milliways_bar | (no subject)

Teirnan had to be in the worst mood of his life. And all those within Teir's new clan of a'saii knew it, choosing to leave him to his broodings, letting him remain in his pavilion until his spirits lifted enough to make civil conversation possible.

Of course, they all knew what he'd been doing earlier that day - he'd said as much to several people before he'd departed three days prior.

His task was to find Niall's daughter Keely and attempt to convince her to listen to him and hear what he had to say about the prophecy. About her tahlmorra.

It did not go well. At all.

Instead of dismounting off her horse and listening to what he had to say, she'd insulted him terribly. Selfish and power-hungry he could deal with.

But going to the Seker's gate and "trading his manhood in exchange for Strahan's pleasure"?

That was going too far, even for Keely, who everyone knew had almost no tact at all when speaking to other people.

Teirnan was furious, and he nearly destroyed part of the door-flap to his pavilion when he entered it.

"Gods the nerve of that woman... That bitch-"

His words were cut off as he and his lir - the wild boar named Vaii who'd just entered the tent moments after Teir did - took note of the interior of Teir's home.

The interior was vast - too vast - and there was a large number of people sitting at tables in what happened to be a tavern of some kind.

He smirked. Apparently the gods had known what he needed and had seen fit to grant him his wishes.

"Good. I could use a drink. Come lir; let us see what sort of wine they serve here."

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There is a small, pale young man, with dark hair, rather violet eyes, and the slightest hint of purple light seeming to illuminate him out of nothing.

He looks at the warrior, and at the boar, and smirks.

"Vaii, I presume?" he asks the warrior, lifting his eyebrow in the direction of the boar.

Teirnan's about to correct the stranger, who at least knows what his lir's name is, but doesn't know what Teir's name is.

The boar snorts, warning Teirnan not to say what's on the tip of his tongue.

He knows who I am and he knows who you are. Anyone who's familiar with us knows us both.

"Aye. This is Vaii, and I'm sure you know who I am ... whoever you are."

No violence in the bar - Asar-Suti fears Teirnan might violate that rule before he even knows about it if he hears his name.

Boar and man look equally fierce.

"Call me Ash," he says. "And you must be Teirnan, of course."

He does not wrinkle his nose, despite the fact that Vaii smells. The predator lir smell a bit as well, of course, but better a well-groomed wolf than a wild boar. Ugh.

And both boar and man are prone to lashing out without a lot of provocation. It's best for all that things play out in a low-key manner.

Right now Teirnan doesn't want to think he's found himself in Valgaard; he wants to think he's in a tavern that the Cheysuli gods provided just for him and his needs.

Didn't you want a wine, lir?

"Yes I'm Teirnan," he says, not noticing that "Ash" isn't this person's real name, or the distaste he feels for something he deems repugnant as a lir choice. "I see my name has proceeded me even to this place.

That is, assuming you're from this place at all?"

"Recently, yes," Asar-Suti says. "I know my way around. This is Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and you're not the first Cheysuli to arrive here. And you instantly recognisable by your lir," he adds, looking with some sort of squicked fascination at Vaii's wet, moving snout, and his huge tusks.

And oh ye entities that gods swear by (which may or may not be identical with the Endless), this boar smells...

Asar-Suti wonders that Rhiannon has never mentioned the smell, just the fact that Tiernan hates it when people eat boar.

"Other Cheysuli?" he says with a decided tone of disappointment. If others of his race have been here before then this tavern isn't his own private discovery.

By all the gods it's not fair...

What did you expect lir? Your own private Rampant Lion?

Oh be quiet Vaii...

Well, there's a rather obvious and pressing question he needs to ask first: "Are any of the Cheysuli that come here ones might know?"

And then there's the other question he'd like to ask.

"Haven't seen a boar lir before? They're rather rare," Teir says with a kind of self-created pride. If he doesn't feel particularly blessed by having Vaii for a lir no one else will.

Even Rhiannon doesn't think Teirnan's lir is anything to write home about.

~~Rhiannon would've commented upon the odour of boars, but the mun has no sense of smell or any first-hand experience either. :P~~

Asar-Suti goes a bit crosseyed while he thinks. Who else is from Tiernan's time? Who is from earlier times, who from later.

"Oh, yes, several," he finally says, vaguely. "I don't know all of them, of course, but there are wolf and hawk and mountain cat and raven lir - not a boar, though. Which is why I recognised you from their tales."

Or rather, from what Rhiannon told, but Asar-Suti isn't sure if it would be a good idea to tell Tiernan so, and mention her name.

Carefully, and just to be polite, Asar-Suti holds out his hand to Vaii to smell if he wants to.

Once again the Seker is showing more brains than Teirnan can legitimately boast about - which is saying something.

Right now Teirnan and Rhiannon are on the "outs" with each other in their "on again, off again" relationship. If Teir heard her name he might end up having a stroke from the rage he'd been feeling lately.

"Ah yes. A Cheysuli can always be identified by their lir; it is what makes us who we are as a race, and thus vastly superior to all other races. Even the Ihlini," he says, knowing that as Rhiannon is Ihlini despite her Cheysuli father, there is no way she could ever know what it means to experience the freedom of lir-shape.

Vaii on the other hand, sniffs the proffered hand, checking to see if there's any food in it. Vaii is a pig after all, and despite his exalted status as a "blessed" animal, is still ruled by his stomach and nose.

No food, he says with a snort and backs away, disappointed. But strong smells that might have come from food.

"There are many different creatures here; talking f 'superior races' will not get you many friends," Asar-Suti says, noncomittally.

"And, by the way, violence in the bar is forbidden, as is business, and, erm, sex. For violence you go outside, and for sex, there are rooms upstirs. Not just for that - for anything that you like to do in private rooms, like sleep."

Asar-Suti can't imagine that anybody would want sex with sullen Tiernan, especially as he has that smelly lir.

Vaii as such is of course rather innocent; he is just an animal, even if he is a 'blessed' one. So Asar-Suti goes to the bar and asks for what boars eat, and gets a bucket full of acorns and potatoes. He offers that to Vaii. On second thought, that snout which reminds you a bit of an electric socket on Earth is somehow endearing, almost...

Teirnan shrugs. Odds are this "Ash" is someone from an unblessed race (which is everyone other than the Cheysuli), and thus can't stand being reminded of that fact.

"It doesn't matter," he shrugs again. "Where I come from there aren't many people who call me 'friend'. Even those from my own clan-" he says "clan" with some measure of pride "-aren't always in an amicable mood with me.

I'm used to it. It's the price of being something of a radical outcast."

But it's Vaii's sudden sense of eagerness that keeps Teirnan from addressing bar policy.

"Lir?"

Food. I smell food, he says, knocking over the bucket in his eagerness to get at the contents, and proceeds to chase the nuts and tubers across the floor.

Vaii's blessed, but his manners are atrocious.