Eleanor had planned on asking Marina and Dorian if they wanted to head out to Galahd after the engagement party, but Marina had taken off rather quickly and she didn't really know Dorian. So she shrugged that off and went to meet up with Sophie, who had apparently arrived and then danced on tables the same night.
Which was impressive, really.
After slowly sipping on a drink to be on her best behavior at the engagement party, when Eleanor found Sophie at the bar she immediately ordered a round of shots for both of them. "Hey! I'm Eleanor. I think I need to catch up."
Self-destructive. While Sophie knew Regina was entirely right about her method of coping with the way her life turned out, she preferred to remain in denial for a few days more at the very least and call it ‘postponement of facing mortality and everything that came with.’ It even sounded like something that came out of a damn textbook making it harder to argue with. That was her theory anyway.
Sophie picked up the shot placed in front of her and knocked it back with the ease of experience. A swig of beer followed and she set the glass back down, pushing it towards the other side of the bartop with her fingertips. Another.
“And then one for my new friend here with mine so we have four,” Sophie called, stretching her arm in the air and holding up four fingers. The bartender most likely could count very well but the alcohol in her system completely disregarded that elementary notion. “We definitely do. I mean we have only discussed donuts at meetings and dancing on tables so I hope we have other subjects so our new friendship isn’t so…” She faltered, unable to come up with something satisfactorily witty to end with. “One note? Or two notes with the...yeah, two notes.”
Yeah, maybe her best bet was to keep pace with Sophie and not try to make up for anything the other woman may have drank prior to her arrival. But two shots were easy enough, even without having anything to chase them with. She wasn't sure if that was something to be proud of still or not.
"I mean, to be fair, table dances and donuts aren't the worst things to lead off with," Eleanor pointed out. "One of my best friends started off with moral philosophy lessons and who would have thought that was possible, especially with me?" Friends didn't quite describe her and Chidi, but in that particular time around they hadn't had a chance to get much further. At least, not before she'd ended up here.
"We also have being yanked unexpectedly into an entirely other world, so that's at least three notes."
Sophie pointed at her new friend in wordless agreement with her point, eyebrows rising. “We just met in person and already this thing between us is multi-dimensional,” she said thoughtfully. The shots in front of her were barely filled before she swept one up to raise it in toast. “To being more than one thing.”
She may have had a nice little buzz going already but it didn’t stop her from looping around to something Eleanor said before the part about being yanked to another world. “How does someone who appreciates dancing on tables and going to support meetings to pilfer the pastries wind up with a thing for moral philosophy?” she asked, genuinely curious.
Eleanor echoed the sentiment then downed her shot, already considering pacing herself as it was clear she was far outgunned here. Fortunately, Sophie gave her a chance to slow down.
"So I was a pretty miserable, selfish bitch when I was alive, and then I died. And I ended up at the 'good place' only when they told me about my life of getting innocent people off death row and human rights missions?"
She picked up the other shot, so much for pacing.
"That totally wasn't me. But there were soulmates in the afterlife and my soulmate ended up being an ethics and moral philosophy professor. So I basically forced him into teaching me so that I wouldn't get found out and I could stay there and not end up in the 'bad place.' Except spoiler alert! The good place was the bad place and it was totally set up so that four of us humans would torture each other for eternity while a bunch of demons watched on. In some weird psychological torture experiment."
Eleanor gave her new multidimensional friend a shrug and said, "It didn't work. Partially because I actually got really into moral philosophy and hot for teacher."
That was actually a shorter version of that story than she'd told recently because she really didn't know how far down the path to total blackout that Sophie was already.
"Anyway, I was there for like the equivalent of 300 years but time works differently when you're dead so…" Another shrug. "You, on the other hand… ended up here instead?"
Whatever Sophie was expecting as an explanation, it was definitely not that. The second shot hesitated in its path to consumption, her full attention on Eleanor as she explained her path to moral philosophy. “Okay. Wow. That would be the ultimate Bad Place, making you think you were in the Good Place when you were not supposed to be. Then having to hide it. Can you get a stress ulcer when you’re dead because that would so be where I was headed in your position.” She knocked back the shot and set the glass upside down on the bar, hesitating to call for another shot.
“Apparently this is my Good Place because the other place would be with the Ancestors and they are the reason I’m dead so…” Sophie trailed off and saluted the ceiling with her middle finger as if They could see it. To hell with them after all she’d done to get their beloved Harvest back on track and to completion.
She started to tell her story but the words stuck before she could get them out properly. Eleanor had told her story and it only seemed right to repay her with something of her own. Between not wanting to dwell on it and not being one to share, it was just hard. Sophie swallowed down a gulp of beer as if that would unstick things. “I had no interest in all things witchcraft for a while. I left town, traveled the world, always loved cooking so I expanded my knowledge and then I came home to actually do it. Turns out it was time for this ceremony called The Harvest. Every three centuries or so, four of the coven’s young witches are sacrificed to reaffirm our power. I thought it sounded horrible and tried to talk them out of it but three still went through with it, including my niece.”
That hurt. The thought of losing Monique was what drove Sophie back into witchcraft, back to the coven. Part of the reason she did what she did. “All the power transferred into the fourth and long story short, the Harvest was delayed because she escaped for a while. It eventually happened and all four of the girls came back, including my niece. Only they were different because as you said, time moves differently for the dead. They’d been with the Ancestors and...they told them I needed to be punished for my lack of faith. So my niece did me in with a hex, a big ole painful aneurysm and bleeding from every orifice on my head. Fuck magic. And vampires. In the non-Twilight way. They are great for sex but not worth the trouble.”
