Mallside VIII: OrksOrksOrks!

[UncleWolf]

Triple B

Jace snorts (it's probably pretty cute).
"Sounds like standard fare for half-dragons. But that would just be rude. That's just abuse of a proper mental bond, I'll have you know. If I started that precedent Zebes would start breaking out his best jokes every time I needed to say something serious."

Aurora Fountain

Spako gives her a bit of a funny look.
"Oh, okay. Just as long as you're ok and everyone's safe it doesn't really matter, right?"
Oh, boy. More chaos magic.

Triple B

"And that would be simply terrible." Veronica agrees as she finishes getting dressed and turns around, offering a wing for Jace to climb up onto her shoulders with. "Alright, so. Bikini found, lingerie not needed...where should we head to from here? Is there something we can do to turn you back perhaps? I don't mind a cute boyfriend, but we have to admit, it'd be a little difficult like this." She points out.

[Deathkeeper]

Triple B

Jace accepts the perch. He will admit that it is an awfully nice way to spend a day, seated like that.
"Well, Zebes could shapeshift, so if I figure that out I'll be fine. It's more him I'm worried about. It's not fair to take away so much from him. I don't think I can do anything about it here, though. There is a body-magic shop, but I don't want to use that if I can. It would be expensive, and I can't just throw money around any more. I'll have to see if maybe I can find a more subtle solution."

[WarKitty]

Aurora Fountain

Aiden sighs and glances at the cat he's having a conversation with. "My name's Aiden. I own the coffee shop here, the Roost."

That sounds like a pleasant job. What happened today?

"That's quite doable. I have made instruments for people of different shapes before. So that wouldn't be much trouble. Would you like an enchantment on it or just a plain instrument?"

Mil unlocks the door to the back room.

Enchantments? What sort? Xun's whiskers are quivering. This place is a veritable mess of smells, magicy and otherwise! Hopefully none of the smells are catgut though.

[Lost_Deep]

Azik's Enchanments

An artifical person walks into Azik's. Roughly feminine, covered in plastic and with blue hair, she enters and looks around. She has come for a reason, but there's plenty of reason to look around, too.

[Halae]

[Azik's Enchantments]

Azik the warforged is standing behind the counter, looking at this new person with curiosity handily hidden by his immobile facial features. "Good afternoon, miss. Do you need help with something?"

[Lost_Deep]

Azik's Enchantments

"Yes," Cai says, "My name is Cai. I have an interest in learning magic, or at least discovering whether I am able to. I am interested in entering into an apprenticeship for this reason. However, due to my unique nature, a mixture of artificial intelligence and magic, I may be unable to properly cast magic. I was hoping you had some method of testing magical potential, in perhaps would consider an apprentice."

[Halae]

[Azik's Enchantments]

"that depends entirely on your level of sapience," Azik says, "So I ask; do you run on a level of subroutines, or would you refer to yourself as alive?"

[Lost_Deep]

Azik's Enchantments

"Unknown, technically. Attempts to analyze my program have been ineffective, but for all intents and purposes I seem to be sapient. I can learn and adapt, mentally, comparably to humans. Paradoxes, while interesting, do not result in freezing. Evidence points towards true thought."

[Rebonack]

[Gazebo's Fine Furniture]

That should more or less tell you exactly what goes on here, right? Shop with a killer gazebo in it? Possibly on a grassy gnoll?

Well you would be wrong!

This store is actually owned by a Glabrezu that got sick of the whole soul collection thing and decided to set up a furniture shop instead. The furniture is high quality and won't damn you even a little bit.

Anywho!

This is where a certain necromancer will be found, along with another woman who has a somewhat adventure-y look about her. Judging by the leather armor and the bow she must be an archer of some kind! Though weirdly enough she has no arrows. What's up with that? You need arrows if you want to shoot someone, silly adventurer!

For whatever strange reason the adventurer's expression suggests that she's on an adventure! "I've never been to Inside before. This City is so strange."

[Ionbound]

[Gazebo's Fine Furniture]

The necromantress shrugs and says, "Well, it's a bit odd. You should see where I used to live. Anyways, this place looks rather promising, doesn't it, for beds and stuff."

[ThePhantom]

Enchantments? What sort? Xun's whiskers are quivering. This place is a veritable mess of smells, magicy and otherwise! Hopefully none of the smells are catgut though.

"Runic. All my magic is runic."

