The Bloody Rose

[Dark-Eyes]

It was nearly midday in Faethaven and most people were going about their daily work. But even with this fact, the sounds of music drifted whimsically from the dusty building. The Bloody Rose, as it was called by its patrons, was a small saloon amidst the factories of Southern Faethaven. It wasn't a large or well known place, but one where anybody, big or small, ugly or beautiful, even those wanted by Sanctuary, could go. This led to some rather seedy people taking up patronage in the saloon at times.

Today though, things seemed a bit more peaceful. The men mostly sat around drinking being noisy or playing cards, the women- most of whom were serving drinks -were going about their business peacefully. Not many of these people drew much attention or stood out very much, but one in particular, the piano player, had a certain... aura of something unknown. He wasn't dressed all that special, his overcoat hung on the bench he sat upon, his hat hanging on the corner of the piano's top. He expertly moved his hands across the keys, loosing a joyous melody that filled the room and some of the street outside even.

|Dark-Eyes|

Unknown to his fellow patrons, this man was wanted by Sanctuary, but not just for any small crime mind you. No, this man was the one known now by most as Dark-Eyes. A man notorious for many evil things, a rumor spread by those whose evil is unmatched. His legendary revolvers sat snugly in their holsters which, of course, were carefully hidden underneath his jacket at the moment. Both a huge bounty on his head and many a threat of revenge sat heavily upon him, but neither seemed to bother him in the slightest at the moment. His fingers danced across the piano and a serene look took residence in his countenance as he played.

Nobody seemed to pay much attention to the piano player at all, as he was the usual player in the saloon. Some knew of his true identity, others didn't care, but most were simply oblivious to the truth.

"Hey! Piano... Uh... Guy... Yeah, Piano Guy! Play something a little more upbeat will ya!?" cried a rather drunk man who sat on a stool at the bar, coincidently also trying to coax the nearest barmaid into coming home with him.

"Of course. As you wish, my friend." responded Dark-Eyes in a calm, lighthearted voice. And with that, he started something a little more appropriate to the saloon environment.

[Sedaia]

Sitting at a bar stool in enshrouding black sat Sedaia. Her clothes were cut for comfort underneath a cloak of many folds. Her clothing served multi purposes, for secreted in many pocket and hidden sheaths this woman had enough knives to arm a small regiment. She sipped at a beverage lighter than those enjoyed by the majority of patrons, but that was mostly because she wasn't really here to drink.

Sedaia was here for a meeting, but she had a growing suspicion that the man was not going to show up. Silently assessing the situation, Sedaia presumed he was either dead or had run into the wilds. If either was the case, Sedaia would have to go through more effort to get her money.

Annoyed Sedaia spun on her barstool to watch the faces of the people in the room. She entertained herself by trying to name some of the more notorious criminals present. She wished she was at a better angle to see the face of the piano player.

[Siegear]

A table in the middle of the bar was playing a game of cards. It looked to be poker, or something similar.

There were four men at the table, one of them being cloaked heavily, so that none could see what he looked like. He kept his hands hidden away in his dark cloak. He was still wary of others knowing that he was a lizard-man, let alone an ice blue lizard-man.

Circumstances were against him though, as one of the players boasted against Ssenth.
"Three Aces! Read 'em and weep boys! Haw! I could beat you all hands down!"
The cocky gambler was a human, and he had a vest on over his white shirt. Probably a Tradesman, but what he worked in, Sen wouldn't know.

The Lizard-man decided to call the mans bluff, how could he not? The man was cheating, and Sen wanted his money. He decided to act.
"Your a lying cheater, sssir..."
The three other players turned to him, all noting his slight elongation of the 's' in the sentence.
"I am not! I got..."
"YOU ARE SSO!"

Sen through back his hood, revealing the ice blue scales which he detested so, having been kicked out of his clan because of them. The other three gasped and backed off as Sen reached behind his back and pulled out is secret weapon. He'd only seen one like this, this Old Technology... It was his slug gun.
He whipped it over his back, pointing at the man who had cheated, who now looked like he would pay all his money to be away from here right then.
"I had TWO ACESss.... You couldn't have had three!"
The man gulped, knowing he had been found out, and also was looking at the biggest gun he had ever seen.

The whole bar was now looking at the table in the center, some having moved away before turning around, well the whole bar except for the man playing the piano...
The man gulped. "Look, if I give you all my money on me right now, can we let this go?"
Sen grinned. "Indeed, ssir... And I would asssk you to give back thessse nice playersss money too." The other two men who had played looked at the giant lizard-man.

