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 Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2023 10:14 pm
The air in here smelled like beer and people. Unfamiliar to her, save in a vague way. She'd been in bars before, but never as a serious patron. Never alone, or late at night. Sleep had been impossible, despite how tired she was both from work and in general these days. Her skin itched, in a way that couldn't physically be scratched. People came to bars to have fun and escape, right? She was an adult. She could do that too. And the way Orah was feeling, she was getting desperate for anything that helped take the edge off of it.
Was it healthy? No. Should she really be seeing someone about it? Probably. Was she going to? Of course not. Its not like she could tell a normal therapist about the real issues in her life. At best, they wouldn't believe her. At worst, they'd be a Negaverse Agent who'd use that knowledge against her. No, there was no one she could really talk to about this. So in lieu of professional help, she was going to try medicating herself in a more mundane way.
At least the atmosphere was... energizing. There were a wild collection of people here, a place she'd picked on a bit of a whim at random. Orah didn't even remember what the name had been on the outside, just that it'd given her a smile and made her decision for her. Sliding off her coat, she squeezed between people towards the bar and slid onto one of the stools, a hand smoothing down her pale blue lace dress over her thighs. It had felt nice to wear something other than scrubs... a novelty in the thin straps that left her shoulders and arms bare. She'd even left her hair loose for once, tumbling down to her hips in loose curls. A little makeup to hide the circles under her eyes, a little mascara so she didn't look out of place here... Anything to not feel like herself for a while, or maybe more like someone she used to be.
Slender brown fingers drummed on the sticky bar top as she waiting for one of the barkeeps to actually notice her, trying not to let impatience show as she surreptitiously watched the people around her.
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Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2023 11:15 pm
Audio recorded for the next round of tracks he meant to drop—check. Caught up on video editing for the next little while, with a plethora of things lined up and ready to post—check. Twitter temporarily blocked on his phone so he’d quit arguing with people who only wanted to share the most ridiculous, bad faith interpretations of Everything, Everywhere, All At Once, none of whom even understood the scene they wanted to bag on so badly because they didn’t speak Mandarin—check. One very good girl fed, watered, thoroughly walked and set up with everything she could need until Her Person came home—check. Grocery shopping and laundry handled—check.
Getting so on top of things with all his myriad Responsible Adulting……never failed to feel weird, when Líanlí managed to pull it off. Like trying to wear a prom dress made out of raw beef, only for it to melt into nondescript slime at midnight, right when you wanted to hit the after-prom parties that allegedly happened for some people. (But what did Líanlí know? The closest he’d ever gotten to a prom had been watching twenty-something actors pretending to be high school students while play-acting different prom setups to various effects.)
Didn’t matter, though. Getting caught up on the adulting meant he could break away from his work setup for once, for a while. Could take the chance to throw on something relatively nice: tight black jeans sliding easily into well-worn and weather-tested black boots; an equally black skater dress that he’d found at Hot Topic a while back, with a black lace overlay that gave it cute little sleeves; his black leather jacket because it was the best one he had for any Weather that might’ve decided to occur; his glasses because arguing with his contacts had sounded like too much hassle; and little pins of the bi and pan pride flags, fixed high and visible on the dress, near his collarbone.
(No, those labels did not, exactly, feel like his, but what their flags signified felt necessary. Lianli wouldn’t know until he found them who he might try flirting with. Given how he dressed, how people tended to perceive that, and what all inferences they might make about whom and what he liked because of how he dressed, it helped to signal for them somehow that his overtures were also genuine with people other than men.)
Hair barely tamed into a ponytail, Líanlí slink into one of the many bars around town that tended to get a good mix of people. A sense of warmth washed over him among the crowd, like always. Being around other people after working so long with just himself and Tao-Tao, he could breathe so much easier, even without talking to anybody yet. Only downside of the career path he’d chosen, really: having to spend so much time by himself, when other places had people and the comfort of being among them, feeling connected more fully to just……people, and the universe, and bigger things than what went on in Líanlí’s own head at any given moment.
—And, as tonight’s luck had it, a nice-looking someone, dolled up in blue. Alone, dressed in a way that impressed, whether or not that had been her intention. Who, fortunately, seemed to have an empty barstool beside her.
Or at least she did until Líanlí helped himself to it. “Well, hi there,” he said, all smiles. “Person I’m buying a drink says ‘what’?”
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Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2023 2:05 pm
The barkeeps were taking too long, and the bubble of anxiety was seeping up, spreading through her to make her tapping fingers more rapid. It wasn't their fault, truly... There were a good number of people here and only two barkeeps to make all the drinks being thrown their ways. She could see how fast they were moving, but the waiting pressed down on her. Maybe this had been a bad idea. She could drink at home. She was old enough to buy alcohol, and she had at least one drink she knew how to make and that she liked. But not wanting to be at home had been what prompted this...
A space emptied beside her and was just as quickly filled with another body. Dark eyes flicked that way in time to catch a bright greeting and an even brighter smile, followed by a question that took her entirely by surprise.
"What?" Orah said, as she was meant to. Her brain caught up moments later and she flushed at the joke played on her, unable to stop her own, shyer smile in response. "Oh, you don't have to do that..." She prevaricated, her thought spiral utterly interrupted by this new figure like a beam of light in a dark room.
Her gaze flicked over him... them?, pausing at the pride pins and taking in the lace, the dress and the jeans. All black, which should have made them seem brooding and goth, but the way they smiled... her blush was less embarrassment now and more something else. The attention felt good, and more than that, it was the distraction she needed. A novel situation in new surroundings... it was enough for now. They had pretty eyes too, to go with the smile. Orah's fingers tangled in strands of her curls as they slid down over a shoulder, combing through them for something to do with her hands.
"I, um... came fully prepared with my big girl money and everything." She said, attempting something like a joke.
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