2018-07-05: A Prelude to a Bad Decision
- Log: A Prelude to a Bad Decision
- Cast: Loren Voss, Lily Keil
- Where: Pendrago - Port District
- Date: July 5th 2018
- Summary: Loren, on an information-gathering task, needs to talk to a certain potential contact in a certain part of town. Lily, there for her own purposes, decides to 'assist'.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
A FEW DAYS AGO
The responses had been in their own way unanimous:
"You're a smart guy, yeah? I'm sure you'll figure it out on your own."
"I've got something else I'm following up, Voss. You'll do fine."
MacDougall hadn't even given him a verbal response, just a look that spoke volumes on its own. He'd wisely decided not to press the issue.
So that was that. They had an intelligence lead to follow up on, and the one managing it was... himself.
...This is going to end badly, isn't it. He's sure this is going to end badly.
ABOUT AN HOUR AGO
"So, what, you jus' wanna talk, that it?"
The burly man has a certain aroma, one that Loren can't entirely place but which he suspects is stale beer. He sits upright where he's seated, across the table from the man who is at least as big as van Buskirk. Still, it isn't fear of the bear of a man that has him on edge -- though he's sure that a few of the people here do in fact fear him -- but rather the costs of coming up empty-handed. Even if the rest of them turned down this job, that just means it's definitely his responsibility to complete it... and the more he fails, the more he has to lose.
And besides, he's still a first class citizen. Even up here, on the moon, it has to count for something.
Even if he lost to a Lamb in a fight.
The man looks him over with a lazy leer, then grins.
"Wouldn't mind 'jus' havin' a talk' now, right? Except... I dunno who the hell you are, and I dunno anyone else here do, either."
Externally, Loren doesn't so much as twitch. Internally, his heart sinks.
"So. Either'n you're jus' some out-a-towner' lookin' for a nice chat with a guy like me, or... I dunno, maybe you're here at someone else's call. You look a little too neat-and-tidy for this here parts. Eh?"
Loren remains perfectly still. Where... is this going. "...And? I'm a student doctor, you understand. Cleanliness is important."
"...Well, I'll tell you what. I don't talk to them that don't drink with me. So go on, have a drink or three, maybe I'll feel more talkative-like then!"
This is going to end badly, he'd thought. Maybe he should bail out-- no, no, think of something else--
And then it got worse.
NOW
It tastes... terrible. He's just about halfway through the first what may well end up being 'several drinks' -- assuming the alcohol content of this stuff isn't high, assuming how well his body can metabolize it, assuming a lot of things he doesn't know for certain -- since he's certain that 'just one' won't exactly impress his would-be contact.
Currently, his own odds are riding on 'barely making it through this one', though those metrics are based on taste alone.
This is going to be a disaster.
"...I should have killed you in Wayside," he mutters to his 'drinking partner'.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Exactly when did Lily Keil get here? It was happenstance. She was already in the bar, after all, noticed Loren's luck...
And moved out from the doorway she'd been in that obscured her presence directly over to the table with Loren and the big man. So. It got much worse.
NOW
Lily places down another drink with a 'clink'--putting away stale beer without a trouble in the world it would seem.
EARLIER:
"Who wouldn't drink with you?" Lily answers for Loren as she approaches the table, all in black and gray, propping her staff against her seat as she claims it. "My friend here's just a little stiff, is all. Medical school doesn't do much for your social life."
...Is she already a little drunk? It's hard to tell.
NOW, AGAIN:
The woman in black mutters right back, without missing a beat. "Damn right you should've. But you didn't. Buck up or they'll notice."
For someone who isn't very sociable, she at least seems to know this milieu well--or maybe drinking just isn't a problem for her.
She has not explained where she's been.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
He should really learn to stop thinking that things were going to go badly.
They can always get worse, after all.
EARLIER
"Your friend, eh?" asks the big man, sizing up Lily as she inviters herself to the table, as if attempting to place her face, or possibly, her possible alliegences. "You a 'doctor-in-trainin too, eh? Old friends, then? Heh heh..."
The look that Loren gives Lily sidelong is at once a pure expression of incredulity and raw hatred as one can hope to get. And yet, his overall expression doesn't shift.
"Tell your friend over there it's 'bout time he put a little hair on his chest. Maybe we'll even get to have that chat he wants so badly!"
Loren isn't sure if he wants to die or commit a homicide.
