InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Ho hum."

Samuel Madin (tiger_says_rawr) wrote in bellumlogs,
@ 2010-06-14 12:42:00

Entry tags:

shere khan, wicked witch

Who: Joanie and Sam.
What: Talk of tattoos and drinking, more emphasis on the drinking.
Where: Starting at the ink place then off to some bar.
When: Erm. Monday night?
Warnings: Rated PG-13 for language and mild thematic elements.

Sam wasn't exactly sure why he randomly decided to get a tattoo - maybe it was because he was starting over in a new place, a new building, and it was a way to mark a fresh start. But good lord, was he turning into his father with the way he just went through life at random, making decisions on the fly and who knows, maybe tomorrow he would end up having bought a brokedown tractor?

But no, that wasn't it. He could exercise his usual practicality in this decision despite having Issues much like most of the inhabitants of Bellum; he was his own person and he was going to live his own life. It had actually been fun, discussing placement options with Joanie, who seemed very dedicated to 'her craft.' Between the shoulder blades seemed like the best idea - it was covered easily by any shirt he wore, calf tattoos made you look like a tool (Sam was convinced of this), he was not eager to put anything on his feet, and the shoulder was too cliche. As far as what it would be, names were out and so were Chinese symbols because they were so overdone. For some reason, he really liked the Hindi word designs - but what to say, was the question? That could be decided later. He could always come up with something and then ask Joanie to draw it, which suited him just fine. It was officially Booze O'Clock, so drinks were the name of the game right now, and he would wait patiently while she did what she needed to do to close up.

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tiger_says_rawr
2010-06-14 08:26 pm UTC (link)

Sam laughed too - but quietly - he masked it with a cough to hide it, but the look in his eyes was still one with a great deal of mirth. "Weird stuff has already happened, hate to break it to you. But no, not being blindsided is appreciated," he said, tipping the bottle back to get the remaining drops of beer. "Except now I can't decide if I want to just put all my shit in a box and leave, or stay so I can officially join the ranks. I think you'd look good in green," he added, grin still present.

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wickedwicker
2010-06-14 08:32 pm UTC (link)

She took a drink of her beer, setting it down with about a quarter of the bottle left. As he mentioned being caught between staying and leaving, she shrugged. "It's your call," she said. "I mean, you've got time. Still, it's kind of entertaining, when you aren't confused as all hell."

As he mentioned her looking good in green, she raised a brow. "Excuse me?" She tried to maintain a serious face, but snickered, taking another sip of her beer. "I'll have you know that Kermit was completely right. It isn't easy, so don't go glamorizing it. Do you know what I get to wear when I'm green? Black. That's it." She didn't seem to notice that she was wearing a black tank top and hoodie with dark jeans and black boots. Apparently, it only counted when she couldn't wear anything else. "Anything else would clash."

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tiger_says_rawr
2010-06-14 08:40 pm UTC (link)

"Yeah, entertaining..." That was a word for it. "It's not like me to just puss out," Sam stated. "So I'm sure I'll stay. I mean, it's supposed to be - " He didn't know what it was supposed to be. A glimpse into the past? Into the person you once were when you were...fiction? It probably didn't make sense unless you had sniffed a few sharpie markers previously.

He checked out Joanie in her gothic garb, lifting an eyebrow. "You wear black all the time anyway, right? At least the green...brings out your eyes." And hell if he knew what other colors went with green. "Gold?" Sam suggested. "I guess it wouldn't matter though. It's not like you're going out to party when you're green."

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wickedwicker
2010-06-14 08:44 pm UTC (link)

"Good man," she said as he resolved to stay. She tipped her beer to him before throwing it back, draining the bottle. "At least you won't be suffering alone." She smirked. They were all kind of on this boat of shit together, really. Everybody in the building, whether they liked it or not.

She rolled her eyes as he mentioned the green bringing out their color. If anything, she thought the green made her blue eyes look weird. Then again, Joanie had never had much good to say about her appearance. She had the average amount of confidence for a teenage girl - that is to say, she had a negative amount. "Gold?" She laughed, cringing in pain at the thought. "Yeah no. No, I think I'll stick with black." She paused, frowning slightly. "And there's nothing wrong with it. It's a good color. Slimming." She nodded definitively at that.

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tiger_says_rawr
2010-06-14 08:52 pm UTC (link)

"Misery loves company, right?" Sam said wisely, folding his arms on the table and leaning in a bit. "Alright, so talk more about you besides the green - now that we've gotten that out of the way. You know, the basics. Where you're from, what you did before ending up on this planet, all of that. Maybe add some other random tidbit of your choosing, just for the hell of it." He waited patiently, as if he expected Joanie to tell her whole life story - which he sort of did.

