[Rearing Stallion] Tankard Tales (Open)

[Fade]

Fade looked at Jisha impassively a slight smile still lingering on her pale lips. If the konti was looking for rivalry or any other confrontation with Fade she would be trying to hit water. Fade was just not that sort of person and in social situations just a child, 18 years of slavery had to be counted for that. Jisha was very confident and had the players look about her.

Khal having presented her to the newcomer she just smiled graciously and knowingly.
As she shifted in her seat gesturing to a bar maid her neckline folded showing the red stain which resembled a chain on her chest, her gnosis mark. She asked for a strong drink and the barmaid raised an eyebrow at that smirking a little. It made her eyes water slightly, Fade smiled maliciously at her drink just to look up as a child came up to their table and accused Guido of trying to pick up women, a chuckle escaped her and she smiled. The child had a bright look about her which was appeasing to Fade even though her experience with children was limited if nor non existent.

Only then she noticed her receding neck line she quickly pulled it up blushing slightly, the only color present on her death pale face.
She took a sip of the mixture making it slosh around her mouth then sending it down slowly, suicide or not if you drank you couldn't settle for a normal drink could you?

[Jischa]

Having lifted her mostly full glass of wine in the direction of the smiling Vanthan, subtly declining his offer of a drink, she was a bit surprised to note the difficulty of tugging her gaze away from him to respond to Guido when he spoke next. Even then, she found herself glancing back toward Khal, distracting thoughts of him tangled in her sheets filtering through her mind as the other man spoke, and she finally forced herself to pay stricter attention, though near the end of his last statement. "I was feeling generous with my attention, Gerdo," she replied playfully, giving him a wink as one finger trailed around the rim of her glass thoughtfully. Responding to Fade's smile with a faintly mocking stare just short enough that it could be missed, she then smiles in turn, albeit a fair bit less graciously. Nothing bored her more than a girl that couldn't play the game. "And besides," she added, glancing from Khal to Guido with a mischievous look in her eyes, "You two looked like you could use some feminine intervention in this drinking game." Having alluded to the switch without calling any names, Jischa waved over a serving girl, calling for two more of whatever Khal had been drinking. "These are on me," she stated simply, surprised and begrudgingly impressed as she noticed Fade having the same drink, and apparently taking it down quite well. "I could never," she laughed, shaking her head. "Strong drink goes straight to my head, and we don't want that, do we?" She smirked faintly, pushing the two drinks toward Guido and Khal. Her fingers lingered unobtrusively on the edges of the mugs, almost as if flirtatiously trying to brush hands with them both, accidentally. Flirtation aside however, Jischa had a much more interesting reason for attempting to make contact with the pair, her Gift coupled with her curiousity made bodily contact much more exciting than most girls would ever find it. "Last one to finish buys me another drink. What I'm drinking though, not this poison."

[Khalzaan]

A wry smile tugged at the corner of Khal's lips when Guido corrected the pronunciation of his name. "Did I say that wrong? I'm terribly sorry." He said, seemingly sincere before Fade's neckline snags his gaze, which skips right over the new younger member of the group as if she didn't exist. Not that it was her fault in particular, to his particular mindset children weren't much different from pets, cute in theory but annoying and time consuming in practice. His eyes shift towards gold again before Fade corrects her dress and his gaze snaps back up to Jischa, smiling broadly at her. "I'm afraid beautiful Jischa that I'm more of a lover than a drinker... And buying you a drink may not be as potent a disincentive as you might hope." He added with a smile. "None the less, I shall indulge your whims, for what is life without a little excess?" He asked, using the momentary lull to finish the last of his first strong flagon, his face twisting slightly and his eyes watering a little as he swallowed the potent mix. "I'm going to regret that in the morning..." He remarked as he slid it away and took up the new drink. "What was I going to say..." He clicked his fingers a few times before his eyes opened and swirled darker. "Ahh, I remember. Mornings..." He nods, "did you know that there is a place, far to the north, beyond even Avanthal where the sun rises at dusk and sets at dawn..." He paused dramatically. "It's said that the most handsome man ever to live grew so tired of being fawned over that he sought only solitude. So he travelled, north, further and further until there was nothing but desolate icy wastes all around him, but the temperature grew too cold and the man froze, becoming a statue of ice. Syna was so taken with this statue that she when she leaves our sky for the night she travels to the north and sits in the sky all night long, just watching him..." He trails off, taking another drink as his eyes shift back towards light blue and he glances around at his companions.

[Celina]

One of the women laughed at Celina's comment and smiled at her. This made Celina happy, she liked this woman. From first appearances Celina thought she was really nice and easy going, as for the other woman completely ignored her.

