Liquid State (Brewing solo)

[Elkeid]

"Hide, hide, I have burned your bridges. I will be a gun and it's you I'll come for~."

Elkeid sat behind the bar she was watching for a Person of the Land, humming along to the soft music that a bard was singing. Radios had not been created yet, and little music boxes couldn't compare to an instrument or vocalist. The woman normally didn't care to be pressured into taking such "jobs," and certainly was not accustomed to doing quests, regardless of a month now passing by within this world. She was still adjusting to it, and had not ventured far from London after her run-ins with Hirosame and Blackcoat.

"If I were to say to you, can you keep a secret, would you know just what to do or where to keep it? Then I say, "I love you", foul the situation. Hey girl, I thought we were the right combination!"

By request of a bar patron, the bard had switched to a new song, one with more of a danceable beat to it. Elkeid, who had somewhat adjusted to hearing and understanding spoken words snapped her fingers along to the beat, now less inclined to cover her ears and grimace in frustration. While catchy, it was a break up song, and losing a partner was usually a messy affair. Still, she couldn't help but shift about in her seat. A few of the bolder patrons were already up on their feet, locking hands and arms with partners as they shuffled across the room. Most of them were beyond drunk, so they were practically dry humping in the middle of the bar, but Elkeid saw no need to interfere unless clothes and the like actually came off. 'It's not like there are any kids around, anyway.' While that was true, though, someone was bound to get offended, and they would complain to her unless she didn't do something beforehand.

"Who broke my heart, you did, you did. Bow to the target, blame Cupid, Cupid. You think you're smart, stupid, stupid. Shoot that poison arrow to my heart~! Shoot that poison arrow~."

When she checked the time of the clock, Elkeid saw that only forty minutes or so had passed since the bar's owner had stepped out to run some "errands." She was told that he would be gone for two hours at the most, so she still had a good hour and twenty minutes before she was free to go. 'Well, no use in just sitting around. I suppose I can make a few drinks while I wait for his return.' Sadly, she had not been practicing her skills much at all lately. 'It's time to make up for lost time.'

"Shoot that poison arrow~."

Elk set down an empty glass and a drink shaker as the bard finished up one song and started another. Her first drink attempt since she'd brewed beer a few weeks ago would be one of her favorite beverages - an apple martini, or "appletini" for short. She pulled up the recipe for an "Ordinary Beverage," an drink she had to make with the base materials listed, but could re-name the description to suit the beverage made. 'Seems simpler than brewing beer by hand,' she thought as she began taking out the materials needed.

"You always make me smile, when I'm feeling down. You give me such a vibe, it's totally bonafide."

It had been a while since she last made the drink, but it was simple enough. Elkeid took one of the bottles of Stale Liquor and began spinning and tossing into the air, like how she'd seen a few bartenders do before they actually got around to making the drinks. She spun the bottle nimbly around her hands, tossing it from hand to hand, through the air, behind her back, until she felt as dizzy as the adventurer watching her felt. The woman opened the bottle and poured it into the shaker, filling it halfway.

"Your love, it feels so good. And that's what takes me high."

The woman performed the same spinning maneuvers with the second bottle as she had with the first, though not to the same extent. She swung her hips to the sound of the beat, ignoring any drunken stares that may have been sent her way. The second bottle of Stale Liquor filled the shaker a quarter of the way to the top, then was set aside for the "pièce de résistance". Her hip popped freely in rhythm to the beat as she filled the shaker almost completely with the Common Beverage. "Now to make it my own~."

Words:771

Muse:Troublesome Visitor

Notes:-whistles-

Tags:Elkeid

made by benetnasch of ET

[Elkeid]

Making the drink the way she wanted was simple. All she did was gather a few other ingredients from the bar - chiefly pure apple extract and some sour mixture and salt for the rim of the glass. She poured a bit of the extracted apple juice into the shaker, then closed the top and picked it up. This part would require some rigorous shaking on her part, which was the only annoying step to making this drink.

Elkeid held the shaker up to her shoulder and gave it a lazy shake. She then transported it over to her right hand, and gave it a firmer shake this time. The liquid inside sloshed heavily around in the stainless steel cylinder. 'Now, I have to shake this enough so that it's well blended.' She gave it a harder and longer shake before switching to the opposite hand, but after the next few shakes she grasped the cylinder by both hands. Doing so allowed for better control, and by no time she was shaking the cylinder just as well as any bartender.