BUT BACK TO NOW
"Ugh," about sums up the noise he makes, lifting the sour, stale drink to his lips and fighting back the urge to grimace. Should he down it more quickly? Maybe it'll get this over with faster. ...But then maybe if he introduces this to his bloodstream too quickly, that'll cause other issues.
...Is that how drinking works? He has no idea how drinking works.
He takes another mouthful and struggles not to choke on it.
"Why are you even here," he hisses under his breath once he's gotten that one down.
He takes another mouthful.
He regrets everything.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
EARLIER:
Lily's allegiance is hard to discern; her dark clothes have no insignias, her weapon is of hard-to-trace make, and her accent is unplaceable for Lunar. She's just Foreign. "Oh, I'm more experienced than he is," she answers smoothly, and glances sidelong right back at Loren. There's a hard, gleaming quality in her golden eyes--it isn't any more pleasant than his in the moment.
It's gone a moment later. "You heard him," she says to Loren.
AND NOW:
Lily doesn't help. She's rather the opposite of helping, considering that she downs hers quickly and seems fine, not grimacing in the least. ...It is, of course, terrible beer, but then, here's the way drinking works: if you have enough of it, you stop caring.
The next drink is set down for her--and a second for Loren, too. He's not done yet?
"So this is the local, mm?" she asks aloud, and then under her breath to Loren, "Just saw some refugees off to their ship. And you?"
She starts to down the next immediately.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
EARLIER
The man lifts a hairy eyebrow, but otherwise doesn't make a comment on Lily's manner of dress -- or her apparently out-of-place self for this part of Lunar. Instead, he settles back into his seat, mild amusement lighting his grey eyes.
Whether or not he has to play informant for the 'medical student', rest assured: only one person wins tonight.
SO WE RETURN TO NOW
"Do you all lose your tastebuds while young?" he murmurs, glaring down into the depths of his drink, then regretting that when he thinks he sees something floating in it. He doesn't want to know. His gaze turns over towards Lily. "It's the only explanation I can think of for this."
Right on cue, there's another drink. He's not even finished the one he's got.
If he gets out of this alive, he's going to...
...
...well, realistically, have one hell of a headache. Violent fantasies will have to wait.
He takes another mouthful and swallows; it's still not getting any better.
"...You? See off refugees?" He sets down his mug a little too firmly atop the table.
"Try again, Keil."
There's a pause before he answers her own question.
"Unlike you, I've been working."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily carries herself like a soldier, that much is clear; sharp posture, almost catlike movements, the strength in her arms. ...She just doesn't have the scars that a soldier ought to have. And she carries the weapon of a magician.
"Nah, this is swill," Lily murmurs back at Loren. Thre probably is something floating in it. "But you take what you can get. And this isn't for taste, it's for getting drunk."
Lily tips back hers again. "Ha! Maybe you will get hair on your chest," she says aloud to Loren, and if the laugh sounds forced, it is. "I always thought you were growing up too slow."
The secret Lily has, of course, is twofold: the first is that she isn't exactly wasting time on tasting it. The second, well... She doesn't care.
"Have you known me to make jokes?" she replies under her breath in turn. "And what you seem to be doing is getting in over your head."
"So," she says aloud, "We should get a name for the man who's why we're drinking tonight."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
She's many things in one, this woman, and with an accent that isn't placeable at that.
But the million silver piece question really is: is she with the Guard?
A spellcaster like this, with a bearing like that...
But would someone from the Guard drink like a fish?
"Well, that's good. I was concerned for a moment about your kind's sense of taste," he half-whispers in reply, his tone even here suggesting he was anything BUT concerned. "...Though I still do have my concerns about your intelligence as a whole. Getting drunk?"
He's always been under the impression it was best avoided.
More loudly she makes a comment that prompts him to bristle. He grips the mug more tightly. "I'll grow up at my own pace, thank you very much," he snaps in reply. Did... he get the memo that he was supposed to be acting at this point? That they're supposed to be friends and not at each other's throats?
Their 'host' for the night's eye is upon them both.
"C'mon now, can't you drink more'n that?" he eggs Loren on, calling for another drink himself. He's the sort that can probably outdrink everyone in the tavern, at that...
"How would I know? You're such a twisted woman," he murmurs to Lily once he has a moment, then takes another mouthful, apparently dead-set on draining the mug this time.
And nearly chokes on it.
"You're the one who interfered," he hisses, once the threat of drowning from beer has passed.
Lily asks a question instead of the man across the table from them.
