Welcome to Gaia! ::

The actual act of buying himself free had, in the end, been strangely disappointing: an anti-climactic end to an otherwise rather fun and exciting adventure. In retrospect, Austin thought, he probably should have delayed. He could have drawn the experience out until the last moment, saved himself as a clock counted down the seconds, extended that sensation of life is short, so take advantage of that fact. He'd kind of liked being out of control, fighting for his survival --

Austin had never really needed to do that before. He'd never had a job, or his own income, had never lacked for anything before Day Zero. And while he wouldn't want to do it long term, certainly, he wanted to go back to that rich, easy life he'd had before [and his car, he had a small pang for his car] it had been nice.

For a short while.

So now here he was instead, settled at the bar, drinking not alcohol but something sweet and fizzy for a bit, both arms folded over the counter. It was possible he was hitting on the bartender, despite the fact that she was nearly old enough to be his mother. But that was alright, because she seemed to find it cute.

As if he needed his mood even more killed -- the bartender nodded at Corey with a brief, tight, professional flash of a smile before she slid away to pour a fresh glass of water, heavily laden with ice. Then the woman made herself scarce, allowing them the privacy she apparently thought they needed. In turn it made Austin sigh, heavily, exaggeratedly.

"I don't have a damned clue." And the weird thing was, Austin really, genuinely didn't seem to know. He squinted at Corey as he pivoted on his stool, attention turned briefly out to the crowd, his eyes narrowed to a squint behind the glasses. There was probably still a red line under one earpiece, and one of the lenses looked...rickety. Another good blow would likely knock it free again, and judging from the sometimes-vacant expression in Austin's eyes, he probably couldn't see terribly well without them.

He'd be ********, if he couldn't find a new pair.

"She's crazy. What do you want me to tell you? Ask her."

"Are you serious?" He huffed out a breath, chin tipped up a little so he could look down his nose at Corey. The posture was familiar, comfortable. It was possible -- no, likely -- that Austin looked down his nose at people like that a lot. Or had, once upon a time, in a world where he had nice designer clothes and fancy, expensive sneakers, and a car he could drive around, and a comfortable life in an expensive apartment somewhere nice. It was a little harder to pull off, now.

Still, somehow, he managed.

"Where's her lecture about using your words, instead of taking a swing at people every time you're PMSing?" He made a vague, rude gesture, and sucked on his straw. There was real frustration behind it, but not quite as much as he was pretending. "I had literally never laid eyes on that girl before, I don't think I brought anything on myself."

He actually, legitimately, seriously and unironically rolled his eyes at her. It was probably a good thing that Austin had bought himself, because there was basically no chance in hell that Corey would have rescued him, at this point. At least not near the top of her list. Maybe after everyone else -- and he simply didn't care.

"She's just a crazy girl who screams a lot, who came at me for no apparent reason. I don't care if she likes me or not, or if you like me or not, honestly." That got raised eyebrows, and Austin stood, gulping down the last of his soda. "The simple fact of the matter is that civilized people behave a certain way. And if we're not civilized, we all might as well just give in and start eating each other."