Mullcupaw/Kagomine beer law

"Can I get you anything else?" Dentrag looked at this colleague of his, unable to determine aught else but his underterminate features.

"No, thank you, Sun'ga, this was quite enough, I need a nap now." Apparently, Ross Hunter hadn't caught his name either.

"Me too, so let's settle the bill, before we embarass ourselves." Nor Ria Baker, whose memory for faces was pretty good, but she'd not had anything to remember... He was a midshift replacement, unknown to all of them. His twin brother hadn't told them his name either, but they hadn't noticed...

"Colleague Sun'ga?" Dentrag prefaced his query thus, hoping to soften any offense...

"Yes, colleague?" The other's eyes had picked up, he wasn't used to requests using the Sun'ga's code.

"Have you just come on? I'm sure I've seen you before, but I can't remember your name..."

"Oh, yes, most observant, colleague, yes, me and my twin brother tend this area of the Emerald on Aundays. I am Twili, and he is Swili, we are of the Matsumoto clan."

"Honoured be the cat handlers, and those who follow, "

The other looked uncomfortable.

"We've met the wearer of the The Wungli of the Red Rat, the legacy is secure."

"Many of the Matsu clan dishonour our ancestor by not obeying the Feline Advisor to Meihomei."

"Only in the small things, if Meihomei saw them disobeying him in important things, she'd remind them of their vows..." Ria seldom let the steel in her voice out for any but her own squadron heads, but she let it out today.

"I'm told he is close to her?"

"Her sister raised him, if he was any closer, others would object, but even in Kagomei the cat cannot drink water that it not make good ale."

"Err, it is said, even in Kagomei, a cat cannot 'find' water that cannot make good ale, if you boil it enough."

"Mew!" Spoke the wungli, as its wearer tried to walk without unduly shaking or distressing the kittens thus carried.

"I'm sorry I'm late, I've been having all sorts of trouble getting places, lately." Under-for-class Linnaeus Van Pelt may have been new to his post, but his family connections and adoptive mother in all but name had raised him a formidable scion of Kagomei, and so Ria and Ross just stood. "Speak of the man carrying kittens."

"You shame Twili, my eyes cannot raise that high."

"Please, I am just a humble functionary, my duty to Kagomei is not high."

"You know secrets that humble a Nessun, and Meihomei calls you adoptive cousin, please, no such false humility."

"I serve Kagomei, let none think my eyes are raised, I but obey."

"Please, Twili should have asked someone higher to take this table, all of you have power of tribunal, and Twili's eyes are darkened..."

"Honourable service, Twili, is the only way one's eyes become brighter, we shall speak no more of this, for we have found your service, and your brother's, impeccable, and now we must go."

"Oh, where we going?"

"If you'd gotten here faster, we'd have stayed for dinner, but it is late, and Amarat, Flora and others will join us, upstairs, in the reserved room we ordered..."

"Oh, Twili will guide you there, where one awaits you especial."

"Oh?"

"Even the Magnificent Emerald will make special arrangements, where the bameimeito is concerned..."

"Oh, Bro's there?"

"Will you listen to yourself?"

"Err?"

"You were being harsh on twili for having his eyes lowered to you, but Amarat comes up, and you're just 'bro', can you at least see where he's coming from?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry, apologies Twili, Amarat and I do go way back..."

"I've seen you here before, you're Linni, Linni-from-three..."

"Err, Linni-from-three?"

"People see you coming here on foot, in your very formal, almost ancestral Wungli, crossing the plaza from number three..."

"Ancestral is the right word, that Wungli is going on eight centuries..."

Twili had tripped. "It's older than Kagomei itself?"

"Kagomé gifted it to Matsu, one of her successors, herself... He had too many cats to wear anything but such a gown, she said."

"Great Kagomé touched that?"

"Before it was washed, unfortunately." Linni was not without his own dry sense of humour.

"How does one wash such a priceless treasure?"

"Very, very carefully, I'm told." Linni knew his jest had flown over Twili's head with meters to spare, but, it couldn't be helped now.

"As is proper. Here, most Mei Guests, I leave you with Francine Kannie, part owner of this establishment, who shall be your Sun'ga."

"Thank you, Twili, here, have a drink down by the bar, you've earned much patience. Mei Guests, I am Francine, I will be your Sun'ga. Your lifeguard and protector Shibué Dandelion has gone inside to make sure it was safe."

"Oh, Boo's inside?"

"Yes, although, I must warn you, she's not in uniform..." That wasn't in the usual script... Boo basically slept in her uniform, and Ria noticed. "Oh, Sun'ga, should I worry about my Grib?" Ria Baker, FFOF-09‡ Aerie Parent of Kagomei's Fly Forces dimpled to her husband, mischieviously.

"You know you got nothing to worry about, Dentrag would have me drawn and quartered and help you bury my body."

"Hey, I got my own problems." Dentrag's date had been keeping him from participating, playing patty cake and just basically enjoying physical contact with him while her superiors were grandstanding.

"Yes, you do, poor you, a whole Miptun to keep you in trouble..."

"Well, if I may, I'd like to offer our cherry seasonal ale to distract both of you so it doesn't come to blows..."

"Oh, my, a seasonal cherry? That sounds superb." Amarat's voice wafted from within.

"Let's go in and see what else he's up to?"

