EA-LEC: The Hangover Part 1

The sky was pitch black in the large city of Belcazzar. Nighttime had fallen over the vast city. Most of its citizens that weren’t asleep was hanging out and having fun in the illuminated metropolis. However, there were a few people who were spend their fun in the night OUTSIDE of the city.


Al gave a small sigh as he had stood off the shore that was only a long stair climb away from Belcazzar City. He smiled with his hands inside of his navy jacket as the sea breeze had blew into his body, making said jacket billow gently in the wind. On his days off, Al would always go to the beach to remind him of all of his adventures.


However, he was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn’t notice that a figure was making his way along the shore. At first, when said figure had seen Al, they raised an eyebrow, but otherwise just shrugged it off and continued walking. But then, they did a double-take when they had realized that the figure looked familiar to him. They froze in their spot while staring with wide eyes. It couldn’t be HIM, could it?


“Al?”


The alligator raised a non-existent eyebrow before turning around. When he did so, his eyes bugged out in shock. Standing in front of him was an anthro pelican that was the same size and build as him. His entire body from the neck down save for his feet was covered with a large trenchcoat. While it was dark, Al could still make out his snow white feathers and his large beak. The two men had stared into each other’s eyes for a moment.


“P-P-Pep!?” Al exclaimed.


The pelican shook his head with a terrified look on his face upon finding Al. “I… I… I have to go.”


With that, he had turned around and got ready to sprint across the beach as if there was a monster chasing after him and trying to eat him.


“No, wait, Pep!” Al shouted, holding his hand out.


However, his pleas fell on deaf ears as Pep had continued to run off. However, he ended up slipping on the sand and falling straight onto his face. Fortunately, he wasn’t even stunned but he was still vulnerable. Pep turned his head and looked in horror as Al looked down at him.


“No, please, stay away from me!” Pep begged while scooting backwards.


“Pep, please, calm down!” Al reassured, while slowly advancing forward. “I am not going to hurt you!”


“Like you did the last time we met!” Pep challenged.


Al physically winced at the accusation, knowing far too well of the incident, Pep was talking about. The latter took advantage of Al’s distraction to get up onto his feet before turning around and running off again.


“No, wait, please!” Al yelled before cupping his hands to his mouth. “I am sorry!”


Then, much to Al’s surprise, Pep had actually skidded across the sand with his feet. He then slowly turned around with a stunned look on his face. The two men stared into each other’s eyes for a moment.


“...What did you say?” Pep asked, surprised.


Al paused before looking down at his feet. “I said that I am sorry. I am sorry that I strangled you a few years ago.”


Pep stood, looking absolutely stunned when he had heard this. “You… You really mean that?”


Al weakly nodded. “I was a total a-hole to you and the other sailors. I always lose my temper with you guys and even went violent on you guys.”


Pep paused for a moment, not believing his non-existent ears. Was this really true? Was Al actually trying to apologize to him?


“A-Al, what had brought you to do this?” Pep asked.


The alligator then gave a deep sigh. “...Because it was my horrible attitude that had gotten me fired and ruined my life. Why should I continue acting like it if it was the cause of my greatest downfall?”


Pep stared in shock at what he had been told. This couldn’t possibly be the same Al he met with on that day. The two had shared an awkward silence with each other for a moment. Then, Al let out another sigh.


“Look, you don’t have to forgive me but…” Al started before he was quickly cut off.


“...Is there anyone else?”


Al looked up in confusion to see Pep casting him a stern glare.


“To confirm that you had changed?” Pep finished.


Al stared in shock for a moment. He had then slowly nodded his head. “Um, there is my boss, Bogus and a few waiters at the main branch at the Heroes’ Hideout.”


Pep raised a non-existent eyebrow. “The Heroes’ Hideout? You go there often?”


“I work there as a waiter.” Al explained.


Pep then paused for a moment. He then crossed his arms. “Alright, I will give you the benefit of the doubt.”


Al looked shocked when he had heard those words. “R-Really?”


“Yeah, I mean it had been years since we had met each other and if you have really changed, I should at least give you a chance.” Pep explained. He then smiled. “Besides, you are not attacking me so that is a plus.”


