With Friend like These

(This thread takes place during the Demigod/Ender Arc)

Vaera stands behind the counter of the empty Mafia Bar. Although barely anyone had come in or out besides herself, the elf still bussied herself with wiping down the tables and brewing more potions and drinks. The sleeves of her white button-up were rolled up to avoid getting wet, her hair braided to keep her hair out of the drinks. From behind her came a familiar voice that sent a shiver down the tall girl's spine. "Ah, Vaera. Good to see you're still kicking." Said the man.

She turned to find, as she had suspected, Mortimer. His skin was pale, the veins almost visible underneath. He had dark circles and bags under his eyes. Any muscle that he'd had was gone now. "Liar. Why are you here?"

"What, a man can't have a drink every once in a while?" He responded, sitting down awkwardly at one of the stools.

"I meant why are you alive?" She cut her gaze to the person walking in the door at that moment.

(Whoever wants to join just jump in, you do have to walk in the door though.)

Lalna, looking quite tired and irritated, walks through the door. Slight twitches can be seen in his movement, and it's clear he hasn't slept because of his slumped-over posture. His clothes are still torn and covered in blood from the wound on his chest from Ridge's knife, but strangely, the wound itself is gone, like it was never even there. His goggles were placed lazily around his head and his hair was messy and dirty, so he sort of looked like a brunette. There is a diamond enchanted sword in his hand, as if he'd just gotten out of a fight.

"Vaera, are you in, I could use a bottle of lies... oh- have i interrupted something?"

lalna looks at mortimer and he recognizes him from his episode with the whispers earlier that week, but doesn't say anything. He looks back to vaera.

"Should I leave or..."

((I can see him right? if not i'll edit the message.))

(Yes of course. So basically when Notch healed Vaera it kept her from dying but it did not kill Mortimer/Mort's body. Mort is very physically weak.)

"Ah, it's your boyfriend. Lalnable, yes? Can't say it's-"

"That's the other one, Lalna." She hissed across the counter at the self-described parasitic man. She straightened up and reached back to grab a bottle of water she had ready in the brewing station. "You're not interrupting anything, unless you count asshattery from a man that can barely stand."

"What's with the blood Blondie? Did you just get out of a squabble with your cat or something? Need some booze to make you feel better?" Mortimer teased, a grin that only involved one corner of his mouth forming on this face.

The scientist simply glares at Mortimer, knowing that he only wants a comeback or a reaction. He sits down at the counter, leaning on it. He decided not to tell Mortimer about Xephbots little issue and his fight with him earlier, as he'd probably just make fun of the poor man.

"N-No. I have no c-cat, and I no longer drink alcohol, no matter h-how tempting it may be. Do I owe you anything f-for the water? It's probably still free, huh."

Mortimer opened his mouth to make a snarky comment, but before he could get so much as a syllable out Vaerea smacked him with an empty glass bottle, both silencing him and knocking him into the floor. "Nah, you know I don't charge. If I had it my way, Sjin buddy wouldn't charge either when he bartends." She filled another bottle with water and found Mortimer struggling to pull himself back onto the bar stool, only managing to hold up his upper body by locking his elbows and clinging to the seat.

"You alright there, mate? Do you still have. . . you know." Mortimer glared up at her like a kicked puppy until she reached down to pull him up.

"Just. dandy." Lalna said putting his head down.

Mortimer grabbed a handful of the blonde's hair and pulled his head up to take a look at his face. "Ah yes, immense amounts of apparent pain, 'just dandy' indeed."

Vaera hissed, "Put him down." Followed by Mortimer slamming Lalna's head into the counter. Vaera proceeded to backhand the shorter man, once again knocking him out of his seat. "Get out of my bar." She paused and turned to Lalna. "What's wrong?" The brunette scientist could only manage to crawl half way to the door, stopping to lay on his back to catch his breath and glare at the wall beside him.

Lalna grips his head and winces after being slammed on it.
"Jesus Christ... what the hell i-i-is his p-problem?!"
He appears to be avoiding the question, but he's still pissed at Mortimer nonetheless.

"He just wants to make other people suffer. He thinks it's revenge on people in general." She answered as she watched her ex-companion struggle to reach the door, all the while resisting the urge to help him out.

"Now you wanna cut the crap and tell me what's going on with you?" She turned back to her friend.

"Xephos just went nuts. He fought with Rythian and I and even tried to drown himself. You were there for a bit of it, remember? And t-this chip hurts like a bi-bitch right now." Lalna replies tiredly. "What were you doing with Doctor Demented over there?" He says looking at Mortimer.

Mortimer had given up on the door, instead laying on his back with his limbs spread out like a starfish. "He just waltzed in, same as he always does. I'm his favourite to torment because he has to try in order to get to me."

"To the contrary," He called up from the bloodstained floor, "Cinder is much harder than you. She's my new favourite."

"I was there for the Xephos thing, I just kind of half-assumed, half-hoped that it was something other than that damned chip. Isn't there anyway to get rid of that thing?" She reached back, grabbed a bottle of fruit punch, and threw it at Mortimer, the bottle landing square in the middle of his chest. It made him flinch, and it made some of the blood that was already bleeding through (no pun intended) his shirt come off onto the bottle.

