A Look at The Final Bout

[Wisper]

Written by Onas

Though not as old as it's home city, this bar has a history of its very own. Fifty years ago, in the dirty streets of Teporatz, two gangs competed for control of prostitution and gun running in the county. A business man at that time tended to pay two protection fees each month rather than just one, and for its crime the city was slowly dying. A dead end road in the eastern end of the town, Song Street, had become the highlight of gang spats. The Alliance moved in en' force and effectively put a stop to the violence, leaving two gangs a lot of anger, with no firearms. Their story did not end there.

A hot dog stand on Song Street was one of the last legitimate businesses that survived, and perhaps it was the vendors moxy that kept him open. That and his alcohol. One night a fight broke out amongst his patrons right in front of his stand, and rather than call the authorities, the vendor wagered over which he believed would win. The other men matched his wager and in the end, the vendor was the richer man. If you asked him today, he would tell you that was his start. The next two weeks, the two gangs began to come to Song Street to settle their differences, and while it generally stopped at a knockout, there were some bloodier mix-ups. The only thing that shut them down at the night's end was the streetlight that automatically shut off at 2AM.

After those two weeks, the vendor realized he'd made more money over the fighting and alcohol, than he had being open all day. He stopped selling until after dark where he began to more or less create formal matches with proper bets. This went on for the better part of two years. A local small turbine business on the corner went under, and the vendor bought the building with his income. The fights went from the streets, to his backroom. In the front, it was a respectable bar. Pool tables and the like. In the back, it was a cage match without the cage. The vendor named his bar, 'The Street Song.'

Several years later he had become a silent arena for the backside of the city. Gangs were no longer his only competitors, but any who wanted to take a chance. With so much continuous clientele, he could no longer maintain his allusion of being a simple bar, so the vendor got legitimate permits, and bought a real arena not far from his old bar, and named it "The Bout." In time this too grew, and his popularity grew as all manner of Persephonians would come to watch, bet, and indeed, take part in the fighting. One night in a slower year, the vendor started a last fight special. If a man could win the final bout of the night, he would drink free at The Bout for a month. This was done every Friday night. As extra incentive, he extended his bar's inventory as much as he could with his finances. Some loyal patrons helped him in this endeavor.

If his business had been good before, it was now explosive. Every Friday night the bar alone would generate enough income to fund the business for a month, and trying to decide a final bout could be downright difficult, as every man who laid claim to the belt, was hard pressed to let go. In time, he opened it up to Friday, Saturday and Sunday final bouts. This move netted the vendor enough profit to make one more expansion. Following King Phillip's rise and the end of the purge, the owner built a custom arena, with a 'coliseum' feel that could handle any volume. It's name change one last time, to "The Final Bout." It did not have one stage as it's predecessors, but five. And while there were still tables near the middle, there was now also an upper deck with private booths that one can rent for the night. Another feature the vendor added was the famous 'perimeter bar.' A single bar that stretched the circumference of the building. Under the glass counter is a list of every beverage available on the planet, in alphabetical order.

If you're looking to drink, watch a fight, make some cash, or just want to knock someone's block off, this is your place.

[Yautja]

This is an Inside look at an early thread that went on for 83 posts back in the day. If you'd like to go back and see how bad my spelling was when I didn't have Roger or Google Chrome auto correct, or if you'd like to see a more in depth view of The Final Bout the way we imagined it, that thread has been linked even from here. Woot to your roots mofugger. I hope that this bar gets a ton more use, and that the setting gets even more embellished in time, perhaps even some NPC's start gaining some life. At any rate, I'm throwing this whole thing together after a wonderful intro into the thread Reminiscence by our new member Dave who dived right in and got into an adventure. So Dave, hope you enjoy, and hopefully this will add a bit of shape to our world!

Onas, Justin and Nick walked into The Final Bout well into the evening and the place was already packed. Callin this place a simple bar would be a sore misplacement of words. It was a huge round building and tonight looked to bolster more than seven hundred patrons. Above the main stage, was a prompt screen that read the betting statistics for the fights on the five stages, and three cameras trained the center stage at all times, broadcasting to the verse. Onas was ecstatic to be there that night, Nick and he had come plenty, but this was his brother's first night. Onas was determined that J would enjoy it.

They stepped up to the front of the line, a bouncer checked them in saying, "I need your ID, credit card, and place your hand on the scanner till it goes green." Onas did so and after the machine beeped, he motioned his brother to do the same. Justin gave him a quick odd glance and then went ahead. The bouncer handed their effects back and instructed in a bored tone, "Your prints are good for the night. All transactions and bets are final as soon as they clear, don't ask about a refund because it will not happen. No fighting outside of the rings, no drinking in the center ring. Don't go to the upper deck unless you rent a booth. If you want to fight, sign the waver at any table or the bar. Enjoy your evening gentlemen, good luck."

