How Did It End Up Like This? (Hui)

[Reviewer]

Thread Title

Glade 89, 121

It was so terribly loud inside The Squiffy Tippler. The large bar was rowdy with competitive drinking games this evening, and Areya was leaning against the wall watching the Sky Guard commander who had taken her out as his "bodyguard" for the evening. What that really meant was that she was to get him home when he was too drunk to do it himself. He was not the first such commander that would pull a Legionnaire for that duty, and she doubted he'd be the last.

Neither the commander, Jaifa Skersken, nor Areya herself, were wearing any official garb that might give away their respective roles in the military. The commander had opened a tab for himself, and said that if she needed anything, to add it to his tab. But since she needed to stay sober to get him home, she had only had water so far. Now, her severe gaze was fixed on the table commander Jaifa had wondered over to. She didn't recognize the game the occupants were playing there. Some ridiculous thing involving glass marbles, stones, coins, and a lot of fast hand movements to rearrange them.

She could only tell that the commander was winning because of how he would cheer and raise his flagon to his heavily bearded face. Her eyes scanned each of the others at the table, and any that sat near to him. This bar was known for being on the rowdier side of things, but it seemed everyone for now was behaving. Still, she was not about to let a commander get killed, or worse, embarrassed on her watch. So she stayed vigilant in her gaze.

Until a dirty man smelling of fish planted himself in her vision, pressing his hand against the wall over her shoulder. "Hey d'ere good cookin', wha's lookin'?" The alcohol wafting from his gaped maw could've stopped a horse in its tracks. "Please move. I'm working."

The man hiccupped, his smile broadening, "I'm a workin' too. Workin' on gettin' to know ya better."

Her eyes narrowed, her glower grew and she leaned forward into the man's ear. "I'm a conscripted. Get out of the way before I make them send me back down below again." She pulled back and saw the blood draining from the man's face. He stammered something unintelligible and dawdled off. She looked back at commander Jaifa and saw that he'd won that game and was collecting his winnings.

Areya continued to scowl, hoping this night would end soon.

[Hui Ming]

Header
Sub

To say that Hui Ming was out of place in the The Squiffy Tippler would be vast understatement. The tavern was a place of hot sweaty bodies packed into far to little space with their reeking day laborer scents and the heady aroma of spilled beer and vomit. The alchemist grimaced and set down his beer, "What kind of name is Squiffy Tippler. What does that even mean?" He muttered to himself. Whatever he just had was not beer. Far too murky. Perhaps he would go blind from whatever swill he just sipped and would not have to deal with the rough and tumble sights this bar had to offer. He looked up from his beer, his legs dangling down from the barrel he was perched on as his barseat and noticed a large, burly fellow next to him mournfully looking at his latest empty mug.

Truthfully there was not much thought to be had on the matter. With a careful nudge, Hui slid his nearly full mug over to his neighbor. Dark lips and wide features broke open into a surprisingly white and straight toothed smile. "thhhanksh." The clearly inebriated man said as he took one large gulp of the disgusting brew. Even if he disliked the fare, he had to be impressed by the man's ability to drink and keep drinking.

A cheer went up went up nearby and there was a push of bodies against Hui's companion. The poor man lost control of his beer and the mug and its content sprayed against a few fellow patrons. With a chorous of outrage the drunken man turned to push back at his presumably accidental assailant and his neighbor's splattered victims go up agains the crowd. In a moment a long and lanky man had thrown a punch at the dark and drunken fellow who naturally was outraged to be attacked for no good reason. Having not seen his attacker the drunken man grabbed a short and burly fellow, surely a more likely person to attack someone as tall and muscular as Hui ming's brief companion, pulled him up by the collar and swung back with his other arm and delivered a powerful haymaker.

From there, all was chaos.

Hui ming just sat there in utter shock. It had only taken from the moment that he had given his beer away to the moment he blinked that the patrons were devolving into drunken brawling. He sat as still as a statue as people pushed in to grab the fighters and pull them apart. Others attacked the mediators for pushing against them, who either in turn retaliated or retaliated on behalf of their friends. It was only when furniture and glass mugs started to be thrown and broken when Hui ming realized that he had to get out of here. Being as small as he was, the alchemist was in a distinct danger of being squashed and pummeled. Where was dauntless when you needed him?

