The Honor Circle Returns! (IC)

[Yugo]

"You think I really care about a knife to the face?' Kaela replied, nonplussed, scratching at one of the many scars that criss-crossed her cheeks and jaw. From one of the pouches at her waist she withdrew a smooth, fresh orange, and began to absently peel it. The blade in her hand was nearly twenty inches of deadly well-tempered steel, but not once did she cut past the outside of the orange and into the vulnerable flesh beyond, and it emphasized her control and skill with the weapon. Sweet juices flowed down her chin as she bit down into the fruit. "Delicious," she muttered to herself, enjoying the citrus flavor. Her throat bobbed once with an audible gulp. "So when are we going to get down and dirty?"

[SpottedKitty]

Andrace looked respectfully impressed at Kaela's long knife, and at her scars. "Picked up a bunch o' them m'self," she said quietly. "Kept a few good 'uns t' lie about, but I had th' rest all healed up. How's about we sit down afterwards with a drink or three — just normal drinks — an' swap... ah... embroideries?"

She broke off her not-really-trying-to-seem-innocent expression to turn and look at Bart's weapon. A tiny smirk twitched one corner of her muzzle. "That all y' got?" she asked in a mildly amused tone. Still leaning back against the bar, the apparently unarmed lioness put both hands to the tops of her thighs. Each forefinger claw disappeared into what had looked like a fold in the silk of her trouser legs. There were two quiet clicks, a whisper of steel against leather, and abruptly she held a slender dagger in each hand, the blades about eight inches long and the cross-guards little more than stubs. "Y're playin' wi' th' pros now, Bart," she said, "an' when we play..." This time Andrace's grin was almost completely humourless, and she didn't appear to be quite as drunk as she'd been just a few minutes before.

Suddenly she tapped the side of her muzzle with the tip of one of the blades. "Wait a bit," she said, "nearly forgot somethin' — I've not put a stake in yet." Holding both daggers in her teeth, she rummaged in the open throat of her jerkin and pulled out a small flat packet. She slit one end of the paper with a claw and showed Kaela and Bart a thin sheaf of intricately printed notes. "Fould ge hree, hour hungreg hhere," she mumbled around a mouthful of steel.

[Tipod]

"...you're right." He flipped the knife shut, placing it back in his pocket. "With a face like that, what's left to shred?" Not that he meant it with any kind of spiteful inflection; just playful banter.

But taking one look at Andrace's blades and hearing her comments put him in a slightly more serious mood. 'Y're playin' wi' th' pros now, Bart, an' when we play...' It wasn't until this little declaration that he starting taking things with more than one grain of salt.

"Okay, so enough screwin' around now that we got the money in order. What locale you girls gonna choose for our little brawl?"

[SpottedKitty]

Andrace glanced at Bart for a moment, a quick ears-to-tail... or in his case, head-to-toe examination taking in his build, temperament, probable fighting abilities... she looked at Kaela and winked. "Looks like we got ourselves a bar brawler here — how 'bout..." Her eyes flicked from side to side, indicating the barroom itself, then she nodded to the viewer hanging from the ceiling, showing the circles that could magically recreate any desired location...

[Angel]

Dani listened to Andrea, looking nervously at Giles as she heard what the woman said. If what she was saying was true, and something was suppressing the blackguard, there was only one explanation that fit...and it would upset Sylvie even more. Speaking of, the elf was tugging half-heartedly at the Red's tunic, having not really listened to Andrea, but gone to spread her cloak over two seats at the bar to reserve their place and then returned.

Dani brushed off the girl's hand, and looked back at Andrea. "I have a feeling we'll need to talk more about this later," she said, almost sotto voce. Then she grabbed Syl's shoulder and turned away from the door - noticing at last that the drinking competitors had stopped, and were going to have a three-person virtual barfight. The distraction worked like a charm. The Red grinned and rolled her eyes, the smile conflicting a bit with her mock-disappointed expression. "Dammit! Missed out on the fun stuff again!" She looked over at Syl with a rather strange face.

"...What? Are you blaming me for the fact that you missed something that would have been incredibly dumb of you to get involved in?" the elf joked.

