MERC XIX: Toss a Coin to your Goblin

[Purple Eagle]

[Fairy Investigation]

"Who do we report to? Dipsnig, I'm guessing? Never met him before, see. Only Dena." Chidi has a flash of lust appear in his eyes as he remembers the gorgon, but professionalism wins out.

[Shadowcaller]

[But the Cat Came Back]

"Ah-ha!" Reina holds up a picture of her on the couch, surrounded by four kids, about three. They must have all worn themselves out because they've all fallen asleep in different positions, two of them stealing her lap, one of them leaning on her arm, and the other propped up on the foot of the couch, sitting on the floor. Reina doesn't seem immune to this either, head hanging forward, clearly asleep herself. "Not my most flattering, but at least Tobias can take a good picture." Especially since it was a 'Before' pic. Reina doesn't show off Toby's 'After' pic.

She blinks for a moment when Dena mentions losing limbs. "That... happens?" What a curse!

"Ok, so... everybody kinda knows about the first one. After that it gets complicated." Complicated enough that Reina skips the second one entirely. Mostly because she doesn't want to talk about that one. "Skip ahead many years. I get turned into a catgirl, but at this point, I've established my clones and... subtle, honestly imperceptible homoerotic tones with Tobias. He gets jealous that I turned into a girl and turns himself into a girl, Tovia. I'm a little fuzzy on his reasoning, but after he turned back, he's all romantic and stuff towards me. But the dynamic's been changed right? Cause now Reinholdt and Tobias aren't a thing anymore, It's Toby and Reina. So he uses forbidden druid magic and gives himself a stroke for some reason making Tovia an actual clone instead of a passing previous incident." Reina just shakes her head at questions. The less known about Toby logic, the safer for Dena's sanity.

"So Reinholdt and Tovia take up living together in Riverside while I stay at GLoG with Tobias. Toby and Tovia push for kids, and we're ready cause we both want to retire from adventuring altogether. Most people don't even know about the Rein in Riverside I think, that's how far off the map we disappeared for awhile. Anyways, they have triplets while we have quadruplets. All born around the same time. But since it all happened after the split and I've chosen not to share memories with the collective, I personally don't have those experiences of fatherhood." Only what she's heard from word of mouth.

[But the Cat Came Back]

"Oh yeah, a lot of people lose their legs since they get a snake-butt." She briefly glances down at her own legs. "Which probably would also take all the fun parts with it too and the less I need to know about a snakes 'fun parts', the better. Besides, I've invested heavily in these legs." She raises one of them though Reina can likely not see it as it's obscured by the desk.
"But in rare cases you can get people who just get to keep their head, everything else gets snake-y." Dena wiggles her fingers. "So I'm lucky I'm just in the 'slithering hair' category."

Then she listens to Reina's explanation regarding Tobias which causes her to raise her eyebrow more than once. "And... uh-huh." She pauses before she gets the idea to question the sanity of the person Reina apparently had kids with.

But there is something that gets her attention though. "Hold on, so there's still a bunch of Rein-clones then? I thought this whole 'Rein-collective thing' was something of the past. Had no idea there was still a bunch of him wandering around. Wasn't there- something with Magtok?" Frankly, the more she heard about that the less sense it seemed to make. Magtok's rivalry with Rein was the only thing that really made sense to her and for once it sounded like Magtok had been on the right side.

[Reinholdt]

[But the Cat Came Back]

"Oh, yeah. Those kinds." Lamias are different from Gorgons! Regardless, Reina's eye is still very clearly drawn to Dena's leg and doesn't seem abashed by how long she takes looking at it. "It's... very nice." Dancer legs right there.

Reina nods. "Oh sure, most of them are off-site on other worlds. The majority here in the Nexus are congregated at the super fortress mausoleum thing Rein built. Surprised you don't already know about it, but not a lotta activity there. Still not convinced it's a good idea, but whatever, it's his life. Lives." She shrugs. "Heard HALO Rein is making a name for himself and Trog's Rein caught a bird or something? Riverside Rein was up to something too I think. I dunno. Only hear about this stuff at Poker Night."

