Not Drunk Yet [M]

[Lowen Thorn]

"Sounds like you bring trouble anywhere you go," he mused. "Though I'm surprised - I would think a healer would be able to fix herself up a little better than that."

Amaya closed his eyes and sighed, the line between trading joking insults and being mean was a thin one that he never quite knew if he was crossing. "Sorry," he under his breath before topping off the bottle of rum. "That came out the wrong way."

[Remi]

She couldn't keep from lauging at his intial comment; "Trouble makes things that much more interesting!" At least, she thought so; she was pretty certain she'd go insane if she had to deal with the perfectly mundane on a daily basis. She really didn't think of life as a lot more than a game that she played to win; kind of like a never-ending round of poker. Yeah, if she were to ever try to settle down anywhere permanently, she'd be the one that was raising hell and breaking every possible law she could, just out of sheer boredom.

Had she even bothered to explain shit about the nature of what she did, she probably would have taken exception to his poorly-thought-out barb. Even though it was a blow to her ego, which caused her to draw a quick breath between clenched teeth and grumble under her breath. She knocked back another slug of whiskey before speaking again.

"No, it's fine; you didn't say a damn thing wrong. Ears aren't the easiest damn thing to patch up. I'm not the type of healer most people know shit about; yeah, I can sew you back together and simple shit like that, but so can almost anyone else. What I really do is lift curses and fix peoples' spirits when there's something wrong with them. That's why I take contracts, can't really go up to any old bastard you see and ask, 'hey, is your stupid ass cursed? Let me help you.'"

It was an extremely short explanation of her job, but the details could be kind of confusing to most other people she tried to explain it to- and that was while she'd been perfecly sober.

She groaned in an entirely feigned distraught manner when she realized her whiskey was gone; reaching out and grabbing the strange, clear bottle and uncorking it, shrugging, lifting it to her lips and tentatively tasting the iridescent fluid. A confused blink was coupled with a slow, pleased smirk: it was rather difficult to describe and entirely unlike anything she'd ever drank before. Smooth and quite bitter, like good liquer should have been; she couldn't quite pinpoint whether that was some kind of exotic fruit she tasted, or maybe some sort of herbs? Too complicated for her unsophisticated pallette. But what made it interesting was that, rather than having a fiery burn at the end, it was like having frost coat her mouth and throat. "Fuck, this shit's interesting. You have to try it."

[Lowen Thorn]

The more he drank the more interested Amaya became in the woman and her story. Any sober night, he would have surely blown her off by now, if not before the shop, then at least by the time she got to that boring explanation of her job. He knew it was just the alcohol, but he felt the need to oblige anyway. It was the same feeling a man gets when he wants to fuck and doesn't have anything too pretty around, or when a young boy needs a boost of confidence.

"You sure can handle your booze," he said as he lightly took the clear bottle out of her hands. He gave it a solid, curious eye, before shrugging off any doubts he may have had. "Down the hatch, I guess," he whispered delightfully before plowing the substance into his throat.

[Remi]

Things were definitely taking another fairly interesting turn. Remi had decided that the man wasn't an intolerable fuckwit like she'd first assumed and was fairly intrigued by, even interested in Amaya. She was no stranger to the magic that alcohol worked; which definitely factored into everything. If she had still been sober, she most likely would have jumped the proverbial ship already; she normally didn't have much tolerance or patience for the living, generally sticking around just long enough to use someone for whatever she could get from them and preferring to leave before they even realized that she was on her way out the door.

"Yeah," She finished with an uncaring shrug, "It's normally pretty fucking boring," Which was nothing but a bold-faced lie; but she didn't see the sense in spilling it about some of the strange shit she'd seen and dealt with on more than one occasion. "What about you? I bet you've done and seen some interesting shit?" She was genuinely curious.

"So can you," She grinned, grabbing the remaining strange bottle off the table, uncorking that one and taking a long swallow, grimacing a bit at the unexpected, strange sweetness. Maybe it would have  been a better idea to grab one of the two others she'd seen somewhere in the room; but she was too damned lazy to want to search for them. The green shit would do, for now. Even though she was quite a way from being drunk, she was decently buzzed now and quite at ease. Maybe a bit later on, she'd even offer to share some of her narcotic herbs; those were always fun, too.

[Lowen Thorn]

"You could say that," he replied absently, taking another swig before his face bunched up from the surprise of the after taste. And it true, Amaya definitely had seen some shit in his day. One could only speculate some of the wild times he had running with the Brotherhood, his old street gang in Serendipity. Horrible shit, actually. Too much for him, and maybe that's why he was here now - but he was just a young kid back then, and wanted to change the world.

He changed nothing and now he was drinking with some strange woman in a closed shop, hiding from an angry mob and a shit stain of a bounty running the streets, up for the taking by anyone else who wanted to make some quick coin.

