PM to join An interesting meeting

[Agathon Minorium]

(the post above was somewhat irrelevant so i will not take it into account) Agathon run up the stairs and into his apartment. He quickly grabbed his angle knife from the table and run back down. It wasn't long before he was running back towards the direction he came from at the beginning. The only thing that was in his head was to get back there fast, hopefully before the bard and the woman get beaten up or even worse, killed! He skipped the few people that he saw on the street easily, making sure that he would not even miss one second. He didn't want to give up on them after his heroic entrance! Yes, he might have looked like a coward when he left but he would be absolutely useless without his angle knife. Not that he was some kind of expert with it, on the contrary, he barely knew how to use it, but if he sneaked up from behind them during the fight he would surely be able to hurt one of them pretty badly and then a two versus one would not be a problem. It only took him three minutes to get back to the scene. Things were just as he expected them. The woman was captured by Gad, who had placed a knife on her throat while the Bard and Bludo were throwing punches at each other. Who was winning was not obvious and did not matter. He quickly sneaked behind Bludo unnoticeable, since he was too focused on taking the bard out. Without a second though, he stabbed Bludo's leg and then pulled the knife back out. The big man let out a violent scream as blood flew out of his pierced leg. And as he fell down there was silence. Silence from everybody else of course, since Bludo was just letting out moans and groans as he was trying to stop the blood from flowing out of his leg. ''You better let...The girl go!'' he exclaimed as he threw Gad a threatening stare. ''If you don't...I'll kill you!he pointed the bloody knife towards Gad. Staying in this situation would be insane. Bludo would not be able to fight any more.''If you do, i promise...i won't hurt you.'' a few blood drops fell from the knife to the ground, as Agathon awaited for Gad's reply. He really hoped that he wouldn't have to kill anyone in the end. Things had gotten pretty bad.

[Xadel]

(Sorry for the delay in my posting. I appreciate everyone's patience. I've been bedded down with flu.) Everything moved so quickly. He had failed to break the monstrous mans arm, and it seemed he only had made the situation worse. His other attempt, however, had gone better than he hoped. The knife managed to hit its target and bed itself in the bandits shoulder. The one called Gad seemed rather upset by this fact. Perhaps he had not expected to face such a fight over some gold. The downfall of his knife landing though was that it gave the crook a weapon to use instead of dissuading him from attempting to work then over. He pushed through the pain and decided to try his hand at keeping the hostage. He pulled the woman from the brute Bludo's hands, freeing him up to engage Xadel better. On the upside it seemed that the former prize fighter was not used to fighting smaller and faster opponents. Xadel knew if he didn't stay alert and one of those massive fists managed to make contact that he was done for. He danced in and out of the larger mans reach, managing to land a few punches here and there that didn't seem to affect his opponent all that much. He debating pulling his ribbon daggers, but just as he was about to Bludo cried out in anguish and collapsed to the ground. Xadel had almost not noticed the thief return and this time with a weapon. He stuck the giants leg and reduced him to moaning and bleeding on the ground. The amount of blood made him wonder if he had struck the femoral artery. He made sure that the fighter wast a threat anymore before turning once again to the one trying to shake them down. E still had the woman but the tide had turned. Xadel stood with his hands raised and palms out. He debated summoning flame but he would only do so as a last resort. Instead he state down the attacker, much more serious now. "Looks like things have gone south for you. Let the girl go and you can walk away unharmed." He smiled a little, the adrenaline rushing trough his veins.

[Zenobia]

Zenobia had barely had time to think when suddenly she was grabbed from behind and felt the cold blade of the knife against her throat. One might have imagined that it would be hard to remain composed under the circumstances, but for some reason anything resembling fear had been halted by anger and a strong resentment of the situation. The way that the man had looked at her just before, quite unashamedly (though she could not deny that to some extent she might have been more than a little offended had nobody taken note) his reference to dangerous occupations, though she supposed it was true and fair, and his repeated calling her 'sweet' only sought to reinforce this resentment. She almost made a sarcastic comment, but managed to control herself bearing in mind the situation, about his wit. And now there was this reference to her 'wrapper'. "How very magnanimous of you Sir to be so considerate, bearing in mind the circumstances, but..." she was still breathing heavily after the frenzy of energy she had put into trying to release herself from Bludo, "When you say do not move, do you expect me to try not to breathe? Or is that a situation you are about to remedy?" She let out a cool laugh which didn't make it to any other feature on her face, "And do you ask me not to laugh? Though I doubt you expect that, for who could laugh at such a situation?" She hoped she was destabilising him slightly and, with the jubilant return of the blond youth stabbing the great thug in his tree trunk-like leg, this situation didn't seem to be turning out for the better for her assailant, unless another one of his friends came along, which she seriously doubted. Goodness - as the blood gushed out of Bludo's leg - she had not know that such a great big man could be capable of such a squealing sound. Why, one would think a pig being strangled made such a sound. Now, his inability to carry on with the confrontation was reason enough to be happy. On the other hand, she was not sure that the almost triumph of the vantha (with hair like that, she supposed he must be) and the blond were not a little misplaced and premature. She still had a knife to her throat. Turning ever so slightly, in order not to finish her days prey to her own fidgeting, she noticed in her peripheral vision that there was blood on the sleeve of her blouse. She smiled lightly before saying, in the direction of her aggression, "Excuse me. You're bleeding on me."

