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"Hey - Koharu is it?" Drifter asked. "Could you pass the butter? Gotta get it on the buns while they're hot and steamin' so it can melt and soak in nice. If they wait too long they get cold and it's not as good."
The Exo Warlock lifted the plate of butter in front of her and placed it next to Morg, farther away from the Drifter.
Eris glared at Koharu-4 and her frown deepened.
Drifter pursed his lips and shook his head with a sigh. "Sad world it is, denyin' a man his butter. And during the Dawning, no less."
Eris lifted her right hand slightly above the tablecloth, palm upward, and curled two of her gloved fingers toward herself. The whole table watched as the plate of butter rose up a few inches from the table surface. Eris turned her hand over slowly and placed her hand back down on the tablecloth. The butter floated to place itself down in front of Drifter's plate.
Drifter looked over at her with a delighted smile. "I like you so much"
"I am aware." Eris intoned, still maintaining eye contact with Koharu-4.
Drifter gleefully began to butter his split buns. After a few moments he took a bite.
"Mmm-mmm. That is nice. Here. Try this." He placed half a buttered bun on Eris' plate. She deftly picked it up and took a small bite without looking at him, never taking her eyes off Koharu-4.
After chewing for a few moments she tilted her head. "It is good."
"I know! Really nice crust on it. Chewy but not flakey, so it don't explode flakes all over your clothes. I hate gettin' bread flakes in my clothes. Damn things itch."
"Hmmm…"
Drifter and Eris ate, letting the others sit in their awkward silence while watching them together.
Firesprite-7 quietly arrived and stood beside Eris with a bottle of red wine and a white napkin over his forearm.
"Wine?" the Exo asked.
Eris looked over at Drifter with a questioning glance.
"Hell yeah!" he said, grinning up at Firesprite.
Eris also looked up at him and then nodded. He poured the dark rich looking liquid into her glass, then Drifter's.
Eris watched Drifter take a sip.
"Oh, that's nice," he said. "Not the best wine I've ever had, but it's a good full-bodied red. Goes nice with garlic and there's garlic in the butter for the bread. Sip the wine and then take a bite. It changes the way it tastes in your mouth."
Eris did as he recommended. "Hmmm…"
"See what I mean?" Drifer asked. "It's good."
"It is good," Eris agreed.
Across from them, only Morg and Chilliwack got wine. A few moments later, Firesprite reappeared with a large jug of ice water and began filling everyone's glasses even though there were still two filled jugs of ice water on the table.
"Social combat is still combat," Drifter said. "These poor fools didn't realize they were doin' you a favour, putting you in a combat situation. Now you're cool as a cucumber."
Eris tilted her head slightly toward him in acknowledgement.
Due to the lack of engagement and the hostility radiating from the other people at the table, their conversation felt performative, but, Eris agreed, not uncomfortable. It really did feel very much like a polite version of their conversations during battle. She was bizarrely at ease.
"It's not as cathartic as slaughterin' Hive on the Moon, but so far the wine and the bread is good." Drifter said. Eris nodded, noting quietly in her mind how he'd used "cathartic" correctly. She would compliment him later regarding the clear improvements in his vocabulary when they were alone.
"It's not the worst date we've been on," Drifter spoke with his mouth full of buttered dinner roll.
"I suppose," Eris humoured him as the others sad awkwardly around the table. "We have had… many terrible dates. What was the worst date we've been on, I wonder?"
Bad dates had been a conversation topic they'd discussed beforehand, in case conversation with the people they'd originally been seated with flagged. They had practiced this exact phrasing together to try to make Eris feel more comfortable. Now it was far more awkward than originally intended, but not for them.
"Huh… there's several contenders… that time I almost bled to death in your lap in the woods wasn't the best."
"No, I did not enjoy that." Drifter was going "off-script" as he'd call it, but Eris no longer felt concerned and was pleased to let him lead while the others steeped in their silent discomfort in front of her.
"Lead up to that was fun, though."
"It was."
"And then there was that time where you broke your nose and I got lit on fire."
"That one should not be counted."
"I mean it went south pretty quick but it did start out as a date."
"Technically that incident happened the day after the date."
"Ok, fine. I guess. So that was a good date then?"
"It was acceptable. Although… it was interrupted and cut short."
"I mean… I wouldn't say no to a do over." He winked at her.
Eris frowned and she turned to him. "Are you are attempting to use the current social combat situation to your advantage to get me to agree to something?"
He smirked into his wine glass. "Only something I know you'd like."
Eris' frown deepened.
"Oh come on, Moondust! You can't tell me you don't wanna do that again."
"I do, but I do not wish to be coerced into it."
