Trog's Tavern CCXLIX

[Deathkeeper]

Zebes shakes his head.
"Actually, there was a big week-long one about four months before you came to the Nexus. I know there's been at least a day-long one since then. You probably didn't notice at the time ."

[Lord Magtok]

Post-Forum Maintenance Confusion

"This is only the second one I experienced it like this, but there was something similar back in Town." Magtok explains, as he heads for the door. Everyone was a bit more substantial back then, though. There was an entire Enupnion Town to explore, as opposed to being locked up in a crude, IRC-forged facsimile of Trog's Tavern.

"I'm going to Inari's for you-know-what. Not getting my hopes up, but fingers crossed anyways." It'd be nice if it were that easy to bring Sophia back from the dead, but Raptor Christ knows nothing in life ever seems to be easy for our second favorite cyborg.

[Holy-hunter]

The silence was predictable, yes. Any less unsettling, no. Niara feels like she's being judged on every word she says, and as such, she proceeds accordingly: slowly and with extreme caution.

Mandrake's agreement is confirmed with a curt nod. 'Then, to business. Now, there are three things that my client desires. The first is to prevent the onset of death of a living subject.' Living to some extent, at least. 'Some form of preserving or stasis is the sort of effect desired, I believe.'

A pause, again. Ample time for correction or elaboration on Bad Touch's part, but not so long it's obvious.

'The second is to prevent a soul from returning. An exclusion ritual, or warding of the body. And thirdly: prevent detection or summoning from outside sources, again through some variety of warding.'

And then, the inevitable question. 'Do you feel the extent of your abilities covers these tasks?'

There is a shift in his position as the client moves forward, leaning on the table, staring intently into the mask with anticipation, eagerly awaiting a final answer.

There was much mystery to this creature before him, and even more so effort to ensure it so.
Already defiance began to bubble within him, there was a clear message of things he would not know, and this only made him want the answers more... Nonetheless his outer appearance remained nonchalant towards her appearance focusing only on her next words.

[Lost_Deep]

Post-Forum Maintenance Confusion

Kellia comes back to her senses, a half-drained chocolate shake in one hand. "I'm still confused, for the record, but it's nice to see things are back to normal?"

Normal is a relative term.

[Rebonack]

"Good luck, Magtok. I hope your daughter turns out okay," Fortuna calls after Maggy. Cosmo begins shooing the draconequus out from behind the bar. Nothing that fuzzy should ever be back there shedding fur in the drinks. It's unsanitary! And so on that note she rejoins her friends! "I'm pretty glad too," she admits to Kellia. "I started to get worried there when the projected time to repair reality kept getting longer and longer. But it looks like everything worked out alright in the end!"

And then, just for good measure, she provides Kellia with a hug.

"I'm pretty sure things don't ever get back to normal when you aren't normal herself," she points out, booping Kellia on the nose with one of her claws.

Well...

Assuming Kellia still has a nose.

Does Kellia still have a nose?

Because if she does it just got booped.

[Deathkeeper]

Zebes snorts a bit.
"I think that statement is sadly correct. But don't worry. Where we're concerned, normal is generally lame. Normal is only not lame in the context of everyone being alive and not cursed or something. Because let's face it, if we enforce normality the only person we know who'd still be around would be your original self."
he pauses.
"Is anyone ever going to tell her about you two?" he asks, suddenly curious.

[Lost_Deep]

Kellia has an itty bitty nose!

"We aren't. And normality is relative. If you go TOO bland, it gets around to weird or creepy. In the Nexus, one in every ten people can be on fire and it's pretty normal."

The next table over, a dorf laughs. His friend, whose beard is smouldering, nods in agreement.

[Rebonack]

Firebeard the Dwarf!

Is he a famous street performer?

A warrior with an intimidating beard?

Half whatever those fire-based dwarf elemental things are called?

None of the above?

Who knows!

"We should plan some kind of fun event together," Fortuna reasons. "Something that would be... fun! Just normal fun. Not immediately imperiling fun. You know, normal people fun?" That manages to get a laugh out of her. "Though I guess normal fun can get pretty exotic around here. There are all sorts of museums and amusement parks around the Nexus. I'm sure we could find something that we would all enjoy pretty easily."

Preferably something that wouldn't result in them all being on fire.

