Tony Reid (tonyreid) wrote in downfallrpg, @ 2010-03-17 23:54:00 |
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Entry tags: | 2015-08-29, liah, liah and tony, tony |
Friday - Sharing a Drink
Who: Liah and Tony
Where: Bar/dining room area
When: Very late afternoon
Liah was sitting on top of the burnished wooden bar, because she'd always wanted to do that, staring at an assortment of bottles she'd liberated from the shelf behind it as she tried to decide what she might want to drink. She wasn't a girl who knew a great deal about liquor; she'd had plenty of furtively sipped beer in her time, despite the fact that she wasn't yet legal age for drinking. That didn't deter anyone from it that she could tell if they could get their hands on some. But there were so many different choices, and she hadn't a clue. Gin. Vodka, Whiskey. Bourbon. Wine. How did anyone ever decide?
She swung flip-flopped feet, squinting in the dim light from the window. Once the sun set, she wouldn't even have that, but she had a small flashlight she'd found in an empty room to add to the one she and Ro'd gotten the other day, so she was ready. She set down a bottle of Johnnie Walker and picked up Southern Comfort, her nose wrinkling as she unscrewed the top on that one.
Tony gravitated toward the lobby again, because it was time for his shot of whiskey and the lobby led to a room with alcohol, and how would he get through the night without something to keep him warm?
There was a girl sitting on the bar, swinging her legs and, apparently, sorting through her options. Was she old enough to drink? Who the fuck cared anymore? What was her name, again? And she'd said something about... a power at the meeting...
Shit. Mind like sieve, Mr. Reid.
She hadn't noticed he was there yet, as far as he could tell, so he leaned against one side of the archway, arms folded, and watched her for a moment, waiting until she didn't have a bottle in her hand before announcing his presence.
"So, are you the absinthe fairy?"
It was surprising that Liah hadn't heard anyone approaching. She, like many of the hotel's residents, seemed to be extra-paranoid after everything that had happened. But evidently she'd gotten lost in sorting through the bottles she'd unearthed, just daydreaming and not thinking about how the whole fucking world had gone insane, and she jumped when someone spoke to her from the doorway. Her gaze swiveled over in that direction, and she exhaled a noisy sigh. "The what fairy?" she asked, her tone modified from the sharp query she'd intended when she saw that he was fairly hot. She either wasn't familiar with the word he'd spoken or didn't understand it with the accent he had. Accents? Also hot.
"Absinthe. Didn't mean to startle you, pet." Did he sound sincere? He hoped so. He was trying to be civil, impending medication issues and heavy stress aside. "It's a spirit. It was illegal in some countries for a while. Very popular in Switzerland, among other places." He began to enter the bar area, taking his time, looking, well... mostly harmless. "It's supposed to have psychoactive properties, but Hollywood and fiction tend to exaggerate. It's... portrayed as a small, green fairy, on occasion." He gave her a charming smile. "So... Are you the absinthe fairy?"
It didn't occur to Liah to be afraid of him. He didn't look crazy or dangerous or anything, and if he proved to be troublesome for whatever the reason, she had a surefire way of getting away from him. She listened to what he was saying, her head tilted slightly to one side and a faint smile on her lips. She couldn't say she'd ever heard of absinthe before, but it sounded kinda cool. Anything that was illegal like that might deserve consideration. Her eyebrows arched at the second repetition of his question, and she drawled, "Do I look green?" The answer to that would be no considering that she had on faded jeans and a yellow tank top with the aforementioned flip-flops. "Maybe I'm the--" She stole a quick glance at the bottles sitting on the bar next to her. "--Tanqueray fairy."
How old was she? Nineteen? Twenty? Old enough, he supposed, to be drinking, though the state of Michigan might have words to say about that - if the state of Michigan had any breath remaining, which it didn't. Not that he was familiar with all the laws in America, but he was fairly sure twenty-one was the legal age to be drinking.
"You don't look green, no, but it could be a trick of the light." He stopped when he reached the bar and leaned against it, as if it was just another night on the town and another chat with a stranger before the more serious negotiations began. Things like level of interest, time permitting and which room would be the next stop. That wouldn't be happening here. Not that she wasn't attractive, even if she had enough metal in her ears to set off the detectors at the airport. She was young and he was not - by comparison - and didn't she sort of have a protective male at the meeting? The one with wings?
