"I had a good shot at that sprinting billboard, Rush" The crimson goat mused. "Managed to slip a page into one of his contracts that bound his will to me. It was flawless, and I had the fastest cat alive at my command.” He paused, eyes flaring briefly with yellow light as he downed the scorching contents of his tiny shot glass in one motion. “But you know heroes, as soon as one of their own is threatened, the rest circle wagons and focus their efforts on stopping you. His reptile of an agent, and that little coronamancer managed to find a loophole." Signet grumbled. "What was that mage's name again?"

"Akila" Rica stated flatly. Her eyes had drifted off of her cards and across the smokey parlour they shared. On or two other patrons accidentally met her sullen gaze and quickly looked away.

The mammoth whale dominating a full third of the table space chuckled softly to himself.

"You put too much reliance on your little magic tricks" The cybernetic tiger at the other end of the table scoffed. "Hardware knows how to take the weight. Instead of murmuring over wish rocks and chanting in tongues, real firepower can get any job done in half the time."

"Praytell" the gas-masked figure to his right wheezed. "Exactly how much of that firepower have you been able to move into this city since Snowplow shut down your dockside imports?"

Guile scowled, his robotic eye glimmering slightly with dangerous green light. "A temporary setback. You’d better hope it’s fixed soon, Narcosis, if you want that next shipment of chemicals on time."

"Guns and spells are just there to enforce your claim." The killer whale rumbled. "You want power, you get LAND. Maybe you’ll get wise before I take it all for myself."

"Last I checked.” The glowering llama finally responded. “I had more territory than you, gamberro"

Less tilted his head. "What, we’re talking square footage? Sure. But it's not the mass.” He slapped at his own titanic belly, as he frequently did to make a point. “It's the value, baby." He laid his cards down. "Call."

Rica nodded. Everyone showed their hands. As usual, the game went to the best cheater.

---

Another Sterling City scene by roundwombo on twitter, with some text by me. A few of Sterling's rogues bond over a poker game, or at least try not to kill eachother for ten minutes.