[Evaly] Since he hasn't got a baby on the way... Evaly happily accepts Hal's money.
RL Date: 6/??/10
IC Date: 2/??/23 --I cannot find this log on any of my computers (yes, I have a few) or my jump drive, so I took it from Hal-player. Who took ages to post it. Loser.
Around the midday meal, quite a few of the purveyors of goods out at the market have gone off to get themselves a bite to eat and a break from the sun, which has been quite relentless although the day is not nearly as hot as many. Halsten has opted not to actually close, but with so many off having their lunches in the living cavern or elsewhere, the traffic isn't as heavy as it could be. He has a sandwich sitting half-eaten on a table beside him as he sits, legs propped up on a crate, and goes through his morning's take with a concentration that does nothing to conceal the avarice involved.
The sung, "Greedy, greedy, greedy," might seem to float out of nowhere at first, certainly has no visible preface. Evaly, here on an errand of shopping, a seldom-seen commodity these days otherwise, has gone out of her way to swing by this particular booth, the business of acquiring the rake that she's leaning on in the shade across the aisle from Halsten's place of business all having occurred in some other part of the market. "I never saw more miserly counting of marks," she adds, having watched from afar long enough to get the gist of his doings and his manner of doing so.
There's no direct response at first, but at the last Hal's shoulders hunch over more, his brow furrows further. "Five and a quarter, five and three-eighths, five and a half--" As the little wooden circles get stacked very precisely one on top of the other on the table. Then he sweeps the whole lot of them back into the box with one brush of a hand, and feet planted on the crate, pushes his chair back onto two legs as he raises a hand towards Evaly. A sudden brilliant smile, like this is the first he's noticed her. "Never? I'll have to try harder. There are so few pleasures in what I do, you know. I have to take what I can get."
Evaly watches one or two people pass between where she's standing and where Halsten's busy hoarding, her eyes chasing them on their own errands before leans into steps that eventually bring her into the narrow band of noon shade on the outside of his booth. At first, like she's hurt for him, she asks, "Are there so few pleasures in it for you? Truly?" She sighs theatrically, lacing her fingers together over the handle of the rake, using them as a hammock for her chin, all doe-eyes for his sorrow. "Perhaps you ought to consider another line of work, in that case. Performance art?" With a look to the balanced chair.
"I was going to be a Harper, once. When I was younger. Got so far as getting to the Hall, but they kicked me out. I think my talent was threatening." The talent that keeps Hal perched there as he leans back and back, without just pitching over completely and banging his head on the table behind him. "No, I think I'm stuck with this. And the dull daily monotony of my work, now that I'm very short of material for aesthetic appreciation on a daily basis. Where've you been?" As though this is a totally unrelated question.
So grave; "Yes, I can see that." How his talent would be threatening. Evaly adds, with less of the over-the-top gravity, "I'm curious, though, whether or not any of that is true. Did you actually make it to the Hall?" Skepticism reigns, but only for a moment, before the inevitable return to lacking authenticity: "I had thought rumor would avoid this question." She lowers her eyes and, though there's no blush really there, one could easily imagining it creeping upward in her feigned awkwardness. "I've wanted you so badly that I had to take my broken heart away to mend it."
Eyebrows up, such innocence. "Of course I did. Would I lie to you? Made it a whole three weeks as an apprentice. It may not have been my finest hour, but I would never make something like that up." Okay, yes, Hal probably would, but he wouldn't go so far as to admit it. The chair finally tilts back forward, the front legs hitting the ground with a heavy thud. "I really am sorry about that. Who knew celibacy was going to suit me so well? I'm sure you'll find someone else. Not that he'll be me. But, well, that's life, isn't it?"
Evaly's, "Yes," is pretty quick. It takes no real thought to be sure that he'd lie to her, but it's not much of an accusation, either, just a fact. Looking up, genuine guppy-mouthing, she stays on the subject of Halsten's dishonesty for entirely different, far more incredulous reasons-- "You lie." There's an invitation in there to confirm or deny it this time, her rocking back slightly onto her heels like there's a necessity for physical distance to increase in order to digest so far-flung a notion as him being celibate. Gasp.
"Of course I don't. I, Evaly, am the most honest man alive." Which is either a lie, itself, or some kind of indictment about the rest of mankind, one or the other. Halsten finally recalls that he has a sandwich there and picks it up with one hand as he tilts his head at her. "Why wouldn't you believe me?" Then, without further response, he sets into a bite that's going to require enough chewing to preclude any sort of immediate answer.
"For starters," Evaly begins, making a face at his initial comments, "because I'm not stupid." One hand loosed from under her chin, she holds it out toward Halsten-- really, toward his sandwich-- expectantly. "In this case specifically... Well, can you really blame me for being skeptical? You and chastity?" She knits her brows deeply enough to put a crease in her forehead, so dubious.
