the light catches the eye but shadows have (moretosay) wrote in summerview, @ 2019-01-02 02:17:00 |
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Maeve & Zander
12/23
The Long Way Down
PG-13
Complete. Warnings for Vague Violence. Vulgarity. |
It wasn’t the rowdiest of nights, not for a Sunday at least. But it was getting there. There were a few people she was keeping an eye on from where she was working behind the bar instead of waitressing that night. Maeve preferred the latter honestly, but they had an abundance of wait staff that night and not enough bartenders somehow, she wasn’t entirely sure how that happened. Would definitely have to look into it later. They also had two newer waitresses on staff tonight, which was why they had more than usual, to compensate for those two being amateur. Maeve treated her people well, was willing to pay for the overstaffed so new people didn’t feel overwhelmed and customers didn’t get an excuse to be assholes due to slow service. This was a good trial by fire to the jumpy pixie who had just started in the middle of the week, really. And that’s not to say Maeve had a bad bunch of customers, her regulars weren’t always so bad, but they had some new people who were passing through, and being shoved into a space like this with alcohol and old rivalries stirred up by groups that usually meant to live seperate, well, it could turn calm, mellow people rather the opposite. Marie wasn’t working tonight, sadly, the girl had a way of diverting attention from anger just as they got started that saved her on furniture replacement costs. Most of the people she had tonight were pretty good though, including Zander who was also keeping an eye on the two tables off to the left of the bar who kept baiting each other. That wasn’t enough for them to get booted — she played host to Pack functions for shitsake, be reasonable — but if something did happen then it was going to get ugly fast. Her attention was also drawn to a quieter but a little more skeevy looking table to her right, who kept trying to get Maeve’s girls (and a few of the prettier boys) to drink with them. Hadn’t put hands on anyone or gotten too vulgar, by the looks on her people’s faces when they came back to the bar, but they smelled like they were going to get worse even from here. The fluster of the bar on these busy nights were enough to test Zander’s patience. So stimulating, the noise, movements, scents and the need to concentrate in multiple tasks. He’d taken well to the art of Bartending while also serving as something of a guardian for Maeve’s bar. Eyes and ears ever hanging over the counter and behind. All the locals he’d long since learned their habits and how best to deal with them. But it was always the newcomers, those passing for business, or the occasional drunk getting out of hand that he would have to shut down. Zander was impressed the new staff was holding their own with the rush, but they didn’t exactly have time to dawdle. He served the drinks as quickly as orders came, watching the servers carefully make it safely through their routes. Maeve liked to think she was as attuned to her employees as she was her customers, and so she noticed when Zander looked a bit more tense than normal. Or maybe this was how he normally was on Saturday nights and she was just more used to being out there instead of behind the bar with him and able to watch him more. She liked him, but she had long had the impression that this wasn’t exactly his comfort zone. Which was fine, jobs didn’t have to be your ideal environment. Maeve didn’t technically have a childhood, but Briar had run between the legs of chaotic New Yorkers when the streets were still cobbled, and thrived on this sort of atmosphere. So for her, there were certainly worse ways to spend a ‘domestic’ spell. “If you need five, let me know.” Maeve told him as she stepped behind him and up on a stool to grab a higher up bottle for someone wanting to celebrate something, one rough hand resting on his shoulder for a moment to keep her steady as she balanced. Personal space was something that happened to other people when you worked at a restaurant, especially one that got this chaotic. “I’ll be fine, boss.” The Gargoyle gave her the closest thing to a tiny smile amidst cleaning up after the mess. Zander wasn’t sure the demeanor he gave off while working or focused, but suspected it to be serious. He did take his job seriously. And pretty much everything else, it just came with his species. When she was finished using him as a stool, his face softened a little and he gave her the tiniest of nudges, putting the glass away. “Should you need five, you can let me know as well.” “Well good.” Maeve grinned at him, that jovial, relaxed smile that never wavered at work. Bartenders and waitresses were supposed to be fun, help you loosen up, and couldn’t be phased by a little chaos or beer on her jeans. “Because if you collapse we’ll have to do a team lift to get you outta here and I can’t spare the manpower.” It was clearly a joke, mock warning contrasted by her grin and easy expression. Maeve laughed with all her people, she made sure of that, at least in Zander’s case even when he didn’t joke back he still seemed to humor her. When her feet hit the ground again, twisting open the bottle with a bit of effort and a glare, she nudged him back even as she snorted, “Man if I sit down I ain’t getting back up. Wherever