There’s a subtle twitch that occurs at the sound of the grating slide. The person seated to the right of Katherine seemed to be having… Well, for the lack of a better term, one of ‘those nights’.
[break][break]
Unfortunately for them, the elite four was anything but someone with a good shoulder to cry on. She was brash and completely insensitive. Quite the bad cocktail, in short. Her martini, on the other hand, was a pleasant surprise. With a short sip taken from it and a soft click against her phone’s lock button, her eyes avert towards Remi.
[break][break]
“You know,” by now, the bartender turned away to prepare another glass for Remi, ”If you treat people this way in Slateport, they will most likely probably spit in your drink.” Arceus knows that she had done so before.
[break][break]
“You aren’t from here, are you?” The accent gave it away.
[break][break]
notes: i assume she has an accent but if she doesn't lmk and i'll edit

[attr="class","ooc"] Remi Cassel [break]

[attr="class","pkmnparty"]

Remi's rough night was about to get worse. With her already obstructed vision and her current state of inebriation, the curtain of pretty wine-coloured hair falls a few shades darker in the bar lighting and influenced by her emotions. It looks like blood, spilling from her shoulders endlessly and marveled by eyes the same shade.

In the moment, it doesn't occur to her that they should be gold.

The woman who looks too much like Calla Mccoy to be good speaks up and says something insulting and matter-of-fact in a similar enough vein to her self-imposed doppelganger that she responds as violently as she normally would. Her brows crunch together and her teeth grind, but she pointedly chooses to avoid making direct eye contact. It helps her to not realize it is not the same woman who haunts her nightmares.

"Could spice things up, I could use a good fight."

And to her question, Remi scoffs.

"What the fuck're you talkin' about?"

Her Kalosian accent, normally prominent, is even more apparent (and sloppy). Something bumps against her stool and makes a funny noise. It draws her attention down, and in her empty glass is a blue-wrapped candy. She plucks it out, shaking it from side to side to let it crinkle noisily.

"Or they'll give me sweets. Seems you might be wrong, princess."

mission: all-nighter

Katherine Fairburne

☉

“Ah. In that case, don’t let me stop you,” another sip from her martini is stolen, the alcohol slipping down her throat smoothly. “If you’d like to get yourself black-listed, then this is definitely the fast way to make it happen.” No amount of good looks could help a person in this sort of establishment.
[break][break]
If the bar was a kingdom, then their respective bartenders were their kings and queens. “The closest bar to this place is like fifteen minutes away from here. No fight is worth that walk, trust me.”
[break][break]
Especially if you happened to already feel light-headed.
[break][break]
“It’s your accent.” Her answer is given in response to the question first, but it proves all the more true when Remi dangles the candy left and right. ”That’s why they’re letting you get away with it. You’re clearly not from here.”
[break][break]
It wasn’t just the accent that gave it away, mind, but it just so happened to be the most prominent thing Katherine could point at.
[break][break]
"I am Katherine. I assume you also have a name or... Should I just call you 'tourist with an attitude'?"

[attr="class","ooc"] Remi Cassel [break]

[attr="class","pkmnparty"]

Calla? Giving up this easily? How bizarre.

But wait-- on a double-take, because Calla's response is so unlike her, Remi's cheek turns and freezes, her eye taking in the woman in the bar seat next to her. Slowly, and then all at once, the woman's features crumble away and the hazy mirage of her ex disappears to leave behind a beautiful, if annoyed, young woman.

"Then they'd be missing out on a well-paying customer."

But her words aren't packed with as much of a punch. The fifteen-minute walk is a sucker punch to her motivation. Though she's confident she could pull it together, she isn't certain she could do it right now.

"Hm."

Remi purses her lips, thinking while refocusing on the blue candy pinched between her forefinger and thumb. This woman's investigative statements are packed with truth, and she is too drunk to realize how blatantly obvious these facts are.

"Wouldn't be too far off, Katherine."

She puts emphasis on her name as if to drill it into memory. This wasn't Calla. This was Katherine, a woman who was nothing like her.

"My name is Remi."

mission: all-nighter

Katherine Fairburne

☉

“Remi.”
[break][break]
She tastes the name on her tongue, permitting it to linger in her mouth for a second or two longer than necessary. Her pause comes to a break only when a smile reaches her lips, gracing a cold expression with some much-needed warmth.
[break][break]
“So… What brings you to Slateport? I do hope you aren’t here for the alcohol though… To be quite honest, there are much better bars in Mauville or even Lilycove.” And they happened to be quieter as well. If she was searching for a place where people won’t ask questions about her accent or where she was from, Remi would probably find that place much more to her liking.
[break][break]
“Hm, I suppose the music is better here though.”

[attr="class","ooc"] Remi Cassel [break]

[attr="class","pkmnparty"]

Her name always sounds sweeter when spoken by someone else. It also helps that the speaker is a beautiful woman with a matter-of-fact manner of speaking. Assertive, confident women were always a soft spot.

