Megan Moonhart's Story

Megan shouldered her way through the door, her threadbare brown cloak pulled tight around her shabby red dress and bony shoulders. One step in she paused, blinking, to take in the bar. While she was well traveled every time she came to a new bar, a new nexus in the roiling multiverse, she took the time to be cautious. After quirking her eyebrows at the snow-thing she shivered and made her way to the bar, feet shuffling in a slight limp. She avoided placing herself too near any of the other patrons, and dropped into a stool with the grunt of an aging woman who had dragged herself along much farther than she had wanted to.

A twitch of Norrington's nose as he heard the summonings to serve as he rounded on his heel at once with two ears perking up and a renewed smile. "Hiya!" Norrington said, "I didn't see you there all the way up the back! There's plenty of tables available at the counter or the center of the bar, but I understand if you want your privacy, yup yup!"

His tail gave a small sway behind him. The woman's service would have to wait for now.

Megan's grass green eyes turned to watch interaction between the two. She, rather overtly, appeared to be appraising them. Her right hand slipped into her cloak to rub some feeling back into her hip while she waited.

'Bunny-folk'. It was enough to make Norrington's smile faulter and his brow crease downwards. "Well sir we don't carry anything capable of killing our patrons sir, it would be very irresponsible to assume our patrons could survive if they happened to order it, so I'm sorry sir but you'll have to settle for regular drinks sir. Shout if you need it!" And with that he darted about on the spot, a cheerful smile thrust back up onto his feline features as he marched on over towards Megan.

"Hiya!" he declared, "I'm Norrington. What can I get you? Food, drink?" And another woman came in! Well, this was certainly giving him quite a bit of work, but he was going to do his boss proud and show Gabby what a good little tender he could be.

Megan couldn't help but scowl a little at the attractive woman who entered; she missed her youth rather a lot. Norrington's boisterous greeting, and frank cuteness, dropped the scowl instantly. Her voice was surprisingly deep and almost gravely when she spoke, "I'd love a drink, but I'm... Ah, rather poor right now. What forms of currency do you accept?" She hastily added, "I'm not from around these parts."

The sergeant and the grunts listened to the patrons around them. Just as the sergeant raised his hand to catch the bartender's attention, a chirp cried out for nearly a hundredth of a second and the building across the street exploded from the inside out. The structure wobbled, but every window was blown out with a ball of fire waving from the first floor to the second. The blast engulfed a police squad car, which swirled and slammed into another building.

The sergeant turned to look at the burning building and then turned back to catch the bartender's attention with a friendly upwards nod. The grunts watched the blaze just as briefly before waiting for the bartender.

Norrington's face all but lit up at the woman's admittance as he said, "If it was up to me I'd take pats and snuggles for drinks! Buuuuut then the boss would have my ash." He giggled and poked a tongue out. "So howabout I write you up a tab and tonight I sorta just kinda forget in all the excitement to chase you up until you can pay it off, huh?"

And then the building across the road exploded. Norrington's fur went up on end and he dived under the table around Megan's feet. Noting the soldiers indifference, he assumed involvement, and would personally have nothing to do with them.

Megan smiled at Norrington's kindness, and had her mouth halfway open to respond when the building exploded. With reflexes rather impressive for a woman with grey in her hair she threw herself to the ground next to the cat person while flipping the table to provide better shelter. She obviously didn't come from a place where an explosion was taken at all lightly.

Adiana Vatrosso suddenly ended her phone call. "I'll call you back." She pressed the "End Call" feature. The woman leaned forward in her booth to see outside the window from a far glance, and noticed that there was a large explosion, and flames brimming around it. The area she was at suddenly shook from the shock wave and Adiana held tightly underneath her booth seat so she remained still. The woman, after the small shake, picked her phone back up and placed it within her suitcase pocket once more. Deep brown eyes looked to the unusual group of individuals that stood afar from her. Taking her gaze away, she smirked and fixed a few more strands of her curly hair, hoping to find the owner of Gambit's Bar on her own, she waited patiently to do so.

"Don't worry," Norrington added, "Boss made us well prepared for something like this!" He tried to sound confident, but he was clearly shaken. "You just wait here miss and I'll take care of everything no problem no worries, yup yup!" he insisted, crawling out on all fours and then darting for the counter. Curiously he didn't have hands or feet, he had paws, like a cat. It made it quite difficult to hold the phone he was immediately grabbing, calling two numbers in quick succession, the first?

