Issue 1 Downtime

The bar was pretty shady indeed. The people? Even shadier. The Fiddler's Green was your typical go-to for thugs. As Anika, ever the gentlewoman, held the door open for Nina, everyone's head turned, looking at the newcomers. It seemed like this must have been a habit of theirs. What was with these guys? "Ladies first." She said to Nina.

"Ooo!" Nina says as she steps inside. She looks around with wide-eyed wonder, "Street toughs. Neat!"

"You have a preference on drinks?" Anika asked Nina, stepping inside as well and giving a wave to the bartender.

"I usually order drinks based on colors. Or interesting names," Nina says. "But I'll try anything once."

She let out a chuckle. "Well I doubt they have anything colorful here besides maybe their water, but they've got a few named drinks. Find us a seat and I'll get the drinks."

"Alright," Nina says happily. She heads off to find a table to sit at. If she's bothered by the rough looking patrons, she doesn't show it. Rather, she seems endlessly fascinated by them.

Anika slips back up to the table after ordering a few drinks. In her left arm are two mugs with beer, and in her hands are two shots. "You said you like stuff with interesting names, so I hope this beer will work. It's called Santa’s Butt Porter. Shouldn't be too bad." She says, setting the shots down and slipping one of the beers over to Nina. "The shots are just whiskey."

NIna giggle and then snorts rather adorably, "That's hilarious. Such a silly name. 'Whiskey'."

Anika chuckles. "Your laugh is cute. Contagious, actually. You're a pretty free spirit and all that."

"Awww. You're a sweetheart," Nina says. She lifts the shot in a toast to Anika. "Cheers."

She downs the shot and makes a face, "Burny."

"Cheers, love." Anika downs her own shot and smirks at Nina's remark. The others in the bar were probably watching them take the shots and snickering at her reaction as well. "It'll get better as the night goes on. First one's always the worst." She takes a swig of her beer, eying the patrons as if trying to pick one out in particular. It was probably pretty obvious to Nina.

"What are you looking for?" NIna asks. She glances around the room.

"Trying to figure out who's the hard ass here. Usually there's a big dude who seems like he basically runs the place, scares the shit out of the small ones. You know what I mean?"

"Yes. It is a simple social hierarchy," Nina says. "It was common in prison. People tend to aggregate around the powerful for protection."

"So you've been to prison?" Anika asked curiously.

"Yes. It was an interesting experience," Nina says.

"What were you in for? Come on, spill the details. I love a good story."

"It was an undercover assignment," Nina says. "I was working for SHIELD. They arranged for a small group of agents to be captured by AIM. They're these sort of terrorist guys. Nice guys. A little dorky and murdery, but not all that bad. Mostly."

She sips her beer, "Anyway. They held us in a prison for awhile on their island. We were there to gather intel and stuff, but it was mostly just being stuck in a regular ol' prison for a couple of months. With the occasional torture break to break up the monotony."

"Oh, well that doesn't sound bad at all," she said with a chuckle. "How did you end up getting out? Someone come bust you out?"

"No," Nina says. She stares at her beer for a second. She starts to say something and then stops. "...I'd rather not tell that story right now. It's not a fun one."

Nina forces a cheerful smile, "And this is a fun night, right?"

Anika gives a nod and takes the hint, dropping the subject. She didn't like it when Nina wasn't smiling. "Oh, love, it's only going to get better." As they spoke, the atypical hard ass stepped in the door, moving over to 'his' table. The bartender was already ready with his beer, taking the time to step out from behind the bar to give it to him before slinking back to his post.

"Bloody hells, he's a bit bigger than I'm used to." Anika murmured to herself, then couldn't help but laugh at the innuendo.

"He is pretty big," Nina says. "Are you sure you can take him?"

"Not sure, to be honest. But, this isn't about fighting just yet. Arm wrestling." She elaborates, with a certain look in her eye that says she's up to something. "I do it all the time. Still have yet to lose, actually."

"That's amazing," Nina says. "I've never really arm wrestled before. Is it fun?"

"I think it's fun, yeah. Bit of a thrill. Not as much of an adrenaline rush as you'd think, but still."

