Jun 26 13:53:05 108 PA - Pleasant Dinner, Apology and Plans

From Chronicles

Jun 26 13:53:05 108 PA.

THE NIGHTINGALE

The Nightingale is in a soft light as afternoon slowly gives way to evening. The entire atmosphere of the upscale club just feels "soft." The dance floor is widely open, occupied primarily by people in embraced slow-dance. Of course not entirely, but mostly. Gabriel is dressed in his casual clothing. Button-down shirt and slacks, sitting off at a two-place table just off a short distance from the entry. There is a small basket of bread before him, as is a low glass of red-tinged brown liquid. The man himself is just as quiet as the club, looking bashful, shamed and nervous at the same time. Also, hopeful.

Erica doesn't walk into the club in casual clothes since it is a fairly dressy place. Coming into the club she is wearing a black corset dress along with exotic tall heels. Each step makes her sway in a seductive manner. Her long hair falls down to the middle of her back and it looks like it has been dyed a slightly more bright shade of red then it would normally be. She makes her way over to the table where Gabriel is sitting. She nods at him briefly before she takes her seat.

"Hello, Erica. You're looking lovely; I don't recall ever seeing you in this outfit. It quite becomes you." Gabriel pulls at his own shirt. "I guess I'm under-dressed." He sighs, looks down at the table and places his palms flat on the tablecloth. Eventually, after a delay his eyes rise back to look into Erica's. "I'm very sorry. This is a situation where there are no appropriate words to convey my feelings. I can only apologize. I was a bastard the other day. I didn't explain myself adequately, and even if I had, it wasn't the right place to do it."

"I am sure I have worn it before. You likely just haven't noticed." Erica says with a brief shrug of her bare shoulders. "I am surprised you got let in. They are usually pretty picky about the dress code around here. Oh well." She smiles warmly at the waitress as she comes to take their orders. She orders herself a margarita with whatever passes as tequila with out Mexican agave. "Well I was perhaps a little harsh with you, but I think you are making a terrible mistake. You really left me out in the cold. I don't think you know the type of people you are getting involved with. Valeriya almost started a riot assaulting a gathering of d-bees. It was brutal. She was acting like some kind of psychopath. Is that who you want to work with?" She asks before telling him more about the events of the rally.

Gabriel shakes his head side to side. Not quickly, but solemnly having obviously done lots of thinking and considering. "I had only intended to work with them on one operation, to see how they stayed together. More than idle curiosity. I want to know how they work, in case I ever have to face them again. If they think I want to work with them for a long period, fine. Like I said, nothing was ever put in ink." His words come out slowly and deliberately, obviously considering his words carefully. Still, he has to take notice. "What gathering? Psychopath? I've been out in the wilderness for a few days gathering food. Did I miss something exciting?" Clearly, the ironic type of exciting is written on his face.

"It was a rally of d-bees trying to get equal rights. Their leader was a little overzealous, but all of the people there wanted peace and equality. Valeriya decided to take it upon herself to try to attack the leader. That is what it looked like. She was fought off by the bodyguards though." Erica says elaborating on the events she told Gabriel. She smiles at the waitress as she gets her margarita. She takes a long sip from it before setting it down.

"Wow," is all that Gabriel says for a while. "So she is the nut job that I thought she was. Then this will definitely be a single intelligence gathering mission, and then I'll avoid them like the plague. Not that I'll turn down a job because they're on it. That would just be kicking myself in the balls and letting them win. But I'm damn sure not going to associate my name with them." He reaches across the table, palm still on the surface. With a soft smile, "Thanks for letting me know. Although I wish I'd been there, just out of morbid curiosity to see what kind of bodyguard could take her down."

"Just seemed like there was a few of them with swords. They seemed pretty tough, but I was busy trying to make sure the crowd didn't riot because of what she was doing. A lot of innocent people could have gotten hurt because of what she did. I am surprised she wasn't arrested." Erica shakes her head in disgust and then takes a long drink from her margarita almost finishing it off. She looks towards the waitress for another margarita.

Gabriel pulls his hand back to look at the short menu before him and suggests, "Perhaps the police were too busy making sure that the agitated group *didn't* break into a riot. Chase her down and kill her, run into the streets, who knows. In my experience, cops don't have much value to society. Mostly just sit on their asses, show up once in a while to arrest a drunk and let him dry out. Oh, sure but if a poor bastard kills cop, he's just written his death sentence." The man chuckles morbidly and looks up again. "Sorry, social commentary. Seriously though, it sounds like there were bigger things on their plate than arresting an apparently defeated psychotic." He orders a plate of a chicken breast with a lemon sauce, and a refill of brandy as a waitress passes by. "It's good that it ended the way that it did, at any rate. I guess that makes you a bit of a local hero, huh? Someone must have taken notice."

