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Caleb returned back to his position, leaned forward against the bar again, putting his bottle of beer into the bar. "Sometimes it's not about how loud you bark. It's about what folks think you'll do if they push the wrong button."
Lenny chuckled. "Either that or word gets around fast when you're the one who put Drew Dallas in the ground, even though I don't know who he was."
Caleb shrugged, feigning modesty. "Just saved the law some bullets."
Arthur laugh and slap his hand onto the bar. "Either way, I ain't complainin'. Saved me the trouble of knockin' his teeth out. I'll drink to that."
They returned to their drinks, the atmosphere lighter now. Lenny took another sip, then sighed. "Still... Micah. Dutch ain't usually wrong about people, but..."
"But?" Arthur prodded.
Lenny hesitated, then shook his head. "Nothin'. Just... be careful when you go get him, Arthur."
Arthur grunted. "Oh, I plan to be."
Caleb stayed quiet, swirling his beer. His earlier thoughts about riding to Strawberry resurfaced. If Arthur was already planning to break Micah out, that changed things.
Killing Micah now would mean going against Dutch's orders outright, something that could get him cast out or worse.
As Caleb was thinking, his mind juggling possibilities like poker chips in the hands of a desperate gambler, he heard Arthur speak up beside him, his voice tinged with warmth and mischief.
"Let's have one last drink," Arthur said, lifting his half empty bottle of beer and looking between Lenny and Caleb with a half grin.
Lenny, already a little flushed and swaying just slightly, chuckled and raised his own bottle. "Yeah, just one more," he agreed, his tone carrying the unspoken promise that it wouldn't be just one.
The two clinked their bottles together, and Caleb sighed and chuckled at the same time, a tired but amused sound.
"To hell with it," he muttered with a smirk, lifting his bottle and clinking it gently against theirs "Last one." The three of them toasted in loose unison, the clink of glass the beginning of what Caleb already knew would be a chaotic night.
Arthur downed his beer in one go, slamming the empty bottle onto the counter. "Bartender! Another round!"
The rest of the evening unfolded exactly as what Caleb remembered from the game, equal parts funny, chaotic, and wildly unpredictable.
Arthur and Lenny bought another round of beers, their enthusiasm contagious. Caleb nursed his first bottle still, not in any rush to match their pace. The night was still young, and he had no intention of drinking himself into a stupor, not when he knew exactly how this night ended. But watching it happen in real time? That was something else entirely.
Another round followed. Then another. Caleb just watched as Arthur and Lenny slowly descended into the stages of intoxicated merriment. Eventually, they made the switch, beer turned to whiskey.
The two outlaw brothers, comrades in arms, now comrades in drink, moved from the bar to an empty table. Caleb followed, dragging a chair around and settling in beside them.
Lenny sloshed whiskey into his glass, missing some of it. "Arthur, you're, you're a terrible influence."
Arthur barked a laugh. "Me? You're the one keepin' up!"
Caleb smirked, finally cracking open his second beer. "Pretty sure you're both disasters."
"Here's to friends," Arthur mumbled, lifting his glass after pouring some whiskey on it. "And no goddamn Micah tonight."
"To no Micah," Lenny agreed, slurring slightly. "And no law dogs neither."
Caleb gave a half smile, raising his bottle instead of a glass. "I'll drink to that."
They went on, Arthur and Lenny polishing off a full bottle of whiskey together, their words becoming looser, their laughter louder. Caleb was sipping his second bottle of beer slowly as he watched the show unfold with amused detachment. He was here, but not lost in it like them, an observer with a front row seat to a scene burned into his gamer memory.
Eventually, the two stood up — well, staggered up — and grabbed another beer each. Caleb didn't follow this time. He leaned back in his chair, watching as Arthur and Lenny took their new drinks and flopped down on the bottom steps of the saloon's staircase, lying on their backs like overturned turtles as they drink their beer.
Arthur held his beer above his face, pouring it directly into his mouth and mostly onto his shirt, Lenny copied him, coughing when he inhaled half of it. Then the two of them lifted their bottles again, and emptied them in a single go, their faces twisted in grimaces as the alcohol burned down their throats.
