The Lucky Ones

Cora was happily sleeping as one of her companions, Ludwig, got the marvelous idea to wake her up. The idea itself was not too bad, just the timing was.
He carefully touched her arm and immediately found himself with a knife right on his neck. She had always been a light sleeper and just waking her up by touching her was not too good of an idea.

Cora looked at him, it took her a short while to realize that he was friendly.
“Oh.”
“I am sorry, Ma'am”, Ludwig said, feeling visibly bad about waking her up, “But…”, he looked outside the stable all four of them had slept in, “It’s rather late.”
Cora just grunted, “Rather late, specify it! I was sleeping very well!”, they had been traveling since three days without really getting too much sleep, when they finally arrived in Yarckel they only cared about sleeping.
“It’s seven...pm…”
“Seven...eh?”, she laid her head back down looking at the ceiling of the stable, “Seven”, she blinked a few times, “Wait. PM?”, she sighed, “Dammit...I guess we just spent this day in Yarckel then...right?”
Ludwig did not nod.
“Could you...uhm…”, he pointed at the knife with his hand, “Take it...away...please?”
Cora looked at him, “Sure…”, she took it away and put it back from where she got it.

She sighed again and stood up, stretching herself. They would not travel anywhere today anyway, “Alright. What do we do?”
The others just shrugged their shoulders, pretending to not have any idea.

“Oh for fuck’s sake…”, she laughed, “Say it!”
“We could...just go into a tavern...you know enjoying the fact we are here.”
She nodded, “We for sure can, I doubt that I will drink, but you can.”

The other three grinned happily, “We already know where we want to go!”
“One question before we go.”, Cora said, the others were starting to look slightly worried.
“Yes…?”
“Does it involve pretty women?”
They started nervously laughing. Cora sighed again.

“Listen...even though I am technically your superior now does not mean you have to treat me any different in basic human interaction! Seriously! I know you since...well since I got part of the pack! That’s why you are with me right now, get used to me!”, she shook her head.

“Sorry Ma’am”, they all said in unison.

Cora just hit each of them slightly on the back of their heads as she walked out of the stable.
“Lead on.”

The three boys unconsciously took the same positions they would have if it was a target to protect. One in the front, two to the sides of Cora, slightly behind her. She would never really tell them but she was proud.

After a five minute walk they found said tavern. Ludwig held the door open for her, but Cora declined.
“You go inside already, I forgot to check on the horses.”
“They are all fine.”
“I will still check on them.”, she said. They nodded and went inside while Cora turned around and went back.

Safer walks and stops in his tracks as he see's a girl in the distance next to horses. He wanders who she could be so he calmly starts heading to her direction. It appears that Safer had just his basic Survey Corps clothing on but not 3DMG. Safer knew he wasn't supposed to be wandering off task but he did anyway because this girl seemed interesting to him. Once he got close enough, he stood there saying "Hello. Are you okay?" and awaited her response right outside of the Tavern.

Cora stopped on her way looking at the tiny figure that just appeared in front of her.

"What.", she just replied slightly confused while making a few mental notes about the person in front of her.

Survey Corp, extremly tiny, muscular, somehow out of she did not know what reason curious about her mental and or physical condition, oh. And without his 3DMG. Which was not too surprising given that there should not be any titans here soon.

She lifted her eyebrows as if she only now realized that he actually asked her something important. "Okay? Me?", she laughed, "Always!"

Of course we are!
Yeah!
It's not like we have multiple people in our head!
Totally not!

Nec sighed and just grumpily added a 'Oh shut up' inside her head.

Cora grinned at the tiny human in front of her.
"Do you mind me going to check on my horses really quick?", she said while already making a slight attempt to walk there, "I promise I won't flee...in case I did something wrong."

She did not know why, but somehow the sight of him made her happy. After all...you need to appreciate the small things in life, right?

He keeps a straight face and replies "Go right ahead. I just wandered what a girl like you is doing next to a Tavern." as he walks along side her to the horses. He quickly realizes from her appearance she can handle things on her own but insists to keep talking to her. As he walks with her to the horses, he says "Hmph. Don't be mistaken. I may be small but size is only a matter of things." as he looks at her. He thought to himself how he can show her he's not be taken lightly. "I assume others know about this Tavern yes? Where does it lead to?" as he was curious about it awaiting her reply.

Cora started chuckling, keeping herself from laughing too loud at him wondering what she would be doing next to a tavern.

"What I am doing next to a tavern...", she repeated while smiling, "My underlings went in there, they wanted to have some fun."

She had almost reacher her horses as he suddenly commented on his own size.

Oh...size does not matter? That's what he thinks now!
Vex. No.

She refrained from saying anything about that. Cora looked at the horses, they all seemed to be quite fine, given that they had been riding for three days. She gave them a bit more water and checked their hooves. Only one had a stone in it. She quickly got herself a knife out of her boot and scratched it out.

