Silly Plots 4: It's not particularly silly, is it?

[Gullara]

[Enchanted Forest]

"Oh boy okay this'll be fun!" the pooka replies as it bounces over to the stone, that great big crescent moon smile on full display.

There's an exchange between the stone and the pooka. The faerie is... diminished, somehow. Not like it got smaller or transparent or anything.

Like it just became notably less.

Then Adir is in that bunker again. Back in the war. The role imposed by the dream weighs down on him, but there's a difference this time.

He's actually here.

He can push off the dream logic, but it will take some effort on his part. As for the pooka? It's now someone from the memory. Someone Adir knew. It may or may not still be a pooka, however. That's sort of how things go sometimes. Adir is holding a piglet but he knows that piglet represents one of his friends from highschool somehow. Dreams are weird.

And sometimes scary.

Like for Cassie and Melissa?

They are not inside the bunker.

And things outside the bunker in Adir's dream glade just got very, very frightening.

[Enchanted Forest]

Adir watches the stone and the pooka suspiciously. The dream shift takes him by surprise. He wasn't anticipating a hard right into his own subconscious. He remembers it quickly enough, though; there are parts of this dream he can't forget. The way he saw Cassie, and how it broke him from his reverie.

The thought of her breaks him from it now. He straightens up, stands a little taller, barely fitting in the bunker's less than voluminous space. He looks over at his old friend Strig, a feathered face he hasn't seen in more than a decade. He looks at the pig in his arm. A friend from highschool. Sure.

Wait a second. He didn't go to school!

The stag squats so he can lower the piglet to the floor. Not sensing his daughter or her new friend, the stag moves to exit the bunker and search for them. Whether the pooka is still a pooka or Strig is still Strig, they barely get more than a glance unless they have something important to say.

[Enchanted Forest]

Before Adir exits the bunker he hears the familiar sound of a bombing run close. He gets a glimpse outside right before the earth in front of him is torn asunder. Beyond it he thinks he can hear a child scream.

On the other side of the bombing target, Cassie has thrown herself to the ground after running away from the explosion. The distance between them and the bunker has ballooned since they last looked at it, and now it's been torn apart. Moments afterward, figures start to move out of various crevices and hidey holes and conflict breaks out. Gunfire, artillery, screams of pain and death. It's a mess. Cassie can't do more than cower at first.

[Deathkeeper]

Forman House

"You got it." Saramond holds out his hand to shake. "I'll have to figure out what to do with this still," He gestures at the sword, "And about what it makes me, and the new duties I apparently need to attend to, but I should be fine on my own. Going to need some materials, of course, but I know how to get those."

Forman House

Krayger shakes Saramond's hand. His grip is exactly as strong as you would expect.
"Well, I can't really help you with any of that, but good luck. Just transfer my pay when you get the chance." And then he heads off to give Saramond his space to figure this stuff out.

[Rebonack]

[Enchanted Forest]

Adir places the table saw he was holding on the floor of the bunker and sprints out into the battlefield. By all accounts this is a bad plan. But this is just a dream, right?

It can't hurt him.

Right?

As vague, faceless figures begin waging war on each other and Cassie stumbles to the ground Melissa decides that it's probably a good idea to do what she can to help keep little Cassie safe. After all, that's what Cassie's daddy told her to do. The huge black cat crouches protectively over the top of Cassie, filling the child's view full of fur and moonlight and mist. It's loud and scary, but they're going to be alright, surely.

"Your daddy's bad dream started again he must be here!" Melissa shouts over the din. "He'll find us then everything will be okay."

They're close.

They have to be.

A blinding cloud of dust is hurled into the air as an artillery shell bursts in front of Adir. But even over all the noise he's SURE he can hear Cassie. She must be close.

[5a Violista]

[Blind Date]

Regular lions are the same way: much better to see at the zoo than in the dark in your bathroom.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right," June says. Too weird definitely means less being sold. "But I've heard some horror stories about some places with pretty bad business practices."

So...
"Oh, pirate ship?" June says between shake sips. "Mhmmm."

June swallows.
"I've been on a barge and on a (parked) military ship, which is probably the closest I've been to a pirate ship."
And the shake is set down, to give space to talk.
"So, yeah. About me: live in Riverside, got a pretty boring job to pay for rent, like playing music but haven't got any instruments yet,-" none came to the Nexus in that crater "-and probably the most interesting thing that's happened recently was while vacationing at Inside, met a succubus who started a potion stand that temporarily turns you like her. Apparently pretty dangerous if you regularly come into contact with fairy magic, but...yeah, that's about it."

