Not a thread

[Shinku]

It was in the middle of the afternoon and Dan was sitting in the bar of his friend who everyone was just calling Barkeeper and drank an orange juice. In front of him he had a stack of new bounty posters scattered all over the table and was carefully arranging them in an order that was only recognizable by Dan himself.
“Are you really going to become a Bounty Hunter?” Barkeeper asked him, bending over Dan to see what the small man, and with only 5’3’’ one could not describe him any differently, was doing. Dan put down the bounty he was holding and turned around to talk to Barkeeper directly and his long, dark blue hair that he was keeping in a ponytail brushed over the table and disturbed the careful prepared order.
“Yes I am. Why do you question my seriousness about this?” he asked though he could half guess the answer already.
Barkeeper sat himself on the chair next to Dan, the bar was nearly empty at this time of the day and there was nothing for him to do, and gave his friend a measuring look.
“You’re not exactly like your father Hunter.” He began slowly, as if he was stepping into a territory full of landmines. But then he exploded, or at least he started to talk with more emphasis and waved his big hands around. “For heaven’s sake Dan! I know you’ve got your heart on the right place but you aren’t a fighter. You make your money by watching over other people’s kids! Do you really think you could catch a pirate with a bounty?”
Carefully Dan collected his posters and put them into his bag, sighing loudly. His yellow-brown eyes gave Barkeeper a reproachful look. “You pay me to get rid of the people that make trouble in your bar.” He countered.
“Yes… mostly the drunks that don’t want to leave…” his voice trailed off and so did his eyes who automatically wandered to the new customer that had entered his bar. Without waiting for Dan’s response Barkeeper stood up and went to see what he could serve the new customer. Unlike other bars this one was well kept, clean and respectable. If someone wanted to join a brawl he went to the bar on the other side of the street. The people coming to this bar were mostly well-behaved and liked a good conversation.
Dan sighed again and turned to his orange juice. He knew just as well that he wasn’t the best of the fighters around, but he wasn’t intending to start with a big bounty. No… he would start with someone small… to get the hang of it or something like this.

[Deleted]

Stetson Island. full of Bounty hunters, mercenaries and the like. Both lawful and lawless a the same time. Seemed as good a place as any to continue his search for a crew... Or start a fight, either or. Jacob's raft bumped against the shore. In one stride he climbed off, taking great care not to touch the seawater. Taking a stake from the boat's interior he slammed it into the sand before mooring the boat. Satisfied, he began the walk into town, it'd been too long since he last ate. As he was walking, an officious looking man walked over. He was about to make a comment about where Jacob had moored his boat. But then the Pirate bared his pointed canines, growling. 

The bar looked decent enough from the outside. But on entering, Jacob's heart fell a little. Not enough people to really start a brawl. Then again there hadn't been in the last place either, and that hadn't stopped him.
"Barkeep" he grunted. The man left the side of another patron and walked the length of the bar
"What can I get you?" The question came with a slightly suspicious look. Jacob was too hungry to really care. 
"Barrel of something strong and a plate of dead animal" he slapped a few notes on the counter, before grinning in a slightly menacing manner. The amount probably wasn't enough. But it was more than the guy in the last bar had got. If you could count three broken ribs as payment. Not that they were undeserved, the man had flat out refused to serve him and slung a handful of insults. There was no justification for that. Especially since it was before Jacob started a fight.

[Shinku]

“Dalton’s Shotgun” was a decent bar where brawls weren’t a daily occurrence but that meant in no way that the regular guests were harmless. This WAS Stetson Island after all and even though the grand days of weapon trade was over and most people lived now as farmers they hadn’t forgotten how to use their guns. A lot of young people from here still chose to take the path of a bounty hunter and a lot of the older citizens had been bounty hunters at one point in their life. They could smell who would be trouble. Two senior citizens who played chess at some other table looked up and gave the new customer a measuring look before they turned back to their game again. A women aged around middle thirty with stiff black clothes and a strict hairdo wrinkled her nose and then hid it behind her book, while some teenage boys talked between them in a corner of the bar and maybe it was a blessing that one could not hear what they talked about since it was probably something so stupid that only teenage boys could come up with it. At the table near the window a mother was rebuking her two children for playing with their food and didn’t pay any attention to her surroundings at all.

Barkeeper gave Dan a look that was probably trying to say something like “That sort again” or “Do you want to deal with this?” but he took the money and vanished to the back to fetch the food. Meanwhile Dan gave the new guy a closer look.

