An incident at the bar[Open][Mod Aesha]

[Darker Angorian]

Timestamp: Dianara, 6th of Optia, Summer of Era XII in the Age of Darkening

The unfamiliar smell of other races filled Darker's nose, he had heard talk around town that the crown was the place to go and enjoy yourself, meet new people, and drink good ale. So this is were he found himself now.

He had heard that all roads in the empire lead to Prime, and that all roads in Prime lead to the Crown, so after half a brightenings wandering and exploring the city, he ended up in front of a building with a crown on a sign outside it. Walking through the door he saw striking blonde woman sitting at the door. She looked genuinely friendly, but it was obvious that there were occasionally miscreants standing before her. Darker nodded to her has he entered.

His cloak hung closely around him, the shadow of his hood covered his face. The bar regulars obviously regularly saw this kind of stranger because he just walked to the bar unchallenged and unnoticed and ordered a glass of Fireside Inn Pale Ale at 5gc. He took a deep drink of it. The bubbles tickled the back of his throat and went up the back of his nose, where it tickled.

In fact, it tickled a lot..."ATCHOOOOOOO"

Now everyone was staring at him. His hand shot up to his head, his cloak hood had slipped down. The sound had suddenly completely stopped, apart from slight rustling.

"Excuse me" said Darker hopefully

[Aesha]

The sneeze didn't get a whole lot of attention due to the packed nature of the Crown. The tavern was indeed doing a roaring trade that Brightening. There was however, no avoiding the man to Darker's left who was waiting to order a drink from the barstaff. Currently, the bar seemed a little shortstaffed, and the usual bar manager, a middle-aged man, was absent, and the whole thing was being looked after by one of the waitresses who had a slightly flustered look on her face as she tried to deal with the orders.

The man to Darker's left however, was a big, unkempt looking fellow who would have probably fitted right into the streets of Old Prime, if it still existed. The Allerians that had cleaned up the city had left little in the ways of hidey-holes for thieves and miscreants and they tended to hang out wherever they could. The man looked like one such person. His hair was dark, almost black and tied into a dirty pony-tail that reached the top of his shoulder blades. His clothes were very non-descript, linen shirt and breeches covered by a leather jerkin. If he didn't have a weapon or two on his person it would be surprising.

As Darker sneezed, he turned to make a good-natured jest, until the half-elf's hood fell back and revealed his features. The man's face automatically changed from amusement to disgust.

"'Ere!" He said to no-one in particular. "They're only lettin' those filty dark elves drink in me pub! What's the world comin' too, eh? When a man can't enjoy a pint without bein' jostled by jorel-lovin' dark elves?"

[Darker Angorian]

Darker looked away. He took another sip of his ale. It felt good on the back of his throat now. He turned back to face the man. "Serale, sir. You clearly don't realise that I DON'T HAVE EBONY SKIN"

Darker was absolutely furious. His head snapped back and he affixed his crimson eyes on the man. He smashed his fist down on the counter, his ale spilling and dripping onto the floor.

"And how DARE you accuse me of being a Jorel-lover." He spat onto the floor as if allowing the name of that filthy deity into his mouth had cursed it. "You filthy pig, I seriously doubt that when you breed with the animals on the ground you do Diana much respect. I doubt that an inbred mongrel like you could raise enough money to purchase a fine establishment like this. Your pub indeed! Now good day sir".

Darker turned. He quickly sought the door, and spotted it across the room, and began to make his way towards it

[Aesha]

The man curled up his lip in distaste at Darker's retaliation to his insults. Clearly he had expected the man to either enjoy his brew elsewhere or leave the tavern entirely. He rolled his eyes at Darker's declaration about the colour of his skin.

"Yeah, then you're one o' them 'alf-breeds, ain'tcha? Heard all about them I did, ain't no better than the rest of em."

