Operation: Roll Out

[initiates]

Date & Time: January 31st - February 4th, Present Day Exsilium Time
Location: Neo Las Vegas, in what formerly was called Turkey.
Characters: All Transports!
Summary: Transports have been sent to Neo Las Vegas to gather information on the origin point of the United Earth and the UE AI. Conference sabotage and the rest is expected and invited!
Warnings: Gambling and alcoholic beverages quite likely! Please PM the mod account for anything else.

By day, the landscape isn't desert, precisely, so much as it is dry. Winter's settled in and found in the biting chill of the wind when it finds you standing on the street. Hovercars and taxis thrum down the cobblestone streets, cavorting and honking like a noisy crowd of inelegant, overweight geese. Men walk by on stilts half in make-up, on their way back to their stage for the next night. Walks of shame are taken proudly in this district, one of the few approved and sanctioned vacation zones in the United Earth.

Evidence of law enforcement can be found all around, but they seem altogether too pleased to be there too. Talk with any one of them about crime rates, and they're liable to laugh at the idea. Those who come to gamble know the house is rigged to win. It's not about making or breaking the bank -- people whose funds dip too low are politely escorted back to their rooms and given a set of normal playing cards -- but it is about enjoyment.

Of the flesh too, and it'd be difficult to find anyone working in Neo Las Vegas who suffers from modesty, or anyone visiting who seems unwilling to politely ask visitors and staff if they'd like to keep them company for the night. In fact, Transports may find themselves needing to turn down multiple such requests! The refusal is always taken well. These are people looking to have a good time, and that's all.

No chance taken, nothing gained, right?

At night, the city really comes alive, the lights in all the hotels and casinos turning the Neo Las Vegas Strip into a carnival of sensation. Drinks and recreational drugs are freely passed around, men and women engage in a variety of sexual and other hedonistic excesses without regret, and the beautiful interiors and ostentatious or playful exteriors of the buildings hide and reveal a rich tapestry of events, delectables, and desires waiting to be fulfilled.

Neo Las Vegas is a fun place, and it is a safe place, and it is Where the Conferences For Our Future Are Made. Playtime is on, gang.

Comments

[stonefaith]

You must have faith, Koltira.

[ Bariyan swings off his mount, and swings onto Koltira's. Swings on in front of Koltira. Where he belongs. Though with how small the seats are, Bariyan's going to essentially wind up in Koltira's lap if Koltira doesn't move.

Honestly, behind? Who do you think you're dealing with, buddy? ]

[deadelfwalking]

[What! WHAT! Koltira grabs onto Bariyan automatically, just so that he doesn't fall off the goddamn dragon. His grip tightens on Bariyan's hips, and he growls.]

Watch yourself.

[stonefaith]

[ Bariyan laughs in response, though he keeps as still as possible. He suspects he's pushing Koltira's limits already. ]

See? Faith, my friend. The Light will always see us through such trials.

[ Bariyan is very pleased with himself. ]

[deadelfwalking]

[Koltira squeezes him.]

This is the work of my own hands, not the Light.

[He keeps his grip tight, and then, without warning, lifts Bariyan up by the waist and deposits him right on the ground. Good thing the carousel doesn't move very fast.

Koltira leaps down, too, crouching low on his knees as he lands. He looks up at Bariyan; smirks.]

Tch.

[stonefaith]

[ Bariyan yelps in outrage, but doesn't put up a fight, concentrating instead on keeping his balance when he lands.

He pats his hands about his own waist and shakes his head at Koltira. ]

Those are some damn strong arms you've got there, commander.

[deadelfwalking]

[Koltira straightens up, dusts himself off. He shrugs nonchalantly, like the big jackass he is.]

You are easy enough to get hold of.

[stonefaith]

[ You are absolutely a jackass, sir. Bariyan breathes on his hands and rubs them together. ]

Only because I choose to be. Only because I choose.

[ He holds his hand out, hopefully. ]

So. I've shown you the dragons. Show me your bars.

[deadelfwalking]

[You like it.]

As you wish.

[He takes Bariyan's hand, gallantly, and leads him back out towards the crowded streets. They aren't walking long before he takes a turn down a secluded, seemingly nondescript alley. It's almost looking like he's brought Bariyan to a dead end, but there's an unassuming metal door at the end of the alleyway. A copperplate sign above it reads, 'ALCHEMY'.]

Found this earlier. Good cocktails. If you like that sort of thing.

[stonefaith]

Hmm. Shady-looking. [ Bariyan looks around the alley before his gaze settles back on Koltira. He smiles before stepping forward to open the door, pulling Koltira along with him. ] I do love my cocktails, though.

[deadelfwalking]

I had thought you might.

