Party Animal (tag: Shiva)
The chili wasn't half-bad. Kratos had been fairly skeptical when the bartender suggested it, it wasn't usually the sort of bar fare that was offered. Pizza, sometimes if they had one of those rotating pizza bakers. Sometimes burgers and fries if they had a grill in the back. But unless there was an actual restaurant attached to the bar, soups were not usually on the menu.
But really, the chili wasn't half bad. There was grated cheese and chopped raw onions sprinkled on the top. Without those, it might be a little bland. Kind of like the bar itself. It was perfectly functional, clean, with a good selection of beers on tap, but there was nothing that really made it stand out. Other than that it served chili.
And the patrons were apparently fans of classic rock. Because that was all that had been playing on the jukebox for the first fifteen minutes Kratos had been in the place. Which was fine when it was the Eagles, but once Led Zeppelin came on, Kray decided it was time for a change of pace. He just couldn't take the screechy sound of Robert Plant's high pitched nasal whining for more than a minute or two before he wanted it gone. So he'd left his bar stool, meandered over to the jukebox, put in a few coins, and as soon as the Led Zeppelin song was finished, it was replaced with the smooth bass of Toby Keith.
From then on, it went from one country song to the next, as the jukebox began running through all the country songs in its library. Much to the disgruntlement and confusion of the other bar patrons. Several of them put money into the machine, plugged in the numbers of the songs they wanted, only to have another country song spit out at them. Kratos hid a little smile as he finished his cup of chili and reached for his beer.
Upon reflection, the chili was pretty decent after all. Maybe he'd have another cup of it while he listened to Glen Campbell croon about riding out in a star-spangled rodeo. Kray lifted his hand to get the bartender's attention, and hummed to himself, “Like a rhinestone cowboy, duhn duhn...”