07-12-05

Characters involved: Drais, Keita, Zeraph, Grim, & Mizuki.

Halyard Tavern: Main Room

Drais is pretty quiet in his entrance to the tavern, opening the door just enough to fit his own form through, then closing it behind him. Taking his heavy coat that he carries with him even in the hot summer months off, he slings it over his shoulder and has a seat at the bar..

As Drais is taking his seat, Keita is in the process of ducking a thrown glass. Rather suddenly, the sound of its shattering against the opposite wall breaks out in the mostly quiet tavern. Cursing loudly as some of the glass shards fall onto her ducked head, Keita watches with obvious relief as said glass-thrower stumbles off of his stool and towards the door.

Zeraph stands away from this action in a corner, ears shoot up on top of his head as he gazes at the glass flying, then the customer walking out. The buck sighs and moves towards Keita, murmuring something to her about 'knowing how to rile them'.

Drais jumps a little at the sound of breaking glass, turning his head to see the shards falling to the floor. He slowly turns in his chair as his eyes are trained on the glass thrower, all the time until he's arrived at the door. At that point, he turns back around, and rests his paws and forearms on the bar.

Picking glass bits out of her headfur eeeever so carefully, Keita slowly stands up. Her ears perk at Zeraph's murmur, and she flashes him a grin. "'Tis what I do." She glances at a shoulder, where a particularly large glass shard rests. She picks it from her shoulder and sets it gently on the counter.

Taptaptaptap. Taptaptaptap. Taptaptaptap. That's the sound of Drais's clawtips clicking against the bartop.

Zeraph rolls his eyes and then gives another glance towards the door, before realizing that the ferret has returned and nods to Drais. The buck shifts to head back to his corner, where the stool rests, possibly out of throwing range for most..XD

Keita stepping gingerly over the majority of the glass on the floor, Keita inadvertently but not inconveniently steps towards Drais. She pauses in front of him. "Can I getcha anythin'?"

"Why, yes you can." Drais shoots her a grin, stretching his unnaturally formed mouth out on either side. "Whatever's your favorite, beautiful," the ferret hob rasps out, the last word more of a witty afterthought than anything else. "Make it two of them, too."

Zeraph flickers an ear at /this/ comment and glances for a long moment at Drais as if thinking about something. Maybe food again. Heh. The buck stays on his stool and just observes the tavern like some sort of sentry, though he looks a little distracted.

Well, that's interesting. Keita looks at Drais with a slightly arched brow. "Well, yer in luck. I happen t' have /excellent/ taste." As she turns away to go about rustling something up for the ferret, she sends Zeraph an amused glance.

Zeraph catches the look and half shrugs, with a smirk, before going back to fiddling with anything he decides is interesting in 'his little corner', such as..oh looky there! It's a shelf hung on the wall! I think I should mess with that...The buck goes about lifting the bottom away from the wall curiously, then letting it thunk back into place. He fiddles with the things upon it as well.

As the tending doe prepares his drink, the ferret decides to look over the patrons for today. "Ugh." After this little exclamation of joy, he murmurs something which is decidedly unintelligible to anyone except for Drais himself, and he turns back to the bar, waiting for his beverage.

Returning with two glasses full to the brim, Keita sets these in front of Drais, with an anticipatory grin. "Drink up - 'tis my special brew. Usually I reserve it fer just friends, but since ya asked..." She waves a paw, "Eh, figured I'd be generous."

As it turns out, Drais is amused by Keita's assertion. "Is that so?" he inquires, with a little smirk curving up the side of his ugly visage. One of the glasses is filled, and Drais inspects it, as if looking for anything suspicious. Then, he sniffs it. Assured as far as he can tell that the doe isn't trying to kill him, he takes a sip, then a swig of the doe's brew. Wiping his upper lip, the hob nods. "Good stuff, there. It'll help get all these damn fools drunk when you hightail it outta here."

Zeraph seems to be thinking about just what might be the matter with whatever concoction that she just handed the ferret as he pauses from messing with the shelf, though he goes right back to it, still gazing at Keita and Drais, when suddenly the little mounting comes off the wall, crashing to the floor beside the buck, who jumps in a startled fashion and stares.

Keita blinks innocently. "Hightail it outta here? Whatevah are ya talkin' abo- ... out." The break in the final word occurs right at the crash, and she wincingly turns 'round to see what, exactly, has happened. "... 'Raph?" Blink. "Everythings just fallin' down 'round us."

