Trog's Tavern CLV

[Ironsmith]

Weird Bathroom

June listens to what's going on.
Oh.
She hopes the daughter gets better...

"Hey. You hearing that?" she asks the mysterious voice. Probably not. Hasn't seemed to hear the other things going on here.
"Tell me what you see and what's going on."

Well, as long as she can pour whatever she wants, then she might as well. June decides to pour all green in, see if that actually does anything. Just straight green. If she can find any greens, looks a lot messier. Just pour greens around.

[Weird Bathroom]

"I found a way out of my room. I think. I went back the way I came and the hall looks different. Still not entirely sure how or why that works, but I'm not going to question it. Any luck on your end?"

June now has a beaker full of green. Very nice. It doesn't look like it's doing anything, though.

[Fenric]

[Bar]

Fenric looks over in some surprise as a blank wall between two plants suddenly gets a mirror that once had been there long ago but had not been for quite some time.

The mirror to Sneak's? That is rather unusual... everyone's favorite mafia cat has been absent for ages, and those that ran the place after him did not remain all that long.

[5a Violista]

Weird Bathroom

"Oh? Congratulations," June says. She looks at the vial, expecting something to happen...
"The bleeding's stopped so I'm doing better. As far as I can tell, I've been seeing some scenes that I presume represent some of your past trauma, so..."

Oh. June has a realization.
It kinda makes sense now.
This is just like the time she got sucked into that ghost painting, except she's communicating with the traumatized-or-potentially-dead person auditorially instead of visually. So if that's the case, this place represents...

June looks around, and realizes she had completely stopped paying attention to the toilet roll that she had used as breadcrumbs. She should've checked that every time the room shifted.

"Hey, you remember that almost-teenager kid voice that you heard with me earlier? Is he still alright? Can you still hear him?"

She puts the vial down and goes back to see if the unrolled roll is still there. If so, she follows it back. If this room actually does represent her past, then it's about how she hasn't been able to move forward, so...most important thing right now is to check back on that kid in the bathroom.

[Gnrlshrimp]

Michalson raises his index finger, then lowers it again. He blinks a few times as he discards some of the things he was about to say.

"...that was an abrupt mood shift" is what he appears to settle on. "So, like... did they want a vampire rhino? Or did they really think they were doin' you a favor by that?"

"Yeah, pretty much. As their influence grew, they needed more members of the "family" to watch over their domain. So they'd adopt a child, raise them to a point where they were satisfied they were suitably mature, then convert them. And they were particularly keen to have strong children who could act as enforcers, so were-creatures were a good way to go about things, or so they thought. I was the second. My brother's a werewolf." Ithuriel sighs and scratches her chin. "And it worked too. Took some serious outside influence to snap me out of it."

That furious blush rushed to Kestrel's face again, and she almost dropped the coin bag in her sudden fluster. She fumbled with it for a moment before finally gaining a proper grasp again, and putting it away. The birdwoman was relieved that the waiter chose that moment to serve their food. It was a welcome distraction. "U-um, y-yeah..."

Except of course, that probably meant the waiter had also seen her embarrassing reaction. And now that she was here, mouth full of a delicious rabbit dish, she couldn't help but think about what happened the last time she ate rabbit with Atreyu...

Atreyu smiles innocently and digs into his food, well aware of what he did but apparently quite content just to leave Kestrel feeling a little flustered. "Ya need much time to prepare, Missy?" He asks after a minute or two, looking back over at her. "Reckon I'd like to set off tomorrow, but if ya need a few days, that's fine."

[Ironsmith]

Weird Bathroom

"Oh? Congratulations," June says. She looks at the vial, expecting something to happen...
"The bleeding's stopped so I'm doing better. As far as I can tell, I've been seeing some scenes that I presume represent some of your past trauma, so..."

Oh. June has a realization.
It kinda makes sense now.
This is just like the time she got sucked into that ghost painting, except she's communicating with the traumatized-or-potentially-dead person auditorially instead of visually. So if that's the case, this place represents...

June looks around, and realizes she had completely stopped paying attention to the toilet roll that she had used as breadcrumbs. She should've checked that every time the room shifted.

"Hey, you remember that almost-teenager kid voice that you heard with me earlier? Is he still alright? Can you still hear him?"

