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A moderately sized establishment on the corner of Spruce and S 12th streets, Club Vertigo is one of the many bars in Philadelphia's Gayborhood. There's a reasonably large dance floor, a small stage for live music and/or karaoke night, and several different pride flags on the wall behind the bar proper. Of especial note, at least for the city's Changeling population, are the Fairest and Ogres who work there. Right now, the Fairest in question is restocking the bar's fridges, in preparation for the rush later.
June doesn't really get out to clubs or bars on her own very often. She has so many partners that it's pretty typical that one or another of them ends up going with her when she goes places, and she likes having them around, so she doesn't really complain. Sometimes it's nice to have a little time for yourself, though. Apparently that meant coming to Vertigo to get a couple of drinks and maybe do some dancing or something, while nobody is around who knows her and will laugh at her later for how bad a dancer she is.
The tiny little redhead/red panda makes her way toward the bar when she comes in, where she hops up on a barstool and starts considering options.
Nevy swears this is the last time this week. Cocktails out are expensive. But dammit... those Lion's Tails are tasty! So in they come.
Sensing June's Mantle, Annie rises from her crouch, turning to greet the new arrival. Then smiles. "Been a while, June. What can I get for you today?" Nevermore gets an arched eyebrow. "The usual for you, I assume?"
"Hey!" June responds, and then there's a second or two where she's blankly staring, clearly trying to pull up a name for Anneliese. It takes her a moment, but she gets it. "Anneliese, right? Good to see you again!" She glances over at Nevermore and further recognition dawns. "Oh, oh, I remember you. Umm... Nevermore?" She's bad with names. "What's your usual?"
Nevy grins. "A Lion's Tail. June, right?" They nod at Annie. "Hey. I couldn't resist the siren's call. How's it going?"
"Anneliese, yes. Or Annie, to my friends." She shrugs slightly, glancing at Nevermore. "Good, thanks. Yourself?"
"What's that? I'll try one," June doesn't wait for the answer to what it is before she just orders it. "You turned me on to churro bowls, I'll trust you on this one. Don't let me down!" Back to the bartender she asks, "umm... which one should I call you? I don't want to presume."
Nevy gives Annie a questioning look, then smiles. "Of the drink," They say. "Ethical boundaries, remember?" They turn to June. "It's a cocktail. Lime, whiskey, egg white - pasteurized, don't worry - and allspice dram. The way the flavor grows and changes is spectacular."
"I know. That is why I was surprised by your statement." Annie says, mixing the pair their drinks. "Annie is fine, by the way. I would not have mentioned if I was uncomfortable with you using it."
"Egg white?" June asks with surprise, since she's never had a cocktail made with egg before. "Neat! I love eggs." She takes out her phone and starts flipping about in it, before she turns it around to show a picture of her, flopped on a couch, drooling in her sleep on a big pillow that looks like a sunny side up fried egg. It's ridiculous. "Good to know, Annie it is! What ethical boundaries? Is it wrong to date the bartender? I know it's wrong to hit on the bartender while she's working."
Nevy looks rueful. “Sorry - I honestly didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.” To June, they say “She’s dating my therapist. That would put all three of us in a pretty awkward position.”
They look at the picture and laugh. “Okay. That’s adorable.”
"Pretty much, yeah." Annie nods. "We had been talking about maybe reaching the dating stage, but that was before we realised my partner is their therapist."
"Ooooh, awkward," June agrees. "Who are you dating? I need some goss that doesn't involved my polycule, I think. There's always gossip there, and I love them all, but hearing about someone else's relationships would be nice, too."
The thing about working retail is that your days off are weird as heck. But today is Moira's version of Friday, so it's time to celebrate with a drink and maybe a bit of fun conversation. So she enters the club with far more energy than someone who's worked a full day should have. She comes over to the bar and flops down onto a stool. "Hey there Nevermore! And... Annie, right? How's everyone tonight?"
“Nobody, for now,” Nevy says breezily. “And honestly? I’m okay with it. More time for my art.”