[Murkus]

[Enchanted Forest?]

Adir raises his arm to shield himself from the blast, from the light, but his head twitches involuntarily towards the sound of the children. The next one almost knocks him off his feet, but he staggers forward anyway, arm held up near his face. His ears ring, his heart pounds.

"Cassie!" He bellows into the storm of noise. If the children can make themselves heard in this, then his voice is positively deafening. "Call out to me, baby! Keep talking! Shout as loud as you can!"

And if she or Melissa can manage that, he'll hurry towards them with all the swiftness his long legs can muster. Plowing through flying dirt, smoke, and gunfire. It might not be the smartest idea, but what was the alternative? Wait for Cass to come to him? If he takes a couple dings along the way, it'll still be worth it.

[Recaiden]

[Temple of Inari]

Jade sees each flame ignite, but she barely feels a twinge each time. She's not even sure if she's imagining it. Just like that sense that someone's watching her. Is someone actually watching? She's not sure. She's a fox-spirit, does that mean the fox goddess is watching her? And if so, is that a good thing?
When it comes to her turn, she sighs, reluctantly. She tries to focus. Fire. Okay, fire! Ugh, this is useless. Nothing is happening. She can't create fire. She's not a magician. She's an engineer.

Probably no one's actually watching. It would be a good thing if the fox goddess were watching her, but she's most likely not personally observing the students here.
Maybe it would help to assume that magical fire is a system that an engineer could analyze. How would it work, if you set aside the impossibility of all this magic and assumed that it did work?

The teacher reassures everyone that they shouldn't expect to get it on their first try.

One of the children manages to create a jet of water instead of a candle flame; besides being extra impossible, there was no feeling of a presence when he did that.

When it comes to Honeysuckle's turn to try, there is a much stronger signal of fire; a heat that is not heat, waiting yet striving to be here. But, like Jade, she can't get anything to happen.

[Blind Date]

Regular lions are the same way: much better to see at the zoo than in the dark in your bathroom.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right," June says. Too weird definitely means less being sold. "But I've heard some horror stories about some places with pretty bad business practices."

So...
"Oh, pirate ship?" June says between shake sips. "Mhmmm."

June swallows.
"I've been on a barge and on a (parked) military ship, which is probably the closest I've been to a pirate ship."
And the shake is set down, to give space to talk.
"So, yeah. About me: live in Riverside, got a pretty boring job to pay for rent, like playing music but haven't got any instruments yet,-" none came to the Nexus in that crater "-and probably the most interesting thing that's happened recently was while vacationing at Inside, met a succubus who started a potion stand that temporarily turns you like her. Apparently pretty dangerous if you regularly come into contact with fairy magic, but...yeah, that's about it."

"Yep, a pirate ship. Although, having been on one, I can't really recommend it."
Mei admits, toying with the straw in her shake while listening and inquiring further.
"What kind of music do you like to play?"
And that sounds like a rather boring stretch of time that June has had, even here in the nexus. Although maybe being a succubus is more interesting than it sounds?
"Turns you like the succubus? What was that like? Sounds like a risky thing to take, even temporarily."

[Gullara]

[Enchanted Forest]

Adir places the table saw he was holding on the floor of the bunker and sprints out into the battlefield. By all accounts this is a bad plan. But this is just a dream, right?

It can't hurt him.

Right?

As vague, faceless figures begin waging war on each other and Cassie stumbles to the ground Melissa decides that it's probably a good idea to do what she can to help keep little Cassie safe. After all, that's what Cassie's daddy told her to do. The huge black cat crouches protectively over the top of Cassie, filling the child's view full of fur and moonlight and mist. It's loud and scary, but they're going to be alright, surely.

"Your daddy's bad dream started again he must be here!" Melissa shouts over the din. "He'll find us then everything will be okay."

They're close.

They have to be.

A blinding cloud of dust is hurled into the air as an artillery shell bursts in front of Adir. But even over all the noise he's SURE he can hear Cassie. She must be close.

[Enchanted Forest?]