Still more chewing, probably far more than the food really warrants, and then swallowing, and then Halsten has to putz about a bit looking for the flask sitting beside his chair, which he takes a long drink from to wash it down. The rest of his sandwich stays in his hand, as he regards her hand like he has no idea what she's getting at. "No, you're not stupid," he finally agrees. "It's more true than your broken heart. If not for your benefit. All of us need a break now and then, you know. Time to focus on--" Pause, evidently a search for just the right words. "Other pursuits. Self-improvement, maybe." This could, of course, still all be completely bullshit.
Evaly, disdainfully muttered, "You're so fucking stubborn." She takes a breath, then, and adds in an excessively reasonable tone, "Give me half of that sandwich, Hal, and I will tell you where I've been." Her fingers twitch, beckoning, still hovering out there in between them importantly. "And then you can tell me, honestly, why you would give up sex for other pursuits, when it's clearly something you generally trivialize. We can pretend we're truthful people for a while, all for the price of half a sandwich."
"Yes, I am." See? Honesty already. Halsten has one last melodramatically forlorn look for his sandwich, before he offers it out to her. But there still ain't no such thing as a free lunch. "The sandwich, and you can tell me where you've been. I don't know if I'm going to tell you the other. It's personal." Even though he's the one who brought it all up. "So, why is my favorite perfumer no longer gracing my immediate vicinity with her presence on a routine basis?"
"Of course it's personal," dummy. "But you wouldn't have brought it up if you didn't want it pursued. Really, is there anyone better to whom you can tell your secrets? The worst that happens is you have to hear my opinion of you, and you already know what that is, for the most part, yet we still seem to suffer each other well enough. And at least I don't charge for my time and attention?" Aside from sandwiches, which Evaly tucks into presently, all that logic uttered as if the baring of souls should be a casual thing. Her end of the bargain, around a bite, delicate enough to hide her mouth behind the heel of her palm but not to bother swallowing first; "I leased some land outside the Weyr, I've been getting it ready for planting." Nudge the rake with her foot.
So, to recap: For Evaly, the baring of souls, casual. The baring of anything else, not. Halsten frowns through it all as though not entirely sure what his usual pat response should be. Then, at last, a smile. "Why, Evaly, I believe you just implied that we're friends. I'm flattered." No comment for her manners or lack thereof, though the smile does get a little more smirky. "Land. Fancy yourself a farmer? I wouldn't have guessed. Have you decided what you're planting yet? I've heard that some crops run considerably more profitable than others."
Evaly, around a frown, "Did I? Huh. I meant more to imply that I haven't had anyone to make me feel justifiably self-righteous lately, but okay. I guess I can see how you," in particular, "could interpret it that way." Her shrug answers both to that and for the whole farming thing, the whole rest of the sandwich finished in two graceless bites, a fairly long spell of chewing to follow while she just looks at Halsten like she's waiting for something. And will patiently continue to do so.
The chair tilts back again, which lets Hal spend more time looking at the bit of canvas stretched overhead to shield from the sun, than at the girl eating the rest of his lunch. "I had an epiphany, you see. Which rendered some of my previous pasttimes less entertaining than they had been before, and required a certain amount of time and energy spent determining a course of action. Would you like a drink to go with that?" He has the flask, after all. Whatever's in it is probably not water. "Why are you so set on feeling self-righteous?" As long as they're being honest and all. Or... mostly honest.
To the drink, Evaly answers, "That depends on the asking price. If you're going to be so arcane-- epiphany, course of action, saying so much without really saying anything at all." She waves her hand as if at a bothersome insect for his words. "I'll have the drink for free." Sunshiney smile, so sweet of her, a hand extended with less 'give it now' expectancy than for the sandwich. "It suits me. And it's better than the alternative which is... well, you'd be familiar with that, I suppose."
"Which is actually having a nice time now and then," Halsten is obliged to finish for her, but he does hand over the flask easily enough. "I wasn't planning on charging you for it. I'm a generous guy." As all that money-counting earlier indicated, right? "I had no idea your self-righteousness was so voyeuristic. I figured I could err on the side of less detail and avoid offending your delicate sensibilities. How salacious do you want me to be, exactly? Would you like to go somewhere quieter and I can tell you in detail?" However suggestive the intent, the tone of the last question is too light to be serious, although still probably not totally in keeping with his brand new image as the new, more gentlemanly Hal.
"Do you think I don't have a good time?" Evaly asks, surprised and baiting all rolled into one, soon followed by a disbelieving snort as the words 'I'm' and 'generous' in the same sentence. "I admit to having fairly delicate sensibilities, it's true, but I'm not exactly a shrinking violet. Do /you/ want to go somewhere quieter and go over this in detail?" He may be trying to be a gentleman, but she think she's calling Hal's bluff.
