2017-04-12: I'll Drink to That
- Log: I'll Drink to That
- Cast: Jean, Josephine Lovelace
- Where: Adlehyde - Starfall Saloon
- Date: April 12th, 2017
- Summary: Josie and Jean happen across each other in the tavern. Drinking ensues.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
As far as places to drink around town go, this one isn't bad. It doesn't even have barfights all that often.
Let's stress the 'all that often', though. There have been some Incidents lately.
Tonight, the clientele are largely happily potted, even if a few of them have been at it long since before around 5 in the afternoon. Perhaps it would be good to check that everyone's still breathing?
An hour or so back Josephine Lovelace -- returned to Adlehyde after an expedition, of sorts -- wedged herself in among them and to judge by the way she's drinking (behold, an assortment of empty glasses) probably doesn't intend to leave anytime soon.
Penelope is also here, which is probably not entirely sanitary, but no one seems to have complained yet. Drifters are an odd lot.
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
It's shaping up to be a nice night out; Jean--a woman in dancer's clothes that could be downright scandalous to some--is enjoying the night breeze and the lights of the city as she walks through toward her destination, apart from her friends for now.
Of any of them, she's least concerned with herself moving around alone.
So, fans patting along at her hip, the green-haired woman steps into the saloon, looking around to find a spot. She has a few criteria for plaes to sit when it's all crowded.
So Jean walks up to Josie and peers down at Penelope before taking a seat beside her at the spare spot, Nodding to the person on the other side and nodding and winking at Josie. "I like your friend!"
A beat, as she calls up to the bartender, "I could use a drink! Some kind of beer!"
A beat, "The name's Jean, but..." Clink. Jean picks up her glass and tips it back, "Ahh. Didn't want to start talking until I had something to drink!" She's grinning.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie isn't even drunk yet. Oh no. (Un?)fortunately, she's well-cultivated her ability to drink over the years, and this lot is still not enough to knock her over.
Someone pushes in next to her and all Josie does at first is sit up a little bit straighter (if she'd been at a table it's a sure bet her feet would be on the table, in abeyance of all manners) and glance at the stranger sidelong.
"Thanks!" comes the immediate response; Penelope for her part is fluffed up somewhat, eyes squeezed shut tightly as she roosts in a way that still can only be called 'broody'.
Then Josie glances sidelong again. "--Wait a moment, don't I know you from somewhere..."
Turning slightly, she looks Jean over. "Right! The cucco swarm!" ...Right.
"I don't think we had time for introductions before, yeah? I'm Josephine, but please, call me Josie." In lieu of a handshake she reaches over with her own glass to tap glasses with Jean. She grins. "Nice to get a name at last!"
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
Jean keeps drinking after a moment, as apparently whatever she was doing minutes ago was thirsty work. ...She might just not believe in wasting her time in getting started.
Her eyes dart over to Josie as she glances at her, until she finally starts to lower her glass as Josie turns a little bit. A familiar face...
"Oh!" It's hard to peg Jean's age, exactly, to look at her, but she's no stranger to drinking. And she smiles momentarily, tapping her glass with Josie too. She's... gone through quite a bit of hers already. "We didn't really have time for anything like that back then. I'm glad we could all get out!" A beat, "If you want me to call you Josie, I'll call you Josie. I don't have a lot of patience for formality, anyway."
Drink again, "How've you been? I can tell we all got out..."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
It's fair enough, many things people get into around here are thirsty work, at least the way Josie sees it. Besides, she'd probably do the same if their positions were reversed.
One white eyebrow does arch slightly; Josie's clearly impressed. "Not bad," she remarks aloud, as if this were all a contest. "But, yes! It was a little bit touch and go, wasn't it?" She tilts her head to one side as she regards Jean. Younger than her, but that's about all she can tell -- 'in her 20s', it'd seem.
"Still, we survived, so I'll drink to that!" She lifts her glass up in mock salute, then, not to be outdone by the younger set, takes a swig.
"Good! I'm not old enough for something longer than 'Josie' yet!"
Penelope blinks blearily as Josie takes another drink, only to settle again. This may be normal as far as the pigeon is concerned, it seems.
"Me? I've been doing fine. Nothing new, but you know what they say, 'no news is good news'. How about you?"
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
Jean grins, happy enough for the moment to find someone who knows how to have a good time--in ways compatible with hers. Josie keeps going through, and answers quickly enough.
