[Nexus] Trog's Tavern CCXLV

[DyingOfThirst]

Izual comes walking down the stairs. No longer in the burned plate mail he was wearing previously, he now wears very plain white robes with a raised hood. His grayed halo isn't currently visible. Despite his efforts to conceal himself, burns that somehow still look freshly made can be seen on his face. With a quick look around, he heads over to the bar and takes a seat.

[NatsuGaki]

Ririko looks down at the diamond and sighs, the weight of a world suddenly weighing down her shoulders.

"Oh, never mind. I guess I'm not really good at world-hopping yet."

And she puts the diamond up, and pulls a flask out of her sash instead.

"I was hoping for something a bit stronger, but I'll settle for some of my champagne."

[Morty]

"It might be very easy to get back there, or very hard," Dipsnig says. "It varies."

[Beans]

N'lyzsa stands and starts to head out; better get working on that whole 'getting home' thing sometime or another.

[OrchestraHc]

"I'll keep it in mind," she tells the friendly Bangaa. "And I don't like varies. What exactly do you mean by very hard? Like magic? I can get my hands on a wizard in twenty min-" She pulls her phone out and and a look of desperate realization. "No bars, okay. I can work that."

[Morty]

"I'm not really a specialist. All I know is that worlds are connected to the Nexus in a variety of ways."

Dipsnig then glances at Ririko.

"Your diamonds should be good here. The Nexus accepts all sorts of currency. It's hard to wrap your head around, so it's best not to think about it too much."

[ThePhantom]

Albert sighs in relief. Well, that's one problem solved. He stands up, and walks over to Dipsnig.
"Excuse me, Mr Goblin, but since you do appear to be more familiar with the Nexus than I am, could you answer a few of my questions please?"

[Deathkeeper]

Kayden looks over at Lola and her phone.
"There were some folk inhere earlier with some of their fancy tech. They seemed to get it working after turning it on and off a few times and some fiddling, although they obviously couldn't connect to their home's signals or whatever they called them. So your thingy should work, sort of."

[NatsuGaki]

Ririko smiles dazzlingly at the goblin before returning her flask to her sash. This time she pulls out a gold ring.

"So this would work too? I hope so. If not, it's gonna take me ages to find that diamond again."

[Morty]

Dipsnig shrugs.

"It should probably work. If it's valuable somewhere, it's valuable here."

He then turns to Albert with a sigh.

"My time is precious, but I could answer a few questions."

[ThePhantom]

Well, better make this fast then.

"Could you please tell me where one could inquire about this city? I assume there is someplace that would focus on explaining about the city's laws."

If he doesn't have time to answer questions, better find someone else who does.

[DyingOfThirst]

Izual, quietly sipping a glass of some kind of dark liquor at the bar, listens in to Dipsnig and Albert's conversation. He pulls down his hood so he can hear better. He needed to start learning more about this place sooner or later.

[Morty]

"You can always go to a Remnant station," Dipsnig says. "They're the closest thing to police around here. They can probably give you a run-down of what passes for law here." He manages to keep his personal dislike for the commander of Remnant to himself.

[OrchestraHc]

Lola turn her cell phone on and off until she gets something. She frantically punches in a number and presses the phone to her ear. "And nothing... So this place just sucks people in and everyone is expected to just take it in stride? I'm lucky I got dropped here with a wallet and a few tricks. How is anyone normal supposed to find food or places to live?"

[DyingOfThirst]

Izual looks over at Lola and speaks up.

"I have not been here long, but from what I have seen thus far I do not think 'normal' is something that describes anyone that ends up here."

The fallen angel himself being a prime example.

[Rebonack]

"Hehehe," titters the guy with the goatee and derby hat sitting in the rafters. What the hell is doing up there anyway? Aside from being weird of course. At some point or another the office chair he had ridden into the tavern managed to find its way in front of a little kiosk with a computer marked 'Nexus Information Center'.

"You know, I think I'm actually glad I decided to relocate," he comments to no one in particular as he kicks his legs idly. "This is a lot more interesting than that stuffy tree. At the very least I don't have to worry about botwoolies stealing my front door."

What the hell are botwoolies? Any why would they want to steal someone's front door?

