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"What d'you MEAN, I'm causing trouble?" Rob raged at the bartender and manager of the Dragon's Den, a drinking establishment located near DCU. Rather than cater to the student crowd, this bar was primarily patronized by the faculty of the university -- professors and doctors and that sort. Occasionally a student poked their head in it, even more rarely they stuck around, but it was usually for a post-class discussion with an instructor. This was an implied arrangement: students knew to leave the faculty their place, and the faculty rarely frequented the various bars and pubs that the students tended to visit.

In other words, this was not the best choice for a bar for Rob Anybody.

"We've had a number of complaints," started the manager, standing firm against the angry Englishman. "Loud, belligerent behavior being chief among them. We run a respectable establishment here-"

"Wait, loud and belligerent? Of course I'm loud -- can't hear meself think over the prattling of this lot! An' when someone gives me the stink-eye, I'm not going to just sit here and take it when I'm not doing anything wrong! I'm going to bloody well SAY something!" Rob was furious; he was also a bit tipsy from his solo pub crawl. And that meant he was even more quarrelsome than he usually was, which was quite a bit. "An' respectable? I'd say not! This lot don't look respectable to my educated eye! I've been in rather a lot of pubs, an' this place-"

"Sir," said the bartender with exaggerated emphasis, "if you don't leave, we're going to have you escorted out-"

Rob glared at the much taller bartender. 'YOU AN' WHAT ARMY, MATE?"

"Aris!" the manager called. "We have a gentleman who needs assistance in leaving!"

"I'm not going anywhe-" Rob started as he turned and found himself staring at the word 'Security' on a woman's black t shirt-clad chest. He looked up dumbly and blinked at her before the head of steam built back up. "I'm not going anywhere! I got as much right to be in this establishment as the next bloke -- 'loud and belligerent' or not!," he complained at nearly full volume, using finger quotes and jerking his thumb over his shoulder at the manager and the bartender. "They're the ones eggin' me on by demanding I shut my cakehole and leave!"

Crossing his arms over his chest, he glowered at the woman who was apparently the bouncer. "I don't need a cab, love. I need these bastards to leave me to me own business! And I need another drink!"

His body language pretty well indicated that he wasn't going to be leaving under his own power.

"Drink at home? That's no fun. Usually." Rob grinned, thinking about getting drunk with Sid and the usual follow-up shenanigans. But Sid was seeing Joanna tonight, so he was on his own. And doing what he did best, getting into trouble.

He pointed a finger at the bouncer. "Look, love, I don't care what you or Andy or that pencil-neck of a bartender says. I wasn't doing anything wrong -- I didn't lay a hand on them or their clientele, yeah? I don't know what kind of drinking establishment this is where a bloke can get the boot on account of he raises his voice a bit to be heard over the crowd. And I ain't belligerent -- I haven't hit anyone, like I said."

Folding his arms over his chest, he scowled at her. "So I ain't going nowhere."

"What are you- WAIT A MINUTE OW s**t WHAT THE ******** ARE YOU DOING," Rob howled in pain and protest as the vice-like grip of the lady bouncer forced him to move where she wanted him to go -- which was out of the bar. "THAT ******** HURTS!" He tried to push back with his feet, but she was much stronger than he was and at least twice as determined, not to mention doing her job, which was getting people like him out of this place.

Rob's loud protests continued until he had been escorted completely out of the pub and turned loose by his captor. He immediately tried to dash back in, only he was too drunk and the bouncer was too fast and strong for him. "YOU BLOODY MONUMENTAL SHITGIBBONS!" he shouted inside at the bartender and manager. "I WOULDN'T WANT TO SET FOOT IN YOUR ******** DIVE ANYWAY! YOU WATER THE DRINKS!"

Done venting his spleen, Rob glanced around at the small crowd that had gathered, most of them DCU students by the look of them. "What the ******** are you lot looking at?" he growled, straightening his t-shirt and leather jacket. "And you!" He turned on the bouncer. "You didn't have to be so… You didn't have to give me a Vulcan Nerve Pinch to get me outta there! Blimey, that hurt," he finished, rubbing the back of his neck. "I woulda left eventually! I was mostly just winding them up! You know, takin' the piss out of them!" Chuckling under his breath, he looked up at her. "Didja see how red the barkeep's face was getting? I thought he was going to throw a rod or something."

