This is Awkward (Attn: Jenn)

[Quibby]

Just another evening together, you and me. Seated in his corner, Mehrin could look over the entire tavern. The customers were a rough lot, which was not surprising; Mehrin preferred the rougher areas of Hama Valon. People were more real, more willing to be themselves down here. It brought a sense of life to the otherwise stale city that had grown up around the Grey Tower.

Even considering his obvious size and strength, people thought little of the old man sitting by himself in the corner. Sometimes people would join him for a drink and a conversation, but it was always a friendship that lasted the length of a few drinks. Eventually, Mehrin would find himself alone again, with only the Deathwatch for company. And I never ask you to buy the next drink, do I?

Because you know I have to be the one to buy it anyway.

The Deathwatch chuckled briefly, then went still. Their shared eyes went to one person. He was drunk, he was surly, and he was glaring at another man in the bar. There were a couple other people who had noticed, but they all returned their focus to their drinks or their meals. Mehrin sighed. I do not want this tonight. Bracing himself to intervene, Mehrin focused on the man. He was going to do something soon, and Mehrin was going to be ready.

It was easy, then, to completely miss the man bringing an entire table down on the man with whom he was playing dice. His head snapped to the noise, only to hear somebody yelling wordlessly on the other side of the tavern. Knowing what he was going to see, Mehrin turned his head back to the man he had been watching, who was fighting his way through the crowd with a cudgel, trying to reach the man he had been glaring at. Here we go...

As if they had planned it, the entire tavern broke out into a brawl. Mehrin saw the strongarm look at the patrons for a moment, then dive behind the bar to assist the tavern master in his efforts to escape with the money. With a loud sigh, Mehrin lifted his mug of ale and took a deep pull, then casually lifted the pitcher of ale from the table and turned slightly, avoiding the screaming man who crashed through his table seconds later. He slid his chair further back into the corner as the man who had thrown the broken-table man leaped at him, only for him to be sent flying by a kick from the downed man. We should join in, have a good time.

Mehrin didn't reply. Instead, he finished the mug of ale in his hand, then the pitcher. He had paid his bill when he ordered, so there was nothing keeping him in this melee that had once been a tavern. Calmly, Mehrin began to pick his way through the brawl, stepping carefully to avoid broken glass, broken arms, and broken legs. He bent down once, pulling a shard of glass out of his boot and ducking beneath a flying bottle. Standing again, he narrowly avoided a flying chair as he started once again towards the door.

Then the bar hit him.

OOC: Welcome to the mad house! I'll let you get into position before the whole wall comes crashing down.

[Jenn]

Kaia

It was strange, walking through the streets of Hama Valon. Kaia supposed she was expecting... some kind of similarity to Tar Valon, even though there was absolutely no reason for her to think that, and it was... odd not to be able to substantiate what her mind expected. Her gaze wandered as aimlessly as she did, the petite Domani staying mostly to the cobbled streets and avoiding the smaller paths that branched away. The Grey Tower, much like the White, was an obvious reference point, and there were times when she allowed whim to take over, her feet guiding her where they pleased. Now that she could channel again, she wasn't too concerned about wandering the streets by herself.

Though newly established – compared to Tar Valon – the city that had sprung up around the Grey Tower as alive and bustling, and it made her smile. People were people, it seemed, no matter where one went, and their needs and wants changed little. There was something very comforting about that. Even with dusk approaching, the activity showed no signs of dying down. Kaia herself milled between pockets of chaos. She wore muted colours of grey slashed with red, not wanting to draw too much attention to herself. The red-fringed shawl had been left in her quarters, as had the Gold Serpent Ring. Kaia had been without the ring for so long that the weight on her finger rubbed and chafed.

She pushed a stray hair away from her face, the buildings slowly beginning to blur together in the rapidly dimming light. Situated in the mountains as they were, darkness fell faster than she was accustomed to and soon she found herself passing beneath slivers and distended triangles of yellow-orange light.

Emerald green eyes looked towards the fixed point that the Grey Tower was against the horizon, Kaia trying to hazard a guess as to how far away she had managed to walk, and how long it would take her to return. She was in no hurry, though she couldn't stop the stray thought that whispered about Jaryd possibly worrying. She made a soft noise in the back of her throat and firmly stamped it out. The Red Asha'man probably had better things to do than to concern himself over her well being.

The Aes Sedai had just reached the end of the street when three figures shifted away from the crowds, attempting to herd her down an empty side street. Raven brows lifted and she stopped, neither speaking nor acknowledging what the three hooded figures wanted. Perhaps I should have worn the ring after all, came the distant thought, and she felt a surge of amusement rise along with it. She didn't embrace yet, settling herself instead on the very brink of letting saidar flood into her; they had made no outwardly threatening gesture yet and she did not feel as if she was in any imminent danger. Her skin still pulled and ached from freshly re-sworn Oaths and Kaia had no desire to test out how tightly she was bound quite just yet.

