10/14 Instance: This isn't Happy Hour at All

[tears~fall~like~glass]

Timeline - Current


<@Eddie> Edward wiped his brow with the inside of his forearm, finishing cleaning a series of ring-shaped stains on the bar and tossing the cloth into the sink behind him. He glanced around the musky interior of the pub floor.

<@Eddie> The lights were dim, indicating that it was past closing hours. As usual in the week, Edward was left to cash-in and clean glasses for the following morning. He didn't even bother to check the time, instead catching the silhouette of someone sat alone. "Hey: we're closed.", he announced, mirthlessly.

<Clarice> "Fuck off, bookworm, I'm finishing my drink," Clarice was staring gloomily into her half finished glass of redbull and vodka, swaying slightly on her stool.

<@Eddie> Oh, good(!) It was that one. Edward frowned, taking a deep breath and approaching Clarice's table. Once there, he folded his arms and cut her an inquisitive glance, "Name calling: mature as cheddar, I see."

<Clarice> Clarice was too drunk and annoyed to think of a decent come back, so she settled for just glaring at the boy. The weird pink and red rash thing might have gone, but the half-remembered conversations were still pinging off the back of her head. She was pretty sure Paul was avoiding her now, and she'd spent the last half hour staring at the tattoo on her arm trying to remember where and why she'd got it.

<Clarice> "Look, Edwardo, the more you talk at me, the longer it's gonna take for me to finish, which means it's gonna be even longer before you can get back to your girlfriend and her five sisters upstairs, so just get lost, eh?"

<@Eddie> Edward's brow furrowed - 'girlfriend'? "I'm single.", he reminded her, not that anyone took any notice of his non-existent private life, including himself, "And my name is Edward.", he took another deep breath, trying to keep himself calm (which, nowadays, was becoming increasingly difficult).

<Clarice> Clarice raised a think brow at him, "I thought you were meant to be smart. Girlfriend with five sisters? Hellooooooooo?" She waved her hand and then made the 'wanker' gesture to clear things up for him.

<@Eddie> "Sorry - it's hard to sink to such a juvenile level, would you believe.", Edward smirked back, waving a hand as if to dismiss her. He couldn't help but be somehow...concerned about her though. With another sigh, Edward leaned on the table.

<@Eddie> "What's you and everyone else's problem at the moment, anyway?"

<Clarice> "Since when do you care about anyone who isn't a fictional character?" Clarice snorted, taking a mouthful of her drink, "Don't know about anyone else, but my problem is that I’ve probably ruined the best thing that's ever happened to me and I'm pretty sure it's gonna drive me psycho."

<@Eddie> "In answer to your question...", Edward started, fetching a chair from an adjacent table and turning it around, sitting on it casually and leaning on his arms, "Just because I don't talk much doesn't mean I don't care for people's well-being.", he looked away like he knew he was acting uncharacteristically, but it felt....right.

<@Eddie> "I s-...", he started, gulping a little dryly, "I'm...concerned about a few things myself. Things that could be unrelated but..."

<Clarice> "Unless you've managed to fall in love with your best friend, only for it to not work out and made everything weird between you two, probably forever, then yeah, I guess it's probably unrelated."

<@Eddie> Edward shook his head, he wasn't really wanting to get into the middle of gossip or drama. "Fine. Fine, you're probably right.", he stood up.

<Clarice> Clarice waited for him to turn away before calling over, "So what's eating you then?"

<@Eddie> Laughing dryly, Edward stopped, "Since when did you care about the 'Bookworm'?", he asked sarcastically, stepping behind the bar and, through some uncharacteristic compulsion started making himself a drink. "I've been having some weird thoughts lately: dreams that make no sense, thoughts I can't explain."

<Clarice> "What kinda thoughts?" Clarice asked, sitting up a little straighter.

<@Eddie> Edward finished preparing his G&T, moving both bottles to the bar before lifting the glass and sipping from it. "Violent, painful thoughts. Memories of things that are vivid, as if I'm living them, but I know they never happened.", he said, emotionally devoid. He glanced back at Clarice, eyes looking dark and cold, "Congratulations: you're the only person who knows aside from me."

<Clarice> Clarice looked thoughtful for a moment, eyes lowered, "Is it like ... you can hear your own voice saying things, but you don't remember saying them, but at the same time you know you did. Like ... someone says something and you start laughing 'cos it reminds you of something funny, but you don't know what it is?"

