open

[heirlift]

Who: John and you
When: April 13th
Where: ye olde generic yet well-patronized tavern
What: John turns 20... again. He gets treated to a penis cake. Come wish him a happy birthday and have some cake.
Warnings: none, other than phallic pastries.

At the end of the day, John is pretty used to Weird Time Shenanigans. So to be transported back in time by barely a week before his birthday doesn't really set him off course that much. A little disorienting, sure, but nothing he can't handle. It certainly helps him get settled a little, and being who he is, it doesn't take him long to get along with his coworkers. There's some pranking back and forth, a little japery, and despite his general discomforts, it all feels... pretty okay. Ish.

Okay-ish except for the part where he lets slip that his birthday is coming up again and he jokingly wonders if that makes him technically 21 since, from his perspective, it hasn't been anywhere close to a year since he last celebrated his birthday.

It doesn't really seem to matter, because some of the other guards sharing an off-shift with him take it into their own hands to drag him into town and down to the tavern, where he repeatedly denies their offers of cheap booze, and tries his best to at least seem like he's having a good time. Because it seems like they are, at least, and it's pretty nice of them to throw him a birthday party when they barely know him. Some part of him can even appreciate the birthday boy crown made out of old parchment. And even when they bring out the crudely-but-lovingly made penis-shaped cake (why though) he tries to appreciate it, though a part of him is waiting for the other shoe to drop. His prankster's gambit can only take so many hits before it's totally depleted...

"You guys really didn't have to..."

Oh, but they did. And there's just enough to go around not only for the birthday boy and his guests, but everyone else in the tavern, too.

Comments

[heirlift]

Ah. He's been caught. Best to pretend that didn't happen. He's happy to move on anyway, and he nods at the question-- if it's possible to nod both eagerly and regretfully at th same time, he manages it somehow.

"Yeah! I just got here a week or so ago. Is it really that obvious?" He sort of hopes so. He doesn't want to think that he might have already started blending too well. It's way too soon for that. "I guess there's only two or three of us guys and none of us are from around here though, so..."

He shrugs, and wonders if he should take the drink she's put in front of him. All of this just feels so surreal. Not the whole, spirited away to another world part. Just that he's here celebrating this birthday and people are foisting booze on him, and he guesses he's still technically 20 but does a year even make a difference? Good gracious, now he's getting all reticent at his own birthday party. He really needs to get out more often.

[frenzies]

Alisha shrugs. "Yeah, a bit, but only 'cause I did too. It's pretty easy to pick out the new people among the locals, since most of us have all our teeth and can speak proper English."

She nudges the tankard a little closer to him. "Go on, then. Your mates are payin', might as well drink up." As far as she knows or cares, he's over 18, which is the drinking age where she comes from. Beyond that, she doesn't give a fuck whether or not he's actually 21 yet.

[heirlift]

"Those are both things I'm pretty good at, yeah." Come to think of it, though, he doesn't even have his toothbrush here... he's going to have to remedy that in short order. His dad imparted a lot of wise fatherly knowledge on him, and proper hygiene was among it. "There's nothing... in it, right?"

He peers warily at the drink, and in his mind, the question makes sense. He was lucky in that he didn't have to find out the awkward way, that some of the treats at the festival were tainted. Not harmful, so much as something that he wasn't exactly interested in. (Penis candy that makes you horny wasn't exactly on the top of his to-try list.)

However, he doesn't actually mean to imply that she, personally is trying to drug him.

[frenzies]

Alisha laughs, but then her eyes narrow and she gives him a mock-glare.

"You accusin' me of slippin' you a mickey?"

She gestures at his mug. "That's fucked up. Drink it, it's fine. Or don't, I could care less either way."

[heirlift]

"Not you, specifically! Mostly just... everyone else in this place..."

He's not sure he really needs to defend himself, but it seems like the chivalrous thing to do. He didn't really want to imply poorly of her, when she was being nice and friendly with him. He studies the mug for a moment before he decides that it's worth his while to be polite about this one, and knocks it back, chugging as much as he can in one go.

This is decidedly a bad idea. He doesn't learn his lesson. In another time, in another place, this exact same thing happened. The results were predictable.

He makes a face, grimacing as he at least manages to get it all down, pressing his lips tight together as the bitterness slides down his throat and settles into his stomach and he starts to wonder how anyone could ever become an alcoholic. But when he gets his wits together, he gives her a weird smirk, partly apologetic, partly sheepish.

"Uh. It was... actually it was pretty gross, but to be fair I wouldn't know good from bad anyway."

[frenzies]

"Right." She rolls her eyes. "I get it. I was just messin' with you." Alisha watches John knock back the beer with the smile slowly returning to her face, and breaks into a laugh when he gives his verdict.

"Yeah, no, don't worry, the beer here tastes like piss. Seems like they haven't invented a way to make it taste decent yet. I always stick to vodka tonics anyway, gets you drunk quicker and it doesn't taste like you're drinkin' ball sweat."

[heirlift]

"Uh. Yeah. That. Except the vodka part, I don't really ever drink much."

Who's he fooling? It's not like it isn't completely obvious. Legal age or not, it's not like that's stopped anyone his age before, and with no actual adults on the New Earth, they kind of made their own rules anyway.

Boy, this is awkward.

"Thanks, though. My name's John. How'd you end up working here, anyway?"

It was easy enough to figure out how and why someone would end up working in the castle, but he has very little idea of what life is like outside those walls. He spends most of his time in or near enough to them that he hasn't gotten a particularly good feel for what the locals are like outside of what's most obvious on the surface.

[frenzies]

"You and me must have had a completely different teenage experience," Alisha observes dryly. She's pretty sure there was a point where her body was more vodka than water. Still, she can tell that all of this is pretty new for this guy, so she takes pity on him and gives him a grin, holding out her hand to shake.

"I'm Alisha." To his question, she can only offer a shrug. "Didn't want to work for Queen Bitch up there, so I decided to stick it out on my own. I used to be a barmaid back home, so...this was the easiest thing for it. How d'you like being a guard? Doesn't it sort of...suck?"

[heirlift]

The gesture surprising John at first, but he takes her hand all the same.

"It's okay, I guess. I don't really have anything to compare it to, but to be honest, besides the uniform I don't think it's all that bad?"

When compared to spending three years in near-isolation with only your genetic sister and your best friend but also a ghost bird, or... pretty much anything else that happened over the course of Sburb, or the past few years he's spent in near-isolation in his own home... anything beats that. How did he grow up to be such a sad sack, anyway?

"I don't think what's-her-name is all that bad, either. That's just kind of how royalty is, I guess."

[frenzies]

She raises both her eyebrows, looking very skeptical.

"Not where I come from. British royalty are all boring old fucks who faff about in Buckingham Palace all day and watch polo tournaments and eat scones all day."

[heirlift]

"Oh. Yeah, I guess that makes sense. With the accent and all."

Smooth. Very smooth. Well, John doesn't know what to say to that, anyway-- it certainly can be boring here, that's for sure, but it was no different than back home. Really, what was he doing with all his free time anyway...? Nothing productive, that was for sure.

"I guess I just figure we're here and I don't know about you, but I don't have any way to get back, so I might as well just go with it. It could be worse, they could have us locked up in the dungeon for no good reason. ...they've probably got weird sexy dungeons here, to make things even worse."