Adir raises his arm to shield himself from the blast, from the light, but his head twitches involuntarily towards the sound of the children. The next one almost knocks him off his feet, but he staggers forward anyway, arm held up near his face. His ears ring, his heart pounds.

"Cassie!" He bellows into the storm of noise. If the children can make themselves heard in this, then his voice is positively deafening. "Call out to me, baby! Keep talking! Shout as loud as you can!"

And if she or Melissa can manage that, he'll hurry towards them with all the swiftness his long legs can muster. Plowing through flying dirt, smoke, and gunfire. It might not be the smartest idea, but what was the alternative? Wait for Cass to come to him? If he takes a couple dings along the way, it'll still be worth it.

[Enchanted Forest]

Cassie picks herself up onto her feet again and looks back towards the bunker. She can barely see anything in the turmoil. "Daddy!" She shouts into the din. Thinking better of where she's standing, the girls clamors behind a nearby rock, then she shouts again. "Daddy we're over here!"

[bc56]

Temple of Inari

But there's clearly not a system in place! Just some nonsense about how she's supposed to feel the fire in everything.
Fire in everything... Hmm...
Energy is stored in chemical bonds. Fire is just the release of that energy in a specific way. Could the kitsune have some innate ability to harness that? That would be really weird. How would it even work? And that doesn't explain the water. Or how Jade would replicate it. If she wants to make fire, she applies energy to fuel in an oxygen-rich environment, just like everyone else.
But she does certainly feel something when Honeysuckle attempts to make fire. Woah. It didn't work, which is weird. But she felt that, a sort of sense of rising heat and pressure, an intensity that wants to break forth into the world. That's interesting. If only there was some way she could get a closer look at that? Maybe she could figure out how it works from that. Or maybe that's entirely wrong, since it doesn't work.

[Rebonack]

[Enchanted Forest]

There.

She's over there.

Go to her, Adir!

Adir steps out onto the dock, the old worm eaten timbers creaking under his feet. A little bot bobs in the water, lashed to the pier by a rope. Rushes sway gently in the breeze, carrying the quickly fading scent of death and gunpowder. There's a house boat further off on the lake, and Adir can just barely make out his daughter leaning against the rails.

She's so close...

But the boat is moving away!

Maybe don't swim, though. The lake is full of eels.

A scruffy looking crow watches Adir, perched atop a nearby piling.

A little black kitty aboard the houseboat rubs against Cassie's legs.

[Recaiden]

[Temple of Inari]

But there's clearly not a system in place! Just some nonsense about how she's supposed to feel the fire in everything.
Fire in everything... Hmm...
Energy is stored in chemical bonds. Fire is just the release of that energy in a specific way. Could the kitsune have some innate ability to harness that? That would be really weird. How would it even work? And that doesn't explain the water. Or how Jade would replicate it. If she wants to make fire, she applies energy to fuel in an oxygen-rich environment, just like everyone else.
But she does certainly feel something when Honeysuckle attempts to make fire. Woah. It didn't work, which is weird. But she felt that, a sort of sense of rising heat and pressure, an intensity that wants to break forth into the world. That's interesting. If only there was some way she could get a closer look at that? Maybe she could figure out how it works from that. Or maybe that's entirely wrong, since it doesn't work.

One student manages a candle-flame upon trying it again, several more remain unlucky, and those who have managed it are set the task of simple practice - can you put out the flame and do it again? And again after that?
The teacher goes over to particularly help the boy who managed to conjure the wrong element. He's a bit of a special case (which only makes Jade's attempts to make sense of it all that much the harder).
Honeysuckle makes another attempt at producing fire. There's that same feeling of heat, pressure, intention- and then a crack of sound, a wave of actual heat, and far too much fire appears, blossoming out across the demonstration area-

[Zefir]

[The Underground]

"Good. Let me go first."

The ship will carry out its diagnostic scan and start reporting results to Mia. A lot of it is stuff she already knows.
Emergency! Dangerous aliens aboard, near power plant 3!
Warning! Signs of alien intrusion into the cargo bay, but no life detected.
Power plant 1 - off
Power plant 2 - off
Power plant 3 - on, fuel level medium
Weapons - 60% operational
Artificial gravity - online
Port hangar - inoperable, shields - inoperable, communications transmitters - inoperable.
Warp drive - charging, 2% ready.
One (1) crew member detected - outside the ship, off to starboard.
Ship is off course in an uncharted location. Ship is immobilized by rubble. Warp echoes suggest small number of human ships operating in the Nexus, as well as many unknown vessels.
And it has a long list of minor complaints.

