RP:Hit What? The Whiskey

Summary: After their match in Vailkrin's Blood Bowl Tournament, Lita and Mahri take some time to get sloshed at the Jolly Roger. They're still friends, after all. So between a couple bottles of whiskey they share stories, hash secrets and have a genuinely good time.

Lita wasn't exactly but sort of hiding out at the Jolly Roger for a few hours. Between badgering from Cal at Soulskin and Xiem hovering at the beach house, she needed a minute, and she was banking on Leo either still being out of town or at his ship. Either way, she's grateful to find the place empty and has made herself comfortable stretched out across the leather couch. Still wearing the cotton slacks and oversized tee from the day prior, her jacket folded haphazardly under her head as a pillow. She should have brought her sketchbook. Maybe she should stash one at the Jolly Roger just in case. She's debating rummaging through Leo's things to find an acceptable equivalent but she's also comfortable and doesn't want to move too much, her ribs still sore since she'd stubbornly refused Xiem's insistence to see a healer over the last couple of days.

Mahri apparently needed to get away too and felt the Jolly Roger would be a good place. Imagine her surprise when she walked up to the door and she caught the scent of the artist beyond. Good. Just the person she wanted to see, even if she'd originally wanted to find some alone time. Pushing open the door, her boots snapped smartly on the floor as she walked first to the bar for a glass of whiskey and then to the couch where Ace was laying. "Hey, Lita. We gotta talk g'dang it. Th' hell was that?" She meant at the Hanging Corpse, when she left those parting words behind. "Please tell me it was a joke." Apparently after Leo had gone to bed, the she-wolf had found it hard to fall asleep with too many thoughts in that over-thinking brain of hers.

Lita doesn't have to open her eyes to know it's the she-wolf waltzing through those doors. Smelled a hell of a lot better than the pirate and she was used to the woman's boots by now. She's also not surprised to hear the woman head for the bar without a word and she might have smiled a bit at that. She is, however, surprised to hear an edge of annoyance in the woman's voice and she tilts her head up to catch sight of her finally, confusion knit across her brow. "Huh? Hell was-" She thinks Mahri might mean their duel, maybe that smiley face tattoo she'd given her, since they hadn't talked since, except for showing up to cheer on Gorehilt at his match. The comment she'd made in the Hanging Corpse isn't even on her mind just now. "Oh come on, it ain't so bad." She flickers a glances towards Mahri's shoulder where that mark would be. "I'll cover it for you if you really want." She groans a bit to sit up, making room for Mahri if she'd want a seat.

Mahri narrowed her eyes at the woman, "I'm actually fine with it." She did drop down next to Lita though. "I mean in Valkrin, at the Hanging Corpse. Telling me to go easy on him and telling the Rug to 'give 'er hell. What was that? Tell me it was a joke." Her tone had a hint of pleading in it before she brought that glass up for a sip of the whiskey. She hadn't brought the bottle along. Maybe she should have. Yeah, she should have.

Lita manages a short laugh at Mahri's retelling of her words. "Yeah, it was just a joke. Only met Nort briefly a few times but y'all've done business a spell, right?" Maybe she should have clarified. She narrows dark eyes slightly at Mahri. Why all the hyped accusation just a moment ago? "Unless you're hopin' for somethin' more?" No judgment there. She reaches sideways for Mahri's glass and lifts it some to sniff the contents before taking a sip. Thank gods she didn't prefer rum like the pirate. She'd hand the glass back after. "Sorry, I really didn't mean anything behind it. Just stirrin' shyte, probably." She leans sideways a bit to bump her shoulder to Mahri's in a familiar gesture of comraderie with the apology.

Mahri cursed, not quite under her breath. "No, no I'm not hoping for anything more. I'm not relationship material. I'm perfectly happy being alone." But was she? Yes, yes she was. When Lita takes the glass from her hand, she lets it go. The bump is met with a sideways glance and a grin. "Forgiven. But, he's decided on my division. I was hoping he'd go with the Swans." Had she, though? Ugh, now it's all confusion and it sucked. "I don't have time for this," she mutters before getting up to get the bottle of whiskey and return to the couch. Mahri didn't do friends, found it hard to make them so the teasing had become unfamiliar to the wolf. "You healing good?" she changed the subject. "I can help if you need it."

