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<Arkadi> Ah, *my* digs
<willows> Arkadi, Gia, and Malic are enjoying a break in the tension of recent events, spending some time in one of the private lounges of the Bureau of Enforcement. The amenities are sparse here, but there is a sense of tranquillity in purpose and a tangible silence that are rare in Yu-Shan.
<Gia> "Who's dealing this round?" Gia munches delicately on a piece of spicy flatbread taken from an ornate snackbowl in the middle of the table.
<Arkadi> "I am."
Malic raises a hand, but then nods to Arkadi "Alright..if you must."
<Arkadi> "Unless you still tihnk I'm stackign the deck?"
<Malic> "You? No."
Arkadi rolls his eyes and begins tossing cards out
<Gia> "If you ARE stacking the deck, you're pretty bad at it. Judging from the last hand, anyway." She flashes a toothy grin.
Gia smoothly snaps up each card dealt to her as soon as it hits the table.
<Arkadi> "Hey, it's well-established that I have the worst luck in Yu-Shan."
Malic waits for all of his cards to be stacked before him, then slides them over to his chest where he peers at them cautiously...
Arkadi 's cards are all face-down on the table...he finishes dealing before picking them up
<Gia> "Oooh, look at me, I'm Arkadi." Gia giggles. "Next week the Bureau of the Angsty and Unloved is naming a conference room after me!"
<Malic> "You should apply to them. They'd love you."
Gia has been drinking a little more than usual.
<Malic> "But then you'd get fired..mmm..."
Arkadi takes a sip from his beer
<willows> Apparently, the Sidereals have been recognized. One of the Bureau's gods drops a short stack of papers at Arkadi's elbow as he passes through the room.
<Arkadi> "Sticks and stones, red...sticks and stones."
Malic puts a coin down on the table, sliding it forward casually. "You have mail."
<Arkadi> "Aw crap."
Arkadi sets down his hand and looks at the first page
Gia looks at her cards for a long moment before regarding each of the other players. She flips an ambrosia coin into the pot.
<Arkadi> "WHAT?! You've GOT to be shitting me."
<Gia> "Was I right?"
<willows> The papers aren't anything interesting, just routine followups on various reports that Arkadi's submitted recently - and an enquiry on his current whereabouts and activities.
<Arkadi> "See this stack?"
<Arkadi> "This stack is what reporting to 5 bloody gods at the same bloody time results in."
<Malic> "Well that's your fault. Report to one like sensible people do. They're easier to bribe that way."
<Arkadi> "Advice, never ever piss off a powerful god...doubly so if you're dating her at the time."
<Gia> "Awww, that's cute. Ark had a girlfriend once."
<Malic> "That must be easy for you to follow. You know, since you can't date anyone for more then a week before they hate you."
<Malic> "Anyway, Ark, pay up or fold."
<Malic> "You have 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 again, don't you?"
<Arkadi> "That would defeat the purpose fo a poker face, Mal."
Arkadi pays up
<Arkadi> "Actually no, that one lasted about a month and a half."
<Malic> "Thats just your normal face, you know."
<Arkadi> "Your point?"
<Arkadi> "That's right, you haven't GOT one."
Malic yawns and flips another two coins into the pot."
Gia narrows her eyes and plops another two coins into the center of the table.
<Arkadi> "And for the record, it's not always my fault a relationship ends."
<Arkadi> "It was THAT time, yes...but I had a good reason."
Malic idly does card tricks with his hand, disappearing a few of the cards so that he seems to have only two. "I'm sure you did."
<Gia> "She decided she hated you?"
<Malic> "She made fun of you in bed again?"
<Arkadi> "Well, she decided she hated me after I found out she was guilty of gross corruption and gave ehr a chance to turn herself in."
<Gia> "Well, you could always take a page from the Book of Malic and kidnap some girl to make her your concubine." She winks cheekily at Malic.
<Arkadi> "If i ever get THAT desperate, kill me."
<Malic> "I didn't kidnap Ember! I saved her life!"
<Gia> "Sure you did, Mal-- you're a regular angel of mercy, which is why all of her clothing could pass as Realm undergarments. Now come on ladies, this is a card game, not a sewing circle. Are you folding yet, Ark?"
<Malic> "They dont use undergarments in the Realm. And she picked those out.
Malic mutters to himself, jerking his hat down lower on his face.
Gia titters at Malic, nodding knowingly.
<Malic> "Anyhow, for your information, Ember has her own house in the Bazaar. I'm sleeping with the Primata of Holy Pilgrimages."