While petting the horse she answered.
"Where the tavern leads to? Nowwhere, maybe a secret wine cellar, I don't know about that.", she wrinkled her forehead, "Well...might lead to a brothel now that I think of it.", she gave a carrot to one of the horses.

Cora did not really understand the survey corp and why he would spent time with her now, but she just guessed that he was bored.
"Wanna join drinking? I won't drink, but well...you might want to. My companions will but they are all calm when drunk otherwise they would not be...here anymore.", she did not specify what she meant with here.

Mitsuo slowly stirred when a slither of sunlight hit his eyes.
He groaned as he got up, gradually removing strands of hay from his hair piece by piece.
"Ow... my whole body aches," he complained, "why did we sleep in a stable again."

Half awake he looked around before realising he spoke to no one. His horse was still here, however, so at least something heard him. No reply, however.

"Guess I should go and find them, then, huh?"
He looked at the horse as if to wait for a response.

The young Shimura took the five minute walk in the direction down the street until he noticed the tavern. "Well, I'd assume they went in here to get breakfast."

Just before he entered the tavern, Mitsuo noticed Cora talking to a Surver Corps. member out of the corner of his eye.

Mitsuo approached, raised a hand and greeted the two.
"Yo," he spoke with a weary tone.
Just by looking at him, one could tell Mitsuo had a rough night's sleep.

Safer says to the lady, "No, I'm fine. Drinking only lowers my values as a person. I shall join your company though for I simply can't say no to a beautiful woman such as yourself." as he proceeds to enter the Tavern with her. The Tavern was filled with people of all kinds of appearances. Laughter and the commotion of the people near us was loud as they didn't pay no attention to us. He looks towards her as they entered the Tavern saying, "So you must come to this place a lot?" as he's putting his hands into his pockets.

Auth was dozing off in the tavern, slowly sipping his wine, as per usual. And, as per usual when in districts near Mitras, wondering why the hell he was here instead of being at Al-Sanya's House of Illusion. And, again, as per usual, he told himself that, well, given he's going from Mitras to somewhere else, going all the way back for a drink was rather counter-intuitive.

In any case, here he was, on the purpose of meeting with a... fellow... in here that had some interesting connections around. From there, he'd meet with those connections, in his goal of passing something he came to call 'The Law of Martial Freedom'. The derails were only vague at this point, but they'd take more shape as he consulted actual judges and other law-making people.

And he sleepily watched a trio of men enter. By their gear, they were Wolves. Wait. They were Wolves... in Yarkel? That could have meant one of two things. They were either here on job, or they were here with their leader, and now where spending some fun time. Knowing the state of the Pack at this point, Auth's bet was on the second option.

Sure enough, the door opened again, this time with Cora in the frame. Auth swallowed a chuckle, and bent his back and head over the bar. This way, in his travel cloak, she shouldn't be able to tell it was him. Not yet, anyway.
Still glancing, he couldn't help but notice she was here with another man. Military, too, although looking off-duty. It was always weird to see Survey Corps wear uniform when off-duty, but eh. To each his own. And always interesting to see Cora, of all people, with a man. This will be fun...

...Especially so seeing Mitsuo right behind them.

Auth looked back into his drink, controlling his laughter. His ears were still peeled, to see what he could grasp out of their discussion, but for now, it was a waiting game.

Cora greeted Mitsuo with a cheerful, "Good morning...beautiful!", the beautiful emphasized in a way that would make the sarcasm obvious.

Safer suddenly said something about a beautiful Lady, Cora looked at Mitsuo again, not sure if Safer did not look at him correctly and now just mistook him for a woman. He might have. She observed Mitsuo once again, was...he blind? Why did he think Mitsuo was a lady? And then a beautiful one as well! She did not really get him, he could not have been blind otherwise he would not have survived in the survey corps, right? Maybe he was already drunk and now just pretended not to be in order to somehow appeal to Mitsuo...apropos appealing...he could not possibly have meant Cora, right? No. It was more plausible that he mistook Mitsuo for a female.

As they entered the tavern Cora instinctively tensed up until she had figured out the possible threats. It did not take her longer than a few seconds. Most of the people were drunk and given where her companions were sitting a few other people posed no threat to her.
She just walked over to them, not really watching out that the others followed her immediately.

Cora let herself fall down next to them, well onto one of them (it was more comfortable that way).
“I am here! Did you already order drinks?”, she asked while properly sitting down and shoving the others further behind the table to make space for the two newcomers.
They just shook their heads, “No we did not, we wanted to wait for you.”
“Good boys”, she said and grinned, “Sit down if you want to.”

Upon seeing a waitress one of her companions lifted his arm and shouted, “Three beer!”, he looked at Cora, “You?”
“I don’t drink alcohol…”
He grinned, “Oh? Really? Milk then! And...wait…”, he looked at Mitsuo and Safer, “What do you want?”

