Tavern Talk (Angelo)

Long before, Seinshun had traveled here to meet with the good doctor, only to find his building aflame. She had heard his encounters with the human-Other-kind before the tour took place. Fancy that she'd meet one of those mischievous people there. Shaking her head, she gave another flap to her powerful wings as she took the air. It was colder higher up, and she lowered herself gradually until she could see the rooftops. The Slums were the dark side of Librium, one that the hopeful city would rather ignore than help. Humans, not only were they the reason behind the fall of her home, but their own destruction.

Often, the ground-dwellers fought amongst each other until they turned their eyes upward to strike the Avians. The agitation heated her blood, causing another vicious flap to bring her higher up as she flew. What vision of peace was this? Seinshun had believed that they'd found help, only to have it be killed by some extremist or another.

White-gray eyes noticed a twinkle of lights down below. A tavern was always a place with an abundance of information. All sorts passed through, not any different from what was on Celestis. Pulling her wings back, she dropped down toward the slit between two buildings, and disappeared into the shadows. Her landing was smooth when she spread out her wings against and touched the dirty ground with her armored boots. Folding her wings behind her, she spread out her white cloak, so they'd swoop to her ankles. She was casually dressed, a simple white blouse tucked into black pants. No weapons were on her persona, but her mana pulsated as she walked through the darkness of the alley and into the open wideness of the street.

The tavern was calm, but music chimed from the old, wind-up jukebox in the corner when she stepped inside. Raina couldn't help her regal stature, she stood straight up, however petite and slight in frame. She wasn't an odd patron, since oddity ran the streets of Librium with regularity. She moved to the bar and asked, "moon ale, please." Her voice was soft and polite, and she waited while running through her head the sort of information she would gain by being here, and what questions to ask.

He stepped into the tavern quietly, unobtrusive and unassuming despite his six foot, two inch height and the charcoal gray suit that fit snugly around his lean frame. Windblown gold locks streaked with the telltale marks of ash and grime adorned his head beneath the hat, an ancient looking gray fedora, and his youthful face bore the same coating, as if he had emerged from a coal mine's collapse more than three centuries past. The blue-gray eyes that swept the room slowly, to avoid unnecessary attention or hostility, were sharp, bearing a gleam of calculating intelligence. Behind him, a large pair of black wings remained folded, confirming his unwanted identity as at least some part Avian.

Angelo was hardly a rare sight at the tavern; it was his haven, his refuge from the world he spent so often in. Among the downtrodden and the poor, he felt far more at home than with the humans or the Others, and perhaps even more so than the Terran Guard in general. His lips formed a thin line as he felt an unfamiliar pulse of mana, running like some alien undercurrent to the cold, stale air of the room. He slid his right hand into the appropriate pocket of his jacket, where it touched the cool metal of the compact semiautomatic service pistol he carried. He had no intention of using it at the moment, of course, but the blued metal object gave him a welcome feeling of security against most human threats. For everything else, he still had his knife strapped to his belt on a quick-release holster, and he could still summon enough mana to pour a gout of withering gold flames out in someone's direction.

Withdrawing his hand from the pocket, and giving a discrete wave to the bartender, he walked to the counter and slipped the payment for his usual drink onto the rough wooden surface. "I'll have a glass of whatever passes for beer today, Simon." His voice was a low, rich rumble not unbecoming one of his stature. Angelo kept his eyes focused on those of the bartender, though his peripheral vision caught the presence of a young woman ordering moon ale, and his memory recorded her as noteworthy. She was somewhat attractive, but her appearance rang warning bells in his mind. An innate sense of apprehension began to develop.

Raina's back stiffened when she felt the magic pulsating from the new aura. It was like a warm wind against her face, ruffling the feathers beneath her white cloak. Her pale visage and pale eyes moved away from the bartender after she made her order. As the elderly taven owner, Simon grabbed a mug, he nodded to the new arrival, a tall youth in a charcoal gray suit... and wings.

Raina quickly hid her surprise, and turned away from the guest. His black wings had startled her immensely, and she bit the inside of her cheek to think things through. All of the questions she wanted to ask the barkeep had washed down the drain. She was uncertain with where to begin, because now she aware of another avian in her midst. Being a caster, she could sense the other mana flowing into the room when he entered.

Simon passed Raina her mug of moon ale, cold and crisp as the night. For the guest, Simon smiled and handed the male his usual drink after taking the payment. Raina checked beneath her coat, when Simon shook his head, grabbing a rag from beneath the counter to wipe down the other end of the counter. "First round's on me, little lady." he said with a toothy grin.

Raina nodded as she lifted the mug to her soft lips, and took a small sip of the cold drink. The ale was sweet with an underlying bitter taste that didn't make her cringe. The light caster was... nervous. Yes, she was nervous, but she decided to finally straighten her spine instead of appearing an anxious wreck. Lifting her chin, she drank down more of the ale before setting the mug down. She turned then to the avian, noting his appearance and that he dressed more like the patrons than she did.

