[Nexus] The Black Dragon's Den XIII

[Recaiden]

"Uh, yes. Aren't you?"

Faayyaad should feel someone high-five one of his raised hands, though no one moved.

[Reinholdt]

Rein is in fey mode which could be called cat person form. It's just an uncomfortable looking and erratic position for a person. Might make sense for an actual cat.

"THAT'S what you got hung up on?" Rein asks with a little disbelief. "Despite my newfound friend's sarcasm over there, aren't you a tiefling? Doesn't that make you by definition half-demon, half-human or some non-equivalent mix? Thus demons exist, so why wouldn't angels? If demons are the hosts of hell and angels the hosts of heaven, and both confirmed to exist by your own presence, wouldn't devil lords and gods numbering one or more be pretty likely? Your life contains very strong religious implications and evidence sir Fayyaad."

"So yes. That is my claim."

[Morty]

"I am perfectly aware of my heritage," Fayyaad says, putting his hands on his hips. He visibly bristled upon hearing the word "demon". "My ancestors were no demons. They were devas, servants of our god, Lord of Flame. But it's one thing to know about the existence of deities, and another to meet one in a tavern, asking for help."

[Recaiden]

"Hey, Reinholdt, have you considered that maybe people look like that where he's from? Just a breed of mortal that follows this Lord of Flame?"
"Honestly, hosts of hell."
That's ridiculous, is what it is.

"And skepticism isn't a one-for-all deal. You could have demons, but no gods or space aliens. Nevermind."
Tahlia scowls. You aren't funny, fey.

[Reinholdt]

Reinholdt rolls his eyes at Tahlia's 'skepticism'. Not that does any good. Having solid pink eyes make it pretty impossible to convey anything through it. It's more done out of habit than anything. Doesn't really help he's not looking at either of them.

"I said pretty likely, not guaranteed. Read the subtext."

Devas of the Lord of Flame? Huh. "My apologies. Though wouldn't that make you nephilim instead?" Reinholdt raises a hand and waves it in the air, dismissing the issue. "You know what, nevermind, it's really quite irrelevant. And I suppose you have a point. But visiting dreams and granted obscure visions are so passé now. I heard all the other gods and goddesses were coming down for a visit and wanted to see what the fuss is about. So there you have it. I'll even buy you a drink. Whatever you'd like." Reinholdt flicks his wrist to create a gold piece from thin air before dropping it on the countertop with a clink.

[Morty]

Fayyaad is silent for a few moments.

"I'll just have a brandy. And I suppose I should get used to it. Gods, I mean. And weirder things still."

[Reinholdt]

"Just change your definition of weird."

Reinholdt finally relents and sits back up, spinning in his seat to face the bar. "One brandy for him." He pauses in thought before dropping another coin. "And one of whatever she wants." A beat once more before he downs the last of his rum and drops a third piece of gold. "And more rum for me."

[Recaiden]

"Pearl black tea, thanks."

Tahlia draws out another wrapped crazy straw (simple, just three loops) and offers it to Fayyaad.

"None are weird in Nexus, for in the Nexus we all are equally weird."

[Morty]

"Evidently," Fayyaad says with a shrug. Then he asks: "Well, I've got to ask. What's it like being a god?"

[Reinholdt]

"If I was the only one, it'd be cool. But really it's just annoying. Always competing for resources, deception, babies, and politics. And people always seem to concentrate on the wrong topic."

If Fayaadd doesn't take the crazy straw, Reinholdt will. Tahlia seems to have a different crazy straw for every occassion.

[Morty]

Fayyaad does take the crazy straw. When in Merove...

"Which topic is the wrong one?"

[Recaiden]

"It's a huge responsibility. While you do, essentially, get the powers to rise to your station, it's a ton of work keeping everything going."

[Reinholdt]

"Responsibility is overrated," Reinholdt agrees. Always touted about by those who don't know how to have fun.

"Hmm, afraid I can't tell you. One of the rules." Rules are overrated too. "So, you interested in the job?"

[Morty]

"I'm willing to look into it. If those people are indeed menaces that need to be stopped... I'll do what I can," Fayyaad says. Reinholdt might or might not be telling the truth. He might or might not actually be a god, for that matter.

[Earl of Purple]

Two men with red robes enter the Den. They seem to be twins, because they got both black hair, red eyes and a lightly taned skin. The only way to tell them apart are the ornaments on their robes. One only got them on the left, the other one on the right.

"Excuse." "Us" they start. "We search" "for someone." "Has anyone" "seen him?"
Both take out a sketch to show it to the people.

The squirrel at the bar will, since no one else wishes to, look at the poster. "I'm not sure, Master Ape-Giant. Is there a reward for him? What did he do?" If there's a reward, the squirrel will make it up. Only in the Nexus would a squirrel in a pub wearing a bicorn hat be so inconspicuous as to be totally ignored.

[Zefir]

"Not now." "There may" "be one" "if we" "don't find" "him soon." The twins replie to the sqirrel. they seem less shocked then you might thought by the fact a speaking squirrel is there.

"He did" "something we" "don't want" "to talk." "about."

[Earl of Purple]

"That's a pity, see. He gave me a shiny copper coin to not tell anyone where he'd gone, but if I had another coin, perhaps a silver one, I'm sure I'd lose the first and be able to tell you." The squirrel's lying, but he's an accomplished liar, and it shouldn't be obvious through his body language.

[Zefir]

The twins suddendly grow intressed in the squirrel.

"Is that" "So?" they ask. "Maybe" "You should" "meat our" "leader for" "that."

They do belive the squirrel, but they don't use their coins so easily.

