ArchivedLogs:Damn Fine

Damn Fine
Dramatis Personae Anette, Dusk, Isra
In Absentia	2015-10-07 "What are we drinking away tonight?"
Location <BOM> Beachfront - Ascension Island
Largely rocky and desolate, the majority of the waterfront on this small island is an unwelcoming place. Craggy and forbidding, lined with jagged black rocks, the coast here can take a fair bit of scrambling to navigate. Here and there, though, the coastline levels out to narrow sweeps of pebbly beaches littered with shells and seaweed carried in on the frigid tide. Occasional old trunks of fallen trees dot the narrow beach, victims of the storms that frequently plague the island. One small stretch of the western shore holds a small dock, a few boats usually moored there. Tucked off the mainland coast in Jamaica Bay, the buildings and lights of the city can be seen far across the water. It's been a mild enough night, though down by the water it's brisker, wind and mist off the ocean leading to a considerably crisper temperature. In the distance the lights of the city glitter; overhead, though, it's stars, bright and clear tonight with very few clouds for once. Silhouetted against the glittering sky, Dusk is crouched on a rock in typical gargoyle-pose. Dressed in jeans, Vans sneakes, pale grey-blue wrap shirt, his wings are vibrant in ombre dark blue-to-white patterned like feathers. He's holding a bottle of quite good-quality tequila, head tipped back towards the sky as he takes a swig. Some are a bit more active. Anette is out appreciating the cool weather, wearing jeans, combat boots, and a t-shirt, her wings tucked tightly against her back. Every few minutes, she reaches up to rub her eyes, as if trying to rub sleep out of them. As she nears the water, she shivers and her wings slip around her, acting almost like a cloak against the chill. It's now that she notices Dusk, pausing a moment to watch him curiously before casually making her way over to him. "What are we drinking away tonight?" she asks once she's in ear shot. Reclined on a rock on the other side of Dusk, Isra has her legs folded primly beneath her, head also tipped back toward the starry sky. She wears a backless purple velvet dress trimmed in silver, and her wings sport the same pattern as his, but in violet ombre instead of blue. Her gray skin has a silvery sheen to it, and her horns and talon bright silver chrome. The cold does not seem to bother her in the least. "Good evening, Anette." She turns, her eyes catching the distant city lights and glowing green. "How do you fare?" "Drinking... /away/?" Dusk's brows lift, a note of confusion in his voice as his head turns towards Anette. "Eh?" He offers the bottle down towards Isra absently after he's taken a swig. "Howzat you mean?" One of his eyes squints half-closed, lips pursing as he watches Anetter rub at /her/ eyes. "I think," he decides with a crooked fangy smile, "it makes the stars brighter." Anette chuckles at Dusk's reaction to her question. "Nevermind, it seems we drink for different reasons. Mind if I join you?" she asks, not bothering to wait for an answer before she finds a nearby rock to perch herself. "Oh, same old" she replies to Isra's question. "Just having some trouble sleeping, thought some fresh air might help." She leans back on her rock and looks up at the stars. "They /are/ pretty tonight." Isra accepts the bottle and sips from it, returning her gaze to the sky. "It'd be a waste of a splendid night to sleep so early, in any event. Not a night I'd want to drink /away/, but certainly a pleasant one to share a drink beneath the stars. They're pretty every night--only sometimes we cannot see them so well." She offers the bottle to Anette. "It may not make the stars brighter, but it might help you get to sleep later, if you still want to." "I drink because this is damn fine tequila," Dusk says lightly. "And a damn fine night. Damn fine company, too. Nice time," he agrees with Isra, "to share a drink and enjoy it." His wing uncurls, gesturing to the rocks nearby in silent invitation when Anette asks if she can join. "Life's short enough already. I'm not much for missing out on it. What's keeping you up?" "Don't mind if I do," Anette responds, taking the bottle as it's offered and downing a swig of her own. "I don't know. I've drank to sleep so many times I don't think it works anymore." She passes the bottle back to whoever will take it, smiling softly at Dusk's kind words. "Couldn't ask for better company if I tried," she agrees. His question about what's keeping her up makes her smile falter slightly. "Right now? Bit of everything really." Instead of elaborating, she keeps her eyes cast on the water. Isra raises a bare eyebrow ridge at Anette. "Everything is a lot of things, even if you've only got a bit of each." Her voice, though quiet, has a curious dual quality to it now. "You needn't talk about it. Sometimes it's no help at all, making yourself go in circles about something. But." She tilts her head ever so slightly. "If you want to, we are here, and listening." "If you want to." Dusk's agreement comes quietly. He leans forward, wings pressing downward to brace against the rock as he takes the bottle back. "There'll still be tequila and stars either way." "Yeah...everything is a lot of things," Anette