Trog's Tavern CLIII

[Purple Eagle]

"Then we'd best make this time we've got left count. What is it you actually do? I don't think you've mentioned it." At least, I can't remember it being mentioned. Might have been and I missed it in a quick reread. Jack has another swig of ginger beer, finishing it off and ordering another.

Mirai also orders another beer, a lager this time, and offers to switch with Jack so she tastes proper beer. "Well, I'm a monster hunter from a city of monster hunters." He doesn't mention that he's also a ninja. "Good thing, too, in Raptor's forests there's a seemingly-endless supply of giant animals to hunt and eat. Non-sentient, I assure you, and mostly malevolent."

[Earl of Purple]

Jack tries Mirai's lager, but doesn't seem to like it much, judging by the face. "I'll stick with this, if that's OK. Much nicer." She motions to her ginger beer. "I'm not a giant animal. Even when I'm a bird, I'm a person. I'm just a bird-shaped person. And not really a very big one, at that." Jack's shape is limited, if she's fully bird she's bird-sized, and if she's fully human, she's human-sized. She can mix and match the parts, but only at human-size, or slightly smaller. "What do you do with them when you've killed them?"

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Seeking the Heart]

Alysha idly waves her hand in the air a bit at Zee's statement.

Eh, maybe. Sometimes the heart of the world can be right in the most popular area. Just hiding. Usually needs something done to bring it out. She nods towards Raril. Like, if it were in this missing arena, we'd probably have to do some kind of battle to reveal it. If it's in some kind of tomb? Maybe steal something. Who knows? Hearts definitely aren't any kind of exact science.

She shrugs a bit. Most sure fire way to find a heart of a world is go to places important to the world and do things to help the world. Having a Keyblade helps, too.

So on that note, we're still gonna check around here anyways. If you don't mind.

[Rebonack]

Zee listens carefully, nodding now and again. "Yeah, that sounds like the sort of thing that would result in a bunch of heroes trying to thwart you. See, you went wrong by trying to justify your methods. People will see that as a lack of empathy and feel justified in attacking you as a result. What you should have done was express deep regret about the sacrifices and tearfully informed them that you had done your best and that you're hoping to make up for it with your end goal. People like to imagine that they think rationally, but they usually don't. They think emotionally more often than not. Appealing to cold logic will usually just upset people, especially if they're already in an emotional state."

[Seeking the Heart]

Zee shrugs at the big blue pig ogre guy. "I dunno, maybe! I haven't ever gone looking for it. The whole arena thing was before my time. You might try looking for someone who WAS around for it, though? They would probably know where to look. The tricky part would be to find someone who's been here since the beginning who isn't locked in dead time."

Which is harder said than done.

Very few of the truly ancient folks are around still.

"Feel free to look around. There isn't much to be seen in Trog's, though," Zee admits. "There's the cellar where we keep the extra casks of booze. And the kitchen. Though I wouldn't suggest going in there. The appliances are pretty territorial."

What.

[Outside Trog's]

Geneva's wing is successfully shooed.

"Hmm... threshold juxtaposition, right? You walked through a door and came out the wrong one?" the hippogriff asks. "Those are always tricky... especially since they can be so common. Multiple juxtapositions degrades the bridge remnants."

That said?

She begins her scanning, waving a rather odd looking device at the door.

What will she find?

Well, that's up to Karl's player and whether or not Karl will get to return home, discover that returning home is absolutely hopeless, or discover that returning home is possible, just not right now.

[CosmicHobbit]

Zee listens carefully, nodding now and again. "Yeah, that sounds like the sort of thing that would result in a bunch of heroes trying to thwart you. See, you went wrong by trying to justify your methods. People will see that as a lack of empathy and feel justified in attacking you as a result. What you should have done was express deep regret about the sacrifices and tearfully informed them that you had done your best and that you're hoping to make up for it with your end goal. People like to imagine that they think rationally, but they usually don't. They think emotionally more often than not. Appealing to cold logic will usually just upset people, especially if they're already in an emotional state."

Xena slowly turns to Zee, eyebrows raised. "That's...super smart. Technically, it's not even a lie, as I did regret the sacrifices, and saw no other way to get to my goal. I'll be sure to remember that if I make my way back." She takes another bite of her sandwich, then continues on. "If you simply worked here, then why would you know all of that?"

