Log: Looming Sickness
{Raveki is well on her way to being sick. She spends some time with Hal and a very distracted-seeming Loe. The good bits of this log come after she leaves the scene, alas!}
Raveki is spending the afternoon working, but she has claimed a cloth-covered table in a corner instead of the bar and its surface holds a ledger, some scattered papers with various handwriting scribbled across them and the pen she's writing with. The bar is not empty, but it's also not like her taking up this table for such a mundane purpose is hurting business any, and it allows her to keep an eye on things. She does this between neat notations, dark eyes sliding up and over the patrons, checking in with the working girls every couple of minutes. Maybe what she's working on or whatever is making her watch the room so closely ahs something to do with it, but there are faint smudges under her eyes and she looks far less 'on' than normal with her hair dragged back into a ponytail from which stray bits drift into her face.
A guy walks into a bar. He's got a shirt over his arm, but he's wearing a shirt. There's a joke in there somewhere, no doubt, but in the meantime Halsten is looking around like a guy who does not really want to be carrying around a shirt. Like a guy looking for someone unsuspecting to unload said shirt on. Like--"Hey, Vek." He strolls on over to her table, holds up the shirt in question. "You asked for a shirt. I have in fact procured you a shirt. Or your brother. Or whoever."
It might be a good time to tell Raveki a joke. Either that or it is a very very bad time, with the weariness around her eyes and the slight air of tension that seems to be riding the girls beneath their usual smiles. When Hal says her name, Vek's head jerks up and her usually bright eyes are guarded for the beat it takes her slow brain to compute that it is Hal. "Oh, Hal, hey." She pushes a chair out with her foot, then tips her chin toward it. "You wanna sit?" She blinks at him, then at the shirt, and then she stifles a cough in a hanky that she had stashed in her lap. Somewhere during the cough she remembered why he has a shirt, and why she asked for it, and she winces a bit, pushing up to her feet. "I totally forgot to come check on that, and I'm so sorry. It looks perfect!" She tries to enthuse this even though she hasn't actually seen much of it, and there's just not enough energy to put behind the words.
The cough narrows Halsten's eyes slightly. He doesn't sit down right away, not until he's pressed the shirt into her hands. "It's a shirt. It has two arms and a neck hole and I make no warranties as to its fit on this mysterious man who evidently needs a shirt, but I can say it's big on me but a bit shorter in the arms and as I recall, that's about what you were asking for. It's got the allowance for altering, too, to a point." He stretches his legs out off to the side as he sits. "You just getting it or getting over it? The crud."
Raveki takes the shirt easily enough, and she shakes it out so she can get a good look at it. She turns it a little, fingers the fabric and eyes the seams and then very carefully folds it. "It is lovely and I appreciate it," she says, this time with more focus and intent, and when she sets the shirt down on a clean spot of tablecloth she smooths it with gentle fingers. There's something rueful about the gesture but then she takes a little breath and pulls on a little smile as she drops back into her chair. "There is no crud. The past few days have just been sort of a disaster and I haven't slept. At all."
"Sure." Hal is familiar enough with such denial, who is he to judge? Just: "Seems like something was going around for awhile. Thought I was just tired, next thing I know I'm knocked on my ass. Think I was even hallucinating, at one point." There's a short glance for her stuff on the table, but not one that lingers for any real length of time. "So what happened? Disaster-wise. I'm sure you missed me, but I didn't think you usually lost sleep over it. Certainly not for days at a time."
"You feeling better? You look good." The compliment, delivered with a hint of her usual sparkle is marred a bit by the need to clear her throat, and she takes a long drink of what by all accounts is actually water. "I saw Loe when she was down and out, but I figure I would have gotten it by now if that was it." Even so short a glance would gather that they are lists in several different hands, none of them so neat as Raveki's, and he might even get the idea that they are personal items with things like an X, or 'ruined' or 'repairable' beside them. She makes no move to cover or organize so either she missed him looking or just doesn't care. It might be either as she tightens her grip on her glass and glances out across the room. "Short version? We got robbed and a lot of what didn't get stolen got trashed."
"So maybe it wasn't Loe." Hal runs a fingertip along the tabletop, picks it up. "You sit down a table where somebody sick was, that kind of thing. Stuff spreads. When you say you saw Loe, are we talking in a prof--" Pause. Long beat. "Robbed? Really? What's the point of serving this kind of clientele if somebody's just going to go and bite the hand that..." Now he really is looking at one of those lists, long enough to pick out a few words even upside-down. "You're serious," more slowly.
Raveki flicks dismissive fingers. "Those were two separate thoughts. I saw Loe. Period. And I knew other people were sick but I didn't think it was recently." Like she's not sick now even if she does need another drink of water to soothe her throat even as she eyes that finger, and the table, and then herself. "Honey, do you think sitting at a table where a sick person was is the way shit's going to spread to /me/? Try sitting /on/ the sick person. That's more likely." There's a little breath of amusement just short of laughter, but it turns into another little hanky-hidden cough and she just groans. "If I get sick I'm blaming you." Yes, because that makes so much sense. To his questions she just nods. "Yeah, I wouldn't joke about it. But we're all okay and they didn't touch the main room so it's not really affecting business. If you hire a girl go a little easy though, because they're all a little jumpy." Sip. "And armed."
"Well. I don't know about anybody else, but I was in no state to be hiring favors at the time. You can blame me if you like, although I don't think the last time we were in such a position, I had anything catching. Armed, you say?" Hal cranes his neck to have a look around for the girls in question, as though this descriptor has suddenly rendered them more interesting than usual. "All right," smiling for her again, "no joking, sorry. It's unnerving. Thieves. I find it difficult to be serious when I'm unnerved."
"Maybe you're just weak, or your libido is lacking," Raveki quips with a smirk that says she doesn't mean either one. "It depends on if it's catching only when you're really down and out, or before. I don't feel real well right now but I'd still take some favors if someone offered them to me." It's just a little too matter of fact to be truly flirtacious, and she's certainly not in a state that would have Hal leaping across the table to offer. For armed she nods, then scoots her chair sideways until he can see her outer leg. She flips back her short skirt so he can see the thigh-sheathed knife she wears, then scoots back. "Better safe than sorry. Ciera at the bar even likes to use hers," she adds with a wry note more suggestive than her own mention of taking favors. "The weyr knows and they're looking into it, but I wouldn't leave your wares in your stall unless their locked down real tight. No one was here so maybe we were easy pickings. And don't apologize, I like you when you joke."
A brilliant, big grin. "That must be it. Weakness and lacking libido. I had good fever dreams, at any rate, even if I didn't get laid." Halsten duly looks at the knife in question. And the thigh. Not too long. There's a carefully calculated point where looking turns into staring, and he's definitely not crossing that line. "I don't leave anything there unlocked, but I may have to invest in better locks. Just for peace of mind, if nothing else. Well. Hope they catch whoever it was did it, and string them up for it."