"Yeah, maybe dumb if it were you, Miss 'What-happens-when-you-throw-cheap-wine-into-a-potted-plant.'"

"So, even though I had nothing to do with the fact that you didn't get up when you woke up, because I don't drink as much as you, I'm responsible for the fact that you missed out on a chance to get wasted."

"Yes," the Red replied, her face fake-serious.

Sylvie didn't respond for a second, then rolled her eyes, shook her head good-naturedly, patted her friend's shoulder and said, "I can't believe I'm saying this... but I think you're more sane with coffee in your system." At this admission, Dani punched her fist into the air with a triumphant grin and walked to her seat, her scheme successful.

[Paladin Sheppard]

Paladin laughed at Stygian in the moment before the wolf incubus both flapped his wings and triggered the powerful  thrusters built into his armor, narrowly avoiding the blows.

Zigzagging for a moment, he then blasted straight at the human, terrible axe shearing through the I-beam Stygian was wielding like a plasma torch through butter.

As he reached his target Paladin swiped his axe at the the madman in front of him.

[Yugo]

"A good old fashioned bar fight?", Kaela suggested, finishing the end of Andrace's sentence for her. "In another bar of course," she added quickly, winking at their rather strange host. Standing with a bounce, she tossed her knife in the air, deftly catching it behind her back without looking. An all too practiced habit, to be sure. "Enough improvised weapons for Baldy, with a nice enclosed environment well suited to close quarters combat." The old woman bared her fangs. "A good fight and we can all swap drinks and stories afterwards."

[Stygian]

There was no room for error. Up this near the scalding light that Paladin emitted, Stygian's outline burned with sizzling black, trails of dark, dusty smoke seeping from him and his features blistering and burning, pain driving his fury further. This close, his protection was nearing nil, and he'd be vulnerable to whatever came his way. Fortunately, he had a few other things he could fall back on, at least for a while. If only he could think clearly... But this obnoxious prick was in his way! This pitiful, lowly creature, dependent on his devices...! That he had the insolence to insult him...!
  Acid rain was starting to hit the ground, a few drops smattering quietly on the dust and ash. The roll of thunder overhead was getting stronger, deeper. Both combatants could stand it, but once it started coming down in earnest the conditions changed. The dry, dusty ash of the ground was a good concealing measure, and would be knocked down by the rain. Then again, fighting on slippery, muddy ground and metal was a greater concern...
  The attack was fairly direct, and even though much of his advantage in speed was lost against someone with Pal's capabilities, Stygian pulled back well in time. There seemed to be something, even through the fuzziness and the rage, that was just... slower about things than usual. The metal beam in his hands jerked a bit against the thickness of the axe as it slashed through it, but it gave him the fraction of space that he needed. He wanted the man close, not flying around with that bloody light on. How long could he keep that shit up?!
  An axe like that was a heavy weapon, and having just swung it and had to dodge more blows, Paladin was off his balance, and in no state to respond when Stygian shunted the part of the metal beam above them down into the ground again, then grabbed him by the neck and slammed his head right into it. Keeping the Cubi there, Stygian ground his teeth, and his voice crackled as he stared wild-eyed at the other man. From the beam's shadow, a huge, sharp-edged gap in the glaring light had formed.
  'I'LL PUT OUT YOUR FUCKING LIGHTS!' he roared.
  In a mere moment, Stygian had extended his hand, and the shadow as a whole deepened and thickened, rising up like a huge black wing behind him. He threw his fist forward, and with a howling roar, the blackness came forward in a storm, a house-sized torrent of blackness and dry earth and dust driven up by it, smashing into them both.

[Tipod]

Hmm... Nice, close-quarters, plenty of breakable furniture to smash over each other's heads: sounded perfectly reasonable to him. "Alright," he smiled and stood, giving his neck a quick crack, "good enough for me." He walked forward about a half-step and stopped.

"...oh, right." He grinned. "Ladies first." And politely gestured for them to lead on. "Unless any of you gotta hit the bathroom 'fore we go."

