“Hi, we purchased this by accident an hour ago, is it possible if we could return this?”
Too subordinate, too naive. Lili’s fingers go stiff, and her palms tingle with sweat. She curses under her breath and grits her teeth.
“We’d like to return this. With this card.”
No, too stilted, too tough—it's a fast way to land her on the wrong side of the Hive, that's for sure. She needs something assertively mundane, but no matter how many times she rehearses she can't help but notice how her tone is slightly off, or how she's started waffling away with soft platitudes like 'could we' and 'if it's possible.'
This isn’t working. She presses her back against the wall and leans around the corner, watching the general hub-bub of the supermarket come and go. Some of the shoppers give her curious glances—others hide their mouths with their hands and whisper fervently to each other.
A cough from the other side of the hall snaps her out of her reverie. Lili looks up and finds that a Palerian in what appears to be a uniform is staring right at her, his expression hard. She hides the bottle behind her back, but the damage has already been done. If she wants to get anything finished she has to do it now.
With a sigh, she trudges over to the helpdesk and says, "I'd like to return this, please."
The worker leafs through her book and adjusts her glasses. By the looks of it, this off-lander might be a Draconian, though she's unlike any Draconian Lili's ever had the pleasure of scrutinizing—and by any Draconian, she means Ysh'vanna. The worker has the same tell-tale ear fins that Lili imagines most Draconians to have, but they're impossibly long, trailing down to her shoulders like a goldfish's tail. Ysh’vanna’s fins are either hidden really well or really short.
Lili coughs. The worker continues to leaf through her book.
"I'd like," Lili says again, making sure to punctuate each syllable with the tip of her tongue, "to return this. Please."
The worker doesn't look up. "What would you like to return."
Lili blushes—she'd forgotten to show her the bottle in question, and the worker can't possibly see what she's holding back there. She places the bottle on the counter. The clear liquid inside sloshes up against the sides.
Arching an eyebrow, the worker leans forward, keeping her eyes fixed on the bottle and its contents. She reaches over the counter, grabs it by the neck. Gives it a little rattle.
Lili gulps.
“And you would like to return this… to?”
“Right here.” She slides the card over the counter, pressing her middle and forefinger into the table as Auren had done to her.
No reaction.
“My ID’s right here, if you need that.” Lili starts to reach into her pocket, but the worker stops her with an open palm.
“This is water.”
Lili stops, her heart wavering between beats, her tongue on the verge of a tightly leashed lashing. She motions to the lid instead.
“It’s not water. Check the seal.”
“Ma’am, I don’t know what to tell you.” The worker grabs the lid and pops it off without effort. “Seal was broken from the start.”
The bottle cap clatters against the desk.
Lili slams her fists against the table. How had she not noticed? Avett must’ve taken a cautionary swig from the bottle before Auren had even thought to check the contents of the bag. Of course he would—why wouldn’t he? Now that the seal’s broken, all she can do is take it back to the ship, thoroughly defeated by the cruelties of racial profiling and extreme misfortune.
Even worse: when the worker passes the bottle back, Lili can’t smell a lick of vodka. It really is just water, meaning Avett’s taken extra precautions and transferred the contents to another container beforehand. Which is smart—Teeth-grindingly, frustratingly smart.
In her eagerness to leave the supermarket as soon as possible, she screws the lid back on quickly. It takes all of her energy not to thank the worker for her time, and even more to walk away without a word. The worker simply puts her legs on the counter and continues to read, but not without making a show of resting her other hand on her GlassLink. Just in case Lili decides that she wants to be another Saturday news headline back on Therius. The worker could've done it right away, but Lili supposes that inter-realm phone calls to the press must cost a lot of money. Lucky her.
She stalks away, her grip trembling. Avett is going to pay for this, she swears. To hell with alcohol; this stuff has caused her naught but trouble for the past week, and she hasn't even gotten drunk once.
Not that she wouldn't mind. As she storms through the sanctuary with her liquor bottle swinging between her fingers by the neck, she can feel the eyes of hundreds of wary off-landers on her. She'd love to be drunk right now; a shame that the gods have rescinded the blessing of inebriation from her a while ago. She hasn't really been able to properly get blackout smashed after Ava's death. She's not entirely sure that she can anymore.
