Titan watched her and listened in silence as she explained. As she dropped her voice, he took another glance at the bar, then returned his gaze to her. As she fell silent, he thought for a few moments.

"I see. It sounds to me like you don't particularly care for your job."

He paused for a little while longer, taking stock once again.

"I apologize again, then. I definitely messed up your day."

The drug use was a problem, but it's not like she was to blame for it. From what he could see and what she'd told him, it was basically a necessity to get by around here. It also wasn't unsolvable. There were definitely options. But he was getting ahead of himself.

"I promise that this is not why I wanted to talk, but you seem pretty knowledgeable of this area, and it would be irresponsible of me not to ask. Tell me, have you heard anything about a guy named Tiger? He's big, bigger than me."

Tau tapped her chin thoughtfully. "I usually don't make a habit of knowing very many people personally, Titan," she said pointedly. "But it's such an unusual name that it does sound a little familiar. I can see if one of the girls recognizes it? Freedom probably knows." Tau bit her tongue as she thought of Freedom. She would pay for likely having lost a client when she stopped by tomorrow morning.

"It's not that I don't like the work I do..." Tau trailed off and absentmindedly watched as a pair of young men changed the floorplan of the tavern for the night's events, including setting up a large cage in the middle of the room. "... I just don't really have much of a choice," she said, once again vague. Her eyes glazed over a bit as she fidgeted with her pocket. That Slush was inches away yet for some reason she felt it rude to imbibe in front of her new companion.

A very young waitress came by, dressed in an entirely inappropriate uniform, during a brief pause in conversation. "Whatever he wants, Bri," Tau said curtly, and looked to Titan for his order. "And lots of booze."

"Thought you quit drinkin'," the girl asked, smirking slightly. "Ain't get your Razzies again today, eh?"

"Fuck right off," Tau snapped viciously, glaring at her. The girl, Bri, said nothing more, quickly turning her expectant gaze to Titan.

He smiled up at her, and simply said, "Something cold, please." He nonchalantly took the chipper from his wallet, setting it so that the corner was visible from under his hand. "Go ahead and keep the drinks flowing."

He stowed it back in the pocket facing the wall, then turned back to Tau. He looked at her for a moment, then asked very simply, "Do you know how to defend yourself?"

The young waitress Bri could barely contain her surprise as she eyed the chipper. She shifted her gaze to Tau, eyebrow raised, but she held her tongue. She left to get their drinks. While she was gone, shouting could be heard coming from the kitchen.

Tau remained silent, fidgety, until after the drinks had arrived. Bri had brought Titan a fruit-flavored ice-blended cocktail of some sort, and Tau a dark, flat ale. Picking up her mug, without even taking a breath, she downed the entire drink within about three gulps, before Bri had a chance to leave. Looking unsurprised, Bri again left to refill the large glass.

"Defend myself?" Tau looked at him suspiciously. "My line of work generally doesn't require me to." She fell silent once again as Bri dropped off her second drink. She was once again waved off. Tau sipped this one. "I'm just a runner, man. I don't fight people. That card doesn't even contact me. If you send a message it goes to Freedom, who sends the order to the Contractors, and then I'm given the item to deliver once someone else deals with it." She shrugged. "It's not a glamorous job but it's good and easy money. I don't ask questions and I've never-- NEVER-- had a problem. Until today. But I guess that was minor, all things considered."

She checked the time on her wrist. A couple hours yet until her shift started. Her gaze shifted to the cage in the middle of the floor, set high atop a platform, surrounded by tables and chairs. She was not looking forward to a turn in the box.

Titan sipped his drink and scowled a bit. No matter how long it was, he never got used to the awful metallic aftertaste that accompanied everything he ate or drank. He inhaled slowly, as he felt the icy liquid slide down his throat, and listened to Tau as she spoke. He saw her once again take a look at the cage, and finally put 2 and 2 together. This, more than anything else, served to make up his mind.

"All right, I'm not going to butter things up for you."

He took another sip of his drink, and gathered himself before speaking.

"I'd like to offer you a job." He raised a finger once again to quiet her before she could interrupt him, then continued, "Before you accept or decline, let me explain what you might expect to be doing, and what benefits you would get."

Another sip. He felt the ice cool his body, and it helped keep his mind at ease.

"It would start out as a short term contract, but assuming you didn't do anything seriously awful, it could pretty easily turn into a longer term arrangement."

They received more drinks, and Titan waited until the waitress removed herself from earshot again before continuing.

"It's a bit like contracted work. We get jobs from our d-" He cut himself off, narrowing his eyes a little before continuing. "Our boss. We can choose to accept them or not, no penalties if we say no."

He returned to his drink, giving her a chance to speak up.

