Carmine Having a Drink

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(This takes place a couple hours after Carmine's training thread against the half-saiyan for the Scavenger Tournament, so he's a bit jacked up, I'm estimating at roughly half fighting capacity)

Carmine sat in a bar in a low-income section of Central City. He found these places to be somewhat lower traffic, and right now wanted to avoid bringing attention to his damaged state. He could pass for human at a basic glance, but under too close scrutiny, the jig would be up, and he didn't like discussing what he was very often.

He sipped at an ice water, to the dismay of the bartender, thinking about the day's battles. Wayne had been an open and shut case, a nice warmup at best. Oda had been a real challenge, a well-trained and focused opponent, though he fought with honor and respect. He hoped to meet Oda again someday, though not necessarily anytime soon. That saiyan, or half-saiyan (Carmine couldn't tell the difference), though...he'd been powerful but hasty, and a dirty fighter to boot. He'd ambushed Carmine without a word and never let up his assault. If he hadn't let his guard down, or had been more precise in his attacks, Carmine would have been scrap. If his central processing coil could experience chills, they would be running up and down it right about now.

He did not want any trouble tonight, that was for sure.

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Ryota let out a triumphant laugh as he stood just outside the bar, how he had managed to be on this planet for two days without thinking to check if they had alcohol was well beyond his comprehension. Assuming the place had some decent drinks available he'd see about getting a few of the crew in here and when in doubt he'd probably just end up buying up some of the owners stock to bring back to the Galleon itself so the entire crew could enjoy. But first he'd have to sate his own thirst.

Ryota half wished he'd gotten a chance to stop in at the Galleon to check in on and take the bird as at this point if her screams had been any indication Keyra could probably use a break from bird-sitting and he couldent help but wonder what would happen if he got his feathered friend a bit tipsy, nothing too much as that might just kill the little guy. Shaking his head Ryota refocused on the business at hand, he stepped forward and walked right into the bar.

While he'd not intended to draw too much attention to himself with his entrance evidently his manner of dress was still enough to cause confusion amongst the humans as a number of the bar patrons paused what they were doing to catch a look at Ryota as he all but completely ignored them heading right up to where the bartender was working and took a seat.

The bartender gave Ryota a quick look and just sort of sighed to himself likely having dealt with all sorts of oddballs likely most of which ended up causing some problem or another for the man. "What'll you be having." the man said his voice already seeming to regret even acknowledging the strange man dressed like a pirate. Ryota shrugged not having a clue what the names of Earths alcohol might be. "Give me something nice and strong It's been a bit too long since I've had a decent drink." Ryota said giving the man a grin which did nothing to brighten the bartenders mood.

"You've got money right?" The bartender asked as this wouldn't be the first time an oddball tried to play the whole 'i don't have your earth money' card. "Hm? Oh yeah." Ryota said raising an eyebrow slightly over the question, sure he was technically a thief but he'd never and had no plans to ever steal from a bar, back in the Demon Realm that more or less sentenced you to never having a drop of alcohol for more than triple it's normal cost. To prove to the man that he had the funds to pay for his drink(s) Ryota pulled out a wallet and showed the Bartender that he did in fact have money, a fairly decent amount at that especially since he hadn't even been on the planet for a week.

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Carmine looked warily at Ryota from further down the bar. In this world, there were two types of people that would ever dress like that: nutcases and strong fighters. Both were dangerous in their own ways, and Carmine had a distinct feeling that this man was the latter of the two.

It probably had something to do with his scanning systems going crazy at the energy the man gave off.

He knew he'd be safe for the night from any of his tournament opponents, but he hadn't taken into account the very real possibility of a non-tournament fighter coming in and starting trouble. He crunched a piece of ice between his teeth and put his head down a little lower. With any luck this guy was just a flamboyant martial artist with a taste for booze and a pleasant demeanor, but today hadn't exactly been Carmine's lucky day.

He decided to just keep a close eye on the pirate but keep his mouth shut. Of course, he wasn't keeping a very discreet eye on him - he needed to work on his tact a bit.