They smile at Moira. “Hey there. How are things in the trenches where you are?”
"Yu Jin," Annie answers June, smiling wistfully before turning to Moira. "Annie, yes. What can I get for you?"
"Ooh, art! Tell me about your art," June urges with the kind of enthusiasm for the details that many artists hunger for in audiences. "I have no talent at all, so I have to live vicariously through people who do." She blinks her eyes at Annie before admitting, "I don't know who that is. Maybe I'll meet them some day." She picks up her drink to sniff it as she smiles at Moira, and then she takes a sip.
Moira leans her elbows on the bar and rests her chin in her hands. "One of your lovely cheap-but-not-crappy beers please" She gives a theatrical sigh, as if the weight of the world is obviously on her shoulders. "The trenches are just as bad as they ever are. But I survive" And then she smiles again, this time at June. "Hi, I don't think I've met you before. I'm Moira"
Nevy pulls out their phone and brings up their instagram feed, handing it over for June to review. It shows many of their past works, including their most recent, Home, and before that the cover of their book. Home, in particular, might resonate to a Changeling...
They smile to Moira. "Oh, alas, the pains of survival," They say melodramatically.
"Cheap but not crappy beer it is," Annie nods, turning to fetch a relevant bottle from the fridge, opening it and sliding it over to Moira, glancing at June afterwards. "Probably. They love spring as much as I do, so."
June spends a little time flipping around on the instagram feed, then scrolls back to the top to check the name. "Is it okay if I add you?" she asks. "This is really good. I want to keep getting updates!" She offers the phone back and picks up hers again, to start doing just that, if given the all clear, but she pauses to beam at Moira and offer a hand. She has ridiculous sharp looking stiletto style nails, painted black, it should be noted. Like, how does she even manage life with those levels of pointy nails. "June!" she greets. "Nice to meet you."
"It's truly terrible" Moria replies to Nevy with mock seriousness. "Nah, for real though it's killer boring, but I enjoy eating, so..." She shrugs. She shakes June's hand and admires her nails. "Ooo, nice. I'd kill myself with nails like that."
Nevy grins. "Absolutely! I offer prints of everything, if anything really catches your eye." They shrug one shoulder. "Starving artist," They offer in explanation. "I'm shameless." To Moira, they chuckle. "Eating is a favorite of mine, at mealtimes." They glance down at their pudgy self. "Or... some other times."
"Eating is pretty good," Annie nods. "I know I enjoy it." She looks tempted to add something, but manages to refrain.
"You get used to them after a while, but I did jab myself a few times," June remarks about her nails, with a laugh. To Annie's eyes, of course, they're claws, rather than nails. She turns back to Nevy and says, "be shamless about promoting yourself! You're good, and you deserve to have people acknowledge that. You also have to pay the bills. I totally get it. I'll look through the stuff and look at my budget and see if anything catches my eye."
Moira cranes her neck to see what everyone's looking at. "Huh, that's really cool," she says with a nod. She takes a sip of her beer and leans back, suddenly remembers that she's sitting on a bar stool. She manages to catch herself before she falls, but it's not Moira's most graceful moment.
"I do forget to eat sometimes if I get really into studying, but I like doing it when I remember. I even like cooking, but I hate having to clean up afterwards"
Nevy smirks, apparently suspecting what Annie isn't saying would be funny. June gets a big smile. "You're helping to shelter a poor, lonely Goth in this wide, sun-filled world, and I thank you." Annie gets a grin. "Thanks!"
Moira gets a worried look for a moment before she catches herself. "Cleaning up is the least fun part," Annie admits. "I tend to subsist on precooked frozen stuff a lot, admittedly, but that is mostly because my schedule does not allow for much in the way of complex cooking."
"I love cooking, I don't even care about cleaning up," June admits. "I'm just not a good cook. I used to be permanently banished from the kitchen, because I used to break everything and spill everywhere. Fortunately, years of training have made me mildly less of a klutz."
