Quark (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
latinumsbetter) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
letsplayamurder2025-08-16 10:34 pm
latinumsbetter) wrote in letsplayamurder2025-08-16 10:34 pm
Entry tags:
Afterparty
[The earth once more closes up and all of that disappears, Quark remains on the ground for a long moment, holding Cerejeira. Finally, he raises his voice, still keeping her tucked against him. His tone is all business, brooking no argument.]
Bar'll open in ten minutes. Go get washed up, and then be there.
[He turns his head to look at Astarion, eyes narrowing.]
You. After those ten minutes, you're going to explain to everyone what you did. And then you're going to get out of my bar. Got it?
[and, not waiting for a reply, he's turning his attention to Cerejeira and Leb. He frowns, for a moment, because he knows he can't carry either of them, and normally he might have askedFe Lu Om Ranma or Vanity but, well.]
...someone who can carry people help me with Leb and Jeira.
[So......the bar downstairs is once again open. Quark is not behind the bar. Instead, he's pushed some tables together and put some bottles of wine on the table. He's replicated some bar snacks and they're there too. There's something replicated for Riful also, in a separate bowl, which he'll give to her personally.
Fritz sitting near the entrance to the back counter where he's working and Critwo is in a nest of blankets in a corner just behind the counter. There’s been several of the extra togas gathered and folded to be used as blankets.
Leb is still asleep on one of the couches with one of the spare togas tucked around her as a blanket. Cerejeira is seated next to her, also with a spare toga tucked around her.
Once everyone is down there, Quark pushes to his feet and clears his throat.
Once the situation has been made clear, then the rest of the evening can proceed as usual for their afterparties.
Those four drinks that Quark usually makes (Athena, Alex, Misane, Aglaea) are once again sitting at the far edge of the counter. There are no new additions.]
Bar'll open in ten minutes. Go get washed up, and then be there.
[He turns his head to look at Astarion, eyes narrowing.]
You. After those ten minutes, you're going to explain to everyone what you did. And then you're going to get out of my bar. Got it?
[and, not waiting for a reply, he's turning his attention to Cerejeira and Leb. He frowns, for a moment, because he knows he can't carry either of them, and normally he might have asked
...someone who can carry people help me with Leb and Jeira.
[So......the bar downstairs is once again open. Quark is not behind the bar. Instead, he's pushed some tables together and put some bottles of wine on the table. He's replicated some bar snacks and they're there too. There's something replicated for Riful also, in a separate bowl, which he'll give to her personally.
Fritz sitting near the entrance to the back counter where he's working and Critwo is in a nest of blankets in a corner just behind the counter. There’s been several of the extra togas gathered and folded to be used as blankets.
Leb is still asleep on one of the couches with one of the spare togas tucked around her as a blanket. Cerejeira is seated next to her, also with a spare toga tucked around her.
Once everyone is down there, Quark pushes to his feet and clears his throat.
Once the situation has been made clear, then the rest of the evening can proceed as usual for their afterparties.
Those four drinks that Quark usually makes (Athena, Alex, Misane, Aglaea) are once again sitting at the far edge of the counter. There are no new additions.]
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I needed a distraction, from. You know. Everything. And he's always down for a sparring match.
[Not that she's come out of any of their other matches this bruised, even if she heals quick.]
It's not that important.
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[Just. A little defensive.]
I was the one that started it, if that's what you mean.
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[there is definitely something else here; the defensiveness makes that clear]
So he needed a distraction, too?
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[It was a lot of punching and dodging.]
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[Quark stops for a moment, suddenly feeling incredibly tired. It's been, quite frankly, a really awful day. There's something Vanity's not telling him, here, and for the life of him, he doesn't know how to get it out of her. Any other day, he could figure it out. But he's exhausted and after learning everything that happened with Ferdinand, he doesn't want--
Quark sucks in a shaky breath for a moment, pushing off the wall, so he can look at her a little more fully, shoulders slumping slightly]
...Vanity. You're not tellin' me something. What is it?
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It's- nothing. It won't happen again.
[Admitting it would be admitting a kind of failure. She glances back up at Quark, for just a second, an uncharacteristic glint of fear in her yes.]
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And now: Vanity. He doesn’t expect it, quite, especially with the reassurance that it won’t happen again. It doesn’t make sense in his head, not to him. Quark’s brow furrows, at that, in confusion.]