Safer walks into the Tavern seeing all types of people as he sits down next to Mitsuo, then he said with a straight face, "I'll just take a water. You never know when those things can come out of nowhere. It's just a matter of time simply before they break through that wall of ours. Anyways, sorry about that I don't mean to panic anyone of course." as he looked at Cora. It had seemed Safer was aware of the enemies powerful strength that can come at us any moment.

As he looks at Cora his red eyes were gleaming from the sun light coming from the Taverns window. Then, he takes his eyes off of Cora and looks at the waitress coming to our table with said water. She kindly hands Safer the water onto the table as she walks away. Soon, an argument was built up behind their table so he looks back seeing a massive man get upset with a drunk man two tables behind us causing commotion and begins to get up from the table walking calmly over there.

Once he get's close enough the massive man had the drunk guy in his grip and was going to strike a punch at him but Safer quickly shoved his hand in front of the drunk mans face causing the massive man to stop the punch. The massive man looks at him as Safer then says "Enough. Go back to drinking or just simply leave." as the massive man let's go of him as he see's Survey Corps and sits back down onto his table. Safer looks back at the drunk man and swipes the shoulders of his shirt saying, "You'd want to get this cleaned by the way." and then beginning to walk off back to Safer's table where everyone else was.

He calmly sits back down as all the other conversations stop in the Tavern and look at Safer as he stopped the fight. Safer begins to drink the water that was given to him by the waitress and looks back at the group awaiting a response. Safer seemed very calm during situations like this one, it was obvious that this kind of ability from him would be useful in combat. However, he never thought much of it he just thought of it as a natural occurrence.

Mitsuo didn't really sit down at the table with the others after entering the tavern; he fell down.
He sprawled out his torso and arms over the table and groaned.

When the waitress approached and asked for drinks, Mitsuo simply raised a hand and said, "whiskey please."

The young Shimura was not use to sleeping in such conditions, as one could easily tell, and thus him having a headache would be no surprise.
Said headache did not help being in such a loud environment such as this tavern.

Mitsuorolled his head to face Safer, squinting to look at him properly, "I don't think we've been introduced. I'm Mitsuo Shimura, who are you?"
His voice was fittingly just as rough as Mitsuo looked.

He rolled his head to face the table again and let out another groan. The rest of today is not going to be fun, he could tell.

Auth quietly observed all that was going on. Mitsuo being apparently dead tired, and the survey corp guy stopping a barfight. Pity he stopped it, really. Bar fights were fun. A flashback of Krolva back in the day got to Auth, when he was just drinking wine in the middle of hell broken loose. Yep, bar fights were fun.

In any case, it was about time he made his grand entrance as well. He stood up slowly, glass of wine still in hand, and walked over to Cora's table, carefully approaching her from behind. She tended to be very aware of her surroundings, so he had to make sure he's quiet.

Soon enough, he just leaned with a hand over on her chair, glass of wine in the other. At the same time, on guard enough not to get hit if she were to do that.

"Hello there, Miss Alpha Wolf." Auth eyed the survey corp right in his eyes. "Your new boyfriend?" He made a 'tsch tsch tsch' sound. "Changing men so quickly... no wonder poor Mitsuo is so down!"

He straightened back up. "Oh, sorry, forgot to introduce myself" He was talking to Safer now. "Auth vi Rauco, Milit... Well, Survey Corps. A pleasure!"

And now back to Cora. "May I sit here with you all?" He then sipped his wine slowly.

Cora did not pay close attention to what Safer was doing, just the main action. She had been in some great bar fights that involved broken bottles as well, so just punching was kind of boring for her. And breaking them up? A pity...it would have been fun.

Her companions barely noticed that there was a fight and just ended up trying to steal each others beers once the waitress brought them.

She looked at Mitsuo falling on the table in front of her, given the state he was in a bar fight was not too good. Mitsuo suddenly introduced himself to the newcomer. Right. She probably should have done that as well. But well, right now, would be quite bad. Apart from that...Mitsuo lying there, in front of her was way more fun than properly introducing herself now. She pulled back her sleeves and poked Mitsuo in the stomach, hoping he was ticklish. If yes she would try to tickle him even more. If not she would just stop complain about the fact that he was not ticklish and then just start drinking her milk.

She suddenly noticed someone putting a hand on her chair, before that hand was even properly touching the chair, one of her own hands (on the same side) moved quickly down to her leg, getting a knife, while the other moved upwards to protect her face and neck.
Cora did not make an attempt to hit said person or attack yet, it was a bar after all, she was on guard but there was no need to be exeptionally careful.

"Hello there, Miss Alpha Wolf.", Auth suddenly said. Cora turned around half to face him. She wanted to greet him but he already continued talking. Given what he said, she wished she would have talked over him.