Noticing the exchange between the two women Celina was appalled by this woman's manners, she was trying to mock Fade that was obvious, even a blind person could tell. Feeling sorry for the woman Celina looked up at her with an innocent face and smiled happily although she seemed to be blushing for some reason which Celina couldn't figure out she then turned to Khal as he spoke, the man completely ignored her, what an arrogant man.

None the less she addressed Fade "It's a pleasure to meet you my lady,my name is Celina. I recognised Guido over here from a couple of days back." She looked at Khal and Jischa with a look of disaproval "Atleast Guido has the sense to have one nice person in his company. His other companions are rude to say the least" she talked about Khal and Jicha as if they weren't there "You would think their parents would have taught them how to address somebody politely" this usually annoyed people enough to attract thier attention.

[Guido Faragas]

He caught sight of the small girl just as she reached the table and his eyes jerked from Jischa in surprise. “Celina, what are you doing...” his voice trailed away and he reddened a little with embarrassment. It would be difficult to explain that this small girl was one of his... business associates...and was much more than she seemed. Before he could say more, the game continued: he noted Jischa’s faintly mocking stare at Fade and yet the confident woman was also clearly momentarily disconcerted by Khal’s gaze. It recalled the effect the man had appeared to have on the woman he had been telling the tale to earlier in the night. There was a puzzle here – one with too many pieces and too many twists and turns. The reimancer struggled to hold on to the clarity he needed.

“Fade - this is Celina – she helps me on occasion with my archaeology.” He looked imploringly at Fade, hoping she might distract or entertain the girl whilst he continued the game with Khal. His attention was distracted and he scarcely overheard the banter between Khal and Jischa. Almost before he was aware of it, the drinks arrived and were placed before the two men. He pursed his lips and directed an admiring look at the petite woman. There was another player in this game – indeed she had forced the two men into a situation where they could scarcely refuse to take the strong drink. Luckily, he had begun the evening with an ale of normal strength.

He watched Khal down his first ale and drink a few sips of his new drink. Guido made no attempt to drink his own ale. “This is far too good a brew to be downed quickly, dear Jischa.” He ran his fingers down the side of the mug and then around the rim mimicking the woman’s earlier movement. “A good ale should be savoured, tasted gently with the tongue and lingered over. Downed quickly it is only recalled as a passing fancy. Don’t you agree?”

He had to admire Khal’s brief story of the ice statue. The man had a gift with words - that was clear. Perhaps once the game was over, the two storytellers might learn much from each other. His mouth was half-open to reply when Celina blurted out her admonishment to Jischa and Khal. The emerald-eyed man’s first thought was to castigate the young girl for her rudeness to her elders but he bit his lip and then stifled a brief laugh. Another piece on the table. Another strand to the game. He said nothing more, leaning back in his seat, smiling broadly. You wanted some fun Guido – to take your mind of the day’s troubles – it looks like you got more than you bargained for.

[Fade]

It would be a merry party, Fade's smile widened acquiring what could be only described as a cheeky smirk: this would all end in laughter or in bitter tears.
She took a sip of her drink, taking a few breathes before talking her throat throbbing pleasantly. "Ah, Khal I know of your people and their ability at storytelling. Met one once...and" she chuckled raising her drink to her lips "We shall all regret this in the morning no matter what, the question now is how much and what we shall regret..." She took a long gulp her eyes twinkling with just a bit too much mirth.

As Jischa proposed a drinking game her attention fled back to Guido and his unique friend, the man was slightly mocking the woman mimicking her, Fade pushed back a lock of hair and condescending to Guidos imploring looks spoke to the girl in a normal clear voice as if speaking to all
"You have quite a spirit for one so young! And tell me what circumstances brought you to help Guido? Do you already have a profession?" Hoping she wasn't pressing the young one for too much information she added something about herself "I'm Fade and...uh...I am a contortionist"

Fade admired Guido for his cleverly put words and Khals all to brief story wove pictures of far away lands. Jischa clearly didn't like her, what could she do?They might have started out on the wrong foot but Fade had no idea how to fix that.
This would be interesting...very interesting.

[Celina]

Following the conversation Celina found it interesting enough, it made her a little curious to what everybody was really thinking but she didn't dwell on the idea too much. Guido introduced fade to her, which she thought was an interesting name, but it sounded kind of lonely.

The woman replied with a loud voice, mentioning her job, she sounded a little nervous but it didn't bother Celina "Wow! That sounds like fun! I wish I could do something like that!" anybody would be able to hear them, Celina tried to put her hands behind her back and make them touch as a bit of a joke on how inflexible she was, Celina giggled then returned to answer Fade's question.

