RP:One Of Those Hippies

Summary: Let's make some gold, maybe? Provided we can all get along...

The Kraken's Lair

Meri word was sent out. In Tiber's case, it was a simple request of 'Me. You. Callum. Drinks.' Would Tiber say no? ...Well, it is Tiber, so maybe...but Meri is really hoping that he will be lured in on the promise of drinks. Callum probably got a more detailed answer on the situation. Like, who Tiber is (Lanara's ex), how she knows him (they met outside of Lanara), and most importantly...that she's pretty sure he's a shady figure who might be good to form a connection with. Meri likes gold. Callum likes gold. Tiber likes gold. It could be a beautiful friendship...or a disaster. They were about to find out! When Meri and Callum arrive within the four walls of the Kraken, she murmurs are charming, "You get the table? I get the drinks?" It could go the other way around though, Meri gets the table, Callum gets the drinks. The important thing was that they claim a space and that Meri has some damn whiskey. Unless Callum has any objection, Meri will move toward the bar after asking, "What do you want to drink?"

Callum does indeed like gold. Lots of gold. Someday, he wanted to install a bank vault in one of their houses to keep all of their gold in, so he could go swimming in it like a certain dapper duck character. The Catalian seemed more or less fine with this plan of his wife’s; if she felt Tiber was trustworthy enough for this, then he’d trust her judgement. Callum was also fine with getting the table claimed and gave Meri his order, “Get me a mojito… and some of those weird but incredibly delicious deep-fried cheese stick things!” Cal was feeling a little fruity and herby today when it came to his drink… and apparently a little hungry too. Meri was already off to get the stuff by time he realized that maybe they didn't have that nice spicy tomato sauce to dip the sticks in. It would be a shame, but Cal would power through them anyway. He managed to find a decent-sized booth for the three of them in a corner, as was the way of rogue-ish types, and settled into it to wait.

Tiber found it amusing when the letter from Meri arrived from the blue. Word from her again. Was this beginning to become pitiful? Did she think he could not get a handle on himself? Well, since the note simply had ‘drinks’ in the scribble, he was sold. Though, Callum? Who in the hell was Callum? Did he know a Callum? Was he just really that careless? Probably. Tiber shows, and this time, in a much better state than the last. At least he was not buzzed this time, but that does not mean he stopped drinking. The stubbled blonde slinks through the establishment in a brown sweater layered over a blue-button-up. Blue slacks. Loafers. The usual. The man looked clean again. It was about time. Not a drunken mess—yet. Who knew? Sven knows. As the lycan walks in, he instantly spots Meri, and casually strides towards the bar. “Double whisky on the rocks,” a simple demand towards the bartender. Hazel eyes look down at the psion, “You called?” And still he was wondering who the hell Callum was.

Meri had no such opinions! If she did, she would not have invited Tiber out for a night of drinking, that seems counterproductive. Tiber arrives at the bar just as Meri is acquiring that mojito for Callum and a bottle of her. Food was also ordered, Callum's request was definitely lodged but Meri took the liberty of ordering a nice little spread for the trio to share. Drunchies were a real thing. Tiber attempts to place his order...and Meri cancels it. "Yeah, ignore him. Just pass him a second bottle, add it to my table." Meri is stepping away from the bar at this point in time, pointing to that table where Cal was at, and moving in that direction. "We're right over there." Meri is pointing, using the hand that is holding her bottle of whiskey rather than the one holding Cal's mojito. Once at the table, she places Cal's drink in front of him, claims a spot next to him, and then waits for Tiber to join before doing the whole cliché introduction thing. "Cal, this is Tiber. Tiber, this is Cal. Surprised you two have not met before, to be honest. You both are prone to wheeling and dealing around Cenril."

