Open to all

[pullmeapint]

"Welcome to the Pub," Finn called out to the newcomers and indicated the different TV screens around the pub itself. "It's playoff night here so you can find someone of a like mind team-wise or head to the pool table area which is a dedicated neutral zone."

He grinned when a shout went up over a missed call and joined the ranks of those screaming over the ref needing to go back to the high school leagues to learn the rules. It was one of the biggest heartbreaks of his version of the Finnegan gift - he'd been unable to attend any live sporting event since his power had manifested. As much as he wanted to cheer on the home team, his enthusiasm for the wind would occasionally get the better of him and he'd forget. After two goals that not one commentator had been able to explain, he'd stuck to watching everything on the tube instead.

Now, surrounded by several dozen screaming fans, it was, to his mind, just as good as seeing it live and in stadium. Maybe better given the lack of traffic going home.

Comments

[pullmeapint]

"Yeah, that's a no. I wouldn't let my own family mind my bar on a night this busy. But I appreciate the offer."

Something told him that maybe it wasn't all that metaphorical but he'd tended bar long enough to know when to not take the conversation further. "So, you a hockey fan or did you just come down to flash me and down a few pints?"

[keirasullivan]

"Mostly basket and football but I can appreciate the violence and brutality of a good hockey match... I dated a jock for a while." Keira explained, smiling roguishly at him while she waited for him to come back her end of the bar. "But operation flash Finn may have been part of the reason."

[pullmeapint]

"Got to admit, there's something about watching players slam each other into glass in search of a puck even the camera has a hard time following," Finn laughed as a pair on the screen behind him did just that.

"I'm honored," Finn quipped back and poured himself another coffee.

[keirasullivan]

"Well, I know who I'd like to slam into. No? Still not going to let me take you out back and thoroughly have my way with you?" Keira replied, her attention taken away from Finn for her to yell bloody murder at the screen. "You should be, I don't just flash my breasts for anyone. Except that one time at Mardi Gras, and what happens in New Orleans stays in New Orleans."

[pullmeapint]

"Because I totally believe you'd do that," Finn shot back easily. "If that ever happened you'd lose half the fun of teasing me unmercifully about things I can't have."

Would he do just that - take her in the back and take her against a wall? Of course he would. Somehow, though, he was pretty sure that would spell the end of all the teasing.

[keirasullivan]

"Or it would just make it worse on you. Knowing what you'd had then me teasing you mercilessly because you couldn't have it again?" Keira snapped back smartly, a teasing smile lingering on her lips as she finished her pint and ordered another.

[pullmeapint]

"Trust you to be able to find a way to take it and make it more torturous. So if it's all the same to you, I'll hang out on the fantasy side of it. Safer there and less chance I'll do nothing but pine away."

He drew her another pint and slid it over. "So. What else are you up to, besides torturing bartenders?"

[keirasullivan]

“Of course, it’s in my DNA to be evil or haven’t you heard that by now?” Keira drawled in reply, blowing him a kiss as she caught the beer he sid over to her. “Reacquainting myself with old friends, or rather an old ex. And not like that before you say anything. And trying to get the stock sorted, I had a very kind generous donation of antique magical tomes and only ninety percent of them were hexed and cursed.”

[pullmeapint]

"Only ninety percent? That must've been like Christmas," Finn shot back with a laugh. "How do you handle the cursed ones? Do you have the magical equivalent of the bomb squad to come in and secure them or just stick them on the shelves and hope for the best?"

He knew they probably didn't do the latter, but he really was curious about how the handled that kind of thing.

[keirasullivan]

“It was, it’s the best kind of present a girl can ask for.” Keira replied, smiling wryly as she dipped her finger into her beer before tracing her finger round the rim of her glass. She was tempted to suck her finger clean but that would have been terrible for Finn, she should probably do it later when she had his full attention. “Magical bomb squad at your service. If it’s something I can take off myself without damaging the book then I do it as in if it just needs rebinding or a sprinkle of dry powders then we’re good. If it needs a good dunking then it stays in the Reserve stack out of the borrowers way until we can get someone a lot stronger than me to look at it.”

[pullmeapint]

Finn looked over towards the back of the bar where his grandfather was sitting on the pool table and making perfect shots stop just short of the pockets. "Don't suppose you have any experience with banishing ghosts in your bag of curse breaking tricks?"

[keirasullivan]

"Nope, besides ghosts are mostly harmless and if they're not then you probably need a necromancer or an exorcist. Curses are just bundles of chaotic energy, ghosts are sentient beings so I'm not going to go messing with that." Keira replied with a soft snort. Her magic was paper, plants, things like that but not people. "Why? You have a ghost problem?"

[pullmeapint]

"More like I have a pain in the ass grandfather that wasn't quite ready to die, found out I can see and talk to him, and now likes to hang around giving me advice and fucking up people's pool shots," he said the last louder, and aimed to towards the old man. His grandfather merely cackled and sent another shot off course.

[keirasullivan]

“Well as long as he doesn’t mess up mine then I’m not going to interfere with how he wants to spend his afterlife.” Keira replied with a smile, she turned her head and followed Finn’s gaze looking for a disturbance in the force. Spirits weren’t her thing though, although she could feel something brush against the wood of the table. “Can you see all spirits or just certain ones?”

[pullmeapint]

"If I look, I can see them all," Finn shrugged, "but I learned pretty quickly to not look for them and to not stay open. You wouldn't believe how insistent they can be when they know they have an audience. And not all of them want help, or are pissed they're dead. Most are just hanging around waiting for loved ones and are looking for someone to help them pass the time. Not so bad, until they keep you up all night talking."

He grinned a little. "If a woman's going to keep me up at night, I'd rather it be for other reasons."

[keirasullivan]

"Yeah, so just... out of curiosity is there anyone around me?" Keira asked curiously. She didn't want to know, not really. Her mom had died so long ago now that sometimes she couldn't even remember what she looked liked, what she sounded like, what she smelled like but some days it all felt like well, like it had happened yesterday.

[pullmeapint]

Finn opened his ability and let the dead creep into his vision. His grandfather was there, a few lingering in the corners, and a barfly at the end of the bar giving a patron a case of gooseflesh that would probably make him move soon. Before any of them noticed him, he closed down that part of his sight and shook his head. "Not near you, no. There are a few hanging around, but none that seem overly interested in anyone. Just watching the living."