Hopping from his perch he ducked under the bartop and hunched down, walking along the small leg free corridor as the sounds of shouting and fighting behind him increased in pitch and volume. At this point he wasn't really thinking, only reacting. Surely if he was thinking his actions through, he wouldn't have gone deeper into the building. He darted across a thinner clump of legs, still hunched down, and made it to the wall. The mayhem behind him was growing and soon the entire bar would be dragged into it. He had to get out. He almost made it before he bumped into someone. His eyes widened as he looked up to find a dark, tall skinned woman before someone grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt and tugged him backwards.

From there everything was a jumble.

[Reviewer]

Thread Title

Time Stamp

And so it began, and Areya sighed, loudly. At least her commander hadn't started the brawl that was springing to life on the opposite end of the bar tavern. She hadn't seen who started nor, did she care. She immediately began stepping forward, just as her commander was about to place down his coins to start another round of the mysterious game he was playing. Areya gently grabbed his hand closing it into a fist, "I think you'll find you'll lose those coins if you set them down, sir. Perhaps we should move tables?"

Jaifa turned, grinning, clearly not taking offense at her rather direct approach. "And why's that? You got a gut feeling?" That was when a glass mug smashed into the back of the head of one of the others at the table and the woman fell face first into her own pile of coins. Jaifa looked at the woman, then back to Areya. "Good call! I've been hoping for a brawl. Guard my back, last time I caught a splinter from a chair that I couldn't get out for days. It might still be in there, if I'm bein' honest. Not that I ever am."

"Wait sir..!"
Jaifa stashed his coin pouch into the back of his boot and stood up. He grabbed his chair and hurled it wildly into the crowd across the way, not aiming for anyone in particular. Areya winced as she watched it catch a man right in the nose and he crumpled quicky. Jaifa shouted loudly, as though he were entering a real battlefield and was already amped up. This was his element and he was truly happy, or at least his face seemed to suggest it.

Areya moved to follow after her drunken commander, when a boy bumped into her. What was a human child doing here? She watched as a red headed woman grabbed the boy by the back of neck. The look in the child's eyes was one of someone who had no interest in fighting and was simply trying to escape.

Luckily for Hui Ming, his problem was in the way of Areya and her problem. As the redhead pulled on Hui Ming to twist him about so she could punch him properly in the face, Areya's own fist came in a sloppy hook that arced over the boys head, catching the woman in the jaw. The unexpected blow sent her off to the left of Areya and Hui. The woman reached out to grab at Areya's leg, and the conscript lifted her leg up first, then donkey stomped it down, boot heel first, catching a few of the woman's fingers, breaking them. The woman howled and stopped scrambling. Areya then reached down and grabbed Hui Ming's shirt, getting her mouth close to his ear so he could hear over the ruckus.

"Stick close to me, I'll try to keep you, and my boss, safe, boy."

If the boy didn't follow her direction, he'd be on his own. Her priority was her commander, but if the boy kept close, that circle of protection could extend to him as well. Areya shoved aside a man who was so drunk she wasn't even sure how he was vertical. And soon, she saw that bright crimson shirt her boss had been wearing. He was holding an orc by the collar and raining fist after fist into the man's face. Areya positioned at her commander's back, "I'm here, sir."

"Excellent!"

This was Areya's first ever bar brawl. And yet there was no worry in her stomach. She'd been among swarms of Shins larger than this. Though she used her axes typically for that. If there was one thing that was taboo in almost all places, it was that weapons had no place in a bar brawl. Fists, furniture, and whatever was on the table. The drunk man that had been hitting on her earlier came over, a lascivious look on his face as he stared at Areya.

She knew that look. It was the same look when a man was bold enough to try and enter the women's baths back down below, hoping to find one alone. Areya didn't bother to let him approach. She took a large step forward on her left leg, as she swung her right leg forward. The bottom of her shin caught the man in the groin, and he went down. Areya kicked him once in the face for good measure.

Standing back up to her height, something shattered against her head, sending her sprawling sideways as liquid exploded all over her. Unable to see what had happened, Areya spun, slinging a fist wildly behind her, hitting nothing. She cleared her eyes with her sleeve and saw no attacker in the immediate vicinity. Must've been an errantly thrown glass. She looked back at her commander who seemed to be grappling with two men at once, and winning.

Did this guy really even need her protection here?

Areya, finding a small lull in her tiny slice of the floor, looked to see if the boy was nearby.