Trog's Tavern CLIII

[Rebonack]

[The Thing That Might be Morbit or Maybe Something Else]

The mouse flees!

And with a rather disturbing sound almost, but not wholly, completely unlike laugher the not-rabbit gives chase!

It bounds after the mouse, snapping at its heels! It could probably catch it easily, but is having more fun terrifying it.

Before long they reach the dorfs! They don't appear to have noticed either of the rodents, largely because they're busy singing a dorfish drinking song.


[Mermaids and Barmaids]

The pony snarks back with something very rude in equestrian. Or at least it sounds like it was probably something very rude judging from the tone.

What a bad horse.

"Ooooooh," Zee replies, understanding now. "Well, I work here at Trog's, so the commute for me is pretty minimal since I live up on the second floor."

She has her own room.

It's a pretty nice room, in her opinion.

"As far as around the City goes? I imagine people do all sorts of things. Some walk. Some ride Riftline. Some have their own vehicles. And then of course there are the flying taxis. Those are good for getting around fast provided you aren't the sort to be easily terrified from... umm... highly acrobatic flying."

That's a diplomatic way to describe how most of the taxi pilots fly.

"There are a few places nearby that I go shopping. Usually I just walk. Or take Riftline. I like public transit and the pedestrian life. You get to meet more interesting people that way."

Oh.

Zee is probably one of those people who talks to strangers on trains, isn't she?

"I think there are a few groups of people who like jumping between rooftops instead of using the sidewalks. Most of them are probably ninjas."

That seems like a very ninja mode of transportation to Zee.


[Pokemon]

"Probably fun, yeah," Nirik agrees.

"Or boring because we just find a shop," Kirin points out.

"An adventure would make a better story."

"Yeah, but we've already adventured pretty hard. Maybe we should get some real food and sleep on it first?"

Hmm...

Who does Moira agree with?

Go out and adventure right away?

Or spend a few hours ruminating on how weird existence is?

[Deathkeeper]

Pokemon

”Well...” Moira looks between Kirin and Nirik.
Who are still weird, by the way.
”We should probably at least find somewhere to stay. You’re still carrying all those artifacts! We can’t go on a new adventure with our bags full. Or. Well. Bag. Sorry.
But then we can go adventuring!”

[Rebonack]

"A place to stay would be a good plan," Kirin agrees with a nod.

"This is also an inn!" Zee calls out from across the room.

Oh.

Well.

There's a potential solution, right?

"Do you take gold idols as payment?" Nirik asks.

"Only if they aren't full of ancient curses," Zee replies. "Or new curses, I guess. Hexes are trouble regardless of age."

Hmm...

Are they idols cursed?

Kirin pulls the Salamance statue out of his pack and punks it down on the table with a loud thump. It is very shiny.

[Deathkeeper]

It’s okay, Salamence. You might be used as bartering for rooms and ice cream, but we love you as much as the other dragons.
”They’re not cursed. Kirin’s been carrying a ton of them and nothing bad happened to him or Nirik.” And debatably nothing bad happened to her, either.

[Rebonack]

To be fair salamance was just the one that happened to be at the top of the heap.

Zee bops on over to take a look at the statue.

She's... uhh...

Also over there.

Talking with the mermaid.

Sort of.

The two scenes are slightly out of temporal sync with each other. Probably best not to think about it too hard.

Anywho!

Zee pokes at the statue with a finger. Then she scrunches her mouth to one side and furrows her brow. Then she licks her finger and pokes the statue again.

There's a subtle *BZZT!* and a few silvery sparks. The barmaid quickly withdraws her hand, giving it a little shake. It only lasts for a moment, but for a brief second her hand is positively humming with stellar light.

"Not cursed. They're tools," Zee says. "Enhances battle experience and catalyzes evolution for pokemon. Not the weird evolution, though. Just the experienced based ones."

Then she glances up at Moira, an eyebrow raised. "Did you do a bunch of fighting while carrying one of these things?"

"That's why they didn't effect us," Kirin says.

"We're fully evolved," Nirik agrees.

"How on earth did you know that just by touching them?" Kirin inquires, puzzled.

Zee provides a mysterious smile as a non-answer.

[5a Violista]

[Mermaids and Barmaids]

Obviously, the rude comment is probably justified because the mermaid quickly responds with a rude gesture.