Lita understood more than most about not being relationship material. She was still adamantly against them and the labels they demanded. "I don't know if there is such a thing as relationship material when you've waded through enough sh-" Mahri is muttering incoherently over that last word and moving to collect the bottle of whiskey from the bar. "Hoping he'd go with the swans?" She lofts a brow at the she-wolf but won't pester her on that front. "Having people's not so bad if it's the right people." She's still learning that this is an important distinction. "I'm alright." She says, reaching for the bottle of whiskey from Mah, assuming it was brought to share. "It's nothing against you or what you do, just have a thing about magic." She takes a sip from the bottle but then realizes that might have come off as offensive to someone who used magic "Not in general," she backtracks, trying to clarify. "But it being in me." Why did that sound so weird? "I'm okay, thanks though." She takes a solid swig from the bottle, the familiar slow burn warming through her. "I'm glad you're around. I adore Lora but she's so..." she didn't want to seem mean here. "...bubbly." She takes another drink from the bottle, eyes narrowed slightly at the floor. Hopefully that made sense.

Mahri said to you, "I have enough good people around me, thank you very much." Mahri takes the bottle back not at all offended. "To each their own." Taking a swig herself, the wolf chuckles a bit. She'd been drinking before coming here so.. "Yeah. I just want to wrap her up and keep her safe from everything."

Lita shrugs a bit. "Yeah, well, if you'd've joined us in Frostmaw maybe you could've wrapped her up and kept her safe from me." She still felt bad for what had happened, even if Leo seemed to have forgiven her. After a beat she reaches for the bottle again, taking a longer pull. "I don't know what Leo's thinkin' draggin' her through this world sometimes. I mean, I'm sure there's not much stoppin' her but hell." She'd been there before, a human running with wolves and vampires. But even then she'd been a lot less sheltered than Mouse seemed to be. "Can I tell you a secret?"

Mahri frowned and snaps a look at Lita. She wanted to ask what happened but then.. "Yeah. You can tell me." Mahri's good at keeping secrets. It's what she did best. Mahri hadn't realized the glass had been given back. Once she did, Mahri leaned over to set it carefully, too carefully perhaps, on the floor before sitting up to take the bottle back and take a good strong pull of it.

Lita said to Mahri, "I kissed him." She doesn't look at Mahri here, avoiding the possible looks of shock, as she adds, "Months before Lora was around. I hope." She furrows a brow, realizing she wasn't sure exactly. "Months before I knew anything about Lora." Somehow that made it seem better in her head. "I really don't get what all the fuss is about." She shrugs, smiling softly at her own ridiculousness. She'd blame it on the whiskey. "It was just an impulse. Nothin' else happened. Still don't get it though."

Mahri took another drink of the whiskey before passing it back to Lita. "You wanna know something?" She was feeling pretty good now, all warm and fuzzy towards the vampire. Isn't that sort of what happens? Have a huge physical fight, get drunk together and become bffs? She thought that's how it worked, right? "When we thought Tenebrae was dead, Leo was hurt badly. I took him home, patched him up." That was the first time. "He stayed with me a while until he was well enough to leave and he didn't go. I fancied myself in love with him." Here she smiles because well..."We went swimming one day and we kissed." Then the wolf sighs and if Lita had given the bottle back by then, she has a couple gulps. "But, Tene came back and they got back together. Honestly, I thought she was going to kill me for it."