"You must be pretty strong if you've never lost," Nina says.

Anika just smirks. "What can I say, I work out." There was obviously something more to it, but she didn't bring it to light. Not just yet. "Considering how big he is, my odds are a bit out of my favor, but we'll see what happens. Never say never, right?"

"Exactly!" Nina says. "Or 'impossible'. Or 'against the laws of man and god'."

"Mhm." Taking a rather large swig from her drink, she drums her fingernails on the table for a few moments. "So there's a few ways to go about this. I'll let you chose. Four different ways, some more fun than others. We'll do this by chance, because I think it's fun. Pick a number between one and four."

"Four," Nina says. "It's my favorite."

"Any reason?"

"It's the first composite number," Nina says. "And it's the only number in the English language with the same number of characters as the number itself."

"Suppose that's as good a reason as any," she said with a chuckle. "Alright, fourth scenario..." Anika seemed to be working it all out in her head, watching the guy. "Just waiting for the perfect moment," she explained.

Nina leans forward in her chair. She looks wide-eyed and excited about the whole thing.

After a few moments, it seems the man finishes his drink, looking expectantly to the bartender. The bartender immediately obliges, hurrying over to give the brute another beer, then quickly going back to his spot. Anika stands and gives Nina a wink as she slowly makes her way towards the bar. For some reason, she seems to walk with a bit of a drunken sway, though Nina would know Anika wasn't the least bit intoxicated.

Nina watches, stifling a set of giggles by putting her hand over her mouth.

Just as the man was taking a rather large swig from his mug, Anika 'accidentally' bumps into him, causing the full beverage it to spill all over his lap. Judging by his extremely colorful choice of words, he was probably sufficiently upset. Anika coughed, swaying a bit. "Oh, sorry mate. Wasn't paying attention." The guy looked furious, jumping up and getting in Anika's face. "OI! Ye got a problem?" He had an Irish accent. This made things even more fun! "Huh? Me? Goodness, no. I feel perfectly fine. Positively wonderful, actually. Why, do you? I mean, besides the whole beer-soaked pants now. That's really got to suck." She answered, giving a subtle smirk over to Nina.

Nina giggles. She is not very good at hiding how much she is enjoying all of this.

The fact Nina is entertained seems to push Anika more. Most of the patrons are watching the interaction, but some seem to try to keep to themselves considering how pissed off the guy looks. "Ye tryin to get yer face smashed in, ye gobshyte?" His face was all shades of red. Anika pushed juuuust a bit further. "Of course not. If I wanted that, I'd just have poured a drink over you myself rather than make you do it. You're probably upset. That's understandable. Wet knickers are a bitch, let me tell you," she said, finishing off the small bit of beer in her bottle.

The Irishman was fuming, looking to snap at any moment. "That being said," she continued, "I propose a way to clear this all up. Like the civilized shitters we are, hm? You fancy a contest of sorts?" He gave her a look that said he really wasn't, but there was a bit of a curiosity there that made her smile and continue. "Oh no, no. I know for a fact I can't drink you under the table. Don't even begin to think that one. I was thinking more along the lines of some good old fashioned arm wrestling."

He laughed in her face, looking her over. "This'll be easy. Ye really gonna just throw it to me jes like that?" Anika smiled. "Sure. You win, I buy your drinks for the rest of the night and do you the favor of drying your pants. Sweet of me, I know. But I feel so bad about it. And if I win, you pay for our drinks," she said, motioning to Nina and herself, "and a round for the whole bar. Simple as that. I'm sure bets could be placed by others too..." she said, looking around at the patrons. They seemed interested, considering none of them believed Anika could win. It was easy money, right? It was highly likely Nina knew Anika had a trick up her sleeve, especially if she had never lost before. But the patrons didn't know that...

Nina laughs. It's a mad little musical sound. "And I'll double the money, no. Wait." Nina ticks off her fingers. She looks thoughtful. "Triple the money of anyone who bets against my friend if she loses."

She reaches into a pocket in her dress and takes out a large roll of bills. Apparently Nina likes to walk around carrying large sums of cash for no reason.