The fingers on the glass give it a slower stroke and Raveki looks up at him through her lashes. "Any about me?" He did take that long look at her thigh after all, and even in the midst of oncoming crud she can't seem to shake the habit to flirt with him. Not that she's trying terribly hard. "Our marks box was locked but he... or she I guess, popped it. Luckily we don't keep too much on site." She pauses then at his last and lifts the glass to sip before she says, "Yeah I hope they catch the bastard behind the whole thing myself. The girls are pretty shaken up and that's bound to cost us more than the robbery itself.
"That would be telling," Hal says, deliberately coy smile. "Probably him. Shortage of women in this world capable of that sort of thing. Spite, yes, but this doesn't seem like spite. Unless you've had some employee departure recently I haven't noticed. 'Scuse me, if I'm going to be lingering, I might as well help out financially a little." By which he means getting up to get a drink, that's all. And on returning: "Nobody hurt, though? No threats made? Nothing like that?"
His coy, meet her amused. Raveki just listens to him speak, and nods the permission he didn't ask for when he goes to get his drink. It is only when he returns that she gives him a slightly coy look of her own, an upward and sideways glance allowed by the drop of her chin, and she tosses back, "I will take your silence as a yes." But then more serious matters, which makes her sigh a little and absently start to neaten the papers into a stack. "No one was here to hurt, which I suppose is lucky. No threats made yet, no, though I can't imagine the few marks and things were all they were after. No liquor was stolen and a lot of things were broken up. It seemed personal." She pauses, eyes coming up to rest almost searchingly on his for a beat, but then she just gives a little half-shake of her head. "We're going to get some sort of guards in here soon, I think. I just hope we can do it in a way that's not bad for business."
"Get a certain sort of a man who appeals to a certain sort of lonely older woman, expand your service list and get security at the same time," is Halsten's suggestion on this matter, probably not wholly serious. He sits back down again, drink in hand, takes a swig of it. "You would think if it was personal, there would be some sort of message. A threat. Though--no offense, I would prefer it wasn't just a random burglar. That would imply he might strike elsewhere, later."
This just gets an incredulously arched brow and a shake of her head, though once she has settled back into her chair, legs stretched out, she smirks. "You offering? I suppose if I want a guard too I'd do better to get someone a little more... ferocious though, hmm?" She winks, nudging at his foot with her toe once he is seated. "Maybe we haven't found the message yet, or maybe it hasn't been delivered. I don't know. But I hope for everyone else's sake that it was a random thing done by someone passing through." She sounds doubtful to say the least, and she looks bordering on miserable.
And brows raised in response, too. "Do you think I'm the sort of person good at assuaging lonely older women? Just how old are you, anyway?" Of course one should never ask such a question, but Halsten doesn't seem to be really expecting an answer. "I would, at any rate, be a lousy guard, yes. I have spent a lifetime cultivating a nonthreatening demeanor." Well, a lifetime such as it is so far. "And that's enough talk about that. You really ought to rest, you know. Relax a bit. Take a break."
Raveki lets out a little roll of laughter, and she winks at him across the table. "Who said you've ever assuaged me, anyway, Trader? You are charming when you want to be though, and adorable. Older women like that." She stifles another snicker in her water, and it could be because of that that she coughs again. "Mmm, a break would be nice. You want to come rub my back and make me rest?"
"You didn't seem unhappy at the time." Just a mild protest. Hal sits back, eyes his drink, brings the glass to his lips but doesn't manage to drink from it right away as he eyes her. Then, he drains about half of what's left at once. "I suppose that depends if you'd like me to. Would it help? It sounds like you've been through quite a lot, of late. And it's only going to get worse if you're under this much stress nonstop." He sets the glass back down on the table, fingers still wrapped around it. "Only an offer, though. Not a request, on my part."
"I was not at all unhappy, darlin, but I also did not realize it was me who was in need of... assuaging." Using the word for a third time is just ridiculous, and it makes her grin. Rather than getting up and dragging him off into a back room on his offer, she just shifts around and squirms down in her chair until she can lean her head against the cushioned back. "I could just rest here a little. I don't want to impose on you, how rude that would be." But then there is a little nudge as her foot tries to creep up onto his knee, and there are two. "You could take my shoes off for me though if you wanted to be really sweet. I shouldn't have done heels on a day like today." One eye opens just enough to gauge his reaction, and she lets a hint of that grin linger. He offered! Well, something anyway.
He did indeed offer, and Halsten follows through at least that well, leaning forward well enough to take that nudging foot in hand and start helping her shoe off. "I don't think you could impose, unless you decide you want to be carried around on a divan. If only because I don't think I can manage to carry a divan by myself." Once he has the shoe off, he does have a look at it. Professional curiosity. "No. Today should be a day for you to relax. Not to be eye-candy for someone else's benefit."
There is the tiniest flicker of surprise in her eyes as he does what she asks, but then she just relaxes back against the chair and her foot gets heavier in his hand as she relinquishes its weight to his grasp. The sandals are comprised of thin strips of white leather that crisscross over the foot, leaving more skin bare than covered, and the heels are dark wood, sturdier and shorter than some she wears and just an inch or two. He'll find her skin a bit warm, but it's Ista and it could just be that - if he's going to do any touching of her foot beyond the shoe at least. His mention of a divan makes her smirk, but her eyes stay closed, and after a beat there's a low, private chuckle. "No Hal, I would not ask you to carry me on a divan. If you were doing it by yourself you could just use your arms, right? And... thank you. Being eye-candy isn't hard in itself though you know, it comes natural."
"I imagine being just carried, sans divan, is rather different. Considerably more physical contact. Very different implications." Halsten is sitting across from Raveki at a table, one of her feet, newly-shoeless, in his hands. The shoe is carefully set nearby, and then both hands start to rub firmly at the sole of her foot. Not the first time Hal's done such a thing. "I didn't say you weren't attractive. But clearly, you were not born with your feet in such shoes. And much as I might find them personally appealing, right now you deserve to be comfortable," he's telling Vek in gentle tones.
Raveki will give him his point, lifting a nearly limp had to concede it. "Maybe you should just go find a strong man to help you with the divan then. I think we decided Ch'son might be a suitable candidate." Who the 'we' is or when this was 'decided' is not mentioned, and she doesn't seem to realize the comment was at all strange. She's too busy pointing her foot as he rubs and making a contented little sound in the back of her throat. "Hey if anybody asks, you paid me to let you do this, alright? I could handle like a dozen clients a day." Lashes flutter open just enough for her to smile across the table at him - she's scrunched down in her chair with her head resting on the cushioned back. "Thank you for concern though. And your good taste in shoes, too."
Usually when Loe comes to the Seven during the afternoon, it's with a bag of work slung over her shoulder or with a clipboard in her hand. Today when she comes in, there's no work, just a book crammed into her back pocket. Of course, such things probably aren't noticeable until her back is to the room when she reaches the bar, something she does without much glancing around. She stands there as she orders her drink, not bothering to take a seat. After her request is placed, while waiting for it to be made, she leans her hip against the bar and finally lets her eyes pass around one room, a pass that finds, among scattered patrons and girls, Halsten and Raveki at their table.