Once she's walked sufficiently far enough from the market, she slumps down onto a bench. Fuck Avett. Fuck Avett. Why's he always so eager to get drunk? Does he intend to drink it by himself, or does he expect Auren and Ysh'vanna to join in with his debauchery? Does he expect Lili to join in? Would he even want that after how she'd acted while drunk last time, where she’d mentioned something about a hot-headed tall and dark love interest in the middle of her alcoholic stupor?
Her cheeks heat at the thought of him. No one's ever been that nice to her—sure, she's had nice teachers and mentors, but never someone who was her age. Never someone who wasn't obligated to be kind, yet showed affection anyway. She wonders where it'll start to go wrong. Avett can't seem to pick between being openly kind and being a bratty, smart mouthed, impatient mood swinging asshole. Surely if Lili keeps this all up, he'll realise what's good for him and stay away from her.
She toys with the bottle, picking at the corners of the label with her nails. Overthinking about Avett is the last thing she wants to do right now, but it's all she can do. Feeling parched, she uncaps the bottle and starts to drink deeply.
It really is just water.
As she comes to terms with the fact that Avett hadn't chosen to swindle her on purpose, and that she's got nowhere to direct her rage towards, she spots a familiar white-haired Draconian in the distance. Her movements are frantic and irrational. It looks like she might be locked in a heated battle of wits with the man standing next to her.
Lili has never seen this man in her life. This looks more like a captain's feud than anything; maybe they're arguing over who gets to keep the bounty, or maybe he’s the leader of the C ranked vessel Ysh'vanna had mentioned way earlier. Whatever it is, Lili supposes that it's something she should stay out of or—at the very least—stick her nose into from a distance.
She squints at the duo, struggling to put body language into actual language. Ysh'vanna is small compared to the man, who stands at least two heads above her and wears a cloak with a bulky fur trim that accentuates the size of his shoulders. He's not like any off-lander Lili's ever seen. For one, an off-lander wouldn't be caught dead in an extravagant cloak like that, weird hood and all; for another, he looks… exactly like her.
No ear fins, no green skin, no horns or cat ears. This is a Human.
Lili squints at the man again, making sure to scrutinize every minute detail this time. When he turns to flash Ysh'vanna an easy grin, Lili catches the briefest sight of pale skin before his cloak falls over his arms again. She's about to start making assumptions about his ethnicity when the man reaches up… and removes his hood.
Like Lili's hair, his is long and black, reaching all the way to his elbows, though the comparisons end there; the tips of his locks have greyed into pearly whites. Not dyed—greyed.
She wonders if she should at least say hello to her captain, or inform her that Avett's recovery went swimmingly. But then Ysh'vanna pulls back, her mouth open as she gawks at the man's sudden reveal. Her features turn narrow again in a heartbeat, and though Lili can't hear a lick of what they're saying, she knows it's not something she should be involving herself with.
Maybe she should hang back. The man's mouth moves quickly as he raises both hands in protest. This gives her an idea.
With a careful eye, she starts speaking over the silence, putting on her deepest voice for the man.
"No, it's not my fault." Lili coughs and uncaps the bottle again, preparing to drink from it. "It's not my fault I'm impossibly handsome and therefore entitled to being an impossibly annoying piece of shit."
Ysh'vanna jabs a finger into his face. Lili speaks over that too.
"Oh yeah? Explain why I caught you spending the rest of our savings account on a Dual Action Aurorean Syntax-plus 3000F e-reader instead of paying the bills—again?" She’s got no idea why she chose an e-reader, but if it’s a couple’s spat in public, she imagines that their choice of discourse would be pretty petty.
She drinks from the bottle, pauses, then takes another cautionary sniff at the lid. Maybe Avett hadn't emptied it entirely. Then she remembers that she's not quite able to get drunk, and that she's just this stupid normally.
The man cuts Ysh'vanna off. "Let's not forget who brings home those said bills—"
"Let's also not forget who warms the bed at night."
Lili grits her teeth as she watches the man snipe back. "You?"
"No, you, dear."
Lili puts down the bottle and screws the lid back on slowly.
Then she whirls it back by the neck like a makeshift club; it stops mid-swing behind her. When she cranes her neck back, she sees that Avett has caught her attack by the body of the bottle.
He snorts. "I thought you'd at least try to hit me a little harder than you normally would."
Lili narrows her eyes and pulls at the bottle. All she manages to succeed in doing is dragging Avett's arm with her, his grip not wavering in the slightest. It's his dumb catboy strength—all she can muster is a spark of ether now and then, maybe more if she’s properly motivated. If she wasn't still recovering from her previous exploits in the engine room, she would've yanked it clean out of his hands by now.