One ankle crosses over the other, chair still at that percarious tilt. One of these days, Hal will pay for habits like this. "I'm sure you think you have a good time. I'm just as sure that someday you're going to relax and I really do hope I'm there when it happens." Oh, the wistfulness in the word 'hope'. But, more practically: "I would dearly love to go somewhere quieter and discuss it, but it would require a large quantity of alchohol and a woman of less delicacy who would really appreciate such a thing." Halsten, capable of making 'discussing not having sex' sound very much like having sex. "Besides, you can use your imagination. Maybe I'm suffering from unrequited feelings, here. Be sensitive." Somehow sensitivity seems, from the hand held out, to involve giving him his drink back.
Whether she means the prospect of her relaxing or him being there to see it... "Not. Very. Likely." 'Sorry' in the tone, though she leaves it unsaid. The rest of what he says at least earns Hal a gradually deepening smile on Evaly's part, almost, if one ignores the fact that she's clearly amused and he's clearly got something bothering him-- almost even a softening of her eyes and everything. "Why go to all the trouble of bringing it up only to drop the subject like a bad habit immediately afterward? I don't understand." No, really, that one's actually honestly honest, not just screwing around with the feigned seriousness.
More grabby hands, and if necessary leaning over to just take the flask. "No, I figure not. But I can hope." Smiling, though, because even that after all is an admission of sorts. Halsten makes a production of leaning back again, stretching one arm back behind him. "I did tell you. You just informed me it wasn't sufficient detail." A broad grin. "I will give you credit for not having yet decided the whole thing says something about me that you personally consider vile or unpleasant. So how are you doing for capital for this little venture of yours, thus far?"
Oh, yeah. Evaly will give him back his flask and not have made a gross face or anything about what's in it. In that respect, at least, she's not a cheap date. But it's too hot to go guzzling booze, even if they are someone else's; empty-handed, again, she folds her palms over the end of the rake and leans on it some more, it being useful like that. "Just because I haven't voiced the thought doesn't mean I haven't had it," she points out for his vileness and unpleasantness. "Though. See, I keep going back and forth on whether or not I should point out that I don't think you're really all that bad. On the one hand, I kind of think you're all right. On the other hand, I can sort of see that you want people to think you're a dick, so maybe I shouldn't tell you that I don't think you are? Except when you're trying to be?" Eventually, getting tangled up in her own logic, she shrugs and answers easier questions: "I bargained for half of a sandwich, Hal. Shouldn't that tell you that I'm not exactly rolling in it at the moment?"
"I don't know. I have in my life run into women who must think I'm in need of a reducing diet, if their propensity for relieving me of my meals is to be believed." Clearly that's why Hal's built the way he is, rather than just a genetic propensity towards being a beanpole. "You'd asked once about investment capital. I was just checking. I do have a little set aside, yet. No great quantity of marks, it's not going to let me retire before I'm thirty or anything, but enough that I might be able to be helpful, if you were in ndeed of help. In exchange for you not thinking I'm a dick." Beat. "And a fair rate of return, of course."
Evaly, as if regrettably, "I didn't want to say anything, but you are starting to look a little..." She trails off, letting her breath puff out her cheeks chubbily, eyes pinned to his midsection for the delivery. Exhale-- inhale a little deeper, and it's a suspicious, "You don't have a kid on the way that I should know about, do you?" Then, with a sudden, short, bark of a laugh, she adds, "Dammit. Dammit dammit, I so should have pointed out that your newfound celibacy ought to mean you have a wealth of disposable income you could spare me. I can't believe I missed that one."
There's a heap of laughter for that, and for a moment Halsten's chair wobbles as though it's about to go over with him still in it. He leans forward, hard, to forestall that, ends up with his feet flat on the ground and coughing a few times through the last guffaws. "No. No, I certainly don't. And there's what I was waiting for, but better late than never, isn't it? I don't know about a wealth of it, but I certainly have enough to spare you a bit. If you have a plan for generating some income with this."
Evaly gets herself back under wraps before Halsten does, in time to lean her cheek on her knuckles and watch the coughing with pursed lips; "That's attractive." She waits till he's got that under control before affecting primness to remark, "Well, whatever I plan to do with it will be more generative than what you had been doing with it, right? So, really, why worry about it?" It's a combination insult/request for cash all rolled into one~!
At least it's just too much laughing that seems to have done it--well, maybe that and too many cigarettes. It's just a good thing for Evaly that this is exactly the sort of thing Halsten seems to like in a girl, isn't it? "If you have a plan. You won't even tell me what you're planning on growing, for all I know you'd just take the marks and run off. Maybe for some reason you just want to leave me broke and alone and I'd be so terribly, terribly sad--how much do you think you need, at this point?" For all his protests, he's already gotten his box back out.
Dead pan. "Hemlock." Evaly looks down at the box for a second, like she plans to leave the answer at that, then hurriedly raises her eyes back to Halsten's afterward as if it's just occurred to her to add, "Why? Did you want to sample some?" Finally, she moves to lean the rake against the edge of the counter, having to plant the fork into the soil a little so that it stays upright, and invites herself into the space generally reserved for the proprietor, less inclined to discuss her own business out where those few passersby (Hal sure does get a lotta business, huh?) might overhear. "It's no small undertaking, mine, so how much are you offering?"
