A Bite of Food [Social/Oliver]

Jingyi cocked her head to the side before giving Oliver a nod, an affable smile curling on her lips.

"I would love to grab a bite to eat, Ollie, but we'd probably need to go now since it's pretty late. I'm not sure about the number of restaurants that are still open, though we'll probably find something," Jingyi replied, her hands resting on her hips as she tilted her head slightly so she could look at Oliver's face.

"Do you have any place in mind, or do you want me to pick it out?" She inquired as her hands slipped into her pockets, shifting her weight from foot to foot.

She was sort of glad that Oliver had asked her if they could get a bite to eat. She was interested in his abilities, and she wanted to learn more about the guy. Like why he was at the cemetery with a pencil and a pad.

After they turned in that necromancer, Jingyi and Oliver found themselves discussing grabbing a late night bite to eat.  "Not many are up and running this late. Aside from bar food at the inn I'm staying at. Come on."

Not giving her much of a choice, Oliver walked off toward the inn where he stayed normally.  As he walked into the tavern at the base floor, he waved to the bartender and spoke to the burly bald man.  A man with more hair in that handlebar mustache than one could ever assume had grown on his head.  "Can we see a menu? We're looking for something quick to eat.

The bartender chortled, "Found yourself a girl finally eh Oliver? WOuld your parents be happy she's not a magician?"

Oliver just slammed his fist down on the bar, elbow resting against it as his eyebrow twitched a little, "If she were my girlfriend, I wouldn't care what Ashcroft or Lilyanna think about me. Now menu please? I've got some bounty money to spend." Oliver spoke happily to the bartender, waving Jingyi to follow him in.

Jingyi blinked as the man just walked towards the inn he mentioned before shrugging her shoulders to herself. Most inns had good food, so they probably could get something tasty to eat.

So, she followed after the taller man, easily catching up despite her shorter strides and walking beside him. As they walked, she quickly looked around since it wasn't often when she visited this part of the city.

Glancing at the inn, she smiled softly when she recognized it. One of the other soldiers, before recruitment, apparently stayed at it and commented about their food.

Returning her gaze to Oliver, she paused at the entrance to the tavern, one of her red eyebrows raising as the bartender assumed that she was a girlfriend of his. Though, from the way that the bald man worded it, it would seem that, first, Oliver doesn't have a big dating life if he said 'finally', and second, Oliver's parents only wanted him to date magicians?

Shrugging her shoulders to herself, Jingyi quickly crossed over and sat down by Oliver. Lifting her chin, she glanced at the bartender and offered him one of her friendly smiles.

"Jingyi Hou, nice to meet you. I would like a menu, and no, I'm not Ollie's girlfriend," She chirped, her tone obviously chipper as she rested her arms of the bar, nonchalantly using the nickname she had came up for her newfound assassin guy-friend.

The two would be given menus. On it there were a number of things that could be made quickly. But one thing stood out to Oliver on the entire menu. The Day Old Bread Pudding. Granted it wasn't really a day old, just that the bread used was baked to a way that it had enough touchness to it that it didn't liquefy to the caramel sauce.

Looking at Jingyi, Oliver pointed to it on the menu, "Want to get this together or two separate things? I'm likely gonna get the water chestnuts wrapped in bacon if you want to get something yourself."

He returned to looking at the menu while the bar tender busied himself making drinks. Two pints of water were slid across the bar from one end to the other. Oliver put his hand in the path of one, catching it and spilling a few drops. The other was headed for Jingyi for her to grab a hold of.

Jingyi quietly read through the menu, making mental notes of the tastier-sounding dishes. The Day Old Bread Pudding sounded good, she supposed as she continued reading.

At Oliver's question, she raised her head and glanced at him. But before she replied, she stretched out her hand and grabbed her cup. Some water dripped over, but overall she managed to successfully stop the glass with its liquid overspilling.

"Sure, I don't mind getting that together, though do you want to split the price? I mean, I think I have enough on me to cover it completely, though," She told him with a shrug of her shoulders as she lifted her glass with a hand.

Her other hand reached back into her pocket where she grabbed her money-purse to make sure that she did have it on her. Letting it go, she put her hand back on the bar as she took a small sip of her water.

"Nah, this guy owes me one for the jobs I've done around here. Speaking of, you owe me like five now thanks to this bounty and everything else I did this week. How's it feel to pay your patron instead of the other way around?" He asked the bar tender while sliding the menu forward with his finger on the bread pudding item.

"I would say you should watch carefully what I make you if you're gonna put it like that Mister Oxford."

"Fffft-! HA! Good one. I mean, you'd be investigated so fast no? Not to mention out of an errand boy willing to tackle all of those hard jobs."

