It’s close, but Scar Guy takes the next hand, making idle chatter about other businesses that have closed down over the past few years, and how long it will take the bakery to join them.
After the results are revealed, Drunk Guy angrily throws his cards down on the table and leans over to Scar Guy. “Cheating bastard!” he says. “You think you can rig every game for you and get away with it? Well, you’ve got another thing coming—”
You can hear footsteps coming from the vicinity of the bar, but they haven’t arrived yet.
I look at the commotion, first infront of me, then… behind me.
Behind you, the bartender is approaching the table, looking displeased. Drunk Guy doesn’t seem to have noticed him yet.
I turn back around and try to look innocuous.
The good news is, he doesn’t seem angry at you . He grabs the drunk guy by the shoulder, and for a moment the drunk guy goes slack-jawed — you’ve seen this before, when you Dazed the boggard, but you didn’t see the bartender cast a spell.
“Listen, I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t want it in my bar,” he says. “If you’re going to pick fights with the other patrons, I’m going to have to stop serving you, understand?”
After a moment, the drunk guy shakes off his stupor. “He’s a cheater, man! Are you siding with a cheater?”
I hide my eyes behind my previous round’s failure of cards, looking down to try to pretend they’re worth captivating all of my interest.
They aren’t.
9
“I don’t allow cheating in my house,” says the bartender. “But I also don’t allow my patrons to threaten each other. Now, are you willing to—”
“Fuck this, man!” He tries to shove the bartender, but the bartender steps out of the way.
The bartender grips his shoulder again, and the man goes slack-jawed once more. By the time he comes to, the bartender has moved to start steering him out of the room, and this time he doesn’t try to fight back.
“Sorry about that,” says the bartender as he returns.
“Hey, it’s not your fault,” says Scar Guy. He turns to you. “You in for another round?”
I put my cards back into the general deck, and give a curt nod.
…
Unnerving…
This round, the gossip mostly seems to consist of speculating that it was totally the drunk guy’s fault that he got fired. You get the impression that both of the two remaining players had already thought that this was true, but didn’t want to say it while he was still around.
Once again, Scar Guy wins. He looks a little embarrassed at the pile of copper bits he’s started to accumulate.
I drop one of my cards, and awkwardly pick it up in the middle of the round.
“How about you?” says Kerchief Woman awkwardly to Canary. “What have you been up to?”