Moira nods at Annie. "Yea. I bet working here also makes you want to deal with that sorta stuff. Though you just sling drinks, right? I know when I've been working food service, my desire to cook goes way down. And it's hard to cook for just one." She gives a cheerful shrug. "So I eat out more than my budget says I should. But it means I get to meet neat people like y'all"
“I have no idea at all what it might be like to buy too much processed food or get takeout more often than is good for me. None at all,” Nevy deadpans.
"I cannot imagine why anyone would think you might," Annie deadpans right back. "But yes, I am lucky to only have to serve drinks, not cook or wash dishes as well."
"My partners and I definitely eat out more than we should. One advantage of having so many of us living together is that we get to share a lot of expenses, which frees up money, so that helps." June laughs and adds, "but having 7 people living under one roof means cooking for everyone is also an ordeal. We end up ordering a lot."
"I've been there," Moria says with a nod at June. "There were only four of us, but I think the principle is the same. And then you have to figure in everyone's schedules..." She shakes her head. "For every benefit there's a drawback I guess. Not that I have a ton of experience." She cuts herself off rather abruptly, taking a sip of her beer to cover the sudden silence.
Nevy's eyebrows shoot up. "Seven?" They say. "That's not a polycule, it's a full ritual circle!"
"I think most of them are dating all the other members, so that makes jealousy less of an issue, I would think." Annie shrugs slightly. "I have never been in a polycule with more than three people including myself, though."
June points a pointy nail at Annie. "That's about right," she says. "I mean, it happens. Any time my first of those partners starts seeing someone new I still get a little jealous. Like this time will be the time they don't need me any more." She shrugs. "We always work it out, but it doesn't stop the feelings from coming up."
Moria shoots Nevy a sharp, inquiring look at the ritual circle comment, but she says nothing. Instead she begins tracing numbers in the condensation from her bottle. "Mine was just a mess from start to end," she says with a quick, sharp shrug. "It wasn't a good idea I think for any of us. Ruined friendships along with relationships"
Nevy nods. "I'm... not going to lie, part of why I'm okay being single right now is how complicated relationships get. I'm lucky enough to still be friends with one of my exes."
"They can be complicated. Communication helps, though, but that is true in most human endeavours, I find." Annie glances at Nevy. "Is this an ex you are willing to tell us more about?"
"If you had asked me a few years ago, before I got involved with Teagan in the first place, if I would have been able to do a poly relationship, I would have laughed," June admits with a sheepish smile. "Then again, I also thought I was straight, so..." she shrugs. "I don't have any exes I'm friends with, but I've only got one and he was bad news." Which is June for 'a total fuckhead'
That gets a laugh out of Moira, and some tension goes out of her shoulders. "Yea, it's funny how quick things can change." She shakes her head a little. "And yea, all relationships are complicated. More partners just increases the complications exponentially."
Nevy chuckles. "There's really not much to tell. We dated, he wasn't ready for a relationship, we did the 'better as friends' thing, and it turned out we actually are." They smile fondly, then shrug.
"Fair enough," Annie admits. "Better as friends actually working out to be true is always nice."
"There's definitely nothing wrong with that," June agrees with Annie. "Having friends is great. So is having a relationship, but only if it's the right one. Having the wrong relationship is worse than not having one, most of the time."
Moria's mouth twists, as her attention turns back to the formulas she's writing in the condensation. "Yea, friends are good. I should probably make some of those."
Nevy considers the woman. "Hey," They say. "Wanna be friends?"
"Indeed," Annie nods. "I am glad Yu Jin and I are working out well." She glances at Moira. "If you are in need of friends, I would be happy to introduce you around? Strangely enough, working in a bar means I meet a lot of people."
"I mean, you weren't talking to me, but yes," June says with a flash of a grin. "I'm always on the lookout for friends." She looks at Annie. "I guess we're already friends, since you told me I can call you Annie, so that's pretty good." She looks at Moira expectantly.
Moira smiles, though there's still a slight edge on it. "I can be a real shitty friend, I warn you. I never call, I never write..." It's obvious that she's teasing. Mostly. But then she brightens. "But I can offer awesome tech upgrades. So there's that."
