Ye Olde Saloon [19th Century Colorado, after sunset]

[texted3times]

"Well, this is certainly...different," Eric observed as he and Jaina stepped between tied up horses in order to enter the saloon. From the way those inside stared, it wasn't that usual for women to be there who weren't, erm, working. "We can find somewhere else," Eric murmured. "Your call."

Comments

[texted3times]

"There's not a lot of town to this town," Eric noted.

[solo_sword]

"Very true. And prospecting sounds a little..." she trailed off. "Well, I can't exactly imagine you doing it."

[texted3times]

"That's what I have other people for," Eric said, nodding and ordering for the two of them. He even restrained himself from referring to Jaina as a little lady.

[solo_sword]

"And yet no one to mail stuff for you," she tsked.

[texted3times]

"There are a lot more people eager to look for gold than to lick my stamps," Eric replied. "Weird, isn't it?"

[solo_sword]

Jaina grinned at that, and asked, "Maybe you're not asking right. Are you saying please?"

[texted3times]

"Of course not," Eric said. "Should I be?"

[solo_sword]

"It does sometimes help..." Not that she was a big fan of 'please' herself, but she could say it.

[texted3times]

"Seems like a lot of effort," Eric decided as their beers arrived.

[solo_sword]

"I know, sometimes it's just so hard to get that whole one syllable out," she said, pulling her glass toward her and maybe looking to see how dirty it really was.

[texted3times]

"If there's something alive in it, it's okay to send back," he assured her.

[solo_sword]

"You know, I hadn't even considered that till this very second?" she said. Luckily it didn't look that bad to her. She might wonder now, though.

[texted3times]

"That's what a thousand years of experience teaches you," Eric said. "The twenty-first century is, generally speaking, a HUGE upgrade."

[solo_sword]

"That's scary," Jaina decided. "And it makes me sort of glad I come from somewhere even more upgraded, and teaches me to be more careful on the backwater planets." The more you know.

[texted3times]

"I think you're careful enough," Eric decided.

But she was out with a vampire, so...

[solo_sword]

She raised an eyebrow. "And of course I've never done anything to say any differently."

Because yeah, even she knew that if she looked back on all this, there'd been some potentially really bad decisions there.

[texted3times]

Eric chuckled and swirled his glass between his fingers. "Of course not."

[solo_sword]

"I suppose this is where I thank you for not killing me before now," she said casually, trying her drink. To her credit, she didn't make a face at it.

[texted3times]

Eric tsked. "Killing you would be wasteful."

[solo_sword]

There was an adjective she hadn't been expecting. "Wasteful how, exactly?"

[texted3times]

"If you're dead, then I've lost your company forever," he said. "And you're interesting, which is not something I find in many humans."

[solo_sword]

Jaina was so glad she didn't have to tell him she wasn't leverage or something. "Why am I interesting?" she asked, genuinely curious rather than fishing for anything.

[texted3times]

"You chase after smugglers," Eric said. "You hold your own in conversation with me without either the fawning or the, well, shrieking in terror, that most humans do. You're different, and after a thousand years, I didn't think there was much different left to discover."

[solo_sword]

"I don't think I've ever shrieked in terror in my life," she said, thinking back. "It's hard not to be flattered by that. Especially since there aren't that many guys I find interesting, either."

[texted3times]

"Do they do a lot of shrieking in terror around you too?" he teased.