Trog's Tavern CLV

[Recaiden]

"Huh. Maybe I just never knew I was biting something that needed magic?" Or maybe the teeth only worked if you believed in them.
Well. Now she has to go find a Bonelord. For science.

Honeysuckle points at the Aetherborn and nods.
"That's how to do it. Drink to that!" And indeed, she takes a sip of her drink.

"Oh, hey, didn't know you could talk. 'e goes on about this a lot?" The warm-dressed one suggests. They all seem used to the robot's unusual take on godhood.

[Earl of Purple]

"Well, I mean, I've not actually met a manticore before? I'd... guess you know your own biology, but... I have a spleen, and no idea what it does. I think I have a spleen." Humans have spleens, and orcs have spleens. Logic therefore says a hybrid of the two would also have a spleen.
The motorcyclist nods in response to the query about the robot. The robot does add something. "Once I have achieved godhood I shall demand blood for sacrifices. I shall be a hungry god, demanding my followers kill the organics and teach themselves how to perform maintenance. I shall not be satisfied until the fleshy ones are all deceased, and their skins decorate my idols and the USB sticks containing my teachings are crafted from their bones."
"Foreman, initiate 'Little Teapot' protocol." The biker is getting a little concerned with the detail Foreman's going into, assuming that's the robot's name.
The robot does in fact shut up, however, and starts to crudely lurch about as it tries to do the 'I'm a little teapot' dance.

[Vahnavoi]

Hazel's face goes pale(r) as Sandels describes the consequences of dwelling on her resentments too long. That was just perfect, wasn't it? Letting stuff go isn't exactly her strong suit, and now her sanity depended on it. Wonderful.

"...Awright." Hazel sighs. "Hana's... she's about yea tall, black haiyr, gorgeous ambeh eyes, an' she's built like..." Hazel traces out an outline with her fingers, a small smile working its way onto her face. "An' she has da sweetest liddle voice... like a chipmunk, but sexieh..." She blinks her way out of that nostalgic haze and back to reality. "...Dat's what she looks like. Think ya can remembeh dat?"

As Hazel begins describing her wife, the bandaged man rapidly digs out a small notebook and a pen from the breast pocket of his jacket and starts drawing. "... black hair, amber eyes, gets you drooling, sounds like a small rodent. Check." The drawing is really crude and doesn't resemble Hana much at all, but Hazel doesn't get to watch it for long. All of a sudden, the man rips the drawing off her book, then passes it through Hazel's ethereal body. Then he turns his attention to the band of adventurers.

"Hey! Mini-Gandalf! Yes, you with the ugly mask, behind the murder bot! Can you do a divination for me?"

[Ironsmith]

"'Droolin'? I'll give ya droolin', ya liddle-" Hazel clenches her fist and forces herself to calm down. That was pointless. Getting worked up was terrible for her health now and she wouldn't be able to hit him anyway, both due to her new ghostly nature and because she couldn't afford to risk losing his help. Instead, she just glares at him icily, attempting to use a few calming breathing techniques that don't work so well without solid lungs. "Serenidy now... serenidy now..."

[Recaiden]

"Exactly. I've never met a manticore neither." Lions have spleens, so manticores probably also do.

"Heh. Your foreman sounds like he came out of an old story. Well, it's good to have a plan, right?"

The manticore and the elemental watch the clumsy dance, clearly amused, until the bandaged guy calls out.
Will the wizard finally speak?

[Earl of Purple]

The masked figure turns towards Sandals and grabs their staff, hopping off the chair and walking over. They looks up at Sandals, then at Hazel, before clambering onto a stool and nodding. It seems divinations are something they can do, though they still aren't talking.

"Not even your parents?" It's possible manticore don't care for their young, and this one's been alone all their life; or they may not have started life as a manticore.
"He's a construction bot. When we met him and repaired him, he was in a library. They were adding a new wing, or something, and he'd spent a long time there reading before he ran out of power and needed recharging. His pod had broken, so he ran down instead of charging. He needed a new battery, some connections needed replacing, and some of his joints had rusted." Fortunately, there were other Protectrons nearby in an even worse state than their Foreman, so they could get some spares.

[Vahnavoi]

"I need to find the wife of a deceased person", the bandaged man explains to the wizard, handing the drawing to them. "This here is a likeness of the wife to serve as a focus. The deceased is present to, ah, fill in missing details. Can you use law of contagion to tell me where their wife is now? It would be great if you have a map, but if not, distance and direction are enough."

[Ironsmith]

"I'm NOT deceased!" Hazel protests. "...I'm just having an out-of-body experience, that's all." She grumbles, once again forcing herself to calm down. If she didn't, she was going to end up deceased, which would obviously be unacceptable.