She set down the shaker after a few minutes, and hurried to salt the rim of her glass before the ingredients could settle. Once it was well salted, Elkeid removed the cap from the shaker and carefully began to pour it into the glass. The mixture was a pretty green color, though not as green as her apple martinis usually came out. 'Is it because my level is so low?' Or was it the apple extract she used? 'Eh, I'm sure it'll taste alright. My brewer level is five, after all.' The extract just lacked a strong color, was all. That wasn't as important as the actual flavor was, of course. 'I would be slamming this bad boy down if I wasn't on the clock.' "Slamming" to Elk meant "casually sipping for about half an hour" in this case. One did not simply chug apple martinis.

The crowd was still distracted by the bard's playing and their own merriment, so Elkeid was able to focus on the description for her drink. 'It's pretty simple, really. After finishing her task, the woman carefully placed the drink in her inventory before a customer could request or steal it. That was something she would enjoy at a later date, as a reward for herself. 'It's back to work for now, I suppose,' she thought as she glanced back up at the crowd.

She sort of envied how carefree and drunk they were, and on a regular night she may have even joined in with them. Hell, she had come to the bar with the intent of getting a little tipsy herself, but the owner had distracted her with his own worries. Apparently his wife had injured herself, an act that demanded his immediate attention, but he couldn’t leave the bar unattended, nor did he have time to clear the crowd out and clean up. The odds of him returning so soon seemed minimal, but she could close the bar on her own if she had to. ’For now…’

Words:515

Muse:Troublesome Visitor

Notes:Woop. Appletinis~.

Tags:Elkeid

made by benetnasch of ET

[Elkeid]

A small fight had almost started up between two bar patrons, who were arguing over who got to dance with a slinky elven Courtesan. Elkeid couldn't see what all the fuss over a street walker was about, but she separated the two men all the same. Both of them were heavily intoxicated, while the elf looked far from tipsy. 'I bet she was just using these men.' It wouldn’t be surprising at all if that was what was happening. She had had half a mind to throw out the men and the whore, but in the end decided to put their bar privileges on hold for the rest of the night. If they wanted to something to drink, it would have to be a virgin drink. 'I'm not going let you morons smash this man's building up.'

The bard, sensing the uneasy mood in the atmosphere, began playing something calming and surprisingly relevant. Elkeid paused while cleaning the bar to stop and listen to the woman's alluring voice. She was sure she had heard this song a few years ago, but couldn't place it. 'I remember the tune, anyway. That should be enough.'

With the bar clean and its inhabitants too busy with their dancing or chatting to distract her, Elkeid decided to mix another drink as practice. This time she would try something a little trickier - a Sex On the Beach, or as close as she could make one. 'I don't think I have ever made one of these before.' She usually had Imogen or someone else do it, but not many people could mix a drink like the Swede.

'First, I'm going to need...what's in a Sex On the Beach again?' Elk tilted her head to the side and closed her eyes for a few moments, trying to remember by how the drink tasted. 'Let's see...there was usually pineapple - no, that was the garnish. Vodka and peach schnapps are the main ingredients, then there's usually raspberry, melon, orange juice, but that is optional, and pineapple and cranberry juice? One of them, anyway.' The drinks she had had had varied a little in usage of juice, but Imogen was consistent unless someone specifically requested an alteration.

Elkeid gave a small shrug. She would just have to make one hell of a bastardized (and fruity) drink instead. 'Thank you for the stock, old man,' she thought as she began rummaging through the owner's storage for the fruit she would need. She could supply the liquor, but was lacking in the fruit section. 'First thing's first.'

She placed an empty cocktail glass down on the counter, and filled it less than halfway with some British Snow. A little Stale Liquor was then added to the mix. 'There. I will just let that sit while I'm getting everything else ready.' The British Snow would hopefully melt a bit by the time she was finished, and resemble something closer to ice than hardened bits of snow. If not, she could always just stir it up.

Words:504

Muse:Self Control

Notes:Do do do~.

Tags:Elkeid

made by benetnasch of ET

[Elkeid]

While the liquor and ice was left to set, Elkeid began her assault on the fruit. She borrowed a small knife from the owner's kitchen, and lined up her first victim. The melon shivered slightly in her hands as she pressed the point of her knife into its flesh. That was only one mere poke, though. She increased the pressure until the full blade of the little knife penetrated the melon down to its core. There was a noise that sounded like a soft scream, but Elkeid failed to see any trouble coming from the patrons. 'That's weird.' She shrugged and drove her thumbs into the crack created by the knife. A low 'Oooh~' followed. 'Weirdos.'

