Clean The Dust, If You Must

[Theodore Muzenni]

Theo was well into his second bottle of wine when Alea made her presence known. Fortunately, his head didn't hurt any more at that point. On the contrary, he felt delightful. He took an enthusiastic sip from his glass, setting his analytic mind to work in assessing its contents.
Still wine, I think! Turning a partially squinted gaze towards the young girl, Theo scrunched his lips in concentration, humming the way thoughtful men usually do.
"Alea! You're Alea!" he exclaimed, obviously proud of himself for remembering the name. He went to take another drin-
"Why are you here Miss Alea?" Snapping his head back around, Theo once again addressed the girl. "Shouldn't you be rooming my dust?" Unaware of his tongue slip, Theo studied the girl with a raised eyebrow, scrutiny plain on his face. "Bartender!" he called, swaying slightly on his stool. "Since the lovely Miss Alea has decided joined us, she should have a drink! Bring more wine!" At this point, Theo leaned in close towards the slave, his expression suddenly very serious.
"Now, I don't want to alarm you Miss Alea, but what I'm about to ask you might very well shake your very being, I think." Theo took another sip from his wine glass, taking great pains to keep his eyes locked on Alea while he did so. "Tell me, Miss Alea... don't you think the sky would look a lot nicer if it were green?" The look on the hypnotist's face suggested he was very interested in Alea's answer.

OOCAnother small one, sorry. I wasn't sure where to take it, so I just threw you a bunch of drunk Theo stuff to react to.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea was a bit startled by the state of Theo's drunkenness. "Erm...I already--" she was cut off from answering his first question by his enthusiastic demand for more wine. She leaned away from the smell on his breath as he asked his unusual, but earnest question.

She didn't mind playing along, and it occurred to her that in this state he might be rather suggestible. She decided to build rapport by taking his drunken question seriously.

"Hmm," she said, thinking about it. "Well, it would depend on what kind of green. Because if it was the kind of green that was coming out of Valerius's nose when he was sick, I don't think that would be better." She didn't think that was what Theo wanted to hear though, so she tried again. "But if it was the color of sunlight filtered through leaves? Yeah, that could be nice," she said dreamily. "The Spires was like that. A canopy of green as far as the eye can see."

The new bottle of wine arrived. Alea took one whiff and her face scrunched up in distaste. She nudged it gently toward Theo, trying to keep an eye on where he kept his purse.