The Honor Circle (IC) [Fa Teen, for language]

[Stygian]

The machine-woman did little but quirk a nearly nonexistent eyebrow at Giles' demeanor. Just a moment ago he had been all flames and rage, and now he had shifted to friendly mirth? She recognized that kind of personality. And she liked it. Still, she was a bit sour for not putting up much of a fight. She was used to being the one who overwhelmed her opponents with fire, not the other way around.
   With a shake of the head and a closing and hefting of the crate she had been carrying, she turned back and walked slightly leaned forward against the bar, intending to take him up on that beer. And hopefully a few more after that. Just like Stygian, she was not exactly one who could normally get drunk. But like him she too could pull some stops and mimic the functions of a natural system well enough to feel at least some of the sensation. She would just have to compensate for the rest by drinking harder...

[TheGreyRonin]

Looking at the setup she had, Risky shook her head. "I'll buy you a drink anytime, especially since they're free in here." She indicated the setup. "Good thing you're taking it easy on me." She grinned, then sidled past the other player. Shifting her cue to her left hand she bent backwards over the table. "Air, rail, double back, brown near corner," she called.

Flicking her wrist at that odd angle, the cue ball bounced up, barely grazing the black eight-ball. It angled into the far rail at a steep angle, crossed the length of the table, angled wider, and kissed the brown ball into the near pocket before slowing next to the red three.

Risky straightened and frowned as the red three rolled, falling into the far pocket. "Blasted trick wrist," She rubbed her left wrist gently. "Had it broken on Melpomene, along with my heart. Yours again."

Stalker served out another round of drinks, quietly humming to himself, eyeing the courtyard. So far there had only been some skirmishes, but this would get serious soon. He cleared his throat. "Circles are open, folks. Any takers?"

[Boog]

Clicking the last piece into place, Tock stood up and closed his bag. His hands had both been replaced; the left was now a thing with delicately wrought fingers, like designs on the guard of a saber. The resemblance was only enhanced by the yard long blade in place of a ring finger. The right hand was a spindly thing made up mostly of springs, the area between the fingers webbed and a stone with a hole bored in the middle by the elements was set in the middle of his palm. He'd unbuttoned his collar to make room for a large, interestingly designed piece much like some sort of steam powered telescope; a heat ray that snapped on to his "collarbone", to the left of his neck. Finally, he'd clamped a metal lid over the top of his glass of fuelcohol, the novelty umbrella still poking around the edge.
"Seeing as the good dragon would appear to be engrossed in his own conversations, I believe I'll volunteer for a spar. Any takers who wouldn't be offended if I kept my drink? If I left it all the fizz would run out, and I get so few chances to have one of these."

[Cogidubnus]

Cog shook his head as Giles entered the bar and called out to the man. "Kill anyone? I hope you at least left dental records this time." he took a swing of his drink, anticipating at least being kicked out of the establishment for unnecessary roughness.
Giles merely shrugged and ordered up two beers. Cog raised his eyebrows, and gave a slight nod to Moira, who had just entered. "Congratulations are in order, madam. That makes two who've fought him and lived."

[Stygian]

As the machine entered, she cocked an eyebrow at Cog and read his tone and language. She might have wanted to behave like a human, but she had no compunction against using her digital skills for analysis and intelligence against people.
   "And let me guess... The other one was you?" she asked calmly, and took the beer offered to her, sitting down next to them both and drinking down a bit, scanning the man up and down.

[Cogidubnus]

Cog grinned. "Perhaps. Another time and another place." He nodded to Giles. "It wasn't an entirely fair fight, in any case, but he still managed to almost kill me. With him, that's usually counted as a victory."
Giles merely inclined his head and grinned. He found the pipe that he had left on the table, and with a flick of his thumb he lit it again and began to smoke. "She wasn't so bad herself. First blow there would have done it, but I got lucky and it only glanced off me. The salamander probably helped." He coughed, and rattled the loose armor on his forearm. "And it's gonna be a bitch to get this fixed." He took a swig of his beer from in between puffs on the pipe and leaned close to Moira. "Haven't had that much fun in decades. If you ever find anyone who can kick yer ass, have 'em look me up. Hells, I'll even take a rematch anytime, sweets." He leaned back in his chair. "I know what ta look out for now, anyways."

