{M} Fairven city (IC)

[Enigma]

It was two hours after she got back from that bupkes call before they let her go. Undoubtedly they were watching the service droid video for mistakes and slipups, while keeping her in the dark. Feh, gremlins do their best in the dark.

Normally she didn't go hit up the bars in the middle of a work week, but today was definitely a day for it. Calf-high work boots, leather hot pants with chains hanging down from her belt, studded leather collar and a musician's jacket she cropped. Of course, she'd reworked it as well.

Grabbers were going to get a 50Kv shock, there was a pair of ceramic lapel daggers, a handcuff key hidden inside the back of her pants and between her work boots and her epaulets at least three sets of lockpicks - non metallic, of course. And as a backup, she had her zip gun - a handheld "party popper" that was all the rage last year - but instead of confetti, this one held two shots of lead.

She was about to close the locker door, then paused to pull out her baseball bat. Green Garble wasn't that far out of Komplex3 but down here among the pipes, you avoided a lot of trouble if you looked like you could do some damage.


As she was walking up, some spook came racing out of the diner, giving her the evil eye before turning and running the other way. Ig hoped she didn't get their table, some people got the weirdest ideas.

[Vaidia]

“Don’t really care why they are here-- ow-- Just want them gone.” Jane replied, prodding at the base of her prosthetic, and fighting back an even more obvious wince. Kicking the chair leg caused a rather nasty shock of pain up the remnant part of her leg-- but nothing she hadn’t grown used to dealing with. She ran her finger along the length of the prosthetic, checking for obvious signs of damage, before the door opened again, before the door opened again.

It was a familiar face that walked through the door. By no means one of the ‘regular’ crowd, but one that was there enough for Jane to recognize. Kneeling down as she was, Jane was nearly the same height as the goblin woman.

“Evening, Tek,” Jane said casually, before hefting herself back into a standing position. Seemed like the rest of the night would probably be spent behind the bar, unless the beastman Reana was exchanging ‘doe’ eyes with proved too judgmental. “Missed the show. Don’t take the front table.”

In the moment after she stood up, a drink was forced into Jane’s hand by Aurous, and she gladly took a sip. It would be rude to turn down a drink, especially from one of her frequent customers recently coming into decent financial graces. With her free hand, she took a brief moment to brush off her knee that had been resting on the ground, before hobbling back to the front window, reopening the blinds. She caught a final glance of the peacekeeper vanishing down one of the alleyways, likely joining up with her backup. Jane didn’t think the woman foolish, amateur as she was, so there wasn’t likely to be more interruptions tonight.

Perhaps Reana was correct, and she needed to figure out why her Diner was attracting such… official attention. Perhaps she could find out more. Outside of business hours.

Jane looked down at the paper left behind by the peacekeeper, just now catching some of the headlines. It looked to be the usual fear mongering pastiche the Fairven Enquirer was known for, but it seemed there was some rather more bold than usual. In the usual large face text was the headline, and below was a picture of a rather handsome looking Tiefling, arms spread regally. The headline read:

Scandal! The Truth uncovered on the Fairven Underground Cult of Zeran! The leader a fraud?

Jane rolled her eyes, crumbling the still damp paper into a somewhat neat wad. She glanced at the overturned chair and slight puddle of Brew on the floor. That looked like the exact opposite of her problem to clean up. Paper in one hand, drink in the other, Jane began walking (slowly) back behind the bar.

[Highland Sniper]

With an annoyed flick of their tail, and ear twitch at the knowledge that the small puddle was their problem, they snagged a slightly messy rag and started to soak it up.
There were few other patrons waiting on them besides Tek, and she hasn't given her order yet.

Reana took the soaked rag back and plopped it into a rag bucket, since there was little else for it but to be washed and used again later.
She looked around for those who might be finished with their food, or might need a refill on a drink. There were always plenty of those. On a second glance, it seemed like the half-elf's sprite was empty.
So they quickly got a glass and filled it to take it back out for the man.

"Here's a refill," She said as she set down the cup and quickly checked to make sure nobody else needed one.
She was about to walk off before the goblin spoke up.
"Hey. Is it true that you're a cross dresser?" he asked.
"Yup." They said quickly, and they looked over at the beastman "But I'm always willing to hang out."

He could hear them talk amongst themselves as he walked back to the back to wait a little bit.

