Afterparty

[latinumsbetter]

[The earth once more closes up and all of that disappears, Quark remains on the ground for a long moment, holding Cerejeira. Finally, he raises his voice, still keeping her tucked against him. His tone is all business, brooking no argument.]

Bar'll open in ten minutes. Go get washed up, and then be there.

[He turns his head to look at Astarion, eyes narrowing.]

You. After those ten minutes, you're going to explain to everyone what you did. And then you're going to get out of my bar. Got it?

[and, not waiting for a reply, he's turning his attention to Cerejeira and Leb. He frowns, for a moment, because he knows he can't carry either of them, and normally he might have asked Fe Lu Om Ranma or Vanity but, well.]

...someone who can carry people help me with Leb and Jeira.

[So......the bar downstairs is once again open. Quark is not behind the bar. Instead, he's pushed some tables together and put some bottles of wine on the table. He's replicated some bar snacks and they're there too. There's something replicated for Riful also, in a separate bowl, which he'll give to her personally.

Fritz sitting near the entrance to the back counter where he's working and Critwo is in a nest of blankets in a corner just behind the counter. There’s been several of the extra togas gathered and folded to be used as blankets.

Leb is still asleep on one of the couches with one of the spare togas tucked around her as a blanket. Cerejeira is seated next to her, also with a spare toga tucked around her.

Once everyone is down there, Quark pushes to his feet and clears his throat.

Once the situation has been made clear, then the rest of the evening can proceed as usual for their afterparties.

Those four drinks that Quark usually makes (Athena, Alex, Misane, Aglaea) are once again sitting at the far edge of the counter. There are no new additions.]

Comments

[latinumsbetter]

...yeah. I know you wouldn't do something like that.

[he's one of the few he does trust with that at this point]

We'll have to do what we can to get her out of here.

[murchada]

Yeah, it's not really in my nature, I guess. It's funny... I thought I had the lowest opinion of myself around here, and yet...

[latinumsbetter]

...difference is that you know what it's like to have someone pull this kinda thing on you. So you know what it's like on the other end.

[murchada]

...I knew you were right, you know. What you said about Sakura. She didn't have to do what she did.

And maybe you were also right that I couldn't have done anything. But... right now, I'm still thinking about "what ifs" anyway.

[...]

What if I'd noticed something was going on with Omega. What if Astarion hadn't been such a damn coward. What if Ferdinand hadn't been so stupid.

[latinumsbetter]

[Quark's quiet for a moment, fingers lacing together and tightening, and he has to swallow, hard, blinking rapidly]

What if he hadn't been so stupid. [there's a deeply bitter note to his voice, though it wavers at the end. he hasn't read Ferdinand's letter, but he's seen Omega's holograms.

I thought he was past all that.

[murchada]

...I don't think it's that easy, for people to change.

I think they can. But... it's so, so easy, to go back to what's familiar. For him, that's... trying to be a hero. Self sacrifice. Everyone else first.

[latinumsbetter]

We talked about it. About him coming back to the station, of taking Velvet there. We talked about him not being tied down to the people that sent him to die.

I told him I wanted him to come. [and then, finally, his voice cracks. So does his expression, for a moment, before Quark turns his face away, covering his eyes with his hand.

He's silent, for a long moment, breathing slowing down, skipping raggedly for a moment before it evens out.

Whe he does speak again, it's quiet, exhausted, resigned.]

...I thought, at least, if that wasn't enough, then he wouldn't leave Velvet.

[another moment, where he swallows, throat working, trying to keep his voice even]

I really thought it worked this time.

1/2

[murchada]

[Ferdinand von Aegir when she gets you--]

...Yeah.

I know what that's like.

2/3 actually

[murchada]

He'll give you an apology, I'm sure. Hell, he probably already did.

[in that letter of his.]

But that won't make the feeling go away. I'm not... even sure if he'll understand that part. The way that hurt... stays. It's... why it really sucks, sometimes.

Loving people.

3/3

[murchada]

...The anger won't make it hurt less either, you know.

[it's soft. not judgmental. she gets it and she won't tell him how to feel.

but it's true.]

1/3

[latinumsbetter]

[Quark flinches, shoulders hunching up to his ears as his fingers clench tighter on each other, knuckles a pale orange. He's thought the same thing, of course. Ferdinand will try and apologize, like as not. Maybe he did in that letter, but Quark still hasn't read it, so he really doesn't know. Maybe Quark hasn't read it because he doesn't want to forgive--

but...the anger won't make it hurt less.

And he knows that. Of course he does. It never has. No matter how much he snaps and snarls, whether it's at Ranma, or Luna, or Sisko, or Gul frinxing Dukat, it doesn't matter. They're still gone and it still hurts and he's still left holding nothing. Nothing but that anger, that seething bitterness at the universe, at those people who are gone or the ones that took them away. At the ones manipulated and brainwashed into thinking their duty is more important than their lives; the ones that drink that thrice-cursed rootbeer. Cloying and bubbly and disgusting, but if you drink enough of it, you start to like it. You start to think it's good. You start to believe that maybe things can be better, that it's not as bleak as you first thought--

And then you turn out to be right. Again. And you should've listened to yourself because you know better, you've read the Rules and you know them by heart and you've done what you could to live by them but still, for those moments, there was something in you (something that you've been trying to smother for years and years, because it's not what the Rules say, it's not very Ferengi,) that hopes that maybe, just maybe, it'll be different this time.

