where everybody knows your name (kyros)

Jack has been here two weeks.

He was already a regular at the bars.

What a world.

He knew this bar like the back of his hand at this point. He took off his coat, placed it on the coat rack, asked Jenny behind the bar how school was going and ordered a bottle of tequila. "Not whiskey?" she asked, and Jack had to shake his head and laugh. It was good to mix it up sometimes. They were playing a soccer game on the TV and Jack's eyes glazed over. People often mistook him for a sports guy because of his build, but he was more of an artsy nerd that was a sucker for riveting plotlines. At least all the European dudes were pretty hot.

"Hey, man, can I get a plate of wings here? Thanks."


@"Kyros"

Jack quirked an eyebrow at the sweet ass cat man that just came in, noticing the sudden electricity in the crowd. Man, this guy sure knew how to make an entrance. One of these days he was going to learn "flourish" over "scramble", but for now, he was grinning with amusement.

"Total noob. Fresh off the boat just a couple weeks ago. Nice to meet you, DAVE. Call me Jack, man." Seeing that he'd already taken two glasses of tequila ever since he ordered, he gestured at his own face, furrowing his eyes together. "So, uh, noob question. The face. Is that legit?"

He laughed. "Probably, considering it's right there. I think it's rad as shit. I don't think I can sport a cat face as well."

Oh, Jack definitely wanted in on the photo. He put his hands underneath his chin and smiled like a cute Japanese idol, which was hilarious considering he was a 7ft tall rugged man. "Moshi moshi!" he said, with feeling.

Jack downed a half glass of tequila, feeling his stomach warm a little, and slung an arm around DAVE casually so he can watch all the cute photo stickers. He muttered some suggestions about adding blushes for maximum effect. "Oh my god. That's kawaii as shit. Put it up on Facebook and tag me so the world can know how adorable we are."

Jack watched Jenny put out the plates of wings out for the two of them and nodded politely. "Thanks, babe."

Damn, now there it was, in plain view for the world to know. Jack just fucking kawaii selfie'd with a rad ass cat man. That was never in his bucket list, but it sure was now, and it sure got crossed off. Jack started stuffing some wings in his mouth and they were hot.

"Well, yeah, duh? What else would I be doing here?" It was an honest question. Seriously, did other people know about this place? In all eight hundred years of him living, he'd never heard of this place before. He gulped down his tequila like it was water and took a moment for the burn to settle in before continuing. "Grad School. Art Theory. I'm going to become a big fancy Art Consultant and get paid to literally look at shitty modern art and judge how much they're worth. It's great. What about you, dude?"

"Huh." Now that he thought about it, he felt kinda dumb. There was a city. There were obviously people. "Ok, sounds legit, man. Wait, did you say 'just woke up' here? Isn't this supposed to be some super secret island biz?"

Jack nodded, eating his wings and laughing. Professional video game player? Damn, kids these days. Back in his day, he finished the whole snake game and didn't get paid for it. "I'm an old man, so I don't really know how Professional Video Gaming works. Like... is that where they test out the shitty versions, or what? What kinda games? Bejeweled and stuff?"

He still couldn't get out of Level 20 of Candy Crush. Sad.

When the topic of art came up, Jack leaned in close, as if divulging a secret. "Here's a secret: Nobody really knows how art works. Art critics are full of shit. It's just hype. How do you think Picasso and Andy Warhol got famous? Who the shit would pay millions of dollars for boxes and pictures of soup?"

He didn't really know what he was talking about anymore, and downed half his bottle of tequila.

Jack zoned out for a brief moment, remembering when he just woke up a child one day with no recollection of his past. It wasn't sad so much as... fucking weird. "You know, that happened to me like 800 years ago. I just woke up... somewhere. Popped into existence. Shit's fucking weird."

Fighting games? Jack nodded. "Sounds sweet, man, though with the way you're FUCKING RIPPED, don't you think you can get some serious greens actually busting heads? Not in the assassin sense but like... you know UFC? That shit." He paused. "Of course, the cat face would scare peeps off but, you know. That's life."

Jack downed his whiskey and grinned. "Oh well. RIP. Might as well order a steak while you're at it, eh?"

"Ninja cat man," he said solemnly. "I can respect that."

He really could.

And at the offer of doing something, Jack decided he was just going to quit life, like, right now. He picked up his bottle of whiskey and downed it in one go.

HOLY HELL, HIS EVERYTHING WAS ON FIRE.

Fine. He was fine. He clutched his chest a bit, grabbing onto the side of the table. He burped and pushed the spreading alcohol heat down with chicken wings while he sort of... reeled, heart beating a mile a minute.

"I think it's cute that you think you can beat me in a drinking contest," he said, slightly arrogant, but if there was something he was good at, it was killing himself with alcohol. "You wanna go to the amusement park and smoke pot?"

Jack made a face at that. Oh, right. Why was he offering weed when he didn't have any on him? Stupid drunkenness messing with his cognitive functions. It was all a swirling haze. He wasn't that drunk yet, but his body was still reeling from what he did.

"I have some in my place too, from this guy selling stuff near the school. I don't know any good dealers yet. Sometimes you want to make a good impression to your classmates and it's not going to happen by saying, hey you know any good drug dealers?" They were all art majors, but still. Proper etiquette and all.

He munched on the chicken wings to get the gross taste out of his mouth.

"Hey, I'm up for going to your place, pal. I haven't done anything stupid since I arrived and I want to change that." He pulled out a bunch of bills in his pocket and threw it on the table. There were like... fifties and stuff there. Whatever. That'll pay for the drink and give the nice waitress a good tip. He smiled. "Ready when you are."