Trog's Tavern CLIV

[bc56]

"I studied. I have a bachelor's degree. However, I don't bring it up much, but I'm something of a low-grade supergenius. Unlike some, I can't master every science I put my mind to, but in my chosen field, I'm better than most. I can do some pretty incredible things with light projection," Jade explains. She seems to have an idea. Could you take a picture of me, um, like this?" she gestures at her made-up face and holds out her phone to Mirai.

[Purple Eagle]

"Wow, another thing we have in common. The electronic supergenius part, I mean. I never studied formally, but I have a talent for it. Plus, I had a good teacher." Mirai seems excited at the topic, more so when she reveals her skills with light projection. "Yeah, I heard about that! I'd like to see your stuff and schematics, someday."

When she asks for a picture, he nods. "Of course! Are you almost done, though? With my makeup?"

[bc56]

"Oh, right! I'll get back to it " Jade goes back to work, applying mascara and then lipstick. "Okay, I think I'm done." Unlike Mirai, she's not very skilled. It's pretty messy and clearly a sloppy job.

[Purple Eagle]

Mirai turns to the mirror to see a clown looking back at him. He smiles knowingly. "Messy, but chin up, Jade. Practice makes perfect. Keep at it and you'll be doing your own makeup in no time!" He says, encouragingly. "Alright, say cheese..." He raises up her phone and takes a picture of the made-up Jade.

[Earl of Purple]

Somebody new enters! They're mostly human, with pale skin with a faint blue tinge, dark red hair and sea green eyes. She's wearing a long, flowing robe of several shades of blue mixed together, the baggy sleeves nearly hiding her hands. She appears unarmed, though the robes doubtlessly hide many large pockets, and she looks rather wizardy. Following behind her, flying softly through the air, is a blue fish with a yellow tail. She looks around with some curiosity, before going to sit at the bar.

[bc56]

Jade smiles genuinely as her photo is taken. Sometimes all it takes to feel good about being a woman is a look in the mirror at her beautiful self. Other times, she needs a bit more. Right now, she's mostly just happy to be able to talk about what she's going through with someone who understands it. "Thanks."

[Purple Eagle]

"You're welcome." Mirai smiles back, genuinely. He takes a look at the time and his eyes widen. "Wow. Time files when you're having fun. I have a bit more, but then I have to return back to my pregnant wife." He says, pulling out the makeup remover and a couple of cotton pads, which he douses with the liquid, and starts to wipe the stuff off his face.

Of course, Jade probably knows how to clean her face already, so he's doing this to show her the amount to use per cotton pad, lest she finish the bottle too soon. "I'd like to learn how to make light solid. That kind of thing isn't as easily doable in my world as it would be in the Nexus."

[bc56]

"It's tricky," Jade admits, "I can't exactly explain it here and now. I would need schematics and equations." She has a lot of notes on the subject, but they're stored at her lair, at her home, and at the old NERD headquarters.

[Purple Eagle]

"That gives cause for a second meeting, then!" Mirai says, finishing his wipedown of his face. "I'm not active in the rest of the Nexus these days, but I'll be sure to come back and see how you're doing, okay?"

[bc56]

"Alright! It was great meeting you!" Jade is glad she got to have this conversation. It's difficult to talk about what she's going through. Getting her makeup done was a nice bonus. She glances pleasedly in the mirror again.

[Purple Eagle]

"The pleasure is all mine, Jade." Mirai found their conversation therapeutic, as well!

He looks at his face in the mirror and smiles. "Unlike my sister I'm not goth, nor do I have any facial blemishes I feel the need to cover with makeup, so I don't go about with a made-up face... but now I feel less weird about my leftover desire to occasionally paint my face in private. Seems we helped each other out, so... thanks." He downs the rest of his drink and grins at Jade. "Whatever happens, I wish you the utmost happiness."

And then it's time to go! He gets up, stretches and offers a handshake to Jade, before leaving and waving bye-bye. Zither'll be happy to learn her husband is working through his issues.

[bc56]

Jade shakes Mirai's hand. Her handshake is firmer than one would expect, but that makes sense in context. "You too." She waves farewell and goes back to the bar, putting the makeup bag into her purse.

[5a Violista]

Obsidian enters Trog's Tavern.

Unlike last time, she doesn't appear like a dragon. Instead, she looks more like a teenage girl - probably seventeen or eighteen? - human. Black hair. Purple eyes with gold flecks. An injured shoulder, with some kind of infection spreading - visible on her neck and her upper arm.

That's probably why she's not a dragon right now; with an infection like that it would probably be hard to get around on four legs.

She sits down, throws her head back, and groans.

[Zefir]

The man takes a sip of his drink and then places his drink back on the table. He looks left and right at those who set themself at the bar. An injured Teenager, a generbend cursed man and a wizard with a fish. He does take a look at jade but instead of a naughty one he appears mroe disgusted and turns to the teenager.

"You properbly should see a docter about that." he says to the teenager pointing at her infection.

[5a Violista]

Oh! Hey! Someone's talking to her!
Obsidian has no choice but to walk up to the person talking with her. "Hi!" she says. She shrugs, then winces because she just shrugged with an injured shoulder. "Don't worry, it's just a zombie bite," she says, dismissively. "It...it should get better in two or three days."

Because zombie bites get better, apparently.

The teenager sits next to him. "But nevermind about that! Hi." She swings her legs back and forth as they dangle from her seat. "I'm Obsidian. You having fun drinking here?"

