dayslikedominos | [Open/Party-style] Something Like Rock and Roll

The place is bright but not too bright; they don't have anyone to work the lighting seriously, so there's an old disco ball and a dim spotlight with a color-changing wheel revolving on it. The players on the little stage are more enthusiastic than skilled, playing covers of things that were hits six months ago and now all but forgotten by those who didn't have to learn every note. There's a bar at the far end, separated from the rest of the place by a low wall that isn't really a wall at all; a bouncer sits at one entrance to keep minors out and booze in, but even he is nodding along distractedly to the music.

To anyone with a good ear, though, the sound doesn't just come from the couple of speakers the band has set up in front. It echoes throughout the room as though there were small speakers lined across the ceiling, in between the hanging lamps and the beams supporting the roof. There's something a little different about the place, something a little off about the way the guy at the bar shuffles around in the back, something about the way the waitress has eyes that gleam a little too brightly as she steps between tables.

Welcome to Eaves and Apples Bar and Grill, is the sign hanging just inside the front door, the words suspended in a laticework carving that the trained eye might recognize as being wrapped up in symbols of protection. Go ahead and let your hair down, because this fairytale doesn't end until well after the stroke of midnight.

[Just starting us off here - party style log is go, if you'd rather start your own comment train.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Most nights, no one approaches him on the job; he's a regular, slightly disgruntled fixture of their world now, after working this end of town for most of the last few months. He's had both men and women approach him in the past, but this girl seems a little young to be looking for a fling with anyone.

He hears her fine - if he concentrates, he can hear every conversation in the room from end to end, but he usually doesn't bother. There's not much interesting, after the third or fourth month - the little bit of soap opera he's been keeping track of, a girl dating two boys and then kissing the first one's sister on the side, hasn't come in tonight.

So might as well make nice. He skews the sound of his voice just enough that she can hear the words, not enough to make it obvious that he's actually doing something to it. "New around here?" It's a question with a kind of obvious answer, but with some luck it'll at least tell him whether or not he needs to bother hiding what he can do.

There's a fair amount of surprise that she can actually hear him. She hadn't thought her hearing was that good - and she's not attuned enough to sounds to tell that he's done something to his voice. But the moment passes and her surprised expression becomes a smile again.

"You could say that," She says with a small shrug. "I don't get out much."

It's more true than she really likes to admit. She'll probably catch hell for sneaking out once she does go back; she wasn't at all subtle about it this time, just an open window and a five-story jump, though thankfully her control over the wind was sufficient to keep her from breaking anything.

She studies Asch curiously for a few seconds before shrugging again. "Your not new, right? You look like you know your way around here."

"I work here." Lives here, too, in one of the tiny places over the restaurant - most of the other residents have no idea the noise that goes on down below, and that's a part of his job, too. He leans forward a bit and taps his knuckles on the speakers meaningfully. "They needed a new sound guy, I needed a job."

Sound guy is one way of phrasing it that doesn't give too much away, at least. And he's at least capable of passing himself off that way to someone who doesn't know the ins and outs of the job; tinker with a cable here and there and look like you know what you're doing, the job's half done. Being strong enough to actually haul the heavy equipment around doesn't hurt either.

"Oh, that was a lucky coincidence..."

Her eyes linger on the speakers for a moment or two, and it's with a bit of frustration that she realizes she has no idea how sound systems work. She could tell you all about politics, or history, or any number of other things, but she doesn't have much of a basis in practical skills. Sometimes, she wonders if that was intentional. Her caretaker had chosen what her tutors were to teach her, after all.

"Do you like what you do?" She looks back to him. It's an innocent question; she's not trying to trick him into revealing anything about magic, she's just curious and making small talk.

There's a faint stirring at the back of her mind and she can't help but look away from Asch briefly, to a man on the other side of the restaurant. It's faint, but she can hear bits and pieces of his thoughts. She frowns and turns away from him, trying to focus on Asch's spoken words, and the music, and basically anything but things that people aren't saying. Unfortunately, focusing her attention on him means that he might feel a presence at the back of his mind, since he's attuned to telepathy. She's trying really hard not to listen to any of his thoughts, though, but the strain of keeping it under control is written all over her face.

The band behind them switches to a new song, something with a little less bass and a little more melody. It's a moment later that the way the sound is projected into the room shifts subtly, putting the singer's voice at the forefront over the instruments.

He feels the mental nudge, but probably lucky for her, he just assumes that it means his brother is nearby, and his face sours appropriately. There's a bit of a mental shove at the intrusion before he speaks up again.

"I like it enough, and it pays the bills. Can't ask for much more, really."

Sheba can't help but wince at the mental shove, but to her credit she manages not to flinch obviously, and she doesn't gasp or mutter an Ow, that hurt, either - though she does come close to it. Instead, she closes her eyes and focuses on the new song's melody. It's just distracting enough that she manages - for the moment - to keep from invading Asch's thoughts any further.

And it's lucky that the change is enough for her to be distracted, because normally a mental reaction to her mind reading would have prompted a shove right back. But Sheba isn't interested in getting into a mind war, she really isn't.

"Is it hard to get a job?" If she could get one, maybe she could leave Babi's for good. Maybe she could make it back to her hometown - but there's no way she can make it alone... "I've never worked before, but I've always meant to..."

Dumb pain in the ass twin. Hopefully, the lack of a further response means that he's too far away to do anything else. It doesn't even occur to Asch that the source might be someone other than Luke.

Then again, there's a girl here asking him for life advice and he has no idea what to do about it. What is his life for $500.

"It depends on what you can do," he says honestly, hoping that she'll think he means... Well, things normal people can do.

"I see," She says, and if she seems a little disheartened by this it's because she is. If they're speaking of normal abilities, there's not a lot she can do that anyone else can't; she learns quickly, but she still has to learn, since she's led a rather sheltered life up until recently. Most of her competition will be better equipped to work than she is.

And her other abilities... well, if she was content to work as someone's spy, invading their most private thoughts to pick out things that would be useful to herself and whoever she'd be working for, she wouldn't have to worry about work and she wouldn't have such a problem with living with Babi.

"I guess it helps to have experience..." But how is one supposed to get experience without having a job? ...and how is one to get a job without having experience?

[Open/Party-style] Something Like Rock and Roll

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agh sorry for conking out before fixing the typo I had the edit screen open and just... zzz

is k

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