[Private] Another Tuesday Night

In an effort to expand his social horizons, Lucas was hitting up all kinds of clubs and bars. On this particular Tuesday night, he found himself at one of few queer-centric entertainment joints on this end of the town. On week nights, most queer establishments either had karaoke night, a movie night, or cheap drink specials. Something told him he wasn't going to find the first two at the Indigo lounge, but he was likely to find cheap drinks galore. If he was going to throw his money at a lounge tonight, he would rather it be at an establishment that supported his community rather than the same ol' same ol.

The Winter Fairest tried to keep a more lowkey profile when he showed up at the strip club. He had a form fitting, gray v-neck shirt on, black jeans, black dress shoes a few accessories such as a leather belt and his G-shock watch, and he threw in a minimal amount of gel to give his hair some texture, but that was the extent of it. Rather than standing out tonight, he wanted to blend in, get a feel for the community out this way, maybe pick up on some interesting gossip, and just enjoy the show.

Right as Lucas was getting ready to seat himself, he spotted Linden sitting by the bar. The first and last time he saw them, they were ready to thug in defense of Riley's fashion sense. Okay, that likely wasn't the actual reason they approached Rowan, but it was an amusing thought now that Lucas wasn't feeling so testy every time the Moth crossed his mind. Truth be told, he was curious about the real reason the exchange happened. 

And since he was on a mission to satisfy social curiosities, he made his way over to where Linden was at.

"Hey there, I think I saw you at that one dance party last month, yeah?" Lucas was being vague since they were out in a public place.

"Mind if I grab a seat? This is my first time here, so it's nice to see a familiar-ish face even if I don't actually know your name." He grinned.

Lucas was visibly pleased at the warm hospitality being directed at him. He took their hand, attempting to match their firmness but he fell short of the same oomph they had. 

"Nice to meet you, Linden. I'm Lucas." He pulled up the stool next to them and sat down. Once he was seated, Linden would be able to pick up on his cologne which was a mixture of campfire and clove.

"Hey, thanks. That's awfully kind of you. You'll have to let me buy the next round."

His bright blue eyes briefly scanned the menu to see what they had to offer. A couple of the drinks stood out to him, as did several items on the food menu. However, mozzarella sticks were always a safe bet where as other bar food could be a hit-or-miss.  Add in a rave review from a regular, and well, the food options were mentally struck out from his mind. 

"Any drink recommendations?"

After a recent taste-testing adventure in Denny's, The Winter Fairest was more eager to get drink recommendations from others. When he was in a good mood like this, his attractive features seemed to practically glow. If he noticed his looks were being observed, he did not make any indication that it bothered him. 

"A good Dark 'n' Stormy is hard to beat. During Spring Fling, I loaded up on the slushie Margaritas so I'm good there."

He snickered, shaking his head as he thought back to several of the festivities that took place. His thoughts were then promptly detoured as the mozzarella sticks arrived and were shared.

"Thank you." He expressed his gratitude before helping himself to a stick of cheesy breaded goodness.

"Hmm, what am I about, eh? I guess you could say I'm the resident paranormal investigator. " With how many paranormal investigation shows there were on TV and tours there were on the internet.

"If there's something dark and spooky, I like to go poke around at. Compared to some of our other...spooky friends, I have a gentler, more sociable approach to how I get information. So, as you can imagine, that also makes me quite curious. Since we're cutting the small talk, I'm hoping you'll indulge my curiosity."

He studies the Ogre for a moment, maintaining a pleasant demeanor while he playfully smiles directly at them.

"Please don't take this the wrong way and if you do...the next round of Margaritas is on me. From an outsiders perspective...when you approached Rowan at the Spring Fling, I thought you were gonna give him a beat down because Riley was in a huff that someone committed a faux paus against them." Thinking back on his thoughts at the time made him chuckle now that he was fully sober.

"But now that I'm not several shots of alcohol deep, I'm guessing that's not what was actually going on."

