Who drinks at two in the afternoon? (work Thread with Callie.)

Grins tryed his best to hold HIS grin as the drunken man slurred his way through another order, completely ignoring both Grins's warning AND his attempts at keeping the poor man's liver alive. With an exacerbated sigh Grins went to fill the man's order and perhaps let what little hope he had for this city die as he looked at the clock. A grimace fell on his face as he took note of the time."Who get's drunk at two in the afternoon...." There was a joke here... Somwhere... But to be honest his nerves were to fried to even begin to think of one...You would think that after sending him off on a year long mission the good Professor J would give him the day off... But NO! No no no no no no no! He just HAD to send the Robotic tracker hounds... It's almost like he didn't trust 8D to be back in time for work. He wasn't going to but that didn't change the fact that he was right mad that his father didn't trust him.

"Here you are sir! One House Special on the rocks! That'll be-" 8D's happy and frankly awesome service, was cut off by the pretzel bowl being flung at his face and breaking upon impact... Had he not been a robot that might have hurt... and had he not JUST gotten back this man might have gotten a hammer upside the head... OH WAIT NO HE WOULD HAVE GOTEN HAMMERED! e-EHEHE? D-Damn it! AH! That was a perfect opportunity for a joke!... God why?

"Ey... Clown boy.. yer outa prtzels... Ge me more! ANd nother drnk..." The man slurred as he slapped a few bills on he table to pay for his current drink and the next.

8D felt his processor glitch...."Of course sir! Don't get... SALTY! We'll be glad to bring you more Pretzels! Ehehehe" YEAH! That's right! Even this drunk loser can't take the pep out of 8D's ste-

"That joke was trrble... wrz m perstzl You... Clown FreaK!..." The man was treading on thin ice in iron boots...

In his many years tending the bar here at Grins' Hole In the Wall, 8D has had to put up with a lot of different types of people... Some who have been violent, some who have been mean, some who have been down right horrible nasty and evil people that no one not even their own mothers would love if you covered them in chocolate and hundred dollar bills... Yet he was kind... cordial... and patient with all of them. Why? Cus he was a performer. And no performer worth their salt would ever give into a heckler or a hater. It's just not good practice for a performer of his skill to give in like that.... But if there is one thing you can do that will instantly put you on 8D's very short, but always growing, list of people that he dose not like.... It's calling his jokes bad.... And not in a "That pun was awful you are a terrible person for making puns" sorta way, in a "That wasn't a good pun" sorta way... It was just not a line you crossed, and this man... Was walking that line...

"... Callie! Could you be a dear and bring some more pretzels in form the back room" 8D called giving Callie the "Before I kill this man" look.

It felt weird working again with 8D behind the bar, it had been way too long that each order was accompanied with some kind of joke or pun. Callie could think of nothing better to keep her entertained as she worked the shifts Kay gave to her. It was a fair deal to be fair! Kay had brought the bar after all and she let Callie stay with them for free! A place to sleep, food to eat, someplace out of the cold. It was worth having to work for a few hours every few days, (cause working every day would be repetitive and boring!), besides she got to talk to a lot of real interesting people! People who made her laugh with the silly way their sentences became more and more gibberish the longer they stayed! She'd always wondered why they went like that... Although she had presumed it was the drinks, that's the one thing they all have when they come here! B-but J would never let her try any. He said it was bad for her or something, so she trusted him there.


However! There was work to be done! The young vixen would proceed to clear used glasses and mugs from the tables that had just finished being used. Carefully placing them neatly next to one another on a small tray that made it easier to carry more than two glasses per trip! She'd put the tray down on the ground for a moment though to pull out a striped cloth she had in her pocket to wipe clean a slight spill that remained on the table. Making sure to dry up all of the misplaced liquid, leaving not even a mark to be seen on the now spotless table. Callie took pride in making sure the bar was kept neat and tidy for whoever next would venture inside and need a table to sit by. She couldn't ever just leave a table even a little dirty! What if someone walked in right now and wanted to--...

"Are these seats taken darling?" A women's voice would suddenly ask from being Callie, making her jump a little.

