Completed Drunk Kristen

[Kristen Pirian]

There was just something about Vel Yuna.

Kristen remembered fondly what happened here last time she had visited. And by fondly, she didn't mean fondly. What an indecorous mess to which she had been a participating party, drinking until the boozy spirits wiped her memory clean and bid her to lie in such squalid (and embarrassing!) conditions. This time, however, propriety would rule the day. Yes, it would have been far better if she and her fellows had simply averted passing through town, simply camped for the night further down the road. But they did not. Now, Kristen was back in the Yuna Lager, Vel Yuna's sole and constantly busy tavern, and she was already a couple ales deep. She didn't even like ale! Regardless, no matter how tipsy she became, she needed to make sure she didn't cross over into being scandalously drunk this time.

And she was quite tipsy. Which meant Kristen's social currency had become hugs, and this currency she tossed about indiscriminately, hugging anyone and everyone for little to no reason.

Presently, she sat at the bar counter with another Dreadlord Initiate—Carter. Carter was a lad of astounding size, bulky and with something of a hunchback, though...he wasn't the brightest. He was simple. But now that Kristen and her companions were a few to several drinks in, the ale had gotten Carter talking about something that had been on his mind, something he otherwise would not have brought up.

"I...I really don't know how to tell Penny," he said, nervous and bashful. Penny was another Dreadlord Initiate, simple like Carter, with big saucer-like eyes contrasting her small stature, said eyes always having difficulty understanding even the most basic of concepts. Most pertinent to the present conversation was the plainly evident fact that Carter fancied her. He had been worried sick about her during an Incursion of lizardmen in which she had been captured, and now, with graduation fast approaching, he was even more worried.

He thought he might never get the chance to tell her how he felt.

"Ohhhhhh, Carter," Kristen said (with only a tiny slur to her speech), reaching over and giving Carter another side-hug that totaled up to...well, she had lost count now. "Listen..."

So Kristen started to say, before—

 

[Thraah]

"OX, KRISH!!!"
Thraah clashed into them both, red of nose and leery of eye. She held their heads in the crook of her elbows.
"Oh guys... hey did you guys watch the match?"
Thraah had arrived independently in her Anir-ball jersey of black and red with *SLICK* written on the back.
She had been drinking heavily and singing loudly with other fans in the corner.
"BECKSLEY. He's on FIRE! Oh you should have seen him... STRAIGHT into the ring. heh heh."
Joyously she kicked off a heat that added to the heavy warm air of the tavern.

Kristen Pirian

 

[Kristen Pirian]

Carter, in perhaps an effort for any excuse now to cover up what he said (and, as well, banish all its attendant anxiety), "Oh *hic* I didn't even know there was a match."

Apparently there had been a match. The Drumb Sticks versus the Yuna Yaegers. Vel Yuna won, and adding to this victory was the raw fact that it had been over their rival village of Drumb. Hence the near riotous atmosphere in the Yuna Lager. Hence, also, how Kristen managed to get swept away in all the excitement and festivities and partake of some drink, even if she had been in the dark about the match.

Kristen, tipsy as is, was unbothered by Thraah's headlock. "Hi Thraaaaaaaaaah." She also pronounced the vowel in Thraah's name far longer than was necessary. "You're not on fyiur. Here, let me put you out."

Stumbling over the word fire, and making two contradictory sentences didn't stop her. Kristen side-hugged Thraah too.

Thraah

 

[Thraah]

"Oooogh! I am, put me out quick, quick!"
Thraah returned the hug, smooshing her face against Kris'.
"Hey Ox."
Thraah gave the large lad a playful and languid headbutt.
"Yo where'sh Pen-pen? She about?"
Her short stature made looking around far more difficult that it could have been.
The big eyed girl was scarce away from Ox since the beach, lizard people, rescue thing and to top it off they had given Garrick and his losers the boot too.
Thraah loved a happy ending.

Kristen Pirian

 

[Kristen Pirian]

"You cashon fire again, you tell me stray-away," Kristen said, somehow under the impression that her normal elegance in speech remained intact and that she hadn't slurred anything there. Nothing whatsoever.

Carter became bashful once more when the subject of Penny resurfaced. He tapped the tips of his meaty forefingers together as he said, "Oh...well..."

"Penny'sh upstairs. She does not fancy drinks, and neither do I! Thish ale is putrid," she said, taking another drink of that very same ale and setting the tankard back down. Then she pawed at Carter. "Tell Thraaaaaaaaaah what you told me."

The flush of alcohol couldn't compare to the redness now making home in his cheeks. "Um...I..."

Thraah

 

[Thraah]

Kristen was so nice. Why didn't they hang out more?
"Your so nice Kirsteee why don' we hang out more?"
The revelation that Ox had something to say snapped her attention back to him.
"Okay, okay. Tell me."
With haste and bluster Thraah settled on the other side of Ox and tried to clear her own hair from her face.
"Tell me everyfing Ox."
She took a deep breath that didn't help her to focus.

