[Knickknacks]

username: knickknacks
name: asher
what are they mad about?:

“Hi there- is this drink alcoholic?”

Asher glanced blearily up at the small figure that had hopped onto the seat next to him. He was tired, his head hurt, and he was decidedly not in the mood for conversation right now. He gave a short jerk of his head in response.

“No? Perfect,” the voice said again, followed by a sliding sound that Asher realized meant his drink was being pulled away from him.

“Hey- that’s mine!” He snapped indignantly as the culprit- a small brown kit- took a sip of the drink through the brightly striped straw, gazing at Asher with innocent blue eyes.

“It’s probably good that this isn’t alcoholic,” the kit remarked. “Judging by the state you’re in now. I’ve seen you picking a bunch of fights in the bar already- imagine the havoc you’d wreak if you’d been drinking alcohol. It’s a good smoothie, though.” He held the glass away from him, eyeing it thoughtfully. Asher’s insides gave an uncomfortable wrench- some weird combination of tiredness and anger and embarrassment at the way this kid was assessing him.

“Shut up- you don’t know anything about it. And give me my drink back,” he growled softly, reaching out and plucking the glass out of the offender’s paws.

“Why don’t you explain it to me?” The kit asked, leaning on the counter as Asher took a large sip, huffing moodily. “The bartender’s noticed your behavior. If you’re not careful you might find yourself getting kicked out of here soon.”

“That’s none of your busin-” Asher spluttered, slamming his paws down on the counter, his anger spiking up again. He glared over at the kit beside him and happened to make eye contact with the frowning bartender as he did so, hovering somewhere over the kid’s shoulder.

“-ugh. Fine,” he muttered. “So maybe I’ve been a bit aggressive tonight. But,” he raised his voice dramatically, “I’ve only been behaving this way because- well-”

“You’re sleep-deprived?” The kit guessed helpfully. “Delirious?”

“No!” Asher protested. He was silent for a moment before relenting. “Fine. Maybe I am a little sleep-deprived. But mostly I’m mad because I forgot my bathing suit at home. My swim trunks! I’m on a cruise and I can’t even swim because I forgot my bathing suit. Can you believe that?”

“I- sure,” the kid said, doubtfully. “But- have you considered just... getting a new pair from the gift shop? Or substituting a pair of old athletic shorts, if you have any?”

Asher stopped talking abruptly. He really did need sleep, it seemed, if he had failed to notice that simple solution.

“Well. I feel like an idiot now,” he grumbled.

“Don’t worry. Everyone’s prone to temporary bouts of idiocy,” The kit said sagely, patting him on the arm and stealing another sip from Asher’s smoothie.

470 words

[Eleya]

username: Eleya
name: Sofia
what are they mad about?:
Sofia got some rather bad news from home that day. Her best friend was diagnosed cancer. Right when she heard about it, she got mad about how unfair the universe was. He is litterally the sweetest and nicest guy in the world and gets punished by destiny like that.

Well, that wouldnt probably make someone get aggressive at a bar. But as a matter of fact, Sofia likes to drown her worries in some alcoholics. After a quite a few Tequila Sunrises, things turned worse. Rather drunk and still mad at how unfair the world is, she couldn't stand those people ranting about the drinks prices. Wearing the most expensive clothes, but not able to pay for a drink? It was that tiny bit to much. She went over to them and told them how happy they were ought to be, that they could be there together. They simply told her to keep her nose in her own business and get lost.

Again, Sofia wouldnt have acted like that if she wasnt drunk like that. She took one of the drinks and dumped it right into the girls face. When the boy tried to tell her off again, he got the second drink right into his face. Well, and thats how the fighting began.

[Ethulai]

username: Ethulai
name: Agave
what are they mad about?:

Radford can not believe what he's just heard.
"Do I look like a doorman to you?" he asks incredulously.
"I asked politely, didn't I?" Brandy responds, shrugging nonchalantly.
"I'm not some bohunk, are you trippin'?" Radford snarls at the bartender, fur bristling.
"Thought you could handle it," Brandy hisses, flinching as a glass comes sailing over the bar.
"I'm on vacation!"
"Listen kid, like I said I thought you looked like the kind of kalon who could come in handy but I guess I was wrong," the bartender says, sneering.

