Character References can be found here
"You look like shit."
"Nice to see you too, Jana."
Max rolled his eyes at the blue skinned demoness sitting at the bar. While her commentary was probably rather accurate after the hellish week that he'd had, having a ridiculously hot blue-skinned babe telling you how poorly you looked was... Well, insulting and demeaning at best. If they hadn't retained their friendship for as long as they had he might have taken more offense to it, but the lazy smile on her face as she stirred her fruity drink told him she meant no harm.
"You don't look too great yourself. You don't normally come to the bar this early, do you?" He glanced at his phone before taking a seat beside the woman, watching her shrug and take a long drink through her curled straw before replying.
"Rough day. Bosses on my ass and all that, same old same old. What's got your panties in a twist that you were so eager to join when I texted you?" He winced at the expression but didn't bother to correct her. "I already have a tab open, what do you want? First drink's on me for dragging you out."
"You don't need to do that, you're probably doing me a favor." When she raised an eyebrow inquisitively and tilted her lovely horned head, he rubbed at his face and sighed wearily. "If I didn't come here to drink with you, I was probably just going to sit in my office at home and nurse a bottle anyway, so at least there's good company here." He managed to give her a grateful look, even if his eyes did linger a bit too long on her chest.
"You ever gonna not stare at my tits when we meet up, Max?"
"When you stop wearing outfits that push them up in everyone's face, sure. Weren't you wearing something just like that the first time we met at Cat's Cradle?" He eyed the skimpy dress she was wearing, watching her blue skin tint pink before she smacked at him with her tail, wobbling his chair before he caught himself on the bar counter and gave her a pointed look.
"Turning red there, my lovely horned lady."
"Oh, shut up. You humans and your pet names." She rolled her eyes at him again and sipped at her drink, waving down the bartender as a ready distraction to collect her thoughts. Max took the opportunity to order himself a double of whiskey before readjusting in the chair, swiveling slightly to turn his attention back to the demoness whose cheeks had returned to their normal color.
"So what's your boss on your ass about this time?" She groaned through a mouthful of her drink, holding up a sharp nailed finger and forcing him to wait curiously as she drained the rest of her drink without stopping for air. It would have been impressive if she'd been a human, but over the course of their friendship he'd seen that she was capable of many things a normal human wasn't, especially the night they'd woken up in the same bed missing articles of clothing. That had been... Well, interesting, but not repeated.
At any rate, this wasn't the time to be having nostalgic thoughts about his drunken romp with the stressed demoness sitting beside him. No, at the rate she'd sucked down the remainder of her drink, coupled with the fact that she was ordering another as soon as the goblin behind the bar had brought his whiskey meant that she was probably going to be more than inebriated by the time they both left the bar later, and he was mentally scrolling through the different ride services he could order to make sure she got home safely at the end of the night.
"This fucking Wells project we're doing on the new clinic downtown. He thinks it should be done by now but he doesn't understand just how much effort goes into analyzing everything to make sure the build can be done properly. Either it's him bitching about the fact that it's not done yet because he thinks it should be easy, or him on my ass because he claims I'm just being dramatic like a typical woman. I guess that's not just a human thing to assume, huh?"
Max gave her a sympathetic look and sipped at his whiskey, unsure of how to properly respond without further infuriating her. It wasn't that he feared Jana would intentionally harm him, but she could get quite animated when she was upset or angry and that tail of hers had some oomph to it when it swung around. If he was ever intentionally trying to get in the way of her tail again, it wasn't going to be in that way.
"I'd say to tell him to go to hell, but I wouldn't want you losing your job over that." He fished around in his pocket for his cigarettes, pulling out one and dumping the rest of the pack on the counter with another sigh. The nicotine came to life until a brief flicker of fire from the lighter in his other pocket before he discarded his jacket, draping it over the back of his chair and pulling down an ashtray from a couple of seats over. He inhaled and held his breath momentarily, then thought better of it and picked up the pack to hold it towards Jana in offering.
