At Your Service

Posted on Sat Oct 15th, 2022 @ 1:07am by Mykaia Kylo-Zahn & Curtis Vaan

Mission: Mission 16: Hysperia
Location: Village Tavern
Timeline: A brief moment before Curtis' return to reality.
3371 words - 6.7 OF Standard Post Measure

"I can assure you, that won't be a problem."

Like any self-respecting settlement ought to boast, the taverns of Hysperia's capital were amongst the most pivotal locations. Hubs of social and cultural exchange, political intrigue, romantic trysts and everything in between, there was a lot of historical evidence to suggest that a thriving tavern indicated a thriving community. It stood to reason, therefore, that when the most important festival on the yearly calendar rolled around, these bars and their associated accommodations spent a great deal of time on preparations, down to the simplest detail. Frenzy seemed an adequate way to describe the current atmosphere. Controlled chaos might also have worked.

Mykaia, no stranger to the ebb and flow of tourist populations, had nevertheless found the fervor of the publicans and their staff, supported in their madness by the event organisers, quite eye-opening at first. A working holiday on the planet hadn't been her idea, though she'd been easily swayed into the diversion because of the obvious significance for her brother. Perhaps, had she paid attention to his enthusiastic prattle, she may have better prepared herself for the expectations of these people. She'd spent the last ten minutes feeling like a child introduced to solid food for the first time and not trusted to take control of the spoon for herself.

It was an outside bar and table arrangement, an offshoot from the main interior tavern to deal with expected numbers. As she had attempted to explain several times since securing the temporary employment, the setup was very reminiscent of the resort bar she'd often managed for her parents, but apparently that reassurance had fallen on deaf ears. She held her tongue, because Kaia wasn't easily moved to annoyance, and listened to the barrage of instructions with an increasingly perturbed frown worrying her brow. By the time she had been left alone with instructions to continue the wash down of the tables and chairs, the Risian was of a mind to question whether she knew anything at all about the hospitality industry.

Which was just absurd.

"Tavernkeep! A tankard of your finest ale for Hysperia's brave protector!" a voice clamoured, accompanied by an open-palmed hand rapping on the bar. Curtis grinned eagerly across the counter as he hopped onto a stool that looked to have been made for someone a little taller than he was. Not having the first idea of what the local brew might be nor any particular customs around it, he instead decided to act confident and hope for the best; it usually ended up working.

We're not actually...

Kaia stopped herself from verbalising the apology, her gaze cast towards the door back into the tavern for a moment of calculated introspection before she gathered up her cleaning cloth and moved towards the bar. Correction: the bar was always open, especially when attempting to prove that you had enough experience to operate one in your sleep. The Risian dunked her hands into the frigid water set aside from hygiene purposes, such as they were, and dried them off as she moved behind the partially-stocked bar to smile at her first customer.

His entrance hadn't batted so much as an eyelash; from what she'd witnessed so far, Kaia didn't find the performance very far from the typical mark.

"Brave protector, is it?," she repeated, her amusement gentle yet obvious. "And an entire tankard so early in the day? Someone has clearly enjoyed a victory or two." Kaia poured the drink, nevertheless, which may have been her first mistake. Responsible serving did come with an expectation of controlled portion size.

"Early worm gets the bird," he grinned. "Celebrating in advance; I have a solid enough wager on the go that I strongly expect to come through. And she'll never know how many weeks I spent in a holosuite learning how to shoot a bow when I was fifteen..."

"Ah, a confident marksman. I did hear there was an archery contest," Kaia remarked, setting down the tankard and swiveling the handle around to face him for easier purchase. "I suspect I may know someone who will take it upon himself to enter," she added, with the slightly wry expression of one well past the point of resignation. "With any luck, you'll put him in his place also."

