Okay, cool. I'll be over there soon then, if that's cool?
[He has to leave a note so his housemates don't worry, and it'll just take him a little while to get there once he does leave between his bad knee and the injuries he ended up with during the event.]
[After getting everything in order to make sure his friends won't be concerned about him missing and gathering up a bit of the definitely human-meat-free food they'd collected to bring with him--drinking on an empty stomach isn't the best idea--Chris heads out toward the Spire.
It's nice to be able to go out with only the normal fear of monsters, as opposed to the very immediate and imminent threat of potentially running into a wendigo. Still, he's even more cautious than usual, listening carefully for anything that might be approaching and half-expecting to hear the all too familiar sound of a wendigo scream.
But nothing happens, and after a little while he makes it to the Spire. He's never visited one of these things before, glancing around curiously before finding apartment 101 and knocking on the door.]
[Under normal circumstances - or at least back on Lothal - Maketh would never have invited anyone over to her home for drinking. That was strictly a social engagement, best done in public. Sadly there's no bar here, and she doesn't feel like wandering around looking for a suitable replacement.
Should she clean up, or something? Maketh wonders about that.
She puts the dirty dishes in the sink, anyway.
When she answers the door, she's not in uniform. Just her undershirt and a pair of loose pants, about as close to relaxed as Maketh ever gets.
Her hair is down, too. It's longer than people expect.
She's not barefoot, though. That would be too much.]
Hello.
[She eyes Chris up and down. He's taller than her, but that's not hard.] Come in.
[Since the last time he saw her she was turning into a monster, he's not super surprised by the change in her usual appearance mostly since he doesn't have anything to compare it to. She is dressed casually enough though that he actually realizes that he's agreed to show up to the apartment of some woman he barely knows for a drink, and what that usually means, but he's pretty sure she doesn't mean anything by it and he's not interested, so he'll just ignore that awkwardness for now.
Chris is definitely tall, wearing jeans and a few layers of assorted shirts and jackets that hide most of the thankfully not serious injuries he got from a run-in with a partially transformed wendigo. He looks tired but friendly, not exactly the intimidating type, and he offers Maketh a small smile at her greeting.]
[Maketh gives him a nod. She doesn't shake hands. It's hitting her now that this isn't quite what she planned - Chris isn't an Imperial, not even a cadet, he doesn't think like them. This could go wrong.
But then again, she could just get really drunk and forget it ever happened. That's fairly universal, right?
She steps back, hands clasped behind her back, and moves to the table. She's got two bottles, one half empty, and an assortment of shot glasses. Whiskey like she promised. It's strong enough to make most people forget about talking.]
Are you...well?
[It seems like the thing to ask. Except, of course, that he might parrot it back to her. Maketh thins her mouth, rephrasing.] No trouble getting over here?
[He steps into the apartment after her, glancing around the place as he follows her over to the table; he doesn't quite have a limp, but definitely favors his right leg.]
Nah, all seems mostly quiet once again in the deadly monster cave.
[It's said mostly flatly, with just the slightest bit of humor at how ridiculous it is that this is the situation they're in. He does consider asking her how she's doing in return, but decides not to push too much yet.]
[The apartment doesn't have much in the way of personal touches - and the few oddities that are hanging around don't belong to Maketh. She keeps her sword and a few changes of clothes - variations on her new uniform - in her own room, door firmly closed.
Maketh takes a seat, and begins arranging the glasses in a straight line. Things ought to be ordered.] I doubt it will last. You found someone to look at your leg?
[She noticed. She assumes he had it fixed.]
Some of the private homes. Others in the stores. Most were hidden.
[She hasn't had much else to do but explore and look for supplies, and hints as to what happened here before their arrival. Mostly, she's been looking for books. Information. Spare paper. Maketh hasn't found much of that.]
[He takes a seat at the table across from her, setting the small bag he's brought with him on the table as well, about to start digging through it when she asks him a question.]
No, I screwed it up before I got here and just keep making it worse, so...