Elkeid scooped out the innards of the melon and placed it onto the freshly cleaned counter. She then finely chopped up the pieces and deposited them to a large bowl. Next came the raspberries, but she just tossed a handful of those into the bowl. 'I feel like I'm making a fruit goulash.' Hopefully it tasted as good as it looked. "Oranges," she said loudly as she rapped one set of knuckles against the counter. The two oranges sitting to the side began to tremble, and one even tried rolling off the counter and onto the floor.

The orange was caught by the monk, who peeled it first, then its brother. Both oranges cried in protest, though their complaints fell on deaf ears. Elkeid painstakingly removed the thin membranes that surrounded the juicy fruit of each section, casually casting them into the bowl with the other dismembered fruit.

"Peaches." The peaches, being the sadists they were, practically threw themselves into Elkeid's waiting hand. 'Ooooh mistress!' the fruit exclaimed as they were peeled and pitted. They trembled in ecstasy whenever Elkeid sliced into their fleshly little bodies, and groaned in disappointment when they were finally cast to the side, much like a wife whose husband gives out in only two minutes.

"There, that should be everything -"

The little sigh of relief gave the almost forgotten pineapple away. 'No! Stop! Please! I've got kids, mon!' The pineapple reached for its tiny pineapple bound wallet, where a picture of its wife and kids would no doubt be stored, but Elkeid had already seized it in one fist, and was casually slicing through the green stalk upon its head. 'MEEEERCCCCY!' Elkeid, who didn't speak fruit and sure as hell was not aware that they were even sentient, did not let up on her assault.

She held up the now naked pineapple, and roundhouse kicked it unto the counter. There was a low thud as the pineapple's body collided with the hard wood of the counter. It quivered all over as Elkeid slowly advanced upon it with the knife, and jumped a centimeter when it was cruelly slashed into. Elk dragged the blade swiftly to the left, then the right, her hand moving with lightning speed as she quickly reduced the pineapple to evenly sliced bits and pieces. One piece was set aside to be the garnish, while the others were dumped into the bowl.

When Elkeid started cracking her knuckles, the fruit knew that something very bad was about to go down. The ones at the very top tried scooting down or backwards, but there was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide - they're all inside. The pineapple chunks shrieked in pain and terror as Elkeid slammed one fist into the center of the bowl, causing it to bounce and rattle the interior. The next punch could be felt by the wood of the bar, which grunted softly as the bottom of the bowl left a slight imprint in wood that even an adorable little Benepuppy could not shred with her teeth.

Little bits and chunks of fruit went flying into the air, but none of them dared to fling themselves onto the woman's unblemished face or armor. Even the peaches weren't that suicidal. "Just liquefy already," Elk growled in annoyance at the bits of fruit stuck to her knuckles. The fruit began ripping themselves and others apart at her words, now just wanting the punching to cease, but it did not. Elkeid continued to punch and punch and punch until most of the fruit was well blended and squelched under her knuckles. "There."

The woman was smirking as she poured the beaten up fruit pulp into the cocktail glass with the British Snow and Stale Liquor. She then added a bit more snow and liquor to the pulp, and stirred the contents of the glass until her spoon could move freely enough. The piece of pineapple she had set to the side was added to the rim of the glass, where a tiny bit of pineapple juice dribbled down the side in defiance. 'It might be a little too thick, but it works all the same.' The first time was bound to have some flaws, anyway.

Elkeid licked her knuckles clean after setting the drink to the side, and grabbed a towel to clean up the carnage she had made on the bar's countertop. The owner should be back in a few minutes now, and probably would not appreciate seeing his work space in fruity disorder. 'Damn, there sure is a lot of juice on the counter.' There was enough to make her wonder if less juice was in the cocktail glass. 'I hope he doesn't mind that I borrowed from his store without asking.' If he did, she could always pay it off somehow, either by gathering the materials or running the bar with him, or even just acting as a bouncer.

By the time the bar's owner stepped into the establishment, Elkeid had the countertop as clean as when she had started, though nothing could be done about the indent left by the bowl. She had placed a coaster over it with the hope that he would not notice until she was long gone, and all evidence of her personal brewing was hidden. 'Just give me the word, old man.' And give it he did.

"Oho! It seems like you did a good job of keeping everything well in order, miss! Even the local brawlers are calm. I tip my hat to you! I'll be taking over now, if you don't mind~."

She just nodded and obediently ducked out from behind the bar, turning down the offer of a free drink. A warm soft bed was favorable to a drink right about now. 'I'll just have to enjoy my mixes later. I don't want to go to bed drunk, anyway.'

Words:1096

Muse:Troublesome Visitor

Notes:Aaand scene!

Tags:Elkeid

made by benetnasch of ET