<--{The Usual/

[Arabella]

Night had fallen over Luna Del Maru, more importantly the Crooked Cat. This was the place of all scumbags... or so most people looked at them anyways, and it was true. Most of the men that filled this place at night were just that, scumbags. Some people would know this all too well if the hung around her a lot. Many faces would be familiar, as many of the same people visited at night time. Most people would be afraid to visit this place at night. Well, who wouldn't be if you weren't ready to be surrounded by a bunch of big, scary men, many who were pirate men. It would be especially more frighting for a woman to be there late at night, not many, if any at all dared go there at night.

All except one that is. The men tonight crowded around one brave soul, a brave female soul to boot who had dared to enter. But she wasn't scared, and you could tell she wasn't scared if you looked deep in to her bright blue eyes. It seemed this was something she was used to. She was used to these kind of men it seemed, and she knew she could use it to her advantage, as always. She smiled sweetly. It was all too perfect, the way she could draw people in and get what she wanted and needed. She pushed some of her long blonde hair back as a man approached her, and got close.

"Come on sweetheart, tell me more about yourself."

The way she always lured people in was priceless. She giggled, all men here were the same. They always wanted to get to know her more, but she would keep leading them on and on and on, and leave without them knowing a single thing, and reaped all the benefits. This was also the only place she had been to where she hadn't found herself in a more then sticky situation, and the planned to keep it that way. So, she continued to smile sweetly, and she leaned against him slightly, looking up at him.

"I'll tell you more about myself, if you get me a drink"

The man did not hesitate to get her some more rum, and she giggled insanely. Bagged him for a drink, how wonderful! She didn't even need to try for money tonight, it was all drinks. She could get drunk and it wouldn't matter...mostly. She waited patiently, and when he came back with her rum, she gave him a kiss on the cheek. Oh, how the girl could act. It's one of the things she did well. She giggled more and drank some of the rum she was given. Once she was gone with drinking some she looked at the man, who was giving her a look like she should say more about her. She was about to lead him on, but she looked over and saw some people that knew who she was...and that meant trouble. She put the drink down, and looked at the man with a fake sad gaze.

"Gee, i'd love to stay, but it's late, a girl like me best be on my way before I run in to some real trouble. Maybe i'll catch you later."

She winked, and stood up. She grabbed her swords, and headed towards the exit. The man called after her, and she payed no attention. She kept her gaze on the two men that knew her. She had gotten some money and rum from them before, and they had caught on to her at another bar elsewhere. It turned in to her kicking their ass and running off. She did not need any drama here, not tonight. She needed to get out of there, now. Oh no, did one of them see her? He was turning her direction. No, no, no, this was not happening. She loved the fight, she hated having to run and get the hell out of there before someone else came after her. She wasn't even paying attention to where she was going actually. For all we know she could have ran in to somebody, but worse, she was pretty sure she was drawing attention to herself. But she kept on going and bumping in to people, and she didn't notice.

[Sydrael]

The door to the Crooked Cat opened and a young blond man walked in. He was used to going into pubs of all sorts. There were many pubs that he had been to, and the Crooked Cat probably had the best rum out of all of them, and the most interesting happenings. He had seen many before, and was up for something interesting happening on this night as well. He hadn't been up to very much lately and now he wanted to go ahead and see if the night was going to bring out the worst in the Crooked Cat, as it usually did. That was always the most fun part of the night, when people started fighting, somebody always lost, and it was always an interesting fight.

He sighed as he looked around, it didn't look like anything was going to go on tonight. What a disappointment. Well... at least the rum was good, and it was cheap too. He sighed as he began to walk forward, reaching up to scratch the back of his head as he yawned slightly, his eyes closing as he did. There was usually nobody in the way, but today he wasn't paying attention, and it would not turn out the way he had planned. Of course, there were other people in the bar, but most of them knew not to mess with him. He had proved that before.

However this time, he wasn't expecting anything to happen. As he walked another person was heading straight toward him. In the end, the ended up colliding head on, Sydrael fell backward and the other person fell on top of him. Sydrael blinked, looking up at the person as people turned and stared at them. He had seen this girl at the pub before, and recognized her as somebody who was quite intelligent in the way she acted and used her abilities to her advantage.

He smiled up at her slightly and let out a laugh "Sorry, I guess neither of us was watching where we were going" He couldn't do anything until she got up off of him, and it seemed like the entire pub was now staring at them, a couple of pirates had raised eyebrows, seemingly curious about what was going on between the two of them who were on the floor, when really it was nothing. Nothing other than the two of them having collided while they weren't paying attention. That and one was moving faster then the other and so they both fell the same way.

