Day Drinking (A,L,F)

“Are you two sure this is a good idea?” Stella asked.

“We’re not putting money on it, it's just a change of games as a palate cleanser while Ava’s gone.” Luna assured her.

“It’s not that,” Stella said quietly. “But getting drunk in the middle of the day?”

“You won’t need to get drunk. I just need someone to help test my new TF. If you want me to make you a drink or two to use on your own transformations, then I will. Otherwise, Felicia’s already agreed to use at least one of hers to help.”

“Alright. I’m just not sure if it’s a good idea this early. I’m still supposed to be cooking dinner later.”

“It’s like Luna said. All that matters is that I drink. It’ll even the odds when we play anyways.” Felicia assured her. Luna rolled her eyes. “If you do change your mind, then Genet can always do it.”

“I… guess that’s alright then. Someone has the cards then?”

Luna nodded. “Only my deck though. I tried raiding Ava’s closet, but somehow she doesn’t have playing cards. I found Wonders stuff, Invaders of Katann, Treachery at the Valley Mansion, Epidemic, and All Aboard, but not real cards.”

“She thinks incentivizing gambling for money spoils things.” Felicia explained. She’d heard her roommate’s manifesto at least a dozen times over the years.

The three of them had just arrived at Murphy’s. Stella and Felicia had cleaned the kitchen while Luna was taking the lead on figuring out what to do that afternoon. With Ava and Dick gone and Aubrey barely speaking to anyone since she got that book, the three had struggled more than they’d expected to find something they could agree to do together.

But they’d settled on blackjack. Genet had seen fit to stash the poker chips Luna used to bring it to frat parties in her closet, so from there some form of gambling kept coming back to discussion, and blackjack seemed to be the one Stella was most comfortable with..

Luna passed the deck to Stella for the first shuffling so she could take a look at the bar. “So, which TF did you want to use as the first subject?”

“Power Creep.” Felicia immediately answered. She’d been thinking about it all morning.

“Sounds good.” Luna summoned a set of ingredients, which appeared on top of the actual bar top instead of with the minibar that’d shown up the last two times she’d used it. “Up or down?”

“Up.”

“It’s offering me a Tequila Sunrise, Missionary’s Downfall, and… that third one has dairy, so that’s out of the question. Any preference between the other two?”

With Felicia’s track record drinking, she didn’t really know much about cocktails. “You can pick.”

“One Tequila Sunrise, coming right up then.” Luna mixed it while Stella was getting the game ready, portioning out chips and shuffling the deck. She looked smoother with her movements than either of them expected.

“Are you playing poker all the time when you’re not with us?” Felicia half joked, as the cocktail glass was set down in front of her.

“No.”

“Seriously, where’d you learn to shuffle and deal that smoothly then? I’ve known you for a decade, and I’ve never seen you do that with your Wonders cards.”

Stella shrugged. “Wonders decks are too big. Mom and I lived in New Jersey for a few months. She was a line cook for a casino until she got suspicious they had mafia connections and made us run again. Mr.Montague, her boss, would help with my homework sometimes.” While they’d been talking, she’d dealt two places for both Luna and Felicia to each play from and a fifth for herself.

Felicia sipped her drink as she tried to decide what to do with her hands. Twelve and Fourteen are both tough. “Hit both.” She ordered, to which a seven was added to her twelve and a ten to her fourteen, dooming her second hand. But the nineteen might be safe. “Stay.”

Luna knew she had lost with both her opening hands. Her sixteen and seventeen were normally too high to risk anything with, but also low enough that a well placed ace could beat her. She asked for another card for both and as she’d expected, both hands busted.

Stella flipped over the card that she got to hide as the dealer, revealing a ten and a three. She dealt herself another card and collected Luna and Felicia’s small bets after showing the eight making her hand into a perfect hand.

Luna somehow lost the next eight rounds in a row. Stella managed to pull off six wins to Felicia’s increasingly frustrated two. The blonde was doing better, but it was beginning to look like they both were being hustled.

One Drink Later:

Felicia’s glass sat empty on the table. The latina was nearly out of chips and starting to get worried that the glass would be flung with the blonde’s wild movements of her arms.

“How the hell are you doing this?”

“I’m sorry.” Stella apologized. “Do you want me to stop winning?”

“No! I-” Felicia stopped, slightly aware of how loud she was. “No. If you can win, you should. But this game is like seventy percent luck. You’ve won, what? Four out of five games? I don’t think you’re weaving or counting cards or anything that should let you do this, so how is this happening?”

“I’m just doing what Mr.Montague taught me.”

“What kind of heart-of-the-cards bullshit did he teach you?”

“I…” Stella didn’t pay enough attention to anime to know what that was supposed to mean.