[Enigma]

"Oh! Uh, hey," Ig replies, blushing slightly. The owner knew her name and for the life of her, Ig could never remember hers! It was so embarrassing! She certainly wasn't the first half-elf she'd seen down here, after all, but there was something different about her.... whatever her name was.

Or maybe she just called all goblins "tek" - weren't they all some kind of tek?

And she was still standing like an idiot at the front of the diner, like some kind of putz.... and people were beginning to notice. Ig glances around the room for Ivan, then darts for the back, finding a small intimate table against the wall. Since she was here first, she'd watch for him coming in.

There was one benefit in all of this, it wasn't The Wire, their usual jaunt where they played for the crowds, which meant she was competing for his attention in a sea of groupies. He said this was about their future.... Could it be....?

Her phone rang. She reached inside her cropped musician's jacket to pull out her phone, unrolling it - and it was Ivan calling!

"Hey babe," she cooed as she answered the phone. "I'm in the back, you just getting here?"
"Yeah, about that," Ivan began. "I'm not coming."
"Not coming?" she blinked. "I.. don't understand. Are they holding you over for another shift?"
"Naw, nothing like that babe. I've got promoted!"
"Promoted?!? Oh baby! That's great! We should celebrate! Get the band together and have a real blowout!"
"Yeah, uh, can't do it. Job came with a transfer, they're sending me to Komplex1, I start tomorrow."
"Komplex1? I don't..."

A girl giggled on his end.

"What's going on?" she demanded hotly.
"I'm leaving babe! It was fun while it lasted!"

The screen flashed, turning to it's standard white screen.

"You shtunk!" Ig screams at it. "Did you just break up with me with a bleeping phone call?!"

She slaps down the phone and buries her face in her hands.

[Vaidia]

And things were as they were.

The conversations of the few small groups filled the air like leaves on the wind, fragmented sentences twisting about each other in dance that could just easily follow as it was to lose. The small space was as easily filled by conversation as it was to overhear what people were saying. Jane turned her attention between the different groups, catching just enough of the conversations from each to get a basic idea of the mood of the group.

Aurous’s seemed to have moved on from the earlier excitement rather quickly, now back on a rousing conversation about their collections of antique silver plates. Tek was speaking to someone on the phone. Another table of semi regulars was ribbing on their manager (a popular topic for them). Reana was making her rounds to the different tables, though they were likely annoyed about having to clean up the mess from the earlier “show”. The table with the coyote beastman were still eyeing Reana with furtive stares.

“Gonna keep that rag?” One of the patrons at the bar interrupted her survey of the dining room. It was a halforc woman named Erlan, one who frequented the bars more often than not. She paid her tab, but not much else, and tended to get surly towards anyone that sat in her seat. She had gestured toward the crumbled paper Jane deposited behind the counter.

Jane didn’t reply at first, pulling a bottle of whiskey off the back shelf, and poured a refill into the halforcish woman’s glass. Erlan stared at it, snorted out a soft laugh that sounded more like she was trying to clear something out of her throat, then knock back the entire thing in one gulp.

“I take it that means no,“ Erlan said, pouting her lip out slightly, which looked more like a sneer on her face, “Those topper papers can sell well.”

“Works better as kindling for a fire, honestly.” Jane said, shooting a glare at the still slightly crumpled wad of paper. “Besides, I run a classy joint here. Don’t need trash like that around.”

Erlan grunted a reply, and went back to minding her phone. Jane went back to minding the room. Aurous’s group was still talking about the plates (“food just tastes better on them!”), Tek's phone conversation seemed to be going poorly, and Reana was back at the table with the coyote beastman, seeming to try and salvage the flirt from before.

Nothing out of the ordinary.

[Highland Sniper]

Reana walked back to the back, looking over at the Tek as she did.
Well, might as well get them a drink. They're probably already thinking about ordering a stiff one after what she heard may have been a rough break up.
He filled a cup full of brew and walked out to the Tek with it and set it down before sitting across from them with a drink of their own.

He thought it would be better for them to talk first, but for someone who was hurting, he thought it might be good enough to be there if they wanted to talk.
He scanned the room to make sure no one else needed anything from him, and was ready to get up when someone did. But everything seemed fine for now.

He sipped his soft drink, still looking and acting like a girl for everyone else.

[Enigma]

Something was placed on the table, then someone sat down.

Moving slowly, Ig lifts her face to see the waitress, sipping a drink of her own, while in front of her was a cup of...

Emotions wars on her face for a moment before settling down to look at her non-pulsed.
"Excuse me," she says slowly, her voice dipping down into the lower registers. "What is....?"

