It’s not the size of the dog in the fight ...
Category: Pink Sheep RPG
Ryan liked a good time. He liked The Leaky Cauldron and The Broom Shed. There was always a frothy Guinness and pretty bird to be had at those busy, rowdy Diagon Alley pubs. Tonight, however, Ryan just wanted a bloody drink and he was in no mood to be hailed down by half the occupants of the pub. He’d had a shite day. Their mark had gotten away, and he had nothing to show for the chase but a broken rib on the mend - which was nothing, really, compared to his injuries in the past, but it was bloody irritating.
It was why he was bent over a pint at Nag’s Head in Knockturn Alley. People weren’t friendly around the quieter, darker pub, and for once that’s what he preferred. He wanted to wash away the day with a cold brew and then collapse in bed and attempt to forget his and Rose’s failure. When he got his hands on violent robber, Wilson Harlow, he was going to repay the wizard tenfold for the hex he’d gotten inside Ryan’s guard, and then he was going to throw the bastard in Azkaban for physical and magical assault on wizardkind and Muggles alike.
The only thing he had to be thankful for was that Harlow hadn’t gotten one on Rosie. Silver lining, he supposed.
Scowling, he finished off his pint and signaled for another.
Eloise liked to think that, aside from a few small things, she was a fairly simple person. She liked the small things in life - rare steak, a good pint, and solitude. Unfortunately the good pint and the solitude never went hand in hand. She was not a people person, but people always seemed to congregate at her favorite pubs, and fights always seemed to break out. It was not her fault; she almost never started them, but she hated to leave them unfinished.
And that was why she found herself pinned against the wall by a woman much larger than herself - Eloise was betting she was part yeti, if her face, the hairy arms, and the hideous stench wafting from her was anything to go by. “Look,” she said, digging her fingers into meaty wrists. It wasn’t working. “I’m just saying that maybe a little cosmetic magic could help with some of these self-esteem issues you seem to have-” Her sentence was cut short as she was tossed, with very little effort on the half-yeti’s part, over a table.
The loud crash only made Ryan close his eyes and bow his head over his pint. He was bloody done with this shite for the day. Done. He wanted a pint and a little quiet, and he really didn’t think it was too much to ask for.
Pushing away from the counter, Ryan stalked toward where the crowd was gathering and hollering at whomever was in the center of their circle. He shoved his way through only to see a man - no, a woman, holding up a slip of a girl with one hand, the other coming back as she readied herself to throw a punch.
“Ah, ah, ah,” he said as he caught the hit mid-motion with a firm grip on the she-man’s meaty wrist. “No fighting, dove. House rules.”
The large woman tried to shake his hand off, but to no avail. “This doesn’t concern you.”
“Oh, look. It knows big words,” Eloise sneered.
Ryan really looked at the girl then and for the first time that whole damn day his lips curled up slightly. Well, it was apparent how these two had gotten into it, in any case.
He turned his attention back to the threat. “No, you see, it does concern me. I want a cold pint and some bloody quiet, and you’re disrupting the peace, dove.” He didn’t loosen his grip, but tightened it the more she tried to throw him off. “Why don’t you put the little lady down and walk away, and we can all go back to doing what we came here to do.”
The fact that she was dangling a good foot off the ground didn’t phase Eloise; she’d been in similar scrapes before. Admittedly, never with a hairy shemale, but similar. “Listen, my friend and I were just having a friendly discussion. Nothing to concern yourself with.” She was smarting about the little lady comment. She wasn’t a little lady - though she could have been if she wanted to, she just didn’t want to - and she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself.
Ryan’s gaze flicked to the girl again. “You and your friend are making a scene, have damaged private property, and you’ve gone and taken a shite on my night. I’d say that concerns me.”
And that was when the smaller one was dropped and the bigger one came at him. Apparently she’d decided to vent whatever irritation the little one had inspired, on him. Not that Ryan minded all that much. It was only the matter of snatching her wrist out of the air as he dodged her punch and using her momentum and his leverage to bend her over the table she stumbled into and twist her arm behind her back. She was effectively immobilized.
He didn’t like having to pull his badge when he wasn’t on duty, but if he was going to get his bloody pint, then it would be the quickest way to settle this.
Reaching for the inside pocket of his jacket, Ryan produced his Hit Wizard badge and reached around to put it directly in front of the she-male’s face. “See that, dove? That right there says you should just calm down, stop breaking shite, and let everyone here have a drink in peace. If you’ve a problem doing that, then I can escort you to a holding cell for the night and you can have some quiet time to think about all the things you’ve done wrong today.”