"It's definitely not something I've done before. Worst I've done is watched an upset Chocobo." A what? That's not a bird people have heard of here.
"I'll drink too!" Jean smiles widely, and maybe looks definitely younger than Josie. Another swig for her, too, and she's running out of first beer.
"Ha! I like that attitude," she comments about Josie's age and name. She waits for the answer though, and nods along, "Isn't /that/ true? Though sometimes you want people talking. Me, well... I've been fine. Things are going okay, and I get a night into the city for once. I needed some time to myself; I usually go out and camp."
She pauses, "But it reminds me... Cucco talk makes me hungry. Have any favorites around here? I like trying new things."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
That earns Jean a blank, very puzzled look. Josie even blinks. "A cho... what?"
Jean's certainly a hearty drinker. Even with her advantage of an hour and change, Josie's not sure Jean wouldn't be able to catch up in sheer volume... well, if she let her, anyway!
It's been a while since she's met someone who could possibly match her. In fact, the last person who could might have been...
Josie's expression is briefly pensive before she throws one back.
"Sometimes you do! It's not very interesting if it's quiet /all/ the time. Still, it's nice to have a night to do nothing." Such as right now. "Or go out and do nothing! Me, I've had enough of being on my lonesome for now."
Penelope stirs.
"...Okay, okay, other than you!"
'Cucco talk makes me hungry'. Josie can't help it -- she smiles, in the manner of someone trying very hard /not/ to, and at their own upcoming joke at that. "Pff... Hey, don't let Penelope hear you, okay? She might get upset!" She then slices a hand through the air, as if to negate that statement entirely. "More seriously, though, uh... the grilled chicken's pretty good."
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
"Really big bird," Jean explains as if conspiratorially, "Not from... around here." She could practically sweatdrop with that explanation. She doesn't, but she could. She still has about exactly that sort of reaction anyway.
She flags down the waitress for another beer and then tips back the rest of hers while she's waiting. It doesn't exactly take long at all.
She caught a pensive look in Josie's eyes, but isn't going to pry just yet. She notices it, then.
"I still need to head back to the camp a little bit later," she admits. "A bar's a great place to go to be with other people, though!"
A grin, "Guess you don't need a plae to be with her."
Jean laughs along with Josie, "All right, I'll be quieter." She tilts her head, and nods. "Hey, sounds good enogh to me. I don't want to get too drunk, drinking on an empty stomah." A beat, "It's nice to try out the food around here."
Jean takes a moment to make an order... as she gets her next glass.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
For a long moment, Josie regards Jean. It could just about be called a stare. Then, "How big?" It's just academic interest!
She likes birds.
"I guess it saves some money, huh? Sleeping under the stars. I used to do that, but I've gotten attached to my bed here in town, I guess!" A pause, coupled with a wry smile. "If you can call it a bed, anyway. But, well, that's what you get for renting the cheapest place in town." The innkeeper lady hadn't thrown her out yet, and it's good to have a place to come back to while she's in the area.
Not that there's... much choice of where she can go, with the situation out near what used to be a town called Lahan, or so she's heard.
"Sure is! ...Penelope's not the social type, though. She doesn't talk much."
Sadly it's not actually the alcohol that causes Josephine to just about crack up at her own stupid joke.
"Good point, good point... It'd be bad if I ended up with a hangover, huh? I don't come here to eat, so let's see..."
It seems like a good night to just go a little wild. With everything.
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
"Hrm, it's about..." Jean starts to lift her hand, stops, and sets down her glass to shrug with both hands with a little laugh. "Big enough to pull wagons. About the size of a... horse? That's what those are called, I think."
She doesn't talk with a recognizeable accent, but...
"It saves money, all right. Sometimes I miss having a bed, but I'm used to camping out; it's how I live." She grins. "I guess a bed's a bed, right? The outside sometimes smells better..."
"Oh, is that so?" Jean asks, peering over at Penelope.
"I haven't eaten here more than once or twice myself, and I don't really expect them to have what I'm used to eating." A shrug, "I hope it's a small plate, though. We don't have a whole lot of room!" Jean laughs, taking another drink, not quite as fast as at first.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Both eyebrows raise, this time. "That big..." Josie lets out a low whistle, and shakes her head. "Now that sounds fantastic. Where did you say they were from?"
Jean'd hardly be the first person she's met with an unrecognizable accent.