What sounded next came not from the three figures near her, but from the vague direction of... one of the buildings that lined the street? What in the Light - was all the time for thought she had before what sounded like an avalanche crashed all around her. Kaia embraced the Source then, her senses jumping, the sudden noise piercing into her head like sharp nails. She quickly wove a shimmering half dome of Air and Spirit around herself – to the abyss with the three hooded figures – to deflect what looked to be debris?! Green eyes widened as she found the source of the... problem, not quite believing what she saw.

[Quibby]

In the course of a long life and a colorful career, Mehrin had been struck with many objects. He had been beaten with cudgels by tavern strongarms. He had been cut by swords, knives, and daggers. He had had an arm broken by a morning star. He had been flogged several times for... for things he did not care to remember. His face had once been broken by a stray glance from a warhorse's hoof. And that did not even count the various punches, kicks, elbows, and other unfriendly attention he had gained.

He had never been struck in the face by a full-length oak bar before.

The Deathwatch sighed in contentment as it felt Mehrin's nose buckle and break beneath the heavy wood, and the soreness around his eyes told of bruising tomorrow that would leave him looking like, well, like a man with two black eyes. The edges of his vision turning red, Mehrin shifted his footing, planting his right foot behind him and pressing against the mass of people that were pushing the bar towards him. There were sounds of confusion as the bar's steady progress towards the wall slowed slightly, then stopped as other men in the tavern threw their weight against the length of oak to stop it from crushing the group against the wall.

The pressure on the other side of the bar began to lessen gradually, and Mehrin stepped away from it, turning immediately towards a window that had been broken. It would serve as a quick escape; he didn't need to bring his dignity with him, after all.

Mehrin's boots crunched over the few shards of glass lying on the floor in front of the window; most of the glass would be on the outside. Up close, the window was also smaller than he realized, nothing much more than a hole in the wall. He could work his way out, certainly, but the small shards of glass still in the frame would make the escape uncomfortable. Come on, you can do it. It will be so much fun! Mehrin rolled his eyes and started working his way through the window.

He didn't get very far.

Mehrin felt his shoulder catch on a piece of glass, the point digging into his skin painfully. A ring of red once again touched the edges of his vision, but he fought it back and inched forward a little further. This may have been a bad idea.

Really? You think?

Shut up.

As he tried to work his shoulder free of the glass, Mehrin noticed that there were people in the street near the tavern: a woman- a touch of vague anxiety from the Deathwatch brushed the back of Mehrin's mind- and three hooded people who did not seem to be in a friendly mindset. He looked at his shoulder, where the glass had made a short, deep cut, adding another red stain to an already-ruined white linen shirt, then back at the three hooded people. It would hurt, but he could-

The shouting from the tavern behind him grew louder, and a sudden heavy blow struck his backside. That damn bar again... The impact turned into extreme pressure. Mehrin growled as he was forced further through the window, dragging the glass further through his shoulder.

He felt something give around him, and then he was falling forward.

Mehrin managed to wrap his arms around his head before it struck the street, accompanied by the crashing roar of an entire wall breaking loose from the tavern and falling into the street. The entire weight of the wall crushed his forearms against the cobblestones of the street. That's going to be a bruise.

You're lucky that that's all it will be.

The frame of the window broke loose from Mehrin's shoulders, and he immediately curled up, hoping to deflect any more debris. Around him were the sounds of groans and the shifting of rubble as the crowd limped away from the disaster, hoping to avoid having to pay for any damages that might have occurred to the tavern while they had been inside. Parasites, the lot of them. Make them pay, all of them.

Ignoring the voice, Mehrin forced himself to his feet with a groan. There were lines of pain all over his body, and he could feel the telltale trickle of blood from several cuts on his face. He cast his eyes around the mess. There were men and women still strewn about, all alive and all stunned. The three cloaked people were men, rough-looking and likely unpleasant. And the woman... Aes Sedai, the Deathwatch muttered as they saw the woman, dark-haired and unassumingly dressed, standing in an empty space, a round pile of rubble at her feet.

Pausing only long enough to kick a man in the ribs, the man with the cudgel who was still intent on bludgeoning his now-unconscious target, Mehrin picked his way carefully towards the woman. "Are you all right, Aes-" No! No, no, no, no, no! Get away from her! Get away! Don't let her see us! "- Sedai?" Twenty years an Aes Sedai, and she still doesn't have the ageless look. Makes her easy to recognize, at least. An Aes Sedai from the White Tower was nothing to worry about, normally. The very few in Hama Valon did not know him; he was either before their time or after it.

Kaia Ariasca Riatin, however... She had been groomed towards the Yellow during his time in Tar Valon, a time where he had been quietly passed around the Yellows as a case study and a curiosity. Find a way to get out of here! She'll recognize us!

We're twenty years older than the last time she saw us. She might not.

I like your fantasy world. Let's live there.

Shut up.