Bearing Gifts [Reiner]

[Aurin]

"Whether it's the mean streets of Cathena or the Grungeworks of the Brass City," he said of his penchant for blades, "a man has to look out for himself. Fists are fine. Knives can warn people off. Firearms tend to be final." He shrugged. "I'm used to the other shoe dropping. I don't want to be back outside your wards without 'em is all."

Aurin considered before answering.

"The Brenner Dornkirk I met was charming. A man's man. He had the sort of generosity of men born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Money doesn't mean much to them because they have never been without it. That in itself isn't bad... He was fun. Witty. Knew how to have a good time. I heard a thousand variations of what happened at the Palace. I wasn't there. Didn't seem the underhanded assassin type to me, but again, I didn't know him well or long. And everything I've heard is that Kalzasi was not behind... the mutants. I mean, there are conspiracy theorists, of course, and diehard patriots who like to think their rulers could do this to their enemies." He shook his head. "I admire him for what I found admirable. I don't have enough knowledge or... really... right to judge him. Doesn't make sense to me that they all would have gone to the trouble of sending their crown prince here and then Zaichaeri luminaries to his wedding, all these diplomatic gestures, just to assassinate and commit holocausts at first opportunity."

He sighed. He shrugged.

"It's a fucked up world. I just live in it."

Once in the mess hall, Aurin gave it his usual once-over. He liked to know where exits were, and where threats might arise. He nodded at the instructions, and laughed at what the cook said as he was walking over to pour two coffees. The milk was powdered and he wasn't sure about the sugar, so he decided just to go with black and bitter, and sat down at a table with his back to the wall. He nudged one of the other chairs out to make the PFC's sitting easier.

When he arrived with whatever the mystery non-meat special was, Aurin flashed a white smirk.

"Thanks, Schönling."

[Reiner Dornkirk]

"Zaichaer does appreciate finality." Reiner conceded, content to let the matter drop now that he'd made his little jabs. His face tensed slightly as Aurin elected to elaborate upon his time in the company of his cousin of Dornkirk. He hadn't expected that much detail. It came at odd angles and hurt his heart. He was jealous, sure, that this stranger had been afforded the time to render all these opinions, while his firsthand accounts were all public speeches viewed from great distances. He might have melted right then and there, until Aurin slipped in that Kalzasern propaganda. His shoulders tensed and his jaw clenched.

It wasn't just that he'd claimed Kalzasi wasn't behind the conflagration, it was that he dismissed the notion as being so implausible that it required some sort of zealotry on the part of even the Kalzasern population to fathom it. His soul cried out for him to counter this summary dismissal of an understanding that felt so inherently true and overtly obvious that it was more like arithmetic than politics. But, rather than posing the obvious questions that Aurin's assertions demanded, he forced a smile and echoed the last sentiment stated that he could agree with.

"It's a fucked up world." But Reiner didn't like to think he just lived in it. He wanted to act... to change things.

"It's a stupid nickname..." Reiner sighed, placing their bowls down and taking his seat. Maybe that was the one good thing about not seeing many familiar faces here at the Schiller. Fewer people who remembered the taunts that used to madden him. Even so, he'd have welcomed a few jibes in familiar voices if it meant the bastards were still kicking around and not dead or dread.

[Aurin]

"Sorry, man," he said when he realized everything he said was dimming the light inside the comely young soldier. Aurin offered a conciliatory half-smile, then let his gaze drop to his—we'll call it a stew. He might run a fancy theater, but he ate like someone who had missed plenty of meals in his day. The adrenaline of the fight had worn off, and he had carried a man's worth of dead weight all the way here, then dealt with the little pains of thread and needle, ethanol and bandages. Parts of him remained on high alert, as well. He heard some of the coven witches had been welcomed to the Sky Islands, but that might just be propaganda to make them lower their guard.

"There are worse nicknames you could have," he added before taking a sip of his coffee. The fox-faced man did love his stimulants. His eyes rose long enough to meet Dornkirk's and offer a mysterious, admiring smile, then dropped back to his meal.

It was unlikely to be his last meal. If he was in trouble, he would be in the brig at this point. But he didn't know if this was his opportunity to get himself onto the Sky Islands, or just an inside look at one of the military bases that kept parts of the ruined city reasonably safe.