"If there were, I would have had Xeph do that." Lalna sighed. "But we sorta forgot it was there for a while until the day it malfunctioned, and it's in such an awkward position that if we remove it I could die. Besides, I've been controlling it a bit better...I assume."

He looks at Mortimer. "I could kill him right now if you want me too."

Mortimer groaned and took a sip out of the bottle before placing the bottle back on the spot where it landed. "First off, you should know that sounds one hell of a lot like something Livid would say. Second off, don't touch a hair on that head."

"Oh, it's good to know you still love me, little girl." He smiled and gave out a wheezy laugh.

"Don't get me wrong, I still hate you, I just put a lot of my energy into that damned body of yours."

Looking genuinely hurt, Mortimer responded, "You don't have to be so bitter, you know." Vaerea rolled her eyes at him before ignoring him for the rest of Lalna's visit.

"Could you control it? Is there anyway to shut it down?"

"Woah, okay, Livid wouldn't ask permission before killing, and number two, it seems to have less of a devastating effect when I'm with other people. Hence the reason I'm not twitching or stuttering. I could control it, but I need to learn how first." Lalna hesitated before telling her the reason he can't shut it off; he looks down so he doesn't have to look her in the eye.

"And I may have... uh... thrown the remote into a pit of lava..."

"You what?" Vaerea nearly burst.

"I'm probably the most sane person in the room, just putting this out there." Mortimer said. He'd down the whole bottle and now tossed it to Vaerea weakly.

Having calmed down, Vaerea changed the topic. "Have you heard from anyone?"

"Like who?"

"Well, anyone really. I haven't heard from anyone except Cinder and Lalnable since Ridge started puppeting everyone. Mort's been hanging around in here, but I doubt he can leave." Vaerea replied. Mortimer had no response.

Lalna thought for a moment. "I've not really heard from anyone except Sjin after the whole incident with Xephbot. Course, his ability to provide comfort to people has been taken away by his lack of emotion, so we just sort of...talked about it. Otherwise, I haven't heard from anyone... Everything around here just seems so d-damned dramatic. When the w-world itself isn't in-n danger, one or m-more of our friends are!"

(I keep changing the spelling on Vaera/Vaerea/Varea's name, sorry if that bothers you!)
Varea rocked on her heels, staring down at the counter in front of her. She didn't say anything, not because she didn't know what to say but because she was afraid of saying something that would upset Lalna. She wanted to have a normal conversation with the man she called her best friend, but there were a lot of things she wanted that were unobtainable, at least for the moment.

Finally, after rolling onto his side and in doing so revealing blood stains on the back of his lab coat, Mortimer spoke. "The world runs on pain. Mine, yours, hers, Ridge's, our friends' it doesn't matter." He paused and Varea saw him fiddling with something but didn't see just what he was doing. "It's a sick world, there's no other way to describe it." He tossed something onto the counter with out turning very much. Only when the object landed could either of them see what it was.

It was a small bronzed chain, from it hung two small, thin metal plates. Dogtags.

"Dogtags? Why did you throw these over h-here?" Lalna asked looking at them curiously.

"They're from the invasion. How do you still have these?" Memories flashed through the elf's mind. The screaming, the gunfire, the blood, and finally the bodies. The dogtags themselves read:

Amarae Mortuo Corona Cruor Domus

Age 17

Male

5th Unit

"Proof. My words don't mean anything to people if they don't believe me, and I haven't got their trust, not even Frau Heimt's over here, so proof is all I have to make them believe me." He answered casually as he bled into the birch planked floor.

"Invasion? Wh-at?" The scientist questioned, a confused look on his face. "Is this from your world before this one?"

Varea and Mortimer laughed, for just a moment seeming like they didn't hate eachother, like they were just gradeschool kids in the school yard, sharing an inside joke Lalna wouldn't understand. As quickly as it happened, it passed. They were two grown ups in a bar, one a half-dead smoker, the other an elven drunk.

"We didn't have a world before this one. We aren't like you. This-" Varea gestured in no particular direction, her gaze sweeping about the room. "-is our home."

She tossed the dog tags back to Mortimer, who flinched as they landed on his shoulder. "She means this world, she's from this thing called the Heimish tribe, it's up north from here. I'm from Amarae, which is this old ass city down south in Ameil." He paused to roll on his back and make it so that he made eye contact with the counter.

"The invasion she was talking about was referred to as the Heimish Invasion, in which the High Sorcerer of Amarae- my dad- sent a load of guys over to slaughter her tribe. Any questions, school boy?"

"Uh, n-no, sorry..." Lalna said sheepishly, thinking he'd overstepped a boundary.

"What, d' you think you're ah, overstepping a boundary or some shit? I'm a big boy, I can handle it. Varea, could I have a-"

"I don't have any, you know I don't carry them." Mortimer glared at Lalna, not because he was angry with him but because of his general irritation in not being able to smoke when he craved to do so.