fifth; video + action (give me a shot to remember and you can take all the pain away from me)

[bekommen]

[Nick is infinitely more sober than the last time she appeared on the network, though the location is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the same. The only difference is that this time, Nick is standing behind the bar, not sitting at it with a drink in hand. She appears slightly uncomfortable, no doubt due to regret over her past broadcast. She clears her throat and nods at the camera.]

So if you didn't already know, I'm working at the bar now. Delight asked me to help out, and it's what I used to do back in Chicago, so.

[She shrugs. Obvious connection is obvious.]

I know I said a lot of shit last time I talked to everyone on this thing, but as I'm sure you all noticed, I was pretty fucking drunk. [She sighs, rolling her eyes, mildly irritated with herself.] I didn't mean most of it, and I'm not gonna, like, poison anyone's drink while I'm working. I also don't drink when I'm on the job, so you don't have to worry about any more dumb bullshit like before. I'm a professional, OK? Just so we got that out there. And yeah, that does mean I'll cut you off if I see you acting like an asshole.

[She reaches over to kill the feed, then remembers she has one more thing to say.]

Oh yeah - leave your fucking pets or whatever at home. I know we don't got health inspections to pass or anything, but that shit still ain't sanitary.

[There, now she's done. She hangs up, but will respond to any replies in between serving patrons of Delight's bar. Perhaps you're even one of them?]

Comments

Video

[bekommen]

[Nick gives him a lopsided grin. She's totally capable of learning from her mistakes, OK.]

Yeah, I guess that makes two of us, huh. You gonna come have a drink sometime?

[ushahin]

I don't know if that would be wise. My powers and alcohol are not a good mixture.

[If Nick thinks her public meltdown was bad, just imagine what Ushahin's would be like. Everyone within projecting distance would be feeling every bit of pain, anger, despair, and whatever else he was feeling at the time.]

[bekommen]

We do have nonalcoholic drinks too. What kinda powers you got, anyway?

[ushahin]

Somehow, drinking surrounded by those fools who wish to while away their time with alcohol doesn't precisely appeal to me.

[Their minds, numbed and sluggish from their drinks, don't sound like something he wants to expose himself to.]

I can go into men's minds and see their thoughts. I can break them or change them as I see fit, even when they sleep. That's why I named myself Dreamspinner.

[bekommen]

All right, fair enough.

[It's true that being around people who are drinking when you're not isn't a whole lot of fun.]

... Really. Huh.

[It's pretty weird, but then again, this place raises the bar on what weird means, exactly.]

You do this kinda thing all the time?

[ushahin]

For many, many years. Longer than you have been alive, I am sure.

[He doesn't very old himself, caught somewhere in that vague span of years between late twenties and early thirties. Everything except his eyes, their pale depths containing an uneven gaze. There's an ancient quality tinged with insanity to them.]

[bekommen]

[Nick laughs. It's kind of refreshing to have someone point out he's much older than her.]

Well hey, at least you're not callin' me grandma, like a lot of the kids here. I didn't realize being over 25 made me an actual senior citizen.

[ushahin]

Oh dear.

[His lips twitch into a smile. He's forgotten that human beings have such short lifespans. Everyone over a certain age seems ancient.]

I do wonder what they would think of me. I have lived so long I have forgotten my precise age.

[It's well into the quadruple digits at this point in his life. After about eight hundred or so, he hadn't seen much point in keeping track.]

[bekommen]

Yeah? Is that what happens, you just kinda quit paying attention to it?

[Nick chews the inside of her cheek for a moment, imagining what that must be like.]

When I was a kid, I couldn't really picture what it was like to be an adult. Thirty - hell, even twenty-five seemed like it'd be impossible. I mean, how do you even stand it, living that long?

[ushahin]

It did seem to happen to me and my cousins. Each of us easily lived to be over a thousand. But I am half-Ellyl and was destined to live long anyway.

[Indeed, he's practically a youth by Ellylon standards.]

You learn not to look back at the span of years that have gone by, for they only weigh you down. Live each day as it comes and look forward to those that shall come.

[bekommen]

Do you ever forget things about the past? Like, the longer it's been, is it harder to remember?

[Will she some day, eventually, forget her childhood memories of her father? Will she forget about and Andy and Kennedy and the pain they both caused her? Would it be a bad thing if either of those things came to pass? Nick doesn't know.]

[ushahin]

I don't remember much of my childhood.

[He pauses and a frown crosses his face, remembering things that he would rather forget.]

That has as much to do with madness as my age. I remember much, but the years do tend to blend together after a certain point. Emotions, particularly strong ones attached to people or places, those remain forever.

[bekommen]

I guess that makes sense.

[Nick's most sharp memories are the ones tied to the strongest emotions.]

What's the thing that's farthest back that you can remember?

[ushahin]

My mother-- [He pauses and clarifies. After all, he does have more than one.] --my birth mother singing a song to me.

[Quite an impressive memory for someone as old and fractured in the mind as his.]