[Voice / Action]

[dissonates]

I-

....

...Stupid.

Good Spirits is now open.




[Guess who's trying to get active while Guy's kidnapped? Sitting around, bitching at people, and breaking things won't solve anything, so for once Asch is being an adult about it. He has no idea what Meryl's bar schedule is, so with Guy gone he's claiming the bartender job. ...Hopefully this will not end badly. He'll be there every day from now until Guy returns, so feel free to challenge his novice mixing skills.

Come bother the awkward redhead?]

Comments

[dissonates]

[Asch doesn't pry about it, since plenty of people have something to be depressed about. He waits until she's done (god, make up your mind 8|) then pours her a virgin dacquri, sliding it over to her.]

No promises on the quality. I'm not a professional.

[herotypical]

[That was not the voice that she had expected. In fact, looking up from the drink, it's not the bartender she expected. Huh. With a frown, Buffy wonders just why this person--this person who is definitely not Guy or really anyone else that she might recognize by sight; although, his voice is familiar in a shadowy way--as if she spoke to him, once.]

So, just where is the professional? Vacationing it up?

[dissonates]

[Asch lifts a brow at her surprise; she didn't even notice him when she came in? She must really be out of it.]

...He was kidnapped earlier this week. I'm just filling in until he gets back.

[Provided he's in any state to bartend anything when he's back. ...Yeah, let's not think about that.]

[herotypical]

[Kidnapped?] Oh, God. I didn't even know. I'm sorry to hear that--are you a...friend? Or maybe Guy's brother or something?

[Forgive her the assumptions, Asch. She's got family on the mind.]

[dissonates]

[Asch snorts faintly at the idea of being Guy's brother. Though at least she didn't say Luke's.]

Guy's a friend. It wasn't shown on the journal- I know about it because we live together.

[herotypical]

[Her hands are around her drink, but she hasn't taken a sip yet. The news has gotta sink in.]

I'll bet he'd be glad to know he's got a friend back here, looking after his stuff. [It's about the best she can do on small change. She spent all the big bills on convincing herself that her sister's sudden absence in Luceti is a good thing. As it should be.]

[dissonates]

[Asch shrugs dismissively.] Meryl usually works here. I just needed something to do. [No sense in going into detail about how miserable he gets without Guy around to bother him.]

[herotypical]

[Sorry, Asch. Buffy has too much fresh experience dealing with her own loss and very little sense for personal boundaries. Though, feel free to rant and rave at her if she's wrong. Or even if she's right.]

You mean, you needed something to do that made you feel close to him. A friend's missing, so you pick something that was a huge part of his identity. I get that, it's gettable. And understandable and actually? Kind of sweet in its own way. [A sentiment she punctuates with a hearty drink and--hey! Not too shabby a job, not-Guy.]

[dissonates]

[Hitting close to home there, though Asch just looks away instead of get angry with her. He's more irritated with himself for being so obvious. He and Guy had already fought about this issue, after all.]

Sweet? It's more a selfish act than anything. I'm doing this for my sake and no one else's.

[herotypical]

Who else's sake do you have to worry about, in this case? I mean, Guy's. Obviously. But this is the waiting game and you just gotta be ready to be there for when he comes back. I guess the patron's of the bar, but--hey? You're trying. That's a something.

[Sip, sip, reassuring smile.]

[dissonates]

[...What a weird way of speaking. Still, her sincerity isn't lost on him, and she's friendly enough, so he nods absently, brows furrowing.] I... guess you have a point.

oh god it blinks!

[herotypical]

Of course. My points are always of the...pointy variety. It's one of my most winning traits. Along with my charm and my very witty retorts. [Self-deprecating smile is a-go.]

Look, he'll be back. And then things'll get serious and you can do the stuff that friends do for friends who've just come back from a tea party with the mad scientists. Until then? Hold the fort.

I know, right, you'd normally think he's a rock.

[dissonates]

I'm good at that, at least. Holding the fort, I mean. [Also good at working alone, killing people, ruining good moods, missing the point...] I'm not as worried as I used to be about it.

[Or rather he's much better at ignoring the problem and distracting himself.]

An unblinking one, at least.

[herotypical]

[What? Do we have another possibly dense, solitary warrior? Huh. Who knew. Buffy figures you could throw a stone in this place and hit five of them. Problem is? She tends to forget she's one and the same.]

I hear it's a good thing to be good at. Takes patience, though. I'm not exactly much with the patience. I get jittery. [Which is exactly why it's a horrible idea that she's slurping down this virgin daiquiri. Oh, sugar. How this petite blonde loves it.]

Except he does, in fact, bleed on occasion.

[dissonates]

[Luceti's full of 'em. Asch doesn't recognize her as one since she seems kinda chipper.]

I get annoyed. I hate waiting. [He says it in a slightly musing tone; it's something Guy would have observed, probably. Maybe. He's occasionally gossipy like that.]

Bleeding rocks. Talent.

[herotypical]

[The chipper runs pretty shallow. Doesn't take much to hit bitterness.]

Never had to wait, back home. Just...went and did stuff. Here there's the barrier and the restrictions and enough of whatever this is--[she raises her glass]--to drown in. Back home, if someone went missing you just went and got them. Not always simple, but you never had to make with the patience.

[dissonates]

[She still smiles more than he does, which means she's much better off in his mind.]

The barrier is the biggest issue. Normally something like that wouldn't even be an issue for me, but here...

[Power-capping the ability to nullify virtually anything puts a hell of a damper on escape plans.]

[herotypical]

[Now that lights up a bulb. Hmm.] You've got magics of some sort? Barrier-opening magics, maybe? Or you're supposed to have, except here they've gotten all selective about what you can do and it's actually sorta unfair and--[She trails off, burying the babble in her drink.]

[dissonates]

[Asch leans back, lifting a hand briefly to look at it before shrugging his shoulders.]

Something like that. Unfortunately I don't have that ability anymore.

[Death Penalties spoil all the fun. Not that he'd been able to so much as dent the barrier when he did have it...]

[herotypical]

[Buffy will contentedly assume the ability was lost in coming here--not as any sort of a death penalty. She actually doesn't know about those yet.]

I'd love to just get right through it, stir stuff up--get answers. Because there always are answers. Someone's gotta have them. Probably some old, bearded man with a lot of books and not enough candles.

[dissonates]

[Lucky her. Or unlucky, in the case that she'll be surprised someday.]

Either that or the scientists, and I'm not interested in their half-assed justifications.

[herotypical]

[The girl's got this nasty habit when it comes to dieing. That surprise just might come, sooner or later.

But in the here-and-now, she quietly adds:] I think even they're justifications will make more sense than those...Third Party guys with the real hate on for us being alive. And that's saying a lot because I know I won't find the Malnosso's justifications to be that...justificatey.

[dissonates]

[Asch has never been fond of "who's worse" theories; while the world all too often blurred to grey the bad versus good people, it didn't change the fact that those who hurt innocent people were enemies. He'd been raised to be a king for seven years, after all, and you don't forget that kind of regal compassion. ...Even if he is an ass.]

I never spoke with any of the Third Party- I was in the ranged defense group. What exactly were they trying to accomplish?

[herotypical]

They wanted to give us all our freedom. Y'know, the permanent, lights out kind of free. At least, that was the plan according to their not-exactly-eloquent leader.

[dissonates]

[Asch snorts in disgust, shaking his head.] It'd be nice if they gave each other their own damn freedom and left us to fend for ourselves.