[Deathkeeper]

Zebes grins his toothy dragon grin.
"I'd recommend against anything else pokemon-themed. Everyone would gawk at Kell, and that many pokemon would probably have at least Jace switching to pokespeak the entire time."

Jace's brain switches over automatically when speaking to pokemon. It gets a bit annoying when the 'mon in question speaks Nexus Common anyway. Zebes can always just cheat with telepathy.

[Lost_Deep]

Maybe the dorf just got thirsty before he got around to extinguishing it.

"Honestly, thrill rides have never appealed to me, and you're right, Zebes, about the pokemon stuff. I have had plenty of pokemon for a LONG time. However, I never have had the chance to go to any Nexus museums. It just... never came up."

[Rebonack]

"Sounds like we should check out some museums and gardens, then," Fortuna says with a nod. "And just to be clear, the difference between a garden and a park is that the former isn't a death trap."

Or at least none of the gardens that she has checked out so far have been death traps.

That's always encouraging.

Getting murdered whilst on a walk isn't a nice way to spend an afternoon.

"And speaking of the pokemon stuff, Transform has turned out to be super useful. It's way more stable than trying to alter myself with chaos magic."

Significantly more stable.

Stable transformations are important.

They prevent you from exploding in a disgusting mass of tumors. Which is good, since no one likes disgusting masses of tumors.

[RabbitHoleLost]

Black vinyl PVC boots find themselves hiked up on a table, connected through slender legs to the succubus who sits most comfortably, leaning back in a chair with her arms crossed over her chest, black wings folded carefully at her back.

If someone was looking for Hitomi, surely Trog's would be the easiest place to be found, but she looks for all the world as if it didn't matter either way.

[Deathkeeper]

Zebes chuckles.
"Ok, what sounds good? Natural history? UNnatural history? Magic? Science? Magitech? Any ideas at all!" he asks.

[Raistlin1040]

Previously accompanied by earth-shaking pulses, the ground is still as the darkly-clad figure appears at another old haunt. He pushes through the door with a black-gloved hand and strides inside with purpose, looking as though he's got some objective in mind, or is in a bit of a hurry. Yet, as he closes the door behinds him and takes his first few steps, his nose lifts slightly up and he breathes. He doesn't seem to single out any one patron, or even necessarily acknowledge anyone, before sitting at a table by himself. The dark glasses over his eyes make it impossible to tell what he's looking at, if anything, but he does appear to be... waiting.

[Lost_Deep]

Kellia smiles. "There's a museum of unnatural history? Now I'm curious..."

[Rebonack]

"I'm going to have to go with Kellia on this one," Fortuna laughs as she dips back into a reclining position in mid-air. Physics complains at her and mumbles about Newton's universal laws of gravitation, but Fortuna points out that she has diplomatic immunity. Physics starts to try explaining that isn't how diplomatic immunity works, gives up, and then goes to a corner to sulk.

No one respects physics these day.

"The museum of unnatural history sounds like it could be really enlightening! Or really silly. Maybe both? Worth checking out either way, though."

Indeed it is, Fortuna. Indeed it is.

Suddenly spooky ponies!

A whole gaggle of them no less!

"Haha! Oh wow, that was crazy!" Black Opal laughs, the rather large qilin mare having gotten even larger since her last appearance. Apparently stomping through dungeons is a good way to score a level up. "How did they even fit that many robot bees inside a barrel, do you think? You kicked that thing and BEES EVERYWHERE!"

"The rest of the barrels I had kicked were full of treasure," Fairy Ring grumps. The rather diminutive arion plops down on her haunches in front of table and looks cross.

"Why would someone fill barrels with treasure and dump them in a dungeon crawl, anyway?" Air Brush wonders aloud. The pegasus slips around to the other side of the table across from Ring. "They had to know that someone would go down there and find them. Is that what people with heaps cash do with their extra money? Stick it inside of barrels and hope for the best?"

[RabbitHoleLost]

She almost seemed to be dozing, that unnaturally bright green hair of her's falling into her eyes as she sits, unbothered by the discussions going on around her. The words play in her ears but seem to mean nothing at all.