"A bed's what you make of it," Josie affirms, before taking a long swig of beer. "...I'll give you that one, though," she says, setting the now empty glass down with a solid clunk, before pointedly wrinkling her nose. Drifters also don't tend to smell too good, especially packed together in a place like this.
Penelope, for her part, remains mutely silent, her eyes closed.
"Just kidding!" Josie says, waving a hand through the air. "If she's in a good mood she might coo, though."
Penelope must not be in a good mood.
"True, true..." Josie glances both left and right. They sort of... don't have room. "Well, if it comes to that--" She mimes elbowing the man next to her, then grins, before leaning over to get the attention of one of the barkeep. "Another, please!"
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
"They are!" Jean agrees happily. "But you know, I'm not actually sure where they come from? We had a couple with the caravan, to pull our wagons, but..." A wave of her hand, up and down in front of her face. "But that's sort of a pointless way to put it, huh?" Wait, why? "You ever heard of Lunar?"
Jean moves to keep p--cath up--with Josie and drinks a bit more herself. She laughs sharply and loudly at Josie's agreement. Then... Josie's talking to a silent Penelope again. Well, whatever makes her happy.
"That sounds nice," Jean says about the cooing. "I just don't bother birds too much if they aren't feeling up to it."
Jean glances to Josie more and grins, though she taps her cheek with a free hand's finger. "The last time somebody got shoved in a bar I was in I got run out of town," she says, and grimaces. She keeps her good humor a moment later as she gets to drinking, and sets hers down again, "But this time at least I'll get to drink first!"
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"I've never heard of them before, you know," Josie says, as if it'd have to be a well-kept secret to escape her note up until now. Her brow crinkles. Odd way to put it. "...Lunar? Well, no."
Some people talk to themselves, Josie talks to her bird. It takes all kinds, it seems.
"I figure it's about even, between us two? She bothers me, I bother her. That kind of thing." Josie shrugs, though, if lopsidedly due to Penelope's perch. "Still, it's better not to bother things that don't want to be bothered." Clearly, a lesson for the ages.
"I can only get away with it 'cause I raised her."
That quickly turns Josie's grin towards the sheepish. "Yeah... I know what you mean." Starting a fight is probably not in her best interest, right? "Probably best not to tempt fate, huh? Some of these guys have been drinking longer than I have!" Her voice is just above a hushed whisper.
"Oh, thanks!" And that is Josie's who-knows-how-many-th glass this evening, just then.
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
"Not that surprising," Jean says as if answering some kind of inside joke--though she 'hmms' a moment glaning between bird and woman at the tone she had. But she doesn't answer more than that at first, just tipping her glass back one more time at the matter of Lunar.
"Oh, yeah? I guess if it's fun for you, it's fun for you," Jean answers. She grins at the lesson. "...Unless it's fun to do."
She laughs, "Is that it?"
Jean's not exactly the first to advise prudence as a rule, but sometimes it happens. That's sure entertaining. "Hahaha, right?"
Jean sets down her glass for a moment, and very smoothly, without comment on Josie's age, says, "As for where I'm from... Step outside, look up, biggest thing in the sky."
Jean starts up drinking again, entirely casually. There's a moment's pause, before she finishes the whole thing, and then sets the glass down, pulling out some money. "...I think it's been longer than I expecting," Jean says to Josie. "I probably can't be out that much longer for now..." She's being cagey about something, but stands up and sets down the cash anyway. "It was good to meet you again."
Jean waves, and starts to head out.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Quizzical, Josie tilts her head, gesturing slightly with her right hand as if to suggest Jean go on. No explanation comes immediately, though.
'Is that it?' Josie grins, teeth bared briefly, and nods. "Exactly!"
Prudence doesn't come naturally to Josie either, but...
There's a thing, about picking fights and how that's counterproductive. That kind of thing.
"The biggest thing in the night sky? But that'd be the--"
Jean puts down her glass, and excuses herself then.
"Leaving already? But the food hasn't..." She glances over and up at the now standing Jean, meeting her gaze. For once, Josie is silent, as if comprehending at least part of what Jean doesn't say. Then slightly, she nods. "Hey. Take care of yourself."
It's probably not the same. It's unlikely to be the same. But Josie can at least feel as if it's the same, for a moment.
"It was good to see you, too. Good night, Jean."
She's well-subdued by the time she turns back to her drink, mulling over it in silence.