The catgirl scowls. "Anything you may have heard about me and Magtok is trumped up and inaccurate. If anything he followed my plan. Oh... unless you're not talking about the superh... nevermind." Reina rubs her neck and glances away. "Maybe you're talking about how it all came about? I was trying to get my life together, be better person ya know, and completely unprovoked Magtok invades my home, tries to kill me and nearly cripples my girlfriend Ermine. So I broke into his home and stole the cloning schematics, made a bunch of me and flipped the finger at him. Metaphorically. By mooning him with my clones." And really if Dena means some other Magtok thing she's going to have to get more specific.

[Morty]

[Fairy Investigation]

"There's also Kirk Locke. He's Dipsnig Razortooth's other senior officer. I think he's from the same people as Dena Xifhara, minus the snakes." Olvisin pauses to think. "Let's try to speak to him first and then go to others if he's busy," she decides and leads the way to Kirk's office.

[Gullara]

[Dena's Office]

"I don't know about 'little'. I bet you 500 bucks that those fey are going to throw a wrench into our plans. Didn't your moms raise you with proper fear for them, eh?" Dena asks as she turns to Kirk and gently puts her hand on his neck and gives him a gentle squeeze.

[Dena's Office]

"What I learned is that if you want something, take it. Little else matters. If they give us hell, I have hell to return in kind." His tone is assured.

[Fairy Investigation]

"Who do we report to? Dipsnig, I'm guessing? Never met him before, see. Only Dena." Chidi has a flash of lust appear in his eyes as he remembers the gorgon, but professionalism wins out.

[Fairy Investigation]

"There's also Kirk Locke. He's Dipsnig Razortooth's other senior officer. I think he's from the same people as Dena Xifhara, minus the snakes." Olvisin pauses to think. "Let's try to speak to him first and then go to others if he's busy," she decides and leads the way to Kirk's office.

[Fairy Investigation]

They'll find the drow sitting at his deck after he calls for them to come in. He's leaning back in his chair, finishing tapping a message on his phone. After a moment he looks up, loans forward in his chair, and puts his phone face down on the desk. "Chidi and Olvisin, yes? What can I do for you?"

[Purple Eagle]

[Fairy Investigation]

"Another person I've never met... only ever met Dena, see?" Chidi states as he follows her to Kirk's office. "I think we make a pretty good team, wouldn't you say?" He grins at his new friend.

"Well met, and good day to ya, Kirk!" He greets the drow with his signature friendly smile, and salutes at him. "We're here to report our findings concerning the fairy investigation. We found two groups, one of them was a group arguing about whether or not a rock was magical, y'see? At some point, I could sense the rock begin to emanate power... what you'd call magic."

He leaves Olvisin to report on the sprites, not wanting to steal her thunder.

[Morty]

[Fairy Investigation]

"Yes, one fairy insisted that the rock is magic while the others insisted it's not." Olvisin gets straight to the point. "Not normally something worth noting, but I think they might have made the rock magical just by believing hard enough it was. I've heard fey can do this sort of thing. Anyway, we moved on from them and encountered a group of pixies breaking a half-orc's knees. Turns out he had been selling pixie dust. As in, dust made from ground-up pixies. And they take issue with that. They also belong to a pixie mafia, led by one Fairy Godfather."

[Gullara]

[Fairy Investigation]

The drow quirks his eyebrow. Well that latter one is certainly odd. "Two questions." Kirk says after barely a moment of pause. "You're certain the rock possessed no power beforehand? And as for the 'pixie dust', was is gathered for any purpose? As in, did it have any use, or was it just superstition?"

[Purple Eagle]

[Fairy Investigation]

Chidi starts nodding before Kirk finishes asking his first question. "Yes, I'm absolutely positive. Got the ability to sense what's called 'magic' in these parts, see?" A necessity when one's from a world where everyone has some kind of ability. Sure, some are better at it than others, but it's one of those Universal Talents.

"The pixie dust is some sort of recreational drug, from what we gathered. The pixie we spoke too mentioned 'getting high of some gnome ashes', see? Not that we tried it out for ourselves, of course. In order to better infiltrate the Fairy Godfather's mafia, we offered our services as mercs-for-hire." He puts his hands behind his back. "They don't know we work here, of course... all they know is that we're partners willing to work with the mafia for cash."

