Lhasa's Drama Llama

[rassafraggin]

It's lively and crowded tonight in Cafe Gileda, and there's a steady stream of patrons coming in after a rather terrible Punch and Judy show has concluded outside. Luckily, a few others from the crew of the Beast have secured a sizeable table near the bar, and a large round of beers and fried finger foods now sits before them. A few minstrels from the show that are retuning their instruments and getting ready to do their rounds around the most wealthy-looking tables. Sidonie slams her hand on the table a few times to get the others' attention and stands, frothy mug of ale held high. She yells over the sound of chatting patrons and out of tune strings. "To Captain Incarnate!"

Merri is benched on some saved-space at the main table, having arrived a smidge before the first toast is called. He accepts the tall mug of whatever hurriedly served out by the cafe hostess and joins in the cheer, "Incarnate!" The look he casts across the table to the femme of the hour holds somewhat less than adoration, however. A few newer nicks on his face suggest having gotten into other scrapes since parting ways with Triskelion, and he may not be in the best of spirits tonight.

Mercier lounges tiredly at the table with the others. Not necessarily blessed with Oberkinesque endurance, it wasn't precisely an easy voyage to get the ships where they needed to go, and the periodic fleet battles and giant monsters tend to put your normally well-conditioned human into a mode of wanting a bed that's better then a cramped hammock. Even if that bed was a poor excuese for a straw filled pallet. But a toast is something to find power for, and he raises his drink, remanining seated, but hoisting that brandy high, "Incarnate!" He offers, in unison.

Ruby finds Giledra to be right up her alley, and the company is more than fine. She acquires one of the mugs from the round and eyes those gathered over the rim. The container only partially hiding her lopsided smile. The frothy head of the beer slooshes over the hand that grasps it, and she hoists it in turn to each person gathered.

Maggie arrived with Merrisol, sliding into a place next to him once they reached the table. Accepting a glass from the server, she too lifts it in an answer to the called toast. Her gaze turns to Incarnate where she sits and she nods once before taking a sip of the bubbling brew. Her mood is difficult to guage as the glass obscures more than half of her face.

Sidonie grins from ear to ear, pleased as punch so many of her favorite people are gathered. She takes a big gulp of her beer, surprised the Bayle's Piss at this establishment ain't so bad? "Rear Admiral!" she ammends to Ruby and the others, grinning. She tilts the mug for a second gulp, but pauses and gives Merrisol and Maggie a curious look. Her eyes linger on Merri's face, and she lowers the mug. Her hand rises to pat Merri on the shoulder, "You doin' alright, Captain? You're lookin' like you need something a bit stronger?" Mercier also gets a curious look. Why is everybody so tired, when they are in Amber, where the beds are soft and the food is delicious!

Into the Cafe comes a figure dressed in a full cloak, though she pulls it back shortly after entry. Iceheart has heard of some of the notables from the Beast gathering in the Giledra, and has come to seek out the object of the quest that has kept her in Amber this last tenday. She spots the table in question, and then her eyes go wide, stunned to see the person who she lost nearly a half century ago. "Lhasa!" calls out the pale skinned woman as she makes her way towards the Beast table, too shocked to smile as she strides forward.

That much drinks in the hands of one help, grab by so festive hands toasting and shocking mugs do spill liquid on the floor. As the waiter turns to get more drinks in a rush, he ends up face to face with an unforseen Jadean. Where did Shao come from? The surprise compounds with wet soles and before Shao can reach, the waiter slips and crashes to the floor on his back, dragging with him a couple of chairs that weren't suitable for a solid grip. Shao looks around, uncertain what to do. So many eyes are turned his way! As the fire of a blush rises to his cheek, he reverts to old habits and bows to the waiter. "My apologies." A clasp of the hands, a good pull and the waiter is back up and ready to go, if with a bit of a limp.

RPG: Shao declares that he has the Dramatic Timing (STY-DT) gift.

Merri quaffs down a third of the ale while the next cheer rings out, lifts the mug belatedly, then sets it down for a while. He adds, "May the two fleets never meet to compare notes..." into the relative hush that comes after. Reaching up with his free hand, he pats Sidonie's hand patting his shoulder. "It's nothing, Doc.. it's just life." But then that silence extends unexpectedly long, and he frowns, looking over towards the eatery's front, where the waiter had taken his spill, and just now being helped up by.. "..Shao-san?" Merrisol mutters bemusedly, glancing at Maggie beside him as though for confirmation, though he naturally falls into the assumption that the Penglai man is supposed to be here. He raises his mug to his old friend. And then there is the matter of the other arrival, striding their way and calling out an unfamiliar name. So far, she garners no more than a passing look of query from the submariner.

