Bar Tab.

[realmrsreynolds]

There is a Barman on duty.

Sort of.

Duty, here, is more defined as Sallie chewing on a pencap while staring at one of the monstrosities that passes for accounting books in the bar at the end of the 'verse.

At one point, she takes a red marker from her pocket, uncaps it with a flourish, and scrawls a large THIS DOESN'T EVEN COMPUTE across the top

Comments

[hadyougoing]

Ava grimaces.

"It's that time, huh?"

[realmrsreynolds]

"'Fraid so, my dear," Sallie caps the marker with an appropriate ferocity for the red ink it holds, but gives the young lady a smile anyway.

"Of course, if there's help that you might be needing in that regard, there are certainly options..."

[hadyougoing]

"Oh-- no, I'm good!"

Ava shakes her head, eyes wide. (This is not saying much, as her eyes tend that way already.)

"I mean. I think I am." She leans forward against the counter, making a vague waving gesture from the wrist. "I probably have to figure that out over the next couple of days. What's the deadline on this thing?"

[realmrsreynolds]

"I'd like to close out in a week or so? See where I am?"

Sallie holds up the book. Her latest in red scrawling print is not the first frustrated note she's written herself.

"I've got time."

[hadyougoing]

Ava peers at the note, making a face of sympathetic ruefulness.

"Don't get me wrong," she says, "I can put a spreadsheet together, but I've gotta believe the exchange rates around here are completely nuts." A curious beat. "Can't Bar do some of that stuff for you? I don't really know how it works, I guess ..."

[realmrsreynolds]

"She actually does most, if not all of it. But most of the numbers don't make sense in my head if she just tries to tell 'em to me, so I get printouts in books like this one --

"Which are still usually less than helpful. But at least I can get an idea of who has a tab, if not necessarily what."

[hadyougoing]

Ava grins down at the countertop.

"Is there anything you can't do, Bar?"

Bar is silent and mapleishly mysterious on this subject. Ava doesn't seem to notice.

"I feel like I'd offer to buy you a drink or something for all the effort," she adds, to Sallie, "but I bet that gets super redundant."

[realmrsreynolds]

"Not if I let what gets ordered be a surprise. Nothin' too liquor-y today though?"

Won't help the math any, you see.

[hadyougoing]

"... Right," Ava says, already looking a little overwhelmed.

"Bar," she whispers, "there's a lot of choices here. Help me out!"

And, through the magic of passing the buck narrative convenience Bar's magical touch, a non-alcoholic Sallie-approved drink appears.

(It's better than letting Ava pick. What if she's lactose-intolerant? Diabetic? Doesn't like soda? You never know.)

[realmrsreynolds]

"Root beer - shiny. Slightly better with ice cream in, but that's more a dessert thing. Thank you very much -- "

Sallie opens her mouth, but closes it again.

"What's your name, miss?"

[hadyougoing]

"Oh! I'm Ava." She smiles. "Ava Wilson. Ummm. I work at the library?"

This is more of a that's the ONLY WAY you'd possibly know me rather than don't you know who I am. Ava points at her hesitantly with her index finger, in international code for it's on the tip of my tongue.

"Sallie? Right?" She smiles sheepishly. "Oh my God I should know this."

[realmrsreynolds]

"Sallie Reynolds, that's right," she laughs. "It's alright; I'm not around nearly enough to meet all the new faces. Do you like the library here, Ava?"

[hadyougoing]

"It's great!"

Tons of helpful demonic folklore and practical spellbooks.

Also they have all of the original Nancy Drew series.

"Hi Ms. Reynolds! Umm, yeah, it's a lot of fun." She smiles. "And really peaceful, except for when that vampire was apparently stalking around. I've been trying to figure out how to lure people back up, but brownies aren't really doing the trick."

[realmrsreynolds]

In all seriousness.

"Did Mike make the brownies? Because that's not really safe for people who aren't expecting it."

[hadyougoing]

Ava frowns.

"Not to my knowledge ..."

A beat.

"That wasn't what did the body-swapping thing, was it?"

[realmrsreynolds]

"No, that was somethin' entirely different. I don't think Mike would inflict body-swappin' on anyone weren't expecting it either. It's how he got into his...current situation anyhow."