Well, that is one of the classic means of making string instruments. Its kinda a requirement of making instruments in the nexus. So, yes there is some of that smell, but not too much of it.

[Rebonack]

[Gazebo's Furniture]

"My body was born in a village outside the Nexus. The people there typically shunned the road that lead to it since, well, you know. Insane things," Archer replies with a vague hand-wave. "She got turned into a... I don't know. Don't even remember. Some kind of stupid undead. Then I heard Lady Evercraft's call and followed it. She improved me and now I can think just like my body used to, so it's a pretty big improvement."

Archer is very glad about this.

She also just let drop that Elestra can upgrade corporeal undead into her volcanic draugr.

That's a pretty nifty ability.

Anywho!

"I would help you pick one out, but I can't feel anything," Archer says. "So I can't really test any of the beds to tell you what they're like."

She can remember feeling. Or at least ask the soul imprisoned in her body what she remembered about feeling.

[Ionbound]

[Gazebo's Furniture]

The necromantress nods and says, "Cool...Are you not the same person you were before becoming undead?" as she starts testing out some cheap-ish beds.

[Rebonack]

[Gazebo's Furniture]

Archer scrunches her lips off to the side. "I could pretend to be, if you wanted me to?"

Assuming a negative reply she shrugs, then taps on her the side of her head. "The soul this body belonged to is trapped inside me. My personality is based on hers, but I've already learned everything about her. I still ask her every now and again if I forget something. Sometimes she remembers, sometimes she doesn't. She used to scream and cry a lot, but not so much anymore. She gets quieter and quieter every passing year. Eventually I think the old soul just kind of fades away? I'm not really sure exactly how it works. I'm no magus, I just shoot arrows for the Lady."

That would be a no.

The way she talks so casually about it might be somewhat unnerving.

"Though I do know that the Lady has said there are many different kinds of undead that work in all sorts of different ways. The Nexus doesn't really have any single way of doing things. Since it's crazy."

So crazy.

[Ionbound]

[Gazebo's Furniture]

The necromantress shrugs and says, "Nah, it's fine. Just curious," before muttering to herself, "That's another one off the list." She looks around and, grinning a little mischievously, asks Archer, "What do you think of a coffin-like bed? Too much?"

[Rebonack]

[Gazebo's Furniture]

Archer frowns at the coffin-shaped bed.

Or, more properly, a bed that happens to also be a coffin.

That would be one way to save a bunch of money on buying a bed. Just use the coffin while you're still alive!

"I don't know... doesn't that seem kind of morbid?"

HAHAHAHAHA

"I know vampires like that sort of thing, but vampires are really strange people. Why would anyone want to dwell on their own death like that?"

Even undead die, eventually. Usually via sufficient application of violence.

Often adventurer-based violence.

[Ionbound]

[Gazebo's Furniture]

The Necromantress shrugs and says, "You've got to die eventually. The point of undeath, to me, is to just have death be a change of state rather than an ending...Sadly, not everyone gets to choose how they carry on. That's why necromancy has such a bad rap, I figure." She considers the coffin for a few more minutes, then says, "Aaand I think it looks pretty cool, too. I think I'll take it. If Lady Elestra asks me to switch, then I will."

[Rebonack]

[Gazebo's Furniture]

"But death is always just a change of state, isn't it?" Archer asks. "If I'm destroyed I would get drawn back into outer darkness until I eventually got re-sired in a new undead body. I'm sure that's happened to me before, but the details are fuzzy."

Fuzzy like kittens!

Horrible undead kittens that hunger for flesh!

But still kittens.

"Living spirits do sort of the same thing, don't they? This body's old soul thought they did."

Too bad that soul doesn't get to move on.

Chained and enslaved inside an undead body and all that.

Anywho!

Archer shrugs. "I don't think Lady Evercraft will mind. She's pretty hard to upset."

[Ionbound]

[Gazebo's Furniture]

The Necromantress shrugs and says, "For souls it's a little different. Anyways, coffin bed sounds good. So...Hm. Other furniture. Probably a rug, yes?" She walks over to a rack of the flooring covers, and picks out a large round one with a skull in the center and asks Archer, "What do you think about this?"

[Rebonack]

[Gazebo's Furniture]

Archer gives the necromancer a 'Seriously?' sort of look.

"I guess it's nice if you're the sort of person who likes having skulls everywhere? Between you and me, I just sleep underground, so I'm really not that picky about my furnishings."