"Oh I doubt anyone will take notice. I'm just some little girl trying to talk sense, but no one ever pays attention to the person asking for sense." Erica says with a shake of her head while she stirs her margarita with a straw. "All the attention goes to people like Sebastien or people like Valeriya. I did nothing really." She frowns for a moment before she takes a long sip from her drink. "I am sure it will be forgotten by everyone except for Valeriya. I am sure she'll do something even more crazy for being humiliated."

"Wow. Totally humiliated, huh? Yeah, that's going to piss her off. The loud personalities are the ones that get the attention. But you know, you and I - or I guess I should just speak for me - I don't do things for recognition and glory. Just because they're right. Payoff is nice, yeah, and I'll never turn it down. But I don't need to make the news. In fact... there was a show in my time, called the 'A-Team.' They lived totally off the grid, doing good things for nice people and never having it be known except to the person they helped." Gabriel grins. "I'm okay with that. As long as I can keep armor fixed and magazines loaded, that's about what I need. Let the loud people make scenes of themselves. Makes 'em nice targets for people who disagree with 'em."

"I went to the rally to show my support, but I had to talk down a lot of the people from doing harm to the cause." Erica says with a slight frown before she takes another long drink from her margarita. "Well I don't expect I'll get any reward from this. Heck I had to lose a vibro knife because I didn't want to even appear to be armed. I am just glad not too many people were hurt."

Gabriel nods in approval. "Dropping the knife was a good idea. Was anyone hurt other than Valeriya? Did she slice someone? That'd piss off the D-Bee community. What was the thing about, anyway. You said peace and equality, but Val just bursts in swinging swords and inciting violence? Fuck, that sounds crazy even for her!" He quickly drops his head like a scolded child, saying softly, "I probably shouldn't use that kind of language in here, should I?"

Erica laughs as she shakes her head. "I am sure a lot of people swear. It is a nightclub. Shit I am sure most people around here have pretty filthy thoughts and mouths." She chuckles again and takes a sip from her margarita. "It was a rally for a lot of the more alien looking d-bees to demand equal rights with humans. I mean they don't want to have to suffer that horrible discrimination. Valeriya didn't hurt anyone seriously as far as I could tell. She scared a lot of people, but the bodyguards managed to stop her. Who knows what she may have done if she wasn't stopped."

After a moment's consideration, Gabriel asks simply, "So the guy holding the thing and these bodyguards. What happened to them? They staying in town somewhere with another rally planned?" He shakes his head sadly. "That could be very bad, if Valeriya really is in a pissed-off, psychotic mood. Any idea where they are?"

"Well I think they left town, but I'm not totally sure. I was busy talking to various d-bees and I didn't see where they went to." Erica says with a slight shrug of her bare shoulders before she takes a small drink from her margarita. "I hope for their sake they got out of town. Valeriya is a murdering crazy woman."

"That she is," Gabriel says, raising his glass in a toast to the concept. "So what'd she do? Just get battered and run away admitting defeat? That doesn't sound much like her. She's the type of person who would take ten minutes to lick her wounds then go charging back into a fight that she'd already proven to herself and everyone else that she couldn't win. Hey.." a slight pause. "She have that ugly fucking lizard pulling shit too? I've seen is spit acid and such. I guess an annoying person should have an annoying pet."

"I wasn't really keeping close track of her, but I think after her armor got taken down she left. I am not totally sure what happened with her." Erica says before taking another sip from her drink. "I think the lizard got killed in the fighting which I am sure will just make her more mad and crazier."

Gabriel's face screws up and his head leans sideways. His drink is set gently on the tablecloth. "Why? I had dogs all my life. Great dogs. Smart dogs with personality, who I loved as friends and companions and hunter-retrievers and Nature's free security guards. But pets die, it's one unfortunate thing of Nature. I've never heard of a pet outliving its owner, unless it was adopted late in a person's life. Even had a dog get hit by a moonshiner's car and killed. It sucked. I was angry, we all grieved and moved on." He picks up and drinks from his glass. "Never knew myself or anyone else who went on a destructive spree just because a pet died."

