A bar in Baltimore- Wednesday

[notconflicted]

Sia didn't typically cop to things like needing a break, but privately at least she had to admit that the last few days here had been really helpful. Turns out that being surrounded by war and politics all the time might be detrimental, especially when you didn't actually want to be doing it. Who knew.

Well, okay, Atton knew, and had been telling her that for a while, but that was not the point.

She was out with him tonight, hitting up some bar off island, and that felt really needed, too. For a lot of reasons. So once they got there and found a table, Sia asked, "So what drink are you having me try tonight?"

[For Atton!]

Comments

[suitably_heroic]

"I hate that your reputation is better than mine," Atton grumbled. "Okay, what are you in the mood for? Sweet? Sour? Something else?"

[notconflicted]

"Let's try sweet this time," she answered.

[suitably_heroic]

"How about..." Atton studied the menu. "...A pink cosmopolitan for you?"

[notconflicted]

"I'll allow it," Sia said, not that she knew or cared what was in it. "Are you getting something else?"

[suitably_heroic]

"What, you want me to get the fruity girly drink?" Atton asked.

Beat.

"... I'm getting the fruity girly drink."

[notconflicted]

"I wasn't pushing fur anything but I'm glad you're going this route," Sia admitted.

[suitably_heroic]

"Why?" Atton asked, waving at a waitress. "Afraid I'll poison you otherwise, princess?"

[notconflicted]

"While that would be a fitting end to my week, no. I just appreciate that you didn't need me to talk you into it," she said.

[suitably_heroic]

"You know why you're the worst?" Atton said. "Because you always have a rational explanation for everything."

He looked up at the approaching waitress. "Two pink cosmopolitans, please."

[notconflicted]

"And here I thought that was a strong point," she teased.

[suitably_heroic]

"A little irrationality is good for the soul," Atton returned. "People stop making sense if you try to be rational about them all."

[notconflicted]

"I have had the complete opposite experience there," Sia admitted. "Though then they sometimes make too much sense."

[suitably_heroic]

"How does that even work?" Atton asked, as the waitress came back with their drinks. "There's never sense with people. Ask any being."

[notconflicted]

"Have you never found out new information about a person and thought 'oh, that's why they act like that?'" Sia asked.

[suitably_heroic]

"No," Atton said frankly. "Nobody reacts to anything the way anybody else would. Some people get traumatized and they go evil, some decide to do good. Most people just do something, and then reason out why they did it afterwards."

[notconflicted]

"I'll grant you that a person's motivations might not be obvious at the time something is happening," she said. "But if they reason out why they do something, couldn't someone else come to the same conclusion about them?"

[suitably_heroic]

"Sure," Atton said, shrugging. "The question is, how much does that mean? They could do the complete opposite thing next time and still figure out some way to have it make sense to them."

[notconflicted]

"How often do you see that as opposed to patterns of behavior, though?" Sia asked, picking up her drink.

[suitably_heroic]

"Ah, but a pattern of behavior is something different than people behaving rationally," Atton pointed out. "Patterns of behavior aren't all that rational, most of the time."

[notconflicted]

"Sure, if you're not looking very hard at their motivations at the time," Sia said. "I'm just saying, my job for the last couple years would have been much more difficult if I couldn't appeal to people's sense of rationality, or predict when something would or wouldn't work based on their past behavior."

[suitably_heroic]

"That makes you the princess and me not so much, I guess," Atton said, "...And save me the precious cracks. But in my experience, expecting beings to behave rationally is a great way to get killed."

[notconflicted]

"So as someone who you say could stand to be less rational, does that make me the exception to the rule, or something else?" she asked, genuinely curious.

[suitably_heroic]

"You're... mostly rational. Almost all of the time," Atton allowed.

He'd been around her during sex pollen week, and he wasn't sure whether to count that.

[notconflicted]

She had to ask about that now, you know.

"When am I not?"

[suitably_heroic]

"When you're flying high on hormones or raging mad?" Atton offered.