Oh, this is just coincidence, how quiet it is right now. Halsten was quite busy earlier. Really. He has a glance through what he's got on hand--surely his savings aren't kept in with his daily take--and presses his lips together thoughtfully. "I just want to know that it's something marketable. It does impact your ability to pay me back. And while there are some women I would suggest alternative payment arrangements to, in the event of a default... you're not that sort of a girl, are you?" He smiles. Only a little bit smirky. "I could probably spot you five today."
"Well, there's that--" She's not that sort of a girl, exactly. "Plus, you're on the wagon. And, while it's really flattering that you'd give it all up just to pay me for sex, I'd hate to be responsible for your fall from grace." Evaly, straight-faced. It's a hard act, sometimes. At real business, though, she leans one hip against the inside of the counter, chewing but not biting through her thumbnail with a pensive air. Actual money causes actual nerves. "Five," she repeats, gears turning all but visibly behind her eyes. "If all goes well, I think I could have at least half of it back to you by the end of the Turn. If not... well, good luck finding me." With a weak chuckle there.
Since they're having all this fun with honesty: "I think my chances of making it that long are slim to none. But we'll work something out." Halsten's five marks are certainly not in five whole mark pieces; he's got to count out a fair number of small denominations. "We'll call it twelve and a half percent, if that sounds reasonable to you. An eighth back for every mark I give you, after a year. Portions of the Turn prorated." Someone would think Hal had some experience with this sort of thing. "Principal payments as you like." That part is really a generous move, but he's not going to call attention to that. "That sound fair?"
Someone would think that about Hal, yes. And someone would find it a little irritating to find out, too, if the sniff of distaste is any indicator, rather like Evaly hoped there wouldn't be any specific terms. Because then she wouldn't be responsible for not adhering to them. She's quick to find the smile that used to convince grossly overweight women that a gob of perfume would make them relentlessly desirable and turn that upon him, though, thumb surreptitiously dried on the hem of her shirt before she opens her hand for the marks. "Tremendously fair, yes. I'm sure you won't be disappointed."
On the down side, there are terms. On the up side, there aren't witnesses. Depending on how unethical she feels like being, later. For now, there's just Halsten standing, pressing the handful of money into her palm, taking advantage of the moment to push her fingers around it with his own, smiling the whole while. "I probably will be. But if I didn't gamble, well, I'd be very short of vices right now, wouldn't I? And I did tell you I would. And if you're afraid you might run short, well, I could probably use an extra set of hands sometimes." Pause. "Ah, not that way, I mean."
Not that Evaly needed the help closing her hand around money, but she tightens her fist briefly to acknowledge receipt of the marks, thanks, and answers for his lack of vices, "Oh, you poor thing." Chances are, she was paying enough attention during all his counting to trust that she's actually been given a full five marks without recounting it, only transferring it into her own little pouch, kept deep down in her pocket. "I wonder what you might be like after a few weeks of clean living." She sighs, as if longingly, stepping backward toward the customer-side of the booth now and saying along the way, "Thank you, but I'll find away to repay you that does not involve an extra set of hands, whatever 'way' you meant it. I'm so done with working for other people."
"Frustrated. And probably insufferable." As though that were a genuine question she'd just asked. Hal finds his chair again, settles himself back into it. "That's a good feeling to have. Being done with it. I remember--" For a moment there's a pause like he's about to launch into some elaborate description of just what it is he remembers, but instead he just shakes his head. "Been there, anyway. And someone helped me out, and I'm helping you out. You'll do fine."
"And how is that different from how you usually are, Hal?" Evaly asks to his frustrated insufferability, taking up her rake again, though she doesn't resume her earlier posture. She's not quite cutthroat enough to take his cash and run, but she doesn't seem like she's taking up residence quite the same way now. "Ah, best watch yourself. If you're not careful, you might almost reveal something real, and then where would we be? Tsk tsk tsk." It's awkward, carrying around a rake without just shouldering it, but she grips it low, lets the handle rest against her collarbones, tries to keep the business end from looking too much like a weapon.
"More frustrated and more insufferable, then. I'm not ordinarily that frustrated." Insufferable, well, Halsten's not in any position to argue that one, but he sits back and makes a shooing gesture towards her. "Right, right. I'm a dick and you're a prude and let's just keep this status quo being... quo and things will stay nice and simple. I like simple." If she needs encouragement to go away, the way he takes the tobacco out to start rolling a cigarette is almost certainly a signal. "You need any help along the way, though, let me know. I have to protect my investment, after all."
Evaly gives the beginnings of the cigarette a dirty look, predictably, and a mutter: "Weren't you just saying you'd given up the vices?" Nose crinkling pre-emptively, she gives the rest of his words no more than a very light, mostly wry laugh and turns on her way, not hitting anyone with her rake along the way, yay~!
