2021-06-11 - Not So Naughty List

It's a place for a drink or whatever. Sometimes trivia, sometimes a mechanical bull, sometimes ax throwing or even darts. Tonight it's a beer and tator tots. Loaded tots. Lyric is there and she's dressed in a pair of jeans and a red shirt with white lettering. Probably a throwback from some random Christmas past. The words claim I Can Get You on the Naughty List. Quite a boast there. Her shoes are black and white converse with white laces. Holding a beer bottle in hand, whatever is more local, she waits for the tots and bobs her head to music playing. Something country currently. But music is music. Lyric loves music.

The sort of face that could get lost in a crowd, when he's trying to most likely, Quay is there tonight. More like he stepped in from outside somewhere literally. A dark shirt, jeans, and some camo like cap on his short hair for the moment, covering up whatever color it might be. While his sort of under that cover of the ball like cap, his eyes seem to be reading everything about the area as he moves in to order a beer at the bar himself. A finger up, a Reiner it is, something from Seattle, but reginal the same. A slight raise to the girl nearby. More a woman, certainly, but he's mature enough it could apply. "What if we're trying to get off?" A sort of low voice as if he doesn't talk much but something itched his curiousity. Probably the XMas shirt at this time of year.

Okay, here's the situation. Almost a full beer in and Lyric is still waiting for the food. A man walks in, approaches and asks.. what if we're trying to get off. Except Lyric is in no way assuming its about the shirt. Or not even thinking about the shirt at all. Eyes lift from her beer to him, taking in all she can see of him with the cap hiding his hair and then she lowers them all the way down then back up. "Prolly your best place for that is Elm or somethin'. Check the corners." Amusement dances in her eyes though, cause she's not offended, she's finding it kind of funny. "Or they have like.. rooms at the strip club. Stuff maybe goes on in there." The smile widens a little before she lifts her beer. "An' I ain't drunk enough to offer. Chances are I won't be tonight."

And he waits for his beer, it comes sooner than her food. Quay gives her a dead eye, deadpan face. Taking it all serious, a slow nod. Like he's right along with it, serious question serious answer. A brow drops at her being drunk enough and not getting there tonight. In a measured response, he leans forward or towards her just a little, "I mean the naughty list, your shirt says you can get me on it." He takes his pale beer and swigs at it, with a gulp or three. "Which seems true, now that you mention it." She did have a number of ways he could get on that list. "I suppose I walked into that one though. That and drunken sheet boxin isn't a sport for me, I prefer to remember that sort of stuff."

His explanation does bring a giggle and Lyric leans in a little as he does. Just to hear his measured response better. "Oh sure, I got lots more ideas to get you on it. Wanna rob the bank? Go break some windows? Steal from the homeless?" Of course she's not serious, her expression does give that away. "But if you're wantin' to get off it, then maybe you already did all those things. Are you trouble?" A playfully narrow eyed gaze that loses any of its heat by the giggle and then the smile of delight as the food arrives. "Mmm, so hungry." The tots are loaded, cheese sauce, bacon, onions, even diced tomatoes and jalapenos. Totally loaded. "Drunken sheet boxin." Musing over that, she slides the tots closer to herself and digs in. Fork stabbing a tot before she munches on it. "Do you r'member everything you do?"

A lip purses in consideration of her continued ideas for getting on the list, Quay takes them all in casually. "Depends," he thinks about her quesiton as her food arrives, another few gulps of beer as if its really refreshing, not for getting intoxicated. He might be a regular Reiner man. "I might be, but if you're familiar with the naughty less, you might of seen it all. One thing I'm not, is a liar, so can't say for sure if I am one way or the other." Measured in his own manner of reasoning. He watches her eat but it doesn't seem to click with him to make him hungry, other than to watch her digging into that food. "I've had some nights I can't quite recall these days though, I remember everything. Especially if its worth keeping it in there. Naughty or not, you seem sort I'd want to remember."

He had unwittingly given her ammo and after she chews her food, Lyric looks at him and quivers her bottom lip, trying her best to look absolutely devastated. "Really?" She asks, trying for her most forlorn tone. "You really for sure don't r'member me? But you said I was special!" Damned if her good humor doesn't give her away and she giggles again, shaking her head at herself. "I dunno if I'm naughty, but sometimes I like puttin' things in others shoppin' carts when they ain't lookin." A smile, cometeply quileless, is given over. "What's the worst you did? Or not the worst, just naughty list worthy."

