Kick Back and Kick Off {Gaius Balmung/PM for Entry}

[Eris Coulson]

It was the second afternoon of Eris' brief vacation into Lucerne, with two more nights to go before she would march back to Macendew. By this time she had already seem much of what Lucerne had to offer...shops and ale, that was about it. There was some entertainment as well, dances and so forth, but Eris wasn't exactly in to watching such acts. A jousting tournament, or even an arena gauntlet would be more satisfying.

So she found herself becoming more and more acquainted with drink. "The Bronze Horshoe" was her current choice, as she was delighted to discover that the bartender offered her free drinks. At first she thought it was some form of flirting but instead it was a show of gratitude for her acts the previous day: stabbing a big man in the thigh. That man had caused some damage to the tavern and so it's keeper was delighted that Eris had been the one to stop him.

Obviously Eris hadn't have been thinking she'd get some compensation for her work, but she wasn't like to say no. However even with the drinks being free for her that night she was careful not to consume too much. She could almost still feel the vicious hangover that had plagued her just yesterday.

Her fellow soldiers had decided to attend some other form of entertainment...but Eris was surprised when Sergeant Eriksson took a seat beside her at a lone table. The tavern wasn't bustling just yet, as it was fairly early in the afternoon, but that didn't seem to stop the young soldier or her superior.

"Sir? What brings you here?" Eris asked, her brow quirked. Eriksson sank into his seat and let out a sigh.

"I'm just taking advantage of this opportunity. Much of my work is done for the day, but honestly, we need this break. I've been cooped up in Macendew for as long as you have."

Two months, then. It'd been two months since Eris had been on an assignment outside of Macendew's walls. So instead she chuckled and shot Eriksson a smirk.

"You picked a good time to stop by, then. My drinks are free today." Eriksson quirked is brow at Eris, but she merely shot a smug smirk at him in return. They may be off-duty, but even so Eris would never be this casual with Eriksson. That was the power of drink.

"Dare I ask why that is?"

"Remember my report on that big oaf? This is my payment." With that the strawberry blonde stood up. "Sit tight, I'll be back with a mug for you." For once she got to give an order, and Eriksson was more than happy to oblige.

Eris sauntered over to the barkeep, but slowed when she saw him whispering something to a rather rugged looking fellow. When she listened closer she heard the word "job" be passed between the two several times. Eris had heard the tales that many barkeeps were well connected. They made extra coin off gathering and sharing information with and between their clientele, usually information that served useful for mercenaries. Sometimes assassins.

Rather than blatantly intrude Eris merely sat down on one of the stools in front of the counter. She was in earshot, but she only paid so much mind to what was being shared. It clearly couldn't be that secretive anyway, otherwise her presence would have deterred the two from speaking.

[Gaius Balmung]

If he had known that he would end up back in this god forsaken country he would have never agreed to that damn job. What was a simple delivery mission turned into a huge mess when he ran into those bandits. With them throwing Gaius off track he had to take a longer route to his drop off point. To make matters even worse when he finally reached the drop off point he found out that the person he was supposed to deliver to had ended up leaving the town and made their way to Bern. Oh why oh why did it have to be Bern?

Gaius was extremely tempted just to drop the cargo off some cliff or into a river but once he started a job he was the type to finish it. Flying into Bern was hard for Gaius and his wyvern partner was difficult as it brought back a lot of unpleasant memories. At this point he was basically a shadow of who he once was and the public opinion of Gaius Balmung was probably extremely sour. That was of course if his reputation hadn’t been completely dragged through the mud by people in power who wanted everyone to forget about him.

It would be easier if people just forgot about him at this point but only time would really tell if that was the case. Ever since he had stepped foot in Bern he kept a low profile, trying to avoid any unnecessary contact. The faster he got in and out of Bern the better. He had eventually met up with the client and made the drop off, running into a familiar city and a familiar bar. It was a good enough place to try and find a job, preferably one that would lead him outside of Bern.