[Stygian]

There was no need to consider anything about Cog's reply, so Moira just swigged her beer and set the near-empty glass down, smiling with a newformed mouth. She laughed a bit at Giles' words, and slapped him on the back heartily, metal clanging against metal a bit.
   "Gladly. But before that, I think I'd rather wait and do some other stuff," she said and chuckled, before drinking down the last mouthful of beer and slamming her glass down. Then she had another.
   "If you're looking for someone like that..." she then said, smiling suggestively at Giles, before her eyes went to Stygian who was still sitting leaned back on his chair, his wings folded neatly and his posture lazy. The machine chuckled, and chugged. "Well, maybe you shouldn't. We could have fun in other ways."

[Cogidubnus]

"Aye, well, where there's battle there's always ale and food on hand, fer those who can find it." Giles said, chuckling. "To be honest, I could use a break for a moment. An' speakin' a food..."
He called out to the barkeeper. "If ye got somethin' heavier than ale, I'll take two. Preferably with some barbecue sauce and salt." He said, taking yet another long drag from his pipe. He wasn't a man for restraint after combat, apparently.

[TheGreyRonin]

With a twist of his lips that was almost a smile, Stalker nodded. "Food and drink," he said, retrieving a huge platter of barbecue ribs from the kitchen window with one hand. With his other two hands he set down two gallon-sized heavy metal tankards in front of Giles. "Eat up; there's more where that came from," he said as he refreshed everyone at the bar's drinks, setting a fresh one to place for Tock.

The front doors of the bar suddenly banged open, a huge black hand curling in from either side. They were followed a few seconds later by a rounded snout with lips that twitched slightly.

The doors creaked in their frame as the entire head pushed through, followed by a glossyy black body that resembled a metallic cross between an insect and a skeleton. It stood, and the sleek, eyeless head that swept back and up into a huge crest nearly touched the ceiling. Two arms the size of a muscular human's spread even as the larger two at the shoulders folded inwards. A huge tail slithered in behind the creature, the eight-foot spike on the tip coming around to be held level with the waist.

The upper lip curled slightly in something resembling a disdainful sneer, then the huge creature walked to the corner of the bar that was closer to the courtyard. The sound of the massive footsteps were partly overshadowed by the clicking screeches of the talons on each foot as they gouged the floor. The tail followed after like a rippling snake, the barb on the end nearly slashing Risky's face as she leaned away from it, frowning.

The four riblike organic tubing sections on the creature's back pulsed at the tips as it inspected the circles through some odd means, then turned to face the room again. A feeling similar to having one's mind coated with cold swept across the room, as the huge creature backed and folded itself into the corner like some demonic gargoyle. The arms folded in wards, and the front of the head slid backwards under the armored crest.

Stalker shook his head an sighed. This little contest had just gotten entire levels of uglier.

[Boog]

Tock was a little disheartened by not having any takers challenge-wise, so he simply went outside to wait in one of the circles. On his way out he nodded to the new creature in what he hoped was taken as a friendly manner.

[Aisha deCabre]

Content to be feeling at full health again, Aisha appreciatively took the refill of her drink and paused between sips, not feeling a motivation after recovering so fast to become even a little drunk.  The panthress spun a little on her stool and gazed about the participants and patrons, watching the other two combatants having come in a little bit after she and Gareeku. 

The two of them were both marvels in themselves, like many of the others.  She raised her glass when they returned, a silent congratulatory greeting to both, before suddenly the doors parted violently to admit another newcomer.  Its head and body seemed to almost completely block the light of the sun from the outside, and its whole color suggested that's what it was made to do.  Its appearance she quirked a surprised eyebrow at...she might have compared it to one of the Insectis race from her homeland were it not for differences.

As the creature passed, even the darkness trailing its demeanor seemed to have a presence.  Her emerald ring took on a slight glow, and the bounty hunter's eyes narrowed at the feeling it gave off with just a glance, her back leaning cautiously on the bar.  "The heck is that?"  She said beneath her breath once it set to rest in a corner, giving the feeling of just something waiting to happen.  Interesting.

[TheGreyRonin]

 "The Queen," Risky said out loud, her face a mask of hatred. She watched the creature settling into the corner, then turned to the other player. "I've seen at least three universes where her kind was the dominant lifeform on every world. They're like a plague."

