Trog's Tavern CLV

[Ironsmith]

For an amateur, it might have. But Eun knows what she was doing. She opens the Hotbox with a soft *click*, followed by a loud hiss as a heavy white gas sprays out.

She was quite proud of this one. Her secret was a special coolant, of her own design, which worked via an endothermic reaction to bring down the Hotbox's interior from its usual balmy 200 degrees Farenheit to a mere 30. Not that that was particularly hard to do; her achievement was managing to do it without ruining the other products or creating any potentially-toxic chemical waste. On 23rd century Earth, this formula was worth a fortune, and distinguished her as a forerunner in Hotbox technology.

Not that it didn't still have its... drawbacks.

Eun grins and reaches into the gas, pulling out what appeared to be a shot glass full of chocolate chip ice cream, complete with a tiny plastic serving spade. "Voila." She smirks, giving it a little flourish.

[Earl of Purple]

"Ooh, ice cream. Best way to a girl's heart." Jack grins and takes the ice cream, before leaning back and trying some. "A box of infinite ice cream is something I should think of getting. Are they like phones? Magic that needs to be rooted to a building to get magicked up so they keep working, or is it all gonna last basically forever? Or... is it not a box of infinite ice cream?"

[Ironsmith]

Eun shrugs. "It's... complicated. How to explain... it's a matter sequencer. Using a phenomenon similar to Hawking radiation, we can create virtual particles that interact like regular matter, then store the antimatter exhaust to be filtered out over..." Eun stops, realizing that she was probably over-explaining the device's inner workings. "Okay, so basically: yes, it's neat. No, it doesn't produce infinite amounts of anything; if you use it too much, you will poison yourself. Normally, it can only make hot things, but I can make cold things because I know how. And aside from that, it can make anything that would fit into it. Oh, and it still needs batteries, but the sun counts."

[Zefir]

Rose frowns. Demion knew of organizations that could help wayward interdimensional travelers, but not about the first such world to make contact with them? How far off-course had they gone?

"That would certainly be helpful." Klaus gives the man a small smile. "Ah, but where are my manners? My name is Quire. Niklaus Quire. It's a pleasure to meet you." He extends his hand over the table, for whichever to them gets to it first.

"My name's Olvisin Zuulit-Obleck. But just Olvisin is fine." The goblin shakes the offered hand vigorously. "Going off-course and winding up here is a common story. You're in the Nexus. It's a place where worlds intersect. Chaotic, but full of opportunity."

As it turns out, Olvisin is a fair bit stronger than Klaus expects, so what ends up happening is less her shaking his hand and more her shaking him. To his credit, he adapts quickly and only ends up momentarily off-balance, but it's enough of a crack of the "in control" facade to get a small giggle out of Rose.

"Yes. Well." Klaus replies, pulling his hand free. "That would explain quite a bit." He wipes his hand on his suit jacket off-handedly, apparently not entirely satisfied with how clean Olvisin's hands were. "Our scientist will be very interested in hearing the details. Is there an expert we could talk to about this?"

-------

Said scientist was still outside on the patio, finally coming down enough to be aware of her surroundings. Not that it was doing her any favors; her surroundings were a bizarre mishmash of people and things that made no sense to her: blue men with horns, ladies with some sort of bizarre ear mutation, and did that dumpster just eat a guy?

And with that, Eun was right back to panicking.

I shoudl clarifiy one thing i wrote wrong. Demion is from earth, but not their earth so he thinks what they call for is their earth. It sounds a lot like Terra. Oh and he just heared they couild help he didn't visit anyone yet. He is new here as well.


"I'm Demion." the man just states and hesitates to shake hands.. He notices that Klaus is a bit shaken by the Goblin. He thinks he is at least as strong as she is so he tries the handshake a bit lighter.


"I can't offer details. As I said I arrived here just recently. I need to scout the area, maybe find a place to put my powers to work."

[Ironsmith]

Klaus frowns. "Powers?"

"Like, superhero kinda powers?" Rose posits. "Isn't that kind of... impossible?"

Klaus wordlessly scoops a slice of pizza that didn't exist five minutes ago out of her magic matter-making box and takes a bite.