Drais is just about to rebute Keita's 'innocent' statement, when something else breaks. He turns around at the noise, eyeing the broken mounting on the floor. With a shrug, though, he seems to have already forgotten about it, and turns around to keep drinking.

Zeraph grins innocently at the doe and half laughs. "Ah..yep..You said it K.." His ears lower back and twitch rapidly as he looks back down to the broken shelf, with the 'yikes' expression.

Keita looks from the broken shelf to the broken glass, and... finds Drais to be the preferable alternative, and so looks back to him. "So, the drink suits, does it?"

"Yes, yes it does... I guess you can't run away, though, can you?" Drais murmurs out, just over the rim of his glass. "If this is your special brew, that means you live and work here in Halyard. No... You're not leaving. But no doubt helping, no?" He raises his eyebrows and smirks at Keita.

Zeraph gazes at Drais curiously and flickers one ear. "What are you talking about?" He finally pipes up from the corner. The skinny buck has obviously found this more important than the mess he just created.

Keita regards Drais evenly as he speaks, and looks about to respond, but as Zeraph pipes up she opts to wait for the ferret to respond.

Drais rolls his eyes to the ceiling. "Ah, hare. You don't want me to speak too loudly, now, do you? I don't think you want to ask me that question from all the way across the room," the hob half-shouts.

Zeraph grins and just takes the bait, moving in closer and sitting at the bar. "Well why wouldn't I?" He leans back a little.

Keita's eyes are narrowed thoughtfully by this point. This is certainly not the same idiotic talk one gets from the others.

Once the buck is close, Drais laughs quietly before raising his glass to his muzzle. "I'm not as stupid as the rest of them. Everybeast tries to escape, at least once." He winks at Keita, then takes a drink.

Zeraph just observes the ferret as if trying to figure out what to say to this one, then snorts finally and just leans on the bar. "Whatever..." Then he partakes in the beverages as well, though pouring some from one of the bottles on the shelf below the bar.

At this, Keita relaxes with a smirk. "Well, s'pose I'm safe, then. Already had m' one escape attempt. Guess ya missed it. Zeraph ovah here got caught in the process." Heh.

Drais smirks. "Guess I did miss it, and guess you're safe." He takes another drink, then adds, thoughtfully, "Provided you don't get slain by some drunk Bloodthirster chucking perfectly good glassware atcha. I'd save that, when you make your getaway, the glass shards might make good makeshift weapons."

Zeraph half laughs at this one, doing his drink, then offering if Keita wants anything. The hare seems like he has gotten used to the ferret now.

Keita chuckles. "Why bothah with that when I've got plenty o' bottles t' break 'n' stab at folks with, eh?" Amused, she takes up a bottle that is actually still intact and holds it by the heck, thrusting it much like a sword. "Take that, 'n' that, 'n' all... that, eh?" She grins.

"Keeping high spirits... I like that." Drais runs a clawtip around the rim of his glass, studying the liquid, as it would seem. "The way I see it is, from what I've seen, you've got an endless supply of those long-eared types hidden somewhere. I don't know how many more of them they're gonna send, but the way you've got those uniforms, I see you're a proper military... thingamajig. Therefore," the hob pauses here to drink, "when they get the idea to bust in here and take you back by force, I'm prob'ly gonna be the one doing the 'hightailing,' you see? And these Bloodthirsters... Huh." He looks over the patrons still present in the tavern. "Couldn't keep water in the ocean if you asked 'em to."

Grim has arrived.

Keita is outright chuckling, at this point. "... Ya think that's our 'great plan'? A buncha long-eared types hidden away somewhere?" She smirks, but not unkindly. "I hate t' break it t' ya, ferret, but... they're not hidden. They're all holed up in the big ole Fire Mountainy type thing just waitin' fer the right time t' strike, and when they do..." She shrugs, looking not unsympathetic to his troubles. "Well, I would highly recommend ya hightail it before they get here, that's all I c'n say. I've seen what their lot c'n do."

Zeraph smirks and then laughs about Drais. "Well..we're definitely a proper military...thingamajig.." He stands and moves towards Keita, who is thrusting around with her bottle sword. "Though we may not act like it some-" Suddenly he pretends to be stabbed and staggers backward, falling to the ground. "They /got/ me!" He clings to Keita's leg. "I never..would've thought.." Then the buck points dramatically at Drais, though he pauses for a moment, remembering he doesn't know the ferrets name. "YOu! I remembered ya in my will." Then he 'dies'. Obviously the captivity and lack of food has gotten to Zeraph's mind. He now acts on whatever whim takes him.