The noise level is certainly something tonight. Crashing, chatting, calling out...it's a real soup of saturation. Fits and starts, lulls and cacophonies. Ruby's got her lips latching lamprey-like onto the rim of her tankard and inhaling the contents and tilts her head back to expose her throat. Raising a hand to twirl a finger in the air to order a new round as she quaffs down the drink and tries to burble an answer to Sidonie.

Glancing at Merrisol, Maggie's gaze seems to touch his new injuries, but she does not appear surprised by them. Just... troubled. Looking up at Sidonie, she smiles a tight smile, warmth mostly in her eyes. The sound of the crashing causes her to turn toward it, though it does blend in some with the ambiant noise. Her brows lift in surprise as she sees the Penglai man assisting the fallen waiter. Merrisol's assertion causes her to give the other man a searching look before she shakes her head slowly, "Can't be, my Heart. Shao-san used an eyepatch. Remember? That man could be his twin but for that." She lifts her gaze then, eyes sliding to the striding woman with the pale skin. A brow is lifted briefly, but then her focus returns to their table, both the Penglai man and the woman dismissed in favor of another drink from her glass.

Sidonie looks back at the cloaked woman calling out to her. She squints from behind her thick spectacles, sets the mug down on the table. There is a stricken look on Sid's face suddenly once the pale woman's face comes closer into view, her own face now white as a new canvas sail, and she grips the sides of the table as if she were about to lose her footing. The rest of the bar's noise turns into a murmur in Sidonie's general vicinity as she asserts her will onto the sound in this space. Though from the look on her face, she might not even realize she is doing it. She whispers, voice shaky, "Who's Lhasa."

RPG: Sidonie declares that she has the Whispers on the Wind (CHA-WW) gift.

The pale Captain has eyes only for the Chirurgeon as she breaks into a rush, having little concern for anyone she might bump or jostle as she drives through the crowd towards Sidoni, calling out the unfamiliar name again, "Lhasa!" Iceheart has no idea that her words are being muffled by Sidoni's magic.

The merchant's a man who keeps his eyes on the exits, and there's a brief distraction when Shao makes his entrance, causing a bit of a ruckas. His eyes twitch to the doctor, and leave just as quickly, his face draining of emotion, and not quite in a similarly shocked way. Its another second before he chooses a look of bemusement, eyes twitching up. Slowly, carefully, he places his brandy glass down, fingers gently placed around the rim. Being a morose drunk, its easy to look the part. He waits.

At the sound of his name, Shao finds Merri in the crowd... and beams! What a pleasant surprise! Someone pushes a cup in Shao's hands and the toast is returned. Also there are Maggie, Sidonie, Ruby, Templeton and more. "I am very glad to be here," he says over the ambiant din, because he is. His smile wanes a little then, for he overhears the disbelief from Maggie's very mouth. "Maggie-san, Merri-san. It is me, Satoshi Shao. The eye grew back but I cannot explain why." Perhaps his explanation is too long. He turns to Sidonie, his expression dismayed. The bonesaw cannot save him, she is already answering to... the woman in the cloak, is it? He quirks his eyebrows in pure curiosity at the strange name dropped. He gets the sense that this is non of his business and slinks unto a fortunate vacating stool, just besides Ruby. "Hello, Captain," he says to the giantess.

RPG: Shao declares that he has the Lucky (STY-LK) gift.

Ruby slams down the tankard to the tabletop, eyes a bit redder around the whites. Ahhhh. Blinking away the extra eyeball lube, she smacks her lips in a self satisfied way. Proud as a peacock. Hey...There's more people at the table? In confusion, she sees Shi and Si regarding each other, and the former calling out a strange name. "Whut..." She pounds at her sternum to break up some of the chemistry experiment burbling in her gut. "Nah nah...you ~arp~ mistakened..." She turns eyes that need to refocus on Shao and she opens her mouth wide for a loud, "'Ellooo!"