[Rebonack]

"I don't think anyone around here simply does anything," Zee laughs. "Except Steve the Smoothie Sultan. I'm pretty sure he just pushes his cart around and makes smoothies for people. I need to make a point of finding Steve and making sure he's okay... haven't seen him since I got back..."

One has to set priorities.

"I've done plenty of adventury stuff over the years. You never know what kinds of side-quests might get dumped in your lap when you're walking to the store to buy ingredients for bread. Had a few that were a bit more intentionally sought out, too. And I've had plenty of opportunity to interact with people with both human and inhuman mindsets. You pick up on things if you pay attention," she rambles.

"People don't like changes. Changes are scary. And people don't like having their agency taken away, either. Sometimes they're pretty okay with giving their agency UP, but never having it taken. So a large scale change that might be interpreted as being robbed of agency? That's double-scary. And people will probably fight tooth and nail to stop it, even if the outcome would be desirable for them. Or maybe not! People are weird. Predicting how someone will react is awfully tricky."

Zee quirks her head to one side a bit.

"So, what were you trying to accomplish, exactly?"

She's got a vague idea.

But a more specific picture might be illuminating.

[Zefir]

[Outside Trog's]

Geneva's wing is successfully shooed.

"Hmm... threshold juxtaposition, right? You walked through a door and came out the wrong one?" the hippogriff asks. "Those are always tricky... especially since they can be so common. Multiple juxtapositions degrades the bridge remnants."

That said?

She begins her scanning, waving a rather odd looking device at the door.

What will she find?

Well, that's up to Karl's player and whether or not Karl will get to return home, discover that returning home is absolutely hopeless, or discover that returning home is possible, just not right now.

[Outside Trog's]

"It was a new bar in my hometown after I spent my time around the world." Karl replies as he catches himself. "I walked in and then trip. Thats all I can remember. I was told I had lost my memories in that event and after I found them back a day ago I couldn't remember the time between entering and remembering."

The reading are hard to get. A lot of people walk just through this door from other worlds and there is the addition that Trog's door also appears on several places in the nexus. It's not hopeless, but it sure needs a lot of trial and error to find the right one after seperating all the different readings. Maybe a years work? Maybe more if they got unlucky or less if they got lucky.

[CosmicHobbit]

"I don't think anyone around here simply does anything," Zee laughs. "Except Steve the Smoothie Sultan. I'm pretty sure he just pushes his cart around and makes smoothies for people. I need to make a point of finding Steve and making sure he's okay... haven't seen him since I got back..."
One has to set priorities.
"I've done plenty of adventury stuff over the years. You never know what kinds of side-quests might get dumped in your lap when you're walking to the store to buy ingredients for bread. Had a few that were a bit more intentionally sought out, too. And I've had plenty of opportunity to interact with people with both human and inhuman mindsets. You pick up on things if you pay attention," she rambles.
"People don't like changes. Changes are scary. And people don't like having their agency taken away, either. Sometimes they're pretty okay with giving their agency UP, but never having it taken. So a large scale change that might be interpreted as being robbed of agency? That's double-scary. And people will probably fight tooth and nail to stop it, even if the outcome would be desirable for them. Or maybe not! People are weird. Predicting how someone will react is awfully tricky."
Zee quirks her head to one side a bit.
"So, what were you trying to accomplish, exactly?"
She's got a vague idea.
But a more specific picture might be illuminating.

Xena drinks her tea some more, then says, "Most problems are caused by people, or are problems because they affect people. Hence, if you take the people away..." Xena stops, then shakes her head. "I don't mean killing them. That would be cruel and unnecessary. However, if one were to make it so that people can't affect others negatively, and were inconvenienced by non-person things that cause problems, problems would cease to exist. That's what I was doing." She starts devouring the rest of the sandwich, as if she has hinted at nothing bad.

[Purple Eagle]

Jack tries Mirai's lager, but doesn't seem to like it much, judging by the face. "I'll stick with this, if that's OK. Much nicer." She motions to her ginger beer. "I'm not a giant animal. Even when I'm a bird, I'm a person. I'm just a bird-shaped person. And not really a very big one, at that." Jack's shape is limited, if she's fully bird she's bird-sized, and if she's fully human, she's human-sized. She can mix and match the parts, but only at human-size, or slightly smaller. "What do you do with them when you've killed them?"

