One night, can barely stand [Dated]

[Thorin]

[November 2]

Thorin staggered into his apartment, tired by the unexpected heaviness of a full grown griffoness but clever enough to not make note of it. He had received more than a few strange looks from night guards and catcalls from off duty drunks as he hauled Evangeline to his home, and was glad to be in his room away from them. Even if it was on the 11th floor.

He gently lowered himself, allowing Ev to stand before lighting a gas lamp by the door, casting just enough light to outline his sparsely furnished living room.

[Evangeline Topclaw]

Evangeline felt like collapsing on one of the couches but protocol dictated that she try to dust it off a bit first. As she leaned forward to do so, she lost her balance and plummeted into the chair face first. The cushions caught her as she fell, and her face smothered into the couch.

She mumbled something through the cushions but was inaudible. She seemed to have fallen asleep in the folds of the couch, despite her awkward posture and total foreignness to the room she was in.

[Thorin]

Thorin chuckled as Ev flopped onto his sofa. He took a moment to turn her head to the side, then moved around his apartment, lighting lamps. After a moment, he returned and took Ev onto his shoulders again.

'I think you should take the bed miss Evangeline' He said, eager to be hospitable to the possibly dangerous drug lord griffoness.

As he carried her into his bedroom, he began to think that she might not be as dangerous as he had though under the influence of the mystery powder. She was rather pretty too, he thought.

[Evangeline Topclaw]

Evangeline had dozed off, and stuttered awake on the back of an unfamiliar feather individual. The surroundings were strange- she had never seen the inside of this room, she thought. A sudden thought occurred to her that perhaps she was being raped, and that she needed to seek help.

She began looking about for help and her eyes settled on the griffon carrying her. He was a strapping young tercel it appeared, and more than enough of an escort if her kidnappers were rapists.

Despite this gaping raw wound against basic principles of logic, she hugged closer to him, intent on using him to protect herself from him, in the light that he himself would be the best protection against if her were to try to rape her.

Drugs addle the mind, it would appear.

[Thorin]

Thorin felt Ev hug him and looked over his shoulder at her, slightly confused. He shook his head, attributing it to a mixture of drugs and tiredness as he folded back the sheets of his bed and gently laid Evangeline upon it.

'You sleep here tonight miss, I will take the sofa' he said as he tucked her in.

[Evangeline Topclaw]

Evangeline hit the bed like a wet towel, sinking into it and gradually becoming enveloped in cushion. She tosses about briefly, wrapping herself in wing and blanket and sheet, until she was an uncivil mess of wraps and lack of decorum.

She had fallen asleep before Thorin's arm's were even totally off of her, and just as well, she needed to sleep off the effects of the narcotics.

[Thorin]

Thorin looked at the tangle of griffoness, blanket and sheet that now covered his bed. after a moment, he shrugged and retired to his sofa, streching out on the slightly stained overstuffed couch as he fell asleep.

[Evangeline Topclaw]

The night that lingered passed quickly, and was only interrupted twice by Eldritch screams of horrifying dementia. If anything, this would serve as a stark tale to the terms of narcotics abuse, but the reality was that Manehattan's narcotic scene was actually quite civil, and it just that this particular narcotic happened to be known for its abilities to broaden one's mind to numbing frontiers.

So when Evangeline bolted to wakefulness around noonish, she found herself comfortably relieved despite the strange home. After all, foreign surroundings have nothing on deep eldritch sighs from beyond the planes, and by comparison the panic of realization that she was in a different home was unable to impact her with any sufficient imperative as to cause her discomfort. She rose- or rather, tried to rise, finding herself oddly intwined in bedsheets in a manner that would have been difficult to pull of deliberately.

[Thorin]

Thorin slept later than he usually did, protected from the predations of his alarm-clock by his off duty day. He lay in the warm fuzz of half-sleep for several hours after dawn until he was roused by a loud crash from his bedroom.

[Evangeline Topclaw]

Naturally, the sound was Eva, flopping about on the floor. She had gradually inched her way to the edge of the bed, and intended to use the space to remove the weight that had pinned the blankets. The opposite thing happened, and the weight instead threw her to the floor, sending her rolling into some furniture and knocking over a heavy leaden bust of Hippocranes, the ancient Aquillian philosopher.

