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The bartender passed Calliope her drink and the blue haired girl was surprised to find that it was halfway tolerable. The same could not be said of the club’s music, however, because the [url=https://youtu.be/OFiT9zhSujE]new song[/url] that the DJ was mixing contained the same high frequency chipmunk voices as all the other ones he had played that evening. [i]’Is this how it's going to be all night?’[/i] she thought, taking another sip of her drink and swallowing the mouthful of ginger beer and lime almost forlornly. [i]’So this is what normal people do on a Saturday evening. Dance around in their skivvies to music where the singer sounds like they've just taken a hit of helium? How strange.’[/i]

Her musings were interrupted when a man in a neon pink hoodie slammed something onto the bar top and flagged down the barkeep wordlessly, gesturing to a beer on tap. [i]’Now that's a clever idea,’[/i] she thought, eyes lingering on the teal helmet the gentleman wore. It was sure to keep the bubbles out of his eyes and hair, plus if a fight broke out he’d be much more protected from blunt force trauma than the rest of them. He got an A+ on disaster preparedness, she'd say.

She also decided that if she was going to attempt to make a new friend amongst her fellow humans, wouldn't it be a good idea if it was someone who could handle themselves during earth’s upcoming demise?

“Hello,” Calliope said, hopefully loud enough for the stranger to hear over the music. She gnawed at her bottom lip for a moment while she considered what to say, before deciding that the best way to appear friendly was to pay someone a compliment. “I like your helmet, it is quite lovely and looks like it would be able to withstand many hits from a bat or crowbar.”

[i]’I’ll be a pro at this in no time,’[/i] the blue haired woman thought, feeling proud of her vastly improving small talk skills.

Blade watched as the Bartender signed for the package, thus causing him to repeat the process of nodding in approval and tucking it back into the pocket of his tasteful neon pink hoodie.    

“Your Lud Bight, dude.” The Bartender presented him with his drink, a smirk across their face as they slid the tall dripping pint of beer over to him. Blade eyed the drink, reaching into his pocket once more and taking out a bendy straw. Sliding it into one of the ventilation holes in his helmet and slurping.                

He did not answer so Calliope could only assume he didn't want to be bothered or perhaps had not heard her among the high pitched squealing that played over the PA system. [i]’...do I try again?’[/i] she wondered, eyebrows knitting together in concentration. She didn't want this outing to be in vain, so she decided to make a second attempt. Now how to get his attention…?

“Hey,” Calliope started again, leaning over to flick the side of his helmet with her index finger. It made a nice thumping noise, letting her know that it was indeed as solid as she had previously assumed. “I like your helmet, sir.”

The sudden knock on the side of his head finally managed to convince him to give the woman his attention, the Biker turning around on his stool and staring at the lady through the dark tint of his visor. He cocked his head to side, before suddenly reaching out and twirling her azure locks in between his gloved fingers.

He brushed his thumb against them briefly, before drawing his hand back and nodding, giving a simple thumbs up. Turning back to his drink, he resumed drinking.
    
She blinked, picking at the lock of hair that the stranger had just wound around his finger. On any other night it would have infuriated her, but she had just assaulted his headgear and he hadn't been rough about it, so she decided it was meant to be friendly.

But then he turned away from her again. Was she not doing this correctly?

[i]’What else do you do when trying to make friends?’[/i] Calliope pondered, her fingers drumming against the countertop idly. “Do you…,” she began again, pausing to word the next bit mentally first before pressing on, “...want me to buy you a drink?” 

Blade sighed. The girl was just begging now, it was sort of sad, really. However, he always had a soft spot for naive individuals; something about the aura of innocence they always seemed to carry around with them. Once again, the Biker turned, slurping up the rest of his beer quietly before sighing in satisfaction.

Well, one couldn’t hurt. Or so he thought.

With a nod of his head, he watched with slight interest in what the girl had in mind for him. It was sure to be quite the spectacle if she hadn’t thought this through.
                            
Again he didn’t say anything, but Calliope was beginning to think silence was his way of being kind. She wished animals would do that too, all of their carrying on was hard to deal with at times. Like how at this very moment the rats that lived beneath the floorboards were yammering on about some ridiculous revolution to overthrow the raccoons that dwelled in the cellars and how their efforts would be futile without the assistance of the cockroach army.

Club LUSH should really hire exterminators.

“Can we get two shots of whiskey?” Calliope asked, receiving a nod from the frazzled bartender. She poured their shots and set them down in front of each of them before disappearing off to help other customers. “How are you going to do it with your helmet on, friend?” She questioned, quirking an eyebrow at the stranger before picking up her glass and waiting to shoot it at the same time as him.    

Now, normally Blade didn’t drink hard liquor until he was all cozy and sobered up in his home, but he supposed that if it was free, it couldn’t hurt that much.     

Rather than down his shot glass, the Courier instead stuck his straw inside it and sipped at it really fast. 

He paused, sliding the empty glass over to her. He nodded his thanks, slapping a fiver right on her thigh.

Cheeky, of course, but he had the right to be in this country.

“Oh,” she said, looking down at the five on her leg. It was beginning to dampen from her still soapy skin. “No, I was buying it for you. That's how it works, right?” Calliope asked, but she was already scooping up the cash and tucking it into the front of his hoodie. “That's better. Thank you for having a drink with me, sir,” she hummed, taking her own shot and setting the glass down next to his.

It burned a bit more than expected, but it wasn't awful. 

“Do you want to play a game with me?”

Blade shrugged in response.

“I used to play it with my dad a lot. He was a marine,” Calliope commented as she reached a hand under the hem of her skirt and pulled a buck knife free from the lace of her garter. “It's called ‘Five Finger Fillet’. Have you ever played it before?” 

[i]What kind of man plays five finger fillet with their daughter?[/i]

Blade stared at Calliope for the longest time, wondering just where she had been keeping that knife the entire time. The action caused him to pause. After all, it wasn’t everyday a woman just slid a blade out of her dress. If he had known this chick was packin’ heat, he’d have brought his own piece to the party. 

Finally, he managed to shrug again, slamming his fingers onto the counter and spreading them apart. With his other hand, he would beckon for her to hand him the knife.
[hr][sub][right]A collaboration with [@Bozo].[/right][/sub]