itself and doesn't have a face," he says. "Usually it means someone made it think, and people who make things think are dangerous."

He's one to speak. Which is why he knows not to trust this place.

That is....a really good point, actually. Phoenix hadn't thought much about where Milliways came from.

"Well, Bar's been nothing but kind to me, and everyone else here, so I can't complain."

"Oh, yes," Loki agrees. "Plenty of kind and friendly people to go around."

He's noticed as well. It's highly suspicious.

"I've never known anywhere to be entirely full of kind and friendly people though."

But he's got plenty of reasons to be suspicious of such things. Most of them come back around to his own actions, but still.

Phoenix shrugs.

"I guess we're all kind of in the same boat here - a bunch of random people who were brought to a separate universe. That might have something to do with it."

"I, for one, never claimed to be friendly or kind," Loki says with a playful tone. "A place like this, that kind of assumption can be dangerous."

Aside from the horns, which may just be an unusual fashion statement, nothing about Loki seems to give off any kind of unsavoury vibe. He's just a young man in designer jeans and a stupid hat.

"Guess that's fair." Can't be too trusting - I know that all too well, now.

"And who might you be, Mr. not-friendly-or-kind?"

"Is this bar secretly just a single dads support group?" says the lanky, monkey-faced man a few seats down.

Lupin is mostly speaking to the beanie, but honestly, he's really starting to see a pattern here in the clientele. Dads and dad-adjacent persons.

Phoenix smirks. "How do you know I'm single?"

Lupin pointedly looks at the wine bottle, then up and down at Phoenix's outfit, then back at the wine bottle.

"Just a vibe I'm getting," he says, settling back into his seat.

"Fair enough." Phoenix shrugs.

"I'm Phoenix. I haven't seen you around - are you new here?"

"Nope. You're just that drunk, sorry."

"Already? Thought I had a higher tolerance than that." Phoenix takes another sip, not really knowing if the man is kidding or not, and not really caring either way.

"Are you a dad, too? You don't quite look the type."