trans_9 | (no subject)

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When Orc woke up it took him five minutes before he had his first thought.

Dry.

His craggy lips felt entirely too dry. In fact his mouth, throat, his skin felt like he'd been sand blasted and thrown into the desert. The only moisture that he was aware of came when he slowly rose from the table to find a string of drool coming off his lower lip to a puddle on the table. Half of it was on his cheek, but he couldn't feel that.

His head began to pound as another powerful hangover settled in. How long had he been in this bar? He'd lost track of time.

That was fine, it was all fine. There was more beer here. He could wash away the pain in his head and subsequent painful thoughts. All he had to do was get himself out of the booth and over to the bar.

...

That might take more effort. He couldn't seem to will his heavy body to do more then sit up just yet. Days spent in a drunken stupor had caught up with him and were spinning his stomach like a blender full of misery and yuk.

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He accepted the tankard gratefully mostly thankful for the fact that this bar had big enough mugs for him not to accidentally crush.

When he slugged the liquid into his mouth he coughed and sputtered startled by getting what he wasn't expected. Most of it ended up dribbling down his chest and onto the table as he wheezed, his eyes watering at Nima looking betrayed and confused...more so.

She reached out to take his hand, the one that wasn't currently full of deceptive tankard.

"As a sister of the Air Nomads, I have taken a vow not to harm any living being, and that vow includes helping them do harm to themselves."

She tried to squeeze his hand comfortingly, but while she was more than usually fit for a nun, her strength didn't lie in her hands.

"Now, how about you finish your medicine and tell me a little bit about yourself? It doesn't have to be about why you're trying to drink the world away." Pause. "Unless you want to talk about that. As your barmaid, I'm here for you."

She leaned in to listen, without a trace of insincerity.

Orc took another minute to process her words. He had known this day was coming hadn't he? The bar had been very willing to let him drink himself to death in peace and quiet till now but somewhere he knew that unless Howard was the one giving him the beer someone was going to stop him sooner or later.

"My head hurts." He grumbled abandoning what was left of the water. That was as much as he could pull together for talking about himself. Maybe it would get him a sympathy beer. He wasn't much of a "Plan ahead" kind of drunk.

"Yes." The woman who'd never touched alcohol in her life except to serve it nodded sagely. "I've heard that can happen."

Nima was not a healer by any means, and by the look of Orc, the acupressure that her temple healers would have prescribed wouldn't have left much of an impression on anything, much less his headache.

"Tell you what. I'll postpone my cleaning and walk you over to the medbay. You wouldn't believe the headaches they can cure."

Orc slumped in his seat, a silent way of conveying he did not want to go to the med bay. He didn't want to go much of anywhere. The way his stomach felt right now he wasn't sure he could even walk very far.

Then again...if she wasn't going to give him anymore beer what could he do? He saw the dragon guy who owned the place and as strong as Orc was he didn't think he'd win in a fight. What did they do to people who caused trouble around here?

His eyes lingered on the bar and what lay behind it. Sweet relaxation and eventual oblivion. He had been unsuccessful so far in his efforts, but maybe today was the day.

"Aww," Nima cooed her sympathy, "Come on."

She leaned against Orc's arm, completely disregarding his personal space and offering him a few of her pretty decent cleavage. If it was time to break out the big guns, then break them out she would.

"I'll keep you company the whole way."

What 14 year old boy could resist looking? And then he instantly felt embarrassed about it. Why was she being so nice to him? Couldn't she see how he looked? What he was? Freaks like Orc didn't get to enjoy things like her. Soft smooth pretty girls.

"Mmm'fine." He mumbled not daring to move now. It was a good thing he didn't blush, or sweat...as far as he knew anyway. It was hard to tell.

She could certainly feel what he was like, because she was running her fingertip over his shoulders and across his skin.

She was curious about what kind of creature this person was, whether he was close enough to human for seductiveness to work on him at all, and most importantly, why he was drinking himself to the point of self-harm.

Not that there were no reasons she could think of for a person in their situation to be upset enough to want to harm themselves.

"All right, 'Fine,'" she joked, still running her fingers over his shoulder. His appearance didn't bother her. She worked for Kang and flirted with every xenospecies that expressed an interest. Unusual-looking people were starting to look pretty usual to her. "Do you have any other names, or should I just stick with that?"

The constant touching was...different. He could feel it, but not nearly as much as he could have once upon a time. He didn't stop her but he wasn't sure he liked the constant reminder of what he was now.

"Orc." He answered simply. He had had another name...hadn't he? Or had he always been Orc and the other name was a nickname? Either way he was Orc, and that was all there was to it. All the while he was unable to take his eyes of what she was offering.

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