A Bar, Boston, Tuesday

[smilestopscars]

In the end, Ezra had decided to drag Dante out to a bar. Not one of the Coterie ones, but still one that he'd frequented sometimes, looking to have a good time. It wasn't as high-end as, say, something within the Purgatory complex, but it was still several steps up from something like that dive he'd found Dante performing at earlier this year.

Funnily enough, this one seemed to have an open mic night going on. Or, would have - there was a flier advertising it at the door, but they were a little early. Those proceedings had not started yet as they walked in.

"It's not a bunny party," Ezra noted, glancing back at Dante with a little smirk, "but I think it works."

[ooc: NFB, for the guy.]

Comments

[rebelseekspizza]

"Probably never got laid right," Dante sighed.

Not that this kept him from slamming back his drink. At all.

[smilestopscars]

Ezra was being much slower with his.

"'Right' is a matter of personal taste, anyway."

[rebelseekspizza]

"And experience," Dante added idly.

[smilestopscars]

"That, too," Ezra replied thoughtfully. "But I'd suppose that falls under the umbrella of developing a personal taste."

[rebelseekspizza]

"So that's all I'm saying," Dante said, holding up his mostly-empty glass. "Sex shots are made by people who like, think they got it figured out, but don't."

[smilestopscars]

"Putting more focus on booze than sex has always been a mistake in my book."

And definitely not just because he had to drink way more than an average person for it to have an effect.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante made a faintly amused noise. "You would think that," he said.

Look, it wasn't like he pretended not to be a functional alcoholic.

[smilestopscars]

"Well, obviously."

No points for noticing that!

[rebelseekspizza]

"See, I like variety," Dante said brightly. "Why not both?"

[smilestopscars]

"Because alcohol is inherently mostly boring?"

It was the fox take on it.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Not everything can be sex all the time," Dante said, putting his glass down and motioning to the bartender that he wanted another.

[smilestopscars]

"No," Ezra agreed easily, "but it's more fun to try for that than being drunk all the time."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Again with the either-or shit," Dante sighed.

[smilestopscars]

Ezra sighed, theatrically. "Darling, if I've already called one thing boring, you're not going to get me to concede to the idea that both would somehow be a better option."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante shrugged. "We're in a bar," he said. "Can't talk shit about booze in a bar."

New rule!

[smilestopscars]

"Oh! Then, I guess I must be going," Ezra said, and even made to push away from the bar. "I have no interest in staying in establishments that want to limit my free speech."

It was one of his most important freedoms!

[rebelseekspizza]

"I mean, that's most," Dante said, amused. "Can't shout 'fire' in a crowded theater either."

[smilestopscars]

"Yes, I can see disparaging a business's main wares as being entirely equal to causing a potentially life-threatening incident."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Hey, we were just talking about free speech," Dante said, grinning. "Just sayin', you accept plenty of limits."

[smilestopscars]

"The ones that make sense," Ezra retorted without missing a beat. "Which yours really doesn't."

[rebelseekspizza]

"It totally does," Dante retorted. "You don't go to a theme park and bitch that you think rides are stupid, either. Basic rule of fun."

[smilestopscars]

"I think you'll find that's a rule that parents of small children break all the time," Ezra replied merrily. "I also think it's time you accept that we have a difference of opinion which no amount of placing arbitrary rules on me is going to change."

Weren't the limited options of shutting Ezra up about the first thing most people learned about him, anyway?

[rebelseekspizza]

See, but here Ezra was making the assumption that Dante's actual goal here was to shut him up, instead of having an entertaining argument.

This was Dante. The entertaining argument was the point at least sixty percent of the time.

"So you're saying you're talking shit on par with a six-year-old."

...Maybe 70 percent.

[smilestopscars]

"No, you're the six-year-old," Ezra replied matter-of-factly, "and I'm the parent who brought you here, thinking you'd like it. Keep up, darling."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante rolled his eyes and stuck out his tongue.

Maturely.

He looked towards the stage, where someone was setting up. A girl, tall and blonde, wearing overalls.