Nevy chuckles. "Hey, we're out at a bar, drinking and talking about our significant others - or, uh, lack thereof. If the sitcoms are right, we're already die-hard friends." Their expression drops into a morbid mask. "If the sitcoms are right, the Gods help us all."
"Hashem is the only one I believe in, so," Annie shrugs slightly. "I tend not to pay too much attention to sitcoms. There is very little resemblance between their depiction of life and the reality."
"I mostly watch TV that most of the polycule is into. We watched a lot of Forged in Fire. But my girlfriend, Sigrún, is a smith, so that helps get into it. Plus, it's pretty impressive what some of them do in their limited time." June shrugs. "I haven't really watched much in the way of sitcoms since I was young. I can't deal with embarrassment humor."
"Oh gods, yes," Moira says in response to June's comment. "It makes me so uncomfortable." She makes a face. "Honestly, I just don't like much TV. I'm always thinking about all the other things I could be doing."
Nevy nods. "Excellent I'm so glad my new friends have actual taste." They shake their heads. "Sitcoms are a plague upon humanity."
"I do not watch much TV either, honestly," Annie admits. "Combining medical school and working to pay my way through it does not leave much in the way of free time, and I would rather use what I have for other things."
"You're in med school? That's so cool" Moira says, honestly impressed. "I was going to go to grad school but... things happened and now it just seems more trouble than it's worth."
Nevy nods. "I can respect that, Annie. Priorities, and that." They look at Moira. "I mean... if that's what you choose."
"What would you study, if you did decide to attend grad school after all?"
"Like Yu Jin?" June says with a ridiculous waggle of her brows at Annie and a tone of gentle teasing. "I can't blame you. Especially, like... partner vs sitcoms."
"Theoretical Physics." Moira's answer is quick - it's obviously something she's thought a lot about. "But I'm a shit student. Heck, half the time I think undergrad was a mistake." She takes another sip of her beer and swirls the remainder around in the bottle a bit. Then she gives June an amused sidelong look. "Oh dear. Are you one of those sort of gossips? No secret lasts long around you?"
Nevy raises an eyebrow. "The math you were talking about the last time I met you made me taste blood and smell the color purple. You're not a good student?"
"I mean..." Annie smirks at June. "I cannot discuss all of what we do together, of course, but they are taking me out to dinner, in a few days."
"That's definitely going to be well beyond any of my skills. I'm a beekeeper," June says with a laugh. "I never went to college or anything, just did an apprenticeship and started working in my field. Math is definitely not my strong suit, and theoretical physics is way out of my skill set." She laughs and tells Moira, "actually, I just like people being happy. I'm pretty good at keeping secrets."
Moira shakes her head at Nevy's comment. "Nope. I mean, as arrogant as this is going to sound, I'm wicked smart. And when working on stuff I like, I can work for hours. Days even, sometimes. But classes? Classes are boring and I can't concentrate. I've got my Bachelors degree, but it was by the skin of my teeth." She shrugs and finishes off the end of her beer before offering June a smile. "Well, that's all right then. More of a matchmaker then?"
Nevy nods. "Okay, that makes sense. Do you, uh... have anything you'd like to do, other than retail?"
Annie shrugs slightly. "I am pretty smart as well, but maths is not my focus area." She glances at June, curious to hear her answer to the question.
"Me? A matchmaker?" June laughs and shakes her head. "I just try to smush everyone together, if I try to do that. You don't want me messing with your relationships. I figure everyone will just get along." She ask Annie, "what's your focus?"
"I don't like retail." Which, she figures Nevy already knows, but it never hurts to point it out. "Mostly I just like doing independent research. But it's not really a field you can freelance in. I don't mind tutoring, but I don't think I'd be cut out for actual teaching." She turns her attention to June and smiles. "Okay, that's fair. It'd be nice if things work out like that." Then she leans on the bar again, waiting to hear Annie's answer to June's question.
Nevy nods, then looks to Annie, gesturing well, go on.