Apparently the man, at that point, decided the matter was over, and went back to his ale. When Darker started to insult him however, his head snapped back with a dangerous glint in his eyes. Darker had started to walk away before he could retalite, but one arm shot out and caught the elven man by the clothing around the back of his neck, which would either halt the elf entirely or rip the material. He then spoke, not shouting, but in a low threatening tone. Evidently he did not want to alert the staff to the problem in case he wanted to beat Darker to a pulp.

"No one says that to me and gets away with it, yeah? Specially not you. Pfft, half a foul dark elf, half a pansy elven wimp, right? I should wonder you even had the guts to come in here."

Apparently, satisfied with his insult, the man decided to take it no further, and giving Darker a rough shove that nearly sent him into a nearby table, the unsavoury individual went back to nursing his mug of ale.

[Sheetro]

Sheetro was sat in a lonely corner by herself with no drink before her. Her green eyes were scanning the Crown, mouth slightly open with amazement. She had never seen so many races all together before. Infact she'd only ever seen either humans or elves.
Her elven ears picked up the threatening conversation a little ways off.

Half elf? she thought to herself. But so am i! I'm half elf, half human...why must people insult each other for being different?

She hadn't noticed herself getting up and striding to the darker elf. She turned to the male sat gulping his drink and tapped him on the shoulder until she caught his attention.
"Serale sir," she said nervously. "I couldn't help but overhear you had a problem with the gentleman over there." Her pink hair nodded in Darker's direction. "Is there a problem with other races sir? If so, does that not make you a foul racist?" She felt her heart thumping at her chest.
Oh no, she thought. What if I'm starting a fight?
Hurridely she continued, "I don't mean to be rude but it's not a very nice thing to do, insulting other races I mean. I for one am half human, half elf. Is that such a problem? I can see other races in here too. So please don't offend people." She felt slightly better about herself so started back to her table in the corner.

[Aesha]

Now that, at least in the unsavoury man's opinion, Darker had been dealt with, he went back to the bar in order to enjoy his beer in peace and quiet. So, when Sheetro approached he was rather annoyed about being interupted again, but his glare softened when he saw that he had been approached by one of the fairer sex. She gave Sheetro a grin that was bordering on a leer, and proceeded to explain about his incident with Darker. He made occasional gestures with his beer tankard, and his speech seemed the faintest bit slurred, suggesting that he was far from on his first drink.

"Yeah, well, y'see, you didn't see him, right? He's only one of them filthy dark elves! And, of course I was only lookin' out for people like you. I've heard about all the strange things they get up to, I have." He paused here to punctuate his sentence with a surprisingly steady nod. "Course, I ain't got anything against the likes of you. Not yet, anyway. heh heh."

He eyed Sheetro up and down, emphasising the double meaning of his rather shallow chat up line.

"So right, since I vanquished a wrong-doer and defended your honour, I ougtta get a reward, right?"

Obviously the events of the past few minutes had got somewhat muddled in his head.

[Darker Angorian]

OOC: Sorry for the excessively late post, my sister took over the computer for "revision".

Darker went sprawling over the nearest table, and felt his hackles rising. This scum had dared lay his filthy hands on his person. He stood up slowly, and felt his blood heating up. His blatantly elven nature indicated that he was quick to temper, and he went to step back towards the vile creature. But, there was a young, pink haired woman standing in his way.

"Excuse me, miss" he began slowly, his breath catching slightly in his throat from anger, as he felt around his belt to make sure his knife was where he had left it, "but this gentleman," darker coughed to emphasise the sarcasm in his tone, "only seems to have a problem with races that can see in the dark." Darker ran his fingers through his hair, as if to say 'Here I am, I have dark elf blood'.

He turned to the man, and his booted foot lashed out kick the drunkard's feet from under him. "By the name of Aslan," he bellowed at the man, "You will not sully my honour."