Grim enters the tavern, against the darkness his white fur and ice eyes seem to give him an almost ghost like appearance, he glances at the hare's and their antics as he comes in near the end of Zeraph falling over and 'dieing'.

Staring in wide-eyed surprise at Zeraph's dying scene, it takes Keita a few seconds to register what's just happened, but she does, she's quick to play it up, as well, and claps away. "Beautiful, 'Raph, jus' beautiful! A bunch o' travelin' performahs stopped by this way not t' long ago. Go, run! If ya hurry, ya could catch up with 'em!" She points rather dramatically towards the door. Er. Yes.

Drais raises a brow at Keita. "Yeah, that's what I said. I'm leaving as soon as I catch sight of those blokes coming to getcha." He looks at the doe, a little confused, before shrugging and taking a drink, holding the liquid in his mouth as he watches the poor display of acting. Gulp.

"Although," Drais adds, "I think any time would be the right time. Seems pretty inconsiderate of them to keep you waiting with these incompetent morons playing babysitter..."

Grim finally speaks up, his voice is a low and almost fragile soft tone "Excuse me... but... could are any of you the keeper of this tavern?"

Zeraph perks up from the floor. "Well, why didn't you jolly well tell the blokes to wait for me then?" He grins up at the doe and then returns to listening to Drais, though he remains seated on the floor by now.

Keita raises a brow right back at him. "No - ya don't undahstand. Leave. /Now/. They're not the type t' let vermin run off, whethah the arrows end up stickin' outta their backs or not." Surprisingly, she's seriously trying to give him this advice. Well, she is until Grim catches her attention. "That... would be me. How c'n I help ya?"

Grim says "I am a weary traveler seeking something to wet my dried throat is all, I will be on my way after that."

"Well then, yer in luck." Keita looks around and grabs a clean mug, which she fills with an ale. This she sets down before Grim, with a nod. "Drink up."

Grim asks "How much though?"

Drais raises his eyebrows. "Really, now? And all this time I thought you didn't like me, gorgeous." He winks again, and gulps down the rest of the first drink. "Thanks for the advice, but no thanks. You know why?" The hob gets out of his chair, then walks around the bar. "All of a sudden, I'm a captive..." And he walks back to his stool. "Bloodthirster." And back to the other side of the bar. "Captive! Oh dearie me, when will I ever be free?"

Keita looks Grim over thoughtfully. "We'll say... howevah much ya can spare, how's that? If that's nothin', then don't worry about..." Her eyes follow Drais' movements, with increasing puzzlement. This guy's crazier than she is. "... it."

Then, as a side thought, to Drais. "And, while I'm always up fer compliments, the name's Keita." Smirk.

Zeraph grins at the ferret's antics though and laughs. "Ah..Well I can do that too.." Then he points outrageously at the fox. "And so can he!" The buck stands and brushes himself off, winking at Keita. "I think we're all going nuts around here."

Grim watches Drais's movements, one ear folded back while the other is raised in a sort of canine way of saying 'what the...' he takes an odd looking couple of silver pieces from his sash and offers them to Keita "Here, for the drink."

Drais slinks over to his barstool again, and starts working on drink number two. "Ah, on second thought, I may just leave. But I've got less friends in the world than..." He slings an arm around Grim, shaking him a little as he speaks. "...this fox, right here! No sense in leaving if you've got nowhere to arrive, you know it?"

Zeraph nods and leans on the bar. "Yeah..I get your meaning.." Poor poor Grim..He's just being picked on tonight isn't he?

Drais is certainly entertaining, but she's not so distracted by his antics that she doesn't notice the coinage being offered by Grim. With a nod, she takes said silver pieces and smiles. "Thank ya, kindly. If ya'd like anothah, don't hesitate t' ask."

Grim glances at Drais then back to Keita nodding, he quietly takes his drink and starts on.

The door of the tavern swings open as Mizuki, the stoat walks through. He takes a quick look around the new surroundings before setting his sights on the bar. And with that, he makes his way straight for it.

Zeraph sees the stoat enter the tavern and let's out a shout of 'oi!' to get his attention. "Welcome! How may I serve ya?!" He calls across to Mizuki and gets a few looks by some of the Bloodthirsters..

Grim returns his gaze to Drais "Tell me... friend... I've heard the name Bloodthursters before... are you one of them?"

