2019-11-07 - It's Generally A Good Idea To Make Sure That A Seat Is Unoccupied Before Sitting In It

It's mid-afternoon at the Grizzly. It's not quite empty, but it's not really too busy either. A few people are sitting here and there, eating lunch, or dinner, or whatever comes inbetween. There's plenty of room to sit wherever. Alison's working, in addition to a few other women, occasionally flitting about between the odd table that needs help with something and the counter. Unusually, she's got her red hair tied back in a ponytail, but otherwise is wearing her usual sort of outfit, a t-shirt and jeans.

Before she heads off to the Cabaret for her mid-week shift, Park drops into the Grizzly for some of that wonderful food and downhome service - if your home was down in the pits of Hell. She bounces in, singing softly to herself, trying out different words to the tune; she must be songwriting. Satchel bag over one shoulder, her hair white again today and done up in pigtails. Since it is getting cold, it is time for black leggings to go with her pink mini-skirt, Kimba t-shirt, and fake fur sleeveless vest. Without even looking, she plonks herself down in a booth. Which unfortunately is already occupied and Park quickly realises she is sitting on someone's lap. "Eep!! So sorry! I was miles away. Well, I was here but thinking miles away, otherwise I wouldn't have sat on a strange man's lap. Not that you're strange. I'm sure you're very sweet...and you have a comfy lap. Which is not strange." She waves a hand at an empty booth as far away as possible. "I'm going to sit over there. Have a nice meal." Time to scoot.

Alison eyes the whole thing go down from up at the counter, but Park's already sat down before she can really head over or even say hi. Once the other woman's scrambling to get up, the redhead's laughing her head off and rushes over to grab her arm. To the table she says, "Hi! Everything alright? You two need anything? No? Okay, just let me know!" And she leads Park over to the booth she'd gestured at with a big grin on her face. Alison whispers at her once they're a few steps away from the site of the incident, giggling still. "Oh my god what was that. Are you drunk?"

For a moment Park thought she was being thrown out when a hand grabs her arm. A look of relief on her face to see Alison. And, of course, Park is blushing furiously. "Drunk? No? Why would you think...oh...the sitting on the..." She finds an even brighter shade of red for her cheeks. "I was concentrating on my song. Didn't even see him there. I thought you had new lumpy cushions for the seat before I knew what I was doing. Such embarrassment. Is he mad at me? Is he looking at me?" She will certainly not look for herself.

Alison isn't looking back, just tugging Park along. "Yeah, well, I think that seat would've gotten a lot lumpier if you sat there any longer. I thought you just worked in the DJ booth at the Cabaret, not lap dances too?" She laughs again. "It's fine. Just sit. You look super cute today! I think this is the first time I've seen you /not/ in a costume." Alison gives Park a gentle little push into the booth before sitting across from her, a grin still on the waitress's face. "Are you sure you're not drunk, though?" She leans over the table and gives her a good sniff, just to see if she can smell booze on her.

Park giggles at the lap dance comment. "I've done a body shot but not a lap dance. I don't think I would be very good. No ta-tas and no butt. Not what people want from a lap dance." A playful nudge of Alison for even suggesting such a thing could happen. "I promise I'm not drunk." And there is no smell of alcohol. A smell of jasmine scent but no alcohol. "Honestly, I was figuring out a song and got distracted." She glances down at her clothes and shrugs shyly. "I have to change into the uniform at work so I just grabbed whatever."

Alison smirks. "It's more about how you move than what you move, isn't it? I mean, it's not like I'm any better off in that department. Those departments. Not that I've ever given a lap dance anyways." She pulls over a menu and plunks it in front of Park. "Well, even if it wasn't on purpose, you still look good. And you smell good too.. working on a song, huh? Gonna be your big hit, or just a filler track for an album?"

"I can dance a little but guys only seem interested in things that jiggle" Park shrugs, a smile still on her face. "Their loss. You could totally give a lap dance. Why don't you ask Cameron for some pointers?" She peruses the menu for a moment, since that means she can look away when compliments are said. "Not many people do albums anymore. You can just put out singles for streaming now. It's a shame. Anyway, I try not to do filler songs. Every one of them means something to me in some way, you know? Can I have...umm...chicken caesar salad?"

Alison shakes her head! "Nah, that kinda thing isn't for me. I was a cocktail waitress for a while in a place like the Cabaret when I was younger. Place wasn't.. managed very well. Bouncers wouldn't kick dudes out for grabbing my ass, what little of it there is. And I was there to serve drinks, not get naked." She grabs the menu from Park when she's done with it and heads up to put the order in, telling another girl that she's taking her break.

A moment later, Alison's heading back over to the booth with a plate of french fries, placing them right in the middle of the table before sitting back down. "Should be here in a few. Are albums really not a thing anymore? I pretty much just use Spotify, so I.. I guess that makes sense. The last time I bought a, like, actual physical album must have been the last show I saw in Seattle before I moved. Well, what's this one about? Unless it's a secret, I mean."