Callum was the only Cal that mattered, thankyouverymuch. This Catalian was rather well-dressed with his dark blue button-up long-sleeve shirt, vaguely shimmery black waistcoat, and black pants and dress shoes. This was almost as casual as Callum could get. To accentuate the look, his glorious Brendon Urie-esque raven-colored hair was combed back and perfectly sculpted with gel. Look, Callum was fabulous-looking at all hours of the day. It can’t be helped. He’s frakking gorgeous. He’s so hot he’ll make you panic! at a disco. Whatever that is. He sipped at his mojito once Meri brought it over and the two sat down. “We have met. Sort of. He was at Lanara and Talyara’s Yule party. Got overshadowed by that idiot Backstreet Bard. Who was promptly given a “shocking experience” by me for his efforts of making Lanara rather uncomfortable and almost ruining the entire party with his stupid marriage proposal that never should’ve happened because Lanara wasn’t interested, but he’s too full of himself, as celebrities tend to be,” he said with a smirk, the ‘shocking experience’ part re-enacted with a tiny static shock to Meri’s arm. It wasn’t anything major--Callum knew better. “I’m perfectly fine with you not remembering me, however.” Sorry, Tiber. It’s Cal’s job to know people. Though he had been respectful enough to Lanara to not know anything more than that Tiber was her boyfriend.

Tiber rolled his eyes at her cancel request. Though does he say anything about a full bottle? No. But does he ask for a cooled glass? Yes. Amber eyes look over his shoulder to find a—stunningly fabulous—man sitting idly. A familiar face once it is settled on. Easily the bottle is snagged before he pivots to follow. The lycan slips in across from them. “Rude, you know. Glass gives –class-.” Tiberius? Classy? Well, he had his moments. Eyes then shift to the man opposite of him. Once the dazzled man begins talking, the blonde is instantly opening the bottle. “Ah, yeah, Nathan or Nick, or whatever the hell his name was. That guy from that one band. Whatever. Doesn’t matter. I actually remember you there now that I recall. You actually had a bearable personality. It’s all making sense now,” and the glass is poured. Here we go. Callum opening wounds. It was a raw wound still even if he did look better. The man tips the glass back and takes a gulp or two before releasing a breath. “We’re not here to talk about Lanara, though, are we?” His face sort of squints to bite away the sting.

Meri :: Callum may be fabulous but he was also full of sass, Meri has become quite numb to it over the years. Thus, she does not even bat a lash when Tiber rolls his eyes, and was he trying to say that she lacked class? This only results in a shrug, "Yeah. That's fine. I'm not trying to be up in here pretending that I am some classy dame. That's not me." A sly grin pulls at Meri's red lips as she gestures toward Callum. "That's him." It's right at this point that their introductions are briefly interrupted with all that food that Meri ordered. It's a variety of appetizers that you might find at a bar, including the deep fried cheese sticks, some wings, etc. Lanara was not a subject that Meri wanted to dwell on for long, if only because she missed the witch enough that it was hard to talk about her in depth. This was a feeling she imagined was amplified for Tiber. "No," Meri states flatly on the subject of Lanara. "We're here to drink, to see if we can be friends, maybe even work together. Rob a few people, smuggle of a few things." In most settings, Meri would not speak so liberally out in the open...but this was a bar that she was more than familiar with. Even if they were overhead, no one here was of the disposition to snitch on Meri.

Callum had not gotten to know Lanara like everyone else had. Their relationship with one another had only just started. If he were the type, he’d probably tell Tiber that it’s high time he got his crap together and moved on. Not -entirely-. Mainly, just in the sense that there was business to be done so that they could all roll around in gold. Preferably not together (okay, Meri can roll around in gold with Cal). It was time to focus on the now though, Tiber. Lanara may come back and she may not but there were things he could be doing besides just drinking himself into a stupor every day. Like making money. Money that he could share with Lanara, if he so chose to do so. He was not the type of person to say these things, though. And Meri would beat the hell out of him probably if he had. “Larket,” Callum said at length, as he sipped a bit more of that glorious mojito. “Your sister’s not been allowed to deal any damage to them, even with all of that stuff with the Mage’s Guild, right? Because politics and whatnot. So, maybe it’s time to take the situation into our own hands. Start small. Maybe even go after the fort in time. I didn’t exactly forget those secret passages there.” He tapped his head with an innocent smile. “We could even play it safe for a while and loot other places in other regions instead and just collect information in that gods awful place.” It had long been on Callum’s list of things to do to get back at Larket -somehow-.

