OPEN

[walkingshitshow]

Who: Everyone and anyone
What: Grand Opening/Gathering post fun
Where: Pour Judgement - Jessica's bar
When: 6-14 night

Pour Judgement is officially open!

Sure, Jessica has been at the bar pretty much every day since receiving the key and has been letting people hang out if they had stopped by but now is the grand opening. Everyone who wants to come in will be allowed to do so since the staff is in place and they are full up on everything they need. Drinks are cheaper, the music is playing, and there is even a dance floor if anyone is so inclined.

For the most part, Jessica is milling about just keeping an eye on things. She will be behind the bar if the bartenders need help or she can be found at one of the corner booths nearby. Mostly, she just wants everyone to have a good time. Except for anyone looking to cause trouble. Those people won't have a good time at all.


[ Go ahead, post your people, and tag around! If you want Jessica, I will have a thread for her below. Feel free to find her anywhere in the bar. ]

Comments

Higgs Monaghan | Death Stranding | OTA

[finalrequest]

After spending most of his life on the surface, living in a... well, city... is a change of pace for Higgs. That the city resembles something closer to what cities apparently looked like long before the Death Stranding came and changed everything isn't lost on him, though even so, habits you've spent your entire life learning are hard to break.

It's why he's still in his full-body covering armor, hood up in the bar.

But, despite the... er, aesthetic... he's perfectly polite. "Ain't been in one of these before. Seen 'em in old movies, but that's about it."

Sure, he looks more than a little strange, but given the ragtag group of people who seem to show up without warning, maybe hat's not too much of a surprise. "I saw a movie about time-travel or somethin' like that. It had this big, dramatic scene in a bar."

[greatdeliverer]

Sam has his back to the bar, cleaning and drying glasses when he hears an all too familiar drawl. Lou's up in Jess's office, sleeping. Safe. That's a comfort, anyway.

They've been avoiding each other for ages now, it feels like. Maybe fate, or the town, or something has decided to bring them together. "Time travel sounds right up your alley," he comments drily.

[finalrequest]

Higgs freezes at Sam's voice, his hand clutched a little tightly on his drink. He sets it down before he breaks it. This is a brand-new bar, and it would be incredibly rude of him. "Well... I suppose it isn't exactly time travel, but the main character uses this... thing, I forget what it's called, some old communication device, to talk to someone who's exactly 30 years in the past."

He doubt it's of any interest to Sam, though. Sam doesn't strike him as a fiction-enjoying person, never has.

[greatdeliverer]

"Sounds interesting." And it does, kind of. Not really what Sam prefers to do on his down time. Reading, or watching movies. Hell, most of his downtime was spent sleeping. And now it's wrapped up in Lou.

He should turn around, face Higgs properly. But what, if anything, would he even say to him?

[finalrequest]

He mulls over what to say, taking a deep drink from his glass.

For all he pretended to be some snob out for the most expensive, lavish things possible... well. It's all the same to him, to be honest. It's easier to have this conversation without either of them looking at each other. "It's about changing the past."

[greatdeliverer]

... oh. God, there are so many things he wishes he could change about the past. About their past, about -- her.

"Would you? If you could?"

[finalrequest]

Higgs is quiet for a long time. "What part?" He sounds so tired, feels so tired. This had been easier when he'd ignored Sam, and Sam had ignored him.

"There's not much I wouldn't change."

[greatdeliverer]

Easier, sure. But maybe they need to do this. They need some closure.

"I'm not mad. Not at you. Not anymore. What she did was -- unforgiveable. To you, to me. To the world. I'm not saying I'm your biggest fan, but I am saying you're not my enemy here, Higgs."

[finalrequest]

"Huh," is all that Higgs says. It's not an answer he'd expected. He keeps his gaze downcast, away from Sam. "That's fine with me, then," he says after an uncomfortable moment of silence. He takes another drink.

"We can carry on ignorin' each other, in that case. Makes things quite a bit easier."

[greatdeliverer]

"Does it?" Sam turns around and leans back against the sink area behind him. "I guess you could stop coming to the bar, or never order from the noodle place. But it's not a huge town. We're bound to see each other eventually."

[finalrequest]

Higgs actually stares at Sam for a long moment, brows raised. It might be a little hard to tell, though, with the hood up, and his tattoos in place of eyebrows. "That doesn't mean it's not possible to pretend the other doesn't exist. Me, I've been doin' it for a while already."

He tries, at least, to say it casually, with a little shrug of his shoulders. It's not entirely convincing.

[greatdeliverer]

"Really. Because you've been on my mind since the day I saw your network post. Just -- knowing you're there. Thinking about it, in the back of my head. Wondering what you might do."

[finalrequest]

That makes him snort. "Well, you'll be disappointed to hear I've done a whole lotta nothin' around here. Been spending most of the time at the library, even when I'm not workin'"

And he has been. Keeping a low profile, not sticking his neck out. Higgs isn't interested in any of that shit.