[No real point in wasting time and supplies and all of that. Even though he knows some people here have healing powers and he's considered asking for a favor, he's pretty sure he'd manage to injure himself five minutes after getting it healed anyway.]
We haven't been looking much in the abandoned homes, just the stores.
[So that's an idea. But they've generally been playing it safe, and the stores are more frequently visited and so less likely to be newly homes to monsters.
He pulls out a few little containers of one of the strictly vegetarian meals Sam had showed them how to make, offering one toward Maketh.]
Not sure if you, you know. Had much food to go with your alcohol.
[And for some time after he and his friends arrived in this place even doing something as simple as making food had been a daunting task, after what they'd gone through at home. He imagines turning into a monster and dying probably puts Maketh in a similar position, and he isn't sure if she has anyone looking out for her the way his friends had all looked out for each other.]
[Maketh gives him a flat look, unimpressed.] Get it fixed.
[It's not like she did the exact same thing when she first arrived. Oh wait.
That's different, though. Maketh had been fairly certain her injuries were beyond whatever meager medical attention this place could have provided. She'd been proven wrong.
She'd also been in shock at the time, so she had an excuse. Sort of.]
It's more dangerous, but our supplies are limited.
[Therefore risks must be taken. If she had troopers here, Maketh would order them to do it, but she doesn't and they'd probably shoot her on sight anyway.
Maketh pauses, the glasses and bottles in a nice geometric pattern. Acceptable. She probably ate something last night, but she can't quite remember.] Thank you. That is...thoughtful.
[He's not actually promising to agree; it's more said as a light, slightly humorous response to the order than anything else. But maybe he'll at least talk to the guy who runs the clinic, once the aftermath of the wendigo event dies down a bit.
He nods at the comment about the supplies, because it's definitely true; he wonders which god is responsible for stocking the stores, because it might actually matter. Rage and Fear obviously don't know what they're doing--assuming they were genuinely trying to help Hope out with the food thing--and Hope seems to be pretty drained, so who knows how steady their supplies might end up being in the future.]
Yeah. Probably worth the risk, I guess, especially if there's some better stuff. There's five of us at my place, too.
[So they need a lot of supplies, pretty often. He offers a small smile at the thanks.]
No problem. Drinking isn't much fun if you just get sick right after anyway.
[The tone gets him a side-eye. Maketh is used to being obeyed, her orders followed with all due haste. But he's not a soldier and certainly not one of her troopers, so she probably shouldn't bully him into politeness. At least not right now. She's too tired to do her drill sergeant voice anyway.] Yes. And likely to be more, in time.
[There are advantages to more people, but only if they can be properly fed. Hunger makes everyone unpredictable and hostile.
Maketh peers at him curiously.] There are people from your world here, aren't there?
[She's going to ignore his comment about getting sick and whatever implication might be hiding there.]
[He just offers another dorky grin at the side-eye, the perfectly innocent look of someone who gets that expression turned toward him a lot. Though he does know when not to test his luck, so he'll focus on answering that question.]
Yeah. Including me, there's five.
[The smile fades a bit, and he shifts his gaze down toward the empty glasses Maketh has arranged.]
There was a sixth, but she disappeared. During the event.
[Maketh frowns. This is news to her. And not pleasant, either. People rarely disappear of their own free will.]
I...see.
[She decides not to tell Chris that. Civilians don't need to know everything, and she's already damaged him. So she does what most Imperials do when faced with a problem of this nature, and pours a shot.
Maketh pushes it across the table, doing it so there's no chance their hands will touch. Then she pours one for herself.]
[He's not sure how to interpret that response except maybe she's dubious about the idea, but he doesn't elaborate at the moment. Instead he considers the shot she slides toward him, and decides one shot isn't going to hurt.
So he lifts the glass in a gesture of cheers before tipping it back. It's been over a year since he did any shots so it's a little stronger than he's expecting, and earns a probably somewhat amusing face and cough once he's done.]