"Whatever happened to that affinity of yours?" His smile reminds Lili of an expression Auren would make while 'treating' her partner's wounds. Scary.
She scowls and lets go. Avett relents and plops down next to her.
"Stop following me," Lili mumbles.
"Auren said you'd gone out to return my 'liquor'. Naturally, I had to go out and save you, but it looks like you've already got it all figured out… and you've found a bit of popcorn entertainment on the side too."
Ysh'vanna has most definitely seen them by now. She continues to argue with the man by herself anyway.
Lili shrugs. "Who is that?"
"Beats me. He's not really that handsome."
Her cheeks heat. This whole situation is stupid. "I know, he's not."
"I'll be frank with you, though." Avett folds his arms over each other. "He's Human—but he's not from the other spires. Doesn't look like he's here to cause trouble, either… not in the, ahem, ‘traditional’ sense."
"How do you know?"
"His cape's fur trimmed—with B10 hairs. The cloak itself is definitely reptilian leather, though it's not immediately obvious to me what kind. It's not everyday you see a Human that's squared off with a high ranking dragon and lived to tell the tale. I'd imagine that there are even less of his kind from the Hive, maybe none at all. Wouldn't be surprised—they're all bark." He toys with a stray seam on his glove. "No bite. Dogs like him don’t need to cause trouble to bite."
She gulps. This is what a warrior is supposed to look like—or what she’ll end up looking like soon enough… allegedly. She can’t imagine herself turning into someone like that, because this guy is literally squaring off against Ysh’vanna, and she’s sure something like that takes at least an impressive amount of bravery.
Their captain puts her hands on her hips and lets out an eardrum-rattling groan. Lili can hear her from all the way over here. Ysh’vanna throws an arm up and beckons the two of them over a second later.
“Quit watching and get over here!”
“I’ll pass, actually,” Avett calls back.
Lili bites. With her eyes fixed onto the man, she walks forward. He doesn’t turn, not right away anyway; instead, he offers Ysh’vanna a reserved smile. He’s got that smug aura to him, but it’s hidden under several layers of diplomacy and chivalrous mannerisms that Lili almost misses it. This guy is definitely enjoying the fact that he’s won, one way or another.
She offers a greeting to her captain, but it’s the man that turns and waves back at her. Lili immediately dislikes the way he looks at her, because he’s a head taller than her, and that means that his eyes are downcast and judgy. Not in the way a kid from school might look at her, thankfully enough, but in the way a scientist might regard an ant farm, which is probably worse.
Lili straightens her back anyway. If she's going to die an ant, she might as well die standing.
“You’ll never believe who this guy claims he is.” The captain puts her hands on her hips. “Lili, meet the overseer."
She blinks—once at Ysh'vanna, once at the man. Then she asks, "What's an overseer?"
"Exactly, my point, exactly." Ysh'vanna throws her hands into the air. "Here he is, walking around, claiming to be some omnipotent underground force that's in charge of the sanctuary, but clearly his claim's got some meat to it because apparently he's the one who gave us our mission. Anyway, I did as you asked.”
“As he asked?” Lili echoes.
“He wanted to see you up close, but quite frankly I don’t think he’s worthy of our time at all.” Ysh’vanna leans close, and Lili bends down slightly to hear her. “We’re not getting our paycheck for our last mission. He says he doesn’t have the money. Never did.”
Lili's focus snaps back to the man again. He smiles and shrugs, unaffected by her captain's abrasive and secretive nature. "It's true," he replies. "I'm as poor as a peasant."
It's now or never, Lili supposes. Narrowing her eyes, she states the obvious: "You're a Human."
He withholds his response this time, instead choosing to circle around Lili with his hands behind his back. Now that she’s up close and personal, she can see that this man is Asian—probably. A little like her, a little entirely different. She can’t tell if this is because he’s an esteemed dragon hunter, or if she’s all too eager to look for camaraderie in a place where she’s not meant to. Then she remembers that even seeing a Human is a miracle in itself, and that what she’s doing is really stupid.
When he’s finally made his way around to her front, he nods at her, as if he’s gotten a hold of her character and insecurities and flaws and whatever makes her vulnerable enough to warrant a nod from this guy. He holds his head far too high for a Human standing among off-landers. It's natural he'd look down on her as well.
Her back feels a little too stiff at this point. Ysh’vanna looks like she might start wailing on him at any given moment, which probably isn’t the best for a situation as delicate as this; ergo, Lili should probably say something. She’s going to do just that.
