thenearshore | Stumbling but yeah, you're still looking hella fine [OPEN]

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Stumbling but yeah, you're still looking hella fine [OPEN]

Who: Yuuri and YOU!
What: Barhopping! Yuuri has a drink, then some drinks, then probably needs a babysitter or something.
When: August 29th-30th, evening to early morning
Where: In and near a handful of bars and clubs on the Near Shore
Warnings: Irresponsible alcohol use, probably at least partial nudity at some point, inadvisable ways of coping with anxiety?

I. - 9:30 PM

It starts off as most things do, innocently enough.

He's got no god to look after him right now, so it's only natural for Yuuri to be looking for ways to support himself, right? The cat cafe and Sparkle Motion are all well and good, but they don't exactly add up to very stable pay, so a few extra hours of part time work is a sensible thing to be looking for. And the bar across the corner from the cat cafe was hiring, so he could just walk from one job to the next...

His coworkers don't seem to notice him much half the time, of course, but all the same, when they do have reasons to interact with him, they appreciate his work ethic and seem to like him well enough. A few days in, after his half-shift wraps up for the evening, one of them even buys him a drink in thanks for taking a troublesome customer off her hands, and...

Yuuri doesn't drink too often, not since that time he got all silly at that one heavenly banquet. But it's nice, actually. Relaxing, and relaxed isn't a look he wears all that often. He ends up ordering himself a second drink, and then a third, the constant tension in his shoulders slowly easing as he works his way through them. He feels... calm, and warm, and for once in his (after)life, not afraid of anything. He greets newcomers, whether he knows them or not, with a polite little smile and wave -- hey, he could probably stand to get out and talk to people more, right?

II. - 11:30

It obviously wouldn't have been appropriate to get properly drunk in a bar where he worked, but there are lots of other bars around! This is... probably his third one, he thinks. It's poorly lit and smoky and fascinating, and he's in high spirits, chattering happily to bartenders and other patrons, his attention flitting from one to the next. As he spots a new person wandering in, his eyes light up.

"Hey! Did you just get here? Here, here, you have to try this drink, it's really good, my friend over there made it!"

III. - 12:45 - warning for, uh, Drunk Yuuri in a strip club?

...Actually, in hindsight he may have overshot slightly on the "unafraid" thing.

But Hell if Yuuri cares right now. He feels fantastic, and he's not letting it go to waste!

It was a whim that brought him into the strip club -- a silly urge to do something that felt scandalous and forbidden, more than actual interest in the goings-on inside. But somehow, those curious little whims weren't satisfied by just going inside. They kept escalating, and now...

Somehow, Yuuri's managed to find a little side stage that wasn't in use and take it over completely. His jacket, shirt, and shoes are long gone, and how long his (rather unfashionable) pants are going to last is anyone's guess. The odd thing is, while the Near Shore residents still seem incapable of paying him much mind, he's...

He's actually really good at this.

Not just at taking off his clothes, though he definitely seems like he's having fun with that part. He really knows how to work the pole, with an enviable combination of creative dance moves, stamina, and seriously powerful thighs.

If he sees someone who does seem capable of noticing that he exists, he meets their eyes without the slightest trace of shame, reaching up to brush his mussed, slightly sweaty hair back from his face. His voice is confident, even breathy from exertion.

"Are you going to come up and dance with me? They won't notice."

IV. - 6 AM

It's daybreak at the playground at the public park near Yuuri's part time jobs, and everything hurts.

That might have something to do with how he apparently managed to find a way to fall asleep draped through the jungle gym. That seems very likely.

Yuuri opens his eyes with a quiet groan, taking stock. His shoes and shirt are still MIA, and while he's got his pants on, it feels like his underwear might be, too. His head is pounding. There's an odd weight resting on his chest, which turns out to be one of his socks, stuffed with thousand-yen bills.

He stares at them for a moment, then closes his eyes and goes as limp as he can over the jungle gym frame. Maybe he can just... pretend to be properly dead until the world stops wobbling around on him so much.

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He'd begged Emizel for some money to go out drinking. He knew he should get himself a job, but honestly, spending time with the butterflies was taking up far more of his energy than he'd intended. He was also hesitant to leave the temple much with the tales of blight and disappearances. But tonight he realized how much he missed socializing, and while he and his god weren't exactly on bad terms, it had been feeling a bit like close quarters at the temple.

