circle7 | the fine art of Figuring Out What The Hell You're Doing

Technically speaking, there was nothing about the situation that wasn't at least vaguely familiar. The locale was in the same area, if not the same bar (for some reason, Bentley seemed strongly opposed to that option and Evan supposed it was all right, since they might as well canvas what the area had to offer while they were at it anyway). Evan was half-sure they were playing the same songs, personally sure that they were serving the same drinks. The faces might have been different, but strangers were still strangers until they...weren't, which was the point of this entire outing to begin with.

Bentley still seemed a little...stiff, although that too was something that was, perhaps, also the same.

Evan forcibly wedged a tall glass of rose-colored something into Bentley's grasp, managing it despite the lack of cooperation and the fact that he was balancing a drink of his own in his other hand. The drink was transparent and fizzy with carbonated bubbles, adorned at the top with a modest sprig of green mint or whatever the local planetary equivalent was. It even had a delicate little straw, for the doctor's delicate little sensibilities. Evan pushed Bentley's hands into raising the cup to at least mouth-level, even if he couldn't force the other man to take a drink.

"Don't look so spooked," he encouraged, clinking the edge of his cup against Bentley's drink before taking a sip. "You've done this before, remember?"

Threaded | Flat

"I am very painfully aware that I have done this before," Bentley said with a sigh. The drink reminded him of a deceivingly deadly poison in Calibri's lab. It looked harmless enough, but it turned out the thing bubbled up inside your stomach until it exploded the organ completely. Bentley held his stomach with a frown, smelling the liquid for anything out of place. Perfectly fine.

At the very least, one effort paid off at the last club - Bentley was no longer too shy to have a drink or two.

Unfortunately, that was all he needed most of the time.

Bentley drank a small amount of the liquid, silently relieved that it didn't destroy his innards after just 20 seconds.

"Why, um, exactly are we here?"

wow i shouldnt write tags half asleep