Besides, he needed to behave himself. If he was booted out of the group for inappropriate behavior -
"I don't think Tanqueray has a fairy, but you could have been hiding all this time. Is that your poison, pet? Tanqueray?"
"If absinthe has a fairy, why can't Tanqueray?" Liah inquired, swinging her feet and smiling at him winsomely. Maybe she was flirting. Okay, she was, but he was good-looking, and at times she could be brazen enough not to worry about age differences. There was no harm in a bit of chit-chat, after all. "I'm trying to decide what my poison is," she explained, going back to her perusal of the bottles. "I never saw this much booze in one place. I was a waitress at a diner where there wasn't even beer, right?" She picked up a bottle of rum and eyed it, then uncapped it to sniff it delicately. "Ew. Do people kind of acquire a taste for this shit?"
"I don't know, so perhaps you're correct." He placed a hand around the bottle of rum and gently tugged it from her. Wouldn't do to get her too sloshed, would it? "They do. Rum is quite the acquired taste." He held out his hand for the cap. "I'd start with one of my favorites, if I were you, Tanqueray." And, hands occupied, he nodded toward the bar. "When in doubt, let Mr. Jack Daniels ease your pain." At least, it worked for Tony.
Liah gave him a Look and a slight pout at having the bottle taken from her. She hadn't even had anything to drink yet! However, she conceded and handed him the cap. "Jack Daniels is whiskey, right?" she said, hunting for the bottle amongst all the ones she'd placed on the bartop. "Oh, here it is." She turned on her bitty flashlight to examine the shot glass she'd taken out of the racks so she could make sure it looked reasonably clean. Finding that it met her standards, she uncapped the Jack and poured some into the little glass. She had no clue what one was supposed to drink whiskey out of, but it seemed that a smaller glass would be the place to start. She had no desire to either get plastered or to make an idiot of herself in front of an attractive older man.
Accepting the cap, he nodded. "Jack equals whiskey, right." Tony sealed the rum and moved slowly and carefully in the fading light around the bar to place the bottle back on the shelf. Watching her pour a shot, he didn't miss a beat. "One for me, too, please, pet." He found a shot glass and set it down beside hers. He had no desire to get plastered and make a fool out of himself in front of someone who was likely underage for drinking and had a guardian angel. He just wanted his drink. Tony wasn't scared of the possible repercussions of his actions. He just wasn't that stupid.
It was cute how he called her pet, although Liah imagined he might call any girl or woman that. It sounded nice in that accent of his, dripping with urbaneness, coated with sugar. She used the little flashlight to check out his glass, too, and then she poured some Jack into it as well. "There you go," she said. "What should we drink to? The fact that we didn't die?" She sounded cynical and also perfectly casual, as if nothing affected her all that much. It was a role she'd become used to playing in life, even before all this had happened. She lifted her glass and sniffed of the whiskey, deciding she'd act as if she liked it even if she didn't. She wasn't a kid, after all.
Tony had different terms of endearment at his beck and call, but he thought 'pet' suited the girl more than 'luv' or 'poppet', 'honey' or 'sweetie'. The last two seemed too much like flirting, not that he wasn't flirting a little bit most of the time. It was part of his nature. He picked up his glass and leaned in a bit to clink it against hers. "To not dying, pet, and to tomorrow. May it bloody come." Even though he wasn't the happiest person on the planet, he didn't want it to end. Not yet. He downed his shot, smacked his lips softly with a sigh of satisfaction and set the glass down on the bar.
Liah was right there with him. She might not be thrilled with what life had become, with her family either dead, missing or monstery, but that didn't mean she was ready to check out and see what waited in the Great Beyond, if there happened to be one. "I can drink to that," she said with a smile. After they'd clinked glasses she raised hers to her lips and drained off half of it, making a horrible face as it went down. What was in that shit? It was strong and sharp in her throat, and she only hoped she wouldn't start to cough violently and embarrass herself. She blinked as her eyes watered and tried to keep a normal expression on her face.
He noted her reaction to the whiskey and smiled. "It takes some getting used to, so don't let it spoil the experience. Finish it up, I would. Just... toss it back, like I did and enjoy the burn." Corrupting minors? Not really his thing even if, technically, she probably wasn't a minor, per se. He had no plans to repeat what his mother had done to him, though duplicating the exact circumstances would be difficult and completely undesirable. "We should stop you at one, I think."