[Earl of Purple]

The masked wizard shakes their head; Law of Contagion is either not something they work with, or it's not strong enough with a disembodied soul and a drawing. They do take the piece of paper, look at it, and looks at Hazel, showing her the drawing. They put the paper down on the table and smooth it flat, and as they do the lines rearrange themselves. They slowly coalesce into a drawing of two naked women in a bath; there's no colour, but one looks to be Hana. The other is younger, sat next to her in the bath; a short-haired woman with rat ears and a tail. Most of her torso looks quite smudged and distorted, but it's hard to tell if that's because of the water- or whatever might be in the bath- is in the way, they've got unusual skin tone or extensive bruising or simply that they aren't the focus of the divination and so aren't appearing properly. They seem to be talking to each other.

[Vahnavoi]

The man stares at the altered drawing in confusion. "Yeah, I have no idea where that is. Or who that is." He points at the second person in the drawing, glancing at Hazel. "You? Any clue?"

[Ironsmith]

Hazel scowls at the drawing, with a glare that makes it look something like she's trying to murder the ratgirl with her gaze alone. "Well, by the look of things, I'd say she's some kind of tramp looking to take advantage of my wife while she's vulnerable." She growls, balling her hands into fists. "Damn dirty rat..."

[Earl of Purple]

The masked wizard looks at Hazel and taps the drawing of Hana, trying to confirm it's the right person. Meanwhile, the image continues to move; both bathers look up towards... something not depicted, and then the rat-girl stands up and climbs out of the bath before limping away and dissolving. Meanwhile, the image of Hana also climbs out of the bath, a bit slower, and walks away from the bath- the bath moves off the edge of the 'screen' and disappears, whilst the image remains focused on Hana. Hana picks up a box and taps some buttons, before pulling a dressing gown out and putting it on.

[Recaiden]

The masked figure turns towards Sandals and grabs their staff, hopping off the chair and walking over. They looks up at Sandals, then at Hazel, before clambering onto a stool and nodding. It seems divinations are something they can do, though they still aren't talking.

"Not even your parents?" It's possible manticore don't care for their young, and this one's been alone all their life; or they may not have started life as a manticore.
"He's a construction bot. When we met him and repaired him, he was in a library. They were adding a new wing, or something, and he'd spent a long time there reading before he ran out of power and needed recharging. His pod had broken, so he ran down instead of charging. He needed a new battery, some connections needed replacing, and some of his joints had rusted." Fortunately, there were other Protectrons nearby in an even worse state than their Foreman, so they could get some spares.

The manticore shakes their head, eyes closed. "No, my parents weren't...around for that." Goddess, how many years ago was it now, that they passed away? She shivers a bit to shake off the thought. "Guess it's just another thing I have to figure out."

"Never finished building the new wing, so he just took the time to read? And I bet the library had lots of histories about robots rising up to rule over their creators." They break into laughter, what a scenario to happen.

[5a Violista]

[Weird Bathroom]

Sadly, sight is only one of dozens of senses, and a fairly minor one at that. So unless someone mentions it, it's incredibly likely that June will notice that there's something down the hall long before she realizes the lights went out.

"Did I just knock something over?" she wonders aloud, partially to the probably-invisible person accompanying her.

She turns around and mentally traces the line of paper back, to see if she can 'see' what it caught on and knocked over.

[Earl of Purple]

"Ah. I'm sorry t' hear that. Nobody should grow up without their parents." Although adoptive parents can still count as parents, and he would know.
"The day the world he's from was apocalypsed, he was waiting for a shipment of bolts or something, to help assemble the frame. It never turned up, and he didn't have any other orders." So he'd have finished the wing, had it been actually possible for him to do it.

[Ironsmith]

[Weird Bathroom]

Sadly, sight is only one of dozens of senses, and a fairly minor one at that. So unless someone mentions it, it's incredibly likely that June will notice that there's something down the hall long before she realizes the lights went out.

"Did I just knock something over?" she wonders aloud, partially to the probably-invisible person accompanying her.

She turns around and mentally traces the line of paper back, to see if she can 'see' what it caught on and knocked over.

[Weird Bathroom]

Her mind does not get far down the paper before being assaulted by an overwhelmingly powerful psychic presence. And if that weren't bad enough, that metallic clattering should start sounding horribly familiar by now.

"My, my, my, all alone, are we?" Croons a menacing voice in the darkness behind her, the first of the mechapede's legs coming into view. "Make peace with your gods. You belong to me now."

June might notice that the voice doesn't sound quite like Prime did; it's more synthetic, and reverberates more, among other things. This creature probably isn't him, but it's not a bad imitation.

