[Nexus] Trog's Tavern CCXLV

[happyturtle]

A short man with light brown hair (which seems to have darker streaks of brown within it, as well) gazes up at the bearded man as he walks in. He rubs the side of his long nose quickly as he silently watches the man go to get his drink. The woman who also walks in steals his interest for a moment -it's the wings, it seems- before turning back to the man. ""Hey, buddy. Do you have a copper I could borrow, by any chance?"

"Gruuumph," Gus mumbles, fishes in his pocket, and puts a silver coin on the bar without looking at it.

[LOTRfan]

The man mutters a quick thanks, before taking his scarf and covering his lower face with it. He mutters something that can't really be heard through the scarf, and from what parts of his face you can see he seems to be concentrating very hard. As he does this, he squeezes the silver you gave him, and when he finishes he opens his hand, revealing a gold piece rather than a silver.

"I'd like a cup of green tea, if possible. And whatever he wants," the man adds, pointing to Gus. "You can give him the change, too."

[happyturtle]

"Huh. Neat trick," Gus says. "Beer."

[LOTRfan]

He chuckles. "Thank you. Sadly, that is probably the most powerful trick I know." As the server puts the brings the beer and the tea, the scarfed-man thanks him and takes his tea. Taking the time to procure a small metal spoon from one of his many pockets, he asks "So how are you doing this wonderful day, Mister...?"

[happyturtle]

"Pssht. I don't know any tricks at all. It's Gus. Just Gus, no 'Mister'." Gus says.

[Rebonack]

[Tavern Basement]

"Oh for Celestia's sake," Allo mutters as she strides over to the mob of dust bunnies and sweeps them off the controls with an arm. They begin gibbering and jabbering and poking at her with tooth picks. At least until she torches them.

The room is filled with the smell of dust and burnt hair.

"There. The trouble with the dangerous miscreants has been resolved. And these consoles appear to be some kind of hybrid technology. I recognize part of it from my home, but other parts aren't familiar to me."

Equestrian magi-tech and Star Trek computers? Huh. That's a pretty interesting mix of machine and magic. Wonder who built this thing?

"The safety protocols have been disabled and a list of 'Random Encounter' scenarios has been queued up to play at random."

[LOTRfan]

"A pleasure to meet you. I'm Aiji. May I ask you how familiar you are with this city? I'm rather new to Inside, myself. Actually, I've been looking for a decent-sized library for quite a long time." As he speaks, he dumps quite a bit of sugar into his tea, before stirring it with the spoon.

[Darkcomet]

[Tavern Basement]

"Those parts unfamiliar to you are those I recognize. Let's see about getting control of the system. Hopefully the hybrid technology will not be a problem..." N'alae proceeds to head up to the console and start hitting a lot of touch-screen-controls. Oddly quickly, too. She's trying to breach any security protocols in place in order to gain control.

You know, like she said. Whee, hacking! It probably involves a lot of technobabble no one has any patience for. Depending on when the ST tech is from it might or might not be easier on her. (The time of TNG, DS9, and VOY each being around a decade or more in the past to her, so older things=easier to deal with.)

The diplomat knowing how to do that continues to be strange.

[Rebonack]

[Tavern Basement]

There comes a sound that could only be described as 'shimmering' and the surroundings are replaced by a black room with a yellow grid pattern on the walls. The only thing real in here was that helmet, the computer, and the door that leads out of the chamber.

Between the two of them Allo and N'alae manage to disable the malicious program that had been inserted into the computer. The ambassador might recognize the virus as bearing a strikingly Romulan character.

Hmm...

How conspicuous.

One of the constructs is still alive and jabbing at N'alae's foot if she feels inclined to capture it.

"Mission accomplished?" Allo muses. "Though I'm curious why someone would want to sabotage a computer in a novelty bar. It seems like an inordinate amount of effort."

[happyturtle]

"A pleasure to meet you. I'm Aiji. May I ask you how familiar you are with this city? I'm rather new to Inside, myself. Actually, I've been looking for a decent-sized library for quite a long time." As he speaks, he dumps quite a bit of sugar into his tea, before stirring it with the spoon.

