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TNT - The Nameless Tavern. (Always Open)

@Griffintaur
Of all the people that could have served Tharraleos, it was Clay who did. A muscular human with tattooed skin. He looked like the type who enjoyed trouble, and he wore a near constant smirk that said he was either in trouble, about to be in trouble or just getting out of trouble.
He nonchalantly staggered behind the bar taking his time. Finally when his eyes came across the creature he stared hard and let out a long slow descending whistle with an abrupt stop.

”And what in the mongrels gut are you?” he asked with no gentleness.
”Get a lot of strange in here, infact that’s nearly all we get but never seen one like you.” he looks the creature over and stands up straight.
”What can I do you for?”

TNT - The Nameless Tavern. (Always Open)

“I’m, I’m what?” The boy stammered in shocked disbelief, wiide eyes twisting about to try see over his back still. Panic slowly settling in as the colour drained from his face.

”w, what is it? Get it it out. Get it out.” his voice was low but rushed, with a quiver to its edge as he fought to remain calm.

“Just do it please!”

He turned to face his back to Lavender and hunched forward, a gasp of pain accompanying his movement. The small patch of blood around the piercing splinter was starting to set in as it grew steadily more and more prominent, glistening in the torchlight.

TNT - The Nameless Tavern. (Always Open)

Lavender shrugged. ”Literally everyone in my family has committed multiple crimes, including myself. It’s more..” The woman paused to think of something else. ”It’s more like a ‘my mother’s great great great grand parent decided to anger some spirit and the spirit decided to curse the family so the eldest child had to deal with one eye and a sapphire’ kind of mistake.”

Lavender glanced at the imp momentarily, but her attention was quickly shifted to the absolute chaos of an entry made by a little girl. She paused, then decided that she had enough drama for today.

@aia2022

The young boy looked to be troubled, his deep green eyes reconsidering his opinion of Lavender. That worried look was quickly washed from his face when the doors suddenly burst inwards to force and flame and he was jolted forward into Lavenders table by the concussive force.

There was a loud ‘thud!’. “Bloody hell!” cursed the large tattooed man as his arrogant grin slipped from his face and he threw down one of the bodies he was carrying. He rolled his eyes at the sight of more work and let out an annoyed sigh.

Already shadow imps we’re flying to the site of disaster. While the fire struggled to maintain a hold on anything, the small patches that did were quickly stamped out by them.

When the reckless young girl came to slam her hands down on lavenders table, the boy staggered back. Stricken with confusion. He awkwardly twisted and reached at a discomfort on his back but was seemingly unable to get it. However his hands came back bloodied. As he turns, Lavender would see the foot long splinter of wood sticking from his back, blood steadily sinking into the clothes around it.

TNT - The Nameless Tavern. (Always Open)

”Wait! What?” the boy asked, dumbfounded by the response.
”You can’t really mean that, a lot of people make mistakes but surely it wasn’t that bad. Bad enough to have your eye carved out. What did you do?”
He had that worried look again. Like with his words he was walking into murky water and was afraid what he might find beneath the surface.

Just then.

One of the bulbous headed, white eyed, wiry shadow imps flew past Lavender. It’s long tail swaying behind it as it’s leathery wings furiously fluttered. It’s movement producing far less sound than you might expect. It’s oily dark skin fading into shadows and darkness as soon as it passed any.

It comes to land on a table not to far away, a table Lavender could swear was in pieces last time she looked. A crossbow bolt stuck up from the wood like a proud shiny flagpole. The little imp grasped it with its long claw like fingers and pulled... to no avail. It took a moment to secure it with both hands and really put its back into it. Still nothing. Finally it took to the air and wrapped its tail around it. It flapped and pulled, it’s little muscles bunching up tight, but it’s grip gradually slipped, and it stumbled around in the air.

The small mouthless creature frowned with its pale expressionfull eyes and slumped back down on the table in a contemplative defeat.

TNT - The Nameless Tavern. (Always Open)

“But, you didn’t deserve it! Did you?”
Once again his face held that hint of fear for the answer. A worried suspense.

In the background of the boy, the tavern was starting to look normal again. Quite oddly so. As if there had just been some small drunken brawl and not an ambushing battle with demons and the magically divine. Traces of the carnage were hard to find as the evidence slowly vanished.

The bodies remained, seemingly something that the shadowy magic of the tavern couldn’t conceal. A tall, bare chested, wide shouldered man, skin covered in tattoos, was hauling them up and taking them elsewhere one by one. He did it with a crooked smile and such nonchalance that he may as well been taking out the trash.

TNT - The Nameless Tavern. (Always Open)

“Not a big deal!?” the boy exclaimed. His face a twisted mix of disbelief and disgust.
“It happened to you and you seen it happen to others?”
He stepped back, eyes not knowing where to look, seeming queezy and confused.
“Who, who would do that?”

He shook his head, either to remove the thought from his mind or in some sort of disagreement. ”That’s horrible.” he added with a mutter as he turned and went to collect the shiny plate holding the wine. He added some slices of cheese and bread to it absentmindedly before returning and placing it down on the table.
Sympathy now filling any look her gave her.

TNT - The Nameless Tavern. (Always Open)

With a slight shrug he gladly accepted the payment. Stuffing the necklace into a pouch on his side, unphased by its weight or beauty.
“So, how did you lose your eye?” He asked, semi fearful of the answer.

A distance behind him, a finely dress man from behind the bar pulled out a tall bottle of red and expertly uncorked it with the proficiency of much experience. Once opened he retrieved a crystal glass with a smooth curved shape and splashed the fruity red liquid into it before placing both down upon a silver tray.

TNT - The Nameless Tavern. (Always Open)

“Oh yea.” he says, realising his question made no sense and he was getting ahead of himself. ”That makes sense then.” He added feeling a little ashamed. With a curious sigh he lifted a hand and placed it over his left eye, seemingly to see what it was like. His right eye shifted about as he looked in all directions.
Without stopping his little experiment he replied.
“Yea we definitely have red wine, we literally have everything. Well, mostly. I’m sure it’s all down there somewhere but sometimes it doesn’t let me find it, and I tell myself not to spend too long down there.”

His uncovered eye snaps back to the fox mask.
“You dont have to pay if you don’t want to. I don’t want to take your things from you... Do you still have an eyeball under that gem?” and he peeled his hand from his face and gingerly pointed at the gem like she might not know which gem he was talking about.

@aia2022

TNT - The Nameless Tavern. (Always Open)

@aia2022
He was balancing on toes now, chin extended forward from his neck as he tried to get closer without getting closer, and studying the mask and eye.
His questions and curiosity clearly not sated.

”What color are things through it? Can you take it out? Who is going to get it if you die? Do you have any children or brothers and sisters?”

The final sounds of the commotion around him falling to a silence seemingly reminds him of himself and he settles back into a proper posture and clasps his hands behind his back.
“Can I get you anything to eat or perhaps another drink? Anything, anything at all.” he says as that proud smile finds its way back on his face but fails to remove the sparkling intrigue from his eyes.

TNT - The Nameless Tavern. (Always Open)

@aia2022

“WOW!”
He exclaims.
“It looks amazing, it looks expensive, can you see through it, does it hurt?”
His face sinks as realisation hits him, clearly taking on all her words for face value.
“I’m sorry, who died? Was it recent? Are you ok? Do you miss them?”

He seemed to have no end of questions. Genuine questions though with real interest.

He flicked a hand dismissively towards the broken bottle and then ignored it, shadows danced over the debris and it appeared to slowly sweep itself into a neat little pile and fade into the blackness.