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THE THIRSTY MINNOW - EVENING
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Louma rests coiled at a corner table in the tavern, taking an uncommon night alone as Maybelline deals with the charging and oversight of the new generator. She sips at her only glass of wine, idly shifting between reading an Orelan book and blankly staring at the page when her mind wanders.
Victoria enters the bar, looking more somber and less lively than the leopard typically is. Either a lousy day at hunting, or something weighing down her mood... or both. She's dressed in her usual 'it's more than a loincloth if you squint a bit' outfit, although lacking most of the jewelry and feathers she had before her change to feral months ago. Without really looking around, she quietly gets herself a stiff drink.
Louma blinks as she realizes that she's read the same line four times, shaking her head as she sighs and picks up her wine glass. She's lifted the rim to her bill when her eyes catch on Victoria, immediately noticing the subdued demeanor. Setting ehr glass down, she waves in Victoria's direction. "Good evening, Victoria."
Victoria blinks, looking up from her own drink. She gives Louma what could be really generously described as a smile, and starts walking over. Even her movements are less agile, less sharp than she usually is. "Evening, Louma."
Louma offers a seat at the table, straightening up a bit as she smiles at Victoria. "How does the day find you?"
Victoria sighs a bit as she sits down quietly, cracking her neck: "Could've been a lot better."
Louma rests her forearms on the table as Victoria sits, tilting her head slightly. "Oh? If you've got bad news, please don't put it in a report." She sighs slightly. "My desk is already quite full. Just tell me directly."
Victoria shakes her head slightly, giving a halfhearted, wry smile: "Don't worry. Just personal fails. Couldn't catch a single thing this morning, kept tripping up on my watch, nothing went my way today."
Louma nods, taking a sip from her wine as Victoria speaks. "Hm, I thought you seemed to have a bit less of your usual predator-ness about you when you walked in... Is something on your mind distracting you, perhaps?" She pauses. "Or are you feeling a bit off after changing back?"
Victoria nods: "Yes." She takes a sip of her drink, frowns at the unexpected stiffness of the shot, then sighs as she looks at the offending liquid. "Kept being distracted, yeah." She gives Louma a glance: "Ever understand the saying 'haunted by one's past'? I think I do, now."
Louma hums, leaning back onto her coil and crossing her hands in front of her. "I might be able to relate a bit to that concept. If it's weighing so hard on you to put you off for the whole day, perhaps talking about it might help? What's on your mind?"
Victoria muses on this for a second, then nods slowly. "Perhaps it will. Only Garwin knows what I ran from, but... you saved me as well, and you are my Captain. Perhaps you deserve to know, too."
Louma leans forward, resting against the table top again. "Something you ran from? If it will help you, you've got my attention."
Victoria gives a small frown: "As long as it's not in the wrong kind of way. But I trust you." She sighs, lifting her very tufty part-white tail into her hand: "I guess it's obvious my heritage is just a bit more North than Aephix."
Louma looks at Victoria's tail, nodding slightly. "Of course. You're from... Fern, I believe? I may be forgetting."
Victoria nods, letting her tail back down, though the agitation doesn't entirely leave it. "Yeah, Fern... I was born there. Cold little village covered in snow most of the year. Distance away from most anything even Respite-sized."
Louma tilts her head slightly, "A smaller town than Respite? Were you a guard there as well?"
Victoria shakes her head. "No... just the daughter of the local smith. Never picked up that trade, though."
Louma rests her elbows on the table, nodding. "Ah, alright. I'll stop interrupting you, go on."
Victoria gives the smallest of smiles: "It's... it's okay. I might need time, putting it to..." Her expression darkens: "...words." She takes a deep breath. "So... small town, mostly dockworkers and burly survivor types all throughout."
Victoria continues: "I worked a the local bar... a dive, really, much less classy than Minnow. I mostly ended up there because I didn't want to work at the docks either... water and I don't agree, as you know." She shakes her head: "Anyway. Girl at seventeen, serving crap on tap to folks prone to anger management issues. What could go wrong?" She gives a humorless smile.
Louma glances around the Minnow automatically when she compares it, nodding along. Her own faint smile fades seeing Victoria's expression when she looks back to the leopard.
Victoria takes a swig of her shot once again, frowning either at it or the memories: "Mostly it was... tolerable, not that I knew of much any better. Mostly they kept fighting with each other, 'cause if they fought with me I'd stop serving them."
Louma gives a dry, humorless chuckle, shrugging. "That makes sense. Besides that, who would be stupid enough to get into a bar fight with you?"
Victoria frowns, then gives the slightest shake of her head: "I was only seventeen... a lot smaller in most respects." She sighs, her expression darkening again: "One night, this..." She shudders, clearly remember things all too well: "...t-this big boar comes up. Never seen him before. Starts hitting on me... like real dirty suggestions almost right off the bat."
Louma scowls, shaking her head as her palms move to her forearms, but not initially offering any input beyond a disgusted grunt.
Victoria looks at her glass: "Think Draga, but bigger, meaner, smellier and a whole lot more lacking in basic decency." She shakes her head: "Anyway. He... well, I tried to talk him out of it, but he was persistent. Kept on coming."
Louma pauses, turning her head slightly. "...Talk him out of what?"
Victoria frowns: "What do some males think is their basic right, regardless of any opposition?"
Louma grimaces, but her expression softens as the pieces fit together, shaking her head. "Victoria... He didn't..."
Victoria nods quietly, sighs and then downs the rest of her shot.
Louma finds herself staring at Victoria, one hand subconsciously reaching partway across the table before she stops and clenches it into a fist. "I don't know what to say... I'm so sorry that you went through that, Victoria..."