The wyvern rider was currently sitting at a counter of the bar known as “The Bronze Horshoe” and chatting with a familiar face. The barkeep was someone Gaius had known back in his army days. A nice guy but someone who had often looked after Gaius and right now it was more of a pain in the ass than anything. The man looked like he had seen a ghost when Gaius had walked in, never did he think he’d see “The Black Rider of Bern” again. Gaius just needed a job and hoped the man would help him find one quickly so he could get out of Bern but instead the man wanted to catch up.

After chatting it up for a bit Gaius had cut to the point and asked the barkeep about a job. ”I just need a job that’ll take me out country, last thing I need is to stay in this hell hole,” Gaius scowled, taking a swig of his drink. ”You know this hell hole is your homeland,” the barkeep replied with a bit of a smirk on his face. Gaius scoffed, not really caring if he was born here or not. Whatever attachment Gaius had to Bern it was long gone by now and he doubted it would ever come back.

”Bern ain’t in the best of state and having The Black Rider around might shake things up with you and that damn wyvern of yours but I know I can’t convince you to do anything you don’t wanna do. Listen I can go ask around a bit and I’ll get back to you on that for now just stick around a bit,” Gaius honestly hated hearing him saw stick around a bit but all he could do was take another swig of his drink. The barkeep would then make his way somewhere else as Gaius finished his drink. He would probably take off and get some fresh air in a moment.

[Eris Coulson]

Eris idly rapped her fingers along the counter while the bartender finished up his conversation with...whomever he was speaking to. She wasn't TOO impatient, but she did want to bring her sergeant his drink before the place started to fill up with various men and women, tired from their long day of work and so forth. The tavern was quiet and peaceful, something that Eris would prefer to enjoy for as long as possible.

"Aye lass. Another one, then?" Eris glanced up to see the bartender approaching her at last. She simply gave a nod and watched the bartender turn around to grab another mug. However, before he filled the thing with that lovely ale, he instead glanced over to the man he had been conversing with and gave him a small smirk. "Hey, Gaius. Come look at this prime example of a good Bernese citizen. This little soldier lass saved my tavern from some raging buffoon the other day. Man was twice her size and she put 'im down like a hunter does a stag."

Eris immediately followed the bartender's gaze and looked to the man he had been speaking with. Upon closer examination he had the look of a sol...no, mercenary. Definitely a mercenary. Similar look, armour and weapons, but the key difference was what type of presence he had. Not a dignified one, with an upright posture and a stoney face, but a more relaxed posture with a sort of icy expression. Soldiers carried themselves in a less extreme manner, at least they ought to, while mercenaries didn't care how extreme they came off, or most of them.

At least going off of her experience.

The bartender's introduction had been awkward, however, so Eris didn't really know what to say. Thankfully he looked back to Eris as he handed her a full mug. "That's Gaius there. Semi-regular around here. Not exactly a man of character but...well, there are worse ones out there lass. As I'm sure you know."

Well, if he insisted on making this an introduction, Eris was going to make it on her terms. So she shot a smirk back at the bartender. "I sure do. Funny thing is, most of them tend to be half-cocked mercenaries." She got a small chuckle out of the bartender, but decided to wait and see what Gaius' reaction would be. Probably anger or some indignant huffs, but she'd rather break the ice fast if she was going to be talking to someone.

[Gaius Balmung]

Gaius looked over to the Bartender as he called out to him. The rider scoffed when he heard the words “good Bernese citizen”. Why was he being bothered with this? It was probably just the barkeep trying to get a rise out of the man but Gaius was in no mood to be bothered by anything else but a job to get him the hell out of this place. Sure the guy had other patrons to take care of but don’t drag Gaius into it. But sure if the man wanted Gaius to listen to his crap about some person he didn’t know then sure, he would indulge him a bit.

