milliways_bar | (no subject)

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There's a woman holding an ice pack to her cheek while sitting at the bar.

She's looking rather dejected and drained of any kind of energy at the moment and, there's a few blood speckled tissues in her free hand.

Come on over and chat with her if you'd like, she's a little down at the moment.

[ooc: Slow time for a while, come on in and tag and I'll respond when I'm here and back.]

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That was a little amusing for some reason.

"Known each other long have you?"

She asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Close to half my life," Quinn says. "He's as close as I've ever had to a brother."

That...was a long time.

Then again, she'd known some of the people in her family as long.

...Hatori even longer despite her wishes.

"Must have been nice having someone who was like family."

There's a dry note in there, she's not meaning to be bitchy sounding, she's just a little jealous....not that she'd admit it.

Quinn looks at her a moment, something sharp in his eyes that fades away quickly.

"I saw Mum die when I was twelve," he says quietly. "The first dragon to rise did it. Wasn't much more than a year before Dad and the rest of my kin went, too. I take my family where I can find it."

Her expression quickly changes as well as she directs her attention back to the bar, trading in the ice pack for a bandage that she placed over and medi-tapes over it.

"I'm sorry for your loss."

She sounds sorry and yet, the closed expression on her face suggests a past of her own.

Oh, yes, Quinn's seen that expression before. He's dug too many graves not to recognise the look of a survivor, even if the thing survived isn't necessarily the same.

"Thanks," he says quietly. And then: "Say- can I get you a drink? Or something?"

It seems fair enough, under the circumstances.

"Water is fine, and you don't have to pay."

Survivor yes, of the kind he might be thinking of? No.

Isuzu's eyes darken slightly with the brief memory of a past she'd much rather forget at the moment.

"As you like," he says. Wrong or right, he's got no way of knowing- but he knows better than to press.

"I think, at this point, the Americans have a tradition of saying 'other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?'" Quinn notes as the water order materialises. "Since I doubt either of us gets the reference properly, shall we agree to put the last bit of the conversation to one side and come up with something else?"

For once, the mun is using the icon as one of confusion rather than her pup's supposed "oh sh*t" look.

She takes a small drink from the water and inclines her head. She really has no idea about Americans and what a "Mrs. Lincoln" had to do with anything about experiencing a broken family home but, oh well.

"That's fine."

More in the nature of conversational segues away from excessively painful personal moments than anything, really.

"Right, then," says Quinn. He hadn't had anything prepared in the way of the next topic, so he grabs the first thing to come to mind. "I'd been wondering- what, ah... that bit with the shape-changing. What's that about?"

A rather dry expression comes over her face as she takes another thing and considers how to word it properly.

Well, she can't think of anything and decides to be blunt as always.

"It's a curse."

"Huh," says Quinn, thinking. That could be interpreted a lot of ways. Most- no, let's be honest, all- are through the prisms of stories he's either read to the children, or had read years ago.

"How'd it happen? There's no such things as curses in my world, at least that I know of."

A thoughtful expression crosses her face.

In all honesty? She has no damned idea, only that she's been cursed with several others.

"It's been there generations before mine. I don't know how it began or how it ends."

Which is the reason she's always in trouble, because she's poking around where she shouldn't be in trying to figure it out.

Quinn nods. "Runs in the family, then? That must be rough."

He's suddenly a bit glad that there was nothing to inherit from either of his own parents.

"Apparently so and it has it's problems."

Like only being allowed to be treated by the family doctor unless it happened again or can't hug/hold anyone of the opposing sex unless they were in the curse.

Being tied to the abusive and damn near insane God?

Yeah, rough was a word to describe it.

"No curses where you're from?"

"I can imagine," Quinn murmurs, shaking his head.

"No. No curses at all. Not unless you count the dragons as one, and they're more of a... I dunno, a pestilence, really."

"That could be another word for half the people affected in my family."

She mutters, not meaning to say that aloud but, oh well.

"Have you found a way to rid yourself of the Dragons?"

If there was food or something they hated, maybe she could try it with Hatori...~~And her mun scolds her pup for that thought.~~

Quinn lets out a small bark of a laugh. "None that did the trick," he says. "Not really. We've killed 'em in the past, but there's always been more of 'em. Bloody things breed like rabbits. Explosives down the throat usually work. If you're careful, anyway."

Explosives huh.

And for some reason, Dragons coupled with the term "breeding like Rabbits" set off some really....scarring images into her mind all things considered.

"Any weaknesses to take advantages of?"

She was trying to help think of something.

He wishes, he wishes, that he didn't have the answer to this practically at the ready. But he's been asked the question a lot of late.

"If they do, it's nothing that I know of," he says. "They've got to feed- they're not magical- but they can survive a damned long time on nothing but ashes. Starvation just makes 'em desperate. I don't know of anything else that'd count as a real weakness, but I've never cut one open to go looking through the innards."

Okay, ew. Cutting something open didn't seem to be a good idea.

"There isn't a weakness on the Dragon I know, except that he's blind in one eye."

That could be a weakness but, the man had other resources available, damn him.

Yeah. Especially since dead dragons smell awful, where Quinn comes from. Even to other dragons.

"One eye's enough to cause trouble," Quinn mutters. "Got to keep the one eye busy, and assume he's got another where you can't see it, or he'll find a way to catch you off your guard."

Wasn't that the truth.

She had a harder time distracting him than anyone else she'd ever met. Except Haru when he was obsessing.

Then it was a pain in the ass.

"Have you thought of shooting them in the eyes? Or are they a hard target or their healing keeps them from being affected?"

Dragons were interesting subjects, if you didn't know them.

"Oh, we've thought of it," Quinn says. "But they're fast, our dragons. Nimble, too. Damn things can keep up with an attack helicopter in full flight. It's a bloody lucky sniper who can get himself set up for a shot like that without being smelled and ripped apart first. But that's a good idea, the eye thing."

"Take out the eye and they're down a good portion of offense."

And the times where she had watched too many video games while visiting Haru were kicking in. Hmm, interesting.

"Maybe overwhelm their senses somehow? What is stronger, sight or smell?"

"Couldn't tell you, unfortunately," Quinn says. "I'm not a soldier. Never been close enough to one for long enough to tell- and nobody who's been that close for long survived to tell the tale."

His expression twitches for a moment. "They see well, though. They've got good daytime vision- and damned good nighttime vision. But there was one who tracked a caravan back to its fortress after all the people in the caravan were dead. DUnno whther that was smell or sight."

Well, there went that plan.

She falls silent for a moment and takes another small drink. She can tell her wounds are healing by the fact that her cheek has started to throb.

"Hmm. No idea then."

"'s all right," Quinn says. "I appreciate the thought. If you read English, I can show you the book later- I've compiled everything I know about the creatures, best I can manage from memory."

She's studied English before, still has problems reading it but, she thinks she might be able to handle it.

"Alright, that sounds interesting. I may be able to find something out through the notes."

She's sounding genuinely interested in research.

"All right, then," says QUinn. "That should do pretty nicely. With any luck, it won't be too much to translate all at once."

"I may have a few difficulties, it isn't my native language."

She cautions but, hell, she's determined enough to get it dammit.

Quinn nods. "I can explain the unclear bits, if you need me to," he offers.

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