Drunk as a Badger

[dpandyrp]

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[atrb=background,http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/152/d/9/middle_by_dpandyrp-d51vtsk.png] Setting: the seascape tavern, late at night. places: 1-5 (maybe more) Misto, Tybalt, .... Tybalt slosshed the ale into his mouth, most of it missed which made his laugh louder and then burst into the THIRD verse of the rather crude song "were drunker than the rear end of a badger". He had passed to care of the tavern over to the tavern hand around 11.00 and between then and now, which had only been a few hours, he was already at the sluring stage of drunk. "and wees wiw drinktill we as drunk as a bufrlooon!" he catawalled loudly. he glugged more ale then squeezed the shoulder of the small tom cat next to him. "yoou see! you see I CAN sing when im im... when im" he smacked his jaws togther, searching for the word "you know... the thing that drunk people get? you know... when you go all sluuryed up wooords? wazza word?" (if you want to join in please wait till after 'misto' has posted)

[icyreflections]

Misto had entered the Lion’s Mane tavern a few hours ago with the intention of making a few schillings off of the drunken cats that inhabited the facility. He believed that he could possibly convince the riled up cats to make a wager that they could picture a card in their mind and he could reveal it to them. What they didn’t know was that Misto was a skill magician and was very talented at card tricks. Besides, if he somehow guessed the wrong card, he was able to plant illusions into the cats’ already cloudy minds and make them think of a certain card and pull it out of the deck.

He had already challenged three drunken individuals to this gamble and won a small pawful of schillings for his efforts- he didn’t even need to use his illusion abilities, which was fortunate for the gypsy because he wasn’t entirely sure how to use this spell or if he really could do it at all. Growing up, his mother denied magic’s existence in his family and thus believed that the occasional abilities he sometimes encountered and believed were out of the ordinary must simply be part of his imagination. When he concentrated hard enough, he thought he could maybe make people believe or see something in their head that wasn’t real but he wasn’t sure how or if it really happened the way he thought it did. He tucked his winnings into the folds of the scarlet scarf that he had wrapped around his waist and approached the bar counter where a large calico tom was drinking heavily and laughing loudly.

The black and white cat sat beside the fat cat and ordered a drink of ale. He had a long day of street performances and other little tricks and fortune telling schemes and was rather tired from it all. He received his drink and was about to sip it when the loud tom next to him began to sing and grabbed his shoulder. This unexpected action unbalanced and surprised the gypsy and a good amount of ale sloshed over the rim of his cup and splashed onto the floor. Misto scowled, he had hardly enough schillings to eat and now he wasted some of his winnings on ale he bought but didn’t get to drink. It was a waste of perfectly good alcohol and money.

He glanced at the calico next to his, brow furrowed slightly. He normally wasn’t one to get upset but he couldn’t hide the fact that he was annoyed. He honestly wasn’t paying much attention to the cat before now and didn’t catch most of what he was saying despite the volume of his words. “I’m sorry,” Misto replied in a polite, but somewhat forced, tone. “I don’t think I caught all that?”

[dpandyrp]

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[atrb=background,http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/152/d/9/middle_by_dpandyrp-d51vtsk.png] Tybalt may have been more intoxicated that most cats could manage but he was a hardened drinker and still had some control, even though it was very small. As the glass tinkled out of the cats hand and the golden liquid spilled on the floor Tybalt slapped his paw onto his forehead. "oh no!!! That was the good stuff from August as well!" His paw slid down his face, stretching it out of proportion. "now it's on the floooooor!" he pointed to the puddle with an outstretched paw. He still hadn't noticed the other cats expression, and the fact that he still had one paw leaning heavily on his shoulder probably wasn't helping anything. "here..here.." Tybalt said as he reached awquardly over the bar, rummaging around on a shelf before pulling out a bottle and then yanking out the cork with his teeth and spitting it across the room. "here! Thissss is the rrealy good one! 's wa the one with the.. The.... 's a good one!" He slopped the transparent, red hued liquid into two small glasses and pushed one towards mismo. Even with out picking up you could smell the achol. And Tybalt had already thrown it down the back of his throaght.