Even on an island like Stetson that man stood out. Dan estimated that he was about 8 feet high and one could see the muscles for the man wore no shirt. His hair was grey and formed a messy bird’s nest on his head. Dan was too far away to see the eye color but the scars around his right eye were very visible. They looked like some big beasts claws mark.
Although he wore no shirt he still wore a fur-lined coat with a Jolly Roger drawn on its back.

“A pirate, huh?” The big man couldn’t have showed his colors any clearer.
“Maybe I should start with him then?” Dan thought, but he knew very well that he liked to plan things out before acting, so maybe he should just let that guy be and try becoming a bounty hunter another time. There was no reason to rush after all.

[Deleted]

Jacob downed the ale a few seconds after it arrived. Droplets of the hard alcohol slipped around the rim of the tankard and down his chin. He lowered the vessel and wiped the back of his hand across his face. He slammed it down before starting on the food. 
   The majority of the bar struck him as uninteresting, he could make out a selection of wanted posters spread out across the bar near a lad down the far end. Didn't look like a bounty hunter, but looks rarely gave the full picture. The feral Captain finished his plate of food before asking for a second flagon. Demanding was perhaps a better term. 
   Turning on his chair, Jacob took the opportunity to look for any marines beyond the windows. He'd not seen any white coats for a while, since arrival anyway. Though he was probably still wanted for a few indiscretions on other Islands nearby. Which was both fortunate and unfortunate at the same time. On the up side, he was gaining an amount of notoriety. He finished his second flagon
"Just bring me a keg" he grunted in the barkeep's direction. The man paused, folding his burly arms across his chest
"You gonna pay for it?" he asked. Jacob frowned
"Not sure... never good at making decisions when I'm thirsty."

[Shinku]

With some amusement Dan saw that Barkeeper had served the rude customer his special meat menu. Whenever a customer didn’t have enough money but still wished to eat some meat, Barkeeper would sever his lizard special. Lizards were cheap meat because there were so many of them around and the kids loved to hunt them to get some extra beri next to their allowance. And after being cooked they tasted no different than conventional meat. Dan had tasted it himself and found that it tasted a bit like chicken. Of course everything tasted like chicken if you were hungry enough, but this lizards would taste like chicken even if you weren’t nearly starving.
They tasted better than the rats and skunks Barkeeper had used during a cold that had driven away the lizards for a time, but even those had turned into something enjoyably eatable after meeting with Barkeeper’s fantastic cooking skill.

But the big man was not satisfied by this and asked for more ale after finishing his second flagon and on the same time made it quite obvious that he didn’t intend to pay any more than what he had already given. (That was probably not that much or he would have gotten cow rather than lizard.)
Barkeeper unfolded his arms, put one hand on the bar to better lean forward while the other hand vanished below the bar where “Calmative Jane” was waiting to be used.
Famous swords all had names, but so did other kinds of weapons. And here in Steltson town where they were once known for their high quality guns, lots of people still owned such a named weapon even though the Island was now living from their farms or from bounty hunting rather than from the weapon trade that had shifted to Pecos which leaded to a lasting grudge between the two islands.
Barkeeper owned two of them, his shotgun “Calmative Jane” and her twin “Unlucky Martha”, and was not hesitant to use them if some of his customers made trouble.
“Mister,” he started, “you’ve got all you deserve for the money you’ve gave me. If you want more you’ve got to pay more.”

Still sitting on his chair on the other side of the room, Dan made a decision. If the big man was reasonable he would let him go, but if he decided to make a ruckus then he would be his first try to capture a pirate.
Other regulars were not so hesitant. Everyone had noticed the tone in which the conversation was held and most of them got ready for trouble. One senior gripped his cane while the other sat back, showing the gun on his side. The youngsters were looking excited as well and even one of the kids took out his toy gun but got a rebuke from his mother for it.

[Deleted]

Jacob noted the barkeeper reaching for something beneath the counter. Using on hand, he opened his coat a little more, making the eight flintlocks on his belt that little more obvious.
"Or what big man?" he growled. His lips drew back, similar to a dog, revealing exaggerated canines. 
   While one hand remained on his coat, the other moved for the chair next to him, taking a firm hold of a leg. Conventional weapons got a little stale on occasion, and though Jacob had an axe, there wasn't much that was more satisfying than smashing a chair over a man as opposed to running him through. Or cleaving him in half for that matter.
"I'd remove that hand if I were you. Not being funny, but you have no idea what you're up against. Some feral glint appeared in the pirates eye for a split second, making it look more like the eye of a wolf than a man. What was more concerning was that Jacob was unnaturally calm given the situation. Taking a partial break from holding his jacket, he tipped his flagon upside down above his open mouth, the last few drops tumbled out, landing on his tongue. He cast the metal container aside, before reaching for a gun. 
   Some of the other patrons were making a move too, reaching for weapons etc. It all hinged on the Barkeep's response. Though if anyone else tried to make the first move, Jacob would undoubtedly throw himself into the fight.