Making the gesture doesn't distract her from listening to Zee, however. "I see," she says with a nod. So some people don't go far while others have to travel a farther distance. Some people have it easy, while others have to go farther. Some people keep private while others take public transportation.
...
This mission may be a bit more difficult than she had initially assumed. She had thought the majority of land-walkers would be very similar.
Later, she'll have to find a stairway wide enough for her crocodile to ascend. Try some of the sky-taxis, take the Riftline (whatever that is, she'll ask someone else), and...
Wait.
She can't jump from roof to roof.
She'll have to think of something similar.

"I suppose that makes sense," she says. "I might be back later to see why everybody likes drinking so much."

Okay. It's time for her to get going. The mermaid looks down to her left, to make sure the crocodile is still in position. With one arm on the table and the other on the chair, she tries to slowly lower herself. Of course, that doesn't completely work because soon her right arm's no longer in a position to go down any farther. So, she twists her body and uses part of her tail to keep the weight off her arms, so that she can move the right arm down onto the saddle. With one arm extended upwards and the other downwards, she finishes lowering herself onto the reptile. Adjusting herself so she's fully back in the saddle, she then signals to the croc that it's time to get going.

As the crocodile starts moving again, she ducks to make sure her head doesn't hit the table.

She thanks the barmaid, waving back at her as she rides the crocodile out of the tavern.

[Deathkeeper]

Moira looks down, kind of embarrassed. She clicks her claws together.
”That might have been a thing that I did.” She had been going to leave her bag by the stairs but decided to hold onto it. If she had just left it there to fight the imps she might not be in this situation at all. That’s just annoying! She better get some cool powers from this. Didn’t they say she was “absurdly venomous?”

[Rebonack]

Zee waves to the departing mermaid.

Good-luck, departing mermaid!

I hope your crocodile doesn't eat anyone.

"Hey don't feel bad about it," Kirin says with a comforting smile. "None of us knew what they did. It was an honest mistake."

"Technically Trog's accepts whatever as payment," Zee points out. "But I think you guys would be better served by finding a buyer for those things. I'm sure someone down on Market Street would be able to give you a good price for them. You might even be able to find someone selling a moonstone there!"

Oh hey.

A lead.

"In the mean time, I can reserve a room or rooms for you? Or you can look for somewhere else to stay while you're out."

[Deathkeeper]

Moira nods to Zee.
”Okay. Let’s do that, Kirin, Nirik. Unless you want to keep one for study or something. We can go now.”
Maybe they do want to keep one.
They do study things after all.

[Earl of Purple]

Dorf Table- Nobbit

The not-a-mouse will dodge between the tables and try to find somewhere to hide. It's really hungry, and needs to find something to eat in addition to hiding from the cackling familiar chasing it. Eventually, it'll grab hold of a dorf's leg and try to scramble up onto the table. Being seen irritates its defensive instincts, but not as much as the rabbit-thing behind it.

[Rebonack]

Study?

Weeeeell...

Mostly they just explore and collect artifacts. Kirin is all about anthropology.

Regardless!

"Alright, let's see what we can find. How do we get to this Market Street place again?" Kirin asks.

Zee then provides directions! They're... kind of confusing. But that's the Nexus for you.

Kirinirik shall head out, ostensibly with Moira close behind.

Meanwhile!

"Ach, it's climbin' up me leg!" shouts one of the dorfs as he suddenly leaps to his feet and starts doing a little jig.

The 'rabbit' at this point seems amused enough and wanders away to find something else to harass.

[Purple Eagle]

Elfquest

Holly nods, trying to remember her cover story. She's based this off of the fables about elves from her homeland, so it shouldn't be that hard to keep things straight.

She shrugs. "Well, I'm pretty normal. Mother was an elf but because I'm only half of one I'm not as good at flesh-shaping as everyone else so I left the fairy-mirror-land and became a detective-slash-investigator."

That's about it. Nothing elaborate or out of place. Perfectly normal half-elf backstory; probably everyone has heard this one a million times.

"How about you? What are you doing here?"

Elfquest

"Hmm." Swetlana thinks Holly's means of describing her origins is quite weird, but then events have turned her into the quite the suspicious woman.

It's only fair that she answers the question, since she asked Holly for her origins first. "Athlete turned hunter of monsters and dream-crushers. I was a four-time World Champion, once. Normal. I still am, just less so. You could call me a fellow 'investigator', even." She sniffs her drink again, then takes a sip, trusting her body's alcohol processing system to sort it out. "Fairy-mirror-land, huh? You don't sound too fond of the place."