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Ryota gave the man another grin once he finally had his drink once again having no -positive- effect on the mans demeanor, in fact he seemed to have somehow managed to sour the man a bit. Perhaps it would be better to just stop trying to be friendly with him as he obviously had no interest in reciprocating. Ryota usually liked trying to befriend bartenders as it usually meant getting away with certain things in the bar such as fights and being able to pay whenever he felt like it rather than before he left even if the bartender knew he wouldn't be back for a while.

Sighing a bit at what might be a lost opportunity Ryota took a sip of his drink and started taking in the immediate area to see what the other patrons were up to, most of them had gone back to there drinks and conversations as they realized that nothing exciting was going to happen with his arrival, however Ryota did notice two slightly odd things, first was one of the other men at the bar he'd seemed relatively relaxed when Ryota had first caught a glimpse of him upon entering the bar but now he seemed a bit tense and seemed to be not to subtly watching him. With any luck he was just reaaaallly drunk and not looking for a fight or something.

The second oddity was another man one off at a table with two other men this man seemed to be keeping an eye on him as well though he was albeit poorly trying to hide it by using one of the others at his table as cover the other odd thing about the man was that he seemed to be talking on a portable phone of some sort while looking at him. Hopefully that was just a case of some drunk telling his friend about the strangely dressed guy at the bar.

Returning his focus to the first man he'd noticed watching him Ryota decided to check out just how powerful the guy was and much to his confusion didn't actually give off anything, even the normal humans gave off SOMETHING, heck the guy he'd fought earlier gave off a reading and he was part robot. It couldn't be the alcohol as he'd seen the man even before sitting down at the bar. "You get yourself in a fight or something?" Ryota asked deciding he'd try to get some information out of the guy, the answer to the question seemed rather obvious as the man's cloths looked battle worn rather than simply tattered from age.

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Carmine blinked, a bit surprised that Ryota had actually approached him and started a conversation. For a moment, he wasn't sure what to say - he'd expected hostility, not conversation. After a moment and a gulp of water, he put down his glass and looked at the pirate.

"Something to that effect. Might be I was in a tournament. Who's asking?"

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Ryota noted that the man seemed a bit surprised when he's spoke up, perhaps the man didn't realize that he wasn't particularly subtle with how he'd been watching Ryota or perhaps he'd simply been expecting Ryota to start a fight or something because he was watching him regardless Ryota didn't really care too much. It was fun to cause a bit of confusion and surprise but at the moment he was more interested in figuring out why the man had been watching him and if he'd need to end up paying for more than just a few drinks.

Ryota raised an eyebrow at the mans mentioning of a tournament, now that sounded interesting a tournament likely meant that he'd get to see some of earth better warriors people such as Miles who could really push him and make him figure out new ways to use his techniques and perhaps inadvertently help him come up with a few new techniques.

"My name is.. Ryota, now what's this you said about a tournament? I'm relatively new to.. the area but I'd love a chance to either watch a few fights or perhaps participate if possible. I always love a chance to test myself against a a few strong opponents." Ryota said, it pained him to omit the 'Captain' from his name but he'd already learned that generally speaking actual pirates didn't exactly exist on earth at least not any more. So explaining that he was the captain of a pirate crew was something he'd prefer to hold off on at least until he got a bit more out of this guy.

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"Not a standard tournament, champ, and the signups are long closed. You wanna see a fight, find a properly sanctioned gig. You wanna HAVE a fight, I could give you a few names. Human named Oda seems to like a challenge, you'd probably give him a run for his zeni."

He took another piece of ice and crunched down on it. It seemed like Ryota didn't want any trouble, as strange as he was. Looked like maybe he was just lookin' for a friend. Carmine was pretty low on friends himself.

"I'm Carmine. Gimme some time to get fixed up and I could be convinced to toss you a spar as well. Have a seat."

He kicked the stool next to him towards Ryota and nodded towards it.

"What's with the getup?"

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Ryota didn't much care if the tournaments were sanctioned or not, heck for the most part he didn't even care if they had a prize at the end of the thing(though a prize always made victory that much better) the best part of a tournament was a chance to test himself and while it was unfortunate that he'd missed a chance to join in on this one he'd have to keep an eye out for any such tournament in the future.

