Gothic Barrkeeping Hour(s)

[ostro_goth]

Teja merely wants some tea when he approaches the bar this late afternoon; but he doesn't get any. Instead, he gets a small piece of paper cloth on which there is writing:

3 hrs break. You're the lucky patron chosen to tend bar for this interval of time.Teja sighs, and then spots the three rats that serve him, most of the time, standing by the

Comments

[wheatencrown]

Demeter looks at the list and gives a small smile,

"I don't remember the last time I had Atlantean."

[wheatencrown]

"Our children always move beyond us, its the way of all growing things. Could I have another glass?"

[ostro_goth]

"Of course you can," Teja says; he fetches the bottle and pours.

"And yes, that it is. Trying to tell them what to do with their lives may be well-meant, but ultimately as pointless as trying to tie down the sand of the sea with strings."

[wheatencrown]

She'll feel this later but Atlantean is wonderful in that she can feel it moving through her system,

"We must let them grow, no matter how much it hurts and it always does. Are you a father, Teja?"

[ostro_goth]

"No," Teja says.

Long pause, while he thinks about having some Atlantean himself, but decides against it.

"The woman I loved and would have married died when we were both still very young. She was but a girl -- but very strong, in love."

[wheatencrown]

"I'm sorry, its always hardest to have someone and lose them."

She tries to drink this one slower, Kore will worry if she gets drunk.

[ostro_goth]

"That is ever the way of mortal men," Teja says. "We all die, so if two love each other, one will see the other one's death, and have to live on -- or not. Fate spares no-one."

[wheatencrown]

"But you do your best to live each moment fully."

[ostro_goth]

"Losing one's love, and all joy in life, that early is bad for such intentions," Teja says, "as is spending one's entire life at war. But that is a valid option, indeed, that I would advise luckier men in peacetime to adhere to."

[wheatencrown]

Now she takes a slightly larger drink,

"You have a second chance here then."

[ostro_goth]

"At savouring my death fully, do I?" Teja asks. "I am, as yet, without a purpose or aim, staying on out of curiosity, and friendship. There is the forge, there is music, there are many fascinating new thoughts -- but that would not be 'living my life fully', more so, as I am dead!"

[wheatencrown]

"You've been given extra time, make sure you use it to the fullest."

[ostro_goth]

"Oh, I will," Teja says, "once I know what for. I must have a purpose, a use -- I would not believe that I am here to enjoy myself, with no thought of others. I am not made out to be a lotus eater."

[wheatencrown]

"No, you're a warrior and a ruler but also a man, don't let that always come last."

[ostro_goth]

"I am not used to taking anything for myself," Teja says, "or even accepting what others offer freely. I feel I should not. It would distract me from my purpose."

Pause.

"Of which I do not currently know what it is."

[wheatencrown]

"Then perhaps your purpose is to learn how to do that."