Tough Luck

[Costin Mornir]

Costin was not one to complain about being yanked around by Yoger or anyone else in Anther's crew. He knew the rules, and he was more interested in acceptance than having pride. More than willing to listen to Yoger's retelling, he said nothing and went with him until the doctor ordered Yoger to stop.

He looked at Rue only briefly - she didn't seem to notice him. The gnome she'd been beating on didn't look so good. To be fair, nobody looked particularly good in this group, and it could be hard to differentiate fresh wounds from old scars in the uneven lighting of the room. Costin imagined the beating must have been furious.

Times like this made him glad he was on their side. Even guardsmen weren't so eager to dish out fists.

The gnome chose that moment to talk back to Rue again like he wanted to start fighting with all of them there. The little man must have been suicidal. With so many people around to kick his ass, Costin saw an opportunity to be tough without repercussion.

"Shut up, shorty!" He yelled and took his best threatening posture. Any intimidation granted to Costin by his flashy getup was dispelled by his poor acting.

When Yoger gave him a pathetic look, Costin raised his hands in a helpless gesture. "What?"

[Anther's Crew]

Rue was dragged away after receiving a blow to the back of the head that caused her to stop speaking, though she still made an outraged growling sound. It caused her to go wobbly, that blow; Rafiu wasn't known for his patience or generosity. She had no reply for Egg's continued insults. Yoger thought it was for the best. He wished Anther was there. He dropped his eyes down from Costin's at the other's question. He didn't want no more confrontation, not after what he'd seen Rue do.

"Leave?" It was Sabiro speaking, and his voice was wholly outraged. "Leave? I cannot allow that! You dare imply I would allow a patient of mine to be seen in such a condition?" The gnome's voice rose into an indignified shriek.

Yoger winced.

"I will not allow it! Take him, and follow me! You, sir, will not be allowed out of my care until I am satisfied! Go home, indeed! Well? Take him, carry him, and hop to it!" That, the doctor snarled towards Yoger and Costin.

Yoger flinched. "He's drunk," Yoger whispered to Costin, though the observation was, on the whole, unnecessary. Anyone who'd been around Sabiro for more than a few days would be able to tell that. Just as they'd know it wasn't wise to contradict him when he was drunk. Not when it came to his realm of expertise.

Yoger, aware of the thickening tension (especially after Costin's little display, which he hadn't thought was too terribly wise and was too wary of the potential consequences to say so), minced towards Egg, ready to do what the doctor had demanded.

[Egg]

Egg stared at them, rapidly trying to blink blood out of his eye. It wouldn't matter soon either way, his left eye was swelling shut at a very quick rate. At least his back was against the wall. That stood for something when you were fighting, didn't it? He couldn't remember. His brain felt fuzzy. That little gnome was chattering. Was that what he sounded like? Changers preserve him, he could not sound that shrill! He cast his seeing eye on his fellow gnome.

"Now you listen here, you no doubt uneducated, crude and poorly dressed excuse for any sort of medic, even an animal doctor who I would not take my neighbors rats to see, I will leave whenever I see fit!"

He pointed at Yoger.

"Touch me and I will bite your nose off."

[Costin Mornir]

Yoger whispered to Costin that Sabiro was drunk, to which Costin responded by squeezing his lips together and raising his eyebrows in a way that said 'yeah, I know, this sucks.' Costin had already backed away from his brief machismo display and was back to trying not to anger the wrong person or get himself too noticed. He tended to oscillate between wanting to grab attention by acting out, and hoping nobody bigger picked a fight with him or called him out on anything.

He obediently followed behind Yoger as he approached Egg, trusting in Yoger's ability to deal with the situation for him. Egg lashed out at Yoger, threatening yet more fighting if he should try to carry him, and Costin remained in the background until something hit him square in the middle of the back that sent him sprawling forward and nearly into Egg.

"Ayea' why don't ya do it, Costin? Tough lil' shit that you are." It was Ofid, a young man easily twice Costin's size with a penchant for picking on him. Ofid had enough scars on his knuckles that even people his own size didn't want to mess with him. He kept his dark brown beard in a well trimmed goatee that somehow made him look that much more threatening to Costin.

"Go on!" Ofid implored again.

Costin hesitated and looked at Yoger, though he would find no support there. A guy had to fend for himself if he wanted any respect. Costin turned a glare on Ofid, who dared him with a look to say anything back.

Costin didn't dare. Instead he turned back on Egg, and put a hand on his knife. "What's the point of beating on this little gnome anyway?" He asked everyone. "Just stop being stupid and do what they say, gnome. You wanna die?"

[Anther's Crew]

Yoger's hands opened and closed, helplessly, as Sabiro and Egg both snapped at him. He wished Rue hadn't gone crazy. She'd take on Egg, whether or not the gnome wanted it -- though if she hadn't gone crazy they could have settled things in a reasonable manner. Misery spread out through his stomach as he shuffled first one step, then another towards Egg.