Eleanor was going to mention that she totally thought Chidi had managed stress ulcers while he was dead, but that was quickly forgotten as Sophie shared her own story. She reached for a drink but had none, so instead just sat there, eyes wide and staring, as the story continuously got worse.
"Holy shirt… shit," Eleanor said when Sophie had finished talking. "Are you okay?" She figured that answer may have been obvious but she'd asked it without even thinking. Because she wouldn't be. "That's… that's really messed up, man. Totally get the drinking."
“I’m getting better though the side-effect is running my mouth and getting that look.” Sophie shifted on her seat, shoulders hunching slightly in her discomfort. She started to reach for the shot glass but both were upside down in front of her, empty. “Booze helps and hey, even if it’s not the afterlife, the digs here are still an improvement. So far,” she added, tilting her head as she conceded that a few days there did not an accurate evaluation make.
She started to raise her hand to grab the attention of the bartender when something Eleanor said dragged her back to before she’d tried to wave off her little backstory babble. “Did you just say ‘shirt’ instead of ‘shit’ at first?” she asked, grinning.
"Yeah…" Eleanor admitted with a sheepish grin. "In the fake good place, you couldn't actually swear. If you tried it came out weird. I was stuck like that long enough that I started to think in fake swear words… Which they totally did all of that just to fork with me."
She used fork deliberately and laughed at herself, before finishing the process of waving the bartender over. "Sometimes I don't even know I'm saying it anymore."
Sophie snorted quietly, the air crossing the opening of the beer bottle creating a soft sound that had her covering her mouth briefly. “I was going to give you a little shit on that but it’s hilarious. Like they didn’t even try to make it the kind of substitutions for when you’re around small adults. Just words that sound close and it would be fun to just shout ‘fork’ sometime instead of other words just to change it up.”
Though she’d used her extensive swear vocabulary enough that trying to substitute it would be hard. “What is a fake good place even like?” she asked after the amusement subsided somewhat.
"A lot of frozen yogurt," Eleanor replied, thinking of other ways to describe it. "With flavors like 'the feeling of having a fully charged phone battery.' Which is near impossible to describe but that froyo makes you feel at peace. But other than that, it's this neighborhood that they tell you has been perfectly cultivated to you and the other residents, but with enough issues to not be perfect just to irritate you. Frozen yogurt in place of ice cream, for instance."
Now she wanted frozen yogurt.
"Oh! And so because the fake real Eleanor was a minimalist who loved clowns I had this bizarre little cottage with creepy clown portraits… next to Tahani's giant mansion just to drive me mad. And those creepy clowns found their way here, because oh by the way, Vallo can do that. Bring you 'gifts' from home, that is. So now these creepy clowns are stuck on the wall of my apartment and won't come off."
She'd ordered something fruity looking that she'd spotted down the bar but now Eleanor wish she'd just gone for beer so she'd have it already. But then she remembered, "Oh and it's full of demons, but I think I told you that already. Demons in human suits."
That would have sounded absolutely ridiculous to her previously but she just shrugged at Sophie like, what could she do?
Sophie’s brow furrowed deeper as she listened, shifting so that one elbow rest on the bartop and she rest her chin on her hand. “That is...wow. On one hand I appreciate the ability to balance a frozen yogurt that captures that kind of a feeling with every little thing that annoys you. That is some chess-playing level shit,” she stated in awe. “It is definitely mean though. Don’t get me wrong, I’m appreciating the genius while being sympathetic.”
It was the last part that made her shudder though. Something about the demonic in human skin, pretending to be or possessing, it could go either way. “That sounds pretty terrible. It’s psychological warfare when it comes down to it and I regret saying I appreciated the genius because no, that was not something you deserved.” Sophie pointed a finger at her from the hand holding the beer bottle.
The other hand smacked Eleanor’s knee. “Second chances. We got ‘em here and we’re gonna take advantage of ‘em, right?”
Eleanor shrugged. "I mean, no one wants to end up in the bad place, but it could have been worse? I had better friends there than anytime when I was alive, mostly because I became a better person there than anytime I was alive."
But she had to smile as Sophie mentioned second chances. "Hell yeah, we are." And that definitely called for another round of shots and a toast, then Eleanor switching to water to make sure they'd both make it back to the apartments safely. Honestly if she were Sophie she'd be drinking heavily too.
Her expression sobered somewhat. “My sister Jane Anne used to say that difficult times makes for the truest of friends. You find out who stays with you through it all and those bonds only grow stronger.” In a way she envied Eleanor that, finding not one but a few who navigated that twisted world with her. At the end of the day Sophie felt alone and while she was a grown ass adult who could admit part of that was on her, the rest...well.
Once the new round arrived, Sophie picked up her shot and held it aloft. “To Eleanor who listened to far more than she should have to tonight and hasn’t run screaming in the opposite direction. I’m sorry to have dropped that on you and I will make it up to you at another time. When I’m more sober.”
Eleanor held up her own shot glass and said, "To Sophie, who's allowed to talk about her life… and death. Or whatever. Because we are multidimensional friends already." She drank down the shot to emphasize that point.
Sophie knocked her shot back as well and set this glass down a little gentler on the bar counter. “And on that note, I think I need to slow down just a...just a little.” She held up a hand, fingers a scant inch or two apart. “Hey, could we get a couple of waters down here?”
Eleanor smiled because that was probably true. And hydrating wasn't going to hurt. "It's up to you, hot stuff. I'll make sure we can get back to the apartments tonight."