"Academically? Medicine," Annie grins slightly. "Probably general practice, more specifically, but I am a fair way off the point of needing to decide a specialisation."
"Well, now I feel like I need to ask about non-academically," June says with a grin and a laugh. "I wouldn't have thought so if you'd just said medicine." She tells Moira, "honestly, things do tend to work out like that for me. Every time someone in my polycule brings a new person around I end up falling in love with them too. If I wasn't so happy about it I'd worry about it."
It is an Teagan! They arrive at Vertigo after hearing from someone at the house that June is out here. The Mirrorskin's face is a smooth and unreadable mask to those affected by the Mask, on account of having a Rigid Mask, but their mien's mouth is turned down slightly at the corners. They push in through the doors and starts looking for JuneyJune.
"How far along are you in your studies?" For all that she's not actually pursued further education herself, Moira likes hearing about the education of others. "Ah, so you're just destined for good luck? I know some folk like that," she says to June.
Nevy chuckles. "Oh, to be so lucky."
"Music," Annie admits. "I am only an amateur, but I like to think I am rather good at it." She glances at Moira. "Only in my first year of med school. I took some time away to do other things." Like be trapped in Arcadia for centuries.
June is easy to sneak up on, since she's so engaged in the conversation that's going on, so if that's Teagan's hope, it will be easy. "Oh, music! Do you sing? Or Play?" She laughs and answers Moira, "no, my partners just have good taste. I mean, they picked me. They also tend to pick other people who are awesome too!"
Witness as June, being thoroughly distracted, has long arms wrapped in the sleeves of Teagan's charcoal-grey leather duster wrapped around her, and gets lifted off the ground and smooched on the cheek. Big loud smooches, and then they put her back down on the ground. "Picking you means I have good taste? I'll accept it." It's hard to be cross when around June.
"Music's cool," Moira opines. "I'm not that skilled with it myself, but I had a friend that was really in to music theory and composing." She gives a smirking grin. "Lots of math in music. There's literally mathematical formula that can figure out how to make a song that'll be popular." She raises an eyebrow as Teagan comes over - this is obviously one of the partners June had been referring to. But she doesn't say anything, waiting for actual introductions to be made.
Nevy raises an eyebrow and the lift-and-smooch, but laughs when June gets set back down. "I'm guessing this is one of your ritual circle?" They say, chuckling to June .
"Yes," Annie deadpans, before smiling. "I sing and play the violin." Beat. "Hello, Teagan. What can I get for you?"
June lets out a soft squeal that turns into a giggle as she gets bodily lifted off the ground and spun about. "Teaaagaaaann," she laughs, and then she smooches her partner and gets put down, where she offers a tight hug. After all this she turns back to the others and says to Nevy, "yep! This is Teagan. Teagan, this is Nevermore. Sturm and I met Nevermore when we went for ice cream the other day. You know Annie, right? And this is Moira, who is a math and physics genius."
Picked up, smooched on the cheek, and swung back and forth, June is set back on her feet. "Bottle of Yuengling, please, Annie?" Another squeeze from Teagan, before they let June go. "Nevermore, Moira. A pleasure." Teagan offers their hand out for a shake to each in turn. Their palms each have deep, thick, ugly scars horizontally across them, as if at some point in the distant past, Teagan grabbed hold of something very very sharp.
Moira's expression turns tight at Annie's deadpan, but it melts away as June describes her as a genius. She doesn't quite blush but she does duck her head slightly. "Hi there," she says, accepting Teagan's handshake. She makes no comment on the scars, but she does notice them.
Nevy shakes the head, then offers an overwrought, florid bow. "Nevermore Usher, at your service." A little ceramic disk necklace flops out of their shirt while they're down - there's a stylized rose on it.
"Bottle of Yuengling it is," Annie nods, turning to retrieve it from the fridge. "How have you been, Teagan?"
"I'm trying a Lion's Tail," June explains to Teagan. "Want to try a sip? You haven't decided you're not even going to sip anything other than Yeungling, have you?" That would be such a Philly frailty, right? She hops back up onto her bar stool, takes a sip of her cocktail, and then offers it to her partner.
