[Nexus] NO XIII: Do Clockwork Penguins Dream of Mechanical Fish?

[Gullara]

[Kirk's Room]

Kirk grits his teeth, and reluctantly says. "No." Oh boy he's angry, and an unhealthy amount of that anger is directed at Dena.

[Shadowcaller]

[Kirk's Room]

The rogue facepalms, "Great. Just be cool though, even if you didn't use protection there is no guarantee she'll get pregnant anyway right? I just don't get how you screw that up."

[Gullara]

[Kirk's Room]

"Why the hell didn't you warn me?" Kirk says, not much in the mood to be criticized at the moment. "Gods, she'd better not get pregnant."

[Shadowcaller]

[Kirk's Room]

"I figured you'd use protection! You always use it when you're with me, why in the sands didn't you use it with her?" Dena asks back.

[Gullara]

[Kirk's Room]

"My bloody clothes were a ways away and she was all over me." Kirk says, knowing it's a terrible excuse. Gods dammit anyway.

[5a Violista]

Dipsnig's ears twitch. Fortunately, he's pretty resistant to craziness at this point. Especially this particular brand of craziness.
"Dragon Queen's shrines, you say. Why are you looking for them?" It might be important. Possibly.
The pups, meanwhile, keep up their sniffing. They will not be ignored!

[Main Room place]

Shanaya will ignore the dogs as long as possible! She is an expert at ignoring things. In fact, she's probably the best person at ignoring things of all times.

...

Okay, maybe not, since the girl starts scratching them on the head and behind the ears. Dogs and wolves and dingos just love that. She couldn't help herself from doing it!

"I'm looking for them because that's the thing to do," she says without really saying anything. Then, she clarifies. "The Dragon Queen is all-powerful and really cool and nice. I'm her knight, so I've got to visit her shrines and pray at them and defeat her enemies and stuff. Everyone I find, I get that much closer to finding my missing brother." Her brother was captured by the man with a cape who also has a whip. That was ages ago, back when she was level one.

[Shadowcaller]

[Kirk's Room]

"Yeah I'm sure she was all over you." Dena replies with a roll of her eyes. "Look Kirk, it's no way you can blame me for this, can't you just go talk to her? She seemed perfectly reasonable to me."

[Gullara]

[Kirk's Room]

"What the hell am I supposed to talk to her about. 'Oh by the way, you aren't pregnant are you? Oh you're not? Good, I hope I never see you again.' And what if she is?" Dena has hardly seen so much emotion out of Kirk. Usually he keeps it under lock and key.

[Shadowcaller]

[Kirk's Room]

"To be fair, you can't put all the blame on her Kirk. We don't even know if she did want to get pregnant. She just said it was a cultural thing, she didn't say she would actually do it." The other drow replies, attempting to calm him down a bit.

[Gullara]

[Kirk's Room]

Kirk takes a few controlled breaths. "You might be right." he odds aren't incredibly high that she gets pregnant even if she wanted to as well. He might have even lucked out with it being impossible for them to have children. He's encountered that before in humans.

[Shadowcaller]

[Kirk's Room]

"Aren't I always?" Dena muses. "Either you just leave it be and hope for the best, or you go talk to her about it. It's as simple as that."

[Gullara]

[Kirk's Room]

Kirk sighs. "I'll leave it be. Ideally I can forget about this immediately and nothing comes of it." He hopes he doesn't see Shalyn ever again, because no matter what it'll be an unpleasant encounter.

[Morty]

[Main Room place]

Shanaya will ignore the dogs as long as possible! She is an expert at ignoring things. In fact, she's probably the best person at ignoring things of all times.

...

Okay, maybe not, since the girl starts scratching them on the head and behind the ears. Dogs and wolves and dingos just love that. She couldn't help herself from doing it!

"I'm looking for them because that's the thing to do," she says without really saying anything. Then, she clarifies. "The Dragon Queen is all-powerful and really cool and nice. I'm her knight, so I've got to visit her shrines and pray at them and defeat her enemies and stuff. Everyone I find, I get that much closer to finding my missing brother." Her brother was captured by the man with a cape who also has a whip. That was ages ago, back when she was level one.

The wolf cubs are scratched. Noone can resist them!
"Okay..." Dipsnig says with a perfectly straight face. "Well, we're not exactly swamped with work even at the best of times, so you'll probably have plenty of time to look for all this."

[Murkus]

Main Room

Ordo stumbles out've the training room, brushing some clear, rapidly evaporating ooze off his arm. He sounds... irritated, but not at his present company. "Okay, what'd I miss? Something about a quest?" Shanaya is glanced at most pointedly. As much as a man with a blindfold can glance.

Besides the blindfold, Ordo's wearing a pair of sweatpants and little else. He's much more muscular than he should be, given the psion's lifestyle. Probably some new form of shapeshifting he's developed.

[Lex-Kat]

{Main Room}

Oh hi, Ordo. Well, did you miss me, perchance? Hmmm? Bianca asks, moving closer to him. But other than that, I introduced Miss "I actually have two Vs in my name" to the Boss. Er, Dipsnig. And she's currently scritching the pups heads.