She puts the vial down and goes back to see if the unrolled roll is still there. If so, she follows it back. If this room actually does represent her past, then it's about how she hasn't been able to move forward, so...most important thing right now is to check back on that kid in the bathroom.

[Weird Bathroom]

The toilet paper does indeed lead back, but... darnedest thing, this hallway was a straight shot before, but now June's taking a series of turns, culminating in a quartet of left turns that should lead her right back where she started, but instead takes her to the bathroom.

Arthfael isn't there, but someone else is. A startled-looking woman in a white lab coat who gives a little shriek when June enters the room. "Who the hell are you?" She demands, her voice quickly establishing her as the person June heard earlier. Although if June gets close enough, she'll be able to see something strange about her, most evident in her eyes; or rather, her lack thereof. There's still sockets where her eyes would be, but instead of a pair of optical organs, June will be able to see clear to the back of her head, or at least, the skin on the back of her head. The pattern holds with every other orifice; she almost looks like some invisible person decided to try on human skin. She's completely hollow.

[Morty]

"Yeah, pretty much. As their influence grew, they needed more members of the "family" to watch over their domain. So they'd adopt a child, raise them to a point where they were satisfied they were suitably mature, then convert them. And they were particularly keen to have strong children who could act as enforcers, so were-creatures were a good way to go about things, or so they thought. I was the second. My brother's a werewolf." Ithuriel sighs and scratches her chin. "And it worked too. Took some serious outside influence to snap me out of it."

"Well, that's... pretty gross." An understatement if there ever was one. "I'm glad you got out eventually, though. Parents... well. I've seen my share of it in the Hive. Not vampires or shape-changers, but parents who treated their kids like property."

[Ironsmith]

clonk

Normally, Braon doesn't feel the need to make much of a dramatic entrance when she comes into Trog's; she's here to drink and relax, like just about anyone else. But today, that door is getting slammed open, the limp and livid fiendling making her way up to the bar with nary a sideways glance at the other patrons. There's a reason for this, of course; with the week she's been having, she doesn't want to bother with her usual routine of bumming drinks from other patrons or petty theft. This is a clear way of getting attention, followed by promptly dismissing it: "everyone, look at me, I'm done for the week, don't bother me, back to your drinks".

Naturally, Kyrie is keeping an eye on her. On top of her just being trouble incarnate, and a fiendling besides (distinct from tieflings, as a certain server was quick and frequent to remind him), and her reputation since the Verdant Heights incident taking a nosedive, he was reasonably certain Zee was probably going to ask him to remove her in the next two minutes or so. It would help to be able to assure her that he could; he'd put on a lot of weight and lost his armor since his last shift at Trog's, which he was also sure was going to be frowned upon.

Of course, the most unusual part of this is what Braon does next.

She quietly takes a seat at the bar, plinks down a couple coins, and mutters "Murderita, please."

Manners, paying for her own drink, and unusual placidity? Something was bothering her.

[Rebonack]

[Lapis and Anika in Cake Finding Adventure]

Who knows what kind of crazy shows might exist in other universes?

The multiverse is a weird place.

"Yeah!" Lapis says, waving at the giant cat tree near the fireplace. "Mother said that tigers and lions and things used to always sit in the tree over there but no one has used it in a really long time so I was thinking maybe you should try sitting on the tree while we're waiting."

That's a good plan, right?

Be the cat.

Sit in the cat tree.


[Drinks with Fiendling]

"Alrighty!" would be Zee's reply as she fetches the drink.

Huh.

That was easy.

"You look pretty banged up," she points out as the beverage is provided.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Zee is busy noting all this new information. Verdant Heights. The goblin raid, right? That was bad. And why did the bouncer lose his armor and gain a bunch of weight over the course of, like, a day? Probably Nexus nonsense. She makes a note to inquire further on that later.

[Ironsmith]

[Drinks With Fiendling]

Braon gives Zee a look that seems caught between "about time someone noticed" and "no kidding, Sherlock". "Took a nasty fall." She mumbles. "Then got caught between a rock and a hard place. Then ran into someone I was really hoping was dead." She sighs. "About the only upshot of this week was getting hired for a job." And even that was a stretch; she wasn't really "hired" so much as "told about".