"I'll take all-" He finally actually stopped to look at the woman he was addressing, and spotted the mark of something familiar. A scar. Typically where one might find, say, a tiny gemstone in the middle of one's forehead. Much like the one he had gone to great lengths to hide. "Comers." He finished the sentence, realising that he had done a terrible job of not staring. His moment of bravado diluted by encountering someone who was not only a non-Hysperian but an actual Risian, his head went to the tankard as a place to hide.

It certainly wasn't the first time that the indentation had sparked a conversation. In all the other places she'd visited since leaving home, there was always someone who had been to Risa and wanted to tell her all about it, as if she had no capacity to recall the sunsets and beaches and cocktails herself. This was the first time that Kaia could recall taking a moment to prepare herself for the onslaught of holopictures, only to realise in her attempt to fix him with a patient smile that she was staring at a very similar impression right in the centre of his forehead. Her eyebrows shot up, and for a moment, she forgot that she was trying to appear calm and in control.

"Oh my gosh."

"I get that a lot," he replied, almost instantly and without thinking. "I mean, uh, the whole..." he made a circular motion to his own head and then at hers. "Wow. Yeah. Meeting someone from back there, out here. Can't say that's happened to me before."

"Definitely not in such an out-of-the-way place," Kaia agreed, her expression still alight with delighted surprise. "What are the odds?" She laughed, an easygoing acceptance that sounded very much like she approved, and leaned her weight forward on both hands to grin at him. "Mykaia, though Kaia is fine. My brother and I are on something of a de-Risa-fication holiday."

"Curtis." He was still mildly taken-aback, mainly because of his prejudices of 'home', specifically the ones that had made him leave in the first place. There was nothing to say whether she would be just like the rest or not. Did he give her the benefit of the doubt? She seemed friendly enough for now, at least... "I'm, um, not local either. Just passing through on a ship. In town for the festival, you know."

"And besting everyone on the archery range, right?," she winked at him. On the surface, Kaia had the same amiable nature as was often expected from their people. What she lacked, and this sometimes took a while to really pinpoint, was the flamboyance that went with it. She often argued that Lyndon had enough of that for both of them, and that was likely true to a point, but it was also just the case that the Risian was more introspective than stereotypes wanted to permit. It wasn't a lack of confidence, more a self-sufficiency coupled with pensiveness and a scholarly zest for something more than feeling good.

"Right." She was friendly enough. But that didn't count for anything, especially since she was working in the hospitality sector. Almost every Risian that he had encountered in that profession tended to be a little too much for him. Too friendly. Too bright. Too positive. Incessantly. "So if you're on holiday, why are you working?" he asked, indicating the bar.

Glancing over his shoulder at the empty tables, Kaia took a moment to response because it was honestly a good question. Certainly there had been a need to fund her time away, and that had taken priority in this decision, but it didn't go all the way to explaining why she'd picked something so mundane. Lack of courage, in a way, the decision that it was probably better to stick what she knew in such an unfamiliar setting, though that seemed to have backfired because she was being treated like a novice in any case. The hesitation betrayed a lapse in confidence, which the Risian didn't quite recover from as she reestablished eye contact.

"Something has to pay the bills," she reasoned quietly.

He caught himself between a laugh and a look of incredulous confusion. "Who goes on a holiday to a whole other planet without any money?" he asked, genuinely curious as to the answer to that.

This time, his questioning seemed to place the barkeep on the back foot. Kaia supposed, without context, that it might sound a little strange, but she'd yet to encounter anyone who found it odd enough to point out, let alone laugh about. She blinked, stumped for a moment, and then rallied as she felt her cheeks flare with colour that she despaired at ever being able to control. "Possibly no one, but this isn't really a holiday." She didn't owe him an explanation but cultural conditioning left her with the miserable expectation that she continue with efforts to lead the conversation. "We've been gone from Risa for over six months."

"Pfft. I think someone's kidding themselves if they think that's a holiday," he said, taking a gulp of the ale. "More like 'gap year'. Or hiding from some problems?" he posited it with a mixture of curiosity and caution. It could go either way, but she seemed open enough to not completely freeze up on him in that moment.