It's all just noise around her, something she is both part of and separate from.
The tavern rumbles with the earth and still Hitomi doesn't move more than to tap the toes of her boots together before she crosses her legs and replaced her feet back to the perch of the table.
The door opens and she moves not at all.
And then the man sits and it's as if she's suddenly awake, turning to look at him.
There's no indication of any sort of sense, anything out of the ordinary- perhaps it was just coincidence, and she had inexplicably developed a sense of curiosity of her surroundings just in time to catch sight of him.

But there he is and she's looking at him.
Unblinkingly. Unflinchingly.

[Raistlin1040]

Of course he notices her. How could he not? It's not exactly everyday that one walks past a girl with green hair, horns, and wings, so of course he notices her, but if he thinks something of it, then it's not visible of what little skin shows.

He turns his head slightly, the emotionless black tint of his glasses seeming to consume his face as he stares, most likely, at Hitomi for a few moments, before resuming looking ahead of him. Yet, it's in those seconds that Hitomi once again sees the red snake with white horns, transported for a split-second to another place where all that there is can be described as a very small woman and a very large beast. Then back to the Tavern.

[RabbitHoleLost]

It hadn't meant anything - usually, those cast about in shades of black and grays were easy to play with, to amuse herself amongst, if anything.
Stare at the new-comer, weird him out - it had been a simple plan and when he'd turned to look at her, regard her, there was a moment of thrill, of excitement, because the game was on.

Self-satisfied pleasure was gone in a moment as all the self-collected grace of the vampire-succubus mixture went crashing down, Hitomi's precarious balancing act between the chair and the table she kept her feet upon lost in the moment's of other-ly-ness.
In other words, her chair toppled backwards and deposited the green-haired underworld creature into a gangly pile of limbs on the tavern floor, all accompanied by a displeased shout of Beelzebub!

[Raistlin1040]

While she tumbles, there's a chuckle and the slightest hint of a grin on the man's otherwise blank face, pristine, white fangs visible for only the briefest of instants before returning to nothing. He makes no movements as she falls. She's a big girl. She can help herself up.

[RabbitHoleLost]

It's probably for the best that he leaves her there. If he'd offered his assistance to Hitomi, it was unlikely she'd have received it kindly or politely or even gracefully. Instead, she lays on the floor for the moment, huffing an unneeded breath in and out, trying to calm the fear that shoots through her veins in the place of living blood. One dainty hand lifts, untangling long locks from where it had twisted around a curved ram's horn while the other reaches out to the table, hoisting herself up into a sitting position.

She should look at him again.
Maybe it was just a coincidence?
After all, the same thing had happened while she'd been talking with Sophia and Magtok, and surely neither of those people were connected to the hallucination?
It was a hallucination, wasn't it? That strange fragment of a dream, a giant serpent?
She should just look at him.

Sapphire eyes remain staring dejectedly at the grains of the floorboards.
In a thousand years of life (most spent sleeping, granted), Hitomi had never quite grown out of teenager-dom.

[Deathkeeper]

Zebes nods. "Well, ok. You handle the scheduling if you don't mind, Forte. I've got to get back before Jace misses me." he says with a wink, and will flit out a window unless stopped.

---

Morgan laughs among the gaggle of spooky ponies, refusing to remove her hat despite them all being indoors.
"Oh, that's nothin'. Once I raided a whole place that managed to hide gold pieces in the candlesticks. The candlesticks. Can you imagine how hard that must have been? Even if they just used magic. Who even invents a spell for that?" she says, shaking her head.

[Lost_Deep]

"Are we going to invite Jace and Kell, or would it just be us? I think we should invite them," Kellia says. She gets off of her stool herself, intending to leave soon.

[Morty]

Wenomir sits down and leans his greatsword against the table. He glances at Hitomi and her struggles before turning to his fellow VIGILants.

"Has either of you seen the bounty posted in both VIGIL bases? About some ages-old HALO member apparently responsible for some deaths."

[Rebonack]

[VIGILant!]

At this point I have no idea what's going on with the succubus hauling around the body shaped package, so we'll just let that one go. Especially since there's now a succubus NOT hauling around a body-shaped package. There sure do seem to be a lot of succubi in Trog's of late.

Anywho!

"Aye, that I have my friend," the Cobalt Knight replies. "Perhaps it would be wise to speak to her on that account?"