"The name's Belas. Heh, you ain't from around here either, are ya?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
She hasn't mentioned Althena once. And she does drink like a fish.
"Of course you were," she answers smoothly in a half-whisper, "You were stationed in Aveh of all places."
She lifts an eyebrow at him outright as he seems so shocked at the idea of getting drunk. She doesn't even have a retort for that. Which, of course, is its own answer. Is getting drunk really something so basic for lambs...?
Lily nudges Loren with an elbow at the man's question, at Loren's snapping. "He's just embarrassed," she says. "Even at the school he's known for being tight-laced. But once he lets loose he won't regret it."
Yes, yes he will.
"I am," she agrees under her breath, and then, whispering againt her cup, "If I hadn't they'd have dragged you out back for a fight by now."
"Belas, then. Mine's Keil. ...And I'm sure not."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
On the whole, she's an unusual individual to come walking in.
And she and the kid do seem to know one another.
His shoulders rise and fall at the mention of Aveh, as if to suggest, 'well, what can you do'. There's... not much love lost there, it seems. One Lamb's about the same as another. It's just a matter of how useful they can be for their goals.
The look in her eyes meanwhile serves as its own answer after a fashion. He doesn't even have to press this one further. He just looks over at her, meets her gaze, and squints.
Well, this is affirming several of his beliefs about surfacers here tonight.
She nudges him next. He inches away, drawing out a belly of a laugh from the large man across from them. "You two ever think 'bout takin' that act on the road?" he asks, as if this is the most entertaining thing he's seen tonight.
Loren settles for silently staring at Lily as if he can make her drop dead where she stands. He does understand that acting is a good idea, doesn't he...?
"You don't know that," he hisses back in retort. "I had other options before you forced my hand--"
Before Lily asks her question, and the man -- Belas -- asks his own.
"...Well, now, ain't that a puzzler. Here you are, bold as day, and you don't gotta town name to give me? Hey, kid." Loren sets down his second mug a little quickly. "You never did say who you were neither. Don't s'pose you've gotta place name to give me?" He pauses, as if for effect. "Or is memory loss catchin' 'round where you been?" Belas half-asks, half-demands.
"Voss," Loren answers a little automatically, then blinks, drawing up to his full height where he sits across the table from Belas.
In his defense, he's had an entire mug of beer and he's not a drinker.
There's already a whole lot of reasons to have regrets tonight, it seems.
"And it's Vane," he answers quickly, then backpeddles as if he'd just about plowed into a hedgerow.
"New Vane."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Good thing Lily isn't too bothered on Aveh's behalf. ...Today, anyway.
Lily continues to seem rather unperturbed as she goes through drinks almost like water. ...She sets down another, waves over a third. And as the large man laughs--
"Now and then," she allows in response, and as Loren hisses his way at her she looks at Belas. She notices--
Ah. There's the mistake. Her standoffishness has bitten her here, where she used to be better at this sort of thing. Rustiness isn't helping much.
"Hey," she answers, and then stops, looking sidelong at Loren in a little irritation. "Well," she says, "This guy decided to make the jump to Neo-Vane. I never had any interest in it. If you have to ask, I'm a teacher at the guild there. I happen to be in the area helping a friend. ...And now, I ran into this old buddy."
She takes hold of the grip of her next mug, looks Belas over. She's leaned back in her seat. This may be getting dangerous.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Lily's on her third. Loren is only barely into his second. And already, he's realized, as he conducts a sort of self-check on himself, he's starting to feel a little strange. A little light.
Hopefully he's not about to just pass out here on the table and royally ruin whatever is going to remain of tonight. If he's hungover tomorrow, are the others going to give him a hard time about it?
(yes)
"No," is Loren's own response to the talk about 'taking this act on the road'.
"He really is a stiff, ain't he," comments Belas, lifting his own mug to his lips.
Before Lily makes a minor slip-up.
And Loren arguably makes one and a half slip-ups.
New Vane? His hand twitches on the mug. Shit!
"Neo-Vane," he says, as if correcting himself. Though it might be a little too little, too late.
Until Lily offers her own patch-up to his mistatement.
"Right. You weren't..." He pauses for a moment, as if to briefly make an attempt at lining up the facts at hand. "You always were lagging behind, Keil," he says, before taking another mouthful of his second beer. It still tastes terrible.
But things feel easier right now, as if a weight were partially lifted from his shoulders.
Belas regards the two of them in relative silence, as if to there weigh their accounts.
