Sam blinks. How exactly does one respond to that?
"Have you tried getting cake? Because that would make me feel better." he says flatly.
Which is not a joke about Sam being fat, just an accurate example of the curative powers of cake.
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Sam blinks. How exactly does one respond to that?
"Have you tried getting cake? Because that would make me feel better." he says flatly.
Which is not a joke about Sam being fat, just an accurate example of the curative powers of cake.
"Yes, cake and vengeance. Not necessarily in that order, to be fair. Cake and vengeance." Jack really doesn't know how Hidrus can have scientific detachment when talking about the possible extinction of his species, and the deaths therefore of his family.
That sounds like a cool battle cry. 'For cake and vengeance!'
good job dudeeeee
"mmh. yes. cake. it does help, true. i've eaten cospicuos amounts of cake, after i realized vengeance was impossible. i'm not indifferent before the extinction of my species. but i try to be, because all others courses of action are useless."
He still sound a bit sad, but he's trying to brighten up.
"but i've talked about myself enough. what about you?"
Hidrus point at Sam
Sam blinks.
"M-me? I'm a giant blue pig. What's there to say?" he asks them.
"oh, nothing. it's just that you really stand out, even in this crowd of weird people."
"He's unique, Hidrus. That's a good thing, because it makes him special, but it can be a bad thing too. It can be lonely." Alternately, Sam survived a racial calamity but lost his memory of the event, and is unaware of his people's extinction. But that's the kind of needlessly depressing sad that I tend to favour, so it's unlikely. I think.
"Oh! I'm not lonely. I have a girlfriend." he says proudly, taking out a tablet phone and bringing up a picture of himself with a perky human blonde with red robes and a host of cybernetic enhancements. They're grinning with the girl resting her head on Sam's chest.
"i have no idea what she sees in me, to be honest."
"That's good, loneliness is the worst. I might not have my family from the Clattering, but I've got the rooftop tribes, though it took me a while to find them." Jack smiles at the photograph, and is quite impressed by the technology, too. Not that she's aware it's technology, as it could be magic, and the Clattering's natives mostly borrow and steal their technology from humans.
"Oh I don't know about that. You seemed to have no problems charming Sakura," Ilpholin points out with a teasing smirk. "Multiple times." Embarrassed people could be adorable and Adir was no exception.
"How are you holding up with that anyways? A lot of kids must mean a lot to give."
"oh, yes, loneliness is terrible. i really hope to find many pals here."
He looks very briefly at the photo
"mm-hm. hey, this is some kind of phone? there's an internet here?"
A wild Kuriko appears!
... and by that, I mean a girl named Kuriko walks into the tavern. She looks human enough, but due to her presence here in the Nexus, there's always a chance that she's not a human. (And if you guessed she wasn't a human, you'd be correct! She is, in fact, actually a goomba, but misfortune turned her into a human.)
She is also a certified Sociologist.
By observing her for more than a few moments, it's easy to notice how awkward she finds hands and fingers to be.
Kuriko smiles and greets all the NPC regulars in the Tavern, and waves at everyone else. Then, she sits on a bar stool, and orders her lunch for the day. "A Hero Sandwich and a Velvet Elfish, please."
"Uh, yes, there's an internet. Sherrel made me a custom computer so I could play games with her. I'm awful at them, but that's okay." he says with a shrug. This is of course a mistake on his part. Sam is just awful at Overwatch. He is actually insanely good at platformers, and beat the Lion King SNES game as a child. He mostly is having trouble because his muscle memory for that time doesn't match his present, much larger hands.
"great. i would like to try the local games someday. aren't you too old for things like this?"
He ponders something for some seconds
"so, jack said you are unique. you are like, a mutant or something? it's strange to me, because in the empire all the mutants get culled. but i guess, there's no problem here? or maybe i'm wrong."
"How can you be too old for a portable device letting you talk to your friends over incredible distances?" Which is what a phone is for, and what the ones in the Clattering are used for. Not that there's many, given the shifter's low-technology preference.
"no, no, i was referring to the games. i said 'this' where i should have said 'these'."
Of course, given the hig-tecnology preference of the trolls, no one can be too old, or too young, for a portable communication device
Sam raises an eyebrow, confused.
"Too old? I'm 18. How is that too old?" he asks.
"yeah, 18 *is* old. or what, in this place one is considered young until senility?"
Hidrus Himself appears to be around 20 years old, so it seems a strange remark
Fendrick the man-rat walks in. He is wearing a tweed waistcoat with green silk lining, and his only other adornment is a jasper ring. He is silver fawn in colour (a warm biscuity brown) and smells of custard cream biscuits (an English favourite). He takes a seat near Kuriko, and orders a glass of milk.
'Hi, I'm Fendrick' he says, extending a furry forepaw for a handshake. If Kuriko chooses to respond, his paw will feel warm and gentle. His handshake is quite firm, just right.
"How long do trolls live, Hidrus?" Because that may explain things. "Humans live until they're seventy, at least. Some reach over a hundred, and senility isn't guaranteed at any age." I used to work in a care home for people with dementia; most (if not all) of the residents were younger than my next door neighbour, who is house bound through physical, rather than mental, infirmity.
"I'm supposed to live twice as long as a human, so I'll probably make it to at least one-fifty..." Sam muses, confused at the troll's questions.
"wow, really? well, lower classes generally don't pass fifty, when nobilty can live for thousands of sweeps. but everyone accrue adulthood around 8 or 10 sweeps. i am seven, and i shall live at least to the age of one hundred sweeps, if nothing kill me. which is probable, because destiny likes to torment me"
Hidrus isn't joking when speak about destiny: whatewer he means, he take it seriously
"I'm nineteen. The village elder claims he's one twenty one, but because he's the village elder, he's the eldest, so nobody else was alive when he was born. And he's a shaman, and magic can distort things. I think we live longer, but I'm not sure. The old ones go... Dour. Not pleasant company." Jack didn't want to spend too much time with them, because of that.
"Sounds weird. There's nobody else like me, so I don't know. For humans there's no weird thing about age." he says simply. He hopes he doesn't have weird effects when he's old, like getting even bigger.
"ha! like all the young tolls, i've never seen an adult, but i've read lots of stories. i am sure i'll become something like my ancestor, who was pretty badass. also he died at at the age of 20."
"Humans get weaker as they get old. That's weird. Trolls sound weirder, though." Adulthood at ten, but the youngsters never see the adults? How are the children raised? What happens? These and other questions are flooding through Jack's mind.
"oh well, i don't know whats weird. we just grow up guarded by our lusus, until we can leave the planet and serve the empress. only the youngs live on alternia, the home world of my species. the adults travel the galaxy conquering planets and stuff like that."
He also seemed interested when Jack talked about his people, like he enjoyed learning about another species' habits. and probably also about magic.
"Wait, the place with the cartoon about the buff guy?" Sam asks.
I'm pretty sure that Eternia, Sam.
I'm unfamiliar with both, so Jack ignores both references to focus on the name and statements.
"What's a lusus? Why did you conquer the worlds? If you have the technology to conquer planets, why can't you fight off this monster that will attack your people?" Jack is very curious, it seems. Also androgynous, meaning her gender isn't immediately apparent.
"whats a lusus? it is simply your big old monster that raise and protect you. we conquer other worlds because we can. and the things about the apocalylptic monster are a bit complicated. she will probably become angry because a meteor lands on her, and so she will exterminate my race with her last cry. also, shes the empres' lusus."
woops my fault, i mistyped