[Arabella]

Once Arabella had collided with someone head on, it was only then she focused back on what was before her. She didn't even realize at first she was falling on to someone, and really she thought she was loosing her mind. It wasn't until she had landed on top of someone it clicked in her mind what had happened. She looked at the person she ended up falling on top of, and didn't move for a second. He seemed familiar... but from where she didn't know. She titled her head slightly, trying to remember. Eventually she gave up and decided she didn't even remember where half the people she remembered came from anyways. Once she came to this conclusion, a scowl appeared on her face. Not necessarily because she was mad at him, she was just mad she drew attention to herself.

Quickly she got off of him, and backed up a bit. She was seated on her knees, and she was going to fix her bandanna that covered quite a bit of her blonde hair. She wiped herself off quickly. She gazed around for a moment, seeing if any one of the two guys are at either her left or right sides. Nope, just some scumbags who were whistling and poking fun at the situation. That would usually bother her, but right now she didn't really give a crap. She had bigger, more important things to worry about. She was in a hurry to leave, but she really didn't want to seem too bitchy, though she was certainly in a bitchy mood. Instead, she gave a sweet smile, and nodded a bit.

"Don't apologize, as you said we both weren't paying attention."

She then stood up, as she wasn't going to even wait for the help the girl up offer, she was not the girl to sit and wait for the offer to be helped up. Once more she wiped herself off, and made sure she didn't loose anything, especially the money she'd gotten earlier at another pub. She looked around, and saw the guys now making their way over. Oh great, she didn't need this, she really didn't need this. Was everything she worked for...well, sort of worked for going to turn around and bite her in the ass? She was going to panic, and decided no. She could get her way out of any problem, either by her pull on people or by force if need be. She turned to Sydrael and smiled, holding her hand out.

"Need a hand up?"

She tilted her head slightly, and gave yet another sweet smile. This time she wasn't acting this nice to reap the benefits, this time she was actually being nice for no reason. Her being nice for no reason didn't happen often as she usually was only nice without reason towards people she really cared about... and Arabella really had no one she really gave a crap about to any certain degree, not even her estranged father and cousin, which was the sad reality. But that didn't matter at this point, what mattered was she was standing there, offering to help a guy up just to be nice, which only happened once in a blue moon, with two men that meant trouble for her heading in her direction. This defiantly not very Arabella like.

[Sydrael]

Sydrael looked up at her as she got off of him and sat down on her knees. He sat up quickly and took a look around the pub again, letting out a small sigh as he noticed exactly what she had, many of the people inside the pub were making fun of the situation, and thought that something else was going on, other than what had really happened. Of course, all of those men were drunk and really probably just wanted Arabella to themselves. Many of them were most likely jealous of the young man who had just been toppled by the good looking pirate, and it was pretty obvious from the noisy conversations going around throughout the pub, most of them had to do with what had just happened.

Sydrael watched her as she wiped herself off and then stood up before he himself had even thought about trying to stand up. He noticed that she wiped herself off again, and was curious as to why she would have to do it twice, but it didn't really bother him at all. He noticed that there was some money she had dropped on the floor and hadn't picked up. He accepted her offer of help and her hand as well and pulled himself up with her help, even if he didn't need it. Sydrael brushed himself off and then bent down and picked up some of the money he had noticed her drop, since he knew it wasn't his, and handed it to her.

"Here you go, you dropped this, I figure you may need it, then again maybe not... who knows." Sydrael had never had a way with words, and it was showing now. He saw her look around them and noticed the two men who were coming toward them. His right eyebrow slowly rose as he looked around the room, seeing them start to walk toward them at a quickening pace. "Friends of yours I assume?" He slowly loosened the hook that was up his sleeve, it was a helpful little trick to have a weapon up your sleeve, just in case you ever needed it. He wasn't sure if he would even need it, but if he did he would feel free to use it.

The men were now starting to push other people out of the way to get to the two people who had just collided, and Sydrael wasn't sure he wanted to take any chances with starting a full on fight in the Crooked Cat. He had seen it happen before, and the outcome was never pretty. He took a step closer to Arabella so that he could whisper to her. "If you're going to have to fight... make sure you take it outside... you don't want to start a fight here, no way... you'll have the whole bar after you if you do that."

