Post by Joliette Thorne on Jul 3, 2007 1:12:43 GMT -5
Terra was all smiles, moving easily past the damaged door. Sliding easily across the floor on stocking-clad feet, she'd take up a post behind the bar. With a too-damned cheery smile, she asked of both present, "Get you something?"
Tenebrae raised a brow at the woman. "What's that smell..?"
Terra had lost the disguise, though hair was still pinned back in place by clips and bobs. The restless motions couldn't be contained however, and occasionally one could spy the energetic female tapping toes against floor. The scent of sea lingered, faintly still, attempted to be drowned by the scent of roses.
Terra wrinkled her nose, "I bumped into a man on my way... Laughing and talking up a pond in the forest."
Rheven said to Tenebrae, "To drink, you mean? No, if so..I shall not be here long this eve."
Tenebrae wrinkled her nose back. "I meant that perfume. No offense, Terra, but it's a bit...strong, isn't it?" She offer Rheven a nod. "No worries, pet."
Tenebrae continued, glancing back to Terra. "Aye, he was after a map to the fishing-spot in the elven land."
Terra winced, giving herself a sniff and cringing. "Oh, yes. My own fault for upsetting the flowers in the field."
Terra continued that cheerful smile, even flashed that fanged grin towards Rheven when she looked to him. "Did he now? Interesting... Wonder what he'd want with that."
Tenebrae stared at Terra. Seemed the night for it. "He... wanted to go fishing, mebbe?"
Terra stared back for a moment, giving a slow blink. "Oh, right. Maybe that... I'll not drink anymore for the rest of the night."
Tenebrae sighed, back slumping to an uncharacteristically limp posture, and she leant an elbow to the bar. Peridot eyes slid toward the piano, but halted before they'd look at it, Tene steeling herself against the habit. "I think I might have a few."
Terra finally lost that smile, it having tapered off to a frown at Tene's current slouch. "Everything alright?"
Tenebrae 's attention would be dragged, like an unwilling puppy, toward the bar manager. "Uh... just wondering... you know." She'd shrug helplessly. "Men."
Rheven said to Terra, "We need to speak tomorrow. I'm sure the prospect doesn't thrill you, but it must be done. For now, though, I'm going to get some rest."
Terra was re-thinking that promise to not drink at the mention of the opposite sex. "Men," She'd lamely agree. "Tell me your troubles and I'll tell you mine?"
Terra satisfied herself with the image of Rheven's limp body being carried off in the mouth of a large dragon... Oh, how lovely.
Tenebrae eyed the two, glad at least thing were marginally civil. She'd watch Rheven leave through the shattered door. "He did pay me handsomely for it, you know..." Change of topic, how convenient. "What was all the bother with him, earlier?"
Tenebrae gestured to Steadman, pointing to a small whisky-barrel. The man arced a shaggy brow, but knew better than to comment. Barrel was set to bar hasty-like, along with a single glass.
Terra could only shrug. "There was a thunk, Mercedes investigated, and then all three were flying through the door. Some sort of scuffle. The female's slave wasn't happy, chairs were broke, and we couldn't get them out... Never really liked the man. Bastard bit me awhile back and believes it to be forgiven now. Mercedes was... overzealous with the chair bashing." A bottle abadoned by Veszmurss was eyed, and to distract her from it gaze shifted to the piano. "Speaking of, where has the King of Roads been? I haven't seen him."
Tenebrae twitched visibly at Darian's mention, and chose to address the first portion of her comment. "Ah... well, Rheven's a King, pet. A man with whom we might strike trade, so a facade of civility is one I'd prefer to foster, in his case." She eyed the shards of timber still littering the floor, a few below the ...piano... forgotten in the clean-up. "Mercedes is no loss, in my opinion. I don't need melodramatic sorts like that messing up my business-deals." The vampiress would look drawn, tired, of a sudden. "As for the Wanderer.. he's wandered off somewhere, I suppose." That crest-fallen expression would fall a bit more.
Terra could only nod at the hint to play nice with Rheven, for the time. "Will do. The same is to be said of Gualon's..Lord?" Here, Terra would eye the barrel of whisky, wondering how long it would take to drain it all. "Tristram Darkeheart, I believe." Repressing a sudden chill to tend to Tene's look, Terra nudged the glass towards her. "I see. He'll wander back, likely. Can't leave his Baby for too long."