Tau didn't speak for a long time. She stared at the cage, brow furrowed. Sipping her beer, she fingered the tiny pouch in her pocket. A small taste could easily help make up her mind. She felt she was always her best on Slush. As her thoughts raced through her mind, her face flushed in embarrassment. She was consumed by her addiction. The reality check hit her hard. Staring intently at her half-full glass, she finally spoke.

"Even if I wanted to," she chose her words carefully, "it's out of my control. Kaufmann owns me. I owe him so, so much. So unless you're going to buy him a ship--" Tau looked up to watch Titan's reaction carefully-- "-- I belong to him."

With a burst of confidence, she drained the rest of her drink. "And, really, dude..." She gazed up at him, an intense sadness in her eyes partially hidden by an emotionless face. "... really, I'm just a junkie." She spat the word in contempt. "My only redeeming quality is my dashing good looks." She didn't seem to be making a joke, and withdrew into her oversized coat, the tiny pouch of powder now between her fingers.

Titan looked at her, his face expressionless. He thought for a half minute or so, then looked around the room. His left eye shuddered, and made a small hissing noise. The iris expanded and contracted oddly, and it almost seemed to spin a little bit. Steam mixed with smoke curled out from under his eyelid.

He was trying to figure out who had weapons, and who might be willing to use them. He turned his gaze to the one she had referred to as 'Kaufmann'. As he took another glance at Tau, her hands on a pouch she had withdrawn from her jacket, he decided for sure that enough was enough. Whatever happened next, he absolutely had probable cause and no one reasonable would argue that.

Slowly and calmly, he stood up next to the booth's table. His voice was smooth and almost professional, but it carried very easily through the entire room.

"Mr. Kaufmann, may I speak with you over here a moment? It's regarding business."

"What the fuck!" She stood up rapidly, knocking the table around. Grabbing Titan she desperately tried to pull him back into the booth, but couldn't budge him. "What the fuck, dude?" she hissed angrily as her boss slowly made his way over.

Marcus Kaufmann was a huge man, built in a way that hid impressive musculature. He grinned wickedly at Tau when he saw her hiding in the booth, attempting to make herself even smaller. "How can Marcus Kaufmann be of service?" he asked, now making eye contact with Titan, who stood only an inch or two taller.

Titan gave the large man what could best be described as a robotic smile. He extended his arm and shook Kaufmann's hand genially.

"Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Kaufmann. My name is Titan."

He didn't remove his gaze from Kaufmann's even for a moment.

"You seem like a man who values his time, so I'll cut right to the chase. I was just offering Tau here a bit of a career opportunity. She informed me very politely that she was spoken for, so I wanted to give you an opportunity to sell her freedom, if you'll excuse my dramatic wording."

Kaufmann shook his hand roughly and laughed a bit after he spoke. "You wanna buy Tau? Why?" But he laughed again, shaking his head. "Never mind, I don't care. But she's not for sale." And he eyed Tau, a cruel smile forming across his face. "Even if you could afford her habit, I'm not letting her go until she replaces my ship." He looked back to Titan. "But tell ya what. I'll rent her to you. On the condition that she doesn't leave the Debris."

Titan smiled again, still not moving his gaze from Kaufmann. He hadn't blinked since the beginning of the conversation.

"Ah, bit of a sticking point there. See, I'm not buying her. I'm buying her freedom."

Another small column of steam rose from his eyelid. He continued to refrain from blinking.

"You also seem to have misread the situation, my good man. I am giving her a chance to take this career path. I was giving you a chance to make a profit on it, as she so kindly suggested."

The smile remained on his face now, just as perfectly genial as it had ever been.

"I would be more than happy to do you a favor and buy you a ship if that's your price, as a favor to a friend of a colleague, but your permission is not needed."

Kaufmann's smile slowly faded. At first, he said nothing, but Tau could see the gears turning in his tiny brain, trying to figure out if he had been threatened or not. He leaned back slightly, eyeing Titan warily, and stood up to his full height, but made no other move for a few agonizingly long minutes.

Tau found herself holding her breath, waiting for Kaufmann's response. She'd been this close to freedom before, but every time it had slipped through her fingers. Of course, no one had come with his asking price. "... All right," Kaufmann said slowly, nodding now as he worked out some math on his fingers. "All right, you can have her. For a ship." Tau's eyes widened in disbelief-- "However... So unless she's going to quit right now, and leave her coworkers to pick up the slack--" His cruel grin returned, and his gaze shifted to Tau. "She still has a shift today."

Titan allowed his smile to drop. He was beginning to lose patience. It was very clear to him what sort of man this was. One who took sadistic pleasure in tormenting those he perceived as beneath him. Titan allowed himself to be fueled by his self-righteous instinct, as he placed a hand very loosely on the man's right shoulder.

"I believe I already told you that your permission is not needed. You are not in a position to haggle, Mr. Kaufmann."

He retrieved the chipper from his pocket with his free hand, careful to keep his grip on it vice-like as he held it up to the man's face.