"...Point conceded."

[Earl of Purple]

"You lost me at the hawk king's radiators, I'm afraid. Magic all goes over my head, I don't understand any of it. I know how to use my wand, my bag and my shovel, I don't need anything else. Well... everyone's always telling me to keep my phone 'charged' but I'm not good at remembering it needs rooting to a house before I can use it." Jack reaches into her satchel and pulls out a folding-shovel, with a flip-down blade that can also be unfolded as a prybar. She holds it to one side and presses a button, withdrawing her hand and leaving it suspended in the air. "Oh! Magic clothes make my life easier, too."

[Ironsmith]

While Jack was referring to everything as magic, Eun was mentally translating it to technological terms. Stasis shovel, subspace storage bag, smart cloth... all things that hypothetically could exist in somewhat mundane terms. Magic wasn't a thing that actually existed; if it did, it'd just be technology she didn't understand yet, which would quickly become technology she did understand.

Eun closes her Hotbox and watches Jack intently. "You mentioned a wand. May I see it?" She asks. Context led her to believe it was some sort of all-purpose device, similar in nature to her Hotbox, and she wanted to see how things were done here in the Nexus. If nothing else, it might give her a few ideas.

[Earl of Purple]

"Oh, sure. Here." Jack reaches into her satchel and pulls out a wand. She waves it at the ceiling and some spectral crows fly out of the tip and shoot upwards before dissipating against the ceiling. "You want to hold it? Don't point it at anyone, because the missiles hurt. You probably won't get birds, I get them because they're sort of cousins." Another reference to Jack being a bird, and Eun doesn't know why or how Jack's clothes are magic; they... probably aren't her definition of 'smart cloth'.

The wand is not, however, a multipurpose device, instead being something more along the lines of a taser. The missiles -if Eun fires it- will be something that represents- on some level- Eun; Jack got it from a bard who produced note-shaped blasts, and Jack gets crows.

[Ironsmith]

Eun takes the wand gingerly, turning it over in her hands. She shifts it back and forth, feeling for the change in balance that would indicate moving parts and finding none. Probably exclusively electrical, she thinks. Motion-activated, produces non-solid projectiles... holographs, perhaps?

Eun points the wand at the floor, not wanting to risk a misfire hitting anything or anyone. She gave it a tentative flick, producing a few sparks and nothing else. She goes to set it down... only to have a juvenile black cat burst out the tip, running off the bar and out the door. Thankfully, Eun has enough presence of mind to not drop the wand.

[5a Violista]

Spoiler: Quote from Demon Prince

Show

So in addition to being trapped there, she didn't have her own body anymore? Well, she said she was cloned, so at least it was like hers...

"It sounds like it..." Valentina responds "I'm glad you got out, uh..."

Valentina realizes she never got the elf's name. "...sorry, I didn't ask your name! Probably should've asked by now. I'm Valentina."




"Oh! That's reasonable, honestly." Valentina replies, nibbling a bit on her bamhacon--the taste was...a bit odd, but good. "You definitely have the right to cut ties--I mean, if you had any ties, but...you know." Valentina cursed inwardly at the assumption she made, but it was probably for the best anyway.



As Valentina listens to this, she starts to eat more of her bamhacon, watching the elf closely nonetheless. Though Valentina didn't really swing that way, she was very pretty, and Valentina did appreciate it.

"That's true. I hadn't really thought about the business side of it." Valentina considers. The only place she could think of that might sell something like that...wasn't the kind of place she'd recommend someone work at. "Maybe if you mentioned it to someone you worked for?"

Valentina thought a little further, and asked "How'd you learn how to do it? If you don't mind me asking. It seems like a really unique skill."

"Oh! Right. Asking names. That's something I forgot, too. Usually just skip that step." The half-elf(?) takes a deep breath, then introduces herself. "So, I'm Carmen. Well, my name's Carymalvienne but when I introduce myself that way, people call me Caramel and I've been teased for that before and, well, like... don't really like it." so instead she goes by Carmen.

She finally gets around to eating some of the salad, as she listens to Valentina speak. She nods in response to the statements and to the questions, showing she'll elaborate as soon as her mouth stops being full.