Arthur let out a loud, theatrical exhale. "Now that's good," he declared, voice half hoarse.
"Burns like fire," Lenny croaked. "Good fire."
Caleb seeing this laugh and pinched the bridge of his nose at the same time. "Christ."
The two of them pulled themselves back to their feet and wandered over to where the piano man was playing a lively ragtime tune.
The pianist, a wiry man with suspenders and a worn cap, glanced briefly at them but didn't miss a note. Arthur clapped the top of the piano in rhythm, laughing as he bobbed his head along with the tune.
"That's great, partner!" Arthur said, giving the pianist a hearty slap on the shoulder. "Keep it goin', you got the whole place jumpin'!" The pianist nod his head, thanking Arthur for his kind words.
Caleb couldn't help but grin. This was exactly how it played out. The saloon bathed in amber light, the piano belting out a cheerful tune, Arthur's loud antics, Lenny's disappearing act. He put his elbows on the table in front of him, sipping his beer and watching.
Sure enough, Lenny began to wander off, disappearing from Arthur's side like a ghost in the night. Caleb didn't move. He knew what came next, and damn if it wasn't still funny.
Arthur was still looking at the pianist and when turned back to look at Lenny, he realize thag his partner in crime was no longer beside him. He turned slowly, confusion on his face.
"Lenny?!" Arthur called out, glancing left and right. "Lennnnyyy, where are you?!"
He pushed through the crowd, gently nudging aside a drunk patron. "You seen a black feller I was with? 'Bout this tall? Loud? Drunk?"
"Nope," came the reply.
Arthur moved on, staggered forward, bellowing, "LENNY?! LENNNNYYYY, where are you?!"
Caleb let out a low laugh, shaking his head. "And here we go."
Arthur kept it up, wandering from table to table, shouting Lenny's name, peering into faces as if one of them might be wearing a Lenny disguise. Arthur's search grew increasingly absurd, he checked under tables, behind the bar causing Mr. Douglas to shout at him, "Ain't hidin' back here, Mister!" and even peered into a potted plant like Lenny might've shrunk to the size of a squirrel.
When he got no answers on the first floor, he stomped upstairs, still yelling. "Lenny! Come on now, quit messin' around!"
Caleb finished his second beer and finally stood up. He didn't go looking, just leaned on the bar to get a better view of the second floor. The patrons up there gave Arthur confused and sometimes annoyed looks, but none of them stopped him.
Then he saw it—Lenny, standing on the second floor's balcony, a glass in hand, looking down at the saloon with glazed eyes and a big grin.
"Hey Arthur!" he called out, lifting the glass high like it was a trophy. "You know what... I don't know."
Arthur joined him at the railing, half laughing, half exasperated. "There you are, you little drunk bastard," he beamed.
Then the glass slipped from Lenny's head where he'd perched it, falling over the railing. Both men reached out like they could catch it, but it was too late. It crashed below, shattering, making a couple of patrons glance upward in alarm. Arthur and Lenny just laughed like kids breaking a window.
They went right back to drinking, another bottle of beer each. Then another. Caleb leaned against a pillar now, just watching, his grin wide. This was his favorite part, his favorite damn scene.
Arthur was suddenly bouncing up and down like a child who had too much sugar, arms flailing loosely as he hopped in place and his boots thudding against the floorboards as he whooped.
Lenny, equally drunk, began pounding his chest with one of his fist, letting out a wordless cry like a gorilla in the jungle while coughing. The two of them danced in their own worlds, oblivious to everything else.
Caleb burst out laughing. "Oh my god," he muttered. "It's exactly the same."
To anyone else, it looked like madness. But to Caleb, it was a memory come to life. A surreal, immersive echo of a game that he used play lovingly, scene that he could only hope to enjoy in game but now he can enjoy it real life.
As he thought so, Caleb saw Lenny slipping away from Arthur once again and heading downstairs to the bar, wobbling slightly as he held the railing for balance. "Alright, time to intervene before they drink Valentine dry."
