Furrae Chronicles: Webs of Destiny (IC) [M] {3}

[Aisha deCabre]

At that point, it was rather easy for Aisha to tune out all of the distracting speaking going on in the middle of the drinking contest, though much of it made a part of her--the Being adventurer part--wonder how in the world she managed to survive among such personalities.  But, at least things were going more or less smoothly.  However she couldn't help but lower her ears at Ignatz's comment about Angels.  If only I knew what Mistress Rynkura would say to that.  But doubtless, thinking about the possibility put a slight grin on her face.

As the next drinks were ordered, Aisha glanced up at Mel's comment and laughed, taking a sip of ale.  "You can stop the contest once one of them accidentally orders cleaning solution.  They're doing alright.  But at any rate I wonder how long they can go on."  She turned her head back, watching the group with curiosity...she still had a wager within her mind on Gareeku.  The thought crossed her mind as to how funny males were when they competed...then she remembered about Keaton, who was holding her own as well as the men.  A 'Cubi thing, or what?  She shook her head.

[Gareeku]

Hearing that Ignatz had ordered Jack Daniels whiskey this time, Gareeku smirked slightly.
"Good choice. I hope the Tsikoudia wasn't too harsh for you." the wolf commented. As the next round of drinks were laid down on the table, the wolf took one of the glasses and, this time, took his time about drinking the liquid, savouring the taste of the whiskey as he did so.

Hearing Mel's comment, Gareeku turned to her, the slight smirk back on his face.
"Where would the fun be in that?" the wolf replied to her. "Sometimes you just need stuff that keeps you on your toes, so to speak...

A while passed as Gareeku, Ignatz and Keaton continued their drinking contest, pouring all sorts of liqeurs down their throats as they did so. As time wore on, the alcohol was more than starting to take it's effect. In short, Gareeku was wasted.
"Ahhh..." the wolf uttered as he downed another drink, this time the drink being absinthe. "So then...whos next?"

[Stygian]

Ignatz slurred slightly and leered lopside-earedly at the wolf. 'Dumkopf!' he said jovially, and sat back with the much-too-confident moves of a drunk. 'It's alwaysh me.' He swiveled his head around, not quite steadily, looking at Keaton with a mild grin, and then over to the barkeep yet again. 'Hey!' he called, tapping the table with an index finger claw. 'We need a refill here. Don't care what it ish, so long at it's over 60 proof.'

[Sunblink]

Later into the drinking contest, Keaton started to feel the fine line linking each passing minute, heralded and concluded by the neverending cycle of each poured drink which was swiftly and efficiently drained, blur beyond recognition. Bereft of awareness of time and place, she felt a temporary delirious euphoria spiral over her dazed senses, plunging them in and out of wavering tide. For a while, she felt, each time she downed a drink and shunted the glass off to the side to be replenished with a new taste or sensation, truly blissful.

That didn't last for long, though. Because as the drinking contest ended she felt like absolute hell.

An almighty, pounding thundercloud of a headache had swarmed into her brain, beating away at her bruised and abused skull like a rampaging throng of battle-drums, each pulse and palpitation driving her further into the dirt her once-elated mind had been entrenched in. Her vacant drinking glass, its interior glistening and saturated with the vestiges of different variations of booze, was resting nearby, utterly neglected. Drinking wasn't on her mind at the moment. Far from it. All that Keaton was capable of that moment was clutching her scalp and moaning continuously, barely keeping her nausea muffled by clamping her mouth with her free hand.

Shouldn't have drank so much, but she had to win. Had to beat him into the dirt. She especially shouldn't have downed that last-ditch drink she had requested, absinthe. Keaton could've selected any drink, but she wanted a beverage that would ferociously attack the tastebuds, something that would suckerpunch her opponent right into next Tuesday with its taste and amount of alcohol alone. The sheer amount of drinks everyone had sipped had their toll on the other participants of their contest, but to a lesser extent--Ignatz was merely tipsy, and Gareeku was to a lesser extent wasted. If she were in her right mind Keaton would've attributed her early exhaustion to downing some drinks prior to her entry in their drinking competition.