Al looked absolutely stunned by what he was hearing. After assaulting him, Pep still wanted to let bygones be bygones. He never thought anyone would ever forgive me for his horrible attitude.


“Whoa… T-Thanks, man…” Al said, scratching the back of his head. “It really means a lot.”


“Well, like I said, it’s been years.” Pep said with a shrug.


“R-Right…” Al said before hanging his head. “In that case, Pep, I know that I still haven’t earned your trust yet but can I ask you a question?”


The pelican raised an eyebrow. “Um, sure? Shoot.”


Then, in the span of a second, Al ran straight up into Pep at an alarming speed, startling the bird and held his ex-fellow sailor with both of his own hands while looking into Pep’s eyes.


“Where did you guys go after I left? Did you see any new locations? If so, what were they like? And what were the seas themselves like? Did you see any rare fish sightings? Do you have any pictures? Do...”


Pep stood looking absolutely taken back by Al’s barrage of questions and from the looks of things, they weren’t going to stop until further notice. It seemed like Al wasn’t joking when he said that sailing the sea was his life.


/-/-/-/-/-/


The next evening, Al hummed a jovial tune as he wrote down a list of drinks for some of the many patrons at the Heroes’ Hideout. After getting all of his orders, he had made his way over to the counter.


Behind the counter was one of his fellow waiters. He was a young man with short dark hair. However, what was noticeable about him was his dark skin and he had small bat wings for ears.


“Here’s another order, Nathan!” Al grinned, giving the demon the list who accepted it and putting his tray down.


“Wow, Al, you sure are chipper today!” The dark-haired man smiled, feeling like the alligator’s enthusiasm was contagious.


“Yeah, well, my old fellow sailors are going to be coming here tonight!” Al said, brightly.


“Oh, really?” Nathan asked as he proceeded to fix the drinks. “That is great, Al. I would love to see all of your sailor friends.”


Al’s smile vanished as he let out a deep sigh. “Yeah, I am hoping that they would also see it that way.”


Nathan raised an eyebrow, confused by Al’s response. “Why did you say that?”


Al let out a deep sigh. “I think it was before you came here. Believe it or not, I used to be a short-tempered grump who didn’t get along with any one of my fellow sailors. In the end, I was kicked out with not a single one feeling sorry for me.”


Nathan’s eyes widened when he had heard about what Al used to be as opposed to how he was now.


Then, he realized something. “Wait… If you think that they may not be so happy to see you, then how come they are coming to visit you?”


“Well, I had met up with one of them yesterday.” Al explained. “After seeing that I had changed, he is going to tell the others about me and give me a chance.”


Nathan paused for a moment before smiling. “Well, I hope it goes well for you.”


“Yeah, same here.” Al nodded. “It is a slim shot but seeing that the guy that I nearly strangled to death is the one who is trying to convince everyone, I think I got a chance.”


Nathan’s smile vanished as his eyes widened. “Wait? What?”


Al merely chuckled. “Yeah, let’s just say I am lucky enough to keep my attitude in check when I started working here.”


“Um, alright.” Nathan said before placing the final drink on the plate. “Anyway, here is the last drink. Good luck.”


“Thanks, Nate.” Al nodded before he was about to take a large tray of drinks.


That was until Cathy had skidded in out of nowhere right next to Al, startling him and Nathan and placed her tray down before picking up Al’s tray instead.


“Hey! What are you doing?” Al angrily, demanded.


“I am switching routes with you.” Cathy said, simply while turning around and walking off.


Al looked confused by this. “Anddddddd why exactly?”


Cathy merely turned towards Al with a smirk.


“I just thought it would be easier seeing that there are a large group of customers who specifically asked for you to be their waiter.” She said with a wink.


Al’s eyes lit up when he had heard this. Almost immediately, he had grabbed Cathy’s tray off of the counter.


“I owe ya one, Cats.” Al said.


With that, he had left the counter with both Cathy and Nathan giving him smiles, silently hoping for the best for Al.


The alligator past several tables with customers on his way to his destination. Then, much to his delight, he saw them all. Along with Pep, he had recognized several people that were sitting around, actually taking up to three tables. They were all wearing similar outfits.


