Outside 46

[bc56]

Road Pirate Pitstop

Erasmus takes multiple Panzerfausts then. He looks around for tape or another sort of adhesive. "It can't hurt tew make it harder tew reach."

[Devixer]

Chapel

One of the advantages of plated armguards is that a shield is less necessary to parry an incoming knife. Of course, parrying without a shield is still a pretty stupid move, but Faudre doesn't have many options that are at least less loud.

She deflects the guard's blow with her forearm, and thrusts her other hand, still in its gauntlet, forward to try and catch his neck and choke him to unconsciousness.

[Murkus]

[Tower of Batu]

Batu's hand is taken.

"I- I get it. I just... I never thought anyone would say that to me. Not someone like you, certainly."

[Tower of Batu]

Oh gosh. Batu was taking this so seriously. "Someone like me? What do you mean?" Div tries to take a step closer to Batu after some hesitation, lifting the hob's hand as he clasps it.

[Morty]

[Road Pirate Pitstop]

"Yes, whatever the magic wants is no reason to make it easy on it," Fayyaad agrees. "We'll bring the news about the sword to others, so someone can find it and deal with it."

[Tower of Batu]

"Strong, handsome and all that," Batu explains, thoroughly embarrassed. "Sorry. I'm not... used to talking about this stuff."

[Earl of Purple]

Road Pirate Pit Stop

Sticking multiple panzerfaust together might not be too effective, given their front-heavy shape. Still, there's a roll of black duct tape next to an ammo box nearby.

"Good. Someone needs to deal with it, and it shouldn't be us. We can't even defend ourselves against random wizards that want a look at the few clues we have." She's a little scared, still. But she's glad someone's willing to take the burden off their shoulders.

Chapel

The guard's punched in the throat, where gas mask meets his kevlar vest. He gasps and chokes as she presses down, kicking and punching with one hand and trying to stab with the other. There's not much chance he can injure her, however; she's wearing armour much heavier than his own, and her platemail covers more than his does. His gloves are unarmoured, and his steel toed boots are worker's grade, designed to protect the feet, not kick things.

[bc56]

Road Pirate Pitstop

Erasmus doesn't tape the extra Panzerfausts together, as noted, that would be silly. He instead tapes them to the ceiling around the entrance to the cave, taking advantage of his flight to reach difficult places. He returns to the floor. "Would choo like tew do the 'onors?" He asks Fayaad.

[Morty]

[Road Pirate Pitstop]

Fayyaad nods and triggers the panzerfaust. Presumably they rigged something together to do it at once.

[Murkus]

[Tower of Batu]

"Strong, handsome and all that," Batu explains, thoroughly embarrassed. "Sorry. I'm not... used to talking about this stuff."

[Tower of Batu]

"Sh, don't be sorry," Div says. He grins. His eyes look a little wet. "I don't think anybody's called me strong or handsome before either, but I'll take it."

[Devixer]

Chapel

Faudre's armor is more than capable of shrugging off the presumably weakened blows of the knife and boots alike. She tries to tighten her grip on the guard's throat - a bit of a tough endeavor, with the mask and vest in the way, but she can manage.

[Earl of Purple]

Road Pirate Pit Stop

There's a mighty crack as stone comes down! I'm... Not sure if they're blowing the whole cave at the waterfall, or just the crack. If the former, they're now very wet. If the latter, there's a cloud of marble dust. It's worked, either way. Just one panzerfaust would have worked, pointed roughly at the hole and fired. This, really, was overkill.

The survivor, meanwhile, has gone to the big building to get changed.

Chapel

The guard continues struggling for a few more moments, before succumbing and ceasing his struggles. He's still alive, at least for now. Whilst quiet, the sound has awoken some of the slaves. The nearby cage of young men are silently watching, one grinning with teeth filed to a point.

[bc56]

Road Pirate Pitstop

When the dust clears, Erasmus is satisfied with the results and ready to return to MERC.