As Radford opens his mouth to continue arguing with Brandy a large male, his fur a blinding gold, slams into his back causing him to spill his water. He pivots on his heels and clocks the offender in the mouth who reels back, roaring in pain.
"The hell you do that for?" he bellows at Radford.
"Bite me you airhead!" Radford growls.
"Tough guy, eh?" the burly kalon shoots back, looking him up and down. "Can't say much about your fashion choices, what you trying to channel, 80s geek realness?"

Radford had grown up in this modern era, but never felt like he belonged. Ostracised, a frequent victim of bullying, coming from a broken home had both added to his despair and fueled his desperation to find his identity. He had flitted through every subculture like a chameleon, blending and shaping himself into what caught his interest at the time from Anime to Zazou. Every door he opened, every genre dabbled in ended up feeling like an ill-fitted coat. Until punk. Punk spoke to his heart, to his soul...and this scumbag had the audacity to insult his style?

He got right up in the kalon's face, so they were nose to nose.
"You're dead," he hissed.
"You're on!" the kalon replied.
Next thing everyone knew, they were brawling in front of the bar.
The patrons formed a loose circle around the pair, cheering and hollering wildly as the violence fueled their blood lust.
"This is not the kind of help I required!" Brandy yelled.
Radford and the golden kalon couldn't hear him, they were too busy exchanging blows. They wrestled across the bar, knocked over tables, scuffled in the entryway before ending up on the deck in the fresh air. The crowd from the bar flowed in their wake, circling the pair like sharks hunting for fresh meat.
Brandy found himself the sole occupant of the bar and chuckled quietly, enjoying the sudden peace.

Two security guards on the deck approached the brawling pair, wrenched them apart and started marching them to an unknown destination while other guards dispersed the crowd (making it clear they were to return and stay in their cabins until they started to act civilised). Radford and his fighting partner struggled against the guards' holds, but their efforts were fruitless. After walking through unknown passages and down flights of stairs they were thrown into two simple cells. One guard left the room while the other crossed his arms and waited silently, ignoring their protests. Another kalon entered the room, muscles bulging, sunglasses obscuring his eyes.

"Welcome to the brig, boys." he said, voice whiskey-smooth.
"Enjoy your new accomodation for the night. If you act nice, maybe I'll let you visit our nurse in the morning. If you don't, doesn't bother me because once I leave and close this door here no one will hear your protests. You act up like this again and you'll be thrown off this Kruise the next time we port. First and final warning."
The kalon, who appeared to be the head of security, turned and left without another word.

"This is all your fault," the golden kalon crooned to Radford, his voice drifting from the adjacent cell.
"Shut up, Space Cadet," Radford shot back.
"Agave. A-G-A-V-E. That's the name. Use it, since we're stuck here together."
Radford snorted. "Tequila Sunrise, got it."
"Now you tell me yours, so I can also think of a clever nickname" Agave taunted.
"Radford," he begrudgingly offered, not knowing why he was allowing himself to be drawn into this strange conversation.
"Radish, got it," Agave said smugly.

Radford couldn't help himself, he started roaring with laughter.
"That the best you can do?" he asked Agave, howling with mirth.
"Look, I don't know about you but I'm pretty sure you knocked out some of my intelligence, and I had so little to begin with!"
"Meathead," Radford chuckled.
"It was fun though."
"Yeah, sick."
"Males are so stupid hey?"
Radford reflected on this a little before reluctantly agreeing. "Yeah. Why were you acting so aggressive in the bar dude?"

For a long time Agave didn't answer and Radford regretting asking the question, admitting to himself that despite all odds he liked this hot headed moron who appeared to be named after the plant used to make an alcoholic beverage.
"I can't seem to control my anger," Agave admitted softly. "I came on this godforsaken Kruise to get away from my life but I can't stop thinking about it. Just another teenage tragedy, me. Fell in love with a girl and we messed around too much and she got pregnant. Tried to make it work for the sake of our daughter but it turned out she was actually fooling around with my best friend behind my back. Now she can't tell either of us who the biological father is so she's keeping her away from both of us. I don't even care, she's still my daughter." he trailed off miserably.
"That sucks, man," Radford said, sympathetically. "Hey, we got all night right? Why don't you tell me the whole story?"

