------ 110-04-15 - Market Square Evening ------
As the sun is riding low in the sky, the merchants in the square have begun packing up their wares. Mandy’s is bustling with their dinner rush and the farm and ranch hands filtering in.
Zlod makes his way into town, heading slowly towards Mandy’s. He keeps an eye out for Xhaiden as he walks with his cigar in his mouth ready to light as soon as he gets to the tavern.
Singing as he makes his way towards Mandy’s, Xhaiden pauses as he spies Zlod attempting to sneak up on him and body check him from the side, “It has been the most interesting day.”
Zlod laughs loudly as Xhaiden body checks him from the side. “Oh you too? Tell me about your day.” Zlod asks with genuine interest. “Had a bit of an interesting day myself. Found another person for the company.”
“Oh really, that is cool. So that makes four us now. Well, that means we can easily take down that monster.” He signs and speaks simultaneously, grinning from ear to ear. With a heavy sigh, it fades as he adds, “Well, mine is not so good.” His shoulders slump, “Well, slightly good but not really. It was told that some bullies surrounded some Wolfen. Threatened to shave em. It was broken up… but well.” He shakes his head, “Not sure if I count as one of the freaks too cause I kinda almost look human.”
“Well I hope so, but we will see when we get out there.” Zlod walks along heading to the tavern as he talks. “Well try to not get too involved the townsfolk are not going to like the refugees. It is unfortunate but common. Just try not to get into too much trouble.”
Xhaiden thinks for a moment and shakes his head, “I am going to do my best not to get into trouble.” He pauses and chews his lips, “Well, we have to make sure people do not beat up little kids, right? We protect people. I am not going to change any minds, but can warn others.” he shrugs, “Not like they are likely to let an elf near them. Even a deaf one.” he signs and speaks.
Mandy’s is packed, as usual. Azibo is at his usual place by the door and he greets Zlod and Xhaiden. “Hello, boys! A good day I hope?” A shout followed by a chorus of groans filters from behind the tavern. “Someone got permission to set up a knife throwing lane behind the bar, Sounds like it’s in use. Anyway, enjoy your evening, hopefully, we get a chance to chat later.”
Zlod smiles widely as he spots Azibo. “Very productive. It was a good day for sure. Oh good knife throwing I’ll have to check that out.” Zlod pats Azibo on the shoulder. “Hit me up when you have a few moments.” Zlod says before he starts to head into Mandy’s. “Ok Xhaiden we are meeting up with everyone at 8 am in the morning so it won’t be a late night tonight. But we got some time to kill and enjoy.”
Azibo receives an enthusiastic wave from Xhaiden, the boy signing as well as speaking a hello, “Yeah, I got to explore the area. It is really cool out here.” his gaze returns to Zlod. A quick nod is given, “Okay until eight then?” he grins as he adds, signing, “The knife throwing seems really cool. Should be no problem watching, right?”
Inside the tavern you find Heydrich behind the bar, dressed in new duds and an apron, serving up drinks and following Thom’s requests. Seems that he is something of a flashy bartender, as he whirls the bottles around, pouring exact amounts in the glasses as he does so.
“What can I get for ya?” Heydrich asks when approached, his voice decidedly lacking the bavarian accent. This greeting is immediately followed by a slightly different voice, pitched lower and with the familiar accent. " Heydrich ist operating autonomously, using his barman routines."
The bot offers up the drinks with precision and flair, but unlike Thom, he doesn’t dispense much conversation alongside the social lubrication.
“What do you think of our new part-time help?” Thom asks Zlod, gesturing to Heydrich as he pours a drink, “If he were more talkative he’d put me out of a job.”
Outside the tavern, near the back door, there is a hastily constructed throwing lane. A large target sits at the end of a 10 meter lane, circles painted onto the surface already riddled with impacts. The most recent round of competition is just breaking up and a humanoid feline, a werejaguar named Simon, seems to be organizing the competitions.
“Come on up, join the fun. 50 credits, three throws, highest score wins the pot! For those feeling more adventurous, we’re offering additional wagers as well, 500 credit max, even odds, just pick your pony.”
The contestants for this round mostly come from the same merc company, the Jackyls according to their unit patches. The other participant aside from Zlod is a local ranch hand, but he is obviously no stranger to throwing blades. Everyone is handed three blades.
“You each throw one blade at a time for each of the three rounds. Your scores will be totaled at the end to determine who gets the pot!” instructs the werejaguar. Everyone places their own side-bets, as do many in the gaggle of observers the spectacle has drawn. The participants begin throwing, and Zlod starts things off with a bullseye. One of the Jackyls also nails a bullseye, evening things up. Round 2 Zlod throws last, and two of the mercs hit the bullseye, though neither had done well the first round. Zlod narrowly misses the bullseye, but manages to take the lead. The final round is all around horrible, but Zlod wins handily thanks to his first two excellent throws.