Tenebrae took up the glass, held it below the barrel's spigot and filled the vessel to four finger's worth of the liquor. Just a small shot, then... she downed it in three swallows. Filled another. "Ah, Sir Tristram... what a magnificent ponce." She snickered. "Pity 'bout the company he keeps. All the same, trade might be useful." She knew terra had overheard at least a portion of -that- conversation. Her voice quieted. "As for the King of Roads, who knows..." She'd twist that spigot again, another tiny shot lapping at the brim of the glass.
Terra frowned, moving to retrieve a glass of her own. "The company he keeps? Like who?" While she tried to keep the question light, there was a bite underlying it. "How's Leo, then?"
Tenebrae winced at the mention of the rogue. "Tristram's bonking Vuryal's wife, or so he boasts. I was there, the other day, in his manse and she was buzzing about like a bad smell..." A scowl settled on the vampiress' face. "Bint. Stymied one of my plans. Anyhow, he said he had a string of women, that he "used" for pleasure and information." The scowl deepened. "He had the cheek to assume --I-- might want to be one of them." A derisive snort, another sip of whisky. "And Leo's alright, a bit unsettled." She gave Terra a pointed look. "As you'd probably know."
Terra left the glass be and crouched, rising with a hidden bottle in hand that was uncorked and given a long pull. "Lovely woman, that. Her and her roses..." Tightening the hold on the bottle until a ragged breath was inhaled and all was settled. "He's got an ego, that one. Demanding, but..." Sighing, she'd glance towards the door as if expecting him. When she shifted the gaze back to Tenebrae she was surprised to see she had been given a look. "He's interesting. What's the look about?"
Tenebrae's left brow quirked at the look of longing Terra gave that broken door. "Uh... you're kidding me, right? You're not stuck on the Lord of Gualon? Tell me you're not." She couldn't help the smirk, and to the last she said, "Oh nothing to the look. Just seems everyone gets more time with him than I do, lately." Another sigh, another shot. And another shot.
Terra gave Tene a wide eyed look, quickly chugging down a good portion of the bottle in hand. There was a reason Terra didn't drink, mostly because she couldn't handle it. "Er, well he's... Charming... And his lips are devil's." Seeing she made little sense she'd turn to the bottle once more, pausing with the opening to mouth to shoot a quick reply. "Hide in the cellar. I just happen to catch him there... Mostly on days when he'd like to rip me apart and eat me."
Tenebrae snickered at the comments directed toward Tristram, nodding agreement. To the latter subject, she frowned. "I'm glad I put the cages down there. Seems handy." A truncated reply, but the fact there was more to it would be evident in the weight the words carried, and her downcast eyes, after. "Men. Trouble. Same word, really, isn't it?"
Terra snickered too, occasionally sipping on the remains of the bottle, before polishing it off and tossing the bottle. "That's one way to put it. The nicer one, at least." With a wrinkled forehead, she'd prop chin against fist. "And they say we're complicated.... But with them, it's always the same story. "I-I want to love but I can't. My past, my business, some other excuse", pft. Who needs 'em?" Terra, obviously did, one in particular that caused her to sulk even further. "I don't. Not at all."
Tenebrae commiserated with the new-sired woman, with another slug of liquor. "Aye, who needs 'em.." She set her glass down with an emphatic 'clunk'. "I'd love to be able to see the future, Terra. I really would. Imagine, if we could figure out a path..." Between what and what, she'd not say. "I'd give my eye teeth ..." Irony escaped her. "For a chance at that."
Terra was still standing with help from the bar she leaned against, nodding along with Tene's thoughts. "I'd love to see that. Just to know what I'd do, who I would choose." Breath was between pursed lips, a 'pbhtt' noise from it. "The Eye didn't tell me. Only tried drowning me... Likely the wish won't do any good either... Need a mirror. That's it! A mirror that'd show you the future when you look into it."
Tenebrae stilled, mid-sip, the whisky dribbling down her chin to pool at the bar ignored. Lips gaped. Eyes widened. "Terra..." It was only a whisper. "A mirror...." She snapped a glance -albeit a bleary one- to the other. "Listen, there might be a way." Not a way that'd have entered her head, were she not in such a state. "I can't promise it, but there's a way. And a price it carries, some small thing you'd have to pay. Loss of some kind, but oh, what you'd get in return..." Her mind's vision was filled with the great shadow that'd engulfed her the day before, as she'd stood before the fortress. "You haven't been to the clan headquarters yet, have you?"