The Flit flew down from the rafters, then fluttered over to the creature. She circled it curiously, firing question after question at it in her high-pitched, rapid-fire way....then suddenly stopped.

She actually started to fall as her wings went still, then with an impressive burst of speed she made a beeline for the bar, ducking down behind it. "Bad bug bad bug bad bug bad bug..." she muttered over and over from behind the bar.

The larger circle began to flicker, pale gosts of light flashing around the rim. Stalker glanced out and muttered "What now?"

[Stygian]

Upon its entry, Stygian's eyes slowly went to the strange and grotesque xenomorph, widening as they glanced along its huge, glossy black form. He took in its shape, its look and its demeanour, fanning his nostrils just the slightest bit to catch an almost unreadable whiff of near-traceless, slick and chemical scent. The whole thing seemed to be covered in the thinnest layer of watery secretion, hiding its scent. It had no eyes, but was clearly capable of sensing them through some other perceptory means, eliminating one of nature's clearest vulnerabilities. Its leg structure was optimal, its respiratory system one could only speculate at, its carapace seemed like an integration of both endo- and exoskeleton in some highly structured way, and...
   It looked absolutely marvellous.
   Stygian swiveled a bit on his chair and turned his head straight at the thing, shivering a bit as he felt an almost familiar touch on his mind, one which met his true sense beyond his dull and redundant vision and nearly made it tingle.
   "Can you believe this thing?" he said, the comment directed toward keaton. He wondered at the creature, having seen something like it before in some horror movie, but never witnessed anything of the like on such a scale or so close before. Questions blurred through his mind, taking his mind away from the excitement of the circle outside. What the Hell was this thing? How had it evolved? What was it doing here? Could it be communicated with?
   Could it be drunken under the table?

[Gareeku]

Sipping his drink as he listened to the others talk, Gareeku then looked up as the bar doors opened. Seeing the huge sinister creature enter the bar, the wolf's eyes widened, his jaw dropping slightly as he observed the almost evil aura the large creature gave off. As the creature walked in, he couldn't take his eyes off of the large killing machien in front of him. It was an amazing sight, yes it also downright frightening, if he was going to be honest, but amazing nonetheless.

Composing himself somewhat, Gareeku turned to Stalker.
"Who, or what, the fuck is that thing?" the wolf whispered to him. He didn't know who this 'Queen' was, but he had a very very bad feeling about the near future...

[Boog]

Tock raised an eyebrow at the lights appearing in one of the circles. Do they normally do that? Hmm...
The construct considered his options, and eventually reached what he would be willing to claim was a logical decision.
Well, I was getting bored anyway. With another sip of his drink and a smile, he entered the ring.

[TheGreyRonin]

Reaching below the counter to pat the Flit comfortingly, Stalker answered Garreeku in a conversational tone. "It's a Xenomorph queen. They're one of the more vicious, dangerous lifeforms in the multiverse." He gestured to where a small, silvery scoremark ran down the domed black skull. "Se the scar? That's one I've seen before. This is a young one, daughter of the Queen Mother of Agruul 4."

He raised his voice to the creature. "Lay one damn egg outside the circle and I'll personally kick your ass." A wave of dark hatred flowed from it, a seething sea of obsidian emotion. Stalker nodded his head, and it stopped.

Syphon finally emerged from the bathroom and limped his way to the flashing circle. He glared at Tock, and made an odd gesture with both hands.

In a brief surge of light he disappeared, and the lights stopped chasing themselves around the edge.

[lucas marcone]

An odd looking rat walked in and sat at the bar, looking tward the circles. He muttered to himself "So this is the "new place to be!"? Nothing more than streetfights." He spun around to order a beer.

[Sunblink]

Buh?

Mismatched brown eyes--one christened with almost hawk-like clarity, the other marred with intolerance to color--fluttered open, a hand dipped in sable stripes reaching up to wipe wearily at the corners of her eyes. Glasses tilted lopsidedly atop Keaton's muzzle as the jackal rose where she sat, groggily examining the room with her already aerodynamic hair askew. Same Circle, and she was still seated beside Stygian, but what just happened?