Arkadi smirks a bit and dumps the required amount...and raises it by double
<Gia> "Why Mal, I didn't know you were religious. How is it in the Holy Land this time of year?"
Arkadi sighs and gulps down some of his beer
<Malic> "I'm not religious, I work in Heaven. And it's slightly warm around here."
Arkadi waiting for Mal to bet, begins leafing through the paperwork and signing on the dotted line
Malic raises an eyebrow at Arkadi and flips a further coin in, raising Ark by one
Gia sips at her drink, and with a giggle doubles Malic's bet. This is becoming a high-stakes game pretty quickly.
Malic pulls an aquamarine and adamant necklace from his pocket and flips it into the pot, raising Gia by about two coins worth. "Don't mind if I use that, do you? It goes with your hair."
<Arkadi> "How sweet...I tihnk I'm gonna throw up."
Gia grins brightly. "By all means, Mally dear." She smacks her lips, eyeing her tumbler with vague suspicion. "You make a strong drink."
<Arkadi> "That would be be *me*, Gia..."
<Malic> "Arkadi made the drinks. Which is why I'm not drinking."
<Arkadi> "I do own a bar, after all."
Arkadi winces as he downs the last of his beer
Gia eyes Arkadi with suspicion. "You better not be poisoning me."
<Arkadi> "The only poision was the crap I jsut drank...piece of advice, avoid any Paragonian beers."
Gia wiggles her eyebrows at Arkadi and gestures at the pot.
<Arkadi> "Hmmm..."
<Malic> "I've had those...they aren't beer. They're...well, I won't mention what they put in that."
Arkadi plunks a rign on the table...one tha tloosk suspiciously similar to the oen Malic was wearing a few moments ago."
Gia grins at the ring. "Oh good, I haven't gotten Osprey a birthday present yet."
Arkadi pulls a bottle of decent Lookshy Stout from out under his chair and mutter "I thought you were just going to give him yourself."
<Malic> "I think he'll like the jacket I got him, after I get it tailored right. Ark's shoulders aren't as broad as Osprey's."
Gia sniffs indignantly at Arkadi. "We're just friends. You know, FRIENDS-- those things you don't have?"
<Arkadi> "I've got 'em...just not up here."
<Arkadi> "Uh-huh, friends...sure."
<Gia> "No, you've got 'em up there." She points to Arkadi's head.
<Malic> "Right. Friends like Venus and Luna."
<Arkadi> "...don't patronize me."
<Gia> "Don't impune me." She glances at Malic. "Are you going to call, or what?"
<Malic> "I'm not impuning you anymore then you impune me. And yes, I'll call."
<Arkadi> "She was talking to me, Mal."
<Gia> "For once, the guy is right."
<Malic> "He was right a few times. He said his name is Arkadi, after all. We assume that's right."
<Gia> "Let's see if he was right about being unlucky. C'mon, Ark, show us your cards."
Arkadi sighs and takes a rathe rlarge swig of the bottle
<Arkadi> "And this is why I bet nothing I don't want to lose."
Gia stands up and does a tipsy little dance. "And this is why I gamble. Fortune favors the brave!"
<Malic> "Bah. Lucky woman. A fluke."
Malic tosses his pair of aces to Gia. "Your turn to shuffle."
Gia sways a little, and turns her patron color. "Er.. And now, I think it's time to go home." She wrinkles her nose. "I feel funny."
<Arkadi> "that would be the 3 shots of rum in eahc one of those you downed."
<Arkadi> "...that was what? number 3?"
<Gia> "I'm NOT drunk." Gia hiccups cutely. "You poisoned me, is all." She meticulously gathers up her winnings. "See you boys tomorrow. You should give me your money more often!"
Gia totters out the door, humming happily.
<Arkadi> "Ohh yeah, plastered beyond beleif."
<Malic> "Beaten by a drunken woman who couldnt count her own cards..."
Arkadi is a little buzzed himself...
Arkadi shrugs "You win some, you lose some...that's cards."
Arkadi fiddles with the bronzish band around his ring finger
<Malic> "Do you wear that for a purpose? Some people do."
<Arkadi> "This? It's an artifact."
<Arkadi> "I'm not married, if that's what you mean."
Malic peers at the little band "That? Interesting."
<Arkadi> "Band of the Alert Watchman."
<Arkadi> "From what I've heard, a few sidereals in the first age used them to track down various criminals, as well as fae and demons."