[She matches his salute with grim cheer, and drinks it back without a flinch. Despite what people might think of her - Maketh isn't completely oblivious - she can hold her liquor. Very well, actually.]
No?
[She smiles a little and pours herself another, setting the bottle in neutral territory. If Chris wants more, he can pour it himself.]
It's been some years since I've done this with civilians.
[Oh, he's a student? Maketh brightens a little - she can relate to students, most of the time, even if civilians remain confusing.]
The line between civilian and military was blurred in my position. I served the will of the Empire. Sometimes that involved commanding troops. The majority of it was administrative work, though.
[Well. For a while. Maketh decides not to think about that, and does another shot. Why not, she's here to drink.] You are a student? What do you study?
[He nods, interested; he's not really familiar with any of that, but the idea makes sense.]
What part of it did you like best? Like, the commanding part or the administrative stuff?
[Because he doubts those two things could be any more different, so he's curious about if she has a preference and, if so, which it is.
He nods at the question, pushing his glass around idly between his fingers.]
Yeah, I was in my second year. My major was computer science, so like, programming and how computers work and all that.
[He explains just because what 'computer science' entails seems to vary wildly between worlds, from what conversation he's had on the subject while here.]
[Maketh smiles a little, turning the glass over in her hands. People don't usually ask if she likes her work - either she was competent or she wasn't, and the latter would get her replaced. The Empire has no room for weakness or failure. Personal preference has no bearing on it.]
The logistics, I suppose. Patterns always came easily to me.
[And they didn't have personalities or moral qualms. Patterns just were. Pure logic, easy to swallow.]
Very useful, I imagine. My world has great need for such skills. Is it the same in yours?
[Makes sense, from what he knows of her personality so far. He also understands that a lot, because he's the same way; seeing the steps to a solution or putting together facts to solve a puzzle come naturally to him, which has been really helpful recently.
A lot more than his field in school, anyway, and he shakes his head a little.]
Yeah, it's really in demand at home, but here it's been totally unhelpful.
[Hope's weird phones aren't even an operating system he knows, though Rhys did say he'd teach him and hopefully he'll be able to pick it up pretty quickly. But otherwise his talent with technology hasn't helped much here, and he's felt kind of useless overall especially next to all these people who can use swords or do magic or whatever.]
That was the idea, yes. I made sure people were fed, that they had access to medical supplies and housing. We were working on getting some of the younger people educated. It was a difficult time.
[Whether she actually solved any problems or just made them irreversibly worse is something that Maketh has been trying not to think about. She served the Empire for most of her life. Her change of heart probably came too late. Not that she sees the need to tell Chris any of that.
She pushes her glass around a little, before lining it back up with the others.] The technology here is...frustrating. I suppose I'm lucky that I attended a military academy. That part of my training is proving useful here.
That's pretty cool. It sounds like something that'd be really useful here, if you wanted to deal with trying to coordinate it.
[The people here have definitely been more inclined to working independently, including his own group of friends, but some sort of more communal organization might be a good idea. Especially when things like the last few events happen.
He nods again, looking a little more serious.]
The whole 'being able to fight' thing seems to be the most useful skill in this place so far.
[He assumes that's what she means about her military academy training being useful, anyway.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mismanagement) wrote2016-01-25 02:02 pm
[text]
[He has to leave a note so his housemates don't worry, and it'll just take him a little while to get there once he does leave between his bad knee and the injuries he ended up with during the event.]
[text]
[Action]
It's nice to be able to go out with only the normal fear of monsters, as opposed to the very immediate and imminent threat of potentially running into a wendigo. Still, he's even more cautious than usual, listening carefully for anything that might be approaching and half-expecting to hear the all too familiar sound of a wendigo scream.
But nothing happens, and after a little while he makes it to the Spire. He's never visited one of these things before, glancing around curiously before finding apartment 101 and knocking on the door.]
[Action]
Should she clean up, or something? Maketh wonders about that.
She puts the dirty dishes in the sink, anyway.
When she answers the door, she's not in uniform. Just her undershirt and a pair of loose pants, about as close to relaxed as Maketh ever gets.
