028 [video

[worksmart]

[The screen clicks on to a close-up of a bottle, cold condensation still clinging to the tinted glass. The image recedes - as the network device is set back on the table - and shows the drinker, sitting in what looks like one of the booths at the Blue Light.]I've put my card behind the bar. First round's paid for anyone who can tell me what we're

Comments

voice;

[worksmart]

You looked that up.

[He sounds pleased though, a certain easy shrug settling into his voice.]

Don't have to, you've still earned your beer.

voice;

[worksmart]

In Sydney your party was probably ninety percent tourists.

[He may have a few guesses as to why. Well, one guess.]

You could bring your friend. I'm willing to shout you one extra for today.

[oshutup]

[He passes by with nothing so telling as a notepad or clipboard in hand, arms occupied instead by a bin full of glasses that he isn't above carrying. Managers who only manage seem questionably suited to their station, as far as Peter is concerned.

When passing, he glances in the Australian's direction, not enough to necessarily be noticed especially with the man's back to him but still, it's an acknowledgment of sorts. Nowhere near as pointed as a pause or stopping, but it's there all the same.]

tell me what you have and that's when I'll know if you have anything to start with

[oshutup]

[On the return trip he walks behind the bar only to pick up a cloth, running it across a section of the counter-top with a distant attention, his focus elsewhere though exactly where elsewhere is stays as his to know. Peter, for all that he has no particular interest in bars as bars, has been through the Lux, has been here and sees how plenty of the waitstaff converse with their customers and often friends, but that isn't as much for him--not off the bat.

The counter taken care of, he knows others could easily do this--would do it--but he likes to keep busy and that too is the reason for rinsing said cloth out before taking it to the free standing table just a few paces from Robert Chase's booth. He hasn't waited a table himself since Saturday. This is Claire's section anyway as he recalls--he really should write that down--and keeping things clean between customers makes clean-up later all the simpler.

With an Australian and his beer in the High King's peripheral vision, he considers asking him what Waltzing Matilda is but keeps

tell me what you have and that's when I'll know if you have anything to start with

[worksmart]

[Chase leans back in the booth, eye caught by the swirl of a cloth across a dark polished surface, and the fall of fair hair reflected in the table from a head bent over it. He's never going to reconcile why someone who looks so much like him, grown, only holds a passing resemblance to his own memories (some more recent than others) of himself at that age. But it's been long enough for him to be used to things not making sense, so it's a passing thought rather than anything that might unsettle.

He lifts and tips his drink, nodding a distant greeting.]

tell me what you have and that's when I'll know if you have anything to start with

[oshutup]

[It doesn't unsettle Peter to think that the face is shared, though it intrigues him on a certain level that he never allows himself to give much thought on. In any case, likenesses of image would be the last things to send him into something ruffled or worth having a double-take over when something like Certain Knowledge is on the bar for comparison. Never mind that he doesn't feel the need to explain anything and highly suspects Chase doesn't need or want such explanations.

Caspian may be friends with this man but that does not make Peter his friend and it does unsettle him in the corner of his own awareness that this man knows about his involvement with the other king due to carelessness. It isn't anyone else's business, but mistakes happen, and for the better, when the other blond tips his drink, the flicker of this discomfort is distant enough for Peter to ignore it altogether.

He nods his head in return, moving the cloth over the tabletop in one more arc before stepping away and toward the booth occupied presently by one.]

voice;

[floralities]

How about a year in the City?

voice;

[worksmart]

...Will be another reason to need a drink. Not yet.

voice;

[floralities]

Not yet for you, maybe.

voice;

[worksmart]

You've got an anniversary today?

[eiremagic]

How about to the fact that your brilliant flatmate saved your hide?

[worksmart]

Sorry, you slept through that celebration.

[eiremagic]

Well I can't celebrate with you today.

[worksmart]

Not while I'm here. I was going to stop by later; picked up something for a brilliant flatmate during lunch today.

[adamantined]

[Claire has claimed Chase's section in the name of good tips. This might become problematic later, as she's still not quite used to balancing more than five drinks on a tray at a time, but at this point it's worth the risk. On her way back from dropping off said five drinks at someone else's table, she catches the end of what he's said.]

Is that song anything like your version of Jingle Bells?

voice;

[worksmart]

[He tips his head back, looking up at her over the back of his seat. It's an odd day, even stranger than spending it in the States, where at least a few fellow countrymen could be found haunting the same bar. But he's a beer down already and smiling.]

Not unless Santa got down on his luck.

voice;

[adamantined]

[The tray she's holding folds over her apron and fortunately nothing drips down onto her shoes. She comes around to stand more in front of him so that he's not craning his neck back and drops a few napkins on the table, just in case.]

Well I know the market for Easy Bake Ovens isn't what it used to be.

[Her eyes travel up to the ceiling and she spends a moment actually looking like she's thinking about what day it might be. She shrugs and sighs exaggeratedly.]

I give up. What day is it? Is it Doctors United Day? Waltzing Matilda Day? I-Just-Made-This-Day-Up Day?

voice;

[worksmart]

[She's looking like a seasoned professional already, though Chase raises an eyebrow at the napkins and wonders whether that's a hint that she's expecting spills. He could make something up, but drinking for a reason no one knows is sad enough.]

Australia day. Funny, I notice this city doesn't cater for my holidays the way it does for the Yanks. Didn't even get overtime on my hours.