"I wonder why so many folks are all getting dumped here at the same time... Maybe some kind of cyclical behavior on the Nexus' part? No no, usually summer gets really slow doesn't it? Hmmm..."

That's a question that may never be answered.

"Ooooor! I could just make up an answer and pretend it's right. Maybe if I repeat it often enough people will start to believe it!"

You really need to stop talking to the narrator.

"Nuts to you and your literary rules! I'll talk to whoever I like. The answer is that people are coming here to celebrate Nicoli Tesla's birthday! Some were just early. Or late."

...whatever. Weird derby-hat guy coughs rather loudly to draw attention to himself. "For a place to stay try any of the local temples, churches, synagogs, mosques, shrines, or other places of worship. They often times have traveler's quarters to help out folks that just got dumped here. Even if they don't they might have some nice members willing to lend you a room."

[ThePhantom]

"Okay, thank you."

Albert turns his head towards the strange derby man. Odd, how did that booth get in here, and does it say information on it? Albert walks over to the booth.

"Um, so this booth gives out information about the Nexus?"

[McBish]

"Yeah, it's kind of a pain doing homework again at my age. And I can't even slack off like I used to, because if I'm going to save lives, I have to know this stuff, inside and out." Charity says.

((ooc: This is likely my last post until mid-late next week, due to travelling and the subsequent health crash that I anticipate.))

"Yeah I get that. I always hated how pointless school always seemed to be. But when what you are learning can be the differance between life and death, well that can just be exhausting. Anything else new going on, any new art projects?"

[Rebonack]

"Hell if I know," Sitka says from his perch in the rafters as he gestures at the information booth. "That's what the sign on the side says."

A beat.

"Wha- WHY AM I SITING ON A FISH?"

Sitka yanks the perch out from under himself and slips on the fishy oil, tumbling off the rafter and face-planting on the floor. Ha! That's what you get for messing with the narrator!

"You're a jerk," he mutters, waving the perch at no one in particular.

As for the booth...

It contains all the usual answers to the various 'what just happened?' questions that newcomers ask when dumped into the Nexus! Wow. That's actually really helpful. Why didn't someone make one of those sooner?

[NatsuGaki]

Ririko looks sadly at the fish.

"Another one?"

She smiles sweetly at the person waving it around.

"You wouldn't happen to know where all the perch are coming from, would you?"

Ririko, as we must now find out, really hates fish.

[OrchestraHc]

Fish puns are surprisingly common. Playing a bass, wielding a pike. A salmon blouse.

Luckily Lola is immune to fish puns, and while sparing a stare at the crazy stranger, she peruses the information booth. "So I'm stuck in a schizophrenic sci-fi novel, little hope to get back, the primary occupation is 'adventurer', and I'm stuck here with nothing but 33 bucks and a pair of brass knuckles? Well consider me corrected this sucks way more than I thought."

[Deathkeeper]

Fish puns are surprisingly common. Playing a bass, wielding a pike. A salmon blouse.

Luckily Lola is immune to fish puns, and while sparing a stare at the crazy stranger, she peruses the information booth. "So I'm stuck in a schizophrenic sci-fi novel, little hope to get back, the primary occupation is 'adventurer', and I'm stuck here with nothing but 33 bucks and a pair of brass knuckles? Well consider me corrected this sucks way more than I thought."

Kayden goes to put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, unless she's clearly discomforted by it.
"Actually you're stuck here with 33 bucks, brass knuckles, clothes, a tech thingy that can probably be fixed, and a number of people in a similar situation perfectly willing to watch out for each other. And from what I gather finding jobs isn't that hard as long as your player does it off-screen you look all over. Although having special skills makes it easier, of course. Do you have any, if you don't mind me prying. "

[Darkcomet]

Something odd happens now. Not that that's actually very odd, this place being what it is.

A pointy-eared woman wearing a hat like this and similar businessish attire (though not too fancy) throws the door open and marches up to Cosmo, clearly having some serious purpose here. The holstered pistol of some sort at her side probably does not help.

"I have finally figured it out. Why you aren't dead, why anyone still comes to this cursed tavern after all that's happened to it, I've figured it out.

You've complained about the conditions here since...well, as long as it's existed, to my knowledge, and yet you never leave. And even when the tavern is destroyed, you always appear again, with no explanation. The same goes for your fellow staff. But I've figured it out. I know the secret of this place, and I believe everyone real here has a right to know!" She raises her voice, shouting above the noises of the tavern.