IC Date: 2/??/23 --I cannot find this log on any of my computers (yes, I have a few) or my jump drive, so I took it from Hal-player. Who took ages to post it. Loser.
Around the midday meal, quite a few of the purveyors of goods out at the market have gone off to get themselves a bite to eat and a break from the sun, which has been quite relentless although the day is not nearly as hot as many. Halsten has opted not to actually close, but with so many off having their lunches in the living cavern or elsewhere, the traffic isn't as heavy as it could be. He has a sandwich sitting half-eaten on a table beside him as he sits, legs propped up on a crate, and goes through his morning's take with a concentration that does nothing to conceal the avarice involved.
The sung, "Greedy, greedy, greedy," might seem to float out of nowhere at first, certainly has no visible preface. Evaly, here on an errand of shopping, a seldom-seen commodity these days otherwise, has gone out of her way to swing by this particular booth, the business of acquiring the rake that she's leaning on in the shade across the aisle from Halsten's place of business all having occurred in some other part of the market. "I never saw more miserly counting of marks," she adds, having watched from afar long enough to get the gist of his doings and his manner of doing so.
There's no direct response at first, but at the last Hal's shoulders hunch over more, his brow furrows further. "Five and a quarter, five and three-eighths, five and a half--" As the little wooden circles get stacked very precisely one on top of the other on the table. Then he sweeps the whole lot of them back into the box with one brush of a hand, and feet planted on the crate, pushes his chair back onto two legs as he raises a hand towards Evaly. A sudden brilliant smile, like this is the first he's noticed her. "Never? I'll have to try harder. There are so few pleasures in what I do, you know. I have to take what I can get."
Evaly watches one or two people pass between where she's standing and where Halsten's busy hoarding, her eyes chasing them on their own errands before leans into steps that eventually bring her into the narrow band of noon shade on the outside of his booth. At first, like she's hurt for him, she asks, "Are there so few pleasures in it for you? Truly?" She sighs theatrically, lacing her fingers together over the handle of the rake, using them as a hammock for her chin, all doe-eyes for his sorrow. "Perhaps you ought to consider another line of work, in that case. Performance art?" With a look to the balanced chair.
"I was going to be a Harper, once. When I was younger. Got so far as getting to the Hall, but they kicked me out. I think my talent was threatening." The talent that keeps Hal perched there as he leans back and back, without just pitching over completely and banging his head on the table behind him. "No, I think I'm stuck with this. And the dull daily monotony of my work, now that I'm very short of material for aesthetic appreciation on a daily basis. Where've you been?" As though this is a totally unrelated question.
So grave; "Yes, I can see that." How his talent would be threatening. Evaly adds, with less of the over-the-top gravity, "I'm curious, though, whether or not any of that is true. Did you actually make it to the Hall?" Skepticism reigns, but only for a moment, before the inevitable return to lacking authenticity: "I had thought rumor would avoid this question." She lowers her eyes and, though there's no blush really there, one could easily imagining it creeping upward in her feigned awkwardness. "I've wanted you so badly that I had to take my broken heart away to mend it."
Eyebrows up, such innocence. "Of course I did. Would I lie to you? Made it a whole three weeks as an apprentice. It may not have been my finest hour, but I would never make something like that up." Okay, yes, Hal probably would, but he wouldn't go so far as to admit it. The chair finally tilts back forward, the front legs hitting the ground with a heavy thud. "I really am sorry about that. Who knew celibacy was going to suit me so well? I'm sure you'll find someone else. Not that he'll be me. But, well, that's life, isn't it?"
Evaly's, "Yes," is pretty quick. It takes no real thought to be sure that he'd lie to her, but it's not much of an accusation, either, just a fact. Looking up, genuine guppy-mouthing, she stays on the subject of Halsten's dishonesty for entirely different, far more incredulous reasons-- "You lie." There's an invitation in there to confirm or deny it this time, her rocking back slightly onto her heels like there's a necessity for physical distance to increase in order to digest so far-flung a notion as him being celibate. Gasp.
"Of course I don't. I, Evaly, am the most honest man alive." Which is either a lie, itself, or some kind of indictment about the rest of mankind, one or the other. Halsten finally recalls that he has a sandwich there and picks it up with one hand as he tilts his head at her. "Why wouldn't you believe me?" Then, without further response, he sets into a bite that's going to require enough chewing to preclude any sort of immediate answer.
"For starters," Evaly begins, making a face at his initial comments, "because I'm not stupid." One hand loosed from under her chin, she holds it out toward Halsten-- really, toward his sandwich-- expectantly. "In this case specifically... Well, can you really blame me for being skeptical? You and chastity?" She knits her brows deeply enough to put a crease in her forehead, so dubious.