It was then Pep had noticed him and his face immediately lit up. “Al!”


It was then all of the people had turned their heads towards Al. They all seemed to have a mixed array of emotions on their faces. There were a couple that were actually pleased to meet him. However, he quickly noticed that said faces didn’t looked that familiar at all. They must have been sailors that were assigned after Al had gotten the boot.


There were also a set of people who looked like they were trying to share the same hospitality as the newer people but it came off as awkward as if they were trying to force themselves to be nice to Al.


But at least they were trying unlike remaining people had cast cold glares at the alligator. It was clear that they still didn’t forgave Al and didn’t want to try to.


Al shifted his eyes from left to right nervously. “Um, hey, guys, how are you all doing this evening?”


“Just great, Al!” Pep smiled while looking around. “This seemed like a great place!”


“Um, thanks, Pep.” The alligator said, feeling grateful that Pep was here. “So how are you guys doing?”


“Just fine.” One of the other sailors shrugged. “Things had been going fine since you left. I don’t know if Pep told you the full details but we had seen a lot of different sights.”


Al’s eyes lit up when he had heard this. “So I heard! Hey, it is my break in a half an hour so after that come along how about you guys tell me all about it.”


“Um, sure, that seems alright.” Another sailor said.


“R-Right…” Al said, still not shaking off his awkwardness. “So what will you guys like?”


“Oh yeah!” Pep piped up. “There was actually something I wanted to try!”


Soon, Al began to write down all of his sailors’ orders, one by one. These were some of the hardest people that he ever had to serve, even though none of them were being abrasive. He was hoping that Pep did a better job of convincing everyone to give him a chance.


“And can I have one of those little packets on the side?” The final sailor asked.


“Of course!” Al smiled before writing it down. He then got up and turned around. “Well, I am off!”


A few people nodded as the alligator walked off to get all of the drinks with all of the sailors watching him, still not having their respective initial thoughts on Al wavering.


“I still don’t trust him.” A sailor muttered.


“Hey, don’t you think you are being a bit harsh?” One of the newer sailors scolded.


“You weren’t here when we were travelling with Al.” The first sailor scolded.


“Still, he seems more friendlier as opposed to the old Al.” The third sailor pointed out.


“...Yeah. I admit that I’ll be lying if I didn’t see an improvement.” The first sailor noted. “But still I am not too convinced.”


“Well, don’t worry. Isn’t that why we agreed to meet at the Heroes’ Hideout?” Pep asked.


The first sailor nodded his head. “Heh. Well said, Pep. Well said. We’ll see if Al really had changed.”


/-/-/-/-/-/


Things didn’t turn out too well when Al went to deliver everyone’s drinks to the sailors. While some had thanked him with gratitude, others were still casting him suspicious glares, making him uneasy.


Of course, actually talking to them all in a conversation would be even harder. A half an hour had passed and Al was ready to take his break. This was his big chance to get to make amends with his sailor friends.


Al gulped nervously as he sat in a chair with everyone else staring at him. A few people shifted their eyes from left or right, feeling just as uncomfortable as the alligator.


“So Al.” Pep said, wanting to ease up the tension. “Why have you decided to become a waiter?”


“Huh?” The waiter said before looking to the side. “Well, no reason. I knew that sooner or later, I needed a job and they were always hiding at the Heroes’ Hideout.”


“Really? A lot of things but the old Al doesn’t seem like the type of person who would go around serving a bunch of varied strangers.” Pep pointed out.


Al chuckled at this. “True that! But in all seriousness, I really didn’t want to hang around my parents’ place unemployed like a creepy basement-dweller.”


A female sailor raised an eyebrow. “Wait, you STILL lived with your parents?”


Al winced at the question. “H-Hey. By the time I was old enough, I immediately applied to be a sailor. Then, I lived wherever you guys needed to be. My parents don’t mind when I crash at their place on my time off. Hell, they are just happy whenever I come home.”


“Still, I am pleasantly surprised that you managed to be a good waiter.” Pep said.


“Well, more or less at the start. I still had the same attitude at first but I mostly took out my aggressions on unruly customers.” Al pointed out.