[Zefir]

The man looks back at her confused. "Depends on what you think 'better' is. Normal Zombie bites tend to make you a Zombie." Then he looks down at his drink.
"You should see a cleric in that case." he shrugs after that not sure why he even cares.

"Fun is kinda hard to say. at least I got some good entertainment by hearing some funny curse stories."

[5a Violista]

"It was one of those mushroom zombies," Obsidian replies.

She twists back on forth on her chair, making it spin a little. "Oh, yeah? Curses are pretty funny. I've never gotten one myself, though. How about you? Ever got a curse?"

[Zefir]

"Doesn't sound much better." he replies to the Zombie thing.

"Cursed?" He says as he looks past her caught in memoeries. For a moment he is silent but then he focus again and speaks up. "A few times by now, lost count to be true. A whole lot of differetn kinds, but I could break them all."

[5a Violista]

"Oh!" Obsidian says, sounding excited.

"Are you a Curse Breaker? That's so cool!"

She lies her head down on the table so she can look at him from a different angle. "I've always wanted to meet a Curse Breaker! How did you learn to do it?"

[Zefir]

"Curse breaker?" he says mostly confused. "No, I don't think you can call me that. I just happen to be good at breaking them. I am not sure there is a job who specialites in that. In my world such things are mostly doen by healer. It's part of there job, like caring for infrections that might turn you."

[5a Violista]

"Oh."

Obsidian turns her head so it's face-down in the table. She stretches an arm out over it. "That's too bad. You had gotten me excited for a moment."

She sits back up and leans back. "Ugh. Speaking of healers, they're so annoying. They always want to heal stuff but, you know, what if you don't want to be healed? They just fuss too much." She complains about this sort of stuff.

[Zefir]

He turns to his glass but looks at her as she speaks up.

"Disapointed, Huh?" he says. As he looks he tries to concentrate. Normaly is senses should already told him if this person has any magic on her or curses in that case, but maybe the drink weakened it so he has to focus to gather that kind of information.

"The thing is, if you need a healer, something has been damaged or broken. Clearly it's not comfortable what they do or sometimes tastes ugly, but in the end they want you to be the same as befor." he then turns back to her. "May I guess you want to be a Zombie then?"

[5a Violista]

Actually!
There's no curses on her.
There is a magic on her - one that allows her to take human form. Guess she's not normally human.
It wasn't even one of those magic zombies - it was a mushroom zombie - so its bite isn't even magical.

"..." She stares at him blankly. "No, zombies are stupid and are only good as food. Definitely don't want to be one." But also she seems confident that she won't turn into one.

So, back to complaining about healers: Obsidian groans. "It's just, like, healers treat you like a baby, you know? 'oh, cute widdle thing, let me fix that up for you' No! I'm practically an adult! I don't need help!"

[Zefir]

I am not sure i know what the difference is other then maybe the mushroom Zombie got more.. mushrooms on him?

"Food?" he looks confused. "Guess I was right that your a changeling of some sort after all. I assume you might be old enougth to be an adult, but maybe you still appear like one to others. Right now you are a teenager." he turns back to his glass. "Declining help offered is a bad habit. You shouldn't get used to that."

After a pause he turns back to her. "What are you?"

[5a Violista]

Obsidian puts her chin down in her arms - after folding them - and grumbles. "Yeah, I'm a a teenager," she admits. "But! Some people become adults when they're like 15 years old, right? I read that somewhere."

She turns her head to look at him.

Obsidian grins, liking his question. She sits back up, and raises her left hand to her mouth, so that she can block the view of her mouth as she laughs. She then laughs: "Ohohoho. So you want to know what I am, right?"

She poses.
And then winces because she just moved her shoulder.
And then finds a more comfortable pose.
"I'm a dragon!"

And then looks around. She lowers her voice: "But don't tell anyone, okay? Dragon slayers are literally the worst."

[Zefir]

"Those 'come people' are mostly from a race that doesnt live that long or be foced to grow up to survive." he says.
He only raises an eyebrow as she mentions dragon. He just didn't expect that. He rather thought she might be a changeling or so like Holly or Shuyoru.

When she winces at her pose he says. "I repeat myself, you should see a doctor about that. I don't think dragon slayers will just walk around here..." he pauses as he thinks. " I at least never met anyone and I even knew a dragon myself who never encountered anyone."

[5a Violista]

She keeps on whispering: "When I was a hatchling, there were a couple of them that would just chase me around all over," she says. "But luckily some nice people in the Dancing Fox Inn killed them for me and taught me how to better hide from them." Obsidian leans forward as she whispers.

She sits upright again, and grins. "Hehe. But it's okay!" She spins around on her chair and leans back on the counter, with her head leaning on it. She curls her feet back, under her chair. Then, she flexes her good arm. Energetically, she says, "I've gotten a lot stronger since then! I'm now really good at sneaking up on things."

[Zefir]

"People from the Dancing Fox killed them?" he says obviously schocked. "That's a suprise. When I was watching over a young dragon I had to take care she doesn't incinerate all those people. Would just call for more."

He then turns to his drink.

"Then hope you don't get jumped on. Sneaking doesn't work well when you get suprised"

[5a Violista]

Ooh! That sounds interesting!
Obsidian spins around again so she can be upright again. That way, she can listen better again.
"You've watched over a dragon before?" she asks. "Like, um...babysitting? Or something like that?" That's what it sounds like. "That's pretty cool."

[Zefir]

"Yes kind of babysitting or rising." He says with a shrug.
"I got her as an egg and she was supposed to be one of those smaler dragons. Those you can use as a mount. Kinda cool to have that. In the end she grew up like you. Last i saw her she went to school."