[Gad]

Gad really had no idea what was going on. A simple double extortion, and now this. Who the hell would think you could find not one, but two! Two good Samaritans, in Sunberth!? Absolutely unheard of. Then, there was The Woman. For a lady being held against her will and used as a bargaining chip, she was unsettling cool about the whole ordeal. Gad tumbled over the word in his head 'Magnanimous'!? Who says things like that? What does that even mean? He grumbled his gravelly growl in his throat again, but cleared it and spoke sweetly to the woman. "No, that motion I don't mind so much sweet. If luck swings, you'll be doing more of it, but your friends aren't helping your odds." Then there was that laugh. "Keep the yucks to a dull roar, sweet, chuckle the wrong way and you might bump into something sharp." He subtly brandished the knife to drive the point home. Gad wasn't really such a violent person, he definitely would've liked a more peaceful resolution, but it didn't seem to be in the cards. Oh well. he mused. What's that saying about desperate times and measures? The injured man did his best to breathe slow and calm. Huh, don't let 'em see how desperate you are Gad. Just as she drew attention to it, he could feel a sting in his arm from the cool biting winds the blew in off of Baroque Bay in the Winter.

He chuckled in her ear and his mouth was close enough to it now that she could surely feel his breath. "Well, my sweet, one day, if you're lucky, you'll look back and realize what a privilege it is for one such as myself to bleed on you. You'll tell the story to your children, gods forbid, about this day. You'll remember all the details, even hang on to the blood soaked clothes as a keepsake. People will come from miles around to hear you tell it, you'll be the envy of all of Mizahar." His tone had started off in the condescendingly sweet voice he had reserved for her, then mutated slowly until he was doing his best (which wasn't that great) impersonation of the woman's own officious manner of speech. "Ah yes, 'tis quite an honor to have The Great Gad bleed on you." The way he almost hissed the words they had a caustic ring to them, it was almost accusatory, and it held enough venom to kill twenty full grown Dahni. He took a swift breath and assumed his more typical speech style, full of bitter nonchalance. "And if you're not so lucky? Weeeellll, they'll walk by this alley and say 'Oi, look, it's where Gad killed that streetwalker.' Now quit your moaning, sweet. I'm no more happy about this than you."

Gad himself couldn't help but crack a wry weary grin, full of snark and anger. For the two gentlemen who suggested so kindly and fairly he let the nice lady go, Gad had but one response. "You two idiots can choke on it. Things have gone a lot farther South than you think, if all of a sudden I'm taking orders from some blonde haired punk and a... a... bard!" The lurid term was one of the few that was both an accurate designation, and a slur. And it was the only thing Gad could really think of at the time. " 'Sides, you don't have much to bargain with neither. Ya breathe funny, I'll bleed this broad worse than you did poor ol' Bludo over there. 'Cept she won't have time for all the moanin and cryin when I do it. Drop your blades, and kick 'em over to me. And then maybe, perhaps, I might possibly consider letting her go. Maybe. I don't know. I mean, you did stab me."

[Agathon Minorium]

Everything was getting too complicated. Agathon was exposing himself to people for a long period of time. The matter had to be resolved quickly. The man, Bludo, was losing too much blood and could die any moment and Gad did not look like he was gonna give away his hostage. Agathon and the bard could take him down for sure, but probably not without letting the woman get hurt. ''If that's how it is,fine.'' he threw his angle knife down, put his hand in his pockets and grabbed 26 silver mizas.''I'll give you the money if you let her go.'' he kicked the angle knife towards Gad. He was getting interested in that person. He didn't give up even after he was in such situation. He surely had guts, and guts were exactly what Agathon was looking for. I really don't want anyone else to get hurt...So can you just...Take the money and go? Agathon wanted to resolve this fight as soon as possible. He didn't want anyone to die and hopefully Gad would help Bludo as soon as everybody else left. He slowly took a few steps towards Gad. ''Just let the woman go.'' if something it continued like this and Gad survived, he would have a really not needed enemy in the city and he didn't walk to kill anyone. Apart from that he was a thief and now they had seen his face. It would be even worse if they would have a grudge against him.