[Morty]

[Fairy Investigation]

"The pixie mafia didn't seem to know. Or wouldn't say. All they knew is that some people were grinding up small fey for it. Not just pixies, but sprites and such," Olvisin explains. "They seemed determined to get to the bottom of it and track down whoever is distributing it. They handed the half-orc off to the Intersection, so we could follow up with them if we wanted."

[Shadowcaller]

[Dena's Office]

"What I learned is that if you want something, take it. Little else matters. If they give us hell, I have hell to return in kind." His tone is assured.

[Dena's Office]

Dena glances back at Kirk. "I like it when you get dangerous, y'know? It's hot." She remarks with a wide smirk. "I want you like that when we talk to them."

[Gullara]

[Fairy Investigation]

The drow shrugs. "I don't see the need to dig into it further unless our client suggests further interest. But that aside, we had some documentation made up for this one, since its a longstanding job with a fairly consistent set of information. If you ask Valerie at the front desk she should have them on hand. Fill that out and hand it back to her and I'd call this a job well done."

[Dena's Office]

Kirk chuckles. "I don't plan to give them any ground." He moves his hand to cup her cheek. "Whatever happens, I know I'll be able to look into your eyes again."

[Purple Eagle]

[Fairy Investigation]

"Roger. However, the pixie mafia are expecting us in Trog's, see? We told them they could find us there if they wanted to give us work, so we'll have to follow up on that, regardless. We'll have more info for you later. That'd most likely be tomorrow, see?" Chidi says, turning to look down and smile at Olvisin. "Hope you didn't forget."

If there's nothing more to be said, though, he'll let her lead the way to the front desk.

[Morty]

[Fairy Investigation]

"Forms from Valerie at the front desk. Got it." They do need the information in writing for their client. She looks back to Chidi, smiling toothily. Those are some rather large teeth, indeed. "Of course I didn't. A deal's a deal, right? A mercenary is true to her word."

[Gullara]

[Fairy Investigation]

Kirk nods. "Good." With that he'll let them go without further comment.

[Purple Eagle]

[Fairy Investigation]

"That went well." Chidi says as they leave the office. Filling the paperwork is probably not interesting enough to do onscreen, so once they're done with it all, he's left standing with Olvisin. "Well, how about that date, Olvi? Let's spend the rest of the day getting to know one another, see? Maybe end with some... 'fun'? We can check Trog's tomorrow."

[Morty]

[Fairy Investigation]

"Sure. We've done a good job today, haven't we? Now we can see where the evening takes us." Olvisin's ears dip slightly. Right, let's get this over with... saying this always has to come sooner or later. "And in case it does lead us to a certain kind of fun... well, I'm transgender. Just letting you know."

[Purple Eagle]

[Fairy Investigation]

"Yeah... despite all the ways it coulda gone sideways, we made it out with valuable info." Chidi's smile doesn't falter when Olvisin reveals this about herself. "Ok, no problem. You're not the only trans woman I've been with, y'know?"

He laughs as they walk down the hallway, presumably headed to their rooms to get ready for their date. "Personally, I'm more worried about those teeth of yours. Will I need to upgrade my subdermal implant?"

[Shadowcaller]

[Dena's Office]

Kirk chuckles. "I don't plan to give them any ground." He moves his hand to cup her cheek. "Whatever happens, I know I'll be able to look into your eyes again."

[Dena's Office]

"Without turning into an lawn ornament that is." Dena adds, her tone grimer than one might expect for what's clearly a joke.
Then she kisses Kirk.

The scene can probably be pulled under a curtain at this point.

[But the Cat Came Back]

"Oh, yeah. Those kinds." Lamias are different from Gorgons! Regardless, Reina's eye is still very clearly drawn to Dena's leg and doesn't seem abashed by how long she takes looking at it. "It's... very nice." Dancer legs right there.

Reina nods. "Oh sure, most of them are off-site on other worlds. The majority here in the Nexus are congregated at the super fortress mausoleum thing Rein built. Surprised you don't already know about it, but not a lotta activity there. Still not convinced it's a good idea, but whatever, it's his life. Lives." She shrugs. "Heard HALO Rein is making a name for himself and Trog's Rein caught a bird or something? Riverside Rein was up to something too I think. I dunno. Only hear about this stuff at Poker Night."

