NV: Oh, BTW you guys have guests coming... 3 of them. <8:13pm>

LCR: Gee, thanks for telling us in such a timely manner <8:13>

. . . . . . . . . .

It's already 11 o clock, I have to wake up very early tomorrow, these people are too much, and I want to go home.

Now Li wasn't afraid of people. He wasn't scared of speaking in front of a crowd- he never would have made it this far if he was. Just last month a water dam had broken and flooded some homes and he’d faced down reporters and angry locals demanding he take responsibility. A horde of angry shouting faces, yelling over him and flashing cameras as he stood at a podium was a regular tuesday evening. That was fine. There was a fight to win, a position to defend, and facts to back him up.

But when he wasn’t working, Li valued his privacy, he preferred to keep anonymity as he traveled the streets of his own city. But tonight was the exact opposite of that, tonight was... mortifying.

All afternoon and evening the three unexpected nobles had been carting him from restaurant to theater to showroom to bar. And at each place King Midas, would step up to the nearest attendant, hands on hips, intricate gold bands glittering in the lights and say “You’re attention please. We are here to celebrate his Excellency’s birthday.” The Hummingbird, Prince Edwin of Reilig had no issue loudly declaring what they wanted and where they were going next. Soon curious onlookers were pressing at the windows of each establishment. It got so crowded that people started hawking fake watches and purses to the people who were following them around.

And people would scramble to serve them. Li was used to service but he was starting to feel slimey from the complements. He hated people kissing up to him, and oddly one of his complaints was that his citizens did it so badly.

“I love your coat! Cashmere?”

'More Ice? Since your the cool guy?'

“So do you have a side career in modeling?”

“How is he not married yet? Doesn’t he look like a ladykilller?”

"Is that napkin too course for you? We have silk in the back"

“It’s you’re birthday? Wow and you look so young- not a day over 30!”

“I didn’t know the Law could look so bad.”

"You know if there was an election for your position, I would have voted for you!"

“Want me to slice your meat for you?”

“I just respect you sooo much”

This last compliment was delivered in an intoxicated drawl, by a hooker who had obviously been gunning for Count Orun but was trying to make the most of a bad situation. Count Orun was the kind of man who could say and do nothing yet drip with charm. Soon the ladies of the night were swarming around their table. Midas was only 12 but he had no qualms with unknown women combing their long painted nails through his hair. They tried to do that to Li but he was aggressively uninterested. He’d seen and rejected so many tits in the last few hours that the entire restaurant, staff and sluts of every kind, was pretty sure Li was gay. Li couldn't argue because he had no evidence to the contrary- he hadn’t really been in a relationship, Ever. Never in the history of ever. Life, Death, and then Politics had kinda gotten in the way. But Li was beginning to fervently hope that the Gay community of Kaipen was kinder or at least saner than all this- this… pageantry? Parade? Bat shit fever dream?

Oh gosh, why was Edwin pouring a champagne bottle over Li’s head? What a waste.

Prince Edwin was being predictably unbearable. Every time somebody (anybody) complemented anything that the teenage boy was wearing, Edwin had peeled it off and given it to them. Like as gift. To Keep. His generosity was attracting the worse kinds of people and the increase of human rats was the main reason the party kept changing venues. Mercifully, at midnight Count Orun declared that Prince Edwin and King Midas should go back to the castle. And both were too tuckered out to argue.

It was much calmer, just hanging out with Count Orun. They went incognito to Kaipen’s most popular underground bar ‘ The Gentle Void’. Most of the waitstaff had elected to serve without wearing any shirts, yet somehow the place was still classy. There was a stage there in the corner where a woman with an amazing voice and a blue guitar was singing the oddest song.

I am the bell and I am the Cryer~  I am man and his true desire~

“Orun, what are you all really doing here?” Li asked, too exhausted for subtlety. Orun just shook his head.

“Please, Orun. This day has been crazy. I want to know what I’ve been suffering for.”

“Tell you what, you drink this and I’ll tell you in the morning.” And he pushed a shot glass toward Li.

Li sighed; is this the best deal he could negotiate? He thought he was better than this... but he was so tired. “How about I drink this, and you tell me immediately after.”

"It's kinda a longer conversation-"

"When did you get spayed and nuetered?"

Orun paused, whites of his wet teeth and eyes popping out from his dark skinned face as he tried to catch up with Li. They weren't speaking Orun's first language and the muscles of Orun's eyebrows twitched together as he tried to recall the word, 'neuter'.

