"You have got to be kidding me," Riley said as she blinked at the hologram as he talked about what was going and where she was. "So picking a coin and bam everything you know is bullshit." She added blinking a few more times.
Pushing up from where she was seated, she looked around the room. It was clean, crisp, not uncomfortable, but none of this could be real. She had to have been kidnapped at some point, right?
Right.
Riley tried to figure out how the hologram worked for a while before she gave up and decided that she should go explore this place. Leaving the neat little house, she headed into the main area of this city she was apparently in now. She watched as someone flew passed her on a broom. She was also pretty sure she just saw Wolverine walking down the street.
"Bozer would love this place," she muttered under her breath. Riley wasn't really sure about any of this crap. A large part of her thought that she was dead, good and dead.
Riley stopped in front of a bar called Dive and nodded. "Okay, a drink a drink sounds like a good plan." She rolled her eyes, unsure if that was a good choice or not.
Pushing the door open, she took a seat at the bar looking around at the different people sitting around.
"What?" She asked, looking at the bartender before shaking her head. "Just a beer, actually make that a shot and a beer." Probably not a great plan but right now she didn't care.
"Thanks," Riley said as the glasses were set out in front of her. She didn't waste any time as she took the shot quickly and a sip of her beer afterwards.
"Still here." She muttered.
“Newbie, huh?” Sara grinned at the woman sitting in front of her and she was already pouring her another shot. She had a feeling she was gonna need it. “I can pinch you if you want.”
Technically, as a field agent, she didn't have to work behind the bar any more, but Sara was pretty fond of Dive and it was a hard habit to break. She usually took one or two short shifts a week, but she wouldn't admit it was out of fondness for the manager or any of the staff.
“I'm Sara,” she offered as she set the second shot on the bar between them. “This one’s on me.”
“What gave it away?” Riley responded deadpan. Shaking her head she didn’t need to be pinched. “I never put much stock into the pinching thing anyways.” She admitted but didn’t go into the why or how she thought about it or how she was pretty sure if Mac was here he’d give some who long drawn our reason behind ‘pinching.’
“Riley,” she nodded. “Thanks,” she took the shot quickly. “You been here long?”
“Couple of years,” Sara answered. “It’ll be three in November.” She’d seen a lot in that time, she’d met a lot of people and that made it pretty easy to spot the new ones.
Feeling a kind of dejavu, she pulled out her phone to check something. “Looks like you’re my new roommate, Riley,” she said after confirming why she thought the name was familiar.
“Years,” she laughed shaking her head. “Well, that puts things into perspective.” What that perspective was she didn’t elaborate.
Raising an eyebrow, she took a sip of her beer and nodded. “Huh,” she held up the beer. “Well, always good to know someone who works in a bar.” She smiled. “So, what are the other roommates like?”
“Just one other roommate and he’s kind of a fish,” Sara said with a completely straight face, knowing exactly how insane it sounded. “Or he used to be a fish until Atlantis brought him here and turned him human.” She couldn’t help a slight smirk. “You ever see The Little Mermaid?”
She really shouldn’t have just taken a sip, coughing on her beer she covered her mouth and held her hand up to indicate that she was okay. “Did you just say a fish?” She was coughing too hard to really hear the other question and too shocked to have heard it.
Laughing a little, even though she knew it was kind of mean, Sara nodded. “Flounder. From The Little Mermaid,” she confirmed. “He was a fish, but Atlantis turned him human when it brought him here.” She knew how insane that sounded, but she figured her new roomie might as well just get used to the weird.
“Let me get this straight, Flounder, the little yellow and blue fish, he was yellow right? Is now human and while in fish form managed to pick up a coin?” She sat back. “I’m starting to wonder if I’m some really messed up trip.”
“Yep, that about sums it up,” Sara confirmed. “If it’s a trip, I’ve been on it for a long ass time now.” She’d seen a lot of weird shit, but even compared to her normal life on the Waverider, Atlantis was pretty damn crazy.
Riley just nodded, she really didn’t know what else to say, it was all a lot to take in and she still couldn’t get over the fact that they were talking about their roommate who was a human fish, or a fish human or however it should be worded. “Huh.” Was all she really managed to get out.
“It's a lot, I know,” Sara said sympathetically. She'd been here long enough to be used to the weirdness and it kind of helped that she had her time as a Legend to help, too. Life wasn't exactly normal on the Waverider, not by most people's standards.
“You can say that again,” she whispered needing to take a little time to let it all sink in.