[5a Violista]

[Elfquest]

"That's neat, hunting monsters is a really useful job," Holly says.

She then describes the "fairy-mirror-land": "Yeah, it's not very fun. It's cold and dark and creepy and it gets everywhere if you're not careful." Seriously, she does find it really disturbing and doesn't like it there. "Not my kind of place. I like things brighter and warmer."

[Earl of Purple]

The little beastie will bite in hard to prevent the dorf from shaking it free, hopefully able to take a small piece of flesh and a sampling of the dorf's soul to learn from.

((I don't play Dwarf Fortress, so I don't know what it could get from this, except maybe a beard.))

Unfortunately, this doesn't help its hunger- if anything, it's exacerbated it. Adapting its body requires quite a bit of energy, and it needs food to replace what it's spent.

[Zefir]

Spoiler

Show

-and what can only be described as a pushme-pullyou. Some sort of weird giraffish person. The front half being yellow and kind of adorable and the bottom half being terrifyingly sinister looking.

The animated broom in the broom closet doesn't seem very happy about the company. It shakes its fist in silent indignation at the newcomers as they go tumbling out.

"We found a bar," the bottom half, Nirik, hisses.

So they did!

Zee, meanwhile, fetches the rum rather belatedly for the sailor. The mermaid likely won't find any raw meat section on the menu. That's unsanitary. And the fellow at the bar most CERTAINLY got a long island iced tea at some point.

Yay?

Zee leans over the counter to peer at the pair of pokemon sprawled out on the floor.

"Howdy! Welcome to Trog's Tavern. Anything I can get you?"

"Ice cream?" Kirin asks hopefully.

Zee purses her lips, looking thoughtful. "Lemme see what I've got." And then under the counter she goes.

The man thanks Zee for the drink, but whatever is in there has to wait a moment as he sees the pokemon. Creatures of this kind kind be not summoned by someone. How else would you find something with to speaking ends on different sides. Even the catdog,... dogcat...tacgod? Whatever, he saw was a summon. So he starts staring at the pokemon while slowly nipping on his drink. He has learned that asking if they are summon makes people mad. He doesn't get it but it seems to be a local law.

[Rebonack]

Moral of the story seems to be that the Nexus is full of all sorts of weird people.

Regardless!

A dorf is bitten!

He swears quite a bit in dorfish.

Which is understandable, since he just lost a chunk of meat.

Hmm...

The mouse will probably gain darkvision.

That's a useful thing?

It may also develop a fine beard, as any proper dorf should have.

The dorf flails harder in an attempt to dislodge the creature.

By this time Zee is finally starting to notice the commotion. Something is upsetting her customers!

[Earl of Purple]

With that achieved, the 'mouse' jumps off the dorf and hits the floor, and tries to find somewhere to hide, probably by finding a useful knot in the floorboards and diving into the space between the floor of the tavern and the ceiling of the cellar. Its new ability to see in the dark would be very helpful, if it reaches safety before Zee sees it.

[Arkhosia]

Back in the Saddle - Closed

There's a yawn as Caelynn steps into Trog's for the first time in years - well, decades from her perspective, stretching her arms above her as she strolls in after a long day of work. Man, she remembers this place. Always chaotic, a place where a quick drink can easily turn into an epic brawl against the Demon Lord of Valhalla or a tense standoff with a newly introduced character. It was probably less hectic than the heydays she remembers, the catgirl muses, but it was still fun to take a trip back to her old stomping grounds. Taking a seat at the bar, she orders a pint and takes a look around.

[Purple Eagle]

"That's neat, hunting monsters is a really useful job," Holly says.

She then describes the "fairy-mirror-land": "Yeah, it's not very fun. It's cold and dark and creepy and it gets everywhere if you're not careful." Seriously, she does find it really disturbing and doesn't like it there. "Not my kind of place. I like things brighter and warmer."

[Elfquest]

"Yes, it is." Swetlana turns back to Holly, and smiles when she finishes speaking. "Brighter and warmer, eh? So do I. A investigator-detective who likes things bright and warm. You grow more interesting to me by the minute."

"Say, do you catch many criminals? I'm good at that, I could help you, Miss... you never said your name." The gynoid with a living head asks.