Drais lets his arm go from around Grim, and he takes another swig of his drink. "Seriously, though. This is good drink, right here." He raises the glass, nodding to Keita and Zeraph. "Here's to your fire mountain, may it always be huge and fiery. Oh, and that I get out of here alive." He takes a long drink, lowering the glass, looking very convincingly like he had completely ignored Grim. But after five seconds of blank staring at a wall, the ferret turns to the side, and nods. Then, he shakes his head. Then, he turns back to the bar and finishes his drink.

Mizuki taps the bar top with his paw as he looks around for a tender.

Keita stares at Drais with a rather astonished grin. "I do believe he's drunk." The doe laughs, but her attention is torn rather grudgingly away by the approach of Mizuki - which Zeraph's rather loud shout has alerted her to. Er. Heh.

Grim sighs and simply returns to his drink, he mutters something in a very odd sounding language before taking a drink.

Drais turns to the side to Grim again as his keen ears catch the muttering. "Well! I say, that is one language I have never heard before. Please, what did you say, what language was it in, and can you teach me any curses in that language?"

Mizuki looks over to the male hare who is adressing him so loud. "Double rum would be great. Don't worry though, no rush."

Grim mutters out something else, translated he's just said 'It is the language of the lands of my father, you ignorant piece of filth, if I wasn't under orders not to kill any beast then I'd slit you open with a wide grin.' He then looks to Drais and says "It's the language of my home land, I'm afraid I can't really teach you anything, since I plan to leave here very soon, I'm sorry friend."

Zeraph looks thoughtful, then sinks slowly behind the bar, until only his ears are exposed from the other side, before returning in the same manner except in reverse, holding a rum bottle in his paws. And on the subject, who /knows/ how many drinks the buck has had today. XD He pours the order for the stoat and passes it over.

Keita looks around at all the beasts in various stages of drink, and sets eyes on Zeraph. "Mayhaps... I ought t' explain the whole bit about... not... drinkin'. Er." She scratches at an ear uncertainly, as she looks from the drunk hare to the drunk ferret, and in the end shrugs. "Ah well. So, ferrety-type, care fer anothah?" Grin-grin.

Mizuki digs deep into his money pocket, pulling out more than enough coinage and placing it into the buck's paw. "Keep it.", are his only words as he scoops up the drink in his free paw.

Zeraph stares down at the coinage in a thoughtful manner, then fiddles with the metal cuff on his wrist and nods. "Very well.." It is placed into one of his many pockets and the buck sits back down to listen to any and all conversation.(re)

Grim sets the empty mug down "I can teach you a little bit." He says very slowly something in his language, translated he's just taught Drais to say 'I am a moronic simple minded fool, please stab me.' "No you try."

Mizuki pays no mind to the babbling of the other beasts as he quickly finishes off the rum, and orders another.

Man, too bad he can't understand that. Drais just stares at Grim as he starts spouting off more jibberish, then nods a little more comfortably as he starts speaking regularly again. "Friend. Huhhuhhuh. Makes me feel all warm inside." He'd probably continue, but beautiful catches his attention. "Oh? Still getting me to drink, eh?" He places his elbow on the bartop, and his paw on his chin. "Hmm. That is a good question. Fox, old matey, do I want to keep drinkin' or not?" His face, grinning, turns right back to Grim.

Zeraph suddenly sits down behind the bar, leaned against it and yawning. The buck soon falls asleep right there, arms rested on his raised knees.

"Oh! What's it mean?" Drais raises his eyebrows excitedly, rubbing his paws together.

Grim replies with a friendly smile "It means 'Hello there sir, hand over your money.'."

Keita watches Drais and Grim with sheer amazement - amazement more at Drais than Grim, really. Instead of waiting for the ferret to decide, Keita grabs one of his empty glasses and pours him another of her special brew, which she then deposits in front of him, nudging the glass up against his paw so that he knows it's there.

Drais slumps. "Oh. Thought it was a curse. I wouldn't have any use for "Hello there sir, hand over your money." Teach me something like..." He leans into Grim's ear, and whispers a few choice not-so-meant-for-the-ears-of-dibbuns words.

Drais reflexively grabs the drink without a second thought, like an infant's basic grabbing reflex. XD

Mizuki looks from his empty glass over to the sleeping buck and back again as he lets out a sigh. "Pity..."

Grim rolls his eyes while he whispers the words before saying "I'll teach you the last one." he says something, but of course it's the wrong translation he just taught him 'I'm ugly.'.

The ferret dealt with, Keita takes a step back from the chattering pair, and looks down the bar, 'til her eyes catch on Mizuki and his empty glass. She moves down towards him. "Can I getcha anythin'?"

