milliways_bar | (no subject)

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The door simply opens and shuts, letting a young woman, primly dressed, enter. The business jacket and modest skirt are both navy blue, with a school crest blazoned on the lapel. Her hair is pulled back into a neat twist- but no, no glasses. The lady can see well enough without any such thing, thank you.

Under one arm is a book. Gilt-topped pages, bound in blind-stamped morocco, that exudes the aura of rare first edition. Old and well-kept, but it's not hers.

As Athena glances around the bar, the person said book belongs to, from whom she borrowed it quite a few years ago, is nowhere to be seen. Well, that should have been expected.

With an exceedingly faint shrug, she starts over toward the bar.

(New mun with a char that's been played here before- but I am starting her over with a fresh slate. Thank you!)

(And, the mun is off for sleep. Post is open for tags for the next couple of days for slowtimes!)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I'd say quite well for finding an unexpected tavern. How are you, my dear lady?"

With a quick motion, he tucks the deck of cards into his suit.

"I'm doing quite well, thank you." A faint incline of her head. "Though if you found this place unexpectedly, I'd gather that this is your first visit here?"

She sets the glass down on the table, but as of yet, makes no move to take a seat herself.

"Yes, I'm trying to not be too obvious about it, but its hard to figure out what's normal here."

Which Moist finds strange, he's not sure how to really blend in here.

She raises an eyebrow, then lifts a hand to motion to the bar in general, the people around them, and finally the large spread of the Observation Windows.

"I would say that nothing is ever normal here, so you may do best to drop the assumption that there is anything as 'normal', before it leads you astray."

"I'd rather not be led astray but I've always preferred to not attract undue attention."

Being able to disappear into a crowd is after all how Moist gets away with what he does.

"I'd say you're not attracting any undue attention tonight- but that may not hold true tomorrow, or the day after that." Her lips quirk into a faint smile. "Say, if most of the patrons in this establishment happened to be blue aliens, instead of the majority being human, as they are tonight?"

Try disappearing into the background in that situation.

"Then I'd find myself having to learn quickly what makes blue aliens comfortable."

Moist has learned that if he can be liked enough to not really be there, he's safe.

"Which usually means plenty of observation, before a few careful interactions, gage their response to you, so on and so forth, until you consider yourself comfortable around them-"

She picks up her wineglass.

"But I hardly need to tell this to you, do I?"

He makes his smile if not innocent but a little self-deprecating,

"I would hope not. I'm Alfred and its a pleasure to meet such an astute woman."

"Years of practice." Simply.

"I am Miss Camilla Ergane, and the pleasure is mutual, Alfred."

The irony that 'Alfred' is more than likely not his true name either, is far from lost on her.

"Practice is after all the only way to get good at anything, Miss Ergane though again I'm sure you know that. May I ask how such an intelligent woman keeps herself occupied? It seems like much of the world is probably quite boring for you."

"As long as the world has interesting people in it, coming up with new ideas, it will never be boring, Alfred." She laughs quietly, shaking her head.

"Right now I teach history at a military academy. As I tell my students, it's a fine thing to learn from the mistakes of others, to thereby avoid committing the same ones yourself."

"Quite true and when dealing with violence, the scale of those mistakes is so much greater."

Moist doesn't like dealing with violence if he can get away with it.

"It can be, yes." She shrugs. "The class I teach used to be Strategy, and now it is History. Times have changed, for better or worse."

"Was it more than just a name change or has what you taught changed?"

"The approach and presentation changed, if not the core information. For the most part, it's becoming less and less applicable to modern warfare." Athena smiles wryly.

"At least on a large scale, and the academy is hardly the place to teach small group tactics."

"Is the battlefield a better place?"

He's honestly curious, because he's never thought about any forms of warfare.

Athena raises an eyebrow, tilting her head. "How do you mean, Alfred? Better in what particular way?"

As there are quite a few different answers to that.

"For teaching those smaller lessons. I don't have any experience with warfare and try to avoid violence when I can so I truly don't know."

Not that he hasn't had some rather dangerous moments, but its not how he works.

"Ah." A slow nod.

"They are the sort of tactics used by police officers, or army scouts. A small team of idividuals who need to be able to act independantly if the need arises, compared to a platoon of soldiers acting under the direction of their officers." Athena spreads out her hands, then shrugs.

"Most of the young men and women I aren't planning on such careers."

"What sorts of careers are they planning for?"

"For the most part, nothing in the army." Wryly. "Most of the students at the academy have other careers planned, after they graduate from university. Very few of them consider joining any of the armed forces as an officer." Athena shrugs.

"Most of them plan on going into the corporate sector, I believe."

"That sounds rather boring, but I don't believe that I've actually heard of a corporation before. Is that anything like a Guild?"

She raises an eyebrow at that, but after a moment, begins to nod slowly. "In a vague sort of way, yes. A corporation is a very large business, with many branches into different areas, so less focused than an actual guild. But as to size and organization, they are close enough."

"Ah, yes, I know that sort of business. They do end up everywhere. I just think that word hasn't quite made it to the Disc yet."

He gives her a quick smile, worlds are different after all.