Mirai raises up his hands in mock surrender. "Hey, I was just making sure. As for what we do with them, the ones that leave bodies behind are eaten, used for research, processed... things like that." He replies, sipping his beer and grinning at her. There's attraction in his eyes, however. "Say, are you doing anything right now? I stay at Seaside, and there's this lovely meat kebab I think you should try, sold only on Raptor Island. I have a vehicle, and you should be able to fly home from there." He suggests, hope in his eyes.

[Earl of Purple]

"Fly home from an island inhabited by giant monsters? Even if none of those can fly, I'm a jackdaw, not a seagull. I have difficulty with sea winds. On land, wind is channelled by the landscape, so I can see where and how they flow and take advantage of that. The sea changes, constantly, and the winds shape the sea more than the other way around. I think I've got to take a rain check on that. How far is it, offshore, anyway? Can you see the mainland from your island?" Another big thing with flying across the ocean is endurance- there's nowhere to land if she tires. And, as non-migratory birds, jackdaws don't have the endurance for long sea crossings, nor the additional senses to keep flying in the right direction.

Her wings are those of an auk, however. Those wings are more suited for sea journeys, and the eyes in them might be able to sense the magnetic field she'd need to navigate across a large body of water. However, she's not really tried it yet, and doesn't particularly like flying out of sight of land.

[bc56]

Thwmwmwmwmwm...

Pop!

Space seems to fold in on itself for a moment. In a rush of air, a Tiefling girl falls out of nowhere and lands undignifiedly on her rear.
She's a fairly typical Tiefling, with red skin, long black hair tied back in a ponytail, and a devilish tail
She's not very old looking, in her late teens probably, and has a rather modest figure. She wears a long, dark blue dress with a small hole for her tail and a corset, the elegant style of which heavily contrast with her heavy leather boots and protective gloves. On her head is a leather headband with a number of lenses, like a jeweler's affixed to it.
She shakily gets up, massaging her injured tail and looking around. As she takes in her surroundings, her expression changes from confusion to fear, and she begins backing away slowly from nothing in particular.

[Deathkeeper]

Seeking the Heart

Sam scratches his head.
"Okay, but who though? I don't really know any old people." Sam is young, and Skyside is mostly its own thing. Not a lot of Nexus dinosaurs there.

[Recaiden]

"Hey, are you okay there?"

Someone has turned and looked over to the tiefling girl, having heard the sound of someone suddenly appearing and crashing to the floor.
They're a generally humanoid person bundled up in so much winter clothing: coats and scarves and hoods and gloves and mittens and cloaks and so on that all one can see is the glint of wide eyes behind some goggles. Their voice is deep and smooth.
Also at the table drinking with this mysterious figure are a fox-girl and a fire elemental, but they're not paying attention.

[Purple Eagle]

"Fly home from an island inhabited by giant monsters? Even if none of those can fly, I'm a jackdaw, not a seagull. I have difficulty with sea winds. On land, wind is channelled by the landscape, so I can see where and how they flow and take advantage of that. The sea changes, constantly, and the winds shape the sea more than the other way around. I think I've got to take a rain check on that. How far is it, offshore, anyway? Can you see the mainland from your island?" Another big thing with flying across the ocean is endurance- there's nowhere to land if she tires. And, as non-migratory birds, jackdaws don't have the endurance for long sea crossings, nor the additional senses to keep flying in the right direction.

Her wings are those of an auk, however. Those wings are more suited for sea journeys, and the eyes in them might be able to sense the magnetic field she'd need to navigate across a large body of water. However, she's not really tried it yet, and doesn't particularly like flying out of sight of land.

"In that case, planar tech has come to your rescue, unless you're like one of my little sisters, my blood sister's girlfriend to be precise, who doesn't much like walking through portals. Once we're done, just tell us your destination, you'll walk through and appear there. I'll even escort you back out to bolster your confidence." Mirai replies, grinning widely. "Still taking that rain check?"

[bc56]

"Aaaaaaah!" The Tiefling jumps at the voice. She breathes deeply, regaining what little composure she had. "No, no, it's fine. Everything is fine, just fine." Her expression and wavering tone of voice easily betray that no, it's not fine. She looks like she's frightened out of her wits by all the people in the tavern, and like she might bolt at any minute.

[Recaiden]

"Well, why don't you come have a drink then?"
The warmly-dressed person offers. There is an empty chair.
"If you're lost, that happens a lot. Lost people just turn up here."

[bc56]

"You don't mind that I'm a..." The Tiefling doesn't finish the sentence, but the way her hands instinctively go to her horns as she speaks make it clear what she meant. She sits down carefully and requests a drink menu from a passing waiter.

