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Jill took a much needed stretch down to her feet, having felt stiff for the past hour due to all the standing up a bartender needed to do. She was thankful she wasn't as tall as someone like Alma, considering.
Meanwhile, the bar was quiet. Vacant. A rare moment in the busy days of Valhalla lately. There was however one client present amidst all of this.
Stella was occupied conversing with Jill, using it as a break from running around a district for many hours on end, all while listening to tiresome people such as company suits. It stressed her out, and thus Sei without question took her place with the free time that she had.
"You know I could’ve just bought it myself, right?" Stella inquired, having just been served a Brandtini from Jill's paycheck. The bags under her eyes were starting to show clear signs of stress, not to mention her hair being less well kept than usual.
"Seriously, you know it wouldn’t hurt for you to let me or Sei indulge you from time to time, right?" Jill sighed, knowing all too well how Stella is as a person at this point, thanks to comments from Sei.
The bar's interface was at present being messed with, having accepted the money Jill used for Stella's drink in due time, beyond doubt needing a firmware update soon like Dana had started to voice concern over.
Stella let out a sigh, her bionic eye going noticeably faster for a second. She knew Jill was right, but still... "Right, I already heard a lot of that earlier from Sei when I didn't want to let her do my job today. She sure is great at persuading."
"I agree. I can tell she's had an influence on you too, how much you've been coming to the bar recently." Jill chuckled, as it was nice to reflect on how much Stella has improved over the months thanks to Sei. Warming up to others and being nicer as a whole.
Stella looked straight at Jill and raised an eyebrow, tilting her head a slight amount. "Are you implying that I don’t show consideration, Jill?"
Her bionic eye once again started going faster while having attention on Jill, looking a bit tense all the while.
The reaction from Stella was noticed in due time and Jill tried to explain in a clear manner, not wanting to offend the Cat Boomer. "I mean the first time I met you, it was quite different." Thinking back to always having a harsher attitude in every bar visit, but eventually going away the more she interacted with Sei.
Stella's eyes closed. The second pair of cat ears had a similar reaction, going down paired with a fiercer ton of voice, "Do I have to remind you about- '' not wanting to recall the endless amount of worry she had for Sei during the Apollo Trust bank incident just to make a point.
"I know, I know. Sorry." Jill was quick to interrupt with her eyes in another direction afterwards, in the realization of her mistake before closing and now back at Stella.
In an effort to keep her mind on something else while conversing with Stella, glasses from earlier were cleaned a second time in an attempt to look busy.
It became a frequent habit at this point whenever there was a lack of clients for an extended period of time, or she needed to set her mind on something. There wasn't an intention to offend Stella, however.
Sighing, Stella shook her head in response as her cat ears were twitching, but composed herself. "But back to the point, ever since that bank incident and all, I’m just trying to help the people I care about. Same for Sei, obviously."
"Yeah, I appreciate the job Sei ended up with, and your "job" as a result too." Jill took a smile afterwards, because at least that horrible event had something good come of it. A silver lining to some.
"Thanks." After Stella had finished her current Brandtini, adjustments to her outfit were made, just to be more neat in line with her reputation.
In the interval, Jill thought it was best to take the chance to lighten the mood in some measure. "But changing topics. I've been meaning to ask, how're your pets Stella?" It was the first one she could think of, because of the well known love she had for Fore.
Stella had to blink a few times before processing what Jill had asked. "Huh, rare for anyone to ask that outside of Sei."
"Really? Well, I do own a cat after all." Jill felt relieved being able to inquire about this rare occasion for Stella, it would be fun. For the moment, she took the now clear Brandtini glass, putting it to one side behind the counter to clean in due time.
"Fair point. But they're doing fine, I'm glad I'm able to free up enough time to feed them." Stella had to stop for a second to sigh and shake her head. "God knows the mess me and Sei had to deal with during December trying to manage everything."
Hearing this, Jill let out a small internal laugh reminiscing on a similar event during that time frame. "I can imagine, I had to hide Fore in the bathroom during New Year's because of all the fireworks."
"Heh, poor guy must've been scared." It reminded Stella of the time she and Sei once visited a cat bar in another part of the district, legally distinct from the well known Rad Shiba bar near this location. So many cats running around at once was an experience.
"I know right? He kept meowing and trying to run around the whole apartment. Took me a while to even calm him down." Jill then thought that she should've recorded the incident, but it never had crossed her mind at the time. It'd be another recording of Fore to look back on at the minimum.
"I'm glad we can both relate on that front then. Pets are difficult to deal with but worth it, for the lack of a better word." Stella voiced, feeling a moderate ease between both her and Jill during this discussion.