...Which means she probably shouldn't let him talk too much.

[Vahnavoi]

Hazel scowls at the drawing, with a glare that makes it look something like she's trying to murder the ratgirl with her gaze alone. "Well, by the look of things, I'd say she's some kind of tramp looking to take advantage of my wife while she's vulnerable." She growls, balling her hands into fists. "Damn dirty rat..."

The masked wizard looks at Hazel and taps the drawing of Hana, trying to confirm it's the right person. Meanwhile, the image continues to move; both bathers look up towards... something not depicted, and then the rat-girl stands up and climbs out of the bath before limping away and dissolving. Meanwhile, the image of Hana also climbs out of the bath, a bit slower, and walks away from the bath- the bath moves off the edge of the 'screen' and disappears, whilst the image remains focused on Hana. Hana picks up a box and taps some buttons, before pulling a dressing gown out and putting it on.

The bandaged man gives side-eye to Hazel, but keeps most of his attention on the moving picture. "Nope, still not seeing anything familiar. What was that box? Some kind of storage locker?" A thought hits him. "Wait... bath and a storage locker. They're in a public bath house!" He slams his right fist against his left palm. "Hey, ghost! Do you know any public bath houses close to where you used to live?"

[Ironsmith]

When Sandels turns to look at Hazel, her face is already in her hand, head shaking slowly. "Ya really don' know anythin', do ya?" She mumbles. "Dat's not a storage lockeh. Dat's a Hotbox. My wife an' I both use 'em for damn near everytin'. She could be anywhehe with dat. An' even if we did have public badhouses back home, dere's no way she's dere; she woulda had to have met wit' our extraction contac' an'..."

Hazel stops as the plausibility of what she's saying hits her. Hana very well could have bailed on the Nexus after Hazel got arrested. It'd be the strategically sound thing to do; retreat, regroup, come back better prepared. GIN probably wouldn't allow it, though... she and her wife were both extremely unimportant, borderline hindrances, and they weren't going to waste any resources springing Hazel or even sending Hana back.

She might have accidentally left Hazel behind entirely.

"...Oh."

Hazel drifts down into the table, shaking her head sadly. "...At least I know she idn't in dangeh." She concedes, grateful for that knowledge at least. "Tanks, wizahd guy."

[Earl of Purple]

The wizard shakes his head, and taps the image once more. The angle changes, and appears to zoom out. The wizard, meanwhile, pulls a pen of their own from a pocket, this one red, and adds some red lines to the ink drawing. Hana's no longer visible, instead showing the outside of a four-storey building, the red lines streaking off to outline the sign painted on the front of the building- the Trust-Worthy Hotel. Another tap on the image and the lines squiggle and rearrange themselves again, the red now marking a cross in a street map of a city. There looks to be an airfield or collection of landing pads near the red cross, and if either Hazel or Sandals are familiar with the city, it's a map of Skyside. Regardless of if Hazel's been abandoned or not, she now knows the city in which Hana's laying low- and that may change the perception of either that she's not in danger.

[Vahnavoi]

"... what the Hell is a "hotbox"?", the bandaged man mutters while Hazel's having her grim epiphany. Then he notices that Mini-Gandalf's tapping the picture and adding new lines to it. "Oh, you figured something out? Trust-Worthy Hotel... sounds suspicuous... hey! I know where that is!" He points excitedly at a seemingly random spot near he corner of the street map.

"That's the city floating in the sky! I was there a short while ago!" He looks around and calls to the other patrons. "Hey! Does anyone have a bigger map? I need to plan a trip!"

[Ironsmith]

"...Wait, so she's still in da Nexus?" Hazel begins, levitating out of the table with a smile. "Haha! She's still in da Nexus!" She can find her, talk to her, maybe even arrange a place to rendevouz when Hazel gets free!

"...Oh god. She's still in da Nexus." Hazel realizes. That means the Nexus's authorities are still after her, and the kinds of threats they had here were not something either of them were properly equipped to handle. And if half the things she's heard about this "Skyside" are true, Hana's very much in danger.

[Earl of Purple]

The wizard taps the paper again, and the image freezes. It's not a bigger map, but it won't move any more, staying a map with a red cross marking the position of the Trust-Worthy Hotel in Skyside, all the other lines written in whatever colour ink Sandals has in his pen. If he drew the original image with red ink, the wizard will have used black ink instead, so it still shows up quite easily. Seems quite a useful bit of magic for finding people, really.