"Enjoy the burn," Liah mused. "That's kind of like saying, 'Here, enjoy this kerosene I'm about to pour down your throat.'" She wasn't about to give up, though. Without hesitating or flinching, she tipped the little glass up again and swallowed the strong liquid, this time at least a little bit prepared for how it was going to taste. When he said she should stop at one, her free hand shot out to snag the bottle before he thought to move it out of her reach. It wasn't really that she wanted any more, but nobody was going to tell her she couldn't have it, not even Mr. British Accent Hottie McHot. She poured one more shot for herself, smiling sweetly, before relinquishing the bottle. "So what can you do?" she asked. "No way I could remember everything people said at that meeting." She'd been too busy wishing she hadn't been there.
She poured herself another shot and Tony did the same - once she'd surrendered her hold on the bottle - then he set the whiskey back on the shelf. "It does not taste like kerosene," he stated firmly. "As for what I can do? I know how to use a gun, how to fight a little, how to get into locked things, and no, none of that is related to some exciting ability, brought on by Armageddon." He sighed and pretended to look disappointed. "Apparently, I am not worthy of having special powers."
"How do you know? Did you ever drink kerosene?" Liah snapped back, disregarding the fact that she hadn't, either. She slammed down the entire shot this time, handling it better than she had once her throat got out of vapor-lock. It burned, and her insides began to feel very warm, as if it was trickling down and spreading fire in its wake. She listened to his skill set and nodded, then stifled a burp behind her hand. "I can get into locked things too, but that's 'cause I can walk through walls. It's pretty cool. I've found some good shit in empty rooms that way." It had also saved her life, but then she didn't want to talk about that.
"No. But I've heard through the grapevine that not only is it not very palatable, it'll kill you," Tony said with a smirk. "So, yeah, don't drink kerosene, pet." She took the second drink with more confidence - or with a desire to prove herself capable - but any reaction to that was interrupted by the announcement of her power. "You... can walk through walls? Damn good thing I usually wear boxers when I sleep. Handy ability, that, yeah..." If only she'd had it before the end of the world. If only he'd known her then. Think of the heists they could have pulled off?
"Thanks for the advice, hot stuff," Liah told him, figuring that if he could give her a nickname, she could give him one. Kerosene, monsters... something was going to kill her sooner or later, right? Maybe it'd be later. Her eyebrows arched and she gave him a once-over when he said it was a good thing he slept in boxers. "How come?" she wanted to know. "You got something special down there other guys don't?" Maybe he'd mutated a second cock or something. The thought amused her, and she snickered. "Otherwise I've seen it all already." One of Liah's favorite past-times was to try to shock people, and she thought it was worth a try in this case.
His eyebrows rose a little. Hot stuff? Tony smirked and playfully replied, "Not that I know of, no, but if you can walk through walls any time you like, pet, I think I'd feel too vulnerable if I didn't have my boxers." As if they were some sort of shield. He laughed at himself and added, "Ah, but you haven't seen mine. If you haven't learned yet, men are protective of their bits, impressive or otherwise."
"Maybe I should start doing that," Liah said, her eyes gleaming with mischief. "Just walking through people's walls and see what I can see. But shhhh, don't tell anyone." She winked at him. "I wanna find out who sleeps naked." She was kidding, of course. She wasn't going to go around walking through people's walls and scaring the shit out of them. Seemed like a good way to get yelled at or otherwise assaulted. She'd save that for people she knew. She tilted her head to one side, her smile a bit suggestive as she looked at him. "Believe me, I've learned. Doesn't matter if they're packing a nine incher, you still gotta try to ooh and aah over it." She swung her feet nonchalantly, not really caring if her line of conversation was offensive. That was just Liah.
He snorted. "Oh, yeah, that'd go over really well, pet," he said, reaching for another bottle and squinting in the dimness to check the label. "I think that course of action might be a good way to get yourself killed. Sneaking around these days can piss people off and some of them are a bit too scary for that..." Tony pursed his lips and set the bottle back. "And I don't think the ohhhs and ahhhs are mandatory as long as you swallow." He smiled winningly. "By the way, my other name is 'Tony'. What's yours?"
