Letting Off Steam

[Oriena]

Mia was packing the shots away while Oriena only toyed with her drink. The murmurings in her head were quiet enough. Waiting for her to lower her guard maybe. She needed to do something about the nosebleeds, something other than drowning the ijiraq out, but night now, exhausted and pleasantly numb, she had trouble raising enough reason to care.

The other woman was poor company. Clearly the blank-out didn’t phase her, even if that one had supposedly been different. There was the kernel of something intriguing there, but Ori felt no inclination to dig. There didn’t seem to be any worry or unease there to exploit, which would be the only reason to do so. Mia didn’t even care that Ori claimed to have seen something similar.

“They’re all shitty guys,” was all else she said. Her shoulder tilted a shrug despite how it made her muscles smart. She downed the rest of her vodka, but didn’t touch the bottle Gus had left out for her. Mia could brood on her own; Ori wasn’t in the mood for companionable silence. She gave a dark smirk as she slipped off the stool. “I liked you much better when you were trying to kill me,” she said, before heading for the door.