[PRP] Ghosts of gimmicks past (Fish/Quinn)

[Silverah]

After his outing with Writ the previous weekend, Fish was feeling more confident about his ability to navigate Central. The grid of streets was relatively straightforward, and so long as he remembered the address of Seasons, it was always more or less a simple thing to get back. Persy was encouraging enough of his forays out into the urban jungle, and so even though Fish felt torn between repaying his debt to her by working in the shop, and familiarizing himself with his new surroundings, he ventured out with her blessing.

Autumn was in full swing, and he reveled in how the trees in the planters had all turned blood red and rust orange. Everything was new to him again for the first time, and he walked wherever the brisk fall breeze pushed him, ultimately finding himself chilled and hungry in front of a storefront hung with a "GRAND OPENING" banner. Further investigation showed that the name of the place was the GODSEND Cafe and Creamery, and Fish took this to be a sign.

He stepped in and looked around, taking in the decor (lots of red leather, black walls, and pendant lights with red glass shades), and then approached the counter to better squint at the menu board. He was still developing personal tastes, and the chances were that he had 50/50 odds of liking whatever he picked.

"What's good?" he asked the man behind the counter.  

[Kappawolf]

"Everything's good, sir, or I wouldn't serve it. A better question would be what's best. But that's an equally bad question because it's all a matter of preference, and I believe all of my babies are equally worthy of your attention." He finally turned around from cleaning a cup and his eyes widened.

"Trout? You're back?!" Quinn had decided that Fish's real name was Trout, but he had never really brought it up. It was a secret nickname that slipped out.

"You look like s**t," he informed him, mostly because it seemed like an appropriate thing to say when someone is gone for a while and comes back older. "Not bad s**t, though. Badass s**t." He nodded, and leaned over the counter, forearms resting on it and hands clamped together.

"I'll pay for your drink. Just pick anything. Risk-free no-cost trial, right here. Just pay shipping and handling of my brain as I recover from this confusion. Where...did you come from? Where were you? There was a boat, and you weren't on it, and-- oh, you sly b*****d. Did you swim?"  

[Silverah]

Fish looked oddly at the blonde, feathered man behind the counter and decided two things. First, that he was a Player, and second, that they must have known each other in a past life. "My name is Fish," he corrected, pretty genially, "And I'll have a cappuccino and a biscotti?"

He actually wasn't quite sure what either of these things were, but the names appealed to him. "Thank you," he added awkwardly, "About looking like badass s**t- I guess, did Persy not tell you?"

He was under the impression that news of his death had travelled fast. Or perhaps not. "I did swim," he explained, "But from Tartaros-"

He vaguely remembered Persy telling him something about boats, and about how they'd left a few days after he'd died. He remembered none of the events explained, but knew about them in that weird, second hand way one might get from watching a news report. "I was dead before the boats ever left Southern. I take it we know each other, but swimming in the Lethe... it isn't really conducive to remembering anything - What's your name? Were you friend or foe?"  

[Kappawolf]

Quinn noticed an opportunity when he saw one. He grabbed one of the packaged cookies and tossed it to Fish, then began working on the cappuccino. "I don't really listen to the things she says, she's not very nice." He shrugged. "She never really liked me, anyway."

Then, Quinn got down to serious talk.

"My name is Quinn. And your name was Trout." He paused, for dramatic effect. "To me. We dated for a while but then you left me and I didn't hear from you afterwards. I figured you just ditched me, so I moved on. It was kind of a d**k move, but it wasn't your fault." He smiled and slid the cappuccino to Fish, smiling at him.

"You used to call me Peacock. It was all very cute, but also very cheesy. Basically the best time of my life, even if you did just drop me out of nowhere." Quinn, ever the actor, teared up for a second but focused really hard on making it look like he was trying really hard not to cry. He wiped the droplets away. "Look, we don't have any customers right now. I'll throw out the closed sign and we can sit down and talk."

He smiled and took off his apron, stretching a little to show off the abs he had developed (at least slightly) beneath the vest he was wearing. It was an obvious show, but he walked around the counter and came up to Fish, grabbing him in a huge hug, despite the things he was holding in his hands.

"You're as cute as ever, babe. I missed you."  

[Silverah]

While this didn't surprise Fish - and he was relieved to find he'd at least had good taste in his past - it didn't particularly mean anything to him, either. "I'm sorry," he stammered, blushing bright red and shifting his attention to the cappuccino in his hands, if only to take his mind off how close Quinn was standing. "But I don't - I don't remember."

He hurriedly put the cup onto the table and sprawled into a chair. "And," he said, seriously, holding up a hand, "I'm not concerned with remembering." Fish sincerely doubted that dating Peacock - er, Quinn - would have been enough to make him want to swim in the Lethe, but it was just a small part of a long, forgotten life. Something had made him do it.

"I'd rather you call me Fish," he said, sipping his drink. (It was good, he had to admit.) "Trout... it doesn't mean anything to me," he said apologetically, and shook his head. "I made up my mind when I got back, I don't care about who I was before. You might say we dated and I don't doubt that we did, but - it doesn't mean anything to me now."