Drifter's eyes widened. "Coerced? Oh hell no." He put his wine glass and turned to face her in his chair. "Now that is a word I know very well. Coersin' someone has a legal definition, which our current company of magic space cops will know very well." He waved his hand in the general direction of the rest of the table and then returned his focus to Eris. "It involves force or threats to make someone do somethin' or get 'em to stop doin' somethin'. And we both know there is no way in hell I am coercing you to do nothin'." He pointed his finger to the side as he spoke as though he were slicing the air with it. "Attemptin' to use threats or force on you is a great way for someone to end up with their entrails in the Ascendant plane without the rest of them goin' with."
Eris sniffed. "True."
The four Warlocks look at each other nervously as Drifter turned back to face them with a smug look on his face.
Drifter leaned forward and made eye contact with Morg. "You know, there was this one time she and I were in a firefight and a Fall- Sorry - Eliksni Vandal pulls out a Wire Rifle from across an ice flow. This is on Europa, by the way, so everythin' is an ice flow. So anyway, House Salvation Vandal shoots me in the back of the head. Blows my brains out in the snow. Impressive blood splatter. Just enough cognition to see it before I died. Was actually kinda pretty, if we're bein' honest." All four Warlocks sat in mildly spellbound confusion as Drifter launched into full storytelling mode. "Next thing I know I'm gettin' rezzed by my ghost and there's just Soulfire and body parts everywhere, and not a living thing other than us for like a mile radius."
"You are exaggerating," Eris interrupted. "It was not a mile."
Drifter squinted at her. "I dunno… what's the max range on a Wire Rifle? You took out everything."
"Tsch."
Drifter turned back to his unwilling audience. "See, I dunno how much readin' time you all had to do your homework before dinner tonight, but if you read anything about Eris, you'd know that she's got a bit of a sore spot when it comes to her fireteam."
All the Warlocks became even more visiblly uncomfortable. "One of 'em was a Praxic - I'm… I'm assuming you all are Praxics, right? Cormorant Seal and all that jazz?" He waved his hand dismissively.
Koharu's head snapped up and she glared at him. Morg sat straighter and his hands clenched briefly.
"Oh yeah," Drifter gave them a smile that did not reach his eyes. "I know what that is."
Eris placed her wine glass down on the table. "You are correct. Eriana-3, leader of the First Crota Fire Team, was a Praxic Warlock of the Cormorant Seal."
"That's the one that died to the Deathsinger, right?"
Eris nodded solemnly, her hands folded in her lap.
"Well… Toland too…" Drifter continued, "…dependin' on how you define dyin'."
"Yes. Both were killed by Ir Yut, although Toland's… existence… did not cease…"
Chilliwack's golden Awoken eyes flashed. "No Praxic would ever sully themselves with Hive magic."
"Also correct," Eris answered. "Eriana did not. And she is dead because of it, as I would have been had I not been willing to use any means necessary to survive, including the vile magic of the Hive... Now I see the world through their eyes."
"Well they certainly look a hell of a lot better on you than they did where they were before." Drifter's voice had a warmth when he spoke to Eris that had been completely absent when he was talking to the others. He lifted his wine glass in a toast to her before taking a sip.
Eris inclined her head toward him in acknowledgement.
"Point bein'," Drifter looked back at Morg. "You don't go through what Eris has gone through without bein' a little touchy about people messing with your fireteam. And me? Well, I happen to be someone Eris has accepted into her new fireteam."
Morg's hands clenched again.
"An' let me tell ya," Drifter continued. "If I was gonna pick someone to get pissed off at me, of all the powerful and important people at this here fancy party," he waved his free hand around for emphasis. "The absolute last person I'd want to be mad at me would be the Hive god of Vengeance." He gave Morg a wink and took another bite of his buttered bun.
Aunor and the three other Warlocks made eye contact with each other as Drifter's threat sunk in.
"Inaccurate," Eris said quietly.
All eyes on the table looked at her.
"What?" Drifter turned to her with mild panic on his face.
"You… piss me off… routinely. It is… your primary seduction technique." She took a small bite of her own bun that Drifter had buttered for her.
Drifter made a face. "Now hold up. That's different. That's not actually pissing you off. That's flirting."
Eris took a sip of her wine. "When it comes to you, what is the difference, exactly?"
A small laugh escaped Chilliwack's lips.
Drifter opened his mouth, blinking, and then closed it before continuing. "Well… for starters, I don't like them like that."
"Tsch," Eris smirked. "You are not that picky. They are simply currently being very unlikeable."
Aunor snorted as Drifter pursed his lips. While certainly less ominous than his threats, Eris' light roasting of him was also shifting the mood at the table. Both Aunor and Chilliwack seemed to be less hostile now than they were a few minutes ago. Morg, however, seemed more agitated.
The blond-haired Warlock downed his wine and then placed his glass down heavily with a smack that caused the liquid in everyone else's glasses to shudder. "You really would sully the memory of Eriana-3 by replacing her with… that?" He nearly spat out the words at Eris.
Suddenly even the noise from the surrounding tables seemed to quiet down.
Drifter made a soft "Ooh!" and covered his mouth with the back of his hand as he leaned back slightly.