"Remember thiss day and don't forget the next time you want to cheat.... Remember what Ssenth has shown you, and remember it iss he that spares your life..."
The man, having given back all the money he had won, raced out the bar's door. Ssenth sighed, shaking his head and putting his slug gun away. "I am ssorry to disssturb your... fun. I will leave."

The bartender had other ideas for the giant.
"No, no, by all means, stay! You were quite in the right for that one. Just don't pull out your gun again or I may have to confiscate it." Sen nodded, and sighed, pulling his hood up. The two other player curtly nodded, and walked away. Sen had done good, gaining not only his lost funds, but also the man's funds too... Today was turning out good.

[Jack]

((Took you guys long enough! Sheesh, I was beginning to think I'd never get to start playing, lol))

Jack

Jack had wandered down the streets of Faethaven all day, bored out of his mind. He dashed through the alleys and chased out all of the resident cats for fun, but once they all managed to escape his grasp, for one reason or another, he returned to his boredom.
He wandered for hours and grew to be rather hungry after awhile. He did not want to ask anybody for food, no, they were all too mean to poor little Jack. They would yell at him and curse him and chase him away like they always did. Yes, that's what they would do...
Jack slowly made his way over to the wall of a nearby building, it seemed that he had wandered into the factories now, and abruptly sat down. Slouching over and scratching his head furiously, Jack tried to think of someway to get something to eat. He looked around and tried to find something, anything that might be edible. But the factories, as he knew them, were for machines and metal stuff. Not food and other yummy things. Sighing, Jack rolled over onto his back and stared up into the clouds for a moment, drawing some strange looks from the nearby workers.
"Blahhhh! I want food! Stupid metal stuff doesn't taste good either... GRRRR!" Jack mumbled to himself, hitting his fists into the dirty street beneath him. Suddenly, something caught his nose. A scent, something... something very yummy smelling. Bread? No... It was glorious meat!
Leaping to his feet Jack stumbled a few steps and then ran full tilt... right into a man carrying many large boxes. "Ooof! Watch where you walk stupid man!" Jack growled after being knocked to the ground. The boxes, which had held various things had crashed to the ground spilling their contents and breaking most of it too. But before the man had time to say anything, let alone react, Jack was moving again, jumping over the man's head leap-frog style. "Stupid man!!" Jack cried back, but now he was much more interested in the scent he followed. "Meat, meat meat! Yay meat!" he cried as he quickly closed in on the sweet smell.
It seemed that the yummy treat that Jack wanted so dearly was coming from a building with some strange music coming from it. Wasting no time, he practically dove through the saloon doors, coincidentally tripping at the same time, cascading him into a roll and then screeching to a halt near the center of the room in a crouch. Dirty, and surrounded by a rather large dust cloud now, Jack's eyes quickly began the search for the glorious meat.

[Kane]

::Kane::


Kane was walking the streets of Faethaven randomly on that sunny day. Kane had not yet eaten breakfast, and it was nearly noon. He wasn't near the inn where he usually took his meals however, so simply continued to walk. It was noon time, and he was in the area of the factories. It smelled of grease and metallic fumes around here, but Kane had been making deliveries from building to building that morning to earn some spare and honest change that the guards could not find fault with.

People gave Kane a wide birth as he walked, for his face was a perpetual storm cloud, and he did not hold his wings close to his back. People had to walk widely around him or be smacked with one of his feathered appendages. He knew this, and liked the extra personal space.

Kane's weapons were tightly strapped to his back, increasing peoples fear of him. Why would he carry such things around unless he intended violence? Kane never went anywhere without them though.

He had just located a tavern, and pleased with himself, he walked towards the door. Just as he was about to open it and go inside the establishment called the "Bloody Rose" there was the sound of pounding feet. Kane half turned, to see who was running. His eyes widened as he spotted someone making headfirst to the doorway of the tavern. Kane snapped his wings in to his sides and neatly sidestepped, his scowl broken by a look of stunned surprise.

The humanoid streak sprawled past him and into the Bloody Rose. Kane stood still and stunned for a few moments, before he turned and pushed his way through the still swaying saloon doors.

As Kane entered and stood in the doorway of the musical place, he found himself unnoticed in the wake of a steel-haired, blue eyed young man sniffing the room. Composing himself with strait backed dignity, Kane marched towards a table, forcing himself not to stare at the very large and... blue scaled, half breed passing words with the barkeep.

[Clathanis]

Eyes remaining on the table and head bowed down, Clathanis sat at the farthest table she could find. Her leg with the thigh high boot was crossed over the one with the blue stocking and her left hand was resting on the table, her fingers were lightly tapping to the up beat music. She took a small sip of wine and placed the glass on the table.