Kristen Pirian

 

[Kristen Pirian]

"Well, it...wasn't much—"

"Yesh it was, it was a lot, such grand sig...signa...—significance!—packed in so few words. Tell her. We're your friends. We'll—" Kristen let out the most petite burp known to mankind. "Oh goodness me, my manners."

Once again engaged in the push and pull, the want to at least get his concern off of his chest but the bashfulness trying to halt these efforts, Carter nevertheless soldiered through and said, saying to Thraah, "I'm worried about graduation. Like it'll go how it did last time. And, if it does, I might...you know...and then I'll never be able to tell Penny...tell her...you know."

He sipped on his ale like a nervous puppy lapping away at a dish of water.

Thraah

 

[Thraah]

That grin that always looked a little too big for her round head crept across Thraah's face.
She knew what he was talking about. Kris knew too but she wanted him to say it. How was he ever gonna tell Pen-pen if he couldn't even say it out loud?
"I am shure we, you... we all do but does Pen-pen? Doesh sheee know Ox? Does shee?"
Playfully she shook him to give her question dramatic emphasis and winked at Kris which quickly turned into a permanent leer into her eyes.
"Urrr pretty Krish, didn'yone tell you that?"

Kristen Pirian

 

[Kristen Pirian]

More so into his tankard of ale than to Thraah, Carter muttered his tiny, mousy answer: "...no..."

Kristen, meanwhile, couldn't hide the big sloppy grin Thraah's compliment provoked. "Why thank you, Thraaaaaaaaaah! And yes! Someone has told me, someone..."

She looked momentarily spooked, and then immediately bashful—matching Carter's demeanor with a near perfect accuracy. All the drink made loose her tongue, and she said aloud, "Alistair...Blesshed Aionush...I myself have shirked for so long in just saying it, those three little woooooords..."

Red as a fresh apple, Kristen pawed at her tankard and secured a good hold on it and took another drink herself.

Carter, surprised that he wasn't the only one, looked to Thraah as if to confirm he'd heard Kristen correctly, then said to the latter, "Really?"

Thraah

 

[Thraah]

Thraah half climbed onto Ox to get a better look at Kris after meeting his confused gaze.
"Wow. WOW. Hold up Krish, Alishtar? You an he? He an you? You guysh a thingy?"
She twirled her finger at Kris as slowly Thraah was slid from Ox's substantial shoulders back down onto her seat.
"Spillllllll!"
She called as she slipped over the horizon of Ox's back.

Kristen Pirian

 

[Kristen Pirian]

"Well..." she started laughing nervously, "I thought...well I thought such a thing wash apparent. We attended the Dance together. Goodnessh, it's warm in here. Are you on fire again, Thraaaaaaaaaah?"

Carter stared at Kristen, intrigued as much as he was baffled. In his mind, he really didn't think anyone but him had this kind of problem. He himself had never had this problem until the changes to the old way came to the Academy and he was allowed to truly reckon with how he felt about Penny.




Thraah

 

[Thraah]

"HMMMmmmmmmm-nope!"
She was in fact kicking off a bit of extra heat but she was confident it was mostly the crowd and Kris' embarassment that was giving her a hot feeling.
"Ssssoooooooooooo..."
Thraah leaned over the bar, practically laying on top of it with her arm stretched out to tug on Kris' sleeve with her fingers.
"... what's he liiiiike? Does he kissh nishly. Ish he as boof ash he seems? Ox REALLY needsh ta knowe!"

Kristen Pirian

 

[Kristen Pirian]

"I do?" Carter asked, not knowing that he really needed to know.

"Alishtair is a perfect gennelman...gen...gentleman!" Kristen said, perhaps now giving Carter quite the competition in who was more bashful in the present moment. "That is what'sh in keeping with propriety," she said further, using a dancing finger to help her measure out and punctuate the syllables of the word propriety. All the sensual details, why, it just wouldn't do to go spilling those out!

"But you haven't either?"

"Haven't what?"

Carter retook the lead in bashfulness. "You know...said it."

Those three little words.

Thraah

 

[Thraah]

A bang, loud and sudden and clear sounded through the pub as Thraah's hand smacked the bartop hard.
"Heeesss right! You haven' said eet. You haven' told Alishtai how you feeeeeel!"
She was practically laying on the counter on her side and slowly turning onto her back to keep her tenuous grip on Kris' sleeve.
"YOU HAVE TO TELLLLLL HIIIIM!"
Her eyes sparkled with mischief.
"...Or *I* willlllll! MWAHAHA!"
Her legs kicked as she teased the often far too serious Kris.

Kristen Pirian

 

[Kristen Pirian]

With scarcely any reason and little prompt aside from the tugging on her sleeve, Kristen herself came to practically lay on the counter, head hanging back on her shoulders as she stared up at the ceiling in her ale-logged fretfulness. Her own hand found Thraah's sleeve, forearm, whatever it was that she could get a hold of and grabbed back, and it was in a strange way like friends encouragingly holding one another's hand as they prepared to leap off of the edge of a small cliff and dive into a pool of water below.