Ryota couldent help but note that Carmine had specified Oda's race, it was a bit odd considering Carmine at least appeared to be a Human himself and it seemed a bit odd that he would specify that, perhaps Oda simply dealt with a large enough number of non-humans to warrant it though. Ryota grinned at the idea of sparing with Carmine, that could definitely be some fun considering Ryota had not a clue how strong he actually was. Though that also brought the risk of putting out too much power but he could always adjust in battle.

"A spar sounds like fun, though I wish I had an idea how strong you might be." Ryota said taking the seat that Carmine had offered. With any luck Carmine would give some insight into his level of strength or perhaps even simply some insight into why Ryota could not sense how strong he was if he managed to get Ryota's actual meaning.

"Heh.. Well I suppose that question was bound to come up sooner or later. I'm a pirate." Ryota said with a shrug for the moment he decided to leave out the fact that while he was a pirate he was not a pirate from earth. He'd see how difficult it would be to get Carmine to accept that he really was a pirate first. Then he'd explain further if need be.

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Carmine smirked. He always forgot that it was difficult for others to sense his strength without mechanical assistance. He'd have to look into that - maybe it was a brainwave pattern thing, or as simple as the fact that machines just gave off a different electromagnetic signal. Either way, it was an advantage that he never kept track of, but likely came in handier than he'd ever really know.

"Let's just say I'm stronger than the other guy," he said as he gestured to his damage. He did it quickly and noncommitally, hoping Ryota wouldn't look too closely.

"A pirate, huh?" Carmine took a sip of water and shook his head a little. "I guess it's no stranger than monkey-tailed aliens and robots. You got a boat and everything? Or are you one of those internet pirates that just doesn't like paying for movie tickets?"

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Ryota laughed at Carmine's comment, while it didn't really give him too much to go on in terms of figuring out how strong he might be it at the very least indicated that he was good enough to win a fight that had if the damage was any indication been a hard fought battle.

Ryota raised an eyebrow at the mention of an 'internet pirate' but chose not to ask anything about it as he wasn't entirely sure he really wanted to know what that was. The fact that Carmine seemed accepting of him being a pirate was a good sign and the fact that he had fought saiyans and robots of some sort was interesting as well. From what he'd gathered saiyans were a pretty tough race overall and if his fight with the robot-man from before was any indication it might just be that Carmine could be a rather powerful warrior.

"Yes I have a ship though from what I've gathered your probably used to pirates with sea-ships. Mine is intended for space travel and on top of that is also unfortunately a bit damaged at the moment." Ryot said with a sigh. Keyra and the rest of the crew hadn't mad much headway with repairing the Galleon since there arrival and it was looking more and more likely that he'd have to gather the full ten thousand zenie that Miles had said was the minimum amount to get the ship back in action.

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Carmine looked genuinely surprised. A pirate with a space ship? A SPACE pirate? That was certainly a new one. He hadn't been on a space vessel before - hell, he'd never seen one before. Add to that the kind of salvage he could get from old spaceship parts and Carmine was definitely interested.

"I know a bit about machines, actually. Once I'm done with the tournament I could take a look at her if you want. I'm no rocket scientist, but I know my way around an engine."

This pirate was surprisingly forthcoming, but Carmine was starting to warm up to him. Might be he could be a good contact to have, if for nothing else but the occasional drink and stories to tell.

"What brings a space pirate here of all places? Lots of bars in Central City, and this one isn't exactly the classiest. Then again I guess being a pirate makes it tough to go to some places that might be a little classier. I don't know, I've never talked to a pirate before, at least as far as I know."

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"I've had a friend take a look at the ship to help assess how bad the damages are but it could never hurt to have a second opinion." Ryota said before taking another sip of his drink. Perhaps even if Carmine could not add anything new to Miles' initial assessment of the Galleon's damages perhaps since he seemed to know something about engines he could lend a hand into learning a bit more about the burst engine, if Ryota could unlock the secrets of it then that could mean easier transportation between the mortal and demon realms.

"Most of the ship will likely be a bit... different then what you might be used to from a space ship but as the secondary engine had a good deal of mortal technology used in it's creation perhaps you could help me with that." Ryota said barely even noticing his use of the word mortal.

"Well to be honest this was one of the first bars I managed to happen upon though I don't believe I'd care too much for 'classier' places. A bar like this is far more interesting, they tend to draw in people of all sorts and back where I come from they were very good for recruitment." Ryota said with a grin as he took another look around, he noticed the man with the phone was now missing though his friends were still at the table. Perhaps he'd just had to leave or use the bathroom.

