Across the Bar.

[Haiku]

The bar was bustling with activity tonight, different people of many ethnic and social backgrounds were crammed into the place talking and chatting loudly while enjoying their drinks. It was pretty festive in the place, the happy emotion seemed contagious, you got it as soon as you entered the door.

If that could have only helped with a discolored eyed male and his chronic boredom. He sat at one of the counters, chin resting in one palm and his other hand tapping against the bar counter boredly. Half-lidded eyes were slightly glazed from the drinks he had ordered absentmindedly and sipped at as he glanced around the room uninterestedly the noises merely blurred and ignored. It wasn’t like drunk people could hold a conversation anyways. He licked his lower lip slowly, tasting the spiced rum from his last drink...or was it the drink before that? Either way it was really good, he might just have to order another one.

He didn’t know why tonight, of all nights, he decided to come and mingle with the local crowd. He was staying in one of the rooms above the bar but he would never socialize so close to where he slept. Not like this in any case, the local crowd got to boring fast and he liked variety.

Grabbing his glass he brought it to his lips, swallowing the bitter liquid feeling and feeling the warmth that it gave as it went down to his stomach. Maybe it was about time to go, find something to do other than sit here at the bar counter and order drinks he was new to but in a mood that wouldn’t let him appreciate them. Standing up he swayed for a minute before reaching out with a slender hand to support himself on the counter. How many drinks had he ordered?.....The thought drifted off and he had to let a small smile cross his face at the obvious fact that he was a bit drunk.

[Nicholie]

The day was turning out to be longer then one would usually plan. She had been back on land little over a month, and it was a strange feeling. After three years and the number of having placed her feet on the solid land being very few, she finally found a port and had let what was left of the dwindling crew lave a break from dead life on a ship with no destination. The Gamal E'fin now had no captain, no steady crew, and very few that were able to call it home. If that's what it really was.

Nicholie sat at a table in the farthest corner bar hovering over a table littered with maps, recruit lists, bounties, and various scrolls covered in foreign text and maps scribbled on random bits of parchment. She leaned forward, pushing the scattered papers into one semi neat pile before leaning back in her chair and stretching, her tail flicking back and forth with bordum. Groaning she leaned forward and downed what was left of her drink, and turning toward the bartender and raising a hand with a grin on her face, the bartender nodding in acknowledgment and pouring her another mug of rum. As she waited for her next drink she leaned back on her chair, setting her feet up on the table and watched the festivities around the bar. She watched as the man at the bar attemted to get up, a smirk appearing on her lips as she seen him sway in place.

A couple seconds passed before her feet his the floor, and began carrying her body toward the gentleman, "Would you like another drink, sir?" her face still held her trademark smirk, her cheeks a bit rosey as she was a bit tipsy herself. Her green eyes flickered with a little mischief as she took her own drink from the bartender and swiped her hand casually toward the table she was sitting at, the papers disappearing in a puff of red smoke. She sat on the bar-stool next to the stranger, a grin now on her face.

[Axel]

There seemed to be one guy who the happy atmosphere of the bar didn't have any sway over, and that was Axel. When he entered he pushed the door so hard it slammed into the wall and rebounded back into his hand. The innkeeper who sold rooms above the bar was about to protest, but the harsh glare of Axel's single eye stopped him. "I want a room." Each word was brisk and to the point, he wasn't the type to waste idle chatter on this no one. A few more words and some coins were exchanged.

While Axel had a reputation for being a cold angry man, today seemed to be especially bad. And why? The Algo. It had set sail and he'd missed it. He'd fucking missed it. If the spiky haired male hadn't been so good at self control when he opened the door to his room he would have screamed. Instead he just threw all his belongings on the bed before whirling around to slam and lock the door.

Tonight was a night for drinking. Drinking a lot. Each heavy foot fall was drowned out by the lively chatter as he walked back down to the bar. The elf sat down at the bar. "Rum." Once again, short to the point sentences. He got his order and began to gulp it down, eye slowly moving over the couple next to him. Drunk and a little friendly. He snorted and gulped down more rum.

[Haiku]

‘What would there be to do in a place like this?’ Haiku thought as he flicked his hair off his face slightly, strands of black-violet falling across his face. Buzzed to a point of faint euphoria he was startled when a woman came up to him smirking. Startled he blinked in innocent surprise but the glint of mischief caught his eye and he smiled almost in a shy way. The corners of his lips curving up as he eased himself back in his seat beside the pretty stranger. He didn’t normally do such things like this, be swayed by a stranger woman or not. Being bored and the lack of inhibitions from his last few drinks made him a bit more.. Curious and not as critical as he could be. How he remembered his old mentors strict and stern scolding and the lectures. Well the saying was curiosity killed the cat, but it was the satisfaction that brought him back.