Meanwhile, Jill cleaned up the few used groups of glasses next to her including the empty Brandtini, giving a chance to ask Stella the usual. "Do you want another drink?" To her, it seemed like the appropriate time.
Stella shook her head in response, feeling she had drank enough for tonight which also applied for the money she'd spent in that timeframe, considering her position. "I'm good for now, thanks. Also, I assume you make Fore interact with other cats to help socialize them?"
"It was a futile effort, honestly. He's always looking bored and not interested in much anyway. Besides neon lights, but eh." Jill was the sole person who did experience this first-hand with Fore, outside of Anna on rare occasions.
Jill did wish that people had the ability to visit her apartment outside of Dana in the exceptions during December, but the clashing times of her job during the night made it impossible compared to a person's regular life in the city.
Hearing this, Stella's cat ears perked up out of interest and confusion. "What, does he keep looking at the Neon District's buildings outside?"
"Yeah, it keeps grabbing his attention for whatever reason when it's always the same buildings. Meanwhile he doesn't even care about laser pointers." Jill had to ask on a danger/u board about it at some point to ask if this was even normal, which it was to a point. In the end, Fore was just a big fan of those light types.
Stella put a hand to her chin, looking upwards. This was a first for her, she had to inquire. "That's surprising. I assume he doesn't care about the usual cat toys either?"
"Bingo. He probably just finds them boring, even if they are kind of cheap. But what can you do, huh?" Jill let out a smile, making it clear that Fore was precious to her even given the flaws a cat would have. She'd happily call him his son after all.
"Animals can really be oddly specific sometimes, you have a point." Stella agreed, thinking back to a rabbit that they owned, which stared at itself in the mirror almost all day for no apparent reason, to all appearances just out of a mix of uncertainty and suspicion.
With all of the bar glasses and CALICOMP user interface menus put into neat order, Jill could now 100% focus her attention on speaking with Stella.
And her mouth slightly opened upon realization of something applicable and amusing she could talk about, feeling excitement due to the involved individual. "Speaking of Fore, do you want to hear a story about him recently?"
"Sure, a lot of the cat owners I've met over the months haven't bothered or had time to discuss their own cat stories, so I'm interested." Stella could speak to people online about it if need be, but it felt out of character to her and the free time for that was never there in the first place.
"So, have you heard of the Cat Boomer streamer in the shopping district who does vlog streams?" Jill assumed that most people in at least the Neon District had only heard about Streaming-chan due to her gradual rise of reputation over the past month, (Somewhat thanks to her recent collab with Dorothy.) but it was worth asking.
Stella nodded. "In passing conversation, yeah."
"Well, a week ago I heard she was hanging around a BTC bar and I felt inclined to check it out, especially given I've never had the time to visit many of the bars with the whole closing situation." Jill then decided to at least try and amend that in the future, if the BTC's statement of Valhalla's closing did follow through. She'd feel better about herself if the act was done..
"And what, did Fore freak out when seeing them?" Stella was having the feeling of friendliness, in case this was true. The same experience could be voiced afterwards.
Jill looked in another direction with a face that showed nervousness, an awkward chuckle being made. It was weird to look back on. "You have no idea. They took one glance at the streamer and froze up before trying to attack my phone from behind."
"Can't say I'm surprised." Stella proceeded to have the same reaction as Jill, it being more frequent in her case due to the obvious, rubbing the back of her head. "I've had the same experience with some cats. They find it hard to differentiate the ears on Cat Boomers as opposed to actual cats, so they get confused and scared."
"I chalked it up to that at the time. Thankfully it was short lived and they eventually got used to me watching the streamer." Jill had to think for a second why this did happen however, as well as why it was short-lived. "I guess it being on a screen and not in person helped."
"Sounds like he's got an attitude, no offense. At least in this regard." Stella just assumed it was the usual territory outburst thing some cats could suddenly have, even if it would be out of character for them. A sigh of relief was made with the fact of Cat Boomers being just an extra set of useless ears and nothing else.
Jill had to again look away for a second, an attempt to hold in a laugh being made. "You could say- *pfft* cattitude."
Alas, Jill was never good at hiding it, neither her reactions to jokes that would be suited for someone much younger.
For the duration, Stella stared at Jill with a lack of amusement, finding the joke unimpressive in the slightest. It was like Stella and everything around her had frozen.
Jill was quick to notice the reaction, and from it came confusion along with not knowing how to react. "Is my sense of humour really that bad?" The same types of reaction came from Dana and Alma in the past, but it never got through to her that well.
Upon hearing the response, Stella had to lean forward against the counter and put a hand over her face, rubbing it as she shook her head. "God dammit Jill..."
The Cat Boomer was not fascinated.