Having won the argument, Oliver spun about on the stool, turning his attention toward Jingyi after spinning a full two hundred and seventy degrees. "So, tell me a bit about yourself." He asked her as he got to the point of questioning her before she questioned him.

Jingyi grabbed her own menu and set it down by Oliver's before leaning back slightly in her chair. There was an entertained smile on her face as her newfound friend and the bartender conversed with each other, though it would seem that he was an errand boy for the bald man.

Taking a small sip of her water, an eyebrow raised as Oliver whirled around on his chair. To her, it seemed that the young man was rather frivolous, though it wasn't a bad quality to be had.

"Well, what do you want to know?" Jingyi inquired back as she let go of her glass and set her hands on her lap. She wasn't surprised that he had asked, seeing how friendships either started with helping hands and conversation in her mind.

"I guess I can start with the basics; I'm Jingyi Hou and I'm in the Kou military," she began, her gaze quickly looking up as the thought, "I like dueling and I want to become a military officer."

As the bartender was all the way in the back in the kitchen, Oliver looked up at the ceiling as Jingyi introduced herself. Speaking almost delibrately and holding onto each syllable to make a little nursery style rhyme out of it, "Jing Yi Hou Out In Kou." He looked over at her, that grin on his face a happy and relaxing one, but those eyes were calculating and a bit out of character for the seemingly naive lad.

"You're a Fanalis aren't you?" He referred to her blazing red hair, but perhaps he knew she wasn't and was just looking to poke a little fun at her hair color. "You're a solider and you want to become a general? You must be in support of Emperor Yoshiro then huh?"

Leaning forward onto the bar, his elbows resting on the surface while his hands folded onto each other and rested across his forehead. While he worked more with Goa Yuan Zu's faction, Oliver in fact had friends he had made out in Kou on both sides of the war. It was a bit of a pain to just get yanked from one side to the other without ever declaring he was to be taking part in this war. Just his luck to get pulled into a war without being in either military.

"What do you think about the war?"

Jingyi sighed softly as Oliver asked her if she was a Fanalis before giving him a shake of her head. It was understandable, she looked like the real thing. Red hair, red eyes, and possibly strong seeing how she was in the military. She couldn't blame Oliver for thinking that she could be one, though it still managed to annoy the girl whenever someone asked.

"No, I'm not a Fanalis. Nor am I half," Jingyi replied in a huff. Though her seemingly irritated frown was turned into a smile as her mood evaporated. Jingyi, even if she wanted to, couldn't stay in an upset manner for long.

But at him mentioning her aspiration and the possibility of her being in Yoshirou's army, she gave him a curt shake of the head.


"You were right about me wanting to become general," She began, her hands raising out of her lap so she could gesture with them, "But I'm actually on Gao Yuan's fraction. I mean, Yoshirou seems to be for peace and all, but from my understanding, he killed his father... And I can't support someone like that, really," She revealed with a shrug of her shoulders. As she finished talking, her hands started to lower back into her lap before she remembered his last question.

"Honestly, I wish this war didn't happen. It's stupid and we shouldn't be fighting among each other. We could probably have a better ruler than Gao Yuan, but I'm not too sure about Yoshirou. He seems peaceful and all, but he killed his father and sister. That doesn't seem all too peaceful."

Oliver nodded to all the things she replied to, taking in what she said with an understanding. SO she wasn't a Fanalis, just looked so much like one and acted like one but wasn't one. "You fit the bill of Fanalis pretty well regardless." He shifted his weight on the stool from one side to the other.

She was a Gao Yuan supporter? Well that made things a lot easier as he supported Gao Yuan more than Yoshiro. "So you don't support him because he apparently killed his dad. And here you are fighting with that supposedly dead dad." Taking a moment to let the irony set in, Oliver continued on, "That's a bit--I'm not sure ironic is enough for this."

As the food was finally brought out for the both of them, Oliver looked over at her, the bread pudding being set between them. "This is my favorite desert. There it's my turn to talk now--anything you want to know?"

As he continued to eat his bread pudding, Oliver took the time to swallow a little bit so that he could answer some of her questions. Was it that obvious?

"No, I'm actually from Magnostadt originally. My parents are picky. They don't want me to get married to any magician, they want me to get married to a Noble Magician. You know, the whole being a non-magical son born to two magicians that want to better their standing does that to you." He tried to leave out his last name in the conversation, and the fact that he was a Noble from Magnostadt.

He spoke while using his fork to gesticulate, moving from one topic to another. As if anticipating her next question, Oliver spoke more in depth. "I didn't want to be tied down like that, and be judged so harshly. I figured I would sneak out and make a name for myself and prove that 'Goi' can be worth while."