[icyreflections]

“Yeah, it’s a pity,” Misto sighed glumly as he and the other tom looked at the ale that now resided on the tavern floor. It wasn’t until he felt a strange weight pushing awkwardly against his shoulder that he looked up from the disappointing turn of events and saw that the calico next to him reached over the counter to pull out a new bottle of alcohol. He poured the mysterious drink into two glasses and passed one over to Misto, whose nose twitched and eyes winced slightly at its strong smell.

He carefully grasped the cup and cautiously peered into its rose-tinted depths. He sniffed the liquid and hesitated slightly before risking a taste- who was he to turn down an offered drink? It was only polite to at least give it the benefit of the doubt and Misto believed in trying everything in life at least once.

He tasted the drink and swallowed it, smacking his lips together afterward. He grinned at the calico tom next to him and lifted the cup to him, “what do you call this, my friend?”

[dpandyrp]

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[atrb=background,http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/152/d/9/middle_by_dpandyrp-d51vtsk.png] Tybalt held up one unsteady claw to his muzzle "sshhh!" he said, his eyes widdening "dont tell any one! its the liquored strawberry tinticure! shhhh!" he lowered his voice even more- from a very loud drunk whisper to a not so loud drunk whisper "its the stuff from april.." he glanced at his empty glass and frowned then turned back to misto "'s empty!?" he frowed in gisgust at the empty glass and he even turned it upside down and shook it to check that it really was empty then said in a dejected voice "oh dear.. i think its all drunk!" he rested his chin on the bar and sighed then- almost in the same breath- he gleefly called out "Oh! strawberry tinticure!" and grabbed the bottle that had been sitting infront of him and sloshed more into his glass. he then imediantly turned to misto and sloshed more into his glass, even though it was still half full. "dont tell anyone! this si the good stuff!" he winked then downed his glass in one again. "WHOOO! thats the gurd ssstuf!" he exclaimed. He snorted at himself for then turned to misto, his face crumpled in laughter. "hey... hey! i-i" he laughed, mid sentence "i dont even know you!!!" then he burst into hoots of laughter.

[icyreflections]

“Ah,” Misto remarked as his amber eyes focused back onto the cup in his paw, “I see. I have never tasted anything quite like it-” his statement was cut off as a motion beside him caught his attention. He case a sideways glance at Tybalt, who was still being rather loud and brash- despite his attempts to be secretive with the glorious strawberry brew he just produced for their personal enjoyment sitting on the counter.

“’s empty?!” the tom beside him said in an exasperated voice that made Misto utter a small, some-what uneasy chuckle. He smiled at the calico and patted his shoulder, “Yes, I believe you’ve drunk it all.” He looked back to the bottle he just placed on the counter and perked his brow in a confused manner. Why didn’t he just drink some of that? He began to point at the bottle and open his mouth to return its presence to Tybalt’s knowledge when the fat cat suddenly realized that it perched before him and refilled his AND Misto’s cup.

“W-wait,” Misto gasped, at first a little taken aback by the sudden action but then he grinned and laughed at Tybalt’s enthusiasm. Liquid splashed over the side of his cup as the tom refilled his already full cup. Misto shook his head, his smile growing as he decided to just let loose and enjoy Tybalt’s company.

He raised his glass and meowed, “to you, you happy fellow! May we all get as joyfully jolly and drunk as you.” He took a large gulp of his drink and then he turned his attention back to Tybalt, who was laughing about something that Misto didn’t quite get… But then, he wasn’t quite as drunk as Tybalt- yet.

He did manage to catch the last of Tybalt’s sentence through his bellowing laughter. He smiled, laughing along with the tom beside him. “I’m afraid I do not know you either.” He was going to reach his paw out to shake but realized that Tybalt might be too far gone to understand or he might squeeze his paw too hard. So, lifting his cup to invite him to clank his own against it, Misto introduced himself. “I’m Misto.”

[dpandyrp]

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[atrb=background,http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/152/d/9/middle_by_dpandyrp-d51vtsk.png] ((Sorry for the slow reply! >.<)) "Missstooo!" tybalt cried "MISSTO! well its very nice to meet you!" he raised his glass and clumsily clinked it against mismo's "i will drink to you health!" he took a glug of his drink then carfully placed it on the counter with precision. "sooooo!" he said, leaning back on the chair "sooo! what do you do for a living?" he pressed his paw against his chest "I am the tavern keeper of this 'er tavern! TYbalts me name!" he puffed out a large breath of air and wiped his brow "oh and!" he leaned back into mismo and said secretivly "AND i also do the odd bit 'f betting, yah know, to keep the money flowing! BUT enough 'bout me!" he nudged Mismos shoulder "what about yooou! what do you do?" (:/ short repy is short!)