[5a Violista]

[elfquest]

Holly wonders why liking bright and warm things makes her interesting. Isn't that normal? she wonders. What if she doesn't want to be interesting?

"Holly," she replies, immediately responding. "I'm Holly."

She adds, "I don't really catch criminals - that's not really my thing," she says. "Leave it to the government to do that. I just have recently been working on a lot of larger problems - like, the origins of mysterious plagues and other similar things. There's been a lot of that recently." Meme disease. Skinwalkers can be thought of as a plague. The rat infestation in Riverside, too.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Back in the Saddle]

You never quite know what you're in for in Trog's. On the whole it probably is a bit of a quieter place these days - far fewer instances of people smashing through walls or trying to start trouble, no risk of a misplaced word summoning the quiet-tentacles any more to cause havoc.

These days incidents tend to be a little smaller in scale.

For example, the angel sitting at the bar next to Caelynn hasn't noticed the catgirl sit down. She yawns and stretches, her arms reaching up, her wings stretching out, putting Caelynn at risk of getting wing'd right off her chair.

[Rebonack]

The mouse, for its part, will manage to escape.

Buuuuut!

Zee still caught a glimpse of it, narrowing her eyes at the rodent.

A mouse going around biting her patrons?

That is WAY too familiar. She'll be keeping an eye out for it now.

As for the angel and the catgirl?

She'll bring them anything they order, but otherwise not bug them.

It's pretty clear from their body language that they don't want to be pestered.

[Purple Eagle]

Holly wonders why liking bright and warm things makes her interesting. Isn't that normal? she wonders. What if she doesn't want to be interesting?

"Holly," she replies, immediately responding. "I'm Holly."

She adds, "I don't really catch criminals - that's not really my thing," she says. "Leave it to the government to do that. I just have recently been working on a lot of larger problems - like, the origins of mysterious plagues and other similar things. There's been a lot of that recently." Meme disease. Skinwalkers can be thought of as a plague. The rat infestation in Riverside, too.

[elfquest]

Swetlana senses Holly's confusion and elaborates. "It means we have something in common. Don't worry about it." She says, sniffing her drink once more, then taking a sip. "I'm Swetlana. Polish-Japanese."

"The mysterious plague, not affected me so far." Swetlana believes it can't affect her, too, based on her current state. "I know it's a criminal or villain behind it, however. Perhaps even an AMEN member doing what they do best." She's turned back to her glass, and it's almost a miracle she doesn't shatter it. Even behind her sunglasses, the intensity of her gaze is quite evident. The way she says AMEN with disdain, however, one might worry that she doesn't turn her drink bitter.

"I hate criminals, y'know? Dreamcrushers, the lot of them. The organizations are the worst of the lot." She looks up at Holly all of a sudden, all this talk of mysterious plagues possibly being backed by criminals firing her up. "We should team up. An investigator-detective and hunter-detective duo could be much more effective in both solving the mystery of the disease, and blowing the culprits to kingdom ****." This time, she turns her body about halfway towards Holly. "It'd go faster, don't you think?"

[5a Violista]

[elfquest]

"Yes, you're right. They're pretty awful," Holly agrees, suddenly starting to feel pretty uncomfortable. "I-I actually don't think AMEN is behind any of them, as much as they may claim to the contrary."

I don't think they've claimed anything of the sort.

"Everyone's saying demons or magicians caused one, and two of the other ones are more of an invasion from another world, and rumors say the other one comes from some government. It would definitely go faster..." Wanting to alter the course of the conversation, she adds: "I could show you my notes on what I've found, if you want."

[Purple Eagle]

[elfquest]

"AMEN hasn't claimed to be responsible, but it's AMEN. It's a safe bet that they're somehow involved. They may be too big to touch, but if we found a prominent member or something, we could get some information about whether or not AMEN's related." A sadistic smile crosses her lips for a second, hinting as to the fact that she'd do more than 'ask questions'.

She takes a bigger sip of her drink, this time. "Whoever is responsible, they need to be punished." She says, getting up to move closer to Holly, choosing a seat beside her. "Show me your notes."

[5a Violista]

Holly opens up her notebook to the first page that has info on these longstanding quests/plagues.
Unfortunately, it's written in some foreign language, but between Holly's explanation of what it says and the visual elements including sketches, arrows, circles, and so on, it should be easy enough to understand regardless.