Not being an idiot, Hal's response is: "We?" Eyeing Raveki. "He and I have not precisely gotten along in the past. Especially with regards to women. That could be problematic. I could get my nose broken. Which is not to say the answer is no." He glances down towards his hands, then back up. "You would really have me allow people to think that I'm the sort of man who pays women to rub their feet?" Pitched a little lower. Almost incredulous. Not incredulous enough to stop, even as he looks up and around as though worried somebody might have heard. Which might, perchance, mean eye contact with Loe over there at the bar. And a smile which is possibly more inviting than one might imagine since he's the subject of Raveki's nearly-captive attention. But back to Vek: "Other foot?"
Though it is with a little regretful sigh, Raveki opens her eyes and adjusts her head so she can look at Hal properly instead of the ceiling. "That's too bad, and it would really be a shame for that nose to get smashed. So maybe one could take the front and the other could take the back and you could be very very quiet. I'd be in the middle so no punches would be thrown." There, problem solved, and the question of we is all lost in the more entertaining words, right? She drops that foot back to the floor, bare, and shifts the other into his lap. "Yes please. It feels more wonderful than I should probably admit." She reaches for her glass and just manages to get her fingers around it without having to sit up at all. "I don't usually let people to touch me much without marks in hand. We could say you would pay to touch /my/ feet. Does that work?" She's tired and getting pampered so she doesn't notice his distraction or the cause of it just yet.
There's something about Loe's glance, the complete lack of expression that meets Halsten's smile, that implies she doesn't recognize him, or maybe that she's just forgotten that a smile offered means a smile should be returned. She blinks--not in any sort of surprise, just a regular blink--and then looks to Raveki, who is obviously enjoying this time with her feet in Hal's lap. It's only after that Loe's lips form a quiet curve that seems more for the barmaid's bare feet than the man who tends them. Her drink arrives, distraction from whatever is already distracting her, and she turns back to the bar to pay her marks and collect her glass.
As Raveki's other shoe is carefully removed, Halsten's eyes are still in the direction of the bar, smile fading, brow furrowing just a little bit. More, as the returned smile is not just delayed but actually absent. Distracted, he keeps up what he's doing, but there's not attention left for both that and the conversation. "Yeah, sure--wait, what?" His gaze suddenly reorienting. "I'm not sure I do quiet all that well. You've met me, haven't you? We've been... acquainted?" Like he couldn't quite come upw ith the word he was looking for, at first.
Finally, when Halsten is so obvioulsy distracted from her admittedly less than scintillating presence, Raveki sits up. "What are you..." she trails off when her eyes find the Headwoman and a tiny frown touches her brow. It looks like concern even though she missed the lack of smile and all that. "That's Loe. Loe buying a drink. You don't mind if we invite her over do you?" Before the words are even out she's dragging her foot out of his hands so she can sit straighter still, gathering up her work to make space for a third at the table. "I imagine," she drawls as she goes about the organizing, "That the lack of ability to keep your mouth shut might have some part in Ch'son nearly breaking your nose."
Loe turns away from the bar, glass in one hand and the other reaching behind her to pull the book out of her pocket. Another glance toward the table reveals Raveki now sitting up and clearing that space, though it doesn't seem to really compute on Loe's face what purpose could be behind the act. After all, how many times a day does she tidy up her own papers? It seems she aims to pass the table, busying herself by maneuvering her ever-requested straw to her lips as she heads toward a quiet corner of the room.
"Yes, of course that's Loe. I do know who she is." There's a slight edge in Hal's voice, faintly flustered. It takes him a moment after Raveki's foot moves to bring his hands back on top of the table, pick up his glass, finish off its contents. "Vlad was stirring shit up. I could have said nothing at all and he still would've hit me." Really. Honest. And then, as Loe approaches, moves to pass, he turns, puts out an arm as though to catch hers, although probably not really close enough to do so. Smiling, again, with less certainty. "Loe, hey. You want company?" That's almost the same as inviting her to sit down, isn't it?
Raveki frowns across at Hal, and shakes her head. "I know you know who she is, I was just noticing her. Out loud." He's flustered and even in her tired, dark smudges under her eyes, coughing into a handkerchief state she narrows her lashes a bit, watching him reach for the blonde. "I'm sure that is precisely how it happened," she murmured, but between volume and timing he might miss it altogther. Louder, brighter, she adds her offer to Hal's. "I made a spot just for you, Loe. Why don't you sit?
The arm, reached out for her, draws the headwoman's steps to a halt. Again, Loe looks at Hal like she doesn't quite understand what he's saying, but at least this time her smile is ready, if a little distant. Raveki's added invitation seems to help it sink in and she looks between the pair and to the empty place at the table. As though someone has flipped a switch, her smile brightens, sunny as ever, and she lets the straw slip from her lips. "Oh thank you. Sure," she answers blithely. "If I'm not interrupting anything." Her eyes go to Vek then--if she's not interrupting Raveki. But since the invitation -was- issued, she lets herself sink into the offered seat. Her book and glass are set on the table and she notices Halsten's drained drink. "Do you need another?" she asks him, looking ready to leap right up again and fetch it herself. Her mouth curls to a smirk. "Or water?" A girl can try, can't she?
"Precisely," cheerily enough; Halsten doesn't miss too much. He eyes the empty place at the table, too. "Of course not," he tells Loe, even if her question was not aimed in his direction. His glass, he picks up, as though surprised to find that it contains no more of whatever beverage it was before. "I do think I need another, but I wouldn't dream of imposing. Make yourself comfortable. I'll be right back--" A pause as he pushes himself out of his own seat. "Raveki? Do you need anything?" Such a polite inquiry. And, once he's determined the answer either way, he makes his way off towards the bar to acquire something, surely to be back in a matter of moments.
In spite of the fact that Raveki feels a bit dazed herself today, she watches that switch flip on Loe's face and it makes a frown appear across her brow. She puts in on hold to smile up at Hal and wave a hand. "No thanks, I still have water so I think I'm all set for now." Then it's to Loe who by now has made herself comfortable. "Everything alright? I mean... other than the obvious." She holds up a finger - one moment please - so she can cough, just one soft bark of sound, into her hand. "You don't look so good." There should be irony there, but instead there is just concern.
Loe is already lifting out of her seat, "I can..." But no, Halsten doesn't want to impose, and so she sits back down. "I'm fine," she tells Raveki as Hal clears off a little. "Just busy." Because busy people always try to hide away in a corner of a bar with a drink and a book. Nevermind that. There's coughing to address. "Has that sickness finally gotten to you?" she frowns with her own concern. "Just when I thought everyone was past it. You should be sleeping. I don't think anything else really helps." She sets her arms on the table, folded in front of her. "At least you're drinking water. Hal tried to refuse. He was just sweating booze with his fever." She might as well tsk afterwards, but her smile does it for her.