[Arabella]

Arabella merely tilted her head a bit. Oh, she knew all about the fights here. After all, she was Ara, she lived for this kind of thing. It never always went her way, but she could always make it turn out in her favor somehow. She looked at Sydrael and a smirk formed on her lips. She grabbed her own sword and gripped on to it. She continued to smirk as the men pushed closer, and she knew it was because they were mad she took what they were willing to give her, it's not her fault they were gullible. But if she knew the men like she knew most of the men here she could use her persuasion and avoid conflict, she once more made eye contact with Sydrael.

"Oh, I know. But really, that wouldn't be a problem. I am quite the escape artist. Besides I doubt anything will happen. Most men are pigs, and luckily I am good at figuring how to play a pig."

She watched as they were practically in front of her. They glared down at the girl, and she merely gave them a warm smile. They about ready to get in to her face, they wanted what she took and she knew it, and she knew from these two she had taken quite a bit of money. As they were about to speak, Arabella raised her right hand up to stop them. They went silent, and Arabella brought her hand back down. She extended her index finger and brought it to her lips. Not a word was spoken at that point. She chuckled a bit. So far so good. She knew they wouldn't harm her, not unless she played nice and played innocent...for the most part. She got a fake sad look in her eyes.

"Now I know what I did was wrong, taking that money from you. Luckily I saved it in a pouch, for later. Here, have it back, as long as you leave me alone."

She tossed the back to the men, and the taller of the two caught it. They accepted it, although not without suspicion. They gave her a look of suspicion, but she kept up the guilty act, it worked. The men turned and shuffled away. She smirked, then turned to Sydrael. She seemed overly proud of herself. You'd think for giving away 'money' that she would be pissed, no, not Arabella. She was smarter then that, she was more clever then that. She started walking past Sydrael, and glanced back at him quickly, still smirking, her smirk almost as wide as the moon.

"I think I should take my leave before they found out I didn't exactly give them what they were looking for."

She nodded and turned her back to him, and headed for the exit. She didn't even want to see the reaction on their faces when they realized that they were given Arabella's secret seashell collection. An odd hobby, but hell it got her out of this kind of trouble before. She was waiting to hear the screams, the men running after her, the fighting, the winning. Same routine. Well, she didn't always win, just a lot of the time. She heard the men playing with the pouch, and she knew that they were getting ready to order something with it. She really hoped they took seashells as a form of currency, not for her sake but for the sake of the two men. And that's when she heard it, the clanking of the shells on the table. Again, all went silent. Arabella knew then, she better get the hell out of there and fast.

[Sydrael]

Sydrael rose an eyebrow at her, extremely curious as to how she was going to play this to her advantage. She apparently knew the game just as well as any other player, and would certainly be able to get out of this situation easily. He knew she had a plan and took a step back from her, in the direction of the door as she got ready to do whatever it was she was going to do. He blinked as he watched her toss money to the two of them without any kind of flinch, or even any kind of regrets. She simply gave them exactly what they wanted, and that was a surprise. He had never seen her give anybody what they wanted, and he had seen her at a few pubs before, and she had never once given anybody what they wanted.

As she turned around and smirked toward him he realized that there was no way she had given them money. He figured out that she had probably given them something that was not in any kind of high demand but he couldn't think of anything she would be willing to simply give away right then. As she told him that she wasn't giving them what they wanted he realized that he would probably be blamed for it as well, and had to let out an audible sigh. He never thought he would get caught up in a situation like this, especially not in such a simple way. He hadn't been paying attention, and if he knew pirates now he was going to be just as in trouble as she was.

Pirates didn't like to be fooled, especially by women, so if the woman got away they would blame the next man they could, and Sydrael had been closest to the action. He sighed and turned away from the bar as well, following after Arabella so that he would be able to get out of there just as she would. He didn't want to make any kind of scene so for now he would just play along and get out of there. Maybe he'd see her again, maybe not. What had happened was done, and the two of them needed to get out of there. She was an escape artist, Sydrael was merely a mercenary and he couldn't escape as well as she could, so he had to use other methods.

He heard the seashells clang down on the bar and turned around to see just what she had put in the bag. He saw what had been poured out and couldn't help laughing, he caught up to her and whispered to her again. "Well, seems like they figured out your devious plan... you better get out of here... I'll go ahead and make sure they don't get out the door, give you some extra time... they'll come after me anyway." He paused, he wasn't usually one to sacrifice himself, but he had sized up this group and he would probably be able to take most of them without having to kill any of them. He hoped he was right, and he was pretty sure he was.

