you like it, don't you?

you were automatic and as hollow as the 'O' in god

Nightfall fast approaches, but Danta hasn't sent out a search party for the Lullaby just yet. That doesn't mean he doesn't have eyes and ears peeled for him all across the Last Whisper, of course; where's the fun of being in charge if you can't do stuff with it, after all? Regardless, as darkness starts to fall the Maverick is in one of the several bars that litter the covered boulevard - not his own, either, which Remi may be surprised to note.

No, this is a little boutique of a place, practically, with speakeasy vibes and casks of very good whiskey, and Danta is partaking in a glass while he waits and see where the evening will take him - and who it might take him around with. Will he be a little sad if he doesn't get to see how much a demigod can drink? Maybe. But there will be other times, right?

Dantalion

for 1000 nights i've been a restless soul

Remi is surprised that Danta isn't in his own establishment, or at least he would be had he not first looked there for the Maverick. After having been given several sets of shoddy instructions, eventually the Lullaby opened the door to a small one-window building with the intention of having a drink there even if Danta was nowhere to be found.

Ruffling the day out of his curls, Remi moves straight toward the bar already eyeing their selection of gins. Of course the varieties he made were nowhere to be found, though perhaps if he came across Danta he could suggest as much. Either way, he ordered himself a small flight of gins which came served on a baking sheet lined with melted candlewax and dried paint. Accepting it with puzzled thanks before whispering a question, the answer was given in the form of a grunt and a nod toward one of the booths that currently housed the Maverick.

'You know...' Remi muses as he strolls in Danta's direction. 'The way you described your establishment, I thought I might find you there.'

you were automatic and as hollow as the 'O' in god

"Alright, but listen," Danta protests, an easy, fanged grin cutting across his face at the increasingly familiar sound of the Lullaby's voice. Waiting for Remi to get close enough to be able to set down his liquors, the Maverick gently pushes his glass of whiskey in the other man's direction. "Try it. Sometimes it takes visiting other establishments to know where you want to get your next supply."

A shrewd business move, and it might seem that way were it recommended by anyone other than Danta. Either way, he has every intention of tasting and hearing the story behind a lot of these whiskies, and if a few of them pop up in the Dusklight in the future? So be it. "Glad to see you made it here in one piece. I won't ask how many times you got lost."

Dantalion

for 1000 nights i've been a restless soul

Raising his eyebrows theatrically, Remi tilts his head and grins: listening. Placing his tray down and sliding into the seat, the Lullaby glances at the glass offered his way. "You don't think I have enough?" He wonders of the four small glasses already on his tray. Rhetorically said, it would seem, given that Remi reached across and helped himself to a small sip of the whiskey. Letting it sit on his tongue but not bothering with any of the usual elements of properly tasting a whiskey, the Lullaby hums a sound of pleasure before setting the glass back down.

" I appreciate that." Remi snorts, leaning back comfortably in his chair before arranging the gin on his tray. "Things really have changed around here though. Had you ever come this way, before...?" Rolling his wrist in a vague gesture that was meant to indicate a timeline somewhere from "the dawn of creation" to "before the barrier".

you were automatic and as hollow as the 'O' in god

"You think you do?" Danta counters, grinning. He might act the fool (and bad luck might make it more truthful sometimes than not) but he does, in fact, know who and what Remi Taliesin is, and four glasses of liquor and a sip of whiskey does not a drunkard make of the man. Regardless, he seems pleased to see the Lullaby taking up his offer, accepting the whiskey back and taking another measured sip himself. "And what poison did you pick?" he asks, gesturing at the tray.

As for the past - and don't people love to bring it up - Danta wrinkles his nose and slouches bonelessly back into his seat. "Nah, I never really had reason to," he says, vaguely(?) "Back then the world was different. The Climb was different. Heard this place was like paradise once, though."

Dantalion

for 1000 nights i've been a restless soul

Smiling easily, the Lullaby's lower lip puckers innocently as he shrugs. "No one ever mentions it, but alcohol tolerance is probably one of the worst drawbacks of this line of work." He complains playfully before eyeing the assortment of gin set before him. "I am not entirely sure. When I asked for a flight of their top four gins I was given a rather surprised look." Picking up one of the glasses and giving it a distrustful sip, Remi eyes the Maverick over its rim. "I think this one might just be water." With a shrug, he put it back and picked up the first on the tray. Unlike the whiskey, this one was given a proper inspection before being downed in one go.

"Paradise? You don't say." Though once Remi had possessed quite the imagination, to say he couldn't imagine the Grounds being anything but the barren keeper of nightmares he thought of it as, was an understatement. "How old are you?" Remi wonders suddenly, looking the ancient up and down and finding he was able to draw absolutely no conclusions from it. By appearance alone he'd put Danta a few years younger than he was, but then, compared to Ronin (sorry babe), Remi looked younger than he was. Even so, any number he could guess would be off by a few hundred years he was sure.

you were automatic and as hollow as the 'O' in god

"I bet," Danta says, and he means it, though as Remi describes what he's asked for - and what he believes he's been given - the Maverick barks out a laugh and shakes his head. "Maybe it's because you asked for a flight of gins," he suggests with a wiggle of his fingers. It's not that the Lullaby isn't accurate, but that kind of artisanal talk hasn't quite reached the Hollowed Grounds yet. (Give them time, they're trying).

Humming an affirmative - paradise, indeed - and finishing off his whiskey, as Remi asks his sudden question, he'll be treated to that Ryan Gosling GIF an up-and-down inspection of his own, Danta trying to decide if the Lullaby is insulting him or not. Eventually, and after asking for another drink, he offers a gentle shrug of his shoulders. "I think I just turned thirty-five," he says. "As for how long it's been since I fell asleep and woke up again? I really couldn't tell you. Centuries, I imagine. Before that Voice nonsense was even a twinkle in someone's eye."

Dantalion

for 1000 nights i've been a restless soul

Raising his eyebrows, Remi's sea-glass stare is momentarily blank before he leans forward and cocks his head slightly to the side. "Are you telling me that I have become unintentionally pretentious?" Leaning back, he sucks at the tip of his tongue before tutting. "I always knew marrying a baron was going to catch up with me." He laments as he picks up another glass and gives its contents a cursory sniff.

Trying not to squirm too much as he was looked over—he'd had a reason, okay?—Remi shoots back the "gin" he'd been given. "Ah, older than me, then." He concludes as if there had been any question. Smirking, the Lullaby ignores the way his stomach clenches to hear a good portion of his recent trauma referred to as that Voice nonsense; but to a man who had slept through it, of course that's all it had been.

"Well, cheers. To being awake for a new sort of nonsense." Whether that was Dahlia and the Family or just whatever drama Danta had to deal with on a daily basis, Remi didn't really think it mattered.

you were automatic and as hollow as the 'O' in god

Mid-sip of his new glass of whiskey, Danta responds with a well placed tap to the side of his nose as if to say yep, that's the one to Remi's unfortunate and pretentious taste of affairs. "Ah, well. We can't all be perfect," he says with a soft laugh as he sets his drink back down and shrugs. "And between you and me, I've known people to marry worse things." Marrying in and of itself is bad enough though, in the Maverick's opinion.

Still, he's not one to yuck someone else's yum, and so - despite being aged and withered, thanks Remi - he raises his glass again to clink it against the Lullaby's. "I'll drink to that," he agrees with a fanged grin, before settling in for a good, casual evening of chit-chat with one of Caido's most infamous demigods.

Eat your heart out, N... Norbert.

Yeah, that's the one.

~FIN

Dantalion