You play ring around the ambulance

[neverleftharlan]

Date: Nowish
Location: A bar somewhere along the fringe of the Fire Sector.
Situation: Raylan had a polite disagreement with some locals that escalated quickly.
Warnings/Rating: N/A; mild violence, will update if needed.
Notes: Writing in prose but I'm good with actionspam too.



Raylan is fighting.

More accurately, Raylan is losing, and not in the organized savagery of an underground fighting ring. In the undignified tangle of a bar brawl that's spilled its way into the street, sparked as such things tend to be by the willful misunderstanding of both parties involved.

For a time he had the illusion of advantage, one of the kedan down and taking blows like a prison punching bag, until its friend dragged Raylan bag with one hand and the first kedan stood up and blackened the marshal's eye seeming little the worse for wear.

Now, Raylan's against the wall of a building getting hammered. Not in the way he wanted to.

Even odds as to whether or not his fellows are gang members or the disgruntled - either way, he's not getting the advantage back on his own.

Comments

[withoutaworld]

Rikki has a tendency to jump into the middle of any fight that doesn't directly involve the police - yeah, it's technically illegal, but there's never any chance she's going to stand by and let someone get beaten up no matter who they are. And dressed like that, with that hat... yeah, he's definitely a fellow foreigner.

She drops from the roof above them with a shout, and comes down with a boot to one of the attacker's heads - brutal, but effective, and as sturdy as the kedan are, it probably won't cause any permanent damage. She spins quickly, slamming the other in the back of the head with her shield and helping him to the ground with a swift kick to a knee.

Flipping her hair out of the way of her goggles, she glances to Raylan with a quick smile, keeping an eye on the kedan to make sure they don't get up again. "You might wanna go. I got this."

[neverleftharlan]

The world comes into focus enough for him to catch the end of her tidy dispatch of the kedan, For one hallucinatory moment, she reminds him of an older Loretta, and it's a thought that wrenches and confuses at once - that breath of hope, maybe he's dreaming, and then the feel of the bruises start to settle and the noise of the street filters in through the static of injury.

"I can see that," he says, after taking a quick walk through his possible answers. Raylan tilts enough to retrieve his hat from the ground where it fell somewhere during the tangle. "But if I leave, I can't swoon properly over my hero."

[withoutaworld]

"Really?" she asks, brightening a little even though she's well aware it's mostly sarcasm. "You're planning on swooning? I've never gotten swooning before."

One of the kedan starts moving to get up, and Rikki grimaces, backing up at little. She really doesn't want to kick them while they're down, but at the same time... she can't take two full-grown kedan. Not once the blows to the head wear off and she's already lost the element of surprise.

"But seriously, you should go. Unless you were planning to punch them a few more times, and then I can just... let them beat you up, I guess."

[neverleftharlan]

"There's two problems there - the first is my aversion to running in general, and the second is the fact that I'd be leaving you alone. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you punching them a few more times won't be very effective either, overall."

These boots were not made for running, Rikki.

[withoutaworld]

Rikki groans softly. Oh, great. He's one of those. If she actually had the strength to pull it off, she'd be considering knocking him over the head and dragging him off for his own good. Why does everyone else get the cool powers and superstrength?

"Well, I was kind of planning on running too. I just don't really like watching unfair fights." Or watching fellow foreigners get their faces pounded in.

Come on, guy. Work with her here.