Dick’s Last Resort September 23, 2513

Marcus sits in the bar, two ladies beside him. He is thoroughly enjoying himself when he notices her walking through the door. Interesting how she stands out, and how distracting she is. He raises an arm to wave at her but she is already engaged with the bartender. She appears to know him. Making deliveries or something. Good to know she has connections. He pushes away his drink and gives the lady on his left his attention. Most likely she is a pickpocket, but she’ll have to work hard to get more than attention out of him. The other heavily painted woman giggles and leans in, trying to get equal attention from him. He grins and allows her to distract him, all the while watching the interaction between Rae and the bartender. The bar is far from empty, but it is obvious who is causing the biggest stir here.

Rae turns from the bartender curiously at the sound of loud raucous laughter. Spotting Marcus she sighs. Spotting who he’s with she grimaces. Turning back to the bartender she nods her goodbye and makes her way over to Marcus’ booth. “Hi Marcus.” She states in an amused tone. “Whatcha got going on here?” The women both look at her cautiously, one smiles and says hesitantly. “Hi Rae.” Rae nods at the woman, continuing to look at Marcus. The woman calling her Rae momentarily takes Marcus aback. They are friends of some sort? “A celebration Rae.” He calls her Rae hesitantly, wondering if she will correct him. “Will you join us? There’s plenty of room.” He fumbles over the word room, dragging it out as if drunk. He gives her a cockeyed grin and holds up his cup, emptying it. He has lipstick smeares on his face and neck, and makes quite an image. Rae isn’t sure if she should laugh or be disgusted.

She looks from the drunken man to the pickpockets. Sighing heavily she makes a choice, she owes him after all. It doesn’t matter how much he complicates things, silly little, what is the word, Nerd? That’s it, nerd, cute though, for a glasses pusher. Sitting there all drunk, with two devious streetwise pickpockets hanging on him, trying to find his stash of money. “Ladies, if you don’t mind. He happens to be a client of mine.” The lady on the left giggled and rolled her eyes, “Rae dear, you don’t have clients yet! You’re not ready yet.” Rae’s eyes go hard, “You want to test that theory Delores? Or would you rather do us both a favor and find another mark?” Delores scoots out of the booth along with her friend, looking unhappy, “Aw Rae we were so close, why’d you have to ruin our fun?” Rae raises an eyebrow and looks around, “Plenty of fun to be had here, just go look.” Delores and her friend wander off and Rae looks down at Marcus.

“How many drinks have you had? What are you celebrating? Don’t you know better than to do what you’re doing? Drinking makes your senses dull and you don’t have your brother here to watch your back.” She gives him an annoyed look. He pushes up his glasses and gives her a goofy grin, “You could watch my back. I’m your client after all.” Drawing out the “you” into a semblance of a slur he raises his hand for another drink. Rae shoves his hand down and says, “I think you should go home. You’re just going to get in trouble. Get up.” She reaches down and grabs his arm and tries to haul him up, surprised at the resistance. “You really are drunk, you’re like a limp noodle. Get UP!” She gives another tug and this time he complies, looking slightly disappointed. He staggers slightly and bumps into her, grabbing onto her for support while maintaining his goofy grin. “I’m a client. I’m her first client,” he all but giggles as he says it. She stands him up and rolls her eyes, “at least you’re not a nasty drunk.” Reaching out she grabs a damp bar napkin and commences to scrub all the lipstick off his face and neck. He stands there, amused expression in his eyes, swaying slightly. She then turns him and pushes him toward the exit. He complies, leaning back into her push, his face slightly red from her scrubbing. Before they can exit he ask her, “We’re not done yet are we? I was having fun, the ladies will miss me.” She rolls her eyes again, “sure they will lover boy.”

She maneuvers him out the door, at which point he turns and drapes an arm on her, leaning in close. As she fumbles to remove him, he takes a moment to breathe deeply. He smells soap and some sort of flowery hair product. It smells better than he thought it would. He chuckles to himself at her naivety and continues to play the drunk, slurring his words and acting unbalanced. She disentangles herself from him and straightens him up, putting an arm around him to steady him and one arm over her shoulder and holding it there. They continue a somewhat wandering path back to his shop. The whole time he continues to ramble about nothing in particular while Rae adds the occasional “yeah” and “no” and a lecture on the dangers of his actions. Eventually he begins to work in questions, trying to get personal information from her. She carefully sidesteps as many questions as she can, not sure she wants to give him any important information.

His frustration is almost palpable. He decides to lay off with the questioning for now. When they reach the shop she asks, “Where’s your key Marcus?” He leans heavily on her and says, “in my pocket.” After he just stands there, she sighs heavily and reaches out a hand to pat his pockets looking for his keys. He offers drunken commentary, “other pocket, noooope, other pocket,” and snickers when she finally gets to the proper pocket. She gives him an annoyed look and releases him, shoving him up against the wall and holding him there with one hand, “stupid men.” When the door is open she shoves his keys in her own pocket and leads him back and through the shop to the living areas.