[Shadowcaller]

[Lapis and Anika in Cake Finding Adventure]

Anika looks up at the 'tree' which didn't look like a tree at all. It sure was tall though.

She scratches her head. "Is there a lot of cats in trog's usually? Since you have that I mean." Maybe even wild cats came here? If so, she could totally capture one of them for her Blanche project!

[Meowmai]

Atreyu smiles innocently and digs into his food, well aware of what he did but apparently quite content just to leave Kestrel feeling a little flustered. "Ya need much time to prepare, Missy?" He asks after a minute or two, looking back over at her. "Reckon I'd like to set off tomorrow, but if ya need a few days, that's fine."

While she was normally quite talkative, Kestrel ate in a mildly awkward silence while she tried to recover from her embarrassment. Fortunately, while she flusters rather easily, she bounces back pretty quickly too given a bit of time. "Oh, tomorrow is fine! I really don't have much I need to prepare. How far out is the dungeon, do you know? And how big is it? Cus I do need to know how long we'll probably be out to pack properly, but otherwise my adventure prep is pretty simple." Kestrel didn't usually take too much on her travels and adventures.

[Rebonack]

[Lapis and Anika in Cake Finding Adventure]

"I think maybe there were more of them, a long time ago," Lapis replies as she heads over to the 'tree' and hops up onto it.

This is in spite of the fact that she is not a cat.

But who's going to stop her?

The cat police?

"There was a druid with a pet tiger, I think? Maybe some others," Lapis says, looking thoughtful. These aren't her memories. Mother had given her lots of things to remember. Mostly things about how to do her job, but other things, too. Things about how the world worked and who lived in it.

Memories from long, long ago.


[Drinks With Fiendling]

"Was it stairs?" Zee asks sympathetically. "You should really watch out for stairs. They aren't trustworthy."

You never know when you might go tumbling down them.

"Well, you're still here and breathing. How are you going to make things better?"

[Ironsmith]

[Drinks With Fiendling]

"We'll start with a few dozen of these and go from there." Braon drones, holding up her murderita before gulping it down, setting the glass aside while it refilled itself. Normally, she'd do something like that just to irritate either Zee or whoever happened to be serving her that night, but today, it looks to just be a matter of habit; she doesn't so much as crack a smile. "Then I'll probably see if I can talk one of your more drunk patrons into going upstairs with me for a little r'n'r. With apologies to whoever's going to have to clean that up." She shrugs. "Then there's the job, which should have a decent payout so I can do it all over again."

[Rebonack]

[Drinks With Fiendling]

If Zee is in the slightest bit irritated by the magically refilling drink she doesn't show it at all.

Trog's basically makes all of its money off donations. Sure tons of people stiff them but there are more than enough fabulously wealthy regulars who pay generously that it more than makes up for it. So if someone wants to bring their own drinks? That's no problem for Zee.

"That sounds inebriating," the totally normal barmaid muses. "And I need to request no taking advantage of drunk patrons. A drunk person can't legally provide consent."

She sounds pretty resolute about that one.

But thus far she's just asking.

Politely.

Hopefully the fiendling doesn't decide to press this issue such that it requires less polite actions.

"Do you want to chat about the job? Sounds exciting," Zee says as she begins polishing the glass case the brownies are kept in.

[Ironsmith]

[Drinks With Fiendling]

Braon gives Zee a lopsided little smile. "I'm exaggerating, Zee. I'm not gonna have two dozen of these, either." She holds up the murderita and shrugs. "And I'd expect you to cut me off well before I do. Because, you know, fatal alcohol poisoning."

She takes a little sip from the drink and sighs. "The job's not really anything all that special." She adds. "Just your usual 'convert into red mist' sort of gig." One of her vines flops up onto the bar, which she twirls around her finger like a loose strand of hair. "I mean, it's steady work, but... I still hate doing it." Not on principle, mind. But she tended not to be attached to the targets. It just came off as a lot of trouble for minimal satisfaction. Not to mention, a little insulting that it was just about the only work she could get around here. You go on a rampage one time and people assume that's just what you do. How come nobody ever asks her to do some pickpocketing, or to write a song? She's got plenty of experience in both.

"Anyway..." She shrugs. "I just thought I'd stop in, say hi to some old..." She frowns. "Friends" was definitely too strong a word there. "...well, to you, mostly, I guess." She glances over at Kyrie, who is still watching her like a hawk. "New lapdog?"