"Hey can you come down here real quick?" followed by hanging up without waiting for a response. The second, the cops.

Megan grimaced, gently rolling to her knees to look over the table. As she moved, she pressed one hand to her left hip, groaning slightly. Taking in the flames, she spoke, "This kind of thing common around here? The last time I saw an explosion that big, I was in the middle of a war."

Adiana Vatrosso merely "tch'd" at the fact the bartender would call the cops. Always party-crashers indeed and she was just getting relaxed, but it would seem she would have no choice to move upward and buy a room to place her things anyhow. The woman got up, a tall one indeed in those thick, silver heels. As she walked strongly with a strut, her darker-than usual skin was kissed by the bar lights, as was her long hair, with many curls and highlights. Deep brown eyes were focused upon the cat, Norrington.

Leaning forward, her vast amount of cleavage became exposed, and she put a hand upon Norrington's head, and smirked, speaking in a seductive tone. "How much for a room, on the most high-class floor?" Looking down to Megan, she made a mere chuckle in appearance, and then waited for an answer, as though nothing happened.

"Based on the fact the building across from us exploded and those soldiers are acting pretty casual about it," Norrington explained, both to Adiana and into the phone to the police, "Are you sure you want to take a room? You might get called back for questioning when the police get here. Um. Miss." The last word was tacked on to try and appear polite, but he looked quite stressed.

He also would have been impressed with Megan's comment about being in a war, and followed up on it, but he was really not handling being left in charge so well.

With another groan, Megan stood. She flipped the table back over and set about righting the chairs. Before she sat back down, she pulled off her cloak: She wanted to be able to move if something else exploded. Under her cloak was a shabby looking knee length sleeveless red dress that looked like it had been worn on a daily basis for years with only periodic cleanings. From the way the dress hung loosely on her, it was clear she had lost weight recently. Which wasn't surprising, seeing as she was little more than skin and bones, with a few scars to top things off.

Megan couldn't help but giggle at Norrington's smartassery, the sound coming out surprisingly clean and girlish. She raised her hands above her head and stretched long and hard before speaking to the kitty, "Come to think of it, is there anywhere I might be able to get a room for cheap? Or, well, preferably free. And I don't even really need a room, a bed I could nap on for a few hours would do me fine."

Adiana Vatrosso took the key, and then suddenly gave a disgusted look upon her face. She wasn't stupid, and she wouldn't be played for a fool. "Be that way. I will report you to the highest authority within Gambit's Bar when I see them. I do not appreciate the feeling of disrespect, especially on such a low level." The woman had taken the key strongly away, and she took her gaze off Norrington, and placed it on Megan, listening to the woman laugh.

Adiana did not appreciate such behavior, and made a comment "Why are you laughing, grandma? Don't you have a knitting to attend to?" She noticed the grayness in hair and what the woman seemed to look like, and made a mere chuckle herself, turning her back as she made one final look toward Norrington in disapproval of how he treated her, and she rolled her suitcase away from both of them, beginning to walk up the stairwell to the first floor to find her room.

Megan had been about to address the child that had spoken to her when Adiana spoke. On the word 'grandma' Megan bit her tongue, quite literally. Her hands immediately tightened into fists. She closed her eyes and let a shiver wrack her. After standing quite still for a few moments she slowly opened her eyes, turning to look at Adiana. She spit a mouthful of blood on the ground, utterly ignoring the child she had been about to speak to. Megan seemed on the verge of speech, but held off.

Seeing how Norrington was busy, Gabby slid off the stool she had been perched upon and walked behind the bar. Kneeling down, she keyed in the code for the small personal refrigerator and once it was opened, pulled out a Mt. Dew. The door closed on its own and she keyed in the code again to lock it up nice and tight. The bar had fountain drinks as well as beer, milk, and pretty much anything one could think of, but the Dew’s in that fridge were her own personal. Moving back to her stool, she shrugged at Cryoface’s comment about getting a poor sap to walk around with a sandwich board to get more attention. Right now, that just wasn’t going to happen. Popping open the tab of her soda, Gabrielle silently drank it, watching the patrons silently. She was glad when things started to pick up, but wasn’t exactly thrilled to see a group of soldiers or whatever they were walk through the door. She really wasn’t in the mood for any fighting, but luckily they seemed to be keeping to themselves though they did look a smidge shifty.