While he was introducing herself she just started looking grumpy.

"My new boyfriend?! My new boyfriend?!", she mumbled, "I don't even know his name!", before Auth could somehow turn this to her disadvantage she just quickly invited him to sit on her lap: "You want to sit here? Of course you can, go on, there is still space on my lap!"

She kept the knife in her hand and just pointed it upwards, making no attempt to move it from her leg.

"Go on...sit...it's very comfortable.", Cora said with a teasing voice. She pushed against her companion's leg to make him move one seat to the side.

Cora did not move from her seat, to her left was now Safer and still one space free for either Mitsuo or Auth, she would just let them fight over it. She still enjoyed Mitsuo lying on the table, quite fun to watch and in any extreme case she could just use him as a pillow.

Both Nec and Vex agreed to rather using Mitsuo as a pillow than Auth.

Safer turned his head to Mitsuo saying, "Ah yes. I'm Safer Sephiroth in Survey Corps." as he takes a sip of water then putting the glass down back onto the table. He then looks at Auth saying "Sure thing. Sit down as you may." He also said clearly, "Can I have this tables attention? Something important came across my mind. So I heard Shiganshina was taken over by titans, so I'm going to take it back from them." as he gets up from the table glancing outside of the window to Wall Sina.

He starts to walk away from the table and then looks back once more at the group of people. He then says "I'll show them destruction. I'll avenge my mothers death, as it could be hope of saving humanity. Those in favor, shall go with me. Those not or too scared shall stay but I won't let her death be for nothing." Safer looks at the table he was at with confidence in himself thinking he can take back that area.

Everyone else around in the Tavern looks at Safer as he speaks clearly before leaving. The silence was not broken for a moment. Safer waited for a response thinking others would want to help. In his mind, he thought of no other person better to lead the attack then himself even though he's just a soldier. He knew the attack would have to happen anyways so better earlier then later. Safer had always envisioned himself as a hero type of person so this was nothing out of the ordinary type of thing he would do.

Poke. Poke. Poke. Mitsuo chuckled as he felt someone prodding at his ribs, "can you please stop? It feels weird."
Nevertheless he still chuckled at every poke, each time struggling harder and harder to contain his laughter. Mitsuo was indeed ticklish.

His brain took a moment to register Auth's presence​ even after hearing him talk, "yo."

Then Safer got up and started talking about.... Titans? Mitsuo 's headache made it harder for him to concentrate on what was being said.
"Shiganshina," he definitely heard that.

Mitsuo broke the silence of the tavern, "Are you stupid? That's suicide. Presently, even captains struggle when they go out there."

If he wasn't so worn down, Mitsuo probably raised his voice and even stood to face Safer, however right now he had no energy so he didn't even lift his head.

Auth listened to the guy say that he can sit, and then go on into completely ignoring what he said about Cora and him. Well, he certainly wasn't deaf, so probably just dense.

Sure enough, when the guy stood up to hold a speech about taking Shinganshina... alone... in the middle of a tavern nowhere... Auth found himself with his jaw almost dropping. It was not easy to take Auth by surprise, but sometimes, enough was enough.

As Mitsuo complained in the silence that was in the tavern, Auth leaned slowly to Cora's ear: "My most sincere apologies for even remotely saying you and that guy might be affiliated." After that, he straightened back up, and talked to the rest of the tavern: "Look, we swear we only met him now. We don't know him."

And then slowly turning to Safer, still absolutely amazed at the audacity of this ridiculous farce. "As for you, mister clown, I hope for your own sake that you're just dead drunk." And, quieter, so that only Safer and Cora's table could hear. "And if you're not, this is about the time when you start pretending to be."

With that, Auth took himself a chair, and slowly sat down next to Cora. His facial expression showed utter confusion as he slowly took his wine. He was not nearly drunk enough to take this guy serious. And, given how this guy seemed to think, it was unlikely he'll see him again anytime soon. Or ever. Much likelier that the guy would just end up a corpse in some titan mouth sometime in the very, very near future.

Auth leaned to Cora, muttering slowly under his breath in amazement. "Seriously though... where did you even find this weirdo?!"

Safer suddenly stood up and started talking about Shiganshina and taking it back. Cora was...quite surprised at him suddenly doing that and went on with bashing her own head on the table. A bit too hard, for her taste. She slowly went back into her usual position and quickly downed her milk.

Auth's comment did not make it any better either. She moved her hand to catch one of her companion's attention, who proceeded to stand up and get her bourbon.

She smiled at him as a sign of saying thank you, talking right now would have taken the attention away from Safer's speech and she really did not want to be in the limelight right now.

Auth now made a comment about Safer being drunk while Cora made almost the same hand movement as before. Her companion sighed, stood up and came back with a bottle of Whisky. That might help.

