Section: 10 April 2019 Up Main page Section: 15 May 2019 

24 April 2019

The odds being given were pretty even, but Eva was looking distinctly more enthusiastic for the fight than she had earlier. The two started carefully, but Eva got an early shot in, from which the Kid stepped back and moved into a cautious attack, getting the first couple of hits though not to much effect; when he tried for a more serious punch it wasn’t on target. She tried for a not-by-the-rules shoulder barge, which the Kid deflected, and seemed to be enjoying things a great deal; at the end of the round there was a long pause before she could be persuaded back to her corner.
No, said the Spitfire acting as the Kid’s second, she’s not usually this worked up, but she doesn’t want to be here, and she doesn’t have to work with you in the future.
Miss Yvette found Lucio looking increasingly unwell, though his bodyguard didn’t seem to have noticed – indeed, he was entirely focused on what was going on in the ring, to the detriment of his job. She asked Lucio about his connection with Lady Luck, which perhaps threw him a little but not enough to get a useful admission out of him.
There was something a bit odd about a section of the place over between the bar and the facilities, and I started to slide over in that direction.
Max, in the back room, heard from Pepper: Eva was running, and wouldn’t be stopping. She was here because her boss had messed up, and this was a way of working off her disgrace imposed by the boss, the big lady.
As the second round started, Eva was determined but getting careless. The Kid moved in for a brief clinch, in the hope of exchanging a few words; he was here to talk, he said, but she just giggled and tried to push him to the ground – he resisted, and the second time it came with a mental blow too. (Lucio and the bodyguard noticed – Lucio looking even worse, the bodyguard showing his teeth.)
The MC started to make noises about breaking the clinch; they did, but Eva started to fight dirty and he backed off. The MC was trying to make eye contact with Lucio, who was sickly focussed on the ring, then he stood up and started to push his way out. Miss Yvette tried to charm him into giving something up, but without success – though he did hand her his card.
In the dark corner there was definitely a shape, something animal. There was a subtle, but distinct, uncanny feeling about it.
In the ring, Eva was rapidly losing both her subtlety and her science, and the Kid followed suit on the latter, dropping into a more pragmatic fighting style with a solid punch to the solar plexus; her breath came out in a howl which got everyone’s attention.
Lucio had got to the edge of the crowd, and seemed to be at a loss for what to do next, though he was still looking distinctly unwell.
Pepper looked out and stood up to scan the crowd, then pushed herself up the doorframe (standing on Max’s shoulders), asked him to get one of his friends to start a distraction, and started to run round the outside of the room.
The Kid moved in for a follow-up attack, and Eva evaded, made brief eye contact, and started to get a bit of her science back. The Kid put out a solid blow to the face – and as she staggered, the MC rang the bell.
Lucio came back in, got his bodyguard’s attention, and whispered something; the half-troll came back to himself, seeming very surprised by what he was being asked to do (“start something”).
The shape started to move out of the corner, and was definitely hound-shaped, though bigger and better fed and groomed than the ones we’d seen before. And wearing a collar. The barman looked worried, as well he might.
Yvette slapped a stranger to cause distraction, and after some prompting the bodyguard hit him. I spilled a drink across the bar, got it alight, and then shouted Fire. This collectively caused some confusion, and the fighting spread.
Meanwhile Pepper grabbed the bucket from Belle, emptied it over Eva’s head to bring her back to herself, and proceeded to berate the MC.
Eva moved over to the Kid, and they seemed to be making peace for now as they got out through the back door; Belle and the Spitfire followed them out.
Lucio was setting off for the exit again, without bodyguard; Miss Yvette followed him outside, where he approached a black car; she slid into the car behind him.
As the general brawl came to an end, people started doing a little drinking before drifting away. As the bodyguard moved towards the bar, he spotted the hound, then looked around for someone to give him orders; he set up drinks at the bar, then went over to the hound, which lay down further; they exchanged looks, then the bodyguard asked very politely by what right he was here. In return there was an impression of a reply, “by right of invitation”. The bodyguard clearly didn’t want to get involved any more than he had to, but asked the hound to swear by its name and its nature, which the hound did.
I went outside, and got a distinct feeling of being followed as I did so. Dropping round a corner, I ran into Terry, but found it was the hound following me…
 Section: 10 April 2019 Up Main page Section: 15 May 2019