Raising the Bar

Blossom couldn’t help but feel a bit out of place, as she sat in the middle of the Rose and Crown. It wasn’t hard to see why, either.

She was short, and tended towards bright, happy clothes, which gave people the impression that she was a little younger than she really was. Just getting into the club was a bit of a challenge, as the doorman took some convincing before he believed her ID wasn’t a forgery. It probably didn't help that she was wearing a Honey Nut Cheerios t-shirt and a long black skirt, along with her preferred sandals.

But it was the style she liked to wear, and she wouldn't be deterred. She had someone to meet, after all.

So, fighting past her nervousness, she made her way over to the bar and found a stool to hop on, trying her best to not look as nervous as she felt. She got a few stares, of course, mostly from older Japanese men who didn’t know what to do with the small America walking underfoot. The bartender seemed to be purposely avoiding her, but she wouldn’t press it until her friend arrived.

That was a weird thought, all by itself. It was a small thing, being invited to a bar by someone, but it had been a good long while since Blossom had made a new friend. Tonight, she was looking to break that streak with Millie. The taciturn Briton had made for a great match, and she was still riding the high on having her first real win. It would be nice to just meet someone and strike up a friendly, honest relationship. That didn’t happen nearly enough in the AFW.

With a little sigh, she crossed her legs and waited, passing the time with Angry Birds.

Fitting in at the bar was much easier for Millie.

The Briton strode in wearing a smart looking outfit, not quite business, but definitely fancier than casual. Looking, and dressing, a little older, she soon found her way inside without problem. It certainly didn't hurt that she drank here enough that both the doorman and most of the bartenders knew her by name now.

But even in a more relaxed situation like this, Millie still had a blank gaze on her face, or at least that's what it seemed like at first. She had that same blank look she wore in the ring on her face, but here something about her eyes was different.

Looking closer, one could see that instead of staring ahead, almost looking through things, in public the former pilot's eyes never stopped moving. Darting around, taking in the environment, checking corners, crowds, checking over her shoulders regularly.

The Brit's expression only softened when she spotted her new American friend sitting at a table, seemingly glued to her phone with, from the sound of it, she was playing a game involving birds, or chickens, or something on. She was honestly glad that Blossom had come, she'd been in the AFW for a bit now, and she still barely knew anyone.

"Ey, up!" She chimed, cheerfully, her native accent slipping out much more than she had let it in the ring. Millie then slid into a seat across from Blossom, smiling warmly over at the American. "Find the place all reet?"

Gah, Blossom just couldn’t get past this stupid level. The pigs were in the most inconvenient spot, way up on this ledge that you could barely shoot, and it wouldn’t have even been that big of a deal if she was given some birds that could actually do anything, but she had the red ones, and they were practically useless, and-

She snapped out of it the second she heard a familiar voice, the same one that had been grunted and groaning along with her in the ring not too long ago. Well, kind of familiar - Blossom hadn’t remembered it being marinated so much in whatever that accent was. But, sure enough, she looked up to find herself staring at Millie once more. She was sharply dressed, enough that she stood in stark contrast to everyone else in the room, but that was probably the point. She had this iron demeanor to her, soldierly, but it worked, and the soft smile on her face put Blossom back at ease.

”Hey, hey, hey!” She gave her a quick wave and put the phone aside, giving up on her conquest of swine for the night. Blossom straightened up and smiled, doing her best to bring some poise in with what little size she had to work with. ”Yeah, it was pretty easy to find. Kind of sticks out like a sore thumb, around here.”

She leaned to the side and gave Millie another look over. ” You’re look super sharp! Do you always dress up like that?”

Millie was happy to be meeting Blossom outside the ring, all the grudges and competition forgotten about. In the ring, the American had seemed friendly enough, so now that they weren't trying to beat each other up, the Briton expected that they'd get along famously.

