Dinner tonight was going to be at The Lightening Brew. Not that Clarice was expecting Lexi to remember she had promised her a drink, and she wasn’t going to ask either, but it looked like she was going to stay and make the rounds anyway, so she might as well start there.
Clarice thought brewpubs were a hipster new spin on an old concept and a reason for any dude with nothing else to do to feel awesome about himself and feel entitled to call himself a ‘brewer’. But they had food and beer and Clarice was partial to both, so who cared? Before things had gone to shit this last time, she’d been known to frequent places like this. It seemed like a whole other life now, but then she supposed prison changed a person. Along with everything else, of course.
Clarice grabbed a table at a secluded but not darkened place, and looked over the menu, finally deciding on a BLT wrap and some nachos along with an orange and ginger pale ale. A weird combination, but she liked weird. She was basking in the normalcy of sitting at a pub, in some light, without being looked at sideways or feeling threatened when she saw a familiar face show up.
She wanted to perk up and sit straighter, then caught herself and remained leaning sideways against the wall so as not to look like an overexcited, idiotic puppy. Not knowing whether to call him over or not, Clarice shoved a nacho into her mouth and stole a few glances his way instead. Things might be better here but she wasn’t a new woman; she was an awkward weirdo who didn’t like to feel excited to see anyone, much less call them over first.
John had similarly heard that this was the best place to get a drink in Atlantis. He had pretty much decided to stay in Atlantis, so he thought getting out and getting to know some people seemed like a good idea. His intake interview in a few days would make it official, which meant that for now he had plenty of free time to explore the city. Dinner and maybe a drink or two at what everyone said was Atlantis’ best pub seemed like a good place to start.
Recognizing Clarice easily when something pulled his gaze that way, he immediately headed over and greeted her with a smile. “It looks like you had the same idea I did,” he commented, nodding toward the food and drink on her table. “Mind if I join you?”
It was no longer feasible to pretend she hadn’t seen John when he was actively looking and walking in her direction, so Clarice smiled back and wiped her fingers on the napkin. Licking her lips, she nodded. “Yeah I figured might as well start here.”
Taking a sip of her weird beer, Clarice eyed John with one raised eyebrow and shook her head, nose wrinkled. She only character when she swallowed and sighed. Spicy. Spicy beer. But refreshing. Clarice motioned for any of the free seats at her table before picking up another couple of nachos. “Nah, have a seat. Nacho?”
“Atlantis has some interesting stuff, huh?” Nodding, he helped himself to a nacho as he sat down across from her. It had been good to see another familiar face when Clarice has shown up on the network and the prospect of sharing some food and drink with a friend was a good one, better than the idea of drinking alone.
“Have you tried the blue bubbles yet?”
“I guess.” Clarice shrugged. She was still very much new to this place and the idea of it, and still unconvinced of its amazingness twenty four hours of the day like everyone else seemed to be. “It has good food and shelter, and no one has called me a mutie so I’ll take it.”
She frowned up at him. “What the hell are blue bubbles?”
Putting a positive or negative spin on the interesting was another story, but he couldn’t argue her point there. It was a good kind of different not to be treated like a second class citizen just for being a mutant. In fact, people seemed to treat it as a good thing here. He had to admit that not needing to hide here was an argument in favor of staying. So was the fact that Lauren needed someone. He was sure she’d rather it be her parents or brother, but in their absence, John felt like it was on him to look after him.
“It’s a drink,” he explained, laughing at her evident confusion. “I’m not sure how it works, but it tastes different to everyone who drinks it. It’ll taste like your favorite drink, no matter what that happens to be.” He shrugged. “That’s what they say, anyway.”
Clarice thought the same about how being treated like a normal person was an incentive to staying, though that didn’t mean that years of reflexes based around hiding and running weren’t still at the forefront of her mind. Actually, she was pretty sure even if she did stay until this war was won, it would be a long while until she unlearned that behavior for good. But John was here, and so was Lauren, and really they were the people she felt closest to in a long time… not counting Lorna, who sort-of no longer counted, or Zingo, who was a dog and thus not a person. Although that only reminded her that she missed Zingo already. And the girl probably missed her too. Dammit.
“Oh! Weird. I don’t even know what my favorite drink is. What’s yours?” She chuckled. “Man, okay this shouldn’t feel so exciting to find out, but it does. Can we get one here?”
She turned around to find someone she could order it from.
“Chocolate milkshake,” he answered with a chuckle and slight shake of his head. “It’s probably weird that of all the things it could have tasted like, that’s it.” He hadn’t even been sure he had a favorite until he’d tasted the drink and been told by the bartender what it did. Definitely weird.
Nodding as he watched her try to flag down a server, he was sure they could get them. Someone had told him all the bars in Atlantis served them.
It was slightly adorable that John’s favorite drink was a chocolate milkshake. Clarice snickered, half endeared and half amused. When she finally managed to wave down a waiter she ordered the drinks and then turned back around a little too excitedly. She was happy to roll with weird stuff that wasn’t malignant, and drinks that tasted like your favorite one couldn’t possibly be that. Although…
“Wait. Does it magically imitate the texture of the drink too? ‘Cause if not, that’s gotta be weird. You can’t have a non-creamy milkshake! Though I guess if it didn’t have the texture you wouldn’t know for sure.”
After a while, enough that Clarice finished her meal and offered a couple last nachos to John, the drinks were here. She stared down at it, unconvinced, and then expectant. Looking back up at John, she eyed him suspiciously as if he would prank her ever. Unless this place had changed him a hell of a lot, he wouldn’t. After a little while, Clarice shrugged and took a sip. Then another, and then she paused for tasting.
“Holy shit. It’s a virgin piña colada!”
“A virgin piña colada?” he couldn’t help teasing a little. Atlantis had mellowed him a little. He felt a little more relaxed here than at home. He wasn’t leading an underground, he wasn’t responsible for the safety of so many people here. In Atlantis, he had a team to lead and a handful of people from home he felt responsible, but it wasn’t exactly the same.
He’d even managed to have a little fun in the time he’d been here.
“It’s freaky, right, how much it tastes like the real thing.” He didn’t know what kind of magic made it possible, but he’d heard enough from Lauren to know this wasn’t even the weirdest thing about this city.
Clarice noticed the tease in John’s voice and narrowed her eyes. “Yes, John, because I don’t go hard for rum but I love a good coconut cream mixed with pineapple juice. I’d offer you some, it’s the best I’ve ever had, but you’d just taste chocolate milkshake anyway, so.”
She took another greedy sip, licking the inevitable white mustache off the top of her upper lip. Now the weird beer was even less appealing. She pushed the bottle towards John. “You want the rest of my super hipster spicy ginger beer thingy?”
He wasn’t lying. It was freaky as hell, it almost made her head spin. “I’m still not convinced I’m not in some weird coma dream. This is all so out there.”
Shaking his head, John pushed the bottle away from both of them.
“According to Lauren, this is just the tip of the iceberg,” he offered, not sure if that made it better or not. He’d been her a little longer than Clarice, but was still new enough to be getting used to the little quirks of the place. Everything he’d heard said he hadn’t even seen the half of it. This was incredible and weird enough. He could hardly imagine what more surprised awaited them.
Sighing, Clarice shrugged. “Eh. Whatever it is, it’s got to be better than what we were doing back home. I guess we could use a little R&R, huh? You especially. I’m going to try not being grumpy about this.”
That probably started by getting a Blue Bubbles everyday. It was just really good. She raised her glass. “Here’s to, uh… Us! Yeah. Here’s to us. And this drink.”