Norrington was doing a fantastic job at keeping up with everyone as they walked into the bar, which was good because if he was doing a terrible job, he would be tossed out on his butt without much of a thought. Well, after a few warnings, she supposed. Crossing both arms against her chest, she followed the conversations as well as she could, making a mental note of the woman who said she had no money. They weren’t a charity act and couldn’t afford to be giving away a lot of drinks or food for free, but one or two she would allow. She also made a mental note of the younger female that had her breasts on display for whoever was looking. That wasn’t what had originally caught Gabby’s attention. No, what really stood out was the suitcase she was dragging behind her. Most people didn’t walk into a bar with luggage, but maybe she wanted to get a room or something? Shrugging off the thought, the teen took another swig of her soda and sat down the can just as the building across from Gambit’s suddenly exploded. Swearing under her breath, she snapped her attention towards the window, watching the flames with slight irritation. Her gaze momentarily shifted towards the soldiers and noted that although everyone else made some kind of movement, they didn’t.

Hmm, dat’s highly suspicious.

She released yet another under the breath string of swear words when she noticed the broke older woman flipping one of the tables over. Well, might as well break in the tables and chairs now instead of later, right? Rubbing her forehead, she was grateful for Jegun beefing up the security measures and for the crew for beefing up the actual structure of the bar. Before she could say anything to Norrington, he called the cops. Grabbing out her cell, she called them back and told them to go to the building across the street and not to Gambit’s just in case there was any confusion. The last thing she wanted was cops bothering her patrons, though perhaps when they showed up, she would point out the soldiers. The younger big breasted woman stepped to the bar and asked for the prices of the best room they had. Was she trying to seduce Norrington? The thought made Gabby snicker softly, but luckily she managed to cover the sound with her can of Dew. Her attention was grabbed the moment the woman asked for the owner of Gambit’s to come see her up in her hotel room.

Wonder why that broad wants to see me… err… yeah… me…

That still sounded funny to Gabby in her head, but it was the truth for the time being. Norrington however dialed some number and either spoke to someone or was pretending to speak to Gambit, Gabrielle wasn’t quite sure which was the case and wasn’t about to ask with her standing right there. Keeping her expression blank when the woman then said she would report Norrington to the highest authority of Gambit’s, she shot the cat a look that hopefully he would read before watching Adiana head for the stairs. After she scolded the older female, that is. Scowling at the sound and sight of the older woman spitting blood on the floor, she slid off the stool and grabbed a rag. Handing it towards the Megan, she looked from her to the floor and back again.

“Dis isn’t dat type of bar. Please clean dat up, ma’am. And Norrington, dun call de cops on somet’ing as trivial as dat, ‘kay? Guess I’ll go up and see dat woman.” Rolling her purple eyes, Gabrielle walked over to the stairwell and took a deep breath before beginning to ascend the steps.

Megan ignored Gabrielle for a solid minute, simply glaring at the retreating back of Adiana. With a clench-jawed sigh she lowered her eyes to the blood and the rag. She reached out her right foot to drag the rag to the blood, but stopped after her left leg began to wobble under her weight. With another sigh she dropped to one knee and quickly mopped up the small amount of blood.

When she stood back up she was left with one rather obvious problem. She had no idea what to do with the soiled rag; It could easily be washed and re-used so she didn't want to throw it away. So she loosely folded it, set it on her table, and flopped back into her seat grumbling a little less quietly that she had intended, "A bar that can't stand some blood on the floor, but calls a huge explosion in the middle of a city trivial. What madhouse have I wandered in to?"

"Boss!" Norrington chirped, scampering over to Gabby and knocking the phone off the hook in his haste, "Boss wait!" His paws were aimed to grab every so lightly at her arm, soft fuzzy little things. "Don't leeeaave me here with these people," he all but whined pathetically, "I'm not cut out for high stress work environments! I'm meant for hiding under buildings and stealing from food carts!"

He even put on the sad cat eyes, with ears drooping.