Her hair is down, too. It's longer than people expect.
She's not barefoot, though. That would be too much.]
Hello.
[She eyes Chris up and down. He's taller than her, but that's not hard.] Come in.
[Action]
Chris is definitely tall, wearing jeans and a few layers of assorted shirts and jackets that hide most of the thankfully not serious injuries he got from a run-in with a partially transformed wendigo. He looks tired but friendly, not exactly the intimidating type, and he offers Maketh a small smile at her greeting.]
Hey. Nice to meet you in person.
[Action]
But then again, she could just get really drunk and forget it ever happened. That's fairly universal, right?
She steps back, hands clasped behind her back, and moves to the table. She's got two bottles, one half empty, and an assortment of shot glasses. Whiskey like she promised. It's strong enough to make most people forget about talking.]
Are you...well?
[It seems like the thing to ask. Except, of course, that he might parrot it back to her. Maketh thins her mouth, rephrasing.] No trouble getting over here?
[Action]
Nah, all seems mostly quiet once again in the deadly monster cave.
[It's said mostly flatly, with just the slightest bit of humor at how ridiculous it is that this is the situation they're in. He does consider asking her how she's doing in return, but decides not to push too much yet.]
Where'd you find whiskey around here anyway?
[Action]
Maketh takes a seat, and begins arranging the glasses in a straight line. Things ought to be ordered.] I doubt it will last. You found someone to look at your leg?
[She noticed. She assumes he had it fixed.]
Some of the private homes. Others in the stores. Most were hidden.
[She hasn't had much else to do but explore and look for supplies, and hints as to what happened here before their arrival. Mostly, she's been looking for books. Information. Spare paper. Maketh hasn't found much of that.]
[Action]
No, I screwed it up before I got here and just keep making it worse, so...
[No real point in wasting time and supplies and all of that. Even though he knows some people here have healing powers and he's considered asking for a favor, he's pretty sure he'd manage to injure himself five minutes after getting it healed anyway.]
We haven't been looking much in the abandoned homes, just the stores.
[So that's an idea. But they've generally been playing it safe, and the stores are more frequently visited and so less likely to be newly homes to monsters.
He pulls out a few little containers of one of the strictly vegetarian meals Sam had showed them how to make, offering one toward Maketh.]
Not sure if you, you know. Had much food to go with your alcohol.
[And for some time after he and his friends arrived in this place even doing something as simple as making food had been a daunting task, after what they'd gone through at home. He imagines turning into a monster and dying probably puts Maketh in a similar position, and he isn't sure if she has anyone looking out for her the way his friends had all looked out for each other.]
[Action]
[It's not like she did the exact same thing when she first arrived. Oh wait.
That's different, though. Maketh had been fairly certain her injuries were beyond whatever meager medical attention this place could have provided. She'd been proven wrong.
She'd also been in shock at the time, so she had an excuse. Sort of.]
It's more dangerous, but our supplies are limited.
[Therefore risks must be taken. If she had troopers here, Maketh would order them to do it, but she doesn't and they'd probably shoot her on sight anyway.
Maketh pauses, the glasses and bottles in a nice geometric pattern. Acceptable. She probably ate something last night, but she can't quite remember.] Thank you. That is...thoughtful.
[Action]
[He's not actually promising to agree; it's more said as a light, slightly humorous response to the order than anything else. But maybe he'll at least talk to the guy who runs the clinic, once the aftermath of the wendigo event dies down a bit.
He nods at the comment about the supplies, because it's definitely true; he wonders which god is responsible for stocking the stores, because it might actually matter. Rage and Fear obviously don't know what they're doing--assuming they were genuinely trying to help Hope out with the food thing--and Hope seems to be pretty drained, so who knows how steady their supplies might end up being in the future.]
Yeah. Probably worth the risk, I guess, especially if there's some better stuff. There's five of us at my place, too.
[So they need a lot of supplies, pretty often. He offers a small smile at the thanks.]