Now that the power is on, they will run into locked doors, unhappy security cameras, automatic guns that pop out of the floor, etc.
But I'm sure that between them, these defenses won't be a problem. After all, they're just machines.

[The Underground]

As befor Mia mainly ignores the reports about the enemies. Unless there is a way to gather more informations. So far the emergency is just a warning based on the original owner.
(Correct me if I mix this up:) Those 'demons' she helps are the good once as far as Mia knows and they might have been prisoners on this ship not the actuall owners.

Mia will make sure that those defensiv actions are no problem. It is to say she can talk with them, but machines can have a strong will and stick to their program. So she tries to overwrite the programm. Assuming excluding the nemy is hard she will try to set herself as a VIP so no defensiv will be activ around her even if the enemy is there. maybe she can trick the system so it thinks she just transports them around.

"We need to go to the bridge. Someone is still around starboard."

[bc56]

Temple of Inari

Jade's feeling pretty discouraged now, although she wants to maybe talk to Honeysuckle later. She's not sure at all how to make fire.

Then Honeysuckle tries again, and explodes. Jade ducks away from the blast of flame and covers her face with her arms. She's not sure what just happened, but she knows she felt that. She needs more data! She could be at the edge of a breakthrough in the scientific principles of magic.
Or maybe that's already known by wizards, and she's just re-treading the same ground. Either way, if she survives this, Jade will have so many questions.

[Lord Magtok]

Mountain Trip

Spoiler

Show

[Mountain Trip]

"We will not need to explore it very far. Just enough for St. Lazarus to train," Calm Reed says as she joins the knight at the mouth of the cave. The darkness beyond is quiet, except for the sound of dripping water somewhere. There's also no distinct smell to it. "If anything bigger than a bat lives here, we ought to discover its signs pretty quickly."

Mountain Trip

Fidelia's eyes widen for a minute little second. A bear? Those things' hides were tough. She glances at the knife tucked away in the sheath at her belt with a little concern as to how well it'd hold up to trying to cut through something like that. She was good, but not that good.

"Just- Just as long as we're not to far from fresh air," she comments, looking back up at the sky. "Don't want our only choice to be running deeper in. If um, something shows up in there, I mean." Fidelia would also kind of like the chance to see a night sky not blotted out by all the ambient light of a city for once, though she's a bit too shy to voice it.

"Relax, Fi. Worst case scenario, Calm Reed can just spin around and throw the owlbear or dragonbear or giant cave salamander into the sun," Saint Laz reassures her closest companion, slowing her pace so the two of them can walk closer together. From the tone of her voice, I'd say she was only half-joking, and she genuinely believes that the only thing stopping Calm Reed from throwing bears over the horizon is how silly it might make her look.

"It would be nice to camp close enough to the exit to see stars in the night sky, instead of just airships, MagCorp satellites, and maybe a few aliens overhead," she adds, echoing Fidelia's own unspoken thoughts on the matter.

[5a Violista]

[Blind Date]

Other things did happen, obviously, but it's not really something June feels comfortable talking about, especially to a recent acquaintance. Not even long-time acquaintances have been told about any of it!

"I'm really into trad music," June says. "Doesn't really matter which tradition. One of the really great things about here are how many cultures there are, which means there's all sorts of different music types that all fall under that category."

June is getting to the bottom of the drink (at this point, it's liquid enough to be arguably considered a drink), so there is a bit of a slurping sound.

"It's only really dangerous for people who have inherent magic, I think, and maybe people who originate from a world where they could possibly have fairies or demons or whatever as ancestors," June says, judging off of assumptions and knowledge. "As someone with as much magic as a...as a...as something that doesn't have magic, I'm pretty safe."

June stirs the drink to get rid of any clumps in it, so that it'll go up the straw easily. "So, the turning-potion...well, there's three different 'strengths', and I tried all three. The mild one basically just gives you a too-big gets-in-the-way-of-everything chest. Also, I guess, 'supernaturally attractive', but...ugh. No thanks. Not really my thing. No pro, all con. The strongest lets you use magic and stuff, but it also changes how you think." June laughs: "Sure, the magic was fun, but the idea of something changing everything that makes me me and not even caring is literally the thing I find most terrifying thing ever. So I locked it up immediately."