The gnome truly looked awful, and so mad that Yoger wasn't sure if he really wouldn't try to bite his nose off, or any other piece of flesh that was caught in an uncompromising spot. Then, as he was carefully building up his courage to try -- Sabiro really wasn't known for his patience, drunk or sober -- another voice suddenly got caught up in the mix. Ofid. Oh, Changers.

He turned slightly, hands going up as if to stifle the situation by body language. The last thing they needed was --

Costin opened his mouth. Yoger's hands balled into fists.

"I did not say to kill him, just get him so I can treat him!" Sabiro was puffed up like a bullfrog, eyes bulging as he glared between Yoger, Costin and Ofid. "If y'have time to be flapping your tongue, Ofid, then you take the gnome!"

Yoger sucked his lower lip into his mouth, feeling like he had no control over anything. What was happening? How'd things gotten so bad? They had to free Anther, not. . .

"This ain't right," he whispered, hugging himself.

[Egg]

Egg glared. Well. Glared as well as a rapidly swelling eye would allow him to glare. Why was this so hard to understand? It was a principle. He did not want to go with them, so he would not. He did not want to work with them, so again, he would not. He was on vacation. He was supposed to be either at a tavern or at home, sampling beer and playing games. Not sitting against some dirty cellar wall, bleeding everywhere. He was sure that some of his teeth were going to work their way out soon, and his clothing was ruined. Not to mention how long the bruises would last.

He sneered at the big man. If he had learned anything about ruffians like these, the biggest were usually looked to in some way. Not always as leaders, but in the way that most packs worked, the biggest was respected on virtue of their size and strength. The gnome reached a stubby finger into his mouth, wiggling on of the loose teeth he had previously thought of until it popped out. Well. There was one at least. He thought absentmindedly as he spat a long stream of blood and saliva on the floor.

"Why don't you come big boy, instead of pushing others to do your dirty work? Or did you see what I did to your friend and piss yourself at the thought of picking up a gnome?"

[Costin Mornir]

Costin was in luck. Egg was directing attention away from him and to Ofid. He might not have to fight the crazy little gnome himself after all, a prospect that made him more nervous the more he thought about it. Sure, he could probably kill Egg with little trouble if he was allowed to use his knife, but to subdue that maniac midget without killing him? Such a feat was doomed to end in embarrassment for Costin, who had neither enough weight nor muscle to do it right. He much preferred Egg's idea, and took a step out of the way so that everybody could see Ofid clearly and wonder why he wouldn't deal with Egg himself.

Just as Costin's face pulled back in a self-gratifying smile, pleased with himself for evading Ofid's trap, Ofid slapped gnarly hand onto his chest that sent him sprawling onto the floor and left his skin stinging like a hundred bees had attacked a hand-shaped depression in his chest. What Costin didn't realize was that Ofid didn't care. He didn't like Costin because he was a weasel, and he didn't care if a half-beaten up gnome who didn't know when to quit wanted another beating. If he wanted more beatings, he was going to get them. Ofid marched forward to put and end to this farce.

Despite the protestations of nearly everyone in the room, including Sabiro, Ofid stomped up to Egg and took a massive swing at the side of his head.

[Egg]

Egg threw himself to the side, but not quick enough. The big mans knuckles grazed his head, and it was hard on his already damaged skull. Egg was done. He knew he was. His brain and this unasked for bravery didn't believe it, but he was. He couldn't lift his head, could barely see. Might as well stay down. Maybe the stupidity and bravery would go away if he did. So he decided to just lay there.

He'd make a plan. Some kind of machine. And every time they tried to use it, it would fail somehow, and it would look like their fault, and they would die.

[Anther's Crew]

"You cretin!" Sabiro didn't just yell it, he screamed it.

Yoger was cringing away, thinking maybe he could just duck into another room or something, get out of there before it turned into some sort of bloodbath and he got blamed, but Sabiro's bloodshot eyes had already turned to him. This was so not why he'd joined the cell. This wasn't what he'd signed up for at all.

"Get my patient," Sabiro said, all bristling snarling demand. His anger, thankfully, was held in reserve for Ofid, though Yoger knew enough to hop to the order. Sabiro's next words, however, were wholly for Ofid. "You -- yeah, I'll be talking to Dahi'ir about you. Cur." The doctor spat and wiped his arm across his mouth, the slur in his words only serving to make his statement the more demeaning.

"What about Costin?" Yoger asked, looking at the downed man as he slowly and very gingerly hefted Egg's mostly inert form. He had no scrap with the gnome, but that didn't mean he was looking to get some part of his body bit off.

"Shaddup and move!"

Yoger eyed the doctor as might one size up a nearby bear, and carefully minced this way and that so as to appear somehow industrious. "Costin? C'mon, blagger, c'mon."