Thus began a ironclad friendship that would extend beyond the vacation, across continents and time.

[VoidRinkusu]

username: VoidRinkusu
name: Jaylin
what are they mad about?:

It was bad enough that he wouldn’t shut up.

I don’t even think he knew the guy he was rambling to, the poor fellow was just staring into his glass and nodding absently, occasionally sparing him an anxious glance. Seems I wasn’t the only one who wanted him to can it. At any other time, I either would have ignored him or left the space, but my god did he piss me off.
He was clearly drunk, his speech was muddled but loud enough to hear from the other end of the bar and he was moving pretty unpredictably. That didn’t bother me, though.
No, what got on my nerves was the topic he’d chosen.

Who knows why, but he had gone off on a rant about non-binary and trans kalons. He kept repeating, louder every time, “There are only two genders! Just stick with the one God gave you!” Followed by choppy sentences that contained things like “it’s just unnatural! Truly disgusting!” or “it’s not what God intended!”
As I said, at any other time, I wouldn’t get involved, but his insensitivity and inaccuracy on the topic did not mix well with the tequila I had been drinking. I slowly rose from my stool and approached him.
“Hey.” I caught his attention.
“Please stop talking about trans and non-binary kals like that.” He squinted at my comment, trying to process what I was telling him.
“What?” He mumbled, grimacing at me.
“Quit talking about non-binary and trans kalons like that, alright?” I said, louder this time. He laughed and swayed weakly.
“Nah. I’ll say whatever I want about those freaks.” He concluded with a content smirk, picking up his glass. I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and gave him a shake.
“The hell..?” He started but I cut him off.
“Shut up. Just shut up. You stop talking about them like that.” I snarled at him.
His expression turned to one of rage and he hit me with a weak left hook. I stumbled back out of surprise and briefly touched my cheek where he had struck me. I lowered that arm and clenched both fists, laughing a bit.
“Your hangover is about to get a lot worse.”

[shoelaces]

username: shoelaces
name: Amber
what are they mad about?:
Amber tilted her juice, allowing the orange liquid to lick the sides of the glass cup containing it.
"It's your turn, Amb."
She looked up at the other bar regular, Tommy, who gestured to pool table.
Grabbing at the pool stick, she grinned at him. The two often challenged eachother to a game of pool- so much that they've started keeping track on their phones of who had won the last one. Amber was almost always ahead of him, if not tied in score, as they were now. She'd been spacing out during this game, only a few of the colorful balls were left. Two of them were solids, her's.
"You're going to eat it, Tommy!" She boasted, steadying the wooden pole against the table, preparing to strike the white cue ball at the blue striped ball.
Just as she pushed the stick forward, a force pushed her along with it, knocking the cue ball into hitting the wall of the pool table, which shot for the 8 ball, and knocked it into a pocket. It felt like slow-motion, out of now 21 finished games of pool with tommy, she was losing 11-10.
Tommy put his paw up to his mouth to stifle a laugh, "Aw, bad luck! The only thing I'll be eating is a chicken dinner now."
Amber glared at the other kalon, pushing herself away from the table, "You're counting that one? That's not badluck, I was pushed by some drunk douche!"
"It's not my fault, that's what you told me last time when I swore someone pushed my arm."
"That's cause you were lying! No one was near you, or behind you- unlike me with this guy-"
She turned to find an aqua-blue colored kalon behind her. They were obviously the cuplrit, she pushed his shoulder.
"Amber- don't go telling the other folk off!"
She brushed off Tommy's reccomendation, and as the other kalon turned to face her she pushed at them again.
"Hey, douchebag! Watch who you're bumping into next time," Amber snapped.
"Wha- It's not my fault you were so close to where everyone's dancing missy."
"It's just a game amber- don't be so competitive," Tommy called over.
"Excuse me?" Amber yelled at the blue stranger.
"Come chill out and dance," They flirted, with a big dumb grin plastered on their face.
Had this absolute bozo forgotten what they had done? Completely pushed into her, and unintenionally or not, made her lose her winning streak? Amber grinded her teeth together as she stared at them, before launching a punch to this dude's nose.
The next part is where it got a bit fuzzy, the thing she knew for certain was that a few of their friends had come over and joined, and when she could finally take in her surroundings again, a strange kalon was pulling her away from a fist-fight with a girl she didn't recognize.