[Angel]

Dani sat at the bar, plunking a coin down. "Something with lots of sugar and a little kick to it," she said, directing the sentence at the Boogeyman without really facing him. She was watching the combatants for the barfight eagerly. "It's like Drunken Brawls Lite; all the fun of a real fight without any of the property damage and arrests!" Her smirk stayed in place, but lost a bit of its mania. "Wish I was hammered enough to get involved."

"Like I'm gonna let you do that when you just woke up," Sylvie responded from across the room. "Or let you get that drunk." She staarted to head for her friend, but cast a glance at the hedgehog who'd been drinking with the others.

"Speaking of which, nice job winning," she said perfunctorily. "It's a shame you're not taking part in their fight, though - it leaves us to put up with you." All of a sudden, she felt a bit snarky and tired. She was still in a better mood than she had been before, but the emotions she'd run through had drained her a little, and hardcore drinkers had bothered her ever since she'd been in prison.

[SpottedKitty]

Andrace actually snickered at Bart's suggestion of a potty break before the fight. "Tryin' t' delay y'r inted... inva... inna-vittible moment o' gettin' pounded int' th' ground, Shiny?" she asked mockingly, with only a slight drunken tongue-tiedness. She turned and strode towards the door, her tail swishing in a relaxed fashion, and gave the old wolf a pat on the shoulder as she passed by. "C'mon, Kaela, let's get out there... say, are y' goin' t' be wearin' th' tin can f'r th' fight? Must weigh a ton. Don't wear th' stuff m'self — hot, noisy, rubs m' fur th' wrong way, an' it slows m' down."

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Witt raised an eyebrow at the comment from the green girl. Whilst he wasn't exactly unused to people objecting to his presence, they usually had better sense than to take it up with him directly. He then looked her up and down, slowly. "You really sure you want to take that tone, Greenie?" He took another swig of his drink, placed the empty bent green container back on the bar, and - carefully - selected the second of the black, shiny bottles to replace it. "I mean, I'm just sitting here drinking peacefully, and waiting to watch the girls there show Shiny how it's done. You can't be objecting to a little drink. That'd take a mighty small minded person to be objecting to something like that, while standing in a bar..."

He gazed over at Silvie, slouching on his bar stool, and took another drink.

[Yugo]

Kaela sneered, snickering to herself as she began to make her way towards their destination, swiveling her neck with a loud crack. "Much better. No need for the bathroom for me. I was the person who wasn't downing foul drinks like candy, remember?" She made a crude noise, her lips vibrating against her tongue, and turned to regard Andrace. "S'hot and uncomfortable, I'll give you that much." She suddenly switched her method of walking, feet seeming to glide silently across the floor. "But with a good amount of practice, it can become more of a benefit than a hindrance." A clawed finger reached out and poked one of the adventurer's biceps. "And if it's too heavy, then you should grow stronger."The old warrior knew Andrace was probably stronger than the wolf, and the gleam in Kaela's eye said as much.

[Tipod]

"If I shoved you on your back, could you still get up?" Bart quipped, keeping himself behind the two femmes with both hands dutifully resting in his pockets. That'd be one jackass move, to be sure, but the temptation of doing so in the midst of their fight would be great. Insurmountable, really. "Hold up, lemme rephrase it: when I shove you on your back, will you be able to get up?"

[SpottedKitty]

Andrace shrugged at Kaela. "S' y'r steambath," she said offhandedly. "Me an' m' brothers an' sisters, we get along fine without." She glanced over her shoulder at Bart, and the last of the humour in her grin faded away and vanished, leaving only the lioness. This was considerably more disconcerting than the other way round. "If y' try that, Shiny, then granny here'll just have t' hurt y' — which I don't mind, so long as she leaves some f'r me."

She pushed the door open and strode briskly towards the nearest empty Circle, humming quietly, tossing one of her daggers up in the air and catching it again.

[Paladin Sheppard]

*Shields offline....Repair status: 2 minutes*

Pal grunted as his helmet hud glitched out for a second. Twisting about and out of Stygian grip he swept his leg through the humans trying to upend him, the motion propelling him back on his feet. The blast hand been a fantastic release of shadow magic and done some damage to the armor's systems.

"Nice shot. Not many people can generate enough magic to wipe my shields in one go, let alone cause em to short out" He said as he aimed an armored boot at Stygian's guts.