"Did you mention how your family line is one of the most pure blooded magician lines in Magnostadt in its entirety?"

"No Goemen--I did not. And I would thank you to not butt in on this!" Making a snappy but friendly retort to the bartender, Oliver sighed, and angrily took a bite of the bread pudding.

After having dealt with Goemen the bartender, Oliver sighed and kept his shoulders slumped over. He really didn't like talking about how he was from Magnostadt, or that he was the son of Ashcroft Oxford, an elderly seeming magician who has had many wives in the past and wound up with a single heir, an heir that had no magic. It was all--quite complicated.

Looking over at Jingyi finally, He held up a finger in front of his lips, telling her about where he learned these skills, "I picked these up from a little old lady whose eyes are always squinting from the wrinkles building up over time. She's prone to throwing knives at me." It wasn't a lie, but the way he described it and the moves that he had, Oliver had to keep them secret.

"Tell me about your family. You got to overhear mine. Better yet, let me excuse myself to the bathroom so you and Goemen can chat about your family. That way when I come back I can hear the juiciest detail." He stuck his tongue out at her, returning to the bread pudding, not actually getting up to go to the bathroom.  He was just teasing, enjoying the way Jingyi reacted to him normally.

Oliver's eyebrow quirked up, much like Jingyi's did a moment ago. "Jing-yi Hou from Kou, mo-ther named Xin-yi Hou from Kou. I'm detecting a pattern here." He comically spaced out the syllables of the names, resting his head against his hand, leaning on the bar, "Your family is a fan of rhythm in names huh?"

"I'm gonna take a stab at it that Jiahong is the one that likes to deal with dangerous beasts. Eccentric mind and all that." He knew he was guessing wrong, but it was too much fun to resist.

"Got any aspirations? Or am I delving too deep into your psyche for our first meeting? I think I am. Why don't we call it a night, see if we meet up again in the morning or after tonight? Would be nice. Unless you're dying to know more, ask away. I'm an open book so to speak."

Jingyi chuckled as Oliver pointed out the rather rhyming nature of her family's names, her only response to his question being a shrug of her shoulders. From what her mother had told her, her father got to name Jiahong and Guiying while Xinyi named her. It was comedic to be sure, but Jingyi rather liked her name even if it did match her mother's.

At his answer, Jingyi shook her head as her smile softened. While she could see Jiahong trying to train beasts, Guiying was the one who entertained himself by being around dangerous animals and trying to get them to listen to him. Most of the time it worked, though, not too surprising, many of them get frustrated with his zealous and mischievous attitude.

"I do have some aspirations, and I don't think you're diving too deep," Jingyi answered as she leaned back in her chair; and while she wanted to stay around to talk to Oliver, she had a sneaking suspicion that he was wanted to retire from their conversation. It was rather late, and they managed to chatter quite a bit.

"And if you wish to, we could pick up the rest of our conversation at some other time? It is rather late, and while I love talking with you," she began, flashing Oliver a good-natured smile as she set her fork down, "I think it would be nice to continue this when it's daylight. Maybe sometime tomorrow or after tomorrow?"

Oliver smiled, leaning into his hand while his arm supported the weight of his body against the bar. "Oh so soon? You really want to get rid of me that quickly?" It was late, but Oliver was more than happy to continue talking. He was able to stay up the whole night if he wanted to.

But the thought of getting a good night's sleep after a fight was a tempting offer. "I guess if you think it would be wise to meet in the morning it is prudent." Pushing back from the bar and hopping up to his feet, Oliver took out some huang and left it on the bar for the tender. He pointed off to the stairs to the upper floor. "You can get a room or share mine with me. I'm gonna hit the sack."

Oliver would turn around, lifting up a hand behind himself to wave sayonara to Jingyi, at least for the night. Once in his room, he would change to his undershirt and underpants, collapsing into the bed to get that good night's rest.

Jingyi stretched out her legs as she leaned back comfortably in her seat, her head shaking at his implications. She rather enjoyed chatting with Oliver, seeing how he was such an interesting individual. Sure, a lot of new people has flocked to Kou due to the Civil War and it has given her a chance to meet new people but Oliver certainly stuck out.

"It's fine, I have a room back at base," Jingyi remarked as she got to her own feet, her arms smoothly raising above her head as she stretched them. Taking a step away from her chair, Jingyi lowered them except for one. Jingyi waved her own hand rather zealously as Oliver started to head to his room.

"Night, Oliver! See ya around!" She called before turning around and heading out the door of the inn. Leaving the establishment, Jingyi quickly walked down the road that would lead to the nearby military base that she was stationed in, her stride quick so she could get to bed before light's out.

[EXIT]