One look at the girl and Gaius could tell that she was some rookie who was probably all too eager to prove themselves. Gaius didn’t pay her much mind and went back to enjoying his drink. Was Gaius supposed to give the girl some sort of cookie for her achievement? If she didn’t know already she’ll find out soon enough that being a soldier, and especially one of Bern wasn’t all that cracked up to be. And with things being like they were in Bern there was enough to make Gaius think that being a soldier in this country was a curse.

With the rebellion going on and tensions rises between basically everyone and Etruria, Gaius could feel something coming. There was going to be a bloody mess soon and the farther away Gaius was from it the better. ”Good for her.” He didn’t have anything to say really toward the barkeep or this little soldier lass. Mostly because he didn’t care but also the faster that guy did what Gaius asked him the faster he got out. The little soldier girl’s comment was amusing to say the least, she had no idea who he was did she?

Really did go to show that they did one hell of a job burying Gaius’ name. If he could get his hands on those bastards he’d love to feed them to Phantom. Gaius would take the last swig of his drink. Place really did have some nice booze and if he couldn’t get out of here fast enough getting drunk wouldn’t be that bad of an alternative. A couple more of those and he’d definitely forget where he was and probably be in a whole lot better of a mood.

[Eris Coulson]

To Eris' overall indifference the blue haired man didn't seem horribly interested in conversing. Really, the soldier didn't care all that much. Mercenaries were a dime a dozen. So while she shrugged and got to her feet, Eris only stopped when the bartender raised a hand to her. Out of curiosity she didn't go anywhere but Eris was beginning to get a bit impatient. Eriksson was waiting on her to bring his pint, after all.

"I did just remember something, Gaius. You might not like it though." Eris frowned as the bartender walked over to the man. Was she supposed to be listening in on this chat or something? "You want out of this country? Fine. There was a delivery, minor noble's daughter. Can't recall what it is you'd be carrying, but-"

"What's her name?" Eris was blunt, her impatience reaching a critical point. She sauntered right over to this "Gaius" fellow so she could look the bartender clear in the eye. "This nobleman's daughter. Her name."

Bartender's face was almost completely blank, but she caught the glint in his eyes. She'd seen it before in the eyes of some of her superiors. It was a glint of knowledge: when somebody knew something she didn't.

"Hera Albrecht, think it was." Eris' grip on her mug tightened. So much so that, beneath her armored gauntlet, her knuckles were likely beginning to go white. Just what was her bitch of a sister playing at now? There was no way in hell Varrick would resort to hiring a mercenary for a delivery. Whatever she was scheming she wanted to keep it a secret from "daddy". "Now she wasn't the one who came forth. Sent a servant to do it. If you accept, Gaius, you'd just have to wait for me to contact her. Instructions she left were sort of vague, so I'd have to..."

"To hell with him. I'll accept it." Eris was genuinely surprised at herself for that one. She only had a couple more days in Lucerne, and even then if she were to accept the job and meet with Hera and whatever servant she dragged into this, there was no way in hell that snobby bitch would ever share the details of the job with her. "On second thought...yeah, you accept it. But I'm coming with you."

[Gaius Balmung]

A delivery mission sounded easy, and seeing how it was going to be a mission from a noble it probably would pay well too. Gaius wanted to hear more details about the mission but the little soldier girl decided it would be a smart idea to butt in. At this point to say Gaius was annoyed was an understatement. If this girl ruined a job opportunity there would be hell to pay for it. At least that was what Gaius was thinking. In reality he’d probably just growl a bit, make some sort of comment and then leave. The man was much too laid back to really get upset over something like this when it wasn’t that serious.

Why the name of the daughter was so important to this girl was beyond Gaius and honestly he didn’t care. What he did care about was this girl trying to tag along on the mission. There was no way in hell that Gaius was going to play baby sister to some rookie. He surely wasn’t going to get paid enough for that so he was going to shut this down real quick. ”I’ll take the job,” Gaius said, before finally giving the girl beside him any real attention. ”But there’s no way this one gets to tag along. I’m not going to get paid to be a baby sitter,” He would add.