But then the man rests his eyes upon hers. They’re a standard brown, but mantling his pupils is a ring of explosive molten gold. Seeing this has punched the air out of Lili’s lungs. Humans don’t have eyes like that. Is he blind? Is he even Human at all, or is he something else that’s merely assumed the shape of a Human for convenience?
She doesn’t get her chance to speak at all, let alone to draw judgement from what little she’s been given. With the ease of a well-mixed cocktail, he bows and says, “Lili Wang-Rosales. How comforting it is that we meet at last.”
Too subordinate, too naive. Lili’s fingers go stiff, and her palms tingle with sweat. She curses under her breath and grits her teeth.
“We’d like to return this. With this card.”
No, too stilted, too tough—it's a fast way to land her on the wrong side of the Hive, that's for sure. She needs something assertively mundane, but no matter how many times she rehearses she can't help but notice how her tone is slightly off, or how she's started waffling away with soft platitudes like 'could we' and 'if it's possible.'
This isn’t working. She presses her back against the wall and leans around the corner, watching the general hub-bub of the supermarket come and go. Some of the shoppers give her curious glances—others hide their mouths with their hands and whisper fervently to each other.
A cough from the other side of the hall snaps her out of her reverie. Lili looks up and finds that a Palerian in what appears to be a uniform is staring right at her, his expression hard. She hides the bottle behind her back, but the damage has already been done. If she wants to get anything finished she has to do it now.
With a sigh, she trudges over to the helpdesk and says, "I'd like to return this, please."
The worker leafs through her book and adjusts her glasses. By the looks of it, this off-lander might be a Draconian, though she's unlike any Draconian Lili's ever had the pleasure of scrutinizing—and by any Draconian, she means Ysh'vanna. The worker has the same tell-tale ear fins that Lili imagines most Draconians to have, but they're impossibly long, trailing down to her shoulders like a goldfish's tail. Ysh’vanna’s fins are either hidden really well or really short.
Lili coughs. The worker continues to leaf through her book.
"I'd like," Lili says again, making sure to punctuate each syllable with the tip of her tongue, "to return this. Please."
The worker doesn't look up. "What would you like to return."
Lili blushes—she'd forgotten to show her the bottle in question, and the worker can't possibly see what she's holding back there. She places the bottle on the counter. The clear liquid inside sloshes up against the sides.
Arching an eyebrow, the worker leans forward, keeping her eyes fixed on the bottle and its contents. She reaches over the counter, grabs it by the neck. Gives it a little rattle.
Lili gulps.
“And you would like to return this… to?”
“Right here.” She slides the card over the counter, pressing her middle and forefinger into the table as Auren had done to her.
No reaction.
“My ID’s right here, if you need that.” Lili starts to reach into her pocket, but the worker stops her with an open palm.
“This is water.”
Lili stops, her heart wavering between beats, her tongue on the verge of a tightly leashed lashing. She motions to the lid instead.
“It’s not water. Check the seal.”
“Ma’am, I don’t know what to tell you.” The worker grabs the lid and pops it off without effort. “Seal was broken from the start.”
The bottle cap clatters against the desk.
Lili slams her fists against the table. How had she not noticed? Avett must’ve taken a cautionary swig from the bottle before Auren had even thought to check the contents of the bag. Of course he would—why wouldn’t he? Now that the seal’s broken, all she can do is take it back to the ship, thoroughly defeated by the cruelties of racial profiling and extreme misfortune.
Even worse: when the worker passes the bottle back, Lili can’t smell a lick of vodka. It really is just water, meaning Avett’s taken extra precautions and transferred the contents to another container beforehand. Which is smart—Teeth-grindingly, frustratingly smart.
In her eagerness to leave the supermarket as soon as possible, she screws the lid back on quickly. It takes all of her energy not to thank the worker for her time, and even more to walk away without a word. The worker simply puts her legs on the counter and continues to read, but not without making a show of resting her other hand on her GlassLink. Just in case Lili decides that she wants to be another Saturday news headline back on Therius. The worker could've done it right away, but Lili supposes that inter-realm phone calls to the press must cost a lot of money. Lucky her.
She stalks away, her grip trembling. Avett is going to pay for this, she swears. To hell with alcohol; this stuff has caused her naught but trouble for the past week, and she hasn't even gotten drunk once.