"Aye," Millie replied, nodding thoughtfully at Blossom's comment. "It don't look much like t'others oreyt. Best bloody sup 'n scran I've 'ad in't city though." She continued happily. She had been quite proud of herself when she first found this place, she'd never really managed to get fully accustomed to living in Japan. She was managing, but there was too much different from home, she needed something that was familiar somehow, and the Rose and Crown had been just the ticket.

The Briton fell silent as Blossom looked her over, a slight flush coming to her cheeks as she heard the compliment, a warm smile spreading across her face. "Oh! Ta! I must look like a reet bobby dazzler... er..." Millie trailed off, suddenly realizing that she must seem like she was speaking another language to the poor American.

"I mean... Thanks." She said, forcing herself to speak slower and in her adopted accent so that Blossom could actually understand her. "Sorry. The white rose can come out a bit hard when I'm not working."

The next few moments were, to put it mildly, quite confusing for Blossom. At first, she’d thought that Millie was just speaking too fast, or maybe the noise of the bar was mucking up her voice, or maybe her hearing was off or something like that. Nope, none of that was the case. Millie was just going into Full Brit Mode, apparently.

She tried her best to keep up with it, but it was almost like hearing a new language, and she could just barely get the gist of what her new compatriot was saying. Luckily, Millie decided to turn it down a notch, putting them back on a level playing field. Blossom’s brain was eternally grateful.

”Hey, it’s okay! It actually kind of reminds me of, well...someone I know.” Blossom had a quick flush and twiddled her thumbs, remembering a certain fuzzy woman with purple hair. ”And I think you look real neat. I mean, I don’t know what a bobby dazzler it, but it doesn’t sound like you. I think.”

The bartender seemed a bit less skittish about Blossom now that a regular was with her, so he started to work his way over. While he did, she kept on talking. ”So where are you from? Like, exactly? ‘Cause I kind of figured out the British part.”

Yup, switching over to a more... comprehensible accent had been the right call.

There had been about a solid minute where Millie had been wondering if she had suddenly sprouted antennae, or a spare pair of arms, as the American seemed to stare at her, looking as though her brain was having a hard time comprehending what was happening. It wasn't the first time she'd seen it.

Millie let out a friendly little laugh at both Blossom's reaction, and her response. "I assume you're close with them?" She asked, prodding just a little bit. "And thanks. 'Bobby dazzler' just means someone that looks fancy. Or, is dressed up."

A bit of a mischievous look crossed the Brit's face as Blossom asked her about where she was from, probably the most out of character expression she'd made so far. "Can't tell from the accent?" She asked, "'M from White Rose, or as thee yanks call it, Yorkshire." She explained. "I know we have a bit of a... unique accent. Had to adopt a new one when I enlisted, none of the Southerners could understand me." She went on, a small chuckle escaping her as she remembered a few stories from those days.

"How about you? Where are you from?"

”Yeah…” Blossom didn’t need a mirror to know her cheeks were starting to burn up. She could feel the heat rising, along with the involuntary smile that always occurred when she thought of a certain someone and a certain night with that certain someone. ”Yeah, ‘close’ is a good word for it. Heh.”

She straightened up as the conversation moved on, glad they were straying to topics that kept her blood pressure down. It was always neat to learn more about a different culture, especially British stuff - it wasn’t exactly a subject she’d gotten much of growing up, being an only child who’d never even left her state until a few years ago.

”Oh, then you look very bobby dazzler, then.” She nodded, hoping she was using that word the right way. Probably not. ”And I’m from Conshohocken, this little city in Pennsylvania that nobody’s ever really heard of. Nothing much to special about it, sorry.”

She snickered at the evil little smile that came across Millie’s lips, glad she was so affable out of the ring. It was a surprise, but a pleasant one. ”So, you served? What drove you to the military?” She tapped her chin, and another question immediately popped out. ”Heck, how’d you go from the military to the AFW?”

Seemed like a leap. A big leap.

Millie couldn't help but smile at the reaction her comment had managed to get from the American. Whoever she reminded Blossom of, she suspected that the word 'close' was a bit of an understatement. She decided not to pry at that one anymore, well, for now at least.