[Sheetro]

Sheetro scowled as the man burst out with his drunken misbeahving. She snorted lightly, raising her head and flicking her hair to face the other way. Her dress whipped as she started to make away.
She snapped her head back over her shoulder. "A reward?" she repeated through closed teeth. Her anger was building. "You shall get no reward from me, lowlife. You insult me when you insult half-elves no matter what race they are. So back off, jerk." She remained calm. Her fist was clenched, her teeth sharply showing but her elven blood was not boiling. Infact she was completely at rest although her heart was demanding a rage.

The darker mixed elf advanced at the man and bellowed at him. Sheetro was stunned that she could barely move. All anger seemed to have swept from her into him at a racing rate. Perhaps a fight was now to break out between the two. Should she remain still?

[Aesha]

The drunken man took one pace towards Sheetro, then his lower lip curl in annoyance as it was clear the half-elven girl was not going to be an easy prize. He took another quaff of beer, and was evidently furious at the insults Sheetro had thrown at him. Finishing off the tankard, he slammed the wooden mug down on the bar counter with forced aggression and turned back to the pink-haired girl.

"Oh yeah? I'd watch your tongue if I were you, girly. Sayin' those sort of things could get you into trouble, yeah?"

He made a change in his stance that suggested he was planning to reach out and grab Sheetro forcefully, but just at that moment, Darker came back from his small venture where he had been shoved into a table, and immediately the thug's attention switched back to the half-elf of a darker origin. He ignored the sentence he said to Sheetro, then strangely, burst out laughing when Darker addressed him personally.

"Honour? Hah, a dark elf with honour, that's somethin' new." He paused, and flicked a thumb briefly towards Sheetro. "Anyway, I'm busy yeah? Are you gonna leave or am I gonna have to make ya?"

Emphasising the thread he took a menacing step towards Darker. Whilst it was true that the man was bigger and stronger than the half elf, his consumed amount of alcohol was obviously as he staggered slightly on his feet, which would only be to Darker's advantage.

[Kas Brightdelve]

Having settled in, freshened up and rested for a couple of brightenings, the Human man felt it was time to go downstairs and see if he would run into anyone potentially interesting. Plus, the thought of a beer and a decent meal also sat well in his mind. Kas smiled softly to himself as he descended the stairs from his private room, wandering past the reception desk and into the bar. Today, he carried only his pouch with a few crowns in it and wearing his typical blue tunic, brown leather pants and brown boots. He glanced around, taking note of all the patrons present inside the bar, his gaze stopping on the collection of three people. Two were Half Elves, though one was of darker stock than the other. The other person appeared to be Human, but the Sorcerer couldn't tell from this distance.

Slowly, he crossed the room to the three people, hearing the covnersation that was taking place amongst them. His mind worked quickly, remaining calm and entering a state of Meditation that was required for him to cast spells. A long time ago, Kas had evicted people from the Crown before. If he needed to do so again, then that wouldn't be a problem. He could do it in an entirely non-violent manner, which meant he wouldn't get in trouble, but it had the possibility of making the seemingly drunken man sober up a little. Time would tell. For now, the Sorcerer would watch and wait.

[Aesha]

Kas was not the only person who had finally witnessed the unrest that was happening in the vicinity of the bar. As Kas climbed down the stairs and noticed the three participants, one of the guards of the tavern had noticed it as well, and he ended up waiting just by Kas, to see if they his assistance was needed in the situation or not.

He was a tall man, and squarely built, as such he tended too loom somewhat. His dark hair had been tied back into a pony-tail, and his grey eyes were granite-like in expression. He was wearing a very finely tailored dark blue suit, and one hand was idly fingering something that was concealed in his coat pocket, though it was too hard to guess what it was. He only took his eyes off the three people at the bar for a second, and that was to glance at Kas, merely out of curiousity rather than anything else. Without paying the other human man any attention other than that, he went back to his duties.

Meanwhile, the drunken man who had started the mess was still waiting for Darker to reply to his challenge. If the dark elf refused to take it though, it was most likely he'd turn his drunken attentions back on Sheetro instead.