“Some mighty fine tosses there, señor, nicely done.” Simon gushes, handing Zlod 450 credits. “Your winnings from the contest, and from your wager.”
After the contest, Zlod gets to talking shop with the three Jackyls. Heather is a power armor pilot, Josh is a mechanic and power armor pilot as well, and Kurt is a self-described generalist. The Jackyls are led by Xanthos Sextus, a former smuggler turned mercenary commander. They just got off an escort mission running a small caravan of apparently valuable stuff from Arzno. The trip was hell, all desert and demons for over a week. But the pay was good. They have no idea what the cargo was,
Later on in the evening Xhaiden is singing in the main area of the room, and doing well. One of the other local musicians took his lead and is playing accompaniment on a guitar. During one of his songs, Xhaiden catches some snatches of conversation among a bunch of ranch hands. They are talking about some tunnels that are appearing in the fields, and some animals vanishing. Something in Xhaiden’s memory twinges, tales and descriptions of a giant worm-like creature called an Ankeg.
Zlod moves between groups, talking and listening. Azibo introduces him to Jesse, one of the sheriff’s deputies, as she is talking to Alexia, the owner of one of the larger ranches in the area. There is growing concern about the refugees, more and more of them are filtering out of the tent city and into the hinterlands. Alexia has taken in some of the refugees that have tried to claim some of her land and given them employment, but lately she has had to call the sheriff out to remove some that refuse to leave. She’s lost livestock to some as well and is discussing options with Jesse. According to Jesse there’s growing discontent among the locals, especially the farmers and ranchers, about the refugees. The only thing stopping some of the hotter heads from doing anything is the Juicers. The ringleader of the humanists is Damion Waters, probably one of the richest men in the region. Owns a huge farm with modern equipment and is always putting pressure on other farmers to either sell to him or join his ‘co-op’, even though everyone knows that there’s nothing cooperative about it. He met with the Sheriff and Mayor late this afternoon about walling off the refugee camp. Rumor has it Damion is sending out feelers among the merc companies about lucrative job prospects.
The evening finds Xhaiden considering several decisions., not observing the knife-throwing competition, avoiding being a distraction. He instead observes the room watching the crowd and the people. He considers ways he may provide extra service to listen, perhaps fetching drinks for the thirsty, casting aside the thought lest he takes tips from the staff.
After placing an order of a Shirley Temple from Heydrich the boy grins muttering another cool with a giant grin before nursing his drink while Idly swinging his legs while observing the room.
Only as his drink is near empty does he makes his way to the floor, beginning to sing. It is with delight that one of the musicians joins in. The child stays closer to the other, increasing the song’s effectiveness. He does not falter as he hears the talk, only pausing several songs later. With a large grin, he claps for the musician before signing and speaking, “Thank you. You were amazing.” He grins in delight, “The vibrations helped me keep the right tempo. I am Xhadian; maybe we can team up more in the future?” his tone is more of a plea than a question as he stifles a yawn, “I have to go almost my bedtime so no more singing tonight.”
“I’ll take a tankard of ale, and a shot of whiskey.” Zlod says to Heydrich as he makes his way up to the bar. “Oh that is great. He looks like he makes a great bartender. But he would never put you out of a job Thom.” Zlod offers a smile to Thom as he gets his drinks from Heydrich. He slams down the shot of whiskey before sipping on the beer. “I’ll be around.” Zlod says before he wounders over to knife throwing. He pockets his winnings after the contest and makes sure to give the Jackal member’s his contact info. “Incase they aren’t satisfied with their current employers.” He talks himself up and Kraken Force up to the three mercs.
Later on, as Zlod is talking to Jessie and Alexia, he expresses sympathy with how difficult the situation is, and praises Alexia for the work she is doing to help the refugees. “If more people were helping out like you are doing there wouldn’t be as much of a problem. If you need help with some of the refugees just ask me, and I’ll see if I can’t persuade them to move along. Assuming Jessie here can’t do that. I’ll see if there is some better alternatives for them. I can be pretty persuasive.” Zlod takes note of Damion Wates as someone he’ll need to keep an eye out for. After a night of talking and fun, Zlod turns in early to get an early start to the day tomorrow.
The Jackyls thank Zlod for the consideration, but they are all pretty happy where they are. They will give Xanthos his contact information, in case they ever need some backup.
“I’ve taken in a couple dozen and had to run off around 30 or so thus far. Most in small groups, though this last one was just over a dozen strong.” Alexia responds to Zlod’s inquiry..
Alexia nods and Jessie frowns briefly. “If it gets to where the law can’t help the citizens, we’ve got bigger problems afoot. Thank you for your offer to assist. If we do end up with tasks outside of our normal jobs, I will keep you in mind.”
As he takes the offered credits, a large grin appears on his features. As is his habit. Xhaiden communicates the thank you verbally and signed before adding, “We will make a lot and with practice, we can be really good maybe even get paid to draw people in.” covering his mouth to stifle another yaw, he adds, “See you later Mister Diego.”