Once he was sat down he inclined his head in a dramatically elegant way before his smile widened to the woman.
“ I wouldn’t go so far as to call me sir,” He spoke with an edge of mild humour in his tone with a faint lilting accent in his voice. “,But I won’t decline a drink with you, Milady.”

The seemingly very angry male who sat next to them had caught Haiku’s eye as well. Not that he was looking straightforward at the other. He didn’t know how people could be so angry so easily, however it was they were pretty open about it. The aggravation seemed to radiate off the eye-patch wearing man as he all but drank his rum in swallows. Angry tone, angry body movement, it was like the other male was a building energy of anger.

In anyway he leaned back against the bar counter, his chin resting on his hand again as he followed the bartender with a gold eye before catching his attention with a slightly raised eyebrow and inviting grin. Waiting for the man behind the counter to get to where they were sitting he returned his gaze back to Nicholie with an almost youthful amiable expression.

[Nicholie]

Taking the drinks from the bartender, passing said bartender a wink and flipping him a large platinum coin she turned back to the Haiku. She didn't seem to take notice to the angry man entering the bar and set the rum in front of Haiku with a huge grin before downing half of her drink and slamming it back on the bar in front of her. "If I don't call you 'Sir" then what would I call you?".

It was then that she turned to theangry man and raised an eyebrow 'and what was HE so angry about' she shook her head before turning her attention back to the dark haired man beside her. Angry people deserve rum, rum warms the soul, and lets someone loosen up. Nicholie was proud of herself and her collection of aged and foreign rum she managed to get her hand s on and store on her ship. Its what kept alot of her current crew from leaving. As for the rest of the crew, the turnover was so often that they didnt get to enjoy it anyway.

She leaned forward, setting her elbow on the bartop and her chin in her elbow, looking Haiku up and down. he was very..... pretty. Yep, pretty was definately the word that Nicholie would use for this gentleman.. or.. psosibly woman posing as a man? Her grin widened at this thought for a moment, her head buzzing with small random thoughts as she waited for an answer to her question.

[Axel]

....were they looking at him? That was the only though Axel seemed to be able to focus on, quickly shifting on his anger onto a new target. He might of missed his original target, and there was no way he was going to be able to catch up to the Algo on his surfer. But maybe he could pick up a new bounty. His green eye focused on the male that had looked at him funny.

The duel-colored hair male snorted. Yeah right. Axel wasn't really the sort to write some one off for their appearance. The bounty hunter had seen plenty of pretty boys turn out to be stone cold killers. What really made Axel write him off as having a decent bounty was that he was being sloppy. Actually getting drunk in such a populated place? Another snort and gulp of rum.

The woman though.. that was really who intrigued Axel. She was attractive, and maybe being a bit sloppy too. But there was a different sort of air about her. Not to mention her face tickled a memory. Like any good hunter he kept a pretty decent list and some pictures of bounties with him. But considering the way these two were going he wasn't going to have to watch them too closely. Axel would let them slip off together as they seemed to be inclined to do, then he'd go double check. There was a flicker of a smirk across his face before he finished his rum and ordered another mug in the same fashion.

[Haiku]

Haiku looked down at his glass of rum, the swirling sense of being drunk making him smile continuously. Noticing the woman sizing him up he bit his lower lip in a mildly playful manner before he picked up the glass of rum and brought it to his lips, taking a large swallow. Taking his time in answering Nicholie as he enjoyed the numbing flavor, the slight ascend into his drunken stupor.

“Haiku,” He spoke after pulling the glass away to set back on the bar top as he looked to the cat-girl. “If you would please, Milady.” Her tanned skin made her eyes seem to glow with the mischief and cleverness a cat might have. The woman’s red hair also topped off the whole exotic appearance. It was refreshing to see someone different in this place. Speaking of different, his single visible golden eye shifted to the eye-patch wearing angry man who scoffed and continued to slam back his drinks.

Anger was a passionate emotion, it could burn bright instantly for an undefined amount of time. You could lose yourself in. It was a slight gesture and he didn’t know if the other male would catch it but he tilted his head and winked slightly. He liked provoking passionate reactions from people. Whatever happened, if nothing at all didn’t make much a difference.

Returning his gaze to the woman in front of him he brought his drink back to his lips and tipping the glass so the rum spilled into his mouth.
“And shall I just call you Milady all night?” He asked in a teasing tone as he returned his chin to rest on his hand. His arm still propped on the bar counter, in a similar pose of the woman.

