That’s me!

Oooh link please?

Holy shit, I haven't seen your name in forever. You wrote tik tok! One of the first ones here on reddit that got me into serialized writing. I need to go back and reread that one....

I am the proprietor of a bar in a shithole. That's putting it lightly, but it's mostly true. I'm surprised that I haven't been robbed more. But my clientele seem to mainly consist of the big, rough and tough, built like a brick outhouse variety. So maybe they don't rob me for that reason.

I'd say they like me quite a bit out here. I mean, it's always busy, I make a lot of money, and they all tip remarkably well.

But I get a lot of phone calls from the local police department. I mean, a lot of phone calls. I've even had a few policemen, who were plain-clothed but very obviously out of place, come down and ask me about some of my clientele.

... I know all of them had come to The Alibi at some point. I just don't remember when. I don't have a particularly great memory for faces and such, but is it really lying if I don't know whether I'm lying or not? Besides, every time I answer with a "Yes, I do recall seeing them" I get far more gracious tips.

I think it's because the guys that come in here are very kind.

Sure, I don't know why I received two free trucks of alcohol that one time, or why I received a very generous offer to have the place renovated, or why I received a free shipment of new tables and chairs, or why I'm being paid 10,000 a month to allow my clientele free reign of the basement. I couldn't even tell you why they stop me from going down there. Maybe they live down there?

Anyway, I think all my clientele are very nice people. I don't think any of them are thugs, even if everyone else thinks they are. All they need is a drink and someone to talk to.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to fill up some bowls with almonds.

Hahaha. Big ooft. Would mean that mostly those who can't access healthcare or are not rich are able to control magic/left to develop this 'organ'. So 3rd/certain 2nd world countries and America.

Xul kept his eyes down, scowling slightly as her voice drew confused glances from random customers. In a flash he swept the woman’s assorted items above his scanner, shoved them into a branded canvas bag and nudged the package in her direction.

“I’m on the clock, Armie. Cash or card?”

“Card please.” She murmured, before stretching back to her impressive full height and letting her voice once more fill the room, “Doesn’t our rivalry supersede your little play-pretend as a regular mortal?”

Behind the counter, well out of sight of the shopping crowd, Xul’s fists balled. Spotting the top of Mark’s bare head bobbing among the shelves, he stifled the urge to snap at the unwelcome visitor.

“Thank you for shopping at Grab n’ Go market, please visit again, goodbye.”

As he rattled off the corporate-mandated phrase, the cold detachment in his tone made it obvious he wasn’t speaking from the heart.

“Sleep with one eye open, fiend!” She snatched her bounty, conspicuously pinching the tote closed rather than simply letting it hang by the handles as she beelined for the automated doors of the small convenience store.

As the clerk watched her leave, his expression caused the next in line to hesitate slightly before approaching. Before he could attend to them, a small brown-haired shape shuffled to his side.

“Mr. Xul?”

“Hi Cassie - what’s up?”

“Manager says I should work the register for a bit. I think he wants to talk to you out back.”

“F-f…” He stopped himself, exercising iron will. “Thanks. Give me a shout if you need help.”

She nodded happily and went straight to work, the disparity in their heights drawing a few scattered chuckles.

In the meantime, Xul cut towards the employee lot, carefully weaving around people staring wistfully at racks of cream-filled confectionaries and snacks. While he wasn’t anywhere as powerful as he used to be, someone of his general mass hitting a wiry high-schooler still wouldn’t be pretty. At last, he made it through no-man’s land, exiting the store and taking a long breath of fresh, cold fall air.

Another few feet away, a bald man with a fearsome, well-groomed beard puffed on a ratty cigarette he had no doubt found loose in a pocket moments ago. He acknowledged Xul with a silent nod.

“Mark, I’m sorry, man - I swear I’ve told her to leave me al-”

The manager put one palm up, muting him, then used the same hand to pat the bench next to him.

“You’re fine, don’t worry. It ain’t like that.”

Mark’s voice was low, even, and had the inexplicable quality of bringing some calm to even the most tortured souls - of course, by human standards. The actual tortured souls Xul led in battle were never quite as open to diplomacy.