"Mmmph," Teagan answers, which seems to answer both the question Annie asks and the question June does. "I'll have a bit of Lion's Tail, surely." A miniscule smile to Nevermore's bow, and a tip up of their chin at Moira. "Genius, are you?" They take the drink, and a small sip thereof.
Moira shrugs in answer to Teagan's question. "I'm not sure I'd go that far. Just pretty smart about stuff a lot of folks have trouble with." The corner of her mouth lifts in a half smile. "Just working to reduce the universe to numbers and formula" It's obvious she's being silly about it, but then again, that is what she's trying to do.
Nevy chuckles. "What if the universe prefers to be large?"
Annie shrugs slightly. "Then the universe is large, no doubt." She glances at Moira. "What does that involve, besides "a lot of maths"?"
June takes her drink back after Teagan's sip. "Pretty good, isn't it?" She laughs and tells Nevy, "I think 'reduce' in this case isn't about the size of the universe. It's more like reducing fractions. Like two quarters being reduced to one half is the same size, right?" She looks at Moira to see if she's getting this right.
"It's not bad," Teagan agrees, making the 'not bad' Obama face almost exactly. That even shows through the Rigid Mask, because they make it do so. "Not gonna drink it on the regular, but, you know, not bad." The discussion of math gets exactly this reaction: "Hunh." Educated? Teagan? Mmmmnope!
Moira points a finger at Annie, in a 'that's right' gesture. "Well... a lot of maths," she says with a smile, and then chews on her lower lip, trying to figure the best way to describe it. Thankfully, June's comment gives her an idea. She presses her now empty beer bottle onto the coaster and then lifts it away. She points to the indented circle, rimmed with condensation. "Well, see that? It's a circle, right? You can use a lot of words to describe a circle, but you can also use math to describe it. It's area is always π r², it's circumference is 2πr, and so on. Everything is like that, though a lot of the formula get way more complex."
Nevy tilts their head, one eyebrow raised. "Everything?"
"Is there a formula for desire? Wrath?"
"Tacos?"
"... June, honestly," Teagan laughs. They had been about to say something about a formula for Wrath, but June throws them off-guard.
"Well, okay, maybe not everything," Moira says, with a smile. "But, well, emotions are chemical reactions in the body. Everyone's different, but if it's a chemical reaction, it's got a formula. And food's easy. What's a recipe but a sort of mathematical formula for how to put things together? Granted that all gets way more into chemistry than I ever was, but it's there. Mostly though I like dealing with physical things."
Nevy chuckles. "Now, you had me interested when you brought up the formula for tacos. It would be nice to be able to add 1 plus 1 and get tacos."
"More like a variety of vegetables plus special bread, but." Annie shrugs slightly. "I do not expect everyone else to be vegetarian."
"I was hoping for someone to tell me how to make the platonic ideal of a taco," June says with a crossing of her arms that describes totally artificial grumpiness. She's smiling, so she's not really selling it. "Now you're making me think about fajitas, Annie. The smell of those sizzly vegetables." She looks at Teagan. "I'm starting to think I'm hungry."
They loop their arm around June's waist and kiss her on the top of her head (right behind her ear), squeezing her in against their side as they reach to pick up their beer and take a swallow thereof. "Yeah, I gotta have some meat, sorry. But that sounds like math I could get into."
"I dated a guy once who was really into the science of cooking. He'd probably be able to work out a platonic ideal taco recipe. Probably several, for different kinds of meat, and at least one with chickpeas or some other bean." She smiles and tries to take a sip of her own beer before remembering it's empty. She sets the bottle back down on the bar with the attitude of 'I meant to do that' a cat has when it falls off the back of the sofa. "Personally I like dealing with predictive models - figuring out how something will turn out by working in all the variables. It's hard to do for big things, but hard's what makes it fun."
Nevermore blinks. "I... think calling up the shades of the dead with calf's blood to interrogate them on what is to come sounds simpler," They say with a lopsided smile.
