Who: Qrow Branwen & Tony Stark What: Drinks - featuring the infamous 'Warp Core Breach' When: Friday 2/12 Where: Quark’s Bar Ratings/Warnings: Well, it’s them, and they’re drinking Status: Complete!
Qrow wasn’t a fixture at Quark’s bar, but he was something of a regular, so it wasn’t all that unusual to see him there on a Friday night...or any night, really. What made this particular night of interest was the person he was meeting. It wasn’t lost on Qrow that of all the people he could have struck up a random conversation with was the famous (or infamous depending on your point of view) Tony Stark.
But, hell, it had been an interesting week to say the least. Discovering that Tony was a kindred spirit had been a pleasant surprise and Qrow was looking forward to shooting the shit with him. There was a part of him that was weary that the other man wouldn’t show. After all, Qrow was a nobody teaching high school history. Surely, Tony Stark had gaggles of interesting people in his orbit he’d much rather spend time with.
But these concerns certainly didn’t stop Qrow from showing up at Quark’s that evening. If Tony didn’t show, oh well, he’d still have a couple of drinks and make a night of it.
The Square was at least familiar to Tony, who'd ventured down one night to try out the adjoining restaurant. He'd made note of the coffee place, too, which seemed to be open 24 hours and smelled like a worthy detour. Of course it was hard not to attract a small amount of attention when he showed up to a place the wrong way.
He'd dealt with that the other night, so tonight he parked off the main street and walked around. Dressed in his favorite pair of old jeans and a double layer of rock t-shirts, he hoped he'd fit right in when he sauntered up to the door and wandered in.
Tony hopped onto the stool next to Qrow and waved two fingers at him like some sort of mock salute. "What are we drinking, buddy?" Qrow returned the mock salute with a nod and a grin. “Glad you could make it,” he said and then motioned to the glass of amber liquid already in front of him. “I got a bourbon to start. You want one?” He raised his hand to get the bartender’s attention. “I’ve got a tab open,” he told Tony as the bartender made her way over to take Tony’s drink order. “You were nice enough to listen to me bitch earlier – not to mention those little brownie bites you sent over last week -- so I figured the least I could do is have a couple of rounds on me.”
Since the bartender was already there, Qrow downed the rest of the bourbon in his glass so she could refill it for him. “How’s your week been?” He asked Tony. “Anything ‘white board’ worthy?”
"No one's ever offered me a couple of rounds before." Tony sounded almost touched. He nodded at the bartender, quickly saying "Whatever he's having", before making himself more comfy on his chair.
"And anyway people are interesting. You bitch, I listen and take notes. It's a symbiotic relationship or something. We both get interaction and then you get brownies."
Thinking about the white board, Tony tilted his head off to the side and squinted a bit. "It's been a week, but you know. Got started on a cool new project that's gonna help a lot of people, that was fun, but it's super classified and if I talk about it too much Loba might murder me. Yeah, we're working together. Recorded a couple new marks on the white board. Also these strange 'feelings' people are having." He held his hands up to put airquotes around the word 'feelings'. They seemed important, but he hadn't connected the dots yet.
Qrow didn’t know if he was supposed to know who Loba was. The way Tony casually dropped her name, it felt as though he should. Unfortunately, the name didn’t immediately mean anything to him. But, his sphere of pop-culture knowledge was generally limited to whatever he personally took an interest in, which was occasionally supplemented by whatever his students happened to be talking about. However, before Qrow could ask Tony who the hell Loba even was, he’d moved on to the marks. Qrow mentally stumbled a little as Tony switched from one topic to the next in mid-thought, but he was able to keep up. “Whaddya think it means?” He asked.
The rat's nest that was Tony's thought process did take a little getting used to. He, of course, hardly ever noticed the tangled ball of speech that fell out of his mouth. It was probably why he'd only managed to keep one or two friends around, and Qrow was in good company.
"I... like... I don't know." Tony admitted, frowning. Noticing his drink had appeared, he waved a thank you at whoever was tending the bar and then lifted his glass to his lips. It was mostly drowned by the time he was done. He set it back down on the bar, and as he did, a bit of silver around the knuckle of his thumb caught the light.
He thought he'd applied some cover up to that. Shit. Hopefully Qrow wouldn't notice.
