#brawl crawl

The Seven Selkies was an intriguing name for a bar and Alcher liked intriguing things. She’d found-- and met-- a lot of intriguing things in White Crest already, but what was one more? She wanted to get acquainted well with this town, as she had a feeling she’d be here for a while. The air was fresh, the town was full of people like her, and there were plenty of humans and hunters alike to kill. Really, she almost wondered why she hadn’t come here earlier, but for her first foray into America, it was definitely a good one. So she found herself, tonight, at The Seven Selkies thanks to a murmured word she’d overhead in town. A bar just for the supernatural? She could hardly wait. How freeing would it be to be able to just be herself while there? Though, not her true self. Wolves, after all, did not need such paltry things like alcohol and libations. Still, in this form, they were indulgences she would allow herself. Be rigid, her father had said, be fierce. But be kind to your mind. It will lose itself if you are not. 

The bar, she’d noted, was relatively empty tonight. It reminded her of roadside stops and small towns that only had one bar. Not too grimy, not too clean. Neon signs still hung as if it were still a decade ago, and pool tables sat barely used in the corner. Alcher made her way up to the bar and found only one other girl sitting at it as well. She smelled like the sea and alcohol, which, she supposed, was unsurprising for here. “You wouldn’t by any chance know what’s the best drink here, would you?” she asked, sliding into the spot a few chairs down from her. A man at the doors spoke loudly, but she ignored him for now. “I want to make sure I get the right first impression from a bar named ‘Seven Selkies’.” 

Dot liked the Seven Selkies a lot. As she learned more about the supernatural there were in town, the more she wanted to meet them. It had been through some kid in one of her classes that she found herself becoming a regular at the bar. She looked down at the other woman with a grin, “You know I’m a personal fan of the Siren cocktail, but their beers are pretty good too.” She lifted her own beer to show the other woman, “This one is pretty solid if you just want to sip for the night. Any way you go though, Selkies won’t let you down.”

Beer. Now that was something Alcher could get behind. Most hard liquors were too much for her, their tastes overwhelming on her tongue-- but good old fashioned lager was nice. And it reminded her of home. When she waved the bartender down, she motioned to the woman next to her. “What she’s having,” she said, before settling in. There was another shout from the entrance and a few people in the bar glanced over before returning to their nights. “You come here often, then?” she asked, returning her attention to the woman. “I can’t say I’m entirely surprised to find a supernatural bar in this town, but I’m still taking it all in.”

Dot was pretty pleased that this woman decided to order what the siren had. She liked to think she had pretty good taste when it came to drinking now. She shrugged,“Often enough. It’s a good way to make sure I know what’s happening in town.” Ever since that talk about hunters, Dot thought it was a good idea to make sure she kept updated. There was a soft crash from the doorway and Dot looked over before groaning. “This asshole again. You’re in for a show.”

Alcher’s eyes wandered over to the man at the doors. He was making quite the ruckus and her new friend seemed to know him. The bartender set the beer down in front of her and she took it, taking a long sip, before sliding from her chair. “Does he do this often?” she asked, tilting her head curiously, watching him. He was holding something that was squirming in his arms, and it writhed when the man was shoved back by the bouncer. Her head tilted again and concentrated on the smell of the thing. It didn’t have the smell of anything she recognized, no creature. It smelled stale and wet all at once, a musk to it that seemed to encase the man as well. She took another sip of her beer. “What is he holding?”

“Way too often honestly,” Dot replied with a long look at the bartender. At this point, she thought that everyone who worked here wanted to hit the guy at least once. She wished they would. “I’m all for some fun, but at this point I think he just doesn’t fucking get that no one wants him here.” She had told him more than a few times that she wanted to kill him, but he didn’t seem to get why. “It’s fucking demon larva, I think. No one knows how he got it, but he refuses to go anywhere without it and no one wants it here.”

“Really? And no one’s done anything about it?” Alcher asked. Back in Canada, she didn’t frequent bars, but the ones she had gone to were always calm and direct. If you made a fuss, you got kicked out. Her brows furrowed and she picked absently at the paper on the bottle. “Perhaps someone should try another method,” she suggested, eyes narrowing. She could be very persuasive, after all. She turned to look back at the girl next to her. “Demon larva!?” she’d never heard of such a thing. Her father had told them that demons and monsters existed, of course, but never that they were in this world. In their world. Alcher swirled back around. “Well, then-- someone ought to put the poor thing down,” she suggested, standing from her chair, then, and stretching her fingers out before curling them back in. And it wasn’t the demon her eyes honed in on-- it was the nervous looking man, holding the demon as if it were a child. 