"Just got out of lockup, so it'll be hard to find an old employer..." Carmen thinks, long and hard. "And, like, the people who give me money now... they're probably not looking for a business relationship."

After only one more bite of salad (she starts talking before she swallows, nullifying all the consideration she put into not talking-with-her-mouth-full earlier!), she finally answers the most important question. "Yeah! So, um, I learned it from my teacher. I'm not sure how she learned, but when she was a reckless teenager she would hang out with paladins and pretended to be one and learned it that way. Taught me and two other girls when I asked her...." She pauses, then adds, "Of course, one of those other two is the one I think got me locked up, so. Y'know."

[Morty]

I shoudl clarifiy one thing i wrote wrong. Demion is from earth, but not their earth so he thinks what they call for is their earth. It sounds a lot like Terra. Oh and he just heared they couild help he didn't visit anyone yet. He is new here as well.


"I'm Demion." the man just states and hesitates to shake hands.. He notices that Klaus is a bit shaken by the Goblin. He thinks he is at least as strong as she is so he tries the handshake a bit lighter.


"I can't offer details. As I said I arrived here just recently. I need to scout the area, maybe find a place to put my powers to work."

Klaus frowns. "Powers?"

"Like, superhero kinda powers?" Rose posits. "Isn't that kind of... impossible?"

Klaus wordlessly scoops a slice of pizza that didn't exist five minutes ago out of her magic matter-making box and takes a bite.

"...Point conceded."

"Ha!" Olvisin grins, with big sharp teeth. "Yeah, you had best use the word 'impossible' sparingly around here. Superpowers are real. So is magic. One of my brothers is a sorcerer."

[Earl of Purple]

"That was... interesting. Maybe try again, but think about shooting it? Waving's not super necessary, I don't think." Jack digs into her bag and pulls out the last of her 'magic'- and it's not actually magic. It's a mobile phone, quite an old model, though it looks new. Not a smartphone, it's a pretty basic flip-phone, only really capable of texts and phone calls. Jack opens it to check the little number and see if it needs charging; currently it's mostly full, so she doesn't fetch the 'root'.

[Ironsmith]

"Ha!" Olvisin grins, with big sharp teeth. "Yeah, you had best use the word 'impossible' sparingly around here. Superpowers are real. So is magic. One of my brothers is a sorcerer."

"Is he, now?" Klaus smiles, in such a way that Olvisin could probably see the wheels turning in his head if she looked closely enough. "I'd like to meet him sometime... ah, here we are."

The waitress had returned with their drinks, setting full glasses in front of each of them. Klaus himself had some kind of ale; it was hard to tell what kind, exactly. He didn't intend to drink it. He didn't drink at all, even socially, but didn't like advertising the fact; letting on that he was the only sober person in the room was a good way to miss out on choice information.

Rose takes a small sip of hers and grimaces. Root beer. It wasn't bad, but the implication that Klaus didn't trust her with alcohol added a little bitterness to it. Fortunately, he's a little lax with his own drink, and Rose is able to switch them out while he isn't looking. Served him right, the jackass.

"That was... interesting. Maybe try again, but think about shooting it? Waving's not super necessary, I don't think." Jack digs into her bag and pulls out the last of her 'magic'- and it's not actually magic. It's a mobile phone, quite an old model, though it looks new. Not a smartphone, it's a pretty basic flip-phone, only really capable of texts and phone calls. Jack opens it to check the little number and see if it needs charging; currently it's mostly full, so she doesn't fetch the 'root'.

"What do you mean, exactly?" Eun asks, looking over the wand. "'Think about shooting'? Is it controlled by thought somehow?"

As Eun asks this, the wand goes off again, once again shooting a cat out the tip, this time straight toward Jack. Or, more specifically, toward the phone in Jack's hands.

[Earl of Purple]

"Um, I think so? I don't really know, I didn't make it." It's also 'magic', which Jack doesn't question. But then the wand goes off and blasts the phone from her hand! It hits the floor with a thud and skitters a short distance away, and Jack shakes her wrist. It's a blast of physical force, about as strong as a skilled punch, so it hurt quite a bit. And I just realised that I forgot some really important parts of Jack's description. She's missing the little finger on her left hand, and her shadow.

