Welcome to Gaia! ::

Quinn was chilling at a back booth nursing his first beer. He was waiting for a friend and in the mean time was amusing himself by people watching. The bar itself wasn’t much to write home about; a few booths against the walls, tables spread out, even a pool table that was currently full of a bunch of college age looking kids. The bar was the only thing of interest since it was surprisingly well stocked. He didn’t think a place like this got a lot of people asking for imported stuff but when he asked the pretty bartender what they had she actually gave him a pretty nice import list even if he went with local stuff.

The young man took a swig of his beer and mentally wondered what each patron was doing at the bar. The five guys playing pool were pretty simple to figure out, they were just blowing off some steam and hanging with friends. The scruffy guy haunting the end of the bar, hunched over his third drink that Quinn had seen meant that he was looking to get seriously wasted for what ever reason. There were a couple of groups sitting at booths or tables talking quietly. Quinn figured they were enjoying a few drinks before heading out although there was one couple that seemed to be discussing something pretty serious if their body language was any indication. Both guys were leaning in towards each other while the girl at the table cast furtive glances around the bar. It was none of his business even if his curiosity was piqued. He was soon distracted when the door opened and there his friend. “Mathias,” He called out, raising his beer in salute. “Over here man.”

“That bad hun?” Quinn took a swig of his own beer and eyed the other man. “What, got pinched by some mall cop for selling sketches to tourists again?” He smiled and added with a cheeky grin, “Hope you didn’t have any issues with squirrels this time.” Mathias knew that the first time they met it wasn’t the squirrel’s fault that his sidewalk art business closed early for the day, it had been Quinn’s cat who was chasing the squirrel who was at fault. Quinn still claimed innocent, after all who can predict the ways of the squirrel.

“How's school going?” Quinn was about to ask more ‘small talk’ questions when one of the other bar patrons suddenly shouted, “the hell I will”. It was the lady who had been sitting with the two guys, now she was standing while the guys tried to hush her. Pretty much everyone in the bar was watching them, except the guy at the bar who was calmly and slowly consuming more alcohol. The lady seemed to realize she was the center of attention, blushed bright red, and sat down quietly.

“Well that's interesting. Wonder what they are up too and why in hell would you hold a meeting at a bar.” Quinn absently frowned at the trio before focusing back on Mathias. It is none of his business, but his curiosity had been piqued.

Quinn didn't really hesitate when Mathias decided to step into the argument of the loudmouths. He finished his beer and followed after the other young man, keeping his mouth shut and following Math’s lead. He kept a straight face as Math pretty much gave the girl an exit strategy, the confusion on the ‘muscle heads’ were giving way to anger.

“Her name isn’t Karen, or Suzie, so back off bub.” The first guy growled, his eyes pinned to Mathias.

“Yeah, Jenny don’t know you,” The second guy chimed in only to be smacked on the arm by the first guy.

“See man… it's Jenny not Karen. I told you Karen was the girl from biology not math.” Quinn said, using the slip of the second guy to make their cover story seem more plausible. “Come on Jenny-girl let's get you a soda or something and we can talk about that time the teacher accidentally gave out a test with the answers already marked.” He held his hand out to her and smiled in a beseeching manner. Maybe they were overstepping their bounds but who the hell cared, if Jenny didn’t need their help she would blow their story out of the water and tell them to shove it but if she did then that was all that mattered.

Jenny, the girl who was now the center of this verbal tug of war, had been following the conversation with a confused look on her face. Her eyes had bounced from each guy before she settled on Mathias and Quinn, with an almost imperceptible nod she reached out and placed her hand in the one Quinn had held out. “I...I would love to catch up with you guys.”

“She ain't goin’ no where,” The first guy was turning red in the face as he grabbed the girl’s other wrist, dwarfing it in his large ham fist. “She don’t know you. We're talking to her so if you know what's good for you you will get gone.”

Quinn eyed the two as the first guy made a move to stop the girl, Mathias seemed to go cold and before the sandy haired young man could do anything his friend was smashing his fist into Tweedle Dee's face. He froze for a split second, as did the girl and the other guy, and then all hell broke loose.

With a yank Quinn pulled Jenny out of the booth and behind him while Tweedle Dumb, the second guy practically roared in anger and reached across the table for Quinn while Dee swung wildly at Math, blood pouring down his face. The girl had shouted in surprise from the rough handling and scrambled far away, out of the line of fire. Quinn wasn't paying any attention though since Dumb had pretty much climbed the table and was swinging at his head, Quinn was doing his best to dodge the meaty fist but he was so focused on the one hand he missed the other that sunk itself right into his gut.

The air was driven from him and Quinn hunched over, gasping. His head was jerked up when Dumb dragged it up by the hair he had fisted in his hand, the meat head was winding up to sink his fist in either Quinn's stomach again or his face, neither of which Quinn was ok with. He swung as hard as he could and managed to land a blow to Dumb's face. Quinn had completely forgotten about his friend and Dee as he continued to trade blows and blocks with Dumb.