There is Quay, finding room on the bar for his elbow, as if he was always a part of it. Just there leaned into it like he grew out of it almost. Or not so much, but comfy right up to just sitting and watching her look devastated. "Well," he says just as she is about to give away that she's teasing at him, "I said I didn't lie, now I'll have to figure out how special you were." Like, round two at an undisclosed time in the future. "Yeah, that's pretty bad, had to put back those dill pickle chips I wanted the other day went over what I thought I was spending, must of been a mischievious elf." Or her, or he's just saying it cause she brought it up. Gives him some time to think of the worst he's done, that and the swig of beer. "Oh, the one time my dad thought my brother took the car for a joyride, that was me, I let him take the fall. And it wasn't a lie, dad never asked me about it." He shrugs, "The shopping cart stuffing the worst you did to make the naughty list?"

"Oh I'm special." Lyric says with every confidence ever. "If you don't know that already by now, then you can't read people well." She doesn't define special in what way, but she still laughs, mostly at herself. "But everyone needs pickles in their life. You put stuff on the outside of them and fry em. Dip it in ketchup or ranch dressing. Pickle-o's. Does that mean you bought the cornmeal and flour if you only put the pickles back?" Either she's playing along or the shopping cart bandit had struck. She taps her fork on a tot in the basket as she considers. "But takin' the car isn't bad cause you didn't steal it or nothin'. Just drove it." Considering his question, her eyes flash a but solemnly and she shrugs, shaking her head. "Nope, not the worst. There's lots of worsts." While a frown makes a brief appearance, she quickly wipes it away to study him. "Did you go in the Army or anythin?"

With a nod again, Quay returns, "You caught on, I'm not a people reader. That means I get to figure them out as I go along, full of surprises." He sets his glass down, lifting a hand to flag for another pull to give him a second pint of the regional go to. A thought ans a suspicious nod, "Yeah, I was curious, but then turned it into some kick ass flapjacks, so I thought it was a good buy just the same." His eyes listen as she gives her thoughts on the car and it not being stolen. "True, but it did need some work after we got it out of the ditch near home. I suppose it worked out." He takes a hand to nudge her shoulder with a fist he makes. "Hey, no worry about worsts. I told you I don't read people, I figure them out as I go along. You put your past where your behind is or something like that." Then his pint is full again, he takes his glass but isn't rushing to drink some. "I didn't do any service, but I'll break my code and lie about it if you're into these army dudes." Said with all the dry sarcasm that indicates he wouldn't know where to begin to make up that he was in the military.

"That's okay. I kinda don't wanna be read." A decisive nod from the blonde. When he places his beer down, Lyric reaches for her own and finishes off the bottle before sliding it back on the bar. Another is given, apparently they know her here. A tot is stabbed and devoured before she licks cheese off her lower lip as she considers the flapjacks. "You can cook? That's kinda cool." Plenty of time to expound on that, so she just brushes over it for now. "Maybe you shoulda paid for the fixes of the car." Pot, kettle. Lyric doesn't pay for things she breaks either and the guilty flush of her cheeks may give that away. The nudge sort of sways her smaller self but it makes her laugh. "I dunno about Army dudes. Tyrone was one but he was kinda busted." She doesn't indicate it was the wheelchair though, she taps her head. "In there. Just things I guess. I asked cause you gotta camo hat." A side eyed look that holds mischief. "Can I try it on?"

"A woman of mystery, I'll guess international spy then." Quay plays into her not being read and makes it all the more mysterious. When he takes a gulp its big, but its more slow this go around, just nursing it in his own fashion. "Every man should be able to cook, its part of surviving." As if shocked that anyone would think he couldn't cook. "It aint like food network fabulous, but I know what I like. I did plenty else for my folks, maybe we're even somehow in the end." Only a nod about Army dudes, he doesn't know Tyrone and can't speak to busted or not, with all the fighting in the recent past, no telling what that could mean. "Its special, only got about half a dozen caps." Though they may not all be the same, this is a Cabela's cap it seems. "You ain't gonna steal it are you, add a notch on the naughty list for you?

... for you?" He does reach up to take it off, his short hair has a little cap hair going on, he offers it over. She has to snatch it and tug to get it from his hand, but it'll come off his grip his more playing.

A woman of mystery. Lyric considers that cause she'd not thought of herself that way. It's a brief consideration before she laughs and waves it away with her fork. "Prolly not so much to the peeps in this town. I'm just me. Most people know or knew me." Back to the tots she takes a couple of bites before she is distracted all over again. "I went to a cookin class at the college with Cole. Then he moved away." A light shrug as if that happens a lot. "Everyone leaves. Cept the people from here, mostly they stay cause they cain't leave." Vague yeah, but it seems to be her normal. As he offers over his hat she peers at his hair, which now proves to be the reason she'd asked for it. Still, she does take it, even tugging it hard enough to get it from him, and tucks it onto her white blonde locks the bill off center in the back, all crooked like. A grin is given to him then. "You can have it back whenever you want." Except she makes no moves to remove it. "Or the next time I see you, you can get it."