Not that she wouldn't mind. As she storms through the sanctuary with her liquor bottle swinging between her fingers by the neck, she can feel the eyes of hundreds of wary off-landers on her. She'd love to be drunk right now; a shame that the gods have rescinded the blessing of inebriation from her a while ago. She hasn't really been able to properly get blackout smashed after Ava's death. She's not entirely sure that she can anymore.
Once she's walked sufficiently far enough from the market, she slumps down onto a bench. Fuck Avett. Fuck Avett. Why's he always so eager to get drunk? Does he intend to drink it by himself, or does he expect Auren and Ysh'vanna to join in with his debauchery? Does he expect Lili to join in? Would he even want that after how she'd acted while drunk last time, where she’d mentioned something about a hot-headed tall and dark love interest in the middle of her alcoholic stupor?
Her cheeks heat at the thought of him. No one's ever been that nice to her—sure, she's had nice teachers and mentors, but never someone who was her age. Never someone who wasn't obligated to be kind, yet showed affection anyway. She wonders where it'll start to go wrong. Avett can't seem to pick between being openly kind and being a bratty, smart mouthed, impatient mood swinging asshole. Surely if Lili keeps this all up, he'll realise what's good for him and stay away from her.
She toys with the bottle, picking at the corners of the label with her nails. Overthinking about Avett is the last thing she wants to do right now, but it's all she can do. Feeling parched, she uncaps the bottle and starts to drink deeply.
It really is just water.
As she comes to terms with the fact that Avett hadn't chosen to swindle her on purpose, and that she's got nowhere to direct her rage towards, she spots a familiar white-haired Draconian in the distance. Her movements are frantic and irrational. It looks like she might be locked in a heated battle of wits with the man standing next to her.
Lili has never seen this man in her life. This looks more like a captain's feud than anything; maybe they're arguing over who gets to keep the bounty, or maybe he’s the leader of the C ranked vessel Ysh'vanna had mentioned way earlier. Whatever it is, Lili supposes that it's something she should stay out of or—at the very least—stick her nose into from a distance.
She squints at the duo, struggling to put body language into actual language. Ysh'vanna is small compared to the man, who stands at least two heads above her and wears a cloak with a bulky fur trim that accentuates the size of his shoulders. He's not like any off-lander Lili's ever seen. For one, an off-lander wouldn't be caught dead in an extravagant cloak like that, weird hood and all; for another, he looks… exactly like her.
No ear fins, no green skin, no horns or cat ears. This is a Human.
Lili squints at the man again, making sure to scrutinize every minute detail this time. When he turns to flash Ysh'vanna an easy grin, Lili catches the briefest sight of pale skin before his cloak falls over his arms again. She's about to start making assumptions about his ethnicity when the man reaches up… and removes his hood.
Like Lili's hair, his is long and black, reaching all the way to his elbows, though the comparisons end there; the tips of his locks have greyed into pearly whites. Not dyed—greyed.
She wonders if she should at least say hello to her captain, or inform her that Avett's recovery went swimmingly. But then Ysh'vanna pulls back, her mouth open as she gawks at the man's sudden reveal. Her features turn narrow again in a heartbeat, and though Lili can't hear a lick of what they're saying, she knows it's not something she should be involving herself with.
Maybe she should hang back. The man's mouth moves quickly as he raises both hands in protest. This gives her an idea.
With a careful eye, she starts speaking over the silence, putting on her deepest voice for the man.
"No, it's not my fault." Lili coughs and uncaps the bottle again, preparing to drink from it. "It's not my fault I'm impossibly handsome and therefore entitled to being an impossibly annoying piece of shit."
Ysh'vanna jabs a finger into his face. Lili speaks over that too.
"Oh yeah? Explain why I caught you spending the rest of our savings account on a Dual Action Aurorean Syntax-plus 3000F e-reader instead of paying the bills—again?" She’s got no idea why she chose an e-reader, but if it’s a couple’s spat in public, she imagines that their choice of discourse would be pretty petty.
She drinks from the bottle, pauses, then takes another cautionary sniff at the lid. Maybe Avett hadn't emptied it entirely. Then she remembers that she's not quite able to get drunk, and that she's just this stupid normally.
The man cuts Ysh'vanna off. "Let's not forget who brings home those said bills—"
"Let's also not forget who warms the bed at night."
Lili grits her teeth as she watches the man snipe back. "You?"
"No, you, dear."
Lili puts down the bottle and screws the lid back on slowly.