Eris' head whipped around to stare at Morg. Her eyes flared and the temperature noticeably dropped despite the flaming braziers between the tables keeping everyone warm.
"Speak. Carefully," Eris said, her voice low and almost hissing.
"To choose the Darkness is to choose death," Morg continued. "I do not condemn you for what you had to do in order to survive in the Hellmouth…"
Drifter bit his lip and his eyes met with Chilliwack's. He gently shook his head at her.
One table over, someone shuddered. Artemis growled. Spiderwebs of ice began to form along the surface of everyone's water glasses as Morg talked.
"Morg," Chilliwack said sharply. "That's enough."
"No," Morg told her. "It's not enough." He stood up and put both hands on the table, leaned forward as he spoke. "The First Crota Fireteam was the best of all of us. They did what had to be done and they died with honour." He pointed at Drifter. "To pick a criminal, someone who wields the Darkness openly in the city, a coward, a traitor, a liar a… a con man… and consider him in the same place as Eriana-3? Him? A Dred- AAH!"
Morg caught himself on the edge of the table as he fell.
Artemis had his ankle in her teeth, snarling and shaking it back and forth.
Chilliwack and Koharu-4 stood.
"That's the empress' gift!" Chilliwack said. "Whatever you do, don't hurt it."
Koharu tried to grab the animal but pulled her hands back quickly as it let go of Morg's leg and snapped at her before returning to Morg. Morg tried to kick at the infant War Beast. Artemis took this as an opportunity to sink her teeth into his leg again. Morg yelped in pain.
"Call it off, Eris," Chilliwack said.
Eris sat silent. The corner of her lip quirked into a small smile.
"You've made your point," Aunor grumbled. "Tell it to stop."
Eris tilted her head for a moment as though she were considering what Aunor had said. "It would be unreasonable for anyone to expect me to have full control over the animal less than an hour after receiving it." Eris calmly took another sip of her wine as Morg yelled and tried to push Artemis off of him without injuring it in front of all the onlookers.
Drifter chuckled and stood before walking over to where Morg was struggling on the ground. He leaned in past where Koharu was trying unsuccessfully to grab Artemis without being bitten. There were holes in the arms of her Warlock robe and some sparks from where the animals spikes and teeth had retaliated against her unauthorized attempts to control it.
Drifter reached under the tablecloth and picked up the end of the rope harness. He pulled on it with a firm, even pressure, slowly dragging Artemis back until the War Beast's jaws were no longer able to find purchase on either Warlock. The small spikey monster pulled against the leash and snarled but did not snap at Drifter.
"Hey now… Artemis… Come here… I gotcha…" Drifter spoke in soothing tones to the animal and reached for it. It swung its head around rapidly toward him, teeth bared, and then stopped and looked back to Eris.
Eris drummed her fingertips on the table and regarded it with her three glowing eyes. The War Beast stilled for a moment and then it calmed and allowed Drifter to pick it up.
As Drifter turned to go back to his seat. Koharu-4 tried to help Morg stand. Artemis growled at them over Drifter's shoulder.
"Hey, don't need to do that again," he told her. "You got 'em. You did good. We can stop now. You won."
Drifter handed the War Beast puppy to Eris and then returned to offer Morg a hand in addition to Koharu's. Morg smacked Drifter's hand away.
Artemis snarled and started writhing in Eris' arms.
"No," Eris said firmly. The animal calmed down immediately.
"Just weaned today and still took an arm and a leg. Damn! Puppy's teeth sure are sharp!" Drifter chuckled as he got a better look at Morg's injuries. "You uh… should probably go get that seen to somewhere that's not here."
Morg, now standing and leaning against Koharu for support, lurched forward. "I'm not taking medical advice from a Dredg-"
Morg's eyes went wide and he made a stifled creaking sound as his mouth was suddenly filled with blue Stasis crystals. He brought his uninjured hand up to cover the evidence of the Darkness that had invaded the lower half of his face.
Drifter smirked and looked at Eris with an impressed expression. Everyone else also turned to look at her.
Eris sat calmly petting Artemis between the beast's spines in her lap.
"Leave," she said quietly, looking beyond them at nothing in particular. Her eyes flashed. "Now."
Chilliwack nodded to Koharu-4 and jerked her head to the side. The Exo began to help the other Warlock leave.
"Tell him to warm that tongue up slowly," Drifter offered helpfully to Koharu-4 as he returned to his seat. "If he tries to move it too quick it'll shatter and make a horrible mess."
Koharu nodded at the Drifter and helped Morg hobble away.
"Now that," Drifter pointed at the injured Warlocks leaving the dining area after he sat down. "…was coercion." He grinned at Aunor and Chilliwack. "Isn't language fun? Please don't make her mad. Oh hello!" He turned in his seat to watch what a server was carrying on a tray to another table. "They're bringin' out soup! Nice. I wonder what kind we get."