she sits is where she shall be buried.” The dramatic comment was interrupted with a triumphant grin as she yanked the cork out with a loud pop. It was poured quickly but smoothly into two of their nicer glasses just in time for one of the other girls to pop back up to the bar with her hands extended expectantly for her to hand them over, the bottle set aside in easy reach just in case they wanted more. “It takes a lot more than this to overwhelm me.” The joke was enough to pull a throaty chuckle from the Gargoyle, only amused at the mere thought of them trying to lift him up and out of the bar. If only there was a way to see if they could try and lift him in his stone form. Now that would be quite a show. Throwing the cleaning rag over his shoulder, Zander made quick to refill a few of the patrons at the bar before smoothing back over the counter again. Even on a busy night he was no less a perfectionist. “If you don’t take a breath now and again, there’s no point in getting up in the first place. Or something to that effect.” He’d probably mucked up the actual terms that his mate had told him but at least he was taking her words to heart and doing much more than moping at the top of a building anymore. “At least, that’s what Nerissa says. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen you not moving.” Maeve needed no convincing to believe that, not all Gargoyles were like Zander, but he was definitely a good example of what she would have expected had she never met one. Solid and unphased by most things really. He was good to have around here, and just because of his size. Customers who were being aggravating or just drunk, slurring idiots —annoying but not violent or rule breaking, were common here, “Welcome to Customer Service, where were don’t matter and your nerves are dead.” What a terrible sales pitch. Good, good, okay, everything was fine. She always appreciated one of those people that made her paranoia that was always manifesting in one form or another ease back a little, and he was detail oriented and predictable enough that he nailed that role. “That’s very zen of you.” She remarked, distractedly, trying to keep herself from asking if he had fortune cookies for breakfast that day. One of the times she said that someone was going to take her a bit too literal and she had a feeling it might be today. At the moment she was partially not moving at least, a few steps out of the normal paths everyone took to grab things behind the bar and surveying the chaos looking for one hair out of place, but she wasn’t really still. Because he was right on that, there was a corkscrew twirling in her hand and she was bouncing a bit from one foot to the other, ever filled with restless energy. Then again, it came in handy when the two groups she had been keeping an eye on seemed to erupt one after the other. On the left side of the building there was a shout, the sound of a chair being roughly shoved back, then another — followed by more angry yelling from the people unfortunate enough to be behind the men at the two tables who had suddenly decided ‘now was the time’ or whatever, see that was the problem with violence in public, it had a radius. And on the other there was a high pitched shriek followed by cursing in Hindi. The table with the lecherous looking men had finally put hands on at least one of her people, and it sounded like another was trying to fix it on her own. “You go left, I’ll go right.” Maeve told him, and she was off like a bird darting through the trees towards prey on the forest floor, weaving between people and over chairs with the sharpness of someone who not only knew her space but had grown up in this sort of chaos. Maeve was always the first person to put herself between her people and harm, so it made sense she would choose to side to intervene on instead of the one that was (so far) only involving customers. It wasn’t something she liked to do, she had big, intimidating looking people for that, and her curvy, 5’5 self wasn’t really on that list. But she could handle a fight, better than she wanted people to know, really. “I’m working on it. Someone told me once it wasn’t healthy to harbor and fester feelings.” Zander was still learning yet. He had been without his clan and family for nearly a year now and while he undoubtedly would never be able to replace them, life was still worth living, and this town in a way was his new clan. He just had to keep opening up room for trust and letting people inside. Nerissa made it difficult not to try new things. As did the other encouraging members of Summerview. The gargoyle heard the interaction and remained calm, waiting for Maeve to give him the order that would eventually come. He could easily handle this alone but this was her bar after all. Her territory. Those who dwelled within should learn to respect it and her rules. And those who she allowed inside. Zander merely half-grunted his response, a low rumble in his throat as he swiftly made his way across the bar and over to commotion. Large as he was, he was easily swift. No one in the bar bothered trying not to get out of his way either. As Maeve put herself in front of the poor service woman, Zander was at her left side looming and a low growl. If these idiots wanted to break their bones over his stone-ridden strength, they were welcome to try should they not choose the better option of obeying Maeve’s wishes. Oh, if