The catgirl scowls. "Anything you may have heard about me and Magtok is trumped up and inaccurate. If anything he followed my plan. Oh... unless you're not talking about the superh... nevermind." Reina rubs her neck and glances away. "Maybe you're talking about how it all came about? I was trying to get my life together, be better person ya know, and completely unprovoked Magtok invades my home, tries to kill me and nearly cripples my girlfriend Ermine. So I broke into his home and stole the cloning schematics, made a bunch of me and flipped the finger at him. Metaphorically. By mooning him with my clones." And really if Dena means some other Magtok thing she's going to have to get more specific.

[But the Cat Came Back]

Sometimes gorgons are also lamias, I blame hollywood.

"Super-fortress, huh? I've heard about it but they've done a pretty good job keeping it low-key apparently since I just managed to recall it just now." Dena pauses, she was gonna ask about 'Trog's Rein' who apparently lived at a tavern? Maybe Rein was rich enough to afford it. Or maybe he just lived in the dumpster outside the tavern, you never knew. Though in that case she was pretty sure she would have heard about it.

But any other questions get quashed when Reina starts to talk about Magtok. Right, all this crap. When Magtok and Rein was in one way or another involved in all of the many apocalypses that happened in the nexus back then. Not to mention all that other drama. She smiles at the last part however. "Quite a way to get back at him. But I get the feeling you aren't as mad as Magtok as the other Rein's though, or am I wrong about that?" Dena crosses her legs as she speaks.

[Morty]

[Fairy Investigation]

That went quite well. Olvisin is quite relieved to move on to more important things quickly.

"Worried about those? Don't worry, I don't bite unless I'm asked to," she quips back.

[Reinholdt]

[But the Cat Came Back]

Reina shrugs. "Having a super fortress doesn't matter much if no one visits or invades it. And by my understanding, they don't want visitors." Such a xenophobic policy.

The catgirl's face turns red though and she stammers. "Wh-wh-what are you implying?! Magtok is trash. Worse than trash! His face reminds me of a garbage can." She says in a hurry, turning her nose up as if just talking about him is enough to make the room stink.

[Shadowcaller]

[But the Cat Came Back]

Dena blinks under her sunglasses. That's far more of a reaction than she had expected. Was Reina into Magtok?!
Was that the reason the other Reinclones had disowned her? Or perhaps they didn't even know yet?

She display's her palms. "Alright, alright, I get it. I wasn't trying to imply anything. Just some rumors I heard, that's all. Probably nothing." Dena waves dismissively. "Though, he does have quite a reputation among the ladies for a bald dude in a robe I gotta admit. Don't suppose you have any theories as of why?" Her eyebrows raise as she watches Reina curiously.

[Purple Eagle]

[Fairy Investigation]

"Oh? I'll keep that in mind, then." Chidi grins and winks at her. He doesn't seem at all bothered that Olvisin is trans, if anything he appears to be slightly more interested in her upon learning that, but he doesn't realize it.

"We should go and prepare, Olvi. Better to leave this place together, though." He says as they get to the crew quarters.

[Reinholdt]

[But the Cat Came Back]

Reina shrugs dismissively. "How would I know? I mean sure... he's intelligent... funny... rich, powerful, charismatic, is eccentric enough to keep things from getting stale, looks kinda cute in spandex, has a fun living place and is really good with his tongue, but I'm just not seeing what anyone would see in him. Like... he'll stab anyone in the back for giggles. Just cause he gets bored. He is completely morally bankrupt. I-I can't imagine anyone liking him!"

Reina stares distinctly at the wall to the side of the room, not looking at Dena while she counts off Magtok's traits on her fingers, stopping after she gets to five because she doesn't want to admit there's that many.

[Shadowcaller]

[But the Cat Came Back]

Dena nods along as Reina lists things up, but the last things on the list cause her to blink. She had to keep Reina talking so she could consider this for a few moments.

"With all the good qualities you've just listed? I totally could. So when did you see him in spandex anyway? All I've ever seen him in is that shapeless robe." She raises an eyebrow and grins. "Is he really in good shape underneath it?"