His Semblance trick was handy, but times like these he was reminded that it was often wasted as a blunt instrument rather than with surgical precision. It would take time to untangle the barbed wire around the man's heart, especially where loops of it were wrapped up in that family name. Whatever Aurin knew or didn't know about who and what had caused various offenses against Kalzasi and Zaichaer, the soldier obviously had to hold onto certain beliefs to get through the grueling days and the haunted nights. He might have suggested a facial scar or some facial hair to counter the old nickname, but he didn't want his humor to fail him again so soon.

So he waited, quiet for the time being, until Dornkirk should give him a lead, an in, or a warning that it was time to cut and run.

[Reiner Dornkirk]

"Mm." The private just grunted and nodded at the apology. Aurin would be able to Semble that this shouldn't be taken for accepting it.

Reiner had eaten on the airship not long ago and the meal had been prepared with ingredients from the Islands, so he was more reserved in his dining. It wasn't Fritzi's fault that he had to make do with whatever canned goods could be salvaged by scouts sent to forage. At least the private knew supplies including foodstuffs arrived with him earlier on the Noble Gambit.

"There are, I guess." Reiner agreed, "I just... When I was younger people mistook me for a girl a lot. Unfortunately some of those same kids followed me into the service and brought the nickname along with them, so... It's whatever. I know I'm no less of a man just because of how I looked when I was a kid. " He shrugged one shoulder. He seemed to be saying this more to enforce it in his own mind than because he believed it firmly.

"So, anyway I'm just here for the day for an inspection thing. This isn't where I'm typically stationed. There are more ranking officers I can introduce you to when the ship comes back to pick me up in a few hours. I'm not entirely clear on what your goals are, but if you're in a position to help out... or even if you need help yourself, then they'll be better situated to deal with you." He pursed his lips,

"I don't know if you're familiar with the Zaichaeri military or how the ranking system works in your 'Sky Guard', but I'm pretty low in the pecking order. After the Breach there just aren't as many of us left." He took a sip of the coffee and winced.

"Fuck me, Fritzi!" He lifted his head to look over his shoulder at the cook, "How did you make this more sour than it was in Frost?"

"Cause it's the same pot!" Fritz shot back with a chortle. "You're the only one dumb enough to drink it!"

[Aurin]

Aurin offered a tight, understanding smile at the admission. He wasn't one to compare misery dicks, but that didn't sound nearly as bad as his own youth. But he would rather commiserate than think back to such times. Then he focused on listening while finishing his food. It didn't take him long, and he laughed about the coffee.

"Beggars can't be choosers," he noted, taking a sip of his and allowing for a slight wince.

"Ahh... don't have firm plans except look for a few things Zaichaeri citizens in Kalzasi have asked me to look for. Then get out before my luck runs out. And I don't know much about the Sky Guard, actually. I try to avoid them for the most part. One too many run ins with someone who had a chip on his shoulder and thought he was better than me because he was born with wings." He shrugged. "So I don't actually know how this works. If there's a bunk for me here, I can idle around, try to make myself useful, and wait to hear back from on high if there are people who think they can use me. I mean... I can bring word back to the refugees in Kalzasi. I can maybe take a census there of who I know has survived and get it back to you. Maybe the powers that be want them to come back."

He spread his hands.

"I mean, I wouldn't mind seeing Zaichaer from above, but I don't know if I'm welcome up there so... you tell me."

Aurin would try to do right by the littlest, prettiest Dornkirk. Perhaps the lad would get a promotion and associate Aurin with good fortune. If he could get himself to the Sky Islands, he could, perhaps, see Stefan Dornkirk again, gain a little standing up there. He could also look into those coven witches who had opted to co-exist with their former oppressors. But even if he had to bide his time at Schiller, it was safe enough, and there would be information to gather.

[Reiner Dornkirk]

"We've all been beggared here..." Reiner offered a bit grimly as he wrinkled his nose and took another sip of the abysmal coffee, before placing the cup down. He grimaced at the talk of the Sky Guard. He couldn't imagine living under that kind of oppressive yoke. He knew that Avialae were imposing, but he couldn't fathom being cowed as less-than just because they descended from some crackpot mage's experiment. How strange that they were proud of this rather than ashamed. At least the Kathar seemed to have it right, he figured... In the Imperium they were tools, in Kalzasi they were oppressors.