One glance at the emptied bottles of beer, filled with the residue of cloudy foam glued to its interior, surrounding her confirmed Keaton's suspicions. She had drunk herself into sleep, unfortunately missing some of the battles. Quickly straightening herself, her valiant efforts to restore proper order to her disarranged hair and glasses was momentarily interrupted with the sharp stinging of an almighty mother of a headache and the vestiges of inebriation.

"Oh crap!" she muttered, removing her glasses and rubbing at her eyes again, "Crap crap crap. I'm sorry. Did I... oh crap. I fell asleep." Keaton's ears remained plastered to her head as she craned her body around, keeping her movements from being too jerky. There was no way she could fight in the condition she was in, unless someone had some intergalactic medication or something equally magical.

The first thing Keaton noticed after turning her body around was the Queen, in all of 'her' monstrous, grotesque glory. Yelping instinctually, Keaton withdrew, barking a curse under her breath. "What the HELL?!" she exclaimed, ignoring the incessant throbbing of her headache. Well, wasn't this a wonderful thing to wake up to. "What the ^&*( is THAT?"

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Gareeku]

Listening to Stalker's explanation of the Xenomorph Queen before them, Gareeku's eyes narrowed, keeping his gaze locked on the killing machine nearby.
"Charmed, I'm sure..." the wolf muttered. He would definitely be keeping an eye on the "Queen". For now, though, Gareeku ordered another drink from the bar, this time requesting bottle of energising drink.

[TheGreyRonin]

 Sliding a bottle of beer down to the new arrival, Stalker handed Gareeku a large bottle of Moonglow. The label proclaimed it as "Pure light energy in liquid form!"

"She'll be playing for hosts. Not something I'd wish on most creatures," Stalker said. "Just don't challenge her to a game of chess. They're hell for logic games." He blinked, then grinned. "But they suck at "Rock, Paper, Scissors".

Seeing Keaton's reaction, he slid down a huge glass mug full of something that was vile green and bubbling. "This'll help. Just don't sniff it first."

[Stygian]

Quirking his eyebrow at the jackalmorph slightly, Stygian made just a bit of a smirk and almost a chuckle.
   "Some sort of alien, it seems. Though not the friendly or edible type, I would guess. Still interesting though." From that comment, one could probably deduce that he had more of an investigative view of odd lifeforms, rather than a paranoid one. "I'm wondering how we are to talk to that thing. Also, I think I heard that Stalker guy mention something about eggs. That would undoubtably be something equally interesting as the rest of that... thing's physiology." There was more curiosity in his eyes than revulsion or fear. A lot more.
   Then he heard Stalker's next comment about the thing, and his eyes turned over to the 'man', his smile off but his face attentive and one eyebrow quirked.
   "Hosts? They're parasitic?" he asked. "You mentioned queens and hives. Are these an organized species?"

[Boog]

Bemused with Syphon's disappearance, Tock came back inside. He was mildly put out that despite his attempts he had still yet to compete in one of these duels, and was almost out of fuelcohol.
"Another one, if you please," the construct said, sitting down and placing a few coins on the counter. The newcomer seemed to have caused quite a stir and Tock, full of potent intoxicants and naivete, began mentally working out the probability that he'd be able to beat it.

[lucas marcone]

Ian looked around sizeing up the competitors. "Might as well take in the evening entertainment. It would be ashame just to come here for a beer." Ian stood up and walked over to Tock. "What's your name and would you like to fight? I'll wadger a ten spot you can't whup me." Ian waited for the atomoton to speak.....if it could

[Sunblink]

"Alien?" Keaton repeated the word somewhat incredulously, although the concept of intergalactic travel and creatures hailing from other universes wasn't a foreign idea to her. Then again, she had never used the word 'alien' before crudely, surprisingly, despite her foul mouth and insensitive tongue.

She couldn't help but be slightly impressed with Stygian's unabashed interest with the creature, though--her first instinct when being encountered with a monster like that would probably be to bash its brains out until it was just a colorful stain on her mace. Keaton would've asked him to elaborate more if it weren't for the interference of her headache, and the timely presentation of a sickening, green sludge that apparently compensated as some form of medicine. Staring at it for a moment, revolted, after her hesitation Keaton hefted the mug and, pinching her nose shut with her free hand, gulped it down.

