The O'Malley Pub

Kekonnen smiled at the barkeep. "Don't worry, I won't pull anything. Probably." Kekonnen tossed Deidre a canteen and 11 gold pieces. "Keep the change, and fill it up with your finest Pinot Noir. I'll need it for an upcoming job. Also, get me a sandwich to go.", Kekonnen stated. "I'm going to New Canton. All the stories tell of great danger, yeah, but I'm sure there's a crap ton of cash and sellable equipment. I'm meeting up with a team."

Kekonnen continued reading. Once he finished the book, he put it back in his rucksack. He was waiting for the team to meet him.

The sound of an opening door with distant howling then silence introduced a tic-tack noise of toe-claws as another entered the bar. A cyan slit-eyed kobold in an improvised insulated trenchcoat looked about then over at the other kobold. Leather hood pulled back shows a wyrmcrowned head with several spiral horns among the fine cornflower blue scales. Though a faint moving shaded pattern broke her silhouette with random black speckling appearing among scales. Most of her garb looked assembled from various bits of other larger clothing but adeptly so with robust stitching. Her pack was small though a large musket sticks out of some strange wood carved with relief and . Some chaotic war scene only apparent at close range the fine detail leaving it looking otherwise worn, scruffy, and improvised as herself. Weapons used by arcane gunslingers were less specific about material quality and ammo even if she was a sniper. The compact stock super-shorty peeking out one side of her pack looked far more conventional.

Her cough deepened from a smooth if frozen soprano as her complexion paled in a squirm of frigid flesh unconsciously moving to imitate Kekonnen if at a foot taller.

She mutters darkly in some distant accent, "Fine'ly warm. Why's it hadda be on a planet where air's face stabbin!"

Vrisz walked over and sat down opposite Kekkonen his own voice if said with a shiver but in Vrisz's accented slang, "I'm here but I'm freezin! Take a minute 'fore I can feel my scales again to get out of yer skin. Least the cold mirror didn't shrink m'clothes off this time."

Currently grey-white hands reached into her leather coat to take out a silver piece and looked to Deidre, "Hot caff! N' milk."

Deidre walked over to prepare both, not often you saw two kobolds one was mad enough. Shrugging she would turn on the kettle to boil the water while grabbing a tray. Grabbing champagne flute she poured from Pinot Noir. The water now boiled she prepared the coffee being sure to keep it decaffeinated. Finishing she walked over to finally reply, "New Canton huh, every time Northlight Government sent anyone to that rock they have never returned, so hell mend ya, Kobold."

Shrugging she would hand him the flute before turning to the other, "Welcome to O'Malley, the only place in Northlight where --- oh fuck it... I ain't O'Malley times are bad and just pay with coin and you can do what you want." sighing, she shook her head before giving the mug over, "Kek, if you do actually manage to solve New Canton issue, you will be richly reimbursed no doubt... because we desperately need New Canton reopened as it was the main spaceport as Lochcrest locked itself tighter than a Nun's Virginity." rolling her eyes she would pick up a glass from a nearby table and start cleaning with her bone-dry cloth, "Just both of you behave and you can do whatever you wish, but no fucking in my bar, I may be only one here, but you want to screw, go do it elsewhere, I don't have wishes to hear or see the O-Face of your species."

"Fucking? Hah! I wouldn't dream of it... I think." Said Kekonnen, trailing off. There was an awkward silence for a moment, then Kekonnen started drinking his wine. "Get lost, lady, we have important business to discuss, and I've tipped you enough", he hissed at the barkeep, flustered. "Besides, who serves Pinot out of a champagne flute?"

He took out a tablet and opened an interactive topographic map of the surrounding area, and described the mission and all of it's involved dangers. Everything from the temperatures, to past mission reports (they all resulted in failure), to even the wind advisory in effect. No detail was spared. However, from the rim of his wine glass, he saw Vrisz, and couldn't tell if she was paying attention to the graphic or to him. Either works perfect, he thought to himself.