When that happens (because it will happen again, apparently no matter what you do, even if you think maybe, just this once, you've done enough,) you can lay down and cry about it, or you can hold on to that anger. You can use it to get you moving again, to keep going, doing what you've always done because that's what you've got to do. It's what you've got the lobes for; a good Ferengi doesn't sit around and mope. You look for the next thing, the next chance at profit, and you keep the bar going and you be a good Ferengi.

And if that means holding on to that anger, even if it doesn't make the hurt go away, what does that matter, anyway? You're alive, and as Rule of Acquisition number 125 says: You can't make a deal if you're dead.]

2/3

[latinumsbetter]

[....Ezri'd have a field day with this.]

3/3

[latinumsbetter]

[That tension in Quark's shoulders releases slightly as he blows out another breath. Then, quietly:]

...it's all I've got.

[murchada]

[she considers that. then she looks at Leb, sleeping. looks over at Aoi, tending the bar right now, cleaning the same glass over and over, despite no liquid having touched it. Vanity slumped over in her seat.]

...Is it?

[latinumsbetter]

[Quark's brow furrows a bit at that, and he finally turns his head to look at her again, confusion writ on his features]

What d'you mean?

[murchada]

I'm pretty sure anger isn't what got you this far. Look at Typhon; where anger's gotten him.

It's just... what's easier. But that's... that isn't what got you here.

[latinumsbetter]

[he straightens a bit at that]

Well, sure, not just anger. There's also my business acumen and charming personality.

1/2

[murchada]

Yeah, yeah, you're real suave.

Come on. You're not the God of Anger or Finance or anything like that, are you? Idiot.

2/2

[murchada]

You're the God of Community. You said it yourself, earlier. You're a people person.

It's because you care.

1/2

[latinumsbetter]

[It’s because you care.
Quark blinks, eyes widening. Not that it’s the first time he’s been accused of it. Far from it. In fact, he can almost hear Brunt’s outraged voice:

You give your customers credit at the bar. You only take a thirty percent kickback from your employees' tips, and you sold food and medicine to Bajoran refugees at cost!
It’s that softness, that philanthropy. The weakness which all Ferengi businessmen distance themselves from as much as possible. The same weakness that made his father’s business ventures fail; that left his brother without any success at all for the longest time. It’s that same weakness that’s almost gotten him killed; that he’s refused and rejected time and time again.

Friends? Community? You sound like some sniveling hyu-mon.

He’d criticized Rom like that, once, when his brother had tried to point out that he’d be remembered. That there was something to his legacy; more than just a footnote. He’d scoffed, calling Rom an idiot, as he often did. But after all was said and done, after he’d contemplated dying rather than breaking a contract, and then everything had been taken from the bar...in marched half the station: Captain Sisko, and Odo, and Jadzia, and all of them, carrying furniture and bottles of alcohol and they’d put his bar back together. Even Morn had brought in his own chair and sat at the bar as if it was the normalest thing in the universe.

Quark turns his head to look at the bar as it currently is. There’s fewer here than there normally is, and that pricks something in him, but...it’s still here. The bar is, and there’s still people in it. His ki employees, his customers, his friends. His community.

Look at them, brother. And you thought you had no assets.

...maybe he’ll never outwardly embrace this weakness the way his brother and his nephew have, but as he looks around at the bar and can see the people who are there and aren’t, those that have come and gone, those that they still need to find, there’s a warm, quiet surety in it. For what’s been built here. For the community that perseveres and persists, that he’s done what he can to keep.]

2/2

[latinumsbetter]

[Quark swallows.]

...yeah, maybe. [he allows, finally.] Just don’t spread it around.

[...there's still things that need to be remedied. He's not even close to being ready to forgive Astarion, and there’s still things to resolve with other people. He thinks of a mane full of stars, a metallic voice conversing with the replicator, a white-toothed laugh and a smile and a sincere expression of gratitude.

He’s quiet for another long moment, before he’s reaching into the inside of his jacket and pulling out an envelope with his name on it in Ferdinand’s familiar, looping handwriting. He stares down at it...before moving to open it.]

1/2

[murchada]

[it still hurts. she's... angry, still, too, despite what she just said. that feeling doesn't go away just because she wants to let go of it. and when she thinks of Omega, there's this horrible, awful ache in her chest that feels like it's going to consume her.

never mind what she just remembered about herself. or... "herself".

but...]

Hm...

2/2

[murchada]

[a little bit of sunshine filters into the bar.]

No promises.

1/2

[latinumsbetter]

[the paper of the envalope tears under his nail. He doesn't move to take out the letter yet, but...it's something.

He huffs out something rueful and amused.]

You're gonna ruin my reputation.

2/2

[latinumsbetter]

[He blinks, though, at the sudden sunshine, startled because they're four floors underground at the moment. He doesn't exactly expect it, so he doesn't register at first where it's coming from. When he does, though, he's turning his head to look at her in something like bewilderment--until he catches that smile. Quark stares at her for a moment, before, without any preamble, he's reaching over to hug her]