"Do they not say anything about your wings?" Raina was genuinely curious. She did not venture outside of Celestis on a common basis. She was a caster who defended Celestis, and spent more time at her home than mingling. Of her own volition however, she made the effort to see for herself what Seinshun was seeing in these ground dwellers.

For a moment, he could have sworn that the faint sound of feathers shifting emanated from somewhere in the room. If it had been earlier, Angelo would not have minded in the least to investigate the source. However, he was content to ignore it for the moment. The drink that Simon set in front of him was more than enough to capture his interest, and it went down swiftly as he heard the old bartender give away the first drink to the woman to his right.

The very same woman he was particularly interested in, and not in a pleasant manner. She had an aura about her that hinted at some hidden power, and people dressed as impeccably as she was did not soon enter the realm of the downtrodden and lower class without some purpose in mind. The taste of the beer was poor, bitter and hardly worth the money he had paid for it. However, Simon was a friend of his parents, and so Angelo made the trip every other night to provide his fair share of patronage.

Her question took him by surprise as he brought the cup to his lips. Angelo hesitated a moment, blue gray eyes flicking to her own unnaturally colored orbs, and stayed there as if he were assessing a threat. In reality, he was wondering why she bothered to ask, if there was some ulterior motive. He tilted the glass slightly and drained it swiftly. As he returned it to the counter, he looked over at her properly and replied sharply. "If they do, it is at their own peril. Most don't because they fear me. Those that do are either curious about me, or they hate me for having them. Which are you, Miss?" He was direct, the intonation of his words at once polite and interrogative.

She wasn't swift with her drink. However rash she could be in battle, she was a rather subtle and calm person among others. Raina didn't look away from Angelo, a challenging sign to some when eye contact was made. What powers were he capable of? The magic ran in his veins the same way hers did. It was a part of their essence and their core, however, Raina was far weaker when there's no light around. Already, she was starting to feel cramp within the tavern, but she kept herself well-composed.

What was truly her purpose? Was it merely to observe than to ask questions. She was seeing how these ground dwellers interact, and simple questions left her lips, but not without a genuine and innate curiosity within the Celestian-born Avian. Celestis was the only world she'd ever known, and she wondered what would possess others to look to Terra for an answer. She had to admit, however. Once these terrans were beaten down, when it seemed that they've hit rock bottom, they found a way to rise once again.

His blue-gray orbs clashed with her white-gray hues. She refused to look away or back down as they assessed one another. His answer came sharply that Raina couldn't hide the flinch this time. Her own words could be as sharp, but she was far too startled with how she'd been spoken to by another Avian. Had her question been rude? She felt that she hadn't been. Perhaps, she still had more to learn about her way of interacting.

"I would have no reason to hate you." She said coolly, "for you wouldn't be alone in that matter." the caster added. She made a face then, showing discomfort before she reached for the strings to loosen around her neck. Finally, she removed the cloak, revealing her set of wings, white with black feathers. She had startled a few patrons, but Raina no longer cared what image she was to uphold. They needed to be free as they should be, and so she would allow them to be open instead of hidden beneath cloth. Folding her cloak carefully, she rested it on the counter. "My name is Raina Whitecloud, also an Avian." She paused to look him over, wondering what reaction she would gauge by revealing her identity.

She had some respectable, practical qualities, he reflected as she made a point of meeting his stony gaze. Most of the time, the solid stare worked well for weeding out those who were afraid of conflict and those whom were perfectly fine with it. Usually, though, he preferred to avoid the latter. He parsed his lips as she stated that she would have no reason to hate him-- that line usually led into a life story, particularly one about how the "different people" ought to band together. It was his turn to express surprise as she reached up to her neck and undid the cloak to reveal her own wings.

An Avian. That's why she stands out so much, he realized. That, however, had little effect on his demeanor. "Angelo des Veren," he replied, "and I'm a half Avian." His voice was laced with disdain. He characteristically placed little weight to racial identity in the least, and for some strange woman to automatically include him in her own race simply because of his wings jarred against his experiences. Still, he did possess a knowledge of the conventions of human society, and thus he proffered his hand to her. "I'm going to go out on a limb here, and say it's at least somewhat pleasant to meet you." Angelo smiled politely, remembering that she hadn't actually done anything to him-- yet. It was better to mask whatever apprehension she gave him than to show it openly and provoke a response.

"What's an Avian doing here? I'd expect to see you all in the central business district and near major lines of commerce, but this is a mostly human neighborhood, and you don't appear to be dressed like you live here at all."