Li, famously impatient with such things, rephrased, "Are you Mike's B***h?"

Orun's lips pouted downward and to one side while his eyes spoke 'you're dead to me', The Gentle Void's harsh partial lighting gave his scowl deep unforgiving edges. With the mere straightening if his spine, Count Orun's entire being seemed stretch taller like a late day shadow, to loom over Li and all who surrounded them. The music grew muted and distant as if it could not travel through the thickening air. The dark skinned man was sliced into contradictory silhouettes of muscle, mass, and power. Every inch the king and conqueror that had been the dominating harsh terrains of Nach Olsten, uniting disparate peoples, ancient tribes, and collapsing republics under his illustrious banner. And Orun could kill Li. Without breaking a sweat or spilling his drink.

And Li just stared him down. He did not pretend to be powerful, or threatening. He did not flinch or raise a hand to defend himself. He was gaunt and small in the shadow of the count, an entitled little spider, pale from the last 5 years of ruling a city from his mother's basement.

Li Kong could feel Count Orun's wrath radiating outwards like a burst of electric fire. But then it extinguished itself. And Orun was calm. A sea that knew no storm, a pond without ripples or traces of recent rain. Orun had apparently decided that Li was not worth killing. And, privately, with some muted shame long swallowed down, Li agreed. Li was merely scum, a drop in the bucket in the face of all Orun had survived and experienced.

"You are brave." said Orun, casually ordering another drink.

Li was taken off guard, "I am? No, I'm not."

Orun paid his compliment, intentional in his words"You looked me dead in the eye and said that which many are thinking but would never dare to say."

Li was restrained in his response but still a little derisive, "I am not brave. I just am not afraid of dying."

Orun, "That's so rare. I was afraid of dying at your age."

Li shook his head, if Orun would insists on paying a compliment it does no good to argue.

"Why don't you fear death?" Orun asked.

Li shrugged. But then a truth he hadn't known was true unfurled from his mouth, "Almost my entire family is dead. I miss my brothers. And my sister, and my father and my mother. And if you killed me, I'd no longer have to live in the world in which they once were- but are no more."

It was quiet for a time.

Orun and Li drank, the music and people and world swirling around them but not intruding on their silence.

"My congratulations and condolences."

"It'll be you next." Orun's voice was so deep it seemed to come from the very earth. Li just bobbed his head.

"I'm well aware."

Orun whistled sharply for the waiter and demanded they have a couple shots. After all, it was Li's important 27th birthday and things had gotten way to depressing. Li, now that he had the truth, was ready to accommodate Orun's hunger for levity.

As soon as the drinks slid in front them, both men tipped the glasses all the way back, Oh. Oh no. I think that was jäger. Fml.

Orun handled his liquor well, ordering 2 more shots for each of them. Li predictably suffered an onset of Asian flush. They talked animatedly to each other and their neighbors about nothing and Li really should have left his last shot on the table, untouched. He didn't.

The next thing he knew, his tie was somehow wrapped around his wrist, his top buttons were undone, a website had been scribbled onto the inside of his arm, and he was asking a cute waiter for a birthday kiss. And Count Orun was laughing helplessly. The waiter had this mocha brown skin, and an abundance of body paint and orange glitter across his torso instead of wearing a shirt. The waiter, demonstrating true Personality, rose one eyebrow, his openly diminishing stare measuring Li and his ruined clothes. In a voice that was clipped, suspicious, and putting up with nothing, “Where Exactly are you asking me to kiss you, Birthday boy?”

Li’s shoulders sagged.

“I didn't mean it that way- Well, I guess? Just, like, wherever turning 27 justifies? Doesn't it? But if I don’t get a kiss, I’ll understand. Maybe that stuff is just for kids.” Li sadly mumbled to himself and hung his head. Some sober part of Li's head was narrating to itself, Wow, I seriously regress under the affects of jäger. I have not felt this rejected since 3rd grade. Oh no, drunk Li is welling up. No, Li, even if your plastered and no one knows who you are, Don't Cry. STAHP.

Fat tears threatened but the waiter relented before they could fully form and fall. The waiter leaned in so close that Li could smell the odd mix of body paint and aftershave, so close that he felt the scrape of the man's long eye lashes against his cheekbone. All to plant a chaste little kiss on Li’s cheek.

Li had smiled so brightly, and was so giddy, that he was going to skip happily away and brag to Orun. Never mind that Orun had seen the whole thing. But instead, Li managed to skip happily right into a brick wall.

Not sure what happened after that.