Tiber :: A shrug is offered to Meri. He understood. Not a classy dame. Callum was the classy one. In Tiber’s eyes, that was very obvious as he stares at Callum’s waistcoat. He takes silent note, and tries not to stare for too long. Again, he shrugs that off too. “Okay then,” and he sips on his glass. The food slips between the table, and instead of reaching towards it, he just leans back and folds a leg over the other idly. “And for a moment I thought you were going to try to smack some pitiful crap in my face.” A hand runs over stubble before he lets out a laugh. “Friends, ha,” there is a shake of his head and a look to the side, but then... smuggling. Robbing. Gold. Yeah, he can pretend to be ‘friends’ for that. The duo begin talking, and the thoughts of Lanara instantly dwindle away. The only time Tiber was willing to get back on his feet was when money was in the picture. Tiberius Lowell takes his time here. Slowly sitting up to set the glass on the table. “Larket. What new territory.” It was true. Tiberius had been most places, but Larket? Well, that should have happened a long time ago. “Lots of higher-ups in that region, no? What a ritzy, snobby, maybe even psychotic, choice there, but I always dig a new challenge and… to stir pots.” After all, Tiber was not really scared to get his hands dirty. He has done a lot of damage in his days. “Keep talking.” A wing is then snatched before he tears the meat off the bone with one of those boyish, sleazy, annoyingly-charming smiles.

Meri didn't keep talking though. She would indulge in the whiskey, straight from the bottle like the not-classy-dame we've already established that she is, she would also munch on some food. Callum's cheese sticks were not safe from his wife. But she did not keep talking. What she did do was shrug at the talk of the Mage's Guild, their politics, and Larket...Meri was not in the know. Larket seemed as good enough a target as any. She also slide a glance toward Cal when Tiber laughed off the notion of being friends. Tiber said to keep talking though, and so she would let Callum go on if he felt like it. Drinking and eating was a far better alternative than trying to navigate all that Catalian sass, Meri has learned. The boys can sass at each other for a moment.

Callum :: It didn’t seem to matter at all to Callum if they became friends with Tiber. He hadn’t been friends with anyone else he’d worked with--until Meri had come along, that is. Cal’s friends are his plants. This would probably worry most people, but Meri seemed to be fine with it. Probably. Tiber would tell him to keep talking but… Callum wouldn’t do that either. Look, his wife was digging into those cheese sticks and he needed to get his hands on at least a couple before he went after anything else on that plate. He was purposefully keeping Tiber waiting. More of that Catalian sass. It probably seemed like forever really. Those cheese sticks were incredibly important, Tiber. “New territory for you, but not for us. I worked for the queen for a while before I found out that I’m a witch. It wasn’t a good idea for us to continue to live there, as I’m sure you can imagine. Long story short, there’s houses just outside of the main city, close to the forest, that could be scoped out first. We can use the forest as cover. Two places we’re not going after however are the House of Ara--that’s Healer’s Guild territory, of which I am a part of--and the botanical gardens. I’m sure it doesn’t sound to you like a money-making place, but it is and we’re not touching it. I put too much work into it to get it to look the way it does for me to just go and frak it all up.

Tiber finishes off the wing before pouring another glass of whiskey. Whiskey was easy for him to down now as the two decide not to keep talking. He could play the game. He could play the game very well, so instead, he is staring at Callum with that snarky, little, sassy smile as he pours the contents into the glass. Try him. Really try his patience. Lanara really was the only one to get under his skin. Especially when she would go froo-frooing up his apartment with pink. As Callum begins talking again, Tiber never breaks gaze until the other Catalian does speak. “Oh, okay. You’re some sort of plant-lover I'm guessing. Lanara had one of her hippie healer friends who used to deal with plants. Some freckled chick she always bantered about. Sven forbid I step into that territory anyway. Not really my scene.” Tiber had a keen sense, and that meant of smell. Gardens were not his thing. Too many smells all at the same time.

