Some Needed Laughter Who: Mal and Mere Where: Foley's When: Recently What: Meeting a new crew member Rating: Before New Year's
Malcolm Reynolds had been running for as long as he could remember. Importing, exporting, trading, doing deals. Whatever you called it? He did it. For the most part it was legitimate work, but sometimes he took jobs that he didn't like in order to make sure that his crew were fed. Since arriving in this new universe about 90% of his jobs were sanctioned (apart from the rare few that remained off the books). So, he was mostly proud of the work that he did now. Still. Sometimes jobs required more work than he was happy with, especially now that the year was coming to an end. He hated the backlog, the extra work that was required.
So it should come as no surprise that when his long day had ended he found the nearest bar and sat down to have a drink. The bar? Foley's. The beer? Ale. The company? A motley crew, which suited him just fine. He took a seat at a rounded table with a fresh pint of ale set down in front of him. He couldn't help it but overhear two women talking near him as he sipped at his beer. Of course, before they'd even finished their conversation he was sputtering on his beverage and muttering something in a language that he hoped that no one else would understand.
Yeah, those were the types of ladies that Mere sometimes looked forward to being one day. (The fact that her virginity story involved one of her dad's friends when she was just 14 would probably traumatize most listeners to her stories, though.) She'd have to live that long without liver damage, though, and that was slim to none chance of happening.
She happened to be sitting at the table next to Mal and, when she heard one lady mention that she wished her man was with her in the end, she let out a snort, more concerned with not choking on her beer than caring if anyone noticed her. She needed to befriend these two women YESTERDAY.
Mal glanced over at Mere and waved his hand at her airily in recognition of the fact that they'd heard the same conversation. It felt like he was going to take more time to digest it than she would. "Just when I thought I was getting used to this place," he muttered more to himself than to her. Once he felt that he'd composed himself he took another sip of ale. "If that's not the weirdest conversation that you've heard since coming here then I owe you a drink," he added, since hey, he could stand to meet new people.
"I think the fact that my friend was ready to face down zombies when her team won the World Series probably qualifies as stranger," Mere said, taking a sip of her own beer. "Or maybe just crazier." Chelle was definitely crazier than most people even here.
The World Series was old school for Mal, but at least he understood what Mere meant. Plus, he'd read Rachelle's post on the network. He read most things, even if he didn't reply to them. "You've got me there." He looked over at Mere. "I guess I owe you a drink."
"That you do, new friend," Mere said playfully, grabbing her remaining drink and helping herself to sit across the table from him. "I'm Mere, by the way." She offered her hand to him. "And I've got so many weird stories that you could be buying me drinks all night."
Mal stood up politely when she made her way over and shook her hand. "Mal," he replied. "And I have half a mind to let you. As you can see," he gestured to the empty seats around him. "I'm surrounded by my nearest and dearest." So maybe he was a little bitter that some people had been sent home. At least he still had River. He shrugged as if to say 'what can you do?' then gestured to the bartender to bring them over a few more drinks.
"Well, for tonight, at least, you got me," she said with a grin as she sat down. She knew that she was lucky that a lot of people from her world here. Not everyone was so blessed. "And holy hell do I got some stories that would blow your mind."
Mal sat back down and gave her an amused smile. This was exactly what he needed, to get out of his own head for a while. "Well, don't take it to lightly on me. I'm not as delicate as I look."
She grinned at him. Distracting someone with her crazy ass life? That she could do. "Let me start with a big one then: I used to be a vampire. I know, with this tan, right? I managed to get better from that one, thankfully. Being immortal has its perks and all, but the no sun thing is a real BITCH."
"A vampire? Like Dracula?" He asked, aghast. Yes, he'd read a book about vampires. Try not to faint. His eyes widened. "Were you able to turn into a bat?" He had so many questions! Mal leaned back in his seat to allow the server to set down drinks between them, thanked him, then continued the conversation. "And how does one stop being a vampire? I thought that was a permanent thing."
She nodded. "Like Dracula. Couldn't turn into a bat, though. Or a wolf, either. Dracula got some badass powers that I didn't get and I call bullshit on that." Turning into a wolf sounded cool, OK? "And it normally is. I kind of accidentally got a one time fix through a friend of mine absorbing a whole lot of magic and, when he finally let it go, it...healed me, for lack of a better explanation. So I got to join the land of the living again."
"Here's me pretending that that's not the coolest thing that I've ever heard," Mal replied with a laugh before finishing one drink, setting it aside and starting on another. "So that's the kind of world you come from, huh? Vampires and," he tried to think of another mythological creature, "werewolves and stuff?"
"Don't even pretend. I know it's cool as hell," she pointed out. "And yeah, you name it and it's probably there. I wouldn't be shocked if there were aliens there and I just haven't met one yet." She'd met some aliens here though! "What about you? What's your world like?"