Said furnishings typically consist of rocks, dirt, roots, and the occasional burrowing animal.

[Ionbound]

[Gazebo's Furniture]

The necromantress shrugs and says defensively, "Hey, I like skulls and stuff. There's probably some kind of morphic resonance behind it, but I don't care. I like skulls. And stuff."

[Rebonack]

[Gazebo's Furniture]

Archer doesn't seem convinced.

"Whatever you say, miss. You can like skulls, you don't have to justify it to me."

Which is very true!

Archer is just a servant. For the time being, the necromantress out-ranks her. Or at least that's what Elestra had instructed them. Follow the student's orders unless they directly conflict with Elestra's. And to use their own good judgement in that regard, of course. They weren't supposed to be doing anything stupid after all. That would be, well, stupid.

And no one wants to get caught being stupid around Lady Evercraft.

She might not get angry very easily, but when she does...

Her wrath is downright volcanic.

[Ionbound]

[Gazebo's Furniture]

The necromantress nods and says, "Skull rug it is, then." She then goes through the store, picking out some more mercifully normal items for her room; Shelves, a lamp and a table to put it on, and other general room-fare like that. She eventually makes her way back to the checkout and asks the cashier, "How much for all of this?"

[Rebonack]

[Gazebo's Furniture]

The stuff is rung up and a price quoted!

Thankfully, the necromancer is able to afford all of it.

Once the stuff is purchased, Archer will wrestler it all into a bag of holding and sling it over her should.

Bags of holding sure are handy! Especially those ones the nice horse folk over at Carousel Court make. They organize things like a Haversack, have the capacity of a extra large bag of holding, and boast a fraction of the weight! Whoever said ponies were useless pastel lumps of meat?

"What will you be needing next?" Archer inquires.

[Ionbound]

[Gazebo's Furniture->Arcane Threads]

The necromantress nods and says, " I could use some new clothes, actually," as she walks towards Arcane Threads.

[Rebonack]

[Arcane Threads]

Ah ha!

Clothing shopping!

Now that is a nice, normal thing for people to do, right?

Archer will follow her charge into the store! She hasn't ever been to a clothing store before and finds that some small part of her finds the idea really enjoyable. But... she wouldn't actually get clothes herself, right? Undead don't buy clothing. Except for fancy-pants vampires. Because vampires are a bunch of sissies who can't stand a little sunshine.

[Gullara]

Mall Kiosk to Mall Office

"Yes. I tried to apply over the internet, but that portion of your site is down," Kate explains.

[Mall Office]

"Yes, we're aware, It's being worked on, though we're a bit understaffed in that department right now." The woman glances at her watch. "You're free to head into the office now. He'll be ready for you." She gestures for the office door.

Parade of Masks

“Well, no. Or, rather, there used to be and sometimes I wish there still was, but now I suppose everyone already knows about it so it no longer exists anymore,“ Harley explains. She doesn‘t realize that the average Nexus citizen knows less about her than she thinks they know. Not that that matters. Honestly, it seems like she‘s more of a danger to herself than to anyone else (if you judge purely from everything that has happened IC only).

As she watches him work, she then adds, “It‘s actually more in honor of one of my good friends who recently left the Nexus. Maybe you‘ve heard of him; he was actually quite popular around here. Stu. He actually is a rose, who got around by way of a power suit. You know, like Earthworm Jim. Except a plant instead of a worm.“ Stu has always reminded me of Earthworm Jim, but sadly most of the levels from that game were really really annoying.

[Parade of Masks]

"A rose? How fascinating. If only I'd had the chance to mask such a face. It'd be a challenge for sure!" The Mask Salesman considers another mask, this one like a face hidden in a mass of roses. "What was this Stu like? That may influence the mask I choose." He suggests.

[Devixer]

Aurora Fountain

That sounds like a pleasant job. What happened today?

"It got stupidly busy and I don't have the money to hire any help," Aiden says. "Some days I wish business was a little slower."

[Lost_Deep]

Mall Office

"Thank you," Kate says, and then heads in.

She's a bit more nervous than she used to be, because she doesn't recognize any of this. Usually so far situations which she's gone through before at least give her deja vu... well, no point worrying about it.

[Aric Kale]

Browsing

Okami left the other wolves' behind, so it's just him and Atsuko.

Alright, Little One, we need clothes, silverware, and other toiletries...Magmart it is.