only she could take that advice. Well. Maeve could, but Briar was still working on it. Half heartedly at best that is. Really, she was fueled by spite and it wouldn’t do to take away her drive so, she really wasn’t working on forgive and forget with any sort of fire. On the other hand, Maeve smiled at him encouragingly and patted his shoulder again in a clearly broadcasted gesture of fondness, “Life is too short, or too long depending I guess.” And she laughed at her own joke because damn if the latter wasn’t true in a lot of ways. Compartmentalization was a beautiful thing, that was for sure. One of the men now involved in a ridiculous shouting match across to the other table barely paid Zander any attention, which she would have found a bit impressive were it not happening in her bar. Honestly, sometimes she regretted not opening up a tapas place. She had used Zander to clear a path for her but now she had to make her way a few tables over to where the more delicate incident was happening, but one thing at a time. “Shut up and sit your asses down or get the hell out!” Maeve barked at them, shoving an onlooker aside to try and grab their attention. But it didn’t work very well, one of them hardly scoffed at her before grabbing the other man’s shirt and yanking him across the table. “Fuck! Zander, get them out of here!” Before they hurt anyone else, damnit, this was the bad part about having so many traditionally territorial groups on one island. Behind her there was another shout and she wormed her way back through the crowd, trying to get out of the way before the man’s buddies could get involved. Man, they hadn’t had a fight in months, why did they have to break her streak? All she had to do was break up the lecherous men putting hands on her girls and throw them out while Zander glared at the blustering men trying to have a dick measuring contest in her bar. Quick steps brought her to the table where the two men — no friends, unlike the others, small blessings — were surrounding Jennie with Awoere off to the side trying to pull one away from his coworker. Unlike the other men though, these were cold and calm, with a hungry look in their eyes. See, the problem with her getting involved with these things is that Maeve wasn’t a fighter, wasn’t built for it, physically or reputation wise. So instead she reached between the two men to grab Jennie’s skinny arm and yanked her out, pulling out one of the tricks she used against Rasmus but amped up. Eyes suddenly glowing red, cheeks sharper and ears longer, even extending her teeth as she growled at the more imposing man, snapping right in his face, “Leave. Now.” But the man just smirked, “Neat trick.” And his leg swept out, which she really should have caught, because leg sweeps were one of his favorites, but instead she felt an intense pain in her ankle when it bent in a way it shouldn’t and she went down — hitting her head on the edge of the table on the way to the floor. Aw man, why didn’t she stay behind the bar, and why was the floor moving when she wasn’t? Maeve didn’t need to tell Zander twice. Moving into his protective mode, the thing he was supposed to be, the Gargoyle let out his wings and tail, rippling open and shredding at his clothes—he had a spare always. There was no sense in anyone else getting injured trying to fight in his facade of a form. And his was no trick. Half a stone skin would have to do, his wingspan easily pushing the in danger parties aside. The Gargoyle’s long tail coiled around the man’s leg, dragging his weight from under him and lifting him upside down Zander, growling, his reflective eyes gleaming white. “You had your chance to leave.” Perhaps a simple turn of his true form would discourage anyone else to ever tempt a battle here. But that would take away the element of surprise. The buddy’s pals tried in vein to come for him, halted easily by a wall of stone wing, landing clear on their asses. Zander let the aggressor fall on his head in the small pile of trash monster’s he’d collected before him, wings spread about and ready to ‘thwap’ then if they so tried to get away or if anyone tried to intervene. “Shall I take them to Jayati?” Man, that was never not impressive. It helped that he was on her side. Maeve had a good handful of employees, and most of them even stuck around. Some folk treated the Sanctuary cities like stopping points, and she didn’t blame them, especially since she had done it for a long spell too, and a bar was a great place to work if you just needed some cash while you got your shit together. But Zander had stuck around, bless him. The men around her took the hint too, even if Zander wasn’t focusing on them, the Gargoyle’s impressive wingspan definitely helped. Maeve had never tried wings, and she wondered if she could? But not right now with the pounding in her head worse than any hangover and a pain in her ankle that meant when the two she had been defending pulled her up by her elbow she leaned on them more than she expected. Bloody hell. Luckily her good customers gave her a berth as she glared at the pile of trouble makers and men leaving a dust trail behind them as they scrambled out the bar via the front door. She hobbled over to a table off to the side in a not crowded area and sitting down, considering the bit of havoc that had ensued, “I’ll text one of the deputies, if you wanna drag them outside? Don’t be gentle.” Part of her thought he