[Earl of Purple]

"In that case, it depends on how accurate the portals are, and how detailed they need a description of the destination. Could I get away with 'corner of the tasty sushi bar opposite the pawn shop run by talking raccoons', or would I need an address, or at least a street name?" Jack smiles and pushes herself back, ready to go with Mirai if he's ready to take her there.

[Recaiden]

"Probably some people would uhm...mind that, but-" The figure shuffles some hats and scarves to briefly reveal a horn sweeping back over the center of their head. "-we take all kinds here." Then they cover up again.

"Ey, and waiter, while you're here, get me another archon rum."

[bc56]

"Black coffee for me." The Tiefling keeps surreptitiously pinching herself. She doesn't seem as afraid anymore, just nervous, and she's now looking around the tavern with wide, curious eyes. "This has to be a dream. My experiment exploded, I must have hit my head. Any minute now, Auntie or Uncle will come to investigate the noise and wake me up."

[Recaiden]

"Experiment?" Asks the fox-girl, black-furred ears flicking as if suddenly noticing their new guest. She has a set of goggles on that rather prevents you from seeing her eyes at all. "On what?"

The bundled up figure makes a movement that's probably shaking their head. "Heh, you're wide awake. The explosion sent you to another world, spark."

"Sometimes people do come here in their dreams." hisses the fire.

[bc56]

The Tiefling perks up a little when asked about her work. "I was working with runic coils and variable-intensity arcanic current in order to elicit instantaneous transposition of matter via leylines." She doesn't make any attempt to make it easier to understand, she's still working under the assumption that this is a dream. "So if I'm not hallucinating all of this, then where am I?"

[Recaiden]

"That's teleportation then? I always thought leylines were. You know, really fast but not instantaneous?" The kitsune is intrigued to run across someone who seems to have such a technical mindset.

"This is Trog's Tavern, in the Nexus. It's sort of a dimensional sand-trap. Portals, gates, roads, jumps...they all end up here more than they ought to. Same thing happened to me years ago - well, except it was a whole lot of us came through at once."

[bc56]

"That might explain some of the calibration errors," The Tiefling looks thoughtful at this. "And if this was a dream, you wouldn't know anything I didn't know. Stars..." She shakes her head. "So this is real."

[Recaiden]

Well, they might know things she had known but forgotten about. Maybe this is your subconscious trying to tell you how to fix your matter-transposer, Tiefling girl!
But no one mentions that possibility.

"Pretty real. I've been here my whole life. Name's 'Honeysuckle'. These are 'Neverest' and 'Shockwave' You?"

"The other thing about Nexus is, it's hard to leave. Not impossible, but a lot of people come here by accident, and they don't have the runic coils the used to get here, and if they did it would need power they ain't got to overcome the, well, it's like gravity, right?" Neverest, the big bundled-up one, warns her. "Now for me it was always a one-way trip; our world was dying, anywhere was better than that. But there's plenty a' folks that are in a hurry to get back home."

[bc56]

"Sekhmet." She looks worried. "I'm stuck here? Forever? I don't have anywhere to stay, or much money." She looks down at herself, looking for something which she doesn't find. "Or any of my tools."

[Recaiden]

"Pretty name." None of them happen to recognize the mythological reference.

"Your experiments brought you here. Maybe they can take you back. But yeah, you're stuck for now."

"You can stay with us for a bit!" Neverest offers.
"Eh?" The other two didn't expect that so much.
"Uh, yeah, I guess there's plenty of space."

"What sort of tools, what sort of work? There's probably a place you can settle in." whispers Shockwave.

[bc56]

"Let's see." Sekhmet begins listing tools, mainly various equipment used by jewelers, watchmakers, smiths, and chemists. It seems she's dabbled in a lot of different crafts. "You'd do that for me? I don't want to cause you any trouble."

[Recaiden]

"Don't know about that first stuff-" The jeweling tools, that is. "-but I do plenty of work with gears in the HALO labs and a bit of chemicals at work." Sekhmet can be relieved that she didn't end up in some primitive backwater, at least.

"Oh sure," Neverest insists. "Just don't cause us extra trouble then."

"And why did you do these experiments? Simple curiosity?"

[bc56]

"I guess." Sekhmet shrugs. "It all started as part of my education, and I kept up with it."She suddenly looks nervous again, "Did you say halo? As in an angel?"