[Ironsmith]

Eun lets out a shriek and drops the wand. She hadn't expected to trigger another casting, and now she was worried she might have broken something of Jack's. It didn't help that she was just now noticing the missing finger, which she had no way of knowing she didn't cause. "Ohmygodohmygodareyouokayomygod-" Eun rambles, going back into full-on panic.

[Earl of Purple]

"No, look, it's fine. See? Old wound. My finger was bitten off by a faerie. Don't thank fae, OK? I think I got off lightly with a loss of a finger." Sure enough, she'll hold her hand out and not only is there no blood, but the wound is old and scarred up. Jack doesn't want to stick around too long, though, because there's always a risk that someone could step on her phone, so when Eun has calmed down a little Jack will get up to retrieve the device.

[Ironsmith]

Eun lets out a sigh of relief and tries to help Jack find the phone. She really needed to learn how to calm down; she was going to mess around and give herself a heart attack one of these days.

It was now, while looking around on the floor, that she noticed Jack didn't have a shadow, which was the first bit of magic she saw that was just completely beyond explanation. She blinks for a moment, trying to process exactly what she was seeing, before she quietly sits back down at the bar. Clearly, it was time to turn her brain off before she thought too hard about it.

A few moments later, Eun was holding a bottle of rum, and offering to share it with Jack.

[Zefir]

Spoiler

Show

Klaus frowns. "Powers?"

"Like, superhero kinda powers?" Rose posits. "Isn't that kind of... impossible?"

Klaus wordlessly scoops a slice of pizza that didn't exist five minutes ago out of her magic matter-making box and takes a bite.

"...Point conceded."

"Ha!" Olvisin grins, with big sharp teeth. "Yeah, you had best use the word 'impossible' sparingly around here. Superpowers are real. So is magic. One of my brothers is a sorcerer."

"Is he, now?" Klaus smiles, in such a way that Olvisin could probably see the wheels turning in his head if she looked closely enough. "I'd like to meet him sometime... ah, here we are."

The waitress had returned with their drinks, setting full glasses in front of each of them. Klaus himself had some kind of ale; it was hard to tell what kind, exactly. He didn't intend to drink it. He didn't drink at all, even socially, but didn't like advertising the fact; letting on that he was the only sober person in the room was a good way to miss out on choice information.

Rose takes a small sip of hers and grimaces. Root beer. It wasn't bad, but the implication that Klaus didn't trust her with alcohol added a little bitterness to it. Fortunately, he's a little lax with his own drink, and Rose is able to switch them out while he isn't looking. Served him right, the jackass.



"What do you mean, exactly?" Eun asks, looking over the wand. "'Think about shooting'? Is it controlled by thought somehow?"

As Eun asks this, the wand goes off again, once again shooting a cat out the tip, this time straight toward Jack. Or, more specifically, toward the phone in Jack's hands.

Demion shakes his head at Rose question. He might have spelled that wrong, but at least they seem to have an idea. Olvisin's comment is very helpfull here.

"I'm not sure what your 'Supperheroes' mean. I think sorcerer is a better description. Can't say I identify myself with that. In general I say I am a spellcaster. I thought powers might be of better understanding. The world you come from appears to be technologic advanced in relation to mine, but we discovered magic."

He then puts his hand in front of himself, closes it andwhen he opens it agaiin a small yellow orb appears. It seems to be a light source like a candel and also emits a bit of warmth. He closes his hand and the orb disapears. Then he turns to the drink, which is a non alcoholic one. It seems the waitress remembers his order from befor and just served the same now. He notice Klaus behavior, but keeps it down. He sure has his reasons.

"Maybe you can tell us more about Terah and yourself. You know now that we know you don#t deliver pizza... fulltime."