Their drinks were refilled, and Keaton could only stare despondently at her cup with dizzy, delirious eyes from behind her askew glasses. She wanted desperately to take that final drink, but she couldn't. Just couldn't. Instead she resigned, releasing her head and slumping her face to the tabletop with a muffled obscenity.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog caught the bat's look, meeting it evenly, and raised an eyebrow as he shifted in his seat. Ignatz was smiling about something, although what, the wolf wasn't sure. He kept his eyes on the bat for a few moments, his gaze obscured by his shades.
The hell...?

Eventually, the bat's attention turned back to the drinks, and that's where Cog turned his attention too. Drink after drink made it's way around the table, all three participants drinking them down with hardly a twitch. It was powerful stuff too - not a shot under 60 proof, all around.

He watch the contest continue with some amusement, a grin on his face as the bat began to slur his words. Really, he'd expected the wolf to go down first - but then, it wasn't over yet. He leaned back and continued to watch, his eyes gleaming.

To his surprise, the Jackal fell face-first onto the table, signaling her loss. Soft obscenities drifted up from her general vicinity, her final drink untouched. Cog shook his head, chuckling softly. If this was how she felt now, he pitied how she would feel tomorrow morning...

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel yawned a bit and set her glass down on the bar. She looked to the panther beside her. "Well, that last request is pretty close to ordering cleaning fluid. What say we call this a tie? I give you the name of the town and Ignatz and I tag along for as long as we care to. I'll even allow that you're entitled to about half the nasty remarks you've been slinging around. And let the jackal ride along too if she wishes. Considering the body weight differences she did well." She held out one hand to Aisha to confirm the deal.

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha was beginning to wonder what time it was, watching as the contest went on without much of another hitch.  Drink after drink, each of the members slowly reaching the point of being under the weather and due for a hammering headache in the morning.  It was after a hit of absinthe that Ignatz called the drink, not even naming it.  They must have been quite a spectacle by then...the bargoers and waiters would have a story to tell.  And for all of her effort, Keaton was one to be respected though her head hit the table first.  Gareeku was rather wasted, and the bat's words were already too slurred.

With a sigh, Aisha declined the offer of another drink...watching them had certainly decimated her thirst.  And that was when she heard Mel start to speak.  She quirked an ear her way, listening to her make the terms to end the contest.  When it was finished, the panthress quirked an eyebrow and glanced towards the table.  It seemed fair enough...though she had something of an argument about Ignatz and Mel joining, they did have the information they needed.  And really, after a time, Mel was rather the reasonable of the two indeed.

Aisha turned to her, eyes narrowed with what could have been suspicion, but she put a friendly grin on her face and shook her hand.  "Alright then...deal.  Let's get 'em out then, before they all keel over."

The panthress hopped off of the stool and strode over to the competitors, placing her hand palm-down on the center of the table between them.  "It's about time to cut you two head-butters off," she smirked.  "Mel and I declare it a tie."

[Gareeku]

"Hehehe, good man..." the wolf replied to Ignatz's request to the barman, his voice more than slightly slurred. Looking to his side, Gareeku laughed somewhat as Keaton seemed to give up. "Awwww come on, you can keep goin'!"

It was then, however, that Aisha approached the table, placing the palm of her hand upon it in the middle and declaring the contest a tie.
"Aawww fuck, we was havin a good ol' time, too!" the wolf replied in his heavily slurred voice, looking up at Aisha with an expression of drunken disappointment. "Cut a dyin' man some slack..."

[Stygian]

Surprisingly, and somewhat awkwardly to the girls as well, Ignatz leaned a bit to the side and slapped the wolf's shoulder, his face tinged with inebriated sadness. 'I'sh no use, man. They're women. There's no use in tryin' to persude 'em' he muttered. 'I feel with you tho', bud. Ye'r a good man.' Before Aisha or Mel could remark on this, the bat stood up and looked at them.
   'Ehxcuse me, misses. I know what you're both sayin',' he said, and made a bit of a half-mocking bow. 'An' you're right. But I need to help those more needing.' He put his hand on Keaton's back and shook her gently, and then bent down to lay her arm over his shoulder and lift her up, helping her stand. 'Shomeone's got to clear their head.'
   Giving the two girls one last smirk that was quite charming in spite of its unsteadiness, the bat turned, steadying the much shorter jackal as best he could, and wandered off in the direction of the bathrooms.