Xul took a seat next to the man, politely waving away the wordless offer to smoke. Even sitting he was roughly half a head taller than him, and that was without horns. How he missed those.

“She your ex?”

Xul turned to stare at the bald man, eyes wide in sheer shock.

“Ah.” He swallowed the torrent of horrific curses that welled up in his throat, “No.”

Mark simply chuckled, his eyes locked on the skyline in the distance. “Well, she’s obsessed with you, she’s gorgeous, and I think you… speak her language, if that makes sense?”

Xul sighed - yes, he did indeed speak her language. Because of that, he always noticed when she let loose an odd turn of phrase, or awkwardly translated an idiom from their mother tongue. Of course, that wasn't what the other man meant. Though he would never allow himself to pity her, he had noticed a lot of human things Armistra struggled with.

“She’s just weird. I used to help out at a theater camp, so I know how to play along.”

“Nah.”

Mark’s sudden rejection immediately drew Xul’s concern - had his boss begun to catch on? Was he beginning to suspect there was something strange and otherworldly about her? He nervously scratched at a spot on his neck, waiting with bated breath as the laconic man finished his cigarette and stomped it out.

“I mean. Yeah, maybe.” Mark absentmindedly combed his hand through his beard, searching for the right words to express what he’d noticed. “I used to have a friend who’s a bit like that. He was sort of spacy, and out there. Sometimes stuff that seemed everyday went way over his head. He was a novelty. A character.”

“Sounds like her, I guess.”

“But that’s not all there is to him, right? He has the same worries and concerns as everyone else. Wants to live happy, eat well, share time with people he likes. Everyone's the same like that, but he just doesn’t know all the shorthand. Unspoken rules.”

Xul nodded, though he had to admit he was a bit lost. Armistra was a character - her bravado, her seeming inability to feel ashamed, her single-minded obsession with some prophecy. No matter how hard he thought about her, he couldn’t imagine her doing something normal, like crashing on a couch, or preparing one of the five ramen cups she bought weekly. If he could go from being a ruthless general to worrying about making a good impression on his new coworker, couldn’t she too? Had she ever been kept awake wondering if she would ever feel at home again, like him?

“Oh.” As his mind raced, the former warlord could only utter a quiet word.

Mark got up, pushing against his knees and grunting in a way that seemed - for a moment - to add another 20 years to his already youthless demeanor.

“Hey, you said you had this friend? What happened to him?”

A hefty hand clapped Xul’s back, and he looked up to see a faint smile on the other man’s face, pulling up the corners of his eyes.

“He got better with a little help.”

Xul watched Mark disappear back inside the store, utterly lost for words. For a few quiet moments, he stared down at the concrete paving between his boots. Slowly, his hand produced a cheap smartphone, tabbing through his contact list before settling on one. He took a deep breath and hit the call button.

One ring. Another. Another. He rubbed his brow with a free hand, pre-emptively regretting what he was about to do.

Another ring was cut short, followed by a maddened scramble and cacophony of shuffling sounds before he heard a woman’s voice - she was unbelievably loud, even over the phone.

“Accursed machine! How does anyone know how to use this damned thing!?” Xul heard a few dial tones come through as she fumbled with her phone on the other end of the line. “Who calls me, and what do you want?”

“Ah. Hey. Hi. Are you… are you free after 6 today? I think we should talk.”

Alibi Room is a great bar in Vancouver

This is an actual acid trip, holy hell

Pretty bad name if you ever want to convince a jury or a judge that you were actually there

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Them damn supers.

I wonder who "invented" them? ;)

This bar needs to be world building prompt of its own.

There was a series of stories around a bar that exited outside of time and space.

It has 13 corners and all of them were dark.

The bartender always new what you wanted before you could even ask for it.

Many fictions from many realities passed thru the place.

The Alibi fits into this world or one like it very well. :)

The bar in Shameless was called The Alibi. Always liked that joke. Felt very on-brand for the series.

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Looks like the Osmosis Jones guy got an upgrade.

I hope someone better be paid good for the clean up. The restroom was spotless as usual.