The quickness with which she took and lit the cigarette further implied her level of stress, and Max lifted a light eyebrow but said nothing as he exhaled and sipped at his whiskey again. An important part of their friendship that had maintained it for so long was the fact that they didn't judge each other, much, and they always let the other vent about their problems to blow off some steam and keep the remainder of their sanity intact. It had proven revitalizing over the years they'd gotten together, and as he watched her puff on the cigarette and stir one of her colored straws, he took another drag and patted her shoulder briefly.
"You wanna open a tab too, Max?" He glanced up as the goblin—Billy, or something like that, came back up while drying a glass. "Or are you in charge of driving this one home later? She sure as shit ain't drivin' herself unless she plans on bein' here late to sober up." When Max gave his companion an inquisitive look she only grumbled a quiet complaint and scratched behind her horn. Very helpful.
"She's on her third drink already and you know I make 'em good for you guys."
"Fuck it, I'll order us a ride later, we'll be safe. Go ahead and open up the tab and bring me another double and a beer, will you?" Billy-or-whatever-his-name-was nodded and disappeared back to the computer, tapping away at the screen before setting to the drinks at hand. Max returned his attention to the sulking demon, tapping the ashes of his cigarette before nudging at her arm playfully.
"Today I had to explain to a giant that no, I didn't think his all of five foot Fae wife could carry his child to term without needing emergency intervention. I don't even know how they manage to make it fit when they're in the bedroom, much less how they think she'd survive a noggin that big coming out of her lady bits." Jana looked at him with a bewildered expression, cigarette mere inches from her mouth before she burst into laughter, setting it down in the ashtray as she struggled to contain her mirth over whatever mental image she'd concocted from those words.
"That'd be like an imp and a stupidly tall human trying to procreate. The physics of it all just don't line up when there's three plus feet difference." She tried to take a sip of her new drink and almost spit it out with how hard she was laughing, and when she managed to finally calm herself Max could see that the jest had lifted her spirits some.
"Actually, the imp and human would be more plausible, but, y'know, I'm just a human. They assume that I don't know what I'm talking about and I just need to find the proper procedure, or the proper magic to make it all work. As if I didn't spend thousands of dollars and years going to school to learn how to be a proper fertility specialist. It always comes back to being human and how ignorant I must be." He groaned, rubbing at his face with one hand before toying with his lit cigarette and then taking a drag. He could see Jana mimicking the motion with her own cigarette before she scraped it out, something that told him her mood had improved enough she didn't need the rest of the nicotine currently.
"Doesn't help that some of my unhappy clients had been talking shit online or to their friends, so now I have people thinking I have no idea what I'm doing."
"That's the shit my boss has been doing!" Jana threw her hands up in annoyance, nearly knocking over the poor soul trying to take a seat next to her at the bar. Seeing how animated the demoness was, and the fact that she hadn't noticed her blunder, the poor werewolf slunk off and tried to find a seat at the other end of the bar instead. Max felt a brief bit of sympathy for him before his attention drifted back to his friend, and he watched her turn pink again when she realized how loud she'd been.
"Sorry, it's just frustrating. You would think a bloody gargoyle would understand the need to make things structurally sound for difference species, especially a place that's going to be doing medical things, but I swear he just assumes everyone knows where they can and can't stand, or hang, or whatever their particular species does. No, he doesn't understand just how much time and effort I put into running through all the different scenarios." Max could see that Jana was starting off on another tangent, but did nothing to stop her as he silently smoked and sipped at the last of his first whiskey. Far be it from him to stop an angry demon from getting her emotions out.
"I don't just go in with some stupid yellow vest and tools, I have to do all of the measurements for the initial building first, and then judge by the general company that they'll be having. Even then, I have to assume accommodations for the rare clients they get that are out of the ordinary. A normal one or two car garage isn't going to be big enough to see a dragon that's gotten stuck in their stupid lizard form, and having fuzzy carpet isn't conducive to keeping a bunch of demon clients who get a little unruly when they're sick. I swear, the last thing I need is someone sneezing a fireball and setting the lobby on fire!" Max had to admit, watching the blue creature beside him get all fired up as she ranted and raved about her boss and his lack of knowledge was a sight to behold. She was beautiful even when she was angry, but the best part of it all was that aside from her natural beauty, being around her brought him a sort of calming sensation.