What--? Vanity, I don’t care if you got in a fight with Saotome. [he’s a little bit exasperated in his confusion] I’m not surprised you did, even. But the fact that you’re not tellin’ me something about it is what--[he stops, swallowing the words before he can get them out, because is what I’m worried about is terrible and vulnerable and he’d been that with Ferdinand and he'd thought, really thought, that he'd done it right this time, that it was enough--but then it wasn't. And he’d also thought, he’d been thinking that Vanity was too selfish for something so stupid, at least, but after the trial--]...it’s what I want to know. What it is your hiding and why.
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[She gets a strained smile, turning in place a little. This fucking sucks. She could just walk away, or punch him, or make something up. Throw a molotov, that would definitely replace this problem with something more in her wheelhouse.]
[Why the fuck does she care so much if he knows.]
Fine. You want the truth? I picked a goddamn fight because it's way harder to go out and murder someone when you're exhausted and beat to hell.
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...because you wanted to stop him from murdering someone or stop yourself?
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[She takes a shaky breath, not quite meeting his eyes.]
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cw: back on that self-sacrifice/suicide train, probably medical just kind of going forward
[And she doesn't want to betray people, for once in her life. That's something she'll need to really unpack eventually.]
But. Ha.
[She turns, pacing in a place a little, still looking down.]
It'd be fucking different if you were gonna die anyway, wouldn't it. If it were looking inevitable, and taking it into your own hands meant everyone else could eat?
[i have no appropriate icons for the expression she's making, please imagine the most strained look of wild desperation on a teenager you can]
cw: back on that self-sacrifice/suicide train, probably medical just kind of going forward
What do you mean, "you were gonna die anyway."
cw: all of that until further notice
...Don't tell Aoi this part, okay? I mean. Not any of them, fuck 'em, it's not their business, but. She'd get really upset, I think.
[not immune to crying gorl]
cw: all of that until further notice
My lips are sealed.
cw: medical in particular
[She's quiet again, chewing her lip, arms tightly folded.]
So. I was created by Aegis, yeah? Genetically engineered, grown in their labs, a lot of money went into making me their best soldier.
[This shouldn't be a big deal. It never has been, before. But she looks away again.]
And that included building a failsafe into my physiology.
cw: medical in particular
What...does that mean, exactly?
cw: medical in particular
[ha ha, this sucks]
-under what they considered to be typical, expected conditions, I and everyone in my genetic line have a deliberately engineered chemical deficiency. Without regular doses of something called Compound 18-
[She sighs, trailing off a little.]
Theoretically it keeps us coming back to home base and on good terms with the company without needing some kind of minder. For me it wasn't an issue once I took over, and for a while my- the others. Just kept hitting depots and outposts to steal supplies.
cw: medical in particular
The Jem'hadar can only go a short amount of time without it. Less than a week, he knows that.]
What about here?
cw: medical in particular
[She'd been a little worried when she first arrived. Maybe getting complacent had been stupid.]
All that shit in the kitchen and pantry, the fresh stuff? That's enough to offset the deficiency.
[The way she was inhaling it all before and after the trial wasn't just hunger.]
Dunno how that actually works, but somehow Echo and her little pirate friends noodled it all out. Stole a goddamn greenship right from under us, and after that the raids for the compound stopped- but, um. Point is, it was fine here. Except then that asshole dusted all the food.
[Her arms fold tight, looking down at the ground.]
I got one dose. Out of the cornucopia. That would have been good for maybe another couple days.
cw: medical in particular
But then, when the fresh food disappeared and she had a deficit, then why not tell them--?
He bites that outburst back, keeping it tucked away because he's not mad at her, he really isn't. He knows who he's mad at, and it's not the person standing in front of him, telling him the truth. Quark takes a slow breath through his nose, and then:]
A couple of days. Alright.
And how does this tie in to the fight with Saotome? [he can see the shape of it, he just...he wants to be sure.]
cw: medical in particular
[Vanity falls quiet, for an instant her usual facade of bravado and braggadocio replaced by a scared teenager suddenly facing her own mortality.]
I'm not. I don't want to play that fucker's game. I don't. But I would have if I hadn't gotten my shit kicked in.
cw: medical in particular
Immediately, there's a sweeping relief in him--this is what he'd wanted to ensure, all those weeks ago--and though that might not be the reason behind her choice, he still can't help the feeling of fierce pride that follows, that she not only didn't give in, but actively worked to prevent herself from going down that road.
Quark sucks in a slow breath.]
...Vanity?
cw: back on that self-sacrificing suicide bullshit
[She blinks, eyes wet, looking up at Quark.]
What.
cw: back on that self-sacrificing suicide bullshit
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