Half Avian. That would explain why he was unfamiliar to her. It wasn't that Raina knew everyone in Celestis, but he carried a countenance for being among surface dwellers. He wasn't just a messenger that Raina would act sometimes to carry her duties, but he lived among the humans practically his entire life. He didn't look any older than she was. She surmised that he was roughly the same age as she was, give or take a year.

A brow quirked at the disdain in his voice. Did he not have any pride for being among the winged kind? Blinking slowly, Raina lowered her white-gray hues to the hand proferred to her after his introduction. Was he being sarcastic? Raina wasn't skilled in the conventions of good humor or bad. She wasn't quite known for having a funny bone, but a sharp tongue. She kept the latter to herself, tongue glued to the roof of her mouth she lifted her hand to wrap around his.

"It is an honor to meet you, Angelo des Veren." She moved her gaze from their joined hands and back to his face where his polite smile shone. Was this also another form of sarcasm? Once their limbs seperated, Raina grabbed her drink of cool, moon ale. While she'd had better, the taste was still pleasant on her tongue. Satisfactory, to say the least.

His query wasn't a surprise. It was more expected than anything else. Letting the liquid run swiftly down her throat, no spills were made after she drained more than enough to set the lighter mug down. "I don't." She started simply, "I'm only here for a visit. My superior was here two months ago to visit a friend, only to find that friend killed by one agency or another. I thought I would pay my respects." It wasn't a lie. In all honesty, Raina wasn't sure why she was truly here, but only to observe what she wasn't seeing that Seinshun and several others of the Avian race were.

"Do you live here, des Veren?" She asked then, bright eyes shining with her curiosity.

She hesitated before taking his hand; it was significant in that the combination of that and her brow raising in response to his disdain signaled that she seemed more and more out of her depth in this environment. "I highly doubt that, Miss Whitecloud. At best I am an unusual disruption to your night; at worst an unbearable one." His smile never wavered, though his visage remained solid, almost sphinx-like in the way by which he uttered the ambiguous statement. Self deprecating humor provided a means by which to further observe her temperament. Blue gray eyes glimmered in the light of the tavern as they shifted away from her own unusual orbs, down to his own glass of drink.

She's not harmless. Not by a long shot, but at the same time, she's not an overt threat to me. Whatever this Other is doing here, it's definitely business of some kind..." His thoughts streaked by at the speed of light, analyzing and reinterpreting his assumptions and observations about the woman next to him. She could be dangerous, and so he would be quite cautious. When she replied to his question, however, it was his turn to raise an eyebrow. "Two months delay is quite some time to pay your respects," he remarked neutrally, taking the piece to the puzzle she presented him and moving it over in his head. There was always a method, some reason. That she mentioned an agency confirmed his earlier suspicion that she was there on someone's payroll. The question then, was whose? [i]

Her next question seemed to follow as a non sequitur. He parsed his lips, and returned stony eyes to her own, challenging her even as he responded. "In the city, when I'm not needed elsewhere, yes. I don't live in the immediate vicinity of this place, though. Would I be incorrect in presuming you reside in the city of your people, then?" Angelo returned, intending to set a more fast paced clip to the conversation.

Raina hesitated. She was giving herself away without realizing it. She was out of her element. She may have carried out messages, but her main role was defending Celestis. She stayed, and stood guard, preparing to use her abilities when necessary. Now here, on this earth, she was quite lost as what to do, or how to behave. Human and Avian customs had a slight line in between, though politeness was shared.

She should simply stop herself from overthinking. Instead, she ought to focus on the conversation at hand. Another Avian, but half. He didn't seem proud of his lineage, and that made her curious. What had happened? How could you not be proud to have those beautiful wings, wings that were nearly similar to her own. Her wintry hues moved away from his wings to settle on his face. His smile never wavered, but his words matched the solid, unreadable visage.

"What makes you say that?" She narrowed her eyes slightly, as if she could read his expression, but she couldn't. He was a mystery and she felt the need to solve the puzzle. Gently, she shook her head, wintry orbs sliding away from his visage finally to look to the drink. Cool against her lips, she tasted it again, taking a small sip. "Perhaps, I might serve as a disruption to your night, des Veren." She said, keeping her voice light, "my apologies if that is the case."

She stiffened visibly about the delay of paying her respects to the doctor. She lowered her lashes, drink clasped in her hand as she stared down at the content. She wasn't exactly lying per say, but her later arrival would ring suspicion to this other Avian. "I... needed time." She said then, and took another small sip. Setting the cup down, his words promped a reaction to meet his challenging stare. He was trying to read her, as she tried to read him, but to no avail. Curious onlookers would settle their gazes on the two Avians in the tavern, but soon, return to their business.

"Yes, I do." She canted her head, your people? Was he denying his Avian heritage? If so, why? What was there to be ashamed of. Beautiful wings, and strong attributes... Raina frowned lightly for a moment, before she smoothed her expression. "Have you been to the city of our people?"