<Arkadi> "Nothing major, just a little jolt to the ol' crime-fighting centres of the brain, y'know."
<Malic> "I remember something about that, yes. Do you plan to be tracking down fae and demons?"
<Arkadi> "it's good for mortals too...handy thing to hae when you've got to find some sleazebag and give him a little cosmological push."
<Malic> "Ark, you need to branch out in life. It's not all about criminals."
<Arkadi> "Did it ever dawn on you that despite all my bitching, I may genuinely have loved my old job?"
<Arkadi> "And besides, there's more crooks out there than dickheads in the slums...like the people who OWN those slums..."
<Malic> "Vaguely. It isn't like your duties here take all your time. Go fight crime, if you like. But remember, not all criminals are bad folks."
<Arkadi> "I know that. Look, it may ALSO shock you that I beleive in the spirit, not the lette rof the law."
<Arkadi> "I'
<Arkadi> "I've spent my life up until now, dealing with the precise point between good and bad...there's a lot of bleedover between the two lines. I've met supposed crooks who I'd rather have a drink with than some of the watchmen I worked with."
<Malic> "I know. You drink with me all the time."
<Arkadi> "Look, I did the job for one reason...to protect people. Then I get dragged up here and find out that the people take a backseat to the bureaucracy."
<Arkadi> "Should've been a solar."
Arkadi drinks his beer
<Malic> "Everything does. You don't have to participate in it, you know. Just fill out your forms, pay your bribes and keep your head down. You'll get along fine, as long as you don't piss off the Goddess of Theft."
<Malic> "Or the Don of Crime."
<Arkadi> "so you're saying 'keep your head down, don't make waves and accept it'"
<Arkadi> "Incidentally, I've got no problems with those two, they're jsut doing their jobs."
<Malic> "Pretty much how it works. I'm not supposed to be rescuing random Terrestrials and I don't write half the reports I should. None of my trips South are registered. But as long as I keep doing what I should and talk the right way to the Primata, I'm good."
<Arkadi> "That's m problem...doing what we should and doing what we OUGHT aren't the same thing."
<Arkadi> *That's the
<Malic> "Do what you should be, Arkadi. Just do what they want in your spare time. It works."
<Malic> "You're making your job far too all-consuming and complicated."
Arkadi gestures to the pile
Arkadi pulls out a sheet
<Arkadi> "see this?"
<Malic> "No, its facing you."
<Arkadi> "This is a letter of reprimand for doing what they told me."
<Arkadi> "It's been floating in limbo since about 4 months after I got here."
<Arkadi> "A God trafficed with demons. I caught him, red-handed."
<Arkadi> "his pockets were deeper than mine, he got off...I got a pay cut."
<Malic> "It happens. You can't fix heaven."
<Arkadi> "BULLSHIT!"
Malic shrugs. "Ark, it's a terrible way Heaven works. But I don't give a shit which god is sleeping with which demon. I'm concerned for the people down there, in Creation. Them, I can help. Creation, I can fix. Where I don't have to worry about audits and being thrown in a burning cage under a mountain for a thousand years."
<Arkadi> "Let's see...how about that mortal 'pet' that got tortured to death last month? For tripping and spilling a drink on the God of Silk Robes?"
<Arkadi> "I have been working both ends of this since I got here...mortal and heavenly."
<Arkadi> "when the gods up here fuck up...the people down there get it in the shorts."
<Malic> "I help where I can. But unless you plan to wake up the Celestines and have them set about reforming, or get some of the Solars up here, you've got a lifetime of work. And you aren't making a good start."
willows is now known as Sherwood
<Malic> "You better get used to working on the ones that want to change, first. You can't expect to tackle the corrupt Censors and not get audited for wearing the wrong shade of underpants."
Arkadi pinches the bridge of his nose, downs the last of his bottle and scowls
<Arkadi> "Malic...I don't want a voice of reason right now..."
<Arkadi> "I want to bitch about this place..."
Malic shrugs. "You can talk to the Countess of Complaints. She loves that stuff. I don't."
Arkadi gets up
<Arkadi> "I need sleep."
<Malic> "That's one thing you need, yeah. I'll see you next week for the game."
Arkadi looks at the bottle in his hands, and tosses it in a trashbin
<Arkadi> "See you."
Arkadi walks out of the room, looking very, very foul.
Malic shakes his head at Arkadi and calls one of the elementals to clean up the game room as he heads out, meaning to check in with the Lions again, still trying to find someone he can convince to pass him information...
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