[attr="class","evantalk"]

Evan is not unused to being approached near closing. there's always someone that ones to get one last drink before they go home. Sometimes an old regular that just wanted to check up on him and be sure he's doing okay. Especially right now. That snow had really rattled people.

He's already busy with his cleaning routine, getting started fast so that he can spend the evening writing before bed, calls to make, things to do in the wee hours when no one is there to bother him.

Before he can open his mouth to greet the newcomer, a face he has most certainly not seen before he hears something he has not heard in a long, long time.

Smiles.

There's a reason no one calls him that anymore.

"'Fraid we don't have a drink named that, try again in the summer."

He plays it off like a champ, turning to set a fresh glass on the counter top behind the bar. It clinks ever so slightly but when he looks at the man his smile doesn't hold the warmth it normally does. Because he's waiting. Whatever is said next will tell him how much he needs to worry.

Because anyone who truly knows him knows he doesn't like waiting for the point.

"I think I can squeeze in one more round before I have to close up and finish for the night." he states, a small chuckle and the warmth comes back, because truthfully, who even knows who smiles is anymore.

Gavin Merlino

[attr="class","gavin"]

Gavin's eyes narrow as Evan turns his back. While it's possible he'd been given misinformation by their mutual contact, he is not content to simply give up right off the bat.

When Evan's gaze finds him again, smile devoid of previous warmth, Gavin's mind is made up.

"Oh, I'm not looking for a drink." He leans against the bar. There's no need for a tiring dance, with this one. Cardinal remembers as much, even if Gavin would rather forget he ever knew the man. "I'm looking for answers. See, a little bird told me that you're supposed to be dead."

It had been a relief to learn as much, at the time. Another loose end tied up, something he didn't have to worry about. He doesn't like to worry. He's a composed man, a scientist, he likes facts and logic and reason. He does not like panic, or uncertainty, and he certainly does not like being lied to.

"You don't look dead to me. We're a ways from Kanto, aren't we? Funny how word gets around."

---

notes:
can change the region if need be!

[attr="class","evantalk"]

Evan laughs, and it's surprisingly amused. More than it should be given whatever this was supposed to be.

It subsides and he looks over himself, a mockery of the man's accusation that he be dead. He pinches both arms, fakes knocking on his head and confirms for him "Definitely not dead, can't imagine why anyone would tell you that dear." the smile is somehow more amused than normal.

He'd been pretty content to leave people thinking he was dead, if it made gavin feel better he was welcome to go back to thinking that way.

"Kanto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, I've been to them all more times than I can tell you and my memory is shit. If you've got something on your mind you're going to have to be specific." It wasn't a lie, even then Evan had never had the greatest memory, he'd been good at what he did because physically- not everyone had the fitness and temperament to pull off what they did.

Evan finds himself disliking where this is going, but specifics make it easier to deal with. Something concrete and solid so that he can be sure he knows which one of the many he i dealing with. He's got a world of messes behind him and he'd rather leave them there.

Gavin Merlino

[attr="class","gavin"]

"Yes, I recall your terrible memory." It had always irked Gavin, who himself was an incredibly organized individual with an excellent memory, if he did say so himself. He needed one, for his research. "I'm here to make sure it stays that way."

If it sounds like a threat, there's little venom behind the words. Not yet. This doesn't necessarily have to end poorly.

He gives a little whistle when he's asked to be specific, the familiar call of a bird Pokemon. A signal he'd used once, a joke of sorts with the circles he'd run in. They had named him Cardinal, and he'd learned to mimic the cry of a Spearow.

"A little bird told me," he repeats, a smirk curling at the edge of his lips. "A little joke, you see?"

They both look different, now. It would appear that Smiles had moved on from the past, but how could Gavin guarantee that it stayed that way?

"I need to know what you remember," he says, plainly. "Because I remember it all."

Hopefully, the idea of mutually assured destruction might be enough to stay the other's hand. If not... ah, Gavin doesn't want to think that far ahead. Such a path is wrought with too many headaches.

---

notes:
i imagine lil gav took himself far less seriously

[attr="class","evantalk"]

Evan is used to jabs about his memory. It's not actually something he can help really most people don't realize that. It's easier to let them jab than bother explaining, it just makes it easier to stare absently at him when he makes a? Bird call? Seemingly familiar but it doesn't show on his face. His mind tracks back through the sounds- something he remembers far better than he does faces or places.

When finally it dons on him evan's face splits into the most amused of grins. And then he starts laughing, a stark contrast to the over serious tone the other man is trying so desperately to set.

"Whatever little or lot I please." he states, and it's obvious he's made his determination as to how to view the man.

"Why are you even trying so hard, you're like a little drop in one of many buckets."

The implication is clear, he does not consider Gavin to be anything of any real concern. The looks on his face says the same, his eyes masked by his trademark red-black contacts, preventing the other from knowing what inkling of the truth might surface in those unreal blue eyes bellow them. As for what he remembers about the information he has- that's even more up for debate. He'll check on that later.

"How did you even get here, it's an awful long way to fly." to a place he shouldn't know, no one is supposed to and Evan is incredibly careful about making sure these opposing eras of his life do not cross in a way that will prevent him from being what he is. The idea that someone had not only found him but even worse, determined it was their place to speak of where he might be?

There was once a reputation about the Uroboros, and it stated that above all else you did not cross the head of the snake.

Evan loathed setting examples, making reminders, lessons shouldn't need to be told more than once in this world but it would seem he needed to teach them again.