“Should we take a little break?” Luna suggested to break the tension. “I could use a drink.”

“I might have changed my mind.” Stella said quietly. “It’d be helpful to give you more examples, right?” Concordia told me I should try to relax more when I can.

“Sure. Which TF should I use?”

“My new one?”

“What’s that one do? I saw your hair color swirl a while ago.” Felicia asked.

Stella and Luna made eye contact, trying to decide if and how they should explain. Settling their wordless debate, the lawyer spoke as she prepped at the bar. “Her hair changes color when she’s in a good mood.”

Felicia stared at her friend’s hair, as brown as it’d ever been. “I’m being a bitch, aren’t I?”

Stella wavered. “No…”

Luna was more realistic. “A little. I think I should’ve tried to water your drink down a bit.”

“Eh. I still should be able to not shit on y’alls spirits. Mind if I use the bathroom, then maybe I can teach you both Speed?” Stella nodded, and the blonde left the room.

Luna thought she might’ve been a bit flushed as she was leaving. She set down a cosmopolitan for Stella made and something from a recipe Barmaid had offered her called The Apple of Eden for herself.

Five Drinks Later:

Stella had enjoyed the drink more than she’d expected. In between rounds of Speed, she had ended up making herself two more. She'd made another cocktail for Felicia at the blonde's insistence. Luna had decided to put the cards away as Felicia talked, she’d been more distractible for a while and their breaks between each game had been growing longer.

“I’ve got another TF idea for whoever wins next round. What if he could make a couple clones of himself?”

“So he could spend time with multiple people any given day?” Luna asked.

“No, so he could fuck me three different ways at once.” The blonde scoffed, as if her motive was more reasonable. “Or maybe one after the other. Either way, we wouldn’t need to be as picky about what we did together. Maybe they could all- ”

“This may not be the time and place.” Luna cut her off, glancing at Stella.

“Sorry.”

I’m glad she understood. Luna mused. She can be brusque, but she knows when to stop. She always knows what she wants, and she’s clever and brave and spontaneous. That part made her pause. That’s not what I think about her. I like being able to talk to her about stuff that’d scare or confuse everyone else, not that… She looked down at her empty glass, which she’d used to try suppressing a transformation for the first time, Touch Base. So is it replacing my sexual connection with what he likes? How he feels? I can still think differently than what it’s telling me, it’s just… confident.

While she’d been thinking, Stella seemed to have picked up some of what Luna was trying to communicate. “I appreciate the thought guys, but you don’t need to baby me. I’m older than both of you, I have fantasies too.”

“That’s understandable, I’m sorry.” Luna apologized, trying to give herself time to think through both what to say next and how she should feel about what was happening with Touch Base by collecting everyone’s glasses that had collected on the table and taking them over to the bar to be disposed of. “Were there any that you felt like sharing?”

Stella blushed and both her friends watched as her hair shifted, the color swirling like someone was mixing a strawberry soda. “We’re both without clothes, and he’s quiet. He lets me tell him what to do.” Seeing the other two looking at her, she giggled. “I know it’s probably not as **** as yours, but I, like, think it’d be nice?”

Both women politely nodded. To Luna it seemed fitting, though still a little surprising that she wanted to take the lead there. She’s so shy. She should be able to demand more. The thoughts that sounded like her said.

She decided to change the subject. “You both offered to help me test the new TF. Have you noticed anything unusual?”

“I’m pretty sure tequila’s an aphrodisiac. I might head out in a moment.”

“Sorry.” Luna apologized. “Might not be a bad night to go to bed early, since Ava’s out.”

“Something like that.” Felicia said noncommittally, getting up from the booth and heading out of the bar towards the plaza.

After she was gone, Luna turned back to her roommate for the round. “How about you. Did you notice anything unusual?”

“Not really anything more **** than everything else here. It’s been twelve days, thirteen if you count the first night, and things have changed, like, so much. Ava’s the only one that hasn’t decided to do something physical with him, and I feel like no one’s talking about how weird and fast that is.”

“I see what you mean, though I think you’re forgetting Maeve. She might be the most reticent of all of us.” Luna paused. “Is this something you’re worried about?”

“Maybe? It’s not even that it’s all bad, because most of it isn’t. Yesterday and the day before were a dream come true. But it’s happening so fast, and I feel like no one’s commenting on it. What comes next?”

“I don’t know. We’ll find out tomorrow.” Luna’s phone buzzed from where it was on the table, a text from Maeve lighting up the screen. “We’ll figure it out together. Is there anything you want to do now about this feeling?”

Stella shrugged. “Probably what I usually do when things feel weird.”

“Making dinner?” Isn't she impressive? The thoughts that sounded like her gushed. Shut up. She shot back in her mind.

The chef nodded. “It’s stir-fry tonight”