Terra spun, searching for another bottle despite the already spinning floor. "There's always a price," Murmured before a bottle of the same stock was produced, downed in the same fashion. "I haven't yet. Not a clue where is it... You have a way there? A way to see it? The future?" Disbelieving, the elf could only stare, hope glinting then. "Why are we still here then?"
Tenebrae downed her last shot, shaking her head after. "Don't be too eager, pet..." The words had a slurred edge, though she'd seem to abruptly sober. "Last time I went there... well, it went badly. But I'm certain I've made sure that'll not happen again." What, exactly, she wasn't going to say. "And you must be prepered to pay the cost. It'll not always show up right away, or even be known to you, directly, but believe me..." A light shudder ran down her spine like the fingers of some unseen stalker. "It'll cost you. You still want to go?"
Terra wasn't too drunk to misinterpret the warning. After a slow drag on the bottle, and careful considersation of Tene, she nodded. "I'll go." It wasn't just to see the future at that point, but to go with the half-drunken vampiress who Terra didn't want to go there alone. Recalling the words of the Eye, Terra frowned, but continued to nod. "Alright. Price to be paid. Costly. We'll make it out alright."
Tenebrae frowned back. "Might be an idea to take supplies." Her smile was a thin mockery of humour. "Just in case. Some more booze. A rope..." She stood, with minimal trouble, and groped for the handle of her pack, ebon hair falling over her face as she bent to it.
Darian shifted slightly his hand on the rafters like moondust caked on the wood but sifted with a breeze from a floorboard crack or a window prodded open by spectres unseen. Moveless and mottled, he perched and peered and listened.
Terra held up the bottle, still grasped by the neck, and silently cheered at the thought of more alcohol. The bit about the rope wasn't given a second thought, Terra instead pulling the ropes left by Caedan's bound hands. "These were left... Think they'll work? And I have some...vodka, possibly celery. Bloody Mary's, maybe?"
Tenebrae nodded. "Sounds about right." She didn't hesitate further to take a path toward that broken door, except to mutter quick instructions to Steadman as to its repair, and cast a long look toward the piano. Turning back, she'd speak words that rang with a clearly false bravado. "Righty. Let's to it."
Terra grabbed satchel and ventured after Tene in silence.
Tenebrae raised a brow at the woman. "What's that smell..?"
Terra had lost the disguise, though hair was still pinned back in place by clips and bobs. The restless motions couldn't be contained however, and occasionally one could spy the energetic female tapping toes against floor. The scent of sea lingered, faintly still, attempted to be drowned by the scent of roses.
Terra wrinkled her nose, "I bumped into a man on my way... Laughing and talking up a pond in the forest."
Rheven said to Tenebrae, "To drink, you mean? No, if so..I shall not be here long this eve."
Tenebrae wrinkled her nose back. "I meant that perfume. No offense, Terra, but it's a bit...strong, isn't it?" She offer Rheven a nod. "No worries, pet."
Tenebrae continued, glancing back to Terra. "Aye, he was after a map to the fishing-spot in the elven land."
Terra winced, giving herself a sniff and cringing. "Oh, yes. My own fault for upsetting the flowers in the field."
Terra continued that cheerful smile, even flashed that fanged grin towards Rheven when she looked to him. "Did he now? Interesting... Wonder what he'd want with that."
Tenebrae stared at Terra. Seemed the night for it. "He... wanted to go fishing, mebbe?"
Terra stared back for a moment, giving a slow blink. "Oh, right. Maybe that... I'll not drink anymore for the rest of the night."
Tenebrae sighed, back slumping to an uncharacteristically limp posture, and she leant an elbow to the bar. Peridot eyes slid toward the piano, but halted before they'd look at it, Tene steeling herself against the habit. "I think I might have a few."
Terra finally lost that smile, it having tapered off to a frown at Tene's current slouch. "Everything alright?"
Tenebrae 's attention would be dragged, like an unwilling puppy, toward the bar manager. "Uh... just wondering... you know." She'd shrug helplessly. "Men."
Rheven said to Terra, "We need to speak tomorrow. I'm sure the prospect doesn't thrill you, but it must be done. For now, though, I'm going to get some rest."
Terra was re-thinking that promise to not drink at the mention of the opposite sex. "Men," She'd lamely agree. "Tell me your troubles and I'll tell you mine?"
