RP:An Unsimple Choice

The Kraken’s Lair

The Kraken. Aptly named, not just because this two story building rests within the shadows of the fountain but also because of the behemoth bar which stretches across the southern wall of the establishment. Constructed of black walnut to match the rest of the furniture, the face of a kraken has been etched into the bar and the beast stares ominously out at the patrons who dare to enter. The bar is kept well stocked with a variety of liquor from across the realm and you may find yourself wanting something specific or if you're feeling a bit more adventurous, feel free to ask the bartender for a surprise from a certain city. While the selection of alcohol is sure to delight a wide range of regulars and connoisseurs alike, don't expect a five-star meal if you're hungry. It will be bar food or bust. A giant glass jar of salt water features an upside down shot glass at its bottom, surrounded by a few pieces of copper. A sign nearby reads 'Copper Drop - free shot if your coin lands on the glass'. Aside from this little gimmick, dice and cards can be easily found on tables and it is not uncommon to find patrons engaging in a game of 'Ship, Captain, Crew' or a hand of poker. The western wall features a set of dart boards, the area mostly free of tables and chairs to allow ample room for play without someone losing an eye. Two pool tables, a shuffleboard table and a roulette table have all been given homes around the floor to encourage a bit of socialization. Entertainment seems to be the main goal and while not required, bets are not at all discouraged amongst friends. That in mind, bouncers are present just in case things get out of hand. Tables and chairs have been scattered about the room for those wanting to enjoy a bit of relaxation while an elevated platform along the eastern wall serves as a stage for live performers, adding a bit of ambiance to the establishment. The girls serving food and drink wander the floor offering other services as well- for the right price. But while The Kraken's second story may boast a few rooms for rent by the hour, most of the second floor has been closed off to the public. Patch the burly bartender is here.

Lita is not usually in much of a mood to talk but seeing as how Mahri can't argue with her just now and she's trying to keep herself distracted- focused?- distracted- as she shuffles barefoot through the city, she doesn't mind rambling a bit. "I've no idea who stabbed me." She admits finally. Her right hand rests on the wolf's shoulder, leaning slightly against the great form, both for support and warmth. "Not because I didn't see it, it just wasn't-" She's not even sure how to say it. She murmurs a curse under her breath at the insanity that it sounds like in her head. "I saw 'em in the crowd. Just sittin' there. All spread out like they'd planned somethin'." She curls her fingers into the thick fur. "He smiled and somethin' in me snapped and I lunged for 'im. People start runnin' and screamin', whole place goes nuts and I couldn't even think straight, I couldn't--" She's grateful to see the familiar shape of the Kraken Fountain come into view and just beyond, the nearly hidden door of the brothel disguised as gambling parlor and bar. And she shuts up pretty quickly again to shove the door open with her shoulder and hold it open for Mahri to follow. "Patch, you're a sight." She calls out to the bartender, who's eyeing the large wolf. There are only a handful of people milling about, the few regulars who still frequent the place, and they all seem to turn to stare. "She busy?" She calls out, and Patch shakes his head. "Not for you." Lita groans and finds a knee to make herself eye level with Mahri suddenly. "Hey, I'll be back down in a few, okay?" She says, knowing all too well that the woman was likely gonna put up a fight about her leaving. "And then drinks are on me, yeah?" She'll leave Mahri her clothes in case she wants to shift indoors, but she'll take the coat and disappear upstairs.

Mahri walked into the brothel at Lita’s side, head low and tail held straight out. She didn’t like the smell of this place, and then Lita is asking about someone. How often did she come here? Why did she come here? Who is ~she~?? Mahri is used to being stared at so she paid no attention to the looks of others. She met Lita’s eyes, silver narrowing slightly – the vampire was going to have to answer some questions. Without the pack-link, she couldn’t ask telepathically. When Lita left to meet whomever she and, Patch was it?, were talking about, Mahri nudged her clothes into a pile with her nose and rolled them to the nearest table or booth to lie under it and wait for the vampire to come back. She knew Lita was weak, so why would they be stopping at a brothel? The wolf remembered the boy and wondered, just for a moment, if Lita had an arrangement with someone here. She’d never seen her feed and yet she never seemed to have that vampiric hunger. There would certainly be a lot to talk about later.