[Arabella]

Arabella froze and turned back when she heard the men slam the table, seashells flying off the table. She sighed, why bother running now? And hey, who did this gut thing he was anyways? Did he not think she was capable of defending herself from guys like these? She turned towards the men who were furious beyond belief. She walked up next to Sydrael as she grabbed one of her swords, and placed her other hand on Sydrael's shoulder for a moment. She looked up at him, her sky blue eyes were now filled with a sort of anger, she felt she had been challenged in her eyes. She could run without the help, and she could defiantly defend herself without help. She was going to prove it, if she hadn't proven it elsewhere already.

"No way pretty boy, you just gave me a challenge. I don't let men help me out of my problems, and I rarely let them help me with my problems. What makes you any different? You watch and see."

She chuckled, and let her hand slide off his shoulder slowly. She waited for the men to come storming, patiently, fearlessly. That's right, she was fearless, Ara was never afraid...okay, she was afraid of certain things, but this was not one of them. She saw the fury in their eyes, which where matched with merely her look of amusement. She gripped her swords tighter, as she heard them taunting her name. Ara, Ara, Ara, Ara. It was repeating over and over and over and over. She continued to smile, but it seemed they also had their eyes on the man behind her, the one that had been helping her out...sort of. She turned slowly and looked at him. She was still showing no fear, and a smile hid whatever other emotion she could possibly be feeling.

"You might want to get out of here yourself. They have their eyes on you too, wouldn't want to see such a good looking man being picked on because of me."

She continued to smile at him, this was the first time she was being this nice and pleasant, and even a bit flirtatious with out it being towards men to get what she wanted in a very long time. But even then, she still viewed all men as scum. Her father was scum, her cousin was scum, every man in this pub was scum, and the men that were coming towards her were scum. As they came closer, she took slow steps forward. She never backed down from challenges, and she wasn't going to start now. Without knowing it, he had challenged her skills of taking care of her own problems. She once more glanced back at him as she moved her sword closer to her. It might not turn out that bad, but still.

"You really should get out of here. I suggest you do so."

Before she could say more, they were right in front of her, prepared to fight. And so was she. They growled, and she smiled. They told her, the threatened her actually, that it would be her last time doing what she did, that she wouldn't make it out of the pub in once piece. She laughed, and laughed hard. Well, if she was going to be leaving in more then one piece then at least she'd go down doing what she was used to doing. She waited for them to stop the the threats and make the move. She was more inclined to do this alone now, they were secretly pissing her off. She looked back at Sydrael one more time quickly.

"Last chance."

[Sydrael]

Sydrael watched as the girl had stopped dead in her tracks. He knew he had struck a nerve, and he had seen it happen before with her. He was curious to see just what she could do, but he also had meant it, he would have held the door closed if she had let him. He certainly wasn't afraid, and there were plenty of reasons he acted the way he did. He was definitely not the kind of person to go back on his word, and whether she wanted him to help or not, he was going to help her... in one way or another. Even if it meant simply punching one person in the face, or if it meant fighting quite a few people, he didn't care. He had told her he would help, and she couldn't stop him from that. If she had been a man or a woman, he might have helped them either way, and he had chosen his path.

"Woah woah woah now... pretty boy hmmm?" He paused, looking at her curiously, almost laughing now. "Whether you let me help or not I'm going to help... and that's a promise." he wasn't joking around either. He shook his head for a moment and then again began to loosen up the hook that he always kept hidden. If he could he would avoid using his curse, even though there were no downsides that he knew of, he hated when people saw him like that. Most of them stared at him and then walked off, whether they had been planning on fighting him before or not, so many of them backed off that he simply got bored of it.

He continued to watch the situation. He had made up his mind, but he made no movement to show which way he had decided. If you didn't know anybody you might even think he was still trying to decide exactly what he wanted to do. He watched as the two men made their way toward the two people who were now standing alone. A couple of the other men in the bar were standing up, looking like they too wanted a piece of the action. If that's what they wanted then they could have it. He saw that the two men were now right in front of them, and things were about to get started. As Arabella turned to him one last time to tell him it was his last chance he just smirked at her, not saying a word.

A loud cry could be heard as one man began bounding across the tables toward all of them. He clearly wanted to fight and he had been waiting all night for some reason to punch somebody. Sydrael had seen it coming and in the blink of an eye he threw his right arm out, the hook flying out and smacking the charging pirate in the forehead. It would have stopped him in his tracks, but his momentum kept him sprawling forward toward them. Sydrael moved slightly and put out his arm, catching him at the last second and putting him down. "Well, I'll leave the rest of them to you then miss." He grinned at her and took a step back, wondering what would transpire.