"I know, I know! I must! Yet it'sh fear which gripsh me," she said.

Carter was caught between the two female Initiates, yet the conversation had his attention firmly captured.

"Because...godsh, it feels like foolish shuper...shupershtition to say aloud—and it is, by the grace of Astra, it is—but...the last man I said those words to...he perished shortly thereafter."

Thraah

 

[Thraah]

That was probably the saddest thing Thraah had ever heard.
"Thatsh prolly te shaddesht ting I've ever heard!"
In a mad burst of energy she hoisted herself up onto her elbows so her head was hovering over Kris' own. A look of utmost drunken seriousness on her face as she looked down on her, hair draping onto Kris' face.
"Sorry Ox, pardun mee. You half ta tell Alee Krish. You have to."
She cupped Kris' face in her hands and pressed her cheeks together.
"KRISH, lishten to me. You have to break the cursh! YOU HALFS TO!"

Kristen Pirian

 

[Kristen Pirian]

With her face mushed, it seemed that for Kristen other things became so malleable as well, and she found she was readily amenable to the idea proposed by Thraah.

"Cursh! Oh no!" Kristen fretted, and then she clapped her hands atop her head. "What if that is so!? What am I to do??"

Carter, quite confused, mused aloud, "Am I cursed too?"



Thraah

 

[Thraah]

Thraah had never felt so honest as when she spoke next.
"Duh as I shay. Exshacty!"
She locked eyes with Kris, bored deep into her with them as if by will alone she could compel her to do it. Her hands rubbed Kris' features as she spoke.
"You need to tell him thas you LOV IM and Meeen eet! Ish thee onlee away!"
Her body hummed with compassionate warmth, the kind that made you feel soft and snug.
In the dullness of her periphery she knew Ox had spoken and so her head turned to him, one eye open and her voice full of playful mischief.
"Curshed by shilensh. Go tell Pen-pen. Now!"

Kristen Pirian

 

[Kristen Pirian]

"But how?" both Kristen and Carter managed to say at the same time in response to Thraah.

They both looked to each other, awkward as it was given the shenanigans of laying all about the counter for the former.

"You firsht," Kristen said.

"You first," Carter countered.

"Alishtair isn't here."

"Oh." Carter turned a fine shade of Pirian red. "I'm nervous," he admitted.

Thraah

 

[Thraah]

"Sho? That'sss fine. Be nervie but ya gotta doo it all the same."
Thraah let go of Kris' face and propped her head up with her hand as she rolled to face Ox.
"Cause if you don't, yuuuuuule regreh eeet!"
With her free hand she gave Ox a playful poke on the forehead.
"Blipsh!"

Kristen Pirian

 

[Kristen Pirian]

"But how?" Carter said, returning to the question from a moment prior. "I can't just walk in there and say it." As if the poke on his forehead had pressed some manner of button which read Drink More, Carter picked up his tankard and finished it off and set it down.

"You must!" Kristen said, more than a merely a little invested in Carter's struggle for how much it resembled her own. "Here. Look." She sat up on the counter and awkwardly came in for a quick hug on the big Initiate. "Myshelf and Thraah shall accompany you. We will wait outshide the door! Like encouragement!"

She grinned at Thraah, and then said to Carter, "Yesh! That way, there's no way out until you shay what demands to be shaid!"

Thraah

 

[Thraah]

Thraah rolled from the bartop and hopped to her feet, full of energy at the idea.
"Yussh."
Taking Ox by the broad soldiers she made to steer him towards the stairs.
"You goff thish, jusht goooo aheed!"
Ox made vague but ineffective protests as she pushed him forward calling back to Kris and anyone else.
"Man on aye mishhion comin thruuu!"

Kristen Pirian

 

[Kristen Pirian]

Kristen flopped off of the counter, knocking a plate and a tankard over with much metallic clatter (and the barkeep, quick as a whip, "Hey, watch it!"), and she, with slightly untrustworthy balance, went stumbling after Thraah and Carter. Oh, that big giddy grin on her face. This was exciting!

At the stairs Carter finally planted his feet and put a stop to being steered toward his inevitable destination. "Okay! Okay! But..."

His bottom lip poked out anxiously, and he, as was his telltale sign of nervousness, began to wash his hands.

"At least give me something to say. You're girls. How should I...you know...start."

Incoming drunken advice.

Thraah

 

[Thraah]

Thraah didn't try to force him. She was here to encourage, not drag but her strength was never words, or compliments.
"Um... how abouf, *Yo Pen-pen, I fink yur tootie is pretty cutie!* eh?"
She was unfortunately more serious than she sounded, because it would have worked on her.

Kristen Pirian

 

[Kristen Pirian]

"Oh, oh, save that one!" Kristen said. "Shave that one for when you're about ready to shay it! The big three."

Carter, with a delayed reaction, actually grinned broadly and said, "Huht huht, that rhymes."

"Okay, Carter, start things off shlow...okay? When she opensh the door say, 'I'm tired of drinking. I want to shpend time with you instead, Penny.'"




Thraah