[Nexus] Trog's Tavern CCXLV

[Deathkeeper]

Oswin gives the rat a scratch on the ear as he sets it and its rider down on the bar to their own devices.
"Uh, yeah. I suppose?" he says to the oddly colorful cyber quadruped.

[Rebonack]

That grin is getting huuuuuge!

And then Nova's face plate folds back over her face again. "Well you're in luck, buddy. Because I'm down here chasing my dreams!"

She does that a lot.

Chasing her dreams.

And occasionally crashing into solid walls and making fun of magical dolphins.

She's a weird cyborg.

"And it sounds like you're planning on chasing your dreams too!"

There's a rainbow colored blur and suddenly Nova is standing on her hind feet with on of her legs around the gargoyle's shoulder. With the other she pans across the room slowly.

"Just open your eyes. Your dreams are out there! Run for all you're worth and you'll catch them!"

[Deathkeeper]

Oswin is more than a little confused.
"Please get off me. And I really don't think running is a good idea. Maybe flying. Maybe."
He's still rather unsteady on his feet.

[Rebonack]

Nova drops down to all fours again and looks up at the gargoyle with a completely deadpan expression.

"It's just a figure of speech. Geeze, lighten up a bit rocky," the robot unicorn replies. "It means you got to get out there and get something done. You can do that, right? Those dreams won't chase themselves."

That's certainly true.

"You take it from me, rocky. Sitting around in one place and trying to figure out what to do is just going to weigh you down. Get out there and find an adventure! The second you start looking you'll probably run right into one."

The Nexus is odd like that.

[Deathkeeper]

The gargoyle blinks at the pony, again a bit confused. At least he avoided sputtering.
"I was on my way out when you called me over, so I guess I'll just get back to that, then."
And unless she wants to hold him back he'll go back to that, and make an exit.

[happyturtle]

Charity Evans, human artist and Remnant medic, walks in. She's wearing civvies rather than hospital scrubs, and is somewhat paint splattered.

She looks around for Calvin.

[McBish]

Calvin stands in front of a dart board swaying drunkenly as he squints through one eye trying to line up his throw. When he finally does throw the dart he misses the dart board entirely, the dart sticking into the wooden wall. He doesn't seem to notice her as she comes in looking for him. He has a half finished beer on a nearby table with a large backpack tucked under said table.

[happyturtle]

Charity weaves through the crowd and tries to stop him from picking up the next drop. "Careful there."

[McBish]

Calvin is briefly confused when he can't find his next dart to throw. Then when he sees Chairty standing there he grins. "Hey Chairty you made it. How is it going?" Calvin definitly seems more relaxed the Chairty has seen him in the past. It helps that he is also very drunk. It hadn't been his intention to get this drunk when he came in here. But after that Dragon Liver Buster he just kept going well past the tipsy line.

[happyturtle]

"How much did you have to drink?" Charity asks.

She remembers her own binge-drinking days. She was so sure she could handle it, that she wasn't hurting anyone.

[McBish]

"I'm not really sure, a dozen or so beers. A couple of shots of the stronger stuff. Do you want a drink?" Calvin grins obviously finding it slightly amusing that he can't remember how many drinks he has had. He only has a little experiance getting actually drunk, probably no more then your average teenager, and seems to be enjoying tonight.

[happyturtle]

Charity grimaces, and pulls a gadget out of her bag. "Breathe," she orders him.

It's a breathalyser. Twelve beers plus liquor could easily put him into alcohol poisoning territory.

[McBish]

Calvin looks a little confused at first but eventually gets what she wants him to do. After he blows into the breathalyser the results come back as a .13. He his well past the safe to drive range, but not to the point of brain damage. "How'd I do?"

[happyturtle]

"You'll live, but you'd better not have any more," Charity says. "How about switching to water?"

[McBish]

"It would take more then a few drinks to stop me." That is true enough, Chairity might think he was exagerating the number of drinks he had. For someone with his body weight that many drinks should have raised his BAC well above what he is sitting at now. The truth is his body is just better at handling it then the normal body. "I guess I can switch, after I finish the one I have." He says reaching out for his half finished beer.

[happyturtle]

"Why all the drinking?" Charity asks. "Celebrating something?"

[McBish]

"Something like that. I am moving out of my Uncle's house." Moving out, getting kicked out, all the same thing right. That could very well explain why he has a backpack full of his stuff tucked under the table.

[happyturtle]

Charity is very glad to hear that, but she keeps that to herself. "Where are you going?"

[McBish]

"I don't have any plans set yet. I have been thinking I may go out for a long camping trip. Get out of the city for awhile." He has survied of the land in the past, he is pretty sure he could do it again if he needed to.

[happyturtle]

"Not tonight, you won't. I'll get you a room here. If camping still seems like a good idea when you're sober, you can do it then." Charity says.

[McBish]

"Aw, thanks Charity, I appreciate that. I will admit, I probably will appreciate it in the morning." He hadn't really planned on where he was going to go tonight. He had figured he would pass out somewhere, he usually could find a safe, if not very comfortable place to sleep for the night. "Yeah I think a trip camping would be great, get away from the city. Just get out and relax for awhile. You know?"

[happyturtle]

"Mhm," Charity says. She likes camping, so long as there's a cabin nearby with proper plumbing and a wifi connection. "So, why did you move out?"

[Rebonack]

Enter a bunch of rowdy looking Legion soldiers! Imagine someone updated Roman style uniforms to modern-sci fi style and you would these ten guys. The uniforms are well crafted orichalcum plates and ballistic fibers conditioned to look as much like leather as possible.

No spears, though. They've all got rifles.

The men are laughing and cajoling each other, sharing crass jokes and stories of recent hijinks. More than a few times they comment on how boring guarding a bunch of 'togas' is.