[Stygian]

Growling, fingers clawing, Stygian staggered backwards as he took Paladin's boot in the gut with a resounding thump. The kick was hard, but to a man who could shrug off being hit by a speeding car even a well-directed metal-shod boot with good force behind it was fairly harmless unless directed at a bared throat. Snarling wildly, features twisted and skull-like, his mouth a distending, snapping jaw, he struck out against the incubus with a mauling hand, the tips of his fingers stretched to claws long as kitchen knives. That faint, sickly green light kept crackling around him, and during that last swipe, he rose up, putting more forward force into it than merely the reach of his arm. Even as he began moving in on Pal again, he didn't seem to be moving his legs...
   'INSOLENCE!' he fumed, somewhere between overly dramatic and brutally twisted, shadows once again starting to gather behind him. The casual tone, the almost dismissive manner... Pal seemed to be disregarding who it was that he was fighting! The idiot! The swine...!

[Angel]

Sylvie's expression changed a little, showing a slightly amused, challenging look. She sat on a bar stool nearby, still facing Witt, and leaned forward onto her knees. "It's not the fact that you're in a bar drinking, really. It's just that I've only ever been to one other place where people drank so much that their clothes smelled like they'd been washed in a distillery, and the people there were the biggest bastards I've ever met." At this comment, a little snerk came from a few seats away.

"Syl, only half the inmates at Diekan-Duria smelled like that, and only when they first came in. Given your circumstances, I'd say you were just as bad at first, even if you were sober," Dani called to her friend, unable to resist putting in her two cents any longer. Now the elf looked a little annoyed, and shot a look to the guard. What did she think she was doing, telling him that...

[Yugo]

"S'not very nice to go around pushing over old ladies," Kaela admonished, twiddling with her knife as she turned to observe Bart. "Give an old woman some credit, please. It's not as if I'm wheelchair bound and need a nurse. Although I'll do my best to make sure you need one when you do," she growled darkly, turning her attention back to Andrace. "Well, when I get hit with what might have been a killing blow and my armor saves me again, we can agree to disagree." Her knife clacking lightly against her armor as she fidgeted with excitement, she followed Andrace into the circle, eyes tracing the path her casually flung daggers followed.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Witt raised an eyebrow at the green girl, then wordlessly put his bottle down on the bar. He hopped off the bar stool, then straightened up to his full height. Then he tilted his head back, and looked up into her face.

"They musta been some big bastards, then. What'd you do to them? Piss in their drink or something?" He reached over to grab his bottle back, and leaned one elbow on the stool. "Anyway, why are you so upset?" He glanced at her skin, and went on. "Envious?"

[Angel]

The subtle pun not escaping her, Sylvie straightened up in her seat and a little of the amusement that had been there faded. "Cute. Usually I just get tree jokes." She stood up and faced Witt more directly. "If you mean what did I do to anyone who harassed me in jail... well, just ask her," she said, pointing over her shoulder at Dani. The guard grinned more widely; though she wasn't quite at the Boogeyman's level of scary smile yet, she was getting closer. Sylvie continued, "As for being 'envious', why should I be? I can drink safely, but alcohol tends to kill off my kind a bit quicker than other races, so forgive me if getting drunk doesn't sound pleasant."

"She could just be jealous, but I'm not saying what she did to those guys," Dani commented, leaving her last thought unspoken - 'Cause I really wanna see what's gonna happen.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

"Just tree jokes? I'm sure I could come up with four or five without branching out. Maybe yew need to stick around..." Witt snickered. "Getting drunk isn't supposed to sound pleasant. It's supposed to be pleasant. Maybe you should try it, before you leaf. No pressure, though."

And he punctuated his comments with another swig from the bottle.

[Angel]

Both Dani and Sylvie stiffened, the former more noticeably so. Here it comes, Dani thought, examining the room for any potted plants Sylvie might intend to use to strangle the poor bastard. But instead of using any magic, Sylvie relaxed and gave a wicked little smirk.

"And there it goes," she said, sounding amused again. "Honestly, though, there's no need to be sequoia-bout it if you're heading staight fir the puns now. They might be a birch to come up with, but I've heard way worse than that. You're not gonna let me think you're all bark and no bite, are you?" She felt a strange little adrenalin rush as she spoke. This was a tactic she'd never used before, and she was thinking it might just work.