"Yeah, I don't know if you'd be welcome there either... Don't let my surname fool you- Those decisions are above my pay grade." Aurin might sense that Reiner's relationship with the Dornkirk name was complicated. When he mentioned it, there were tinges of doubt... the feeling that he was an imposter, even if it was all tangled up with a great deal of pride. He may have had just as much Dornkirk blood as Cousin Stefan, but the name was his mother's maiden. His birth certificate said Strauß.

When Aurin seemed to be finished, Reiner took his bowl and placed his own unfinished one atop it.

"I've got to get back to work. You should probably rest up... If you want to clean yourself up or anything, I'll have somebody show you to the washroom." He beckoned another private over.

"Can you get our guest set up with a bunk for a few hours? Maybe a bath if there are enough water rations?" Reiner would rise, dispose of the plates and leave Aurin in the care of the other private. It would have been sundown if the sun were visible when the Noble Gambit descended to the roof level. Reiner found Aurin where he'd been set up in one of the dormitories.

"All right, Red. The cavalry has arrived to whisk me back to home base. If you want to come along, I can introduce you to the Captain Seeker. He's proper brass, so he can let you know whether you're welcome on the Islands or... whatever we can do for you."

[Aurin]

There were a lot of conflicting impressions coming off of the lesser-known Dornkirk. Aurin just tried to soak it up and not offend him. Later, perhaps, he would have a better sense of him and how to handle him. The fox-faced man didn't want anything from him in particular except to stay on his good side, the better to stay safe even in this safe haven for humankind. So he just offered the Schönling a rakish salute and then turned his charms on his new babysitter.

There was enough water to spare for a whore's bath, and he had managed to swap some clothes out. They were going to mend his coat and see if they couldn't keep the blood from staining. The shirt would go into the laundry and they would see. Sleeping in a strange place with no locks wasn't easy for him, but he did stretch out with his hands behind his head and doze for a while. His eyes were open before Dornkirk fully entered the room and while he managed not to make it look like a fear response, he was quickly on his feet, shaking out the loaned coat that had been his pillow.

He barked a laugh at the nickname. "I'll take it. Thanks for not translating mine into Kathalan; it just wouldn't sound right at all."

Aurin pulled on the coat. It was an officer's winter greatcoat, stripped of insignia, rank, or anything to say whose it had been before. But it didn't fit any officer here present, so it would do for now. He may have employed a bit of glamour to make himself seem more officer-like, however. He wanted to make a good impression on this Captain Seeker; he might be the gatekeeper to get him to the more powerful Dornkirk and whatever information he might gather from that sort of access.

"All right. I'm ready for my audience with... is he ZADC and Order?" Well, Dornkirk had said that they were all stepping up to fill in shoes and spaces left by those who were gone. "Lead the way, Obergefreiter Schönling!" His tone was playful, but not mocking. He had always found that the best way to take the teeth out of a slur was to take it for oneself.

[Reiner Dornkirk]

"I don't think I caught your nickname to translate." Reiner shrugged one shoulder. It would have seemed obvious if he heard it- a foregone conclusion. He'd even independently thought of him in vulpine terms without having heard it uttered, but such as things were he left Aurin on Red.

"That he is." Reiner nodded firmly, "That came before the Breach, but he's jumped a few rungs on the ladder of each agency given our recent casualties. He's a good man and best friend to the Minister." They'd bonded after their exploits in this very base when it fell to the enemy, so his compliments were derived from an earnest and intimate place.

Reiner cringed at the repetition of his own nickname, and sighed heavily.

"Fritzi's going to pay for that." He vowed, as he pivoted on the heel of his boot and headed out into the corridor. He would lead Aurin to a stairwell and up the several flights it took to reach the roof. There they would find the Noble Gambit had drawn up alongside the edge of the roof. Reiner imagined it must have taken a deft pilot's maneuvering to remain so near without scraping the hull against the brick. There was so small a gap between the entry point and the roof that it would only take a step to cross from one to the other. Reiner saluted as the Captain Seeker disembarked.