"Do you know what this place is? It's a faaaaaake!"

She...may or may not be intoxicated with something.

[The Bushranger]

Cosmo glares at the intoxicated Romulan, the grumpy gnome leaning against his broom. "Missy, I'm as real as you are, and the only thing fake about working here is the pay schedule. But we stick around because we get free food and healthcare. Now you can buy a drink or I can thwack you with this broom until you're out the door."

And everyone's favourite grumpy gnome waves said broom menacingly!

[Rebonack]

"To be fair," the derby hat guy with a perch comments from his position on the floor. "This whole 'reality' is a hologram. Near as I can tell anyway. But who knows! Maybe I'm just completely crazy and the Nexus' wonky all cosmologies are true clause completely negates that."

He finally rises to his feet and deposits the fish in someone's bag of holding when they aren't looking. "True or not though I could really go for some pancakes. I wonder if there's an Interdimensional House of Pancakes around here somewhere...?"

Hmmm...

That would really be worth finding out about, actually.

"Now if I were a restaurant specializing in pancakes where would I hide?"

[Darkcomet]

"Healthcare is irrelevant when you should be dead on multiple occasions, like the satellite impact! This place being an advanced holodeck explains everything! The rapid reconstruction, the immortal staff who don't leave despite horrid pay conditions and the availability of better jobs! The Councilor probably has a mobile emitter! And..." She looks at the strange hatted person saying that applies to everything. (People with hats like calling things holograms, apparently.)

"You sound like a mad conspiracy theorist."

...

Did a Romulan shouting about Trog's being a holodeck just call someone a conspiracy theorist?

[OrchestraHc]

Kayden goes to put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, unless she's clearly discomforted by it.
"Actually you're stuck here with 33 bucks, brass knuckles, clothes, a tech thingy that can probably be fixed, and a number of people in a similar situation perfectly willing to watch out for each other. And from what I gather finding jobs isn't that hard as long as your player does it off-screen you look all over. Although having special skills makes it easier, of course. Do you have any, if you don't mind me prying. "

"Well, I was a waitress for five years, that should count for something, and I was going for my teaching certificate..." She says, upset at having a goal taken from under her by this Nexus place. Thinking for a second more, she does add with a smile, "but I bet this is the only place were you can add werewolf to your resume and not get it thrown out." She loops her own hand over to put on the bangaa's shoulder. "I bet your the type who makes it hard to be a pessimist. I can definitely appreciate a bunch of people in the same crummy boat having to work together. My name's Lola, what's yours?"

[Deathkeeper]

Lola the Werewolf. I know I've heard that one before.
Anyway, the Bangaa doesn't seem bothered by the werewolf comment, which probably only proves her point. He nudges his hat up so Lola can see his green eyes when he introduces himself.
"You can call me Kayden, lass. And from what I've heard from the folks around here is that resumes often aren't that important since most of their contents can't be proven. If you want to go into teaching you probably could.
Oh and unlike you it seems that I've been carrying much of my savings around with me. So if you need help getting a place to stay I'd be happy to help as long as you don't expect anything fancy. You'd owe me, of course."
The way he says it makes it pretty obvious that he's the kind of person to rarely, if ever, ask his friends to pay him back.

[Rebonack]

A huge grin spreads across derby hat guy's face. "I know right? There's an Interdimensional House of Pancakes everywhere. I'm starting to suspect there's only one IHOP and they are just sort of..."

He wiggles his fingers in a non-informative fashion.

"Contemporaneous with a whole bunch of different locations all at the same time. That would explain why my waiter is always an obese elf named Steve."

Every time.

Every time he's sure that he at least smelt Steve even if he didn't see him.

"WHAT THE HELL!? MORE FISH!?" a smelt is hurled across the room in aggravation. "That's it! I've had it with your nonsense mister narrator! I'm going to narrate my own hijinks from now on thank you very much!"

Is it working?

"Sweet it's working!"

We're going to have so much fun together little narration boxes.

[Morty]

Dipsnig undeadtimes. It seems that the people who desired information have found help from some people who don't charge for it. Good for them. He resumes watching the room idly.