Eloise yelped when she hit the floor, then watched with not a little bit of satisfaction as the yeti-woman was taken down with a few crisp movements. The reluctant admiration died as soon as he produced a badge, then she started looking for escape routes. Unfortunately, they were surrounded by a rather sizable crowd by that point, and escape wasn’t very likely. Shite.
The wooden table pressing against her face did nothing to calm down the larger woman, but the badge went a lot further. “Alright, alright. Let me up.”
“I thought you’d see things my way,” Ryan said as he released the big woman. He was ready to draw his wand if need be, but the she-man only scowled and then pushed through the crowd and made for the back corner of the pub.
Satisfied that was taken care of, Ryan tucked his badge away and turned to help the smaller woman up. He held out a hand. “Think you can manage to keep your tongue in your mouth long enough to let everyone get back to having a drink?”
She scrambled to her feet and dusted off her jeans. “Hey, this was not my fault! Geez, you get in a few fights, you break a few bar stools and suddenly you’re the usual suspect.”
“Well, no one else was getting tossed around and breaking shite,” Ryan said as he drew his obviously unwanted hand back. She was scowling and had her hackles up, and Ryan was amused. She couldn’t weigh more than a few stone soaking wet and she’d still ignored prudence and provoked the she-troll. While it was stupid, he could respect her gumption.
She did not like his tone, Eloise decided as she sized him up. She wouldn’t be starting any fights tonight, just like she had not started the one she’d just been in, and not just because he was the fuzz. “I was the only one close enough to be tossed around. I was simply reacting to being manhandled.”
“By tossing fuel on the fire,” Ryan said, lips twitching at the corners. She was an indignant little thing.
He glanced around to see that most everyone had gone back to their pints, though some were glancing at him warily now. Which was why he didn’t like having to bring out his badge when he was on duty, especially in Knockturn. Ah well. At least there wouldn’t be any more fights while he was there, anyway.
He looked back to the dark-haired woman. “You here by yourself?”
“Yes. Why?” she asked, surprised by the question and suspicious of the one doing the asking.
Ryan grinned at her obvious misgivings. “Want to have a drink with me?”
Her eyebrows shot up. Eloise was far more surprised by the second question than the first, and she took a second to contemplate it.
“Okay,” she said finally, still eyeing him. She would finally be able to get that pint, and she would be left mostly alone this time. But the idea of drinking with a cop, even one who was apparently off duty, made her feel a bit twitchy.
“Okay,” Ryan repeated with a smile and nod as he held a hand out indicating she could go ahead of him. When they got to the bar, he signaled for a couple of pints. The one he’d been nursing was still there, but he didn’t trust a drink that he didn’t have in his hands at all times. Especially now that the shifty clientele of the Knockturn pub knew he was a Hit Wizard.
It didn’t take long at all for two sloshing mugs to be set before them, and after Ryan took a long pull of his own, he eyed the dark haired girl next to him. “So what did you say? Besides mocking her intelligence,” he asked, lips twitching as he recalled the particular brilliant barb she’d thrown at the troll-lady about knowing large words. It occurred to him then that he hadn’t introduced himself yet, and he reached out a hand, adding, “Oh, and I’m Ryan. Ryan Zeller.”
Eloise, while tempted to push her stool further away, sat and pulled her pint toward her. Getting friendly wasn’t a good idea, even though she’d gone straight months ago, but who was she to turn down a free drink. “Didn’t really ask who you were, but okay.” She lifted her drink to hide the growing smile. The big bitch had it coming. “I may have implied that having a little work done would do her wonders.”
Ryan wasn’t surprised that she’d refused to shake his hand - or give up her own name. Not after ignoring his offer of help. Hearing why the fight had started in the first place made him laugh though, and his eyes were crinkled with his grin when he met her gaze again. “That’s bloody brilliant. True too.”
“I was just pointing out a fact, and see where my friendly advice got me?” In her defense, the big one had been talking crap. Eloise wanted to see if she could back it up. And it turned out that, yes, she could.
“Not surprising given her lack of humor, and the fact that she’s easily three times your size,” Ryan pointed out before taking a long pull of his ale. He’d planned on drinking alone tonight, but he couldn’t say he wasn’t enjoying the company he’d picked up. She was cagey, but interesting.
“I’ve seen worse odds.” She’d been in fights with bigger people before, she just hadn’t been banking on her impromptu sparring partner’s determination to turn her face into pudding. “Besides, big people are supposed to be jolly. How was I supposed to know that she was the one who didn’t enjoy a good joke?”
