Veronica Mars (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} stillbadass) wrote in ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} valloic,@ 2020-09-13 18:07:00 |
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What: Beers and karaoke
Where: Galahd's
When: Thursday night
Warnings: nope!
Status: complete
Carol was grateful that at least this time when she found herself in an unfamiliar place with no recollection of how she got there, her memories were intact. This place was weird, but at least it didn’t seem to be dangerous. And there was little chance that she’d end up fighting someone else’s war. At least she hoped.
Finding out that there were people here who knew her was also a little odd though again, not in a dangerous way, so she was willing to roll with it. Especially since they had beer and karaoke. Those were two of the things she missed the most from Earth as she traveled the galaxy.
She entered Galahd’s and looked around for the guy she’d been talking to on the network. Communication devices had certainly improved in the past twenty-five years. Spotting a guy who looked like the little picture, she made her way over. “Arthur? I’m Carol.”
***
Arthur hadn't seen anyone coming up behind him, so he'd been about halfway through a large swallow of his beer when he heard his name and the introduction, so he turned just enough to see her before winking and holding up a finger while he downed the entire contents of his mug in a single pull.
Finished, he set the mug down with a smirk while turning completely around on his stool. He briefly considered, then discarded, the idea of saying "No, I'm Gladio" or "No, I'm Thor," but the whole looking like other people humor was best reserved for people who weren't on their first day here.
Instead, he just cranked up the charm and gave her a nod. "Hey. Have a seat." Then he motioned for the bartender to bring them both a round. "First timer, here!" he added, reminding them about the 'free first drink' policy.
***
The charm seemed pretty natural and while Carol was hardly a sucker for a pretty face, she did appreciate his. “Thanks,” she said, sitting next to him and looking around, taking in the place. It was pretty similar to the dive bars she’d frequented during her years in the Air Force, so she immediately felt comfortable.
“So, do all the bars offer free drinks to newcomers?” Carol asked. If so, she was going to be making it her business to hit them all sooner rather than later.
***
"Nope," was the easy answer. "Probably should if they want to compete with Galahd's, but you still can't beat the atmosphere." He had always had a preference for the cozier places to relax and have a drink, and this spot even had a small stage for live music (or karaoke, which was on the docket for tonight). "Good job finding the place without a guide, by the way."
Galahd's wasn't even here when he'd gone off to spend over a year and a half under the ocean trying to build a relationship with the Atlanteans of this world, and with how often the place changed day to day, he wasn't afraid to admit even after almost two years here, he could still manage to get lost without an updated map on the phone.
***
“These phone devices are pretty handy,” Carol said, holding hers up. “Very advanced from most of the communications tech I’ve encountered.” Apparently there were a lot of technological advances in the universe at large in the past twenty-five years. Certainly several steps up from the pager she’d left with Fury.
She gave the bartender a grateful smile when she received her beer and took a long drink. It was cold and tasty, which were the important things. “So, you said you work with the DOA?” she asked. “What exactly does that entail?”
As much as she liked the vibe here, she was still in info-gathering mode.
***
"Something about the 80s, I think you mentioned?" asked Arthur, taking his own new drink into his hand. "Welcome to the ~future,~" he added, wiggling his fingers and smiling as he said that F-word. "But yeah, the DOA. What I do is act as an ambassador to the kingdom of Atlantis."
He paused there to take a drink himself, waiting to see if Atlantis was something she'd heard of. If so, he wouldn't need to explain it.
***
“Mid 90s,” Carol said. “But yeah. Close enough.” She chuckled at his theatrics when he welcomed her to the future.
She took another drink of her beer and tried to figure out why Atlantis sounded familiar. “You mean the lost city?” she asked. “That’s real?” Why that surprised her, she had no idea. After traveling the galaxy and meeting multiple alien races, nothing should surprise her.
***
"Got it in one," answered Arthur with a wink and short point. "Found it shortly after I got here, then spent just a lot of time trying to convince them the people up top weren't their enemies. Paid off, too, now we can come and go as guests on the regular." And he'd found out at least two people he knew from home had been here during that time, and left again, without him knowing they were here and vice versa. He'd just have to hope they came back.
In the meantime, well, he'd just take it one day at a time. Still, conversations didn't carry themselves, so he turned it back around to her. "You fly jets? That's bad ass. The only time I've been able to fly was when I was carried by a friend. Literally."
***
Carol’s eyebrows knit together in confusion. “You lived in an underwater city?” She was aware that there were species who could survive underwater, but she didn’t notice any obvious gills or anything that would indicate he was one of them. “How’s that work?”
Even as curious as she was, she perked up a bit at his question. “I was in the Air Force, yeah,” she said. “You have a friend who can fly without an aircraft?” She didn’t know too many other people who could do that.
***
"He's not here, but he's even one of two I know that can fly. Superheroes, am I right? But yeah. I'm half-Atlantean. I can breathe underwater, swim incredibly fast," answered Arthur, pausing and then kind of half-shrugging as he continued. "Communicate with fish."
