[Sodium_noir] Hell is Other People

[Liz Oleksyn]

Aurora, JB, Jack

[John]
John watches the interaction and smiles sadly.  He
raised his glass in a toast.  "To new friends, and the
calm before the storm.  May it last."  He finished his
drink and set the empty glass to the side.  He paused
for a moment, as if engaging in some sort of internal
debate.  "I don't mean to pry, and normally I'd
respect your privacy and wouldn't ask, but did your
need for salvation stem from forces . . ." he
hesitated, trying to pick the right word.  Deomons was
inappropriate.  Angels was stupid.  Finally, he
settled on ". . . unknown to the mundane world."

[Aurora]
She coughs on a sip of beer, her eyes shifting to grey
drastically and quickly, but she lets Jack speak.

[Jack]
Jack raises an eyebrow and mouths John's words,
repeating them to himself for clarification. "Did my
need for salvation stem from forces unknown to the
mundane world? Uhm... no, I think people... knew him.
D'you mean... he was...uhm..."

Clearly having a hard time deciphering the question,
Jack takes a deep breath and tries to access what few
brain cells he has remaining that are unaffected by
alcohol. That clarity of thought, however fleeting,
finally arrives.

"Oh, you mean magically speaking? Yeah. I wasn't
looking for salvation. More like freedom. He owned me.
He..." Jack almost says 'made me', but stops short of
doing so.

"Look. The bastard's dead now. Not by my hand, though
I wouldn't have minded a bit of participation. You
know, getting a few good kicks in an' all. But no one
has to worry about him anymore." Jack smiles, and
looks around for the current location of the nearest
waiter. The mere thought of Akril and the horrors he
inflicted were increasing his need for enough booze to
suppress those memories for the rest of the night.

[John]
He frowned.  "So whatever it is that's come to Gotham
is probably not related to you."  He rubbed his eyes,
suddenly aware that he was starting to run out of
steam.  He only needed a few hours of sleep each
night, and his fund earlier with Abby had worn him
out.  He smiled at the memory.

[Aurora]
"So whatever that's come to Gotham?" Her eyes border
on black for just a moment, returning to their grey. 
"It's a storm out there, all right, Mr. Black, one
that it might be better to outrun, if it wasn't for
the fact that there's no place to go."  She sets her
beer down disgustedly after starting to take a sip, as
though it'd gone sour or warmed between then and now,
or perhaps it was just her mood that had... she
fondles the belt she was wearing distractedly.

[Jack]
Snagging a drink from a passing waiter, Jack wrinkles
up his nose. “Why would anything be related to me? You
mean - ‘bad shit’? There’s a whole lot of that in
Gotham and I have nothing to do with it. Done with
that now. Only good shit from now on.”

He takes a big gulp of whatever amber liquid is in his
glass and takes notice of Aurora’s change in demeanor.
“Hey, cheer up, sweetie. The fun’s just starting. Me
and Christine are going on a pub crawl.  You are
joining us, aren’t you?”

He nudges her playfully with his elbow.  “C’mon....you
know you want to....”

(tag)


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