The bust hit the floor with a splintering thud, embedding its beak into the ground with all of its weight. Evangeline twitched a shudder at the proximity it had landed to her ankle, and started feeling tiny phantom pains as if her body were punishing her for even THINKING of getting struck by the object.

[Thorin]

Thorin rolled off the sofa after hearing the second crash and moved swiftly to the door of his bedroom. he raised a talon and knocked upon the door before peeking inside.

'Miss Evangeline? are you allright?'

[Evangeline Topclaw]

"I am thinking not and all I couldn't think of a reason that would make me change dispositions without first getting out from these... things that are wrapping me like blankets."

She flopped on her stomache to give Thorin the ability to unbind her from behind.

[Thorin]

Thorin walked over to Ev and took a moment to inspect the situation. A gordian knot of griffoness and blanket. He reached into the mass of tangled fabric and tried to untie a knot between Ev's hindlegs with a mumbled apology.

[Evangeline Topclaw]

She tried wiggling a leg, and accidentally ripped the cloth, exposing her rump. This proved to be just the leverage she needed to get her legs out from the fabric, and she began a rapid kicking motion, which was her attempt to pull herself up on her hind legs. She instead scooted forwards on the floor, hitting her head upon a nightstand. She used her leverage to bring herself forwards and to her knees, exposing her posterier rather crudely to Thorin.

She released a low gurgling sound as if trying to contain her frustration.

[Thorin]

Thorin surpressed a chuckle at the Griffoness and pointedly averted his eyes from her rump, if only to spare the poor chick from some embarassment.

'Maybe... should I just cut you out?

[Evangeline Topclaw]

"That was an option this entire time and yet you failed to bring it up. This is either unsettling or unprecedented, I am not entirely sure."

She huffed and flopped around a bit more, waiting for Thorin to get the knife.

[Thorin]

Thorin moved over to Evangeline and started sawing through the blankets with his talons, thanking the mandatory sharpness standards in the Guerellas.

'I want to apologise about last night... for the thing with the drugs... even if it saved our rumps'

[Evangeline Topclaw]

Evangeline stopped dead, trying to recall what the griffon was talking about. Drugs, something about drugs. And there was... bodies... and a unicorn? Why was last night such a blur to her, she normally was extremely good at remembering things. When she got to it, she couldn't exactly recall who this Griffon was over her, which gave her cause to be nervous.

"Did anything happen... sexually last night?"

[Thorin]

Thorin stopped sawing for a moment, then shook his head and continued.

'Not that I am aware of, unless you count hugging me as sexual happenings' he chuckled

[Evangeline Topclaw]

She quickly assessed in her mind whether "hugging" was slang for anything with the Kingdom's soldiers. She shook that thought out of her mind, finding herself suddenly free from her blankety tomb. Evangeline stretched the full breadth of her limbs, de-kinking them, and begin preening her feathers.

"This hotel you have me wouldn't happen to serve breakfast would it, I've heard good things about the West Residential hospitality industry."

[Thorin]

Thorin smiled at Ev and rubbed a talon on the back of his neck.

'Yeah, the breakfast here is pretty good... if you would like to join me' he added tentatively

[Evangeline Topclaw]

She blinked. She wasn't good at these things- she knew that when a male asked you to a meal, it meant he was flirting with you or something, but she had never seen it in action.

"Yes, a breakfast meal would be highly appreciated by myself. And I think I wouldn't mind terribly joining you."

She rose from the bed, and accidentally found herself yawning loudly. She hoped this didn't seem rude. She never could tell when someones religion was being impugned upon with some vague bodily function occurring around them.

[Thorin]

Thorin smiled at Evangeline and motioned for her to follow him out of his apartment and down the stairs. She was an odd griffoness, but there was something... something about her. He tried to divert his mind from this maddening lack of articulation on the part of his psyche.

'So, Miss Evangeline, what do you do other than... the buisness that occured last night?'

[Evangeline Topclaw]

She began beaming off her accomplishments with pride. "Why, I am a student of the actuarial sciences, item evaluation and determination, geological assessments, and quite frankly I can say with no uncertain terms that I am the only owner of an auction house within the proximity of Manehattan."

She began rattling off incremental achievements, like her grade school success and her successful rearing of a living adult daughter. Until they found themselves at the bottom of the stairs.