"Oh! Nope, nope, these seats are free for you ma'am! Freshly cleaned and ready for use!" The young girl would then quickly pull out two chairs from the table, one for the woman who had talked and the other for the friend that accompanied her and nod happily as they thanked her. "You're welcome! Enjoy your stay!" She'd add in her most polite voice possible, giving the two a heart warming smile before picking up her tray off the ground. See? Anyone could come in at any moment and Callie had to make sure if they were ready, the bar was ready for them! At least this way, most of the costumers that came in here knew her pretty well too as she was often the first smiling face they'd be met by after walking through the front doors. That meant that most of the people here liked her! Which also meant that she didn't usually have to deal with any of the ones who decide anger is the best cause of action, everyone was usually very nice to her, so she was glad to be nice back!

Heading back towards the bar, Callie would make sure every empty table would be thoroughly cleaned and ready for use just as she had done before, stacking the now many glasses on top of each other on her small tray. Feeling satisfied with the state of the bar for the moment, cause it'll most likely be in a right old mess again by the time she got back, the young girl would carefully bring all the glasses back towards the bar. She was hailed by 8D's request as she walked past, which she'd nod her head to before realizing that was a really bad idea and nearly dropping the tray from her hands. "Oops! I got it! And sure thing 8D, I'll have them out in just a moment, gotta go put these down first!" Delicately, she would proceed to push open the door to the back kitchen and carefully place her tray down beside the sink. "Don't worry Kay, I'll be back in a moment!" She'd have to come back in a moment to wash the glasses, she couldn't expect Kay to do everything! But for now she had been set a mission!

After taking a moment to remember where the pretzels were kept, Callie would hurriedly return to the awaiting clown bot and hand him the new bowl of pretzels. "Here ya go 8D! She'd say, nodding her head towards the costumer who had requested them and smiling. "Enjoy your pretzels sir!" She'd add, before noticing the state of the floor. After a quick sweeping up session of taking care of the old pretzel bowl, Callie took a moment trying to remember what it was she was meant to be doing next... She knew there was something she was forgetting... Ah! The glasses out back! Kay probably wouldn't like the fact she had left them for so long!

If he had muscles, his eye would be twitching...8D used to be used to this, he really was! He would be able to handle stuff like this without any real problem. Heck, one drunk idiot would be an unbelievable slow night for the clown bot, he'd even call it a bit boring to be honest. He could run the bar all by himself and not have anything go to horribly wrong, yet this guy just seemed to get under his synthetic skin. Maybe it was the fact that he was out of practice, or maybe this guy was just a grade A Sauna.... Cus he really left 8D STEAMED! Eheheh! If there was one solace in this, it was watching Callie work. She was a natural! Everyone loved her, and she loved everyone. There where times when people would come in just to say hi to the little Vixen and have her brighten up their day with her winning smile. It was something that he had dearly missed in his time away, though her hug when he walked back through that door made it all worth while. It was like old times again, there was no awkwardness, now hesitation, no change. It was like a switch, they were apart, and now they were back together. 8D may be easy to please and finds joy rather easily... But his heart is never fuller then when that little ball of love and joy is near... "If she can be happy about it so can I. Ehehe"

Kay on the other hand... well she was best at the back room business. Her day was filled with forms and paperwork, paying bills and making sure the electricity stayed on. Though Right now she was working on making the sure the dishes stayed clean... Even though that was technically J's job during work hours... The man may have been a genius, and may have been able to design and build a machine to do this work for them, but his utter laziness in regards to anything other then his science was... honestly astounding. Today was no different unfortunately. The good Professor had locked himself in the basement and was hard at work on... something... Whatever it as it was related to what 8D brought back from his travels and refused to come up for such trivial matters as  "Dishes"... Kay made it a point to not feed him tonight... The Professor was a mess in the kitchen and could barely make toast so she was sure he'd go hungry tonight. Though when Callie waked in she would perk up slightly and try to look happy in spite of the current under-staffing "Oh Thank you Sweet Heart... Please do me a favor and don't love J tonight. He doesn't deserve it.".

Once Callie came back with his precious pretzels, the drunken man would take one look at her and mumble a slurred and incoherent thank you before digging into them and continuing to down his beer. 8D let out a sigh of relief as the man was sure to keep his yapper quiet so long as he had the salty snack to keep it occupied with. 8D chuckled as he bent down to help pick up the pieces of broken bowl. "Oh THANK you Cals.... I swear I have never have this much trouble! I am so so SO sorry for leaving you to watch the bar by yourself for so long. Ugh I'm so out of practice, I can't even think of a good Pun for this situation. Ehehehe..."

