milliways_bar | (no subject)

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So, Bernard is wearing his left arm in a rather ridiculous plaster cast tonight, sticking straight out from his body and held up by a pole. He told his friends it was the outcome of a faux pas he made while drunk, rather than explaining that it was from falling over an animated porcelain doll in this place that was trying to stab him with a spoon.

Perhaps this is why he seems to have been let off being resized. But at the moment, he is enjoying a bit of chain smoking, solely because he's about the only person in here today who's able to buy cigarettes.

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"Old enough," Cassidy says flatly as he borrows Wilford's Zippo to light his own cigarette. "The bar's full of kids 'cause a school bus broke down outside the door. This's Milliways, man, why d'you think?"

Wilford tried telling a friend what the deal was. The friend laughed and treated it like a joke, which is is obviously not.

"What, you mean you weren't on the broken down school bus?" Wilford asks, full of surprise.

"Where's your teacher?" Bernard asks, waggling the hip flask.

"Gone to get help, obviously!"

Duh, Bernard.

"Come on, man. I already paid you. This is theft," Wilford says, trying a different route.

$20 for some cigarettes and a couple of beers. It's a good deal.

"If you think I'm giving children hard spirits without asking questions, you can fuck off." Bernard says, putting his hip flask away. "I'm not spending time in the prison here."

Cassidy has been eyeing that flask and sizing up the possibilities, but when Bernard puts it away, it spurs him into action. With one of Bernard's arms in a ridiculous cast, his mobility is hampered just enough...

"I dunno why everyone's so hung up about doing jail time, I hear it builds character--"

He grabs one of Bernard's Cokes and dumps the ice cold beverage in his lap.

"Get the flask!"

Wilford sees the way Cassidy is looking at Bernard, and manages to put his puppy down onto the floor along with his blanket seconds before everything starts happening.

He throws his entire body into a sudden tackle, on Bernard's injured side and reaches into the pocket where the flask was.

"Ha! Got it!" he crows as he reels back to put some distance between himself and Bernard. The stairs are closer, but they are stairs, so he runs for the back door instead. There are fewer places to get cornered out there.

Bernard doesn't chase them. The tackle knocks him flying and he lands straight on the injured arm, the stupid pole holding the cast up shoving him hard in the side. When he hits the floor, it's with a genuine yell of pain.

Little shits. All they had to do was tell him the truth, and he'd have given it to them.

He clutches at his cast, and goes white as a sheet.

Without thinking, Cassidy runs after Wilford, following him through the back door.

It's daytime.

And the moment he steps off the porch, he lets out a shout of pain as his skin immediately starts to sizzle and smoke.

He scrambles back into the shade, shaking his arms out.

When he looks back through the doorway, he sees Bernard still on the floor.

"Fuck."

Wilford doesn't stop. He runs off somewhere to hide, before someone comes to grab him.

His puppy is still in the bar though, yapping at all of the chaos. He wants to get up the stairs, but his legs are tiny and he can't quite seem to figure it out now.

The scream draws Alana's attention, and she alights by Bernard's side, kneeling by him.

"Bernard! You'll be okay!" Alana says, her eyes wide. "Let's take you to the infirmary to scan your arm."

For a moment, the pain is bad enough that Bernard thinks he might pass out. But just as his vision clears, Alana appears, and his relief is visible.

"Give me a moment." He says. "Pole just went in my side. The little shit jumped me full force."

Cassidy sneaks back into the bar, keeping a low profile, and heads for the stairs. He grabs the barking puppy to shut him up and darts up to Wilford's room.

Fortunately there's a doggie door, and after shoving the puppy through, he crawls in after him. It's a bit of a squeeze, but he gets in just fine.

Breathless and still running on adrenaline, he sits on the floor with his back to the door, and waits for everything to die down.

He hopes Bernard isn't too badly hurt.

Alana lets Bernard recover his breath, making sure to keep her hands off of him. "Let me know when you need help up."

He's just winded, and after a minute he sits up cautiously.

"They got my hip flask. I need that back." he says.

It's not the fact that they're drinking it. They might see the inscription. They might ask questions.

'To Bernard, all my love, Emma'

"Right now, we need to worry about whether your broken arm has been unaligned," Alana says, nervousness threading through her voice. "I can't do anything if it has been, but I can scan your cast to check."

Bernard gets up, grimacing as he moves.

"Thank you. Did you see where they went? Know their real names?"

Alana stands with him. "Unfortunately, no, I didn't see where they went, and I don't know their real names. Do you need help to the infirmary?"

Edited 2017-11-08 23:47 (UTC)

"No, my legs are fine." Bernard says, following her.

Bernard and Alana wend their way through the bar to the infirmary, where Alana encourages Bernard to sit on one of the beds. She finds the scanner and runs it over his cast.

"Your arm isn't misaligned," she says, sighing.

Edited 2017-11-09 20:59 (UTC)

"Thank you." Bernard says, looking at the bizarre-looking scanner.

"I think it just winded me."

"I'm so sorry you were attacked by those boys," Alana says, frowning. "Maybe Bar can give you their names."

"Good point." Bernard says. "Or I can leave a note to the 'brats' and it'll probably get there."

"Are you going to tell Security?" Alana says, raising her brows.

"No." Bernard says. "I just want the hip flask back."

He can't do time for giving the kids cigarettes. He can't go that long without a drink.

"I hope you get the hip flask back, then," Alana says, shaking her head. "Bar can give you some painkillers."

He nods, slightly relieved that she didn't press it.

"Thanks Alana."

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