[PRP] bottoms up (Lala/Borr)

[Rejam]

iloveyoudie

i am a failure forgive me

Her exile behind her, her penance completed, her short-term goals established, her rituals performed and her spirit as close to ease as was possible for her (not very), Lala, having also made a great show of indulging Ollie's clinginess (secretly repaying it in kind), had a clean slate to show for her efforts.

She had other aims now. Namely, aims that centered around getting utterly smashed.

There were, of course, any number of avenues to this particular destination. But she'd heard rumors and opted to pursue them, and so she found her way to the source of them, bold as brass as she lifted a hand to knock.  

[iloveyouDIE]

Borr's adjustment period was hardly over. He was so used to only his own company that when he was set to a task, there was no thought to things like socializing. He'd begun taking a walk at least once a day but his social interactions were limited to a few short, stray conversations.

He continued to spend most of his time alone, puttering through daily life maintenance and chores, constantly humming some tune or other just to fill the air. He was doing so until the knock at the door made the massive man jump nearly out of his skin. The shock was only momentary and Borr mused aloud, he always talked to himself, his deep voice rumbling in a low thoughtful timbre. "Someone's at the door."

He greeted Lala at first by staring straight over her head. Borr stood with a burdened sort of slouch but still had quite a ways to glance before he was blinking into Lala's pale face.

"Well hello." He always seem to be a bit too loud, but it was a pleasant sort of booming. "Can I help ye, miss?"

The room behind him was stone and polished wood, a single large table and an entire wall stacked with barrels.

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[Rejam]

iloveyouDIE

Her reaction was more of a non-reaction, a long pause and the barest narrowing of her eyes at the title of miss.

"You must bleed ale," she said finally, impassively.  

[iloveyouDIE]

"Well.." He breathed in with a hiss of breath that said he'd be disappointing her on that front. "Haven't quite mastered that trick."

Borr had actually straightened and planted his large hands on his hips. "But I've ale, if ale is what ye need."

Him moving aside was similar to a second door opening and she was granted access to the inner room. There was already one large tankard on the table with papers and writing instruments.

The room smelled like beer. "I'm Borr. Come in."

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[Rejam]

iloveyouDIE

"I thought it might all be for you," she said flatly, her nose wrinkling as she took in the smell, her eyes taking in the rest of it quick and unreadable. She looked for all the world, with her flat woven locks of hair to either side and her pink eyelids and her wriggling nose, like a rabbit. "My name is Kallistrate. They make jokes that you foresee a shortage of grains or that you are perhaps planning a swimming pool, but I will ask bluntly where they do not: why the stockpile?"  

[iloveyouDIE]

They were talking about him?

"Stockpile?? What's a tavern without ale?" He crossed the room to a barrel and slapped it heartily. "Not that I've a tavern just yet but.. I've been honing my hobby into a bit of a skill."

He grabbed another tankard from a corner shelf hewn into the stone wall. He filled it from a tapped barrel and brought it over, offering a chair.

"It's seems there's a need for it. Interest at the very least. Ye aren't the first come knockin." The beer was hoppy and strong, not quite refined, but if you liked beer it would do the job.

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[Rejam]

iloveyouDIE

She drank it impassively, her face betraying neither approval nor disapproval, although she did give it a sniff and did look for a moment--pale and pink-lidded, round face framed with the hanging woven sheets of her hair, her nose working--astonishingly like a rabbit.

"I suspect," she said finally, after a second drink which must for now pass for approval, "that with the recent upheaval a great many would like to displace their concerns with drink." This was said with something close to a sneer, judgment apparent.  

[iloveyouDIE]

Borr looked like he was waiting for an opinion. There was a tensity in his shoulders that, by the second, held until Lala took her second drink and finally relaxed. She didn't gag or keel over. She hadn't made a face about the flavor.

That was as good a confirmation as any.

"Well perhaps many are looking at it as a second chance.." Borr tried, in vain, to spin all this in the positive. It was at least a benefit that horseman were returning, himself included. "Instead of wallowing in their suffering. I, myself, just enjoy a good flagon." He laughed, a deep and short rumbling explosion from his chest.

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[Rejam]

iloveyouDIE

She gave him a look that was not quite withering at the laugh. "Good is irrelevant," she informed him, and then, petite and feminine as she was, with a display suggesting long experience, she downed the rest of the pint in a single long, slow chug. She neither sighed nor smacked her lips when she put the tankard back down.

"How much?" she asked. "I will have another, if the price is fair."  

[iloveyouDIE]

Borr's brows bobbed up as he watched her down the flagon.

His whiskers quirked with a smile. It was hard to tell if she even enjoyed his brew, and perhaps an opinion would have been nice, but outright rejection hadn't occurred so he went with it. "That's not very encouraging."

The offer of payment received a shake of the head, "Nah. You just keep coming around when you want a bit of ale, and if I ever need a small favor here or there I'll let you know."

Some horsemen would find a favor to be a much graver debt, but Borr was obviously a trusting and easygoing sort. Even if Lala took the deal but never came back, he'd have no ill will.

"Maybe bring friends?" He chuckled deeply.

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iloveyouDIE

"With my current balances it would be easier to pay you in favors," she said flatly, "but for that price I will settle for only the one, and send fools instead of friends."  

[iloveyouDIE]

"I've found often enough that friends and fools fall into overlapping circles." Borr chuckled. "But any company is appreciated. I have been by myself for quite a while."

His palm flattened on the table, leaning as he readied to retrieve her mug and refill. "Are you sure you won't need another? How about we'll consider it a free sample. Another brew perhaps?"

The older horseman seemed eager for the company, or at least to hear any voice of criticism besides his own when it came to his particular hobby.

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iloveyouDIE

It was damnably difficult to find any trace of expression on that impassive doll-face, but she gave him plenty of time to try with a long silent stare.

"Another brew," she acquiesced finally, as if she were the one giving him the drink, rather than the other way around. "Perhaps you should consider advertising."  

[iloveyouDIE]

"You are probably right." Borr chuckled a bit, eyes lingering on her face just another moment to find any flicker to indicate her mood. He took her mug away and refilled it. "I figured word of mouth may do.. or wanders such as yourself."

The drink was set in front of her and he finally set down in a chair opposite. "So Miss Kallistrate... " He was finding it hard to read anything about the other. She didn't wear her role on her sleeve like some of the others and she had the face of a child. "I hope it's not forward of me to ask about ye?"

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[Rejam]

iloveyouDIE

"That depends entirely on what it is you're asking," she said, giving the drink an absent swirl before tucking into it with far more leisure than she had the first time.