Emi had been only too happy to give him some spending money, and Viktor had set off for the bars with the intention of not getting completely drunk, but buzzed enough to make his natural adoration for socializing turn up a notch or two. And it had worked! He was having a lot of fun, and seeing Yuuri in the same establishment had only made him happier. He said hello and asked how Yuuri had been doing, of course, and then came the unusually exuberant shinki's offer of the drink.

"Oh, did he? I suppose I'd better try it, then."

Not that he'd have resisted anyway, and it was pretty good.

"Do you want any?"

Edited (since i suck) 2017-10-01 00:49 (UTC)

Yuuri laughed, the sound of it brighter and more honest than Viktor was likely to be used to from him.

"You can have that one! I've already had a couple of them, anyway."

Not to mention the drinks from the last two places.

"It's nice, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it's pretty good! You might want to have some water though..."

Nope, not trying to nag, but Viktor knew enough about Yuuri's usual demeanor here to know he was pretty far gone.

An absolutely ridiculous thought. There were so many more fun things to drink here than water! Yuuri shook his head, throwing his arms lazily around Viktor's shoulders.

"I will later, maybe," he laughed, cheerfully dismissive. "You don't have to worry about me!"

He's better than ever, after all!

"If you're sure..."

Because he wasn't, but that didn't mean he wouldn't hug back. Hugging Yuuri was his favorite thing, after all, even when the man was a bit off kilter.

"Can I stay with you, though?"

Because he'd missed him, worry or no worry.

Yuuri pulled back, but only enough to wink up at Viktor. It looked a little silly, in all honesty, but that wasn't necessarily something he couldn't make work for him.

"You can stay with me as long as you want," he teased, mostly just pleased that he was getting away with not switching to water just yet.

It definitely wasn't in Viktor's nature to let it go, and he was going to get a bottle before they left regardless, but Yuuri was so cute when he thought he'd gotten his way that Viktor couldn't help but grin at him.

"That's a dangerous thing to say, Yuuri. I might not ever leave you, then, and you'll have only yourself to blame."

For half a moment, a fleeting melancholy alighted on Yuuri's mind.

Viktor was the only one he'd never lost, really. There were some friends he'd made from work and dancing, but out of his gods and the shinki he'd worked together with, Viktor was the only one who'd always stayed by his side.

"I can live with that," he declared, shaking off the serious thought in favor of slightly bratty satisfaction. "If it was you, it would be okay to be stuck with someone forever."

Viktor just beamed.

"It makes me so happy that you feel that way! We should celebrate!"

Because yeah, he'd had a few drinks himself before the one Yuuri had insisted he try, and the most handsome man ever had just said he'd stay with him forever. There was a lot to celebrate! But he was still getting that water.

It seemed like an odd reason to celebrate, to him, but wasn't any reason a good one? Yuuri grinned, leaning in a bit towards Viktor.

"Celebrate... we should go dancing!"

Odd? Viktor thought it was exactly the opposite, and Yuuri's suggestion made him smile.

"I would love to! There's a club not far from here, if that's all right?"

"That sounds great," Yuuri agreed easily, latching on to Viktor's arm.

"Lead the way!"

"I just hope it's not too crowded so you have some room to maneuver!"

Not that he'd have minded closer proximity himself, but it seemed improper even if they were heading to a club where close dancing was sort of the norm.

"Here, if you're going to be dancing you should have some."

Mother henning seemed to come naturally to him. Yuuri's health was important, after all!

[There are certain days Maria likes to be out and about early, whether it's because of her own part-time job or whether it's to open up Sparkle Motion a little early to allow for enthusiastic practice parties. It's a little bit of a walk from her shrine to the studio, though, and she happens to pass through the park in the vicinity of the cat cafe when she makes her way over.

She had been planning to enjoy the view, but considering part of the view appears to be one of Sparkle Motion's revue passed out on a bench without a substantial portion of his clothes...that doesn't really last all that long. Heading over to check up on him, Maria leans down with a somewhat motherly disapproving frown on her face.]

It's awfully late to be passed out in public like this, don't you think? Are you okay?

Mnngh...

[Yuuri stirs a bit at the sense of somebody nearby, his eyes squeezing shut like the sun might just go away if he tries harder. (In fairness, if his experience at Sparkle Motion is anything to go by, just trying really hard all the time is the main thing he's got going for him at any given point...)]

[His effort does not actually manage to make the sun give up and leave him alone, though, so with some regret, he pries an eye open to see why the person scolding him sounds familiar.]