As a summary of her motives, it wasn't entirely inaccurate, though Kaia had never expected to have to explain herself all the way out here to another Risian. They were notoriously poor travelers, most of them, too unwilling to give up the flexibility and comfort their own society permitted. Ordinarily, this was a conversation that usually resulted in a complete lack of understanding from the other party and the vague impression that she was considered odd, but they weren't on Risa and that meant that Curtis had decided to get out too. Pensiveness worried the young woman's brow.

"Exploring," she eventually corrected. "The galaxy and my options. Life back home can get a little...." Her voice trailed off.

"Too much." He finished the sentence, not even as a question. Because he understood how that line finished. He'd used it himself before. In that moment, his mind started to change about her. Perhaps she wasn't like all the others. "I took my jewel off after nine months," he explained. "It stopped people asking me the same questions."

Had they met closer to her departure from Risa, Kaia might have struggled to escape the conditioning of an entire lifetime of hospitality training. Certainly, inquisitiveness and optimism were core threads of Risian society and there was a general expectation that you drew out of your patrons exactly anything they felt like talking about. Reciprocation was always conditional, in that you didn't talk about yourself unless directly invited to. Monopolising the conversation with your own experiences was poor etiquette when your primary function was to serve as a conduit for other people's good time. She'd been good at it but she hadn't enjoyed it. It had taken six months away from it for Kaia to work up the bravery to even admit that.

Now, caught unawares by a conversation she hadn't anticipated, the bartender was trapped between her own curiosity and a flushed-cheeked impulse to apologise. To explain without causing offense. Risa was lovely; it just didn't know when to stop. Smiling faintly, she replied, "Taking mine off became the best way to avoid having to explain why certain customs don't apply offworld." Far from embarrassed by the admission, Kaia simply rolled her eyes and shook her head. "That and I kept setting off metal detectors."

She grinned then and, with a glance towards the door back into the tavern, hoisted herself up to sit on the bar and swivelled so that her feet came to rest on the stool beside him. "Have you relocated to Hysperia then?"

"Relocated? No. Not unless there would be a reason to. Which...it hasn't made me fall for the lifestyle quite yet. But if they decided to make me a Prince or a King or something, I might be persuaded to stay." He propped himself up on his elbow, eying her carefully. "Rode in on a duranium horse called the Mary Rose. I'm kind-of a big deal on board. Pretty influential, you know."

"You have a ship?" Kaia's expression, which favoured a gentle sweetness that took the edge off any intentional teasing at the best of times, seemed dominated by sincere admiration.

"I mean..." he gave a nonchalant shrug. "It's not got my name above the door or anything, but I'd like to think the people look up to me as a sort of wise man. A leader. A mentor." He took another sip of his drink. "Really, it's actually a relief to feel a bit anonymous. Incognito among the people, as it were."

Silence greeted this explanation, but it was a thoughtful, considerate kind of void. A space for reflection, and contemplation, and reading between the lines. As the time passed, the expression on the bartender's face softened considerably, a pervasive gentleness that was only interrupted by the very faintest twinkle in her eyes.

"They're lucky to have you then." Leaning her weight forward on bent arms, Kaia then asked, "What do you do on board?"

"Well, the ship's really big, you see. Enormous. Should have a couple of hundred people running it. But we don't have a couple of hundred people. In fact we've barely got a couple of dozen. So all that stuff needs to be automated. And when you have automation for a ship that big you need a real pro at computer systems and making sure it all works properly." He lifted a thumb to indicate himself proudly. "I'm telling you, I make the whole thing tick. They'd be screwed without me."

Any accuracy in the claims was, of course, immediately overshadowed by the pomp and ceremony of the delivery. Far from any scathing judgement, however, Kaia found her fellow Risian's theatrics endearing. This was, after all, the place for such a charade and there was every possibility he was just getting into the spirit of the upcoming festival. At the very least, he wasn't the first person she'd met since arriving who liked to talk themselves up. She grinned. "Well, I'm glad they were able to do without you. Otherwise, you wouldn't be here and I'd be none the wiser for my loss." The subtle compliment was followed with gentle laughter.

