Yanden slipped the carriage driver something close to the proper payment for the ride, the cumbersome box banged the edge of the doorway as he swung it out. With an uneven gait he pushed through the heavier door of the pub and continued through the sparse crowd until he reached a table near the far corner of the room. The box thudded heavily onto the table, and as the conversations and general clatter continued on around him Yan pulled ink, a pen, and paper from within. He'd just sent off a letter and rough draft of his latest story to his editor and publisher but he still hadn't resolved the little ideas niggling him in the back of his head.

The noise drowned out all but the most prominent thoughts in his head as he began writing, totally ignoring the world around him. He'd come here before, a few times before always to write when the ideas came to much and too fast and he couldn't concentrate enough to write anything out. If he waited he knew someone would come to take his order, he only had to wait.

Fion watched the galdori at the bar for quite some time, unsure of whether he'd appreciate her butting in and asking if he wanted a drink. Dom Leon had made her wary of seemingly innocuous patrons. After a suitable amount of time had passed she approached him anyway.

"Hello sir, can I get you anything to drink?" Fion asked, keeping her voice respectful.

She wondered what the man was writing.

Yan continued scribbling away on the paper in front of him, lost in the act, unaware for the moment that anyone was even standing near him. After a moment passed though, the words noise filtered into his head and he started away from the paper, looking bewildered. After noticing the woman standing by the table he glanced back and forth between the woman and his papers, he wasn't quite sure what he was going to do. It finally entered his head that he was supposed to order something; as he finally organized his thoughts he remember that he'd wanted something to drink, but what had it been.

Reaching for his collar, he pulled the edges together out of an old vain habit, attempting to remember what it was that he drank. It finally came to him after a few more moments of thinking. He signed for some Gioran Whiskey, turning briefly back to his paper and then remembering long unused manners, he added a 'thank you'.

Finally, he returned to his pen and paper. But now he was almost utterly unsure of what he'd been thinking.

Fion didn't know much sign language, her vocabulary only included a few compliments and commands. She recognised the 'thank you' but the rest may as well have been in monite.

"I'm very sorry, Sir." Fion said, feeling a little embarassed and sounding as apologetic as possible. "I'm afraid I don't sign very well, would you be able to write down your order? I have a licence to read."

Fion hated even having to admit that. A piece of paper allowing her to read? Ridiculous.

It took him another moment to hear the human again, but it happened much quicker this time. He looked at his paper briefly, but he'd already lost whatever train of thought he'd had, so he turned the nearly fully paper over and wrote down his order again. It hadn't really occurred to him that anybody wouldn't be fluent in sign, how had he gotten by before then, had there been someone else here? It probably wasn't the first time he'd had to write it out. He turned to her and showed her the order.

The only thin really on his mind now, was what exactly he was supposed to do now. He'd lost whatever train of thought he'd been on, and he had a feeling he wouldn't want it anyways, something about the angle of his scrawling as he'd turned the paper over had seemed somewhat lost. Well, he just needed something new.

Fion quickly read the order and bowed a little in thanks.

"I'll get that for you, right now." She said with a nervous smile.

She poured the galdor his whiskey and placed it quietly in front of him. Unnerved by his quietness and fierce concentration, she stood back to watch him for a while, eyes flicking about the bar to check on other customers. Fion wondered what he was writing and tried to entertain herself by thinking of what might be forming on the pages before him.

Yan had learned to watch people without watching them. Most people would feel it if you stared at them full on, at least most of the people that he found himself intent on watching, which were the people who had stories. He liked to try and figure them out, to use them as base templates for characters or as jumping off points for ideas. This was how he noticed the human watching the patrons at the bar, he could see her sizing them up.

She was doing what he did, in a way. There was only one question that mattered to him though, which was the why of it. Why should a human girl working as a barmaid be bothered to study her customers; there was the obvious answer of course, and then the other less obvious and more interesting options.

As Yanden turned back to his writings and finally began to put pen to paper once again, the gears in his mind began to turn again as well.


Several hours, a few drinks, and many many many sheets of paper later Yan was gone. On the table and floor around it, remained torn and crumpled scraps of paper with snatches of unfinished dialogue, descriptions, hastily scratched out pieces of information. Just the general detritus that accumulated in an attempt to form a coherent story.


((The pieces of paper might be interesting to anyone involved with The Resistance or against said organization, they're basically parts of a Alternate History story for the world of Vita in which humans or wicks are the dominant race and galdori are subjugated. Note that this is not a declaration of his sympathies, but have your characters assume whatever is most likely for them if they pick/read the papers))

Fion sighed at the scraps left in the silent galdori's wake. It was as though their parents never taught them to clean up after themselves. She grumbled under her breath as she collected the random pieces of paper but pocketed them nonetheless. You never knew when such things could come in handy.