Cora started nipping on her Bourbon, really enjoying the burning feeling it left in her throat. That was the best part. Getting drunk afterwards was the downside to alcohol.

She just sighed at Auth's question.
"I did not find him...he found me...and followed me like a lost puppy...", she looked at Safer. He really seemed like a lost puppy.

The people in the tavern started talking again. A waitress came towards them, checking if they needed anything.
"Do you still need anything?"
"No, thanks...we are fine, well actually, bring us...", Cora looked around, "Four more glasses for the Whisky."
The waitress nodded and shortly after came back with said four glasses.

Cora looked at Safer, "Want to sit down again? And...maybe...drink something?"

Safer sighs then looks at Cora and the rest of the group saying "Hmph. Very well then." as he walks back to their table sitting back down again. Once he sits back down, he immediately takes another sip of water. After the sip of water, Safer looks at his glass of water calmly tapping on the side of it. He goes to say in a clear voice, "Look at us..Simply drinking our own sorrow away not doing anything about it. Our parents would be proud."

Safer focuses on the water gently moving back and forth in his glass due to the tapping. Then, suddenly he stops the tapping on the glass water and closes his eyes then opens them glancing at the others. He goes to say "For all I know, you guy's probably just think I'm drunk or something. What a pity that is because I don't even drink." The commotion and chatter of the other tables begin to start once again as they whisper about how weird he's being.

Safer begins to have a flashback: It was exactly 2:16 P.M in Shiganshina on the day of the titan's taking it over that area. Little Safer was playing outside by himself in broad day light running around freely in the mist of all the colorful flowers with the wind blowing them a certain direction. However, a huge sound had came from Wall Maria that had the wall broken into which was starting to crawl with titans coming in rapidly. Little Safer ran for his house and see's his mother in the distance being eaten by one but he couldn't do anything but watch. He tries to run up at the titan but a Survey Corps member; Lucifer had grabbed him and was bringing him to safety away retreating back behind Wall Rose as other military forces helped with the slowing down of the titan's. The flashback stops and he comes back to his senses looking at the group of people at the table.

Mitsuo finished his first glass of whiskey. he placed it down on the table hard enough for it to make a 'thud'.

"What?"

Mitsuo sat up and turned to Safer.
He continued speaking, his voice still rough and now toned with anger, "Excuse you. My parents are proud!"

He glanced around the room, deciding not to talk loud enough for other tables to hear. In places like these, Mitsuo understood that if one person gets angry chances are other people will get angry which would then lead to the inevitable bar fight.

"My parents are proud that I am doing my job correctly, which isn't going out there without orders and getting myself killed."

Mitsuo took a moment to collect himself. This wasn't for his out-of-control emotions, they were fine. This was for his state of health which, right now, was struggling to stay conscious.

"However, if you want to go and play the fool I won't stop you. Heck, I don't even know you. But mark my words; rash decisions will get you killed."

He was going. Any moment now he was going to pass out. He would not be able to stop it.

"You already knew that though, didn't you? Yet you still want to go out there. Ok, let's say you do go out there, either by yourself or with a group. Let's say you go out there and win. What then? When you come back ther-"

Annnnnnnnd..... gone.
Mitsuo slumped onto the table again, passed out.
His fists, which he didn't realise he clenched, relaxed.
His breathing slowed down as he fell into a slumber.

Auth idly played with his wine glass as Cora ordered an absurd amount of drinks. He chuckled.

"Miss Alpha wolf, I was under the impression you don't drink?" Memories of old times passed through Auth's head. "I mean, I don't mind, but... last time you drank... we both know what happened, don't we?"

In the meantime, Safer sat back down. And talked about parents. Auth's grip on the wine glass immediately strengthened, only to soon after let go. The poor thing would shatter into pieces if he would have kept it any longer. Calm down, Auth. And yet, he only got more angry. Fine... don't. But control yourself for heaven's sake.
That, he did.

Mitsuo, seemingly, did not. Or at least not as well, as he snapped at Safer. Which, in turn, reinforced Auth's own anger. He breathed in, as Mitsuo fainted. Probably not the drink, but the tiredness that was already there before. He breathed out.

"Look." Auth's voice was quiet, but very heavily emphasized. "My father died less than a month ago. My mother is in mourning since." He was talking slow, each word like a hammer stroke. "I have fought with the Corps for four years. Have not seen you once. You're greener than fresh grass, newbie."

"I will not question if you've seen a titan. Have you ever fought one? I assure you, they are nothing like those wooden dummies." Auth thought of the times he himself had gotten injured alongside time. "Ever fought an aberrant? One who runs faster than your horse, that is suicide to even get near to, but you still have to kill him somehow?" Auth's voice grew quieter, as he leaned in to Safer, looking him dead in the eyes.