"The medium-spice one is, in my opinion, the best. Like the weakest, but it gives you horns and other bone stuff, flowers in your hair, and a tail." June mimes a pretty neat, prehensile tail. "Kinda jealous of everyone that has tails, now. Could even grab things with it. If there was a way to keep just the tail and nothing else, I probably would do it."

June drinks some more. "Hey, you ever had a tail? If not, I'd recommend trying it, if you ever find a temporary way to try it out."

[Murkus]

[Enchanted Forest]

Adir's foot drops to the dock, and the world ripples away around him. The battlefield's gone. Or was it ever there? Dark waves push everything away. He can still smell cordite. He can still feel the rumble in the earth... but it's just echoes.

Trying to get his brain in gear with the new situation, he swings himself into the boat and starts paddling for Cassie.

[Morty]

[Mountain Trip]

It might reassure St. Laz and Fidelia that there aren't any signs of animals living in the cave. Not large ones, anyway.

"We can camp out right near the entrance, so we can see the sky before it is time to sleep." It's odd to think that the night sky is such an unusual sight for them. Large, advanced cities like Skyside seem to blot out the sky, both through sheer size of the buildings and some mechanisms she can't entirely understand. "And yes, I do rather doubt there is anything in here we cannot handle." Herself especially. The monk peers into the cave and steps in. It seems to extend a fair bit into the mountain slope, but not very deep. It widens after a few meters and there seems to be a glint of metal around the corner, when a flashlight is shone there.

[Recaiden]

[The Underground]

((That's right.))
After a heated discussion with the machines, Mia convinces them that the friendly demons are in her custody and that she will take them where they belong.
"Still around? After all this time?" Spike wonders if they should go there first, or if the bridge really is the better way to find out about that.

They make it to the bridge without much trouble.

Once they're there, Mia can see that it's very complicated. Row on row of controls, readouts, sensor panels, computers...and a fair bit of it is broken down.
Will she try to get some certain information from it now, or focus on making repairs? Or something else?

[Temple of Inari]

Jade isn't the only one to duck and hide, but the instructor gathers all the flames with a wave of his hand and directs it safely away; the heat quickly fades.
Probably the worst-off is Honeysuckle, having been thrown aside by the explosion.
She's helped back to her feet, with a comment that it was 'a bit more than a candle'.

Looks like that's going to be the end of the lesson, besides more instructions about not setting things on fire.

[Blind Date]

"How can it not matter which tradition? They're completely different from each other, aren't they?" You may as well include musics that don't have a tradition then, right?

"I imagine its more useful to people who aren't attractive already, right?"
No use to her, though, being magical and from a world with faeries and demons.
"You're still you if you think differently though. And if you knew to lock it up, you must have been pretty the same as you were before, right?"

She glances behind her. "Oh, I do have a tail sometimes. But it's not for grabbing things." That would be...different. What would you need to grab with your tail for? Oh, if you didn't have enough paws.
June seems to Mei to have a lot of strange opinions.

[bc56]

Temple of Inari

With that little panic moment over, Jade settles back down, until the lesson ends. If this is the end of class for the day, it would seem it's time to explain things to Honeysuckle. Otherwise, she'll focus on whatever comes next.

[5a Violista]

[Blind Date]

"They are completely different," June says, but then claims, "but it really doesn't matter because the important part is seeing how the culture and tradition is reflected in it, I feel."

Since the smoothies are nearly or already gone, it makes it easier to talk back and forth.

"Probably is better for them, yes," June says.
"Thing is, like..." June bites the lower lip, and thinks how to explain the thought process behind it. "So...changing the way you think is a sign of it, though, especially if it was involuntary. If you're choosing to change how you think, then that's fine, but...like, y'know. Choosing something is completely different than not choosing it."

"Yeah. I suppose tails do have other purposes, too. I still like the idea of grabbing things with them." It's just the idea of grabbing things with a tail. Totally different than simply having more hands or whatever.