Terra satisfied herself with the image of Rheven's limp body being carried off in the mouth of a large dragon... Oh, how lovely.
Tenebrae eyed the two, glad at least thing were marginally civil. She'd watch Rheven leave through the shattered door. "He did pay me handsomely for it, you know..." Change of topic, how convenient. "What was all the bother with him, earlier?"
Tenebrae gestured to Steadman, pointing to a small whisky-barrel. The man arced a shaggy brow, but knew better than to comment. Barrel was set to bar hasty-like, along with a single glass.
Terra could only shrug. "There was a thunk, Mercedes investigated, and then all three were flying through the door. Some sort of scuffle. The female's slave wasn't happy, chairs were broke, and we couldn't get them out... Never really liked the man. Bastard bit me awhile back and believes it to be forgiven now. Mercedes was... overzealous with the chair bashing." A bottle abadoned by Veszmurss was eyed, and to distract her from it gaze shifted to the piano. "Speaking of, where has the King of Roads been? I haven't seen him."
Tenebrae twitched visibly at Darian's mention, and chose to address the first portion of her comment. "Ah... well, Rheven's a King, pet. A man with whom we might strike trade, so a facade of civility is one I'd prefer to foster, in his case." She eyed the shards of timber still littering the floor, a few below the ...piano... forgotten in the clean-up. "Mercedes is no loss, in my opinion. I don't need melodramatic sorts like that messing up my business-deals." The vampiress would look drawn, tired, of a sudden. "As for the Wanderer.. he's wandered off somewhere, I suppose." That crest-fallen expression would fall a bit more.
Terra could only nod at the hint to play nice with Rheven, for the time. "Will do. The same is to be said of Gualon's..Lord?" Here, Terra would eye the barrel of whisky, wondering how long it would take to drain it all. "Tristram Darkeheart, I believe." Repressing a sudden chill to tend to Tene's look, Terra nudged the glass towards her. "I see. He'll wander back, likely. Can't leave his Baby for too long."
Tenebrae took up the glass, held it below the barrel's spigot and filled the vessel to four finger's worth of the liquor. Just a small shot, then... she downed it in three swallows. Filled another. "Ah, Sir Tristram... what a magnificent ponce." She snickered. "Pity 'bout the company he keeps. All the same, trade might be useful." She knew terra had overheard at least a portion of -that- conversation. Her voice quieted. "As for the King of Roads, who knows..." She'd twist that spigot again, another tiny shot lapping at the brim of the glass.
Terra frowned, moving to retrieve a glass of her own. "The company he keeps? Like who?" While she tried to keep the question light, there was a bite underlying it. "How's Leo, then?"
Tenebrae winced at the mention of the rogue. "Tristram's bonking Vuryal's wife, or so he boasts. I was there, the other day, in his manse and she was buzzing about like a bad smell..." A scowl settled on the vampiress' face. "Bint. Stymied one of my plans. Anyhow, he said he had a string of women, that he "used" for pleasure and information." The scowl deepened. "He had the cheek to assume --I-- might want to be one of them." A derisive snort, another sip of whisky. "And Leo's alright, a bit unsettled." She gave Terra a pointed look. "As you'd probably know."
Terra left the glass be and crouched, rising with a hidden bottle in hand that was uncorked and given a long pull. "Lovely woman, that. Her and her roses..." Tightening the hold on the bottle until a ragged breath was inhaled and all was settled. "He's got an ego, that one. Demanding, but..." Sighing, she'd glance towards the door as if expecting him. When she shifted the gaze back to Tenebrae she was surprised to see she had been given a look. "He's interesting. What's the look about?"
Tenebrae's left brow quirked at the look of longing Terra gave that broken door. "Uh... you're kidding me, right? You're not stuck on the Lord of Gualon? Tell me you're not." She couldn't help the smirk, and to the last she said, "Oh nothing to the look. Just seems everyone gets more time with him than I do, lately." Another sigh, another shot. And another shot.
Terra gave Tene a wide eyed look, quickly chugging down a good portion of the bottle in hand. There was a reason Terra didn't drink, mostly because she couldn't handle it. "Er, well he's... Charming... And his lips are devil's." Seeing she made little sense she'd turn to the bottle once more, pausing with the opening to mouth to shoot a quick reply. "Hide in the cellar. I just happen to catch him there... Mostly on days when he'd like to rip me apart and eat me."