"You ever seen that popular gif with the guy from Pacific Rim who's set up a whole murder wall and he's just waving his hands around? I feel like that a lot, only I don't know what I'm investigating. It's a whole mood."
Qrow did notice something on Tony’s hand glint in the light. At first he thought it was a ring and his eyes instinctively flickered down towards the man’s hand. However, what he’d mistaken for a ring was, in fact, a silver-ey oval that appeared to be drawn around the knuckle of not just his thumb, but on all five of his digits. A sixth oval was also in the dead center of the back of his hand. It looked as though someone (perhaps Tony himself) had drawn on his hand with a silver sharpie. It was one of the odder things Qrow had seen this week. Odder still was that it appeared as though Tony had attempted to cover everything up with foundation.
His eyes flickered up as Tony spoke again. Something about a murder wall and flailing around. Qrow didn’t understand the reference, but he had been too distracted by Tony’s hand to actually hear the whole thing. So he simply nodded his head as if he knew what Tony was talking about before saying, “did you draw on your hand with a sharpie?”
"Fuck." Tony replied. He reached for his glace and glanced into it, sad that he'd drank it own so quickly when now he was gonna need another one. He couldn't exactly let Qrow pick up the tab if he was gonna binge drink all night.
"So yeah, I don't know why it's like... shining right through all of that. What the hell. I wasn't gonna say anything because Jesus this thing when it came in." He looked at Qrow and expanded his arms out to the side, "Like seriously the pain was this big. I felt like someone had flayed the skin off my hand."
It was definitely a mark like the others were getting. Qrow had one, too, Tony knew this. Obviously nothing was keeping marked people from noticing each other. "I definitely did not write on myself with a sharpie. But I wish I could lie about it. There just doesn't seem to be a point."
Qrow grimaced and glanced down at the cog on his forearm (or what he’d been referring to as a “cog” at least) and then at Tony’s hand again. Of the two of them, Tony had gotten the shorthand of the stick. At least Qrow’s looked like something. He motioned for the bartender to refill both of their glasses.
“Sorry,” he said to Tony. “Why didn’t you mention it?” Though another glance at the circles gave Qrow an idea as to why. He shook his head. “Nevermind. The bright side is that I don’t think anyone other than us can see them.”
"Yeah, I..." Tony squinted, like he was trying to formulate words for the reason, but he was glad when Qrow moved past it. "But that's better news. Now only people I know like you will continue to ask me if I'm drawing on my hands with a sharpie."
Tony tilted his head to the side as he waited for his drink to be refilled, only to spin it in place on the bar for a bit. "But hey, to be fair, that is totally something that I think I'd do, if I wasn't already in my own body. Because even just judging by the way I talk on the internet, I sound just crazy enough."
Maybe he should get one and draw the marks on the other hand too, must for the sake of symmetry.
“Eh,” Qrow shrugged. “I’ve watched some of yer videos and I don’t know if I’d say you sound crazy. At least you sound like ya know what you’re talkin’ about.” He polished off what was left of his glass. He set it down and crooked two fingers towards the bartender to ask for a refill. He then set his chin in the palm of his hand. “Ya don’t sound like a bullshitter, at least.” He grinned. “And I’ve graded enough papers to recognize Grade A Bullshit when I see it.”
The bartender refilled his glass and Qrow picked it up again. “At least you didn’t blab to a forum full of strangers when you got your…” he motioned vaguely with the glass. “Whatever these things are. Tattoos? Marks?” He shrugged and drank his drink.
It was good to know that at least one person on the network could tell when he was bullshitting and when he wasn't. Tony really liked Qrow. "You're a pretty awesome drinking buddy," He remarked, nodding his head.
Picking up his glass, he saluted Qrow with it and then drained the whole thing. "But back to the topic at hand, though. I think it's good that some of us are that open on the Network. I mean - clearly, we're all participating in some odd... thing. Alien science experiment? Paranormal phenomenon? Who knows. Because you did, others know it's okay to mention stuff. And that's good. Don't knock yourself about that one."
“I may not be good fer much, but for a drinkin’ buddy, you can’t do better,” Qrow said with a laugh.
