Trying To Handle

Walking the streets of Loner's Reach was absolutely terrifying, especially when you were trying to keep up with your snuff fueled, hyper as hell, ball of energy, fast talking High Commander named Zoe. She would sprint ahead only to get distracted by random people on the side, asking them hundreds of questions all of them to never get a chance to respond. After you finally got back at her side she would turn to you, say a bunch of gibberish and then sprint off in another direction yelling into the air that she saw something cool and wanted to go check it out.

"Zoe, wait up!" You yell at her as you jog toward the sprinting Sunrider.

"Darien, Darien, Darien!!!" she squeals as you reach her once more "Let's go in here!!!!" she points up at a door while having a giant smile on her face.

You glance up at the sign that is hanging above the door and you see a wooden panel which has some golden coins etched onto it that is sitting on a pile of sand. You have no idea what it means, whether it's a bank, a type of gambling house or possibly just a tavern to get food, drink and substance. Unfortunately as your eyes leave the sign and look back down to your high commander, she is already sneaking herself into the building. "Zoe! God damnit!" you snarl out as you step inside.

You step inside and it's just as you imagine the place to be. Barely lite up with light, a bunch of people sitting around tables, some eating food, some getting drunk, some sniffing that same old red dust that you're getting more and more familiar with but also many others sitting around tables playing games of dice. Around the entire room in the corners and also ushering people around were most likely the bouncers of this establishment and they definitely looked a little scarier. Many of them look exactly like the handful of thugs you took out a little earlier, almost exact duplicates of them.

The place itself looks as if it would be quite enjoyable to just have some fun but the problem is, you weren't here to blow coin, get drunk and enjoy your night, you were here to watch over your snuff induced high commander and make sure she didn't do anything stupid.

"Zoe...?" you shake your head as you refocus. As you were looking around the room taking in the sights you totally forgot about Zoe for a minute "Oh shit!" you groan to yourself as you scour the place. It isn't long before you see that petite black haired woman up at the counter, reaching around as a few other patreons laugh and react to the girl.

You move with haste, pushing past other people as you get up to the counter "Zoe! Stop running away!"

She pivots in her step as her right hand is wiping her nose. A streak of red dust goes down her arm as you still see a ring of it around her nose. "Darien!!!!!!!" she yelps "You're here!!!" she jumps forward, throwing her arms around your body.

"Zoe, for fuck sake, stop just doing random shit, you're going to get us in trouble." you grumble into her ear as she's breathing heavily into your body, she's slightly shaking at the moment too.

"Darien, Darien, this stuff is amazing! It's like, it's like, it's like amazing!! Why, why, why don't we use this more!" she pushes herself back, looking at your eyes. You can see her pupils are extremely dilated, her body is shivering with pure energy and you can tell she's not fully all there."

You grip her shoulders hard and look into her face "Zoe, calm the fuck down and just stop running off. Okay?" you tell her with an angry look.

"NO!" she yelps "You can't do that to me! You can't! I won't allow it! I've beat you before and I will do it again!" her voice is so loud, it's causing many people to begin to notice.

"Sir?" one of the servers behind the counter asks "Ten gold for that snuff."

"Ten gold?!" you say over Zoe's shoulder as you question.

"Ten gold." he repeats.

"Ugh.." you groan as you push Zoe to your side and reach into your pouch, grabbing a few gold coins. You never carried much with you but luckily you had the ten gold coins. you need to get Zoe under control because if she did anything else stupid you wouldn't be able to cover for her. "Here..." you plop the coin down on the counter.

"And ten for the pouch she stuffed in her pocket." he replies as you set the stack of ten coins down.

"Zoe..." you growl at her "No more!!!" you shout, throwing down another ten gold coins on the counter. After the server nods at you, signalling all is good you turn back to Zoe...who is now up against a table in the distance.

"A hundred gold on six sixes!!!" she shouts loud, causing a few gasps from the people around the table.