Looking up realizing that Fade was trying to help Celina, she nodded a small nod and smile innocently her voice loud enough for the table to hear but she didn't speak to the whole tavern "Guido was in the Bazaar and he was selling some pottery that wasn't really worth a lot. So, I helped him sell it. It was a surprise that anybody would actually buy it but I managed to get something out of them." she paused for a moment "Profession? I'd say the only thing I would consider a job right now is keeping my-self alive. Guido has been very generous to me in letting me help with his work. I also like listening to stories so I find Archaeology quite interesting"

[Jischa]

Glancing between Khal and Guido, Jischa laughed not entirely kindly, sipping from her own glass of much milder wine. "Seems like no one is in a rush to drink up, I think Fade here is probably the winner of that last drinking game, she's the only one that really drank anything." Settling back against her chair, the diminutive Konti drew her knees up to her chin, wrapping one arm around them, and toying vaguely with her glass as Khal related his story. Not entirely well-versed in other culture's stories and tall-tales, she seemed a bit incredulous, but didn't interrupt. He was incredibly attractive, who cared what he was saying? "Boy-watching," she started as Khal trailed off, smiling slyly. "Surely a goddess would have better things to do than stare at a man all night long? Though I suppose if she were trying to think of the least forward way to get him say, out of his cl-" She paused, mid-sentence, her train of thought broken by the yammering of the little dark-haired girl that for some reason or another was still around, and still talking. Turning to Guido now, Jischa's smile seemed less predatory. "Gerdo, dear. Your little friend, isn't it well past time for her to be off to bed, or some such thing? This isn't exactly a safe place for a child," she placed a bit of a condescending emphasis on the word, "And she might get hurt, especially if she's in the business of conning people into buying worthless artifacts." At this last bit of her statement her voice lowered in an effort to not announce such a thing to anyone that might happen by, but her brows rose significantly in Guido's direction. Worthless pottery.. was he too a conman, or was he just a poor sculpter? The thought gave rise to curiousity, but she pushed it aside as he spoke. "Tasted with the tongue and then lingered over, hm?" She laughed quietly, tilting her head in his direction. "If I didn't know you were talking about ale..." She lets the words trail off, clearly annoyed by Celina's presence but not completely willing to disregard the fact that a child's ears were present. A light wave of homesickness reached her, little blonde-headed Konti girls playing quietly, completely predisposed to polite, thoughtful, and out-of-the-way behavior. "Alright then, a different sort of game. Khal, you're obviously good at telling a story, and Gerdo, you must have some experience with tale telling, if you're in the business of archaelogy.." She tapped her chin thoughtfully, then spoke again. "Each of you can tell a bit of a story you know, and us girls will rate it on a scale of one to ten." Her smile took on a mischievous slant. "However many votes you get, is how many sips of your drink you must take. I'll have you all drunk, yet." She looked around the table for objections, sipping from her own glass of wine.

[Khalzaan]

Khal stared blankly at Celina for a moment when she called him rude before his gaze happily skimmed elsewhere, and he nodded to Guido. "Yes absolutely." He agreed with a vapid nod, clearly having missed what the man actually said. "I make it a general policy to regret as much as possible, lovely Fade." He replied to the pale girl with a grin, his eyes darkening before he blinked suddenly, "You're a contortionist!?" He asked her rhetorically, as his eyes shifted back towards gold and glazed over slightly, his imagination gets the better of him for several seconds. The slightly inebriated man shook his head as if to clear it and peered towards Jischa with interest. "Can you honestly say you've never passed a little time boy watching yourself?" He asked her with a wry grin. The proposed game has his eyes shifting back towards orange as he pondered it visibly for a moment. "I'm already a little drunk..." He complained faintly before finally nodding resolutely. "Very well however, I agree. On one condition..." He let the silence linger for a moment before leaning forward slightly. "The winner must get a kiss from both the judges." He stated, glancing over at Fade and smiling at her. That sounds like a good idea. He suggested to her subconscious. Sitting back the Vanthan arched an eyebrow, "What do you say Guido? Shall we duel with words for the affections of beautiful ladies and the prize of precious relative sobriety?"

[Fade]

Jischa had a point,a tavern was no place for a child and well the way things were going no place for the ears of a child. She smiled and replied to the girl "Celina, you must know Jischa has a point don't you?" However bright the child was things could get out of hand especially at this hour and with this quantity of alcohol.Archeology? She looked at Guido and raised an eyebrow quizzically.

The game sounded interesting but Khals proposition was a poser for her. Her lips formed a no but her mind was saying why not? Confused she closed her mouth. It was absurd to even think about it, not after drinking not with her gnosis mark. Avoid all contact was her policy and here she was actually thinking about it. Her face must have had a confused look as she said "I would prefer not" She lowered her gaze and smiled "If you want I could come up with a small contortion routine but..." she shrugged "I don't know we shall see,ok?" She smiled charmingly her mind still confused.

She lent back surveying the people bringing the drink to her lips, she took a sip and smiled. "So who starts?" She put her drink doen, enough for now or she would be too fuzzy in the head.