But as soon as she started to head over, the man had reeled back and punched the bouncer square in the jaw. Then two other men hopped up, leaping for him-- only to have a bottle smashed over one of their heads. And then, all hell seemed to break loose.

“I tried to but I was told that they didn’t want to end this with violence. Pussies,” Dot complained with a little eye roll. Sometimes violence was needed and this dude wouldn’t get the picture without a little violence. She let out a cackle as the other woman stood, she was sure this was about to be fun and she liked the way this lady was thinking. The bar fight broke out so quickly Dot felt like she had whiplash, but she didn’t stay down for long. She sprung up, bounding after the other woman. She landed a pretty nasty punch on someone who was coming at the other woman’s side. “I got you! You kill the thing and I’ll watch out,” She told Alcher with a giddy laugh.

Alcher’s eyes flicked to the girl before they refocused on the fight. Alcher did not often fight in human form, but she knew how to. She’d taught herself because she’d needed to. And it did come in handy, didn’t it? The younger girl knocked down a man heading to tackle Alcher, and she gave a grin. “I like your spirit,” she said, before leaping between the men who were trying to block the guy with the demon. He was yelling, shouting, his eyes frantic. “Your abomination only demands death,” she said, reaching through. Someone grabbed her arm and she twisted, punching him square in the jaw. “I’ve never been part of a bar fight before,” she admitted, grabbing a beer bottle. Hucked it at another guy heading towards her and watched it smash into his face. “I’m quite enjoying myself.”

“That is one sick line,” Dot laughed as she took in the other lady. The siren really did not get why this dude wanted to keep his weird demon thing alive, it would probably just grow up to eat him. Or sell his soul. The dude would deserve it and she would have been happy to let him have that death, but he just kept bringing it around here. “Bar fights are fun! Just try not to get stabbed! That happened once to me and man, it was not fun.” Dot was a frequent bar fighter, as long as it wasn’t where she worked. Then it was only sometimes. As she got closer to the man, someone stepped in front of her. Really, she knew this move wasn’t a great idea, but she had always wanted to kick someone straight in the chest. “This is Sparta!” She screeched as her foot hit chest. “Oh my god, it worked.”

Alcher grinned-- “Thank you”-- and smashed another bottle across a man’s head. He dropped to the ground like a lump and she stepped over him, finally alone with the cowering man and his demon child. She tilted her head unassumingly, her eyes empty and stern. “Hand it over nicely and I won’t hurt you,” she offered. It was a fair offer, to her. She didn’t want to hurt the man, even if his blood smelled delicious. Behind her, she heard the girl cry out and kick a man square in the chest. The loud crunch of his back hitting wood caused her to glance behind her, and the man took the chance to try and bolt. Alcher turned back to look at him, sticking her prosthetic leg out and hooking his ankle, tripping him. She watched as he face planted, still clinging to his abomination as if his own life depended on it. He begged her to stop, begged her to spare it. Alcher looked back at the younger girl. “Hold him down,” she instructed, “I’ll take care of the creature.”

As the guy went down, Dot watched with glee. The bar was chaos, the bouncers trying to break up the worst of the fights, the bartenders yelling at patrons. No one seemed to be paying too much attention to the two women, caught up with the bigger fights. She pounced on the man, pinning him down. He struggled against her, bucking around wildly, but she held on strong. She was used to prey trying to fight her off anyway. “All you had to do was keep it at home, idiot. Then none of this would be happening.” She looked over at Alcher, “Do it.”

Alcher waited as the other girl held the man down, tilting her head at him. She walked over slowly, in high contrast to the chaos flying around them, and bent down to his eye level. “She has a point, you know,” she said in a low tone, eyes glinting at him, “if you’d just kept it at home, none of this would have happened. I hope you remember this moment,” reached out and pried his arms off the demon easily, yanking it from his grip. She dropped it to the floor and raised her foot, “and remember that this is your fault,” then stomped down hard on the creature. It screeched, cried out, and she stomped her foot again. “There is no mercy in this world,” she told him, lifting her foot once the thing stopped squirming. She picked up the destroyed body, still oozing with what she assumed was blood-- set it in his arms. “Do not forget this.”

In a town like White Crest, Dot had expected to run across more of the merciless, they were far rarer than she had expected. So many people here were bound by some false sense of duty and honor, a sense that probably would have stopped them from killing this creature. As she watched Alcher stomp the demon to death, the siren smiled widely, almost manically,“Anyone ever tell you that you’re cool as fuck?” The fight had since broken up, as if the death of that bug was the finale. The bouncer was barking at them, something about fighting and getting out. Dot looked towards the other woman,“Wanna find another bar with me?”