[Shinku]

It was not a comfortable feeling that hunted Dan when he realized that there was no hope of the big man showing some common sense. This man would avoid a confrontation just as surely as Nana would avoid poking a beehive with a stick. Some kids just had to try it out to see what happened even though common sense should have told them the result beforehand and some adults weren’t better.
If he were honest he had to describe his feelings as fear, but like most people who tried for the first to take on someone they knew would be stronger time he called it nervous anticipation instead. But at least that helped him smile, for his face felt frozen and he wouldn’t have been able to change his expression even if he wanted to.
As he walked over to the big man who was now openly threatening his friend, he grabbed Rodriguez by the collar and handed him over to his mother who seemed more concerned about her son’s bad manners than about the fight her youngest had wanted to pick. And as a former bounty huntress that had counted to the very best the mother probably had less reason to feel troubled than Dan, yet she politely thanked him for bringing back her son.
Without anything else to hold him back (unfortunately) he had no more reason to dawdle and so he made his way over to the big man and gave him the nicest smile he could manage, though he made sure to stay out of reach for it didn’t escape his notice that the big man was holding a chair.

“Why don’t we talk outside?” he offered. “If you demolish the bar there’s going to be no one who could serve you some ale or meat or whatever you want. And that can’t be in anyone’s interest.”
He looked the other man into the eyes and held his gaze carefully locked, looking for hints of movement just as much as trying to look confident.
“I’m Delion.” He introduced himself and tried to sound as impressive as he could.
“Dan Delion.”
It wasn’t his fault. And to be sure… Delion sounded impressive enough. And there was nothing to say against Dan. It was a common and respectable name. No one could object about it, for it was in no way strange or funny…
But the combination…
just what had his parents been thinking?!

One thing was for sure: It was hard to start a carrier as a bounty hunter with a name like that.

 

[Deleted]

The Captain chuckled. 
"Think it through lad, if I go outside, I won't be served either." He turned on his seat to face the boy "Unless you have a cannon rammed up your blouse, I'd suggest you keep moving. I've not kicked off, just trying to get a decent meal. Never trust a man who gives you white meat, especially when he doesn't specify the source." At this the Captain threw the barkeep a weighted look "explains the lack of payment doesn't it. You play criminal, I play criminal. See hoe that works?" his grip tightened on the chair "unless you're looking to start a fight you can't win kid, I'd go back to your posters, let the grown-ups slug it out if necessary. Though I'd rather not be beating a man before I've had a half decent meal."

The moments ticked past as the mood became notably tenser. The bartender continued reaching for the twin blades. Jacob caught sight. A grin split his rugged features
"'Bout bloody time." In one swift motion he lifted the chair and hurled it into the man's chest, taking him clean off his feet and careening into the shelves behind the bar. Splinters and glass flew in all directions. The sharp edges seemed to patter off of the Pirate's skin. Drizzles of liquor ran down the shelves before joining the accumulating pool on the ground, where the barman was now laying. The Pirate turned sharply to face Dan, flintlock in one hand, the other reaching for his axe. "Make the right move flower boy, I've not got anything against you, but stand in my way, and you'll be put out just like our friend behind the bar. 

[Shinku]

With much dismay and confusion Dan watched his friend get hit by a chair. As an experienced barkeeper Barkeeper was usually quite quick in dealing with troublesome guests. That he should get hit like that made the other man look stronger than Dan had first believed. But then he noticed that his friend was still holding “Calmative Jane” in a firm grip and wasn’t knocked out neither but looking over to him.
Was his friend holding back on purpose to give Dan a chance to catch the man?
Dan gulped for he wasn’t feeling as enthusiastic about the idea as he was before the man had got into action. And what sort of common sense was that guy using? For sure it wasn’t the same as that of everyone else. His left eye twitched as he thought about the stupidness of the man’s logic. Such people were usually harder to deal with, because they wrapped normal sense and logic until it bend around them in strange shapes like light around a bit source of gravity (according to some crazy scholars).
As much as he wanted to back out, after having Barkeeper taking a hit for him he couldn’t. And there was also the matter of being called a kid, which kind of annoyed him. He was twenty-seven! And even though he looked younger that didn’t justify to be called a kid. That man must have no observation skills at all.