"Not a problem at all Kay! I'll be back in a moment, gotta go find something for 8D!" Callie would reply as she was looking for the pretzels for Grins. "Although I may have to take a rain-check on that favour, don't want to make any promises that I'll find real hard to keep!" There wasn't a lot of chance that Callie would be able to hold any kind of promise like that! Even if it was against someone she didn't like that much and she wanted to show them no love. It was hard not to when all she wanted to do was be happy and make everyone else around her happy, how could she do that if she didn't love them? It just wouldn't work! She wondered how hard it would be to try... Maybe she should try? In the same way that J had always told her! You always gotta try new things, even if they sound stupid, its always for science!... That probably wasn't exactly what he said, but it was close enough.

Regardless! Callie would continue to help 8D pick up all the pieces of the bowl, collecting all the pieces into a small bag to keep them all tidy and together, ready for disposal later on! Once it was all clean again, Callie would shoot 8D a reassuring smile. "Don't mention it! Looking after this place when you were gone wasn't too hard, more so it was just kinda dull and boring without you here to stir it up a bit! People were way more calm about everything whilst you were gone, that and not as many people actually showed up. Hey, maybe they just enjoy having an indestructible clown to let off some steam too!" She'd giggle as she teased 8D, laughing more as he couldn't think of any kind of jokes for what was going on. "Wow, that really isn't like you, huh? I'm sure you'll get back into it soon enough! You just gotta be positive and BREAK the flow!" Uhm, she wasn't quite sure what she meant by that, she was trying to be clever and make up a silly joke for 8D! B-but she wasn't very good at it, not like he was when he got into the 'spirits' of things!

With all that cleared up and out of the way, the young girl would take one quick peek around the bar to make sure no tables had been left but not catered to. Fortunately, it seemed everyone who was here before was still sitting around drinking and having a good time. Good! That meant she could go back and help Kay out for a while. There was no point in standing out here when there was nothing to do, and she was sure by the time she got back she'd have plenty to do out here. Although, she did always hate going out the back for a while and possibly leaving so many tables unclean if suddenly everyone decided to leave at once... But it was a risk she had to take! Kay couldn't be expected to do everything out back on her own, especially as J was excluding himself from the world again to work on... What ever it was... He worked on? It was always hard to tell what he was doing, his plans changed all the time and he always had multiple projects going on at the same time. She had asked him about one before... But that lead to a whole hours conversation! Well.... Less of a conversation and more of he just wouldn't stop talking and she felt rude to leave, even though nothing he had said to her made any real sense and she'd forgotten basically all of it by this point. So there was never really a lot of point asking about those sorta things.

Heading back into the kitchen, Callie would sneak up behind Kay, tapping her on the right shoulder whilst appearing at her left side making her jump a little. "Hehe, you need any help with all this?" Callie would ask, staring at the mass amounts of things that needed to be washed beside the sink. It seemed as if everything always got way more dirty way faster than it got clean! Although, that kinda made sense? There were more people making them dirty then there were cleaning them up. That's why she was here to help! No matter what Kay's response was, Callie would pull out her small towel she kept on her and began taking the glasses and dishes that Kay was washing off of her to dry them herself. This way everything would be done faster but no one got in each others way! Kay would clean 'em and Callie would dry 'em! Making sure to rub away every last stream of water or suds marking that were left on each glass. The two of them would make light work of the remaining dishes, pans and glasses that were in need of a refreshing new start from their former grim filled ways!