He'd noticed she perked up at the question, so he tried to turn the conversation back away from himself. "Was in the Air Force, though? You graduate to Space Force? Or wait, that's a now thing, not a 90s thing."
***
Somehow the communicating with fish thing didn’t seem as important or useful though Carol knew that might be way off base to think. Maybe fish were incredibly intelligent and helpful creatures and no one knew because of a lack of communication.
“No, no space force when or where I’m from,” she explained. “I got kidnapped to another planet by a race of asshole aliens who were fighting a war trying to wipe out a peaceful people. But they lied and told me that the peaceful people were the troublemakers.” She was still bitter about that and felt guilty over her efforts to eradicate the Skrulls. “Got hit with a blast of something that gave me some wild powers.”
***
"Man, what is it about war?" asked Arthur, a little exasperated. Then he rebounded, "other than it's a chance for asshats to grab power or the rich to get richer, I mean." He shook his head to show what he thought about that idea. Considering he'd gone through a very similar thing, minus the kidnapping. Well mostly without the kidnapping. More like knocked out and taken prisoner and then escaping and- well, it would've been a long story.
"More importantly, though, what kind of wild powers?" Because that got his curiosity up a bit.
***
Carol thought back to the demonstration she’d given Fury back on Earth. It probably wasn’t a good idea to repeat that and destroy anything in this bar since she was going to be stuck in Vallo for an unforeseeable length of time. “I can fly,” she said. “And I can blast stuff with my hands. I can also punch really hard.” There were other things, but those were the main ones.
After taking another drink of her beer, she grinned. “Why I figured I’d look into joining the security team. At least I’ll get to put my powers to good use.”
***
"I'll drink to that, but damn, I can only do one of those. I can put in a word for you, if you want. Or you can just chat up Sara Lance. They can always use more people, things can get weird here from time to time. A flying blaster might just be what we need." Arthur chuckled and drained the rest of his mug before turning in his seat again to look over at the stage where they were starting to set up the karaoke equipment.
"What kind of music do you like?"
***
She made a mental note of the name, but nodded in regards to his offer to put in a good word for her. “Yeah, that’d be great,” Carol said, following his glance over to the stage. Even twenty-five years later, karaoke equipment looked the same and she grinned again. He’d totally come through for her with the beer and karaoke, was going to help her get a gig, and was easy on the eyes. All things considered, this was a pretty decent introduction to her new home.
“Which one can you do?” she asked, pretty sure it wasn’t flying, so that left blasting or punching hard. With those muscles, she’d guess punching.
Hopefully being on the security team would pay her enough to drink beer. Now that she pretty much healed instantly, she couldn’t get drunk, but she still enjoyed the taste. “I like music from the 80s,” she said. “Heart. Pat Benetar. Joan Jett. Probably all considered oldies these days.”
***
Arthur put a hand out and pulled it back quickly as if mimicking a shotgun blast from his hand and then followed it up with a mimic of an explosion with his hands, then laughed and shook his head. "It's the punching. But ah, there's the 80s. I must've just assumed you had good taste!" He slapped his hands on his lap and stood up to stretch a little bit. "You need another round first? My treat."
***
“You assumed correctly,” Carol said with a grin. She had no idea what music in 2020 might be like, but it was nice to hear that people still appreciated the music of her youth.
She finished her beer and nodded. “Yeah, that’d be great, thanks,” she said. “I’ll get you back once I get that job.”
When he stood, she looked around and frowned in confusion. “I don’t see binders with the lists of songs the DJ has available,” she said. “Do they do something different now?”
***
"Oof, it really has been a while. Next you'll be asking about pagers." He grinned and pulled out his phone and quickly navigated to where the songs where available to look up. "Here," he said, handing over his phone. "You can find one you like, write it down, and hand it to the DJ. They'll queue it up and call you to the stage when it's your turn. Same deal, less maintenance."
With that, he turned enough to signal the bartender for another round and grabbed a card to write down a song choice. "How's your Lita Ford?" he asked, jotting down the ultimate 80s power duet, Close My Eyes Forever.
***
Now he was speaking her language. Carol grinned. “Kiss Me Deadly happens to be a specialty of mine,” she said. “So you’re on.”
She took his phone to look through the song lists and her eyes nearly crossed at the sheer number of options, many of which she didn’t recognize. “All right, is there a way to sort these by decade or something?” she asked. “Because anything from the past thirty or so years I don’t even know.” It wasn’t like she’d had a lot of time to catch up on pop music last time she was on Earth.
***
"You can search by song or artist, but yeah there's a ton of filter options. Just dig into it for a bit while I go hand this in," offered Arthur, giving her another grin and kind of a hell yeah expression about the music as he backed away and turned to submit the song card.
It didn't take long to return and he started to say they might be first, but he was interrupted by the announcer. "Arthur and Carol, you're up." So instead he just stopped, gestured to the stage with a raised eyebrow and thumb before heading that way himself.