As he had said, Sledge did not leave his stool until he had had his fill of his chips. They had warmed his stomach, steeling it against any of the wobbles from before. Just a bit of food went a long way when you’re on the brink of starvation and Sledge was beginning to feel human again. With his last fry down he neatly wiped the access salt of his fingers with a napkin. The two old gents had waited long enough for the game of arrows. “Righ’ then? Don’t reckon you’ll take it easy on me just because I’m new to the country?”

He took his arrows and rolled one between his fingers. The condition of the equipment was of no concern of his. Sledge had never played the game with a perfect set of arrows. Pubs back home only ever had the cheep plastic ones, and those often got battered and broken. What he was thinking about was how wise it would be for him to actually play the game. Making a fist activated those strong punches, David had figured that much out already. How tightly a fist had to be made he wasn’t sure of so far. David played a little with the dart, trying to find a comfortable way to hold it that made as little a fist as possible.

"Oh we'll take it easy on you all right. Wouldn't want to get you to work up an appetite and makes break again for potatoes." Smitty rattled out in his gravelly tone.

O'leary cackled as if Smitty said the most amusing thing he had ever heard, They weren't mean, but they played a solid game and didn't go easy on anyone, they both stove for the perfect game.

" so lets play an easy game of three oh one." Smitty didn't bother to ask if either of them knew the rules he just rattled them off. You take away what you land on from three o one and try to get to zero. hit the smaller rings for double.



Aedus watched David closely and presented his hold on a Dart to the man, simple. pinch with two fingers let the rest of them lay comfortable where they may, it almost looked like you were making the sign for ok except with a dangerous pin in your hand.

“Age before beauty then,” Sledge said, stepping to the side to allow the challengers the first shot. Aedus offered him his technique for holding the dart. Sledge simply stared at the obsidian man. He had said that he played darts before. Obviously he knew how to hold the blasted thing. Just the way that David had held it in the past was more like a fist. Instinctively his hands curled around the dart in his usual way. Once the tips of his fingers made contact with his palm there was the familiar tightening of his skin, that heavy weight to it. No good. Such a sensation happened the day he punched through a wall for the first time.

He released his hold on the arrow. Take your time, think this out. You can hold it like you always have and risk having arms like noodles the rest of the day. Could also end up driving the arrow through the board and get kicked out for destroying something. Or you could play the game awkwardly and play it safe. “I thought we were playing darts, not practicing our needlepoint,” he hassled the old men as he went for his first shot. Keep things light and airy, take your time, get the feel of the dart. There’s three people what can go before you. It’s not as though you have to be particularly nimble with this, just accurate.

Aedus cackled at the old geezers as the accepted that they were indeed Age. He shrugged at David, if he didn’t want tips on how to hold a dart maybe he shouldn’t look at it like he’d never seen one before. What was up with that? He watched the old men hit their marks with a decent bit of accuracy, two 20’d and a ten for o’leary and a triple 9 and two tens for Smitty. That put their score at ninety seven the first round out. That left them 204 to go. It however had to be perfect, so even if they got a good lead on them on knocking down the score it didn’t mean the game was over by any means. Though the old men certainly seemed to think so.
“Oh, we are just sewing you into a body bag my boy. Let see the walk not the talk youngin.”

Aedus looked at Drew in wonder if he was going to throw or not. Aedus tossed the first dart and hit a 7, the second hit a 9 and the third hit a lucky triple 10. Dropping their 301 down to 260. It wasn’t bad, but it was all luck. Aedus was trying to get used to his augmented body. He was not the most graceful like this.

Aedus pat David on the back, he needed 56 to keep up.

Great, Aedus hadn't gotten a double, which meant that the two of them still had a score of 301. Now the pressure was on Sledge. He aimed carefully for the twenty double. The last time that he had played 301 he had been told of a simple to get close to half the points taken off in the first round. Double twenty, single twenty, triple twenty. His first shot was true, getting the double twenty as he had meant, but that had been a fluke. This really doesn't feel right, Sledge thought, taking his second shot. Single five. Such a shot would get him laughed out of the local pub back home, and it wasn't doing much for him either. Change of plans.

Sledge lowered his aim, no longer going for the high twenty, but rather for the nineteen. When one scoring area doesn't work right, move onto something that is an easy hit. "Looked more like a tea cozy to me," he joked back before tossing his last dart. It wasn't in the nineteen like he had planned, which irked Sledge. Aedus's grip of the dart felt more natural, but that made too close a fist. With the way that he had to throw the darts now David wanted to chop his hands off. Triple seven.

The score whittled away in his partners grasp, he wasn't bad certainly did better than he had. But it left Smitty and o'leary chuckling and clucking insults at them. good natured or not they were hurting for points and these geezers were giving what for.