[Murkus]

[Main Room]

"Uh, sure?" Ordo's not sure what to make of Bianca's first statement. The psion waves at his employer. "Heya Dipsnig. You hiring the kid on?"

[5a Violista]

[Main Room]

Shanaya sticks out her tongue at Bianca. That second one doesn't really count!

The wolf cubs are scratched. Noone can resist them!
"Okay..." Dipsnig says with a perfectly straight face. "Well, we're not exactly swamped with work even at the best of times, so you'll probably have plenty of time to look for all this."

Oh, how Shanaya loves wolf cubs. They're just a pain to level up. That's the only problem with them. She's glad that she's not the owner of these dogs, and that she's just the person who is rubbing them behind the ears.

"Okay," she says, nodding, to Dipsing's statement. "That's good, because then I can find lots and lots of side-quests."

Oh, yes! Ordo reminds the girl. "Oh, yes. I remembered!" She glances at Ordo, then back at Dipsing. "Is there some sort of quest that I have to do to join up?" she asks, thinking frantically (as if it would influence Dipsing's decision) Please no grinder quest, please no, pleasenopleasenopleaseno
nononononononononono...anything but a grinder quest.

[Morty]

[Main Room]

"Looks like it, Ordo," Dipsnig says before looking back at Shanaya. "Not really. But until you finish a mission or find us a new one, you're on probation, which means you can't access the armory or treasury."

[5a Violista]

Main Room

Shanaya shrugs. Sounds like a good deal. She didn't expect to be able to use the armory yet. There's probably just normal weapons and evil walking suits of armor, anyway. Besides, she has everything she already needs.

"Sounds pretty neat. I'll go out and find a quest as soon as possible," she says. The biggest delays on this will be because of Math Tests, translation errors, and side quests.

[Morty]

[Main Room]

"Great. You're in. And since I have three members in one place, there's something that needs doing. Work's been scarce lately, so I have a private job for anyone who's interested and doesn't mind spying on a slave-keeping, demon-worshipping cult," Dipsnig says.

[Murkus]

[Main Room]

"Definitely in," Ordo volunteers, raising a fist in the air. "The boredom was starting to kill me. Who hired us for this one?"

[Lex-Kat]

{Main Room}

Slave-keeping demon-worshipping cult? Bianca slowly raises out of the shadow she was just departing through. In. she looks suspiciously at Ordo.

[5a Violista]

[Main Room]

"Great. You're in. And since I have three members in one place, there's something that needs doing. Work's been scarce lately, so I have a private job for anyone who's interested and doesn't mind spying on a slave-keeping, demon-worshipping cult," Dipsnig says.

[Main Room]
"I accept," states Shanaya E. Klisvane, new member of NO. Then, as an afterthought, she adds, "However, I think that the other two," motioning at Bianca and Ordo, "will do better than me. So you should definitely hire them instead of me." It's always a good idea to defer to the lady that can step into shadows, because she could probably eat your shadow for breakfast, and the blind guy, because of the Equal Rights in Working movements.

[Shadowcaller]

[Kirk's Room]

Kirk sighs. "I'll leave it be. Ideally I can forget about this immediately and nothing comes of it." He hopes he doesn't see Shalyn ever again, because no matter what it'll be an unpleasant encounter.

[Kirk's Room]

"Suit yourself, I'd personally try to cut all loose ends but I get the feeling you don't find that as important." Dena replies as she sits down on Kirk's bed. "Talking about loose ends, how are you and Tina doing?"

[Morty]

[Main Room]

"Noone has," Dipsnig says in response to Ordo. "I'm going to be paying you. There's a religion known as the Cult of Dalachrech. Dalachrech is a demon lord of invertebrates. They keep slaves. So I want you to gather information about them, which I will send to Watchtower and other people who might want to destroy them. They have temples in several places of a varying degree of secrecy. I already have a mole in their temple in Riverside, and I know they have one in Underside."

[Gullara]

[Kirk's Room]

"We haven't spoken for a bit, but we're meeting up at a party that's coming up soon." Kirk replies, seemingly unconcerned with the new line f questioning.

[Shadowcaller]

[Kirk's Room]

"So you are trying to repair the relationship then?" Dena inquires with a curious look at Kirk.

[Gullara]

[Kirk's Room]

"We're still friends. I needed a plus one and we haven't spent much time with one another in a while." Kirk says, attempting to sidestep the question.

[Murkus]

[Main Room]

"The boss actually paying me for once. Imagine that," Ordo says, making a cheap joke. Joking's not normally his thing, either, unless you count snide remarks. "Don't worry about it Shanaya. We're all a long way from professional here. Cept' maybe Bianca." And that time, he's not joking. Mr. Ventrii turns his head toward the 'former' assassin, and discovers that she's giving him a suspicious look. "What?"

[Shadowcaller]

[Kirk's Room]

"So you admit it then." Dena replies with a smile. "I just want to let you know that I think you're doing the right thing. You look really cute together."