Life was cruel and full of pain.  Unlike most who always seemed to be genuinely surprised by this fact, West expected it.  Maybe even relished it.  Grew up in pain, worked in pain, escaped from pain... only to be plunged into pain once again.  Life was supposed to be hard.  Life was about obstacles and overcoming each one. 

And the best way to overcome obstacles (or at least forget about them for a little while) was a good hard drink.  He worked with two other characters, but he came alone.  Nero was an embarrassment, and he and Tsane weren't exactly seeing eye-to-eye at the moment.  Some time alone, and a stiff drink.  Or ten.  That is what he needed right now.

How he got to the Double B Bar is a mystery.  He was wandering around looking for a gloomy place to drink... and all of a sudden it was like he stepped through a curtain.  There it was.  Just the kind of place he was looking for.  Without a second thought, he stepped inside. 

A free drink?  This place was great!  Hell, it even had potential to become... Suddenly, West train of thought didn't only fall apart - but imploded when he felt a blunt blow to the side of his head.  He staggered a few clumsy feet forward before one of the men... Ed?... assisted him to the bar.  The term assisted was used very lightly, as it was more like the movement one would make when pushing a mine-cart.

"Bweh?" he mumbled as he was shoved onto one of the stools.  He paused for a moment, letting the thoughts settle in his head.  He peered over his shoulder to see what he'd been bludgeoned with.

An orange?  He was hit by a piece of fruit!  Wow his skills were getting dim.  What better way to forget about that than a good drink?  And a free one at that.

"Beer," he said simply to the barkeep, holding out one finger and resting his still dizzy head on the bench. 

"You don't serve beer?!  What kind of pub doesn't serve beer?"  West inspected the drink set out before him.  He could smell the fumes.  It was sweet, defiantly a girl drink.  That's what kind of pub doesn't serve beer.  Despite the look of the place, this was a pub for girls.  Who knows, maybe some girls go for the dark-and-dingy-place too.  But there was something unsettling about the drink, like he'd seen it before... but he couldn't remember where.

It was usually against West's better judgements to drink a mystery drink, given to him by three complete strangers in a scummy old pub.  However, there something about how the barkeep introduced the drink.  He seriously thought this was strong stuff?  What a pushover.  He'd even drunk that near-toxic Alt stuff Nero got him.

He glanced around.  All the eyes seemed to be on him.  He brought the mug to his lips, took a breath, and drunk the whole lot in a series of long gulps.

Suddenly, the world seemed to get dark.

The world went black, but it wasn't like passing out.  All his senses awoke.  He could feel the tiny bugs buzz around the dim lights.  He could smell a piece of pork rotting in the kitchen out back.  He could hear the footsteps of a rat beneath the floorboards.  His mind opened up and for the one brief moment he could see the world.  He could feel the pain and heartbreak he'd inflicted throughout his life.

As the name would suggest, the victims who drink Manslaughter have a tendency to turn extremely violent.  Strangely for West it had a more pacifying effect.  Life was pain.  To feel it in its entirety was terrifying and turned him cold.  He was helpless.  Why did he choose to live this way?

All of a sudden his epiphany ended when he found himself slouched in a corner being pumped with whisky by the two babbling fools.  He wrestled himself free from their grasp, and staggered to his feet.  His acute senses and revelation was gone and his regular bitter state of mind had returned.  Perhaps even more bitter than usual, fuelled by whiskey.  The enlightenment had faded in his memory like a dream after waking.

He pushed himself past the two imbeciles and returned to the bar.  "I'll have one more of those," he ordered the barkeeper.

OOC: Yay! new meat~ er...new players~ Check the topic in RP Creation for post order

"...bloody hell. He had a ride through hell and back and then some...and he wants some more?", Fred managed after a moment, staring at the dead body style thing that he suspected West to be. It's not every day that somebody can slug Finest and not be dead in the water after being robbed several times. "You sure about that, mate? You've got a bottle of rotgut down your throat together with the Manslaughter. You wanna die,  you take another drink like that."

The Barkeep stood back up and just lifted West up and placed him back on his stool before going back to his place behind the bar to mix up a drink fit for West. Yep; won't do to put a hole in his stomach just yet or something along those lines. "Lud, y'need something easy goin'. Something to build you up an' make you stronger 'afore ye can tackle two rounds of Manslaughter like that. Trust me on that, 'less you wanna go out back and see for yerself the results of too many Manslaughters. You game for the drink , or game for the walk?"

Ed, meanwhile, noted a small-ish thingamajigger. With a tail. A fluffy tail, leaving hairs all over his well-swept floor. So as a good man, as usual, he took up his broom and brushed the errant hairs away, muttering something about needing those antistatic wipe thingers to clean up the mess and so on and so on. He did do a doubletake when he saw the face of the small-ish thingamajigger, then shrugged and kept on brushing. "Let's hope ol' Elyssia won't spot you, kit. Trust me on that one. Go see the 'keep for your drinks, aye?"

Xander scuttled about as he entered the less than respectable bar, he stood up took a deep breath and smiled ... "my kinda place" he murmured.

He stretched out and clambered his way up onto the nearest table top he could find, scratching behind his ears.

(sorry for shortness)

Xander turned around a bit taken aback to see a "cat" he gulped slightly looking up at her with a slight blush.

"errrr .... if you want to" he murmured nervously, his ears and tails drooping down as he was a little worried.