Disclosure

[NightSister]

​

The sun had disappeared. The sky had disappeared. The hazy abrasive glows of neon took their place for light, but Aria didn't mind. Perhaps it was that bit harder to see - she hadn't come for the view.

It was rare that she went below the Lower Fifty but growing more frequent as the days slipped by. It was dark in these levels of the New City, and noisy. Harder to think. Once, when her head was filled with thoughts piled up fit to burst, she'd find somewhere quiet where she could let them stretch out among the comforts of solitude. But now comfort was in ignoring those thoughts for danger and crowds and loud noises. As it turned out, Maena's New City below the hundredth level fit the bill very nicely indeed.

Beneath the hazy artificial lights paving her way, Aria Vale smiled, a thing without mirth. The air down here was a sick kind of soothing, and she breathed it in as she found her way to a bar.

She had visited this one a few times before, and she could count on a few things. The first was that at this time of night it was packed to the brim without fail. The second was that she was never more than a few tables away from something illegal, and sometimes if she was lucky the crimes would be on clearer display than ever. The third tied in with the first; all these people made a great deal of noise over a great deal of loud blaring music, and so there was an infinity of sounds to listen to that weren't the ones her thoughts made.

An hour passed, maybe more, of doing nothing exceptional. She drank, she talked with strangers, caught the whisperings of crime and witnessed the failed beginnings of a fight. Force knew Aria went out often enough to be used to the ongoings of divebars.

It rarely got too much, too loud.

Sometimes it did, though. Tonight was one of those nights.

Just for a moment, air. It was near impossible to get from a table to the door without bumping into a handful of strangers, but Aria had decided that neither they nor she would really care. So she wove clumsily past the thickened crowds without regard for who she brushed on the way to the door, bursting through just as a smaller figure pushed past to make her entrance.

[member="Imogen Daniels"]​

 

[Imogen Daniels]

Maena had become the one place she considered home more than the miniscule planet she grew up on. It took some time, but eventually Imogen had become mostly familiar with places in New City, and especially the Asylum which is where she spent a majority of her time.

She used that as an excuse to escape to New City every once in awhile. When she had first brought it up to [member="Jacob Crawford"], it was under the idea of just wanting to explore. As time went on it was her escape to go experience and see new things.

There was a dive bar she had begun visiting more frequently, though not for the drinks. Sure, she’d have a drink or two, but she mostly enjoyed watching drunken fights and people interacting.

Imogen had been in isolation from people, from conversations for such a majority of her life that she liked to emerge herself in situations she had never been in before.

Imogen hadn’t been paying attention - thoughts too preoccupied to notice a woman coming out of the door she had been heading towards to make her entrance.

Her shoulder hit the woman’s side, causing both of them to stop in their tracks, Imogen’s smaller form looking up and meeting the eyes of the stranger.

“Sorry about that. Wasn’t paying attention.” Glancing down, she found a smile pulling at her lips as her eyes reconnected with the woman’s. “Nice shoes.”

[member="Aria Vale"]​

 

[NightSister]

"Don't worry about it."

The words came out cool, detached, but somehow she matched the woman's smile with one of her own. Amber eyes (clouds with a storm roiling behind them, waiting to descend) watched the stranger with their hallmark inquisitiveness, searching quietly. Level one hundred and thirty-seven of the New City still wasn't so dangerous but the people who went down here often held stories. Aria liked stories. They were fascinating, and they were a distraction.

Her smile widened a fraction. "Thanks," she returned.

There had been times where she'd have gone back inside to drink in silence and forgotten about this exchange a glass or so later. But Aria didn't search for solitude anymore, because the quiet of being alone wasn't what drowned out her mind.the voices. the voicessssss If she had wanted the turbulent peace of drinking her troubles away there were safer places to do it, more convenient places to do it. Aria had always been fixated with madness, chaos, destruction. She was this far down the New City because she needed them.

And she had a hunch she might find purchase.

"I'm going back inside now," Aria said, quietly enough that the words could be lost amidst the rabble of the streets if you weren't listening. "You want to join? First drink is on me."

She was certain a fight would break out soon enough, and it would only be more satisfying to watch with somebody next to her.

[member="Imogen Daniels"]​

 

[Imogen Daniels]

Imogen had expected the woman to leave the conversation at that - falling at the wayside and both forgetting the other as just another face in the crowd on a particularly busy night.

It hadn’t happened that way. Instead the woman had invited her inside plus a free drink. Who was Imogen to turn down that? A nod of the head was all Imogen had to give before the woman disappeared back inside the bar, Imogen following.

The crowd was loud and rowdy - profanities being thrown about, glasses clinking, liquid pouring into glasses and sloshing over the edge and splashing onto the ground. The noise had hit the two women as soon as they entered, though neither of them reacted to it.

It was common and oh so familiar.

They found a table quickly enough, and drinks were ordered and delivered almost immediately. The bartender that had waited on them passing a flirty look at Aria as he left. Imogen’s eyebrow was raised in amusement, hiding it behind the rim of her glass as she took a sip.

“Something tells me we chose a good night for fight watching.”

She recognized the look in the woman’s eyes, and immediately felt herself perk up. It seemed they both enjoyed watching fights break out. Reaching her hand out, she offered it in a shake.

“My name is Imogen. Pleasure to meet you.”

[member="Aria Vale"]​

 

[NightSister]

Her lips curled, cutting hard lines across her face as they smirked.

Fightwatching. Funny - there had always been a part of her that liked things like fights, simply because of their nature. Destructive. Chaotic. She appreciated the beauty of a building crumbling as it collapsed, of flames spreading faster and further as they ate up landscapes and spat out ash and catastrophe. And violence was raw, a strange kind of pure. Strangely luring to watch.