But before he could so much as blink again another big (and rather hairy) man entered the bar. It was Hunter Delion, Dan’s father, who was one of the most hooked brawlers of the town and who’s good nose for fights must have brought him here. “WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?!” he demanded to know in a loud and booming voice. “YOU OVER THERE!” No one had to ask who he meant, for even the stupid pirate should have understood that he was the one that was talked too. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY SON? WHY DON’T YOU TAKE ON SOMEONE OF YOUR SIZE?”
With horror Dan could already see the result in front of his eyes. If the two men fought there wouldn’t be much left of the bar… and he would hear the mockery of the townspeople for a long long time: the would-be Bounty Hunter that had to be saved by his father… He had to prevent this at all costs!

“Go home Dad, that’s my fight and I'm fine.” He told him, but his father only gave him a stupid look. “What do you mean? You can’t fight. I tried to teach you countless times and you just don’t have what it takes for a brawler.”
The only good thing was that his father had stopped shouting, but Dan would have preferred if he didn’t talk at all, for he felt very humiliated by it. Troublesome or not, he had to change his image and this was a chance he couldn’t let slip away. “I can fight well enough, mom showed me how!” Dan insisted, but his dad just waved a hand. “That’s good enough for your mom sure, but not for a man’s fight. It’s female stuff after all.” “!!”
“It isn’t! Stop making me look bad just because I use some brain while fighting!”

In the shortest of time they started quarrelling amongst themselves shouting back and forth, the reason of the argument (Jacob) forgotten by both.

[Deleted]

Jacob frowned as the bounty Hunter's father arrived and began shouting at his son. IT started off as funny, but that quickly changed, what started as amusement, turned into pity. The pirate cleared his throat and turned to the significantly larger man
"Let the lad fight his own battles!" he barked. With a grunt he hefted Jernulv into his grip "if you're that hell bent on fighting lad, we'll do it outside, away from him" he gestured towards Delion senior. 

Without another word, Jacob slapped a small assortment of notes on the counter, the total matching what he'd eaten before stomping out of the bar, twirling his axe as he passed by the tables of angry looking onlookers. On reaching Dan's father, he drew back his upper lip in a snarl.
"Show some damn respect" he grunted. 

Once outside, he turned to face the bar, waiting to see if his opponent would come out to meet him. Arms spread shoulder width apart, one hand wrapped around the haft of his axe, the other, thumb hooked into his gun belt
"Show me what you're made of boy!" a small crowd began to accumulate "prove to that pompous windbag you can fight!"

[Shinku]

Unfortunately Hunter Delion wasn’t someone who abandoned a fight once he picked it up. “RESPECT?! I’ll show you respect!” he started, when suddenly a petite woman tugged Hunters sleeve. “Stop now Darling.” She told him. “You didn’t come to town to brawl but to buy iron for the smithy and you promised you’d carry my stuff as well. I really hope they have some good herbs this time. Just why are so few merchants trading them?!”
“But!” Her husband gave her a stunned look. “No BUT! You have to let Dan make his own faults.”
Dan wanted to protest to that, but his mother gave him a wink and forced her husband to leave with gentle force. As Dan followed his parents and the big man out of the bar he could hear his father saying something about herbs but soon their voices faded in the sounds of the busy street. Most people were coming and going, on their way to buy or sell stuff, a woman was sweeping the place in front of her house and neighbours chatted with each other. It was his hometown and Dan knew most of them, and most of them knew Dan.

Growing up as the son of a gun smith, Dan had created his own gun when he was a child. Only this one before his father gave him up as hopeless. He still carried it around with him even though the bullets never flew straight. It was his gun after all, he knew that already when he had been a child and named it “Dan’s gun”.
For a fight like this the gun wouldn’t serve though so Dan had to go back to some other weapon.
Standing a few steps away from the big man (to be sure some big steps to keep out of range) he gave him a measuring look trying to figure out what the man was all about. Finally he decided to just ask him.
“Why are you here Mister? What could you possibly gain from randomly picking a fight in a foreign town?” And before he could stop himself he added: “And please answer without cursing. There are kids around and you make a very bad role model.”