"Captain Seeker, sir! This is Aurin Kaf... Kufuvis?" He winced at himself and looked to Aurin for confirmation, "No? Kavafis." Back to Eitan,

"Lately of Kalzasi. He was found amidst the rubble helping a severely wounded infantryman to safety. He was wounded himself and seems to have acted valiantly in spite of his Kalzasern citizenship. Private von Heune is in stable condition thanks to his efforts. I thought you might have a better handle on what to do with him, sir."

[Aurin]

"Oh, I thought Red... better than Rot..." But he just smiled and shrugged off the miscommunication, opting not to endanger passage onto one of the remaining ZADC airships. He was curious whether he would be able to learn its place in the slipstream; it was a location in itself in some ways, but not a fixed point in space. Perhaps he could ask Valencia whenever he made it back to ground and could get himself into one of the Railrunner safehouses.

As he was about to meet a Seeker of the Order of Reconciliation, he pulled all his aether out of his Runes except to keep his Semblance trick engaged in inverting itself and those Runes from scrying eyes. One never knew whether a Watcher of Purity would be armed with aura glass or Runes of their own, a special sort of hypocrisy, though he knew they had wormed their way around to justify the use of magic to combat magic.

"Aurin Kavafis, at your service, sir," he corrected smoothly with an equally smooth bow in the Zaichaeri style; he had, in fact, lived here, after all—long enough to ape the upper classes when necessary. Perhaps he ought to have worn the guise of Darus of Haqs to avoid connection with Kalzasi, but Darus of Haqs didn't know the current head of state pro tempore, so it was a calculated risk. "Not, in point of fact, a Kalzasern citizen, but a resident alien."

The Captain Seeker, for his part, maintained the crisp, studied perfection of ZADC appearance from the before times, whether from personal vanity or an effort to provide his peons with a visual symbol of what they had lost and what they were fighting for. Aurin didn't know, but he could recognize the leadership style one way or another. His dark brow furrowed for a moment, then relaxed with a spark of recognition.

"The sympathetic impresario," he said, connecting the dots. Adding drily, "I have read the reports." While Aurin's eyebrows rose in surprise, the brass considered. "Thank you for helping Private von Heune, Mister Kavafis. I suppose the Minister might wish to reacquaint himself with you, and pose some questions." The swarthy man looked as though he had a brace of questions he would like to ask and just might in due time. "Thank you, Dornkirk. Well, all aboard that's coming aboard, then. I trust Schiller passed muster? Fritzi will be pleased at the game we brought frozen from the wild." He stepped aside so they could embark. Dornkirk would have to see to Kavafis for the time being, and report directly to his cousin when they returned to the Sky Islands.

[Reiner Dornkirk]

"I see." Reiner pursed his lips, seeming to take the little mix-up entirely too seriously and waxing difactic:

"If you pronounced that correctly, it wouldn't sound bad in Common." He rolled a uvular 'R' in the back of his throat and demonstrated. "Rot. Rhymes with 'boat', alles klar?"

"Kavafis." Reiner mouthed the name after Aurin gave voice to it, since that had been his own pronunciation mishap moments earlier. He supposed that meant they were even, until he flushed at Aurin's correction of Reiner's description. He was a bit embarrassed by the apparent negligence and cast his eyes down, momentarily- only lifting them when Captain Seeker Angevin seemed to know Aurin by reputation. He arched a brow at this, but remained mum until he was addressed.

"Aye, sir. Things have been rearranged to better suit the current state of the facility, but everything seems to be in order with the current complement." He narrowed his eyes slightly at the mention of Fritzi.

"Das hat er nicht verdient."
(He doesn't deserve that.) Reiner griped,
"Aber es ist gut, dass unsere Soldaten besser essen werden."
(But it's good that our soldiers will eat better.) He stepped beside Eitan as they headed toward the Noble Gambit.

"Übrigens hat er Waffen aber nur unzauberliche Messer."
(By the way, he has weapons, but only non-magical blades.) He stepped ahead of Eitan and moved to one side, to grant him a clearer path inside.

"Ich glaube, dass er hat eine günstige Einstellung zu Kalzasi. Wir sollten vorsichtig sein, mein Herr."
(I believe that he has a favorable attitude toward Kalzasi. We should be cautious, sir.) Reiner suggested, casting a backward glance over his shoulder at the smooth talking ginger.