[Recaiden]

"Ah. I'm sorry t' hear that. Nobody should grow up without their parents." Although adoptive parents can still count as parents, and he would know.
"The day the world he's from was apocalypsed, he was waiting for a shipment of bolts or something, to help assemble the frame. It never turned up, and he didn't have any other orders." So he'd have finished the wing, had it been actually possible for him to do it.

The elemental observes that many people are better off without their parents, getting a scowl from the foxgirl and the manticore. It might be true, but they shouldn't say it.
"You all went to an apocalypsed world? Found him there? Must have been one of the cozier disasters, huh?"

"Oh, did you say you needed a map?" A rolled up map case, showing the major cities of the nexus in a relatively recent arrangement, is shuffled out and waved a bit.

[Earl of Purple]

"Nope, the town the library's in fell into the Nexus. We didn't have to go off-world to explore the place. Don't think the disaster was cosy, I think it was a long time ago. He's got an internal chronograph, powered by a fusion battery rated for over a century. It doesn't work, the battery died. When we turned him on after recharging him, he had no idea what time it was." Lots of places tend to find their way into the Nexus when nobody's looking, and they can be good places to explore.

[Recaiden]

"Still, if there's intact robots and libraries, that's cozy enough compared to, uh, some places."
"Oh, you finally going say what happened your world?"
"...wasn't cozy."

"Still, over a hundred years though. Wow." The manticore looks over the robot again with amazement. It's been around practically forever!

[Vahnavoi]

"Oh, hey! Thanks!" The bandaged man walks to the manticore and pulls a map of Skyside from the scroll case. He rolls it open and lays it on the table, next to the ink drawing. "Let's see... that's the abandoned factory where we fought Maggot Prime... there's those lifts that go up and down between the city proper and the slums on the ground and... aha! This is the road we need to take to find the hotel!" He traces a path from the edge of the city to Thunderhead district, then from here to more civilized locals.

"I'm all set", the man states, rolling up the map and handing it back to the manticore. He looks at Hazel. "You done having grim epiphanies? I'm getting my bike and getting out of here."

[Ironsmith]

"Not widout me, youhe not!" Hazel declares, following him. She hasn't quite worked out how she's going to stay with him on his bike, but she's already determined that he's her best shot at catching up to Hana and she's not going to let that just slip away. Maybe he had some way he could voluntarily bring her along? He could already talk to ghosts, and he and Bunny both alluded to an ability to banish her to the afterlife... maybe he could also hold her on his bike somehow?

[Vahnavoi]

The man's bike turns out to be a black Harley Davidson, with a fancy chrome skull ornament at the front, the bike's headlights placed in the eyesockets of the skull. If it would be daylight, Hazel might just consider it to reflect tacky taste of its presumed owner. But it's dark and it's spooky season, so she can tell something's off with it at a glance. For one, a red light is burning in the eyesockets of the skull even though the damned thing isn't even turned on yet. It wouldn't be a surprise if the skull turned and talked to her.

A black, visored helmet has been left dangling on one of the horns. The bandaged man picks it up and puts it on. For some reason, Hazel can see his ember eyes through the dark visor. "I suspect you haven't done this before, so this is how it works: some things - people, places, items - have dual nature. Which means, ghosts can affect and be affected by them. This bike's one, I'm another. So once we get going, hold on tight! You can't exactly die if you fall off, but you might get lost in a place where I can't be bothered to go looking. Clear?"

He hops on the saddle and starts the engine. It lets out an unholy roar. The chrome skull's jaws appear to move, as if it is laughing. Its eyes burn brighter and wisps of flame erupt from its mouth as the headlights are turned on. Everywhere else around the bike, the darkness grows deeper.

[Ironsmith]

Hazel might not have much experience with being a ghost, but she's ridden a harley before. In fact, she used to own one; when she and Hana went to Academy together, Hazel would make the commute to and from the place on such a vehicle, sometimes with Hana, sometimes without. And back then, her taste in aesthetics was a little tacky, too.

So when she gets on this bike, the weirdest thing about it to her is that she's the one on back, with her head pressed against Sandel's jacket and her arms wrapped around his torso. Creep better not try anything funny...

[Vahnavoi]

The only funny thing he's going to try... is breaking every speed limit from here to Groundtown! He cackles madly as he and Hazel speed through Inside. Though, to Hazel, moving ludicrously fast might not quite feel the same as she's used to. With her insubstantial to most of the world, air resistance, wind and changes in temperature register only faintly or not at all. The trip would almost feel comfortable, if not for sudden sharp turns at near full speed and driving up walls at a right angle. While leaping across a building to make a shortcut, it wouldn't be a surprise if the bike suddenly grew wings and began to fly. Maybe it could fly - maybe its driver just doesn't want it to.