[closed] Nothing's what it seems to be, I'm a replica, I'm a replica.

[amberdrake]

Who: Amberdrake, Genjo Sanzo
What: Stuff and things.
Where: Drake and Sanzo's current place in Ludmead.
When: Today.
Notes: --
Warnings: --

Braving the trains and then giving massage all day every day one right after the next like he's some kind of massage factory is taking its toll on Drake. He hasn't been sleeping well, despite his excellent company at night, and his reaction time has slowed down juuuust a hair.

Just enough for him to be home during the late afternoon, for once, sitting at the tiny dining table with his head in his hand and an ice pack held against his eye.

Comments

[sanzo]

Sanzo, of course, has slept in, having spent the night playing poker for monies.

Having heard Drake arrive, he levers himself out of bed, and heads out for a beer and yesterday's leftovers. But that plan is derailed at the sight of the kestra'chern.

"Oi. What happened to you?"

[amberdrake]

"Apparently some people would rather keep a damaged disc," even Amberdrake sounds a bit sour at this, "than tolerate their masseuse using a fraction of 'filthy magic' to fix it."

And normally even that flashpan-fast burst of rage wouldn't have been fast enough for someone to catch him in the eye like that, not a normal human. Drake's had nearly three decades of getting out of the way of injured and panicked humans and gryphons and such, let alone the occasional crazy client. But he is a touch slower than usual.

[sanzo]

"You're slower than usual," Sanzo echoes aloud. "What's their name, anyway?"

He knows enough about Amberdrake's day job that that would've been jotted down somewhere when the client arrived!

[amberdrake]

"Oh no," Drake manages a weak chuckle at that, "I don't care how casually you ask, I'm not giving you any names over a black eye. I think having his arms pinned behind him by purely mundane means until security got there made the point well enough."

Because while Amberdrake isn't a combatant, and is slower than usual, he's strong as hell and he does know pressure-points.

"How awful does it look?" the kestra'chern asks a moment later, pulling the ice pack away. "It was pretty swollen up by the time I got here."

The swelling has gone down, but that's a pretty spectacular black eye he's got going on. Even on his darker skin, it stands right out.

[sanzo]

Sanzo's arm half-raises before he forces it back down at his side. "Like shit," he grunts, his own eyes widening slightly at the sight, and then narrowing.

"He get you anywhere else?"

[amberdrake]

"I didn't give him the chance," Amberdrake puts the ice pack back on his eye! "I'm not going to be seen by clients like this, I'm taking a few days off."

It isn't his first black eye by any means, but it's certainly his first in a long time!

"I can barely believe how pig-headed people can be, sometimes. Even as a kestra'chern. Of course, I've never been fond of pure-human views." Never mind that he is purely human; having magic is apparently as bad to some people as having dark skin is to others. Drake's been forced into that dance before, to say the least. Being Kaled'a'in anywhere out-Clan had been tough, but being Kaled'a'in in the capitol of Predain while Ma'ar gathered power...

[sanzo]

"Humans are the worst." Sanzo stares moodily at him, but that doesn't look much different than how he usually looks; it's his emotions that tell Drake, more than anything, that he is highly irritated at the sight of the kestra'chern looking like this.

"Did you want anything? Tea?" Even Sanzo can make tea, though he rarely makes anything for anyone!

[amberdrake]

"Sure," Drake knows how rare that offer is; he's not turning it down! "How did your cards go last night?"

He had both slept a little better, without that sutra so close, and a little worse, without Sanzo there. There was no winning! Although knowing Sanzo was still in town negated far worse worries.

[sanzo]

"Made enough to pay the rent." So don't worry about that, Sanzo doesn't add, but the rest of his tone implies.

He gets to making tea-- gong fu style, with the little cups and the oolong and the very hot water, and it takes a few minutes. But it's a lot nicer than poking at Amberdrake's poor mangled eye!

[sanzo]

"If he plays cards," Sanzo muses, "Maybe I can get him to bet the house." Literally bet the house! Because the monk is cheap and his card doesn't work here, which annoys him to no end.