It was rare for her to be found in a loud place with lots of people but she figured that she needed a small break after spending all day out near the woods. Besides, some one here MIGHT know the where abouts of her brother...but that would require her talking to a stranger, something that she would never do. She would rather listen to gossip then talk to a strange man or woman.

Sighing in distress, Clathanis looked up and looked around at the crowd for a few seconds before looking down at her table again. Taking another sip of wine, she leaned forward and relaxed her head on her hand and listened to the piano man play his up beat song.

[Sedaia]

((^^ Sorry for the wait. Good long posts, hurra!))


Sedaia watched with extreme interest as the giant lizard man pulled a gun on his fellow poker players. She was highly amused at the speed cheater backed off. She was also highly impressed with the gun the lizard man wielded with such ease.

"A fine gun you have there stranger." She said to the lizard man, unfazed by the fact that the blue half breed was around three full feet taller than she. She was about to say more when a hyper young man flew in the door like hell was on his heels. Sedaia was not startled, but her hands curled back to brush the hilts of two knives carefully concealed at her wrists. She watched the door to see what the boy had been running from- for obviously no fool would dive like a mad juggernaut for no reason.

A man with black wings entered on his heels, but this fellow simply took a seat, his face stunned. Sedaia gave the rowdy young man a strange look then turned her attention back to the lizard man... and his impressive shooter.
".......You don't see weapons quite like that very often. Where'd you pick it up?"

[Dark-Eyes]

|Dark-Eyes|

Dark-Eyes, though fairly aware of what was going on, did not turn his until the over excited boy burst through the doors and skidded across the room. At first instinct his left hand reached for a revolver, the right still
playing the song as much as possible and making up for the lost notes where possible, but once he realized that there was no threat he returned to playing.

After finishing the song he was playing, Dark-Eyes turned the piano over to the alternate player and went to the bar. "Hey Jimmy, get me a drink would you?" he said to the barkeep. The barkeep quickly obliged, pouring and sending a drink down to Dark-Eyes' waiting hand. Bringing the drink to his lips and drawing back a large swig, he turned to look at today's patrons.

Normally Dark-Eyes would attempt to hide his face, but that was to avoid causing trouble to any innocent bystanders, but here he did not care. While he did not want to hurt innocent bystanders, he also didn't want to be caught. Here he could easily escape and most of the people were far from innocent. He carefully surveyed the crowd, looking for any of the more notorious criminals of Faethaven. He quickly spotted the large blue half-breed and the woman starting to converse with it, cautiously eying the large firearm it carried. His wandering eye also spotted a winged who seemed to display his weapons quite proudly, the boy who burst through the door, and a girl at a distant table who looked rather out of place. Sipping his drink now he watched to see what each of these people would do, if anything.

[Siegear]

Sen turned to the woman in front of him.. and had to look down. The height of the creatures here still amazed him somewhat. He returned the gun to his back, slinging it into place. "I found it in the desert wastes, in some of the Old Ruins that are scattered there. I'm sorry I lost my temper in front of everyone... I can never take cheating..."
He sighed, his tail lashing out and waving side to side for a second. He returned his gaze to the woman.

"Don't mind my speech when I'm mad, it slurs back to a more primal form. Uhhh, I'm just saying but... you seem almost out of place in here... I mean..."
He stopped awkwardly, shaking his head. "Sorry again. I feel uneasy in the city. I'm usually in the forests outside of here."

He didn't know why he was telling this to her, a woman who had asked about his gun. He narrowed his eyes."Why are you so interested?" He kept one hand on the strap for his gun, and the other made itself known from beneath the black cloak that he wore. It wasn't set into any threatening way yet.

[Sedaia]

Sedaia smiled at the lizard man in a soothing manner. She was surprised at being described as "out of place" for she fit into most places fine. But the fact that she was female certainly placed her as an oddity in the Bloody Rose, she supposed.

"I am interested in nothing more than friendly conversation to pass the time." Sedaia said consolingly, and forced herself not to eye the large gun. "Won't you sit with me?" She asked, cocking her head at the empty barstool next to her. She thought that it was kind of small for him, but then again, he had fit into a chair.

As she did this, Sedaia eyes the piano man, now visible. She felt as though his name tagged around the edges of her mind. Perhaps he had been described to her before? That must be it. If she had met him personally she would remember.