The irony of it wasn't ignored, but Max didn't care why being around her even when she was drinking and upset seemed to calm him. They had the same effect on one another and had managed their friendship as such over the years, something that he considered extremely valuable and worth protecting. He would have died to protect Jana if the situation ever arose, and he had a feeling that despite all of her stabs about humans and their quirks, she would do the same for him.
"I swear you're the only one of my friends that understands how hard it is to work your ass off all the time and have people demean you like what you do is nothing. I get that people don't think daily about those of us that blueprint and then build places, but that doesn't mean we're not important. Where would society be without people that made sure structures were safe?" Max nodded along to her continuing rant, stubbing out the end of his cigarette and picking up his beer to sip it.
"I do get it, yeah." He debating lighting up another cigarette, opening the pack and staring down at the remaining sticks before closing it and guzzling part of his beer instead. The last thing he wanted to be doing was smoking all of them tonight and having to go out first thing in the morning, especially if he had the trademark hangover that signified a rough night at the bar with Jana. He wondered idly if she was going to have the same hangover considering the speed with which she was going through her fruity drinks. Then again, she did have that demonic metabolism, so who knew where she was going to be in the morning sobriety wise.
"Most people don't stop to think about all the research and schooling I've done to get where I'm at. Anyone that just fucks and has a baby the normal way wouldn't even think about me or anyone else in the field, and the ones that come to us... Well, despite the fact that I've been practicing for years and had some pretty good success rates, people just don't appreciate it. Just because it's not exciting doesn't mean it's not hard. Sorry that I'm not out there designing floating houses--"
"Oh, do NOT get me started on those, the dynamics and the magic involved with them is sooo—mmmmffff." She glared at him when he pressed his hand against her mouth, crossing her arms over her ample chest but doing nothing to actually move his hand.
"My turn, Jana." She rolled her eyes but nodded for him to continue, and he took that cue to mentally pick back up where he'd left off at. "A part of me wonders if someday they'll just come up with a magic cure, a one for all that allows anyone to have babies with anyone else, and then all my schooling and practice will have been for nothing. I don't even have any special talents like you do, being super fast and strong," He motioned in the vague direction of her tail, staring down into the remainder of his second whiskey before exhaling slowly.
"I can't teleport or do magic, I'm not even a great cook so that's not there for me as a fallback. I feel like a terrible person for even thinking it, but I hope there's always people needing specialists like me, because otherwise I don't know what good I am for the world." His shoulders slumped with the admission as he dove into his pack and lit another cigarette, drumming his fingertips on the bar and keeping his eyes cast down. This was supposed to be be a vent and drink session that they'd done many times before, but somehow it had turned into a gloomy moment where he felt an annoying surge of anxiety and sadness warring inside him.
"There's plenty of other things you could do even if that were to happen, which, by the way, I very much doubt it will." He could feel the tips of Jana's sharp nails against his back as she rubbed it comfortingly, and the slight, familiar sting of them did indeed bring him comfort as he took a drag of his cigarette. She was right, of course, but it didn't completely erase the stress of his terrible week. "You could always bartend like Bartok here," She motioned to the goblin behind the bar who gave her a brief wave and went back to what he was doing.
"Wait, his name's Bartok?" Max lifted his head from its depressed slump and gave her an astonished look. "Like the bat--"
"Yes, like the bat from that kid's movie you humans made forever ago. I swear, I think that's simultaneously the meanest and funniest thing I've ever heard about a goblin."
"I swore it was Billy."
"You've always been bad with names, Max. It took you like a month to stop calling me Jane because you weren't used to my name." He flushed with embarrassment at the reminder, shrugging her off and finishing his whiskey before turning to the beer.
"Yeah, and you took longer than that to call me Max instead of Maximilian, so it's well established that the basis of our friendship is weird as hell." He shrugged. "But I don't think we'd be where we are now if we didn't bond over normal jobs and the woes that come with them."
"No shit, sherlock. That's the saying, right?" When Max nodded confirmation she made a small noise of victory and motioned to Bartok, flagging him down and ordering two shots of something Max didn't quite catch. When the goblin returned and set one in front of each of them, Jana picked hers up and held it in the air in salute.
"To boring jobs and the idiots we work with."