Then she whirls it back by the neck like a makeshift club; it stops mid-swing behind her. When she cranes her neck back, she sees that Avett has caught her attack by the body of the bottle.
He snorts. "I thought you'd at least try to hit me a little harder than you normally would."
Lili narrows her eyes and pulls at the bottle. All she manages to succeed in doing is dragging Avett's arm with her, his grip not wavering in the slightest. It's his dumb catboy strength—all she can muster is a spark of ether now and then, maybe more if she’s properly motivated. If she wasn't still recovering from her previous exploits in the engine room, she would've yanked it clean out of his hands by now.
"Whatever happened to that affinity of yours?" His smile reminds Lili of an expression Auren would make while 'treating' her partner's wounds. Scary.
She scowls and lets go. Avett relents and plops down next to her.
"Stop following me," Lili mumbles.
"Auren said you'd gone out to return my 'liquor'. Naturally, I had to go out and save you, but it looks like you've already got it all figured out… and you've found a bit of popcorn entertainment on the side too."
Ysh'vanna has most definitely seen them by now. She continues to argue with the man by herself anyway.
Lili shrugs. "Who is that?"
"Beats me. He's not really that handsome."
Her cheeks heat. This whole situation is stupid. "I know, he's not."
"I'll be frank with you, though." Avett folds his arms over each other. "He's Human—but he's not from the other spires. Doesn't look like he's here to cause trouble, either… not in the, ahem, ‘traditional’ sense."
"How do you know?"
"His cape's fur trimmed—with B10 hairs. The cloak itself is definitely reptilian leather, though it's not immediately obvious to me what kind. It's not everyday you see a Human that's squared off with a high ranking dragon and lived to tell the tale. I'd imagine that there are even less of his kind from the Hive, maybe none at all. Wouldn't be surprised—they're all bark." He toys with a stray seam on his glove. "No bite. Dogs like him don’t need to cause trouble to bite."
She gulps. This is what a warrior is supposed to look like—or what she’ll end up looking like soon enough… allegedly. She can’t imagine herself turning into someone like that, because this guy is literally squaring off against Ysh’vanna, and she’s sure something like that takes at least an impressive amount of bravery.
Their captain puts her hands on her hips and lets out an eardrum-rattling groan. Lili can hear her from all the way over here. Ysh’vanna throws an arm up and beckons the two of them over a second later.
“Quit watching and get over here!”
“I’ll pass, actually,” Avett calls back.
Lili bites. With her eyes fixed onto the man, she walks forward. He doesn’t turn, not right away anyway; instead, he offers Ysh’vanna a reserved smile. He’s got that smug aura to him, but it’s hidden under several layers of diplomacy and chivalrous mannerisms that Lili almost misses it. This guy is definitely enjoying the fact that he’s won, one way or another.
She offers a greeting to her captain, but it’s the man that turns and waves back at her. Lili immediately dislikes the way he looks at her, because he’s a head taller than her, and that means that his eyes are downcast and judgy. Not in the way a kid from school might look at her, thankfully enough, but in the way a scientist might regard an ant farm, which is probably worse.
Lili straightens her back anyway. If she's going to die an ant, she might as well die standing.
“You’ll never believe who this guy claims he is.” The captain puts her hands on her hips. “Lili, meet the overseer."
She blinks—once at Ysh'vanna, once at the man. Then she asks, "What's an overseer?"
"Exactly, my point, exactly." Ysh'vanna throws her hands into the air. "Here he is, walking around, claiming to be some omnipotent underground force that's in charge of the sanctuary, but clearly his claim's got some meat to it because apparently he's the one who gave us our mission. Anyway, I did as you asked.”
“As he asked?” Lili echoes.
“He wanted to see you up close, but quite frankly I don’t think he’s worthy of our time at all.” Ysh’vanna leans close, and Lili bends down slightly to hear her. “We’re not getting our paycheck for our last mission. He says he doesn’t have the money. Never did.”
Lili's focus snaps back to the man again. He smiles and shrugs, unaffected by her captain's abrasive and secretive nature. "It's true," he replies. "I'm as poor as a peasant."
It's now or never, Lili supposes. Narrowing her eyes, she states the obvious: "You're a Human."
He withholds his response this time, instead choosing to circle around Lili with his hands behind his back. Now that she’s up close and personal, she can see that this man is Asian—probably. A little like her, a little entirely different. She can’t tell if this is because he’s an esteemed dragon hunter, or if she’s all too eager to look for camaraderie in a place where she’s not meant to. Then she remembers that even seeing a Human is a miracle in itself, and that what she’s doing is really stupid.
