Diz

Monday, 25th of January, 198 A.C, 19:32

“Crunch it. Drink it. Taste it. Yum.” - Bottle Bomb Soda Slogan

“Heya Jackie!” Alcove’s proprietress looked up from the sink at my greeting.

“How’s it hanging, Diz?” Jackie flipped the dishrag she was carrying over her shoulder. She pointed towards the two customers already at the bar. “Go on and take a seat, I’ll get to you once I’m done with these folks.”

I picked out a stool a few spots to the right of the customers. They wouldn’t recognize me of course, but I certainly recognized them. It was Darren and Lilith, chatting as they waited for their drinks.

/Idea

They were just engaging in small talk for now, but I kept an ear out in case that changed. Casey had talked at length about her mistrust of the richer members of Impulse. It couldn’t hurt to try confirming her doubts.

Jackie finished serving the pair’s drinks and walked over to me. “One Heat Signature, I assume?” She wiped off the counter while we talked. The circles her dishrag traced occasionally tightened, closing in on a stubborn stain before loosening back out into the usual pattern.

I nodded. “Reading my mind as always.”

“Well,” she said, “you make it easy for me.” She smirked. “I’ve got a whole menu you can choose from, you know.”

“Maybe next time,” I said. “I’m in the mood to celebrate right now, not experiment.”

Jackie raised her eyebrows. “Now *there’s* something new. What happened to Mr. Mopey?”

“Hey, I’m not *that* bad.”

“Ehhhhhh, Agree to disagree. What’s the occasion?”

“Oh, nothing too big,” I said. “Had a good day at work and a breakthrough in some interpersonal stuff.”

Jackie took out the ingredients for the drink – whiskey, lemon juice, and syrup, as you would find in a whiskey sour, but with a dash of her proprietary hot sauce to liven things up.

She shook the drink with ice. “Work or ‘work’, pray tell?”

“It was… ‘work’, yeah.”

She nodded, poured, garnished with a lemon slice, and slid the completed drink over to me. “Well, congratulations! I’m sure they deserved it.”

“That they did,” I said. I lifted the glass and took a sip. “Mmmm! Perfection as always!”

Jackie grinned. “I aim to impress.”

The light of a notification from Jackie’s chipper danced off her eyes. She scanned it and said, “I’ve gotta go take this. Enjoy your drink while I’m gone, you hear?”

I gestured as if giving a small toast. “Of course.”

/Listen

With Jackie in the backroom, I shifted my attention back to Darren and Lilith. The tone of their conversation was still friendly, but there was a hint of a strain hiding in the undercurrents.

“You know,” Darren was saying, “I’m not sure I should be encouraging your bad habits. How about we find a cafe next time?” I figured that Darren’s bone dry sense of humor was lost on most of Impulse, but, being cooped up in a head so much of the time, I had grown to appreciate it. You were never quite sure where statements like this were located along the spectrum from genuine concern to pointed ribbing.

“*You* know,” Lilith shot back, “I’m getting a little tired of people harping on my lifestyle choices. Maybe get off my ass a little.” She interpreted it as closer to the pointed ribbing end, then.

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Darren took a judiciously timed sip of his drink. “Message received.” He was dressed like he had just gotten out of work, although in fairness I had never seen him dressed otherwise. I half wondered whether he *owned* any casual wear.

/Get to the good stuff

Lilith downed the rest of her drink. She swirled the vestigial ice cube around the glass for a moment, then said, “It’s hard, you know? I try to keep that shit away from the squad, especially the munchkins. I’ve shown up with a hangover now and then, but I do okay, right? Veil notwithstanding?”

“You do okay for now,” Darren said, “but I wonder how much longer that statement will be true. Just because you’re keeping it out of sight doesn’t mean it isn’t hurting anyone. Doesn’t mean it isn’t hurting you.”

“Mmmm.”

/Booooriiing

:I am actually very invested in this

I stifled a cough as a few drops of my drink went down the wrong pipe. I still wasn’t used to having Trace in here.

Lilith chuckled. “I guess this is what I get for keeping things to myself like a certain squad member I know.”

/Oh shit here we go

Darren furrowed his brow. “I don’t agree with all of his methods either, but he’s just trying to keep everyone safe. Maybe I would stand out against it more if we weren’t dealing with that bounty.” He absentmindedly grabbed at his shirt pocket, where his pen would be if he was carrying one. It was a tic I had noticed that manifested when he was trying to be diplomatic.

Lilith sprawled over the counter with an exasperated sigh. “Oh my gooooodddd, how do you put up with his bullshit? I can hold it together long enough to get through those meetings, but not a single second longer.” She launched into a mocking impression. “Oh look at me, my name is Sable! My weakness is stubbed toes! I think the best way to protect my teammates is to scheme in private like a fucking criminal mastermind!”

“Lily,” Darren began, “You *know* what most of the squad would do if they were given free rein on this stuff. I wish there was another way, but they’re my patients and I intend to do everything in my power to take care of them.”

“Okay,” Lilith said, “let’s run with that. You don’t keep patients around if they don’t want treatment, do you?” She took out the ice cube from her glass and started gnawing on it. “Beck and Kai, sure. They’re kids, I don’t want them doing anything too out there either. Maybe Trevor too, but he’s only a few months from eighteen. Everyone else? Let them do what they want.”

/Taking notes?

Darren put up his hands. “Fair point, fair point. Maybe that was a bad analogy.” He looked down and noticed that his glass was empty. “We were here to relax though, weren’t we?”

They both looked mournfully at their glasses. I tried to sip from my own, only to realize that it was empty as well. As if on cue, the door to the back room swung open and Jackie came bustling through.

“Oh dear,” she said, “look at those empty glasses! Let’s get that fixed, shall we?” She busied herself preparing second rounds for everyone.

/Looks like we’re not getting any more info

The two continued to chat for a while, but never strayed back into anything surrounding Impulse. Darren’s research was going well, Lilith’s gigs were… not, but what was new? I bided my time, slowly nursing my drink, but they paid and left without giving anything else up.

It was just me and Jackie now. She noticed I was running low again. “Want me to brew up one more?”

“Thanks,” I said, “but I think I’ll head out once I finish this one up.”

“Ten-four, bucko,” said Jackie. “I’ll send you the bill then.”

A thought struck me while my Chipper was processing the transaction. “Hey, Jackie?”

“What’s up?”

/…

The question hung in the air too long for me to answer.

“I’ll tell you next time.” I figured I should talk it over with Casey and Trace before I confided in someone else about our situation.

:How considerate!

/How considerate

Jackie nodded. “Next time, then. I won’t pry.”

My Chipper dinged. I thanked Jackie for the drinks and headed outside.

/So those three are keeping secrets

With differing degrees of loyalty, yes. Good as his intentions might have been, I couldn’t say I agreed with Sable’s bid to consolidate control over the squad.

/Took the words right out of my mouth

How to disrupt it, though? Axel was an option. He certainly had his own bones to pick with them.

/What about Kai?

Not a bad idea, actually. I felt bad for the kid. He was being directly hurt by Sable’s reluctance to (and lack of a need to) go for big money jobs.

/Let’s hear a proposal, then

First things first, we were going home and I was giving control over to Trace. She deserved her pizza.

:Yesssssss

Then, Trace would give control to Casey. It was time to let Kai spread his wings.