#halanth

Chaszmyre looked to Melada and picked up her glass. "If there's been a night for toasting, we found it."

Melada reached out to clink glasses with Chaszmyre. "To a very successful night for your business, my dear friend. We're almost four hours in, you know."

Conversation continued both at the bar and beyond it in tables within the Peacock Lounge.

Chaszmyre nodded and tipped her glass to Melada's. "Thank you for being here," she added before taking a sip. "I hadn't even noticed how long it'd been..."

Melada sipped from her wineglass. "Well, you've been busy. Very busy," she said, waving the woman closer to whisper something before pouting afterwards. “Too busy to notice my dress. I never wear dresses”

Chaszmyre turned back with a freshly filled mug, eyeing Melada for a long moment. "I bet that dress would look nice on my floor, for five minutes," she remarked with a smirk and looked to the unfamiliar patron to hand off his drink.

Melada rolled her eyes. "Oh, shut up. The men are the five minute wonders, not me."

The proprietress shrugged. “Seemed like a pretty broad statement to me,” she shot back with a playful smirk.

“Just tell me I'm pretty, would you? It's been weird not having a gun or pants tonight,” Melada grumbled.

As the owner, fellow artist, and her friend spoke, conversation rose from the tables as well. 

“You blew up an airship?” Halanth was asking. “Hal! I blew up - ok, technically yes,” admitted Mourne. "My airship, but we had to,” his wife Zozha added.

“Part of me has been antsy hoping to shoot something all night. The other part doesn't want to ruin your good night,” Melada added after a sip from her third or fourth glass of wine.

Chaszmyre eyed Dylakend's glass a moment before pushing her wine glass his way. "Or do you want another in place of all the stolen sips?" she offered sheepishly.

"I can make do with another, sure,” he answered, flashing her a smile from across the bar.

The oblivious and loudly flirting pair at the bar finally took their wobbly leave and Melada expressed her relief in similar fashion. “Thank the Light.. seriously, did you actually like that guy's accent? It was obnoxious.”

Chaszmyre scoffed at Melada as she took her wine back from Dylakend, pouring him his own new drink instead- the specialty ice tea. "I happen to enjoy all sort of, exotic things, Melada," she answered with a smirk. 

“Exotic? The only thing exotic about that man was the venereal diseases he's picked up on his travels. Otherwise, I've seen his kind before,” Melada replied, still entirely not amused with the man.

“No, I don't know,” Chaszmyre continued. “I knew a guy once that ran with an old…”  She waved dismissively at relationship titles and their ilk. "Whatever. They did Row Rat shit together and he sort of talked like that. Called me ‘dove’. I think that's where I picked it up honestly."

“Are you talking about.. the guy with the gun?“ Melada asked, her wine glass pushed suddenly almost out of reach. “What was his name.. Mercutio?”

“Does anyone need any refills, while I am here? Or more food?” Halanth’s voice rang from the tables, cutting through the steadily more uncomfortable quiet that settled around the bar.  “If something is wrong, it is Chaszmyre's fault,” he added, joking with the patrons. 

“Yeah, actually. I didn't think I knew anyone who knew that crew. It's been a long time," Chaszmyre mused, one hand still trailing instinctively up to run her thumb across the cheekbone on her scarred side. She quickly dropped the hand and sipped more wine.

“Do we need to just have a sign drawn up that says ‘If there's a problem with the food, blame Chasz’?” Dylakend asked toward the last table. Halanth replied without turning. "Yes. Make that sign."

At the bar, Melada frowned, her eyes on the bar rather than the woman behind it. "Yeah, I wish I didn't have the.. 'pleasure' of knowing that crew but I do. He called everyone dove and I think knowing the connection now will make me throw up in my mouth a little bit every time you say it."

Chaszmyre shrugged off the last remark easily, adding, "I could say the same though, I guess. Lot of scars from running with them."

"I've found that a lot of times, not all of the time, but a lot of the time... 'dove' is an affectation used for someone when you are 'familiar' with so many people that you can't be bothered to remember names,” Dylakend added after another thoughtful sip of his drink.

“..You worked with them?” Melada asked hesitantly, her eyes back on the dark-haired woman.

“Yeah. My b-” Chaszmyre eyed Dylakend a moment before continuing, maybe a little quieter. "I was in a gang, for a while, when I first came back to Quel'thalas. We, allied with DoA. I did a couple jobs for Xin'thalore to, sort of seal the deal."

Melada's eyes narrowed as she visibly tensed up. “Xin'thalore was a name I'd hoped to never hear again.”

“I've heard that about him but, he was never anything but fair and appropriate with me. But, his job is how I ended up getting burned.”

“Fair and appropriate are not words I would use to describe that animal,” Melada snapped. “Tell me, did you also know a Riavis?”

Chaszmyre tipped her head after another sip of wine. "Yeah, rented an apartment from him. I'm not even sure how we were introduced anymore."

Melada wordlessly stared at her for a long moment; if looks could kill, Chaszmyre would be dead.  “And do you hold any loyalties to those people anymore? Would you help them if they asked?”

"Well, Adokul and I had a, complex friendship. After all that Row stuff, we were under Sunshield together. I don't know, that whole scene, those people are a whole lifetime ago, it feels like. So I guess short answer, wait what was it? Would I help them?”

“...Oohhh, Sunshield. That is a name I have not heard in a while,” Mourne remarked from the last table, reminding those at the bar they were not alone, nor unheard.

“If those people walked in right now and asked you for help, would you help them?”

“Which ones specifically? Xin'thalore?”

"Xin'thalore, Riavis.. I could care less about Mercutio, he's just a lackey with a severe speech impediment.”

Chaszmyre shrugged. "I don't know. Why are you so worked up about this? I worked and played with Xin and Ado, Mercutio. I rented an apartment with Riedra from Riavis. It's not like I screwed him. He seemed, pretty busy in that area when we knew each other anyway."

Melada stepped around the bar and stared down at the shorter woman, fists clenched and eyes wide. She spoke lowly.  “Because you’re telling me you were friends with my rapist.”

Chaszmyre blinked and took a swift step away, keeping her back foot poised for more movement. "I don't know anything about that," she hissed, charcoal brows narrowing at the hostile posturing. "They were my friends, before I knew you. Before I even knew Any and all of that-" she shook her head, another, smaller step back.

Melada didn't advance as Chaszmyre backed up and instead reached for her wineglass, finishing what was left in one gulp. "Doesn't answer the question. Would you help them now if they asked you?"

“I don't know Melada!”

“Even after I told you that, you still might?”

Chaszmyre threw her hands up. "It depends on what they wanted! I mean, whichever one of those people on that list is the main one you hate, I can give a quick and easy 'no', he's out. I'm not going to just tell you with no damn context that I'd immediately throw out people that I went through a lot with, years ago, because that might be a lie and I prefer to craft those intentionally.”

"Riavis is the one but Xin'thalore is no better. The cruel things I've seen him do to people..”

Chaszmyre glanced briefly to Dylakend and the group beyond before lowering her voice and hands once more. "Look, this is entirely not the place or time for that. I don't know what's gotten into you but my guess is something grape based and that's my fault."

Melada took in a deep breath and stepped back, setting the empty wineglass back down on the bar as she relented. "No, I suppose this isn't the time nor place for this," she agreed, glancing briefly at Dylakend with narrowed eyes before turning her attention back to Chaszmyre.