Snippet #1509299

It was perhaps fortunate for everyone involved that Talae left the bar before the dancing started. This was mostly due to the fact that had she seen her sister being intoxicated without full knowledge and then dragged up to dance on a bar, there would probably have been a fight, and she was still sober enough that it would have been no contest. It was also, however, partially due to the fact that she could probably out-dance any of them. There was, as she had always maintained, more than one way to get close enough to a person to kill them, and stealth wasn’t always an option. When something else was necessary… well, that required an entirely different skill set, now didn’t it? Dancing was one of the more innocuous skills involved.

As it was, she did not fight and did not dance, but instead left the bar after hammering back just enough to get a nice buzz going, perhaps-foolishly entrusting her sister to Beelzes’s… care. She was never one for large social gatherings, in all honestly, the louder the worse. Nobody wanted their buzz killed, so she simply chose to leave. She certainly wasn’t going to say that they didn’t deserve it, though watching Kisikoni growing steadily more loose was an interesting process. She made a note to herself to prepare some kind of hangover remedy this evening and distribute it tomorrow.

She spent a while simply walking, alert of course to anyone that might try and sneak up on her. At one point, she caught sight of Neira and Thanaros, but left them alone. She didn’t know either particularly well, anyway, and honestly what she did know of the nightmarian suggested that she might be better off keeping her distance.

Really, she just wanted the opportunity to sleep, but her mind was a bit too restless to allow that at the moment, so she was seeking someplace silent as an alternative. At the very least she needed some time to reflect on the battle. This was something that she always did, usually as soon as possible. She’d go over everything she could remember, look for things that were done right and wrong, then process all of it and let it go. Regrets were pointless and she did not keep them, but there was always the opportunity to learn from the past, successes and failures alike.

More than anything, what surprised her was how easy it was to be… herself these days. Granted, she was overly serious, but she did manage to slide in the odd dry joke every now and then, and she certainly wasn’t forced to act quite so out-of-the-ordinary as she had been in other instances (mostly the same ones that had required the ‘entirely different skill set’). It was… almost pleasant, except for the part where her life was at daily risk, as were the lives of the people she fought with.

That was new, too, of course, the part where she cared much one way or another what happened to anyone but herself and her sister. Talae wasn’t certain it was the best of changes to be going through when they all might die at any second, but at this point, she doubted there was much she could do about it anyway.

She thought she’d found an unoccupied spot, but no, Kisikoni and the Cap- General were there. Talae hesitated for a moment, contemplating the wisdom of joining them, but eventually she shook her head and started forward again. She did not particularly desire to interrupt, after all.

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Alistair had been intent on enjoying the atmosphere until it got much too rowdy, but that was about to be impossible, considering the small flock eyeing him as though he were a slab of particularly-tasty meat. No, he was most definitely going to avoid this. Still, there was one thing he had to take care of before he vacated the premises. “Pardon me, barkeep, but if you could deliver another round to the table over there-“ he pointed to the one Saresh and his impromptu harem occupied- “and tell them it’s from the lamia gentleman, I’d appreciate it.” He slid over the necessary coin and searched for the exit.

It might not have been the right moniker to use, calling Saresh a gentleman, but he did owe the lamia for helping with his wing earlier, and that should make them even, right? Close enough for Alistair, who while usually quite fastidious in his dealings with others was presently rather desperate to get away from the press of people.

Spotting what he needed, he took his exit as surreptitiously as possible, careful not to jostle his still-tender wing in the process. A good thing, too, as this was usually the point in the evening where men started to harass him also, and that was even more awkward than dealing with female harpies, if such a thing were possible. Whichever of the dead gods had thought it amusing to curse his bloodline with such obscure gender was probably better off dead.

Once outside, he noted the rain and sighed. There really had been rather a lot of it lately, though they had been in different locations each time. Still, he had not remembered this season being quite so bad… ah well, no matter. It was not as though he could fly at the moment anyway, so maybe it was better that the sky taunted him not with flying weather.

He did not much enjoy walking, but nor did he particularly wish to be found by any of the flock, and thus he took to ambling along rather sedately. Perhaps he would seek shelter from the weather at a quieter establishment. Not that much would be open around now, but… well he was sure to find some way of occupying his time.