Love it, and perfectly set up to continue the story

I've never seen actual poetry on r/writingprompts until now. Beautiful.

I'm sorry about the smell.

“Nope! Not a word from you!” The young man slammed his spatula on the dinner table when an older man raised a finger and was just opening his mouth. They looked quite a lot like each other, sporting the same dirty blonde hair and eyes of zircon green. However, his facial features were much more delicate – something he took after his mother, who was quietly wiping her cold sweat away from her forehead.

The husband and wife quickly exchanged a glance with each other as what happened 18 years ago replayed in their minds. They would have one final fight, one final duet before forever calling it quits. It would be their Magnum Opus, a performance so great that it would be remembered through the ages. Unfortunately, as they waltzed above an island in the middle of the Pacific, they miscalculated. They triggered a volcano eruption.

And not just any volcano, a supervolcano.

In order to stop a global catastrophe from engulfing the world, the Guardian and the Sorceress Queen combined their power to siphon the energy off from the super volcano and divert it into themselves. The volcano still went off, but it would no longer trigger a nuclear winter. However, the superhero and supervillainess both fell in battle as they exploded in a burst of scintillating light. The superheroes and supervillains couldn’t even find a trace of them. Their sacrifice would be passed down in history as a rare moment when a hero and villain worked together to stop a worldwide disaster, an example that all of them should strive toward.

Despite their survival, the two decided to call it quits and finally settle down together. They had enough of the charade anyway. It was definitely not because of the fact that what happened would make their insurance premium shoot up into the stratosphere should they want to continue superheroing/supervillaining.

“Honey… We can explain,” The beautiful woman tried to break a smile. However, when the youth gave her a glare, she felt like a snake was staring down at a rodent. Unfortunately for her, she was the rodent in this case. Ah, their beloved son. The proof of their love and their pride. Despite barely being of age, he was already as powerful as them at the height of their power. And luckily for them, he was blessed with domestic skills too. They could only survive off TV dinners for so long.

“Oh, yes. You’ll explain alright…” The youth grabbed a printed article and pointed at the picture that filled half a page. It was the picture of the youth smiling at a camera and the picture of the Guardian at the corner with a caption underneath it saying: “The Guardian’s surviving son found?! Saved dozens from a burning building!”

The resemblance was uncanny.

Normally, he would think that it was just some nonsense that the media cooked up. However, he would never mistake his own old man for someone else. Even if he was wearing a pair of ugly spectacles nowadays. He didn’t even have to dig too deep into it before he found out that the Guardian’s nemesis, the Sorceress Queen, looked exactly just like his mom without the heavy makeup and that ridiculous gothic dress and crown.

“My dad is the Guardian and my mom is the Sorceress Queen?” The young man groaned as he slumped into his chair and left the spatula on the table before covering his head with his hands. He was already having a headache when he thought about the horde of paparazzi outside on their lawn and on the roads right now. He couldn’t even take the trash outside, and it was almost collection day already. “The HOA is going to have a field day with this…”

“Well… The HOA is going to be the least of our problems…” the Guardian mumbled.

“What do you mean?”

“On, right,” The Sorceress Queen slapped her forehead. “Since this means we’re technically found out, daddy dearest is going to pay us a visit very soon.”

“Huh?” The youth asked, as confused as ever. “Daddy dearest?”

“Your grandfather. He never approved of our marriage… He promised to leave us alone as long as we keep things a secret. His edict basically shields us from all sorts of divination, but now…” She shot up from her chair and quickly headed up the stairs. “Alright, honey. Stop moping around and help me pack up! We have to leave before the rest finds out…”

“The rest?” The youth gave his mother another confused glare.

“The entire extended family. And then, there’s the Superhero League and the Coven of Shadows… I mean, we have a lot of friends and enemies, and I’m not sure whether they’re that thrilled to find out that we’re alive after all.” The youth’s dad counted as he too left the table and climbed up the stairs together with his wife to pack up. “Why are you still sitting there? Come on, get moving. We’ll explain everything else on the way, but we really need to go right now…”

Aww thanks

The ending is a great cliffhanger.

I really enjoyed the story portrayed through brevity. The rhythm is very catchy and song-like.

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