With only his drink to get, Halsten returns before too long. Well, what's in his glass is, at least, clear. Given who's carrying it, the chances that it is water are extremely slim. He manages to walk back at about the point of "sweating booze". Which, before he even sits down, has him smiling. "That could be a selling point to the right sort of girl, sweating liquor. Sadly, it didn't seem to work on the company at the time." The last mostly to Vek. He settles back in at the table, takes a long drink of whatever-it-is.
The handkerchief comes out and Raveki coughs again, this time into it with a grimace. The cough is dry and harsh and can't possibly feel good, but she comes out of it with a weak smile in spite of watering eyes. "I'm not sick. I'm just stressed out and I haven't slept well, that's all. If I was going to get sick I would have done it a long time ago." She flicks a hand at the bar, at her business. "Stuff gets passed around, apparently." She smirks up at Hal as he sits, shaking her head and taking a careful sip of water that makes her wince at her cough-rough throat. "Mmm, Loe hardly drinks liquor out of a glass, let alone out of your pores, Hal. Too bad, I guess."
"Yes, I'm sure there's a girl out there somewhere who likes her men coughing, feverish and sweating booze," Loe grins with a roll of her eyes. The grin is almost entirely believable, too. But she doesn't spend much time looking to Halsten. "I do drink liquor. I just don't drink it to quench my thirst. That would be counterproductive." But she does lean in to sip her drink now, one that is not entirely clear. "Last I heard, stress and sleep deprivation tend not to make a person cough. Are you sure you aren't sick? Maybe the illness is just taking advantage of your stress and lack of sleep?"
"Somewhere, out there," Halsten agrees, with a broad gesture to encompass a world much larger than this particular table. "Such a woman. I might have to marry her if I find her." From him, that's a simple enough message: When pigs fly, in other words. "It could just be an allergy," he suggests then, of the coughing, with another drink and then a move to rest his glass on the table. Really impossible to say. None of us are healers, after all."
Speaking of people considering 'coughing' as attractive, or really the lack of those kinds of people, Raveki looks around the room and then scoots her chair so her companions block her view a little better. "I am /not/ sick but if everyone thinks I am that's bad for business. For that reason and that reason only I might consider going to rest for a while. Though laying in bed and staring at the ceiling is all I've been able to do." Even so she manages a little smirk and a roll of her eyes for Hal. "I know of girls who would absolutely adore a man coughing, feverish and sweating boooze. For the right price. Just ask them."
Loe bends in again to sip from her straw, but this time she stays there between pulls of her drink, eyes on the table in obvious though that leaves her silent for a while as her companions talk of Raveki's apparent illness. She should probably pipe up and say something, but she seems to miss the moment that comes and goes, too busy staring blankly at the table, shoulders up around her ears as she leans in. Her glance slowly starts to creep towards Halsten, but gets nowhere near his face before she focuses on the table in front of her again. She's excellent company. Finally, looking at Vek and lifting from her straw, "I'm sorry you're not feeling well. I'd send a healer out but I doubt you'd take anything he'd offer to help you sleep."
"No, they will adore the right price and tolerate the rest," Halsten points out, raising his glass in Raveki's direction as though in a toast, smirking a bit. A drink and he tilts his head towards Loe. "You're awful quiet." That, itself, a bit quieter. Then, going on, "I believe ignoring medical advice seems to be what Istans do best at. I wouldn't dream of denying anyone that achievement. That said, Vek, you should lie down. Better for business and better for you, everything you've been going through."
The table is not that interesting. Trust Raveki, she has washed that tablecloth herself enough times, and it normally only gets this much attention when she is sitting on it. So when Loe finally lifts those green eyes and speaks, Raveki just blinks at her and shakes her head, incredulous. "Are you sure /you/ feel okay? You're more than quiet," half agreeing with and half adding to Hal's assessment. "And don't send any healers out here. If I need something I'll go to the infirmary." Up go two hands, palms out as if the headwoman protested. "Swear." For Hal's little mock toast she just has a smirk and a wink. "If they're good enough you'd never know the difference. Though I only know of one who might take you up on the marriage thing." She goes to sip her water, finds it empty, and sighs. "Since neither of you want my sickly company maybe I actually will go rest. I can't seem to focus enough to tally these figures anyway." Because of her head, not her companions as evidenced by the lack of any numbers beneath the horizontal 'equals' slashes on her papers.
"See?" is all Loe says for Raveki's protestations. It's just as she'd expected. And all this talk of her being quiet... Her smile perks up again and she shakes her head. "Just tired. Just busy and tired. I probably should have stayed in my room and taken a nap or something," she says with a weak, apologetic laugh. Another frown slips across her lips when the innkeeper gets to her feet and it looks for a moment like Loe might offer her help with that tallying, but she just closes her mouth before the words come out and instead smile again and nods. "You -should- rest. If you can. Do you want..." An arm unfolds from the table, book now in her hand, held up and offered. And yes, she has continued to skim just past actually looking at Hal or speaking to him. Again.
With Loe ignoring him, all Hal can do is breeze back into being, well, Hal. "I'm flattered," he informs Raveki with an entirely straight face. "I had no idea you were so fond of me, really. Not that I wasn't enjoying your company. Just... hoping to spare you the worst of what it turns into when you've been trying to ignore it." A sheepish smile. "Maybe if you rest, it won't be so bad. Unless it is just an allergy." Here and there, a faintly worried-seeming glance at the headwoman, but no pressing anything.
"You should rest too," Raveki tosses back at Loe, but the tone gentles the words. A hand lifts to fend off whatever offer Loe's going to make, but it flips over halfway there and she smiles. "If you don't mind actually, the book would be wonderful. Far better to look at than the ceiling." Then she glances down at Hal with brows drawn tight and a shake of her head. "Oh Hal I didn't mean it that way. Thank you for your concern, it's very sweet." Bending, she drops a kiss on the top of his head, then nods toward the curtain that separates the public and private sections of the bar. "If I'm not out and about by tomorrow someone come make sure I'm not dead or kidnapped, K?"
"Take it," Loe insists. "I haven't been able to read it. Not that it's bad, I just keep getting distracted. And I have others." And so the book is handed off and while Raveki turns her attention to Hal, Loe drops her head to drink again, chunks of ice exposed as the last of the liquid is quickly drained away. With her beverage gone, she lifts her knuckles to her mouth, though the straw leaves little to be wiping away. Her eyes lift again to Raveki, her smile hidden behind that lifted hand, and she nods her promise to make sure the barmaid doesn't end up dead, though surely Loe wouldn't be likely to actually make the trip out here just to check.
"Not dead or kidnapped. Check. Will do." Hey, Halsten's likely to be in the vicinity anyway at least. "Don't forget your shoes," he adds after a moment of pause, grabbing them to offer up to Raveki, shift his attention away from that little gesture. "Rest well." Which leaves him, after that, with his glass in hand and... evidently no particular idea what to say to Loe once Raveki goes.
Oh yes, her shoes. Raveki manages to gather them up and her empty glass and the book too. That leaves her papers neatly stacked at the table and maybe it's a sign of just how tired she is that she doesn't even notice as she murmurs, "Thanks guys," and heads to the back. Surely one of the other girls can cart those into the office at some point though.