[Ironsmith]

Klaus chuckles. "Heh. No. No, we don't. All right; I'm here from the year 2764, Common Era. We had a bit of a population problem; 113 billion people, crammed onto a single planet. Even though we have the technology to meet all their needs, we couldn't exactly just manufacture more space. Fortunately, we didn't have to; our scientists found a way to transport people to and from alternate versions of our planet. After debating it for a few years, our government created Operation Ouroboros; a plan to make use of all that extra real estate. The idea was simple; we would introduce ourselves to a version of our world that was a few centuries behind, use our technology to raise the total carrying capacity, then split the difference with the locals.

"The Earth my colleague here is from runs about 500 years behind us. Our estimates were that they'd be able to hold about 10 billion people on their own, provided they coordinated everything. Our making room for 103 billion more would be a godsend.

"Unfortunately, the locals didn't see it that way. Most of them see us as alien invaders, there to take their lands, jobs, and resources. They took to calling our planet 'Terah' to distinguish it from their own."

"'Earth', but totally screwed up." Rose explains, taking a sip of ale.

"Civil unrest and violence against our people ensued. We had no choice but to intervene further, to protect 'Terahn' citizens. We couldn't risk an all-out war; even these backwards rubes had weapons of mass destruction, and we could very easily end up wiping each other out. So we infiltrated them instead, trying to set it up so our kind would be safe there."

"If that's what you call a massive terror campaign." Rose mumbles into her drink. "These bastards essentially put their secret police in our backyard. They've kidnapped, tortured, and murdered more innocents than anyone else in our entire history. We wanted them off our planet, no matter what they were; human, alien, something in between, whatever."

[Earl of Purple]

Jack puts her phone and wand back into the satchel before retrieving the shovel (which was still hanging in midair) and joining Eun at the bar. "I'll have one. Can't have more, I'm flying home later... Unless I get a better option, anyway. What's brought this on, anyway?" She smiles at Eun at the 'better option', but takes a glass of rum. She apparently hasn't noticed that Eun has just noticed her missing shadow; it's been missing a while now, so she no longer thinks about it.

[Morty]

Olvisin listens with a mix of interest and dismay. Boy howdy, and she thought the tunnels back home were crowded. With this many people, alternate dimensions might start looking like a good idea. Sounds like it went about as well as one would expect, though. Which is to say, not well. Her drink is something bright blue in a metal mug; one gets the impression it wouldn't be safe to pour it into something else.

"My brothers and my sister work with me in MERC," she says. "It's the local mercenary and adventuring organization. Also, if people from your versions of your world aren't getting along, what made you travel here together?"

[Ironsmith]

Jack puts her phone and wand back into the satchel before retrieving the shovel (which was still hanging in midair) and joining Eun at the bar. "I'll have one. Can't have more, I'm flying home later... Unless I get a better option, anyway. What's brought this on, anyway?" She smiles at Eun at the 'better option', but takes a glass of rum. She apparently hasn't noticed that Eun has just noticed her missing shadow; it's been missing a while now, so she no longer thinks about it.

Eun wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that. "Better option" sounded like the kind of thing Rose would say after one too many glasses of wine. Then again, in context, Jack could just mean hitchhiking or something. If she was flirting, it was ambiguous enough that Eun wasn't going to risk making things awkward by deflecting it.

Eun shrugs. "I don't know. I guess I'm just feeling really... tense." She pours out a couple of glasses. "But we're in a bar, and those are made for relaxing, so..."

Olvisin listens with a mix of interest and dismay. Boy howdy, and she thought the tunnels back home were crowded. With this many people, alternate dimensions might start looking like a good idea. Sounds like it went about as well as one would expect, though. Which is to say, not well. Her drink is something bright blue in a metal mug; one gets the impression it wouldn't be safe to pour it into something else.

"My brothers and my sister work with me in MERC," she says. "It's the local mercenary and adventuring organization. Also, if people from your versions of your world aren't getting along, what made you travel here together?"

"Well, four of us were on the same side anyway." Rose says, taking a quick swig of her drink. "Klaus defected a few weeks ago, which gives us a Terahn to work with."

"At some point, GIN (that'll be the agency I worked for) crossed the line from 'ruthlessly practical' to just 'ruthless'." Klaus elaborates. "I make it a point not to work with idiots."

"We were going to do some counter-intelligence work on Terah when... something happened and we ended up here." Rose finishes.