Ryan’s lips twitched. “It could have been the perpetual frown?” he suggested. “Though I can’t be sure if that’s a true statement. There was too much hair on her face to tell.”
“I’m pretty sure she was part animal. Possibly the unholy offspring of a bigfoot and a really ugly woman.” It wouldn’t have surprised her at all if that was the truth. Most pubs in Knockturn catered to clientele that didn’t belong anywhere else, including half-breeds of all kinds.
Ryan laughed again and was glad he’d decided to ask … whoever she was, to have a drink with him. “Maybe you should ask her sometime. When you’ve got someone at your back who won’t get tossed around.”
Eloise snickered. “I don’t think we’ll be seeing each other anytime soon.”
The one person stupid enough to have her back lived in another country and had no plans on leaving it, and there wasn’t anyone else she liked or trusted well enough to keep an eye on her when she had a drink or two under her belt.
“Probably for the best,” Ryan said, kind of glad he’d been able to get even the shadow of a smile from her. She was extremely cautious and seemed to look at everyone around her in suspicion. In Ryan’s experience, that was either because she was trying to hide something, or because she’d been hurt. He’d not doubt if both was true of the pint-sized brunette.
He took another draw from his mug before leaning on the bar toward her and lifting his brows. “So, do I get to know your name, or are you going to go by ‘dove’ as well?”
“Eloise.” It wasn’t a big deal to give a first name, even to a law enforcement official, if it got her out of being called ‘dove’.
“Well, it’s been a pleasure, Eloise,” he said, grinning at her sour expression. Ryan knocked back the rest of his drink and the mug clinked when he set it back down on the counter. “But seeing as I have to be up at the arse-crack of dawn, and you’re just itching in my company, I’ll be off for the night.”
He slid off the stool with ease, but before making for the exit paused next to Eloise. “You know where to find me if you’re in a spot a trouble and need a hand.” Not that he expected she’d ever look him up, but he felt compelled to offer anyway. She seemed the type that often found herself in tetchy situations.
With that, he moved passed her. The hoodie of his jumper was pulled over his head before he stepped out into the night.
SUMMARY: Ryan’s goes to the Nag’s Head after his shift at work and a fight breaks out at the pub - one that Eloise is in the middle of. He breaks it up.
Ryan liked a good time. He liked The Leaky Cauldron and The Broom Shed. There was always a frothy Guinness and pretty bird to be had at those busy, rowdy Diagon Alley pubs. Tonight, however, Ryan just wanted a bloody drink and he was in no mood to be hailed down by half the occupants of the pub. He’d had a shite day. Their mark had gotten away, and he had nothing to show for the chase but a broken rib on the mend - which was nothing, really, compared to his injuries in the past, but it was bloody irritating.
It was why he was bent over a pint at Nag’s Head in Knockturn Alley. People weren’t friendly around the quieter, darker pub, and for once that’s what he preferred. He wanted to wash away the day with a cold brew and then collapse in bed and attempt to forget his and Rose’s failure. When he got his hands on violent robber, Wilson Harlow, he was going to repay the wizard tenfold for the hex he’d gotten inside Ryan’s guard, and then he was going to throw the bastard in Azkaban for physical and magical assault on wizardkind and Muggles alike.
The only thing he had to be thankful for was that Harlow hadn’t gotten one on Rosie. Silver lining, he supposed.
Scowling, he finished off his pint and signaled for another.
Eloise liked to think that, aside from a few small things, she was a fairly simple person. She liked the small things in life - rare steak, a good pint, and solitude. Unfortunately the good pint and the solitude never went hand in hand. She was not a people person, but people always seemed to congregate at her favorite pubs, and fights always seemed to break out. It was not her fault; she almost never started them, but she hated to leave them unfinished.
And that was why she found herself pinned against the wall by a woman much larger than herself - Eloise was betting she was part yeti, if her face, the hairy arms, and the hideous stench wafting from her was anything to go by. “Look,” she said, digging her fingers into meaty wrists. It wasn’t working. “I’m just saying that maybe a little cosmetic magic could help with some of these self-esteem issues you seem to have-” Her sentence was cut short as she was tossed, with very little effort on the half-yeti’s part, over a table.
The loud crash only made Ryan close his eyes and bow his head over his pint. He was bloody done with this shite for the day. Done. He wanted a pint and a little quiet, and he really didn’t think it was too much to ask for.
