"Plenty of people would've rather grown up noble than poor. Crazy social rules, heavy obligations and responsibility, no real choices... But cake twice a week, meat every day, warm every day." She shrugs. "Plenty of girls would've rather been witches for that matter, and we're the lucky few. Life ain't fair."

"Yeah, can't really complain when people have nothing. But having managed to escape the concept of social class: 10/10, would reccommend. But I have weird circumstances, so. Life ain't fair."

"Indeed not. Especially when even as a witch you can still get thrown to the wolves. So I'm just gonna enjoy-" 

WHAM. The crowd goes wild as Slim lands a devastating punch square on the new guy's chin. He follows it up with more, mercilessly.

"Yep, Slim wins."

A couple of referees-or-something are dragging the buff new guy to the edge of the rink. Slim is mostly shouting to the sky. An announcer starts yelling about the next match: A grudge fight between two rivals with stage names of 'Snarl' and 'The Butcher'.

"Want to try and get a better spot?"

"Sure! ...I love how the names have just become, like, ten times more dramatic."

"Well, I don't care about New Meat's stage name, and Slim is kind of a phenomenon all by himself. But yeah. Dramatic names are the norm. It's a bit cheesy, but also fun."

She pushes her way through people. They get a better spot.

"Yeah, if you get to pick a name, may as well pick a flashy one.

What'd your stage name be? Like, hypothetically, if you did these fights. I think I'm legally obligated to be 'Foxy.'"

"Maybe 'ghost'? 'Specter'? Because of my thing. Oh, so you can be a fox as well as a bird? Neat. Bet foxes have good senses of smell. What else?"

"Ooh, that'd be a good name.

Hmm, I can do a few other things. Horse, man, really big fox, really big bipedal fox-- that's pretty much it. I could learn to do other things though."

"You can turn into a guy? Hmm..."

Sandra is distracted from whatever thought that prompted by the start of the next fight. Snarl and The Butcher both seem to know what they're doing, and to a practiced eye, seem to be putting on a little bit of a show. They're still fighting each other mostly seriously, just going out of the way a bit to emote and exaggerate the hits.

"Ooh. I usually favor Snarl, but he's a bit slow today."

"Yep! I still look more or less the same though, other than being a guy.

Ahh, fighting as performance art. Such a wonderful thing."

"-Ooh, nice hit. Yeah. All that's missing is a snack. Too bad they don't let women complete, at least in this one. I bet I'd kick butt."

"Huh? Why ever not?"

"Because even the lower classes seem to agree with the nobles that we're too gentle and pure to punch each other in the face? Not saying it never happens, but it's not normal. Also, fighting tends to involve baring some skin, another no-no."

"...have these people even met women? Ever?

Ehh, and this place could really do with some more skin."  

"Hey, I'm not defending it, just explaining it. Plenty of women think the same thing, heaven knows why. As for skin... You seem to have that covered. Or not, rather. Notice how nobody says anything about my scandalously bare knees and visible neckline?" She gestures at herself. "Well, we're witches, the rules are different. Hypocrites."

"The breeze is nice. They should feel it some time.

I've been given the 'you must be French' talk, and the 'cover yourself in the sight of the Lord, lest he be scandalised.' I think I've only got away with it because I'm scary. Which like, yes I am. But that shouldn't be why I'm getting away with it."

"The French aren't that bad, you know. But yeah, it's stupid. Society has an annoying and stupid rule, what else is new? The world would probably be better if guys and girls both showed a bit more off. Less stifling, anyway."

"Yeah, I assumed as much about the French. People are people are people.

Meanwhile, I'm showing off behalf of all the poor people who can't." 

"I'm sure they appreciate it."

They watch the fights for a while. Snarl beats The Butcher, and goes on to beat someone called Ox-Man, and then the rotation of fighters changes. There's lots of betting.

Eventually, it winds up for the day.

"You tired of me yet?"

"Not if you aren't tired of me. If there's something else you'd like to sure me around, that'd be great."

"The fights were my big thing. I guess I know some good restaurants and bars."

"Well, if you wanna go get sloshed--"

"Absolutely."

This bar has much better beer than the last place. They proceed to get sloshed.

Marena is difficult to slosh, but not impossible!

This has done bad things for diplomatic skills. "So, like, the thing with the contract? What, like, was it?"

"It's - y'know - money. It's aaaaall money. Folks were - some damn fool loaned 'em half a house and they bet it all and lost, so now I'm on the hook to pay or my whole fam goes to debtor's prisons. That shit's noooot fun."