"You look like shit."
"Nice to see you too, Jana."
Max rolled his eyes at the blue skinned demoness sitting at the bar. While her commentary was probably rather accurate after the hellish week that he'd had, having a ridiculously hot blue-skinned babe telling you how poorly you looked was... Well, insulting and demeaning at best. If they hadn't retained their friendship for as long as they had he might have taken more offense to it, but the lazy smile on her face as she stirred her fruity drink told him she meant no harm.
"You don't look too great yourself. You don't normally come to the bar this early, do you?" He glanced at his phone before taking a seat beside the woman, watching her shrug and take a long drink through her curled straw before replying.
"Rough day. Bosses on my ass and all that, same old same old. What's got your panties in a twist that you were so eager to join when I texted you?" He winced at the expression but didn't bother to correct her. "I already have a tab open, what do you want? First drink's on me for dragging you out."
"You don't need to do that, you're probably doing me a favor." When she raised an eyebrow inquisitively and tilted her lovely horned head, he rubbed at his face and sighed wearily. "If I didn't come here to drink with you, I was probably just going to sit in my office at home and nurse a bottle anyway, so at least there's good company here." He managed to give her a grateful look, even if his eyes did linger a bit too long on her chest.
"You ever gonna not stare at my tits when we meet up, Max?"
"When you stop wearing outfits that push them up in everyone's face, sure. Weren't you wearing something just like that the first time we met at Cat's Cradle?" He eyed the skimpy dress she was wearing, watching her blue skin tint pink before she smacked at him with her tail, wobbling his chair before he caught himself on the bar counter and gave her a pointed look.
"Turning red there, my lovely horned lady."
"Oh, shut up. You humans and your pet names." She rolled her eyes at him again and sipped at her drink, waving down the bartender as a ready distraction to collect her thoughts. Max took the opportunity to order himself a double of whiskey before readjusting in the chair, swiveling slightly to turn his attention back to the demoness whose cheeks had returned to their normal color.
"So what's your boss on your ass about this time?" She groaned through a mouthful of her drink, holding up a sharp nailed finger and forcing him to wait curiously as she drained the rest of her drink without stopping for air. It would have been impressive if she'd been a human, but over the course of their friendship he'd seen that she was capable of many things a normal human wasn't, especially the night they'd woken up in the same bed missing articles of clothing. That had been... Well, interesting, but not repeated.
At any rate, this wasn't the time to be having nostalgic thoughts about his drunken romp with the stressed demoness sitting beside him. No, at the rate she'd sucked down the remainder of her drink, coupled with the fact that she was ordering another as soon as the goblin behind the bar had brought his whiskey meant that she was probably going to be more than inebriated by the time they both left the bar later, and he was mentally scrolling through the different ride services he could order to make sure she got home safely at the end of the night.
"This fucking Wells project we're doing on the new clinic downtown. He thinks it should be done by now but he doesn't understand just how much effort goes into analyzing everything to make sure the build can be done properly. Either it's him bitching about the fact that it's not done yet because he thinks it should be easy, or him on my ass because he claims I'm just being dramatic like a typical woman. I guess that's not just a human thing to assume, huh?"
Max gave her a sympathetic look and sipped at his whiskey, unsure of how to properly respond without further infuriating her. It wasn't that he feared Jana would intentionally harm him, but she could get quite animated when she was upset or angry and that tail of hers had some oomph to it when it swung around. If he was ever intentionally trying to get in the way of her tail again, it wasn't going to be in that way.
"I'd say to tell him to go to hell, but I wouldn't want you losing your job over that." He fished around in his pocket for his cigarettes, pulling out one and dumping the rest of the pack on the counter with another sigh. The nicotine came to life until a brief flicker of fire from the lighter in his other pocket before he discarded his jacket, draping it over the back of his chair and pulling down an ashtray from a couple of seats over. He inhaled and held his breath momentarily, then thought better of it and picked up the pack to hold it towards Jana in offering.