[icyreflections]

Misto twitched his ears in acknowledgment as the other tom offered his name. He smiled politely and mewed in a warm, friendly tone of voice, “nice to meet you, Tybalt.” He took a swig of his drink as the calico began to heartily speak of his occupation and gambling habits. This final detail perked Misto’s interest and his dark amber eyes, which were once fastened on the wall in front of him, slowly fluttered towards the cat beside him.

The tuxedo tom took this opportunity to silently study Tybalt and commit him to his memory for the sake of business purposes, of course. Misto nonchalantly surveyed the tom- he was large and fat with white and multi-colored dappled fur. His eyes were yellow and his face was quite round. These visual clues were stored in the young tom’s mind and as soon as he was sure that he could remember what the tom looked like, he focused on his ears. As a musician, he was well-trained in assessing the sounds around him. He listen to the tom speaking carefully and adjusted his voice’s pitch, depth, and tone psychologically and then added the final results into his memory along with the mental picture of Tybalt. His hyper-observant tendencies often mystified others for they gave Misto an advantage that his family and clients couldn’t comprehend. He was able to pick out the tiniest details of the cats he came into contact with and store the gathered information in his brain for years. When he happened to run into the stranger again, he was able to recall what he learned years ago about the cat and dazzle them with information about themselves that he could only ‘psychically’ know. This ability really benefitted him during readings- when he had to predict a cat’s future from a spread of playing cards- and also when he had to determine which cats to play his violin for or perform magic tricks in front of. He had to know which cats were kind or gullible enough to be willing to pay attention to him and pay him for his efforts. In some instances, the tuxedo tom was able to utilize his illusion spell and make others see what he wanted them to see. However, Misto wasn’t well-trained in the magical arts and this spell tired him out greatly. He didn’t even really comprehend how to do it or that he really could do it. Sometimes it just happened when he concentrated hard enough.

Snapping back into reality after the surprisingly brief time it took him to make all these observations about Tybalt, Misto, without missing a beat to the tom’s question, replied, “I am a great many things, actually. But, I guess you can call me a traveling performer.” He took another drink and placed it down on the table before continuing to speak (although, he wasn’t sure if Tybalt was able to follow all of his dialogue). “I play the violin, read fortunes, and perform magic tricks for audiences’ delight.” He looked over his shoulder and eyed the cats that he was able to squeeze some winnings out of. “In fact,” he said with a slight grin and motioned with his paw that contained his goblet, “those chaps over there just had a show- didn’t believe that I knew which card they were thinking of.” He chuckled as he looked at Tybalt, his coins concealed in his scarf created a small bulge in his belt, “silly weren’t they?” He guzzled the last of his drink.

[dpandyrp]

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[atrb=background,http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/152/d/9/middle_by_dpandyrp-d51vtsk.png] "magic!" gasped Tybalt, "oh wow! I BET YOU that you wont beable to fool me- wait, is this..." he did large imaginary air quotes around his head "real magic, or tricks?" he scrached his chin thoughtfully, "because i cant tell you how real magic works... Its..." he held up his paws infront of hisnface and squashed them very close together andpeered through the small gap at misto "...a liiittttttlle bit strange. BUT..." he threw out his arms "...I CAN tell you how you do all you card trick! My grandpapa showed me how to do THREE!" Now if tybalt hadnt been drunk he wouldnt have entered into a but he wasnt atleast fifty percent sure hebwould win and he most certainly wouldnt have tried to beat another can at his own game, that was just one of tybalts betting rules. However at this moment tybalt WAS drunk and he wasnt really in control, of course he wouldnt do anything completly stupid... Maybe. "go on! If you can fool me ill give you 10 shillings!" he fumbled in his pocket and slammed to money down on the surface "and if i DO know hownyou did it then... YOU have to buy me some bread!"