"I've been here all my life," Gus says. Which isn't saying much when you only sprang into existence a few years ago. "Library? Those the places with books, right?" Gus shakes his head. "There used to be one across the street from here, but it's gone now. I guess an apocalypse ate it. Or deadtime maybe. That seems more likely. I don't have much use for books. Maybe I can ask Jake. He likes quiet stuff like that."

[LOTRfan]

An apocalypse? They have those here, too? Well, that's unfortunate. "Oh, if you don't know any, don't worry about it. I wouldn't want you to go through the trouble of finding someone who can point one out." He takes a sip of his tea, he adds "So you've lived here all your life? Here, as in within the city?"

[Slii Arhem]

Iamar has seen bones being thrown before, but tarot (ar least, I assume it's tarot) is new ro her. "Show me the cards," she says, while listening for anything else approaching her.

In a flash four cards are laid out on the table as the bones vanish somewhere into the hag's clothing. She taps each of the four once, the sound of her finger striking them strangely sharp as if they were the tops of hollow metal boxes.

"Choose your future before it chooses you. The order matters dear, so order it yourself in the order it must be. Each in the next step until the end, and then a new future beyond that these do not foretell." She sweeps her hands back and invites Iamar to pick which card to flip first.

[Devixer]

Iamar considers the cards for a moment. Sure she could cheat and use her other vision to see what the cards were, but why do that? Instead, she indicates the card farthest from her to be flipped first.

[Darkcomet]

[Tavern Basement]

N'alae proceeds to trap the dust construct under the hat by just sort of...putting the hat on top of it.

Yay, hats.

"I do not know, but the virus was familiar," she cryptically states in response to Allo. She then decides to try something else, namely using the console to try to analyze the disabled program to find out what exactly it was supposed to do besides just cause general holo-chaos.

Like maybe what actually triggered it to start that, for instance.

[The Bushranger]

[Tavern Basement]

"See? No vacuums necessary. When in doubt, kill it with fire. It's the second-best way to be sure." And the hat-trapping of the dust bunny gains applause! "As for why, the answer is clear: because Avatar."

[Rebonack]

[Tavern Basement]

There appear to be a number of parameters that trigger the random encounters. But one in particular will probably stand out to N'alae for rather obvious reasons.

If: trigger 'romulan_in_trogs' = true
-Then: run program 'assassinate-via-skelecopters'

Huh.

That certainly isn't nefarious at all.

Wouldn't mean much to Allo mostly because she has no idea what a Romulan is. She hasn't made a point of asking everyone what their species is yet. Thus far she has just been assuming that they're different tribes of humans.

She does peer at BR though. "Who's 'Avatar'?"

[Darkcomet]

[Tavern Basement]

"That would be the missing Councilor." It's at this point that N'alae spots the bit of code, there.

She exclaims something that roughly translates to a rather loud <"What!?"> as she sees that. "According to what I'm seeing here, the attack was triggered by my presence. Not because of my catching on to the ruse, but because of my species. It-it makes sense. It triggered after I used some of our language and terms, it must have realized it then...but the virus is our technology." N'alae buries her face in her hands for a moment. "Conjecture later. For now, I will set new access codes and turn on the safety protocols." She proceeds to (attempt to if needed) do just that.

Not that she expects the safety protocols to work.

If all goes well she will turn to leave, making sure to bring along the captive dust-bunny-in-a-hat.

[Slii Arhem]

Iamar considers the cards for a moment. Sure she could cheat and use her other vision to see what the cards were, but why do that? Instead, she indicates the card farthest from her to be flipped first.

The card is flipped, revealing a small green serpent among the grass that is only visible by a bright, thin red stripe on its back.

"Danger dear, it warns of danger. Your next journey will begin with danger from a source you did not foresee, but that might be obvious to you in hindsight. It will be the danger that drives you, but perhaps not the only danger you face along the way. Among them, it will be the chief of your woes."

[Devixer]

Iamar examines the card for a moment, before tapping the card to the right. She ddoesn't seem to be much for words, especially since the chief of her woes was aapparently in her future.

[The Bushranger]

[Tavern Basement]

"Avatar, aka Zee, avatar of Shrub-*****rdly-Wrath," BR drawls. "A compartiviely nice but oft inscrutable and always somewhat...odd embodiment of a Great Old One who would find this a very fine example of a prank to be made."

