Home Again, Open, for now

Saphiriya sauntered casually into the Tavern, a warm feeling of welcoming comfort seeping its way into her bones. She had missed this place during her rather unplanned recent abscence. It was moments like these in which she could almost consider giving up her post in the Guild for the chance to really settle down somewhere and lead a less unpredictable life.

For now, though, she would settle for the chance to have a few moments to herself and a glass of something alcoholic close at hand. Saphiriya made her way through the semi-crowded room and to the ancient bar, the hood of her cloak still concealing her face.

"I'll have a glass of red wine." she said to the bartender, throwing the rupees across the counter.

Her drink in hand, she made her way to a table in one of the quieter sections of the tavern and sat down. She sat there, deep in thought, taking occasional sips of the rather cheap wine on the table in front of her. 'The bastard cheated me.' she acknowledged briefly as she took her first sip. Not that it mattered, the difference would be paid back to the Guild later, and a few moments of anonymity were well worth the extra rupees.

Eventually the stifling heat of the Tavern forced Saphiriya to remove her cloak, and thus lose her treasured ambiguity. She was left undisturbed despite this; the loyal members of the Guild, such as were left, knew better than to disturb her if she clearly wanted to be left alone and most other patrons were reluctant to approach a solitary character, being uncertain of the reception they would receive.

This generalisation, unfortunately, could not be applied to all of the Tavern patrons...

Sitting in a dark corner of the tavern with an empty mug in her hand, Lyamilana assessed how much effort it would take to get up to the counter and order another drink. It wasn't that she was tired, she was just bored out of her mind and the drunks sitting at the next table were a very good reason not to get up, seeing that they would either start a fight or start hanging all over any person who walked by- depending on their gender, a fact noted sourly by the goddess, already rather commited to another. Thus, she opted to stare at her mug and then look at the bar counter yearningly, before pretending that she didn't care.

"'Allo princess," a drunk man said, pulling up a chair and sitting next to her.

Her crimson eyes darkened at the company, "I believe the appropriate term would be goddess."

Her words went either unheard or ignored as the man laughed and slumped onto the table, seemingly unconscious.

"o...k..." Ly prodded the man in a manner that could hardly be called careful or gentle to affirm that she was unconscious before kicking him off her table- literally.

Sighing, she shook her head, wondering what else these drunk assholes would do before they got thrown out of the bar- or killed, she mentally added to her thoughts as she noticed a cloaked figure enter the tavern. This new person caught Ly's dwindling attention and thus became her new subject of observation, her mind gladly off the topic of drunks and slumping on tables.

"Oy," she called out to a barmaid who walked by and thrust the mug into her hand, "You know what to do."

So she went back to drinking blissfully, enjoying the lack of alcohol in her drink, as opposed to say, just about everyone else in the tavern... with the possible exception of those two thirty-five year old bachelors who hadn't been laid and didn't drink alcohol because their mummies had told them that drinking was the reincarnation of Hades... or whatever the Kilamian equivalent was.

I like milk

She also mentally added that she liked cheese and was somewhat reminded of someone, though she couldn't remember who.

The random cloaked figure who she had noticed a while ago was now sitting down with a drink, looking obviously unfriendly and without the need of company. They were also being left alone. Except for that drunk guy who was.. ah... wobbling towards them.

Ly didn't hear what the drunk had said, but in her knowledge of drunk people, he had either said something really stupid, or was about to slump on that hooded person's table too.

((OOC: wow, can I ever write something serious after I write something like Fishinh? this post says... no.))

Saphiriya groaned inwardly as the burly male, who had clearly been enjoying the Tavern's hospitality for quite some time, pulled a chair up to her table and collapsed into it. She did not recognise him and, as was clear from his next words to her, he did not appear to know her either.

" 'allo, girlie. Wot's a purty lil' thing like you doin' alone in a place like this, then?"

She could hear him shamelessly mis-spelling everything it was possible to mis-spell. To her credit, Saphiriya resisted the urge to pull out a dagger and slit his throat. 'You're trying not to be noticed, remember? Act like a proper girl.' She even resisted the urge to haul the much larger man out into the street and beat him senseless.

Then, the inebriated idiot laid his hand on hers and winked in what he clearly thought was a rougish manner. Taking that as her cue to leave, she stood up and tapped him on the temple her left hand, in which was concealed the hilt of her dagger. When the guy was securely in la-la land, she slipped the dagger back into its sheath and continued past him, stepping heavily on his foot and almost certainly breaking it. 'Whoops...' she thought mischeviously, a light giggle sounding in her head. Sometimes it was more satisfying not to kill annoyances. 'As someone very wise once said, she thought, 'If I went around killing everyone who was stupid, there would be no time left in the day.'

She glanced quickly around the tavern then and, catching sight of a blonde girl in the corner who seemed to be taking an inordinate amount of interest in her, walked casually over, determined to find out what she was about sooner rather than later.

Reaching the girl's table, and taking careful note of the girl's curious crimson eyes, she asked politely, "Do you mind if I sit here? This has apparently been dubbed 'drunken moron hour', although no-one bothered to tell me."

Some things in life were unexplainable. Such as why the Goddess of Power was drinking her Chateau Romani with the enthusiasm a feline would for its milk. She had been described as cat-like before, but she doubted that this was what was meant by it. Shrugging it off, she continued drinking, occasionally looking at the hooded figure.

I should really take a break from this stuff, it's going to make me throw up before I know it...

Setting her half empty mug of milk on the table, she raised an eyebrow in mild surprise as she noticed that hooded figure- a woman- was walking to her.

Nodding, Ly pushed forth the chair that was earlier slumped in by that drunk guy, "Make yourself comfy."

Taking another sip of her addictive milk, Ly eyed her new company.

She's definitely a regular here... she has an air about her that she knows how this place runs... though somehow I doubt she works here at the bar...

Shrugging, she took another sip of her chateau and let the cloaked woman pick up any threads of conversation if she wanted to, rather content to sit in silence until she did so.

Saphiriya sat quietly for a few moments, the blonde woman's silence matched by her own. There was something about the woman that made Saphiriya uneasy, and the Queen of Thieves, who was usually content to sit in silence and allow others to lead the conversation, found herself idly talking to fill the silence.

"I didn't mean to intrude on you, but those idiots are so drunk that they'll try to flirt with anyone female and alone. This arrangement seemed as though it would solve the problem for both of us."

'Stop. Please.' Her inner self begged, 'You're babbling. And...did you just apologise?! What is wrong with you today?'

Her strange inner soliloquy over, the Queen of Thieves took a sip of her drink before saying "I'm Saphiriya, by the way. Who are you?"

Saphiriya knew that there were more polite ways of phrasing her question. She would usually have been ten times more tactful than she had been. But there was something about the blonde woman that unsettled Saphiriya, not the least of which was the fleeting impression she had of being very definitely outclassed.

Ly noticed that this woman wasn't much of a conversationalist, which suited her fine. It didn't matter to her whether or not they spoke... it just surprised her when she did begin to speak.

She seems uncomfortable...

Musing over her company's actions, she paused a moment before replying.

"I personally don't blame you. Trust me, I'd rather be intruded on by you than have another one of those drunk men pass out at my table. I find it quite rude when they do that. It's a good idea to make sure none of them bother us anymore."

Milk!

She took another sip of her drink and looked at the woman when she spoke again.

Nodding in acknowledgement of the name, Ly responded, "The name's Ly."

Returning to silence, she observed Saphiriya once again.