THE SCENE AT PRESENT
Pallas, Edward, Milo and Seloria sit in conversation at a long table by the hearth. Only Milo has been served a hot drink. Milo's air-written words become more hostile.
Fate makes rounds of the room, waiting on patrons.
Ealdwine, with his lute beside the hearth, defiantly continues to sing a ballad despite Fade's threats of violence for doing so.
At the bar sit Jargo, Dirion and Fade. Dirion has already been drinking for several hours. Jargo the Trickster smears blood on drunken Dirion's neck (which consequently fills the room with the smell of blood) and gives the man a dagger, telling him the bard has attacked him.
WINK
She was only just running the names of open wine cellars through her head when she was stopped by a vaguely familiar voice, though it was smoother and deeper than she remembered. Wink squinted at him with a suspicious step back -- she recognized him, all right, but
Uncle Gharlyc was the last thing she might've called him. Stinky old bastard Gharlyc, more like. Seven years had made her wiser and had only made him creepier.
@TricheusWink scrubbed a palm over her shoulder where he'd touched her, and she scowled after him, angry because his was the last help she would ever want, but she was forced to grudgingly accept it. Even the thought of the handsome noble inside didn't quite lighten her mood after this encounter. Knowing that Gharlyc had returned -- and that consequently her father was about to sink to even deeper lows -- she dropped the coin in her pocket and returned to the tavern --
-- Which was not in the state she had left it.
The drow was tense and livid, and the nobleman seemed at once displeased with the bard and enamored with at least two other women. Poor Dirion was covered in blood for some reason, and the shiny writing from the one-eyed girl (though Wink couldn't read it) was being written with an angry swipe. The worst of it all was that she only spotted two drinks out of the lot of them, despite the fact that Fate was well doing her job.
Wink was in a mood.
So when her father shook her for an explanation for her lack of wine, she snapped at him, "Gharlyc went for it." With that she pushed past him to the ale casks, filled four tankards, and with two in each hand proceeded to distribute them (each with a quiet bang) before Jargo, Seloria and Pallas. The last was held for Edward, and she managed a flirtatious smile while she laid it before him, but her heart was no longer in it. There were several murderous auras and a palpable tension in the air, and she couldn't bring herself to relax while Gharlyc was in town.
@karamonnom@Strafe@AgentFallenSoul@KeploWink caught Fate in crossing and spoke quietly, her eye on the drow and the table full of weapons, "You might want to get the hammers out."
@SilverWolfAngelBUSKER
With a grin and a shaky nod, Busker placed before Fade a round loaf of dark bread and cheese, as well as a bowl of rabbit stew, hoping beyond hope that the dark elf would be pleased with the exceptional service.
@ViolentVioletInstead, she threw a knife at the bard.
The proceeding act of defiance by the bard made Busker's face turn ghostly white -- and then red with livid rage. He raised a finger and opened his mouth so that he might tell this noisemaker, for the sake of peace and of pleasing the patrons, to
cease and desist this instant -- but he was interrupted when the door opened and Wink returned empty-handed.
This was a disaster. They were all going to die.
Busker yanked a tuft of hair out of his head, momentarily forgot the bard, and accosted Wink regarding the wine, to be told that this was where Gharlyc had disappeared to. Gharlyc, at least, would bring back a decent bottle.
The odd one at the bar asked for a broom and mop, instead of food or more drink. Busker turned on him with a strained and impatient smile. "Certainly, but whatever for?"
@KeploEven while he spoke, he kept the drow and the bard in his peripheral vision.