Writing Prompt Snippet - Marz and Corva

"Does it ever get annoying?" Corva asked as she leaned forwards across the cold metal of the bar, trying to reach the hearing range of the bartender who stood in front of her. Marzhin - said bartender - set down the highball glass he had been drying. He looked at her with a smile and a quizzical gaze.

"Does what ever get annoying?" He repeated.

"All of..." Corva said fairly generally and motioned with swooping hands to the place around her. Outside of their little conversation, the nightclub thrummed with the steady beat of music from an asuran-designed sound system, and the buzzing chatter of the many patrons that sat and stood around the club. Corva and Marzhin had their own bubble of interaction between just the two of them but it was hard trying to keep the other voices out.

"...All of this?" Corva finished her thought. Marzhin chuckled with a grin and tapped his chin as he seemed to think it over for a couple of seconds.

"No, actually." Marzhin finally said. "I actually....." the bartender mused as he leaned a bit onto the bar. "I actually quite like it."

"Really?" Corva said, tilting her head a bit inquisitively at him. "All the noise?"

"Yeah, especially the noise." Marzhin said with a bit of a smirk. "The noise is my favorite part."

"Why? I feel like it would drive me crazy." Corva laughed a bit. "I'd be dying for some peace and quiet."

"I think I'd go crazy if it were quiet." Marzhin chuckled. "The noise..... fills the space. And it's.....calming for me at least. You know?" Corva didn't know of course but she nodded like she got it. Marzhin could tell she didn't really agree.

"...Have you ever been all alone - no other presence with you?" Marzhin said a bit thoughtfully. "In a quiet room with just yourself where your own thoughts are about the loudest and only thing you can hear? It’s hard to believe how suffocating an empty room can feel. I guess I just get lonely very easily." Marzhin chuckled a bit, though there was a slight hollow-ness to it. "That's why I love this place. It's also why I love Lion's Arch. I don’t feel as lonely as often."

Corva rubbed her chin. With Sylvari - or at least with her - she never really did feel alone. Or at least like there wasn't any other presence with her. There was always the presence of the Dream that she took with her. Her ties to other Sylvari and the Pale Tree. A familiar hum in the back of her mind, like a soothing white noise.

"I guess I've never really tried to imagine it before." She said and scratched the back of her head. "I don't really know what it would be like without my connection to the Pale Tree-'' She stopped as she saw a wave of emotion pass over Marzhin's face. The quickness of it alarmed her slightly.

"Right...." He said and Corva found it hard to tell if it was with pity or bitterness. "I guess it makes sense it's a lot lonelier without a Pale Tree...."