<@Eddie> "Y-yes,", Edward stammered, raising his glass at her like he was pointing out a villain at an identity parade. "Just like that, only...only moreso. Like I'm trying to forget what I know is real."

<Clarice> Clarice managed a smirk, "So I'm not the only crazy one around here ..." she sighed and spun her glass, "It's just ... everything ... everything feels just ever so slightly wrong, y'know?"

<@Eddie> Edward frowned, he agreed. Finishing his drink without another word and going to work preparing another. "Come sit up here, I'll make you another if you want.", he gestured her over without looking at her, focussing on keeping the Tonic measurement at least 2/3 below the Gin.

<Clarice> Hmmm, clearly crazy talk was a good way to get more booze, who knew? Clarice finished her glass and stood up, making her ever so slightly shaky way over to Edward and taking the offered seat, "Hey, d'y' ever ... d'y' ever feel like you're remembering stuff wrong too?" She asked him.

<@Eddie> "Often, recently.", he answered, fetching a new glass for his patron and adding a double-shot of the Absolut to it. "It's like I just don't recall things that would usually come naturally.", Edward placed the glass beside Clarice and fetched a can of energy drink from under the bar.

<Clarice> Clarice gave a small nod of thanks for the double and cracked open the can, pouring it into the glass, "It's like ... this tat yeah?" She showed him the small tribal frog on her arm, "I can remember getting it ... like going to the shop and stuff. But I don't remember why, or what I was feeling. I mean ... I'm not even that fond of frogs ..."

<Eddie> "You've always had that, haven't you?", Edward asked, as if it was something he himself was somehow certain of, "You once told me all about it after a class at...", he paused, where was he going with this? He never spoke to anyone in classes. "...i-in any case, I'm sure you always had it.", lifting his drink he took a large swig.

<Clarice> Clarice frowned. There it was again with the half remembered conversations, Oh, my -----? I've always had them, I was b- She clutched her head, "Damnit! There it is again! I remember ... I remember talking to you about something but it's ... it's not right. It's something else!"

<Eddie> Edward tapped his glass, watching the liquid stir inside. "...let me show you something.", he finished a little more of his drink and departed into the cloakroom, coming back a few moments later with a black sketchpad, "You mustn't tell anyone about this, ok?"

<Clarice> Clarice made an exaggerated zipping motion across her mouth and eyed the sketchpad curiously.

<Eddie> With some hesitation, Edward opened it up, showing her the images inside - all of them were drawn in black and red pen: pictures of a hideous face with a serpent-like tongue and teeth like needles and blades, images of people and names with question marks and rhetorical questions like 'WHO IS THIS' written across the pages at odd angles. The fifth or sixth page was something different altogether:

<Eddie> "Does this make any sense to you?", Edward showed her the next picture. Spanning two pages: it was a circle with a large white 'X' written in the centre, surrounded with scribbles of words and sentences intelligible to possibly everyone save for the writer himself.

<Clarice> "It looks like you need crazy pills," was Clarice's automatic response, but as she looked closer something twinged inside her, "It ... it does look familiar ... and it feels important," she confessed, running a finger over the circle almost reverently.

<Eddie> The 'pills' comment earned her a reluctant glance from Edward, but his attention was diverted to her finger, tracing the shape. "It's not just me?"

<Clarice> "It ..." she frowned, "hmm ... it makes me think of you ... and Paul, Selena and ... and that new girl from Japan, what's her name? ... What's all these scribbles around it?"

<Eddie> "Sur-erm...", Edward stammered, "Ashida.", he said as if recalling it suddenly. Another sip of mostly Gin got him back into paying attention to the question. He pointed out the sentences: "They're just words. odd words that don't seem to make sense, but....", he traced along them, "Look, see: 'Obscure', 'Thor', 'Penance', 'Antivenom', 'Mastermind'.", he sighed.

<Clarice> The girl had said her name was 'Ostuka', not Ashida, that was the wrong name .... but it felt right, she game to the word 'Northstar' and paused. Northstar. Northstar. Sitting around on his bed in the middle of the night in the small, sparse room. Blinking sleepily at her but full of kind concern as she babbled 'That's such an awesome name by the way! Did you come up with it?

<Clarice> "See, there it is again, things just trigger this ... this ... I dunno. Just stuff I should be remembering?" She huffed in annoyance and knocked her drink back.