"I was kidding," Liah said with the duh perfectly audible in her voice. "Although if I find out where your room is, that might be different. You wouldn't shoot me, would you?" She was very blatantly flirting despite the fact that he was... what, thirty or so? Flirting was a fun game, and with Liah, it very rarely meant anything. She grinned when he matched her for smuttiness and shrugged. "Spitting is lame. Messy, too. Even if they're kinda nasty, I always swallow." More information than he wanted, probably, but nobody was going to out-TMI Liah. "I'm Liah. Tony's a good name. I think it suits you. I can't go around calling you Hot British Dude."
"Ooooo, note to self: make sure you don't get my room number." He winked. "I wouldn't shoot you, Liah. I don't shoot pretty girls. Spitting is very messy, yeah..." He always swallowed, though fortunately, he hadn't had to deal with it as often as one might think, despite being a pretty boy in prison. He picked up another bottle and extended his other hand to her. "Have you got a flashlight, pet?" Tony smirked. "And you could go around calling me that, but 'Tony' is so much shorter..."
Liah didn't infer anything from what he'd said about spitting; he probably had girls wanting to slob his knob every other day, at least, so he'd know all about it. Well, before the world had ended, that was. "I'm gonna hold you to that," she said warningly. "No shooting." When he asked if she had a flashlight, she picked up the little mini-light she'd used to check the shot glasses. "Yep, right here." She gazed at him curiously when he extended a hand to her, then reached out and took it with her free hand. "Where we going?" she asked, using his offered hand and her other one braced against the bar-top to lightly jump down.
"No shooting," he repeated. She took his hand - brave girl - and Tony smiled. His teeth were white, even in the dimness, and it was probably not unlike talking to the Cheshire Cat. "Well, they'll run out of booze up here, eventually. I thought we could check out the basement..."
Her feet on the floor, Liah took the opportunity to turn on the little flashlight and illuminate their surroundings a bit. "To look for booze or just to see what all's down there?" she asked. Personally, she didn't think she wanted a great deal more to drink, even if she wouldn't tell Tony that. Her stomach still felt a bit fiery from what she'd ingested thus far. However, she wouldn't mind seeing what was down on that level, and if Hot Stuff here wanted company to check it out, she was good with that. "It'll be dark and creepy. You sure you're not scared?" Her grin was confident and nearly as white as his.
"Both," Tony said. "I can't help but be curious..." Two Cheshire Cats. Purr-fect. "Not scared at all." He tried not to think about monsters lurking in the basement. Frankly, he figured if they were in the hotel, they'd have gone on a rampage by now and tried to eat someone or... whatever it was monsters did when the ping-pong table was occupied. He paused. "Oh, if we do meet some nasties, can you drag me through the wall, too? Just curious." The thought was rather frightening and exhilarating at the same time.
Liah had started walking along with her flashlight, idly drawing little circles on the floor ahead of them with it. "You don't seem like the type who's scared of stuff," she said. That, of course, was based on about a fifteen-minute acquaintance, but still. She glanced up at him, surprised by what he'd asked her. "I dunno," she replied after thinking about it for a few seconds. "I never tried to. I know I can get myself through and anything I'm wearing or carrying, but I'm not sure about an actual person." That might be fun to try sometime, she thought.
Tony was scared of a few things, but facing off a monster wasn't actually one of them - if he was armed and/or the monster was way far away... "Well, maybe that's something for a later time," he said, not liking the thought of being stuck partway through a wall or something. "I think the most frightening thing we might encounter is one of our fellow survivors and none of them seem dangerous." Or so he hoped.
"I guess we'll find out, right?" Liah said, her tone perky. She wasn't overly concerned about things inside the hotel, although she knew that could prove to be something she'd regret. At any rate, she didn't feel like worrying right then. She had some booze in her system and she was going exploring-- heh-heh-- with one of the hottest looking guys she'd seen thus far. He apparently didn't think she was just a dumb kid, and that was good enough for her. Who couldn't use a good ego stroke? "So let's go." She reached for his arm to tug him along toward the stairs that would take them down to the basement level.
He laughed. It was good to know that he could laugh and that, despite everything, that she could joke and flirt and be willing to go into the basement with a shady, British conman who was over thirty.
Tony wasn't sure if he should be glad he still had 'It' or if he should wonder if she was losing her faculties - but then, he didn't know he was, apparently, a rarity when it came to the remaining Human males in her eyes.
"Stick with me, pet," he said, grinning in the pale glow of her flashlight as they headed for the stairs. "I'll protect you..."