Who: Matt King-Merritt and Cate Adler What: No-maj/Squib bonding When: Midafternoon, Saturday, May 11 (backdated) Where: The Crimson Kestrel Warnings: none
He wasn't a lush for walking into a bar well before 5 pm. He wasn't, because here was the thing: he'd walked the entirety of Main Street a few times since he and Finn popped up in downtown Snowcap (he was starting to get the hang of this apparating thing), and the truth was, he didn't really have a lot of other options. Finn was in the diner getting some work done, and he didn't want to bother her, not when she already had to spend so much of her time explaining things to him. Here in town, he wanted to meet people, and where better to do that than the local bar?
As soon as he walked in, he could tell this was a family owned business, which was the best sort. He immediately felt comfortable as he approached the bar and perched himself on a stool. The woman who was working looked up, and he said, “Let me guess, you must be Cate.”
Cate finished putting away the bottles she'd just used, and when she looked up, there was an unfamiliar face sitting on the other side of the bar. She put one hand on her hip, cocked her head at him, and grinned. "Oh, come on now. Around here, that's not even a lucky guess."
She put a napkin on the bar in front of him and slid out a menu to place next to it. "Which is to say yes, I am Cate." She gave a little faux curtsy. "And since I haven't heard of any new employees at the Reserve the last week or so, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that your middle name might have something to do with a flying creature?" She raised an eyebrow at him.
A grin spread across Matt’s face, a reaction to the pleasant surprise of being recognized when he was still quite new in town. “Looks like we’re just a couple of good guessers, then,” he replied.
He glanced down at the menu, but didn’t pick it up. “Do you have any recommendations? Particularly anything local?” Sampling the food and (in this case) drink was one of his favorite ways to get to know a new area. Plus it got people talking, and you never knew what stories might come up.
"To be fair, I have the advantage of having lived here most of my life and knowing all of the locals and their favorite drinks by memory, so."
Cate considered the options for a minute, tapping her chin for effect, and said, "Well, there are a couple of local brews that run the spectrum of options, if beer is your thing. I'm fond of the Hercinia Pale Ale, which is made just on the other side of its namesake lake. Really smooth. If you want something darker, go with Enigma. Great with onion rings. In the way of mixed drinks, 'local' essentially means invented by me, so the world is your oyster. My latest concoction is called Demonic Starlight. Let's just say there's tequila and some charmed ice."
Matt’s eyes lit up as soon as she said “onion rings.” He was a simple man, and a brew with some greasy appetizer was all he needed to be content. “Yeah, yeah, hit me with an Enigma and some onion rings. That sounds perfect.”
He flashed a smile at the bartender before adding, “So, if you’ve lived here most your life and know all the locals, it sounds like you’re the perfect person to fill me in on whatever I need to know.” He didn’t want to rely on Finn all the time, and it was always good to get multiple perspectives. Plus, the bartenders always had the best gossip.
Cate turned away briefly to put the order in with the kitchen, and then she retrieved his bottle of beer from the fridge. She placed it on the napkin she had already put on the bar, hovering briefly over it with her bottle opener for effect before she popped the cap. Inky black mist poured out of the bottle, running down the sides and hovering above the bar for a few seconds before it dissipated. "I always like that one."
She grabbed a couple of used glasses as the couple a few seats down left, tossing them back toward the sink where the charms neatly floated them down into the water to wash. "What do you want to know? You've obviously already figured out the best place for beer, conversation, and generally hanging out, so you're ahead of the curve."
Matt had to take a moment to put his eyes back into his face after what happened when Cate opened his beer. Of course he knew that this was a magical town, but he hadn’t been expecting magical beer. “Whoa, okay, that was seriously cool.”
He leaned back in his chair before answering her question. “Oh, you know, just the who’s who and people to meet… I think I’m on the right track, with Tony and now you and,” he gestured widely with an arm, “This great bar. But anyone else I should make a point to cross paths with? Or maybe to avoid?” In a place like this, there was plenty of history, and even small things weren’t often forgotten. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d run into a Montague–Capulet style feud in a small town, and it was always better to know before getting in the middle of it.
"Right?" Cate said happily, pleased at that reaction. So many wizards were desensitized to the cool little tricks of magic, so it was fun to have someone appreciate it as much as she did.