It tasted horrible. Like someone had scooped up an entire mugful of mud into it and liquified it with every vile substance known to man (and several other species). Fighting the instinct to choke, Keaton finished up the concoction, then slammed the mug back on the ground and struggled to regain control of her spasming gag reflex. Its effects were immediate, however--her headache had dulled down to a fading pulsation in the back of her head. Unpleasant experience or not, it had worked.

"Wow," Keaton muttered, stifling a hiccup as she thanked Stalker, "It worked. Thanks..."

Keaton made a mental note to find something slightly more edible to steal for any other similar occasions as she turned back to Stygian. "You seem to be pretty interested in that alien."

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Boog]

Tock smiled broadly, "Wonderful! My name is Tock. And yourself?" he made as if to take another sip of his drink, but stopped with the mug halfway to his mouth. Right. He was out. And he would need more of this stuff for the fight...
"If I may add to the bet?" Tock's smile turned to a smirk, "Twenty that I can beat you and enjoy a relaxing drink at the same time."

[TheGreyRonin]

"You're welcome," Stalker said to Keaton, as he noted Tock's empty mug. He mixed up another concoction as he answered Stygian. "Depends on what you mean by "organized". Under a queen they're organized like ants, but each hive is completely seperate."

He added a tiny pink umbrella to the drink and watched it dissolve, then nodded and slid it over to Tock. "If there's more than one queen on a planet, they fight to the death. If they're evenly matched, the war between them sometimes takes upwards of six or seven hundred years."

He glanced again at the dark, statue-like figure in the corner. "They convert entire planets to hives if possible. They're the fifth deadliest race I've ever run across."

Risky chalked her cue a bit more, then just stopped. "I'll concede. I can't concentrate with one of those around." She glanced angrily at the xenomorph, then racked her cue. "Thanks for the game. I'll buy your next round."

Flit looked back over the bar carefully, saw the creature hadn't moved, and broke into a cheerful smile. "Silly buggy," she said as she hopped back onto the bar and started humming.

[Stygian]

As he took another drink, Stygian's gaze once again fixed upon the giant, black, glossy thing and studied it closely. He took the glass from his mouth as he slid off his chair and moved, slowly but more deliberately than cautiously, over to the bar and closer toward the xenomorph.
   "Intriguing! Fifth, you say?" he said to Stalker, a slight smile on his face and his eyes not turning from the beast. "I would love to hear about the other four some time."
   Slowly, methodically, the man approached the hideous thing, his neck arcing forward against it and his look almost teasing it to respond and stare back at him, though it had no eyes to stare. He kept his drink up, at about shoulderheight, clinking the ice in it a bit as he came closer to the Queen, stopping at about two metres from her or so.
   "How does one... communicate with them?" he asked lowly, tilting his head to the side and looking at the alien's face from a slightly different angle. "They don't seem capable of forming... speech..." he remarked, studying the thing's lipless and sharp-toothed mouth. Almost in an imitation of the thing's own expression, he showed his teeth just slightly as he kept moving his head to catch the look of it, running his tongue over his own teeth and pinching it by his slightly too large canine teeth.

[Boog]

Tock frowned. The last umbrella hadn't done that. He fished it out of the prior mug and added it to the new one, also transferring the drink cap he'd been using.
"So I don't spill any," he explained, getting up from his seat. He still had all his combat parts equipped; radar hand, saber hand and collerbone-mounted lazer, "After you."

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

The pool player smiles at Risky, and nods. "As you will. If you'd care for another game later, though..."

He finishes his beer, wanders over to the bar to slide the empty towards Stalker, and goes back to his game, pausing only briefly to mutter "Nae King. Nae Quin. Nae laird. Nae master. We willnae be fooled again!" at the behemoth in the corner - albeit from far enough away to be out of reach.

[TheGreyRonin]

 Something touches both Stygian and the mysterious pool players' minds, a vile thing that is equal parts corpses floating in dark waters and razored shards of black ice.

"You will feed the hive." the voice slithers inside the furry player's mind.

"Give yourself to me, and know immortality in the hive," it says to Stygian.

Stalker looks at the creature in the corner, frowning. "Careful what she sells you. It has a hell of a price," he says, getting another beer for the player.