Raveki is spending the afternoon working, but she has claimed a cloth-covered table in a corner instead of the bar and its surface holds a ledger, some scattered papers with various handwriting scribbled across them and the pen she's writing with. The bar is not empty, but it's also not like her taking up this table for such a mundane purpose is hurting business any, and it allows her to keep an eye on things. She does this between neat notations, dark eyes sliding up and over the patrons, checking in with the working girls every couple of minutes. Maybe what she's working on or whatever is making her watch the room so closely ahs something to do with it, but there are faint smudges under her eyes and she looks far less 'on' than normal with her hair dragged back into a ponytail from which stray bits drift into her face.
A guy walks into a bar. He's got a shirt over his arm, but he's wearing a shirt. There's a joke in there somewhere, no doubt, but in the meantime Halsten is looking around like a guy who does not really want to be carrying around a shirt. Like a guy looking for someone unsuspecting to unload said shirt on. Like--"Hey, Vek." He strolls on over to her table, holds up the shirt in question. "You asked for a shirt. I have in fact procured you a shirt. Or your brother. Or whoever."
It might be a good time to tell Raveki a joke. Either that or it is a very very bad time, with the weariness around her eyes and the slight air of tension that seems to be riding the girls beneath their usual smiles. When Hal says her name, Vek's head jerks up and her usually bright eyes are guarded for the beat it takes her slow brain to compute that it is Hal. "Oh, Hal, hey." She pushes a chair out with her foot, then tips her chin toward it. "You wanna sit?" She blinks at him, then at the shirt, and then she stifles a cough in a hanky that she had stashed in her lap. Somewhere during the cough she remembered why he has a shirt, and why she asked for it, and she winces a bit, pushing up to her feet. "I totally forgot to come check on that, and I'm so sorry. It looks perfect!" She tries to enthuse this even though she hasn't actually seen much of it, and there's just not enough energy to put behind the words.
The cough narrows Halsten's eyes slightly. He doesn't sit down right away, not until he's pressed the shirt into her hands. "It's a shirt. It has two arms and a neck hole and I make no warranties as to its fit on this mysterious man who evidently needs a shirt, but I can say it's big on me but a bit shorter in the arms and as I recall, that's about what you were asking for. It's got the allowance for altering, too, to a point." He stretches his legs out off to the side as he sits. "You just getting it or getting over it? The crud."
Raveki takes the shirt easily enough, and she shakes it out so she can get a good look at it. She turns it a little, fingers the fabric and eyes the seams and then very carefully folds it. "It is lovely and I appreciate it," she says, this time with more focus and intent, and when she sets the shirt down on a clean spot of tablecloth she smooths it with gentle fingers. There's something rueful about the gesture but then she takes a little breath and pulls on a little smile as she drops back into her chair. "There is no crud. The past few days have just been sort of a disaster and I haven't slept. At all."
"Sure." Hal is familiar enough with such denial, who is he to judge? Just: "Seems like something was going around for awhile. Thought I was just tired, next thing I know I'm knocked on my ass. Think I was even hallucinating, at one point." There's a short glance for her stuff on the table, but not one that lingers for any real length of time. "So what happened? Disaster-wise. I'm sure you missed me, but I didn't think you usually lost sleep over it. Certainly not for days at a time."
"You feeling better? You look good." The compliment, delivered with a hint of her usual sparkle is marred a bit by the need to clear her throat, and she takes a long drink of what by all accounts is actually water. "I saw Loe when she was down and out, but I figure I would have gotten it by now if that was it." Even so short a glance would gather that they are lists in several different hands, none of them so neat as Raveki's, and he might even get the idea that they are personal items with things like an X, or 'ruined' or 'repairable' beside them. She makes no move to cover or organize so either she missed him looking or just doesn't care. It might be either as she tightens her grip on her glass and glances out across the room. "Short version? We got robbed and a lot of what didn't get stolen got trashed."
"So maybe it wasn't Loe." Hal runs a fingertip along the tabletop, picks it up. "You sit down a table where somebody sick was, that kind of thing. Stuff spreads. When you say you saw Loe, are we talking in a prof--" Pause. Long beat. "Robbed? Really? What's the point of serving this kind of clientele if somebody's just going to go and bite the hand that..." Now he really is looking at one of those lists, long enough to pick out a few words even upside-down. "You're serious," more slowly.
Raveki flicks dismissive fingers. "Those were two separate thoughts. I saw Loe. Period. And I knew other people were sick but I didn't think it was recently." Like she's not sick now even if she does need another drink of water to soothe her throat even as she eyes that finger, and the table, and then herself. "Honey, do you think sitting at a table where a sick person was is the way shit's going to spread to /me/? Try sitting /on/ the sick person. That's more likely." There's a little breath of amusement just short of laughter, but it turns into another little hanky-hidden cough and she just groans. "If I get sick I'm blaming you." Yes, because that makes so much sense. To his questions she just nods. "Yeah, I wouldn't joke about it. But we're all okay and they didn't touch the main room so it's not really affecting business. If you hire a girl go a little easy though, because they're all a little jumpy." Sip. "And armed."
"Well. I don't know about anybody else, but I was in no state to be hiring favors at the time. You can blame me if you like, although I don't think the last time we were in such a position, I had anything catching. Armed, you say?" Hal cranes his neck to have a look around for the girls in question, as though this descriptor has suddenly rendered them more interesting than usual. "All right," smiling for her again, "no joking, sorry. It's unnerving. Thieves. I find it difficult to be serious when I'm unnerved."
"Maybe you're just weak, or your libido is lacking," Raveki quips with a smirk that says she doesn't mean either one. "It depends on if it's catching only when you're really down and out, or before. I don't feel real well right now but I'd still take some favors if someone offered them to me." It's just a little too matter of fact to be truly flirtacious, and she's certainly not in a state that would have Hal leaping across the table to offer. For armed she nods, then scoots her chair sideways until he can see her outer leg. She flips back her short skirt so he can see the thigh-sheathed knife she wears, then scoots back. "Better safe than sorry. Ciera at the bar even likes to use hers," she adds with a wry note more suggestive than her own mention of taking favors. "The weyr knows and they're looking into it, but I wouldn't leave your wares in your stall unless their locked down real tight. No one was here so maybe we were easy pickings. And don't apologize, I like you when you joke."
A brilliant, big grin. "That must be it. Weakness and lacking libido. I had good fever dreams, at any rate, even if I didn't get laid." Halsten duly looks at the knife in question. And the thigh. Not too long. There's a carefully calculated point where looking turns into staring, and he's definitely not crossing that line. "I don't leave anything there unlocked, but I may have to invest in better locks. Just for peace of mind, if nothing else. Well. Hope they catch whoever it was did it, and string them up for it."
