The Broken Bottle Pub

[Madoc Wythers]

((I'm working on the basis that this is a year after everything above))

Madoc Wythers, Edgehaven's original playboy, sat in his usual spot - propping up the bar of the Broken Bottle pub, almost-drunk pint in hand. The fact that he continued to frequent the tiny, run-down pub on the city's edge, despite living near the centre of the city and by default, several more popular bars, would have surprised most people, but that was the way Madoc liked it these days.

He took a long drink from his pint and set the glass down on the bar with a dull thud, shoving his fringe out of his brown eyes with his other hand. It had been an eventful year, to say the least. Top of Madoc's concerns was the fact that the block of flats he had been living in was heavily damaged during the fiasco with the Devil's Advocats and the city council were taking their sweet time doing anything about it. Still, it wasn't like he didn't have money to buy another place, and the insurance on his flat had paid off a sizeable amount too - he'd opted to buy himself a proper house this time and promptly filled it with all sorts of useless rubbish.

He finished the dregs of his pint and put the glass down, sliding it away from him. He stretched and fished a note out of his pocket before calling to the barman.
"Hey, Fe, another pint?"

[Felix Dolohov]

Glancing up from where he was cleaning up behind the bar, Felix dropped his cleaning rag to one side and went to go and serve his friend.

The past year had not been very kind to the Vampire, a bit of mischief here and there, the worst of which being an upstart gang of Vampires taking possession of the Pub for a short while. Amputating Moe's leg below the knee and having themselves a grand old time tormenting the blond Vampire. If Madoc hadn't realised something was wrong and gotten aid from both Dillon and Zack, Felix didn't put much stock in him, Moe or anyone else who had been in the pub getting out of there alive. To say it had affected him would be an understatement.

Moe had left Edgehaven all together, viewing that as a human with a fake leg who couldn't even run proper anymore he would be the easiest meal outside the hospital for any wondering bloodsucker - Felix excluded o'course. So he went up to Scotland, moved in with his sister and gave the pub to his only employee. The blond though... He was still there, still pulling pints and puttering around. He was just a lot more cold with unknown faces, no longer quite so willing to chat with a stranger and see them become a regular, he became more suspicious and also a lot more violent with those who tried to start trouble. He became very protective of his pub and the people within it.

He smiled lopsidedly at the human, "Coming right up," he promised, accepting the note and removing the dirty glass. Putting the glass into the washing machine he sorted out Madoc's change before going to pull his pint.

[Madoc Wythers]

"Cheers", replied Madoc with a grin. He took a sip from his fresh pint and set it down, nursing it in one hand. He swivelled a little on his bar stool and looked around the dingy room. Aside from himself and the young barman, there were few other people in the small pub. "I tell you something, it's dead in here. Pardon the pun." he added as an afterthought, flashing Felix a wolfish smile. "That said, I'm not totally surprised, what with all the shit that's been happening lately. You mind if I smoke?" He asked, fishing a pack of cigarettes and a lighter out of his pocket without waiting for an answer.

He lit a cigarette, took a long drag and put the pack and the lighter back in the pocket of his scruffy blue jeans. "Bloody nasty business with those vamps. Shame I wasn't here when it happened, but the bastards picked the one day I was actually out having a life outside the pub." He took another drag. "You hear from Moe at all?" he asked conversationally.

[Felix Dolohov]

Felix shook his head in wry amusement, he didn't comment on Madoc's absence - he was thankful for it, if he had been there, he wouldn't have been able to contact Zack and Dillon. Not that he doubted the human's combat abilities, but those two were just better than the both of them - Felix had too little real combat experience, add to that he had gotten too comfortable and taken to leaving his weapons upstairs. He had stopped doing that. While Madoc was human, a human who hadn't dedicated himself to any form of Martial Art and while possessing a fair amount of experience as an Edgehaven native, he couldn't exactly go toe to toe against a whole gang of Vamps.

"His sister's talking his ear off about getting another job," the blond explained, relaying his last phone conversation with the grouchy old bastard, "Apparently the pretty little thing from next door is coming onto him. Though knowing Moe, she was probably just being polite and the letch took it the wrong way. As he usually does with anything possessing breasts and a pretty face."

[Dillon Rickman]

The door to the pub flew open with the usual crash that could only mean one thing. Dillon had arrived.

He strode into the bar confidently, apparently not aware that he was dripping wet (with what you could only pray was water), his vest was soaked in blood and what appeared to be tar, his hair was sticking up everywhere, and that he had a big cut running across the top his eyebrow.

"Hey guys!" He cried cheerfully, before jumping onto his favourite barstool.

"So, I always thought dinosaurs were extinct." He said casually. "FYI?" He pointed to the both of them casually. "They're not."

[Madoc Wythers]

Madoc laughed at the news of the old barman. "Sounds about right" he chuckled. "Though with Moe, I don't think the pretty face was a deciding feature, I think it was more of a bonus." He flicked the ash from his cigarette into an ashtray that was lying nearby and took another drag, just as Dillon walked in.

Madoc raised an eyebrow at him and pushed himself back slightly as he jumped onto a barstool. It wasn't that he didn't like Dillon, he just knew better than to sit too close when he was in a good mood. Or a bad mood. Or ever, in fact.