[Ah, that makes sense. That's the face that goes with that voice, definitely...]

[Yuuri shrinks back timidly at the look on her face, feeling... young? Awkward, definitely, and maybe a little bit like a kid with his hand in a cookie jar.]

I... must have had a late night, I think...

You think. [That definitely doesn't reassure Maria by much, and her frown becomes a little deeper at it. It's not really her place to scold another adult for what they're doing with their lives, but on the other hand...it's Yuuri, and he's not exactly doing a stunning job of representing their troupe doing things like this. Not to mention public drunkenness on that level is just a bad thing to let slide so easily in general.]

It's six in the morning, so if you had a late night you can't have been asleep long. Do you know where your god's shrine is from here? You need more rest, but not out here and like this.

[A jungle gym is not exactly conducive to a good and productive sleeping session.]

My god?

[He seems a little confused by the notion for a moment. His hand goes first to the place on his hip where Yuri's mark used to be, then to the place where his more recent disappeared mark was, then just... stalls.]

I, ah. I'm... sure I can find a shrine around.

[He sits up a bit, trying to disentangle himself from the metal of the jungle gym with what he's going to generously call moderate success.]

[Maria definitely doesn't miss that hesitation, and she misses even less the fact that he only mentions being able to find a shrine. She had been fairly certain he was lacking a god when last they met, but the fact that he still was...]

Hang on. If you don't have a god, you still need somewhere safer to stay. [She feels like they've had this argument before, and while there have been no reports of further deaths since that explosion a while ago, Maria's not really ready to risk leaving anyone to fend for themselves.]

[Yuuri's not always the worst at putting on a polite smile or a brave face when he's distressed, but his poker face is awful when he's confronted directly. He stops trying to disentangle himself, staring up at Maria with something like guilt in his expression.]

I'm... I'm not sleeping out here all the time, I just had a little bit too much to drink...

[There's no denial about the not having a god part, though, somewhat tellingly.]

[Maria frowns a bit, though he already looks quite guilty enough.] I can see that, but even if you're not always doing this, trying to sleep out anywhere hung over isn't going to end well. Are there any people who've offered to let you stay at their temple, at least?

[It doesn't seem to be that uncommon, from what she's seen on the BBS, so it seems like a safe thing to ask. At least, if he has somewhere he might be more comfortable staying, she can take him back there.]

I've had offers.

[Yuuri's tone changes a little bit, subtly but suddenly. The haze of his hangover has shifted a little, revealing a reminder: Don't let people worry. He crams away as much of his hesitance and softness as he can, putting up a front of calm and confidence all of a sudden.]

I'll be fine.

[Oh yes, that's definitely familiar. Maria's own expression gets that little bit harder, and she straightens up with a surprisingly haughty look considering her usual demeanour.]

So we're doing this again, are we? Don't make me practically fight you into a room at my temple again. [People like this...telling people not to worry in a situation like this is just going to make them worry more, especially considering it definitely sounds like he didn't take any of those offers.]

[He feels like he definitely deserves to be looked at like that right now. Good thing there's not a god for him to sting...]

[(He must have hurt both of them so much, thinking the way he does. How on Earth do people keep expecting him to put another god through so much on his account?)]

[Still, that hint of harshness just makes him close off all the more, his posture stiffening as he finally gets himself free of the tangle he was sleeping in.]

Thank you, but that isn't necessary.

Edited 2017-11-03 16:48 (UTC)

I'd say it is. [There doesn't seem to be any way through this but being direct - politeness fails, bluntness fails, so either way, she might not do anything at all. May as well go for it with all her intent.] I know how you feel. Wanting to bear everything yourself, because you don't want others to worry about you. Wanting to fight your own battles because you think you should, and that others will just get hurt because of you if you bring them in. Don't do that to yourself. It only worries them more and hurts them more to see you do that. Like you don't trust them to know what they want to do and who they want to help.

[It's insulting, in a way, and though Maria isn't sure that would be the most productive way to put it in this situation, it's tempting.]

"Oh, hey, Yuuri!" Tsuzuki says, brightening as he recognizes the polite smile from the young man waving at him. It's been a while since he'd caught Yuuri trying to sleep in Sakura's old shed at the bottom of the temple garden, and he's relieved to see that he looks a lot better now: less exhausted, less like a vagrant, and also even smiling at strangers. He waves energetically to catch the attention of one of the bartenders before she can turn away, and orders himself a Coke and rum as he commandeers the barstool next to Yuuri.

