Rabbit Hole Carnival: Own Light

“Okay, Renee.” She sighed. “He’s not gonna be mad, so just knock on—”

“Why would I be mad?” Nick asked, as Renee jumped. “Sorry… went to the bathroom. I heard you were up, but I figured you were still working on that drink.”

“I…am… And I think I need one of the older techniques you used to talk about.” Renee replied.

“You’ve been thinking that, and not knocked on my door for how long now?” “Nick said.

“Don’t say it like that.” Renee replied. “I thought it might work, but I didn’t know the parts yet. As for knocking on your door well… I’m not fully over it, okay?”

“I suspect it will be a very long time before you are ever over any part of it.” Nick said. “Which I would consider to be a good thing, so these parts of yours?”

Renee led Nick down the stairs and showed him. “So I was thinking maybe it’s more based on the oath I love so much than I think.” She set two glasses down, and pulled all lighter and sour supplies towards her. “I still think the best base would be a sort of ‘keep your day I’ll take the night’ feel.”

“Hmm…” Nick said, and grabbed a few supplies. “Well you need a fair bit of sour to start with, and then you’ve toned it down with…” He poured a fair bit of lemon juice in, and then diluted it with a few more solid liquids. Making it again, and handing a glass to Renee.

“This should do…” Renee said. “Okay, and next something with a sort of ‘keep your sun, I’ll take the lantern.’ Some kind of reinforcement. And I figured that was where the onion went.”

Nick nodded, and put the Onion in first before dumping a lot of sour ingredients in, and handing Renee the extra. “It’ll pack quite a punch.”

Renee took a swig, and poured both out, raising them making up something of her own. Handing the spare glass over to Nick. “Something more like that.”

Nick took a swig, and nodded. “Okay, and next?”

“Now! I want the sour punch for just a small wallop's worth.” Renee replied. “Something that shouts that you're gonna be yourself..”

Nick complied, and gave the extra glass to Renee who nodded after tasting it. “Alright, write the part you did down, and clean those out would you.” Nick wrote down his own parts, and Renee handed him two the glass.

“I’ll make another of my part, right?” Renee asked, but didn’t wait for an answer. “Okay, so now?”

Nick got out 2 mugs. “Now we mix them in order, and see if it still works first.” He poured the base into each mug first, then the reinforcement, and then the sour punch.

Renee took a deep breath. “Okay…” Both chugs the drink down, and Renee slams her mug down. “Finally!”

Nick collected the paper. “We’ll refine it into the final product tomorrow.” He yawned. “I’ll need some sleep before I can do that.”

“Okay, but while we’re both, and probably not sleeping for a bit?” Renee asked, and sat down. “I was wondering if I could maybe hear about that whole civil war over this place starting?”

“What brought that on?” Nick replied, sitting down as well.

“You’ve never talked about it like that before.” Renee said. “I know there were problems with our family, but that’s nothing new to me. I just figure it was specifically Mike’s section. It’s not like I’ve meant any relative other than you.”

“I suppose that’s fair.” Nick said. “Well, I hate to disappoint, but I'm quite sure you, I, and a handful of others are the outliers. Each of them is of varying ages, and stemming from different parts. And we keep in contact when we can, but it's often difficult. Your grandfather was a businessman first, and foremost. We were both made to help keep with his paperwork, but Mike always did the better job. I was always just bored, and like to match the numbers I felt like went together.”

“Kind of like how you make drinks now… and how you taught me to do so.” Renee replied, with great interest.

“I suppose so.” Nick said. “It’s a long story. But basically I got told to ‘run off to some rabbit hole, if I wasn’t going to be serious.’ I suppose I’ve been making my own light ever since”