[Meridiem]

username: Meridiem
name: Shiner
what are they mad about?:

Nemo nodded at Brandy. He knew the shenanigans that could be going on in a bar setting; they happened all the time back in college. He walked closer to the group; they seemed to be laughing, cheering, booing, and making all sorts of ruckus. As he inched closer to the group, he saw cards laid out on the table. A winning hand and a losing hand were slapped repeatedly as two kals seemed to be going at it. The group around the two players made it impossible for Nemo to figure out what was actually going on that was stressing the bartender so badly.

As Nemo was about to break the circle in order to get to the bottom of all the noise, the brightly colored orange kal slammed both hands on the table.

"You've got another thing coming Finnegan if you thinking I'm gonna wear that stupid hat because you cheated!"

The posse around them bellowed in laughter, all seeming to point at the loud and angry kal. The kal across from him appeared to be content with his game.

"Rules are rules, Shiner. You make the bet, you lost, now time to pay up." Nemo made a mental note that the small brown and cream kal was Finnegan and the furious orange kal was Shiner. Nemo got a bit caught up in the back and forth of the groups taunts that he forgot why he was sent over. The thing that snapped Nemo out of the moment is when Finnegan reached down to the ground. Nemo perked up and was afraid of what he would pull up. He was all ready to grab the closest kals to him and duck behind a table nearby. But to Nemo's surprise, it was a chicken hat.

Finnegan slapped it down on the table. "Now put it on." The group roared in laughter. Shiner gave everyone the death stare.

"I'm not doing it. You cheated!" He slammed his hands back on the table, almost knocking the drinks off. Nemo caught the one that was dancing on the edge of the table just in time. Shiner gave an angry glance towards Nemo then went back to hating the whole table.

"Rules are rules so put on the hat and call it a night." Finnegan gave him another smug look. He looked proud of himself.

Shiner swiped the hat from the table, growled, and pulled the hat on his head. He pushed his chair away from the table with force, knocking Finnegan's drink onto his shirt.

"Hey! Don't start things you don't want to finish!" Finnegan called out shaking his fist at him. Shiner stormed out of the bar as Nemo followed to make sure he kept his promise to the bartender. Nemo looked behind him as Shiner stormed out in front of him. The bartender waved with a grumpy face because he did get one out but started a whole new problem. Brandy threw his cloth over at Finnegan.

"Clean yourself up and get out." Finnegan huffed and the group dispersed. Nemo nodded and chased after Shiner.

[Catskitten]

username:Catskitten
name: Marge
what are they mad about?:
She was a lady with many stories to tell.
Wild one that left ya on the edge of your seats. Stories about life and death . Stories that told troubles of the oceans.
They called her "kooky Marge".
She was a sea captain worthy of respect.
They all called her a liar to her face.
She was gonna be swinging her fist in a minute. Send them swimming with the monsters that nearly took her life.
Yes there were monsters in the ocean.
Those monsters were big ones with sharp teeth. Her enemies would figure it out quickly that the monsters offered no alliances.

[symmetra]

username: symmetra
name: Canna
what are they mad about?:

She was so excited about this trip, to finally escape the rain and the gloom of her hometown. The idea of this wonderful, relaxing tropical cruise was just what she needed. She had always loved the idea of a warm climate- even had a beautiful shell necklace from one of her grandma's own adventures- and was more than happy to set off within the week.

It was just about a day after they had moved into their desired ocean space, when they docked into port, the warm salt air greeting her as warmly as she welcomed it. She was more than excited to finally see the area, to feel the sand under her paws and the breeze in her fur, and she decided that THE most tropical vacation activity was snorkeling. She stored her small and loose belongings- like jewelry- in a locker, rented the gear, met up with a small tour group, and head off towards the sea!