As N'alae comments about the program and code, his eyebrow threatens to levitatew off his face. "...maybe you should check for a "pretend to be a holodeck" line of code, too," he suggests.

[Rebonack]

[Tavern Basement]

The new codes are accepted and the safety protocols may or may not have just been reactivated. Considering that the only three settings are 'off', 'fried chicken', and 'tuba' it's kind of difficult to figure out which of the three are actually what one wants.

At BR's explanation Allo narrows her eyes slightly. "It sounds like what you're telling me is that one of the Councilors is a powerful spirit who happens to enjoy tricks and pranks that may occasionally stray into the realm of potentially harmful?"

Her tone suggests that she doesn't like where this conversation is going.

"I suppose you're going to tell me next," she comments to the Romulan. "That your home also just so happens to have effectively omnipotent spirits who enjoy pranking and playing with mortals for kicks and giggles?"

[Darkcomet]

[Tavern Basement]

N'alae just decides to leave that as 'off' for now. She doesn't want to know what those other settings might do.

"I was not going to say anything, but replace 'spirits' with 'aliens' and you won't be too far off the mark. Fortunately for my people, they preferred to annoy another faction...most of the time. The Councilor is both less powerful and more benevolent than that, thankfully. More relevantly, I believe we're done here. The investigation will continue, but our part in it here is over. You both have my personal gratitude, and I will be sure to mention your roles in my report."

She addresses Allo specifically next. "Officer, as you were technically off-duty before this started, you may do what you will after turning in the gear."

Now for John. "Mr. O'Connel, check with the staff here in a day's time and you will receive a monetary stipend for services rendered. And potential medical bills."

"If neither of you has any further questions, you are both dismissed."

[happyturtle]

An apocalypse? They have those here, too? Well, that's unfortunate. "Oh, if you don't know any, don't worry about it. I wouldn't want you to go through the trouble of finding someone who can point one out." He takes a sip of his tea, he adds "So you've lived here all your life? Here, as in within the city?"

Gus takes a well worn leather notebook from his inside his jacket and thumbs through till he gets to a clean page and writes: Is there a library in the city? Aiji at Trog's wants to know. His handwriting is large and childish in appearance, though he concentrates hard and writes slowly. Once he's finished writing, he puts away the book to carry on the conversation.

"Yeah, Jake was born here. His father was a clockmaker, and he grew up and inherited the trade. He's lived in the same house on the same street his whole life. And I'm never far from Jake." Gus says.

[Beans]

Thryza arrives with Hildur, holding the blonde's hand and grinning excitedly.

[The Bushranger]

[Tavern Basement]

"...not harmful. At least, not with her being in control of them, anyway," BR explains, before waving a hand dismissively in N'alae's direction. "Nah, the fun of actually doing something other than drinking sugar with a little coffee in it is the compensation I need. Although if I happen to catch Dust Bunny Contagion I know who I'm gonna call."

[LOTRfan]

Gus takes a well worn leather notebook from his inside his jacket and thumbs through till he gets to a clean page and writes: Is there a library in the city? Aiji at Trog's wants to know. His handwriting is large and childish in appearance, though he concentrates hard and writes slowly. Once he's finished writing, he puts away the book to carry on the conversation.

"Yeah, Jake was born here. His father was a clockmaker, and he grew up and inherited the trade. He's lived in the same house on the same street his whole life. And I'm never far from Jake." Gus says.

Aiji watches Gus curiously as he completes his sentence. The first thing that comes to mind is "Maybe Gus does have a trick or two, after all." What could it be? Perhaps it's one of those two-way communicator books... Magic (and to a slightly lesser extent, technology) has always excited Aiji, and he continues to guess what it could be in his mind.

"So you and Jake are close, then?"

[Devixer]

Hildur is a little less exuberant than Thyrza, but she's happy to be here all the same. She tries to bring her to a booth off to the side.

[Beans]

Thryza sits with her, smiling, and fishes in her pocket for one of her chemical cigars.
Whatcha think you're getting, hon?

[Devixer]

"I'm just going to get myself a beer," Hildur says, glancing at the cigar.

[Beans]

Thryza cuts the end and lights it up, releasing its clean tin-and-white-vinegar scent. Oh, probably just a Bloody Mary for me.