When he’s finally made his way around to her front, he nods at her, as if he’s gotten a hold of her character and insecurities and flaws and whatever makes her vulnerable enough to warrant a nod from this guy. He holds his head far too high for a Human standing among off-landers. It's natural he'd look down on her as well.
Her back feels a little too stiff at this point. Ysh’vanna looks like she might start wailing on him at any given moment, which probably isn’t the best for a situation as delicate as this; ergo, Lili should probably say something. She’s going to do just that.
But then the man rests his eyes upon hers. They’re a standard brown, but mantling his pupils is a ring of explosive molten gold. Seeing this has punched the air out of Lili’s lungs. Humans don’t have eyes like that. Is he blind? Is he even Human at all, or is he something else that’s merely assumed the shape of a Human for convenience?
She doesn’t get her chance to speak at all, let alone to draw judgement from what little she’s been given. With the ease of a well-mixed cocktail, he bows and says, “Lili Wang-Rosales. How comforting it is that we meet at last.”
—
There are no words for how fucking flabbergasted Avett is. He’d chosen to hang back during the initial encounter on purpose, remaining out of sight from the Human, though staying just close enough to eavesdrop on whatever the man had to say about his partner’s wet-sock attitude. As it turns out, he had a lot more to say than he’d originally expected. For starters, he’d dropped her name. Not her full, legal name, the name he so lovingly regifted to her during their first meeting—her real name. And he’d dropped it hard.
Avett folds his arms as he leans against the pole, making sure to keep his body straight and hidden. He can't see the action from where he's standing but he knows that even now, Lilith can't help but remain flustered against the onslaught of praise this stranger continues to shower onto her. It’s a little pathetic, really, kind of like watching an adult drop packets upon packets of freeze-dried sweets onto a starving kid. He’s asking things he shouldn’t know at all, like how she managed to free the villagers from the dragon’s ethereal hold, or how she managed to defeat the ‘mistress’ of the village, mistress no doubt referring to Mari herself. Because whatever arms specialist Avett Ironsturm did back in the village doesn't exist in this guy's eyes at all, nope, not at all. He feels his ear twitch in annoyance.
Ysh’vanna catches on fast. “Alright, alright. Just who are you, mister… mister…?”
“My apologies.” The man pulls back; Avett watches him do so from his pole with narrowed eyes, no longer giving a damn about staying hidden. “Alexei. Alexei Romanov. Human-hybrid overseer of the Hive.”
Lilith squints at him like he’s just told her his name’s something outrageous. Avett doesn't know what to make of his title. Human-hybrid? Overseer? None of these descriptors phase Lilith nor Ysh'vanna, so he assumes he's just missed an important chunk of their conversation from earlier. Or maybe they're just too preoccupied with parsing apart the exact reasons for why he's here.
He elaborates quickly. “My chosen name. Just like you, Lili.”
It takes all of Avett’s willpower not to immediately start spluttering behind the pole. He’s just rubbing in at this point, this Alexei Ro-whatever. Why does he know all of this? It’s not like Ysh’vanna would disclose to anyone of their exploits, not to someone like him anyway. At a bar with several pints of lager and a loose tongue, sure, but she’s mad as all hell here; she’s not imparting anything onto this creep anytime soon.
His captain latches onto Lilith’s sleeve like she wants to tug her away, but the latter stands firm. “How do you know all of this stuff about me?”
Alexei puts a finger to his lips. “A magician does not disclose the tools of his trade.”
Tools of his trade being your average modern computer and a good search engine. Ysh'vanna bristles visibly at this. "You mean you read the debrief."
"I don't remember anything about a relic being on the debrief," Lili says.
The man claps his hands together. "Right. Without further ado, I would like to meet with your fourth member. The Gallian male, hm?"
Avett chooses this point to step out from behind the pole and loudly proclaim what's on his mind. "And why should we listen to you? For all we know, our checks are already sitting nice and snugly in our accounts. You're clearly bluffing. What's your motive here?"
They hold eye contact for a bit. That bit extends to an uncomfortably long time, but Avett doesn’t yield, choosing to buckle down instead. “You’re not threatening.”
“I don’t intend to be.” Alexei offers him a warm smile. That warm smile, Avett thinks, is going right into the gutter if he keeps this up. “There’s no motive. I’m just interested in seeing the team behind the success of the mission we’ve been struggling with for the past year.”