'Easy, girl. There ya go,' Ignatz murmured as he swung open the door, and then helped Keaton to one of the stalls. Giving the jackal a hand at getting in, he closed the door for her privacy, and then walked over to a urinal to relieve himself, far better than he should have been able to when judging from his condition earlier. After a long run, the bat zipped up, went over to a faucet, cleaned his hands and drank some cold water, and then splashed his face with it. Looking up in the mirror above the tap, he wiped his face and straightened his fur and hair, raking it with his claws. The unsteadiness to his moves and gaze was completely gone.
   'Crazy motherfucker...' he mumbled to his solemn-faced mirror image. He waited for the jackal to do her business as well, and then went over and rapped the door to her stall with his knuckles. 'How's it goin' in there?' he asked, a big of grogginess back in his voice.

[Sunblink]

Keaton initially remained silent despite Aisha and Mel declaring the competition to be over, the arm which once held her head upright now draped over her scalp, the other hanging lifelessly in front of her. Other than a few moans and groans, she had absolutely no valuable or intelligible input. Any vigor the jackal once held had been sapped right out of her by the deceptive claws of her last absinthe, leaving her with no energy other than to restrain herself from vomiting on the table right in front of everyone, or from passing out on the spot. What with the way the world was somersaulting around and around in her perspective, it was surprising she didn't immediately toss her cookies (and booze) upon the first few hundred, breakneck revolutions.

"Fffffffuck..." she groaned, then instantly regretted this. Keaton clasped her hand against her mouth again, resisting the urge to vomit, and then waited until the telltale swell of nausea abated. It barely buckled down enough for her to talk again, mumbling in-between her gravelly moans, "Y-y'two c...c'n keep killin' each ot... other with booze. I'm.. jus' gonna res' for a moment."

Much to her surprise, Keaton found herself propped upright by what she believed to be an invisible force. Chocolaty irises swelled and spiraled deliriously as she struggled to look around, eventually retiring with a close of her eyes and an exhausted groan, one which deteriorated into a dangerous hiccup which forced her hand to her mouth again. Her glasses had toppled off of her nose at this point, dangling pendulously on the end of the thin length of chain which kept them anchored to her ear. At first Keaton had no idea it was Ignatz who was supporting her until she saw the slight, blond-tinged blur hovering against the backdrop of her partially monochromatic vision, but even then she knew better than to deny his assistance. Instead she allowed herself to be dragged off, offering as much control as she could through a few scrapes of her feet against the floor. Even that, however, relented, the idea of moving in the slightest being too draining for Keaton's wasted mind.

---

Being deposited in the stall came as a sort of liberation to Keaton. Almost instantly she recognized the white porcelain harbinger itself, staring owlishly at it before she scrambled towards the toilet and latched onto its brim with her claws. Not a single thought registered in her head at that moment--all she cared about at that moment was finally succumbing to the dreadful sickness which had been pummeling away at her gut. Nails raked along the porcelain as Keaton bent over the basin of the toilet, violently regurgitating inside of its belly.

When Ignatz finally checked up on her he was rewarded with a loud, horrid retching sound which was reminiscent of both a sob and a choking gag. A few more, identical noises followed, taking a brief intermission as the present occupant of the stall heaved and struggled to catch her breath, then resumed her sickly worshiping. It finally stopped after a couple of horrid minutes, only for a loud sniffling noise to replace it. Keaton wasn't crying, but she certainly felt like it now that the reality of her headache came crashing down along with her abhorrent nausea.

"G-Gawwwwd..."