"I think..." Merrisol's gaze flicks to and fro a couple of times, gauging the trajectory of the strange woman and the focal point drawn from her eager stare. "...she's talking to you, Doc," he finishes in a drawl, easing back so his shoulders settle against the wall directly behind the bench. The move might provide some buffer between Lhasa-er and Lhasa-ee, and some time for Sidonie to decide whether this is a welcome surprise or not. Then again there are other routes to Sid for one so determined. It all just amounts to a single defense play on her behalf. "Can't undervalue the benefit of a Mandrake physician," he nods to Shao offhandedly. "Glad to see it back." Then his focus roves back to the potential reunion.

Maggie blinks several times when Shao asserts his identity. It drags her attention to him from the incoming woman long enough for her to give him a warm smile, "Congratulations, Shao-san! I am so glad that you have your eye back. That is wonderful. Welcome to the table. Do you know everyone?" Everyone but the incoming, at any rate. Turning back to Shidoni, she watches the woman, guaging her inbound route. A hand is lifted and she takes up an unclaimed glass of beer. Standing slowly, she places herself on Sidonie's other side, the glass offered to the pale woman. When she can, she smiles and offers the glass to Shidoni, "Hello. Would you care for a drink? We are celebrating." Not an intimidating woman, Maggie still puts a bit of forcefulness into the cheer of her greeting and invitation.

Sidonie blinks and pulls up her glasses to her forehead. The sounds around her are still muffled, and thus so is the voice of the woman calling to her. She slams both palms on the tabletop, and the loud sounds of the croud and conversations around them rush back like a thunderclap. Sid then lifts her hands from the tabletop and, still standing, walks around Maggie and takes a few steps around the table to come closer to Shidoni. Her face is pale, and her hands are shaking. She repeats, no longer whispering, "Who's Lhasa."

Maggie's step forward garners a glower from Iceheart. Now there's a woman who is intimidating, despite her size. She continues right towards the woman, but is saved from a confrontation by Sid's motion. The last step sees the pale woman's face break into a magnificent smile, so very different than the glower moments earlier, "It is you!" The the Bone Doctor finds herself wrapped in an massive bear hug and lifted a bit off her feet. Though with Iceheart's size that's about all she can get.

RPG: Shidoni declares that she has the Intimidating (PPL-IN) gift.

Mercier gives it a few moments as the woman comes closer, before he stands as well as she gets closer to the doctor. And then she bear hugs the doctor. Well, that diffused rather quickly. Both of his eyebrows rise up, as he reaches up to loosen his tie, just a bit, "While this is a lovely reunion, perhaps an introduction, is in order? We've just been all sitting down for a drink. It seems you have a mind to join us, Miss...." He hangs off, hoping Shidoni adds to the end.

Shao slips and silently mouthed 'thank you' to Maggie. He has a little startle when Sidonie slams her hands on the table. That name again. He spies the standoff from over the rim of his cup, taking a sip. He accidentally crosses gaze with the cloaked woman and he freezes in place. Slowly, he puts his cup... between his thighs, for Ruby needs elbow room. Even slower, he puts both his hands flat on the table's edge, where they can be seen. And the moment is gone: they are hugging? Shao keeps watching closely, watching hands on both sides of this mysterious embrace.

Ruby is getting half out of her chair. For a split second, she's thinking there is another toast. None of her actions are completely following through, getting aborted and then veering into the next thing to react to. She raises an arm and gestures towards the embracing duo. "They gonna laugh when they realize they gots beer googles an rea-.. Wait a Bog blasted minute..." She squints. Realization punching her hard in the short-term memory. "Aye! Sid, there was a femme today at tha Goose..." Derp.

Merri pulls his mug up to drink while the situation comes to a head, with the stranger taking on more of a threatening aspect as she gets closer, and Maggie placing herself right into the path of that. His confidence in his mate's abilities borders on negligence, does it not? When it all turns up roses and hugs, if one-sided to start, he pauses in quaffing and looks on over the slightly lowered rim of his mug, with an eye for Sid's reaction to this development. Well, perhaps with a moment's sidetrack to fix Ruby's gaffe with a flat exasperation.

Maggie does not back down when the pale woman offers her that intimidating look. She has been offered worse by close friends. The drink is set carefully on the table as Maggie's expression turns from semi-protective, semi-cautionary and partially pleased to a flat, narrow-eyed caution. The hug is met with a surprise that only adds to her caution. Hearing Ruby's mention of a woman at the docks, Maggie darts a glance over her shoulder, then looks back. Her hands settle at her waist, though she makes no overtly hostile move in case this turns out to be Sidonie's sister, mother or lover. Or, something utterly else.