“Wait, you mean you actually get away with beating people to a pulp just because they are unruly?” A male sailor asked in disbelief.


“If you think I’M bad, you jave obviously never seen Suzie.” Al said with a laugh.


Before anyone could nervously ask who Suzie was, there was a loud noise that was heard throughout the tavern. Everyone had turned their heads to the direction of the noise to see a duck sailor jumping up and down on the counter while singing.


“Don’t stop! Make it pop! DJ, blow my speakers up!” The sailor sang. “Tonight, I’mma fight till we see the sunlight!”


“A-A-Ack! Please stop! You are not allowed to be dancing on there!” Nathan yelled.


However, the duck had ignored Nathan’s cries as he had continued to make a spectacle of himself.


“P-P-Please! Stop before you break something or…” Nathan pleaded.


“What the hell are you doing!?”


Al along with most of the patrons and waiters winced when they had heard the loud, angry voice. The sailors on the other hand, raised their eyebrows before turning their heads to the direction of the voice. There, they saw a waitress angrily stomping towards the dancing duck.


She was some kind of red-skinned woman with pointy ears and long hair in the colour of snow white that went through her shoulders. However, what had caught the sailors’ attention was a hand-axe that was in her hand.


“Hey, Donald! Get off of there!” The elf roared. She then reached out towards the duck’s leg and yanked it hard which resulted in the duck doing a hard faceplant onto the counter, making everyone wince.


“Ow! That hurt! What is your beef, lady!?” The duck said, holding his beak.


“My beef is you using the counter as a dance floor, you idiot!” The elf snapped, pointing with her free hand. “Didn’t you hear Nathan telling you stop?”


“I ignored him.” The duck said without skipping a beat.


Nathan winced at this. “So blunt...”


The elf’s eyebrow twitched at this. “What!? Look, Donald, we have RULES here at the Heroes’ Hideout and you should follow them!”


“But I don’t wanna!” The duck spat.


This resulted in a series of gasps among everyone when they had heard the disobedient and childish response. The elf by now was breathing in and out heavily as she could feel a raging fire burning up inside of her. She then grabbed the duck by the scruff of his jacket and dragged him off of the counter and onto the floor.


“H-Hey! What are you doing!?” The duck roared.


“What does it look like I am doing!?” The elf snapped while making her way to the entrance. “I am teaching you what happens to idiots who don’t follow the rules!”


“You can’t treat me like this!” The duck scolded.


“I can and I will!” The elf retorted.


“Somebody stop her! This isn’t legal! I want this woman fired!” The duck yelled.


“OH, SHUT UP!”


When the elf had finally reached the entrance, she had easily thrown the duck straight out as if he was a rag doll. She then turned around and stomped back to work.


“This isn’t legal.” The elf muttered, underneath her breath. “What should be illegal is how idiots like these never seemed to learn…”


Despite the rather frightening scene, everyone had tried their best to go back to whatever business they were doing as if nothing had happened. Needless to say though, it wasn’t exactly easy to do so.


The other sailors were completely slack-jawed as Al watched with an unimpressed glare in his eyes.


“Um, Al, is that…” Pep started.


“Yep. That is Suzie.” Al said, simply.


All of the sailors had taken a collective deep gulp. They had seen a lot of things on the open waters but they had never seen someone as frightening as that elf. Obviously breaking the rules here when she was in seeing range was a suicide move.


Then, some of the sailors had looked towards the counter. It was then, they had noticed one of their fellow people slowly tiptoeing away from it with his face paling over, obviously from witnessing Suzie’s outburst on the duck.


However, when said tiptoeing sailor had noticed some of his own looking at him, he had stood up straight and gave a small smile with a thumbs-up. The other sailors had returned the smile. It seemed that the duck’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain.


/-/-/-/-/-/


While it was hard to recover after hearing their friend tossed out of the door just like a piece of garbage, everyone had tried to go back to their conversation. Thankfully for Al, things had gone a little bit more smoothly.


However, Al’s break was short-lived and he was forced to go back to work. Even still, Al felt a little more confident about being around them and he should be able to speak to them again without the awkwardness.


Al had made his way over to the counter where Nathan was still serving drinks. The latter looked up to see the ex-sailor.