But, all that was dismissive, because the woman clearly meant his time as a bounty hunter. There were some comical times, sure, but mostly uneventful in his time in Thanatos. He typically went after petty criminals, and they tended to be alot weaker than Thanatos' reputation presented itself with.

[Remi]

"Then, why don't you tell me about some of them?" It wasn't a demand, but more of an attempt to satisfy a bit of curoisity, not that she exactly expected an answer. Hell knew she'd do her best to deflect the exact kind of question she asked, at any rate. Tales of adventure and exploits were something she thought were pretty damned interesting.

She attempted to drink more of that green shit, but changed her mind; swallowing hard to keep it down as she re-corked the bottle and set it on the floor. She thought that shit was disgusting; though that was probably just her distaste for sweet things. Though she didn't really want to get up yet, she did so, for the sake of locating the remainder of the booze she'd found earlier. It wasn't too difficult of a task, but it did take a bit longer than she wanted as  she wandered around the room, digging through shit that lined the shelves until she triumphantly retrieved what she'd been looking for; one of at least a few extremely dusty, red bottles filled with a promisingly dark-colored fluid.

In the back of her mind, she still hoped that no one else had gone after Red yet- and that the lout hadn't ended up locked up; that way whenever they got around to it, they could knock the living hell out of him again.

She cracked the bottle open as she began to make her way back to her chair once again, taking a drink to get rid of the aftertaste of that foul, sweet shit; this was much better, fairly spicy and interesting. Once she made her way back around to her chair again, she flopped gracelessly down and flung her legs over the arm, stretching like a rather satisfied cat as she picked up the cards again, idly shuffling them another couple of times for good measure. "You in the mood to play; the higher the stakes, the better?"

[Lowen Thorn]

Amaya eyed the bottle of green she sat on the floor with half-amusement, and then to her as she wandered about the room searching for more alcohol. For a general store, there sure was a lot of stash laying around - and the thought of them coming back to it empty-handed but with no goods stolen only gave him a quick laugh.

"What are the stakes, then?" he asked as the woman shuffled the cards, ignoring her other question. "Red's still out there, so I'm afraid I'm a little broke at the moment."

[Remi]

For a moment, Remi had to give pause to consider exactly what kind of merchant the shopkeeper might have been. It was a rather curious thought; based on their wares, they had to be at least reasonably well-off. However, as far as she could tell, unless someone didn't approve of said shopkeeper drinking at their residence, maybe semi-shady dealings took place here at times? That thought was actually pretty amusing and she could only imagine the keeper's expression when they came back to find their liquor raided.

She wasn't entirely surprised that Amaya had decided not to answer her other question and it damn sure wasn't anything to get pissed over.  "Yeah, he is; I don't have much left either right now, but it's no matter,"  She shrugged. When there really wasn't any coinage to wager with, she could come up with one other way to sort of make things high-stakes and she'd done it once before, a few years back. "Hmm... let's make it even riskier than just wagering coins. We'll decide what our own winning terms are, but you'll set my terms for losing and vice versa," She stated with a smirk.

The last time she'd proposed anything of the sort, the lady she'd been playing with had lost and had been made to run through the entire healers' academy, wearing nothing but her own shoes- and a pan on her head, instead of a hat.

[Lowen Thorn]

Amaya almost choked up the liquor that was halfway down his throat. Setting the losing terms for each other? Well, that certainly sounded like trouble. He could only imagine what this woman would want out of him if he would by chance lost. Shit. What did she want? He couldn't help it when his eyes widened as he ran through all the different scenarios. She didn't want money, then what?

Oh well. No sense in backing down, especially since he had some time to kill.

"Sounds interesting enough, but let's start with the winnings," he said. "If I win, you have to help me catch Red again, but then I get the bounty and you go about your day. And if you win?"

[Remi]

Grinning like a contented cat as she swallowed more of her strangely spicy brew, Remi may have seemed to be laughing at her own private joke-- and in a way, she was. I wonder what I should make you do if I win? Oh, it won't be anything too horrible. Hmm... something that will amuse me. An idea began to formulate in her mind, that grin verging on being downright malicious, perhaps even a touch sinister as she made a thoughtful sound in the back of her throat. I don't know what the fuck you might want from me if I lose, so this is going to be interesting. She arched an eyebrow at that thought and snorted a laugh. Conjecture wasn't getting her anywhere, so she'd just have to wait until he decided to tell her.

She wasn't overly concerned, simply because she enjoyed high-risk situations. Once Amaya finally delivered his conditions, she knocked back another slug of her swill and pondered the situation for a moment, before swinging her feet back to the floor again and nodding. "Vicious, but I can live with your winning conditions."