"Well, between Tony and me, I'm sure we can make sure you know everything there is to know. Heck, get acquainted with the Proudfoots, and you'll have practically half the town's population at your beck and call." She laughed. The town wasn't quite that small, but sometimes it felt like it. "But, well, for starters, make sure you meet all of the people who run the shops on main street. Especially Cao, who owns Delilah's. She's my brother's girlfriend, full disclaimer, but man that woman can cook. Get on her good side, and she'll have you trying new recipes left and right." She considered for a moment. "Mr. Wyrzykowski is probably your best bet if you want to learn Reserve things beyond what Finn knows. Tony's dad? Which...I guess is your uncle-in-law? And, well, I don't actually avoid anyone. But I'm weird like that."
“Right, okay, the Proudfoots,” Matt repeated, taking mental notes. “And main street, for sure, for sure. I’ll check that out when I’m done here.”
He fell silent when the bartender mentioned Mr. Wyrzykowski, who was indeed his uncle-in-law. He still hadn’t met the man, though Finn had officially informed Brightstar HR and her family, not to mention those who were both, about their nuptials. The reaction was somewhat better than she’d feared, but even so, Matt couldn’t help but feel some trepidation.
He cast his eyes around the bar and noticed some arcane markings scattered around the area behind the bar. They looked a bit like Cirth, or more likely, actual runes rather than the Tolkien version. “What’s that?” he asked, pointing at the nearest one. He hadn’t remembered seeing anything like it in the bars in magical Vegas.
It took Cate a moment to realize what Matt was pointing at, but when she did, it got a proud smile from her. She always liked bragging on her granddad. "It's a rune. They're all over the building. They let me control the spells that my grandfather built into the bar." She demonstrated the one that created a neat roll of silverware, simply because it was the easiest and nearest. Only when she placed the completed roll in front of him did it occur to her that she might need to explain the necessity. It had been a long time since she'd met a No-Maj who didn't already know the magical world.
"I'm a Squib," she explained, touching another rune that brought down a glass from a high shelf. It landed in her waiting palm. "It means I was born without magic, even though my parents are magical, and all of my siblings are magical. Granddaddy put these in when I was a little girl so I wouldn't be left out." Her smile went soft at that memory. "He was brilliant with this sort of stuff. It inspired my brother, Freddy, to get into automating things for a living."
If Matt had been impressed by the fog effect on his beer, it was nothing compared to what he felt now. “So, let me get this straight,” he said after she finished her explanation, “You usually can’t do magic? But using these runes, you can?” It was even more amazing than the idea of a magical bar run by a magical individual. And beyond the feat itself was the obvious care of the grandfather who had set up the system. It would have taken equal amounts of love, insight, and talent to both anticipate the need and create a solution.
Being non-magical himself, Matt had just a small taste of what it might be to grow up as a Squib, though he would never have the audacity to compare his experiences over the past week with anyone else’s experiences over an entire lifetime. So he hoped he wasn’t overstepping his bounds when he asked, “Can I try it?”
"It's not so much that I do magic as it is that me touching the rune satisfies the condition of the spell on it, which triggers another effect. Technicality, but truth."
Cate blinked at him for a second. She'd heard plenty of people ask about the runes over the years, but no one had ever asked to used them, to her knowledge. But then, they'd all had magic; what need did they have? Her smile turned eager and curious. She assumed they would work just as well for a No-Maj as they did for her, but she honestly wasn't sure if Granddaddy had tuned the spell to only respond to their bloodline, or something similar. "Sure, yes! Come around the bar." She motioned toward the end of it, giving him a come here gesture with the other hand. "My family members use them sometimes, because it's easier than getting a wand out to do the spell, but I don't know if anyone else has ever tried them or not."
She pointed to one to the right side of the sink. "That one will make all of the dry dishes put themselves away." She indicated the nearby shelves. "You have to touch it with two fingers, just the pads. For this one, you want to be perpendicular to the counter edge." She demonstrated the positioning without actually touching the rune.
Matt hopped off of his stool and slipped behind the bar, glad and honestly a little flattered that Cate seemed nearly as excited about this as he was. He watched carefully as she showed him how to use the rune and what it was for.
As he reached out his hand, he found himself holding his breath. He touched his index and middle finger to the rune, just as Cate had explained, and not a moment later the clean glasses in the sink were floating up and neatly arranging themselves on the shelves with a soft clinking sound. Even after they were finished, Matt was staring, open-mouthed, for several long moments.
Finally, he turned to face Cate with a huge grin on his face. “I love this bar.”