I hope @Toscano won’t mind, but I’d like to continue this thread with little snippets of the adventures of my Red Dead Redemption franchise character Belle Bowie. It’ll be a bit more traditional in narrative to the Jeremy material, but I hope just as entertaining.
The rain was falling steadily in the town of Valentine, New Hanover. Belle Bowie was riding towards the Sheriff’s Office with her latest bounty capture, Calico Jane Carter, in tow. Bowie was told that Sheriff Malloy was off serving a a foreclosure notice, but that he’d be back soon, so she took her cuffed quarry and went into the Saloon.
“I ain’t leavin’ her soakin’ in the rain”, Bowie sternly looked at the man at the door, who then the two pass through.
Belle, according to customary procedure, made sure Carter was cuffed to the table before going to the bar. As she prepared to go, she noticed a strange look in Jane’s eye just as a commotion started behind them. Belle turned and saw a young man of 18 being hassled by some poker players.
“Y’all cheated me,” the kid yelled at the top of his lungs, “them cards are marked!”
Apparently these were professional players and they weren’t taking kindly to being called cheats in a room full of witnesses. Two of them were holding the kid by his arms while a third walked up to him.
“I ain’t takin’ that kind of talk from some wet behind the ears farmer’s hands punk,” he spat in the kid’s face and preceded to belt him.
The man suddenly felt his arm not moving, and Bowie was holding it.
“Problem here gents?” she asked calmly.
“The kid’s a sore loser,” the man who’s arm she gripped said.
“They’re cheats!” the kid shouted again, “they took advantage of me and took all the money I had.”
As Belle held the man’s arm, she felt something under the sleeve, and quickly realized the game afoot.
“I think maybe either give this kid another chance, or give him back the money right now,” she said, pulling out a small pack of cards from the coat sleeve.
“You lousy bitch!” the man shouted and took a swing at her.
Belle ducked the hit, and before the three men knew it, she was knocking them left and right, until they were left on the floor out on the floor. The kid luckily ducked away before the fracas began and was watching in awe with everyone else how Belle handled herself and the situation. Belle searched all the men’s pockets and cleaned out all the cash on them, and put it in the kid’s hands.
“Go back home kid and don’t be playing cards for money no more,” she told with a stern look. Tears filled the kid’s eyes.
“They said I had farmer’s hands,” he started, “it’s been rough since my older sister Jane went missing, I-I was only trying to get the folks a better stake for the year.”
“The way I see it,” Belle put her hand on the kid’s shoulder, “you’ve got a hard working man’s hands, and I believe your sister would give you a lecture, but not before saying she understood you. Now off ya go.”
Things settled down again as the boy took off and the gamblers were thrown out. Belle finally got her drink, paid the barman for both the service and the mess, and went back to her quarry.
“Thanks for that,” Jane said as Belle recuffed her and led her out, "I ain’t made a lot of good choices, “but I wasn’t gonna see my brother end up the same.”
"We’ll let him think you’re lost, " Belle told her, “first you gotta beat this frame-up you’re in.”