Katherine smiles, and Remi finds it easy to pull her lips up in a slight smirk in response. And then come the questions, inevitable given the alcohol numbing their tongues.

"I was looking for someone."

She glances back into her empty drink, spinning it against the counter to ward off the twisting knife in her stomach. She swallows, gathers her strength, and glances back at Katherine.

"Better bars, you say... but here you are."

This time, she gives the woman a much longer stare, one that definitely implies some degree of hazy interest. Her attention wanders away quickly, however, as she raises her hand to try and flag down the bartender for another drink. He scoffs, shakes his head, and resumes drying out glasses in front of him.

"Tch."

mission: all-nighter

Katherine Fairburne

☉

“If you’re here all by yourself, then I take it you haven’t found them…” Her words linger in the air for a moment or two longer before she continues, “..Yet.” Wasn’t she just the nicest? She knew exactly what to say to inspire hope in others.
[break][break]
Katherine was definitely in a good mood judging by how little of her martini was left in the glass and her surprisingly sweet nature. You’d think she’d be more of a bitch under the influence of alcohol— but not at all! She felt more at ease now, which probably explains the lack of her usual resting bitch-face.
[break][break]
“Here I am!”
[break][break]
Perhaps a tad bit louder than necessary, she quiets down upon noticing the bartender shooting a glance at the pair of them.
[break][break]
“I live here. In Slateport, I mean. This bar is… I don’t know, accessible. Familiar. Besides, the music really is better here.”

[attr="class","ooc"] Remi Cassel [break]

[attr="class","pkmnparty"]

"Mmm. Something like that."

There is a bitterness to her tone that not even a pumpkin spiced whiskey could sweeten. Though the smell of one passing her by does draw her attention away, slightly, if only for a moment. God, people were so obsessed with autumn-themed treats. Pumpkin this, eggnog that.

Katherine exclaims, which raises Remi's brows, and she exhales sharply in amusement.

"How much have you had to drink, pretty lady?"

The daggers in her eyes mean nothing, because she can only see out of one eye. That and she could literally give less of a damn. A fraction of a damn.

"I suppose that makes sense. The people who live in shitholes often know the most about said shitholes."

She spoke about it fondly, however, as the feeling was mostly mutual. Sort of, if Katherine was at all mutual. There was a reason Remi had decided to put down some roots in Slateport instead of Lilycove or Sootopolis. Well, that and Sootopolis was a fucking ticking time bomb right now and the stone city was god-awful ugly.

"I like it."

mission: all-nighter

Katherine Fairburne

☉

Tonight may have been a full moon night, but nothing other than that felt like a special occasion to Katherine. Autumn or not, the fact Halloween had already passed and Christmas was nearing mattered little to her. She wasn’t big on holidays, to begin with.
[break][break]
“Not too much, I hope.”
[break][break]
Her words are sincere. If there was anything she wished for at this moment, then it was that she won’t vomit on her way back home. She could handle herself here, in the company of others, but something told her that it’ll become progressively harder when she won’t have to maintain a facade in front of others.
[break][break]
Oh well.
[break][break]
“You must have some high standards to call Slateport of all places a shithole.” Then again, maybe Remi came from a region where they were slightly less concerned about war and criminal activities like Hoenn was. In comparison, maybe it really was a shithole. She still felt defensive over the city, mind, but mostly because she’d grown to like it for better and worse.
[break][break]
After all, even after moving outside of it, she returned. This was… Her home? Odd, she never thought she’d admit to that.
[break][break]
”If you want,” her night was nearing its end, it seemed. ”I can show you around the city. I mean, I can’t promise we’ll have a good time since according to you this is a shithole and all, but... I’ll bring alcohol with me.”[break][break]
b0eXYb_j

[attr="class","ooc"] Remi Cassel [break]

[attr="class","pkmnparty"]

Discount candy still sat on the counter tops with a Halloween-themed 'take me!' sign sticky-noted to the baskets. She could hear people outside quite literally howling at the moon - or maybe that was their actual Pokemon. Like clockwork, a full moon always makes people act loony.

"Hm."

Not a bad answer, but not the one she would have chosen. Something along the lines of 'not enough' would have been better, she thinks.

"Well, the name is close to porthole or pothole, and a pothole is sort of similar to a shit hole- you can shit in it if you need to."

But high standards? Not in the slightest.

With her still-empty glass set on a now-dry coaster and the bartender missing from sight, Katherine has the woman's full attention. More so the moment she speaks up with a suggestion. Remi purses her lips, pulls them into a smile, and leans back in her bar seat to observe the woman for a moment.

"You're really holding onto the shithole thing, aren't you? I never said I didn't like shitholes."

But she stands up and inclines her head, her sarcastic smile growing.

"How could I possibly say no to a good time?"

OGfKXPr0

mission: all-nighter

Katherine Fairburne

☉