Refinery (Drinking Songs)

[loyalty_ever]

They were free!

Kind of. Anyway, the nurse with the legs and elegant tapered fingers pretty smile and nice hair had taken her samples, murmured some sweet nothings about eating right, and turned them both loose.

They were still being followed. That wasn't too weird. There was always at least one giant prick of a hall monitor lurking with mouth-

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[mirror_brightly]

A bar.

Ayel was on quick feet to get there, and he couldn't blame him. Between waking up on a Hevam station and knocking out some unfortunate lloann just standing in a hall, he needed an ale and badly.

They were still being followed, by the woman who'd led him around, and a new set of curious lloann. It didn't matter, these stations were packed. Ayel dropped down at the bar and Oren took a seat, with a heavy, unhurried air, at his side.

His lloannsu was good enough to order, but he sufficed with elbowing Ayel and offering up a jerk of the head. He'd have the same of whatever the navigator was having.

[first_noel]

Helen was still trying to wrap her brain around this whole idea. And she had no idea how she was going to explain things to Nero and Ayel.

So when Ayel finished his checkup and asked, with a hopeful expression, if there was something like a bar on the station, she'd only hesitated briefly before offering to escort them there.

She might as well try to get to know them somewhere where they were comfortable and having fun, before sitting them down and trying to explain that to everyone else here, they were convicts who'd committed genocide.

Helen ordered her usual, barely managing not to let her jaw drop as she saw who the bartender was. Had James mentioned that he was working here?

Never mind. She could ask him about that later, perhaps. Right now, she glanced curiously over at Nero and Ayel, trying to follow their conversation as best she could.

[loyalty_ever]

He couldn't remember getting here, this station where they just suddenly were; he didn't remember leaving at all. And he'd just let a hot nurse some strange woman have a bit of his blood.

This would all make more sense at the bottom of a glass. Or a mug. Or several.

Even with this other woman--Helen, she'd given her name--still tagging along. She clearly didn't mean them harm. Might be some kind of minor official. It'd be rude to upset her.

At the roll of elbow on shoulder, Ayel cleared his throat and ordered a pair of beers that looked sufficiently strong, if he'd converted the units right. He did not want fancy amber water with suds in it. He wanted to be able to think straight. And after today, that meant beer. Serious beer.

The man tending bar was efficient and quick, if not one for conversation. Which suited Ayel fine. He grinned at Oren, nudged that elbow back.

"Ehl'enuare havra'si."

It was more than just an infantry slogan.

[mirror_brightly]

He responded with a burst of air and a single shake of his head. The joke was a bad one, and he didn't acknowledge it. Their drinks came. They weren't ale, but they'd do.

Helen was seated next to his elbow, looking on with mild confusion. He stared and silently offered her his beer.