"Childhood rivals, eh? Is that the story you two're tryin' to give me?" He similarly settles back, mouth twisted in a self-satisfied smile. "Nevermind that you're some kinda solider, and you," he gestures towards Loren with his mug, sending some of the contents sloshing onto the tabletop, "With the Church, I'd reckon. I smelled your kind the moment you came a-crawlin' in."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Oh, who wouldn't give Loren shit for being hungover? For her part, at least, Lily happens to be still paused on that third, noticing how things have changed. ...Belas's comment gets a shrug. "He is," she agrees. But--
It's much too little, too late, even if Loren can get in a jab on his reply. "And you were always ready to sell out," she answers him. Her thin black glove covers a twitch of her finger as she watches Belas. ...She has a little of that lifted-weight, too, of course. But not for the same reason, not in the same way. And when Belas regards them, calls them out, she keeps watching him for a few more moments in silence. Until he settles back, makes his answer.
"I used to be pretty good at this," Lily says. "Did well enough in Aveh, I think. Maybe I shouldn't have started drinking before I got here." She sounds almost chagrined--but there's an edge to her voice. "For what it's worth, I am a teacher in Vane."
Her eyes don't move from Belas, and she doesn't blink. "I just happen to be planning a new knifework course so they can defend themselves better. I'm a soldier, sure."
"So, the question is... Do you want to make things unpleasant? Or do you just want to keep drinking in peace?"
Loren can likely feel the hum of gathering Ether in Lily--and for that matter, Lily is unaware of the light gleam, her eyes beginning to glow as she stares down the man before her. ...She waits for an answer.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"Sell out? I'd call it knowing what's best for me and mine," he retorts aloud.
Loren... has other people in his life? There's a possible surprise.
He takes another mouthful of the beer and then some. Not enough to halfway drain the mug, but getting there, bit by bit.
He's definitely feeling light. Free, nearly, as if nothing could take him for certain this time around.
And then Belas lays his own hand out on the table, naming them both for what he thinks they are.
The man's about halfway right. Just wrong on the specifics.
"What are you talking about? I'm not with the--"
Loren stops more or less dead when Lily more or less gives up the charade there and then.
He sets down his mug.
"Why were you already drinking," he more or less blurts right out, and in doing so gives up his end of the play-acting they've been doing here tonight.
"From what I hear 'bout Vane, they could use a little defense trainin', way they're goin'," comments Belas, setting his own mug down. "So. Now that we've got that little unfortunate bit outta the way... how 'bout you both tell me what the Church wants from me? Don't tell me this's just a friendly-like house call."
Already, at a gesture, people begin to rise from nearby tables.
"Since I'm pretty sure neither o' you want this to get more unfortunate. Eh?"
Loren settles back in his chair, staring at the titan of a man opposite him. Slowly, his gaze shifts to the many, many people Belas obviously has in his employ.
When he gets to his feet, it's hastily enough to send his chair clattering to the floor.
"You."
And then he slams his hands on the table.
He's had it. He's had enough of it.
"Damned. Primitive-minded. IDIOTS!" he just about roars.
"Do you have any idea of who you're messing with here?!"
This will end well!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"Remember the last time I got to see 'yours'?" Lily can't quite help herself from answering. It's hard to focus on her surprise when the talk of Loren's loved ones just automatically gets her hackles up. ...She is feeling less light, differently light. And--
Well, Lily is the type to get down to business. He blurts out his statement and she hrugs, "Why don't you drink more often?" she asks in return, as if it's just as ridiculous. But Belas starts to explain, and to mention his plan. The Church...
Lily looks over the many, many people standing around them, the titan of a man nearby. There are quite a number. ...When Loren gets to his feet, though, the black-haired woman is still sitting down. As a matter of fact, she starts tipping back her beer, guzzling it with aplomb, finishing the whole thing in one go. It's almost enough to conceal the lifted eyebrow at Loren's roar. She glances over to him, for a moment. "...Heh," she says, and slides her gaze back to Belas without moving from her chair.
"See... You're wrong about one more thing," Lily says, and sets a hand on the table.
"I'd love for this to get more unfortunate. Voss."
Loren will find his hands nudged from the table before he probably realizesw what's happened. Suddenly Lily's rising and the table is coming with her, the whole thing lifted and shoved straight for Belas in one go, her staff snatched up with her other hand as she moves.
"C'mon, Voss, show me what you've got!" There's the drunkenness.