{"id":192,"date":"2012-05-06T23:18:48","date_gmt":"2012-05-07T03:18:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/?page_id=192"},"modified":"2013-02-12T10:56:02","modified_gmt":"2013-02-12T15:56:02","slug":"drunken-darts","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/shannon-haddock\/drunken-darts\/","title":{"rendered":"Drunken Darts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kenshin wasn\u2019t much of a drinker, but he still seemed to end up at The Sword & Scroll Tavern at least once a sulid. Damned near everyone in the area did. Being near a starport, there wasn\u2019t a lack of bars in and near Lus Ville, but to anyone who wanted more than a drink — or who didn\u2019t want a drink at all — the only one was The Sword & Scroll. And, as ex-military, he got a 10% discount.<\/p>\n

As soon as he walked in this night, he noticed all the noise and crowd near one of the dartboards.<\/p>\n

\u201cHa! Beat that!\u201d said a voice he knew very well. I wonder what she\u2019s up to now,<\/em> he thought as he wandered over to join the crowd watching the young ninja.<\/p>\n

He saw a young man that he thought was one of the newer Daggers take a swig of something clear and far too innocent looking for him to believe it was anything except high proof alcohol. Then the young man was blindfolded by an attractive young woman, who seemed quite pleased to have an excuse to touch him — Kenshin had never known getting blindfolded to involve so much groping. Oh, drunken blindfolded darts again. I guess Viktor\u2019s not here tonight, then.<\/em> Viktor, one of the proprietors, had explicitly forbidden blindfolded darts, with or without the additional complication of being drunk, thinking that the game was a tragic accident waiting to happen. Bobby, the other proprietor — and, incidentally, Kenshin\u2019s apprentice — took a much more relaxed outlook and just discouraged those who weren\u2019t ninja, Daggers, or Special Forces from playing.<\/p>\n

To Kenshin\u2019s surprise, the young man produced a very nice looking throwing knife out of seemingly nowhere and flung it at the dartboard. He looked for the first time at the board itself. Sure enough, a throwing knife he recognized as Lyndsey\u2019s was just a touch farther from the bullseye than the young man\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cImpressive,\u201d he commented.<\/p>\n

The young man shrugged. \u201cNot really. Was a bit off.\u201d He looked upset about this.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you won this round anyway,\u201d Lyndsey said, handing over twenty credits. Noticing Kenshin, she said, \u201cHey, sensei!\u201d The alcohol smell on the short woman\u2019s breath was overpowering enough that he wondered how she was still standing. \u201cI can do better than that, but was takin\u2019 it easy on Katri.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTaking it . . . fine, triple or nothing. And no \u2018going easy\u2019, eh?\u201d Katri said, in an unmistakably lower class Ruvellian accent.<\/p>\n

Lyndsey suddenly had a huge smile on her face. \u201cYou\u2019re on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kenshin smirked, looked at where their knives had hit the board, estimated how drunk they already were, and said, \u201cLet me show you both how to do this right.\u201d<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Half an hour later, at least a hundred credits richer — he\u2019d lost count after winning seventy-five, and more than a bit tipsy himself, Kenshin, now smiling broadly, refused their offer of another round. \u201cI\u2019ve won plenty off of you kids tonight. And I think you\u2019re both risking alcohol poisoning. Why don\u2019t you go home and sleep it off? Rematch next time we\u2019re all here?\u201d<\/p>\n

He walked away before they could argue, deciding to come back to the bar more often. He couldn\u2019t remember the last time he\u2019d had that much fun.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Kenshin later heard that Lyndsey tried to explain to her father, when Viktor got word of the game, that the notice by the dartboard just said no drunken blindfolded darts, it said nothing whatsoever about knives, but he was, in her words \u201ccompletely unreasonable. Kept going on about how someone could\u2019ve gotten hurt or killed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The notice was changed. The next time Kenshin was at the Sword & Scroll it read:<\/p>\n

Blindfolded darts is forbidden.
\nDrunken blindfolded darts is especially forbidden.
\nSubstituting throwing knives for darts is forbidden.
\nEven if you can hit a bullseye with a throwing knife from 1000 var\u0135\u00e9 away.
\nThis applies to you too, Kenshin Kenodori.<\/p>\n

He smiled at the last line. It had been decades since he\u2019d been specifically mentioned in a list of rules like that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kenshin wasn\u2019t much of a drinker, but he still seemed to end up at The Sword & Scroll Tavern at least once a sulid. Damned near everyone in the area did. Being near a starport, there wasn\u2019t a lack of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":14,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-192","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P1Y5CS-36","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":307,"href":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/192\/revisions\/307"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}