Lita isn't laughing at Mahri. She listens intently but when she gets to this part about having also kissed the pirate, she's giggling, her shoulders shaking a bit because she's trying to suppress it. Because she's not laughing at Mahri. Just the whole thing. She wasn't the type to do the whole awkward-kiss-a-guy thing. She didn't peg Mahri as the type either. And yet here they were. Maybe instead of the whiskey, they should blame Leo. "Oh dear gods I hope I remember this conversation later." She knows she will but it's amusing the hell out of her. "Tenebrae, geeze, how long ago was that..." it's not really a question. Lita had only met the woman once or twice and even then only briefly. "Can't say I hadn't seen something different possible 'tween him an' I myself some point. But that's the way of things, isn't it." She reaches into her coat pocket, fishes for a few small stickers and hands a couple over to Mahri. They're colorful little ponies and unicorns, look like something the Mouse's imagination would have thrown up. "Started this when Leo returned and reopened the place. Roped Mouse into it a while back. There's a couple dozen of these hidden around this place. Every week or so we each add a new one somewhere." She peels the paper backing off one of the little adhesive stamps and slaps it against Mahri's forehead, then crumples into another fit of laughter at the sight. "Give it a go. Just don't tell 'im." Obviously.

Mahri, after this long, can find it amusing too and she might giggle a bit too. Yep, she drank enough to be drunk. "A very long time ago. Had a few lovers after him - we never went beyond that kiss." She wondered if Leo remembered it. Her thoughts are interrupted with the placement of stickers in her hand. And then one slapped onto her forehead. Trying to look at it, she goes cross eyed which only sets the alpha into a fit of giggles. "Seriously!? Ace, this is so bloody undignified!" Of course, that's the best reason to do anything, right? Still giggling and that sticker on her forehead clinging for dear life, Mahri takes the few in her hand and finds not-too-obvious-but-obvious-if-you-look spots to place them. She's tempted to put one right in the middle of the ring left on the bar from where Leo always set his glass. She knew him so well; better than most she'd say and he knew her better than anyone else, except for a few deep dark secrets she'd never told anyone. Ever. Well, no use thinking about what might have been - he was happy with the Mouse. "There." she declares as if she had done something very clever and returns to the couch for a proper bouncy flop.

Watching Mahri go cross-eyed trying to see that sticker only makes Lita laugh harder. "Undignified!?" She says in mocking jest of her best Leo impression. It's bad. The accent is horrible. It only makes her laugh more. "Hell, no one here but me." She realizes she doesn't have a cool nickname for Mahri. She should. She reaches for the bottle of whiskey when Mahri goes traipsing after sticker-hiding-spots and Lita is left watching as she takes another drink. "Kiss and tell," she says as Mahri rejoins her. "Was Leo the one that got away?" She's teasing, entirely. "Or you really got an eye on the new kid?"

Mahri was drunk, but not that drunk. Her demeanor sobered then. Not really, just the giddiness was tempered. "No, he wasn't." Reaching for the bottle to snag it away from Lita, she takes another swig and passes it back. "And no, not really." She frowns, "I think." The frown turns into a scowl. "I don't know." But then again, "Leo isn't at all bad at kissing, though."

Lita is not so drunk that she can't tell when she's hit some proverbial nerve. She shifts a little in her seat to recline back against the arm of the couch, stretching her legs out across the wolf's lap. She's classy that way. She narrows dark eyes at this unsure flip-flop Mahri does in reference to whether or not she likes the aforementioned new kid, but she doesn't press it. Her lack of impulse control has gotten her into enough trouble this week. "Maybe it depends on how drunk you are." She lifts the bottle for another drink, grinning past it at Mahri.

Mahri doesn't object when she's used as a foot rest. It just seemed natural that to rest her free hand, because, hello, lets have that bottle back, on Lita's shin. "Maybe." Not sure on what they're talking about now, having an interest in the bear or kissing the wolf. "How about you and," she tries to think of his name and it escapes her, "What's his name who took you out of the arena? You two a thing?"

Lita is probably too drunk to try forming all the syllables of Xiem's name but she knows who Mahri means. There's a pang of guilt in her when she answers honestly, "He wants to be." Her eyes fall to Mahri's hand on her shin, lost in thought for a beat. "It's harder for me. After Hanan and," others, though she doesn't see fit to name 'em. She'd kept her private life just that after Hanan. "I've been honest about it. It's not that I don't feel some kind o' way for him, sure. But then part of me just wonders if it won't measure up to what he's expecting. A whole other part just waitin' for the pro-ver-, pro-ber, the other dang shoe to drop." Words feel like a difficult thing and her cheeks flush with a faint color as she sighs, trying to keep 'em all coherent. "He's warm." She murmurs, which somehow makes sense in her head. And she doesn't mean in the placeholder way but the literal way.