Pushing away from the counter, Ryan stalked toward where the crowd was gathering and hollering at whomever was in the center of their circle. He shoved his way through only to see a man - no, a woman, holding up a slip of a girl with one hand, the other coming back as she readied herself to throw a punch.
“Ah, ah, ah,” he said as he caught the hit mid-motion with a firm grip on the she-man’s meaty wrist. “No fighting, dove. House rules.”
The large woman tried to shake his hand off, but to no avail. “This doesn’t concern you.”
“Oh, look. It knows big words,” Eloise sneered.
Ryan really looked at the girl then and for the first time that whole damn day his lips curled up slightly. Well, it was apparent how these two had gotten into it, in any case.
He turned his attention back to the threat. “No, you see, it does concern me. I want a cold pint and some bloody quiet, and you’re disrupting the peace, dove.” He didn’t loosen his grip, but tightened it the more she tried to throw him off. “Why don’t you put the little lady down and walk away, and we can all go back to doing what we came here to do.”
The fact that she was dangling a good foot off the ground didn’t phase Eloise; she’d been in similar scrapes before. Admittedly, never with a hairy shemale, but similar. “Listen, my friend and I were just having a friendly discussion. Nothing to concern yourself with.” She was smarting about the little lady comment. She wasn’t a little lady - though she could have been if she wanted to, she just didn’t want to - and she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself.
Ryan’s gaze flicked to the girl again. “You and your friend are making a scene, have damaged private property, and you’ve gone and taken a shite on my night. I’d say that concerns me.”
And that was when the smaller one was dropped and the bigger one came at him. Apparently she’d decided to vent whatever irritation the little one had inspired, on him. Not that Ryan minded all that much. It was only the matter of snatching her wrist out of the air as he dodged her punch and using her momentum and his leverage to bend her over the table she stumbled into and twist her arm behind her back. She was effectively immobilized.
He didn’t like having to pull his badge when he wasn’t on duty, but if he was going to get his bloody pint, then it would be the quickest way to settle this.
Reaching for the inside pocket of his jacket, Ryan produced his Hit Wizard badge and reached around to put it directly in front of the she-male’s face. “See that, dove? That right there says you should just calm down, stop breaking shite, and let everyone here have a drink in peace. If you’ve a problem doing that, then I can escort you to a holding cell for the night and you can have some quiet time to think about all the things you’ve done wrong today.”
Eloise yelped when she hit the floor, then watched with not a little bit of satisfaction as the yeti-woman was taken down with a few crisp movements. The reluctant admiration died as soon as he produced a badge, then she started looking for escape routes. Unfortunately, they were surrounded by a rather sizable crowd by that point, and escape wasn’t very likely. Shite.
The wooden table pressing against her face did nothing to calm down the larger woman, but the badge went a lot further. “Alright, alright. Let me up.”
“I thought you’d see things my way,” Ryan said as he released the big woman. He was ready to draw his wand if need be, but the she-man only scowled and then pushed through the crowd and made for the back corner of the pub.
Satisfied that was taken care of, Ryan tucked his badge away and turned to help the smaller woman up. He held out a hand. “Think you can manage to keep your tongue in your mouth long enough to let everyone get back to having a drink?”
She scrambled to her feet and dusted off her jeans. “Hey, this was not my fault! Geez, you get in a few fights, you break a few bar stools and suddenly you’re the usual suspect.”
“Well, no one else was getting tossed around and breaking shite,” Ryan said as he drew his obviously unwanted hand back. She was scowling and had her hackles up, and Ryan was amused. She couldn’t weigh more than a few stone soaking wet and she’d still ignored prudence and provoked the she-troll. While it was stupid, he could respect her gumption.
She did not like his tone, Eloise decided as she sized him up. She wouldn’t be starting any fights tonight, just like she had not started the one she’d just been in, and not just because he was the fuzz. “I was the only one close enough to be tossed around. I was simply reacting to being manhandled.”
“By tossing fuel on the fire,” Ryan said, lips twitching at the corners. She was an indignant little thing.
He glanced around to see that most everyone had gone back to their pints, though some were glancing at him warily now. Which was why he didn’t like having to bring out his badge when he was on duty, especially in Knockturn. Ah well. At least there wouldn’t be any more fights while he was there, anyway.
He looked back to the dark-haired woman. “You here by yourself?”
“Yes. Why?” she asked, surprised by the question and suspicious of the one doing the asking.
Ryan grinned at her obvious misgivings. “Want to have a drink with me?”
Her eyebrows shot up. Eloise was far more surprised by the second question than the first, and she took a second to contemplate it.
