Alcohol: Cause of and Solution to All of Life's Problems [completed?]

[8sins]

WHO: Hakkai and everyone who responded to this (or whoever wanders in on them).
WHAT: A meeting for discovering the true intentions of Rivelata leaders.
WHERE: Tavern attached to an inn, Market District
WHEN: Day 2, Late afternoon

Comments

[causticguy]

House had spent most of the day watching. He'd watched the way people moved, the way they talked, interacted. He'd watched the expressions on their faces, studied the way they dressed, the things they carried in their arms.

This was, in part, spurred by his desire to find out what the hell was going on in this weird place, and in part simply pragmatics: after walking so much the day before, his first order of business had been to tax his leg as little as possible.

Even still, he'd had to take a lot more vicodin than he'd have liked considering that he knew he needed to conserve the few remaining pills he had.

He'd found himself a shaded spot to sit a short way down the street from a tavern near the market place, and he'd been there for several hours, his mind working silently over possibilities and potential explanations, each as unlikely as the next. He'd discovered that it was easy to spot the people who were newcomers here-they stood out like over-bright colors against a background of human dullness. But one thing he hadn't seen before…was a man with a tail.

House frowned as he walked by and craned his neck so as to follow him with his eyes. Really, he was just watching the tail.

Pushing himself up from his seat, House winced, drew a deep breath, and limped after the tail, glancing up at the sign above the tavern door before he entered. The light inside was dim but it only took him a moment to spot the tail (now tucked neatly back against the wall) sitting with another man who'd already amassed a small collection of empty bottles on the table in front of him.

There was a table open beside the two, one close enough to allow House a fair view of the unlikely appendage (and also to hear the two men's conversation). He limped over, hooked his cane on a chair back, and sat down, eyeing the tail out of the corner of his eye.

[waywardwings]

"Zidane," he replied shortly, settling in his seat and immediately noting the empty bottles at the table. "Have you been waiting long?" He supposed it wouldn't be that suprising; even with Zidane's good sense of direction the town was still very much an unfamiliar place, so the others would likely be later in coming. If he happened to notice the nearby man watching him, he was doing a good job of concealing it. Zidane would be a rich man if he got a thousand gil for every stare he'd been given since arriving here.

[8sins]

Hakkai shook his head and pushed the bottles towards the edge of the table, hoping that a waitress would get the hint and take them away. "Not particularly, and I've been observing while I waited."

Looking Zidane up and down, he was relieved that no sort of evil aura was eminating around him. The tail did seem rather odd, but Hakkai wasn't really one to talk. He'd met much stranger people.

"I don't suppose you've had any luck with the locals either," he began, hoping he hadn't been staring too long.

[waywardwings]

"Not much," Zidane shrugged and shook his head. He'd been dealing with the locals as little as possible, apart from when he was making off with their pocket change, and he'd only really spoken in length to the innkeeper at the place he'd stayed overnight. "Ask them anything and they all pretty much have the same responses: they love their queen and they love their god, and they don't mind being kept here."

Normally, Zidane might've been happy that they were happy, but under these circumstances it just made him uneasy. Still pointedly ignoring the staring, he continued, "I think you're right with what you said. More's going on here than meets the eye."

[8sins]

Hakkai sighed. "I thought as much. The waitress told me that I was "blessed" just for getting an opportunity to talk with the Queen. If the girl herself isn't brainwashed, her subjects sure are."

There was a man at the next table who was definitely listening in, which Hakkai wasn't too pleased with. The man didn't feel evil, but sometimes neutral could be just as bad.

As he spoke, he scanned past the man, who he now noticed had a cane, to the rest of the tavern. No one else seemed familiar yet, which was a little disheartening. He also briefly wondered if it had been safe to leave Hakuryu up in the room.

[waywardwings]

"Blessed?" Zidane echoed in disbelief. His talk with the queen hadn't been a particularly blessed experience; more of a half-hour or so of angry scribbling in his journal. More than once he'd almost snapped his pen in frustration. He'd calmed down a great deal since then, at least, but he still resented being kept here.

"In that case, it might be an idea to be a little more quiet when we talk about her," But instead, he raised his voice slightly, so the guy with the cane would clearly hear. "In case people are eavesdropping."

[causticguy]

It took only a moment for House to mark the two men as fellow newcomers to the city-the way they held themselves and the way they talked was enough even without the reference to "the locals." All right, maybe the conversation would be worth listening in on after all.

House wanted a glass of scotch, but instead ordered a beer when the waitress came past his table--better to start the night off slow. Then, trying to stretch his bad leg into a less cramped pose, he leaned his elbows against his table and listened.