"Never heard of it." Millie said sympathetically, feeling a little bit bad. She'd never been to the US mind you, and the only cities she knew about in the States were the big ones - your New York, Washington DC, Boston, Orlando, and... well, that was about it really. "What's it like there?"

Millie's mischievous little look broke as she laughed in response to Blossom's snicker. "I saw an airshow with my dad when I was a girl." She said, a wistful smile spreading across her lips as she remembered it. "I looked up at the jets flying in formation, and I knew that I wanted to be a pilot in the Royal Air Force.
It was my life dream, and you know what?" She asked, flashing a big, friendly smile at Blossom. "I did it."

Her smile vanished the moment the next question left Blossom's mouth. She slumped in her chair a little, looking down at the bar. That was a much less welcome memory for the Brit, one that she was going to have to be a lot more drunk to express properly. "Hell fire, tha sure know how t' make me a mardy." She sighed, her adopted accent slipping as she flashed the bartender two fingers, needing at least that many drinks for this.

If Millie was worried about insulting Blossom, she shouldn’t have been. The tiny grappler had a relatively small list of pet peeves, and people not knowing about the small town she grew up in was not on it. ”Pfft, don’t worry about it.” Blossom waved it off without a second thought. ”I’d be seriously surprised if you knew about it. Impressed. Probably would think you were just teasing me or something - most people in my own state don’t even know it’s there. Conshohocken is…”

It was funny, now that she thought about it, but she had to actually take a moment to really recall the place she’d grown up. She’d been in Japan for so long, gotten so used to the big city, home seemed like a distant memory.

”It’s small. Like, uber-small. Population is about 8,000, around there.” She held up a finger. ”But it’s quiet. And nice. Everybody knows everybody, everyone’s polite. Nothing much happens, really. Pretty much the biggest thing anybody can say about us is that some guy in some book used our city’s name as a curse word, way back in the day.”

And that was pretty much the highlights. It made her strangely homesick, weird as it was.

She was about to go on and pry a little bit more with Millie, when she noticed the sudden drop in her newfound friend’s mood. Apparently, she’d stepped on a landmine, and now she had to deal with the aftermath, hoping it wouldn’t be too bad.

”Oh, right, drinks.” Blossom nodded as the bartender moved their way. ”So, um...right. Do you have any recommendations, or should I just try anything or…”

Millie was relieved when she saw that Blossom wasn't in any way upset that she had no idea where or what Conshoshocken was. She knew Yanks got something of a bad rap for not knowing about anything outside of their own country, but to be perfectly honest, Millie was pretty much oblivious to anything outside of her home county of Yorkshire.

Even having lived in Japan for a bit now, she still didn't know much outside of the few streets she traveled here. Hell, she didn't even know the rest of the UK, just Yorkshire.

"Sounds nice." She chimed in, liking the sound of the place. "Sounds like where I come from. Just, with a bigger population, and a much more entertaining name." She added with a bit of a chuckle.

Once her dampened mood set in, the Brit didn't say much else, keeping quiet right up until the moment that Blossom mentioned drinks.

That was a step in the right direction, drinks were good. Drinks was something that Millie could do.

"You like sweet things, right?" Millie asked, her gaze moving over to her American friend. She still looked off, still not back to smiling and joking, but she was keeping it together at least, and now she was talking about a subject she knew well.

"Your best bet would be cider, Growers if you want something fruity, Strongbow if you want something a bit more bitter, and Sommersby if you want alcoholic apple juice. If you'd like something with a bit more of a citrus taste to it, go for one of the Radlers. They're basically just beer with Grapefruit juice. Just, be sure to get a German or Austrian one. Otherwise you can go with Mad Jack, Canadian brew, apple based lager. Or a Shocktop, American brew, kind of orange-y. Or you can get the raspberry one. It's good too. If cherry's more your style, I think they have Mort Subite here, Belgian." She rattled off, reciting the menu from memory. "Or if you want soda, you could just get a rum and coke." She offered with a shrug.