“Okay,” she said finally, still eyeing him. She would finally be able to get that pint, and she would be left mostly alone this time. But the idea of drinking with a cop, even one who was apparently off duty, made her feel a bit twitchy.
“Okay,” Ryan repeated with a smile and nod as he held a hand out indicating she could go ahead of him. When they got to the bar, he signaled for a couple of pints. The one he’d been nursing was still there, but he didn’t trust a drink that he didn’t have in his hands at all times. Especially now that the shifty clientele of the Knockturn pub knew he was a Hit Wizard.
It didn’t take long at all for two sloshing mugs to be set before them, and after Ryan took a long pull of his own, he eyed the dark haired girl next to him. “So what did you say? Besides mocking her intelligence,” he asked, lips twitching as he recalled the particular brilliant barb she’d thrown at the troll-lady about knowing large words. It occurred to him then that he hadn’t introduced himself yet, and he reached out a hand, adding, “Oh, and I’m Ryan. Ryan Zeller.”
Eloise, while tempted to push her stool further away, sat and pulled her pint toward her. Getting friendly wasn’t a good idea, even though she’d gone straight months ago, but who was she to turn down a free drink. “Didn’t really ask who you were, but okay.” She lifted her drink to hide the growing smile. The big bitch had it coming. “I may have implied that having a little work done would do her wonders.”
Ryan wasn’t surprised that she’d refused to shake his hand - or give up her own name. Not after ignoring his offer of help. Hearing why the fight had started in the first place made him laugh though, and his eyes were crinkled with his grin when he met her gaze again. “That’s bloody brilliant. True too.”
“I was just pointing out a fact, and see where my friendly advice got me?” In her defense, the big one had been talking crap. Eloise wanted to see if she could back it up. And it turned out that, yes, she could.
“Not surprising given her lack of humor, and the fact that she’s easily three times your size,” Ryan pointed out before taking a long pull of his ale. He’d planned on drinking alone tonight, but he couldn’t say he wasn’t enjoying the company he’d picked up. She was cagey, but interesting.
“I’ve seen worse odds.” She’d been in fights with bigger people before, she just hadn’t been banking on her impromptu sparring partner’s determination to turn her face into pudding. “Besides, big people are supposed to be jolly. How was I supposed to know that she was the one who didn’t enjoy a good joke?”
Ryan’s lips twitched. “It could have been the perpetual frown?” he suggested. “Though I can’t be sure if that’s a true statement. There was too much hair on her face to tell.”
“I’m pretty sure she was part animal. Possibly the unholy offspring of a bigfoot and a really ugly woman.” It wouldn’t have surprised her at all if that was the truth. Most pubs in Knockturn catered to clientele that didn’t belong anywhere else, including half-breeds of all kinds.
Ryan laughed again and was glad he’d decided to ask … whoever she was, to have a drink with him. “Maybe you should ask her sometime. When you’ve got someone at your back who won’t get tossed around.”
Eloise snickered. “I don’t think we’ll be seeing each other anytime soon.”
The one person stupid enough to have her back lived in another country and had no plans on leaving it, and there wasn’t anyone else she liked or trusted well enough to keep an eye on her when she had a drink or two under her belt.
“Probably for the best,” Ryan said, kind of glad he’d been able to get even the shadow of a smile from her. She was extremely cautious and seemed to look at everyone around her in suspicion. In Ryan’s experience, that was either because she was trying to hide something, or because she’d been hurt. He’d not doubt if both was true of the pint-sized brunette.
He took another draw from his mug before leaning on the bar toward her and lifting his brows. “So, do I get to know your name, or are you going to go by ‘dove’ as well?”
“Eloise.” It wasn’t a big deal to give a first name, even to a law enforcement official, if it got her out of being called ‘dove’.
“Well, it’s been a pleasure, Eloise,” he said, grinning at her sour expression. Ryan knocked back the rest of his drink and the mug clinked when he set it back down on the counter. “But seeing as I have to be up at the arse-crack of dawn, and you’re just itching in my company, I’ll be off for the night.”
He slid off the stool with ease, but before making for the exit paused next to Eloise. “You know where to find me if you’re in a spot a trouble and need a hand.” Not that he expected she’d ever look him up, but he felt compelled to offer anyway. She seemed the type that often found herself in tetchy situations.
With that, he moved passed her. The hoodie of his jumper was pulled over his head before he stepped out into the night.
SUMMARY: Ryan’s goes to the Nag’s Head after his shift at work and a fight breaks out at the pub - one that Eloise is in the middle of. He breaks it up.