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Stygian]

The bat sighed, and rested his head against the door a bit. He had hoped she'd only use the toilet the normal way. But either way, so long as she managed to get the poison out of her body, it was more or less alright.
   Ignatz waited until the retching sounds were up, then returned to his slight wobbling and opened the door. The jackal was hanging on the toilet, face down, and a putrid, acidic smell filled the whole stall. Clasping his nostrils together, the bat reached down and gently tugged her up, putting his arm around her and leading her out to the faucets.
   'It's alright. Jus' relax,' he said, opening the cold water on full and pulling the pin to cause the faucet to fill up. Fortunately, she hadn't gotten anything in her hair or even messed up very much. 'Feel better now?' He didn't wait for an answer to the question, before he grabbed her neck and shoved her head right down into the cold water.
   When the placid laxity of her movements turned hard and struggling, Stygian waited for a couple of seconds, and then pulled Keaton back up out, the jackal coughing and sputtering. He pushed the pin to let the water run out. 'Good,' he said. 'Now drink. A lot.' He then turned to the toilet, went in and wiped the ring, threw the paper in and flushed it, and then left the stall alone. That was enough cleaning when you were in a bar.

[Sunblink]

By the time Keaton was finished she, despite the relative spotlessness of her face, looked like she had been dragged head-first around every corner of the bar and had been slapped about with a baseball bat. Her ears were drooping on either side of her head, her organic eye was dazed and slightly teary, threatening to overflow with artificial water--the opposite eye remained eerily dry, as though it was bereft of the ability to reflect any form of emotion--and her hair was slightly bedraggled, yet mercifully devoid of waste. Still Keaton's hands remained glued to the seat of the toilet even after her hacking fit had subsided, quaking as the same trembles hiked up the frame of her shuddering body, as though that support was the only thing keeping her from being pulverized by the monstrous weight of her headache. When forced to relinquish her grip she let out a lifeless moan, allowing herself to be dragged over to the sink. Finished or not, she still felt like fresh hell.

"Don'... feel so good," she slurred, clasping her hand over her face. Regardless of her previous opinion of Ignatz, she felt entitled to indulge him--or someone--of how rotten she felt.

Unfortunately, Keaton only realized that he was filling up the sink until after Ignatz had stopped the flow of water, and she had only realized that he was planning on plunging her head in when he actually did so. She didn't flail or scream or make any efforts to escape. She was simply too tired to react in any way other than let the cleansing water wash away at her face--and, holy shit, she was going to drown. He was going to drown her. Nearly screaming, Keaton thrashed and kicked, attempting to pull herself away as she felt her perceived oxygen deplete, expecting for Ignatz to relent in some way, but he remained solid until the moment he tugged her out from the water. Heaving, Keaton swallowed in as much precious air as she could, attempting to evacuate her throat of the water clinging inside of it. All the while she made inhuman gagging noises, clutching at her throat and forgetting how alert she felt in comparison to before.

The jackal made another one of those piteous half-sob, half-gagging noises and slumped against the sink, feeling as though every one of her limbs had been reduced to rubber. Off behind her she could hear Ignatz flushing the toilet, reminding her how she probably should have followed his example before, but for some reason she simply felt sick instead of feeling like she had to relieve herself. For then, she kept her complaints to herself and turned back to the sink, turning back on the rush of water and gathering up as much as she could in her hands, then gulping them down continuously.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Stygian]

Keaton had turned the tap on again and was swallowing down enough water to put out a small fire. Which was precisely what she was supposed to. Ignatz leaned against the wall and waited until she basically couldn't take anymore, and then screwed close the tap. 'Alright. Come on,' he urged her, and helped her off the faucet. She seemed quite rubbery though, and after just a pair of steps her knees gave way and she sagged down. The bat chuckled and shook his head, then crouched down and slipped his hand under her legs. He lifted her up in his arms as if she weighed no more than a doll.
   Kicking the door open, the bat put on a slight drunken apparel again and walked back into the bar, then over to the reception counter. 'One room for me and one for this little thing here,' he said, ignoring the looks of the others and the receptionist. He pushed his right arm out from under Keaton's legs and snatched the keys up, then proceeded with walking off and up the stairs with her. She looked already on the verge of passing out, and would be in no state of getting to bed herself.