agrees. "Oh, there's the nightmares, dealing with being banished to the island, trying to keep Daken from pissing the island off while I end up pissing the island off. Trying to wrap my mind around Daken and myself...actually, now that I think about it, quite a bit of it does have to do with him." As she talks, she finds a couple rocks and throws them into the water. No attempt is made to skip them, she just wants to throw them in and watch the ripples. "You are not pissing anyone off right now, at least," Isra offers, stretching her wings out into the cool air. "Does he know--Daken, I mean--that you are suffering from so much disquiet?" "Who'd you piss off? I haven't /noticed/ things more on fire than usual." A small quirk of smile curls at Dusk's lips. "I don't feel particularly angry, anyway. But then, tequila does kind of leave that nice warm feeling." Dusk gulps again at the bottle and passes it off to Isra. One of his wings curls around himself. "What about you and him?" "Ah, he knows some things. He's...brought some issues before but they always end up in arguments." Anette tosses the rest of the rocks onto the beach and pulls her legs up, wrapping her arms around them. "Right now, we've um...we've discussed where our relationship is going. And he hasn't asked yet but I know he's going to. Proposing, I mean. And I thought I was ok with it but the more I think about it, the less I think I want to be married and be a wife and..." she trails off, still staring out over the water. Dusk's question get a brief chuckle and shake of her head. "Ion. I've managed to piss off the most easy going, laid back person on the entire state. Because that's what I do apparently." "You don't need to wed if you do not feel right doing so. It is not some kind of required goal for a relationship." Isra folds her wings back in and takes the bottle from Dusk. "If your thoughts on the matter have changed since you last spoke on it, perhaps you should talk to Daken again, before he proposes." She takes a longer pull on the tequila and passes it to Anette. "Ion? I have found that he does not tend to stay mad long. He has been known to punch someone and buy them a beer five minutes later." "If you don't want to be a wife don't get married," Dusk answers easily. "There's not just one correct way --" His smile is a little softer, one wing stretching out to brush lightly against Isra's, "-- to do relationships, you know? It's not like you gotta do the marriage-exclusivity thing for love to be real." The mention of Ion draws a snort out of him. "Fff. /That's/ probably a story worth hearing. But for real, I don't think he /remembers/ what he was doing from one day to the next let alone holds grudges over it. You'll probably be alright in his book by the time the night's over." "It was a few days ago so he probably doesn't even remember it. But he just looked so upset when he left," Anette says, rubbing her eyes once more. "I know, I know, it should be that simple. And I do love him and I do want to be with him. I just...the idea of marriage unsettles my stomach. If that makes sense. I don't see any reason why it should but it does and I thought if I just thought over it and gave it a chance I'd warm up to it but I haven't and..." She pauses to take a breath at the end of what she realizes is a very run-on sentence. "I'm just afraid it'll break his heart. And I'm afraid he'll just say alright and leave it at that. I'd rather we fight about it, at least then I'll know how he feels." The mention of a story gets a slight shake of her head and a dissmissive wave of her hand. "There's no story. I was just angry at him for coming up with the idea of destroying sentinels and getting labelled a terrorist and let him know. He didn't take too kindly to that." "I strongly recommend you tell him before he proposes, then." Isra's wing pushes back against Dusk's. She cants her head at Anette, her alto voice soft and its lower bass echo harsh. "If it upsets him, it may bear some examination as to /why./ There are many reasons to desire marriage, but also many to avoid it, and no less legitimate. If he cannot accept your love without your hand in marriage also, he owes you an explanation, not the other way around. As for Ion..." Her wings rise and dip in a very sedate shrug. "...he feels all that he feels strongly. We /are/ terrorists by the government's reckoning." "There's -- probably options in between 'don't talk about it' and 'fight about it'." Dusk sounds a little wry. "I don't know if it's necessarily /simple/, but communication -- does kind of make everything -- /better/." His wings shift back behind him again, bracing back against the rock. He leans into their support, tipping his head back to look up at the sky. "Those bots --" A soft growl rumbles up in his throat. He gives his head a quick shake. "World's better off without 'em." "I know I'm /technically/ a terrorist but I wish I earned that label through something other than drunk mistakes after a break-up. Most people just sleep around," Anette says, grinning faintly. "Yeah...yeah, I'm going to talk to Daken. Hopefully before he proposes. It's just...not the easiest of topics to bring up." She finally glances over to the two sitting beside her and smiles softly. "You two just make the whole love thing look so easy."