"Oh fuck..." you quickly try to push through the crowd, making your way over to the table.

"YES! A HUNDRED GOLD!!!" she smiles "Six sixes!!!" she prances around the table in a circle as the five other guys are sitting around with their jaws unhinged and in awe at her crazy bet.

The game of dice played here consists of six dice in a cup. You place your bets on how many of a single number there could be. The dealer shakes the cup up and tosses it all on the table, keeping all six dice hidden under the mug. Once that gets done, depending on what you bet on there are better odds of getting a higher pay out. Betting six of one number has one of the highest chances of never happening, it's basically a hail Mary, a needle in a haystack, something that generally will never win, but if you do win, you get a huge payout.

"A hundred on six sixes!" The dealer says as he shakes up the mug and throws it down onto the table, keeping the dice concealed.

You finally make it up to your High Commander and throw your arms around her "I'm going to fucking kill you!" you grumble into her ear.

"No no no! I'm going to win it all! You can't not get six sixes with there are six dice! With six dice that's six numbers and six numbers are six sixes! That's how it works and if you think the dice can't be six then you don't know!" her eyebrows angle down and she gives you a glare as she talks "I can count Darien the numbers don't lie."

"That doesn't even..." your head hurts from her explanation "I don't even..." you can't even think of what to say "Zoe that's..."

"Two sixes!" the dealer reveals the cup as everybody looks at Zoe.

Zoe goes wide eyed "Did I...Did I win?!" she smiles between the gamblers "I won! I won!!" she jumps in her stance throwing her arms up.

You bring your hand to your head, shielding your eyes as you rub your forehead "God damnit..." you mumble out again. Why is it so hard to keep such a tiny, petite woman under control. Soon after you look down in your pouch just to verify the situation. You maybe carried at most fifty gold coins in your pouch and you already spent twenty of them on Zoe and her snuff.

"Coin or cunt ma'am?" The dealer says, smiling at the innocent woman.

"Coin or..." Zoe tilts her head "What's cunt? Can I pay with cunt?" she looks at you. "What is cunt? Cunt, cunt, cunt! Funny word!"

"Ugh," you groan out before turning to the dealer "I'm sorry, she's had too much snuff, she didn't mean to place that bet. We'll just get outta here, I'm sorry." you grip the Sunrider's forearm and start to pull her, leaving the table you were at.

It wasn't long before two of the thug-like bouncers were blocking your way.

"Sir," one looks at you, holding his hand out ordering you to stop "She has to pay up, one way or another."

"She's out of her mind." you plead "She didn't even have one hundred gold coins on her, her bet didn't matter, she didn't show the coin." you do what you can to get out of the situation.

"Rules of the game, you place a bet, even vocally and stick around to see the end of the draw, that bet is owed." he folds his arms across his chest, all the while another two bouncers step up behind you.

"No coin! No coin!" Zoe tries to leave your grip "Darien has no coin but does Darien have cunt?!" she looks between the four bounces.

"Listen," you begin "We're here because of Shade, he told us to enjoy ourselves and..." you nod your head at Zoe "She's had a little too much enjoyment tonight. I don't mean any troubles, don't want any harm but it was an accident and she didn't mean to do anything."

The bouncer laughs "Nice try, kid. Now either pay the fuck up with coin or..." he eyes over Zoe's body and gives a grin "Or she'll pay up some other way." the two bouncers to your side gets closer as a few let out some soft chuckles.

"hahahaha!" Zoe laughs out as hard as she can, causing even more attention to be thrown her way "Darien! Darien! Yeahh!! Darien about to kick some ass!!! Right? Right? Right?" she looks at you, her eyes bursting with joy. "Everybody look!" she continues shouting "A fight is about to happen! A fight a fight a fight!!!!" she wails around the room.

"Listen, I don't want any..." is all you got out before one of the bouncers in front of you steps forward, his hand in a fist and that very same fist is flying right at your face.