Tenebrae snickered at the comments directed toward Tristram, nodding agreement. To the latter subject, she frowned. "I'm glad I put the cages down there. Seems handy." A truncated reply, but the fact there was more to it would be evident in the weight the words carried, and her downcast eyes, after. "Men. Trouble. Same word, really, isn't it?"
Terra snickered too, occasionally sipping on the remains of the bottle, before polishing it off and tossing the bottle. "That's one way to put it. The nicer one, at least." With a wrinkled forehead, she'd prop chin against fist. "And they say we're complicated.... But with them, it's always the same story. "I-I want to love but I can't. My past, my business, some other excuse", pft. Who needs 'em?" Terra, obviously did, one in particular that caused her to sulk even further. "I don't. Not at all."
Tenebrae commiserated with the new-sired woman, with another slug of liquor. "Aye, who needs 'em.." She set her glass down with an emphatic 'clunk'. "I'd love to be able to see the future, Terra. I really would. Imagine, if we could figure out a path..." Between what and what, she'd not say. "I'd give my eye teeth ..." Irony escaped her. "For a chance at that."
Terra was still standing with help from the bar she leaned against, nodding along with Tene's thoughts. "I'd love to see that. Just to know what I'd do, who I would choose." Breath was between pursed lips, a 'pbhtt' noise from it. "The Eye didn't tell me. Only tried drowning me... Likely the wish won't do any good either... Need a mirror. That's it! A mirror that'd show you the future when you look into it."
Tenebrae stilled, mid-sip, the whisky dribbling down her chin to pool at the bar ignored. Lips gaped. Eyes widened. "Terra..." It was only a whisper. "A mirror...." She snapped a glance -albeit a bleary one- to the other. "Listen, there might be a way." Not a way that'd have entered her head, were she not in such a state. "I can't promise it, but there's a way. And a price it carries, some small thing you'd have to pay. Loss of some kind, but oh, what you'd get in return..." Her mind's vision was filled with the great shadow that'd engulfed her the day before, as she'd stood before the fortress. "You haven't been to the clan headquarters yet, have you?"
Terra spun, searching for another bottle despite the already spinning floor. "There's always a price," Murmured before a bottle of the same stock was produced, downed in the same fashion. "I haven't yet. Not a clue where is it... You have a way there? A way to see it? The future?" Disbelieving, the elf could only stare, hope glinting then. "Why are we still here then?"
Tenebrae downed her last shot, shaking her head after. "Don't be too eager, pet..." The words had a slurred edge, though she'd seem to abruptly sober. "Last time I went there... well, it went badly. But I'm certain I've made sure that'll not happen again." What, exactly, she wasn't going to say. "And you must be prepered to pay the cost. It'll not always show up right away, or even be known to you, directly, but believe me..." A light shudder ran down her spine like the fingers of some unseen stalker. "It'll cost you. You still want to go?"
Terra wasn't too drunk to misinterpret the warning. After a slow drag on the bottle, and careful considersation of Tene, she nodded. "I'll go." It wasn't just to see the future at that point, but to go with the half-drunken vampiress who Terra didn't want to go there alone. Recalling the words of the Eye, Terra frowned, but continued to nod. "Alright. Price to be paid. Costly. We'll make it out alright."
Tenebrae frowned back. "Might be an idea to take supplies." Her smile was a thin mockery of humour. "Just in case. Some more booze. A rope..." She stood, with minimal trouble, and groped for the handle of her pack, ebon hair falling over her face as she bent to it.
Darian shifted slightly his hand on the rafters like moondust caked on the wood but sifted with a breeze from a floorboard crack or a window prodded open by spectres unseen. Moveless and mottled, he perched and peered and listened.
Terra held up the bottle, still grasped by the neck, and silently cheered at the thought of more alcohol. The bit about the rope wasn't given a second thought, Terra instead pulling the ropes left by Caedan's bound hands. "These were left... Think they'll work? And I have some...vodka, possibly celery. Bloody Mary's, maybe?"
Tenebrae nodded. "Sounds about right." She didn't hesitate further to take a path toward that broken door, except to mutter quick instructions to Steadman as to its repair, and cast a long look toward the piano. Turning back, she'd speak words that rang with a clearly false bravado. "Righty. Let's to it."
Terra grabbed satchel and ventured after Tene in silence.