[Rebonack]

[Drinks With Fiendling]

"I have more than a few people who just neutralize alcohol by default. Not sure what the point of drinking is in that case," Zee muses.

People don't really drink because it tastes good.

Or because it's particularly nutritious.

They drink because they want a pleasant buzz.

Or to get smashed.

If the alcohol doesn't do anything to you then what's the point?

None at all.

"So mercenary work, huh? Have you considered applying over at MERC? That is, after all, kind of their thing," Zee says, offering a plug for the local mercenary guild. "And him? Nah, he's just the new bouncer. Beats being forced to toss everyone out myself."

Zee absolutely does not look like a person who would be able to toss anyone out of a bar, rowdy or otherwise.

[Shadowcaller]

[Lapis and Anika in Cake Finding Adventure]

"I think maybe there were more of them, a long time ago," Lapis replies as she heads over to the 'tree' and hops up onto it.

This is in spite of the fact that she is not a cat.

But who's going to stop her?

The cat police?

"There was a druid with a pet tiger, I think? Maybe some others," Lapis says, looking thoughtful. These aren't her memories. Mother had given her lots of things to remember. Mostly things about how to do her job, but other things, too. Things about how the world worked and who lived in it.

Memories from long, long ago.

[Lapis and Anika in Cake Finding Adventure]

"A pet tiger? That's awesome. That's exactly the sort of thing I want for Blanche at some point." Anika explains as she climbs after Lapis.

"I don't suppose you would know where to find any kitties that would use this would you?"

[Ironsmith]

[Drinks With Fiendling]

"I don't think so. Never a good idea to restrict your client base." Braon guzzles down her murderita again and sighs. "Besides, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't pass the background check. You know how these places are. One missing person case with your name tied to it and pbt." She blows a little raspberry and gives Zee a thumbs-down. "Better off staying indy, at least for now." She shrugs and smirks a little loopily. "'Sides... I hear they're hiring silverskins these days. Historically, we've never gotten along. I'd much rather not have to put up with that sort of nonsense, you know?" She makes a vague gesture toward Kyrie. "What am I saying? Of course you do."

[Zefir]

The door opens to the tavern and a man enters the place. The man looks liek a typical adventurer, travel clothing, a bagpack with the abre minimum for travel. He looks kinda frustrated as he heads for a table, throws his bagpack in one chair and drops into another. With a loud sight he leans back in the char.

"For god's sake, why is it so hard to find any summons around here." he says out loud then turns his head looking at the air next to him.
"Nah, theyy do more mechenary work. Most of that has nothing to do with summons." Anyone with magical sight can see a creature where he looks at a mix of cat and lizard with a big gem in his forehead.

[Fenric]

Fenric's left ear has swiveled to track the conversation between Zee and Braon, but he otherwise keeps to himself: lost in reminiscenses about Sneak's and his very first day in the Nexus.

Then new person!

Fenric turns to look, and does indeed see the creature (so there is no especial strangeness to the newcomer talking to it).

[Zefir]

What is strange in terms of nexus? Well it should be a bit strange since the creature hovers in the air and some NPC who don't see it nearly crash into it. It is fast enougth to avoid them. When the eyes of the creature meet Fenrics it makes some cute "Eep" noise.

The man suddendly turns his head to Fenric. "You can see him?" he asks as loud as nessesary. Not sure how close they are to Fenric.

[Fenric]

Fenric tilts his head

What appears to be your familiar? Yes, I can. I have extensively studied both arcane and clerical magic, so there aren't many passively-invisible things that I can't see. Fewer still if I actively look for them.

he smiles

My name is Fenric, by the way. Nice to meet you.

[Zefir]

The man looks highly confused by that explanation. Maybe because he doesn't have the concept of arcane and divine magic.

"He's not a familiar." The man says, but otherwise not trying to correct. Depending on how much Fenric can just see by looking he could notice it is a ummon with a bound to the guy.
"My name is Karl and this is Carbuncle. It sounds like you know your way around, Maybe you can help me. I seek for creatures like him, You know any?"

[Fenric]

Fenric doesn't recognize it, but a quickly silent-cast "Legends and Lore" fills in the details of the common Final Fantasy mechanic.