Meri :: Hey now! Meri wasn't playing any games at the moment. She was just minding her own business, trying to enjoy dinner, get drunk to drown out all this snark and sass. Cal was the one who turned it into a game. While it seems Meri is alright with Tiber delivering jabs at her expense -- as she is clearly okay with embracing the notion that she lacks class -- poking fun at Callum is a whole different matter. Now, she's well aware that Callum is probably not going to take too kindly to this latest round of commentary from Tiber...so she again keeps -mostly- quiet. She is also aware that...Cal's a bit of a pacifist, and she is very much...not. It's too much effort to actually get up and deliver a good solid decking to Tiber. He is instead on the receiving end of a very rough kick beneath the table. Maybe to a shin. Maybe to a kneecap. Meri's not really taking clear aim, she's just pretty sure she's not aiming at the legs of the man sitting next to her. "Now come on. We're just here with gold making prospects. Find your manners." Meri resumes drinking from that bottle of whiskey.

Callum :: “For her sake, I won’t force you to take a long walk off a short pier, Tiber.” ‘Her’ wasn’t exactly explained. Maybe it was Meri? Maybe it was Lanara? Who knows. For their sake, Callum wasn’t going to drown Tiber off the side of the Rynvale pier. He wanted to. He very much wanted to. Or was it the wolf that wanted to? It was too hard to tell sometimes. Callum might be a pacifist (usually anyway) but the wolf side of him was not. At all. Hell, Cal could drown Tiber right now if he wanted to--all it took was a little bit of that water magic, that of which he was a master with. The thought of it brought on a slight grin. But it wasn’t something Tiber knew. Nor would Callum make it known right now. “As someone that’s currently dating a witch--” Meaning Tiber dating Lanara. “--I would highly suggest you educate yourself on the fact that nature is not all flower crowns and rainbows and whatever you seem to think it is.” But, he soon shrugged and sat back against the back of the booth, his ocean-colored line of sight on Tiber still. “Or don’t and see where that gets you. But, back to the matter at hand. The nobles in Larket are just as idiotic as the monarchy they worship. I’ve swindled smarter people. I honestly think we could even infiltrate one of their little house parties if we felt like it. Or we can just rob the place while no one’s home. The route is up to you guys. I’m more skilled in the former, but the latter works just as well.” Yeah, that whole bank robbery him and Meri were a part of had not been forgotten. And it didn’t exactly go as planned.

Tiber felt the kick. Felt the kick strongly in the shin with a sharp throb. Amber eyes snap towards Meri in defense. “What? I have manners.” Of course you knew what he knew what he said. It was the same quote that led Lanara to bite at him. Botanists and druids are not “hippies”, Tiber. Forest dwellers are not “hippies” either. “Okay, okay, I get it. I struck a nerve,” hands lift in defense. His voice is cool and collected, but there is a hint of a small smirk. The lycan enjoyed rises, but he should probably tame himself. At least for Meri, and because he liked gold. Mostly the money-hungry part. “Am I perfect? No. But can I help? Yes.” The man then drinks from the glass again. “I’ve never infiltrated an occasion before. Surprisingly. Most of my antics are in the streets.” More mobster-esc. He did jobs for other people under the radar. A right-hand man for a good price which came with a standard higher-up living. Maybe not as wealthy as Callum, but the blonde was up there in the bracket. Tiber had persuasion and good charm when he wanted to. Perhaps that was why he liked to tick people off when he knew that they had nothing to give to him but a sock in the face. “I like the latter, myself. I think it can honestly be a bucket-list check-off. Not that I really thought about it, but I would not be against it. Honestly, I’ll leave it up to Meri here because… after all, ladies first.”