"Have you ever even seen a Shifter? Twice as tall as your usual titan, and beefed up with muscles enough to be crack by just tensing?" His voice grew sharp and cutting now, almost snake-like. "And that is human-minded? That is trained to kill? That KNOWS how you fight, and that knows how you attack him? And how to counter that?"

Auth sat back down. "I've fought each and every one of these. I have not won all of my battles. The last one destroyed my house and killed my father. Inside the walls." Breathe in, breathe out. "And you want to go out there all the way to Shinganshina? Are you aware it's a twelve day trip? Twenty-four, if you also want to come back. If you don't bring carts, that is. Otherwise it's even longer." Auth closed his eyes.

"Bah. I'm talking in vain anyway." He leaned back on his chair, more calm than before, now that he has vented off some steam. "What could someone like you ever understand. Say hello to my father when you meet him, will you? Captain Adar vi Rauco, Demon of the Military Police, you've surely heard of him."

Auth sipped his wine. "Oh, and one more thing. I drink for pleasure, not sorrow. Not like you'll ever get that either."

He sighed, looking at Cora, then at Mitsuo. He'd have to take care of them for the night. Eh. Not like he had anything better to do anyway.


//OOC: Adar is notorious enough for Safer to have heard of him, especially with his very recent death. People in the military would have talked a lot about him, who he was and what he did. My character has a section in the backstory dedicated to who Adar was.

Cora remained silent as Safer was talking. Remindind Auth of his father right now...was not too good of an idea and given how Mitsuo's relationship with his parents was the idea just got worse. Nec, Vex and Cora made bets inside of her head on who would start first. Cora's and Nec's bet was on Auth, Vex's on Mitsuo.

Mitsuo was surprisingly the first to complain and Vex won the bet. They had decided on whomever lost the bet had to drink. This proved to be quite inconvenient for all of them though.

Cora drank the rest of her bourbon, then just gave the control to Nec for a short while.

"Why did I even agree to this...", he mumbled in a totally different voice while reaching for the whiskey and just pouring it in his glass. After drinking it he just gave the control back to Cora.

Mitsuo suddenly passed out and she quickly put a hand on his neck to check if he was still alive. He was, so it was fine he was passed out...on the other hand...she really wondered if he was ticklish.

Auth started holding one of his mini speeches again. He was quite skilled at them! She really wondered if it would affect Safer in any way. Vex tried convincing both Nec and Cora to another bet but neither of them agreed. Quite disappointing in his opinion.

As Auth leaned in closer to Safer she was quite tempted to just push his head against Safer's. That would be quite a fun event! She would love to see them do that, not because she liked seeing people kiss, on the contrary, but she would just really love to see Auth's reaction.
While she was thinking about doing that she noticed Auth's hair. How wonderful! She never realized he had long hair up to until now. Why did she not?

He leaned back on the chair and Cora's eyes followed him with a mesmerized look. She slowly lifted her arm up to his head and would pat it if he would not do anything against it. The way she moved resembled a toddler.

Vex reminded her of Safer, whom she had completly ignored right now. She quickly turned around and looked at the glass of water in his hand. If she did drink something, he would have to as well! Right? But how...she frowned at him, shook her head and closed her eyes.

"One...twoooooooooo...threeeeeeee", she slowly and quietly counted. Her one hand was slowly moving her glass to her lips again the other one went down her leg into her boots. Where was it? THERE! Vex got the knife out of his boots, opened his eyes, grinned maniacly at Safer and then turned to look at Mitsuo.

He started throwing the knife up in the air, catching the blade again without hurting himself. After a few throws he cought it on the handle and rammed it into the table while quickly turning around to Safer.

Cora.
Sure.

"You know...I still do not know your name...you seem quite keen on dying, want to die for a greater cause than Shiganshina?", Cora asked this time, there was not indication voice wise that it was Vex talking.
She got the knife out of the table again and leaned in closer to Safer, playing around with it quite close to her and thus his face.
"I am the greater cause. Can I...kill you?", while talking the voice shifted from Cora's to Vex's, getting more high pitched but not more feminine.
She stopped playing with her knife, started laughing and leaned back.
"I was just kidding! I would not kill you! Not right now anyway!", her voice was fully normal again.

Vex really hoped he would not have noticed her pouring a bit of alcohol in his water.

Safer blinks as Auth got really close to him and then says "Was that supposed to scare me? If so, I'm sorry to say that it didn't work. And I love how you just assume I've never fought a titan before as your someone who's never even met me until now.You're wrong if you think I have the skill set of a 'Newbie'..." as he glances over back at Auth with a grin. He then says "Let's just say your world just got a whole lot bigger."  as he holds onto his glass water with one hand.