"How've you been? It's been ages. You look good," he offers encouragingly.

"Ah, hello! ...Tsuzuki-san?"

That was the man's name, right? Yuuri beams over at him, raising his drink as the bartender puts something or other into Tsuzuki's hand.

"I'm doing great! Has it been that long? Maybe we should get together more or something!" They had so much fun dancing before...

"We should," Tsuzuki agrees, raising his glass in a casual salute. "It's been, geez, practically a month. It's good to see you!"

He takes a swig of the drink, considering the flavor. Okay, so, maybe the classics are best. It's hard to screw this one up: he'd tried some fancy cocktails, but if he's going to add anything mixed to the menu at Gojyo's bar, this kind of thing's probably safer.

Plus, people might actually order it.

"So what brings you out here?"

If he were sober, that thought would stall him. A month -- has it really only been that long since...?

Good thing he isn't sober!

Yuuri takes a sip of his own drink, leaning his elbow comfortably on the bar as he turns himself towards Tsuzuki, his posture open and friendly.

"I've had a bit of free time lately, so I picked up another part time job here! And my shift's over, so..." He raises his glass again, this time to indicate it.

"You work here?" Tsuzuki takes another glance around and grins sheepishly. "Man, this bar is way classier than the one I work at." He lowers his voice, and adds, "I'm doing research on the competition myself. Hope you don't mind?"

After all, Yuuri just works here, it's not like he owns the place. Tsuzuki raises his glass in a cheerful return toast before taking a swig.

"I don't mind," he replies, damn near chirpily in comparison to his usual attitude. "You'll just have to do your best to keep up, if we're competition!

"I can be pretty competitive, you know," he adds, dropping his voice to a nearly conspiritorial whisper. Not many people know that about him! He's letting Tsuzuki in on a secret!

"Does that mean you won't tell me if I ask for your recipes?" Tsuzuki asks, with a laugh. It's amazing how much Yuuri lightens up when he's got a drink (or more than one?) in him. It makes Tsuzuki realize just how nervous he's got to be the rest of the time. Or maybe just polite?

No -- mostly nervous.

"You're already winning," he adds, wryly. "Like I said, our place is a dive. It's cleaner now, though! And we've got a karaoke machine."

How did they even let a child into this bar? It could be the smoke that's keeping him from being discovered or maybe it's the fact no one can actually see him. But nevertheless, there's someone sitting by the bar who looks a little too young to be in here nursing a glass of what looks to be a fruity cocktail with an umbrella.

The only reason he looks so surprised is because someone's actually addressing him. "If I may ask, what exactly is in it?" he asked, head tilting curiously at the offer of another drink. Whatever thoughts Yuuri may have about this 'boy' may have been put aside by the fact that he sounds much older than he looked to be.

Truth be told, Yuuri's starting to get beyond the point of asking too many questions about who is and isn't old enough to be drinking. The stranger certainly looks young, but he's always had a little bit of a babyface himself, hasn't he? It's probably not important!

Also probably not important: the exact contents of his glass. Yuuri shrugs, tossing himself down into a nearby barstool.

"No idea! But it tastes great, you really should try some."

Obi doesn't know about strip clubs (but when he learns of them...) but he does know about bars, and he enjoys them. He also is happy to be invited to drink with someone right away. He smiles brightly at the stranger, and nods as he takes a seat beside him. "That sounds very promising! Is it called anything, Mister?"

Yuuri blinks, taken a little bit off his guard by the question. Is it called anything...?

He shoves the concoction down the bar towards the newcomer, shaking his head.

"Maybe you can give it a good name! You have to try it first, though, can't name something you haven't tried yet."

Picking up the drink, Obi looks at it, at the light making it glow a little.

“Well, technically I can. But it wouldn’t be fair to the drink.”

It's a fairly unassuming-looking drink. A bit of ice, some sort of sweet-smelling amber liquid swishing around, a couple of cocktail cherries in there somewhere. Yuuri flags the bartender down to get another drink for himself, almost absent-mindedly.

"No, it wouldn't be fair at all. Then what if the name wasn't right for it? Someone gave me a name that didn't suit me much, once. Twice, even!"

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Stumbling but yeah, you're still looking hella fine [OPEN]

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Sorry for the late tag, I've had a lot of IRL stuff to focus on

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Sorry for the late tags!

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