[Morty]

[Road Pirate Pit Stop]

Fayyaad is likewise ready to go, though he'll check on the survivor first to make sure he's alright. But other than that, their business here seems to be done.

[Tower of Batu]

"Shows what they know," Batu says, getting a little more confident. "Some things just aren't obvious to most. Like... you."

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Mountainside]

Sylvess brings himself in to land a short distance away from a rather nondescript, regular, mundane, run-of-the-mill mountain. It's tall. There's snow at the top. It is a completely normal mountain, which is in itself quite the unusual sight considering how much kooky stuff happens in the Nexus.

There is, naturally, a range of obstructions between Sylvess' landing spot and anywhere that anyone might be, so he can be sure of his privacy. Can't let anyone know he's a dragon!

Well, except for his new dragon buddy. Sylvess hurriedly skitters out of the way to clear the landing spot. On the flight, he's been vague and mysterious about exactly where he's taking Spako for dinner, but apparently it's here...right in the middle of nowhere by a mountain.

[Deathkeeper]

[Mountainside]

Spako comes in for a landing presently. He lands gracefully; he’s much lighter than Sylvess due to his smaller frame and skinnier build.
”Well the view is nice.” Spako says with a goofy smile. Aw, he’s actually trying to flirt.
”So where is this place?”

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Mountainside]

View? What vie- oh. Uhhh, thank you." Sylvess dips his head down bashfully. "U-um, anyway, I figured I'd take you to a suuuper special restaurant, down there." He nods his head in the direction of the mountain. "I read about it a little while ago. It sounded reeeeeally neat. But, uh, we gotta go down there as not-dragons. Which means you gotta try on those new clothes."

Hmm. Well, if Spakos is trying to be flirty, Sylvess should probably be a little flirty back. He flicks his tail out to "accidentally" brush against Spako's hindquarter. "Which is sooort of a shame. I'm enjoying the view too."

[Deathkeeper]

[Mountainside]

"I mean if it's in a mountain, being dragons would make it super reasonable for the theme. He waits a beat, knowing full well Sylvess will protest. He grins, bumping into him genially, and then shifts to being his kobold self.
Then, since Sylvess is insisting he change, Spako strips down and gets into his new set of clothes. Clearly Sylvess isn't like those silly mammals that get annoyed about seeing a kobold changing. He certainly doesn't seem very used to such fine clothes, and they don't really match his bag much, but he's wearing them, looking fancy from his head to his, well, ankles, since he's barefoot.
"Well, uh, did it turn out okay?" he asks awkwardly, turning around slowly to give Sylvess a good look.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Mountainside]

Sure enough, Sylvess was about to object before Spako cut him off. Still, at least Spako doesn't seem to be genuinely grumpy about Sylvess wanting to spend a bare minimum amount of time as a dragon. Some dragons would be a lot more annoyed by it.

By the time Spako's done changing, Sylvess is back to being Sylvie. She's heeded Spako's request from last time though, and added a simple white circlet to the ensemble. Much less flashy than that crown, hopefully still leaves her looking more princess-y for him.

She looks at him thoughtfully, then leans in to cheekily straighten up his surcoat just a tad. "I think you look very nice, Spako. I imagine we'll be the only kobold guests for the evening, but I think we both look the part well enough." She offers him her arm and sets off towards the base of the mountain.

[Murkus]

[Tower of Batu]

"Shows what they know," Batu says, getting a little more confident. "Some things just aren't obvious to most. Like... you."

Div blushes so hard he looks like a ripe tomato, and he can feel his head throbbing to burst. Well, no time like the present... Maybe it's too soon, but he tries to lean forward and give Batu a quick thank-you smooch on the mouth. His people were always a bit forward, and he didn't want to be too much like them, but it seemed... timely.

[Deathkeeper]

[Mountainside]

Sure enough, Sylvess was about to object before Spako cut him off. Still, at least Spako doesn't seem to be genuinely grumpy about Sylvess wanting to spend a bare minimum amount of time as a dragon. Some dragons would be a lot more annoyed by it.