Rob looked up at the amazon who was scolding him, brown eyes wide and surprised. "No, it doesn't make me feel like a big man! That kind of machismo bullshit seems to be a problem only with your countrymen. I was just having a laugh, like I said, like I'd do in any pub back in London. Yeah, okay, I'm a bit pissed at the moment -- oh wait, you use that word for 'angry,' don't you? To me it means 'drunk'. So anyway, I'm a bit drunk right now, but not to the point of being mean! I'm not a mean drunk," he said, spreading his arms wide. "Really. I was just having a bit of fun, that's all, like I said."

He let his arms drop to his sides. "And I'll admit, I can be an arsehole at times. But I'm not a malicious man, love. And I'm not a bully either. I was bullied a lot as a kid -- I never want to do that to anyone else. Although your idea of bullying is probably different too,"

With a sigh, he shook his head. "And here I thought I was adapting to living here… Apparently not. You lot's sense of humor is very different than ours, I think -- hafta remember that. You take things much more seriously than we do." Rob shrugged and smiled half-heartedly at the bouncer. "No hard feelings, love, and none taken here. You're just doing your job. I'll hoof it home -- give me a bit of time to sober up."

Rob snorted gently at the bouncer's use of the old American slang term for British people. "Tommy? Nah, me name's Rob," he replied with a cheeky little grin. It then occurred to him that she was sounding… positively concerned for his well-being walking home tonight. Rightly so, he pondered; he knew first-hand how dangerous Destiny City got at night. Hell, he was sometimes the cause of it – in his powered-up alter ego, of course. And in truth, he could duck down a convenient dark alley, transform, and be home in no time.

But that seemed like too much effort in his current state of inebriation.

He looked at her, head tilted, for a few moments. "If you're offering to escort me home," he said slowly, "I just might take you up on that." What the hell, he figured, she seemed like an interesting person, and she was certainly intimidating. "You won't get in trouble, will you, for leavin' your post?"

Rob may have been drunk, but he wasn't stupid. If Aris told him to stay put where he was standing, he was going to bloody well stay put. She had literally picked him up and carried him out of the bar; she could just as easily pummel him into little more than a grease stain on the pavement if she wanted to. So when she pointed at his feet and gave him a Look, he nodded, eyes wide, and didn't budge until she returned.

The fact that she was putting her jacket on was a good sign, and he grinned. "Arts District. The bit that's the old Victorians, not the warehouses." He pointed in the requisite direction, away from the nearby university campus, and started walking, albeit in a slightly wobbly manner.

"Bloody 'ell, I think I've had a bit more to drink than I reckoned on." Rob immediately spread his arms in an attempt to keep his balance as he walked. He didn't usually get quite this drunk when he went out, but then it was rare for him to be up and moving when drinking, so maybe this was how it affected him all the time. Maybe he shouldn't be drinking quite so much… Nah, it was all okay. He could handle it.

He noticed her beside him and grinned again. "I own me own house," he stated proudly. "Semi-detached, with a nice English garden in the back. Me mum and dad live next door. We all moved from the UK together."

His expression softened a bit. "Thanks for doing this for me, Aris. I do appreciate it."

Rob beamed proudly and shoved his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket, following Aris's lead; now that he'd managed to get his legs beneath him, he wasn't quite as concerned about steadying himself so he wouldn't fall over. That would have been pretty embarrassing for an experienced drunk like he was.

"Oh, I been here since I was 19. I'm 27 now, I think, so… awhile, yeah." He grinned up at her. "I'm proud to be British, y'know. Still hold dual citizenship. Just got back from a three-year stay in ol' Blighty, in fact – almost stayed there for good this time, but I got homesick for this place, can you believe that?" he laughed. "But yeah, the accent an' s**t. I've picked up some Americaniza- Americaz- I've picked up some of your lingo, but not much, clearly."

He thought for a moment about language and words and cultural differences between America and Britain, and realized it was more than he felt like pondering at the moment beyond two countries separated by a common language.

"Blazin' drunk, I like that turn o' phrase." He snorted out a soft laugh. "Nah, me mum an' dad are usually working or still asleep when I get home after a bender like this. Mum's a music professor at uni, dad's a surgeon, so they both keep odd hours. Plus th' wall between my house an' theirs is nice and thick," he cackled. "Though one time I came home an' passed out on the rattan settee on th' porch, an'' when I woke up I had a blanket tucked round me. Dunno if if was Mum or Sid who done it, probably Mum…"