[Nicholie]

"Nicholie, Nicholie Quint. " She raised her glass before taking a drink, and was now obviously staring at the angry man with a grin on her face. She wanted to cheer him up! Normal Sober Nicholie would have been smart anough to stay out of his way.. but drunk cheerful Nicholie had a strong belief that if she was happy, then so be everyone else. She stood up for a moment, debating whether she should approavh the man, then sat back down taking another drink.

She sat there thoughtfullt for a few moments after hearing Haiku speak and a grin appeared on her fac e. She had heard an accent in his voice, a very subtle almost none xistant accent, one of someene who had not been 'home' in a long time. She looked at his head, then leaned over on her barstool, looking in the general direction of his back end. "Where are yo from?" From the accent she was assuming he was from the northeast, somewhere around Araceli, but it was only a guess. Being the daughter of an Araceli tribe leader, she had the ability to hear these things, and considering the accept she had her self, it had been awhil ebefore she heard it come from someone elses lips.

The problom was that she had grown up in a tribe, so almost everyone that was considered 'Kaltan' ,mening someone dfrom Araceli, generally looked similar to her. The ears, the tail.. and usually some sort of strange ability. As she waitedf for a response from haiku, she leaned on the bar counter, watchign the angry man.

(( AAH!! Crap post but I only had fiveminutes before I had to catch the bus!))

[Axel]

Nicholie Quint. That definitely rang a bell. Maybe it was just a woman thing, being a bit sloppy. Or a pretty boy thing. Not that he looked up or his facial expression changed. He seemed placid; hand raising up to scratch his cheek the only real change from his previous actions.

But then Axel was starting to realize something. They were watching him. Stupid! The young man began scolding himself mentally. Now he was the one being sloppy. Slowly he let his shoulders relax and his face soften, the amount of concentration that took was surprising. He thought about smiling a little then ended up scoffing. That was just a ridiculous notion that would make his sudden change in mood look.. odd to say the least.

"Another rum.." Axel nodded at the bartender, his voice was a little softer, less angry sounding. Once he got his drink he nodded once more. "Thanks.."

[Nicholie]

NIcholie stared at the angered man for a moment before turning to Haiku, standing up and grabbing the bottle of rum from behind the bar. Sitting on the chair next to him she raised her hand casualy as two shot glasses appeared in her grip, "You look like you are in need of some liquid Cheer" She grinned and poured the amber liquid into the two glasses and raised her own before pausing and looking at the drink the man already hd in hand. 'well, more cant hurt'.

[Axel]

Axel raised a slim eyebrow as the woman so casually reached over the bar and took the bottle. Maybe she'd already paid for it, but it was only further confirming his thoughts that she was a pirate. He gave a half, brief smile as she offered him the shot. "Thanks." He took it and quickly downed it. He had a high tolerance, but that didn't mean he had to act like it. She was no Dynast, that was for sure. But he was sure he'd catch a few pretty pennies for this Nicholie.

"The name is Axel.." The tone of the sentence was still a bit gruff and to the point. But he was trying to soften his words a little. Some old saying about catching more flies with honey buzzing around in his brain. "..and you are Miss?"

[Haiku]

Haiku was watching the other male, a small piece of concentration whilst he kept most of it on Nicholie. Someone had told him that it was quite rude to ignore someone you were drinking with. Even more so if they had gone out of their way to buy you a drink. Then again the person who said it needed to repeat themselves before storming away from the effeminate male in annoyance. But back to Haiku’s current subject of observation.

It was curious to see the eye-patch wearing male suddenly seem to be calm and collected, when clearly he had entered with a less than murderous attitude. With his chin still resting in a slender palm he let his gaze lower to his drink before using his other hand to grab it and bring it to his lips quietly.

“Everywhere. “ Came the slightly muffled and teasing response.

He was from Araceli, his family had lived there for some time. He nipped at his lower lip with his teeth as he pulled his glass away from his mouth, the alcohol giving him a bit more of a defined buzz. Again in response to the realization he nearly let out a faint giggle.

Tilting his head slightly, causing a curtain of his hair to fall slightly, further covering half his face almost expertly he watched at Nicholie confronted the other male, a small grin on his face. He wasn’t leaning heavily on the bar counter but the support of it was still needed.

“Axel? Really…?” Haiku spoke up, his tone soft but the slight happily drunk tone peeking through his accent as he glanced at Nicholie with a grin. “Interesting name…”