Chapter III
The Beauty and the Beast.
The Princess and the Caveman
There was an agitated if not soothing period of inactivity as Xina thumbed through her cards. Ace of Spades thrust to Xoje's Queen of Hearts, Rauxlen's Seven of Clubs, she gave yet another cheerful exclamation and readied herself for the spoils of inevitable victory. They never came. What followed was a series of collective murmurs, a vast majority expletives.
"Xina..." Was all Xanele could muster aside from her sudden bout of hiccups.
"SNAP!" The member in question repeated, oblivious to what one could only assume was a table, complete with chairs, hurtling directly overhead. They made somewhat violent contact with the adjacent wall in perfect unison with Slexif's brow.
"Xina." He sighed, eyes rolling back and forth.
"Yes...?" Xina spoke with a smile.
"This is POKER!!"
"Any of you!" Came Xando's over-the-shoulder rasp. "Ideas?"
"SNAP!"
He blinked rapidly and took a moment to dodge Kurix's second roundhouse. "Snap? Are you...are you serious?"
"POKER!"
"I'm not poking an intoxicated werewolf!"
"SHUT IT!!!" Kurix was in the midst of a highly alcoholic substance traveling down his gullet. He cast the bottle aside, and used the same hand to hurl a barstool. Xando’s sword droned both softly and metallically, dancing with the precision an intoxicant would have spared him. Nothing, however, would rid Kurix of his brute strength, and aside from the indistinct number of airborne tables coupled with their varied proximity, the latter’s breathing was restrained, pleasant. Doubly so, upon eyeing the former’s retreat.
“I knew you wouldn’t have it in you…” Kurix staggered, another barstool in hand. “…To…to defend…your title…” He watched Xando bat away the projectile with one almighty swing.
“Control yourself, Caveman!”
"I mean, you call yourself a 'princess'?" Caveman spat. "Where's your DRESS?" He tore through Xando's uniform and delivered a powerful hook to the right shoulder. Xando eyed him. Then, he brought his sword forward with little intent to strike, impaled a nearby chair, raising it overhead; the room now watching with a viel of amusement as Kurix reached out with both his eyes and palm wide open.
"Give me it!" He leapt, only to have Xando dodge. Once the chair was swung in Xannos’ general direction, Kurix burst into frantic pursuit. Hints of nicotine and vodka misplaced his senses with each ragged intake of air, fists pierced back and forth, back and forth, until...
"Are they...playing fetch?" Xanele thumbed towards the two. "It's funny, cause Kurix is kinda like a dog, and--"
"SNAP! WE'RE PLAYING SNAP!" Broke in Xina.
Cinollex dealt each of them their cards, murmuring. "If anyone finds a Joker, I want it. Closest I'll ever get to his autograph."
Every last one of them blinked.
"No!" Cylox left his cards, (Indeed, Joker was present, and Cinollex pocketed it with a grin) took a step between Kurix and Xando. Kurix held two chair legs like the children he could never have, Xando was ready to vomit out of sheer disgust. Cylox continued. "Just...just calm down!"
As the last syllable trailed from his pursing lips, Kurix's own faded into calm, if not agitated smile. The nearest patron was rid of their seventh glass, only to watch it collide with the bar, gleam, and meet Cylox's cranium with unlimited ferocity. The last he heard were three, increasingly muffled, voices:
"PRINCESS!"
"CAVEMAN!"
"SNAP!"