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[open] a friend in need's a friend indeed
Who: Ned and OPEN
What: Random encounters & fallout from dream-walking tomfoolery
Where: House 20, the garden, anywhere around town
When: Day 89
It's been a long week. A long, mostly-sleepless, weird week during which Ned has seen far more of his friends' and neighbors' subconsciouses than he would have liked to. Plus, a creepy city made of crystals that everyone seems to have seen, but no one will claim as their own. Shady stuff. Today, he is determined to wear himself out. Perhaps if he's tired enough, whatever mojo the men behind the curtain have put on him won't be strong enough to stir him out of a deep and dreamless sleep.
It's probably a futile tactic, but he can't just do nothing.
So he is a bustle of activity - cleaning the house, walking around town, checking on the crops to see if they are holding up well (carefully, with an eye for any enterprising tigers roaming too close to the edge of the forest), keeping an eye out for new faces and an ear out for rumors of missing ones.
What: Random encounters & fallout from dream-walking tomfoolery
Where: House 20, the garden, anywhere around town
When: Day 89
It's been a long week. A long, mostly-sleepless, weird week during which Ned has seen far more of his friends' and neighbors' subconsciouses than he would have liked to. Plus, a creepy city made of crystals that everyone seems to have seen, but no one will claim as their own. Shady stuff. Today, he is determined to wear himself out. Perhaps if he's tired enough, whatever mojo the men behind the curtain have put on him won't be strong enough to stir him out of a deep and dreamless sleep.
It's probably a futile tactic, but he can't just do nothing.
So he is a bustle of activity - cleaning the house, walking around town, checking on the crops to see if they are holding up well (carefully, with an eye for any enterprising tigers roaming too close to the edge of the forest), keeping an eye out for new faces and an ear out for rumors of missing ones.
no subject
He pours them both a shot of the hideous vodka and slides it down the bar to Ned. He's waiting for you to try this one first, pal.
"Naw. AR, the guy I worked for, he weren't interested in the home brewed moonlight shit. He were in the importing business. More of the stills was happening in Jersey."
no subject
The flavored vodka, when he downs it, is even worse than the brandy had been. If he were a better actor he would pretend it wasn't that bad, just to see the surprise and disgust on Charlie's face, but he's not capable of that. Instead he immediately wrinkles his nose, starts looking for something to wash it down with. There's a sink behind the bar; Ned fills himself a glass of water and drinks it in two big gulps.
Meyer had never really said all that much about what sorts of things he and Charlie did back home, professionally. Apparently they are in the liquor business: unsurprising, considering the time period. "So he imports it, and you two... help with distribution?"
no subject
That vodka really is hideous, and this is from someone who has partaken in his fair share of bathtub gin. Charlie screws his face up right away. "Jesus fucking christ, people pay money for this shit?"
no subject
"Probably better if you mix it with something," Ned theorizes, getting up and rifling around behind the bar, looking at his options. He's never worked as a bartender, but he's not exactly averse to trying his hand with a bit of experimentation. There's a single can of lemon-lime soda behind the counter, and a half-empty bottle of grenadine. He sets out two bigger glasses, splits the soda between the two, adds a splash of the grenadine and an amount of the cotton candy vodka. He swirls his around, sips, adds a bit more vodka, sips again.
"Better this way," he says, tipping a bit more vodka into Charlie's, mixing it, and sliding it over to him.
"So what're speakeasys like? Is it all secret back rooms and passwords and flappers, like in the movies?"
no subject
"Back rooms of stores it were, mostly. And more full a people you really don't wants to fucking piss off."
no subject
He drinks some more of the vodka mixture, thinking that it's not nearly so noxious, when it's a mixed with a few other things. Part of him wishes he could have seen it: the speakeasies, the old cars, the glamor of that era. But he has seen it - at least, glimpsed it - in those few dreams of Meyer's. And what he'd seen had been exciting, yes, but also terrifying. There's a very real chance, he supposes, that that last nightmare of Meyer's will come true, that he and Charlie will end up on their knees in some squalid warehouse, surrounded by men with guns and very few compunctions about using them.
"I don't know what people were thinking, with the whole Prohibition thing. It was never going to work in the long term. I don't even drink that often and even I know that." He's starting to feel the effects of the alcohol, now, a hint of heat in his cheeks.
no subject
no subject
"So this guy you work for, AR. What's he like?" This isn't the first time Charlie's mentioned him, and Ned is curious to hear more about the life that he and Meyer left behind when they were brought here. Then, because he knows Charlie might not really be used to people asking questions about his boss, he adds, "I mean, telling me can't do any harm, can it, it's not like I'm even from the same century."
no subject
"He's a gambler, mostly. Best fucking gambler you ever fucking seen, you know. Ain't never won a pool game against him he weren't letting me win." He rolls the glass in his fingers, staring morosely. "He fixed the 1919 world series."
no subject
When Charlie says he fixed the world series Ned goes still a moment, a furrow forming between his brows. "Actually you know I think... maybe I've heard of him, too. At least, that sounds familiar."
He interprets Charlie's new rather melancholy bent to merely missing his boss, so he asks, "How does one even go about doing something like that? Fixing a spots game, I mean. Did he just... pay the players?"
haha I guess Ned has read The Great Gatsby
"I mainly just do as he says, y'know? But he's a billion fucking times better to work for than those fucking Mustache Pete bosses run the other half of New York. Arrogant pieces of shit think they God's gift to the fucking Earth, y'know?"
YEP
"Mustache Pete?" Is that a phrase he should know? Somehow he expects that Charlie isn't just talking about a guy named Pete who happened to have a particularly remarkable mustache. Charlie might be ignorant about the future and uneasy about that, but in some ways Ned is just as ignorant, in the opposite direction. There are phrases and pieces of information that Charlie takes for granted that are completely foreign to Ned.
He has another drink of the bubblegum mix and thinks that the taste isn't so bad, once you start to get used to it. He's at that perfect buzz point, now, feeling loose-limbed and flushed in the face and less worried about the future, about things that are past his control.
good on ya, Ned
"Rothstein ain't old fashioned like that. He understands about opportunities, you know?"
no subject
That, at least, is not something reserved to Meyer and Charlie's line of work, though it is perhaps more crystallized in it, and in their time for that matter. "I do know. People are always making that mistake and that can't be good for business. Better to work with the people who are good at what they do than only work with the people who look like you or sound like you."
Ned forces himself to set down the glass, wants to give Charlie a chance to catch up with him, particularly since it seems his alcohol tolerance is considerably higher.
"Glad to hear the guy you're working for is a bit more forward-thinking."