”So you go ahead and contact her, I’m going to step out for a moment,” Gaius would place some coin on the counter to pay for his drinks before getting up and begin walking out. ”I’ll be out back so once you’re done with talking to her you know where to find me,” Gaius wanted to go out and check on Phantom seeing how for the most part he let the wyvern have free reign. It wasn’t that unusual to see a wyvern around these parts and Phantom was tame so there were no worries he was going to attack anyone. With that the man would start to walk out.

[Eris Coulson]

Eris practically snarled at Gaius' remark. She normally had a barbed tongue to begin with, but with the alcohol loosening her restraint she didn't hold back a single bit. "You won't have to play baby sitter to me, arrogant bastard. I've performed missions before! I'm perfectly capable of handling myself." It was...admittedly a bit of a childish outburst, but Eris could care less. The mission was personal to her and there was no way in hell her sister was going to get away with anything shady so long as she had any say in the matter.

"It'll take more than some screaming to convince him, little lass." The bartender chuckled, happily accepting Gaius' coin before turning his gaze on the redhead. "Tell you what, you were planning on bringing that man this drink, right?"

Eris nearly flinched at the implication. The free drinks were for her, yet the bartender knew she planned to give that one away. She wasn't about to lie about her actions but she was a bit sour that she had been caught, so instead she nodded. The bartender chuckled some more.

"Good, you know when to be honest. Tell Gaius you'll pay him to tag along with him. I'll bring the man his drink and tell him you stepped out for a moment."

The soldier's eyes nearly popped out of her head. "Are you kidding me?! Why the hell-"

"Because if you want to simply accept the job you could accept it. Even if you aren't 'making him' accept it, you're still trying to use him. Not wise, mercenaries aren't the same as soldiers. Best pay the man for the work, even if you don't consider it work. A little gold can go a long way lass."

Eris was fuming, her fists clenched, but she eventually relented with a huff and a nod. Angry as she was about the situation she still couldn't afford to let this chance slip by. So with grit teeth and a scowl she stomped after the blue haired mercenary, sucking in a breath before calling him out.

"Hey, boy blue! How much would it cost to take me along for the job?"

[Gaius Balmung]

As Gaius stepped outside he let out an annoyed sigh when he didn’t see Phantom where he had lift him. The wyvern probably got bored waiting for Gaius and decided to take of somewhere to kill some time. While Gaius didn’t exactly blame the wyvern it still made things a bit inconvenient for him. As long as Phantom didn’t get into any trouble Gaius would just let it pass. This was Bern after all so seeing a flying wyvern was like an average Tuesday for most people. Still, it was probably best that the man his wyvern too and it wasn’t like Phantom normally went that far.

The rider would then let out a high pitched whistle, something he normally did a few times to call his wyvern. He would do this a few more times before stopping, with the intent on waiting to hear the sound of large flapping wings headed his way. Gaius was in no mood to wait for Phantom all day and hopefully the wyvern knew that. The faster Phantom came back and the barkeep did his end of the job the better. It had started to feel like being in Bern was really getting to Gaius at this point.

Gaius would turn, facing the direction that someone had called him out from. It was the little soldier girl again, what could she possibly want? Again with the job thing it seemed. Gaius was curious as to why she was so intent on taking this job and why he had to be involved. He was curious but mostly annoyed with her, so much so that he wanted to snap but he controlled himself. ”I don’t want your damn money. Maybe you didn’t understand the first time I said but I’m not in the business of babysitting,” Gaius growled before turning his head and looking up toward the sky, waiting for Phantom.

It was faint but one could hear the flapping of large wyvern wings headed toward them. The noise got louder and louder until the sight of a large creature flying towards the two could be seen in the sky above them. It was a wonder how many people probably got scared at the sight of such a large wyvern flying above them, and his coloring didn’t help. ”I don’t get why you’re so hung up on me being taking you along with me. If you want the job then talk to the barkeep and the client. I don’t have anything to do with it. Maybe if you gave me a better reason than please take me,” Gaius grumbled as Phantom came in for his landing.