[Koltira continues to be very tolerant of this pulling hither and thither. The bar inside is much classier than the alley would suggest; it's sleek and dark, lit with pale blue lights that run in cylinders along the walls. There are booths with black leather seats and a line of plush seats up at a long, dark oak countertop in the center of the space. The shelves of liquor bottles behind the counter are backlit with bright light, such that the liquid glows ethereal, phosphorescent.]

[stonefaith]

[ Bariyan pauses once they're through the door to admire the light show, nodding his approval. This is classy. But... it doesn't look very affordable.

Bariyan leans on Koltira's arm and gives him the most bashful smile he can manage. ]

This place has just about robbed me blind, though. Mind buying me a few drinks? I'll make it up to you.

[deadelfwalking]

[Koltira slides into one of the booths. The menu is written in fancy script on distressed parchment paper, laminated, and tucked into a small leather book that stands upright on each table. The cocktails all have names that reference old medical practices, with sections for each humor (sanguine, choleric, melancholic, phlegmatic).]

No recompense needed. I'll look after you.

[stonefaith]

Mm, I like a chivalrous man.

[ Bariyan takes the seat opposite, and the menu, too. He spends a long time flipping through and carefully reading each cocktail's description, before settling on a Trephination. Which sounds like a good time.

Choice made, Bariyan puts the menu back and folds his hands over the table. ]

Have you been spending all your time here in bars?

[deadelfwalking]

[Koltira opens a billfold, full of cash from exchanged tokens.]

And the gambling halls.

[The waitress comes by, and Koltira just gets a scotch, neat.]

[stonefaith]

Of course. [ Bariyan props his chin up on one fist and contemplates Koltira. ] I didn't take you for a gambling man.

[deadelfwalking]

[Koltira leans over the table. He knocks down his shades a notch; raises both eyebrows.]

What kind of man do you take me for?

[stonefaith]

A good man. And a miserable one.

Which seems to be a common disposition, amongst your sort.

[deadelfwalking]

We can hardly help it.

[The waitress returns with their drinks. Koltira downs his scotch in two gulps, and asks for another before the woman is ten feet away.]

This helps, though. A little.

[stonefaith]

You should grab more before we leave, then. [ Bariyan nods to Koltira's wallet. ] Unless you're planning to spend that all tonight.

[ Bariyan happily takes a sip of his drink, which is a great deal more colorful and visually interesting than Koltira's. Mm. It's tasty. ]

Is it just the pain, Koltira? I know-- I hear that it's enough to drive any man to drinking, but is that all?

[deadelfwalking]

[He intends to grab as many as he can. He's already halfway through the second scotch before he replies.]

It is in the pain, in large part. But it is also the -- [He pauses. He stares down at his glass, his lips thinning, his whole expression darkening with shame.] -- the hunger. The desire to hurt. And the punishment of our bodies when the desire goes unfulfilled.

[He knocks back the rest of the drink.]

Misery is encoded into this curse. It infects our perspective in all things.

[stonefaith]

[ Bariyan nods, looking somber for the first time tonight. He takes a drink to compensate. ]

I'm sorry. I wish I could help. But when even the Light hurts you -- it leaves us at a loss, you know?

[ Bariyan laughs. He likes death knights. He's got a weakness for them, as his companions say. But part of this obsession is born out of desperation, out of the knowledge that for all the death knights he's met and befriended and loved, not a single one has come out any better for it. No worse, either -- just the same. Grim. Resigned. Wretched.

Bariyan feels for them, these casualties of the Scourge, but try as he might he can never seem to touch any of them. A whole army of souls beyond his help. Still he follows them, sorrowful, distressed, hoping forever to someday soothe their pains. ]

[deadelfwalking]

The Light is painful. But it stitches our skin back together, regardless.

[He's on his fourth scotch by this point.]

Bariyan, I have been away from Azeroth for years now. I have spent that time among the living, for the most part. It has helped me. Because of it, I have more anchors to draw on than I ever had before.

[He lifts his glass.]

I am sure you have been that anchor for others of my kind.

[stonefaith]

[ Bariyan smiles wryly and lifts his own glass in return. ]

Ah, but we living are temporary anchors, at best. Weak and fragile and short-lived. [ Bariyan nurses his drink and reexamines what he's just said. ] Some short-lived, anyway.

[deadelfwalking]

Not everyone I've met is still with me. [He thinks of Blue, so recently gone; he thinks of Liadrin, and of nearly everyone else from the City. He thinks of Aileen.]

But their memory remains.

[stonefaith]

[ Bariyan bows his head and smiles. ]

Your good conduct is a testament to that.

But ghosts still make for poor companions.