[Sunblink]

Keaton probably would've been swallowing water all day, disregarding her nausea, if it weren't for Ignatz's interception, a twist of his hand quickly severing her source of drink and leaving her gulping down the last few droplets which lingered in her mouth. Hissing, she slumped again, squishing her body against the countertop, only for a strong arm to hook around her waist and tug her away from the faucet, hands futilely groping for something to steady her until she was straightened and on her feet. This momentary stability didn't last long--a few shaky steps forward and despite Ignatz's coaxing Keaton was on the ground with a heavy thump.

On the ground, she wearily, almost defensively stared up, as though she were expecting for someone invisible to mock her condition. No such thing happened, though, as a moment later she was being lifted up, much to her surprise, and cradled. For a fleeting moment Keaton was genuinely shocked, wanting to thrash and break free, then crawl up to her room on her own, but the understanding that she was in no state to act on such an impulse kept her reactions curbed. Besides, she was far too sick and far too delirious to even think of attempting such a task. Hand moving on its own, Keaton reached up and grabbed at the lapel of Ignatz's shirt, wringing at it and closing her eyes a little, sopping wet locks of hair draping over her face.

Headache aside, that strange heaviness was gone, having been replaced with an unpleasant hovering sensation which kept her continuously suspended throughout her consciousness. Divided between being fettered by invisible weight and levitating airily, Keaton muttered a little under her breath, no longer moaning, which was a visible improvement, but still trembling. Her head thumped lightly against Ignatz's chest, her own heaving and shaking as it carried breath after breath. When she opened her eyes again the first thing she noticed was white fur, tinged strangely with accented blond, and for some reason--perhaps her inebriation--she felt it pinprick at her attention in a painful way.

"Y'know..." Keaton murmured, just loud enough for him to hear. "I... knew someone with fur like yours..." A dark chuckle, then she looked up at him through the soaked tresses of her hair. "Didn't have... e-eyes like yours though."

Another laugh, slightly drunken and a clear illustration of how wasted Keaton was, just before she let her head hang and rest against Ignatz's chest again, and her eyes closed again. Not permanently or for sleeping, but for relative relaxation.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha had an amused look on her face as Gareeku replied to the declaration that the contest was over, in his slurred voice.  She rolled her eyes slightly.  And here I thought he'd be one of those depressed drunks, the panthress joked in her mind...however his outright comment about dying set her ears back against her skull.

Before anything more could be said, however, Ignatz interrupted with a comment that she just had to frown at...but at least the bat looked well enough that he helped a very sickly-looking Keaton to her feet and over to the bathrooms.  "Right...and yet without women I think the rest of you'd go extinct from the drinking alone," the panthress muttered, passing a smirk to Mel before she turned back to the wolf and his drunken, sour expression.

"If you have to die, I'd rather you do it with a relatively clean mind," Aisha replied to Gareeku in a tone of neutrality, though it was meant really to be a joke, and took one of his arms around her shoulders to help lift him up.  Being able to move him however would prove difficult...though Aisha was strong, she wasn't as much to move Gareeku on her own.  She glanced to Mel.  "You wanna help me move him to a room?  Unless you can walk, amigo," the panther added, the last comment directed to him...though if he was as out of it as she thought, Aisha would certainly be insistent on being of help.

[Stygian]

Mostly Ignatz ignored the jackal's mutterings. She seemed oddly docile while he was carrying her though, something he hadn't expected from a 'Cubi who had been so feisty before. But he guessed she was the tomboyish type. Be mean to them and you knock them off their feet. Strange, he thought to himself. Either that, or they just put up that front when secretly all they want to do is cry like little girls. There was also the chance that she was just conning him, something regular to 'Cubi. But that wasn't entirely likely at the moment.
   Upstairs, Ignatz strolled down the corridor until he reached the first room, opened the door, and then quietly went inside. He shifted the jackal's weight up his arm a bit as he untied her boots and set them down at the door, then went in.
   'That's very interesting, sweetie. Let's talk about it in the morning,' the bat said distractedly, throwing the sheets on the bed aside. He helped her off with her arm warmers and gloves, and then her baggy pants. The sleeveless top wasn't really anything big, so he just let her have that and then laid the groggy jackal down, pulling the sheet up over her.

