There's A Tear In My Beer...

[Toxic Avenger]

Prologue (spoilerized for our sanity ):

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As Rilian is about to pass through the temple doors, an elder voice calls out from the other side of the common room. "Good Evening, Rilian; are you stepping out all alone? A bit risky on a night like tonight, isn't it?"

Rilian turns to look at Brother Pindle, then he sighs and looks out at the streets. "'s only r-risky if you g-got somethin' ta l-lose. And the o-only things I g-got left 'r staying in t-the t-temple." He pulls the hood of his cloak over his head. "Besides, ain't n-nothing on the s-streets that'd k-kill me now that h-hasn't tried b'fore f-fer eight years. An' me throat's dry."

And with that he departs. "So I'll b-be a drownin' me s-sorrows." He adds as he passes through the doors...





Quite some time later...





Well after the remaining Hunters finish planning the next day's assault on the Malachite Fortress, Erica is approached by Katherine, who appears to be quite concerned about something. "Erica, have you seen Rilian? I've been looking all over for him, but I can't find him anywhere. No one else seems to know where he is, either..."


"Rilian? Uh... no, I don't think he's been around."

Erica folds her arms over her chest in thought for a moment.

"Well, that's worrisome. We should go look for him, don't you think?"


Katherine nods and flashes a serious smile. "Indeed, we should." She turns and starts toward the common room. "I mean, I'm sure he can take care of himself and all...but with what's happening out there tonight we can't be too sure, can we? Besides, I can't help but worry for him after what he said earlier..."


"All right, then we should get looking. I'm worried, too. If he goes off and does any of the stuff he talked about..."

She trails off, and shakes her head.

"Where do you think we should look?"


"Well...the nearest taverns, I guess. If he's gone anywhere else, I doubt that we'll find him..." The two young women enter the common room and continue on toward the temple's front doors. Brother Pindle is also in the common room, tending to the fire for the moment.

Katherine stops and smiles at the priest. With a respectful nod, she asks, "Good Evening, Brother Pindle...have you seen Rilian?"

Brother Pindle looks up. "Rilian? He left quite a while ago...seemed to be a bit upset as well. I advised him against going out all alone tonight, but..." He sighs sadly, and then continues. "...he more or less waved it off...said he has nothing to lose, except what’s staying here in the temple. I heard him say more as he walked off, but I couldn’t make it all out. Something about a drowning by the sound of it, but I'm really not sure..."

"Hmm..." Kate glances at Erica with a slightly raised eyebrow.


Erica shoots a worried look in Kate's direction.

"...I think we should go look by the lake. I really hope I'm being too literal about this..."


Kate nods as she lays a hand on Erica's arm, and then looks toward Brother Pindle. "Could he have been talking about 'drowning his sorrows', or something like that?"

Brother Pindle's eyebrows furrow in thought for just a moment. "...That seems to be most likely, now that you mention it. I saw him head off to the left once he got to the street. If he were heading straight to the lake from here, it would be much quicker to take a right first."

Kate smiles at Erica reassuringly as she gives her arm a gentle squeeze. "That doesn't sound quite so bad now, does it? We should still look for him, though; I'm sure he really needs a friend or two right about now."


Erica lets out a sigh and seems visibly relieved, if still a little concerned.

"Yeah... we should get going. It wouldn't be right to leave him alone right now, and we've got ourselves a fair few bars to peak into if we're going to find him... eesh, this could be a long night. Wanna try... oh, let's see... the Morkoth, first?"


After thinking on the matter for a moment, Katherine nods and says, "Sounds like a good plan, Erica." She turns to the priest. "If anyone comes looking for us, Brother Pindle, would..."

The priest answers the unfinished question. "Yes, I'll let them know what you're up to. Good luck, young ladies; and do be careful out there."

"Of course we will." Kate replies with a grin as she puts her arm in Erica's - running to catch up with her first if necessary - and heads for the doors at a rather brisk pace. "Off we go, then! Sleep can wait 'til tomorrow, right...?"

Erica and Katherine head off into the dark of Cauldron's night in search of the wayward Rilian. At Kate's suggestion, they stop to poke their pretty heads into any taverns that lie along the way, but Rilian remains nowhere to be seen. Eventually, the two ladies make their way to the Morkoth and step in through its front doorway.

The tavern is still far from deserted at this time of the night, but the dim lighting makes it a bit difficult for Erica to see the other side of the main room. A familiar hand rests on the paladin's shoulder. "Your instincts were spot on, Erica. It seems we should have just gone straight here at the start." Katherine says with a smile of relief as she nods toward the far side of the tavern, where a cloaked figure can be seen sitting at the bar. The raven-haired bardess starts walking in that same direction; with a sly grin and a subtly enticing tone to her voice, she adds, "Do you want anything? I'm buying..."



OOC:

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Finally, the moment we have all been awaiting for...er...I dunno, a few days at least...?

Have at it, boys and girls - not to mention Yours Truly, though I'll do my best to restrain myself for a while (Kate has to order the drinks and/or food anyway) as I have been getting the lion's share of action lately on the main IC thread... )

Also, this may be an IC thread, but feel free to make OOC comments here as well (spoilers are probably best for those); I'm not going to make an OOC thread for an IC 'sub-thread' that will just get pasted into the main thread anyway...


Taren: If I remember correctly, Rilian has the Goggles of Supreme Spottiness at this time, so even if he's totally plastered out of his mind then there might still be a decent chance of spotting the girls before they reach him - provided that he is actually wearing them, of course. Even if you decide that he doesn't see them first, feel free to start out with a description of what the girls might see as they approach.

