Skel sat back, cool calm collected. Totally and completely not shitting bricks. He flicked his eyes up and down the crew across from him, did it visibility so that it would come across as cool and calculating. There were three of them and one of them,the terrapan, the cleric, and the quiet ginger, but so far they seemed unwilling to fight him on suspicion alone.

  So, turtle boy was a diviner, supposedly. A diviner or a damn good con man, though it was the same thing at the end of the day if you thought about it. End of the day, what mattered was that his best lead for a job really genuinely believed he’d been intending to mug them. Which he had been, but only as a last resort.

  So now, he had to play this… well he wasn’t really one to beg forgiveness.

  Skel shrugged, “Man’s gotta eat. Besides, since you can see the future, it wasn’t like I was planning on mugging you if you did hire me.” He smiled at the Terrapan over the top of his beer while the cleric spluttered.

  She glared at him over plate armor, “You little rat-”

  “Ci,” Adridam was smiling, “It’s fine, everyone’s a different person when they’re hungry.”

  Skel frowned, it was nice the guy wasn’t mad at him, but by the gods what a patronizing piece of shit. Across from him, the cleric (Ciadel he was guessing based on Adridam’s earlier remarks) was rolling her eyes as well.

  “I don’t care how hungry I am, I ain’t about to start jumping people in alleys.” She bit out, positioning a gauntleted hand on the table between her meal and Skel. He smiled at her, flaring his wing in a way that he knew made humans get jumpy. The cleric didn’t flinch, but he did get the satisfaction of watching her eyes track the movement too closely.

  “Yes, well,” Adridam was still smiling, “I suspect you have a lot more natural respect for authority than Skel or I do.”

  The cleric rolled her eyes, “There’s a difference between respecting authority and jumping people in an alley.”

  The terrapan tilted his head at the bar around them, packed mostly with Crag but with no shortage of Orcan soldiers as well. Absently, Skel wondered what Oliver was getting up to tonight. “This maybe isn’t the best place for a political debate Ci.”

  “Yeah you’re right, sorry,” She shook her head and went back to glaring at Skel, “Why are we still talking to this guy again?”

  Next to her, the redhead grunted in agreement. Maybe he was genuinely mute?

  Adridam nodded, “You’re right, we should get on with it and hire him.”

  “What?!” Skel and Ciadel spoke simultaneously.

  “While I am glad for the offer-”

  “Why in the many hells would we-”

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  Adridam laughed, waving his hands to try and quiet them both, “Relax, relax, Ci, honestly.” The terrapan was grinning as both skel and the priest.

  “Didn’t you hear me earlier? If we’d come in here, not hired him, and then gone about our night, he’d have mugged you both, and in the process he’d have disabled your magical protections.” Adridam raised an eyebrow, “he’s not a weaver, but he can disable magical effects.”

  Ciadel, was looking at the terrapin with a decidedly unamused expression, “You’re so dramatic. You should join the theater.”

  Skel snorted, and a little bit of beer shot out his nose.

  The priest shot him a flat, commiserating look, which was a sharp change from the outright hostility (and frank racism) from a second ago, “No but really.” she shook her head, “You could have just said, he can do what we need, let's hire him.”

  Adridam shrugged, “This is better long term.”

  Citadel threw up her hands, in apparent frustration, “Better, for who, what are you talking about?! Adridam, I swear-”

  “Sooo,” Skel interrupted with a slow drawl, “Am I getting the job? Is that what’s happening here?”

  “No”

  “Yes”

  The cleric and the diviner spoke over top of each other, and after a few seconds of tense glaring (on Ciadel’s part) and placid smiling (Adridam) the plated woman shook her head and let out a frustrated huff.

  “Fine, yes, okay, apparently,” she glared at her co-adventurer (or boss? Skel wasn’t sure), “You’re hired.”

  Holy shit, yes.

  Fuck, by the gods, yes.

  He was going to be okay, he wasn’t going to starve to death.

  “Glad to hear it,” Skel gave a calm nod, though the tremors in his wing might have given him away to another Stopheri. Skel seriously doubted the ‘adventurers’ had enough experience with the Stoph to read him though. Except for the diviner, who was smiling warmly at him.

  The diviner might realize how excited skel was.

  “We’ll head out from the road two dawns from now,” Ciadel was all business and politeness now that her future telling co-adventurer had (apparently) talked her around. “You have armor? Weapons? Supplies?”

  Skel snorted, “No.”

  He had the clothes on his back, and they were starting to sit loosely as it was.

  “Great,” Ciadel sighed, “I can get some castoffs on loan for armor and weapons. Nothing fancy, but functional. I’ll give you an advance to go pick up some things supply-wise.”

  “Nope,” Adridam popped the p on the end of the word as he smirked across the table at Skel.

  Such a weird. fucking. guy.

  “Listen I’m not gonna run out on you,” Skell rolled his eyes, "I could really use the payout on this.”

  “Still,” the terrapan shrugged, “I’ll get your supplies for you, we’ll meet you in two dawns and go from there. Better that way.”

  “Better why?” Skel ground out between pointed teeth.

  The redhead, the quiet third of the trio, snorted, “He’s not goanna say.”

  Adridam shrugged, seemingly to confirm the man’s words.

  “I’m Regan by the way.” The man held a hand out for the Skel to shake, “Welcome to the team.”

  Regan flagged down the server, “Now that we’re done posturing, drinks?”

  “No sorry-”

  “He has to head home.”

  Skel glared at the Adridam as he spoke over top of him.

  “Stop that.”

  Ciadel flicked some of her beer at the smug turtle man, “You’re the worst.”

  Regan, busy in the process of acquiring another round for the three of them, smiled, “nice meeting you Skel.”

  “Yeah,” Skel stood up from the table, done with this whole nerve wracking experience on the whole, “You too. Two dawns from now? At the road?”

  Andridam nodded, and Ci waved him off. With a couple more moments confirmation he was off, with a job ahead of him. A job that would pay him, get him food. And he just had to make it two more days. Less than that really, a day and a half.

  Skel was smiling as he headed home, he was going to be fine.

  As he headed off towards the wastes, so he could go tell Nell the good news, he ducked down a darker street, a shortcut he’d taken a thousand times before.

  And got mugged on his way back. Because of course he did.