[Sunblink]

Unnatural as it was for a 'Cubi to sleep, in the midst of the prelude to what would inevitably evolve into a gruesome hangover, Keaton began to comprehend that something akin to rest would be more than beneficial to her intoxicated condition. After all that had occurred, combined with the lazy sensation which both elevated and anchored her drowsy consciousness, she started to feel an additional pressure lurking into the backdrop of her mind: that of true exhaustion, desiring slumber, which instantly and parasitically clung to her stamina. While Ignatz disregarded her poorly-conceived mumblings Keaton continued to utter everything under her breath, coming dangerously close to confessing her life's story once or twice, but preventing herself from toppling over that barricade with what sparse self-control that existed.

Ignatz removed her boots and then stripped her of her clothing, surprisingly to little resistance from Keaton. For a moment she looked as though she was going to violently react, judging by the insidious narrowing of her eyes and what looked like a defensive growl building up in her throat, but this was extinguished when she was covered with the sheets. Oh yeah, sleep. She needed that, didn't she? Sighing, Keaton shifted a little, sinking into the covers. She was close enough to nodding off before when being carried; now she was precariously leaning off of that boundary.

"Y'r fur ain't so bad..." she droned, rolling her head to the side, away from Ignatz. The rest of her body followed, rolling off onto her side, hands clutching and entwining in the wrinkled waves of the sheets. "No...

"Kinda reminds me of snow..."

This time she didn't laugh. Instead she heaved a little bit, then closed her eyes peacefully, feeling it was safe to permit herself to drift off.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Mel Dragonkitty]

At Aisha's request for assistance Mel slid off her barstool. "No problem. Let me get your room key first." Receiving the key to room 9 from the clerk she returned to the table. "Next to your friend, the squirrel." Getting on the opposite side of the wolf from Aisha she helped get him to his feet. She was stronger than her slender frame would indicate. "Time to retire from the field of battle, your reward to be claimed with the new day."

[Stygian]

Smiling only half-sardonically, satisfied at the proceedings, the bat turned against the door and was just about to leave, when Keaton spoke. Her second sentence made him stop and twitch on the spot, his ears flicking and perking straight up. He hesitated for a second, eyes a bit wider and his stance a bit tenser, looking at the door. Then he turned back, and sat down on the side of the bed.
   The 'Cubi looked asleep already, but he didn't care. 'What did you say?' he asked her, quietly but with a hidden sharpness to his tone.

[Sunblink]

When Ignatz turned around to stare at Keaton, he was greeted with nothing more than the sight of her naked back, flipped to face the ceiling, draped in the threadbare sheets in the dilapidated and slightly overused bed. Her bedraggled face was pressed into the beaten, yet comfortable pillow and her body was moving with a strange amount of serene peacefulness to it, the quaking having waned, petered out of her rubbery and lifeless limbs, and the exhaustion permeating her form having ushered in somnolence at last. Within seconds, a soft sequence of dreamy snores started to churn from her body, floating in the air.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Stygian]

The bat frowned, his fangs slipping into view slightly as he bent down closer to the jackal's oversized ear. Considering how she looked, she must have had just a bit of other blood in her, but at the moment it was the last thing that Ignatz cared about.
   'What did you call me?' he said, louder this time. It was almost a little snarl. 'Tell me! Now.' What with her being a 'Cubi and her comment, he was suddenly much less considerate about her comfort. His free hand tensed, his claws slipping out a little further.

[Sunblink]

Keaton's tranquility didn't last long, apparently, and quite unfortunately for her. One barked comment into her ear and she cursed aloud, her drunken and delirious mind forcing itself to backpedal out of her slumber and past the periphery of weariness. Involuntarily, she jerked her body into relative alertness, much indicated by the elevation of her unnaturally sized ears and her shocked expression as she stared owlishly at Ignatz.