"Oh good, there's a next time," returns Quay as he shifts his weight at the bar. "Here I thought my breath wasn't doing it for me." As if relief is there now that the air is cleared up on how well this meeting between them is going. "And I'm from here, thought usually out at my place doing my thing. Not that I cain't leave, just I'm here, why bother with the trouble to leave. So I don't know if that makes me like everyone or just a peep. I ain't so sweet though, so not a peep." He looks over at her and the way she's wearing his hat, "That's pretty gangster, living up to your mischievious reputation." Of which he knows nothing about.

"Maybe," Lyric says mysteriously. "I mean, if I don't just keep it. If you're from here an' I am from here, an' we dunno each other, maybe it'll be another 24 years until I see you again to give you the hat." Logic to her at least. "Why ain't you sweet? You don't seem rude or mean and you said you don't lie. Unless you lied when you said you don't lie." A suspicious peering at him as if that is all a more real scenario than him not lying. "It's a nice hat. But you can really have it if you want it," even going so far as to lean towards him so he can take it off her head, since he'd made her tug harder to get it from him.

"Twenty four years you say," he scrunches his lips with a thought. Then looks at her, and then looks her over, then nods, "Well, I think it'd be worth the wait, its a good hat after all." Teasing himself even while still being a little dry. "To each their own, maybe I am, only one way to find out, get a good bite in." He tries to follow the mysterious logic of lying about not lying, "Exactly what a spy would say, I'm onto you woman." She leans some towards him, but he just turns it around on her, cap forward and straight on. "You make it look good, you hold onto it. But not twenty four years, lets meet up in a couple days. Maybe when this storm passes, I should try to beat it back to my place before the roads start closing or something with floods."

The flirting while not really flirting keeps her guessing and Lyric laughs, still leaned over until he turns the cap to the front. She tips it back a little. "Just call me Hollywood." For absolutely no reason at all. Pulling the bill lower, she hides her bright gaze in the shadows. "Meet in a coupla days? At the grocery store? I know! We can both grab some things so random and put it in a cart then we gotta try an' cook something good out of it." A decisive nod, not even considering they'd have to go to someone's house to cook it. "Yeah if its far out you should go. I don't live bad far." She indicates her umbrella by the door and a loooong slicker. Yellow. "Prolly already flooded tho."

"And I'm Ice," he says himself, as she takes on the Hollywood nickname. "Hollywood it is. I'm in for this cook off. See what comes of doing that. Hopefully no elves slip extra random stuff in beyond what we pick ourselves. I'd have to get that elf." As if he was hunting elves, ire in his eyes, or feigned ire. He lifts a fist to shake it a little. "If I stay to long I might solve part of the mystery of you Hollywood. And no rush for that, I'd rather enjoy the novel and not skip to the end you know. Its far enough that the roads could be getting bad but not like lone cabin on the mountain far." He starts to stand up, lifts two fingers, "Two days, its on. We meet at the," local grocery store that they'd both know, "See where that day takes us." A nod, he musses his hair with a hand as if that helps hat head a little.

His nickname for himself has her leaning down to look at his shoes before sitting back up. "Give me back my shoes." It's sad deadpan before she grins at him again. Some people may think she's crazy. Maybe she is, but at least she knows what she's talking about. Though he does mention sort of hunting elves, she takes him serious, unfortunately. "Maybe hunting elves is better than hunting the gnomes," the words holding a touch of melancholy. Realizing he was joking, she smiles at him, a beaming smile. "Two days, I'm no mystery." She's not! At least to herself she's not. She knows everything about herself! "Okay we'll meet at the grocery store and maybe make something fun. Even if it doesn't gotta be cooked. Can all be already cooked things." He gets up to go, she goes back to her beer and tots, "See you around, Ice." Turning the hat back around, bill in between the side and the back, then looks at him with a challenging grin. "Later gator."

There is a little smirk from Quay, their both on the right reference then as she talks about the shoes. "For your information, I'm a little leaguer." Okay, that's backwards but it works. "You don't have to be a mystery to anyone but me." And he's not sure about gnomes, but doesn't question it eitehr, so long as in the end they do end up with food on this grocery store trip. "Take it easy Hollywood, after while croc." He does give her a stink eye when she challenges with the hat, he even moves to barrel his chest a little like he's going to grab it and fix it, but he doesn't. He gives a wave, and repeates "Two days", making it ominous a little in a joking sort of way before he turns and walks out into the storm out there.