After all, he's supposed to be dead.

[greatdeliverer]

"I saw all your books, in your shelter. The library suits you." Or at least suits Sam's idea of Higgs, from what he gathered about him from his shelter. His journal.

He gets a drink order in and goes to deliver it, mulling things over. Trying to figure out how he feels about Higgs being here.

When he gets back to the bar, he asks, "Will you stop coming here, now that you know I work here?"

[finalrequest]

Higgs shakes his head at the question, not answering right away. He looks lost in thought. "I wouldn't've come in here in the first place if I'd known you worked here."

It's completely honest and matter-of-fact.

[greatdeliverer]

"It's a pretty small town. Be hard to avoid each other forever. Though you're welcome to try. I work for the noodle place too, so I guess don't order from them, just in case."

It seems a little ridiculous to Sam to try and keep at opposite ends of the town. There are only so many places to go, so many places to be. They're bound to run into each other again at some point, but far be it for Sam to try and fight Higgs on something when he's set his mind to it.

[finalrequest]

Higgs stares at Sam for a long moment, his brows rising. "Jesus, you're acting like you want us to be friends," is all he manages before he takes a long, deep drink of his beer.

"I don't got a problem with goin' about our separate lives here, even if that involves being around each other briefly every now and again."

[greatdeliverer]

"Did I say I wanted to be friends? No. I'm just saying we're gonna run into each other sometimes. So we might as well learn to deal with that.

I'm fine with living our separate lives. Just don't expect me to go out of my way just so you're not uncomfortable."

[finalrequest]

His brows raise again. "I fail to see your point. I haven't been doin' nothing to you, and I don't plan on startin'. That's as much as I'm gonna bother with."

This conversation is starting to spoil his drink. "You want me to leave so badly, you can throw me out without all of this runaround bullshit." He stands abruptly to punctuate the point.

Re: Higgs Monaghan | Death Stranding | OTA

[hibana_incursa]

"What movie was that? Maybe I've seen it?" Gwen had just been walking by with a new keg for the bar when she heard what Higgs said. And Gwen does enjoy movies, so she's going to be curious. Setting down the keg with a thud that makes it sound like it weighs far more than someone her size and stature should be able to carry, Gwen sets about detaching tubing and moving the empty keg out of the way.

But she's absolutely all ears, Higgs.

[finalrequest]

Higgs frowns thoughtfully. "I don't remember the name of it off the top of my head. Can't remember all the names of books I've read either, though." He shakes his head. "Eh, I'm not worried I can tell you more about it."

He sits up a little, apparently entirely here for talking about movies, especially the way his eyes light up. "Okay, so, one night, this guy is looking through the closet of his family home and comes across a box containing this old radio communication device. Forget what it's called." He does look a little frustrated at that, but he moves on quickly enough.

"He turns it on and finds himself talking to his father thirty years in the past. Thing is, his dad is dead. Died rescuing a teenager in a fire thirty years on the dot tomorrow."

Yes, he is a sci-fi nerd despite what the weird armor might indicate about him being some sort of edgelord. "He realizes this. Warns his dad in the past about the fire, and what went wrong. Fast forward to the big, sad, day, where the guy, his friend, and the guy's boss, who was a friend of his father, are all in a bar. There to celebrate his dad's life.

"Only, things start to change. In the past, the dad realizes his future son had been telling the truth, and the future changes, with him surviving the fire. The son is overcome with emotion upon getting his new set of memories along with keeping his old ones, and drops his glass to the floor, alarming his buddies."

Does he talk too much? Absolutely, but he looks incredibly happy to be talking about fiction.

[hibana_incursa]

Gwen listens to the description of the movie. She knows it. She’s watched it plenty of times with her dad and brothers, but with the way Higgs describes it and with how much fun he’s having talking about it, Gwen smiles just a little bit. One elbow rests on the top of the bar and her chin sits in her hand, her fingers tapping against her cheek in time to the music playing.

“I know that movie,”she says once Higgs is done. “My dad and two of my brothers love science fiction movies. That one got a lot of screen time during family movie nights. It’s called ‘Frequency’, right?”

[finalrequest]

His expression brightens at the response. "Yeah, that's the one!"

Maybe it's different for people from other worlds, where technology hasn't become scare, and any form of media from before fifty or so years ago has almost completely vanished.

"I found an old DVD of it. Impressive movie. I love that time travel shit."

[hibana_incursa]

"It's pretty creative, yeah. Have you seen The Butterfly Effect?"

That one was one Gwen greatly enjoyed, the creativity of it and the general story being one she found highly impressive.

[finalrequest]

Higgs frowns thoughtfully before shaking his head. "Nah, 'fraid not. Physical media is pretty hard to come by." It's a shame, really. All those stories, lost. Though make it's buried on the chiral network somewhere; he's not so sure.

"But I reckon I've got an idea of what the plot would be, with a name like that." Certainly up his alley. "One of those films where time travel only makes things worse, yeah?"