The fingers on the glass give it a slower stroke and Raveki looks up at him through her lashes. "Any about me?" He did take that long look at her thigh after all, and even in the midst of oncoming crud she can't seem to shake the habit to flirt with him. Not that she's trying terribly hard. "Our marks box was locked but he... or she I guess, popped it. Luckily we don't keep too much on site." She pauses then at his last and lifts the glass to sip before she says, "Yeah I hope they catch the bastard behind the whole thing myself. The girls are pretty shaken up and that's bound to cost us more than the robbery itself.
"That would be telling," Hal says, deliberately coy smile. "Probably him. Shortage of women in this world capable of that sort of thing. Spite, yes, but this doesn't seem like spite. Unless you've had some employee departure recently I haven't noticed. 'Scuse me, if I'm going to be lingering, I might as well help out financially a little." By which he means getting up to get a drink, that's all. And on returning: "Nobody hurt, though? No threats made? Nothing like that?"
His coy, meet her amused. Raveki just listens to him speak, and nods the permission he didn't ask for when he goes to get his drink. It is only when he returns that she gives him a slightly coy look of her own, an upward and sideways glance allowed by the drop of her chin, and she tosses back, "I will take your silence as a yes." But then more serious matters, which makes her sigh a little and absently start to neaten the papers into a stack. "No one was here to hurt, which I suppose is lucky. No threats made yet, no, though I can't imagine the few marks and things were all they were after. No liquor was stolen and a lot of things were broken up. It seemed personal." She pauses, eyes coming up to rest almost searchingly on his for a beat, but then she just gives a little half-shake of her head. "We're going to get some sort of guards in here soon, I think. I just hope we can do it in a way that's not bad for business."
"Get a certain sort of a man who appeals to a certain sort of lonely older woman, expand your service list and get security at the same time," is Halsten's suggestion on this matter, probably not wholly serious. He sits back down again, drink in hand, takes a swig of it. "You would think if it was personal, there would be some sort of message. A threat. Though--no offense, I would prefer it wasn't just a random burglar. That would imply he might strike elsewhere, later."
This just gets an incredulously arched brow and a shake of her head, though once she has settled back into her chair, legs stretched out, she smirks. "You offering? I suppose if I want a guard too I'd do better to get someone a little more... ferocious though, hmm?" She winks, nudging at his foot with her toe once he is seated. "Maybe we haven't found the message yet, or maybe it hasn't been delivered. I don't know. But I hope for everyone else's sake that it was a random thing done by someone passing through." She sounds doubtful to say the least, and she looks bordering on miserable.
And brows raised in response, too. "Do you think I'm the sort of person good at assuaging lonely older women? Just how old are you, anyway?" Of course one should never ask such a question, but Halsten doesn't seem to be really expecting an answer. "I would, at any rate, be a lousy guard, yes. I have spent a lifetime cultivating a nonthreatening demeanor." Well, a lifetime such as it is so far. "And that's enough talk about that. You really ought to rest, you know. Relax a bit. Take a break."
Raveki lets out a little roll of laughter, and she winks at him across the table. "Who said you've ever assuaged me, anyway, Trader? You are charming when you want to be though, and adorable. Older women like that." She stifles another snicker in her water, and it could be because of that that she coughs again. "Mmm, a break would be nice. You want to come rub my back and make me rest?"
"You didn't seem unhappy at the time." Just a mild protest. Hal sits back, eyes his drink, brings the glass to his lips but doesn't manage to drink from it right away as he eyes her. Then, he drains about half of what's left at once. "I suppose that depends if you'd like me to. Would it help? It sounds like you've been through quite a lot, of late. And it's only going to get worse if you're under this much stress nonstop." He sets the glass back down on the table, fingers still wrapped around it. "Only an offer, though. Not a request, on my part."
"I was not at all unhappy, darlin, but I also did not realize it was me who was in need of... assuaging." Using the word for a third time is just ridiculous, and it makes her grin. Rather than getting up and dragging him off into a back room on his offer, she just shifts around and squirms down in her chair until she can lean her head against the cushioned back. "I could just rest here a little. I don't want to impose on you, how rude that would be." But then there is a little nudge as her foot tries to creep up onto his knee, and there are two. "You could take my shoes off for me though if you wanted to be really sweet. I shouldn't have done heels on a day like today." One eye opens just enough to gauge his reaction, and she lets a hint of that grin linger. He offered! Well, something anyway.
He did indeed offer, and Halsten follows through at least that well, leaning forward well enough to take that nudging foot in hand and start helping her shoe off. "I don't think you could impose, unless you decide you want to be carried around on a divan. If only because I don't think I can manage to carry a divan by myself." Once he has the shoe off, he does have a look at it. Professional curiosity. "No. Today should be a day for you to relax. Not to be eye-candy for someone else's benefit."
There is the tiniest flicker of surprise in her eyes as he does what she asks, but then she just relaxes back against the chair and her foot gets heavier in his hand as she relinquishes its weight to his grasp. The sandals are comprised of thin strips of white leather that crisscross over the foot, leaving more skin bare than covered, and the heels are dark wood, sturdier and shorter than some she wears and just an inch or two. He'll find her skin a bit warm, but it's Ista and it could just be that - if he's going to do any touching of her foot beyond the shoe at least. His mention of a divan makes her smirk, but her eyes stay closed, and after a beat there's a low, private chuckle. "No Hal, I would not ask you to carry me on a divan. If you were doing it by yourself you could just use your arms, right? And... thank you. Being eye-candy isn't hard in itself though you know, it comes natural."
"I imagine being just carried, sans divan, is rather different. Considerably more physical contact. Very different implications." Halsten is sitting across from Raveki at a table, one of her feet, newly-shoeless, in his hands. The shoe is carefully set nearby, and then both hands start to rub firmly at the sole of her foot. Not the first time Hal's done such a thing. "I didn't say you weren't attractive. But clearly, you were not born with your feet in such shoes. And much as I might find them personally appealing, right now you deserve to be comfortable," he's telling Vek in gentle tones.
Raveki will give him his point, lifting a nearly limp had to concede it. "Maybe you should just go find a strong man to help you with the divan then. I think we decided Ch'son might be a suitable candidate." Who the 'we' is or when this was 'decided' is not mentioned, and she doesn't seem to realize the comment was at all strange. She's too busy pointing her foot as he rubs and making a contented little sound in the back of her throat. "Hey if anybody asks, you paid me to let you do this, alright? I could handle like a dozen clients a day." Lashes flutter open just enough for her to smile across the table at him - she's scrunched down in her chair with her head resting on the cushioned back. "Thank you for concern though. And your good taste in shoes, too."
Usually when Loe comes to the Seven during the afternoon, it's with a bag of work slung over her shoulder or with a clipboard in her hand. Today when she comes in, there's no work, just a book crammed into her back pocket. Of course, such things probably aren't noticeable until her back is to the room when she reaches the bar, something she does without much glancing around. She stands there as she orders her drink, not bothering to take a seat. After her request is placed, while waiting for it to be made, she leans her hip against the bar and finally lets her eyes pass around one room, a pass that finds, among scattered patrons and girls, Halsten and Raveki at their table.
