defies_reason | ⚔ i thought we might have a little chat.

You needn't worry. I do make an effort to be welcoming to everyone.

[He'll make sure you escape with your virtue, Meyer.]

[~~What virtue~~.]

I don't, of course, have anything against the idea. I just wasn't aware that...

[That what? His brain appears to have stopped functioning.]

[~~Well, isn't it the thought that counts?~~

If he's hoping for a slick conversational rescue, he's out of luck. Isaak is going to patiently wait for him to finish as he will.]

[Let him just take a far too huge swig of his drink before continuing. He regains some composure, at least.]

This isn't the sort of thing that would be common, in the time I'm from. It takes some... adjustment, to get used to the idea.

[Actually, that's admirably open-minded. Drink as fast as you need to, Meyer.]

The City's rather more liberal than a great many places are, I've found.

[Oh, when it comes to think kind of thing, he's more liberal than anyone will know. Ever.]

I have to ask, does being seen here imply that one is...

[Why does he have no idea how to phrase this? It's like being that little kid who couldn't speak English all over again.]

I know you say you're welcoming to everyone, but there might be certain assumptions...

[Isaak shrugs, leaning an elbow on the bar.]

I can't speak for the assumptions of others. Not everyone who visits is, of course.

Are you?

[He's practically holding his breath on that question. It's the kind of thing that'd get him punched in the face -- or worse -- back home, but Isaak runs this place, after all, and he did indicate that the City was more liberal... Still, he's prepared to run for it, if he needs to.]

[There's an uncertain beat before he lets the edge of his mouth twitch into a faint smile.]

I make no secret of it.

[That moment before Isaak speaks has him about ready to start preemptively apologizing, but, thankfully, Isaak doesn't seem angry.]

And nobody here hassles you for it?

No one has been unwise enough to come here and try.

[Again, he shrugs. It's an honest and simple answer. There is some advantage to being a tall and broad-shouldered man, and though he has not (in general, in public,) been violent, he moves like someone who knows how to watch his own back.]

I'm certain there must be those who disapprove, but I've had no trouble to speak of.

Fascinating.

[He sips his drink absentmindedly for a moment.]

Where you come from, do people generally disapprove?

I believe it suffices to say that at home, I do make a secret of it.

[And the company he keeps hardly helps; but that's far from something he'll discuss.]

Other parts of the world are rather more enlightened.

So I've been told, although I find it somewhat difficult to believe. Where I come from, at the very least, we often purport to be enlightened, and then enact ridiculous rules like Prohibition.

[Not that he doesn't benefit from Prohibition, but hey.]

Progress is never an absolute.

True, although the City does seem...

[Another quick glance around the bar.]

Remarkably and almost surprisingly progressive, in many ways, despite our captivity.

No bad without good.

I'm not entirely sure I can agree with that sentiment, as someone who was raised in Russia.

[Not a lot of good there, that he saw.]

[Hell, Isaak wouldn't entirely disagree.]

Then call it a blessing that you managed to leave.

I'd call it something, but I don't necessarily know that it'd be a "blessing."

[Quite a fuss over an offhandedly saying. Isaak's amused, though, still wearing that faint and skin-deep smile.]

Not an optimist, I see.

[Not that isaak is, either, though he makes some effort to seem that way. He is, however, a man who makes the best of whatever he's given. Perhaps that's close enough.]

[A quiet little laugh.]

No. Most people I've met who were born in our part of the world aren't optimists, by nature.

[At least, he hasn't met many optimistic Russians yet.]

[Have you not met his friend Pavel Andreievich, Meyer?]

All the more reason to value good fortune when we stumble into it.

[He has. And been utterly baffled at how cheerful he is.]

Given your success with this bar, I'd say it's less stumbling into good fortune and more making it for yourself.

[The future, evidently, is a bright one.]

Well, I won't argue with that. But it's a business I could not have run at home. An opportunity worth seizing.

Action

Re: Action

Action

Re: Action

Action

Re: Action

Action

Re: Action

Action

Re: Action

Action

Re: Action

Action

Re: Action

Action

Re: Action

Action

Re: Action

Action

Re: Action

Action

Re: Action

Action

Re: Action

Action