Before Avett can even begin to retort away his dismissal, Lilith steps in front of the Human and stays there, her expression hard.
Yeah, no. He’s not taking this from Lilith of all people. This act of rebellion is coming from the same person who sniffs male deodorant for stimulus. “Just because you’ve decided to grow a backbone doesn’t mean I’m gonna start agreeing with whatever you’re about to say.”
“At least hear him out,” she replies. “He knew my name.”
At a loss, Avett looks to Ysh’vanna for assistance, staying hopeful that she’ll decline and take them all on their merry way. Lilith does the same.
His faith in her pays off. His captain grumbles and shakes her head, clearly annoyed by the whole conversation. “Sorry. You know how it is on the Hive.”
He watches Lilith visibly deflate in front of him. She looks like she’s either about to start punching the air or Avett, but then Ysh’vanna holds out a hand, signalling that she’s not quite done here.
“If we had some actual proof that you’re an overseer or whatever, however,” she starts, folding her arms against her body, “then maybe I’ll consider it, Romanov.”
Avett hisses, “You’re kidding.”
“Ah, I thought you would never ask.”
The stranger’s grin, Avett realises, is crooked to the side. When he turns to address Avett, he can’t help but feel like a pig fit for the spitroast, apple in the mouth and all. He’s not scared, but he does inch back a little and straighten his stance.
“And what the fuck do you want?” Avett asks. Because, like he’s already said, he’s not intimidated by this fox-like creep at all. He’ll sooner swallow a bag of bricks than indulge this guy in his superiority complex.
The response comes easily. “I’m musing over a way to prove myself that involves you.”
“Anyone who uses the word ‘musing’ in a sentence shouldn’t be allowed out in public.”
The man taps his finger against his chin in thought. Then his features, quite literally, light up.
“Your name is Avett Earlstone, am I correct?”
Avett’s ears flick upwards before he’s actually had the time to process his comment. The name hits him fully about a second later, like a sledgehammer to his cheekbone: he feels the impact of the floor before anything else, and the pain is secondary to the way his head won’t stop spinning, spinning—
He pushes Lilith aside on the way towards the stranger, his fist tense and taut against his side as he drives it right into Alexei’s smug face. He’s not thinking straight, but then again, he doesn’t want to. This guy has lost his right to civilised conversation.
But then his fist stops millimeters away from its target. It's pushing against something hard yet spongy, though as his mind clears he realises that it's more like there's an unseeable hand holding his entire punch back. It contrasts the sensation of punching one of Auren’s shields; at least he actually gets to experience the singing pain of feeling his knuckles crack against his colleague's shield.
Fight back, Ironsturm, Avett tells himself. Using the remainder of his brute Kattish strength, he lets loose a yell and shoulders onwards, his hand straining against the invisible barrier until he's sure that he'll pierce through it soon.
Alexei's smile doesn't waver. Even the way he raises his hand is graceful, and it takes a bit for Avett to register that he's finally threatening him. The Human's fingers curl in such a way that the tip of his index finger is touching the side of his thumb, forming an 'ok' sign that rests on Avett’s forehead. Wisps of blue and grey rise from the ground at his feet; these wisps spiral upwards and culminate into a ball of tightly packed light in his hand.
He offers Avett another comment: "I apologise, Avett."
Then he flicks his finger. From there, it's over in an instant—Avett is sent flying a good few metres away from Alexei. His back hits the ground first, and he goes skidding until he bumps into the same pole he'd been hiding behind. He can taste copper on his tongue, meaning that he must've whacked his head on something—ah, the pole. His eyes struggle to refocus as he stares upwards at the man, of whom makes no effort to walk towards him at first.
Being superior isn't just a fantasy for this guy. It's one step further than that; it's his reality.
Ysh'vanna comes running up to his limp body in no time flat, her expression the pure picture of panic as she lifts his back from the pole.
"I'm fine," he grits out. He bats away her hand and picks himself off the ground with little difficulty, save for the odd stumble when he's upright again. Lilith hasn't budged from her position at all. She's still staring at Alexei like he's descended from the heavens—like he's some blessed messiah carrying the forbidden scriptures in the fold of his robes, the scriptures being written proof that he'd beaten Avett to shit without effort.
He grits his teeth. What the fuck.
Alexei looks beyond his partner and actually has the gall to ask, "Will that suffice?"
"Yeah, yeah," Ysh'vanna replies. "We'll take you."