"Yah but you are talking like a reasonable person. Valeriya isn't reasonable. She is the type to take everything personally. I am sure she'll just use it as an excuse to get angrier at what perceived slight." Erica says with a frown as she shakes her head. "But I can't really predict what someone like that will do."

Gabriel looks up, waiting for his lemon chicken to arrive, but then just devolves into a chuckle. "No, I suppose not. Kind of surprised that anyone got the lizard. Must have pissed them off somehow. So this mage and the women - that sounds like a band, doesn't it? The mage and the women, they just walk off under thunderous applause and distraction while Val was wandering away somewhere?"

"Yah pretty much. They slunk off after the rally was disrupted. After all that there wasn't much of a rally any more." Erica says with another shrug. "The rally sort of fell apart after all that. I am not sure where they went off to. Why are you asking so many questions about them?"

The older man shrugs. "No special reason other than it's the most interesting thing that I've heard about in a while. The city's been pretty boring as of late. Plus, when a friend is a minor hero, that's something to be toasted, isn't it?" To prove his point, Gabriel raises his glass and states, "A toast to you, Erica, Bringer of Peace."

Erica rolls her eyes as she shakes her head. "I am not a hero. Nothing I did will matter for more then a day or two. I am sure no one will even hear about it." Erica says with another brief shrug of her shoulders. She picks up her glass and clinks it against Gabriel's glass.

"My father told me, 'Gabriel, you know that you've done something right, when no one ever knows that you did anything at all.' Sure, recognition is nice, but eventually all of it wears off. The important thing is that you - by which I mean anyone - know that you did a good thing. It's good for the soul." Gabriel leans back as their food is finally delivered along with a promised complimentary dessert for the weight. "See? Good things happen to good people. So. You still ready for me show you some old-school sports? You know, *real* games of strength, agility, strategy and tactics that you don't have to be hyped up on drugs to be good at?" The man would probably be devastated to know what happened to people actually using those chemicals in his own world only a few decades after his departure.

Erica rolls her eyes again as she shakes her head. "You are making too big a deal out of it. It wasn't a big deal." She smiles as she gets her food. Placing her napkin on her lap she starts digging into her meal. "I am ready to learn when you are ready to start teaching."

"Tomorrow, then?" Gabriel asks as he fluffs his own napkin, tucking it into his shirt. "I've been getting ready for it, figuring that you'd get around to it eventually. Found some kids from the high school, and you'd be surprised at how many reenactments there are around - hired a few to join in, because most sports are team sports. At least, most of the ones that I'll show you. No reason to make you run around a do pushups; you probably took care of that in Basic."

Erica laughs softly as she smiles. "Well I guess that sounds like a good time. I'll have to make sure I am ready for this." She says with laughter in her voice. "I am sure there are plenty of people that play basketball and what not. I am sure you'll be a good teacher, and I'll learn quickly enough."

Gabriel ticks off items on a clean set of fingers. "Oh, much more. I actually don't like basketball. It's for tall people who've spent years mastering a single free-throw. No, no. We have ultimate Frisbee, badminton, volleyball, racquetball, baseball, football of course, 'Sepak takraw' which is the same as volleyball but with feet, javelin, shot put, discus, long jump, high jump... I can keep you amused for as long as it takes." Grin.

Erica laughs again as she shakes her head while smiling. "Well you have a quite a list there. I am sure you'll keep me busy for a while then. I am sure you will give me a good workout." She pauses to take a drink from her margarita and to eat some more of her meal. "When did you want to start teaching me?"

The older man shrugs again, but hesitates to speak as his mouth is momentarily full of lemon chicken being masticated into smaller, easier to swallow pieces. After that little bite is disposed of, Gabriel states, "Any time you're ready. Right after dinner if you want. Just give me two hours to change and get the guys together. Oh, and the equipment. You might have to hand out a couple of credits to the guys, just to keep 'em happy and sober." He smiles and wipes his face with the napkin. "When do *you* want to start?"

"Yah I guess we can start pretty soon. Tomorrow morning perhaps. I think that sounds like a good time. It is already a little late in the evening to start tonight I think." Erica says with a slight smile. Gabriel smirks a little. "Okay, tomorrow then. Sunrise plus two - the guys coming in to help aren't military types who get up at a regular and useful time. I'll warn you though, since this is both fun and education, I'm going to treat you a little bit like a greenie. Warm-up, cool down, mandatory. Already have a little course for it and everything." After another moment to sip at his brandy, he asks, "Any of those sports sound like something you'd like to try first?"