He stirred his coffee awkwardly with the cookie, avoiding eye contact. "I'm sorry," he repeated. "It's just... it's easier for me to not worry about who I was before."

While he did feel genuinely bad, because Quinn was both happy to see him and pretty good looking, he needed to stick to his guns, and it was like having a complete stranger tell you they loved you.  

[Kappawolf]

"Ah! Mon coeur, she is broken!" He laughed. "It's fine. It isn't your fault." He sat across from Fish but let his shoe rest up against Fish's with just enough pressure so he was aware of the contact.

"Fish is fine." He shrugged. Not a big deal. 'I don't doubt that we did'? Score. This was going better than expected. And Fish didn't seem to hate him naturally anymore. This memory loss thing was totally win-win for both of them. Quinn got a Fish that didn't hate him, and Fish got some of Quinn. At least, that's the way Quinn saw it.

"I forgive you," He admitted, and leaned forward across the table toward Fish. "But maybe you'll give me the chance to try again some time?"  

[Silverah]

"M-maybe," stammered Fish, intent on not making any promises. He raised his cup defensively between himself and Quinn, then shook his head. "I've only - I've only been back for a few weeks," he added, "and from my perspective - you have to understand - we're complete strangers."

It occurred to him, ever so briefly, that Quinn might have been lying, but Fish quelled the notion. He was going to attempt to believe in humanity's inherent goodness for as long as possible before he had to start kicking a** and taking names.

The instinctive dislike of PDA remained, even if the memories were gone. It wasn't that Quinn wasn't attractive, because the fact was that he was very much so, simply that Fish wasn't particularly interested in having this conversation here and now. Especially with someone he'd just met, who claimed to have known him in a past life.

"W-when did this place open?" he asked, changing the subject. "Do you run it yourself?"

Quinn had said he'd moved on, right? But - would that top him from taking advantage? ....Probably not.  

[Kappawolf]

Quinn smirked. "Fine, fine. I get it." He leaned back in his chair, but kept his foot in contact.

"I opened up just a few days ago, actually. I run it with my business partner, Valeriu. He's a player, too, who may or may not still hate you. You should probably avoid him, at least for now." Quinn nodded, firmly. "But he won't be here for a while, so we're good."

Quinn wasn't going to give up that easily, though. He stretched again, flexing and showing off his skin before dropping his arms back behind the chair. He scratched at his hair, and felt a pang of sadness. He kind of missed it, but it looked good this way, too.

"You've been back for a few weeks and I'm only just now seeing you? Hmph. If only word traveled faster. Well, anyway, if you need any help around town, I know people who could get you anything and get you anywhere you need. As long as you don't need very many things and you don't want to go anywhere very far away or hard to get to." Something about being at work made Quinn feel like everything he said was so clever. "But I mean, I could give you what you need and take you places you've never been before, and we wouldn't even have to leave the house."  

[Silverah]

"By a few weeks, I meant two," clarified Fish, who'd been keeping count. "Since mid-October. And I haven't really been out much, I've been working at Seasons-"

Fish returned his attention to his cappuccino and quirked an eyebrow at Quinn. Swallowing, he asked, "Do you proposition everyone you meet, or has this got something to do with things I don't remember? Because, I mean, I already told you - I don't remember, I can't remember, and I don't care." He'd only been back for two weeks, had only met a handful of people, and was more determined to get a grip on current game happenings than going trawling for sex. And while Poseidon had been silent since his return, he was determined that the god would approve of this course of action.

"I'm going to have to turn you down for now," he said, frowning apologetically. "The person you knew - they'd might as well really be dead."  

[Kappawolf]

"Just you," Quinn lied, with a smile. "I'm not a propositioner." He stood up and stretched one more time, then crossed his arms and shrugged at Fish.

"And it's fine. Your apparent death didn't end my life and your return doesn't change it much. Here." He walked over to the counter and pulled the receipt pad out of his apron, clicking a pen and writing a number on the back of it. He walked back to Fish.

"Then, we'll forget everything that happened before you got here." He closed his eyes, took a deep, dramatic breath, and opened them. "Your name was Fish, did you say? Well, Fish-boy, you're cute. And here is my number." He handed him the piece of paper.

"We should go out sometime, stranger."  

[Silverah]

Still hesitant, Fish took the receipt and slid a couple of crumpled bills across the table. "I know you said it was on you," he insisted, "but I wasn't exactly who you thought I was, was I?" He glanced at the phone number and then slipped it into his pocket.

"Maybe," he said, and then smiled. Persy had told him to go out and live a little, to make friends and learn about the world. No, he wasn't going to dwell on the past, wasn't going to worry about whatever it was that he and Quinn had had before. This was something new, with someone he didn't know. Whoever that other person was was just a doppelganger.

"Yeah," he said, getting up. "I'll give you a call sometime."  

[Kappawolf]

Quinn smiled and nodded in response, took the bills without arguing and watched him leave. He pushed the door behind the counter to the back room, where they kept dishes and ingredients, and started working on washing dishes before any other customers showed up.

Fish and he were actually going to-- there was a legitimate chance that-- it had worked! Quinn was ecstatic. Score one for the bird-snake.

I won't lie. I'm...legitimately impressed.
You're jealous.