Bidding the Fog Farewell Sadie didn't have the faintest clue what day or time it was.
She took a slow, intentional look around the smoky room. Men and women smoked, drank, laughed and intertwined around her. Some older, some younger, but none at all cross. A few were sunken deep into worn armchairs as if she swirling smoke and live music didn't exist. A man and woman sat facing each other on the rather unsafe-looking balcony, him playing the violin and her the cittern, and volleyed familiar notes back and forth like they had practiced together before.
There was a haze about her that had nothing to do with tobacco smoke, and only slightly the other substances in the poorly-lit room. She looked up from her spot on a stack of pillows on the ground and watched a lanky man in dirty clothes lower down to sit beside her. He seemed not to notice her, or if he did he didn't care, too wrapped up in delivering a small glass of gin to another woman more obviously carefree than she.
Oh. Her fingers were touching something cold. She looked down to find her own glass of what smelled like gin. No, wait... gin and something else. In small motions, she wafted the scent up to her face. Laudanum. Something she kept out of her home at all costs after she realized how severely in control Hili could become after a dose.
"Excuse me," she said, interrupting the couple beside her from their courtship. Neither looked at her right away, but she leaned in and spoke with what she felt was polite but firm authority. "How long have I been here?"
The two of them laughed without malice, delighted by her question for some reason. The man gestured to Sadie through his laughter. "You ain't square rigged at all. I take it back." The girl behind him beamed at her, but Sadie had no idea what he meant. "He's sorry alright," the wild-haired girl insisted amongst giggles, "hey-- where's that wine you brought in?"
Oh, no. Not the coca wine.
Meanwhile, the lanky man called out to the room, summoning Renee to take care of her odd but generous friend.