By the time Spako's done changing, Sylvess is back to being Sylvie. She's heeded Spako's request from last time though, and added a simple white circlet to the ensemble. Much less flashy than that crown, hopefully still leaves her looking more princess-y for him.

She looks at him thoughtfully, then leans in to cheekily straighten up his surcoat just a tad. "I think you look very nice, Spako. I imagine we'll be the only kobold guests for the evening, but I think we both look the part well enough." She offers him her arm and sets off towards the base of the mountain.

Mountainside

Spako frowns and looks away as she fusses with his coat. What's the deal with fancy clothes anyway?
"Well, that's fine. Are you going to show me where this place is now? They must be expensive if they can keep a place open in the middle of nowhere like this." he says idly, looking around.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Mountainside]

Sylvie chuckles, half-tempted to keep fussing with his clothes if he's going to look so embarrassed about it. "It's a sort of pop-up thing, for two weeks, I think it said. Very limited seating and set entry and exit times. We get a whole hour and a half down there." She fishes a pair of tickets out of her satchel and slides one into Spako's hand.

As they get a little closer, Spako will be able to see a cluster of about 80 people (78 to be exact, they're still waiting for the last two arrivals) at the entrance to a cave at the base of the mountain. It currently has a barrier across it and there's an individual on the other side dressed in a very smart tuxedo, but otherwise it doesn't exactly look like anything that'd warrant rather price-y tickets.

As for how Sylvie got these tickets on short notice? The joys of time in the Nexus being very wibbly wobbly.

[Deathkeeper]

[Mountainside]

Spako looks around, eyeing the other patrons and what they're wearing.
"An hour and a half? For a whole dinner? That's not a lot."
How is he going to impress Sylvess in just an hour and a half? He'll have to take him home or something afterwards...

[Morty]

[Tower of Batu]

Batu is kissed. This seems to cause his brain to short-circuit briefly. When it regains the ability to think, Batu leans forward and kisses Div back clumsily. It doesn't help that he's got rather prominent teeth and Div doesn't.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Mountainside]

The patrons represent the full range of smart dress on the full range of persons that the Nexus has to offer. There's a cluster of five elves in brightly coloured robes, at least a couple of other groups who seem to have gone for medieval attire in a similar style to what Sylvie and Spako are wearing. Two hen nights, three stag dos, a number of people who have clearly saved up for this and are wearing slightly less fancy clothing but have still done their best to look smart...

This place is a big deal, it would seem.

"Oh, it's- um, I read about this. We go down in a thingy that goes down. A big thingy. They take our orders there and by the time we're seated it's only a few minutes until the first course arrives." An hour and a half if you're waiting to be served isn't that much. An hour and a half when you get your starter in five minutes? Well, that's not so bad now.

The figure in the tux seems to be some sort of earth elemental creature. At a signal from somewhere further back, it sets the barrier aside and motions for the gathered party to enter.

"Ooh, time to go in. C'mon Spako!" Sylvie eagerly tugs on his arm and starts heading in.

[Deathkeeper]

[Mountainside]

"Oh, you mean an elevator? Okay." Spako looks around at the bunch.
"Um, your hoard is it like, big? I hope you didn't put dump a king's ransom on a first date." he says, but he snakes his hand into hers anyway.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Mountainside -> Under Mountainside]

The tunnel itself has been smoothed out with strings of lights running along the ceiling. The floor is mercifully flat and free from any puddles, suggesting that someone has put a fair amount of effort into this. As the tuxedo'd elemental leads them on, if Spako glances behind, he'll see another one walk out of the wall and duck into a little alcove, coming out in appropriate formal dress and setting up the barrier again.

Sylvie gives Spako's a light squeeze, though she does a terrible job of hiding the panicked expression on her face at his question. Much, much too soon to be telling him about the source of her wealth! "W-well, um, I think it's quite a big hoard. I don't have a lot of hoards to compare it to. Let's just say there wasn't much competition in the area back home?" Hopefully that's a good enough sort-of-true explanation to keep him happy.