[Earl of Purple]

"Hah! No. Not going to accompany a pair of strange Ape-Giants anywhere; I'm going to stay right here with the shiny copper coin that nice gentleman gave me and forget completely which direction he went in." The talking squirrel doesn't want to leave the bar, and if these two aren't willing to give him a measly silver coin, then he's no longer interested. He turns, and tries desperately to get the attention of a barman.

His ears swivel occasionally, so he can still hear the mysterious duo's movements and avoid being surprised.

[Reinholdt]

Well that was less informative than Rein hoped. But it was a perfectly reasonable answer and the most sensible approach. What else did he expect performing this experiment? Maybe some logic as to whether a target given by a trickster god should be stopped even if they are doing bad things because the result could be worse. Some sort of argument related to cups perhaps. Something to make things a bit clearer as he downed foggy-inducing rum. Oh. No wonder this didn't work. You can't drink while doing it.

In which case it wasn't worth doing in the first place.

"Suppose that's good enough. Good luck with those three. You'll need it."

Rein swivels in his seat to face Tahlia. "Where were we?"

[Recaiden]

"You were asking about our stories."

Tahlia smiles at Fayyaad. Better him than someone else. And he's being responsibly suspicious about the whole thing.

"But I'm not sure you really wanted to hear them."

[Zefir]

"Hah! No. Not going to accompany a pair of strange Ape-Giants anywhere; I'm going to stay right here with the shiny copper coin that nice gentleman gave me and forget completely which direction he went in." The talking squirrel doesn't want to leave the bar, and if these two aren't willing to give him a measly silver coin, then he's no longer interested. He turns, and tries desperately to get the attention of a barman.

His ears swivel occasionally, so he can still hear the mysterious duo's movements and avoid being surprised.

The twins don't give up so soon. they still focus on the squirell. They belive he knows where he is, but the fact the Squirrel sells the information is a nit strange.

"Our Leader" "got the" " shiny coiins" they say. "He can" "even give" "you a" "Gold one."

[Earl of Purple]

"Yeah, your 'leader'. As if you aren't simply going to 'lead-er' me round the back of this place and beat the information you want out of me. If you want to know where that guy you're looking for is, you'll give me a coin. A measly silver coin, and I'll tell you where he went. Alternately, you can try beating the information out of me here, surrounded by witnesses and causing a disturbance likely to upset the bouncers. And after you're thrown out, nobody will help you." The squirrel's convinced the two 'ape-giants' are completely broke, without a coin between them, but he can't break down now because he still doesn't know who they're talking about (and there's no description of the person on the poster) and there's no point lying for money if there's no money involved.

He does pull his little cudgel out of his basket, which he's taken off, though. It's not much, but he did just suggest they try beating him up.

[Zefir]

Well yes, that's something I missed. I didn't want to menation it right away and forgot to mention it after the squirrel took a look. The man on the picture is Zefir the character or at least it looks like him. The two are broke as the squirrel guessed, but they don't look like thugs. Well guessing the squirrel is squirrel size they might be able to beat it by force.

"We do" " not want" "to cause" "trouble" They start. "Maybe if" "we tell" "you where" "he is" "we can" "meet up" "there."

[Earl of Purple]

The squirrel is larger than squirrel size, but is still far off man size, and has never before encountered humans. That's why he's addressed the twins as 'Ape-Giants'.

"I'm sorry, but that still sounds like an ambush to me. Why don't you run off to your 'leader', if he exists, and get some coins so you can pay me. Or, you could ask if anybody here has a coin they can give you to give me so you'll shut up about it. Or you can try haggling. What do you have in your pockets? I'm assuming Ape-Giants have invented pockets? Really useful things, pockets. If you don't have them, run off and invent them. Forget about him- pockets will make you rich, if you don't have them. It's a pouch of material sewn into your clothing where you can put small things, like coins, food, interesting rocks and other miscellanea. Frees up the hands to hold big things." He's deliberately being cheeky now, because his little con has proven so much unnecessary work that he doubts it's worth a single silver coin any more.

[Zefir]

"He is" "in Trog's" "A pubic" "place" they say and seem to ignore the squirrels insulting. "An Ambush" "would not" "be possible"
In any case, non of the twins has made any move to draw a weapon or anything. They still seem to try to not draw all the attention.

[Earl of Purple]

"But I'm here, with sore feet from lots of travelling. Not there. If you want me to walk to this... Trog's Tavern, I expect considerably more than a single silver coin, no matter how shiny. And my information won't help you in Trog's Tavern, either. If you are unwilling or unable to pay me for the information I have, you either don't need to find that guy on the paper, you don't want to find that guy on the paper, or you hope that by asking lots of questions about that guy on the paper he'll find you. In which case, I cannot help you any further so please, leave me alone until you can give me a single coin." The squirrel doesn't even mention the possibility of being ambushed as he travels to Trog's Tavern, because any minute now, he'll catch the eye of the barman and get served.

[Reinholdt]

"You were asking about our stories."

Tahlia smiles at Fayyaad. Better him than someone else. And he's being responsibly suspicious about the whole thing.

"But I'm not sure you really wanted to hear them."

"I was?" Reinholdt's already forgotten asking about that. "Well I do want to hear them because if you aren't going to tell stories in a bar, you might as well just drink at home. So let's hear it," Reinholdt says firmly, now thoroughly prepared to wring the stories out of her if he has to.

[Zefir]

The twins look suprised at each other and start looking around. the part about the 'information won't help you in Trog's Tavern' draw theirt attention. it must mean he is right here right now. They seem to lost intressed for now as they wander around to see in every corner.

[Earl of Purple]

The squirrel's lips twitch into a smile as the bait is taken and the mysterious gentlemen start searching the bar. He'd have told them, if they'd paid him, that he'd just walked into the toilet, then he'd have taken his coin, tucked it into his wicker pack, and left the bar, or hid in the rafters until they'd gone away. Alas, they didn't pay him, so he has no coin.