Drais grins, and rolls his tongue over his teeth. Then, he repeats what Grim just said, only not at all like what he said. "Like this? Iyadontbuhleeviewforramoment." He looks to Grim, expectantly, with a wide grin.

Mizuki looks up to the ferret, "Another rum would be swell.".

Grim replies "Close, try to roll the R's more." He then gets up and bows to them all "Good night, and thank you once again milady for the drink." With that he heads for the door

"Certainly, sah." Keita readies his drink and shortly deposits it in front of him. "There ya are."

Drais furrows his brows. "You're leaving, fox old friend? Ah, no." He slaps his knee and turns toward the bar. "Good bloke, that fox. Needs to eat a little, but he'll be okay." Drink up, Drais.

Mizuki nods a thank you to the hare as he again deposits more than enough coinage into her paw. He notices the collar around her neck and lets out a slight sigh as he lowers his gaze back down to his newly poured drink.

As Mizuki lowers his gaze back to the drink, Keita glances back to the ferret, and after a few seconds to consider, wanders back over his way. "Soooo. Feelin' rathah good now, are ya?"

Drais shrugs, rolling his shoulders very slowly in a large circle. "Guess I am, then. This place isn't half bad, shame I'm gonna have to leave it. How are your friends gonna know they have to kill me, anyway? Do they just take out all vermin, or what?"

Mizuki dosn't take long to finish off this drink either. He sets the glass back down onto the bar top and stratches his arms above his head, the two massive throwing stars on his back klink together from this.

Keita smirks at the use of 'friends', there. "They're... rathah indiscriminate about who they kill, aye." She sinks down onto a stool, leaning forward with her arms resting on the counter-top. "Ya might well get away with pretendin' t' be a captive, though. There's a few othah vermin captives." She shrugs, as if to say, 'It's up to you.'

Drais frowns, scratching his chin in thought. "Why's killin' always gotta be the answer? I -always- keep that to the last resort. I don't like killin' folks, but sometimes they just... MAKE you, you know it?"

Mizuki turns in his stool to face Drais, "....Sir.. Couldn't have put it better myself."

"Well, I wouldn't so much know about all o' that. Nevah killed a beast." The doe's nose wrinkles, "Well... don't think I have, anyway."

Drais seems to be taken aback as Mizuki speaks. "I did not see you there. Sneaky stoat, you..." He laughs, downing the third drink, barely swallowing it before speaking again. "I wouldn't even have to be here if it weren't for that stupid marten attacking me. I was just trying to do my job, but nooooooo!" He throws his paws up in the air. "Little miss Redwaller's gotta keep a beast from making enough money to stay alive, doesn't she? How nice!"

Keita eyes Drais with passing amusement. "Little miss Redwallah?"

Drais nods quickly. "Yeah! Came from the trees, outta nowhere! Marten, she was old, had a wooden arm, tried to kill me for doing my job! Rude! So she made me kill her. Gah! I didn't want to, but she made me." The ferret's looking upset. o.o

"What exactly was yer job?" One of Keita's ears has flopped over, and now she's starting to look puzzled, and a little concerned at the upset.

"Whatever I got paid for. You know, it's funny," Drais leans over the bar a little. "This marten lady actually paid me to kill some other beasts. That was rude, too, she was near drowning me when she asked me to. She paid me real well, but she was... -totally- unprofessional. Anyway, I had to take this mouse to this ferret. I had the mouse, all I had to do was get it to the ferret, and get paid. But she stopped me. I told her I didn't want to kill anybeast, but she insisted on trying to kill me. What was I supposed to do? I tried to knock her unconscious, but in the end, I had to kill her. It was the only way to walk out of that alive."

Well, eep. Both of Keita's ears dip downward, now, and she reaches across the counter-top to presumably pat his forearm comfortingly. "Ah, now, I'm sure ya didn't mean it. There was nothin' ya could've done." Well, other than not sign up for a merc job.

But he's not a mercenary. :P It's complicated really. Drais looks somewhat comforted by the pat on the forearm, then straightens up suddenly. "Oh! That reminds me!" Drais is off the stool, slipping on his coat and reaching into the pockets. "Uhh..." He jingles around in about four different pockets, cursing under his breath before slipping several coins out, altogether equaling some unmeasured and probably WAY TOO BIG value, and dropping them on the bartop. "I gotta see if we're all gonna die yet!" Zoom! The hob's out the door.