"If that's the case then I may have to decide to take anther trip very soon! All this broken glass isn't good for my complexion! How can a robot with artificial skin have a complexion I hear you asking me my dear Callie, well I would tell you but it's very... COMPLEX! Eheheh You were right I just needed a little... BREAK! Ehehehe!"8D did his best to keep his laughter down as to not bother the guests and impact his tip in anyway. He needed that VC if he was going to help keep this bar afloat... Though that was always something that bothered him. Why was it that VC was the form of currency that the all to loving tyrants of the Endymion government insisted on using for their ass backwards form of capitalistic growth? Each store and shop had to start out super small and could only grow and sell better products by paying the government? It was like the whole system was designed to kill small startup businesses and promote larger ones that the government ether directly controlled or held a major stake in. But that would be horribly corrupt and be a prime example of insider trading which is horribly illegal and would get every one in the so called "Queen's" self appointed government kicked out of office.  Even more so this whole set up is super questionable. Why in god's name is the "Queen" allowed to use children to fight terrorists? Why isn't the FBI or the military taking care of-WAIT... Spirits?... Ehe... Ehehe... Ahahaha.. AHAHAHAHAH! Oh LORD Callie that was priceless! Oh Oh God My sides! That... that was... what was amazing!"Oh my Callie that Joke was astounding! You're learning well my young student... Soon you're puns will surpass even my own! Ahhh... It's funny how refreshing you are my little Fox!"

Grins would give Callie a quick and loving hug before letting her get back to work"I feel like I can do TEN more shifts now with just your smiling face to fuel me!... Wait... Don't tell Kay that, she might take it seriously... EHEHEHE!" Grins gave Callie one last affectionate pat on the head before sending her on her way and turning back to the drunken slob he had left behind... Who luckily had passed out mid pretzel.... Yay.... Now he has to bring this guy to the curb...

Of course... Kay heard Callie sneaking up on her... It wasn't that Callie wasn't sneaky, it was more that Kay was frankly FREAKISHLY good at her job. What Job might that be? Why keeping J alive of course. To that end she had to be very... VERY good and recognizing and dispatching threats to both him and their mission. That also meant she was good at hearing little Fox girls sneak up on her, though, she didn't want to rain on Callie's parade... Playing along wouldn't hurt. Kay did her best fake startled jump as Callie tapped her on her shoulder. "Oh wow. Had we been out in the field you would have gotten me for sure! Heh, you're a natural Sweet Heart. Though if you are done hunting me, yes, yes I would love some help with these dishes. They never seem to end do they?" Kay scotched over a little to make room for Callie.

Such was life at Grin's Hole in the wall. A happy home that was broken and now made full by the return of one silly robot. Though they may not be a traditional family, they all loved each other just the same. The Mad Scientist, the army girl, the Clown Robot, and of course the little fox girl. Never has there been a happier home.

"Oh no you don't!" Callie would speak up as 8D mentioned to take another trip. "You're stuck with us for a while now! I ain't letting you go no where no time soon!" She'd giggle teasingly, as she'd listen to the rest of his sentence. "Hehe, see that's where you're wrong 8D! You'd be best hearing me say... Um, whats a complexion?" For once, Callie laughed louder than her robot companion when he told his joke, which she quickly then tried to lower the sound of her laugh as to not annoy any of their costumers. Or at least she assumed that was why he was laughing much quieter than usual, the costumers at the front of the bar didn't seem like the happiest of alcoholics today and Grins probably didn't want the gift of another pretzel bowl to the face any time soon. As she began to get up to go back to work, 8D would suddenly burst out laughing again. "H-huh?" She'd look at him confused for a moment, what joke? The only one she said was quite a while ago... Then again the robotic clown always was known for doing some strange things when it came to jokes before. So instead, she'd just accept his hug and pet and rush off back to her work, checking the heads of all the costumers who were nearby to see if they heard Grins call her a fox or not. Not that she minded personally, but there was that one time someone mistake it for something else and well... Called the poor clown some weird names... "Don't worry! I wont tell her anything, but mostly cause she'd probably make me do the extra shifts with you! Hehe."

Anyway! Back to the matter at hand in the kitchen, there was stuff and things to be cleaned! Although first, she had to laugh at what Kay's reaction would be. "Hehe, don't worry Kay I wasn't trying to hunt you! That would be mean of me, I would never really want to hunt anyone or anything unless I really, really had to! A-and even then I'd probably find it super difficult!" Like really, even in a life or death situation Callie would dread having to do anything like that! Even if she was out, lost in the dark and was super cold and real scared and meegaa hungry! Hunting something sounded like such a horrible task... Taking an animals life for her own well being and survival? She wouldn't be able to live with herself! W-who says her life is more important than that of any animal, no matter how big or how small! They were still just as important as anyone else, they still had lives! They lived each day, doing what they had to just like anyone else, they had feelings and knew how to feel pain and everything just like we do! I betcha they even get real happy sometimes when they do a hard days work and then get to go back to their little homes and rest! Callie knew that there were some animals out there that had to hunt though, some animals that were born to feed on other animals... B-but that's what they had to do to survive, right? S-she didn't have to! S-she can survive without hunting anything, so that means there is no reason for her to have to do it! It just wouldn't be right...