<Eddie> Edward nodded, running his finger across a few more words; "Quicksilver, Sabertooth, Polaris, Arachne...", he finished his gin and closed the book. Something about Clarice's reaction just bothered him. So much it felt like he was doing something wrong, something criminal, just by having shown her. "Another?", he asked, sliding the book aside and preparing another drink, hoping she'd just forget all about it.

<Clarice> "Please, maybe if I drink enough the world will stop feeling like I'm trapped in a video game or something," she groaned.

<Eddie> As Edward prepared the drinks, he remained silent. Same as before he offered Clarice a double Absolut and a can of Red Bull, this time using even less T in his G. Once the drinks were ready, he sipped at his in silence, looking at Clarice as if prompting her to say something.

<Clarice> Clarice poured her drink in silence, thinking for a while over what was happening. Then, after what seemed like an age, she spoke, "Well ... we can't both be crazy, right?"

<Eddie> Edward shrugged, "It doesn't seem likely.", he confessed, sipping more from his glass, "So...you mentioned something about your best friend earlier?", he asked, trying to change the subject.

<Clarice> "Paul," she said simply, "We hooked up at the street party ... then, a few days ago, he was at mine while my folks were out ... and then shit starts happening, and then just as we're about to hit the main event, BAM! It all goes weird as hell and now ... I dunno ..." she sighed.

<Eddie> Edward would have usually cringed at what he thought was the unnecessary use of percussive language mid-sentence, but he was stuck on the fact they were an item, of sorts. "I didn't know you two were....that close. He was flirting with Lucia last I saw. Just outside here.", he waved a hand lazily, drinking a little more. "I mean, did it end between you because of this er...", he wasn't about to swear, "...issue? What was it?"

<Clarice> "He was?" Her shoulders slumped, and she looked the picture of misery, "Ugh ... I dunno what we are any more. He's been avoiding me since then," noooo, she was drunk and had sads, she was not gonna cry, "You know, it doesn't matter, at the end of the day I blew it and now we might not even be friends any more," she let her head flop down onto the bar counter.

<Eddie> "Never thought much of him, myself.", Edward confessed, voice low. "A woman should be treated with respect. Fidelitas usque ad mortem.", he finished his drink with a large gulp and placed the glass down, gently nudging Clarice with his hand, "Especially when regarding a friend like you.", he knew that sentence implied a friendship they didn't have, but it somehow...didn't, because it fit. Didn't it? It should have, he was sure of it.

<Clarice> "He's been my best friend since before I can remember though, he's ... he's important," she frowned as she tried to work out the Latin, "Fiddy-what-now?"

<Eddie> "It's Latin for 'Loyalty until death'.", Edward smiled at her, "...you're really upset, aren't you?"

<Clarice> "I love him," she said simply, not moving her head, "and I ... I know that he loves me too but ... but not ... not in the same way? I wanna be with him, but it's ... it's wrong some how."

<Eddie> Edward sighed, he really didn't know if there was anything to say in situations like these, "I don't know what to suggest. You just need to distance yourself for now, if he cares for you, surely he'll come to you?"

<Clarice> "Yeah, that's why I'm sitting in your bar getting wasted right now rather then ringing his doorbell," she nodded, rubbing her cheek against the wooden surface as she did so ... for one thing, if he was flirting with Lucia she might open the door to catch him with the Horsebeast. Disgusting.

<Eddie> "Mmn.", Edward looked around. Here was a heartbroken athletic girl and a study-obsessed mental case, locked in a pub after hours, surrounded by alcohol. He thought over that for a moment, looking at Clarice. Thoughts he didn't feel wholly comfortable with, but enjoyed, entered his mind.

<Eddie> "Erhm...", he felt himself flush a little at the length of his silence and looked away. "I-if I had a shot, would you join me? I'm not really wanting to do it alone - tasteless way to commit suicide."

<Clarice> Clarice lifted her head to squint at Edward. Either go home and cry into her pillow over something she had no idea over what the actual problem was, or stay in the bar and do shots with the only other person in this town who seemed to get this ... oddness, "Only if the shot comes in like ... ten glasses."

<Eddie> "Yep.", Edward agreed wholeheartedly, lifting up a drying rack and pulling free two shot glasses. "Tequila?", he suggested in a throw-away idea.

<Clarice> Clarice propped herself up and necked the rest of her drink, slamming the glass back down on the counter in drunken determination, "Tequila." She agreed.