"You too Val," Onas said to the bouncer, then he nudged his brother and said, "Come on J, you can put your stuff in these lockers. Hurry up bro, you gotta check out this bar... Oh man, hello hottie." He said turning on his heel and continuing backwards, as he passed a scantly dressed woman.

Justin followed him a step or two past the woman, and caught his arm as Onas was still walking backwards, "Onas did you and Nick just put your fingerprints in a scanner?"

"It's a closed loop that's wiped every night, your fingerprint now controls your tab, your bets, even these lockers." As Onas finished, he thumbed a scanable locker and deposited his weapons, id, gold jewelry and sunglasses. "Ya'll want to just use the one?"

"Naw dawg," Nick answered opening the adjacent, "Last time I did that, I had to lift your unconscious body off the floor to get my stuff."

"Which was awesome!" Onas laughed.

"No it wasn't."

"Come on," Onas hurried them. He led his brother over past thralls of patrons to the main perimeter bar, stopping only to watch major moments in the ongoing fights, or to look at women. He stepped up to the bar and showed his brother how it worked. Under the glass was 'the list' Onas had told Justin so much about. It was name after name of drinks available for order, some were drinks that had to be shipped to order, and had a time table if you wanted to wait. Justin looked at it in awe, they were in the "H's."

"Where do they store all this," He asked.

"Rumor mill is there's a basement as big as this room under it, filled with alcohol, but ya gotta work here to see that." Nick answered. He put two fingers down on a label and swiped them apart keeping contact with the glass. A window opened showing the prepared drink's picture, and a description of what was in it. Justin looked at Nick and declared;

"Oh that's just shiny."

Nick smiled and lamented, "Not bad right?" With that he slid his fingers down at the same time and the image clicked with the words 'Order placed'

"What," Justin said, then he tried it for himself, "What if I want whiskey, I got to walk to the W's?"

Onas put his fingers down as Nick had and spread them apart, this time, he slid them up the screen and the box went clear with a mic prompt. Even over all the noise, it registered Onas saying, "Whiskey." And in the box a list off all the whiskeys in the joint started. "When you open a search, you can take your hands off and start again inside the window. It gets fun when you get ta drinkin and can't see as good."

"Diesel," Justin said smiling. He tried it out. He now noticed his own name faintly in the background of his window, "That's awesome, Whiskey."

After playing with the bar for a minute, the got themselves a table, and Justin noted it had the same system. After a few minutes of talking and drinking, Onas ordered a plate of Silk Eel and three bags of wafers.

Onas sat chatting with Nick and his brother while they waited for the food to be brought out. He showed Justin that placing a bet could be done from the tabletop in the same manner as ordering a drink or food, the touch screen registered bets, and had triple warnings before placing one. Probably in place to answer the groans of those who mistakenly placed bets once they were drunk. You could also open a window on the table that showed the video feeds of games on major cortex servers, major news feeds or even of the main fight in the center ring. They were close enough to the rings that it wasn't necessary, but still, it was a nice touch. All in all, the owner really had a state of the art establishment going for himself, for an outer planet.

"So the thumb prints, that's kind'of an easy mark for a grab, how do they keep theft down," Justin asked.

Onas smiled with the edge of his mouth, cocked his head sideways, leaned closer and answered looking around the room, "Only an idiot would snatch from here." Onas waved his finger across the breath of the building, "This whole place is mafia backed. A long peace back, like, thirty years or something, the owner expanded it to this and got a really big selection of drink. But he couldn't afford it on his own, so he went to Minerva for a front. She cut a deal wit him instead, protection. So she supplied the booze, and the muscle, he did somethin for her."

"What?"

"Whatever it was, it must have been good. I know that she still collects a peace of the action even today, from the drink and the bets." Onas cut his talk short as the waitress came up with the Silk Eel. It was a large bowl of thick milky looking cream. Onas stirred it with a knife, and stringy meat could be seen swirling in it, and then sinking back to the bottom. Onas tossed Nick a bag of wafers, and handed one to his brother, then took two out, and spooned some of the Eel in between his wafers, and ate the whole thing. Nick did the same and Justin truly looked as though he'd lost his appetite. Onas chuckled as he and Nick exchanged glances. "Try it bro."

"You done fallen an bumped yo head twice," Justin spouted with a grimace, "I ain't touchin that nasty albino la shi."

Onas and Nick busted out with laughter, and Onas clapped his brother on the shoulder, "That was basically my first reaction. It's good though." Onas and Nick continued to dig into the bowl while Justin continued to ask questions about the fights. Onas explained that only the middle ring had rules, but as he'd never gone in it, he didn't know them. The four outside rings though, had no rules, just a knockout or a quit. Anyone could tap out or quit, other than that, it was whatever. Most guys fought in pants only. No shirt, no shoes, no belts. Nothing your opponent could use against you. "You can hit someone with anything, if it's in the ring when you start. See those guys?" He pointed to ring four, "They got drinks on the mat, probably theirs right? Well if one of em grabs one of em, they can smash em over the other guys head and it's no foul."

"Your kidding."