The wyvern would kick up a lot of dirt and even blow Gaius’ hair around a bit as he landed before his rider. The large beast would glance over at Eris, giving her a curious look. ”Hey partner we’ve got a mission we better get moving on,” Gaius would start adjusting and placing equipment onto Phantom, a normal thing he did before a mission. It was best to be prepared for anything they could run into while they were on the mission.

[Eris Coulson]

If Eris was already in a sour mood, the sight of the blue haired man's wyvern only soured it further. Of course he was a wyvern rider of some sort. The scaled beast made eye contact with Eris and she held it, for a time, before gritting her teeth and fixing her gaze back on the wyvern's rider. He still insisted on not "babysitting" Eris. "God damn it, I can handle myself. It's not babysitting, I just..."

Eris took a breath. There was no way the stubborn bastard was going to buy some sort of story, and frankly she didn't have a convincing lie thought up. Telling him the straight up truth seemed to be the only path forward.

"Okay, wait." She held a hand up to Gaius and took a step forward. Just one: she had started to get a bit better about moving around wyverns ever since meeting the Commander. They were fiercely defensive of their riders...usually. So sudden movements towards him could trigger a violent reaction, and Eris so did not need that at the moment.

"The job's being offered by my sister. Half-sister, anyway." Eris spat the last part quickly. "And her...our father wouldn't trust mercenaries with a delivery of any kind, so he clearly doesn't know about this little operation of hers. Which makes this whole thing suspicious as hell." Eris crossed her arms and fixed Gaius a stern gaze. She wanted him to know she was speaking honestly. "Now, if I accept the job and meet with her or whichever servant she's communicating to the bartender through, she won't tell me a damned thing and will just look somewhere else for a merc. We're not exactly on good terms, in case you couldn't tell. Plus if she's keeping it a secret from father than she probably doesn't want any family knowing about it."

"If YOU take it, though, and I hide out while you meet with her, I can figure out what she's up to. See if our father needs to know about it. You hear me? It's a...personal matter, but I can handle it. I can keep my cool, I can hold my own. I just need you to accept the damned job and let me in on the details. Understand?"

There, that was it. The truth was out. If Eris had been a higher ranking soldier she would have proudly thrown around her status. Her last name, her noble heritage, however...that was different. Eris did not want to be judged as some baron's bastard daughter. Eris didn't want that to define her, and so it made revealing her family ties difficult to others.

[Gaius Balmung]

Gaius had stopped what he was doing when Eris had asked him to stop. He would turn and face the girl, hoping that this time she had something better than trying to offer him money. The rider crossed his arms and leaned back a bit, resting himself a bit on Phantom. The wyvern wasn’t exactly sure what was going on but from the looks of it his rider more than likely pissed someone off as usual. What it was this time? Phantom could only wonder and seeing how it was a female the wyvern hoped it wasn’t Gaius’ usual antics when it came to women.

So it was family drama that Gaius was going to get involved with. Gaius let out a loud sigh, not really sure what he should do at this point. Normally, Gaius hated getting involved in these sorts of things as they normally ended up being a huge drag. It wasn’t unit Phantom nudged the man that he started considering it. If anyone understood having drama within the family Gaius certainly did though he was glad that she didn’t have to deal with what he dealt with. He wouldn’t wish that sort of fate on anyone to be honest.

”Fine.” Gaius groaned almost immediately regretting his decision. ”I don’t really care about your whole family drama but if it gets you off my back then sure you can tag along.” The name Albrecht was familiar but it hadn’t completely come to Gaius yet as to why. Regardless, the faster they got this over with the better. Last thing Gaius wanted to deal with was this girl continually pestering him until he said yes. He wasn’t getting paid enough to deal with all of this crap, maybe he could ask for a bit more.