[Deathkeeper]

Cliffside Shrine

Beachfront property. What's not to like?
Well, in this case it's a bit overgrown and abandoned. Not sure why. It's overlooking a beach and a ritzy town so why has no one torn this place down and built a mansion yet? Our hero's not sure, but he's not going to leave a place like this unturned.
A lone man approaches the abandoned shrine. He's dressed in old, thick clothes and carries a hatchet. Gotta get through the woods and any barred doors, right? He pushes his black hair out of his eyes and goes to the door to the old wooden building. Surely there's something still here, right? Why else would anyone leave this place here aside from superstition?

(closed)

[bc56]

Cliffside Shrine

The ancient shrine is overgrown with vegetation and streaked with grime. It takes some work to clear a path to the entrance. Above the unassuming door is a stone disk, marked with an angular glyph that seems completely undiminished by the passing of time.

[Deathkeeper]

Cliffside Shrine

Allen squints. Yup, that looks like a shrine all right. No sense worrying about glyphs and symbols. He tries to open the door. If it's barred he'll have to try the axe. But hopefully it won't come to that. Tearing down doors is hard work!

[bc56]

Cliffside Shrine

The door opens. Not easily, it's old and swollen in the frame, but it does open. Inside is a mess. It looks like this place isn't so untouched after all, if the obscene graffiti is anything to go by. The layout of the shrine is simple, a perfectly square room with a round basin on a pedestal in its center. Grooves in hexagonal patterns radiate out from the basin to outline a slightly raised platform. Someone has scrawled some truly rude messages across that platform, breaking the perfect order of the design. Similar text is splattered across the walls in various colors.
Looks like the local unruly kids like this spot.

[Deathkeeper]

Cliffside Shrine

Hm. Guess this was a bad call. If the kids were here it's probably been picked clean. Well, unless the original keepers hid something under the floorboards.
Allen looks around but doesn't see any side rooms or even loose floorboards. What a bust.
He begrudgingly steps onto the center platform and peeks down into the basin just to make sure the local miscreants didn't leave a stash of anything in there.

[bc56]

Cliffside Shrine

The basin is empty. Six small holes are drilled into its bottom in a hexagonal pattern. A thin, carved line circles it about three quarters of the way up its surface. As Allen peers into it, he might catch a glimpse of a flicker of red light in the corner of his eye, but it's gone as quickly as it appears.

[Deathkeeper]

Cliffside Shrine

Huh. Well. Empty. That's a shame. Well, nothing material today. Maybe he'll do a good deed though. Just for luck, in case something's watching.
He can't do anything about all the paint on the walls, but the markings on the platform seem more like chalk. He takes out a rag and some water from his bag and wipes off the paint from the little platform. He wouldn't mind some spirit owing him a favor. Isn't this what people always do in fairy tales?

[bc56]

Cliffside Shrine

It takes a bit of elbow grease, but the markings on the platform can be rubbed off.

When done, nothing happens.

And then there's a voice. Or not a voice, but something resembling one closely enough that it might as well be. Fill the receptacle with water.
It's a command, but a simple one, and given weakly, with no force. Faint red and blue lights appear, hovering over the basin.

[Deathkeeper]

Cliffside shrine

Oh hey, a spooky friend! Well that's...spooky, actually. But far be it for Allen to deny the will of a mysterious voice asking him to perform easy tasks. Taking the bottle out again, he unscrews the cap and dumps the remainder of its contents into the basin.
After all it's like he said: no sense not having a spirit owe him one.

[bc56]

Cliffside Shrine

The water fills the basin and begins draining through the holes. Concealed spouts funnel it out so it pours into the grooves in the floor and fills them in. When the basin is fully drained, blue and red energy crackles through the lines, casting the room in a purple glow. The flickering lights above the basin resolve into geometric shapes in red and blue, interlocking and twisting together in a mesmerizing display. You have freed me-us from disruption. The spirit, if it even is that, pauses. I-we desire to provide a benefit. What do you desire?

[Deathkeeper]

Cliffside Shrine

Allen smiles wide at the odd being. Pretty, even if he has no idea what he’s looking at.
”I’m kind of boring, really. I want a life of riches. Luxury. Opulence! Maybe a little power but that isn’t really the big point. There’s some real fat cats living in that town. That’s a kind of setup I wouldn’t mind! I hear my brother’s got that going on now.” Actually his brother Edgar was being quite literal when he used that phrase but was too embarrassed to explain at the time.
”But ah, you know anything about fancy livin’? Seems like you haven’t had that in a while.”