"Exactly," he agreed, making that momentary eye contact. He felt himself blush, just slightly, at meeting her pretty eyes and interested expression. Of course she had to be Risian too, just to make it that more complicated. "You mentioned you had a brother?" he asked, quickly moving to change tack before she dug too deep into his facade.

The change in topic seemed to surprise the woman, though Kaia rallied quickly enough and nodded her agreement. "Lyndon, yes. He's running around here somewhere, probably enjoying himself far too much." There was affection in her tone but also an element of weariness. "Why do you ask?"

"You're not totally on your own," Curtis answered. "Apart from right now, I mean. I've found it can be quite...dangerous to go alone. Especially out here in some of the more lawless systems."

The response left Kaia momentarily taken aback. As much as she hadn't taken offense to his grandstanding, she had been aware that there was a theatrical element to Curtis' explanations so far and so to hear something slightly more sincere wasn't what she'd anticipated. Much to her chagrin, it's was Kaia's turn to feel the slight burn of pink cheeks. "Donnie coming along was the only thing that stopped our parents from trying to talk me out of going," she agreed, eyes cast towards the entry to the area as if expecting her brother to burst through at any moment. "But I think I spend more time getting him out of trouble than the other way around."

"You sound exactly like someone I know..." he remarked, considering a certain red-haired shipmate as he spoke. "You know, if you want to get out of here I can give you a tour of our ship. Maybe we can get into some more trouble while we're there?"

A glance towards the door to the main tavern was at least a pause for consideration and not an immediate refusal. Technically speaking, she hadn't even started work yet, wasn't due to start until the festival was properly underway, and had only showed up early as a means of proving that she was up to the task. It was, however, and Kaia had known all along, probably a fruitless endeavour. If her list of credentials from back home hadn't stopped the tavern owner from treating her like his own inexperienced child then nothing would. And, Kaia realised, it would be nice to actually make a friend or two that Donnie wasn't somehow involved in dragging to her attention in the first place.

She returned her gaze to consider Curtis thoughtfully and then nodded her head. "Sure. I mean, I'm not sold on the getting into trouble part, but I'll reserve judgement for after I see what you have in mind."

"Given the history of the ship, trouble is basically a given," he noted, considering the wild adventures the crew of the Mary Rose seemed to get into with incredible regularity. "I at least promise it won't be entirely boring. And we just got a holodeck fitted, so if it turns out to be really bad we have options."

"There's plenty to do on the planet too," Kaia pointed out, a reasonable observation that might have passed as such had the sparkle in her eyes not appeared to be a little at his expense. "To make things even, I'll think of a local attraction to introduce you to." It would involve discovering several of them very quickly in order to make any sort of decent choice, but that's what she had a very energetic brother for. Lyndon had memorised the festival and all its offerings before they'd even landed.

Not that we need to go far for local 'attractions'... The words almost came out of his mouth but he held them back, instead just grinning, taking some more of his drink, and flourishing. "Works for me. When do you finish your shift?"

"Whenever I want, technically, they're not actually paying me for this portion of my 'induction'." Kaia punctuated the final word with air quotes. Perhaps another Risian would understand the futility of explaining the service industry to someone whose entire planet was obsessed with the culture. "Don't cancel plans for me though," she added, aware that right now might not have been the timeframe he'd envisaged. "I'm free from now until the festival officially opens."

"Now?" Curtis echoed. It was still relatively early in the day, but he wasn't going to complain if that gave them more time. "Well then," he hopped off the barstool and gave her his weak imitation of the local bow, deep and theatrically sweeping. "Milady, if you would do me the honour?"

With a grin, Kaia slid down onto the stool her feet had been resting on and then dropped to the ground. "Give me five minutes to go and explain to them all why turning down an invitation from an illustrious client would be terrible for future business and I'll be right with you."

As she turned to head inside, the Risian winked.