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"Mortal technology?" Carmine had barely heard anything else that Ryota had said. "Is there any other kind?"

The sheer concept of new technology interested Carmine, for reasons that would be obvious to anyone who knew what he was. Here he'd been expecting spacefaring technology, but Ryota had definitely implied that there was something far more important on his ship - some kind of otherworldly tech. Such a thing could be invaluable to Carmine. If he could learn enough about it, he might be able to integrate it into his own systems. The possibilities could be pretty intense.

"Recruitment?" was the one word that knocked Carmine back into reality. Did the pirate not already have a crew?

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Ryota chuckled at the question, he sometimes forgot that while Demons often made many attempts to reach the Mortal Realm that the opposite was incredibly rare so while the concept of technology from another realm was a easy to grasp concept for him it remained rather foreign to others. "Yes there is, my ship was constructed in a place known as the Demon Realm the very same Realm that I am from. From what I've seen my ship would look like an ancient sea-ship from this world but it is made from materials from the Demon Realm which allows it to do many things that a ship from this would cannot do. Some of it's technology such as most of the burst engine are based off of mortal technology brought to the demon realm by one of the previous Captains of the Galleon." Ryota said hoping that his explanation would be good enough for Carmine as going into further detail would be a bit tedious at the moment.

"Hm? Oh yes I still do some recruitment, sometimes members of the crew die in battle or simple choose to give up the life and if the crew starts to get too thin then the Galleon cant be properly defended. I'm almost always looking for exceptional warriors to recruit in hopes of making my crew more powerful. Are you interested?" Ryota asked not entirely expecting Carmine to accept as most likely Carmine had things he'd prefer to be doing here on Earth much like Miles.

Just as the words left his lips Ryota spotted something out of the corner of his eye, the door to the bar had opened and in through it shuffled nine men in strangely familiar clothing. Ryota turned to face them to get a better look and just as he figured it out one of the men spoke up. "HEY YOU! The freak in the pirate getup!" He called out while puffing himself up to try and look a bit tougher than he really looked as of all of the men assembled he was while likely the one 'in charge' the single least intimidating of them all.

"Fuck... not again." Ryota said with a groan as he turned himself around fully to face the group, these men simply had to be with the men he'd killed at the bank and the robot-man. They all had the same tattoo prominently featured somewhere on there body a little fact he was only now putting together now that it was his third run in with the group. "Is this really necessary? Yeah I killed a couple of your guys at the bank but honestly I was probably doing you a favor they weren't particularly bright. And if your pissed off about the big guy... well he came looking for blood and I was just defending myself." Ryota said with a shrug as he placed his hand on his sword.

None of the men seemed at all dissuaded from attack Ryota and in fact they seemed MORE annoyed with how easily he had written off the deaths of the others. A number of the men pulled out various weapons though unlike the first batch of gang members none of them seemed to have any guns. No those had been replaced with knives, bats, pipes, and various other melee weapons some of which Ryota had to assume that they had found on the way here.

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Carmine was about to start asking questions about what exactly Ryota had meant by the word 'Demon', but a group of thugs came in and interrupted. He listened to their discussion with Ryota as he quickly assessed each of them thoroughly. Poorly armed, even more poorly trained, Carmine would wipe the floor with them even in his damaged state - Ryota would have ruined them completely.

"Friends of yours, Ryota? Won't lie, I was concerned that you might have been killing regular civilians but I know those tattoos. Bunch of gang thugs that make the city worse for people who can't defend themselves. These guys make my city cry."

Carmine pushed himself up and stepped around Ryota, his hand on the pirate's shoulder, pointing at the gang members. For now, Carmine would put off his questions about the Demon Realm and throw his hat into the Captain's corner.

"Tears don't suit this city. It's time for you guys to count up your crimes."

"Yo, this dude be crazy. Waste him!"

A thug with a chain started towards Carmine, raising his arm to swing his weapon. Carmine put him down with a boot to the face and a sickening crunch before most people would have put up their hands to block. He followed up with a roundhouse kick to the next thug's chest, sending him crashing into the wall.