Caleb waited for Lenny as he lean on the bar counter, watching at Lenny who made his way over, and intercepting him just as he reached the bar counter.
Lenny leaned heavily on the bar, grinning like a fool, and waved at Mr. Douglas. "Bartender! Another glass'a that, uh... the brown fire stuff!"
Before Mr. Douglas could respond, Caleb stepped in and placed a steadying hand on Lenny's shoulder. "Whoa there, Lenny," he said with a half smile, guiding the glass out of Lenny's reach. "I think you've had enough."
Lenny pouted, his eyebrows knitting together in drunken offense. "Oh c'mon, Caleb, hic, just one more. Just... one li'l more!" His words slurred together like molasses.
Caleb chuckled but shook his head. "No, Lenny. You've already had enough. I think Dutch wouldn't want us attractin' more attention than we already did last time with that saloon brawl."
Lenny, despite his inebriated state, seemed to register the mention of Dutch and the previous trouble. He sighed dramatically, a sound thick with whiskey fumes. "Alright, alright," he conceded, leaning heavily on the bar.
Just then, Arthur's voice boomed from upstairs, "LENNY?! LENNNY?! WHERE YOU AT?!" followed by the thunder of boots stomping across the second floor landing.
Unlike in the game, where Lenny was preoccupied with fending off two men, his path unblocked now, he drunkenly shouted back, "Down here, Arthur! I'm with Caleb at the bar!"
Caleb smirked. "Good. No fight, no mess—"
But fate, it seemed, had a different kind of chaos in store. As Lenny turned, intending to wave at Arthur, he staggered and clumsily bumped into a burly man standing beside him. The man, who was carefully holding a full glass of amber whiskey, cursed as the liquid sloshed over his hand and onto his expensive looking vest.
Silence.
"Watch it, you clumsy oaf!" the man growled, glaring at Lenny. His equally large companion stepped closer, his eyes narrowed.
Lenny, in his drunken haze, simply giggled. "Oops! Sorry, mister!" he slurred, his apology laced with far too much mirth. This only served to further infuriate the two men.
"Sorry ain't gonna cut it, you little pest," the first man said, reaching out to grab Lenny's arm. His friend mirrored the action on Lenny's other side. They clearly intended to "teach him a lesson."
Lenny, surprisingly agile despite his intoxication, managed to slip out of their grasp with a surprised yelp. Caleb, seeing the situation escalate, quickly stepped between Lenny and the two angry patrons, raising his hands in a placating gesture.
Caleb stepped between them, hands raised. "Gentlemen, I apologize for my friend, he didn't mean it. Just a drunk accident. No harm intended."
The first man shoved Caleb back. "Ain't your business, stranger."
It was then Arthur appeared at the foot of the stairs like an avenging drunk angel, his hat crooked, his glare lethal. "Leave the kid and the young man alone," Arthur snarled, pointing his finger at them. "You goddamn animals!" he roared, his voice echoing through the saloon.
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Name:Caleb Thorne
Age: 23
Body Attributes:
- Strength: 6/10
- Agility: 6/10
- Perception: 8/10
- Stamina: 6/10
- Charm: 5/10
- Luck: 5/10
Skills:
- Handgun (Lvl 2)
- Rifle (Lvl 2)
- Firearms Knowledge (Lvl 2)
- Past Life Memory (Lvl MAX)
- Knife (Lvl 1)
- Blunt Weapon (Lvl 1)
- Sneaking (Lvl 1)
- Horse Mastery (Lvl 2)
- Poker (Lvl 1)
- Hand to Hand Combat (Lvl 1)
- Eagle Eye (Lvl 1)
- Dead Eye (Lvl 1)
- Bow (Lvl 2)
- Pain Nullifier (Lvl 1)
- Physical Regeneration (Lvl 0)
Money: 665 dollars and 61 cents
Bank: 40 dollars, 2 gold bars, a large bag of jewelry, and 3 gold nuggets