"Now then, do you have a retrieval dock or do I need to get you cash? The price is a nonissue, so we can get this sorted and then Ms. Tau and I will be on our way."

As he finished speaking, an audible hiss accompanied yet another trail of steam from under his eyelid, much more visible now. Still, he did not blink.

Kaufmann's head snapped up sharply, but the grin only faltered momentarily. Annoyed by Titan touching him, but unbothered by his words once he saw the chipper, he shrugged Titan's hand off his shoulder. "Yeah, good. I can confirm the payment 'round the corner." He motioned to a retrieval dock hidden in the opposite corner. "And once you pay for your drinks, absolutely, you can be on your way." His words were ever-so-slighty tinged with anger, but greed filled his coal-black eyes. He waited for Titan's go-ahead almost sarcastically before making his way to the dock.

Tau sat in the corner, speechless, frozen in disbelief.

Titan beckoned Tau to come with him. He didn't intend to allow her to leave his sight until they were out of the building. As she stood to follow him, he nodded to her and gave her a comforting smile before following Kaufmann. As they walked he ran his gaze over the room, finally allowing himself to blink and shutting his left eye tight to keep it from drying out anymore.

Things were very quiet, and he definitely felt some openly hostile glares on him. That was fine. As long as things didn't escalate any further, things would be good.

He made sure to listen very closely to the footsteps behind him, making sure Tau kept pace with him the whole way. It felt like an eternity passed while they crossed the bar.

Tau watched the conversation but her eyes were unseeing. She listened to the two men exchange words-- exchange threats? Over me? But why?

She understood why Kaufmann initially put up a fight-- Tau knew she earned him quite a bit of money on certain nights. But he backed down rather quickly. Something she hadn't expected at all.

And Titan held his ground like some kind of professional, a complete turnaround from the awkward, bumbling fool she had had to put up with all day.

Her eyes were glazed over and her brow was furrowed. She didn't respond until Titan had to tap her arm. She followed him to the retrieval dock where money was exchanged without incident, to Tau's ever-increasing surprise. Once the transaction was completed and Kaufmann confirmed the money in his account, he extended a hand out to Titan. "Pleasure doin' business."

And as he walked away, he spoke to Tau: "Hope you have a few words of encouragement for whoever's got your shift tonight."

Titan waited until the man was out of earshot, then narrowed his open eye. He spoke to Tau relatively softly.

"Not completely sure what he means, but you're free to leave here now if you like."

He turned to her, and gave her another warm smile.

"If you want to come with me, I can talk to you in a bit more detail about that job offer. But if you're not interested,
that's okay. I didn't buy you, I bought your freedom. You can do whatever you like now."

He crossed his arms, and took another glance around the room.

"I understand if you want me to get lost, but I'd be most comfortable sticking with you until we're out of sight of this place so no one tries anything."

Tau seemed suddenly agitated. She clenched and unclenched her fists, looking around the bar as though she had no idea where she was. "I have to... I have to do something first." And without waiting for a response she darted through the tables, to the far end of the room, through an unlocked door and up a narrow staircase.

But she froze at the top of the stairs, staring at the first of two doors on the cramped landing. Glancing over her shoulder, Tau looked to see if Titan had followed her.

He nodded at her retreating back, and followed her to the door. He stood in front of the staircase, arms crossed, facing out. As he heard her footsteps stop, he spoke without turning.

"I'll make sure no one follows you. Like I said, I'll get lost if you like but I want to make sure you get out of here safely."

He crossed his arms, and watched Kaufmann.

Titan had barely finished speaking before Tau had entered the room. The door clicked shut quietly behind her.

Empty.

Heaving a sigh of relief, she crossed the floor quickly and knelt in front of a small set of drawers. With a sad sigh, she withdrew the tiny bag of lightly colored powder. Slush. She opened it carefully and dipped her finger in. Three times she took a fingertip full and rubbed it along her gumline. Then, resealing the pouch, she opened the bottom drawer. A hidden compartment held a small, nondescript locked box. She replaced it with her pocketful of half-empty blister packs and one last roll of stolen money, tucking the little box safely in the depths of her coat. With another sigh, she placed the tiny bag of Slush into the compartment as well. Resealing the drawers, she hoped her apology would be enough.

They might never forgive me, but they'll understand... hopefully...

"Let's get out of here," Tau spoke in a very controlled voice as she came back down the stairs. She touched Titan's shoulder almost affectionately as she passed him, leading him out through the back door of the bar. Kaufmann said nothing as they passed, but Tau could feel his eyes boring into her back as she left.

They entered a nearly-pitch black hallway. "I came this way this morning. Feels weird being here now. My routine has always been so... routine," she finished lamely.

It wasn't long before they exited directly to the Marketplace, still as busy and bustling as before. Tau stopped and looked up at Titan, seemingly wrestling with some internal struggle.