[Arabella]

Arabella raised an eyebrow at Sydrael. That was surprising, to say the least. She had been too busy watching the scene between him and the other man unfold, she didn't realize that one of the men was coming up behind her. But it was alright, she realized fast enough. She didn't need her weapons to win this time. She just turned, and punched him right across the face. That was enough to stun the man. But he had the look in his eyes, of how dare a woman punch him. Arabella merely smiled in a cocky like way, and moved forward a bit. She leaned down, and looked up at the man. She laughed and batted her eyelashes a bit. She was just adding salt to the wound.

"Awww, did a poor, defenseless girl ruin that scruffy face of yours?"

The man growled, and came at her again, he was not out for a weapon fight, but a fist fight. Now that was something she could do with no problem, as this was something she was always best in. The man went for the attack, but Arabella was better then that. She was short, and fast. She used this to her advantage, she ducked down and let the funny part happen. The other guy was coming for the other side, and they ended up hitting each other. Much to Arabella's amusement, who laughed insanely. Both of them growled, how could they have been so stupid? One of them men decided he didn't want to risk looking like a fool again, so he stood back. The other man again came at her, and it turned in to an all out fist fight.

But before much fighting could really be done, she knocked him to the ground, and pinned him. He struggled under her, which was amusing to see. He was a strong, buff man, and he was pinned to the ground by a small female scavenger. She leaned forward, making sure she kept his hands held firmly by her own. Her face was right next to his, her breath right on his ear. He growled and snarled at her, but she merely giggled. This was just child's play to her, and wished the men would realize this. She had only be beaten a handful of times in her life, and she wasn't going to make this night added to her handful. She watched him squirm close up, and she whispered slowly in his ear.

"I could humiliate you more, but I won't. So i'm going to let you go, and I suggest you and your friend to get some drinks and forget this ever happened."

Arabella let his arms go, and got up. The man got up, and motioned to his friend. The two of them glared at her as the slowly retreated. They knew she would continue to fight if they tried to fight her, and they didn't want to risk being beat by a girl and looking like idiots. Arabella lit up like a bright star, she felt proud of herself. She turned back to Sydrael, and her smile had turned to a triumphant grin. She laughed a bit as well. She was very proud of herself, and she grinned to show him that she was proud of herself. She bent down and grabbed the sword she dropped, but stood back up and continued looking at him before speaking.

"Well, as you can tell I am more of one to beat someone with my own hands, but luckily I pinned him to the ground before we really fought. But now if you'll excuse me, I really should leave. Maybe i'll see you around sometime pretty boy."

[Sydrael]

Sydrael watched in amusement, this would actually be interesting. He had stopped the whole bar from erupting into an all out war, and now he would get to see this girl beat up two men in some kind of fight. It couldn't get much better then that, well, unless there were 10 or so men, then that would definitely be a sight to see. He shrugged and took another step back, deciding he would let the fight go however it was going to go. He definitely wanted Arabella to win, these pirates certainly needed to be whipped into shape, in fact, quite a few pirates did. They all seemed to be full of themselves and think that they could never lose a battle, no matter what. They never seemed to understand that there would always be somebody better then them to beat them.

He watched as the fight began and Arabella almost instantly had the two men humiliated. She had let them run into each other, and then pinned the one of them. He wondered why the second one didn't go after her then, and then he realized that the second man was too embarrassed by what had happened originally to go after the girl and help his friend. If they couldn't beat a woman by themselves, they were certainly weak. But if they needed another man's help and then STILL couldn't beat the woman they would be seen as a disgrace to humankind. Sydrael laughed when he realized that was going through their heads, it was something Sydrael had never worried about anyway.

Sydrael continued to watch as she let the man up and the two of them retreated before the girl turned around and looked at him grinning. He couldn't help but smile back at her, she was funny and definitely was what some people might call a "looker." If anybody had called her that he would definitely agree with them. He paused, listening to her. "Fighting with your own hands is definitely better than fighting with weapons, and it can be quite a bit more entertaining... as long as you're fighting somebody with a similar amount of skill, which is clearly not what happened here today..."

He looked at her and then had to laugh, shaking his head, remembering the embarrassed looks on the faces of the two men. It really was humiliating for them, but then again, they had deserved it. "Well... if you really have to leave then you should go ahead, we wouldn't want you to embarrass anybody else now would we? I mean you've already gotten to knock a couple of people over tonight, even if only one of them was in a fight." He grinned at her and shook his head. That really didn't mean anything but it was pretty surprising when it had happened. "And yeah, maybe I'll see you around too Miss Pirate."