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wickedwicker
2010-06-14 09:02 pm UTC (link)

"Clearly. Can't think of any other reason why I'm still here," she replied flippantly. She was content to trade quips when he shoved all that fun aside and began to act outrageously. She raised a brow as he asked about her life story. Was he for real? Did people actually do this? She snorted, laughing in disbelief.

"The basics about me?" she asked. When he didn't contradict her, she realized that she'd either have to evade like hell or actually have a conversation with a human being. Both options sounded hard. "I'm from a house that always had the AC running, I used to be a space pirate before some assholes on Pluto gave me the wrong directions out of spite, and I have done nothing with my degree in sociology."

She raised a brow, flicking her fingers at him. "Now your turn."

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tiger_says_rawr
2010-06-14 09:31 pm UTC (link)

Sam twisted the beer bottle cap around on the table, looking at Joanie with a combo of disbelief and amusement. "Oooh, great! This is one of those two lies and a truth things. Okay..." he started, trapping the bottle cap with his hand. "Let me figure this out. The AC running is a metaphor for how you grew up in a cold and unloving environment, am I right? Sociology, that's killer. And I would have taken you for a Mars girl, personally."

Two could play at this game. "I'm from a cluttered house filled with carnival mirrors. I used to be Captain Jack Sparrow before I ran out of rum, fell into a black hole, and ended up here. I graduated from Cornell. Figure out which one is the truth," he challenged sarcastically.

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wickedwicker
2010-06-14 09:42 pm UTC (link)

She raised a brow as he speculated on her answers. Honestly, she had thrown out whatever popped from the top of her head. Was there any grains of hidden, deep truth in them? Not really. She snorted as he concluded. "Actually, the AC thing can be taken at face value. I grew up in the south." She stuck her tongue out childishly in an "I win" gesture. Though her accent was perfectly covered up when she was sober, another few beers would tease that southern drawl out. "And they say men are from Mars, so you'll excuse me if that assumption seems suspect."

As he started, she leaned against her elbows, listening with mock intensity. "Okay," she said, holding out her hands and ticking off things one by one. "I suppose the carnival mirrors could be true, however seeing yourself in them all the time might have given you self-esteem problems, and from what I can tell, you aren't lacking that at all." She moved on to her second finger. "Now I know Captain Sparrow, so that one can't be true. That must leave Cornell." She crossed her arms, leaning back in her seat and smirking. "So, are you an Ivy League brat?"

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tiger_says_rawr
2010-06-14 09:56 pm UTC (link)

"Is Captain Sparrow in the building too?" Sam asked with fake shock evident in his tone. "Well, shit! You win, Josie." Hmm, yes, he liked that one! He may stick with it for the time being. "And the AC was on all the time, which must have meant...you came from at least an upper middle class family? Using the AC can be expensive."

At the Ivy League brat comment, he nodded. "Yeah, I am. But you like me anyway, right?" He grinned and set the empty bottle aside. "Next round is you, just so you know. Though maybe I could be persuaded if you tell me something else."

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wickedwicker
2010-06-14 10:04 pm UTC (link)

Josie? She supposed she had been called worse. His surprise at Captain Sparrow's existence made her snicker. So Russell wasn't exactly Captain Jack, but he was close enough. Besides, "Deppititis" was too funny to let go. "Of course I win," she said breezily. As he began to question her family's economic status, she snorted and gestured to her nose, which had a fairly prominent bump at the bridge. "Clearly, I'm Jewish. You shouldn't be surprised."

As he kept talking, she raised a brow. "You should never ask somebody that question," she said with a smirk. "It opens you up way too much, which just takes all the fun away." Leaning against her elbow as he mentioned the second round, she snorted. "So basically you're asking me which I value more: dignity or beer. Is that it?"

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tiger_says_rawr
2010-06-14 10:12 pm UTC (link)

"At least I got a few details out. Jewish? No, I'm not surprised. Only child?" Sam asked.

He snorted a laugh too. "Rhetorical question. I already know you like me anyway." Then he narrowed his eyes in contemplation, rubbing his chin. "Not at all. I'm just trying to figure out which you prefer: Sitting here and staring at me, having a conversation about normal things, or having a conversation about...green things. If it's the first for you, then okay. I hope you enjoy the eyeful. It's going pretty good on my end."