Lita is true to her word. Less than twenty minutes and she's heading back downstairs in a pair of pants and a shirt that is a size too big. She's got the side of it lifted, the hem of it in her teeth as she tugs at those stitches against healer's orders. Screw that. The skin is pinks and raw and new, a dark thin line appearing as it bleeds a little with the stitches being tugged out. She ignores it, tugging the shirt back down and pressing it gently against the wound as she slides up to the bar to snag the bottle Patch is already leaving her. "Thanks," she murmurs as the man nods towards the corner booth Mahri has claimed. And all at once Lita feels bad about dragging her into this. Her face and arms have been haphazardly scrubbed clean and she stifles a groan as she sits on the floor next to Mahri. "I don't know how to do this." She says softly finally, uncorking the bottle of whiskey with her teeth. Be honest, communicate with a wolf, could she even drink whiskey like that? There was so much she didn't know. So much they'd sort or skipped over relationship-wise. "I owe you a lot of explanations and I don't know where to start."

Mahri rests her head once again in Lita's lap. The wound she'd received seems to have healed a lot more and Lita certainly seemed much better. Huffing a sigh, the wolf wiggles back again to reverse the process of shifting. The fur sinking back into bare skin and her bones rearranging themselves. The regulars might be wondering just what is going on under that table and shocked to hear a roughened voice emerge, "The same way we've done everything, Ace. Talk to me." Reaching for her clothes, Mahri somehow manages to wiggle into them before snagging that bottle of whiskey from Lita and shimmying up into the seat of the booth. Silver eyes stare down ever face turned her way, tipping the bottle to her lips while waiting for the vampire to join her in the booth.

Lita watches, quietly captivated as Mahri shifts again from her wolf form. She'd much rather drag the woman upstairs and manage all the noise with none of the words. But she's on a deadline. So she follows her lover up into the booth, sitting on the edge of the table though, with her feet in the seat at Mahri's hip so she can look out at anything else, even briefly. Not because she doesn't want to tell Mahri. She just isn't sure she wants to see the way she'll look at her after. "It started after the Blood Bowl. Nearly shattered my dam ankle kickin' in what's-his-face's jaw. A few days after, it still wasn't healin' right. There was this shaman-blacksmith named Svard, said he could help." It sounds stupid now because she should have known better. She reaches for the whiskey and tips the bottle for a drink before handing it back. "No idea what he did but he made this poltice stuff with some of my blood and some of his. Next thing I knew I was waking up in my dreams." Dreamwalking, precisely. With Gore, who'd been kidnapped at the time. "They were so real. I watched you die, Leo. I wished I was dead more than once. Saw people come back from it. Every night it was like that. After a while it was easier to just not sleep. But the less sleep I got, the hungrier I felt. Exhausted, angry, scared, and hungry all the time. Not just for blood but for, anything. For you. For something grounding. I started asking Kas for help when I started wanting to know if those things feelings for you were real, were something more than whatever blood pact I'd tripped into. And Kas, he thinks I'm trying to break the sire bond from Hanan, but I don't see why it should work any different, really. Still breaking one thing to try and rebuild it as something else." She wipes her hands over her knees when her fingers start to shake a little and she meets Mahri's eyes finally. "Trying to break it might kill me. But not trying-" She shakes her head a little. "I saw sit tonight that wasn't real. People who are gone or dead. I felt them. I felt them bleed. I felt them hurt. And I wanted more of it. I wanted all of it. If one of 'em hadn't stabbed me, I would've." Her jaw sets and she can't bring herself to say it. She'd never seen herself as a murderer. A monster sure. Had she killed, certainly. But in cold blood? For the joy or thrill of it? That was a line she'd come close to crossing tonight.