First, there's a bunch of robotic bugs. "I don't know much about this one."
Second, something about fairies and some fire things. The page is similarly largely blank.
Skinwalkers. She points at a corner of the page with her gloved hand: "This is what I found out from Vigil, that they're some kind of new species of shapeshifters that consume their victims, and Vigil's largely investigating them, and they're weak to fire." and then, using other words and symbols on the page, begins explaining their mutagenic nature and so on.
Memes. "HALO's working on this one, but it's a disease that psychically makes people act stereotypical." Using the diagrams, she explains how all humans and many other people are immune ((you're immune if you think you're immune)), how it transmits, and so on.
Rats. She explains how she learned this from MERC, how Riverside recently had a plague of rats, and Holly doesn't know all that much about them so far but presumably some magic-user started it and lots of people are blaming demons, but that's probably just hysteria.

"That's pretty much most of what I know," she says, conveniently avoiding commentary on the punishment and the implied torture.

[Purple Eagle]

[elfquest]

Swetlana pays attention, her AR HUD helping her add some tasks.

The skinwalkers are the most interesting, so that gets higher priority. The disease, however, sounds silly when she thinks of it, so it doesn't get a spot on the list. Besides, she's more interested in working with VIGIL than HALO. Still, she keeps it at the back of her mind.

Rats and MERC, eh? Also worth checking out, making two 'quests' on her list. The robotic bugs sound worth checking out, at least from a distance, so as to know how risky getting involved would be for her inorganic body. Intensive repairs are a hassle!

After Holly's done speaking, Swetlana smiles at the half-elf. "You're working with VIGIL? That's good to hear! I plan to join up, myself." She says, nodding. Holly's just gained some points! "Skinwalkers and rats sound interesting, Holly-san."

"Let me just clear something up, though." She turns to face the masked woman, having noticed how Holly avoided responding to the violent punishment of criminals. "I got way too carried away, talking about my hatred of evildoers. Gomen-nasai. Don't be alarmed, Holly-san, but I have a personal desire to see crime punished. You should understand, as a detective. Hence my desire to join VIGIL, they'll care more about the results than the means." She explains. "If you're working with them, perhaps you could even get me started?"

[5a Violista]

[elfquest]

She has definitely worked with Vigil, so long as you consider 'attacked and impersonate its members in an attempt to steal information from' to be 'working with'. Same thing, right? No difference.

"I'm not doing anything consistent, but, yes, I have worked on occasion with them," she corrects. "But, I can definitely take you there and at least get you started." As long as they don't run into Wenomir, Holly is confident that everything will go fine, and it would cement in this identity, potentially bringing in new opportunities and contacts.

"Their base is a little far away, though, so make sure you're ready for the trip if you want to go now."

[Purple Eagle]

She has definitely worked with Vigil, so long as you consider 'attacked and impersonate its members in an attempt to steal information from' to be 'working with'. Same thing, right? No difference.

"I'm not doing anything consistent, but, yes, I have worked on occasion with them," she corrects. "But, I can definitely take you there and at least get you started." As long as they don't run into Wenomir, Holly is confident that everything will go fine, and it would cement in this identity, potentially bringing in new opportunities and contacts.

"Their base is a little far away, though, so make sure you're ready for the trip if you want to go now."

[elfquest]

Swetlana gets quite excited and downs the rest of her drink. "Yes, let's go now. You can get anywhere from Trog's, I've found, Holly-san." She replies, getting up and waiting for Holly to follow suit. "I know the way, at least, so that should save you some hass-"

She's interrupted by the sight she's seen before her. A shady NPC's seen a wallet sticking out for a pocket and is reaching for it. In return, she pulls out a weapon and holds the trigger, nothing happening for a few seconds apart from slight warmness... until 'pop' goes the poor NPC's heart in his chest, and he falls over dead! She steps forward, picking up the 'trash' with one hand whilst she returns the wallet with her free hand, and turns to Holly. "Lead the way, Holly-san. I'll just dump this garbage outside."

[5a Violista]

[elfquest]

Holly blinks.

Then she blinks again.
"O-okay."
This woman is...well, let's just say that she is.
Shoot first, don't ask questions.

The half-human woman stands up. She starts to walk out of the tavern. As a way of probing the situation, she mentions, "Have...have you considered whether or not you're taking things too far?"

Anyway, she goes out, to the bus stop so that they can take the bus to the Riftline train station, which they take closer to Vigil's island, where they'll take a sky-ferry.