"Do I even want to ask what you've been up to this time?" He asked, taking a drink.

[Felix Dolohov]

Felix stared at the Slayer, taking in his current disgusting state, his general good mood and sighed, he didn't even ask what the man had been doing this time, merely duck out a fresh glass and poured him his usual drink and slid it across. Despite his best efforts though, the Tab system had not been abolished - Moe had requested he keep it open but collect on it as often as possible. Sometimes folk around here just didn't have enough short change to get a proper drink, it was why the Broken Bottle was so popular, they could still have their drink but pay at a later date.

[Dillon Rickman]

"I dunno. I'm not a mind reader, man. That's the vamps n stuff." Dillon answered Madoc's query with a general shrug.

"Long and short of it though? Remember that 'dinosaurs aren't extinct' thing?" Dillon seemed to be under the impression that Madoc and Felix had already forgotten his topic of conversation. "Well, they are again now."

"Also, being eaten is a sucky way to kill something." Dillon told them, holding up both his hands to make sure they made note of this pearl of wisdom.

[Felix Dolohov]

Felix nodded sagely, "Edgehaven has enough to deal with already, we don't need dinosaurs wondering around as well," he stated firmly. He was half humouring the loopy Slayer, half agreeing with him - they really didn't need Dinosaurs on top of everything else. And in a town that recently survived the Apocolypse, Felix wasn't really putting anything out of the realms of possibility.

Even Dinosaurs.

[Madoc Wythers]

Madoc raised an eyebrow at Dillon's answer, shook his head and thought better of replying. It was no use trying to explain, well... anything, to the Slayer, and most of the time explaining things seemed to make it worse. He opted to take a sip from his pint instead.

"Dinosaurs, huh? You sure you haven't just been hacking at the guts of a leftover Demon or something?" He considered for a second, decided he might as well humour Dillon and with a grin, he added "What kind was it anyway? T-Rex? Raptor? One of those nasty little chicken-things?"

[Dillon Rickman]

Dillon kicked himself back on the barstool and put his feet on the bar, settling in to having a story to tell now. Until, that is, he realised bar stools have no backs on them so he nearly fell straight off of it again until he put his feet down.

"Weeeeeell..." He began casually, apparently unfazed by nearly falling off his stool. "You know that crappy dinosaur with the fin in Jurassic Park 3?" He asked casually.

"Turns out they really are that big." He turned to Madoc with an angry glare at the suggestion he was wrong about it being a dinosaur.

"And are you suggesting I don't know the difference between a demon and something else? Just because of that one time, just one itsy bittsy time I tried to murder Simon Cowell because I was convinced he was Satan... I mean, you're never going to let that go, are you!?" He sulked, pouting into a non-existant drink because he'd forgotten to actually order one.

[Felix Dolohov]

Felix was half tempted to tell him that Simon Cowell really was Satan, but knowing Dillon he would take it just as seriously as when Zack told him Paris Hilton was Satan - hence the whole messy affair, attempted murder, Felix somehow ending up with the slut's phone number scrawled across a pair of white panties in lipstick - they were burned. They were so lucky that the Edgehaven P.D. were familiar with Dillon's...... instabilities by this point. Downside was that the Corporal, Harry-something-or-other Beaumont, was now convinced that Felix was Dillon's nursemaid/babysitter/carer. So now, whenever the Slayer got into trouble and ended up with them - or up a tree somewhere - it was him they called to go and coax the psychopath back to the pub where he was promptly pushed into his Lair, not so secretly hidden beneath the Pub in the basement.

Felix shook his head and smirked, "Of course we aren't going to let you live it down. It brings us such joy and amusement," he told the Slayer lightly.

[Dillon Rickman]

Dillon simply gave Felix a sharp look.
"Oh, come on though, you have to admit, best X-Factor audition ever, right? ... Riiiiiight?" He pleaded to both Madoc and Felix.

"I can't believe they said no! I mean, okay, so there was the slight attempted murder incident, but show me a better rendition of the Magic Roundabout theme and I'll show you a hateful pack of lies!"

Dillon went to slam his drink down to emphasise his point, only to discover he still didn't have one.

"Hey! You! Guy! Bar guy!" he exclaimed, pointing to Felix who was right by him anyway (and who he obviously knew). "I want the make-good fizzy drink!" That meant beer. Dillon was now in a rush for his drink and he didn't have time for things like words.

[Madoc Wythers]

Madoc nodded. "Ah that thing... wow. And you let it eat you?"

He raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Hey, it's an easy mistake! That guy is scary..." He snorted into his pint, remembering the fiasco that, inexplicably, had still made its way onto TV. "It was a pretty good audition though. Definately better than most of the rubbish they put on there."

Realising that he'd just admitted to watching the X Factor in public, he shut up and picked up his pint again.

"So how's the Lair doing?" He asked casually, mostly to change the topic of conversation before he really embarrased himself.

[Felix Dolohov]

Felix gave Madoc a look of amusement, he had caught the slip but didn't comment on it as he nudged the drink he'd poured for Dillon upon his arrival into the Slayer's line of sight without comment.