[amberdrake]

"Well, if not, a better place is precisely what I've been stowing the money away for," Amberdrake points out, "so it's fine either way."

Although if Sanzo gets it via gambling, hey, they can use that money to fix and renovate the place right from the start. Nice plumbing, for one thing, is something Drake isn't likely to go without while he's on a more 'modern' world.

Hot water on demand? And not having to hand-fill things? It's almost worth putting up with things like too-tall buildings and cars and trains!

"I'd be interested to watch you play, someday," he notes rather idly, "when the stakes aren't so high, perhaps." Of course he'd be interested, he's interested in everything the people he likes enjoy doing.

[sanzo]

Sanzo smiles-- very, very faintly, thinly, but a smile nonetheless!

"Just be ready to run. Or," and he eyes Amberdrake's eye, "Duck. Sometimes they get pissed off and accuse me of cheating."

[amberdrake]

"Fancy that," Amberdrake's tone is very dry, there. But at least he wouldn't give Sanzo away; his own poker face, while never used for poker, is legendary.

Whole nations have depended on it before!

[sanzo]

"Hn. How rude, questioning my integrity." Sanzo sips his tea with impeccable dignity.

It smells of orchids and isn't bitter at all, so even though he drinks cheap beer and smokes awful cigarettes, his taste in tea is excellent.

[amberdrake]

Drake just smiles at that, though it makes his eye hurt!

And he's quiet for a while, doing his own tea-drinking things, though he keeps eyeballing the sutra on Sanzo's shoulders a little dubiously. Not sleeping as well means he's been waking up more often at night. And that thing has been there whenever Sanzo has been. He woke up at one point with it in his hand under the pillow!

That had been a minor heart attack.

[sanzo]

The sutra, of course, looks inoffensively papery on Sanzo's shoulders. It, be an artifact of heinous, world-breaking power? Naaah.

"I'm glad," Sanzo remarks blandly, "That you two are getting along so well."

The bastard is, of course, amused.

[amberdrake]

"I woke up at one point with the end of that thing on my face," Amberdrake says mildly, "you didn't happen to put it there, did you?"

He's not sure he'd put it past Sanzo to troll him like that.

[sanzo]

"To 'bring forth'," Sanzo replies slowly. "To 'actualize'... to get shit done."

Koumyou Sanzo named him well.

[amberdrake]

"I see," Drake lets go of the sutra, but only to touch Sanzo's cheek, just barely. "You once gave me permission to use that, in private. Does that still stand?"

He knows that he's somewhat different than the Amberdrake Sanzo once said that to. For one thing, the Drake of back then was too uncertain of his footing to actually use that name; he'd been terrified of accepting more privileges from the monk, certain it would wear out his welcome all the faster.

Now a days, he's still an uncertain worrier with a skewed idea of self-worth, but he's a bit more practiced at taking what privileges others want to give him. How else could he stand on equal footing with the Haiglei emperors?

[sanzo]

"You heard me the first time," Sanzo snorts softly. "But don't get too cocky." Which meant 'yes'.

He's looking away all of a sudden, too, because using his name is a very great familiarity-- intimacy, expecially with Amberdrake. And his cheek is a little hot under the kestra'chern's touch.

[amberdrake]

"You like it when I get cocky," Amberdrake chuckles at that, and then very deliberately, "Genjo."

[sanzo]

"Idiot," grumbles the priest, but without any force. For him, it sounds almost fond.

[amberdrake]

Amberdrake finally lowers his hand, although it's just a natural movement and not a withdrawal. "Are you able to fire that thing without destroying anything?" he asks, going back to the very... uh... green and white elephant in the room.

[sanzo]

"Yes, but it's pretty disrespectful." Sanzo peers up at him. "Why?"

[amberdrake]

"I've never seen it work except when distracted by trying not to get killed by something," Amberdrake says thoughtfully, because he's trying to apply kestra'chern knowledge to his own paranoia. What would he tell anyone with an experienced-based fear of something that won't hurt them? To deal with it more in a controlled way, so that experience isn't just worrisome.

"I thought seeing it without that would help, but it's not vital."

He's going to have to get over it one way or another. Time is going to be a big element either way.