Ah... no, I'm afraid not. There are several varieties of entity that are somewhat similar, but I am not aware of any that are exactly like that.

Fenric valiantly resists asking "which Final Fantasy are you from, then?"

But I am hardly omniscient... if I knew some more details about the world you are from, I could perhaps try some divination to see if any are to be found.

[Zefir]

He wouldn't get an answer for that question. Not only because a character from a FinalFantasy would know that term. I don't think they appear anywhere ingame.

"Eh well, Compared to this we are far behind in technologie. We don't have those 'cars' and begger iron carts and the trains we got are much slower. We don't have the wide range of spells in magic. We can mostly just summon. Good summoner can use this to find creatures to fullfill simple task, like expending your voice, washing clothes or just cut trees. The important summons are personal. We create bounds to them so we can call them any time and they grow. The highest form here is the Fusion were you become one beeing with the summon. This mostly results in the summoner getting gear fitting to the Summon and it's abilities. For example if I merge with my fire summon I change into some kind of Barbarian wearing leather clothes and wielding an axr which has a lava like blade."

Karl doesn't seem to care much if people know that or he is so frustrated of his failed search he doesn't notice what he says.

[Fenric]

Fenric looks thoughtful

I take it back... I don't know of anything even resembling that later ability. But that doesn't mean it can't be found... just that it will take a bit more effort to look. Oh, Zee?

Fenric looks to the bartender

Can I get a wide but shallow bowl with just clean water, please? Need to do a bit of scrying.

[Rebonack]

Fenric is provided with a fancy silver bowl with some water in it. Makes for a pretty great ye olde mirror!

Order filled.

[Drinks With Fiendling]

Meanwhile!

Zee is looking puzzled here.

"Silverskins?" she asks. That isn't a term she's really familiar with. Are this gal and Kyrie from the same world?

Maybe?

That seems likely to be the case.

And Zee seems to be a bit short on a lot of lore relating to said world.

[Ironsmith]

[Drinks With Fiendling]

Braon gives a little "go on ahead" gesture to the bouncer.

"...Humans." Kyrie clarifies, with a slight edge in his voice. "Maesdan humans specifically, as the term refers to our unique origins as-"

"Yeah, yeah, 'whoo, look at us, we're descended from dragons, we're so cool and junk'."

Kyrie shoots the rude fiendling a death glare before resuming. "It's also a semi-derogatory term; nobody who qualifies as a 'silverskin' actually calls themselves that, which leaves fiendlings like miss Hexenborne here. And they generally do not follow the term with a compliment."

"Oh, blow it out your tail." Braon sips on her drink. "After that attempted genocide a decade ago, you've got no reason to be taking the moral high ground."

"Really? Because what I remember is a brutal, bloody war instigated by a spoiled princess who turned to you fiendlings for allies and very nearly wiped us out." You know, before something else did.

"Tomayto, tomahto. You guys are still jerks."

[Fenric]

Fenric smiles and puts a few small coins on the bar

Thanks, Zee.

He then reaches into his pouch and extracts a small crystal vial from which he pours a few drops onto the surface of the water: immediately it becomes dead still and begind to glow gently.

Now then: let's have a look around. Since you have a fine example right here, I have some hope of finding others should there be any...

Fenric begins his scrying spell and peers into the bowl...

[Rebonack]

[Lapis and Anika in Cake Finding Adventure]

And here we have Lapis and Anika sitting in the lion-sized cat tree.

Honestly the only other time it has been used recently is when children have been at the tavern and decided to use it as playground equipment. Which, given the woeful lack of big cats of late, is a pretty reasonable use.

"Mother used to own a pet store a long time ago," Lapis recalls. "But it's been a really long time since anyone wanted pets, I guess? And it got sold to someone at Mallside after That Day happened."

And K'rax got blown up.

Hard to run a store when you're dead.

"Maybe the pet store is still there? They might sell cats."

Maybe even large ones.

That's probably easier than trying to catch one.

"How come Blanche needs a tiger?"

And excellent question.

[Drinks With Fiendling]

Oh.

It's a slur.

Great.

"I'm of the opinion," Zee says diplomatically. "That you should get to know someone personally and find individual reasons for deciding that they're a jerk. Most people have good reasons to call them jerks if you really grow acquainted with them."