He couldn't wait for long. A few more sharp words were enough to convince Yoger that the slow behemoth of Sabiro's anger was capable of making a wide turn to head in his direction, and he started trudging down the narrow tunnel towards the Doc's med bay. Med hole-in-the-wall at any rate. It wasn't very impressive. Still, he didn't want to leave Costin behind. He'd much rather the other boy came with him, away from Ofid's own avalanche of bad decisions and outbursts. Oh man, what he wouldn't give for the old days.

You better still be alive, Anther.

[Costin Mornir]

Ofid flattened the gnome with ease, and took a second to stare down at Egg and make sure he was, finally, finished being an idiot. There wasn't much pride to be had in such an unfair fight, but he enjoyed it all the same. It made Ofid feel superior, and kept the others - including Sabiro - afraid of him.

I'll be talking to Dahi'ir about you. Cur.

Ofid smirked. Talk. That's all anyone was going to do about it. Sabiro was lucky Ofid wasn't quite stupid enough to punch him, though the temptation was there. If the stupid drunkard didn't have the rest of the paragon protecting him, Ofid would slap him around to make a point.

Costin had stood up and was dusting himself off, glad that Ofid was paying attention to someone other than him, when Yoger called him over to help. Costin was quick to respond and zipped over to hold Egg's feet while Yoger carried him toward the med bay.

Of everyone there, it seemed like Costin and Yoger were the only two people who could be considered remotely helpful. Unlike Yoger, Costin didn't have good old days to think about. This was how the gang was. Inept, full of infighting, but powerful because they backed the Paragon. Costin still wanted to be a part of that.

[Egg]

Egg felt himself be picked up off the ground, and he tried to open his eyes to see what was happening around him. But it was a loss, the blood across his face had started to dry and his eyes were sealed shut thanks to it. He grumbled and tried again, but nothing doing. So he resigned himself to his fate, and let them carry him. There was no telling what was going to happen to him at this point. He could be killed. Or he could just be forced to work for them.

The pain in his head was starting to get worse. The longer he tried to fight off the encroaching darkness, the more painful it seemed to get. So he finally let himself give into it, and let himself pass out. Maybe when he woke up, this would all be a terrible dream.

[Anther's Crew]

The doctor's setup was better than the brushed-over-filth of a street doctor, and less smelly than the ramshackle huts proclaiming traditional cures and charms -- whatever those were -- at the end of every oldtown street. It was a lot cleaner than anything Yoger'd ever had cause to use (because his kind didn't trust the Hospital and the array of patrolling guardsmen who participated in its use and kept a hard-eyed watch on those running the streets with anything less than a full 10-bishanis' worth of clothing and ego). It was even more comfortable, with a half-decent platform (set low for Sabiro's height) for patients to sit on to be examined or whatever else needed done, and a few steady and stable chairs off to the side for the purpose of waiting.

There was a room cloaked by an oppressively bright curtain that Sabiro refused entrance to anyone besides himself, any appointed assistants, and patients. It had something to do with being clean, which Yoger didn't right understand and didn't really care to; the rule of the doc's sickroom was that his rules superceded everything but Teodinus himself, and that was orders from Dahi'ir, who might as well have been god and the Judges all rolled into one for them.

The walls were all stone, painted over recent enough to not show chips and spots, but Yoger reckoned no older than a year or two. The place smelled like cheap alcohol, a feat gained by Sabiro's drunken insistence that the walls and floor get scrubbed down once a day by some lowly peon (Costin, Yoger, Rue or Ofid being among his usual victims, considering they were the youngest and least skilled of the members of the cell and kept around for such unpleasant or demeaning tasks, all the while bid with the future promise of that one shining Job that would catapult them out of their junior status and into some mystified full partnership that hinted at violence and glory in such a way as to imply the highest importance). Sabiro made his own soap, though he called it by another name and threw a fit if someone even so much as hinted it to be foolish; such practices, he was wont to rant, were upheld by the foremost professionals in the medical field, and they were so highly looked upon that even Marn's own Hospital held to them.

The point was, in the end, that the sickroom wasn't a place anyone wanted to spend much time in. Ever. Even if it wasn't required for Sabiro to perform some esoteric bit of doctoring on you, there was always a pervading sense of dread involved with the general area, like just entering his set of rooms was one step closer to death.

They entered the set of rooms. They put Egg on the table. Yoger, for his part, gladly backed up to a chair and sat in it all prim, weighing his options between Sabiro's continued wrath and the lurking menace both Ofid and Rue represented; neither was terribly picky about settling their rage, and he was well-used to being a common target.

"A mess, this is a royal, exceptional mess. That wild girl!" Sabiro's voice was sudden and venomous, causing Yoger to flinch as he glanced 'round at Costin.

Yoger was about to stand back up and beat a hasty retreat, more scared of the unknown danger Sabiro posed than a routine boxing he might receive from either of the cell's junior bullies, when Sabiro started snapping orders for various tools and supplies to be brought to him as he started evaluating Egg's injuries. Yoger tossed a helpless glance at Costin, half-standing from the chair in some mixture of hope and defeat.