[Thorin]

Thorin listened, smiling as he walked down the stairs with her. He was glad that the awkwardness from before had dissapated. He lead her down into the cafe on the bottom floor. Once, it fed and watered Manehattans elite, but now its slightly dirtied halls serviced a slightly better class of soldier.

Thorin lead the way to a small table in a secluded corner and pulled out a seat for his companion.

[Evangeline Topclaw]

Evangeline sat down, rather nervous about her new surroundings. There wasn't much to see, but the incrementally more social nature of the setting gave her pangs of anxiety. She sat down at the table next to Thorin, but seemed to have difficulty understanding what things it was socially acceptable to keep looking at. She wanted to focus on Thorin, because she was his guest, but she didn't want to imply to any of the nearby griffons that she was longing for him.

Finally, her eyes settled on a folded napkin on the table. It was neutral, and if anyone asked she could tell them she was a folded napkin enthusiast.

[Thorin]

Thorin sat opposite Evangeline at the table and gazed at her over the top of a menu.

'Do you see anything you like?'

[Evangeline Topclaw]

Evangeline was struck suddenly with the oddness. She hadn't assumed, as most would, that the menu in front of her was for this diner. But she picked it up and quickly read through the contents, intent on acting as if nothing was amiss. "What is... steak wellington?"

[Thorin]

Thorin frowned.

'It is a peice of... cow or pony... in pastry'

[Evangeline Topclaw]

That didn't sound good at all for breakfast, a point that she was quick to bring up. In retrospect, she supposed she deserved the answer- the name had beef right there, first word. "I don't know what I was thinking- I just thought for whatever reason that maybe it was just named Beef Wellington. Ooh! This thing here sounds like a breakfast food- fruit cobbler!"

She beamed, proud in her ability to name food.

[Thorin]

Thorin chuckled at the griffonesses antics, smiling at her. Over her shoulder, he noticed something. A trio of larger, scarred griffons. His squadmates.

They aparently noticed him too, one pointing in his direction and leading the group towards Ev and Thorin.

'Oh gods...'

[Evangeline Topclaw]

Evangeline took note of their approach, and handed her menu up to them. "I will be having the peach cobbler, with some iced tea, thank you."

[Thorin]

One of the squadmates took the menu and returned it to the table, laughing heartilly.

'See that Hendrik? She thinks this uniform is good enough for formal wear!'

They moved to stand around Thorin, leaning on the table and his chair.

'We could not beleive it when we heard it lad' one said

'lil' thor-ey boy, with a griffoness' the second one interjected.

'Care to introduce us to your date, lover-tercel?' the third one said.

[Evangeline Topclaw]

"Who- what is going on. Who are these griffons?"

Evangeline had begun stimming violently on her bracelet, eyes nervously chasing the persons who sorrounded her.

[Thorin]

Thorin sighed and motioned to the three tercels.

'Evangeline, meet Hendrik, Baldur and Leon, my squadmates, who have no idea on the time or place to interr-'

'Oh come now Thorin! is that any way to introduce your valliant comrades?' Hendrik said, cutting him off.

'Yes indeed! Has this young tercel been treating you properly Miss Evangeline? I am certain he does not show us the respect that upstanding gentle-griffs such as ourselves deserve' Leon said, chuckling.

[Evangeline Topclaw]

The outstanding display of exuberance did little to earn Evangeline's trust or comfort. Though she was concerned about the sudden appearance of undue attention, she figured she had nothing to fear from them. But it looked like they were asking for something. She couldn't figure if the question he had asked was rhetorical or not.

Either way she didn't feel like speaking so she chose not to. She looked back down to the table and kept her talon on her bracelet.

[Thorin]

Thorin fumed in his seat as his squad continued to banter around him.

Baldur chuckled "Come now Leon, you have scared the poor hen half to death!"

Leon placed a talon upon his chest, looking affronted "I am as harmless as a bunny Baldur, this is obvio-"

"Are you quite done yet?" Thorin interjected forcefully.

Hendrik sniggered "Come now Thory, we just wanted to drop in for a little chat" he teased.

[Evangeline Topclaw]

"I have to go to the lavatory," Evangeline said abruptly, rising from her seat. She didn't make eye contact as she made her way past the group. She realized too late that she had no clue where the bathroom was downstairs, so she began to walk about the rooms looking for something remotely like a lavatory sign.

[Thorin]

Thorin scowled at his squadmates.