It appeared that Safer was trained even before he had got into the Survey Corps which was odd because this information is brand new. No one had ever known about that being a thing and people just wouldn't believe this is something he would do. I mean going against the rules to train to kill titans? It all sounded pretty stupid... However, Safer felt the need to so and trusted Blaine with this secret of theirs.

He notices Cora pulling out a knife on him and then says calmly, "If your intentions were to kill me you would've done it by now so simply it's fair to say you're not going to." as he looked at Cora with the reassurance that she won't lay a finger on him. After that, Safer turned his head to Mitsuo saying "Mitsuo. I feel for you as you're dealing with your parent's death. I just seek change, no matter what we must do to get back Shiganshina I'll do it. Let me prove my worthiness in battle. I don't care how long it takes to get permission to get Survey Corps members to take that place back I'm in for it." as he says with confidence.

Safer wanted to be part of something important such as taking back Shiganshina. This was clearly a task only the best Survey Corps members would take care of. He was agreeing to simply wait to speak with higher ups about taking it back if that was the case not wanting to go out alone anymore which would result in death. Safer wanted it to be an actual mission he could participate in.

Cora had slammed a knife onto the table.
This made Mitsuo react in the same way as any normal person would; by freaking out.

Mitsuo jumped from shock and failed to regain his balance, making him flail and fall to the ground.
To show that he was ok, he groaned slightly.

"Thanks for the wake up call," he managed to say, his voice proving he was displeased.

He was awake to hear parts of the conversation going on, "...your world just got a whole lot bigger."

Such a phrase did not make Mitsuo any happier. He groaned again.
"My world was big enough already."

He then struggled to get to his feet. Once stood up, he made sure he had his balance before listening in to the conversation again.
"I feel for you as you're dealing with your parent's death."

. . .

`What did he just say?` Mitsuo was pretty shocked at the news.
`This couldn't be right`, he thought, `nothing could have happened to them.`

"My parents... aren't dead... are they?"
Mitsuo was barely able to get his words off of his tongue. His voice was cracking.

He stood there, his expression was broken.

"E-Excuse me a minute," he mumbled.

Mitsuo left the group at the table and headed for the bathroom.
After the bathroom door closed behind him he rushed to the sink and splashed his face with cold water.

`Wake up,` he mentally told himself, `wake up, damn it!`

//OOC: Mitsuo's parents aren't actually read, you got him confused with Auth, who's father died recently.

Cora did not really pay too much mind to Mitsuo waking up unpleasantly, she was way too busy listening to Safer. He was quite interesting, she herself was not sure if she meant that in a positive or negative way. He certainly was putting himself in the limelight though, not that Cora would mind, just Vex minded. This might prove to be a problem given that she was more than just very slightly drunk by now. She looked at Safer again, well...atleast she would not be the only one...right? She had completly and utterly ignored his reaction to her doing that. It almost seemed as if she had switched her brain off while he was talking. Only Nec remembered what Safer said.

She yawned and then turned towards one of her companions. She observed him until he noticed her and got insanely confused. Cora started laughing.

Cora seemed to have missed a vital part of the conversation given that Mitsuo suddenly disappeared looking quite shocked. Mar-ve-lous. Her eyes followed his movement until he was not visible anymore and just stayed at where he had left. She did not look exactly...present, she just stared somewhere, keeping her glass of Whisky in her hand, slowly shaking it around. She turned her head slowly and started observing the glass, more specifically the fluent inside. How did it...fit so well in there? And...the glass...she was mesmerized. She slowly turned the glass, wanting to look at the bottom of it.

"AHA!", she suddenly shouted happily, turned the glass the right way around again and finished her drink before turning it, "Cora is not as dumb as she might seem!", she whispered and started observing the now empty glass. After a very short while she noticed the lack of interesting subjects in the tavern. Mitsuo had left, and so had the one person she could tickle. There still was Safer, but he had some weird titan fetishes she did not want to be concerned with now and then there was Auth. The good old Auth. The 'Lord' as he would love to get called. The....

Mental notes!
Wings.
Idiot.
Only relevant ones!
That is relevant!
RIGHT!

The winged man. The...bird...the black bird. No, wait, different bird. Right. The black Swan. She was staring at Auth the whole time while trying to remember things about him. Nah, it was not a Swan...a swan was too pretty for him. She frowned at Auth as if it was his fault for her not remembering.
Cora suddenly noticed his long hair again. She exhaled sharply, not even that gave any form of clue regarding his bird.

She ended up turning around again to refill her glass. Ludwig made a short comment about her already being drunk. Even though it took her a while to realize what he just said she still felt insulted. Quite badly so. She was not drunk! Not in her opinion! Vex was still alright, so, of course she was, right?

"I?! Drunk?! You will see! You take that back!"
Ludwig grinned. Cora grunted.

"Fine. I will prove it.", she stood up, climbed onto her chair and turned around to the tavern.