"Nope, that's why.. OOHHH! Ta De Tou" Onas yelped with Eel in his mouth. In the ring they had just pointed at, the winner had cracked his opponent's head against the turnbuckle. Blood was everywhere. Nick slapped Justin's arm and bounced in his chair. Onas shook his head smiling, "Like I said, no rules. But that's why there's a waver."

Some time later, Nick wiped his hands as Onas took the last scoop of Eel, and announced, "Boys and girls, it's drink time."

"Dri' 'im," Onas asked before swallowing more food than he could manage quickly.

"Dri' time, " Nick repeated, "What we havin J?"

Justin opened his search and typed a second, then he smiled as he found something, and opened the window larger under the table glass, "Sprout thirty!"

"Mm-mm," Onas shook his head no, as he wiped his mouth, "No we're not."

"Yes we are," Nick said eagerly, "What! They have sprout thirty five... Sprout forty! What is that?"

Onas shook his head, "I will do one, maybe two shots of '30, I'm not doin thirty five, and Sprout fourty, what is that, two hundred proof? I'm sorry guys but I'm a smoker, and I'm not bursting into flames here."

Justin nagged him ordering three '35s. "Where's your sense of adventure?"

"No, no. No adventure here. I don't like my throat on fire. Or pukin," They talked for a bit more, while Onas reserved a spot in ring four.

The waitress came back and put the drinks down, as she did, she added, "Three brave souls."

Onas tapped her tip pad while it was still tucked against her chest and generously tipped her with a wink. She curtsied, smiled with very clean teeth, and strutted away. "Mm.." Onas watched her wander off, then he turned to his friends and they all toasted and drank. I will describe their reactions only as such; They knew what Sprout thirty five was before they drank it, but it didn't really help. Two more rounds of that, and Onas' number was up. He got down to the ring, and stripped down to just his jeans and tank top.



Clairabella had found her way to The Final Bout the last six nights. watching and learning how the people around here fought. It was quiet the rough place exactly the kind of place she had found herself fancying more and more as she got older. Today was going to be different though she had tossed her name in and signed up to fight. There had been a lot of repeat fighters in the place and she had learned most of how they worked they would be easy targets for her tonight.

Unlike most of them she hadn't had a drink no instead she planned to stay sober and keep her wits about her while they loosened themselves of for a tough night in the ring. She had ordered a drink though, a double of Sprout forty to take in the ring with her. That would be more then enough to slow someone down for a moment and that was all she needed. Most of the other fighters were big and lumbering compared to her and her agility would give her control of the fight.

She watched on as a few fights began and ended with one poor sap bleeding or out cold. Soon her turn was coming. She walked over to one of the lockers and removed her Jacket and ear rings. Leaving her wearing a skin tight blue shirt that had no stretch to it, along with a pair of black pants that give her a good range of movement. Unlike the men she wasn't going to be doing the fight shirtless so she had to have something that would give little chance to be used against her.

As her ring cleared of the last set of fighters she walked down to the ring and looked it over before climbing in. She could see the glistening of moisture on it from the prior fights on it tonight. She removed her shoes and socks setting them outside the ring. She would have better traction with bare feet in this ring. Then she set her glass on the side of the ring and slid between the ropes and up in to it. The crowd roared when she did, likely due to her small stature compared to any of the other fighters. The 5'5" woman was likely one of the smallest to step in to the ring in a long time.

Her eyes gazed over the crowd looking for who would be her Challenger. Person by person she looked over the other fighters she had seen before waiting for one of them to walk forward.

"Come on who is it." She said to herself as she continued to scan the room, spotting one of them moving closer she took a deep breath and felt a bit of relief this one would be easy. It was then that he stopped and took a seat, not him it appeared. "Come on."



Onas checked with the ref and then climbed into the ring. His opponent was a thin woman, only a few inches shorter than himself. She didn't look like much to be honest. A few folks near the ring jeered at him being put against a women, and Onas couldn't help but chuckle a little, he turned so she wouldn't see it. He wasn't poking fun at the las, but still. Oj took a big drink of his beer, and set the bottle near his stool. Fighters in these rings had no rules, so stools didn't get a lot of use. But he'd seen, in fact been in fights were both fighters agreed to take a minute and they would go to their corners. Either way, almost every fight had some kind of alcohol on the mat.

The ref walked to the middle and looked to each of them, Onas walked closer and stood there smoking his cigarette while the man gave what must have been the shortest ref speech in the verse;

"When one of you quits, taps out or goes limp, the fights over. Keep it in the ring people. Touch up."

Onas took one last full toke from his cigarette before thumping it out of the ring, and blew his smoke out heavily before extending his fist to hers. The ref dropped his hand and that was it, no horn, no bell, no whistle, just fight. He smiled briefly. Onas threw his hands up and started closing right there. He threw two quick left jabs, and then followed up with a strong right punch, pivoting on his heal for added force.

If he landed that last one, he planned to follow it up with a low tone, just enough for her to hear him, "Your in the ring now."