“Uh… Hi?”
Vick was busy cleaning the bar after a long day at work. He hadn’t been paying attention to outside the shop, where a strange ship had landed. So he was rather surprised to see a familiar face suddenly knocking on the door.
“Retvik! Heya, buddy!”
Vick blinked. “Uh… Tenuk, what are you doing here? Also, hi, kid.”
“Hi, Vick…” Arkay waved meekly. “Tenuk dragged me here.”
“Why did Tenuk drag you here?” Vick asked.
“Dunno. He’s drunk. I don’t even know how he’s drunk, he hasn’t had anything to drink. I had to take over flying the ship because he got so drunk.”
“You both… kinda smell drunk…” Vick muttered. Tenuk wasn’t paying attention at all. He was suddenly preoccupied with staring at the line of fairy lights hanging above the door.
Arkay sighed. “Yeah, I know. I haven’t had anything to drink, but all I can smell is alcohol and strawberries. I just kinda noticed I was starting to get impaired and decided to make my way here as fast as possible, since there’s not really anywhere to stop between here and Savepoint, and we were more than halfway here when I had to take over and when I noticed I was getting a bit messed up.”
“You… you sure you haven’t had anything to drink?” Vick asked.
“I am certain. I haven’t had anything to drink. But all I can smell is alcohol. It’s in my nostrils and in my skin. And I dare not open the back of Tenuk’s ship because I didn’t want to suddenly end up blackout drunk.”
Vick frowned. “Alright, come inside. Come and sit down.”
Arkay tugged at Tenuk, only just managing to drag him inside. Luckily, there were more fairy lights inside the bar to distract Tenuk, and a large jug of water was waiting for him at one of the tables. But there was also something more distracting.
“Holy fucking shit, Tenuk, your girlfriend is fucking hot!” Tenuk rudely shouted. “Can I fuck her?”
Letharus blinked in confusion as he put two more glasses of water on the table. “What?”
“Can I fuck you?” Tenuk repeated himself. “You’re so fucking hot. A white and purple vampire. I want you to suck my blood and then suck my cock. And if you’re a good girl, I’ll let you ride-”
All of a sudden, Tenuk collapsed in a heap, banging his head on a nearby table as he did so.
“Alright, that is perfectly reasonable for you to do, dear and I don’t blame you in the slightest for knocking Tenuk out…” Vick sighed. “But now you’ve given Tenuk a concussion. And giving Kronospasts concussions turns them into even worse sex pests.”
Letharus growled. “He is lucky I did not cut his penis off. I am considering it though.”
“Yeah, fair, I’m sorry…” Arkay was feeling a bit woozy now. “I have no clue what’s in Tenuk’s ship but it’s very potent.”
Letharus wasn’t paying attention. He was busy telekinetically lifting Tenuk up and chaining him to a chair. Vick though looked concerned.
“Why were you coming here in the first place?” Vick asked.
“Tenuk mentioned something about a new brewery, visiting you and doing multiple things at once. He left a couple of Alsyr at Savepoint so they could make friends, then dragged me here.”
“Hmph…” Vick grunted, but didn’t say anything. He instead headed into the kitchen behind the bar, rummaged around for a bit then reappeared wearing some sort of filtration mask that covered his face. “I think you have a leak.”
Arkay sat down at the table. “Probably. Can I drink this water, please?”
“Go ahead. Letharus, darling, mind keeping Arkay topped up? Need to flush out the alcohol.”
“Of course, my love. One moment.”
Letharus continued tying Tenuk up, before doing as asked, fetching Arkay more water as he downed the entire jug in one go.
Satisfied, Vick headed outside to where the ship was parked. Thankfully, Arkay had left the ship unlocked and with the main door open. Vick though quickly guessed that the problem was in the back of the ship, and he made his way to the cargo door at the back of the ship. That door was locked. But Vick didn’t really care. He had a solution to that sort of thing. Normally, Vick used his metal-summoning powers to create large, shield-like plates of metal to block access to things (and keep people from entering their ships if they were too drunk to fly) but he could also use those metal-summoning powers to create much thinner objects. Like lock-picks.
It wasn’t hard to get the cargo door open, but as he did so, he was hit by a stupidly potent smell of alcohol and strawberries. And right there in the middle of the cargo bay was the source. Ten colossal barrels of 98% proof alcohol, all of which were badly packed and leaking, seeping into the weird carpet and the even weirder carpeted walls. The barrels were badly packaged and were now all only half full. Most of the contents had evaporated, leaked onto the floor or been absorbed by the carpet.
Vick sighed to himself, then went around and started opening every single vent, window and door that could be opened. He then exited the ship, headed to the side of the bar and grabbed a hose, connecting it to a water pipe.
While he couldn’t get rid of all the alcohol, Vick could at least wash some of it away. He almost gleefully soaked the entirety of the cargo bay, then left everything open. The lack of air meant that it would all evaporate rather quickly.
After a while, Vick made his way back inside. Arkay was still glugging water. Letharus was keeping an eye on him.
“You might be stuck here a while…” Vick tutted. “Gotta wait for Tenuk’s ship to completely air out.”
Arkay shrugged. “Fair enough. Sorry for trashing the place.”
“It’s fine, kid. You want some hot chocolate? I think we all need something to settle our emotions.”
“Yes please!” Letharus exclaimed. “I love a good hot cocoa!”
“With extra cream?” Vick asked.
“Of course.”
Vick smiled. “Alright. You two stay here, I’ll go sort out some drinks…”