"H-huh?" Callie was suddenly brought out of the rambling of her mind as she remembered where she was and what she was meant to be doing. Kay was asking for help! T-that was it, right? She'd laugh at herself softly at how easily distracted she could get from anything, even if there was nothing to be distracted by aside from her own brain! She'd quickly shake her head to clear out any remaining thoughts of the matter that had made her feel very weird to think about and would step up to the sink where Kay had made room for her. "I know! They just keep coming and coming, there is always a costumer out there that has finished using something or other. It almost feels like we have more washing up to do that we actually have things in the bar sometimes!" Callie would pause to giggle, drying off a particularly huge glass before placing it down with the other dry glasses. "I betcha once we're done with all these, I'll head back out the front and collect and even bigger pile for you!" She'd add teasingly, now drying off one of their many bowls, ensuring there wasn't a spot of water or suds left around, inside or beneath the bowl before placing it with the other bowls. It was strange, Callie always seemed to like keeping everything neat and tidy, categorizing each of the bowls, glasses and mugs into their own different sections on the 'dry' area, sometimes even going as far as keeping the shorter glasses on the left hand side with the taller ones on the right! She was always like this with the majority of the things she did, the thing that most would find weird about that though was her room. That place was just a clutter of mess! She'd very often have her desks, shelves, even floors littered with small knick-knacks and toys that she had collected over the years, all seemingly place in random orders or alongside other toys that didn't match. The place looked like a small toy explosion had gone off in there! Yet even though that kind of thing annoyed her with the sorting's out of most things... For a reason even she didn't know, that was just the way she loved her room to be.

"Hmm..." After a short while of helping out Kay with the dishes, Callie had come to realize her little 'dry' area for putting down everything she had dried off was becoming increasingly and noticeably a smaller space. This will not do! "Rain check!" Callie would suddenly cry out to Kay, not really knowing if she had used that term correctly or not, yet throwing her towel down to the side and proceeding to pick up as many of the bowls as possible. Balancing them as carefully as she could in their towering stack of white... Um... Whatever bowls were made of! She'd proceed to take the bowls over to the other side of the kitchen where the bowl cupboard was kept, realizing that she couldn't really open it with all the bowls in her hands, she'd delicately place both stacks of bowls down on the counter and open the cupboard, finishing the job by placing each bowl inside one by one making sure they all were secure and wouldn't fall out! This whole trip would be executed multiple times for each different thing that had been dried. The mugs, the plates, the cups and most notably was the glasses! There were a whole lot of them and they didn't stack inside one another very well, which made things more difficult. Luckily Callie remembered about her little tray and would rush off to find it before continuing her work on putting everything away. Although again the glasses were a harder chore! As they had to be taken back out to the front of the bar, which meant not only was it going to take the most amount of trips, it was also the longest trip of them all!

However, luckily Kay had finished with the last of the washing up whilst Callie was hard at work putting everything away, so the young vixen wasn't left all by herself to get all the glasses back out to the bar as Kay would happily give her a hand. "Thanks a lot Kay! How do we possibly get through this many glasses in one day, especially this early throughout the day!" The young girl would then looks around the bar to notice that most of the people had left, seemed as if the rush of break hour was over! I-if that was even a thing... "Looks like we've only got a little bit more to get through Kay!" She'd say cheerfully, before heading off to repeat her usual process of clearing each and every table that had anything dirty left on it, scrubbing down the tables to make sure they were spotless for their next use. Then finally bringing all the washables back to the kitchen to be cleaned again, although this time Kay told the girl she could manage and that she could take a break after all that hard work. Happily, Callie would return to the front of the bar to witness Grins asking two young women to help him move that man that had been annoying him earlier.

She'd laugh to herself as she watched. "Hehe, this place never changes!"

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