Mahri hmm'd softly, in complete understanding. "Nothin' wrong with having a little fun, right?" That shin gets a gentle pat of empathy. "Been there and the shoe always drops. Sometimes it looks like a drow homewrecker." There's a story there. "Not gonna put m'self t'rough t'at ag'n." Shifting beneath the weight of legs so she has one leg bent slightly, the other dangling over the edge and she can face Lita squarely, "Look. Don' take advice fr'm me. I'm t'e las' person t' be givin' any sort of advice on relationships, but .. if you like 'im, go for it, see what happens. Or don't. Just don't. Not worth it to be hurt again."

Lita is trying to put on her best Serious Face as Mahri turns to face her. "Sometimes it looks like your wife fakin' her own death and not botherin' to tell you." She blurts out, reaching for the bottle again. They should share stories sometimes, maybe with less whiskey. The wolf is slurring her words and it makes Lita's smile broaden until she's left trying to stifle her laughter again. "'S a good thing I'm not takin' yer a'vice, tha'w's unhel'ful." She bends her knee some to curl her toes against Mahri's leg. "Do it, don' do it. Have fun." She does the worst Drunk Mahri impression since yesterday, probably. She takes another drink, finishing the bottle before handing it back to Mahri, empty. "I'm so tired of being hurt." She murmurs softly under her breath, the words a little sobering. She draws a deep breath and sighs before she'll attempt to untangle herself from the wolf and the couch and make her way to the bar for another bottle.

Mahri could tell a doozy of a tale, "Oooor, ye think yer 'usband is dead but he c'm's bach. Only when you get 'im back he doesn't remember you but then he does but doesn't remember lovin' you and leaves you, but you save his new bi-" Mahri belches, interrupting the word, " 'Scuze me. Anyway, ye save 'er b'cuz y'know it'd hurt him if ye didn'." Mahri watches Lita get up and go to the bar again, "Bring me one. And yes. Tir'd of bein' hurt. Males. Who needs 'em." Mahri said to Lita, "I 'member Hannan. 'M sorry she did that to ye. Ye didn't deserve it."

Lita snags another bottle and then back-steps for a second when Mahri calls across the bar to grab her one too. They could still share, but maybe this way they wouldn't have to do the walking thing again. The floor is mostly flat for the trip back to the couch and she flops unceremoniously back into her comfy position, bending her knees up to put her feet on Mahri's leg. She wrinkles her nose, making a face of distaste at Mahri's story as she shares it. She's got a few choice words for these other people she doesn't know but they're stuck in her throat just now and her teeth are busy trying to uncork that bottle. It pops! triumphantly and Lita takes a sip before handing it over to the wolf. The second one is tucked between her hip and the back of the couch. "I loved Hanan." She says with a sigh. She'd talked more about the Cap'n in the last few weeks. She'd kept the secret of the woman's not-really-death for so many years now. It felt good to actually tell people finally. Not so heavy. "I don' know if I could do that again." She wipes the back of her hand across her mouth and then, a delayed comment, "You wan' we c'n cover 'er 'n pony sti'ers." Meaning the b- Mahri had saved because she's a good person at heart even if people don't deserve it.

Mahri can relate. It's a weird feeling. "Nah. 'd rather cover her in honey and leave 'er staked to an ant hill." Instead of reaching for the bottle tucked in at Ace's hip, the wolf motions for her to give the bottle over. "Doesn' matter now. Iss over 'n done wit'. No use in wallowin', right?" She hadn't confided in anyone else for so long, it felt strange. Would she regret it in the morning? Eh. Maybe.

Lita hands over the bottle she'd opened, rather than the one at her hip. Mahri wouldn't care either way, right? "We kin cover 'er 'n honey 'n feed 'er to deh bear." This idea seems a much better solution than an ant hill, in her book!