"Worlds, actually," Mal replied. "Although I never really did settle in one place long enough. We had central planets, border planets, rim planets. Some places were rich and plentiful, others... not so much. People had to struggle to survive." He sipped more of his ale. "Never did get to meet an alien, though." He smiled wryly. "Lotta humans, though."
"Really? So you traveled around from planet to planet then? Did you have a spaceship and everything?" Clearly Mere was interested. Until she had come here, she didn't realize that the whole 'space travel' thing was really possible, so it was opening up a whole other world of possibilities for her, both metaphorically and literally. "And I grew up as the child of a musician who became one herself. Before I got established at home, I definitely had some shitty living situations." And here she was having to start all over again. She was even waiting tables to make ends meat. Such was life.
"Still do, actually. She's docked over at Mos Eisley at the moment," Mal replied. He nodded as he listened to Mere, sipping at his ale. "Not knowing where your next meal is gonna come from isn't a good feeling." Being a captain he had to worry about his crew... which at the moment was limited to Alex and River. He was down a pilot/mechanic, as well, when Chase decided to join the military, so less mouths to feed at the moment. "How're you finding it here?"
"Now that is so freaking COOL," she said with a laugh. It showed just how different their worlds were. Things that were almost normal to them, relatively speaking, were fascinating to the other person. "And it's not, but you learn to adapt and even persevere after a while. You kind of have to." She'd never had a crew to take care of when she was living that life, just herself. "So far, it's pretty decent. Some of my friends from home landed here, too, and I found a job to support myself, so I can't complain much. What about you?"
"About the same," Mal replied, sipping more of his drink. "Most have gone back home now or somewhere else, I'm not sure." Which explained his initial bitterness at being in the bar on his own. He might seem like the kind of person who preferred his own company, but that couldn't be further from the truth. He needed people around him. "But I pretty much fell into the same work I was doing back home. Just... with more aliens and intense scary people with guns." Frank Castle had made an impression, apparently.
"Well, here's to hoping that they're back home and safe then," she said, lifting her glass in a toast before taking a drink. She could see why he might be a bit bitter about that. "And that makes me wish I had some marketable skills to work on a spaceship. I mean, I'm a musician who used to help manage a strip joint, which I am amazing at both, but I doubt either of those lend themselves to working on a space crew." A girl could dream though, right?
Mal raised his glass in a silent toast as well before sipping at his drink. "Well, I imagine that you'd be good at diffusing situations," he suggested. He imagined that some patrons could get overly handsy, or staff could be a pain in the ass. "Being good with your words is a big part of the job. ...Which, I'm not really explaining very well right now, am I?" He added, glancing at his beer as if it was the culprit.
She giggled. "You have no idea how much you have to keep dancers from killing one another at a strip club. God forbid another girl dance to 'your' song," she said with a roll of her eyes, using air quotes and everything. "I get what you mean. I tend to be a pretty good negotiator." It helped that, even though Mere was basically a drunk, she was at least a friendly one who didn't drink until whatever job she happened to be working was done.
That was something, at least. Mal wasn't big on drinking until the job was done, when there was a reason to celebrate... he glanced at his glass again and thought Or drown in my misery. Still, he'd met someone new out of it, so he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. "Alex usually does that stuff, but I'm sure she wouldn't mind some company if you wanna come with next time we go out."
"Really?" OK, that had caught her a little off guard. "You want me to come along the next time you go out?" She really didn't even know what to make of that! "I'm in. Totally in. What exactly is it that you do when you go out?" He'd been a bit vague, which led Mere to believe it was maybe along the lines of a little smuggling, but she honestly did not care. (And didn't even realize that, an an alternate timeline, a version of herself did something very similar and had been quite good at it.)
He couldn't help it but smile immediately at her reaction. Maybe she had a mind for this kind of thing more than she thought. "Importing, exporting. Mostly importing," he explained. They didn't quite have the facilities to build certain things on Galador just yet. "It's a lot of haggling. Mostly legitimate work, although I do have one or two benefactors who aren't entirely on the up and up."
Ah, so basically what she was assuming. No problem, though. "Hmm, not everyone can fully be on the up and up," she said simply with a shrug. Mere had her principles that she didn't cross, but, in a lot of ways, she was pretty morally flexible. Honestly, most musicians were.
"I promise, I would never make you do anything that you didn't want to." He had his own moral code as well. "I'm not one for hurting babies or profiteering from war." It should come as no surprise that he always looked out for the little guy, as well. "But other than that there's a lot of fun to be had."
"Seems like we're pretty much on the same page then," she told him. She gave him a grin. "I'm all about fun to be had, though."