"You bastards! You scared her off!" he shouted, storming off after Evangeline as the three tecels laughed uproariously.

"Go get 'er lovertercel!" Leon teased as they were shooed out of the resteraunt by the matie de

[Evangeline Topclaw]

Evangeline finally found the bathroom, where she hid. She locked the door and turned about, realizing that she had entered an occupied bathroom. Not even the appropriate gender at that. She unlocked the door and went back through it coming face to face with Thorin.

"There was someone in the bathroom..."

[Thorin]

Thorin rubbed the back of is neck awkwardly.

"I am sorry about my squadmates, they tend to be... encourageable" he said

The tercel realised where they were standing and half laughed "Do you want to return to breakfast? Or should I walk you home?"

[Evangeline Topclaw]

Evangeline considered it, then decided that breakfast would be the better of the two. She walked over to the table and sat back down. She hadn't really needed to use the bathroom but luckily Thorin was gullible. The food had been placed at the table and she began picking at it with her dining trident. "I've never gotten used to Griffon cutlery," she said with no prompt. "Griffon cutlery has no analogue in Equestrian culture."

[Thorin]

Thorin sat down opposite Evangeline and sipped at his glass of water. He thought for a moment, regarding his cutlery and the distinct lack of ponies eating in the cafe.

"How... do they eat then? with their mouths? I have seen unicorns use some cutlery but I dont see why, they could just levitate the food" he said

[Evangeline Topclaw]

"Griffon cutlery is... grotesque almost to Equestrians." She raised the knife, as if to make a point. "Knives are used almost exclusively as weapons, and forks were never invented in Equestria, having been brought in elsewhere. The Equestrian diet is intensive in grains, fruits, and vegetation, and contains very little that requires use of Griffon cutlery, which is distinct for its invention of making carnivorism more convenient."

She glared down at her pie, as if in a trance, and began stabbing it with her butterknife.

[Thorin]

Thorin cut off a peice of bacon and dipped it into the yolk of one of his eggs before popping it into his mouth, glad to have some kind of conversation going to dispell any awkwardness from his squadmates interruption.

"So... what do you do? apart from the thing that happened last night"

[Evangeline Topclaw]

"I am stabbing this cobbler currently but when I am not stabbing cobblers I tend to be indoors, working at my occupation."

"Specifically, I am a student of the actuarial sciences in application towards the discipline of price evaluations and speculations at Topclaw Auctionhouse which I myself am the proprietor."

The cobbler was coming apart and she seemed perplexed by this. She hadn't actually ever eaten a cobbler.

[Thorin]

Thorin raised an eyebrow as Ev gradually stabbed her cobbler into submission and took a bite from his toast.

"So, you are an auctioneer... ess?" he added hesitantly

[Evangeline Topclaw]

Her eyes narrowed as the cobber submitted to her will. It had become a mush, and she started scooping it onto her fork with the tip of her claw. She then shoveled the mess into her mouth and chewed, a look of satisfaction on her face. She glanced over to Thorin and nodded, unwilling to spit the food from her mouth by voicing her answer.

She noticed he was looking at her odd, but couldn't figure out why. She suddenly got self conscious and straightened up in her chair, trying to present a clean appearance. "Yes, I work as an auctioneer. But mostly I just appraise the items for a fee- the auctioneering is usually done by a third party for legal reasons."

She tried to find something to discuss to draw scrutiny away from herself. "So uhm, what are your interests?"

[Thorin]

Thorin thought for a moment before speaking.

"Most of my time is either occupied with stitching Guerrillas back together or patrolling the city. When I get the chance... I am rather fond of theatre. Though, there is not much of that around Manehattan at the moment what with the curfew"

He speared a big piece of egg and chewed on it thoughtfully.

"I also try to find the time to honour Orion properly, but there is not much in the way of worthy prey to hunt around Manehattan..."

[Evangeline Topclaw]

The Griffoness had no idea of who Orion was, but recalled that there were still some Griffon's among the Tsarists who still worshiped old gods. She assumed that was what he probably was referring to. She thought about what he said, about the Theatre. "I've been to a lot of theatre's around here. Not all of them close down when the curfew comes down."

"You know, if you promised not to nark on them, I'm sure they wouldn't mind you showing up. I could show you the few that still perform some of the old trajedies. I don't know what plays Griffon theatre puts on, but the Equestrian ones are normally pretty well put together."

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