The old men's round brought their score from.204 to 19. Aedus shook his head in dis belief these old men were ringing them. He should pay attention more to who could play what, but it helped that the owner didn't let people bet on games against each other in the pub, it left hard feelings at the door.

He had thought that the triple would get their score down but realized he should have been aiming for the doubles.

When his turn rolled around again he hit a double 15 and a triple 10 and....a single 8. Did he know how to play this game, he was pretty sure he helped this time... at least more than he had the first round.

"Don't play much do you?" Sledge asked Aedus after the man's last round. Aedus might be thinking that their score was down to one twenty-six, but seeing as he hadn't hit a double in their first round, in Sledge's mind they stood at a mere one hundred thirty four. Should he bite the bullet and just let the old men win? Would such an act make him appear better in Maggie's book? Some men just hate to loose, and if you let them win it just makes things worse for yourself.

He switched his hold on the darts. Those men that hate to loose? He was one of them. It was one of the reasons why he stayed in scraps with his mates, even when he was the one taking all the punches. There was the tensing up in his muscles, and he knew that the dart would fly at a speed that no normal human would be able to throw it at. His first dart went whizzing, hitting the double twenty yet again. With the addition of his mutation it stuck into the board deeper than it should have. On the plus side with a smaller score, his opponents would have to be extra careful with their tosses. Nine isn't a very wide berth, and if they didn't take care they would easily bust. On the other hand he was playing against people who were better than him and could probably get rid of that nine on their first toss. Now was the time to follow the plan that had been taught to him. The single twenty came easily as well, now that he was using his own technique for throwing the darts, but Sledge could feel something wrong with it.

Aedus, while having scored higher than Sledge consistently, didn't seem to have a plan on how to play. To the con man it looked as though his partner was just throwing the dart and wherever it landed was fine with him. While taking a hundred and twenty points off was tempting, he had to think about Aedus. The man played before he did, and it was David's job to clean up after him. Really, David should give him some more wiggle room. Next toss hit a triple ten, the last a simple ten. Plenty of room for Aedus to throw things at random.

Aedus shook his head and watched the old men get read to throw their shots. Shamus lined up his first throw And Aedus sneezed a terribly loud sneeze. the old man's dart didn't even hit the board. Oops. The next two shots went to crap as he was too flustered and grumpy to concentrate. Shamus glared at Aedus.

"bad timing old man, I apologize." to be fair he did make the pre-sneeze sounds.

O'leary raised an eyebrow at him and then threw three darts that brought their score down to 1. Aedus looked over to David. " What should I hit?" Aedus grinned at the man. and hit the board in the spots that he suggested, leaving the clean up to David.

With the most recent round the score stood at one to fifteen. Aedus had done a spot on job hitting the points that Sledge had wanted him to. This was the hardest part of the game. You had to be extremely precise with each toss to avoid busting. A higher number was useful if you doubted your aim. He hadn’t tossed arrows with Aedus before. Their competitors had probably played together before, given how well they had managed to whittle down their score. It was going to be difficult for them to hit a single one without busting.

However after six shots with his hand in a fist Sledge’s arm was aching terribly. His hand did not want to fully extend without him bending the fingers away. He put his arrows down while he had the chance and tried to rub the feeling back into his fingertips. Some of the worst aches were right at the wristbone. This was what always happened when he through a punch too many times. There never was pain at impact, just the pain afterwards when his arm became heavy.

As much as he hated the thought of loosing David didn’t want another round of the game. By now his stomach and legs had made a full recovery, but his arm was going to pieces. It wasn’t in him to forfeit. The man was too stubborn to just give in, a fault that had gotten him in trouble in the past. Either the two grandpas had to win or Aedus would have to end the game. David doubted he could even hold onto the darts right at this point.

He wouldn't have to worry about another round at all. O'leary wiped up the last of it on his turn leaving the youngsters to scamper away.

"Ha! Take that ya punks." smitty called. O'Leary laughed and added. " Maybe next time you'll teach us old folks to play billards.

Aedus shook his head, I can play pool. you want to dance that jig sometime old man, I'll beat you one round from the break. He wasn't talking smack he was just being honest in this case.

He grinned and patted David on the back. " We lost, but for whatever reason I think it's what Maggie wanted. I' think I just might go cover the rest of her shift, so she can take the night off." He winked at David. " It was good meeting you, I hope I see ya around here more often."

Aedus walked over to Maggie, Reached around her boldly undid the ribbon at the back of her apron and in one motion was tying around his waist. she laughed at him and swatted him lightly on the shoulder. and made her way toward David, what happened from there he probably didn't want to know about.