[Earl of Purple]

"Yeah, it's a strange place to find yourself suddenly. I'll buy your next drink." She reaches into her bag and pulls out a heavy pouch which she clunks on the bar. "I hear massages help, but... I don't know how to do one." Jack was flirting, but she's not always very good at it. Because it's not something Earl is good at.

[Ironsmith]

Eun knocks back the glass of rum and sighs. Yep, Jack was definitely trying to get into her pants. That was... unfortunate. After the day she'd already had, she could definitely use some form of solace. Just not... that. She turns toward Jack and looks her over again. She doubted they were even physiologically compatible, and there was no way Jack hadn't noticed that little detail.

Maybe it was the rum, maybe it was the sheer ridiculousness of the situation, but Eun couldn't help but laugh a little. "S... sorry..." she manages to say. "You've been very kind. It's just... wow." She'd managed to pour herself another drink in the meantime. "...You're good company, you know that? I really wouldn't mind getting to know you better." She covers her mouth, the rum not entirely agreeing with her. "But just that, okay? No funny business." She makes a bizarre swirly gesture with her finger that's apparently supposed to represent "funny business", but doesn't seem to translate well. That, or the rum hit her hard.

[Zefir]

Demion just nods at the story. It is kinda understandable. For him both side can be right looking at it from their perspectiv. After all they had advanced technologie and when you think you fight for your existence everything goes.

"I'm curiouse, isn't demension travel much harder then space travel? I think we were close to discover it befor the big event and nowhere near dimension travel. That changed after the event."

Demion isn't sure right now if he should tell more about his homeworld. After all those guys still need real estate and his world might provide it, but on the other hand it could just end the same way.

[Ironsmith]

"Yes." Klaus replies bluntly. "But travel is only half the problem. The real difficulty would be terraforming the planet enough to make it suitable for human life; or at the very least, human life that didn't need several years of training in advance. In contrast, we could move about a mile in a direction we're not used to and have a readily-habitable planet waiting for us. Dimension-hopping just seemed like the better option." He takes a gulp of root beer from his glass. "If nothing else, it was an available course of action that would give us time to develop proper terraforming techniques."

"Kinda begs the question of why you didn't just do that in the first place." Rose mumbles.

"There wasn't really anything out there we could use. A colony on Mars or Venus was really more of a novelty than a solution."

[Earl of Purple]

"That's fine, no funny business. Company's more important than anything else, y'know? Don't like being alone too much, and you look like you could use the company." Jack takes a sip of her rum before thinking about it. "So, about me, huh? My full name is Jacqueline Door, but I don't like it and prefer Jack, because that's a pun. Jack Door. I'm a jackdaw." Her wings are auk wings, more like a puffin's than a crow's. Similar colour feathers, but the proportions are different and also the eyes in the joint are very un-bird-like.

[Ironsmith]

Either Eun skipped ornithology in her tour through the sciences, or she's too inebriated to care too much about the specifics; regardless, she laughs out loud at the pun. "Jackdaw. Jack Door. That's... that's quite good." She pours herself another rum and sort of nurses it in her hand. "So... how'd you end up here? You mentioned 'falling' earlier..."

[Earl of Purple]

"I hatched here, I think. I come from a tribe, we call ourselves... well, it doesn't matter. You'd not be able to repeat the name. Our ancestors wandered for a long time before settling down in the Clattering. That's the name the traders used. I got bored of hanging around out there, and wanted to see new things. So I walked to Inside, and haven't looked back. I found a map to a pirate's treasure, and whilst exploring the place a mutant bird died but passed on these wings, so I can carry things and talk as I fly now. That was tricky before. I used the money to buy magic clothes, so I don't have to worry about that, either." Jack really likes that pirate's treasure. She's independently wealthy now.

She has forgotten to mention something rather important, however.

[Ironsmith]

Eun nods, listening intently to the story, and didn't stop nodding when Jack stopped talking. "...Huh." She knocks back another glass of rum, working her way through the bottle at an alarming rate. "You couldn't... *hk* you coulsn't talk and fly... before?" Eun asks. "That's... that's crazy. An' yunno... I don't think you ever told me how your clothes are majic..."