Drinks can be more than fun.

[Anonymous]

It was a usual day. Only Remi wasn't in his apartment drinking. He was in a bar. At the bar even, sitting on one of those stools and having strange people press against his back trying to lean over him. He downed his shot and placed it quietly back on the top of the bar before pushing his hands through his hair. He burned liqour fast, so he'd need plenty more before he peeled himself away from the bar and crawled to his apartment in the Citadel. If he even went there. Did he want to go back? What was waiting for him? Nothing. Like always.

Remi frowned, waved his hand for a new drink, a shot and something lighter before he drank all of those too within a few minutes. His sunflower yellow hair was an attention grabber, it was pulled back in an odder hairstyle for Remi, a half pony tail that kept it from his mutilated ears. He was one of the more reclusive pilots, rarely if having ever, shown up on some sort of news article. Not that he minded. Stuff was bullshit anyway.

A quiet grunt and he shifted in his seat. Falling into old habits, his fifteen minutes of almost happiness were up. Not that he was expecting much more. Remi, in an odd show of outgoing, turned to the person beside him, "So. You don't look drunk enough, can I buy you a drink? The more the merrier they always say."

[Anonymous]

What was a person to do when they weren't working around this place? Generally speaking, the answer was any fucking thing you wanted, baby! At least, that was the answer she'd gotten when she had made the mistake of idly wondering what to spend her time on. It hadn't been an actual question, and certainly not directed at Zenith, but he'd kindly answered anyway. Then when she'd expressed a disinterest in doing much of anything, Zenith had come up with a brilliant idea. At least, he thought it was a great idea.

Summer wondered if maybe the dragon just liked to fuck with her. In the same vein, she didn't have to wonder, she knew Zenith liked dick around with her. She'd been bonded to the dragon for twenty-four years now, she should know better than to express boredom around him. His oh-so-wonderful idea was to go to a bar. Now, drinking was all well and good, but she preferred to drink alone, and not in a crowded place with people to irritate her while she tried to mellow out.

Too bad. So sad. Zenith had gotten the idea into his head, and that was the end of it. Could she argue and protest? Oh sure, but in the end, the dragon would always win. It was much less painful and bothersome to simply humor his wild fancies, of which he seemed to have many. She was a gerbil in a hamster ball, only existing for Zenith's entertainment. Oh well, she'd known what she'd signed up for when she was shipped off to be a Candidate. Not that there had been much signing. You went, whether you liked it or not. Heh. At least it wasn't a horrible life, eh?

She had been sitting on a barstool for at least an hour. The rest of the bar might as well not have existed. Her eyes were vacant, staring off into nothing. Her head was tilted slightly down, an empty glass in front of her. A Long Island Ice Tea, it had been good and well-made, at least that was a plus. A cigarette hung from her lips precariously. Zenith had been egging her on to try some of the drugs that were being passed around the bar, but she'd politely declined, and reluctantly he'd cut her a break and not insisted.

Suddenly she was brought out of her idle thoughts by a man that was sitting next to her. Blinking at the realization that, oh yeah, she was in a bar, she turned her head slightly to look at him. Holy living hell! How had she missed a guy with make-your-eyes-bleed yellow hair?! Zenith was cackling in the back of her mind. She made a mental note to herself to punch her dragon as hard as she could when she got home. Not that it would help, but hey, it would make her feel better. Zenith laughed even harder at that.

"Huh? Oh. A drink, right, right. Yeah, I have the feeling I'm not nearly drunk enough. Fucking dragon." More laughter in her head.

[Anonymous]

Remi knocked back a shot of something-or-other before the lady spoke and he tried not to smirk at her. Obviously they worked in different sides of the building. There was the radiated ‘hey, you’re psychic’ vibe from her, but he couldn’t put a name to the face he sort of recognised. Of course, he smiled at her when she mentioned a dragon. “Ah, yes. I hear they give some people trouble.” His own didn’t, not really.

Khuno was an asshole, sure, but for the most part, the dragon stayed out of his head and his life. Remi was sure that if Khuno liked people in the slightest he’d go out of his way to make Remi’s life more of a hell than it already was. He held his hand up to the bartender and one glass was placed in front of the lady and the other was slapped down in front of him.  He drank it up in one go and then sighed before ducking his head down.

“I recognize you, but I can’t stick a name to your face.” He tried to smile at her, polite before he noticed her cigarette and he frowned and patted at his pockets. “Do you have anymore of those?”

[Anonymous]

Did Summer recognize him? Well, it would be hard to forget hair like that, so she probably hadn't worked with him before. Obviously he was a Pilot, she could sense that he was psychic, and all psychics were either Pilots or TRIM lab rats. Well, not all of them, but anyone of enough ability that she could feel them out in a crowded bar had to be a Pilot. She laughed at his response. "Some people, yes, you're referring to the Pilots, like myself, that were oh-so-blessed with a dragon with a twisted sense of humor and an actual interest in humans."

Summer bitched about Zenith a lot, mostly to Zenith himself, actually, but the truth was, he wasn't a horrible dragon to be paired with. Yes, he got it in his head to send her off on stupid little 'assignments' like coming here, but he was fairly laid-back. She couldn't recall very many times that he'd felt the need to punish her. Mostly she thought she just amused him. It was a blow to her ego, but in the end Zenith seemed to be fond of her, like one might be fond of a favorite pet.

Sighing, she pulled a pack of cigarettes from her jacket and offered it to him. "Pilot Royal Summer Meadows. It's possible that you've heard of me."

Possible? Likely. You didn't become a Pilot Royal without some recognition. She set her cigarette in a nearby ashtray, before picking up her drink and following her companion's example and drinking it down quickly. It burned, but that was half the point. If it didn't burn going down then it wasn't anything worth drinking.

[Anonymous]

Well that answered that! Remi frowned and brought his cup to his mouth before he realized that it was, indeed, empty. Crap. Well, that meant another round of drinks, and since he was a gentleman he bought the pretty lady Summer one too. Remi put his smoke back between his lips and sucked in the tainted air. Coffee tasted like shit, and he needed something else addicted to keep his mind off the link between him and his dragon.

So smoking it was.

The next round of booze was placed before them and Remi looked at the woman. “Aaah, Pilot Royal Summer Meadows.”  He smirked at that, “Your name sounds like what colour my hair is.” He made a quiet comment before he removed the smoke and drank down the burning fluid.  And he took I a shallow breath, “Khuno hates people, so he stays out of my head. Not worth the trouble he says.  I’m Remi Talbotte, Pilot Noble and I am having a shitty day.” He eyed her for a moment before he pursed his lips and looked at the wall of liquor bottles and smiled. It was a cat like smile. “So. I’ll have you a contest first person that gets drunk loses and has to kiss me.”

[Anonymous]

A free drink was all well and good, but Summer eyed the next round skeptically. Drinking was all well and good, but she hadn't really planned on more than a couple drinks. When she did get drunk, she preferred the privacy of her own home where she didn't have to deal with people. Remi drank his and mentioned his crappy day. Did people always talk this much in bars? Summer wasn't sure, she didn't come to these places often. At least she was learning about a fellow Pilot? She really should work on building more connections and better relationships with her peers.

Suddenly she blinked and realized that she might just need a few more drinks after all. A drinking contest? How childish. Of course, she couldn't refuse a challenge. She arched a delicate brow at him with a smirk at his terms. "So you're going to be kissing yourself, then? Whatever floats your boat."

With a brief thought that she was probably going to regret everything, she picked up her drink that she hadn't touched, and downed it, not feeling the burn as badly this time.