"We have good bouncers at the Cabaret. But if it's not your thing, then it's not your thing. Nothing wrong with that. It's not really my thing either...though Antonio tries to get everyone to dance. He doesn't push but he makes it clear the option is there. He even thinks there is an audience for beanpoles" Park giggles. When Alison heads on over to the counter, Park gets her laptop out of her bag and sets it up on the table.

"Ooh...fires. Yummy." Despite ordering a salad, she will partake. Park never gets fat (touch wood). "If people make playlists, I don't think they are very often whole albums. It's a shame. What album did you buy last?" A grin as she shakes her head. "No secret music. I wouldn't be a very good rock star if I kept it secret. I've been writing a lot of angry political songs though so I want to do something playful instead. This one is called 'New or Used', and it's about whether to have a used lover or a new one. So, the verses are like car ads but about lovers. There's one about 'Only ridden by a careful woman/Usually after church/Never been out of second gear/Never leaves you in the lurch'...or something like that. But then it would go on to debate whether that is good enough."

Alison snickers at 'beanpoles' in particular. "I mean, an audience? Probably. But then you have to worry about /why/, if it's not tits or ass. And there aren't too many good answers." She gives a little shake of her head.

"Oh, this band from Canada called July Talk. I got both of them they had at the merch table, actually.. can't quite remember what they're called though. I guess that kinda explains a bit why albums are going away if you don't actually have to take the CD out of the case."

Alison grabs a fry from the plate and gives it a tiny little nibble, grinning back at Park. "A used lover, huh? I guess there's a point in that. I mean, I might argue that it's someone who actually knows how to fuck! I guess it depends on what you're looking for out of a lover. Sounds like the song is coming along though." The redhead blinks, and then digs out her phone, pulling up the lyrics to one song in particular by July Talk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngbeApWNo34):

Joseph, you can look but don't you touch
When I want your hands on my skin, I'll ask
But I've never done this, can you show me please?
Just count to five, not too fast

"This might be a little more explicit than you were going for, but maybe there's something in it that you can use for inspiration."

"I also think that old lovers are better than new ones. I mean, I know that when I was a virgin, I had no idea what I was doing. Might not still" Park giggles. "The reason guys want virgins is all about control and ownership, nothing to do with sexual pleasure. So, the song would mention that kind of thing in the chorus. But still give the listener the opportunity to interpret how they liked. A song has to mean something to the listener."

"Sometimes I wear a school uniform" Park notes matter-of-factly. "Sort of a cosplay thing. Lots of anime set in schools." She purses her lips in thought. "I get some strange looks then." Back to the music. "I don't mind explicit lyrics as long as there is some lyricism to them. I mean, I don't think I'll be singing 'Fuck my ass with your big cock' or anything like that, but could still go with something about 'Pink submarines in the deepest trench'." Another pause as she eats a fry. "I'd have to work on that."

"UGH. YES, I KNOW, OH MY GOD." she says right away in response to her statement about virgins. "It's so.. I dunno, sometimes I really just have to wonder why men are the way they are." She rubs her face with both hands, groaning a bit, then grabbing another fry. "Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, if a song doesn't actually mean anything, then it's not gonna stick in your head. Unless it's really obnoxious, anyways. And that doesn't quite seem like your kinda thing."

"Cosplay, huh? Neat! Never been my thing, but it's always so pretty to look at. It seems like a ton of work." The first lyrical example makes her choke a bit on the fry she was chewing on. "Okay, yeah, that might be a bit much. That other bit reminds me of a really old Incubus song though, something like.. 'Pink tractor beam into her incision'. At least I think that's supposed to be a bit fucky." She shrugs. Somewhere in the midst of the conversation, Park's meal is delivered along with cutlery and whatnot for the salad. The waitress who brings it over reminds Alison that she only has a few minutes left on her break, and to that, Alison responds by throwing a fry (a fresh one, at least, not one in her hand) at her. "Yeah, yeah!"

"Thank you" Park smiles sweetly to the waitress; even if some of the staff don't smile, the customers will. "Men are the way they are because they are the way they are." She should be a philosophy student rather than a dentist. "A song just has to mean something to you. And that is a combination of tune, lyrics, context, what is going on in your life, what is going on in the world, all kinds of stuff. It can be as simple as 'She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah'. It doesn't have to be a dissertation on the meaning of life."

"Tractor beams into incisions? That sounds painful. 'My baby fits me like a flesh tuxedo/ I like to sink her with my pink torpedo'. That's Spinal Tap." She smiles over at Alison. "You should get back to work. I don't want to get you into trouble. You should come by the club again. Oh, I'll give you my address too. I live on Elm Street."

Alison nodnods at what Park says about music. "Yeah, that makes sense!" She giggles at the Spinal Tap lyric. "Okay, that's a new one on me. Never really listened to much classic rock though." She sighs a bit. "Yeah, my lunch break is pretty much over. It was nice to see you again though! I'll try to swing by the Cabaret soon, Cam keeps wanting me to come by more often." She gets up, offers a little half bent over table hug to Park, then heads back behind the counter. Good timing, too, it's starting to getting busy with dinner.