Still more chewing, probably far more than the food really warrants, and then swallowing, and then Halsten has to putz about a bit looking for the flask sitting beside his chair, which he takes a long drink from to wash it down. The rest of his sandwich stays in his hand, as he regards her hand like he has no idea what she's getting at. "No, you're not stupid," he finally agrees. "It's more true than your broken heart. If not for your benefit. All of us need a break now and then, you know. Time to focus on--" Pause, evidently a search for just the right words. "Other pursuits. Self-improvement, maybe." This could, of course, still all be completely bullshit.
Evaly, disdainfully muttered, "You're so fucking stubborn." She takes a breath, then, and adds in an excessively reasonable tone, "Give me half of that sandwich, Hal, and I will tell you where I've been." Her fingers twitch, beckoning, still hovering out there in between them importantly. "And then you can tell me, honestly, why you would give up sex for other pursuits, when it's clearly something you generally trivialize. We can pretend we're truthful people for a while, all for the price of half a sandwich."
"Yes, I am." See? Honesty already. Halsten has one last melodramatically forlorn look for his sandwich, before he offers it out to her. But there still ain't no such thing as a free lunch. "The sandwich, and you can tell me where you've been. I don't know if I'm going to tell you the other. It's personal." Even though he's the one who brought it all up. "So, why is my favorite perfumer no longer gracing my immediate vicinity with her presence on a routine basis?"
"Of course it's personal," dummy. "But you wouldn't have brought it up if you didn't want it pursued. Really, is there anyone better to whom you can tell your secrets? The worst that happens is you have to hear my opinion of you, and you already know what that is, for the most part, yet we still seem to suffer each other well enough. And at least I don't charge for my time and attention?" Aside from sandwiches, which Evaly tucks into presently, all that logic uttered as if the baring of souls should be a casual thing. Her end of the bargain, around a bite, delicate enough to hide her mouth behind the heel of her palm but not to bother swallowing first; "I leased some land outside the Weyr, I've been getting it ready for planting." Nudge the rake with her foot.
So, to recap: For Evaly, the baring of souls, casual. The baring of anything else, not. Halsten frowns through it all as though not entirely sure what his usual pat response should be. Then, at last, a smile. "Why, Evaly, I believe you just implied that we're friends. I'm flattered." No comment for her manners or lack thereof, though the smile does get a little more smirky. "Land. Fancy yourself a farmer? I wouldn't have guessed. Have you decided what you're planting yet? I've heard that some crops run considerably more profitable than others."
Evaly, around a frown, "Did I? Huh. I meant more to imply that I haven't had anyone to make me feel justifiably self-righteous lately, but okay. I guess I can see how you," in particular, "could interpret it that way." Her shrug answers both to that and for the whole farming thing, the whole rest of the sandwich finished in two graceless bites, a fairly long spell of chewing to follow while she just looks at Halsten like she's waiting for something. And will patiently continue to do so.
The chair tilts back again, which lets Hal spend more time looking at the bit of canvas stretched overhead to shield from the sun, than at the girl eating the rest of his lunch. "I had an epiphany, you see. Which rendered some of my previous pasttimes less entertaining than they had been before, and required a certain amount of time and energy spent determining a course of action. Would you like a drink to go with that?" He has the flask, after all. Whatever's in it is probably not water. "Why are you so set on feeling self-righteous?" As long as they're being honest and all. Or... mostly honest.
To the drink, Evaly answers, "That depends on the asking price. If you're going to be so arcane-- epiphany, course of action, saying so much without really saying anything at all." She waves her hand as if at a bothersome insect for his words. "I'll have the drink for free." Sunshiney smile, so sweet of her, a hand extended with less 'give it now' expectancy than for the sandwich. "It suits me. And it's better than the alternative which is... well, you'd be familiar with that, I suppose."
"Which is actually having a nice time now and then," Halsten is obliged to finish for her, but he does hand over the flask easily enough. "I wasn't planning on charging you for it. I'm a generous guy." As all that money-counting earlier indicated, right? "I had no idea your self-righteousness was so voyeuristic. I figured I could err on the side of less detail and avoid offending your delicate sensibilities. How salacious do you want me to be, exactly? Would you like to go somewhere quieter and I can tell you in detail?" However suggestive the intent, the tone of the last question is too light to be serious, although still probably not totally in keeping with his brand new image as the new, more gentlemanly Hal.
"Do you think I don't have a good time?" Evaly asks, surprised and baiting all rolled into one, soon followed by a disbelieving snort as the words 'I'm' and 'generous' in the same sentence. "I admit to having fairly delicate sensibilities, it's true, but I'm not exactly a shrinking violet. Do /you/ want to go somewhere quieter and go over this in detail?" He may be trying to be a gentleman, but she think she's calling Hal's bluff.