Not being an idiot, Hal's response is: "We?" Eyeing Raveki. "He and I have not precisely gotten along in the past. Especially with regards to women. That could be problematic. I could get my nose broken. Which is not to say the answer is no." He glances down towards his hands, then back up. "You would really have me allow people to think that I'm the sort of man who pays women to rub their feet?" Pitched a little lower. Almost incredulous. Not incredulous enough to stop, even as he looks up and around as though worried somebody might have heard. Which might, perchance, mean eye contact with Loe over there at the bar. And a smile which is possibly more inviting than one might imagine since he's the subject of Raveki's nearly-captive attention. But back to Vek: "Other foot?"
Though it is with a little regretful sigh, Raveki opens her eyes and adjusts her head so she can look at Hal properly instead of the ceiling. "That's too bad, and it would really be a shame for that nose to get smashed. So maybe one could take the front and the other could take the back and you could be very very quiet. I'd be in the middle so no punches would be thrown." There, problem solved, and the question of we is all lost in the more entertaining words, right? She drops that foot back to the floor, bare, and shifts the other into his lap. "Yes please. It feels more wonderful than I should probably admit." She reaches for her glass and just manages to get her fingers around it without having to sit up at all. "I don't usually let people to touch me much without marks in hand. We could say you would pay to touch /my/ feet. Does that work?" She's tired and getting pampered so she doesn't notice his distraction or the cause of it just yet.
There's something about Loe's glance, the complete lack of expression that meets Halsten's smile, that implies she doesn't recognize him, or maybe that she's just forgotten that a smile offered means a smile should be returned. She blinks--not in any sort of surprise, just a regular blink--and then looks to Raveki, who is obviously enjoying this time with her feet in Hal's lap. It's only after that Loe's lips form a quiet curve that seems more for the barmaid's bare feet than the man who tends them. Her drink arrives, distraction from whatever is already distracting her, and she turns back to the bar to pay her marks and collect her glass.
As Raveki's other shoe is carefully removed, Halsten's eyes are still in the direction of the bar, smile fading, brow furrowing just a little bit. More, as the returned smile is not just delayed but actually absent. Distracted, he keeps up what he's doing, but there's not attention left for both that and the conversation. "Yeah, sure--wait, what?" His gaze suddenly reorienting. "I'm not sure I do quiet all that well. You've met me, haven't you? We've been... acquainted?" Like he couldn't quite come upw ith the word he was looking for, at first.
Finally, when Halsten is so obvioulsy distracted from her admittedly less than scintillating presence, Raveki sits up. "What are you..." she trails off when her eyes find the Headwoman and a tiny frown touches her brow. It looks like concern even though she missed the lack of smile and all that. "That's Loe. Loe buying a drink. You don't mind if we invite her over do you?" Before the words are even out she's dragging her foot out of his hands so she can sit straighter still, gathering up her work to make space for a third at the table. "I imagine," she drawls as she goes about the organizing, "That the lack of ability to keep your mouth shut might have some part in Ch'son nearly breaking your nose."
Loe turns away from the bar, glass in one hand and the other reaching behind her to pull the book out of her pocket. Another glance toward the table reveals Raveki now sitting up and clearing that space, though it doesn't seem to really compute on Loe's face what purpose could be behind the act. After all, how many times a day does she tidy up her own papers? It seems she aims to pass the table, busying herself by maneuvering her ever-requested straw to her lips as she heads toward a quiet corner of the room.
"Yes, of course that's Loe. I do know who she is." There's a slight edge in Hal's voice, faintly flustered. It takes him a moment after Raveki's foot moves to bring his hands back on top of the table, pick up his glass, finish off its contents. "Vlad was stirring shit up. I could have said nothing at all and he still would've hit me." Really. Honest. And then, as Loe approaches, moves to pass, he turns, puts out an arm as though to catch hers, although probably not really close enough to do so. Smiling, again, with less certainty. "Loe, hey. You want company?" That's almost the same as inviting her to sit down, isn't it?
Raveki frowns across at Hal, and shakes her head. "I know you know who she is, I was just noticing her. Out loud." He's flustered and even in her tired, dark smudges under her eyes, coughing into a handkerchief state she narrows her lashes a bit, watching him reach for the blonde. "I'm sure that is precisely how it happened," she murmured, but between volume and timing he might miss it altogther. Louder, brighter, she adds her offer to Hal's. "I made a spot just for you, Loe. Why don't you sit?
The arm, reached out for her, draws the headwoman's steps to a halt. Again, Loe looks at Hal like she doesn't quite understand what he's saying, but at least this time her smile is ready, if a little distant. Raveki's added invitation seems to help it sink in and she looks between the pair and to the empty place at the table. As though someone has flipped a switch, her smile brightens, sunny as ever, and she lets the straw slip from her lips. "Oh thank you. Sure," she answers blithely. "If I'm not interrupting anything." Her eyes go to Vek then--if she's not interrupting Raveki. But since the invitation -was- issued, she lets herself sink into the offered seat. Her book and glass are set on the table and she notices Halsten's drained drink. "Do you need another?" she asks him, looking ready to leap right up again and fetch it herself. Her mouth curls to a smirk. "Or water?" A girl can try, can't she?
"Precisely," cheerily enough; Halsten doesn't miss too much. He eyes the empty place at the table, too. "Of course not," he tells Loe, even if her question was not aimed in his direction. His glass, he picks up, as though surprised to find that it contains no more of whatever beverage it was before. "I do think I need another, but I wouldn't dream of imposing. Make yourself comfortable. I'll be right back--" A pause as he pushes himself out of his own seat. "Raveki? Do you need anything?" Such a polite inquiry. And, once he's determined the answer either way, he makes his way off towards the bar to acquire something, surely to be back in a matter of moments.
In spite of the fact that Raveki feels a bit dazed herself today, she watches that switch flip on Loe's face and it makes a frown appear across her brow. She puts in on hold to smile up at Hal and wave a hand. "No thanks, I still have water so I think I'm all set for now." Then it's to Loe who by now has made herself comfortable. "Everything alright? I mean... other than the obvious." She holds up a finger - one moment please - so she can cough, just one soft bark of sound, into her hand. "You don't look so good." There should be irony there, but instead there is just concern.
Loe is already lifting out of her seat, "I can..." But no, Halsten doesn't want to impose, and so she sits back down. "I'm fine," she tells Raveki as Hal clears off a little. "Just busy." Because busy people always try to hide away in a corner of a bar with a drink and a book. Nevermind that. There's coughing to address. "Has that sickness finally gotten to you?" she frowns with her own concern. "Just when I thought everyone was past it. You should be sleeping. I don't think anything else really helps." She sets her arms on the table, folded in front of her. "At least you're drinking water. Hal tried to refuse. He was just sweating booze with his fever." She might as well tsk afterwards, but her smile does it for her.
With only his drink to get, Halsten returns before too long. Well, what's in his glass is, at least, clear. Given who's carrying it, the chances that it is water are extremely slim. He manages to walk back at about the point of "sweating booze". Which, before he even sits down, has him smiling. "That could be a selling point to the right sort of girl, sweating liquor. Sadly, it didn't seem to work on the company at the time." The last mostly to Vek. He settles back in at the table, takes a long drink of whatever-it-is.