"Who's that?" Linni asked Amarat when the first steins were offered

"You can't tell?" Amarat's grin was infectious.

"I have the feeling I've seen her before, but you know me, I can't tell people's faces, Bro." Linni's discomfort was very amusing to Amarat, because Amarat and Linni had been raised by her brother-in-law, and Amarat thought he'd know her face in a crowd of thousands, since, well, she was their principle lifeguard and attendant, along with their mother and aunt's. "I guess the little black wungli is throwing me off?"

"Oh, it's a little black dress, a little black wungli, well you can't have black sleeves and black shoulders on a wungli and call it a wungli..."

OONCE OONCE OONCE came out of the speakers.

"Is that Nenya Frangibald?"

"No, nor it is Lenya, Senya nor Venya. You knucklehead."

"I'm just bamboozled."

"Let's try you on some cherry season, maybe it'll jog your memory..." And Amarat moved away, he had his own Miptun to worry about, and he had to keep Moka from starting friendship war three between herself and Piersa for Dentrag's attention, to boot.

Linni sipped some ale, way out in the corner, he'd done some mental arithmetics, and he was against the outer wall of the building, between a pair of long flat glass planes, the longest such bench in the restaurant he could see, invisible from the outide.

"Hey, handsome."

"Hey, gorgeous, join me in a glass? This cherry ale'll bust your cherry!" He wished he could backspace that, it sounded dirty too him, although, he was too addled to be sure why.

"Oh, I'm afraid it's a bit late for my cherry, but it does sound like a tasty ale... You come here often?" She hooded eyes at him, unsure if he'd recognized her.

"Err, have we met? I'm usually the one everyone forgets, and I remember everyone, but you got me at a disadvantage."

"Oh, Zim! I'm sure I'd remember you, in a crowd of thousands!" His grey eyes were not royal in Kagomei... But she knew he was royalty in Brescia, well, Benevent now, and the grey eyes were a sign of that, especially on a light brunette man, few other phenotypes matched.

"Flatterer, but please, can I have your name, or at least your phone number, for when I'm not added with this fabulous beer?" He made a gesture to sip it, extravagantly, praising it highly indeed, but perhaps more than it strictly deserved.

"You buying me another?"

"Only if you're ready to stop drinking, but if not, I'm planning on buying multiples..."

"Oh, you flirt!" She enjoyed this game, he was usually a little staid, as if he expected everyone to try to take advantage of him... Hmm, that'd make sense, he was an ambassador, buying people a drink usually came with strings, at the highest levels... But on a more fundamental level, she was reacting to him, the man with the cats in his wungli... Whatever she had against him, he took his responsabilities seriously, he'd kept the kittens around, even though he could have just excused himself, walked too his place, maybe 500m away, put the kitties to bed, or...whatever, and come back to party...

"Megamisama City are you ready to rock??" A new voice just rang across the reserved vip room.

Amarat's voice tartly answered. "No, but you brought tart beer anyways, right?"

"Well, maybe not tart beer, but sour beer? Same difference!"

The sour beer genre, while allowed by Mullcupaw, tended to not attract the attention of anyone by afficionados, who drank aught but else. Lusitania, or Luci, Linnaeus' sister, had made her reputation on sour beer tastings, adding cheeses, cold cuts and flower petals dishes to sour ales and beers, to great success, here and elsewhere in Megamisama. Kannie's at #2 was the place where she had the most success, however, as both her and her brother tended to drink more freely if they could go back home without worries, and Kannie's at Number two was 10 minutes via aircar of her abode, and 10 minutes walking distance for her brother. Tranquility, in this case, was no mere metaphor, as the kittens tended to be a lot more tranquil when they could go back to their usual surroundings.

"Francine, so good to see you!"

"Thank you, Luci-Zim!"

"Bro, you ok? You look like something someone took a axehandle to!"

"I'm sure I'll be fine, thanks Sis." He said tartly.

"Aw, bro, I know you, you look like you've just met someone who left you panting for more..."

"Aw, sis, give me a break."

"No, seriously, bro, that's a good description." Amarat chimed in.

"Bro, you traitor!"

"I'm not, she just looks that good in that dress... Flora, stop hitting me, I got enough woman, I'm just saying Linni is acting like she's that pretty... Stop hitting me please."

"I can't believe we spent 20 hours a day together for all the Lai Dang treaty and you can't remember me..."

"I've just disallowed any memories of that heady time from giving me hiccups, really, come on, you're kidding me!"

She just wriggled her behind at him in response, surprising herself when her let her get into contact range, and wrapped his arms around her.

"Halp! I'm being surrounded! Harrassed."

"It can't be sexual harassment if you're doing the hugging, you could just stop hugging, after all..."

"I could, if you weren't so irresistible..." He said, knowing it'd not protect him in court, but he was in trouble if she brought a suit there anyways, especially since he'd only recently become a tribunal himself...

"Oh, aren't you all handsy and flirty..." But the tone of her voice wasn't put upon, at all... If he'd had to describe it in one word it'd be delighted.

"Where've you been, all my life?"

"Under your heated gaze, buy you didn't seem to notice?"

"What, so I know you?"

"I spent 21 hours with you, so much, I told you to get a shower, in Meihomei's own hotel shower, in Lai Dang, before it got signed."

"Boo?"

"It's me."