One ankle crosses over the other, chair still at that percarious tilt. One of these days, Hal will pay for habits like this. "I'm sure you think you have a good time. I'm just as sure that someday you're going to relax and I really do hope I'm there when it happens." Oh, the wistfulness in the word 'hope'. But, more practically: "I would dearly love to go somewhere quieter and discuss it, but it would require a large quantity of alchohol and a woman of less delicacy who would really appreciate such a thing." Halsten, capable of making 'discussing not having sex' sound very much like having sex. "Besides, you can use your imagination. Maybe I'm suffering from unrequited feelings, here. Be sensitive." Somehow sensitivity seems, from the hand held out, to involve giving him his drink back.
Whether she means the prospect of her relaxing or him being there to see it... "Not. Very. Likely." 'Sorry' in the tone, though she leaves it unsaid. The rest of what he says at least earns Hal a gradually deepening smile on Evaly's part, almost, if one ignores the fact that she's clearly amused and he's clearly got something bothering him-- almost even a softening of her eyes and everything. "Why go to all the trouble of bringing it up only to drop the subject like a bad habit immediately afterward? I don't understand." No, really, that one's actually honestly honest, not just screwing around with the feigned seriousness.
More grabby hands, and if necessary leaning over to just take the flask. "No, I figure not. But I can hope." Smiling, though, because even that after all is an admission of sorts. Halsten makes a production of leaning back again, stretching one arm back behind him. "I did tell you. You just informed me it wasn't sufficient detail." A broad grin. "I will give you credit for not having yet decided the whole thing says something about me that you personally consider vile or unpleasant. So how are you doing for capital for this little venture of yours, thus far?"
Oh, yeah. Evaly will give him back his flask and not have made a gross face or anything about what's in it. In that respect, at least, she's not a cheap date. But it's too hot to go guzzling booze, even if they are someone else's; empty-handed, again, she folds her palms over the end of the rake and leans on it some more, it being useful like that. "Just because I haven't voiced the thought doesn't mean I haven't had it," she points out for his vileness and unpleasantness. "Though. See, I keep going back and forth on whether or not I should point out that I don't think you're really all that bad. On the one hand, I kind of think you're all right. On the other hand, I can sort of see that you want people to think you're a dick, so maybe I shouldn't tell you that I don't think you are? Except when you're trying to be?" Eventually, getting tangled up in her own logic, she shrugs and answers easier questions: "I bargained for half of a sandwich, Hal. Shouldn't that tell you that I'm not exactly rolling in it at the moment?"
"I don't know. I have in my life run into women who must think I'm in need of a reducing diet, if their propensity for relieving me of my meals is to be believed." Clearly that's why Hal's built the way he is, rather than just a genetic propensity towards being a beanpole. "You'd asked once about investment capital. I was just checking. I do have a little set aside, yet. No great quantity of marks, it's not going to let me retire before I'm thirty or anything, but enough that I might be able to be helpful, if you were in ndeed of help. In exchange for you not thinking I'm a dick." Beat. "And a fair rate of return, of course."
Evaly, as if regrettably, "I didn't want to say anything, but you are starting to look a little..." She trails off, letting her breath puff out her cheeks chubbily, eyes pinned to his midsection for the delivery. Exhale-- inhale a little deeper, and it's a suspicious, "You don't have a kid on the way that I should know about, do you?" Then, with a sudden, short, bark of a laugh, she adds, "Dammit. Dammit dammit, I so should have pointed out that your newfound celibacy ought to mean you have a wealth of disposable income you could spare me. I can't believe I missed that one."
There's a heap of laughter for that, and for a moment Halsten's chair wobbles as though it's about to go over with him still in it. He leans forward, hard, to forestall that, ends up with his feet flat on the ground and coughing a few times through the last guffaws. "No. No, I certainly don't. And there's what I was waiting for, but better late than never, isn't it? I don't know about a wealth of it, but I certainly have enough to spare you a bit. If you have a plan for generating some income with this."
Evaly gets herself back under wraps before Halsten does, in time to lean her cheek on her knuckles and watch the coughing with pursed lips; "That's attractive." She waits till he's got that under control before affecting primness to remark, "Well, whatever I plan to do with it will be more generative than what you had been doing with it, right? So, really, why worry about it?" It's a combination insult/request for cash all rolled into one~!
At least it's just too much laughing that seems to have done it--well, maybe that and too many cigarettes. It's just a good thing for Evaly that this is exactly the sort of thing Halsten seems to like in a girl, isn't it? "If you have a plan. You won't even tell me what you're planning on growing, for all I know you'd just take the marks and run off. Maybe for some reason you just want to leave me broke and alone and I'd be so terribly, terribly sad--how much do you think you need, at this point?" For all his protests, he's already gotten his box back out.
Dead pan. "Hemlock." Evaly looks down at the box for a second, like she plans to leave the answer at that, then hurriedly raises her eyes back to Halsten's afterward as if it's just occurred to her to add, "Why? Did you want to sample some?" Finally, she moves to lean the rake against the edge of the counter, having to plant the fork into the soil a little so that it stays upright, and invites herself into the space generally reserved for the proprietor, less inclined to discuss her own business out where those few passersby (Hal sure does get a lotta business, huh?) might overhear. "It's no small undertaking, mine, so how much are you offering?"