So, he played businesslike, but dirty? She actually liked that, especially the way he twisted it to where she'd in no way profit from their endeavors. Leaning forward, an almost predatory gleam entering her eye as that grin grew broader, she nodded. She was going to work off the whole Red situation as well-- but she was damn sure going to have some fun with it. "Since we're both going after Red, my winning conditions involve him, too," She trailed off for a second with a laugh, "If I win, you're going to help me take down Red-- only I get all the profit. I won't hear you complain about it even once and you'll be wearing the ugliest, most scandalous dress I can find here for you. Because it would amuse me!"

Were her winning conditions a bit harsh? They might have been, but she  she didn't think they'd damage his pride too much, but she could have been wrong. It was supposed to be a high-stakes match, after all.  At least, she'd be able to get one hell of a laugh in the meantime. "So, what are the losing conditions?"

[Lowen Thorn]

Suck my dick.

That's what he wanted to say, more from her "winning" conditions rather than anything he could dream up. The dress he could deal with but helping her catch that battle-axe baboon and give her all of the earnings? No chance in hells, but he could play.

His lips curled into a tipsy and devious little smile. "I accept," he said as he easily took down more of the booze. "When you lose, you have to wear that same dress, and lay with Red while wearing it before I haul his ass in. "

He took another swig.

"Unless of course you'd rather join him in his cell."

[Remi]

Go fuck a donkey, Was what she probably would have said, if she was sober. She had no problem with wearing a scandalous, ugly dress- hell, she was certain that if she lost, she knew how she'd twist his rather devilish losing conditions to suit her better. Lay with Red? It'll look stupid as all hell to just lay in the street, but that's no big deal. So just lay down, or take a nap? You didn't say I'd have to fuck him, after all.

"You cheeky bastard, you know I accept, because I'm going to win!" That grin grew even wider as she tilted her head, as though pondering something. If he was going to try to fuck with her like that, well, "Are you going to join in, or just watch?" Damn, but it was hard to ask that with a straight face.

Drumming her fingers on the table, it took her a few seconds to decide what she wanted his losing conditions to be; gods, it was hard as hell to figure out what might have been "going too far" and she might very well have been doing just that, even if Amaya was confident that he'd win. "Since we're both using Red and that dress as our bargaining tool... when you lose, while I'm collecting the pay and you're wearing the dress, you're going to very loudly and obnoxiously make it clear in every possible way that you just can't spend another day without poor Red; you've fallen for him and have realized that you need him to show you what it means to be a real woman!"

That was even more difficult to get out without laughing; she was pretty sure that she'd probably bitten a hole in her cheek while she'd tried to come up with the most absurd losing conditions as she could. Of course, there was the distinct possibility that she might have been punched in the face for suggesting anything of the sort (it wouldn't have been the first time,) but it was well worth it.

[Lowen Thorn]

Oh gods, this is priceless.

Clearly Remi was getting just loose enough with her alcohol to misunderstand what he said, unless she had been itching to jump Red's bones from the start. A smile was on his face, sly, smug, and flooded with anticipation all at the same time.

"Is that it?" he asked grinning as he moved closer to partake. "You're on-hell, I may do that anyway just for fun. But I do gotta say, I didn't think you'd be so eager to fuck a man you kicked in the balls."

[Remi]

You son of a whore! Remi shook her head and sighed; it was apparent that she'd completely misjudged Amaya's perceptiveness and deviousness. Or perhaps she'd met someone who could read her quite clearly. Either way, she wasn't going to dwell on that for very long, cutting the cards to show that she hadn't stacked the deck, "I think I'd even be willing to pay to see that," She admitted with a shit-eating grin.

Cutting the cards and getting ready to deal the first hand, she couldn't believe she'd walked straight into a beginners' mistake. Even if she was just loose enough to read either too much or not enough into the terms, she had accepted them. That meant there was no backing out now. "I'm not going to fuck Red, or be locked up," She announced with a great deal of bravado, "Because there's no fucking way I'm going to lose." Even if she resorted to cheating, she didn't plan on losing; especially since neither of them had said anything against playing dirty.

That cockiness might have came across as carefree and even lazy, but it didn't mean she wasn't above throwing a quick punch if he kept pushing her- but that would have been quite fun, anyway! For the moment though, for the sake of at least trying to start their game, she did her best to screw her face into as placid an expression as she could pull off, "Since I dealt, you get to go first. I trust that you know how to play poker."

[Lowen Thorn]

Amaya's grin only broadened as he watched her realization. Of course, he would never want her to actually lay with Red; he wouldn't wish that on his worst enemy, but it was amusing to see her squirm to say the least.

Her cocky attitude didn't fool him one bit, either. If she was so sure she was going to win, then she was probably going to cheat. Hell, maybe he'd even let her win given the stakes, but that all depended on the amount of alcohol he had at that point and whichever way it swayed him.