should be sent home early as a reward, but also no please don’t go home early, stay until the end of her shift because her head was still going to be hurting until then and she couldn’t do extra work with it like she usually did. With two wrapped coiled in the Gargoyle’s tail, Zander grabbed their main trouble maker and dragged them out to the front, zip tying their appendages together in a ridiculous pretzel formation that would make it impossible for them to get out of before the deputies arrived. Pushing them to the ground he gave one last growl, “Next time you decide to hurt anyone, we’ll just skip the authorities bit and I’ll bite your heads off, yeah?” White eyes flashed once more before Zander let his wings and tail fade away, his shirt a bit tattered but not important. He quickly went back inside to tend to Maeve and their girl, taking them to the back and fetching some ice. “Are you going to be alright?” Maeve sent off a few texts while slinging an arm around Jennie’s shoulder, for the younger girl's comfort and her own balance while Zander took out the garbage. Jennie moved her so she was leaning against one of the industrial refrigerators in the back so she could pull her curls back to peer at the tender spot where she had slammed into the table, seeing no blood but mumbling something about a possible concussion that Maeve didn't really want to hear. “Yeah, I'm good, probably, I think my ankle is twisted but that should only take a few days to get back in order.” Damn her boots clinging to the floor as she fell, “Maybe I should start staying out of shit.” An ice pack was shoved into her protesting hand as she struggled to focus on the two of them but she still took it while telling Jennie to get some sweets and some air or better yet, head home early. Man, since when was it so bright back here? Ever tentative and loyal, the Gargoyle helped the girls situate Maeve and fetch some water and towels to help compress. At least the bar had quieted down for now. Hopefully no one wanted to test their strength against Zander while he was preoccupied. Though it seemed everyone had warily gone about their business or left. “Maybe,” he chuckled lightly, tugging on a spare shirt he’d pulled from his bag from behind the bar before moving to sit alongside Maeve in Jennie’s stead, telling one of the bus boys to see her home. “Or maybe you should run a less problematic atmosphere, being quite so squishy.” It had been meant as a joke. He was still working on the humor bit. Grayson was better at making people laugh than he was. “Not that I’m unthankful for the job, mind you.” Her stomach kept churning, settling for a moment but then picking up again every time she moved her head or her eyes, and she could definitely feel her ankle starting to swell uncomfortable in her shoe. Damn. It took effort and staring at the table in front of her to keep from losing her balance when she leaned to the side to bump him with her shoulder gently. “I owe you one. Again. A few ones, probably. Low key though.” Not that Zander would ever be the type to every take advantage of that sort of thing, but it was a good addendum to add. He was probably too down to earth to weave pretty words and bring her into debt with old magic, so she wasn’t particularly worried. It was a mark in his favor, and made her glad she was far from the courts. “ Squishy is part of my charm, for your information.” Though she considered his suggestion for a moment before shrugging, “I like it, most days. It's real, ya know?” “I’ll remember that should I decide to take a vacation.” It was real. The Gargoyle pondered that for a moment in attempt to empathize with her. The world they lived in was skewed but here, in her bar, there were almost normal problems with not so normal people. Perhaps that was as close to what a real life was supposed to be like. “Most days,” he repeated. For one who’d spent most of his life as stone, Zander enjoyed whatever real he could be a part of. “Should probably stick in one piece to enjoy it, yeah?” Had Zander ever taken a vacation? No, not that she recalled, although Maeve herself took random chunks of time off to burn energy and such outside Summerview, it was entirely possible he had taken a few extra days here and there. But overall, she didn’t think so, “You should, you know. Maybe take Nerissa somewhere nice, yeah? For an Anniversary or something. I think that’s big these days.” She had seen it on films and sitcoms! Those were a good picture of what normal was, right? Yeah. It’s fine. This is why she hadn’t been in a committed relationship since 1918 probably. Maeve extended her leg with the injured ankle, gently placing it on the ground but even that amount of pressure hurt. Her face contorted for only the briefest of moments, “You know. I’ll give you that one, boyo, We all have our limitations. I bet I can tango better than you,” Maeve laughed at her own joke, and the image of Zander trying to tango. Nerissa could probably do it though, and damn if they wouldn’t look stunning across a marble dance floor together. Hmm. “I think I might duck out the rest of the night, if you need anyone to cover me hit up the group chat, someone always needs the extra cash amiright?” Honestly she wasn’t sure how useful she was going to be if she stayed, and she was extra tonight anyway. Technically they were only going to be one down after the busboy got back from dropping Jennie off. |