LeGloan saw Lefevre lurch a bit and blush... Huh? Silly man. He accepted an assignment to fly straight into the Privas Cluster's gravity well. It was a joke, and the guy carried it out! Hilarious!
He then proceeded to stand up and walk over to his table.
Ah, wonderful, company...
"Mind if I join you, Capitaine?"
Pierre opened his mouth, but stopped short of words, again; Dupont had entered the cafe and stalked back into the corner. It was always awkward when she was around. To think, trying to unwind, and then your superior walks in, sits in the corner, and stares at you behind your back. Unnerving. Terrible!
"Oui, oui.." LeGloan responded, almost having forgotten Lefevre had arrived. He shifted his gaze back at the subordinate officer and gestured to the chair on the opposite side of the table before taking another long gulp of coffee.
Amelie docked her ship aboard Gap Station in Hangar Bay 3. Dark rings sat under her eyes, contrasting with her pale complexion. She was sweaty, tired, and longing for a drink. After climbing down from her Serval, she stumbled to the elevator, brushing her dark hair from her eyes with the fingertips of her hand.
The doors closed like sleepy eyes when she pressed the button for the upper levels. Soon the steady hum of machinery carried her upward through dozens of levels to her destination: the cafe.
After exiting the elevator, Amelie walked into the artistic masterpiece that is the cafe. She gave a signal wave to the man behind the counter and sat at a far table, near the observation window.
A few minutes passed. The Commissaire listened passively to the moderate activity of the cafe. When the waiter brought her coffee, she tipped him five credits and slowly sipped at the drink. She let the voices in the cafe dance about her ears, lulling her past consciousness.
Amelie's arms cushioned her head as she dozed peacefully by the window, planet Drome watching over her.
A way a lone a last a loved a long the riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay,
brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.
As the minutes ticked away, a few different people crossed into the room. A few EFL bigshots wandered in, and the turned away in disgust when they sa the small menu. Then there was a few Royal Navy officers, now chatting merrily in a corner booth.
After awhile, another wierd man came in.
He was carrying a bottle of wine in one hand, the cork popped out, and only about 1/3 of the alchoholic beverage still left in the bottle. The guy was in rags, tumbling around the place, and knocking various metal decorations and dispensers onto the floor. He slowly made a winding path towards the bar. Instead of trying to stammer out something to the attendant, he turned to Simon and Lillian, slurring out something barely discernable.
"Boo...aahh..bonj-...j..our..." He saidm barely forming the words.
"Oh, damn..." Perrot thought, keeping an eye on the drunken vagrant.
The man turned his bleary eyed stare to Lillian. "Ah...le'ss.." he seemd to doze off for a second, saying even more, but then woke up a bit more. He pointed an unstable finger at Perrot. "...come on, an'...an' we'll go dancin'... ooo...oui?" He stammered out.
The Lieutenant moved his hand close to the short-foil holestered by his side. One more move. ONE more...
The drunk suddenly grabbed at Lillian's arm, swaying the other direction now, trying to pull her away. "Dancin'..." he mumbled.
Suddenly, Perrot grabbed the hilt, and whipped out the blade in one, fluid movement. within an instant the whole blade was out, it's smooth, thin, shorter metal rod peaked by a graceful point. As it came out, he twisted it around, passing just above Lillian's head, and hitting the harasser square on the side off the head. There was an audible crack as part of his cheek shattered, slightly disfiguring his face, and made his jaw gape open in momentary anguish. As he slipped down, onto the floor, the blade dragged across the skin, leaving a long cut down the side of the man's head. By the time he hit the ground, he was unconscious, knocked out by the pure force of the blow.
With another movement, he had the blade in it's holster, and he was back in his seat. Lillian was almsot shocked, but then a smile came upon her face. "Merci, mon amour..." she gave him a kiss on the nose. "Merci..."
He gave a kiss of his own, on her cheek, and leaned back. After a few seconds, he turned to an attendant, pointing at him, and then the passed out vagrant.
"Call station security to pick him up, oui, Monsieur?"
The attendant nodded furiously, his mouth slightly agape, and walked off to a console on the side of the bar.
He turned back to Lillian. "Perhaps we should continue eating?" SHe nodded, giving a small chuckle at the absurdity of the situation, and took another bite of her pastry.
A young man, likely around the age of 21, stumbles into the room. Bottle of wine in one hand, and a box in the other.
"Bonjour, mon amis! I come bearing croissants!"
He walks over to Perrot.
"Bonjour sir, would you like a fresh baked croissant? I just picked them up fro-"
He then trips over the drunk mans body, the wine bottle flying out of his hand, and smashing against the wall, and the box of croissants landing upside down on the floor.
"Merde! Those things were expensive!"
He stands up and looks at Perrot.
"Oh...desole sir..I'm very sorry! I'll clean this up immediately!"
He then starts to pickup the fallen croissants, and walks over to pickup the broken wine bottle.
LeGloan seemed to hesitate a bit, but then motioned toward the seat across the table, muttering a quiet "Oui". Lefevre took the seat and took a short draw on his coffee. It was so flavorful that it almost made up for the lack of croissant.
"You know, you're an absolute idiot for following that order, mon ami." The Capitaine finally spoke after a short silence.
Lefevre knew that the man was just prodding him responded in kind. "And if I didn't you were probably going to chase me around Gap shooting anyway. I figured I liked the idea of meeting Privas personally just a tad more."