"I've played a time or two," he smirked. "How do you suppose we do this without anything to put on the table? I don't know if I'd be so willing to play strip with someone I've just met."

[Remi]

It might have been strange, but with pride and such high stakes on the line, Remi was planning on doing something that she usually didn't do: refrain from cheating. She'd gambled a time or five without cheating before, but that had usually been just to prove that she could do it. This time, it was only because it would make victory taste that much better. Like with everything else she did though, she was definitely going to play for blood and enjoy every minute of it.

"Good, I wouldn't want to be forced into teaching you," She drawled lazily, putting on that bored air yet again, yet clearly relieved. (She was a spectacularly shitty teacher who didn't have any patience for mistakes- and would probably punch a potential student every time they fucked up splendidly.) "Oh, come now," That phrase was punctuated with a teasing wink, "Don't tell me you'd swoon from embarrassment if you have to take off your boots!" Leaning forward and lowering her voice to a faux conspiring whisper "Gods damn, you'd never live that fucking scandal down; word would spread far and wide!" If the semi-repressed laugh didn't give her away, nothing would. She couldn't say for certain why, but she did enjoy fucking with Amaya every chance she got.

Leaning back again though, she rifled through her pouches. She didn't carry game pieces or tokens with her, but other things that might have worked; little stones -even though they aided her work, they were very cheap, easy to find and she didn't really think even a blind thief would try to steal them. Finally, she placed said tools on the table: a handful of smooth, roughly thumb-sized white quartz, black obsidian and brown agate stones on the table, separating them into two equal piles. "If you don't want to strip, we can use these. I'd say, hmm... agate could be worth the least and quartz is worth the most. I'll leave it up to you."

Remi just didn't care either way, not really; she'd played strip poker a few times (twice with friends that she'd wanted to embarrass and once with -of all things- a very drunk client; though at that time, they'd both been bored to tears, had good booze at their disposal and she might have used just a few too many narcotic herbs for her own good then, too.) At the same time, she could see the point in using the stones to bet with as well.

[Lowen Thorn]

"You would only be so lucky," he mused. "And I'm not that popular around here, so word spreading would be the least of my concerns."

Amaya's eyes followed the stones as she stopped them onto the table. They looked like rocks she dug out of the dirt, so of course they were using them to play a drunken round of poker. He took another swig, thought over how he ended up in the situation again, and picked up his cards to glance over them.

His eyes drifted between the stones and his cards, and then finally he looked up at Remi with deadpan eyes. "Three quarters then," he said, scooping three up and tossing them in between the two "companions."

[Remi]

"What a shame; here I was, hoping you were secretly the swooning type!" It was supposed to come across as something of a faux-pout and a croon, something that any woman should have been able to do with no problem. And she did pull it off in a rather incredible fashion: that "pout" only served to make her look simultaneously constipated and pissed-off, while the croon simply seemed half-assed at best.

She wasn't about to use her more expensive stones to gamble with; amethysts, opals and pearls were more likely to roll off the table and get lost, so it had made sense to her. Digging into another pouch, she withdrew a small bundle of leafy herbs and yellowish flowers, popped a couple of leaves into her mouth and set the remainder of those herbs on the table, enjoying the sharp, pungent, almost astringent taste: this herb in particular wasn't that interesting- it was a very mild stimulant; most often used when one expected to drink themselves into oblivion and would need to ward off a bitch of a hangover.

While she waited for Amaya to decide if he was wagering or not, she studied her hand fairly closely for a few moments. In the back of her mind, she poured over the circumstances that had led up to this particular situation; which was simultaneously infuriating and strangely amusing. A nod was offered when Amaya announced his wager. Nothing in his expression or tone gave away if he was bluffing or not- which was good.  "I see-- and raise you one more," Her expression and tone were composed and flat as she pushed four agates into the ante pile.

[Lowen Thorn]

"Good gods lady, are you okay?"

He put his cards face down on the table for a moment and leaned forward, eyeing her curiously. "You have to take a shit or something? I won't stop you."

For the first time, Amaya didn't know whether this was a joke or if the woman was indeed in some sort of pain. He'd pick his cards back up as soon as she gave him an answer.

[Remi]

"I'm perfectly fine," There was nothing but blatant confusion in her tone as she arched an eyebrow, turning her wrist and finally laying her cards face-down so he couldn't peek at them by accident (or on purpose.) Then when he asked his question, it dawned on her: the only other time she'd ever attempted the same face (which had been pulled in an attempt to actually get out of trouble,) she'd been asked never to make a face like that again, unless she was dying.

"No, I don't have to shit, I was trying to make that stupid-ass whiny face that noblewomen do! I guess it didn't work?" She couldn't help herself: slumping back into her chair, she shook her head and laughed; gulping her swill once she'd finally managed to settle down and catch her breath.