Roomates Talk

Argent had been having an innocent conversation with Dorien, when Argent had asked Dorien if he had seen or heard of anything unusual around Tit's.  Dorien replied with information on the strange staff that Gen had found, asking Argent why he was curious.  Quick to hide his true motive, Argent described the announcement on recent events given to the cabaret's staff, and their subsequent review, focusing on their lack of confidence of anything being resolved.  To this Dorien asked Argent "Do you think the staff might be related somehow?"

Argent pauses for but a moment to consider.  "It could be just a misplaced prop... but there are magical staves that exist, and the form of it seems a little woodsy.  There were fairies running around the place.  Someone with magical skills could at least tell if it had magical properties, if they could look at it."

Dorien shrugged.

"I suppose Aubrienne might be able to tell, but like you said it's most likely just a prop or something a drunk patron left behind. Besides, it's locked in the vault right now.

"If you think she would help, I say lets find a way to make it available to her." Argent replies to Dorien's point. "All we need is to either get a hold of the keys, or convince someone to let us in."

"I wonder which would be easier..." Argent ponders.

Dorien looked up from the notebook that he had been writing in absently and eyed his roommate with curiosity. He took off his glasses and set them on top of the scribbled chemical formulae.

"Why?" he asked with a raised eyebrow, "I mean... Tits and I have a good arrangement going. Why would I compromise that on the off chance that we might find out something about some rich guy getting shivved in the club? And for that matter, why would you? You're a busboy; this goes a little bit above and beyond the call of duty doesn't it?"

"Where I grew up, there was nobody to look after the street except us. When someone took a dump on your street, even if it wasn't in your front door, you did something about it. I've only been back in the city a few months, and a friend did me a favor getting me that job, and someone just put shit all over my new place of work, so I'm not gonna sit around waiting for other people to get around to tellin' me they've cleaned everything up. I'm gonna try to do something about it," Argent lays it out. "It might step on a few other peoples toes and make them grumble, but that's not gonna stop me from doin' it."

Then Argent lowers his voice. "And don't forget... you got stabbed as part of the whole mess, and on top of that, the shit that got stopped from being done to the boiler, if it hadn't been, it could have really hurt some people, including yourself, and that good thing you've got going at Tit's."

He stands and shrugs. "But hey, maybe this ain't your thing. That's fine. I can work it out on my own without you."

Dorien narrowed his eyes slightly as he considered the younger man. If he was at all intimidated by Argent's blustering, it didn't show.

If there was one thing you could never fault Argent for, it was heart. The kid knew what he wanted and he went for it, and Dorien respected that. Guts could get you pretty far. But they could also get you killed.

Still, he was right in a way. Dorien took being stabbed rather personally, and while it wasn't certain by any stretch that the creature was connected to the staff, it was a highly suspicious coincidence. Besides, argent seemed hell bent on looking into this with or without Dorien's help. If he got caught alone he would almost certainly get fired, maybe even arrested. Together they could probably talk Tits into at least not pressing charges and maybe even keep their jobs. And two people were less likely to get caught anyway.

A ghost of a smile crossed Dorien's face.

"I don't doubt you could," he said, "But I have a feeling my expertise might come in handy."

He shrugged.

"Fuck it. We'll call it an academic venture. I assume you're going to want to include Denise on this little caper?"

Argent's mode brightens with Dorien's agreement to help. "Thanks for helping. I'm not a "B" n' "E" guy, despite my earlier life experience, but Denise either has picked up some skill or knows someone... assuming we can't get a key, it would be a good back up. Besides, she's fun to have around."

Argent starts pacing, excited, the gears of his mind moving. He knows he's not got the book smarts of Dorien, by a long shot, but thinking fast on his feet is what he's being trained for.

"With you on board, though, we can probably talk our way into the vault... maybe you need more access to the wine or something, like a clue on the crate... once were in, we get Aubrienne to magic the staff and see what's what with it and go from there."

Dorien laughed. He'd seen what passed fr Denise's sense of subtlety in the past and felt that Argent might be severly overestimating her abilities in that regard.

"I think maybe talking our way in might go better for everyone involved," he said with a grin, "We could always try just asking. Tits is a reasonable person, and if it's connected I'm sure she'd want to know as much as us."

"It's worth a try. Still need to get Aubrienne on board or else there really isn't much point." Argent replied, a little let down by this direct and less interesting route... but I wanted to bring Dorien in, so accept the consequences, he thought to himself. In the end, its the results that matter.

"Leave Aubrienne to me," Dorien said, " I'm sure I can convince her to take a look at it, especially it we're not breaking in to do it."