Annie arches an eyebrow. "Is that something you find necessary, to talk to them?"
"Not for the calf," June points out to Nevermore. "Poor little cowey-kins." Then she glances at Teagan and frowns and looks pensively at her cup before emptying it. "I'd just as soon not run into ghosts, though."
"You're real fucking extra, aren't you, kid?" Teagan asks in a total deadpan, curling up one corner of their mouth. "I mean, I guess you could get it at a kosher butcher, I dunno."
"My way's less expensive," Moira says. Her tone isn't exactly deadpan, but a lot more matter-of-fact than most people would be about animal sacrifice and such.
Nevermore raises an eyebrow mysteriously... for about a second and a half, until they burst into a fit of snorting giggles.
Annie shrugs slightly. "You could, yes." She blinks at Nevermore. "Is there some joke I am not getting?"
"I think this is amusement over being callee extra?" June puts her glass on the bar, hops down, and leans into Teagan for a hug. "We should go get some food," she suggests. "Or I should, you can stay here if you want!"
"Nah, I'll come with you," Teagan answers June, taking another big swallow of their beer and setting the bottle aside. "There's stuff at the house I want to show you, anyway." They tip their head toward the others in farewell, then dig in their pocket to put a couple grubby bills on the bar for their beer and tip. "Later, youse."
Moria frowns. "Was I babbling too much?" She sighs and pulls out her wallet as well. "Anyway, I should get going too. It's been nice"
Nevy wipes their eyes. "I'm a Goth, not a necromancer. All I can call up with calf's blood is a mess." They glance around as everyone talks about leaving, and briefly look dismayed. "Was that too far?"
"I think they just have other things to do," Annie says gently. "I cannot speak for them, though."
Nevy considers the others as they leave, then nods uncertainly. "Yeah," they say. "You're... you're right.
Annie pauses, considering them. "Are you okay?"
They force themselves to sit up straight and smile. "Fine."
No, Nevy, the Extra Large Extra Medium seems to be saying to themself, They didn't leave because you were weird. No. Seriously. They didn't. Probably.
"Nevermore. I do not know Moira all that well, but I know Teagan, and I have heard many stories of June." Annie looks them in the eye. "That you can be a little extra is not the reason they decided to leave."
"Huh?" Nevy blinks, then chuckles. "No, I know that." They push the mood away by main force.
Annie squints at them, then nods. "Okay. Just wanted to make sure."
Nevy nods, then leans on their forearms on the edge of the bar. "So... why have you been shooting me worried looks all night?"
"Just... wondering if everything was going okay, for you. You have been in here rather more frequently than I usually see people, and I was not sure of the reason."
"I'm just here looking to meet new people. I've only got a couple friends in town so far."
"Fair. This is a good place for it." Beat. "Yu Jin and who else?"
"Huh?" They seem confused.
"The friends?" Annie clarifies. "You said you had two of them in town, and I assume Yu Jin is one."
"He's my therapist, not exactly a friend," Nevy says, chuckling. "There's Mearc, a woman I met named Phaedra, a fellow named Asbolus..." They raise an eyebrow and smile. "You, maybe."
"Oh, yes, I know Mearcstapa, and Asbolus. I do not think I have met this Phaedra, though." Beat. "Are we friends, Nevermore?"
Nevy furrows their brow. "I mean... I'd like to be?"
"I apologise, English is not my first language. I get confused, sometimes." Annie sighs. "What I meant was, do you wish for me to be your friend, or just the bartender you chat to over a drink?"
Nevermore takes a deep breath. "You've been very kind. The way you responded to me being Yu Jin's client shows you care about doing the right thing. You're clever, and I have fun talking with you. If you'd like to be my friend, I'd love to be yours."
They hesitate. "Is... Am I weird, for saying that to my bartender? Is this weird?"
"Maybe, but if so it is not a weirdness I dislike." Annie says softly. "Friends, then?" She offers Nevermore her hand.
Nevy suppresses a sigh of relief and shakes. "Friends."
Annie smiles at them, then. "Now, then. I must confess to not knowing very much about goth culture. Is there anything in particular I should check out?"