The more Lucas listened,the more he felt a heavy weight grow in his chest. He could read between the lines and see how someone intentionally wearing someone else's mein could be seen as especially disrespectful to certain communities. Such as the community the bar belonged to.

He briefly frowned at himself, disappointed that he didn't pick up on any of this sooner. However, this wasn't about him and his sad feelings about not being a better ally.

"What you're saying makes a lot of sense to me. Honestly, I think it's really commendable that you were willing to put yourself on the line like that and stick up for your friend. A lot of us get anxious just thinking about social backlash in the circles we run in."

He met their grin with a playful wink.

"You're forgetting the part about me being several shots deep. I wasn't the only one either." Eis likely had one hell of a hangover.

He paused, trying to figure out his next set of words. Usually, he tried to read social cues such as listen to what pronouns close friends used in reference to someone or if they had pronoun patches before asking for their pronouns. However, he had not observed any similar social cues before and they were touching on the subject,so it seemed like an appropriate time to make sure they were being affirming of each other's identities.

"Hey, speaking of which. I want to make sure we are perceiving each other correctly. I use he/him pronouns."

The Fairest couldn't help but feel all warm and fuzzy at the silent "thanks" he was given. With all of the recent politics and danger going on, it was refreshing to have a real, sincere bonding moment with someone that wasn't born of traumatic experience from their durances or a mission they had been sent on.

"Most of the evening was pretty good. From what you're telling me and my own experiences at the party, your team knows how to party hard. " A mischievous glint appeared in the winter courtier's eyes as he thought back on his time with Oren.

"But yeah, that ending was something else." His mood almost instantly became somber as he he thought about the cost of keeping them all safe. He picked up his drink once it arrived, taking a long sip from it.

"I don't want to be a downer here, especially on your night off. I just...well, I'll save that thought for another time. "

"You make an excellent point. Cheers."

Lucas raised his drink to Linden and then he knocked out an impressive amount of his drink one go. He let out a satisfied sigh before diving into his thoughts.
"I can't be the only one who finds the power source we've been using to keep our company safe is messed up, right?"

He stared down at his drink as if it had the answers to the rites within it.
"Where's the line? We can make a great many justifications because we know how terrible and shitty and scary other companies are. But there is a line and no matter what someone thinks they know and how what they do is for the greater good ,they can't make that line go away.

At some point, if we're not careful, we are gonna cross that line and fall into the same ideologies as our former bosses who kept us working overtime against our will. "

"I get that. My question is, at what point are we doing the same thing where we our obliterating our work force and neighboring work forces and end up being just like the competition in the name of survival? I bet if we asked them, they would justify a great deal of what they did for the same reasons."

Sometimes talking in code got awkward because it was hard to figure out the exact analogy on the fly that made sense. He had a decent amount of practice so he could at least weave in most of the elements he wanted to. He thought about how to phrase the next bit of code.

"I don't disagree there. There are a lot of pieces of the puzzle that need to be put together. I am starting to see the bigger picture, there's just some pieces I need to plug in or find the damn puzzle guide to figure out what piece is missing."

He added with an amused smile before his tone turned more somber again.

"You could say I find our bosses to be "weird"." He added in air quotes, hoping Linden picked up that he meant "Wyrd".

"Big ol' weirdos at that. So, when we try to see the puzzle or though the bug eyes, we need to try to put ourselves in that weirdo mentality to understand the direction our company is going in next. Which, y'know, for folks like you and I, the direction may not jive unless we are willing to become more weird ourselves. I'm looking out for things that help me understand that pattern of thinking. If I can get a better feel for that, I'll be able to better make sense of what's going on."

His study of the occult helped him have a decent understanding of the Wyrd, but it wasn't something he had specialized his research in. He had to imagine that as a Lost grew in Wyrd, they become more detached from reality and their humanity. Lucas studied Linden for a moment, trying to get a sense of how much the rites and the sacrifices involved in them bothered the Summer Courtier. If they were indifferent or seemed suspicious, that would be a good indicator for him to change course. While Summer generally were the type to want to fight the good fight, with the current political climate he needed to be mindful of what thoughts he shared with others.