The handkerchief comes out and Raveki coughs again, this time into it with a grimace. The cough is dry and harsh and can't possibly feel good, but she comes out of it with a weak smile in spite of watering eyes. "I'm not sick. I'm just stressed out and I haven't slept well, that's all. If I was going to get sick I would have done it a long time ago." She flicks a hand at the bar, at her business. "Stuff gets passed around, apparently." She smirks up at Hal as he sits, shaking her head and taking a careful sip of water that makes her wince at her cough-rough throat. "Mmm, Loe hardly drinks liquor out of a glass, let alone out of your pores, Hal. Too bad, I guess."
"Yes, I'm sure there's a girl out there somewhere who likes her men coughing, feverish and sweating booze," Loe grins with a roll of her eyes. The grin is almost entirely believable, too. But she doesn't spend much time looking to Halsten. "I do drink liquor. I just don't drink it to quench my thirst. That would be counterproductive." But she does lean in to sip her drink now, one that is not entirely clear. "Last I heard, stress and sleep deprivation tend not to make a person cough. Are you sure you aren't sick? Maybe the illness is just taking advantage of your stress and lack of sleep?"
"Somewhere, out there," Halsten agrees, with a broad gesture to encompass a world much larger than this particular table. "Such a woman. I might have to marry her if I find her." From him, that's a simple enough message: When pigs fly, in other words. "It could just be an allergy," he suggests then, of the coughing, with another drink and then a move to rest his glass on the table. Really impossible to say. None of us are healers, after all."
Speaking of people considering 'coughing' as attractive, or really the lack of those kinds of people, Raveki looks around the room and then scoots her chair so her companions block her view a little better. "I am /not/ sick but if everyone thinks I am that's bad for business. For that reason and that reason only I might consider going to rest for a while. Though laying in bed and staring at the ceiling is all I've been able to do." Even so she manages a little smirk and a roll of her eyes for Hal. "I know of girls who would absolutely adore a man coughing, feverish and sweating boooze. For the right price. Just ask them."
Loe bends in again to sip from her straw, but this time she stays there between pulls of her drink, eyes on the table in obvious though that leaves her silent for a while as her companions talk of Raveki's apparent illness. She should probably pipe up and say something, but she seems to miss the moment that comes and goes, too busy staring blankly at the table, shoulders up around her ears as she leans in. Her glance slowly starts to creep towards Halsten, but gets nowhere near his face before she focuses on the table in front of her again. She's excellent company. Finally, looking at Vek and lifting from her straw, "I'm sorry you're not feeling well. I'd send a healer out but I doubt you'd take anything he'd offer to help you sleep."
"No, they will adore the right price and tolerate the rest," Halsten points out, raising his glass in Raveki's direction as though in a toast, smirking a bit. A drink and he tilts his head towards Loe. "You're awful quiet." That, itself, a bit quieter. Then, going on, "I believe ignoring medical advice seems to be what Istans do best at. I wouldn't dream of denying anyone that achievement. That said, Vek, you should lie down. Better for business and better for you, everything you've been going through."
The table is not that interesting. Trust Raveki, she has washed that tablecloth herself enough times, and it normally only gets this much attention when she is sitting on it. So when Loe finally lifts those green eyes and speaks, Raveki just blinks at her and shakes her head, incredulous. "Are you sure /you/ feel okay? You're more than quiet," half agreeing with and half adding to Hal's assessment. "And don't send any healers out here. If I need something I'll go to the infirmary." Up go two hands, palms out as if the headwoman protested. "Swear." For Hal's little mock toast she just has a smirk and a wink. "If they're good enough you'd never know the difference. Though I only know of one who might take you up on the marriage thing." She goes to sip her water, finds it empty, and sighs. "Since neither of you want my sickly company maybe I actually will go rest. I can't seem to focus enough to tally these figures anyway." Because of her head, not her companions as evidenced by the lack of any numbers beneath the horizontal 'equals' slashes on her papers.
"See?" is all Loe says for Raveki's protestations. It's just as she'd expected. And all this talk of her being quiet... Her smile perks up again and she shakes her head. "Just tired. Just busy and tired. I probably should have stayed in my room and taken a nap or something," she says with a weak, apologetic laugh. Another frown slips across her lips when the innkeeper gets to her feet and it looks for a moment like Loe might offer her help with that tallying, but she just closes her mouth before the words come out and instead smile again and nods. "You -should- rest. If you can. Do you want..." An arm unfolds from the table, book now in her hand, held up and offered. And yes, she has continued to skim just past actually looking at Hal or speaking to him. Again.
With Loe ignoring him, all Hal can do is breeze back into being, well, Hal. "I'm flattered," he informs Raveki with an entirely straight face. "I had no idea you were so fond of me, really. Not that I wasn't enjoying your company. Just... hoping to spare you the worst of what it turns into when you've been trying to ignore it." A sheepish smile. "Maybe if you rest, it won't be so bad. Unless it is just an allergy." Here and there, a faintly worried-seeming glance at the headwoman, but no pressing anything.
"You should rest too," Raveki tosses back at Loe, but the tone gentles the words. A hand lifts to fend off whatever offer Loe's going to make, but it flips over halfway there and she smiles. "If you don't mind actually, the book would be wonderful. Far better to look at than the ceiling." Then she glances down at Hal with brows drawn tight and a shake of her head. "Oh Hal I didn't mean it that way. Thank you for your concern, it's very sweet." Bending, she drops a kiss on the top of his head, then nods toward the curtain that separates the public and private sections of the bar. "If I'm not out and about by tomorrow someone come make sure I'm not dead or kidnapped, K?"
"Take it," Loe insists. "I haven't been able to read it. Not that it's bad, I just keep getting distracted. And I have others." And so the book is handed off and while Raveki turns her attention to Hal, Loe drops her head to drink again, chunks of ice exposed as the last of the liquid is quickly drained away. With her beverage gone, she lifts her knuckles to her mouth, though the straw leaves little to be wiping away. Her eyes lift again to Raveki, her smile hidden behind that lifted hand, and she nods her promise to make sure the barmaid doesn't end up dead, though surely Loe wouldn't be likely to actually make the trip out here just to check.
"Not dead or kidnapped. Check. Will do." Hey, Halsten's likely to be in the vicinity anyway at least. "Don't forget your shoes," he adds after a moment of pause, grabbing them to offer up to Raveki, shift his attention away from that little gesture. "Rest well." Which leaves him, after that, with his glass in hand and... evidently no particular idea what to say to Loe once Raveki goes.
Oh yes, her shoes. Raveki manages to gather them up and her empty glass and the book too. That leaves her papers neatly stacked at the table and maybe it's a sign of just how tired she is that she doesn't even notice as she murmurs, "Thanks guys," and heads to the back. Surely one of the other girls can cart those into the office at some point though.