Fisherman's Hook

[jollyjohanna]

((Anyone, feel free to join! You can be someone sitting by an empty seat, working in the bar or anything.))



It was a freezing cold Friday evening when Carl entered the Fisherman's Hook. The room was warm and a little bit stuffy, mostly because it was packed with people. Carl hung his overcoat over the loaded coat rack and started to navigate through the crowd - he'd had a lot of experience and moved a lot easier than you could tell by his size. He only bumped into one or two.
He had an ordinary sweater and the ordinary disguise: a scarf, a protective mask, sunglasses and a baseball cap; but still (or because of that) people recognized him. There was a "There you are, Carl!" or "Hi, Reed!" now and then and he answered with a "Hiya, Frank!" or "Good seeing you too!"
Despite of the disguise he had managed to blend in with the Bridgeport society pretty well; most people just thought he was a regular burn victim or something.
He bought a beer and started to look around for a place to sit down. It looked like almost every place was occupied, but he hoped it wasn't so. His feet were aching already.

[floppybelly]

Loretta, shivering from the cold ocean air, had taken a short break from her shift. There weren't any ships scheduled to be arriving soon, so the lighthouse didn't need tending at the moment. Wrapped up in her toque, coat, and scarf, she ventured down to the Fisherman's Hook. Sidling up next to a fellow who was all wrapped up, she took off her coat and scarf and ordered a drink.

[jollyjohanna]

Carl's left eye (not that facial directions meant much for him anymore) peered cautiously out from the end of his right sleeve. One of the thing that had been hardest to adjust to was that his eyes kept moving and that his field of sight kept changing, but now he hardly noticed when one of his eyes looked forward from the front of his head (he didn't think of that area as his 'face' anymore) and one looked backward from the back of his head.
The woman seemed young, but that was hard to determine since she had sunglasses and toque. She showed no signs of taking them off. Carl wondered a little over the fashion these days: sunglasses and caps inside? Should be mighty dark, he concluded. But then he remembered that he was wearing sunglasses too; not that his eyes was under the sunglasses (the left had slipped up under the sleeve and was circling slowly around his elbow and the right eye was looking out over the throng of people through a small gap in his scarf) so he probably didn't have the right to say anything.
He said anything anyway.
"Hello! Mighty cold weather today, isn't it?"
Carl's voice was dark and cheerful, and hopefully the newcomer wouldn't notice that it came from somewhere under his collarbone.

[floppybelly]

Loretta took a sip of her drink and peered at the stranger next to her through her peripheral vision, being careful not to stare in the wrong way. "Yeah," she murmured with an involuntary shiver, "I can't imagine being out there for too long." Her snakes picked up on her mood and hugged closer to her scalp, stealing her body heat. She tried to subtly yank her hat down by the strings, a nervous habit that she had formed lately.
"But hey," she chattered to her mysterious bar-mate, "That's why we're in here, right? Good shelter, good booze, good folks."

[jollyjohanna]

Carl chuckled. If a chuckle could be deep and booming, this was.
"True!"
Then he made sure that his right hand was totally free of facial features and chivalrously offered it to her.
"I'm Carl, by the way. Carl Reed. And who might this young lady be?"

[floppybelly]

Loretta smiled softly and gingerly shook the kind man's hand, hoping he wouldn't notice her new claws...
"Loretta Magdalen, pleasure to meet you." Cradling her drink as she befriended the new stranger, she relaxed a little, nearly forgetting that this was anything but a normal day with a normal guy, in a normal conversation. For the first time in a long time, Loretta was enjoying herself, and it made her reluctant to leave for the lighthouse again.
"So Carl," she asked after awhile, "When folks come to a bar all alone, they're usually either looking for something, or getting away from something. What's your story?" Loretta elbowed at him playfully from her stool, which had been built into the floor quite close to the ones next to it.

[jollyjohanna]

Carl flinched slightly, not that it had been a very hard nudge but his ear had been located at just the very place where the nudge had hit, but then pretended that nothing had happened. He considered her question for a moment and then shrugged.
"Well, I'm just here looking for company. It's just no good to spend the evening all alone."
Then he realized that what he just had said could easily be misread. He wouldn't want her to think he made advances toward her, God no. That had happened before; he begun to talk to some gal who just looked at him with a freaked-out expression and eased away as fast as possible. The thought made him chuckle again.
"Mind you, not that kind of company. I'm married, y'see. Just needed to come out and meet some people. What's your story?"

[floppybelly]

Loretta took a moment to wipe the shocked expression off her face. She sighed, resting her chin on her hands. "Oh I don't know," she muttered, "I guess I was just getting a little tired of being alone."

(OOC: What now?)

[soup]

((Could I hop in with Evelyn? I really want to use her and this looks fun ))

[floppybelly]

(Yeah, we're open to anybody. It's not a private bar!)

[soup]

(Whoo! ...don't know how to get those little people boxes up though, sadly D: Would I be able to post without them for a while?)

[jollyjohanna]

((Sure thing! It's just to jump in.))

Carl nodded when a man suddenly forced his way through the crowd. The man was in his twenties, had black hair and stubble and wore a grayish shirt, pale jeans and black leather boots. He held a half full beer glass and was on his way to the bar desk.
The man shoved his way past Carl and suddenly bumped into Loretta, lost his balance and spilled beer on her arm. He looked at the suddenly empty glass and then at Loretta, an angry expression on his face. His pale face and unfocused eyes was clear proof of that he was a bit tipsy.
"Watch it, sweetie!" he hissed. "What did you have to go and f*cking stand in my way for?"
Carl took a step forward and interrupted him.
"Hey, there's no need to be rude. Just apologize to the lady, man."
The man turned around and looked up at Carl (he was not so tall), his lips forming a sneer.
"This is none of your business, fatso."

[soup]

The bar door swung open, letting the cold air from outside rouse a few grumbles from those close to the door. Evelyn quickly hurried in, shivering inside her jacket as she blew hot air over her hands.Well, hand and sock, anyway. Wasting no time, she quickly slipped onto a bar stool, dodging around the people milling about. Stretching, she grinned and quickly ordered her drink, unzipping her jacket and slinging it over her lap as she began to warm up in the warm bar. noticing the two besides her, she gave a small wave before happily grabbing her drink and having a sip.
She almost started talking, before noticing the situation between the two men. Deciding to keep her head down for that fight, she began to scan the bar for any spare seats, casually leaning on her sock-covered hand as a antsy Suppet attempted to reach her drink.

[floppybelly]

Loretta sighed and tried to keep her calm, eventually reaching across the bar to grab some napkins. She got up and moved to a seat on the other side of the new girl, figuring her to be a safer bet than the drunk. Dabbing the beer off of herself with a grimace (she'd be smelling of it for the rest of the day now), she sunk back into her seat with a resigned look.
If this had been a few months ago, either she or her boyfriend would have punched the guy until he passed out into a drunken stupor. Now it was all she could do to keep herself and her snakes calm.

[jollyjohanna]

Carl just scratched his chin and looked down at the angry guy (let's call him Steve). He had been called worse things than "fatso" and it would take more than just calling him names to get him upset.
"Just a friendly advice on the way. Chances might be that you end up in trouble if you keep lashing out at people you don't know."
It wasn't meant as a threat, but Steve assumed it was and just rolled his eyes.
"Oh, and guess what? I don't care. What are you going to do about that, sit on me?"
Steve turned around to walk away from Carl and the faced Evelyn. He was going to walk on by her when he suddenly halted, his hazy eyes focusing on Suppet. And then he opened his mouth again.
"What the f*ck's that!? A sock puppet!? Get real! This is a bar, not a playground."