His demands barely registered, understandable given her condition. But regardless, she remained infuriatingly confused, staring with heightened surprise at the bat. In her drunken sense of vulnerability, she seemed... intimidated, puzzled. "I--wha'?" she asked, genuinely perplexed, and struggling to speak with relative coherency. Keaton covered her exposed front with the sheets. "I--I didn't call you anything--"

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Stygian]

Ignatz looked just about to snarl, but his voice was quite low when he spoke again, a slight growl in the back of his throat. 'And what you said...?' he began, dark, dark eyes narrowed and fixed unerringly at Keaton's own.
   The bat waited a few seconds, almost about to grab the jackal and do something unpleasant to her. Then his features relaxed and he sighed, closing his eyes. 'Never mind. A mistake,' he murmured, and stood up, his weight shifting off the bed. 'Sleep well,' he said, quite strangely, and walked out, shutting the door behind him.
   Well outside, the bat leaned against the wall and closed his eyes yet again, reaching up and rubbing his temple. Idiot. Even if she knows dark magic and she's a Succubus, it's not likely she knows, he thought, scolding himself. And even if she did know, were you thinking of extracting something now? You really are a moron.

[James StarRunner]

"Ya, I couldn't stand the drinking anymore either." said James. "Wait! You said they knew you were an incubus?" He glanced at Gabi and back at Jakob. "They don't know you were... err... That is, they don't know about your past, do they?"

[Tapewolf]

"I hope not," said Jakob grimly.  "I think Cog has enough to piece it together, although with luck he's never heard of my... other self.  Tales of my infamy are more prevalent in the southlands, and unheard-of in the far north, thank the gods.

"I'm more worried about the bat, but hopefully he hasn't made the connection either.  I'm sure he would love to have blabbed about that to all and sundry.  Although someone who gets morbid over a few dead bandits is an unlikely mass-murderer so perhaps he didn't think he could get it to stick."

He paused and cocked his ears.

"I hope that stuff's ready.  It sounds like the game may be over."

[Sunblink]

During the time Ignatz and Keaton's eyes locked, the jackal remained truly and unflinchingly perplexed, her confusion becoming exacerbated by how--angry--the bat looked. Dark eyes were narrowed into thin obsidian slits, tension bristled along the tendons barely visible beneath velveteen fur, and, judging by his voice, such a fury was only escalating with each passing second, a stark contrast to how the bat had previously attempted to remedy her intoxication. In comparison Keaton looked surprisingly meek, although this could be attributed to her inebriation-granted vulnerability, the hands wringing the sheet squeezing unconsciously. For a moment Keaton was certain that Ignatz would lunge at her.

But instead he left the room with a cryptically uncharacteristic farewell and closed the door with a penultimate snap behind him. Still looking like a deer trapped in an eighteen-wheeler's headlights, Keaton stared for a moment at the door, pondering what had happened. Why did he seem so angry? She couldn't remember anything that she said which was deserving of such a reaction. All she could recall was telling him he looked like--

Oh. She had said that, hadn't she?

Sighing in frustration, Keaton sunk back down into bed, throwing the covers over her head. Due to her tension and how unnerved she was she doubted she could fall asleep, but that didn't stop her from lying there until she felt her energy restored.

Fucking hell, she thought.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Gabi]

Gabi nodded. "It could have been much worse. But we'll still have to be careful. We're not likely to be so lucky in every town we visit."

She thought for a moment, and then asked Jakob: "Who's Cog?"

[Tapewolf]

"Oh, I'm sorry," said Jakob.  "Cogidubnus.  The wolf I was talking to earlier.  Interesting chap.  I don't know quite what he is, but I'm pretty sure he's more than just a normal Being."

[Gabi]

"Oh," Gabi replied. "Yes, I was wondering about him. He was asking about us right before you joined us. Did you find out what he wanted?"

[Tapewolf]

"Just a wandering swordsman," Jakob said.  "Apparently a teacher of the sword in spare time.  Looking for casual work at the moment, or so he said."  His headwings, which he had revealed in the privacy of their room, drooped.

"You don't think he was... looking for intelligence on us?  Because if so, I've given him a fair bit.  Not everything, but enough to piece things together.  He didn't seem dangerous, although his mood spiked nastily when he got the idea I was a Being mage, and again when I mentioned trying to raise the dead..."