”But let’s make some things clear.” Gaius began, taking a step closer to Eris. ”I don’t care how much you think that you can take care of yourself or that you’ve got big dreams of becoming a big shot soldier as far as I’m concerned you’re a rookie who’s got no idea who she’s talking to. So if you’re going to follow me for this whole ride you’re going to follow my lead. We clear?” What that last part basically translated to was: I don’t want you to get hurt so don’t do anything stupid. Though Gaius outwardly showing any concern would be extremely rare.

[Eris Coulson]

To Eris' surprise Gaius actually complied with her decision. There was some reluctance on his part, a groan of obvious regret, but frankly Eris didn't care. He agreed and that was all that mattered. Before she could show her gratitude, though, he decided to go out of his way to reiterate that he thought she was a rookie, for whatever reason. He expected her to follow his lead.

Eris clenched her fists a bit, but grit her teeth and nodded. At this point she had little choice. "Understood, I'll follow your lead then." After a small pause she added in a quieter. "Thank you."

Of course now they needed to come up with an immediate course of action. First off Gaius would have to accept the job, but...ah, Eris was in luck. The bartender stepped outside just as she turned to face the tavern's back door again. The older gentleman gazed between the two, quietly reading the situation, but apparently decided not to bother asking any questions.

"Assuming you're still accepting the job, Gaius." The bartender grunted before crossing his arms. "Contacting her isn't instantaneous, but I did write up a letter for the client's servant, saying you accept the job. She should be swinging by this evening, and the next day I ought to have more details for you."

He shifted his footing and leaned against the wall of the tavern. "Anything specific you'll be wanting to know?"

Eris decided to keep quiet during this exchange. She could talk more with Gaius after. What was important in that moment was that the wyvern rider accept the job officially. Whether he was going to ask any questions about the job on Eris' behalf was up in there air, but either way she kept quiet, her gaze focused on Gaius wyvern. It seemed different from the wyverns in Commander Ilheod's unit. Calmer, maybe? Less focused as well.

Of course she had only improved so much when it came to understanding the scaled beasts.

[Gaius Balmung]

Good, she did understand how to listen to others after all. With that out of the way Gaius figured this headache of a situation would at least get a bit better now that they were both on the same page. Still, he thought it wasn’t the best idea to get involved in some family drama but as long as he was getting paid from it watching two sisters squabble at each other would be the easiest coin he’d ever make in his life. Something didn’t sit right with Gaius however, this whole situation started to feel a bit fishy and Gaius didn’t like that.

His suspicion would have to be attended to later as the barkeep had made his way toward the two. ”Thanks for that, I’ll be taking the job.” Gaius replied. ”Is there anything more you can tell me about the client? Specifically about what they might need me to be delivering, I’d rather not get involved in some sort of debacle with a bunch of nobles. I know you said that you didn’t exactly know all the details but anything could help.” He would add, trying to get anything out of the barkeep before he’d go back to the inn that he’d be staying at for the night.

While he was genuinely curious himself, he mainly asked these questions for Eris. To be honest it didn’t matter all that much to him as long as he wasn’t doing anything incredibly illegal he was game. More importantly he didn’t need to deal with the hassle that was pissing off nobles. They were definitely the type that didn’t let things go all that easily that was for sure. Though it would give him more of an excuse to never come back to Bern so in the end it probably wasn’t all that bad.

Phantom noticed the girl staring at him, his scared eye meeting her gaze. The wyvern wasn’t particularly surprised by someone being intrigued by him but this was a Bern soldier. Phantom was more used to people from this country not giving much of a second thought about wyverns seeing how they were a normal occurrence here. Perhaps it was the scar or his large size, whatever it was Phantom was a bit amused by the girl’s seeming curiosity towards him. It was nice knowing the world wasn’t completely devoid of something like that.