[icyreflections]

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[atrb=background,http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y77/libbyoc/forumblack.png] Misto’s brow perked at the mention of ten schillings. Being a gypsy, he needed all the gold he could manage to scrap up and he was pleased with himself for fishing in a new customer. He patted the deck of card that he had securely tucked within the folds of his belt. He was about to eagerly accept the challenge but then the mention of purchasing a loaf of bread came into the picture and he tensed slightly. He could hardly afford to pay for food himself, how was he going to manage to buy a loaf of bread that wasn’t meant for him and his family? He did not want to betray his brief moment of doubt to the tavern keeper, so he quickly composed himself and grinned confidently. He reached for the cards and began to shuffle them expertly in his paws and he purred with a sly grin, “excellent terms. I accept that wager willingly. Prepare to be amazed- and get those schillings ready.” He continued to shuffle effortlessly for a few moments more before sliding the cards facedown on the bar table. “Pick one card,” Misto explained with stern concentration settled on Tybalt’s eyes. “And do your best to remember it as best you can.” He thought of the amount of alcohol the other tom was currently consuming and wasn’t sure if he wished to laugh at his drunkenness or become worried that he’d screw up the trick by forgetting what his card was. It was no matter really, Misto knew how to do the trick correctly so even if he picked the right card and Tybalt forgot it, Misto would just have to subtly use his illusion spell and make him see the card that he originally picked. He sat quietly, still watching Tybalt, as he waited for him to make his move.

[dpandyrp]

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[atrb=background,http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/152/d/9/middle_by_dpandyrp-d51vtsk.png] Tybalt glared at the cards, daring them to surprise him or amaze him, he didn't really want to lose 10 shcillings so, very carfully, and after wiping his paws down the front of his jacket, he turned a few random cards over, examining its front and back to check for clues ar tricks that may be enscribed on it. "I dont lose bets without a fight!" HE warned misto as he glared at the face of a Jack "so no tricks oka-" he snorted a laugh at what he had said "okay! not MAGICAL tricks.... wait.. no REALL magical tricks! just your skill!" he slammed the queen onto the table ontop of the pile of cards, then he placed a paw ontop of the pile and messed it around, rather clumsily, till the cards were in an unorganized pile. only then did tybalt very carfully draw out one card. he glanced at it and grinned, he liked this card, his lucky Lady the red Queen of Dimonds, the card that had helped him in many a game, trick or even a random bet. the red queen was HIS card, she had never let him down... okay maybe she had a few times, but they didnt matter! he grabbed his mug and took a swig then he slid the card back into the pile and again placed his paw on it and moved them around, stacking, unstacking and restacking them, trying to hide hsi lucky queen away. then he slammed his paw on the bar and roared "find THAT magic man and you DESERVE those shcillings!" no one could fin it now, he was sure of it. TYbalt was not a great beliver in magic, he avoided it when he could and dissagreed with it in his tavern. and even when he was given hard proof of it he still always could find a loop hole, all magic was just tricks to him. (im so sorry for the terrible spelling in this... >.> ZZZZZZ also i may disapear for a few days (not that that will make much diffirent to my reply rate XD ))

[icyreflections]

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[atrb=background,http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y77/libbyoc/forumblack.png] Misto took the deck and shuffled it momentarily with a slight grin. He placed the deck on the counter, waved a paw over the deck and said in a mystical tone, “reveal thyself.” He then slid all the cards across the counter, creating a long line of red-backed cards…. Or at least, most of them had red backs. “One card had revealed itself,” Misto spoke in a hushed tone and lifted the only card that was facing forward in the sea of red. “Was this your card?” Misto asked as he lifted the Queen of Diamonds from the spread. He waved the queen in Tybalt's face for a moment, waiting for him to confirm it. He then placed her to the side, face down and did not place her back into the deck. "Let us try this again," he said as he began shuffling the cards again, cutting it in half a showing the card on the bottom (the five of spades) of one half to Tybalt. "Remember this card, please." He shuffled them again, looking at Tybalt the entire time to prove that he wasn't up to anything fishy. Once he was satisfied, he placed the deck on the counter and waved his paw over it as he did the first time. "Reveal yourself," he commanded and he spread the cards out on the table face down. Again, there was a sea of red and as he looked across the facedown cards, no card looked back at him. "Well, there aren't any cards facing me this time," he said patiently, motioning with a paw for Tybalt to peer at the cards and see for himself. "However, I am sensing something," he reached over to the face down Queen of Diamonds he put off to the side and flipped it over. In its place was the five of spades. "Was this your other card, sir?" He asked with a small smile.