strangetrip | GP/EP: Check-In Day: Turning Tricks into Treats

Instead of the remains of a raucous night of dedicated drinking, the chairs were up on the tables, the counter was cleaned, the floor had been vacuumed and mopped as appropriate. Kitty had had plenty of time to straighten up at close yesterday, since almost everyone seemed more interested in drinking in Bonesville. For her part, she'd had enough after her and Wyatt's little adventure in Funland. At least, she'd had enough for the few days it would take her to heal.

On the upside, that made opening up this morning easy and fast. On the downside, it meant she had an entire day with not much to distract her from wondering when Barrel of Fun would lock down access to the outside and why it couldn't open onto a world with higher tech. She had managed to scavenge some computer circuitry and cell phones, but she hadn't worked out how they'd solve her current tech problem yet.

If Dot were still here, she'd be baking for Halloween. Even if they'd had to explain Halloween to her, she'd be making cookies and candy and cakes, and probably sewing costumes, too. Those thoughts summoned a wistful sigh from Kitty while she took down the chairs. She was still sighing when she finished refreshing her stock of cut up fruit.

By mid-afternoon, she'd put away a pot and a half of coffee, she was practically vibrating, and a buzz-by from Caroline prompted an amazing idea. Why not spend the afternoon testing Halloween and Thanksgiving cocktails, to help turn the arrival trick of Check-In Day on the 1st into, well, a little bit of a treat? So it was that the new arrivals, two days earlier than expected, found the bar counter covered with spooky and kooky and dry-ice steamy drinks and Kitty literally spinning between her coffee cup and the next bright green, weirdly black, or pumpkin orange drink.

[ooc: find Kitty making any of these or drinking yet another cup of coffee, she's OTA]

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Vex let one shoulder rise and fall. "Not as much as I used to be – I remember when my brother was the wide-eyed, too generous optimist between us – but I still have my moments."

"You're hidin' 'em well, so far," Jackson congratulated her. "Not that I'd call you wide-eyed either."

"Hardly." Vex had lost her wide-eyed wonder shortly after their father dragged them to Syngorn. Although, like her cynicism, there was the occasional moment. One night in the treasury of Whitestone came to mind, but that was a memory she was not going to share with someone she'd just met. Or with anyone other than Percival.

"I prefer to see the world as it is. Best way to survive, if you don't miss anything."

"So you don't miss anything?" Jackson asked, giving her a curious look. That was a hell of a statement to make.

"I don't miss much," Vex allowed. Not quite the same as not anything, but she did her best. "I'm very perceptive.

"What about you? How do you get by in the world... other than drinking?"

Jackson huffed out an approving laugh at her addendum. He raised his glass to her and finished it, then reached for the bottle to fill it again. "I do what it takes, I suppose. You ever been in love, darlin'?"

Vex knew about doing what it took. She and Vax had lived that way for years. Some of what they'd done still weighed on her, and him, but mostly she didn't let herself dwell. Love was a much more pleasant and recent development.

"Oh, I am. I should've guessed, a man in love, and here alone."

"Rub salt in the wound, why don'tcha," Jackson pointed out with raised eyebrows. "But if you're in love, you know." He pointed at her with the hand holding his glass. "You know we always do what we gotta do."

We... people in love.

She knew. She wasn't sure what she'd have been prepared to do if Percy hadn't been here when she arrived, what lines she would have been willing to cross.

Vex rested a hand on his shoulder and gave it an understanding squeeze. "Starting with not giving up hope, darling."

Jackson huffed out a laugh as she turned the tables on him with that darling. Fair was fair. "Hope. Hope and I ain't ever been very close friends." He much preferred action.

Vex felt like her eyes were going to roll out of her head. Men.

"What would you call the belief you'll find a way out and do whatever it takes to get back to the one you love? When everyone around you is saying you're stuck. To me, that sounds like hope."

"Stubbornness," Jackson replied, and shrugged. "We put different words on the same thing." He wasn't going to think over long about it.

"Men." She wouldn't want to live without them, a few at least, but sometimes Vex just didn't know how she lived with them.

"Should I leave you to your stubbornness, then?"

"You do what you like, darlin'," Jackson told her honestly. "I'll be here all night, with my good friend bourbon." He wasn't sure why she had such a bee in her bonnet about this hope thing, but he also didn't give a damn, in the end.

Tomorrow, he'd be gone.

Vex was stubborn too, and if it had been her brother sitting here, or Kash, finding the bottom of a bottle, she would've reminded them of that. They were family.

Jackson was still a stranger, and only just arrived. She'd spare him. "There was a time I'd wish you luck with a wink and maybe a kiss on the cheek, but as we're people in love, I leave you with just the luck."

It didn't take a genius to know he expected not to be here long; they all started that way. But Vex really did wish him the best as she finished the last of her drink and stood. Maybe she'd see go watch Percy work for awhile, appreciate how lucky she was.

"I feel like I've been robbed of a perfectly chaste kiss by a pretty girl, now," Jackson stated, but he sounded amused more than anything else. "Luck to you as well, darlin'."

"There's always tomorrow." Whether Vex meant for another chance at a chaste kiss from her or the way home he obviously hoped for (no matter if he called it stubbornness), she left for him to decide. She expected she'd see him again.

"Good night, Jackson."

"Night, Vex," he told her with a bit of a smile, hoping - yeah, hoping, fine - he wouldn't actually get another chance at that kiss.

GP/EP: Check-In Day: Turning Tricks into Treats

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