Best to resolve things without violence if possible. A TRUE HERO never relies purely on the sword!

[Museum Talk!]

"Of course we would be inviting them," Fortuna laughs as she starts heading for the door. She isn't totally clear how she got into Trog's in the first place, but loafing around here isn't going to be getting any of her work done. "A fun event with friends isn't quite so much fun when you don't have all your friends."

Or at least that's how she looks at it.

Out the door she goes!

[Gaggles of Gloomlings]

"Were they using those coins with the holes in the middle?" Ring asks, making a little hole-motion with her hooves. "If they were, I could imagine stacking them up, sticking the wick in the middle, and then pouring hot wax over them. That would make candles, right?"

"Maybe there's some kind of crazy wizard," Opal ventures. "A crazy wizard who devotes all his time to setting up dungeons for adventurers. You know, filling it up with traps and challenge rating appropriate monsters and loot and stuff. The wizard is so powerful that's something he can do. Just spend all his time stocking dungeons with improbable things."

"That sounds kind of crazy to me," Air Brush replies. "But we did just survive the Tomb of the Forgotten King and all its goofy traps, so maybe I shouldn't be so quick to dismiss it..."

"I liked the potato cannon that shot killer puffballs," Opal laughs. "Wow, we probably would have been in a lot of trouble with that one if we were all still alive. I read about what those killer puffballs do to people, it isn't pretty."

[Lost_Deep]

Museum Talk!

Kella laughs. "Hey! Was just clarifying!" She follows Fortuna out.

[Deathkeeper]

Spako nods.
"Yeah, I think I've seen it. Why? Have you found any leads on it?" asks the kobold.

----

Morgan smiles, happy that their little team has had so much success.
"So Opal, when did you get bigger? I only noticed when you showed up for the run this morning. I mean, I know we live together and I should have noticed but still! I was enjoying being the only 'promoted' one here." she says, with mock sadness.

[Morty]

"I think I saw her here in Trog's just now," Wenomir says. "Magtok said that those deaths happened years ago, but I'd still like to speak with her myself."

[Raistlin1040]

It's probably for the best that he leaves her there. If he'd offered his assistance to Hitomi, it was unlikely she'd have received it kindly or politely or even gracefully. Instead, she lays on the floor for the moment, huffing an unneeded breath in and out, trying to calm the fear that shoots through her veins in the place of living blood. One dainty hand lifts, untangling long locks from where it had twisted around a curved ram's horn while the other reaches out to the table, hoisting herself up into a sitting position.

She should look at him again.
Maybe it was just a coincidence?
After all, the same thing had happened while she'd been talking with Sophia and Magtok, and surely neither of those people were connected to the hallucination?
It was a hallucination, wasn't it? That strange fragment of a dream, a giant serpent?
She should just look at him.

Sapphire eyes remain staring dejectedly at the grains of the floorboards.
In a thousand years of life (most spent sleeping, granted), Hitomi had never quite grown out of teenager-dom.

Well that leaves her looking quite foolish, doesn't it?

Of course, all that he's heard (and remembered hearing, though it has been so long, centuries even) about Hitomi does paint her as quite foolish. Cruel sometimes, sure, often dangerous, absolutely, but clearly and unambiguously foolish, always. There was little other explanation for so blatantly sitting around in a town with posters adorned with her picture and WANTED, to say nothing of returning to the town and any enemies she'd made there in the first place.

Yes, she was quite foolish, wasn't she?

He's watching her now, no attempt to hide it. Those without much skill in perception might not have noticed the light angling of his chin, the way his head shifted back and to the side, as if he's looking down on her from behind the glasses. He'll give Hitomi that much credit though.

[RabbitHoleLost]

She really does look young, once one gets past the surprise of her brightly colored hair, the span of her wings, the curl of her horns. The youth of her face is only emphasized as she sits there, pouting, adjusting herself so that her legs cross like a pretzel.
There's tidbits of conversation that floats to her, including the one held by the handful of people some tables away concerning the poster Magtok had shared with her, and for the moment, the man in dark clothes (who might or might not have been the cause of her fall) was the least of her interests.

Hitomi had been hoping to be found by whomever was looking for her - and a group of people who'd seen the posters was close enough.
But she's not going to get up off the floor, nope.
They can come to her if it's so important.