Most find a large table to seat themselves while one heads up to the counter to order a bunch of wine.

Ah! And one would be remiss to fail to mention an eleventh member of the unit. One that doesn't look human in the least. An eight foot tall cyborg wyvern-like creature clad from nose to tail in armor and reinforced hide. The Roman numerals LXXX are stamped into its armor in several places. Far from a beast, the creature has intelligent and almost disturbingly human looking eyes. Eyes that betray a hint of carefully contained excitement.

[Mr. Moon]

Seated near the back, sullenly drinking a glass of iced water, is a a vaugly preteen aged boy. A navy blue softball hat with the barely legible logo "JAZZ" on it covers his sandy brown hair, so shaggy that it seems likely to throw the hat off at any moment. His stained shirt was at least recently washed, but it's hard to make what colour it had been. An equally stained bandana hangs around his tanned neck, and the area where the bandana normally would have sat - tied around around his face to cover his mouth and nose - is bright pale next to it. As is the area around his eyes. In fact, the only tanned part on his face is a thin brownish strip where a slight gap would be between his goggles and his bandana.

And currently, he's engrossed in a book. Looks like an anatomy textbook, but there's a bunch of pages missing from it.

[Rebonack]

The Legion soldier soon returns with mugs and several pitchers of cheap wine. Woohoo! Time to get drunk! One of them is even set down on the table in front of the wyvern. It takes a bit of good natured teasing, but eventually LXXX picks the pitcher up with surprising dexterity.

The soldiers watch with bated breath as the wine vanishes down the cyborg bio-weapon's maw and then give a celebratory whoop when the pitcher is clunked back down onto the table.

"See? Told you she could do it," one man laughs.
"How many do you think it would take for a wyvern to start getting tipsy?" a second asks.

LXXX gives a small cough. "Wyverns are designed to process any organic material quickly and efficiently. I don't think we can get tipsy."

That seems to disappoint several of the soldiers. Ah well! They still have the evening to themselves and they intend to enjoy it! Soon enough their conversations turn away from the mechanical monster allowing her to turn her attention to the rest of the tavern's patrons.

There are so many people here. So many vastly different people. She had seen it to an extent during the siege of Thessaloniki last year, but that was just on the edge of the Nexus. Nothing could have prepared her for its beating heart.

As she pans her eyes across the room someone catches her attention. Someone who would probably be overlooked by most tavern patrons.

The wyvern moves toward the young man in the JAZZ hat, crawling like an awkwardly folded kite. When she draws close she speaks both a name and a question, "Sam Cassidy?"

[ThePhantom]

The door opens up, and a man wearing a slightly armored red coat, carrying a black medicine bag steps through. He pauses, brushing his reddish brown hair out of his eyes which widen at seeing all the odd things and beings that are in the tavern.

"What happened to the village square?"

And maybe the fact that he walked into a place different from where he was going. The Nexus can be odd that way.

[Mr. Moon]

So lost is Sammy in his book that it takes him a few moments to realize he's being spoken to. First comes a vague awareness that a name has been spoken near him, then the realization that the name is one he's familiar with, followed by oh, right, that's my name. He blinks and looks up from his book, a "yes?" forming on his lips. But it falls as soon as he lays eyes on the figure who said his name.

"Eighty!" Grinning widely, he leaps out of his seat and gloms onto the wyvren, wrapping his arms around her long neck. All youthly bravado is temporarily forgotten as he presses his face against her warm scales. "You did it!"

[Rebonack]

"Sure as hell isn't," comments a dwarf near the newcomer. A dwarf that is all armored up such that he looks suspiciously similar to robocop. "Welcome to the Nexus."

And then?

He chugs some beer!

Why?

Well...

He's a dwarf, isn't he?

That's a thing dwarves do.

Meanwhile!

LXXX makes a surprised squeaking noise when she suddenly finds arms around her neck. Slowly, tentatively, she raises one of her wings to put it around the youth's back to return the embrace.

Vague memories tickle at her mind.

How long ago was it that someone gave her a hug?

It's hard to remember...

But this.

She'll remember this.

Especially since several of the nearby soldiers seem to think it's pretty hilarious.

"It's good to see you again Sam Cassedy," she replies with slight confusion creeping into her tone. "What do you mean, though? I did what?"

[Deathkeeper]

The door opens up, and a man wearing a slightly armored red coat, carrying a black medicine bag steps through. He pauses, brushing his reddish brown hair out of his eyes which widen at seeing all the odd things and beings that are in the tavern.

"What happened to the village square?"

And maybe the fact that he walked into a place different from where he was going. The Nexus can be odd that way.

There's a click-click of clawed feet on wood as the man is approached by a tall, sandy-scaled lizardman. The reptile is very broad and muscular, with a tail and unshod, clawed feet. He's wearing a crimson coat covering some shiny metal armor and the hilt of a thin sword. He's also got a hat matching in color to his coat with a single white feather on it. Said hat has holes cut in the side for his long ears which split, giving the appearance of having four. The brim covers his eyes, but he seems to know exactly where the man is. He's using a masterfully made naginata as a staff.
"Ye all right lad? Ye sound like ye've seen a ghost."
Despite his inhuman appearance he sounds genuinely concerned. Well, concerned and just a little bit Scottish.

[ThePhantom]

"The Nexus? Is that some kind of different dimension?"

Hmm, that's a lot of armor for one man to be wearing. Most people don't where that much armor without needed that much protection. How dangerous is this Nexus place? Then a lizardman walks up. He tenses up, as he used to fight a few of those, but this one is talking, which the other one didn't.

"I've seen ghosts, but I never walked someplace different than what it was before."