Oh, this is just coincidence, how quiet it is right now. Halsten was quite busy earlier. Really. He has a glance through what he's got on hand--surely his savings aren't kept in with his daily take--and presses his lips together thoughtfully. "I just want to know that it's something marketable. It does impact your ability to pay me back. And while there are some women I would suggest alternative payment arrangements to, in the event of a default... you're not that sort of a girl, are you?" He smiles. Only a little bit smirky. "I could probably spot you five today."
"Well, there's that--" She's not that sort of a girl, exactly. "Plus, you're on the wagon. And, while it's really flattering that you'd give it all up just to pay me for sex, I'd hate to be responsible for your fall from grace." Evaly, straight-faced. It's a hard act, sometimes. At real business, though, she leans one hip against the inside of the counter, chewing but not biting through her thumbnail with a pensive air. Actual money causes actual nerves. "Five," she repeats, gears turning all but visibly behind her eyes. "If all goes well, I think I could have at least half of it back to you by the end of the Turn. If not... well, good luck finding me." With a weak chuckle there.
Since they're having all this fun with honesty: "I think my chances of making it that long are slim to none. But we'll work something out." Halsten's five marks are certainly not in five whole mark pieces; he's got to count out a fair number of small denominations. "We'll call it twelve and a half percent, if that sounds reasonable to you. An eighth back for every mark I give you, after a year. Portions of the Turn prorated." Someone would think Hal had some experience with this sort of thing. "Principal payments as you like." That part is really a generous move, but he's not going to call attention to that. "That sound fair?"
Someone would think that about Hal, yes. And someone would find it a little irritating to find out, too, if the sniff of distaste is any indicator, rather like Evaly hoped there wouldn't be any specific terms. Because then she wouldn't be responsible for not adhering to them. She's quick to find the smile that used to convince grossly overweight women that a gob of perfume would make them relentlessly desirable and turn that upon him, though, thumb surreptitiously dried on the hem of her shirt before she opens her hand for the marks. "Tremendously fair, yes. I'm sure you won't be disappointed."
On the down side, there are terms. On the up side, there aren't witnesses. Depending on how unethical she feels like being, later. For now, there's just Halsten standing, pressing the handful of money into her palm, taking advantage of the moment to push her fingers around it with his own, smiling the whole while. "I probably will be. But if I didn't gamble, well, I'd be very short of vices right now, wouldn't I? And I did tell you I would. And if you're afraid you might run short, well, I could probably use an extra set of hands sometimes." Pause. "Ah, not that way, I mean."
Not that Evaly needed the help closing her hand around money, but she tightens her fist briefly to acknowledge receipt of the marks, thanks, and answers for his lack of vices, "Oh, you poor thing." Chances are, she was paying enough attention during all his counting to trust that she's actually been given a full five marks without recounting it, only transferring it into her own little pouch, kept deep down in her pocket. "I wonder what you might be like after a few weeks of clean living." She sighs, as if longingly, stepping backward toward the customer-side of the booth now and saying along the way, "Thank you, but I'll find away to repay you that does not involve an extra set of hands, whatever 'way' you meant it. I'm so done with working for other people."
"Frustrated. And probably insufferable." As though that were a genuine question she'd just asked. Hal finds his chair again, settles himself back into it. "That's a good feeling to have. Being done with it. I remember--" For a moment there's a pause like he's about to launch into some elaborate description of just what it is he remembers, but instead he just shakes his head. "Been there, anyway. And someone helped me out, and I'm helping you out. You'll do fine."
"And how is that different from how you usually are, Hal?" Evaly asks to his frustrated insufferability, taking up her rake again, though she doesn't resume her earlier posture. She's not quite cutthroat enough to take his cash and run, but she doesn't seem like she's taking up residence quite the same way now. "Ah, best watch yourself. If you're not careful, you might almost reveal something real, and then where would we be? Tsk tsk tsk." It's awkward, carrying around a rake without just shouldering it, but she grips it low, lets the handle rest against her collarbones, tries to keep the business end from looking too much like a weapon.
"More frustrated and more insufferable, then. I'm not ordinarily that frustrated." Insufferable, well, Halsten's not in any position to argue that one, but he sits back and makes a shooing gesture towards her. "Right, right. I'm a dick and you're a prude and let's just keep this status quo being... quo and things will stay nice and simple. I like simple." If she needs encouragement to go away, the way he takes the tobacco out to start rolling a cigarette is almost certainly a signal. "You need any help along the way, though, let me know. I have to protect my investment, after all."
Evaly gives the beginnings of the cigarette a dirty look, predictably, and a mutter: "Weren't you just saying you'd given up the vices?" Nose crinkling pre-emptively, she gives the rest of his words no more than a very light, mostly wry laugh and turns on her way, not hitting anyone with her rake along the way, yay~!