Mahri said to you, "For the Gods' sake, I might not be sure if I like him or not, but I don't hate him." The wolf wrinkles her nose. She takes a drink as though washing a bad taste from her mouth. "I might be a wolf, but I'm not an animal." Mahri wouldn't have really cared where the whiskey came from.

Lita is in another fit of giggles as Mahri wrinkles her nose and takes the bottle of whiskey from her. "You're cute when you're mad!" She blurts, amused.

Mahri snorts. She'd never been called cute before. At least, not that she remembered at the moment and not since she was about four years old. "No I'm not. I'm a viscous beast." To prove it, Mahri mimics a 'rawr' and claws her fingers at Ace before falling back in a fit of giggles, again! When she calms, Mahri clears her throat, leans her head back and closes her eyes. "Might just give up on the male species entirely, y'know?"

Lita feigns a look of terror at Mahri's rawr-ed gesture before sticking her tongue out at the wolf. She'd actually found Mahri intimidating at one point probably not in the so distant past. Leo's softness was rubbin' off on all of 'em a bit maybe. "I'll second that!" She roars in a peel of laughter at Mahri's proposal about giving up on the male species. She leans forward enough to snag the whiskey bottle again before falling back with an oomf. "And I call dibs." Because she's seven and drunk. She wipes the back of her hand across her mouth again, mumbling under her breath when she spills a bit of whiskey on her shirt, wiping at it as if this will make it magically disappear. Classy like that. Whatever. She shrugs and takes another drink before balancing the bottle on her knee within the wolf's reach. "I'd hit that." She offers a playful wink. "Doubt I'm the o'ly one."

Mahri 's confused and manages to pick her head up to look at Lita with wrinkled brow, "Hit what?" What are they hitting? A wall? A sandbag? Their respective ex's?

Lita blinks at Mahri for a moment, perplexed for a beat. And then effectively dies of laughter. RIP, please leave flowers at the grave site. She's wiping tears from the corners of her eyes and when she catches her breath after a minute, stares up at Mahri's still-serious expression and just starts laughing all over again. Her cheeks flush with a faint color but whether it's a blush or the exertion of laughing, she'll blame it on the whiskey. "You, yah idjit." She manages between giggles and gasps of air.

She must have had way too much to drink because it still takes her another minute or two for the meaning to sink in. When it does..."Oh." Yup, just that single syllable. It's then she reaches for the bottle to seriously drink roughly half of it down. Once she can gather her thoughts again, Mahri clears her throat to say, "Liar." But the corner of her mouth twitches up.

Lita is a lot of things. And has been a lot of other things. But she's not a liar. At least not right now, in this moment. So when Mahri calls her one, she takes it a bit as a personal affront. "No' lissss'n 'ere, you." She doubts all those syllables just tried to come out of her. Hell. Words are tough. She leans up with a grunt, her left knee angling towards the back of the couch and her right leg stretching over Mahri's lap again as she reaches for the woman's shirt, fingers of her right hand curling against the fabric as she tugs the wolf closer a bit. It's an uncharacteristic moment of boldness that has her kissing the woman properly and probably a bit sloppily because she's drunk and Mahri tastes like whiskey and laughter. She snatches the bottle back after, nodding at Mahri as if that kiss was enough to somehow prove she wasn't a liar. "You're gor'shesh. Any'n' sayin' o'erwise kin stuff it." If Mahri asks what 'it' is, she might have to die twice.

Mahri 's not exactly sure - nope, that is a lie. She knows exactly what just happened. Lita kissed her. Mhmmm. It happened so fast, the wolf just sort of sat there a minute after the artist sat back with that whiskey in hand. A finger comes up to touch her mouth like she could still feel it before sitting back into the corner of the couch and staring at Lita. Words finally formed, "Ok." Then she does grab the whiskey tucked between that hip and back of the couch to work out the cork and have another drink. She'll think about this later. A kiss didn't mean anything and it was kinda nice.

