Muttonhawk

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Fair enough.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Yeah, sure.

Joints cracking? That doesn't sound good. Maybe you were sitting awkwardly in your exam?

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ah, right, I understand completely.

Well, the crew is meant to be a little less savoury from what I've heard, so maybe bothering some of the packs or pride. I know Ciinriel is probably going to be quite sensitive to things like that, it might cause an incident.

As well, maybe Janius' suspicions could be correct and they could be conning them, but that would just result in transforming and intimidating the crew into working after a short fight at worst. I'm not sure about doing that, honestly.

If you wanted something lower key, you could have the crew share around drugs and test out what Kaleeth would do, if that sounds interesting.

I don't mind, honestly, but if you'd rather take time to think about it, that's okay. This is just off the top of my head and it's probably better that we enact things that have some proper thought put in.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Nah, skip to where you want. I'm all good.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Oh yeah, where did you want to skip to next? My ideas are about wrapped up for Senchal.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Now with Kaleeth's understanding, Janius nodded and followed her back to the ship. About halfway there, he started to feel bad for not trusting Kaleeth's judgement. However stubborn he was acting, she was right, she should have heard his words before seeing the den. Regardless, it was comforting that she would be taking moon sugar more seriously in the end.

He took a deep breath as they walked. "I got too worked up back there, I'm sorry. I'll trust you with these things in the future, just...I sometimes forget to."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

It's all good. If you need an early night, I'm not going to hold it against you.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Janius curled his lip, glancing away for a moment. He supposed he could spell it out for Kaleeth, even after showing her the end result. He opened his mouth with a tsk and breathed in. "Much the same as yesterday. A few hours of euphoria, then a period of coming down that can make you feel ill or irritable, and then..." Janius shook his head, "...then you get the desire to do it again, the process repeats. However, if you have enough, the regular amount doesn't work quite as well, so you take more at a time. The euphoria increases, you feel more ill, the desire to have more afterwards increases. Before long, you are taking up more and more time for moon sugar." Janius turned to one side, taking a step and moving one hand in a circular motion. "You have more, your desire increases, you spend more gold, you spend more time, you get more ill, but it still does less and less, so what happens?" Janius turned to Kaleeth again, his calm tone fading again. He gesticulated with each line, conducting his explanation with fervor, "You can't take more moon sugar at once, so you search for something more powerful. That's when your dealer gives you skooma. At this point, you cannot escape, even if you were a responsible person before, because your addiction is so powerful. You crave more, you need more. You find yourself having to maintain the euphoria for as long as possible because coming down from it makes you feel so ill and violent that you have to escape. You wake up, you take more, you take more until you fall asleep the night after! All of your time is spent in a den like this one. You have to steal or hurt others to get gold because you cannot be trusted to work. Eventually you don't even eat because you're so addicted. You die in the most drawn out, tragic way imaginable because you give up everything else, one by one. That is what those people inside were; addicts. They could all have been the most level, kind hearted, trustworthy people beforehand. They are husks now."

Janius realised his emotional investment at this point and lowered his eyes and his hands. He calmed himself enough to lower his voice, "Perhaps I panicked when I heard you talking of the wine so enthusiastically." He sighed deeply, "I trust you, Kaleeth, but I trusted the friends who I lost as well."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Nearly growling, but settling for clenching his jaw, Janius brought his hands up and quickly ran them through his hair, looking away. When his hands fell to his sides, he brought them up against his hips and faced Kaleeth again still cross. "Alright, you know what? What are you going to do with that moon sugar, then?" Janius wasn't shouting, but he still sounded angry. Janius has trusted his past friends too.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Janius did not stop Colours from leaving. He didn't even acknowledge him. Colours had taken the hint.

At this point, Janius was almost losing his patience with Kaleeth. The claims she was making were ridiculous. "I've lost friends to skooma, Kaleeth. Do you think I wouldn't try everything in my power to keep you away from it, even if it was patronising?!" Janius hissed through his teeth and gestured randomly, frustrated, "Colours made it sound like so much fun, the way he talks of it so casually!"

This was the first time Janius had raised his voice in a long while. It was not in his nature to get as riled up as this, unlike Fendros. Although, it probably wouldn't do well in placating Kaleeth.