She waved at the cup.

[Highland Sniper]

Reagan's ears drooped a little thinking that Tek didn't like it, but tried to respond in a level tone.
"You seemed upset, so I thought you'd like some brew and company," they said, "No one else really needs me at the moment anyhow. But... I can leave if you like."

He slowly started to get up with his drink, leaving the brew behind. Though it might be missed if one wasn't looking for it, he was trying to give her time to say something.

[Enigma]

"Stay if you want," Ig sighs as she lifts the cup and studies it carefully.

Brew was dark, with a yeasty/malty scent, and looked like it might be powerful in its own right. Not what she would have ordered, but it was a gift.

"L'chaim," she says, saluting with the cup, and downs it.

[Vaidia]

There didn't seem to be much that required her attention up at the front at the moment, as Reana seemed to be attending well enough to the now distressed Tek. She didn't mind the free drink being given away much either, as she would probably have done it herself had she been more mobile. As it was, Reana was doing the good work at making sure the patrons were well attended to, as drunk patrons tended to be ones willing to spend more money (and most knew to not try and maliciously dine and dash, as world traveled fast about those who did not pay their debts).

From back in the kitchen, Jane heard raised voices. The kitchen staff communicated more through arguing than anything else, so it was not unusual to hear the occasional shouted quip in a odd mashup of Orcish, Northlandic, English from the back, but the usual buzz of conversation (and certainly the drink amplified boasting from Aurous's table) usually covered it up enough. However, this conversation seemed to be much more than the usual quick exchange of insults, enough to cause Erlan to look up quizzically.

Jane shook her head, muttering her own curse under her breath. When the shouting got this bad, it usually meant something beyond someone's elbows getting in the way of the cutting board space. She made her way to the back, prosthetic clunking on the ground as she walked.

The Kitchen staff typically consisted of three workers, as there was not much room for more than that. Tonight's crew consisted of the two usual cooks, sibling Orcs who took up most of the space, but had a brilliant mind for economic use of ingredients, and a human dishwasher who was newer to the Green Garble, and was the one currently shouting the loudest, switching between her native Northlandic and English while gesturing toward the bottom of the sink, which had begun smoking slightly.

The static did not fade when she looked between the three in the back.

"Everything alright?" Jane asked, and the three, too absorbed in their arguing to notice Jane at first, almost jumped back upon seeing her in (well, near the entrance) of the kitchen, almost knocking into a rather full pot of the nights soups special. The dishwasher (named Noasha) remained impassive, crossing her arms and glowering.

"Everything here is broken!" One of the Orcish siblings (Ulull the Fireborn) spat, before crossing her own arms. She seemed to be at the point where she was loosing awareness of her arm size, bumping into her brother (Gullut the Fireborn) who responded with what even June could recognize as a rather dour curse.

Noasha looked pointedly toward the ground, which meant that Jane was paying more attention to than the usual expected bickering of the Fireborn siblings.

"What's broken." Jane said, her tone patient, although the slightly smoldering sink was the obvious thing.

"Ask the freshling." Ulull said, now throwing her hands up. This time, she did knock into some of the hanging pans, which were quickly caught by her brother. "How do you make a sink smoke? Hm?"

Noasha shook her head. Jane could see she was gripping her arm tightly, likely enough to leave some sort of mark on her pallid skin. "Am I gone?" The dishwasher asked, shoulders slumping forward.

The Fireborn sibling both snorted, which did illicit a stern stare from the half elven woman, causing them harrumph instead.

"No." Jane said kindly, walking (slowly) toward the dishwasher. She glanced down to the source of the smoke-- but it was already dissipating. It looked to be an issue with one of the water heaters-- something she didn't have much expertise with fixing herself. Another thing to have looked at. But she had some now forming ideas on how to address this crisis. "You can stay. It can be fixed."

Noasha looked at Jane, processing the words before smiling broadly. The Northlander moved in to embrace the darker skinned woman, before Gullut put a dividing pan between the two, which Noasha almost collided with.

"Boss doesn't like hugs, remember?" Gullut said, removing the pan. Noasha went back to crossing her arms, looking slightly more sheepish.

Jane, who had already taken a few paces back, gave an appreciative nod to the orc. "Unplug the heater for now. Cold water will have to work," Jane said before turning around and, only having a few more paces to go to leave the kitchen, entered back into the diner proper.

The usual bickering continued at a much more manageable level. Jane began to watch Tek much more closely.