He tilted his head slightly at Tony’s next observation regarding the network, his brows furrowing slightly. “Maybe,” he agreed. “Can’t deny that it did get a few people talkin’ at least, sharing their own experiences, as varied as they are.” His eyes fell on his now empty glass, thoughtfully. “Think with enough information you’ll figure it out?”
"Kind of hope so, to be honest. I mean, it's THE mystery of the century, right? Someone has to figure it out, and I want to be the guy that does. With your help and the help of a few others, I think we’ll get there."
Tony motioned the bartender over. "Get us something expensive to fill these glasses up. My treat. Then I wanna try one of your specialty drinks. Surprise me, I'll try literally everything at least once."
He grinned at Qrow, "They're gonna have to drag us out of here."
“Man after my own heart,” Qrow chuckled. Though he’d offered to buy the first couple of rounds, he certainly wasn’t going to stop Tony from indulging on his dime. Besides, on his salary, it was rare that he got a chance to drink the really good stuff. Qrow was no snob when it came to booze, but he did consider himself something of a connoisseur. A lifetime of drinking gave him that kind of skill.
He turned to the bartender with a laugh. “Make it two,” he said regarding the speciality drinks. Why the hell not. “It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve had to be dragged out of a place,” he said.
"At least with me you know we're getting dragged out because we're too sloshed to walk and not because we're about to have a bar fight adventure."
The bartender was very busy mixing a variety of things into a huge bowl-shaped drink glass. Tony stared at it for a while, wondering if that was the surprise heading their way, and he was only slightly wary of it when it arrived, alongside a couple of glasses of the highest shelf whiskey they had.
Most people probably would have gotten alcohol poisoning just looking at the thing, but Tony just shrugged a shoulder. "I'd ask what's in this, but I think the answer is 'yes'. Also I'm pretty sure we're gonna want some greasy snacks to go with this."
In the time he’d been coming to Quark’s, Qrow had only seen the infamous “warp core breach” served a scant handful of times and almost always to tourists who were looking for something “unique” to add to their overall Vegas experience. In his experience only one person had ever actually finished it. He watched the bartender as he started mixing various rums and other liquors into the large bowl-shaped glass wondering who among them was feeling extra daring tonight.
Only when the effervescing bowl was brought over and placed between him and Tony did Qrow realize they were the daring ones tonight. Maybe he shouldn’t let Tony order the drinks anymore. At least the bartender hadn’t actually made two of them.
“You weren’t kidding when you said they’re gonna have to drag us outta here,” he quipped. “Ah, what the hell? I don’t have to stand up in front of a room of teenagers and give a lecture tomorrow.” Thank god.
"And I always pass right out in my workshop, so no one's even gonna think twice about this on my end." Tony admitted, while staring at it. One of them was going to have to take the first sip, and it might as well be him, right? After all, he was the one that had just gotten them into this mess.
He pursed his lips together and then grabbed his straw. "We're going in. It's go time."
Tony had kind of been expecting the thing to set his entire mouth, esophagus, and stomach on fire as he drank it, but the drink was dangerously smooth. He looked absolutely delighted as he stopped for a breath and pointed at it. "This thing is the real deal. If I was any more reckless than I already am I'd order another one. But no don't worry- I'm not gonna."
Qrow eyed the drink as Tony bravely took the first drink. There was something about drinking alcohol through a straw that he didn’t care for. However, there wasn’t really any other way to drink the damn thing from the bowl without it ending up all over the place. That coupled with Tony’s ringing endorsement prompted him to take the remaining straw and give the drink a try.
Like Tony, Qrow had expected it to burn all the way down and was surprised by how smooth it actually was. “Damn, that is good,” he said, a little surprised.
"This is my new favorite thing." Tony declared. "I think I'm gonna have to keep coming back in here just to drink with you and have this gigantic meltdown straw drink." He wanted to buy everyone in the bar one, but before he could make any kind of declaration like that, he got too busy taking another few sips of it.
Which was good, because the bill would have been astronomical by the time the night was over and the staff called the two of them a taxi. And they definitely needed one by the time 2am rolled around, because in no way was either of them in any shape to drive.
But as they pulled out of the parking lot, Tony nodded his drunkin head and decided, "You're my buddy now. We've shared a gigantic smoking death alcohol bowl, so now we're friends. That's it, that's the rules."