"That's why I keep you around, Lefevre. Never a dull moment." LeGloan grimaced and took another sip.
Luc was about to respond, most likely with an "Only if it doesn't kill me first", when an obviously drunk and very haggard looking man stumbled in through the Cafe entrance. The entire cafe turned an at once looked at the man as he loudly shuffled his way forward, all conversations immediately grinding to a halt. He looked up, spotted Perrot's wife, and immediately redirected as best he could with his diminished faculties, the contents of the quarter-full wine bottle audibly sloshing.
The drunk reached out and muttered a few words at Lillian, who wore a look that was somewhere between confusion and disgust. Perrot stood up as the man latched on to his wife's arm and motioned to drag her away from the table. Why, Lefevre couldn't hear. In one swift motion, Perrot drew a short foil from an until-now unseen holster and deftly raised it over Lillian's head and made contact with the side of the drunk's face. The man grunted and collapsed, both Perrot and his wife immediately returning back to their food and carrying on as if nothing had transpired.
Between them, LeGloan was the first to break the silence, just as the cafe began to resume its usual low conversational drum.
"What kind of couple does that and then just acts like nothing happened? Strange, those Perrots are. Simon usually gets his job done, though, so I tend not to bother him."
The conversation continued back and forth, neither talking about anything perilously important, the atmosphere only broken momentarily by a clumsy fellow by the name of Brun. Lefevre, however, never let from his mind slip the look on the drunk's face as security dragged his unconscious body out, his jaw hanging grotesquely dislocated, blood flowing freely from the deep gash left by Perrot's foil.
"I better watch myself around Perrot." Lefevre thought to himself. "And it would probably be wise to carry my own foil as well..."
Amelie awoke with a start to the sound of a young man ruining the only food in the cafe at the present time. She was sleeping quite comfortably despite the fact that she was in a cafe. However, she was annoyed with the noisemaker.
She gently shook her coffee cup. It was about half-full.
"Perfect..." Amelie thought to herself. She stood and composed herself, coffee in hand, and approached the young man who was cleaning the utter mess on the floor.
With a biting tone, she said, "You missed a spot," and dumped the lukewarm coffee onto his head. She crushed the cup and dropped it next to the wine bottle that lay in pieces on the floor.
Even after Amelie left, a sensation of tension and awkwardness filled the cafe.
A way a lone a last a loved a long the riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay,
brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.
Brigadier Major Dubois entered the bar and peered around at his fellow officers. He slowy made his way to the bar looking like hell. When he sat down, he groaned and got the bartenders attention. "Bonjour, what will it be monsieur Dubois?" he happily said. See lately Asce had become very familiar with the people in the bar as he was just bored with life, so he had been quite the heavy drinker as of late. "Just a coffee..I've done enough drinking for now." Dubois sighed. "Decaf or no?" the bartender asked. "Just give me whatever, I don't really care right now." Dubois told him. As he was waiting for his coffee he turned around and looked out of a window and just stared intensly. He sat there wondering what life is like beyond Gallia's borders and if he would ever get to see it. The bartender walked over, coffee in-hand, smiled and said "Here you are, I hope you like it. I added a little kick to it if you know what I mean." He winked as Dubois looked at him and said "Merci". The bartender resumed his usual business as the mid-age Brigadier Major sat there quietly sipping his coffee and looking out into space. As he was staring out into space Directeur Dupont blocked his view. He immediately snapped to attention and greeted her. "Is everything alright there Dubois? You look like s***." The Directeur always had a ways with words but he knew she cared about the well being of everyone under her command. "Yeah, everythings fine. Just didn't get enough sleep is all Directeur." "Very well Dubois, go get some rest. I'll have one of the new recruits take your shift." She said understandingly. "Merci beaucoup Directeur." he said as the Brigadier Major got to his feet and slowly left the Cafe.
LeGloan sighed, looked at his empty glass, and then looked back up at the man in front of him. His subordinate's mind was beginning to drift off into topics and places far removed from the cafe.
"LEFEVRE!"
The shout nearly made Lefevre jump out of his chair; he still couldn't get used to this ridiculous address.
"O-Oui?"
"I'm going to the refresher," LeGloan grumbled, "Make sure nobody steals my seat."
And with that the fat Capitaine stood up, adjusted his belt, and marched off to the men's room.
Not much was known about him other then he enjoyed to keep his distance from others. It might be because his brother had defected to the Council. But he never really cared to explain it either. He was a Capitaine in the Gallic Royal Police, working the space side of things.
He stepped into the cafe and quickly glanced around, a small smile landed on his lips as he witnessed some drunk Officer getting coffee poured on his very head. He continued to proceed inside the cafe, stepping past the drunk man and taking a seat at a very distant table. Pulling out a data pad and turning it on.
Commissaire Villette Berie stepped into the cafe and sat down at a small table in the middle of the wide room. She ordered her favourite coffee blend and looked around. The wooden tables and chairs were ornately hand-carved by the master woodworks of Ile-de-France and built with no mechanical help whatsoever. The atmosphere of the cafe was warm and pleasant; she felt safe in its gentle embrace.
Her drink arrived at her table, along with a small datapad that contained the day's latest news. She took a sip of the coffee. It was piping hot, and a pillar of visible steam rose out of the mug as she drank slowly. She set her drink back down on the table and began to read the recent events in Gallia.