She sought out destruction because it took her mind off things, lately. But she couldn't deny that there was a bitter enjoyment to watching the madness.

And the stranger was used to it.
The stranger liked it.
Aria smiled.

Her drink stung as it burned her throat, and she turned back to the brunette as it clinked against the table.

"And something tells me it'll only get better from here."
She had decided the other woman shared her idea of better.

"Aria," she supplied in return, pleased to have learnt her name. Hand caught hers, and she shook it gladly, dark eyes scanning the woman absently. "Nice to meet you too." A divebar in the second hundred levels of Maena, where they sat surrounded by violence and alcohol. It was a strange place to meet people that were nice to meet.

Of course, with Aria, strange was a safe bet.

​

[member="Imogen Daniels"]​

 

[Imogen Daniels]

Imogen wasn’t sure what it was about fights, destruction, and general chaos that appealed to her so much. Maybe it was her less than ideal views of the world, maybe it was that she often found beauty in damaged and destroyed things.

There was something beautiful in the aftermath of a destructive fire, or crashing waves. Something so destructive, most people viewed as terrible - something that caused too much damage, too much displacement for individuals. Imogen however saw the beauty that came from it. Fire that licked at trees, houses, buildings - allowed new things to grow, to live and start anew. Crashing waves - tides high washed away the sick, the corrupt, and the damned.

While bar fights were not beautiful, they sure were entertaining to watch. Add in the bonus of having someone there to watch them with her? Even better.

She had no plans that night to meet anyone new, let alone someone pleasant enough to want to deal with for more than a few minutes - but Aria was an exception. She wasn’t outwardly nice - no that would have been an even stranger sight, especially in a dive bar on Maena, but she was glad for the company nonetheless.

Imogen was about to ask the woman a question when the sound of breaking glass rung out throughout the bar. Turning in her seat, a smirk found it’s way to Imogen’s face - a larger man was standing angrily above another table. Obviously drunk, he was slurring and spitting profanities, egging on the other man as best as he could. It only took a few moments before the man sitting had stood up, pushing the burlier man back before grabbing the stool next to him, slamming it over the man’s back, wood splintering before shattering - pieces flying so far as to land before Aria and Imogen’s feet.

“This certainly started sooner than expected… though I can’t say I am disappointed.”

[member="Aria Vale"]​

 

[NightSister]

Behind her glass, Aria lifted both eyebrows and smiled.

"Nice thing about Maena," she mused as a third stood up, angered at the disruption (ha! What had he expected, drinking this time of night in a place like this?), "it's never what you expect, and it's never disappointing."

Barfights were not pretty. They were not elegant, or skillful. What they were was chaotic, a glorious and terrible mess - and a lovely example of how wonderfully a thing could escalate. Even as they watched, one man's drunken rage led to a second; then there was a barstool flying everywhere in pieces; then a fragment destroyed a third drunkard's glass, prompting the sort of anger that said to start fighting.

It had taken moments to go from a buzz of rowdy drunkenness to three men fighting over seemingly nothing at all. How long before the fourth joined in? The fifth? How long before the whole bar save Aria and Imogen was at each other's throats, armed with broken glass and fury? Better - how long before they had no choice but to fight too?

A barfight did not just end, after all. It crashed and burned and went seven ways to hell - a man crumpled in a corner half unable to move, the sound of broken bones or fired arms or knives through skin or all three at once, drinks spilled across the floor and no bartender left to mop them up.
Ashes, ashes, they all fall down.

"I give it a few minutes before half the bar is beating the chit out of the other half," Aria wagered, and the ghost of a grin was at her features. "And I got nowhere else to be. You want to stick around by then?"

She had finished her drink. It wouldn't be long before there'd be nobody to top it up - before watching amused on the sidelines wasn't an option. That left two.

Fight or flight.

Either offered her fill of chaos.

[member="Imogen Daniels"]​

 

[Imogen Daniels]

Though she hadn’t been on Maena long, Imogen had learned quite quickly just how spontaneous things could be on the planet. There seemed to never be a dull moment, no matter where you went.

She hadn’t been comfortable at first, exploring areas of the planet like New City, it had all been too much.

Her senses would be thrown into overdrive and she wasn’t sure how to process everything that was going on.
As her time there went on she found herself in the exact opposite position. She was drawn to exploring, wanting to learn more, see more of her new home.

Imogen had quickly learned just how spontaneous things could be - and she loved it. So sitting in the bar, on that particular night with Aria, she found a grin on her face as she watched the fight break out. Aria’s wager sat at the forefront of her mind and she found herself nodding, agreeing with the woman.

“I’ve got nowhere else to be. I think sticking around here will prove to be interesting.”

Within minutes the swears had grown louder, shattering of glass, drunken men yelling over each other - voices mixing and melting together into a haze. A haze Imogen couldn’t be bothered to try and make out.

Throwing back the rest of her drink, she had done so in just enough time as a man had stumbled back into their table - back slamming into their glasses, Arias recently topped off drink spilling. The liquid seeped across the table, soaking the man's’ shirt before dripping off the edge and right into Imogen’s lap.

A bubble of anger built up in her chest, though not directed at the man who had slammed into the table as it wasn’t truly his fault, but at the man who had hit him so hard he had stumbled back in the first place.

Glancing over the man at Aria, Imogen raised an eyebrow. A small smirk on her features, she didn’t have to say anything - her face said it all.

‘You ready?’

[member="Aria Vale"]​