Sidonie allows herself to be hugged and picked up, but she does not respond to the hug in kind. She's actually frozen in place, hands at her sides, and the shaking in her hands has now moved up to her arms. "It's... it's me?" she says, scowling in deep concentration. She's /really/ trying to remember, recall anything. She knows it's /something/, because she's shaking and feels dizzy. But the woman's face... "M'am, I'm so sorry... I really am. Y-You seem to know me, but I don't know you?" She glances back at her friends, wide-eyed and looking rather distressed now. "I'm sorry," she repeats to Shidoni, her voice sounding panicked.

The words from Sidoni are the only thing that Iceheart reacts to, everyone else having faded away, until everything comes crashing down at Sidoni's denial, "Lhasa, you do not remember?" She sets the other woman down, then takes a half step back, "But the name. You're nickname for me. Isn't that why you used it, hoping I found you?" She finally realizes that everyone is looking at her, expecting an explanation. She looks crestfallen a bit as she makes a very late introduction, "My name is Shidoni, though I am known as Captain Iceheart." She puts the emphasis on the word to ensure that those who know Minos know she is a formally named captain. "But nearly fifty years ago, I went by Cidney, a slave cabin girl who was rescued by Captain Howler, Lhasa Chantris." She guestures to Sidoni. "Sidoni was the Captain's name for me, a blending of my true name and my Minosian Moniker. I sailed as her first mate until fourty years ago when our ship broke up during a storm. Until recently I thought I was the only survivor." She thinks and pulls something out of her cloak to offer to Sid, "I saved the Charts captain." She offers the other woman a Compass.

"Another immortal." Mercier mumbles tilting his head as he takes a step back, to give the two space. He listens to explination from the woman, metering his expression, offering the appropriate raise of his eyebrow. Eyes drop down to the object handed over and the mention of charts, and he curious look back to the Minosians in the crew, for some sort of silent explination, before turning back, "And our good doctor here is this Captain Howler, you speak of? Some sort of naval officer to rescue you?"

Shao's mask of impassivity melts into maybe sorrow, maybe embarassement. He is biting at his lower lip and unable to take his gaze of off this heartbreaking encounter. One hand reaches for his drink, the other grabs blindly at Ruby's sleeve, both in search of emotional bracing. The gup escapes Shao's grip and spills on the table to clank and roll under. Nevemind. He glances to Maggie, to Merrisol and back to the two friends meeting again... for the first time. He would not let go of Ruby's sleeve even if he remembered he was holding it. Rather, he stares at the /gift/ like if it were made of pure gold. "Aghmm," he voices, his throat too tight to speak.

With free hands, Ruby rakes her fingers back along her scalp to push everything away from her field of vision. She devotes time giving the hairy eyeball to S&S. The tugging at her sleeve from Shao jogs her brain some, so she spills out additional yammerings, "Wait wait wait...Cap'n ~'Owler~? Did someone turns three pages at once?" She peers over heads towards waitstaff and calls out, "Aye! we need more liquid ballast."

Eyes growing wider as exposition follows claim with a side order of revelation, Merrisol lowers his mug neatly to the table and absently swipes a dribble of ale from the side of his mouth with two fingertips. Unwilling to swallow anything just yet, even if some ongoing mysteries would seem to be click into place accordingly. Not until Sidonie herself gives it all some validity. Any looks she gives back to the table, he invariably meets with a steady, patient look. From one full amnesiac to another? Moments like these can suuuuuck.

Maggie darts a glance to Mercier as she hears his soft murmer. Curiosity fills her gaze for that brief moment before she looks back to the tableau. Her hands lift from her waist, crossing in front of her. Sympathy flares within her gaze and she inhales before speaking quietly, "Come and sit with us?" Glancing down at the compass, she lifts both brows as well as her gaze. The surprise in her expression is evident, though it is soon sublimated and lost. Leading the way, perhaps, she sits again beside her husband. "I am Captain Flame." The same emphasis exists in her tone when saying the capitalized title. "This is Captain Merrisol, my beloved husband. That is Captain Incarnate. Rear Admiral of the Royal Navy. Shao-san and Mr. Templeton are our very dear friends. As is the woman beside you. We know her as Doctor Sidonie." Though she does not look at all surprised at the notion of Sidonie's mental condition. She smiles at the doctor, a look of sympathy and support shimmering in her gaze.