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wickedwicker
2010-06-14 10:30 pm UTC (link)

Was this guy a wizard? He had to be. He just pulled details out of you, the little bastard, and Joanie was getting suspicious. Resting her chin in her hand as he asked if she was an only child, she raised a brow. "Does it count if I ate my brother when I was three?" she replied lazily.

As he explained his reasoning, she scoffed. "Normal is overrated," she said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Besides. It's boring. Where I grew up, where you grew up, 'oh wow we both breathe oxygen, that's so cool!'" She spiked her voice to a high falsetto before letting it come down with a snort. "Most conversations are just people waiting for their turn to talk, anyway."

At that, she stood, glancing at his empty bottle. "Newcastle, right?" She left to the bar and picked them up each a new beer, returning to the table and sliding his to him. "There you go," she said.

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tiger_says_rawr
2010-06-14 10:34 pm UTC (link)

It was really her bratty disposition that led Sam to believe that Josie the Green was an only child, but he didn't say anything. He just smiled. "Is that what most conversations are?" he asked, catching the beer when it was slid to him. "Good to know. So is that why you don't have them very often? And thanks." He toasted her with the full beer. "You can ask me anything you want, since you already know where I grew up and that I breathe oxygen. I'm making you use your brain, because not being able to engage in conversation signals some sort of deficiency."

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wickedwicker
2010-06-14 10:42 pm UTC (link)

At the toast, she returned the gesture, taking a swig afterwards. "Well, what else would they be?" she asked. Really, she just distrusted people. After all, they just liked to ditch when they got bored with you. Stupid people.

At his offer to ask him whatever she wanted, she raised a brow. "Oh really? Well I'd hate to be deficient in some way." She paused, drumming her fingers on the table. This was harder than it looked. "What did you think you were going to be when you were a kid? Like, did you think you'd grow up to be..." She trailed off, gesturing vaguely at him. "What you are now?"

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tiger_says_rawr
2010-06-14 10:54 pm UTC (link)

"A chance to get to know someone else, someone you find legitimately interesting?" Again, another rhetorical question from Sam. If he was bored he probably would have made up some excuse about having a dentist appointment. "What I am now," Sam repeated. "I'm a scientist. And yeah, I think I did, so I worked hard to get there. Things fell into place. They're still falling into place." And hitting him in the head - it was like a shower of bricks, damn. "What about you? Is being a tattoo artist what you always want to do or is it just a stepping stone? Bonus question." He paused for dramatic effect. "Where do you want to be in five years?"

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wickedwicker
2010-06-14 11:18 pm UTC (link)

Now that was a strange concept. Honestly, Joanie couldn't ever say that any of her weird friendships had been formed normally. She had met Luther in an elevator and they just never stopped talking. She had run into Russell her first night of being green, and despite yanking him around like a dog on a chain, she hadn't scared him off. Aiden was a customer, and Micah had been a little box on the internet. So the notion of meeting somebody by sitting down and talking like normal people was just so very alien.

She decided to keep any "you never wanted to get laid?" quips to herself this time around, as a show of common courtesy. Instead, she just nodded. "Cool, cool." She spun her beer around before taking a sip. She didn't understand somebody that knew what they wanted from birth and ran for it. She had always been driven to do something, but she never knew what.

At his questions, she shrugged. "I don't really know how I got into this." And that was the truth. It had been kind of a whim, a sort of "I will kill myself if I spend another day in retail" rebellion. "And I guess in five years..." She paused, her expression shifting into something strange. "I want to be stable. Happy, stable. How that happens, doesn't matter to me." She shrugged, taking another sip of her beer. "You got a five year plan, Colonel?"

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tiger_says_rawr
2010-06-14 11:32 pm UTC (link)

Mostly, Sam just wanted to not be a useless sack of shit like his father. He supposed that had been his driving point since birth anyway, and it would continue on like that too. "It will happen," he said, bottle paused halfway to his mouth, then he took another sip. "You'll be happy if you let yourself be happy. Sometimes people push it away no matter what. Me? Well, I don't really have a plan per se. I'd like to stay alive," he chuckled. "But I think that I'd mostly just like to be happy and healthy too, and still doing what I like to do."

"Why aren't you dating anyone?" he asked. "Or are you?"

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wickedwicker
2010-06-14 11:42 pm UTC (link)

Though there had been several points during this conversation that Joanie had wanted to mash her beer bottle into his eye socket - not that that was necessarily a strike against him, she felt this way about most people - she had to agree with him on his assessment of happiness. It was a slightly daunting one, especially since it suggested that you could be unhappy just by trying too hard. But she liked it. "I guess it really means something if you can do the same thing for five years and still be excited to get up in the morning to do it again."