PhoeKun: Of course, if you see this thread before Taren, don't let that stop you from posting first.

[Taren]

Rilian took a sip of his drink, and exhaled. He didn't quite understand it. Keegan hadn't been much of a figure in his life. Rilian had only met him 3 times, and the gnome had done nothing to help him when as a boy he had been thrust out onto the streets.

So why did he feel so bad about him dying?

He sighed, then heard the two girls walk in. He looked up as the bardess smiled at him "I gotta d-drink 'ready. W-why'r you two here? T-this isn'a good bar. 's a dirty j-joint." He stared down at his third drink of the evening, feeling a bit better with the two of them around, but not really showing it.

[PhoeKun]

"We were worried, Rilian. You're right, this isn't a nice place. Especially when you're all alone..."

Erica offers a little smile, walking up next to him and resting her hand on the table right next to his own.

"Do you think we could get you to come some place a little nicer? The drinks will be free, and... honestly, if you're feeling bad about something, a place like this is only going to make it worse, you know?"

She looks at him hopefully, but not forcefully, having a good guess at what's going through his head and preferring to help him sort things out at his own pace.

[Toxic Avenger]

In reply to Rilian's question, Katherine simply smiles slyly and says, "I can't sleep." In and of itself the answer is not untruthful, though it does not tell the entire story. While Erica takes care of that particular detail, Kate walks up next to Rilian on the opposite side, giving him a friendly rub on the back as she makes her way around. After Erica has made her initial 'pitch', Kate gently rests her hand on Rilian's arm for a moment and smiles reassuringly as she adds, "Either way, you don't have to be alone anymore..."

However, the mention of 'free drinks' brings a particular thought to Katherine's mind: Sure, the drinks may be free at the temple, but I didn't see any mead there... Mmm...mead... The thought reminds Katherine that she hasn't experienced the sublimely sweet taste of mead for at least two or three days now, so she sets out to get the barkeep's attention - which unsurprisingly, does not take very long.

OOC:

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Taren, you're up!

[Taren]

Rilian looked up at Kath, then over at Erica, then back at Kath, then back at Erica. His mind was already a bit muddled from the drink, but he could recognise when he was being double-teamed. There wasn't any point fighting two opponents to his desire to be alone... they were already flanking him anyway. Plus, free drinks were a good incentive. At Katherine's last statement, however, he started to laugh. "Hah!" he took another deep swig of the watered-down beer in his cup. "We 's a-always alone, K-katharine. It's tha... the h-human... wozzaword... condi...condat? Ah, 's the human conditerion." He sat up, straightening his back and clearing his head. When he next spoke it was clear and unstuttered, as if he was quoting something. "'Lovers and comrades will come and go, but in birth, life, and death, we are alone.' I read t-that inna book once, on me da's shelves 'fore they took 'em all." He slumped back down. "B-but I'm glad yer both here. 'm sorry if I r-ran off. G-guess I jess didna want to see Keygan d-die in alla this." He sighed.

"'e wasn't even m-much 've a person I knew. No reason fer me ta..." he looked away. "H-hey... what was it like fer tha two of you, growin' up?" He asked, on a random tangent.

[Toxic Avenger]

Katherine raises an eyebrow as Rilian slurs drunkenly talks about the human 'condition'. After he repeats the quote from the book, she shrugs and nods begrudgingly while deciding to hold back her own thoughts on the matter for now - while her experiences may have taught her differently, those experiences were not nearly the same as his... So...knowing full well that it's usually best to let frustrations out rather than keeping them in, Katherine listens while he unloads.

But...Rilian unexpectedly turns around with a question, and it catches Kate a bit by surprise. A chuckle follows, accompanied by a smirk and another raised eyebrow. "What was it like...? But my dear Rilian, I am still growing up! Ask anyone who's known me long enough, and they'll tell you..." Having bought herself some time, Katherine turns away long enough to order something from the bartender, and then she turns back to Rilian and Erica. "Seriously though...I come from a family of seven, so there really never is a dull moment in the house. And on the rare occasion when such a moment threatens to show up, at least one of us can be counted on to take care of that..." She grins mischievously, and then adds, "It hasn't always been fun, of course...and...there was a time when it was downright confusing for me to say the least, but all in all it hasn't been too bad..."

The bartender comes back with two mugs, which he places down on the table in front of Kate. After she thanks him with a smile and a gold piece, the bartender hurries off to another customer. Turning back to Rilian and Erica, Katherine continues. "So that's the short version..." She takes one of the mugs and pushes it over to Erica. "Or do you all want the long one...?"

[PhoeKun]

Erica rests her head in her hands and sighs when she sees Kate order more drinks.

"Oh for the love of... which part of "free drinks" was so hard to understand?"

Her shoulders sag as she resigns herself to being stuck in the bar a little while longer.

"Long story, short story, it's your story for the telling if you want it. Me, there's not much of a story at all. It's boring to talk about being cared for and always getting what you want... and that wasn't just growing up, either. Only recently... when we suddenly started running out of money. It's weird. Daddy can't figure out the reason for it. That's part of the reason I'm out there with the rest of you. It's... well, I want to help people more. But it's why I'm taking money. And I need to figure out why we're not making money any more all of a sudden. I know we spend a lot on ourselves, but... we do a lot of good stuff with it too, you know?"

She looks away from the others. Where had that come from?