The quickness with which she took and lit the cigarette further implied her level of stress, and Max lifted a light eyebrow but said nothing as he exhaled and sipped at his whiskey again. An important part of their friendship that had maintained it for so long was the fact that they didn't judge each other, much, and they always let the other vent about their problems to blow off some steam and keep the remainder of their sanity intact. It had proven revitalizing over the years they'd gotten together, and as he watched her puff on the cigarette and stir one of her colored straws, he took another drag and patted her shoulder briefly.
"You wanna open a tab too, Max?" He glanced up as the goblin—Billy, or something like that, came back up while drying a glass. "Or are you in charge of driving this one home later? She sure as shit ain't drivin' herself unless she plans on bein' here late to sober up." When Max gave his companion an inquisitive look she only grumbled a quiet complaint and scratched behind her horn. Very helpful.
"She's on her third drink already and you know I make 'em good for you guys."
"Fuck it, I'll order us a ride later, we'll be safe. Go ahead and open up the tab and bring me another double and a beer, will you?" Billy-or-whatever-his-name-was nodded and disappeared back to the computer, tapping away at the screen before setting to the drinks at hand. Max returned his attention to the sulking demon, tapping the ashes of his cigarette before nudging at her arm playfully.
"Today I had to explain to a giant that no, I didn't think his all of five foot Fae wife could carry his child to term without needing emergency intervention. I don't even know how they manage to make it fit when they're in the bedroom, much less how they think she'd survive a noggin that big coming out of her lady bits." Jana looked at him with a bewildered expression, cigarette mere inches from her mouth before she burst into laughter, setting it down in the ashtray as she struggled to contain her mirth over whatever mental image she'd concocted from those words.
"That'd be like an imp and a stupidly tall human trying to procreate. The physics of it all just don't line up when there's three plus feet difference." She tried to take a sip of her new drink and almost spit it out with how hard she was laughing, and when she managed to finally calm herself Max could see that the jest had lifted her spirits some.
"Actually, the imp and human would be more plausible, but, y'know, I'm just a human. They assume that I don't know what I'm talking about and I just need to find the proper procedure, or the proper magic to make it all work. As if I didn't spend thousands of dollars and years going to school to learn how to be a proper fertility specialist. It always comes back to being human and how ignorant I must be." He groaned, rubbing at his face with one hand before toying with his lit cigarette and then taking a drag. He could see Jana mimicking the motion with her own cigarette before she scraped it out, something that told him her mood had improved enough she didn't need the rest of the nicotine currently.
"Doesn't help that some of my unhappy clients had been talking shit online or to their friends, so now I have people thinking I have no idea what I'm doing."
"That's the shit my boss has been doing!" Jana threw her hands up in annoyance, nearly knocking over the poor soul trying to take a seat next to her at the bar. Seeing how animated the demoness was, and the fact that she hadn't noticed her blunder, the poor werewolf slunk off and tried to find a seat at the other end of the bar instead. Max felt a brief bit of sympathy for him before his attention drifted back to his friend, and he watched her turn pink again when she realized how loud she'd been.
"Sorry, it's just frustrating. You would think a bloody gargoyle would understand the need to make things structurally sound for difference species, especially a place that's going to be doing medical things, but I swear he just assumes everyone knows where they can and can't stand, or hang, or whatever their particular species does. No, he doesn't understand just how much time and effort I put into running through all the different scenarios." Max could see that Jana was starting off on another tangent, but did nothing to stop her as he silently smoked and sipped at the last of his first whiskey. Far be it from him to stop an angry demon from getting her emotions out.
"I don't just go in with some stupid yellow vest and tools, I have to do all of the measurements for the initial building first, and then judge by the general company that they'll be having. Even then, I have to assume accommodations for the rare clients they get that are out of the ordinary. A normal one or two car garage isn't going to be big enough to see a dragon that's gotten stuck in their stupid lizard form, and having fuzzy carpet isn't conducive to keeping a bunch of demon clients who get a little unruly when they're sick. I swear, the last thing I need is someone sneezing a fireball and setting the lobby on fire!" Max had to admit, watching the blue creature beside him get all fired up as she ranted and raved about her boss and his lack of knowledge was a sight to behold. She was beautiful even when she was angry, but the best part of it all was that aside from her natural beauty, being around her brought him a sort of calming sensation.