"LIIIISTEN, PEASANTS!", she shouted to get everyone's attention (she did not end up getting everyone's attention, but most of the people did actually listen, mostly because she was standing on a chair), "IS ANYONE BRAVE ENOUGH TO FIGHT ME? NO WEAPONS, THINGS LYING AROUND ARE FINE!", she looked at the people a few men were starting to talk to each other.

"NO OTHER RULES? WHAT DO WE GET?", one of them shouted.
Cora turned around and got the whisky bottle, only a tiny little bit was left, about as much as in her glass already.
"DRINK THAT! YOU DON'T GET ANYTHING, YOU ALREADY GET THE LEFTOVERS OF THIS BOTTLE!"

The same guy that shouted stood up and went towards her, she handed him the bottle, they bumped their glasses/bottle together and drank it all down in one go. She lifted her arms and half accidentally crushed the glass in her hand. If Safer and Auth would not dodge it they would get a few drops of whisky and glass splitters on top of their heads.
She placed one foot on top of the back of the chair and slowly shifted her weight on it until the chair started tilting and fell on the ground. Cora jumped off of it as it had almost reached the floor. There was not too much of a height difference between her opponent and Cora, she was slightly smaller but not much.
Cora stretched her hand out to shake hands, realized there were still one or two glass splinters inside it and quickly removed them. She would attempt to pat both Auth's and Safer's head with said bloody hand if they would not dodge it while she was starting to make her way out of the tavern.

Auth very, very boredly listened to Safer brag. He wasn't about to yawn, but he faked stifling one anyway, mostly to see whether or not Safer would get mad. Auth's bet was on that he wasn't socially aware enough to realize. And in any case, as Safer told Auth his world got larger, he immediately immersed in a fit of barely-contained laughter.

"My world got bigger, kid?" Auth leaned on the table, with a hand over his mouth, keeping his laugh in. The hypocrisy was so enjoyable, of the braggy brat condemning him for assuming, then going on to do the exact same. "On the one hand you are right" And he was. With his father now dead, Auth's world got a whole damn lot bigger. Just... "On the other, encountering you has, if anything, narrowed my world by quite a bit. I genuinely feel like I'm getting dumber the more I talk to you." With that, he leaned back, and managed to slip in one more sip of wine before he chuckled again.

Obviously, as Safer apologized to Mitsuo for his parents dying, the laughter fit was uncontrollable anymore. Doubly so upon Mitsuo waking up confused, then wondering if his parents are dead, then storming to the bathroom. Auth took a deep breath, trying to contain himself, as he wiped the very small tears formed by laughing so hard. He then leaned in to Safer.

"Look, it's not your ability to kill a titan that I doubt. It's pretty much your ability to realize you're actually fighting one." He laughed again. "For all you've proven now was that on one hand, you're completely unable to asses threats..." Really, this guy thought the Survey Corps could do shit in regards to taking Shinganshina. If that were the case, it would have been done long ago; the Survey Corps is powerless when faced to an endeavor that massive. "And for another, that your perception to the stuff around you is only second to that of a medium-sized brick." Time to make bets again, of whether the guy would take this one as a compliment or not. Auth was unsure about this one.


And, as he was preparing to continue, the carnival also went on. It was Cora this time. Dead drunk Cora, in fact. Chair acrobatics seemed to be the number this evening, and then wanting to fight with a guy. Auth sighed. Well, as much as he did enjoy barfights, fun time was about over. Mitsuo was going to be smart enough to not leave the tavern, but...

...line of thought suddenly interrupted by the need of blocking falling whiskey droplets with the end of his travel cloak...

... Cora couldn't be bet on to be as wise. On quite the contrary actually, as she jumped down from the chair, and proceeded to drink even more. Auth closed his eyes for a split second, and shifted his mind into serious business mode. After all, if his thoughts were correct, what was about to happen was...

...Cora tried to wipe her bloody hand on his head. All good and well, but she was doing so as she was leaving the tavern. That was less good and less well.

Auth grabbed her hand by the wrist, moving at actual combatlike speed. His grip was also equally tight. Droplets of blood from Cora's hand dripped on his cloak, as Auth stood up. He eyed the 'opponent' Cora has managed to pick.

"You'll excuse her not participating." Auth was not sounding pleased at all. "Please go back to your drink. If you don't have one, just buy one and I'll pay for it later."

With that, his attention turned back to Cora. "Now, Miss Alpha Wolf, you're not leaving this tavern until I deem you in enough quality to do so." He quickly eyed the henchmen. "And don't bet on your underlings to get you out of this one. With you in this state, you're not able to fight me, and you know it." As Auth was better than sober Cora, drunk Cora wouldn't have been any major difference. Especially not with a flintlock in his pocket, as per usual.

He was holding her hand in such a way that moving away would not be possible without breaking her own wrist.

"Now sit down, please."