[Eris Coulson]

The bartender was sharp to catch on to what Gaius wanted. "Unfortunately I don't know much beyond what I told you. Details would be coming when the client's servant drops by again, and I've got a man willing to take the job." He gave the answer, but knew that wasn't the end of it. While he didn't necessarily have too much more information on the client, he suspected the question wasn't quite directed at him. So he crossed his arms over his chest, shifted his weight on his feet, and kept silent, a stern gaze shifting towards Eris.

The soldier tore her gaze from the peculiar wyvern and instead began to think on anything useful she could share about her sister. "The client would be...she's harmless, okay? A scheming bitch, but ultimately harmless. I wouldn't worry too much about getting caught up in some nobility crap, because even if she is going behind Fa...the Baron's back, she's not stupid enough to piss off any allies or rivals to her house. I have no idea what she wants delivered, obviously."

"What I do know is that she'll pay well for the job." Eris wanted to make that part clear, just in case Gaius had the idea of backing out last minute. That was not something Eris was going to be okay with, not now, that she's so close. She just wanted, needed, to know what her sister was planning on delivering. What was worth going behind her father's back, knowing that if he found out she'd be punished severely.

The bartender grunted and looked back at Gaius once again. "All right. Will I be seeing you tomorrow Gaius?"

[Gaius Balmung]

Gaius hadn’t expected to get many details from the barkeep at this point. Again he was told that more details would come from the client’s servant. It was a minor annoyance to the mercenary, while he wanted to get some more information he only did it to serve Eris’ curiosity so at the end of the day there wasn’t much lost. And it seemed like the barkeep had caught on to what Gaius was up to, quite the clever man if you asked Gaius. Didn’t seem like much got past him, probably had to become quite observant seeing his line of work.

Before he would reply Eris decided to speak up, explaining what sort of person that they were dealing with. Sounded like a typical noble brat to Gaius, the type that loved to scheme and play with other people’s lives. It was always fun watching those types ending up screwing themselves over and ending up pissing off the wrong people. Normally someone like Gaius ended up being hired to take them out. He wonders how much someone would pay nowadays for something like that. Probably a pretty coin, especially seeing how nowadays tensions were high and people were dropping like flies.

Gaius looked over to Eris and scoffed. ”She sounds like a lovely person.” HE joked before turning back to the barkeep. ”Aye, you’ll be seeing me.” Gaius replied. ”I’ll go through with the job.” He would offer his hand, going to shake the barkeep to seal the deal that he would go through all of this. If there was really anything he could say about all of this it would be that at least it more than likely wouldn’t be boring. He couldn’t say he wasn’t interested to see where all of this was going to lead.

[Eris Coulson]

Eris would be lying if she said she wasn't both pleased and relieved that Gaius accepted. From what she understood the two would have to return back to the inn the next day in order to obtain details on the mission. She watched, silent, as the bar tender shook Gaius' hand, before giving a curt nod. "Right. See you tomorrow." She knew he was speaking to the bartender more then her, but still.

At long last Eris was able to re-enter the tavern and make her way back to her sergeant, taking a seat across from him, sighing, and taking a rather large swig of the drink she had left on the table. No sense dwelling on tomorrow's troubles today. Eris still had free drinks for the day and she intended to make damn good use of them. She just had to be a bit careful, make sure she didn't wind up hungover from it all.

"That looked interesting. Trouble, Albrecht?" Ugh, he used that name to address her. That's how she knew he was serious. Eris snorted and shook her head.

"No trouble sir. Just some personal matters. They'll be taken care of before we head back to base." She replied bluntly. Eriksson didn't exactly look convinced, but he accepted and decided to keep on drinking. A good call, Eris thought.

"Good to hear soldier." Eriksson gave an equally blunt reply. He wasn't the type to pry into the personal lives of his soldiers. No more than he needed to, anyway. So long as Eris didn't compromise herself or any of the soldiers under Eriksson's command she was clear to do as she pleased.

For the moment, however, all she really cared to do was drink.