No problem. Drinking isn't much fun if you just get sick right after anyway.
[Action]
[There are advantages to more people, but only if they can be properly fed. Hunger makes everyone unpredictable and hostile.
Maketh peers at him curiously.] There are people from your world here, aren't there?
[She's going to ignore his comment about getting sick and whatever implication might be hiding there.]
[Action]
Yeah. Including me, there's five.
[The smile fades a bit, and he shifts his gaze down toward the empty glasses Maketh has arranged.]
There was a sixth, but she disappeared. During the event.
[Action]
[There's not much she can say to that. Maketh lifts her chin a little. It projects confidence when you do that.] Is she dead?
[Action]
[He might've been more concerned about the possibility if this hadn't happened once already.]
Sometimes people just... Leave. Apparently.
[Action]
I...see.
[She decides not to tell Chris that. Civilians don't need to know everything, and she's already damaged him. So she does what most Imperials do when faced with a problem of this nature, and pours a shot.
Maketh pushes it across the table, doing it so there's no chance their hands will touch. Then she pours one for herself.]
[Action]
So he lifts the glass in a gesture of cheers before tipping it back. It's been over a year since he did any shots so it's a little stronger than he's expecting, and earns a probably somewhat amusing face and cough once he's done.]
Haven't done that in while.
[Action]
No?
[She smiles a little and pours herself another, setting the bottle in neutral territory. If Chris wants more, he can pour it himself.]
It's been some years since I've done this with civilians.
[Action]
[So most of the parties he has attended in the past year served beer at the strongest anyway, in addition to him generally avoiding overdoing it.
The civilian comment gets his interest.]
'Civilians?' Are you like, military or a cop or something?
[Who knows what people might be in this place.[
[Action]
The line between civilian and military was blurred in my position. I served the will of the Empire. Sometimes that involved commanding troops. The majority of it was administrative work, though.
[Well. For a while. Maketh decides not to think about that, and does another shot. Why not, she's here to drink.] You are a student? What do you study?
[Action]
What part of it did you like best? Like, the commanding part or the administrative stuff?
[Because he doubts those two things could be any more different, so he's curious about if she has a preference and, if so, which it is.
He nods at the question, pushing his glass around idly between his fingers.]
Yeah, I was in my second year. My major was computer science, so like, programming and how computers work and all that.
[He explains just because what 'computer science' entails seems to vary wildly between worlds, from what conversation he's had on the subject while here.]
[Action]
The logistics, I suppose. Patterns always came easily to me.
[And they didn't have personalities or moral qualms. Patterns just were. Pure logic, easy to swallow.]
Very useful, I imagine. My world has great need for such skills. Is it the same in yours?
[Action]
[Makes sense, from what he knows of her personality so far. He also understands that a lot, because he's the same way; seeing the steps to a solution or putting together facts to solve a puzzle come naturally to him, which has been really helpful recently.
A lot more than his field in school, anyway, and he shakes his head a little.]
Yeah, it's really in demand at home, but here it's been totally unhelpful.
[Hope's weird phones aren't even an operating system he knows, though Rhys did say he'd teach him and hopefully he'll be able to pick it up pretty quickly. But otherwise his talent with technology hasn't helped much here, and he's felt kind of useless overall especially next to all these people who can use swords or do magic or whatever.]
[Action]
[Whether she actually solved any problems or just made them irreversibly worse is something that Maketh has been trying not to think about. She served the Empire for most of her life. Her change of heart probably came too late. Not that she sees the need to tell Chris any of that.
She pushes her glass around a little, before lining it back up with the others.] The technology here is...frustrating. I suppose I'm lucky that I attended a military academy. That part of my training is proving useful here.
[Action]
[The people here have definitely been more inclined to working independently, including his own group of friends, but some sort of more communal organization might be a good idea. Especially when things like the last few events happen.
He nods again, looking a little more serious.]
The whole 'being able to fight' thing seems to be the most useful skill in this place so far.
[He assumes that's what she means about her military academy training being useful, anyway.]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]