Nevy grins and chuckles. "That's... a complicated question. There's... almost as many subcultures of Goth as there are types of geek."
"Well, okay. Assume I do not even know how to differentiate between them, then."
Nevy sits up straighter. "Okay. So... as a whole, the Goth subculture is about taking something society generally discards as undesirable - Darkness, creepy aesthetics, a certain amount of... discarding of social norms - and finding the enjoyable and even beautiful parts. Which means that it's hard to advise one single thing, because there's so many different things involved - fashion, music, poetry, literature..." They smile. "My personal fashion," They gesture toward themselves. "Leans toward romantic goth style, with, perhaps, a touch of gothic lolita when I'm feeling particularly femme. There's goth music of... pretty much every genre you can name, from techno to classical. I swear, I even heard of a Christian Goth Church called 'the Church of the Living Dead' somewhere."
"I can see why you are friends with Mearcstapa, then," Annie says amusedly. "Is there any one place it started?"
"If I remember right, it started back in the 80s, among fans of goth rock - rock music that dealt with a lot of the scary and tragic themes I was talking about. It all kind of grew and snowballed from there."
They chuckle. "That was way before my time."
"Oh, well, before mine too, obviously enough." Between her times, technically, but. "What drew you to it in particular, beside it being the fad when you were in school?"
"It was a couple things. It's a good way to, you know, talk about death and ghosts and things without people looking at you... any weirder than they'd look at anyone else wearing this." They shrug one shoulder. "Besides that... I started reading Poe when I was pretty young, and... a lot of his stories and poems? They're really good. Scary, yes, or tragic, but there's... meat there, you know? I branched out from there to horror and tragedy lit and poetry in general."
"Yeah? Is there any particular work of his you would especially recommend?"
"Hmmm... well, everyone knows The Raven, so I'm not even going to touch that one... I think the Mask of the Red Death has some of the best buildup of dread. But the Tell-Tale Heart is pretty iconic, too - and it's so overblown I can't help it." They throw up their arms in mock despair. "How can I choose which of my babies is the favorite? I love them all!" They hesitate. "Well, The Murders in the Rue Morgue is a little... flat. To me."
"Oh? Any particular reason?"
They open their mouth, then hesitate. "Do you care about spoilers?"
"Not particularly? Should I?"
They shrug. "Some people prefer not to. So... the Murders in the Rue Morgue is a mystery - kind of like an early Sherlock Holmes story. But in the end, the murderer isn't human. It doesn't even have the decency to be a ghost or monster." They lean in and roll their eyes. "It's a damn orangutan!"
Annie blinks. "...that does seem rather a letdown. Is there any significance to it just being an animal?"
Nevy chuckles. "Some people think it was symbolic - the detective defeating the animal was brain overcoming brawn. Some think it was a racism thing. Some people think Poe was just trying to be clever." They chuckle. "Apparently there've been enough arguments and fistfights over the idea that the topic's banned at most places where Poe scholars gather."
"I shall be sure to bring it up, if I am ever in such a place, then." Annie winks at them.
Nevy laughs. "I knew you were a troll. Just walking in and causing trouble, hmm?"
"Who, me? No, I could never be a troll. Why would you even say such a thing of little old me?" Annie pouts dramatically.
"I know, I'm a dreadful friend." Nevermore grins. Then they glance at the clock and sigh. "A dreadful friend who has work in the morning."
"Alas, that we must live under the scourge of capitalism," Annie sighs, before grinning at them. "I shall not keep you, then. Are you good to get home, or shall I call you a cab?"
Nevy waves it off. "I'm fine, but thanks." They chuckle. "We ought to hang out sometime when I'm not just paying you to give me booze."
"Ah yes, in my copious free time." Beat. "I would like that, I think."
Nevy smiles. "Well. If and when you do have free time," They pull out another business card and write a phone number on it. "Let me know. Otherwise, I'll just have to keep coming in here and spending too much money."
"Will do," Annie nods, taking the card. "See you around, Nevy."
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