"My name is Leanne." Sedaia glibly fibbed to the lizard man. She knew the only person in here that would recognize her lie was the bartender, whom she did not fear in either case. "And I know the feeling about cheats." The sentence was honest, because Sedaia did feel like pointing a gun at the man who was not showing up for their meeting right now...

[Jack]

Jack

Now Jack may have the mindset of a child and a distinct ineptness of acting in society, but that doesn't mean he's stupid. He quickly spotted the barkeep and ran, using both hands and feet to do so, up to the bar and leapt atop the barstool nearest the man.
"Hey, hey man guy. Jack wants meat! He can smell it he can, and Jack wants it now!" he said, at this point completely forgetting about his aversion towards the general populous.
The barkeep, rather stunned for a moment by both the entrance and the demand of this strange boy, eyed Jack as though he was part of some practical joke or something.
The barkeep's hesitation caused Jack to grow even more impatient. "Jack said that he wants meat, you understand? You stupid? Get meat now... uh please?" Jack said, making an attempt at a concept completely foreign to him at the end, manners.
Slowly the barkeep nodded and then called to the cook in the back with the order. "One order of uhh... Meat" he cried out, then looked at Jack again, the confused look still plastered on his face. "How do you want it cooked?" he asked.
"Cooked? Umm... No cooked today. Jack want fresh meat today." Jack said, with a burst of excitement for having been granted his wish at the end of his reply, "MEAT!"
The barkeep gave Jack yet another look of stun, but soon called out to the cook once again. "Nevermind that last order, just bring out a raw steak or something."
Jack grinned madly and spun on the barstool, throwing his hands wildly in the air. Nearly losing his balance doing this he quickly had to crouch down and clutch the seat in order to prevent falling off the stool. By the time he turned to see where his meat was, the barkeep had tossed the plate with the raw steak onto the bar in front of Jack. Eyes wide and tongue out like a dog eying the same piece of meat, Jack quickly dove in and began to tear off chunks with his mouth.

[Shadow]

Kaar
[/u]
Walking down the factory section Kaar listens to the delightful buzz of the city around him and smiles. The workers nearby take his smile for something alotogether wrong seeing as he is armed to the teeth, so to speak. Having all four of his swords strapped to his sides and on his back and also carrying his quarterstaff, which he is currently using as a walking stick, Kaar looks quite menacing. Heading for the darker region of the city he sees a patrol from Sanctuary heading his way. "this won't do." Startling a nearby worker with his rough voice Kaar darts past him directly into a very shadowy alley.

Appearing at his usual table in the Bloody Rose Kaar sits down and immediately is noticed by the barkeep who sends over Kaar's usual flagon of ale with a barmaid. Noticing a rather large crowd today Kaar decides to be generous and not stay too long, just long enough to get some information and hide from the patrol anyway.
[/color]

[Siegear]

He looked around, noting a kid chewing on raw meat. He gave a slight "humph." He nodded silently, heading over to the stools she had motioned to. He sat down at the stool, looking back to the woman. He felt that she had an ulterior motive, but didn't have proof yet, or any true reason to, so he dismissed it.
"Well... I have nothing to say, truly, I don't see your insistence to talk, bu I cannot turn it down... I'm sorry. I must seem... slow...or stupid to you. I hear it enough from others." He sighed, smiling sadly, then letting his face return to normal.
"Anyways, what to talk of, hey?"

[Dark-Eyes]

|Dark-Eyes|

Growing curious about some of the newer faces, Dark-Eyes turned to ask the barkeep, but was abruptly interrupted by the excited young boy who had burst into the room. Giving the young man a raised eyebrow, Dark-Eyes decided that maybe it'd be best to leave that one in particular alone. Sighing, he returned to his previous train of thought, finding out who these people are, but the barkeep, it seemed, was now busy with another man.
"Hmm, I suppose I will have to do this the old fashioned way, now won't I?" he said to himself in a low voice. With that Dark-Eyes slowly inches towards the nearest of the people, the half-breed and the darkly clad woman.

[Sedaia]

Sedaia smiled at the lizard again, "Ah, but I don't know you and I can't yet judge if you are stupid." She said, leaning back against the bar. She glanced surreptitiously at his gun once more, and from the corner of her eye, the ever observant Sedaia took note of the piano player moving slightly closer.
"You are in from the woods, you say." Sedaia comments, also searching for topics. She wished to occupy his mind. Her fingers itched at the sight of that huge gun snug in its hilt, but she would not make a move. "We have many come into Faethaven from the wilds, but most of your type, half-other that is to say, go back out again. Rarely have I seen a lizard man gambling in a tavern! And never a lizardman with such startling blue scales."