He couldn't believe himself: he was drunk enough, after only 2 ales and half a glass of wine, to have such unprofessional thoughts.

He wrapped up after half an hour of briefing, and said, "We leave for New Canton immediately. I suggest you doggy-bag any leftovers, and we'll hit the road." He twirled the keys of his snowmobile in his claws, and left, leaving behind 2 silver coins as payment for the barkeep.

"You coming or not?"

The darkening twin of Kekkonen took a swig of coffee pouring the rest into a thermos from her trenchcoat. Warm enough in here she numb flesh slowly slipped out from imitation of a kobold in proximity. She'd tried to force it out once and ended up a painful hodgepodge till she started a fire. Just let it ride nowadays.

Pale horns on her head split from flesh to spiral out as she turned to Deidre with a toothy smile, "Ha! So freezin' this place is e'll be on his own bottom! 'anks fer tha coffee! Gotta go where the other thievies ain't been. Good stuff always the risky stuff."

She snerks at Kekonnen while screwing on the thermos top her voice rising away from his pitch, "Fancy boy! Knowin' cham-pagne glasses from whatever the stuff sposta go in. 'least y'ell know the good stuff to take. Never got a taste for it."

Kobolds not one for personal space she peeks over his shoulder to look at the tablet as her skin quivered the cornflower blue shloshing over her frame as bones turned back to normal. While a kobold of simpler tastes she had a keen sniper's eye darting between overlook positions on the topo map and taking mental note.

Then she side eyed him a smooth squeakless soprano pitch, "Gonna needa get better pants anna tail sock with that temp lyin on snow. M' weapon's feywild. Needa speak fiddlysmooth sylvan iffin I'm gonna shoot ma rifle instead 'a gun. Ain't gonna happen if I'm stuck with your throat, eh!"

She flipped her leathery half-insulated hood up, "Ain't gotta walk? I like ya already! Stupid frozen tallblood leather boots in the drifts, nothin to scav for bolds!"

"Fancy boy, eh? It only gets fancier from here." Kekkonen (half)jokingly swooned.

Kekkonen could tell Vrisz was at least mildly interested in him. At least.

"Anyway, of course we're not gonna fuckin' walk. Not in this weather, anyway. Plus, the ship containing our co-workers is due in 5 hours, and it might take more to walk to New Canton." Kekkonen felt self-conscious about his deeper-than-usual voice. As a hatchling, he was ridiculed for having a (for a Kobold) low voice. His ex-employer, a great red dragon, once joked he 'smoked three packs a day'.

He slipped on a particularly thick white fur tailsock intended for extended travel over his thin, more social tailsock he wore for indoor settings. He threw his hood on his head and rubbed his gloved hands together before driving off with Vrisz to New Canton: Pistol in sock and assault rifle readily accessible. He went pretty fast and made sure to go over plenty of snow drifts on the way to get maximum airtime, though Vrisz did land on his tail a few times. Ouch.

Riding was less cold than she'd thought though she wrapped a heavy bit of leather in her pack around her head. It helped with the wind though as rough and craggy as the old heavy leather was it made a very good case for being a brown rock than a bluish kobold. Hooting at the airtime she made a similar note of pain in landing her particulars on his tail even if it was in a tail sock. The second time she loosed a vulgarity in sylvan then grabbed his tail and fidgeted to put it upward between them.

Over the roar of the hot engine her voice was barely audible while rearranging his tail though it had a spark of mischievous spirit, "Oi! That thing's gotta move yer hurtin the important bits, gimmie! Ha! Know what 'bold I see the tallbloods keepin' stuff put."

While it would be difficult to see the cyan eyes focusing downward from the driving position it was more clear what she meant when leaning forward again. Reorganizing to something more mammalian his tail stuck up through the trenchcoat and over her shoulder. Threaded over her inner coat between a new pair of unusual fluff rather obvious. It kept her from landing on his tail though instead it shuffed through and over her shoulder instead.