She spent her whole afternoon in the water and around the beach, watching the small fishes swimming about, oohing and aweing at the beautiful coral reefs, and digging for glittering shells she found amongst the sand. It was a wonderful day and she was exhausted by the end of it, deciding now that it would be a fantastic time to head to the bar for a nice cold drink.

Was she forgetting something? Probably not.

Once there, drink in hand, she couldn't help but strike up a conversation with one of the other vacation-goers there. They talked for some time about their adventures on the beach, the food they tried, the people they met- and most importantly- the activities they did with the tour! She had just gotten to the best part of her snorkeling story, the sea shell scavenging she did, when she noticed it. Her own beautiful seashell necklace was gone from her neck.

Seriously? Something like this would happen on the first day of real vacationing? There was NO way she could have dropped it, no way it would have just popped off of her neck and floated away, she's not THAT clumsy (is she?)!! It must have been stolen, must have been by one of the people she had talked to in that bar!

And, maybe it's because she was so tired, or maybe because she was a little shocked after just finding it missing, but she couldn't help raising her voice a bit and she confronted the passengers and staff in the bar. She was really upset, okay!? And she wasn't about to calm down until she had it returned to her!

words: 436 lol oops

[raven [烏]]

username: norang
name: shula (means flame)
what are they mad about?: [425 words]

After speaking to some of the onlookers, I discovered that someone had called Shula's mom ugly. For reasons unbeknownst to us, that set her temper ablaze. Some of the other bar attendies were attempted to hold her back while she snarled, baring her teeth like an animal at the one who insulted her mother.

"M'aam, you're gonna have to calm down", I said. But nobody was listening.

I shouted an "OI" that got their attention. "Look at you lot. It's like a bloody hurricane tore through here. Somebody's got some explaining to do before I call security."

Shula got up, yanking each of her arms away from the audience. "What business have you got, coming in here? You're new aren't you? Never seen anyone around here dressing like that."

"I've been given specific instructions to sort out this mess, and I'd appreciate your cooperation."

"I don't believe we've met", she retorted.

Reluctantly, I introduced myself. "I'm Camille. And you are?"

"Nobody. Now leave us alone. I'll handle this myself." She turned away to approach the guy from the squabble before.

Before she got away, I blurted; "excuse me m'aam, but this hardly looks like handling."
She turned once again to face me. She rolled her eyes before giving me a look that spelt pure annoyance and grief due to the presence of my voice.

"Please, do come with me."

She glanced to the exit, where a guard was standing, and back at Brandy. Upon sensing the growing tension in the bar, Brandy began to approach the guard. Her face began to show worry. I looked at her, this time with a smirk right across my face, "coming?"

As we both stepped out of the bar, I noticed that she was carrying a locket around her neck. She must've noticed me staring at it because she took it off to show me the contents. As she opened the locket, a small photo emerged. A picture.

"That's her. My mom."

"She's lovely."

"I know", she said, as she wore it around her neck.

"Can you believe the nerve he had? My mother is dead. This photo is all I have left of her. Who does he-- Ugh. It doesn't matter. I don't know why I came down here anyways."

"You still haven't told me your name."

We began to hear footsteps coming down the stairs. Her look of annoyance turned into a look of concern.

"See, it was nice meeting you, but I have to go. I really shouldn't be here."

And just like that, she left.

[Anza]

username: Anza
name: Karen
what are they mad about?:
"Well, I could be mad about the lack luster service (the concierge didn't even ask how I'd like him to carry my suitcase) or the fact that drinks here are served at practically a luckwarm temperature (a couple ice cubes won't fix a badly running freezer). Perhaps a trip to the nail salon will brighten my overall disappointment with how today went...and my hair was just finally looking the way I hoped before I boarded this tin can. Speaking of caned products, this whole ship reeks of fish! I hope you don't expect me to eat packaged products! I expect my daily foods to be freshly made, otherwise I'll totally break out in pimples!"