“Ah, Al! How are things going so far?” Nathan asked.


“Pretty good, actually!” The black-scaled reptile grinned. “I mean at first, most of them seemed hesitant to be around me but soon, everyone is slowly lowering their defences around me.”


“Well, I am glad to hear that!” Nathan smiled.


“Same here, man.” Al grinned before giving Nathan his notepad. “Anyway, here is the orders.”


Nathan took the notepad and read it before his eyes bugged out. “Uh-oh.”


Al’s face fell. “What’s wrong?”


“We are nearly out of vodka.” Nathan pointed out. “Al, could you go to the basement and get some for me?”


“Of course, Nathan!” Al grinned before walking off. “Just hang tight and I will be right back.”


He then proceeded to make his way over to the basement. As he did so, he looked over at all of the sailors that were talking to each other. He then gave a small smile before making his way through the basement door.


After turning on the light, he had made his way down the stairs leading all of the way to the wine cellar. As he was making his way down the stairs, he was thinking about what things would be like if he had actually successfully reconciled with everyone.


Not only they would share stories about their respective jobs but they would also hang out whenever they have time off. Truth be told, he had never really bothered to know his shipmates while riding on the sea so this was a great chance to get to know each and every one of them.


He smiled before looking over at a large shelf full of bottled drinks. While whistling a jovial tune, he quickly searched for what he was looking for. It only took him a few seconds to find it. After grabbing it and dusting it with his other hand a few times, he had turned around and made his way back up the stairs.


However, when he was already halfway up the staircase, he stopped when he heard a noise. Some kind of commotion that was going on. There was a lot of yelling and the sounds of things breaking. Al groaned while shaking his head before making his way up the stairs, wondering what was happening THIS time. He then placed his hand on the doorknob and turned it.


But when he did so, he immediately wished that he didn’t.


The tavern was in absolute chaos. For some reason, there were a lot of drunks that were scattered through the area, doing various activities. Some were merely drinking their troubles away while others were trying to do some kind of weird dance. However, what caught his attention were some drunks that were fighting against each other.


Naturally, he also saw Bogus and the waiters along with a few patrons had been trying to stop the madness but even still, everyone seemed to be having trouble keeping the peace. While bewildered by all of the madness, he had immediately put down the bottle of vodka and made his way to help by going straight to the nearest waiter who was struggling to wrestler a sword out of the hands of a drunk swordsman.


After coming to Palayo’s aid and wasting no time grabbing the handle of the sword, the two had easily pulled it out of the drunk’s hands.


“Thank you, Al!” Palayo smiled. “This had just doesn’t seem to realize the consequences of his actions.”


“Give… Give back my sword!” The drunk yelled, angrily while trying to vain to get his weapon back. “I am a trained professional!”


“My apologies but using it to kill a fly doesn’t seem very professional to me.” Palayo pointed out while using his hand to grab the man’s head to prevent him from coming any closer.


“Palayo, what the hell is going on!?” Al asked in disbelief while holding the sword. “I’ve literally gone for one moment and the whole tavern is going insane!”


“I don’t know. One moment, everything seemed normal at first.” Palayo pointed out. “Then, more than half of the patrons were acting drunk for some reason.”


Al stared in disbelief. “Don’t we set a limit on how much alcohol a person could drink?”


“Yes. I don’t think that is the problem.” Palayo said. “I distinctly remembered serving this man all evening and he also had one glass to drink.”


“Then how is he, along with everyone else is so wasted!?” Al questioned.


“I don’t know.” Palayo said shaking his head.


Al winced before looking around the area to scan for the sailors. Much to his pleasant surprise, none of them seemed to be involved in the madness. In fact, some of them was actively trying to help out the waiters. Out of all evenings this had to happen, why did it have to be THIS one?


“Look, we’ll worry about how this happened later.” Al pointed out. “Right now, we have to find a way to stop the madness! Get this guy out back and out of harm’s way while I try to help out!”

Palayo nodded before dragging the screaming drunk towards the nearest exit out of the main floor. Meanwhile, Al had made his way over to the next nearest drunk while still carrying the sword. He was NOT going to let this drunken circus ruin his evening!