Victoria looks down, her voice quiet but filled with vitriol: "Not as sorry as that asshole."
Louma sighs, looking toward Victoria's hand, knowing the painful weapons she's always had there. "I take it you hurt him, made him pay for such a sick..." She clenches her other fist, trying to keep her cool.
Victoria nods, her voice considerably even despite her words. Pain clearly thought over a thousand times. "Took the biggest knife out of the kitchen, slit the sleeping drunk bastard's throat and balls."
Louma grimaces, looking away from Victoria for a few moments, eyes drawn to her blood-red wine. She doesn't respond for a bit, her fingers finally relaxing. She mutters, "Good." before looking back to Victoria. "I... I am sorry Victoria. You don't deserve to have to live with that night."
Victoria sighs, looking aside: "Deserve or not... I have to." She is quiet for a moment before continuing, flexing her claws unconsciously: "Anyway, you can probably guess what passes for 'justice' in a small nowhere town like that. I didn't stay to find out."
Louma nods, feeling the muscles throughout her body relaxing somewhat as her hands had just done. "Yes... As your captain, I hesitate to say justice was served by your hand... But as your friend, you did exactly what was justified."
Victoria gives Louma the smallest of thankful smiles: "I'd like to think so." She looks back down: "So... yeah. I packed what I could before sun came up, left a note for my Dad and got the hell out of Fern."
Louma nods, taking a sip from her wine before responding. "You're right, that was a wise decision. Did you tell him what happened? Where did you go?"
Victoria winces, her heart sinking as another bit falls from her memories: "...I just told him that I had to leave, and n-not come looking..." She swallows: "Gods, I haven't seen him since..."
Louma sighs, shaking her head slightly. If it weren't for the nature of the revelation and who the subject was, Louma might have offered a consoling hug. Instead, she finds herself simply laying her hand out on the table between them. "You could try writing him, if you haven't already. I... Might even suggest visiting Fern, if it might offer some closure. Perhaps not."
Victoria shakes her head: "No... or... probably not. I don't know." She sniffs slightly: "He's probably fine. The only one in Fern who could fix or build a damn thing, held in high respect despite... me."
Louma: "If he could see how well you've done for yourself, I'm sure your father would feel proud of you, Victoria."
Victoria allows herself another small smile: "Yeah... maybe." She looks aside: "I can't really go back. If I even want to."
Louma responds with a single short laugh. "Well, that advice probably has less merit to it than any other I've given for a while, considering I refuse to visit Orela. Although my reasons certainly seem trivial right now."
Victoria looks up, slightly jolted out of her mood: "Oh? What reasons might those be?"
Louma shakes her head, looking aside. "Hm... I mean, you've certainly revealed a lot to me. They're not as strong as yours, as I said. Do you really want to know?"
Victoria shrugs as she waves for another stiff drink: "I'm curious, and honestly want something else to think about right now."
Louma looks to Victoria, nodding after a moment. "It should go without saying, I'd never speak a word of what you just told me to anyone. I'd kindly ask for the same respect." She looks to her wine, finishing it off but not ordering a second glass.
Victoria nods: "You can trust me, if I can trust you."
Louma still feels the impact of Victoria's life story, grimacing as she begins. "From fifteen years, all snakes serve five in the military. Mass discipline, and because a war six decades back left the ranks devastated. I wont bore you with those years, but at the end I was very much ready to return home with my brother and sister." She lays her forearms together, staring at the empty wine glass. "Days after returning, Father wants to see his brood in the study, he says that we're ready to enter the family business."
Victoria listens, then looks at Louma curiously: "...dare ask which sort of family business this is?"
Louma lets out a dry chuckle, looking at Victoria. "If you asked him? Cargo and logistics. Navigation. That sort of thing. A lot of hands on a lot of ships." Her taloned fingertips tap on her forearms. "During that war was the most egregious time, but it's never really stopped. Espionage, sabotage... Against our own people or not. Ships sunk under the weight of a thousand gold coins, from inside or by giving away charts."
Victoria looks at Louma over, nodding slowly. "...I can see why you'd have some difficulty with that sort of thing."
Louma nods, sighing. "I was disgusted to find out. I did my best to not let on, but Mother knew. She helped me pack that night and I hopped islands until reaching Ondonga, then took a ship here. The last contact I ever had with my family was a letter from my brother, who only asked for me to come back and help with the 'business'." She pauses a moment, thinking. "That was before you and I met around seven years ago."
Victoria nods slowly. She then looks at Louma as though seeing her in somewhat new light: "I always imagined you'd come from some family tradition of perfect soldiers or something."
Louma blinks at Victoria, letting out a quiet laugh. "What? Well I mean, I always took my training seriously, still do... I've got more memories of swinging a weapon than not from back then."
Victoria shrugs, smiling slightly: "You certainly do. Doesn't matter I guess."
Louma nods, leaning back on her coils with a sigh. She considers Victoria for a few moments, "Thank you for trusting me, Victoria. And for listening. I appreciate both very much."
Victoria leans back in her seat as well, relaxing slightly: "Yeah... me too." She takes a small swig of her drink, frowns at it and then pushes it away on the table. "It's... I guess Respite's a bit of a place of escape, hmm?"
Louma grins a bit, shrugging. "Whoever was in charge of naming the town hit that nail squarely on the head."
Victoria chuckles: "No kidding." She looks at Louma: "So... anything else of interest happen while I was out hunting?"
Louma hums, tilting her head slightly. "Either you're genuinely curious, or you're trying to make me relive my morning climbing Mount Report." She squints at Victoria suspiciously before going into her recollection of the days more lighthearted events, figuring the two of them could use a break from murders and magic mystery for now.