Lita is mostly oblivious to Mahri's thoughts on that kiss. She'll probably feel bad about it later. Maybe. Depending on whether she'd have to add Mahri to her apology tour or not. She shifts a little so Mahri can steal the other bottle of whiskey and settles back into the couch where it had been. She leans her head against the back of the couch, staring at Mahri, lost in thought a bit. "Do you think things'll change much after they ge' 'itch'd?" She furrows her brow slightly with the question, realizing somehow that that's not at all what she'd meant to ask. "I 'ean- hol' on, I don' kno'." She glances sideways, concentrating, trying to make it make sense to her. "I mean, d'you thin' 'e'll bite 'er?" Sheesh, that hurt. Did she even mention she was talking about Leo and Lora? Eh, Mahri is smart, she'll understand.

Mahri licks a drop of whiskey that had escaped off her lip when Lita works through asking that question. She has to think about it a second before shrugging. "No' unless she asks 'im t'." She was confident the pirate wouldn't do it without Mouse being informed and willing to go through that sort of pain, because that shyte hurts - and the first shift is terrifying and more painful than the initial bite. Mahri frowns in thought. Would Lora even want to become what they are? It meant she'd die much sooner, and easier, than either of them and quite honestly, after her conversation with Leo earlier, she didn't know if Leo would be ok.

Lita considerd her answer at length. Maybe it was easier to imagine because it hadn't been so many years since she'd asked Hanan to turn her. Even if it had almost killed her. And taken weeks to recover. Even knowing that possibility, she'd still chosen it. She takes another drink and settles her attention on Mahri again with new curiosity. "D'you choose it?" She pantomimes an exaggerated bite and lifts her hand with fingers curled in a 'rawr' gesture. This is her brain's drunken way to signify that she means being a lycan. It also makes her grin with apology after, realizing it probably looks ridiculous.

Mahri hadn't expected that question and it brought with it a jumble of memories. "No." Taking another drink, the lycan talks about it, probably for the first time in...ever. No one had ever asked this before. "T'ere were rum'rs o' a beast in the area, a monst'r attackin' livestock 'n people, leavin' b'hind ripped up bodies an' slaughtered an'mals. M' parents tol' me to stick close t' 'ome an' I didn' lissen. Went to t'e woods an' was attacked by a werewolf. But I survived."

Lita isn't at all sure what you were supposed to say to something like that. Guess the words didn't matter much in the way of things. Knowing it happens and meeting someone you like who's had it happen to them are two different things. She doesn't want to say she's sorry. Even if she'd mean it, it doesn't seem like the thing to say. Instead she lifts the bottle for another drink. "I'm glad you survived." She says softly, the words sincere.

Mahri raises her bottle in a toast, "Me, too." Her life changed after she was attacked, some for the good even. Some she'd rather not speculate upon. There were just some things you don't share even with people you care about. "An' you? Did you choose it?"

Lita nods at Mahri's question. "Despi'e protes' from peo'le who sa' I 'as makin' a Huge mistake." Not so much Hanan as Krice. Krice had yelled at her. And she'd spent years after Hanan's death trying to see herself as anything other than the monster Krice had seen her as. "I di'n't plan on doin' i' alone though, tryin' to figure all out." She pauses, inhales a deep breath and exhales slowly. "It took a long time to even feel like I wanted to do it withou' Hanan." She takes another drink from that bottle, almost empty and finishes it with a long pull before setting on the floor. It tips sideways and rattles to the ground but screw it, let it live there now.

Mahri wasn't quite sure what to say to that. She'd always been independent and didn't often rely on others for anything, the few times she had let someone close enough for that they ended up disappointing her. "Tha' must have sucked." If it came out sounding not as sympathetic as she wanted, she hoped that Ace understood. Mahri's not quite used to the supportive role though she does try.

Lita feels like this phrase should be plastered across a wall somewhere in her life. That must have sucked. Every major event and she just sighs, turning to stare at this motto while deciding, Yup, it did. But you keep going. You survive. And on occasion, rarely, if you're a little lucky, you find people to survive with from time to time. "It did." Lita appreciates the comraderie of the sentiment. "But wha' you gon' do?" She shrugs. "I was really hopin' hangovers woul' be a thin' o' the past though." She adds, knowing she'll feel at least some of this come tomorrow.