[Xadel]

Now that the main and immediate threat of Bludo was gone, Xadel's brain was functioning at full capacity. At least it was functioning better than it had been a moment prior. He was still under the influence of a massive amount of adrenaline flowing through his veins. The fighters high that one received in situations such as the one he was in. He listened in as Gad spouted his venom at the woman. He spoke very highly of himself and it was obvious he was intent on self worship. But the more he talked the more he could sense the frailty in his voice, a dangerous thing in their situation. At any moment this guy much crack and actually kill the woman tht he intense to save. When he gave the ultimatum the bandit seemed to almost come unhinged. When the word bard was thrown like an insult he smiled mischievously. He allowed these to finish his rant and threat before speaking. "Oh I think there might be more than you bargained for behind this bard." He said before the boy next to him decided to say something. He had figured the boy didn't want to be there and was mostly kept now by guilt since his foolish attempt at pick pocketing had caused most of the mess. He threw some money at the man and told him to take it. Meanwhile Xadel looked to the woman's eyes to try and convey that he wouldn't let any harm come to her. His gaze would then lock on Gads eyes whose pupils he expected o be displayed with temporary madness from his situation. His own eyes would remain serenely calm. Taking on a fiery yellowish hue. "I suggest you take the boys offering and go Gad, otherwise you might get yourself burned." He would watch and wait and if he needed to he would use the taboo powers he had to save a life at the risk of his own.

[Zenobia]

Zenobia had to frown at the feeling of his breath tickling her ear, such a thing she usually found quite stimulating, but now it irritated her and she felt like she couldn't wipe it away. Then she had to try not to smile, but his arrogance amused her for she knew he was not worth it and, probably quite contrary to his intentions, it made him appear deluded rather than all-powerful. She didn't say anything about it though - she felt that it was probably best not to antagonise him too much, though she might have had fun with it. It was then, though, for the first time that she felt taken over by a sense of real and genuine fear, something quite unusual to her. Her father had always reminded his daughter, almost as a joke, "Don't get scared, get angry." to which her mother, proud eypharian that she was and not wholly understanding the joking side of it, would usually add, "Don't get angry, get even." Now, though, Zenobia was filled by a sudden feeling of dread. She felt sure that the amount of blood the man was losing would cause him to let go of her, or at least loosen his grip, but this was not exactly happening. And it was getting colder, and she hadn't thought she would be out for this long standing still, so she hadn't put on enough layers. The wind blew in her face, so that her hair flew wildly around it and almost got tangled in the knife. Zenobia started shivering and bit her lip, clenching her fists, to try and hide it. The Vantha was looking at her. She met his eyes, strange eyes, smiled lightly then looked away. "You wouldn't gain anything from harming me, or killing me." she said finally, softly.

[Gad]

Gad cocked his head and spit when the blonde guy pulled out the coins, insulted by the very notion. "You think I want your charity? Don't patronize me, you bastard." Gad's accent wrapped about each word as he said them we a special kind of emphasis. "I won't have it. Why are you two even here!? What could possibly be so valuable about this one, what's worth risking your neck like that? This escalated because Red decided to be an hero and chop my arm all up with his knife throwing and what not. Who throws knives even!? You couldn't maybe have warned me, said 'Hey petch off or I'll throw a knife at you?' No? Just go straight for the knife throw huh?" Gad grimaced as his vision blurred and he became more aware of the ice cold crimson finding it's way down his arm. "Tried to do things the easy way but he chose to get violent. That's on him, not me.'' 'Personal responsibility' never found it's way into Gad's vocabulary.

Gad swallowed hard as a chilling gust barreled down the alley. Like the woman, he was not dressed for the weather. He'd come to Sunberth with a few Mizas and the clothes on his back, but neither had been able to do much for him. Relatively, there seemed to be an abundance in Sunberth, while in Hai he'd had to survive on scraps. So, it stood to reason, at least in his mind, that there would be little in his way to thriving in Sunberth. Things didn't go half as well as he planned, and he had nothing to blame but his foolhardy delusions. And now, he could thank that same rashness for making him a rat in corner. He felt disgusted, but he couldn't back down at this point. The frosty breezes brought him back to the present as they scrapped across his gash and sent arcs of pain sliding down the nerve endings from his bottom rib to the tips of his fingers. The pain was bitter and sobering.