Then he had to ask the annoying question. She sighed, wondering why the hell it even mattered. "No, I'm not," she said, taking a sip of her beer. "And that's because..." She trailed off for a moment, trying to think of a good reason. Because she was scared of relationships? Because dating required getting close to another person in a way that left you vulnerable? Because boys were stupid and had cooties? "...I don't know any guys that I'd like to date right now." Oh, good answer. That deserved another sip of beer.

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	tiger_says_rawr 2010-06-14 11:55 pm UTC (link)
	Well, at least he figured out that she wasn't a lesbian! That was a bonus. He laughed, and you could almost hear the smirk in the sound. "Oh yeah?" Sam took another sip of beer too. "That's probably good, because you're with me right now. So I'd be offended if you were thinking of other guys you wanted to date." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

wickedwicker
2010-06-15 12:05 am UTC (link)

Wait. Was he hitting on her? Or was he pretending to? Maybe he was just trying to get a rise out of her. Shit she couldn't tell, and it was frustrating. Why didn't real life worked the way Who Wants to be a Millionaire? did, and allow for moments wherein people could phone friends outside of the game? Granted, Joanie didn't know who she'd call. Her options were limited to grumpy, clueless, double clueless, or overprotective Batman crack.

Not that it mattered. He was just jerking her chain, she was sure of it. She could handle that.

"And deprive you of my sunny disposition and rapier wit? I wouldn't dream of it." She snorted, throwing back a swig from her beer. "That would just be unfair."

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tiger_says_rawr
2010-06-15 12:12 am UTC (link)

"It would, wouldn't it? But life is unfair and you don't seem like the type to care about fairness one way or the other so I'm just going to assume that you find my sunny disposition and rapier wit charming and will go on a date with me. Getting you smashed doesn't count." Sam put the bottle down, glancing back up toward the bar. "My turn! You want something else besides beer?" he asked innocently.

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wickedwicker
2010-06-15 12:20 am UTC (link)

For a moment, her expression was actually one of shock. Did he just say what she thought he just said? Was she drunker than she thought? Did the space aliens come to earth and blow things up? She actually looked out the window, leaning back just slightly to get a glance up the street. There were no lasers. Nothing was on fire. So either she was insane, or somebody that had spent more than 15 minutes with her had asked her out.

"For one, I'm not smashed until I start drawling. For two, the King of Hangovers should know that mixing drinks is the best way to Suckville. For three..." She paused for a moment, looking at him suspiciously. "Assuming makes an ass out of you and me. But I'll spare you the humiliation and accept your offer, on the stipulation that I may pull the "ass" card whenever I see fit."

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tiger_says_rawr
2010-06-15 12:32 am UTC (link)

"That's bullshit, Mrs. White. Liquor before beer and you're in the clear? No, no, no." Sam shook his head. "It's how much you drink, not what and in what order. You have to pace yourself no matter what. Come on! That was on Mythbusters too," he teased, pushing his chair back so he could go back up to the bar.

But he humored JoJo and brought her back a beer. Too bad it wasn't St. Patrick's Day! He would have brought her green beer to be snarky. "So when's the last time you've been on a date?" he wondered. "Did you kill the guy, leaving his body to float away at sea? I need to know what I'm in for."

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wickedwicker
2010-06-15 12:48 am UTC (link)

She raised a brow at his little spiel on alcohol. He seemed to contradict everything she knew, and she wasn't sure if she was just that stupid or he wanted to completely fuck everybody else's perceptions of the world. For the moment, she'd go with "he's being a contrary crazy person" until he proved otherwise.

She took the third beer and wiggled it slightly in thanks, not bothering with a spoken thank you. He'd already gotten one. At his questioning, she snorted. "Do you really think I'd tell you if I killed the guy? Maybe it's the element of surprise that I like the most." She flashed a grin full of teeth before taking a sip. "What fun is killing you if you're expecting it? I wouldn't expect you to give me a heads-up if you planned on chopping me up into pieces and leaving me in a ditch."

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tiger_says_rawr
2010-06-15 12:52 am UTC (link)

"You're welcome," Sam supplied helpfully - hey, if that was a thanks (and a pathetic one at that) he was going to say you're welcome. "Fair enough," he snickered. "So you won't kill me! I appreciate that. Do you have any preferences then? I'd hate to make you think I'm boring. But since you dodged the question, I'm also going to assume that you haven't been on a date in...years." Jokingly, he placed an invisible card on the table. "The ass card, I'm saving you the trouble."