Sidonie shakes her head, and brings the heel of her hand up to her forehead. Boy, did the beer go to her head quickly? What's with this headache. She says with a wince, "Sidonie. The name was written in a book I had in my pocket when I woke up." In Arden, with amnesia. What was a feeling of fear now has her in a grip of panic, and what was a pale face now turns bright pink. She listens with a squint, as if trying to listen and comprehend through a fog. She reaches out her hand to lean heavily on the table. There's a small noise at the back of her throat when she sees the Compass. Which is of course the last thing she sees, as it all goes black and she falls to the floor in a faint.

Shidoni is half on her knee, almost as if she were offering a wedding ring. Thus she is in no place to stop Sidonie's fall as her face turns from entreaty to horror. This doesn't stop Iceheart from trying however as she stands fully and lunges forward with one outstretched arm. The other arm? Under her cloak with the Compass. She might have offering it to Sidonie, but she's raised Minos and you don't make those things easy to steal.

Mercier slips his hands in his pockets as he watches the events unfold. He gives a little glance towards Shao as the man's introduced, a glimmer of recognition as he finally offers the man a nod; After all the impressive titles, commoners did need to stick together, after all. He turns his head back, furrowing his brow at the doctor's demeanor, "I say, doctor? Are you quite al-ohherewego-" Hands spin from his pockets as he lunges himself, interposing himself behind the woman to stop her fall, dropping to a knee, his arms wrapping around her mid-section. He looks up to Shidoni, then back to the table where the compass once stood.

Mercier slips his hands in his pockets as he watches the events unfold. He gives a little glance towards Shao as the man's introduced, a glimmer of recognition as he finally offers the man a nod; After all the impressive titles, commoners did need to stick together, after all. He turns his head back, furrowing his brow at the doctor's demeanor, "I say, doctor? Are you quite al-ohherewego-" Hands spin from his pockets as he lunges himself, interposing himself behind the woman to stop her fall, dropping to a knee, his arms wrapping around her mid-section. He looks up to Shidoni, then back to where the compass had been displayed. "Bloody Bells, this turned into a bully mess..." He looks back towards the doctor's former first mate, "Be a good shipmate, then, Captain, prop her legs up with something." He says as he gently lays 'Captain Howler' on the floor, "What in the World was that thing?" He asks, meaning the compass.

Shao is up besides Ruby as soon as he sees the flutter on Sidonie's - Captain Howler! - lashes, all for naught: Templeton was closer. "She will need something strong," he says, having found back his voice. The watered down piddle they serve to masses here will not do, he decides. From his coat, under where the belt keeps everything together, he fishes out a brass flask and soon follows a dark blue handkerchief. One comes to water the other. He steps up on his stool, other boot after borrows space on the table and light as a cat he lands near Sidonie and Templeton, not a cup spilled. Kneeling, he dabs Sidonie's lip with that turpentine they call spirit at the Crown and Rose.

Ruby drags her attention back to the revelations unfolding, mouth going slack jawed as the lights dim low for Sidonie, and Shidoni has to avoid fumbling not one, but two things.

With that timely introduction from Maggie to nudge his manners, Merri lifts a hand in casual salutation to Iceheart, no automatic solidarity with the Minosian Big-C indicated otherwise. Being several seating places down from the edge where Sidonie is taking her dive from the stresses of a Past Revealed, he can only start up from the bench reflexively. Mercier is closer and on the case, so the submariner only stands with arms propped on the table, monitoring the ongoing ministrations for the unconscious woman. "See," he says to Maggie, "the Grotto would've been better for incidental fainting, too."

With Sidonie fainted, and all the attention on her, Iceheart looks strickened but has no idea what to do now. So she does what any rational... wait that's Irrational... person would do. She pulls back out of the immediate tablespace, then flees into the night.

Maggie rises as Sidonie falls, "Doc!" She does not move in as Templeton manages to save the young woman from further damage, nor does she seem terribly surprised at Shao's agile accompanyment. Leaning closer to Merrisol, she nods, "Agreed. We'll hit The Grotto next time. Though I hope that we can keep the fainting to a minimum." Looking up as Iceheart stands and heads for the door, she frowns, "Oh, no. That isn't going to go over very well. We need to see if we can catch her, beloved. Doc'll want to talk to her when she is feeling better."