Gavin Merlino
>>I'm really enjoying writing this side of evan thank you so much

[attr="class","gavin"]

Old memories come back to him at the sound of Evan's laugh. He'd appreciated the other man's jovial nature far more in their youth, when Gavin himself had not begun to take life seriously.

Now, it grates upon him.

"Enough drops could fill that little bucket of yours." There's a less pleasant edge to his voice now. He does not appreciate being underestimated. There had been enough of that in those early days, before he'd pushed himself and the tune changed from try harder to you've gone too far. "Besides, your bucket has a leak."

He would never have found Evan, if not. This was not the Smiles he remembered. And he is not Cardinal, but neither is he Blackbird. He is somewhere in between.

"Boats exist," Gavin says dismissively, waving a hand. "I've come a long way to find you. You should listen carefully: I know this place, now." Fingernails trace patterns in rough wood. It's a lovely little bar with rustic charm. "You've gone through a lot of effort not to be found. It would take far less effort for me to rat you out."

His fingers resume their tapping.

"I'll speak plainly: your silence for mine. If you're nice about it, I might even throw in the name of the one that led me here."

---

notes:
he's just >(

[attr="class","evantalk"]

"Does it now?" Evan's grin does not subside, no if anything it seems to widen because the man across his bar seems to think he can bargain with him.

It's almost cute.

He laughs.

"How generous of you." the words are mocking but the tone is not, a clear disconnect that had earned Evan his reputation in years past. He had been known for the fact that death could stare him in the face and he would smile. Widely. "Rat me out to who?"

"Don't get me wrong, there's a fair few like you who would try to come to me."

"To my bar."

His words are patient, clearly articulated, he will not repeat himself tonight. Somewhere in between the amused smile and the cold tone hangs an aura that rarely comes off the man. It becomes starkly clear that whatever advantage this little bird thinks he has against the snake in the grass will only get him bitten harder than he is prepared for. Evan has always had a knack for sending chills down the spine.

"And speak to me as if they're somehow in charge simply because I'm not a part of that anymore." something in the way his jaw tenses, tightens, as if he's holding himself back, alludes to the idea that he is not only greatly displeased but his anger has not changed one bit, and hard as it may be to make him angry it is never anything short of ugly when he is.

Evan leans on the bar top, elbows settling against the wood as he gets closer to the man, voice lowering and making a point to make his next words between only them. The coldness is bottomless, the vacancy of false red-black eyes makes it more so. "But you see, the ones who will are idiots. The ones stupid enough to think that just because I don't participate anymore I've grown into some kind of soft half-baked citizen."

"I am not. It will be you who asks nicely on my property. You are cordial at my table. That has not changed just because the table has changed color, understood?"

His eyes narrow coldly, watching him. "Visitors are an inconvenience, not a fear. So if you plan on trying to bargain like an idiot instead of leaving me alone to not give a shit about you instead" just to make it clear that would have been the smart course of action. "You'll have to do better than that."

Evan despises how he has to set the precedent here, it seems that enough time has passed for people to think they can come to him and act like they are somehow in charge, somehow above him. It was never allowed before, when he was chin deep in the bullshit he'd let himself get dragged into. Evan played the part of someone you kept nothing less than happy well back then, and it's a part of himself he loathes to return to.

Below the stone cold surface, below the relaxed nature of his body language despite the firmness of his words, bellow the smile and the tone Evan finds himself seething.

Gavin Merlino
>>gdi gavin.

[attr="class","gavin"]

"I'm afraid this is as polite as I get."

Behind the green contacts that mask their true colour, Gavin's eyes are cold. He's being threatened, he understands as much, but there is an absence of fear. It's been a long time since he's truly felt afraid of anything.

"I offered the courtesy of a warning. A compromise." He is no longer tapping his fingers on the bar. He has shifted back, out of reach of a potential grasping hand. He knows better than to place himself within striking range of an enemy. This man had a reputation, and though he does not fear him as perhaps he should, Gavin is no fool. "I could have struck without warning or precedence. But if you refuse to see reason, then I think this conversation is over."

He shrugs.

(—and he had hoped this would be easy, but these things never were, were they?)

"I've shown as much of my hand as I care to. If you're not willing to settle this with civility, you'll have to find out for yourself what I can do with my information."

He offers a vicious smile, a bit of irony, before he turns to leave.

---

notes:
stubborn boys, they are

[attr="class","evantalk"]

Evan can't help but chuckle, because apparently subtle isn't this ones strong suite. An idiot too focused on himself and his own endeavors to get the drift before it needs go the route of uncivil. Obviously he was not anyone truly of importance, had he been then he wouldn't have bothered coming to begin with.

That was the point.

That. Was. The. Fucking. Point.

"If you think that uncivil you've much to learn." he states as he moves to leave, if Evan is supposed to stop him he doesn't, instead he rights himself with a grin. The action seems to shift his demeanor like a turned over hourglass. Evan feels relaxed, more so than before. Even as his muscles tense with annoyance beneath cloth he can't help but feel this is nothing but a blip, something he had anticipated might come about anyway.

"I would have never cared and never paid attention if you hadn't brought it to my attention."

"Don't make me pay attention dear, keep your mouth shut and your ass out of my bar. I won't say it twice."

Evan picks up the rag he had been using to clean the counter top and returns to his duties with a hum. Perhaps being a little more up front will make it clear, he's always disliked the ones he had to be more direct with but he won't deny that it's not uncommon.

Now, so long as this stays a one time ordeal.

Gavin Merlino
>>he doesn't like getting agitated >.>