[Tipod]

"You two seem awfully sure you're gonna kick my ass," Bart astutely noted as he took in the sights of the empty, featureless circle. "You people give me no credit, no respect." No respect at all, I tells ya.

"...even though we're obviously armed and dangerous, just how brutal're we gonna be in this thing?" Bladed weapons (knives especially) had the ugly tendency to pierce vital spots on the (in)human body with ease, including such juicy areas as the chest and jugular. Given this was just a semi-friendly brawl, Bart didn't want to outright kill or cripple anybody without being given the all-clear. Especially not Andrace. She looks like she comes from a pretty vengeful posse.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Witt laughed. "Oh, I'm just larking about. Ash-tually, it's not like I expect you to start pining away; not even if we go into over-thyme. And at least I can cedar wood for the trees..." He bowed, and grinned. "I'm taking a lichen to you, but I like to keep my feet firmly planted. Maple you should take that to heart?"

[SpottedKitty]

"Oh, we'll def'nit'ly kick y' somewhere," Andrace said with what the charitable (or blind) might call a piously innocent expression. "How c'd we resist such a lovely big target...?" She turned and winked at Kaela, making sure not to turn her head too far for Bart to see her do it.

Then, almost like turning a switch, the lioness was all business. "Y' want t' talk conditions? How 'bout just keepin' it simple: keep goin' 'til y' surrender, get knocked out, or can't fight on, that all right wi' y'? Oh, an' let's be p'lite — any bits left on th' floor afterwards gotta be handed back." She didn't sound as if she was joking with that last statement.

With Bart inside the circle, the whole area seemed to blur and twist for a moment, only the three combatants clearly visible to each other. When their vision cleared, they were standing back in the tavern. It looked exactly the same, except there weren't any doors leading to the back rooms, the view out of the windows showed only empty landscape, and there were no other people.

[Angel]

Sylvie smiled fully and did something between a bow and a curtsy in reply. "Maybe so, but I've been known to be a sap about such things. I think I moss-t have misjudged you. I don't usually challenge people from the ginkgo, but in your case, I'm glad I took the elm." She paused, then gave a short laugh. "Oh, Gods, I feel plum rude; how could I knot have remembered my manners? I'm Sylvie Dahl. Who are you?"

[Tipod]

"Dismemberment, huh?" Bart hardly noticed the change of scene, given its speedy shifting to a more appropriate fightin' locale. "I can work with that." In fact, he could work with a lot of things in here: chairs, tables, bottles, mugs, pool cues, sliding someone across the bartop like in all those Western movies... part of him had a strange desire to quote something from The Angel and the Bad Man before they started.

"In fact, I'm feelin' mighty generous right now." He stood at ease, arms swinging back and forth. "Ladies first." And tapped his jaw with an index finger, gladly inviting either of them to deliver a nice right hook to his face. Or a knife slash. Or a chair. Or anything else not conducive to his good health.

[SpottedKitty]

Andrace raised her eyebrows and flicked one ear. She didn't speak, but the expression on her face for a moment clearly said, "is he really that stoopid?"

The lioness seemed to tense her muscles, then from a standing start, she leaped at Bart, twisted slightly in mid-air, and her right leg whipped out in a lightning-fast flying kick aimed right at the helpfully indicated chin. Her heavy, sturdy paw was little more than a blur as it headed straight for Bart's face.

[Tipod]

Andrace's blow landed square and true, easily launching Bart in an impressive arc and slight twirl through the air before landing on a conveniently placed tabled, easily smashing the furniture to splinters under his falling bulk. "...awwk, low--" Not to mention dislocating his precious jaw. Nothing a quick and painful cracking into place wouldn't fix, of course. "*Crricck--* ...okay, no more Mister Nice Guy." Bart grabbed a broken chair leg before getting to his feet. The makeshift club smacked against his open palm as he advanced. "I give you an inch, and you take a mile? Now you done and make me all ornery!" He swung low at Andrace's thigh, figuring a charliehorse injury would be as good a starting move as any for a larger opponent.