Then as Reina starts to answer, Dena starts to consider what she's been told. First of all, spandex? Did that mean Reina slept with the guy and it was some kind of kink they had?

The fact the catgirl was actually saying all these things reminded her that she was in a way using Reina's intoxicated state for her own ends here. Any pretense that they were still talking about her report on Sekhmet were long gone at this point.

Still that she had a crush on Magtok, and possibly more, wasn't exactly her darkest secret right?

...

Right?

Dena realized that for a Rein, it might just be. Especially considering that she was apparently married with kids. But the hog was already out of the bag at this point and she was already cut off from the other Rein's not to mention her 'good with his tongue' comment could really mean anything. Not that she had cheated on her wife with Magtok.

So maybe whatever Reina had just told her wasn't as damaging as she had first thought. But it would depend on Reina's next set of answers. She just felt that it might be a good idea to put this conversation to a close soon as she didn't want to get on the wrong side of this Rein as well.

[Reinholdt]

[But the Cat Came Back]

Of note, Reina does not have a ring on her finger to indicate a marriage. Though I think she already mentioned that she had kids with her boyfriend Tobias. Eighteen years of raising kids together and no ring might be significant. Might mean nothing. That's not the topic Reina's focused on at the moment!

"What? You don't know? I thought you already knew." Reina looks back at Dena. She hinted that she knew. Reina thought. When was that? It was something Dena had said. Maybe. "I told you I came with four personas to work with when I joined up. One of them is Invincibelle. You know, of Invincibelle and Intrepid. You've heard of us. We're directly responsible for inspiring the wave of superheroes in Riverside." It was a short wave admittedly and only one of them has stuck.

But one's greater than none.

She might be overstating her fame though. "Intrepid exercised a bit at least. But still, that was back when I thought, you know, there was some potential for good inside that flaky, selfish robutt." She raises her hand and shakes her finger at Dena. "I was wrong. Word of warning, Dena. Don't buy into the golden apple just because it's shiny. Not when it's so rotten inside." Full of worms. "Any good qualities he might have is pure window dressing."

[Morty]

[Fairy Investigation]

"Sure thing. I won't be long."

Olvisin disappears into her room and it's indeed not very long before she returns. She replaced her field outfit with a smart white shirt, waistcoat and dress trousers. Seems she's not one for dressing particularly fancy and prefers a sharp look when she needs to dress up.

[Shadowcaller]

[But the Cat Came Back]

"I... might only have had time to peek at your resumé and that was something I hadn't snapped up apparently. Though while the names are vaguely familiar, I can't say that I recall you specifically." While she could go into Reina's conflicting feelings for Magtok it was time to move away from that subject to something that might end up relevant. "You should know though, Reina, that 'superheroes' have been something of a controversial topic in Riverside as of late. Malechenar, who have hired MERC to police their territories in Riverside, aren't big fans of viligiantes. So we're essentially hired to 'deal' with your legacy, making this rather awkward. I've been spending months trying to chase down this 'Archera' character for instance."

Dena takes up her phone and gets up an news article which features the superhero in question. "Don't suppose you might have come across her at some point? And I'm not saying you should betray your, eh, peers or anything, just curious if you've met her."

[Purple Eagle]

[Fairy Investigation]

Chidi goes to get dressed as well, and returns wearing something quite similar to hers... but his shirt is green with white stripes. He's also wearing cologne. He whistles when he sees her. "You look good, Olvi." Like a gentleman, he offers her his arm. "Shall we? Destination: Inside, close to the seaside."

[Reinholdt]

[But the Cat Came Back]

It wouldn't be in her resume. Secret identities are a secret! The world doesn't know Reina and Magtok used to be a superhero duo!

Reina tsks and rolls her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. The elites in power hate it when those they consider beneath them actually have power to do stuff on their own and don't need the government at all. Their outrage is as fake as their morality. Or did they not want Vigil's help the last time the city was attacked?" The catgirl shakes her head in pity.

"The only thing controversial about it is how it just ends up being more business for you. Isn't that what you want to begin with? More business?" More Business seems like the most reasonable business model.

She peers at the newspaper, skimming over the details. "You sure that's not just a porn star? That skirt is questionable. Not that I'm complaining. Either way, don't know her." Or so Reina claims at any rate.