He loosened his grip on the woman and spoke in Benshira where only she could hear "Look, I don't want to hurt you. But I don't wanna let you go just for them to knife me in the back either. I'm gonna let go of you, but the knife stays on your throat, and don't think it'll be a problem to bleed you with one arm, cause it won't sweet." The last word he said at the same volume but he uttered in Common. Gad did as he said, letting his hand slack by his side for a moment while pressing the commandeered blade close to the woman's neck as he could without cutting her. Hopefully she wouldn't put up much of a fight, she hadn't so far and her meek response made him feel like he was still in control of the situation, or at least one variable. The wounded wizard wannabe walked backwards with the knife still close to her neck. His fingertips were numb from the frigid air, but he fought through it, and the burning in his arm, and began to trace against the side of his leg. On his bottoms he outlined, in cooling blood as best he could, the familiar shapes of a ring comprised of sixteen smaller circles. He ground his teeth together and the tension in his temples built up as he focused on everything but the pain, or tried to, and went about his plans. Played a bad hand bad. Gotta even up the odds somehow.

Just as the chill was cooling his blood, the ruddy bard boiled it again. "'You suggest I take his offering and go, otherwise I might get myself burned?' What're you, a wizard? Yeah, yeah I'll do that, yah fool. You're a wet log on a cool day in a damp cave, pal, and you think you can burn The Great Gad? Pfft yeah, that knife trick was cute bard, but what will you do now? Sing at me? Ha. Aha. AHAHAHAHA!....ah, thanks, I needed that. No, I'll tell you what's going to happen. Since you want to go and do a thing like ruin a hard working entrepreneur clothes' with your dirty knife-throwing problem, you'll give me yours. Your clothes. Go on." Gad was stone cold in his expression. "Think I'm kidding!? Now, everything but your underclothes. Start with your shoes." Gad brandished the knife to remind the bard of what was at stake. He's the one that put his skin in game.

[Agathon Minorium]

Sweat run on his forehead and he felt like it immidiatly turned into ice. As the adrenaline rush was slowly vanishing, he started getting cold and feel the exhaustion from all the running. He closed his eyes for a second, as he realized his mistake for getting involved in such a situation. Why did he do it anyway? He didn't know the woman, he shouldn't care, but he just couldn't deal with the idea that he would leave the others die in the streets. He hated this city and its ways, it was impossible not to turn back. Now, as he closed his eyes he tried to compehend the outcome of what he initially thought would be a fast, harmless encounter. Bludo on the ground, letting out painful cries, Gad with a stab on his arm, with the woman as a hostage, the bard with bruises all over his body and Agathon ready to collapse from exhaustion. He hadn't yet completely realized what he had done to Bludo. He could actually be dying any moment from blood loss. He opened his eyes again as Gad was giving another lecture about how tough he was. Agathon could barely understand him, as his heart was beating so fast he thought it was about to explode. He didn't want to be here. He just wanted to disappear, but then who knew how things might end up. The bard and Gad may kill each other, taking the woman with them. He had to wait until everything had resolved, but he wasn't planning to do any speaking. If he had to fight, he would. He took a few steps back and kneeled down on the ground to catch a few breaths. He then stood up and watched from a small distance hoping that the bard and Gad wouldn't engage in a fight. The less involved he got from now on, the better.

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[Xadel]

Xadel could see that the situation was slowly degrading into chaos. Had had gone from over confident swindler to crazed assailant in the matter of a few minutes. Hit was obvious that the bandit was becoming desperate and desperate men performed desperate acts. The situation debt bode well for the woman he was holding. He could see though that his hold on her was weakening, most likely due to the fact that he was losing a good bit of blood. Speaking of blood the longer this took the worse things were looking or Bludo. Xadel feared that the boy might have hit femoral artery and that the boxer was done for already. He scanned the area to try and gauge just where everyone stood. The mos evident thing was that the cold was getting to them all. He hadn't even thought about it but the temperature had only gone down since the encounter started and much longer some of hem might start going hypothermic. He was the only one among them without a sign of chill, in fact he was rather comfortable still even in his somewhat lack of clothing. He had spent much of his life in the frosts of Avanthal and the cold didnt bither him. He knew be needed to diffuse the situation quickly though. He looked Gad directly in the eyes and his own became stone grey. "I'll tell you what, I am willing to give you the shirt off my back. You can use it to staunch that wound which is no doubt starting to sap away your strength, especially in this cold. I will also allow you to leave here in peace so long as you leave the woman. I can tell that you are no fool and you are more concerned for your life than any other. You can do as you threaten and kill your hostage, but then your an open target. You lose your bargaining chip and you are a dead man. Two against one is more than enough odd in our favor. Add to that the fact that you've been bleeding this whole time and I doubt you have much use left in your arm and that puts you at an even further disadvantage. If you're smart you will take my deal, I you don't then I will take pleasure in avenging the life of a young woman killed for no reason. You on the other had woul just be another dead cutthroat in the streets of Sunberth." He stared the man down, not betraying a hint of his confidence or showing at all that he was truly afraid that this might end in bloodshed.