The irony of it wasn't ignored, but Max didn't care why being around her even when she was drinking and upset seemed to calm him. They had the same effect on one another and had managed their friendship as such over the years, something that he considered extremely valuable and worth protecting. He would have died to protect Jana if the situation ever arose, and he had a feeling that despite all of her stabs about humans and their quirks, she would do the same for him.
"I swear you're the only one of my friends that understands how hard it is to work your ass off all the time and have people demean you like what you do is nothing. I get that people don't think daily about those of us that blueprint and then build places, but that doesn't mean we're not important. Where would society be without people that made sure structures were safe?" Max nodded along to her continuing rant, stubbing out the end of his cigarette and picking up his beer to sip it.
"I do get it, yeah." He debating lighting up another cigarette, opening the pack and staring down at the remaining sticks before closing it and guzzling part of his beer instead. The last thing he wanted to be doing was smoking all of them tonight and having to go out first thing in the morning, especially if he had the trademark hangover that signified a rough night at the bar with Jana. He wondered idly if she was going to have the same hangover considering the speed with which she was going through her fruity drinks. Then again, she did have that demonic metabolism, so who knew where she was going to be in the morning sobriety wise.
"Most people don't stop to think about all the research and schooling I've done to get where I'm at. Anyone that just fucks and has a baby the normal way wouldn't even think about me or anyone else in the field, and the ones that come to us... Well, despite the fact that I've been practicing for years and had some pretty good success rates, people just don't appreciate it. Just because it's not exciting doesn't mean it's not hard. Sorry that I'm not out there designing floating houses--"
"Oh, do NOT get me started on those, the dynamics and the magic involved with them is sooo—mmmmffff." She glared at him when he pressed his hand against her mouth, crossing her arms over her ample chest but doing nothing to actually move his hand.
"My turn, Jana." She rolled her eyes but nodded for him to continue, and he took that cue to mentally pick back up where he'd left off at. "A part of me wonders if someday they'll just come up with a magic cure, a one for all that allows anyone to have babies with anyone else, and then all my schooling and practice will have been for nothing. I don't even have any special talents like you do, being super fast and strong," He motioned in the vague direction of her tail, staring down into the remainder of his second whiskey before exhaling slowly.
"I can't teleport or do magic, I'm not even a great cook so that's not there for me as a fallback. I feel like a terrible person for even thinking it, but I hope there's always people needing specialists like me, because otherwise I don't know what good I am for the world." His shoulders slumped with the admission as he dove into his pack and lit another cigarette, drumming his fingertips on the bar and keeping his eyes cast down. This was supposed to be be a vent and drink session that they'd done many times before, but somehow it had turned into a gloomy moment where he felt an annoying surge of anxiety and sadness warring inside him.
"There's plenty of other things you could do even if that were to happen, which, by the way, I very much doubt it will." He could feel the tips of Jana's sharp nails against his back as she rubbed it comfortingly, and the slight, familiar sting of them did indeed bring him comfort as he took a drag of his cigarette. She was right, of course, but it didn't completely erase the stress of his terrible week. "You could always bartend like Bartok here," She motioned to the goblin behind the bar who gave her a brief wave and went back to what he was doing.
"Wait, his name's Bartok?" Max lifted his head from its depressed slump and gave her an astonished look. "Like the bat--"
"Yes, like the bat from that kid's movie you humans made forever ago. I swear, I think that's simultaneously the meanest and funniest thing I've ever heard about a goblin."
"I swore it was Billy."
"You've always been bad with names, Max. It took you like a month to stop calling me Jane because you weren't used to my name." He flushed with embarrassment at the reminder, shrugging her off and finishing his whiskey before turning to the beer.
"Yeah, and you took longer than that to call me Max instead of Maximilian, so it's well established that the basis of our friendship is weird as hell." He shrugged. "But I don't think we'd be where we are now if we didn't bond over normal jobs and the woes that come with them."
"No shit, sherlock. That's the saying, right?" When Max nodded confirmation she made a small noise of victory and motioned to Bartok, flagging him down and ordering two shots of something Max didn't quite catch. When the goblin returned and set one in front of each of them, Jana picked hers up and held it in the air in salute.
"To boring jobs and the idiots we work with."