Just as the tunnel starts to feel a little long and a wee bit chilly, it curves round to reveal a massive circular platform covered with large, rather comfortable looking seats so deep and well cushioned that you'd probably get lost in them if you weren't careful, arranged in pairs with a little table with a small glowing red orb and a pair of rather fetching wine glasses that seem to be created from some sort of crystal as the red light of the orb elegantly plays across them. "Uh, take your pick, I guess?"

[Deathkeeper]

[Under Mountainside]

Spako senses Sylvie's stress and squeezes back, smiling.
"Oh, don't worry about it. I just didn't want you do be blowing your savings, is all."
Spako pulls her along to a set of chairs and sits down. If the chairs are human-sized he'll gladly pull her onto the same one as him to share.
"Did you want to order wine?" he asks, hiding his lack of knowledge on the subject.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Under Mountainside]

The seats are indeed big enough for a human. Big enough for something a fair size larger than a human, actually. There's a few extra-large seats off to one side as well as a couple designed for quadrupeds. Seems they've tried to cover all their bases.

Sylvie lets herself be pulled up beside Spako. She smiles and leans against him contentedly, reaching over- oh, wait, small people on a big chair. She leans out over the arm of the chair to snag the menu, then settles back down beside him. It's a surprisingly hefty menu. The first few pages list a range of more traditional beverages (including a healthy selection of wines), then there's some more unusual ones; a range of themed cocktails each decorated with a semi-precious gemstone and coloured accordingly, truffle wine, an ale and a cider formed from different sorts of underground fruits, an insect cocktail for the extremely adventurous. And for the less adventurous, those same fruits have been pressed into juices along with an option of some sort of herbal tea, again using plantlife that naturally grows underground.

Sylvie seems a little spoiled for choice.

"A-anything catching your eye, Spako?"

[Deathkeeper]

Under Mountainside

Spako hrrrrmmmm’s at the menu. He has no idea what most of this is. His palette is, well, extremely unrefined. He’s honest with himself about that. Most of this means nothing to him.
”I haven’t eaten insects since my time at the Isle of Birds. Could try that. But if we’re sharing you could pick out a wine for us?” he suggests. Surely she has more experience with the finer things?

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Under Mountainside]

As they settle down, the elevator starts to descend. Several more serving staff launch off of the ceiling above them and land on the platform. These ones appear to be rather tall sort of bat-like creatures, with very large curved ears and even larger black leathery wings. Their skin is a pale purple in colour, each one of them decorated in a unique pattern of painted-on highlights. They're also wearing nothing but loincloths. They start moving between the chairs, taking orders, crawling off to the underside of the elevator (they're very impressive climbers!) and coming back up with their drinks.

"Wine? Sure. I can do that." Sylvie starts looking through the wine list, eventually settling on a bottle of red using grapes and a hint of spices taken from a carefully preserved plantation far off in Seaside. Sounds fancy.

And not a moment too soon as one of the bats stops in front of their chair, "A pleasure to have you with us this evening. May I take your order, please?" As one might expect, the bat's voice is quite high-pitched, but it's also quite soft and gentle too.

Sylvie points out her chosen bottle, then looks to Spako to see if he wants to add anything else to the order.

[Deathkeeper]

[Under Mountainside]

Spako shakes his head. One bottle will be more than enough. They might even get drunk from all that!

Spako sometimes forgets he’s actually the size of a horse and magical and he doesn’t get drunk off two cups of booze anymore. This is one of those times.

Spako watches the bat go curiously. Had he shown up in only a cloth and decorative paint, would it have been seen as classy to this bunch? Or is that strictly for their culture? Fashion is so odd. Spako decides he had best never think about it.
”Do you think they’ll have tapis?” he asks, remembering a thing or two about when he masqueraded as a king.