Meri :: It is probably a good thing that Tiber changed his tune. There is only so much that whiskey can do for Meri. Cal was not the only one who struggled with that wolfish side, except for Meri it was not even a struggle. She didn't even try and struggle anymore, she just embraced it. She was about two seconds away from slamming her fist against the table and yelling at the both of them, but thankfully she did not have go there. Tiber proves he does have manners and Meri's red lips curve up into a knowing grin at this. "Good, I am glad we have decided to get along better. Because it doesn't matter what the heck we do if we can't manage to work together." Those bank securities were without a doubt far more annoying to deal with than anything the nobles could have had set up, so Meri is not worried about the job either way. "You two can infiltrate the party if you want to." Meri doesn't want to dress the part. "Run distractions. Lift jewelry. Find out where the goods are. Whatever. I would prefer to take a much more stealthy approach myself. There is no reason we cannot do both in one job. It might seem like a party is a bad time to rob a place, but it just increases the chance that they'll point fingers at each other."

Callum said nothing more on the matter of Tiber and his views on nature lovers. He’d probably bitch to his plants later. It’s fine. “Both works for me. I could deal with the partygoers and you two can deal with the rest of the place. I don’t suggest we do this too many times in a row, however. Hit a house and then go elsewhere for a little bit. I dunno. There’s plenty of sunken ships around here, Cenril, and Chartsend to loot. I obviously shouldn’t have to say it, but it can’t look connected. I don’t particularly want to end up like Valrae.” He didn’t mention Fleur being another reason to play it extremely safe, but Meri would know full well. Callum hadn’t reached enough level of trust yet with Tiber to talk about his daughter yet. Who knows if they ever do at this point.

Tiber smirks at Meri. “You haven’t seen it yet, but distractions can be, what they call, ‘cake’. But if Cal wants to face them straight-on, he could probably talk the talk. Since… well, you lived there of course.” The social game was easy, but Larket? That was new. Callum could handle that. Plus, it was handy with three lycans. Yeah, the wolf really came in handy. “I agree we shouldn’t keep busting into gatherings. Play it safe. Distant. Although idiots, it would take a super idiot to not find the culprits if we kept going for the same place over and over again.” This time, the snarky tone is gone, and now the wolf is talking at ease. Business-like. Tiber had to settle. “So, when should we scope? And… do you have any ins on any gatherings?”

Meri was rising from her seated position now, and it was not because she felt this strong inclination to deck Tiber either! It was because she has done some serious damage on that bottle and it was starting to get to her head. Some fresh air was sounding nice. She was not just about to run out mid-discussion though, plus she did arrive with Callum. "Yeah, look. I will live Callum to gather the ins on any gatherings," since it was his idea to target Larket to begin with. "Once he's got a lead on an upcoming party, we can scope it the place out and formulate more of a plan there." Her blue eyes shift between the two werewolf males, "Anything else we feel like chatting about? Because if there ain't, it's a nice night and I like the smell of the sea." Translation: she wants to leave for a walk.

Callum sighed as he realized something. He even face-palmed himself. “Goddamn it, I’m gonna have to study up on glamouring.” That’s going to be a whole chore. Too bad he’s no longer in contact with Valrae. The rest of his mojito was downed like it was a shot of whiskey.“But yes. Meri and I will find out when they have their stupid parties and get back to you. In the meantime, maybe scope out some minor stuff here in Rynvale? Or in Cenril? It’d give us all something to work on.” Cal slid from the booth and stood up, looking from Tiber to Meri and then shrugged. “I have a plan in case of emergency for when we actually do this, but it can wait.” Whenever Meri was ready to go, he would be too.

Tiber :: As Meri rises, amber eyes watch closely. The answers are given. He is patient. She knows how to reach him. He is content with that answer. Besides, drinking in peace was a normality. Well, until he ticks someone off. At this point, he did not want it to be Cal. Or did he? Nah, probably not. Then again, Cal opened a door for Tiber. “Do you really need a br—“ No Tiber, do not say it. Money is money. And it is more important than being an ass. “I mean, do your best. Whiskey goes straight to the brain,” pause. “I’ll scope. I’ll have a lead for our next gig after the fact, I’m sure. We’ll keep in touch.” And it was that easy to stand to backtrack towards the bar. “Enjoy the salted sea, and uh, thanks for the booze.” The man would give a wave before his back faced the two in order to get a drink on the side of his bottle of whiskey. Wasting his night away as the buzz of people went by.