Mahri listened, quietly, drinking and let Lita get it out. Her throat worked past a tightness when Lita mentions she might die from whatever help Kassyr was offering. Silver eyes burned, but not with tears, but anger at what had been done to Lita without her knowing, the death in auditorium, the guilt she smelled rolling off Lita. "So, let me get this straight. This, Svard, bound you to him somehow without you knowing. There's a way to break that bond, but it will also undo Hanan turning you. Which can also kill you in the process. You had dreams where we all died and back there you saw something that made you attack people. Do I have this right?" With each word, Mahri's silver eyes became hard with anger, but not at Lita. At what had started it all in the first place. The string of curses she ran through would have shocked Leo had he heard them. In fact, the people in the Kraken shifted uncomfortably with each utterance. "So, if you die, what then?"

Lita doesn't have to answer. She knows Mahri's process is rhetorical. She'd hoped to be able to fix it, or ignore, or be able to live with it somehow. But the more she starved it, the louder it became, more persistent. Until it had demanded. "Not if. What Kasyr has planned, it will kill me. He's asked Khitti to help keep on the brink from death and then has offered to re-sire me as a vampire." She watches Mahri closely here for her reaction. "And I don't know what that means, exactly. But he's not demanding my allegiance or loyalty or anything like that. He only asked I try and build some semblance of alliance with Vailkrin moving forward."

Mahri stared a moment. Her first instinct was to walk away. Cut her losses and leave before being hurt again and losing someone else she cared about. Mahri couldn't look at Lita feeling the way she did, so she found a spot on the wall to her left and stared at it, her jaw clenching and releasing while she mulled over things. "Have you told Leo?" Lita was the Commander after all. "You know I can't lie to him if he asks me anything." She was done with that, done with hiding things from someone who had become closer than family. Finally, she turned back to the vampire, leanined forward to rest her forearms at her thighs and looked up at her. "I've known Kassyr for a long time. He is many things, but dishonorable is not one of them. If he says he will expect nothing more than some kind of alliance, that's what he means. But, we need to go to Leo with this." There's fear in her eyes when they searched out Lita's. Fear and pain for what she'd have to go through.

Lita should not be surprised that Mahri's first question is of Leo. But she is. A little. "Not yet." She admits softly. Because she doesn't want to admit that the selfish part of her that had come to love Mahri, wanted to know if she'd still be around after. "I tried to the other night but Joan showed up, and-" she rolls her eyes, not even bothering to finish the thought. She moves then, scooting over in front of Mahri, lifting one foot over her lap and then sliding forward until she's straddling her hips. She lifts a hand to her cheek to make the woman look at her. "If you tell me not to do this, that we'll find some other way, then I won't." Her thumb traces the ridge of her cheek. "And if you tell me you don't want to deal with any of this and walk away, I'll understand that too. I don't want to hurt you. And I'm gonna tell Leo, I promise, but you- you are my priority."

Mahri 's hands came to rest naturally on Lita's hips, sliding around to her back, careful of the injuries she'd sustained. "Baby, I'm with you the whole way. I don't think there is another way, especially if Kas says this is the way to do what you need done. I might night like it. It might scare the hells out of me, but if this is what you need; I'm with you the whole way. We will tell Leo together or you can talk to him alone." She's torn, though, making this promise. If Leo told her to stay out, she'd defy him to be at Lita's side and help her through whatever she needed. "I don't know what I'd do if I lost you now."

Lita can't help a smile then. Despite the levity of the conversation, the tension rolls through her for a moment and she relaxes against her lover, caught up in her embrace. "I ain't making you find out anytime soon." She promises, finally leaning in to steal her lips in a kiss. "I'll tell Leo." She decides suddenly. "Mostly 'cause after the shock of it all, he might need a drinkin' buddy to talk it through with." Which was sort of how Mahri had looked at her, too. And she couldn't blame her. Her arms stretch lazily around Mah's neck as she rolls her hips down against her. "Can you take me upstairs now?" She pouts playfully. "I'm exhausted and I've seen you naked twice tonight and you're godsdamned beautiful and I'm fixin' to do somethin' about it."

Mahri grinned, feeling the tension leave Lita. "Good, good.." then anything else she might have said was lost to that kiss. Her fingers flexed against Lita's hips and she didn't need to be asked twice to take her upstairs. She'd carry the vampire anywhere she wanted to go at that moment.