 

[Deleted]

"Gain?" Jacob shrugged "the better question's what do you have to gain from hunting down a pirate? I do what I do because I have a score to settle with the Marines, and anyone who tries to get one over on me while I'm at it." He twirled the axe before taking it in a two handed grip, moving into a fighter's stance. Coldly observing his opponent, he circled, sniffing every so often, filtering though the different scents in the air, there was a small element of fear, hanging around the crowd, it was unclear if some of the fear he could smell was the boy's, though only a fool wouldn't be a little scarred, facing a hulking man with a plethora of weapons. Jacob had also held back his ace, he may not have needed it, but in the case that he did, it was best kept as a surprise.

"I'll let you make the first move boy. Best make it a good one, because I won't be holding back." The crowd muttered nervously, pirates were a rarity on the island, and usually they tried to keep to themselves or maintain a low profile. This pirate was a different kettle of fish however.

[Shinku]

At the first moment, Dan had to admit that what the big man said was true. But then he started to think a bit deeper into the matter and had to fiercely deny this being so. There were a lot of faults in what the big man had said. Pirates had no gain from fighting random guys (without money) needlessly but Bounty Hunters would gain money when they caught pirates, so there was a worldly acknowledged gain called greed he could point out in his favour. There was also the question of justice and righteousness that good citizens had to uphold. As a pirate the other one was per definition the bad guy, so whatever Dan chose to do to him would be justice. Moral was on his side therefore. (Such a convent system). Not to mention that he would remove a horrible role model from the streets and therefore a corruption to the children, who had every right to grow up protected from such a dirty fellow.

Yet he hesitated to make the first move. It wasn’t his style to move first, he was more of a reactive man. (Again that was ignoring the fact that with hitting Barkeeper the other guy had already made the first move).
“If you have a score to settle with the Marines, then go and settle it with the Marines, Mister.” Dan told him calmly, but couldn’t keep a scolding completely out of his voice nor a frown from his face. “As you can see there aren’t any Marines here, so don’t pick fights with unrelated people. Learn to settle your problems with the concerned parties.”

[Deleted]

The Captain grinned 
"I'd say the chair settled things pretty well. But it was you who decided we should be the ones fighting over it. I have no quarrel with you, other than the fact that you're hell bent on either teaching me a lesson, or collecting the bounty on my head. I'd guess the second" he twirled the axe again, moving the weapon with speed and skill belaying its power. The lad wasn't making the first move, which was understandable, perhaps it would be best, and less morally questionable for him. If the Captain were to attack first. 
    IN a sudden burst of movement, Jacob surged forwards, taking his axe in a firm grip and swinging it in a downward arc, just shy of the boy, the move not poised to kill him, possibly take a few buttons off at worst. Best to gauge a foe before going all out, especially if the foe was younger, and notably less experienced. His ace was still concealed, and his amphi pistols were unlikely to see use. There would be no killing, the boy was an innocent. Clouting a man with a chair for going for a weapon was one thing. Killing a boy who was trying to defend his honour was another. 

[Shinku]

As the big man started his attack, Dan watched him coming closer, swinging his big axe like some raging bull that was only seeing the red flag and nothing else. The man was fast, but not too fast to leave no time to react for Dan but the young man didn’t move. Having a mock fight with his dad or friends was one thing and he knew how he had to react, yet faced with a real danger his legs didn’t move as he wanted them to. His eyes followed the axe as it felt down just short of him, cutting open his black kimono but even as he knew what was to do he just stood there dumbfounded like an idiot.

The next thing Dan remembered was him standing on the rooftop of a nearby house. His reflex had failed him at first when the big man had attacked leaving him unable to dodge but his flight reaction had kicked in just a second after that and had him flee up a rain water downpipe without even thinking about it.

Being up high was a good thing. Tactically having the higher ground gave you an advantage. And so did distance to a close combat fighter. At least if you possessed some far or middle range weapon yourself.
The throwing knives in his side pocket clanked as if they were calling out to him to use them. And why not? This was the perfect opportunity.
Yet as he put a hand on one of them he found that his head was protesting strongly, repeating what he always said about throwing knives when he was training with the kids.
“Don’t forget to never throw this at people or I won’t let you play with the knives again. That’s really important, it could be dangerous!”
Holding his head on the side as if that would help him win against his own screwed logic.
“That’s only for training… this situation here is different!!” he argued with himself. But it was no use… his hand didn’t want to throw the knife in his hand. After all… someone might get hurt.