Who: Maia and Sasha What: Drinking and Talking When: recently! Where: A bar! Status: complete
Sasha was very fond of this bar. It was just noisy enough to be fun, the specialty drinks were pretty tasty, and they didn’t cut her off after five drinks anymore. Probably because she got pretty belligerent, and also because she never drove there.
She watched the crowd, sipping her vodka. Her parents drank a lot of vodka, she usually avoided it. Tonight, though, she felt like drinking something from the motherland. It was her birthday, after all.
Maia was in an odd sort of mood. She decided to hit up a couple of pubs, and stopped into one and looked around. She marched up to the bar and declared. “Give me some scotch an’ if you make it perverted I might just show you some ice.”
Sasha eyed the other woman curiously. “Perverted scotch?” She didn’t have a heavy accent, but her words were just a little colored by her time growing up in Russia.
“Ice,” Maia explained, winking at her. “It’s bad form to water down your liquor.” She’d probably never lose her Londoner accent.
“Ah, I see. I do not like ice in my drinks, either. I will take beer cold, but nothing else.” And never with ice. A frozen glass was all beer needed.
Maia nodded her head. “A woman after my own heart. Maia, a pleasure.”
Sasha nodded her head in return, her earrings banging against each other like tiny bells. “Sasha. It is also a pleasure for me. I have not seen you before, are you a regular?”
“Not at this one. I’m afraid I don’t have a regular pub yet. Still searching, and I’ve less need to get plastered than I used to.”
“You need a reason to drink?” Sasha asked with a laugh. “It is fun! That is enough for me.”
Maia shook her head. “Well I had extra cause, and now I want to drink for fun.” She winked at the blonde woman, finding her accent sexy.
Sasha laughed. “Well, I am glad it is fun for you again.” She raised her glass to Maia and took a drink.
“Thanks.” She toasted as well. She wasn’t going to go into things like Blights, dragons and Archdemons. That way led madness. Just like the voices.
Sasha smiled over her glass. “You are from England, yes?”
“Yes! Was it my charm, or just my charming accent?” She smiled, leaning towards the other woman.
“Oh, are English women supposed to be charming?” Sasha asked, her voice deadpan. The only thing that gave her teasing away was her smug little smile.
“Oh yes, it’s in the rulebook. Bylines page four.” Maia smiled brilliantly.
Sasha laughed at that, a deep, loud laugh. “Hmmm, I have not met enough English women, then. Of course, I am not to be charmed.” She held up her left hand. It had a multitude of rings, and most were big, gaudy metal things. The only understated ones were her engagement and wedding rings. “I am spoken for.”
“Good lord, that’s a lot of bling!” Maia grinned and leaned forward to look. “And it’s quite all right, I’m spoken for too. I’d have to call ahead to bring you home and that just is too much work.”
Sasha snorted at that. “The same is true for me, and our condo is a mess, beside.”
“That’s the oldest excuse in the book, next to washing our hair,” Maia pointed out, chipperly. Her drink arrived, sans ice, which was fortunate, because she would have done something magical otherwise.
“I have never had to wash my hair so desperately that I did not want sex. Does that excuse even work?” Sasha noted, slightly confused. She’d never understood that.
“I wish. But I love my new job and I’d go to it with grungy hair if I had to!”
“So you have sex for work?” Sasha wasn’t entirely sure they were talking about the same thing anymore. Must be time to order another vodka.
Maia snorted. “Sex is for fun. My girlfriend is a dominatrix though? I actually teach at the University. One of them anyway.”
Sasha decided to latch onto the one thing she knew about in all that. “What do you teach?”
“Mythology! All the mythology. I did my thesis on creation myths and their similarities, but we’ll be touching on just about every country and ancient society we can.” She looked genuinely excited.
“That sounds very interesting.” Sasha wasn’t one for fairy tales, but obviously the other woman was, and she didn’t want to be rude. “I am an engineer.”
“Ah, the more practical sort. I actually made a friend who likes the more hands on ancient stuff. I suppose structures would be part of that!”
“Robots are my passion.” Sasha said with a shrug. So not very practical.
Maia stared at her, then slammed her palm on the table. “Hey! Barperson! I want to buy this amazing woman a drink!”
That was the moment Maia became Sasha’s favorite person in the bar. She smiled at the bartender as they poured her another vodka, then she took a long drink. “You like robots?”
“Who doesn’t like robots?” Maia looked at Sasha. “I’ve some familiarity with the subject, though not robotics and you’d think Me nutters anyway so never mind.”
“Nutters is crazy, right? I do not think many people are crazy.” Sasha noted with a laugh. “And I will think you less crazy than others because you’re smart enough to give me vodka.”
Maia smirked. “You’ll think I’m crazy when I start talking about golems.”
“Not really. They’re a Jewish thing, yes? With a plate in their head that makes them go.” She shrugged. They were a curious myth. Early science fiction.
“Kind of! The ones I’m talking about are actually stone creations powered by the souls of dwarves.” Maia buffed her nails on her shirt, looked at them, then snapped her fingers, making a spark of flame. “And magic. Can’t forget the magic.”
Sasha saw the flame and tilted her head. “You do magic?” She meant magic in the Vegas stage show sense.
“You’d be surprised at the thing I could do, love.”
“I have known you for a very short time, I’m sure that’s true.” Sasha pointed out, between drinks.
“Want anything chilled?”
Sasha shook her head. “No, vodka is better warm.” It was a strange question.
“Damn, and here I wanted to show off. But I suppose that’s quite okay.” Maia shrugged her shoulder.
“Show off? I am interested in magic.” She liked to try to figure out how the tricks were done.
Maia held her hands out, palms facing each other and conjured a ball of lightning. “Like this?”
Sasha watched with interest, looking at Maia’s arms and hands to see the device that was creating the effect. “It’s quite pretty.”
She dismissed the effect and replaced it with ice. “Go ahead and take this.”
Sasha picked up the ice. It was real enough, which was strange, but her expression was nonplussed at best. “Thank you, I needed my hands to be wet.”
“Wet and cold, probably the worst thing your hands could be!”
“That’s true. Unless I am trying to upset my husband.” She said with a laugh.
“If I could teach you this trick I would,” Maia replied, getting a wicked idea for Pam. She made another object out of ice, but longer and with a rounded tip. Then she giggled like she was twelve.
Sasha snorted. “Have fun.”
“It’s just you gave me an idea and now I can mess with my girl some.” She winked.
Sasha nodded and motioned to the ice block. “I understood that.”
Maia’s grin grew bigger. “Oh yes. It’s a wonderful idea.”
“I’m glad I could help.” Some of their toys had artificial intelligence, which was a mistake, actually.
“I should get back and test this out…” Maia’s eyes glowed once, for a second, and then she slapped down some quid. “One more for my brilliant friend, here!”
Sasha examined the quid, as did the bartender. She laughed and shook her head. “Have a good evening, then.”
With a little salute, Maia sauntered out. She tossed the ice dildo aside and hailed a cab.